Hollywood News Now: April 2024

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

MEDIAGENIX Scores Big with Four Industry Awards at NAB Show

MIAMI, April 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MEDIAGENIX, a leading provider of innovative software solutions for the media and entertainment industry, clinched an impressive four awards at NAB Show 2024. Ratings Artist and FAST Scheduling Artist seized the Product of the Year Award and Best of Show Award in their respective categories.

FAST Scheduling Artist delivers top-tier FAST channels with advanced automation. At the push of a button, it crafts comprehensive schedules with commercial ad breaks, promos, and branding for a seamless viewing experience.

Ratings Artist leverages the power of AI and Machine Learning to deliver pinpoint-accurate predictions for all content types, tailored to specific target demographics, and with an impressive 70% FTE enablement rate.

"We are thrilled by the industry's recognition of our suite of Augmented Intelligence solutions," remarked Ivan Verbesselt, Chief Product & Marketing Officer at MEDIAGENIX. "Profitably connecting content with audiences is a pivotal challenge in streaming, especially in the fast-paced world of FAST, where extreme automation is essential for economic viability."

For more information

about MEDIAGENIX: visit https://www.mediagenix.tv/

about FAST Scheduling Artist: visit https://www.mediagenix.tv/scheduling-artist/

about Ratings Artist: visit https://www.mediagenix.tv/ratings-artist/

Media inquiries contact:

Ivan Verbesselt, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer at MEDIAGENIX ivan.verbesselt@mediagenix.tv

About MEDIAGENIX

MEDIAGENIX is a global market leader in content life cycle solutions that maximize content value and audience engagement.

In this era of insatiable demand for multiplatform video content, business agility is the key to staying one step ahead of consumption. MEDIAGENIX makes this possible by helping media companies optimize their content strategies, content value management, and content scheduling so they can work smarter, better and faster.

MEDIAGENIX's powerful SaaS platform lets global networks and streamers facilitate rapid deployment and increase monetization across FAST, VOD and other broadcast and digital video streaming media while improving operational efficiencies and cross-platform audience engagement. With MEDIAGENIX, media operators maximize their content ROI by streamlining their content supply chain and optimizing the content life cycle.

Nearly 200 media companies around the world already trust and rely on MEDIAGENIX, including TelevisaUnivision, AMC Networks, and A&E Networks.

MEDIAGENIX is headquartered Miami and Brussels, with additional global offices in Denver, Bangkok, London, Madrid, Skopje, Singapore, and Sydney.

All the Celebrity Couples Who Met Working Together on Set

We all have a celebrity couple we not-so-secretly wish would happen. And more often than not, that's because we've seen the two would-be lovebirds acting out a gorgeous love story onscreen. Naturally, we assume the actors met on set and fell in love, and that's why the story was so realistic — right? With stars like Kelly Preston and John Travolta, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, there's no denying that some stars got together by working together, and that means we'll never stop rooting for our favorite movie couples to do the same.

Of course, we're not saying that every beloved on-screen couple has a set of actors lusting for each other behind it. Outlander's Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan have denied rumors for years that their TV chemistry points to anything more, for example. And A Star Is Born's Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper faced an almost feverish fandom theorizing about their romance — despite the fact that Cooper was still with Irina Shayk at the time.

Finally, it must be said that these met-on-set couples can be as scandalous as they are swoonworthy. When Brad Pitt met Angelina Jolie on Mr. & Mrs. Smith, their love story began — and his marriage to Jennifer Aniston swiftly ended. We love fantasizing about our favorite stars locking eyes and falling in love at first sight — but there's more to a lot of these stories than meets the eye.

Read on for a look at all the celebrity couples who met while working together on set.

A version of this story was originally published July 2020.

Former attorney for Stormy Daniels questioned about impact of 'Access Hollywood' tape

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NBC News' Vaughn Hillyard reports as Keith Davidson, the former lawyer for Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, is testifying about the impact the "Access Hollywood" tape had on Trump's campaign and interest for Daniels' story.April 30, 2024

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Former attorney for Stormy Daniels questioned about impact of 'Access Hollywood' tape 03:03

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Prosecutors call on witnesses to authenticate records in Trump hush money trial 02:01

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'Donald Trump hates it - absolutely hates it': Long days in court crushing Trump's spirit 11:11

The wild, bone-breaking life of Hollywood ‘fall guy’ Hal Needham

Burt Reynolds poses with Jim Nabors and Hal Needham during the filming of Stroker Ace - hulton

Hal Needham was born to be a stuntman. He was taking "crazy" risks as a teenager, long before he was leaping from planes, jumping from high-rise buildings and crashing burning cars in a screen career that would span 310 movies and 4,500 television episodes.

In the late 1940s Needham began working as a tree-topper, scaling and pruning giant sugar maples in Arkansas. "I was always pushing the limits, going as far as I could. I would do all kinds of crazy things," he once said. "They used to call me Squirrel, because I would get on the top of the tree, take off my harness and hang by my toes on a branch 50 feet up in the air."

His collaborations with friend Burt Reynolds, with whom he made two Smokey and the Bandit films, Hooper, two Cannonball Run movies and Stroker Ace, are the stuff of cinema legend. In Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Brad Pitt played military veteran and stuntman Cliff Booth, who is the best friend of movie star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Tarantino's characters were inspired by Needham and Reynolds, with Pitt talking publicly about the "epic stories" of Needham, who broke 56 bones – including his back, twice – during his death-defying stunts. And now we have The Fall Guy, a Ryan Gosling blockbuster celebrating the art of the stuntman directed by former stunt ace David Leitch – whose career is following the path of his hero, Hal Needham.

Needham, who was born in 1931, grew up in poverty as a sharecropper's son in the hills of Arkansas. He hunted squirrels with a .22-caliber rifle to help feed the family. After his education ended at 13 – "I hated school, I could not keep up and knew I would make an ass of myself," he remarked – he was written off as "too small and too dumb" to make something of his life.

Inside, though, he knew he had "the willpower" to succeed. After a spell of low-paid jobs in the early 1950s, he enlisted as a paratrooper. He was deeply frustrated at spending his three years in service stuck in America, despite begging his commanding officer to be sent overseas to fight in the Korean War.

His Hollywood break came about by chance, when an ex-paratrooper landed him a job on the television show You Asked for It. Needham's first professional stunt was remarkable. He had to sit precariously on the landing gear of a 150 Cessna plane, before jumping out and knocking a man off a horse, as he was riding at full gallop.

Needham's fearlessness earned him a job on The Spirit of St Louis, starring James Stewart. Needham's air force training came in useful: he had to stand on the top of the wing of an old biplane as it was doing loops. "I thought, 'Wow. Look at all of the money I made. I think I will change jobs'. And that's how I decided to be a stuntman instead of a tree-topper," he recalled.

Hal Needham (left) was the inspiration for Cliff Booth, Brad Pitt's stuntman in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood

The memory of childhood poverty stayed with Needham, who had not even seen a movie until he was 10. Barely an interview went by in later life without him boasting about being "the highest-paid stuntman in Hollywood". He talked about his pride at receiving a $10,000 bonus for successfully co-ordinating a dangerous stunt in a canyon featuring hundreds of marauding cattle trampling stagecoaches.

Needham was fully aware of perils of stunt acting, especially in an era when safety on movie sets was often a sham. He once saw a stuntman killed during a "stirrup drag", a sequence in which a rider falls off his horse, with his leg still in the stirrup, and is then dragged along by the animal. Needham watched helplessly as the stuntman was hurled into a fence post and died of severe brain injury. Years later, when Needham was the director on The Cannonball Run, a car crash went wrong and stuntwoman Heidi von Beltz was paralysed from the neck down.

When asked what he pondered on during risky stunts, Needham's deadpan reply was: "I think about the residual I got coming". He got paid for each take of a stunt that was filmed and would sometimes persuade friendly camera operators to tell the director they had missed the shot, so he would be paid extra for the re-shoot. "Ching-ching, ring it up," he cackled, recounting the ruse in an interview with NPR.

He deserved his danger money. On the 1950's CBS western TV show Have Gun, Will Travel he leapt 30-foot from a rock onto a moving stagecoach, without wearing any protective clothing. "The coach really looked small. It looked like a postage stamp," he recalled. "They brought the coach, and I hit it right in the centre. But I broke through the top right up to my armpits, and that kind of shocked the folks inside the coach."

Some of his greatest stunts were mind-bogglingly audacious. On Little Big Man, Arthur Penn's 1970 film starring Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway, he was one of a pair of stuntmen who had to vault from a sprinting horse on to a runaway stagecoach. "We then had to do a standing broad jump from the back of one horse to the back of the next one over 14 feet away," said Needham. "There's no athlete, I think, that can do that standing still."

On White Lightning, a 1973 film with Reynolds, he raced a car off the river bank and on to a moving river barge. In the 1976 sequel, Gator, he had to hang from the side of truck racing at 60mph and leap off just before it rolled on to its side. Although Needham was a skilful driver – he had learned some tricks in steering speeding cars full of bootlegged alcohol through back roads in Arkansas – it was a stunt involving a car that nearly cost him his life.

A Hal Needham stunt from White Lightning (1973)

In the 1974 John Wayne film McQ, Needham needed to get a car to roll over as it sped through the bed of dry lake. Using a ramp to cause the accident was out of the question because it would have been visible (in westerns, ramps could be hidden by cactus bushes), so he had to improvise. "We built a cannon 16 inches in diameter with inch-and-a-half-thick walls and welded it to the back floorboard behind the driver's seat with the muzzle pointed toward the ground," Needham said.

In his 2011 autobiography Stuntman! My Car-Crashing, Plane-Jumping, Bone-Breaking, Death-Defying Hollywood Life, Needham said that he put too much gunpowder in the homemade cannon. The explosion sent the car flying 30 feet into the air. When the stuntman crash-landed, he broke his back, shattered six ribs and punctured a lung. "Still, I had invented a real slick way of turning a car over," he later joked.

He was always phlegmatic about the devastation his career wreaked on his body. "I've done stunts when I was hurting so bad I couldn't hardly breathe and yet I would go ahead and do it," he said. He would bathe in Epsom salts and pop Percodan pills by the fistful to deal with the pain. He once said that stuntmen knew that film companies did not want to pay compensation, so they kept quiet about minor injuries. "It was bad for a stuntman to have a reputation for being hurt, and worse yet to report it," he said.

His memoir – which has eye-catching chapter titles such as 'Bull____ Doesn't Photograph', 'From the Outhouse to the Penthouse' and 'Busier than a One-Legged Man in an Ass-kicking Contest' – is full of tales of the movie stars he met after making his debut on a "little bitty movie" in 1961 called The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, which was a vehicle for country music singer Jimmie Rodgers.

In the next two decades, he filled in as the stunt double for James Stewart, Dustin Hoffman, Dean Martin, Kirk Douglas and Burt Reynolds. He did 10 movies with John Wayne, and says he taught the famously pugnacious Duke "the correct way to throw a punch".

His most important Hollywood relationship was with Reynolds. He became Reynolds's stunt double in the early 1960s after they met on the set of the TV series Riverboat. Their friendship grew and after divorcing Marie Arlene Wheeler in 1973, Needham took up Reynold's offer to live temporarily in the carriage house of his Holmby Hills estate in Los Angeles. Needham ended up staying there for 12 years.

Burt Reynolds and Sally Field in Smokey and the Bandit

It was a pretty macho friendship – they would sometimes communicate with middle-finger salutes – and between them they owned enough gold chains and medallions to fill a Fort Knox vault. Reynolds later said that if Needham had been a woman they would have had "the perfect marriage". "We were two guys that thought that the other one was great and at the same time were happy to just have a mirror there," he said.

Needham finally moved out so he could marry his second wife, actress Dani Janssen, the widow of Fugitive star David Janssen. Reynolds quipped that Dani was the first girl Needham had dated "with an IQ over 70". At the western-themed wedding, best man Reynolds and groom Needham arrived at the All Faith Community Church on horseback.

Reynolds helped Needham make the unusual move from stuntman to director, persuading studio bosses to back Smokey and the Bandit in 1977. The film went on to gross more than £120 million and they had a ball making it. Needham joked that they wrecked more than 100 cars making the movie and its sequel.

Hal Needham and his wife Dani Janssen, in 1981 - ron galella

In 1979, they worked on the weird and wonderful stunt extravaganza Hooper, with Reynolds playing an ageing stuntman who wants to prove he's still go it by hurtling across a chasm in a jet-fuelled car. "I enjoyed Hooper. I had so much fun with that. All the stunts were my idea. I thought I knew what would be spectacular and I got to poke fun with directors who were asses. It was payback. It was my favourite movie," said Needham.

The pair went on to have their biggest commercial success in 1981 with The Cannonball Run, a frantic comedy about an illegal coast-to-coast car race, which starred Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Jackie Chan and Sammy Davis Jr. Its worldwide success led to a sequel, Cannonball Run II (1984), which had cameo appearances by Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.

Needham spent some of his new fortune on buying a NASCAR team and he also funded the Budweiser Rocket Car, which was recorded travelling at more than 739 mph, a feat Needham claimed made it the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier. In 1986, Needham – who had once said he would never win an Oscar but would certainly be "a rich son of bitch" – was honoured, along William L Fredrick, with a Scientific and Engineering Oscar, for the design and development of the Shotmaker Elite camera car and crane, which markedly improved the filming of action sequences.

The jet car jump from Hal Needham's film Hooper

Needham, who was 82 when he died of cancer on October 25 2013, lived a heartily full life, with enough adventure to fill three biopics. As well as his stunt work, Needham worked as a bit-part actor. He was killed in the pilot of Star Trek, and was an extra in Blazing Saddles and Chinatown. His real life was also packed with incident. He once escaped the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia by sneaking over the Austrian border, smuggling out a waitress he had met in the process.

In his final years, as a retired Hollywood legend spending his time playing golf and living with third wife Ellyn Wynne, he lamented the fakery that computer-generated special effects had brought to stunts in movies. "That's B.S. They don't work," he complained.

The Fall Guy credits list 95 people responsible for the fight co-ordination and action sequences in David Leitch's film, including the first ever credited "Stunt Designer". The list would have brought a smile to the face of Needham, a man who said his greatest achievement was having been "the No1 stuntman in the world for 10 years".

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ICYMI: Celebrity Beauty Moments From The Weekend

From Rihanna's golden hour blonde color to butterfly hairclips on Lizzo, picturesque beauty looks had their moment over the weekend.

Celebrities turned into framable portraits over the weekend, posing as dolls well within their right. Without a strand out of place, we saw dagger-straight middle parts, precisely stenciled eyebrows, and ridiculously straight lashes. High glam makeup and light neutral lips were drawn in by their smize, while French tips confirmed that this weekend was all about reinforcing the classic standard.

Setting the tone, Chloe Bailey posed in a 'WET' bodysuit– although her bone-straight jet black hairstyle brought all the heat. Like Monica, who hand-framed her reddish-brown bob, Chlöe's middle part and "lace where?" installation made us forget she even had locs to begin with. Rihanna is never not a beauty icon, coloring her hair "golden hour" blonde (According to her makeup artist Priscilla Ono) to pair with her new sunset-ready Soft'lit Foundation.

Zendaya has been quite the talk lately, presenting yet another look: a natural curled bob with square French tips; a similar nail look seen on Keke Palmer and Latto. On the other hand, Lizzo sported playful butterfly hair clips on straight backs, clacking against her loud, bejeweled nails. Although the weekend's nails were paired with either smoked out makeup or natural matte beats, Fantasia (in an orange stiletto set) joined both with her wet stage glam look– confirming her spot (and influence) at the Time 100 Gala.

In case you missed it, take a look back at the 9 celebrity beauty moments that took us through the weekend.

5 people rushed to hospital after being shot in Miami Gardens; Person of interest detained

HOLLYWOOD, FLA. (WSVN) - Five people, including two teens, were rushed to the hospital after being shot in Miami Gardens.

Miami Gardens Police and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue arrived at the scene, located in the area of 1400 NW 197th St, just after 4 p.m., Monday.

The two teens reportedly 14 and 19 years of age were transported to Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood.

The other adults were transported to another hospital.

"Five victims: three adults, two juveniles," said Miami Gardens Police Officer Diana Delgado.

All suffered non life-threatening injuries.

7Skyforce captured an active scene on Monday afternoon as officials place markers in front of a house.

Cameras captured a young woman who was wounded and getting help.

"She was shot in the ankle, or at least has an injury to the ankle, and at first, she was refusing to accept treatment and go with fire rescue. She ended up getting in the back of a fire rescue vehicle and she's on her way over there," said Delgado.

According to police, a fight began off school grounds, in a residential area, between teens but then the parents became involved.

Once it got into the neighborhood, shots were fired.

"The altercation started at Norland Senior High School, with kids getting into a fight. One of the parents came over to speak to another parent and that's when another altercation happened," said Delgado. "An argument started and someone fired."

A nearby school, Norwood Elementary School, went into a brief lock down following the gunshots.

It is unclear who shot the gun or how many guns are involved.

Police have blocked off the nearby roadways with crime tape.

As of 10 p.m, one person of interest had been detained.

"We have a person of interest detained, and we're trying to figure out their involvement," said Delgado.

7News cameras captured the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined by two local police agencies to process the shooting scene.

An investigation is underway.

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Monday, April 29, 2024

Digital Entertainment Group International Names New Co-Chair & Board Members

Digital Entertainment Group International (DEGI) has appointed Johnnie Thompson, director of digital stores at The Walt Disney Company EMEA, as co-chair and added five new members to its board.

DEGI has also added to the board Andrew Stewart, head of Prime Video Store for Western and Northern Europe at Prime Video; Brandon DiMassa, senior VP of international digital transactional at NBCUniversal; Ewa Voigt, director of digital distribution and international licensees at Warner Bros. Discovery; Fahad Durrani, head of product, content discovery and monetization for Google TV at Google; and Paul Newton, head of commercial at Sky Store.

Thompson joins fellow co-chair Ruth Sharp, VP and head of digital distribution at Warner Bros. Discovery. He succeeds Joe Braman, outgoing senior VP of international digital account management at NBCUniversal, who left the company earlier this year after a decade with the organization.

Additional board members include Amy Jo Smith (DEGI), Ana Iglesias (NBCUniversal), David Hare (Amazon & MGM Studios), Greg Tod (Paramount Pictures), Jesper Dahlgaard (Nordisk Film), Laura Broadbent (The Walt Disney Company), Lesley Johnson (BBC Studios), Liz Bales (BASE/DEGI), Robert Marsh (Sony Pictures Entertainment) and Tom Reveler (Lionsgate).

"The DEGI continues to play an increasingly important role in advancing the digital home entertainment industry by providing an essential forum to come together to share knowledge, insights and expertise," Thompson said. "It's a particularly exciting time to be in this business, and I'm looking forward to working alongside Ruth Sharpe as co-chair and with the whole of the DEGI Board as its scope continues to grow."

Bales, CEO at DEGI, said, "I am incredibly excited to welcome Johnnie and The Walt Disney Company as our new DEGI co-chair, alongside new DEGI board members from Google, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery. This is a hugely important time for DEGI, as its international reach and insights continue to grow year on year. The DEGI Board, with its wealth of expertise across production, distribution, product and retail, adds significant value to all our stakeholders. We are thrilled to collaborate with such exceptional talent, thank them for their contributions at the 2024 DEGI Roadshows in Paris and Stockholm and look forward to their participation in London on Tuesday, April 30, and in Berlin."

Celebrity stories buried and disputes over paying a porn actress: What you missed on Day 7 of Trump's trial

Taking the stand Thursday for now the third day this week, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker provided testimony to form a road map for New York prosecutors' case against former President Donald Trump.

From detailing business invoice practices to establishing how deeply Trump was involved from beginning to end, lawyers for the Manhattan district attorney's office had Pecker walk the jury through much of the events that occurred leading up to and after the payments to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an affair she alleges she had with Trump.

Sprinkled in the testimony were juicy celebrity gossip tidbits and revelations about Trump's repeated inquiries about a Playboy model who also claimed to have had an affair with him.

And after hours of dishing new details, the defense tried Thursday to paint Pecker as suffering from memory lapses and operating for his own motives.

Here's what you missed on Day 7 of Trump's hush money trial:

Pecker lays out the series of events

At the heart of the prosecution's case is the accusation that former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen paid Daniels to keep quiet about the affair she alleged occurred.

Pecker didn't make those payments. But he did make payments, he says, to other people who were shopping salacious stories about Trump. And, he told the jury, he was communicating with Cohen about the payments to Daniels, including asking Trump to pay Cohen back at Cohen's request.

Much of Pecker's testimony focused on his dealings with Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who said she had a yearlong relationship with Trump.

Pecker testified that he paid McDougal $150,000 — for both the rights to her story, which he never intended to publish, and for her to write pieces for his publications. He did so with assurances from Cohen, he testified, that Trump would pay him back, at least for the $125,000 he estimated the rights to her story were worth.

Pecker was concerned over the legality of deals with Trump

Pecker testified about new public evidence that demonstrated he was concerned about the potential legal liability for paying for stories tied to a political candidate. That's what prompted him and a lawyer to decide not to seek repayment from Trump for the McDougal payment.

He admitted that his company lied to The Wall Street Journal about the agreement with McDougal.

"I wanted to protect my company, I wanted to protect myself, and I wanted to protect Donald Trump," Pecker said.

Pecker said Trump tried to buy boxes of old research on him the National Enquirer kept

Pecker testified that Trump was fixated on obtaining old boxes of materials and files that the National Enquirer had in its possession. Cohen called "constantly" in September 2016 to request that they be sent to his office, Pecker said, as they were trying to negotiate how Trump would pay for McDougal's story.

At a meeting at Trump Tower in September 2016, Cohen continued to press Pecker about boxes of National Enquirer materials that Pecker brought to New York from Florida.

Cohen told Pecker that Trump was nervous about the records' and the McDougal story's remaining in Enquirer control and that if he "got hit by a bus or the company was sold, he did not want someone else to potentially publish those stories."

'I am not a bank'

In detailing how the payments to McDougal were made, Pecker told the jury that he went to lengths to make sure the rest of the newsroom didn't find out.

Pecker planned to use a company run by a former executive at his company, Investment Advisory Services Inc., to pay a shell corporation that Cohen had established, Resolution Consultants.

"I don't want to have a check from the Trump Organization going through AMI," Pecker testified. He said Cohen advised making a flat-fee payment for "advisory services."

"Because I believe that payment would raise a lot of issues and communicate something to the editors which I did not want to happen," he said.

Pecker also testified that he was tired of making payments. He said Cohen was "very agitated" as the negotiations dragged on with McDougal and wanted Pecker to pay.

By the time it got to paying Daniels, Pecker said, he put his foot down.

"We already paid $30,000 to the doorman. We paid $150,000 to Karen McDougal, and I am not a bank," he testified. "We are not paying out any further disbursements or monies."

Trump asked for updates on McDougal

Pecker said Trump was "very upset" about a video of Trump on Radar Online, a website that Pecker's company had acquired, that described Trump as "being a Playboy man."

The post predated AMI's acquisition of Radar, and he instructed editor-in-chief Dylan Howard to take it down. It included an audio clip of Trump.

Repeatedly, including after Trump took office, he or his bodyguard asked Pecker how McDougal was doing, referring to her as "our girl."

Pecker testified that at a private meeting in January 2017, he told Trump that McDougal "is writing her articles. She's quiet. She's fine." Trump thanked him "for handling the McDougal situation and the doorman situation."

Defense worked to sow doubt about Pecker's memory and motive and prosecutors' tactics

Trump lawyer Emil Bove conducted cross-examination — at first suggesting that the district attorney's office had refreshed Pecker's memories of the events.

"It's hard to remember exactly what happened almost 10 years ago, right?" Bove asked.

"Yes," Pecker replied.

Bove sought to show that Pecker didn't tell FBI investigators that Hope Hicks had been in a meeting at Trump Tower in August 2015 — a detail he then testified to do during the trial.

Testifying under cross-examination, Pecker said he learned from prosecutors about the phrase "catch and kill," which has been used to describe his purchasing McDougal's story with no intention to publish it.

Bove also got Pecker to testify about several other gossip-laden stories about celebrities and politicians he helped kill.

Pecker testified that he helped kill a "Planet Hollywood restaurant story" to aid Ron Perelman, one of his biggest advertisers through Revlon. And he struck an agreement with Arnold Schwarzenegger not to write negative stories about him when he ran for governor of California, he said — in exchange for Schwarzenegger's blessing for a "giant acquisition."

Pecker testified that Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel enlisted his help to suppress potentially negative stories about his brother Rahm Emanuel, who had just ended a stint as the White House chief of staff and was angling for a run for Chicago mayor, and actor Mark Wahlberg. "What Mr. Emanuel wanted was for help with an affair Rahm Emanuel had, right?" Pecker was asked. "Yes," he said. Rahm Emanuel is now the U.S. ambassador to Japan.

Pecker said he sought to use compromising photographs of golf star Tiger Woods as leverage — getting him to pose for the cover of one of his other magazines.

Jurors' attention appeared to ebb and flow

During Pecker's testimony about Daniels, who surged to infamy during Trump's presidency, jurors began taking notes.

But the panel of New Yorkers who are set to judge Trump in the case appeared less interested in Pecker's account of the bookkeeping for payment to McDougal, whose name is less well-known.

Judge didn't rule whether Trump violated the gag order

The prosecution alleged that Trump had made four new violations in the last three days — including during an early morning stop outside a J.P. Morgan building under construction when Trump issued a warning to Pecker and others, saying, "I have a platform and I will use it."

"Be nice," he said.

But Judge Juan Merchan still hasn't ruled whether Trump violated the order in instances that were previously debated when prosecutors argued Trump "seems to be angling" for incarceration by repeatedly and knowingly breaching it.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 5-11

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]

Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 5-11:

May 5: Actor Michael Murphy is 86. Actor Lance Henriksen ("Millennium," ″Aliens") is 84. Comedian-actor Michael Palin (Monty Python) is 81. Actor John Rhys-Davies ("Lord of the Rings," ″Raiders of the Lost Ark") is 80. Former MTV News correspondent Kurt Loder is 79. Drummer Bill Ward of Black Sabbath is 76. Actor Melinda Culea ("The A Team," ″Knots Landing") is 69. Actor Lisa Eilbacher ("An Officer and a Gentleman," ″Beverly Hills Cop") is 67. Actor Richard E. Grant ("Gosford Park") is 67. Singer Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen is 65. Newsman Brian Williams is 65. TV personality Kyan Douglas ("Rachael Ray," "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy") is 54. Actor Tina Yothers ("Family Ties") is 51. Singer Raheem DeVaughn is 49. Actor Santiago Cabrera ("Heroes") is 46. Actor Vincent Kartheiser ("Mad Men") is 45. Singer Craig David is 43. Actor Danielle Fishel ("Boy Meets World") is 43. Actor Henry Cavill ("Man of Steel," ″The Tudors") is 41. Bassist Josh Smith of Halestorm is 41. Singer Adele is 36. Singer Chris Brown is 35.

May 6: Singer Jimmie Dale Gilmore is 79. Singer Bob Seger is 79. Singer and comedian Lulu Roman ("Hee Haw") is 78. Actor Alan Dale ("Lost," ″Ugly Betty") is 77. Actor Richard Cox ("Alpha House," ″American Tragedy") is 76. Host Tom Bergeron ("Dancing with the Stars," new "Hollywood Squares") is 69. Actor Roma Downey ("Touched by an Angel") is 64. Singer John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants is 64. Actor Julianne Phillips is 64. Actor George Clooney is 63. Child actor turned rodeo star Clay O'Brien ("The Apple Dumpling Gang") is 63. Singer-bassist Tony Scalzo of Fastball is 60. Actor Leslie Hope ("24") is 59. Actor Geneva Carr ("Bull") is 58. Guitarist Mark Bryan of Hootie and the Blowfish is 57. Guitarist Chris Shiflett of Foo Fighters is 53. Actor Stacey Oristano ("Bunheads," ″Friday Night Lights") is 45. Actor Adrianne Palicki ("Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.") is 41. Actor Gabourey Sidibe ("Precious") is 41. Come dian Sasheer Zamata ("Saturday Night Live") is 38. Rapper Meek Mill is 37. Actor Naomi Scott (2019's "Aladdin") is 31. Actor Noah Galvin ("The Good Doctor") is 30.

May 7: Singer Thelma Houston is 81. Actor Robin Strasser ("One Life to Live," "Passions") is 79. Singer-songwriter Bill Danoff (Starland Vocal Band) is 78. Drummer Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead is 78. Drummer Prairie Prince (The Tubes) is 74. Director Amy Heckerling ("Clueless," "Fast Times at Ridgemont High") is 72. Actor Michael E. Knight ("All My Children") is 65. Guitarist Phil Campbell of Motorhead is 63. Actor Traci Lords is 56. Actor Morocco Omari ("Empire") is 54. Singer Eagle-Eye Cherry is 53. Actor Breckin Meyer ("Herbie: Fully Loaded," "Road Trip") is 50. Drummer Matt Helders of Arctic Monkeys is 38. Comedian Aidy Bryant ("Saturday Night Live") is 37. Actor Alexander Ludwig ("Vikings," "The Hunger Games") is 32. Actor Dylan Gelula ("Jennifer Falls," "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt") is 30.

May 8: Singer Toni Tennille is 84. Country singer Jack Blanchard is 82. Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett is 79. Actor Mark Blankfield ("Robin Hood: Men in Tights," ″The Incredible Shrinking Woman") is 76. Drummer Chris Frantz of Talking Heads and of Tom Tom Club is 73. Singer Philip Bailey (solo and with Earth, Wind and Fire) is 73. Country musician Billy Burnette is 71. Drummer Alex Van Halen of Van Halen is 71. Actor David Keith is 70. Actor Raoul Max Trujillo ("Mayans M.C.") is 69. "The NFL Today" commentator and former NFL coach Bill Cowher is 67. Actor Melissa Gilbert is 60. Drummer Dave Rowntree of Blur is 60. Drummer Del Gray of Little Texas is 56. Singer Darren Hayes (Savage Garden) is 52. Singer Enrique Iglesias is 49. Singer Joe Bonamassa is 47. Actor Matt Davis ("The Vampire Diaries") is 46. Actor Domhnall Gleason ("Peter Rabbit," ″Unbroken") is 41. Drummer Patrick Meese of Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats is 41. Actor Julia Whelan ("Once and Again") is 40.

May 9: Producer-director James L. Brooks is 87. Guitarist Sonny Curtis of Buddy Holly and The Crickets is 87. Singer Tommy Roe is 82. Singer-guitarist Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield, Poco) is 80. Actor Candice Bergen is 78. Singer Clint Holmes is 78. Actor Anthony Higgins ("Raiders of the Lost Ark") is 77. Musician Billy Joel is 75. Bassist Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick is 74. Actor Alley Mills ("The Bold and the Beautiful," "The Wonder Years") is 73. Actor Amy Hill ("Magnum P.I.") is 71. Actor Wendy Crewson ("Revenge") is 68. Actor John Corbett ("My Big Fat Greek Wedding," ″Northern Exposure") is 63. Singer David Gahan of Depeche Mode is 62. Actor Sonja Sohn ("Body of Proof," ″The Wire") is 60. Rapper Ghostface Killah of Wu-Tang Clan is 54. Guitarist Mike Myerson of Heartland is 53. Actor Chris Diamantopoulos ("Episodes," ″24″) is 49. Singer Tamia is 49. Trombonist Dan Regan of Reel Big Fish is 47. Singer Pierre Bouvier of Simple Plan is 45. Actor Rosario Dawson is 45. Musician Andrew W.K. is 45. Actor Rachel Boston ("Witches of East End," ″In Plain Sight," ″American Dreams") is 42. TV personality Audrina Patridge ("The Hills") is 39. Actor Grace Gummer ("American Horror Story," ″The Newsroom") is 38.

May 10: Actor David Clennon ("thirtysomething") is 81. Filmmaker Jim Abrahams ("The Naked Gun," "Airplane!") is 80. Singer Donovan is 78. Singer Graham Gouldman of 10cc is 78. Singer Dave Mason is 78. Sports anchor Chris Berman is 69. Actor Bruce Penhall ("CHiPs") is 67. Actor Victoria Rowell ("The Young and the Restless") is 65. Singer Bono of U2 is 64. Drummer Danny Carey of Tool is 63. Actor Darryl M. Bell ("A Different World") is 61. Model Linda Evangelista is 59. Rapper Young MC is 57. Actor Erik Palladino ("ER") is 56. Singer Richard Patrick of Filter is 56. Actor Lenny Venito ("Kevin Can Wait") is 55. Actor Dallas Roberts ("Dallas Buyers Club," ″The Good Wife") is 54. Actor Leslie Stefanson ("The Hunted," ″The General's Daughter") is 53. Actor Todd Lowe ("True Blood," ″Gilmore Girls") is 52. Actor Andrea Anders ("Joey") is 49. Bassist Jesse Vest of Tantric and of Days of the New is 47. Actor Kenan Thompson ("Sa turday Night Live," ″Kenan and Kel") is 46. Singer Jason Dalyrimple of Soul For Real is 44. Drummer Joey Zehr of The Click Five is 41. Actor Lindsey Shaw ("Pretty Little Liars") is 35. Actor Lauren Potter ("Glee") is 34.

May 11: Singer Eric Burdon (The Animals, War) is 83. Actor Pam Ferris ("Call the Midwife") is 76. Actor Shohreh Aghdashloo ("24″) is 72. Actor Frances Fisher ("Resurrection," ″Titanic") is 72. Actor Boyd Gaines is 71. Drummer Mark Herndon (Alabama) is 69. Former MTV VJ Martha Quinn is 65. Country singer Tim Raybon of The Raybon Brothers is 61. Actor Tim Blake Nelson ("Lincoln," ″O Brother, Where Art Thou?") is 60. Actor Jeffrey Donovan (TV's "Fargo") is 56. Bassist Keith West of Heartland is 56. Actor Nicky Katt ("Boston Public") is 53. Actor Coby Bell ("Third Watch") is 49. Cellist Perttu Kivilaakso of Apocalyptica is 46. Actor Austin O'Brien ("Last Action Hero") is 43. Actor Jonathan Jackson ("Nashville," ″Tuck Everlasting") is 42. Rapper Ace Hood is 36. Singer Prince Royce is 35. Actor Annabelle Attanasio ("Bull") is 31. Musician Howard Lawrence of Disclosure is 30.

Another Reality TV Show Canceled Despite Big Ratings: New Report Claims 'I'm A Celebrity... South Africa' Is Done

The series was 'one of the biggest entertainment shows of the year,' an ITV spokesperson said when confirming that cancellation news.

Campmates will not be returning to Kruger National Park for a second season of I'm A Celebrity South Africa. After just a single, which aired in celebration of the flagship show's 20th anniversary and was hosted by Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, ITV has canceled the popular All Star edition, despite big ratings and a star-studded cast.

"ITV have decided I'm A Celebrity South Africa will not return this year and there are currently no plans for another series," an insider told The Sun. "This will come as a disappointment to fans as Ant and Dec had previously hinted that it would be back and it was expected that it would be an annual thing."

Premiering in April 2023 with the premise being an All Star edition of the flagship British series, I'm A Celebrity South Africa brought back campmates including Helen Flanagan, Joe Swash, and Phil Tufnell for another epic adventure filmed in South Africa's Kruger National Park. Although a spinoff of the flagship series, the show did have some differences, mainly doing with the fact that it was pre-recorded, something that eliminated both public votes and audience interaction. Campmates' fates were instead determined by trials, with Season 6 runner-up Myleene Klass ultimately being crowned winner after defeating Season 16 campmate Jordan Banjo in the final survival trial.

The show did spark some upset among viewers over the formatting and voting changes, but it still managed to reel in massive numbers, averaging more than 5 million viewers per episode. However, confirming the cancellation, an ITV spokesperson indicated that the series was intended as a one-off show in celebration of I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here's 20th anniversary.

"I'm A Celebrity... South Africa was commissioned to air in 2023 to celebrate favourite campmates from the past 20 years as they returned to the jungle," the spokesperson said. "The series was one of the biggest entertainment shows of the year averaging 5.2million across its consecutive weeknight run and reaching over one million 16-34s for the launch episode. It was never planned for the series to return again this year."

While I'm A Celebrity South Africa will not be returning in 2024, it seems hope is not completely lost. Both McPartlin and Donnelly previously hinted at returning for future seasons. The Sun's insider also said "it may well return in the future so it's not necessarily gone for good, but it definitely won't be happening this year and there is nothing set in stone for when it will be."

Ryan Gosling surprises Universal Studios Hollywood guests at stunt show

Ryan Gosling has been making the rounds promoting his new film â€œThe Fall Guy,â€ and what better place to highlight a stuntman-focused flick than a real-life stunt show?

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Gosling appeared Saturday in the pre-show of â€œWaterworldâ€ at Universal Studios Hollywood as part of â€œThe Fall Guy Stuntacular Pre-Show,â€ Deadline reported.

He sported a black and yellow coat with â€œThe Fall Guyâ€ printed in large block letters on the back, and was joined by â€œThe Fall Guyâ€ director David Leitch, who was planted in the crowd and wearing the same coat.

The performers tried to get Gosling to participate in some of the stunts, but he told them and the crowd, â€œNo, I just came out to say hi.â€ He also urged the fans to go see the film, which hits theaters on May 3.

â€œThe Fall Guyâ€ pre-show is scheduled to run through May 19 at Universal Studios Hollywood.

People magazine reported that the stunt-show appearance was one of several takeovers that Gosling has done to promote the film. He earlier filled in on Instagram for Seth Phillips, who is known as @dudewithsign, with Gosling holding a sign that read â€Filling In As Dudewithsignâ€™s Stunt Double.â€

The film is based on the 1980s television show of the same name, with Gosling taking over the lead role from Lee Majors. Goslingâ€™s Colt Seavers is a stuntman who leaves the business to help his physical and mental health but is called in to help his ex, director Jody Moreno â€" played by Emily Blunt â€" on her new big-budget film. Moreno goes missing and he has to save her, Deadline reported.

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Ryan Gosling through the years LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 29: Actor Ryan Gosling attends The 23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 29, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. 26592_012 (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for TNT) (Christopher Polk)

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Huge Hollywood star, 60, unrecognisable with silver hair as he pops up at glitzy bash in tuxedo

After over a year of absence, Mike Myers made a rare public outing as he attended the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award Gala Tribute on Saturday and stunned fans with a new look

Mike Myers stunned his fans online with a new look (

Image: Getty Images for AFI)

Mike Myers has traded in his shaggy locks for a silver buzzcut and looked unrecognisable at his first public event in over a year on Saturday.

The actor, 60, returned to the spotlight to attend the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award Gala Tribute at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre, in honour of Nicole Kidman, cutting a dapper figure in a black tuxedo.

Appearing on the star-studded red carpet, which included the likes of Meryl Streep and Morgan Freeman, the Shrek and Austin Powers star was in good spirits next to Top Gun actor Miles Teller, sporting his new hairdo and grey stubble - worlds away from the shaggy brown hair and clean face he maintained through most of his career.

Mike Myers looked in good spirits as he sported a very different look - and fans showered him with compliments (

Image:

Getty Images for Warner Bros. Di)

Mike flaunted his new appearance on stage, walking into the limelight wearing a black cloak and a Venetian mask, a direct reference to Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, starring Nicole Kidman and former husband Tom Cruise, and dramatically removing his mask to reveal himself ahead of a speech.

Fans were quick to compliment the star on his changed look on social media, particularly on X, formerly known as Twitter. "He looks great! He very much still resembles his younger self. He's 60 & besides the lack of pigment he has a very youthful look to him," one of them notably penned.

Another echoed: "He seriously has a baby face! He looks great! I like his hair colour," while a third added: "Right!!!! He looks fine." One social media user was in awe as they chimed in: "Wow. He looks good to me."

Mike's latest appearance comes after almost two years of absence as he took on his last on-screen role in David O. Russell's Amsterdam in 2022. That same year, he created and starred in the Netflix series The Pentaverate before revealing he wasn't ruling out a fourth instalment of Austin Powers, the most famous franchise of his long career.

"I can neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of such a project, should it exist or not exist. [Thatâ€™s a] non-confirmed confirmation confirmation," he said during an appearance on The Jess Cagle Show. Rumours have been swirling around the film series for years with Mike Myers teasing the potential new movie as early as 2018.

"Well you're going to see Dr. Evil soon, somewhere in the culture. But the movie, you know I've had three kids under the age of seven. They take a long time to write, they always have. Jay [Roach]'s been super crazy. He's doing a fantastic movie right now that he's working on. But it's looking good", he had told Access Online at the time.

Mike shares a low-key life with his artist wife Kelly Tisdale, 47, and their children Spike, 12, Sunday, 10, and Paulina, 8. But while his fans may be impatient to see him back on the silver screen, members of his own family are "remarkably unexcited" about his upcoming projects. "Theyâ€™re remarkably unexcited about anything [I do]," he joked during an interview with People Magazine. "You know, which is great."

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Demi Lovato Joins Celebrity Friends At Baby2Baby Mother’s Day Celebration

Demi Lovato hung out with Jordana Brewster, Leslie Mann, Jenna Dewan and Ali Wong at the Baby2Baby Mother's Day Celebration at The Grove in Los Angeles.

Lovato showed up wearing a denim jacket and a floral dress. Wong was rocking a baby bump, Dewan was in shades protecting her eyes, and Bruster and Mann were in black-and-white outfits.

Baby2Baby is an organization based in Los Angeles that helps impoverished children have essentials such as clothes.

In December, Lovato got engaged to her fiancé Jordan Lutes. The couple met in 2022 when Lutes was writing for Lovato's 2022 rock album, Holy F—-.

Lovato remembered when she was about to meet him in a September LadyGang podcast.

"He came into the session and I literally was like, 'Who is this guy?' I texted my friends and was like, 'Oh my God, the hottest guy just walked in," she said. "I am so nervous. I don't know what to do with myself."

After Period of Chastity, Hollywood Movies Embrace Sex Again

LOS ANGELES — Zendaya, clad in a skintight dress, gyrates on a dance floor in "Challengers," a $56 million sports drama that arrived in multiplexes Friday. "It's getting hot in here," the hip-hop soundtrack intones, as she closes her eyes and runs her hands through her hair, lost in fantasy. "So take off all your clothes."

The story continues at a motel, where Zendaya, playing a tennis prodigy, begins a menage a trois with two guys; it fizzles after they become more interested in each other. The plot moves on — to sultry interplay on the hood of a car, in a dorm room, in the back seat of a car, on the wooden slats of a saun a. There is erotic churro eating.

"Sex is back!" shouted an apparently elated man at the conclusion of a prerelease "Challengers" screening in West Hollywood, California, this month.

Trend spotting in cinema is a hazardous pursuit. Think about how many times the rom-com has been declared dead — and alive — and dead. (No, wait, alive.) But this much can be said with surety: Hollywood is hornier than it has been in years.

"It absolutely feels like the pendulum has swung back toward filmmakers exploring adult relationships and sexuality in their projects," said Amy Pascal, the former chair of Sony Pictures and producing f orce behind "Challengers."

"I welcome that," she added.

Eroticism used to be common in studio movies like "Challengers," which was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. "Body Heat," "Basic Instinct," "An Officer and a Gentleman," "Fatal Attraction," "Disclosure," "Cruel Intentions" and "Eyes Wide Shut" are among the many examples from the 1980s and '90s.

In the 2000s, however, film companies started to obsessively focus on PG-13 franchises and animation — genres that could play to a global audience and sell merchandise. Studios also wanted to expand into China, where censors do not allow sex scenes. As a result, steamy storytelling began to dwindle on the big screen (except at art house theaters). Premium television picked up the slack.

Sex in mainstream movies was "pretty much gone" by 2019, as Ann Hornaday, chief film critic for The Washington Post, wrote in a column that year. A few months later, Kate Hagen, writi ng in Playboy magazine, found that only about 1.2% of films released between 2010 and 2020 contained an overt sex scene, the lowest decade total since the 1960s. (It peaked in the 1990s. Coincidentally or not, that was the decade when pornography started to become available online.)

Now, some filmmakers are pushing back.

Awards season brought "Saltburn," with its arousing-disturbing bathtub scene and Barry Keoghan's twirling, full-frontal finale. "Poor Things" found an insatiable Emma Stone romping through a Paris brothel. Christopher Nolan filmed the first sex scenes of his 35-year career for "Oppenheimer." ("More interested in the joys of sex than any recent season I can remember," as Kyle Buchanan, awards columnist for The New York Times, described the crop of contenders in February.)

Over the past year, the trickle of R-rated sex comedies in theaters turned into a relative torrent. "Anyone but You" found Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell going at it. "No Hard Feelings" starred Jennifer Lawrence as a kinda-sorta prostitute on a mission to deflower an awkward student. The libidinous "Bottoms," "Back on the Strip" and "Joy Ride" also tried mixing sex with laughs.

In late May, Powell will return to theaters in the comedic "Hit Man," about an undercover agent who begins a smoking-hot affair with a suspect, played by Adria Arjona. In addition to acting in the R-rated film, he co-wrote the screenplay with Richard Linklater and served as a producer. (It will arrive on Netflix in June.)

"'Body Heat' was one of the inspirations," Powell said in January, when "Hit Man" debuted t o rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. "There aren't many sex scenes in movies anymore, and certainly not many that are done well."

He continued, "'Body Heat' has a lot of foreplay, which is one reason it feels so intense — steamy, carnal." ("Body Heat," released in 1981, starred Kathleen Turner as a wealthy woman who plots the murder of her husband while having a torrid affair with a sleazy lawyer, played by William Hurt.)

The multiplex lineup for this summer includes "Deadpool & Wolverine," from Disney-owned Marvel Studios; a trailer included a joke about an intimate act involving a sex toy. (The activity "isn't new for me," Ryan Reynolds jokes as the mischievous Deadpool, "but it is for Disney.") "Blink Twice," a twisted thriller starring Channing Tatum as a mogul who lures women to a private retreat, is scheduled for release in August.

The upturn may simply be a scheduling quirk. "Challengers" was supposed to come out last year, but it was delayed because of union strikes. Its arrival now — sandwiched between "Poor Things" and "Hit Man" — could be creating the false appearance of a film industry turn.

But there are signs that suggest a genuine shift. One involves intimacy coordinators, or experts who help performers navigate the awkwardness of filming sex scenes. Their inclusion on sets, once a rarity, became common after the #MeToo movement of the late 2010s. Film producers say stars have become more willing to participate in simulated intimacy as a result.

Young screenwriters and directors also seem to be rediscovering movies like "American Gigolo" (1980) and "9 1/2 Weeks" (1986) and drawing inspiration. Some studio executives say filmmakers such as Luca Guadagnino, who directed "Challengers," are interested in exploring changing attitudes about sex — as seen in the rise of OnlyFans and the shame-free embrace of sexual fluidity by younger millenni als and Generation Z. (One counterpoint: In a study last year by the Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA, about 52% of respondents ages 13 to 24 said they wanted movies and TV shows to focus more on friendships and platonic relationships.)

Perhaps contributing a degree of sexual liberation: Studios have stopped chasing China, where ticket buyers have turned against Hollywood movies en masse.

So far, results at the box office have been mixed. "Anyone but You," made by Sony for $25 million, collected a hefty $219 million this year, while "Poor Things," which cost Searchlight Pictures $35 million, took in a solid $117 million. Other attempts ("Joy Ride," "No Hard Feelings") have disappointed or fizzled entirely.

Reviews for "Challengers" have been extremely positive. Box office analysts expect it to collect roughly $15 million in its debut weekend in the United States and Canada, where it is playing in 3,400 theaters, enough for No. 1.

c.2024 The New York Times Company

Sunday, April 28, 2024

Hollywood Forfeits $30 Billion By Failing To Engage Diverse Audiences

By not providing content for Black audiences specifically, Hollywood has lost a reported $10 billion.

Over the last four years, McKinsey & Company has produced three separate reports indicating that Hollywood has effectively lost $30 billion by not engaging in diversified business solutions. The failure of Hollywood to engage Black, Latinx, and Asian-American/Pacific Islander communities through various means has respectively cost the film industry $10 billion, $12-$18 billion, and $2-$4.4 billion.

As the Hollywood Reporter reports, there is a significant disparity in the Asian-American/Pacific Islander representation in Hollywood. The Asian portion of the designation received the bulk of the representation. At the same time, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders were left to be represented by five men, most notably Jason Momoa and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

In April's report, the McKinsey Company's authors note that companies are leaving billions of dollars on the table by not substantially engaging diverse audiences. "As our research and analysis have demonstrated, executives don't need to act out of altruism," they write, "The reward for getting it right could create real impact for the industry — and the prize will only grow. Progress may not be easy, but when the enhanced richness of storytelling is accompanied by a multi-billion-dollar opportunity, the business case is clear."

In 2021, McKinsey's report on the lack of Black representation indicated sparse representation in off-camera roles and a Black executive who spoke to McKinsey indicated that the lack of diversity carried over to the production of projects as well. "Many former studio execs get production deals as independent producers affiliated with the studio, so whatever inequity is prevalent in the studios will carry over to the mix of producers."

A Black writer described the issue of finding an agent, particularly one who related to Black people, telling McKinsey, "Even though I was staff writing on a popular, well-received show, it was still tough to find an agent. Your average agent is a 50-year-old white guy…who never had to stretch to see [himself] in other people or spaces. So [such agents will] have a harder time representing people they don't personally relate to."

In March, a similar devaluing of Latinx representation both in front of and behind the camera was evaluated by McKinsey, and as one Latinx producer told the company, "There is no shortage of actors. Almost a surplus of writers. The broken part is the business side: they don't know how to support or market content made by Latinos."

Additionally, the writers of the report directly tied the roles of Black and Latinx off-screen talent together; both groups are inevitably tasked with providing members of their ethnic groups with jobs.

"As with Black representation in film and television, Latinos who rise to prominence in the industry play an outsize role in providing opportunities to other Latino talent: the likelihood of a Latino producer, writer, or lead signing on to a project is an average of 15-fold higher if the director or showrunner is Latino," the authors wrote. "Given that only 5 percent of films have Latino directors and 1 to 5 percent of TV and streaming shows have Latino showrunners, Latinos' ceiling of opportunity is low."

Top 30 Hidden Celebrity Movie Cameos

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Celebrity Kids With Famous Godparents

Having famous parents must definitely be a trip, but for some celebrity kids, their extended family includes even more famed individuals — including these famous kids who were bestowed with celebrity godparents.

Perhaps the most well-known celebrity kid-godparent duo is Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton, but did you know that the iconic director Steven Spielberg is godfather to not one but two ultra-famous actresses who are icons in their own right? Or that Marisa Tomei and Lisa Bonet's friendship, developed on the set of the 1980s sitcom A Different World, has turned into a lifelong bond that includes Tomei being godmother to all three of Bonet's kids?

The most recent major celeb godparent news is the bombshell dropped in Netflix's Harry & Meghan: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry asked Tyler Perry to be their daughter's godfather after th ey forged an extremely special bond during the Sussexes' incredibly intense departure from the royal family and the UK at large.

The three had never spoken until Perry reached out to Meghan ahead of her nuptials to Harry in 2018, and although they were but acquaintances at the time of the Sussexes' move to North America in 2020, Perry offered them his home when they needed a safe place to stay during the COVID-19 pandemic, away from the constant intrusion of paparazzi. They've remained extremely close ever since, and that closeness reached its peak after Lilibet Diana's arrival in 2021.

Retelling the story for the docuseries, Perry explained that he, Meghan, and Harry frequently check in with each other: "We'll call and we'll chat and we'll talk about silly things, but [during one call] they were pretty serious on the phone and I go, 'Okay, what's going on?' They said, 'Well, we'd like for you to be Lili's godfather.' I go, 'Whoa.' I had to take a minute to take that in," Perry shared. "And I thought, 'I'd be honored. I'd be absolutely honored.'"

He (semi) jokingly added, "I got off the phone, took it all in, and then called them back, and I go, 'Uh, hold on a second — does that mean we gotta go over there and do all of that in the church with [the royal family] and figure that all out, because I don't wanna do that. Maybe we can do a little private ceremony here and let that be that, and if you have to do it there, then that's okay."

From Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Lee Curtis to Nicole Richie and Michael Jackson, read on for more famous godparent-kid connections.

A version of this story was published in January 2023.