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'Moonlight' Momentum; MTV Upheaval; Leah Remini, Scientology and … Les Moonves?

November 29, 2016

What's news: Sure, it’s early, but Moonlight’s big night at the Gotham Awards puts the gay coming-of-age story on the path to the Oscars. Plus: Another top MTV exec is out, AT&T unveils DirecTV Now details, Larry Wilmore gets a vote of confidence from ABC and Leah Remini shares a highly amusing story about Scientology, Tom Cruise and CBS’ Leslie Moonves ahead of tonight’s docuseries premiere. — Matthew Belloni, Erik Hayden and Jennifer Konerman.

'Moonlight' Tops Gotham Awards

Next stop: Oscar? Moonlight was the big star at the Gotham Awards last night, taking home trophies for the audience award, best screenplay and best feature film, Scott Feinberg writes:

The Gotham Awards are to the Oscars what the Iowa caucuses are to a presidential election and the NFL's preseason games are to its regular season: they're the first "results" to come in, so they get a lot of attention, but the reality is they don't really tell us much of anything about what's to come.

Moonlight may pose the greatest threat to presumptive best picture Oscar favorite La La Land. But as much as we may want to ascribe greater "meaning" to the Gothams, the reality is that the winners are chosen by four or five more or less random people from the film industry whereas Oscar nominations are chosen by hundreds and Oscar winners are determined by thousands.

If one wants to get a good read on how the indie film community feels about this year's crop of films, better just to try to read the applause in the room at the awards show, which was audibly in Moonlight's corner. The full Gotham winners list.

Elsewhere in film...

► Sony's top dealmaker moves to Paramount. After exiting as the head of Sony Pictures' business affairs group just weeks ago, Andrew Gumpert has landed at Paramount as the studio's COO. Details.

► Paolo Sorrentino shelves Silvio Berlusconi film. The Oscar-winning director scrapped his biopic about Italy’s former prime minister, he told Italian media: "it is a complicated story, and it is not always possible to do the film that you want to do."

► British Film Institute unveils $620M post-Brexit plan. Film financing following the U.K. exit from Europe, increasing diversity and supporting non theatrical projects were key elements unveiled for the BFI plan for 2017 to 2022.

↱ On set of Florence Henderson's final film. Director Srikant Chellappa, who cast the late Brady Bunch matriarch as an accidental killer in Grandmothers Murder Club, says: "She was funny, and had that ability with situational comedy. She would make raunchy jokes on set, which is not something we expected." ↲

► Carol screenwriter to pen Kay Scarpetta film. The hiring of Phyllis Nagy gives new life to the Patricia Cornwall book property. Fox 2000 has been hoping to get the franchise off the ground for some time.

► Tom Holland in talks to join Daisy Ridley in Chaos Walking. The Spider-Man actor looks to team with the Star Wars actress in Lionsgate's post-apocalyptic thriller. Doug Liman is directing the project.

► Michiel Huisman joins Lily James in StudioCanal drama. The Game of Thrones star has been added to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, based on the book, which has Mike Newell directing.

Updated: Oscar standings. In the latest heat index of awards contenders, analyst Scott Feinberg looks at which titles are leading the pack as the indie community weighs in (Manchester by the Sea moves up). Full forecast.

Inside Leah Remini's Scientology Story

As her A&E series premieres, Leah Remini reveals to Seth Abramovitch that time Scientology got her to call CBS' Leslie Moonves to squash a 60 Minutes story. An excerpt:

Did the church involve itself in your career dealings when you starred on The King of Queens?

You have to go in [to the church] every single day, so yes. It’s always, “Why are you not getting Kevin James in? You’re not setting a good example. You’re not getting the director in.” There was always pressure to make a Scientologist out of the people you were working with.

Did Scientology ever object to the content of the show?

Yes. They wanted us to take out a reference to Katie Holmes.

Was it a joke about Scientology? Or just a reference to her?

It was just a reference to her name but this was when she was in good graces with the church. Of course they’d have no problem with that once you leave — they’ll try to destroy you and your family. Another time, I got pressure to call Les Moonves at CBS to try and get a 60 Minutes report squashed. I got a call from the church and Tom to call Les Moonves and use my influence to squash the story.

► Full Leah Remini Q&A I A&E's Scientology and the Aftermath review.

Elsewhere in TV...

^Big AT&T mystery solved: Here's what'll appear on DirecTV Now and at what price. Yesterday, execs at the telecom giant unveiled details for the service, launching Wednesday, with monthly fees ranging from $35-$70 for as many as 120-plus live-streamed TV networks. One takeaway: No CBS or NFL football on phones.

► MTV's exec team loses another new-ish member. Head of originals Michael Klein is stepping down from his post after an eight-month run. The former Conde Nast executive's departure was announced Monday via an internal memo.

► ABC gives overall deal to Larry Wilmore. Three months after Comedy Central canceled The Nightly Show, Wilmore, also exec producer on the network's Black-ish, has signed a multi-year deal with ABC Studios. He'll develop material for his own projects as well as target new talent.

► TNT's The Alienist finds two of its stars. Daniel Bruhl and Luke Evans have signed on for the drama series, which begins production early next year in Budapest. Jakob Verbruggen (Black Mirror) is directing.

► Fox 21 inks overall deal with David T. Friendly. Under the pact, the Queen of the South producer has tapped Moon Shot Entertainment's Kirsten Jacobson to serve as the creative executive at his Friendly Films banner. Together, they will develop new projects for the studio.

► AMC withholding packaging fees from CAA. A $280M fight over profits from The Walking Dead is escalating into a full-on war, with AMC informing the agency that it will no longer pay package fees — a common (and lucrative) industry practice. CAA's lawyer fired back: "AMC obviously remains unhappy that Frank Darabont and CAA have not given an inch."

In THR, Esq... Melania Trump threatens to sue YouTuber over video speculating her son has autism ... MGM sues over right to make new Buckaroo Banzai TV series ... SiriusXM could pay up to $99M as part of Flo & Eddie settlement.

Today's Caption Contest:

Hours before the President-elect launched into his Twitter rant last night against CNN over his false claims of mass voter fraud, his top advisor, Kellyanne Conway, tweeted the above photo of the duo, Erik emails:

Aside from the timing, there's a few other details in this office photo: The new USA hats that are a go-to for Trump, magazines and papers littering the desk, Trump seemingly intent on getting some computer-driven task done (Crafting tweets? Transition work?). Conway's photo caption:

Given the output of the @realDonaldTrump tweets last night — sample: ".@CNN is so embarrassed by their total (100%) support of Hillary Clinton, and yet her loss in a landslide, that they don't know what to do." — what should the caption to this photo be? Send replies to newsletter@thr.com, we may publish a couple good ones in tomorrow's edition.

Today's Birthdays: Lucas Black, 34, Anna Faris, 40, Chadwick Boseman, 40, Brian Baumgartner, 44, Don Cheadle, 52, Tom Sizemore, 55, Joel Coen, 62.