Variety 4/27/2022

What a whacked-out couple of weeks this has been! When I began writing this editor’s letter about the onslaught of news, I wasn’t even planning to mention Elon Musk’s pursuit of Twitter because a deal looked dead in the water. Then we got whiplashed this past weekend when suddenly the acquisition appeared imminent. Sure enough, it was announced Monday that the Twitter board had accepted his $44 billion takeover offer. Now we’re trying to process what exactly that will mean. Here’s our digital editor Todd Spangler’s quick take: “The question is whether Elon Musk looks like a white knight for Twitter — or more like an evil overlord,” says Spangler. “He’s talked about his desire to have Twitter take a more laissez-faire approach to regulating speech on the platform, but…

“Being on the Disney lot just a few months after photographing departing CEO Bob Iger was a bit surreal. ILM’s infinity wall is the future of location shooting (without leaving Burbank), and Dana Walden, the chair of Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment, was a fantastic subject,” says Art Streiber, who captured Walden on March 22 with an assist from ILM’s immersive production technology. Streiber’s work has been featured in Vanity Fair, Fortune, GQ and The New York Times Magazine.…

Twitter is now in Elon Musk’s hands. What his successful maneuver to buy the company means for its 200 million-plus users — or for media and entertainment companies that use the platform to reach global audiences — is anything but clear. In the space of three weeks, Musk went from disclosing a 9.2% stake in Twitter to clinching a $44 billion deal for the company on April 25. The tech billionaire has promoted the idea that he wants to protect “free speech” on Twitter, which he calls “the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.” Analysts expect the deal to get shareholder approval and face no regulatory hurdles. When it closes, which is projected to be sometime in 2022, Twitter will become a privately…

After years of companies spending like drunken sailors on streaming video, some are now suffering hangovers. Netflix, in the first quarter of 2022, lost customers for the first time in more than a decade. It could shed 2 million more in Q2. The streaming giant is scrambling to find new sources of revenue growth, with execs hoping to monetize password-sharing freeloaders and — previously unthinkable at the Big Red N — planning to introduce advertising-supported plans. CNN+, hailed as a bridge to the news cabler’s future, is DOA: It’s getting axed 32 days after launch under new management at Warner Bros. Discovery. The WBD team led by CEO David Zaslav quickly decided to cut their losses with CNN+, concluding the service simply wouldn’t draw enough viewers to sustain a budget…

Organizers behind the White House Correspondents’ Dinner are leaning into the event’s showbiz trappings after a two-year pandemic break. This year’s gala, produced by veteran Hollywood awards show producer Bob Bain, has a celebrity host in comedian Trevor Noah, an opening skit by James Corden, and a greater number of cameras than usual to capture more of the star-studded audience. Most notably, President Joe Biden is expected to attend the hourlong April 30 dinner, resuming a tradition that Donald Trump suspended while in office. Network news divisions have also invited celebrities such as Kim Kardashian to the event, dubbed the Nerd Prom for the social swirl surrounding it, with a Paramount after-party and dueling Sunday brunches hosted by Politico and CNN among the tie-in gatherings. The glitzy nature of the…

Costume designers have ratcheted up their long-running battle for pay equity, using the awards season spotlight and a starry guild video released last month to amplify their message. Backstage following her Oscar victory March 27, “Cruella” costume designer Jenny Beavan pointed to the embroidered guild slogan “Naked Without Us” on her blouse, and assured media that pay equity is still very much an issue in her predominantly female field. “It’s not gone away,” said Beavan, who became embroiled in a dispute with Disney for money from “Cruella” merchandising a year earlier. According to data about artisan pay scales provided by the Costume Designers Guild’s pay equity committee, costume designers earn almost $1,000 less per week than production designers, their closest creative peers. And while it can be risky to speak…