From an epic rap beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar to the end of Taylor Swift’s massively popular Eras Tour, these are Postmedia’s biggest moments in entertainment from 2024.
End of an Era
Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour came to an end with six sold-out shows in Toronto and a trio of concerts in Vancouver. With over $2 billion in ticket sales, the tour is the highest-grossing of all time – a feat that is unlikely to be matched anytime soon.
“I’ve never done this many shows,” Swift said of the nearly two-year long jaunt. “But you guys have made it such a wonderful experience.”
Following a lengthy investigation by law enforcement into accusations of abuse, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was arrested in September and charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
In the months since his arrest, sordid allegations into the rapper’s private life have surfaced and he is facing a slew of ongoing civil lawsuits alleging abuse.
Combs is set to go on trial next May.
Bennifer 2.0 comes to a close
After starting the year by plugging an Amazon documentary promoting their rekindled romance nearly 20 years after they were first engaged, Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce from Ben Affleck after just over two years of marriage in August.
According to PEOPLE magazine, Affleck’s “erratic mood swings” contributed to his split from Lopez.
“The truth is there was a great deal of love but also unfortunately what became clear were Ben’s erratic mood swings that he couldn’t hide from the press, as much as he tried to,” an insider told the outlet.
Kendrick Lamar and Drake square off in an epic rap feud
Rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar dissed one another in dueling songs after the former tried to say that along with J. Cole, the trio were the “big three” of rap. Lamar didn’t take kindly to the inclusion saying it was “just me.” He also accused Drake of, among other things, being a pedophile and a lousy father. By the time it was over, Lamar was declared the winner.
On Not Like Us, Lamar raps, “Say Drake, I hear you like ’em young.” He also calls the Canadian rapper a “certified pedophile.”
Deadpool & Wolverine sets box office record
People were back at the movies in a big way in 2024.
In addition to box office hits like Dune: Part Two, Inside Out 2, Moana 2 and Wicked drawing audiences out to theatres, Deadpool & Wolverine became the biggest R-rated movie in history.
Asked at the Toronto premiere what the most Canadian thing is about the Marvel characters, stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman said it was their heart and “grit.”
Meanwhile … Joker 2 flops in spectacular fashion
After the first Joker movie made over a billion dollars at the box office, a sequel was inevitable. But the follow-up with Joaquin Phoenix back as the titular Batman villain and Lady Gaga (as Harley Quinn) was a massive flop at the box office, grossing just $206 million worldwide.
“This was (co-writer and director) Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix having their way with studio money,” analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations told Postmedia about the theatrical misfire. “They created something very interesting…to themselves. The general public? Not so much. This wasn’t anything close to fan service, it was fan ghosting. They honestly ghosted the audience with what they created.”
Turns out that smack didn’t matter much
Two years after he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars (a move that led to him being banned from the ceremony for 10 years), Will Smith returned to multiplexes with a new Bad Boys movie that was a global hit, hauling in over $404 million worldwide.
Star power fizzles at the ballot box
In the leadup to America’s November election, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris racked up an impressive list of celebrity endorsements, including Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney (who urged her boss Joe Biden to quit the race), and “childless cat lady” Taylor Swift.
But her Republican rival Donald Trump didn’t need any help from Hollywood heavy hitters. His policies on immigration and the economy clearly resonated and he landed a coveted interview on Joe Rogan’s popular podcast that also helped get him elected. A group of voters in Arizona told reporters that Rogan’s interview, streamed by an upwards of 40 million Americans, was a “deciding factor”
After Trump’s victory, Elon Musk called Harris supporter Cardi B a “puppet who can’t even talk without being fed the words.”
Meanwhile, the Daily Mail said Clooney, whose op-ed begging Biden to drop out of the race made headlines, will be keeping quiet about politics going forward.
Costner and Coppola swing and miss
Early in the year, Oscar winner Kevin Costner revealed that he was exiting his popular modern-day Western Yellowstone series to focus his attention on his own four-part epic Horizon: An American Saga. The story was one Costner had started dreaming about in the 1980s and he sunk $38 million of his own money to bring Horizon to the big screen. But audiences stayed away from the first part and the already completed sequel has yet to be given a release date. Parts three and four may never see the light of day.
Similarly, legendary director Francis Ford Coppola sold a stake in his eponymous winery to finance his Megalopolis misfire. The ambitious tale follows a visionary architect (Adam Driver) who battles an uncooperative mayor (Giancarlo Esposito) in a bid to create a more idealistic future for their mythic city.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film was savaged by critics and audiences alike with a certified rotten rating of 35%. Vanity Fair said it was “a passion project gone horribly wrong” calling the finished product “tedious nonsense … stuffed with poorly elucidated ideas.”
With a rumoured budget in the neighbourhood of $120 million, Coppola’s misbegotten epic grossed just over $11.5 million worldwide.
Tragic death of a teen icon
Hollywood had to say goodbye to many high-profile actors, singers and all-around industry legends this year, including Donald Sutherland, Liam Payne, James Earl Jones, Bob Newhart, Jon Landau, Carl Weathers, Gena Rowlands, Richard Lewis and Toby Keith, among others.
But the tragic death of Shannen Doherty rocked millions of Beverly Hills, 90210 fans around the world after she died in July following a long battle with cancer.
Doherty candidly shared her courageous fight with her followers on social media as well as her podcast.
“Every day is a gift, and there are so many new things in the works that I think hope is always there,” she said back in April. “I think it’s so important. Listen, I can die today, I can die in 20 years, I don’t know. I can die walking outside of my house and a tree falling on me or a bus hitting me, whatever. Or I can die of cancer. But all I can do is live each day in as much as a positive manner with hope as I can and embrace it and feel like, ‘Wow, I get to wake up again today, what can I do?’”
Celine Dion makes a comeback
After being diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome in 2022, the famed Quebecois pop star returned to the spotlight with a new documentary highlighting her health struggles that was followed by an inspiring opening-night performance at the Olympics in July.
Dion celebrated her triumphant comeback on Instagram, writing, “Every time I return to Paris, I remember there’s so much beauty and joy still to experience in the world.”
Next up? A possible return to Las Vegas for a new residency.
Blake Lively accuses Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment
The year ended with Blake Lively accusing her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of the summertime hit and a subsequent effort to “destroy” her reputation in a legal complaint.
The film’s worldwide success was overshadowed by reports of a rift between the two actors and awkward interviews with Baldoni and Lively.
According to the Washington Post, Lively alleges that Baldoni flouted intimacy protocols on set, improvising kisses in scenes without an intimacy coordinator present and trying to add sexual or nude scenes she found unnecessary. Off-camera, the complaint says, the actor made sexual comments objectifying her and other actresses on set, and entered her trailer while she was undressed.
In response to the suit, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement that claims that his client tried to ruin Lively’s reputation were “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”