What's news: Hollywood is paying tribute to Hayden Panettiere. Disney's D23 saw X-Men cast reveals, footage from Star Wars: Starfighter and Avengers: Doomsday. Stuart Fails to Save the Universe has been renewed, Deli Boys has been canceled. A trailer for Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse leaked online. And The Recording Academy may revamp the new best Asian pop music performance category after backlash. — Abid Rahman
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Hayden Panettiere 1989 - 2026
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►"Unimaginable loss." Hayden Panettiere, known for her roles in shows such as Heroes and Nashville and films like Scream, Scream 6, Remember the Titans and I Love You, Beth Cooper, has died. She was 36. "It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her — and to the millions who watched her onscreen," her father, Skip Panettiere, said in a statement. Police in Greenville, South Carolina said a "preliminary investigation has not indicated any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances." The obituary.
—"I was like a little soldier." In May, THR's Seija Rankin spoke with the late Hayden Panettiere about her memoir, This Is Me. In the interview, Panettiere opened up about the powerful people who caused her harm and the way her personal tragedies affected her biggest career milestones. The interview.
—"Heartbroken." Viola Davis, Melissa Barrera, Rosie O’Donnell and David Arquette were among the Hollywood figures who shared their memories of, and tributes to Hayden Panettiere, following the news of her death. "I wish the world had more time with you because I had a burning curiosity about who you were becoming. I saw this beautiful Phoenix rising from the ashes. Your tests became your testimony, and your testimony became your legacy. You will be remembered," wrote Davis on Instagram. The reaction.
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Hollywood Scrambles to Address California's Tax Credit Law |
►A big catch. The entertainment industry in California won a crucial lifeline when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $420m boost to the state’s film and TV tax incentives program into law in 2025. Now, reports THR's Katie Kilkenny, stakeholders claim that win is in jeopardy thanks to language in a recent state budget bill that was signed into law on June 29. And they’re racing to pass a solution by the end of the legislative session. The story.
—Almost there. Paramount Skydance says that it has now been cleared by all global regulators to complete its $111b deal for Warner Bros. Discovery … with that antitrust lawsuit filed by the 12 attorneys general now serving as the sole roadblock to the deal being done. The company says that the government of Mexico approved the deal Friday, meaning that 68 countries have now signed off on the mega-merger. The story.
—"Completely meritless." Selena Gomez‘s legal team is speaking out after the Only Murders in the Building star was accused of fraud by investors in Wondermind, a company she co-founded alongside her mother Mandy Teefey and their former business partner Daniella Pierson. Wondermind sued Gomez, Teefey and Pierson for falsely representing their mental health startup’s leadership and partnerships. "We will vigorously defend these false allegations and indeed are filing a motion to dismiss the baseless claims against her," Gomez’s legal team said in a statement. The story.
—Suit filed. CBS News correspondent Matt Gutman has been accused of workplace harassment in a wrongful-termination lawsuit filed by a former ABC News colleague, who alleges he made inappropriate comments while they worked together. Samira Said, a field producer who worked for ABC News from May 2021 until March 2025, filed the lawsuit Friday against ABC News and its parent company, Disney. Gutman is also named as a defendant. Said alleges that Gutman created a hostile work environment through two incidents while they were colleagues at ABC News. The story.
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Alex Cooper Departing UTA
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►Moving on. Alex Cooper is leaving talent agency UTA. The departure comes amid a period of big change, as well as scrutiny about her media company Unwell. On Aug. 12, Cooper announced an investment from WTSL, the Silver Lake-backed firm led by Patrick Whitesell, that valued her media company at a whopping $500m. Cooper has also faced a number of negative headlines after Bloomberg and Vanity Fair both reported claims about staff turnover. The story.
—Disarray... In another defection at the Verve agency, Josh Hartnett is leaving and jumping to CAA. The actor known for 2000s hits like Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down had gone through a couple of bumpy stretches but had been seeing a career upswing since moving to Verve in 2022. Hartnett's exit is at least the second major recent loss for Verve after The Pitt's Noah Wyle, who like Hartnett has had a resurgence in the last few years. The story.
—🤝 Staying in control. 🤝 Megan Thee Stallion has entered a new partnership with Interscope Records, the rapper announced on Friday, as the label will provide global distribution and other support for her label Hot Girl Productions. Interscope is one of the most prominent of the major record labels, but the release calls the partnership “a major milestone in the next phase of her independent career,” further noting that Megan will “retain complete ownership of her masters and publishing.” The story.
—Rethinking things. The Recording Academy may revamp its brand new best Asian pop music performance category after BTS revealed that they wouldn’t submit for the Grammys this year. “The Grammy organization exists to serve all music people, and part of that is working to ensure that no voice or community gets overlooked or misunderstood,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said in a statement Friday. “It’s clear from our numerous conversations with many stakeholders over the past two weeks that, regardless of our intent and desire to be even more inclusive, there are some artists in this space who feel that this category isn’t representing the music they work so hard to create, in the way they wish." The story.
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Disney Unveils 'X-Men' Cast at Packed D23 |
►🎭 Shut up and take my money! 🎭 After years of speculation, and a furious few months of screen tests and dealmaking, Marvel unveiled its X-Men cast at D23 on Friday night. The movie will star Sadie Sink (Jean Grey), Kit Connor (Cyclops), Christopher Abbott (Prof. X), Samara Weaving (Emma Frost), Inde Navarrette (Rogue) and Maya Boyd (Storm). Adam Driver is also among the cast as the villain Mr. Sinister, with the film landing a release date of May 5, 2028. The cast was onstage with Marvel boss Kevin Feige, with Driver making a video appearance. The story.
—Uncle Bob's victory lap. Former Disney CEO Bob Iger was honored as a Disney Legend at D23 on Sunday. He joined a class that included Chris Berman, Jerry Bruckheimer, Susan Egan, Eric Goldberg, Anne Hathaway, Kim Irvine, Dwayne Johnson, the Jonas Brothers, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alan Tudyk, in a ceremony at the Honda Center in Anaheim. A number of big names also came out to support the exec, with Al Michaels, Diane Sawyer, Ellen Pompeo, Robert Downey Jr. and Harrison Ford all on hand to present Iger with the final award of the night. The recap.
—"We’re listening to all of our fans and our guests." Saturday evening at D23, Disney turned to Neil Patrick Harris to serve as a master of ceremonies for what is surely one of its most scrutinized events: The Disney Experiences showcase presentation. D23 of course is Disney’s in-house fan convention, and the showcase panels are used to reveal new projects and make news. THR's Alex Weprin spoke Thomas Mazloum, the chairman of Disney Experiences, about Figment, one of Epcot’s original rides, and the Tomorrowland refresh. The interview.
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Gosling Shows Off 'Starfighter' First Footage |
►Franchise savior? Star Wars: Starfighter touched down at D23 on Friday night, as Disney showed off first footage from the film during its Entertainment Showcase. Ryan Gosling and newcomer Flynn Gray lead the latest Star Wars entry, a stand-alone movie that is set after the events of 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Director Shawn Levy appeared at the event, telling the room of fans that the project “embodies themes of hope and family and adventure” that the Star Wars franchise is known for, but "in a timeline never explored." The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 At D23, Disney also offered up a first look at its upcoming live-action adaptation of Tangled. The clip began with a shot of Teagan Croft, who is playing Rapunzel, from behind, with her long blonde hair cascading over cobblestone streets. The footage then cut to Kathryn Hahn as the duplicitous Mother Gothel, before Hahn took the stage to thank fans for manifesting her casting. The studio also announced a release date of March 31, 2028. The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 On Friday night, Benjamin Bratt was at D23 to announce he would reprise his role as Ernesto de la Cruz in the Coco sequel, which would be set a few years after the first film and see lead character Miguel as a teenager. The actor also revealed that the sequel is set for a November 2029 release. The story.
—"The bunny and the snake will be back!" Last year, Zootopia 2 became the biggest Hollywood animated film of all time, landing $1.87b at the worldwide box office; now, a third movie is on the way. The announcement was made during D23 fan event on Friday by Disney Animation head Jared Bush, with Ginnifer Goodwin and Ke Huy Quan also on hand. The story.
—🎭 Breaking the mold. 🎭 Kieran Culkin is moulding his career to include a new animated movie from Disney Animation. He will voice star in Clay, which is centered on a man chosen to be a mentor — but his mentee is a moldable ball of clay, who he must keep alive on a journey through a fantastical forest. The story.
More from D23...
—Avengers: Doomsday footage shows off a "broken" Doctor Doom
—Avengers: Doomsday tickets on sale for all theaters nationwide
—Frozen 3 first-look: “Royal Wedding” between Anna and Kristoff is crashed by new villain
—Incredibles 3 gets first-look as the kids "take the spotlight"
—Disney reveals Lilo & Stitch 2 will feature Stitch’s pink counterpart Angel
—Disney, Epic launch game that connects Star Wars ride to new Fortnite adventure
—Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino bring Romy and Michele 2 to D23
—Ahsoka S2 brings the Force — and more Anakin Skywalker — with first trailer
—Marvel unveils trippy first VisionQuest trailer
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►WOOF! Spider-Man: Brand New Day continued soaring in its third weekend at the box office as it becomes Sony Pictures‘ highest-grossing release of all time while fending off newcomers The End of Oak Street and PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie.
Brand New Day pulled in $70m to top the domestic box office for its third consecutive frame. This adds to the film’s historic run as it lands the second-best third weekend ever, behind only the $90.2m that Star Wars: The Force Awakens scored in its third weekend after opening in late 2015. Brand New Day hits a North American total of $785.8m for its first 17 days to rise to No. 4 on the all-time domestic chart, surpassing Avatar at $785.2m. Over the weekend, the latest Spidey film also crossed the $2b mark globally as the second-fastest movie to do so, behind only Avengers: Endgame.
Warner Bros.’ excellent dinosaur-centric survival feature The End of Oak Street opened to $21m domestically and currently stands in third place for the frame. Overseas, it added around $26m from 74 international markets. PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie chased down $20.5m domestically for Paramount in its opening weekend, currently in fourth on the chart, and added $48.5m from 52 overseas markets. The box office report.
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'Beyond the Spider-Verse' Trailer Leaks Online
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►"Not a fan of leaks of unfinished, not fully rendered footage." Footage for the next animated Spider-Man movie has leaked online, and co-writer and producer Christopher Miller isn’t pleased. Four and a half minutes of footage from Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse — the final film in the hit animated Spider-Verse trilogy — is making the rounds. Miller took to X to condemn the leak. Beyond the Spider-Verse isn’t expected in theaters until June 18, 2027. The story.
—🎭 Leads in place. 🎭 Diane Kruger and Dany Boon will star as Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, the German-Jewish couple who tracked down former Gestapo officer Klaus Barbie, in Project K (working title), the new film from Netflix France, the streamer announced Monday. Tim Roth will play Barbie in the drama, from French director Yvan Attal. Attal co-wrote the screenplay together with Laurent Turner, who is known for his work on French Netflix crime series Ganglands. The story.
—🏆 Wunderbar! 🏆 Austria has entered the 2027 Oscar race, picking the Sandra Hüller period drama Rose to represent the country in the best international feature category. In the black-and-white drama from director Markus Schleinzer, Hüller plays a woman in rural Germany in the 17th century who passer herself off as a male farmer. Rose premiered in Berlin, with Hüller winning the Silver Bear for best lead performance. The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 Take Off, a Chinese drama about a factory worker who spends his life chasing the dream of building a flying machine, will open in U.S. theaters on Sept. 17, courtesy of Orchid Tree Media. The fourth feature from Chinese director Pengfei stars rising actor Jiang Qiming — currently seen in the Chinese blockbuster Once Upon a Time in the Middle East, which is poised to become the country’s biggest hit of the summer — and is based on a novella by acclaimed Chinese author Shuang Xuetao. The story.
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'Stuart Fails to Save the Universe' Renewed |
►Stuart fails to get canceled. HBO Max has renewed Stuart Fails to Save the Universe for a second season. The pickup for the Big Bang Theory spinoff comes four weeks into its 10-episode first season, which HBO Max says is among its biggest comedy debuts worldwide (though without providing concrete numbers). As the title suggests, the show centers on Stuart (Kevin Sussman), who is plunged into a multiverse of misadventures after accidentally breaking a device built by Sheldon and Leonard. The story.
—Brutal. Hulu has canceled its crime dramedy Deli Boys after two seasons. The cancellation comes more than two months after the six-episode second season premiered as a binge release on Hulu. The show earned positive reviews for both of its seasons, but the audience for season two fell short of what it needed to continue. Hulu doesn’t regularly release data for its shows; Deli Boys has never appeared in Nielsen’s top 10 streaming rankings. The series is produced by Onyx Collective. The story.
—🟢 Greenest of green lights. 🟢 Netflix has given a straight-to-series order for Sid & Zoey, a supernatural mystery/romance from creator Jon Kasdan and co-showrunner John Shiban. J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Blumhouse Atomic Monster are also involved. The pickup for Sid & Zoey comes on the heels of Netflix announcing a premiere date and details for its fall teen drama The Body, a trailer for the YA sports romance Crew Girl, and a live episode of Evan Ross Katz’s Shut Up Evan: The Group Chat podcast featuring several Netflix YA stars. The story.
—She’s back, back, back again! MTV has renewed RuPaul’s Drag Race for its upcoming 19th season, while Paramount+ has additionally greenlit new seasons of the All Stars spinoff. The renewals come after the mainstay series celebrated its 18th season, where Myki Meeks was crowned America’s Next Drag Superstar. RuPaul’s Drag Race also recently received 11 Emmy nominations this awards season, with RuPaul earning his 11th consecutive nomination for outstanding reality or reality competition program host. The story.
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Eric Wareheim Is a Grower and a Shower (of Weird, Rare Plants) |
►"I’m a people pleaser. And I love pleasure." THR's Gary Baum spoke to Eric Wareheim, the multi-hyphenate who changed the face of comedy with his absurdist sensibility. Despite the comedian's often bizarre turns on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, his emporium of strange and wonderful flora is perhaps his most surreal creation yet. The interview.
—"We had to prove that it wasn’t just a fluke." THR's Beatrice Verhoeven spoke to The Pitt's showrunner and creator R. Scott Gemmill. The creative discusses how season one’s insane success amped up the pressure for season two, and teases season three, a tiny bit. The interview.
—"There were people for whom that was a potential tune-out point. Maybe some others tuned in extra because of it. It’s hard to tell." Beatrice also spoke to Howard Gordon, the showrunner of Netflix's The Beast in Me. Gordon discusses the divisive brutality in the series and why Welsh star Matthew Rhys was the right guy to play Nile. The interview.
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►"Even in its uneven moments, the stars shine." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews HBO's Lanterns. Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre star in this DC Comics drama that's more of an action-comedy with a superhero backdrop. Also starring Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan and Nathan Fillion. Created by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King. The review.
In other news...
—Nicole Kidman stars in Troye Sivan's “She’s the Best” music video
—LeBron James launches YouTube golf channel
—Ian Crafford, film editor on Hope and Glory and Field of Dreams, dies at 82
—Kathie Hoops, longtime financial executive at Paramount, dies at 66
—Gloria Carlin, Hanoi Hilton actress and wife of screenwriter Lionel Chetwynd, dies at 84
What else we're reading...
—Joe Coscarelli and Jon Caramanica talk to comedian and man-of-the-moment Stavros Halkias about his new comedy special and burgeoning acting career [NYT]
—Nate Freeman has a story on Leon Black, the billionaire art collector who was closely linked to Jeffrey Epstein, who is still serving on the MoMA board and making the rounds at art fairs [Vanity Fair]
—Ibram X. Kendi writes that the media "lynched" Jason Arday, the former Cambridge University professor who was found dead last week after an unseemly pile on [The Emancipator]
—Joe Wilkins unpacks new polling data that shows that young Americans really hate the Big Tech AI CEOs, more than they hate data centers [Futurism]
—Koh Ewe reports on Niu Lai, the movie that went viral for terrible animation and that has now become a box office hit in China [BBC]
Today...
...in 2012, eOne released David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis in theaters. The film, which debuted in Cannes that year, starred Robert Pattinson in one of his first major roles outside of the Twilight franchise. The original review.
Today's birthdays...
Robert De Niro (83), Austin Butler (35), Sean Penn (66), Phoebe Bridgers (32), Julian Fellowes (77), Belinda Carlisle (68), Martha Coolidge (80), Raphael Bob-Waksberg (42), Taissa Farmiga (32), Donnie Wahlberg (57), Rachel Hurd-Wood (36), Natalie Gold (50), Tim Bagley (69), Tammy Townsend (56), David Conrad (59), Brady Corbet (38), Robert Joy (75), Chipo Chung (49), Larry B. Scott (65), John Marshall Jones (64), Farah Zeynep Abdullah (37), Tara Macken (36), Alex Honnold (41), Ken Kwapis (69)
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Mark Rydell, the director of Cinderella Liberty and The Rose who received an Oscar nomination for guiding Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond, the final film from the iconic actor, has died. He was 97. The obituary.
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