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For a brand that touts its genius at “storytelling,” the Magic Kingdom faces ever-growing problems in telling its own story.

The timing seemed propitious: Eager to entice new subscribers, CNN+ was about to unfurl a multi-part exposé of Fox News and its 91-year-old patriarch, Rupert Murdoch. It would be juicy material for the new streaming platform, with newsies on the left hammering their rivals on the right. How could it fail?

Show business thrives on risk — even existential risk. Take this Broadway moment when new shows are opening at a pace that shocks even grizzled veterans – 15 in April alone. Of course, some will quickly be shuttering due to Broadway’s two dire enemies: critics and Covid. Ticket buyers must navigate a complex landscape.

It is a story steeped in action and intrigue, but is it true?

Chris Rock was supposed to deliver the big laugh, not the big slap, but to comedy practitioners the Oscars debacle seemed an appropriate metaphor for the state of their craft.

Bob Chapek, the Disney CEO who is under siege, hopefully does not watch much TV. If he does, he’ll see a succession of fellow CEOs who seem prone to self-destruction — Adam Neumann of WeWork, Travis Kalanick of Uber, Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, etc. — portrayed on buzzy TV series. Viewing these shows back to back, the stolid Chapek might wonder whether the CEO is extinct as a folk hero.

Pre-Oscar week always spells angst for Hollywood, but will voters feel better if a “feel good” movie is crowned Best Picture?

IASTE president Matthew Loeb pushed back today against the plan to pre-tape several categories in an attempt to tighten up Sunday’s Oscarcast, saying, “We believe a deviation for some crafts and categories but not others is detrimental.”

He is a TV news star: His views are populist, his subtext racist. His advocacy is passionate and his TV audience is vast, despite suspicion that he pursues an agenda above and beyond his own.

As events continue to play out, “Z” has instantly become the most ominous symbol in the world’s culture and economy.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorLongtime Variety reporter Dave McNary was remembered as a consummate journalist who deeply loved covering the movie business during American Cinematheque’s Tribute to the Crafts, held Monday night at Santa Monica’s Aero Theatre.Sharon McNary, a longtime journalist for KPCC-FM who was married to Dave McNary for 21 years, was on hand to accept a posthumous award for her husband, presented by Variety co-editor in chief Cynthia Littleton. Dave McNary died in 2020 at the age of 69 after suffering a stroke.“I never saw anyone work as hard as he did,” Sharon McNary told the crowd.She noted that her husband loved this time of year, when film kudos are in full swing.

For the past seven years, Chris Licht’s favorite comic has been Stephen Colbert. As the new chairman of CNN, Licht’s focus has instantly shifted to the brilliant ex-comic from Ukraine named Volodymyr Zelensky, whose heroics are the story of the hour.

Gregory Peck was angry. As president of the Motion Picture Academy, the star announced he would veto the admission of a new voting member on grounds that he lacked professional qualifications. The Academy was becoming too populist in 1967, he argued. It must retain its elite status.

David Zaslav, who is famously gregarious and high-energy, has been oddly quiet lately with an absence of media interviews or social events on his schedule. Even his regular booth at the Polo Lounge has been somnolent.

Even as it celebrates its 27 Oscar nominations this week, Netflix unveiled its mega-slate of 86 titles for 2022. That’s far more than any traditional studio this year.

“Why can’t he learn how to give a better speech?” With the State of the Union address looming next month, Joe Biden’s Hollywood critics and supporters increasingly ask that question as they see his approval ratings tank even as his policies gain favor.

“I’m done.”

The press agent was in a dour mood. “Once upon a time this was the hot season,” she told me. “The town came to life.”

A pained observation: The only intriguing stories on Hollywood this week consisted of obits – all kinds of obits. There were obits reminding us of the remarkable lives of Sidney Poitier, Peter Bogdanovich and Betty White. Also speculative obits about the Golden Globes, sentimental obits about the extinct 20th Century Fox and even speculative obits about MGM and ICM.

I have always been a sucker for comeback stories, especially at a time like this when careers veer dramatically between triumph and cancellation – though some comebacks may raise questions (see below).

At any given moment the most titillating movie intrigues are not about star salaries or director firings, but rather about those grisly details that are well below the radar.

“Deliver a good entertainment, and the audience will come.” That’s what the venerable director Robert Wise told me after defying Hollywood doubters with his hit musical West Side Story (yes, the 1961 version).

Are filmgoers ready for Don’t Look Up? It’s a star-laden satire dealing with hot topics of the moment – everything from the climate crisis to media disarray and the firings of news anchors.

Suddenly it’s The Season: Major films are opening, the machinery of hype is heating up, the screening schedules are intense — even the DVD screeners are piling up.

Tensions in the town’s writers rooms never have been higher, not only for writers of entertainment shows but also for nonfiction practitioners. The mood of their audience is prickly. Dialogue that once amused viewers today offends them.

They were “memorable” or “unforgettable” or even “life-changing.”

It was an imposing opening, and Hollywood loves openings that are grand in concept, star-studded and famously over budget. The new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures finally is complete, and key industry players have paid homage and faithfully scrutinized its exhibits.

With the majors eagerly seeking franchises rather than films, their executives might now pay some attention to a courtly Texan who lives in Paris. For 25 years, Wes Anderson has quietly but systematically built his unlikely and fragile franchise around 10 movies that filmgoers profess to enjoy but not understand. His latest, The French Dispatch, opened last week to a $5.5 million box office gross in Week 1, thus suggesting that “art movies” somehow can survive even amid the challenges of 2021.

To the public, Alec Baldwin’s Colt .45 stands as a symbol of perhaps criminal incompetence, but to insiders it also represents a pathetic epitaph to that mythic genre, the “indie” movie.

Corporate CEOs hate political noise. Comedians thrive on it.