In many ways, “Daily Show” star Trevor Noah has been the most challenged Grammy Awards host in history: Last year he emceed the first-ever pandemic show, which featured the traditional awards and somewhat traditional performances, but in a semi-outdoor setting before a small, rotating audience of artists, presenters and staff. This year it’s a more-normal
Month: April 2022
“The Real Housewives” are going international, and the first stop is Dubai. “The Real Housewives of Dubai” will premiere on June 1 at 9 p.m. ET, Bravo announced Friday. The network also revealed the first promo for the first official international iteration of the franchise. Dubai marks the 11th city in the “Housewives” franchise, and
On April 29, Bruce Willis’ storied filmography adds another credit with the release of “Fortress: Sniper’s Eye.” The action-thriller starring Willis, Jesse Metcalfe and Chad Michael Murray is a sequel to 2021’s “Fortress” and is set to be released in select theaters, as well as on digital platforms and VOD. It’s just one of about
There were several beautiful, gratifying moments at the 94th Academy Awards. But you would not necessarily know that by watching the viral videos circulating social media that emerged in the immediate aftermath of the ceremony, which focus on one particular distasteful incident. Today, it is time to let the dust settle on the so-called “slap
Bill Lawrence’s upcoming Apple series “Bad Monkey” has found three new cast members, Variety has learned exclusively. L. Scott Caldwell, Ronald Peet, and Charlotte Lawrence will all appear in the series, joining a cast that includes Vince Vaughn, Michelle Monaghan, Jodie Turner-Smith, Meredith Hagner, Rob Delaney, Arturo Luis Soria, and Natalie Martinez. The series, based on
Franchises are set to have a big month this April with the theatrical releases of “Morbius,” “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” and “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” but perhaps the most significant movie event of the month is going to take place on streaming. With Matt Reeves’ comic book tentpole “The Batman” completing its 45-day
Even in the years when the Grammys have seemed predictable, they rarely are — anyone remember Soy Bomb? And in an era when all bets already seemed to be unprecedentedly off, in the past days we’ve seen Kanye West disinvited from performing — although sources say talks are still ongoing with him, as well as
When Anthony Kiedis told Variety about the unspoken, unwritten law of Red Hot Chili Peppers, one “where anything goes, anything is welcome,” the vocalist could’ve been talking up the gloriously manic mess of “Unlimited Love” (the “anything goes” bit), and the return of guitarist-composer John Frusciante (the “anything welcome” part) to the RHCP fold. What
Federation Entertainment has boarded the anticipated Israeli series “The Lesson,” which is headlined by Doron Ben-David (“Fauda”) and Maya Landsmann (“Zero Hour”). “The Lesson” will compete at Canneseries on April 2. Directed by Eitan Zur (“Asylum City”) and penned by Deakla Keydar (“Zero Hour”), the six-part drama revolves around Amir, a 43-year-old teacher, and Lian,
There have been plenty of television shows set in workplaces, but there’s never been one that looks quite like “Severance.” The Apple TV Plus science fiction series is set in the headquarters of Lumon Industries, a mysterious, cult-like company that surgically alters the memories of select employees to split their consciousness in two: their work
Tony Bennett, whose duets album with Lady Gaga is up for five Grammys, has confirmed that he will not be performing with her at the show on Sunday night. Gaga was announced as a performer this morning; the pair are up for two of the top categories, Record of the Year and Album of the
With a little more than two months to go until the release of “Fire Island,” a rom-com that Joel Kim Booster wrote as a gay adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” prospective fans are asking, “Where’s the trailer?” Although Booster says he’s asking the same question, he hinted at what audiences can expect from
“The Killing Fields” and “The Mission” director Roland Joffé is in talks to helm an epic drama spanning the two World Wars in a project set up with international film and media fund APX Capital Group. “L’Inverno” is the first pic to emerge from APX’s new Music World Films & TV venture — a new
Happy Anniversary — well, sort of “happy” — to Sarah Paulson, since it’s exactly 25 years since Variety ran a review of her feature film debut, “Levitation.” In the indie, she plays a pregnant teenager. Critic Leonard Klady on April 14, 1997, said it was a grim saga with “a strong cast” who were “not
FESTIVAL Seven of the nine features selected for the Korean competition at the Jeonju International Film Festival (Apr. 28-May 7) are directed by women. The selected films are “Mother And Daughter” by Kim Jung-eun; “When I Sleep” (Choi Jungmoon); “The Hill of Secrets” (Lee Ji-eun); “Archaeology of Love” (Lee Wanmin); “Missing Yoon” (Kim Jinhwa); “Saving
Press Conference: Reed Young; Other images: Getty Images Style Points is a weekly column about how fashion intersects with the wider world. Models are not high on the list of professions that garner public sympathy. YouTube is full of supercuts of them falling on the runway. Eyerolls greet their public complaints. As Sara Ziff, founder
“Morbius,” Sony’s latest attempt to extend its cinematic universe of Spider-Man villains and heroes, opened to a healthy $5.7 million in Thursday previews. The $75 million superhero film is on track to pull in $40 million in its first weekend of release. It’s a sign of just how much moviegoers love comic book fare, even
A whale hunt tradition in the Faroe Islands that’s long been condemned by animal rights activists is given evenhanded examination in Vincent Kelner’s “A Taste of Whale.” This well-crafted French documentary does provide some of the grisly “massacre” footage seen in prior indictments of the seasonal “Grindadrap,” or Grind. But it also lets locals weigh
Mireya AciertoGetty Images Patrick Demarchelier, the photographer whose style helped defined the easy glamour of the 1990s, and whose career came to an end amid #MeToo allegations of sexual assault, died on Thursday at age 78. His family announced the photographer’s death on his Instagram page; the cause was not immediately known. Demarchelier, who was
As we head into Grammy weekend, Harvey Mason Jr, the CEO of the Recording Academy, deserves to be commended for restructuring the organization to credit and support songwriters like never before. Among the positive changes under his watch: establishing a songwriter wing and including writer credits on albums. Seeing as Harvey is a publisher and
Emmy-award winning composer Geoff Zanelli is slated to compose the music for “The First Lady,” premiering on Showtime. The new hour-long anthology drama follows the lives of three of America’s First Ladies and stars Viola Davis as Michelle Obama, Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford and Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt. Zanelli served as composer of
The Grammy Awards have announced the roster of presenters for the big show on Sunday night: current nominees Megan Thee Stallion, Joni Mitchell and Questlove; Grammy winners Lenny Kravitz, Dua Lipa, Ludacris, Billy Porter, Bonnie Raitt, and Keith Urban; past Grammy nominees Kelsea Ballerini and Avril Lavigne; actor-musicians Jared Leto and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez; and
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is in talks to join MSNBC, according to two people familiar with the matter, in a move that would add another Democratic political operative to the NBCUniversal outlet’s growing roster of opinion hosts. MSNBC declined to make executives available for comment, but Psaki could join the network as soon
Lady Gaga has joined the lineup for this year’s Grammy Awards, taking place Sunday night in Las Vegas, the Recording Academy and CBS announced this morning. The 12-time Grammy-winner is up for another five awards this year, including two of the top categories, Record of the Year and Album of the Year, for her duets
Norwegian filmmaker Benjamin Ree, whose previous film “The Painter and the Thief” picked up a host of awards including Best Storytelling at Sundance, has given Variety exclusive access to his new doc film project, “Ibelin,” at the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival. The film is named after the “World of Warcraft” avatar of Mats Steen,
“Novorossiya” by Enrico Parenti and Luca Gennari, which had its world premiere this week at CPH:DOX, is a rare film that shows the ongoing conflict in Ukraine’s Eastern Donbas region from the Russian perspective. Gennari, an experienced cinematographer, was shocked at the way the war in the Luhansk and Donetsk region, where pro-Russian separatists have
As cofounder and CEO of Good American and founding partner of Skims, Emma Grede is willing to do a lot for the Kardashian-powered brands. Uproot her family from London to L.A.? Yes. Obsess over the fit of a garment until it’s perfect? Absolutely. Hop on Zoom for this interview, minutes after someone in her household
Each of the four albums that soulful contralto vocalist, composer and producer Jazmine Sullivan has crafted since 2008’s “Fearless” has been a work of emotionally frank and revelatory lyrics. All also have received Grammy nominations. Her latest, 2021’s “Heaux Tales,” finds the Philadelphia native pushing herself vocally and stretching her storytelling into more arduous terrain,
In one of the biggest swings in Europe’s market, Erik Barmack, the former Netflix VP of international originals, is teaming with Benjamin Munz, producer of “Blood Red Sky,” Netflix’s most-watched non-English movie of all time, on a tentpole high-speed German action film, “The Chase.” Billed by Barmack as “‘The Fast and the Furious’ meets ‘Money
Amazon chief executive officer Andy Jassy’s compensation last year totaled $212.7 million, a nearly sixfold increase from his pay package in 2020 when he headed the tech giant’s AWS division. Virtually all of Jassy’s 2021 comp — $211.9 million — was in restricted stock that vests over the next 10 years, according to Amazon’s proxy