Exclusive Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Wall Street is betting that Netflix‘s stream machine continued to fire on all cylinders coming into 2024. After netting a whopping 13.1 million new subs in Q4, Netflix is riding a wave of momentum that continues to be buoyed by the paid-sharing strategy, as it converts password borrowers into paying members, according to analysts.

EXCLUSIVE: Channel 4 has axed its splashy version of U.S. survival format Alone after one season.

Holly Jones German sales outfit Patra Spanou Film (“Blue Moon”) has acquired international rights to “The Pleasure Is Mine” (“El Placer Es Mío”), the debut feature from Brazilian-born screenwriter and director Sacha Amaral, whose prior efforts on short “Billy Boy” earned him a slot at the Cannes Cinéfondation program in 2021. The boutique sales agency has also shared an exclusive first-look teaser with Variety ahead of the drama’s premiere in international competition at this year’s Bafici in Buenos Aires, running April 17-28.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent In a big move to plant their flag internationally, leading Hollywood talent agency CAA has appointed Alex McGuire to oversee the firm’s sports media representation efforts throughout the U.K. and Europe.

Emma Roberts is giving fans an exclusive look inside of her home!

EXCLUSIVE: Terrence Terrell (Giants, Obliterated) has signed with Ascend Artists Representation.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The upcoming Apple TV+ series “Government Cheese” has filled out its main cast with four new additions, Variety has learned exclusively. Jahi Winston (“We Have a Ghost, “Charm City Kings”), Evan Alexander Ellison (“She Came to Me,” “Devil in Ohio”), Jeremy Bobb (“The Knick,” “Russian Doll”), and Louis Cancelmi (“Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Billions”) have all joined the show. They will appear alongside previously announced series lead David Oyelowo as well as cast members Simone Missick, Bokeem Woodbine, Sunita Mani, and Adam Beach.

EXCLUSIVE: Ariana Greenblatt is joining the ensemble of Lionsgate’s Now You See Me 3 joining the all-star ensemble of Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher Dave Franco and Mark Ruffalo, who are all expected to return. Ruben Fleischer is on as director. Eric Warren Singer, Seth Graham Smith and Mike Lesslie penned the script.

EXCLUSIVE: Margaret Qualley has pulled out of playing Amanda Knox in Hulu‘s upcoming limited series for scheduling reasons.

EXCLUSIVE: Lucy Freyer (Paint), Malik Elassal, Owen Thiele (Dollface), Amita Rao and Jack Innanen (The Dessert) have been cast as the leads of FX‘s ensemble comedy pilot Snowflakes, written by former The Tonight Show scribes Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw and to be directed by Jonathan Krisel (Baskets).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Max Cutler sold Parcast Studios, his scripted-audio entertainment start-up, to Spotify in 2019 under a deal in which Spotify ultimately paid nearly $90 million. Cutler went on to become Spotify’s VP, head of talk creator content and partnerships — inking exclusive licensing deals with podcasters including Alex Cooper, Emma Chamberlain and Markiplier, and managing the company’s partnership with “The Joe Rogan Experience” — before exiting last year. Now Cutler is back in the game with the launch of Pave Studios.

Tim Chan If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Taylor Swift‘s new album, “The Tortured Poets Department” is due out April 19 but fans can already pre-order the CD and vinyl online now. Target is offering three exclusive versions of “Tortured Poets Department” on CD and one exclusive vinyl.

EXCLUSIVE: The First Omen director and co-scribe Arkasha Stevenson and the pic’s screenwriter/EP Tim Smith have signed with WME for representation in all areas. 

EXCLUSIVE: Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) is set to executive produce and star in the newly greenlit Lifetime movie The Bad Orphan. Chloe Coco Chapman will make her television debut alongside Brandt and additional cast members Mark Taylor (Reacher) and Eve Edwards (The Good Doctor).

EXCLUSIVE: Carla Gugino (The Fall of the House of Usher) is in talks for one of four female leads in Night Electricity, an indie from her longtime collaborator Sebastian Gutierrez (Jett).

EXCLUSIVE: Leslie Nielsen’s Lt. Frank Drebin was wrong: Cops and women do mix, and with that we have Pamela Anderson joining Liam Neeson in Paramount Pictures’ untitled Naked Gun reboot, which Akiva Schaffer is directing and executive producing for a July 18, 2025 theatrical release.

EXCLUSIVE: Former Verve TV lit agent Matthew Doyle is transitioning to management and joining Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment. Starting this week, he will be working out as a of the company’s Los Angeles office.

In a week that saw Manchester City regain top spot in the Premier League they now have a chance to seal a place in the Champions League semi-finals.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The upcoming video game “Spine” is already being eyed for film and TV adaptations. Variety learned exclusively that “Spine” developer Nekki has teamed with Story Kitchen to develop potential adaptations of the game. “We’re pleased to begin our journey with Story Kitchen,” said Nekki CEO Dmitry Terekhin.

Carlo Mendez goes shirtless in this exclusive clip from his new movie Demise!

Michael Nordine Remember Quibi? The short-lived streaming service-turned-punchline, which vastly overestimated how many people felt compelled to watch bite-sized shows and movies on their phones, seems to have done one thing right before being folded into the Roku Channel: allowing creators to retain ownership of their work after a two-year exclusivity window. Not content to let her 13-part thriller series “The Stranger” disappear along with the platform on which it debuted, “The Killing” creator Veena Sud recut the project into a feature film alongside editor Philip Fowler.

The long-running CBS series S.W.A.T. is currently airing its final season, which will end in May 2024.

collab you didn't know you needed. Founder and creative director from LoveShackFancy and jewelry brand founder , two powerhouse business woman, have joined forces to create a collection that's straight out of a dream.Launching on April 17, this lineup is set to drop exclusively on , and let me tell you, it's going to sell out fast.

EXCLUSIVE: Director, writer, and producer Brad Peyton has signed with Grandview for representation. He has brought Grandview onboard ahead of the premiere of his upcoming film Atlas, which stars Jennifer Lopez, Simu Lui, and Sterling K. Brown with Netflix releasing the pic on Memorial Day and buzz for the film is already incredibly strong. The film follows a woman fighting for humanity in a future where an AI soldier has determined the only way to end war is to end humanity.

EXCLUSIVE: Felicity Jones is set to star in Michael Showalter’s holiday comedy Oh. What. Fun. for Amazon MGM Studios, joining Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloë Grace Moretz and Dominic Sessa.

EXCLUSIVE: CAA has signed Kip Williams, the adapter and director of the buzzy West End production of the Sydney Theatre Company’s The Picture of Dorian Gray starring newly minted Olivier Award winner Sarah Snook.

Taylor Swift has sent fans on a mystery trail to uncover a secret message on Apple Music during the release week of her new album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’.Apple has confirmed that one word a day will be hidden within Swift’s lyrics on the music streaming service. Each daily word will be found somewhere in Swift’s five playlists exclusively released on Apple Music last week, which relate to the five stages of heartbreak: denial (‘I Love You, It’s Ruining My Life’), anger (‘You Don’t Get to Tell Me About Sad‘), bargaining (‘Am I Allowed to Cry?’), depression (‘Old Habits Die Screaming’) and acceptance (‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart’).The full message will be unveiled on April 18, the day before Swift releases ‘The Tortured Poets Department’.The first word was unveiled on Saturday (April 13), with Swift’s team Taylor Nation via an Instagram Story that seemed to glitch.

Maya Hawke says making “Wildcat” with her dad, Ethan Hawke, felt effortless.“We’ve spent our whole lives making things together, talking about art, seeing plays, going to art museums,” she told The Post at a recent Cinema Society screening of their movie, “Wildcat.”“Working on plays in the living room, helping me with audition tapes and it felt like an extremely natural extension of the way that we’ve always communicated.”The movie, co-written and directed by Ethan, is a biographical drama about Southern novelist Flannery O’Connor and her struggle to publish her first novel. Maya, 25, stars as O’Connor and it also features Laura Linney, Philip Ettinger, Cooper Hoffman and Liam Neeson.The “Training Day” star, 53, explained that the movie was Maya’s idea.“A movie that she wanted to see primarily about a young woman’s relationship to herself and her work,” he shared.

The exclusive dating app Raya is often making headlines whenever celebs are revealed as members.

EXCLUSIVE: MindRiot Entertainment, the transatlantic indie behind Danielle Deadwyler’s Parallel, and the upcoming OceanGate pic Salvaged is moving into production on Trash Talk, a docuseries about NBA Hall-Of-Famer Gary Payton.