Capitol Music Group Names Orlando Wharton Executive Vice President and President of Priority Records

A group of roughly 30 Venezuelan migrants were surprised to learn that they will be returned to Mexico under a new Department of Homeland Security policy announced on Wednesday.  Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins approached the migrants in Eagle Pass, Texas, shortly after they were apprehended on Thursday.  "Did you know Venezuelans will be returned to Mexico now?" Jenkins asked the group.  "We did not know anything," one migrant said.  A group of Venezuelan migrants were surprised to learn from a Fox News correspondent that they would be returned to Mexico under a new Biden administration policy announced this week.  (Fox News) "Please receive us, have benevolence with Venezuela, because we are in need," another migrant told Jenkins.  Other migrants said they "have nowhere to go to in Mexico" and that the country "is dangerous."  The Biden administration announced a new border enforcement operation with Mexico that includes a parole program to provide a legal pathway for Venezuelans.  A Venezuelan migrant couple seeking asylum kiss after crossing the Rio Bravo to turn themselves in to U.S. Customs and Border Protecction agents to request asylum in El Paso, Texas.

EXCLUSIVE: Shout! Factory has elevated longtime senior executive Jordan Fields to Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Originals. In his new role at the multi-platform media company, where he most recently served as Vice President of Acquisitions, Fields will report to Shout! CEO Garson Foos.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter ABC Entertainment has hired Felicia Joseph to serve as senior vice president of casting, Variety has learned. Joseph joins ABC from MRC, where she most recently served as the independent studio’s senior vice president of casting. In her new role, she will report to Sharon Klein, the executive vice president of casting for Walt Disney Television. She will oversee casting for all ABC pilots and series as well as unscripted casting for Hulu and other WDTV brands. The role marks a homecoming for Joseph, who began her career in the casting department at ABC. “I’ve had the good fortune of collaborating with Felicia in the past and know how well she cultivates relationships with talent who are at the top of their craft,” Klein said. “Her passion, instinct and deep understanding of our business make her ideal for this role and, quite frankly, the only person I wanted for the job. We’re overjoyed to be welcoming her back to ABC, where she started her career.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Julie Greenwald has been elevated to chairman & CEO of the newly created Atlantic Music Group. In her new post, Greenwald oversees Atlantic Records — including the Atlantic, Atco, Big Beat, and Canvasback labels — as well as 300 Elektra Entertainment, which encompasses 300, Elektra, Fueled by Ramen, Roadrunner, Low Country Sound, DTA, and Public Consumption. Greenwald and Craig Kallman will continue to jointly lead Atlantic Records, with Kallman continuing as chairman & CEO. Late last year, the company launched 300 Elektra Entertainment with Kevin Liles as chairman-CEO, merging the two labels as part of Atlantic parent Warner Music’s acquisition of 300 Entertainment.

Fox News' Judge Jeanine Pirro ripped Vice President Kamala Harris's comments on the border crisis during an appearance on "Late Night With Seth Meyers," saying "everybody knows" she and President Biden are a "disaster" Tuesday on "The Five."  Look, I don’t know how the woman gets out of bed and faces the world. She’s a catastrophe. She should have showed up on the number one comedy show.

Viggo Mortensen is set to star in, write and direct “The Dead Don’t Hurt,” a western love story set in the 1860s.The film also stars Vicky Krieps (“Bergman Island,” “Phantom Thread”) and is slated to begin shooting on Oct. 12 in Canada. “The Dead Don’t Hurt” is a Talipot Studio, Recorded Picture, and Perceval Pictures production, produced by Regina Solórzano (“Los Reyes del Mundo”), Oscar winner Jeremy Thomas (“EO”), and Mortensen.Talipot Studio is fully funding the film that will shoot predominantly in Durango, Mexico where Talipot will manage the production.

EXCLUSIVE: Television executive and producer Erynn Baldwin, most recently founder and CEO of the storytelling app Lugu, has joined Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Television as Vice President. In her new role, Baldwin will be responsible for bringing in new projects and developing series across comedy and drama.

Jesse Collins has been named showrunner and executive producer of the 80th Golden Globe Awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, dick clark productions and NBC announced Tuesday. “We are thrilled to have Jesse produce the historic 80th Golden Globes. His record of success puts him among the premier producers of live television events and we are looking forward to his ideas for capturing the excitement of the ‘Party of the Year’ in Beverly Hills,” Helen Hoehne, president of the HFPA, said in a statement.Dionne Harmon, the president of Jesse Collins Entertainment, is also an executive producer.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Metallica have announced that they will perform a special tribute concert on Nov. 6 to honor Jonny and Marsha Zazula, the founders of their original label, Megaforce Records. The group, which will be joined by fellow Megaforce alums Raven, will perform songs from their early career, dating from 1983 and ’84. The concert will take place at the 7,000-capacity Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla. — an unusually small venue for the band. The Zazulas, for decades an influential and well-respected power couple on the metal scene, passed away within a year of each other in 2021 and 2022.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Days after top YouTube exec Robert Kyncl was named as the next CEO of Warner Music Group, the company revealed in an SEC filing that he will earn approximately $15 million in his first year on the job, depending on performance targets. When Kyncl’s name was first mentioned as a potential successor to outgoing CEO Stephen Cooper, who leaves after 11 years in the role, many wondered whether the job would be sufficiently appealing for the executive who led Netflix from DVDs to streaming and has been YouTube’s business chief for much of his 12 years at the company. However, the SEC filing makes clear that the job is financially appealing: He will receive a base salary of $2 million, a target performance-based bonus of $3 million and an annual grant of performance share units with an aggregate, pre-tax value of $10 million.

EJ Panaligan editor Disney Music Group has teamed up with Deaf West Theatre, a Tony award-winning company, to release an American Sign Language version of the hit song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Walt Disney Animation’s “Encanto” in celebration of Friday’s International Day of Sign Languages. The video features an all-deaf Colombian and Hispanic cast, utilizing both American Sign Language and Colombian Sign Language to add additional layers of authenticity to the song. The sung English lyrics were translated into ASL and CSL by a team of sign language choreographers who worked through the text to find an accurate signed translation of the song for the video.

Lori Loughlin hit the red carpet on Wednesday night with the wives of her co-stars, honoring the late Bob Saget at a fundraising event. The actress posed alongside Saget's widow, Kelly Rizzo, and John Stamos' wife, Caitlin McHugh, in a floor-length halter gown as the trio smiled arm-in-arm for photographers. Rizzo wore a camel-colored high-neck dress with ruching, while McHugh opted for a dark floral midi with a thigh-high slit. Loughlin's appearance comes as it was announced that she had scored her first new movie role following her involvement in a 2019 college admissions scandal.Rizzo served as co-chair for the Scleroderma Research Foundation's Cool Comedy Hot Cuisine Event, which was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, John Mayer and Jeff Ross.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Compton-based house-music producer-singer Channel Tres has inked a deal that sees him joining RCA Records in partnership with L.A. indie Godmode. The partnership kicks off tonight with the release of the new single “No Limit,” with his debut full-length album “Real Cultural Shit” arriving later this fall. The album will also feature his singles from earlier this year, “Acid in my Blood,” “Ganzfeld Experiment” and “Just Can’t Get Enough.” Channel Tres, who has toured with Robyn, Vince Staples, Disclosure and Toro y Moi and performed at Coachella and New York’s Gov Ball, calls his style of dance music “Compton house”; it meshes the rhythms of Chicago house and Detroit techno with the bite of West Coast rap.

“Days of Our Lives” has promoted publicist Lia Maiuri to Vice President of Communications. The new role will have her tasked with overseeing publicity, talent relations, social and promotional marketing for “Days of Our Lives” and any spin-offs or movies, the show’s creator and executive producer Ken Corday announced Wednesday.“As we have embarked on a new venture of transitioning from NBC after 57 years to Peacock, Lia has handled the move with grace and passion,” Corday told TheWrap.

Kate Ward, Vice Studios Global President and the boss of Pulse Films, has joined BBC Studios to oversee factual.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Vice Studios global president Kate Ward is joining BBC Studios to oversee its factual portfolio, Variety can reveal. Ward has been appointed to the role of managing director for factual at BBC Studios Productions, where she replaces Tom McDonald, who left the company earlier this year to join National Geographic. With her new role, the well-respected executive — who most recently served as president of global studios and Pulse Films for Vice Media Group — will take on one of the most significant production portfolios in the U.K. industry, spanning the BBC’s Natural History Unit, Documentary Unit and Science Unit. She will also oversee relationships with BBC Studios’ roster of production companies, including Louis Theroux’s Mindhouse Productions, David Olusoga’s Uplands TV and James and Soleta Rogan’s Rogan Productions.

Selome Hailu Albert Cheng has been promoted to vice president of Amazon Prime Video U.S. He most recently served as chief operating officer of Amazon Studios. The news came Wednesday in a staff memo written by Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. Cheng enters the newly created position effective immediately and will report to Hopkins. 2022 has been a banner year for Amazon’s studio and streaming service, especially with the launch of “The Rings of Power,” the latest entry into the “Lord of the Rings” franchise. According to Hopkins, responsibilities under Cheng’s purview will include revenue growth, brand strategy, marketing operations and customer acquisition.

Robert Kyncl, a 12-year veteran of YouTube’s senior executive team, will become CEO of Warner Music Group on January 1.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor After a fast courtship, outgoing YouTube head of business Robert Kyncl has been named CEO of Warner Music Group and will replace Steve Cooper when he steps down next year.  According to the announcement, Kyncl and Cooper will serve as co-CEOs for the month of January 2023. As of February 1, 2023, Kyncl will become sole CEO of WMG and assume Cooper’s board seat on WMG’s Board of Directors. Kyncl brings strong music-industry experience to the job: YouTube is both the world’s largest video-streaming platform and the largest music-streaming platform, and he played a huge role in its negotiations with labels and publishers and generally received high marks (remarkably, considering the often-contentious relations between the two sides). He’s also pioneering force in the streaming business: Before he was chief business officer of YouTube, he led Netflix from DVDs to digital.

All,With mixed emotions I share my decision to leave as President, Global Business & Legal Affairs and Content Supply Chain, effective at the end of this year.Between now and then I’ll be working with Kathleen’s senior US Networks team on the transition.  Our shared goal is to ensure the most efficient and effective structure for the organization moving forward.  To that end, Kathleen will be sharing some additional organizational announcements shortly.My decision to leave was not easy and I have been grappling with it for months.  But, with my contract up next spring and the ongoing transformation of our newly merged company, the timing made sense.  It has been my greatest honor to have been a part of this organization and to have worked with some of the most talented executives in our industry.  My colleagues in the global business & legal affairs team, as well as in our global production management organization, are the best in class and I have no doubt that you will continue to excel in the years to come.Between now and December 31, I hope to be able to speak to as many of you as I can to personally thank you for making these past 8 years some of the most rewarding in my professional life.  Thank you.All the best,Marc