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 should Billy Bush, journalist, have filed his story that Donald Trump, celebrity billionaire, had been recorded boasting about grabbing women “by the pussy”? Should he have filed in 2005, as soon as the recording was made? Bush was co-anchor of NBC Entertainment’s Access Hollywood, and Trump was a reality TV star. In summer 2015, as soon as Trump launched his presidential campaign? This fall, when Bush made the formal switch from Access Hollywood to Today, thus from NBC Entertainment to NBC News? Or should he still not have filed to this day, since Trump’s comments were made on a microphone that perhaps was unknowingly open, thereby possibly violating California’s eavesdropping law? These are ethical questions that Bush, 44, should have plenty of time to contemplate in the apres ski…
John Lasseter Finding Dory crosses $1 billion at the global box office, giving the Disney animation guru two films (also Zootopia) to cross that threshold in 2016, with Dwayne Johnson’s Moana bowing for Thanksgiving. Nate Parker The Birth of a Nation disappoints with a $7 million opening weekend as the embattled filmmaker-star’s media tour fails to take the spotlight off his rape trial controversy. Laurene Powell Jobs The Apple co-founder’s widow goes Hollywood, buying a stake in Spotlight producer Anonymous Content and positioning the management-production outfit for growth. Shailene Woodley As the actress’ Snowden flops in theaters, she’s arrested for criminal trespassing while protesting an oil pipeline in North Dakota. Showbiz Stocks $116.05 (+3.1%) APPLE (AAPL) Analysts expect the parent of iTunes to sell more iPhones after Samsung halts production…
The “sophomore slump” is a familiar problem on TV’s critical hits, often made worse when inexperienced creative teams lose control of their own shows. Now one of 2015’s breakouts, Lifetime’s UnREAL, is trying to right the ship for its third season after its second suffered from a critical backlash amid behind-the-scenes drama. UnREAL has tapped its third showrunner in as many seasons. Stacy Rukeyser, a writer-producer with the Emmy-nominated Bachelor sendup since the beginning, is known for having played the role of peacemaker between feuding co-creators Marti Noxon and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro. The pair’s conflict is said to have affected the quality of Lifetime’s scripted jewel, which critics said was unwieldy, and that a Black Lives Matter storyline was mishandled. The show was not a huge ratings hit at the…
For one of Hollywood’s hottest stars, Amy Schumer had a bit of a rough summer. Her Comedy Central series Inside Amy Schumer suffered lower ratings and mixed reviews in its fourth season, and the 35-year-old comic canceled two book signings for her August memoir, The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo, for which she snagged a $9 million advance, amid Inside writer Kurt Metzger coming under fire for a Facebook post mocking women who call out alleged rapists. But new sales numbers for Schumer’s Girl and her still-unfolding comedy tour show strong business. She’s got the fourth most popular tour since 2015, and after her book spent three weeks at No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list, publisher Gallery Books revealed sales have topped 300,000, in part…
Relativity Media is on the block, but will anyone bite? That’s the question as Ryan Kavanaugh’s embattled studio looks for a buyer just six months after it emerged from a bankruptcy in which it listed assets of $560 million and liabilities of $1.18 billion. Sources say some marketing vendors haven’t been paid as Kavanaugh, 41, squabbles with EuropaCorp over who should be funding what in their Relativity Europa Distribution joint venture. As lawyers trade letters and president Dana Brunetti focuses on producing non-Relativity films, financial advisers Entertainment Media Partners and Zolfo Cooper are moving to sell a studio that didn’t receive a single offer when it was in Chapter 11. Here are two potential scenarios. Deep-Pocketed Producer Steps Up A film finance lawyer who has put together funds…
Last awards season, Netflix’s Beasts of No Nation was shut out of the Oscar race after earning only $90,777 in the few theaters willing to carry a title that debuted simultaneously on a streaming service. Netflix now is trying to avoid similarly bad headlines. The streamer has struck a deal for tiny luxury cinema circuit iPic to play 10 of its films at posh L.A. and New York locations, but the chain won’t report grosses to comScore, says iPic founder and CEO Hamid Hashemi. Such was the case during the Oct. 7-9 weekend for Netflix’s The Siege of Jadotville, starring Jamie Dornan, which played at iPic in West L.A. to unknown sales. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, and NATO chief John Fithian wasn’t happy amid concerns about…
