Ana Ofelia Murguía, the Mexican actor best known for voicing the titular character of Disney and Pixar’s 2017 animated movie “Coco,” died Sunday, Dec. 31, BBC News reports. She was 90. “Coco,” which follows a young boy as he crosses over to the land of the dead during Mexico’s Día de los Muertos, won two
“Wonka,” a musical fantasy that has been the biggest hit of the holiday season, topped the box office on New Year’s Eve, closing 2023 on a sweet note. The film, which stars Timothée Chalamet as a more youthful Willy Wonka, grossed $22.7 million for the weekend and a projected $29.5 million for the four-day holiday. That
Les McCann, the legendary jazz pianist who has been sampled countless times and is perhaps best known for the protest song “Compared to What,” died Friday at a Los Angeles area hospital, his manager confirmed. No cause of death was announced, although he had been hospitalized last week after contracting pneumonia; he was 88. The
TikTok star Jake Shane is finally leaning into longer form content. The social media comedian — who rose to fame with his viral skits and now boasts more than 5 million followers across platforms — has announced a brand new podcast launching Jan 4. “Therapuss with Jake Shane,” announced Monday morning, will loosely follow the
“Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” writer and performer David Steinberg pays tribute to Tom Smothers, who died Dec. 26 at age 86. I met Tommy (and Dick) Smothers when we were performing at the Hungry I in San Francisco in the late 1960s. I did standup, and Tommy immediately wanted me to be on the show
Awkwardly arriving the very same day as “The Bricklayer,” with Aaron Eckhart as an ex-CIA agent with the titular dayjob, “The Painter” has Charlie Weber as ex-CIA agent who has taken up … well, you can guess. This more humbly scaled actioner likewise finds its uber-tough erstwhile operative reluctantly forced back into activity amid a
Jeremy Renner has revealed a major step in his career after a terrible accident nearly took his life: He’s headed back to the set of “Mayor of Kingstown” to film the third season. Renner was involved in a near-fatal accident on Jan. 1, 2023, after saving his nephew from being hit by a snowplow. The
Mike Tirico will have an unusual new partner for NBCUniversal’s looming coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Rapper and actor Snoop Dogg will be on hand during the event to provide regular reports for NBC”s primetime Olympics program, starting July 26 of next year on both the broadcast network and the Peacock streaming hub. Snoop
Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper rang in 2024 with some boozing on live television — bringing back alcohol consumption to CNN after staying sober for last year’s New Year’s Eve broadcast. “It’s the top of the hour and we’ve been here for seven years doing this, and for most of those years at the top
Inspired by a recent screening of Netflix’s animated series “Blue Eye Samurai,” “Game of Thrones” creator George R. R. Martin penned a new blog post praising the work of Amber Noizumi and Michael Green. And while he was in a sharing mood, Martin decided to drop news about his own up-and-coming animation aspirations. “‘Blue Eye
Taylor Swift has broken Elvis Presley‘s longstanding record for the most weeks spent atop the Billboard 200 album chart by a solo artist. She set a new mark of 68 total weeks, as “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” landed on top of the chart for a fifth time in the final full tracking week of 2023. Although
Android or artificial intelligence isn’t the enemy in “Robot Dreams,” Pablo Berger‘s gently whimsical fantasy of a loner finding manufactured friendship in a scuzzy vision of 1980s New York City. Indeed, one takeaway from this portrait of a shabby-happy Big Apple populated solely with anthropomorphic animals and surprisingly sensitive automatons is that the world might
Shecky Greene, the legendary standup comedian known for his long tenure as a Las Vegas headliner and for working with Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, died Dec. 31 at his home in the city. He was 97. Greene’s wife of 41 years, Marie Musso Greene, confirmed his death to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Greene was
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is quickly sinking at the box office. The comic book adventure, starring Jason Momoa as the King of Atlantis, was positioned on the calendar as the de facto blockbuster of the holiday season. But, so far, the follow-up to 2018’s megahit “Aquaman” has failed to recapture the spark of the
Maybe it’s time for Dave Chappelle to try some new material. The comedian’s newest special, “The Dreamer,” debuted on Netflix on Dec. 31, and largely focuses on his early years in entertainment and how he manifested his success. But he floods the first 12 minutes of the set revisiting his favorite target in recent years:
Comic-book movie culture didn’t just stumble this year. It face-planted, giving us one movie after another that fans didn’t much care about and that the corporations backing these films took a disquieting loss on. And that’s not how it was supposed to go. According to the Gospel of 21st-Century Hollywood, the words “comic-book film” and
Paramount Global has clinched a deal that is crucial to its future — but it’s not the transaction that Wall Street has been buzzing about for a few weeks. Paramount Global and Comcast have extended the broad carriage agreement covering Paramount’s cable channels and CBS-owned stations. The pact averts the prospect of a blackout for
Warner Bros. is continuing to beat out Warner Bros. and Warner Bros. over the New Year’s holiday weekend, with “Wonka” now rising above “The Color Purple” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.” With that trifecta, the studio has laid claim to the three of the top five slots at the domestic box office throughout the
Maurice Hines, an actor, dancer and choreographer who starred with his brother Gregory Hines in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Cotton Club,” died Friday. He was 80. Friends including Debbie Allen and John Manzari reported the news of his death. Hines began studying tap dancing at 5 years old, making his Broadway debut in “The Girl
Tom Wilkinson, the British actor who appeared in films including “The Full Monty,” “Shakespeare in Love” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” died Saturday in the U.K., the BBC reported. He was 75. “It is with great sadness that the family of Tom Wilkinson announce that he died suddenly at home on December 30. His
What a relief it is to close the door on 2023, an annus horribilis for the entertainment industry (and the world). After the dual strikes effectively shut down most production from May through November, the doors have reopened again onto a landscape that’s been forever changed. The realities of the streaming bubble and the rifts
Paula Abdul alleged in a lawsuit on Friday that she was twice sexually assaulted by Nigel Lythgoe, the executive producer of “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance.” Abdul rose to stardom in the late 80s and built a second career as a judge of reality show competitions in the early 2000s. In
Ring in 2024 with Variety‘s list of New Year’s Eve specials to watch, including performances by stars like NewJeans, Ivy Queen, Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, Cardi B and Maroon 5. ABC’s “Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest” The most-watched annual New Year’s Eve special, “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest” returns
“Batman Returns” screenwriter Daniel Waters participated in a recent discussion about the Tim Burton-directed sequel (via IndieWire) and revealed the collaborators’ clashing visions for a spinoff project centered on Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman. Waters was envisioning a satirical take on the comic book movie genre, something he says was more akin to Prime Video’s “The Boys”
Netflix has garnered a reputation for canceling a large number of its original series, a superlative that seems inevitable given its high content output compared to other streaming services. And while the stat has lessened since 2022, when 20 shows were canceled, there were still 14 on the chopping block in 2023. Five of the
The career of Scott Frank got a lengthy deep dive courtesy of a profile in The New Yorker that revealed the writer-director has a $300,000 weekly fee as a Hollywood script doctor. Frank acknowledges this fee is “insane,” but being a script doctor is how he’s made a life for himself despite being a credited
“Oppenheimer” may not be streaming on Peacock until the new year, but “Barbie” is ready to watch from home right this second courtesy of Max. And it’s far from the only great movie in 2023 to find itself available on streaming as the year comes to a close. From Netflix’s Oscar contenders to Hollywood tentpoles
Bram Inscore, best known for his work with Troye Sivan, Beck and BTS, has died at the age of 41. The songwriter, producer and instrumentalist died by suicide after a battle with depression, according to a statement from his family and friends. Throughout his career, he contributed to singles including Sivan’s “Youth,” Andy Grammer’s “Don’t
Lewis “Lew” Rothman, an entertainment executive who held top jobs at the Weinstein Company and Strategy PR, died suddenly at his home in East Hampton on Dec. 22. He was 63. Rothman is remembered for his smarts, honesty, humor, colorful language, movie star looks and an attitude and accent that betrayed his Queens roots. Beginning
The dual Hollywood strikes wiped out much of the scripted programming this fall on the linear networks. And yet, according to Variety‘s annual list of the year’s 100 most-watched primetime telecasts, we actually watched more entertainment fare this year. CBS’ “NCIS” led the pack in 2023 with 12 episodes making the list, followed by the