Names and faces
■ Madonna acknowledged at a concert that it had been “politically incorrect” of her to urge a fan in a wheelchair to stand up, causing social media accusations of ableist behavior to quickly grow as video of the incident was shared over the weekend. The 65-year-old performer had been performing at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles earlier this month as she was hyping up her audience to “take this ride with me.” Singling out a concertgoer, the singer asks in the video “What are you doing sitting over there? What are you doing sitting down?” Once she got a closer look at the fan, along with their wheelchair, she quickly said “Oh OK, politically incorrect, sorry about that,” to the concertgoer. While Madonna moved on, social media users, including public speaker and author Ola Ojewumi called out her actions. Ojewumi compared the moment with treatment she received from rapper Lupe Fiasco at a different concert. The writer said that the “Show Goes On” artist “saw me sitting in a standing-room-only concert and looked confused.” Ojewumi added that as Fiasco made it up to her, “That’s the difference between an artist and what Madonna is — ableist trash,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
■ Billie Eilish made Oscars history after winning the Academy Award for best original song alongside her brother Finneas O’Connell with their hit “What Was I Made For?” that had been part of the “Barbie” soundtrack. Eilish, 22, became the youngest person to win two career Oscars, beating a record set by Luise Rainer, who won her second best actress Oscar at 28 in 1938. Fineas, 26, is now the second youngest person. The two won their first Oscar for “No Time to Die” in 2021, which was part of the namesake James Bond movie. The only others to win two before 30 are Hilary Swank and Jodie Foster. “Thank you so much to the Academy. I feel like, I just didn’t think this would happen,” Eilish said in her acceptance speech. “I’m so grateful for this song and for this movie and the way that it made me feel. And this goes out to everyone who was affected by the movie and how incredible it is. And I want to thank my team and my parents. I love you guys so much.” The duo had already won a Golden Globe for best original song and two Grammy’s for their performance of “What Was I Made For?”