Carlos Santana and Buddy Guy have been named as the honorees at this year’s “A Great Night in Harlem” benefit at the Apollo Theater, the annual fundraiser for the Jazz Foundation of America. The benefit will take place at the Apollo April 14, with drummer and producer Steve Jordan set to return as musical director.
Month: March 2020
Ubiquitous American pornography website Pornhub is releasing its first ever non-adult film on Wednesday, the company exclusively announced to Variety. The move places the digital giant, which estimated 42 billion visits to the site last year, in the company of other streamers seeking to expand audiences and diversify its content portfolios. The movie in question
Nearly three years after Hulu debuted its live TV subscription service, it’s finally available on PlayStation 4 consoles. Hulu’s VOD service has long been available on PS4, but the live subscription-TV service until now was not. PlayStation 4 users will now be able to subscribe to Hulu + Live TV, gaining access to both live
My priority for this election is not advocating for a lone candidate. My priority is advocating for democracy itself. At a breakfast at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Hillary Clinton spoke at length about what is at stake in this urgent moment. The hacking of, and outright attack on, our democratic system is a
March 3, 2020 9:40AM PT Robert Mitchell, the former managing director of Walt Disney U.K., has died at the age of 56. Mitchell started his career in the advertising industry, moving into film by joining Warner Bros. U.K. as an advertising director in 1983. He rose to become marketing director of Warner Bros.’ U.K. arm.
Tubi is taking its ad-supported VOD on the road. The free streaming service is launching directly on TVs in over 30,000 hotel rooms across the U.S., through a deal with Enseo, an in-room entertainment platform provider. Starting Tuesday, guests at participating hotels can watch Tubi’s lineup of over 20,000 movies and TV shows from over
Parkland shooting survivor Emma González, who co-founded March for Our Lives and is an activist for gun violence prevention, wants entertainment industry influencers to fight harder for important causes in the 2020 election. Here are excerpts of an email exchange with González, who is attending New College of Florida. What is your call to action
Like the first vertebrates to crawl from the ocean and onto dry land 500 million years ago, Donald Trump emerged from the primordial ooze of reality TV to be elected president of the United States in 2016. And like an invasive species, the star of “The Apprentice” has wreaked havoc on his new ecosystem —
Tribeca Film Festival announced its 2020 lineup, a slate of 115 movies that includes offerings from Hugh Jackman, Pete Davidson and Chrissy Teigen. The 2020 festival — which runs in Manhattan from April 15 through April 26 — has selections from 124 filmmakers representing 33 countries. High-profile screenings include the U.S. premiere of “Bad Education”
On Monday, the day that the Recording Academy officially terminated Deborah Dugan, interim boss Harvey Mason Jr. sat with the Los Angeles Times for his first interview since the organization’s former president/CEO was abruptly — and controversially — placed on administrative leave just 10 days before the Grammy Awards. “We see this as a really
As much of the city slept, a devastating tornado touched down early Tuesday in Nashville, wreaking havoc in the communities of East Nashville, North Nashville and Germantown as well as areas outside the city. More than 20 were confirmed dead through four counties in central Tennessee, with at least nine of those deaths reported in
Overshadowed by a grisly, racially motivated shooting in western Germany and the growing pains of new festival leadership, this year’s Berlinale served to illuminate the market dynamics and global issues set to impact the international film and television industry in the run-up to Cannes — provided coronavirus stays away from the Croisette. The Berlin festival,
Amazon, which owns a piece of YES Network, is now going to stream a batch of Yankees games on Prime Video. However, the live streams of 21 New York Yankees games during the MLB’s 2020 regular season will be available only to Prime Video users in four states that comprise the Bronx Bombers’ home-team footprint:
The rapid spread of coronavirus, which has already killed more than 3,000 people and infected as many as 90,000, has gripped a fearful global population and threatens the livelihood of countless workers as major events are canceled and businesses shut their doors to prevent transmission. Meanwhile, reacting to news of the worldwide spread of the
Rachel Maddow’s devotees are ferocious, insatiable. Her fans are loath to miss a single nightly newscast hosted by the erudite MSNBC star. I know. I’m one of them. But it’s not only dyed-in-the-wool liberals like myself who tune in to “The Rachel Maddow Show” to feast on her scrupulous in-depth research, connect-the-dots analysis, compelling interviews,
Endeavor now owns a piece of Tongal, a digital content platform used by Hollywood studios, brands and agencies to tap into a global pool of video creators. Tongal announced a $13 million investment round led by previous investor Insight Partners with participation from Endeavor. Over the past few months, Endeavor has already been using Tongal
Mega Hillary Clinton is at our doorstep once again — but she’s still sitting on a fence politically … not quite ready to endorse Joe Biden, and per usual, taking shots at Bernie Sanders. The former Secretary of State walked into the ABC Studios Tuesday in NYC, where she was set to plug the new
“Welcome to the House,” Nancy Pelosi says to a group of surprised tourists in the majestic National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol Building as she breezes past them on her way to her office on a rainy Monday morning in mid-February. Pelosi nods and smiles to the visitors, repeating a warm greeting that has
Yes, Mr. Trump, let’s make America great again. But first, get one thing straight: America was great — before you were elected. Every morning I wake up, holding my breath while I turn on my phone to see the latest news. I think to myself, “It can’t be worse than yesterday.” But when the news
Antonio Sabato Jr. was one of the few actors who publicly supported Donald Trump in the 2016 election. His candidate won, but his career in Hollywood ended. “I had to sell everything,” Sabato reveals in a phone interview with Variety from his new home in Florida. “I had to pay all my debts. I was
Vice has announced that the second season of its popular series “Dark Side of the Ring” will return this month. Season 2 of the show, which goes behind the scenes of some of the most controversial stories in pro wrestling, will debut on March 24 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The two-hour season premiere will delve
Major League Baseball is benching Amazon Web Services, with the league picking Google Cloud as its new data and analytics partner. Under a multiyear pact, Google Cloud becomes MLB’s official cloud services and cloud data and analytics partner for business operations, including Statcast, the automated service that analyzes player performance and abilities. In addition, for
March 3, 2020 5:51AM PT Disney has cancelled its European launch event in the U.K. for its streaming service Disney Plus, citing a number of media attendee cancellations and increasing concerns at the prospect of travelling internationally because of coronavirus. The Disney Plus launch events were scheduled to take place over two days on Thursday
ABC News spends heavily on top anchors like George Stephanopoulos and David Muir. Now it’s investing in the studio that houses so many of them. Just in time for three hours of “Super Tuesday” coverage, the Disney-owned news outlet is unveiling a massive 5,500 foot production space in the heart of its New York City
Italy’s Fabio and Damiano D’Innocenzo, who just scooped screenwriting honors at the Berlin Film Festival for their dark drama “Bad Tales,” are set for their first TV series — a project that will also mark the first Italian original produced in-house under the Sky Studios banner. Details are being kept under wraps of the new
The organizers of Series Mania have said the international TV drama event will go ahead in France this month, despite the coronavirus threat. Set to take place from March 20-28 in the northeastern French city of Lille, Series Mania said it didn’t fall into the category of gatherings of more than 5,000 people in a
The Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event dedicated to fostering fresh Arab film fare through high-caliber mentorships and curated networking with a select group of top industry executives has been cancelled due to coronavirus concerns. “Although this is an extremely important event for our community and participants, the wellbeing of the residents and visitors to Qatar
Disney and Comcast-backed pay-TV operator Sky have struck a multi-year deal to bring Disney Plus to Sky Q and Now TV in the U.K. and Ireland. The Mouse House streamer, which will be available for purchase as an app, will first launch on set-top box service Sky Q, followed by streaming service Now TV in
“The Bachelorette” Season 16 is shaping up to be a U.S.-bound production. A source tells Variety that initial plans to shoot parts of the upcoming season — featuring newly unveiled star Clare Crawley — in Italy had to be changed, given concerns over the growing threat of coronavirus. Crawley, a 38-year-old hair stylist from Sacramento, Calif.,
March 2, 2020 7:43PM PT “Free Solo” filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi have become attached to direct a movie about the 2018 rescue of the Wild Boar boys soccer team from a cave in Thailand for Universal and Cavalry Media. “Midway” screenwriter Wes Tooke is writing the screenplay about the 12 members of the