NEED TO KNOW
Kathy Bates made the most of a surprise interaction with a ping pong paddle at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards.
The actress, 77, held a paddle like the ones Timothée Chalamet uses in his movie Marty Supreme at the awards ceremony on Sunday, Jan. 4, after host Chelsea Handler announced she hid a paddle under someone’s seat. She joked that whoever has it would get to paddle Chalamet, 30, at an afterparty, a reference to a pivotal scene in the movie.
“I heard that he didn’t want a butt double for those spankings in Marty Supreme, so to make things interesting for this evening, someone in this room has a ping pong paddle under their seat,” Handler, 50, said. “So everyone look and whoever has it gets to spank Timothée at the afterparty tonight.”
The audience in the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica laughed as cameras revealed Bates, who was nominated for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her role on Matlock, had the paddle.
Bates got laughs when she licked the paddle and then mouthed, “That’s so gross. That’s so gross,” to the camera.
“I can’t believe I did that!” she added to the crowd, before informing Handler that she won the paddle. “Kathy Bates, lucky you! Yes!” Handler responded from the stage.
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The Marty Supreme scene in question sees Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary (in his first screen acting role), who plays businessman Milton Rockwell, physically punish Chalamet’s Marty for several insults Marty deals Milton throughout the movie.
O’Leary said in a December interview with The Hollywood Reporter that Chalamet “didn’t want the stunt double” when it came time to film the scene.
“That’s really Chalamet’s ass — he didn’t want the stunt double,” O’Leary, 71, told the outlet. “I said, ‘Timmy, I’m going to have to belt your ass, are you sure you want to do this?’ He immortalized his ass on film for the rest of time. That scene freaks me out even now.”
A24
Chalamet was nominated for Best Actor at the Critics Choice Awards for his performance in Marty Supreme as Marty Mauser, a young aspiring table tennis champion. Chalamet was nominated for the award alongside Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), Michael B. Jordan (Sinners) and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent).
Bates, meanwhile, was nominated at the awards ceremony alongside fellow Best Actress in a Drama Series nominees Carrie Coon (The Gilded Age), Britt Lower (Severance), Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us), Keri Russell (The Diplomat) and Rhea Seehorn (Pluribus).
