SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched Season 3, episode 13 of “The Masked Singer,” which aired April 22 on Fox. Talk about timing. Rocker Bret Michaels was the latest celebrity to be revealed on “The Masked Singer” — and it happened to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Poison
In today’s film news roundup, Michael B. Jordan’s “Without Remorse” and the fourth “Jackass” movie are delayed, “Algorithm: Bliss” gets a release date, “Bad Trip” is released briefly, and AFI gets a $3 million gift. RELEASE DATES Paramount Pictures has decided to move its Michael B. Jordan spy thriller “Without Remorse” back two weeks from
Hulu’s upcoming series adaptation of “The Mysterious Benedict Society” has found its main cast. Ryan Hurst, Kristen Schaal, MaameYaa Boafo, Gia Sandhu, Mystic Inscho, Emmy DeOliveira, Seth Carr, and Marta Timofeeva have all joined the show in series regular roles. They joined previously announced cast member Tony Hale, who will play Mr. Benedict and his
In today’s TV News Roundup, Netflix announced the premiere date for Season 3 of “Somebody Feed Phil” and more original programming, and SiriusXM announced a weekly live call-in show hosted by Gayle King. DATES Netflix has announced a slew of release dates for content premiering on the service next month. “Reckoning,“ an Australian thriller series
Ed Helms’ musical side pursuits have been well-known for years, if perhaps just slightly shy of being well-known enough to have him commonly hyphenated as “actor-banjoist Ed Helms.” But the shutdown of Hollywood production has allowed him more time now to devote to what he considers his “passion project,” the Bluegrass Situation, an organization focused
Longtime television producer Joel Rogosin died Sunday of complications from COVID-19 at the Motion Picture Television Fund’s retirement home in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills. He was 87. He is the fifth MPTF resident to die of coronavirus complications in the past two weeks, beginning with John Breier on April 7 followed by
AMC Theatres was sued on Wednesday for failing to pay the April rent to the owners of a shopping mall in Hialeah, Fla. AMC informed landlords last month that it would not be paying rent because all of its theaters are closed due to the coronavirus outbreak. Palm Springs Mile Associates, Ltd., filed suit in
Lady Gaga has revealed the tracklist for her forthcoming-but-delayed “Chromatica” album — which includes collaborations with Ariana Grande, Elton John and Blackpink — just a few hours after Target (presumably accidentally) listed it on its website. The album was originally scheduled for an April 10 release, so who knows why it appeared today. (She revealed
Every night at 7 p.m., Sebastian Stan peers outside the window of his Manhattan apartment and cheers. It’s become a nightly ritual for most New Yorkers to honor doctors, nurses and other essential workers who are on the frontlines of the coronavirus crisis. “It was crazy the other day,” Stan tells Variety. “There was a
MSNBC plans to run a 90-minute special report Thursday at 10 p.m. eastern that examines the state of coronavirus testing and tracing in the United States, the latest example of TV-news outlets recalibrating their programming as the pandemic takes up the majority of the public conversation. “MSNBC Speicial Report: Testing & The Road to Reopening.”
Magic Leap, the augmented-reality hardware company whose backers include Warner Bros., AT&T and Alphabet, is making significant layoffs — and mothballing efforts to create consumer-oriented AR products. In a blog post Wednesday, Magic Leap founder/CEO Rony Abovitz announced that the company is “making targeted changes to how we operate and manage costs,” citing the current
A new “Star Wars” series is in the works at Disney Plus, Variety has learned from sources. The series hails from Leslye Headland, the co-creator, showrunner, and executive producer of the critically-acclaimed Netflix series “Russian Doll.” Details of the exact plot of the series are being kept under wraps, but sources say it will be
Lifetime has greenlit a new “Dance Moms” series, subtitled “Abby’s Virtual Dance Off,” Variety has learned exclusively. The cabler and Abby Lee Miller are inviting dancers from across the country to submit their best moves to see who has what it takes to be dubbed “The Abby Dancer” in this new 12-episode series premiering this
Evan Daugherty, who is best known for penning blockbuster fare like “Divergent” and “Snow White and the Huntsman,” is taking a crack at the short-form thriller format. Quibi is developing “Horror Accidental,” a “terrifyingly addictive” psychological thriller anthology written and directed by Daugherty. The series is based on the Japanese TV drama of the same
How well can a parent ever really know a child? Although Apple TV Plus’ new limited series “Defending Jacob” has a murder mystery at the center of the story, it is the larger, more relatable themes about how love for a family member can be tested that writer and executive producer Mark Bomback was most
No matter the destination, there are inevitabilities built into “boy meets girl” stories. They meet, they flirt, they kiss, they fight, they fall in love. But the best of them dig past the surface to find more specific truths; they find a vein and let the blood flow. “Normal People,” as originally written by Sally
Marianne Faithfull was discharged from a London hospital Wednesday, three weeks after the 73-year-old singer tested positive for coronavirus. “We are really happy to say that Marianne has been discharged from hospital today, 22 days after being admitted suffering from the symptoms of Covid-19. She will continue to recuperate in London,” a rep said in a statement.
A Whitney Houston biopic, titled “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” is in development from “The Photograph” director Stella Meghie. The Whitney Houston Estate, Primary Wave, music producer Clive Davis and Anthony McCarten are producing the film about the iconic songwriter-performer, who died in 2012 at the age of 48. McCarten, whose credits include “The Two
Korina Emmerich has been crafting face masks that pay homage to her Indigenous heritage for years, but now that the CDC has urged the general population to cover up in public, it’s hard to keep up with demand. Holed up inside her Brooklyn studio, the 34-year-old former Project Runway contestant furiously sews hundreds of masks
Quibi, which launched two weeks ago as a mobile-only video streaming app for on-the-go viewing, said it plans to add the ability to “cast” content to compatible TVs next month. The company, led by founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman, also announced that its app has been downloaded more than 2.7 million times in
Carmela Wallace, mother of late rapper Juice WRLD, announced on Wednesday that she has created the Live Free 999 Fund, a charitable organization which aims to help young people struggling with their mental health. In honor of Juice WLRD, whose real name was Jarad Higgins, Live Free 999 will focus on normalizing the conversation around
Spotify, the world’s largest audio streaming service, has ceased reporting market-level (i.e. regional) data for U.S. streams to Nielsen Music/ MRC Data, the company that tracks sales, streams and radio airplay for the music industry and powers Billboard’s charts. The change will not reduce Spotify’s impact on Billboard’s charts, which monitor national activity, but it
Like most of us, Richard Marx found the first 10 days of quarantine and lockdown perplexing — and so his “#SocialDistancing” web series, where he talks with guests about politics, music and life, happened mostly by accident. “I was doing so much because it was occupying my brain,” the “Right Here Waiting” and “Hazard” singer
Commercial bankers spent much of the past few weeks working round the clock processing loan applications for the Small Business Administration’s coronavirus relief loans known as the Paycheck Protection Program. And they’re about to do it again as the program designed to protect jobs at companies with 500 or fewer employees is poised to receive
Get ready for a Fairy Godmother like no other. Billy Porter plays the iconic character in the upcoming “Cinderella” remake. He describes his take on the Fairy Godmother as “genderless” and “non-conforming.” “Magic is genderless,” Porter said during on an appearance on “Variety Live” on Tuesday night. “We have all these sort of genders that
Pharrell Williams announced today that he will be hand-picking undiscovered artists for a Soundcloud compilation that will benefit Sweet Relief and Help Musicians charities. The compilation, called “SoundCloud Presents: i am OTHER, Volume 1,” will feature music genres, styles and sounds from across the global SoundCloud community, according to the announcement. SoundCloud has seen a 50% increase
Liz Tigelaar, showrunner of “Little Fires Everywhere,” has been a fan of Ingrid Michaelson’s for years, and even used the singer/songwriter’s “Hate You” in Hulu series’ pilot. Songs by female musicians, including Alanis Morissette, Lauryn Hill and Annie Lennox, feature prominently in the series, and when it came to this season’s finale, Tigelaar says she
Shirley Knight, who was twice Oscar nominated for best supporting actress, for “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs” (1960) and “Sweet Bird of Youth” (1962), and won a Tony and three Emmys, died on Wednesday of natural causes in San Marcos, Texas. She was 83. Her daughter, actress Kaitlin Hopkins, paid tribute to
When “Bad Education” premiered to a packed theater at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival in September, it drew enthusiastic reviews, and raves for star Hugh Jackman — Variety chief film critic Peter Debruge wrote of Jackman’s performance, “‘Bad Education’ is the best work he’s ever done.” Awards talk began immediately. Directed by Cory Finley (“Thoroughbreds”)
Geraldine Viswanathan’s first audition was for the Hunter School of the Performing Arts in her native Australia when she was just 5 years old. “I have no recollection of it, but apparently I did have to pretend to walk a dog,” she says on today’s episode of the Variety and iHeart podcast “The Big Ticket.”