| | | | What's news: The Daily Show will look for a new host and remain on Comedy Central. HRC is accepting donations from Disney once more. Billy Eichner's rom-com Bros opened to a poor $4.8m. China's National Day holiday box office revenue is down a whopping 67 percent from 2021's total. — Abid Rahman |
Sacheen Littlefeather 1946 - 2022 ►Courage. Dignity. Grace. Sacheen Littlefeather (Apache/Yaqui/Ariz.), the Native American actress and activist who took to the stage at the 1973 Academy Awards to reveal that Marlon Brando would not accept his Oscar for The Godfather, has died. She was 75.
Littlefeather died at noon Sunday at her home in the Northern California city of Novato surrounded by her loved ones. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which reconciled with Littlefeather in June and hosted a celebration in her honor just two weeks ago, revealed the news on social media Sunday night. The obituary. |
#MeToo, Five Years Later: Why Time's Up Imploded ►"Outside of pins being adorned to very fancy dresses on the red carpet, what came out of that organization?" When it was founded in the months after the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke in 2017, Time’s Up was supposed to put Hollywood’s considerable power and money — and its sudden outrage — to work fighting sexual harassment. Instead, the advocacy group is now a leaderless ghost organization, undone by conflicts of interest (and straight-up conflicts). THR's Rebecca Keegan looks at why Time’s Up collapsed and what might emerge to supplant it. The story.
—All is forgiven, part I. Six months after the Human Rights Campaign turned down the donation Disney CEO Bob Chapek pledged to give them, HRC is accepting a portion of the company’s $5m pledge toward organizations supporting LGBTQ rights protection. HRC had originally refused the donation because it wanted Disney to take meaningful action to ensure laws like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill wouldn’t pass. The story.
—All is forgiven, part II. Apple held the first screening for Will Smith and Antoine Fuqua’s upcoming film, Emancipation, on Saturday in Washington D.C. Though the fate of the project seemingly hung in the balance following Smith’s now-infamous Oscars slap, the screening indicates Apple is looking to release it soon. The story. |
The CW CEO Mark Pedowitz Exits ►"It was the right moment for me to hand over the leadership baton." Mark Pedowitz, the CEO of The CW, is stepping down from his role effective immediately, following its sale to station group Nexstar. The news was announced Monday as Nexstar, which officially took control of The CW on Oct. 1, unveiled its leadership team for the broadcast network. The story.
—Charged. The SEC has unveiled charges against Kim Kardashian for touting crypto assets on social media "without disclosing the payment she received for the promotion." The commission said Kardashian agreed to settle the charges, pay $1.26m in penalties, disgorgement and interest, while also cooperating with the SEC’s ongoing investigation. The story.
—"There were a lot of changes at the show, which could be exciting." Saturday Night Live's season 48 opened with Miles Teller and Andrew Dismukes in a “ManningCast” sketch, humorously analyzing the show — from what the cast is doing right and wrong in their jokes to the many departures. The premiere also featured guest appearances from Jon Hamm and Shaun White. The recap. |
Comedy Central: 'Daily Show' Will Continue ►"We will turn to the next chapter of The Daily Show and all of our incredible correspondents will be at the top of that list." THR's Lesley Goldberg reports that The Daily Show will go on without Trevor Noah. Sources close to the production tell Lesley that the long-running late-night series will indeed continue on at Comedy Central despite industry speculation that it could move to streamer Paramount+ after Noah signs off.
Lesley writes that Chris McCarthy — the Paramount exec who oversees Comedy Central, MTV and a slew of other linear cable networks — had lunch with Noah on Wednesday to discuss his future on the late-night show, but the host gave no indication he was going to announce his departure a day later. The story.
—🤝 Done deal 🤝 The fan engagement platform Fandom has acquired a number of entertainment and gaming brands from Red Ventures in a deal valued at about $55m. The acquired titles include TV Guide, Metacritic, GameSpot, Cord Cutters News, Comic Vine and Giant Bomb. The story.
—Familiar territory. Former NBC News anchor Natalie Morales is joining CBS News as a correspondent. The new job, which she will start Nov. 1, will be in addition to her role moderating the CBS daytime panel show The Talk. Morales left NBC a year ago to join The Talk. The story.
—Deep fake news. Bruce Willis’ team is dismissing the notion that the star sold his digital likeness to a deepfake company. Recent media reports suggested that the actor sold his rights to Deepcake to authorize the creation of a “digital twin” of himself to appear in projects following the announcement that he has stepped away from performing. His team denies the existence of any such arrangement. The story.
—Ruling reversed. Tennessee’s high court has vacated a ruling that required police to publicly release their investigation of country singer Naomi Judd’s death. Judd’s family filed a petition in August, saying the police records contain video and audio interviews with relatives in the immediate aftermath of Judd’s death. The story.
—"The point is early detection is important." Vampire Academy co-creator and showrunner Julie Plec has revealed that a cancer scare led to her having a kidney removed. Plec made the admission at Saturday night’s Barbara Berlanti Heroes Gala at Santa Monica Barker Hanger where the speakers shared personal stories about how cancer has impacted or taken the lives of loved ones. The story. |
Billy Eichner Decries Homophobia After Dismal 'Bros' Opening ►"Everyone who ISN’T a homophobic weirdo should go see BROS." Comedian-actor Billy Eichner didn’t hold back when taking to Twitter on Sunday to comment on the dismal box office opening of his new comedy, Bros. The Universal film — which marks the first gay romantic comedy released by a major Hollywood studio — debuted to a dismal $4.8m after doing little business in much of middle America and the South. The story.
—Smile when you're winning. Paramount has another success on its hand as horror film Smile opened to a strong $22m from 3,645 theaters to top the weekend chart. Parker Finn's debut feature started off with $8.2m on theaters on Friday — including $2m in previews. To boot, Smile cost just $17m to make before marketing (it was originally intended for streaming) so it will be a major profit generator.
THR's Pamela McClintock writes that Smile is the latest box office win for Paramount, and particularly for its marketing department, led by Marc Weinstock. Smile's campaign went viral in recent days when Paramount hired several people to maintain the film’s signature creepy smile when sitting behind home base at several major league baseball games.
Elsewhere, Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling fell off steeply in its sophomore outing domestically. The New Line film earned $2.4m on Friday from 4,121 locations for a $7.3m weekend, a 62 percent drop and putting the movie’s 10-day domestic total at $32.8m. The box office report.
—In the doldrums. China’s latest propagandistic action movie, Rao Xiaozhi's Home Coming, easily won the country’s historically lucrative National Day holiday box office race with a $59.3m opening. But overall sales during the weekend were a fraction of the usual level, as a grinding slowdown in consumer activity continues to weigh on the film business. The frame’s overall sales total of just $88m was down 67 percent from the 2021 holiday total of $271m, and down 65 percent from 2020. The China box office report. |
Film Review: 'Till' ►"Uneven but elevated by a stirring lead turn." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Chinonye Chukwu's Till. The director follows Clemency with this account of Emmett Till’s lynching and the resilient woman who channeled her pain into the fight against racial injustice, premiering at the New York Film Festival. The review. — "A solid cop procedural that tries, with limited success, to brave thorny territory." THR TV critic Angie Han reviews CBS' East New York. Created by William Finkelstein ( NYPD Blue) and Mike Flynn ( Power Book III: Raising Kanan), the show stars Amanda Warren as the recently promoted boss of Brooklyn's working-class 74th Precinct. The review. In other news... —Emerging Cinematographer Awards: DP Lawrence Sher urges filmmakers to take risks —The secret behind Shark Tank co-host Robert Herjavec’s jaw-dropping car collection: Don’t negotiate —Fire damages Mark Wahlberg’s childhood home in Boston —XTR Studios opens 35,000-sq-ft hub for doc production in Echo Park —Imagen Awards: Encanto, Love, Victor top winners list —Banijay names Netflix executive Cedric Brignon CFO —London Film Festival director Tricia Tuttle to step down after 2022 edition —StudioCanal chief Anna Marsh named deputy CEO of Canal+ Group — Antonio Inoki, Japanese wrestler and politician, dies at 79 What else we're reading... —Thomas Buckley talks to Hollywood VFX artists as the calls for unionization grow [ Bloomberg] —Great Charlie Warzel piece on how Elon Musk’s texts shatters the myth of the tech genius [ Atlantic] —Jacqueline Warwick wonders whether there are ways for children to experience the excitement of performing without the dangers of stardom [ Salon] —Eric Francisco spoke to actor Finn Jones about his turbulent time working on the widely-panned Netflix Marvel series Iron Fist and reveals he's still keen to play the character [ Inverse] —On the occasion of Poltergeist's 40th anniversary, Anthony Breznican looks into what really happened during the making of the horror classic [ VF] Today... ...in 1941, Warner Bros. premiered thriller The Maltese Falcon, starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor. The film, nominated for three Academy Awards, has since become a noir classic. The original review. Today's birthdays: Tessa Thompson (39), Lena Headey (49), Clive Owen (58), Alicia Vikander (34), Gwen Stefani (53), Neve Campbell (49), Denis Villeneuve (55), Greig Fraser (47), Shannyn Sossamon (44), Seth Gabel (41), Alanna Ubach (47), Noah Schnapp (18), Seann William Scott (46), Jessica Parker Kennedy (38), Ayo Edebiri (27), Amanda Walsh (41), Keiko Agena (49), Aramis Knight (23), Meagan Holder (38), Tommy Wiseau (67), Chris Marquette (38), Pamela Hensley (72), Tommy Lee (60), Janel Moloney (53), Hart Bochner (66), Lyna Khoudri (30), Ashlee Simpson (38), Greg Proops (63) |
| Madame Sylvia Wu, whose iconic restaurant Madame Wu’s Garden served Hollywood A-listers for decades, has died. She was 106. The obituary. |
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