Innholdsfortegnelse for May 12, 2021 i The Hollywood Reporter

The definition of “power” is open to interpretation. For some, power is the reputation of great strength; for others, it represents the ability to get things done. And for others, it’s all about the title. As The Hollywood Reporter takes stock of the women who comprise the industry’s power players, those benchmarks can be integral to determining who are among the most influential. But there are other measurements of power that are important to note as we highlight the voices of key women for our annual Women in Entertainment issue — trailblazers like Charlotte Brown, the first female showrunner on network TV with Rhoda in the 1970s. One can only imagine the strength required to thrive in all-male writers rooms, to navigate and negotiate in male-dominated spaces, to create spaces…

Sally Buzbee After meeting with Jeff Bezos, Buzbee, executive editor at The Associated Press, nabs one of the most high-profile jobs in journalism and will lead The Washington Post. Mark Zoradi The Cinemark CEO sees losses widen at the movie theater chain from nearly $60 million a year ago to $208 million in its latest quarter. Bob Bakish The ViacomCBS chief exceeds Wall Street expectations for ad revenue gains in its latest quarter and crosses 36 million global subs to services like Paramount+ and Showtime. Michael Rapino The Live Nation CEO leads the music and events venue giant to a $303 million loss in its latest quarter but forecasts pent-up demand for concerts as COVID-19 vaccinations rise. Showbiz Stocks $10.05 (+6.8%) AMC ENT. (AMC) In its latest earnings report, the…

FILM Ant-Man and the Wasp’s Hannah John-Kamen (Paradigm, the U.K.’s Scott Marshall, Luber Roklin) will star in Millennium’s sword-and-sorcery feature Red Sonja, directed by Joey Soloway. John David Washington (WME) has joined Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi movie True Love for New Regency. Owen Wilson (UTA, Hirsch Wallerstein) will star in the family action-comedy Secret Headquarters for Paramount and Jerry Bruckheimer. Diego Boneta (UTA, Grandview, COLOuRSCMX, Hansen Jacobson) has joined Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan in Warner Bros.’ remake of Father of the Bride. Sarah Silverman (UTA, Thruline, Ziffren Brittenham) will star opposite Blair Underwood in the indie psychological thriller Viral, which Underwood also is producing and directing. Gabourey Sidibe (UTA, Authentic, Felker Toczek) will make her feature directorial debut with thriller Pale Horse, with…

Meet Cute Diary (QUILL TREE BOOKS, MAY 4) BY Emery Lee AGENCY WME The YA story in the vein of Love, Simon and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is filled with rom-com tropes and follows a trans boy who starts a fake relationship in order to save his popular online blog that is being targeted by a troll. One Got Away (FLATIRON, APRIL 13) BY S.A. Lelchuk AGENCY Gersh The second book in a series that is ready-made for a network procedural follows Nikki Griffin — an investigator known for helping abused and wronged women — as she assists the matriarch of a wealthy family to find a con man.…

“The HFPA is an organization that was legitimized by the likes of Harvey Weinstein.” SCARLETT JOHANSSON The actress, in a statement, urging Hollywood to “step back” from the “sexist” organization behind the Golden Globes. Two days later, NBC pulled the plug on the 2022 telecast. “I have not, and I do not plan to right now.” SETH ROGEN The actor, in The Sunday Times, revealing he has no intention to again collaborate with longtime friend James Franco in the wake of the sexual misconduct accusations levied against him. “That was always part of the plan.” STEVEN SODERBERGH The filmmaker, to the Los Angeles Times, explaining that the Oscars’ finale with the best actor category — resulting in an abrupt ending with an absent Anthony Hopkins winning — did not faze…

Weddings Julia Bodner, a nonscripted television agent at WME, married Brett Cohen on March 25 at Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston, New Jersey. The couple first met at the temple in third grade. Comedian Hannah Gadsby announced via Instagram she wed producer Jenney Shamash in January. Births Nate Steadman, senior vp at Gersh, and wife Jenny Steadman, an actor, welcomed son Jackson Clyde Steadman on April 12 at St. John’s in Santa Monica. John Griffin, talent agent and president of Griffin Talent, and wife Melissa Griffin welcomed their third child, daughter Macy Charlotte Griffin, on Feb. 8 at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. Congrats Nasim Cambron was named executive vp publicity for STXfilms on May 6. Brianna Shebby joined UTA as an agent in its unscripted television division May 6. Dan DeNicola was…

YAMICHE ALCINDOR PBS C.V. The daughter of Haitian immigrants, she covered the Trump and Sanders campaigns as a national political reporter for The New York Times; newly appointed moderator of PBS’ Washington Week. Chyron worthy Won the White House Correspondents’ Association’s award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage in 2020; is married to fellow journalist Nathaniel Cline. KAITLAN COLLINS CNN C.V. The University of Alabama grad joined CNN in 2017 after a stint at The Daily Caller; became the youngest chief White House correspondent at CNN when she was promoted in January. Chyron worthy Collins has become known for her trademark on-air turtlenecks. “You’re juggling so many things that the last thing I want to think about is what I’m wearing. “ NANCY CORDES CBS News C.V. Following her…

MY DAY: April 28, 2021 SAMANTHA BEE The Full Frontal With Samantha Bee host’s recent day included three drives between studio and home 5 A.M. I get up in the fives, which is outrageous, but I can’t help it. I’m generally an early riser, but the pandemic has really adjusted my sleep habits. Now I live life like a farmer in the 1800s — as the first birds are chirping, I’m up milking the cows. First thing I do is turn on the news and make coffee. I get my coffee maker ready the night before because I’m such a nerd and I like to just press a button in the morning and have it just instantly be ready. I’m at the house by myself; my kids are in…

During a year filled with so much pain for so many, my mantra has been: “Try not to complain.” After all, I’m healthy. My immediate loved ones are healthy, and I’ve been fortunate to keep working in a profession I love, in a year when the pandemic drove plenty of Americans to food pantries. Yet like most human beings with a heartbeat, I couldn’t escape being emotionally impacted by traumatic events of the past year, and subsequently my work was impacted as well. For instance, after George Floyd’s killing, I was moved to add a scene to a script that was supposed to be a celebration of Black hair. As written, it’s simply a moment of two Black women preparing their hair in silence. Only when it ends does the…

While the past 14 months may have seen a shift in the usual benchmarks for success, these execs, filmmakers, showrunners and multihyphenates rose above the turmoil with vision and resilience 2021’S TOP TIER An exec who gambled on an unconventional streaming strategy, a filmmaker ensuring that Hollywood can no longer make excuses about noninclusive sets, and a mega-producer with one incredibly sexy period drama are among the industry vanguards who dominated the field this past year BELA BAJARIA VP Global TV, Netflix At the height of the pandemic, Bajaria’s purview — not unlike Netflix’s subscriber base, now at 208 million — grew considerably with the addition of former domestic content chief Cindy Holland’s portfolio. Today, Bajaria is tasked with overseeing all TV content for the global streamer, which includes a…

When consulting on the marketing and awards campaign for David Fincher’s The Social Network in late 2010, Terry Press needed to scope out the competition. She deftly arranged to see a screening of The King’s Speech at the Landmark Theatre on L.A.’s Westside. Swept up in the story, Press found herself weeping. “We’re going to lose,” she told a friend as the credits rolled. She didn’t sugarcoat her opinion when reporting back to Fincher, producer Scott Rudin and then-Sony chief Amy Pascal. The Social Network might have been a critics’ darling and already an Oscar frontrunner, but it didn’t matter. “This is going to be a fight,” she told them. “You might see The King’s Speech as rank sentimentalism, but do not underestimate its power to move people. Academy voters…

Marketing a Hollywood summer event pic is never an easy task. But this year, studios don’t just have to worry about the competition — they have to get people to return to the multiplex amid a pandemic. To that end, Hollywood and theater owners are supporting a variety of public service messaging efforts, and relying on star power to assist them. Recently, Matthew McConaughey and Vin Diesel both dropped PSA-like spots. Universal and AMC Theatres partnered on the Diesel piece, which was followed days later by a sizzle reel from Disney’s Marvel Studios, likewise urging fans to support cinemas and featuring new footage from its upcoming films, including Black Widow, which opens July 9. “We’ve had a long break, so we’re trying to remind people of the special experience of…

Deal of the Week Fox Corp. is showing some of its cards with its latest purchase. The media giant, led by Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch, unveiled the acquisition of sports website Outkick on May 5 that includes founder Clay Travis’ sports radio show. The deal is designed to fuel two burgeoning Fox businesses: streaming and sports betting. Outkick Media — led by Travis, whose bio states that he’s “banned from ESPN and CNN” because of his opinions — already has an exclusive marketing deal with Fox partner and sports betting firm FanDuel and serves as “a significant source of sports wagering referrals,” Fox disclosed. While keeping its poker face and not disclosing deal terms for Outkick, Fox leadership talked up the buy. CEO Lachlan Murdoch told analysts, “It’s really a…

On May 4, the Peabody Awards revealed its 60 nominees for streaming and broadcast media in 2020, with 30 winners to be selected. The entertainment nominees are I May Destroy You, Gentefied, The Good Lord Bird, La Llorona, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Never Have I Ever, Small Axe, Ted Lasso, Unorthodox and the Euphoria special “Trouble Don’t Last Always.” Oscar nominees Collective, Time and Crip Camp also are recognized in the documentary category. PBS scored the most noms with 12, followed by Netflix (nine), HBO (five), Amazon and Showtime (three each) and Apple TV+ and CBS (two apiece). The 19 jurors selected the finalists from more than 1,300 entries; winners will be announced in June. To submit, send email to hhh@thr.com…

With 1989’s A Dry White Season, Euzhan Palcy became a pioneer: The Martinique-born filmmaker was the first Black woman to direct a studio film; the first Black director to make an Oscar-nominated film; and the only woman to direct Marlon Brando, who emerged from retirement to play a South African civil rights litigator, earning him his eighth and final Oscar nomination (the film’s sole nomination). It was on the strength of her first movie, 1983’s Sugar Cane Alley, that Afrikaner author André Brink agreed to let Palcy adapt his novel about the crusade for justice of a white man (played in the film by Donald Sutherland) on behalf of a Black activist who is tortured to death by police. As research, Palcy, then 29, traveled undercover to Soweto to interview…

PETER CURY and KELSEY STEFANSON THR just relaunched its website, a feat led by creative director Peter Cury and deputy design director Kelsey Stefanson. Cury says the project was “a challenge that deepened my connection to THR as well as broadened my vision for the brand.” Adds Stefanson, “I’m thrilled that the look and experience of THR.com finally matches the quality of work my colleagues publish every day.” KELI GOFF Journalist, playwright, screenwriter and author Keli Goff, who will write and produce HBO’s Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That, spoke with female writers of color about how they processed the past year (page 56). “For some of us,” she writes, “the most powerful political act we can undertake is to simply keep writing.” NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES and BARRY JENKINS…

Bozoma Saint John has a résumé any executive would envy, having led marketing or branding at Pepsi-Cola, Apple Music, Uber and Endeavor before joining Netflix as CMO in June. In other words, it’s a track record that one would think industry insiders would seek to tout as an exemplar of their system working, exceptional merit attracting the top brands. But instead, in December, Ad Age called Saint John “the CMO most likely to jump jobs in 2021,” casting her career in a cynical light. Readers were swift to call out the publication’s characterization as an incident of bias, singling out and critiquing a rare Black female C-suite exec’s moves with no context or exploration of the myriad ways in which race and gender impact the workplace experience. (Ad Age apologized and…

Twelve years ago, The Hollywood Reporter and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles joined forces to form the Women in Entertainment Mentorship Program. Every year since, high-ranking female entertainment execs meet up with high school junior girls from underserved communities in South and East Los Angeles, helping to ready them for college and beyond. Four mentees each year receive full-ride scholarships to Loyola Marymount and Chapman University. Last year, during the pandemic, the program’s 18 mentor-mentee pairings shifted to video meetings. Kobalt Music’s Jeannette Perez and her mentee, Jessica, met in person only a few times before the lockdown. “Obviously it’s not what we expected,” says Perez. “But we were able to pivot.” One upside: Perez got some of her colleagues to drop in on Zooms for mock…

As India faces the world’s worst COVID-19 outbreak, more stars are stepping up to use their platforms to drive relief efforts. The GO Campaign is leaning on ambassadors Robert Pattinson, Lily Collins and Ewan McGregor to announce that its COVID Relief Fund will provide assistance with vaccinations, PPE, medicine, food, pulse oximeters, self-inflating resuscitators and other life-saving items. GO Campaign has set a goal of raising $250,000 from donors in the next two weeks to further fund relief efforts. Pattinson tells THR: “GO Campaign has been working for nearly a decade with grassroots heroes on the ground in India who are ready and able to deliver immediate relief during this crisis. GO offers a direct way to make a tangible difference for families who are suffering and need our help.”…

Relaxed Tailoring 1 Rolex The latest 36mm Datejust in Oystersteel highlights a palm-motif dial; $7,050, at Gearys, Beverly Hills 2 Givenchy GV Fame sunglasses; $250, at Saks Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills 3 Chopard Happy Hearts Flowers white-gold bangle with diamonds; $11,800, at Chopard, South Coast Plaza 4 Gucci Horsebit 1955 leather wallet; $950, at Gucci, Beverly Hills. Says style consultant Dana Asher Levine, “Clients dealing with quarantine weight don’t want to spend too much on clothes but still want statement accessories.” 5 Saint Laurent Wide-leg trousers in wool; $1,090, at Saint Laurent, Beverly Hills. “Anything with a high waist, from Saint Laurent to Levi’s, is topping everyone’s list,” says stylist Stephanie Gisondi-Little. 6 Prada Slingback with a kitten heel; $950, at Prada, Beverly Hills. “My clients aren’t interested [right now]…

In a year when much of the industry was flatlined by the pandemic, Netflix’s Bela Bajaria saw her purview balloon, as she assumed responsibility for the TV viewing habits of 208 million global members. Amazon’s Jennifer Salke muscled her way into both the Oscar conversation (thanks to Sound of Metal and One Night in Miami) and the blockbuster one (Coming 2 America); and Disney’s Dana Walden installed new and largely female leadership across a vast portfolio that includes broadcast, cable and streaming. Meanwhile, Shonda Rhimes released the buzziest show of the year with romance drama Bridgerton; and Ava DuVernay not only sold a slew of new projects but also fundamentally changed how Hollywood productions will be staffed going forward with her Array Crew database. On a Friday afternoon in late…

ERICA SHELTON KODISH Writer/Consulting producer, The Equalizer (CBS) The social unrest following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor heightened the sense of responsibility I felt as a Black woman writer to represent “us” well. But getting words on the page had never been harder. Many nights, I couldn’t sleep. And the pandemic and anxiety about the election had already created this mental noise when I sat at my computer, like a jackhammer outside the window.…

LOY A. WEBB Story editor, Ms. Pat (BET+) A year that has been filled with so much pain has given me permission to take a step back and remind myself that I am a creative well. And it is imperative that I take time and set professional boundaries to fill myself up with emotional, mental, spiritual and physical wellness. The art can wait, but if that well (aka you) is not taken care of, the art won’t matter. KIMIKO MATSUDA-LAWRENCE Story writer, Twenties (BET) As a Black and Asian American woman, I’ve carried the double weight of this year’s escalation of centuries-long American racial violence against my communities and struggled to work and write through the daily trauma it brings. Last summer, I had to get off of Twitter because…

Charlotte Brown’s career as an entertainment industry groundbreaker began — as Hollywood connections sometimes do — at the dentist. In the late 1960s, Brown, who would go on to become TV’s first female showrunner when she took over as the executive producer of Rhoda in 1976, was a junior copywriter at an ad agency, on the rise thanks to a particularly clever campaign she created for Bubble Up soda spoofing Laugh-In. The feminist movement was burgeoning, and Brown, then in her mid-20s, had bolder ambitions — she wanted to write for television. At the time, Brown shared a dentist with TV writer James L. Brooks, who had just created the series Room 222 with his writing partner, Allan Burns, and was at work on a new pilot, The Mary Tyler…