| | | | What's news: Showtime has canceled Let the Right One In and American Gigolo and pulled a host of shows from its streaming platform. FX has canceled Kindred. Hulu has canceled Reboot. Spotify has hit 205m premium subscribers. Marilyn Manson is facing another lawsuit for sex crimes. — Abid Rahman |
Cindy Williams 1947 - 2023 ►"She was one of a kind, beautiful, generous and possessed a brilliant sense of humor and a glittering spirit that everyone loved." Cindy Williams, the energetic actress who appeared in a pair of Oscar best picture nominees before starring as the idealistic Shirley Feeney on the beloved ABC sitcom Laverne & Shirley, has died. She was 75. Williams died in Los Angeles on Wednesday after a brief illness. The obituary.
—"There was not a genre she could not conquer." Henry Winkler, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael McKean and Ron Howard were among the notable figures in Hollywood remembering Williams on social media on Monday. Howard tweeted, "Her unpretentious intelligence, talent, wit and humanity impacted every character she created and person she worked with. We were paired as actors on 6 different projects. American Graffiti a couple of dramas and then Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley. Lucky me. RIP, Cindy." The reaction. |
Showtime and Paramount+ to Merge ►Rumors confirmed. Paramount Global is making a major change to its linear and streaming businesses, merging Paramount+ and Showtime in both areas. For starters, both the Showtime linear pay-TV channel and the premium tier of Paramount+ will be rebranded as Paramount+ with Showtime, with Chris McCarthy to lead the Showtime studio and linear channel, and Tom Ryan overseeing the streaming business. In connection with the changes, executives warned of likely layoffs and changes to programming to follow in the coming weeks. The story.
—About those changes... THR's Lesley Goldberg had the Monday night scoop that Showtime had pulled a number of short-lived, under-performing shows from its streaming platform. The list includes Kidding, Super Pumped, On Becoming a God in Central Florida and American Rust. Also vanishing from the Showtime streaming platform are seasons of acquired content including The End and Wakefield. Additional shows are likely included in the mass removal. The story.
—Also on the pulled list... are scripted dramas Let the Right One In and American Gigolo which have both been canceled after one season at Showtime. The Shailene Woodley-led adaptation of Three Women is no longer moving forward at the premium cable network. The latter series, which has already completed production, is being shopped to other outlets. The story. |
Michael Jackson's Nephew to Play Him in Biopic ►"Jaafar embodies my son. It’s so wonderful to see him carry on the Jackson legacy of entertainers and performers." Michael Jackson‘s nephew Jaafar Jackson will play him in the biopic about the singer’s life. Lionsgate is behind the project, titled Michael, which will be directed by Antoine Fuqua. The story.
—Give the kids a chance! Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, along with additional cast members, will be de-aged for Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming Miramax movie Here. The feature is an adaptation of Richard McGuire’s graphic novel that is set in a single room and follows its inhabitants over many years. The de-aging will be accomplished using a new generative AI-driven tool dubbed Metaphysic Live. The story.
—Brutal. THR's Lesley Goldberg has the scoop on FX cancelling Kindred, the drama based on Octavia E. Butler’s 1979 novel about a young Black woman who is pulled back and forth in time. Showrunner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is expected to shop the drama from FX Productions as he envisioned a multiple-season run for the series. The story.
—Ruthless. Hulu has opted to cancel the scripted comedy series Reboot from Modern Family co-creator Steve Levitan after one season. Sources say Levitan is shopping the show with the hopes of finding a new home for the comedy produced by Disney’s 20th Television. The story. |
WBTV Boss Channing Dungey on Navigating Regime Change ►"It’s your job to hold the umbrella over the team so they can keep focusing on the work." In the latest interview in the Table for Two series, THR's Lacey Rose spoke to Warner Bros. Television Group chairperson Channing Dungey who discusses inflated budgets, how she leads in disruptive times, the future of Ted Lasso, and also reveals what keeps her up at night. The interview.
—The gift that keeps on giving. Starz has renewed Power spinoff series Power Book II: Ghost for a fourth season ahead of its season three premiere in March. The series has also added Michael Ealy (Barbershop, Stumptown) to its cast for season four. The third season of Ghost, which premieres March 17, will follow Tariq St. Patrick (Michael Rainey Jr.) as he works to get back to his family, and get out of the game. The story.
—New cable home. Bill Maher will bring his Overtime segments from his HBO’s show Real Time to CNN beginning Feb. 3. The segments feature Maher and his panel of guests continuing to discuss newsy topics and were previously only streamed online. Overtime will air at 11:30 p.m. on Friday nights, after new episodes of Real Time debut on HBO on Fridays at 10 p.m. The story.
—Sounds like progress. Spotify ended 2022 with better-than-expected user growth, but its latest quarterly loss widened amid investments in podcasting growth, among other factors. The company said on Tuesday that it ended Q4 with 205m paying subscribers, up from 195m as of the end of Q3 and ahead of its own target. The audio streaming giant also disclosed that it hit 489m monthly active users as of the end of December, up from 456m at the end of September. The results. |
Priscilla Presley Moves to Invalidate Lisa Marie's Will ►Suspicious minds. In a petition filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Priscilla Presley challenges the will of her late daughter, Lisa Marie Presley. She questions the "authenticity and validity" of a 2016 amendment that replaced her and former business manager Barry Siegel as co-trustees with Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter Riley Keough and deceased son Benjamin Keough. After her daughter’s death, Priscilla Presley says she discovered a document changing the trust. She stresses that the amendment was never delivered to her during her daughter’s lifetime as required by the terms of the trust. The story.
—New lawsuit. Marilyn Manson is facing another lawsuit for sex crimes, this time from a woman who says she was groomed and sexually assaulted when she was underage in the 1990s. Manson allegedly targeted the Jane Doe plaintiff when she was 16 using his celebrity to “groom, manipulate and exploit” her, resulting in multiple sexual assaults over the course of their relationship, according to a complaint filed Monday in New York state court. The story.
—"I’m just excited to watch as a viewer." Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor says she will not appear in season three of the Netflix hit. In a new interview, the actress revealed that although her character Daphne Bassett does not appear in the upcoming season, it’s possible that she could return in the future. The story.
—"We merged into one." Rupert Grint says playing the beloved Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter franchise from age 11 to 22 "was quite suffocating." In a new interview, the actor said playing Ron for over a decade of his life led to him finding it difficult to find the line between himself and the character, and that he even answers if something calls him Ron. The story. |
TV Review: 'Cunk on Earth' ►"A fine and occasionally educational introduction to a singularly silly comic character." THR's chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews Netflix's Cunk on Earth. Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker and Diane Morgan, co-star of After Life, bring their obliviously comic TV presenter to a five-part series about human progress. The review.
—"Good enough to eat." THR's Leslie Felperin reviews Kenneth Dagatan's In My Mother's Skin. Selected for the Midnight section at Sundance, the Philippine director's folk horror feature sold to Amazon's Prime Video before the festival began. The review.
In other news...
—Artios Awards: Rita Moreno to receive career achievement honor, Yvette Nicole Brown set as host
—Legendary nabs Danny and The Dinosaur kids books for movie adaptation
—SkyShowtime sets Feb. 14 launches in 8 markets
—Gap honors Stephen “tWitch” Boss with new campaign
—White Lotus star Sabrina Impacciatore signs with Gersh, MGMT Entertainment
What else we're reading...
—Alex Abad-Santos has a hot take that despite making $2b, Avatar: The Way of Water can still feel irrelevant [Vox]
—Michael Schulman looks into what happened to Robert Opel, the streaker at the 1974 Oscars, who ran for President and settled into the gay leather scene [New Yorker]
—Yohana Desta has a first look at Swarm, Donald Glover’s Beyoncé-inspired new series that is described as "a sister to Atlanta" [VF]
—Coco Khan talks to Stormy Daniels about standup, Trump, tarot and her new reality TV show For the Love of Dilfs [Guardian]
—Kyle Buchanan runs through his picks of the Sundance films that could follow in the footsteps of CODA to the 2024 Oscars [NYT]
Today...
Today's birthdays: Kerry Washington (46), Justin Timberlake (42), Jonathan Banks (76), Minnie Driver (53), Bobby Moynihan (46), Patricia Velasquez (52), Kelly Lynch (64), Portia de Rossi (50), Lily Mo Sheen (24), Joel Courtney (27), Dexter Fletcher (57), Colby Minifie (31), Anthony LaPaglia (64), Glynn Turman (76), Paul Scheer (47), Cristine Rose (72), Daniel Moder (54), James Adomian (43), Tyler Ritter (38), Preity Zinta (48) |
| Kevin O’Neal, the younger brother of Oscar-nominated actor Ryan O’Neal and a regular on the 1960s ABC comedy No Time for Sergeants, has died. He was 77. The obituary. |
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