Innholdsfortegnelse for Jan 20, 2017 i The Hollywood Reporter

The addition of Fox News anchors Megyn Kelly and Greta Van Susteren to NBC News and MSNBC, respectively, may portend major shifts across the TV news landscape. For Fox, the loss of its biggest news star has resulted in a doubling down on conservative-leaning opinion hosts in primetime. And at Andrew Lack’s NBCUniversal news division, there could be a rightward tack in certain areas in response to the election of Donald Trump. 21st Century Fox leaders James and Lachlan Murdoch are said to have considered re-signing Kelly, 46, a key part of their strategy to focus Fox News more closely on news. But when Kelly passed up a reported four-year, $100 million Fox deal to join NBC on Jan. 3, the Murdochs instead elevated conservative host Tucker Carlson to her 9…

Hasbro is taking a decidedly Hollywood spin for the Jan. 12 rollout of its latest brand, Hanazuki. The wannabe franchise (about a moonflower that protects lunar worlds from dark forces) will get its own digital cartoon series on YouTube, an app debuting in April, then toys and clothes in the summer. The digital-series-first strategy is unusual for a toy giant. “We’re leading with stories because stories are key these days,” says Meghan McCarthy, Hasbro’s head of storytelling for girl brands. Starting with nine 11-minute episodes that are a mix of colorful psychedelia crossed with anime influences, viewers will meet Hanazuki, bunnylike creatures called Hemkas as well as Dazzlessence Jones, a sheriff of the moon. Hanazuki may sound familiar to some in Europe because of its Dutch origins: The brand was…

Big Deal Outside of the robots and voice technology that impressed at the annual CES tech conference in Las Vegas from Jan. 5 to 8, it was a yet-to-launch live TV service from Hulu that stole the show. But many questions remain about the product. Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins revealed Jan. 4 that the streamer is one step closer to launching its cable competitor after inking a deal with CBS that will include live streams of NFL games and the Grammys. Hulu already has struck licensing deals with part-owners 21st Century Fox, Disney and Time Warner. The CBS pact means fellow Hulu owner NBCUniversal’s NBC remains the lone broadcast holdout. While a robust lineup of channels will be key to helping Hulu compete in the increasingly competitive live TV space,…

Jimmy Fallon had dinner at Madeo. … Sandra Bernhard was at The Palm with friends Michele Lee and Sandy Gallin. On a different day, WME’s Adam Venit was with Shawn Levy. Jeffrey Katzenberg broke bread with Sherry Lansing. Scott Stuber rendezvoused with Stacey Snider. Managers David Gardner, Peter Principato, Bonnie Liedtke and Renee Kurtz also were in. … Dave Chappelle enjoyed the patio at Vinoteca. … Jonah Hill checked out Cut. … At Mr Chow, Avi Lerner dined with Paradigm’s Emanuel Nunez. Bob Daly and Terry Semel sat together. Michael Mailis and Tucker Tooley, as well as Fox’s Pam Levine also were there. CAA’s Michael Rosenfeld was nearby. HOT NEW RESTAURANT Terra Cotta The Quick Pitch This grand Koreatown dining room turns the address next to The Wiltern into a…

Can a single movie determine the future of an entire studio? Such is perhaps the case with filmmaker Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, an ambitious $200 million sci-fiepic set for release this summer. The film already has prompted Besson’s EuropaCorp — one of Europe’s largest and most influential entertainment companies — to make major changes. EuropaCorp long has been considered one of a handful of successful European studios thanks to the Taken and Transporter franchises as well as the 2014 Scarlett Johansson vehicle Lucy. But its fortunes have soured in recent years, and Besson, 57, who founded the company in 1996 and owns 44 percent of it, recently was dogged by speculation he was seeking to sell his stake. Valerian — the most expensive movie…

When you step into the living room of Jon Peters’ 4,000-square-foot condo in Westwood’s Wilshire corridor, it is hard not to think about money, what with the half-dozen authentic Tiffany lamps and a Matisse and Modigliani on the wall. It also is hard not to think about marijuana. At first, I attribute the gentle but unmistakable odor to the young woman padding through the condo in a bathrobe. But no. The pot belongs to 71-year-old Peters, not his 18-year-old daughter Kendyl. “I took one hit before this thing,” says Peters, who, in a Hollywood career that seems inconceivable in today’s business, rose from hairdresser to running Columbia Pictures and launching the Batman movie franchise and relaunching Superman before an epic flameout in the ’90s. “Something about marijuana makes me talkative…

On Wednesday, Dec. 7, at Milk Studios in Los Angeles, THR celebrated the most powerful women in Hollywood at its annual Women in Entertainment Power 100 breakfast, presented by Lifetime At the top of the coveted list this year was media giant Shari Redstone, the Executive of the Year honoree. Event highlights included a powerful opening speech by this year’s most buzzed-about broadcaster, Megyn Kelly; a moving mentorship highlight video with testimonials from the mentees in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program; and Jon Hamm’s crowdpleasing presentation of the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award to Tina Fey. Thank you to THR’s 2016 partners Lifetime, Mercedes-Benz, American Airlines, THE OUTNET.COM, SAG-AFTRA and Loyola Marymount University.…

At least one Kevin Reilly bet appears to be paying off. Two-plus years after moving from Fox to Turner, the veteran programmer can claim bragging rights for reinventing the TBS brand. Before his arrival, the cable network was best known for repeats of The Big Bang Theory; Reilly quickly canceled what was left of the live-action scripted comedies and replaced them with a slate of bigger-swing series from a roster of Daily Show grads — Samantha Bee (Full Frontal), Jason Jones (The Detour) and Wyatt Cenac (People of Earth) — as well as established producers (Search Party’s Michael Showalter) and new faces (Wrecked’s Justin and Jordan Shipley). All five plus Angie Tribeca, which was greenlighted by Reilly predecessor Michael Wright, have been granted additional seasons, and several have generated the…

AWARDS SEASON 2017 BEST PICTURE Hidden Figures The NASA-set drama is turning into a hit — it was No. 1 at the weekend box office — and it made it onto the Producers Guild of America’s list of 10 nominees, edging out others like Nocturnal Animals (which received nine BAFTA nominations) and Silence. Sully Clint Eastwood’s re-creation of the “Miracle on the Hudson” has grossed a solid $239 million worldwide, but its awards-season flight appears threatened since it was left off the PGA list — despite the fact that Eastwood, with five previous noms, is a guild favorite. DIRECTOR Damien Chazelle La La Land With screenplay and director wins at the Globes — he beat Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins and Manchester by the Sea’s Kenneth Lonergan in both categories — he…

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth (R. HOUSE) BY Lindsey Lee Johnson AGENCY UTA The L.A. resident’s debut novel, released Jan. 10, has made every important monthly “best of” list. Set in a wealthy San Francisco suburb, this Most Dangerous Place (high school) is a digital-age Less Than Zero about a cyberbullying incident turned deadly. Light Years (LITTLE, BROWN FOR YOUNG READERS) BY Kass Morgan AGENCY Alloy The author of the best-selling four-book YA series turned hit CW drama The 100 kicks off a new franchise, due in 2018, set in an interstellar military boarding school (think Hogwarts with jetpacks instead of brooms).…

There’s a memorable scene in Woody Allen’s 1977 masterpiece, Annie Hall, when the romantic leads, Alvy Singer (Allen) and Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), engage in the first ritual of courtship — the blandest of conversations, taking place while they have drinks on a balcony. Their conversation goes like this: Annie I would like to take a serious photography course. Alvy Photography’s interesting, ’cause, you know, it’s a new art form and a set of esthetic criteria has not emerged yet. What punctures the pretentiousness and makes the scene so memorable is that even as they keep talking, their private thoughts are revealed in subtitles that accompany the dialogue: Annie He probably thinks I’m a yo-yo. Alvy I wonder what she looks like naked? Allen’s point is clear: Speech needs to…

6 A.M. I usually wake with no alarm, I just rise. I don’t have to be anywhere until 8. I do a spine strengthening in bed: A backbend is like coffee, it wakes you up. Then I light a candle and do a 20-minute mantra-based meditation. The mantra has no meaning, it’s just a vibration; thoughts come and go. 6:45 A.M. I make a vegan shake with a fresh 12-ounce green juice, banana, blueberries, acai and goji berries and VeganSmart protein powder, which we are going to start manufacturing. I also add minerals from my nutritionist. I drink half of a can of Celsius, a healthier version of a strong energy drink. 8 A.M. I take a class at my new center Tantris, down the block from my Hollywood Hills…

Hollywood’s affinity for marijuana may go back decades, but with the November vote to legalize recreational use — and the Jan. 1 vandalizing of the Hollywood sign to read “Hollyweed” — it has hit a fever pitch. The town’s 420 entrepreneurs abound (Melissa Etheridge makes a wine tincture; Wiz Khalifa and Margaret Cho have their own strains; Whoopi Goldberg markets a bath soak to reduce menstrual cramps) while stoners even enjoy their own yoga sessions at Culver City studio Goda Yoga ($15 per class). “On any given day in this city, it’s safe to say that the next hit song or screenplay is being written with a little help from this plant,” says Adam Steinberg, co-founder of craft cannabis brand Flow Kana, who in addition to well-known pothead Seth Rogen…

T here are a ton of people doing hallucinogenic drugs in Hollywood right now,” says a wellknown L.A.-based media entrepreneur who experiments with microdosing, or taking small amounts of illegal psychedelics such as LSD, mushrooms and the ibogaine plant to aid memory and cognitive abilities. “People aren’t taking them to party. When microdosing correctly, you won’t hallucinate.” While Steve Jobs was an LSD fan, more recently, Burning Man has evangelized microdosing — which some studies have shown increases cell growth and connectivity within the brain — to Hollywood media, art, tech and fashion communities. Some Angelenos are taking to it as a lifestyle choice. “LSD is similar to cutting out dairy or meat, how I can safely experiment on myself while becoming a healthier person,” says a private art dealer…

AND STILL THERE IS VIACOM. This of course is after its great annus horribilis — with hardly a way even to recap the personal and corporate dramas, tortured litigation and the company’s breakdown and ridicule in the market. And it is after its controlling shareholders, the Redstone family, publicly appeared to declare the company on a management respirator and send it on its way to be subsumed into CBS, the other significantly more successful company the Redstones control, only to realize, well, that wasn’t going to work. Oh yes, and there are years now — almost a decade of attrition — in which the company paid little attention to its creative assets and the development of new ones. But here we are again, somehow beyond shame, back to square one:…

Who’s inking on the dotted line this week OBAMA ALUMS LAUNCH ‘CROOKED MEDIA’ TO FIGHT TRUMP WITH PODCASTS Deal of the Week Like the president himself, the former Barack Obama staffers behind the popular politics podcast Keepin’ It 1600 are starting fresh in 2017. Ahead of Donald Trump becoming commander in chief, Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor are launching a media company that touts a tongue-incheek name: Crooked Media. “If Hillary [Clinton] had won, I think we would have kept doing the podcast part-time,” says Favreau, 35, an ex-Obama speechwriter who has been running a Los Angeles-based consulting firm with Vietor. “When Trump won, we felt the other jobs we had were no longer sufficient. There’s a lot at stake right now and in danger.” Their big play,…

VITAL STATS AGE 37 BORN Honolulu, Hawaii BIG BREAK Conan the Barbarian REPS WME and Edelstein, Laird & Sobel I n the past year, Jason Momoa has been covered in blood, wrapped in fur and drenched in water more times than he can count. It’s been nonstop, beginning with shooting the first season of Netflix’s Frontier (think Game of Thrones but set during the 1700s fur trade turf wars) in Newfoundland, producing and starring in the indie Braven, shooting Warner Bros.’ superhero ensemble Justice League, then returning to Newfoundland for Frontier’s second season. “I haven’t been an actor who’s been able to pick and choose roles, and being a family man, it’s been about putting food on the table,” says the 37-year-old, who has two children (Lola Iolani, 9, and Nakoa-Wolf…

“I want to help.” FABIO The romance novel cover model and former margarine pitchman, offering his services to the incoming administration. Fabio attended Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve celebrations at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. “I was like, ‘It is. It is a f—ing small world. It’s a really f—ing small world, guys. Is anyone else seeing how small it is?’ ” ANDREW GARFIELD The Silence and Hacksaw Ridge star, on the time he and then-girlfriend Emma Stone ate pot brownies and rode the It’s a Small World attraction at Disneyland. “You win some, you lose some.” CASEY BLOYS The HBO programming president, on the cable net’s shutout at the Golden Globes despite leading the pack with 14 nominations. “You know, I’m in the middle of having my teeth cleaned.” BARBRA STREISAND…

C iting her “illustrious, versatile acting career,” the Los Angeles Film Critics Association will honor Shirley MacLaine with its career achievement award when it gathers for its annual awards ceremony Jan. 14 at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City. And it also could have thrown in the adjective “indefatigable,” since the actress, now 82, has barely missed a beat since making her film debut more than 60 years ago in Alfred Hitchcock’s whimsical 1955 film The Trouble With Harry. The Oscar winner (for 1983’s Terms of Endearment) published her latest book, Above the Line: My “Wild Oats” Adventure, in March and next stars in Mark Pellington’s The Last Word, debuting at the Sundance Film Festival, in which she plays a retired businesswoman determined to control the writing of her own…

T ake a pill for what ails you, or clutch a crystal? A-listers are deploying gems for everything from increasing positive home energy (Kate Hudson, Victoria Beckham) to decreasing performance anxiety (Adele grips one during concerts). “I definitely see an increase in crystal use,” says meditation guru Olivia Rosewood, whose clients include stars and moguls. While there’s no medical proof — studies on crystals have proved only the power of suggestion or a placebo effect — many cultures have histories of them purportedly healing via energy vibrations. “An intellectual understanding is not required to feel peace instantly,” says Rosewood. “I attribute crystals’ current popularity to increased stress and their inherent calming power.” 1, 7 Rose & Clear Quartz Katy Perry carries rose quartz for love, “a feel-good stone,” says Michael Carbaugh,…

CHIRUNNING A running practice that draws from tai chi and yoga at 1440 Multiversity, a new “learning destination” in the redwoods of Santa Cruz, where Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert and Wild’s Cheryl Strayed are faculty ($395 tuition, suites from $1,650; 1440.org). FLEXOLOGIST A professional whose job it is to stretch clients’ muscles and joints at StretchLab’s Venice, Santa Monica or brand-new Hollywood studios ($25 to $69). ISLAND BATHING A trip to an uninhabited private island for meditation at Antigua’s Carlisle Bay, which often hosts studio execs, agents and stars (from $575/night; carlisle-bay.com). LUCID DREAMING The conscious manipulation of dreams to unlock creativity, boost memory and cope with phobias. Beverly Hills’ Dream Reality Cinema opened in July and teaches the technique that James Cameron and Christopher Nolan used while…

2017 Golden Globes…

Photographed by Austin Hargrave WHEN JOHN MALONE’S Liberty Media announced plans to spin off Starz as a standalone company in 2012, Hollywood insiders began speculating that the pay television rival to HBO and Showtime would become an acquisition target. The opportunity wasn’t lost on Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer and vice chairman Michael Burns. “Jon and Michael were almost the first phone call to say, ‘You guys are now in a structure where we can talk about things that weren’t possible before,’ ” recalls Starz CEO Chris Albrecht. “ ‘Let’s sit down and talk about it.’ ” Lionsgate’s $4.4 billion acquisition of Starz, which was finalized in December, would take about four years of dramatic starts and stops to complete. Albrecht was furious after a poor Lionsgate earnings report in early…

PLENTY 1999) As her film career was taking off with Elizabeth, Blanchett debuted on London’s West End in a celebrated revival of the David Hare drama, playing a World War II Resistance operative who becomes unhinged by the banality of her bourgeois postwar life. HEDDA GABLER (2004) Returning to the Sydney Theatre Company, where her stage career began in the early ’90s, she played the self-destructive trophy wife in Henrik Ibsen’s classic drama of female repression, co-starring with Hugo Weaving. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (2009) In a test drive for her Oscar-winning role in Blue Jasmine, Blanchett took a stab at Tennessee Williams’ cracked heroine Blanche DuBois in a Sydney Theatre Company production directed by Liv Ullmann and co-starring Joel Edgerton (Loving). UNCLE VANYA (2011) Blanchett co-starred with The Present’s…