Variety 9/29/2021

I had the pleasure of recently interviewing one of the most dynamic figures of our time, Amanda Gorman, who is one of our five Power of Women honorees this year. I had two sit-downs with the 23-year-old poet-activist, and so much wound up on the cutting room floor that I felt was worth sharing. First, some fun facts: Will she be the first woman president of the United States? “I hope not!” Is she developing any non-poetry projects? “I’ve been working on a few novels. I love thinking about things for the screen.” Songs on her playlist: Beyoncé’s “Run the World (Girls),” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “My Shot” and Kendrick Lamar and Sza’s “All the Stars.” A favorite TV show of all time: “The Munsters.” Who would she like to play her…

An earthquake hit Hollywood at 8:17 a.m. PT on Sept. 27, but it didn’t register on the Richter scale. Leaders of CAA and ICM Partners spent the weekend in marathon negotiating sessions leading up to that precise moment early Monday when the agreement was clinched for CAA to acquire its smaller rival. The acquisition promises to shrink Hollywood’s Big Four talent agency landscape down to a Big Three, if regulators approve it. The news caught agency insiders by surprise and rocked Monday-morning staff meetings all over town. The immediate takeaway was that no corner of entertainment is immune to the consolidation gripping media and entertainment. More specifically, the tie-up of CAA and ICM promises to deliver aftershocks across the talent representation arena. Industry insiders note how profoundly the talent rep…

In 2006, Haskell Wexler made a documentary, “Who Needs Sleep?,” about brutally long hours on film sets. The issue had become a flashpoint years earlier, when Brent Hershman died in a car crash after working a 19-hour day on the set of “Pleasantville.” Wexler wanted to know why nothing had been done. In the film he adopted a “Roger & Me” pose — only his villain wasn’t some big corporation. Instead, he hammered his own union, the International Assn. of Theatrical Stage Employees. He ambushed the international president at an awards banquet and accused him of neglecting the issue and of stifling advocacy about it. “To this date,” Wexler said in the film, “leadership has been unresponsive.” How things have changed. Long hours are now the central issue in talks…

After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, Shannen Doherty meticulously documented every step of her treatment on Instagram, from shaving her head to the horrors of chemo — and eventually her remission in April 2017. The actor, best known for “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Heathers” and “Charmed,” would post multiple times each week, also peppering her feed with her workouts, dinners with friends and family and — one of Doherty’s passions — images of dogs in urgent need of adoption. “At that time, I think I needed it,” she says now about chronicling her treatment. And having been a fixture in the tabloids for decades, Doherty wanted to be in control of the narrative: “I wanted to own my life. It’s my life!” The social engagement carried her through, especially…

David Kosse, vice president of international film at Netflix, got something of a raw deal. The London-based executive joined the streaming giant in March 2019, after a three-year stint as president of STX’s global operation, and set out to build the service’s international film offerings in Europe, Middle East and Africa “from ground zero.” But just as he was assembling his first slate — an extensive optioning and greenlighting process that invariably takes about a year — the pandemic hit. “All these movies that went into production during the pandemic are now getting launched in the late-stage pandemic,” says Kosse in an exclusive interview with Variety. “That’s where we are.” Italy’s zany true story-inspired comedic movie “Rose Island” had an early rollout in December 2020, and the French film “Oxygen,”…

There’s a growing chasm between the entertainment habits of younger and older Americans. Data provided to VIP+ by consumer insights firm GetWizer shows that while older consumers estimate they devote more than half their entertainment week to broadcast and cable, those ages 15-29 spend nearly three-quarters less time doing so. Rather, they’re using social media, video games and streaming video to far greater degrees. While these choices support a much wider entertainment marketplace, they also might spell an end to the more established, large-scale methods of reaching an audience. For more data from VIP+, visit variety.com/vip. PERCENTAGE OF WEEKLY TIME SPENT ON ENTERTAINMENT SOURCES Source: GetWizer Consumer Insights Data fielded July 2021 to U.S. residents: P15-29 (n=285); P30-44 (n=391); P45-59 (n=341); P60+ (n=467)…