Brian Dennehy, the winner of two Tonys in a career that also spanned films including “Tommy Boy,” “First Blood” and “Cocoon,” and television roles including “Dynasty” and “Death of a Salesman,” died on Wednesday night in New Haven, Conn. He was 81. “It is with heavy hearts we announce that our father, Brian passed away […]
Read more
Fox is set to deliver long-gestating reality series Labor of Love, about the road to motherhood, fronted by Sex and The City star Kristin Davis. The network will launch the eight-part series, which is produced by Howard Owens and Ben Silverman’s Propagate Content and Project Runway’s Full Picture, at 9 p.m. May 21. It comes nearly three years after Deadline revealed that the show was […]
Read more
American Idol is moving ahead with its live shows, with contestants, judges and host Ryan Seacrest all filming from their homes. The live rounds will begin April 26 on ABC with the top 20 contestants. Seacrest will host from his home in Los Angeles, and judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan and in-house mentor […]
Read more
While there are no numbers being made available, Universal said Monday morning that Trolls World Tour scored the biggest digital debut of all time over Easter weekend. The studio decided to break theatrical windows and make the DreamWorks Animation title available to rent on premium VOD for 48 hours for $19.99 after virtually all theaters closed across […]
Read more
Less than two months after stepping down as CEO, Bob Iger has reasserted control at Disney as the company navigates the impact caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to a New York Times report published Sunday. In an email to Times reporter Ben Smith, Iger explained, “a crisis of this magnitude, and its impact on Disney, […]
Read more
The cast of Friends will be there for HBO Max … at some point. The WarnerMedia-backed streaming service said Friday that the highly anticipated unscripted Friends reunion special will not be available when the platform launches at a date to be determined in May. Given that the industrywide production shutdown is remaining in place for the foreseeable future, the six original […]
Read more
Saturday Night Live is returning to NBC — sorta. The late night sketch comedy will be back with a special remote episode set to air April 11 at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. The series, which suspended production amid the novel coronavirus crisis, will produce new material remotely while continuing to practice social distancing. Right now, […]
Read more
By virtue of its name, Modern Family was always going to have an expiration date. The snarkier and the snootier might scoff that the date came and went years ago. But a historic swath of viewers rode happily with the show into the sunset, which officially came Wednesday night after 11 seasons and 250 episodes. Of course, those lingering […]
Read more
Stephen Colbert will be a guest on TBS’ Conan on Tuesday night — and Conan O’Brien will also be a guest on CBS’ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The two late-night hosts will appear on one another’s shows, sharing a video chat they conducted earlier in the day. Both O’Brien and Colbert are hosting their programs from […]
Read more
Quibi is either launching at exactly the wrong time or exactly the right time. The entire model of the shortform programming streamer founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman was built around providing viewers with “quick bites” — the name, pronounced “Qui-Bee,” therefore really ought to be “Qui-Bye” — of drama, comedy, unscripted content and […]
Read more
The spring TV calendar has been mightily disrupted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that brought just about all film and TV production to a grinding halt last month. As stay at home orders have continued to delay filming beyond a few weeks, we’ve started to see the ripple effects reaching previously scheduled air dates as […]
Read more
They had to cancel the premiere party. But Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman have stuck with the April 6 start date of Quibi, the short-form video app for smartphones that they hope will attract millions of subscribers. After having led some of the nation’s top companies for decades, the two veteran executives have spent the […]
Read more
Contrary to popular opinion, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gives out more than just Oscars. On Friday, Hollywood’s most elite organization announced that it will be donating $6 million to “help support motion picture employees and their families facing severe financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with institutions […]
Read more
“Lights Out With David Spade,” which halted production last month due to the coronavirus pandemic, will not return to Comedy Central, Variety has learned. Instead, the ViacomCBS-owned brand is preparing to shop the late-night talker — which it produces through its Comedy Central Productions — to outside networks and platforms. The move comes as Comedy Central has experienced […]
Read more
Bill Withers, a onetime Navy aircraft mechanic who after teaching himself to play the guitar wrote some of the most memorable and often-covered songs of the 1970s, including “Lean on Me,” “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Use Me,” died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 81. His death was announced in a statement from his […]
Read more
HBO is unlocking its biggest trove of free programming ever — in a goodwill gesture as people look for a diversion during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WarnerMedia-owned premium cabler is making almost 500 hours of programming available to stream for free for a limited time on HBO Now and HBO Go services without a subscription, starting […]
Read more
A few days ago, Samantha Bee was filming a segment for her TBS late-night series, “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” when she encountered a complication she had never dealt with before. “There was literally a screeching hawk, circling up in the sky,” she recalled, speaking from her home in upstate New York where she and her family […]
Read more
A beloved TV character is coming back. NBC has given a 13-episode series order to a new Dick Wolf crime drama series starring Christopher Meloni reprising his Law & Order: SVU role as Elliot Stabler. The SVU spinoff drama, which marks the actor’s return to Wolf World, revolves around the NYPD organized crime unit led by Stabler (Meloni). It is the first show to come […]
Read more
Legendary delicatessen Nate’n Al’s — a Cheers for Hollywood’s power players — has shuttered. Opened in 1945, the Beverly Hills institution was known as much for its beloved longtime staff as its high-priced pastrami and lox. On Saturday, the restaurant published a note to its Instagram account which made clear that the COVID-19 epidemic’s economic shockwave was responsible for […]
Read more
While Disneyland and Walt Disney World had initially planned to close through March in an effort to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 and comply with shelter-in-place guidelines, the U.S. Disney parks have now announced that they will “remain closed until further notice.” “While there is still much uncertainty with respect to the impacts of COVID-19, the […]
Read more
Mark Blum, a veteran stage actor who appeared in such films as Crocodile Dundee and Desperately Seeking Susan and on TV shows including Mozart in the Jungle, has died. He was 69. Blum died Wednesday at NewYork-Presbyterian hospital of complications from the novel coronavirus, his wife, actress and acting teacher Janet Zarish, told The Hollywood Reporter. A busy actor, Blum also […]
Read more
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have fled coronavirus in Canada to set up a permanent home in California, taking a private jet to Los Angeles, a source confirmed to Page Six. The couple, with their 10-month-old baby Archie, took a secret flight to the L.A. area, leaving their recent bolthole on Vancouver Island after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced […]
Read more
In the span of a couple of weeks, NBC medical drama New Amsterdam, starring Ryan Eggold, found itself eerily blending fiction and reality amid a global pandemic. Set and shot in New York, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., the series, created by David Schulner, had shot an upcoming episode about a deadly flu pandemic in NYC. […]
Read more
A New York federal judge on Tuesday ruled that PEN America may proceed on some of its claims against Donald Trump. Specifically, the U.S. president must continue to face allegations of violating the First Amendment by revoking press badges and security clearances. Pen America is a literary organization that fights to protect free speech. The […]
Read more
Bowing to the inevitable, VidCon’s flagship U.S. edition in June has been canceled because of the coronavirus crisis. As recently as last week, VidCon reps said it had remained a go as scheduled for Anaheim, Calif., from June 17-20. But on Monday organizers announced the U.S. confab’s cancellation. “Unfortunately, due to the continued uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 we made the difficult […]
Read more