Ahead of this year’s FIFA World Cup, set to take place in Qatar in November, Whisper, Final Replay and Sony Pictures Television, in association with soccer-themed streaming platform FIFA+, are producing a 10-part docuseries about the history of the tournament titled “Moment Of Truth.” The series will “examine the world’s favourite sport through the lens
Film-festival awards don’t usually have much lasting impact, but four years ago, when “Green Book” played at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the People’s Choice Award, it had a seismic effect. It set the film on what would become its road to Oscar glory. Since that turned out to be a very bumpy
The Harlem Globetrotters will return to television after more than 40 years with “Harlem Globetrotters: Play It Forward,” in partnership with Hearst Media Production Group. Actor and comedian Craig Robinson will host the educational show, which will air on NBC. The series centers on the players’ achievements both on and off the court as ambassadors
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead, if you have not watched the first part of “The Bachelorette” Season 19 finale, which aired on Sept. 13 on ABC. In an episode so dramatic that ABC had to unexpectedly extend its two-hour runtime, “The Bachelorette” began the conclusion of Season 19, airing the first part of its
Ruben Östlund and the cast of “Triangle of Sadness” convened for the first time since the sudden, shocking death of its young star Charlbi Dean earlier this month. The satirical dark comedy, which won the Palme D’Or in Cannes just four months ago, had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on
Please excuse any typos, I’m writing this while devouring the free snacks on JetBlue. An off-brand Cheese-It in the sky? That’s show business, baby. I’m jetting (in coach) back to my normal, sweaty, unfashionable life in L.A., where every single day I wear the same gray sweatsuit. I lie to people and tell them I
Can you imagine anything more delightful than Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin co-starring in a movie with Richard Roundtree and Malcolm McDowell … in 1972? That was the year Fonda won an Oscar for “Klute” and daffy “Laugh-In” star Tomlin released her first comedy album. The two men were riding high with “Shaft” and “A
On the eve of AmericanaFest in Nashville, Lucinda Williams was celebrated at BMI’s headquarters as the recipient of the performing rights organization’s annual Troubadour Award, where an invitation-only crowd heard Williams’ songs covered by Jason Isbell, Angel Olsen, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Amos Lee and Madeline Edwards. Other artists saluted Williams via taped congratulations, like
The tabloid owner who claims Thomas Markle is out to kill him just got two years of court-ordered protection from Meghan Markle‘s father. According to new legal docs, obtained TMZ, a judge granted Jeff Rayner a restraining order against Thomas, who did not show up for Tuesday’s court hearing. The protective order will be in
Lowry Mays, the San Antonio entrepreneur who turned Clear Channel Communications, the predecessor to iHeartMedia, into the largest broadcasting conglomerate of the post-consolidation era, died on Monday (Sept. 12) at 87 in his hometown. Said iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman: “We built this company on the foundation and vision created by Lowry Mays. He started it
Sacheen Littlefeather made Oscars history in 1973 when she became the first Native woman to stand on stage at the awards ceremony. When Marlon Brando was named best actor for “The Godfather,” Littlefeather declined the prize on behalf of him, as he had boycotted the Oscars in protest of Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans. Met
Jeanine Mason has joined the cast of “Upload” Season 3 at Amazon, Variety has learned exclusively. Season 2 of “Upload” debuted on Amazon back in March, with the show earning a Season 3 pick up in May. The series takes place in a world where people can “upload” themselves into a digital afterlife. Mason joins
Attendees of the 2022 Emmy Awards came away from the show with a new understanding of the supernova that is Lizzo. The multi-faceted artist, who ended the night as an Emmy winner for her Amazon Prime Video reality series “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” cut quite a figure through the Microsoft Theater. Her
Warner Bros. Discovery enacted 100 layoffs Tuesday as part of a planned downsizing of the company’s ad sales departments that had been in the works since Discovery closed its merger with WarnerMedia in April, Variety has confirmed. These cuts are part of a previously reported and expected 30% reduction overall across the ad sales division,
The Nielsen data for the 2022 Emmys on NBC is in and its not looking good for TV’s biggest night. The awards show was down 25% from last year in total viewers and hit a new record low in ratings. On Monday, the Kenan Thompson-hosted 74th Emmy Awards had a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49,
RLJE Films has acquired “Nocebo,” a thriller starring Eva Green and Mark Strong. The film will open in theaters on Nov. 4 and on-demand and digitally on Nov. 22. Shudder will release the film in 2023. Both RLJE and Shudder are business units of AMC Networks Shudder focuses on streaming movies in the horror, thriller and
The death of Queen Elizabeth II prompted the Claire Foy-led first season of “The Crown” to crack the Netflix Top 10 last week. Per Netflix, “HRH Queen Elizabeth II was in the hearts and minds of viewers” as Season 1 of the streamer’s Royal Family drama was watched for 17.6 million hours between Sept. 5-11.
Viewership of “House of the Dragon” increased by 5% between Episodes 3 and 4, Variety has learned exclusively. Per Nielsen, linear viewing of the series remained mostly steady, with 2.536 million viewers across four cable airings for the week-ago episode compared to 2.474 million this Sunday. But with streaming on HBO Max and other HBO
When Netflix announced it had greenlit a reality series based on the murderous competition in “Squid Game,” fans of the hit Korean show were quick to point out the irony in translating the tragic tale, which creator Hwang Dong-hyuk told Variety is a “fable about modern capitalist society,” into reality TV. Now, Hwang is urging
BMI has distributed and administered $1.471 billion to its songwriters, composers and publishers, marking its highest royalty distributions ever, in the year ending June 30, 2022. Revenue also grew, totaling a record-breaking $1.573 billion — a $212 million, or 16%, increase compared to the last fiscal year. On Tuesday, the group published its annual report
When up-and-coming artists vie for the attention of A&Rs, producers and managers, it often means being ignored and discouraged, while music industry professionals end up flooded with DMs and emails that are nearly impossible to organize and sift through. Enter: Xposure Music, a Montreal-based start-up whose goal is to unlock a “new front door” to
Is the show going to be over for Showtime? Paramount Global is having “early” discussions about shutting down Showtime as a standalone service and migrating Showtime’s slate of premium content into its flagship streamer, Paramount+, according to a Wall Street Journal report, citing anonymous sources. Paramount has “broached the idea” of shuttering Showtime in talks
Neon has acquired the North American rights to the thriller “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” out of the Toronto International Film Festival, where it world premiered in the auteur-driven Platform section. Based on Andreas Malm’s manifesto tackling the climate crisis, the film is directed by Daniel Goldhaber (“CAM”); produced, co-written and stars Ariela Barer
“Bros” co-writer and star Billy Eichner had sincere words to share about his upcoming romantic comedy at the Variety Cover Party at TIFF sponsored by Skyy. “I could have never imagined in a million years that we would have been able to premiere in such a spectacular way,” Eichner said about the buzz behind the
Oscar-winning documentarian Laura Poitras slammed the Venice and Toronto film festivals for “providing a platform” for the Clinton family to engage “in a kind of whitewashing.” Her comments come as TIFF this week hosted the Canadian premiere of Poitras’s “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” a documentary about the artist and activist Nan Goldin, and
Rachel Bloom has joined the cast of “Julia” Season 2 at HBO Max, Variety has learned exclusively. The series is inspired by the life of Julia Child and her long-running cooking show “The French Chef.” The first season debuted in March 2022 and the show was renewed in May. Bloom will appear in a recurring
Jann Wenner is not just “like” a rolling stone — he was Rolling Stone, for most of the magazine’s history, to the extent that it very closely followed his melange of sensibilities from its 1967 founding until he sold off his last stake in it three years ago. [It’s now owned wholly by Penske Media,
Peter Chernin’s Chernin Group has formed a new investment company, Night Capital, with digital talent-management and media firm Night Inc., whose biggest client is major YouTube creator MrBeast. Night Capital, which has funding commitments of $100 million from TCG, is focused on acquiring majority interests in “consumer-facing companies in partnership with leading talent,” the companies
Candace Cameron Bure’s first Great American Family movie is right around the corner. The actor will star in and executive producer “A Christmas… Present,” set to premiere in November. The movie, directed by Lesley Demetriades and written by Rick Garman, was developed through Bure’s Candy Rock Entertainment venture. “Candy Rock Entertainment’s mission is to bring
If I told you that Carolina Herrera’s spring/summer 2023 collection was full of florals, I know what you’d say: Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking. But actually, they were groundbreaking! Inspired by the classic novel The Secret Garden, creative director Wes Gordon’s gorgeous collection of breezy, blooming prints seemed so vibrant and so alive that they practically