Open Thread

Variety reports: Alan Dershowitz, legal scholar and Harvard Law School professor emeritus, is a fan of “The Good Fight.” But the famed attorney is preparing to sue ViacomCBS and the producers of the CBS All Access legal drama for referring to him in the final episode of the show’s fourth season as a “shyster” in connection with his representation of …

Variety reports: Facebook is unleashing hundreds of thousands of music videos in the U.S. starting this weekend — a direct challenge to YouTube, which has had a virtual lock on the internet music-video space for years. According to Facebook, its debut of official music videos in the States is about more than just watching the videos themselves: Execs say the …

Deadline reports: Amazon delivered another quarter of stellar financial results as its digital business continues to thrive during COVID-19 despite logistical challenges posed by the pandemic. Total revenue for the quarter ending June 30 was $88.9 billion, more than $7 billion more than Wall Street analysts’s consensus expectation. CEO Jeff Bezos joined other tech leaders Wednesday in delivering testimony before …

New from our pal Matt Baume: For over a hundred years, the ballrooms of New York have been host to extravagant, exciting, and sometimes secret queer dance parties. And by looking back at old documentaries like Paris is Burning & The Queen, and at new ones like Kiki, we can start to reconstruct the history of queer dance parties, and …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Cox Communications and Plex have announced that they will now offer the LGBTQ+ TV channel and streaming network Revry to their customers worldwide. With the new launch, Revry has expanded its reach to eight live TV channels, two subscription on-demand products, and seven owned and operated “tribrid” apps in all major app stores. The Revry Premium SVOD …

Variety reports: HBO has optioned a book proposal about the hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine with Adam McKay onboard as an executive producer, Variety has confirmed. The potential limited series is based on the book proposal “The First Shot” by Brendan Borrell. It tells the story of the global coronavirus vaccine race, following the companies and individuals involved, the science …

Variety reports: In a new interview, singer-songwriter Doja Cat revealed that she had recently tested positive for coronavirus after previously making light of the pandemic on social media. Though she feels better now, Doja told Capital XTRA that she had symptoms that lasted for a few days — and blamed the food delivery app Postmates for contracting the virus. “I …

Variety reports: Peter Green, founder of Fleetwood Mac and the band’s widely admired guitarist and vocalist in its early years before drug abuse and mental illness foreshortened his career, has died. He was 73. Solicitors acting on behalf of his family said in a statement, as reported by the BBC: “It is with great sadness that the family of Peter …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Michelle Obama’s debut episode of her podcast will feature a familiar voice – Barack Obama. The former president will join his wife on the first episode of The Michelle Obama Podcast, recently announced as an exclusive on Spotify. The show will be available starting July 29. In the debut, they will have what is described as “an …

Variety reports: Hulu has optioned the rights to Curtis Sittenfeld’s alternative history book “Rodham,” which takes place in a world in which Hillary Rodham never married Bill Clinton. The series is described as telling the story of an ambitious young woman, developing her extraordinary mind in the latter part of the 20th century, moving from idealism to cynicism and all …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Actor-comedian Billy Eichner and producer Tom McNulty are developing Man in the Box, a biopic based on the life of groundbreaking TV icon Paul Lynde. Eichner plans to star. They’ve optioned a script by Edwin Cannistraci, and Eichner and McNulty are currently meeting with creatives to round out the rest of the production team. After his breakout …

Axios reports: TikTok tells Axios it plans to add thousands of jobs in the U.S. over the next few years — ripping a familiar page from the “companies under fire” playbook. Chinese-owned TikTok is working to distance itself from Beijing in the face of a threatened ban from the Trump administration and broader scrutiny out of Washington, where policymakers are …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni took to Instagram over the weekend to tease their reunion in the upcoming Law & Order: SVU spinoff. Hargitay posted a close-up photo of the two, simply captioned “It’s on.” As previously reported, the spinoff titled Law & Order: Organized Crime will be headlined by Meloni reprising his role as Elliot Stabler. …

Billboard Magazine reports: Audiences who adhere to social distancing can return to indoor theaters, music and performance venues beginning Aug. 1, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Friday. The policy represents the fourth phase in the country’s five-stage reopening plan for live events. In the lead up to the August start date, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport …

Deadline reports: Talk about adding insult to injury. Author Mary Trump, out flogging her tell-all book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, took to Twitter to brag about beating her uncle the President in TV ratings. On Friday, Mary Trump tweeted “5.23 million v. 5.11 million,” comparing her ratings for appearing Thursday …

Deadline reports: The Internet is actually not under siege and you can still watch Netflix over the weekend, it turns out – though it certainly felt like the digital world had collapsed to PONG levels for a while today. There are still some dark spots out there, and some sites proving a little rickety, but one of the main providers …

Billboard Magazine reports: The original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton: An American Musical surges to a new peak on the Billboard 200 albums chart, as the set vaults from No. 14 to No. 2 in the wake of the show’s Disney+ premiere on July 3. The last cast recording to reach the top two on the chart was the original …

Playbill reports: Due to the ongoing pandemic, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is taking its annual striptease fundraiser online for the first time. Broadway Bares: Zoom In will stream August 1. Produced by and benefiting Broadway Cares, the event will be available beginning at 9:30 PM ET on Playbill and at BroadwayCares.org. Although the in-person 30th anniversary celebration, originally set for …

Variety reports: A federal judge has rejected an $46.8 million settlement of the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct cases, saying some of its terms are “obnoxious” and it is not suitable for a class action. In a 20-minute hearing on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said the settlement improperly nullifies claims of non-participating parties, and delegates his responsibilities as a …

Via email from JMG reader Paul: From HIV/AIDS to Corona Virus: San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus Reminds Us To Measure Life in Love. Seasons of Love, from 1996’s musical RENT, talks about measuring life in love against the backdrop of HIV/AIDS. It reminds us that life is short and to cherish every minute. To celebrate, remember and measure our lives …