L.A.
The Oscars made the announcement on Monday, March 17: Comedian Conan O’Brien, who had earned top marks for hosting the 2025 Oscars, would be returning as host of the 2026 Oscars on Sunday, March 15, 2026.
Most of us focused on the host announcement, which was made far earlier in the year than is typical, but Murphy Reinschreiber, COO of the McCourt Foundation, which operates the L.A. Marathon, immediately zeroed in the date, which was the same as the already-announced date of the 2026 L.A. Marathon, which is typically held on the third Sunday in March.
The McCourt Foundation had announced its 2026 marathon date on March 15, one day before the 2025 marathon and two days before the Oscars made their announcement.
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Reinschreiber was driving home after finishing work on this year’s marathon when he learned of the double booking.
“It was confusing and the other thought that went to my mind is there are just no days off in this business,” he told The Los Angeles Times. “It’s one thing after the other.”
It would be virtually impossible to have both megaevents on the same date. The Oscars is held at the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Blvd., which is right along the marathon route. Both events require significant road closures and law enforcement deployment.
After six weeks of uncertainty, a solution was finally reached on Thursday (May 1): The 98th Oscars will be held as originally scheduled. The McCourt Foundation will announce a new March date for the race in the coming days.
Both parties also agreed that, to avoid future date conflicts, the L.A. Marathon will take place on the third Sunday in March (on which it has often but not always been held in recent years), and the Oscars will steer clear of that date. (Though the Oscars are often right around this date, this was the first time the Oscars landed on the third Sunday in March since 1999.)
Moving a marathon is no easy feat. The event spans a large chunk of the city and involves more than 25,000 runners, thousands of volunteers, medical personnel, law enforcement and city workers.
“The number of people, communities and businesses that are all impacted by a change of date is mind-boggling,” Reinschreiber told the L.A. Times. “We are going to have to undergo a significant community awareness program.”
More than 5,000 people have registered for the 2026 Marathon, and they will need to be offered the option of a refund due to the change in date, he said.
Who in city government wasn’t on top of things and allowed two megaevents to be scheduled for the same date? No one is saying.
With this conflict resolved, it’s official: The 2026 Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, March 15 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. It’s the third year in a row that the telecast will start at 4 p.m. on the West Coast — in an effort to make it so that East Coast viewers can find out who wins the biggest awards before they go to bed. (This year’s show ended at 10:50 p.m. ET, making that goal a reality for all but the earliest risers.)
The show will again be held at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Theater in Hollywood, its home base for every year but one since 2002. (The best-forgotten 2021 pandemic show was held at the Union Station in downtown L.A.)
Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan will return as the show’s executive producers for the third consecutive year. They first served in that capacity in 2024, when Kimmel hosted. They each won Primetime Emmys for outstanding variety special (live) for that show. Kapoor had previously won for outstanding variety special (pre-recorded) for his work on Adele: One Night Only.
Jeff Ross and Mike Sweeney will return as producers for a second time. Sweeney will also serve as a writer. Sweeney has won three Primetime Emmys for previous productions with O’Brien. Ross has won one.
Voting members of the Recording Academy’s Los Angeles chapter are being asked to vote again in the election that determines that chapter’s governors. The problem: Not enough people voted in the election that concluded Wednesday (March 26) for the Academy to consider it a valid election. As a result, a new election will open on April 9 and close on April 16.
Harvey Mason jr., Recording Academy and MusiCares CEO, and Tammy Hurt, chair of the academy’s board of trustees, sent an email to L.A. chapter voting members on Friday (March 28) explaining the situation and asking them to please be sure to vote this time. Members who voted in the initial election must vote again because this is a new election.
In their email, Mason and Hurt expressed sympathy for L.A. voting members, who have been through a lot in the past few months. Even those who weren’t personally affected by the wildfires that devastated the region beginning Jan. 7 were stressed by being part of a community that went through a traumatic event. “We understand that the past few months have been incredibly challenging for our LA members, and that you have had far more pressing matters to navigate,” they wrote. “However, it is critical that our elected leaders reflect the broad and diverse will of our members.”
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The L.A. chapter is the largest of the academy’s 12 chapters. The others are Atlanta, Chicago, Florida, Memphis, Nashville, New York, Pacific Northwest, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Texas and Washington, D.C.
Julia Michels, who won a Grammy five years ago as a music supervisor on Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper‘s A Star Is Born soundtrack, is president of the L.A. chapter, which currently has 31 governors, all of whom are elected by voting members in the chapter. The governors, in turn, elect the national trustees. The L.A. chapter currently has seven trustees (more than any other chapter): Cheche Alara, Evan Bogart, Maria Egan, Sara Gazarek, Mike Knobloch, Ledisi and Jonathan Yip.
Here’s the email from Mason and Hurt, in full:
Dear Los Angeles Voting Members,
Voting in the Recording Academy’s twelve chapter elections concluded Wednesday night. Unfortunately, the Los Angeles chapter election for Voting Member Governor races did not receive the required turnout for a valid election. As a result, we are going to hold a second election. We understand that the past few months have been incredibly challenging for our LA members, and that you have had far more pressing matters to navigate. However, it is critical that our elected leaders reflect the broad and diverse will of our members.
The new election will open on April 9 and close on April 16, and again, it will only be for the Voting Member Governor races. Please note that even if you voted in these recently-concluded races, you must vote again. This is a new election.
We ask that you please make time to participate in this important step and vote. You will determine the next class of Recording Academy elected leaders that will guide the Los Angeles Chapter. Please vote and please encourage others to do the same.
If you are in need of assistance due to the LA wildfires, please visit www.musicares.org/get-help.
Best regards,
Harvey Mason jr.
Recording Academy & MusiCares CEO
Tammy Hurt
Chair, Board of Trustees
Ricky Martin will headline LA Pride in the Park, which will return to the Los Angeles State Historic Park on Saturday, June 8. This marks Martin’s first-ever headlining Pride performance. Moreover, Martin will be the first openly gay Latin artist to take center stage at the popular Pride event.
The theme for this year’s Pride season is “Power in Pride,” which celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community’s ability to live authentically.
“I am thrilled to be headlining LA Pride in the Park because it’s an incredible opportunity to celebrate love, diversity, and equality,” Martin said in a statement. “LA Pride is a testament to the power of community, the power of visibility, and the power of standing up for our rights. Being part of this vibrant community fills me with pride and purpose.”
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“With his electrifying stage presence and chart-topping hits, Ricky Martin has long been an inspiration to millions around the world,” said Gerald Garth, board president of CSW/LA Pride. “His participation in LA Pride in the Park goes beyond mere entertainment; it symbolizes a powerful affirmation of queer Latin identity and a celebration of diversity within the LGBTQ+ community. We cannot wait to be ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ while beaming with Pride!”
Across 20 acres and with a capacity of 25,000, LA Pride in the Park is one of the largest official Pride concerts in the country. The nonprofit Christopher Street West Association has produced the LA Pride celebration for more than 50 years. General admission and VIP passes are now available to purchase at lapride.org.
Throughout his nearly four-decade career, Martin has brought Latin music and culture to the mainstream, paving the way for an explosion of crossover talent.
Born in Puerto Rico in 1971, Martin gained fame as a member of Menudo before embarking on a highly successful solo career, which has brought him two Grammy Awards and four Latin Grammy Awards.
Martin’s 1999 smash “Livin’ La Vida Loca” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five consecutive weeks and received Grammy nods for record and song of the year. It was also nominated for record of the year at the inaugural Latin Grammys in 2000 – a show that became a reality because of the undeniable crossover success of artists like Martin, Santana and Marc Anthony, among others.
In May 1999, Martin appeared on the cover of Time in a story headlined “Latin Music Goes Pop!” In November 2006, at age 34, he became the youngest-ever person of the year recipient at the annual gala put on by the Latin Recording Academy.
Martin is also an accomplished actor, earning a Primetime Emmy nod for his role in FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story and displaying his talent on Broadway. He starred in Jingle Jangle for Netflix, opposite Forest Whitaker and Anika Noni Rose and can now be seen in the Apple TV series Palm Royale alongside Laura Dern, Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney and Carol Burnett.
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In 2021, Los Angeles County returned prime beachfront property back to the descendants of the Black couple who purchased the land back in 1912 only to have it unlawfully seized by the city of Manhattan Beach through white supremacy, or as they called it at the time, “eminent domain.”
Now, the owners of Bruce’s Beach, named for Willa and Charles Bruce, will sell the property back to the county in exchange for $20 million in what LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn considers to be “reparations.”
From Reuters:
The Bruce family has informed county officials that they have decided to sell Bruce’s Beach to the county for the estimated value of the Manhattan Beach property, Janice Hahn, chairperson of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said in a tweet on Tuesday.
“This fight has always been about what is best for the family, and they feel what is best for them is selling this property and finally rebuilding the generational wealth they were denied for nearly a century,” Hahn wrote.
In July, county officials transferred the deed to the 7,000 square feet (650 square meters) property to the great-grandsons of Willa and Charles Bruce, who owned the land before officials claimed eminent domain over it in 1924.
The movement to return the land to the family was part of a wave of reparative justice that has gained traction in parts of the United States to make amends for decades of exploitation of Black Americans by predatory developers, exacerbated by segregation and a lack of access to the legal system.
Bruce’s Beach Was A Resort For Black People
Before the land was taken from Willa and Charles by white people who hated Black joy, Black neighbors and Black property ownership as much as they hated the prospect of minding their own business, Bruce’s Beach was a resort where Black people lounge, dance, enjoy the beach without some establishment owner pointing one finger at the “whites only” sign and another at the gun on his hip he’d use to enforce the discriminatory policy. It was a rare thing of luxury that was afforded to Black people exclusively.
Now, the Bruce family descendants say allowing the county to re-purchase the property is another step toward restorative justice, according to Hahn.
“They feel what is best for them is selling this property back to the county for nearly $20 million and finally rebuilding the generational wealth they were denied for nearly a century,” Hahn said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. “This is what reparations look like and it is a model that I hope governments across the country will follow.”
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