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Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The latest twist in the battle between UTA and former MediaLink chairman-CEO Michael Kassan is a defamation lawsuit filed by Kassan against UTA attorney Bryan Freedman. Kassan has sued Freedman for slander and libel stemming from a statement that the lawyer made earlier this week to Deadline, which is a sibling publication to Variety under Penske Media Corp. Kassan and UTA parted ways earlier this month amid a flurry of litigation and arbitration filings and heated accusations from both sides.

Sugarland and Little Big Town pose for photos together at the 2024 CMT Music Awards held at Moody Center on Sunday (April 7) in Austin, Tex.

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures has raised Maia Eyre to SVP of Creative Development at Columbia Pictures.

Austin Butler is taking on a new role.

Katcy Stephan Sony Pictures has acquired Darren Aronofsky’s crime thriller “Caught Stealing,” which will star Austin Butler. The film follows Hank Thompson, a burned-out former baseball player, as he’s unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of ‘90s NYC. “I am excited to be teaming up with my old friends at Sony Pictures to bring Charlie’s adrenaline-soaked roller coaster ride to life.

EXCLUSIVE: After strong start to 2024 with Masters of the Air and Dune Part 2, Oscar-nominee Austin Butler is looking to build on that success and is teaming up with another Oscar-nominated director. Sources tell Deadline Butler is set to star in Academy Award nominee Darren Aronofsky’s (The Whale, Black Swan) crime thriller Caught Stealing for Sony Pictures. The studio recently landed the package which is based on the book by Charlie Huston. The script will be written by Huston with Protozoa producing.

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Kassan‘s team promised late last week they would up the legal ante with UTA unless the agency completely dropped its lawsuit against the resigned/fired (depending on who you ask) MediaLink CEO, and today they did just that.

EXCLUSIVE: Amidst allegations of financial impropriety and corporate skullduggery, the collapse of the relationship between UTA and MediaLink founder Michael Kassan now sees the parties battling it out with competing legal actions  and lots of finger pointing – even by Hollywood standards.

Michael Kassan, CEO of MediaLink, the strategic advisory firm acquired by UTA in 2021, is out.

Veteran television actress Jean Allison, best known for roles in shows like Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and Perry Mason, has died at 94. Her family’s obituary said she died Feb. 28 in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, but no cause was given.

“The Tonight Show” once Johnny Carson took over in 1962 through the end of his run 30 years later.Lawrence was a top-selling recording artist with hits including “Go Away Little Girl,” which reached No. 1 on the US charts and was awarded a gold record, “Party Doll,” “Footsteps,” “Pretty Blue Eyes,” “I’ve Gotta Be Me” and “Portrait of My Love.”Over the course of their long career, Lawrence and Gormé won a Grammy (for their 1960 album “We Got Us”) and an Emmy in 1979 for “Steve & Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin.”Lawrence also snared a Tony nomination in 1964 for his role as Sammy Glick in “What Makes Sammy Run.”Lawrence hosted “The Steve Lawrence Show” in 1965 — which ran for 13 weeks on CBS — and was a regular panelist on “What’s My Line?”He also appeared many times on “The Carol Burnett Show” (solo and with Gormé) and in dozens of episodic TV shows through the years including “Hot in Cleveland, “Night Gallery,” “CSI,” “Diagnosis: Murder,” “Frasier” and “Sanford and Son.”He also appeared on the big screen in “The Blues Brothers” and its sequel, “Blues Brothers 2000” and “Stand Up and Be Counted.”Later in his career, Lawrence played Morty Fine, the father of Fran Fine (Fran Drescher), on “The Nanny” in the CBS series’ final season.Lawrence went public with his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2019 and issued a statement that said, “I have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and it’s in the early stages.“I am being treated with medications under the supervision of some of the finest doctors in the field.

The man found dead at a home with his sister-in-law and two daughters missed an emergency mental health assessment just weeks before the tragedy, it has emerged.

Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers is set in the last weeks of 1970 and, if attention is paid, you’ll see Da’Vine Joy Randolph pay homage to Isabel Sanford, particularly how the tv legend wore her hair when she played Louise “Weezy” Jefferson in the classic TV comedy The Jeffersons.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Two years ago, the hashtag #EmmysSoWhite began trending when the Television Academy failed to award any major acting trophies to people of color. The pendulum has swung, with this year’s ceremony awarding a record-breaking number of POC across all major categories: drama, comedy, limited, reality and variety series — a first in the TV Academy’s history.

Abbott Elementary” star and creator Quinta Brunson took home the Emmy for best actress in a comedy series on Monday night. “I don’t even know why I’m so emotional. I think, like, the Carol Burnett of it all,” Brunson said, beginning to choke up at the top of her acceptance speech.

Norman Lear, the creator, writer and producer of such iconic TV classics as All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, and The Jeffersons, died of cardiac arrest, according to a Los Angeles County death certificate filed today.

TMZ on Monday.The document also lists congestive heart failure as an underlying cause of death.Lear died at his Beverly Hills home on Dec. 6.

Tributes continue to pour in after the death this week of 101-year-old television pioneer Norman Lear.

One of the highlights in the final chapter of Norman Lear‘s legendary career were the Live In Front Of a Studio Audience specials recreating episodes from his classic sitcoms. He executive produced them with Jimmy Kimmel, winning an Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) together while also developing a close friendship.

Sanford and Son and The Jeffersons. He won five Emmys and was a member of the Television Academy Hall Of Fame.Tributes to the writer have poured in today (December 6). George Clooney said in a statement: “It’s hard to reconcile that at 101 years old, Norman Lear is gone too soon.

Lear died Tuesday at home, surrounded by his family. But this much is clear: He worked right up to the very end, even though he burnished his legend as the personification of classic TV comedy over 50 years ago, with shows he either created or produced: “All in the Family,” “Sanford and Son,” “Maude,” “Good Times,” “The Jeffersons,” “One Day at a Time.” And that was only the tip of his creative iceberg.Lear seemed to accelerate his television output even with advancing age (or maybe in spite of it), including the Netflix reboot of “One Day at a Time,” an upcoming re-imagining of “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” — his satirical late-night soap — and live stagings of his classic sitcoms via ABC, in which he proudly showcased those works with all-star casts alongside host Jimmy Kimmel.

Broadcast owes a debt of gratitude to Norman Lear, so they’re going to show it tonight.

New York Times.The boundary-pushing TV legend — born July 27, 1922, in New Haven, Connecticut — also revolutionized the family dynamic in the 1970s with shows including “Good Times,” “Sanford and Son,” “One Day at a Time” and “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” Throughout his decades-long career, he received many recognitions for his producing prowess and command of comedy.Nominated for 16 Emmy Awards total, Lear won six — including four for the Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton-starring “All in the Family,” which aired from 1971 to 1979. His catalog of sitcoms may have tickled audiences, but they also probed serious topics — including abortion, sexuality, alcoholism, drugs and mental health — which was especially notable during the more conservative 1970s, when the so-called 8 p.m.

Chris Morris Music ReporterWriter-producer-developer Norman Lear, who revolutionized American comedy with such daring, immensely popular early-‘70s sitcoms as “All in the Family” and “Sanford and Son,” died on Tuesday. He was 101.Lear’s publicist confirmed to Variety that he died at his home in Los Angeles of natural causes. A private service for immediate family will be held in the coming days.

died Friday. She was 89.Born on Oct. 31, 1934, Shepherd also had roles in the movies “Mystic Pizza,” “Uncle Buck,” “Requiem for a Dream,” and “A Dirty Shame.”She made guest appearances on the TV shows “Ed,” “Law & Order” and “Blue Bloods.”Shepherd, who lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, “passed away peacefully very early yesterday morning,” the actor and real estate agent Tom Titone wrote Saturday on Facebook.“I studied with Suzanne as a young actor.

Goodfellas actress Suzanne Shepherd has died aged 89, her family has confirmed.

Robert De Niro's production company has been ordered to pay $1.26 million (£1,020,395) to his former assistant who sued over gender discrimination while the actor himself was found to be not personally liable.The Hollywood star's production company has been battling out a civil case against Graham Chase Robinson, but while a judge ruled that he was not personally liable, his production company Canal Productions has been ordered to pay out. Chase had worked her way up from being the Raging Bull star's personal assistant to a senior role as vice president of production and finance at Canal Productions before resigning, but had accused her former employers of alleged workplace and sexual harassment and sexism.

There’s a lot in store for Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney) in Coronation Street spoilers as she seeks justice for her sexual assault and spiking. Amy intends to attend an anti-spiking march to raise awareness after she was drugged at a nightclub, and in another incident, raped by her ex-boyfriend Aaron Sanford (James Craven). But as she sets off with Summer Spellman (Harriet Bibby), Evelyn Plummer (Maureen Lipman) and Cassie Plummer (Claire Sweeney), Mason Radcliffe (Luca Toolan) harasses her.

the genius of Robin Williams, when he died in 2014, and they won’t question the genius of Perry, who died Oct. 28 at the too-young age of 54 — and created comedy gold for 10 years as a shining star in the “Friends” firmament along with Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Courteney Cox and David Schwimmer.Perry was at the head of that supersized comedy class with his wisecracking Chandler Bing, one of the most indelible characters in television history.

Chris Morris Music Reporter Suzanne Somers, who parlayed TV stardom in the sitcom hits “Three’s Company” and “Step by Step” into a personal fortune as a health and fitness pitchwoman and author, has died, People has confirmed. She was 76.