SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched Season 5, Episode 5 of “The Masked Singer,” which aired April 7 on Fox. Nick Cannon is back. “The Masked Singer” host, who had been absent so far in Season 5 due to testing positive for COVID-19, returned on Wednesday in the most appropriate
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“MacGyver” v2.0 is coming to a close. The CBS reboot starring Lucas Till, which premiered in 2016, will end after five seasons with its series finale on April 30. “All of us at CBS are extremely grateful for the incredible work and dedication from Lucas and the rest of the cast, as well as Monica,
Walter Olkewicz, who played the bartender Jacques Renault on “Twin Peaks,” died Tuesday in Reseda. He was 72. His son, screenwriter Zak Olkewicz, confirmed his death. He had been struggling with health issues for the past 20 years. The character actor also played oil refinery worker Dougie Boudreau on the first four seasons of “Grace
Laura Kennedy took the reins of management-production firm Avalon as CEO about five months before the global pandemic upended all of the company’s businesses: talent representation, content production and live comedy tours. The bumpiness of the past year has reinforced her faith in the company’s business model, which benefits from having a diverse mix of
Twitter recently was in talks to acquire Clubhouse, the heavily hyped live-audio social media app, in a deal worth $4 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources. Twitter’s overture came even as it has been developing a similar feature called Spaces. According to the report, the discussions between the two companies have since ended. Asked about
The fabulously well-to-do are ready to party with their fellow one-percenters at the Cannes Film Festival, COVID be damned. AmfAR will host the annual fundraiser to benefit AIDS research on July 16, the organization announced this week. The event, which boasts $10,000 tickets and has played host to the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Mariah Carey,
“Godzilla vs. Kong” naturally focuses on the mighty battle between the monsters, but costume designer Ann Foley also had a story to tell with her work. Foley brought unique touches to dressing the human actors: Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Kyle Chandler and Demián Bichir. Foley mapped out how what
Universal’s “Fast & Furious 9” has passed Chinese censorship to receive official approval for release, the company announced on Wednesday. A specific China release date has not been set yet. “See you on the big screen!” Universal Pictures said on its official Weibo social media account, alongside a Chinese version of the poster. “F9” debuts
In an unusual step, Twitch, the Amazon-owned livestreaming service popular among gamers, has formally adopted a policy to suspend users if they engage in “severe misconduct” that occurs off the platform. The company noted that it has taken action before against serious and clear misconduct that took place offline — but until now, Twitch “didn’t
Tyler Perry is developing a drama prequel series about the early life of his iconic character Madea for Showtime, Variety has learned. Showtime has ordered multiple scripts for the projects, which is titled “Mabel.” Per the official description of the project, long before she was the force of nature known as Madea she was a smart,
Regé-Jean Page appears to have posted his first reaction to a report alleging he was not cast as Superman’s grandfather on the Syfy series “Krypton” because he is Black. “Hearing about these conversations hurts no less now than it did back then,” Page posted to Twitter on Wednesday. “The clarifications almost hurt more tbh. Still
Ronen Rubinstein was anxious for his family and friends back in his native Staten Island to watch the second episode of “9-1-1: Lone Star.” He told them he was playing Rob Lowe’s gay son on the Fox procedural, but he wasn’t sure what they’d think of the very steamy encounter between his character, T.K. Strand,
Israeli-American actress-producer-author Noa Tishby was compiling research for what would eventually become her newly released non-fiction book “Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth” (Simon & Schuster) when she discovered that — save for Golda Meir’s 1973 autobiography and English translations of Israeli historian Anita Shapira’s work — there were no
Mindshow, a CG animation production company, has raised an additional $10 million in funding to expand its content pipeline. With the new funding, led by SWaN & Legend Venture Partners, MindShow has raised more than $25 million in total. Sugar23, the management production and creative platform founded in Michael Sugar, also participated in the fundraise.
Dr. Dre is denying his estranged wife’s abuse claims — claiming she’s making it all up as part of her strategy to try to get out of the prenup he insists is still in place. The mogul just filed new legal docs in his nasty divorce case with Nicole Young, claiming her abuse allegations are
T’Nia Miller, JJ Feild, Charlotte Riley, Adelind Horan and Alex Hernandez have been cast in the Amazon series adaptation of the New York Times-bestselling William Gibson novel “The Peripheral” from “Westworld” creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, Variety has learned. They join Jack Reynor, who stars in the lead role of Burton along with fellow cast
Independent Lens, the PBS documentary anthology series, has announced its upcoming spring slate. The weekly program, produced in partnership with ITVS, will spotlight a range of topics, from criminal justice reform to the plight of the American dream. Among the first to air will be “Philly D.A.,” an eight-episode deep dive into local-policy making and
Willie Nelson and Luck Presents, a “rogue collective” based in his hometown of Luck, Texas, have announced a four-day virtual cannabis convention, to be hosted online by fellow musician Nathaniel Rateliff. Dubbed “Luck Summit: Planting the Seed,” the ticketed event will serve as a benefit for HeadCount’s Cannabis Voter Project, with programming beginning April 26
Sixty-four years ago, as Elvis Presley’s career reached its supernova stage, the 21-year-old singer’s team hit on a strategy that enabled him to profit from songwriting without actually writing songs. His management and music publisher had added Presley’s name to the credits on a couple of his early hits, but the singer wasn’t comfortable with
MrBeast, the hugely popular YouTube creator famous for his big-money giveaways and stunts, is angling to boost his viewership on Facebook and Snapchat. MrBeast (real name: Jimmy Donaldson) signed an exclusive deal with Jellysmack, a company that specializes in optimizing video distribution across internet platforms, to manage distribution of his video content on Snapchat and
Sometimes, the simple act of counting can result in something much more complex. Nielsen and the TV networks whose audiences it measures typically work hand in hand to tell the world about how many people watch some of the nation’s most-watched comedies and dramas. But this week, at least, they’re close to bearing arms against
Writers and producers at Spotify-owned Gimlet Media and The Ringer represented by WGA East have ratified their first collective bargaining agreements, making them among the first podcast workers to unionize with the guild. WGA East negotiated both three-year agreements concurrently. The contracts were unanimously ratified by Gimlet’s 48 union members and The Ringer’s 65 union
Nick Offerman will star alongside Lily James, Sebastian Stan, and Seth Rogen in the Hulu limited series about the theft and release of Pam Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sex tape, Variety has learned. The eight-episode series is currently titled “Pam and Tommy.” Stan will play Lee while James will play Anderson. Offerman will star as
“Mystery Science Theater 3000” could be coming back again…again. Series creator Joel Hodgson announced Wednesday that the show has launched a new Kickstarter campaign to create a new, independent season of the series. The current goal is to raise at least $2 million to create new episodes of the beloved cult show and what Hodgson
Two CBS veterans, Peter Dunn and David Friend, are leaving their top roles at CBS’ local-stations division as an investigation continues into allegations they were abusive to women and employees of color. “Peter Dunn, President of the CBS Television Stations, and David Friend, Senior Vice President of News for the Stations group, will not return
“Crime Scene Kitchen,” a new baking competition series hosted by comedian, actor and author Joel McHale and judged by chef Curtis Stone and cake artist Yolanda Gampp, will premiere May 26 at 9 p.m. on Fox. The network describes “Crime Scene Kitchen” as a “culinary guessing game,” in which bakers must decode what type of
“Bachelor in Paradise” and its sister spinoff series “The Bachelorette” are headed back to ABC this summer to enrapture fans with soaring romance and dating don’ts once again after the former took a hiatus due to the pandemic and the latter had a clunky, COVID-19-friendly split-season with two leads, Clare Crawley and Tayshia Adams. Adams
Andy Cohen — the host of Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live,” as well as the executive producer and griller of the “Real Housewives” at those reunions — will next set his sights on the Kardashian-Jenner family. “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” will come to an end after 20 seasons on E! later this spring, and
As Hollywood continues its ongoing fight for increased diversity and representation across the industry, disability is rarely included. Entrepreneur and disability activist Keely Cat-Wells is teaming up with major Hollywood figures to urge movie studios to hire a permanent disability officer. Amy Poehler and Naomie Harris are among over 80 names who have signed an
To one generation, Dionne Warwick is a vocalist of supreme sophistication and elegant soulfulness, an interpreter whose gospel influence, jazzy éclat and conversational phrasing have, since 1962, turned the finest of cosmopolitan pop song — from Bacharach/David and Michel Legrand to Thom Bell and Barry Gibb — into gold. To another generation, Warwick is, at