by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE NEWS:
SCANDAL - From CNN: 47-year-old actor Danny Masterson ("That '70s Show") was sentenced on Thursday, September 7th to 30 years to life in prison after he was convicted on two counts of rape earlier this year in a Los Angeles courtroom, according to Deputy D.A. Reinhold Mueller of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.
From THR: Actors Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis have apologized for writing "character letters" for their former "That '70s Show" castmate, Danny Masterson, who was recently sentenced to prison after being convicted on two counts of rape.
TELEVISION - From Deadline: Warner Bros. Television continues to suspend the "overall deals" it made with some of its top creators. The latest round includes Greg Berlanti, Bill Lawrence, and Mindy Kaling.
DISNEY - From Deadline: The Disney-Charter Communications carriage fees battle seems like the death knell for cable TV and the pay-TV bundle.
MOVIES - From Deadline: At the Venice Film Festival, Deadline site conducted an interview with Oscar-nominated filmmaker, Ava DuVernay, who talks about her new film "Origin" and the state of her career.
TELEVISION - From Deadline: "NCIS: Sydney," the first international spinoff for a CBS Studios global drama franchise, will debut exclusively on Paramount+ Australia on Nov. 10th, followed by its U.S. premiere on CBS on Nov. 13th, with weekly rollout of new episodes on both.
BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficePro: The winner of the 9/1 to 9/3/2023 weekend box office is Sony Pictures' "The Equalizer 3" with an estimated take of 34.5 million dollars.
From Variety: "The Equalizer 3" leads the Labor Day weekend box office frame.
From Deadline: The site examines the career trajectory of Oscar-winner Denzel Washington in "Denzel Washington: Deadline's How They Reached the Top."
MOVIES - From Variety: The site talks to 87-year-old director, Woody Allen, about his new film, "Coup de Chance," and the sexual abuse allegations made by his daughter, Dylan Farrow.
STREAMING - From Variety: Hulu has cancelled "How I Met Your Father" after two-seasons. The series was spinoff of the long-running CBS sitcom, "How I Met Your Mother" (2005-2014).
TELEVISION - From Deadline: ESPN and 18 other Disney networks as well as ABC stations have gone dark across Spectrum, the No. 2 cable TV service in the U.S. Charter Communications, which runs Spectrum, and Disney had been locked in a distribution dispute for at least for a few weeks.
From Deadline: Charter Communications executives say Disney rejected their proposed “New Model” distribution deal for Charter's Spectrum cable service. And Charter says it's ready to move on...
From Deadline: Disney hits back at Charter Communications over Spectrum cable service, saying that it offered "the most favorable terms."
MUSIC/MOVIES - From Deadline: First day pre-sales on Taylor Swift's concert film, "Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour" surpass 37 million dollars. The film looks to have an opening weekend of more than 70 million dollars. It opens Oct. 13th.
From Variety: October, Friday the 13th will be the release date for Taylor Swift's concert film, "Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour."
From THR: "The Exorcist" sequel/reboot thingie, entitled "The Exorcist: Believer," has moved up its release date to Oct. 6th. It's original release date was Oct. 13th, which is now the parking spot of the concert film, "Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour."
WRITERS/ACTORS STRIKE:
From Deadline: The WGA (Writers Guild of America) told its members Friday (Sept. 8th) that despite the united front the streamers and studios (via the AMPTP) have shown in public during the guild’s 130-day strike, several of the legacy companies privately have expressed “both the desire and willingness to negotiate an agreement that adequately addresses writers’ issues.”
From Deadline: Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav says the industry must focus and fight to resolve the writers and actors strikes.
From Deadline: The writers of MTV’s "Ridiculousness" are coming closer to being unionized. The show’s writing team, which was behind over 230 episodes last year, has been going through the process to unionize over the last few months, hoping to join the WGA.
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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