| | | | What's news: Maha Dakhil is stepping away from her leadership role at CAA. SAG-AFTRA has issued a clarification on its Halloween costume rules for striking actors. Adele has added 32 more shows to her Vegas residency. Eras Tour became the first concert film to cross the $100m mark domestically. — Abid Rahman
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Why the WGA Hasn't Weighed In On Israel ►"This is something that is weighing very heavily on all of them." Why hasn’t the WGA weighed in on the attacks on Israel after the 11,500-strong union previously issued statements supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and others like #MeToo? Multiple sources tell THR's Lesley Goldberg that the WGA’s board remains divided on how to respond, worried that some of its activist members will oppose any statement supporting Israel. The story.
—"Two wrongs don’t make a right." Dave Chappelle allegedly criticized Israel’s bombing of Gaza at one of his recent Boston comedy tour stops. According to a WSJ report, the comedian initially condemned the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas during his show at TD Garden on Thursday, according to people in attendance. He reportedly then criticized Israel’s bombing of Gaza and accused the U.S. of aiding the slaughter of innocent people. The story.
—"We believe all life is sacred." A group of 57 (and counting) Hollywood celebrities have written an open letter to President Joe Biden asking him to call for a ceasefire as the Israel-Hamas War rages on. Andrew Garfield, Kristen Stewart, Oscar Isaac, Quinta Brunson, Ayo Edebiri, Cate Blanchett, Hasan Minhaj, Jeremy Strong and Joaquin Phoenix, among many others, signed the letter requesting an end to the “devastating loss of lives and unfolding horrors” in both Israel and Palestine. The story.
—"I made a mistake." After apologizing for remarks made following Hamas' attack on Israel, CAA’s co-chief of the motion pictures department Maha Dakhil is stepping away from her leadership role in the division. Additionally, she’s resigning from CAA's internal agency board. Dakhil, whose clients include Tom Cruise, Natalie Portman, Reese Witherspoon, Anne Hathaway and more, came under scrutiny for a now-deleted Instagram post that had been highly critical of Israel and referenced “genocide.” The story.
—Stepping down. Paddy Cosgrave, CEO and founder of Web Summit, one of the biggest technology conferences in Europe, has resigned from his role as CEO after comments he made about Israel received pushback. Cosgrave’s resignation comes on the heels of several major tech companies including Google, Meta and Amazon, reportedly pulled out of the technology summit following his comments. The story. |
SAG-AFTRA, Studios to Return to Negotiations ►Heading back to the table. SAG-AFTRA and the Hollywood studios have finally set a date to return to the bargaining table. On Saturday, the two parties announced that they would resume negotiations on Oct. 24, at SAG-AFTRA Plaza. A core group of top executives from AMPTP member companies will be in attendance. Labor and management last broke off discussions on Oct. 11, with the AMPTP saying that the gap between both sides was “too great” to continue discussions. The story.
—ICYMI. SAG-AFTRA issued a clarification on its Halloween costume rules for striking actors, which has been much discussed online since THR first posted about the rather strict-sounding guidelines Wednesday. No, the guild isn’t backing off its rules, which state that card-carrying actors should stick to generic costume ideas (such as “ghost, zombie, or spider”), rather than specific characters which might inadvertently promote a struck studio’s content. The story.
—"How did I lose? This is chaos." Saturday Night Live castmembers kicked off season 49’s second episode with a satirical take on Republicans’ current chaos in the U.S. House of Representatives. The cold open saw Mikey Day’s Rep. Jim Jordan distraught after his bid for House Speaker failed for a third time. The recap.
—"I would be smuggled a private phone and try to break free. But they always caught me." Britney Spears has revealed that she felt like her family was trying to kill her throughout her 13-year conservatorship. In a new excerpt of her memoir, The Woman in Me, the pop icon admitted that she was restrained by her family and taken to the hospital following a 2008 incident where she locked herself in a bathroom with her son, Jayden, because she was worried she’d never see her boys again. After that, her father, Jamie Spears, filed the papers to enter her into her conservatorship. The story. |
TV Revivals Keep Getting Greenlit … and Canceled ►The revival wave. Television’s IP fetish is no coincidence. Recognizable titles and stars can guarantee strong initial tune-in off of modest marketing. But long-term results are lackluster. THR's Mikey O'Connell looks at the past decade’s worth of revivals and finds that their average life span is three seasons, while the originals averaged eight-year runs. The story.
—Waiting for Bond. It’s likely going to be some time before fans know which actor will take over from Daniel Craig and become the next 007. In a new interview, franchise producer Barbara Broccoli said there is a “big road ahead” before the iconic character is “reinvented for the next chapter.” She added that executives also “haven’t even begun” to modernize the franchise yet. The story.
—"These shows have changed my life." Adele announced on Friday that she is adding 32 more shows to her Las Vegas residency, “Weekends With Adele.” The Grammy winner was set to say goodbye to Sin City in November but has extended her residency into June 2024. The story.
—"Bob and I would look at each other and roll our eyes a little bit." Martin Scorsese has revealed that Leonardo DiCaprio’s “endless” ad-libbing while filming Killers of the Flower Moon began to irritate him and Robert De Niro. In a new interview, the filmmaker said that DiCaprio and De Niro went about their roles completely differently since DiCaprio’s improvisation was “endless, endless, endless,” while “Bob [De Niro] didn’t want to talk.” The story.
—"People like to see me do light movies." Reese Witherspoon has given an insight into how she chooses her film and TV projects, revealing that she's "not meant to be doing dark, heavy, intense, horror, gore, darkness movies." Speaking at the Hello Sunshine's inaugural Shine Away event, Witherspoon added, "I want to make optimistic stuff that makes girls excited to be women in this world." The story. |
'Bosch: Legacy' Boss and Author on S2, Record TV Run ►"The first two episodes, where we pay off last season's cliffhanger, that's not from any book." For THR, Demetrius Patterson spoke to author Michael Connelly about his creation, the no-nonsense L.A.P.D. detective Harry Bosch. Connelly discusses continuing to expand the franchise around Titus Welliver, now the longest-running character on streaming, with the Freevee spinoff Bosch: Legacy. The interview.
—"We really wanted everything to be grounded in reality, especially for Brie and her character and her world." For THR, Brande Victorian spoke to Lessons in Chemistry costume designer Mirren Gordon-Crozier and production designer Cat Smith. The duo discuss the "stylistic twist" behind the Brie Larson Apple series, which marks Gordon-Crozier's fourth collaboration with the star. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—"If you’re ever asked if it’s easy to make someone’s head explode on TV, trust me when I tell you the answer is 'no.'" THR's Abbey White spoke to director Jeff Blitz, who helmed the first two episodes of the third season of Amazon Prime Video's Upload. Blitz discusses A.I. Guy's learning curve and working with Robbie Amell on portraying two Nathans. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—"I’m trying to make everything as realistic as possible." Abbey also spoke to production designer Laurin Kelsey about her work on Netflix's The Fall of the House of Usher. Kelsey discusses building multiple houses, rebuilding sets after Frank Langella's departure, the Usher's distinct colors and those easter eggs to a master of the macabre. Warning: Spoilers! The interview. |
'Eras Tour' No. 1, 'Flower Moon' Opens to $23M ►TS tops MS. Taylor Swift: Eras Tour stayed atop the domestic box office in its second weekend with an estimated $31m for a domestic total of $129.8m, while Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon rode to a respectable $23m in its big screen debut.
Eras Tour continues to break records, including becoming the first concert film in history to cross the $100m mark domestically, not adjusted for inflation. It is also the first independently released film in a decade to make that much in only two weekends, according to AMC. Eras Tour tumbled 67 percent, which is a relatively good hold for the genre. The $15m pic was self-financed by Swift.
THR's Pamela McClintock writes that Flower Moon was never expected to top Eras Tour considering it is an adult drama, among other challenges. Yet it delivered the third-best nationwide opening of Scorsese’s career behind 2010’s Shutter Island ($41m) and 2006’s The Departed ($26.9m), not adjusted for inflation. It also ties with The Departed and Goodfellas in receiving the best CinemaScores of his career, an A-. The box office report. |
TV Review: 'Fellow Travelers' ►"Strong performances, familiar trauma-based backdrop." THR's chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews Showtime's Fellow Travelers. Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey play lovers whose relationship stretches from the Red Scare of the 1950s into the early years of the AIDS epidemic under Ronald Reagan. The review.
—"Gripping, in all senses of the term." THR's Jordan Mintzer reviews Guy Nattiv and Zar Amir Ebrahimi's Tatami. Cannes best actress winner Ebrahimi (Holy Spider) and filmmaker Nattiv (Golda) co-directed this Israeli-Iranian story of a female judoka fighting her country's authoritarian government. The review.
—"A feature-length "OK boomer" joke." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Bill Burr's Old Dads. Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine co-star in this Netflix comedy film directed and co-written by the popular comedian. The review. In other news...
—Mandy Moore confronts Edgar Ramírez in Dr. Death S2 first look
—Meryl Streep and husband Don Gummer have been separated for 6 years
—Dusty Street, pioneering female DJ for KROQ, dies at 77
—Bob George, producer on Drake Doremus Films, dies at 51
What else we're reading...
—Mary McNamara writes that celebrities posting on social media about the Israel-Hamas conflict won’t solve anything and are fuelling the rage online [LAT]
—Ben Beaumont-Thomas talks to Mick Jagger about turning 80, his 8 children, the Stones' new album and missing Charlie Watts [Guardian]
—With the death of Bandcamp, John Herman believes that Spotify has won the streaming battle and is now eating the entire music business [Intelligencer]
—With the release of Killers of the Flower Moon, Jason Bailey looks at how Martin Scorsese has moved away from ornately edited violent set pieces to something more "hard, fast and blunt" [NYT]
—Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza looks at the burgeoning trend of companies investing over seven-figures to create Halloween haunted houses [BBC]
Today...
...in 1992, Quentin Tarantino’s feature directorial debut Reservoir Dogs hit theaters. The film originally premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 21 of that year, vaulting the previously unknown Tarantino to immediate fame. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Ryan Reynolds (47), Emilia Clarke (37), Margaret Qualley (29), Amandla Stenberg (25), Sam Raimi (64), Ang Lee (69), 'Weird Al' Yankovic (64), Philip Kaufman (87), Alex Gibney (70), Dwight Yoakam (67), Jessica Stroup (37), Jess Gabor (27), Taylor Spreitler (30), Briana Evigan (37), Masiela Lusha (38), Marta Kober (60), Jon Huertas (54), Mina Sundwall (22), Beatie Edney (61), Kate del Castillo (51), Bradley Pierce (41), Prabhas (44), Hugh Fraser (78), Manuela Velasco (48), Matt Angel (33), Boti Bliss (48), Sheila Shah (40), Robert Belushi (43), Priscilla Faia (38), Ireland Baldwin (28), Saycon Sengbloh (46), Izabel Goulart (39) |
| Elaine Devry, an actress who appeared in such films as The Atomic Kid and A Guide for the Married Man and on dozens of TV shows after becoming the fourth of Mickey Rooney’s eight wives, has died. She was 93. The obituary. |
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