Month: January 2025

AMC Theatres has promoted Nikkole Denson-Randolph to senior VP and U.S. chief content officer. She’s replacing the cinema chain’s long-time head of worldwide programming and chief content officer Elizabeth Frank, who is departing to serve as CEO of RealD, one of the leading providers of 3D cinema technology. In Denson-Randolph’s new role, she will oversee
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What makes a Marianne Faithfull song great is something an artist can’t buy or learn: It’s the sound of experience. Faithfull’s most haunting (and haunted) quality as an artist was the raspy world weariness in her voice and phrasing, the sense that this elegant woman — who died today at the age of 78 —
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It didn’t seem possible that Taylor Swift would miss the 2025 Grammy Awards, and she won’t: Late Thursday, the Recording Academy announced that Swift will be a presented at the show, which takes place Sunday night, Feb. 2, at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on CBS. The singer, whose “Tortured Poets Department” album
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David Jonsson will star in the lead role of Frank Ocean‘s forthcoming directorial debut film, and has begun shooting the project in Mexico City. The independent film is currently untitled, and plot details remain under wraps. The fast-rising British actor recently starred as the co-lead in Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Romulus” film alongside Cailee Spaeny, receiving
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Matthew Lillard still likes scary movies. The actor, who starred in Wes Craven’s original “Scream” and did not return for future entries considering, well, narrative events, is joining the cast of the franchise’s upcoming seventh installment. Following the exit of both Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega from the “Scream” franchise after the pair led a
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John Leguizamo is the latest star to join the cast of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.” He will appear alongside previously announced cast members Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie and Jon Bernthal. Universal shared last month that the film “is a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand
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 The annual SCAD TVfest is back — and kicking off the packed event robustly with one of the biggest shows on television being honored on opening night. The 13th annual festival will begin with Variety honoring Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” with the Showrunner Award, presented by star Caleb McLaughlin.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs was handed an expanded superseding indictment earlier today in his ongoing sex trafficking and racketeering case, with prosecutors including two new female victims and accusing Combs of engaging in criminal conduct four years earlier than previously stated. In the indictment, reviewed by Variety, prosecutors state that Combs transported, aided and abetted three
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Anthony Mackie told Esquire magazine in a new cover story that playing Captain America “is my Oscar because I’ve been overlooked so many times in my career.” The actor says there are least four performances of his that deserved award nominations (“Brother to Brother,” “Half Nelson, “The Banker” and “The Hurt Locker”), and yet he
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“Emilia Pérez” star and Oscar nominee Karla Sofía Gascón has issued an apology after her social media posts expressing controversial views on Muslims, George Floyd and diversity at the Oscars resurfaced this week. “I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt,” she said in a statement to Variety.
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Matt and Ross Duffer spent most of last year filming the final season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” and they can’t help but feel “mixed emotions” now that production has wrapped. “It was definitely sad,” Ross Duffer says of their last day in December. “We’re not going to tell the story with these characters anymore, with
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Selma Blair is back. The “Cruel Intentions” star is returning with three new movies, including the Israel-Hamas war drama “Stay Forte” with Judd Hirsch and the brothers Mark and Michael Polish’s “There There.” She will also star in supernatural thriller “Silent” from filmmaking duo Doron and Yoaz Paz. Blair, who went public with her multiple
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“Squid Game” reached 4.6 billion minutes watched on Netflix in Season 2’s first full week of availability, per Nielsen. Even though that’s a small drop from the 4.9 billion minutes the series achieved the week before, which included Season 2’s debut weekend, this is a massive achievement for the South Korean drama. It’s rare that
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Six documentaries that have premiered in competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival are among the 46 recipients of The Ford Foundation‘s $4.2 million donation as part of the organization’s commitment to social justice stories, Variety has exclusively learned. The Sundance documentaries chosen include “Free Leonard Peltier,” “Heightened Scrutiny,” “How to Build a Library,” “Seeds,”
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“Twin Peaks” and “The Addams Family” actor Carel Struycken and his wife, Tracey, lived in their Altadena, Calif. home for more than 12 years without ever having to evacuate, despite a few close calls. Usually when there’s a fire in the nearby brush-covered hills, they see it coming toward them, giving them ample time to
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The Academy Awards have staged some iconic showdowns. Think of the tension around “La La Land” versus “Moonlight,” “12 Years a Slave” versus “Gravity” or “The Godfather” versus “Cabaret.” Each was a nail-biter that kept viewers on the edge of their seats. But what happens when six films — “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “A Complete Unknown,”
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Jennifer Love Hewitt was the latest guest on Mayim Bialik’s “Breakdown” podcast (via US Weekly) and recalled how it wasn’t until she was in her thirties that she registered just how much the media sexualized her as a teenager. The actor got her breakthrough on shows like “Party of Five” and movies such as “I
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“Saturday Night Live” is bringing Studio 8H to Radio City Music Hall with a three-hour, livestreamed concert on Feb. 14, in celebration of the sketch comedy series’ 50th anniversary. Jimmy Fallon will host the event, which boasts a lineup including Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny, Miley Cyrus, Backstreet Boys and Post Malone. Jack White, David Byrne,
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Mike Chester has been promoted to general manager of Warner Records, the company announced on Thursday. Chester was most recently executive vice president of promotion & commerce. In his newly expanded role, he will add marketing, digital marketing, artist development, and viral marketing to his purview while continuing to oversee promotion and commerce. In his new role,
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