Today In Entertainment

APRIL 03, 2021

What's news: Major League Baseball pulls the All Star Game out of Georgia in wake of voting law, a Bridgerton shocker, the Friends will be there for you soon, a box office update, a MacGyver lawsuit, ViacomCBS and Cinemark exec pay update. Plus: California sets guidelines for concerts to return, Armie Hammer exits Broadway. --Alex Weprin

 MLB Leads Georgia Backlash

►Major League Baseball will move the 2021 All Star Game and MLB Draft out of Atlanta after the state of Georgia passed a law that sets restrictions on voting that President Biden called "Jim Crow in the 21st Century." "Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans, and opposes restrictions to the ballot box," Manfred added, noting that "MLB's planned investments to support local communities in Atlanta as part of our All Star Legacy Projects will move forward."

--Georgia governor Brian Kemp said in a statement following the decision that MLB "caved to fear, political opportunism, and liberal lies. Georgians - and all Americans - should fully understand what MLB's knee-jerk decision means: Cancel culture and woke political activists are coming for every aspect of your life, sports included." The story.

+Meanwhile, studios and other Hollywood entities continue to weigh in on the Georgia law, with the Writers Guild releasing a statement Friday. More.

 'Bridgerton' Shocker

►Here's a Bridgerton surprise: Breakout leading man Regé-Jean Page will not be back for season two of the Netflix hit. Sources say Page had only a one-season deal and completed his contractual obligation to the Shonda Rhimes-produced drama. The deal was in line with how producers, including Netflix, envisioned Bridgerton before it premiered, as each season will focus on a different one of Julia Quinn's best-selling novels. The story.

+The Friends reunion special is — at last — ready to roll. The HBO Max special is set to film the week of April 5, sources tell THR's Rick Porter. It will bring stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer back together on the beloved comedy's Warner Bros. soundstage to reminisce about the show's starmaking impact and ongoing popularity. More.

 Box Office Update

►Box office update: Godzilla vs. Kong continued to roar Thursday at the domestic box office, earning $6.7 million from 2,409 reopened theaters for a two-day total of $16.3 million as the pic stomps into Easter weekend. The Legendary and Warner Bros. tentpole will easily score the biggest opening since the COVID-19 crisis commenced. Analysts believe it will earn somewhere in the $30 million to $40 million range for the five days, if not more, a huge number for the pandemic era. The numbers.

►CBS is taking aim at a company claiming to be due a cut of profits from the 2016 MacGyver series — effectively arguing Paramount was tricked for years into paying commissions to a business that was masquerading as one that had actually dissolved. It all stems from an agreement among actor-producer Henry Winkler, director-producer John Rich, Paramount and Major Talent Agency, which preceded the original MacGyver series. Here's the story.

►Armie Hammer will no longer perform in Broadway play The Minutes. The actor, who is currently being investigated in a sexual assault case, released a statement on Friday detailing his exit from Tracy Letts play, which was set to resume production in the 2021-2022 season after being interrupted during previews by the coronavirus pandemic. More.

►ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish received $39 million in 2020, compared with his overall 2019 pay of nearly $36.6 million. The company'spivot to streaming was a factor in the increased compensation for senior executives, with the ViacomCBS compensation committee writing that "in order to better align compensation outcomes with our accelerated shift in business strategy, the Committee determined to add streaming growth metrics to the core metrics for the 2021 Short Term Incentive Plan." The story.

+Cinemark Holdings Inc. CEO Mark Zoradi saw his total compensation for 2020 rise to $6.9 million, compared to $6.3 million in 2019, according to the company's proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. That was before Cinemark, the third-largest theater circuit in the U.S. behind AMC Theatres and Regal, swung to a loss for much of 2020 as it faced theater closures and reopenings nationwide amid the novel coronavirus outbreak. More.

►Generation: The personal story behind the finale. "This entire episode is a nod to our theme of chosen family," teen co-creator Zelda Barnz writes in a guest column for THR. The column.

In other news...

--California will allow indoor concerts, theater performances, sporting events and conferences to resume starting April 15 in eligible areas. Attendees will need to show proof of vaccination, or be tested for COVID-19.

--Cleve Hall, a respected makeup effects artist known for his distinctive work on such films as Ghoulies, Re-Animator and Troll, has died. He was 61.

--Space Jam: A New Legacy released its first trailer Saturday morning. 

--Bruno Mars is dancing into the Fortnite universe.

--Kevin Durant was fined by the National Basketball Association on Friday over a social media message he exchanged with comic-actor Michael Rapaport.

What else we're reading...

--"Waiting for the blockbusters... and the people" [The Ringer]

--"Is livestreamd stand-up here to stay?" [NY Times]

--"The true story behind Netflix’s newest crime drama was too bizarre for TV" [LA Times]

--"Scale was the God that failed" [The Atlantic]

Today's birthdays: Eddie Murphy, 60, Paris Jackson, 23, Amanda Bynes, 35, Alec Baldwin, 63, Cobie Smulders, 39, Jane Goodall, 87.

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

©2021 The Hollywood Reporter, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. 11175 Santa Monica Boulevard Los Angeles, CA, 90025 All rights reserved.

APRIL 03, 2021

UNSUBSCRIBE 

MANAGE PREFERENCES

PRIVACY POLICY

TERMS OF USE