Variety 1/26/2023

Pamela Anderson spent the ’90s trying to hide. As one of the most famous women on Earth, she had her privacy violated in a way that past generations of stars couldn’t have imagined. A sex tape she made with her husband Tommy Lee was stolen from her Malibu home in 1995, uploaded online and spread worldwide at the speed of the internet. Anderson became the object of late-night mockery and press-stalking. Worst of all, no one really saw her as a victim; the public blamed her for a theft that robbed her of her dignity, and she became a punchline. “Pam & Tommy,” the Hulu miniseries that aired last year, tried to reframe the narrative of Anderson’s public humiliation through a more sympathetic lens. But this, too, proved to be…

Executive editor of film and media Tatiana Siegel politely declined the vegan coffee creamer while breakfasting with longtime animal rights activist Pamela Anderson in her Beverly Hills Hotel bungalow. Digital news director Zack Sharf spent Sundance working the room at the Variety Studio, rounding up the buzziest news and most quotable interviews. He previously covered Variety studios at Cannes and Toronto. Senior awards editor Clayton Davis, who wrote about key takeaways from the Oscar noms, couldn’t attend the in-person announcement. He had a 3:30 a.m. call time for hair and makeup for ABC News — even without much hair. Photographer Greg Swales captured Pamela Anderson in Los Angeles on Jan. 16: “I knew it was going to be a dream photo shoot, but I was not expecting the level of…

The promise of an unlimited future for television content has run into the economic realities of a business driven by unpredictable market forces. A significant shift in strategy for the largest producers of content has recently become apparent: Major networks and streamers have reversed course and canceled previously ordered or renewed series — and even halted plans to launch already produced programs. Every outlet scraps a series or two from time to time. But the past 12 months have seen an unprecedented number of about-face decisions on greenlights and renewals. As executives, producers and top creative talent descended on the Television Critics Assn. press tour this month in Pasadena, the overriding theme of conversations was the state of the cable and pay TV marketplace, which is still slogging through a…

The Broadway musical “Beetlejuice” simply refused to die. After a 2019 eviction from its original theater, a relocation and a 2020 shuttering by COVID, the production reopened in April 2022 to an eager fan base. Over the past nine months, “Beetlejuice” regularly grossed more than $1 million a week. Between Christmas and New Year’s it broke the Marquis Theatre box office record with nearly $2.5 million across nine performances. But despite its otherworldly endurance, its producers just closed the show because they feared it wouldn’t weather the winter. “We took dips earlier in the summer, more than we had expected,” says Mark Kaufman the executive VP of Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures. “That caused concern.” In many ways “Beetlejuice,” which closed Jan. 8, encapsulates life on the bifurcated Broadway of 2023…

David Crosby, a founding member of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash in the 1960s and a longtime solo artist, died Jan. 18 at age 81, while in the midst of planning a new album and tour. Two of the many younger musicians he sang with and championed toward the end of his life were Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, leading lights in Americana music as well as husband and wife. The pair spoke with Variety about Crosby’s influence and legacy. “He was one of a handful of people who invented the kind of music that we make now,” Isbell says. “People make up different genres for it. We’re telling stories, but we like loud electric guitars and a little bit of psychedelia. So we’re making folk rock, like…

AWARDS CIRCUIT An awards ceremony the public can get excited about? That’s a concept Oscar producers can drive home over the next seven weeks. From the robust showing of popcorn movies to the recognition of some of the most respected stars of the past four decades to the embrace of new faces, this year’s nominations offer something for everyone. Here are four highlights from the Oscar-nom announcements. Show Us the Money! The domestic box office average of the 10 best picture nominees stands at $157 million and counting — the third highest of any slate in the past 25 years. That’s an encouraging sign for the exhibition business as it tries to rebound from the pandemic. With record-breaking grossers like Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick” and 20th Century Studios’ “Avatar: The…