Variety 01/31/2024

California, it has been said, knows how to party — and party we will this week as the Grammy Awards caravan takes over Los Angeles and environs. The 66th annual fete celebrating excellence across the musical landscape arrives at an interesting inflection point for the industry. The top nominees reflect a wide swath of performers, genres and traditions. And female artists are undeniably the dominant contenders this time around. No one exemplifies the expanding world of opportunities for women than our multi-hyphenate cover subject, Victoria Monét. Steven J. Horowitz, Variety’s senior music writer, does a wonderful job of tracing Monét’s unusual career path and her triumph as one of the year’s most-nominated artists. The performer revealed herself to be candid, confident and a very proud mother in her sit-downs with…

During his interview with Victoria Monét, senior music writer Steven J. Horowitz bopped along as Monét’s daughter, Hazel, watched an Elton John and Dua Lipa music video. Senior writer and chief music critic Chris Willman admits to mixed feelings about Grammy predictions: “I’ll take getting it wrong if it means we have more grist for ‘snubs and surprises.’ Who doesn’t love an upset more than a coronation?” Senior TV features editor Emily Longeretta clears her schedule Wednesday and Friday nights to watch “One Chicago” and “Blue Bloods” live — and not because she has to. So she could have written about the power of the procedural in her sleep. Photographer Erik Carter, who shot Victoria Monét on Jan. 15, says, “Confidence and kindness are powerful attributes, and Victoria has an…

Built for Comfort Procedural drama series have been the backbone of television since the days of “Dragnet” and “Perry Mason.” Even as viewers are inundated with new, edgy and artsy programs, they’re embracing sturdy shows that blend potboiler tales and indelible characters like never before. Whether on broadcast TV — where procedurals were the first wave of scripted series to return to the air following last year’s writers and actors strikes — or streaming platforms (hello, “Suits” revival on Netflix), audiences gravitate to close-ended storytelling about cops, doctors, lawyers, firefighters and other first responders. Indeed, just four days after the SAG-AFTRA work stoppage ended on Nov. 9, Wolf Entertainment got back to work on the nine scripted procedurals on its slate: three “Law & Orders” and three “One Chicago” shows…

When Amy Pascal was toppled from her perch as Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairperson in 2015, the landing was soft. The longtime executive negotiated a lucrative four-year exit deal that guaranteed her two theatrical releases per year and the right to produce future “Spider-Man” movies. That meant Pascal would earn tens of millions of dollars in backend compensation from the next seven films in the Spider-Verse, pulling down $10 million for the 2018 “Venom” spinoff alone. The pact, signed off on by then-Sony chairman and CEO Michael Lynton, even provided Pascal with $10 million annually for overhead and discretionary spending. Over the ensuing years, those arrangements have gone the way of the Walkman. When Netflix film chairman Scott Stuber exits the streamer in March, becoming the latest film chief to pivot…

For Italian conductor Beatrice Venezi, 2024 kicked off on a decidedly sour note. On New Year’s Eve the baton-wielding Venezi, a friend of right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, was heckled at the Opéra de Nice by French anti-fascist protesters as she took to the podium. The incident reflected tensions rippling through European entertainment industry circles as far-right parties sweep to power in Italy and the Netherlands and gain ground across the EU. Italy took a sharp turn to the right in 2022, when Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party has neo-fascist roots, emerged the winner in the national elections. Since then her right-wing camp, which denies accusations of nostalgia for fascism, has moved to hold more sway within state-controlled media and cultural institutions such as broadcaster RAI, the Centro Sperimentale…

On her new series, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” Maya Erskine plays a character her fans may not have seen her inhabit before — a grown woman. “I was so used to playing a 13-year-old with a bowl cut where no one would even glance my way,” says Erskine, speaking from the L.A. home she shares with her partner Michael Angarano and their baby son. She is best known for portraying a teen-age version of herself on Hulu’s Emmy-nominated “Pen15,” where she reenacted the pains and joys of adolescence opposite comedy partner Anna Konkle. Now, she’s updating the definitionally grown-up spy movie: “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” the 2005 film, was about tradecraft as a metaphor for marriage — even before its two stars, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, ended up together…