Innholdsfortegnelse for 05/15/2024 i Variety

Dog toys and roving Regency-era balls. Small-artisan hand-etched mirrors and allergy medicine. “Bridgerton” has become so much more than a TV show. Heading into Season 3 of Shonda Rhimes’ massively popular period romance series, Netflix has found that viewers aren’t just invested in the love story of new leading couple Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) — they want to invest in the brand itself. That means a fandom spending its dollars on a growing merch and events business that helps them celebrate each new season of the show, which is based on Julia Quinn’s romance novels. Equally important, it tides them over between installments (which take quite some time to produce). Netflix and Rhimes’ Shondaland began building their “Bridgerton” business after the show launched as an…

1 I’ll See You in My Dreams 2015 Blythe Danner plays a pot-smoking widow who finds love in this touching drama. It’s a film filled with unexpected, emotionally stirring moments, as well as a story that gives Danner the kind of meaty starring role she rarely gets to sink her teeth into on-screen. 2 Trumbo 2015 Bryan Cranston received a best actor Oscar nomination for his shape-shifting turn as blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, putting Bleecker in the awards game in its first year in business. Variety praised the look at a dark chapter of Hollywood history, calling it a reminder of “the strength of character it takes to fight the system.” 3 Captain Fantastic 2016 And it was back to the Oscars as Viggo Mortensen earned a best actor nod…

GLAAD Media Awards New York Hilton Midtown, New York MAY 11 “Red, White & Royal Blue,” “Rustin,” “The Last of Us” and “Heartstopper” won the top prizes at the LGBTQ media watchdog group’s New York ceremony. Jennifer Hudson was honored by Laverne Cox for her allyship with the community. Out singer Orville Peck was recognized for his visibility with the Vito Russo Award, presented by Jennifer Lawrence. “I love the gay community,” Lawrence said. “In fact, I was in love with a homosexual. I tried to convert him for years, but now I know conversion therapy doesn’t work. Did you hear me, Mike Pence? I said conversion therapy isn’t real, even though I know you think it worked on you.” Race to Erase MS Fairmont Century Plaza, Century City MAY…

Perhaps no one captured cultural life post-World War II more vividly than Richard Avedon. From pop icons to artists to heads of state, being photographed by Avedon meant you were someone. There must have been something disarming about Avedon, who first came to prominence with his work for Harper’s Bazaar, because even though so many of his subjects were celebrities, he invariably revealed a more vulnerable, less guarded side of the people he photographed. That talent is in evidence in “(re)Framing Conversations: Photographs by Richard Avedon, 1946-1965,” an exhibition at the Smithsonian that will be on display until November. The show features portraits of celebrities who defined the second half of the 20th century. But the Smithsonian wants to remind visitors that Avedon also documented the Civil Rights Movement and…

“The Honeymooners” is second only to “I Love Lucy” in terms of its seminal influence on television comedy. Jackie Gleason’s signature character, New York City bus driver Ralph Kramden, debuted in 1951 in a recurring sketch performed live on Gleason’s DuMont Network variety show, “Cavalcade of Stars.” CBS eventually lured Gleason away from DuMont with an offer to do a filmed “Honeymooners” half-hour revolving around two blue-collar couples — the Kramdens and the Nortons — who live one floor apart in a run-down Brooklyn apartment building. “The Honeymooners” only aired for one season on CBS, in 1955-56. But that run encompassed 39 episodes regarded as classics. This ad from the Sept. 30, 1955, edition of Daily Variety heralds the show’s debut with plenty of bombast. “I Love Lucy” had already…

Mamoudou Athie can practically taste the lobster rolls from the Carlton hotel. He smiles wistfully as he taps into that sense memory of his first trip to the Cannes Film Festival. In 2023, Athie voiced the lead role in Disney-Pixar’s “Elemental,” which closed the fest. And he’s returning this week as part of the first-rate ensemble of Yorgos Lanthimos’ offbeat movie “Kinds of Kindness.” Discussion of the crustacean-filled dish might seem irrelevant, but it’s perhaps not incidental. Athie begins our conversation by revealing that his first encounter with Lanthimos’ unique sensibilities was 2015’s “The Lobster.” The Mauritanian American actor, who was studying at Yale School of Drama at the time, was captivated by the originality of the material and the conviction the filmmaker brought to his craft. “I love something…

Remembered 1926-2024 There have been innumerable attempts to describe the significance of the role maverick independent producer Roger Corman played in the development of mid-20th-century American cinema. The best illustrations of the impact of the hyphenate, who died May 11 at age 98, come from the industry superstars that he helped nurture at American International Pictures and his New World Pictures in his heyday in the 1950s through ’70s. No less than five Oscar-winning directors — James Cameron, Jonathan Demme, Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese — rose up through the ranks of Corman’s indie film operations. Lee Grant credits him with opening the door to her second career as a helmer. “[Roger Corman] taught me how to actually make movies,” Scorsese asserted. “There is nothing about the…

There’s a reason the most successful night of primetime used to be branded “Must See TV.” In the late 1990s, NBC’s “ER” would attract more than 30 million viewers a week in its Thursday, 10 p.m., time slot. At its peak, the medical drama came close to commanding a 40 share — meaning that 40% of people watching TV in that hour were tuned in to the Warner Bros. Television series. Today, such an accomplishment is beyond the reach of any TV program short of the Super Bowl. Viewers now watch TV in very different ways than they did 25 years ago, and streaming has ushered in an era of television that comes with shorter episode orders, high-wattage A-list talent and pricey production values. For nearly a decade, the traditions…

The turmoil in TV and advertising has been reflected in a high level of turnover among top TV ad sales executives, so media buyers will be doing business with a number of new faces in this year’s upfront advertising sales market. Madison Avenue’s growing reliance on streaming video has given rise to a new array of top sales honchos. Jeff Collins is leading Fox Corp.’s efforts this year following the retirement of sales stalwart Marianne Gambelli. NBCUniversal’s Mark Marshall and Nexstar’s Michael Strober will preside over sales processes after just a year at the helm of their respective companies. And advertisers are bound to focus more on offerings from Netflix, Amazon and YouTube as viewers opt for streaming over linear TV. Here’s a list of the influential sales executives likely…