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Variety reports: “Saturday Night Live” host Jean Smart kicked of this year’s 50th season of the storied sketch show with a monologue highlighting its home city, the Big Apple. Smart serenaded the audiences inside Studio 8H, singing, “I Happen to Like New York,” in which she took loving jabs at the city and reflected on her popularity among lesbians. “Lesbians …

Variety reports: Will Ferrell spoke to The Independent as part of his press tour for the Netflix documentary “Will & Harper” and was asked to share his opinion on why transphobia exists. He answered: “I think we fear what we don’t know.” “Will & Harper” centers on the friendship between Ferrell and Harper Steele. The two met in the 1990s …

Variety reports: Two days after she posted a video showing great frustration with the public reaction to her disinclination to endorse a presidential candidate, Chappell Roan has canceled her appearance at the All Things Go festival this weekend, in New York on Saturday and Washington, DC on Sunday. “I apologize to people who have been waiting to see me in …

Variety reports: Hoda Kotb, an NBC News mainstay who stepped up to co-anchor the flagship hours of NBC’s “Today” when longtime host Matt Lauer was ousted in 2017, will leave the program at the beginning of next year, opening not one, but two important roles at the network’s flagship morning franchise. Speaking Thursday morning on the program, Kotb cited a …

Variety reports: Netflix is producing a docuseries from Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson about charges of sex trafficking and racketeering as well as sexual assault and violent abuse allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs. Alexandria Stapleton directs the project, which is currently in production. “This is a story with significant human impact. It is a complex narrative spanning decades, not just the …

Variety reports: Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sued by a victim who claims that he and a bodyguard viciously raped her at a New York City recording studio in 2001. In the suit, filed earlier today in the Southern District of New York, Thalia Graves alleges that Combs and his associate Joseph Sherman drugged her, sexually assaulted her and filmed …

Deadline Hollywood reports: All hail Kathy Bates. The Oscar-winning veteran’s return to broadcast TV with CBS‘ Matlock delivered Live+Same Day linear viewership numbers we rarely see anymore. The “sneak peak” premiere of Jennie Snyder Uraman’s reimagining of the Andy Griffin classic with Bates as the eponymous attorney averaged 7.73 million viewers Sunday in time adjusted Fast National L+SD Nielsen ratings. …

Variety reports: After an unusually close box office race, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” emerged victorious over newcomer “Transformers One” to retain the No. 1 spot for three consecutive weekends. The spooky Warner Bros. sequel added a strong $26 million from 4,172 theaters, bringing its tally to $225 million domestically and $329.7 million globally. Meanwhile, “Transformers One” kicked off behind expectations with $25 …

Deadline reports: Singer Chappell Roan has revealed she’s been diagnosed with severe depression and is in therapy, after receiving a backlash from some fans about her attitude towards her growing profile. Roan currently has six songs in the US Hot 100, three in UK Top 40 music chart following the release of her debut album last year, The Rise and …

Broadway.com reports: The original West End cast recording for the new production of Sunset Boulevard, featuring Grammy Award nominee Nicole Scherzinger, is on the way. Sunset Blvd: The Album, recorded live on stage at London’s Savoy Theatre, where the show originated, will be released on October 25. The Broadway production begins performances at the St. James Theatre on September 28 …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Netflix‘s Black Mirror has set its Season 7 cast with Awkwafina (Jackpot), Milanka Brooks (Mum And I Don’t Talk Anymore), Peter Capaldi (Criminal Record), Emma Corrin (Deadpool and Wolverine), Patsy Ferran (Firebrand), and Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers). Charlie Brooker’s dark, satirical anthology series will return in 2025 with six new episodes, including a sequel to the sci-fi …

Variety reports: “Saturday Night Live” has set its first batch of hosts for Season 50, including Ariana Grande, John Mulaney, Michael Keaton and more. Hosting for her first time, Jean Smart will open the season on Sept. 28 with musical guest Jelly Roll, followed by an Oct. 5 episode hosted by Nate Bargatze featuring songs from Coldplay. Grande will host …

Variety reports: Miley Cyrus has been hit with a lawsuit alleging she and co-songwriters Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack copied portions of a Bruno Mars single when they wrote her Grammy-winning global hit “Flowers,” according to Rolling Stone. According to a lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles, Tempo Music Investments claims “Flowers” includes unauthorized “exploitation” of several elements of Mars’ …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Deadline can reveal that Oscar-winning filmmaker James Cameron has purchased the rights to Charles Pellegrino‘s forthcoming book Ghosts of Hiroshima. The film will be called Last Train From Hiroshima. Pellegrino’s Ghosts of Hiroshima will be published by Blackstone Publishing in August 2025. That marks the 80th anniversary of the dropping of the bomb in 1945. The film …

The Associated Press reports: The Daily Wire movie “Am I Racist?” placed fourth at the box office, with an estimated $4.7 million from only 1,517 theaters. Described as a mockumentary in the style of “Borat,” the movie has conservative columnist Walsh going undercover as a “DEI trainee.” Walsh had a similar gimmick, pretending to be a gender studies professor, in …

Variety reports: After a bruising fight for both sides, Disney and DirecTV have called a truce: The companies announced a preliminary agreement on a new deal that will restore ESPN, ABC, FX, Disney Channel and other Disney networks to the DirecTV lineup after a nearly two-week blackout. Under the new deal, announced Saturday, Sept. 14, DirecTV will continue carriage of …

Variety reports: Every now and then, a low-budget film emerges from outside the studio system and catches fire with the largely ignored right-leaning demographic, leaving mouths agape in Hollywood’s executive suites. The Daily Wire hopes to add to the list of films that includes “The Passion of the Christ,” “I Can Only Imagine” and last year’s “Sound of Freedom” with …

NBC News reports: Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood mogul whose alleged sexual misconduct fueled the #MeToo movement, has been indicted on new charges by a New York City grand jury, Manhattan prosecutors announced during a court hearing Thursday. The new indictment is under seal, prosecutor Nicole Blumberg told Judge Curtis Farber, who has set a trial date for Nov. 12. …

Variety reports: It’s official: TV-news anchors can fact-check presidential candidates during a national debate. In an era when news outlets have been loath to make themselves the target of invective from partisans, ABC News on Tuesday night opted to allow moderators in a broadcast of a presidential debate to correct the participating candidates — mostly former President Donald Trump — …

Variety reports: Shailene Woodley is set to star in a biopic of Janis Joplin, which will receive $2.5 million in funding from the California Film Commission. Numerous attempts have been made over the years to capture the rock star’s life on film, but none have come to fruition. “California meant so much to Janis Joplin — from the stoops of …