February 6, 2020 3:43PM PT Loosely based on the director’s own experiences with her transsexual father, this debut feature sympathetically focuses on a girl’s difficulties in coping with her dad’s very quick transition. Director-writer Malou Reymann is perfectly aware that “normal” and “family” are mutually exclusive words — she was 11 when her father transitioned
The final Senate vote which resulted in President Trump’s acquittal in the impeachment trial drew a substantial total viewership across the cable news and regular broadcast networks that covered it. In total, just under 14 million viewers tuned in to see the conclusion of the trial examining whether Trump violated his Constitutional duty in his
February 6, 2020 2:25PM PT Warner Music Group today announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. According to the announcement, the shares of common stock to be sold in this offering are proposed to
Steven Cagan, a conductor, composer, songwriter and musician who worked in film, TV, theater and on records, died Feb. 1, on his 77th birthday. Family members that were by his side as he passed on announced the cause of death as the effects of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Cagan’s wide-ranging credits ranted from writing,
Netflix viewers rejoice! The streaming service has announced it is now allowing subscribers to turn off the autoplay function for previews; the bane of so many existences which makes clips pop up instantly on the homepage and while scrolling over a show or movie. Netflix has provided the option to disable autoplay of the next
John Mulaney and Daniel Craig will both be back to host “Saturday Night Live,” for their third and second times, respectively. NBC announced Thursday that stand-up comedian and former “SNL” writer Mulaney is set to host on Feb. 29. The show will feature musical guest David Byrne, who currently appears in Broadway’s “David Byrne’s American
Miranda July’s “Kajillionaire” is still in the black, but a different distributor is close to winning the project out of the Sundance Film Festival. With a late-hitting bid, Focus Features is closing in on a deal for worldwide rights to the movie in a sale worth somewhere in the mid-seven-figure range, insiders said. Universal’s prestige
February 6, 2020 1:28PM PT Citing strong performance from “Knives Out,” Lionsgate has posted revenues and operating income above Wall Street projections for its third fiscal quarter that ended on Dec. 31. Revenue were $998.5 million, 8% above Wall Street forecasts, and adjusted operating income of $124.5 million beat estimates by 11%. Subscribers from Starz,
The 15th annual Oscar Wilde Awards are around the corner and with honorees Norman Lear, Tig Notaro and Jenn Murray, the event promises to showcase the best of the U.S. and Ireland’s creative talents. Though unlike other black-tie events, the ceremony functions as a sort of “homecoming” for everyone attending — Irish and otherwise. “It’s
Harvey Weinstein’s defense team kicked off their case Thursday afternoon, calling a former friend of Annabella Sciorra’s to undermine her allegation that the producer raped her in the early 1990s. Paul Feldsher, a former ICM agent and producer of several Miramax films, said that Sciorra was one of his closest friends for several years. He
February 6, 2020 1:37PM PT As the 92nd annual Academy Awards draw closer, anticipation builds as movie fans anxiously wait to find who will take home a gold statue. But who will you be voting for this Sunday? Print out Variety’s 2020 Academy Award Ballot, or download it to your phone, to predict this Sunday’s
Disney darling turned golden piped international pop star Demi Lovato has put her contemporary villa above L.A.’s Laurel Canyon back up for sale at just under $9 million. The 27-year-old five-time People’s Choice Award winner and two-time Grammy nominee, who gave a powerful performance her new single “Anyone” at the Grammys in January and slayed
Demi Lovato is taking her talents to Quibi. Fresh off belting out the national anthem at the Super Bowl and her Grammys performance, Lovato has signed on to host a talk show at the nascent short-form content outfit. Provisionally titled “Pillow Talk With Demi Lovato,” the series will see the singer and actress conduct candid,
A year after Fox found a hit in “The Masked Singer,” the network has acquired another music-based format from South Korea: “I Can See Your Voice.” The network has ordered the music guessing game to series. “The Masked Singer” panelist Ken Jeong will host “I Can See Your Voice,” which will premiere on Fox later
February 6, 2020 12:00PM PT Hubert Sauper takes the pulse of Cuba at a transitional moment in this affectionate but unfocused, impressionistic docu-essay. A leisurely, somewhat hazy travelogue compared to the piercing political indictments of his acclaimed prior “We Come as Friends” and Oscar-nominated “Darwin’s Nightmare,” Austrian documentarian Hubert Sauper’s new “Epicentro” looks at Cuba
February 6, 2020 12:11PM PT Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger apologized on Thursday after an elementary school in Berkeley, Calif., was fined by the corporation for showing “The Lion King” during a movie night fundraiser. The elementary school was fined $250 by Disney’s licensing company for showing the popular film at a fundraising event
Memo to Netflix, HBOMax, Disney Plus, and the rest of the streaming scrum: People were more likely to stream a movie when they knew it had been released in theaters, according to a new survey by Ernst & Young that was commissioned by the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO). Clearly, given NATO’s moniker, it
ELLE’s new series Clothes of Our Lives decodes the sartorial choices made by powerful women—and explores why fashion is often on the front lines of communication. Today, we sat down with New York Times foreign correspondent Rukmini Callimachi to find out what she wears to interview the world’s most dangerous terrorists. Last year I flew
President Donald Trump gave a rambling speech on Thursday declaring victory in the impeachment battle, thanking his allies, trashing Sen. Mitt Romney, and attacking “vicious, horrible” Democrats. “It was all bulls—,” Trump said. “They brought me to the final stages of impeachment. But now we have that gorgeous word, I never thought a word would
In a surprising move, KFC managed to sneak advertising onto Spotify’s ad-free Premium platform — but apparently only in the Middle East, and only for a short time before it was removed. As reported by Fast Company, to launch KFC’s new Kentucky Burger in the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates-based agency Memac Ogilvy &
Pluto TV, the ViacomCBS-owned free streaming service, will be available on Hisense TV sets through a pact with Hisense’s Vidaa International subsidiary. Under the multiyear global deal, Hisense’s Vidaa-enabled TVs in the U.S., Europe and Latin America will provide Pluto TV’s 250-plus live curated and branded partner channels. In addition, all new Hisense TVs sold
February 6, 2020 11:38AM PT Yet another setback has befallen the “Y: The Last Man” series adaptation at FX. Barry Keoghan, who was poised to play the central character of Yorick Brown, has exited the series, Variety has confirmed. He was originally cast when the project was still in the pilot stage back in mid-2018. Reps for
Issa Rae isn’t jumping to be in a superhero movie, but that doesn’t mean she’s opposed to them. “I’m not going to block any blessings but I am tired of them ’cause I’m a huge [fan]. Since the third grade, I’ve loved Spider-Man, comic books, memorabilia, everything,” she says on this week’s “The Big Ticket,”
After splitting with the Joker, Harley Quinn joins superheroes Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya to save a young girl from an evil crime lord. A soon-to-be stepmom is snowed in with her fiance’s two children at a remote holiday village, where strange and frightening events take place. Will you see ‘Birds of Prey’ or
February 6, 2020 10:35AM PT Fox 21 Television Studios has closed a multi-year first look deal with The Gotham Group. “We couldn’t be more excited to work with Bert Salke and his extraordinary team of executives at Fox 21,” said Gotham Group founder and CEO Ellen Goldsmith-Vein. “They have an unsurpassed record of successfully launching
Fox has ordered the single-camera comedy pilot “Pivoting” from creator Liz Astrof. The project follows three women after the death of their childhood best friend. Faced with the reality that life is short, in desperate attempts to find happiness, they make a series of impulsive, ill-advised and self-indulgent decisions, strengthening their bond proving it’s never
Imagine Kids+Family has cut a deal for rights to the children’s book and digital franchise “Kalamata’s Kitchen.” The property was born in 2018 as a series of self-published books by co-creators Sarah Thomas and Derek Wallace. The pair have since inked a book deal with Random House Children’s Books for more titles to come in
WWE shares plummeted for the second time in a week after the company reported earnings that missed Wall Street’s expectations for total revenue. The company also disclosed a decline in live ticket sales to its events and a big drop in subscribers to its WWE Network subscription streaming service. WWE also said it was considering
When the high school romantic comedy “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” debuted on Netflix in 2018, the adaptation of Jenny Han’s YA best-seller was a groundbreaking benchmark for representation, casting Asian American actor Lana Condor (“X-Men: Apocalypse”) as Lara Jean, who wins the heart of class heartthrob Peter (Noah Centineo). The film was such a
February 6, 2020 8:11AM PT “Little Women” reached a notable box office benchmark, surpassing $100 million in North America. The milestone comes ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, where Greta Gerwig’s acclaimed adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel is nominated for six awards, including best picture, best actress for Saoirse Ronan and best supporting actress for Florence