About Town

Heard Around Hollywood

Lane in Warner Bros.’ Superman reboot. Not that ShermanPalladino won’t try: “If Rachel thinks Lois Lane is going to get her away from me, she’s incredibly naïve,” she says. “I’ll grab her ass and drag her back.”

— KIRSTEN CHUBA

HBO Axes Putin-Pal Actor

So, it turns out supporting a murderous, megalomaniacal dictator isn’t such a great career move after all. HBO announced Feb. 2 that it was “parting ways” with 36-year-old Serbian actor Milos Bikovic, who 10 days earlier had been cast in season three of the network’s hit series White Lotus. One of Russia’s most popular box office draws, Bikovic also has a history of palling around with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had awarded the actor the Pushkin Medal at a ceremony in Moscow in 2018 and granted the actor Russian citizenship by decree in 2021. “HBO, is it all right for you to work with a person who supports genocide & violates international law?” Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on social media shortly after the casting announcement. The answer to that question turned out to be obvious. “We definitely need some kind of economic and cultural boycott, similar to that of the apartheid regime in South Africa in the 1980s,” notes Andrij Parekh, a directorcinematographer of Ukrainian descent who won an Emmy for his work on HBO’s Succession. “The people supporting Putin need to understand what side of history they’re on.”

Mystery Solved: Sydney Sweeney Wasn’t Technically Lying About Her Job History

The internet demands to know: Did Sydney Sweeney fabricate part of her inspiring backstory? Let’s rewind. In November, a Women’s Health cover profile of the 26-year-old Anyone but

You star recapped the twotime Emmy winner’s humble Hollywood beginnings spent babysitting, cleaning restaurant bathrooms and — gasp! — leading tours at Universal Studios. But a handful of TikTok wags not-so-politely called Sweeney a liar. “It’s not true,” claimed TikTok user Taylor Hancock, who posted a clip that details his “many years” of leading Universal backlot tours himself. His initial clip has been viewed north of 1.5 million times. But a

THR investigation revealed that Sweeney’s backstory did check out — barely. A source confirms that she was indeed hired by Universal Studios Hollywood on June 12, 2016, but only attended two shifts, one during orientation, followed by a training shift. She exited the job July 18, 2016, after landing an acting job. Her résumé backs it up as Sweeney booked several projects in 2016. She next appears alongside Dakota Johnson in

Madame Web.

Sydney Sweeney