Innholdsfortegnelse for Wednesday, April 24, 2019 i The Hollywood Reporter

When the Writers Guild of America sued the four major agencies April 17 over packaging fees, it was a major escalation in a war that has upended talent-representative relationships. But even if WME, CAA, UTA and ICM beat the lawsuit, they may already be losing in one respect: The guild’s move to end an “illegal kickback” could effectively put on ice — or at the very least, slow down — any ambitions for public offerings. WME, CAA and UTA are responsible for roughly 70 percent of Hollywood’s packaging fees, and each has at least explored the possibility of an IPO, though WME parent Endeavor is the one said to be in hot pursuit at the moment. But experts warn there may be little appetite to invest in a company that…

The effects of the WGA’s April 17 lawsuit against the big four agencies are uncertain and disputed. In the next few months, there may not be much impact, since major clients have deals that are set and the agencies have packaging fee arrangements or commissions that are locked in with respect to those deals. Beyond that, agencies will have to respond with their own legal filings, including defenses and any desired counterclaims. Below, THR surveys the guild’s claims and looks at how the talent agencies are likely to respond. Expect a vigorous fight. WRITERS’ CLAIMS Breach of Fiduciary Duty Packaging fees are a breach of California law because the agency focuses on its own self-interest, not the client’s. Unfair Business Practice Packaging fees violate the state’s Unfair Competition Law because…

The Family Upstairs (CENTURY, AUG. 8) BY Lisa Jewell AGENCY ICM Partners Reminiscent of the adapted works of Gillian Flynn and A.J. Finn, the latest from the New York Times best-selling author follows a 25-year-old as she inherits the house where she became an orphan as well as the two women trying to keep her from the truth. Saturday’s Child (APRIL 9, SHE WRITES PRESS) BY Deborah Burns AGENCY The Unter Agency From Sharper Objects to The Act, mother-daughter relationships have been central to many recent onscreen adaptations. Burns’ memoir is more akin to the Ya-Ya Sisterhood as she reflects on growing up in the shadow of an eccentric, fabulous mom.…

One of Prince’s key collaborators is stepping out from behind the camera. Jeff Katz, who photographed the late musician over dozens of shoots from 1985 to 1996, is rolling out a set of previously unreleased images of the artist timed to the third anniversary of his death. The three-year mark also brought news that Prince’s unfinished memoir, The Beautiful Ones, will arrive in the fall from Penguin Random House. Katz’s 78 portraits, spanning numerous albums, magazine covers, tours and even that gonzo tie-in for Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film, start at $2,500 on princebyjeffkatz.com — with each image strictly capped at 10 prints. Katz, who until now has never spoken about his unique relationship with the icon, is selling the prints with the blessing of Prince’s (still-unsettled) estate; he officially…

For his first job out of UCLA, Legendary Entertainment CEO Joshua Grode worked as an assistant to Sydney Pollack, a job that entailed gassing up the director’s Ferrari Testarossa twice a week. “I’m a 22-year-old driving his Ferrari and I was like, ‘This is awesome!’ ” Grode recalls. “Then he promoted me to his reader, and I was, ‘Ugh.’ ” He went on to land a gig as a production assistant for Roger Corman, making four movies in three months and eventually moving up to serve as a second unit director. “It was so much fun. Then my parents said, ‘Eh, go get a graduate degree.’ ” So Grode enrolled at Loyola Law School and morphed into a Hollywood power attorney at Irell & Manella, where one of his clients…

Today’s museum restaurants no longer are content merely to serve gallery visitors. Their goal is to burnish the institutions’ brands, often by catering to customers with zero plans to visit the collection. Danny Meyer has made a specialty of this at the Whitney and MoMA in New York, while Patina’s Joachim Splichal did the same with Ray’s at LACMA. Now comes Audrey at the Hammer (named after a major benefactor, Audrey Irmas), which debuted two months ago steps away from its Billy Wilder Theater. The indoor-outdoor restaurant sprawls across the contemporary art institution’s midcentury plaza — the one used for its star-studded annual gala. At Audrey’s helm is Lisa Giffen. Her résumé includes some of the most acclaimed kitchens in Manhattan (Blue Hill New York, Daniel, Prune). Most recently, she…

WHEN HE CHECKED IN AT THE front desk on the night of Feb. 28, 1982, John Belushi was a time bomb, a waste site, a mess. Sweaty, flabby, edgy, pale, disheveled, worn to a stump at the age of 33, he had called ahead to reserve his favorite bungalow, No. 3, one of the ones Al Smith had purchased that stood close to the private entrance on Monteel Road. Like other members of the extended Saturday Night Live family, Belushi had been introduced to Chateau Marmont by the show’s producer, Lorne Michaels, who stayed there when he was a comedy writer for a variety of TV shows and who liked to joke that he moved around the place as his fortunes in the business ebbed and flowed: “I lived all…

Film Dumped by Disney Alan Horn trims the Fox movie slate. p. 9 ↑ Deals Bunker Reboot Inside TV’s new live sitcom craze. p. 14 Reed Hastings/Ted Sarandos Thanks to soaring stock, the Netflix CEO’s pay rises 48 percent in 2018 to $36.1 million as his content chief receives $29.6 million, up 32 percent. Natalie Morales The Access anchor exits after three years (but will remain on Today) following the departure of longtime executive producer Rob Silverstein. Sylvia Rhone Sony Music promotes the veteran executive to chairman and CEO of Epic Records, where she has been president since 2014. Jon Feltheimer As the Lionsgate CEO’s Hellboy reboot flops and the company’s stock suffers a six-month slide, The Wall Street Journal calls into question the $4.4 billion integration of Starz. Showbiz…

In 2019, with a soft advertising market, the digital media landscape is largely bereft of hungry buyers. But in late March, radio giant Salem Media Group quietly disclosed the purchase of a sixth digital media company, PJ Media, for just $100,000. Salem’s conservative-leaning digital arm, Townhall Media, now reaches more than 15 million unique visitors a month, and is a “nicely profitable business,” says Dave Evans, who leads new media and book publishing for Salem. Salem, based in Camarillo, California, has grown in political influence by snapping up digital properties from partisans like Michelle Malkin (Twitchy, Hot Air) while adding pro-Trump radio voices like former Fox News contributor Sebastian Gorka, which may help the company compete with titans iHeartRadio (home to Rush Limbaugh) and Westwood One (featuring Mark Levin). “We…

How much will Joe Biden move the needle with Hollywood’s donor class? We’re about to find out. On May 8, Biden — who’s expected to announce his presidential run by April 26 — will be the guest of honor at a star-studded Beverly Hills fundraiser. According to sources, the event will be held at the home of designer Michael Smith and his husband, James Costos, who was U.S. ambassador to Spain during the Obama administration (a spokesman for the couple declined to comment). This will be the first L.A. campaign fundraiser for Amtrak Joe — though he swept through town in October for a $5,000-per-plate dinner that raised more than $100,000 for his PAC, and which was attended by Paramount’s Jim Gianopulos, Sony Pictures’ Tom Rothman, Entertainment Studios’ Byron Allen,…

Musical Offices at Fox and Warners Wondering where Rupert Murdoch has set up shop these days? Try Building 88 on the Fox lot. The 88-year-old mogul has moved into Stacey Snider’s former office — she vacated as film chairman/CEO after the merger with Disney — in the iconic building where Darryl Zanuck once chain-smoked cigars. It’s unclear how much use Murdoch will make of the space since he’s turned over day-to-day operations of what’s left of Fox to son Lachlan, 47. (Lachlan has an office right down the hall.) Meanwhile, spies on the Warner Bros. lot tell Rambling Reporter that Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society production company, which in January announced a first-look deal with the studio, has taken up residency in Zack Snyder’s old digs while Baz Luhrmann, who’s…

The gift of fitness has been one of the best parts about working for Marvel,” says Scarlett Johansson. Before playing Black Widow in the Avengers franchise, the 34-year-old actress (and now mother of a young daughter) admits she’d never stepped foot in a gym: “I am stronger and more capable now than I was 10 years ago, which is so awesome to be able to say.” Trainer Eric Johnson, who has been working with Johansson since 2009, when they prepped for her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Iron Man 2, recalls her first rope climb. “On the way up, she kneed me in the face and gave me a nice bloody nose — she was celebrating and I’m fighting back tears, gushing blood,” he says, joking, “she’s dangerous even when…

OPENS Friday, April 26 (Disney) CAST Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Brie Larson, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Josh Brolin, Gwyneth Paltrow DIRECTORS Anthony Russo, Joe Russo Rated PG-13, 182 minutes The closest equivalent to Greek mythology the world has devised of late achieves a sense of closure in Avengers: Endgame. This three-hour extravaganza shuffles back numerous characters seen in recent Marvel films as it wraps up a story in which the survival of the universe is (once again) at stake. While eventful and a feast for the eyes, it’s also more somber than its predecessors. But just when it’s about to become too grim, Robert Downey Jr. rides to the rescue with an inspired seriocomic performance that reminds you how good he…

It’s safe to say that the Tootsie musical that opened April 23 had an easier time getting to Broadway than the 1982 movie did getting to the silver screen. It was, as they say, a “troubled” production. The film went through three potential directors in preproduction (Dick Richards, Hal Ashby and, finally, Sydney Pollack), eight writers (Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal were credited; Barry Levinson and Elaine May are among those who were not), and multiple script revisions. At the time, the $21 million budget ($55 million today) was considered wildly extravagant for a comedy. The film centered on a deadly serious New York actor named Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman, then 45) disguising himself as “Dorothy Michaels” to get a much-needed job on a soap opera. Pollack, who died in…

Disney delivered a shot across the bow with its April 11 reveal that it plans to sell forthcoming family-friendly streaming service Disney+ at a price well below Netflix’s standard rate. The move pre-empted streaming announcements from WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal and even Apple, which held a March 25 event for its new offering, AppleTV+, that left out many specifics and set the stage for an all-out war for subscribers as new entrants crowd the over-the-top video space. With costs mounting for consumers — signing up for each major service will soon cost well over $50 per month — each offering will need to set itself apart.…

After Michelle Wolf brought down the house in 2018, angering two Trump aides in the process, this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 27 won’t feature a comic roast, but rather historian Ron Chernow as keynote at the Washington Hilton event. (The president, skipping the WHCD for the third year, scheduled a Wisconsin rally instead.) So the job of making journos laugh will fall to Samantha Bee, who’s hosting her second Not The White House Correspondents’ Dinner. “We have so many fun, dumb things planned … and we also want to honor journalists,” Bee says. “They can have one night of respite, maybe? Just one hour and a half where they don’t check their phones constantly?” While two events that typically lure Hollywood are off — the Creative Coalition…

Weddings Mitchell Messinger, a publicity director with ABC Entertainment, married Deb Kaplan Jacoby on March 31 at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles in Beverly Hills. They will honeymoon this summer on an Alaskan cruise. Births Lindsay Perraud, a literary manager at Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment, and husband Scott Perraud, a television literary agent at UTA, welcomed twin girls, Poppy Hunter and Teddy Beatrix Perraud, on March 30 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Congrats Deborah Dugan was named Recording Academy president and CEO on April 12. Center Theatre Group appointed Meghan Pressman managing director/CEO on April 8. MRC tapped Elise Henderson president of television April 15. Crown Media Family Networks promoted Laurie Ferneau to senior vp development April 15. APA comedy co-head Jackie Knobbe joined UTA as an agent April…

On March 28, The Hollywood Reporter hosted its 13th annual Power Lawyers Breakfast, honoring the 100 most respected attorneys in the entertainment business. The program was held at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, and honorees and guests networked during the opening reception. Richard Plepler, former chairman and CEO of HBO, presented the Raising the Bar Award to Eve Konstan, the network’s executive vice president and general counsel. The breakfast concluded with a Q&A between THR editorial director Matthew Belloni and Participant Media CEO David Linde in which they discussed the distribution plan and theatrical release behind the Oscar-winning Roma. The Hollywood Reporter thanks presenting sponsor City National Bank and ISAIA for a memorable event for all the honorees and guests.…

LOW-CARB DAYS Total intake: 115 g protein, 75 g carbohydrates, 50 g fat Pre-Workout Breakfast • 2 egg whites • 2 whole organic eggs • ½ avocado • Green veggies (21 g protein, 0 g carbs, 21 g fat) Snack (20-40 minutes after workout) • Smoothie: 1 scoop Garden of Life protein powder, ½ banana, 1 tbsp peanut butter, handful of spinach, and water or ice (20 g protein, 14 g carbs, 10 g fat) Lunch • 4 oz. chicken or 200 g turkey mince • Green veggies, salad or stir fry • ½ avocado or nuts • 100 g rice (39 g protein, 29 g carbs, 16 g fat) Dinner • 4 oz. wild salmon/fish of choice • Green veggies, salad or stir fry (30 g protein, 0 g…

In the media and in the general debate, the European Copyright Directive, which the European Council approved April 15, has often been depicted as the Hollywood Major Studios vs. Silicon Valley. In fact, it has been much the opposite. The long and complex legislative process, which is not yet over, has basically been about copyright holders defending their interests in the online environment. How you see the Copyright Directive and its impact depends on the perspective you view it from — on which glasses you put on before you look at it. Take the “value gap.” Put on the music industry’s glasses and you see that music, in most cases, is available in the online world without technical protection measures. Users — on YouTube or wherever — can and do…