Today In Entertainment

SEPTEMBER 28, 2020

What's news: Trump's TikTk ban halted (for now), Tenet nears $300 million globally as U.S. box office slows, Shepard Smith on his new CNBC newscast, why Hollywood's red carpets may never go back to the way they were, Trump's tax returns and Hollywood. Plus: Why gaming is ready for its "Netflix moment" and Dwayne Johnson makes a presidential endorsement. --Alex Weprin

 TikTok Lives To See Another Day

➤Judge halts Trump's TikTok ban (for now). A D.C. federal judge is giving TikTok a temporary reprieve from the U.S. government's rollout of a ban on the popular video app. A partial injunction order came after an emergency court hearing on Sunday. At Sunday's hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols said he understood TikTok's presentation about irreparable harm, one of the main prongs for an injunction. The company says that a shutdown, even one lifted within two months, would result in a drop off of between 40 percent and 50 percent of its daily active users, who would be unlikely to return.

--TikTok's attorney John Hall also highlighted the larger stakes: "This case is about the freedom of expression," said Hall. "Yes, TikTok is an app, but it is more than that. It's a modern-day version of a town square ... and it's huge. One hundred million users, a third of the country. If the prohibition goes into effect, the consequences would be great. It'd be no difference than the government locking everyone out from that town square, roping it off, telling a third of the country that it's not interested in hearing you. And the government would take this action at a time when need for communication is at absolute zenith -- 37 days before an election." The story.

➤Box office: Tenet limps to $41 million in the U.S. but nears $300 million globally. Without Los Angeles and New York, Christopher Nolan's film fell to $3.4M from 2,850 locations in its fourth weekend of play for a subdued North American total of $41.2 million. The $200 million espionage epic is making up for its disappointing domestic run overseas, where the Warner Bros. tentpole collected another $15.8 million for a worldwide cume of $283.2 million.

--Warners, along with box office analysts, expect Tenet's performance in the U.S. to improve once cinemas in New York City and Los Angeles are allowed to reopen in the coming days or weeks. Nolan's films always do big business in the country's two largest moviegoing markets. The story.

 Shepard Smith Speaks

➤Shepard Smith on launching a new "just-the-facts" CNBC newscast amid pandemic: "I thought it was going to be nearly impossible." The former Fox News anchor has had to hire a new team and have a set built amid pandemic protocols in preparation for this week's debut: “You are launching a shuttle without half the people or more in mission control.”

--“What we want to do, and what I have long wanted to do, is a just-the-facts newscast,” Smith says. “I have no issues with opinion people, especially if they begin with fact and opine from there, but there is an absence from my perspective in a fact-based news-only hour, where we lay out the facts, we bring in experts to help understand them better, we add context and perspective, but we don’t opine on them.” The story.

➤Why Hollywood's red carpets may never come back the way they used to be. Even as the Venice Film Festival provided the first parade of fashion in months, change is afoot with stars like Cate Blanchett rewearing past outfits and a possibility that brands may put budgets elsewhere: "It actually has been a nice break," says Christian Siriano. The story.

➤Trump's tax returns and Hollywood. If you haven't already, you should read The New York Times' exhaustive reporting on President Trump's tax returns. It digs deep into his strategy to minimize his tax responsibilities, and highlights potential conflicts of interest. That being said, as with everything Trump-related, there is a Hollywood angle.

--The Apprentice cash: Per the Times, Trump's NBC game show and othr licensing deals netted him $427.4 million. Because Trump hosted the show and owned a production company that produced it, he was paid twice: Once as talent and once as a producer. That being said, Trump's licensing and endorsements accompanies a whole lot more than the TV show (remember Trump Steaks?), so it isn't clear how much of that windfall came from the reality show, and how much came from other deals. Trump's production company paid the president $1.6 million last year alone, likely reflecting streaming and rerun rights to the show.

--The pageant biz: Beauty pageants are not particularly lucrative, but the 2013 event, held in Moscow, was able to turn a profit, with Trump and NBC splitting a $4.7 million profit. The pageants held before and after the Moscow edition all lost millions. He subsequently sold his pageant business to Endeavor.

+The hair bill: The tax returns show that during The Apprentice's run, Trump wrote off more than $70,000 in hair styling tied to the show.

 'Power' Talk

➤Power's breakout villain Michael Rainey Jr. on his spinoff series and rabid fans. The 20-year-old actor talks to Richard Newby about how 2020 is shaping up to be his biggest year yet, working with idol 50 Cent and police violence against Black Americans: "When are we ever going to get a break?" The story.

➤Dwayne Johnson is lending his support behind Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for the upcoming presidential election. In a video posted on his social media, Johnson announced that while he's "never publicly endorsed" a Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate before, he is rallying behind Biden and Harris. More.

➤Taylor Swift's new record: Taylor Swift’s Folklore album returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, collecting a seventh nonconsecutive week atop the tally. In doing so, Swift surpasses Whitney Houston’s longstanding record, among women, for the most cumulative weeks at No. 1, across all of her chart-topping albums. More.

➤Awards Chatter podcast:The six actors at the center of one of the most beloved sitcoms in TV history, The Brady Bunch, reconvene for a rare group interview to discuss how they wound up on that show, what really went on behind the scenes and why an HGTV special reunited them 50 years later. Listen.

In other news...

--Samuel L. Jackson's new television documentary series Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade will launch worldwide after broadcasters in some 130 territories snatched up the six-part series on the history of human trafficking.

--M. Night Shyamalan took to social media on Saturday to tweet the title of his upcoming Universal thriller film and share some artwork to tease the project, called Old.

--The video gaming sector is ready for its "Netflix moment," according to an industry analyst. "Gaming may be on the verge of having its Netflix moment," Morris Garrard, research analyst at Futuresource Consulting, wrote in a report published on Monday. "We’re seeing it transition from one-shot content sales into all-you-can-eat subscription-based content access."

--Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller and Jurnee Smollett have been cast in Spiderhead at Netflix, an adaptation of the dystopian short story Escape from Spiderhead by George Saunders.

--Guggenheim Securities analyst Michael Morris on Monday upgraded his stock ratings on Snap and Spotify after "revising our valuation framework for our digital media coverage universe to better reflect comparability with peer companies in the software industry."

--Dennis Quaid and gospel singer CeCe Winans have each taken to social media to clarify the non-political intent of participating in interviews related to COVID-19 and the ongoing pandemic.

--Comcast-owned NBCUniversal's Universal Studio Group said Monday it has committed to shooting three TV productions – Joe Exotic, Young Rock and Irreverent – in Australia over the next 18 months.

What else we're reading...

--"How new Hulu chief Kelly Campbell is positioning the streamer for long-term success" [AdWeek]

--"For some Hollywood investors, the pandemic opened new doors" [LA Times]

--"How the Biden-Trump debate will play on TV (Don't expect fact-checks)" [NY Times]

--"Even in streaming TV, advertisers are dealing with fraud" [WSJ]

Today's birthdays: Brigitte Bardot, 86, Naomi Watts, 52, Mira Sorvino, 53, Melody Thornton, 36, Frankie Jonas, 20.

Is this e-mail not displaying correctly?
View it in your browser. 

©2020 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2020

UNSUBSCRIBE 

MANAGE PREFERENCES

PRIVACY POLICY

TERMS OF USE