Today In Entertainment

MARCH 22, 2021

What's news: The Writers Guild Award winners, Raya tops the box office as L.A. theaters reopen, Avatar continues run in China, how the pandemic hit those trying to break into Hollywood, a CBS sitcom is taking heat over its portrayal of an Afghan character, the NFL plans to turn this year's draft into a made-for TV event. Plus: How Antenna tries to decide streamer success, and David Hasselhoff will play himself in a CBS-produced German TV series. --Alex Weprin

 WGA Awards

►Promising Young Woman and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm topped the 2021 Writers Guild Awards, winning best original and adapted screenplay, respectively. Accepting the award for adapted screenplay, Borat's Sacha Baron Cohen quipped of the film's many nominees, "I can't help but think that we won it because 60 percent of the Writers Guild worked on this movie."

--Top TV award winners included Ted Lasso, which won best comedy series and best new series, and The Crown, which won best drama series. Accepting the best new series award, Ted Lasso co-creator Bill Lawrence said he was “grateful that anybody is watching anything” and gave a shout out to writers assistants. “You’re writing the show without us and we just stamp our name on it at the end,” he said. He wrapped up by noting the other nominees: “We’re sad that you lost but happy that we won.” After a pause, he continued, “Is that how this works?” as his co-writers, including star Jason Sudeikis, laughed in agreement. The full list of winners.

+PGA Day: The PGA traditionally holds a producers’ breakfast panel the weekend of the award, but this year the schedule was changed and expanded and titled A Day With the PGA Award Nominees, sponsored by THR. Here's what happened.

 The Box Office As L.A. Theaters Reopen

►Box office: Disney's fantasy-adventure Raya and the Last Dragon stayed atop the chart in hits third outing, falling a mere 5 percent to $5.2 million as L.A. theaters roared back to life over the weekend in a needed boost for Hollywood and ravaged theater owners. Raya's domestic total is now at $23.4 million for a global total of $71.2 million.

--The Disney title was hardly the only movie seeing a narrow decline, or even a boost, although the big test will come when new major studio products open over the next two weekends in North America, including Nobody — which opened to a promising $2.6 million from four overseas markets this weekend — and Godzilla vs. Kong. The story.

+Meanwhile in China: James Cameron's Avatar again dominated China's box office over the weekend, adding $14.1 million to its record as the world's top-grossing film of all time. Over the past 10 days, the 2009 blockbuster has earned $41 million on rerelease, lifting its career total in China to $250.2 million. The return of Cameron's sci-fi fantasy event movie came as something of a surprise to China's moviegoers, after regulators cleared the film for re-release just three days in advance. More.

 How The Pandemic Hit Those Trying To Break In To Hollywood

►The pain of paying dues in a pandemic: Hollywood hopefuls on the rough start to their careers. For those hoping to make it in the industry, the past year has been particularly brutal and recovery feels slow to come, Katie Kilkenny reports.

--"By the end of April 2020, notes Brad Hall, president of EntertainmentCareers.Net, 'we lost probably 90 percent of the jobs on the site in the span of 60 days' — and the job market hasn't opened up significantly since. California's entertainment and digital media sector shed an estimated 128,100 jobs during the COVID-19 crisis, according to a study by Otis College of Art and Design in February. The 2021 #PayUpHollywood survey of support staffers found that 34 percent of respondents were furloughed or laid off during COVID-19." The story.

►Antenna up: How subscription data decodes streamers' success. The fledgling analytics company has Hollywood's ear, and ire, with an innovative approach to tracking streaming trends — like how long Hamilton fans stuck with Disney+ after signing up, Natalie Jarvey writes. The story.

►A new CBS sitcom is coming under fire for its handling of an Afghan character. The Big Bang Theory producer Chuck Lorre's latest – the midseason series United States of Al – is being criticized for casting a non-Afghan actor in its titular role, and for the character's depiction in general, while one of the show's executive producers has issued a staunch defense. The story.

►The NFL is once again turning this year's NFL Draft into a made-for-TV event. Unlike last year, however, the draft will be held in-person this year from Cleveland, Ohio, and will be televised on ABC, ESPN and NFL Network. There will be concerts and performances, with commissioner Roger Goodell announcing the picks from a draft stage. The draft is slates for April 29-May 1.

--The league will also invite some members of the public to attend... provided they have proof of a COVID vaccination. TV details will be announced at a later date.

►Let's talk about that MoviePass website again. Remember from last week? The website with the MoviePass logo and a countdown clock, set to expire in just a couple of hours? There has been little new information since we last wrote about it, aside from the fact that seemingly everyone invoved in the old MoviePass denies any involvement. But here are a couple of new thoughts:

--It's a scam? Last Friday a Twitter user by the name (sigh) "StonkGodCapital" posted screenshots from a Discord server in which users discuss creating a fake MoviePass website... right around the same time the "MoviePass Ventures" site was created. Their grand plan? Uh, provide publicity for their Discord server.

--Maybe it's tied to the relaunch of Fandor? Hear me out: Fandor, the mostly defunct indie movie streaming service, was acquired by Cinedigm earlier this year, with plans to relaunch around SXSW (which just ended). If you look at the background image on the MoviePass Ventures website, you can see that it is called "hero-fandor.png" Coincidence? Maybe! Or maybe not. This may be the beginning of a viral marketing push for the rebooted Fandor.

Revolving door: Lionsgate has named former Franklin Templeton analyst Nilay Shah as its new head of investor relations... Sky Studios, the production arm of Comcast-owned European pay TV giant Sky, has upped Jane Millichip to chief content officer across Europe... Home Team, the recently-launched TV and film production banner founded by The End of the F***ing World producer Dominic Buchanan and Mogul Mowgli producer Bennett McGhee, has made its first major hire. Jessica Hill has been appointed as senior development executive...

In other news...

--David Hasselhoff is going meta in Ze Network, a new German TV series in which he will star as Hollywood actor David Hasselhoff. The plot of the dark comedy sees the Hoff cast in a theater play in Germany only to be caught up in an international conspiracy of former Cold War assassins. 

--Former President Donald Trump may have been banned from Twitter and Facebook following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, but his senior advisor has shared that Trump is set to make a return to social media with his own platform.

--Batwoman has a new Kate Kane. The CW's superhero drama has cast Wallis Day to take over the role that was established by Ruby Rose in season one.

--Netflix's The Witcher has added seven additional cast members to season two in roles recognizable to the fans of Andrzej Sapkowski's books.

--Sandra Oh made a surprise appearance and brief speech during a "Stop Asian Hate" rally held near downtown Pittsburgh on Saturday.

--A $150 million lawsuit has been filed against the man charged for his involvement in the hit-and-run death of Robert Maraj, Nicki Minaj's father.

What else we're reading...

--"David Dobrik, losing sponsors and fans, steps down from app he co-founded" [NY Times]

--"Desperate for cash, strapped arts venues wait out delays in federal covid relief" [Washington Post]

--"L.A. Goth nightclub known for rituals and secrecy has closed amid sexual misconduct claims" [LA Times]

--"Snapchat is paying $1 million a day to creators of popular short videos, and some are getting rich" [CNBC]

Today's birthdays: William Shatner, 90, Stephen Sondheim, 91, Andrew Lloyd Webber, 73, Reese Witherspoon, 45, Keegan-Michael Key, 50.

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MARCH 22, 2021

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