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Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Marilyn Monroe, who died 62 years ago, has been reincarnated as a “hyper-real” AI-generated digital avatar that lets fans engage in a conversation with the late actor — who can answer questions “in Marilyn’s signature voice and style,” according the company behind the project. AI technology firm Soul Machines unveiled Digital Marilyn, an interactive experience in which she “shares anecdotes and even delivers personalized greetings, creating an unforgettable experience for Marilyn fans.” The AI-generated chatbot lets you interact with the late actor “in real-time using advanced natural language processing, deep learning and GPT 3.5,” Soul Machines said in announcing the project Friday.

EXCLUSIVE: Pop and screen star Demi Lovato is joining Rose Byrne and The Holdovers breakout Dominic Sessa in Stephanie Laing’s feature Tow.

A second company has announced that it will bid to buy Rochdale AFC.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor With American lawmakers sounding the alarm again over TikTok‘s ties to China’s communist regime, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce committee unanimously voted to approve a bill that would give China’s ByteDance 165 days to divest its ownership of TikTok — or effectively face a U.S. ban.

A Wigan company has been fined after making 'persistent' and 'aggressive' spam calls that attempted to capitalise on the pandemic.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Vince McMahon, the founder of WWE who resigned from the board of TKO Group earlier this year amid sexual assault allegations against him, filed to sell $411.95 million worth of TKO stock, according to a regulatory filing. McMahon’s sale comprised 5.35 million shares of TKO, per an SEC filing Monday. That came after he sold 8.4 million shares of Class A common stock in TKO — in sale worth $670.3 million — last November.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Veteran singer and Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry has entered into a partnership with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group “to develop and expand the renowned artist’s musical legacy to new generations of fans,” according to the announcement. The deal sees the company acquiring 50% of Ferry’s sound recording, publishing, and name, image and likeness rights from his solo work and Roxy Music catalog, which reaches back to the group’s galvanizing 1972 debut album and includes such hit songs as “Love Is the Drug,” “More Than This,” “Avalon,” “Virginia Plain,” “Dance Away,” “Slave to Love” and more.

The image rights firm of Mason Greenwood has been voluntarily placed into liquidation, with the Manchester United forward set to pocket over half a million pounds as a result.

Ancestry.com has claimed that Taylor Swift is related to Emily Dickinson.The news of the ‘Blank Space’ singer’s relation to the legendary American poet was shared in an exclusive report with NBC’s Today. According to research done by Ancestry.com, Swift and Dickinson are allegedly sixth cousins, three times removed.“Swift and Dickinson both descend from a 17th Century English immigrant (Swift’s 9th great-grandfather and Dickinson’s 6th great-grandfather who was an early settler of Windsor, Connecticut),” the genealogy company told Today.They continued: “Taylor Swift’s ancestors remained in Connecticut for six generations until her part of the family eventually settled in northwestern Pennsylvania, where they married into the Swift family line.”Born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts to a prominent family with strong ties to its community, Dickinson is regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry.

partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for an online promotion last year.Mulvaney appeared in a TikTok video highlighting Bud Light’s “March Madness” promotion during the annual NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournament.She also appeared in an online ad where she sat in a bubble bath, clad in a bathing suit, sipping Bud Light.As part of that promotion, the company also sent Mulvaney a commemorative can with a picture of her face on the exterior, celebrating the first anniversary of her “Days of Girlhood” video series documenting her gender transition.The can did not go on sale to the public. Still, many conservatives and anti-transgender advocates took offense at what they saw as Mulvaney’s caricature of womanhood, as well as the idea of transgender visibility, and called for boycotts not only of Bud Light, but other products of Bud’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev.Anheuser-Busch InBev reported record revenues for 2023 but said its “full growth potential was constrained” by the decline of sales in the United States, where the boycott was the strongest.In total, organic revenue in North America decreased by $1.4 billion due to a decline in beer sales, reports CNN.As a result, Mexican beer Model Especial dethroned Bud Light as the United States’ top-selling beer.From May through February, Bud Light recovered only 1.2 percentage points of lost market share, CEO Michael Doukeris told investors on Thursday.

EXCLUSIVE: Actor-producer Esha Bargate is launching a production company that aims to challenge how Hollywood views and portrays Indian culture and society.

EXCLUSIVE: Veteran unscripted agent and producer Bill Thompson, former Head Of Unscripted Television at Verve, is launching his own management and production company, Artists Group | Unscripted.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The descendants of Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney have weighed in on the bid by two activist investment firms to win seats on the board of the Walt Disney Co. Nelson Peltz, the activist investor who runs hedge fund Trian Partners, is waging a proxy-fight battle to install himself and ex-Disney CFO Jay Rasulo as directors; Peltz’s stated aim is to drive up the price of Disney’s stock.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Former Verve CEO Bill Weinstein has filed a lawsuit against the talent agency, alleging that he was improperly ousted from the company on Feb. 19 by two partners who are looking to sell the company.

Alex Ritman Well-established Italian producers Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli — who left their Fremantle-owned banners, Wildside and The Apartment, respectively, earlier this year — are returning to the growing TV and film powerhouse with their new scripted outfit. The duo — who co-founded “The Young Pope” and “My Brilliant Friend” production house Wildside in 2009 before Mieli exited to set up The Apartment, which was behind the recent hit “Priscilla” — are yet to reveal details of their new company.

Paramount Global‘s earnings in the fourth quarter edged Wall Street forecasts, but a double-digit slide in advertising dragged down total revenue by 6%.

Endeavor grew revenue 25% last quarter to $1.58 billion, beating forecasts, and shrunk losses to $29 million from $226 million as CEO Ari Emanuel reminded Wall Street that it’s still looking at strategic options – four months after the company said it was evaluating its businesses, and its largest shareholder Silver Lake floated the idea of taking the company private.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Janet Yang, the Los Angeles-based producer and president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, has been appointed as an independent non-executive director to the board of Imax China, a subsidiary of premium large format cinema company Imax that has its own share listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company, Wednesday, reported a return to net profits of $27.5 million for the 2023 calendar year. That compared with net profit of $10.8 million in 2022.

After a three year court battle, Hilary Duff has won her lawsuit.

Thania Garcia Universal Music Group Nashville is stepping into the TV and film landscape with the launch of Sing Me Back Home Productions. Sing Me Back Home Productions will “tap into the deep catalog of artists from throughout UMG Nashville’s history as well as celebrating both newly discovered talent and stories,” according to the company’s official announcement.

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy nominee Rain Valdez (Razor Tongue) on Monday announced the launch of Rainbow Entertainment, an equity-centered and trans-led production company focused on elevating BIPOC and queer storytellers, both in front of and behind the camera.