Lady Gaga has news for us. When she appears next spring in Bradley Cooper’s version of “A Star is Born” she’ll be billed not as Stefani Germanotta– her real name– but as the one and only Lady Gaga.

“I’ve seen a lot of rumors on the internet that for “A Star Is Born” I’ll be billed as Stefani, but that’s not the case. It’s Lady Gaga, baby!” she posted to Twitter.

I’ve seen a lot of rumors on the internet that for “A Star Is Born” I’ll be billed as Stefani, but that’s not the case. It’s Lady Gaga, baby! 💞

— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) December 12, 2017

“A Star is Born” is set for a mid May release, and may even open the Cannes Film Festival. It’s not Lady Gaga’s acting debut. She’s been knocking them dead and winning awards for appearing on TV in Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story.”

Focus Features, god bless ’em. They put on a black tie party for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread” Monday night at a swanky upper East Side townhouse befitting the director’s fictional creation, British designer Reynolds Woodcock.

An A list crowd of swells came including Michael Shannon, Ben Foster, Dana Delany, Sienna Miller, Zosia Mamet, Paul Haggis, David Schwimmer,director JC Chandor,  even Little Steven van Zandt and his beautiful wife Maureen showed up. Gossip legend Cindy Adams got a special chair in the vestibule where she could depose all the famous people. Radio Man (still homeless, George Clooney) sat outside with his bicycle.

But where was the movie’s star, Daniel Day Lewis? He did take pictures outside in the enclosed heated tent where there was a red carpet and photographers. He took five, to be sure, one solo, one group, and three with members of the cast. And then? He left. Poof. Into the dark night.

Too bad. Upstairs at the Harold Pratt House things were convivial and cramped, a swell time in a well appointed richly paneled room. The women of “Phantom Thread” — Lesley Manville, Vicky Krieps, and Harriet Harris— more than made up for DDL’s absence. I asked each of them if they’d met Daniel Day Lewis while shooting– he stays in character, famously– and got varying answers. Manville, at least, knew DDL before hand. Harris, a surprise gem of the movie after a long theater and TV career, felt she’d actually met DDL and was delighted.

Oh well, I think the Focus people were a little disappointed DDL didn’t spend more time with us. But he’s retiring, I wanted to say! Never fear, the movie is top notch, our only real auteur-ific entry in the 2017 awards race, a piece of art. And what, I asked the astounding Manville, did she think had happened to the characters after the movie ended? She thought about it a second and answered, with aplomb: “They lived happily ever after, I suppose.”

Surprise: Frances McDormand, who is white, has won Best Actress from the African American Film Critics in their 2017 awards. The group named “Get Out” for Best Picture, Director, and Actor. All the main winners were black, which is appropriate since they’re the African American film critics.

Choosing McDormand is cool and definitely different. They obviously saw something in her character’s defiant journey to get justice for her dead daughter in Martin McDonagh’s original and searing screenplay. It’s a performance full of soul.

McDormand is, of course, an Oscar, Tony, and Emmy winner and is one of our finest actresses. Her work in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” has earned her a Golden Globe nomination will also get her an Oscar nomination next month. If she could sing, she’d have a Grammy.

The critics’ choice is also indicative that this year there were no African American actresses in lead roles. The only black actresses from movies were in the supporting category. That’s certainly a problem that needs to be addressed.

BEST PICTURE
GET OUT

BEST DIRECTOR
JORDAN PEELE – GET OUT

BEST ACTOR
DANIEL KALUUYA – GET OUT

BEST ACTRESS
FRANCES McDORMAND – THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
LAURENCE FISHBURNE – LAST FLAG FLYING

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
TIFFANY HADDISH – GIRLS TRIP

BEST COMEDY
GIRLS TRIP

BEST ENSEMBLE
DETROIT

BEST INDEPENDENT
CROWN HEIGHTS

BEST ANIMATED
COCO

BEST DOCUMENTARY
STEP

BEST FOREIGN
THE WOUND

BEST SCREENPLAY
GET OUT

BEST SONG
“IT AINT FAIR” — DETROIT – THE ROOTS featuring BILAL

BEST NEW MEDIA
MUDBOUND

BEST TV SERIES (COMEDY)
BLACKISH

BEST TV SERIES (DRAMA)
QUEEN SUGAR

BREAKOUT
LAKEITH STANFIELD – CROWN HEIGHTS

AAFCA TOP 10 FILM – 2017

1. GET OUT
2. THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI
3. COCO
4. GIRLS TRIP
5. DETROIT
6. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
7. THE SHAPE OF WATER
8. GOOK
9. CROWN HEIGHTS
10.  MARSHALL

AAFCA TOP 10 TV – 2017

1. QUEEN SUGAR: Season 2
2. UNDERGROUND: Season 2
3. INSECURE: Season 2
4. MASTER OF NONE: Season 2
5. BLACK-ISH: Season 4
6. THE HANDMAID’S TALE: Season 1
7. DEAR WHITE PEOPLE: Season 1
8. SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT: Season 1
9.  THE DEFIANT ONES
10. TIE: GUERILLA/SNOWFALL: Season 1

Carrie Fisher’s death one year ago is made even more tragic by the fact that she’s the actual star of the new “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” Her General Leia Organa is all over this Rian Johnson movie, which soars and aims for operatic drama that is (luckily) punctuated by a number of Fisher’s one liners and wise cracks.

What a surprise! Fisher wise cracked her way through the original three “Star Wars” movies, then “Shampoo” and movies like “Soap Dish.” She had a whole hugely successful second career as a humorist and novelist, took herself to Broadway with the hilariously self-effacing “Wishful Drinking,” and became a much sought after script doctor.

And now, in what would be her last grand gesture, she is the noble leader of the Resistance, wise and wonderful, taking her band of rebels into battle of in act one of “The Last Jedi” and then commanding them with reason and good humor in act three. For this alone, Johnson should be commended. General Leia rules. Best Supporting Actress? You bet.

So do a lot of other characters in the 8th installment of a 40 year old franchise. Fisher is joined by her original “Star Wars” buddy Mark Hamill, who used to be the cute kid, the poster boy Luke Skywalker who learned from his elders. Now Luke is the elder, and Hamill– whose credits beyond “Star Wars” didn’t give his resume much gravity (the surfing movie “Big Wednesday” was about it)–rises to the occasion as an Obi-Wan for the ages. Luke Skywalker has become a sage and shows that pop stars can age with dignity.

There are some surprises in “The Last Jedi.” Newcomers Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro prove to smart additions to the cast. Dern, in particular, is kind of magnificent. del Toro echoes Han Solo from the original “Star Wars,” the rogue you shouldn’t trust.

And then there are the returnees from “The Force Awakens,” the future of “Star Wars” to come after this: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver. Clocking in at a massive two and a half hours or more, “The Last Jedi” gives all of them ample room to stake their claims in the franchise’s future as the older generation waves goodbye.

Ridley’s Rey is the yin to Driver’s Ben Solo/Kylo Ren’s yang, but Boyega’s Finn is every bit their equal. Less defined is Isaac’s Poe Dameron, who wanders into a muddled part of this movie: Poe’s brashness gets in his own way when he makes a serious misjudgement about Dern’s Resistance leader. There’s an abruot edit where it seems like a plot change was made, but we’re so far in that it doesn’t matter.

(Maybe it’s me, but my major problem with the new “Star Wars” plot is understanding why Ben Solo went bad and became Kylo Ren. (He’s that angry with his parents?) His act of violence in “The Force Awakens” still doesn’t make sense, makes him irredeemable. That’s my take. A similar act in this movie doesn’t help his cause. I suppose in Episode 9, Rey will have to choose between him and Finn, the good guy. May the force be with her.)

“Star Wars” debuted forty years ago in 1977. I was 20 years old. I didn’t know I was signing up for four decades. What an amazing contribution George Lucas has made to the culture of my lifetime. With “The Last Jedi,” you feel like closure has been reached for fans of my generation. There will be more “Star Wars” adventures, I’m sure, but for me, I’m happy to end here with a kind of Gotterdammerung. When the film ends, and the memorial card to Carrie Fisher appears, I felt a sufficiency. Our work here is done.