LOS ANGELES (AP) Director DeMane Davis recalled when Parul Agrawal, SVP of drama at Warner Bros., reached out to her about a show called Brilliant Minds (NBC). The exec sent the pilot to Davis with a warning: “You’re gonna cry in the first four minutes.” Davis was skeptical initially, relating, “I didn’t tell her but I was resistant–crying Read More 

ATLANTA (AP) Charter Communications has offered to acquire Cox Communications, a $34.5 billion merger that would combine two of the top three cable companies in the U.S. Cox is the third largest cable television company in the country, with more than 6.5 million digital cable, internet, telephone, and home security customers. It has a strong foothold in Read More 

PARIS (AP) For powerful men in France’s film industry, this was a week of reckoning. Gérard Depardieu — the country’s most famous male actor — was convicted of sexual assault. Two days later, the Cannes Film Festival barred another actor accused of rape from walking the red carpet. Together, the decisions sent a message that France had Read More 

CANNES, France (AP) Three years after flying into the Cannes Film Festival with “Top Gun: Maverick,” Tom Cruise returned to the Croisette on Wednesday with “Mission: Impossible — Final Reckoning.” Christopher McQuarrie’s latest “Mission: Impossible” installment is the biggest Hollywood tentpole wading ashore in Cannes this year. And its sizable impact at the French Riviera festival prompted shouts Read More 

CANNES, France (AP) Much of the cinema world, including Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Quentin Tarantino, descended on the Cannes Film Festival as the French Riviera extravaganza got its 78th edition underway Tuesday. Expectations are running high for a potentially banner Cannes. All of the ingredients — loads of stars, top-tier filmmakers, political intrigue — seem to Read More 

CANNES, France (AP) One hundred years after Charlie Chaplin made dinner rolls dance and ate his shoe like it was a fine meal, “The Gold Rush” has been vividly brought back to life in a new restoration that premiered Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival. On the opening day of its 78th edition, Cannes debuted a 4K restoration Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) The film “Lilly,” a biopic about the equal pay icon Lilly Ledbetter, lands in theaters at a difficult time for her biggest political and civil rights champions. Many are gone or out of power, their hopes of building on Ledbetter’s legacy interrupted by a more fundamental fight over President Donald Trump’s shake-up of civil rights Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) The complex effects of personal trauma have not traditionally been the stuff of sci-fi and fantasy. They tend to get in the way of the quest. “Game of Thrones” made a meal of it. “Battlestar Galactica” tried to consider the effect on survivors of losing a planet of people. But it hasn’t fit in the Read More 

NEW YORK FCB New York capped off a stellar year at The One Show 2025, winning Best of Show for Spotify’s “Spreadbeats” and being named Agency of the Year. FCB New York topped the world with 35 Gold Pencils, including 28 for “Spreadbeats.” The work also won Best of Disciplines in Branded Entertainment, Creative Use of Data, Read More 

CANNES, France Shantanu Narayen, chair and CEO of Adobe, will be honored as the inaugural Creative Champion of the Year at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The new honoree award is given to individuals and organizations in recognition of their long-term and meaningful contribution to providing creative people with the tools they need to truly Read More 

LOS ANGELES Academy Award-nominated/Emmy-winning creative studio Ventureland and its sister commercial and music video production company PRETTYBIRD have entered into a creative partnership with artist, designer and director Eli Russell Linnetz. Known for his genre-defying work across fashion, photography, directing, film, and stage design, Linnetz brings his creative vision to Ventureland and PRETTYBIRD, where he has been Read More 

NEW YORK Agencies, studios, brands and freelancers in 41 countries were announced as the winners of the ADC 104th Annual Awards. These honorees will be celebrated this evening (5/14) at an awards ceremony in New York’s Gotham Hall during The One Club for Creativity’s Creative Week 2025. The global jury awarded this year’s prestigious ADC Black Cube Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) The R&B singer Cassie testified Wednesday that Sean “Diddy” Combs raped her when she ended their decade-long relationship, after he locked her in a life of physical abuse by threatening to release degrading sexual videos of her. Addressing the Manhattan courtroom for a second day in Combs’ federal sex trafficking trial, Cassie said Combs forced Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) R&B singer Cassie was pressed to read aloud her own explicit messages to ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs in federal court Thursday, including texts that showed her expressing desire for the drug-fueled group sex she previously testified left her traumatized. Lawyers for Combs sought to portray Cassie to the jury as a willing and eager participant Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) A former model reproached one of Harvey Weinstein ‘s lawyers for suggesting that her sexual abuse allegations against the ex-studio boss are lies. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” Kaja Sokola retorted. In her fifth and final day of testimony at Weinstein’s sex crimes retrial, she maintained that she was telling the truth and that Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) You can’t keep Stanley Tucci from his beloved Italy just like you can’t keep cheese from lasagna. The Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning actor is once again elegantly roaming through the land of his heritage in National Geographic’s new food-travel series “Tucci in Italy,” less than three years after a similar show was axed. “I think Read More 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Major social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and X have failed to protect LGBTQ+ users from hate and harassment, in part, because they intentionally rolled back previous safety practices, the advocacy group GLAAD said Tuesday in its annual Social Media Safety Index. The report said that recent “unprecedented hate speech policy rollbacks” from Instagram Read More 

LONDON BAFTA unveiled and honored the winners of the BAFTA Television Awards on Sunday (5/11) during a ceremony at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London. Celebrating the very best of television broadcast in 2024, the ceremony was hosted by Alan Cumming, with musical performances from Jessie J, Tom Grennan and Esther Abrami. Mr Loverman Read More 

LONDON Claryn Chong has signed with Stink for representation worldwide spanning commercials and music videos. She’s already wrapped her first collaboration with the production house–”Unreal Movement” for Nike featuring Bugeisha Club, a collective of mixed Asian women working across the creative arts who explore their strength and skills to battle a dystopian future, deploying nunchucks, martial Read More 

ArtClass has added comedy director Quinn Katherman to its talent roster. Katherman draws on her background as an agency creative and amateur improviser to direct fearless performances that are as strange as they are stylish. Before joining ArtClass, Katherman was represented by PRETTYBIRD where she continued to develop her signature approach: stylish visuals, laugh-out-loud moments, Read More 

LOS ANGELES Reverie Content has added The Director Brothers–consisting of Josh Martin and Ryan McNeely–to its roster. Martin and McNeely cut their teeth at Funny or Die. As a directing team, they have shown a distinctive brand of humor along with a knack for the extraordinary––they drop everyday characters into fantastical situations, blending old-school stunts with motion Read More 

NEW YORK Tinygiant has signed Brooklyn-based director and writer Doron Max Hagay. Known for his distinctive voice in comedy and genre-defying storytelling, Hagay had been directing independently prior to joining Tinygiant. Previously his last company affiliation was The Directors Bureau.  He recently earned distinction with his debut as the only guest director on season 4 of the Read More 

NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES Sibling Rivalry has added James F. Coton to its roster of directors. Coton’s work is marked by dynamic camera movement, vibrant color, and strong rhythm, often incorporating visually inventive transitions and striking compositions. His journey into filmmaking began with co-founding a production company specializing in branded content and documentaries. Self-taught in editing, documentary storytelling, and Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) It’s the final night of tour. SoFi Stadium, just outside Los Angeles, is packed. 80,000 fans stand before The Weeknd, an endless sea of blinding lights. The bestselling artist born Abel Tesfaye emerges onstage. He launches into the first song. Less than a minute goes by, and the unthinkable happens: His voice cracks. And then Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) A blender. A lawn mower. A ceiling fan. A garden rake. A vending machine. An MRI scanner. These mundane items are supposed to ease us through life, helping us eat, clean, keep cool, stay healthy. They’re not supposed to be evil. But in “Final Destination Bloodlines,” as in the entire 25-year franchise, ordinary objects become Read More 

NEW YORK (AP) Robert Benton, the Oscar-winning filmmaker who helped reset the rules in Hollywood as the co-creator of “Bonnie and Clyde,” and later received mainstream validation as the writer-director of “Kramer vs. Kramer” and “Places in the Heart,” has died at age 92. Benton’s son, John Benton, said that he died Sunday at his home in Manhattan Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) James Foley, a director best known for “Glengarry Glen Ross,” has died. He was 71. He died earlier this week after a yearlong battle with brain cancer, his representative, Taylor Lomax, said Friday. In his long and varied career, Foley directed Madonna music videos, 12 episodes of “House of Cards” and the two “Fifty Shades Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) When CBS’ soap opera “Beyond the Gates” premiered in February, soap opera fans and veterans alike hailed it as a win for Black history and culture. On Monday, the first soap to feature a majority Black cast was renewed for a second season. Its creation was both a savvy business move and an acknowledgment of Read More 

LOS ANGELES (AP) Marvel’s “Thunderbolts” and Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” dominated the North American box office charts again this weekend. Now in their second and fourth weekends respectively, the two films had some new competition, including a horror movie, a Kerry Washington action pic, a Josh Hartnett airplane thriller, and a Shakespeare-inspired musical. None of the additions made a Read More 

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