Innholdsfortegnelse for Wednesday, August 5, 2020 i The Hollywood Reporter

As NBCUniversal insiders brace for a major reorganization and layoffs, executives at the conglomerate’s broadcast network are wondering where the chips will fall while the company investigates allegations that NBC Entertainment chairman Paul Telegdy and the top executive overseeing NBC’s alternative and reality group fostered a toxic workplace culture. With NBCU CEO Jeff Shell signaling a shift of resources from linear to streaming, sources say NBCUniversal Television and Streaming chairman Mark Lazarus has spent the past few weeks reviewing business units under his purview, including Frances Berwick’s Lifestyle Networks group (Bravo, Oxygen, E!), Chris McCumber’s Entertainment Networks (USA, Syfy) and Telegdy’s NBC. In the company’s second-quarter earnings call July 30, Shell said the new structure “will demonstrate the unique way we intend to manage this business going forward.” The reorganization…

In the 30 years since the Americans With Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990, only small gains have been made in Hollywood as far as on-and offscreen representation in the industry goes. Even just a few years ago, “what we were finding was that people were afraid to do disability-related storylines or hire actors with disabilities because they were afraid they were going to do it wrong,” says Lauren Appelbaum, vp communications at the nonprofit organization RespectAbility, which seeks to combat stigmas for people with disabilities. “That fear led to a lot of people not doing it at all.” In response, drafted The Hollywood Disability Inclusion Toolkit, a guide to help Appelbaum creatives and industry execs authentically portray disability onscreen. A year and a half ago, she noticed…

I could barely speak or move. My body was shaking so much when I found out I was nominated for an Emmy in the outstanding actress in a shortform comedy or drama series category. What moved me the most was not only seeing my name on the list but seeing Razor Tongue and my independent production company (Now>Ever) next to my name. It was a testament to building my own table when there previously seemed to be no seat for me, a testament that my calculated risk worked and continues to work. I dreamt of this moment since I was 6. Being born in the Philippines and growing up in Guam, I knew it wouldn’t be easy — yet here I am. It gives me so much joy to share…

Looking to escape to Palm Springs right now? Good luck. It may be scorching in the Coachella Valley, but that hasn’t stopped the rental market from having the hottest summer it’s ever seen. “People are just so eager to escape,” says Brad Greiner of rental agency Open Air Homes. Adds Greg Tormo, a real estate agent with the Paul Kaplan Group, “It’s unbelievable. My client has a three-bedroom for rent. We just put it on the market for long-term rental. I’ve shown it 10 times already!” According to John-Patrick Flynn, brand manager at Acme House Company, which manages more than 150 rental properties in the area, bookings are up more than 42 percent from summer 2019. “Since the state and county lifted the moratorium on short-term vacation rentals in mid-June,…

Though much of Hollywood has been shut down because of the pandemic, Mark Kassen appears to be busier than ever. As the founder and CEO of Like Minded Media Ventures, the entrepreneur, who also acts, directs and produces — he was an executive producer on the 2006 HBO telefilm Bernard and Doris — oversees a wide-ranging, three-year-old company with offices in L.A. and Montreal that develops everything from content to new technology. In terms of the latter, Kassen’s Like Minded Labs offers TODA, a multimedia content distribution system. Meanwhile, his firm’s production arm recently teamed with medical technology company Masimo on a shoot during which they tested a COVID-19 safety program, combining safety protocols and technologies that Kassen believes can help Hollywood safely return to work amid the pandemic. He…

Doctors are carefully instituting new policies to keep patients, and themselves, safe. Dr. Kevin Brenner has restricted his out-of-state patients to private flights to reduce the risk of infection, saying he’s had patients come from Montana, London and the Middle East via jet for their appointments. If a patient flies commercially, the surgeon mandates they self-isolate for 14 days and get tested. “When you put someone to sleep, if they’re COVID-positive and you don’t realize it, you’re potentially exposing your entire staff [which is why we’re doing so much testing],” he says. Other doctors are taking their own precautions. Dr. Paul Nassif has switched to Zoom consultations and is scheduling procedures at partial capacity. Dr. Ben Talei requires patients to put their phones in bags to prevent waiting-room contamination. And…

In the fraught, sweaty days following the police killing of George Floyd, Jurnee Smollett has been working through a battery of emotions: There was profound grief, then fear, anxiety and, now, rage. “Oh, the rage,” she howls, “the rage I feel in my body.” Smollett’s gotten awfully good at channeling that rage, she says, convening with Black Lives Matter allies in church basements and Los Angeles streets whenever she can steal time away from her 3-year-old son, Hunter, for whom she doesn’t currently have regular childcare. Still, she can feel it now, coursing through her veins, as memories the actress has tried so hard to bury come flooding back. The soda cans hurled at her. The cop cars she was thrust into. The dead fish placed on her family’s lawn.…

FILM Channing Tatum (CAA, Hansen Jacobson) and Scooter Braun (CAA, Sloane Offer) will produce an untitled Lady Macbeth YA-centric musical for Amazon. Bradley Cooper (CAA) is in talks to star in Paul Thomas Anderson’s next feature, an untitled coming-of-age MGM drama set in the 1970s San Fernando Valley. Luca Guadagnino (WME, Goodman Genow) will direct an untitled biopic on Old Hollywood’s “male madame” Scotty Bowers. Amy Adams (WME, Linden, Sloane Offer) will star in an adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s upcoming novel Nightbitch for Annapurna. Courteney Cox (WME, Brillstein) will reprise her role as Gale Weathers for Spyglass Media Group and Paramount’s Scream relaunch. Alfonso Cuarón (WME, Anonymous, Ziffren Brittenham) will executive produce festival-bound feature The Disciple. Lucy Hale (ICM, Reel) will star in the survival thriller Borrego. Enrico Casarosa will…

My deep condolences to Mr. Tom Pollock’s family. He was a key figure in my development as a young filmmaker while he was head of Universal Pictures. He let me make and supported my films. He was the unsung hero of Do the Right Thing — he put his neck on the line. He did not cave in when many racist pundits told him not to release the movie in the summer for fear Black folks would run amok, would riot coming out of movie theaters. Despite tremendous pressure, Mr. Pollock stood his ground, releasing Do the Right Thing on June 30, 1989 (the same day as Tim Burton’s Batman), and so helped change the her/history of American cinema. I will miss you, my friend.…

On June 28, 3.7 million people watched as the BET Awards went virtual amid not only the COVID-19 pandemic but also uprisings for racial justice happening daily across the country. The show (largely) successfully closed in around a tagline — “Our culture can’t be canceled” — and struck a harmonious balance between the gravitas of the Movement for Black Lives and the need for celebratory entertainment. Two years prior, in that very awards ceremony, Netflix’s Strong Black Lead marketing team premiered its “A Great Day in Hollywood” commercial, tying the current wave of reinvigorated interest in Black stories to an iconic 1958 photograph by Art Kane, which captured jazz greats from Thelonious Monk to Dizzy Gillespie, in Harlem during the genre’s golden era. With 47 Black actors, writers, showrunners and…

Full House —1992— Smollett was cast a few seasons in, as Michelle Tanner’s best friend, Denise, a recurring part originally written as a young white girl. On Our Own —1994— Though it lasted only one season, the ABC family sitcom starred all six Smollett kids as siblings who lose their parents. Eve’s Bayou —1997— At 10, Smollett landed a starring role as Eve, opposite Samuel L. Jackson, in Kasi Lemmons’ directorial debut, an R-rated Southern drama. The Great Debaters —2007— She turned a reading into an audition, landing herself a key role in the Denzel Washington-directed period drama, based on a true story. Friday Night Lights —2009— Smollett played Jess, girlfriend to Vince (Michael B. Jordan) and wannabe coach, on the final two seasons of the beloved football drama. True…

KILLING EVE JODIE COMER & SANDR A OH For the second year in a row, these killer lead actresses will face off thanks to their respective performances as the quirky, fashion-loving assassin Villanelle and the neurotic intelligence investigator Eve Polastri. Last year, Comer, then 26, became the youngest winner ever in the category. Oh, who has been nominated for all three seasons, has yet to win, though she did take the Golden Globe in 2019. THE MORNING SHOW BILLY CRUDUP & MARK DUPLASS Crudup and Duplass earned their first Emmy acting nominations for their work on the Apple TV+ series, with the former playing network exec Cory Ellison and the latter portraying morning news show producer Chip Black. Crudup’s role is the showier of the two, but with the supporting…

Violent Los Angeles street culture on both sides of the law has been an abiding fascination in David Ayer’s output, notably in his bruising screenplay for Training Day and his nervy, documentary-style cop drama, End of Watch. The buddy dynamic and gritty milieu of the latter film invigorate the best elements of The Tax Collector, the writer-director’s return to a smaller-scale project after taking a critical hammering with the big-budget, high-concept outings of Suicide Squad and Netflix’s Bright. “So why another L.A. crime movie?” asks Ayer in his director’s statement provided to critics. Why, indeed. Despite some admirable aims, such as creating layered roles for the Latino acting community and spending production dollars in areas that could benefit from the economic boost, this grim bloodbath feels too routine to be…

On Aug. 5, PEN America published an explosive report that may put Hollywood on the defensive. Titled “Made in Hollywood, Censored by Beijing,” the 94-page study details how the major studios and A-list directors increasingly are making decisions — including cast, plot, dialogue and settings — “based on an effort to avoid antagonizing Chinese officials.” The nonprofit that champions free expression cites examples of the studios inviting Chinese government regulators onto their film sets to advise “on how to avoid tripping the censors’ wires,” including on Marvel’s 2013 film Iron Man 3. (The studios did not respond to PEN America when asked about claims in its report.) The report — which chronicles creative choices on such films as Dr. Strange, World War Z and the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick —…

In April, The Hollywood Reporter published an essay I’d written about my six-day experience in New York’s St. Luke’s Hospital, now Mount Sinai, while suffering from COVID-19, with difficulty breathing and a temperature that at one point hit 104. It had been quite a traumatic experience. Four months later — and here’s the honest truth — I’m not really sure how I’m doing. While my symptoms have dissipated for the most part, they also remain in subtle and, on some days, not-so-subtle ways. I can suffer terrible exhaustion. I’ve had swelling in my hands and feet. I had a few weeks where I had short-term memory loss; that went away thankfully. Sadly, it seems anyone who’s suffered with COVID-19 has also had some kind of residual symptoms. Saddest of all,…

How an Oscar Winner Created Netflix’s Signature Sound The familiar sound that introduces every Netflix stream — referred to internally as “Ta Dum” — was nearly something very different: a goat’s bleat. That’s according to Netflix vp product Todd Yellin, who told the Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast that goats and underwater bubbles were on a shortlist compiled by Oscar-winning sound designer Lon Bender, who created the audio logo that debuted in 2015. “I liked the sound of the goat,” Yellin says. “It was funny, quirky and our version of [MGM’s] Leo the Lion.” Ultimately, they went with Ta Dum, created by Bender rapping his wedding ring on his nightstand. (The ensuing chord, called “The Blossom,” is a guitar playing backward.) When consumers were polled, Ta Dum drew responses like “dramatic”…

Three months after elective surgical procedures were allowed to resume in California following the novel coronavirus shutdown March 17, plastic surgery is back in a big way, say L.A. docs, thanks largely to the use of Zoom and TikTok. “It was one thing sitting in a boardroom meeting, but it’s another thing when you’re staring at yourself a foot away from your computer screen,” Dr. Kevin Brenner says of the impact of videoconferencing. “People are like, ‘Oh my God, I didn’t realize I had all these wrinkles around my eyes.’ ” As a result, Brenner says he’s seen a huge surge in first-time and returning patients at his reopened Beverly Hills practice, keeping him booked solid in June and July with requests for Botox, fillers, face-lifts, nose jobs and liposuction,…

Hunkered down with his loved ones in L.A., producer turned food show host Phil Rosenthal — star of Netflix’s Somebody Feed Phil — has found comfort in familystyle to-go. “Our restaurant scene has really stepped up their game during incredibly difficult times,” he says. “From your local pizzeria to four-star, [to-go] food is unbelievable. These are people who are struggling, and they’re still not cutting corners. That’s integrity.” The all-around enthusiast shares a few of his favorites, adding: “This is how we’re traveling right now. A great meal is truly transportive.” Only Bavel and République are open for in-person outdoor dining. BAVEL “They’re changing up the menu almost every week. The value of the food is unreal.” $49 per person; 500 Mateo St., baveldtla.com ↓ N/NAKA “You get these gorgeous…

A Jewish Encino Man crossed with a droll spin on Fiddler on the Roof might sound like the best or worst pitch you ever heard. Either way, the oddball mix of goofy ’90s-style comedy with a sentimental heart makes An American Pickle a tough movie to dislike. What elevates it above the haphazard plotting of former SNL writer Simon Rich’s script is the dual-role lead turn of Seth Rogen, playing relatives divided by rivalry before rediscovering the comforts of their shared heritage. Planned as a theatrical release from Sony, the comedy was acquired in April by HBO Max as the first original feature to air on the streamer. It’s a capable directing debut for cinematographer Brandon Trost, who has shot several films with Rogen, including This Is the End and…

Like its title character, Babe, released a quarter-century ago, is the story of an underestimated little thing that went on to stupendous achievements. It began as the 1983 Dick King-Smith children’s book The Sheep-Pig, about an orphaned piglet who demonstrates a knack for herding sheep. In 1986, director George Miller (Mad Max) was on a flight from Sydney to London when a woman next to him laughed as she read the book. Miller immediately began negotiating with King-Smith for the rights — a process that took nearly a decade, with one sticking point being Miller’s determination to shoot in his native Australia. (“Pigs don’t fly, and neither do I,” said King-Smith, an Englishman who died at 88 in 2011.) Also slowing things down was the fact that the animals in…