city Stamford, state Connecticut: Last News

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Major League Soccer will move its production arm to new studios at the headquarters of WWE in Stamford, Conn., as part of a renewal of a pact with IMG. Under terms of the new multi-year partnership, MLS and IMG, the latter will continue to produce live match and studio productions and programming for more than 600 annual games on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

Thania Garcia Michael Cuscuna, a three-time Grammy winning jazz producer and the co-founder of Mosaic Records, has died. He was 75. His death was confirmed on Monday by the record label Blue Note, for whom he produced reissues and studio sessions.

Joe Lieberman has passed away.

Jaden Thompson Herman Raucher, a best-selling author and the Academy Award nominated screenwriter of “Summer of ’42,” died Dec. 28 of natural causes at Stamford Hospital in Stamford, Conn. He was 95.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorLogan Paul, the YouTube creator and digital influencer who’s built a career as a pro fighter, has signed a contract to be a WWE Superstar.Now that Paul is officially under contract with WWE, sources familiar with the pact said, he will stay with the wrestling entertainment company for the near future and will perform across multiple events, which would take him through next year. He’s previously appeared on “WWE Smackdown” and “WrestleMania.”WWE and Paul shared the news Thursday on social media and share photos of his visit to the company’s headquarters in Stamford, Conn.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterJimmy Kimmel and Brent Montgomery’s media company Wheelhouse has taken a stake in former Food Network president Courtney White’s new food and lifestyle-focused production company Butternut Films, which will now be renamed Butternut under the joint venture.As president of Butternut, which was launched when White exited Food Network this spring, White will collaborate with Wheelhouse leadership and across all Wheelhouse divisions — including Wheelhouse Entertainment, marketing arm Wheelhouse Labs, digital division Wheelhouse DNA, and investment department Wheelhouse 360 — “leveraging her deep production and creative expertise in culinary, home, design and lifestyle programming, and her wide-ranging relationships with talent and brands,” per Wheelhouse. Butternut is focused on creating original content for all platforms, “working with a range of established, emerging and home-grown talent.”White and her Butternut team will continue to work out of a clapboard barn on her family’s Southport, Conn., fresh-cut flower farm, Butternut Farm, as well as Wheelhouse’s New York and Los Angeles headquarters, and have full access to Wheelhouse’s large-scale campus in Stamford, Conn., dubbed “The Village.”The Wheelhouse-Butternut joint venture was brokered by Wheelhouse chief strategy officer Ed Simpson.“The single, common element across all successful lifestyle content is passion — talent must project it, creators must harness it, audiences must feel it,” White said.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticOn the first day of the Olympic Games, the “Today” show had an unenviable task.The flagship NBC morning show is a key engine for goosing excitement over the Olympics, and its Friday-morning broadcast recapping the just-concluded opening ceremony in Beijing was intended, in part, to boost the Games. But the show’s flagship talent, Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie, were stuck stateside in light of COVID-19, and the happy chatter about athletes’ prospects in the days ahead was balanced with an unusual volume of conversation about geopolitics.

Alan Kalter, the longtime announcer on The Late Show with David Letterman, has died at the age of 78.

EXCLUSIVE: Not a happy day in Stamford, Connecticut today as WWE had a round of layoffs that impact its film, TV and social media divisions in Connecticut and Los Angeles. Trying to find out the exact number, but WWE Studios saw layoffs in the feature, TV, and its digital/social media division Advanced Media Group. All of these operations will be consolidated into a single division, with a smaller staff running those operations. We’ve heard the cuts were deep. The news was conveyed today by phone by president and chief revenue officer Nick Khan, who left his post as co-head of the CAA television department last summer to take the job. He was the agent for the WWE before he took the job.

John Macurdy, a bass who sang 1,001 performances at the Metropolitan Opera over four decades and created characters in notable world premieres, has died at 91, his wife said Wednesday (May 13).Macurdy died of natural causes on May 7 in Stamford, Connecticut, Justine Macurdy said.His career included world premieres of Carlisle Floyd’s Wuthering Heights at the Santa Fe Opera in 1958, Hugo Weisgall’s Six Characters in Search of an Author at the New York City Opera in 1959, Abraham Ellstein’s The Golem at the City Opera in 1962, Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra on the opening night of the Met’s new house in 1966 and Marvin David Levy’s Mourning Becomes Electra at the Met in 1967.While he did take star turns, his many “comprimario” roles, as

Otis and Asuka won Money In The Bank ladder matches on a night of WWE action that ended with shocks galore.