Innholdsfortegnelse for 04/30/2024 i Variety

Welcome back to one of our favorite spring traditions — our Power of Women New York issue. This special franchise, created by our CEO and group publisher Michelle Sobrino-Stearns, honors women in the entertainment industry who use their voices and their clout to elevate worthy causes. Their speeches at our luncheon, to be hosted by Amber Ruffin on May 2, promise to inspire and galvanize all who attend. As Shonda Rhimes prepares for another season of “Bridgerton,” she also wants to spread the word about the Debbie Allen Dance Academy. Amy Schumer, who began to advocate for gun control after the 2015 Lafayette, La., mass shooting in a theater showing “Trainwreck,” is reminding us of the critical importance of Everytown for Gun Safety. Anitta, who’s brought Brazilian funk to the…

Thirty years after Nicole Brown Simpson’s murder, her sister Denise Brown gathered friends and family to reflect on her legacy for the upcoming “The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson.” The four-part Lifetime docuseries doesn’t sensationalize the crime or the “trial of the century,” in which Brown’s ex-husband, O.J. Simpson, was accused and eventually acquitted of the murder charges. Instead it is a portrait of Brown Simpson by those who knew and loved her. Its June 1-2 release also serves as a riposte to the media attention around Simpson’s death on April 10. In the three decades since her sister’s passing, Denise Brown has advocated for victims of domestic violence and helped pass the Violence Against Women Act. I’ll never forget the time. I’ll never forget the day. It was…

‘We’re Here’ Premiere Avalon Hollywood, Hollywood APRIL 24 Season 4 of the HBO drag queen reality show sees new hosts Priyanka, Sasha Velour, Latrice Royale and Jaida Essence Hall traveling to red states Tennessee and Oklahoma, where safety becomes a concern because of anti-LGBTQ protests and threats. “It was frightening sometimes,” Jaida told Variety. “It was eye-opening, imagining other people like myself who have to live in those spaces and see that every day. It’s just heartbreaking.” Even so, co-creator Steve Warren said, the cast and crew stayed focused on inspiring visibility and support of the queer community. “I’m begging everyone this November to get out there and vote,” Warren said. “Our lives are depending on it.” ‘Poolman’ Premiere Vista Theatre, Los Angeles APRIL 24 Chris Pine made a splash…

Sammy Hagar will be the first to tell you he isn’t out to save the world. But through his Hagar Family Foundation, his Acoustic-4-a-Cure benefit concerts and his support of local food banks, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has made a considerable impact. “I always say you have to take care of your own community first,” Hagar says. “I’m not trying to save people around the world just because I simply don’t have that kind of money. Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates: even those people don’t have that kind of money. They help, and they try, and they spend hundreds of millions of dollars, so with my little bit that I have, I try too.” Perhaps the most prominent of Hagar’s initiatives is the annual Acoustic-4-a-Cure benefit…

Breakfast is often called the most important meal of the day. It’s also long been a fixture of Jerry Seinfeld’s comedy — from “The Tonight Show” routines about Cookie Crisp to the Honeycomb and Raisin Bran boxes lining the shelves of his cupboards on “Seinfeld.” His directorial debut, “Unfrosted,” brings the obsession full circle, chronicling the 1960s origins of Kellogg’s Pop-Tart. “It’s really just candy disguised as a meal,” he says of the appeal of breakfast food. “And I really just want candy.” Seinfeld juggles a lot of, ahem, bowls on the Netflix film. He not only directed but also co-wrote, produced and stars in “Unfrosted,” which evolved from a joke told about the venerable toaster pastry in his 2020 Netflix special “23 Hours to Kill.” Ahead of the movie’s…

Sammy Hagar has always taken the time to pay tribute to his hometown, the gritty Inland Empire city of Fontana. And the city has made sure to repay him in kind over the years, awarding Hagar the key to the city, dedicating a Sammy Hagar Day and renaming a street Hagar Way. On June 15, Hagar will put his stamp on another Fontana institution, as the city’s long-standing Center Stage Theater (which closed in 2022) will officially reopen as Stage Red, in homage to Hagar’s “Red Rocker” sobriquet. “That theater is really a landmark for me,” Hagar remembers. “It was a really beautiful building when I was growing up — relative to Fontana, that is — and I used to see all my movies there. My uncle, Eugene King, used…

The Fall Guy Director David Leitch Screenwriter Drew Pearce Cast Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson Distributor Universal Pictures In 99% of Hollywood movies, the goal is to make the stunt work invisible. Audiences are supposed to believe that the star — or better yet, the character he plays — put his own life at risk jumping off buildings, blowing up cars or duking it out with squads of bad guys. In “The Fall Guy,” the stuntman gets to be the hero (of an insanely overcomplicated story), while the star is a prima donna who claims to do all his own stunts but needs his double to step in when things get tough. “The Fall Guy” is funny, it’s sexy, and it features the boy’s-toy version of “Barbie” scene-stealer Ryan Gosling…

Say hello to sequel season. That might as well be the nickname for this summer’s slate of potential blockbusters. Over the next four months, Hollywood is rolling out what it hopes will be a winning mix of follow-ups, reboots and spinoffs from tested franchises as it looks to reinvigorate the shaky movie theater business. Last summer flipped the script: New properties such as “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” ruled, while entries in aging series, like “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “Mission: Impossible 7,” missed the mark. This time out, the tried-and-true may yet prevail. Original offerings like Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt’s action-comedy “The Fall Guy” and Kevin Costner’s Western “Horizon: An American Saga” will attempt to lure audiences. But analysts anticipate that overly familiar brands — “Despicable Me…

“Whose fault is it that you’re gay?” There comes a point in every episode of “That’s a Gay Ass Podcast” when host Eric Williams lobs that question. He’s being provocative, clowning on the homophobia he and his listeners have faced. He’s also genuinely curious, using it to pinpoint the moment or piece of pop culture that flipped a switch in his guest. The answer is always surprising — Williams “blames” it on the 1993 film “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit” — and also invites celebration of a formative experience. “My mission in life now is to make people laugh and shed the shame we were told to have as young queer people,” Williams says, “and rebel against it by being as honest and authentic as possible.” The actor…

They say, “If you remember the ’60s, you weren’t there,” but newly minted Hollywood Walk of Fame honoree Sammy Hagar not only remembers the ’60s, but the ’50s as well. As someone who grew up in that same era in Hagar’s hood, the former hometown of America’s biggest steel mill west of the Mississippi and birthplace of the Hells Angels — Fontana — I can attest to the veracity of Hagar’s crystal-clear total recall. Now a bustling metropolis (well, bustling mostly with logistic centers aka shipping warehouses,) back in the ’50s Fontana had a population of just under 10,000 and Kaiser Steel had a payroll of about that same number. It was more “Deer Hunter” than “Surf’s Up,” with a richly diverse blue-collar working-class hamlet of transplanted Rust Belt Slovenians,…

Substitute “ears” for “eyes,” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” still applies to much of the world when it comes to the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The ensemble shouldn’t just be considered among the great vocal groups of the 1960s, a category that was small enough in its size and impact to feel limiting, but also, along with the Beach Boys, just one of the truly great American bands. The lineup has been in flux since the group’s initial early-to-mid-’60s heyday … with the stage musical “Jersey Boys” providing some very colorful reasons why the group’s roster suddenly shifted. But Valli has been the center that holds, still perpetuating that magnificent group sound. At 89, Valli is still touring this catalog, still devoted to keeping…

The Veil Platform FX on Hulu Premiere date April 30 Episodes 6 Creator Steven Knight Cast Elisabeth Moss, Yumna Marwan, Dali Benssalah, Josh Charles In FX’s gripping new miniseries “The Veil,” right versus wrong isn’t a straightforward calculation, and truth is more confounding than it seems. The action series follows cunning MI6 agent Imogene Salter (a captivating Elisabeth Moss), whose ability to assume a new identity in the blink of an eye makes her a singular asset for the most challenging missions. When Imogene is tasked with extricating a woman named Adilah El Idrissi (an outstanding Yumna Marwan) from a Turkish/Syrian refugee camp and enticing her to disclose her secrets, the spy finds herself analyzing her own moral code and a past shrouded in riddles. Exciting and astonishing, “The Veil”…