Joe Biden denied sexual assault claims by a former staffer, saying in a statement on Friday that the alleged incident “never happened.” The allegations have cast a shadow over Biden’s presidential campaign, with some criticizing the former vice president for failing to fully address the claims. Tara Reade, a former aide to Biden, claims that
Month: May 2020
2019 Oscar-nominated “The Edge of Democracy” filmmaker Petra Costa and Switzerland’s Visions du Réel Film Festival weren’t going to let a global pandemic stop them from hosting a highly anticipated masterclass on Thursday. For nearly three hours the filmmaker fielded questions from moderators Delphine Jeanneret of the Geneva University of Art and Design, Giona Nazzaro,
Social media giant Facebook has recruited the cream of global entertainment industry talent for a home-to-home concert designed to raise funds for those affected by the coronavirus pandemic in India. International participants at the May 3 ‘I For India’ concert will include Bryan Adams, Mick Jagger, Mindy Kaling, Jack Black, Nick Jonas, Sophie Turner and
Jed Benedict has joined Danny Perkins’ newly launched British movie distributor Elysian Film Group Distribution as head of acquisitions and development. The company launched at the Berlinale as part of Elysian Film Group, Perkins and Kate Solomon’s film and television production company. It is backed by a minority investment from CAA, marking the first time
The Czech Republic has accelerated its plans to ease lockdown restrictions and will now reopen cinemas and theaters on May 11, two weeks ahead of the government’s previous May 25 target. Audiences attending movie screenings and theater performances will be limited to 100 people, Health Minister Adam Vojtěch announced Thursday. Vojtěch also announced that sporting
Philippa Childs, head of U.K. entertainment union Bectu, warns that creative workers who are still not covered by coronavirus relief schemes can’t be forgotten as the government deliberates how to bring industries out of lockdown. I can only imagine how daunting it must be returning to work to a national crisis after suffering from a
Two feature film projects and three documentaries are to receive grant funding from the Bangkok-based Purin Pictures fund. Unusually, the fund made no post-production disbursements. Receiving $15,000 each, the three features are: Indonesian director Mouly Surya’s “This City Is A Battlefield”; and The Maw Naing’s “The Women,” a Myanmar-set drama about a female protest movement.
Talk about using the power of #FilmTwitter for good. On Thursday, director Ava DuVernay and her film collective ARRAY unleashed the power of Twitter to educate and inspire the film community with a 10-hour tweet-a-thon event for cinephiles to ask their favorite filmmakers all about how and why they make the movies they’ve made. More
People are eager to return to the old normal, and the fate of awards shows is not the top priority, but it is a concern. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences on April 28 addressed the question of eligibility in a time of coronavirus, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. did the same.
After teasing his new mixtape earlier in the day, Drake has finally given fans “Dark Lane Demo Tapes” on Thursday night. The new mixtape features guest verses by rappers Playboi Carti, Future, Young Thug, Chris Brown and more. It includes his viral new track “Toose Slide,” which came out earlier in April, and “When to
The Tokyo International Film Festival is to expand its market and business functions this year with the establishment of a gap financing project market. It will run Nov. 4-6 at the The Prince Park Tower Tokyo, where the festival’s associated TIFFCOM rights market will relocate. Organizers said that they are launching a call for projects
Everybody get up, it’s time to slam now because “Space Jam 2” has an official title, thanks to NBA superstar LeBron James. On Thursday, the Lakers player posted a video of himself wearing a hat on his Instagram with the logo of “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” the apparent title of the Looney Tunes sequel.
Equestrian sports network Horse & Country TV has tapped John Penney for its board of directors. Penney was previously executive VP of consumer development and strategic partnerships at 20th Century Fo, where he was responsible for new business initiatives and partnerships. Before that he was chief strategy officer of Lionsgate-owned network Starz and chairman of
Kenny Chesney can’t possibly have imagined the world in which we’d be listening to “Here and Now.” The country superstar’s 19th studio album was supposed to arrive two weeks into a stadium-and-amphitheater “Chillaxification Tour 2020” that would have kept parking lot parties going well into college football season. With its call-and-response chorus, opening track “We
At the beginning of the documentary that bears her name, 26-year-old Jacinta, daughter of Rosemary (45), mother of Caylynn (10), has been incarcerated in Maine Correctional Center, where her mother is also doing time, for eight months, with one to go. Even if she did not later ruefully admit — in one of those asides
Remote production is getting better and better. “Saturday Night Live’s” second installment during the ongoing quarantine was noticeably more elegantly done than the first. Newscasts and late-night shows, though not quite seamless, are looking less cobbled-together. And “Parks and Recreation’s” reunion special, intended to raise funds for and bring awareness to the food-insecure population during
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the “Parks and Recreation” virtual reunion special. Last television audiences saw Nick Offerman, he was playing a tech CEO named Forest in FX on Hulu’s limited series “Devs.” But in March he did a complete 180-degree character turn to step back into the shoes of
Queen and Adam Lambert are honoring healthcare workers and first responders on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic with a new song: “You Are The Champions,” a reworking of the band’s 1977 classic “We Are The Champions.” Individually isolated in their homes, Queen founders Brian May and Roger Taylor along with Lambert recorded a
Exclusive Drew Barrymore and Walmart are getting dragged into more than a pillow fight … they’re getting sued for allegedly copying a fabric design studio’s patterns to sell pillows. Rule of Three Studio just filed a lawsuit against Drew and Walmart for copyright infringement … claiming the actress and big box store straight-up ripped off
NBC has partnered with Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios and Funny or Die to air a two-hour comedy special on Sunday, May 10, benefiting Feeding America, a hunger-relied organization. “There’s nothing more important right now than doing everything we can to make sure everyone affected by this pandemic is able to feed themselves and their families,”
Fox announced Thursday that it has greenlit a new unscripted series titled “Celebrity Watch Party.” Debuting May 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, the hour-long show will feature celebrities and their families filming themselves in their own homes and reacting to the week’s most interesting television shows and events. Guests in the premiere episode will include
ESPN’s Michael Jordan docuseries “The Last Dance” has captured the attention of just about every basketball fan around the globe, except for documentarian Ken Burns. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Burns reveals that he hasn’t watched “The Last Dance” and he fundamentally disagrees with how it was made. Michael Jordan’s production company,
Tory Lanez, whose “New Toronto 3” mixtape has been among the top 10 albums for the last two weeks, is one of the hottest current stars putting up a concert livestream in the coming days. If country is more your music lane, Luke Combs or the pairing of Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood will have
MusiCares, the charitable wing of the Recording Academy, which has raised nearly $14 million through its COVID-19 Relief Fund, has been forced to stop accepting new applications for aid until it raises more money, the organization announced Thursday. MusiCares staff and executives have been hard at work fundraising, but until further notice, the need has
In today’s film news roundup, the Dakota and Elle Fanning’s World War II drama “The Nightingale” gets a 2021 release, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival selects its closing film, the Palm Springs Short Festival cancels in-person events and college comedy “CRSHD” finds a home. RELEASE DATE Sony Pictures has set Dec. 22, 2021,
There’s a scene in “All Day and a Night” that cuts you to the quick. Jahkor Lincoln (Ashton Sanders), a freelance thug and aspiring rapper in Oakland, CA., who wears a permanent hot glare of suspicion, is seated in the living room of a gang leader named Big Stunna (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). Jahkor is trying
Filmmaker Alice Wu admits that she is someone who needs deadlines. “I guess I respond to external pressure,” she says with a laugh when discussing how she was trying to write her second film, “The Half of It.” Prone to procrastination, she went to extreme measures. “I wrote a check for a thousand dollars to