President Biden on Tuesday officially designated Jessica Rosenworcel, who has been acting FCC chair since January, to be the permanent head of the telecommunications agency. Rosenworcel, if she’s confirmed, would be the first woman to serve as FCC chair. In addition, Biden nominated Gigi Sohn, a longtime public advocate for open and affordable telecom services and former FCC staffer, to […]
Read more
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will present six weeks of programming exploring the large community of predominately Jewish, Austrian-born film artists and movie industry professionals who helped establish Hollywood’s classical era, the museum announced on Monday. Artists that will be included in the focus include directors Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, Fred Zinneman and Otto […]
Read moreComscore Sr. Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian joins Ross Crystal on ‘Showbiz UpFront’ to discuss the financial fallout in the movie industry amid the COVID-19 crisis, and where we go from here.
Read more
More than 1,300 angry SAG-AFTRA members have signed a petition calling on the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan to overturn changes that will leave many members without health coverage during the coronavirus pandemic. The Plan says that the changes, which go into effect January 1, are needed to keep the Plan solvent in the face of staggering […]
Read more
What’s the path forward for ViacomCBS after media mogul Sumner Redstone’s death at 97? Most Wall Street observers expect no strategy changes given that the executive didn’t have any involvement in major company decisions in recent years. But some suggest there will be less soap opera-type focus on the Redstone family than in the past, which has […]
Read more
Kevin Reilly and Bob Greenblatt are both out at WarnerMedia amid a large scale reorganization under new CEO Jason Kilar. As part of the new structure, Andy Forssell will lead a newly-created HBO Max operating business unit, while Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff will head up a unified studios and networks group, which will combine […]
Read more
Former 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch has resigned from the board of News Corp., the parent company of the Wall Street Journal. In a letter of resignation filed Friday afternoon, Murdoch wrote: “My resignation is due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions.” James Murdoch […]
Read more
The 43rd annual Kennedy Center Honors, broadcast annually on CBS, and the 23rd Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, on PBS, will be postponed from their usual Fall slots until next spring and summer, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced today. The events are among a roster of previously announced performances postponed or canceled […]
Read more
Joel Schumacher, who directed some two dozen films including Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Brat Pack pics St. Elmo’s Fire and The Lost Boys along with Falling Down and John Grisham adaptations The Client and A Time to Kill, died today. He was 80. His publicists at ID PR said he had a yearlong battle with cancer. Schumacher was revered as one of Hollywood’s great storytellers. He […]
Read more
The 2021 Golden Globes will take place on Feb. 28 — about eight weeks before the 93rd Academy Awards. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association made the announcement Monday morning. Just a week earlier, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that the 93rd Academy Awards telecast has been postponed by two months to April 25, 2021. Variety was the first to […]
Read more
Like a plethora of other awards shows, the Critics’ Choice Awards is following the Academy Awards in pushing back its 2021 ceremony as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The 26th annual Critics’ Choice Awards will air live on Sunday, March 7, the Critics’ Choice Association announced Thursday. It will again take place at […]
Read more
Film and TV production will be allowed to resume in California as early as June 12, according to guidelines issued by the state Friday. Like rules for other industries, the OK for work to resume will be given on a county-by-county basis using benchmarks like COVID-19 infection rate. The guidelines give great leeway for the industry […]
Read more
With the aim of getting the entertainment industry back to work safely amid the threat of COVID-19, the Industry-Wide Labor-Management Safety Committee Task Force — whose members include AMPTP, SAG-AFTRA, the Directors Guild, IATSE and the Teamsters — submitted on Monday a white paper to California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, as well as […]
Read more
The 93rd Oscars aren’t until February, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is considering postponing the big night, according to multiple sources. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, say definitive plans are far from being concrete at this juncture. The telecast is currently set for Feb. 28, 2021, on ABC. “It’s likely they’ll be […]
Read more
Harvey Weinstein will not be coming to Los Angeles anytime soon. The incarcerated producer is awaiting extradition to face five charges of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said on March 11 that it was beginning the extradition process. But as of Monday, it had yet to file […]
Read more
Under Los Angeles County’s Safer-at-Home directives aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus, red carpet events have been shut down since mid-March. The ban has been a huge blow to the events industry, and insiders have floated several proposals to get Hollywood’s once-booming red carpets back on track, everything from interview pods and […]
Read more
Flamboyant singer-instrumentalist Little Richard, whose high-voltage, keyboard-shattering R&B singles supplied lift-off for the ’50s rock ‘n’ roll revolution, has died. The musician, whose birth name was Richard Penniman, was 87, although some sources say he was older. His death was confirmed by his son, Danny Jones Penniman, who told the New York Times the cause was cancer. Richard’s […]
Read more
NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell is reorganizing his senior leadership team at the company, marking the first major executive restructuring since succeeding Steve Burke at the beginning of the year. Mark Lazarus, who currently oversees NBC Sports Group and the company’s local stations, will now oversee the company’s entertainment businesses as well, including Peacock. The new streaming service, which […]
Read more
Gil Schwartz, former chief communications officer for CBS and a longtime executive for the company, has died. He was 68. The network on Sunday announced that Schwartz died Saturday morning of natural causes at his home in Santa Monica. “For the better part of three decades, Gil Schwartz led CBS Communications with creative flare, craftsman-like […]
Read more
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has tweaked its Oscar eligibility rules in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. During a meeting on Tuesday, the board of governors approved a temporary hold on the requirement that a film needs a seven-day theatrical run in a commercial theater in Los Angeles County to qualify for the Oscars. Instead, films […]
Read more
AMC Theatres on Tuesday delivered a blistering message to Universal Pictures, saying the world’s largest cinema chain will no longer play any of the studio’s films in the wake of comments made by NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell regarding the on-demand success of Trolls World Tour and what it means for the future of moviegoing post-coronavirus pandemic. Earlier […]
Read more
Tyler Perry has always been a maverick, rising from a struggling writer-performer to a film and TV mogul and studio owner. Speaking with Deadline over the weekend, Perry shared a plan to get production on his multiple TV series up and running in June at his Atlanta-based Tyler Perry Studios with a strict protocol that involves testing and […]
Read more
With COVID-19 shuttering film fests worldwide, YouTube has stepped in to launch a 10-day digital film festival this spring with 20 partners — streaming free to cinema fans everywhere. We Are One: A Global Film Festival is being produced and organized by New York’s Tribeca Enterprises. The YouTube-hosted event will feature programming from 20 top film festivals […]
Read more
SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers said on Friday that they will start negotiations on Monday for successor agreements to the SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical contracts. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and state government stay-at-home orders, both sides said that talks will be conducted via video teleconference. SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris will […]
Read more
Warner Bros. is shifting a number of its release dates — including Matt Reeves’ The Batman — due to the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader, had been set to hit the big screen June 25, 2021. It will now ride into theaters Oct. 1, 2021. Like numerous […]
Read more