| | | | | | What's news: Eugene and Dan Levy will host the Emmys. Nicolas Cage is set to portray John Madden in a biopic. It Ends With Us has sailed past the $100m mark. Billie Eilish and Finneas have left Wasserman and signed with WME. Google will become the title sponsor of Netflix's Emily In Paris. Crooked Media Union ratified its first collective bargaining agreement. — Abid Rahman
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Matthew Perry Death: Assistant, Doctors and "Ketamine Queen" Charged ►"Underground criminal network." Matthew Perry’s live-in assistant, two doctors and a woman dubbed the “ketamine queen” are among the five people indicted and charged in the investigation into the actor’s death, which unearthed a “broad underground criminal network,” a coalition of law enforcement agencies announced at a press conference in L.A. on Thursday. Jasveen Sangha, the woman prosecutors refer to as “the ketamine queen,” and physician Salvador Plasencia are the lead defendants in the case. Sangha is accused of maintaining a “stash house” in North Hollywood where thousands of dollars worth of illegal drugs were discovered when a warrant was executed there in March. The story.
—Surreal life. Among the five people arrested in the Perry death investigation was Erik Fleming. The DOJ described Fleming’s activities as that of a drug dealer, coordinating with Perry’s assistant and Jasveen Sangha. THR's Gary Baum reports that Fleming was once a director — Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes starred in his 1999 children’s fantasy comedy My Brother the Pig — and he produced the first season of reality show The Surreal Life in 2003. He also previously ran a production company bankrolled by Sumner Redstone. The story. |
Marvel Fires Back Over 'X-Men '97' Creator's Claims ►"Egregious nature of the findings." Five months after Marvel Studios fired X-Men ’97 creator Beau DeMayo for mysterious reasons, the writer claimed Thursday that he no longer will get credit on the second season of the hit Disney+ show, which he completed work on before his exit. DeMayo made the claim on social media, saying it was part of a “troubling pattern” he endured while working for Marvel. The company shot back soon after, and in a statement to THR, gave insight into his firing, saying it occurred after an internal investigation revealed “egregious” findings. The story.
—Drama. Grammy and Oscar winners Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell have signed with WME, ending their relationship with Wasserman Music. Eilish and O’Connell had been with WME for film and TV since January 2023. The move comes after a Daily Mail exposé about Wasserman owner Casey Wasserman’s alleged sexual misconduct involving a series of women, mainly subordinates at his firm as well as others who worked for him, while still married. An individual familiar with the matter tells THR that the siblings’ mother, the actress Maggie Baird, was disgusted by the revelations and sought to distance the superstars as soon as possible. The story.
—"No one feels good about someone going to jail." Rust director Joel Souza has broken his silence over the Western’s production, during which he was shot and cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed when a prop gun handled by star Alec Baldwin was discharged on Oct. 21, 2021. In a new interview, Souza's first media sit-down about the project since the fatal incident, the filmmaker was asked whether he feels justice has been done, and also revealed he currently has "no relationship" with Baldwin. The story.
—Moving forward. A lawsuit from a script coordinator for SEAL Team, who accused CBS Studios of carrying out illegal diversity quotas that discriminate against straight white men, will proceed, a court has ruled. U.S. District Judge John Walter rebuffed parent company Paramount’s bid to dismiss the case. He found that certain issues, like whether the First Amendment affords productions broad protections in choosing talent for their movies and TV shows, would be “more appropriately resolved” at a later stage of the litigation. The story.
—🤝 Emily in Lens 🤝 In a multifaceted partnership deal, Google will become the title sponsor of Emily In Paris, including the just-released season four, as well as earlier seasons (the first time Netflix library seasons have gained a title sponsor). In addition, all Netflix members (regardless of whether they are on the advertising plan or not) will be able to use Google Lens to scan Emily’s looks from the season and be directed to similar fashion items that they can purchase. The story. |
Video Game Union Performers Call for AI Protections at Disney Picket ►"This is not something we can wait for." On Thursday, video game performers who are members of SAG-AFTRA picketed the Disney Character Voices building in Burbank as the labor group remains deadlocked with major gaming companies over an issue that one performer called “existential”: AI. THR's Katie Kilkenny reports that Thursday’s event was the second picket organized by SAG-AFTRA after the union called a strike against video game companies on July 25. Performers first demonstrated outside of Warner Bros. Games on August 1 before setting up shop a little over a mile away in front of the Disney building two weeks later. The story.
—"These are people’s dreams that they’ve turned into careers that could be disappearing." Katie also reports that the animation industry is in turmoil as The Animation Guild entered its latest round of contract negotiations with top Hollywood studios and streamers on Aug. 12. While the larger entertainment business undergoes a major contraction, rounds of layoffs have buffeted top firms like Netflix Animation, Dreamworks Animation and Pixar in the last few years. As the 5,000-strong union bargains with studios, outsourcing jobs and AI are the major points of contention. The story.
—✊ Deal! ✊ Members of the Crooked Media union unanimously ratified their first collective bargaining agreement, gaining provisions including minimum starting salaries of $80,000, AI protections and a minimum of 49 days of paid time off. The 61-member unit of Crooked Media, which produces podcasts including Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave It, ratified the agreement after more than a year of negotiations and a one-day walkout on Aug. 5. Ahead of the walkout, Crooked Media workers said they hoped the negotiated terms would set the standard for other podcasting companies moving forward. The story.
—"The vast majority of actors are working class people just trying to make ends meet." Jeff Goldblum helped actors qualify for SAG-AFTRA health insurance while guest hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday, casting actors in need of more work to meet the covered earnings minimum requirements. In a well received segment, Goldblum enlisted actors who were all around $500 away from qualifying for health insurance to play the Jurassic Park star — each actor, dressed in a suit reminiscent of Goldblum’s, offered their best impression of the star. The story. |
Eugene and Dan Levy Set as 2024 Emmy Hosts ►Family affair. ABC will indeed outsource hosting duties of the Emmys this year, tapping the father-son duo of Eugene and Dan Levy to emcee the Sept. 15 telecast. THR's Mikey O'Connell writes that the Levys, who enjoyed a particularly fruitful Emmys in 2020 when Schitt’s Creek won every major comedy category in an unprecedented sweep, are an unconventional choice in that neither currently appears on a Disney property. But their opening of the 2020 Screen Actors Guild Awards proved they are well up to the task — and after a protracted negotiation, they’re now set to take the stage at the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE. The story.
—Talent shuffle. ESPN continues to make changes to its on-air talent roster, with the sports network cutting Robert Griffin III and Sam Ponder on Thursday. Ponder worked on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown, while Griffin previously worked as an analyst on Monday Night Countdown, the pregame show to ESPN’s Monday Night Football, as well as on some college football games. ESPN hired Jason Kelce to join Monday Night Countdown earlier this year. According to a source, both Griffin and Ponder will be owed what is due to them in their contracts, with Ponder believed to have about a year left on her deal, and Griffin about two years. The story.
—Back to school. Disney Jr. has greenlit a sequel to the popular children’s television show Sofia the First. Sofia the First: Royal Magic is a continuation of the show that premiered in 2012 and ran until 2018. The sequel series follows Sofia, a young girl who becomes a princess overnight when her mother marries the king, continuing her adventures as she attends The Charmswell School for Royal Magic, an academy for princes and princesses to further their magical and royal education. The story.
—🤝 Rights deal 🤝 TelevisaUnivision has inked a multiyear deal with Major League Baseball, including multiple new windows of programming, as well as playoff games. The Spanish-language network will begin broadcasting MLB games Aug. 20, continuing through the postseason. Perhaps the most important component of the deal is the playoff games, with the company having exclusive Spanish-language rights to the American League Division Series and American League Championship Series games, which will air on UniMás and Mexico’s TUDN, as well as on the premium tier of the ViX streaming service. Some games will also air on Univision. The story.
—Big Boys club. Amazon Prime Video's The Boys ascended to its highest mark ever in Nielsen’s streaming rankings for the week of its fourth season finale, and Netflix’s movie Hillbilly Elegy had a resurgence after Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance became the Republican nominee for vice president. The Boys recorded 1.33 billion minutes of viewing time on Amazon for the week of July 15-21, finishing first among all titles in Nielsen’s rankings for the first time (the season four finale debuted July 18). The streaming ratings. |
Nicolas Cage to Play John Madden in Biopic ►Nearing the end zone. Nicolas Cage is set to portray John Madden, the storied football coach and sports commentator, in a drama from Amazon MGM Studios to be directed by David O. Russell, the filmmaker behind Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. But Madden is not a biopic in the typical sense, nor a sports drama, a genre Russell took on with the boxing movie The Fighter. Rather, Madden is in part, according to sources, a video game movie. It’s the origin story of Madden NFL, one of the biggest video game franchises of all time. The story.
—Decision to get excited. Korean auteur Park Chan-wook will begin production on Saturday on his 12th feature, an adaptation of Donald Westlake’s 1996 novel The Ax. The movie, which is currently going by the working title I Can’t Help It, will star Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin, with financing and distribution coming from Korea's CJ ENM. Westlake’s novel was previously adapted by Costa-Gavras as the 2005 French film Le Couperet. Like its predecessor, Park’s adaptation follows a man who is abruptly laid off by the paper company where he worked tirelessly for many years. The man grows increasingly desperate in his hunt for new work, eventually resolving to kill his job competitors. The story.
—Milestone achieved. In a big win for Sony, star Blake Lively, author Colleen Hoover and director-star Justin Baldoni, It Ends With Us has sailed past the $100m mark at the global box office in its first week. The film adaptation of Hoover's hit novel achieved the milestone on Wednesday after finishing the day with a domestic tally of $68.9m and an early foreign total of $46.6m for a global total of $115.5m. The box office report.
—It's (almost) showtime! Tim Burton and Warner Bros.’ highly anticipated Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is tracking to open as high as $80m at the North American box office when it flies into theaters Sept. 6. WB is being more conservative, suggesting $65m to $75m, considering that tracking has often been off as of late, either turning out to be too low or too high. Either way, the fantasy horror-comedy is on course to scare up one of the biggest September debuts of all time, not adjusted for inflation. The box office report.
—🎭 Teela found 🎭 Camila Mendes, the actress best known for playing Veronica in the CW series Riverdale, has nabbed the key role of Teela in Amazon MGM Studios and Mattel Films’ live-action take on Masters of the Universe. Mendes will star opposite rising Brit star Nicholas Galitzine, who is playing the role of He-Man in the adaptation of the popular toy brand first introduced in the 1980s. Travis Knight, the founder of stop-motion powerhouse Laika who directed the company’s Kubo and the Two Strings, is helming the film. The story.
—📅 Mark it down 📅 Sony has dated Margot Robbie's first post-Barbie theatrical release, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. Robbie and Colin Farrell co-star in the movie that will hit theaters May 9, 2025, over Mother’s Day weekend. After Yang's Kogonada is directing the film from a script by Seth Reiss. At the time the project was announced, the plot details were scarce, but the movie is said to center on two strangers and the unlikely way that their paths align. Lily Rabe, Jodie Turner-Smith, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Hamish Linklater also star. The story.
—🎭 Leading the way 🎭 Former America’s Next Top Model and The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Eva Marcille and P-Valley’s Tyler Lepley will star in Lifetime’s Buried Alive and Survived. The project is a part of the network’s fall slate of Ripped from the Headlines Movies inspired by true-life stories. In the made-for-TV movie based on a story by Nigel Campbell, Marcille will portray Alicia, a woman fighting to protect herself and her son Malcolm from her ex-husband Victor (Lepley) after he’s released from prison. The story. |
Critic's Appreciation: Gena Rowlands, a Woman of Influence ►"Rowlands’ performance in Influence is arguably the greatest achievement by an actress in an American movie since the 1950s, and it has yet to be equaled." In the history of American movies, and, arguably, of movies in general, there has never been a partnership between a husband and wife as consequential as that of director John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands. In a tribute to Rowlands, who died Wednesday at 94, THR's Jordan Mintzer writes that the celebrated actress was both muse and motor for Cassavetes. The tribute. |
Film Review: 'The Deliverance' ►"Never quite finds it footing." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews Lee Daniels' The Deliverance. A single mother and her family are haunted by malevolent spirits in the Precious director's latest feature, starring Andra Day, Glenn Close, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Mo'Nique. The review.
—"No heavy lifting required." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Julian Farino's The Union. A blue-collar construction worker is recruited by a secret spy organization in this Netflix film starring Mark Wahlberg, Halle Berry, Jackie Earle Haley and J.K. Simmons. The review.
—"Less gross than Tiger King, but also less entertaining." THR's chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews HBO's Chimp Crazy. Tiger King director Eric Goode's new four-hour project tells an only-somewhat-wild, generally sad story of a celebrity chimp, his obsessive handler and Alan Cumming. The review. |
Thank Pod It's Friday ►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio.
—Awards Chatter. THR's executive awards editor Scott Feinberg talks to the great and the good of Hollywood. In this episode, Scott spoke to Peter Morgan. The British playwright, screenwriter and creative genius behind The Crown reflects on his unexpected journey to writing, how he came to focus on the royals in numerous projects, and what he hopes will be the legacy of the landmark six-episode Netflix drama series that he wrote about Queen Elizabeth II and those around her. Listen here.
—It Happened in Hollywood. THR senior writer Seth Abramovitch goes behind the scenes of the pop culture moments that shaped Hollywood history. In this episode, Seth spoke to Iain Softley. The Brit director of Hackers, the cult 1995 film starring Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee Miller, unpacks why the film is beloved by early-internet fanatics. Listen here.
In other news...
—That '90s Show trailer: Summer is still going strong in That '70s Show spinoff
—Tulsa King season 2 releases official trailer
—Peacock’s Face to Face With Scott Peterson trailer presents new theories on Laci Peterson’s murder
—Amber Alert trailer: Hayden Panettiere and Tyler James Williams team up for high-stakes chase
—Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars release “Die With a Smile” love song with music video
—Katy Perry to receive Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at 2024 MTV VMAs
—Scooter Braun to be honored by Anti-Defamation League for Nova Festival exhibit
—Verve adds to agency’s leadership team
—Disney hires YouTube vet Adam Smith in key tech role for entertainment and ESPN
—Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts world tour and pop-up have arrived in L.A. — Here’s how to save up to $300 on tickets
—Little League World Series 2024 livestream: How to watch it online for free
—Adam Epstein, Tony-winning Hairspray producer, dies at 49
—Greg Kihn, pop star who had a big hit with “Jeopardy,” dies at 75
What else we're reading...
—Gaby Del Valle reports the emerging schism on the far right after neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes reconsidered his support for Donald Trump [Verge]
—With lots of reports about a big data hack of SSNs, Tatum Hunter writes that we shouldn't panic just yet [WaPo]
—Niellah Arboine talks to Blink Twice star Naomi Ackie, the Brit actress awash with critical praise but looking for a commercial hit [Vulture]
—David Mack is ecstatic Emily in Paris, Netflix’s most embarrassing series, is back for its fourth season [Slate]
—Here's your Friday list: "10 terrific Gena Rowlands performances to stream" [NYT]
Today...
...in 2013, Sony Pictures Classics released Jerusha Hess' excellent Austenland in theaters. The Jane Austen-inspired rom-com starred Keri Russell, JJ Feild, Jane Seymour, Bret McKenzie, and Jennifer Coolidge. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Madonna (66), James Cameron (70), Angela Bassett (66), Steve Carell (62), Taika Waititi (49), Lesley Ann Warren (78), Julie Newmar (91), Lorraine Gary (87), Laura Innes (67), Bob Balaban (79), Reginald VelJohnson (72), Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (52), Kathie Lee Gifford (71), Saif Ali Khan (54), Bruce Beresford (85), Cristin Milioti (39), Cameron Monaghan (31), Saskia Reeves (63), Cam Gigandet (42), Timothy Hutton (64), Evanna Lynch (33), Agnes Bruckner (39), Jeff Perry (69), Rumer Willis (36), Rina Sawayama (34), Elpidia Carrillo (63), Arden Cho (39), Talia Ryder (22), Shawn Pyfrom (38), Okieriete Onaodowan (37), Todd Haberkorn (42), Dominik Garcia (41), Luca Padovan (21), Kalin Morrow (39), Marcella Lentz-Pope (36), Vincent Curatola (71), Andy Milder (55), Donovan Leitch Jr. (57) |
| Peter Marshall, the velvety-voiced host who presided over NBC’s celebrity-filled game show The Hollywood Squares for 16 years, died Thursday. He was 98. The obituary. |
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