| | | | | | What's news: The Daily Show has canceled its planned trip to the RNC after the Trump shooting. Inside Out 2 inches closer to becoming the top-grossing animated film of all time. Shōgun was the big winner at the TCA Awards. Euphoria S3 will begin filming in Jan. 2025. Apple has renewed Presumed Innocent. Emerald Fennell is set to direct an adaptation of Wuthering Heights. — Abid Rahman
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Trump Gives First Interview After Shooting ►"America goes on." Donald Trump says he’s rewritten the speech he will deliver at this week’s Republican National Convention in the aftermath of Saturday’s assassination attempt. On Sunday, the former president talked to a Washington Examiner reporter who was present at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at Trump (and killed a rallygoer). Trump told the Examiner that he had originally planned to talk about Joe Biden's policies in his speech, but he has now changed course. The story.
—"While we may disagree, we are not enemies." President Biden called on Americans to “stand together” and “lower the temperature in our politics” on Sunday during his second public address regarding the assassination attempt on Trump. Speaking from the Oval Office, Biden acknowledged that disagreements have always been part of politics, but emphasized that those disagreements should never become physical or violent. The story.
—Canceled. The Daily Show has canceled its plans to film from Milwaukee during the RNC this week following the Trump shooting. The program will not air on Monday, and return Tuesday from New York City. "Our apologies for the inconvenience, but due to logistical issues and the evolving situation in Milwaukee, we need to reschedule our events on the ground in Wisconsin and will look to make those up in the coming weeks," the show said on social media. The story.
—"MAGA nation finally has its full martyr." Bill Maher has shared his thoughts about the shocking assassination attempt on Trump. The HBO Real Time host posted a video of himself on stage at his comedy show reacting to the breaking news just hours later. “I unequivocally denounce [the shooting], I don’t care what you think about that,” began Maher during the opening moments of his show. “Not funny. I’m sure that there will be jokes that people will make because they hate him so much that they wished it went he other way. Not for me." The recap. |
Judge Dismisses Baldwin's 'Rust' Trial ►ICYMI. Alec Baldwin wept in court as a Santa Fe judge dismissed his involuntary manslaughter case on Friday after a day-long, dramatic and often bizarre hearing over how police and prosecutors treated a handful of bullets. "The late discovery of this evidence has impacted the fundamental fairness of the proceedings," Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer stated in dismissing the case with prejudice, which means Baldwin cannot be re-tried. "There is no way for the court to right this wrong. The sanction of dismissal is the only warranted remedy." The story.
—Big numbers. President Joe Biden's televised press conference last Thursday evening attracted a sizable audience. More than 24m people watched the press event across eight broadcast and cable outlets, according to Nielsen. The press conference came at the end of a NATO summit in Washington and amid swirling speculation about the future of Biden’s re-election campaign following his poor debate performance opposite Donald Trump in late June. Fox News drew the largest audience among individual networks. The ratings.
—Rare appearance. Kate, the Princess of Wales, handed Carlos Alcaraz the champion’s trophy after the Wimbledon men’s final at the All England Club on Sunday in only her second public appearance since announcing she was diagnosed with cancer in March. Kate, wife of heir to the throne Prince William, was greeted by a standing ovation when she arrived in the Royal Box at Centre Court to watch Alcaraz’s victory over Novak Djokovic. The story.
—Suit filed. Paramount Global may soon have to turn over records related to a bid by Skydance to take control of the company. In a much-expected revolt over treatment of minority investors, billionaire money manager Mario Gabelli on Friday filed a lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court for access to Paramount’s books. The legal move could be a precursor to a lawsuit challenging the potential deal that some investors believe enriches controlling shareholder Shari Redstone at their expense. The story.
—"That was not handled well, and we apologize for putting her in this position." Director Josh Weigel has apologized to star and executive producer Letitia Wright for not letting her know Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire would help market her new film Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot. Weigel's response came two days after Wright distanced herself from The Daily Wire when the right-wing media company teamed up with Angel Studios to release and market Sound of Hope. The story.
—"I didn’t mean any disrespect." Rapper Wiz Khalifa was arrested this weekend in Romania over cannabis possession. Khalifa was in the country for the Beach Please! Festival, where he performed on Saturday night. A video online shows the rapper being escorted out of the venue by authorities. He was charged with illegal drug possession, but was later released from custody. The rapper later apologized on social media. The story. |
'Longlegs' Stuns With Record $22.6M Launch ►Rage Cage. Animation continues to be the hero of the summer office thanks to Despicable Me 4 and Inside Out 2, but Neon's Longlegs can rightly take a bow after scoring the biggest opening for an independent horror pic in a decade with $22.6m in ticket sales.
THR's Pamela McClintock writes that the big surprise of the weekend is the better-than-expected performance of writer-director Osgood Perkins Longlegs, a serial killer chiller starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage. The tense FBI procedural, playing in 2,510 cinemas, is the biggest opening ever for Neon, Tom Quinn's Oscar-winning specialty production and distribution outfit.
Despicable Me 4 easily stayed atop the domestic box office chart in its second weekend with $44.7m from 4,449 theaters, as it jumped the $200m mark to finish Sunday with a North American tally of $211.1m. Overseas, Gru and the mischievous Minions also continued to stir up strong sales, earning $88m from 78 markets for a foreign tally of $226.7m and $437.8m globally.
The record-shattering Inside Out 2 — which has a shot at becoming the top-grossing animated film of all time — finished Sunday with a global cume of $1.35b. It’s already become the top-grossing Pixar title of all time and the third-biggest animated title, not adjusted for inflation. The box office report. |
THR's TV Critics Dissect the Divisiveness of 'The Bear' S3 ►"The tenor of the conversation has shifted." Is Jeremy Allen White's Carmy still locked in that metaphorical refrigerator of trauma, or is his entire show? THR's TV critics Dan Fienberg and Angie Han offer their thoughts on season three of FX's awards monster The Bear, that has garnered a vastly different response amongst critics and fans than the lauded first two seasons. The critics' conversation.
—🏆 Strong out the gate 🏆 FX’s Shōgun was the big winner at the 40th Television Critics Association Awards on Friday. The drama series set in feudal Japan won four honors, including the TCA's program of the year award. It also won awards for best drama and best new program, while Anna Sawai won for individual achievement in drama for her role as Toda Mariko. The winners.
—We are go! After a very long hiatus between seasons, HBO's Euphoria is preparing to head back into production. Filming on the Sam Levinson-created drama’s third season is slated to begin in January 2025 — just about three years after the premiere of season two. HBO says all the principal cast, including Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi and Hunter Schafer, is set to return. HBO hasn’t set an airdate, but it’s unlikely that Euphoria would be ready to go before late next year, which would mean a gap of up to four years between seasons. The story.
—Big October push. CBS will load up the majority of its fall debuts in a single week in October, creating its own premiere week a month into the 2024-25 season. The network will feature 11 season and series premieres in the week of Oct. 14, including those for two of its new series: NCIS: Origins, a prequel to the flagship series, and the Young Sheldon follow-up Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage (Oct. 17). Prior to that, CBS will air the series debuts of its Kathy Bates-led Matlock update and competition series The Summit on Sundays. The story.
—The verdict is in. Apple TV+ has ordered a second season of legal drama Presumed Innocent. The renewal comes as the show’s eight-episode first season, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a prosecutor accused of murdering a colleague, is set to conclude on July 24. The streamer says the legal thriller, based on Scott Turow’s best-selling novel, is its most watched drama to date. The story.
—🎭 Eight more 🎭 The NCIS spinoff focused on Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly’s characters is filling out its core cast. The Paramount+ series, titled NCIS: Tony and Ziva, has added eight actors as series regulars. The show, with Weatherly and de Pablo reprising their roles as Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David, has also begun production in Budapest. Joining de Pablo and Weatherly — who reprise their roles from CBS’ NCIS flagship — are Isla Gie, Amita Suman, Maximilian Osinski, Nassima Benchicou, Julian Ovenden, Terence Maynard, Lara Rossi and James D’Arcy. The story. |
Why the 'Gladiator II' Trailer Is Getting Review Bombed ►Haters gonna hate. The action-packed trailer for Paramount’s Gladiator II has racked up over 215m views in just a few days and suggests Ridley Scott might have pulled off his long-awaited sequel to his Oscar-winning 2000 epic. But there is a cohort of fans who claim they are not entertained. While the official trailer on YouTube ranks as one of the studio’s most-watched in a 24-hour-period ever, it also has 133,000 likes vs. 279,000 dislikes and counting. THR's James Hibberd explains what's going on. The story.
—Out on the wiley, windy moors! Saltburn filmmaker Emerald Fennell has set her next film as an adaption of the classic gothic novel Wuthering Heights. The Emily Brontë book follows Heathcliff, an orphan-turned-foster-son who falls in love with the daughter of the family who owns the estate on which he now lives, Wuthering Heights. The Brontë novel was previously adapted for the screen in 1939 by William Wyler with Laurence Olivier starring as Heathcliff, again in 1992 by director Peter Kosminsky starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, and in 2011 by Andrea Arnold. The story.
—Snapped up. Paramount has acquired the screenplay for the erotic thriller Over Asking. In what is described as a highly competitive situation, the studio landed the feature spec script from Batwoman writer Caroline Dries. The movie’s story focuses on the frightening aftermath that follows a chance encounter between a seemingly perfect couple and a powerful female attorney. Karen Rosenfelt serves as producer on the project that does not yet have a director attached. The story.
—First up. H.wood Group is making its next move in the film and TV space. The company headed by John Terzian and Brian Toll — the go-to-guys for Los Angeles’ coveted tables at hot spots like Delilah, Bootsy Bellows and Bird Street Club — recently added a multimedia production arm, touting a film and TV slate featuring projects with Kid Cudi and Machine Gun Kelly, among others. First on the roster: a doc about Skepta, the British grime rapper behind tracks like "Greaze Mode" and "Gas Me Up (Diligent)" from his upcoming LP, Knife and Fork. The story.
—Fowl play. Johnny Depp continues to explore a path to a comeback since his 2022 defamation suit victory against ex-wife Amber Heard. Next up: playing a gibberish-speaking puffin. In the animated film Johnny Puff: Secret Mission, Depp plays a fedora-wearing puffin living in a town in the arctic who goes to battle with the evil Otto von Walrus. The actor "invented a language" to voice the title character in the film that is set to play in seven theaters before a move to VOD. The story.
—Messy. Rebel Wilson has been sued for defamation by three producers behind her directorial debut, The Deb, after she accused them of sexual harassment and embezzlement. Wilson also accused them of blocking the movie from premiering at the closing spot of the 2024 Toronto Film Festival. Producers Amanda Ghost, Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden, in a lawsuit filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, say Wilson lied in an attempt to release The Deb at TIFF, as well as secure a writing credit on the film. The story. |
Shannen Doherty 1971 - 2024 ►"Devoted daughter, sister, aunt and friend." Shannen Doherty, who starred on Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed before exiting both Aaron Spelling-produced shows amid conflicts with co-workers, has lost her long battle with cancer. She was 53. Doherty died Saturday. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015; after treatment and several surgeries, she announced in April 2017 that she was in remission. In February 2020, she tearfully revealed on Good Morning America, “I’m stage 4 — my cancer came back,” then said in June 2023 that cancer had spread to her brain. The story.
—"Absolutely heartbroken." Olivia Munn, Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth, Alyssa Milano, Katie Couric and more in Hollywood are mourning the loss of Shannen Doherty. Doherty’s 90210 co-star Priestley took to Instagram to pay tribute, writing he was "shocked and saddened to hear about the passing of my friend Shannen." He added, "She was a force of nature and I will miss her. Sending love and light to her family in this dark time." The reaction.
—"He truly cared about people." Richard Simmons, the goofy clown prince of fitness who turned his passion for weight loss into riches and fame as a Hollywood celebrity, has died. He was 76. A rep for Simmons told THR that he died earlier Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. His cause of death wasn’t immediately available. The star of his own syndicated TV exercise show in the 1980s, the curly-haired Simmons sold millions of aerobics “Sweatin‘ to the Oldies” videos and DVDs. The obituary.
—"I hope you’re at peace and twinkling up in the heavens." Pauly Shore took to social media to pay tribute to Richard Simmons. Shore, who is set to star in biopic The Court Jester about Simmons that the fitness icon had previously blasted, wrote on Instagram, "I just got word like everyone else that the beautiful Richard Simmons has passed. I hope you’re at peace and twinkling up in the heavens." The story.
—Beloved character actor. James B. Sikking, the Steven Bochco favorite who portrayed the no-nonsense Lt. Howard Hunter on Hill Street Blues and the good-hearted doctor dad on Doogie Howser, M.D., has died. He was 90. Sikking died Saturday at his Los Angeles home of complications from dementia, publicist Cynthia Synder announced. The Emmy nominee also worked for Bochco on Brooklyn Souths. The obituary. |
TV Review: 'Emperor of Ocean Park' ►"An overstuffed and overlong mystery." THR's Angie Han reviews MGM+'s Emperor of Ocean Park. Forest Whitaker stars in this mystery series, based on Stephen L. Carter's novel, about a law professor pulled into a dangerous web of conspiracy after the death of his father, a prominent conservative judge. The review.
In other news...
—Jessica Chastain to receive American Cinematheque Award
—Chris Kattan to launch debut podcast Idiotically Speaking
—CJ ENM names Jang Kyung ik CEO of Studio Dragon
—L.A.-based luxury brand Amiri opens new location in South Coast Plaza
—Fourth of July at Nikki Beach: Zac Efron, Elvis impersonators and a new Tory Burch collab
—Eddie Murphy marries Paige Butcher in private Caribbean ceremony
—Dave Loggins, "Please Come to Boston" singer and Masters theme composer, dies at 76
What else we're reading...
—C. Ryan Barber, James Fanelli and Jan Wolfe report that the security failure surrounding the Trump shooting is the Secret Service's most stunning failure in decades [WSJ]
—John Ismay breaks down how NYT photographer Doug Mills captured that incredible picture of a bullet streaking past Trump's head [NYT]
—Elizabeth Dwoskin and Faiz Siddiqui write that Elon Musk and other right-wing billionaires are shaping the narrative around the Trump shooting [WaPo]
—Andrew Prokop looks at whether the Trump shooting will change everything, or whether it will change very little [Vox]
—Rebecca Makkai believes that the late Alice Munro was no better than the miserable women she wrote about [LAT]
Today...
...in 1994, 20th Century Fox unveiled James Cameron’s actioner True Lies in theaters stateside, where it went on to become a summer hit, grossing $146m. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Forest Whitaker (63), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (38), Ari Aster (38), Travis Fimmel (45), Iain Armitage (16), Diane Kruger (48), Jim Rash (53), Hiro Murai (41), Eddie Griffin (56), Gabriel Iglesias (48), Laura Benanti (45), Scott Foley (52), Taylor Kinney (43), Sarah Desjardins (30), Brian Austin Green (51), Aimee Carrero (36), Irène Jacob (58), Jeffrey Kramer (79), Tomer Capone (39), Brigitte Nielsen (61), Lana Parrilla (47), Terry O'Quinn (72), Celia Imrie (72), Alexander Calvert (34), Lolita Davidovich (63), Shari Headley (60), Patrick Wayne (85), Jesse Ventura (73), Willie Aames (64), Gaia Scodellaro (39), Briana Buckmaster (42), Medalion Rahimi (32), Mason Dye (30), Greg Sestero (46), Adam Savage (57), Martin Roach (62), Tristan Mack Wilds (35), Julio Peña (24), Dennis Storhøi (64) |
| Ruth Westheimer, the diminutive guru of the American sexual revolution whose straightforward, matter-of-fact way of discussing the facts of life led to an illustrious career as a radio talk-show host, television personality, author and advice expert, has died. She was 96. The obituary. |
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