Approved: Ethel Cain

Hopes that Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness would break the curse of Marvel movies not being released in China may now be dashed. The Benedict Cumberbatch-starrer has made waves on local social media over a scene in the opening bit of the sequel where a newspaper kiosk bears the Chinese characters for The Epoch Times, an international multi-language newspaper and media company which opposes the Chinese Communist Party.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefEntertainment management and events firm Endeavor Group Holdings has bought outright control of the On Location sports event firm and its older Endeavor China business. The two separate deals will cost Endeavor Group a total of $408 million.In a regulatory filing Thursday, Endeavor said that it will pay $224 million to buy out the minority shareholders in On Location, a firm that provides hospitality services to the NFL and the Super Bowl.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese TV producer Linmon Media has filed an application for an initial public offering in Hong Kong. It is the third time that the eight-year-old company has sought a stock market flotation.The heavily-redacted draft prospectus, sponsored by Morgan Stanley and CICC, does not reveal how much fresh capital the company aims to raise, nor the company’s anticipated valuation.

Megan Thee Stallion‘s live performance of her hit Cardi B collaboration ‘WAP’ at Coachella last weekend was subject to censorship on the Chinese social media and messaging app WeChat.The Houston rapper’s set was broadcast live from the Indio, California festival on Saturday (April 16) as part of Coachella’s YouTube coverage.WeChat users who tuned into the livestream of Megan’s set over the weekend, which was not legally broadcast in China, were greeted with the sight of the platform’s censors attempting to block out aspects of the performance.As The Hollywood Reporter reports, Megan’s performance of ‘WAP’ in particular saw the censors frantically attempt to cover the rapper and her backing dancers with a black box while they performed a series of dance routines.Coachella is also being livestreamed via WeChat. Apparently, this performance not only made censors sweat, everyone was also joking that they're singing a song about Shanghai Puxi District.

heavily-censored nation were able to tune-in to the two-weekend festival in Indio, California via the app WeChat, including the 27-year-old rapper’s performance on Saturday evening.In a farcical attempt to adhere to community standards on the Chinese social networking app, moderators used a floating black box to cover Megan and her dancers’ butts, but failed to keep up with their gymnastic twerking. Footage pulled from WeChat shows the black box wildly bounced from side to side and confused viewers as to what exactly they were trying to censor. The restricted livestream took further liberties with the lyrics of “WAP,” Megan’s acronymic 2021 hit featuring Cardi B, remixing the X-rated phrase to “Wet Ass Puxi,” in reference to the district of Shanghai that is currently under lockdown amid a new surge of COVID-19.The Grammy-winning artist also performed fan favorites including “Savage,” “To Whom the F–k It May Concern” and “Sweetest Pie.”Fans mocked the suppression snafu on Twitter.

premiered on Sunday on TLC, and newcomers Emily and Kobe definitely had fans talking with their relationship and the interesting way they met.Emily, 29, left her small town in Kansas to teach English in Xi'an, China, which is where she met 34-year-old Kobe. Kobe is from Cameroon, but was in China working as an underwear model. The two met while they were both out clubbing.«Nothing holds me back and I just do what I want to do,» Emily told cameras about her approach to life, admitting she didn't care about things like getting a college degree.When she met Kobe, she said their attraction was immediate.«I love Black guys, so of course I found the only Black guy in China,» she said.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChina’s theatrical box office fell to a new low over the weekend as anti-COVID restrictions forces thousands of cinemas to close. Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway showed that nationwide box office across the world’s most populous country amounted to just $10.5 million.

Jude Law (Dumbledore) and Mads Mikkelsen (Grindelwald) play former lovers in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore have been removed for the film’s release in China, as they allude to a gay relationship.Six seconds in the third film were cut in the forthcoming release, referring to a romantic past between Dumbledore and Grindelwald.The original cut included the lines “because I was in love with you” and “the summer Gellert and I fell in love”.The producers, Warner Bros, told Variety in a statement that they believe the “spirit of the film remains”.The studio added that they remain “committed to safeguarding the integrity of every film we release” and that that sometimes means “sensitively” making “nuanced cuts” for certain markets.“Our hope is to release our features worldwide as released by their creators but historically we have faced small edits made in local markets,” they added.“In the case of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, a six-second cut was requested and Warner Bros accepted those changes to comply with local requirements but the spirit of the film remains intact.“We want audiences everywhere in the world to see and enjoy this film, and it’s important to us that Chinese audiences have the opportunity to experience it as well, even with these minor edits.” In a three-star review of the new film, NME wrote: “Unfortunately, there are far too many other characters involved – and most of them don’t do much that actually matters.”

first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, takes out six seconds of the film in which Dumbledore utters the lines “I was in love with you” and “the summer Gellert and I fell in love.”The film’s total run time is 143 minutes.“As a studio, we’re committed to safeguarding the integrity of every film we release, and that extends to circumstances that necessitate making nuanced cuts in order to respond sensitively to a variety of in-market factors,” a Warner Bros. spokesperson told THR.“Our hope is to release our features worldwide as released by their creators but historically we have faced small edits made in local markets.” The spokesperson added: “In the case of ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,’ a six-second cut was requested and Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. confirmed it has removed part of its dialogue from "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" to satisfy the Chinese government.

Kanye West is distracting himself from missing out on Coachella by taking a luxury vacation with his girlfriend Chaney Jones — and the spot is very noteworthy!

Zack Sharf References to a gay relationship in “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” were edited out of the movie by Warner Bros. for the film’s release in China. Only six seconds of the movie’s 142-minute runtime were removed.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Far East Film Festival in Italy’s Udine has set Chinese-Italian co-production “The Italian Recipe” as the opening title of a revived, largely in-person event.The film, directed by Hou Zuxin, sees an unexpected series of events bring together a Chinese reality TV show contestant and a woman already resident in Italy. The collision of personalities, connections and chemistry between stars Liu Xun and Yao Huang resemble those of “Roman Holiday,” festival organizers suggest.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” dominated the box office in China since its opening on Friday. But, with the country on high alert for COVID, the weekend’s cinema business remained close to recent lows.Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway shows “The Secrets of Dumbledore” earning RMB62.2 million ($9.7 million at current exchange rates) between Friday and Sunday. That gave it a huge 63% market share on a weekend worth just $15.5 million.In 2016, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find” them produced a $85.9 million total in China.

BTS.On the most recent episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, was released on April 6, the 41-year-old rapper discussed his thoughts about the K-pop boyband with co-hosts Ice, Ish and Parks Vallely, during which he said: “You can get mad at me… but I hate them BTS n***as.”When asked by his co-hosts to elaborate, Budden said: “Do I need a reason? … I hate them n****s. I don’t have to divulge my reason to you, I just hate them n****s.