2020: Last News

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Let no one deny it: Rupert Murdoch is clever like a fox. He’s slyer than his adversaries in mainstream media. They still think in real-world terms. But Murdoch thinks in terms of the world that he’s created — the world of fake news, of lies that play because they carry the ring of vengeful mythology (life as a Charles Bronson film that never ends). The world that Fox News pretends is reality. You could make a case that in recent weeks, Murdoch’s circus of happy-talk dystopian propaganda (otherwise known as any random half hour of Fox News) took a major hit. The release of documents subpoenaed during the Dominion Voting System’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News revealed something that was, or should be, profoundly embarrassing to the network: that there are moments when its star huckster, Tucker Carlson, actually tells the truth (at least in private). The revelation that Carlson, along with a number of Fox News executives, peddled Donald Trump’s crackpot assertion that he won the 2020 election not because they believed it, but because they thought they had to go along with what their viewers wanted to hear, made the Fox team look like craven cowards. The lawsuit never made it to trial, but because those documents were leaked you could say the damage was done. And to keep the trial from happening, Murdoch had to cough up the mother of all defamation settlements: $787.5 million. 

EXCLUSIVE: Following the success of their Academy Award-winning Warner Bros drama King Richard, based on their own life stories, tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams have teamed with Oscar-nominated Tár producer Alexandra Milchan to develop En Garde, a new feature to be adapted for the screen and directed by the duo known as as Bush Renz (Antebellum).

Back to Forks? Nearly 12 years after the final Twilight movie was released, Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling franchise is reportedly getting the TV series treatment.

Charlie Sheen comes from a famous family — and he’s passing on the torch to daughters Cassandra Estevez, Sami Sheen and Lola Sheen, and twin sons Bob and Max Sheen.

Twilight may be coming to TV!The popular novels by Stephenie Meyer is in early development at Lionsgate TV to be turned into a potential television series, ET has confirmed.According to which first broke the news, producer Sinead Daly is attached to write the script for the project. It is unclear at the moment whether the possible series would be a direct adaptation of Meyer's novels, which inspired the multibillion-dollar five-movie franchise, or a different take.

McKinley Franklin editor Piracy is projected to expand to new heights in one of the most popular forms of entertainment consumption — streaming services. By 2027, there is a projected loss of $113 billion for streaming video providers serving U.S. customers due to content theft, according to a report from research firm Parks Associates.  Parks’ latest forecast reveals piracy rates for U.S. streaming services in film and television programming will increase from 22% in 2022 to 24.5% in 2027. This increase will also bring an estimated $700 million value of fraudulent advertising delivered online to consumers that same year. 

in California with her two children while Prince Harry attends the of his father, .According to an alleged “close friend” of Prince Harry, this is because there is still tension within the family likely as a result of their abrupt exit from royal duties in 2020, their interview, their , and , Spare. "At this point, it's become so personal," the source told exclusively.

Spilling the tea. Christine Quinn opened up about her exit from Selling Sunset — and claimed Chrishell Stause got preferential treatment because of her relationship with ex Jason Oppenheim.

Jesy Nelson is revealing the last time she spoke to her former Little Mix band members – Jade Thirlwall, Perrie Edwards and Leigh-Anne Pinnock.

Elon Musk was pictured holding his son, X AE A-XII, in a rare outing as he attended the Twitter 2.0: From Conversations to Partnerships marketing conference in Miami. The Twitter CEO, 51, was seen carrying his two year old son backstage after he delivered a keynote speech at the conference. During his attendance, Elon was joined on stage at Fontainebleau Miami Beach by Linda Yaccarino, the chairman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal.

A young and previously active man's mystery illness has caused a brain tumour to grow back following an operation. Wesley Klok, 25, is preparing to undergo brain surgery after suffering from double vision and weeks of debilitating symptoms, including painful headaches and feeling drowsy all day long.

EXCLUSIVE: The partners of Vital Artists Agency, the unscripted-focused talent agency formed during the pandemic, are going their separate ways.

Malina Saval Associate Editor, Features Michael Trope remembers the day he entered the living room of his childhood home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles to find Cary Grant sipping a martini. Michael’s father, famed attorney Sorrell Trope, was representing Grant in his 1968 divorce from Dyan Cannon.  “My father used to love to tell the story about how Cary Grant became his client,” says Michael Trope, an LA-based trial lawyer and former sports agent.  “Cary Grant went to a mattress store to buy a mattress,” Michael Trope continues. “He was talking to the mattress salesman and testing out mattresses because he wanted to buy a bed. And he started complaining to this mattress salesman about his divorce. The mattress salesman then said, ‘Oh, I went through a divorce. And I had a great experience with my lawyer. He did a really phenomenal job for me.’ And Cary Grant said, ‘Well, who was that?’ And the mattress salesman went and got my dad’s business card and gave it to Cary Grant. And then my dad wound up representing Cary Grant for over 20 years.” 

Todd Longwell For every publicly visible and contentious Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial, there are dozens more that never see the light of day. More often than not, a showbiz lawsuit that begins with plaintiff and defendant slinging accusations back and forth in the headlines ends quietly with a below-the-fold story announcing that a confidential settlement has been reached. Yet, for those players who haven’t been through the process, what goes on behind the scenes remains something of mystery. Such settlements are often achieved through third-party mediation, which, unlike arbitration, never mandates a binding decision. According to a survey of judges and attorneys published by the American Bar Assn. in December, 2020, mediation is the fairest way to resolve civil cases, followed by jury trials, bench trials and, lastly, arbitration. It’s also increasingly common.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox Corp. has put increasing amounts of money behind news and sports in recent years. But that doesn’t mean the company is completely free of drama. A landmark $787.5 million settlement made Tuesday between Fox and the voting-technology company Dominion Voting Systems does not end what is likely to be a period of tumult for the owner of Fox News Channel and the Fox broadcasting network. The payment to Dominion to keep an explosive investigation into how Fox News disseminated conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election out of the public sphere does nothing to alleviate another wave of scrutiny likely to come from another, similar lawsuit.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter A “Twilight” TV series adaptation is in very early development at Lionsgate TV, Variety has confirmed with sources. The series would be based on the Stephanie Meyers book series of the same name, which was previously adapted into a film franchise. At this time, there is no writer or a network/streaming service attached to the project. According to sources, Wyck Godfrey and Erik Feig are attached as executive producers. Feig is the former co-president of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, while Godfrey and his Temple Hill production company produced the five “Twilight” films. Meyers is also expected to be involved in any potential series.

From a mean girl to a working mom. Rachel McAdams has played many memorable roles over the years, but her favorite one is her real-life gig as a mother.

Malina Saval Associate Editor, Features Growing up in Australia, civil rights in the U.S. were not part of Craig Emanuel’s school curriculum. So when the future power attorney moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s, he “read everything” he could get his hands on.  “I was fascinated,” says Emanuel. “And when it was the 50th anniversary of the marches on the Edmund Pettus Bridge [in 2015], I turned to [my wife] and said, ‘I want to go to Selma.’”  An avid photographer, Emanuel has “saved every negative [he’s] shot” from the age of 6. He’d photographed historic events like President Barack Obama’s inauguration and wanted to do the same in Selma, Ala. Upon the suggestion of a colleague, Emanuel reached out to the Faith & Politics Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1991 to bridge racial, religious and political schisms among politicians. Rep. John Lewis, who died in 2020, organized the group’s annual civil rights pilgrimage to Selma. Emanuel and his wife made plans to join the organization there. 

XYZ Films has hired Manon Barat, a former executive at the Spanish sales company Film Factory, to head a slate of titles that will fall under the company’s newly-launched global film initiative, New Visions.

Amber Dowling If you’re an aspiring TV writer in Canada, it’s quite possible your script is in Anthony Q. Farrell’s slush pile. The Canadian showrunner is always reading projects and helping new writers get their start, and now that he’s got a few weeks of downtime before his summer projects fire up, he’s finally sitting down to read them. “I feel like I’m in a Zen place right now,” he tells Variety. “But I think the summer’s going to be bananas.” Farrell, who got his start writing for Greg Daniels on “The Office,” has helmed shows like “The Parker Andersons/Amelia Parker” and “Overlord and the Underwoods.” Slowly but surely, he has become one of Canada’s most prominent showrunners and an industry leader in telling authentic and diverse stories on screen. To do that, he’s spent countless hours fostering BIPOC talent behind the scenes in writers rooms and through initiatives like the BIPOC TV & Film Showrunner Bootcamp, which he ran with Jinder Oujla-Chalmers in 2021.

Rachel McAdams recalled going braless to film her new movie “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” shortly after giving birth.