| | | | What's news: The man who attacked Dave Chappelle will not face felony charges. The Hollywood Bowl will boost security. Cannes will honor Forest Whitaker with lifetime achievement award. NBC has officially ordered a Quantum Leap sequel series. CBS renews The Equalizer for two more seasons. Plus: Frank Langella breaks his silence following his firing from a Netflix show for misconduct — Abid Rahman |
Chappelle Provides New Details of Attack at Secret Stand-Up Show ►"I hate this city." Two nights after a man attacked him onstage at the Hollywood Bowl, Dave Chappelle addressed the incident at a secret comedy show in Los Angeles on Thursday night. The comedian performed at the Comedy Store in the club’s 70-seat Belly Room, and THR was there along with the likes of Kim Kardashian and Sean "Diddy" Combs. Chappelle, who was joined on stage by Chris Rock, spoke largely about the attack, giving his version of events. The story.
—"This alleged attack has got to have consequences." The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office filed four misdemeanor charges on Thursday against suspect Isaiah Lee after the onstage attack of comedian Dave Chappelle. This follows the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office announcing earlier in the day that it declined to pursue felony charges. The story.
—"We are reviewing our existing procedures." The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association plans to increase security following Dave Chappelle being attacked onstage at one of the venues they operate, the Hollywood Bowl. The story.
—Audiences need to "respect the craft." On Thursday's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kevin Hart weighed in on the attack on Dave Chappelle earlier this week. Hart said he was glad that the attacker was roughed up by security: “Somebody getting their ass whipped sends a message out to other people that was like, ‘You know, I was thinking about doing that, but seeing that, I don’t really want to do that.'” The story. |
Amber Heard Details Sexual Abuse Claims Against Johnny Depp to Jury ►"I’ve never been so scared in my life. I couldn’t breathe." Amber Heard, who’s spent more than half of her defamation trial listening to ex-husband Johnny Depp portray her as the abuser in their relationship, wrapped up her second day of testimony on Thursday recounting an incident through tears in which she claimed she was beaten and raped by the actor. The story.
—"I have been canceled. Just like that." Frank Langella has responded to his firing from Netflix’s limited series The Fall of the House of Usher following a misconduct investigation. In a lengthy statement, the actor, among other things, refutes published statements that he fondled a female co-star during a “fully clothed” love scene filmed on March 25. The story.
—Ghost Dog, power, equality. Oscar winner Forest Whitaker will receive a lifetime achievement Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Whitaker will receive his honor at the opening ceremony for the 75th Cannes Film Festival on May 17. The story.
—Oh boy. It’s official: Quantum Leap is returning to NBC. Nearly 30 years since the Scott Bakula-led original series signed off after a five-season run on NBC, the broadcast network has handed out a formal series order to the sequel series starring Raymond Lee. The story.
—Ratification ahoy! SAG-AFTRA members have opted to ratify three-year successor agreements to the union’s commercials contracts. In a vote, 92.25 percent of members were in favor of a tentative deal struck in early April that dramatically shifted the union's approach to per-use payments. The story. |
Box Office: 'Doctor Strange 2' Scores Heroic $27M Opening Day Overseas ►Summer box office back? On Wednesday, the Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness grossed an impressive $27.2 million from 20 material markets, according to Disney. The tally does not include preview grosses in Latin America and Australia. The Sam Raimi-directed sequel landed in North America on Thursday night, with racking suggesting the 28th entry in the MCU will gross anywhere from $160 million to $180 million in its domestic debut and more than $300 million globally. The box office report.
—Hard yes. HBO Max has handed out a second-season renewal for its 1970s-set comedy, Minx. The series, created by Ellen Rapoport and from Lionsgate Television, stars Ophelia Lovibond and Jake Johnson as a feminist who joins forces with a low-rent porn publisher to create the first erotic magazine for women. The story.
—Casting news. The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series at Disney+ has cast two more of its young heroes. Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri will star with Walker Scobell in the show based on author Rick Riordan’s novel series. They’ll play Percy’s close friends Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood. The story.
—Ladies first, second, third and fourth. CBS has renewed The Equalizer for two more seasons, which will take the drama starring Queen Latifah through its fourth year in 2023-24. The show earlier this season dropped Chris Noth from its cast after the actor was accused of sexual assault by two women. His character was written out of the show. The story.
—New faces. FX has rounded out the cast of its Justified follow-up series, Justified: City Primeval. The cabler has enlisted Aunjanue Ellis, Boyd Holbrook, Adelaide Clemens, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Marin Ireland, Norbert Leo Butz, Victor Williams and Vivian Olyphant to join franchise star Timothy Olyphant in the limited series inspired by Elmore Leonard’s City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit. The story.
—Still got the juice. Two weeks before the final season of Better Call Saul premiered, the Netflix debut of the show’s previous season drove a spike in viewing, according to Nielsen’s streaming ratings. Saul's fifth season arrived on Netflix April 4, and was easily the most watched acquired series of that week with 915 million minutes of viewing time. The streaming rankings. |
Amazon Acquires Gen Z-skewing Films From BuzzFeed and Lionsgate ►Won't somebody please think of the children. THR's J. Clara Chan has the scoop on Amazon Prime Video acquiring two films — My Fake Boyfriend and 1Up — from BuzzFeed Studios and Lionsgate for distribution beginning this summer. The two films were created as part of a multiyear partnership between BuzzFeed and Lionsgate to create films targeting Millennial and Gen Z viewers. The story.
—Bah! Will Smith is among the next batch of stars who will appear on David Letterman’s Netflix talk show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman, but don’t expect any confessional TV moment. Alas, Smith’s appearance in Letterman’s hot seat was taped before he slapped and screamed profanities at Chris Rock during the 94th Academy Awards ceremony, so Smith won’t address the fallout from that incident. The story.
—Something for everyone. AMC Networks reported slightly higher U.S. advertising revenue in Q1 and said it grew its streaming subscribers in the period to end March with 9.5 million after closing out 2021 with more than 9.0 million. The company, that owns the brands AMC, AMC+, IFC, BBC America, Acorn TV and Shudder, it will continue to follow a differentiated strategy of offering genre-oriented digital platforms that target distinct fan bases. The story.
—Return to normalcy. Live Nation said it experienced its “best first quarter ever,” driven by strong buying trends at Ticketmaster. In the three months ended March 31, Ticketmaster recorded its second highest gross transaction volume, excluding refunds, in the company’s history, with an estimated 111,292 tickets sold. The segment added seven million net new tickets in the quarter. Live Nation recorded approximately 11 million fans attending shows in Q1. The results.
—Toy story. Former Disney CEO Bob Iger is part of a consortium investing $263 million into the pop culture, toy and apparel brand Funko, representing a 25 percent stake. The investment is being led by Peter Chernin’s The Chernin Group, with online retailer eBay and Rich Paul, the founder of Klutch Sports Group and the head of sports at UTA. The story.
—"Stories that are Made in Italy and watched by the world." Netflix officially opened the doors to its new Italian headquarters in Rome with a press event on Friday, unveiling its upcoming local-language slate, which will include a new series adaptation of the Italian classic The Leopard. The story. |
Thank Pod It's Friday►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio. — TV's Top 5. Lesley Goldberg and Dan Fienberg break down the latest TV news. This week the guys begin by running through the headlines including news about The Prince of Tides TV adaptation, new shows for Allison Janney and Jeff Daniels, renewals for Minx, Julia and Pachinko and a spinoff of Peacemaker. They preview May TV and Jessica Biel, the exec producer and star of Hulu’s true crime limited series Candy , drops by for a chat. And Dan reviews HBO Max’s The Staircase, Candy, Paramount+’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and more. Listen here. — Awards Chatter. Awards analyst Scott Feinberg talks to the great and the good of Hollywood. In this episode, Scott speaks to Sam Waterston. The beloved actor reflects on starting out as a Shakespearean theater specialist, transitioning to screen acting and the challenges and rewards of playing ADA-turned-DA Jack McCoy on 17 seasons of Dick Cook's landmark legal drama Law & Order for NBC. Listen here. In other news... — Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon trailer revealed — Cobra Kai season five premiere date revealed along with action-packed teaser —Fantasia details plans for return to in-person festival for 2022 —Guy Ritchie signs with WME —Tony-winning director Rebecca Taichman signs with CAA —NBCUniversal appoints DEI heads for parks and advertising divisions —Disney’s National Geographic hires Nathan Lump as editor-in-chief —Cinespace Studios bolsters management team with new hires —Cannes: George MacKay, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett to star in drag queen revenge thriller Femme —Cannes: Elizabeth Banks to lead medical drama A Mistake —Cannes: Ray Liotta, Saffron Burrows, Odeya Rush, Eric Dane jump in Dangerous Waters —Cannes: Alex Pettyfer, Maria Bakalova, Tom Hopper, Frank Grillo board true crime feature Branded —Cannes: Guy Pearce, Te Kohe Tuhaka to star in Lee Tamahori actioner The Convert —Cannes: Daniel Bruhl, Riccardo Scamarcio, Volker Bruch team for rally car drama 2 Win What else we're reading... —Delia Cai has an engrossing interview with author Kelly Williams Brown, who coined the term "adulting," on how her life fell apart after her best-selling book came out [ VF] —Ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, Austin Carr (nominative determinism alert) writes that a slick Netflix docuseries has made Americans finally car about F1 racing [ Bloomberg] —David Segal goes inside Moonbug Entertainment, the evil corporation behind the heinous CoComelon that is ruining so many parents' life [ NYT] —It's Friday, so you're getting a list that I enjoyed: "Kendrick Lamar's 20 greatest songs – ranked!" [ Guardian] —Vince Mancini writes what many are thinking: " Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness is a poor man’s Everything Everywhere All At Once" [ Uproxx] Today... ...in 1933, Paramount unveiled the antiwar drama The Eagle and the Hawk in theaters, starring Fredric March, Cary Grant and Carole Lombard. The original review. Today's birthdays: George Clooney (61), Gabourey Sidibe (39), Naomi Scott (29), Adrianne Palicki (39), Stephen Gaghan (57), Tyler Hynes (36), Leslie Hope (57), Lars Mikkelsen (58), Gregg Henry (70), Alan Dale (75), Christian Clavier (70), Susan Brown (76), Diallo Riddle (45), Tom Bergeron (67), Bob Seger (77), Emily Alyn Lind (20), Amy Hunter (56), Geneva Carr (51) |
| Hollywood hairdresser Carrie White, who famously cut hair for top 1960s and 1970s stars like Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor and Elvis Presley, has died. She was 78. The obituary. |
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