September 25, 2018 9:54AM PT SANTA BARBARA – The CEO of AT&T said he “will be disappointed” if his company has not attracted more people to watch HBO more regularly, and suggested the company could reallocate capital within its WarnerMedia unit over the next three years to make that happen. “It would be a very
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September 25, 2018 9:51AM PT The New Jersey native handles publicity for Harry Styles, PRETTYMUCH, Grace Vanderwaal, among other label acts. Mike Navarra has been promoted to Vice President of Publicity at Columbia Records. The public relations strategist has overseen campaigns for such acts as One Direction, Harry Styles, Grace Vanderwaal, PRETTYMUCH and Russ, among
September 25, 2018 9:37AM PT Danica Smith is joining Kovert Creative, the creative marketing and communications agency led by Joe Assad and Lewis Kay. Smith joins the agency after 14 years at PMK*BNC/PMK-HBH. She will be based in the Santa Monica office. “Not only is Danica an exceptional personal representative, she is also one of
Sports journalists Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer will make history when they become the first two women to call NFL games on Amazon’s Prime Video. The duo have inked a deal to provide commentary and analysis for 11 “Thursday Night Football” games live-streamed to Prime customers worldwide this season. Storm (pictured above right) and Kremer
September 25, 2018 9:30AM PT The SAG-AFTRA Foundation will present its Patron of the Artists Awards to entertainment industry leader Jeffrey Katzenberg and director-producer-writer Spike Lee. The foundation made the announcement Tuesday. It said the awards honor industry leaders who are champions of the arts and whose history of fostering creativity and creating opportunities for
September 25, 2018 9:23AM PT Twitter is revamping its policies to include a ban of dehumanizing language. The company previewed the changes Wednesday morning, and asked its users for input to refine the policy. “Language that makes someone less than human can have repercussions off the service, including normalizing serious violence,” the company said in
U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent a letter to Michael Rapino, CEO of Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation, about the allegations made in a CBC/Toronto Star report last week, which claims the company’s proprietary program, TradeDesk, to allow ticket scalpers to access a web-based inventory of Ticketmaster’s ticket supply in order to
Ken Werner will retire from his post as president of Warner Domestic Television Distribution at year’s end. The veteran sales and distribution executive has headed Warner Bros.’ domestic TV sales efforts across broadcast, cable and streaming platforms since 2006. Before that, he spent nine years as head of the WB Network’s distribution team. In that
September 25, 2018 9:15AM PT Robert and Michelle King have renewed their overall deal with CBS Television Studios. Under the three-year agreement with the Kings — co creators of “The Good Fight” and “The Good Wife” — CBS will have exclusive rights to produce TV content created by the Kings across all platforms. The Kings,
A month after his exit from Columbia Records, Joel Klaiman has a new job at Hitco Entertainment, the label founded by L.A. Reid and Charles Goldstuck that’s home to Outkast’s Big Boi, Fifth Harmony’s Dinah Jane and newcomer rappers SAINt JHN and Yella Beezy. Klaiman joins the Los Angeles-based company as President. He will be
September 25, 2018 8:50AM PT Cameron Crowe’s iconic film “Almost Famous” is getting the stage treatment. On Tuesday, producers announced a musical is officially in the works. It will feature music by composer Tom Kitt, who previously scored “Next to Normal” and “Bring it On,” with lyrics by Kitt and Crowe. Crowe will pen the book
The nominations are out for the 8th Annual Streamy Awards — recognizing the best creators, content and marketing in online video, and YouTube has inked a deal to be the official presenting sponsor and global distribution partner for the 2018 edition. This year’s list of Streamys contenders include Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, a top “Fortnite” player
Getty ImagesMax Mumby/Indigo The Royal Family is making Meghan Markle’s one-of-a-kind engagement ring—or at least replicas of it—available to the general, not-super-rich public via its The Royal Collection shop. Fans noticed that the shop online is now selling a Buckingham Palace ring, which looks exactly like the yellow-gold triple-diamond ring that Prince Harry designed for
The series premiere of “Manifest” on NBC got an excellent start in the Monday overnight ratings, while CBS’ reboot of “Magnum P.I.” enjoyed a respectable launch. Airing at 10 p.m., “Manifest” drew a 2.2 rating in adults 18-49 and 10.3 million viewers. That built on the lead in it got from the season premiere of
“Can I walk up to the microphone again?” Patti Smith asks the audience gathered at the Minetta Lane Theater for her “Words and Music” retrospective. “I feel like the way I just did it, I looked like I’m 100 years old.” It’s a comically unnecessary request — she’s playing for a couple hundred devoted fans;
In Spain to receive the San Sebastian Intl. Film Festival’s highest award for an individual and to promote her latest feature, “Red Joan,” Judi Dench didn’t shy away Tuesday from bringing up a name that many now prefer to avoid. Asked at a packed press conference if there were any particularly memorable moments in her career
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross will keynote Variety’s inaugural Music for Screens Summit, held at Neuehouse in Hollywood on Oct. 30. The day-long event, with ambient music exclusively provided by iHeartMedia, will focus on the latest trends in composing for film and television, music supervision, commercial synchs in the digital age, legacy act management, soundtracks’ enduring popularity, and
A few years ago, veteran indie film producer Gigi Pritzker had a stroke of “Genius.” Pritzker had been trying for years to get a movie biopic of Albert Einstein off the ground but the script and other elements never quite gelled. She eventually realized the problem was that Einstein’s remarkable life was too unwieldy for
The eye of the peacock is considered by many to be a harbinger of good luck, its brilliant plume a source of pride. But given the jarring developments that hit NBC in the late afternoon of Sept. 21, just as the weekend approached, neither truism would apply to the broadcast network known in industry tradespeak
September 25, 2018 7:30AM PT The highly-anticipated second installment of “Making a Murderer” has an official Netflix premiere date, the streaming giant announced Tuesday. Part 2 will debut on Oct. 19. The first installment of the Emmy-winning documentary series followed the journey of Steven Avery. Avery was convicted of sexual assault and attempted murder in
September 25, 2018 7:00AM PT Kari Skogland, Emmy-nominated director of Hulu’s adaptation of the Margaret Atwood book “The Handmaid’s Tale,” perhaps best describes the zeitgeist-y effect of the show when she says, “I think ‘Handmaids’ is absolutely inextricably linked to the #MeToo movement.” So much so that the standard-issue scarlet-red robes and white-winged bonnets of
September 25, 2018 7:00AM PT Well Go USA has bought North American theatrical rights to Bill Oliver’s science-fiction drama “Jonathan,” starring Ansel Elgort, Suki Waterhouse and Patricia Clarkson. The deal was announced Tuesday, prior the Sept. 26 West Coast premiere of “Jonathan” at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Well Go plans to release the film
Check out the official Mid90s trailer starring Lucas Hedges! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Buy Tickets to Mid90s: https://www.fandango.com/mid90s-213183/movie-overview?cmp=MCYT_YouTube_Desc US Release Date: October 19, 2018 Starring: Katherine Waterston, Lucas Hedges, Sunny Suljic Directed By: Jonah Hill Synopsis: The story of a boy growing up in Los Angeles in the
Check out the official Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Trailer starring Johnny Depp! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Buy Tickets to Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald: https://www.fandango.com/fantastic-beasts-the-crimes-of-grindelwald-207770/movie-overview?cmp=MCYT_YouTube_Desc US Release Date: November 16, 2018 Starring: Johnny Depp, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller Directed By: David Yates Synopsis: The second
Country pioneer Loretta Lynn and her movie doppelgänger Sissy Spacek will reunite in Nashville next month when the actress presents Lynn with an “Artist of a Lifetime” award for the annual “CMT Artists of the Year” telecast. The Oct. 17 show is being devoted exclusively to female artists — present and, as it turns out,
Warner Bros. dropped the final trailer for “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” on Tuesday. The studio teamed up with Twitter to exclusively launch the spot on the social media platform before it went live elsewhere. When the trailer debuted, electronic billboards posted in New York City, Toronto, and Tokyo flooded with real-time Twitter reactions from
The streaming TV players are leaning hard on Halloween this year, with Hulu launching its monthly horror franchise “Into the Dark” Oct. 5 and Netflix’s “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” coming Oct. 26. While “Sabrina” comes pre-sold to its potential audience, tied in as it is to the “Riverdale” universe both through its source material
September 25, 2018 4:48AM PT Comcast said Tuesday it had snapped up more than 30% of the shares in Sky, the European pay-TV service that it is in the process of buying. The U.S. cable giant has a Sky-endorsed offer for the company on the table, but it can also openly buy Sky shares, except
Matteo Garrone’s gritty revenge drama “Dogman,” which won the best actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival, is Italy’s candidate for the foreign-language Oscar. Dubbed an “urban Western,” the movie is inspired by a murder committed by a dog groomer during the late 1980s in a gang-ridden area outside Rome. The film marks Garrone’s return to
September 25, 2018 3:09AM PT Studiocanal Australia has signed a co-development deal with local producer Goalpost Pictures, for period film project “Vienna Boys Choir.” The film documents the quirky but real events that began in 1939 when the famous choir toured the U.S. and Pacific region, and became trapped in Australia for the duration of