Open Thread

Deadline reports: Kate Bedingfield plans to depart her post as White House communications director, according to White House officials. Bedingfield, who has been with President Joe Biden since the start of his term and, before that, was a senior official on his presidential campaign, plans to leave this summer and perhaps in the next few weeks. Her exit is the …

Variety reports: “Million Dollar Listing New York” — a key installment in Bravo’s long-running real estate franchise — won’t be returning anytime soon, sources tell Variety. Bravo never uses the word “canceled,” instead considering series to be “paused,” since it sometimes brings shows back years later, as was the case with the revived “Real Housewives of Miami” on Peacock last …

Broadway.com reports: Jim Parsons is returning to the New York stage. The four-time Emmy winner will star in the Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty and Terrence McNally musical A Man of No Importance at off-Broadway’s Classic Stage Company. John Doyle will direct the production, which will begin performances on October 11, open on October 30 and run through December 4. Parons …

Variety reports: Despite denying any involvement with Britney Spears’ conservatorship, the pop star’s former business manager Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group was directly involved in creating the legal arrangement, according to new court documents, filed by Spears’ attorney. The filing claims that Tri Star received at least $18 million from the conservatorship. Tri Star and its founder, Lou Taylor, …

Variety reports: Universal’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” is setting off fireworks at the Fourth of July box office, projecting a $129.2 million opening over the four-day holiday weekend from 4,400 locations. On a three-day scale, the “Despicable Me” prequel looks to gross $109.4 million — that number would mark the highest domestic opening for an animated film since 2019’s …

The New York Daily News reports: The show must go on — and so will the masks for “The Minutes.” The Tracy Letts-written drama isn’t going along with the updated mask protocols for Broadway theaters starting this weekend. Producers of the play announced Thursday that audiences will be required to continue wearing masks throughout the production’s run. Despite The Broadway …

I woke up this morning to the sad news from several readers that beloved longtime JMG community member Safari has passed away unexpectedly, apparently only a few days after his final posting here. As many of you know, Safari was a cheerful guy who enjoyed funny wordplay, sharing his cooking, photos of his cat, and his adventures with his students …

Deadline reports: A little over a month after the more transmissible BA.2.12.1 Omicron subvariant became officially dominant in the U.S. on May 24, two sister subvariants of Omicron have quickly eclipsed BA.2.12.1 across the country. BA.5 and BA.4 are, like BA.2.12.1, more transmissible, but have the added advantage of reportedly being more able to reinfect those who’ve already had Covid. …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Stranger Things Season 4 Vol. 1 closed the 28-day window Netflix uses to measure premiere viewership for its TV series and movies with 930.3 million hours viewed. That is the most for any English-language Netflix series ever and the second largest audience overall behind the streamer’s Korean smash Squid Game, which clocked in 1.6 billion hours viewed …

Variety reports: Carol Burnett is breaking bad. The comedy legend will appear as a guest star in the sixth and final season of “Better Call Saul,” portraying a character named Marion, AMC announced. It’s unclear at this point how Marion fits into the denouement of the complicated journey and transformation of series antihero Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) into Albuquerque’s notorious …

Variety reports: Paramount and Skydance’s all-American blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick” is still flying high at the box office, crossing the coveted $1 billion milestone over the weekend. It’s the first movie of the year and only the second in COVID times (following Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” with $1.9 billion) to reach that benchmark. It’s even more impressive that “Maverick” …

Variety reports: Lizzo and Live Nation will donate $1 million from the singer’s upcoming “Special” tour to support abortion access groups, after the the Supreme Court’s galvanizing decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. “I’m pledging $500k from my upcoming tour to Planned Parenthood and Abortion Rights. Live Nation agreed to match— to make it 1 MILLION dollars,” Lizzo tweeted on …

Variety reports: Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery, Sony, Meta and more media companies have confirmed they will cover travel costs for employees seeking abortions following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. A Netflix spokesperson told Variety: “Netflix offers a travel reimbursement coverage for full-time U.S. employees and their dependents who need to travel for cancer treatment, …

The Daily Beast reports: After Elliot Page came out as trans in December 2020, Umbrella Academy show-runner Steve Blackman was eager to bring the actor’s transition to screen. There was just one problem: Season 3 had already been mapped out, and the scripts were more or less set. Filming was due to start in just two weeks. Against all odds, …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall, his fourth wife, are said to be divorcing, according to a report in the New York Times citing two people familiar with the situation. The couple married in London in 2016. Media mogul divorces raise the question of potential impact on assets, in this case News Corp. and Fox Corp., bit it …

Variety reports: Broadway is lifting its mask mandate. Starting in July, mask-wearing at all 41 Broadway theaters will be optional, the Broadway League announced Tuesday. The announcement comes as COVID rates have begun to decline in the five boroughs. Mandates continue to be in place on mass transit such as subways and buses. Broadway theaters, owners and producers have privately …

Variety reports: Oscar-winning Canadian screenwriter and director Paul Haggis has been arrested in Ostuni, Southern Italy, on charges of sexual assault and aggravated personal injury allegedly inflicted upon a still unidentified woman who has pressed charges. Haggis, who wrote “Million Dollar Baby” and co-wrote and directed “Crash,” both of which he won an Oscar for, was sued in 2018 by …

Variety reports: Pixar’s spinoff of its “Toy Story” series blasted off on Thursday night with a respectable $5.2 million from preview screenings. However, the film is now tracking for an opening in the range of $50 million to $55 million from 4,255 theaters in North America, below the initial expectations that pegged the film for a debut between $70 million …

The New York Daily News reports: Disney’s upcoming adventure film “Strange World” will feature a gay teen romance — the first in an animated feature produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film, which is scheduled to open on Nov. 23, will follow three generations of a family of explorers and take viewers “to a place of infinite mystery unlike …

Variety reports: Makeup department head Carleigh Herbert has always been obsessed with period pieces, and the ’70s have always been a favorite. “There was so much self-expression,” she says. So, when the chance to work on HBO Max’s “Minx” came along, she snapped it up. The trend of penis prosthetics, Herbert notes, is something that has seen a surge in …