‘Live PD’ & The Legal Perils of Uncancel Culture
In the fervid summer of 2020, as the nation reckoned with police brutality after the murder of George Floyd, A&E made the gutsy decision to halt production of Live PD, the network’s cash cow,...
View ArticleNetflix’s Too Big to Fail Moment
At least everyone in Hollywood now knows what it’s like to live in Arkansas. Sure, they’ve got some okay companies in the state. There’s Tyson Foods, of Fully Cooked Honey Battered Breast Tenders fame....
View Article‘Anora’ and the Perils of the Platform Release
Anora, Sean Baker’s acclaimed romantic dramedy, is quickly racking up street cred. The film, about a sex worker who marries an oligarch’s son, became the first American Palme d’Or winner since Terrence...
View ArticleHollywood’s Offshoring Blame Game
Did you see Tony Vinciquerra’s comments this past weekend? The outgoing Sony Pictures C.E.O. blamed the wage increases won by Hollywood unions after last year’s strikes for the exit of many film and...
View ArticleEllison’s New CBS Headache & Venu’s Political War
A few days back, Donald Trump uncorked yet another tirade at CBS for its editorial scissor work on Kamala Harris’s 60 Minutes interview. The former president absurdly suggested yanking CBS’s broadcast...
View ArticlePre-Election Vibe Check: Hollywood Edition
What I’m Hearing is usually a politics-free zone. (Puck has a great political newsletter, free for members so inclined.) But as the November 5 presidential election nears, I’ve found that few in...
View ArticleChris Hemsworth’s Box Office Poison
Making a Prince Charming movie seems like the kind of half-joking idea that comes up when Disney executives realize they’ve run out of A-level cartoons to reboot. Disney Studios is indeed developing a...
View ArticlePearls of TV Wisdom from John Landgraf
John Landgraf speaking engagements are the definition of must-see TV for me. Landgraf, the longtime C.E.O. of FX Networks, the so-called Mayor of Television, and the coiner of the phrase “Peak TV,” has...
View ArticleA Menendez Hollywood Ending
During my recent trip to Los Angeles, Lyle and Erik Menendez were all anyone wanted to talk about. The brothers, convicted in 1999 for the brutal murder of their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion,...
View ArticleThe Mail Room: ‘Nobody Wants This’ Drama, Venu Plans & Timothée’s Salarée
It’s been a while since I dipped into my Mail Room email folder for reader questions. Many, many of them are about Yellowstone—no, I don’t know or care how Kevin Costner is killed off—but a lot of them...
View Article