Barry Diller Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

The U.S. government wants a word with Barry Diller, David Geffen and a third man involving the planned $68.7 billion merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.

NEW YORK -- One of the first songs in “The Music Man” is "(Ya Got) Trouble” and the latest Broadway revival has certainly faced its share.It was supposed to open in fall 2020, but rehearsals were interrupted by the pandemic shutdown. In 2021, it jettisoned its lead producer, Scott Rudin, after allegations of bullying.

When people who dislike musicals talk about the musicals they dislike, there’s a decent chance they’re talking about musicals like The Music Man – whether they’ve ever actually ever seen The Music Man or not. Meredith Willson’s nostalgic slice of Americana was already proudly old-fashioned when it debuted in 1957, with “Seventy-Six Trombones” leading Broadway down a cornpone path that shows like the moody Carousel or the finger-snapping West Side Story were trying so hard to avoid. Not even The Beatles could make Music Man‘s lilting “Till There Was You” sound cool.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter“The Music Man,” a musical revival featuring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, is one of the hottest tickets on Broadway.For students in the New York City area, the price of admission will finally be affordable.“The Music Man” producers Barry Diller, David Geffen and Kate Horton are making available 10,000 tickets priced at $20 to New York City students, their families and their teachers.Created and spearheaded by the Music Man’s Black Theatre Coalition fellow Amy Marie Haven, the effort hopes to make Broadway more accessible to the masses. Reduced ticket prices were made possible through partnerships with the New York City Department of Education and a dozen local youth non-profits, including Artists Striving to End Poverty, Art Start, Arts For All, Arthur Miller Foundation, On Broadway Training Program, Young People’s Chorus of NYC, Education Through Music, Rosie’s Theatre Kids, R.Evolucion Latina and Broadway Bridges.

After more than three decades in print, Entertainment Weekly will stop producing a physical copy of its magazine, shifting fully online.

NEW YORK -- One of the first songs in “The Music Man” is "(Ya Got) Trouble” and the latest Broadway revival has certainly faced its share.It was supposed to open in fall 2020, but rehearsals were interrupted by the pandemic shutdown. In 2021, it jettisoned its lead producer, Scott Rudin, after allegations of bullying.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorRupert Murdoch’s 90th turn around the sun was feted on Thursday night in New York City as power brokers, longtime lieutenants and family members, with a conspicuous absence, gathered at Tavern on the Green for a long-delayed dinner celebration.Murdoch, one of the most influential media barons of the modern era who is executive chairman of News Corp.

IAC Dotdash is acquiring Meredith Corporation in an all-cash deal valued at $2.7 billion dollars, the companies announced Wednesday.Dotdash is the publishing division of Barry Diller’s IAC holding company. The deal will be completed in an all-cash transaction at a purchase price of $42.18 per share, and is expected to close by the end of 2021.

The digital publishing arm of Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActive Corp. has cliched a deal to buy Meredith, the 120-year-old Iowa-based publisher of People magazine and a stable of other storied titles.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorMeredith, the media company home to publications like People, EW, Better Homes & Gardens and InStyle, will become part of Dotdash, the digital publishing division of Barry Diller’s IAC holding company. The proposed terms give the deal an enterprise value of about $2.7 billion.Under the deal, Dotdash will acquire Meredit in an all-cash transaction at a purchase price of $42.18 per share.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorIAC, the digital media holding company headed by Barry Diller, is the leading bidder for Meredith’s magazine and digital businesses, in a potential deal valued at more than $2.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday.Meredith’s brands, focused on women-skewing audiences, include People, EW, InStyle, Shape, Food & Wine, Better Homes & Gardens, Allrecipes and Parents.

An IAC spokesperson said that the company “does not comment on rumors or speculation.” A spokesperson for Meredith Corp. also declined comment.

Cleve Keller and Dave Noll, creators Food Network’s Chopped, has struck a first-look deal with Boat Rocker.

Little Island, the new Barry Diller-funded park and arts space rising out of the Hudson River, will host a free monthlong festival of music, dance and comedy beginning August 11 and featuring more than 450 performers. Among them: Saturday Night Live‘s Bowen Yang and Broadway’s Ali Stroker.

Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird will return to Broadway on Tuesday, October 5, at the Shubert Theatre, with Jeff Daniels will reprise his originating role as ‘Atticus Finch’ and Celia Keenan-Bolger returning in her Tony Award-winning performance as ‘Scout Finch.’

The Lehman Trilogy, Stefano Massini’s acclaimed play adapted by Ben Power, will begin post-shutdown performances at Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre on Saturday, Sept. 25, with an opening night set for Thursday, Oct. 14.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorShares of video-hosting provider Vimeo fell 12.85% on Tuesday, its first day of trading as a publicly traded company after being spun off from Barry Diller’s IAC internet conglomerate.Vimeo stock began trading on Nasdaq under the symbol “VMEO.” It closed at $45.39 per share, down from its price of $52.08 on Monday.

AT&T continues to take a licking heading into the weekend with mogul Barry Diller describing plans to unload WarnerMedia as “a great escape” and calling its three-year dalliance with showbiz the telco giant’s latest bungle in a string of bad deals.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorIAC announced plans to spin off its full stake in Vimeo, the video hosting and software company, to IAC shareholders.In November, IAC announced that Vimeo had a $2.75 billion valuation after raising about $150 million from Thrive Capital and GIC.IAC, headed by chairman Barry Diller, said Vimeo has seen a surge demand in 2020 driven by the COVID pandemic.

Match Group, which owns Match.com, Tinder, OKCupid, Hinge, and other dating and relationship brands, has added actor Ryan Reynolds and investor Wendi Murdoch to its board of directors. The appointment of Murdoch and Reynolds to the company's board comes as Match completes its spinoff from Barry Diller’s IAC.

The opening of Hugh Jackman’s Broadway production of The Music Man has been pushed back to May, 2021. The original opening date was set for 15 October, before the coronavirus shutdown forced all productions on The Great White Way to close temporarily.

If anyone can reawaken Broadway from an unprecedented shutdown that has left many insiders fearful for the theater industry's future, it's Hugh Jackman. Producers Scott Rudin, Barry Diller and David Geffen on Wednesday confirmed that their large-scale revival of Meredith Willson's The Music Man, which will star Jackman alongside another returning Broadway treasure, Sutton Foster, is now scheduled to begin previews April 7, 2021, at the Winter Garden Theatre.

Come next May, audiences will applaud Hugh Jackman during one of the first long-awaited curtain calls of Broadway when the revival of Meredith Willson's The Music Man opens.

Mackenzie Nichols Staff WriterWhen Broadway closed its doors on March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic, The Great White Way saw closures and rescheduling that would mark the longest shutdown in history and create a monumental economic impact.Now, Hugh Jackman’s Broadway comeback of “The Music Man” has rescheduled preview performances and the opening night until April 7, 2021 and May 20, respectively, according to an announcement by producers Scott Rudin, Barry Diller and David Geffen on

Following the announcement earlier in the day on Friday that Martin McDonagh's Hangmen had played its final Broadway performance while still in previews, a similar fate has met the eagerly anticipated revival of Edward Albee's masterwork of interdependent marital warfare, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Lead producers Scott Rudin, Barry Diller and David Geffen confirmed late Friday night that the production, which was shut down March 12 as part of government-mandated safety measures to control

By Greg Evans