Movie Reviews and Previews The actors are getting on with it Behold! A rare strike-era movie premiere appears. Not a festival premiere, but an actual, honest to goddess red carpet for a new film. Rebecca Miller’s new film, She Came To Me, has an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA, so the cast was able to attend the screening in By Sarah • Oct 04, 2023 10:55 am
Business of Hollywood Intro for September 29, 2023 Dear Gossips, Oh no, the worst possible unintentional outcome occurred—the studios/streamers banded together to form a lobbying group. Far from AMPTP splitting up—damn, I was hoping for that, honestly—Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and other studios with streaming interests have formed the Streaming Innovation Alliance (SIA) By Sarah • Sep 29, 2023 09:17 am
Business of Hollywood It’s the actors’ turn The writers’ strike officially ended at midnight, as the WGA West and East leadership voted to recommend the tentative agreement reached with AMPTP over the weekend. Next comes ratification by the guild membership, which will occur from October 2-9. The new mutual bargaining agreement is effective from September 25, By Sarah • Sep 27, 2023 09:15 am
TV Updates Strike cleanup As we wait for the WGA to ratify their tentative new mutual bargaining agreement, here are some housekeeping notes as the writers’ strike winds down. First, while scripted shows, and films, will be slower to come back, with production delays likely to continue for at least another month as the By Sarah • Sep 26, 2023 01:49 pm
Business of Hollywood Intro for September 26, 2023 Dear Gossips, An interesting interview popped up in Matthew Belloni’s Puck newsletter this week (elsewhere in Puck, Belloni name-checked writers who spoke out unabashedly during the strike, questioning if this will make them un-hire-able going forward. Do not consider this an endorsement of Puck, I just By Sarah • Sep 26, 2023 09:01 am
Top Reads Half the strike is over After five days of negotiations, following 146 days of striking, the WGA and the AMPTP have reached a tentative deal for a new three-year mutual bargaining agreement between screenwriters and the studios. The deal is still “subject to drafting final contract language”, per a statement WGA leadership sent to By Sarah • Sep 25, 2023 09:34 am
Business of Hollywood Schrödinger's strike As Lainey mentioned, the latest word on the strikes is “encouraging yet suspicious”. Suspicious because the only reports are from unnamed sources undoubtedly coming from the AMPTP side—because it’s the same three trades owned by Penske Media, which also owns Dick Clark Productions, an AMPTP member company, publishing By Sarah • Sep 22, 2023 01:01 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Intro for September 22, 2023 Dear Gossips, Sometimes important things happen in the world, and sometimes you find out there’s an insurance company called Chubb. This is the latter instance. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One was one of the better movies of the summer, but it struggled at the box office, barely eking By Sarah • Sep 22, 2023 08:59 am
TV Updates Drew Barrymore got on the right side What a week it’s been for Drew Barrymore. Last weekend, she announced she would be resuming tapings of her daytime talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show. This was not met well, to say the least. Then, on Friday, she posted an apology on Instagram—it was a bad week By Sarah • Sep 18, 2023 10:02 am
Business of Hollywood Intro for September 15, 2023 Dear Gossips, The writers’ strike is entering its 20th week, and things are happening, none of it particularly good. Drew Barrymore is resuming her daytime talk show, with The Talk and The Jennifer Hudson Show following suit. Bill Maher is also resuming Real Time without writers. Bill Maher sucks so By Sarah • Sep 15, 2023 08:54 am
TV Updates Drew Barrymore chose a (wrong) side It looks like the fallout from Drew Barrymore’s decision to resume production on her talk show is not easing up anytime soon. There’s been a flurry of activity since she made the announcement in an Instagram post over the weekend that her show would be picking back up By Stephanie • Sep 13, 2023 12:44 pm
Business of Hollywood The CEOs are squabbling again Fall film festival season is underway, with Venice ongoing, Telluride occurring over the weekend, and TIFF kicking off this Thursday. In the midst of what should be cinema’s most glamorous fortnight, the double strike continues unabated. If anything, we’re going backwards after a series of recent false starts By Sarah • Sep 05, 2023 11:06 am
Movie Reviews and Previews It has begun The 2023 festival season is officially open. The 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival kicked off yesterday, with a notably lighter crowd at the opening day events. Jury president Damien Chazelle was on hand, and the opening ceremony, which included a lifetime achievement award for Italian filmmaker Liliana Cavani, By Sarah • Aug 31, 2023 11:03 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Intro for August 31, 2023 Dear Gossips, Lily Gladstone season is almost upon us. Killers of the Flower Moon was already expected to be one of the touchstone films of the fall, but now it is getting a global wide release on October 20. The original plan was for Killers to have a limited release By Sarah • Aug 31, 2023 09:20 am
Business of Hollywood The strike is about more than just money A former staffer on the Desperate Housewives set is helping to paint the picture of just how toxic the work environment was. In her new book, End Credits: How I Broke Up With Hollywood, Patty Lin, who worked on the first season of the show, says eye contact with actress By Stephanie • Aug 30, 2023 03:03 pm
Business of Hollywood Intro for August 28, 2023 Dear Gossips, The Venice Film Festival will kick off this Wednesday – you’ll recall, they’d originally announced that the opening night film would be Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, starring Zendaya. Due to the Hollywood strike, Challengers was pulled from the festival and pushed back for release; it will now By Lainey • Aug 28, 2023 09:36 am
