| NOLAN | Director who was not pleased by the 2021 release of his film on HBO Max |
| AUTEUR | Director having complete control of his film |
| RADUCANUNANUNANU | "Mork & Mindy" sign-off used by the 2021 women's champ? |
| HEWAS | "___ one of the few in the whole history of the world who was not carried away by power"--Robert Fro |
| CLINTEASTWOOD | At a 2014 Pebble Beach golf tournament, this actor performed the Heimlich maneuver on the event's director, who was choking on a piece of cheese |
| DOROTHYARZNER | "The Bride Wore Red" director who was the first woman to join the Directors Guild of America |
| GLADSTONE | Pleased by the weight of the bag (9) |
| COURTENEYCOX | In 2021, she'll star in a "Friends" reunion special on HBO Max |
| SCOTS | Language whose Wikipedia page was found to contain a large number of entries written by a teenager who was not a speaker of the language |
| WONGKARWAI | "In the Mood for Love" director who controversially reedited some of his films prior to their Criterion Collection box-set release |
| PETERWEIR | "Witness" and "Dead Poets Society" director who was one of two artists honored with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 81st Annual Venice Film Festival last week |
| SEX | ___ and the City (show being revived on HBO Max) |
| ELMO | Nonhuman host of a talk show on HBO Max |
| MINDYKALING | The Office actress who voices the Scooby-Doo character Velma on the HBO Max series Velma: 2 wds. |
| RON | ___ Howard, former actor now director who was at the helm of new film Solo (3) |
| PURR | Tom is pleased by the sound of it |
| GRINNED | Was pleased by the grand opening and dinner out (7) |
| THATSMORELIKEIT | Trained athlete is trim, OK? I'm pleased by the improvement! (5,4,4,2) |
| STOLEN | Something that was taken by someone who was not the owner (6) |
| INFANTA | Formerly, a daughter of a king of Spain or Portugal who was not heir to the throne (7) |
