Month: September 2019

Forest Whitaker is the sort of star seemingly built to make the leap to television: He’s a decorated leading man whose subtlety of approach and whose commitment to delicate, unusual acting choices would seem to potentially play even better on the small screen. After stints on various network shows, Whitaker finally gets his showcase in
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BMI announced record revenues this morning, with $1.283 billion, up 7% over the previous year. The performing-rights organization also distributed and administered $1.196 billion to its songwriters, composers and publishers, its highest distributions ever, and a 7% or $78 million increase over last year. The surveyed fiscal year ended on June 30. According to the announcement, these results mark the
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In what it describes as a strategic move to strengthen and restructure the top levels of its executive leadership team, Def Jam Recordings has promoted Rodney Shealey to Executive Vice President of the label, and has promoted Theda Sandiford to Senior Vice President of Commerce, it was announced today by chairman & CEO Paul Rosenberg. In his newly expanded role, Shealey (pictured
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E! President Adam Stotsky is stepping down as head of the cable network after spending five years at the company, and 18 years at NBCUniversal, E!’s parent company. Frances Berwick will assume Stotsky’s duties for now, according to sources familiar with the situation. Berwick is currently President, Lifestyle Networks, NBCU Cable Entertainment, overseeing Bravo Media,
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September 9, 2019 11:13AM PT State Attorneys General representing 50 U.S. States and territories officially announced that they have opened an antitrust investigation into Google Monday. The investigation will initially focus on Google’s search and advertising business, but may widen in scope as it unfolds. “It doesn’t take a search engine to understand that unchecked
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September 9, 2019 11:00AM PT Western Australia gets a stunning showcase in Gregor Jordan’s romance, but the story never finds the right key. Tim Winton’s 2001 novel “Dirt Music” told the story of three haunted loners drawn into a bizarre love triangle in a remote fishing village on the coast of Western Australia. But the
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September 9, 2019 10:30AM PT The Federal Communications Commission continues to crack down on misuse of the Emergency Alert System tone on television. The government agency has proposed a $272,000 fine against CBS Broadcasting for allegedly airing a simulated emergency alert tone during a nationally televised episode of “Young Sheldon” on April 12, 2018. The
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BMI announced record revenues this morning, with $1.283 billion, up 7% over the previous year. The performing-rights organization also distributed and administered $1.196 billion to its songwriters, composers and publishers, its highest distributions ever, and a 7% or $78 million increase over last year. The surveyed fiscal year ended on June 30. According to the announcement, these results mark the
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September 9, 2019 10:08AM PT Spotify users will soon be able to recommend tracks and podcasts directly to their friends and followers on Snapchat, thanks to a new sharing option announced Monday. The new feature allows users to either add albums, tracks or podcasts to a story, or share them directly with their friends. Users
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September 9, 2019 10:00AM PT Paramount Network is promoting Lauren Ruggiero to senior vice president of scripted original series, where she will lead the scripted development team and oversee all scripted programming, from development to production. Ruggiero will also be responsible for working on a development strategy that will further the Paramount brand through the
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Comedy series “The Righteous Gemstones” has been renewed for a second season at HBO. The news comes midway through the show’s nine-episode first season. The series tells the story of a world-famous televangelist family with a long tradition of deviance, greed, and charitable work. Danny McBride created the series and stars alongside John Goodman, Edi
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This year, USA will air the final season of “Mr. Robot,” the show that launched creator Sam Esmail and that seemed, for a moment, to foretell a very different future for a network that had for years prior been best-known for its sunny, light dramas set in unconventional workplaces. Little in the show’s wake, though,
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Following their sold-out headlining spot at New York’s Madison Square Garden Friday night, Vampire Weekend announced more dates in support of their latest album “Father of the Bride,” stretching into next year. The news was first reported by Spin; a rep for the band confirmed the dates to Variety. Variety said of “Father of the
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A disillusioned security guard haunted by dreams of ancestral spirits wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a purple masquerade, a traditional spirit-creature that stalks the streets of Lagos, in Abba Makama’s surrealist romp “The Lost Okoroshi.” The follow-up to Makama’s kinetic, colorful feature debut, “Green White Green,” which marked him as one
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September 9, 2019 8:35AM PT Sony/ATV Music Publishing has signed a worldwide deal with singer, songwriter and producer King Princess. The 20-year-old multi-instrumentalist and Brooklyn native (real name: Mikaela Straus) is signed with Mark Ronson’s Zelig label, which released her debut single “1950.” Her father is recording engineer Oliver Straus. Sony/ATV SVP of A&R Jennifer
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“Downton Abbey’s” creators say that more big-screen installments of the hit show could follow if the new movie, which premieres in London on Monday, proves successful. “I don’t see why not,” writer Julian Fellowes told Variety in an interview ahead of the premiere of the Focus Features and Carnival Films movie, adding that the prospect
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Warner Bros. and New Line’s “It: Chapter Two” provided a necessary lift to a lagging domestic box office, dominating over the competition with $91 million in North America. Though it fell short of the first film’s record-breaking $123 million debut in 2017, those figures still represent a promising result. “Unless you’re ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ you’re not
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