Miley Opened Her First Headlining Show in Years by Literally Descending From the Hollywood Bowl Stands

October 18, 2026 · 64 sources

Quick Hits

MILEY IS BACK, BABY. Friday night at the Hollywood Bowl, Miley Cyrus kicked off "Bass Persuades – Live at the Hollywood Bowl" — her first headlining performance in years — and she opened the whole thing by descending from a B-stage in the middle of the stands, then looked visibly sapped after the 200-foot trek back to the main stage. Variety's review crowns her "the anti-pop pop star." Icons get winded too!
Tarantino check-in: he confirmed he's "written a script" for his tenth film — the one he's long said will be his last — but he's in no rush because he wants to "live a little" first. Wrote his retirement movie and then said "but first, vibes." Honestly? Respect. (Variety)
James McAvoy residuals truth bomb: the man has Atonement, X-Men: First Class, and Speak No Evil on his résumé, but says M. Night Shyamalan's Split is the only film that "really consistently pays" him. The Split checks simply do not stop clearing. (Variety)
A-list siren: the Academy Museum Gala red carpet is underway, with Taylor Swift, Kate Hudson, and Inde Navarrette among the expected walkers — per Variety, one of Hollywood's most glamorous nights of the year. Charge your phones.

TikTok home-fad regret is the discourse of the day: homeowners are confessing which viral trends they wish they'd never touched — "TikTok really made me think it looked modern and chic, but instead, it made everything so dull and boring..." The algorithm giveth and the algorithm taketh away. (BuzzFeed)
Lindsey Vonn rang in her 42nd with a birthday photo dump TMZ is calling Olympic-level — a genuinely great bounce-back after what they describe as a rocky start to 2026. (TMZ)
Crossover content nobody predicted: UFC champ Alex Volkanovski says his "Cooking With Volk" series is getting a special guest — longtime rival Islam Makhachev. From the Octagon to the kitchen. Enemies-to-cooking-show pipeline confirmed. (TMZ)

Zach Bryan got remarkably candid about his sobriety journey in a two-hour sit-down with Matthew McConaughey, at one point asking himself, "Why am I drinking?" — a genuinely lovely conversation between two guys who ask real questions. (Billboard)
Producer Andrew Watt is having an insane 2026 — Madonna, Paul McCartney, the Stones, Gaga — and in a new Rolling Stone interview he dishes on getting Madonna and Charli XCX in a room together and why Black Sabbath didn't make one more album.
Eminem is defending his new collab with "old friend" Kid Rock, "Heal My Faith," saying it's "not about choosing sides... just choosing to make music." (Rolling Stone)
British girl group Say Now insist they're not flirting on new single "Hot and Talking" — sure, girls! — from their debut EP Say What You See, co-written and exec-produced by PinkPantheress, out Nov. 13. (Rolling Stone)
Becky G brought a World Mental Health Day festival in NYC to a "powerful close," per Billboard's roundup of uplifting Latin music moments. (Billboard)

Ryan Gosling's zero-G work on Project Hail Mary is getting the nerd-out treatment: Oscar-winning VFX supervisor Paul Lambert says convincing zero gravity was the film's single most daunting challenge, and Variety breaks down how they pulled it off. (Variety)
Roger Deakins, strolling through Turin with his wife and creative partner James Ellis Deakins, musing about painter Giorgio de Chirico, admits he still can't define what a cinematographer is: "I still can't answer that." The most decorated humble king in the business. (Variety)
Silent-era renaissance alert: It, Clara Bow's 1927 breakout — yes, the Clara Bow Taylor Swift name-checks on The Tortured Poets Department — is leading a new French distribution deal bringing Hollywood classics to cinemas. (Variety)

Paul Bettany is finally clearing the record on the Johnny Depp libel trial: he says the two "hadn't spoken" in years when their private texts were read in court, and "I was being painted as this close friend" — a friendship the public assumed was way more active than it was. (Variety, via The Times)

In grimmer news: Irvine police say the car from the crash that killed influencer James Wehr and Lexi Kramer suddenly caught fire while sitting in storage — and it's on video. (TMZ)
BuzzFeed's Friday quiz buffet is loaded: a '90s Saturday-morning cartoons quiz (extra points if you can still hum the theme songs, which you can), a build-your-dream-haunted-house quiz that reveals how you'd die in a horror movie, a fictional restaurant trivia challenge, and the ugly-cute animal personality quiz. Weekend plans: solved.