Innholdsfortegnelse for 10/19/2022 i Variety

This month marks 10 years since Penske Media acquired Variety, transforming us from a daily newspaper into a weekly magazine whose covers have become coveted real estate. In that time, we’ve kept up the energy of a Hollywood trade while also boundlessly expanding our coverage of moguls, CEOs and too many Emmy and Oscar winners to count. We visited Lady Gaga in Malibu at the height of “A Star Is Born” mania, brought the world some Harry Styles uplift in the early days of the pandemic, and even photographed first lady Michelle Obama in the White House. But there’s one story that’s eluded us until now: This week marks Variety’s first interview with a member of the royal family. Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, sat down with our Matt Donnelly…

The second annual benefit, which raised $10 million for the museum, honored Julia Roberts, Tilda Swinton, Steve McQueen and Miky Lee, and featured a performance from Diana Ross. McQueen reflected on falling in love with cinema when he was a child. “It’s a bit surreal,” he told Variety. “You’re looking at movies laying on your stomach with your hands propping up your chin, and all of a sudden you’re the attention for the evening for your work. It’s a great honor.”…

THE Duchess of Sussex is in mourning. But we’ll get back to that. First, let’s go to the day we met, this past summer, at the venerated San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito, Calif. The ranch is a low-key old luxury resort with simple bungalows tucked into a mountainside overlooking the Pacific coast. It’s the kind of unpretentious but protected place wealthy locals and L.A. transplants come to be treated like royalty. On one witheringly hot day in late August, however, they got to mingle with the real thing. That morning, the Duchess of Sussex, known more commonly by her maiden name, Meghan Markle, sped past a group of 60-something women who’d made the trek to Montecito to celebrate a milestone birthday. Teetering on the dusty cobblestone walkway in their wedges…

The SCAD Savannah Film Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary in a big way. Hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design, this year’s edition runs Oct. 22-29 and is the largest university-run film festival in the country. The 2022 event also features some new wrinkles compared to prior years. “We are thrilled to welcome the inaugural Variety 10 Artisans to Watch to this year’s festival, which will feature 10 up and coming artisans in the industry today,” says Christina Routhier, SCAD Savannah Film Festival executive and artistic director. Routhier has been with SCAD and the festival for more than 22 years. She has watched students in film and television, performing arts, animation, sound design and visual effects programs go on to careers in the entertainment industry. “Savannah and…

Two years after The CW said goodbye to Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) on “Supernatural,” the network has said hello to younger versions of their parents, John and Mary, for prequel series “The Winchesters.” Played by Drake Rodger and Meg Donnelly, this version of the “Supernatural” couple is introduced to viewers at a time well before Sam and Dean are born — when John and Mary serendipitously run into each other when her monster-hunting father has gone missing. John, whose father also has been missing (since he was 4), is completely unfamiliar with this demon-fighting world but steps in to help his badass future wife. Rodger was cast by “The Winchesters” showrunner Robbie Thompson and “Supernatural” star Ackles to fill the formidable Winchester patriarch’s YA shoes.…

Variety senior entertainment and media writer Matt Donnelly interviewed Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, for this week’s cover story. Donnelly is most grateful for the pint of tomatillo salsa Meghan split with him at Montecito’s San Ysidro Ranch. Senior Artisans editor Jazz Tangcay profiled Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell and is presenting her with Variety’s Creative Impact Award at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. She’ll also hand out our inaugural 10 Artisans to Watch kudos at the fest. Associate web editor Ethan Shanfeld hung out with Johnny Knoxville for a chat about Hulu’s “Reboot.” Despite being 22 years old, Shanfeld was lovingly nicknamed “the Teen Reporter” by Bob Odenkirk on the “Better Call Saul” red carpet. Photographer Ramona Rosales captured the Duchess of Sussex on Sept. 1 at the San…

AWARDS CIRCUIT What’s stranger than fiction? Biopics and historical dramas have typically been Oscar fodder, as shown by winners like “The King’s Speech” (2010) and “A Beautiful Mind” (2001). Sometimes, real-life events become a common thread among multiple titles in a single awards season. This year, however, several films tackling sexual assault — such as Universal’s “She Said” and MGM/UA’s “Women Talking” — present a meta viewing experience that some industry voters may find too real for comfort. Hollywood’s reckoning with its role in the enabling of monsters is knocking on its door. Even as Harvey Weinstein’s hold on Hollywood continues to fade, his victims’ need for reconciliation and accountability is becoming more urgent than ever. While Weinstein stands trial for further sexual assault charges, so too are actors…

Dwayne Johnson took over Times Square for the debut of his DC superhero movie. “I love DC to my blood,” he told Variety. “As a little boy, I grew up loving ‘Super Friends,’ specifically Superman. I saw my first ‘Black Adam’ comic, and it was arresting to me. He looked cool, different, badass, and he had brown skin, so automatically I was relating to him.” Pierce Brosnan plays mystical hero Doctor Fate, considered DC’s version of Marvel’s Doctor Strange. “I love Doctor Strange, and my sons are comic book aficionados,” Brosnan said. “Dad got a big thumbs-up.”…

Director LaTanya Richardson Jackson’s revival of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play is presented with its original script. “When we first started this, I was so nervous because they said we weren’t cutting anything,” Danielle Brooks, who stars in the production alongside Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington, told Variety. “It’s so repetitive. It’s long, but there’s a reason for it. I understand that reasoning now.”…

As it continues to expand its philanthropic footprint, Meghan and Prince Harry’s company, Archewell, has lent its support to the Marshall Plan for Moms. Led by CEO and founder Reshma Saujani, the organization was built around easing the challenges of the pandemic for women caring for children while working. The group targets several important areas — pay equity, reproductive rights, mental health and rallying private employers to advocate for public policy. It serves roughly 25,000 families, and Archewell is a financial supporter and founding member of the project, launched in May. “In the U.S., one of the biggest barriers to winning policy change is that as a society we don’t value our mothers and all of the invisible work they’re doing to make our families, our businesses and our entire…

Academy Award-winning costume designer Sandy Powell is headed to SCAD Savannah Film Festival to collect Variety’s Creative Impact in Costume Design Award on Oct. 24. Powell was given the recognition last year, but was unable to be there in person. This year, the festival makes a full return to an in-person event, and Powell says she is definitely coming this year after last year’s absence. “Of course I’m thrilled to be returning to Savannah for SCAD, honoured to be receiving the Variety Creative Impact Award,” she says. Powell’s work in the industry spans three decades and counting. Martin Scorsese, Neil Jordan and Todd Haynes often call on her to create costumes for their films. Powell’s encounter with filmmaker Derek Jarman in the early 1980s opened the door to her…

Attention, Marvel and DC! Julia Roberts (1) would love to be in a superhero movie. When I suggested the idea to the Oscar winner at the “Ticket to Paradise” premiere Oct. 17 in L.A., she beamed, “Wouldn’t it be awesome?” Her co-star George Clooney (2) added, “We should do one — you and me!” However, Roberts isn’t looking to don a cape for her comic book movie debut. “Maybe an apron,” she said. “Is there a superhero apron?” Clooney, who infamously played the Caped Crusader in 1997’s “Batman & Robin,” revealed that his 5-year-old son Alexander’s favorite superhero is … Batman. “I said, ‘You know I was Batman?’” Clooney said. “And he was like, ‘Not anymore.’” “Ticket to Paradise” marks Roberts and Clooney’s first rom-com together. “I read it and…

Carey Mulligan reflected on portraying Megan Twohey, one of the New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault scandal. “To play such real heroes of our society,” she said, “I was terrified the whole time — and I still am!” Director Maria Schrader explained why she believes this dramatization “deserves to be seen on the big screen.” “Hollywood has the duty to tell the really vital stories of our times,” she told Variety. “It’s not about just the wrongdoings of one person but a whole system protecting him. This is something we can find in any kind of industry and even small businesses.”…

IT’S NO EXAGGERATION TO SAY THAT PARTS OF LOS ANGELES LOOK LIKE SCENES FROM A DISASTER MOVIE. The swelling ranks of people living in tents, vehicles and makeshift shelters on the streets of Los Angeles have reached humanitarian-crisis proportions. The dire need to address the upsurge of slumlike encampments dotting the city’s streets, the San Fernando Valley’s canyons and the Hollywood Hills has dramatically raised the stakes of the mayoral election to succeed the outgoing Eric Garcetti. Homelessness and the spike in violent crime are the overriding issues motivating voters in the charged race between veteran Democratic legislator Karen Bass and real estate developer Rick Caruso. The contest, which comes to a head on Nov. 8, has drawn more attention from entertainment industry politicos than usual because of the severity…