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
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
Hollywood Strike 2023 Intro for August 30, 2023 Dear Gossips, Seems like every week on the picket lines in Hollywood, there’s a series reunion. Yesterday it was Breaking Bad. The #BreakingBad team @BryanCranston, @AaronPaul_8, @Betsy_Brandt, @PeterGould Jesse Plemons and more come together to picket outside the Sony lot for the #ActorsStrike and #WritersStrike pic.twitter. By Lainey • Aug 30, 2023 09:33 am
Hollywood Strike 2023 The Clooneys in Venice As mentioned yesterday, the Venice Film Festival opens tomorrow. George and Amal Clooney don’t have to go all that far to get to Venice. They spend their summers in Lake Como and when you can travel the way they do, it’s not a taxing trip. George, of course, By Lainey • Aug 29, 2023 11:22 am
Business of Hollywood Wonkune is no more After weeks of speculation, Warner Bros. Discovery committed to the folly of pushing Dune: Part Two to March 15, 2024. So far, all other WBD releases are remaining where they are on the calendar, which means the other Timothee Chalamet flick this winter, Wonka, is still coming out in December. By Sarah • Aug 25, 2023 01:33 pm
BFFs Zendaya: In her erotic era In my post about Jennifer Aniston earlier this week and her profile in WSJ. Magazine ahead of the premiere of season three of The Morning Show, I mentioned how we’re starting to see the rollout of banked press opportunities during the strike. As noted in that interview, it was By Lainey • Aug 23, 2023 11:44 am
Business of Hollywood Intro for August 23, 2023 Dear Gossips, Let Bartlet be Bartlet! This probably doesn’t mean anything to you if you’re under 30 years old but once upon a time there was a show called The West Wing and it won a lot of Emmys and some of us still cling to it fondly, By Lainey • Aug 23, 2023 09:23 am
Business of Hollywood Intro for August 22, 2023 Dear Gossips, Three weeks ago, lawyers representing dozens of reality show stars sent a letter to NBCUniversal accusing the network of “grotesque and depraved treatment”. It is widely believed that most of these stars are from the Real Housewives and Vanderpump franchises. The initiative is led by Bethenny Frankel who’ By Lainey • Aug 22, 2023 09:05 am
Top Reads This Week In Strikes Despite negotiations reopening between the WGA and the AMPTP, the double strike continues unabated. Patton Oswalt was picketing yesterday at Warner Bros., joined by his wife, Meredith Salenger, and his daughter, Alice. Credit to Alice for a great picket sign, Please put my dad back to work, he’s annoying! By Sarah • Aug 18, 2023 10:45 am
TV Updates Reese Witherspoon: Back to school but not back to work Reese Witherspoon was seen shopping with son Deacon yesterday in New York. She also posted an “almost end of summer” carousel that included both Deacon and his younger brother Tennessee: As for her look yesterday, it’s giving back to school mom. In her case, the beginning of September was By Lainey • Aug 17, 2023 10:57 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Miss Flo protests Florence Pugh has had a big summer, what with being in the Oppen-half of Barbenheimer, the biggest event of our cinematic summer. But she was also supposed to be at work this summer, filming Marvel’s Thunderbolts alongside Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Ayo Edibiri, Steven Yeun, Harrison Ford, Olga Kurylenko, By Sarah • Aug 16, 2023 10:40 am
TV Updates Bethenny put Bravo on notice The stars of the reality TV world are divided over Bethenny Frankel waging war on NBCUniversal and its subsidiary, Bravo. Earlier this month, TMZ first reported that Bethenny, alongside legal heavyweights Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos, apparently representing dozes of reality personalities, sent a pointed letter to the network, accusing By Stephanie • Aug 14, 2023 02:42 pm
Coincidence or conspiracy Someone yelled at Stephen Amell Talking Man Stephen Amell first opened his mouth and showed his ass re: the SAG-AFTRA strike, calling it “myopic” and “reductive”, two weeks ago. Then, on Friday, August 11, Stephen Amell was seen picketing on behalf of SAG-AFTRA for the first time since the strike began on July 13, nearly By Sarah • Aug 14, 2023 10:13 am
Business of Hollywood The vibes have shifted Last week, AMPTP met with the Writers’ Guild to talk about talking for the first time since the writers’ strike started. It didn’t go particularly well, but we’re over 100 days into this strike now, and not only is the WGA—and SAG-AFTRA—still incredibly engaged and determined, By Sarah • Aug 11, 2023 03:11 pm
Business of Hollywood Intro for August 11, 2023 Dear Gossips, Earlier this week, entertainment journalist and awards prognosticator Scott Feinberg sent an email to studios and award campaign managers, more or less demanding preferential screenings of Oscar hopefuls. Feinberg is the executive editor of awards for The Hollywood Reporter, and frequently hosts their for-your-consideration events and roundtable discussions, By Sarah • Aug 11, 2023 09:10 am
Business of Hollywood Intro for August 10, 2023 Dear Gossips, Over the last few years, I’ve been writing about Netflix’s strategic push into East Asia and the overwhelming success of that decision given the still-increasing popularity of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean scripted and unscripted programming. As the New York Times reported last month, “Netflix is the By Lainey • Aug 10, 2023 09:36 am
