Of all the words of wisdom my mother has passed on to me, the earliest ones I remember have been the most useful. She told me I could achieve any goal I set for myself, but being Black, I would have to work harder than most. My mom inspired my DIY work ethic, and Billie
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Russ Thyret, one of the top executives during Warner Bros. Records’ golden age of the 1970s and 1980s, passed away early Friday after a long illness, Variety has learned. He was 76. Over the course of his 30-year career with the label, Thyret climbed the ranks from sales, marketing and promotions posts — eventually heading
Hours after Beijing banned the BBC World Service, Hong Kong’s public broadcaster announced Friday that it will also drop certain BBC programs, sparking concern from foreign governments and journalist organizations. Beijing’s tit-for-tat move to block the BBC came a week after the U.K. revoked the local license for the Chinese government-backed CGTN network, citing its
“Supergirl” star Melissa Benoist has formed a new production company, Three Things Productions, and inked an exclusive, multiyear overall deal with Warner Bros. Television Group. Through Three Things — inspired by the Mary Oliver poem “Three Things to Remember” — Benoist and her team will develop and produce original TV programming for all platforms. That
The NFL’s incumbent TV network partners have been put on notice. The price tag for a deal spanning at least eight to 10 years is essentially double the fees charged for the various packages in the previous contract negotiations struck in 2011. The league and top executives at ESPN, CBS, Fox and NBC have been
The streaming wars are about to stop being polite and start getting real. ViacomCBS is reviving “The Real World” for streaming service Paramount Plus. The venerable reality TV franchise will be part of the March 4 launch of the service, which is effectively a rebrand of existing streamer CBS All Access. The initial installment of
The first time we meet Nadiya Hussain in the “Great British Baking Show” tent, she’s trying to convince the judges that making a cake with green cardamom is a good idea. “Is that the only flavor?” Mary Berry asks, delicately but with enough of a point to convey her skepticism. Paul Hollywood, blunt as always,
Taylor Swift’s campaign to re-record her first six albums — the rights to which she feels were unfairly sold to a group of investors led by Justin Bieber manager Scooter Braun in 2019 — bore its first fruit on Thursday night as she dropped a new version of “Love Story,” the song that was in
Lemonada Media, a podcast network startup founded by Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs, has signed with CAA. The company says its podcasts “share an unfiltered version of the human experience” that provide a way for people to come together. Lemonada previously was repped by UTA. Cordova Kramer (above left) is Lemonada’s CEO and
The first death occurs about midway through “I Blame Society,” Gillian Wallace Horvat’s very mean-spirited and very funny feature debut. After the deed, Horvat, who also stars (as a sociopathically dedicated filmmaker called Gillian Wallace Horvat) stares at her tear-streaked reflection in the ugly light of her bathroom mirror, and confesses to the GoPro strapped
Courtesy of the subject; Eilish: Sam Balaban; Bad Bunny: @Stillz; Scott: Rays Corrupted MindGetty Images Style Points is a weekly column about how fashion intersects with the wider world. Kid Cudi was Imran Moosvi’s idol growing up. The rapper showed him “how to dress, how to talk and act, how and what to smoke,” the
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched Season 1, Episode 6 of Disney Plus’ “WandaVision.” The last time we caught up with Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision’s (Paul Bettany) quirky adventures through television eras, we were in the curly and corny and colorful 1980s, dealing with superpowered and superaging twins (Julian Hilliard,
Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning actor Jim Broadbent (“The Duke”) will lead the cast of “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry,” an adaptation of Rachel Joyce’s bestselling novel. Broadbent will play the eponymous Harold, who embarks upon a 450-mile walk across the U.K. in the belief that his journey will save the life of his
Former “The Bachelorette” star Rachel Lindsay has spoken out about her interview with Chris Harrison, which has led to considerable blowback this week, regarding the host’s controversial commentary surrounding race. Lindsay says she will not be renewing her contract with “The Bachelor” franchise when it’s up. She currently hosts a Bachelor Nation podcast, and is
When’s the last time you heard a TV theme that you could hum, sing along with… and remember? If you don’t have Disney Plus, it was probably decades ago. But if you’ve been watching “WandaVision,” you’ve been treated to lighthearted theme songs that sound like they might have been penned 30, 40 or even 50
Things always gets intense in Oscar season, and voters may feel overwhelmed by the huge numbers of contenders (streaming and sometimes in theaters) that are hoping for some love. This year, as always, several films are getting the bulk of attention, while other movies may need a little extra love. So we are offering some
When cinematographer Sean Bobbitt (“12 Years a Slave”) was shooting Shaka King’s “Judas and the Black Messiah,” he looked at more than 300 photos from the period and watched documentaries of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton speaking to crowds to see how Hampton was framed. “There were several references that Shaka had shown me, including
More than just about any existing film festival, Slamdance was started with an eye toward inclusion. In the case of the Park City festival, which was founded as a more freewheeling alternative to Sundance back in 1995, that sense of inclusion largely pertained to the filmmakers themselves: first-timers, experimentalists and enterprising directors without much in
A peculiar thing happened after “Bridesmaids” premiered a decade ago and became an undeniable box office smash. Hot takes popped up around every corner of the internet and across the pages of newspapers and magazines, offering up one astute observation: Women can be funny! It was especially confusing for Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, who
Live from New York or Beverly Hills, it’s the 78th Golden Globe Awards. While the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and NBC announced earlier this month that the Globes would be broadcast live from both costs, with Tina Fey from New York’s Rainbow Room (at the top of Rockefeller Center) and Amy Poehler at the Beverly
In the wake of accusations of sexism and misogyny against Justin Timberlake regarding his treatment of former girlfriend Britney Spears, and the “wardrobe malfunction” with Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl in 2004, he has apologized to both women in an Instagram post. “I’ve seen the messages, tags, comments, and concerns and I want to
Disney Plus’s reality-warping “WandaVision” was one of the 10 most-watched original shows on streaming platforms the week of its debut, according to Nielsen estimates — and with just two episodes released, the Marvel show outpaced the service’s hit “The Mandalorian.” For the week of Jan. 11-17, Netflix’s “Bridgerton” from Shonda Rhimes’ Shondaland, held the No.
Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, may have met her onscreen match. Zawe Ashton has been cast in “Captain Marvel 2” and will go toe-to-toe with Larson as the sequel’s antagonist. Nia DaCosta is directing the film, a follow-up to 2019’s blockbuster “Captain Marvel.” Megan McDonnell, a story editor on the Disney Plus series
Awards season contender “News of the World” is a departure for director Paul Greengrass after such high-adrenaline contempo movies as his Jason Bourne trio and “22 July.” He reunites with “Captain Phillips” star Tom Hanks in Universal’s Western about Captain Kidd, a man delivering the news to towns in Texas, accompanied by the orphan Johanna.
Less than two days after Gina Carano was fired by Lucasfilm over “abhorrent” social media posts, Ben Shapiro, the conservative political commentator and co-founder of The Daily Wire, has pledged to make a movie with her. “Hollywood cancelled Gina Carano for being conservative. That’s bullshit. So we’re fighting back,” Shapiro tweeted on Friday. “Become a
The world’s largest film market is living up to its title with world-record-setting sales. “Detective Chinatown 3” shot past strong competition, as predicted, on its Chinese New Year opening day on Friday, notching a record-breaking $163 million (RMB1.05 billion) in sales despite poor word of mouth. The sum marks the highest ever opening day tally
“VH1 Couples Retreat,” a new six-episode series celebrating Black love, will premiere March 29 at 8 p.m., Variety has learned exclusively. The show will feature three couples best-known to audiences from the network’s “Love & Hip Hop” franchise (Yandy Smith-Harris and Mendeecees Harris; Rasheeda and Kirk Frost; Ray J and Princess Love), as well as
Growing up in Africa, one of the first Hollywood movies to make an impact on Sipho Dlamini was Eddie Murphy’s 1988 comedy “Coming to America,” in which the comedian starred as a prince from the fictional African country of Zamunda. “I know how significant a movie it was to people living in Africa or Africans
By following two of the greatest rock albums of the 1960s, the Band’s third album, “Stage Fright,” had the decks stacked against it almost from the jump. From the ethereally rootsy “Music From Big Pink” in 1968 to the more rock-oriented self-titled follow-up, the Band had not only influenced the entire direction of rock music,
Fox’s newest unscripted series, “Cherries Wild,” is, among other things, a very easy trivia show, an opportunity to watch the dial of a giant slot machine turn, and a thirty-minute-long advertorial sponsored by Pepsi. It’s also something that no one would mistake, at the present moment, for a show appearing anywhere else. While the show