Innholdsfortegnelse for Dec-11-15 i The Hollywood Reporter

WHEN SUMNER REDSTONE’S FORMER companion Manuela Herzer marched into Los Angeles Superior Court on Thanksgiving eve with a lawsuit detailing his allegedly floundering mental state, representatives for the Viacom and CBS Corp. executive chairman quickly fired back that the gambit amounted to nothing more than a “preposterous” money grab from a jilted lover. And even if Herzer’s intentions are pure, and she simply wants to remain his caretaker, those representing Redstone insisted that the fight over who makes health-care decisions for the ailing 92-year-old billionaire would have no impact on the media empire he controls. While it’s true Herzer, 46, has scant hope of gaining any stake in Viacom or CBS through her efforts to have Redstone declared incompetent, her swift expulsion from his life — after nearly two decades,…

ARECORD 3.38 million albums aren’t sold in a week without shrewd promotion. But Adele, 27, attained ubiquity with relatively few U.S. media commitments, each of them on NBC. It’s a coup for the network thanks in part to Saturday Night Live impresario Lorne Michaels. “Adele credits her first appearance on SNL [in 2008] as helping launch her in the States,” says one insider. So she repaid the favor Nov. 21 — giving SNL its highest ratings (Donald Trump excluded) in nearly a year — and then some. The singer performed on Today and The Tonight Show and will finish her NBC tour Dec. 14 with the primetime special Adele Live in New York City. Michaels and Adele’s camp (including longtime flack Benny Tarantini) began speaking in June once Columbia Records…

The Expatriates BY Janice Y.K. Lee (Viking) AGENCIES ICM, The Park Literary Group The former Elle editor’s follow-up to her 2009 period best-seller The Piano Teacher depicts three American expatriates in Hong Kong struggling with marriage and motherhood, and it has publishing insiders buzzing ahead of its January unveiling. The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto BY Mitch Albom (HarperCollins) AGENCY CAA Ripe for a big musical feature or a Broadway adaptation, the Tuesdays With Morrie author’s latest book weaves a mystical tale about the power of music through the life of a talented fictional guitarist who influenced music’s biggest icons (including Hank Williams, The Beatles and Elvis Presley).…

THE WIZ IS THE KIND OF MOVIE that crushes hearts in the film business. The 1978 Sidney Lumetdirected, Rob Cohen-produced musical based on the Broadway hit was thought to be an unstoppable blockbuster. Previews had audiences cheering. The soundtrack had the hit single “Ease on Down the Road.” THR’s review began, “To put it succinctly, The Wiz, a Universal-Motown production, spells money in the bank for exhibitors.” And then, kerplunk: The $22 million production grossed $21 million domestically. The film was a Manhattan-set, African-American-led update of The Wizard of Oz, with Dorothy as a 24-year-old Harlem kindergarten teacher. To say the film had great elements is a massive understatement: There’s Diana Ross as Dorothy, Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow and Richard Pryor as the Wizard, who speaks to 400 dancing…

WITH AN SEC FILING NOV. 25, THE WALT DISNEY CO. MADE CLEAR WHAT CEO Robert Iger meant when he warned in August of “pressure on the multichannel ecosystem,” a remark about cord-cutting that sent Disney’s stock plunging 17 percent during the next two weeks and dragged down the entire media sector. According to Disney’s 10-K filing — released the evening before Thanksgiving — among the conglomerate’s primary cable channels, only Disney Junior and international versions of Disney Channel and Disney XD have logged subscriber growth the past two years. ESPN, the jewel of the cable world, lost nearly 7 million subscribers in two years.…

RI.P. NETWORK TELEVISION: 1948-2015.” So said writer-producer Chuck Lorre on a Nov. 19 vanity card at the end of his CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. “CBS recently announced that it was bringing back the series Star Trek, but not for the CBS network, for a streaming on-demand system called CBS All Access,” the card read. “In lieu of flowers, CBS has requested that mourners send them six bucks a month.” Lorre was joking (presumably), but he’s joined by a growing number of executives who worry that too much great content already has been licensed to Netflix, Amazon Prime and their ilk. The solution, some analysts argue: Cut ’em off. Now. Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes hinted at such a strategy Nov. 4 when he said he was “evaluating whether…

PAUL DINI HAS SPENT his career writing Batman stories for TV and comics, but now he has put himself on the page. Due out in June, Vertigo’s Dark Night: A True Batman Story will revisit the Daytime Emmy winner’s 1993 mugging that left him with a shattered skull, parts of which doctors said were “powdered on impact.” The 121-page graphic novel, drawn by Eduardo Risso, finds Dini attempting to recover from his traumatic assault, with the Caped Crusader and his rogues’ gallery as his personal Greek chorus. While writing the story, Dini went to bed weeping some nights, including after seeing his attack in art form for the first time. “What makes Batman work is the myth that when life is at its lowest, a hero swings down and helps…

Disney Uses Force to Keep Star Wars Premiere Secret Intense secrecy has made the Star Wars: The Force Awakens world premiere in Los Angeles on Dec. 14 the hottest ticket in town in years. Sources say Disney has been inundated with requests, and those who did receive an invitation Nov. 25 are in the dark about the location: The invite states the event will take place in Hollywood but doesn’t list a venue. (Most Disney premieres, including The Avengers films, are hosted simultaneously in multiple theaters, such as the TCL Chinese, El Capitan and Dolby.) Meanwhile, members of director J.J. Abrams’ inner circle are waiting until the premiere or opening day (Dec. 18) to see The Force Awakens. Greg Grunberg, who has a role in the film, tells THR: “J.J.…

ON JULY 11, 2014, A FEW HOURS after LeBron James revealed in a Sports Illustrated letter that he was “coming home” to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the NBA star was on the Nike jet to Rio for the World Cup soccer final. He confided in longtime manager Maverick Carter that he wanted to create a platform where athletes could speak their minds “uninterrupted,” he said, the same way he did in the SI piece. Six months later, Uninterrupted, self-financed by Carter and James, launched on Turner Sports’ Bleacher Report site as a hub for a series of point-ofview video shorts from athletes. Now the duo is deepening its partnership with Turner and Warner Bros. The Time Warner companies have invested $15.8 million in Uninterrupted with the goal of creating athlete-centric content…

Plan B production company and Paramount acquired rights to The Big Short, Pitt figured he’d play one of the main roles in the financialmeltdown drama, as he did in Moneyball, also based on a Michael Lewis book. But when the movie got going in January with Adam McKay set to direct a script he had co-written, Pitt already had committed to star in wife Angelina Jolie Pitt’s drama Africa. That project ended up falling through (they instead teamed up on By the Sea), and Pitt was relegated to a smaller but key role as an angel investor and mentor figure in The Big Short. “Truthfully, these guys were all better than I could have been,” says Pitt of Bale, Carell and Gosling, all of whom the veteran Pitt worked with…

SYFY’S AMBITIOUS NEW DRAMA THE Expanse fails to emerge as much more than a muddle over its first four episodes. Adapted by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby from James S.A. Corey’s novels, the show is set in the 23rd century. Humanity has colonized the solar system. The U.N. rules the Earth, Mars has become an independent military power, and major mining operations are underway in the Asteroid Belt, where laborers struggle for the barest of creature comforts while harvesting the resources that power everything. Working in “The Belt,” Thomas Jane’s Josephus Miller is a gruff, cynical detective investigating crimes in a blue-collar area rife with sin, poverty and union agitation. His latest case involves the disappearance of a wealthy Earth couple’s daughter. Joining him on the job is gruff, cynical…

KA-CHING! WHO’S INKING ON THE DOTTED LINE THIS WEEK A YEAR AFTER selling a majority stake in Fullscreen to Otter Media — a joint venture of the Chernin Group and AT&T — CEO George Strompolos’ long-term vision for his digital media business is beginning to take shape. Strompolos revealed Nov. 30 that he had appointed former Hulu executive Andy Forssell as COO. (Former COO Ezra Cooperstein remains Fullscreen’s president.) The move gives the architect of Hulu’s original programming push jurisdiction over day-to-day operations at Fullscreen, which began as a multichannel network for YouTube stars but recently has expanded into production with original films including the coming-of-age story The Outfield and such upcoming serialized projects as a remake of Sid and Marty Krofft’s Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. Forssell’s biggest priority…

“I honestly wanted to die.” DAISY RIDLEY The Star Wars: The Force Awakens star, recalling how director J.J. Abrams complained that her acting was “wooden” on the first day of shooting. “The most difficult, grueling, excruciating thing that we have ever taken on in our lives.” WILL SMITH The Concussion star, describing the work that’s gone into his 20-year marriage to Jada Pinkett Smith. “Anal.” AMY SCHUMER The comedian and actress, describing her fantasy date with Bradley Cooper. “Do you know what God said to me? He said, ‘Your room ain’t ready.’ ” TRACY MORGAN The comedian, revealing a conversation he had with God while in a coma for two weeks following a near-fatal car crash in June 2014. “I can’t jump on trampolines anymore. I wet myself.” KATE WINSLET…

LAUR & MASCARENHAS Carla Laur, a commercial endorsements agent at CAA, married John Mascarenhas, an adviser to beauty/tech startup MatchCo, on Oct. 10 at a private estate in Palm Springs in front of 150 guests. The couple, who became engaged in December 2014, honeymooned in Italy. WEDDINGS John Coffey, a talent agent at the Kohner Agency, married Eva C. Groves on Nov. 7 at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis, followed by a reception at the Top of the Met. The couple became engaged in September 2014 and honeymooned in Maui. Sofia Vergara married fellow actor Joe Manganiello on Nov. 22 at The Breakers resort in Palm Beach, Fla., in front of guests that included Reese Witherspoon, Channing Tatum and Vergara’s Modern Family co-stars. The couple became engaged on Christmas…

DENISE LYNN Medical Intuitive and Healer (New York City) denise@deniselynn.com 310-493-3071 DR. ILAN BOHM Mystic chiropractor (New York City) 212-277-4406 BETTIE RINEHART Energy healer and shaman (Los Angeles) Bettie_Rinehart@mac.com 213-448-7599 LEAINE DEHMER Facialist healer/skin behaviorist (Los Angeles) 714-334-2000 SAMEER REDDY Energy Healer (Los Angeles) Sameer@Transformances.net DANA KLINE Energy Healer (Los Angeles) Danaklineispresent@gmail.com VICKY VLACHONIS Oesteopath (Los Angeles) Info@vickyvlachonis.com HARRY PAUL, AKA HARRY THE HEALER Energy healer and shaman (Los Angeles) Harrythehealer@gmail.com MARY ELIZABETH HOLMES Hypnotherapist (Los Angeles) Maryholmes@aol.com 323-793-6623 ARYN ELAINE COLE Energy healer and reiki therapist (New York City) 646-470-1178…

IF EVER THERE WAS A STUTTER in the Dubai International Film Festival’s steady 12-year history, it was the 2014 fest. Amid reports of significant cuts, the event was scaled back considerably: Its thriving co-production platform was removed, as were the Asia/Africa awards program and the Interchange lab and fund. Those visiting for the first time might not have noticed — the festival nonetheless managed to attract such A-list Hollywood talent as Cate Blanchett and Emily Blunt — but regular attendees remarked on the relative quiet surrounding the usually bustling Madinat Arena, the event’s near-beachside hub. One critic described it as the “weakest in recent memory.” But one year later, the tide appears to have turned. In May, it was announced that the Abu Dhabi Film Festival would be shuttered after…