Open Thread

Variety reports: Disney and NBCUniversal are the first Hollywood players to take a shot across the bow of a generative AI company that they claim has stolen their copyrighted characters. Disney and NBCU filed suit Tuesday against Midjourney, a generative AI start-up, alleging copyright infringement. The companies alleged that Midjourney’s own website “displays hundreds, if not thousands, of images generated …

Variety reports: COVID conspiracy theories abound in the first full trailer for Ari Aster‘s latest film, “Eddington.” Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal, the Western goes back to the politically charged summer of 2020, following a mayoral race between a small-town sheriff (Phoenix) and the incumbent electee (Pascal). The new footage pulls viewers back five years, with sequences of six-foot-enforced …

Variety reports: A judge on Monday dismissed Justin Baldoni‘s $400 million defamation claim against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, finding that her accusations of sexual harassment were legally protected and therefore immune from suit. Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed Baldoni’s entire lawsuit — which also alleged extortion and other claims — but allowed him to amend and refile a couple …

Playbill reports: Broadway’s biggest night is here! The 78th Annual Tony Awards are being held June 8 at Radio City Music Hall, with a live TV ceremony broadcasting on CBS and streaming via Paramount+. Along with naming this year’s winners in the 26 competitive categories, expect performances from all of this year’s Best Musical (Buena Vista Social Club, Dead Outlaw, …

Variety reports: A federal appeals court ruled that the White House has the latitude to exclude any journalists it chooses from the Oval Office and other “restricted areas” — including on the basis of a news outlet’s “viewpoint.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in a 2-1 decision Friday, ruled against the AP, which had sued three …

Billboard Magazine reports: How does a song become a gay anthem? Like the LGBTQ+ community itself, our soundtrack is vast and diverse. We have recorded our history and contribution to the culture through music, and with this list we acknowledge and remember the forerunners that have made possible the positive changes we’ve seen over the decades. These songs are a …

Variety reports: Tom Cruise was awarded a Guinness World Record during the production of “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” by doing 16 burning parachute jumps while filming the climactic plane sequence. Yes, Cruise jumped to his potential death while his parachute caught fire 16 times during the making of the latest “Mission: Impossible” film. Paramount marked the record with …

Variety reports: ABBA‘s Björn Ulvaeus is proving that curiosity doesn’t diminish with age. At 80, the Swedish songwriter behind some of pop music’s most enduring hits is pioneering a new frontier in musical theater: creating a musical with the assistance of artificial intelligence. “Right now I’m writing a musical, assisted by AI,” Ulvaeus revealed during a talk at SXSW London …

Variety reports: Jimmy Kimmel is roasting Donald Trump yet again, this time for the president’s decision to share a “deranged” conspiracy on his Truth Social profile that claims Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and was replaced with robot clones. The theory alleges that Democrats had no idea about Biden’s real identity as a robot. “This is a theory that …

Billboard Magazine reports: Lizzo is dreaming of a better future for members of the LGBTQ+ community, specifically Black trans women. During her performance at WeHo Pride‘s OUTLOUD Music Festival on Saturday, the hitmaker dedicated a soulful cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to some of society’s most vulnerable members before penning a heartfelt message on Instagram. Sharing a clip of …

Deadline Hollywood reports: With a pair of phenomenal holds, Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning continued to dominate global turnstiles this weekend. To wit: Disney’s Lilo & Stitch added $113.1M from 52 offshore markets, lifting the international box office cume to $330.7M. The overseas drop was just 28%. The worldwide total through today is $610.8M. Paramount/Skydance’s …

Variety reports: Broadway performers and theater professionals are calling on the producers of the Tony Awards to disinvite Patti LuPone from the show after the theater legend made controversial remarks about Audra McDonald and “Hell’s Kitchen” star Kecia Lewis in an interview with the New Yorker. The open letter has received more than 500 signatures, including those of Tony winners …

People Magazine reports: Tia Carrere has so much pride for her son, Jude Wakelin. “I’m really thankful that I think, somehow, I had a hand in making a child that doesn’t feel like [he] has to fit in with everybody else, doesn’t feel like [he] has to wear the same clothes, do the same thing,” the Lilo & Stitch star told …

Billboard Magazine reports: Audra McDonald has responded to Patti LuPone‘s recent disses. Shortly after LuPone said that her fellow Broadway legend was “not a friend,” citing a past “rift” between them, McDonald told Gayle King for CBS Sunday Morning, “If there’s a rift between us, I don’t know what it is.” LuPone had asked Shubert Organization head Robert Wankel to …

Deadline Hollywood reports: As NewFest kicks off its fifth annual Pride film series in New York City, the country’s largest LGBTQ film festival is teaming up with AMC Networks. Part of the network’s ‘Future of Film’ initiative, which showcases emerging talent from festivals across the country, NewFest has curated a collection of six shorts by LGBTQ filmmakers to stream on …

Variety reports: HBO’s “Harry Potter” TV series has officially found its Harry, Ron and Hermione. Dominic McLaughlin will play the role of Harry Potter, Arabella Stanton is Hermione Granger and Alastair Stout is Ron Weasley. More than 30,000 actors auditioned for the lead roles since HBO launched an open casting call last fall. Filming is expected to begin this summer. …

Billboard Magazine reports: Britney Spears is speaking out after making headlines for lighting a cigarette during a recent flight. On Thursday (May 22), the 43-year-old pop star lit a cigarette aboard a JSX public charter flight and was asked to extinguish it by a flight attendant, according to People. Smoking on airplanes is a violation of federal aviation regulations. Following …

Variety reports: It’s a Memorial Day weekend for the box office record books. Movie theaters across the country were jamming as “Lilo & Stitch” and Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” fueled the largest Memorial Day holiday in history — and established several other benchmarks in the process. Families turned out in force for Disney’s live-action “Lilo & …

Variety reports: Bringing a turbulent world together through cinema, the 78th Cannes Film Festival closed with its most political moment, as Iranian director Jafar Panahi accepted the Palme d’Or for “It Was Just an Accident,” a film directly inspired by his time in prison. Filled with equal helpings of absurdist humor and ire, Panahi’s film follows five characters who think …

Variety reports: Billy Joel has announced the cancellation of 17 shows he booked at stadiums across North America and England, due to his recent diagnosis of Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH). In a statement, Joel and his team said the condition had been exacerbated by recent concert performances, “leading to problems with hearing, vision, and balance.” Under his doctor’s orders, Joel …