Steven Spielberg Has COVID, Skips Gotham Awards

Steven Spielberg was set to current Michelle Williams along with her performer tribute at Monday’s Gotham Awards however needed to bow out as a result of he has COVID.

Selection discovered “The Fabelmans” director had examined constructive earlier than the purple carpet opened for the annual gala, however Paul Dano confirmed the information when he changed Spielberg for the Williams tribute.

Dano, who performs Spielberg’s father in “The Fabelmans” reverse Williams as his mom, recalled speaking to Williams about their early days in Hollywood whereas at occasions for the movie.

“Michelle mentioned, ‘I bear in mind simply driving round city on the lookout for work,’” he mentioned. “And I assumed, ‘Think about if that teenage woman knew that on the midpoint of her profession she’d be seeing a tribute award on the Gothams from none aside from Steven Spielberg, and what would she have thought?’”

He continued,  “Then I assumed, ‘Effectively, what if we needed to inform that woman that Steven acquired Covid?’ She’d be like, ‘What’s Covid?’ and that ‘Paul Dano was going to introduce you?’ She’d be like, ‘Who the f*ck is Paul Dano?’”

Spielberg was additionally scheduled to be interviewed by previous pal Martin Scorsese at a DGA screening of “The Fabelmans” whereas in New York for the Gothams. That has been postponed.

When “The Fabelmans” premiered on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition in September, Spielberg mentioned throughout a press convention that the pandemic prompted him to make the very private film. “I bear in mind, because the demise toll mounted, we stored watching the reviews of what was occurring all through the nation and the world and I stored considering, ‘What is that this going to imply for humanity? How far is that this pandemic going to truly take us?’” he mentioned. “And I assumed, ‘That is one thing I’ve acquired to get out of me now.’”

So Spielberg used the free time he had in the course of the peak of COVID to hop on Zoom and write the script with Tony Kushner. The ultimate product hasn’t simply led to a tribute for Williams’ work as Spielberg’s mother, it has additionally landed him within the thick of the awards race.