CAA TV Lit Agent Christopher Licata Joins 42 As Manager

EXCLUSIVE: Kristen Stewart (Spencer) is joining Michael Angarano (This Is Us), Michael Cera (Juno) and Maya Erskine (Pen15) in road-trip comedy Sacramento.

In a last-minute interview given to the BBC overnight, Twitter owner Elon Musk said his time at the social media platform has been “a rollercoaster” with a “high pain level”. Delivering updates on a number of his more controversial decisions, he said “mistakes [have been] made along the way” but that the social media giant is “headed to a good place.”

EXCLUSIVE: The team at Artists First has continued to expand with the addition of Will Douglas as Talent Manager. The appointment follows Artists First’s promotion of Caroline Soss, as well as its hiring of Curtis Shaw Flagg for the same role.

BreAnna Bell In its third week of availability, “The Night Agent” has moved up yet again, joining Netflix’s Most Popular list at No. 9 with 515.57 million hours viewed. According to Netflix’s math, this means the thriller has raked in 62 million views — Netflix calculates total views by dividing the total hours viewed by runtime, which is 8.19 hours. During the April 3-9 viewing window, the series pulled in 130.48 million hours viewed and remained No. 1 on the English TV List. Ali Wong and Steven Yeun’s “Beef” was a newcomer on this week’s top 10 list, coming in at No. 3 with 34.08 million hours viewed. The dark comedy, which scored a 99% certified fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, managed to rank in the Top 10 in 61 countries following its April 6 premiere date.

EXCLUSIVE: Molly Hurwitz has joined Thruline Entertainment as a literary manager.

Thania Garcia Beer conglomerate Anheuser-Busch has found itself at the center of a controversial debate surrounding its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who was recently recruited to promote the brand’s March Madness contest. The conversation escalated into a highly publicized online protest when Kid Rock posted a video of himself shooting three cases of Bud Light with an assault rifle — all while sporting a MAGA hat. “Fuck Bud Light and fuck Anheuser-Busch,” he declared in the video, which now has over 50,000 re-tweets and 200,000 likes. Country singer Travis Tritt also vocalized his displeasure, tweeting that he would no longer support Anheuser-Busch, the company that produces Budweiser and Bud Light.

Naman Ramachandran Argonon Group, the parent company behind “The Masked Singer U.K.,” has appointed former Jupiter Entertainment executive VP Steve McGovern as COO of its U.S. business with a remit across Leopard USA, Rose Rock Entertainment and future U.S. operations including acquisitions. Argonon, a global production group headquartered in the U.K. and U.S., owns Scottish indie production company Bandicoot, which makes the U.K. version of “The Masked Singer” as well as “The Masked Dancer.” As part of the group’s strategic shift to the West Coast and upscaled focus on streamers, networks and platforms, McGovern’s role will be based in Los Angeles. Shirley Escott, currently Leopard USA’s COO, relocates to London to pursue other projects after five years in the post. McGovern will report into Argonon CEO James Burstall and Laura Bessell, Argonon’s global COO.

The Masked Singer UK maker Argonon has signed a Chief Operating Officer for its U.S. operation.

During the April 1 edition of  “Saturday Night Live”, Michael Che celebrated April Fool’s Day by pulling an epic prank on fellow Weekend Update anchor Colin Jost.

TV series A League Of Their Own, What We Do In The Shadows and the film Bros were among the recipients of the 34th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles last night.

EXCLUSIVE: Night Kitchen Films and Phillm Productions have announced Emmy and Grammy nominated comedian Margaret Cho (Showtime’s Margaret Cho: PsyCHO) has joined DJ Qualls (The Man In The High Castle, Hustle & Flow) and Marisé Álvarez (Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi) in the dark comedy Evilou. 

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International “Blue Jean” director Georgia Oakley has signed with CAA. The up-and-coming British filmmaker made her debut feature with the Venice-premiering “Blue Jean,” which bowed to wide acclaim on the Lido in September. Set in northeast England in the 1980s, the pic is centred on a closeted gym teacher (played by Rosy McEwen) who is forced to confront her sexuality after taking a gay student under her wing. The film tackles the Margaret Thatcher era’s controversial Section 28 law, which prohibited British schools and councils from “promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.” The law was passed in 1988 and stayed in place until 2003.

Aristomenis Tsirbas’s ‘Timescape’ Sells WorldwideBudapest-based sales outfit Luminescence has unveiled a slew of deals for Canadian director Aristomenis Tsirbas’s adventure film Timescape. Newcomers Sofian Oleniuk and Lola Rossignol-Arts star as two youngsters who travel back in time to prehistoric times, where they encounter dinosaurs while trying to escape from an approaching asteroid. Luminescence took the film to the EFM where it secured deals to Australia (Eagle), France (Factoris), Hungary (ADS), Italy (Plaion), Japan (Nikkatsu), Korea (Yejilim), Latin America (Leda Films), CIS (,Nashe Kino), Middle East (Front Row), South Africa (Filmfinity) in Taiwan (Cola Films) and the UK (Dazzler). The film was released theatrically in Canada via TVA Films in late 2022. XYZ Films acquired all U.S. rights earlier this year. The film was produced by David-Alexandre Coiteux at Fullum Films and Faisal Toor at Empress Road Pictures.

Matt Damon told Variety‘s Marc Malkin Monday night that Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” runs a hefty three hours long. On the red carpet for “Air,” in which he co-stars, Damon also talked about Nolan’s upcoming historic drama in which he appears alongside Cillian Murphy. “It’s three hours. It’s fantastic,” Damon said, revealing that he’s seen “Oppenheimer.” “Cillian is phenomenal. He’s everything you would want him to be,” Damon told Malkin. “I think it’s almost three hours. It goes so fast, it’s great.” Directed by Ben Affleck, “Air” stars Damon as Sonny Velasco, who led Nike to pursue the endorsement of Michael Jordan and the creation of the Air Jordan basketball sneakers. “Air” opens April 5 and co-stars Affleck, Viola Davis, Jason Bateman and Chris Messina.

Dine with celebs — or just feel their A-list presence — at New York’s celeb hot spot 9 Jones, “an intimate, sexy supper club” located in the West Village.

The “Mean Girls” musical has cast “Mad Men” star Jon Hamm as Coach Carr. The Emmy-winning actor and star of “Confess, Fletch” and “Beirut” will play the school’s gym teacher and sex-ed instructor.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In front of a panel of skeptical and often hostile U.S. representatives, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew tried to make the case for why the popular app is not a security threat to the country — and why a government ban of the app would be the wrong course of action. A U.S. ban of the app would hurt the country’s economy, reduce competition and “silence the voices of over 150 million Americans,” Chew said in testimony submitted to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The hearing, titled “TikTok: How Congress Can Safeguard American Data Privacy and Protect Children from Online Harms,” was held Thursday morning in Washington, D.C. The Biden administration recently demanded that ByteDance divest its ownership stake in TikTok or potentially be banned in the U.S. over national-security concerns given TikTok’s Chinese ownership. Under pending congressional legislation, which has bipartisan support, President Biden would have the authority to ban TikTok under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

The chairwoman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee opened a hearing featuring the CEO of TikTok by telling him that “your platform should be banned.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Digital World Acquisition Corp., the blank-check company that has proposed merging with Donald Trump’s media company, said it fired chairman and CEO Patrick Orlando. On March 19, the company’s board of directors terminated Orlando from his positions as chairman and CEO, DWAC disclosed in an SEC filing Wednesday. Orlando remains a director of the company. “Due to the unprecedented headwinds faced by the company, the board agreed it was in the best interest of its shareholders to select a new management team to execute an orderly succession plan and set strategic operating procedures for the company in this new phase,” DWAC said in a statement. “Mr. Orlando’s departure enables the board to appoint new leadership, which it believes will restore confidence to the shareholders.”

in a video posted on the platform Tuesday ahead of his scheduled appearance before Congress.Standing on what appears to be a rooftop in Washington, D.C. with the U.S. Capitol dome behind him, Chew noted that the figure represents “almost half of the U.S.