Innholdsfortegnelse for Thursday, April 11, 2019 i The Hollywood Reporter

A year ago, the fate of Broadway’s To Kill a Mockingbird hung in the balance, due to a lawsuit filed by the estate of author Harper Lee in Alabama, claiming that the script departed from the spirit of the 1960 novel. The legal salvo arrived after a Dec. 13 opening date had been set and principal cast unveiled and, for a time, seemed like it could derail the production. Now, five months into its blockbuster run at the Shubert Theatre — with that law-suit long settled (details weren’t disclosed) — there’s no doubt the retelling of Lee’s story of virulent racism in the Jim Crow-era Deep South has won over audiences. The production is on track to become the highest-grossing American play in Broadway history. The show has grossed a…

Shrinks Will Never Fire Their Agents While the battle between agents and writers threatens to upend the industry, it’s apparently been a boon for one part of L.A.’s economy — therapists. Multiple sources tell THR that there’s been a notable uptick in the number of agents seeking mental health assistance since the fight over packaging fees started heating up. “Agents are people too,” says Dennis Palumbo, a psychotherapist who specializes in TV and film clients (he used to be a writer for Welcome Back, Kotter). “Most don’t want their clients to leave them. The work they do is so invisible, and then to be abandoned by [a client] and by a guild that vilifies you on a personal level — that’s very hard for them.” Says one veteran rep, confirming…

Even before Disney’s $71.3 billion takeover of most of 21st Century Fox, James Murdoch, the now-unemployed CEO, seemed to be focused on life beyond the family business. It was clear months before the deal closing that there was no role for Murdoch at the merged company, and in March he founded investment firm Lupa Systems, leading longtime observers to ask: What does the 46-year-old son of Rupert intend to do next? While flush with an additional $2.1 billion or so from the Disney transaction, James will undoubtedly raise funds from a few strategic partners before investing in next-generation media companies, many Wall Street observers say, though he’ll also plow some money into environmental issues and innovations in other sectors. “Technology, shortform content and ad tech have been areas of interest,”…

New York was always a magazine city for me. And in some ways it still is. I grew up in Canada, and magazines — Life, Esquire, Time — more than anything else, told me the story of this city, its industry, its might and the people who made it the center of just about everything I was interested in. When I finally made it to New York in the ’70s, the magazine influence was still potent. Time Inc. had its own building. So did Condé Nast and Hearst. Even Newsweek and Forbes did. There was a huge billboard in the main room of Grand Central, and from time to time one of the newsweeklies booked it. When I would take the train to visit friends up in Westchester County, the…

With less than a month until New York’s most glamorous benefit of the year, Met Gala organizers have given THR a first look at the event’s committee, made up of high-profile names approved by Vogue editor Anna Wintour who are ensured to attend. Totaling 183 people, the list is split among stars, designers, philanthropists and a few athletes. But actors comprise the largest group, taking up 48 percent of the list, including Bradley Cooper, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, Chadwick Boseman, and Jennifer Lopez with fiance Alex Rodriguez. Ryan Murphy and Bryan Lourd are also confirmed, with Cher rumored to attend. Tom Ford, Donatella Versace and Givenchy’s Clare Waight Keller are among the fashion contingent. Chaired since 1995 by Wintour, the gala sees guests ascending the Metropolitan Museum of Art…

160 OX PASTURE ROAD, SOUTHAMPTON Built in 1915, this estate unfolds across 10 acres. The traditional-style home offers 18,000 square feet over three floors, with 12 bedrooms and 12 full and three half baths. There are outdoor and indoor pools, a spa, a grass tennis court, a paddle court, a greenhouse and two detached four-car garages. (Corcoran’s Susan Breitenbach) 61 STARTOP DRIVE, MONTAUK Considered a modern masterpiece, this Bates & Masi-designed modern home has seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms and is spread across 9,000 square feet. There is a media room, a pool house and a two-car garage. It’s set on 4 acres with views overlooking Lake Montauk and Gardiners Bay that guests can take in from the one of the two infinity pools. (Compass’ Greg Burns) 17 JERICHO ROAD, EAST…

Not since Watergate has the media been more relevant — or more reviled by the leader of the free world. And it’s all been good for business: CNN raked in $2.5 billion in revenue in 2018 (the most ever for the network) and Fox News is projected to notch $3 billion in operating revenue by 2020. Meanwhile, The New York Times added more than 265,000 digital subscriptions at the end of 2018 for a total of 3.4 million, its biggest gain since the months immediately after the 2016 election, while The Wall Street Journal’s subs are up double digits year-over-year to 1.7 million. You’ll find those networks’ chiefs (and their biggest stars) on THR’s ninth annual roster of New York media’s top players, along with dozens of newcomers (from The…

Styling by Michael Fisher ASOS jacket, Daks shirt, Louis Vuitton pants, Christian Louboutin shoes. Let’s talk about white privilege.” Outside, winter’s bite is lingering well into March; but here, on The Comedy Cellar stage, Neal Brennan’s just warming up. He moves between a microphone and a nearby notepad, his sartorial choice — a hoodie and hipster glasses — belying his 45 years of age. “Right, Wil?” he calls out to the night’s emcee, a youngish black guy. “Finally,” Wil responds, game for the comic volley. “Sure, Wil, as a black person, you’re like, ‘What do the whites think of this?’” Wil’s trying to hold it together. “I’ve just started calling it out,” says Brennan. “Like, internships, that’s some white people shit.” Wil’s losing it now. So is the audience. “They’re…

When Martin Scorsese wants to push five 1960s-era yellow taxis into New York Harbor at a precise angle and tempo in the middle of the night during winter — with a camera shooting from a crane above him, stunt divers deployed in the water, and Robert De Niro and Bo Dietl in place among a crew of 150 on the ground in Red Hook, Brooklyn — it’s Emma Tillinger Koskoff’s job to say, “OK, Marty.” Koskoff, 47, is Scorsese’s producer and, because her boss likes to sleep in his own Upper East Side bed during production, she is especially adept at the peculiarities of shooting in New York City. This fall, two NYCshot films that Koskoff produced will arrive in theaters: Scorsese’s The Irishman, for Netflix, and Todd Phillips’ Joker,…

AIN’T NO MO’ the public theater, through may 5 Jordan E. Cooper’s surrealistic satire imagines black Americans being forced to move to Africa or endure “extreme racial transmogrification.” Unfolding via a series of audaciously imaginative skits, it marks the playwright as a vital new talent. — FRANK SCHECK AIN’T TOO PROUD: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE TEMPTATIONS imperial theatre, open run The Motown vocal group that helped write R&B history gets a stirring salute in this bio-musical based on the memoir by founding member Otis Williams. The impeccably styled cast sings superbly, harmonizes mellifluously and dances like motorized seduction machines. — DAVID ROONEY THE CHER SHOW neil simon theatre, open run Fabulous Broadway favorite Stephanie J. Block is one of three actresses playing the Goddess of the Eternal Farewell…

Even as most Writers Guild members brace to fire their agents as early as April 13, some won’t have to. THR has learned that foreign writers who are in the U.S. on visas sponsored by talent agencies have been given special dispensation by the union and can keep their agents even if the agency involved does not sign the guild’s new Code of Conduct. There are probably several hundred writers that fall under this category. Michael Bhim, whose credits include CW drama All American, is one writer who was working in the U.S. from the U.K. on such a visa. WGA West president David Goodman says, “Upon consulting immigration attorneys, it became clear there are no viable alternatives that would protect the writers’ immigration status if they leave their sponsors.”…

For the first time since 2005, LeBron James won’t be heading to the NBA playoffs — and even off the court the L.A. Lakers star’s bid for Hollywood domination appears to be hitting a small roadblock. On April 5, CBS yanked his competition TV series Million Dollar Mile from its prime Wednesday slot after just two episodes and mediocre ratings at 3.6 million average viewers. And a day earlier, ESPN reported that basketball’s biggest draw was having trouble recruiting fellow NBA stars for his Space Jam 2. It’s more complicated than it seems. Sources tell THR that fellow All-Stars Stephen Curry, James Harden and Kevin Durant likely won’t join James on the celluloid court. But that has more to do with sneaker contracts and the film’s script — the latest…

BELCAMPO Iron Chef judge Anya Fernald’s farm at the base of Mount Shasta raises and delivers its grass-fed meats, controlling the entire supply chain. At Hudson Yards’ Belcampo, her first eatery outside California (three are in L.A.; Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan), a meat display case divides the room. To the right is bone broth on tap and a retail section, to the left a full-service restaurant. Among the highlights: beef tartare ($15), dry-aged burger with raclette ($28) and a spiced lamb shwarma bowl ($17). FRANKIE COLAB First there was an appointment-only outlet in downtown L.A.’s Arts District, then a pop-up in NYC’s Little Italy, but now the shop dedicated to independent artists and designers has found a forever home. Along with art objects and fashion by lines like Lone…

With the April 9 premiere of FX’s Fosse/Verdon, writer-producer Steven Levenson is enjoying another high-water mark in a career that has seen him move rapidly from stage to screen. Just two years after nabbing the 2017 Tony for best book of a musical for Broadway hit Dear Evan Hansen, Levenson, 34, has wrapped his first project as show-runner on the limited series about iconic choreographer Bob Fosse and his wife and creative partner, Gwen Verdon, as portrayed by Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams. “One of the ambitions is to show how it’s never this one genius or star, it’s an untold number of people working together,” Levenson says. “A few are names we remember, but take any of those people out of the equation, and you don’t have Cabaret or…

FOR FITNESS FANS Opening in June in the new Hudson Yards megaplex, the 212-room Equinox is the first hotel launched by the upscale gym chain, with five more to follow across the U.S. Its 60,000-square-foot athletic facility featuring a 25-yard saltwater pool, Pilates and Soul Cycle is the company’s largest anywhere. From $700; 35 Hudson Yards FOR FREQUENT FLIERS JFK’s TWA Hotel has nothing airport-motel about it. Housed in the 200,000-square-foot winged terminal Eero Saarinen designed for the airline in 1962 — perhaps the most famous airport structure after L.A.’s also-spaceship-like Theme Building — it opens May 15 with 512 rooms, eight bars (including one made with a plane fuselage), six restaurants, a pool and, of course, duty-free shopping. From $249 FOR SERENITY SEEKERS Luxury and wellness abound at Assemblage Hotel, which…

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has thrown a wrench into New York City’s real estate game of secret celebrity buyers. In November, a new state law went into effect lowering the thresh-old at which buyers who hide behind limited liability corporations (LLCs) must disclose their identity. It’s supposed to weed out “dark money” tied to the world’s stable of Bond villains — Russian oligarchs, arms dealers and deposed third-world dictators — who have long circulated in Manhattan’s luxury condo market. But an unintended consequence is the law’s impact on Hollywood A-listers. As a result, top brokers are dreaming up new ways to protect a client’s privacy, including assigning an overseer whose name and address are associated with the LLC. “I’m working with a celebrity couple right now who just bought a townhouse…

Russell Crowe collapses into his makeup chair at the end of another long production day, as a trio of artists begins peeling the layers of Roger Ailes off his face. Slabs of silicone fall to the floor: First, it’s cheek meat, then paper-thin slivers of his neck. Over the next hour, the Oscar winner transforms back into himself, his face considerably slimmer than the late Fox News founder’s, his head still endowed with a thick coat of hair. “By the time we reach the end, I’ll have spent over 12 days of my life in this chair,” says Crowe, cigarette smoke wafting through the trailer. “Twelve. Fucking. Days.” Becoming Ailes — as he has almost every day since production on the Showtime limited series The Loudest Voice began in November…

Late in January, around 4 one morning, a small platoon of local and state police officers descended on Chris Cuomo’s house in the Hamptons. There’d been a call reporting a “possible shooting and hostage situation.” But when the cops arrived at the picturesque 3,000-square-foot beach house, all they found was a groggy CNN anchor and his none-too-pleased spouse. “I’ve got to move because it spooked my wife,” Cuomo says, describing how the “SWATing” — the practice of harassing public figures with false police reports — pushed him into putting his weekend retreat on the market in February (for $2.9 million). “I have people threatening me on a regular basis. That’s a whole new reality for me.” Since he took his spot behind the anchor desk on CNN’s Cuomo Primetime 10…

Lesley Stahl is standing in the door-way of her 60 Minutes office. “I’ve been waiting for you,” she tells me, a hint of impatience in her voice. I am seven minutes late and, as she reminds me, “We have a lot to do.” She ushers me into a workspace stuffed with the detritus of her 28-year career at 60 Minutes. There are books, Emmys, photos. But I don’t get much of a chance to snoop around. “This is your only shot at my office,” Stahl says. Then she’s gathering her things: coat, handbag, black roller bag. And we’re off, hustling down the hall to a tracking booth where she’ll record two lines of narration for a segment about the dismal safety record of U.S. railroads. She reads the lines three…

Early one morning last May, Detective Nicholas DiGaudio arrived at work in lower Manhattan for one of the most important days of his career. With close-cropped hair and a burly frame, wearing a paisley tie and his New York Police Department badge clipped to the lapel of his navy blazer, DiGaudio escorted Harvey Weinstein into the NYPD’s First Precinct to be fingerprinted, photographed and booked. After years of seeming untouchable in New York and Hollywood, Weinstein would face sexual assault charges in a case that may be the most significant of the #MeToo era. And it was DiGaudio, 46, together with Sgt. Keri Thompson, who had assembled the case against the disgraced film executive. In the months since that day, DiGaudio’s role has come under scrutiny, and it seems that…

Brevity is both the soul of wit and the soul of Netflix’s new comedy Special: It’s impossible not to appreciate Ryan O’Connell for making the eight episodes of his autobiographical show run between 11 and 17 minutes. O’Connell (who has written on Awkward and Daytime Divas) adapted Special from his memoir, I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves, and he plays a variation on himself — in this case an aspiring writer still living with his co-dependent mother (Jessica Hecht) and beginning a job as an unpaid intern at a blog called Eggwoke. Ryan is gay but has never been in a real relationship, and has cerebral palsy but doesn’t want to be known as the guy with CP. So he attributes his symptoms to a car accident and…

Over the past several months, writers and talent agents have settled into warring camps in a fight over television packaging fees and agencies’ move into affiliate production. On April 13, if a deal is not made between the Writers Guild of America and the Association of Talent Agents, the consequences of failure are potentially calamitous for the industry. Amid talks, agencies are said to have been flooded with messages from writers expressing appreciation for past representation coupled with a note that the writer will fire the agent anyway should the worst come to pass, sources say. Often, the notes express hope that when the dust settles, the client and agent can resume business as though nothing had intervened. But for many, that confidence may be misplaced: Writers at the middle…

Dear Richard Weitz, The first thing I want you to know is that this isn’t about you. It’s not about me either. It’s about packaging, which is something I don’t remotely understand. The point is, I still love you. You know how Romeo’s and Juliet’s families tore them apart? That’s the way that packaging is tearing us apart. I’m not suggesting we kill each other over this, but I’m not suggesting we don’t either. Packaging is that big of a deal, whatever it is. I remember the day we first met. I was only 28, and you, I now realize, were 30, which is strange since you look younger than me now. Did you have work done? I’ve always wanted to ask you that. And now it’s too late. I’d…

The Forgotten Hours (LAKE UNION, JAN. 1) BY Katrin Schumann AGENCY WME A decade after the fallout, a daughter is forced to revisit the summer when her best friend accused her father of sexual assault. The timely story explores the process of looking at past events through a more educated lens in a post-#MeToo world. Wholly Unraveled (LITTLE A, APRIL 1) BY Keele Burgin AGENCY APA, Marsal Lyon After escaping a Catholic cult and an abusive father, the author found herself living a full year in almost complete silence in a remote community in rural Canada. Like Boy Erased and Beautiful Boy, the memoir lends itself to feature adaptation.…

Weddings Baker Machado, an anchor on Cheddar, married Jared Shulman, CEO of Brand New Story, a venture between Cinetic Media and Rough House Pictures, on March 23 at the Hotel San Cristobal in Todos Santos, Mexico, in front of 100 guests. The couple’s mothers officiated the ceremony. The newlyweds, who became engaged on July 4, 2017, honeymooned in Thailand. Births Caitlin Galo, director of corporate communications at USA Network, Syfy, UCP and Wilshire Studios, and husband Matthew Galo, a producer on Today, welcomed daughter Felicity Davis Galo on March 30 at Hackensack Meridian Health Hospital in New Jersey. Amy Zack, a publicist at PMK*BNC, and husband Jared Zack welcomed daughter Charlotte Elle Zack on Jan. 12 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Glee and Crazy Rich Asians actor Harry…

In November, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti shared a harebrained idea with The New York Times. What if the company merged with two or three of its biggest rivals? As Peretti noted at the time, a company that combined the audience of, say, BuzzFeed, Vox Media, Group Nine and Refinery29 “feels like something that’s very valuable.” THR takes a look at what this hypothetical digital media behemoth would look like. COMBINED Source: Comscore, February 2019; THR Research…

I n a career spanning 45 years and 90 feature films, Bill Murray has managed to age like a fine wine, though he prefers vodka. He loves it so much, in fact, that in 2010, the Oscar nominee (for Lost in Translation) and part-time bartender (at his son Homer’s Brooklyn restaurant, 21 Greenpoint) invested an undisclosed sum in his own brand. Called Slovenia, the buckwheat-derived vodka carried at Mondrian Hotel Sky Bar and Chez Jay in Santa Monica (and recently added to the offerings at Upstairs at the Ace Hotel), has “this viscosity that stays on your tongue — it makes it slightly different,” Murray tells THR. For a couple of years before signing on to “this vodka thing,” the comic hung out at longtime chef buddy Peter Kelly’s Yonkers restaurant X2O with his…

Even in a market down 20 percent since 2016, the Hamptons can still wow with staggering prices — one Meadow Lane property in Southampton just listed for $150 million. Yet there are deals to be had. “This is definitely a buyer’s market, and the Hamptons are always a desired destination,’’ says Compass’ Lori Schiaffino. THR gets the scoop from five of the area’s top dealmakers. Susan Breitenbach CORCORAN Richard Gere’s North Haven retreat, Strongheart Manor, was at risk of wallowing — listed in 2013 for $65 million — before Breitenbach quickly brokered a deal with her client Matt Lauer for a little less than $35 million in 2016. She also sold Billy Joel’s oceanfront spread in Sagaponack in 2014, and more recently helped find a $10 million home for Jennifer…

My first encounter with John: I had handed in a piece for the third issue of the magazine that everyone was talking about while toiling for another in Philadelphia. One day, at my office, a voicemail. “Hi, Lisa? It’s John Kennedy. I just read your story and I love it! Please give me a call. I want you to be part of the George family.” I did what anyone would have done. I walked into the hall and shouted, “OK, who’s the asshole?” This had to be a prank, right? Two days later, another message. “Uh, Lisa? It’s John Kennedy again. I know you’re busy. But can you call me back?” And so began the best job and the best years of my life. George started with a bang; there…

Any storyteller would leap at the imagination-stretching, too-juicy-to-be-true narrative of Gentleman Jack, HBO’s smart and touching historical drama series set in 1832 about Anne Lister, a lesbian who suffered no fools, wore only black and wrote diaries (some in code) about her sexual affairs and her one true love. It’s our good fortune that it’s the talented Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley) who snatched it up, taking on the roles of creator, writer and director (along with Sarah Harding and Jennifer Perrott). Gentleman Jack (the titular term is what townspeople called Lister because of her masculine features) brings its central figure to vibrant life. Lister was an industrialist, land owner, intellectual, world traveler and someone who didn’t give a damn about what anyone else thought; she was determined to fall in…

Music takes center stage at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, with a schedule populated by projects that tackle everything from Harlem’s iconic theater (opening-night film The Apollo) to the Wu-Tang Clan (Showtime’s Of Mics and Men) and The Beatles. The latter’s music will be featured in the Richard Curtis-Danny Boyle team-up Yesterday, which centers on a struggling singer-songwriter (Himesh Patel) who discovers that he’s the only person on the planet that remembers the British rockers. The Manchester, England-born Boyle, 62, talked to THR about casting his lead, his favorite song by the Fab Four and re-creating their rooftop concert. How did you first get involved with the project? I’ve always loved Richard Curtis’ work. I did the opening ceremony at the Olympic Games in London in 2012, and there was one…