Richard Parsons, former head of Time Warner, has been named interim chairman of CBS’ board of directors. The newly configured CBS board had its first formal meeting via teleconference on Tuesday after the shakeup that began Sept. 9 with the forced resignation of longtime CEO Leslie Moonves amid sexual misconduct allegations. Parsons was appointed to
September 25, 2018 4:07PM PT Blumhouse and Universal Pictures are throwing another slasher birthday rager following the success of 2017’s “Happy Death Day.” The film’s original lead, Jessica Rothe, will return in the newly titled “Happy Death Day 2U” when it hits on the previously announced date of Valentine’s Day 2019. Christopher Landon is back
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ meeting with more than a dozen state officials focused largely on the privacy, data collection, and antitrust issues of tech companies, despite earlier indications that the gathering would address whether platforms were stifling political voices. The meeting on Tuesday, which lasted about an hour, was the latest example of
September 25, 2018 3:40PM PT The move is confirmed in a memo sent by Sony Corp. CEO Kenichiro Yoshida. In one of those “everybody’s saying it but it’s not quite officially official yet” situations, when news gradually broke last week that Warner/Chappell Music Publishing chief Jon Platt was leaving that company to take over for
September 25, 2018 3:18PM PT Former CAA agent Adam Berkowitz was fired over an incident in which he allegedly groped a top executive at J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions. According to an individual with knowledge of the situtation, Berkowitz is said to have grabbed the crotch of Bad Robot’s head of TV, Ben Stephenson, at
A year ago, Scandinavian pop singer Anna Lotterud, frontwoman of duo Anna of the North, was on her way to quietly becoming Norway’s answer to Bebe Rexha, appearing on buzzy tracks with Frank Ocean, G-Eazy and Tyler, the Creator while carving out her own name with debut album “Lovers,” released last September via Honeymoon/+1 Records.
Fox has handed out a straight-to-series order for an animated comedy titled “Bless the Harts,” Variety has learned. The half-hour series will feature the voices of Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Jillian Bell, and Ike Barinholtz. It follows a group of Southerners who are always broke as a joke, and struggling for the American dream of status and
Media center app maker Plex is saying good-bye to the cloud: After announcing the closure of its Plex Cloud service earlier this month, the company is now also getting rid of a feature that allowed consumers to sync their media collections to the cloud. Plex announced the change in a blog post Tuesday that also
Shida Kaviani, Shirin Kaviani, Shideh Kaviani. Those names probably don’t immediately ring any bells, but a mention of the sisters’ popular and super affordable clothing brand, Naked Wardrobe, should do the trick. The label, whose Instagram page boasts over 1.1 million followers, was founded in 2012 on the desire to create basic wardrobe essentials—bodysuits, biker
If you’ve been paying close attention to your Instagram, fashion model and rising ‘it girl’ Paloma Elsesser seemingly popped up out of nowhere and became a fashion force, popping up on fashion runways and campaigns for the likes of Fenty Beauty and Glossier. And you’re about to see more of Elsesser, who just notched another
Andrew Dice Clay had some tough competition to play the father of Lady Gaga’s character in “A Star Is Born.” After all, he was up against legendary actors like Robert De Niro, John Turturro, and John Travolta for the part, he revealed to Variety on Monday night at the film’s Los Angeles premiere. “These are
In the 24 hours since news broke Monday that Michael Kors’s parent company, Michael Kors Holdings Limited (now renamed to Capri Holdings Limited), would acquire Versace in a $2 billion deal, the Internet lost it. On Tuesday, John D. Idol, chairman and CEO of Michael Kors Holdings Limited confirmed the deal. “The acquisition of Versace
September 25, 2018 2:00PM PT Will Smith is celebrating his 50th birthday by bungee-jumping out of a helicopter into the Grand Canyon. After being challenged by the YouTube group Yes Theory in March, Smith agreed to the jump in an effort to raise awareness and encourage donations for education campaigns run by the international advocacy
Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman’s much-scrutinized streaming-video project is months away from launch, but the executives already know how much the new content would cost subscribers. NewTV, incubated by Katzenberg and held by his WndrCo, will seek to charge subscribers $5 per month for content with ads and $8 per month for an ad-free experience
September 25, 2018 1:14PM PT Mariah Carey will perform at the 2018 American Music Awards on Oct. 9, the ceremony announced on Tuesday. Producer and songwriter Benny Blanco is also set to perform in a collaboration with Halsey and Khalid. They join previously announced performers Carried Underwood and Post Malone featuring Ty Dolla $ign. The
SiriusXM’s $3.5 acquisition of Pandora, announced Monday and still awaiting stockholder approval, creates an audio monolith with more than 100 million monthly listeners, but even more importantly establishes a beachhead for the combined company against the likes of Apple, Spotify and Amazon for connected car dashboard supremacy. With in-car listening the dominant factor in audio broadcast
September 25, 2018 12:44PM PT A solid, but faithful adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s gothic fairytale about two peculiar, ostracized sisters hiding a dark family secret. If the recent failure of films such as “The Little Stranger” and “Marrowbone” has taught us anything, it’s that audiences don’t seem as thrilled with good, bone-chilling Gothic mysteries as
September 25, 2018 11:58AM PT President Donald Trump claimed that his administration “has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country,” drawing laughter from an audience at the United Nations on Tuesday. “So true,” Trump continued, which caused more laughter in the General Assembly hall. “Didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s
Earlier this month, the legal battle between Ozzy Osbourne and AEG officially ended when the singer’s attorney agreed to drop a lawsuit against the live-entertainment giant stemming from its block-booking policy, which the company recently discontinued. The policy required artists playing the London’s O2 Arena to also perform at Staples Center in Los Angeles, both of which
Facebook will likely appoint Adam Mosseri, currently Instagram’s head of product, as the new chief executive of Instagram with the departure of the photo- and video-sharing service’s co-founders, according to a report. Tech-new site The Information reported that Facebook will likely announce Mosseri as the new head of Instagram “in the coming days,” citing anonymous
September 25, 2018 11:00AM PT Participant Media’s “On the Basis of Sex” is set to open the 32nd AFI Fest, the American Film Institute announced Tuesday. Directed by AFI alumna Mimi Leder, the film follows a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she negotiates one of her earliest cases, Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, before her time on the
This coming Wednesday and Thursday, virtual reality (VR) developers and enthusiasts from around the world will once again gather in San Diego, Calif., for Facebook’s Oculus Connect developer conference. One of the big reveals of the conference is expected to be the latest version of Oculus Santa Cruz, a standalone VR headset that Facebook has
September 25, 2018 10:36AM PT The Television Critics Association (TCA) has voted overwhelmingly to rescind the Career Achievement Award given to Bill Cosby in 2002, the group announced Tuesday. This marks the first time the TCA has ever taken away one of its awards. The revocation of the honor will be noted in the organization’s
September 25, 2018 10:33AM PT WASHINGTON — Donald Trump attacked the second woman who claims that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh engaged in sexual misconduct at a college party. The president told reporters that she was “totally inebriated and all messed up” at the time. The woman, Deborah Ramirez, told the New Yorker that Kavanaugh
September 25, 2018 10:30AM PT David Decker has been promoted to oversee domestic TV sales for Warner Bros. following the retirement of longtime domestic TV distribution chief Ken Werner. A 15-year studio veteran, Decker will take on oversight of local TV station sales with Werner’s departure. Decker already spearheaded sales to cable, streaming and on-demand
In an interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Monday, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh told the anchor that “America’s about fairness, and hearing from both sides.” It was a point he hit on again and again: That the same people who’d given a fair hearing to the women accusing him of assault and harassment
Upbeat Hong Kong stories that bring audience laughter and optimism rather than highly stylized dramas about heavy subjects could be the antidote for an industry struggling with its identity in the post-handover era, according “Men on the Dragon” director Sunny Chan. The local drama has garnered more than HK$9.5 million ($1.2 million) since its Aug.
More Hollywood actors are expected to appear in starring roles in Chinese films as China’s film industry continue to expand, with bigger productions looking to meet international standards and feed the growing appetite for domestic blockbusters. So far, however, the top Hollywood stars joining the ensemble casts of these blockbusters have almost all been men. Opportunities
September 25, 2018 10:00AM PT Rapper Lil Yachty has been cast in the lead role of the MTV film “How High 2,” Variety has learned exclusively. The film began production in Atlanta today. It is a follow up to the 2001 stoner comedy “How High” starring Method Man and Redman. It will premiere on MTV in 2019.
The first season of “Black Lightning” on the CW tackled topical storytelling around gang and gun violence, and drugs in inner cities. With that foundation under its feet, the second season will dive even deeper into tales of police brutality and family separation. “We’re at a critical point where artists, if they so choose —