Time's Up's Troubles; WGAE At a Crossroads; More 'Picard'; 'Matrix' Trailer

View on web New reader? Subscribe September 09, 2021 What's news: How Time's Up's troubles are overshadowing its larger mission, an election exposes an internal rift at the Writers Guild of America East, why Britney's conservatorship fight isn't over yet, more Picard, AMC's ad campaign. Plus: The message of Halloween Kills, the first trailer for Matrix Resurrections, and the HFPA's new president.  — Alex Weprin How Time’s Up Woes Are Overshadowing Its Mission Beyond Hollywood ►Time's Up's troubles are complicating its mission: Even as the nonprofit faces scandal and a leadership crisis, its signature initiative — the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund — continues to stand up for victims in need, Rebecca Keegan and Tatiana Siegel report. But to some critics, the two organizations are simply too cozy for comfort: "Their allegiance to powerful people now defines them." --“Because of Time’s Up, cases were brought [to court] that otherwise could not have been brought. There’s no question,” says litigator Jill Basinger, who represents Boylan. “That being said, we don’t know how many other Cuomo-esque shenanigans occurred. This just happened to have been made public because the attorney general did such a thorough investigation.” --The CBS case: According to a civil complaint filed in July 2020 naming CBS, [an assistant on a CBS All Access show]  was sexually harassed and bullied by crewmembers — which she reported to several producers, all of whom failed to take her complaints to human resources at CBS. The suit also stated that an actor on the production “raped and sodomized Ms. Weingarten.” In a separate declaration, Weingarten said the actor did not attend any CBS-sponsored anti-harassment training before he began working on the series. CBS declined to comment. "Ahead of her initial intake with Time’s Up, [the employee, Lauren] Weingarten felt elated to be working with the organization, which had commandeered the Golden Globes ceremony that year with its powerful message that sexual misdeeds no longer would be tolerated in Hollywood in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s downfall. (It quickly raised $24 million.) But after receiving a series of lawyer referrals from the Legal Defense Fund over the ensuing months, Weingarten became discouraged. Several of the lawyers were located in the wrong state. One specialized in divorce, while another revealed he had a conflict of interest, something that Weingarten believes the Legal Defense Fund was supposed to weed out in the referral process." The full story. WGAE At A Crossroads ►War over words: A Sept. 14 union election hinges on a perceived split between the interests of TV/film and broadcast writers vs. digital media workers, with one side suggesting that digital writers be spun out, and the other arguing they will make the union stronger together. --“We’ve reached a juncture where we feel that the breakneck pace of growth in that one sector, as well as our shift in demographics and its implications on costs, have brought us to a point — really long past a point — where we need to talk to our members,” says Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, Inclusion & Experience-affiliated incoming vp, current council member and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit consulting producer. In contrast, In These Times reporter Hamilton Nolan, an incumbent staff council member running for reelection with the Solidarity Slate, says, “It’s not a zero-sum game where we’re all trying to take a bigger piece of the pie.” The story. ►Not over yet: Britney Spears’ conservatorship is seemingly one step closer to an end now that her father has filed a petition seeking to terminate it, but there’s likely still a long road ahead and many questions that need to be answered before that can happen, Ashley Cullins writes. --“Overall, once the conservatorship ends, there is no formal mechanism in place to ensure a conservatee has protections in place,” says Benny Roshan, chair of Greenberg Glusker’s trusts and probate litigation group. “The termination order implies the person has the wherewithal to manage her own life. That said, the option is definitely there to construct a support system to ensure there is no backsliding.” The story. More Picard, Anyone? ►Beam him up: Star Trek: Picard is officially returning for its third season on Paramount+. Leading man Patrick Stewart announced the news Wednesday during the live-streamed Star Trek Day celebration, which included news that Picard would return for its second season in February. --Picard was technically renewed for its third season in January 2020 as part of a two-season pickup for the series. The plan at the time, which remains true today, is for production to film back-to-back on seasons two and three of the series from CBS Studios and showrunner Terry Matalas. Filming the seasons back-to-back is part of a bid to control costs and accommodate production schedules. The writers’ room for season three has been up and running for more than a year. The story. More TV news... +Freeform is set to stir up some more Good Trouble. The Disney-owned cable outlet has renewed Good Trouble for a fourth season. The news comes as the drama, a spinoff of The Fosters, wraps its pandemic-delayed third season on Wednesday night. The finale finds Callie (Maia Mitchell) questioning her career choices. The story. ►Streaming video ads? Why not. Ad-supported streaming has increasingly become a popular option for consumers looking to cut down their entertainment costs, according to a Thursday study from the National Research Group and Roku. --Of the nearly 3,000 respondents surveyed between the ages of 18 and 70 who watch at least five hours of TV per week, 70 percent said they were willing to pay for an AVOD service if it meant monthly subscription costs would be lower, the study found. Twenty-five percent of respondents also said they added an ad-supported paid subscription in the past year, while nearly a third of respondents said they added a new ad-supported free streaming service to their entertainment diets. More. 'Halloween' Already? ►It's a killer: David Rooney reviews Halloween Kills, starring Jamie Lee Curtis. "But in this second part of a trilogy spun out of the rebooted property — all set on the same night and slated to conclude with next year’s Halloween Ends — Green has made exactly the kind of witless, worthless sequel that bled the franchise dry in the 1980s and ’90s. It premieres in Venice in conjunction with a Golden Lion career achievement award being presented to Jamie Lee Curtis, who deserves to be celebrated for any number of more memorable films." The review. +Jamie Lee Curtis on the real-world message of Halloween Kills: “Evil is seemingly winning.” “There’s a line in Halloween Kills that goes, ‘The system is broken,'” Curtis said ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival. “Well, you know, the system is broken all over the world and people are rising up all over the world in collective rage against the machine and unjust systems.” The story. ►Speaking of spooky: Owen Wilson has joined the cast of Haunted Mansion, Disney’s family adventure spookfest based on one of the company’s signature rides. Wilson joins LaKeith Stanfield and Tiffany Haddish in a roll call for a production that is described as an ensemble in nature. More. +Casting roundup: Veteran actor Ernie Hudson, who returns to the spirit-hunting world this fall with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, has joined Kate Beckinsale and Brian Cox in Prisoner’s Daughter, a dramatic thriller being directed by Catherine Hardwicke... Fox’s country music drama Monarch has added a real-life country star to its cast. Trace Adkins  will star alongside Susan Sarandon and Anna Friel in the series, which is slated to premiere in January... Fox has set the voice cast for Dan Harmon’s animated series Krapopolis. Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso), Richaro Ayoade (The IT Crowd, Disenchanted) and Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows) will star in the show... ►AMC's advertising play: AMC Theatres has enlisted Nicole Kidman to help get movie fans back to the multiplex with a $25 million national advertising campaign launching on Sept. 12. --Kidman, in the national TV, online and social media advertising buy, proclaims “AMC Theatres. We Make Movies Better” via 60-second, 30-second and 15-second commercials. The campaign coincides with the COVID-19 Delta variant disrupting moviegoing comfort levels at the local multiplex and the major studio film suppliers looking again to send titles to the streaming space. The story. ►Here's one you'll want to se in the theater: The Matrix Resurrections dropped its first trailer Thursday morning, and the tease was eye-popping with astonishing visuals that fans have come to expect from the beloved sci-fi franchise. Watch. In other film news... +Nicolas Cage will star in a western, playing a former gunslinger out for revenge. More. +Michael Strahan will produce a documentary about the, uh, school(?) called Bishop Sycamore, which somehow appeared on an ESPN high school football broadcast despite possibly not existing? More. ►New HFPA chief: Helen Hoehne, a German member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association since 2004 and of its board of directors since 2012, has been elected president of the embattled organization behind the annual Golden Globe Awards, the HFPA announced on Wednesday. --Hoehne, who had served as the HFPA’s vice president since September 2020, was chosen for the top job by a board of directors that was recently expanded and tasked with reforming and restructuring the HFPA “along the lines of accountability, ethics, and greater inclusion of the diversity of world journalism.” More. ►From the battlefield to TV: A veteran’s call to action on Afghanistan. Chase Millsap, a U.S. Marine turned writer for CBS’ United States of Al shares how the show’s staff was mobilized to help during the frantic evacuation of the country. The guest column. In other news... --Former CBS News president Susan Zirinsky will lead a new content studio called See It Now Studios for the company, producing news, documentary, and non-fiction programming for CBS, Paramount+, ViacomCBS channels and other platforms. --Michael Constantine, the Emmy-winning actor from the 1970s sitcom Room 222 who later portrayed the Windex-spritzing father of Nia Vardalos’ character in My Big Fat Greek Wedding,has died. He was 94. --Bob Odenkirk is back working on Better Call Saul, after recovering from a heart attack. --Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is getting a new lease on life at Roku. The streaming device maker will air a holiday movie based on the canceled NBC series, titled Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas, later this year. Production is slated to start later this month in Vancouver. --On a call with reporters Wednesday, NBC Sports advertising sales chief Dan Lovinger said that inventory for NBC’s coverage of Super Bowl LVI on Feb. 13, 2022,is essentially sold out, with only a few spots left and the company “purposely holding them back” as it seeks big deals to sell out the big game. What else we're reading... --"Regina King in her element" [Vanity Fair] --"Kenny Mayne's second act" [The Ringer] --"Lindsey Buckingham won't stop" [Rolling Stone] --"Amazon now makes its own TVs, and the best ones come with always-listening mics" [The Verge] Today's birthdays: Hugh Grant, 61, Adam Sandler, 55, Michelle Williams, 41, Michael Buble, 46, Eric Stonestreet, 50. This email was sent to facestuffs.aaaaa@blogger.com by Penske Media Corporation. Please add email@email.hollywoodreporter.com to your address book to ensure delivery to your inbox. 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