ESPN’s Pablo Torre Will Join Meadowlark Media (EXCLUSIVE)

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Al Franken spent nine years as a U.S. Senator from Minnesota, and it all finally paid off in recent weeks when he logged a stint as a guest host on “The Daily Show.” Franken turned in some robust impressions of Charles Schumer, Mitch McConnell and Susan Collins during one sketch on the Comedy Central program that suggested he was taking some pretty interesting notes when he served in that chamber. “I didn’t give them a heads up,” Franken says in a recent interview, after his run. “I served wth those people. Some I could do. I’m not one othose impressionists who can do everyone. I do who I can do.” While Franken is one of a number of noted hosts who have helped the show keep spinning after the depature last year of Trevor Noah, you might say he has been training for such an appearance for much of his professional life. Franken made some famous appearances on the long-running “Weekend Update” segment of “Saturday Night Live,” and, after a few stints on the show as a writer and performer, tried his hand at other exploits. He led comedic coverage of the the run-up to the 1992 presidential election for Comedy Central, presaging efforts to do so by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. He later became a progressive radio host for Air America. In recent months, he has been doing a comedy tour around the nation.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent  Sideshow and Janus Films have dropped the clip for Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s “Tori & Lokita” which had a strong opening in New York and Los Angeles on March 24 and is expanding this weekend to additional markets. The latest film by the two-time Palme d’Or winners, “Tori & Lokita” tells the timely story of two immigrants struggling to survive on the margins of society. The humanist drama won the 75th Anniversary Prize at Cannes in 2022. “’Tori Lokita’ is one of the most devastating cinematic experiences I’ve had in a long time,” said Martin Scorsese in a statement sent to Variety. “I’ve always admired the way that Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne make movies—their mastery is inseparable from their spiritual and ethical commitment to their characters, trying to make their way through an unforgiving world,” Scorsese continued. He went on to describe the film as “one of the Dardennes’ most harrowing films,” “also one of their greatest.”  

A popular boxing and fitness concept from down under will has chosen Salford as the location for it's first club in the UK. UBX Boxing + Strength was co-founded by four time world champion boxer boxer Danny Green and fitness entrepreneur Tim West.

EXCLUSIVE: In competition, Amazon Studios is in final talks for the package The Pick Up, with Eddie Murphy eyeing to star and Tim Story attached to direct. John Davis and John Fox will produce through his Davis Entertainment banner. Murphy and Charisse Hewitt-Webster are also in talks to produce through Eddie Murphy Productions, and Story will also be producer.

Kanye West is back on social media to address his antisemitic tirades.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Republic Pictures, an historic movie label founded in 1935 and shuttered in 1967, has been revived by parent company Paramount Global. The banner will function as an acquisitions play, releasing titles acquired by Paramount Global Content Distribution. “We’ve chosen to revitalize the Republic banner given its storied history of delivering popular movies to a global audience, ” said Dan Cohen, Paramount chief content licensing officer and newly-named president of Republic Pictures. “With our best-in-class global distribution teams working to identify the best homes around the world, we aim to continue that legacy by offering audiences great entertainment across all genres.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The correspondents who help keep Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” running will each get their own moment in the spotlight. The late-night program, which has relied on celebrity guest such as Leslie Jones and Sarah Silverman in the wake of the departure of Trevor Noah last year, will now give its correspondents a crack at leading the program over the next few weeks. Ronny Chieng, Michael Kosta, Desi Lydic, Dulcé Sloan, Roy Wood Jr., Lewis Black and Jordan Klepper will all get a chance to host the program between the week of April 3 and the week of May 8, Comedy Central announced Friday. Roy Wood Jr. will start the rotation during the week of April 3, followed by Jordan Klepper the week of April 17. Desi Lydic will host the program the week of April 24 ,and Dulce Sloan will anchor the series the week of May 1. Michael Kosta will lead during the week of May 8. Ronny Chieng and Lewis Black have not been assigned weeks as of yet.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Rob King, a senior executive at Walt Disney’s ESPN who had oversight of much of the company’s sports journalism, has abruptly left the Disney-backed sports-media giant. “After nearly 20 years with ESPN, I have decided the time is right for me to leave the company,: King said on Twitter on Tuesday “I’m looking forward to spending more time with my family and friends, and wish the company continued success.” The New York Post reported Tuesday that King departed after complaints were made to ESPN about harassing social-media posts. An ESPN spokesperson said the company would not comment on personnel matters.

Noitada, which includes a collaborative single with 2023 Best New Artist Grammy nominee Anitta. The two have worked together before, and clearly they have amazing chemistry.We spoke with Vittar about her new album, working with Anitta, and why she’s chosen to pursue her music career in this manner when so many others haven’t been able to make it work.Congrats on the new album! Tell me what it’s about.Thank you! This album is all about nightlife and how a night out with me would be.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The battle for cable-news viewers is coming to March Madness. CNN intends to run a new promo during the heavily watched NCAA men’s basketball tournament that throws a sharp verbal elbow at Fox News Channel and the legal defamation case filed against it by Dominion Voting Systems. The promos will air starting this weekend on TNT, TBS, TruTV and CBS, all of which carry the games under a joint rights agreement held by the owners of those networks, Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery, which is also the parent of CNN. Fox News Channel is not mentioned in the promo script, reviewed by Variety, but the references are clear. “What should you expect of a news network?” asks the narrator. “Some bury the truth, while we fight to reveal the facts. The only side we are on is yours.” Viewers see images of CNN correspondents and anchors such as Abby Phillip and Clarissa Ward.

Ed Meza @edmezavar This year’s Malaga Festival and its industry section’s Latin American Focus are celebrating Peruvian cinema and talent. A number of Peruvian films are screening in the festival and industry section, including “El Caso Monroy,” by Josué Mendez, and Leonardo Barbuy’s debut feature “Diógenes,” which unspool in the fest’s main section and Zonazine sidebar. As a meeting point for producers and directors from Latin American and investors from Spain and the rest of Europe, the Malaga Festival Industry Zone (MAFIZ) serves as a key hub that promotes the co-production of Latin American projects aimed at the international market.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor You can’t tie these anchors down. MSNBC’s Symone Sanders and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins have both moved to WME for representation after previously being signed to UTA, according to three people familiar with the matter. Sanders launched a new Sunday program in May of last year, and her contract with MSNBC ends in early 2024, according to two of these people. Collins is one of three co-anchors at “CNN This Morning,” which executives at the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned outlet are trying to improve after a rocky start, and where the three hostshave had to work through on-set tensions.

Callum McLennan “Girl, Unknown,” the sophomore feature from Spanish director Pablo Maqueda (“Dear Werner”), currently ranks as one of the early buzz titles at the Málaga Film Festival, even before its world premiere. The film adapts Paco Bezerra’s stage play “Grooming.”  Maqueda, Bezerra and Haizea G. Viana wrote the script, which retains the play’s unsettling cat-and-mouse element. It delves into the recesses of desire, raising questions on depravity, sexuality, and the drive to be fulfilled. The story unfolds a pendulum swinging power dynamic between the seemingly innocent 16 year old Carolina, and a middle aged man she meets in a park named Leo. What begins and is a case of grooming morphs into something far more complex due to Carolina not being all she seems. Maqueda shows a Hanekesque talent in balancing the disturbing with the thrilling. On the film, Maqueda told Variety: “I feel the film as a kaleidoscope and the characters as masks. I like stories that navigate in the daily terror of everyday life,” 

Emiliano De Pablos The Walt Disney Co.’s Star Distribution has taken Latin American distribution rights to Argentine writer-director Pablo Solarz’s coming-of-age film “Desperté con un sueño” (“I Woke Up with a Dream”) An Argentina-Uruguay co-production, teaming Buenos Aires-based Pampa Films and Aramos Cine with Montevideo’s Mutante Cine and Bocacha Films, “I Woke Up with a Dream” screened March 14 at the Málaga Film Festival’s main competition. Top Argentine producer Pablo Bossi’s Madrid-based company Gloriamundi is handling “I Woke Up with a Dream” rights outside Latin America.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox is hungry for a different kind of advertising dollar. The Fox Corp.-owned broadcast network has thrived for years on outlays from movie studios and fast-food chains, but in 2023, it’s looking to expand its relationship with something that might be more hearty. Armed with its recent launch of the Studio Ramsay Global with celebrity chef and entrepreneur Gordon Ramsay, Fox is eager to court more food advertisers and marketers who are eager to woo consumers who like food experiences. “We are really the only broadcast network with any food-related programming, over 80 hours a year,” says Suzanne Sullivan, eecutive vice president of ad sales for Fox Entertainment, in an interview. Fox hopes the combination of Ramsay’s shows on its broadcast network and a new spate of short-form content that will be available on Tubi with the launch of a FAST channel that make use of Ramsay’s tens of hours of Fox content will whet Madison Avenue’s appetite for the concept. In the recent past, Fox has sought between $75,000 and $100,000 for a 30-second spot in such programming on linear TV, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Nexstar Media has spent months assembling a massive roster of TV stations; acquring TV’s CW network; and building the NewsNation cable-news oulet. Now comes the hard part: Getting Madison Avenue to buy ads across all of it. The nation’s largest owner of local TV outlets is ready to make its pitch to advertisers and has already scheduled a presentation for media buyers in New York for April 25. The goal, says Michael Strober, the company’s chief revenue officer, is to showcase the company’s reach among both national and local media. “We can bring local and national to our clients in ways that have never been replicated across the country,” he says in an interview. “The CW, NewsNation, TheHill, Nexstar Digital and over 200 local stations — that to me is our differentiator in the marketplace.”

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer John Wick is battling his way to Austin, Texas. The fourth installment in Keanu Reeves’ runaway hit franchise has the honor of being this year’s “secret screening” at the SXSW Film Festival, multiple sources told Variety. The film will show next week on the ground in Texas at a major venue, the sources added. Distributor Lionsgate and SXSW Film Festival organizers would not comment on this story, most likely trying to preserve the fan experience. One source added that digital marketing will come into play with how and when lucky guests nab tickets to the screening.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor GroupM, the large WPP-owned media-investment agency, wants advertisers to do more when it comes to supporting diverse media. After calling for advertisers to put between 2% and 5% of their annual media spend into multicultural media venues, the media buyer hopes clients will now invest the upper end of that range. “As the largest media investment company in the world, we have a responsibility to accelerate growth through the next era of media,” said Kirk McDonald, CEO, GroupM North America, in a statement. “That means making our industry more inclusive and equitable for all publishers. As well as, sharing brands’ products and services with audiences that are representative of the changing face of America in service of growing their businesses.” Under GroupM’s effort, marketers would ensure the money is invested across Black, Hispanic, AAPI and LGBTQ+ owned and/or focused media.

Black Midi were joined by Harry Hill on stage in London last night (March 8) – check out footage of the unlikely link up below.The British comedian and presenter joined the experimental post-punk band at the final night of their Village Underground residency where they performed from March 5 to 8.Hill appeared on stage before launching into a cover of Cardi B‘s ‘I Like It’ with the band performing as his musical ensemble.Watch clips of the performance below.Harry hill has joined black midi pic.twitter.com/gcBlL5stGu— Charlie Ralph (@Churlie100) March 8, 2023Sorry but Black Midi ft Harry Hill pic.twitter.com/jVdmxuGT9y— Loraine James // Whatever The Weather (@LoJamMusic) March 8, 2023it brings me infinite pleasure to announce black midi just brought harry hill out pic.twitter.com/QzLdvQtMjO— benny j.h. (@pyshagoras) March 8, 2023black midi and harry hill is the highlight of my year pic.twitter.com/4xWuJImYel— pubert (@puberrtt) March 8, 2023this video shows the full process of harry hill joining black midi.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Dick’s Sporting Goods is getting ready to play a new game with the NCAA. The Pittsburgh company has been named the college-sports league’s official sporting-goods retailer, a new partnership that will become quickly visible during the NCAA’s “March Madness” basketball tournament and is part of a multi-million dollar deal that will give Dick’s on-court signage and exclusive access to select fan events. Commercials purchased in game inventory from CBS Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, which televise the March Madness games, are a strong element of the deal. Dick’s also plans to have a presence at NCAA women’s Final Four Open Practices, which has not had an active on-site sponsor in the past. Dick’s plans to invest in media around the women’s basketball tournament on Disney’s ESPN.