Ramin Setoodeh Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter Haley Kluge has been named creative director of Variety, where she’ll oversee the design and visual language of our weekly print magazine, website and digital channels. Kluge is the first woman to serve in this role since Variety came under the ownership of Penske Media Corp. in 2013. She worked at Variety from 2018 to 2021 in several positions, including art director. Most recently she spent a year on the design team of Netflix’s Tudum. “We are so excited that Haley is returning to Variety to help steer our talented art department,” co-Editors-in-Chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton say. “Our magazine has been on a roll, and we know that Haley will help elevate our game.”

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter In the 24 hours following the start of the 2023 Oscars red carpet, Variety notched its highest-ever day of social traffic, racking up 122 million video views across platforms.  Top performing videos include Marc Malkin’s interview with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson about the negative reviews that plagued “Black Adam” and fashion footage of stars like Pedro Pascal and Lady Gaga.  Twitter video racked up 59.4 million views, while TikTok accounted for 47.5 million. Instagram earned an additional 15.1 million views for the brand.  Variety’ssocial team, led by social media editor Katcy Stephan with coordinator Rachel Seo, previously saw success through the record-breaking launch of “Actors on Actors” Season 17, which earned over 35 million views on TikTok. Under Stephan’s leadership, the brand gained over 1.5 million new followers across social platforms in 2022.

Ramin Setoodeh Co-Editor-in-Chief At 11:30 p.m., Daniel Kwan was ready for a late dinner. The movie that he co-directed — “Everything Everywhere All At Once” — had swept the 95th annual Academy Awards, winning a historic seven statues, including best picture and best director. But he hadn’t had a bite to eat in hours. So at Vanity Fair’s annual Oscars party, he grabbed an In-N-Out burger from a tray to refuel. But before he could dig in, he was greeted by one of his many fans — named Steven Spielberg. The man who saw his cinematic memoir, “The Fabelmans,” get crushed by the Daniels (as Kwan and his collaborator Daniel Scheinert are called) didn’t seem the least bit upset.

Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles Sunday evening as the show kicked off.Bill Murray, Claire Foy and Rooney Mara were amongst the star-studded crowd left waiting for the green light to enter the venue after a fire marshal blocked the entrance. Videos posted to Twitter by Variety’s co-editor-in-chief, Ramin Setoodeh, showed the “madness,” writing, “Even Bill Murray has to wait.”Another clip showed Foy and Mara waiting in line for entry.“Total chaos at the #SAGAwards as Claire Foy and Rooney Mara are not being allowed inside the ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel — they’re told they need to wait for the Fire Marshal to let them (and hundreds of other guests) inside,” Setoodeh tweeted.The Fire Marshal is not letting movie stars inside the #SAGAwards.

Brendan Fraser first took on the role of Rick O'Connell in back in 1999, and while he went on to star in two other films in the action-adventure franchise, he hasn't reprised the beloved character since 2008’s . Now, nearly 15 years later, the 53-year-old actor is opening up about whether he'd ever revisit the role again.«I don’t know how it would work,” Fraser tells in an interview published Wednesday. “But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit.”When the franchise was rebooted in 2017, it was Tom Cruise who took on the challenge of playing the lead in the film.

Brendan Fraser first took on the role of Rick O'Connell in The Mummy back in 1999, and while he went to star in two other films in the action-adventure franchise, he hasn't reprised the beloved character since 2008’s “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor." Now, nearly 15 years later, the 53-year-old actor is opening up about whether or not he'd revisit the role again.«I don’t know how it would work,” Fraser told in an interview published Wednesday. “But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit.”When the franchise was rebooted in 2017, it was Tom Cruise who took on the challenge of playing the lead in the new film.

BreAnna Bell Variety received three Eddie & Ozzie Awards for editorial design excellence on the evening of Sept. 13. Presented by Folio, the winners and special mentions were announced at this year’s gala event at the City Winery New York. The publication took home the Eddie award for website in the business-to-business category. Honorable mentions for the category included SevenFifty Daily, Fierce Pharma and strategy+business. Variety also won the Ozzie award for best photography, business-to-business, for its 2021 Power of Women cover featuring “I May Destroy You” creator Michaela Coel. The cover story, written by senior entertainment writer Angelique Jackson, followed Coel’s shift in focus to new stories following the success of the HBO limited series. Coel won an Emmy award in the category of writing for a limited series for the show in 2021.

EJ Panaligan editor “Bros” co-writer and star Billy Eichner had sincere words to share about his upcoming romantic comedy at the Variety Cover Party at TIFF sponsored by Skyy. “I could have never imagined in a million years that we would have been able to premiere in such a spectacular way,” Eichner said about the buzz behind the film leading up to its release. “Thank you to everyone at Variety, this feature really was the most beautiful, accurate thing that’s ever been written about me.” In a lengthy interview with Variety, Eichner discussed the film’s entirely LGBTQ cast along with the many distinctive ways in which his personal life has influenced the development of the movie’s characters and plot lines. “I’ve worked so hard on it, I care so much about it, and I want it to do well for the sake of the LGBTQ stories getting greenlit,” he told Variety‘s Brent Lang. “So there’s a burden I feel, much as I want to sit here and just talk about how funny the movie is.”

Manori Ravindran International Editor The stars descended on Soho House in downtown Toronto on Saturday for Variety and Chanel’s Female Filmmakers’ Dinner during the Toronto International Film Festival. Guests in attendance included Tilda Swinton, star of Joanna Hogg’s “The Eternal Daughter”; Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of “The Woman King”; Darren Aronofsky, director of “The Whale”; and Anna Kendrick, who’s in Toronto shopping her new AGC Studios project “The Dating Game” to market buyers. Stars mingled on a packed rooftop before convening in the club’s private dining room, which gathered around 100 of the festival’s bright lights in filmmaking. They dined on a bespoke Soho House menu of beef tartare with black truffle, black cod and bok choy, and wagyu rib cap with porcini purée.

Brendan Fraser is back in the spotlight in a big way. Judging by the actor's reception at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, Fraser's stardom has rocketed back to its '90s and early aughts levels. The star of Darren Aronofsky's  was reportedly moved to tears during the film's standing ovation — said to last a whopping six minutes -- after its premiere on Sunday.In videos shared on social media, the 53-year-old performer was seen seated applauding his castmates before Aronofsky encouraged him to stand and accept the audience's praise.

Zack Sharf When it comes to buzz emerging out of the 2022 Venice Film Festival, few actors dominated headlines as positively as Brendan Fraser. The actor is earning Oscar buzz and the best reviews of his career for his leading turn in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale.” The Venice audience at the film’s world premiere gave the movie a huge six-minute standing ovation. Fraser broke down in tears during the reception, a video of which shared by Variety co-editor in chief Ramin Setoodeh on Twitter has earned over 15.5 million views and counting. Dwayne Johnson, who co-starred with Fraser in 2001’s “The Mummy Returns,” celebrated “The Whale” standing ovation on social media and championed Fraser’s acting comeback.

#SpitGate is going viral on Twitter after a video appeared to show Harry Styles spitting on Chris Pine during the Venice premiere of Don’t Worry Darling.

Harry Styles kissed someone at the Don’t Worry Darling premiere… and it wasn’t his girlfriend Olivia Wilde!

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent On Sunday night, an hour before the hotly anticipated Sept. 5 world premiere of “Don’t Worry Darling” on the Lido, Variety celebrated director Olivia Wilde with a cocktail party hosted at the posh Danieli Hotel in Venice. Wilde, who is unveiling her second feature as a director out of competition at the festival, graces the cover of Variety’s Venice issue, on newsstands now. It marks the first dedicated Venice magazine issue that Variety has done, as the magazine’s co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh pointed out. “We couldn’t think of a better subject than Olivia,” Setoodeh said. Setoodeh praised Warner Bros., the studio behind “Don’t Worry Darling,” for championing theatrical releases.

Naman Ramachandran The star studded Variety and Hotel Danieli pre-festival cocktail party on Aug. 30 was a taster of the riches in store at the Venice Film Festival that kicks off the following day. Head of the jury Julianne Moore and fellow jurors, “A Separation” actor Leila Hatami and filmmakers Audrey Diwan, Mariano Cohn, Leonardo Di Costanzo and Rodrigo Sorogoyen, were present as was “Thor: Love and Thunder” actor Tessa Thompson, who is serving on the festival’s Horizons strand jury. The evening, titled “Cinema Danieli – An Unforgettable Story,” on the terrace of the plush Hotel Danieli, which will turn 200 next year, has become a festival tradition dating back 13 years. It was introduced by Claudio Staderini, director of the Danieli, who described the hotel as a shooting and residential choice of many of the biggest movie stars in the world.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor The Toronto Film Festival will honor composer Hildur Guðnadóttir with the Variety Artisan Award at this year’s Tribute Awards. Along with Guðnadóttir, Welsh Egyptian filmmaker and screenwriter Sally El Hosaini will receive the TIFF Emerging Talent Award presented by MGM at the annual TIFF Tribute Awards. This awards season, Guðnadóttir composed the scores for two films, Todd Field’s “Tár” and Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking.” Guðnadóttir cemented her place in Oscar history when she became only the fourth woman to win an Academy Award for original score for “Joker.”

Terry Flores Variety has been nominated for nine Folio: Eddie & Ozzie Awards, including best issue for Leaving the Kingdom, which looked at Robert Iger’s long tenure at the helm of Disney, and best website for Variety.com.The Leaving the Kingdom issue was published on Dec. 12, 2021, and featured a lengthy interview with Iger by then-Variety editor-in-chief Claudia Eller. Design of the issue was overseen by design director Ted Keller and art director Elliot Stokes, with photography overseen by visual content director Jennifer Dorn.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterVariety has promoted Manori Ravindran to Executive Editor of International and Senior Writer.Ravindran joined Variety in 2020 as International Editor. In her new role, Ravindran will continue to lead Variety’s award-winning team of correspondents based around the world, while expanding the brand’s presence at key festivals and markets and growing Variety’s events outside the U.S., working closely with executive VP of content, Steven Gaydos.

William Earl Steven Banks has joined Variety as creative director.The publishing veteran will steer the brand’s design and aesthetic across all editorial platforms, reporting to Variety incoming co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton. Banks is leading a department that is seeing record levels of activity for Variety’s weekly print magazine, as well as dozens of digital and print Extra Editions each year around events such as the Oscars, the Emmys, the Cannes Film Festival and more.“We are thrilled to have Steven join our team to enhance the look of our award-winning magazine and continue to strengthen our digital storytelling for our millions of readers and followers,” said Setoodeh.

William Earl Jennifer Dorn has been promoted to visual content director at Variety.The four-year Variety veteran oversees all photography and photo imagery for the brand. She reports to incoming co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Variety co-editor-in-chief Cynthia LittletonBased in Los Angeles, Dorn has significantly expanded Variety‘s investment in original photography.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorTo many fans of “Sex and the City,” Kim Cattrall was the definition of glamorous. So perhaps it’s only fitting that her next TV project will be “Glamorous,” a Netflix series in which Cattrall will be starring as a makeup mogul.“Glamorous,” which had originally been ordered as a pilot at The CW in 2019, tells the story of Marco Mejia (played by actor, singer and YouTuber Miss Benny), a gender non-conforming queer person who goes to work for Cattrall’s cosmetics queen Madolyn Addison.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorIt was after 1 a.m. in Antibes when Christina Aguilera performed at the 28th annual amfAR gala at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday morning. Inside a tent at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Rock, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, a lux crowd of European highrollers crowded the stage as Michelle Rodriguez took the mic to introduce the night’s headliner.

Meredith Woerner Deputy Editor, Variety.comVariety has been nominated for 72 Southern California Journalism Awards, including two for journalist of the year, three for entertainment journalist of the year and six nominations for criticism of TV, music and books.The awards, given out by the Los Angeles Press Club, honor outstanding journalism in the region across print, digital, radio and broadcast platforms.Executive editor Ramin Setoodeh and deputy music editor Jem Aswad are both up for journalist of the year. TV critic Daniel D’Addario along with chief film critic Owen Gleiberman and features editor Chris Willman are all nominated for entertainment journalist of the year.Aswad leads all Variety staffers with 14 total nominations, followed by Willman with nine nominations.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive Editor“Holy Spider,” a gritty drama about a real-life Iranian serial killer, stunned the Cannes Film Festival at its premiere on Sunday afternoon, earning a thunderous seven-minute standing ovation and bringing a jolt of electricity to what’s been a sleepy festival so far.The film, from Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi (“Border”), chronicles a killing spree in the streets of the religious city of Mashhad, where 16 prostitutes were found dead from 2000 to 2001.  A local journalist, Rahimi (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi), is trying to crack the case as she grows frustrated by the police’s apathy toward finding the murderer. But in one of many twists in this drama, the identity of the serial killer is revealed early on — he’s a war veteran named Saeed (Mehdi Bajestani), a seemingly normal family man who spends his nights picking up women on his motorcycle and brutally strangling them in his home as a religious cleansing ritual.

Naman Ramachandran The Variety Welcome to Cannes party at the Unifrance terrace was the place to be on Thursday afternoon, with guests including Eva Longoria, Sony Pictures Classics’ Tom Bernard and Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente.The hot ticket event was a bubbles and canapes celebration where the movers and shakers of the entertainment industry turned up in force to mingle after two years of COVID-caused separation.Dayna Wolpa, managing director, programming and distribution at Variety, kicked off proceedings by saying that Variety has been covering the Cannes Film Festival for 75 of the publication’s 116 years of existence and that Variety.com has 35 million unique users. “That makes Variety the No.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorA visit from the dead? How chic.The Cannes Film Festival sprung back into action on Tuesday night, as this year’s opening night movie, “Final Cut (Coupez!)” received a 5-minute standing ovation. The gory zombie line, which straddled a tone somewhere between “The Blair Witch Project” and “Call My Agent,” kicked off a festival where few patrons were wearing masks in these COVID times.To commemorate the 75th edition of Cannes, festival director Thierry Fremaux selected a French movie — not to mention a French jury president, “Titane” actor Vincent Lindon — to keep things local at the start of the celebration of movies in the French Riviera.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorAsghar Farhadi forcefully denied that he plagiarized his 2021 film “A Hero.”“My film was not based on the documentary,” the Iranian Oscar-winning directed said on Tuesday afternoon at the Cannes Film Festival. “I think the matter will no doubt be cleared up.

Kim Cattrall has a favorite word: “No.”Cattrall’s favorite instance of saying “no,” as she explained in her speech at Variety‘s Power of Women dinner presented by Lifetime, is one of her most famous quotes, when she told The Guardian in 2019, “I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m not enjoying myself for even an hour.”There are other times she has said “no,” most notably when asked to reprise her iconic role as Samantha Jones in various reboots of the “Sex and the City” franchise. She recently elaborated on her decision to retire the role in a cover interview with Variety executive editor Ramin Setoodeh, in which she said that, after filming the second SATC movie, “Everything in me went, ‘I’m done.'” She mentioned other examples of taking satisfaction in saying no, including, “No, that salary is unacceptable” and “No, we are not having a meeting in your hotel room.”On Thursday evening, Cattrall encouraged other women to own their power in the same way, reminding the room of entertainment executives and fellow Power of Women honorees, “Saying no to the past is saying yes to the future, because you are the screenwriter in the movie of your own life.”“The word ‘no’ has difficulties sometimes traveling from the brain to the tongue,” Cattrall said.

Kim Cattrall has her reasons for not wanting to reprise her character, Samantha Jones, on HBO Max's spinoff series, .“It’s a great wisdom to know when enough is enough,” Cattrall tells of why she walked away from the franchise after six seasons and two movies. “I also didn’t want to compromise what the show was to me. The way forward seemed clear.”She says that after the second movie, «Everything in me went, ‘I’m done.’»While she had already decided not to play Samantha again, the 65-year-old actress notes, «I was never asked to be part of the reboot.