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.
I’ve often marveled at the resilience of Hollywood during this seemingly never-ending pandemic: putting on awards shows, releasing blockbuster movies, entertaining the masses via streaming services and anointing new stars, all while complying with mask mandates and taking PCR tests. As amazing as that is, perhaps what has been more miraculous has been how our youth has adapted, and even at times found a way to thrive despite being deprived of key milestones in their formative years: the camaraderie of schoolmates, proms, connecting with teachers outside of a computer screen. It’s what makes the accomplishments of THR’s Women in Entertainment Mentorship Program, in coordination with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles, so remarkable. Faced with the daunting hurdles of COVID-19, it would have been easy for mentors to…
ALEXIS COOPER A3 Artists Agency Taya El Segundo High School JANET DAILY Walt Disney Television Destiny New Open World Academy JAMILA DANIEL Lionsgate/Starz A’Lysse City Honors High School NATALIA DESROSIERS NBC Entertainment Giselle Animo Inglewood Charter High School SUPERNA KALLE Starz Cathy Dominguez High School KRISTEL LAIBLIN Film producer and executive Kyra Lawndale High School KRISTIN LOWE DreamWorks Animation Lilibeth Compton Early College High School WENDY LUCKENBILL Fox Sports Ailani Lawndale High School JENNA SANTOIANNI Paramount Television Studios Briana Dominguez High School TRACY ST. PIERRE Universal Studio Group Kriselle Kennedy High School DAWN STEINBERG Sony Pictures Television Daniela Hamilton High School TEENY STILLINGS Walt Disney Television Ashly Kennedy High School CHRYSTINA WOODY TRAIN Buckshot Marketing De’Ja City Honors High School…
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo’s abrupt termination on Dec. 4 has thrown a wrench into the cable news channel’s 2022 plans. CNN was originally hoping to leverage Cuomo, who hosted its most watched nightly program (Cuomo Prime Time), to help it launch CNN+, its forthcoming streaming service. CNN had already found digital success with Cuomo through a podcast he hosted with Don Lemon called The Handoff, which Apple said in November was the fifth most popular subscription podcast on its platform. The CNN+ launch in turn would lead into parent company WarnerMedia’s merger with Discovery, which staff is hoping will result in renewed investment in news when it closes next year. Instead, CNN now finds itself having to effectively rebuild its primetime lineup and decide whether it wants to lean into…
Jeymes Samuel The director’s star-studded Netflix Western The Harder They Fall tops Nielsen’s streaming chart with a sizable 1.2 billion minutes of viewing time in its first week. Robert Simonds The STX chief’s merger with India’s Eros lasts less than two years as the studio is sold to private investment firm The Najafi Companies for $173 million. Geoff Morrell Disney taps the former BP exec for the newly created role of chief corporate affairs officer with a broad portfolio that includes succeeding the retiring Zenia Mucha. Bob Greenblatt/Neil Meron NBC’s Annie Live!, led by the exec producers, doesn’t pay off as the Dec. 3 airing draws 5.34 million viewers — the least watched of the network’s live musicals. Showbiz Stocks $31.28 (+1.2%) VIACOMCBS (VIAC) The company’s deal with Korean entertainment…
As Jussie Smollett awaits his fate in a Chicago court, accused of staging a fake hate crime in January 2019, his once-promising career also hangs in the balance. The 39-year-old actor’s prospects have drastically diminished since his story about being attacked by two men who used racial and homophobic slurs began to unravel. UTA distanced itself and quietly stopped working with him in the immediate aftermath (he is no longer a client), THR has learned. Likewise, he hasn’t booked an acting gig in two years. And his most loyal backer, former Time’s Up CEO Tina Tchen, who once made the highly unorthodox move of lobbying the Cook County State’s Attorney to talk to the Smollett family days before previous charges against the Empire star were dropped, has faced a comeuppance…
On Dec. 5, the cast of Netflix’s Don’t Look Up converged on the stage of Jazz at Lincoln Center for the film’s world premiere. With stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep looking on, director Adam McKay recalled the night of March 11, 2020, when everything changed and “our lives were never the same again.” Nearly two years later, Hollywood is still living the surreal life, this time bracing for the latest COVID-19 wave: omicron. Four days earlier, Netflix nixed the premiere’s afterparty “out of an abundance of caution for the health and safety of our guests” and quietly canceled the entire international press tour of the awards-season hopeful that would have seen DiCaprio and a pregnant Lawrence promoting the film everywhere from London to Paris. While Don’t Look…
