Today In Entertainment

APRIL 06, 2021

What's news: Ray Fisher opens up about his battle with Joss Whedon and Warners, the Supreme Court's landmark copyright case, Harvey Weinstein appeals, Trump Twitter suit declared moot, The Neighborhood showrunner exits after complaints, writers strike ends on The Chase. Plus: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on why Hollywood must do more to combat Asian stereotypes, and Greg Gutfeld tries to move Fox News into late night. --Alex Weprin

 Ray Fisher Speaks

►Ray Fisher opens up about Justice League, Joss Whedon and Warners: "I don't believe some of these people are fit for leadership." Over the past year, the actor has assailed the filmmaker and studio in harsh-but-cryptic tweets for what he says was racist and inappropriate conduct, Kim Masters reports: "I'm not so indebted to Hollywood that I haven't been willing to put myself out there."

--One battle was over the phrase "booyah." "That phrase had become a signature of the character thanks to the animated Teen Titans shows, but the character had never said it in the comics or in the original script... With reshoots underway, Fisher says Whedon raised the issue again: 'Geoff tells me Cyborg has a catchphrase,' he told him. Fisher says he expressed his objections and it seemed the matter was dropped — until [Jon] Berg, the co-chairman of DC Films and a producer on the project, took him to dinner."

"'This is one of the most expensive movies Warners has ever made,' Berg said, according to Fisher. 'What if the CEO of AT&T has a son or daughter, and that son or daughter wants Cyborg to say 'booyah' in the movie and we don't have a take of that? I could lose my job.' Fisher responded that he knew if he filmed the line, it would end up in the movie. And he expressed skepticism that the film's fate rested on Cyborg saying 'booyah.'"

--"Fisher was not the only Justice League star who was unhappy. Sources say Whedon clashed with all the stars of the film, including Jeremy Irons. And one Justice League star ended up taking her complaints not only to the head of the film studio but also to the chairman of Warner Bros. A knowledgeable source says Gadot had multiple concerns with the revised version of the film, including 'issues about her character being more aggressive than her character in Wonder Woman. She wanted to make the character flow from one movie to the next.' The biggest clash, sources say, came when Whedon pushed Gadot to record lines she didn't like, threatened to harm Gadot's career and disparaged Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins."

--Katherine Forrest, a former federal judge who conducted the WarnerMedia probe, tells THR in a statement that in interviews with more than 80 witnesses, she found "no credible support for claims of racial animus" or racial "insensitivity." A WarnerMedia spokesperson notes that the company "made extraordinary effort to accommodate Mr. Fisher's concerns about the investigation and to ensure its fullness and fairness" and has "complete confidence in the investigation process and [Forrest's] conclusions." The full story.

 The Supreme Court's Copyright Case

►Supreme Court hands Google a landmark win — and Hollywood a huge concern. In a closely-watched case about computer code, Justice Stephen Breyer warns that copyright enforcement can sometimes lead to "harm to the public" by impeding creativity and stopping innovative applications. The story and analysis.

+Harvey Weinstein is appealing his conviction of a criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree. Weinstein, who was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison in March 2020, argues he didn't get a fair trial. In a lengthy appeal brief, his attorneys argue seven points: the jury wasn't impartial; the admission of bad acts witnesses was improper; the court erred by denying defense expert testimony; the third-degree rape charge was time-barred; the predatory sexual assault counts were predicated on time-barred allegations; the guilty verdicts were against the weight of evidence; and the sentence was unduly harsh and excessive. More.

+Trump Twitter blocking suit deleted by Supreme Court. Now that Donald Trump is no longer in office (and has been banned from the social media site), the high court found the four-year-old dispute over the First Amendment implications of his blocking of political critics on Twitter to be moot.

--Justice Clarence Thomas, in his concurring opinion, discusses the legal difficulties presented by the digital era and why "applying old doctrines to new digital platforms is rarely straightforward." Thomas notes that it's "odd" to think Twitter is a public forum when the company has absolute authority to restrict access. The story.

 How Hollywood Can Combat Asian Stereotypes

►Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Hollywood must do more to combat Asian stereotypes. The THR columnist notes that while progress in the portrayal of Asians is real, it has been maddeningly slow: "Hollywood likes to sit back and congratulate itself. But prejudice doesn't relax."

--"In general, portrayals of Asian Americans are often comic-relief sidekicks (House, Prodigal Son), monosyllabic martial arts masters (Wu Assassins), homework-loving nerds, or wizened oldsters with fortune cookie advice. We need a commitment to produce more varied portrayals of Asian Americans, but also that more of their stories to be told by Asian Americans working behind the cameras, including writers and directors. The problem is when the industry produces a Minari or The Farewell or Killing Eve, it likes to sit back and relax while congratulating itself." The column.

►HBO Max is ready to explore the world of pornography. The WarnerMedia-backed streamer has handed out a 10-episode series order to Minx, a half-hour comedy set in L.A. in the 1970s about a young feminist who joins forces with a low-rent publisher to create the first erotic magazine for women. The story.

+Jim Reynolds, the creator, executive producer and showrunner of The Neighborhood, is leaving the CBS sitcom. Reynolds is exiting the series after three seasons, with reports emerging that there were complaints about his leadership style, including on race-related issues. The story.

+Writers for the ABC game show The Chase have ended their strike after the show's producer ITV America has settled the dispute with the Writers Guild. Scribes on the quiz show, which features a team of contestants competing against trivia experts, had stopped work on March 24, after ITV refused to agree to cover the writers’ work under the WGA's Minimum Basic Agreement. More.

+Fox News is hoping that The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld can help it crack into the late night comedy space. “If [The Five] is like sitting around a dinner table with your friends, this is like sitting around at a bar,” Gutfeld tells me of his new 11 p.m. program Gutfeld!. More.

►VES Awards: Honoree Rob Legato reflects on Titanic and advances in virtual production. The VFX pro remembers telling Jim Cameron, “‘It's going to work.’ And I kept my fingers crossed.” The story.

Revolving door: UTA has hired Ander Nickell as an esports brand partnerships executive... Canada's actors union, ACTRA, has seen Olivia Nuamah, its national director of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, unexpectedly exit after just four months in the newly-created post... Apple TV+ is bolstering its nonfiction executive team. Erika Clarke and Colleen Grogan have joined the tech giant's streaming service as unscripted creative executives... Zola Mashariki, a veteran of Fox Searchlight Pictures and BET Networks, has been named head of Amazon-owned Audible Studios...

Casting roundup: Bridgerton is bulking up for season two. Charithra Chandran, Shelley Conn, Calam Lynch and Rupert Young have boarded the second season as series regulars... Edgar Ramirez is stepping into the world of Borderlands... ..Hulu and American High's has rounded out the cast for its next high school comedy, Sex Appeal. Margaret Cho, Fortune Feimster and Paris Jackson have joined the feature... Helen Mirren is set to portray Israel's only female prime minister Golda Meir in an upcoming biopic Golda, set during the Yom Kippur War...

►Obituaries: Mark Elliott, the ubiquitous voice of Disney movie trailers, television promos and home video titles from the late 1970s to the early 2000s, has died. He was 81... Paul Ritter, the English screen and stage star whose list of credits includes Harry Potter and James Bond films, has died. He was 54...

►TV review: Daniel Fienberg reviews Ken Burns' latest for PBS, Hemingway, writing that "Ken Burns and Lynn Novick are prolific discoursers with virtually no limitations imposed on them beyond the fact that they're constantly researching five or six documentaries past the one they're actively making. Their cinematic vernacular and storytelling exhaustiveness could not be more at odds with Hemingway's terseness, his deceptive simplicity, his ruthless self-editing." The review.

In other news...

--Elizabeth Gabler's 3000 Pictures is getting its summer reading in order. The Sony-housed label has optioned the rights to Summer of ’69 by New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand for a limited series.

--ViacomCBS Networks International has acquired the Chilevisión TV network and library from WarnerMedia as parent AT&T continues to sell off non-core assets to pay off debt.

--In his first televised interview since his exit from Good Morning Britain, Piers Morgan maintained that he does not believe Meghan Markle's claims, including those she made about her mental health, in her and Prince Harry's March 7 interview with Oprah Winfrey.

--E3 is back with a reimagined, all-virtual 2021 event. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) on Tuesday announced the dates of the upcoming video game industry event.

--The first teaser trailer for Star Trek: Picard season two is here. The trailer teases the revival of a major, fan-favorite character in the Trek franchise: Q, played by actor actor John de Lancie.

--Fabergé is releasing an official, one-of-a-kind Game of Thrones-themed dragon egg that will cost £1.6 million pounds (or $2.22 million in U.S. dollars).

--After a dance segment featuring Addison Rae on The Tonight Show caused a social media backlash, host Jimmy Fallon addressed the controversy on Monday night and took pains to properly credit some of the TikTok creators behind the dances.

What else we're reading...

--"Hollywood has overlooked the 50-plus audience. Producer Amy Baer aims to change that" [LA Times]

--"Disney's Peter Rice has asserted control at ABC News while the search for a new head continues" [Insider]

--"60 Minutes faces backlash from Democrats and Publix for critical story on Florida's vaccine rollout" [CNN Business]

--"Amazon surpasses 10% of U.S. digital ad market share" [WSJ]

Today's birthdays: Paul Rudd, 52, Zach Braff, 46, Billy Dee Williams, 84, Eliza Coupe, 39, John Ratzenberger, 74.

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APRIL 06, 2021

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