ftyjf 6u

July 21, 2021

‘WE’RE GOING TO TAKE IT TO TOKYO’ Streaming and quarantining at the Olympics

‘HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE TO DIE?’ Drugs, death and denial at a rehab for the rich

DEMANDING A LIVING WAGE Hollywood support staff turns up the heat

CAPTAINS INDUSTRY OF

How Jungle Cruise’s EMILY BLUNT and DWAYNE JOHNSON became BFFs — initial ghosting aside — amid Hollywood turbulence: ‘I go to him for advice because he has lived in the trenches’

Individual Achievement in Comedy JEAN SMART

Individual Achievement in Drama MICHAELA COEL

Individual Achievement in Drama KATE WINSLET

Individual Achievement in Comedy KALEY CUOCO

Outstanding New Program

Outstanding New Program

Outstanding New Program

Outstanding New Program

Outstanding Achievement in Comedy

Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries or Specials

Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries or Specials

Outstanding Achievement in Comedy

Program of the Year

Program of the Year

Program of the Year

Outstanding Achievement in News and Information

Outstanding Achievement in Variety, Talk or Sketch

Outstanding Achievement in Reality

Outstanding Achievement in News and Information

Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries or Specials

Outstanding Achievement in Variety, Talk or Sketch

Outstanding Achievement in Reality

Outstanding Achievement in Drama

Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming

Issue No. 27, July 21, 2021

FEATURES

YUICHI YAMAZAKI/GETTY IMAGES

32 Navigating Uncharted Waters, Together

Protesters took to the streets in Tokyo on July 16 to demonstrate against holding the Summer Olympics in their country amid a coronavirus pandemic. NBC execs say they plan to cover the unrest and state of emergency around the Games.

As Jungle Cruise co-stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt prepare to release their $200 million-plus Disney tentpole, the two very different actors have learned to lean on each other to steer their careers through one of Hollywood’s most tumultuous eras.

40 ‘We’re Going to Take It to Tokyo’: Streaming and Quarantining at the Olympics When it comes to Peacock, NBCUniversal views the Games’ yearlong delay as

T H E HOL LY WO OD R EP ORT ER

“an advantage” since it now knows the streaming platform’s user base — but even with a big event boost, it has a long way to go to catch up to rivals.

PLUS How Snapchat, Twitter and Twitch aim to capture an audience who might not tune in live, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on letting the athletes lead the way on mental health.

46 Drugs, Death and Denial at a Rehab for the Rich Clients are overdosing at the Red Door, a Hollywood-favored recovery center run by a husband-and-wife duo whose

1

J U LY 21, 2021

previous facility was shuttered in scandal: “How many people have to die before these people are stopped?”

50 Will Escapism Lead the Pack at This Year’s Emmy Awards?

The noms lineup proves that not only audiences but also the Television Academy appreciates populist fare, as opposed to the more somber material that has dominated the awards in years past.

PLUS A chat with Hacks’ Carl ClemonsHopkins, the first openly nonbinary performer to earn an Emmy nomination for acting.

Issue No. 27, July 21, 2021

30

28 24 7

Hollywood Support Staff Seeks New Wage Floor

18 As shows like Wicked and The Lion King plot a September return to the stage, rising delta variant cases and unclear casttesting protocols create uncertainty.

12

A Case for Variety in the Emmys’ Acting Races New performance categories for projects such as Hamilton and SNL would open the Emmys’ restrictive acting races, writes THR’s chief TV critic.

14

7 Days of Deals

The L.A.-Based Gucci Exec Boosting Fashion’s Next Gen How Antoine Phillips is working to lift up “creatives of color” through the luxury label’s scholarship program and an impact fund supporting nonprofits in 12 cities across the U.S. PLUS Three new boutiques demonstrate L.A.’s current retail upswing.

20 Yes, I Did Say That!

22 Rambling Reporter

24 Creative Space: David S. Goyer

Next Big Thing: Malcolm Mays “He’s ice,” says the actor-writer of his role as a drug dealer in Starz’s new Power Book III: Raising Kanan.

The Dark Knight scribe and IP whisperer discusses taking “big-ass swings” and the project that almost broke him: “I don’t think anyone involved in that film had a good experience.”

T H E HOL LY WO OD R EP ORT ER

Because of convoluted rules, legal experts and California officials say misclassifying salaried employees as exempt from overtime is common.

STYLE 28 After the Grueling Workout: How Hollywood Recovers New wellness destinations around L.A. are offering everything from breathwork ice baths to hyperbaric oxygen chambers.

PLUS Star trainers share their postworkout tips.

30 An L.A. First: Houses That Accept Buyers’ Bitcoin, Display NFT Art In high-end contemporary listings, developers and brokers are experimenting with taking cryptocurrency and showcasing blockchain-authenticated digital art.

THE BUSINESS

ABOUT TOWN 16

26 A ‘Very Serious Wage Theft Issue’ That Hollywood Overlooks

The filmmaker and artist’s lamps — which his gallery calls light-emitting sculptures — are set to go on display at the poolside Felix art showcase, taking place at the Hollywood Roosevelt starting July 29.

Amid contract talks with studios, unionized script coordinators and writers assistants in Los Angeles publicly campaign to increase pay and weekly work guarantees.

10 Broadway’s Big Fear

David Lynch’s Bright Ideas to Hit Hollywood Art Fair

2

REVIEWS 54 Ted Lasso Jason Sudeikis’ ultra-optimistic soccer coach returns to Apple TV+ for a second irresistible season of fish-out-of-water punchlines and radical kindness.

J U LY 21, 2021

18 Double scarves midi dress with adjustable spaghetti straps by Brazilian brand Farm Rio, which has a pop-up store through November on Venice’s Abbot Kinney Boulevard; $185, farmrio.com 24 “I hope I’ve developed a reputation for speaking with candor,” says screenwriter David Goyer, photographed July 13 at his L.A. home.

28 Float tank therapy, available at Pause, realigns your spine, reduces stress and stimulates circulation, the company says.

30 The home at 1108 Wallace Ridge in Beverly Hills, listed for $65 million, will accept Bitcoin as payment.

ON THE COVER Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt were photographed July 12 by Chrisean Rose in Atlanta.

SEE YOU IN 2 WEEKS The next issue publishes Aug. 4. Keep up with breaking news, reviews and video at THR.com and via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

WALLACE RIDGE: DOUGLAS FRIEDMAN. PAUSE WELLNESSL MEIWEN SEE FOR PROJECT M PLUS. GOYER: MARTHA GALVAN.

17

THE REPORT

18

PROUDLY CONGRATULATES OUR

79 NOMINATIONS!

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES

JASON SUDEIKIS

KALEY CUOCO

IN A COMEDY SERIES

IN A COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS

BRETT GOLDSTEIN BRENDAN HUNT NICK MOHAMMED JEREMY SWIFT

ROSIE PEREZ

IN A COMEDY SERIES

FOR A COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR

JUNO TEMPLE HANNAH WADDINGHAM

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

JASON SUDEIKIS (TELEPLAY) BRENDAN HUNT & JOE KELLY (STORY) “MAKE REBECCA GREAT AGAIN”

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

STEVE YOCKEY

OUTSTANDING WRITING

SUSANNA FOGEL

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING CASTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION DESIGN

FOR A NARRATIVE CONTEMPORARY PROGRAM (ONE HOUR OR MORE)

OUTSTANDING WRITING

OUTSTANDING SINGLE-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING

JASON SUDEIKIS & BILL LAWRENCE (TELEPLAY & STORY) BRENDAN HUNT & JOE KELLY (STORY) “PILOT”

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL MAIN TITLE THEME MUSIC

FOR A COMEDY SERIES

FOR A COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

ZACH BRAFF • “BISCUITS” MJ DELANEY • “THE HOPE THAT KILLS YOU” DECLAN LOWNEY • “MAKE REBECCA GREAT AGAIN” OUTSTANDING DIRECTING

OUTSTANDING VARIETY SPECIAL (PRE-RECORDED) THOMAS SCHLAMME OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL

FOR A COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING CASTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR A NARRATIVE PROGRAM (HALF-HOUR)

“THE HOPE THAT KILLS YOU”, “MAKE REBECCA GREAT AGAIN”

OUTSTANDING SINGLE-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING

JAMES BURROWS

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING

FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (HALF-HOUR) AND ANIMATION

FOR A COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL MAIN TITLE THEME MUSIC OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING

FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (HALF-HOUR) AND ANIMATION

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING

FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (HALF-HOUR) AND ANIMATION

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A MULTI-CAMERA SERIES

NOMINEES FOR THE 73 PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS RD

®

MOST OF ANY STUDIO OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES

MICHAEL DOUGLAS

JONATHAN MAJORS

ALAN CARTER

IN A COMEDY SERIES

IN A DRAMA SERIES

FOR A REALITY PROGRAM

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR

PAUL REISER

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING

JURNEE SMOLLETT

OUTSTANDING CASTING

MORGAN FREEMAN

IN A DRAMA SERIES

OUTSTANDING PICTURE EDITING

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS

OUTSTANDING CONTEMPORARY HAIRSTYLING

OUTSTANDING CASTING

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

FOR A COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING

FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (HALF-HOUR) AND ANIMATION

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS

AUNJANUE ELLIS

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

COURTNEY B. VANCE

FOR A REALITY PROGRAM

FOR A STRUCTURED REALITY OR COMPETITION PROGRAM FOR A VARIETY, NONFICTION OR REALITY PROGRAM

OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN/LIGHTING DIRECTION FOR A VARIETY SERIES

OUTSTANDING TECHNICAL DIRECTION, CAMERAWORK, VIDEO CONTROL FOR A SERIES

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

OUTSTANDING VARIETY SPECIAL (PRE-RECORDED) BEN WINSTON

MISHA GREEN

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING

OUTSTANDING CASTING

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION DESIGN

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY

OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN/LIGHTING DIRECTION

OUTSTANDING FANTASY/SCI-FI COSTUMES

FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL

FOR A DRAMA SERIES

OUTSTANDING TELEVISION MOVIE OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHY FOR SCRIPTED PROGRAMMING

FOR A SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES (ONE HOUR)

OUTSTANDING MAIN TITLE DESIGN OUTSTANDING PROSTHETIC MAKEUP

WILLIAM H. MACY

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A SERIES (ORIGINAL DRAMATIC SCORE)

ALLISON JANNEY

OUTSTANDING MUSIC SUPERVISION

IN A COMEDY SERIES

FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (ONE HOUR)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS

JAMES WIDDOES

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING MULTI-CAMERA PICTURE EDITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

FOR A COMEDY OR DRAMA SERIES (ONE HOUR)

OUTSTANDING SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SEASON OR A MOVIE

OUTSTANDING STUNT PERFORMANCE

OUTSTANDING STUNT COORDINATION

AIDY BRYANT

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHY FOR SCRIPTED PROGRAMMING

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR A NARRATIVE PROGRAM (HALF-HOUR)

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↑ Theater

Broadway’s Fear COVID-19 case rise could cause setback p. 10

Streaming

A ‘Fresh Pair of Eyes’

Behind the Headlines

Netflix is bringing its casting leadership in-house p. 11

Heat Index

Ursula Burns The former CEO of Xerox, who is also a director for Uber, joins Endeavor’s board as the WME owner expands its leadership structure.

Bill Ackman The investor’s blank check company drops a deal to acquire a 10 percent stake in Vivendi’s Universal Music Group after its share price fell significantly.

Without ‘Clear Ladder’ to Advance, Support Staff Seeks New Wage Floor Amid contract talks with studios, unionized script coordinators and writers’ support staff in Los Angeles publicly campaign to increase pay and weekly work guarantees

BY KATIE KILKENNY

BURNS: COURTESY OF ENDEAVOR. ACKMAN: SYLVAIN GABOURY/PATRICK MCMULLAN VIA GETTY IMAGES. ARON: FRAZER HARRISON/GETTY IMAGES. CUOMO: CINDY ORD/GETTY IMAGES FOR SIRIUSXM. THEATRE: NOAM GALAI/GETTY IMAGES. COOPER: ANGELA WEISS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES.

Adam Aron The AMC Theatres chief nabs long-term leases on two top-grossing theaters, The Grove in Los Angeles and The Americana at Brand in Glendale.

Chris Cuomo/ Anderson Cooper The CNN hosts saw show ratings halved quarter-toquarter as the network has 11 weeks with fewer than 1 million primetime viewers.

Showbiz Stocks

$40.87 (+1%) DISH NETWORK (DISH) The satellite TV giant struck a wireless network services deal with AT&T, giving it access to the telecom giant’s 5G network. $531.05 (-1.8%) NETFLIX (NFLX) Wall Street was not impressed by the streaming giant revealing plans to explore the video game business.

C

olby Bachiller remem-

bers “crying my eyes out to another fellow script coordinator” about mounting bills when she got the idea for a hashtag advocating for higher wages in her role and for others in her union. As she was fretting over whether to cut back on her cat, dog or car expenses, Bachiller says, “Right then and there, calling back to #PayUpHollywood and #MeToo, [I realized] it was time for us to share our stories.”

That “aha” moment for Bachiller, who worked on OWN drama series Greenleaf for several seasons as a producer’s assistant, resulted in the #IALivingWage hashtag. Members of her union — IATSE Local 871, which represents four crafts that all have minimum pay rates of less than $18 an hour in their contracts — have been using that hashtag to tell personal stories of financial struggle. Since late June, they’ve

talked about going into credit card debt between gigs, working multiple jobs and delaying having children, among other sacrifices, against the backdrop of new contract talks between IATSE and the AMPTP, the studios’ and networks’ negotiating body.

(Talks are paused until midAugust.) In those negotiations, Local 871 is attempting to “codify a living wage” for script coordinators, writers assistants, assistant production coordinators and art department coordinators, says script coordinator and 871 member Jamie Tunkel, whose credits include CBS’ FBI. “Unfortunately, the AMPTP is balking at our request for a rate increase that would allow our members to have a living wage in Los Angeles,” adds Shawn Waugh, an 871 member, script coordinator and author of Everything Sucks and I Hate Everyone: The Complete Guide to Script Coordinating (for Drama).

(A rep for the AMPTP declined to comment for this report.)

The social media campaign, which has earned the support of such industry figures as Disney heir Abigail Disney and writerproducers Liz Hannah and LaToya Morgan, is poised to put pressure on the AMPTP as Local 871 asks for what likely will be a substantial percentage increase on these crafts’ current minimum rates. It’s also, in the process, shedding light on the obstacles to higher pay that these workers have faced even as unionized support staffers.

IATSE members will not reveal what specific minimum rates they are seeking as negotiation details are being kept under wraps during a media blackout period. Still, several union members have encouraged at least $25 an hour with a 60-hour-a-week guarantee in #IALivingWage tweets. The official hours

Illustration by Tim Peacock

July 14-20

T H E HOL LY WO OD R EP ORT ER

7

J U LY 21, 2021

guarantee per week is important, sources say, because then workers will also be paid for 60 hours a week on holidays, when low-paid support staffers typically see a dip in pay, or no pay at all. Local 871 vice president and art department coordinator Marisa Shipley adds that the union calculated the average L.A. rent price for ZIP codes where members live (about $1,770 a month) and the minimum annual salary they would need to not be considered “rent burdened” (a little over $70,000 a year). If members are working 39 weeks a year at 60 hours a week (an optimistic figure — from 2017 to 2020, these members tended to work less than 26 weeks a year, per internal union data), Shipley says a living wage would offer at least $25.95 an hour. Currently, the union minimum for writers assistants, assistant production coordinators and art department coordinators is $16 an hour or a little bit more, and $17.64 an hour for script coordinators.

Higher minimums are necessary, Local 871 members say, because employers sometimes

Writers Take Pay Hit in 2020 Total earnings reported

While assistants and script coordinators are fighting for wage increases, unionized scribes saw total earnings fall amid production delays during the pandemic Number of writers reporting earnings

$2B 7,000

5,628

6,178

5,906

6,541

6,274

6,108

6,000 $1.75B

5,000 $1.63B

$1.5B

$1.57B $1.5B

3,000 $1.4B 2,000

$1.3B

1,000 2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020 Source: WGA West

compromises were made on minimum rates in order to secure other wins, like access to the Motion Picture Industry Pension & Health Plans. Art department coordinators and assistant production coordinators, meanwhile, did not get minimum rates in their contract until 2015 and therefore were for a time unable to negotiate for percentage-based contractual wage increases.

Larger TV production trends also have stymied those seeking raises. Short production schedules, small episode orders and writers “mini-rooms” have led to

treat their current base rates as the only rates they can pay, not a wage floor. And while 60 hours a week is unofficially common for many support staffers in the industry, who tend to rely on overtime pay, “In some cases, we see that when people have successfully negotiated a higher hourly wage for themselves, in retaliation, their hours are being cut, leaving them with less gross wages,” Shipley says.

When Local 871 began negotiating on behalf of writers assistants and script coordinators for their first union contract in 2017,

less overall income on each show and more job hunting, 871 members say, while the general dearth of series with multiple seasons has diminished the number of roles with relative job security and chances for promotion. “There used to be a clear ladder where the first season, you were the writers PA, the second season you were the writers assistant or script coordinator, maybe the second or third season you got a freelance job, and once you freelanced, the next season you would staff,” says writers assistant and 871 member Amy Thurlow, who is on the local’s

Theater Owners Pull Piracy Alarm Over Disney+ Reveal

W

here is Peter Pan when he’s needed to battle the pirate Captain Hook? Throughout the pandemic, new studio event pics — from Wonder Woman 1984 to Godzilla vs. Kong to Black Widow — are fueling piracy because of their dual releases on streaming and in cinemas.

The minute a movie hits a streaming service, pristine

Black Widow was the most pirated film on torrent sites the week of July 19, according to TorrentFreak.

copies are available on myriad sites. In normal times, there aren’t such good-quality options until a title has come to the end of its traditional theatrical run, but the COVID-19 crisis has shortened windows dramatically in a bid to grow streaming services.

Following a long period of relative peace between exhibitors and studios,

the National Association of Theatre Owners on July 18 blasted The Walt Disney Co. for compromising the fate of theatrical by disclosing that Black Widow collected $60 million in revenue from Disney+ Premier Access in addition to its global box office debut of nearly $159 million during the July 9-11 weekend, hence putting the worldwide start at a publicity-friendly $218 million-plus.

Insiders say theater owners were infuriated that Disney+ disclosed the revenue in what they viewed as a bid to boost headlines.

The Hollywood giant hasn’t disclosed any other viewership or revenue numbers

T H E HOL LY WO OD R EP ORT ER

8

for films sent simultaneously to Disney+ Premier Access — which carries an extra price tag of $30 — and the big screen.

The NATO statement didn’t mince words, saying that the day-anddate release strategy for Black Widow undercut the tentpole’s box office potential and promoted piracy — in addition to being responsible for the movie’s “stunning collapse in its second weekend in theatrical revenues,” in addition to dropping an unprecedented 41 percent from Friday to Saturday during its opening weekend. Black Widow was the No. 1 pirated title of the July 19 week, per the news

J U LY 21, 2021

The concession stand at Hollywood’s El Capitan Theatre, where Black Widow played July 9.

site TorrentFreak; ditto for many other previous day-and-date tentpole releases from Disney+ or HBO Max. “Piracy clearly impacts male-driven, fanboy films. They will go out and find it for free,” says one studio executive. Yet NATO didn’t attack HBO Max even though such day-and-date titles during

THEATER: JAY L. CLENDENIN/LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES. WIDOW: JAY MAIDMEN/MARVEL STUDIOS. F9: GILES KEYTE/UNIVERSAL PICTURES. QUIET: JONNY COURNOYER/PARAMOUNT PICTURES. ROADRUNNER: COURTESY OF CNN/FOCUS FEATURES. TAKEUCHI: COURTESY OF SUBJECT. SHIMIZU: GREGG DEGUIRE/WIREIMAGE.

Major exhibitors attributed Black Widow’s ‘stunning collapse’ in week two to the Hollywood giant’s $30 direct-to-consumer experiment as the film tops illegal download lists BY PAMELA MCCLINTOCK

The Report negotiations committee. “And you can’t get there when there’s only one season of a show.”

Since the #IALivingWage hashtag began gaining traction in late June, some sympathetic showrunners, producers and other higher-ups have publicly shared their own attempts to improve pay for these roles.

Inspired by the hashtag, Lucifer co-showrunner Joe Henderson emailed executives he works with to remind them he supports a living wage for support staff and not long after, fired off a tweet urging other showrunners to do the same. Henderson says he often attempts to improve support staffers’ pay and believes “it’s our responsibility as showrunners to reach out to people we work with and to give them arrows in the quiver with which to advocate on our behalf.” Law & Order: Special Victims Unit consulting producer Lisa Takeuchi Cullen tweeted about paying an assistant partially out of her own pocket after her studio told her it paid a “nonnegotiable” rate of $20 an hour to assistants,

the pandemic era likewise have been heavily pirated.

Sources noted that the WarnerMedia streamer has far less reach than Disney+ and that HBO Max has never revealed viewership numbers like Disney did.

Most event films during the pandemic have suffered huge drop-offs, including Universal’s F9, which received an exclusive theatrical release and fell 67 percent its

Takeuchi Cullen

Shimizu

when she was advocating for $25 an hour. “I felt that it was really my duty and responsibility to match that pay,” she says.

Legends of Tomorrow co-showrunner Keto Shimizu, who tweeted that studios must pay writers room support staff higher wages if they want diverse talent, tells THR she encourages showrunners to “really push back on whatever wage your financial department is presenting. If they’re too low, say it. I think that showrunners should have a foot to stand on in that and say, ‘No, this isn’t good enough.’ ” While writers assistants and script coordinators report directly to showrunners and establish a rapport with them, they tend to negotiate their wages with line producers, production accountants, business affairs departments or individuals in other roles. Notes writers assistant and script coordinator Amy Paulette Hartman, who is also on the 871 negotiations committee, “A lot of times, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what your showrunner wants.”

second weekend. The Fast & Furious installment, however, has gone on to earn nearly $600 million at the worldwide box office.

The movie grossed north of $200 million in China alone, while Black Widow isn’t likely to secure a release in that country.

Disney declined to comment on the NATO statement. Insiders, however, say the company is proactive about protecting its films from pirates while also trying to come up with new ways to reach all consumers in challenging times. They also note that Black Widow grossed a pandemic-era best $80 million domestically in box office revenue in its first frame. Sources say that the studio intends to abide by an exclusive theatrical release — barring a major setback in terms of the box

office recovery — for its slate of upcoming movies including 20th Century comedy Free Guy in August and Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in early September.

Box office and Wall Street analysts agree that day-and-date release will be abandoned once the theatrical sector fully rights itself from the scourge of the pandemic. They also caution to look beyond the initial drop, noting the success of A Quiet Place Part II, which received an exclusive run in cinemas.

“The second weekend drop is only one piece of the puzzle,” says Comscore’s Paul Dergarabedian. “It’s how long a film is in theaters exclusively — and of course positive word-of-mouth and other factors — that are the key to long-term box office success.”

Behind the Headlines

Box Office Total domestic grosses stand above $1.4B for 2021 as the theatrical sector continues its recovery

Gross

Domestic Cume % Chg

Thtrs

International Gross Cume

Total

1.

Space Jam: A New Legacy WARNER BROS. 31.1 31.1(1) — 3,965 22.1*63

22.1

53.2

2.

Black Widow DISNEY 25.9 131.6(2) -68%

132

263.6

3.

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions SONY 8.8 8.8(1) — 2,815 3.4*18 4.5 13.3

4.

F9 UNIVERSAL 7.7 154.9(4)

-33%

4,275 29.9*48

3,368

29.1*57

436.8

591.7

The Fast & Furious installment is the first pic to pass $600 million since before the pandemic.

In the July 16-18 weekend, it bowed in France to a huge $9.4 million, including previews, and $6.8 million in Germany as COVID-19 restrictions lifted.

5.

The Boss Baby: Family Business UNIVERSAL 4.7 44.7(3) -47% 3,449 268K*8 3.7

48.4

6.

The Forever Purge UNIVERSAL 4.1 35.9(3) -42% 2,735

3.7*37

12.4

48.3

7.

A Quiet Place Part II PARAMOUNT 2.2 155(8) -29% 1,995 1.2*40

130.6

285.6

John Krasinski’s sequel was a stealth weapon in its exclusive theatrical run before hitting Paramount+. It became the first film to jump the $150 million mark domestically and will likely score huge profits considering its $55 million budget.

8.

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain FOCUS 2.0 2.0(1) — 927 — — 2

Morgan Neville’s film about the late star chef cooked up a pandemic-era best with opening numbers for a doc, even as the documentary made waves for using artificial intelligence to re-create Bourdain’s voice for 45 seconds or so.

Cruella DISNEY 1.2 83.4(8) 10. Pig NEON 971K 971K(1) 9.

-51%

1,175

2.1*31

140.7

224.1

—

552

—

—

971K

Theater Reopenings Cineplex, the largest theater chain in Canada, reopened its entire circuit with capacity restrictions July 16

4,830

July 9

4,785

July 2

4,688

June 25

4,705

June 18 June 11 June 4

4,647 4,535 4,386

Box office source: Comscore; estimates in $ millions; ( ) Weekends in release domestically; *Territories.

T H E HOL LY WO OD R EP ORT ER

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Broadway’s Reopening Fears: ‘There’s So Much We Still Don’t Know’

T

As blockbuster shows like The Lion King plot a September return to the New York stage, rising delta variant cases and unclear cast-testing protocols create uncertainty BY SETH ABRAMOVITCH

he July 19 shuttering of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production of Cinderella just hours ahead of its world premiere in London is the latest major setback to that city’s once-thriving theater industry, decimated by the pandemic. A strict government contact-tracing program has led to a string of high-profile show closings, The Prince of Egypt and Hairspray among them. Closely watching the fallout unfolding across the pond are the producers, performers and publicists who keep Broadway alight, all of them hoping to avoid the same fate once the Great White Way begins to fully reopen come September.

So far, Broadway has taken a more cautious approach than the West End. It began with Springsteen on Broadway, the Bruce Springsteen confessional concert that returned June 26 to a sold-out crowd of 1,721 at the St. James Theatre. All audience members presented proof of vaccination to gain admittance — a policy devised by Jordan Roth, president and majority owner of Jujamcyn Theaters, the third-largest landlord on Broadway, which counts the St. James among its stable of five theaters. Despite anti-vax protesters gathering outside, the strategy appears

to be working. Says Rick Miramontez, president of DKC/O&M, the publicity firm that reps about a third of Broadway shows (including Springsteen on Broadway), “It went as smooth as smooth can be.”

But it’s the back of house that has been proving the problem in the West End, where even one positive COVID-19 test among cast or crew sends everyone into isolation for 10 days — they are informed via a smartphone app. That program, what Webber called a “blunt instrument” in announcing Cinderella’s closure, is due to end Aug. 16.

On Broadway, things are still very much in a state of flux. The trade association Broadway

League had held throughout the pandemic that theaters will only reopen to 100 percent capacity — regardless of ticket sales — and nothing less. Beyond that, nothing is yet fixed. “There’s so much we still don’t know,” says Broadway League president Charlotte St. Martin. “We know that the state at this point has given us the go-ahead to open with the guidelines that the audience does not have to be masked if they’ve been vaccinated. You can have unvaccinated people with masks sitting in their own special section. It will depend upon the theater.”

But risk could increase exponentially when larger-scale (and hugely profitable) productions like Wicked and The Lion King, where cast and crew numbers can be as high as 125, resume performances Sept. 14. Just how testing protocols will work on shows of that scale — and whether positive test results, even a single one, will require them to shut down — has yet to be determined.

St. Martin says that what’s unfolding in London is unlikely to befall Broadway. “One of the reasons we haven’t opened earlier is because our financial models don’t allow us to open and close and reopen and close and

What the $200M Walking Dead Settlement Says About TV’s Future Frank Darabont and his agency took home a nine-figure payday from AMC in what could be a final big case as the industry pivots away from lucrative backend payments BY ERIQ GARDNER could be the last of its breed.

“The success of The Walking Dead, and even the litigation itself, resulted in clarifications and changes to artists’ profit definitions by the studios to avoid the same issues raised by the Walking Dead case,” says Larry Stein, a partner at Russ August & Kabat.

The suit from Darabont and his reps at CAA belongs in the pantheon of big “Hollywood Accounting” cases, along with those targeting Disney’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Home Improvement and Fox’s X-Files and Bones. These controversies came at a particular time for the industry: The deregulatory wave of the 1980s and ’90s brought

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Frank Darabont worked on season one of AMC hit The Walking Dead.

an end to the “fin-syn” rules, so networks were no longer forbidden from retaining financial interests in programs they aired. Consolidation occurred.

Syndication flourished. And vertically integrated media conglomerates were both producing and distributing content. In turn, creatives with a profit stake challenged the “sweetheart” deals they witnessed between studios and affiliated entities. Those with contingent backend compensation, the payday that comes later

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upon a show’s success but is dependent on how revenue and expenses are defined, would sue or arbitrate their beliefs of being shortchanged. The Walking Dead, once the most popular show on cable, was undersold by AMC’s studio arm to its network arm, Darabont claimed.

This genre of litigation pointed to the industry’s future. Led by Netflix, today’s streamers are relying even more heavily on self-produced originals. The difference is that today’s studio

MASKS: ADOBE STOCK. MARQUEE: ALEXI ROSENFELD/GETTY IMAGES. PROTEST: EDNA LESHOWITZ/ZUMA WIRE/NEWSCOM. DEAD: COURTESY OF AMC. DARABONT: VINCENT SANDOVAL/WIREIMAGE. GROOMS, ROCHA, LEIST: COURTESY OF NETFLIX.

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ill we ever see another financial filing drop like the one on July 16

by AMC revealing a $200 million settlement resolving Frank Darabont’s profits from developing The Walking Dead? Perhaps not. It’s not merely the eyepopping figure, which ends eight years of litigation and buys the season one showrunner out of his rights to any future compensation from the zombie series and its spinoffs. It’s also that the TV industry has changed rapidly in the years since a cable channel once devoted to movie classics launched a postapocalyptic drama that it, importantly, self-produced. In short, this settlement

The Report Behind the Headlines

A ‘Fresh Pair of Eyes’: Netflix to Bring Casting Leadership In-House While the streaming giant will continue to use external agencies, a new team of executives will monitor diversity and keep breakout stars busy BY REBECCA SUN

When Springsteen on Broadway came back June 26, the show, which required proof of vaccination, was met by anti-vax protesters.

reopen. If it closes, it stays closed permanently,” she says. “Our producers tell us to reopen one of these shows, it costs anywhere from $1.6 million to $4 million depending on the size of the show, the age of the show, the number of castmembers.”

Helping to soften that blow is the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, a $16 billion federal aid program that has distributed grants of $10 million to every shuttered Broadway show — and additional grants of $10 million for touring productions. (In Hamilton’s case, which has four touring productions, that amounted to $50 million in total federal aid.)

The U.K. government, by contrast, has offered no lifelines to theater, leading Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera producer Cameron Mackintosh to lambaste Prime Minister Boris Johnson in an open letter, writing, “We have simply been left to fend for ourselves.”

dealmakers are now looking for a financial model that diminishes the percentage-based backend altogether. So instead of giving a show’s creator, say, 15 percent of net profits, studios are beginning to experiment. For example, Disney is combining bigger up-front payments with bonuses tied to seasons, episodes, awards and other hard targets. “We’re heading to a world that overpays for failure and underpays for success,” says Robert Schwartz, a partner at Quinn Emanuel.

As backend becomes less lucrative, nine-figure settlements after years in court could go away.

Entertainment lawyers surveyed say they expect any forthcoming lawsuits to focus on older shows being added to streamers’ libraries. Bennett Bigman at Russ August & Kabat notes, “My sense is that there will be plenty of these claims, and some will involve substantial amounts.”

Darabont

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with hundreds of original titles released each year, Netflix puts enough people onscreen to populate its own town. In order to service its heavy talent-identification needs — and better track how the company is doing with respect to diversity and inclusion across its massive slate — the streamer has for the first time, THR has learned, created an in-house casting departcreative executives assigned to indiment to oversee all casting decisions vidual projects, but part of their job will for its North American productions. be to anticipate and have conversaCesar Rocha, Rich Leist and tions about representation issues at Brittany Grooms have been named the beginning of the casting process, directors of casting for series, noninstead of well after the fact. fiction and film, respectively. Netflix For example, amid growing awarealso recently hired Shiondre Austin ness of Hollywood’s (including and Cymbre Sklar to manage castNetflix’s) tendency to cast nonwhite ing for animated series and films. The roles with light-skinned people of color, streamer will continue to use external an in-house department dedicated agencies and directors to run casting to looking out for such issues across on the ground for each producits entire slate would ostention, but now there’s a central sibly be able to catch those clearinghouse to unify its sprawlincidences early. ing network of casting resources “A creative executive is and its talent. overseeing the entire process, Grooms Among the new department’s so it’s good to have someone key functions will be to help with a fresh pair of eyes specifitroubleshoot searches for specally focused on casting,” says cific types that have traditionally Grooms, who previously served been perceived as “hard to find”; as vice president of casting at Rocha to examine how Netflix originals Sony. “The colorism conversaare doing across the board with tion is one I’ve had for a lot of respect to onscreen representamy career, and that’s why we’re tion; and to identify opportunities here: to notice these things and to keep breakout stars busy with bring them to the forefront of Leist additional Netflix projects. people’s attention.”

“We have the opportunity to work on Leist, who oversaw casting at this holistically and look at the casting All3Media for the past five years, notes, ecosystem within Netflix,” says Rocha, “We don’t mandate anything, but we who began working with the streamer want to keep track of everything,” two years ago on its local-language which includes identifying and monitortitles and now will oversee series ing key talent. He adds, “We like to keep globally. “How are we sharing talent people in the Netflix family, so if we find internally? Because we have connecsomebody who’s really broken out, how tions as a global company, [if] we’re can we use them in other ways?” casting a U.S. show, how are we tapping Grooms offers an example of how the into the talent pools of our shows in new system can work: “We’ll be talking Italy, France, Africa, India?” to each other. Cesar sent an email this The newly minted department morning about someone’s audition. heads say they won’t be mandating Because we know our series team any casting decisions, either to their is excited about this kid, now we’re production partners or to the Netflix all excited.”

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EMMYS 2021

The Report | THE RACE

A CASE FOR VARIETY IN THE EMMY ACTING RACES

New performance categories for projects such as Hamilton and SNL, with neither a traditional movie or series, would open the restrictive acting races, writes THR’s chief TV critic BY DANIEL FIENBERG

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his is not the column where I tell you that the Primetime Emmys no longer reflect a changing TV landscape in which terms like “television,” “streaming” and “movies” have become so blurred that the only solution is an overhaul of a multitude of categories. It’s true, but there have to be limits.

You must have the serenity to accept that certain categorizations rely on subjectivity and thus you aren’t going to be able to do anything with how a panel decides to classify “drama” or “comedy.” That won’t stop me from saying ad nauseam that Succession is a comedy, that The Flight Attendant started off as a comedy but was clearly a drama by the end of its first season or that if you use actual discretion, something like Shameless should have been reclassified on a season-by-season basis.

There also has to be a modicum of acceptance that some categorizations are based on dishonesty. HBO submitted Lovecraft Country as a drama and canceled it one week after nomination voting ended, and it

snagged an unexpected 18 noms, two more than Big Little Lies when it was a limited series and 13 more than Big Little Lies when it was a drama. I’m expecting HBO will wait to order more Mare of Easttown until after votes are tabulated in the limited series category, ditto with Disney+ and WandaVision.

Probably this isn’t the place to advocate for gender-free acting noms in general. Just expand the fields to 12 noms, remove gender designations and act like it’s 2021, folks. It’s less politically correct than practical. There was no reason why any other comedy actor needed to lose to Jason Sudeikis, so give America the Jason Sudeikis vs. Jean Smart showdown we deserve.

No, I’m keeping this simple.

The TV Academy needs to do something about the variety fields, and they needed to have done it years ago. First and foremost and always, the problem is Saturday Night Live — a variety sketch show for series consideration and a comedy for its stars. But only as supporting?

What sense does that make? Kate McKinnon playing 30 parts just

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isn’t the same as Juno Temple stealing a scene or two each episode of Ted Lasso. It’s bad enough that Emmy voters can’t figure out basic classification like, if Hannah Einbinder’s Ava is very clearly the structural protagonist of Hacks, why is she supporting and not co-lead?

If you give voters a bad system but an easy solution, they’re going to take the easy solution — which is five or six SNL actors a year in the comedy supporting fields and at least as many SNL hosts in the guest actor categories. There are actual high-quality actors eligible, and you’d never know because voters default to SNL hosts and big names like Don Cheadle and Claire Foy, rather than researching which superlative character actor had a standout episode of an acclaimed drama. The TV Academy tried to fix the guest category after Ellen Burstyn received her notorious nom for her 14 seconds in Mrs. Harris. They have not fixed the problem.

Nobody even tried to anticipate the issues that arose over Disney+’s Hamilton, which inexplicably was treated as a variety special (prerecorded) for overall

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noms but had its actors corralled into the limited/anthology/ movie categories. Affection for the musical supernova pushed people like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jonathan Groff (presumably nominated for outstanding supporting saliva) to noms in one of the most competitive years ever in the category, taking space that could have gone to Ethan Hawke for The Good Lord Bird or Bill Camp for The Queen’s Gambit.

I’m actually fairly understanding of the desire to recognize Hamilton, which I don’t reductively treat as “just a filmed version of a stage play.” No, they filmed it in an innovative way, using multiple cameras and performances and tricks of access to give an experience you’d never get in the theater. But if it was a variety special, the performances shouldn’t have been lumped into the wrong category.

What’s funniest to me is that Hamilton nominees Renée Elise Goldsberry, Anthony Ramos and Daveed Diggs were all deserving of noms this year, but for Girls5eva, In Treatment and The Good Lord Bird.

This isn’t even hard: The Hamilton actors and the SNL performers needed to have been in a catch-all variety/sketch performance category. They’d be joined there by the spectacular stars of A Black Lady Sketch Show and probably any late night host who felt like they belong — an Amber Ruffin more than a John Oliver.

Some years there might not be a Hamilton, but PBS regularly has a dozen Great Performances showcases made for this category.

And no, Bowen Yang competing against Lesley Odom Jr. for male variety performance isn’t really an exact match either, but it’s closer and cleaner than the current system. After you make the variety performance, then we figure out how to refine it.

But that’s looking to the future, which is already when I’m going to propose fixes to an original song category too broken to respect Girls5eva’s “New York Lonely Boy.”

HAMILTON: COURTESY OF DISNEY+ (3). SATURDAY: WILL HEATH/NBC (2).

From left: Cecily Strong and Bowen Yang account for two of SNL’s 11 acting noms, while Jonathan Groff, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Lin-Manuel Miranda are among Hamilton’s five.

PROMOTION

Where art meets craft.

Carolyn Giardina’s acclaimed podcast is back, exploring the crafts and technology ę v

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The Report

7 Days of DEALS Who’s inking on the dotted line this week

CNN+ UN V EILED: IS IT A SU PER FA N SERV ICE OR M AIN NEWS DESTINATION? Deal of the Week

Cooper

Zaslav

Better late than never. On July 19, the Jeff Zuckerled CNN revealed plans to launch its entrant in the streaming news wars, CNN+, in early 2022 with a bet that global reach, an iconic brand and interactive features will help differentiate it in a crowded marketplace. The service likely will arrive in time for the expected merger of CNN parent company WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc., a deal that is predicated on bringing together content from the combined entities to give it the scale it needs to compete with Netflix and Disney. But its 2022 launch raises serious questions about its long-term future and strategy.

While Discovery CEO David Zaslav says they haven’t decided how they will handle the different streaming services they will operate after the merger (HBO Max, Discovery+, CNN+), there is a strong likelihood that they’ll consolidate them in some form, either by merging them into one service or by creating a bundle of services a la the “Disney Bundle,” which packages ESPN+, Hulu and Disney+ at a starting price of $14 a month. “What Disney has done with ESPN+ (another strong cable brand) as both a stand-alone and as a bundle with Disney+ and Hulu could be a model to copy,” says media consultant Brad Adgate.

Said Jeff Zucker of CNN+, “Nothing like this exists.”

Until then, however, AT&T and WarnerMedia are keeping on their own strategic path, with regulatory review preempting much strategy talk. A CNN source tells THR that AT&T leadership has been heavily involved in prepping CNN+.

CNN+ is ultimately what evolved out of NewsCo, a news and information platform the company announced in April 2020, at the height of the pandemic. CNN also acquired Canopy, a “personalization architecture company,” with its team developing the tech that will be incorporated into CNN+. The network will hire about 400 to 450 people dedicated to CNN+, with about half working on business and product and the other half working on content, a source familiar with the plans says.

But CNN+ also will be entering a marketplace with a plethora of free and paid news options. On the free side, CBSN has grown over the past six-plus years to have a full schedule of live programming.

ABC News Live is building out its live programming lineup, and NBC News has several free streaming options available, including NBC News Now, while Fox News is planning to launch a free Fox Weather streaming service later this year. On the paid side, NBC News and MSNBC have additional exclusive programming as part of Peacock, while Fox News’ paid options include Fox Nation, which boasts original lifestyle and documentary fare.

One CNN source says they think the “interactive” fare and access to talent will be a differentiator when people compare to other news streaming services. When CNN acquired Canopy, the company said its new platform would connect “users to trusted sources, storytellers and creators across a wide range of topics,” using tech to help it do so.

CNN+ will test the market for such an offering, betting that users may pay extra to get a more personal experience with hosts like Anderson Cooper and experts like physician Sanjay Gupta. — ALEX WEPRIN

Podcast Giant Audible Leans in to Star Deals Audible, the podcast and audiobook company, is Big on a dealmaking spree to Deal bring top Hollywood talent to its platform.

The Amazon-owned firm, run by executive chairman Don Katz and CEO Bob Carrigan, inked a multiproject first-look development deal with Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere’s Flavor Unit production company July 19, its fourth star pact since early June.

The first project from this audio-only deal is a shortform Audible Original, Streets, Rhymes & Sugar: A Hip-Hop Memoir, from screenwriter Michael Elliot, that is set for release Aug. 5. Additionally, Queen Latifah will host an upcoming

seven-part series on community activists, Unity in the Community.

On July 12, Audible inked a first-look podcast deal with Laura Dern and Jayme Lemons’ Jaywalker Pictures. The company also unveiled a worldwide, multiyear development deal with Kenya Barris’ Khalabo Ink Society in June, which comes on the heels of other partnerships with industry figures like Elizabeth Banks, Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco, Stephen Curry’s Unanimous Media, Kevin Hart’s HartBeat Productions, Charlamagne tha God’s CThaGod World Productions and LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill.

Audible — which charges $7.95 a month for subscribers and hasn’t disclosed how many users it has — is ramping up its

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Elizabeth Banks (left), Laura Dern, Queen Latifah

deals as other podcast giants like Spotify are striking partnerships with such bold names as the Obamas and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to bring well-known talent to their platforms. “We have a tremendous slate of upcoming content and a massive pipeline in development,” says Zola Mashariki, head of Audible Studios, adding that more major deals are “on the horizon.” — J. CLARA CHAN

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Lilly Singh

FILM Antonio Banderas (Spain’s Reacting, NuCo, Hirsch Wallerstein) has joined Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Disney’s Indiana Jones 5.

Julio Torres (UTA, 3 Arts, Hansen Jacobson) will write, direct and star in an untitled comedy for A24, with Emma Stone and Dave McCary producing.

Mogul Mowgli’s Bassam Tariq (WME, Range) is in early talks to direct Blade, starring Mahershala Ali, for Marvel.

Albert Hughes (CAA, Goodman Genow) will direct two episodes of Lionsgate and Starz’s The Continental, a three-installment event series serving as a prequel to John Wick.

Ronny Chieng (APA, Australia’s Century, Artists First, Cohen & Gardner) will co-write an untitled martial arts comedy with Daily Show collaborator Sebastian DiNatale for Sony.

Charles Melton (CAA, 111 Media, Gang Tyre)

200

Estimated number of library films that Lionsgate acquired when it Big Number purchased a 20 percent stake in Spyglass Media Group on July 15.

Downey

Bravo

Chieng

King

All the King’s Horses, have inked a first-look pact with Netflix.

SINGH: DAVID CROTTY/PATRICK MCMULLAN VIA GETTY IMAGES. KING: RICH FURY/MTV VMAS 2020/GETTY IMAGES FOR MTV. DOWNEY JR: JON KOPALOFF/GETTY IMAGES. CHIENG: TOMMASO BODDI/FILMMAGIC. BRAVO: TOMMASO BODDI/ WIREIMAGE. HOUSE: REDFIN. COOPER: J. COUNTESS/GETTY IMAGES. ZASLAV: CINDY ORD/GETTY IMAGES FOR SIRIUSXM. ZUCKER: MIKE COPPOLA/GETTY IMAGES FOR WARNERMEDIA. BANKS: ALLEN BEREZOVSKY/GETTY IMAGES. DERN: STEVE GRANITZ/WIREIMAGE. LATIFAH: AARON J. THORNTON/GETTY IMAGES. MARKLE: POOL/SAMIR HUSSEIN/WIREIMAGE. TORRES: FILMMAGIC/FILMMAGIC FOR HBO. MCCLENDON: COURTESY OF CROOKED MEDIA. ZUCKERBERG: RICH FURY/GETTY IMAGES.

Kyle Richards (UTA, Bette Smith) and Betsy Brandt (TalentWorks, Patty Woo, Del Shaw) will star in Peacock holiday movie The Real Housewives of the North Pole.

Markle

Torres

Lourd’s properties include the homes of her mother, Carrie Fisher.

and Jessie Mueller (Innovative) have joined Owen Wilson and Michael Peña in Paramount’s Secret Headquarters.

Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer for HBO and A24.

Cristela Alonzo (WME, Artists First, Jackoway Austen) will host The CW’s Legends of the Hidden Temple reboot.

Chloe East (Link, Vault, A3), Oakes Fegley (ICM, Wright) and Isabelle Kusman (Innovative) have joined Steven Spielberg’s untitled movie based loosely on his childhood.

Jungle Cruise’s Beau Flynn (Hansen Jacobson) will produce the home-invasion thriller Prowl for New Line.

Bleecker Street and ShivHans Pictures have nabbed U.S. rights to Golda, Guy Nattiv’s biopic thriller of Israel’s only female prime minister (Helen Mirren).

Lionsgate has picked up worldwide rights to Kevin Smith’s Clerks 3, the longgestating sequel to the indie film cult classic.

TELEVISION Robert Downey Jr. (WME, Hansen Jacobson) will exec produce and co-star in a drama series adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer

Matthew A. Cherry (ICM, Blue Key, Vaughn Gill) is teaming with animator and director Chaz Bottoms to develop a series based on the short Battu for Cartoon Network Studios.

Katey Sagal (WME, B&B) will star in Tattered Hearts, a Blumhouse original movie at Epix.

Jerry O’Connell (ICM, 3 Arts) has joined The Talk as its first male co-host.

Zola’s Janicza Bravo (UTA, 2AM, Lichter Grossman) will direct and executive produce FX’s drama pilot Kindred, starring Mallori Johnson.

Peter Dinklage and his Estuary Films (CAA, Jackoway Austen) have inked a multiple-year overall TV deal with Entertainment One. Rick Rubin (WME) has signed an overall film and TV deal with Endeavor Content.

Michael Phelps (Octagon) will join NBC Sports’ Olympics broadcast team as a primetime correspondent.

Sarita Choudhury (Buchwald, Washington Square), Nicole Ari Parker (Gersh, Vault) and Karen Pittman (TalentWorks, Hansen Jacobson) have joined HBO Max’s Sex and the City follow-up And Just Like That.

Zach Braff (CAA, Management 360, Hansen Jacobson) has joined Lana Condor in Moonshot, New Line’s sci-fi romantic comedy set for HBO Max.

Alanis Morissette (WME), Grimes (WME), Nick Lachey (ICM, Brillstein, Hansen Jacobson) and will.i.am (CAA) will serve as judges for the Fox reality competition show Alter Ego. Dan Abrams (UTA) will host a new primetime show, Dan Abrams Live, for NewsNation.

Epix has renewed Edward Burns’ Bridge and Tunnel for a second season.

DIGITAL Meghan Markle (Goodman Genow) has created and will exec produce the Netflix animated series Pearl, which follows the adventures of a 12-year-old girl who is inspired by influential women in history.

Lilly Singh (WME, XX, Hansen Jacobson) has joined Kat Dennings in season two of Hulu’s Dollface.

Byung-hun Lee (UTA, BH, McKuin Frankel) will star in and produce a Netflix film adaptation of the youngadult romance I Believe in a Thing Called Love.

Alfre Woodard (ICM, Circle of Confusion, Gochman) has joined BET+ and CBC civil rights drama The Porter.

Joey King (UTA, Industry, Hirsch Wallerstein) and her production company,

Paramount+ has renewed the iCarly reboot for a second season and picked up Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies to series.

BOOKS Prince Harry will publish an untitled memoir for Random House, set for release in late 2022.

REAL ESTATE Billie Lourd (Sotheby’s) has sold her five-bedroom Los Angeles home, just off Melrose Avenue, for $5.5 million.

Modern Family’s Julie Bowen (Coldwell Banker) has purchased a five-bedroom Toluca Lake property from pop star Meghan Trainor (Hilton & Hyland) for $6 million.

The Batman director Matt Reeves (Berkshire Hathaway) has landed a six-bedroom home in Pasadena for $5.5 million.

Producer Donald De Line (Douglas Elliman) purchased a twobedroom condo in the Sunset Strip’s Sierra Towers for $5.1 million.

— COMPILED BY KIRSTEN CHUBA

Rights Available! Hot new books with Hollywood appeal

Rep Sheet Shaniqua McClendon, Crooked Media political director, signed at ICM.

Ray Nicholson, a star on the Amazon series Panic, signed with UTA.

Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr., aka rapper Stormzy, signed with CAA. Unfiltered podcast cohosts Zane Hijazi and Heath Hussar signed with UTA.

Glenn Kaino, a visual artist and filmmaker, signed with UTA.

THR, Esq. CASE Photographers vs. Instagram WHY IT MATTERS

Instagram users unhappy that their images have been embedded on thirdparty sites can’t sue the app for allegedly enabling copyright infringement. That’s what the Mark Zuckerberg-led social media giant is trying to convince a federal judge of in its effort to end a putative class action brought by two photographers.

BY MIA GALUPPO

The Ice Swan (THOMAS NELSON, JULY 6)

The War for Gloria (KNOPF, SEPT. 7)

BY J’nell Ciesielski AGENCY Hartline Literary Agency

BY Atticus Lish AGENCY ICM Partners

A period romance for fans of Bridgerton, the story follows a former princess who flees the Russian Revolution to Paris, where she marries a Scottish surgeon out of convenience. Soon they both have to go on the run, bringing them closer together.

A coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of a small Massachusetts town in the early 2000s centers on a teen boy who becomes the primary caretaker for his mother after she is diagnosed with ALS as well as his struggles with his estranged father.

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N E X T BIG T HIN G

Malcolm Mays ‘He’s ice,’ says the actor-writer of his role as a drug dealer in Starz’s new Power Book III: Raising Kanan By Degen Pener n 2007, Malcolm Mays, then 17, was touted in a New York Times profile as a promising young director working on completing Trouble, a $5,000-budget film about Black and Hispanic turf wars in L.A. Still in high school, he had interned in director Martin Campbell’s office, made two shorts and gotten a UTA agent.

Mays — who grew up in South L.A., the son of a football coach and a mom who worked in the corporate and nonprofit worlds — thought he was on course to blaze a trail as a director. Instead, “the shit didn’t go,” says Mays. “It was a beautiful experience, but my career didn’t take off.”

Now, more than a decade later — after working as a music video director and getting into acting (the 2015 film Southpaw, FX’s Snowfall) — the stars again seem to be aligning for Mays. He can be seen in the new Starz drama Power Book III: Raising Kanan, a prequel in the cabler’s hit franchise, bringing a cool intelligence to VITAL STATS the role of drug dealer AGE 31 Lou Lou. “He projects BORN such strength, such Los Angeles masculinity,” says BIG BREAK executive producer Acting in the John Singleton drama series Snowfall on FX Courtney Kemp, REPS “and he also brings ICM, GSA Entertainment a believability.”

Mays’ writing career also is at full tilt, with him having penned a New Jack City sequel for Warner Bros. and having been tapped to

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write a biopic of escaped slave Robert Smalls for Amazon Studios.

“It all plays back to the unconscious,” says Griffin Kayne gallery’s Bill Griffin, of new works by filmmaker and artist David Lynch.

How did you end up doing Raising Kanan?

MALCOLM MAYS Honestly, I didn’t

want to do this, man. I’m a bougielike snob. I ain’t never watched Power, and I had only heard about it in a pulpy context. I auditioned, I left, I got a call. And then I was convinced to say yes, and I am so glad I did. I love to be fucking wrong.

What drew you to the part?

David Lynch’s Bright Ideas to Hit Hollywood Art Fair

MAYS: ALLY GREEN/COURTESY OF SUBJECT. STYLING BY VAN VAN ALONSO, GROOMING BY SIMONE FOR BOY DE CHANEL AT EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS, HAIR BY SANG TRAN. POWER: NICOLE RIVELLI/STARZ. ART: FLYING STUDIO/COURTESY KAYNE GRIFFIN GALLERY (3). LYNCH: JOSH TELLES. JARDINE: DAN COLLOPY.

Black Michael Corleone. He’s just cool, calm, collected. He’s ice. He’s tired of his job, and there was something very, you know, “man of constant sorrow” about him.

The filmmaker and artist’s lamps — which his gallery calls light-emitting sculptures — are set to go on display at the poolside Felix art showcase, taking place at the Hollywood Roosevelt starting July 29 By Jordan Riefe

What were the ’90s like for you growing up in South L.A.?

There’d be gang shootings, everything, but it was just a community to me. There was a Mexican street gang called 18th Street, and their initiation was to murder a Black male in a white tee. And so I would jump from

Mays in the new Starz drama Power Book III: Raising Kanan, which premiered July 18.

school to school, and it would just be like my mom be trying to get me out the way. I went to like five different high schools.

How does your experience as a teenager, who was talked up early on, inform all the positive stuff that’s happening for you now?

It’s a double-edged sword. They’re putting my face on billboards and buses, baby. In my city. [But] now most of my friends are dead, you know? So the people I would celebrate with, that I’ve known since I was a kid, aren’t necessarily here. And I’m just trying to be grateful [for the success] instead of just treat it, like, casual, so that I can’t get hurt by it.

uring the pandemic, filmmaker and artist David Lynch decided to make lamps, something he has done on and off throughout the years. Some are small, and some are tall, some made of Douglas fir, some include metal, and a selection of them will be on view at the Griffin Kayne gallery’s booth at Felix Art Fair at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel from July 29 to Aug. 1.

“I think the language is more sculpture than lamp. It’s a sculpture that emits some type of light,” gallery co-owner Bill Griffin tells THR of the works by Lynch, who was an artist before he was a filmmaker and attended a series of art schools, including Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. It was there that he began making short films and later enrolled at AFI Conservatory.

“You walk in, and they are different dimensions and different shapes, different materials, and they all have this soul of light that comes from it, and it just pulls you in,” Griffin says of the lamps, which will be accompanied by a few of Lynch’s canvases.

“That’s what I’m really excited to do: introduce this work out into the world. And to do that at Felix, it’s a very interesting venue.”

Co-founded by Art and Mills Morán, along with art collector and former Disney executive

D

David Lynch and his Matchstick Lamp C, made of steel, pin and plexiglass.

Dean Valentine, Felix started in 2019 as counterprogramming to the inaugural Frieze L.A., taking art out of an antiseptic tent and placing it in a distinct L.A. environment. With art displayed on furniture, in bathrooms and closets, Felix creates a unique, immersive experience. It will be Griffin Kayne’s first in-person fair since the pandemic; this year’s event will feature only L.A. galleries, including Blum & Poe and Shatto Chateau, and will take place exclusively in the cabana rooms surrounding the pool painted by David Hockney. Says Griffin, “It’s a very interesting and intimate space.”

ON THE MARKET: NETFLIX-ADJACENT PENTHOUSES Attention Netflix executives: Four penthouses, including the most expensive one currently on the market in Hollywood (2,658 square feet for $20,240 a month), have just come on the market at Jardine, a new 193-unit rental right on the streamer’s new campus in the neighborhood. Part of Kilroy Realty’s On Vine Project — where Netflix is taking over two buildings as well as occupying a 260-seat theater — Jardine features touchless elevators and a rooftop pool, plus studios starting at $2,800 a month.

“If you are running late,” says Justin Alvaji, Jardine’s senior community manager, “you run out the door and you are already at work.” — D.P. Real Estate

Interview edited for length and clarity.

A penthouse living room at Jardine, a 20-floor high-end rental building at 6390 De Longpre Ave.

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About Town

The L.A.-Based Gucci Exec Boosting Fashion’s Next Gen How Antoine Phillips is working to lift up ‘creatives of color’ through the luxury label’s scholarship program and an impact fund supporting nonprofits in 12 cities across the U.S. By Vincent Boucher

B

eing a male of color from Los Angeles, I can tell you it’s really about empowering the next generation of creatives of color in different cities [and] to amplify opportunities,” says Gucci’s Antoine Phillips of the initiative Gucci Changemakers North America, which he jump-started in 2019 after joining the luxury label as its L.A.-based vp of brand and culture engagement. Its focus is on increasing inclusion and diversity in the fashion industry, particularly in 12 major U.S. cities, including L.A. The two-pronged program includes a $5 million impact fund — to support nonprofits that benefit communities of color — and a need-based scholarship program for undergraduates from diverse backgrounds who are planning on fashion-related careers.

Though diversity efforts had been ongoing at Gucci, the brand went through its own period of reckoning two years ago when it faced controversy over a sweater that some thought portrayed blackface. It was pulled off the market with an apology and a promise to do better.

Phillips joined Gucci after holding PR positions at YSL, Armani and Coach, where he played a part in taking their fashion shows to HBCUs. He also worked on creating a Changemakers Council to help guide the effort; it includes fashion veterans like Naomi Campbell and stylist June Ambrose as well as activists such as DeRay Mckesson.

On July 8, Gucci announced 22 new Changemakers scholars who will each receive a scholarship of up to $20,000. “We landed on $20,000 because we saw in

Top: Gucci’s Antoine Phillips.

Far left: In 2020, Satchel Lee directed a short about Changemakers. Left: Oscarwinning costume designer Ruth Carter (left) on a Zoom with AMPAS Gold Rising intern Lashell Gibbs, who’s now on the costume team for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, out in July 2022.

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3 New Boutiques Show L.A.’s Retail Upswing

L

ast year, amid the downturn, L.A. seemed awash in “for rent” signs. Now, says broker Jay Luchs of Newmark, “there are a lot of deals in the works, and fashion brands are coming back to the market. The last month has been crazy and we’re seeing multiple offers on prime blocks.”

Here are three fresh spots to shop.

Colette Jewelry Jewelry designer Colette Steckel has moved her flagship store from Melrose Place to Santa Monica, where offerings include French chocolates and curated home and fashion items; 250 26th St., colettejewelry.com

Farm Rio The Brazilian brand has opened a popup (through November) in Venice that showcases its resort-style prints. With every purchase, Farm Rio will plant a tree in the Amazon through a partnership with One Tree Planted; 1360 Abbot Kinney Blvd., farmrio.com

Stan In his first entry at retail, designer Tristan Detwiler of sustainable label Stan has opened a pop-up (through Aug. 31) at Culver City’s Platform that includes his pieces made from repurposed antique quilts; 8850 Washington Blvd., stanlosangeles.com

PHILLIPS, CHANGEMAKERS: COURTESY OF GUCCI. MASTERCLASS: COURTESY OF A.M.P.A.S. COLETTE, FARM, STAN: COURTESY OF BRAND.

People, Places, Preoccupations

the research that most students of color are not finishing school because of those last dollars, $15,000 to $20,000,” Phillips, who got his start as a salesman at Giorgio Armani on Rodeo Drive, explains. Another program goal is to bring “visibility on some of the roles outside of the design room,” says Phillips. “A lot of students think if you want to work in fashion, you can only be a stylist or designer, but you can do store design, you can be a fashion lawyer, you can do marketing.”

On the other side of the coin, the impact fund supports nonprofits such as We Are R.I.S.E., a social-emotional workshop program started in 2017 in South Los Angeles by elementary school teacher Ebone Smith. Grant money will allow the program to continue and provide for field trips to places like the California African American Museum.

“I had never been able to take them outside their communities because I just did not have the funding,” says Smith.

Other nonprofit groups that are benefiting include Atlanta’s Weird Enough Productions, which uses diverse comic book heroes to foster greater youth self-esteem, and SocialWorks, the Chicago-based initiative founded by Chance the Rapper.

Changemakers also is a backer of the film Academy’s Gold Rising internship program, which is focused on helping students of color, young women, those who identify as LGBTQIA+ and people with disabilities to succeed as the next generation of storytellers.

“Oftentimes people look at the Academy and don’t understand that we have an entire foundational arm and that we depend on grants because so many of our members are below-the-line members and not the big stars,” says AMPAS COO Christine Simmons. “The grants that we’re able to receive just extend that work further.”

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About Town

Yes, I Did Say That!

Quotes

A look at who’s saying what in entertainment Compiled by Sydney Odman

“Besides me fucking up, this is historic.”

SPIKE LEE

The filmmaker, to a group of press, apologizing for his premature announcement of the Palme d’Or winner (Titane, from Julia Ducournau) at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.

BRITNEY SPEARS

The pop star, on Instagram, blasting her family and detractors as she wages a fight to free herself from her controversial conservatorship.

MORGAN NEVILLE

The Roadrunner director, to The New Yorker, defending the decision to use an AI-generated voice of Anthony Bourdain in his documentary about the late chef.

“What I always got from her was brutal honesty.”

“Being at war with your body is so last season.”

BOB IGER

The Walt Disney Co. chairman, to The New York Times, reflecting on longtime right hand Zenia Mucha, as the company’s chief communications officer announced her retirement.

CAMILA CABELLO

The singer, on TikTok, addressing body-shaming social media comments over recent paparazzi photos of her dressed in a sports bra.

“I was popping Adderall like Pez and sleeping on my office couch.”

“Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed.”

“There is no winning.”

GUY ROSEN

DAN HARMON

Facebook’s vp integrity, in a post on the platform, defending his company as the Biden administration blames social media for the stalling rate of vaccinations in the U.S.

The Cravings author, on Instagram, reflecting on how “cancel club is a fascinating thing” as accusations of past social media bullying have kept her in hot water.

The showrunner, on Vulture’s Good One podcast, reflecting on his poor work habits on his late sitcom Community.

FLASHBACK!

Did I Really Say That?

MAY 17, 2016

“Nobody was saying, ‘I’m going to see LeBron’s movie.’ ” MAVERICK CARTER

LeBron James’ business partner, to GQ, about gauging audience interest in the NBA star’s acting career with an appearance in Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck. Premiering July 16, James’ first starring vehicle (Space Jam: A New Legacy) already has grossed $55 million globally.

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CHRISSY TEIGEN

LEE: STEPHANE CARDINALE/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES. CABELLO: LIA TOBY/PA IMAGES VIA GETTY IMAGES. HARMON: GREGG DEGUIRE/GETTY IMAGES. CARTER: ALBERTO E. RODRIGUEZ/GETTY IMAGES FOR NAACP IMAGE AWARDS. TEIGEN: EMMA MCINTYRE/GETTY IMAGES FOR GLOBAL CITIZEN VAX LIVE.

“Take me as I am or kiss my ass, eat shit and step on Legos.”

“We can have a documentaryethics panel about it later.”

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and physically being in court. Law is a tactile business, and while we were all able to work with Zoom, there is no substitute.”

Heard Around Hollywood

Hitched, Hatched, Hired Holland

Inside the industry’s celebrations and news

Yang Bongiovi

Births John Coffey, talent agent at The Kohner Agency, and Eva Coffey, senior director of corporate communications at Sanofi, welcomed daughter Cecilia Groves Coffey on April 11.

Cecilia “Cici” Groves Coffey

Congrats Bill Ballew was named chief technology officer for DreamWorks Animation on July 15.

WME Shutters Office “Here we go again,” said a top talent publicist upon hearing that COVID-19 cases are rising in L.A. No one can be blamed for having déjà vu: On July 16, THR confirmed the last-minute cancellation of a screening of Mark Wahlberg starrer Joe Bell, to have been held at his agency, WME — which was closed that day out of caution over rising infection numbers and the new mask mandate. Per an email from the company, the closure is for July 19 to 23 but could be extended: “As we have all learned, we cannot hope to predict the future and must be prepared to adapt as we receive new information.”

Event insider Darrin Pfeiffer says premiere attendees have been compliant so far: “Knock on wood.”

Rambling Reporter

By Chris Gardner

Red Carpet’s New Normal: Mask, Show Vaccine Card or Nada?

L.A.’s July 17 reinstated indoor mask mandate is highlighting disparate COVID-19 protocols as Hollywood continues to step out (although in-person attendance may reverse as well, if Megan Fox’s declining last minute to go to her July 19 Midnight in the Switchgrass premiere at L.A. Live is any indication). Apple TV+ required attendees of July 15’s premiere of Ted Lasso’s second season to be tested in advance, wear masks and show proof of vaccination. At a Bachelorette: Men Tell All taping at Warner Bros. Ranch, reporters took a PCR test 48 hours prior, a rapid test upon arrival (regardless of vaccination status) and an online health screening. For Neon’s July 13 Pig premiere at West L.A.’s Nuart Theatre, guests were required to show proof of vaccination, but a THR reporter was never asked for it nor requested to mask up on the press line. At MGM’s West Coast premiere for How It Ends at the NeueHouse rooftop, star Whitney Cummings summed up the situation: “Everything is so stressful.” — WITH REPORTING BY KIRSTEN CHUBA

For the first time in her 13-year conservatorship, Britney Spears is being represented by a lawyer of her choosing. Judge Brenda Penny approved the appointment of Greenberg Traurig’s Mathew Rosengart during yet another bombshell hearing July 14, when Spears called for her father to be charged Rosengart with “conservator abuse.” As Rosengart walked into Room 217 of the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, front-row reporters were overheard whispering, “Is that him?” (Earlier, CNN’s Chloe Melas chased him to a nearby parking garage.) To Hollywood, he needs no introduction. Rosengart, who is married to ID-PR power publicist Mara Buxbaum, has represented everyone from Sean Penn to Steven Spielberg. He came out of the gate

Paul Debevec was hired as Netflix’s director of research July 15.

requesting that Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, the co-conservator of her estate, step down immediately. (The request was denied by Jamie’s attorney.) It is expected that Rosengart will act swiftly — and he is ready. As he told THR for its Power Lawyers issue this year, what he missed most during 2020 was “meeting clients in real life

Mark Wahlberg

Ringo Starr, who turned 81 on July 7, has a new EP due in September.

The USC School of Cinematic Arts named Ed Saxon chair and Nina Yang Bongiovi producer-in-residence for its Peter Stark Producing Program on July 15.

Ringo Starr Spreads Peace and Love on Back-to-Back EPs Legendary Beatles drummer Ringo Starr was forced to scrap three tours because of COVID-19, and while he admits the cancellations were tough to absorb, he made use of the downtime by working on two EPs. The fivetrack Zoom In, released in March, features a Diane Warren-penned song with guest vocals from Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Sheryl Crow and Lenny Kravitz, among others. Starr tells THR he’s nearly finished on a fall follow-up and projects cautious optimism about getting back onstage. “I hope it’s joyful. I hope it’s open. I hope everybody is there and there’s no masks and we all have fun,” he says, adding, “[but] I can’t predict what hasn’t happened yet.”

Got tips? Email rambling@thr.com

T H E HOL LY WO OD R EP ORT ER

Paul Davidson was named executive vp of IDW Entertainment on July 19.

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Deaths Biz Markie, the New York rapper who had a hit with “Just a Friend,” died July 16. He was 57.

Markie

William F. Nolan, the sci-fi writer who co-wrote Logan’s Run, died July 15. He was 93.

Joseph Behar, who had multiyear directing stints on Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and Let’s Make a Deal, died June 26 in Manhattan Beach.

He was 94.

ROSENGART: TODD WILLIAMSON/GETTY IMAGES FOR AMAZON STUDIOS. WAHLBERG: JON KOPALOFF/FILMMAGIC. STARR: MICHAEL TULLBERG/GETTY IMAGES. COOK, TEMPLE: VALERIE MACON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES. HUNT: KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES. HOLLAND: JEMAL COUNTESS/GETTY IMAGES FOR WOMEN’S MEDIA AWARD. YANG: MONICA OROZCO. COFFEE: COURTESY OF SUBJECT. TESTS, CARPET: ADOBE STOCK. MARKIE: CHERISS MAY/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES. WADDINGHAM: MATT WINKELMEYER/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

Britney Spears Snags THR Power Lawyer

Cindy Holland joined live-streaming technology company Genvid as an adviser July 15.

About Town Heard Around Hollywood

Back on the Red Carpet Ted Lasso stars Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple and co-creator Bill Lawrence celebrated season two (and 20 Emmy noms) at the L.A. premiere July 15. Regarding possible wins in September, Sudeikis — wearing a shirt in support of Black English soccer stars Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka, who were racially abused by online trolls — said he “won’t even think about that until the moment it happens or doesn’t happen.” Added Lawrence, “Part of the Ted Lasso deal is not getting caught up in the winning and losing and the hoopla.”

The premiere, held at West Hollywood’s Pacific Design Center and followed by an afterparty at Cecconi’s, kicked off an entire weekend of Ted Lasso-centered events, including an FYC screening with the stars and exec producers returning to the Pacific Design Center on the July 16. On July 17, THR hosted a special sneak peek of the Apple TV+ hit’s second season at the Ross House in the Mount Olympus

2

1 3

4

1 Apple CEO Tim Cook and Jason Sudeikis 2 From left: Cristo Fernández, Moe Jeudy-Lamour and Brendan Hunt 3 Juno Temple 4 From left: THR co-publisher Victoria Gold, Temple, Hannah Waddingham and co-publisher Elisabeth Deutschman Rabishaw

neighborhood of Los Angeles, co-sponsored

by Heineken, with Waddingham and Temple.

The two stars were fresh off of their own Emmy noms; the morning of the announcements, they “rang each other immediately with the news and just blubbed at each other’s faces. It was one of the first calls — you had only spoken to your mum,” Waddingham recalled at the THR Presents event, where Temple said, “I hadn’t talked to my mum yet! I spoke to my agent.”

Retorted Waddingham, “That’s showbiz!”

— SYDNEY ODMAN AND TYLER COATES

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The Business Creative Space

D

avid S. Goyer’s home office in the Hancock Park area of L.A. is lined with totems of personal significance.

There’s a wall of comic books, which Goyer points at when asked his reaction to Stephen Dorff’s recent viral comment slamming Marvel movies as not legitimate art. There’s a framed Zen proverb that reads, “First tea, last tea,” which he’s taken to mean: Try to approach everything like it’s the first time you’re doing it — or maybe the very last time. And then there’s perhaps his most prized possession: a 1908 silver dollar peso from the Philippines.

As a 6-year-old in Michigan, Goyer found the coin while digging in a mound of dirt and was stunned to learn it was then valued at $400 — he literally found buried treasure. “It sounds corny, but to me this represents possibility,” says the screenwriter, whose 1998 smash Blade established him as a go-to talent who could translate comic book stories for a mass audience. In the years since, Goyer co-wrote all three of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies and was kept around for Zack Snyder’s DC titles, too.

Now, the 55-year-old dad of three is taking a break from capes and cowls to adapt two iconic — and notoriously creatively complex — titles for streaming: Neil Gaiman’s metaphysical graphic novel Sandman for Netflix and Isaac Asimov’s cerebral, centuries-spanning Foundation

A model ceramic phrenology — the bogus science that purported to tell you things about your personality based on head shape.

David S. Goyer The Dark Knight scribe and IP whisperer discusses taking ‘big-ass swings’ and the project that almost broke him: ‘I don’t think anyone involved in that film had a good experience’ By James Hibberd

A signed pop-up book that Babadook director Jennifer Kent crowdsourced and made for the film.

David Goyer, who meditates 15 minutes daily, was photographed July 13 at his L.A. home.

Photographed by Martha Galvan

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material. Ant-Man feels like Ant-Man. The Hulk feels like The Hulk. They don’t try to change things up. So it’s having a consistent universe, having consistent leadership and staying true to the source material. Any time I adapt something, I always say, “Can we identify the 10 core elements that make Superman Superman? Or make Blade Blade? Before we even come up with a story.”

The Dark Knight is considered by some as the best superhero film of all time. Which one, in your opinion, holds that title?

I can tell you my top four: The Dark Knight, Logan, Captain America: The Winter Solider and Thor: Ragnarok.

No one knows if it will work, but I can say that there’s definitely never been a show like it on TV before. It takes some big-ass swings. And Apple, by and large, went for it. They had some trepidation about the science of it all.

[Apple TV chiefs] Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg had come from Sony, so they had done The Crown and Breaking Bad, and what I said to them was: “Don’t note me on the science fiction. I can handle the science fiction. Note me on the drama, note me on the characters, note me on their relationships. I’ll take care of the other crap.”

trilogy for Apple TV+. Goyer’s production company, Phantom Four, also is releasing the Sundanceacclaimed horror thriller The Night House, which he calls “a ghost story about grief,” into theaters next month.

DC has had some ups and downs in recent years, especially compared to Marvel. If you were running DC …

Which I’d never want to do.

But let’s say you were. What moves would you make next?

I think one of the issues is that Marvel’s had consistent leadership for the past 15 years or more, whereas DC hasn’t. One of the other things that’s made Marvel incredibly successful is all of its adaptations are true to the source

How does the budget compare with some of the big features you’ve worked on?

And the worst?

There’s a note I got on Man of Steel, where the ending involves Superman utilizing the pod that he arrived in as a child in order to bring down General’s Zod’s ship.

The note said, “You have to change that … because if Superman uses that pod and it’s destroyed, how is he ever going to get back home to Krypton?” There was just this long pause, and we said, “Krypton blew up. You saw 30 minutes of it!”

I had a mentor named Nelson Gidding, who wrote a lot of films for [West Side Story director] Robert Wise. One of the things he always said is you need to treat writing like a job and not an art.

Set a schedule, write in a place that’s not your home, or at least not your bedroom. Nelson also said you should travel a lot — something I really took to heart; I’ve been to about 50 or 60 countries and had experiences that got me out of this bubble.

You’ve been involved in a lot of projects with several big egos and a ton of studio pressure. How do you handle creative conflicts?

I hope I’ve developed a reputation for speaking with candor.

My go-to is always what works for the story. And if I’m adapting IP like a comic book, I don’t try to

It’s up there. I’ll say this: On an average per hour, if you were to take two episodes and put them together, the budget is bigger than some of the movies I’ve done.

What’s the best studio note you’ve ever received?

I actually received some pretty good notes from [Apple TV+ development head] Matt Cherniss [on Foundation]. We were twisting ourselves around the axle of trying to figure out how do we deal with these complicated time jumps and slightly left-of-center story structures. And he just said, “Fuck it, just lean in to it.”

So, the structure changes from

T H E HOL LY WO OD R EP ORT ER

RÉSUMÉ CURRENT GIGS

What’s your work schedule like, and to what do you attribute your productivity?

You’ve said you pitched Foundation as an eight-season or 80-hour story. What was Apple’s reaction?

From top: The slate from the final shot of Foundation’s season finale, which Goyer directed; a mask from Tijuana that once hung in the study of Goyer’s childhood home — “It scared me as a kid, and now I’ve taken it prisoner,” he jokes; and a Polaroid with JeanClaude Van Damme (left) taken on the set of Goyer’s first film, Death Warrant (1990).

episode to episode. Most of the time, studio executives say, “How do you make it more normal?” He encouraged me to not do that.

25

Writer-producer of Apple TV+’s Foundation, Netflix’s Sandman and producer of Searchlight’s The Night House PREVIOUS JOBS

DC’s muse for Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Krypton BIG HIT

Writer of $2.5 billion-grossing Dark Knight trilogy

turn it into something it’s not. So, I’ve advocated that the studio not make a project.

THR has reported that Bridgerton breakout Regé-Jean Page was up for the role of Superman’s grandfather in Krypton but that former DC exec Geoff Johns nixed it, saying Superman couldn’t have a Black grandfather. Can you confirm?

All I’ll say on this is that I was the one who wanted to cast Regé-Jean Page. I thought he was amazing. I thought his audition was amazing. I advocated very hard to cast him as Superman’s grandfather.

The internet needs to know: Is Patton Oswalt’s story true that Wesley Snipes tried to strangle you on the set of Blade: Trinity?

Let’s just say I have tremendous respect for Wesley as an actor.

He used to be a friend. We’re not friends anymore. I am friends with Patton, and I worked with Patton since, so … I don’t think anyone involved in that film had a good experience — certainly I didn’t. I don’t think anybody involved with that film is happy with the results. It was a very tortured production.

Finally, what’s one comic book character you’ve always wanted to tackle?

There are things I’ve written that never made it to screen. I did an early draft of Doctor Strange about 18 years ago. I would love to write The Hulk — he was my favorite character as a kid.

Goyer bought this original poster from Chapter 10 of the 1944 Republic Pictures Captain America 20 years ago.

J U LY 21, 2021

Interview edited for length and clarity.

The Business Analysis

LABOR | ASHLEY CULLINS

A ‘Very Serious Wage Theft Issue’ That Hollywood Overlooks Because of convoluted rules, legal experts and California officials say misclassifying salaried employees as exempt from overtime is common: ‘It’s probably more widespread than we think’

F

or much of 2019, headlines across California news outlets trumpeted AB 5, the bill that its supporters hailed as righting the alleged wrongs of gig-economy workers suffering from a lack of unemployment benefits and health insurance at the hands of companies like Uber because they’d been labeled independent contractors. Ultimately, most industries with any skin in the game — from ride-share firms to music studios to real estate brokers and newspapers — negotiated an exemption to the law, which changed the test used to determine if someone is an employee or independent contractor and reclassified scores of workers as the definition of “employee” became more broad.

But while AB 5 took the spotlight, other labor woes went relatively unnoticed. The California Labor Commissioner’s Office, and many legal experts, say a lack of overtime pay is likely under-reported — either

because certain workers don’t understand they shouldn’t be exempt from overtime or they do and they’re afraid of complaining and losing coveted opportunities in the already cutthroat Hollywood job market. “The exemption misclassification is a very serious wage theft issue,” senior deputy labor commissioner Monie Netikosol says, adding that, though her office doesn’t see too many of these complaints, “It’s probably more widespread than we think.”

Through a public records request, THR was provided with six Private Attorneys General Act claim notices sent to the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency involving various kinds of unpaid overtime allegations against large entertainment employers in the past five years. (The PAGA empowers employees to sue employers on behalf of themselves, others and the State of California for Labor Code violations.)

Minimum Salaries for Exemption From Overtime

$54,080.04

$58,239.96

For a company with 25 or fewer staffers

For a company with 26 or more staffers Source: California Labor Commissioner

“That is a microcosm of what you’re looking at,” says employment attorney Sahara Pynes of Fox Rothschild. “Because you have the people that didn’t know they were being underpaid; you have all the people who knew they were underpaid but didn’t feel like doing anything about it because they didn’t want to get blackballed in the entertainment industry; and you have the people who just dealt with it through a [private] lawyer letter or threat to sue.”

Employment attorney Ann Fromholz says misclassification is common, even after a flurry of litigation more than a decade ago over failure to pay overtime and meal and rest breaks. “They’ve forced change in a lot of companies in a lot of industries,” she says, “but I still encounter companies that haven’t made changes.”

Part of the problem is the complex criteria for the executive, administrative and professional exemptions. There are two tests, one involving salary and one involving duties, and an employee must meet both to be exempt from overtime.

The financial standard is clear: Employees can’t be exempt from overtime if their salary isn’t

Illustration by Eleni Kalorkoti

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double the state’s current minimum wage (based on a 40-hour work week). In California in 2021, that’s $54,080.04 for a company with 25 or fewer employees and $58,239.96 for companies with more. Emphasizes Netikosol, “It cannot be a dollar less.”

If an employee’s salary is above that line, attention turns to the duties test, which is convoluted.

To meet the bar, the employee has to spend more than 50 percent of their time performing exempt duties, which vary by exemption category, and the employee must “customarily and regularly exercise discretion and independent judgment.”

Practically, “independent judgment” varies by job. Netikosol notes that a location manager probably exercises enough discretion in choosing a filming location to meet the independent judgment test — but a more junior location scout likely wouldn’t meet that bar. In a similar hypothetical, a more senior set designer is likely exempt, while a set decorator who is following instructions instead of exercising creative freedom might not be.

Labor and employment attorneys consulted by THR say overtime exemption problems are likelier to occur not at major studios but at smaller and midsize companies that don’t have quite the same access to an army of sophisticated in-house and outside labor counsel.

“Even though there’s so much gray area, there’s still a lot that’s black and white here,” says Pynes, adding that it should be easy to at least avoid mistakes on the salary minimum. Still, it happens. “The determination is fact-specific.

So, there may be some situations where someone is inadvertently misclassified, even at these larger companies that do have good counsel,” says Loeb & Loeb partner Ivy Kagan Bierman, adding that her clients are careful to make sure they’re doing it right.

ASHLEY CULLINS is business editor

at The Hollywood Reporter.

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After the Grueling Workout: How Hollywood Recovers New wellness destinations are opening around L.A., offering everything from breathwork ice baths to hyperbaric oxygen chambers. Plus, star trainers share their post-workout tips

By Kathryn Romeyn

rom cryo chambers and float tanks to infrared saunas and old-fashioned naps, you cannot go wrong if you add a recovery protocol to your curriculum,” says trainer-to-stars Gunnar Peterson, whose current roster includes Charlize Theron and Rebel Wilson. And while foam rollers are one of the most effective and affordable ways to ease bound-up muscles, there are a handful of spots around L.A. that promise to do the same with fancier approaches.

Opened in late 2019, Remedy Place is L.A.’s first wellness social club, offering all-access memberships ($2,500 a month) as well as one-off treatments, such as the new Watch & Drip IV (while watching movies in a soundproof glass atrium, from $189). The Sunset Strip spot is where the lead in a 2021 blockbuster prepped

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for a cover shoot with a full day of remedies and where a threetime Olympic gold medalist used hyperbaric oxygen chambers ($160 an hour) to cut down his recovery time after surgery — while also tapping into what was happening inside his body via custom guided meditation. Created by Dr. Jonathan Leary, the destination has drawn the likes of Nina Dobrev and Lana Condor for alternative holistic medicine, chiropractic movement ($200), cupping ($160) and NAD+ and vitamin drips meant to optimize mental and physical health. Remedy Place also claims to have the world’s first commercially available Breathwork Ice Bath Studio, with three tubs for an experience designed to be undertaken with friends ($50 for 30 minutes).

West Hollywood’s Unbreakable Performance Center — where

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Chris Pratt, Demi Lovato and Wiz Khalifa train (8225 W. Sunset Blvd., unbreakableperformance. com) — also relies heavily on tech, specifically the $135,000 cold laser that, according to owner Jay Glazer, “breaks up scar tissue and inflammation 6 inches deep. It’s been a complete game-changer.

We’ve been able to get performers back onstage with it after everything from broken toes to high ankle sprains.” Normatec

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— which celebrity trainer Magnus Lygdbäck describes as “kind of air pressure pants that massage you and help you get rid of lactic acid” — also is used by Unbreakable members after each workout. (Normatec and the cold laser are included in the comprehensive executive membership, $1,750 a month, which also covers daily personal training, kickboxing, boxing and recovery, plus optional 15-minute gratis sessions with the on-site mental health therapist.)

The Canadian lifestyle therapy brand Myodetox, which opened its first L.A. location in 2019, embraces a more classic approach ($185 for the first session; $175 an hour or $160 a month for the Futureproof Program). In its sleek, spa-like West Hollywood spot, physical therapists and chiropractors do customized myofascial release, cupping, joint mobilization and specialized soft tissue work. Two more Myodetox 5

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REMEDY: MADELINE TOLLE/COURTESY OF BRAND. THOMAS: COURTESY OF SUBJECT. THERABODY: COURTESY OF NORDSTROM. MYODETOX: RILEY SNELLING/COURTESY OF BRAND. PAUSE: MEIWEN SEE FOR PROJECT M PLUS. ECO PRODUCTS: COURTESY OF BRAND (6).

Fitness

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1 Hyperbaric chambers at Remedy Place, 8305 Sunset Blvd., remedyplace.com 2 Trainer Peter Lee Thomas with client Halle Berry.

3 An ultra-low-temperature cryotherapy chamber at Pause Weho, 937 N. Sycamore Ave., pausestudio.com 4 Theragun’s Wave Duo Smart Vibrating Roller for soothing knotted back muscles; $99, nordstrom.com 5 The entrance to Myodetox, 8354 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, myodetox.com

locations are opening in late summer, in Brentwood and at the new Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City.

Billing itself as a wellness studio, Pause opened its second recovery mecca in West Hollywood this spring (the first is in Venice Beach). It includes a private suite for hot-cold therapy with a sauna and cold plunge ($95 an hour) and offers cryotherapy ($40) and IV vitamin drips (from $139), while on-site naturopathic doctor Charles Tabone coordinates treatment plans. Kristen Bell, Mandy Moore and Sophia Bush are clients of Pause, which claims the largest and most technologically advanced float tanks on the market ($69 an hour).

“I’ve been obsessed with float tanks since 2013,” says trainer Eric Johnson (Scarlett Johansson, Andrew Garfield), who calls the saltwater pods “a great escape and an isolated time to think, meditate and integrate the diaphragmatic breathing we are always preaching.” He’s also a fan of saunas, such as the infrared ones at Remedy Place and Pause, which Johnson says offer excellent detoxification benefits (whereas regular saunas are best for cardiovascular adaptation).

“The benefit of a 20-minute sauna session is magical,” he says.

The idea of recovery is a bit ephemeral though, points out

Lygdbäck, since there’s not much hard proof. “When it comes to spas with everything from vitamin infusions to sound baths, infrared saunas and cold baths, I love it, but more for the mental aspect. If you think it works for you, you should do it,” he adds.

“That’s the biggest takeaway.”

Celebrity trainers also recommend a number of at-home recovery suggestions. Cheribundi tart cherry juice is a go-to for trainer Ben Bruno (Chelsea Handler, Kate Upton), who calls it “a really good way to minimize soreness and inflammation so you’re fresher for the start of your next workout.” And Halle Berry’s trainer Peter Lee Thomas swears

by Purium’s Joint-Flex supplement, especially for those taking on action film roles. Topical CBD creams, like Papa & Barkley Releaf Balm, are popular as well.

Thomas also advocates cold showers (and ice plunges). “Doing this daily has tremendously helped me with my inflammation and soreness,” he says.

And many trainers call percussive massagers like Theragun and Hyperice their favorite recovery tools. Lygdbäck, who preps Gal Gadot, Alicia Vikander and Ben Affleck for action-packed roles, uses Theragun with most clients.

Adds Peterson, “Without my Theragun session, I’d be at 75 percent in the gym, and that’s a C in school — I’m better than that.”

But no machine can replace the touch of trained professionals. “For recovery modalities, the best option is always handson bodywork,” says Bruno. It’s “imperative,” says Johnson, “to have a manual therapist — whether a physical therapist or chiropractor — who understands functional movement on our team. It’s a game-changer in recovery and ensuring we are moving toward our goals.”

Lastly, “the importance of nutrition and sleep cannot be overstated,” says Bruno. “They are the lowest hanging fruit.” Adds Lygdbäck: “Another thing I love for recovery, which is so underrated, is to do absolutely nothing.

Active recovery is very popular now, but lay on the couch, don’t move around and just watch a good movie.”

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Style Real Estate

$65M 1108 WALLACE RIDGE

1108 Wallace Ridge in Beverly Hills accepts Bitcoin as payment and has seven bedrooms plus an interior courtyard with an olive tree.

In high-end contemporary listings, developers and brokers are experimenting with taking cryptocurrency and showcasing blockchain-authenticated digital art By Hadley Meares he soaring contemporary architecture and breathtaking views of the Palazzo di Vista in Bel Air may seem well worth the $87.77 million it’s listed for. But the lucky buyer will also acquire a $7 million art collection, including an NFT (non-fungible token) art gallery, curated by MDP Art Curators, with works by Ghost Girl and BigHead Music Producer.

“The art world is changing so fast in this digital world, so we thought, ‘Why not incorporate it into the house world?’ ” says Compass’ Aaron Kirman.

He holds the listing with The Agency’s Mauricio Umansky, who says, “It adds another level of fun where you just might attract the right buyer. And it’s a great marketing campaign.”

One early booster of NFTs has been developer Phillip Braunstein, president of Colossal Properties,

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and it’s already changed the way he views his homes. “Where I would maybe in the past have looked for a really nice wall to put a piece of art, now I’m going to be focusing on how to integrate the digital art experience,” he says. As a collector of NFT art, Braunstein sees enormous benefits in integrating NFTs into real estate portfolios. Not only is their provenance authenticated on blockchain, they also cut out some of the hassle of maintaining traditional artworks.

“NFT art is interesting, because in a sense it’s more durable. You

can’t really have any soilage or damage from sunlight. And it’s easy to take down and remove,” he says. “I know some friends where the majority of their [art] collection is in storage because they simply don’t have wall space, but with the NFT art, you could have thousands of art pieces that you could rotate in and out using your phone.” Colossal Properties’ 1250 Hilldale residence in the Hollywood Hills, listed for $18 million, displays Braunstein’s set of four Gummy Bear NFT works by the artist WhIsBe.

$18M 1250 HILLDALE

Left: Living space inside the house, built by Colossal Properties and designed by architect Hagy Belzberg. Above: A set of NFT “Vandal Gummy” works by WhIsBe, said to be valued at $1 million.

Townhouses Zoned for Living/Working Draw Creators Digital content makers are buying at a new development on the edge of Studio City → The next evolution in creator houses is here —

Left: An interior at Thirty Four Fifty West, listed with The Agency. Above: Artist Lyle Owerko at work in his unit.

and legal: Thirty Four Fifty West is a collection of townhouses starting at $1.015 million. Across from Universal Studios, it has hybrid zoning that permits people to have a full studio with industrial grade electrical and the like in spaces where they can also live in luxury. According to Hana Cha at The Agency

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Development Group (the co-developer with BLDG Partners), 12 units have sold in 12 weeks to buyers including TikTok and YouTube creators. Says resident Malika Lim Eubank, co-founder of content studio Hyper Rabbit Media, “Having four floors facilitates work-life balance and aids in keeping up with social media and live streaming.” — H.M.

WALLACE RIDGE POOL: MARC ANGELES. WALLACE RIDGE TREE: DOUGLAS FRIEDMAN. HILLDALE: CHRIS NOLASCO (2). THIRTY FOUR FIFTY WEST: JASON SPETH (2).

An L.A. First: Houses That Accept Buyers’ Bitcoin, Display NFT Art

In another sign of changing times, both Palazzo di Vista and 1108 Wallace Ridge (listed at $65 million by Kirman and Michael Chen of the designdevelopment firm Luxford Group) are accepting Bitcoin cryptocurrency at the rate equivalent to the asking price. “It’s just an additional way of us trying to make it easy on potential buyers, because there are so many multimillionaires and billionaires invested in using crypto,” Umansky says.

As new practices become more commonplace and accessible, the digitization of real estate transactions could transform the industry. “Imagine if I could show you I own my house by just a QR code on my smartphone,” Braunstein says.

But many questions remain — as Umansky notes, there has yet to be a major L.A. real estate transaction through Bitcoin. “It’s something new,” he says. “It’s exciting — but I think there is still a lot to learn.”

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“Very early on, we learned that their chemistry was magic and that people cared a lot more about their banter than what they were bantering about,” says Jungle Cruise director Jaume Collet-Serra of Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, photographed July 12 in Atlanta.

As Jungle Cruise co-stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt prepare to release their

$200 million-plus Disney tentpole, the two very different actors have learned to lean on

each other to steer their careers through one of Hollywood’s most tumultuous eras

By Rebecca Keegan

T H E HOL LY WO OD R EP ORT ER

Photographed by Chrisean Rose

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directly to Blunt at her home in Brooklyn, Johnson wanted to send him along with the video as a kind of charm assist. “I must have shot it about five or six times because I had not communicated with Emily yet,” Johnson says. “I had not even met her. And I wanted to let her know via this video just how important she was to this movie and how I only wanted her in this movie. And it was great.

And I … I actually never heard again from Emily. Didn’t respond at all. Just ghosted me.”

Says Blunt, with a smile: “I thought the video was sweet.

Didn’t know you were going to be so sensitive.” Chalk up the misunderstanding to cultural differences — her British reserve versus his wrestling-ringdecibel enthusiasm. Eventually, spurred by Collet-Serra’s pitch that the film would be reminiscent of the Indiana Jones films and Romancing the Stone (and Johnson’s “sweet” video), Blunt did read the script and was won over, with the additional help of a generous payday.

Now the duo are on a soundstage in Atlanta in mid-July, where Johnson is in the final weeks of filming the Warner Bros. superhero movie Black Adam and Blunt has flown in from shooting a BBC/ Amazon Western series in Spain to join him for Jungle Cruise press.

The pair are seated in front of a lavish boat and jungle set, as crew

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hybrid release of Black Widow, which debuted to a pandemicera best of $158.8 million at the worldwide box office, plus another $60 million on Disney+.

(Black Widow dropped a steep 67 percent at the box office in its second weekend, prompting the National Association of Theatre Owners to blame the studio’s simultaneous release strategy for a “stunning collapse.”)

“We all created our own space at home where we watched and consumed our movies,” Johnson says of how the pandemic changed the business. “We wondered, once we got back to the theatrical experience, are the majority of people now going, ‘You know what, I’m good. We’re going to watch it at home’? What we’re seeing now [at theaters] starting with A Quiet Place and Cruella, and then Fast & Furious and certainly with Black Widow … it’s invigorating.”

Johnson wants the theatrical business to bounce back for the sake of his studio partners, but his own viewing habits resemble the most couch-bound of consumers, since he has not been able to go to a movie without being instantly recognized and mobbed by fans since the 1990s. Blunt, meanwhile, goes to the theater incognito all the time. “I’m small, I blend in,” she says. “Put on a hat.

It’s fun.” Where she’s a diehard for the theatrical experience, “I’m like, ‘Listen, Emily,’ ” Johnson says, lifting his iPhone. “ ‘Watch this movie. Turn it sideways.

Look, we’ll watch this for two and a half hours.’ ” The two brought those disparate perspectives into their meetings with Disney about how to release Jungle Cruise, with the studio ultimately deciding on the hybrid release strategy due to the slow pace of vaccine rollouts globally.

Johnson says that after finishing Jungle Cruise, he and Blunt continued to consult with each other about how to handle production during the pandemic and how to manage their deals

FRANK MASI/DISNEY

At about 4 a.m. in the fall of 2017, after a tiring night shoot on Universal’s Skyscraper, Dwayne Johnson, arguably the busiest person in Hollywood, set aside some time to film a video for Emily Blunt. At the time, he was attached to star in Jungle Cruise, which various producers had been trying to get off the ground at Disney since at least 2004, after the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie revealed the moneymaking potential of a theme park ride reimagined as a film franchise.

Johnson, who had been taken with Blunt since The Devil Wears Prada, felt she’d be his ideal sparring partner in the film, which was envisioned as a two-hander.

“I had always admired her as an actor, but also when I would watch her on talk shows, she had this personality that was effervescent, that was cool and very, very charming.” So far Blunt was proving impervious to what producer Beau Flynn calls the filmmakers’ “unilateral targeted attack.” Looking to take a break after shooting Mary Poppins Returns and A Quiet Place backto-back, she had declined to read a script and remained unmoved even after receiving a heartfelt letter from Sean Bailey, the chief of Disney’s live-action studio.

So when Jungle Cruise’s taciturn Spanish director, Jaume ColletSerra, was planning to fly to New York to hand deliver a script

around them arrange some prop shrubbery. With all the Disney promotional jazz hands deployed, this scene almost feels like the pre-pandemic movie business, save for the masks on the crew.

Brought together onscreen for their odd-couple appeal, offscreen the duo share a business savvy. As the film industry undergoes the most dramatic period of change in its more than 100-year history, battered by COVID and the rapid adoption of streaming, these two actors are navigating the moment with a shrewdness and an unusually hands-on approach to contracts, distribution and marketing. Where they differ is on their willingness to openly engage on such matters.

Periodically throughout the interview, Blunt seems to be trying to keep Johnson’s candor in check. When he starts to answer a question about their contracts, she’ll interject, “You’ll be quoted.”

Some of this is a shtick they’ve adopted for the film’s promotion, but some is genuinely rooted in their DNA. As stars, Blunt, 38, and Johnson, 49, barely seem to hail from the same galaxy. “He said to me once, ‘I love that your debut was onstage with Dame Judi Dench and mine was in the wrestling ring cutting myself with razors,’ ” Blunt says.

This summer they’re bringing audiences a $200 million-plus, four-quadrant popcorn movie that would have seemed like an obvious profit engine for its studio in any other era. Instead, their movie, which will open in theaters and on Disney+ (for a $30 fee) on July 30, is the latest test of the moviegoing audience’s appetites a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic. Jungle Cruise is a family-oriented film coming out at a time when most children in the U.S. and around the world are not yet vaccinated and COVID cases once again are spiking globally because of new variants. Despite the health news, there have been some encouraging signs at the box office, most recently with Disney’s July 9

— which often have been linked to box office — amid the changing release strategies. “We’re all trying to figure it out,” Johnson says. “Emily and I have had this conversation about how one thing will impact another, these dollars are dollars now and then down the line. It’s an important conversation for us to have.”

Blunt says she has relied on him for counsel as she navigates the next stage of her career. “I really appreciate that DJ comes from struggle,” Blunt says. “He comes from some hard times, and he wears it very lightly and in a very wise philosophical sense. And so I do go to him for advice because he has lived in the trenches. He has not just winged it, and it has not been this meteoric rise to

where he is now. It’s been a lot of razor blades and tears.”

Jungle Cruise, which is based on a 65-year-old riverboat cruise theme park ride, is no slam dunk. While 2003’s Pirates became a five-film box office juggernaut, that same year’s The Haunted Mansion was panned, and Disney’s most recent rideinspired movie, Tomorrowland, flopped — even in the much more hospitable 2015 moviegoing environment — grossing just $209 million globally. Box office tracking has been less predictive during the pandemic, but some sources close to the film already are worried about Jungle

Cruise, hopeful the Disney+ premium offering buttresses their numbers, like it did for Disney’s Cruella. As the studio did with Black Widow, in a rare display of transparency for the streaming era, it is expected to release the Disney+ numbers for Jungle Cruise publicly.

Over the years, Disney had dabbled with multiple versions of Jungle Cruise, including one starring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen.

In 2015, producers John Davis and John Fox came up with an idea inspired by the origins of the ride, which itself was inspired by the 1951 Humphrey Bogart–Katharine Hepburn adventure film The African Queen. With Disney’s blessing, they brought the pitch for a contentious, evenly matched

“He said to me once, ‘I love that your debut was onstage with Dame Judi Dench and mine was in the wrestling ring cutting myself with razors,’ ” Blunt says of her Jungle Cruise co-star Johnson and their divergent career paths.

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male-female duo making their way on a riverboat adventure to Johnson’s production company, Seven Bucks, and he signed on within two days. It would be more than two years before they signed the actress to play Hepburn to Johnson’s Bogey and several drafts before they landed on the shooting script, which has five credited writers (screenplay by Glenn Ficarra, John Requa and Michael Green, with additional story credits for Josh Goldstein and John Norville).

In the film, which is set in the early 20th century, Blunt plays Dr. Lily Houghton, a pants-wearing scientist who hires Johnson’s steamboat captain, Frank Wolff, to steer her down a jungle river in pursuit of the Tree of Life. When Blunt came aboard, she had copious script notes, much of them scraping away what she deemed unnecessary backstory for Lily.

“She brought a great point out to us, which is, ‘How come a lot of male figures just get to be adventurers, or explorers?’ There’s no backstory in Indiana Jones. He’s just a badass archeologist,” says Flynn. In the film, Blunt often has the swashbuckling moments, while Johnson often supplies the comic relief. On the ride, a Disney castmember called a “skipper” delivers a dad-joke-laden narration for guests, a task Johnson delivers with aplomb in the film.

“You needed an actor like DJ with the willingness to poke fun at himself and to be the butt of all the jokes,” Blunt says.

Along with the business, cultural attitudes have changed since the Pirates franchise launched, further complicating what once looked like a safe bet.

As Jungle Cruise was being made, Disney’s Imagineers were updating the ride, including making changes to Indigenous characters that had been depicted as primitive and threatening. The movie subverts that imagery, in a plot twist that reveals the Indigenous characters are the ones getting the last laugh. “You’re trying to represent the spirit of the ride

that is pierced into people’s nostalgic memory,” Blunt says. “But you want to do it sensitively. You want to make sure that everyone feels seen and heard in a way that’s really respectful.” There’s also a gay character and a fair amount of time given to Lily’s radical-for-her-era life choices — one of Frank’s nicknames for her is “pants.”

For a movie with ambitious action set pieces and CG characters, the Jungle Cruise set relied on an unusual amount of improv by its stars and supporting cast of Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons and Paul Giamatti. “In a normal [studio] movie, you would be like, ‘Oh, I don’t have time. Just give

leads. “Very early on, we learned that their chemistry was magic and that people really cared a lot more about them fighting, or this banter that they have, than what they were bantering about,” Collet-Serra says. “We had more plot. But at some point, people were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s all nice, but give me more of them together.’ ” Johnson was present for multiple test screenings, according to Bailey. “Inevitably the first call I got the next morning was from Dwayne about what he thought about the preview, and what his takeaways were, and what the studio’s takeaways were.”

In early March 2020, Jungle Cruise seemed to be on track

that then causes all this bedlam and fear. But luckily we all got through it, thank God.” There were silver linings for a person whose work ethic was forged on the 300-night-a-year pro wrestling circuit. “I’m always going and going and going,” Johnson says. “It really forced me to stop and slow down.” The Hollywood pause also gave Johnson time to focus on something he’d long wanted to do: launch a tequila brand. In 2020, his Teremana became the fastest-growing brand in the history of spirits, selling roughly 400,000 cases in its first year of business.

Blunt, meanwhile, spent much of the early months of the

From left: Blunt in 2018’s Mary Poppins Returns; with Millicent Simmonds (left) and Noah Jupe in the pandemic-delayed A Quiet Place Part II.

me what is the thing that’s going to work,’ ” says Collet-Serra, who has developed a reputation in Hollywood for delivering genre movies that are better than they ought to be, like the 2016 Blake Lively shark movie The Shallows, and multiple Liam Neeson thrillers. “But here, we tried to keep some of the scenes a little bit more visually loose to let them improv. There’s tons of footage.

I could cut two other movies with different jokes completely because they gave me so much.”

When Disney tested the film, which was shot and almost completely finished before the pandemic, they found that what audiences wanted most, more than spectacle, was the scenes of repartee between the two

for a summer release. By then, Johnson was shooting Red Notice for Netflix in Atlanta and about to leave for some days of production in Italy, and Blunt was attending the premiere for A Quiet Place Part II in New York, which was supposed to open March 18. Plans for all three films would grind to a halt as the pandemic set in. By summer of that year, Johnson, his wife, Lauren, and their two daughters, now 5 and 3, tested positive for coronavirus. “It was very scary,” says Johnson, whose symptoms were mild. “I couldn’t control it because then the nanny took it home to her family. And then the housekeeper took it home to her family, and they were a little older there. And you don’t want to be the fire-starter

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pandemic in a house outside New York City with her husband, John Krasinski, and their daughters, 5 and 7. While Krasinski launched his Some Good News web series, Blunt focused on home-schooling and keeping household spirits up as Paramount pushed the release date for A Quiet Place Part II five times. Blunt and Krasinski were adamant about preserving a theatrical release, even as Paramount sold off other big movies to streamers during the pandemic, including Coming 2 America and The Trial of the Chicago 7.

Ultimately, Paramount released A Quiet Place Part II on May 28 in theaters, where it has grossed $285.6 million worldwide, before releasing it July 12 on Paramount+.

Though the film had its theatrical

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release, its window was truncated from the pre-pandemic norm of 90 days, with far fewer than the remarkable 266 days the original film had spent in theaters, and Blunt and Krasinski sought to have their deals with Paramount restructured to accommodate for that difference. Asked how those talks had resolved, Blunt says: “We had a solely theatrical release. We were given a 45-day theatrical window. We got everything we wanted.”

One pandemic event movie from which Johnson is conspicuously absent is Universal’s F9: The Fast Saga, which has grossed $591.3 million since it opened in China in May. Johnson starred in the previous three films in the series, as well as the 2019 spinoff, Hobbs & Shaw, but is not scheduled to appear in any future Fast films. In a June Men’s Health interview promoting the latest movie, Vin Diesel implied that a much-publicized feud between him and Johnson actually was a technique he deployed to elicit a better acting performance from the former pro wrestler. “I could give a lot of tough love,” Diesel said. “Not Felliniesque, but I would do anything I’d have to do in order to get performances in anything I’m producing.”

When asked about Diesel’s comments, Johnson says, “I laughed and I laughed hard. I think everyone had a laugh at that. And I’ll leave it at that. And that I’ve wished them well. I wish them well on Fast 9. And I wish them the best of luck on Fast 10 and Fast 11 and the rest of the Fast & Furious movies they do that will be without me.” Blunt can’t resist extending the moment. “Just thank God he was there,” she says of Diesel. “Thank God. He carried you through that.” “Felliniesque,” Johnson says.

Johnson’s hardest role yet, he says, is the one he’s shooting now, in Black Adam, in which he plays the DC Comics antihero. “Black Adam

SET DESIGN BY SKYE LINE, BLUNT STYLING BY JESSICA PASTER, HAIR BY LAINI REEVES, MAKEUP BY JENN STREICHER. POPPINS: JAY MAIDMENT/DINSEY. QUIET: JONNY COURNOYER/PARAMOUNT PICTURES.

“I’ve always loved the mystique of an actor,” Blunt says of staying off social media.

“I don’t need to know what they brush their teeth with. I don’t want to know.”

JOHNSON STYLING BY ILARIA URBINATI, HAIR BY RACHEL SOLOW, MAKEUP BY BJOERN REHBEIN. RED: FRANK MASI/NETFLIX. FAST: GILES KEYTE/©UNIVERSAL PICTURES/COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION.

“It was very scary,” says Johnson of contracting a mild case of COVID. “You don’t want to be the fire-starter that then causes all this bedlam and fear.”

has all the powers of Superman, but the difference is he is blessed with magic,” Johnson says. “And also, by a code of ethics in the world of superheroes, they don’t kill the bad guys, but Black Adam does. There were a lot of elements like that that made me feel this is a real opportunity here. I felt like everything that I had done in the past in terms of my career, all the movies that I had done over the decades, even the ones that didn’t do well, all led to this particular role.”

It was while Johnson was doing a press junket for the 2008 movie Get Smart that the seed of the idea to play Black Adam was planted.

At the time, there were rumors about Johnson playing Shazam in a movie that never materialized (he would later executive produce the 2019 Warners movie Shazam!, starring Zachary Levi).

After a journalist at the Get Smart junket suggested to Johnson that he play Black Adam instead, the idea interested him. “I was in a different point in my career,” Johnson says. “I couldn’t get things greenlit really. So I said, ‘It’s up to the fans.’ ” Fans loved the idea of Johnson in the role, which he ultimately started shooting with Collet-Serra again in the director’s chair, in Atlanta in April. “This is our shot at the superhero space,” says Hiram Garcia, president of production at Seven Bucks, Johnson’s former brother-in-law and a friend who has known the star for more than 25 years. “I’ve seen DJ in all versions of great shape, but the shape he got in for this movie. … He just takes it so seriously, the character, the physical approach and what he’s put into his training, his diet.

To see him change his body in that way — he takes great pride in not needing a muscle suit.”

Just as Black Adam was beginning production in Atlanta, after having been delayed eight months by the pandemic, the Georgia legislature passed a sweeping new voting law that the Justice Department is challenging on the grounds that it denies Black

From left: Johnson with co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot in Red Notice, due from Netflix in the fall; Johnson (left) and Vin Diesel in the 2013 franchise entry Fast & Furious 6.

Georgians their voting rights.

Hollywood’s deep investment in production in the state came up for debate, and some producers decided to exit Georgia, including Will Smith and Anton Fuqua with their Apple movie, Emancipation.

Others, like Ryan Coogler with Black Panther 2, remained. “Right as we were kicking off our production, that was going down,” Johnson says. “You start to feel pressure from a lot of different sides that you should stand up for something and you should leave if you don’t agree with the voting laws. I was adamant and clear that Black Adam was not going anywhere. We had committed to the state of Georgia and to the people here in Georgia.

And this is a place that we had filmed multiple movies over the years. And when you commit to our hardworking locals and their families, the last thing you want to do is just pick up and move.

So we weren’t going anywhere.

We [the film’s producers] had the conversation. It was heated for about a week.”

Johnson, who in the past has said he would consider running for president, is comfortable weighing in on political issues, in contrast to Blunt. “I’m not quite American enough to say certain things,” Blunt says. “I appreciate how you navigate it because you’re very authentic and you stand by it. And you don’t just follow the crowd. You do step out

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and say certain things that might get you in hot water.”

Johnson, with 254 million followers, is the most followed American man on Instagram, where he shares workout routines and family moments and breaks news on his projects that once would have been revealed through studio press releases. “Coming from wrestling in front of 50 people at a used-car dealership or a flea market, the intention was always to have a relationship and a connection with [the fans],” Johnson says. “With social media, it was an opportunity for me to continue to connect with an audience where I didn’t have to rely on going on a talk show or this interview. It’s been the most invaluable decision of my career.” Blunt, meanwhile, has no social media profile. “I’ve always loved the mystique of an actor,” she says. “I don’t need to know what they brush their teeth with.

I don’t want to know. I love people being hard to figure out.”

While Johnson sees Black Adam as the culmination of his career, Blunt is uninterested in comic book films. “I really understand that [superhero movies] are like a religion for a lot of people,” she says. “They don’t appeal to me in the same way. I don’t have this burning desire to play a superhero.” While Johnson has been shooting Black Adam, Blunt has been shooting a Western for the BBC called The English, which

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Amazon will release in the U.S. She plays an aristocratic woman who’s seeking revenge for her son’s death and befriends a Pawnee warrior. “It’s about love and revenge and race and history,” she says.

Despite their inauspicious start with a ghosting, Johnson has officially recruited Blunt into his orbit of regular collaborators, which also includes Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Hart. There is discussion of a Jungle Cruise sequel, and he has drafted Blunt to star in an as-yet-unannounced film project that he’s producing.

“Not only is she a huge movie star but, more importantly, really the most empathetic human being I’ve ever met,” Johnson says as he is being pulled from the interview to get back to Black Adam. “God,” Blunt says, in mock mortification at his sincerity. “Get out of here.”

Blunt, who has been ribbing Johnson for much of the interview, turns serious to take stock of what she considers Johnson’s most extraordinary creation. “When you get to know him as being much gentler, much more shy than people realize, you really realize that The Rock is the performance of a lifetime,” she says. “It is so the antithesis of who he is. And so I’m going to push him to play, to take big swings with characters.

Because it’s really transformative if you know him as I do and then you see him be The Rock — you’re like, ‘Who is that?’ ”

PEACOCK’S SUBSCRIBER PLAY: CAN THE STREAMER STICK THE LANDING?

NBCUniversal views the Tokyo Games’ yearlong delay as ‘an advantage’ since it now knows the platform’s user base, but even with a ‘big event’ boost it has a long way to go to catch up to rivals By Alex Weprin

One of the most anticipated events at the Tokyo Olympics, at least for U.S. viewers, will be women’s gymnastics, with Simone Biles looking to add to her 2016 haul of four gold medals. But if Americans want to watch Biles live, they will have to do so on NBCUniversal streamer Peacock.

NBC is betting that Biles and the rest of the U.S. gymnastics team, as well as the track and field teams and the men’s basketball team, can help Peacock rack up subscribers as athletes keep racking up medals, making live coverage of those events exclusive to the streaming service. “The plan was [for the Olympics] to be part of our launch platform a year ago. That obviously didn’t work out,” Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal television and streaming, tells THR, adding that the company now looks at the delay “as an advantage.”

He continues, “We have a lot more knowledge about what is working and what is not working on Peacock. We were really flying blind a year ago; now we have a lot

more data on our users, we know a lot more about them, and hopefully we can serve them better.”

Hence the move to exclusive live coverage of these key events, paired with exclusive streaming studio segments that are quirky and funny, as opposed to the more serious traditional TV broadcasts.

And the time is right for a reset.

In April, Comcast reported that Peacock had 42 million “signups,” though according to Bloomberg that translated into about 14 million monthly users and some 3 million paying subscribers (some users get Peacock’s premium tier for free through their pay TV provider).

Those figures would place Peacock far behind streaming leaders like Netflix (200 million subscribers), Disney+ (104 million) and Amazon Prime Video (“over 175 million,” per Amazon), and even smaller competitors like Paramount+ (combined with Showtime, 36 million subscribers). Of course, with Peacock’s strategy of a free base tier and focus on advertising, the company is in many ways pursuing a different model than most of its competitors, which rely more heavily on subscription revenue, and don’t offer free tiers.

“I think what we have seen with all of the streaming services so far is that you need some kind of a big event to drive people to sign up,” says Naveen Sarma, senior director at S&P Global.

“Those ‘must-see’ events do drive people to subscribe,” Sarma adds. “What we saw in the last year or so with both HBO Max and Peacock is that they were missing these because of the pandemic.”

Illlustrations by Design Lad

well as studio shows and original programming that skews toward the offbeat.

Stateside, Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg will front a recap series reacting to highlights with quips.

One of the signature shows, Tokyo Tonight, will be co-hosted by Cari Champion and Kenny Mayne. On Her Turf will focus exclusively on women’s sports.

Amber Ruffin, who hosts an eponymous late night show for Peacock, will be on the ground.

“We’re going to take a lot of those elements, sketches and that silliness, and we’re going to take it to Tokyo,” Ruffin says.

The strategy “allows us to cater to the super fan with everything streaming all the time, but then you can come over to the network in primetime and get a highly curated show with the most popular sports,” says Molly Solomon, executive producer and president of NBC Olympics production.

“Our job is to pick the best platform for each piece of content,” adds Lazarus.

Hence the decision to make those key sports live only on Peacock. But it’s also, in the words of Strauss, an “opportunity to learn.” Critically, while gymnastics and track and field will be free and entirely ad-supported, the basketball games will be exclusive to Peacock’s premium tier, which costs $5 a month.

If Biles and the gymnastics team are meant to get users in the door, then Kevin Durant and the basketball schedule are meant to get them to open their wallets.

But once the medals have been awarded and the Olympic torch has been extinguished at the closing ceremonies, Peacock’s real challenge will begin.

For a service with global ambitions, the streaming wars are like a decathlon, with breadth just as important as depth — and, as in a marathon, a long-game strategy is more important than a fast start. “It is a question for everybody: You need to constantly provide justification for people to use your service,” Sarma says. “Peacock is going to have an opportunity to have a lot of new subscribers take a look at it. Can they keep them after the Olympics ends?”

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NBC ‘WON’T IGNORE THE CIRCUMSTANCES’ OF THE PANDEMIC Quarantine, rapid COVID-19 tests and contact tracing await reporters as the public in Japan takes a critical view of the global event

he last time NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt was in Tokyo, he had to leave his shoes behind. It was 2011, and Holt was in the country covering the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. He and his team evacuated Fukushima after a second explosion rocked the plant.

“We were on the ground there, and the decision was made to get out as quickly as possible,” Holt recalls, adding that they took refuge for a day or two at a ski resort in the mountains. “I made my way back to Tokyo, where I was met by an expert that NBC had hired, with a Geiger counter. They actually found radioactivity — a very trace amount — on our shoes. So my shoes were bagged and left in Japan, and I left shortly after.”

Journalists covering the Tokyo Olympics won’t have to deal with radiation checks, but holding the games amid a global pandemic, and with Tokyo itself in a state of emergency, presents a whole new set of challenges.

As the news division of NBCUniversal is finding out, covering the Games involves quarantines, rapid COVID-19 tests and tracking apps on phones to allow for surveillance and contact tracing. “We think of the Olympics as this idea of welcoming the world. In this case it is just the opposite in the face of the pandemic,” says Holt.

Adds Tom Mazzarelli, executive producer of the Today show, “Every Olympics, there is a special set of circumstances that goes with that host city and that venue. This is clearly different from all others we have ever been involved in.”

NBC News reporters will be arriving at a time when the Olympics aren’t embraced by the local public — only 22 percent of respondents in Japan said the Olympics

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VILLAGE: YUICHI YAMAZAKI/GETTY IMAGES. HOLT: PATRICK RANDAK/NBC. STADIUM: CARL COURT/GETTY IMAGES.

The Olympics also present an opportunity for NBCUniversal to bring new advertisers into its digital advertising ecosystem, a critical strategic focus for every major media and entertainment company. “It will be interesting to see how their team executes on it. Will they be able to fill all that inventory? Is it all package deals with TV? Or are they going out beyond the 200 biggest national TV advertisers and really growing the base?” wonders Michael Beach, CEO of marketing analytics firm Cross Screen Media.

NBCUniversal says that Peacock secured more than $500 million in up-front commitments this year, with movie studios, technology, travel, financial services and pharmaceuticals among the biggest category buyers.

A year and a half ago, in January 2020, inside 30 Rock’s Studio 8H (the home of Saturday Night Live), NBCUniversal executives first unveiled Peacock to the world. Matt Strauss, chairman of Peacock and the company’s direct-to-consumer efforts, said they wanted to “give a pulse to the world of streaming,” one that was “timely and current” with the addition of NBC News and sports programming alongside a slate of original shows and library fare.

Then the pandemic hit, delaying production on originals and postponing the Olympics.

Without that tentpole fare, Peacock leaned on its library of The Office, which aired its series finale eight years ago, hoping that the show’s success on Netflix would translate to new subscribers for Peacock. It also struck a deal with the WWE to merge WWE Network into its offering.

In June 2021, many of those same NBCUniversal executives once again gathered in Studio 8H, this time for a much smaller crowd, and with a more understated message. With production in full swing, the company is hoping it can make up for lost time.

For the Olympics do-over, Peacock will be more freewheeling and raw, with live coverage (mostly in the early mornings because of the time zone differences, with almost all events available for in-demand viewing after they air on TV or stream) as

IT'S NOT 'WILL TV RATINGS FALL?' — BUT HOW FAR? Don’t expect 25 million primetime viewers this time as cord-cutting, and more streaming live coverage, will bring down averages By Rick Porter

Tokyo police officers outside the Olympic Village during July 16 protests against the forthcoming Games, amid concerns over pandemic-related safety.

should go ahead even if the pandemic isn’t over, per an Ipsos Global Advisor poll conducted between May 21 and June 4. And just 17.9 percent of the Japanese population is fully vaccinated. Brands are worried too. Toyota, a top corporate sponsor for the games, pulled all its Olympicsrelated TV commercials in Japan, with a PR rep telling the country’s daily Yomiuri newspaper that the event “has not gained the public’s understanding.”

NBC has multiple correspondents on the ground and out of quarantine, including Tom Llamas, Keir Simmons and Stephanie Gosk, and will lean on them to cover the news in Tokyo happening outside the Olympic bubble.

Every employee will be tested for COVID-19 regularly, and, in the case of a positive test, phone apps will track people in the Olympics bubble. But by far the biggest challenge is the mandatory quarantine period.

Every NBC staffer covering the Games in Tokyo has to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival, before being permitted to leave the limited set of authorized zones or venues.

Holt And so NBC’s hotel in downtown Tokyo has become its own quarantine “bubble.” Workspaces and the studios that will play host to news programs and the primetime Olympics broadcast will share a building with living quarters. Holt hopes to eventually escape the bubble in order to tell stories elsewhere in the city. “We think we will be able to work with authorities there, and at the same time comply with restrictions. It will be a challenge,” he says.

NBC also plans to cover the state of emergency and the protests around the Games, which have been extremely controversial in the host country. Holt says, “Ultimately, I hope that the focus of the story will turn to the athletes — they are the focus of the Olympics — but we certainly won’t ignore the circumstances of where we find ourselves here.”

It’s a strategy that the news organization hopes will allow it to cover the Games — and the stories around the Games — with minimal disruption to viewers. “I think there are certain points over the last year and a half, where it was a bit up in the air as to what was going to occur, so the fact that we will be there is a win,” adds Mazzarelli. — A.W.

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The Tokyo Games will almost surely bring NBC and its sibling cable networks their biggest primetime audiences in months. They’ll probably also fall well short of previous Games.

How can both statements be true? The first is rooted in the TV history of the Games, and the second in the reality of viewer habits today. The Olympics have never failed to draw in large numbers of viewers — the four winter and summer Games from 2012 to 2018 averaged close to 25 million viewers across all platforms in primetime.

The past two summer Olympics, London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016, averaged 30.3 million and 27.5 million viewers, respectively. The Winter Olympics are usually a smaller draw, but 2014’s coverage drew 21.3 million people each night; the 2018 Games came in just under 20 million.

Particularly in the summer, nothing else comes close to that level of audience for that long a stretch — 17 consecutive nights of primetime.

The potential audience for consuming all those hours of Olympics coverage, or at least the part that Nielsen measures, has shrunk considerably in the past few years.

In 2016, roughly 86 million U.S. homes had a cable or satellite subscription.

At the start of this year, it was 77 million (including on platforms like Hulu

Live and YouTube TV) — a decline of 11 percent. As much as anything, the cord-cutting trend will make it extremely difficult for NBCUniversal to match the previous Nielsen numbers.

Other factors, including one of NBCU’s own making, are also working against the Olympics reaching previous ratings heights.

during primetime on NBC and USA, a good deal of evening coverage will be taped. Airing taped events hasn’t necessarily hurt NBC’s ratings in the past, but it’s an open question whether viewers’ increased comfort with streaming, either on Peacock or on NBC’s dedicated Olympics site, will eat into the TV audience.

Japan has barred spectators from most Olympic venues.

NBC Sports is making live coverage of several high-profile Olympic events, including women’s and men’s gymnastics, track and field, and men’s basketball, exclusive to NBCU’s Peacock streaming service as the company tries to grow the platform’s subscriber base. Those events will be featured in NBC’s primetime coverage as well, but they’ll be taped packages.

The time difference between Tokyo and the United States could also play a part. Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of Eastern time in the U.S., and while some event finals — notably in swimming and track — will air live

The good news for NBCU is that sports on TV has experienced a ratings upswing in recent months, with events ranging from Major League Baseball’s regular season to the European soccer championship enjoying bigger audiences. Those telecasts have also featured inperson fans, which most observers of televised sports say makes for a better on-air product.

Under Japan’s COVID-19 protocols, no crowds will be roaring during the Tokyo Games. But that’s at best a secondary concern for NBC Sports, which is fighting larger forces that will likely see its Olympic Nielsen numbers come down.

NBC’S PRIMETIME OLYMPIC VIEWERS Summer Games in the past decade have typically outperformed winter events

30.3M

21.3M

27.5M

19.8M

2012 SUMMER

2014 WINTER

2016 SUMMER

2018 WINTER

London, United Kingdom

Sochi, Russia

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Pyeongchang, South Korea Source: Nielsen, NBC Sports & Olympics

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LET ATHLETES LEAD THE WAY ON MENTAL HEALTH

Kevin Love

When four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka dropped out of the French Open and Wimbledon because of anxiety and depression associated with compulsory press interviews, many fans were shocked at her bold confession. While most professional athletes rallied to support her “bravery,” some critics dismissed the player, who will represent Japan at the Tokyo Olympics, as a “diva” and “narcissistic.” The same thing happened in 2018 when NBA star Kevin Love wrote an essay in The Players’ Tribune about his anxiety and depression despite his fear that others, especially his teammates, would see it as a “form of weakness that could derail my success in sports.”

Within the past few years, dozens of celebrities and athletes — among them Adele, Britney Spears, Demi Lovato, Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Emma Stone, DeMar DeRozan, Michael Phelps and Dwayne Johnson — have openly discussed their struggles with mental health. Richard Sherman, arrested July 14 after his family called 911 during a domestic incident where he threatened to harm himself, promised to get “the help I need” in an Instagram post. Yet the stigma of somehow being damaged, tainted, a diva,

or unable to perform lingers because the public perception is that, unlike with a sprained ankle, people can’t heal from or cope with mental health issues.

They forget that these people have been dealing with these challenges at the same time they’ve risen to elite athlete or star celebrity status. Rather than cautionary examples of weakness, they are often models of strength and perseverance.

Professional sports is basically a high-octane reality show.

The Real Housewives/Bachelor/ Big Brother-type reality shows derive entertainment by exploiting the neediness and neuroses of their cast so the audience can revel in and be judgmental about the human frailties we all share.

However, the source of entertainment in sports is in exalting the athletes who perform at a higher level than the average person.

They achieve this through selfdiscipline and sheer willpower, two of the most revered qualities of a human being. They are ideals of what the human body is capable of and they inspire many of us to try harder to be a better version of ourselves. So, while we have low expectations of most reality castmembers, who are encouraged to be melodramatic and behave badly so that we can expect their failures, we hold athletes to a higher standard with no patience for faltering. They are expected to walk it off. Rub dirt in it. To always arise, phoenix-like, regardless of the adversity. Which is why so many athletes who suffer from mental health issues have had to hide their personal struggles from the public lest they are derided by

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fans and devalued by sponsors.

One reason for this misperception is that some athletes and artists burdened with chronic mental health problems seek to self-medicate through drugs and/or alcohol. This is a classic misdirection: We shame their bad choices, never aware of the real cause. Studies indicate that at least half of those with a mental illness will experience a substance abuse disorder. Part of the reason for this connection is the reluctance to seek help because of the stigma attached. For those in the public spotlight, the stigma can be much worse. They fear losing the success they have worked so hard and long to obtain.

Unfortunately, self-medication often leads to DUIs, drug arrests and bizarre, even violent, public behavior that can have even greater consequences. The recent fall from public grace of Armie Hammer — the allegations of abuse (the actor has denied the claims), the loss of several highprofile projects, his checking into an inpatient facility for alcohol, drug and sex issues — are part of a pattern in Hollywood.

Add to that Britney Spears’ legal battle to end the 13-year conservatorship forced on her after her 2008 mental health

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problems, and it’s easy to see the reluctance of celebrities to admit, even to themselves, that they have a problem.

Despite careers as public performers, many athletes and performing artists are by nature introverts. Performing can create debilitating stage fright, as attested by famous sufferers like Barbara Streisand, Ozzy Osbourne, Luciano Pavarotti, Katy Perry, Rihanna and Rod Stewart. Adele admitted she vomits before her shows. Eddie Van Halen turned to alcohol to dim his stage fright. Harold Owens, senior director of MusiCares, the Recording Academy’s health and human services organization, commented, “I’ve heard [performers] say repeatedly, ‘I’ve never played sober.’ It’s a huge issue.”

Professional athletes are bound by contract to speak to the press after games or matches. For introverts, this can be much worse than the actual competition. Reporters often look to elicit a dramatic, headline-grabbing quote by provoking the athlete, goading them about losing or about their public stances for social justice.

When I was an active player, the repetition of these kinds of antagonistic “gotcha” questions game after game, year after year,

LOVE: MICHAEL REAVES/GETTY IMAGES. OSAKA: MARK BRAKE/GETTY IMAGES. PHELPS: LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES.

Naomi Osaka

Instead of demanding perfection from sports stars who get candid about their health, viewers should admire their perseverance — and take cues from their coping skills By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Michael Phelps

was frustrating and sometimes infuriating. For all of us, it takes a toll. Fortunately, soon after Love’s public revelation, the NBA hired William Parham to be the league’s first director of mental health and wellness and create a comprehensive mental health policy.

The problem is the desire for the public to hold up performing artists and athletes as paragons of perfection and then punish them when they are anything less.

They see mental health issues as a character issue — to suffer is to be weak. This despite the statistics: 1 in 4 adults and 1 in 5 teens experiences a diagnosable mental disorder. Rather, the public should admire public figures’ perseverance and character strength for all they’ve accomplished despite their challenges — and learn coping skills from them.

Actually, it’s a reflection of our own character whether we choose to be supportive or derisive, because that reflects either our capacity for compassion — or the depth of our own personal fears.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, an NBA Hall of Famer and the league’s all-time leading scorer, is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a columnist for The Hollywood Reporter.

SECOND-SCREEN GAMES: SNAPCHAT, TWITTER, TWITCH FLOOD THE ZONE The social platforms partnered with NBC will remix ‘shorter-form, high energy’ clips and plan interactive content to capture casual users who may not tune in live By J. Clara Chan

In a bid to drive younger audiences toward watching the Tokyo Games on its streaming platform Peacock, NBCUniversal is counting on a boost from official partnerships with social media companies Snapchat, Twitch and Twitter.

NBC and the International Olympic Committee have partnered with Snapchat to create a slate of eight original programs, as well as augmented reality lenses, to bring Olympic diehard viewers and casual fans closer to the event. In addition to a reprise of Chasing Gold, a show produced by NBC for Snap that profiles Team USA athletes, Snapchatters will get original programming that includes a daily studio show hosted by Jacques Slade, NBC Olympics ICYMI, and another program, NBC Olympics IRL, that highlights the best social clips and user-generated content from fans following along from home. “Our goal is to find the most compelling storylines and make sure that we tell it in a fun, highly engaging way that resonates with our young audience,” Anmol Malhotra, Snap’s head of sports partnerships, tells THR.

Snap has previously partnered with NBC and the IOC. For the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Snap said it reached more than 44 million users in the U.S. Based on data collected from December 2020 to January 2021, the company reported that 87 million Snapchatters watch sports content each month, out of a total of 500 million monthly users. The social offerings aren’t meant to replace what’s available on NBC’s broadcast. “Our shows are three to five minutes in length. They’re shorter-form, high energy. It’s meant to be complementary to the TV experience,” Malhotra says.

Having Olympics content easily available on social can help reach casual users who might not tune in to watch the Games on TV, says Lyndsay Signor, senior vp marketing at NBC Sports. NBC is also planning a #WatchWithUS campaign on social media to create calls to action for fans to submit photos and videos or otherwise engage with the Olympics online. “Our approach really is about fishing where the fish are,” Signor says.

“What’s cool about the Olympics

is it’s such a massive audience that we really are able to try to uncover every fan we can [and] try to customize content for every platform and audience.”

To that end, NBC has also partnered with Twitter and Twitch to deliver interactive content to fans on social media.

On Twitter, which has 199 million daily active users, viewers can follow @NBCOlympics to watch a 20-minute original studio program on every day of the Games that will include highlights and athlete interviews, as well as a daily live look-in at NBC’s primetime coverage, where Twitter users will get to cast their votes on polls about which athlete, sport or key moment they want to see.

On Twitch, which has 30 million daily visitors, three teams of creators will compete in a daily competition of Olympic-themed games and win medals throughout the 17-day Tokyo Olympics; at the end, the team with the most medals will be crowned gold. Users will also be able to participate in polls, live AMAs and live discussions about the primetime broadcast.

If you’ve noticed a playingto-the-audience theme in interactive programming, that’s the point. Malhotra says the ban on spectators in Tokyo has given Snap “an opportunity” to better serve Olympic fans — many of whom wouldn’t have been able to go to Tokyo to watch the Games, even if they were allowed. Snap’s tech offerings, especially with its AR lenses and camera marketing tools, give Snap users a way to, as Malhotra says, “feel like they’re part of the event and really bring the experience to them when they can’t actually physically be there.”

T

THE FILM STAR, WHO HAD RECENTLY appeared in multiple blockbuster franchises, arrived in late 2019 at Red Door, a high-end sober living home just off the Sunset Strip, to battle his heroin habit, according to several individuals close to him at the time.

Red Door’s proprietor, a checkered figure in L.A.’s recovery community named Alex Shohet, was responsible for the actor’s care. He sought to bring his highprofile client in as a financial partner to expand the treatment facility. The plan, never realized, involved the purchase of Pauly Shore’s nearby multimilliondollar residence, adjacent to the Comedy Store.

Shohet, himself a recovering addict, operates under the philosophy that it is safer to keep addicts close, in the hope that they can be talked into better choices in time. But once there, the actor’s housemates introduced him to crack.

As the star’s addiction worsened in early 2020, Shohet became the client’s personal chaperone, known in the treatment field as a sober companion, which included responsibility for the star’s personal finances. In this capacity, Shohet fed substantial sums of money to the actor, which sources say he should have known would be used to purchase drugs — and were.

The experience of the star — who left the facility in March 2020, shortly after the

DRUGS, DEATH AND DENIAL AT A REHAB FOR THE RICH Clients are overdosing at the Red Door, a Hollywood-favored recovery center run by a husband-and-wife duo whose previous facility was shuttered in scandal: ‘How many people have to die before these people are stopped?’ BY GARY BAUM Illustration by Daniel Downey

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onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — mirrors that of others who sought treatment at the Red Door, a go-to facility for troubled, deep-pocketed members of the Hollywood community and their children. The Red Door publicizes itself as providing “holistic, attachment-based, traumainformed, individualized services to help people with trauma, substance abuse, and mental health issues.” The Hollywood Reporter spoke to more than two dozen people about the facility, including clients and their loved ones, staffers and other workers, who repeated many of the same criticisms of the facility.

Among their most damning allegations: that the sick too often aren’t getting well and clients have unnecessarily died as a result of lax care. Meanwhile, clients and their families have been financially preyed on at their most vulnerable. They believe that the facility’s failures aren’t just the Red Door’s own but highlight the lack of answers and protections in the sector at large, where desperation reigns and the nation’s mental health crisis and opioid epidemic rage on.

Shohet co-owns the Red Door along with another recovering addict, his therapist wife, Berni Fried. (Her long-standing celebrity-leaning Beverly Hills private practice’s clientele has included DJ AM and Scott Weiland, both deceased.) The couple declined to be interviewed for this story or to respond to detailed claims presented to them. Instead, in a statement, Shohet broadly cited soaring overdose statistics amid the ongoing pandemic (a reality) and noted that he was working with “our team” on unspecified “new technology” to combat the opioid scourge. “I, Alex Shohet, have been in the recovery industry since 2005 and my wife, Bernadine Fried, LMFT, has been working in the field since 1988.

We have seen too many deaths from addiction and mental health disorders and each one is a tragic loss,” says the statement. It continues, “The Red Door staff and community stands with our fellow health care providers across the U.S. who are on the front lines fighting the overdose epidemic.”

THE COUPLE PREVIOUSLY OPERATED One80 Center, a collection of residential treatment facilities in Beverly Hills and the Hollywood Hills that also catered to the rich, the famous and their adult offspring. The business shut down in 2013 shortly after THR published an investigation into allegations of substandard client care, including the circumstances surrounding two on-site overdose deaths. “All of [these allegations are] 180 degrees away from us as human beings,” Shohet told THR at the time. Added Fried: “We do really dedicated, thoughtful, compassionate work here. Anybody that knows us will tell you that.”

After One80’s closure, which followed a police probe and the filing of a wrongful-death lawsuit, Shohet turned to sober companionship gigs. (Prior to One80, Shohet worked as a computer systems engineer for MGM and Warner Bros. and headed the now-defunct box office tracking website ShowBIZ Data; he possesses no formal training in the recovery field.)

Meanwhile, Fried focused on her Beverly Hills practice, although her license was subsequently revoked by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. She was placed on a four-year probation after then-state Attorney General Kamala Harris’ office alleged negligence, incompetence, failure to maintain confidentiality and to keep proper records, as well as intentional or reckless cause of emotional harm to a client. (Fried’s probation ended in April.)

In 2018, with the financial backing of a client’s wealthy family, Shohet and Fried opened the Red Door, renting a five-bedroom, Tudor-style home for their new business from Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk). Hidden from the street behind a high hedgerow and with a red front door, it featured a lush backyard and inviting pool.

(One80’s properties also had a history of former famous inhabitants, including Elizabeth Taylor and Harry Houdini.)

Rates at the Red Door — which lures veterans of the high-end treatment circuit and their discouraged families with its

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promises of a maverick methodology — have varied over time.

Clients have been quoted differing prices, but room costs have run as high as $15,000 per month.

These sums are not inclusive of separate billable services, such as the assistance of a team of dedicated support staff, from case managers to sober companions.

Since the Red Door opened three years ago, two of its clients have died on-site under questionable circumstances, the second fatally overdosing at the couple’s newest rented treatment address, a Bel Air mansion that Ariana Grande’s mother, Joan Grande, called home until a few months earlier. According to insiders, when Fried has been asked if the couple feels responsible for fatalities at their facility, she’s pushed back, explaining that they’re battling difficult diseases and the stark truth is that some individuals will die while seeking help in supportive care environments — it’s just the nature of the

accommodations or individually tailored care plans. Those are givens. Instead, it’s a firm commitment to what the couple characterize as its harm-reduction approach to treatment.

Harm reduction, a catchall for various non-penalizing alternatives to abstinence (from supplying sterilized needles to providing safe harbor), has the immediate goal of limiting the risk of death or of contracting infectious diseases, such as HIV. “I’ve worked with that same population: a lot of well-known and high-net-worth clients,” says addiction counselor Seven Graham, who helped establish the Amy Winehouse Foundation.

Graham became familiar with the Red Door and its clients while attending a weekly recovery meeting that took place there. “[Harm reduction] is all about meeting them where they’re at, accepting that some people will come see you but they’re not ready to stop [using at that time]. It’s an

Red Door’s founders: the married couple Alex Shohet and Berni Fried.

“They’re grifters and always have been,” says one critic.

treatment business.

The Red Door’s critics reject the notion of death-as-usual. “It’s a Jason thing,” insists Amber Fraley, who has worked as a sober companion for the Red Door’s clients, referencing the Friday the 13th franchise’s antagonist, who’s repeatedly resurrected in sequels, only to strike again. She’s among several frustrated whistleblowers who tell THR that two state regulatory agencies with oversight of addiction treatment have seemingly ignored their warnings. “They’re going to be the cause of more death. [Shohet and Fried] are able to be the vampires that they are because they’re in a broken system.”

THE RED DOOR’S NICHE IN L.A.’S competitive premiumrehab realm isn’t luxury

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incredibly high-risk strategy. If it goes wrong, it can go horribly wrong.”

The facility’s critics, including Graham, contend that harm reduction has served as a cover for institutional recklessness. One woman in her 20s, the daughter of a studio head, who was in residence at the Red Door between 2019 and 2020, says that “the sober companions weren’t there to keep you from doing drugs.

They were there to keep you from dying. My sober companion drove me to my dealer. I was doing Xanax, cocaine, Oxy. The thinking was: ‘You’re going to do it anyway, so you’re safer with me’ — which, honestly, is true.”

Still, she believes that, ultimately, the Red Door isn’t virtuous but vulturous. “It’s an approach that preys on addicts,” she says.

DATING TO HIS OWNERSHIP OF ONE80, Shohet has pitched his clients — and, more often, their wealthy family members — to invest or otherwise partner in his work while they’re still under his care. Shohet, who hosts a weekly meeting for entrepreneurs in recovery at the Red Door and has a history of hiring individuals who have achieved even relatively brief stints of sobriety to work for him, positions the prospective partnerships as providing opportunities for recovering addicts who might typically struggle to secure employment, a key component in stabilizing their lives.

similarly moneyed sister to invest in his commercial endeavors.

At the Red Door, these attempts to garner financial backers have found success. Insiders say a residence on Fairfax Avenue was bankrolled by the parents of one addict who in turn was treated there. (This was a situation that staffers involved in her care say was to her detriment, because she was indulged in a manner that made it more difficult to engage in the challenging work of recovery.)

Some found such solicitation inappropriate. “[Shohet] took advantage any way he could,” says Lorre’s mother, Lois Wening, who notes that an elderly relative with known means, who has since died, was hit up for investment. “He got himself involved in our whole family. He came into our lives when we were, quite frankly, struggling and upset, and unable to look for other [treatment] solutions. He preyed on our vulnerability.”

Meanwhile, in the past two years, Fried has ventured into hallucinogenic-assisted psychotherapy, hosting excursions to desert locales. According to the Red Door’s staffers, she’s invited her own clients to take MDMA, mushrooms or ayahuasca under her guidance. Her business partner for these excursions is a case manager employed at the Red Door named Bianca Fisher.

On Fried’s private-practice website, she describes both herself and Fisher as trauma and

Above, the Red Door’s original residence off Sunset, rented from screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. Right, One80’s now-closed home on Sunset Plaza, where two clients died.

the course of performing marriage and family therapy services (unless they are licensed to do so under another board — for example, the Medical Board of California). A professional should not perform services outside their scope and should make referrals to specialists who have that expertise.” Fried did not address questions regarding her licensing; Fisher did not respond to requests for comment.

THE 20-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER OF AN EAST Coast venture capitalist died on June 28, 2020, in the back house of the Red Door, having fatally overdosed on a combination of cocaine, OxyContin and Xanax.

She’d arrived two months earlier, seeking treatment for depression, not addiction.

According to those close to the situation, she died after

ALEX AND BERNI PANDER, AND THE PEOPLE GOING TO A PLACE LIKE THIS NEED BOUNDARIES.” ADDICTION COUNSELOR SEVEN GRAHAM

Critics also cite a conflict in Fried’s referral of her privatepractice clients to the facilities she owns with her husband. One of her former therapy clients (an inheritor of one of the world’s richest fortunes), who stayed at One80, alleged in a complaint filed with the California Board of Behavioral Sciences that Fried had disclosed her private secrets to Shohet, who’d been working to convince both the scion and her

addiction experts with specializations in “integration of plant medicine, ketamine, MDMA, and psychedelic medicine.” In an email, Board of Behavioral Sciences spokeswoman Cheri Gyuro, who did not comment specifically on Fried, notes that licensees “do not have prescribing or administering authority,” and that it “is unprofessional conduct for a marriage and family therapist to use or offer drugs in

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spending the night with another drug-abusing housemate, a Billboard-charting music producer with whom she’d been intimately involved. While the coroner’s report raised the possibility of suicide, insiders don’t believe she meant to kill herself — among the evidence, they cite the lack of a suicide note and her recent acquisition of pet bunnies.

However, in her unsafe state she’d been allowed to become too close

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the producer who, one insider says, “was out of control.”

At the time of her death, multiple sources say she’d been in discussions with Shohet about approaching her father to finance an additional property for the Red Door, where she planned to stay with the music producer.

The Red Door’s second death occurred Jan. 4, 2021, shortly after it relocated to a new, larger, contemporary-style residence in Bel Air along Mulholland Drive with sweeping views of the San Fernando Valley. William Cooney — a 36-year-old father to a young boy — was found unresponsive and lying on the floor of his bathroom by fellow residents.

Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

According to the coroner, he overdosed on fentanyl and meth.

Insiders note that he got the fentanyl from another housemate. His toxicology exam also showed cocaine in his system, still circulating from days earlier.

Insiders who have seen the report say that, taking these factors together, they believe the Red Door didn’t test or monitor its client closely enough.

Amara Durham, a substance abuse consultant who Cooney’s family had previously retained to work with William, notes that he checked in to the Red Door against her advice: Durham was concerned about the facility’s licensing status and the couple’s publicized track record. But he ignored her advice, persuaded by his girlfriend. (THR separately learned the actress had once been a client at One80.)

FAIRFAX: ZILLOW. SUNSET: CHRIS GODLEY. RED DOOR: COURTESY OF SUBJECT (2).

She claims that her family was charged for treatment services, including urine analysis, that weren’t performed. “When other people are allowed to use around you, that’s not an environment where you’re going to get better.”

This view is shared by another former client, Inger Lorre, who spent 11 months at the Red Door beginning in the summer of 2018 to address opiate addiction and depression. “I was very easily preyed on,” says the singer, who has fronted noted glam-punk band The Nymphs. “They’d say things like, ‘I’m going to leave a [urine] test here,’ and walk away.

You’re supposed to have people watching you do the tests.” She adds, “I think [Shohet] thinks, ‘These people are going to get drugs and get loaded anyway, and I might as well get their money.’ ”

After Cooney’s death, Durham conducted a probe at his family’s request, interviewing the facility’s employees. She says she found that some staffers themselves had less than a year’s sobriety, weren’t properly trained in first aid, lent their phones to clients who in turned used them to contact active addicts, and failed to administer consistent drug tests or conduct room searches — even when residents appeared to be under the influence.

The tenure of Jordan Brodie, a musician with no training in the treatment field, spanned from November 2019 to October 2020, including as house manager, and overlapped with that of the daughter of the venture capitalist who died. He says: “Not only are the clients being taken advantage of, but staff members are, too.

[Shohet] hired me but didn’t train me — in basic things, like administering Narcan [an emergency antidote to opioid overdoses].

He put me in a position where I wasn’t equipped to handle what I was doing, which was overseeing highly vulnerable people. In fact, on the second day, there was an overdose. I had to get a client to administer the Narcan because I was not trained.” (Durham found that a housemate administered Narcan to Cooney after he overdosed, and that staff said the facility was not trained to handle overdoses by residents nor were any written procedures ever provided to them.)

Brodie adds, “I noticed a lot of unethical things, and every time I would point them out, I would get shut down.”

Says Durham, “The Red Door promotes itself as a steward of very vulnerable people. At the very least they had a reckless attitude about this responsibility.” Cooney’s family is unsparing.

“We knew that overdose was possible; we never imagined it would happen in a rehab facility,” says his father, Gary Cooney, vice chair of national insurance brokerage firm McGriff, Seibels & Williams.

Adds William’s ex-wife, Sarah Morse Cooney: “This should not have happened. If this facility had the appropriate structures in place, this could have been avoided and my son would still have his father, and I my friend.

I hope the individuals that were complicit in his mismanaged treatment are held accountable and never risk preying on another vulnerable addict.”

RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT PROGRAMS licensed by California’s Department of Health Care Services are required to report

which don’t require licenses.

(Durham notes that the Red Door, presenting itself to the family as a treatment environment, administered potentially addictive medications to Cooney on-site, including benzodiazepines, often prescribed short-term for anxiety and insomnia.) Agency spokeswoman Carol Sloan notes that it’s a violation of California regulations to provide drug recovery or treatment services in an unlicensed setting. “Until DHCS approves and issues a license, those services cannot be rendered” at a residential facility, she explains.

When asked about administering medication on-site, the Red Door spokesperson says, “The Red Door is not a treatment center. It is a sober living facility.”

Red Door’s critics find the regulatory oversight — or lack thereof — frustrating. Shohet and Fried’s history at One80 (previously licensed with the agency) wasn’t reviewed as part of even its outpatient certification process.

keep patients safe, have miserably failed. How many people have to die before these people are stopped?”

Brian Dunphey, another marriage and family therapist specializing in addiction work, filed his own whistleblowing complaint with DHCS in September. He’d grown concerned after brief discussions about a high-level role at the Red Door, which included an on-site visit.

Dunphey contends the agency didn’t appear interested in pursuing the matter in the months before the second death. “[DHCS] does not move a finger when peers in the community raise alarm,” he says. “There has to be more of a concern when people are dying.” He adds, “When problems are brought up by someone with credentials, [the agency] doesn’t do anything about it. So there’s no way that a consumer or their family, who are distressed, are going to know. For them there’s no time to do extensive research.”

Shohet and Fried previously operated One80, whose main residence was a Benedict Canyon home once occupied

by Elizabeth Taylor and then-husband Michael Wilding.

the death of any client from any cause within one working day. Yet because the Red Door’s only certification with DHCS has been as an outpatient program (not a 24-hour residential treatment facility), registered to Fried’s Beverly Hills private practice address, DHCS was unaware of the fatalities.

According to DHCS, the Red Door submitted its application to be a licensed residential program at the property rented from screenwriter Black in September 2020, months after the woman’s deadly overdose; it’s still pending. DHCS has yet to receive an application for its Mulholland Drive location.

Staffers and clients who’ve worked at the Red Door’s residential addresses say both sites have operated beyond DHCS’ prescribed bounds for sober living homes,

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Additionally, Fried’s then-probationary status as a therapist didn’t derail her from being allowed to serve as its clinical care director.

“The issue at the heart of this isn’t Berni and Alex; they are grifters and always have been since he was a drug dealer and she was his client,” says Suzanne Wallach, a marriage and family therapist specializing in dual-diagnosis addicts, who performed intern work under Fried at One80 and subsequently filed whistleblowing complaints to both DHCS and the Board of Behavioral Sciences in 2012. “What is most shocking is that the regulatory agencies that are in place to keep the consumer safe have done nothing over the past 10 years. These agencies, which are supposed to hold clinicians and treatment providers to high standards in order to

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THOSE SPEAKING AGAINST THE RED DOOR are united in their judgment of its deficiencies. They come to different conclusions as to apportioning blame, from ineffective regulatory oversight to some mix of Shohet and Fried’s ego, greed, delusion and even misplaced good intentions. What they generally agree on is that the couple’s strong belief in indulging their customers, which serves in part as a market distinguisher within their ultra-high-end servicing niche, is corrupting.

“Alex and Berni pander, and the people going to a place like this need boundaries,” says Graham.

“They hold up this model that isn’t really treatment. It’s babying. Addicts want to find a way to not get clean. Alex and Berni have created a program that allows them to do that.”

EMMYS 2021 PLAYBOOK

WILL ESCAPISM LEAD THE PACK AT THIS YEAR’S EMMY AWARDS?

I

f last year’s Emmys were the first proof that a pandemic-era awards show is possible, this year’s will highlight the entertainment we consumed during all that time spent at home — and based on the nominations, it seems many of us turned to television as a means of escape.

Ted Lasso is the clear frontrunner in the comedy race with 20 noms, setting a record for the most-nominated freshman comedy in history. But the success of the Apple TV+ show — which stars Jason Sudeikis as a happygo-lucky American soccer coach who travels across the pond to lead a struggling English football club — stems from its summer 2020 launch amid the COVID-19

pandemic when collective morale seemed at an all-time low. Its kill-them-with-kindness brand of comedy, which in turn pokes fun at the toxic masculinity of the sports world, represents a dramatic shift in the comedy race. It’s hard to imagine Ted Lasso faring well against Veep’s cynical political satire (that show earned three consecutive series wins between 2015 and 2017) or the edgy, sophisticated critical favorites The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Fleabag, which won in 2018 and 2019, respectively. As endearing as last year’s winner, Schitt’s Creek, could be, there’s no way David Rose would have been able to glance at Ted Lasso’s homemade “Believe” poster without snickering.

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While Ted Lasso is not without its harder edges, its protagonist’s unbreakable optimism and uncanny talent for finding the best in others give the show a surprising wholesome quality. No other comedy series this year is as kindhearted, including returnees Black-ish (with a third series nom for ABC) and Netflix’s The Kominsky Method (its second). HBO Max’s Hacks has a mean streak that rivals the biting material of Deborah Vance, the Vegas stand-up played by Jean Smart; The Flight Attendant, also on HBO Max, mixes irreverence with the macabre in its mystery series; Hulu’s delightfully weird PEN15 sees co-creators Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle mining the

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From left: Bridgerton, Cobra Kai, The Boys, Emily in Paris, Ted Lasso, WandaVision.

indignities of adolescence for uncomfortable laughs.

The two biggest surprises in the comedy category also represent the power of populist programming amid a particularly challenging year. Netflix’s Emily in Paris, which sees a naive young woman from the Midwest seeking adventure abroad, is pure escapism — a lighthearted and low-stakes tour through the City of Light that gave viewers the European vacations they were missing amid quarantines.

(Critics, however, found it lacking in depth.) Meanwhile, Karate Kid sequel Cobra Kai elevated itself beyond a cult favorite martial arts

CONAN: COURTESY OF TEAM COCO. KOMINKSY: ANNE MARIE FOX/NETFLIX. LOVECRAFT: ELI JOSHUA ADE/HBO. MOM: MICHAEL YARISH/CBS. POSE: ERIC LIEBOWITZ/FX. SHAMELESS: PAUL SARKIS/ SHOWTIME. BRIDGERTON, COBRA, EMILY: COURTESY OF NETFLIX. BOYS: COURTESY OF AMAZON STUDIOS. TED: COURTESY OF APPLE TV+. WANDAVISION: COURTESY OF MARVEL/DISNEY+.

The nomination lineup proves that not only audiences but also the Television Academy is appreciative of populist fare — as opposed to the more somber material that has dominated in years past BY TYLER COATES

comedy to a bona fide contender with its third season; the move from YouTube Red to Netflix no doubt raised its profile. Neither show, however, received noms for its cast or writing, lowering their chances for a big win.

Netflix’s top dramatic offerings are nearly as frothy. Just as real-life royal drama captured attention on both sides of the Atlantic this year — Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s bombshell sit-down with Oprah Winfrey also earned a nod — the fourth season of The Crown regurgitated the ’80s tabloid fodder of Charles and Diana’s disastrous marriage for a new generation of royal obsessives — and led to the cast bringing in nine of the acting category’s 24 noms.

The Shonda Rhimes-produced Bridgerton, an instant success upon its Christmas 2020 launch (and Netflix’s most watched series ever), is just as juicy and melodramatic as the streamer’s other series set within the English aristocracy. But the fresh take on the Regency era — with its diverse cast, a pop music-inspired soundtrack and an over-the-top sex appeal that satisfied the most insatiable romance buffs — follows a pop cultural trend that brings new life and contemporary attitudes to a formerly stodgy costume drama genre. (See also: Disney+’s Hamilton, which nabbed 12 Emmy noms six years after the musical debuted on Broadway in 2015.)

“Drama” can hardly be considered a reliable description this year, as the category includes three sci-fi/fantasy series in its lineup. Game of Thrones may have opened the field when it earned its first of four series wins in 2015. (In 2017, the debut of genre fresh takes in Westworld and Stranger Things may have pulled voters away from HBO’s fantasy series — the dystopian The Handmaid’s Tale took home the prize that year.) This year, Amazon Prime’s The Boys, HBO’s Lovecraft Country and Disney+’s The Mandalorian earned series noms, with HBO’s horrordrama also earning noms for stars Jonathan Majors, Jurnee Smollett, Michael K. Williams and Aunjanue Ellis. But while Lovecraft’s gore and scares may be shocking

features for a drama nominee, it doesn’t shy away from the horrors of the real world, tackling the realities of racism in America more aggressively than series lacking time travel, witchcraft and monsters. The Boys, an hourlong superhero satire, also serves as a critique of American imperialism and nationalism while skewering the comic book genre in ways the Marvel Cinematic Universe wouldn’t dare. And The Mandalorian? The most escapist of the bunch, complete with the coos of a little green Grogu.

Considerably less escapist are such Trump-era holdovers as Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and FX’s Pose, one a terrifying fantasy of dystopian fascism, the other a period-set celebration of queerness and chosen family. Both are beloved by critics and audiences alike and seem engineered to speak to our complex political era (despite neither being set in the present day). Lastly, NBC’s This Is Us is the sole broadcast network show to earn a drama series nom, but its fifth season is not nearly as buzzy as its competition.

Notably absent from the drama race this year are the dark, antihero-driven shows served up by television’s household-namelevel auteur class (the likes of Vince Gilligan, Matthew Weiner and Beau Willimon) that have ruled the Emmys over the past decade — but that’s why the limited series category exists, as A-list creative and acting talents have flocked to one-and-done series. HBO’s Mare of Easttown has much in common with True Detective (a drama nominee in 2014), while The Queen’s Gambit’s stylish period setting and complicated protagonist recall four-time drama series winner Mad Men. The three other nominees — HBO’s I May Destroy You, Amazon’s The Underground Railroad and Disney+’s WandaVision — round out a category dominated by female-led stories of trauma and recovery. If such material is reserved for the limited series, maybe it’s because audiences want that darkness in concentrated doses. It’s a dark and dreary world out there, and viewers more than ever want to tune out while they tune in.

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Last Chance at the Emmys These acclaimed series may have come to an end this season, but they have one last shot at a gold statuette

CONAN TBS

The veteran host’s talk show ended June 24, putting a wrap on O’Brien’s 28-year late night presence.

This year he may finally take home the Emmy for outstanding variety talk series.

THE KOMINSKY METHOD NETFLIX

Two-time nominee Alan Arkin left this series ahead of its third and final season, clearing the way for Paul Reiser to earn his 11th career nom for his supporting role in the comedy.

LOVECRAFT COUNTRY HBO

The horror series picked up 16 noms for its first (and last) season, including mentions for stars Jonathan Majors, Jurnee Smollett, Michael K. Williams, Aunjanue Ellis and Courtney B. Vance.

MOM CBS

Allison Janney earned her sixth nom for playing the titular character of this multicam comedy. She’s already won twice for the role, and the final season could earn her an eighth career Emmy.

POSE FX

Billy Porter earned an Emmy for his work on the first season of this drama. This year, Porter nabbed his third consecutive nom alongside co-star Mj Rodriguez, who earned her first for best actress.

SHAMELESS SHOWTIME

William H. Macy, the star of the dark comedy about a Chicago family straddling the poverty line, has earned six nominations throughout the show’s 11-season run, which ended in April.

J U LY 21, 2021

EMMYS 2021 PLAYBOOK

‘I DON’T SEE COMING OUT AS NONBINARY AS A HINDRANCE’ Hacks’ Carl Clemons-Hopkins, a nominee for best supporting actor in a comedy, is the first openly nonbinary performer to earn an Emmy nomination for acting. Here, they reflect on a personal journey of self-acceptance that is still ongoing AS TOLD TO TYLER COATES

I

was raised with ministers on both sides of my family — it was a very religious household. I quickly learned that I needed to not express this part of myself, and I should probably also not express the non-heterosexual part of myself. In college, I began to identify as a queer person, and told my parents and select people.

I saw someone recently say it’s not about coming about, but about “inviting in.” I really liked that.

In the past five or six years, I’ve been doing a lot of studies on the origins of masculinity, where all these rules and norms came from. At the same time, there’s been so much violence and misunderstanding with trans folk and other queer people. I was figuring out where I fit in all of that.

And then quarantine hit — there was so much time to

Playing the Numbers Game With Multiple Nominations These nominees have doubled (or in some cases tripled) their chances at taking home a trophy for their work this season DAVID ATTENBOROUGH A veteran with three Emmy wins for narration, the 95-year-old earned nods for Discovery+’s A Perfect Planet and Apple TV+’s The Year Earth Changed.

STERLING K. BROWN The two-time Emmy winner earned his fifth nomination for the NBC drama This Is Us. He is also in the running for narrating CNN’s sixpart Lincoln: Divided We Stand.

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AIDY BRYANT The Saturday Night Live star earned her second nomination for supporting actress in a comedy this year for the sketch series, while also earning a lead actress nod for Hulu’s Shrill.

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NICOLE BYER The Nailed It! host earned two nods for the Netflix cooking competition that sees amateur chefs show off their lack of cooking talent, to Byer’s and her fellow judges’ giddy delight.

J U LY 21, 2021

DAVE CHAPPELLE The seasoned comedian earned two noms for his Netflix comedy special Dave Chappelle: 8:46 (variety special and writing for a variety special), plus a third for his Saturday Night Live hosting duties.

RUPAUL CHARLES The eight-time winning host of RuPaul’s Drag Race earned nods for the popular VH1 reality series as well as its behind-thescenes counterpart, RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked!

CLEMONS-HOPKINS: DAVID “HIGGSY” HIGGS. GROOMING BY SARAH HUGGINS. STYLING BY JOY BRIDGES. ATTENBOROUGH: DAVID M. BENETT/DAVE BENETT/GETTY IMAGES FOR APPLE. BROWN: SLAVEN VLASIC/GETTY IMAGES. BRYANT: JEFF KRAVITZ/FILMMAGIC. BYER: JEROD HARRIS/GETTY IMAGES FOR COMEDY CENTRAL. CHAPPELLE: KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY IMAGES. RUPAUL: RODIN ECKENROTH/GETTY IMAGES. COEL: DAVID M. BENETT/DAVE BENETT/ GETTY IMAGES. KENNEY-SILVER: RICK KERN/GETTY IMAGES. MIRANDA: JOHN SHEARER/GETTY IMAGES. RUDOLPH: RACHEL MURRAY/GETTY IMAGES FOR CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS. SMART: RACHEL LUNA/GETTY IMAGES. SUDEIKIS: AXELLE/BAUER-GRIFFIN/FILMMAGIC. THOMPSON: ANGELA WEISS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES. TUCCI: DAVID M. BENETT/DAVE BENETT/GETTY IMAGES FOR GYMKHANA. HACKS: JAKE GILES NETTER/HBO MAX.

explore my gender identity, or lack of gender identity.

One of the great things about the modern age is that we have all of this wonderful language and identifying markers that give us more ideas of what the spectrum of gender really is. It’s less about me putting a new label on myself and more about taking unnecessary labels off.

The more I was understanding myself at this level, the less I was concerned with acting. At the time, I had no indicator that I had a career. There was occasional voiceover work, but there was no theater in the pandemic. I was in Chicago, so I knew very little about what was happening in L.A. But to be honest, I didn’t see coming out as nonbinary as a potential hindrance. I’m already big and Black and queer — as an actor, there’s always so much uphill climbing I have to do. It was kind of freeing, actually, because I didn’t see how my identity has anything to do with the identity of a character I’d play.

Marcus on Hacks is a man who identifies as a man. He’s an enchanted soul, but he’s very left-brained. He’s very much on the job and on the books at all times, and in our first season he’s realizing that he has a personal life that he has to involve himself in. That was something I could embody, and whatever happens to the character next, I’ll embody that next. I try as hard as I can not to allow industry projections or understandings affect my personal experience and understanding of myself. I would be limiting my experience to what someone else dictates it should be. I’ve never wanted that kind of bondage on my mind or soul, and I found that was keeping me from doing my job.

I would go into work situations and think, “You have to make sure you’re being a man.” Now, I can just worry about being the character. It’s incredibly freeing to focus on a character knowing that I myself am more resolved.

I definitely try to understand how a character relates to themselves. Sometimes you play a character that isn’t necessarily true to who they are, or who they are going to be.

Sometimes it’s the beginning of a journey. I don’t know, for example, how free Marcus is going to allow himself to be.

What facets of himself will he lean into, what facets will he lean away from?

The concept of a nongendered awards category is something that I’ve only recently considered. I hope that every gendered entity evolves quickly at the speed of progress, but outside of that, I don’t know how much of that I can

MICHAELA COEL The multihyphenate made up for a Golden Globes snub by earning three nominations for writing, co-directing and starring in the universally acclaimed HBO limited series I May Destroy You.

KERRI KENNEY-SILVER The Quibi reboot of the Comedy Central series Reno 911! earned star and EP Kenney-Silver two noms, including one for playing the sweet but dim Deputy Trudy Wiegel.

LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA The Hamilton star, up for best outstanding variety special, is also one of seven castmembers to receive an acting nom for the Disney+ release of the Tonywinning musical.

Carl Clemons-Hopkins (right, pictured with co-star Kaitlin Olson) plays Marcus, who runs the business of Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) on HBO Max’s Hacks.

“It’s less about me putting a new label on myself and more about taking unnecessary labels off.”

MAYA RUDOLPH The SNL alumna shows her range with her two nominations — for playing Vice President Kamala Harris on the sketch series and the Hormone Monstress Connie on Netflix’s Big Mouth.

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make my business. I didn’t create these awards or create these categories — I just got here. I have nothing but hope and positive thinking, but I also have the fights ahead. The gendering of a trophy category is less on my mind.

I don’t personally feel any burden of proof to anyone.

I’m going to live my life and continue to grow as a flawed human being. If you like my work, wonderful; if you hate my work, join the club. When it comes to my identity and my lived experience, I share mine. Is that something you identify with? That’s wonderful. If it makes you feel less alone, that’s even better. However, I’m not in the business of getting into a lot of boxes. Having learned long ago that I’m probably going to disappoint a lot of people a lot of the time, I just have to use and fully see every real possibility.

My hope is that the same extended time of reflection I experienced also opened up people’s hearts and minds to the understanding that there’s more than what they’ve been told. There’s more than what they’ve been allowed to see. And so my hope is that anyone who’s down with me will be down with me. I’m just trying to grow and be the best that I can be, in the truest form that I can be.

What I know is that it may make certain rooms difficult to get into. But I also know that I don’t want to go into too many rooms — I don’t want to bring you three-quarters of myself. I want to bring you the character. If the role is mine, then it’s my role. And that shouldn’t be skewed by another adjective, right?

JEAN SMART The frontrunner in the comedy actress race for her star turn in HBO Max’s Hacks, she also earned a supporting actress nod for the HBO limited series Mare of Easttown.

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JASON SUDEIKIS The Ted Lasso star and co-creator banked three nominations this year, one for the title role of the show and two for writing the beloved Apple TV+ comedy series.

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KENAN THOMPSON The SNL veteran earned his third nomination for best supporting actor in a comedy for the show while also landing a lead actor in a comedy nom for his NBC sitcom, Kenan.

STANLEY TUCCI The celebrated actor and cook earned a nomination for hosting CNN’s reality series Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy as well as a nom for his voiceover work in the Apple TV+ animated series Central Park.

Reviews Television From left: Brendan Hunt, Cristo Fernandez and Jason Sudeikis tackle new crises and challenges on and off the soccer field.

Jason Sudeikis’ ultra-optimistic soccer coach returns to Apple TV+ for a second irresistible season of fish-out-of-water punchlines and radical kindness

By Daniel Fienberg Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso is an antidote. In a TV landscape dominated by darkness and irony, here is a series that follows its protagonist’s example, entering every room with the thematic equivalent of a carefully wrapped box of homemade biscuits. It’s sweet, hopeful and obstinately corny; no wonder the show struck a chord during a global pandemic.

It’s easy to imagine how, with expectations raised by a heap of Emmy nominations, a second season of Ted Lasso might struggle to reproduce that magic.

Maybe you can walk into a locker room with no understanding of the offsides rule and inspire a group of cynical pro athletes with folksy wisdom once, but what are the chances of doing it again?

Good news: Through two-thirds

of the comedy’s 12-episode encore season (eight episodes were sent to critics), the returns are, like Ted (Jason Sudeikis), unreasonably positive. I can point to plotlines that have me wary, but the new installments boast an admirable blend of repetition — and refinement — of the elements that resonated initially and expansion of the show’s ensemble and tonal reach.

When we left the boys of AFC Richmond, a heartbreaking loss had just cost them their place in the Premiership. But the players, Ted’s coaching staff — Brendan Hunt’s Coach Beard and Nick Mohammed’s Nathan — and owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) are committed to a comeback for the ages.

Instead, in the new season,

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AIRDATE Friday, July 23 (Apple TV+) CAST Jason Sudeikis,

Hannah Waddingham, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein DEVELOPED BY Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly

COURTESY OF APPLE TV+

Ted Lasso

AFC Richmond gets stuck on a string of ties — Ted’s least favorite result — and when their most confident player (Cristo Fernandez’s exuberant Dani Rojas) suffers an existential crisis, the team hires sports psychologist Sharon (Sarah Niles), much to Ted’s chagrin.

Meanwhile, newly retired Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) is struggling to figure out his next steps while navigating his relationship with Keeley (Juno Temple).

The creative team, led by Sudeikis, Hunt, Bill Lawrence and Joe Kelly, built the first season around established underdog sports-movie tropes. This time, Ted Lasso has been reconfigured as an homage to romantic comedies, peaking with a fifth episode that’s a pure love letter to the genre. Rom-coms and underdog sports stories are both genres based on radical optimism, with audiences trained to set aside logic in pursuit of a happy ending.

In Ted Lasso, nearly every episode climaxes with the sort of emotional uplift most shows would save for a season finale.

The series has become tremendous at identifying and playing to its strengths. Further developing Keeley and Roy’s adorably unlikely love story, the new episodes take full advantage of the glorious comic energy between the wonderful Temple and Waddingham.

Meanwhile, more AFC Richmond players, including Toheeb Jimoh’s Sam and Kola Bokinni’s Isaac, get opportunities to shine.

This means that even with episodes coming in closer to 40 than 30 minutes, Ted Lasso is now much less about, well, Ted Lasso. Sure, he still has in-jokes with Coach Beard and banter with Rebecca, and he’s periodically perplexed by British terminology.

But those elements are decreasingly central as the story ceases to be primarily a fish-out-of-water comedy. And if you’ve wondered whether Ted’s pep might in some way be pathological, the matter is explored a bit in scenes that illustrate Sudeikis’ dramatic range.

I’m not sure the show has done enough foundation-building for a newly introduced romance that I don’t yet fully buy. And its capacity to handle seriousness is called into question by an activism subplot that registers as artificial.

Indeed, most of my reservations about season two stem from the series’ efforts to broaden its range — an endeavor that’s both admirable and necessary for a premise lifted from a bunch of jokey NBC Sports shorts. Nothing has fully backfired yet, and the new episodes are just as packed with warm-fuzzies and funny punchlines as before. Ted Lasso may no longer be a surprise, but its worldview is just as welcome.

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In ’95, M. Night Shyamalan Directed Rosie O’Donnell supernatural template (plus twist ending) that would become the director’s calling card; this was a sweetly philosophical story of a fifth grader on a mission to find God after his beloved grandfather dies. “What a great talent he was,” recalls O’Donnell of Shyamalan; she was 33 when he approached her to play Sister Terry, a Phillies-loving teacher at the boy’s Catholic school. “He was a really loving director and a great guy. He was very family-oriented, talking about how he got married very young. It was a lovely, warm family that this guy seemed to have come from, and I thought, ‘He’s going to be successful.’ He seemed to have his own little universe of support wherever he went.” But the positive aura

surrounding the shoot ended the moment Shyamalan handed over his final cut to Weinstein and the producer ordered extensive edits. “[M. Night] called me up and told me he was having trouble with Harvey — that Harvey had recut his movie and would I talk to Harvey with him,” says O’Donnell.

“So we had a conference call where he was in the office with Harvey and I phoned in. And I said to Harvey Weinstein, ‘This kid is an artist. You wouldn’t say to Van Gogh, ‘Less blue.’ Your job as the producer and the distributor is to frame it and sell it, but not to change the canvas.’ And that’s when he called me the C-word. And he said, ‘You don’t know anything. You’re just a talk show host. Who do you think you

are?’ And I said, ‘Well, this is the last conversation we’ll ever have.’

And it was.” Weinstein’s efforts to bury the film seemed to work: When it was finally released in 1998 — a year after Shyamalan had sold his Sixth Sense spec for a record $2.2 million — the $6 million film grossed just $282,000. — SETH ABRAMOVITCH

M. Night Shyamalan directed Rosie O’Donnell on the Wide Awake set in 1995; a Sept. 17, 1997, front-page story in THR (inset) announced the “startling” spec sale of The Sixth Sense, green light attached.

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MIRAMAX/COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION

While 1999’s The Sixth Sense is rightly regarded as the film that launched M. Night Shyamalan’s career — his latest, Old, opens July 23 — the India-born, Philadelphia-raised director had made two features before it. The first, 1992’s Praying With Anger, was an autobiographical film starring Shyamalan and shot while he was a student at NYU. His second outing was a step into the big leagues: On the strength of its script, Wide Awake drew a cast of big-name talent like Rosie O’Donnell, Denis Leary, Dana Delany and Robert Loggia (plus a young Julia Stiles in one of her first roles). The film, produced

by Harvey and Bob Weinstein for Miramax, was made in 1995.

Wide Awake did not follow the

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