10 weird things about the 2026 Oscars
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“Hamnet” star Jessie Buckley insists she really, really like cats, despite what she said about her pets. — photo montage.
Peter Howell
Movie Critic
Sunday’s 98th Academy Awards show falls on the doom‑laden Ides of March, the very date a soothsayer warned Julius Caesar about in Shakespeare’s play, just before the knives came out.
You might think the academy would hesitate to tempt fate, especially in a city still singed from last year’s wildfires and never short of dark omens. Yet this year’s race feels unusually skewed, even by Hollywood standards, with scandals, snubs and statistical outliers piling up like swag bags in the Dolby Theatre lobby. Here are 10 of the weirdest plot twists so far, gathered from the usual swirl of industry trades and stray dispatches from the awards‑season trenches.
1. Claws out for Jessie Buckley?
Could cat lovers scratch the Oscar away from Jessie Buckley? The “Hamnet” star looks like a sure thing for best actress, if you believe the earlier awards, yet a flippant remark about cats has landed with all the grace of a hairball on a Persian rug. Even Britain’s estimable The Guardian has coughed up a story about “kitty karma.” It stems from a Buckley podcast interview, in which she said she gave her husband an “it’s me or the cats” ultimatum after the pets pooped on her pillows.
Buckley felt obliged to address the ensuing uproar on a recent “Tonight Show” appearance, telling host Jimmy Fallon she’s a cat fancier, not a hater. “I am a lover of cats,” she insisted. “I woke up this morning (thinking), ‘Does the world think that I really don’t love cats?’ And it’s really weighed on me all day. I felt sick.”
2. No plié for Timothée
Buckley’s catty comments aren’t the only self-inflicted wounds on the Oscars campaign trail, as Timothée Chalamet also discovered the dangers of an unforced error. The best actor nominee for “Marty Supreme” drew unwelcome attention to himself during a CNN/Variety Town Hall chat with Matthew McConaughey, where, while arguing for cinema, he gratuitously suggested that “no one cares” about ballet or opera.
Chalamet quickly ping-ponged to soften the blow by adding, “all respect to the ballet and opera people out there,” but the damage had been done. Ballet and opera houses immediately clapped back, with responses ranging from generous “free tickets on us” to a zinger from Brazilian dancer Victor Caixeta, who said ballet and opera “have survived for centuries … Let’s see if your movies are still being watched in 300 years.” Believe or not, Chalamet comes from a dance family: his mother and sister studied at the School of American Ballet, which definitely still cares whether people care.
