‘The Bachelor’: Who’s Hosting ‘Paradise,’ Is Senior Citizens Happening and Could ‘Bachelor Pad’ Return? (EXCLUSIVE)

A perspective straight from the beach! While ABC has officially named Jesse Palmer as the host of season 8 of Bachelor in Paradise, several former stars were rooting for Wells Adams to take over the gig.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“Call Me By Your Name” producers Emilie Georges and Naima Abed are launching Paradise City, a London- and Paris-based film, TV drama and branded content production and management company. The banner’s slate includes projects by Edward Berger (“Deutschland 83”), Lili Horvát (“White God”), Anthony Chen (“Ilo Ilo”) and South African author Lauren Beukes (“Slipping”).Georges is the founder and CEO of sales banner Memento Intl., which is at Cannes this year with Tarik Saleh’s competition film “Boy from Heaven,” Dominik Moll’s “La nuit du 12” in Cannes Premieres, Charlotte Le Bon’s “Falcon Lake” in Directors’ Fortnight and Kristoffer Borgli’s “Sick of Myself” in Un Certain Regard.

Fun in the sun! The weather is heating up, and summer is right around the corner. Bring on beach days, barbecues and barefoot bashes! In order to properly prep for the upcoming season, we need to restock on beauty essentials and step up our storage game (can you tell we’ve been binging The Home Edit on Netflix lately?).

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentMario Batali has been cleared of charges that he groped a woman at a Boston bar in 2017, as a judge ruled on Tuesday that the celebrity chef is not guilty of indecent battery and assault.Batali — the famed TV chef and restauranteur behind Eataly, who fell from grace in 2017, following a series of sexual misconduct allegations — was on criminal trial this week in Boston with a woman who was accusing him of forcible kissing and groping. Batali was facing two-and-a-half years in prison, if found guilty.The quick trial spanned two days. Batali waived his right to a trial by jury, and did not take the stand.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentPublicists Jack Ketsoyan and Pia Malihi have partnered to launch the new agency Full Scope Public Relations, Variety has learned exclusively.Full Scope Public Relations will be based in West Hollywood, Calif., where it opens its business this month.Ketsoyan, a PR vet and author, started his career with PMK, before co-founding the publicity firm EMCBowery, which recently closed its doors after 14 years. Malihi started her career at EMCBowery, under at Ketsoyan, before joining Jonesworks where she worked with talent, corporate and executive clients.“We are thrilled to be embarking on this new chapter with Full Scope Public Relations,” Ketsoyan and Malihi said in a joint statement.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentWhen Kim Kardashian hosted “Saturday Night Live” last year, she joked about her ex-husband Kanye West during her monologue. Though the two were amid a divorce, it seemed as if they were on relatively good terms at the time given her light-hearted monologue.Kim quipped at the time about West, “I married the best rapper of all time. Not only that, he’s the richest Black man in America,” she said onstage.

Richards’ firing from both “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune.” In December, Jennings, a popular former contestant and “The Big Bang Theory” star Bialik, were announced as interim hosts through the end of the 2021-2022 season.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentWhile the Kardashians are at the Met Gala, a jury reached a verdict in Blac Chyna’s $100 million defamation case against the famous family — and they won.The Kardashians came out victorious with no damages awarded to Chyna. The jury found that none of the Kardashians defamed Chyna and none interfered with her E! contract, AP reports.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentHollywood has seen some strange stories over the years, but what happened last week was incredibly bizarre, even by movie business standards. Nothing, it seems, could quite prepare people for the spectacle and social media fallout that followed after Olivia Wilde was mysteriously served custody paperwork onstage at CinemaCon.Wilde — who shares two children with Jason Sudeikis, to whom she was formerly engaged — was delivering remarks to present a trailer for her upcoming film, the psychological thriller “Don’t Worry Darling,” to theater owners.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticWhen Carrie Underwood’s band broke into the opening strains of “Sweet Child o’ Mine” at the Stagecoach Festival Saturday, it seemed like business as usual. The country superstar’s Guns N’ Roses fangirl-ism is well known, and she’s incorporated GNR numbers into her set on a regular basis before, even showing an aptitude for appropriating Axl Rose’s snaky frontman moves as her own.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentKim Kardashian scored a victory on Friday when a judge tossed Blac Chyna’s defamation claim against the reality star and business mogul, which was one of the claims in her lawsuit.Meanwhile, the jury is deliberating the remaining claims in the case where Chyna says the Kardashian-Jenner family ruined her reality TV career and cost her more than one hundred million dollars in damages and future earnings.Chyna, a model and influencer who is Rob Kardashian’s ex-fiancé and the mother to his 5-year-old daughter, co-starred with Rob Kardashian in E!’s “Rob & Chyna,” a reality show that aired for one season in 2016. The show is at the center of her lawsuit, which alleges that the series was canceled after one season because the Kardashian family falsely told producers and network executives that Chyna violently attacked Rob Kardashian in December 2016.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentThis past year, “The Bachelor” endured a heavy dose of controversy, the type of drama that even reality TV producers can’t make up — and certainly don’t want to deal with. And yet, the franchise has done what no other dating series has done, crossing its 20-year mark on the air.With 26 seasons of the flagship, 19 seasons of “The Bachelorette,” eight seasons of “Bachelor in Paradise” and numerous spinoffs to date, ABC’s dating franchise isn’t going anywhere.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentKim Kardashian owes Ben Winston a massage.In 2021, Winston was ready to take a vacation. His company, Fulwell 73, had just wrapped production on HBO Max’s highly anticipated “Friends” reunion and the Grammy Awards, not to mention James Corden’s “Late Late Show,” which has been airing on CBS since 2015 with five episodes per week.Earlier last year, Corden, one of Winston’s producing partners, had bumped into Kris Jenner in Palm Springs, where they both own second homes.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentKim Kardashian and Khloé Kardashian took the stand on Tuesday in the trial against their family, brought on by Blac Chyna, the ex-fiancé of their brother, Rob Kardashian.Chyna — who starred on E!’s “Rob & Chyna,” which aired for one season in 2016 — is suing the famous family for more than $140 million, claiming they ruined her reality TV career.“I will not go into a toxic work environment,” Kim Kardashian testified on Tuesday, commenting on her refusal to work with Chyna on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” per AP. “On my own show, I have the power to do that,” she added.Chyna would sometimes appear on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” which was the mega-hit flagship show that created the spinoff, “Rob & Chyna.” The spinoff didn’t make it back on-air after its first season when the couple split up, following a volatile fight where Chyna allegedly choked Rob Kardashian with a phone cord and held a gun to his head.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentThe trial is well underway, but the Kardashian-Jenners have requested a judge dismiss the ongoing case against them by Blac Chyna, the former ex-fiancé of Rob Kardashian who is suing the famous family for more than $140 million, claiming they ruined her reality TV career.In a motion seeking dismissal, filed this past week by the Kardashians’ attorney, Michael G. Rhodes, the family is asking the court to dismiss Chyna’s claims.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentKris Jenner took the stand for the second day in the $100M defamation trial brought on by Blac Chyna, the ex-fiancé of her son, Rob Kardashian. Chyna sued the Kardashian family in 2017, claiming they ruined her reality TV career.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentE! is no longer in business with the Kardashians, but the network is still leaning on the family as it launches its latest show.In an overtly self-aware moment, E! is readying to debut a new reality show about comedian Nikki Glaser, and in the promotion for her upcoming series, the network is in on the joke, giving a wink and a nod to the lucrative family franchise that they aired for 15 years.“Keeping up is so last year.”“We swapped 5 brunettes for one blonde (it was cheaper).”Those are just some of the taglines E! is using to promote Glaser’s new show, titled “Welcome Home Nikki Glaser?,” which premieres on May 1.Essentially, E! is recognizing that they’re no longer home to “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” (the family now has a new show at Hulu), and Glaser is leaning into her brand of self-deprecating and carefree comedy. “Welcome Home Nikki Glaser?” will follow the stand-up comic as she uproots her fast-paced Hollywood lifestyle to move back home to her small-town in St.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentJada Pinkett Smith’s talk show, “Red Table Talk,” returned on Wednesday, and though there was a brief message for viewers alluding to the topic on everyone’s mind, the series sidestepped the elephant in the room: Will Smith’s Oscars slap.The episode began with a silent black screen and an introductory message, signed from Pinkett Smith, who thanked viewers for joining.“Considering all that has happened in the last few weeks, the Smith family has been focusing on deep healing,” the message read. “Some of the discoveries around our healing will be shared at the table when the time calls.” The message continued, “Until then…The table will continue offering itself to powerful, inspiring and healing testimonies like that of our incredible impressive first guest.” The first guest was Janelle Monáe.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentHulu says “The Kardashians” — the new series from the Kardashians — is its biggest series premiere in U.S. history.Hulu did not provide specific viewing numbers, as the platform does not release ratings.The streaming service also claims the new show is the most-watched Star Originals series, (so not including Disney’s Marvel or “Star Wars” streaming titles) on Disney+ and Star+ across global markets.“‘The Kardashians’ is the most-watched series premiere on Hulu in the United States, and on Disney+ and Star+ among Star Originals, across all global markets to date,” a Hulu spokesperson tells Variety exclusively.Hulu’s record-breaking numbers for “The Kardashians” is based on the premiere episode hours watched in the first three days of its release, since the show launched on April 14.