March 25, 2020 10:01AM PT UPDATED: Netflix’s streaming service was unavailable Wednesday to some users for about an hour, the company confirmed. “Some of our members in the U.S. and Europe were unable to use Netflix via our website for around an hour this morning,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement to Variety, sent
The buyer of Moviefone — who snapped up the site for the fire-sale price of $1 million in a bankruptcy auction — has now come forward: It’s Cleveland O’Neal III, creator and producer of syndicated daytime entertainment show “Made in Hollywood.” O’Neal’s holding company Born in Cleveland LLC was the winning bidder last week in
With hand sanitizer and surgical masks becoming increasingly scarce due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus, some of fashion’s most recognizable names are stepping up to do their part to help combat the shortage. Last night, Gap Inc.—which includes the Gap, Old Navy, Athleta, Banana Republic, Intermix, Hill City, and Janie and Jack—announced on
Elton John is set to host a live concert special on Fox that aims to raise money for groups fighting to stop the spread of coronavirus in the United States. The iHeart Living Room Concert for America hails from Fox and iHeartMedia. In addition to John hosting, the event will feature performances by Alicia Keys,
Mononymous music artist Halsey, nee Ashley Frangipane, has sold her former home in L.A.’s historic Beachwood Canyon. The slightly better than $2.37 million sale price is a tetch under its final ask of not quite $2.4 million and a wee bit above the just over $2.2 million she paid for the boldly contemporary hillside residence
March 25, 2020 9:56AM PT Music producer and international DJ Mark Ronson, son of music manager Laurence Ronson and jewelry designing socialite Ann Dexter-Jones, has taken in almost $4.8 million on the sale of a 1930s Spanish Revival villa in an affluent area of Los Feliz in Los Angeles. The multiple-Grammy-winning musician, who splits his
March 25, 2020 9:00AM PT Angry Birds are preparing to launch themselves in the direction of Netflix. The streamer has issued a 40-episode series order for animated series “Angry Birds: Summer Madness,” based on the irate avian video game characters. Each episode of the series, which is slated to launch sometime in 2021, will last 11
Add James Corden to the list of late-night hosts experimenting with new formats as TV networks grapple with the spread of coronavirus. CBS said it will air a new primetime special from its “Late Late Show” host on Monday, March 30 at 10 p.m. eastern. “Homefest: James Corden’s Late Late Show Special,” will feature the
With the world taking a seemingly dystopian turn due to the Cover-19 pandemic, “My First Family,” a high-concept series project set in an alternate world created by Maya Zaydman (“Our Boys”) and Ori Sivan (“In Treatment”), will likely strike a chord with audiences. “My First Family,” which is being pitched as part of Series Mania’s
March 25, 2020 8:22AM PT U.K. broadcaster the BBC has temporarily put on hold a restructuring plan that would have axed 450 jobs in its news division and saved the corporation £80 million ($94 million) by 2022. The restructuring plan was announced in January. On Wednesday, BBC director general Tony Hall informed staff that this
The dramatic season 4 finale of “This Is Us” delivered plenty of surprises as well as strong ratings numbers for NBC. Tuesday night’s episode scored a 1.7 rating among adults 18-49, its highest mark since Oct. 2019, and 7.9 million total viewers, matching the premiere for a season high. That represents a 21% ratings bump
With Italy, France and Spain in full lockdown in the face of the unrelenting coronavirus outbreak, their respective film industries are preparing to take exceptional measures that could limit the anticipated economic damage by opening themselves up to an uncharted gamble in streaming. To date, dozens of film releases have been postponed to between July and October
Jennifer Hudson is the titan among the intimate live-stream concerts happening Wednesday, with a performance she’ll be broadcasting from her home as part of Global Citizen’s “Together at Home” series. It takes place at 4 p.m. ET/1 PT on her Instagram Live channel. Hudson even gave out her phone number — her “community” phone number,
Layoffs at talent agency Paradigm have hit employees of every rank, multiple sources told Variety — including top agents in music and motion picture and TV literature — as fallout from coronavirus continues to mount. More than 100 agency staffers were pink-slipped last Friday, individuals familiar with the company said, among them music reps Dave
TV commercials have long been the surest bet on Madison Avenue. Suddenly, they’re looking more like a risky gambit. One ad recently making the rounds in these uncertain days of coronavirus was a spot from Mint Mobile, a wireless carrier that aims for young customers and is partially owned by actor Ryan Reynolds. The commercial,
March 25, 2020 7:00AM PT Neon has acquired the worldwide rights to Amy Seimetz’s apocalyptic thriller, “She Dies Tomorrow,” which had been set to premiere at the SXSW Film Festival before the event was canceled The film stars Seimetz’s frequent collaborator Kate Lyn Sheil as a woman ravaged by the notion that she is going
Major U.K. studios are recalibrating coronavirus strategies as they parse recent government advice around the country’s lockdown, and whether or not they should go dark. U.K. studios including Elstree, Pinewood, Shepperton and Warner Bros. Leavesden are still believed to be operational — albeit with minimal staff on the ground — despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s
The 28th edition of the Raindance Film Festival will take place in London from Oct. 28 through Nov. 7. this year. Known as a showcase for independent cinema, the festival normally attracts some 16,000 visitors annually. The 2019 edition took place in September, but organizers have likely moved the event back as a precautionary measure
Oscar-winning Italian director Gabriele Salvatores (“Mediterraneo”) is making “Voyage in Italy” a doc using material from social media and other sources chronicling life in lockdown in the country that at present has suffered the most deaths due to coronavirus. The veteran helmer, who in 2014 made user-generated doc “Italy in a Day” based on the Ridley Scott
Multi-territory Asian streamer Viu has struck a new content supply with Singapore’s MediaCorp, and extended its existing three-year-old arrangement with Thailand’s GMM Grammy. Viu enjoyed initial success with carriage of Korean content to a hungry Asian region. It is now diversifying its focus to include more Chinese-language and Thai shows. The GMM Grammy agreement allows
Peacock, NBCUniversal’s new video streaming service, now has one fewer of its crown jewels to drive it into homes across the U.S. this summer when it’s rolling out nationwide. That became clear yesterday when International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach and Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe announced that the Tokyo Olympic Games (originally
Mediapro, one of Spain’s most prolific production entities, will temporarily lay off 1,200 employees and implement the country’s ERTE program, which was put in place to cover salaries for citizens unable to work during the country’s now two-week-old lockdown. The announcement came in an internal memo to employees and was later confirmed to Variety by
After a winter lineup of documentaries covering current issues like women’s rights and racial injustice, the spring and summer season of Independent Lens will tackle such timely topics as America’s mental health crisis, climate change, globalization, and the role news media plays in our everyday lives. It will also profile several trail-blazing figures. Broadcast on
The media and entertainment business was thriving as we entered the new decade in 2020 B.C. (“Before Coronavirus”). All segments — movies, television, mobile video, music, games, esports, immersive (VR and AR), live and experiential entertainment — expanded over the past decade. Massively. To be sure, new platforms like streaming and mobile cannibalized some of
Ad spending is falling off a cliff amid the COVID-19 pandemic — and Facebook and Google, the two heavyweights in digital advertising, are expected to bear the brunt of the downturn in terms of sheer dollars lost. The two internet giants together could see more than $44 billion in worldwide ad revenue evaporate in 2020,
A solo Dave Matthews show, performed live from his home, will be the premiere episode of “Pay It Forward Live,” a new weekly series being sponsored by Verizon to help support small businesses suffering from lost business due to the coronavirus pandemic. Matthews’ 30-minute kickoff performance for the web series will be broadcast live Thursday
Spotify today announced a pair of initiatives to support the creative community in the wake of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the most immediate of which is a plan not only to donate to relief organizations — beginning with MusiCares, PRS Foundation and Help Musicians — but to match donations made via its website
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is looking at means of supporting members who are facing the impact of the ongoing coronavirus crisis. In a memo sent to members on Wednesday from BAFTA chair Dame Pippa Harris and chief executive Amanda Berry, the Academy said it is looking to make film and
Sending some relief close to home, Boston native James Taylor and his wife, Kim Taylor, have made a $1 million donation to Massachusetts General Hospital to help with the institution’s efforts to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. “There is no question that it’s a point of pride for New Englanders to claim the MGH as their
All four of the Disney-owned “Avengers” movies and Disney/Pixar’s “Coco” are being lined up for re-release in China as cinemas nation-wide re-open in wake of the coronavirus epidemic there. They are expected to be made available to cinemas from Thursday, March 26 up until the end of June, according to Chinese reports and a screenshot