Month: November 2020

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a season high number of viewers tuned in to “The Bachelorette” last night to see Clare Crawley exit the show having found love, and Tayshia Adams take her place. A total of 5.3 million total viewers watched last night’s episode, which represents a 15% jump from last week and a 300,000 increase on
0 Comments
Former TikTok executive Gisselle Ruiz has joined WME as head of inclusion. Ruiz will work with senior leaders to assist in recruitment and retention efforts and engagement with strategic partnerships meant to support diversity, equity and inclusion goals. WME said Ruiz’s skill set will be “instrumental to the agency’s commitment to be an anti-racist and
0 Comments
Gaumont has come on board “Fantasies,” a sex-themed French comedy headlined by Monica Bellucci (“Spectre”), Carole Bouquet (“For Your Eyes Only”) and Karine Viard (“Famille Belier”). Directed by David and Stephane Foenkinos, the omnibus film follows six couples and revolves around their intimate lives and fantasies, from role-playing to exhibitionism and abstinence. Besides Bellucci, Bouquet
0 Comments
“The Bike Thief,” “Hello Again – a Wedding a Day” and “Karnawal” are among the hottest titles on Beta Cinema’s sales slate for the virtual version of the American Film Market, which starts Monday. The Munich-based sales company will give Matt Chambers’ “The Bike Thief” its market premiere at AFM, following its world premiere this
0 Comments
In this week’s installment of “Live From My Den,” electronic music duo Phantogram, fresh off the release of their fourth album “Ceremony,” perform songs from their Los Angeles home studio Harmonie West. The weekly series from Variety and Artists Den showcases today’s top musicians performing live from the intimate settings of their home studios. Hailing
0 Comments
Al Roker, one of morning-TV’s most durable presences, told viewers of NBC’s “Today” Friday morning that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and would be taking time off for surgery and recovery. “It’s a good news-bad news kind of thing,” Roker told viewers during the morning program’s Friday broadcast. “Good news is we caught
0 Comments
The latest episode of “Star Trek: Discovery” includes a storyline that viewers have almost certainly never seen before on a major television series: A romance between a non-binary character, a human named Adira, and trans character, a Trill named Gray. What’s more, Adira and Gray are played respectively by the non-binary actor Blu del Barrio
0 Comments
Paris-based outfit Reel Suspects has acquired “The Three,” directed by up-and-coming Armenian-Russian filmmaker Anna Melikyan. “The Three” will have its international premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and will be distributed in Russia by Disney in December. Penned by Melikyan and Evgenia Khripkova, “The Three” revolves around a husband, a wife and another woman.
0 Comments
ViacomCBS released solid third-quarter earnings on Friday that showed signs of improvement in advertising sales and affiliate revenue as well as strong growth in its streaming operations. Paid subscribers for CBS All Access and Showtime standalone streaming services have climbed to 17.9 million, up from the 13.5 million subs disclosed earlier this year. The company
0 Comments
Steve Bannon’s “War Room Pandemic” account was permanently suspended by Twitter, after the ex-Trump strategist said in a video Thursday that the president should execute Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI director Christopher Wray. According to Twitter, the company suspended Bannon’s @WarRoomPandemic account for violating its policy banning the “glorification of violence.” Facebook and YouTube also
0 Comments
Netflix has chosen France to test its first channel offering. Named Direct, the linear channel — which is only available to subscribers — will air French, international and U.S. feature films and TV series that are available on the streaming service. However, the channel will only be accessible via the service’s web browser, unlike its
0 Comments
In “Mortal,” a film plagued by assorted crises and confusions of identity, one stands out at the very beginning: It’s an R-rated superhero movie that assumes its audience doesn’t know the meaning of its title. An introductory chyron helpfully offers the single dictionary definition “a human being,” without going into any of the others. That
0 Comments
In an unprecedented joint operation, U.S. and Brazilian law enforcement teams cracked down on pirate online services and apps that illegally reproduced and distributed copyrighted content from U.S. media companies to Brazilian customers. Three U.S.-based domain names were shut down while the Brazilian-led takedown, dubbed Operation 404, saw 25 search and seizure warrants issued across
0 Comments
ITV has commissioned COVID-19 documentary “The Year That Changed Britain” with Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald directing, Variety has learned exclusively. The film will attempt to tell the story of the pandemic’s impact on Britain through the intimate personal and professional experiences of those who lived through it. Producers have secured “unprecedented” access to intensive care
0 Comments
Because it’s not enough for just one vintage Stevie Nicks song to have reentered the zeitgeist (see: the TikTok “Dreams” resurgence), Miley Cyrus is doing her best to make sure that history quickly repeats itself by pushing another Nicks favorite, “Edge of Seventeen,” back into public prominence. Late Thursday night, Miley released what is officially
0 Comments
Bee Gees alumnus Barry Gibb dropped a duet with Jason Isbell late Thursday night in announcing a forthcoming project that has him sharing lead vocals on his catalog material with a dozen mostly Nashville-based artists. The Gibb/Isbell track, “Words of a Fool,” which can be heard below, is the first official recording of a song
0 Comments
SPOILER ALERT:Do not read if you have not watched the Nov. 5 episode of “The Bachelorette.” For the first time in the “Bachelor” franchise’s two-decade history, the star of “The Bachelorette” was replaced. After months of rumors pouring out from the quarantined set, viewers finally learned that Tayshia Adams is taking over the leading lady
0 Comments
Lesley Manville is facing some serious pressure. The longtime actor is taking over the role of Princess Margaret in the final two seasons of “The Crown” from Helena Bonham-Carter. “Of course I feel pressure! No pressure? All the pressure in the world,” Manville said in an interview with Variety’s Marc Malkin. “Everyone loves comparing, don’t
0 Comments