Vice to file for bankruptcy if it can’t find a buyer as it becomes the latest new media company to collapse with dwindling revenue and interest Vice, founded in 1994 in Montreal as a free magazine: by 2017 it was valued at $5.7 billion, with 3,000 employees The company had a cable network, more than…
Category: Television
ZUCKER OUT AT CNN RELATIONSHIP WITH COLLEAGUE ‘I WAS WRONG’
CNN President Jeff Zucker resigns over consensual relationship with key lieutenant CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker, the influential news executive who reshaped the iconic network, announced Wednesday morning that he has resigned from his position effective immediately. Zucker’s stunning announcement came less than two months after he fired prime time anchor Chris Cuomo for improperly…
Cosby release infuriates survivors; lawyers hail win for Constitution
Reaction to Bill Cosby being freed from prison on Wednesday after Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned his sexual assault conviction ranged from outrage to cheers. Here are some of those voices: – “Today’s devastating decision to overturn the conviction of a man who caused so much harm, pain, and emotional trauma to so many women is…
OSCARS FALL BELOW 10 MILLION VIEWERS SHOWBIZ GOES BUST
To the surprise of exactly no one, this year’s Oscars telecast won zero awards for viewership. ABC’s presentation of the 93rd Academy Awards on Sunday night averaged 9.9 million total viewers and a 1.9 demo rating (per preliminary Nielsen numbers). That is, quite expectedly, down sharply — 58 and 64 percent — from last year’s numbers (23.6…
Agencies, Studios Debate: When to Drop a Star Who Becomes Toxic?
As publicly reported Hollywood misconduct cases grow in frequency, there remains a lack of consistency with regard to how the industry responds. On Feb. 4, a group of WME staffers convened in a conference online to discuss the escalating Armie Hammer situation. For the past three years, the agency’s client advisory committee has been tasked with…
Trump, on huge White House stage, decrying Biden, radicals
Facing a moment fraught with national crises, President Donald Trump accepted his party’s renomination on a massive White House South Lawn stage Thursday night, breaking with tradition by using the executive mansion as a political backdrop and defying pandemic guidelines to address a tightly packed, largely maskless crowd. As troubles churned outside the gates, Trump…
REDSTONE DEAD AT 97…
He bested business rivals throughout his long career as he engineered deals for Viacom, Paramount and CBS and displayed an unwavering passion to win. Sumner Redstone, the hard-charging mogul who parlayed his father’s New England drive-in theater business into a media empire that now flows into virtually every avenue of entertainment, has died. He was…
Thomas Chatterton Williams on Race, Identity, and “Cancel Culture”
Thomas Chatterton Williams, one of the contributors to the Harper’s letter, discusses what the document aimed to accomplish and whether cancel culture has always existed.Source: Harper’s Magazine On July 7th, Harper’s Magazine published what it called “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate,” which quickly became part of the conversation around the subject of “cancel culture.” The letter, which…
Is the age of the celebrity over?
From the ‘Imagine’ video onwards, the famous have been treated with ridicule and anger during these fraught times – but is this really the end of a love affair, asks Rachael Sigee. Just as the history books will consider the time before and after Covid-19, scholars of pop culture will likely divide their studies into…
SHOWBIZ IN SHOCK…
Hollywood’s Great Depression: Meet the Entertainment Workers Left Jobless by the Coronavirus Pandemic Mac Brandt was one of the lucky ones. For the past six years, he’s made a living purely from acting, appearing in television shows like “Kingdom” and “Arrested Development,” and scrounging up enough jobs to pay the bills without having to tend bar…