Fantasia Barrino. She won “American Idol” season 3. She was 19 years old, it was 2004, and she knew nothing about showbiz.

Tonight I saw her in the musical movie adaptation of “The Color Purple,” coming from Warner Bros. on Christmas Day. You may recall Jennifer Hudson, who finished in 7th place in Fantasia’s season, went on to win an Oscar.

Fantasia went on to a rocky recording career. Hers was not yet a success story. She told an ecstatic audience last night at the Robin Williams SAG Theater in Manhattan that by the time she took the role of Celie in 2007 as a replacement in the  original Broadway production of “The Color Purple,” her life was in “shambles.”

She also survived an overdose (after appearing on Broadway) and overcame a bad marriage and constant family strife.

How things have changed! Prodded by Broadway producer Scott Sanders, Fantasia agreed to play Celie again in this new movie version. When he first asked her, she said she responded with “no way.”

But then Scott and director Blitz Balawule explained that this version would show Celie’s journey via her imagination. “We weren’t able to do that on Broadway. That’s when I said Yes.”

The result is that Fantasia could very well be a nominee for Best Actress this year. Her formidable competition would include Emma Stone, Carey Mulligan, Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, and so on. But Fantasia, I feel, will surprise everyone. “The Color Purple” is joyous and moving, a satisfying emotional ride that departs from Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film in very positive ways.

“The Color Purple” could break the logjam in Oscar prognosticators’ calculations between “Oppenheimer” and “Killers of the Flower Moon.” For one thing, it’s just two hours long. For another, it causes a lump in the throat for the final 15 minutes. Stranger things have happened!

Along with Fantasia and director Bazwule the whole main cast was in attendance last night including Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, and Corey Hawkins. You’ll be hearing from and about them a lot in the coming month. I haven’t seen a cast connect with an audience this way since “CODA.” And you know how that turned out.

PS And everyone sang Happy Birthday to Colman Domingo– twice (once the standard song, then the Stevie Wonder one). It’s Domingo’s year with the lead in “Rustin” and supporting here. Two Oscar noms? Indeed!

Biggest takeaway: Taraji sings! She’s amazing. Wait til you hear her. The movie is loaded with incredible voices.

So where was Martin Scorsese last night? I asked around.

One friend said, “Taking a nap, I hope!”

No kidding. Scorsese filled in for his striking actors doing all the promotional stuff for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” He did every appearance and interview. Scorsese is 81 but that didn’t stop him. He was unflagging.

Last weekend he was supposed to appear at the Marrakesh Film Festival. He cancelled at the last minute, which got tongues wagging.

Last night, he got out of the Gotham Awards even though there was a tribute to him and the film, His bff Robert De Niro and actress Lily Gladstone filled in for him.

So what’s up? It turns out Scorsese is “exhausted” because he’s been in Italy filming a scene for two for artist-director Julian Schnabel in his new film, “In the Hands of Dante.” The film stars Jason Momoa, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, Oscar Isaac, and Gal Gadot among others. It’s based on a book by Nick Tosches.

Scorsese was already serving as Executive Producer for Schnabel, who’s made great films like “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” and “At Eternity’s Gate.” But the movie involves the mob underworld, and who better to play such a part for the famed artist than the man who made “Goodfellas” and “The Irishman”?

It’s a good time for Scorsese to take a break before the real Oscar campaigning begins. “Killers of the Flower Moon” is a masterpiece, and he should soon be reaping the rewards. And next year, we’ll get to see him on screen. (Although as you may know he makes a cameo in “Killers.”)

Robert De Niro is very unhappy with Apple Studios.

Reading his speech honoring Martin Scorsese and Killers of the Flower Moon at tonight’s Gotham Awards. De Niro became momentarily confused by the Teleprompter. Then he realized his words including a damnation of Donald Trump had been severely edited.

De Niro proceeded to read aloud what he intended to say. He went on thank various people but when he got to Apple he immediately disowned them.

A fervent critic of Trump. De Niro suffers no fools. It’s hard to imagine how this will play out with Apple on Tuesday.

How it began: De Niro reading from the Teleprompter suddenly stopped and shuffled papers.

He said, “I’m going to go back. I’m sorry. Okay, there was a mistake in this. I’ll keep going. Just keep scrolling.”

“I just want to say one thing,” he said, getting the papers in order (this took just nano seconds but the whole room fell silkent. “The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out, and I didn’t know about it. And I want to read it. History isn’t history anymore. Truth is not truth. Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts, and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness.”

Now he had the attention of the room completely.

He continued: “In Florida, young students are taught that slaves developed skills that could be applied for their personal benefit. The entertainment industry isn’t immune to this festering disease. The Duke, John Wayne, famously said of Native Americans, ‘I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.’”

The John Wayne line stopped the show. I think even the waiters looked up.

“Lying has become just another tool in the charlatan’s arsenal. The former President lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office. And he’s keeping up the pace in his current campaign of retribution. But with all his lies, he can’t hide his soul. He attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature and shows disrespect, for example, by using ‘Pocahontas’ as a slur. Filmmakers, on the other hand, strive — this is where I came in and I saw that they edited all that,” he said.

Again, not a word in the room. De Niro went in for the wrap up but no one expected this: “So I’m going to say these things but to Apple and thank them all that…Gotham, blah blah blah, but I don’t feel like thanking them at all for what they did. How dare they do that, actually. But now I will go to: Accepting the award for ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’…”

It may be the most famous moment from any Gotham Awards. I would not want to be Apple executives this morning.

Here’s the audio and text of the speech Robert De Niro said was censored by the #GothamAwards and Apple last night. #GothamAwards2023 pic.twitter.com/f4GDi07se2

— Jada Yuan (@jadabird) November 28, 2023