Cynthia Littleton Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Cari Beauchamp, a widely respected Hollywood historian and author who was a frequent presence on Turner Classic Movies and a contributor to Variety, has died. She was 74. Beauchamp was a prolific writer who often focused on the stories of female pioneers in the entertainment industry.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Two Latino advocacy organizations have joined forces to launch a mentoring program designed to help nurture a new generation of showrunners. The Alliance of Latino Executives and Rise Up have created a program that pairs 10 rising-star writers with 10 seasoned industry executives who can help develop their skills and guide their careers. The inaugural group of participants have been selected.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Dave Robb, a longtime Hollywood labor reporter who worked for Variety in the 1980s and ’90s, died Dec. 8 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 74 and had recently been diagnosed with cancer of the brain stem.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Stan Rogow, a veteran writer, producer and music manager who was a key player in such series as “Lizzie McGuire” and “Fame” and the 1986 feature “Clan of the Cave Bear, died Dec. 7 at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 75.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The prospect of a picket line outside the Beverly Hilton on Golden Globe Awards day has been averted now that the hotel has reached a tentative agremeent to end the weeks-old walkout. The hotel and Unite Here Local 11 released a joint statement on Friday afternoon. “Together the iconic Beverly Hilton and its employees set the stage for the awards season, and we are delighted to be able to do so once again,” the statement read.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Amblin TV has built its reputation over the past three decades as one of the industry’s busiest boutiques, producing scripted series across all major platforms that range from popcorn (“Bull,” “Falling Skies”) to prestige (“The Americans,” “Into the West”). But in recent years, there’s been a new storytelling target for Amblin TV chiefs Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey, who have headed Steven Spielberg’s TV production banner (previously DreamWorks TV) for more than 20 years.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Variety won top honors Sunday at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, taking the trophy for best entertainment publication along with 11 other first-place wins. The May 3 cover package “No Words: What the Writers Strike Means for Hollywood” was recognized in the category of best entertainment publication during the ceremony held at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Boygenius made a connection with Joan Baez. Billie Eilish was giddy at the sight of Bernie Taupin. Olivia Rodrigo and St.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Writers of nine limited series ranging from “A Murder at the End of the World” to “Tiny Beautiful Things” traded shop talk and stories of how they crafted muscular worlds to tell extended, standalone stories. Ed Solomon of Max’s “Full Circle” astounded the crowd at Variety’s A Night in the Writers Room at Hollywood’s NeueHouse with the origin story of his 586-page spec script for the twisty thriller.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Longtime CAA film agent Risa Gertner is set to retire in January after nearly 30 years with the agency. Gertner’s list of clients over the years has included such writers, directors and producers as Tony Gilroy, Barry Jenkins, Kenya Barris, Ron Howard and Simon Kinberg.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade packed a punch for NBC in its 99th edition. The New York holiday tradition delivered a record audience of 28.5 million viewers across airings Thursday on the network and its streaming sibling Peacock. In a good sign of the parade’s status as an American institution, more than two-thirds of that audience (22.3 million) came from the live linear telecast on NBC from 8:30 a.m.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor SAG-AFTRA has released the full 128-page contract that ended the actors strike on Nov. 8, with union leaders urging members to vote yes on the deal by the Dec. 5 ratification deadline.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Some did it out of a sense of obligation. Some did it out of fear of being idle. Some leaned on maternal instinct, and some acted purely out of anger.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The resiliency of women against long odds and low expectations was the theme of the night on Thursday as Variety and Lifetime toasted four of the entertainment industry’s brightest stars at the annual Power of Women event. Fantasia Barrino, star of Warner Bros. upcoming remake of “The Color Purple,” dedicated her Power of Women kudo to Celie, the woefully mistreated character she plays in the film, as well as her own daughter.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Let the unpacking begin. After a work stoppage of record duration, SAG-AFTRA and its largest employers have made peace. Hollywood’s TV and film production machinery is about to be dusted off after a more than six-month furlough that has taxed every sector of the entertainment economy, from union members to local businesses to the largest media conglomerates.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor In the quarter that included the marriage of UFC and WWE under the TKO Group umbrella, Endeavor saw its Q3 revenue rise despite headwinds from Hollywood strikes and other market conditions, but operating expenses climbed even more. Endeavor’s conference call with analysts today is expected to give Wall Streeters a chance to grill company executives, including CEO Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro, president and chief operating officer, on the news earlier this month that Endeavor is considering “strategic alternatives” for some of its businesses.

Valerie Wu Intern Variety has been nominated for 97 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards including nominations for best entertainment publication and best entertainment news website. “We are incredibly proud of the Variety newsroom for another outstanding year as the No. 1 news organization covering the business of Hollywood,” said co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood’s major studios had a second consecutive day of constructive steps toward a settlement to what will go down as a TV and film strike of record duration for the union. Nobody’s talking officially, but it’s understood that the sides made progress in closing some of the gap on key issues that the union publicly described on Tuesday evening as being “very far apart.” Nobody’s talking for the record at SAG-AFTRA or the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, but signals from both management and union sources are that the conversations are headed in the right direction.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor “That’s like a billion dollars in Indiana.” That quip from Bobby Axelrod is one of the memorable lines in the series finale of “Billions,” the Showtime drama series that wrapped its seven-season run Oct. 27 with the crowd-pleasing episode “Admirals Fund.” Axelrod, played by Damian Lewis, delivers that line as he takes a victory lap after demolishing his latest foil, rival hedge fund manager Mike Prince (Corey Stoll). It’s a reference to that fact that Prince, after an elaborate sting pulled off by Axelrod and the core “Billions” ensemble, is left wiped out but for $100 million he invested with Black-owned banks a few years ago.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor “Billions” ends where it began. At the close of “Admirals Fund,” Episode 12 of Season 7 and the series finale of the Showtime drama series, Bobby Axelrod is scheming once again to make a new fortune with his merry band of alpha-male traders, who are revved up by his leadership to kill in the name of capitalism.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor There was an unmistakable sense of opportunity in the air last week as international media movers and shakers convened in Cannes for the annual Mipcom market and conference. Big European players in particular sense that openings are starting to emerge in what had been rigid business models and licensing protocols for the largest streaming platforms. The rush to cut costs and consolidate operations in the U.S.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Aiming to grow its global direct-to-consumer distribution, Paramount+ has set the international rollout plans for its premium and ad tier subscriptions following a launch across more than 45 markets last year. The premium plan will launch in Australia, Brazil, Canada and Mexico on Nov.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Nadav Palti is about to mark his 20th year as CEO of Dori Media, the prolific Israeli production and distribution firm headquartered in Tel Aviv. Earlier this month, Palti and Dori executives from Argentina, Mexico, Switzerland, Spain, Singapore and other locations were busy preparing to bring the company’s largest-ever slate of TV shows and movies to pitch to global buyers. Everything changed on Oct.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor CANNES – Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish delivered a testimonial to the power of “new age” local and regional content licensing partnerships during a wide-ranging Q&A held Tuesday after the Viacom veteran was feted as Mipcom’s Personality of the Year. During a wide-ranging Q&A that followed the award presentation, Bakish batted down industry speculation about Paramount’s financial health (“To say we were saved by the strikes is totally an overstatement”) and his hope that the SAG-AFTRA strike will soon be in Hollywood’s rear-view mirror (“We’ll get there”). Paramount Global unveiled a multi-year pact with Greek pay TV service Cosmote TV just before Bakish sat for a Q&A with Variety co-editor in chief Cynthia Littleton.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Canal+ Group chairman and CEO Maxime Saada, who was honored at Mipcom with the Variety Vanguard Award Monday, underscored how the experience of the past informs the company’s future strategy, which includes an emphasis on aggregation and a ramping up of in-house production. He also explained why he believes his company “owes so much to Netflix,” but fears Amazon and YouTube.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Eva Longoria and Cris Abrego have known each other for 20 years. As two of entertainment’s most prominent Latino figures, they have developed a strong friendship around shared experiences and a similar passion for nurturing creative talent.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Shawn Ryan feels like he’s picked up in mid-sentence. The seasoned showrunner is back in his element, leading a writers room and juggling two series, Netflix’s “The Night Agent” and the final season of CBS’ high-octane police drama “S.W.A.T.” The end of the Writers Guild of America strike late last month unleashed a torrent of work for Ryan and his teams based at Sony Pictures Television. “Night Agent” was a little more than halfway done with writing for the 10 episodes for Season 2 when writers went pencils down on May 2.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor NBCUniversal content chief Donna Langley has vowed that the top executives involved in contract negotiations with SAG-AFTRA will devote the time it takes to reach a new deal. Langley, who is chairman of NBCUniversal Studio Group and chief content officer of NBCUniversal, declined to say much about the state of talks with the performers union during her address Wednesday evening at Bloomberg Media’s Screentime conference in Hollywood. But she did express that her executive counterparts in the negotiating room — Disney’s Bob Iger, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel opened Bloomberg Media’s Screentime conference Wednesday evening with a strong condemnation of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that he left the country vulnerable to the heinous terrorist attacks that began Oct. 7. “A morally corrupt Bibi Netanyahu exposed Israel to rape and beheadings of babies, children,” Emanuel said in measured tones after moderator Lucas Shaw, Bloomberg’s managing editor of media and entertainment, asked him for his thoughts on the devastation in Israel.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor As Big Media becomes ever more consolidated, Studios71 is preparing to launch a flotilla of startup media businesses in the coming years. The creator services company is designed to fulfill a range of production, marketing, distribution, advertising and sponsorship sales functions for its social media star clients. The end game is to turn personalities into brands that harness the power of their followings in social media first and foremost.