Reuters Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Jeff Zucker and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird IMI, the new Abu Dhabi-backed owner of All3Media, has pulled out of its deal to buy the UK’s Daily Telegraph following press freedom concerns.

The New Yorker’s Justin Chang won a Pulitzer Prize for his movie criticism during his tenure at the Los Angeles Times.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “Velma” Season 2 has set its premiere date at Max. The 10-episode second season of the animated series centered on the titular “Scooby-Doo” character will debut on April 25. The official logline for the season states: “When an even spookier mystery grips Crystal Cove, Velma (Mindy Kaling) must find a way to balance her detective work with the demands of her newfound popularity before it’s too late.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney had won enough of the shareholder votes cast for its 12 board candidates as of Tuesday evening to successfully defeat an aggressive, months-long proxy fight waged by Nelson Peltz‘s Trian Partners hedge fund, Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources. Enough votes had been cast as of Tuesday evening to put Disney’s board directors “safely ahead” of Trian’s two nominees for the board — Peltz and ex-Disney CFO Jay Rasulo — per the Reuters report. In addition, the three board candidates proposed by investment firm Blackwells Capital failed to win enough votes, according to the report.

William Earl CalPERS, the influential California pension fund, has voted to shake up the Disney board by backing the election of activist investors Nelson Peltz and Jay Rasulo who have waged a months-long battle with CEO Bob Iger and the incumbent board of directors. The California Public Employees Retirement System told Reuters that the fund had cast its vote for Trian Partners’ Peltz and Rasulo as alternative directors to join the Disney board,.

Joe Lieberman has passed away.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have released a statement reacting to sister-in-law Kate Middleton‘s cancer announcement.

Alec Baldwin wants the involuntary manslaughter charge against him in the Rust case dismissed — because he says the prosecutor is biased!

Oh Yeong-su is heading to prison.

sentenced to life in prison 10 years ago, after being convicted of the 2011 murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams.Now, according to a new report from Reuters, the musician has won an appeal of his conviction due to juror misconduct that took place during his original trial. The appeals court in Jamaica will now decide whether Kartel and his co-defendants will stand trial once again.The initial trial took place a decade ago, and became one of the longest in the country’s history after it ran for 64 days.During this time, one of the jurors allegedly tried to bribe others on the panel to put forward a not-guilty verdict.

K.J. Yossman UPDATED: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge has issued a statement about the controversial image reportedly taken by her husband, Prince William, last week and published on March 10. “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” the royal couple posted on their Twitter/X account.

Picture agencies have recalled the Mother's Day photo of Kate Middleton and her children due to concerns it has been 'manipulated'.

It was meant to be a wholesome image to celebrate Mother’s Day in the UK, but a photo of Kate Middleton and her children has ended in controversy for the Prince and Princess of Wales.

A Canadian college student has been arrested and charged with six counts of murder after police say he slaughtered a family with an “edged weapon.” Per reports from Reuters, CBC

The US House Energy and Commerce Committee has just unanimously approved a bill targeting TikTok, the app owned by China’s ByteDance, via Reuters.

France’s Canal+ has upped a buyout offer for African TV and streaming giant MultiChoice to around $1.77B.

A U.S. District Judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit from a woman who alleges that Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler sexually assaulted her when she was 17. The case was one of two pending against the Grammy winner. The other, filed in California in 2022, is still in process.

Naman Ramachandran India’s Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) is not proceeding with a $1.4 billion cricket rights deal it had struck with Disney Star in 2022, according to a report from Reuters. Cricket is the most popular sport in India, the world’s most populous nation. In August 2022, Disney Star had won Indian TV and digital rights to both men’s and women’s global events conducted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) from 2024 through 2027.

Pope Francis has taken a drastic — and very controversial — stance against surrogacy!

South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, who went to jail for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013, has been released on parole.

Shareholders of Disney and Apple will be given the chance to vote on proposals regarding the use of artificial intelligence, the Securities and Exchange Commission has determined.

Disney and Reliance Industries have moved closer to a merger of their massive Indian TV and streaming businesses. A combination of the two – which include rival streaming platforms, India’s leading pay-TV platform and over 100 linear TV channels – has the potential to substantially re-shape the Indian media and entertainment scene. Quoting unnamed sources close to the deal, the Reuters news agency reported on Thursday that the two companies had appointed lawyers to handle potential anti-trust issues that would likely arise.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Just when players and investors had begun to believe that China was finished with major new regulations to the games industry, regulators have announced proposals for more curbs. The draft regulations, proposed by the National Press and Publication Administration appear to focus on in-game spending. The proposals revealed on Friday hit the shares of Chinese gaming giants Tencent and NetEase and dented those of other companies with operations n the Chinese market.

A seven-week investigation by Reuters news agency into the death of staff member Issam Abdallah on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel on October 13 has concluded he was killed by Israeli tank fire.

It’s cold, outside, folks. Best to stay in with the Insiders. Jesse Whittock here, back bringing you the latest from international film and TV. Sign up for the newsletter here.

K.J. Yossman Banijay, the French TV production super-indie, has made an offer for All3Media. All3Media is the production-distribution giant behind shows including Jamie Dornan-starrer “The Tourist,” Phoebe Waller Bridge’s “Fleabag” and Dutch gameshow hit “The Traitors.” Warner Bros.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Lightning International, the Hong Kong- and U.K.-based content distribution and solutions company, is expanding its staff ahead of the upcoming Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) in Singapore. It has hired Eric Tan to be director of content sales Asia. He will be responsible for all aspects of channel and content distribution.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Bytedance, the unlisted Chinese tech giant that owns TikTok, is poised to slash part of its games operations, including Nuverse, which publishes ‘Marvel Snap,’ according to financial news sources. News was reported by Bloomberg, Reuters and other tech news providers The Information and The Verge on Monday that Bytedance will retreat from its mainstream video games operation with the loss of some 1,000 jobs. “We regularly review our businesses and make adjustments to centre on long-term strategic growth areas,” a ByteDance representative said in a statement sent to some media. “Following a recent review, we’ve made the difficult decision to restructure our gaming business.” Variety has also reached out to Bytedance for comment. Nuverse, the unit for most of Bytedance’s games, is understood to have told employees that it will halt nearly all games that have not yet launched.

UEFA have been warned that any outcome from the allegations Manchester City have been charged with by the Premier League will 'almost certainly cause serious unrest among its member clubs to a point of mutiny'.

Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk are going to go head-to-head on February 17 in a hotly-anticipated heavyweight undisputed boxing clash.