On Wednesday morning this week, KCAL/KCBS reporter Jeff Nguyen was walking the fire-ravaged streets of Altadena and flashed back on other disasters. “I covered the Maui fires,” he tells Deadline. “I covered the tsunami in Southeast Asia 20 years ago, earlier in my career, and this is on that level. You see rows and rows and rows of homes that have been just devastated.”
The experience of Carlos Perez will stay with him, Nguyen says. When they met, Perez was digging through the rubble of what used to be his daughter’s bedroom in Altadena.
"It’s just so visceral to see this dad in his Birkenstocks, because that’s what he ran out with, while the gas main at his house was still shooting a flame, trying to find one little thing to comfort his daughter. I don’t think I can ever forget that.”
Along with these potent details animating the portraits of survival and loss, local TV news teams covering the wildfires over the past 10 days have had to contend with swirling misinformation on social media, looking to consistently deliver reliable information to viewers. "With local reporting, you have to be very streamlined and really dig in on a subject matter,” Nguyen says. >>>"Getting It Right" |
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| Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
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Studio-By-Studio Global B.O. Report Cards - At the end of the day, it wasn’t as bad as expected. That’s the overriding sentiment among international distribution executives and other industry watchers regarding 2024’s overseas and global box office results. >>>Full Breakdown
'The Bibi Files' & Mideast Peace - At every stage of release, the Oscar-shortlisted documentary The Bibi Files, about corruption allegations surrounding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, has faced tremendous challenges. The news that Israel and Hamas have reached a deal for a ceasefire and a release of Israeli hostages makes The Bibi Files all the timelier -- and more urgent. >>> The Backstory
Skateboarding Zombies On Broadway - Ollie Mongo, the teenage post-apocalyptic skateboarding zombie who has built a devoted fanbase since his creation as a digital comic series in 2016 now has his wheels aimed for Broadway. >>>Created By Arlene Klasky & Craig Singer |
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“Comedy slowly became rock ‘n’ roll,” says Joe Piscopo, a Saturday Night Live cast member between 1980 and 1984, in the opening episode of SNL 50: Beyond Saturday Night. The Peacock docuseries, which is exec produced by Morgan Neville, the man behind Fred Rogers doc Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, 20 Feet From Stardom and the Pharrell Williams Lego doc Piece By Piece, tells the story of the venerable NBC sketch comedy show ahead of its 50th anniversary next month. Neville tells Deadline that he was initially approached a couple of years ago. “They’ve told their story before. As a comedy nerd, I thought about it, and I said, ‘What I want to see as a fan is not another survey about the history of SNL, but specific stories that can go deeper into the nooks and crannies that we don’t normally get to talk about’,” he adds. >>> Read The Interview |
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Exclusive
Justina Machado (One Day at a Time) and Broadway newcomer Tatianna Córdoba have been cast as the leads in the upcoming Broadway production Real Women Have Curves: The Musical, producers announced today.
Richard Jenkins has been tapped to co-star opposite Jason Bateman and David Harbour in DTF St. Louis, HBO's seven-episode limited series from writer, director, showrunner and executive producer Steve Conrad.
Exclusive
Masked country music star Orville Peck and two-time Tony Award nominee Eva Noblezada are set as the new Emcee and Sally Bowles of Broadway's Cabaret at the KitKat Club. |
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BY THE NUMBERS
$79 - The fine Timothée Chalamet got for riding a bike to the 'A Complete Unknown' London premiere |
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More News 🏌️ LIV Golf, the controversial Saudi-backed pro circuit that has battled the incumbent PGA Tour, is moving its U.S. broadcast rights deal from The CW to Fox.
🎭 Conan O’Brien is the latest comedian to be feted at the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The former host of Conan and The Tonight Show will receive the award on March 23 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. 🏈 Fox Corp. has set a “Tubi takeover” for next month’s coverage of Super Bowl LIX, highlighted by a livestream of the game on the free, ad-supported service. The Tubi presence will complement game coverage across multiple platforms.
🎬 Film L.A. reported that shoot days in Greater L.A. increased by 6.2% in the October-to-December period after 11 consecutive quarters of year-over-year declines. |
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Obituaries
🕯️ Michael Gerety, a former MGM executive and publicist for Julie Andrews, James Garner and others who also served as President of Newslink Corp, died January 13 in Los Angeles. He was 82. 🕯️ Top 1980s and 1990s comedy writer-producer David W. Duclon, who created Punky Brewster and co-developed Silver Spoons, died yesterday after a long illness. He was 74. 🕯️ 2025 Deaths Photo Gallery: Hollywood & Media Obituaries |
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On the Radar
Thu - Joe Biden on MSNBC
Sat - Dave Chappelle hosts SNL
Mon - Martin Luther King Jr. Day; Inauguration Day; College Football Championship
Tue - Netflix earnings |
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'Back In Action' - Cameron Diaz stepped out for a special screening of Back in Action, her first film in 10 years, alongside co-star – and a man on his own personal comeback trail – Jamie Foxx. |
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