Innholdsfortegnelse for June 21, 2023 i The Hollywood Reporter

On June 7, at roughly 9 a.m., the media parlor game shifted abruptly from how long CNN chief executive Chris Licht would remain in the job to who would replace him. Licht, whose turbulent tenure lasted just 13 months, had met his demise after a blistering 15,000-word profile appeared in The Atlantic. His boss, David Zaslav, who was described in the piece as the only person who could (and regularly would) interrupt Licht’s early morning workouts with 6:30 a.m. calls, has installed an interim executive leadership team: David Leavy, Virginia Moseley, Eric Sherling and internal frontrunner Amy Entelis. Multiple sources, inside Warner Bros. Discovery and out, say Zaslav will run a formal search, something he didn’t do when he hired Licht, because he can’t afford to make the same mistake…

The first trailer for Sony’s sex comedy No Hard Feelings, hitting theaters June 23, includes star Jennifer Lawrence consoling an ex by declaring she hasn’t forgotten him: “Last night, I thought, ‘I miss that fucker.’” Moviegoers might share similar nostalgia, recalling a not-long-ago era when studio offerings centering on ribald jokes would regularly play theatrically — before going missing. This summer suggests a possible changing of the tide. As audiences return to cinemas post-pandemic, studios appear to be using the next few months as a testing ground for the theatrical return of the R-rated comedy. No Hard Feelings, about an awkward teen whose parents hire Lawrence’s character to date him, will later have company from Lionsgate’s Joy Ride (July 7), Universal’s Strays (Aug. 18) and MGM’s Bottoms (Aug. 25). Such…

Since 2015, when the Emmys broke the category formerly known as outstanding variety series into two — variety talk and variety sketch — two shows have dominated. In variety talk, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver has won for seven consecutive years. In variety sketch, Saturday Night Live has taken it six times. But in 2023, these two juggernauts will be competing against each other thanks to yet another rule change. Now both fall under the banner of outstanding scripted variety series, described as shows that “are primarily scripted or feature loosely scripted improv and consist of discrete scenes, musical numbers, monologues, comedy stand-ups, sketches, etc.” So who will prevail? For years, it seems like voters have simply shrugged and cast their ballots for Last Week Tonight and SNL without…

3.6M viewers (episode 1) First-night ratings for the controversial drama starring Lily-Rose Depp and co-creator Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye have been soft: The Idol premiered to 913,000 viewers and fell by 12 percent in its second week. The 3.6 million viewers for the series premiere, however, is a little ahead of the debuts of Euphoria (3.3 million) in 2019 — before the launch of HBO Max — and The White Lotus (3 million) in 2021. Those shows held steady or grew their audiences over the course of their first seasons, though, which The Idol didn’t do for its second episode.…

In a town where plastic surgery is as ubiquitous as kombucha, where and how one recuperates can be as vital as which board-certified doctor performs the operation. “People are investing upward of $100,000 on cosmetic surgeries but choosing to skimp on the post-op care, and it’s not a good idea,” Beverly Hills-based plastic surgeon Lisa Cassileth, who specializes in breast reconstruction, tells THR. “A lot can go wrong after major surgery, and having a friend or family member take care of you could set back the recovery and the result and ultimately affect how you end up looking.” Postsurgical retreats have been a mainstay in L.A. for years, with Serenity Aftercare, a healthcare facility in Santa Monica, reigning as the gold standard. But after it closed during the pandemic, a…

Following an emotional world premiere at Cannes, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny made its U.S. debut June 14 as Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, writer-director James Mangold and executive producers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas walked the red carpet in Hollywood. After more than four decades as the famous archaeologist, Ford reflected on his journey with the franchise, telling THR: “The success of these movies has really given me not only a chance to satisfy a broad audience, but because of their success, they’ve given me freedom in my chosen profession. And I’m grateful for that.”…

Adele Lim is anxious to hear my recap of the previous night’s screening of Joy Ride when she pipes in from her home office in early June. Not only is it the screenwriter’s directorial debut, but it’s a bawdy R-rated buddy comedy — the type of flick that rarely inspires the same reaction in a sparsely populated room of journalists as it does in theaters filled with friends. So she’s heartened to learn about the contagious laughter from one attendee. “You just need one unhinged bitch,” she says, “Then everybody’s like, ‘Greenlight the party!’” Lim, once a journeywoman TV scribe, has segued into film in a way that has made her a sought-after voice and even an accidental firebrand. Before her new film, one notably featuring four Asian American leads…

At Disney, the CFO job has long been intertwined with rumors of succession. More than a decade ago, Tom Staggs (now Candle Media CEO) had been CFO before moving to oversee the company’s parks business, and then to the COO position, where he was widely seen as a possible successor to Bob Iger. Jay Rasulo, who succeeded Staggs as CFO, stepped down from the role after Staggs’ promotion to COO in 2015, having lost the battle over who would become second-in-command to Iger. Not much has changed. Iger is still in charge in his second tour as CEO, and the CFO role is once again throwing a wrench in Disney’s succession drama. Christine McCarthy, who was named Disney’s CFO in 2015, after Rasulo’s resignation, said June 15 that she would…

While closed captioning was once a niche service used mostly by hard-of-hearing viewers, subtitles have seen an explosion in the streaming age; deaf-led charity Stagetext found in a 2021 survey that 80 percent of 18 - to 24-year-olds use subtitles some or all of the time when watching TV on any device, and only 10 percent of those surveyed were deaf or hard of hearing. It also found that only 23 percent of those in the 56-75 age group use captions, despite a higher rate of hearing loss. This cultural shift has coincided with there being more to watch than ever before, particularly with content that is streamed around the world rather than just broadcast in the U.S. That’s created a massive task for the companies behind film and TV…

Poker Face pulled off many things in its debut season. With its murder-mystery-of-the-week plot in a new spin on the detective genre, the Natasha Lyonne-starring Peacock series from Rian Johnson revived the concept of procedural television for streaming, saw Benjamin Bratt turn a catchy Blues Traveler song into a poetic monologue and recruited Star Wars legend Phil Tippett for one episode’s special effects. But perhaps most impressive, Poker Face assembled an eye-popping roster of guest stars. How did they nab Nick Nolte to play opposite Cherry Jones in Hollywood saga “The Orpheus Syndrome”? Who knew that Ellen Barkin and Tim Meadows would have such fiery chemistry in theater sendup “Exit Stage Death”? How did they convince the likes of Adrien Brody, Stephanie Hsu, Ron Perlman and Tim Russ to come…

FILM AFTER LOVE A transcendent chamber piece, Aleem Khan’s feature-length directorial debut is graced with an exceptional lead performance from Joanna Scanlan as an English woman who converted to Islam for marriage years ago — only to discover, when her husband dies, that he was living a shocking double life. It’s a miraculous study of grief, jealousy and ultimately compassion, all executed with very little dialogue. — LESLIE FELPERIN ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET Kelly Fremon Craig’s adaptation of the classic Judy Blume novel about a girl on the cusp of puberty is charming, heart-warming, and beautifully acted and scored. But its magic comes from its respectful reanimation of the source material: The film stays close to Margaret and her emotions, using them to honor an already sturdy…

Amy Entelis CNN’s head of talent and content development would be a stabilizing force and a familiar leader for anchors and correspondents after the larger chaos of the AT&T and Discovery mergers. Entelis, who is one of the interim leaders for CNN since Chris Licht’s exit, also served as an interim leader after Jeff Zucker’s departure last year. David Leavy The longtime lieutenant and confidant of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is now CNN’s COO and brings an operational background to the interim team. A veteran of the Clinton White House (he was chief spokesperson for the National Security Council), Leavy is based out of D.C., a critical bureau for CNN as the 2024 election gets underway. Virginia Moseley The executive oversees CNN’s editorial departments, which include its wide-reaching…

What FYC Season Is Like for a First-Timer For his first awards campaign, James Marsden stood in front of a taco truck on Laurel Canyon in Studio City on June 14 to greet fans and do press about his Freevee series, Jury Duty. “I’ve never been in this conversation, so it’s not a typical tour that I’m used to,” Marsden told THR of the FYC swirl. “It makes it so much more fun to do this type of stuff. Promoting projects can sometimes be a slog, especially if you don’t like the project. I’ve been really lucky over the years that it’s usually something I’m proud of. And [Jury Duty] was a completely different experience — I’ve never been a part of something as meteoric. TikTok grabbed it, and we…

Weddings Pinky Cole, CEO and founder of plant-based burger chain Slutty Vegan, married Big Dave’s Cheesesteak CEO Derrick Hayes on June 10 at the St. Regis Atlanta. Montell Jordan officiated, and Doug E. Fresh performed for guests including Jeezy, Jeannie Mai and DJ D-Nice. Births Anna Berthold-Zuk, a motion picture literary agent at UTA, and wife Jessica Berthold-Zuk, director of marketing at The Maybourne Beverly Hills, welcomed daughter Ruth Donatella Berthold-Zuk on March 8 at Cedars-Sinai. Congrats Stuart Alexander joined Eris Talent Agency on June 14. Shane Prigmore was named senior creative adviser at Warner Bros. Pictures Animation on June 13. Chris Morrow was tapped as head of audio at Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment on June 13. Annette Bening was named board chair of the Entertainment Community Fund, formerly…

Last year started with a bang for brokers in New York, but by fall and into 2023, a series of unfortunate events was putting a stranglehold on the market. Historically low interest rates gave way last year to the highest in decades. Crypto crashed and banks failed. The specter of an all-out recession loomed. In the first quarter of 2023, the average sales price of a property in NYC dropped 5 percent. But despite the challenges, many real estate teams managed to post record numbers at the luxury end of the market. And in 2022, New York toppled London for the title of priciest world city in the ultra-high-end sector, with 287 deals of $10 million or more, including two co-ops sold by the estate of Paul Allen (for $101…

With good reason. The Yellowstone showrunner — who’s gone from an obscure actor to the most prolific writer in Hollywood in about a decade — isn’t known for pulling his punches and, lately, has been at the center of a stampede of dramatic headlines. His flagship show’s star, Kevin Costner, is exiting the series amid anonymous finger-pointing in the press. There have been showrunner shake-ups on two of his other projects — the Sylvester Stallone drama Tulsa King and the upcoming spy thriller Special Ops: Lioness — where Sheridan seized the creative reins. The creator was also the subject of a recent report that suggested he uses his production budgets to pad his pockets. And his lone-wolf writing style irks some of the writers marching in picket lines who are…

COMEDY BEST SERIES Sterlin Harjo’s Reservation Dogs, heartbreaking one week and hilarious the next and always infused with its distinctive Indigenous voice, premiered its second season in August; it feels like the FX/Hulu comedy has been a little forgotten. The same is true of the fourth and final season of FX/Hulu’s Atlanta, which returned to its home turf after a European sojourn, poking fun at Tyler Perry, A Goofy Movie and D’Angelo. Figure HBO/Max’s Barry and ABC’s Abbott Elementary are safe and worthy nominees, leaving space for less obvious dark horses like Netflix’s Mo, FXX’s Dave and Nathan Fielder’s HBO/Max series The Rehearsal, oddly categorized here. — D.F. BEST ACTOR With the usual caveat about Barry maybe being more drama than comedy, Bill Hader deserves his flowers for his gripping…