Entertainment News

Ariana Grande brought out Cynthia Erivo to perform at her Aug. 16 Eternal Sunshine stop at London’s O2. The “Wicked” stars sang “For Good” and “Happy Days” on the second night in the U.K. for Grande’s tour. Grande is currently on her Eternal Sunshine Tour, which shares a title with her seventh studio album. The […]

Alex Cooper seems intent on unraveling some of the current relationships that have helped underpin her production company, Unwell. The star podcaster and media entrepreneur is poised to drop her current talent agency, UTA, according to three people familiar with the matter, as she focuses on a larger suite of business operations beyond the podcast […]

Stray Kids have scored their biggest sales week yet as their latest, “This & That,” becomes their ninth No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The group bows atop the chart with 369,000 equivalent album units, with traditional album sales accounting for 357,000 of that sum. The latest feat extends their record for most No. 1s […]

“The Challenge” two-time winner Tyler Duckworth died Tuesday in North Dakota, and his fellow contestants are remembering him as a “joy to be around” with “vibrant energy.” Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio posted a video tribute to Duckworth on Instagram on Sunday. The pair started their reality show careers together in their early 20s on “The Real […]

Sunday at the Edinburgh Intl. Film Festival turned into Edinbranagh, with a morning screening of the four-hour epic “Hamlet” followed by a wide-ranging onstage conversation with Kenneth Branagh, which began with him receiving the inaugural EIFF Outstanding Contribution to Cinema award. “Festivals are more important to our industry than ever before,” Branagh said, holding the […]

Mariska Hargitay told Variety at the HBO Max Emmy Nominee Celebration that New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson is “definitely” getting a role in “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.” “It’s definitely happening,” Hargitay said. “He’s kind of magnificent that way. He is just open and ready. I don’t think there is much Jalen can’t […]

“The Sopranos” star Drea de Matteo recently told Jamie Kennedy on the “Hate to Break It To Ya” podcast (via EW) that starting her OnlyFans page was a “political statement.” “In some ways, the OnlyFans page was almost like a political statement on my part in a way…It was like, ‘Fuck you. I don’t have […]

Dolly Parton was unable to attend the opening of NightFlight Expedition at Dollywood on Friday due to ongoing “health issues.” Dollywood President Eugene Naughton shared a pre-recorded video of the singer during the dedication ceremony for the new ride. “Well, hey Eugene. I’m right here… Well, kind of. Sorta,” Parton said in the video. “I’m […]

It wouldn’t be a Beatles movie without Abbey Road. In a video shared on social media, Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn and Barry Keoghan were shown recreating the iconic album cover for Sam Mendes’ multi-part Beatles biopic, titled “The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event.” Each film in the series will be from the […]

Dog days of summer? This year’s August at the box office didn’t get the memo. This popcorn season is ending with a bang rather than the usual whimper as “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” continue to pack in crowds. Meanwhile, two new movies, Warner Bros.’ prehistoric sci-fi mystery “The End of Oak Street” […]

After defending her undisputed women’s heavyweight title against Franchon Crews-Dezurn back in February, American boxer Claressa Shields drops in weight class to middleweight to challenge WBA and WBC champion Australian Kaye Scott. The bout is scheduled for 10 rounds. On Saturday, Aug. 15, Shields (18-0-0) vs. Scott (5-1-1) takes place at State Farm Arena in […]

For “Sacred Creatures” director Frieda Luk, belief can be comforting, ridiculous, exhilarating and hard to explain. “I’m really fascinated by when people believe in something,” she tells Variety. “One person believes in something, and then a group of people, and then it slowly becomes this massive phenomenon. It goes viral.” That fascination drives Luk’s debut […]

As part of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s newly expanded DCU, a more grounded take on the “Green Lantern” comics may surprise audiences who associate the character with the Ryan Reynolds film that received poor reviews back in 2011. But for co-creators Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King, “Lanterns” is all about going back […]

Would “Trainspotting” get financed today? Could Lynne Ramsay survive the jump from shorts to a first feature? And might “The Wicker Man,” once treated as a problem child, now look like exactly the kind of genre package buyers chase? That was the conceit of a lively session hosted by Wendy Mitchell, with Picturehouse’s creative director […]

Selena Gomez and her legal team have released a fiery statement after the “Only Murders in the Building” star was accused of defrauding investors in her mental health startup, Wondermind, in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday. “The allegations that Selena Gomez engaged in any way whatsoever in any purported ‘fraud’ or other wrongdoing are completely […]

The weather being what it is in Yorkshire, a sunroof is not a top priority for most car buyers in that English county — but the tired hatchback driven by young slacker Frankie (Samuel Bottomley) has one. That’s the first of a few improbabilities in “The State of Us,” an occasionally hokey but winningly sweet-natured […]

After Max Holloway defeated Conor McGregor in a TKO in less than 70 second during UFC 329 in July, the Ultimate Fighting Championship travels from Las Vegas to Philadelphia for UFC 330. For the main event, Russian Islam Makhachev (28-1-0) defends his welterweight title belt against Irish fighter Ian Machado Garry (17-1-0) in a marquee […]

Dave Marsh, the music critic and biographer who documented the early days of Bruce Springsteen in his influential 1979 book “Born to Run,” died Friday in his Connecticut home. He was 76. Jim Rotolo, who hosts the Springsteen-fan cast “The Wild & The Innocent” on SiriusXM, confirmed Marsh’s death in a Facebook post on Saturday […]

Once upon a time, “Severance” star Adam Scott auditioned for the beloved sitcom “The Office.” Years later, he’s reliving the memories of that failed audition after his daughter’s acting teacher had the class compare Scott’s audition tape to John Krasinski’s successful tape. “He put it to the class like, ‘Okay. Let’s discuss why he got the job, […]

“Mutrion,” a short film set in the Venice lagoon by 26-year-old Italian director Marco Cavazzin, has scooped the best director award at the Locarno Film Festival’s Pardi di Domani (Leopards of Tomorrow) section. “Mutrion,” which is the only Italian entry in the section, stars Manfredi Marini, who previously starred in Giovanni Tortorici’s “Nineteen,” and Giulio Maroncelli and is produced […]

Anne Hathaway told Complex during her press tour for “The End of Oak Street” that movies should be rated R if they feature dogs being killed. Moviegoers have wondered if “Oak Street” would feature dog violence ever since the film’s trailer revealed Starbuck, the trusted canine of the film’s central family (Hathaway plays matriarch Denise). […]

In another life, Kristen Kish might have been an astronaut. As a young child, she even went to space camp for a day. “I sat in the little simulator, and I touched all the buttons,” she recalls, her face lighting up. “I want to go to adult space camp,” she declares. And maybe, she’ll do […]

Lauren Weedman could never really let loose on stage. “I remember I was doing other people’s plays when I was younger, and I never got to fully get my yayas out,” she tells Variety. “I always felt like I had more energy or more stuff going on in me that I had to kind of […]

“The radio doesn’t play songs for me anymore,” says Bob, 54, who is situated in a lawn chair, deciding between a drag from the Marlboro Red in his left hand and the Budweiser can in his right. He chooses the Bud first, a sensible move given the sun bouncing off the concrete of the endless […]

Just two months after the Grammy Awards announced a new category for Asian pop — and just weeks after BTS announced they would not submit their music for the 2027 awards, in part because of what they feel are the limitations of this awards — the Recording Academy has signaled that it is at least rethinking the […]

Paramount announced Friday that it has won approval from Mexico’s competition authority for its merger with Warner Bros., leaving only 12 state attorneys general standing in the way of closing the deal. In a statement, Paramount said it has now won approval from regulators representing 68 countries, including the European Union, China, Canada, Brazil and […]

Oogie Boogie, Lilo from “Lilo & Stitch”, Hannah Montana and Lizzie Maguire are all headed to “Disney Dreamlight Valley.” The Hannah Montana and Lizzie McGuire collection arrives in the cozy life-sim game Aug. 19. A brand-new Premium Shop collection inspired by Hannah Montana and Lizzie McGuire launches next week, giving players the chance style their […]

Frankie Valli is telling the world that he has not retired, contrary to reports over the last few days from multiple news outlet that took at face value a statement posted by his younger brother that his time in show business was indeed at a close. “He is not retired. This is false,” his longtime […]

For Scottish director Paul Wright, “Mission” began with a feeling. “For the first time with a film I’ve made, it was kind of tapping into a feeling,” he tells Variety. “More so than plot or story, it was just that feeling that some of us get sometimes of feeling maybe disconnected from the world and […]

David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, has now sold over $195 million worth of stock since the media company clinched a deal to be acquired by David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance earlier this year. Zaslav’s latest sale of 773,173 shares of WBD stock, for an aggregate market value of $21,655,292, was handled on […]

Matthew McConaughey revealed on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that acting alongside Jennifer Lopez in 2001’s “The Wedding Planner” ended up getting him out of a “major mess-up” at the U.S.-Mexico border. “I pull in one late night crossing the border going way down south,” the actor recalled. “I get pulled over, and it’s one […]

Tramell Tillman is going to play a big role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s future. And he can finally talk about it.  Tillman, who won an Emmy last year for his supporting role in Apple TV’s “Severance,” had been hoping to appear in a Marvel movie for some time, and heard from his team that […]

Although the first game of the preseason is the NFL Hall of Fame Game, the rest of the teams in the league begin play during Week 1 of preseason on Thursday, Aug. 13. The NFL 2025-27 season is just a few weeks away, while teams are getting ready to compete to win their division, make […]

Warner Bros. Discovery president of international Gerhard Zeiler has been tapped to receive the 2026 International Emmy Directorate Award. He joins Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria, who was previously announced as this year’s honoree for the org’s founders award. Zeiler and Bajaria will acceot their awards at the 54th International Emmy Awards Gala on […]

“House of the Dragon” concluded its third season on HBO on Sunday night, with the finale reaching 21 million viewers in its first three days of availability. More than 11 million of those viewers were in the U.S. That total comes from a combination of Nielsen’s measurement of linear viewers on the HBO cable channel […]

WOW – Women Of Wrestling is going through a major growth spurt for its fifth season — which includes the league’s first live broadcast and expanded on-camera presence from Jeanie Buss. Season 5 will broadcast live from L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles, anchoring WOW’s marquee events as part of a broader live strategy. Co-owner and promoter […]

On a windy afternoon, a family packs a beach bag, perhaps for the last time, and languidly walks towards the coast. A sense of gloom hangs in the air. While the child and her mother play in the sand, the father tackles the seemingly impossible task of setting up a tent to provide shelter. As […]

Is there an audience for AI-delivered news? Public data says no, and previous attempts to deliver such ventures have yielded many human-written stories about projects that never materialized. And yet Mirage — the AI startup behind the video-editing app Captions that raised $75 million this year and was last valued at $500 million — thinks […]

Christy Knowings, who was a cast member on Nickelodeon’s children sketch comedy show “All That,” died Tuesday. She was 46. Knowings suffered an asthma attack that left her with brain damage, according to TMZ, and she was hospitalized on Friday. TMZ, which broke the news of Knowings’ death, reported that she was placed on life […]

A spinoff of “The Lincoln Lawyer” starring Cobie Smulders is in early development at Netflix. According to Deadline, which first reported news of the project, the series would center around Smulders reprising her “Lincoln Lawyer” role as Mickey Haller’s (Manuel Garcia Rulfo) half-sister, Artemisia “Emi” Finch. The character debuted in the Season 4 finale of […]

Melissa Stone has been named senior VP of publicity for the Walt Disney Studios. She will lead the publicity team and oversee the PR strategy across theatrical, including Disney Live Action, Disney Animation, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Studios, as well as Disney+ streaming series. Stone will report to Martha Morrison, the president […]

It’s a huge responsibility to bring a version of a character to life who was a real person. Throw in the success of a franchise and an infamous serial killer and Charlie Hunnam knew he needed to get his portrayal of Ed Gein right. “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” the eight-part Netflix series, is led […]

CBS is developing a new law enforcement drama that hails from two “One Chicago” mainstays. Variety has learned that CBS has opened a development room for the series, titled “Strike Force” (working title). Matt Olmstead is writing and executive producing the new series, while Jesse Lee Soffer will star and executive produce. Jerry Bruckheimer and […]

When renowned wildlife producer Mike Gunton approached “The Lion King” director Jon Favreau about collaborating on a documentary, the director, who had never made a doc, immediately said yes. It was 2022, and Gunton, an executive producer at BBC Studios Natural History Unit, wanted to “supersize” his “Dynasties” series about vulnerable or endangered species, and […]

Panache Digital Games announced “1666: Amsterdam” will release in Early Access on Aug. 25. From “Assassin’s Creed” series creator Patrice Désilets, the dark, third-person narrative action-adventure game unravels a mystery across Amsterdam. Players take on the role of Noa, the Collector, who wields witchcraft to uncover “Originals,” demonic entities hiding behind human faces. The Early […]

An hour into Salli Richardson-Whitfield’s directorial debut, she was left to sink or swim. This was 2011, and Richardson-Whitefield was standing behind the camera on the set of Syfy’s quirky small-town comedy “Eureka” talking to series creator Matt Hastings. She had been asking to try her hand at directing and finally got the shot in […]

Every day, governments, newsmakers and politicians scrutinize the news reporting of CNN. Paramount Skydance wants to add to the list. The media conglomerate, whose efforts to acquire CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery have stalled in federal court after a group of 12 attorneys general levied antitrust concerns against the proposed deal, has considered setting up […]

Electronic Arts’ “Star Wars Zero Company” will be the latest in a long, long line of video games set in Lucasfilm’s galaxy far, far away. But this upcoming single-player turn-based tactics title developed by Bit Reactor aims to be different from all the Star Wars games that have come before — and not just because […]

Broadway producers traditionally gauge audience reaction by warm applause at the end of Act 1 or a standing ovation during curtain call. But “Paranormal Activity” producer Simon Friend laughs while recalling the profane reaction of a man scared for his life while watching the play: “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” “Paranormal Activity,” which opens at the […]

When Vera Drew made her ambitious debut film “The People’s Joker,” she didn’t know if anyone else in the world would understand her deeply personal superhero movie parody about transitioning. The first time she met a trans person who connected with the film after a public screening was a “mindblowing” experience. “There had been other […]