Sugar23 Signs Sterling Hampton IV, Director Of Sundance Docu Short ‘Merman’

EXCLUSIVE: New York Times bestselling writer and award-winning comic creator Brian K. Vaughan has signed with UTA for representation.

EXCLUSIVE: Actor Tiago Roberts has signed with GM Management for representation.

EXCLUSIVE: Jessica Marie Garcia (On My Block, Lopez Vs. Lopez) has signed with CAA for representation.

EXCLUSIVE: Love Lies Bleeding breakout star Katy O’Brian has signed with Gersh. O’Brian had been taking meetings all around town after the film bowed in Sundance and earned her a ton of praise and ultimately chose to go with Gersh as her new reps.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Juno Films has nabbed North American rights to “Girls Will Be Girls,” a mother-daughter drama that premiered at Sundance Film Festival. The movie will screen at SXSW next week before it lands in theaters this fall. Shuchi Talati directed “Girls Will Be Girls,” which is set at a strict boarding school in the Himalayas as 16-year-old Mira’s sexual, rebellious awakening is disrupted by her mother, who never got to come of age herself.

EXCLUSIVE: Artists First has signed actress Brittany Bradford (Julia), as well as actress, comedian and digital creator Amanda McCants for management.

Shannon Plumb There’s two things that make a star shine — the light they emit, and the inevitability of being seen. I called my mom and yelled into the phone, “The lady who cast Ralph Macchio in ‘Karate Kid’ wants to meet me!” I met Bonnie Timmermann, the legendary casting agent, at a dinner with my husband Derek Cianfrance. They worked together on the HBO series “I Know This Much is True.” She said she liked my work — the super 8 films I put myself in, the comedy show I put myself in, the feature film I put myself in.

EXCLUSIVE: Tareasa “Reesa Teesa” Johnson has signed with CAA for representation.

EXCLUSIVE: Frank Whaley has signed with TalentWorks for theatrical representation. Since his acclaimed debut opposite Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson in 1987’s Ironweed, Whaley has appeared in over 80 films including, Pulp Fiction, Field of Dreams, Swimming With Sharks, Swing Kids, Career Opportunities, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, Broken Arrow, J.F.K., Red Dragon, School of Rock, World Trade Center, The Freshman, Hoffa, Vacancy, among many others. Recent features are Hustlers opposite Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu and Cardi B and Monster Trucks for Paramount. On television, he has recurred on Ray Donovan, Interrogation and Luke Cage. He has also appeared on The Blacklist, Gotham, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Empire, Psyche, Sneaky Pete and recently recurred on the Netflix series The Good Cop and on Amazon’s Jack Ryan. Whaley was previously with A3 and continues to be managed by Karen Forman.

Sterling K. Brown is looking back at all the times he died on screen.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Marc Short, the former chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence and a longtime Republican consultant, has been named a contributor to both NBC News‘ “Meet the Press” and CNBC, according to three people familiar with the matter, Short is expected to appear on “Meet the Press” this Sunday, according to one of these people. He has taken part in the program several times in recent years when not affiliated with an active campaign, turning up as recently as January. Short has typically appeared during the show’s panel section, providing a perspective from the right.

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer Donna Summer’s estate has sued Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign for copyright infringement over the unauthorized interpolation of the late singer’s “I Feel Love” on their song “Good (Don’t Die).” The suit, filed in California on Tuesday, asserts that West and Ty initially asked for permission to sample and use parts of “I Feel Love” on “Good (Don’t Die),” and were explicitly denied. “Good (Don’t Die)” is included on the duo’s latest album “Vultures 1,” featuring a female voice singing altered lyrics to the melody of “I Feel Love.” After the release of “Vultures 1” in early February, Summer’s husband Bruce Sudano took to socials to publicly denounce the interpolation on the song.

The fourth season of Hulu’s acclaimed comedy series “Only Murders in the Building” keeps getting more and more intriguing. Meryl Streep is already back for a second go around and Molly Shannon and Eva Longoria were recently announced as new cast members.

The stars of the Oscar-nominated movie American Fiction at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards!

Prior to American Fiction, Sterling K. Brown was best known as Randall Pearson in the long-running, award-winning NBC family drama series This is Us. The part that director Cord Jefferson was offering him couldn’t have been more different: in Jefferson’s adaptation of the satirical novel by Percival Everett, Brown plays Clifford ‘Cliff’ Ellison, a caustic plastic surgeon and brother to the film’s protagonist, Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison (Jeffrey Wright). After divorcing his wife, Cliff comes out as gay, further estranging him from his uptight family. This nuanced role allowed Brown to explore the many facets of Blackness and the challenges of the LGBTQ+ community.

New details are emerging about Meryl Streep and Martin Short‘s night out together earlier this week.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Everyone could use a good cry now and again. And what better way to get those tears flowing than watching a movie? Variety caught up with this year’s Oscar nominees at the Academy’s annual nominees luncheon at the Beverly Hilton to find out the last time they cried at the movies. “I cried at ‘Parallel Mothers,’” said “Oppenheimer” star Emily Blunt.

a resurfaced clip produced by Sundance in which she describes the movie, Malia dropped her globally recognized last name and is credited on the project as Malia Ann.Malia described “The Heart” as “an odd little story, somewhat of fable, about a man grieving the death of his mother after she leaves him an unusual request in her will.”She studied filmmaking at Harvard University as a visual and environmental studies major and landed a job as a writer on Janine Nabers and Donald Glover’s Amazon Prime series “Swarm,” which premiered in March 2023.Still, fans on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, were conflicted about Malia, who lived in the White House during her dad’s two presidential terms from 2009 to 2017, seemingly trying to distance herself from her famous moniker. “Nepo baby strikes again,” one hater tweeted on Wednesday.

Christopher Vourlias MetFilm Sales has secured international rights to “The Battle for Laikipia,” Daphne Matziaraki and Peter Murimi’s multi-layered portrait of the conflict between Indigenous pastoralists and white landowners in Kenya. The film had its world premiere as part of the World Cinema Documentary section at the Sundance Film Festival. Submarine Entertainment Sales negotiated the deal with MetFilm on behalf of the filmmakers and is handling North American sales.

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer On “Do It,” nestled halfway through Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign’s collaborative album “Vultures 1,” America’s second-biggest controversy magnet raps, “You don’t like it? That’s your loss.” Contending and conversing with West’s music in 2024 is an obstacle course. The rapper, undeniably one of music’s most influential creative forces, has spent the past few years making headlines less for his music than the controversies by his own hand (and mouth), alienating casual listeners with divisive rhetoric and forcing his core fan base to reconcile with their evaluation of art made by a deeply polarizing artist.