The all-new Hollywood Reporter offers unprecedented access to the people, studios, networks and agencies that create the magic in Hollywood. Published weekly, the oversized format includes exceptional photography and rich features.
When Fox Sports executive Jamie Horowitz was summoned to meet with a workplace investigator Friday, June 30, it was not necessarily cause for alarm. After all, he’d been given no indication anything was amiss with his job performance. Even when Horowitz, 40, was asked general questions about his interactions with colleagues — including if he’d ever gone for a drink or dinner with a female subordinate — he was not confronted with any specific allegation against him. But after the meeting, when Fox asked him to surrender his company ID and return to the West Los Angeles lot at 8 a.m. on Monday of that holiday weekend, he called Patty Glaser, the fiery L.A. litigator, who advised him to do as commanded. When Horowitz arrived, he and his agent were…
The volume of scripted TV may be at an all-time high, but you’d never know it from the Big Four’s summer schedules, with 11 new reality shows set to debut this summer — up from four last year. That reverses a trend launched by CBS’ scripted summer hit Under the Dome in 2013. One reason is money: Scripted programming is less and less financially appealing in the off-months. Hence it accounts for only about 20 percent of Big Four originals airing this summer. “When you have a hit reality show, you can scale [it],” says NBC Entertainment president of program planning, strategy and research Jeff Bader. “World of Dance can be like Ninja Warrior and America’s Got Talent and expand to many more hours. That’s not easy with scripted.” World,…
As a new CEO seeks to reverse a ratings slide and expand six core brands, he’s shaken up the exec suites and given specific marching orders. Can they execute? DEBRA LEE Chairman and CEO BET is shuttering its longtime home in Washington, D.C., for New York, while Lee, 62, will relocate to Los Angeles. New GM Michael D. Armstrong (who replaced president Stephen Hill), however, will work from BET’s base in the Big Apple. BIG TASK Turn BET back into a destination for black viewers. CHRIS McCARTHY President (Replaced Sean Atkins) McCarthy, 41, who has added Logo and VH1 to his portfolio, is MTV’s third president in as many years. He has merged MTV’s and VH1’s development teams, with Nina L. Diaz replacing Michael Klein as head of unscripted, while…
Disney may have to use all three of its wishes to find the lead for Aladdin. The live-action version of the animation classic was eyeing a July production start, but it has been pushed to August as the search for Aladdin and Princess Jasmine drags on. Director Guy Ritchie launched a global casting call in March, with Disney casting chief Randi Hiller hiring scouts from London to Egypt and from India to Abu Dhabi. About 2,000 actors have read so far. Finding a male in his 20s who can act and sing has proved difficult, especially since the studio wants someone of Middle Eastern or Indian descent. (The 1992 film was set in the fictional Middle Eastern city Agrabah.) “The test process was a mess,” says one agent whose client…
Who’s inking on the dotted line this week THREE GUILDS, THREE NEW CONTRACTS: WHO’S GETTING THE BEST DEAL? Deal of the Week SAG-AFTRA’s July 4 sunrise pact made it the third and final above-the-line Hollywood union to reach a new deal since December, so THR analyzed how the labor contracts stack up against one another. While all three collective bargaining agreements secured nominal annual wage increases of 3 percent, the DGA and WGA contracts were subjected to carveouts in major television wage categories including primetime network, premium cable and high-budget streaming series. In addition, writers pay will be subject to four 0.5 percent diversions to their troubled health plan, whereas directors and actors will require just a single 0.5 percent diversion each to their pension plans. The net effect: 1…
About Town People, Places, Preoccupations F ionn Whitehead had no idea what the part was. “All people knew was that there was a group of boys auditioning,” says Fionn (pronounced “fin”). “We didn’t know how many parts there were, how important the roles were. We didn’t know anything.” But it turned out that Whitehead — who’d been working at a coffee shop in London just a couple of months earlier — was trying out for the lead role in Christopher Nolan’s World War II drama Dunkirk, out from Warner Bros. on July 21. “It’s been pretty surreal, to be honest,” he says. “I don’t think it really sunk in until Chris was there, on the first day, on the beach, with Spitfires flying overhead and real warships.” Whitehead, who lives…
