How Kieran Culkin came out of his brother’s shadow to become a mercurial, Bafta-nominated king of sarcasm

From Home Alone to Succession and A Real Pain, the actor has added a unique twist to his roles and is tipped for a best supporting role award this weekendOn Sunday evening, Kieran Culkin is up for the best supporting actor award at the Baftas. If he wins, he will probably give one of his startled, free-wheeling and characteristically funny speeches, though by now he may struggle to express surprise, given his extended run of triumphs at these events.In 2024, he picked up a Golden Globe for best actor in a television drama series for his performance as Roman Roy in Jesse Armstrong’s Succession. Last month, he nabbed the Golden Globe for best supporting actor for his role as Benji Kaplan in Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain (he seems to respond well to direction from men called Jesse), which also landed him the four major American film critics awards, made him an odds-on favourite for an Oscar next month, and accounts for his Bafta nomination.All this attention may seem rather sudden, as though he were an overnight sensation, but Culkin, who appeared in Home Alone alongside his then famous older brother Macaulay, has been in the acting business for over 35 years

‘I’m an actor, not a mouthpiece’: Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey on fame and the pressure to speak out

Bridgerton, then Wicked, gave Jonathan Bailey a huge fanbase, but the responsibility on the actor to use his platform is intenseThe actor Jonathan Bailey sits at a large table in an otherwise empty room: charcoal cable knit sweater, loose pinstripe trousers, hair neatly coiffed. He is chewing gum, sipping coffee, talking through his recent career, and a certain serendipity that has rendered him reflective. At 36, he’s fresh from his turn as likely-lad love interest Fiyero in Hollywood’s blockbuster adaptation of Wicked; as a child, seeing the stage show was a milestone for him. “I remember thinking Fiyero was such a good part.” Later this year he will star in Jurassic World Rebirth alongside Mahershala Ali and Scarlett Johansson

Last chance to enter! The 2025 Observer/ Anthony Burgess prize for arts journalism closes soon

Are you a budding culture reviewer? Do you come out of a new show or finish the last page of a book and itch to open your laptop and set down your thoughts about why you so enjoyed – or detested – it?The deadline – 28 February – is looming for the 2025 Observer/Anthony Burgess prize for arts journalism. Established in 2012 with a prize fund of £4,000, this is the UK’s leading award for emerging critics.The prize commemorates the 30-year association of author Anthony Burgess with the Observer, for much of that time as the paper’s lead literary critic. Cultural journalism is at the heart of the New Review – and was central to Burgess’s life as a professional writer. Andrew Biswell, the director of the Anthony Burgess Foundation, points out that during the 1960s Burgess was for a time “the theatre critic of the Spectator, the opera critic of Queen magazine, the television critic of the Listener, and the restaurant critic of another journal

On my radar: Malachi Kirby’s cultural highlights

The writer and actor on his secret food obsession, Lessons in Chemistry on TV and the best place in London for a napThe actor and writer Malachi Kirby was born in London in 1989. He enrolled in a drama group at the Battersea Arts Centre aged 14 and later attended London’s Identity School of Acting. He was shortlisted for outstanding newcomer at the 2011 Evening Standard theatre awards, for Mogadishu. On TV he has appeared in the 2016 remake of Roots, Black Mirror, and as Darcus Howe in Steve McQueen’s Mangrove; his film work includes Boiling Point and Wicked Little Letters. Kirby, who lives on the outskirts of London, stars as Hezekiah Moscow in the Disney+ series A Thousand Blows, set in the world of illegal boxing in the Victorian East End

From Captain America to The White Lotus: a complete guide to this week’s entertainment

Captain America: Brave New WorldOut now In the latest instalment of Marvel mayhem, Anthony Mackie stars as Sam Wilson-slash-Captain America, with Chris Evans having bowed out. And replacing William Hurt following the veteran actor’s death is Harrison Ford, hulking out as antagonist Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, president of the USA and occasional Red Hulk. Oh brave new world indeed.Bridget Jones: Mad About the BoyOut now We’ve seen singleton Bridget, pregnant Bridget, now here comes widowed solo-parenting Bridget for the presumably final instalment in the Ms Jones chronicles, at least until Helen Fielding writes another bestseller. While raising her six- and 10-year-old children by the late Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), Bridget (Renée Zellweger) finds herself embroiled in another love triangle

The Guide #178: How AI took over the commercial break

The Guide doesn’t tend to focus on adverts very often. We’re usually more interested in the popular culture those commercials are busy rudely interrupting. Besides, complaining about the most annoying ones – like the Confused.com ad where a succession of people squeeze the mouths into a disgusting O-shape and mime whistling for reasons unknown – only affords them the attention they crave. My primary life ambition is to live in a world where they stop making the Domino-hoo-hoo ads, so I’m hoping that ignoring them may help make that utopia a reality