President Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

UPDATE: Prosecutors will be allowed to present evidence that Donald Trump had a special arrangement with the National Enquirer during the 2016 election cycle to publish positive stories about him and negative pieces on his rivals.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Ben Sherwood and Joanna Coles inked a deal to lead IAC’s The Daily Beast, under which the media veterans have been granted a minority stake in the news and opinion site. Effective immediately, Sherwood — one-time president of the Disney ABC Television Group — will serve as The Daily Beast’s publisher and CEO. Coles, previously Hearst Magazines’ chief content officer, is the site’s chief creative and content officer.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Syndicated talk strip “Tamron Hall” has been picked up for a sixth season, ABC News was set to announce on Monday. The show, distributed nationally by Disney Entertainment, airs on the ABC-owned TV stations, as well as on stations owned by groups including Hearst, Scripps, Nexstar, Tegna, Gray and AMG. The news keeps “Tamron Hall” on the air through the 2024-2025 TV season.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Last week, Amazon Studios/Prime Video senior VP announced that Chris Brearton was leaving Amazon “to pursue a new opportunity outside the company.” Now we know what that opportunity is: Brearton, who had most recently served as vice president of Prime Video Studios Corporate Strategy at MGM+ and MGM Alternative Television, has joined indie media company AGBO as a partner. At AGBO, he will join company leaders Anthony and Joe Russo (the directors who co-founded the company in 2017) and partner Donald Mustard.

The writers strike ended seven months ago, but memories of the picket lines were fresh at the WGA Awards tonight.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Chris Keyser and David Goodman, the veteran showrunners who steered the five-month Writers Guild of America strike last year, warned guild members on Sunday to stay vigilant in a fast-changing business landscape despite the gains of last year’s historic labor action. “Though this strike is over, the fight goes on. If we take our eye off the ball, everything we gained can literally go away tomorrow,” Goodman told the crowd at the Writers Guild Awards at the Hollywood Palladium.

Brent Simon For the roughly 12,000 scribes the Writers Guild of America represents, the last year has been an emotional roller coaster: The guild engaged in a labor stoppage for over four and a half months in 2023 that, alongside a partially overlapping SAG-AFTRA strike, ground production to a halt. But with a new contract now in hand, the upcoming Writers Guild Awards afford union members the chance for a collective exhalation.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and EventsHollywood and science collided Saturday night at the 10th annual Breakthrough Prize ceremony.Billed as the “Oscars of Science,” the evening honors scientists responsible for major discoveries. Taking place at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, the event’s star power included Robert Downey Jr., Jessica Chastain, Brie Larson, Olivia Wilde, Margot Robbie, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Venus Williams, Alicia Keys and many more..

Tatiana Siegel SPOILER ALERT:This contains major spoilers for the ending of “Civil War,” now playing in theaters. Call it the fog of war. At the height of the blood-soaked third act of Alex Garland’s “Civil War,” audiences may be unsure who is on which side of the battle between two factions in an America torn asunder.

Delivering a keynote address at the Human Rights Campaign’s Equality in Action event Friday, First lady Jill Biden warned former President Donald Trump is “a bully” who is “dangerous to the LGBTQ community.”

When Seth MacFarlane introduced Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and Vice President Kamala Harris at a 2024 fundraiser at his home this evening, his guests got a sampling of his irreverent humor.

Malia Obama is getting in some exercise.

Angelique Jackson CBS has announced the winners of the studio’s Leadership Pipeline Challenge short film competition, which supports local L.A. nonprofits. Now in its third year, the competition challenges early-career storytellers to create short films in collaboration with and highlighting the mission of hyper-local nonprofit organizations.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the company majority-owned by Donald Trump that operates the Truth Social social media network, have fallen about 50% off their high since they started trading a little over two weeks ago. TMTG stock closed at $32.59 per share Friday, rallying late in the day to close up 0.6% — but it’s down 50.7% from its peak closing price of $66.22 per share on March 27, the day after it first started trading on the Nasdaq exchange.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” currently in production on its third season, has been renewed by Paramount+ for Season 4.

The Talk is coming to an end after almost 14 years!

Selena Gomez is reacting to the latest rumor about her dating life.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Netflix has acquired “Rather,” the documentary about veteran journalist Dan Rather‘s landmark career in news. The film, which premieres April 24 on the streamer, utilizes the story of of Rather’s life on television to also explore the evolution of broadcast journalism, the troubles a free press now faces, along with the slide of American society from hard-fought advances in social justice and democratic freedoms.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large “The Talk” is going silent. CBS is ending the long-running daytime chat show, which will get an abbreviated final season (its 15th) this fall, before signing off for good with what it’s calling a “celebratory sendoff” in December.

Apple is set to allow iPhone owners to repair their devices using used, genuine parts for the first time as part of an update to its repair scheme. The tech giant announced that the new scheme would apply to "select" models and would commence in the autumn.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are said to be "planning their escape route" back to the UK amid a high-profile lawsuit brought by The Heritage Foundation in Washington DC who are investigating the duke's drug use that he confessed to in his tell-all memoir.

Melania Trump is entering her campaign mode. The former First Lady attended John Paulson’s latest fundraiser, orchestrated to raise money for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Melania appeared to have a great time, charming all manner of guests.Melania and Donald Trump attend a birthday bash in Mar-a-LagoSolar Eclipse 2024: Donald Trump shares unusual solar eclipse campaign adThe fundraiser was hosted in Palm Beach, Florida, at the house of Paulson, a Republican investor and billionaire.

The first footage from the upcoming fourth Captain America movie was just shown at 2024 CinemaCon on Thursday (April 11) in Las Vegas.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Four members of Paramount Global‘s current 11 board of directors will step down, the company disclosed, coming as the company has stepped up talks with Skydance Media about an M&A deal. The four directors — Dawn Ostroff, former chief content and advertising business officer of Spotify; Nicole Seligman, former president of Sony Entertainment; Frederick Terrell, vice chairman of investment banking at Wells Fargo; and Rob Klieger, partner at Hueston Hennigan LLP, who had served as legal counsel to Sumner Redstone — will not stand for reelection at Paramount Global’s annual meeting, set for June 4.

EXCLUSIVE: Vice President Kamala Harris is heading back to late-night.  

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor As Amazon ramps up its efforts to woo ad dollars that once were earmarked for traditional TV, it is also luring ad executives who tried to capture that money for TV networks. Krishan Bhatia, previously a senior executive at NBCUniversal who ran the business aspects of the company’s ad-sales division, is joining Amazon as vice president of global video advertising for Amazon Ads. He will be charged with leading a global sales seeking to monetize Amazon’s growing video operations tied to sports, Freevee, Twitch and Prime Video.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Turns out reports of “S.W.A.T’s” cancellation have been greatly exaggerated. CBS has renewed the cop drama for Season 8 despite announcing its seventh season would be its last nearly a year ago. The latest drama marks the second time “S.W.A.T” has technically escaped cancellation, with CBS initially axing the show before announcing it would return for one last run.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins got cheeky about the sales talks surrounding his corporate parent Paramount Global. In a presentation to worldwide theater owners at the annual Las Vegas convention CinemaCon, Robbins got right to the point in his opening remarks about what’s next for his team.

Creative Artists Agency has reintroduced managing directors, naming nine today, and announced a big expansion of its agency board as its leadership structure evolves.

Paramount is going into production this summer and has set a July 4, 2025 date for an untitled live-action musical from South Park duo Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Par’s President and CEO Brian Robbins made the announcement during the studio’s CinemaCon presentation today.