Innholdsfortegnelse for August 14, 2024 i The Hollywood Reporter

Is there a path back? That still stands as an unanswered question in the wake of the #MeToo tsunami that swept Hollywood starting with the downfall of Harvey Weinstein in 2017. And it’s a question that now presents itself with new specific, thorny facts — accompanied by a cloud of nebulous rumors — as Skydance moves closer to sealing a deal with Paramount that would install former NBCUniversal chief Jeff Shell as president of the combined entity. Shell never has been accused of being a predator who assaulted or coerced women, but as any industry watcher knows, he was fired last August for an inappropriate relationship with Hadley Gamble, an international CNBC correspondent based in Abu Dhabi. Some NBCU executives and industry observers were shocked that Shell, who often sang…

In September 2022, a few months before he unexpectedly returned to Disney, Bob Iger warned that “a world of hurt” was coming to the linear TV business. Sitting onstage at The Beverly Hilton, Iger told his interviewer, Kara Swisher, that “linear TV and satellite is marching toward a great precipice, and it will be pushed off. … I can’t tell you when, but it goes away.” It now feels like the business has finally plummeted off that precipice. On Aug. 7, Warner Bros. Discovery took a $9.1 billion impairment (when a company writes down the value of an asset for accounting purposes) on its linear cable channels, a move made in part because of the apparent loss of NBA rights and uncertainty around affiliate renewals. A couple of days later,…

In the crowded true-crime media space, MrBallen has kept his approach pretty simple. He appears on his YouTube channel wearing a flannel shirt and backwards baseball cap in every video, speaking directly to his audience, as if he’s telling them a story. That style continues on his podcasts, where he notes that he never adopts a “dark and scary voice” to amp up the fear factor, though he does build the suspense nevertheless. Rather, MrBallen, or John Allen, says that the character of MrBallen is only a slightly exaggerated version of himself, presented in a way that’s meant to feel relatable. It’s an approach that’s paid off, with Allen at the center of a media empire that includes the MrBallen YouTube channel, with more than 9million subscribers; the popular MrBallen…

Weddings Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider married TV host Dee Dee Sorvino on July 23 at a drive-thru wedding chapel in Las Vegas. The couple followed with an Aug. 1 party at the Hollywood Museum, where they met a year earlier. Births Patrick McCarthy, senior vp communications at Universal Studio Group, and his husband, writer-producer Tyler Christensen, welcomed son Archer Jens McCarthy on July 30 at Memorial Medical Center in Modesto, California. Congrats Jeanne Mau was promoted to executive vp for TV programming diversity, equity and inclusion at NBCUniversal on Aug. 5. Charlotte Simms and Mary Pender joined WME’s Literary Media Department on Aug. 5. Fox News Media’s Trey Yingst was promoted to chief foreign correspondent Aug. 6. Trey Durst was upped to vp U.S. distribution for Fremantle’s International…

Last year, Kartoon Studios (then Genius Brands) unveiled two educational animated series that were almost completely created by artificial intelligence. ChatGPT wrote the scripts, with other AI tools generating the animation and voicing the characters. In one, Warren Buffett’s Secret Millionaires Club — intended to teach kids financial literacy — a 3D animated Buffett is featured as a talking head speaking to the significance of mentors. Cartoon renderings of a piggy bank and a multigenerational family flash in the background, along with streaking brushes of color. “So remember, the trick to life is knowing who to be the bat boy for,” the famed investor says as a stock image of a baseball player shoots across the screen. “This is important to understand if you want to be a home run…

Like most people above the age of 6, Jennifer Twomey and Traci Paige Johnson were both flummoxed and fascinated by the sudden popularity of unboxing videos in the mid 2010s. The two best friends — who met while working on Nickelodeon’s megahit Blue’s Clues, which Johnson created in 1996 — couldn’t make sense of it. Clips of kids like Ryan Kaji (see page 58) unwrapping toys seemed to exploit a primordial glitch in toddlers’ developing brains. Where others might have seen the seeds of the threat that social media and user-generated content would pose to traditional kids programming, Paige and Johnson saw an opportunity. Rather than lament or fight the trend, they decided to co-opt it. “We started thinking, instead of unboxing a toy or a product, what if we…

At the beginning of Skincare, Austin Peters’ glibly clever feature debut, Hope Goldman reigns supreme. The L.A. aesthetician, played by Elizabeth Banks, is in the midst of launching her line of moisturizers, cleansers and serums. Hope is an old-school cosmetics-monger, who, after 20 years of exfoliating Hollywood’s most expensive faces, is ready to let regular people in on the secret. There’s just one problem: A new spa has opened across the street and its owner, Angel Vergara (Luis Gerardo Méndez), seems poised for a takeover. Skincare is inspired by the one-sided feud between West Hollywood facialists Dawn DaLuise and Gabriel Suarez. About 10 years ago, DaLuise spent time in jail for allegedly attempting to solicit the murder of Suarez. (A jury eventually acquitted her and, to this day, she insists…

Australian Film Television and Radio School Australia’s finest film and television school draws applicants from far and wide with its picturesque Sydney campus and many lecturers with deep ties to the Australian screen industry. Notable alumni include The Power of the Dog Oscar winner Jane Campion and Poor Things screenwriter Tony McNamara and a long list of accomplished craftspeople like Margaret Sixel (editing on Mad Max: Fury Road), David White (sound editing for Mad Max: Fury Road) and Andrew Lesnie (cinematography for The Lord of the Rings). In July, AFTRS also tapped Peter Noble, a local industry veteran of Indigenous background, to serve as director of the school’s First Nations and Outreach program, which develops training pathways for emerging and experienced industry practitioners from Australia’s culturally and racially marginalized groups.…

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively The couple reigns at No. 1 and 2 on the domestic box office chart as Deadpool & Wolverine and It Ends With Us nab $50 million-plus weekends. Nicole Clemens As part of a plan to cut $500 million in costs and make major layoffs to its U.S. workforce, Paramount TV Studios is being shuttered and its president is exiting. Roy Wood Jr. The longtime Daily Show correspondent nabs host duties as CNN hires the comedian to lead its quiz series adaptation Have I Got News for You. Dr. Phil McGraw Just six months after it launched, the TV host’s production company, Merit Street Media, undergoes significant layoffs amid restructuring. Showbiz Stocks $221.27 (+7%) APPLE (AAPL) After inflation worries and concerns around the Google antitrust suit…

Jeanette Moreno King’s daughter is 17 and wants to eventually work in animation. As the president of The Animation Guild (TAG) — a union that represents more than 5,000 artists, writers, technicians and production workers — Moreno King, you might think, would eagerly encourage this dream. She’s instead advising caution. “I can’t promise her that that’s going to be possible,” she says. The industry is in turmoil as TAG entered its latest round of contract talks with top studios and streamers on Aug. 12. As the business undergoes a major contraction, rounds of layoffs have buffeted top firms like Netflix Animation, DreamWorks Animation and Pixar in the past few years. There’s also the threat of generative AI on the horizon, with several animation roles expected to be among those hardest…

The year in music already belonged to Post Malone well before he scored the longest-running No. 1 song of the year (so far) with the lead single off his upcoming album, the Morgan Wallen-assisted “I Had Some Help.” In an unlikely coincidence, he had been summoned by the musical gods of contemporary music — Beyoncé and Taylor Swift — to appear on both of their recent albums, which were released three weeks apart in March and April. You could call Malone the luckiest artist in the world, but getting the call from Bey and Tay only proves he’s got the special sauce that could turn into potential Grammy gold for the rapper/singer/songwriter/guitarist/rising country star who has 10 career nominations with no wins. THR breaks down how Malone, who holds the…

Where in the World Is Diller’s Memoir? In late July, when Barry Diller’s forthcoming memoir, Who Knew, suddenly disappeared from Amazon — after it had popped up for presales ahead of a planned fall release — it raised all sorts of eyebrows. Had the book’s publisher, Knopf, pulled the project for some reason? Had there been an issue with Amazon (and Target, too, which also was taking preorders)? Was the tome even real in the first place? After all, Knopf hadn’t announced anything about a book deal with Diller, despite an early leak to Page Six. The answer, it turns out, is none of the above. Sources close to the project tell Rambling Reporter that it was Diller himself who delayed publication. After sending early copies to a close circle…

IN EARLY APRIL 2008, a few dozen people, including me, filed into a recording studio in midtown Manhattan to meet Disney’s “Next Big Thing.” That was how the company introduced a then-15-year-old Demi Lovato to the world, or to roughly 30 members of the media and advertising community. The wide-eyed teen was in New York for the first time, and, upon taking her seat at a piano and belting out “This Is Me,” immediately established herself an exceptional talent. The power ballad was from Camp Rock, the first in a series of Disney projects that she’d lined up. Another movie (Princess Protection Program), a TV series (Sonny With a Chance), an album and tours with and without the Jonas Brothers would follow in stunningly quick succession. It was, at the…

Carol Burnett certainly doesn’t need any more accolades to confirm her legendary status: In a career that has spanned more than six decades, she became a household name thanks to the groundbreaking Carol Burnett Show (1967-78), and has shined on major mediums from Broadway to films. She’s earned Emmys, Golden Globes, a Tony and a Grammy, with only an Academy Award missing from her mantel. But Burnett isn’t pining to get EGOT status. “I don’t think movies are my deal,” Burnett says plainly when asked about it. But Palm Royale, Abe Sylvia’s comedy series about a woman infiltrating Palm Beach’s high society, was very much her deal, especially when she heard Kristen Wiig would play the lead character. Burnett, Emmy nominated for her supporting role in the series, talks to…

SAVING BIKINI BOTTOM: THE SANDY CHEEKS MOVIE (AUG. 2, NETFLIX) AS REVIEWED BY LEAH WEPRIN, 8, DAUGHTER OF ALEX WEPRIN, THR MEDIA AND BUSINESS WRITER Sandy and SpongeBob go on a mission to save their town in Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie. Will they save it? Or will they get caught? The movie is about Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence), a girl squirrel who loves science, and her friend SpongeBob SquarePants (Tom Kenny). One day a giant claw machine takes everyone and their houses from Bikini Bottom. When Sandy learns it’s her old science lab in Texas that did this, she decides that she and SpongeBob need to go and save them. They have many adventures, like in one part they had to fight snakes! And Sandy Cheeks’ family…

The team behind the low-budget Canadian kids’ sketch show You Can’t Do That on Television didn’t know it would help define the Nickelodeon brand when it premiered 45 years ago. British TV producer Roger Price had created several children’s programs in the U.K. before moving to Canada, where he aimed to launch a show that respected kids’ perspectives and didn’t condescend to them. Price wasn’t one to glamorize childhood, having endured a tough upbringing that included boarding school in Switzerland. Inspired by adult-focused programs like Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, YCDTOT featured mostly amateur child actors playing kids who were putting on their own TV show while dealing with incompetent adults. Premiering on CJOH-TV in Ottawa on Feb. 3, 1979, it earned the stateside attention of fledgling network Nickelodeon, which began…

AUG. 13-21 Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS Tour The three-time Grammy winner rolls into L.A. for six shows: Aug. 13, 14, 16 and 17 at Kia Forum and Aug. 20 and 21 at the nearby Intuit Dome. AUG. 15 Intuit Dome Grand Opening L.A. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer will unveil his $2 billion Inglewood arena with a star-studded red carpet and ribboncutting ceremony, as Bruno Mars kicks things off with two nights of shows. AUG. 17 ‘Kirsten Dunst Slumber Party’ at Cinespia Cinespia will host a Dunst double feature at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, with Bring It On followed at midnight by The Virgin Suicides; cinespia.org Nova Music Festival Exhibit Opening After launching in New York, the show — honoring the victims of the Oct. 7 attacks at Israel’s Nova Music Festival —…

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With hundreds of doctors to choose from in Beverly Hills alone, selecting the right professional for a cosmetic procedure can be overwhelming. “There are people who don’t know where to begin,” says Melinda Farina, founder of Beauty Brokers Inc., the leading global aesthetics consultancy for the past 25 years. Based in New York, Farina was motivated to start her company after witnessing friends and colleagues wind up with inferior results. “So many people were getting botched and winding up on the cover of tabloids,” she says. “They were choosing the wrong surgeons for themselves, and I wanted to help provide a beautiful outcome.” Zoom consultations start at $450, with Farina or one of her 11 colleagues learning what the patient is interested in addressing, followed by reviewing doctor wish lists…

When The Hollywood Reporter assembled its first Kids Entertainment Power List in 2023, it noted that the challenges facing the industry as a whole — competition for attention and financial pressures chief among them — were the same for those making content for children and teens. A year later, that still holds true. Several of the creators on last year’s list had their shows canceled. The contraction of kids and teen programming arguably started sooner than it did industry-wide, and it’s still occurring. There’s also a lot of good news: Kid-centric films Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4 and Kung Fu Panda 4 are three of the six top-grossing movies worldwide so far this year. SpongeBob SquarePants is entertaining its third generation of children, and Sesame Street its fourth or…

“Screens within virtual spaces with a global viewership of friends.”Dave Filoni, Lucasfilm “VR machines and phones.”Raven-Symoné “Their hands.”Guy Raz, Wow in the World “Probably some technology that doesn’t even exist yet.”Brad Winderbaum, Marvel Studios “The moon.”Jonas Pate, Outer Banks “Watches.”Shannon Burke, Outer Banks “YouTube.”Chris Williams, pocket.watch “Netflix!”Hannah Minghella, Netflix “Co-viewing of TV and movies will decrease even quicker in the next five years. Kids in Alpha generations are growing up with their own tablet/smartphone. Individual viewing will become prominent.”Shion Kanji, Ryan’s World “TVs! They will still use tablets and small screens on the go, but, honestly, there’s some magic about a big screen that will continue to draw kids in.”Sara DeWitt, PBS Kids “Their VR headsets in fully customized virtual theaters with friends from all over the world joining as…

Bowen Yang’s Saturday Night Live Emmy nomination landed on a day that started off quite uneventfully. He had spent the morning journaling and folding laundry. “It was a very sweet moment that coexisted with my boring, quotidian lifestyle,” Yang says of the instant he received the news via text from his team. But as he speaks, his life seems far from dull — in addition to SNL, he co-hosts the GLAAD and iHeartRadio Award-winning podcast Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and later this year will appear as Pfannee in the much-anticipated first installment of the two-part feature Wicked. The schedule seems grueling, but Yang is quite calm. “I just front-load the week,” he says. Mondays and Tuesdays are for Las Culturistas, then he heads to SNL’s table read on Wednesday.…

To lift a title from one of Wilson Rawls’ novels for kids, this has become the Summer of the Monkeys. Before we get to HBO’s Chimp Crazy and Netflix’s Secret Lives of Orangutans, devotees of the simian arts will be treated to Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey, a Carl Hiaasen adaptation from the streamer’s comedy patron saint, Bill Lawrence (Ted Lasso, Shrinking). Contrary to the show and novel’s name, the eponymous monkey is not, in fact, bad. Played by veteran animal thespian Crystal — you know her from Community, Friends and more — she is, in fact, quite good, reliable for reactive cutaways or wild, furry hijinks. She doesn’t always feel particularly connected to the plot of Bad Monkey, but it’s charming and fun just to have her around. And that…

On day three, I sat next to Darren Aronofsky. Talk about right time, right place,” recalls Matthew Libatique of his time at the American Film Institute. (The cinematographer went on to partner with the director on movies including Pi and Black Swan.) It shows that anyone attending a THR top film program could find themselves sharing a classroom with the next Shonda Rhimes, Ari Aster or Barry Jenkins — or become the next name themselves. But film schools, like Hollywood at large, are faced with an increasingly paramount question: “What’s next?” While Hollywood is preoccupied with concerns over artificial intelligence, many schools on this year’s list are already incorporating emerging technology into their curriculums with classes like Critical and Creative Approaches to AI (USC) and Producing and Screenwriting With AI…