Voice actor veteran Julie Bennett died Tuesday in Los Angeles from complications related to coronavirus at 88, according to talent agent and friend Mark Scroggs. Bennett was best known for her work in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series “The Yogi Bear Show” as Cindy Bear, Yogi’s sweet, southern love interest. Bennett was born in Manhattan on
The shutdown of production was devastating to Los Angeles’ music community, just as it has been for every aspect of TV- and movie-making. But creative thinking is putting some studio musicians back to work. John Acosta, president of Local 47 of the American Federation of Musicians, projects that lost wages due to the cancellation of
I first met Adam 14 years ago outside the Juice Bar in Nantucket. I quickly introduced myself because my awkward gawking would’ve made any ordinary person uncomfortable. I’d been a fan for years. Like most songwriters, I was completely in awe of his power pop songbook. From “That Thing You Do” and “Stacy’s Mom” to
“Outer Wilds,” the action-adventure mystery about a solar system trapped in an endless time loop, won best game, game design and original property at Thursday’s British Academy Games Awards, which took place virtually due to the coronavirus crisis. Also winning three BAFTAs was the open-world, role playing detective game “Disco Elysium,” for debut game, narrative
The long-gestating “Snowpiercer” series will now bow two weeks ahead of schedule on TNT. The series will debut on the cabler on May 17 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. It was originally set to begin airing on May 31. “’Snowpiercer’ is one of the most anticipated original series of 2020 and in this climate, viewers are
Before the world changed and Americans were asked to stay at home to “flatten the curve” and prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, “Medical Police” co-creator Rob Corddry and star Rob Huebel shared some of their TV picks — both high- and low-brow — for Variety. For the second episode of Variety’s “My Guilty
There’s a town in West Texas where the local Nissan dealership gives away a new pickup to whoever can hold on to it the longest. The event starts with 20 contestants, who take their places around the vehicle, keeping one hand on the vehicle at all times until their sanity snaps or their legs give
The seven-year-itch arrives a couple of years early for Adam and Marklin in independent romantic comedy “Almost Love.” Could that be because they’re gay men? Adam tries to tamp down that thought shortly after he and Marklin celebrate their fifth anniversary. Maybe it’s because they aren’t yet hitched, even though gay marriage has been an
Jeff Davis is developing a one-hour animated drama project at Fox, Variety has learned exclusively. The show is the first Davis has set up under his broadcast-only overall deal at the broadcaster, which was announced last August. The exact details of the potential series are being kept under wraps, but Davis will serve as writer and
A&E plans to air two special editions of its signature “Live PD” series this weekend, as the show pivots to address the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and how it is impacting first responders. “Live PD: Special Edition” will air for one hour on Friday night, as well as for two hours on Saturday night, both at
HBO is unlocking its biggest trove of free programming ever — in a goodwill gesture as people look for a diversion during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WarnerMedia-owned premium cabler is making almost 500 hours of programming available to stream for free for a limited time on HBO Now and HBO Go services without a subscription,
Greg Laemmle never thought he’d recommend anyone to stream a movie at home. The best way to watch a film, as any theater owner like Laemmle will tell you, is in a darkened cinema with a tub of popcorn at the ready. But along with atomizing life as we know it, the coronavirus pandemic has
Check out the official Peninsula Teaser Trailer starring Jung-hyun Lee! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Sign up for a Fandango FanAlert for Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula: https://www.fandango.com/train-to-busan-presents-peninsula-222817/movie-overview?cmp=MCYT_YouTube_Desc Want to be notified of all the latest movie trailers? Subscribe to the channel and click the bell icon to stay
SXSW may have been cancelled due to coronavirus, but the filmmakers who were traveling to Austin to share their films with audiences will still get a chance to lift the curtain on their work. That’s because Amazon Prime Video is joining forces with the festival to launch “Prime Video presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival
Zoom, the internet videoconferencing platform that has seen usage boom 20-fold during the COVID-19 pandemic, is going into triage mode. In the past few weeks, as Zoom virtual meetings have become ubiquitous, new concerns and government scrutiny — and at least one lawsuit — have reared up about the company’s privacy and security measures. In
Reed Midem, the organizer of TV conference and market MipTV, is to give a week-long extension to its online program, MipTV Online Plus. The online service was rolled out free of charge to all registered MipTV, MipDoc and MipFormats 2020 clients after MipTV was canceled in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The market was
The 20th season of reality show “Big Brother Brazil” hit a historic milestone this week when the trio disputing the final two spots on the show’s tenth eviction night lured a whopping 1.5 billion votes. The massive number of casting votes set an all-time record in the “Big Brother” franchise, licensed to Brazilian media giant Globo
Jane Fonda has a word for those who doubt the efficacy of celebrity activists: Poppycock. Undeterred by stay-at-home restrictions intended to combat the coronavirus pandemic, she is pivoting from physical protests to virtual ones: She and Greenpeace will conduct their first virtual Fire Drill Friday tomorrow. The climate change protest, an outgrowth of the series
France’s National Film Board (CNC) has temporarily changed the country’s strict window release policy to help distributors cope with the shutdown of theaters, and has unveiled several additional measures aimed at content creators and industry professionals. Due to the fact that movie theaters in France have been closed for nearly three weeks, the CNC has
The 13th annual Television Academy Honors awards ceremony, originally scheduled for April, has been “postponed indefinitely,” due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. But the TV Academy has gone ahead and announced this year’s honorees. The six programs set to be honored by the Television Academy this year are “16 Shots” (Showtime), “At the Heart
As recording artists face tough calls about whether to stick with their imminent album release dates or postpone them indefinitely, the two top dance-pop divas of the moment provided divergent examples of which way to go. On March 23, Dua Lipa tearfully took to Instagram Live to tell fans how conflicted she felt about releasing
For NBC musical “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” about a tech worker in San Francisco who can hear people’s thoughts — but only as musical numbers — choreographer Mandy Moore (“La La Land,” “Dancing With the Stars”) also turned into a performer. “I made a video of myself dancing in our room and sent it off,” Moore
Will Smith is joining the ever-growing sheaf of Hollywood talent in Quibi’s quiver. The Jeffrey Katzenberg-founded mobile subscription service announced the acquisition of “This Joka,” a 16-episode stand-up comedy series hosted and executive produced by Smith. Quibi is set to debut next Monday, April 6, with 50-odd shows. For now, there’s no premiere date for
The Walt Disney Company is not planning to launch its streaming service Disney Plus in the Middle East region in the near future, but will license its original content instead exclusively to regional pay TV and streaming firm OSN. Originals including “The Mandalorian,” “Lady and the Tramp” and docuseries “The World According to Jeff Goldblum”
The Democratic National Convention has been postponed to the week of Aug. 17 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The four-day convention was meant to take place from July 13 to July 16 in Milwaukee. The convention — which is expected to draw about 50,000 visitors to the key swing state — will now take place
Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” a sequel to Tom Cruise’s 1986 classic, is the latest summer movie to vacate its release date as theaters remain closed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The anticipated follow-up was scheduled to debut June 24 and will now release Dec. 23, 2020. As part of the release shake-up, Paramount
Exactly 100 years separate the 21st century’s global entertainment industry and the final year of the 1918-20 Spanish flu pandemic and its effects on the international show-business scene. There’s a world of difference between then and now, but at its core, modern entertainment shares a surprising number of similarities with the showbiz of that era. On
Andrew Lloyd Webber is to stream a production of one of his musicals for free on YouTube each week during the coronavirus crisis. Lloyd Webber’s YouTube initiative to entertain fans, titled “The Shows Must Go On!,” will begin with his 2000 adaptation of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” starring Donny Osmond, Joan Collins and
Nicole Kidman has signed on for yet another series role. The “Big Little Lies” star is set to play one of the two leads in an Amazon adaptation of Janelle Brown’s forthcoming novel “Pretty Things.” The streaming giant won the rights to the novel in what sources describe as a highly competitive situation with multiple
Sports broadcaster Joe Buck and former “Rules of Engagement” star Oliver Hudson are teaming to launch a podcast about fatherhood. Titled “Joe Buck and Oliver Hudson Have Daddy Issues,” the podcast will center around all things about being a dad, with the duo providing their perspectives on what’s it’s like to be fathers, husbands and