Director Sam Mendes won the top prize at the 72nd annual Directors Guild of America Awards for “1917,” solidifying the World War I drama as the film to beat at the Academy Awards. “I was fortunate enough to win this award two decades ago,” Mendes said in his acceptance speech, referencing his DGA Awards win for 1999’s “American Beauty.” “And I […]
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Kobe Bryant, who starred for 20 years with the Los Angeles Lakers and won five NBA championships, died Sunday in a helicopter crash, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was 41. The sports icon and Oscar winner died aboard his private helicopter while it was flying over Calabasas and crashed, starting a fire, according to TMZ Sports. Five […]
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Taylor Swift isn’t seeking approval — anymore. The multihyphenate musician brought her star power to the opening day of Sundance for the premiere of Netflix documentary Miss Americana, a snapshot of the singer’s past decade and the milestones that led her to become a powerful voice in her industry and beyond. Directed by Lana Wilson, Miss Americana documents […]
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“GLOW” star Betty Gilpin is set to play Ann Coulter in “Impeachment: American Crime Story” at FX. News of Gilpin’s casting comes just one day after it was announced that Billy Eichner had been cast as Matt Drudge in the third season of “ACS,” which will tackle the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Beanie Feldstein will star as Monica Lewinsky, with […]
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Jim Lehrer, the unflashy and never fashionable anchorman who delivered the news to public television audiences for 36 years before his retirement in 2011, has died. He was 85. Lehrer, a former newspaper reporter and editor in Dallas who spent more than two decades working alongside Robert MacNeil at PBS, died Thursday at his home […]
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The suspended head of the Recording Academy said the Grammys nomination process is rigged because of conflicts of interest. Deborah Dugan filed a complaint earlier this week, alleging she was put on leave for reporting corruption within the Academy’s processes and severe misconduct on the part of former CEO Neil Portnow. “In that room not […]
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Goodbye Gertie the Dinosaur By Brandon T. McClure Guest Writer Disney has been busy lately, as they work to further incorporate the studios of 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight. Since acquiring them earlier last year, Disney has dissolved Fox 2000 and began to look into remaking some of Fox’s most classic intellectual property (IP). […]
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“After 11 years, Bill Abbott, president and CEO of Crown Media is leaving the company,” said Mike Perry, president and CEO of Hallmark Cards, Inc. “I want to thank Bill for his many years of success and contributions to Crown Media and wish him continued success.”Abbott’s departure arrives after a particularly fraught holiday season that […]
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Billy Eichner has joined the growing cast of “Impeachment: American Crime Story” at FX. Variety has confirmed that Eichner has been cast in the role of Matt Drudge, who first broke the news of what would become the Monica Lewinsky scandal on his site, The Drudge Report. Drudge learned that Newsweek was sitting on a story by investigative […]
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As the war of words between the Recording Academy and ousted president/CEO Deborah Dugan continues to escalate, interim boss Harvey Mason Jr. today issued a statement to the Academy’s membership about Dugan’s alleged misconduct and warned about “leaks and misinformation.” The letter claims that Dugan’s attorney Bryan Freedman sought “millions of dollars” for his client to step down from […]
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Parasite won the SAG Award for best performance by a cast in a motion picture at the 26th annual SAG Awards on Sunday night. Elsewhere in the film categories, Joaquin Phoenix was named best actor for Joker, while Renée Zellweger was tapped as best actress for Judy. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s Brad Pitt and Marriage Story’s Laura Dern won for best supporting […]
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The filmmaking community was rocked last week when Oprah Winfrey pulled her name as executive producer from a Sundance Film Festival documentary alleging sexual assault against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. Directed by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, the film now titled “On the Record” was set to be distributed by Apple TV+ following its Park City bow next week, but […]
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No matter who wins at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, it will be a surprise. That’s because there aren’t many obvious frontrunners in either the TV or film categories at this year’s competition. Around 160,000 members from across the country vote for the SAG Awards, and with such a large voting body, members frequently […]
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As the music industry reeled in the wake of Deborah Dugan’s sudden removal from her post as president/CEO of the Recording Academy on Thursday — a mere five months after she’d taken charge, and just ten days before the Grammy Awards — even insiders were stunned by the abruptness of the move and perplexed by the purported reasons for […]
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Sound the trumpets: 20th Century Fox, a name and klieg-lit logo that stretches back 85 years in Hollywood, is dropping the word Fox, a move that may prevent consumers mistakenly thinking the movie studio has anything to do Rupert Murdoch’s polarizing Fox News media empire. The Walt Disney Company bought most of Mr. Murdoch’s entertainment assets last […]
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Hillary Rodham Clinton began the promotional push for her upcoming documentary, Hulu’s Hillary, on Friday morning — and it doesn’t appear lost on the former Secretary of State that the story of her ill-fated 2016 run is arriving as the field of Democratic presidential hopefuls finally narrows. Clinton, whose four-hour documentary serves as both a deep-dive on […]
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Four months after WarnerMedia’s company-wide pact with J.J. Abrams, NBCUniversal also has leveraged its multiple outlets to land Seth MacFarlane. The creator of multibillion-dollar franchise Family Guy left his decades-long home at 20th Century Fox TV on Jan. 10 for what sources say is a five-year, $200 million overall TV deal. Under the pact, MacFarlane will create […]
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We now know a little bit more about whether a “Friends” reunion is ever bound for forthcoming streamer HBO Max, if the Harry Potter franchise will make its way to the service, and what the new Green Lantern series will entail. While many fans are no doubt interested in a “Friends” reunion of some sort, since all 200-plus […]
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Canada’s largest newspaper says Prince Harry and Meghan Markle aren’t welcome to live in the famously friendly country because it’s unconstitutional. In a scathing editorial, The Globe and Mail says the royal couple’s plan to move to the land of maple syrup and hockey violates laws that keep the once-British-ruled country at arm’s length from […]
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David Simon says he was first approached to adapt Phillip Roth’s The Plot Against America shortly after the 2012 election — but he didn’t think the novel, an alternate history in which Charles Lindbergh rides an isolationist and antisemitic wave to defeat Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election, was timely. “I enjoyed the novel. It’s a […]
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Ronan Farrow is set to executive produce a documentary about violence against journalists for a documentary at HBO. The project is the first under Farrow’s multi-film deal with the premium cabler. The film will be directed by the Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady of Loki Films. Their past credits include HBO’s “12th & […]
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Former “America’s Got Talent” judge Heidi Klum weighed in on the controversy surrounding the NBC competition show following Gabrielle Union’s departure, saying she “only had an amazing experience” during her six years on the show. “I’ve only had an amazing experience,” she told reporters following Tuesday at the Television Critics Association press tour. Klum was […]
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The Peabody Award are moving to Los Angeles. For the first time in its 80-year history, the ceremony will take place in L.A. This year’s ceremony is set for June 18 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The Peabody Awards have been handed out in New York every year except for the 50th anniversary, when the […]
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CNN and MSNBC are shaping up to be the two likeliest landing spots for former Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, who unexpectedly left the network in October and has been on the cable news sidelines ever since as he waits out a non-compete agreement of unknown length. On Monday, The Daily Beast reported that Smith has talked to […]
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The 2020 Academy Award nominations have landed — with a few shockers. Chiefly among them is a snub for Jennifer Lopez‘s Golden Globe-nominated performance in Hustlers. The actress, 50, failed to land a Best Supporting Actress nomination on Monday morning, with Little Women‘s Florence Pugh and Richard Jewell‘s Kathy Bates surprising in the competitive category. Lopez has been a […]
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