What else is left to say about “Illmatic”? Nas’ 1994 debut has been included at or near the top of every credible “greatest hip-hop albums” list for as long as people have been compiling them. It’s inspired two books, countless scholarly essays, a play, and one feature-length documentary. Just last week it soundtracked an entire
Month: May 2022
The Supreme Court has privately voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, striking down the case that has guaranteed basic abortion rights in the U.S. since its 1973 ruling. News regarding the judicial body’s decision comes from a majority draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito Jr., which Politico obtained and published on Monday evening. The
“American Idol” marked its 20th birthday on Monday night with “The Great Idol Reunion,” a one-hour special featuring past “Idol” contestants and judges and celebrating the show’s history, both during its years on Fox and its current home on ABC. “Tonight we are opening the Idol yearbook,” said host Ryan Seacrest as he revealed the
AWARDS CIRCUIT COLUMN: The Ridiculous Pile-Up of New and Returning TV? Blame the Emmy Calendar Listen, part of the fun of doing a weekly column is just writing what everyone is talking about. And one hot topic in business circles, and even among viewers, is just how much damn TV there is right now. There
James Corden isn’t quite sure what his next move will be after leaving “The Late Late Show” in 2023, but the trained theater actor told Variety senior culture and events editor Marc Malkin on the red carpet of the 2022 Met Gala that he’s not opposed to going back to his roots. When asked if
The return of “Yo! MTV Raps” now has a premiere date. The reimagined global iteration of the MTV hip-hop series will premiere on Paramount+ on Tuesday, May 24, the streamer announced Monday. In addition, Paramount+ released the official trailer, key art and lineup of featured guests. Produced by MTV Entertainment Studios, “Yo! MTV Raps” is a
Ron Galella, the paparazzi photographer who pioneered the controversial art of candid celebrity imagery, died Saturday at his home in Montville, N.J. He was 91. The New York Times said he died of congestive heart failure. Galella was best-known for his years-long pursuit of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, whom he photographed relentlessly throughout
The search for a new chief executive officer at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has escalated in recent weeks, multiple sources familiar with the process tell Variety. Months ago, the organization behind the Oscars hired management consulting firm Korn Ferry to scout replacements for outgoing CEO Dawn Hudson, who previously announced she
Advertising isn’t a game for the people who run Twitch — but they are working to weave it more closely into the esports and other live-streamed programming beamed out by the Amazon-backed service every day. Executives spent Monday evening making a pitch to advertisers that involves creating closer pairings between the people who create the
While the Kardashians are at the Met Gala, a jury reached a verdict in Blac Chyna’s $100 million defamation case against the famous family — and they won. The Kardashians came out victorious with no damages awarded to Chyna. The jury found that none of the Kardashians defamed Chyna and none interfered with her E!
Titus Welliver’s ex-cop Harry Bosch will return to crack more cases on Amazon Freevee. Amazon Freevee (formerly IMDb TV) announced the pickup of Season 2 of “Bosch: Legacy,” a spin-off of series “Bosch” that ran for seven seasons on Prime Video — ahead of the May 6 premiere of “Bosch: Legacy” on the ecommerce giant’s
Kacey Musgraves has recorded a version of the 1961 Elvis Presley classic “Can’t Help Falling in Love” for the upcoming soundtrack to director Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” biopic, the singer has revealed. The country-pop star noted that she had covered the song Monday while walking the red carpet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute
The Kardashians have come out victorious in their fierce legal battle with Blac Chyna … who sued them for defamation, but the jury’s riding with the family. Before the verdict was read, it was apparent the Kardashians were nowhere to be found. The clerk asked their lawyer where they were, and the attorney responded, they
Dimitrios KambourisGetty Images Emma Chamberlain is back on the Met Gala red carpet for a second time tonight, reprising her role as Vogue’s on-camera interviewer. Perfectly adhering to the “Gilded Glamour” dress code, Chamberlain wears custom Louis Vuitton and a variety of stunning Cartier jewels. The French luxury jeweler used fashion’s most glamorous night as
Hollywood has seen some strange stories over the years, but what happened last week was incredibly bizarre, even by movie business standards. Nothing, it seems, could quite prepare people for the spectacle and social media fallout that followed after Olivia Wilde was mysteriously served custody paperwork onstage at CinemaCon. Wilde — who shares two children
With the near-surprise release of Pusha T’s “It’s Almost Dry,” the Virginia rapper gains his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart. The album debuted with a total of 55,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. during the week ending April 28. News of “It’s Almost Dry” was first shared in early April,
Following his recent headlining stint at Coachella and his long North American tour last fall, Harry Styles has announced a special “One Night Only in New York” concert at UBS Arena on Long Island on May 20. All tickets will be available for $25 all-in, including taxes and fees. According to the announcement, the show will
“How Saba Kept Singing” seeks to understand how Polish Jewish teenager David Wisnia survived nearly three years in Auschwitz. The editing and vague timelines make it seem as if this latest doc from multi-hyphenate Sara Taksler (“Tickling Giants”) is revealing something previously unreported, even though a 2019 New York Times article already divulged the touching love
Jeff Daniels is set to play the lead role in the upcoming Netflix drama series “A Man in Full,” Variety has learned. The series is based on the Tom Wolfe novel of the same name. Variety exclusively reported the show had received a straight-to-series order at the streamer in November 2021. The show hails from David E.
“Yellowjackets” ended its chilling first season by further fueling the mystery in the 1996 winter flashback sequence from the pilot, which featured the Antler Queen a.k.a. Lottie Matthews (Courtney Eaton) and her ilk killing and eating one of the survivors. The finale closed with Lottie ritualistically placing a bear’s bloody heart in a tree-stump altar,
MGM’s five-part limited series “Last Light” will make its world premiere at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, kicking off the festival’s 61st edition as the opening screening. Adapted from Alex Scarrow’s popular novel, this high-throttle drama set during an international oil crisis boasts a cast toplined by Matthew Fox (“Lost”), Joanne Froggat (“Downton Abbey”), and Tom
Jimmy Kimmel is the latest talk show host to test positive for COVID-19. “Our daughter brought us covid (even though we specifically asked her not to),” Kimmel tweeted on Monday. “All feeling fine, I am double vaxxed and boosted but the show must not go on. Apologies to @TomCruise & @iliza and thanks to Mike Birbiglia @birbigs who’ll
Netflix’s “Heartstopper” continued to top Variety’s Trending TV chart for the week of April 25 to May 1. The series, which debuted at No. 1 last week following its April 22 drop, drew even more interactions this week, with 1.05 million engagements on Twitter. heartstopper debuted on netflix top 10 as the seventh most watched
The Beach Boys got around to making their Stagecoach Festival debut Sunday, teaming up with the country duo LoCash on four songs to cap the latter act’s early-evening main stage fest. LoCash had a distinct advantage on any other Stagecoach artists who might ever have been tempted to ask the touring Beach Boys to charter
Judy Henske, a fixture of the ‘60s folk-revival scene, died on April 27 in hospice care in Los Angeles after a long illness, according to her husband, Craig Doerge. The imposing, six-foot-plus-tall Heske commanded the stage, combining traditional material like “Wade in the Water” and “Love Henry” with an onstage act marked by frank, witty
For the first 40 years of “Star Trek” history, the character of Christopher Pike was little more than a footnote in the franchise’s lore. Captain of the Enterprise in the failed original NBC series pilot “The Cage,” Pike, as played by Jeffrey Hunter, wound up as the dry run for William Shatner’s James T. Kirk,
This article contains spoilers for the final episode of “Ozark.” Say this much for the final moments of “Ozark”: They speak to the show’s sense of its own importance. After four seasons, the Byrde family’s saga came to its conclusion with the launch of the drama’s final set of episodes on Netflix — or, at
Columbia Records has named Wilt Wallace senior vice president of urban promotion it was announced today by executive VP of promotion Peter Gray, to whom Wallace will report. “Wilt has an impressive and remarkably modern approach to promotion that consistently reaches the top of the urban airplay charts.” stated Gray “It’s a genuine thrill to
Kate Walsh has joined the cast of “Sprung,” an upcoming original comedy series from Emmy-winning writer Greg Garcia and Amazon Freevee. Camden Garcia and Andre Jamal Kinney have also been added to the cast, which includes Martha Plimpton, Garret Dillahunt, Shakira Barrera, Phillip Garcia, Clare Gilles and James Earl. “Sprung” follows a group of formerly
B-Reel Films, the Swedish banner behind “Midsommar,” is set to produce a thriller series based on Jonas Bonnier’s true crime novel “The Helicopter Heist,” and has attached Ronnie Sandahl (“Borg vs McEnroe”) as creator and writer. Boasting offices in Stockholm and Los Angeles, B-Reel has secured the rights to the popular novel from Swedish literary