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Barbra Streisand’s My Name Is Barbra won audiobook of the year at the 2025 Audie Awards, which were presented on Tuesday (March 4) at Pier Sixty in New York.
Streisand’s audiobook won a second award, autobiography/memoir. Karen Dziekonskiof Penguin Random House Audio accepted on Streisand’s behalf. “Every recording session with Barbra was an absolute open door into her process,” Dziekonski said. “It showed what a steadfast and committed artist that she is. And a remarkable human being.”
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These wins help make up for Streisand’s recent Grammy loss for best audio book, narration and storytelling recording. The award went (inevitably) to Jimmy Carter’s Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration. The former president died at age 100 on Dec. 29, near the end of the Grammy voting period.
Streisand’s audiobook competed in the autobiography/memoir category with a work by another certified music legend, Elton John. Unlike Streisand, John didn’t narrate his own memoir (Farewell Yellow Brick Road).
Whoopi Goldberg won the award for narration by the author. Goldberg, who was present to accept, expressed her gratitude to all the narrators in the room. She then jokingly said, “You all should know that I probably have each and every one of you in my phone because I have 10,000 audiobooks.” She added, “I grew up dyslexic so hearing things read to me is heaven.”
Kate McKinnon won in the humor category for The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science. She narrated the audiobook with Emily Lynne.
Stephen King won the award for short stories/collections for You Like It Darker: Stories. King narrated the audiobook with Will Patton.
Here are the nominees in selected categories for the 2025 Audie Awards, with winners marked.
The awards are voted on by members of theAudio Publishers Association (APA), which bills itself as the premier awards program recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment.
Audiobook of the Year
George Orwell’s 1984; By George Orwell, adapted by Joe White; Performed by Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, Tom Hardy, Chukwudi Iwuji, Romesh Ranganathan, Natasia Demetriou, Francesca Mills, Alex Lawther, and Katie Leung; Published by Audible Originals
WINNER: My Name Is Barbra; Written and narrated by Barbra Streisand; Published by Penguin Random House Audio
Playground: A Novel; By Richard Powers; Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, Robin Siegerman, Eunice Wong, Pun Bandhu, Krys Janae, and Kevin R Free; Published by Spotify Audiobooks
Poor Deer; By Claire Oshetsky; Narrated by Sophie Amoss; Published by HarperAudio
The Sing Sing Files; Written and narrated by Dan Slepian; Published by Macmillan Audio
Autobiography/Memoir
Farewell Yellow Brick Road; By Elton John, foreword by David Furnish; Narrated by Richard Armitage, Vikas Adam, Daniel Henning, Ray Porter, Jesse Einstein, Fred Berman, Edoardo Ballerini, Mark Boyett, Kevin T. Collins, Peter Ganim, Mike Cooper, John Lee, and Oliver Wyman; Published by Audible Studios
In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife; Written and narrated by Sebastian Junger; Published by Simon & Schuster Audio
Knife; Written and narrated by Salman Rushdie; Published by Penguin Random House Audio
WINNER: My Name Is Barbra; Written and narrated by Barbra Streisand; Published by Penguin Random House Audio
The Third Gilmore Girl: A Memoir; Written and narrated by Kelly Bishop; Published by Simon & Schuster Audio
Audio Drama
Brokedown Prophets; By S.A. Cosby, Kevin Hart, Charlamagne Tha God, and SBH Productions;Performed by Jonathan Majors, Brian Tyree Henry, Dasha Polanco, Jeremy Jordan and a full castPublished by Audible Originals and SBH Productions
The Coldest Case: The Past Has a Long Memory; By James Patterson, Aaron Tracy, and Ryan Silbert; Performed by Aaron Paul, Krysten Ritter, Beau Bridges, Greta Lee, Kevin Pollak, Jordan Bridges, Terrence Terrell, Patton Oswalt, and a full cast; Published by Audible Originals
WINNER: George Orwell’s 1984; By George Orwell, adapted by Joe White; Performed by Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, Tom Hardy, Chukwudi Iwuji, Romesh Ranganathan, Natasia Demetriou, Francesca Mills, Alex Lawther, and Katie Leung; Published by Audible Originals
Journey’s End; By R.C. Sherriff; Performed by James Callis, Josh Cole, Jack Cutmore-Scott, Tobias Echeverria, Adam Godley, Ian Ogilvy, Darren Richardson, Simon Templeman, and Matthew Wolf; Published by L.A. Theatre Works
Wild with Happy; By Colman Domingo; Performed by Colman Domingo, Alex Newell, Sharon Washington, Tyler James Williams, and Oprah Winfrey; Published by Audible Originals
Business/Personal Development
And Then We Rise; Written and narrated by Common; Published by HarperAudio
WINNER: Come Together; Written and narrated by Emily Nagoski, PhD; Published by Penguin Random House Audio
Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters; Written and narrated by Brian Klaas; Published by Simon & Schuster Audio
Humans Who Teach: A Guide for Centering Love, Justice, and Liberation in Schools; Written and narrated by Shamari Reid; Published by Heinemann
Women Money Power: The Rise and Fall of Economic Equality; Written and narrated by Josie Cox; Published by Recorded Books, Inc., a division of RBmedia
Fantasy
Black Shield Maiden; By Willow Smith and Jess Hendel; Narrated by Willow Smith; Published by Penguin Random House Audio
WINNER: Bookshops & Bonedust; Written and narrated by Travis Baldree; Published by Macmillan Audio
The Bright Sword; By Lev Grossman; Narrated by Nicholas Guy Smith and Lev Grossman; Published by Penguin Random House Audio
Goddess of the River; By Vaishnavi Patel; Narrated by Sneha Mathan; Published by Hachette Audio
Someone You Can Build a Nest In; By John Wiswell; Narrated by Carmen Rose; Published by Tantor Audio, a division of RBMedia
Humor
Erasure: A Novel; By Percival Everett; Narrated by Sean Crisden; Published by Tantor Audio, a division of RBMedia
Glory Days; By Simon Rich; Narrated by John Mulaney; Published by Hachette Audio
Joyful Recollections of Trauma; Written and narrated by Paul Scheer; Published by HarperAudio
WINNER: The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science; By Kate McKinnon; Narrated by Kate McKinnon and Emily Lynne; Published by Hachette Audio
Wilder Widows Walk on the Wilder Side; By Katherine Hastings; Narrated Pamela Dillman; Published by Flyte Publishing
Multi-Voiced Performance
Anita de Monte Laughs Last; By Xochitl Gonzalez; Narrated by Stacy Gonzalez, Jonathan Gregg, and Jessica Pimentel; Published by Macmillan Audio
Butcher; By Joyce Carol Oates; Narrated by Amy Shiels, Edoardo Ballerini, Cassandra Campbell, Robert Fass, Tavia Gilbert, Jeremy Carlisle Parker, Danny Campbell, and Max Meyers; Published by Penguin Random House Audio
Five Broken Blades; By Mai Corland; Narrated by Greg Chun, Zion Jang, Roger Yeh, Donald Chang, Jaine Ye, and Sophie Oda; Published by Recorded Books, Inc., a division of RBmedia
From Here to the Great Unknown; By Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough; Narrated by Julia Roberts and Riley Keough; Published by Penguin Random House Audio
Snake Oil; By Kelsey Rae Dimberg; Narrated by Kristen Sieh, Andi Arndt, and Renata Friedman; Published by HarperAudio
WINNER: When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day; By Garrett M. Graff; Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini and Garrett M. Graff, with a full cast; Published by Simon & Schuster Audio
Narration by the Author(s)
The 23rd Hero; Written and narrated by Rebecca Anne Nguyen; Published by Castle Bridge Media
WINNER: Bits and Pieces; Written and narrated by Whoopi Goldberg; Published by Blackstone Publishing
Bookshops & Bonedust; Written and narrated by Travis Baldree; Published by Macmillan Audio
Knife; Written and narrated by Salman Rushdie; Published by Penguin Random House Audio
Sorry for the Inconvenience; Written and narrated by Farah Naz Rishi; Published by Brilliance Publishing
Original Work
The Boar’s Nest; By Rachel Bonds, Holly Gleason and Dub Cornett; Narrated by Mandy Moore, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, W. Earl Brown, Stephen Louis Grush, John Hoogenakker, TJ Osborne, and a full cast; Published by Audible Originals
Casanova LLC; By Julia Whelan; Performed by Sebastian York, Julia Whelan, Edoardo Ballerini, and Johnathan McClain; Published by Audiobrary
Earthlight; By J. Michael Straczynski; Narrated by Erik Braa, Pete Bradbury, Jonathan Davis, William DeMeritt, Robert Fass, Jeff Gurner, Ryan Haugen, David Lee Huynh, Mars Lipowski, Saskia Maarleveld, Kathleen McInerney, Brandon McInnis, Sean Kenin Elias Reyes, Stefan Rudnicki, Salli Saffioti, Kristen Sieh, Christopher Smith, Marc Thompson, and Will Watt; Published by Penguin Random House Audio
WINNER: Hellboy and the BPRD: The Goddess of Manhattan [Dramatized Adaptation]; By Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski; Performed by Tim Carlin, Rob McFadyen, Nora Achrati, Scott McCormick, Eric Messner, Lydia Kraniotis, Ken Yatta Rogers, Michael John Casey, Amanda Forstrom, Marni Penning, Steven Carpenter, and a full cast; Published by GraphicAudio, a division of RBmedia
Two Can Play; By Ali Hazelwood; Narrated by Kelsey Navarro Foster; Published by Spotify Audiobooks
Short Stories/Collections
Glory Days; By Simon Rich; Narrated by John Mulaney; Published by Hachette Audio
The History of Sound; By Ben Shattuck; Narrated by Ben Shattuck, Zachary Chastain, Paul Mescal, Dion Graham, Ellen Adair, Steven Jay Cohen, Jim Seybert, Dawn Harvey, Chris Cooper, Rebecca Lowman, Jenny Slate, Ed Helms, and Nick Offerman; Published by Penguin Random House Audio
Letters from Klara; By Tove Jansson and Thomas Teal – Übersetzer; Narrated by Indira Varma; Published by Saga Egmont
What If We Get It Right?; Written and narrated by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson; Published by Penguin Random House Audio
WINNER: You Like It Darker: Stories; By Stephen King; Narrated by Will Patton with Stephen King; Published by Simon & Schuster Audio
Mötley Crüe won’t be launching their upcoming Las Vegas residency as planned this month, with vocalist Vince Neil set to undergo an unspecified “medical procedure.”
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The tour – which was originally scheduled to run for 11 shows from March 28 through April 19 – will now be taking place throughout September and early October instead. According to a statement from the band, the reason for this shift relates to Vince Neil needing to undergo a “required medical procedure” as per doctor’s orders.
“To all the Crüeheads who were looking forward to see us this Spring, I’m truly sorry,” Neil wrote in the statement. “My health is my top priority so I can bring you the awesome shows you deserve, and I can’t wait to return to the stage. Thank you for all the well wishes that keep reaching me. Your support means more than you know.”
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In a joint statement, Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and guitarist John 5 all shared their well wishes for Neil. “Please join us in wishing Vince a speedy recovery,” they wrote. “We are looking forward for him to get well again and to take over Vegas together in September. We can’t wait to see you all out there, and thank you for your understanding and support in the meantime.”
The revised tour will still take place at Dolby Live at Park MGM, albeit from Sept. 12 to Oct. 3 instead. While tickets from the original residency dates will remain valid for the new shows, the tour has now been pared down to just ten shows, with the April 19 performance having been canceled entirely.
Neil’s undisclosed medical procedure is the latest misfortune to affect the singer in recent weeks. On Feb. 10, a plane owned by Neil was at the center of a fatal crash in Scottsdale, AZ. Neil was not present at the time of the incident.
“At 2:39 p.m. local time, a Learjet aircraft Model 35A owned by Vince Neil was attempting to land at the Scottsdale Airport,” a statement from Neil’s representative, Worrick Robinson IV read. “For reasons unknown at this time, the plane veered from the runway causing it to collide with another parked plane. On board Mr. Neil’s plane were two pilots and two passengers.”
Mötley Crüe: The Las Vegas Residency Dates
September 2025: 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 24, 26, 27
October 2025: 1, 3
Stephen Stills is opening up about how his sobriety journey is benefitting the next stage in his career. The 80-year-old “Love the One You’re With” singer has been completely sober for the past three years, and told Rolling Stone in a new interview, “It gets me back to the kid I was before this madness […]
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Ever since its inception in 1983, BET — or the Black Entertainment Network — has been a go-to television channel for music, movies, TV shows and specials, with no shortage of memorable moments over the years.
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Home to the annual BET Awards (and the BET Hip-Hop Awards), the NAACP Image Awards, and the Soul Train Awards, among others, BET also aired the popular 106 & Park music countdown show for 14 celebrated years. The channel was also home to original series like Being Mary Jane, ComicView, Bobby Jones Gospel, American Gangster and The Game, amassing millions of viewers each week for the drama and laughs.
These days, BET continues to be a top destination for entertainment, with hit series like Sistas, The Family Business, Tyler Perry’s Assisted Living, Ms. Pat Settles It and more. The good news: with fewer people actually owning a cable box these days, you can now watch BET online without cable.
Keep reading to find out how to stream BET and get a live feed of the television channel online.
How to Stream BET Online Without Cable
The best way to watch BET shows online is by signing up for a live TV streaming service, which lets you watch television channels through the internet, without needing cable.
Watch BET Online With Fubo
One of our favorite streamers is Fubo, which offers 150+ channels that you can stream from home, including BET. Fubo’s plans start at $64.99/month and include unlimited live streaming on up to ten devices, plus cloud DVR, but right now, you can test out Fubo with a seven-day free trial here. Use the free trial to livestream BET online free and catch your favorite shows as they air.
What we like: Fubo’s free trial includes free DVR so you can record your shows to watch back on-demand on your own time. See full details here.
Watch BET Online With Philo
Another great way to watch BET online without cable is through Philo. The streaming service costs just $28/month for 70+ channels, including BET, BET Her, MTV, VH1, Lifetime and more. This makes Philo one of the best values in streaming and an affordable way to stream BET shows and live specials. Use this seven-day free trial to test out Philo’s offerings without commitment.
Philo’s plans also include DVR and you can record and store your shows for up to one year, to watch back a replay on-demand. See the latest Philo deals here.
Watch BET Online With DirecTV Stream
We’re also big fans of DirecTV Stream, which offers all the cable channels you get on DirecTV but in an easy and convenient streaming service. Use DirecTV Stream to watch live TV online, with 90+ channels available including BET.
DirecTV Stream currently offers a five-day free trial that you can use to livestream BET online free. Continue on after your free trial is done with streaming plans starting at just 74.99/month.
Watch BET Online With Sling TV
Sling TV lets you watch BET online at home with the channel offered on both its Sling Orange and Sling Blue plans. While Sling doesn’t currently offer a free trial, it has the most affordable streaming options on our list, with a new deal getting you 50% off your first month of service. Plans for Sling Orange are the cheapest, starting at just $23 here. Sign up for watch BET online through Sling.
All of the above streaming services like you watch BET network online through your phone, tablet, computer or smart TV.
How to Watch BET+ Online
BET is not to be confused with BET+, the standalone streaming service that offers many original shows and specials that you can’t find on the conventional cable network. BET+ exclusives include Kingdom Business, All the Queen’s Men, Tyler Perry’s Ruthless and more.
Try out BET+ with this seven-day free trial, reserved exclusively for Amazon Prime members. Not a Prime member? Get a 30-day free trial to access all the perks here.
Doechii heard the swamp “loud n clear” and dropped her “Anxiety” single on Tuesday (March 4) via Top Dawg Entertainment and Capitol Records. She announced “Anxiety” approximately half an hour ahead of its arrival on X with the single’s cover art, which features a mirrored black-and-white image of the TDE rapper being connected by her […]
AJR is transitioning into just JR for 2025. The sibling trio took to social media on Tuesday (March 4) to announce that member Adam Met will be stepping away from live performances throughout the year to focus on his climate efforts. “We’re so proud of what he’s doing in this space,” the band wrote in […]
Ye has sparked outrage with his antisemitic hate speech, and we’re breaking down the timeline of his commentary and actions. We also take to the streets of LA to find out how the people feel. Do you think Ye will come back from this? Let us know in the comments below. Guest 1: ‘College Dropout’ […]
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After three decades in the rap game, Hip-Hop legend Busta Rhymes is still out here showing he can go bar-for-bar with whoever you consider your GOAT and from the look of things, he’s going to continue to cook up some marvelous sh*t to feed his fans and his seeds.
Dropping off some new visuals to “Letter To My Children,” Busta Rhymes uses footage from his classic music videos to spit his bars while he walks around his manor and wonders when he’s going to his much deserved Verzuz battle. Truth be told, who can go up against Busta Rhymes track-for-track? Jay-Z? LL Cool J? Q-Tip? It would have to be another Hip-Hop legend of that caliber to even have a chance.
Elsewhere Don Toliver finds himself in an interesting situation and in his clip for “No Pole” DT pulls up to an empty parking lot in the dead of night to find a woman treating a lamp post like a stripper pole about 30 feet in the air. Pretty impressive we must say.
Check out the rest of today’s drops including work from Icewear Vezzo, Stunna Gambino, and more.
BUSTA RHYMES – “LETTER TO MY CHILDREN”
DON TOLIVER – “NO POLE”
ICEWEAR VEZZO – “MINNESOTA”
VONTEE THE SINGER – “TIME”
STUNNA GAMBINO – “ARMED N DANGEROUS”
LUCKI – “BAD INFLUENCE FREESTYLE”
BABY RICH – “DEAD WRONG”
SHENG – “KING KONG”
When programmers gathered for the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville Feb. 19-21, they heard a scintillating version of the national anthem.
Tigirlily Gold, the Academy of Country Music’s reigning new duo/group of the year, delivered it with a fierce confidence, the kind of assurance that — based on the enthusiastic response — impressed a room full of hard-to-impress professionals. Considering that the duo had just released a new single, the timing was probably advantageous.
“We got such great feedback from that, and there were a couple of people who said they had tears in their eyes afterward,” Tigirlily’s Krista Slaubaugh says. “I’m just glad we were able to do a good job and kick off that week really strong, but I definitely don’t think it hurts.”
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That current Tigirlily single is an anthem in its own right, a celebration of small-town America built on casual acoustics and spacious imagery. And, as it did with “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Tigirlily sings “Forever From Here” like it means it.
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“This song, for me personally, is the most connected I’ve ever felt to a song,” lead vocalist Kendra Slaubaugh Olson says. “I met my husband in our hometown of Hazen, N.D. We’ve been together for 15 years, married for over five, and when we wrote that song, I think I listened to it 100 times that night. I’m not kidding you — probably 100 times. I just felt so connected and so emotional about it. And just really felt like, for the first time, Jared and I had our song. It was a really beautiful moment.”
The title might have been “Forever From Here,” but the phrase that drove it was “harvest season.” It’s a major reason the song resonated so strongly with her.
“Krista had the title ‘Harvest Season’ in her notes for forever,” Kendra says. “Obviously, being from the Midwest, it’s a huge part of where we grew up. Our grandparents both farmed, and harvest season is just one of the most beautiful times of the year. It’s fall. The air is chilly, everybody’s combining. It’s very fruitful, so we really wanted to paint that picture.”
Krista floated “Harvest Season” a few times during 2024, but it didn’t feel like a natural phrase to end a chorus, and it never quite landed. However, when the duo held a short writing retreat with songwriter-producer Pete Good (“We Don’t Fight Anymore”) at the Santa Barbara, Calif., home of songwriter Shane McAnally (“Body Like a Back Road,” “Coming Home”), “harvest season” found its place. They locked into a breezy guitar foundation as they started the third song of the trip on Dec. 3, and Krista reintroduced the title. McAnally thought it was interesting, but he suggested it belonged in the middle of the chorus instead. He even whipped out a melody to go with it. They talked further about what North Dakota was like and started to shape a direction that paired a rural setting with a relationship.
“You’re painting this big open space in this beautiful scenery and geography,” says Good, who hails from South Dakota. “Somebody said that you can ‘just see forever,’ like, ‘Oh, I can see forever both with my eyes and also with my heart.’ ”
It set the tone for the verses, populated almost entirely by references to a stable, warm relationship and images from nature. “We used geese in a song, which I never thought we would use,” Krista notes.
The pre-chorus looked above the birds — “God turns on the stars” — pulling together multiple elements in the “forever” theme. “The most stars you’ll ever see in your life is looking up at a Midwest sky and just feeling so small compared with everything out there,” Kendra says. “To me, it’s like God painted that picture of the stars in the sky, because there’s no other explanation for that kind of beauty.”
As that pre-chorus eased into the chorus, they encountered the day’s biggest challenge: settling on an opening line for the sing-along section. They sifted through several options, ultimately embracing a phrase that places the adjective in the wrong spot: “I can see a house with the shutters blue.”
“A part of me knew it’s got to be ‘shutters blue,’ ” Krista says. “ ‘Shutters blue’ is weird. It’s just going to catch people.”
A passing mention of a prairie rose in the second verse further enhanced the sense of location, and of personal history. “I did a report on a prairie rose in fourth or fifth grade, and it really stuck with me that that’s the state flower of North Dakota,” Krista says. “So there’s a little bit of nerdiness to the song, which I really love as a songwriter.”
Santa Barbara is quite different from North Dakota, but writing in a room that opened to a large lot helped with the outdoorsy nature of the “Forever” lyric, especially since December falls in the harvest season for some of McAnally’s fruit trees.
“I think I ate about 15 oranges writing that song,” Good says. “I can’t pull oranges off a tree in Nashville, so when I was out there, I just couldn’t stop eating oranges.”
They built a simple work tape with vocal, two guitars and a drum loop, and the Tigirlily team got excited about “Forever” when it heard the results. The act recorded the instrumental tracks on Dec. 16 at Sound Emporium’s Studio A in Nashville. The first couple of run-throughs didn’t fully cut it, so an outdoor feel was captured by setting up a single microphone, campfire-style, with five musicians gathered around it: Drummer Evan Hutchings joined Krista and Sol Philcox-Littlefield on acoustic guitars, Todd Lombardo grabbed a banjo, and keyboardist Alex Wright took over on mandolin.
“That was the DNA of that particular session,” Good notes. “It’s just that breezy, acoustic sound.” Krista joined Good to produce the vocals, and she encouraged Kendra to keep her lead part light.
“I was standing on my tippy toes and smiling as much as I can — this is how I know to make it sound easy,” Kendra says. “That actually sometimes is harder for me to do than to sing a powerful song.” Krista added harmonies later, applying a high note first, then adding a low note beneath Kendra’s lead in key spots, particularly on the chorus and on a scorching “wi-i-i-ld” passage in verse two.
Jenee Fleenor also overdubbed fiddle, taking a solo and threading some choice shimmering notes at the end of the bridge. In the end, the personal tone and catchy chorus of “Forever From Here” helped it beat out a couple of other recordings to become the next single. Monument released “Forever” to country radio via PlayMPE on Feb. 13, and it’s already being embraced by dozens of stations, creating a sense that it could become the duo’s biggest single to date. Tigirlily Gold is cautiously considering what kind of success the recording might harvest.
“If this song goes No. 1,” Kendra says, “I’m definitely painting my shutters blue.”
Madonna and Guy Oseary hosted their annual Oscars afterparty on Sunday night (March 3) and, as usual, the event brought together winners holding their trophies as well as some of the biggest names in Hollywood. The Queen of Pop took to Instagram to share photos from the star-studded event, featuring behind-the-scenes getting ready pictures, snaps […]