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.”

MUMBAI: Some family reunions come with hugs. Others come with fists, secrets and the occasional explosion. That is the premise powering The Wrecking Crew, an action comedy that brings together two of Hollywood’s most physically commanding stars, Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista, as estranged half-brothers forced back into each other’s orbit. Set against the sun-soaked streets of Hawaii, the film blends brute-force spectacle with bruised emotions, turning sibling rivalry into a full-throttle mystery.

Momoa plays Jonny and Bautista stars as James, brothers separated by time and temperament, reunited only after their father’s mysterious death. What begins as an uneasy truce soon spirals into a deeper investigation, as buried family truths and long-simmering resentments rise to the surface. The closer they get to answers, the clearer it becomes that the conspiracy they have stumbled into could tear what remains of their family apart. The result is a story where loyalty is tested as often as bones, and nothing is off-limits once the gloves come off.

The film is directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, following his work on Blue Beetle, and written by Jonathan Tropper. Production duties are shared by a heavyweight team including Jeff Fierson, Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista, Matt Reeves and Lynn Harris, signalling a project designed to balance scale with character. At 2 hours and 2 minutes, the runtime leaves room for both chaos and contemplation.

Beyond its leading duo, The Wrecking Crew features an eclectic supporting cast that adds texture and tonal contrast. The ensemble includes Claes Bang, Temuera Morrison, Jacob Batalon, Frankie Adams, Miyavi, alongside scene-stealing turns from Stephen Root and Morena Baccarin.

What sets the film apart, however, is not just the muscle on display. At its core, The Wrecking Crew is a story about brotherhood, masculinity and redemption, probing what it means to face the parts of your past you would rather outrun. The chemistry between Momoa and Bautista, long talked about by fans, finally finds its outlet here, mixing self-aware humour with moments of unexpected tenderness.

In an action landscape often dominated by interchangeable explosions, The Wrecking Crew positions itself as something sturdier. Loud when it needs to be, but surprisingly heartfelt when it matters, the film suggests that even the hardest-hitting action comedies work best when they remember what is really at stake.