Shonda Rhimes To Receive BAFTA Special Award In New York

A judge has dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against The New York Times and three journalists who published a 2018 piece on his tax schemes.

New York lawmakers finally signed off on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s state budget including significant sweeteners for film and TV production in a package that now runs through 2034 — the day after the WGA went on strike, ushering a period of grave uncertainty for the entertainment industry.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Paramount+ has sealed a multi-year deal with New York’s Bryant Park to take over its Monday evening summer movie series, the streamer announced on Wednesday. Dubbed “Paramount+ Movie Nights at Bryant Park,” the deal is timed to the 30th anniversary of Bryant Park’s “Movie Nights” franchise. This year’s “Paramount+ Movie Nights at Bryant Park” will run from June 12 to August 14. The event is also paired with the pop-up Hester Street Fair, which features a rotating line-up of artisanal vendors from the five boroughs on the park’s Fountain Terrace each Monday. “Movie Nights is one of Bryant Park’s most popular series and with the support of Paramount+, we can continue to provide free high quality outdoor movie screenings for New Yorkers and visitors for many more years to come,” said Bryant Park Corp. president Dan Biederman in a statement.

Filmmakers are film fans, right? There’s just no way you’d devote your life to a creative endeavor and not be a fan of it. So, you have to assume that directors, whether they’re working on no-budget horror, blockbuster superhero films, or even a heartfelt indie drama, are influenced by similar works or other filmmakers who have inspired them.

Tony Awards, which were announced on Tuesday, with 13 nods. It was followed closely behind by “& Juliet,” “Shucked” and “New York, New York,” which scored nine nominations apiece. All of these productions will vie for best musical honors, facing off against one of the year’s most acclaimed shows, “Kimberly Akimbo,” the story of a teenager who has a medical condition that causes her to age rapidly. “Kimberly Akimbo” is up for eight prizes, including for supporting performers Bonnie Milligan and Justin Cooley, as well as for Victoria Clark’s turn in the title role.

Naman Ramachandran British presenter, broadcaster, filmmaker, author and historian, professor David Olusoga, will be presented with a BAFTA Special Award at the upcoming BAFTA Television Awards on May 14. The award is one of BAFTA’s highest honors recognizing an outstanding contribution to film, games or television. Olusoga’s credits include presenting history series “A House Through Time” (BBC Two), writing and presenting series “Black & British: A Forgotten History” (BBC Two) and the BAFTA-winning “Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners.” In recent years he led major interviews with the former President of the United States, Barack Obama and lectures including the Edinburgh TV Festival MacTaggart Lecture in 2020.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America West will begin picketing Tuesday afternoon outside of Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Warner Bros., and the other major studios in Los Angeles, after a strike was called on Monday night. The Writers Guild of America East, based in New York, put out a schedule for the “first two weeks of picketing,” which will begin on Tuesday at the Peacock NewFront on 5th Avenue. The WGAE also plans to picket outside Netflix headquarters in New York on Wednesday. The WGA called a strike Monday night, after the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced that negotiations had concluded for the day without a deal. The current three-year contract expires at midnight on Monday.

New York Times.Citing two people with knowledge of the company’s operations, the Times said a bankruptcy filing could arrive in the coming weeks, but that Vice is still hoping a buyer will swoop in to avert it.

Deadline has obtained a list of the locations being targeted by the WGA West and WGA East in Los Angeles and New York for potential strike actions and picketing.

Back to the Garden! Emmy Rossum attended a New York Knicks game with her husband, Sam Esmail, three weeks after they secretly welcomed baby No. 2.

The stars of the new Broadway musical New York, New York are celebrating the official opening night performance!

Michael Appler It’s quiet on the roof of the St. James Theater. Up here, less than 10 stories above 44th Street, the clamor of an opening night on Broadway drifts away. Below, titans of the American theater — actors like Chita Rivera and Joel Grey — are gathering to attend the opening night of a new musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb, a duo who gave Broadway shows like “Cabaret” and “Chicago.” But on the roof — on top of “New York, New York” — the air is still.  Up here, in the few moments of serenity before red carpet interviews, an opening night performance and a long evening of parties, the musical’s two stars, Colton Ryan and Anna Uzele — newcomers to all the fuss below — stop to catch their breath. 

Big improvements to New York’s film and and television production incentives, included in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget proposal are still in place as lawmakers reached a handshake deal today, according to people familiar with the bill. The legislature is expected to vote formally next week to approve the budget.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer New York is poised to dramatically increase its film tax incentive from $420 million a year to $700 million, as it looks to stave off competition from New Jersey and Georgia. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced an agreement Thursday night on a $229 billion budget, after weeks of negotiations with state lawmakers. Among many other provisions, the budget will increase the size of the film tax credit program, as well as raise the credit percentage from 25% to 30%, bringing it in line with rival states. The program will also be extended to 2034, according to a source familiar with the conceptual agreement.

It isn’t just the proximity to New York’s top-shelf production community. It’s also the scale.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter For Martin Scorsese, it was important to spend time with Osage people as he worked on “Killers of the Flower Moon,” his epic crime drama about the murders that took place in the early 1920s after major oil deposits were discovered on the tribe’s land. “We tried to do right by them as much as we could,” the director said as he was interviewed by his star Leonardo DiCaprio on Thursday afternoon. “We shot in the actual location, even the doctors office.” The two A-listers were on hand at CinemaCon, the annual Las Vegas-based exhibition industry trade show, to talk up their new movie, which debuts in theaters in October after its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

Hit Thai BBQ restaurant Neon Tiger is to close, owners have confirmed. In a post to social media, headlined ‘Thank you Manchester’, the restaurant said that it will be shutting up shop on Sunday.

Imagine a New York where construction workers tap dance on steel girders high above the city, sorta like that famous photograph you’ve seen a million times, and where kindly landladies who once played Carnegie Hall might tutor a young Holocaust refugee to a Julliard scholarship, and breezy jam sessions do away with generations of friction between races, genders and sexual identities. You’d go there, right?

Naveen Kumar If there is a megawatt star in “New York, New York,” the new musical from Broadway titans John Kander and the late Fred Ebb (with additional lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda), it’s right there in the title. Aside from the occasional f-bomb and pantomimed scurry of rats, the show that opened at Broadway’s St. James Theatre is a love letter to Manhattan so unabashed that its vibe might be best expressed in cityscape and heart-eye emojis. Cynical? These New Yorkers? Fuhgeddaboudit! Though inspired by the 1977 film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli, “New York, New York” is more accurately described as a musical-length rhapsody on the dreams crooned out in its title song, made famous by Frank Sinatra and naturally performed here as a big-band finale turned audience singalong. A crowded cast of characters has come to chase their dreams, and most of them want to be musicians. 

New York, New York,” which opened Wednesday night at the St. James Theatre, is akin to being stuck on the tarmac at LaGuardia. You can spot the city’s stunning skyline taunting you from across the river — “I want to be a part of it!” you think — but then nothing happens for hours on end, as you’re silently trapped there in your uncomfortable and expensive seat.And just like the elation and relief of finally deplaning, the best part of the show comes at the very end when the cast finally sings “Theme From New York, New York.” We clap for our local anthem and get to go home. Start spreading the news — I’m leaving today!  “New York, New York” is a show that honestly hurts to dislike.