‘CNN This Morning’ Taps Lauren Mensch, Chris Russell as Co-Executive Producers

Natasha Lyonne if she’s irritable today. She just quit smoking, which is no small feat for someone who’s so synonymous with the habit that there’s an Instagram account dedicated to the coolness of her taking a drag. “I’ve been putting it off for so long,” she tells me, pointing to the small Nicorette pack on the coffee table in her East Village apartment. “I’m naturally wired for self-destructive crutches. I fucking love a vice.” Though she admits there are “immense” consequences of raging nicotine withdrawal, the health benefits far outweigh the discomfort (at least, that’s what she’s telling herself).

The 2023 BAFTA Games Awards were held on Thursday (March 30) at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank. Hosted by Julia Hardy and Inel Tomlinson, the 19th annual Games Awards recognise the most outstanding achievements in gaming from the past year.

Brooke Shields has her family by her side for the premiere of her documentary Pretty Baby!

Naman Ramachandran BAFTA-winning producer Patrick Spence is leaving ITV Studios after three years, Variety has confirmed. Spence, who serves as creative director, will leave at the end of March, ITV Studios managing director Julian Bellamy told staff via an internal memo on Thursday. Spence will continue to partner with ITV Studios on upcoming projects including “People vs. Post Office” (working title). Spence joined ITV Studios in 2020 and secured several acclaimed commissions, including the BBC’s drama-romance “Ralph & Katie,” a spin-off of “The A Word,” about the lives of a couple with Down syndrome; ITVX’s “Litvinenko,” about the investigation into the death of Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko; the BAFTA-nominated Cold War spy drama “A Spy Among Friends,” also for ITVX; and post-pandemic frontline medical drama “Maternal” for ITV.  

EXCLUSIVE: Patrick Spence, the executive producer behind ITVX/MGM+ series A Spy Among Friends, is leaving ITV Studios after more than three years.

Alissa Simon Film Critic The ninth edition of Iceland’s Stockfish Film & Industry Festival, which runs March 23 to April 2, is innovating under an ambitious new team that includes one of Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch, Hrönn Kristinsdottír (“Lamb”), as artistic director and festival veteran Carolina Salas as managing director. Among the highlights will be a masterclass with Oscar-nominated cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister (“Tár”), who is currently in Iceland shooting the fourth season of HBO’s “True Detective.” The screening program opens with Ukraine’s “Pamfir,” directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk and includes tributes to Oscar-nominated Polish helmer Jerzy Skolimowski and U.K. producer Mike Downey, recipient of the fest’s first “Outstanding Contribution to the Industry” kudos.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Wet Leg lead the nominations for the 2023 Libera Awards, the celebration of independent music presented by the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM). The Grammy-winning British group lead all nominess with six, while Sudan Archives, Allison Russell, Fontaines D.C., and Soul Glo have three each. The ceremony takes place on Thursday, June 15 at the historic Town Hall in New York City, and will feature 37 categories highlighting the best in independent music, as well as performances from nominees. In addition to recording artists across all genres, the award ceremony will also acknowledge categories for Best Sync Usage, Creative Packaging, Independent Champion, Label of the Year, Marketing Genius, Self-Released Record of the Year, Best Re-Issue, Best Live/Livestream Act, Video of the Year, and A2IM’s Humanitarian Award. Nominees for this year are listed below.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LILLE, France — The gauntlet thrown down by the opening stretches of Viaplay banner title “The Fortress,” one of nine series in main competition at Series Mania, is to believe that this is fiction.  News footage plays of a pandemic, then a war; huge protests rage around the world as Norway’s prime minister addresses his nation to announce that Norway is building a wall to keep everybody else out. That’s been done before (Israel) and in metaphorical terms (Brexit).  Cut to nine years later: Norway is a bucolic paradise, Sweden next door a refugee camp hell, until strange bacteria kills fish and then humans, and Norway will, foreseeably, need international help and “what starts as a wall, ends as a prison,” comments Filippa Wallestam, Viaplay Group chief content officer.

Semafor reported on Monday.A “person with direct knowledge of the transaction” told Semafor that Smith sold more than $100 million of his own shares when A&E and Crossover Ventures invested a joint $500 million in Vice in the 2014 deal. Smith then told a friend he was now “post-economic.”Among the lavish expenditures he’s reported to have made: A vintage Rolls Royce, a mountain in Costa Rica and $300,000 on a single dinner in Las Vegas.

Jennifer Aniston and Drew Barrymore are proving they’re Adam Sandler‘s biggest fans!

took to Truth Social on Thursday to bemoan the state of the country and pander to his base of supporters, saying that “the greatest threat to Western civilization today is not Russia. It’s probably more than anything else ourselves.”“It’s the abolition of our national borders. It’s the failure to police our own cities,” he wrote.

Katie Reul editor Steve Nissen, who previously served as senior vice president of legal and government affairs at NBCUniversal, is set to take over as president and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce (HCC). Nissen will begin serving in the new position effective March 20, taking the reigns from David Michael Jerome. The ex-CEO left the role in December 2022 due to “family reasons,” prompting a nationwide search for his successor, led by Berkhemer Clayton, Inc. “Steve Nissen’s visionary leadership and extensive expertise in various facets of the business world, combined with his deep understanding of the Hollywood community, have made him the ideal candidate to lead the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce,” said Lupita Sanchez Cornejo, chairperson of the board at HCC. “As a native of Hollywood, Nissen brings a unique perspective and a personal connection to the community.”

This Morning has come under fire for Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield interview with Jeremy Hunt. The duo were among the first to get to speak to the Chancellor after he unveiled his Spring Budget as he appeared live on the ITV daytime show on Thursday (March 16).

Marcus Lim Africa is turning out to be an unlikely market for Chinese television producers, according to one production executive. Hou Hong Liang, chairman of Chinese television production company Daylight Entertainment revealed his amazement at meeting African fans of Chinese television stars in a recent trip to the continent, even as he bemoaned the lower profitability of the region. “We had African fans coming to the airport to meet the cast for one of our recent productions. I was amazed to see we had fans in Africa. I thought they wouldn’t understand our culture, but they did. I don’t think Africa is a true market yet, our IP is not valued as much. We have to nurture the audience, so we sell our IP at a lower price to African broadcasters.”

CNN This Morning has tapped Lauren Mensch and Chris Russell as its new executive producers, an effort to bolster the network’s morning show after its debut in November.

2023 Oscars on Sunday.Will Smith didn’t return to violently clobber Chris Rock. He couldn’t.

.“These are big shoes for us to fill with our film. I don’t mean to compare our film to what some of our predecessors went through, but it is very moving to be even remotely connected to this history that “All Quiet” has,” Grunert told TheWrap. “We’ve managed to capture something that is obviously horrific, and we tried to come to what we can only imagine is an emotional truth of our main character, and how it could possibly feel to him,” Grunert said.

Village Roadshow Entertainment has made a wave of additions and promotions with Nic Gordon being elevated to Vice President of Feature Film for Village Roadshow Pictures (VRP), and Anne MacKay is being named as a Creative Executive at VRP. Elizabeth Elliott joins VREG as Executive Vice President of Business Affairs. Gordon and MacKay will report to Jillian Apfelbaum and Tristen Tuckfield, VRP’s Executive Vice Presidents of Feature Film. Elliot will report to Louis Santor, COO, VREG.

“Morning Joe” pushed back against former President Donald Trump on Monday after he told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over the weekend that he is the only 2024 candidate who can “prevent, and very easily, World War III” and that he would settle the Russia-Ukraine war in “no longer than one day.” In response to Trump’s claim, Willie Geist pointed out that one “big reason” why Russia has not taken over Ukraine is because of the “strength of NATO” and the United States and Europe’s support of the organization. “His administration officials and people who worked alongside him said he wanted to pull the United States out of NATO, which would’ve effectively made it dissolve,” Geist added.

Sparks have shared the title track for their new album ‘The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte’.The Los Angeles duo – comprising brothers Ron and Russell Mael – also announced that the song, which you can listen to below, will come with a video featuring actress Cate Blanchett at 5pm GMT tomorrow (March 3) here.They said via press release: “We met Cate Blanchett in Paris at the César Awards last year, little knowing that a year later, one of the great actors of our time (and a splendid person!) would graciously consent to lending her bootie-shaking skills to the first video from our new album, ‘The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte’. Dreams really do come true.