I’m not sure anyone on Earth could give Naya Rivera the tribute she deserves. In fact, the process of losing her has been such a nightmare, I find myself wondering if Naya was even real or if she was just a dream all along. How could a human being be that talented, that hilarious and
Style Points is a new weekly column about how fashion intersects with the wider world. I have always been supremely jealous of people who slumber like the proverbial log. I’ve never been able to, but especially not now. Not when my brain is an arid desert and my dreams are peopled with a Robert Altman-sized
Malika James is a bicoastal makeup artist and a member of both Makeup and Hair stylist guild local 706 and local 798. She’s worked with stars like Gabrielle Union, Danai Gruyere, Keke Palmer, and T.I. Her credits include “Grownish”, “America’s Got Talent,” “LA’s Finest”, “The Voice: Australia”, and “The Walking Dead.” “Hell, no.” That was
Juice WRLD’s posthumously released album “Legends Never Die” posted the biggest debut of 2020 on the Rolling Stone Top 200 Albums chart, and also topped its Artist and Songs charts, with 8 of the top 10 songs on the former chart. With 517,800 album-equivalent units, “Legends” becomes the first album to shift more than 500,000
To get to the center of the story of documentary “Father Soldier Son,” about a single dad raising two boys while fighting in Afghanistan, editor Amy Foote locked herself in a bubble for two months poring over 10 years of footage. Journalists-turned-filmmakers Catrin Einhorn and Leslye Davis make their feature debut with the doc, now
A series titled “Revelations” based on Stephen King’s short story “The Revelations of ’Becka Paulson” is in the works at The CW, Variety has learned. In the potential one-hour drama, after accidentally shooting herself in the brain with a nail gun, a Pollyanna-ish Becca Paulson is recruited by an over-it Jesus to be his “chosen
The world seems to be quickly coming to understand that navigating life as a Black person in America is an emotional and difficult journey. But what about paving a path in Hollywood? As support for the Black Lives Matter movement emboldens more Black people and people of color in the industry to speak out about
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson loomed large on the broadcast TV landscape on Monday night. The star’s “Titan Games” competition series scored the highest rating across broadcast on the night for NBC. Its 0.7 rating among adults 18-49 was even on last week’s episode and its season 2 premiere back in May. A total of 3.8
Actor and comedian Jay Pharoah had never interacted with the police before April 26, 2020, when he heard a police officer yell for someone to “get on the ground.” “I’ve only been able to see it over the years, but to finally have that happen to me, personally, I understand fully the rage of all
Robin Williams, who was born on July 21, 1951, broke through in “Mork and Mindy” but the small screen couldn’t contain this comedic giant. Williams, who died in 2014, could do drama just as well as comedy. In real life he was a great interview giving quotable quips in a torrent. He was one of
Live Nation Philadelphia, in partnership with the Philadelphia Phillies, has announced plans for a four-week local drive-in concert series coming to the parking lot of Citizens Bank Park, home of the Phillies. The Live-In / Drive-In Concert Series presented by Budweiser Zero kicks off on Sunday, August 16 with comedian Bert Kreischer, and will continue with a
Raven Capital management, the U.S. private equity firm that last year acquired distributor Open Road, is to finance a slate of TV projects from South East Asia’s Coconuts. The arrangement will kick-off with pilots for seven unscripted TV shows. Raven and Coconuts TV will partner on global licensing and distribution deals for the series. Coconuts
For more than 20 years, the business of owning cable TV channels was seemingly too good to be true. Todd Juenger, senior media analyst for Sanford Bernstein, crunched the numbers and found that entertainment giants with big cable TV footprints — think Disney, Fox, ViacomCBS, NBCUniversal, Discovery and AMC Networks — generated astounding 30%-40% returns
Italian soccer icon Francesco Totti will be the subject of a six-part Sky Original series with the working title “Speravo De Mori’ Prima – The Series About Francesco Totti.” Produced by Mario Gianani for Wildside, part of the Fremantle group, with Virginia Valsecchi’s Capri Entertainment, The New Life Company and Kwaï, the series is based
As Hollywood commits to featuring more Black actors on camera, another question arises: What is being done about the support staff around them — and particularly in the hair and makeup trailers? When “The Bold Type” star Aisha Dee posted a letter on Instagram on July 15 detailing her experience as a biracial woman in
“Mythbusters” and “White Rabbit Project” alums Tory Belleci and Kari Bryon have paid tribute to their former colleague Grant Imahara, who died unexpectedly on July 13. Read their tributes below. Tory Belleci I met Grant Imahara back in 1997 when I stepped through the doors of the ILM model shop. To say I was nervous
The number of drive-in cinemas across the U.K. has exploded from three to 40 during the coronavirus pandemic, according to new data from media measurement firm Comscore seen by Variety. Prior to the spread of the virus, the country had just three drive-in cinemas: two Cinestock sites at Haywards Heath, as well as The Star and
Just For Laughs Group will be going fully virtual for the first time since its 1983 inception. The annual comedy festival, held in Montreal, will forego its typical crowds for an online venue in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Keeping with its original postponed dates, the festival will welcome online audiences Oct. 9 and
Netflix is finally making its debut on smart displays, rolling out across the Google Nest Hub line of devices worldwide starting today. Users who have both Netflix and a Google Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max smart display can now stream the subscription VOD service in all territories where both the devices and Netflix are
“American Utopia,” a filmed-version of David Byrne’s hit Broadway show, will be the opening night presentation of the 45th Toronto International Film Festival. This edition of the annual Canadian gathering for film lovers is unlike any of the previous 44 iterations. Due to coronavirus, TIFF will be a mixture of physical and virtual events and
The 2020 CFDA Fashion Awards are moving ahead, but with a few changes. Earlier this year, the Council of Fashion Designers of America announced that it had postponed the in-person ceremony (dubbed by industry insiders as “fashion prom”) as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The new date is September 14, when winners of the
High-profile doc “The Rossellinis,” described as a tongue-in-cheek autobiographical look at the descendants of iconic Italian director Roberto Rossellini’s extended family, is among the standout world premieres in the lineup of the upcoming Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week. Directed by Roberto Rossellini’s grandson, Alessandro Rossellini, the doc is unspooling out of competition and will close
Southern California independent label Burger Records has announced a series of structural changes after a number of young women came forward with accusations of sexual misconduct and predatory behavior amongst artists and employees associated with the label, its events and its Fullerton offices. As first-hand accounts continued to grow on social media — many gathered
Spotify is beefing up its big podcasting push by adding video to select shows — on the theory that “vodcasts” will prove even more engaging. Spotify’s new video podcasts are available in all markets where podcasts are supported, and, of course, for those which the creators have produced a video companion. Starting today, Spotify Free
Earlier this year, people started noticing something peculiar about MTV’s schedule: The network had quietly morphed into an almost 24/7 offering of just one show. At one point in late June, “Ridiculousness” — a half-hour viral video-clip show hosted by famed skateboarder Rob Dyrdek — aired for 113 hours out of the network’s entire 168-hour
Hit producer WondaGurl, who’s worked with some of the top names in hip-hop and R&B, including Travis Scott, Jay-Z, Drake, Pop Smoke, Rihanna, Bryson Tiller, Lil Uzi Vert and SZA, has signed a global agreement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing, in partnership with Travis Scott’s Cactus Jack Publishing. WondaGurl is among the youngest women to have
For the past nine years, the iHeartRadio Music Festival has been a staple of the music calendar. Every September, for two nights on the third weekend of the month, some of the biggest names in music — among them: Bon Jovi, Bruno Mars, Fleetwood Mac, Pink, Jack White, Harry Styles and the Weeknd — converged
Academy Award–winning actor Natalie Portman and a group of predominantly female founders were awarded the rights to bring a National Women’s Soccer League team to Los Angeles in 2022, Variety’s sister site Sportico reports. Portman and tech venture capitalist Kara Nortman, media and gaming entrepreneur Julie Uhrman and venture capitalist Alexis Ohanian, who led the investment
Craig Roberts’ “Eternal Beauty,” a romantic drama with Oscar-nominee Sally Hawkins, has sold North American rights to Samuel Goldwyn Films. The indie label will release the film on-demand this fall, an increasingly popular option at a time when many movie theaters are closed due to coronavirus. Roberts, a writer, director, and actor, who has appeared
Netflix has canceled production of Turkish original ‘If Only’ over government censorship of a gay character in the script, a source close to the streamer has confirmed. The announced show was to have been produced by Turkish production powerhouse Ay Yapim and has been described in promotional materials as the story of “Reyhan who is