Site last updated: Saturday, April 27, 2024

Log In

Reset Password
MENU
Butler County's great daily newspaper

Jimmy Kimmel and Donald Trump spar during Oscars show

PEOPLE
Jimmy Kimmel

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel engaged former president Donald Trump in real-time during the 96th Academy Awards presentation.

Kimmel said toward the end of Sunday’s show he’d just received a “review” he wanted to share during the live broadcast. The ABC host was referring to a social media post by Trump insulting Kimmel’s performance as it was happening in Los Angeles.

“Has there ever been a worse host than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars?” Kimmel said onstage while reading Trump’s Truth Social from his phone. “Blah, blah, blah… make America great again.”

Kimmel gave his audience a moment to process what he’d read, then rhetorically asked if they could “guess which former president” posted that message online.

“Thank you, President Trump,” Kimmel continued. “Um, thank you for watching. Isn’t it past your jail time?”

The star-studded crowd responded with thunderous applause.

Trump, who’s been found liable for fraud, defamation and sex abuse since leaving office in 2021, is awaiting trial on more than 90 felony indictments.

Despite the 45th president’s opinion, Kimmel’s emceeing was generally well received.

Veteran journalist Maria Shriver called his performance “funny, calm, creative, and pitch-perfect” noting that hosting award shows is a generally thankless gig.

Horror author Stephen King tweeted, “It’s been a really good show so far” about an hour into the program.

Former Barack Obama campaign strategist and senior advisor David Axelrod responded “ouch” after Kimmel mocked the former president.

Right-wing influencer Catturd offered a MAGA rebuttal on X.

“This triggered little loser Jimmy Kimmel,” the social media personality wrote alongside a copy of the Trump statement Kimmel mocked.

Kimmel claimed he was asked backstage not to read the former president’s social media post during Sunday’s Academy Awards presentation.

“Yes I am,” he said during an interview with Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos that aired Monday morning.

———

Rupert Murdoch

Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch is engaged to Elena Zhukova, more than 20 years his junior, marking the mogul’s sixth fiancée.

If they make it down the aisle, she will become his fifth wife this summer. The 92-year-old ex-chairman of Fox News and News Corp is set to say “I do” in June to the 67-year-old former molecular biologist, The New York Times reports.

The billionaire and Zhukova, originally from Moscow, began dating last summer after reportedly meeting through his third wife, Wendi Deng. Murdoch filed for divorce from Deng in 2013, after 14 years of marriage and two daughters together.

Murdoch and Zhukova started dating shortly after he called off his two-week engagement to Ann Lesley Smith last year.

The engagement news comes just months after Murdoch announced in September that he would step down from his role as Fox News and News Corp chair, with eldest son Lachlan replacing him at both companies.

This isn’t the first billionaire to whom Zhukova has been engaged, who was previously married to energy investor Alexander Zhukov. They share a daughter, Dasha Zhukova, 42, who was formerly married to Russian oligarch and billionaire Roman Abramovich.

Murdoch’s first trip to the altar was in 1956 when he wed fellow Australian Patricia Brooker. Murdoch and the flight attendant, who also worked as a part-time department store model, welcomed daughter Prudence two years later before divorcing in 1967.

Later that year, he moved on with Scottish native Anna Maria Torv, to whom he was married for 32 years. Through Torv, Murdoch fathered Elisabeth, 55; Lachlan, 52; and James, 51.

Murdoch was 68 when he and then-30-year-old Deng, who is Chinese, secretly exchanged vows aboard his yacht in New York Harbour in 1999.

Following their 2013 divorce, Murdoch married Jerry Hall married in 2016. Hall, 67, was with Mick Jagger for over two decades — nine years of which were spent unofficially married.

———

Vanessa Hudgens

LOS ANGELES — Vanessa Hudgens opened the Oscars red carpet pre-show with news of her own: She’s expecting.

The 35-year-old actor-singer turned to the side, revealing a baby bump under her strapless, long-sleeved black gown on Sunday night.

During the 30-minute show she hosted on ABC, Hudgens accepted congratulations from various celebrities on the impending birth of her first child.

A publicist for Hudgens didn't immediately respond to an email request for comment.

In December, Hudgens married Cole Tucker, a shortstop who signed with the Seattle Mariners in the offseason and is likely headed to the minor leagues when the season begins later this month.

Hudgens rose to fame as part of the “High School Musical” movie series.

From combined wire services

More in People

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

* indicates required
TODAY'S PHOTOS