by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE NEWS:
MOVIES - From Variety: Meg Ryan returns to movie theaters as director, writer, and co-star of the romantic-comedy, "What Happens Later," co-starring David Duchovny. The film is due Oct. 13th.
STREAMING - From Deadline: Hulu has cancelled the Elle Fanning-Nicholas Hoult drama, "The Great," after three seasons.
DISNEY - From Deadline: Another Disney investor suit targets Disney, CEO Bob Iger, and former CEO Bob Chapek over "alleged sleight of hand accounting" used to hide streaming losses.
BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficePro: The winner of the 8/25 to 8/27/2023 weekend box office is Sony Pictures' "Gran Turismo" with an estimated take of 17.3 million dollars. That could change because today (Sunday, Aug. 27th) is the second annual "National Cinema Day," in which tickets at participating theaters is $4.
From THR: Director Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" is now Warner Bros. Pictures' most successful film at the global box office. It's has passed the 1.342 billion that "Harry Potter and the Death Hallows - Part 2" grossed globally.
DISNEY - From Deadline: Disney continues the Disney+ content purge. It is not going forward with "Nautilus," the live-action "Captain Nemo" series from the United Kingdom that it commissioned two years ago.
SCANDAL - From Deadline: The fall of former Disney Channel child star, Mitchel Musso, continues with an arrest in Texas for multiple charges, including "public intoxication."
ANIMATION - From Deadline: The hit Adult Swim (Cartoon Network) animated series "Rick and Morty," will return for its Season 7 on Sunday, Oct. 15 at 11 p.m. ET/PT with all new episodes.
OBITS:
From Deadline: American television game show host and animal rights activist, Bob Barker, has died at the age of 99, Saturday, August 26, 2023. He is best known for his 35-year stint hosting the CBS daytime game show, "The Price is Right." He also hosted the former CBS/NBC/syndicated game show, "Truth or Consequences," from 1956 to 1975. He received 43 Daytime Emmy Award nominations. He won the award for "Outstanding Game Show Host" 14 times as the host of "The Price is Right," and he won four "Outstanding Game Show" Emmy Awards as executive producer of "The Price is Right."
From Deadline: Film and television actress and writer and voice actress, Arleen Sorkin, has died at the age of 68, Thursday, August 24, 2023. Arleen is best known as the voice actress who originated the role of the character, Harley Quinn, first on "Batman: The Animated Series" (1992-95). She performed the voice for Harley Quinn in at least 50 times for TV, film, webseries, and videogames. Harley Quinn's co-creator, Paul Dini, also used Arleen as inspiration for the character. Sorkin is also known for playing the soap opera character, Calliope Jones, over 400 times over a 26-year period on the former NBC soap, "Days of Our Lives." Sorkin received two Daytime Emmy Award nominations and one News and Documentary Emmy Award nomination.
WRITERS/ACTORS STRIKE:
From THR: As talks with the Writers Guild of America stall, the studio trade association, AMPTP, has retained D.C.-based firm, The Levinson Group, to pursue a fresh messaging strategy.
From Deadline: Regarding the Hollywood writers strike, the AMPTP (representing the studios) released the details of a proposed labor agreement that it made to the WGA (the Writers Guild) on August 11th.
From Deadline: A pair of former production assistants-turned-assistant directors have created a nonprofit in hopes of providing financial aid to PAs (production assistants) who’ve been put out of work due to the strike.
From Deadline: Writers Guild (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) will resume strike talks today, Fri., Aug. 11th.
From Deadline: Meeting for the first time in more than three months, the Writers Guild and the AMPTP on Friday failed to reach an agreement to resume contract negotiations. The Writers Strike will go on indefinitely.
From Deadline: Hollywood’s superstars are answering the call from the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, donating $1 million or more each to help their fellow performers during the ongoing actors and writers strikes. Among the big donors are Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey, and Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.
From Deadline: If you are interested, here is a list of the film and TV productions SAG-AFTRA has granted waivers to continue filming.
From Variety: International superstar, Dwayne Johnson, makes a seven-figure contribution to the "SAG-AFTRA Foundation Relief Fund." Foundation president, actor Courtney B. Vance, says the amount will remain confidential.
From Variety: Why haven't A-list stars joined the SAG-AFTRA picket line?, asks "Variety."
From Deadline: Author George R.R. Martin, whose works were the basis for HBO's "Game of Thrones," says the strikes will be long and bitter.
From THR: Production works at Warner Bros. Animation (66) and at Cartoon Network (22) have gone public with their attempt to unionize via The Animation Guild.
From Variety: Halted film productions due to the writers and actors strikes are costing each Hollywood studio at least 600,000 dollars per week.
From Variety: Said at a strike meeting: “Without a transformative change in SAG-AFTRA’s current contract with the AMPTP, the acting profession will no longer be an option for future generations of performers, and actors already working in the industry will need to pursue other careers in order to survive.”
From Deadline: If you are a "social media influencer" who is NOT a member of SAG-AFTRA, you can be barred from future membership for promoting a film or television series during the actors' strike.
From Variety: The SAG/AFTRA strike begins in New York and Los Angeles. Hollywood actors began striking today, Fri., July 14th.
From Deadline: The site has the video of the powerful strike speech given by SAG-AFTRA president, Fran Drescher, the actress best known for CBS' former sitcom, "The Nanny."
From Deadline: Concerning the Hollywood writers strike (via the WGA), the Hollywood Studios (as represented by the AMPTP) is to let the writers go broke before resuming talks deep into the Fall.
From Deadline: SAG-AFTRA is already preparing strike picket signs in case the actors' strike begins next week.
From Deadline: WGA is picketing the New York City filming location of the 12th series of FX's "American Horror Story" (entitled "Delicate") after series co-creator Ryan Murphy threaten litigation against an east coast strike captain.
From THR: TV super-producer, Ryan Murphy, in a letter from his attorney to the leadership of the Writers Guild of America, threatened litigation against Warren Leight, an East Coast strike captain and Strike Rules Compliance Committee member who has subsequently forfeited those positions.
From Deadline: The Hollywood studios via the AMPTP has given Canadian actors a new contract, including a 5 percent raise.
From Deadline: Writers Strike puts the spotlight back on the challenge from writers for animation productions to be covered by the WGA.
From THR: Studios won't give writers better pay, and now, are laying off janitors.
From Deadline: The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has reached a tentative new three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). So what does the Writers Guild (WGA), currently on strike and negotiating with the AMPTP, think of that deal.
From Deadline: Netflix shareholders declined to support the 2023 pay packages of top executives during a non-binding vote at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday. The vote won't prevent these execs from getting their loot (an total of $166 million), but this is a rare public rebuke. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has urged shareholders to vote "No" because the pay was "inappropriate" at this time.
From Deadline: Warner Bros Discovery chief David Zaslav gave the commencement address at Boston University. There he was met with jeers and also chants of "pay your writers" from picketers and from some in the audience.
From Deadline: President Joe Biden speaks on the Writers Guild of America strike.
From Deadline: Retaliation! The studios have starting informing writer-producers who have "overall" and "first-look" deals that such deals are being suspended.
From Deadline: Retaliation! Prolific HBO creator, David Simon, who is best known for "The Wire," is one of the many writers who have had their overall deals suspended the studios due to the WGA strike. Simon has been with HBO for 25 years.
From Deadline: The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is on strike.
From Deadline: Disney, HBO/HBO Max, and CBS have sent letters to showrunners (the TV equivalent of film directors) instructing them to return to work, inspite of the writer's strike.
From Deadline: The WGA's chief negotiator, Ellen Stutzman, talks about the state of the writers' strike, including the lack of engagement on the part of the strike's other party, AMPTP.
From Deadline: What went wrong between the WGA and AMPTP? What could they not agree on that led to a strike?
From Deadline: The site explains the WGA strike: the issues, the stakes, movies and TV shows affected, and how long it might last.
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is a harmless buffoon, a clown for whom one can feel love and sympathy and at whom one can feel annoyance. Although he is the lead, Zoolander is not one of those super ego characters that act like a black hole and sucks the charm and life out of interesting supporting characters. This is why Wilson can shine so much as the postmodern, globetrotting adventurer, Hansel. The secret of Hansel’s charm is not his looks but rather his disdain for the obviously superficial Zoolander. Hansel successfully feigns disdain for fashion, but forwards a public persona of one who loves rugged manly adventure. Hansel is Zoolander’s foil and provides a nice dynamic of tension that the movie needs and does not get from its assassination plot line.
, fills each frame to the brim in order to create the atmosphere of his comedy. From wall hangings, to signs, sculptures, and costumes, he uses the visuals to establish his humor. A scene at a gas station is so funny and so well staged that it almost guarantees us a future of excellent comedy from Stiller, and it was worth at least half the admission price.