As the WGA strike draws to a close, first stop on the road to normalcy will be late night — where producers are already plotting a return to air within the next two to three weeks. “We want to come back ASAP,” said one late night insider. Added another: “I think everybody’s leaning forward, like
China’s remarkable box office recovery this year took a pause on a weekend with no new releases and the quietest attendance levels since January. Next week’s crop of blockbuster holiday releases will show if the latest weekend was aberration attributable to timing. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway showed nationwide box office worth just $25
Hollywood heaves a sigh of relief. The WGA and major studios and streamers have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract that promises to end the 146-day strike that has taken a heavy toll across the content industry. Negotiators for the Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers
Country-bluegrass-blues songwriter and instrumentalist Mike Henderson, who won Grammy and CMA awards as a collaborator of country superstar Chris Stapleton, died Friday at age 70. His wife of nearly 45 years, Janet, said in a post on the musician’s website that he had been in “very good health” before dying peacefully in his sleep. The
Locally-made fantasy drama “Sleep” headed the Korean box office charts for the third successive weekend. But theaters were comatose ahead of bigger new releases timed for the Chuseok holiday season. “Sleep” earned just $1.06 million between Friday and Sunday, with a 27.5% market share, according to data from Kobis the tracking service operated by the
The Creative Coalition’s annual Humanitarian Awards takes place the week of the Primetime Emmys — but even though the big show was pushed to January, the benefit luncheon still took place on Thursday, Sept. 14 at the La Peer Hotel rooftop in West Hollywood, attracting a wide range of honorees and presenters. The Humanitarian Awards
Negotiators for the WGA and Hollywood’s major studios and streamers gathered Sunday afternoon around 4 p.m. PT for more talks about the final terms of a three-year contract that has taken shape over the past week, raising hopes of ending the nearly five-month writers strike. Some representatives for the Writers Guild of America and Alliance
Viewers who tuned in to watch repeats of “Yellowstone” on CBS Sunday night got something they might not have expected — two commercials telling them to watch the show somewhere else. CBS sold national ad time during the program to rival NBCUniversal, which ran a spot highlighting the availability of the Western-themed drama series on
Singer-songwriter Terry Kirkman, a founding member of the 1960s folk-rock band the Association, has died. He was 83. Kirkman’s death was confirmed on Sunday through a statement on the Association’s official Facebook page: “We’re saddened to report that Terry Kirkman passed away last night, RIP Terry. He will live on in our hearts and in
Alex Hall has been getting dragged after what some perceived as her trying to make a Black woman sound angry and unhinged — and a fellow cast member says it’s well-deserved. We spoke to ‘Selling the OC’ star Kayla Cardona — who’s very familiar with what has fans up in arms now that Season 2
Robert Kirkman, the creator of the “Invincible” comics and series, believes seven to eight seasons of the animated superhero show would be enough to cover the scope of its story. “I’m trying not to pin it down to a number, because it is somewhat of a moving target. I think in the seven-to-eight-season range seems
Ever since the success, demise, rebirth and extended afterlife of the NBC-turned-Yahoo sitcom “Community,” the showrunner Dan Harmon has largely avoided the strictures of network TV. With his cynical streak and meta references, Harmon’s niche sensibility was always an awkward fit for a mass audience; even when “Community” was on the air, it was perpetually
The 2023 installment of the annual Global Citizen Festival featured a powerful (if rainy) day of music, with sets by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lauryn Hill — who reunited the Fugees during her set — Anitta, Jung Kook — who was joined by Latto — Stray Kids side project 3Racha and a 50th anniversary of hip-hop performance with
The 2023-24 fall television season has launched, and amid the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the broadcasters’ lineups are anything but typical. In an average year, network writers’ rooms usually open in late spring, enabling shows to go into production by midsummer for a late September launch. This schedule allows enough episodes to be completed leading
“Taxi Driver” screenwriter Paul Schrader has expressed his disapproval of Robert De Niro reprising his role as Travis Bickle in an Uber ad campaign. “Ouch. Why Bob would do this is beyond my reckoning,” Schrader wrote on Facebook on Wednesday evening. “But I haven’t seen it. If I’m lucky I never will.” Reports began circulating
In my opinion, the two greatest directors to emerge from the nexus of international cinema in the 1990s were both Scandinavian. One of them, Lars von Trier, became quite famous, for reasons both good and bad. (Von Trier the court jester of controversy has always had detractors, but “Breaking the Waves” is one of the
“The Expendables 4,” an action-thriller starring Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham, misfired in its box office debut, tumbling to a franchise-low $8.3 million. It landed in ever-so-slightly second place behind “The Nun II,” which collected $8.4 million in its third weekend. It’s possible the order could flip by the time the final tally is revealed
When Megan Thee Stallion pulled out of her scheduled performance at the Global Citizen festival in New York earlier this month due to an “unforeseen scheduling conflict,” it took about five minutes to do the math and realize — oh, Beyonce’s playing in Houston that night. Not only did she and Megan team up for the
Usher will be the headlining performer at the 2024 Super Bowl Halftime show, Apple Music, the NFL and Roc Nation announced on Sunday. The game takes place at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, NV. on Sunday, February 11, 2024, airing on CBS. Usher follows Rihanna, who performed at the 2023 halftime show — while pregnant! —
Timothy Spall is ready to bring “Joy to the World.” “It’s a Christmas story, but an unusual Christmas story,” he tells Variety about his upcoming film, directed by Edward Hall. Calico Pictures and Studio Hamburg are on board, while James Nesbitt co-stars. “It’s about a troubled 12-year-old kid who is pretty obnoxious, really. He is
Evil, as conceived by Stephen King, is an inexorable force as old as the world itself. It exists in countless forms, some of which can be staved off for a time but none of which can be extinguished permanently. It’s as much a part of the earth as it is a part of us, and
Oxygen’s “911 Crisis Center” and A&E’s “Secrets of the Chippendales Murders” were among the winners Saturday night at the second annual Clue Awards, held at the CrimeCon event in Orlando, Fla. Hosted by ABC News legal analyst Matt Murphy, the event included presenters Nancy Grace, Kelly Siegler, Camille Vasquez and Paul Holes. Networks, producers and
Maury Povich wants to confirm whether or not Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are half-brothers. During a recent interview with McConaughey, E! News shared a video message from Povich, in which the former “Maury” host told the actor that he “would come out of retirement” to give him and Harrelson a DNA test. “We could
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. The Global Citizen Festival is back at Central Park today for another free concert, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ms. Lauryn Hill set as the day’s headliners. Megan Thee Stallion, Anitta and Jungkook of BTS are also on the
It’s the stock answer that many a happy long-term couple has given prying friends and relatives to explain why they haven’t married: “We don’t need a piece of paper to prove our love.” True enough. What can official documents tell you of something as wily and elusive as human desire? Is a band of gold
UPDATED: The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers sent the Writers Guild of America its best and final offer on Saturday afternoon after four days of intense negotiations to secure a new three-year contract and bring the nearly five-month writers strike to an end. Industry sources report that a last, best and final offer
Michael Caine questioned the purpose of intimacy coordinators in a recent interview with the Daily Mail. “Really? Seriously? What are they? We never had that in my day,” he said. “Thank God I’m 90 and don’t play lovers anymore is all I can say.” An intimacy coordinator for film and TV specializes in choreographing and
Jamie Lee Curtis is ready to be a part of the Straw Hat Pirates’ story. The Oscar-winning actor shared in an Instagram post her desire to play Dr. Kureha in Netflix’s “One Piece,” writing in the caption, “Once the strike against the greed of the [AMPTP] is settled with a fair contract, I will lobby
Sweden’s Isabella Eklöf has followed up her acclaimed debut “Holiday” with the Greenland-set “Kalak,” this time around opting for a male protagonist. “He’s a guy, but the story is exactly the same,” she says. “It’s still about sexual assault and ‘restaging’ your trauma, or looking for family and connection, but I have never explored that
“All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt” director Raven Jackson is taking her time. “I’m interested in patience,” she says ahead of her feature debut’s San Sebastian screening, following the Sundance premiere earlier this year. “I am interested in slow cinema, even though in the U.S. it’s not as prominent. When I was in the edit