The life that Diane von Furstenberg has lived is one of jet-setting romances, European aristocracy, Studio 54 conquests, gay lovers and tycoon successes that needs to be seen to be believed. The film festival premiere for her new biopic, “Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge,” offered a fleeting glimpse.
On Wednesday evening in New York City, “Woman in Charge,” opened the Tribeca Festival to a red carpet of European socialites, fashion luminaries and the same tall, beautiful, old-moneyed people who run around von Furstenberg’s biopic.
Candice Bergen was there. So was the Consulting General of Belgium in New York. You may have spotted executives from fashion brands like Neiman Marcus, David Yurman, Estée Lauder, Kering and many more. Karlie Kloss walked the red carpet, and the Greek Royal family made an appearance, including Marie Chantal, the Crown Princess of Greece, and Prince Achielieas-Andreas of Greece and Denmark.
The new Hulu documentary,...
On Wednesday evening in New York City, “Woman in Charge,” opened the Tribeca Festival to a red carpet of European socialites, fashion luminaries and the same tall, beautiful, old-moneyed people who run around von Furstenberg’s biopic.
Candice Bergen was there. So was the Consulting General of Belgium in New York. You may have spotted executives from fashion brands like Neiman Marcus, David Yurman, Estée Lauder, Kering and many more. Karlie Kloss walked the red carpet, and the Greek Royal family made an appearance, including Marie Chantal, the Crown Princess of Greece, and Prince Achielieas-Andreas of Greece and Denmark.
The new Hulu documentary,...
- 6/7/2024
- by Michael Appler
- Variety Film + TV
The iconic creator of the wrap dress – which turns 50 this year — Diane von Furstenberg early on in a new doc about her tumultuous, inspiring life, loves and career, strokes her face insisting she loves her wrinkles. “Don’t ask me how old I am. Ask me how long I’ve lived.” In a Q&a with Gayle King after the world premiere of Diane von Furstenberg: Woman In Charge, she had a change of heart.
“I look like sh-t. I mean I said I like wrinkles, but I hadn’t seen I had so many,” she said.
“But I like what you said …. because you said aging is living,” King protested.
“I know, I like what I said too.”
At 76, Dvf, also early on in the film, which will premiere on Hulu, hops nimbly onto the edge of her sink and balances there facing the mirror to apply her makeup.
“I look like sh-t. I mean I said I like wrinkles, but I hadn’t seen I had so many,” she said.
“But I like what you said …. because you said aging is living,” King protested.
“I know, I like what I said too.”
At 76, Dvf, also early on in the film, which will premiere on Hulu, hops nimbly onto the edge of her sink and balances there facing the mirror to apply her makeup.
- 6/6/2024
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
The engaging Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge begins with a clip from David Letterman’s late-night show, where he introduces the designer with, “Welcome the woman who reinvented the dress.” He laughs and says, “Really? Reinvented the dress?” But that big claim isn’t entirely wrong. In the 1970s, von Furstenberg’s wrap dress was more than a trendsetter. Like the person who emerges in this largely first-person documentary, the dress became emblematic of a professional but sexy independent woman.
That much is history, retold by von Furstenberg in the film with wit and flair. The documentary’s strength, though, is its intimate look at her entire whirlwind life. The child of a Holocaust survivor, she became a jet-setter, a business tycoon and a philanthropist. She married a prince and then a mogul without ever losing her own identity.
Much of what von Furstenberg says here she has said before,...
That much is history, retold by von Furstenberg in the film with wit and flair. The documentary’s strength, though, is its intimate look at her entire whirlwind life. The child of a Holocaust survivor, she became a jet-setter, a business tycoon and a philanthropist. She married a prince and then a mogul without ever losing her own identity.
Much of what von Furstenberg says here she has said before,...
- 6/6/2024
- by Caryn James
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Tribeca Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal doesn’t follow a North Star as she and her team sift through tens of thousands of submissions each year. But as they whittle down those applicants to the 100 or so films comprising the final lineup, themes tend to emerge.
“It’s not like we set out to say, ‘This is what we want to do.’ As an activist film festival, we always look for [political] films,” says Rosenthal, who created Tribeca Festival with Robert De Niro in the wake of 9/11. “This year, there’s a mental health narrative. I don’t know if that’s a post-covid thing.”
Tribeca, now in its 23rd year, will take place from June 5-16 and highlight films led by Kristen Stewart, Lily Gladstone and Jenna Ortega. “Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge,” a look at the fashion icon and entrepreneur, will open the festival, with anticipated documentaries about Prince,...
“It’s not like we set out to say, ‘This is what we want to do.’ As an activist film festival, we always look for [political] films,” says Rosenthal, who created Tribeca Festival with Robert De Niro in the wake of 9/11. “This year, there’s a mental health narrative. I don’t know if that’s a post-covid thing.”
Tribeca, now in its 23rd year, will take place from June 5-16 and highlight films led by Kristen Stewart, Lily Gladstone and Jenna Ortega. “Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge,” a look at the fashion icon and entrepreneur, will open the festival, with anticipated documentaries about Prince,...
- 6/4/2024
- by Brent Lang and Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
Martin Starger, a producer for such films as Robert Altman’s Nashville and Peter Bogdanovich’s Mask, died Friday at 92 in his Los Angeles home of natural causes. His death was confirmed by his niece, casting director Ilene Starger.
“He was a brilliant, elegant, remarkable man,” Starger said. “He had wonderful taste in projects, and, on a highly personal level, he was like a father to me, given that his older brother, my father, died very suddenly when I was a teenager.”
As the first president of ABC Entertainment, he helped bring such projects as Roots, Happy Days and Rich Man, Poor Man to television.
As an executive producer, Starger worked on films including Stanley Donen’s Movie Movie (1978), Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond (1981), The Last Unicorn (1982) and Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982).
Martin...
“He was a brilliant, elegant, remarkable man,” Starger said. “He had wonderful taste in projects, and, on a highly personal level, he was like a father to me, given that his older brother, my father, died very suddenly when I was a teenager.”
As the first president of ABC Entertainment, he helped bring such projects as Roots, Happy Days and Rich Man, Poor Man to television.
As an executive producer, Starger worked on films including Stanley Donen’s Movie Movie (1978), Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond (1981), The Last Unicorn (1982) and Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982).
Martin...
- 6/1/2024
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Martin Starger, who shepherded Roots, Happy Days and Rich Man, Poor Man as the first president of ABC Entertainment before producing such films as Robert Altman’s Nashville and Peter Bogdanovich’s Mask, has died. He was 92.
Starger died Friday at his home in Los Angeles, his niece, New York-based casting director Ilene Starger, announced. “He was a brilliant, elegant, remarkable man and had wonderful taste in projects,” she noted.
As an executive producer, Starger worked on films including Stanley Donen’s Movie Movie (1978), Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond (1981), The Last Unicorn (1982) and Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982)
He received Tony nominations in 1987 and 1989 for producing the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Starlight Express and the comedy Lend Me a Tenor, respectively,
Starger was born on May 8, 1932, in the Bronx, New York. After graduating from City College,...
Starger died Friday at his home in Los Angeles, his niece, New York-based casting director Ilene Starger, announced. “He was a brilliant, elegant, remarkable man and had wonderful taste in projects,” she noted.
As an executive producer, Starger worked on films including Stanley Donen’s Movie Movie (1978), Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond (1981), The Last Unicorn (1982) and Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982)
He received Tony nominations in 1987 and 1989 for producing the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Starlight Express and the comedy Lend Me a Tenor, respectively,
Starger was born on May 8, 1932, in the Bronx, New York. After graduating from City College,...
- 6/1/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Trump Media and Technology Group Shares, Donald Trump’s media company, have plummeted again after it reported losing $327.6 million in the first quarter of 2024.
The firm reported that Tmtg, the parent company of Trump’s Truth Social site, had revenues that barely reached $770,500.
Since Friday’s market close, the company has been witnessing its share price drop of 13.2% to $44.19, a figure weakening from its peak of almost $72 during its initial public offering in March. The stock had declined 8.6%.
The price crash has cost the former president, who owns 114,000,000 shares in Tmtg, over $766 million.
Trump owns almost 65% of the company, valued at nearly $6 billion.
Company officials stated that the first quarter results reflect the complications of a deal in March to merge with Digital World Acquisition Corporation. This special purpose acquisition company allowed Trump’s company to be publicized via merger.
“After an unprecedented, years-long process, we have consummated our merger...
The firm reported that Tmtg, the parent company of Trump’s Truth Social site, had revenues that barely reached $770,500.
Since Friday’s market close, the company has been witnessing its share price drop of 13.2% to $44.19, a figure weakening from its peak of almost $72 during its initial public offering in March. The stock had declined 8.6%.
The price crash has cost the former president, who owns 114,000,000 shares in Tmtg, over $766 million.
Trump owns almost 65% of the company, valued at nearly $6 billion.
Company officials stated that the first quarter results reflect the complications of a deal in March to merge with Digital World Acquisition Corporation. This special purpose acquisition company allowed Trump’s company to be publicized via merger.
“After an unprecedented, years-long process, we have consummated our merger...
- 5/25/2024
- by Alessio Atria
- Uinterview
“The transition will be seamless.”
Those words usually accompany an announcement of a corporate takeover and, of course, it never works out that way. And it likely won’t for Paramount 2024.
Consider history: When MGM found it had become a corporate conquest in the mid-1960s, not only was the studio staff fired but three major movies were canceled mid-production. The executive guillotine was also in action at Warner Bros a year later, when the production team was decimated by its new proprietor and even Looney Tunes was dropped.
Paramount’s “transition” in 1966 was even more lethal: Not only did the new studio owner cancel existing shoots but he also greenlit three of the biggest flops in Hollywood history – earning renown as “Bluhdorn’s Bombs” (see below).
History may not automatically repeat itself in the deal now unfolding behind the filigreed Paramount gates, but the “seamless transition” already sounds problematic:...
Those words usually accompany an announcement of a corporate takeover and, of course, it never works out that way. And it likely won’t for Paramount 2024.
Consider history: When MGM found it had become a corporate conquest in the mid-1960s, not only was the studio staff fired but three major movies were canceled mid-production. The executive guillotine was also in action at Warner Bros a year later, when the production team was decimated by its new proprietor and even Looney Tunes was dropped.
Paramount’s “transition” in 1966 was even more lethal: Not only did the new studio owner cancel existing shoots but he also greenlit three of the biggest flops in Hollywood history – earning renown as “Bluhdorn’s Bombs” (see below).
History may not automatically repeat itself in the deal now unfolding behind the filigreed Paramount gates, but the “seamless transition” already sounds problematic:...
- 5/9/2024
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Barry Diller’s Iac has cut a deal with one of the biggest players in artificial intelligence, OpenAI.
Dotdash Meredith, the Iac-controlled publishing company that owns publications like People, Food & Wine, Better Homes & Gardens, InStyle, Southern Living and Real Simple, has cut a “strategic partnership and licensing agreement” that will bring Ddm’s content to ChatGPT.
The content that will be accessible includes “time-tested recipes, expert health and financial information, leading style and entertainment content, and rigorous product reviews.” ChatGPT will display content and links in its responses.
The companies will also work together in other areas, including integrating OpenAI tech into Ddm’s cookieless ad-targeting solution and working “to create new AI products and features for its readers and use historical and ongoing Ddm content to enhance its model’s performance.”
Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.
Diller, the Iac CEO, has made no secret about his thoughts on generative AI,...
Dotdash Meredith, the Iac-controlled publishing company that owns publications like People, Food & Wine, Better Homes & Gardens, InStyle, Southern Living and Real Simple, has cut a “strategic partnership and licensing agreement” that will bring Ddm’s content to ChatGPT.
The content that will be accessible includes “time-tested recipes, expert health and financial information, leading style and entertainment content, and rigorous product reviews.” ChatGPT will display content and links in its responses.
The companies will also work together in other areas, including integrating OpenAI tech into Ddm’s cookieless ad-targeting solution and working “to create new AI products and features for its readers and use historical and ongoing Ddm content to enhance its model’s performance.”
Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.
Diller, the Iac CEO, has made no secret about his thoughts on generative AI,...
- 5/7/2024
- by Alex Weprin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Warren Buffett says he has sold all of his shares in Paramount Global at a significant loss.
Speaking at the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, his company, today in Omaha, Ne, the billionaire investor took full ownership of the bad call. Despite speculation to the contrary, he said, “It was 100% my decision” to invest in Paramount in 2022. “We sold it all and we lost quite a bit of money. That happens in this business.” (Watch a clip of him above.)
As of the end of 2023, Berkshire owned 63.3 million Class B, or non-voting shares, which had a value of about $800 million at the time. The stake, which represented about 10.1% of the company’s equity, helped boost the stock when Buffett initially invested in 2022. He then went on to make public comments criticizing the companies pursuing Netflix in subscription streaming, a cohort that includes Paramount, given the economics of the emerging sector.
Speaking at the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, his company, today in Omaha, Ne, the billionaire investor took full ownership of the bad call. Despite speculation to the contrary, he said, “It was 100% my decision” to invest in Paramount in 2022. “We sold it all and we lost quite a bit of money. That happens in this business.” (Watch a clip of him above.)
As of the end of 2023, Berkshire owned 63.3 million Class B, or non-voting shares, which had a value of about $800 million at the time. The stake, which represented about 10.1% of the company’s equity, helped boost the stock when Buffett initially invested in 2022. He then went on to make public comments criticizing the companies pursuing Netflix in subscription streaming, a cohort that includes Paramount, given the economics of the emerging sector.
- 5/4/2024
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced charges of “massive fraud” against the auditing firm responsible for Trump Media and cited accounting irregularities that impacted over 1,500 SEC filings.
The firm in question, Bf Borgers Cpa, and its owner, Benjamin Borgers, have agreed to a permanent suspension from practicing as an accountant before the SEC and to pay a combined total of $14 million in civil penalties. Neither has admitted nor denied the allegations.
SEC described Bf Borgers as a “sham audit mill” and asserted that the company and its owner deliberately and systematically failed to conduct audits and quarterly reviews by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (Pcaob) standards. The Lakewood, Colorado-based firm is accused of misleading clients with false claims that its work complied with Pcaob standards, fabricating audit documents to create the illusion of compliance, including false claims in audit reports submitted in over 500 public company SEC filings.
The firm in question, Bf Borgers Cpa, and its owner, Benjamin Borgers, have agreed to a permanent suspension from practicing as an accountant before the SEC and to pay a combined total of $14 million in civil penalties. Neither has admitted nor denied the allegations.
SEC described Bf Borgers as a “sham audit mill” and asserted that the company and its owner deliberately and systematically failed to conduct audits and quarterly reviews by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (Pcaob) standards. The Lakewood, Colorado-based firm is accused of misleading clients with false claims that its work complied with Pcaob standards, fabricating audit documents to create the illusion of compliance, including false claims in audit reports submitted in over 500 public company SEC filings.
- 5/4/2024
- by Baila Eve Zisman
- Uinterview
Jessica Casano-Antonellis, a former exec at Disney+, Hulu and Vimeo, is returning to the streaming sector as the head of communications for the new sports-centric service coming from ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery.
As SVP of Communications, Casano-Antonellis will head up all communications efforts for the joint venture, which does not yet have a name. News of the service, which is slated to launch this fall, first emerged in February.
As a member of the Jv’s executive leadership team, Casano-Antonellis will report directly to CEO Pete Distad.
Casano-Antonellis begins her new position after a two-year stint heading communications for SiriusXM. Prior to that, she was VP of Communications for Disney+ and Hulu and worked for video sharing site Vimeo as it was breaking away from Barry Diller’s Iac.
“Jessica’s extensive experience in the direct-to-consumer streaming space makes her the perfect fit for this role,” Distad said in a press release.
As SVP of Communications, Casano-Antonellis will head up all communications efforts for the joint venture, which does not yet have a name. News of the service, which is slated to launch this fall, first emerged in February.
As a member of the Jv’s executive leadership team, Casano-Antonellis will report directly to CEO Pete Distad.
Casano-Antonellis begins her new position after a two-year stint heading communications for SiriusXM. Prior to that, she was VP of Communications for Disney+ and Hulu and worked for video sharing site Vimeo as it was breaking away from Barry Diller’s Iac.
“Jessica’s extensive experience in the direct-to-consumer streaming space makes her the perfect fit for this role,” Distad said in a press release.
- 5/2/2024
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
Iac, the Barry Diller-owned company that controls The Daily Beast, has landed a strategic partnership with former Disney executive Ben Sherwood and Hearst veteran Joanna Coles to define the digital publication’s next chapter in a struggling media climate.
Effective immediately, Sherwood will serve as publisher and CEO and Coles as chief creative and content officer. As strategic partners, both will share a substantial interest in the company but specific terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
“These are tough times for digital journalism, but the combined experience, expertise and energy of Ben and Joanna have made me an optimist about their ability to make The Beast an enduring and successful enterprise,” said Barry Diller, who is Iac’s chairman and senior executive.
“Timing is everything, and the current media hellstorm feels like the ideal moment to jump back into journalism,” said Sherwood, who formerly served as co-chairman of...
Effective immediately, Sherwood will serve as publisher and CEO and Coles as chief creative and content officer. As strategic partners, both will share a substantial interest in the company but specific terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
“These are tough times for digital journalism, but the combined experience, expertise and energy of Ben and Joanna have made me an optimist about their ability to make The Beast an enduring and successful enterprise,” said Barry Diller, who is Iac’s chairman and senior executive.
“Timing is everything, and the current media hellstorm feels like the ideal moment to jump back into journalism,” said Sherwood, who formerly served as co-chairman of...
- 4/15/2024
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
A pair of high-profile media veterans are taking charge at The Daily Beast.
Iac says that it has formed a “strategic partnership” in the publication with Ben Sherwood, the former president of Disney’s TV group (and the former president of ABC News) as well as Joanna Coles, the former chief content officer for Hearst and editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan.
Sherwood will be The Daily Beast‘s CEO and publisher, with Coles serving as its chief content and creative officer. In a statement, Coles said the new team would be “bringing The Beast back to its rebel roots and will build on its beloved DNA to make it even beastier.
“Our fearless investigative team will break even more stories on the end of democracy,” she added. “And obviously our Chief Fruit and Vegetable Correspondent is moving to Montecito and will be on 24/7 stand-by for the launch of the American Riviera Orchard.
Iac says that it has formed a “strategic partnership” in the publication with Ben Sherwood, the former president of Disney’s TV group (and the former president of ABC News) as well as Joanna Coles, the former chief content officer for Hearst and editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan.
Sherwood will be The Daily Beast‘s CEO and publisher, with Coles serving as its chief content and creative officer. In a statement, Coles said the new team would be “bringing The Beast back to its rebel roots and will build on its beloved DNA to make it even beastier.
“Our fearless investigative team will break even more stories on the end of democracy,” she added. “And obviously our Chief Fruit and Vegetable Correspondent is moving to Montecito and will be on 24/7 stand-by for the launch of the American Riviera Orchard.
- 4/15/2024
- by Alex Weprin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Billionaire media mogul Barry Diller criticized Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, and labeled it a “scam” at an appearance on CNBC after the company’s recent public listing.
In an episode of Squawk Box on Thursday, Diller expressed his skepticism, “Why are you even talking about this? It’s a scam, just like everything he’s ever been involved in is some sort of con.”
After the company began trading last week, shares of Trump Media surged to over $79. However, the stock has since plummeted to $46 per share as of Thursday night. Trump Media reported a revenue of $4.1 million and a significant loss of nearly $58.2 million in the previous year.
Host Andrew Ross Sorkin highlighted the remarkable yet possibly irrational movement of Trump Media.
Diller stated, “I mean, it’s ridiculous. The company has no revenue.”
Sorkin asked, “But do you...
In an episode of Squawk Box on Thursday, Diller expressed his skepticism, “Why are you even talking about this? It’s a scam, just like everything he’s ever been involved in is some sort of con.”
After the company began trading last week, shares of Trump Media surged to over $79. However, the stock has since plummeted to $46 per share as of Thursday night. Trump Media reported a revenue of $4.1 million and a significant loss of nearly $58.2 million in the previous year.
Host Andrew Ross Sorkin highlighted the remarkable yet possibly irrational movement of Trump Media.
Diller stated, “I mean, it’s ridiculous. The company has no revenue.”
Sorkin asked, “But do you...
- 4/6/2024
- by Baila Eve Zisman
- Uinterview
It had all the elements of a good action movie – jeopardy, revenge, a mega budget – with even some casualties thrown in (albeit corporate).
The Bob Iger vs Nelson Peltz (who?) war is over now and Iger has won. But some filmmakers and ticket buyers might wonder: Did any of it matter? Would a modest change on the Disney board of directors have had any impact on the future of entertainment? (Peltz himself runs a hedge fund called Trian Partners and has no background in entertainment.)
To be sure, it’s been a good show, albeit a throwback to an era when Hollywood was run by Big Personalities, not monoliths like Amazon or Apple. The battles of that era were ego wars, not proxy wars — Redstone vs Diller or Murdoch vs Ted Turner, with bewildered stars and their reps huddled in the middle.
But now Iger has won – again. The onetime...
The Bob Iger vs Nelson Peltz (who?) war is over now and Iger has won. But some filmmakers and ticket buyers might wonder: Did any of it matter? Would a modest change on the Disney board of directors have had any impact on the future of entertainment? (Peltz himself runs a hedge fund called Trian Partners and has no background in entertainment.)
To be sure, it’s been a good show, albeit a throwback to an era when Hollywood was run by Big Personalities, not monoliths like Amazon or Apple. The battles of that era were ego wars, not proxy wars — Redstone vs Diller or Murdoch vs Ted Turner, with bewildered stars and their reps huddled in the middle.
But now Iger has won – again. The onetime...
- 4/4/2024
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Life, a symbol of 20th century magazine publishing and former pillar of Time Inc., is being relaunched by Bedford Media, the company led by model-entrepreneur Karlie Kloss.
The magazine, which was founded in 1883, will return in both print and digital form, with video also in the mix. Bedford will manage all operations of the brand under a licensing agreement with Dotdash Meredith. An official announcement said the publication will have a “regular cadence,” though it did not specify a print frequency. No financial terms were disclosed.
Time Inc. acquired Life in 1936 and continued to publish it weekly until 1972. At its peak, the photo-centric publication had a circulation of 13.5 million and was a defining chronicler of American culture for decades, documenting wars, domestic life and moon landings. It remained in circulation via special issues and supplements through 2008 before shuttering for good. Dotdash Meredith, which is controlled by Barry Diller, owns Life...
The magazine, which was founded in 1883, will return in both print and digital form, with video also in the mix. Bedford will manage all operations of the brand under a licensing agreement with Dotdash Meredith. An official announcement said the publication will have a “regular cadence,” though it did not specify a print frequency. No financial terms were disclosed.
Time Inc. acquired Life in 1936 and continued to publish it weekly until 1972. At its peak, the photo-centric publication had a circulation of 13.5 million and was a defining chronicler of American culture for decades, documenting wars, domestic life and moon landings. It remained in circulation via special issues and supplements through 2008 before shuttering for good. Dotdash Meredith, which is controlled by Barry Diller, owns Life...
- 3/28/2024
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
Bill Maher has fired CAA.
Sources say the host of HBO’s Real Time fired CAA, his reps for more than two decades, on Monday after he was not invited to CEO Bryan Lourd’s private Oscar party at his home on Saturday night.
Maher, according to sources, was furious that he was snubbed for the event — which was scheduled opposite the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s Night Before bash. The party at Lourd’s home drew the likes of J.J. Abrams, Barry Diller, Kamala Harris, Margot Robbie, Bob Iger, Alan Bergman, Dana Walden, Brian Robbins, Jason Blum, Brian Grazer, Donna Langley, Pam Abdy and such CAA clients as Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston, among others, according to industry newsletter Puck.
Lourd’s private party came a day after CAA toasted nominees including Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Cillian Murphy, Jeffrey Wright, Annette Bening, Carey Mulligan, Emily Blunt, Danielle Brooks, Jodie Foster and Da’Vine Joy Randolph,...
Sources say the host of HBO’s Real Time fired CAA, his reps for more than two decades, on Monday after he was not invited to CEO Bryan Lourd’s private Oscar party at his home on Saturday night.
Maher, according to sources, was furious that he was snubbed for the event — which was scheduled opposite the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s Night Before bash. The party at Lourd’s home drew the likes of J.J. Abrams, Barry Diller, Kamala Harris, Margot Robbie, Bob Iger, Alan Bergman, Dana Walden, Brian Robbins, Jason Blum, Brian Grazer, Donna Langley, Pam Abdy and such CAA clients as Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston, among others, according to industry newsletter Puck.
Lourd’s private party came a day after CAA toasted nominees including Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Cillian Murphy, Jeffrey Wright, Annette Bening, Carey Mulligan, Emily Blunt, Danielle Brooks, Jodie Foster and Da’Vine Joy Randolph,...
- 3/15/2024
- by Kim Masters and Lesley Goldberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Gerald M. “Jerry” Levin, the former CEO of Time Warner who helped oversee its calamitous merger with AOL, died Wednesday in Long Beach, CA. He was 84.
His death was confirmed to The New York Times by his grandchild, Jake Maia Arlow. Levin had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease but no details about his death were shared.
Once described as one of the most powerful media executives in the world, Levin with Steve Case orchestrated the ruinous merger of AOL and Time Warner in 2000. At the time, Time Warner was the world’s largest media company while AOL was a behemoth in its own right. But the deal would go down among the worst in history, and Levin resigned from the company in 2002.
“He saw the merger with AOL as making Time Warner digital by injection,” Richard Parsons, who succeeded Levin at Time Warner, told the Nyt. “What AOL brought...
His death was confirmed to The New York Times by his grandchild, Jake Maia Arlow. Levin had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease but no details about his death were shared.
Once described as one of the most powerful media executives in the world, Levin with Steve Case orchestrated the ruinous merger of AOL and Time Warner in 2000. At the time, Time Warner was the world’s largest media company while AOL was a behemoth in its own right. But the deal would go down among the worst in history, and Levin resigned from the company in 2002.
“He saw the merger with AOL as making Time Warner digital by injection,” Richard Parsons, who succeeded Levin at Time Warner, told the Nyt. “What AOL brought...
- 3/14/2024
- by Lynette Rice
- Deadline Film + TV
A highly amusing, albeit scathing New York Times restaurant review of Guy Fieri’s American Kitchen & Bar that went viral in 2012 is being used by attorneys acting for the Times in their lawsuit against OpenAI to illustrate just how destructive the new technology could be to the future of journalism. When prompted about the opening paragraphs of critic Pete Wells’ review, entire passages are lifted verbatim by ChatGPT. “Did panic grip your soul as you stared into the whirling hypno wheel of the menu, where adjectives and nouns spin in a crazy vortex?” Wells had written. Those sentences and several other paragraphs were copied directly from the pages of the paper and then regurgitated by the AI system, per the lawsuit.
Local news has been decimated in America, owing to a lethal cocktail of uninterested readers and greedy venture capital firms that buy local papers and then cut them to...
Local news has been decimated in America, owing to a lethal cocktail of uninterested readers and greedy venture capital firms that buy local papers and then cut them to...
- 2/14/2024
- by Lachlan Cartwright
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In the basement of a car dealership in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District last spring, The Messenger chairman and CEO Jimmy Finkelstein addressed a throng of New York’s media elite. Finkelstein was there to unveil his grand plans for a new website that he claimed would revolutionize the news, talking a big game in the process.
“When I was at The Hill, we did 125 million visits a month,” he told the gathering that featured media heavyweights Barry Diller, Kara Swisher, Chris Licht and Jen Psaki. “It was the second highest political site next to CNN. That’s with 70ish journalists and maybe 90 people in the editorial. Here, we are going to have hundreds of journalists. We are not just covering politics, we are covering sports, we are covering business, we are covering entertainment. So it’s hard to imagine why we couldn’t do it.”
Sitting in the crowd watching...
“When I was at The Hill, we did 125 million visits a month,” he told the gathering that featured media heavyweights Barry Diller, Kara Swisher, Chris Licht and Jen Psaki. “It was the second highest political site next to CNN. That’s with 70ish journalists and maybe 90 people in the editorial. Here, we are going to have hundreds of journalists. We are not just covering politics, we are covering sports, we are covering business, we are covering entertainment. So it’s hard to imagine why we couldn’t do it.”
Sitting in the crowd watching...
- 2/6/2024
- by Lachlan Cartwright
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Today is the latest deadline for campaigns and committees to disclose donors, offering a glimpse at who is putting up huge sums in the 2024 elections, which may end up being the most expensive ever.
According to the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission, Jeffrey Katzenberg, who is campaign co-chair of Joe Biden’s campaign, contributed $1 million to the Ff Pac, which is short for Future Forward, the main independent entity backing the president’s re-election bid. Future Forward made news this week when it announced plans to spend $250 million in an advertising blitz in battleground states. Money is being raised via the SuperPAC and a non profit, meaning some donors have to be disclosed and others do not.
Also contributing to Ff Pac was Sheryl Sandberg, the former Meta exective who recently announced that she was leaving the tech giant’s board. According to Fec records, she contributed $500,059 in...
According to the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission, Jeffrey Katzenberg, who is campaign co-chair of Joe Biden’s campaign, contributed $1 million to the Ff Pac, which is short for Future Forward, the main independent entity backing the president’s re-election bid. Future Forward made news this week when it announced plans to spend $250 million in an advertising blitz in battleground states. Money is being raised via the SuperPAC and a non profit, meaning some donors have to be disclosed and others do not.
Also contributing to Ff Pac was Sheryl Sandberg, the former Meta exective who recently announced that she was leaving the tech giant’s board. According to Fec records, she contributed $500,059 in...
- 2/1/2024
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
In a recent revelation that sent shockwaves through the media landscape, Barry Diller, co-founder of a prominent news network, admitted to a significant miscalculation in his 2023 predictions. Diller, who served as the chairman and CEO of the network from 1984 to 1992, disclosed that he erred in anticipating a scenario where former President Donald […]
The post Barry Diller’s Surprising 2023 Trump Prediction Revealed – Media Mogul’s Candid Admission Stuns Critics appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Barry Diller’s Surprising 2023 Trump Prediction Revealed – Media Mogul’s Candid Admission Stuns Critics appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 1/5/2024
- by Grady Owen
- ShockYa
As artificial intelligence products from tech giants threaten to upend the media landscape, major newspaper and magazine companies have faced a dilemma: take the money from AI giants in a licensing deal or fight with a lawsuit.
On Wednesday, The New York Times chose the latter, filing a lawsuit in the U.S. Southern District of New York against OpenAI, the Sam Altman-run firm behind the ChatGPT product that has amassed more than 100 million users since a version of it went public in late 2022. The popular chat bot was built by data scraped from across the internet and delivers its customizable responses to user queries and prompts by leaning on this vast trove of writing. If consumers increasingly turn to chat bots to consume or discover news, it could, for example, render individual web pages — the urls that publishers monetize via advertising — as a relic, forcing publishers to radically reshape their future online.
On Wednesday, The New York Times chose the latter, filing a lawsuit in the U.S. Southern District of New York against OpenAI, the Sam Altman-run firm behind the ChatGPT product that has amassed more than 100 million users since a version of it went public in late 2022. The popular chat bot was built by data scraped from across the internet and delivers its customizable responses to user queries and prompts by leaning on this vast trove of writing. If consumers increasingly turn to chat bots to consume or discover news, it could, for example, render individual web pages — the urls that publishers monetize via advertising — as a relic, forcing publishers to radically reshape their future online.
- 12/27/2023
- by Erik Hayden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The American Broadcasting Company aired its iconic series ABC Movie of the Week from 1969 to 1975. In the intro of Michael Karol’s book The ABC Movie of the Week Companion: A Loving Tribute to the Classic Series, the author called the anthology show “influential” for baby-boomers. Karol then went on to quote a press release from Barry Diller; ABC’s vice president at the time said the network was trying to “broaden the base of familiar television anthologies and movies-for-television” and how a 90-minute format would “do justice to that special echelon of story ideas, which don’t quite work in the standard one-and two-hour television program forms.” The concept also entailed working with production companies outside of their own (ABC-Circle Films), including frequent collaborator Spelling-Goldberg. And as many fans of vintage American tele-cinema will agree, one of Spelling-Goldberg’s, not to mention ABC’s most memorable TV-movies from that...
- 12/21/2023
- by Paul Lê
- bloody-disgusting.com
Axel Springer became the latest media company to partner with AI, as news organizations grapple with how best to use the technology while protecting jobs and their financial position.
The German media company announced a partnership Wednesday with OpenAI’s ChaptGPT, in which ChatGPT will pull from content from Axel Springer’s brands, including Politico, Business Insider, Bild and Welt, to answer queries. The answers to user questions will include attribution and links to full articles.
“We are excited to have shaped this global partnership between Axel Springer and OpenAI – the first of its kind. We want to explore the opportunities of AI empowered journalism – to bring quality, societal relevance and the business model of journalism to the next level,” said Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer.
Content from Axel Springer brands will also be used to advance the training of OpenAI’s large language models.
This is the latest...
The German media company announced a partnership Wednesday with OpenAI’s ChaptGPT, in which ChatGPT will pull from content from Axel Springer’s brands, including Politico, Business Insider, Bild and Welt, to answer queries. The answers to user questions will include attribution and links to full articles.
“We are excited to have shaped this global partnership between Axel Springer and OpenAI – the first of its kind. We want to explore the opportunities of AI empowered journalism – to bring quality, societal relevance and the business model of journalism to the next level,” said Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer.
Content from Axel Springer brands will also be used to advance the training of OpenAI’s large language models.
This is the latest...
- 12/13/2023
- by Caitlin Huston
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez were thrown a star-studded engagement party in Los Angeles on Sunday (November 12) at the home of Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg.
The 59-year-old billionaire Amazon founder and his 53-year-old fiancee got engaged back in May 2023 after five years of dating.
Now, we’ve seen the guest list of who was in attendance and we’re bringing you the list of star-studded names.
Keep reading to find out who was in attendance at their A-list affair…...
The 59-year-old billionaire Amazon founder and his 53-year-old fiancee got engaged back in May 2023 after five years of dating.
Now, we’ve seen the guest list of who was in attendance and we’re bringing you the list of star-studded names.
Keep reading to find out who was in attendance at their A-list affair…...
- 11/13/2023
- by Just Jared
- Just Jared
Re-entry is always harder than takeoff. After the Writers Guild of America’s longest yard, we made our deal, got something on almost everything we asked for (despite the pundits’ professional naysaying), and had our celebration at the Palladium — complete with a shout out from guild leadership to Fake Carol. Then it was pencils up: back to work for those lucky enough to still have it — and hustling to find work for the rest of us.
To be honest, it’s been a little weird. Not because we’re face to face with executives again: The creative executives seem to have been on our side for the most part. Frankly, a lot of them are scared that ChatGPT’s coming for their jobs, too. (Hmm, maybe they should consider… a union? Everyone’s doing it!) Now it might be different for Bob Iger and Ted Sarandos, but I don’t...
To be honest, it’s been a little weird. Not because we’re face to face with executives again: The creative executives seem to have been on our side for the most part. Frankly, a lot of them are scared that ChatGPT’s coming for their jobs, too. (Hmm, maybe they should consider… a union? Everyone’s doing it!) Now it might be different for Bob Iger and Ted Sarandos, but I don’t...
- 11/2/2023
- by Anonymous
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“One night, Barbara invited Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick,” remembers Pamela Gross, the former CNN producer and close friend of the late Barbara Walters. “She had a beautiful piano in her living room, and after dinner, Barbara and Sarah and Matthew gathered around the piano and started singing old tunes, and the rest of us were just pinching ourselves. It was such a special night, but that’s the way Barbara lived.”
The newswoman, who died in December 2022 at the age of 93, also counted luminaries like Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Diane von Furstenberg and Barry Diller, Hugh Jackman, and Andrew Lloyd Webber among the coterie of friends who flocked to her Upper East Side apartment for dinners and parties. Her home’s thoughtful decor, overseen by famed interior designer Mario Buatta, as well as jewelry and other personal items Walters loved are now the focus of the estate auction,...
The newswoman, who died in December 2022 at the age of 93, also counted luminaries like Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Diane von Furstenberg and Barry Diller, Hugh Jackman, and Andrew Lloyd Webber among the coterie of friends who flocked to her Upper East Side apartment for dinners and parties. Her home’s thoughtful decor, overseen by famed interior designer Mario Buatta, as well as jewelry and other personal items Walters loved are now the focus of the estate auction,...
- 10/27/2023
- by Laurie Brookins
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
No hostage left behind.
So many of your favorite stars have come together to thank President Biden for his efforts in working to peace amid the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Amid the news that two American hostages and two Israeli hostages have been released from captivity, Hollywood heavyweights are hoping for the safe return of the 220 innocent people who are still being held hostage by Hamas.
“We are heartened by Friday’s release of the two American hostages, Judith Ranaan and her daughter Natalie Ranaan and by today’s release of two Israelis, Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz, whose husbands remain in captivity,” the letter read.
The letter continued, “But our relief is tempered by our overwhelming concern that 220 innocent people, including 30 children, remain captive by terrorists, threatened with torture and death. They were taken by Hamas in the savage massacre of October 7, where over 1,400 Israelis were slaughtered – women raped, families burned alive,...
So many of your favorite stars have come together to thank President Biden for his efforts in working to peace amid the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Amid the news that two American hostages and two Israeli hostages have been released from captivity, Hollywood heavyweights are hoping for the safe return of the 220 innocent people who are still being held hostage by Hamas.
“We are heartened by Friday’s release of the two American hostages, Judith Ranaan and her daughter Natalie Ranaan and by today’s release of two Israelis, Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz, whose husbands remain in captivity,” the letter read.
The letter continued, “But our relief is tempered by our overwhelming concern that 220 innocent people, including 30 children, remain captive by terrorists, threatened with torture and death. They were taken by Hamas in the savage massacre of October 7, where over 1,400 Israelis were slaughtered – women raped, families burned alive,...
- 10/24/2023
- by Just Jared
- Just Jared
The Palm Beverly Hills has closed. Long the shorthand for industry power dining, it was for years run by Bruce Bozzi, the fourth generation in the family steakhouse business. A complicated court battle led to a 2020 sale to the hospitality firm Landry’s, whose brands include Del Frisco’s, Mastro’s and Morton’s. Below, Bozzi — husband of CAA co-chair Bryan Lourd and buzzy podcaster — sums up the storied, singular, nearly half-century run of the restaurant, which opened in West Hollywood in 1975 (where it was known for the many celebrity caricatures on the walls) and moved to Beverly Hills in 2014.
***
You won’t be able to tell the story of Hollywood without The Palm. It’s where on the same day you’d find Richard Zanuck in one booth, Bernie Brillstein in another and Mike Ovitz in a third. My favorite screen memory is Karen Walker in Will & Grace...
***
You won’t be able to tell the story of Hollywood without The Palm. It’s where on the same day you’d find Richard Zanuck in one booth, Bernie Brillstein in another and Mike Ovitz in a third. My favorite screen memory is Karen Walker in Will & Grace...
- 10/17/2023
- by Bruce Bozzi and As told to Gary Baum
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Former Electus CEO and Shine International prexy Chris Grant has launched a new distribution company, Osmosis Global, which he will unwrap in time for next week’s Mipcom conference. Investor and entrepreneur Marc Pierce is backing the new venture.
Osmosis Global’s initial sales slate includes projects from Warm Spring Productions (Fox Nation’s “Yellowstone One-Fifty with Kevin Costner”), V10 Entertainment/Vin Dibona Prods. (The CW’s “Totally Funny Kids” and “Totally Funny Animals”), Mrw Prods. (“Mike Rowe’s Somebody’s Gotta Do It”), Roc Nation (“Rise: The Siya Kolisi Story”), Stick Figure Entertainment (PBS’ “When Claude Got Shot” and HBO’s “Reporter”), Play House Studios and Cosmo Media Labs/Mola TV (“Mma Fight Academy”), among others.
Osmosis is also looking to fully finance or deficit finance both scripted and unscripted original programming, in addition to repping titles for global distribution.
As part of his exec team, Grant (who will...
Osmosis Global’s initial sales slate includes projects from Warm Spring Productions (Fox Nation’s “Yellowstone One-Fifty with Kevin Costner”), V10 Entertainment/Vin Dibona Prods. (The CW’s “Totally Funny Kids” and “Totally Funny Animals”), Mrw Prods. (“Mike Rowe’s Somebody’s Gotta Do It”), Roc Nation (“Rise: The Siya Kolisi Story”), Stick Figure Entertainment (PBS’ “When Claude Got Shot” and HBO’s “Reporter”), Play House Studios and Cosmo Media Labs/Mola TV (“Mma Fight Academy”), among others.
Osmosis is also looking to fully finance or deficit finance both scripted and unscripted original programming, in addition to repping titles for global distribution.
As part of his exec team, Grant (who will...
- 10/12/2023
- by Michael Schneider
- Variety Film + TV
Jonathan Dolgen, the former head of Viacom Entertainment and a former top 20th Century Fox executive, died Oct. 9 of natural causes in Los Angeles. He was 78.
For a decade, from 1994 until 2004, the hard-charging Dolgen led Viacom’s film, television and amusement parks, as well as Simon & Schuster and its music publishing operations, establishing a reputation for smarts, drive and relentless focus on costs and efficiency in operations. He took the reins of Viacom’s entertainment assets not long after Sumner Redstone prevailed in a long and public battle with Barry Diller to acquire Paramount Pictures in September 1993.
“You come to work in the morning,” Dolgen once told the New York Times in a profile shortly after he took the job at Viacom. “And you work 12 hours, and then you’re off 12 hours. And then you come to work again, and you push, and keep pushing, and learn, and keep learning.
For a decade, from 1994 until 2004, the hard-charging Dolgen led Viacom’s film, television and amusement parks, as well as Simon & Schuster and its music publishing operations, establishing a reputation for smarts, drive and relentless focus on costs and efficiency in operations. He took the reins of Viacom’s entertainment assets not long after Sumner Redstone prevailed in a long and public battle with Barry Diller to acquire Paramount Pictures in September 1993.
“You come to work in the morning,” Dolgen once told the New York Times in a profile shortly after he took the job at Viacom. “And you work 12 hours, and then you’re off 12 hours. And then you come to work again, and you push, and keep pushing, and learn, and keep learning.
- 10/10/2023
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Jonathan Dolgen, the tough-minded dealmaker and skillful numbers-cruncher who spent a decade at Viacom working for Sumner Redstone and alongside Paramount Pictures head Sherry Lansing, has died. He was 78.
Dolgen died Monday evening of natural causes at UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his family, a publicist announced. He had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 2012.
A native of Queens and a former Wall Street lawyer, Dolgen also held top positions at Columbia Pictures, Fox and Sony Pictures before becoming the first top executive recruited by Redstone for the newly merged entertainment conglomerate forged by Viacom’s $8.2 billion purchase of Paramount Communications.
“I had known Dolgen off and on over the years when I was a motion picture exhibitor, even before I gained control of Viacom,” Redstone recalled in his 2001 book, Passion to Win. “He was with Columbia Pictures, and I remember sitting with him in one particular meeting that became rather heated and thinking,...
Dolgen died Monday evening of natural causes at UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his family, a publicist announced. He had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 2012.
A native of Queens and a former Wall Street lawyer, Dolgen also held top positions at Columbia Pictures, Fox and Sony Pictures before becoming the first top executive recruited by Redstone for the newly merged entertainment conglomerate forged by Viacom’s $8.2 billion purchase of Paramount Communications.
“I had known Dolgen off and on over the years when I was a motion picture exhibitor, even before I gained control of Viacom,” Redstone recalled in his 2001 book, Passion to Win. “He was with Columbia Pictures, and I remember sitting with him in one particular meeting that became rather heated and thinking,...
- 10/10/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
George Clooney and his wife Amal Clooney received support from so many of their celebrity friends at the Albies!
Over 40 A-List celebs were seen on the red carpet at the 2023 Albie Awards on Thursday (September 28) at the New York Public Library in New York City.
The awards—named after Justice Albie Sachs for his seminal role in ending apartheid in South Africa—aim to shine a spotlight on brave individuals who, at great personal risk, have devoted their lives to justice.
There was some incredible fashion on the carpet and we have photos of all the celebs who stepped out for the event.
Head inside to see photos of all the celebs on the red carpet…
Keep scrolling to see all of the stars on the red carpet…
George and Amal Clooney
Jodie Turner-Smith
Fyi: Jodie is wearing a Balmain dress.
Matt Damon and wife Luciana
Fyi: Luciana is wearing...
Over 40 A-List celebs were seen on the red carpet at the 2023 Albie Awards on Thursday (September 28) at the New York Public Library in New York City.
The awards—named after Justice Albie Sachs for his seminal role in ending apartheid in South Africa—aim to shine a spotlight on brave individuals who, at great personal risk, have devoted their lives to justice.
There was some incredible fashion on the carpet and we have photos of all the celebs who stepped out for the event.
Head inside to see photos of all the celebs on the red carpet…
Keep scrolling to see all of the stars on the red carpet…
George and Amal Clooney
Jodie Turner-Smith
Fyi: Jodie is wearing a Balmain dress.
Matt Damon and wife Luciana
Fyi: Luciana is wearing...
- 9/29/2023
- by Just Jared
- Just Jared
Exclusive: Airplane! writer-directors David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker are teaming up with a cast of celebrities and industry figures to chronicle the making of the influential hit 1980 comedy.
Audiobook Surely You Can’t Be Serious will be narrated by the trio of filmmakers alongside comedians and actors Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Hader, “Weird” Al Yankovic, Molly Shannon, Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt and Beau Bridges, and industry including John Landis, Barry Diller and Michael Eisner. It will also include contributions from original Airplane! cast members Bob Hays and Julie Hagerty.
Airplane! premiered on July 2, 1980. With a budget of $3.5M, it went on to make more than $80M at the box office. The slapstick comedy sees a neurotic ex-fighter pilot have to land a commercial airplane after the crew becomes sick with food poisoning.
The audiobook will also chart the story of the Zaz trio, charting the rise...
Audiobook Surely You Can’t Be Serious will be narrated by the trio of filmmakers alongside comedians and actors Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Hader, “Weird” Al Yankovic, Molly Shannon, Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt and Beau Bridges, and industry including John Landis, Barry Diller and Michael Eisner. It will also include contributions from original Airplane! cast members Bob Hays and Julie Hagerty.
Airplane! premiered on July 2, 1980. With a budget of $3.5M, it went on to make more than $80M at the box office. The slapstick comedy sees a neurotic ex-fighter pilot have to land a commercial airplane after the crew becomes sick with food poisoning.
The audiobook will also chart the story of the Zaz trio, charting the rise...
- 9/27/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The Authors Guild, John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, Michael Connelly, Jodi Picoult and a group of other famous fiction writers filed a class action lawsuit on Wednesday against OpenAI, claiming that their technology is infringing on their works.
It’s the latest lawsuit to challenge AI’s use of copyrighted works as “training data” for their system.
In their complaint, the authors claim that OpenAI copied their works “wholesale, without permission or consideration.” The plaintiffs contend that the company fed their works into large language models, “algorithms designed to output human-seeming text responses to users’ prompts and queries.”
“Generative AI is a vast new field for Silicon Valley’s longstanding exploitation of content providers. Authors should have the right to decide when their works are used to ‘train’ AI. If they choose to opt in, they should be appropriately compensated,” author Jonathan Franzen said in a statement. Read the complaint.
It’s the latest lawsuit to challenge AI’s use of copyrighted works as “training data” for their system.
In their complaint, the authors claim that OpenAI copied their works “wholesale, without permission or consideration.” The plaintiffs contend that the company fed their works into large language models, “algorithms designed to output human-seeming text responses to users’ prompts and queries.”
“Generative AI is a vast new field for Silicon Valley’s longstanding exploitation of content providers. Authors should have the right to decide when their works are used to ‘train’ AI. If they choose to opt in, they should be appropriately compensated,” author Jonathan Franzen said in a statement. Read the complaint.
- 9/20/2023
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
Will the Hollywood studio become extinct?
One hundred years ago, Louis B. Mayer unfurled his grand idea to mobilize “all the stars in heaven” for his filmmaking adventure. His dream factory, once prolific, now seems adrift amid the economic debris of streamerville and linear TV.
The studio system still has its advocates, one of whom, Francis Coppola, attempted to re-invent the studio on three occasions. He’s still trying.
His intriguing, if bizarre adventure, is told in a gripping new book by Sam Wasson titled Path to Paradise, vividly chronicling how the director leveraged his two great movies into an assembly line of cinema.
Well, almost. Coppola’s effort to orchestrate the genius of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now into an enduring filmmaking enterprise was defeated by two realities: The eccentricity of his management style and the frailty of his infrastructure.
Zoetrope was to be owned and run by creatives...
One hundred years ago, Louis B. Mayer unfurled his grand idea to mobilize “all the stars in heaven” for his filmmaking adventure. His dream factory, once prolific, now seems adrift amid the economic debris of streamerville and linear TV.
The studio system still has its advocates, one of whom, Francis Coppola, attempted to re-invent the studio on three occasions. He’s still trying.
His intriguing, if bizarre adventure, is told in a gripping new book by Sam Wasson titled Path to Paradise, vividly chronicling how the director leveraged his two great movies into an assembly line of cinema.
Well, almost. Coppola’s effort to orchestrate the genius of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now into an enduring filmmaking enterprise was defeated by two realities: The eccentricity of his management style and the frailty of his infrastructure.
Zoetrope was to be owned and run by creatives...
- 9/14/2023
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
With Hollywood's writers and actors on strike, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) at a standstill in negotiations with both the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA, the WGA has suggested that legacy studios could break away to negotiate their own deal and get productions up and running again.
Following reports of tension and disagreement among AMPTP members -- which include streamers like Amazon, Netflix, and Apple alongside venerable Hollywood studios such as Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Universal -- and increasing financial pressures for some of those members, the WGA (per The Hollywood Reporter) told its members that some studios are becoming impatient with "AMPTP paralysis" and have already begun to engage separately:
One executive said they had reviewed our proposals, and though they did not commit to a specific deal, said our proposals would not affect their company's bottom line and that they recognized...
Following reports of tension and disagreement among AMPTP members -- which include streamers like Amazon, Netflix, and Apple alongside venerable Hollywood studios such as Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Universal -- and increasing financial pressures for some of those members, the WGA (per The Hollywood Reporter) told its members that some studios are becoming impatient with "AMPTP paralysis" and have already begun to engage separately:
One executive said they had reviewed our proposals, and though they did not commit to a specific deal, said our proposals would not affect their company's bottom line and that they recognized...
- 9/9/2023
- by Hannah Shaw-Williams
- Slash Film
When Mark Thompson was hired as CEO of The New York Times in 2012, he knew that he was facing skepticism from within the storied news organization, wary of the TV executive coming in with a mandate to transform its business.
“An outsider has many disadvantages, but one advantage is a ‘cold eye,’ ” Thompson recalled in a case study for the global consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in August 2020, shortly after his departure from the Times was announced. “In this case, I took the job because, besides all the problems and the difficulty of change in a legacy media organization, I thought there was also immense potential.”
Now, Thompson will bring that “cold eye” to CNN, where he was named chairman and CEO on Aug. 30. As with the Times, Thompson will find a storied news brand grappling with a declining legacy business, and without an obvious off-ramp to a digital future. “I...
“An outsider has many disadvantages, but one advantage is a ‘cold eye,’ ” Thompson recalled in a case study for the global consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in August 2020, shortly after his departure from the Times was announced. “In this case, I took the job because, besides all the problems and the difficulty of change in a legacy media organization, I thought there was also immense potential.”
Now, Thompson will bring that “cold eye” to CNN, where he was named chairman and CEO on Aug. 30. As with the Times, Thompson will find a storied news brand grappling with a declining legacy business, and without an obvious off-ramp to a digital future. “I...
- 9/1/2023
- by Alex Weprin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Longtime media potentate Barry Diller called on media companies to “get out of the room” with tech giants and instead hammer out a separate resolution to the writers and actors strikes.
“They should certainly get out of the room with their deepest fiercest and almost conclusive enemy, Netflix, and probably with Apple and Amazon,” Diller said on the podcast On with Kara Swisher. “Because Netflix is in one business and they are the rulers of the business they’re in. The other two, Apple and Amazon Prime, are in completely different businesses that have no business model relative to production of movies and television.”
The former Fox, Paramount and Universal boss, who has been more focused on InterActive Corp. and other digital ventures over the past 20-plus years, called in from his yacht, Swisher said in an introduction to the chat. “I don’t know where he was, floating around,...
“They should certainly get out of the room with their deepest fiercest and almost conclusive enemy, Netflix, and probably with Apple and Amazon,” Diller said on the podcast On with Kara Swisher. “Because Netflix is in one business and they are the rulers of the business they’re in. The other two, Apple and Amazon Prime, are in completely different businesses that have no business model relative to production of movies and television.”
The former Fox, Paramount and Universal boss, who has been more focused on InterActive Corp. and other digital ventures over the past 20-plus years, called in from his yacht, Swisher said in an introduction to the chat. “I don’t know where he was, floating around,...
- 8/31/2023
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
Iac chairman Barry Diller, the former studio exec and founder of Fox, is warning of a “catastrophic” impact to the legacy Hollywood studios if the SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America strikes extend beyond September.
Diller told podcast host Kara Swisher that when their backlogs of content dry up in 2024, legacy media will see a “high” number of streaming cancellations, putting them at a financial disadvantage once the dispute eventually gets resolved and production ramps back up.
“Just when they have to gear up to make new programming, to ‘get back subscribers,’ they won’t have the revenue base to be able to produce,” he said. “So that is kind of catastrophic.”
Diller called Netflix the “architect” of the strikes, arguing they seduced the legacy media giants to go all in on streaming and “lose huge amounts of money” to build competitive services and degrade their investments in cable.
Diller told podcast host Kara Swisher that when their backlogs of content dry up in 2024, legacy media will see a “high” number of streaming cancellations, putting them at a financial disadvantage once the dispute eventually gets resolved and production ramps back up.
“Just when they have to gear up to make new programming, to ‘get back subscribers,’ they won’t have the revenue base to be able to produce,” he said. “So that is kind of catastrophic.”
Diller called Netflix the “architect” of the strikes, arguing they seduced the legacy media giants to go all in on streaming and “lose huge amounts of money” to build competitive services and degrade their investments in cable.
- 8/31/2023
- by Lucas Manfredi
- The Wrap
Iac mogul Barry Diller thinks that the Hollywood studios need to “reorient” their businesses, and fast, or else face potential “catastrophic” consequences.
The former studio executive, speaking to journalist Kara Swisher for her podcast, also expressed pessimism about the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, and suggested that the legacy Hollywood studios should split with Netflix and their tech counterparts at the AMPTP.
“I think one fundamental thing, they should certainly get out of the room with their deepest fiercest and almost conclusive enemy, Netflix and probably with Apple and Amazon because Netflix is in one business and and they are the rulers of the business,” Diller said. “Apple and Amazon Prime are in completely different businesses that have no business model relative to production of movies and television, it’s just something they do to support Prime or something they do to support their walled garden at Apple.”
“I just...
The former studio executive, speaking to journalist Kara Swisher for her podcast, also expressed pessimism about the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, and suggested that the legacy Hollywood studios should split with Netflix and their tech counterparts at the AMPTP.
“I think one fundamental thing, they should certainly get out of the room with their deepest fiercest and almost conclusive enemy, Netflix and probably with Apple and Amazon because Netflix is in one business and and they are the rulers of the business,” Diller said. “Apple and Amazon Prime are in completely different businesses that have no business model relative to production of movies and television, it’s just something they do to support Prime or something they do to support their walled garden at Apple.”
“I just...
- 8/31/2023
- by Alex Weprin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In the fall of 1983, one could already make a plausible case for Martin Scorsese as one of the greatest living American filmmakers based on “Mean Streets,” “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “Taxi Driver,” “Italianamerican,” “The Last Waltz,” “Raging Bull,” and “The King of Comedy.” But as the holidays approached, Scorsese’s career was in trouble.
After establishing himself with a series of lean, mean masterpieces shot on tight schedules, the director’s productions had grown in a scale disproportionate to their financial success; “New York, New York,” “Raging Bull,” and “The King of Comedy” had all taken around a hundred days to shoot, and while all three are acknowledged as classics today, they received mixed reviews at the time and “Raging Bull” barely broke even at the box office — “New York, New York” and “The King of Comedy” were flat-out flops.
Scorsese spent most of 1983 preparing what was intended to...
After establishing himself with a series of lean, mean masterpieces shot on tight schedules, the director’s productions had grown in a scale disproportionate to their financial success; “New York, New York,” “Raging Bull,” and “The King of Comedy” had all taken around a hundred days to shoot, and while all three are acknowledged as classics today, they received mixed reviews at the time and “Raging Bull” barely broke even at the box office — “New York, New York” and “The King of Comedy” were flat-out flops.
Scorsese spent most of 1983 preparing what was intended to...
- 8/18/2023
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
I recently discovered my pioneer producer great-grandfather Sol M. Wurtzel’s obituary in the April 16, 1958 edition of Variety. In 1917, mogul William Fox sent Sol to oversee production at his Hollywood studio. During his lengthy career as a Fox Studio head, Sol produced over 700 films.
One short paragraph blew my mind. “In 1933, when his [Fox Studio] Western Avenue lot was threatened with a three-month shuttering, Wurtzel went to bat for his staff, refusing to take anyone off salary. The studio remained open, and costs were charged to his later productions.” Wow, exactly 90 years ago, a studio executive cared enough about his employees to keep them on payroll.
During the height of the Great Depression, my great-grandfather bet the house, so his employees had money to cover rent, put food on the table and pay their medical bills. A hardcore gambler, he risked his own career and financial future.
He bluffed his way through,...
One short paragraph blew my mind. “In 1933, when his [Fox Studio] Western Avenue lot was threatened with a three-month shuttering, Wurtzel went to bat for his staff, refusing to take anyone off salary. The studio remained open, and costs were charged to his later productions.” Wow, exactly 90 years ago, a studio executive cared enough about his employees to keep them on payroll.
During the height of the Great Depression, my great-grandfather bet the house, so his employees had money to cover rent, put food on the table and pay their medical bills. A hardcore gambler, he risked his own career and financial future.
He bluffed his way through,...
- 8/7/2023
- by Sharon Rosen Leib
- Variety Film + TV
“To survive in Hollywood, all you need is an occasional miracle.”
An amateur philosopher named Ronald Reagan once directed those words to me, referring to the unexpected labor crisis of 1960. Hollywood’s actors had shocked their industry by voting to strike and now looked to their leader, Reagan, then president of SAG, to advance a solution.
Reagan was far from a resolute figure at the time. He had won his following as a crusading liberal Democrat but had now decided he was a Republican. A true believer, Reagan nonetheless forged ahead, soon finding his instant miracle and taking bows for putting the industry back to work (more on that below).
Hollywood today is looking for another Reagan miracle even though neither the industry’s structure nor its economics makes much sense to its audience or the stock market. Indeed, if Reagan was surprised in 1960 he would be even more bewildered at this moment when,...
An amateur philosopher named Ronald Reagan once directed those words to me, referring to the unexpected labor crisis of 1960. Hollywood’s actors had shocked their industry by voting to strike and now looked to their leader, Reagan, then president of SAG, to advance a solution.
Reagan was far from a resolute figure at the time. He had won his following as a crusading liberal Democrat but had now decided he was a Republican. A true believer, Reagan nonetheless forged ahead, soon finding his instant miracle and taking bows for putting the industry back to work (more on that below).
Hollywood today is looking for another Reagan miracle even though neither the industry’s structure nor its economics makes much sense to its audience or the stock market. Indeed, if Reagan was surprised in 1960 he would be even more bewildered at this moment when,...
- 7/20/2023
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
“The Umbrella Academy” writer Molly Nussbaum said that the streaming financial structure “doesn’t make any sense” while picketing outside Paramount on Wednesday, telling TheWrap that even after executive producing a streaming series, she was forced back into driving for Lyft.
“The money that you make on a job has to now last you six, 10, 12, 14 months — and when you don’t have residuals coming to help you get through that… I mean, I was an executive producer in April on a hit show for a streaming platform, and I was driving for Lyft in December. That doesn’t make any sense. It’s not good,” Nussbaum, who was acting as a WGA strike captain, told TheWrap.
The WGA member, who was most recently working on the “Daredevil” reboot for Disney and was previously executive producing on the Peacock series “One of Us Is Lying,” added, “I believe that what we’re asking for is fair.
“The money that you make on a job has to now last you six, 10, 12, 14 months — and when you don’t have residuals coming to help you get through that… I mean, I was an executive producer in April on a hit show for a streaming platform, and I was driving for Lyft in December. That doesn’t make any sense. It’s not good,” Nussbaum, who was acting as a WGA strike captain, told TheWrap.
The WGA member, who was most recently working on the “Daredevil” reboot for Disney and was previously executive producing on the Peacock series “One of Us Is Lying,” added, “I believe that what we’re asking for is fair.
- 7/20/2023
- by Sharon Knolle
- The Wrap
Every labor dispute involves posturing and hyperbolic language: One side denounces the other as evil incarnate and the other does the same — until a deal is done. But this time, with two major guilds pitted against the studios, the anger is so intense that it’s hard to see how peace will be restored.
In the simplest terms, both the writers and actors guilds say the suits are greedy and trying to destroy their livelihoods, while the suits blame the actors and writers for failing to grasp the dire state of an industry still recovering from the pandemic and struggling with streaming losses. SAG-AFTRA members point to the jumbo compensation of the top suits; the top suits point to the jumbo compensation of top SAG-AFTRA members. (Barry Diller suggests they both should take a 25 percent pay cut.)
And it’s not just studios versus actors and writers. Some top agents...
In the simplest terms, both the writers and actors guilds say the suits are greedy and trying to destroy their livelihoods, while the suits blame the actors and writers for failing to grasp the dire state of an industry still recovering from the pandemic and struggling with streaming losses. SAG-AFTRA members point to the jumbo compensation of the top suits; the top suits point to the jumbo compensation of top SAG-AFTRA members. (Barry Diller suggests they both should take a 25 percent pay cut.)
And it’s not just studios versus actors and writers. Some top agents...
- 7/18/2023
- by Kim Masters
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Anjali Sud is taking over as CEO of Tubi, Fox Corp.’s free, ad-supported streaming TV service, after she stepped down as chief exec of video-hosting platform Vimeo.
Sud will officially start as Tubi’s CEO on Sept. 1, 2023, succeeding founder Farhad Massoudi. Sud reports to Paul Cheesbrough, CEO of Tubi Media Group, which Fox formed this spring to house its digital businesses including Tubi (acquired in 2020) and Blockchain Creative Labs.
Sud spent nine years at New York-based Vimeo, originally serving as VP of global marketing before assuming oversight of the creator business unit and getting promoted to CEO in 2017. Under Sud, Vimeo has undertaken employee layoffs and made other cost-cutting moves to improve its financial profile.
“Anjali is a highly accomplished executive in the technology and media industry with a passion and track record for strategic disruption and authentic leadership,” Cheesbrough said in announcing her hire. “As Tubi continues to...
Sud will officially start as Tubi’s CEO on Sept. 1, 2023, succeeding founder Farhad Massoudi. Sud reports to Paul Cheesbrough, CEO of Tubi Media Group, which Fox formed this spring to house its digital businesses including Tubi (acquired in 2020) and Blockchain Creative Labs.
Sud spent nine years at New York-based Vimeo, originally serving as VP of global marketing before assuming oversight of the creator business unit and getting promoted to CEO in 2017. Under Sud, Vimeo has undertaken employee layoffs and made other cost-cutting moves to improve its financial profile.
“Anjali is a highly accomplished executive in the technology and media industry with a passion and track record for strategic disruption and authentic leadership,” Cheesbrough said in announcing her hire. “As Tubi continues to...
- 7/17/2023
- by Todd Spangler
- Variety Film + TV
Tubi has appointed former Vimeo chief Anjali Sud as CEO.
Sud will assume her new role on September 1, reporting to Paul Cheesbrough, CEO of Tubi Media Group. Her appointment follows a shuffle last spring that saw Tubi founder and former CEO Farhad Massoudi depart the company and Cheesbrough take the reins of his newly created group.
Tubi, which Fox acquired in 2020 for $440 million, now reaches 64 million monthly active users and has become a key strategic pillar as the company navigates the ongoing shift of linear viewing toward streaming.
“Anjali is a highly accomplished executive in the technology and media industry with a passion and track record for strategic disruption and authentic leadership,” Cheesbrough said in the announcement of the hire. “She is the perfect candidate to lead Tubi into a new era of creativity, growth and market leadership.”
During Sud’s leadership as CEO of Vimeo, which was spun off...
Sud will assume her new role on September 1, reporting to Paul Cheesbrough, CEO of Tubi Media Group. Her appointment follows a shuffle last spring that saw Tubi founder and former CEO Farhad Massoudi depart the company and Cheesbrough take the reins of his newly created group.
Tubi, which Fox acquired in 2020 for $440 million, now reaches 64 million monthly active users and has become a key strategic pillar as the company navigates the ongoing shift of linear viewing toward streaming.
“Anjali is a highly accomplished executive in the technology and media industry with a passion and track record for strategic disruption and authentic leadership,” Cheesbrough said in the announcement of the hire. “She is the perfect candidate to lead Tubi into a new era of creativity, growth and market leadership.”
During Sud’s leadership as CEO of Vimeo, which was spun off...
- 7/17/2023
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.