Animation’s ‘Race to Amazing Artistic Expression,’ Unpacked at Variety’s Annecy Panel

Grace Helbig has been diagnosed with breast cancer.The 37-year-old content creator broke the news Monday to her 2.3 million subscribers in an emotional eight-minute video, stating that she was diagnosed with tumors in her left breast.“At this point, they think it’s Stage 2A but we’re not entirely sure just yet. So, the treatment plan looks like six rounds of chemotherapy, followed by a surgery, followed by hormonal therapy,” she shared, adding that she received her diagnosis about a month ago.

Grace Helbig revealed in an emotional video that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.The 37-year-old personality shared in the eight-minute video, posted on her YouTube and Instagram pages, that she received the diagnosis — triple-positive breast cancer — «about a month ago.» She called the news «shocking» and «surreal.»«It doesn't sound real, but it's real,» said Helbig, who has more than 2.6 million subscribers to her YouTube channel. «I've had a decent amount of time to process and start the process, so I'm finally ready to share with you.»She went on to say her breast cancer is «super treatable» and «highly beatable,» citing her doctors and experts familiar with the diagnosis.

Mark Ronson and Grace Gummer are grabbing an early dinner with one of their friends.

Miles McMillan and Trace Lehnhoff are getting married!

Chloe Grace Moretz is mixing up her look!

William Earl Variety and Rolling Stone have announced additional speakers and programming for the Truth Seekers Summit presented by Showtime, which will take place in New York City and virtually on Aug. 2. Newly added programming includes “The Art of Investigative Storytelling” panel, which will take a look at the creative minds behind breakout investigative and true crime storytelling. The panel will feature Tracy Pattin, co-producer and host, “Hollywood and Crime”; Shannon Evangelista, executive producer, “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace”; Sarah Amos, VP, development and production (non-fiction TV, documentaries), Condé Nast Entertainment and executive producer, “The Secrets of Hillsong”; and Mike Gasparro, executive producer, “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” and “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal.”

“Just Jack & Will.”McCormack, who played gay lawyer Will Truman, and Hayes discussed the early days of filming the comedy.“In the summer, people were finally checking out the show, and our ratings kept going up and up and up. And I think they realized they had a hit on their hands,” McCormack said, according to People.He added that Sassa took the men out for lunch one day following the conclusion of the premiere season and they walked through a parking lot where they saw “Porsches with ribbons on them.”“Scott went, ‘Anyway, we just want to say thank you,’ ” he said.However, the “Perception” star explained that “Sean leaned over to me — I don’t make this up — and said, ‘Is it expensive to insure a Porsche?’ ““Cause I literally can’t pay rent right now,” he recalled Hayes saying to him.

It’s fun to be the bad guy, right? So, why wouldn’t someone like Nimona strive to be the perfect villainous sidekick? There’s only one problem—the person she vows her loyalty to doesn’t really want a sidekick and actually isn’t really a villain. But they can still wreak some havoc.

BreAnna Bell “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace” recorded a solid performance for ID and the newly integrated Max. The three-episode series, which premiered on May 29 on ID and aired over the course of three consecutive nights during the 9 p.m. block, delivered an audience of 10.295 million total viewers across ID, Max and Discovery+ according to a mix of data from Nielsen and Warner Bros. Discovery. This marks ID’s highest-rated telecast in three years. The six-hour documentary exploring a bizarre family saga centered around the mystery of Natalia Grace, a 6-year-old Ukrainian orphan who was believed to have spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia — a rare congenital bone growth disorder that results in dwarfism. But her adopted family suspected otherwise.

Marta Balaga It’s time to finally “humanize” the workplace, argued Oscar-nominated director Nora Twomey at Annecy. And women are leading the way. “There was a point when I wanted to prove myself and would spend long hours immersed in animation. It took me until I had kids to start working smarter,” she said.   “Then I got sick in the middle of making ‘The Breadwinner’ and that also made me think about working in a way that could empower people around me. Now, I really don’t give a fuck anymore,” she added to thunderous applause. During her “fireside chat” with Ramsey Naito at the Women in Animation (WIA) World Summit, Twomey – co-founder and creative director at Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon – also underlined the importance of representation. 

Marta Balaga Variety will host a panel at the Annecy Animation Festival, Breaking the Borders of Animation, focusing on one of the key – and most exciting –  talking points in the medium: How animation is currently being revolutionized and reimagined by new waves of creativity and technology. The panel has been organised with Nickelodeon as its official partner.  On Tuesday June13, Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge will encourage his guests to wonder about the future of the art form, starting with Latifa Ouaou, EVP of Paramount and Nickelodeon Animation, who also executive produced “The Grinch” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Leslie Grace has a very personal reason for deciding to become what she calls an “ambassador” for “Translators,” a new documentary short about bilingual Latino children in the U.S. who become translators for their Spanish-speaking parents. “I’m first generation Dominican American,” the “In the Heights” star tells me. “My grandmother relied on her kids — my mom and her siblings — and then her grandkids. It’s a very common thing when I see my grandmother that my sister or I or my cousins, we take turns sharing the mail and translating for her.” The doc, directed by Emmy winner Rudy Valdez, highlights several families in which the children help navigate their parents’ lives, from explaining bills that need to be paid to the tremendous worry of having to translate proper medical care for their siblings. “I’m really excited for people that haven’t had this experience to be able to witness it through the doc,” Grace says. “Also there may be some assumptions and misconceptions that you might have about someone who doesn’t speak a language or even speaks English with an accent.”

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent At Annecy with four features, including buzzy main competition entry “Mars Express,” Strasbourg-based Amopix will create a second studio, Amopix Annecy, located in the Route des Creuses to the west of Annecy.  The move comes as Amopix, the animation studio behind Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight title “Margarethe 89,” produced by Eddy, is embarking on some 10 new titles, either as an animation studio or producer or both, including Louis Clichy’s “Le Corset” and “Shalotte, an Onion for All Cases,” a TV series produced in international co-production, a potential growth axis, Amopix founder Mathieu Rolin told Variety. 

Between the 15 regular seasons, a lot of queens have walked into the Werk Room on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Many who didn’t come out on top have gone on to return for RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, though only a small portion of those second-time attempts have resulted in a crown.

Debra Messing is spilling more tea about behind the scenes of Will & Grace.

Debra Messing is recalling her time on Will & Grace and spilling the tea on behind-the-scenes happenings. The star of the sitcom revealed during a Paley Center panel in L.A. that the former NBC president wanted her to “have big boobs.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Debra Messing revealed during “The Magic of Will & Grace” panel at The Paley Center for Media that she was instructed to “have big boobs” during her first costume fitting for the NBC sitcom (via People magazine). The Emmy winner pushed back on the suggestion, only to be told that it was coming straight from the top network executive. “The very first fitting, they had the chicken cutlets to make me bigger,” Messing said. “I just wasn’t a fan of like the whole idea of it. I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t need that.’ And they’re like, ‘Well, it’s the president of the network [saying this].’ And I said, ‘If he wants it, then he needs to come here and tell me to my face.'”

When “Will & Grace” was first coming onto NBC’s airwaves, the network’s former president had one request for Debra Messing: bigger boobs. “The very first fitting, they had the chicken cutlets to make me bigger,” the actress said during the NBC sitcom’s 25th anniversary panel discussion at the Paley Center for Media on Monday evening.

Debra Messing is getting candid about her sitcom days. On Monday, the actress participated in The Magic of at The Paley Center for Media and made a reveal about a former NBC executive who wanted to make a change to her character, Grace Adler's, body.«The very first fitting, they had the chicken cutlets to make me bigger,» Messing told the audience. «I just wasn't a fan of like the whole idea of it.»The 54-year-old actress said that she had no problem speaking up for herself and said that if the executive wanted to make the request, he would have to say it to her directly. «I was like, 'You know what? I don't need that,'» she said.

Leslie Grace says she has moved on after Batgirl was shelved almost one year ago.