Entertainment
Surprise! Diane Warren Is Back in the Oscar Race
If history is any indication, the first of this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Original Song has just been unveiled.
Songwriter Diane Warren announced Wednesday that her song “By Any Means,” from the movie of the same name, will be available on streaming platforms Aug. 21, followed by a music video Aug. 28 and a soundtrack album Sept. 18.
It will also be eligible for the Oscar, and eligible to extend Warren’s record streak of nine consecutive nominations in the original-song category.
Warren has been nominated for an Oscar 17 times, including 11 times in the last 12 years and nine times in a row. In total nominations in the category, she trails only Sammy Cahn (26 nominations) and Johnny Mercer (18). She has yet to win a competitive Oscar, though she received an Academy Honorary Award in 2022, becoming the only songwriter to be honored with one.
Warren has made it clear that she will continue to write new songs for movies every year, while voters in the Academy’s music branch have made it clear that they will continue to nominate her every time she’s eligible. But so far, the main body of voters who cast ballots in the final round have resisted taking her success any further than the nominations.
“By Any Means” exists in two versions, performed by Nashville-based singer-songwriter David Kushner (“Daylight,” “Mr. Forgettable”) and R&B and soul pioneers The Isley Brothers.
The song is perhaps less uplifting and overtly inspirational than some of Warren’s recent nominated songs, with a message of defiance: “They can make whatever rules they make / We won’t let those rules get in our way.” It moves to an emphatic, deliberate beat punctuated by bluesy guitar and a gospel-style chorus. The soundtrack version is the lusher recording, with the movie version sparser and ghostlier.
“By Any Means” is the first of Warren’s eligible movie songs to bear the same title as the film in which it appears.
The film “By Any Means” is directed by Elegance Bratton (“The Inspection”) and stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as an FBI agent who teams up with a hitman played by Mark Wahlberg to investigate a wave of murders of civil rights workers in the 1960s. The film is inspired by true events that took place in the South during that era.
In a statement, Warren said she wanted to channel the spirit of the film and write about “those who go beyond the rules to do what is necessary.”
Preliminary voting in the Best Original Song category will take place from Dec. 7-11, with a 15-song shortlist announced Dec. 15. The nomination round of voting will follow from Jan. 11-15, 2027, with nominations announced on Jan. 21.
Of the 60 songs that have received Oscar nominations over the last 12 years, only 16 have been written by solo songwriters. Eight of those have been Warren’s songs.
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Entertainment
‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Excitement Ebbs Despite Splashy D23 Tease | Chart
What are the entertainment offerings that consumers are most excited about? It’s a question that marketers, distributors, advertisers and media publications are always asking.
ScreenShare, a data partnership between Screen Engine/ASI and TheWrap, tracks the Top 10 most-mentioned entertainment options every week and whether each has gained or lost momentum compared to the prior week. The chart lives on the Data & Analysis page of the WrapPRO Members Hub.
For the week of Aug. 8–14, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” remained the leader in entertainment mentions at 11.2%, heading into its third weekend of release. “NFL Football” jumped to second at 5.6%, as preseason Week 1 kicked off on Aug. 13 across all 32 teams. “Grand Theft Auto VI” held third at 4.2%, continuing to build ahead of Rockstar and Netflix’s “Extended Look” special premiering Aug. 27, roughly three months before the game’s Nov. 19 launch.
“The Odyssey” slid to 3.8% as Christopher Nolan’s film moved into its fourth week of release. HBO’s “House of the Dragon” dipped slightly to 2.6% following its Season 3 finale, which aired Aug. 9, with the show’s fourth and final season still to come. Prime Video’s “Reacher” entered the Top 10 at 1.9% as the first three episodes of Season 4 premiered Aug. 12.
“Obsession” rose to 1.7% during its SVOD run on Peacock, while “Avengers: Doomsday” eased to 1.7% even as Marvel unveiled new footage and a poster at D23 on Aug. 14 ahead of the film’s December 18 release. Apple TV’s “Ted Lasso” climbed to 1.5% following its Aug. 5 Season 4 premiere. “Special Ops: Lioness” closed out the Top 10 at 1.4%, continuing its weekly episodic release following its Aug. 2 Season 3 premiere on Paramount+.
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Entertainment
Cecily Strong Calls Out SAG-AFTRA’s ‘Dramatically’ Increased Mental Health Prices
Cecily Strong called on SAG-AFTRA and President Sean Astin to address members’ concerns over the union’s new insurance polices around mental health, decrying in an Instagram post Wednesday that changes made earlier this year have led to “super high bills that are no longer being covered in the same way.”
“Mental health services are HUGELY important in our industry,” the “Saturday Night Live” and “Schmigadoon!” alum said. “Many of us have been with our amazing, invaluable, out of network therapists for years and found out recently that in January of this year the ‘allowed amount’ for these services dropped dramatically leaving many of us with super high bills that are no longer being covered in the same way.”
In January, SAG-AFTRA changed from Carelon Behavioral Health to Anthem for the union health plan’s behavioral health provider network, which unified mental health and medical healthcare under one umbrella and advertised at the time a larger choice of behavioral health providers.
According to the SAG-AFTRA website‘s October 2025 breakdown of the change, members receiving mental health care in-network at the end of 2025 who would fall out-of-network with continued care with the same provider under the new plan could “qualify for a Transition of Care period of up to 90 days at in-network benefit levels.”
Still, the change apparently caught many members by surprise and led to higher bills and less reimbursement for their 2026 mental health care.
“Many of us didn’t know this change would be happening and so didn’t budget for our therapy or mental health services becoming out of pocket expenses, equaling hundreds to thousands of dollars a month,” Strong continued. “I know my privilege, for sure, but I also know I’m not alone here.”
Strong’s Instagram post featured a screenshot of a letter from the union explaining the move from Carelon to Anthem and why impacted members’ medical bills may look different than expected. Strong clarified that the letter wasn’t hers and she’s “still waiting on my letter to explain my drastically smaller reimbursement amounts from therapy which has been invaluable to my life, especially postpartum.”
“Please please please fix this for us. I know health insurance is a damn cruel battle in this country and this is one tiny part of it, but I believe in our union and our union’s dedication to protecting actors.”
Read the full post below:
“Please make this right and protect our mental health services,” the actress’ post concluded. “A good therapist/doctor/social worker can be life changing and more importantly — life-saving.”
Strong has become a vocal mental health advocate in recent years while candidly sharing her own experience with depression, anxiety and grief, notably with her 2021 memoir “This Will All Be Over Soon.”
Representatives for SAG-AFTRA did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
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Entertainment
José Suárez, Telemundo Executive, Dies at 55 in Helicopter Crash
Telemundo executive José Suárez was one of four Americans, who died in a helicopter crash in northeastern Kenya Wednesday.
There were seven people on board the aircraft which crashed in the foothills of Mount Ololokwe in Samburu County, according to Kenya’s Civil Aviation Authority. All six passengers and the pilot were killed in the crash.
Suárez served as the president and general manager of several of Telemundo‘s TV stations in Orlando, Tampa and Fort Myers-Naples, Florida.
More to come…
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