LOS ANGELES: The world of stage and screen feels a little quieter, and certainly less colourful, following the news that Catherine O’Hara has passed away at the age of 71. A performer of singular wit and boundless imagination, she died on 30 January 2026 at her home in Los Angeles after a brief illness.

While the official cause of death has not yet been disclosed, O’Hara’s long-standing health condition had been publicly known. She was born with a rare congenital condition called dextrocardia with situs inversus, in which the heart is positioned on the right side of the chest and other major organs are arranged in a mirror-image layout. Though the condition typically does not cause serious medical complications or symptoms, it remained a notable aspect of her medical history.  

Her departure marks the end of an era for comedy, leaving behind a legacy that transformed the awkward, the eccentric, and the absurd into something profoundly human.

The world knew Catherine O’ Hara by many names: Moira Rose, the wildly dramatic and delightfully out-of-touch matriarch of the Rose family; Kate McCallister, the forgetful yet fiercely loving mother who crossed continents for her child; Delia Deetz, Tim Burton’s tragically stepmother chic with a flair for the bizarre; and Sally, forlorn yet quietly hopeful.

O’Hara’s characters were never perfect; they were messy, flawed, painfully human, and deeply empathetic. Through them, she showed us that motherhood doesn’t always look warm and doting, but it is steadfast in moments that matter most. She reminded us that it’s okay to be unhinged, unapologetically imperfect, and still accountable because that’s what makes people real.

Though comedy was her natural home, O’Hara possessed remarkable range. From her haunting turn as a grieving therapist in Season 2 of HBO’s dystopian drama The Last of Us to breathing life into a host of wonderfully strange characters across Tim Burton’s cinematic universe, she consistently left her mark.

From Toronto to the pantheon of greats

Born in Toronto in 1954, O’Hara was the sixth of seven children in a family where humour was not just a pastime but a necessity. Her career began in the fertile ground of the Second City improvisational troupe, where she worked alongside future icons such as Eugene Levy and John Candy. It was during the SCTV years that she established herself as a chameleonic force, creating characters that felt both impossibly strange and startlingly real. Her ability to inhabit a role entirely, from the frantic energy of Lola Heatherton to her razor-sharp celebrity impressions, set a new standard for ensemble comedy.

A career of iconic matriarchs

Her characters didn’t coddle. They stumbled into the room, said something wildly inappropriate, and somehow, against all odds, made you feel seen. In their chaos lived a quiet, stubborn devotion that felt more honest than any picture-perfect portrayal ever could. O’Hara’s characters taught us that being flawed wasn’t a flaw at all, it was the most human thing a person could be. Messy, unhinged, and empathetic: that was her signature.

While many actors spend a lifetime searching for one definitive role, O’Hara seemed to find them every decade. In 1988, she gave us the quintessential avant-garde snob Delia Deetz in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, a performance she revisited with characteristic panache in the 2024 sequel. To millions of families around the globe, however, she was Kate McCallister in Home Alone. She brought a genuine, frantic heart to the role of a mother desperately trying to reach her son, proving that she could anchor a slapstick blockbuster with real emotional weight.

Her collaborative work with Christopher Guest in mockumentaries like Best in Show and A Mighty Wind further showcased her genius. As Cookie Fleck or Mickey Crabbe, she navigated the thin line between caricature and character study, often finding the soul in the most ridiculous of circumstances.

She even brought her sharp wit to Seth Rogen’s biting Hollywood satire, playing Patty Leigh: a cutthroat studio executive unceremoniously ousted by her own underling. It was O’Hara doing what she does best: finding the humanity in power, and the absurdity in its collapse.  

The Moira Rose renaissance

In the final chapter of her life, O’Hara experienced a cultural coronation that few performers enjoy so late in their careers. As Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek, she created a masterpiece of television history. With her incomprehensible accents, a wardrobe of architectural wigs, and a vocabulary that required a dictionary to navigate, Moira became an instant icon. Yet beneath the feathers and the artifice, O’Hara found a woman who loved her family fiercely. Her sweep of the major acting awards in 2020 was a fitting tribute to a woman who had been the actor’s actor for nearly fifty years.

Even in her final year, she remained at the top of her craft, earning Emmy nominations for her work in The Last of Us and The Studio, proving that her creative fire had never dimmed.

A person of grace and humility

Beyond the wigs and the costumes, Catherine O’Hara was known as a woman of immense warmth and professional generosity. She remained married to production designer Bo Welch for over thirty years, a rarity in the industry, and raised two sons, Matthew and Luke, far from the glare of the tabloids. She was a collaborator who elevated every scene she was in, often stepping back to let others shine, though her presence was always the magnetic north of any production.

Her friend and lifelong collaborator Eugene Levy once remarked that she was the most naturally gifted person he had ever met. It was a sentiment echoed by the global outpouring of grief from colleagues and fans alike, who saw in her a rare kind of light, one that found joy in the weird and the dignity in the difference.

The final bow

Catherine O’Hara leaves behind a body of work that will be studied, quoted, and cherished for as long as people need a reason to laugh. She taught us that it is perfectly fine to be a little bit “off,” that family is found in the strangest of places, and that life, no matter how tragic or mundane, is always better with a touch of the theatrical.

The wigs have been boxed away and the lights have dimmed, but the laughter she sparked remains a permanent part of the atmosphere.
 

MUMBAI: From balance sheets to big screens, Paramount has made a decisive financial move. Paramount, a Skydance Corporation company, has appointed Dennis K. Cinelli as its chief financial officer, effective January 15, 2026, marking a significant leadership shift at the media giant.

Cinelli, who steps down from Paramount’s board to take on the executive role, brings heavyweight credentials from the technology and AI worlds. He previously played a central role in taking Uber public during his tenure leading its mobility business in the US and Canada, and most recently served as CFO at Scale AI, where he helped drive rapid revenue growth and strategic fundraising, including a landmark investment by Meta that valued the company at nearly $30 billion.

As CFO, Cinelli succeeds Andrew C. Warren, who has served as EVP and interim CFO since June 2025. Warren will remain closely involved as a strategic adviser. Paramount Chairman and CEO David Ellison said Cinelli’s experience across direct-to-consumer, media, industrial and AI-driven businesses makes him a natural fit as the company enters its next phase of growth and transformation.

Alongside the finance reshuffle, Paramount has also strengthened its board with the appointment of Andrew Campion as an independent director from January 13, 2026. Campion brings deep operational and strategic expertise from senior leadership roles at Nike and The Walt Disney Company, as well as board experience at Starbucks.

With a new finance chief and a seasoned board addition, Paramount appears keen to ensure that its next act is as tightly scripted financially as it is creatively.

CALIFORNIA: Hollywood’s annual pre-Oscar showcase returned with vengeance, spreading its accolades across film, streaming, and television in a strategic play to keep every major studio competitive heading into awards season.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s counterculture epic One Battle After Another and Netflix’s youth drama Adolescence emerged as the evening’s biggest winners, each claiming four trophies. Anderson secured his first-ever Golden Globe wins with best comedy or musical film, best director, and best screenplay.

Netflix’s Adolescence won best limited series alongside acting prizes for Stephen Graham, Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty. Writer Jack Thorne used his acceptance speech to frame the show as an indictment not of young people but of “the filth and the debris we have laid in their path”.

Big-ticket cinema was not shut out. The Shakespeare-inspired drama Hamnet won best drama film and best actress for Jessie Buckley, with producer Steven Spielberg praising director Chloé Zhao as the only film-maker who could have made it work.

Ryan Coogler’s period horror Sinners demonstrated its commercial might with wins for original score and box-office achievement.  

Timothée Chalamet became the youngest winner of best lead actor in a comedy for Marty Supreme, while Rose Byrne took best lead actress in a comedy for the indie hit If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, which she joked was made for $8.50. Brazilian thriller The Secret Agent scored two wins, including best non-English language film and best actor in a drama for Wagner Moura — the first Brazilian to take the prize.

Television saw a generational shake-up. Hospital drama The Pitt won best drama series, with Noah Wyle named best actor, while Apple’s industry satire The Studio took best comedy series and a lead-actor win for Seth Rogen. Rhea Seehorn won best actress in a drama for Pluribus, and Jean Smart claimed her third Globe for HBO’s Hacks.

The ceremony also leaned into politics and culture-war signalling, with several stars wearing anti-ICE pins and the show introducing a new category for best podcast, won by Good Hang with Amy Poehler.

The Golden Globes 2026’s wildest, weirdest and most viral moments  

Host Nikki Glaser opened by calling the ceremony “the most important thing happening in the world right now” before firing at targets ranging from George Clooney’s coffee habits to CBS News and the US justice department’s redacted Epstein files. Her Nicole Kidman cinema-ad parody and K-pop singalong kept the ballroom loose and social media buzzing.

Glaser also skewered Leonardo DiCaprio, turning his famously scrutinised dating history into one of the night’s biggest laughs. “The most impressive thing about Leo,” she joked, “is that he managed to do all that before his girlfriend turned 30.” She mock-apologised for the dig, calling it “cheap”, before adding, “But honestly, we don’t know anything else about you. Give us something to work with.”  

The night’s emotional centre came early. Teyana Taylor completed the sweep with best supporting actress, delivering one of the night’s most powerful moments when she told “little brown girls watching tonight” that their softness and ambition needs no permission to exist.  

A new Globes category — best podcast — also landed with a flourish. Good Hang With Amy Poehler took the inaugural prize, with Poehler wrapping Snoop Dogg in a celebratory hug before joking that NPR should “try harder” than simply letting celebrities phone it in. Backstage, she said her dream listener was Meryl Streep.

Timothée Chalamet became the youngest-ever winner of best lead actor in a comedy for Marty Supreme, raising eyebrows by thanking Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary—a playful nod to the Globes’ tendency to blend prestige with pop culture spectacle.  

Netflix’s K-Pop Demon Hunters underlined its status as a commercial juggernaut by winning both best animated film and best song for Golden. The creators said they had simply poured everything they loved into the film and hoped to repeat the trick in a sequel, even if lightning rarely strikes twice.

Elsewhere, steamy TV breakout Heated Rivalry brought its fan-service straight onto the stage as stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams teased the audience while presenting, triggering whoops that would have been unthinkable at the Oscars.

Director Judd Apatow supplied the night’s sharpest industry critique, reminding the room that the Globes’ “comedy or musical” category once handed his Trainwreck a loss to The Martian. He joked that while the world had endured Covid and authoritarian drift since then, he was “still pretty focussed on this Martian thing”.

Melissa McCarthy and Kathryn Hahn delivered the slickest comic bit, flipping Hollywood’s gender politics by pretending men were an under-represented minority in film. “It’s about time,” McCarthy deadpanned, “that men finally got a seat at the table.”