Paxton Whitehead, Broadway Vet and ‘Mad About You’ Regular, Dies at 85

Celebrated Hollywood costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis has said the time is ripe for an overhaul of the contracts covering pay and conditions as well as Intellectual Property rights for her profession.

Naman Ramachandran Julia Fox, breakout star of “Uncut Gems” has signed on as executive producer for Luis De Filippis’ debut feature “Something You Said Last Night.” The Canadian-Swiss project bowed at Toronto in 2022 and won the Shawn Mendes Change Maker Award there and went on to win major awards at San Sebastian, Cairo and Rotterdam. It stars emerging performer Carmen Madonia, Ramona Milano (“Due South”), Paige Evans (“Trapped With My Husband”) and Joey Parro (“Nikita”). The trans themed story follows 20-something aspiring writer Ren (Madonia) and her younger sister Siena (Evans) as they reluctantly accompany their parents on a family vacation.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Sky Deutschland, the German arm of Comcast-owned pay-TV operator Sky, is pulling out of scripted originals from 2024, Variety can reveal. Staff were notified of the surprise move by Sky Deutschland boss Devesh Raj on Thursday morning, local time. Variety understands that the entire scripted originals team will eventually be disbanded, though shows that have already been commissioned and are in production, such as post-apocalypse drama “Helgoland 513″ and “Das Boot” Season 4, will finish filming. Any projects in development will be “put into turnaround,” as per another internal note from Sky Studios CEO Cécile Frot-Coutaz, also seen by Variety.

A man has been left stranded in Edinburgh airport for three days despite spending £2000 on three separate tickets to Canada. Iyare Ehis has been locked in a dispute with Air Canada since Monday after trying to visit his sister who is in hospital.

Eric Nam has announced his massive 66-date ‘House on a Hill’ world tour for 2023 and 2024.Eric Nam will kick off his ‘House on a Hill’ world tour with a 39-date trek across the US and Canada that will run form September to the middle of November. It will feature concerts in over 20 states, as well as four shows in Canada.The Latin American leg of the ‘House on a Hill’ world tour will take place in the latter half of November.

Miranda Cosgrove loves being a gay icon.

Miranda Cosgrove still loves music.

McKinley Franklin editor The Palm Springs International ShortFest winners were announced on Sunday, with Japan and the U.S.’s “The Old Young Crow” taking the prize for best of the festival. Lithuania’s “Way Better” won best animated short and China’s “Will You Look At Me” landed best documentary short. Additionally, the award for best live-action short over 15 minutes went to France’s “Sèt Lam” and Spain’s “Mystic Tiger” took home the award for the best live-action short 15 minutes and under. The festival handed out cash prizes worth $25,000, as well as five awards to help winners qualify for the Academy Awards. The competition included some 299 short films within the official selection. The annual festival began on June 20 and will conclude Monday, June 26.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas, Rachel Zegler and Emily Mortimer are in talks to join the cast of “Paddington in Peru,” the third opus of the beloved bear’s adventures. Set to start filming on July, the third installment film will also star Hugh Bonneville, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Madeleine Harris and Samuel Joslin. Ben Whishaw and Imelda Staunton will also be back as the voices of Paddington and Aunt Lucy, respectively. Filming locations will include the UK, Peru and Colombia. The movie will mark the feature film directorial debut of Dougal Wilson, and reteams Studiocanal with Heyday Films following their collaboration on the first two films of the Paddington franchise. Studiocanal is fully financing and will distribute in the UK, France, Germany, Benelux, Poland, Australia and New Zealand as well as through partners in China and Japan. Sony Pictures will distribute in the USA, Canada and other key international territories including Latin America.

The exciting announcement was made on Thursday the 17th of November, delighting fans worldwide. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief NBCUniversal is to expand its One Platform advertising, technology, data and measurement system further into global markets through an alliance with international broadcast and tech partners. The move was announced on Tuesday at the Cannes Lions advertising convention in Cannes, France.International partners include Atresmedia from Spain, Bell Media from Canada, Channel 4 from the U.K., Mediaset from Italy, Seven West Media from Australia, Sky Media from the U.K., Italy and Germany, and Talpa from the Netherlands, TF1 Pub of France, Japan’s Tokyo Broadcasting Systems and Omnicom Media Group. “By bringing together leading local broadcasters and publishers across the world, NBCUniversal seeks to enhance the premium video ecosystem and build the foundation for greater industry advancement and collaboration at an international level, across data and identity, activation and automation, ad innovation, and measurement,” NBCUniversal explained in a statement.

Kelly Clarkson may have healed through singing about her divorce from ex-husband Brandon Blackstock — but that “didn’t save” her any money on therapy bills.

Stan Refreshes Lionsgate Output Deal

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor The creators of “Accidentally Wes Anderson” had no idea what was coming when they launched their Instagram page. Wally and Amanda Koval started the account in 2017 to celebrate visually-appealing buildings and landscapes around the world that looked as if they could have inspired Wes Anderson films. From tiny libraries in New Zealand to, of course, lighthouses in Canada, the Instagram page, with 1.8 million followers, and its accompanying website curate colorful, symmetrical and historic tableaux that might have sprung directly from a scene in “The Grand Budapest Hotel” or “The French Dispatch” — except they’re submitted by photographers from around the world.

The adventures of “Queen of the Universe” season 2 are about to get bigger and better than ever before.

writers strike that is being branded “Screenwriters Everywhere,” with events planned in major cities including Paris and London. The Writers Guild of America has enlisted members from the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds, Federation of Screenwriters in Europe and UNI Global Union to demonstrate global support for the union’s strike against Hollywood’s largest producers. The unprecedented rallying behind the WGA is especially relevant during this strike given the globalization of content, and the fast-growing international outposts of many “struck” companies, such as Netflix and Prime Video.

Sarah Ferguson has praised Meghan Markle and Prince Harry for making their own "brave" decision to step back from the royal duties and move to the United States to start a new life.

Daniel Albaladejo Robles Growing up on the island of Tenerife at a time when pursuing a career in animation and film was out of bounds, Albaladejo moved to Madrid to study both subjects at the Madrid Film School. His first jobs were on children’s series “Jelly Jamm,” “Pocoyo” and “The Amazing World of Gumball.” His VFX credits include “Game of Thrones” and “A Monster Calls” at El Ranchito in Madrid. “For the past few years, I have focused on storyboarding or animation, working as a freelancer for various studios, including Las Palmas-based Amuse,” he says. He recently worked on animated docu pic, “Mariposas Negras,” and is now collaborating on a U.K. series under wraps. AMDLF

Holly Jones Successful Argentinean YouTube Channel, The Children’s Kingdom (El Reino Infantil), will team with kidoodle.tv, the safe streaming network, to bring their slate of inventive children’s programming to the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Latin America. “The alliance with Kidoodle opens the path for us to continue to expand our brand globally and grow our content in the English-speaking market. We are very proud to be part of this platform with “Zenon the Farmer” and “Bichikids,” two of our main IPs,” said Agostina Sanzio, marketing and communications manager at Leader Entertainment. “We continue working so that The Children’s Kingdom is the home of reference content for parents and preferred by children,” she told Variety.

EXCLUSIVE: Maddie and Bill’s precautious daughter will look a little different in the upcoming third season of Sweet Magnolias. Ella Grace Helton (Chosen Family) has joined the popular Netflix family drama, whose third season premieres July 20, in a recasting.