Open Thread

Variety reports: In the wake of the major problems surrounding Ticketmaster’s management of Taylor Swift tour ticket sales last week, a U.S. Senate antitrust panel will hold a hearing on the lack of competition in the industry, Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) announced Tuesday. The hearing comes after reports of major service failures and delays on Ticketmaster’s …

Variety reports: Mickey Kuhn, a former child actor and the last surviving cast member of the 1939 film “Gone With The Wind,” died at the age of 90 on Nov. 20, 2022, at a hospice facility in Naples, Florida, his wife confirmed to Variety. In the classic film, Kuhn played Beau Wilkes, the son of Ashley and Melanie Wilkes, played …

Variety reports: Harrison Ford is back in adventure mode in the first images from “Indiana Jones 5,” which debuted exclusively via Empire magazine. Along with some photos comes confirmation that Ford will be de-aged using visual effects so that Indiana Jones appears in the film as his age from the original trilogy. The de-aging technology is only used in the …

Deadline reports: Kanye West is back on Twitter, posting this morning a test to see if his account was working. It was and it is, and the test message is drawing mostly positive reviews, with a few “oh no” reactions. His return comes a day after Twitter renewed the account of former President Donald Trump and a few other controversial …

Variety reports: Chris Hemsworth told Vanity Fair that he is planning to take a good chunk of time off work once his press tour for the Disney+ series “Limitless” wraps. In the fifth episode of the series, Hemsworth meets with a doctor and it’s revealed that the “Thor” actor has a genetic predisposition for Alzheimer’s disease. As Vanity Fair reports: …

Variety reports: Following widespread criticism of Ticketmaster’s handling of ticket sales for her upcoming “Eras Tour,” Taylor Swift has shared a statement addressing the situation, saying that she asked Ticketmaster “multiple times if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could.” She said the situation “pissed me off” and added that it was “excruciating for …

Deadline reports: With Covid daily cases up 52% since the beginning of November, Los Angeles County today returned to “strongly recommending” that people wear masks in all indoor public settings. The recommendation falls short of a mandate, but masks are still required indoors at health-care and congregate-care facilities, for anyone exposed to the virus in the past 10 days, and …

Variety reports: While Hallmark Channel is leaning into more inclusive storylines, Candace Cameron Bure and Great American Family are seemingly doing the opposite. In a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, Bure, who exited Hallmark to join former CEO Bill Abbott at the new company earlier this year, opened up about her new role as chief creative officer. “My …

Variety reports: Nominations for the 65th annual Grammy Awards were announced Tuesday morning, with Beyoncé leading the field with nine nods, Kendrick Lamar close behind with eight, and Adele and Brandi Carlile tied with seven. Four contenders enter the race with six nominations apiece: Future, Harry Styles, Mary J. Blige, DJ Khaled and Randy Merrill. The nominations generally went largely …

Pitchfork reports: Roberta Flack has been living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The progressive neurodegenerative disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, has “made it impossible [for Flack] to sing and not easy to speak,” according to a press release. The news of Flack’s diagnosis was shared in a press release that also noted that a documentary about the singer …

Variety reports: Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” dominated the domestic box office in its debut, earning $180 million over the weekend and providing a much-needed lift to beleaguered cinemas. The sequel demolished the record for a November opening in North America, soaring past the previous high-water mark of $158 million set by 2013’s “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.” Globally, the …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Merhan Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport and inspired the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks film The Terminal, died Saturday at the airport, officials said. He was believed to be 80 years old. Nasseri died from a heart attack in the airport’s Terminal 2F around midday, officials …

The Verge reports: Kevin Conroy, the voice actor who was the Batman for a generation, passed away at the age of 66. DC public relations wrote, “It is with profound sadness that I send this to you today. Kevin Conroy, the quintessential voice of Batman, a dear friend to so many of us, has passed away.” Conroy enjoyed a prolific …

Variety reports: Paul Haggis lost his civil rape trial after a New York jury found the Oscar-winning director liable on charges that he sexually assaulted a former film publicist after a movie premiere nearly a decade ago. Haggis was found liable on all three counts of rape and sexual abuse. The jury deliberated for nearly six hours and the unanimous …

Variety reports: Brendan Fraser’s highly-acclaimed comeback is front and center in the first trailer for “The Whale,” the latest film from director Darren Aronofsky (“Requiem for a Dream,” “Black Swan”) and A24. “The Whale” follows Charlie (Fraser), an English teacher living with obesity who has decided to eat himself to death. His pain and misery stems from the abandonment and …

CTV News reports: Justin Trudeau is swinging by the “werkroom” on an upcoming spinoff of “Canada’s Drag Race.” Producers of the drag queen competition series say the Prime Minister will make a special appearance on “Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs. the World.” He’s the first world leader to visit the RuPaul-founded competition series, which has more than a dozen global …

Variety reports: In a collaboration that feels very stuck in 2020, AMC Theaters and Zoom will join forces to allow audience members to video chat from the comfort of their local multiplex. Beginning sometime in 2023, at least 17 AMC venues across the United States will work with Zoom to facilitate conference calls between “small, medium and large-sized groups in …

Variety reports: Although for official purposes all Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees are created equal, some are bound to loom larger than others when the rubber hits the road. And so, as much as hardcore fans of Duran Duran or Iron Maiden might have flooded into L.A.’s Microsoft Theatre in ordinate numbers for Saturday night’s ceremony honoring the …

Deadline reports: A few hours after a story emerged that indicated there’s little love for him among Twitter workers past and present, the service’s former Twitter CEO and cofounder Jack Dorsey has responded. The animosity toward Dorsey has reached a fever pitch in the wake of the service firing a reported 3,700 people from its 7,500 worldwide workforce. Many blamed …

The Hollywood Reporter reports: HBO has switched off Westworld. The network has decided to cancel the sci-fi drama after its recent fourth season. It’s an unexpected fate for a series that was once considered one of HBO’s biggest tentpoles — an acclaimed mystery-box drama that racked up 54 Emmy award nominations (including a supporting actress win for Thandiwe Newton). Last …