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Gunna's legal team is blasting his RICO indictment as "intensely problematic" and fighting to get the rapper sprung from custody after he was booked into a Georgia jail in the sprawling gang conspiracy case that also landed fellow Atlanta rapper Young Thug behind bars this week.

In their new motion seeking Gunna's release on bond, the lawyers say the "Drip Too Hard" hitmaker is a Grammy-nominated artist with "no significant criminal history" who shouldn't be in a position where song lyrics are used to keep him locked up.

"It is intensely problematic that the state relies on song lyrics as part of its allegations. These lyrics are an artist's creative expression and not a literal recounting of facts and circumstances. Under the state's theory, any artist with a song referencing violence could find herself the victim of a RICO indictment," the motion reads.

The grand jury indictment that led Gunna to turn himself in Wednesday, May 11, cites his collaborations with Young Thug, real name Jeffery Williams, in videos released on social media over the last two years. It cites the lyrics, "for slimes you know I kill" and "pay for that casket, that's just if we whack em" from the song "Take It To Trial" and references to a gang and a firearm in "Ski."

"The music videos referenced are not part of a RICO conspiracy but are entertainment, entertainment that has achieved great success nationally and internationally," his lawyers argue.

They also stress that Gunna, whose legal name is Sergio Kitchens, is only named in Count 1 of the 56-count indictment involving 28 defendants.

"The allegations in the indictment, so thin as to be transparent, support Mr. Kitchens's motion for bond. There is no allegation that he committed any act of violence. There is no allegation that he ever sold any drugs. There is no allegation that he ever committed any act relating to obstruction of justice or interfering with the administration of justice. There is no allegation that he engaged in any conduct which suggests that he would be a flight risk, a danger to the community or a danger to any person," the lawyers write.

"The few 'overt acts' in the indictment that mention Mr. Kitchens mostly describe non-criminal conduct such as quoting song lyrics. In fact, a large portion of the quoted lyrics were not written or performed by Mr. Kitchens," they argue.

According to the lawyers, the indictment presents their client's history in "a misleading manner."

With regard to Count 1, they say the allegation that Kitchens was in a car with a stolen firearm, methamphetamine, oxycodone and marijuana on Sept. 24, 2017 stems from a separate case where the district attorney of Dekalb County "dismissed all charges against Mr. Kitchens." They said their client "ultimately entered a guilty plea to a window tint violation."

They added that Kitchens, 28, is a life-long Georgia resident who "regularly donates his own funds and his time to numerous philanthropic organizations."

"Mr. Sergio Kitchens, known as Gunna, is innocent. The indictment falsely portrays his music as part of criminal conspiracy. Mr. Kitchens, an entertainer and philanthropist, created the first ever local free in-school grocery and clothing store feeding over 400 children weekly, and nationally sponsored giveaways for victims of disasters and food shortages. Mr. Kitchens has been an advocate for his community, and it is our privilege to advocate for him," his defense lawyers Donald F. Samuel, John A. Garland and Kristen W. Novay said in a statement sent to Rolling Stone.

No bond hearings for Gunna had been set as of Thursday afternoon.

Fulton County prosecutors claim Kitchens, Williams, and the other defendants are members or associates of the alleged "criminal street gang" called Young Slime Life (YSL), a purported offshoot of the national Bloods gang. They say the various defendants in the case took part in a pattern of racketeering activity that ranged from armed robbery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon to murder.

The use of rap lyrics in criminal prosecutions isn't new, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was ready with a response when asked about the controversial practice at a press conference this week.

"This issue's been ruled on by the courts. I knew that that question was coming. I believe in the First Amendment. It's one of our most precious rights. However, the First Amendment does not protect people from prosecutors using it as evidence if it is such. In this case, we put it as overt and predicate acts within the RICO count, because we believe that's exactly what it is," she said.

Late Los Angeles rapper Drakeo The Ruler was at the center of one of the most high-profile and egregious cases where rap lyrics were used to paint a defendant as culpable. Born Darrell Caldwell, Drakeo was charged and ultimately acquitted in the 2016 murder of a 24-year-old man outside a party in Carson, California, but he still spent nearly three years in prison as the strange case unfolded.

Prosecutors introduced lyrics from Caldwell's 2016 song, "Flex Freestyle," to try to convince jurors he brought armed associates to an adult pajama party to target someone who wasn't even at the venue where the fatal shooting occurred.

"I didn't even think they could do that," Caldwell told Rolling Stone in Nov. 2021, just weeks before his shocking murder at a Los Angeles music festival. "I heard about them doing it before, but it was just the way they were doing it. How they were using it against me. It didn't make no sense. It was just crazy."

As Rolling Stone first reported, New York lawmakers introduced the "Rap Music on Trial" bill last year, seeking to prevent prosecutors from using rap lyrics in court. In January, the pending bill got the support of a number of hip-hop heavyweights, including Jay-Z, Meek Mill, Big Sean, Fat Joe, and Killer Mike.

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Gunna's Lawyers Call Indictment 'So Thin As To Be Transparent,' Slam Use of Rap Lyrics

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Gunna's legal team is blasting his RICO indictment as "intensely problematic" and fighting to get the rapper sprung from custody after he was booked into a Georgia jail in the sprawling gang conspiracy case that also landed fellow Atlanta rapper Young Thug behind bars this week.

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Last week, we asked if TikTok was slowly turning into a record company.

The catalyst for that article, besides the launch of TikTok's distribution and artist incubator platform SoundOn in March, was a job ad posted by parent company ByteDance for an A&R executive in Jakarta.

According to that ad, one of the responsibilities listed for the role is "finding and signing new music talent".

That got us thinking. With TikTok performing functions for artists like marketing, distribution, discovery and development, is the platform on its way to becoming a record label?

Today brings a new layer to this story: ByteDance and TikTok appear to have gone global in their search for both experienced A&Rs and new artists, with job ads for A&R Managers popping up in London, Los Angeles and Sao Paulo (Brazil).

The first task listed for the L.A. based role is to " ensure that artists see ByteDance as the #1 partner for artist development, promotion and monetization ".

Also, according to the ad, this person will focus "on the US music landscape", and will be required to " Identify, sign, and develop new artists across genres", as well as, "serve as creative and strategic liaison between artists and the platform".

Furthermore, this person will "supervise the production of records and oversee all aspects of the recording process from writing all the way through delivering final recordings."

At least five years' music industry experience was required for this LA-based role.

Over in London, TikTok specifies that the A&R Manager it's hiring for will support its new TuneCore-powered SoundOn distribution platform.

Within the ad, TikTok describes SoundOn as "an all-in-one platform powered by TikTok, designed to better service music creators through each step of their career - from TikTok integrated promotion tools to universal music distribution, from diverse monetization opportunities to smart music creation".

Similar to the L.A. based role, the London-based A&R Manager will need to "identify, sign, manage and develop new artists across genres" and will also require "a data-driven mind and good editorial sense".

They will also need to have over five years' A&R experience, specifically at "music labels", with " success stories of scouting and managing both emerging artists and established artists".

Other responsibilities listed in the ad include supervising the production of records and overseeing "all aspects of the process that leads up to the delivery of all finished recordings".

Meanwhile, in the Sau Paulo, Brazil-based A&R Manager ad, ByteDance provides even deeper insight into its plans in music.

In the ad, published on ByteDance's careers page, ByteDance notes that, "SoundOn & AOP, short for Artists Open Platform, is ByteDance's own music distribution and promotion platform, designed to empower independent artists with tools for audience and career development".

The ad continues: "SoundOn is currently powered by TikTok (music discovery app) and Resso (music streaming app), with the plan to integrate more ByteDance products in the future, such as Capcut and Helo.

"We are also enabling AOP artists to distribute to off-ByteDance DSPs and video platforms and transforming AOP into an end-to-end music platform."

Elsewhere at ByteDance, new rumors that TikTok's parent company is preparing for an IPO in Hong Kong, under the Douyin brand name, have begun circulating.

As noted by the South China Morning Post (SCMP), citing a report by Chinese media outlet Jiemian, there's been "renewed speculation" that an IPO is imminent after ByteDance renamed its Hong Kong based subsidiary, ByteDance (Hong Kong) Limited, as Douyin Group (Hong Kong) Limited, effective May 6.

Douyin is the wildly popular sister app of TikTok for the Chinese market, where it boasts over 600 million daily active users.

ByteDance was reported to be mulling an IPO in Hong Kong as far back as 2020. The Financial Times reported in August last year that an IPO would arrive in early 2022.

Adding to the speculation about an IPO in the near future is the news that ByteDance recently appointed Julie Gao, formerly of law firm Skadden, as its new Chief Financial Officer.

Gao, a veteran lawyer, has reportedly advised several Chinese tech firms on their own IPO plans.

This most recent news comes six months after ByteDance restructured its company into six business units in November 2021, which includes TikTok and Douyin as standalone divisions.

Citing a senior research analyst at Shanghai-based consultancy AgencyChina, the FT reported at the time that the reason behind the restructure was to make ByteDance's business "more intelligible for investors looking at any potential prospectus, making it easier to find cash cows and future growth engines".

SCMP notes that the structural changes also came as ByteDance "navigates the regulatory demands at home and in the US".Music Business Worldwide

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As ByteDance IPO rumors resurface, TikTok hires for A&R execs in London and LA to 'sign' new artists - Music Business Worldwide

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Last week, we asked if TikTok was slowly turning into a record company. The catalyst for that article, besides the launch of TikTok's distribution and artist incubator platform SoundOn in March, was a job ad posted by parent company ByteDance for an A&R executive in Jakarta.

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‘You Owe Me’: Songwriter Accuses Former Publishing Exec of Leveraging His Power for Sex

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Nataliya Nikitenko’s allegations against former Kobalt executive Sam Taylor shine a spotlight on the power imbalances that have largely gone unexamined in the music industry.

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The very first time I saw Toni Morrison in person was at an event in Boston, at a church, along with hundreds of people. The Beloved tour. I attended as a reader, as a Morrison fan. I'd had plenty of reader-only experience with books, but I knew next to nothing formal about writing then. Reading as a writer is a higher calling, and a whole different world. I had no writing tools at the time, though I did have some facility; I loved words-but the tools you need to write stack up and can be complicated. I could identify and define imagination, but I did not know the concepts of setting or drama or scene. I knew that language was critical, but how few words I knew then! I was hungry, eager, reaching-but I was ignorant of exactly what writers needed to know and do.

I was working as a statistician in the social sciences at the time. I consulted with clients who needed numbers turned into measurable questions. We'd create the questions, collect the data, and then turn those numbers back into words. I liked my work sufficiently, but I was a writer in corporate dress.

The Boston church was large, a fairly cavernous sanctuary, and packed. My awed memory estimates eight hundred in attendance. People sat close together, many of them women, with their pictureless copies of Beloved clutched in their hands, sometimes held to their hearts. Microphones waited vacantly for Morrison to complete her presentation, invitations at the top of aisles for the coming Q&A. While Morrison read, but for the sanctuary carpet, you could have heard the proverbial pin drop.

Beloved is a difficult read, especially the first time. The novel had not been out long by that evening. This was before it had been widely read, or deeply discussed, or passed from hand to hand, or canonized. Not having yet read it, we were mostly mystified by what the novel laid bare, but mesmerized by the woman who stood before us, who-the reviews of Beloved told us-had created yet another powerful, riveting narrative meditation on the depths and pressures of our American experience.

From her earlier novels, we knew that Toni Morrison put Black women in novels in gowns and crowns, with lithe flexibility, with the most nuanced and frenetic lives. Morrison wrote about Black women as if we were real, and important, and conflicted, and brainy, and righteous, and determined, and unafraid of running off. Beloved flowed from the ascendant to the enraged to the elegiac to the frightening to the rueful to the anticipated to the outraged to the treacherous; from past to future, through the netherworld.

The past was Morrison's landscape. Though we lived in the present tense, we were the future of the past. She gave us our history without sugar or disdain, and through her work, we watched ourselves struggle and survive. She did use pretty language, but pretty is not sugar; her words lean-tough, pointed, and sometimes mean. You were caught when you read Morrison. It was impossible to read and look away.

Back there, back then, in Boston, the book I held in my hand in that sanctuary positively shook with mystery. Long before the event, I had loaned my copy to an old friend who also attended that day; she had wanted to read the book right away. Because I knew I needed the time and space to work with the novel, I had agreed, but I insisted that she not wreck my copy, especially not the dust jacket. A clean, intact dust jacket gives a hardcover value over time. My silly friend took the dust jacket off to protect the dust jacket-per my instructions, she said-and then sullied the actual cloth cover of the book with lipstick and cereal, both unhealthy substances for books. My friend was alarmed by my alarm. "You said the dust jacket needed to be clean!" she said. "I kept the dust jacket clean!"
"Well, it sounds like you don't know what you're doing," Morrison began.
In time, in life, you learn that you have to be specific, explicit, sometimes almost stupidly blunt. Or, you have to not lend people books. I lend books. I want people to read. My library is a thousand books deep. Too much power there to be selfish and grabby. However, to be clear, the dust jacket is important to a hardcover book's value over time. A hardcover without a dust jacket may as well be an airport paperback. That said, the book under the dust jacket should be kept clean, too. Liquids and lipstick are bad for books. I hold esteem for books.

*

Morrison read from the novel with her husky voice and Black woman's authority. She was an author among us, a higher-up, a guiding light. Many of us in attendance had read her other books; that was how I knew I was going to need time with this one. The passage she read from Beloved that day did not disabuse me of that notion. Even if we've never read a book in our lives, every one of us has a read on slavery. Morrison's manner of spearing history with her sharpened pencil in previous books made me know I'd likely be slayed by Beloved and that the time for that would need to be carefully arranged. I was in no rush.

During the Q&A, one young woman made her way to the microphone to ask one of the earliest questions. She might have been the first in line, with the first question. In my memory, she rushed her speech; she may have been breathlessly waiting. She described her interest in writing, her aspirations, and her failure to accomplish the fiction she aimed for. She described her struggle with making her stories "just right." Likely trying to be succinct and yet communicate directly with the greatest of writers, she sounded hurried, even as she sought direction. She then joined the rest of us in silence, to hear what Morrison advised.

"Well, it sounds like you don't know what you're doing," Morrison began.

Quiet in the sanctuary. I drew in my breath. The huge audience almost gasped in unison. I remember the hiccup of my own heartbeat; the whole scene went instantly wavy before my eyes.

My anxiety pounded in my ears, which made hearing hard. My embarrassment for her echoed and bounced around the chambers of my mind.

I empathized: I understood not knowing what to do. But I would not have asked the great Ms. Morrison such a question-so nakedly personal, and too particular to be answerable, really. Especially over the heads of hundreds. And in front of God and everybody. And in such a public space. And when the great writer was expecting to be asked about her own masterful novel-just published, just read from, the whole reason for the tour.

Narcissism can cause mistakes. What could Toni Morrison possibly know about that woman's struggles with her own blank page? Not knowing the definition of complete self-absorption can make you foolish in the context of community. The young woman might have obtained a different or better response if she had asked a writing question about the author's work. She could have asked about her own writing under cover:
Ms. Morrison, how do you make the impossible believable? Ms. Morrison, how do you get your characters so tied to the invented place? Ms. Morrison, what are the best strategies for research?
Or, even, What writing suggestions do you have for an aspiring writer, for a dreamer like me?

I slid down, trying to hide, mortified and wanting to be invisible for the young woman who had asked the ill-considered question. The spirit in me, the spunkette, the woman who wanted to know what Toni Morrison did and thought, harbored a hungry curiosity over how this would turn out, but I couldn't help but dream of a hole opening up to swallow the awkwardness.

You don't know what you're doing. Morrison did say this aloud.

I don't, I thought to myself, as if this were my conversation. You're right. I have no idea what I'm doing. What am I even thinking?
All these years, Morrison's first spoken sentence (from the first time I remember seeing her), her whip of a reply, has stayed with me.
Who did that reaching aspiring writer think she was? To be so personal, publicly? Showing all she didn't know? And now likely having to slink back to her seat in that crowded church, having been told off or, more benevolently, told to practice and learn- and by Toni Morrison. This was a public event, so, relatively quickly, the line for the microphone shifted. The aspiring writer left the mic; I could not see the exit well. Maybe the questioner walked straight out the sanctuary doors. That is what I might have done.

I, too, worried about whether I understood the terms of writing. I had not yet begun to write seriously or in form. I had pages of words, observations of my little travels, my tiny thoughts. Occasional poems. But books and long stories need shape and scaffolding. It takes knowledge, experience, study, apprenticeship. It takes architecture.

This young woman needed the basics. Morrison continued, pointing her, and us, toward some fundamentals:

You need to study what writing requires. And:

Writing has rules, conventions, requirements. There is form. And:

That nameless young woman who had scurried to be first at the mic prepared me for what I did not know my future would bring: stinging quips and side-eye admonishment from the greatest living writer. All these years, Morrison's first spoken sentence (from the first time I remember seeing her), her whip of a reply, has stayed with me. In that huge sanctuary, I felt personally stung, even if only empathetically.
Writing is more than your thoughts about characters. Drama has structure. You can learn.
You don't know what you're doing. Yes, this is true.

Yowzah and ouch!

__________________________________

Excerpted from Miss Chloe: A Memoir of a Literary Friendship with Toni Morrison by A. J. Verdelle. Published by Amistad. Copyright © 2022 HarperCollins.

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A Brutal-and True-Piece of Writing Advice from Toni Morrison

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The very first time I saw Toni Morrison in person was at an event in Boston, at a church, along with hundreds of people. The Beloved tour. I attended as a reader, as a Morrison fan. I'd had plenty ...

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is asking for feedback from its members on some of the 2022 Oscars ' most controversial aspects, including the decision to pre-record eight artisan categories and debut a fan favorite prize.

The survey, obtained by Variety, first asks seven questions about members' overall experience at the Academy, including what they could improve upon as an organization and how they could make the film industry more inclusive. The second part of the survey focuses completely on this year's Will Packer-produced ceremony, which was one of the most controversial to date due to Will Smith infamously slapping Chris Rock, as well as the Academy's decision to cut several artisan categories, including film editing, score and production design, from the live show. The Academy also introduced the fan favorite prize this year in an effort to capture more viewers. Voted on via Twitter, the prize was ultimately awarded to Zack Snyder's "Army of the Dead."

One question asks, "Eight awards were presented and recorded at the Dolby Theatre an hour prior to the start of the telecast and then edited into the live Oscars ceremony. Which of the following is closest to your view?" The answer options include:

Pre-recording and editing in some award presentations during the show worked this year and the Academy should do it again this way next year.

Pre-recording or early presentation of some awards could work, but not the way it was done this year. The Academy needs to go back to the drawing board on this.

The Oscars were fine the way they were before. The Academy should not pre-record any awards and should instead present all the awards live.

The Oscars need an overhaul, and the format of the show should be reconsidered.

No opinion

Another question asks about the Oscars fan favorite category - which received mixed reviews from pundits and fans alike - with the answer options being:

The Oscars Fan Favorite helped get fans engaged and excited about this year's Oscars and it should be continued.

The Oscars Fan Favorite is a good idea but should be improved.

The Oscars Fan Favorite should not continue.

No opinion

The Academy did not immediately respond to Variety 's request for comment.

Deadline Hollywood was the first to report the news of the survey.

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Academy Sends Member Survey for Oscars Feedback on Pre-Televised Categories, Fan Favorite Prize

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is asking for feedback from its members on some of the 2022 Oscars ' most controversial aspects, including the decision to pre-record eight artisan categories and debut a fan favorite prize.

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https://kotaku.com/ea-lord-of-the-rings-lotr-middle-earth-mobile-galaxy-he-1848903418

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EA Is Once Again Making A Lord Of The Rings Video Game

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The company’s last LOTR game was 2006’s Battle for Middle Earth II

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https://loudwire.com/avenged-sevenfold-m-shadows-how-streaming-actually-saved-music-industry/

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Avenged Sevenfold have often been ahead of the times with their approach to getting their music to fans, and while streaming is nothing new for a lot of acts these days, singer M. Shadows bemoaned some of the resistance he's seen from acts in heavier rock and metal toward adopting streaming as a way to connect with their fans.

While speaking with the Bob Lefsetz Podcast (as heard below), Shadows talked about the group's own experiences with streaming, explaining, "We did that surprise release [with 2016's The Stage], we had the pushback, and it kind of shocked us. I think every time you bring up streaming to people, and you get all these old bands that are bitter about it, and it's very weird."

"They're still in 2022 talking about how music doesn't make any money, no one's buying our CDs," adds the singer. "Maybe you're not relevant? Let's be relevant, let's put our hat in the ring so when they're listening to Bieber or The Weeknd, they can jump over to Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold. We're playing in the same park here."

While the move seemed obvious for Shadows, he admits he still sees some reluctance to embrace streaming by certain acts."That has always made sense to me, but you still get these people that are there, 'Streaming's killed industry, and now we got to do this and we got to do that.' No, streaming kind of saved the industry, It saved the user, I call them the Web 2.0 user. The fan gets to listen to you at any point, so how are you going to get their attention? How are you going to be the best thing that's going to be going through their earholes that day?"

Shadows argues, "That's what we should be striving [for] and not having an argument if we should put it on CD or vinyl or streaming. The battle has already been won. I don't have a real good answer to it, I just think sometimes we get stuck in our ways, and metal has really dug their heels in on this, 'We're not gonna move along with the rest of the world. We kind of like it this way.'"

Elsewhere, while recently chatting with Lefsetz, Shadows further opened up how he thinks that the metal scene as a whole could improve its standing within the music world. While affirming that he feels that the metal music will always have a pulse and will always be around, he does share his concern at the lack of innovation. "I don't think the innovation is there, and I don't think the ability for fans to have an open mind for when something is innovative, something is different. I think the great songwriting has kind of been lost a little bit," he stated.

The singer feels there's too much regurgitation. "They're doing the same sort of vibe and I think that hurts metal in a way, because I think a lot of times it's just this regurgitated sound that people will praise, and then it goes away, because if you're not in the scene, you don't care and if it's something way outside the box it just gets the thumbs down right away and the gatekeepers kind of keep it behind closed doors and say, 'Well, we're going to forget about that. That's not metal,' and I think that hurts the scene," he explained, feeling there's not enough experimentation.

That said, he did cite bands such as System of a Down, Deftones and Ghost for providing "bright, shining moments" and have managed to do something uniquely their own.

Avenged Sevenfold's M. Shadows on The Bob Lefsetz Podcast

80 Rock + Metal Acts With Multiple Platinum Albums

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avenged sevenfold m. shadows explains how streaming saved the music industry

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avenged sevenfold m. shadows streaming benefits

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Avenged Sevenfold's M. Shadows Explains How Streaming Actually Saved the Music Industry

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Avenged Sevenfold have often been ahead of the times with their approach to getting their music to fans, and while streaming is nothing new for a lot of acts these days, singer M. Shadows bemoaned some of the resistance he's seen from acts in heavier rock and metal toward adopting streaming as a way to connect with their fans.

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https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/billie-eilish-everything-i-wanted-much-darker-subject-9334121/

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In late 2019, Billie Eilish unveiled "everything i wanted," her tribute to her brother Finneas. The tune features sweet lyrics in the chorus, "As long as I'm here / No one can hurt you," but in a New York Times profile, the teen superstar admits that the song wasn't always so reassuring.

See latest videos, charts and news

Eilish got inspiration for the song a year prior, when she had a dream about taking her own life. When she took the idea to her brother, he became uncomfortable with the worrying topic. "We had this big argument," she told the publication, "Because I admitted something that I was, uh. It wasn't a physical thing I was admitting. I don't know how to put it without actually saying it, and I don't want to actually say it. But it was me admitting to something that was very serious about my depression. A very serious step that I was admitting that I was planning on taking. And Finneas said, I don't want to write a song about you killing yourself and how that's everything you wanted!"

Finneas, who was also present during the interview, gave his perspective on the troubling situation. "It was a period where I was really worried about my sister, and I felt like an enabler in helping her write a song as bleak as that song was," he said. "Like the musical equivalent of giving an alcoholic another beer: 'I'm not going to support this.' A lot of songs are written in retrospect, but this one felt like it was being written in real time, and I was like: 'This is something we've got to write on the other side of this hill. We have to go through this in real life. You can't always solve your problems in a song.'"

The article also touched on Eilish's longtime depression, which sparked when she ruptured the growth plate in her hip and was forced to quit dancing, an activity she wholeheartedly enjoyed. When she achieved fame, she felt a bit ill-equipped to deal with the negative sides of it. "I had to quit the choir, and I lost all my friends, then I didn't want to do drugs, and I lost all my other friends because they did," she explained. "Then I had kind of no one."

When the sibling duo revisited "everything i wanted" a year later, Eilish approached it with a different perspective. "My argument, which I think was the thing that made my mom and Finneas finally go, 'Oh, OK,' is I said: 'This song is the way I can feel these things without doing something to myself.'"

"Finneas and I both had the idea to make the song about each other, instead of just me and how I was feeling," she continued, which is made evident in the song, where lyrics like "Thought I could fly / So I stepped off the Golden" are met with countered camaraderie such as, "But when I wake up, I see / You with me."

"We had a complete block," she said. "and the way we got through it was to make it about us as siblings and what we mean to each other."

Read the full piece here, and listen to "everything i wanted" below.

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Billie Eilish's 'Everything I Wanted' Was Originally About a Much Darker Subject

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In late 2019, Billie Eilish unveiled "everything i wanted," her tribute to her brother Finneas. The tune features sweet lyrics in the chorus, "As long as I'm here / No one can hurt you," but in a New York Times profile, the teen superstar admits that the song wasn't always so reassuring.

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https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/category/news/

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Music Industry News - Music Business Worldwide

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The latest music industry news from Music Business Worldwide

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https://variety.com/2022/film/news/kashmir-files-banned-in-singapore-1235261835/

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The Indian hit film ' The Kashmir Files' has been banned in Singapore by the country's InfoComm Media Development Authority, on the grounds that it could disturb religious harmony.

Backed by ZEE5 and directed by Vivek Agnihotri ("The Tashkent Files"), the Hindi-language film revolves around a university student who learns about the religiously charged political turmoil that led to the death of his parents in Kashmir in the 1990s.

The IMDA said that it had consulted with the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and the Ministry of Home Affairs, and that they together found the film to have "exceeded the Film Classification Guidelines for its provocative and one-sided portrayal of Muslims and the depictions of Hindus being persecuted in the on-going conflict in Kashmir.

"These representations have the potential to cause enmity between different communities and disrupt social cohesion and religious harmony in Singapore's multi-racial and multi-religious society."

Under the Film Classification guidelines, "any material that is denigrating to racial or religious communities in Singapore" will be refused classification.

The film, made on a budget of $2 million, was released in cinemas in India and many international territories in mid-March and has grossed some $43 million to date. It forms part of a large film release slate being detailed Monday by ZEE5, the multi-lingual streaming arm of Indian broadcast group Zee.

"The Kashmir Files" was briefly banned in the United Arab Emirates. But the UAE authorities reversed their ban at the end of March and the film was released without cuts from April 7, 2022. New Zealand had to raise the film's rating from R16 to R18 after concerns were raised by the Muslim community.

Socially conservative, Singapore censors films and TV shows due to depictions of drug use, possession and trafficking. The country does not recognize same-sex relationships and considers same-sex sexual activity to be illegal. It also clamps down on activity which could upset religious harmony.

With such a broad array of red lines, Singapore is the country which most censors streaming service Netflix. In 2020, Netflix said that it had taken down just nine pieces of content worldwide in its (then) 23-year history. Five of the nine were at the request of the Singapore authorities.

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Indian Hit Film 'The Kashmir Files' Is Banned In Singapore

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The Indian hit film ' The Kashmir Files' has been banned in Singapore by the country's InfoComm Media Development Authority, on the grounds that it could disturb religious harmony. Backed by ZEE5 and directed by Vivek Agnihotri ("The Tashkent Files"), the Hindi-language film revolves around a university student who learns about the religiously charged political turmoil that led to the death of his parents in Kashmir in the 1990s.

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The non-scripted television business is made up of a wily group of people who deftly navigated their way through the Covid-19 pandemic to get a large volume of shows on air.

There is now new light at the end of the tunnel and shows that were shut down, forced to adapt or paused during the last twelve months are starting to find a sense of normality with the likes of American Idol bringing back audiences, Survivor finally getting back into production and American Ninja Warrior returning to its traditional summer time slot.

There is also a widespread sense of optimism that the next twelve months will be buoyant for the business - the "roaring '20s of non-scripted" as one buyer called it - with the pandemic having an encouraging impact on development that will see some wild and noisy ideas emerge.

Deadline has spoken to close to 50 senior buyers and sellers from across the broadcast, cable and streaming spectrum about what summer 2021 looks like, the "mind-boggling, bonkers" new formats coming through and why the unscripted business is still obsessed with spinoffs and reboots.

"At times, it has felt like herculean efforts by all parties to keep things going," Jenny Groom, EVP, Unscripted at NBCUniversal, told Deadline. "I'm ready for us to be turning a corner and hopefully being able to have more mobility and do more things. But I'm definitely proud of what we were able to accomplish this past year."

MTV Entertainment Group's Nina L. Diaz agrees. "I was fortunate enough to be at MTV during the golden age, the explosion of the genre and I think we're ripe for it all over again. It'll be the roaring '20s, similar to after the Spanish flu. There's an opportunity to redefine reality for a new generation," added the company's President of Content and Chief Creative Officer, who developed the original Cribs and My Super Sweet 16.

The buyers aren't, however, taking their eye off the ball, in case things take a little longer to get back to normal. Rob Wade, President, Alternative Entertainment and Specials, Fox Entertainment, said, "We're obviously in a really good phase at the moment in LA in terms of case load, but we've all seen from this last year that it's not a steady curve. The question is where will we be in three months, six months, nine months, so, you have to prepare in case there are maybe stop downs, delays, or at the very least, more challenging times to film."

Many of the broadcast shows that missed out last summer are returning. MasterChef, which didn't air last summer, will return this year, filmed at the end of 2020, but Ultimate Tag, for instance, which ran from May through the end of July, will not. Wade said that that competition show was one that he'd "like another crack at" but the lack of a mass audience makes it more difficult, although he hinted that a second season could potentially be filmed in Australia, as the network did with Name That Tune.

Wade said that Covid has made scheduling decisions tougher. "You can't rely on dates so much, you have to find your opportunity to make something and then find the place to put it rather than [specify] the slot," he said. "I'm purposefully taking shots on stuff now which I know might be able to fit into a variety of different slots in the hope that I can still kind of make different shows which require more ambitious filming schedules and travel."

NBC has a summer slate featuring American Ninja Warrior (above), America's Got Talent and Making It, although no World of Dance after it was cancelled, and recently ordered series including Family Game Fight featuring Kristin Bell and Dax Shepard. Groom said being able to have limited audiences back is a boon and is excited about being able to film Ninja Warrior in locations such as the Tacoma Dome and Las Vegas.

ABC is expected to have a slew of summer returners including Bachelor in Paradise. Recent orders include Zooey Deschanel and Michael Bolton's The Celebrity Dating Game and The Ultimate Surfer. Rob Mills, newly promoted to EVP, Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment, Walt Disney Television, told Deadline that he was pleased that the network was finally able to get back to a place where it will air new originals on almost every night over the summer.

CBS will also have both Big Brother and Love Island back in a more traditional pattern. Mitch Graham, SVP, Alternative Programming, said that the network is currently in pre-production and casting on Big Brother and the long-running reality series will continue with Covid protocols in place. Love Island will move from Las Vegas to Hawaii for its third season. Both shows were forced to air later in the summer last year and Graham is pleased it looks like they'll be able to air earlier. "I'm excited to see how having Big Brother more in pattern this summer combined with Love Island, that's a good, solid, one-two punch for the schedule. It gives us a lot of hours, a lot of content and hopefully we can use each of those shows to feed off one another," he said.

CBS also recently received good news that Survivor (left) is heading back into production in Fiji for the first time in a year. Graham told Deadline that they will film seasons 41 and 42 back-to-back as they have done in the past.

The only outstanding alternative show left to return is The Amazing Race. CBS is currently in conversations with creators Bertram Van Munster and Elise Doganieri over its return. "There's a little bit of a longer way on that one until the world officially opens back up. We've explored some other options such as going to Covid-light countries but I don't think it's the same, you want the experience of traveling the globe. Once we feel we can do that safely, we're going to get them back out there, we would love to have that show back as fast as we can," Graham added.

One of the other priorities for CBS is finding a big tentpole, shiny-floor entertainment show. In September, it ordered Come Dance With Me, exec produced by NCIS: Los Angeles pair LL Cool J and Chris O'Donnell, its first step back on to the dance floor in ten years. Shooting is set to start in the next couple of weeks. "It's a different way into the dance space and performance," Graham said. "The dance space is a little crowded so we have to figure what's our way of doing that show."

The network is also in the early stages of development with 50 States of Stardom from Simon Cowell, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. "We're always looking for big broad formats, be it in the shiny floor space or the arced competition space, which has been our bread and butter for many years. We're always looking to expand and take different swings and try some different types of programs."

CBS's younger-skewing sibling network The CW has also been ramping up its activities in unscripted in the last few months. The broadcaster recently ordered U.S. versions of British formats Would I Lie To You?, exec produced by The Good Wife and The Good Fight duo Robert King and Michelle King and Evil star Aasif Mandvi, and ITV2's parlor game Killer Camp. EVP, Development Gaye Hirsch told Deadline, "We've always been incredibly interested in the alternative space but we do sense that there's even more opportunity. We've been aggressively looking in the marketplace." These shows will sit alongside long-running returners Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Penn & Teller: Fool Us and World's Funniest Animals.

Cyle Zezo, VP, Alternative & Digital Programming, The CW added that it is looking at more competition and gameshow formats and wants producers to find shows that can fit alongside its scripted originals such as The Flash, Batwoman and Nancy Drew. "One of the things that we talk about in terms of our unscripted strategy, is while we do like shows that have a broad appeal, we do like to find shows that feel like they fit tonally with what we're doing with the scripted content and from a genre perspective it fits with a Gen Z audience," he added.

There's been a lot of talk as to whether quarantine and production shutdowns would lead to a development boom. All of the buyers that Deadline spoke to were buoyed by the quality of projects that have come on the market since the turn of the year.

Fox's Wade said he's still looking for mystery formats, building on The Masked Singer, I Can See Your Voice and Game of Talents, and has seen some interesting new ideas. "They've all come slightly at once. There was definitely a pause before Christmas, I noticed a slow-down in ideas and I wondered what was happening, but then suddenly since January it's been very, very intense."

The network recently ordered competition format Domino Masters, hosted by Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet, and is close to greenlighting a few more projects. "We have to loosen our shoulders a bit and start taking some swings. I'm talking about the entire business, not just at Fox. Everyone has got a little bit of confidence, but it is scary when you are going into $20M-$40M investment projects and you don't know if you can finish them and you've got no insurance," he added. "I'm obviously hoping to take bigger and better swings over the next 12 months."

Turner has been particularly busy buying new projects during the pandemic. Two shows bought pre-Covid, The Go-Big Show (right) and Wipeout, have both launched on TBS.

The network has ordered whodunit cooking format Rat In The Kitchen, hosted by Natasha Leggero, and dating competition from the creators of Are You The One? and Deadline understands that its version of , which is hosted and exec produced by NBA star Dwayne Wade, will also air on the channel, rather than TNT.

Corie Henson, EVP and head of unscripted programming for TBS, TNT and truTV, said it shot a ton of presentations and pilots during the pandemic. "We prepared ourselves coming out of the other side and used it as a creative incubation period," she said.

Now, she wants more big, outdoor formats that are "mind-boggling bonkers". "I'm always blown away when someone comes in with a big swing because people have become so risk averse with producers coming in and telling you they're being cost-conscious. We'll figure that out, just bring me a big idea," she added.

Much of Turner's unscripted focus is for TBS, but Henson added that she's still looking for "cheeky, naughty and irreverant" formats for TruTV, which recently ordered illusionist stunt series Big Trick Energy and home renovation format Backyard Bar Wars, and the occasional series for TNT such as docusoap Rhodes To The Top featuring All Elite Wrestling's Cody and Brandi Rhodes.

Social experiments are of particular interest right now with networks and streamers all keen to see if they can crack the next Big Brother or Real World.

MTV Entertainment Group's Diaz said that there's an opportunity to "break new ground" for a Gen Z and millennial audience. "What does dating and social experiment look like for that generation? What subcultures will become mass culture and then become global culture? This last year has shown that people can change through the power of storytelling, so we'll start amplifying real issues, making the invisible visible and starting national conversations. In this genre, there's a way to close the cultural gap and bridge differences."

RuPaul's Drag Race, which recently aired its 13th season on VH1, is a good example of a reality franchise that took a subculture mainstream. Spinoff Drag Race All Stars is heading to Paramount+ and the streamer recently ordered another spinoff, talent competition Queen of the Universe. Diaz said it is now looking for more subcultures to shine a spotlight on.

NBC ordered Home Sweet Home, a family social experiment, from Ava DuVernay last summer. Groom said that the show is very different for the network but it will continue to do "some new things that feel fresh and different to our physical lane that we like to live in".

It recently piloted comedy quiz show I Literally Just Told You from Richard Bacon and is in "conversations" as to whether to proceed and is also "talking what the future might look like" for This Is My House, also from Bacon, that features four people, three liars and one house, although it hasn't filmed a pilot for the show, which recently aired in the UK on BBC One.

"You can expect to see more things in the music space, new things in the gaming space and then we'll be doing some other big physical games too," Groom added.

Groom's colleague Rod Aissa, who is EVP, Unscripted, Documentary & Lifestyle oversees the reality and docusoap side of things across NBCUniversal. He has overseen shows such as E!'s Celebrity Game Face with Kevin Hart and The Bradshaw Bunch as well as the final season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians during the pandemic

He told Deadline that be believes comedic escapism is the next big trend. "We're getting a lot of pitches where it's shows with new Anthony Bourdain types or just fun escapism. People want to laugh and have a good time. It's a little less commentary on the last year, and more a look to the future."

STREAMING CRACKS REALITY

The emergence of Netflix into unscripted has been one of the most significant changes to the business. The streamer dipped its toe into the market with the likes of Queer Eye and Nailed It!, but has been going hell for leather more recently with big-ticket launches of The Circle and Love Is Blind. As one agent told Deadline there's no other buyer in town that can compete with the scale of Netflix's investment.

Brandon Riegg, VP, Unscripted and Documentary Series, told Deadline that they have gained more confidence in the genre over the last few years. The streamer's longer lead time for programming helped it during the early days of the pandemic and meant that it had shows such as Too Hot To Handle and Floor Is Lava in the can before Covid struck.

Although Netflix doesn't disclose viewing data, it was clear from social engagement and its two season renewal that Love Is Blind was arguably closer to The Bachelor than many other rival dating formats. "Dating and relationships has been a challenging space. The Bachelor is obviously an incumbent and all the spinoffs, they do great," said Riegg. "The success of Dating Around a couple of years ago gave us more confidence to see what else we could do in that area and we tried with Love Is Blind and then with the more outlandish show Too Hot To Handle and those worked great."

Riegg, who has previously worked on shows such as Dancing With The Stars, The Voice and America's Got Talent, said it was taking more broadcast-sized swings. Upcoming projects include dance format All The Right Moves and tropical gameshow Jet Set. "You will see at least one big traditional-type game show, then there are some of these performance-type shows and the other bigger area is competition-type shows. We have some pretty clever, intriguing ones coming up. If we can pull it off the way that we expect with our producing partners that should unlock a whole other pretty large-sized audience for us," he added.

There are other areas that it is also interested in. Netflix launched two seasons of interior design format Dream Home Makeover and Riegg said that it has some other bets in this genre as well as more food and cooking formats, survival adventure shows and even car formats.

Many expected Amazon to be Netflix's biggest competitor in the streaming space when it comes to unscripted. However, Jeff Bezos' company has had mixed fortunes in the genre, outside of the success of The Grand Tour, which launched in 2016. The division, run by former CBS exec Chris Castallo, renewed Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum's Making The Cut for a second season, but canine competition series The Pack and Mark Burnett's reboot of Eco Challenge were both cancelled after one season.

It's been HBO Max, which launched in May 2020, that has arguably been the loudest streaming competitor in non-scripted. The WarnerMedia platform launched with competition formats Legendary, which featured Grammy winner Megan Thee Stallion, and Craftopia, both of which have been renewed.

Selena+Chef (above), featuring pop star Selena Gomez learning to cook at home, was its big pandemic bet and the show also returned for a second season.

Jennifer O'Connell, EVP, Non-Fiction & Live-Action Family, said that its originals skew younger and female. "We want to be bold and we'll take on any genre," she said. "We just need to make sure that [our shows] don't feel like they could necessarily be on a broadcast network show or a cable show."

Festive dating format 12 Dates of Christmas is another show that performed well for the streamer and has been renewed and O'Connell told Deadline that flower competition format Full Bloom is also returning. Upcoming projects include streetwear competition The Hype, Bethenny Frankel business format The Big Shot With Bethenny and a cocktail-infused reboot of classic gameshow Tattletales hosted by Ayesha and Stephen Curry.

O'Connell said that there are plenty of "juicy" dating shows in the works. But there's two types of shows that she's particularly hunting. "I want to crack the arced food show, which is hard. It's really tricky because there have been some really great ones out there already, like Top Chef and MasterChef, and how do you compete with that," she said. "Then, I would love to do a survival show. What is our version of that space? We're developing some but we'd really would love to figure that one out."

Paramount+ is also changing the way that MTV Entertainment Group looks at its non-scripted portfolio. It launched last month with The Real World Homecoming: New York, reuniting the cast of the 1992 show, and an all stars version of MTV's The Challenge. "Streaming is an opportunity to bring that content to a whole new generation and go everywhere that our audiences are. That generation isn't going to be consuming it on linear," said Diaz.

Having said that, she added that MTV's slate of "tentpole franchises" such as eighth season will air on the network, but Deadline understands that this is as a result of Covid hitting its planned scripted movie push rather than a shift in strategy. Jersey Shore: Family Reunion and Floribama Shore will remain on linear. While Comedy Central has been pivoting heavily towards animation and recently cancelled series including Drunk History and Tosh.0, Diaz said she is developing and looking for new topical comedy formats for the network. "Unscripted will continue to play a big role on Comedy Central." Paramount Network is rebranding to the Paramount Movie Network later this year, which led to the cancelation of Ink Master (right ) and Wife Swap. Bar Rescue's Lip Sync Battle, however, will not continue in its current form, although Diaz said that it was IP that was "ripe for reinvention".

Discovery is similarly shaking up its linear to digital mix with the launch of Discovery+. It launched earlier this year with a slew of 90 Day Fiancé spinoffs and will launch an expanded slate of originals from Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia in July, ahead of the network's linear debut in January 2022. A number of its cable shows are already premiering on the digital platform and Deadline has heard the factual brand has been casting around for A-list names for new originals. "Sometimes we'll know [whether a show is Discovery+ or linear show] from the beginning and sometimes it will find its way in execution, where there are different choices that we make along the way that really steer it, casting is a big one, towards streaming or the network," Lisa Holme, Group SVP, and Commercial Strategy, told Deadline.

LINEAR LANDSCAPE LEANS INTO DIGITAL BUYING

Many of the buyers at the broadcast networks are no longer only looking at linear schedules. Groom and Aissa are buying across NBCUniversal's broadcast, cable and streamer Peacock, while ABC's Rob Mills recently took over unscripted programming at Hulu, ViacomCBS' team is buying for MTV, Comedy Central, VH1 and Paramount+, and Turner's Corie Henson is working closely with her HBO Max counterpart Jen O'Connell.

Mills' recent promotion saw him take over alternative programming for Hulu, a platform that has focused on scripted and documentary originals over entertainment. Mills said that there is "huge opportunity" and a "blank canvas" at Hulu. He said it would look at dating social experiments, building on the success of on acquired titles such as the British version of Love Island. He added, "If we were going to do a version of a game or competition show, it should have its own sort of something that feels distinctly Hulu."

Frogger, an adaptation of the 1980's video game, is a recent example of the strategy at NBCU. The show, which is produced by Holey Moley producer Eureka Productions, will air on Peacock.

"It's happened with a couple of our shows, where a pitch has come in and we've fallen in love with it, but we maybe just don't have the slot for it on NBC or separately it doesn't fit within NBC's brand filters, but it's a great show. We're then able to look across the portfolio and try to find a home for it, which is really exciting," said Groom.

She added that the company is able to be a little edgier, niche or younger on Peacock and can play around with windowing. "It's another playground for us to play in," she added.

Aissa said that it allows them to buy shows outside of traditional development seasons and give producers answers quicker. "So far, we've had a lot of good response from the creative community and we're putting some points on the board with regard to working that way."

The Real Housewives (left) franchise consists of eight shows on Bravo, a Miami-set series coming for Peacock and a "mash-up" featuring an all star group of characters set for the streamer. "Mash-up is shot over a real, finite-period. It's doesn't shoot over months and months. There's a little bit of a construct to it that causes interaction. It's a remote setting that's beautiful, so inhibitions are down," said Aissa.

Fox's Wade is also looking at how the company's AVOD streamer Tubi can play into its originals strategy. He said that certain types of factual entertainment formats might not be as "sticky" as gameshows or competition formats but have a longer shelf life than entertainment series and could work on the streaming service that Fox acquired for $440M in April 2020. Wade, who said that he had a couple of shows in the advanced stages of development that fit this bill, added, "It's really interesting as the business changes to look at what now Tubi means for us and thinking about the long tale of shows."

WarnerMedia is also sharing resources. The company has two brands focused on non-scripted - the Turner cable nets and streamer HBO Max. But Turner's Corie Henson and HBO's Max Jen O'Connell are working closely together. Max recently launched Stylish with Jenna Lyons, a show that was originally set up at Turner, and there had been talk of HBO Max doing a kids' version of British gameshow The Cube at the same time that TBS launched its grown-up version. The recent overall deal with the Tenderloins comedy troupe, stars of Impractical Jokers, will see them developing a slew of non-scripted projects across platforms, some they will star in and others that they will exec produce. "We're very collaborative," said Henson.

THE NEXT PHASE OF REALITY DOCUSOAPS

Bling Empire, a reality series that follows a wildly wealthy group of Asian and Asian-American friends and frenemies in Los Angeles, is the latest docusoap sensation.

The show, produced by Jeff Jenkins Productions, launched on Netflix in January and has been renewed for a second season. The streamer has also renewed Selling Sunset through season five and has ordered My Unorthodox Life following fashion mogul Julia Haart and a realty series set on the Florida coast.

These are all part of a new wave of docusoaps, a genre that shows no sign of slowing down. It is possibly best summed up by what's going on at Hulu, which has new reality series featuring the D'Amelio family, made famous by TikTok star Charli D'Amelio, and The Kardashians follow up show. Rob Mills said he believes these docusoaps, featuring the "old guard and new guard" will be defining shows.

This has long been the heartland of NBCU cable networks such as Bravo, E! and USA Network. Below Deck has been a huge hit for Bravo with eight seasons and two spin-offs and Deadline understands that a cold water series, potentially filming in Iceland, is in the works. Aissa's team is also reportedly eyeing a real-life Emily in Paris-style reality series along with a slew of other projects set in the U.S.

"It's like finding lightning in a bottle," he admitted. "Are we trying to find another show that will galvanize an audience in the way the Kardashians did? Yes, but we're not alone in that. Every network is looking to find lightning in a bottle again."

Chrisley Knows Best, which follows real estate tycoon Todd Chrisley, is a similar sized hit for USA Network with eight seasons and a spinoff. NBCU is now looking to expand the franchise further. "We're talking to Todd about what other things are in his creative powerhouse of a mind because he's a guy with a thousand ideas. That doesn't necessarily have to be a family docuseries," added Aissa.

THE GROWING WORLD OF SPINOFFS & REBOOTS

Spinoffs aren't solely the domain of docusoaps. There's been lots of talk of spinoffs of NBC's The Voice with a kids' version popular internationally and a hip-hop version recently ordered in Turkey. Groom said, "We talked about different iterations for The Voice in the past and we ultimately haven't pulled the trigger just for various logistic reasons or timing. Finding the right spinoff is a little bit more challenging than you would expect."

However, Groom admitted that it is looking at a couple of other spinoffs of other NBC formats for Peacock.

The Bachelor is one of the most spun off franchises on broadcast television. ABC's Mills said that it is still high on a senior citizen version of the dating format and is currently casting. He joked that casting has thrown up one older woman who claimed that she has slept with a former President of the United States. The senior citizen version will likely replace The Bachelor: Listen To Your Heart, which will not return to ABC.

The Disney-owned network has committed to two versions of The Bachelorette in 2021. The first one, featuring Katie Thurston, is in production now and will air in the summer, followed by the second, fronted by Michelle Young, airing in the fall. Mills said the format can help launch scripted shows, as it did with Big Sky in 2020. "I made a commitment to the network that we would have some Bachelor related programming in the fall. As we were doing that, we also saw that we had some really great girls this season of The Bachelor, " he said.

Another defining feature of non-scripted, as is also the case on the scripted side, is reboots. Wipeout just launched on TBS and became the top new unscripted show on cable this year with close to 2M viewers.

CBS is also bringing back Kids Say The Darndest Things after it was cancelled by ABC after one season. Deadline understands that the show, which is hosted by Tiffany Haddish, will return with half-hour episodes. Graham said that they're pleased to bring the comedian back to the network after she was discovered via its comedy showcase scheme.

Its sister company is also bringing back titles such as Behind The Music, Ink Master, not long after it was cancelled, and Dating Naked, which ran for three seasons on VH1, for Paramount+.

Diaz said, "We love to challenge ourselves to what can we do to go further and reskin, rethink and reimagine these beloved reality franchises creatively."

Fox recently rebooted Name That Tune and has others in the works. Wade said that one of the benefits is that brand recognition means you can put these shows anywhere in the schedule and they will find an audience, which is particularly useful now as it can be more challenging to craft new formats at a time when the pandemic has made production more difficult.

ABC has also aired plenty of updates of classic gameshows including Card Sharks, Celebrity Family Feud, Press Your Luck, The $100,000 Pyramid and To Tell The Truth.

"Pretty soon it's going to get to the place where we're going to cancel Family Feud and then reboot that somewhere else... rebooting our own reboots," joked Mills. "We're due for some new fresh ideas. Shows that evolve and push things forward, big swings. You can feel it. It's been a little while. It's really time for us to start looking for things that feel just different."

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The State Of Non-Scripted TV: Networks & Streamers Optimistic In 2021 As They Seek Post-Pandemic Stability & Noisy New Hits

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The non-scripted television business is made up of a wily group of people who deftly navigated their way through the Covid-19 pandemic to get a large volume of shows on air.

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After booking Morgan Wallen, the Billboard Music Awards have added another controversial performer to their 2022 show: Travis Scott, who will give his first televised performance since a crowd surge at Astroworld injured hundreds and led to 10 deaths.

A press release did not specify what Scott plans to do during his performance. He is also up for one Billboard Music Award this year, with the HVME remix of his track "Goosebumps" nominated for Top Dance/Electronic Song.

Along with Scott, the BBMAs added Ed Sheeran, Becky G, Elle King, and Miranda Lambert to the 2022 lineup. They all join Wallen, Silk Sonic, Florence and the Machine, Maxwell, Megan Thee Stallion, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Burna Boy

The announcement of Scott's BBMAs booking came after he delivered his first public performance since Astroworld, a 45-minute set at the Miami nightclub E11even. Scott was also recently announced as a headliner for Primavera Sound's upcoming festival in Brazil, where he'll perform, Nov. 6, exactly one day after the first anniversary of the Astroworld tragedy. Scott is expected to be added to more festivals this summer as well.

But even as he returns to the public eye, Scott remains the center of an array of litigation over Astroworld, where 10 people died and hundreds were injured in a crowd surge during his set. The rapper is a main defendant in more than 380 lawsuits that have been filed by victims and attendees, all of which have been combined into one master case. The suit alleges that Astrowrold was negligently planned and staged, and that the crowd surge was preventable. Scott and the other defendants have denied the allegations against them.

As for Wallen, his BBMAs slot will come just a couple of months after the country music industry welcomed him back with open arms at the Academy of Country Music Awards in March. Wallen - who won Album of the Year for Dangerous: The Double Album - had been barred from last year's show, one of several industry-wide repercussions he faced after being caught on video casually using the n-word. Despite the controversy, Wallen's music remained wildly successful , and after spending much of 2021 on an apology tour , he's been steadily stepping further into the limelight with new music and a massive arena tour .

MRC Live and Alternative, which produces the BBMAs, explained the decision to book Wallen in an internal memo shared via Billboard. Per the memo, the decision came about after both internal discussions, as well as discussions between MRC and Wallen's team; MRC staffers were reportedly convinced that Wallen had committed to bettering himself and learning more, and that the 2021 incident was not part of a frequent pattern of behavior. ( Billboard and Rolling Stone are both owned by the same company, PMRC, which came about in 2020 after a merger between MRC and Penske Media Corporation.)

"We oppose discrimination, harassment, or racism of any kind," MRC said. "We believe in treating everyone with dignity and respect. After a thorough review and robust discussions internally and with the artist's team, in which we found a demonstrated and ongoing commitment to meaningful work and outreach, we extended an invitation to participate in this year's show."

Both Meg and Burna Boy will perform at the BBMAs for the first time this year, while the Red Hot Chili Peppers will return to the show for the first time in 23 years. The initial lineup for this year's show also includes Rauw Alejandro and Latto, while more artists will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Weeknd scooped up the most nominations (17) for this year's Billboard Music Awards, while Doja Cat and Olivia Rodrigo followed close behind with 14 and 13 nominations, respectively.

The Weeknd, Doja, and Rodrigo were all nominated for Top Artist, alongside Drake and Taylor Swift. Doja Cat and Rodrigo will also vie for Top Female Artist against Adele, Dua Lipa, and Swift, while the Weeknd will compete for Top Male Artist against Drake, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, and Lil Nas X.

In the Top New Artist category, Rodrigo - who just won Best New Artist at the Grammys - will compete against Giveon, Masked Wolf, Pooh Shiesty, and the Kid Laroi. Meanwhile, the Top Duo/Group category will feature BTS, Glass Animals, Imagine Dragons, Migos, and Silk Sonic. (A full list of nominees is available here.)

Nominees and winners for the Billboard Music Awards are based on various factors such as album and digital song sales, streaming numbers, radio airplay, and social engagement. The qualification period for this year's show is April 10, 2021 through March 26, 2022, and the aforementioned metrics are tracked by Billboard and its various data partners. ( Billboard and Rolling Stone share the same parent company, PMRC.)

Other top nominees at the BBMAs this year include Drake, who's up for 11 categories and is already the most decorated artist in the show's history with 29 wins. Swift, however, has 25 wins, meaning she could surpass Drake if she takes home enough of her seven prizes (she's even nominated twice in the Top Country Album category for the "Taylor's Versions" of Red and Fearless). Bieber also has a chance to add to his 21 BBMA wins thanks to his 13 nominations this year.

The 2022 BBMAs will feature five new categories, including four based on Billboard 's global charts and one that measures viral songs: Top Billboard Global 200 Artist, Top Billboard Global Excl. U.S. Artist, Top Billboard Global 200 Song, and Top Billboard Global Excl U.S. Song.

The BBMAs will be broadcast live on May 15 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on NBC (they'll also stream live on Peacock). The show, which is open to the public, will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas; tickets are on sale now.

This story was updated 4/19/22 at 10:51 a.m. ET with performers for the 2022 Billboard Music Awards. This story was updated 4/29/22 at 2:00 p.m. ET with new performers and information about the decision to book Morgan Wallen. This story was updated 5/9/22 at 3:00 p.m. ET with new performers and information about Travis Scott and the Astroworld tragedy.

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Billboard Music Awards Book Travis Scott for First TV Performance Since Astroworld Tragedy

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After booking Morgan Wallen, the Billboard Music Awards have added another controversial performer to their 2022 show: Travis Scott, who will give his first televised performance since a crowd surge at Astroworld injured hundreds and led to 10 deaths. A press release did not specify what Scott plans to do during his performance.

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here is one rule behind every movie poster you have ever seen. And it's not: "Superheroes must stare determinedly into the distance." It is this: the billing block, the list of cast and crew at the bottom, must be in a typeface that is at least 15% of the size of the film title's lettering. In 2005, when he was leading the advertising campaign for the Jim Carrey comedy Fun With Dick and Jane, William Loper didn't like that.

Big fun ... the poster for Fun with Dick and Jane. Photograph: Collection Christophel/Alamy

The guideline, which is there to ensure billings are actually legible, annoyed Loper because it meant that if he wanted to make a film's title larger and more eye-catching, he had to make the billing block larger too. But the then executive vice-president of advertising at Sony Pictures spotted a loophole. It was the average height of each letter in the title that counted. So he made just one word in the Carrey comedy's title huge and bright red: FUN. "We cheated," he says.

But why? Well, between 2003 and 2013, Loper launched eight campaigns a year, each having to be as grabby as possible. And when it came to advertising comedies, there were two big typography tricks: make the title big, and make it red. When the trailer for Catherine Tate's The Nan Movie dropped in February this year, its title was big and red. Disney's Cheaper By the Dozen remake, which followed shortly after, has its final word in thick, ruddy, bloated type. What's more, both posters - like Fun With Dick and Jane - have vast white backgrounds.

So, who started the big red titles on empty backgrounds trend and why is it red that tickles our funny bones? No one is better placed to answer this than Loper, who also worked on The Nutty Professor, Are We There Yet?, The Klumps, Liar, Liar, Step Brothers, Hitch and American Pie. By now, I don't need to tell you how their posters look. "The white background, red typography," he says, "really thrived in the mid-90s and early 2000s."

As part of his job, Loper showed prototype trailers to test audiences. "We did the teaser trailer for Nutty Professor and it said, 'Something big is coming' - and then we slammed on those big titles. That was a huge hit in the focus groups." Because producers and even stars get a say on a film's advertising, research like this can help execs prove they are on the right track. But there is no one study that says: "Red equals comedy, big letters equal big money." Instead, there is the humble bus shelter.

Street theatre ... the poster for stage comedy Groan Ups, by designer Rebecca Pitt

Loper explains: "A producer I used to work with would constantly tell me: 'If I'm driving down the street at 40mph and it's raining, I want to see a bus shelter poster that has impact. I want to see it from eight blocks away.'" Empty backgrounds help a film's star pop out, while red is red. There's a reason why it is the colour of stop signs and classic lipsticks. In the past, when billboards and bus shelter ads were printed on paper, advertisers had to get the campaign right first time. "But now," says Loper, "you can change a digital billboard every other day. That's really helped."

Poster designer Rebecca Pitt explains that, 30 years ago, the tech was more limited. "Big red letters were easy to do, whereas 3D metallic lettering only became easy 15 or so years ago." The latter, she says, has become the default in theatre posters for plays such as Anything Goes and Amélie. Although Pitt has used big red letters herself in a couple of theatre posters: Groan Ups and The Comedy About a Bank Robbery. "These are very accessible shows that appeal to families," she says. "The big red letters help to signify that. We want to reassure audiences that this'll be a fun evening out - nothing too highbrow or alternative."

'The trick is almost as old as cinema itself' ... a Marx Bros poster from 1937. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

But every campaign wants to be eye-catching and appealing. Why did comedy get a monopoly on big and red - and not, say, action movies or thrillers? Robyn Larkin is the creative director of the film poster agency Bobo, which worked on Winter's Bone and Netflix's Paranormal. He describes it as "a sort of chicken and egg situation" whereby marketers became obsessed with "comps" (comparisons) and would ask designers to emulate other successful campaigns. He describes the situation as "a sort of fake myth, where they think that if the promotional look worked well for film A then it will also work for film B". He cites 1999's American Pie and 2000's Meet the Parents as hits that inspired copycat marketing. "Yet American Pie worked because it was a great new sort of film." Its success probably had little to do with typefaces.

Loper believes big type and blank backgrounds started in the late 1980s. So did Honey, I Shrunk the Kids father the whole thing in 1989? Perhaps not: despite its blue-sky background, 1980's Airplane! was an earlier example. What about the Carry On posters of the 1960s, which liberally employed big red type alongside saucy cartoons?

In fact, you can trace the trend all the way back to 1937 and the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races, even to Charlie Chaplin's The Kid from 1921. While comedies at the turn of the millennium undoubtedly caused a resurgence, the trick is almost as old as cinema itself - and it seems unlikely to be going away.

"One day," says Larkin, "there will be a big comedy hit that uses a different style because the team took a risk and it worked. That style may then become the next trope as marketing people across the land copy the style, looking to ride the film's success." Perhaps the opposite could happen. With a solid 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, The Nan Movie might put the big and red to bed.

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Scarlet O'Haha: why do film posters for comedies always have huge red letters?

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here is one rule behind every movie poster you have ever seen. And it's not: "Superheroes must stare determinedly into the distance." It is this: the billing block, the list of cast and crew at the bottom, must be in a typeface that is at least 15% of the size of the film title's lettering.

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“All Writing Is Basically Failure”: Ada Limón Reckons With Poetry in Today’s World

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In her new collection, The Hurting Kind, Limón expounds upon vulnerability and grief in a broken world, writing, “I like to call things as they are.”

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Kendrick Lamar dropped his first new solo single in nearly four years on Sunday night, called "The Heart Part 5." The song arrives just days before the long-awaited release of his fifth solo album, "Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers" on May 13.

The video begins with Lamar rapping by himself in front of a red screen, but occasionally has the faces of other rappers, and controversial or deceased Black men photoshopped over his: Kanye West, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant, OJ Simpson, Jussie Smollett and finally Nipsey Hussle.

The video, which was directed by Lamar and longtime collaborator Dave Free, opens with a written statement - "I am. All of us," attributed to "Oklama," a name Lamar has been using in his recent cryptic announcements about the album - which could be interpreted to be a statement about the faces that are superimposed over his in the video.

The song's lyrics blaze by quickly - check Genius.com for in-depth analysis - but the faces seem to have direct connections to at least some of the lyrics: West's appears during a reference to a "friend's bipolar," Simpson's references a "bulletproof rover," and Hussle's takes the form of a long soliloquy that closes out the song, apparently from the perspective of the late L.A. rapper, who was murdered in 2019 and was a close friend of Lamar's.

"To my brother, to my kids I'm in heaven ... To the killer that sped up my demise: I forgive you, just know your soul's in question/ I seen the pain in your pupil when that trigger had squeezed/ And though you did me gruesome, I was surely relieved/ I completed my mission, wasn't ready to leave/ But fulfilled my days, my Creator was pleased ... To my neighborhood, let the good prevail ... I can't blame the hood the day that I was killed."

The song opens with a spoken introduction with Lamar thanking "everyone who's been down with me, all my fans, all my beautiful fans" before he bursts into rapid-fire rapping over a jazzy musical backing that turns into '70s soul for the chorus.

The song is the latest in Lamar's ongoing series called "The Heart," reaching back to 2010.

Lamar unveiled the long-awaited "Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers" album last month. Responding to an earlier tweet from SK that says, "Kendrick Lamar is officially retired," the rap titan responded with a link: oklama.com, which leads to a note that reads:

"The following statement was released today by oklama, through his company pgLang at 11:00 a.m. PT in Los Angeles, CA:

Album: 'Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers' Release date: 5/13/2022

All factual information for this release will come directly from this source only."

Lamar's last full-length project was 2017's Grammy-winning "DAMN," which was released just two days before his headlining Coachella set, also led to his Pulitzer Prize and made him the honoree at Variety's inaugural Hitmakers event.

He followed a year later by curating and contributing several songs to the "Black Panther" soundtrack, including his duet with SZA, "All the Stars." In 2021, he featured on two songs from his cousin Baby Keem's latest album - "Range Brothers" and the Grammy-winning "Family Ties" - although those appearances just seemed to energize and make his fan base even more impatient.

There have even been several false alarms, such as a social media frenzy ignited last summer by his record label TDE, but that turned out to be a tease for the Isaiah Rashad album. As several fans pointed out on social media, Lamar announced his long-awaited new album via a minimalist fax page similar to the one Michael Jordan put out in March 1995 to announce he was ending his retirement and returning to the NBA.

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Kendrick Lamar Drops New Song, 'The Heart Part 5' - Video Features the Faces of Kanye West, Will Smith, O.J. Simpson, Others Photoshopped Over His

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Kendrick Lamar dropped his first new solo single in nearly four years on Sunday night, called "The Heart Part 5." The song arrives just days before the long-awaited release of his fifth solo album, "Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers" on May 13.

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Ncuti Gatwa, breakout star of Netflix's Sex Education, has been chosen to play the next Doctor Who, replacing Jodie Whittaker, the BBC announced on Sunday. The 29-year-old Gatwa is the first Black actor to play the iconic role. "There aren't quite the words to describe how I'm feeling. A mix of deeply honoured, beyond excited, and of course a little bit scared," Gatwa said in a statement. "This role and show means so much to so many around the world, including myself, and each one of my incredibly talented predecessors has handled that unique responsibility and privilege with the utmost care. I will endeavor my upmost to do the same." Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies noted in the press release, "Sometimes talent walks through the door and it's so bright and bold and brilliant, I just stand back in awe and thank my lucky stars. Ncuti dazzled us, seized hold of the Doctor and owned those TARDIS keys in seconds." Whittaker, the first woman to play Doctor Who, announced her departure from the series last July, and no date has been set yet for her final episode.

The future is here! Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor. ❤️❤️➕🟦 #DoctorWho

Read more here ➡️ https://t.co/KoxPmoNAdL pic.twitter.com/peKsH6gCjI
- Doctor Who (@bbcdoctorwho) May 8, 2022

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Sex Education's Ncuti Gatwa Is the New Doctor Who

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Ncuti Gatwa, breakout star of Netflix's Sex Education , has been chosen to play the next Doctor Who, replacing Jodie Whittaker, the BBC announced on Sunday. The 29-year-old Gatwa is the first Black actor to play the iconic role. "There aren't quite the words to describe how I'm feeling.

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https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/roman-coins-constantine-the-great-uncovered-by-amateur-1234627938/

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A Trove of Ancient Roman Coins Was Uncovered by an Amateur Archaeologist in Switzerland

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The coins date back to 4th century C.E., making them a rarity for numismatists.

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Box Office: 'Doctor Strange 2' Debuts to Heroic $185 Million

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Doctor Strange and his questionably effective book of spells has summoned a blockbuster $185 million at North American movie theaters over the weekend, reaffirming the box office dominance of Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe after a shakier, pandemic-battered year for the franchise.

The timeline-bending " Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness " represents a return to form for Disney's MCU after COVID-era releases "Black Widow" ($80 million debut, plus $60 million on Disney Plus) and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" ($75 million debut), and "Eternals" ($71 million debut). Due to the pandemic and other extenuating circumstances, those installments failed to live up to their franchise predecessors in terms of ticket sales.

Those box office returns mark the 11th biggest opening weekend in history. Given the anomaly of reaching those box office heights, "Doctor Strange 2" easily delivered the biggest opening weekend of 2022, as well as the second-biggest debut in COVID-19 times. Prior to this weekend, "The Batman" stood as the year's biggest opening weekend with $134 million. "Spider-Man: No Way Home" still ranks as the pandemic's biggest opening weekend (and the second-biggest ever) with $260 million.

By contrast, the "Doctor Strange" follow-up outgrossed its predecessor's entire opening weekend tally in a single day. "Doctor Strange 2" raked in $90 million on Friday alone, while the 2016 adventure "Doctor Strange" brought in $85 million between Friday and Sunday. Marvel and other major franchise films tend to be front-loaded in terms of ticket sales because fans want to be among the first to see the movie - lest spoilers appear online and ruin the fun. Still, the sequel will quickly blow past the final box office tally of the original "Doctor Strange," which ended its theatrical run with $232 million domestically and $677 million globally.

"Doctor Strange 2" is benefitting as the follow-up film to Sony's box office behemoth "Spider-Man: No Way Home," which became a must-see movie event and grossed $1.89 billion worldwide. With Peter Parker's tantalizing adventures as a precursor, plus Disney's marketing machine heavily teasing some big surprise cameos, "Doctor Strange" landed in rarified air - even for a Marvel movie.

Imax, 3D and other premium format screens also contributed to higher grosses for "Doctor Strange 2," which cost $200 million to produce, not including hefty marketing fees. According to Disney, 36% of overall box office ticket sales came from premium formats.

"This is another sensational Marvel opening, by Marvel's own dominant standard," says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. "'Doctor Strange' is growing its audience with a stronger follow-up release."

Sam Raimi, the mastermind behind the original "Spider-Man" trilogy, directed "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." The film picks up as the eponymous neurosurgeon-turned-Avenger, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, casts a dangerous spell that forces him to travel into the multiverse to face a mysterious new adversary and alternate versions of himself. Along with Cumberbatch, the cast includes Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff a.k.a. Scarlet Witch, Benedict Wong as Wong and Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, a teen who can travel between dimensions.

"Doctor Strange 2" kicks off the summer blockbuster season with a bang. In the coming months, "Top Gun: Maverick" (May 27), "Jurassic World Dominion" (June 10) and "Thor: Love and Thunder" (July 8) should keep theaters bustling with foot traffic. With "The Multiverse of Madness" looming large in theaters (and taking up nearly every single screen in major circuits), several holdover titles rounded out box office charts.

After two weeks at the No. 1 spot, Universal's animated heist comedy "The Bad Guys" dropped to second place with $9.7 million from 3,839 venues. Those returns bring the movie's domestic tally to $57 million.

Paramount's family-friendly "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" took third place with $6.2 million from 3,358 North American theaters. After five weeks on the big screen, the "Sonic" follow-up has grossed $169.9 million at the domestic box office. It's one of the rare pandemic-era sequels to earn more than its predecessor in theaters. "Sonic's" first silver screen adventure took in $148 million in North America before COVID-19 forced multiplexes to close in March of 2020.

"Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" dropped to the No. 4 spot with $3.8 million from 3,051 screens. The latest chapter in the "Harry Potter" prequel series ranks as the lowest-grossing of the larger Wizarding World film franchise. "The Secrets of Dumbledore" has generated $86 million to date and may struggle to cross $100 million domestically, a benchmark that prior "Harry Potter"-adjacent movies passed in a matter of days.

A24's "Everything Everywhere All at Once" beat the Focus Features film "The Northman" for fifth place, as the former brought in $3.3 million from 1,542 theaters and the latter brought in $2.7 million from 2,413 theaters. This weekend's turnout continues a strong box office run for "Everything Everywhere All At Once," a genre-defying movie starring Michelle Yeoh, despite playing in far fewer theaters than "The Northman." Since opening in theaters seven weeks ago, "Everything Everywhere" has grossed an impressive $41 million in North America. "The Northman" has earned $28 million to date.

At the specialty box office, IFC Films opened Audrey Diwan's abortion drama "Happening" to theaters in New York City and Los Angeles, bringing in $34,000 from four venues. That translates to $8,500 per location. "Happening," which unfolds in 1963 France, arrives on the big screen at a politically charged moment, with the Supreme Court seemingly about to overturn Roe v. Wade. IFC plans to bring the film to more than 100 cities nationwide next week.

"IFC Films is committed to bringing 'Happening' to screens across America at this pivotal moment in time," said Arianna Bocco, president of IFC Films. "We hope audiences seek this film out and that it sparks important conversations about our future. We are proud to continue our long tradition of sharing important, female-driven stories with audiences nationwide."
More to come...

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Box Office: 'Doctor Strange 2' Debuts to Heroic $185 Million

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Doctor Strange and his questionably effective book of spells has summoned a blockbuster $185 million at North American movie theaters over the weekend, reaffirming the box office dominance of Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe after a shakier, pandemic-battered year for the franchise.

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Abortion on screen: how film and TV depictions have changed over time

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Screenwriters have been quietly raising the alarm over a shift in access to abortions in the US, showing both the difficulties and the history that’s led us here

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Chlöe Bailey talks shop with Terrell Grice about the music industry and how hard it can be to find success.

During an episode of "The Terrell Show," Chlöe discusses why it's harder for some than others. "Musicians don't make a lot of money in the music industry," Bailey tells Grice around 28 minutes into the episode. "That's why you see a lot of people - they have brand deals and brand sponsorships because that's where the coin comes from. And touring. But music itself, you're actually losing money," Chlöe adds.

She also shares with Terrell Grice some of the surprises she discovered while producing music.

"You wanna know something else? I learned this because I would produce sis and I's records. Producers outside will get paid a huge lump sum. But, because I would produce sis and I's records, I couldn't get paid because I was a producer within the group," Chlöe shares.

"The good is that, even though you lose money in the music business, you get a coin from everything that comes from the music you're making," Chlöe continues. "So the music is almost like the ad. It's a business. And it's sad to think of it that way, but it's why tours go big - that's where you make your money. And the big brand deals."

Chlöe Bailey says the same stipulation barred her from being nominated for 'Producer of the Year' at the Grammys. She admits she's not sure if the rules have changed since, given how many changes the awards ceremony has undergone behind the scenes in recent years.

Chlöe Bailey is also working on a Peacock exclusive show called Praise This. She stars as the newest member of a community church's choir. As Bailey's character pushes the members in a more modern musical direction, her involvement with an irreverent hip-hop star may kick off her own music career. The movie is set to premiere sometime in 2023.

"I wanna win an EGOT - Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony. That's like, my main goal. If anybody asks me, I'm just gonna say that," Bailey shares about her future. Her debut album is officially complete, but there's no official word on a release date yet.

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Chlöe Bailey on the Industry - "You're Actually Losing Money" on Music

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During an episode of "The Terrell Show," Chlöe discusses why it's harder for some than others. "Musicians don't make a lot of money in the music industry," Bailey tells Grice around 28 minutes into the episode. "That's why you see a lot of people - they have brand deals and brand sponsorships because that's where the coin comes from.

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The Met Gala Is Bound to Be Gilded and Over-the-Top

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The annual fashion extravaganza happens tonight, with tickets priced at $35,000 and invitations required.

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Harry Styles Gaslights Florence Pugh in ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Trailer

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Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for “Don’t Worry Darling,” Olivia Wilde’s new psychological thriller starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles. The trailer first d…

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https://www.npr.org/2022/03/01/1083647043/kandinsky-painting-that-was-auctioned-during-wwii-is-returned-to-jewish-heirs

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A prized painting by Russian master Wassily Kandinsky that was sold under duress during World War II has been returned to the descendants of its former Jewish owners.

The oil painting, Bild mit Häusern (Painting with Houses), was just one of a treasured art collection inherited by Robert Lewenstein and his wife Irma Klein, which, at one point, also included works by Van Gogh, Renoir and Rembrandt. But the pair was forced to auction off the Kandinsky painting in October 1940 as they fled the Nazis five months after they invaded the Netherlands.

Records show the director of Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum bought the Kandinsky for a fraction of its value at the time. Het Parool reports: "He paid 160 guilders for it - a pittance of the original value at the time, 2000 to 3000 guilders."

The 1909 painting of a figure in a colorful, abstracted landscape, now has an estimated value of more than $20 million.

Its transfer to Lewenstein's heirs on Monday puts an end to a nine-year dispute.

"As a city, we bear a great responsibility for dealing with the indescribable suffering and injustice inflicted on the Jewish population in the Second World War," Amsterdam Deputy Mayor Touria Meliani said in a statement.

"To the extent that anything can be restored, we as a society have a moral duty to act accordingly. This certainly applies to the many works of art that were in the possession of Jewish citizens and were looted by Nazis or were otherwise lost to the owners," Meliani added.

An initial attempt to regain the multi-million dollar work of art was denied by the Dutch Restitutions Committee, in 2018, following a five-year investigation. The committee rules in cases of ownership of artifacts looted during Nazi occupation

An appeal of the decision in 2020 also failed. But a year later, a second committee, formed by the Dutch government ruled to reassess the case. That led to renewed talks between the Lewenstein heirs and the municipality.

"The municipality and the heirs agree that the restitution does justice to the principle of returning works of art that were involuntarily removed from possession during the Second World War due to circumstances directly related to the Nazi regime to heirs of the then owners where possible," the museum said on Monday.

James Palmer of the Mondex Corporation, which helps with restitution negotiations, added, "Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in the journey of the Lewenstein family to achieve the justice, dignity and respect that they have been rightfully seeking for so many years."

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Kandinsky painting that was auctioned during WWII is returned to Jewish heirs

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A prized painting by Russian master Wassily Kandinsky that was sold under duress during World War II has been returned to the descendants of its former Jewish owners. The oil painting, Bild mit Häusern (Painting with Houses), was just one of a treasured art collection inherited by Robert Lewenstein and his wife Irma Klein, which, at one point, also included works by Van Gogh, Renoir and Rembrandt.

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https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/05/embracer-acquires-tomb-raider-deus-ex-and-all-western-square-enix-game-studios/

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On Monday, Japanese game publisher Square-Enix confirmed that it was selling all three of its Western video game studios, along with many significant game series and IP attached to those studios, to the European game publisher Embracer.

The sale includes game studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Square-Enix Montreal. All three had previously been wholly owned by Square-Enix, and Embracer will acquire their entire staffs, combined at roughly 1,100 people, along with popular IP such as Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and Legacy of Kain, and a game-publishing catalog of "over 50 games," for $300 million.

Not all of the deal's IP has been confirmed thus far, however, and an announcement from Square-Enix indicates that its Western operations "will continue to publish franchises such as Just Cause, Outriders, and Life Is Strange." This suggests that Square-Enix will retain some of its Western-specific IP and that its future collaborations with Western game makers will come via publishing deals with outside developers.

...or one-fourth of a Gearbox

While console manufacturers Microsoft and Sony have racked up headlines thanks to their own megaton game-maker acquisitions over the past few years, Embracer has quietly built its own roster of predominately European studios over the past decade-and was better known by the name THQ Nordic beginning in 2014, after picking up the rights to that fallen publisher's name (though not all of its games). Its biggest acquisitions in the past 12 months have included video game maker Gearbox Software and board game producer Asmodee Games.

Looking at the balance sheet, however, those two deals each exceeded $1 billion, while today's Square-Enix deal falls well short of that number. The discrepancy feels curious in light of Square-Enix itself announcing as part of the series' 25th anniversary celebration that Tomb Raider lifetime game sales had exceeded 85 million in October. As a comparison, that sales number is neck and neck with one of Square-Enix's most beloved game series, Dragon Quest, which had sold over 83 million games as of August of last year. Since it's a full IP acquisition, Embracer will likely also claim the rights to Tomb Raider's legacy as a Hollywood film series, though the company has yet to confirm whether previously rumored Lara Croft-related productions, one live-action and one anime, are still in the works.

Square-Enix's recent handling of Western properties has had some issues, particularly after it put a ton of its Western studios' eggs into the uneven, game-as-a-service basket of Marvel's Avengers-only to see its 2020 launch fall well short of critical and sales expectations. This was followed by the critical 2021 darling Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, helmed by Eidos Montreal, falling short of sales expectations. Between those disappointments and the utter silence of Deus Ex as a sci-fi adventure series since 2016, perhaps Square-Enix's estimation of its combined Western studios' value had fallen.

Still, Embracer wasted no time beating the drum of its newly acquired IP. Its announcement of the deal confirmed that development has already begun on "the next mainline Tomb Raider game," complete with "next-generation storytelling and gameplay experiences," while several other "AAA" projects were teased as being in development by the combined studios.

And shortly after the announcement went live, Eidos Montreal confirmed in an Embracer conference call that its next major game would be set in the world of Deus Ex. The announcement didn't clarify exactly how Crystal Dynamics' recently announced work on the Microsoft-published Perfect Dark sequel will factor in to this deal.

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Square-Enix sells all of its Western game studios-and their games-to Embracer

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On Monday, Japanese game publisher Square-Enix confirmed that it was selling all three of its Western video game studios, along with many significant game series and IP attached to those studios, to the European game publisher Embracer. The sale includes game studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Square-Enix Montreal.

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For the Record is the new Billboard column from deputy editorial director Robert Levine analyzing news and trends in the music industry.

Is Elon Musk a "pedo guy?"

This is the kind of nonsense we can expect more of on Twitter, which Musk recently arranged to buy and take private with the idea that it should be less moderated in the name of free speech. I'm joking about Musk, who famously referred this way to a British diver involved in the rescue of a Thai junior soccer team that had become trapped in a flooded cave. Sued for defamation, Musk basically said he was kidding.

In case Musk's commitment to free speech wavers - as it sometimes seems to when the freedom of speech in question is someone else's - let me repeat that I'm joking as well.

Over the past few days, much virtual ink has been spilled trying to figure out why Musk seems to enjoy this sort of thing, what his purchase of Twitter might mean for the platform's policies on hate speech and disinformation and how this might impact the future of democracy. Executive summary: It's not good. And although there are far more important matters at stake, everyone involved with the music industry should recognize how much Musk's particular brand of free speech rhetoric harks back to the late-'90s vision of the internet as a virtual utopia without regulation. That almost destroyed the business, as well as the livelihoods of many creators. Remember all that talk about how file-sharing was free speech?

The industry rebounded after its initially reluctant embrace of new business models like streaming - but that would have been impossible without some level of copyright enforcement. (How would Spotify fare against a streaming-enabled version of a free peer-to-peer file-sharing service?) Copyright was just the canary in the technology coal mine: The venture capitalists who had so much contempt for creators' rights didn't much care for privacy or labor law, either. They just didn't like laws.

So it's worth asking why so much coverage of Musk's purchase of Twitter involves his personality, and how it might guide him as Twitter's new owner. If Twitter is as important to public dialogue as Musk says, should all of these decisions really be left up to him? Shouldn't we also figure out how to make sure social media companies make good-faith efforts to tackle disinformation and illegal activity on their platforms? The European Union just passed an important new law to regulate social media, and so far it has received less media attention in the U.S. than the mood of Twitter's staff.

Twitter isn't exactly tightly regulated now. It does moderate content more than it used to - almost always on its own initiative as opposed to following outside regulations - but it still doesn't license music. Instead, it operates under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which requires rights holders to send takedown notices when their work appears there. (The RIAA and the NMPA have been sending Twitter takedown notices on behalf of their members - the former for years.) Silicon Valley still prefers begging forgiveness to asking permission.

The fate of the music business might seem petty amid the amount of racism and harassment on social media. That's toxic and terrible. Thankfully, most Americans seem to disapprove of it strongly, even if a lot of it is legal in the U.S. Advertisers don't like it, either, and it's hard to imagine Twitter thriving as a business without the kind of content moderation it has put in place over the past few years.

But a willingness to license music reflects a willingness to comply with other dull but important rules, from regulations on deceptive advertising to laws governing stock manipulation. Violators rarely inspire the kind of public outrage that convinces companies to clean up their own acts, and Musk seems to regard these types of rules with contempt. In 2018, he entered into a consent decree with the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve claims that he had defrauded investors by tweeting that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private. In 2020, he tweeted this: "SEC, three letter acronym, middle word is Elon's." Musk is entitled to his opinion about the SEC - that's what free speech is about. But there are restrictions about what CEOs can say about their plans for a public company that protect investors - just like there are restrictions on how music can be used online, to ensure that the world's music creators can earn a living/to protect creators' rights.

Musk built his reputation, and his considerable wealth, by making big, bold bets on the future. But his ideas about Twitter seem to reflect a view of the internet as a place without laws or any form of content moderation, at a time when most companies are moving in the opposite direction. The internet without rules didn't work - for society, for consumers, and even for the companies in question. The future is in creating a better user experience, and that means moderating content, monitoring fraud and, yes, licensing music. (Does anyone with a subscription to Spotify really miss Napster?) This time it looks like Musk is betting on the past.

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For the Record: Will 'Free Speech' Keep Free Music on Twitter?

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For the Record is the new Billboard column from deputy editorial director Robert Levine analyzing news and trends in the music industry. Is Elon Musk a "pedo guy?" This is the kind of nonsense we can expect more of on Twitter, which Musk recently arranged to buy and take private with the idea that it should be less moderated in the name of free speech.

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https://www.billboard.com/music/features/pusha-t-steven-victor-billboard-cover-story-2022-interview-1235060967/

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The line stretched around the block, to Houston Street on Manhattan's West Side, south down Wooster, wrapping around Prince and then back up Greene Street, the tail end bumping up against the entrance. The kids all looked the part: KENZO, BAPE, Human Made and Supreme, logos as prominent and fresh as their Air Force 1s, dutifully waiting for the chance to pick from a selection of exclusive $130 T-shirts, $450 sweatshirts and $2,000 varsity jackets inside.

For a streetwear fan on a Saturday in New York, there was no better place to be than here, outside a SoHo pop-up shop celebrating the latest collaboration from Nigo. The Japanese cultural legend - who founded BAPE in 1993 and ushered in an aesthetic that made him one of his generation's most iconic fashion designers and tastemakers - was putting out his first album in 17 years, I Know Nigo!, and, as with many of his projects, this one was multifaceted, with its own limited-edition merchandise and clothing lines, drops so rare that to be anywhere else was to simply not care about the culture.

That is, of course, if you know Nigo.

Pharrell Williams knows Nigo, and has for more than 20 years. The two met in Nigo's Tokyo studio - a place with multiple floors housing a showroom, a hair and makeup salon, and studios for photography and recording - when Williams was in town on tour. "I was like, 'Who is this dude?' " Williams recalls. "We've been friends ever since." The two launched the Billionaire Boys Club clothing line together in 2005; Williams is the executive producer of Nigo's new album.

Pusha T knows Nigo. It was 2003 when Nigo - a huge fan of Clipse, the Virginia coke-rap duo of Pusha and his brother Malice (now known as No Malice) whose work was largely produced by The Neptunes - flew them all out to Tokyo to celebrate BAPE's 10th anniversary. "First time I've ever seen branding like that," says Pusha of that trip into Nigo's world. "It was everything - his Rolls-Royces had his camo print; his cafés, the tables were all his prints. I didn't know where I was - I was in Wonka land." Pusha is featured on two tracks on I Know Nigo!, even getting back together with his brother for a mini-Clipse reunion on the album's standout track, "Punch Bowl," produced by Williams.

Steven Victor doesn't just know Nigo - he's a Nigo superfan, having first encountered the designer's work "as a New York City kid at the BAPE store." The two met here and there over the past decade, while Victor was working in his various capacities - as Pusha's manager; as first an A&R executive, then the COO of Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music; after he left G.O.O.D., while working at Universal Music Group with artists like Pop Smoke. But they didn't really think about working together until 2017, when Victor asked if Nigo would design the logo for his new partnership with UMG, Victor Victor Worldwide.

It was Victor, 41, who sparked the creative fire that turned into I Know Nigo!, which debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 after its March 25 release on Victor Victor/Republic and has racked up over 70 million on-demand streams since, according to Luminate. "I had a half-formed idea about doing a new record, and I asked him for advice," Nigo says. (He is a DJ with the Japanese hip-hop group the Teriyaki Boyz, but served as more of a curator on this project.) "[Victor and I are] able to share and exchange ideas, and that's what allowed us to work on this project."

What started as a two-song mini-release with Clipse and Williams evolved, thanks to Victor, into a full-length album, with heavy hitters - and Nigo's friends - A$AP Rocky, Tyler, The Creator, Gunna, Kid Cudi, A$AP Ferg and Lil Uzi Vert lending verses. There is also the exclusive merch from Nigo's Human Made clothing line (he sold BAPE in 2011) and a collaboration with Victor Victor, with branded dog collar sets ($50), baseball bats ($200), skate decks ($100) and an ashtray ($75) available at the pop-up, making Victor's name just as ubiquitous as Nigo's for those who managed to make it inside. Victor and Nigo are planning a restaurant in New York, modeled after Nigo's famed Curry Up spot in Tokyo, while Victor has been in touch with the producers behind Netflix's Michael Jordan docuseries, The Last Dance, about developing a film on Nigo's career.

It's the type of multipronged, industry-spanning project on which Nigo built his career - and that Victor is hoping to emulate with Victor Victor Worldwide, a company encompassing a record label, publishing, merch, branding, management, a charitable foundation and more - putting him among other top-flight managers-turned-CEOs like Coran Capshaw, Scooter Braun and Wassim "Sal" Slaiby, whose management enterprises have recently expanded into all aspects of entertainment.

"Nigo, Pusha, Pop - these are creatives who have different ideas, and I feel like my job is to help bring it to life or just think outside the box about how it can have the most impact without thinking about commercial success," Victor says. "Because commercial success will always come if you make a great product. So my ultimate goal is to give back in the form of inspiration because that's what enabled me. More than anything, me being inspired by different people is what drives me and gives me the ability to do anything."
"My manager started off as my publicist/He buy GT2s and a bunch of other sh-t." -Nigo & Clipse, "Punch Bowl"
"You know what a GT2 is? A GT2 RS Porsche - it's a race car," Victor says, animatedly but distractedly. "I have one, but people don't really drive them on the street. They drive them on the racetrack."

It's two days later, and the line for the pop-up is considerably smaller, with about a dozen people milling around outside - a result of both weekday blues and an early-spring cold front. (The pop-up will ultimately close a few days early - because its inventory sells out.) But in the greenroom downstairs, Victor, omnipresent blue L.A. Dodgers hat on his head, can barely contain his excitement as he tears open a package: a custom Victor Victor racing suit, decked out in Nigo's designs, with racing gloves to match.

The one-of-a-kind fit is for Victor's upcoming training for the Ferrari Challenge, a series of races for the brand in which he'll compete starting next year. "I've always been obsessed with cars - even when I couldn't afford them," he says. "But I've started taking it way more seriously recently."

A lot of things in Victor's life are more serious now that he has risen through the ranks of the music business, ascending over the past two decades from publicist to manager to label executive to CEO. ("I think he has always pretty much been the same person," says Williams of Victor's rise. "The only thing that has really changed is the keys - the keys to opportunities and the keys to his cars.") In 2004, Victor came aboard as a publicist during Clipse's highly successful run of underground mixtapes as the Re-Up Gang, which Victor pushed to journalists and tastemakers, helping build Clipse up on the internet at a time when mixtapes were still more commonly found in stalls on Broadway than as downloads on the web. He would eventually become Clipse's co-manager alongside Suave House founder Tony Draper, who Victor says taught him everything there was to know about management.

"Draper wasn't a manager at heart; he was a label owner, so every dollar that he made was his money," Victor says. "Other managers that I knew, their approach was, 'How can I extract the most money out of the record label and get the best deal for my artist, no matter how it negatively impacts the label?' Draper's approach was, 'Work with the label and make sure they're getting as much out of this as you are.' That gave me a different approach to the music business."

In 2010, Clipse's former manager, Anthony Gonzalez, went to jail on drug charges; Malice found religion and quit rapping (he would return several years later as No Malice); the duo broke up; and Pusha ventured out as a solo act, following the mixtape formula to establish himself on his own. Soon after, West called and asked Pusha to come out to Hawaii to work on his next album, which would become My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. That spawned a working relationship that would lead to Pusha signing with G.O.O.D. Music, West's joint venture with UMG; then Victor becoming an A&R executive at G.O.O.D.; then Pusha and Victor taking over the management of G.O.O.D. Music as president and COO, respectively, in 2015.

Victor was also developing his management roster at the time, signing a series of producers and beginning to work with artists like The-Dream and Tyga. "He's very pro-artist," says Tyga, who worked with Victor in the mid-2010s. "He's not like an industry guy or a guy who worked at a label who's just going to give you the run-around and tell you bullsh-t. He's very in it and very hands-on, and if he sets his mind to something, he's going to get it."

"I feel like even as a young man, what set me apart from other managers was that I was involved in the marketing, the publicity, the music," Victor says. "Now, because the playing field is so level and there's so much competition and so much music coming out so fast, a manager has to wear way more hats than they did back in the day." And how did Victor develop such a broad skill set? "I just paid attention," he says. "I'm a whore for information."

That has often meant pushing - pushing his artists, pushing his partners, pushing those who work for him and those he works for, to create the best project possible. It's how he got Nigo's original idea of creating two songs to blossom into an entire album; it's how he nudged Pusha toward working with West even when their initial sessions didn't pan out; how he pushed to sign Desiigner to G.O.O.D. Music when the Brooklyn MC was on the brink of inking a deal with Columbia, then helped push "Panda" to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
There is also the small matter of the fish sandwich.
"When Steven believes in an artist, there's no stopping him," says Republic Records co-founder/COO Avery Lipman. "He's the ultimate artist advocate and champion. He doesn't relent, and it's why he remains a leading force in the business and the culture."

Legend has it that, in 2003, Pusha co-wrote the iconic McDonald's jingle "I'm Lovin' It," receiving somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million for his and his brother's contribution - but no royalty or ownership stake in the song, which would go on to underpin the longest-running advertising campaign in the company's history. (Pusha's claims are disputed by others who were involved, but he publicly sticks by them.) So when, in March, Pusha released "Spicy Fish Diss," aimed at the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish sandwich, in an advertisement for Arby's promoting its new spicy fish sandwich, most people understood why.

The dis track created over $8 million in equivalent marketing exposure for Arby's in just seven hours, according to Apex Marketing. But Pusha's relationship with Arby's actually stretches back a decade, to when he was featured on the 2014 track "Burial" by EDM producer Yogi. Victor pushed Pusha to record it because he thought it would be easy to synch - and bring in publishing money.

Through Victor's relationship with music supervisor Scott Vener and others, the song was synched in trailers for the Entourage movie, the HBO series Ballers and a documentary on the UFC. Then Arby's called and asked to use a snippet in its 2014 advertising campaign, "We Have the Meats" - and because Pusha and Victor controlled the composition, they've been getting paid every six months ever since.

"I've never seen anybody put pieces together like this," Pusha says of Victor. "He's going to drive you nuts with the process, but he knows exactly what he's doing and who needs to be involved. It is another level of finding information to use to the benefit of all of us, really."

When Victor and Pusha took over G.O.O.D. Music in 2015, his time in management helped ease any learning curve, and his last-minute intervention in the Desiigner deal, which cleared the way for the artist's inclusion on West's The Life of Pablo, led West to trust his instincts.

"Kanye gave us the keys to run the company. He was very open-minded to all the different ideas of what we wanted to do," says Victor. "I knew it was an opportunity to showcase my ability, and he gave me the freedom to do it."

By late 2016, however, Victor's deal with G.O.O.D. was up, and he unexpectedly became a sought-after free agent in the label world. As he considered his options - including an offer from Jay-Z at Roc Nation - he got a call from UMG executive vp Michele Anthony, who implored him to stay within the UMG family. "I said to her, 'I want to have an opportunity to do the things I'm really good at,' " he remembers. "As a manager, you're able to do so many different things and wear so many different hats without restrictions. When you're working at a record company, whatever your job is, that's your job. She was like, 'Well, let's figure it out.' "

Victor says Anthony's plan was to find him a role within the company's East Coast label-services division, which she oversees: "I was impressed by Steven's detailed vision for his artists and how intimately involved he was in crafting every aspect of their campaigns," she says. But then UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge asked to meet with Victor. "Lucian said, 'I want you to come work for me, and I want you to lay it out for me how it would look.' So I told him, 'These are all the things that I want to do.' And he was like, 'Everything you just told me, we're going to put it together on paper, and we're going to create a role for you.' "

That led to the formation of Victor Victor Worldwide, his partnership with UMG that became one of the first deals in what is known as The Center, the collection of labels, executives and partnerships that works within the core of UMG, rather than solely with any of its affiliated labels, and reports directly to Grainge. When Victor signs an artist, he can bring that act to any label within Universal, effectively creating an internal bidding war for the right to release the artist's recordings. In the beginning, he would have to pitch label heads on artists prior to signing them; now, he has his own A&R funding, allowing him to bet on his instincts with his own money.

With The Center as Victor Victor Worldwide's base, Victor can "work with and benefit all UMG divisions to help drive success across the company," Anthony adds. "Steven has built a reputation as a formidable entrepreneur and cultural curator, with great ambition for his projects, and he continues to evolve as an important creative executive."

That may have seemed like the perfect endgame for someone like Victor: the freedom and flexibility to pursue any deal in any capacity he wanted, with the backing of the largest music company in the world and support from the top. And he used that to sign some promising young artists like Ski Mask the Slump God and producer YoungKio, who co-created Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road."

But when Paul Rosenberg was named Def Jam's new CEO in 2017, the calculus changed. Victor has a long history with Def Jam: His older sister, Epic's current head of publicity Melissa Victor, used to work there; Pusha has been signed there as a solo artist for a decade; West and G.O.O.D. Music have always operated in partnership with Def Jam. The label tried to hire him when his G.O.O.D. deal expired, but he resisted at the time; now Rosenberg wanted Victor to run his A&R department.

"For me, it was a bad deal on paper because it was me going from working in The Center, where I have all this flexibility and report to the chairman of Universal, to reporting to a label head," Victor says. "So I started having second thoughts about it. But what kept coming back [to me] was, 'If you want to be a label head, this is a step in that right direction' - sort of like two steps back to take three steps forward."

Victor took the job, but after 15 years of running his own show, he clashed immediately with the corporate structure. "I thought about it like, 'If I go here and have success, only good can come from that,' " he says. "And then it was just like a f-king nightmare."

Def Jam went on a signing spree as the label refocused on its hip-hop roots, bringing in some two dozen young acts within a year and putting them in a rap camp, a sort of incubator program that aimed to develop and promote a new generation of MCs. But it was the ones who got away that ate Victor up. In January 2018, just after starting the Def Jam gig, Victor was approached by Lil Bibby, the former Chicago rapper turned entrepreneur who had just signed a young artist named Juice WRLD. Bibby wanted $2 million to sign Juice to Def Jam, but Rosenberg balked at the price tag; Victor instead set Bibby up with his lawyer and told them to shop the deal, asking for the right to match whatever offers came in. When Bibby still couldn't secure a $2 million deal, he released the Juice WRLD song "All Girls Are the Same," which blew up on YouTube - and led to a $3 million deal with Interscope in March.

That same month, Victor says, another attorney approached him with the opportunity to sign another young artist for $750,000 - on the high side, but doable. But when Rosenberg found out the artist was in jail, he killed the deal; ultimately, the artist, Dominic Fike, signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Columbia after a bidding war that then-Columbia co-president of A&R Imran Majid called "ugly and competitive." Other deals similarly didn't pan out, leaving Victor feeling blasé about the whole enterprise. ("My recollection of events differs from Steven's - the industry is full of conflicting versions of the ones that got away - but we gave it a real shot together," says Rosenberg. "Steven is a gifted strategist and a great manager, and I wish him only the best." A Def Jam representative did not return a request for comment.)

"I'm not the best executive, but my gift is my ability to see things that are good, whether it's clothes or music - and if I can't trade on that gift, then I'm useless," Victor says. "So I was like, 'This doesn't work. I'm a quarterback, not a defensive end - I have to throw the ball.' So I was just done with it."

Victor spoke to Rosenberg, who agreed to let him leave, and Grainge ultimately allowed Victor to return to The Center and his Victor Victor organization. But as he was on his way out, another opportunity presented itself. One of his A&R executives, the producer Ricardo "Rico Beats" Lamarre, asked him for a favor: to take a meeting with a young artist named Pop Smoke.

Victor took the meeting, he remembers, "half in the hallway," but was ultimately drawn in by the music. "There was something about this kid - he was really intense," he says. "But the sh-t was really good." A few months later, Victor went to see Grainge to talk about his situation at Def Jam - but Grainge didn't want to talk business, instead asking Victor to play him artists whom he was excited about. Victor played him Pop's unreleased music, then explained that, because he was on his way out of Def Jam, he didn't know where to sign him; Grainge, according to Victor, told him, "Just sign [him] to Universal, and we'll figure out the rest later."

Victor signed Pop to Victor Victor Worldwide, and shortly after was free from Def Jam. He shopped Pop to UMG's family of labels, ultimately going with Republic, and through a series of well-received singles and mixtapes, Pop soon emerged as one of the most exciting and freshest voices coming out of Brooklyn in years, with Victor riding alongside, helping keep him out of trouble and in the studio. But in February 2020, months before the release of his debut album, Pop was shot and killed in a home invasion in Hollywood Hills, Calif.

When it was released that July, Pop's Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200; it became such a phenomenon that it ended 2020 at No. 7 on the year-end Billboard 200 Albums chart, then ended 2021 at No. 3. A second posthumous album, Faith, debuted at No. 1 in 2021; Victor executive-produced it.

"For a very long period of time - even now - I can't really listen to his music," Victor says. "Even making the album, it was different because it was like work. I was listening to it from a different perspective. It was the toughest thing I ever had to deal with in my personal life."

During the pandemic, Victor took a step back to refocus. In his case, that meant hunkering down with Pusha, who has a new album, It's Almost Dry, coming April 22, produced by Williams and West; he also launched a philanthropic venture, the Victor Victor Foundation, to empower and provide education opportunities to the next generation of underrepresented kids. And it meant pouring all his energy into this new project with Nigo, which he calls "the epitome of what Victor Victor is: clothing, content, music, all the different things that I'm into."

Over the past 20 years, Victor has often excelled through his association with top-level creatives - Clipse, Williams, The-Dream, West, Pop, Nigo, even Grainge, whom he puts alongside those others as "in different area codes as the rest of us." But there's still a humility to his demeanor at times - a sense that, while he's sitting at that top table, he isn't truly one of them. But that's not how his peers see him.

"When you think about everything that Berry Gordy was, he really was more than just a label head," says Williams. "He really was PR, he knew how to tell those stories, and when you think about all of the artist and repertoire skills that he had, that came out in the artists. [Victor] is doing the same thing with Nigo, and it just makes all the sense in the world. Nigo thinks with the same level of elaborate vision, and [Victor is] a person who can take the baton and run with it and have it be just as articulate and just as comprehensive as the baton that was handed to him."

Sitting in the greenroom of the pop-up shop that bears his name, Victor examines the racing gloves in his hands more closely. They're a tangible reward for the work of the past 20 years - a reward that signals more work ahead. "I always look at things like, 'How do I do something that has an impact and that inspires people?' " he says. "Because I feel like the whole reason why I'm able to be successful is that people have inspired me, whether they know it or not. My approach is to make things of the highest quality, no matter what it costs, no matter how hard it is, and that's the focus. Nothing else matters. At all."
This story originally appeared in the April 23, 2022, issue of Billboard.

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Why Artists Like Pusha T and Nigo Trust Manager Steven Victor's Vision

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The line stretched around the block, to Houston Street on Manhattan's West Side, south down Wooster, wrapping around Prince and then back up Greene Street, the tail end bumping up against the entrance.

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https://ew.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-unbeararable-weight-of-massive-talent-nicolas-cage/

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Nicolas Cage plays himself in ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,’ a surreal meta-comedy

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Can an Art History Frame Help Expand the NFT Market?

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An upcoming auction by Sotheby’s is the latest attempt to recast crypto collectibles as an artistic evolution and perhaps draw interest from a wider circle of collectors.

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Organizers of Stagecoach, the country music festival and sister event to Coachella, have banned the Confederate flag from the 2022 festival grounds, according to The Desert Sun. A rules page for the event says that attendees may not have "divisive symbols, including, without limitation, Confederate flags and racially disparaging or other inappropriate imagery/public displays."

Stagecoach is a Goldenvoice-promoted festival. The 2022 Stagecoach Festival begins today (April 29) at Indio, California's Empire Polo Club-the same venue as Coachella. Headlining the festival are Thomas Rhett, Carrie Underwood, and Luke Combs. Last year, Combs apologized for appearing in a music video that used Confederate flag imagery. "There is no excuse for those images," he said. "It's not OK."

Maren Morris, who is also performing today at Stagecoach, has criticized country music events that allow the Confederate flag on the premises. "At these country music festivals, I see the Confederate flags in the parking lots," she said last year without naming any specific events. "I don't want to play those festivals anymore. If you were a Black person, would you ever feel safe going to a show with those flying in the parking lot? No. I feel like the most powerful thing we can do as artists in our position right now is to make those demands of large organizations, festivals, promoters, whatnot. One of the things we can do is say, 'No, I'm not doing this. Get rid of them....' There's no place for it anymore."

Pitchfork has reached out to representatives for Stagecoach and Goldenvoice for comment and more information.

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Stagecoach Bans Confederate Flags on 2022 Festival Grounds

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Organizers of Stagecoach, the country music festival and sister event to Coachella, have banned the Confederate flag from the 2022 festival grounds, according to The Desert Sun . A rules page for the event says that attendees may not have "divisive symbols, including, without limitation, Confederate flags and racially disparaging or other inappropriate imagery/public displays."

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During the height of the pandemic in 2020, television icon to take a deep dive into the structural racism embedded within the U.S. healthcare system, Today Oprah Winfrey tenaciously absorbed the stories of people affected by COVID-19. The story of Gary Fowler, who tried to receive care from many hospitals in Detroit but was unsuccessful, went home and wrote that he could not breathe before he died. His death shook the media mogul. Fowler's story led Winfrey to executive-produce her documentary reports. The Color of Care

In collaboration with the Smithsonian Channel and Winfrey's Harpo Productions, the film tapped award-winning filmmaker Yance Ford to direct the project. The documentary assembles interviews from families of color who lost family members and friends to the disease and the agonizing measures they took to obtain medical care before they passed, The Los Angeles Times reports.

The Color of Care will premiere Sunday on Smithsonian Channel; it will also be free to view on the Smithsonian's Facebook page and YouTube channel until May 31, according to Times.

Winfrey also spoke about how she encountered the failings of the health industry in 2007 when doctors misdiagnosed her and did not test her blood to find the cause of her heart palpitations. When she visited a Cleveland Clinic, they discovered it was a thyroid issue generating her heart palpitations.

"So in that moment, being a celebrity worked against me. I remember going back to one doctor who had actually given me an angiogram and I said, it wasn't a heart problem, it was a thyroid problem," recalled the former talk show host. "And she said, 'What was I gonna do? You're Oprah Winfrey, and I wasn't going to have you die on me without having done everything I thought I could do.'"

The experience taught Winfrey to always seek out multiple opinions from healthcare providers and to have someone accompany her to the hospital to serve as her advocate.

"I don't care who you are. I would never go into a hospital by myself. Even as a person of note, with a name, I would never go into a hospital by myself. I would always have somebody go with me who's advocating for me. That's a hard, hard road to navigate by yourself, especially if you're ill."

The documentary airs May 1, 2022, at 8:00 PM EST/7:00 PM CST on the Smithsonian Channel.

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Oprah Winfrey's Documentary, 'The Color of Care,' Explores The Racial Inequalities In The Healthcare System

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During the height of the pandemic in 2020, television icon to take a deep dive into the structural racism embedded within the U.S. healthcare system, Today Oprah Winfrey tenaciously absorbed the stories of people affected by COVID-19.

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It's not exactly a secret. Movie theater operators hate it when Hollywood studios release films for home viewing and in cinemas at the same time. It kills their box office and encourages piracy, they say.

Nonetheless, during the COVID-19 pandemic, studios - including Warner Bros., Universal Pictures and the Walt Disney Co. - experimented with simultaneous releases to boost their streaming businesses.

On Tuesday, the head of the trade group that represents movie theaters pronounced such strategies "dead."

"I am pleased to announce that simultaneous release is dead as a serious business model, and piracy is what killed it," said John Fithian, president of the National Assn. of Theatre Owners, at CinemaCon, the cinema business' annual convention.

Fithian was speaking to a receptive audience. At CinemaCon, which takes place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, there's no surer applause line than a rallying cry for the time-honored practice of releasing movies in theaters first.

Before the pandemic shuttered theaters, movies played in cinemas for an average of 90 days before becoming available in the home. This is widely seen as essential to theaters' business model.

But studios adapted to the health crisis by experimenting with different strategies. Warner Bros., then owned by AT&T, sent its entire 2021 film slate to sister streaming service HBO Max and to theaters simultaneously. Disney released movies such as "Black Widow" and "Raya and the Last Dragon" on Disney+ for a $30 fee.

Now there are signs that the practice is becoming a relic of the pandemic. Warner Bros. and other studios have committed to releasing movies in theaters for 45 days before taking them to streaming or video on demand. Disney has remained outwardly flexible in its strategy, releasing some movies to Disney+ for no extra charge, including Pixar's "Turning Red." But it's next Pixar film, "Lightyear," is exclusive to theaters.

Although the same-day release tactic allowed streaming services to expand subscriber counts with new movies, it also resulted in rampant piracy, Fithian said. His remarks followed a lengthy presentation by the Motion Picture Assn.'s chief executive, Charles Rivkin, about the growing sophistication of digital piracy operations and the measures the trade organization is taking to curb them.

"Robust theatrical windows protect against piracy," Fithian said. "If a major title that people are clamoring to see in theaters is released too quickly to the home and then pirated, the temptation to stay home and watch pirated films becomes greater for many potential moviegoers."

There are growing signs that studio owners have come around to theater operators' view.

Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav, speaking to investors Tuesday morning, indicated he thinks movies that debuts in theaters first are more valuable to the company. In studying whether the studio should further collapse theatrical windows for streaming, data led him to conclude: "No way."

Zaslav took over Warner Bros. this month as a result of AT&T spinning off WarnerMedia assets to merge them with Discovery. In his remarks discussing the company's quarterly earnings, Zaslav cited the release of Matt Reeves' "The Batman" as an example of how a theatrical release improves a film's financial prospects.

"When you open a movie in the theaters, it has a whole stream of monetization," Zaslav said. "But more importantly, it's marketed and it builds a brand. And so when it does go to the streaming service, there's a view that that has a higher quality."

This year's CinemaCon comes as exhibitors are laboring to recover from the doldrums of the pandemic, when studios continued to delay big films that might bring audiences back to auditoriums. Box office in the U.S. and Canada is projected to reach $9 billion this year, more than double last year's tally but still down 20% from 2019 levels.

There's growing optimism that theaters will continue to see revenue growth in the coming months thanks to such potential blockbusters as "Top Gun: Maverick," "Lightyear" and "Minions: The Rise of Gru."

Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony's motion picture group, set the tone for the festivities Monday night, joking to the assembled theater owners by mocking the most pessimistic predictions of the future of cinema. "What are you guys doing here?" he asked from the Colosseum stage. "Don't you know you're dead?"

Rothman boasted about the $3.3 billion that Sony movies, including "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and "Uncharted," grossed since the last CinemaCon, in August. During its presentation, Sony debuted footage from the Brad Pitt action movie "Bullet Train" and unfinished animation from "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse."

Additionally, Sony leaned further into its "Spider-Man" franchise, announcing music artist Bad Bunny as the star of "El Muerto," an upcoming Marvel film based on an obscure comic book character. The picture will make Bad Bunny the first Latino lead of a live-action Marvel superhero film, Sony said.

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Same-day streaming film releases are 'dead,' cinema group leader says

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It's not exactly a secret. Movie theater operators hate it when Hollywood studios release films for home viewing and in cinemas at the same time. It kills their box office and encourages piracy, they say. Nonetheless, during the COVID-19 pandemic, studios - including Warner Bros., Universal Pictures and the Walt Disney Co.

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"Over eight seasons and three presidencies,  Black-ish fostered vital conversations, but you wonder how much of its success can be attributed to its concessions and how much feistier the series could’ve been were it only a little less defensive of Dre’s, or Barris’s, perspective. How uncomfortable did it allow its viewers, or its characters, to ever really get?"

This article is an introspective exploration of the nuances of Black representation in mainstream media.

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Everything that's great, and everything that's stiff, about is present at the start. In the pilot, California marketing executive Dre Johnson gets promoted to senior vice-president of the Los Angeles ad firm Stevens and Lido. It ought to be one of the greatest days of his life, but he can't shake the feeling that he's paying an unforeseen price for living the dream. Dre was raised in Compton, but his children are Sherman Oaks blue bloods.

He takes it personally when they come off bougie and detached from any real sense of struggle. His eldest son, Junior, prefers field hockey to basketball and goes by "Andy" at school; his youngest son, Jack, is unaware that Barack Obama is America's first Black president. So when Junior comes home asking if he can have a bar mitzvah, his father calls a family meeting, barking, "I may have to be 'urban' at work, but I'm still going to need my family to be Black. Not Black- ish, but Black." It's the textbook Dre speech - the first of many - establishing a hard-line on race and place for the other characters to carry toward enlightenment.

When Black-ish debuted in 2014, it was hailed as a "revolutionary" work that spoke to Black anxieties and had the potential to shake white audiences. It made a mint prodding viewers to take inventory of their own closely held misconceptions about Blackness. (Donald Trump called it "racism at the highest level," complaining that no one would be allowed to make a show called White-ish.) It was a show about navigating two worlds, about how people of color are asked to self-edit and assimilate in order to move through elite circles, and also about the conflicts among Black boomers, Gen X-ers, and zoomers over self-expression, protest, romance, and identity.

Series creator Kenya Barris grew up loving The Cosby Show and made his mark on television in the aughts as a writer for the UPN sitcom Girlfriends and a developer for the same network's America's Next Top Model. He brings an appreciation of sitcom history to the affair. As much as the plight of the Johnsons resembles that of the Huxtables, the conversations they have around the house seem patterned after the divisive Norman Lear shows. The kids push back against Dre the way Gloria and Michael nudge Archie Bunker on All in the Family. Their family debates helped the show achieve an intergenerational bird's-eye perspective on the topic of the week.

But it also treated hearing both sides of the issue as a virtue, an end in itself, even as it implicitly endorsed its patriarch's point of view. Now that it's over, it's worth reconsidering how it handled the complexities of Black thought in rapidly changing times. Over eight seasons and three presidencies, Black-ish fostered vital conversations, but you wonder how much of its success can be attributed to its concessions and how much feistier the series could've been were it only a little less defensive of Dre's, or Barris's, perspective. How uncomfortable did it allow its viewers, or its characters, to ever really get?

In many ways, Dre is a stand-in for Barris. Raised in Los Angeles in Inglewood and Pacoima, Barris saw the trajectory of his life change drastically after his father lost a lung in an accident and won a settlement that lifted the family into a new tax bracket. Black-ish pulled from that and from Barris's life as a parent of six with his wife, Dr. Rania "Rainbow" Edwards-Barris, an anesthesiologist whose biracial background is mirrored in the journey of doctor-mom Rainbow "Bow" Johnson. The show's outlook seems to have been informed by the trajectory of the Black television writer excelling in Hollywood. It is success oriented and deeply attentive to optics. Dre and Bow are getting to the money, and they think they represent us all, so they must move carefully. It's the same "Talented Tenth" mentality Ye pushed in the years he was clamoring for acceptance in fashion and demanding the respect enjoyed by guys like Steve Jobs and Walt Disney. (The first sound you hear in the Black-ish pilot is the Army chant that opens "Jesus Walks.") But rarely were Dre and Bow checked in their belief that Black capitalism can save everyone.

In the series opener, Dre says he's an inspiration to his Black co-workers: "There were so few of us at Stevens and Lido that being Black made it feel like you were part of a little family. So when one of us made it, it was kind of like we all did. And right now, I was that one." How the family he daps up on the way to the office might feel about the firm having space for only the one isn't mentioned. In season seven, when Bow becomes a partner at the hospital, she abruptly realizes the young Black women coming up in the field view her as a supervisor and not a friend. The final-season premiere sees her hanging out with Michelle Obama, after which Bow yearns for a peer group she can never have and laments how lonely it is at the top after all these years. Dre tells her it is thanks to her work that those women even have a cohort in their profession. It's not untrue; it's just that this is the same line we hear whenever Black celebrities get in trouble and marshal their fandom against their critics by portraying themselves as civil-rights pioneers (another page from the Ye playbook). Bow's takeaway is that she can't sit with the younger doctors but can sit in the pride of having paved the way for them. It's a peculiar response to the conflict: Bow embarrassed herself when she took the women out for drinks, then left in an elitist huff when they read hospital higher-ups for what they are. Black-ish offers her a pat on the back for being a boss instead of wrestling with how she might not be the best one and why that is, just as it often coddled its leads through their mistakes and short-sightings.

The message of the protest movements of 2014 and 2020 wasn't "Hey, let's get everyone talking." It was that solutions are multifaceted. Cultural sensitivity was important; so was making people uneasy.

You can see Black-ish negotiating how confrontational it wants to be as early on as "The Dozens," a season-one episode that traces Black humor through history, carefully avoiding unsettling imagery, as a card from producers that says "Slavery Animation Too Much of a Bummer" stands in for a scene that might have depicted what happened to the African abductees on the Middle Passage. The show felt more comfortable going there in its front half. It set musical numbers on plantations in the exquisite, informative season-four opener "Juneteenth." But the approach shifted as the tone of the national discourse soured around the Trump election. Suddenly, Black-ish had a valuable platform in a moment of great racial tension. What passed as edgy before the mayhem of 2016 rapidly felt tepid. Black-ish tried to mind the changes, but its flair for cozy resolutions softened its word. Season three's "Lemons" met the Trump presidency head-on, but its assessment feels late and pat now. "Instead of letting this destroy us," Dre suggests in a speech at the end of the episode, "we take the feeling you guys felt the day after the election and say that morning we all woke up knowing what it felt like to be Black." It was wild to tell white people that not getting one thing they want is akin to Blackness. The feel-good message feels less good when you know how many white liberals came down with "ally fatigue" in the Trump years.

Black-ish put its thesis plainly in season two's "Hope," where a family chat about police brutality gets hopeless and the only thing they can agree on is the merit of talking through the issues. It was cathartic but ultimately quaint, a much tamer reading of the matter than, say, that of The Carmichael Show, whose "President Trump" episode had higher stakes and no easy solutions. The point of the protest movements of 2014 and 2020 wasn't "Hey, let's get everyone talking." It was that solutions are multifaceted. Cultural sensitivity was important; so was making people uneasy.

The series' most uncomfortable moments stem from the characters' burning desire to be respected, seen as pioneers in their industries. Dre is afraid of selling out but is also an overachiever who craves business accolades and the approval of his co-workers, even if it means fielding their kooky misconceptions about Black people and saving their asses in questionable campaigns. (In season one's "Switch Hitting," Dre tries to woo an ad exec played by Michael Rapaport by inviting the guy over for a disastrous dinner, one only arranged to prove his authentic Blackness to a white man who says shit like "Kunta Kinte was thuggish ruggish for real.") White validation is important to Dre, even if he resents always being called on to provide a diluted Black perspective. He makes even that into a self-competition. "White people trust me to tell them about Black people and what they want," he boasts in season three's "Richard Youngsta," one of Black-ish's worst episodes. Chris Brown plays the titular rapper, who stars in a liquor ad Dre is tapped to craft. No one in the office takes issue with a scene where one sip transforms a frowning Black woman into a flirty white one. We later watch Dre defend Stepin Fetchit when his wife and mother accuse him of profiting off harmful stereotypes, much like how the actor made millions portraying lazy Black characters in the 1930s: "Without Lincoln Perry paving the way, we might not have a Denzel." All this splitting hairs about the gains made in spite of minstrelsy feels ginned up, an excuse for the episode to unpack its own historical implications unchallenged.

Black-ish often set up unrealistic scenarios deliberately in service of arriving at a teachable moment. It's classic sitcom to occasionally put your characters through the ringer, but Black-ish sometimes got there by feeding one of them a hot take that contradicted their history. Bow shows deference to law enforcement in "Hope," but " Becoming Bow" revealed she grew up on a commune raided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in the mid-'80s; you'd think she might harbor resentment. "Hope" needed someone on the other side of the argument, as so many pivotal moments in the show did. Season one's "Elephant in the Room" asked us to believe Junior would join the Young Republicans at school all so the Johnson family can have a discourse on the relationship between Black voters and the Democratic Party, at the cost of making Junior look like a dupe. Talking through the issue at work, Dre calls his kid an "Uncle Tom." It's an unfathomable play even for a man prone to faking heart attacks when he doesn't get his way, à la Redd Foxx in Sanford and Son. In both cases, the show went out of its way to hit the counterarguments - "Cops do have a place in society"; "Black voters' support of the Democratic Party is blind" - as if it were talking past its Black viewers to white ones who couldn't relate.

Imagine if the dinner banter didn't always revolve around criticizing someone's Blackness. If the Johnsons really sought out Black friends. What if fewer punches were pulled?

Junior and Dre's relationship highlights a key area where Black-ish consistently missed its mark. Junior is the namesake, and he turned out nerdy, and he is constantly having his masculinity and Blackness interrogated in ways that rarely feel critical of the characters doing the piling on.The show treated Junior's love of tabletop role-playing games as a point of embarrassment while a generation of prideful Black nerds was blooming. Megan Thee Stallion is a serious anime fan; Travis Scott reportedly made $20 million off Fortnite. An advertising legend should have been more curious about the appeal of a market he didn't understand. That he wasn't is testament to the palpable Gen X-ness of Black-ish and its mastermind. Junior gets under Dre's skin the most of all the kids. They don't get along until the end, when the son becomes his father, landing both a job at Stevens and a girlfriend studying to become a doctor. It's only when Junior loses the girl - a breakup that forces three generations of Johnson men to be vulnerable with each other - thatDre apologizes for spending the entire franchise trying to force Junior to be someone else entirely and failing to appreciate the considerate, emotionally intelligent kid he raised. He seems surprised his kids turned out the way they did, as if their moneyed airs weren't almost entirely thanks to his needling insistence on enjoying the same signifiers of wealth as affluent white professionals.

When Dre wakes up in the Black-ish pilot suddenly deeply upset about the gap between the interests, ideas, and mannerisms of his children and what he feels is a more traditional Blackness, he's really sitting in conflict with his own choices. This was always a show about a midlife crisis; the concerns of the children and grandparents orbit Dre's version of existentialism. And a show about a lovable crank can only change him so without disturbing its core dynamic. With Dre at the heart of Black-ish, so much- too much - time was spent examining his worst impulses. Harder to watch than his behavior in "Richard Youngsta," Dre outs his sister Rhonda (Raven-Symoné) to their mother in season one, believing he's helping out; by season six, Dre is still struggling with Rhonda''s sexuality, telling her she "can't handle" adopting a child. All of this was realistic. Some families take years to come to grips with a person coming out, or never do. But it is tired having queer characters appear as a means for the straight characters to fumble toward belated understanding, in the same way that it grates having wealth as the elephant in the room for so many of these conversations about race.

Black-ish goes out the way it came in. Dre gets dressed to "Jesus Walks" (again), but something's different. His 2014 monologue was about exclusion: "I guess for a kid from the hood, I'm living the American Dream. The only problem is whatever American had this dream probably wasn't from where I'm from." Now, having won a Super Bowl commercial, he's happy he found a way to "go from broke to the Oaks without a jump shot, a No. 1 hit, or being Tyler Perry." Just last episode, Dre told Junior he regretted "thinking that the most important thing was getting the same opportunities as my white counterparts." He meant business. Dre leaves Stevens and Sherman Oaks behind for a beautiful home in proximity to Black families.

I wish these characters could have a do-over. Imagine if the dinner banter didn't always revolve around criticizing someone's Blackness. If the Johnsons really sought out Black friends. What if fewer punches were pulled? What if we left things messy instead of virtuous? What if "Please, Baby, Please," the season-four stunner in which the Johnsons each speak with unrestrained honesty about their Trump-era fears, wasn't shelved for two years? What if Black-ish didn't have any interest in selling us the dream that in our darkest hours, Americans always help each other? We've seen too much of the worst of each other now to buy in.

Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism. If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the April 25, 2022, issue of New York Magazine.

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When "Black-ish" debuted in 2014, it was hailed as a "revolutionary" work that spoke to Black anxieties and had the potential to shake white audiences. The show always aimed for the third rail, but it played it safe more often than not.

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Catch up on part one of this commentary, as it identifies the strategies TV networks employed in their attempts to compete with the likes of Netflix.
Look no further than the stunning success of cable drama "Yellowstone" in 2021 for indication of how the TV industry got streaming wrong.

When Paramount Network began airing "Yellowstone" in 2018, it lacked a streaming licensing deal, which seems incomprehensible for a show featuring a well-known star in Kevin Costner. It announced a deal with Peacock, owned by rival media firm Comcast, in January 2020, a month before the plans for what became Paramount+ were unveiled. But it was during the period when ViacomCBS was flogging the family silver in order to raise capital for its own streaming service.

Unlike fellow Paramount original "South Park," which sees new episodes available on HBO Max the day after airing on Comedy Central, new episodes of "Yellowstone" are windowed to appear on Peacock five months after airing on Paramount+.

This means that a TV subscription or electronic sell-through (EST) purchase on iTunes via Apple are the only ways to watch "Yellowstone" when new episodes are available for months. This is quite unlike AMC hits " The Walking Dead " and "Fear the Walking Dead," which are available on AMC+ a week before airing on AMC, and FX hits "American Horror Story" and "American Crime Story," with next-day availability on Hulu.

This led to two stunning findings for traditional TV. The first was the overall success of the pandemic-delayed fourth season of "Yellowstone." With the show available for catch-up on the premium tiers of big-title-starved Peacock and the fact that the premium tiers of Peacock are available for free to Comcast Xfinity and Charter MVPD subscribers (a wide base for catch-up views), the audience for the exclusive-to-TV fourth season skyrocketed, with the premiere episode up by 5.8 million (137%).

Comparing "Yellowstone" with the other big cable dramas, which are not TV exclusives for several months, only proves the theory that limiting streaming exposure provides value for pay TV. The AMC and FX hits pale in comparison to "Yellowstone" for audience, as viewers know they can watch in places other than TV.

Worth noting, too, is that the strategy paid dividends for the season finale of "Yellowstone," the only big cable drama in 2021 to see an audience increase for the end-of-season episode.

The argument against hollowing out the value of pay TV takes on increased significance when considering how widespread TV networks remain in homes and the value they bring to media companies.

TV networks generate a huge amount of revenue even in the streaming age, and that is why the decision to considerably weaken their value proposition is reactionary at best.

The money generated by traditional TV takes on increased significance when considering how costly it is to compete in streaming. The transference of resources from TV to streaming, together with the need for high-quality originals, movies and exclusive sports rights, contribute to the estimated direct-to-consumer spend among the big four media companies mushrooming from $18.4 billion in 2021 to $40.1 billion in 2025 - an increase of 118%.

With streaming currently yielding big losses at Disney, NBCUniversal and Discovery, it pales in comparison to what these companies take in from TV. This further illustrates the questionable wisdom in gutting a profitable business for one that will take several years to even turn a profit.

The jury is out on whether streaming revenues will ultimately match those from traditional TV. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in the Discovery+ investor day unveiling in 2020 that ARPU from Discovery+ would exceed that of linear in the short to midterm. That may be true, but unless the majority of the 81 million current TV subscribers to Discovery's networks pick up Discovery+ (or HBO Max, once it is folded into that), it's likely that it will make less total revenue overall.

The facts illustrated here show the folly of traditional media companies in attempting to go it alone to compete with the streaming heavyweights. A smart idea would have been for the networks to remain in league with one another, à la old Hulu, windowing pay TV content and joining together for a selection of high-profile originals.

Instead, the lure of streaming revenues saw the once promising union dissolve as companies sought to boost their prestige to Wall Street. It is already proving to be a tough arena, hence the merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery and persistent rumors that Comcast and Paramount may unite domestically on a streaming strategy.

It didn't have to be this way. As "Yellowstone" shows, TV subscribers will still turn up if it is the only option to view (see also cable news and sports). But give them the option to watch on their own schedule, with fewer ads, and viewers will often turn to that. As it stands, the decisions of the TV networks will go down as missed opportunities.

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How Getting Streaming Wrong Cost the TV Industry

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Catch up on part one of this commentary, as it identifies the strategies TV networks employed in their attempts to compete with the likes of Netflix. Look no further than the stunning success of cable drama "Yellowstone" in 2021 for indication of how the TV industry got streaming wrong.

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https://variety.com/2022/film/columns/netflix-lost-subscribers-questions-1235255088/

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Pretend it was one year ago, when the streaming revolution, stoked by the pandemic (when is a pandemic good for business? When your business depends on people staying home), was feeling the first flush of being the New Paradigm That Ate The World. And pretend, in that spring of 2021, that you'd been asked to imagine how a film industry headline from the future might read. You would probably have predicted something like this: "For the First Time, Every Oscar Nominee Comes From a Streaming Service." Or maybe this: "Movie Theaters: Still Here But No Longer Driving the Action."

You probably would not have come up with something like this: " Netflix Buys Alejandro G. Iñárritu's 'Bardo,' Plans Global Theatrical Release."

But that's the headline that ran on April 27 in Variety. Netflix has bestowed token theatrical runs before - to "The Irishman," "Roma," and "The Power of the Dog." But not with a six-month-before-the-fact headline trumpeting a global theatrical release. Sorry, but that is not on-brand for Netflix.

That particular headline was not about the shocking attrition of Netflix's subscriber base - the fact that the company lost 200,000 subscribers in Q1, and expects to lose another 2 million in Q2. Yet those stats, reported the week before, were, in effect, the deep background for the news about Netflix's commitment to giving "Bardo" a full-scale theatrical release. Both headlines were broadcasting different aspects of the same thing: that there are now powerful countervailing forces to the streaming revolution.

Why did the loss of Netflix subscribers happen? A perfect storm of reasons, led by the war in Ukraine (Netflix cut services in Russia), but also driven by the fundamental fact that Netflix now exists in the hyper-competitive world it created - i.e., the rise of streamers like Disney+, Apple TV+ and HBO Max. (There is also the reality of password sharing, but that sounds, in the scheme of things, like a rather desperate rationalization.) The reasons matter, but the upshot is that as Netflix was navigating what is arguably the worst crisis in its 25-year history, the image of Netflix as the unstoppable locomotive of the new age of the entertainment industry took a major hit. And if those headlines provided the words, then last week's CinemaCon, the annual gathering of the motion-picture theater industry, added the music, all of it coming together in a hit single that went like this: "Movie Theaters Are Back, Baby!"

Not that they'd ever gone away. But the fading of movie theaters - the decay of the theater experience and, yes, the potential death of movie theaters - has, over the last two years, become the most threatening specter haunting the motion-picture business since the rise of television in the early 1950s. At moments, it has struck terror in the hearts of just about everyone who loves this industry. And that's because it's all about the unknown.

But it is also, of course, about what everybody knows, at least in their moviegoing reptile brain, which is that people sitting at home watching a "first-run movie" on television is, quite simply, a bad business plan, since it's a plan based on downgrading the fundamental magic of the product itself: making it less exciting, less essential, less mythological. For movies, make no mistake, are all about mythology. (Just ask George Lucas, Frank Capra or the creators of "The Batman.")

And so, as it happens, is Netflix.

When it comes to the question of what, exactly, movies are going to look like (not just this year but five years from now, 10 years from now, 30 years from now), Netflix and the movie industry as we've known it have been engaged in a war of mythology. In the real world, movies theaters and streaming services can, and will, co-exist. But how? That will ultimately be decided by the viewers. And the news, over the last two weeks, that Netflix is mortal - not a god, not an invincible monolith, but a company like any other - could wind up having a powerful impact on viewers' perceptions of the entertainment world they want to live in.

The most famous quote about the movie business - William Goldman's "Nobody knows anything" - doesn't mean that everybody is stupid. It means that, as Goldman noted, "Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work." What people know keeps changing; the way to make today's hit isn't necessarily the way to make tomorrow's hit. That's the nature of the business. And that kind of shifting dynamic is happening right now in the gladiatorial contest that is streaming vs. theatrical.

At CinemaCon, the film industry declared its robust commitment to providing theaters with a full slate of movies (not just tentpoles, but dramas for adult audiences), and in doing so they flipped the current conventional wisdom. But that was the right call. As the pandemic does its slow but sure fadeout, there is potent evidence to back up the notion that movie audiences want more than IP extravaganzas. Just look at the astonishing success, exclusively in theaters, of a film as radical as "Everything Everywhere All at Once." It may be true, at CinemaCon, that the death of day-and-date was greatly exaggerated, but there's no denying that day-and-date has taken an extreme hit. Opening a movie on a streaming service the same day that it opens in a theater is - isn't it obvious? - a way of devaluing that movie. And if that's true, then everyone loses.

But what Netflix has been selling, and mythologizing, is that a movie seen at home has as much value as a movie seen in a theater. It's just a different kind of value, one we all have to get used to. Netflix succeeded in defining the streaming revolution through the yardstick of its own preeminence. And the pandemic allowed us to give that model the ultimate road test of new normality. "Netflix and chill" morphed into "Stay at home... and why leave? Ever?" Many bought into that fantasy of what life would now be like.

It was a mode of thinking encouraged by Netflix, which took a very real technological innovation, one that is not going way, and inflated it into a kind of fairy tale. The mythology of motion pictures begins with the fact that they're bigger than you. You literally look up to see them; you sit in a crowd to experience them; at their greatest, movies dance around in your head to the point of rewiring your brain. (That's what great art does.) But what Netflix did, by brilliantly marketing itself as The Only Streaming Service You Will Ever Need, was to replace the sheer bigness of movies with the sheer bigness of Netflix.

The mythology said: Here, in your own home, is the only megaplex that you will ever need - the Netflix smorgasbord. And since the vaunted Netflix business model was literally intended to rewire the entire world, signing up every consumer on Earth as a subscriber, once you became part of the Netflix family of entertainment couch potatoes, you would now be seeing what everyone else was seeing, which is part of the dream of what movies are. Streaming would replace theatrical because Netflix would be replacing movies. And even as the Netflix competitors came rolling in (Disney+, Hulu, Apple TV+), that didn't change the paradigm of how we were thinking about streaming, a larger-than-life model Netflix planted on the map and owned.

But when Netflix had its bad Q1, losing subscribers and also, for the first time, falling below 50 percent of market share for the streaming world, the largeness of their mythology was revealed to be a kind of man-behind-the-curtain fantasy. No, it turned out, their famous smorgasbord of choices, dominated by a high percentage of mediocre product, was not going to take over the world. Netflix was not going to be replacing movies. There were, of course, other services, other choices. But more than that, the choice of staying home to watch a movie was not going to feel so goddamn dictated. As the Pivotal Research Group analyst Jeff Wlodarczak noted, "Streaming appears nearly fully penetrated globally post-COVID." That sounds like a statement of success, but it actually represents a profound undercutting of the Netflix myth. Fully penetrated! No more room for growth.

Streaming, in other words, is here to stay, but it's not necessarily going to keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It has altered the world of entertainment, and will continue to do so, but that world is subject to other dynamics, including the re-embrace of movie theaters, which is driven by something every bit as primal and eternal as our desire to watch movies in the comfort of our own home. Namely: our desire to get out of the house. Netflix's bad Q1 did more than just bring its share price down. It blew a hole in the company's mythology. And that's good for movie theaters, which are the rightful home for the thing we call movies, which require their own mythology to survive.

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Netflix Lost Subscribers, But It Really Lost Something Larger - Call It Mythology (Column)

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Pretend it was one year ago, when the streaming revolution, stoked by the pandemic (when is a pandemic good for business? When your business depends on people staying home), was feeling the first flush of being the New Paradigm That Ate The World.

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Naomi Judd, Matriarch of the Judds, Dies at 76

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Singer and television star Naomi Judd, famous for nearly four decades as the matriarch of the country music duo the Judds, died Saturday at 76. No cause of death was immediately given, although in a statement daughters Wynonna Judd and Ashley Judd attributed their mother's death to "the disease of mental illness.""Today we sisters experienced a tragedy," the statement said, according to the Associated Press. "We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory."

A statement from Naomi Judd's publicist said that her husband of 32 years, Larry Strickland, "will not be making any further statements. Naomi Judd's family request privacy during this heartbreaking time. No additional information will be released at this time."

The announcement came the day before the Judds were set to be formally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame at a medallion ceremony in Nashville. Representatives of the Hall of Fame could not immediately be reached for comment on whether the ceremony will be canceled or go on in some form.

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- The Judds (@juddsofficial) April 30, 2022

The Judds had also recently announced a farewell tour, the first by Naomi and Wynonna in more than a decade. The short, 10-date tour, which was being produced by Sandbox Live and Live Nation, was to commence Sept. 30 in Grand Rapids, Michigan and wrap up Oct. 28 at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena. "What I'm looking forward to most is celebrating Judd music with the fans," said Wynonna in a statement when the tour was announced. "Mom and I have had quite the journey over the last 38 years, and the fans have been with us through it all. This tour is a celebration for them." Three of the arena shows, including the Nashville finale, had sold out, according to the Judds' social media.

The Judds sang on the CMT Music Awards telecast and walked the red carpet just this month (see photo, below). The show aired live on CBS April 11, the same day the duo announced the reunion/goodbye tour.

As a duo, the Judds had remained mostly dormant in recent decades, with periodic reunions. They parted for the first time after doing what was billed as a final show in 1991, at a time when Naomi Judd had been diagnosed with Hepatitis C. Following that, Wynonna embarked on a successful career as a solo artist while her mother raised awareness about the disease. They reunited for the Power to Change Tour at the turn of the millennium.

Naomi Judd published nine books, the most recent of which was the memoir "River of Time: My Descent Into Depression and How I Emerged With Hope," released in 2016. Other titles included "Naomi's Guide to Aging Gratefully: Being Your Best for the Rest of Your Life" (2007), "Naomi's Breakthrough Guide: 20 Choices to Transform Your Life" (2004) and several children's books.

In the 1980s, the Judds had an unbroken string of eight straight No. 1 country singles, including "Why Not Me" and "Mama's Crazy" as their breakout smashes in 1983, followed by such hits as "Girls' Night Out," "Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Old Days)" and "Rockin' With the Rhythm of the Rain." Their last charting single was "Stuck in Love" in 2000. They had not released an album of original material as a duo since "Love Can Build a Bridge" in 1990, but their streak of '80s singles continued to be popular recurrents on country radio to the present day.

The duo won the CMA Awards' best duo/group category from 1985-91, winning nine CMAs altogether. Their eight Academy of Country Music Awards included being named top vocal duo from 1984 through 1990. They won five Grammys during that period as well, including best country song for "Love Can Build a Bridge."

Judd became a popular television personality outside of the singing limelight, as a 2003-2004 stint as a judge on "Star Search" led to her own talk show, "Naomi's New Morning," which lasted for two seasons on the Hallmark Channel. Other series appearances included "Can You Duet?" on CMT and "My Cooking Rules" on Fox, and acting gigs in the TV movies "The Killing Game" and "A Holiday Romance" and the theatrical feature "More American Graffiti."

Diana Ellen Judd was born January 11, 1946 in Ashland, Kentucky. She often spoke of raising Wynonna and Ashley as a single parent following her divorce from their father, Michael Ciminella. She attended nursing school at the College of Marin, in California, with the intention of eventually becoming an MD. "I was going to use my RN degree to support myself and put myself through med school," she said in a 1995 interview. "I had this romantic notion of working with people in Appalachia, my people." But then "when Wynonna and I started singing together - she so desperately need to have a new direction in life - it quickly became obvious that that was what we were meant to do."

In a 2016 interview with Robin Roberts on "Good Morning America" to promote her memoir, she said that childhood sexual abuse had factored into depression she characterized as "extreme" and "so deep and so completely debilitating and life-threatening." Judd told Roberts, "I had to realize that, in a way, I had to parent myself. We all have this inner child, and I needed, for the first time in my life, to realize that I got a raw deal, OK, now I'm a big girl. Put on your big girl pants and deal with it."

She spoke about being "a little estranged" at that time from Wynonna, whom she said "bore the brunt of all of the mistakes I made ... We've been through a lot of therapy together... From the day I knew she existed, it was the two of us against the world and then through the decades we kind of grew up together, 'cause it was really just the two of us. And I'm always tellin' her, 'If I'd known better, I would have done better.'"

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Naomi Judd, Matriarch of the Judds, Dies at 76

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Singer and television star Naomi Judd, famous for nearly four decades as the matriarch of the country music duo the Judds, died Saturday at 76. No cause of death was immediately given, although in a statement daughters Wynonna Judd and Ashley Judd attributed their mother's death to "the disease of mental illness.""Today we sisters experienced a tragedy," the statement said, according to the Associated Press.

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Actor and vegan activist Joaquin Phoenix just acquired the movie rights to Free the Animals: The Amazing, True Story of the Animal Liberation Front in North America -a book written in 1992 by Ingrid Newkirk, president of animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The book tells the true story of "Valerie," a police officer in Maryland who encounters a group of activists liberating animals from testing laboratories and joins their mission to end animal suffering. Newkirk was approached by several high-profile individuals who were interested in buying the movie rights to her book but chose Phoenix because of their shared dedication to animal-rights activism.

"I'm convinced he would win another Oscar for playing Josh, the Navy whistleblower who risked a court-martial to get help for a little dog about to die in a deep-sea diving experiment and who then went on to lead the West Coast Animal Liberation Front teams that freed many more animals who faced certain death," Newkirk told The Hollywood Reporter. "Joaquin understands what animals go through and lives and breathes animal rights-it's part of his very being."

On May 5, Free the Animals will be released in a special 30th anniversary edition with a forward by Phoenix and an afterword by Emily Trunnell, PhD-an animal researcher turned animal advocate who provides insight about whether or not the animal experiments included in the book have changed in the last 30 years.

"Yes, Free the Animals is about the balaclava-wearing heroes who break windows and laws to save animals, but it's also about everyone. It's a call to us all to take action," Phoenix writes in the new forward. "Whether it's wielding crowbars and bolt-cutters or picking up a pen or a protest sign, every one of us can and must fight injustice and push for animal liberation every chance we get."

Riccardo Ghilardi

Joaquin Phoenix's vegan activism

Phoenix went vegan at a young age and has used his fame to help shine light on animal-rights issues. Phoenix swept the 2020 film industry award season, getting top accolades for his lead performance as Arthur Fleck in Joker. The actor used this extended time in the spotlight to push for vegan initiatives, including helping to introduce plant-based menus at all of the award shows.

Phoenix capped off the season by delivering a historic acceptance speech for his Best Actor Oscar that focused on the horrors of the dairy industry. And he did so right before heading off to Manning Beef, a Los Angeles area slaughterhouse where he negotiated the rescue of a mother and her calf-who are now named Liberty and Indigo and are living out their lives in peace at the Acton, CA location of Farm Sanctuary.

Phoenix is also no stranger to lending his voice and image to vegan films and famously narrated Earthlings, a 2005 documentary that exposes the horrors humans inflict on animals. Since then, Phoenix has worked to bring a number of animal-centric films to life. In 2020, Phoenix executively produced , a black-and-white artistic film about a pig and her family made by Russian filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky. Phoenix and his partner, actress, and fellow animal-rights activist Rooney Mara also executively produced the timely documentary End of Medicine which was directed by BAFTA winning director Alex Lockwood. Scheduled for release on May 10, this provocative film-which, notably, started production prior to the COVID-19 pandemic-looks at the role animal exploitation has in emerging health threats, such as pandemics and antibiotic resistance.

Farm Sanctuary

When it comes to Free the Animals, Newkirk says Phoenix promised that no animals will be harmed should the book become a film. "I also have his word that he would never allow the use of real animals, who often spend their lives in cages and are shipped to Hollywood sets to perform what to them are stressful, nonsensical, repetitious acts," Newkirk said. "Instead, he would use computer-generated imagery or domestic animals who live as companions-and of course, he would have access to PETA's photo and video vaults, which contain footage from the raids described in the book."

In addition to Newkirk's book, Phoenix has previously penned the forward for other animal-rights books, including 2020 release HIDDEN: Animals in the Anthropocene, a photography-driven book created by award-winning photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur documenting the war humans have waged on non-human animals in the 21st century.
For more about Joaquin Phoenix, read: Joaquin Phoenix Visits Toronto Vegan Restaurant Just to Compliment Its Food Joaquin Phoenix, Billie Eilish Bring Vegan Burgers to LGBTQ Youth Joaquin Phoenix Honors Slain Activist Regan Russell

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Why Joaquin Phoenix's Next Oscar Could Be For a Vegan Film

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Actor and vegan activist Joaquin Phoenix just acquired the movie rights to Free the Animals: The Amazing, True Story of the Animal Liberation Front in North America -a book written in 1992 by Ingrid Newkirk, president of animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

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Written by Oscar Holland, CNN

From prehistoric Bhimbetka cave paintings to works by contemporary art stars like Atul Dodiya and Shilpa Gupta, India has a rich cultural heritage dating back over 10,000 years.

So, it came as a surprise to one of the country's leading collectors, the businessman and philanthropist Abhishek Poddar, that there was no single source of authoritative information on the subcontinent's art history.

"I didn't even realize that India didn't have an encyclopedia for art. And it was quite shocking that, being one of the oldest cultures in the world, nobody had thought of doing it," he said over the phone, adding: "Every kid knows about (Michelangelo's) 'David,' the 'Mona Lisa' and Botticelli, but there are Indian masterpieces that even 1% of India doesn't know about."

Hoping to address this deficit, he has helped launch an encyclopedia of South Asian art with over 2,000 entries spanning famous artifacts, folk traditions, craft techniques and cultural institutions from the region.

Funded by Poddar's Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), which opens later this year in the southern city of Bengaluru, the open-access resource was created by a group of around 20 researchers and editors. Content was internally peer-reviewed and overseen by a panel of expert scholars and writers.

The site is aimed at everyone from students and academics to general-interest readers in India and beyond. Hoping to make the entries as accessible as possible, the researchers focused not only on factual accuracy but using clear and concise language, said the project's founder and director, Nathaniel Gaskell.

"A lot of the scholarship is in ridiculously verbose jargon," he said in a phone interview, calling the encyclopedia "a response to that kind of writing, which people find quite alienating."

Diverse focus

The research team, which comprises largely of early-career Indian academics, also hoped to redress the various biases -- including colonial narratives -- that exist in historical arts literature, Gaskell said. This impacted both how the entries are written and what was included in the first place.

"The biases of Western institutions are that they've looked only at certain things, and neglected a lot of regional artwork," said Gaskell, who is also author of the book "Photography in India: A Visual History From the 1850s to the Present."

"By including regional, non-fine art stuff, we're immediately starting to address that."

The initial entries were curated to be representative of the subcontinent's different religious, linguistic and local traditions, while featuring a broadly equal number of male and female artists. The encyclopedia is also intended to shine a light on the crafts and living traditions of marginalized communities, as well as lesser-studied facets of regional art history -- from folk dramas and embroidery to the medieval Indian board game that is known in the US as Chutes and Ladders.

For Poddar, navigating the shortcomings of existing scholarship was primarily about sticking to the facts: "We're not rewriting history, we are merely writing what's happened and connecting it in interesting ways."

Three years in the making, the encyclopedia has initially launched in English, which is widely spoken in India. Organizers hope to translate the entries into Hindi in the near future. The researchers also intend to expand the online repository by around 1,000 entries a year, with a growing focus on the wider region.

"We're talking about things that are as much a part of Pakistan's or Bangladesh's history as they are India's," Gaskell said, noting that many of the featured topics predate modern borders.

'This is global art'

India's art sector remains heavily reliant on philanthropists like Poddar. The Ministry of Culture's most recent annual budget was, at 26.9 billion rupees ($351 million), only about a fifth more than what the US' largest museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, spent in 2020.

Poddar, who donated thousands of items from his personal collection to his soon-to-open museum, believes that education is the best way to secure the sector's long-term prospects in India.

"If we really want to develop a museum-going culture and make the arts relevant, it needs a basis in education -- and one that is accessible and available freely, not just to museum visitors," he said. "You have to start investing in things that you may or may not even see in the next five or 10 years -- it may be a generation later."

The businessman's funding of projects like the MAP Academy Encyclopedia of Art is "to some extent" a matter of patriotism, he said.

"I just feel we have such great art," he added. "And it's not just for the Indian community in India to see, or the Indian diaspora outside. This is not anybody's domain -- this is global art."
Top image: "Indian Roller on Sandalwood Branch" (1779) by Sheikh Zain al-Din. This article has been updated to clarify Abhishek Poddar's title.

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000 years of indian art history in one place - cnn

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Open-source encyclopedia puts 10,000 years of Indian art history in one place

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Written by Oscar Holland, CNN From prehistoric Bhimbetka cave paintings to works by contemporary art stars like Atul Dodiya and Shilpa Gupta, India has a rich cultural heritage dating back over 10,000 years. So, it came as a surprise to one of the country's leading collectors, the businessman and philanthropist Abhishek Poddar, that there was no single source of authoritative information on the subcontinent's art history.

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https://news.artnet.com/art-world/art-industry-news-other-stories-april-25-2104280

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Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most consequential developments coming out of the art world and art market. Here's what you need to know on this Monday, April 25.
NEED TO READ

Smashed Guardian Hard Drives Head to British Library - Hard drives that Guardian executives destroyed in order to avoid handing over leaked documents from Edward Snowden, the whistleblower responsible for the biggest intelligence leak in U.S. history, are among the objects featured in the British Library show "Breaking the News," which runs until August 22. ()

Paris Mayor Orders Investigation Into City's Museums - Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, has ordered investigators to look into reports of sexual harassment, racism, and sexism at six of the city's 14 government-run museums. The allegations were first published in the French newspaper Libération earlier this month. ()

Saudi Royals Are Selling Off Loads of Art - Saudi princes have reportedly sold off more than $600 million worth of assets-including real estate, art, and yachts-in the U.S. and Europe in order to pay their vast bills as the kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, tightens the purse strings of thousands of royals. Treasures sold off recently include a $155 million British country estate, two yachts more than 200 feet long, and Mughal jewels gifted as wedding presents by a late king. (Wall Street Journal)

Bolivia's Venice Biennale Pavilion Is Mired in Controversy - Bolivian artists Maximiliano Siñani and Iván Cáceres and curator Marisabel Villagómez have accused the Indigenous artist Roberto Mamani Mamani, the commissioner of the country's pavilion, and the multidisciplinary Warmichacha Collective, who are representing Bolivia in Venice, of nepotism and plagiarism. The trio said that shortly after their proposal was approved by the nation's authorities in January, all communication ceased-and Mamani's final project bears striking resemblance to their initial idea. ()

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Seized Pissarro to Be Sold at Christie's - A Pissarro painting that was subject to a legal battle between the heirs of a Jewish couple whose collection was seized by the Nazis and a Jewish family who bought the work in 1994 will be sold at auction in May after the two parties reached a confidential settlement. The Anse des Pilotes, Le Havre is expected to fetch between $1.2 million and $1.8 million at Christie's New York on May 14. (New York Times)

UNESCO Indefinitely Postpones World Heritage Meeting In Russia - The annual World Heritage Committee session that was due to take place in Kazan, Russia from June 19 to 30 has been postponed indefinitely following pressure from cultural organizations around the world. Stakeholders have said that such a session could not be held in a country that has damaged or destroyed nearly 100 cultural sites in Ukraine during its ongoing invasion. (The Art Newspaper)

Venice Benefit Auction Raised Over $1.3 Million for Ukraine - A splashy benefit dinner and auction helmed by Simon de Pury in Venice last week raised more than €1.2 million ($1.3 million) for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. The funds will be distributed to organizations including Museums for Ukraine, the Maria Prymachenko Foundation, the Ukrainian Emergency Pavilion, and Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund. ( Press release)

FOR ARTS SAKE

Sterling Ruby Decorates the Façade of Berggruen Arts & Culture - The American artist installed a gigantic relief sculpture on the facade of Palazzo Diedo, the home of collector Nicolas Berggruen's new cultural organization and think tank in Venice. The installation by Ruby-the organization's first artist-in-residence-marks the first phase of "A Project in Four Acts," a four-part, long-term installation. ()

Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward.

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Art Industry News: Saudi Royals Are Selling Off Art, Jewels, and Yachts as the Crown Prince Tightens Purse Strings + Other Stories

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Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most consequential developments coming out of the art world and art market. Here's what you need to know on this Monday, April 25. Smashed Guardian Hard Drives Head to British Library - Hard drives that Guardian executives destroyed in order to avoid handing over leaked documents from Edward Snowden, the whistleblower responsible for the biggest intelligence leak in U.S.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/04/25/depp-heard-trial-scene/

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https://ew.com/tv/we-need-to-talk-about-cosby-questions-set/

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In the W. Kamau Bell's Showtime docuseries, one interviewee says of The Cosby Show, "I don't believe that the people on that set didn't know what was happening."
This story has been updated with a statement from a representative for Bill Cosby.
The new Showtime docuseries We Need to Talk About Cosby is a nuanced retelling of comedian Bill Cosby's professional life, addressing both his decades of success and the dozens of sexual assaults he's alleged to have perpetrated during that time.

Written and directed by comedian W. Kamau Bell ( United Shades of America), the project, which premiered on Saturday at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, spends its third hour focusing on his behavior during the peak of his career on The Cosby Show. One account in particular from that time is sure to leave viewers wondering if others on the set knew about Cosby's behavior.

Steve Watkins, the director's assistant on the pivotal NBC series, says in the docuseries that show tapings would have a general audience, often including families, "but then you'd get to this one pocket where there's about 20, 25 women dressed to the nines. They're all models, and they look it. It's like, 'Wow, what in the world's going on up there?' What we learned later [was] a modeling agency would bring these girls over, and they would talk to Mr. [Cosby]."

Two actors who appeared on the show, Joseph C. Phillips and Lili Bernard, the latter of whom has accused Cosby of sexual assault, remember those women being brought to the TV dad's dressing room after the show. "There was always a long line of beautiful women, all different shades," says Bernard. "Yeah, they were lined up outside of his dressing room, poor things, going in and out."

Phillips, who recurred on the series as Lt. Martin Kendall, adds, "I guess they would read or, I don't know what went on, and then they would go out. It was just kind of like the air. You know, it was there, and everybody knew it."

One such model, Eden Tirl, appears in the docuseries and shares what it was like to catch Cosby's attention after her agent brought her to a taping. After saying a quick hello to the TV star after the episode ended, she says, "The following morning I get a phone call from my agent. 'You just got a part in The Cosby Show. He wants you next week on the show to play a cop.'" She jokes, "Now don't get me wrong, women can play cops, but dressed blues cops walking the beat in New York at 22 and six feet tall, it just seemed a little odd."

She adds, "This was my first television role. I had three lines or something like that. I had my own dressing room." Phillips, who again appeared on The Cosby Show about two dozen times, mentions that he never got his own dressing room. He had to share one with costar Geoffrey Owens. "One week we come in, I kid you not, we are in a closet. They put us in a storage closet," says the actor.

Sensing special treatment, Tirl says, "I knew enough to know that this is all now getting really strange, and I'm uncomfortable right away." On the first day of rehearsal, she says she was mysteriously pulled away by a man named Frank Scotti, who she'd later learn was Cosby's assistant. "He's actually escorting me off," she says, alleging that she was told that she was to have lunch in Cosby's dressing room and that no one else on set stopped Scotti to say "we need her."

Tirl says she was spared a visit by the comedian the first day, but "the second day, we're rehearsing and Scotti comes, and this time I say I will not leave the set," says the actress. "And I talked to two people, and I said 'I don't want to leave the set,' and they said, 'Just go. This happens all the time. Just go.'"

After three days of the same routine, Tirl says Cosby finally showed up in the dressing room and uncharacteristically locked the door. "He just said really pointedly, 'Eden, you know that you could have anything you wanted, right? You do understand who I am," says Tirl. "And I said, 'Bill, you are Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, and you're Jell-O pudding pops to me." According to the actress, Cosby's mood changed instantly, and he replied, "Don't say that to me. They all say that to me."

Tirl alleges that Cosby then had her stand up, put her arms out, and turn around before pressing himself behind her for an "acting exercise" where he mirrored her movements. "It's very oppressive, and it feels sexual," the former model says in the doc. In the end, Cosby allegedly told her, "See, this is all we were going to do. Make love. This is making love."

Tirl says her experience with sexual harassment on the set of the Cosby Show has made her suspicious of anyone involved on the show who claims they were unaware of the star's behavior. "I don't believe that that's the first time that happened. I don't believe that the people on that set didn't know what was happening." Tirl concludes her interview by saying, "A lot of people knew. Because you can't do what he did unless you have other people supporting what you're doing."

Watkins shares the same sentiment, adding, "I would love to ask some people that I used to work with there like 'What in the world did you think was going on?' You did wonder. You had to."

A representative for Cosby responded to the docuseries in a statement to EW that said "Despite media's repetitive reports of allegations against Mr. Cosby, none have ever been proven in any court of law." It adds, "Mr. Cosby vehemently denies all allegations waged against him."

We Need to Talk About Cosby premieres Jan. 30 at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime.

We Need to Talk About Cosby (2022 docuseries)

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'We Need To Talk About Cosby' doc raises questions about 'Cosby Show' set

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In the W. Kamau Bell's Showtime docuseries, one interviewee says of The Cosby Show, "I don't believe that the people on that set didn't know what was happening." This story has been updated with a statement from a representative for Bill Cosby.

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Brockhampton performed one of their final shows at Coachella last night, announcing a surprise final album in the process. The group wore matching letterman jackets with the phrase "All Good Things Must Come to An End" embroidered on the back. The band's stage set was decorated with boulders, a colorful mountain scene, and a giant blue animatronic gorilla. Brockhampton did live renditions of tracks like "Buzzcut," "1999 Wildfire," "Summer," "Boogie," and more.

After leaving the stage, they played a video clip of Kevin Abstract meeting with his bandmates, discussing the last Brockhampton LP. The video cut to a graphic that read: "Final Album. 2022." The band is set to go on indefinite hiatus following next weekend's Coachella performance. Watch clips from their set below and follow all of Pitchfork's Coachella 2022 coverage.

In January, Brockhampton canceled all of their previously-announced 2022 dates except for two shows at London's O2 Academy Brixton in February and both weekends of Coachella 2022. "They invite their fans to come celebrate the end of an era with them at these final performances," a statement from the band's representatives read.

Brockhampton began after group leader Kevin Abstract posted a note on the forum KanyeToThe asking if anyone wanted to start a band. Initially named Alive Since Forever, the group later rebranded as Brockhampton. The many members who have been in the collective include vocalists Ameer Vann, Joba, Matt Champion, Meryln Wood, Dom McLennon, and Bearface, as well as producers Romil Hemnani, Jabari Manwa, and Kiko Merley.

In 2017, after the collective moved to Los Angeles, Brockhampton starred in the Viceland series American Boyband and released the three-album Saturation series. The Saturation II song " Gummy" was named one of Pitchfork's " 100 Best Songs of 2017."

In 2018, Brockhampton made their Coachella debut. During their set, the musicians wore blue face paint. Kevin Abstract later said that the performance's orchestral section was inspired by Kanye West's work on Late Registration. Shortly after signing with RCA that same year, Vann was removed from the group after facing allegations of sexual misconduct. Brockhampton canceled a tour to "regroup" following a somber performance at Boston Calling, and, one month later, they made their public return on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. It was their late night television debut.

Later that year, Brockhampton returned with the record Iridescence-their first and only album to go No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart. In 2019, just months after Abstract released the Jack Antonoff-produced solo album Arizona Baby, the band released . Brockhampton's last album, Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine, was released in 2021. The album featured contributions from Danny Brown, A$AP Rocky, A$AP Ferg, Charlie Wilson, and Jpegmafia.

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Brockhampton Announce Surprise "Final Album" During Coachella 2022 Performance

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Brockhampton performed one of their final shows at Coachella last night, announcing a surprise final album in the process. The group wore matching letterman jackets with the phrase "All Good Things Must Come to An End" embroidered on the back. The band's stage set was decorated with boulders, a colorful mountain scene, and a giant blue animatronic gorilla.

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t was Candice Carty-Williams who came up with the "Black Bridget Jones" tagline for her debut novel, Queenie. ( She wasn't working in marketing for a publishing house at the time for nothing.) She wanted her novel, which follows the misadventures of millennial south London journalist Queenie, to reach as wide a readership as possible. She succeeded. Today, her name rarely appears without the words "publishing phenomenon" attached: Queenie won book of the year at the British book awards in 2020 (Bridget Jones took it in 1998), making Carty-Williams the first Black writer ever to get the prize, an indictment of the industry in itself. The novel has sold more than half a million copies and is being made into a TV drama on Channel 4.

But where Bridget Jones's Diary now seems dated in terms of sexual politics, Queenie is often deeply shocking in its depiction of the heroine's treatment at the hands of a series of toxic men, taking in internet dating, mental health problems and the housing crisis, as well as everything else that goes with being a young woman. Toni Morrison's famous injunction to write the book you want to read might have been conceived with a future Carty-Williams in mind. Written when she was in her early 20s, and landing in the midst of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, Queenie couldn't have been more timely. Critics praised its combination of empathy, wit and political awareness; some readers recognised themselves in fiction for the first time. "Queenie was this big burst of 25-year-old energy: 'I am sick of sexism and going on bad dates and hearing all this shit, and my friends having to go through all this shit, and going through shit at work. I have to write it all down,'" the author, now 33, says when we meet to talk about her much-anticipated second novel, People Person.

"Queenie was so much about Blackness in response to whiteness, I've said what I needed to say about that," she says. "It's time to write something that is just about Black people. That's it." Also set in south London, People Person is about a non-nuclear family coming together rather than falling apart, but again touches on contemporary issues such as social media, revenge porn and distrust of the police.

As I go through my life I will always write the things that I'm trying to make sense of

"I'm a proper south London girl for ever," Carty-Williams declares, after welcoming me into her home in Streatham, just round the corner from where she grew up, which she was able to buy thanks to Queenie. It is decorated with touches of the candy-pink and lush green of one of the book's original hardback designs. While she is delighted to finally have a place of her own (much of Queenie was written in a studio with mice and slugs for company), doing it up as a single woman was no fun. In a scene that might have come straight out of her debut novel, a workman cornered her in her bedroom one night and started lighting candles. "It was horrible, but I was also like, 'Of course this happens,'" she says, settling into the sofa. Now she always has a friend over if a builder is coming. "That's just how it is. It is absolutely awful, but I'm so accustomed to it."

On the wall behind her is the famous 1970s Jamaican tourist board poster of the model Sintra Arunte-Bronte in a wet T-shirt in the same candyfloss shade with the word "JAMAICA" across her breasts. "Yeah, she fits in," Carty-Williams laughs. She has a small version of Sintra that goes on the top of her Christmas tree. More sombrely, on the other wall is a poster from the 2016 film Moonlight, which she saw at the Barbican with a live orchestra playing the score; she cried so much that a man asked her if she was OK. She cries a lot, she says. On the pink bookshelves, there are two black-and-white prints that she bought to support Black Lives Matter: one of a woman weeping, another of a boy in a hoodie, his face hidden by beautiful hands. "They are two identities that I've seen and that I've loved in my life - weeping and hiding," she says. And a photograph of her nan, who was always her most stable influence growing up. "Isn't she lovely!"

How do you follow a smash hit like Queenie? Writer Kit de Waal advised her to get the next book out as quickly as possible, so Carty-Williams had already completed a novel about a group of friends by the time Queenie was going to press. She had even sent it to her editor. But looking at it again during lockdown, she just "wasn't vibing with it". It was all about grief and she felt the world was grieving enough. "That novel was so raw. I was like: 'People don't need this.' So I just binned it," she says. "There was no one there to stop me."

Then one night - she works best when it's dark - she put a song on repeat and, starting at 11pm and finishing at six the following morning, wrote until she had 10,000 words. "This is it! This feels better," she remembers thinking, albeit also feeling wired and sick. Queenie took off in a similar blast after Carty-Williams won a competition to spend a week writing in novelist Jojo Moyes's house: she notched up 8,000 words in the first day, 40,000 by the end of the week. The whole novel was finished in six months, and she was working full time.

The result of that all-nighter is People Person. The first chapter introduces us to the Pennington clan, five half-siblings who have never met before, until their errant father Cyril decides to pick them all up in his gold Jeep one day. Fast-forward 16 years and the farcical second chapter sees the now adult siblings reunited for the first time, when they have to deal with the body of Dimple's abusive boyfriend, who has slipped and hit his head after a row.

"Why would you call the police?" Dimple's brother Danny asks when they are trying to work out what to do. "They'll create some story and put it on you." Against the background of the police handling of Richard Okorogheye's disappearance (mentioned in the novel); murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, whose bodies were photographed by the officers guarding the crime scene; and, most recently, the strip-search of Child Q, People Person has the same grim urgency as Queenie. "I'm sick that it takes these things for people to realise 'Oh, Black people are treated really badly,'" Carty-Williams says of Child Q. "It's like, Yeah, of course! People see Black children as women. It is horrible. I had men talking about my body when I was not even 10 years old." Just last week, the police pulled the author over in her car while she was singing along to music with a friend. "They ran my plates!"

While Queenie dealt with difficult mother-daughter relationships, People Person is her "daddy issues" novel. "I know that as I go through my life I will always write the things that I'm trying to make sense of myself," she says. "So when it came to dads, I was like: 'I really have to do it.'" She is one of nine siblings with the same father - far too many characters for a novel, she jokes. Although she doesn't keep in touch with all of them, "it's nice to have different people to talk to". Her father worked as a taxi driver and met her mother when he picked her up from her shifts as a hospital receptionist. It turned out he already had three children, and (like the characters Dimple and Lizzie in the novel) another sister was born to a different woman the same year. "It's never clear!" she says, trying to work out how many mothers in all. "Your dad has how many kids?" she was always asked as a child, but it never really bothered her. "That's my life. And there are people who have that life, too. I want to connect with those people and make them feel less lonely."

'I'm not naturally a very happy person. But that's all right because I'm used to it' ... Candice Carty-Williams. Photograph: Chantel King

Unlike the gregarious Cyril in the novel, her father is not a people person, she says, showing me an old photo of him looking shyly at the camera on her phone. When he worked for London Underground she would visit him at the depots in Kennington or Morden. "We would just sit in silence together, and that was cool." Earlier this morning, her mum was over for a visit. "She's the funniest person I know," Carty-Williams says. "We just get on." But that hasn't always been the case. It took her many years to realise that her parents were their own people and couldn't really look after her, she says. "And it is really, really tough."

Her childhood was "very lonely and very shit". She moved all over south London with her mother, ending up in a mouse-infested council house with no proper kitchen - it has since been boarded up. When she was eight they moved in with her mother's new partner in Lewisham, which meant that her nan was no longer living round the corner, and a year later her sister was born. A turning point came when she was sent home from school for a week for bad behaviour and her stepfather made her go to the library every day. She discovered Sue Townsend, Louise Rennison and Malorie Blackman ("she has my heart in so many ways") and books became her escape from the "chaos" in her head and the unhappiness around her.

But in her early 20s, after university (communication and media studies at Sussex), she had "a terrible nervous episode" following the death of her best friend, Dan, from cancer - Queenie is dedicated to him. Eventually, with the help of a course of CBT on the NHS, she recovered enough to apply for a couple of internships and landed the marketing job at HarperCollins. "I just had so much fun," she says. Although she was unable to ignore the lack of diversity: "It is men at the top and loads of white women in the middle; overwhelmingly so." In 2016 she set up the Guardian 4th Estate BAME short story prize. "Obviously in this world if you are Black and you want to do something you still have to get permission from lots of white people to do it. Which is sad," she says. And while there has been an improvement in the last few years, publishing still has a long way to go. As she says, the prize would never have happened had she not been given a job in the first place. "If you are there, you can see it and say it."

She is shocked by Queenie's 'absolutely wild' sex scenes. 'Oh my God, did I really write that?'

Then came Queenie and Carty-Williams was the one winning prizes. When she found out she had won the Nibbies' book of the year award, the first thing she did was find a therapist. "I was in such a place of not liking myself," she says, that receiving public accolades was just too much. She has been with the therapist ever since: "It has changed my life. I'm going to be with her until I don't need to be with her again, which won't be any time soon." Although she is more settled than she has ever been, she still finds happiness difficult: "I'm not naturally a very happy person. But that's all right because I'm used to it."

Both Queenie and Dimple struggle with insecurity and anxiety, and she is keen to challenge the stereotype of Black women as strong and resilient in her fiction (Queenie is the first person in the family "to go to psychotherapy!", her Jamaican grandmother declares in horror). Although rooted in what she knows (she would never write a book set in west London, she says), her novels are not autobiographical: she is so fed up with people assuming that she is Queenie that she refuses to give readings. "I wouldn't want anyone to hear me speak in her voice and think we're the same person." As she likes to point out, nobody asks Ian McEwan if he suffers from premature ejaculation, referring to the crucial scene in On Chesil Beach. "Nobody! Of course women would have to write about all their emotions and feelings," she says. "But we also have imaginations."

As well as adapting Queenie for Channel 4, she is also writing a TV drama called Champion for the BBC, about a rapper who comes out of prison - in south London, "obviously". Rereading Queenie for the first time, she is shocked at how dark it is in places, and the "absolutely wild" sex scenes. "Oh my God, did I really write that?" Neither her mum, her nan or her sister have read the novel. "They are not really fussed," she says. "They know what I do." Although her mum promises to be first in the line to buy People Person.

Writing has introduced her to a new community, and she stresses how fellow authors such as Zadie Smith, Diana Evans and Raven Leilani have supported her. "When you are a young Black writer, I think you've got to hold each other up. We are always in it together and you kind of have to be."

There's "pride and there's sadness" in being a Black woman in publishing, she says. "It is amazing seeing all the authors who are being given opportunities because publishers can finally see that Black books sell. And they win prizes." One of her favourite recent books is Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson, which won the Costa first novel award this year, but which she believes might not have been published 10 years ago. Queenie not only transformed her life, but has helped other young writers like her. "It's always going to be my special 'little project', as my nan calls it."

People Person is published by Trapeze on 28 April (£12.99). To support The Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

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Candice Carty-Williams: 'It's time to write a book just about Black people'

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t was Candice Carty-Williams who came up with the "Black Bridget Jones" tagline for her debut novel, Queenie. ( She wasn't working in marketing for a publishing house at the time for nothing.) She wanted her novel, which follows the misadventures of millennial south London journalist Queenie, to reach as wide a readership as possible.

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The Weeknd's HBO drama series "The Idol" is being reworked with changes to its cast and crew, Variety has learned. According to sources, production was already completed on multiple episodes of the six-episode series, which will now be redone due to a change in creative directions.

"'The Idol's' creative team continues to build, refine, and evolve their vision for the show and they have aligned on a new creative direction," HBO said in a statement to Variety. "The production will be adjusting its cast and crew accordingly to best serve this new approach to the series. We look forward to sharing more information soon."

HBO declined to comment on which cast and crew members are leaving the production.

Co-created by the Weeknd aka Abel Tesfaye, Sam Levison and Reza Fahim, "The Idol" is set set against the backdrop of the music industry, centers on a self-help guru and leader of a modern-day cult, who develops a complicated relationship with an up-and-coming pop idol.

"The Idol" was first announced as being in development in June 2021 with the Weeknd serving as co-creator and star. Lily Rose-Depp was cast in September, and in November, HBO greenlit the series. Troye Sivan, Suzanna Son and Steve Zissis were announced as series regulars on the show with Melanie Liburd, Tunde Adebimpe, Elizabeth Berkley Lauren, Nico Hiraga and Anne Heche in recurring roles.

Amy Seimetz was announced as the director and executive producer while Joe Epstein would serve as showrunner. Levinson would executive produce via Little Lamb along with Ashley Levinson and Kevin Turen, while Aaron L. GIibert executive produces via Bron Studios and Nick Hall and Sara E. White executive produce along with A24.

Though the Weeknd is primarily known for his accomplishments in the music world, such as his 2022 album "Dawn FM," his Grammy-winning 2016 album "Starboy," this will not be his first time on screen. He wrote and starred in a 2020 episode of TBS' hit animated comedy "American Dad" and also played himself in Josh and Benny Safdie's acclaimed 2019 thriller film "Uncut Gems" opposite Adam Sandler. Additionally, he was nominated for an Emmy in 2021 for his performance at the Super Bowl halftime show and an Academy Award nomination his song "Earned It," the lead single from the "Fifty Shades of Grey" soundtrack.

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The Weeknd's HBO Drama Series 'The Idol' to Undergo Significant Reshoots

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The Weeknd's HBO drama series "The Idol" is being reworked with changes to its cast and crew, Variety has learned. According to sources, production was already completed on multiple episodes of the six-episode series, which will now be redone due to a change in creative directions.

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I often joke that my mom prepared me for studio executives. She's a highly intelligent woman with highly commercial taste. Since I was making short films in high school, her commentary has always pushed toward the mainstream.

In recent years, one of her main talking points is that if I want to tell trans stories, I should do so with subtlety. Write a trans person as the best friend in a straight romcom or make a trans Will and Grace. She knows me well enough to know I won't listen, but she keeps making suggestions because she's an Aquarius who's filled with ideas.

I thought about her while watching the new Netflix show Heartstopper created by Alice Oseman based on her graphic novel of the same name. It tells the story of Charlie (Joe Locke), an out gay boy in a secret relationship who pivots his attention to straight rugby star Nick (Kit Connor). This is a show where crush feelings manifest in cartoon hearts and every episode contains at least one montage set to an indie pop song by a queer artist.

This show is lovely. Charlie and Nick's friendship and possible something-more-ship is a joy to watch in a simple kind of way that will melt as many hearts as it stops. It's a PG coming-of-age romance I'd recommend for all ages. It's not doing anything new, it's not necessarily deep, occasionally it dabbles in plot contrivances, but overall it does what it's trying to do quite well. At its best, it portrays the difference between giving someone time to find their feelings and giving that at the expense of your own.

But it's not Charlie and Nick who make the show for me - it's Charlie's friend Elle. Elle is a trans girl who previously went to the same all-boys school as our two leads and the rest of Charlie's friend group. She's since transferred to their sister school where she quickly befriends Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell), a lesbian couple.

Yasmin Finney plays Elle with an easy likability and a quiet wisdom she's been forced to adopt. Amid all the drama, Elle is her friend group's rock. Before our story begins, she suffered through enough bullying to harden her against it all. She may not be the riskiest character on the show, but she's almost certainly the kindest.

When I argue with my mom, I tell her that respectability is not the answer. I tell her that the flattening of queer stories will not lead to change. I tell her that mainstream art should compel an audience to meet the work at its loftier goals rather than falling to their simplified expectations. But the moment when Tara and Darcy extend friendship to Elle, the moment when they come out to her, the suggestion that of course these two cis queer teens would want to be friends with this trans teen - it erased any doubts I might have about this kind of storytelling.

If you're trans or know any trans people or even just follow a handful of trans people on Twitter, you're probably aware that right now things kind of suck. A decade of increased visibility and backlash has been building to a moment where transphobia is a primary conservative talking point - a talking point that is increasingly being translated to law. And while this transphobia targets us all, it has especially been focused on trans youth. And a lot of it is claimed to be done on behalf of cis girls - and, sometimes, specifically queer cis girls.

Heartstopper is not revolutionary enough to have a cis lesbian character fall in love with the trans girl - but this portrayal of friendship still feels radical for our time. It shouldn't. But it does. Especially on a show geared toward a younger audience. Especially on a show made in the UK, a place that is even more transphobic than the US.

I don't think Elle's storyline is handled perfectly. We don't spend much time exploring any nuances or specificities to the way she moves through the world as a trans girl and, specifically, as a Black trans girl. Beyond her friendships, the only other aspect to her character is a crush that doesn't quite get a payoff. But Yasmin Finney's presence alone meant a lot to me. It's nice that trans people are included in this saccharine world at a time when many are trying keep us excluded.

It's nice there's a new show on Netflix with a trans character that I can recommend to anyone looking to smile. It's nice there's a new show on Netflix with a trans character I can recommend to my mom.

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Netflix's Heartstopper Includes a Trans Girl in Its Sweet Tale

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I often joke that my mom prepared me for studio executives. She's a highly intelligent woman with highly commercial taste. Since I was making short films in high school, her commentary has always pushed toward the mainstream. In recent years, one of her main talking points is that if I want to tell trans stories, I should do so with subtlety.

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Ezra Miller has been arrested for second-degree assault in Hawaii, less than four weeks after the "Flash" and " Fantastic Beasts" star was arrested for disorderly conduct and harassment in Hilo, Hawaii.

Miller was arrested early Tuesday morning after an incident at a private residence in Pāhoa. Patrol officers responded to a report of an assault that occurred at a get-together in the Leilani Estates subdivision in lower Puna. According to the Hawaii Police Department, Miller allegedly became irate after being asked to leave and threw a chair, striking a 26-year-old woman on the forehead and resulting in an approximate half-inch cut. The woman refused treatment for the injury.

Police arrested Miller at 1:30 a.m. after the actor was located on the roadway during a traffic stop at the intersection of Highway 130 and Kukula Street in Kea'au. Miller was released at 4:05 a.m. after conferring with the County Prosecutor's Office, pending further investigation. The investigation remains active.

Miller's first arrest came on March 28. South Hilo officers responded to a report of a disorderly bar patron, where Miller had become unruly and yelled obscenities while other patrons sang karaoke. Miller grabbed the microphone from a woman singing and lunged at a man playing darts. After being arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and harassment, Miller paid the $500 bail and was released from custody.

A Hawaiian couple filed a restraining order against Miller the day after the first arrest. The restraining order claimed Miller burst into the couple's bedroom and threatened them, and Miller allegedly stole some of the couple's belongings, including a passport and wallet. A judge dismissed the order on April 13 at the request of the couple.

According to Hawaii Police Assistant Chief Kenneth Quiocho, Miller had been the source of 10 police calls in Hilo since March 7.

The second arrest comes less than a week after the U.S. release of " Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore," in which Miller plays a supporting role in the "Harry Potter" spinoff franchise. The latest "Fantastic Beasts" opened to a franchise-low after it's been beleaguered by a number of controversies. In addition to Miller's arrests, actor Johnny Depp was fired from the franchise in the midst of his own legal battles and "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling has been under fire for anti-trans comments she's made on social media. Also on Miller's slate, the standalone DC Comics movie " The Flash " is set to release June 23, 2023.

Variety has reached out to Warner Bros. and Miller's representatives for comment.

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Ezra Miller Arrested for Assault in Hawaii, Weeks After First Arrest

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Ezra Miller has been arrested for second-degree assault in Hawaii, less than four weeks after the "Flash" and " Fantastic Beasts" star was arrested for disorderly conduct and harassment in Hilo, Hawaii. Miller was arrested early Tuesday morning after an incident at a private residence in Pāhoa.

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https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/live-nation-launches-in-the-philippines-acquires-promoter-music-management-international/
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/mojo-music-media-acquires-stakes-in-catalogs-of-bob-morrison-and-jerry-reed/

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Four years ago, DaBaby signed a deal with Interscope Records that would change his life. Just 11 weeks prior, he had taken one.

At the time, the rapper was a few years shy of global fame, whether for a steady stream of chart-topping songs and Grammy nominations, various brawls, or widespread condemnation last summer after making homophobic remarks and comments about people with HIV/AIDS.

But in 2018, DaBaby, whose real name is Jonathan Kirk, was just another buzzy, cocky North Carolina artist who relied on a local fan base to pass around his YouTube videos and SoundCloud links in the hopes of landing a major record label.

Jaylin Craig was one such listener. Being an early admirer of Kirk cost the 19-year-old his life, according to his family, after a chance encounter at a Charlotte-area Walmart ended with Kirk shooting and killing Craig on Nov. 5, 2018.

Kirk has always claimed he acted out of fear for his and his family's safety, describing a scenario where he was approached by two young men who allegedly threatened him and whipped out a firearm while he was shopping with his then-partner and their children. Kirk claimed he fired his own gun in an act of self-protection and to keep his family safe.

But Rolling Stone has obtained never-before-seen security footage of the fatal altercation that appears to contradict key aspects of Kirk's version of events. From the footage, the rapper appears to be the initial aggressor in the situation, calling into question DaBaby's self-defense claim. To Craig's family, the video footage raises some serious questions; most important, would Jaylin Craig still be alive if Kirk hadn't thrown the first punch?

"I feel like they just swept it up under the rug," Craig's mother, LaWanda Horsley, tells Rolling Stone of the investigation into her son's death. "[Kirk] knows what he did. I'm not doing this for no fame or anything, because at the end of the day, Jaylin Craig is gone."

Craig's family members and his best friend, Henry Douglas, claim the altercation only started when Kirk became annoyed that the teens had recognized him, and he allegedly demanded they take things outside for a fight. While Kirk claimed to police that one of the teens had first suggested they should fight, the footage shows Craig standing nearby as Kirk sucker punches a blindsided Douglas, barreling into him and striking him in the face. The injury left Douglas with a bruised eye socket and a gash in his forehead that required stitches.

At one point immediately after Kirk's initial attack on Douglas, Craig appears in one block of footage to pull out a gun from his waistband, but as he walks out of frame, he appears to begin to put it back. Other footage from later on in the fight, in which it's unclear whether or not Craig is still brandishing his gun, then shows Kirk pulling out a concealed Glock from his waistband and mortally wounding Craig. Officials later determined, based on the security footage, witness testimony, and a weapon found near Craig's body, that Craig had a gun on him, but it's inconclusive if Craig was brandishing the gun as he approached the two men.

The whole altercation lasted less than a minute and ended with a wounded Craig running into a nearby aisle and leaving a trail of blood before collapsing in the same spot where medics would pronounce him dead minutes later.

Kirk has hardly shied away from the events of that fateful Monday evening, in fact bragging about the shooting on several tracks. In the 2020 hit "Rockstar," he boasts about his one-year-old daughter having witnessed him kill someone, hailing her as a gangster. ("My daughter a G, she saw me kill a nigga in front of her before the age of two.") Four days after Craig's death, Kirk released a video for his new song "No Tears," compiling local news footage of the mayhem for the song's intro, with lyrics mentioning the shooting, despite the case still being under investigation. "And any nigga, touch me, catch a body like Boosie. Try me, I'm shootin'. No back and forth, just up it, I'm blowin'." (A rep for the rapper did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

Outside of his music, Kirk has been more tight-lipped on specifics. He has always maintained that he acted in self-defense; a loving father protecting his then-partner Mariah Osborne and their two young children while the family was shopping for winter clothes. He claimed to police that Craig and Douglas had been eyeing him up and lurking in nearby aisles until they finally approached him, allegedly threatening him and brandishing a gun, leading Kirk to draw his own weapon and shoot, killing Craig.

"Daughter could have got hit, son could have got hit [and] me," DaBaby claimed in an Instagram video days after the shooting. "Lawyers ... telling me not to say nothing ... But two [people] walk down on you and your whole ... family, threatening y'all, whip out [a gun] on y'all, let me see what y'all going to do."

The case was closed in June 2019. Kirk wasn't prosecuted for Craig's death, but was charged and convicted of carrying a concealed weapon and sentenced to 12 months' probation with a suspended jail sentence.

Dave Chappelle's mention of the killing last year renewed some short-lived attention on Craig's death amid various other criminal matters and civil lawsuits involving Kirk. But while Kirk's fans may have moved on, Craig's family has not. Four years after his death, his relatives have adopted a street in his honor in Charlotte, as the family is still trying to make sense of how Kirk was able to get off relatively scot-free for the killing.

Still living in Charlotte, Horsley suffers from anxiety, learning of her son's death when she was sent a graphic image being shared on social media of Craig lying lifeless on the ground next to a pool of blood.

She steers clear of anything related to Kirk, saying that she finds him and his music triggering. Before the death of Craig, her third child, she shopped every week at the same Walmart where he was shot dead. Today, she can't even drive past the location without suffering an anxiety attack. "I kind of stay at home," she tells Rolling Stone. "I don't go to the mall; I don't do anything. I quit going to events. If I know I have no control in the music, I don't go."

Jaylin's father, Curtis, who works as a truck driver, says he and his son were inseparable. He has trouble understanding how his son wound up dead, with Kirk claiming the 19-year-old had been looking to cause trouble. "​​My son wasn't even like that," he says. "He wasn't even 'gangster.' We didn't raise them like that."

"That's what eventually started it; when he took it the wrong way. We were trying to see who you are, and he took it as somebody is looking at him with a problem" - Henry Douglas

Horsley, Curtis, and other family members all believe Craig's killing was unjustified, yet their story has largely gone unheard. It's not because they were trying to stay under the radar; during Kirk's trial for the concealed-weapon charge, Horsley and Curtis turned up to court to speak with local outlets in the hope of sharing their son's story. They disputed the unfounded rumor that Craig had attempted to rob Kirk, and claimed it was the rapper who had started the altercation by throwing the first punch, only to see their quotes whittled down to a line or two and, in multiple cases, Craig's name misspelled. (Even the death-investigation report prepared by Mecklenburg County Assistant District Attorney William Bunting misspelled Craig's name throughout the six-page document.)

Kirk destroyed their family, Horsley says, but it took all these years before anyone came to them asking for their side of the story. "We never hid from nobody," she explains. "We never [heard] from nobody. Y'all knew our names from a news clip. But nobody ever asked us what was Jaylin like. Nobody."

"This is stressing me out right now because every time you turn on the radio, you hear him," Curtis adds. "You can't even listen to the radio. I think about my son constantly. We all are going through the same stuff. Every time we talk about it, we think we are getting somewhere, and nobody is trying to help us. Every lawyer we talked to, they look into this case [and say] 'OK, we are going to get back with you.' We don't hear nothing [back]."

Then there was Kirk seemingly crowing about the shooting in his music. After "No Tears," he released a video for "Walker Texas Ranger" in January 2019, where he fights with a Black man whose hair is braided similarly to Craig's, followed by the release of "Leave Me Alone (Freestyle)," on which he raps " The last nigga played, he no longer here, goddamn." By the end of the month, 11 weeks after Kirk had killed Craig, Interscope Records announced a deal with the rapper.

It sickened Craig's family to watch Kirk seemingly launch a career off the back of their son's death. But until last spring, they could only go on their faith in their son's character and the word of Douglas, who insisted that Kirk instigated the fight. After years of pleading with Huntersville Police and the district attorney's office, as well as being bounced around different departments, Horsley was finally handed the entire police file pertaining to Craig's case in April 2021.

It took days for Horsley to sift through the hefty white binder filled with various reports alongside dozens of videos and audio recordings connected to the case. But nestled among the videos was a clip that changed everything in the family's eyes. Because to them, it's proof that the full truth of what actually happened has never been told.

Henry Douglas learned that his best friend since fourth grade was dead a day before Douglas' 20th birthday. The news was delivered following a 12-minute interview with police after the shooting, with Huntersville Police Department Detective Tim Lesser questioning Douglas in his hospital bed, while he was waiting to receive stitches. (Lesser referred Rolling Stone' s request for comment to the department's public-information officer, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment beyond providing a police incident report.)

"Do you know anything on Jaylin's status?" Lesser asked him to conclude the interview.

"Nah, I ain't talked to him. Is he all right?," Douglas replied. "Why don't you tell me if he not?"

Life has not been the same for Douglas since. He says he's crossed paths with Kirk twice since the fatal altercation; once at a downtown Charlotte sports bar, another time more recently, at a Charlotte Hornets basketball game. Each time Douglas was far enough away from Kirk, but he still felt the need to remove himself from the venue, unable to bear being in Kirk's presence even from a distance. "I guess you could kind of say it's like a PTSD type of thing," Douglas tells Rolling Stone.

The childhood friends were fresh off a shift at Wikoff Color Corp. in nearby Fort Mill, South Carolina. It was November, and with colder weather moving in, they made a stop at Walmart to find thermals to wear under their work gear.

Walmart surveillance footage reviewed by Rolling Stone shows the pair entering the store around 6:30 p.m., laughing, both dressed in hoodies, tracksuit bottoms, and rubber slides. While walking around, Douglas recalls, Craig spotted someone he thought looked familiar, a local rapper who went by the name of DaBaby. At first, Douglas tells Rolling Stone, he doubted it was Kirk, simply because he wasn't dressed in a way befitting a hot, rising rapper. And beyond that, this man was shopping for baby clothes in a Walmart. Douglas admits that as they kept walking he took some extra glances toward Kirk to figure out if it was really him.

That's when Kirk noticed them. "That's what eventually started it; when he took it the wrong way," Douglas says. "We were trying to see who you are, and he took it as somebody is looking at him with a problem."

Kirk's memory of the lead-up to the shooting aligns with Douglas', according to the 45-minute testimony Kirk gave to Lesser obtained by Rolling Stone. In the midst of shopping with Osborne and their children, Kirk claimed that Craig and Douglas were staring at him.

"They're staring at me like they recognize me; like they was about to come pull a gun out," Kirk told detectives, adding that he assumed the teens were looking to cause trouble. "What I'm hearing from it, they see me with my girl and my kids and [think], 'This is a perfect opportunity to do something to him.' ... They're trying to get me to provoke them so they could pull a gun out."

Throughout his interview with police, Kirk repeatedly plays up being a loving, protective father, mentioning how he was doting on his daughter, holding up outfits with "hearts and unicorns," planting kisses on the one-year-old and giving her a lollipop. He alludes to feeling vulnerable with two people allegedly lurking nearby while he was out with his family, confessing to police to having a firearm on him.

Both Douglas and Osborne told police that Kirk initiated the conversation, calling out something to the effect of "Do you know me?" Recognizing Kirk's voice, Douglas says, he responded back: "I said, 'Oh, I thought that was you.' We turned around and walked off."

Douglas claims he was about to say hello to a woman he knew in the store and walked past Kirk again, when Kirk seemed intent on creating an issue, demanding to know what he and Craig were doing and insisting on going to the parking lot to fight. (Kirk claimed to police that Douglas had first suggested the idea of fighting.)

Douglas claims he had never been in a fight before. But because an acquaintance of Kirk's seemed ready to get involved too, Douglas says he wanted to diffuse the situation. Douglas says he agreed to go outside, thinking he and Craig could just hop in their cars parked near the entrance and leave.

In line with Douglas' account, as he takes a few steps back and slightly turns away, Kirk is seen on surveillance footage unexpectedly launching into Douglas, striking him in the head and nearly tackling him to the ground. He would later tell the police that he began to "tussle" with Douglas to try to "get the jump on" either Douglas or Craig because he was with his family and the two men allegedly wouldn't leave them alone. Douglas, Kirk, and Osborne make no mention in police interviews of Craig being directly involved throughout the brewing altercation, and Bunting's death-investigation report notes that in his statements to police, Kirk did not say he'd actually seen a gun on Craig until after Kirk began fighting with Douglas.

Footage reviewed by Rolling Stone shows Craig standing nearby when Kirk rammed into Douglas, his left hand hanging by his side and his right scratching his face. At one point, after Kirk and Douglas start fighting, "Craig reaches into the front of his waistband to pull out what appears to be a firearm," according to Bunting's report. Craig moves toward the interlocked men and "puts his left hand between the fighting pair, as if to pull them off one another," according to the report. Osborne then interjects herself into the scuffle, attempting to separate Kirk from Douglas before moving closer to Craig, pushing him and hitting him in the face, according to the surveillance footage and report.

At that moment, Kirk is able to break free one of his hands, pulling out a concealed .40-caliber Glock from his waistband and shooting Craig one time in the side at close range. Craig stumbles before running into a nearby aisle, his body doubled over as splatters of blood leave a trail behind him. A third camera angle shows Craig collapsing to the ground at the other end of the aisle.

While Douglas claims that he never saw Craig draw a weapon, Osborne and Kirk told police they saw Craig pull a gun out while the rapper was entangled with Douglas, and Kirk told police he heard Osborne yelling "He got a gun, he got a gun." One witness - a Walmart customer - told police he saw Craig with a weapon in his waistband area, and another - a Walmart employee - said he also saw Craig with a gun, according to the death-investigation report, which ultimately concluded that prosecutors couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Kirk didn't act in self-defense.

"He's like trying to get around his homeboy and shoot me," Kirk says, excitedly telling police that he discharged his firearm multiple times. "When I break loose and get free with [my] gun ... his homeboy is right here, and I shoot, boom, boom, boom."

"He said, 'Do I think he murdered your son? Yes, I do. ... If I could, I would charge his ass with murder.'" - LaWanda Horsley

Although the shooting occurred around 6:30 p.m., Horsley says the Huntersville Police Department didn't contact her until three hours after her son had died. She had already feared something was amiss, as reports were spreading on social media about a shooting at Walmart and she couldn't get a hold of her son. Calling up Curtis, Horsley instructed him to rush to Walmart.

"When I found out my son was killed, everything from the bottom of my feet came up and out of me," Horsley says. "I never knew your body could feel like that."

It never made sense to Horsley and Curtis how Craig, who they say had never gotten into any trouble with the police, could have gotten mixed up in this. It was also a shock to them when detectives told them that Craig had been carrying a pistol, even more so when the gun was reported as stolen. Douglas claims that Craig had purchased the firearm secondhand and wasn't aware that it had been reported as stolen.

While his parents acknowledge that Craig had guns, they point out that he had a permit, and claim that the rest of his weapons were registered to him. (North Carolina largely favors gun rights, with roughly 46 percent of residents owning at least one firearm.)

Initially, Craig's parents believed that Kirk was being investigated in relation to Craig's death, expecting a charge of homicide against the rapper. But while sitting in an attorney's office trying to find out the status of the case, they learned that Kirk was claiming self-defense. They were stunned.

"Right now, it's life and death for me and my kids," Kirk had told police. "I don't know what their situation is; for me it's strictly defense, life or death."

Craig's family takes issue with multiple aspects of the Huntersville Police Department's investigation. For starters, officers allegedly failed to interview multiple people at Walmart who were acquaintances of both Kirk and Douglas. Furthermore, there appear to be inconsistencies and omissions in Kirk's and Osborne's police testimony, such as Kirk skipping over how the physical fight started, not directly mentioning that he threw the first punch. (The Huntersville Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment about aspects of its investigation.)

"I don't look at him as no DaBaby. I look at him like, 'You're Jonathan Kirk and you murdered Jaylin Craig.'" - LaWanda Horsley

Todd Owens, a criminal-defense attorney and former North Carolina district court judge, tells Rolling Stone that he finds issue with Kirk claiming he was in a life-or-death situation, given that Osborne and an acquaintance of Kirk's who was in the store were shown on camera still approaching Craig when he was allegedly brandishing a firearm. To Owens, that weakens Kirk's claim that he was acting out of imminent fear of danger.

"Going up and pushing a person who is brandishing a firearm, or who she can see has a firearm is really, really risky business," he explains. "That completely undermines that legal theory."

Although Kirk was never charged over Craig's death, the Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office pursued a misdemeanor charge against him for carrying a concealed weapon, for which he did not have a permit. However, the case was suddenly dismissed in March 2019 because "a key civilian witness was unavailable," according to a county representative.

But the state brought back the charge against Kirk, and he was convicted in June 2019. Judge Tyyawdi Hands sentenced Kirk to 12 months of unsupervised probation, with a suspended 30-day jail sentence. (The next summer, she was pictured posing with Kirk following a panel in support of Black Lives Matter, where Kirk complained about local police over receiving two citations in December 2019 for possession of marijuana and resisting arrest, according to local reports. In a statement to Rolling Stone, Hands says her attendance was unrelated to Kirk's trial.)

In a comment provided to Rolling Stone on why Kirk didn't face more serious charges, a representative for the DA's office says they "reviewed the police investigative file and agreed with the Huntersville Police Department's decision not to charge Mr. Kirk further, as prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not act in self-defense." It declined to further comment on the case.

Horsley claims that was the same reasoning she initially received from the DA's office. But after Kirk's 2019 citations, she says she spoke to Bunting, who she says was sympathetic, and allegedly admitted that he believed Kirk should have faced direct charges for Craig's death.

"He said, 'Do I think he murdered your son?' He said, 'Yes, I do. ... If I could, I would charge his ass with murder. But I have to go off the evidence that the Huntersville Police Department gave me.'" (Bunting declined to comment for this story, including whether he believed Kirk should have faced homicide charges.)

The matter ultimately comes down to the state's Stand Your Ground law, which provides strong protection for those claiming self-defense, two criminal-law experts tell Rolling Stone.

That defense hinges in part on who the initial aggressor is, legal analyst Emily Baker explains. To rely on the Stand Your Ground law, a person who initiates a conflict has to justify their use of force, according to Owens, the defense attorney. If someone acts "as the aggressor and he initiates the conflict, he's got to be able to show not just that the person was armed, but that there was a serious threat of imminent death or physical injury," Owens says. "That the person was going to use that weapon, not just that they were armed."

After reviewing the security footage, Baker says Kirk appears to be the initial aggressor by starting the fight, but because witnesses claimed to see Craig with a gun, it changed the dynamic of the situation.

"But it's not clear-cut, and it is not a 'These people rolled up on me and tried to roll me, and I had to defend myself,'" she says. "That's not what this video shows. This video shows a fight that got way out of hand very fast, and that resulted in somebody dying."

Owens adds that even with witnesses telling police they saw Craig holding a gun during the scuffle, Kirk's self-defense claim would be "100 percent contingent" on the belief that his life or the lives of others were in danger.

"Self-defense is difficult on a good day," Baker says. "Cases can be charged when people look like they may be acting in self-defense, and it can go to a jury and be decided, and that's often the proper way because that's the community where those laws are written."

Considering the footage, Owens says he thinks the case should have been left up to a jury to decide if Kirk reasonably acted in self-defense. "I don't see anything enough here to say that it shouldn't have been presented to a jury," he says.

"I don't see anything enough here to say that it shouldn't have been presented to a jury," says one North Carolina criminal-defense attorney

Craig's parents also feel that their position is strengthened by Kirk's track record of physical altercations. He was linked to a nonfatal shooting at his home on April 13, and although police wouldn't confirm Kirk as the shooter, the rapper implied as much on social media. "Chose not to take a n*gga life the other day & it felt great," he wrote. "Heal up & live my boy! Just don't bring ya ass back.

In March 2020, he was seen on video smacking a woman in the face for trying to film him at a club. That December, he was arrested for allegedly punching a Miami club promoter in the face. (Battery charges were dropped against Kirk, but the promoter is suing Kirk for the alleged attack.) In February of this year, he was caught on video throwing a punch at Brandon "Bills" Curiel, the brother of his former girlfriend, musician DaniLeigh. (A representative for the LAPD says a case on the altercation has since been closed, but Curiel's civil suit is still pending.)

Curiel's is one of two lawsuits in Los Angeles that Kirk is currently facing. Last February, 65-year-old rental-property owner Gary Pagar sued the rapper, claiming Kirk sucker-punched him in December 2020, knocking out his tooth, after Kirk and his associates broke the terms of their rental agreement.

"There are people who believe that the rules don't apply to them," Pagar tells Rolling Stone. "Whatever the rules are, whether it's the law, that they can do what they want with impunity, and there are no consequences. That's who [Kirk] was."

Ultimately, Pagar says, he wants to "have this man pay for his behavior, and hopefully teach him a lesson that the rules actually do apply to him."

That's exactly what Horsley, Curtis, and the rest of their family want for Kirk: some form of justice for the rapper's role in Craig's death. They hope that publicly sharing their story will prompt an independent investigation into how the case was handled, and hopefully end with Kirk being charged with homicide.

But if they were shown proof that Craig played a pivotal role in provoking Kirk to fire his weapon, they would be ready to accept that. "Show me my son was wrong; tell me that," Horsley says. "I could take that, and I will be at peace, because I would have to accept the fact that my son done something that he shouldn't have done."

After obtaining the Walmart security footage and having serious questions about the police investigation, Craig's family feels strongly that justice has eluded them.

"In my eyes, I feel like [Jaylin] was murdered," Curtis says. "And [Kirk] got away with it. Everything he [does] is pretty much the same thing. He's assaulting people, he's getting away with it. Every case that you look at, they're dismissing it. Why is he getting off?"

"I don't look at him as no DaBaby," Horsley says. "I look at him like, 'You're Jonathan Kirk and you murdered Jaylin Craig.'"

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Exclusive: Video Undercuts DaBaby's Self-Defense Claim in 2018 Killing

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Four years ago, DaBaby signed a deal with Interscope Records that would change his life. Just 11 weeks prior, he had taken one. At the time, the rapper was a few years shy of global fame, whether for a steady stream of chart-topping songs and Grammy nominations, various brawls, or widespread condemnation last summer after making homophobic remarks and comments about people with HIV/AIDS.

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NEW YORK (AP) - Film Foundation, the nonprofit founded by Martin Scorsese dedicated to film preservation, is launching a virtual theater to stream classic films free of charge.

The film organization announced Friday that the Film Foundation Restoration Screening Room will launch May 9 with the presentation of "I Know Where I'm Going!," Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's Scotland-set romance, recently restored by the Film Foundation and the British Film Institute's National Archive.

The screening room will present films in a live-event manner, with movies playing at a specific time and accompanied by introductions and conversations. "I Know Where I'm Going!" will be available for a 24-hour window.

"We're looking forward to making these beautiful restorations available to a wide audience," Scorsese, Film Foundation founder and chair, said in a statement. "Many of these presentations will feature restorations that are rarely seen, with myself and other filmmakers sharing why these films are important, how they have impacted our lives, and why it's crucial that they be preserved."

"I Know Where I'm Going!" will be introduced by Scorsese and feature a conversation with Tilda Swinton, filmmaker Joanna Hogg, director Kevin Macdonald and Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese's longtime editor. Schoonmaker was married to Powell before his death in 1990, and has since worked tirelessly to preserve his work. Powell and Pressburger, known as the Archers, made the much-admired classics "The Red Shoes," "A Matter of Life and Death," "Black Narcissus" and "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp."

Screenings will run on the second Monday of each month, with future selections to include Federico Fellini's "La Strada," Marlon Brando's "One-Eyed Jacks," G. Aravindan's "Kummatty," Jonas Mekas' "Lost Lost Lost," John Huston's "Moulin Rouge," Sarah Maldoror's "Sambizanga" and a film noir double feature of Edgar G. Ulmer's "Detour" and Arthur D. Ripley's "The Chase." Scorsese and Kent Jones, the filmmaker and critic, are curating the platform.

Scorsese started the Film Foundation in 1990. Since then, it has helped restore 925 films. Its World Cinema Project has restored 47 films from 27 countries.

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Scorsese's Film Foundation launches free virtual theater - Daily Ardmoreite

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NEW YORK (AP) - Film Foundation, the nonprofit founded by Martin Scorsese dedicated to film preservation, is launching a virtual theater to stream classic films free of charge.

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One of the biggest topics in modern Hollywood has been the push to have more meaningful diversity in the film industry. In the last few years there have been a handful of big-budget blockbusters that have been shining examples of authentic cultural storytelling in film. Now thanks to the University of California, Los Angeles we now have proof that authentic cultural depictions give way to better financial results.

According to Variety, the joint study done by UCLA's Center for Scholars and Storytellers and the Full Story initiative at the Creative Artist Agency(CAA) researched the impact of authentic inclusive representation(AIR Score) on the box office. They also studied the effect it has on the critical and audience reception. They found that the AIR point increase meant a revenue bump of $18.8 million on a film with a budget of $159 million or more. High-budget films also had the potential of earning an additional $75.2 million by increasing their AIR scores. In addition, they found that both critics and audiences were more favorable toward films with higher AIR scores. Who knew we would be more forgiving and kind to films that actually put in an effort where it counts.

All joking aside, when talking about the results, executive and co-head of cultural business strategy at CAA, Ruben Garcia said, "These findings are consistent with what our industry has known for years - authentic, inclusive representation drives our communities and business forward". Garcia would continue on saying that, "We remain committed to using our place within the industry to inspire storytellers and industry partners to center inclusion across their work, and to elevate conversations around the positive impact of AIR." The AIR score does not just account for the cast in front of the camera. It also takes into consideration who is behind the camera like the director and writers as well as what kind of story is being told on the page.

RELATED: From 'Reservation Dogs' to 'Sex Education': 9 Movies & Shows That Showcase Diversity in Coming-of-Age Stories

Founding Director of UCLA's Center for Scholars & Storytellers, Dr. Yalda Uhls, added, "As our nation continues to become more diverse, we felt it was important to examine how movies reflect the world we live in." Uhls finished off by saying, "People of color currently represent more than 50% of the box office audience for moviegoers under the age of 18. They, of course, want to see themselves accurately reflected and portrayed."

The domestic landscape looks a lot different from when the film industry began over 100 years ago. Art always imitates life, but for representation that has not really been the case until recently. Films like Black Panther, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Encanto have all shown moviegoers craving for authentic portrayals in film. Also, films where you would not think to find a good amount of authentic representation, like the latest Scream, have been major box office and critical successes. Just like this study proves.

While it seems obvious to the naked eye to correlate authentic cultural depictions with success, it is just nice to have data to back that thought process up. The film industry still has a lot of work to do in the diversity department and there are still modern films that promote harmful stereotypes, but we are heading in the right direction. One of the last key things this study found is that films from 2015 to 2019 had better representation scores overall than films from the first half of the decade. For the full results of the study, you can visit their website.

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Studies Suggest Authentic Cultural Depictions in Film Yield Better Financial Returns

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One of the biggest topics in modern Hollywood has been the push to have more meaningful diversity in the film industry. In the last few years there have been a handful of big-budget blockbusters that have been shining examples of authentic cultural storytelling in film.

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There is no shortage of standup that takes the raw material of hapless, disappointing life and turns it into laughter. That's a sizable part of what comedy does. But for big, big laughter fashioned from pretty severe instances of disappointment, look no further than James Acaster's career-best 2018 show, Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999. It takes two low moments in the Kettering man's life (being dumped by his girlfriend in favour of, er, Mr Bean; and being dumped by his agent after an on-air PR gaffe) and - in two hours of gasp-inducing, gut-bustingly funny standup - recasts those disappointments as mere staging posts on the route to comedy glory. Brian Logan

Brace yourself ... Ugly Betty. Photograph: Andrew Eccles/Disney/Getty

Disappointment hangs over Betty Suarez, the Latina titular character of Ugly Betty, like a sword of Damocles, waiting for the moment to finally tear her apart. The series begins with her disenchanted: her job as an assistant at Mode magazine is unglamorous, and her colleagues are visibly displeased at being forced to accommodate her poncho, braces and sanguine confidence - attributes that are "unchic" in the world of mid-2000s high fashion. It makes for ironic viewing now: transplant Betty into the 2020s and you can imagine her with a viral Instagram account focused on thrifting and sustainability; Mode's cruel receptionist Amanda, the apparent embodiment of the 00s "it girl", would be left behind in her wake. Jason Okundaye

No surprises ... it's Radiohead. Photograph: Roger Sargent/Shutterstock

Very few bands convert sadness into elegance quite like Radiohead. Although Thom Yorke's writing often revolves round menacing, downtrodden critiques of consumerist culture, the chorus of Kid A's Optimistic makes use of one uplifting mantra: "You try the best you can / You try the best you can / The best you can is good enough". At times of self-doubt, my partner often recites this chorus to me, temporarily accepting its meaning independently from the song. It's a simple phrasing, but a welcome reminder nonetheless that in life and lyricism, we have to learn from our failures. Jenessa Williams

Eleven-year-old Luke Parker's knowledge of comics is encyclopedic. Costumes, symbols, abilities, origins - he's a superhero savant. This makes it still more galling that while he nips off for a wee, his maths-obsessed older brother Zack is given superpowers by a visiting alien. Luke's jealous disappointment, coupled with his determination to mentor Zack (or at least get him wearing a cape), shapes David Solomons's hilarious novel My Brother Is a Superhero, full of fraying fraternal bonds and a mission to save not one, but two worlds that will need all Luke's knowhow - as well as Zack's powers - to succeed. Imogen Russell Williams

Lady vengeance ... Olivia De Havilland and Montgomery Clift in The Heiress. Photograph: Paramount Pictures/Allstar

In the 1949 film The Heiress, Catherine (Olivia de Havilland), a wealthy but dowdy disappointment to her autocratic father, falls hard for Morris (Montgomery Clift), who in turn disappoints her. William Wyler's gripping melodrama is a dazzling depiction of disillusion, providing De Havilland with an extraordinary, Oscar-winning role, in which she adjusts the wick on her natural luminosity like it's a gas lamp that can bathe the room in brightness or make shadows leap large across the wall. The sorrow of the underestimated, unloved soul pervades the film but Catherine's final act of vengeful disdain makes it also the cruellest success story, as a wilting wallflower comes to know her intrinsic self-worth as never before. Jessica Kiang

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Surviving a setback: books, music, films and more about dealing with disappointment

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There is no shortage of standup that takes the raw material of hapless, disappointing life and turns it into laughter. That's a sizable part of what comedy does. But for big, big laughter fashioned from pretty severe instances of disappointment, look no further than James Acaster's career-best 2018 show, Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999.

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Megan Thee Stallion will talk about the 2020 incident in which Tory Lanez allegedly shot her on "CBS Mornings" Monday. The incident, in which Megan has claimed publicly that Lanez shot her in the feet after an argument following a party at Kylie Jenner's house in July of 2020, has never been fully explained; the court case is ongoing. Megan has slowly revealed details on social media and in interviews; Lanez has vaguely denied it in statements and in several songs.

But according to a preview clip of the interview with Gayle King that airs tomorrow (Monday, April 25), Megan tearfully discussed the issue on television with her for the first time. See a preview and partial transcript below, in which Megan repeats her claim that Lanez (real name: Daystar Peterson) yelled "Dance, b-h!" as he shot at her feet.

Lanez was arrested in connection with the incident and later was arrested again for allegedly violating court orders from contacting her; he posted bail in both cases. She has claimed that he offered to pay her in exchange for keeping quiet about the incident. Megan unveiled a new song called "Plan B " that apparently addresses the incident during her performances at the Coachella festival over the past two weekends.

The next court hearing is scheduled for September.

Music megastar @theestallion sits down exclusively with @GayleKing for her first TV interview addressing the 2020 shooting allegedly involving rapper Tory Lanez, Monday on #CBSMornings.

Tory Lanez pleaded not guilty to an assault charge related to the alleged shooting. pic.twitter.com/iYDZdkOAMm

- CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) April 24, 2022

Transcript:
GAYLE KING: There was an argument in the car?
MEGAN THEE STALLION: It- it was a argument because I was ready to go and everybody else wasn't ready to go. But that's, like, normal friend stuff.
GAYLE KING: Yes.
MEGAN THEE STALLION: Like, we fuss about silly sh- silly stuff all the time. But I never put my hands on anybody. I never raised my voice too loud. Like, this was one of them times where it was, like, it shouldn't have got this crazy.
GAYLE KING: It shouldn't have escalated to-
MEGAN THEE STALLION: Right. So I get out of the car and it's like everything happens so fast. And all I hear is this man screaming. And he said, "Dance, bitch." And he started shooting. And I'm just like, "Oh, my God."
MEGAN THEE STALLION: Like, he shot a couple of times. And I- I was so scared-
GAYLE KING: So is he in the car shooting from the car, Megan? How is he-
MEGAN THEE STALLION: He is standin' up over the window shooting. And I didn't even want to move. I didn't want to move too quick. Like, 'cause I'm like, "Oh, my God. If I take the wrong step, I don't know if he's gonna shoot something that's, like, super important. I don't know if he could shoot me and kill me." Like-
GAYLE KING: Were you afraid for your life at that time?
MEGAN THEE STALLION: I was really scared 'cause I had never been shot at before.

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Megan Thee Stallion Talks About Tory Lanez Alleged Shooting Incident on 'CBS Mornings' - Watch a Preview

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Megan Thee Stallion will talk about the 2020 incident in which Tory Lanez allegedly shot her on "CBS Mornings" Monday. The incident, in which Megan has claimed publicly that Lanez shot her in the feet after an argument following a party at Kylie Jenner's house in July of 2020, has never been fully explained; the court case is ongoing.

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For a long time, it wasn't uncommon for distribution bosses to throw shade on one another's success, but in the case of A24's Everything Everywhere All at Once, there's nothing but glee emanating from Hollywood for the New York-based indie studio's success with the martial arts fantasy movie from Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.

At a time when every studio executive around town is questioning what works on the big screen - outside of superhero movies - as the pandemic eases and with specialty cinema slow to rebound, along comes Everything Everywhere All at Once to karate chop those doldrums away and clear $20.5M on a platform release.

Yes, a platform release - you remember those? With NYC and LA the last box office capitals to reopen in early 2021, and specialty cinema audiences skittish to return, most indie distributors sidestepped the pre-pandemic platform rollout, which entails debuting in the two big U.S. box office markets and gradually increasing a theatrical footprint, DMA market by DMA, off great reviews and fervent buzz. Instead, most specialty distributors, including Searchlight and Focus Features, largely have opted to go wide with their arthouse fare in order to get the pics into their home ancillaries as soon as possible and make bank.

Out of the gate, Everything Everywhere All at Once, after a wildly explosive and well-received world premiere as SXSW's opener, debuted March 25 in 10 theaters to $501K for a $50K per-theater average, ranking as the best limited debut and theater average to date in 2022, and the second-best theater average of the pandemic for a limited release after MGM/UAR's Licorice Pizza ($86,2K). The domestic gross of Everything Everywhere All at Once already has surpassed Paul Thomas Anderson's Best Picture Oscar-nominated Licorice Pizza ($17.3M) and another notable pandemic arthouse release, Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch ($16.1M).

The movie which stars near-60-year-old Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Michelle Yeoh, genre legend Jamie Lee Curtis, rising actress Stephanie Hsu and reps the return of The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom star Ke Huy Quan has more momentum than A24's 2015 spring cult hit Ex Machina (which ended its run at $25.4M) and likely will land as the studio's fourth-highest grossing movie at the domestic box office after Uncut Gems ($50M), Lady Bird ($49M) and Hereditary ($44M), taking over Oscar Best Picture winner Moonlight ($28M).
SXSW Review: The Daniels' 'Everything Everywhere All At Once'
Now, what makes Everything Everywhere All at Once a bonfire at arthouses is that it's aimed squarely at the demo that has been fueling the box office rebound during the pandemic, 18- to 34-year-olds. In its wide break, PostTrak audience exits over April 8-10 show that close to 70% of that demographic showed up. So if you're wondering how to replenish specialty cinemas, or what works in regards to indie cinema, make more movies that appeal to 18-34. And frankly, that's a young audience that A24 has been betting on for 10 years with movies like Spring Breakers, Hereditary, Midsommar and others.

Meanwhile, for arthouses around the country, to paraphrase one Massachusetts theater manager, Everything "it's like Batman." While the pic has crossed over to strong play in the AMC circuit with the Burbank 30 being the highest gross with over $268K through last Sunday in the country, and the Lincoln Square in NYC third with $244K, Everything is also popping at the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn (pic's No. 2 location with $265K), as well as Alamo New Mission in San Francisco, Alamo South Lamar in Austin, The Landmark in Los Angeles (where the pic is the No. 1 film in the venue in its fourth week), Cineplex's Scotiabank in Vancouver, Alamo Drafthouse LA, Williamsburg Cinemas in Brooklyn, the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn, Coolidge Corner in Boston and the Cinepolis Chelsea. Juicing tickets sales for the AGBO produced, Ley Line Entertainment co-financed Daniels movie have been some Imax engagements (there was an event on March 30), of which we hear they'll be more in those large format auditoriums next week.

How does A24 do it? Note, they're not the type of distributor to buy up a bulk of nationwide TV ads (which is what Focus Feature is doing this weekend for the New Regency $70M net Viking epic The Northman). The distributor puts its ad dollars largely in digital and social media, the fruits of which can be seen in the till and in the PostTrak exits. Of those who learned about Everything, 27% said they were encouraged to see it based off the trailer in the theater, 26% on YouTube, 22% watched an online trailer while only 11% caught a TV spot.
The Cast Of The Daniels' 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' Is Having The Time Of Their Lives - SXSW Studio
A24 held grassroots word of mouth screenings, had Alamo Drafthouse screenings with Daniels Q&A, and there was a big San Francisco premiere at the Castro with a full 1,400 attended screening and turnaways.

All of this built up word-of-mouth with PostTrak saying that 46% went to Everything Everywhere All at Once because they heard it was good, 31% came with someone who wanted to see it, while 31% also said they bought tickets because of Yeoh and Curtis. Five stars across the board for Everything with men over 25 (40%) giving it 88%, women over 25 (26%) the same grade, with men under 25 (22%) giving it 90% and women under 25 (13%) an 85% grade. Diversity demos are 46% Caucasian, 21% Asian, 17% Hispanic and Latino, and 12% Black. In sum, the best way to build an audience: Use the movie and use the theaters.

Everything finished shooting right before the pandemic started in early March 2020, with post-production taking place thereafter. A24 wisely held onto this gem, which will be pushed extensively for awards season later this year; Yeoh still never recognized by the Oscars. UK opens on May 13 with an EST release beginning in mid-May. Don't expect a siphoning of grosses from the home window, for those who watched Everything: 32% said they'd watch it in a movie theater again. It would come as no shock to see this movie, still in the top 10, and the second multiverse choice (granted, not Marvel) for many after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opens on May 6.

Beamed Cinépolis VP Film Joe Garel: "The movie is doing fantastic business for audiences who are looking for something different to see. This is an arthouse film that has crossed boundaries and gone commercial. It's a win for independent cinema and shows there is an audience out there to see different films. I hope we see more product like this going theatrical, giving more incentive for the audiences to come back in full force."

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'Everything Everywhere All At Once' Crosses $20M & Puts Arthouses Back On The Rails As Daniels' Pic Looks To Become 4th-Highest For A24

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For a long time, it wasn't uncommon for distribution bosses to throw shade on one another's success, but in the case of A24's Everything Everywhere All at Once, there's nothing but glee emanating from Hollywood for the New York-based indie studio's success with the martial arts fantasy movie from Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.

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The growing trends of acquisitions within the gaming industry points to the trend of only a few major players holding all the power.

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Private equity firms could be beginning to circle over Ubisoft, Friday. Talks are early, but include interest from firms like Blackstone Inc. and KKR & Co. Even if it's not private equity, senior current and former Ubisoft developers Kotaku has spoken with in recent months believe the company will eventually sell to someone amid a flagging stock price and ongoing production struggles.

Bloomberg reports that Blackstone and KKR & Co., the two biggest private equity firms in the world, have been "studying the French business," and have "preliminary takeover interest" in Ubisoft, but that the company hasn't yet entered into "any serious negotiations with potential acquirers."

According to Kotaku's sources, Ubisoft has been working closely with several outside consultancy firms in recent years to audit various parts of its business. While companies will do this to become more profitable and prepare for the future, sources Kotaku spoke with suggest it's a sign Ubisoft's trying to tidy up its books for a potential sale.

On a wave of recent, big gaming acquisitions that include Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two buying Zynga, Sony buying Bungie, and Microsoft's $69 billion deal to absorb Activision Blizzard, it seems like a game of eat or be eaten for those who remain. EA CEO Andrew Wilson said as much in an earnings call earlier this year, in which he placed the FIFA publisher firmly in the "big fish looking to eat other fish" camp.

Ubisoft has been more coy about its survival strategy. When asked in its most recent earnings call why the French publisher seemingly hadn't received any bid interest, CFO Frédérick Duguet said he wouldn't speculate on why no offer had been made, before being corrected by CEO and co-founder Yves Guillemot. The company, Guillemot asserted, was neither confirming nor denying "if" potential buyers had approached it.

If someone did want to buy Ubisoft, they would be potentially getting it at a huge discount. The stock was over $110 a share in July 2018. Now it's at $41. But they would still need to go through the Guillemot family, which is currently estimated to own 15% of the just under $5 billion market cap business.

CEO Yves Guillemot famously fended off a hostile takeover attempt by French media conglomerate Vivendi after securing funding from Tencent and others in 2018. But some sources currently and formerly within the company now believe the 35-year video game industry veteran might be looking for an exit strategy.

They point to the departure of his son Charlie Guillemot last year resulting in no relatives left to take over the family business. Ubisoft has also been hit by an ongoing wave of attrition among its senior talent. It continues to struggle with the aftermath of a workplace reckoning over sexual misconduct that began in the summer of 2020. And some of its biggest projects continue to face upheaval, delays, or be trapped in development hell.

As Bloomberg reported in February, Ubisoft decided to turn one of Assassin's Creed Valhalla's planned DLCs into a standalone stopgap game instead to help patch holes in its release calendar over the next 18 months. In the meantime, the next Far Cry, , and full-fledged Assassin's Creed games remain further out than Ubisoft had previously planned, according to three sources familiar with their development.

When asked for comment, a spokesperson for Ubisoft sent Kotaku the following statement:

We don't comment on rumors or speculation. Ubisoft has unmatched creative and production capacities, with more than 20,000 talented people collaborating across our global studios on game development. Thanks to them and to our long-term approach and appetite for taking creative risks, we have built some of the industry's strongest proprietary brands and have many promising new brands and projects on the horizon. We also have one the industry's deepest and most diversified portfolios, cutting-edge services and technologies, and a large and growing community of engaged players. As a result, we're ideally positioned to capitalize on the rapid industry growth and platform opportunities that are emerging right now.

Correction: 4/23/22, 1:51 p.m.: A previous version of this post referenced the wrong Ubisoft stock ticker.

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Report: Private Equity Eyeing Ubisoft As The Next Big Gaming Acquisition

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Private equity firms could be beginning to circle over Ubisoft, Friday. Talks are early, but include interest from firms like Blackstone Inc. and KKR & Co. Even if it's not private equity, senior current and former Ubisoft developers Kotaku has spoken with in recent months believe the company will eventually sell to someone amid a flagging stock price and ongoing production struggles.

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Under the noonday sun on April 15, cinematographer Peng Wang, 29, was in the back of an off-road vehicle traversing Imperial County's sand dunes with three other filmmakers, working on a movie for the University of Southern California's prestigious School of Cinematic Arts.

The otherworldly backdrop was the setting for a surreal short feature called "Finale," about a man who journeys to his death in the desert. Wang was a third-year graduate student at Chapman University's film school and had volunteered to help the USC crew complete their directing course project.

The team was running late and working on little sleep, having not reached their hotel until after midnight after a long drive from Los Angeles, said one crew member who declined to be named. They had just finished their first scene when the group went out to check the next location in the dunes. Minutes later, word came over the radio that the Can-Am Maverick had rolled over and Wang had been injured, the crew member said.

Despite emergency services' efforts to resuscitate Wang, he died at the scene among the dunes, about a mile from the nearest road. He was wearing a helmet but not a safety harness, said Arturo Platero Jr., a California Highway Patrol spokesperson. An investigation, which is not criminal in nature, is underway, he said.

A week later, the film schools are still trying to figure out what happened. The tragedy comes six months after the shocking death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the western movie "Rust," which renewed widespread calls for safety improvements in filmmaking. Wang's friends and classmates have been left devastated by the loss and questioned how the tragedy could have happened.

"He is a type of guy that is humble and traditional," said Oliver Li, a Chapman graduate student film editor and Wang's roommate, who found it difficult to imagine him flouting safety measures. "As long as he's informed of the possible hazard, I don't see a reason why they say he never had the seat belt. Why?"

A devout Christian who prayed before eating lunch on set, the Sichuan province native saw helping Chinese independent filmmakers achieve their dreams, whether or not they could pay, as a type of vocation, Li said.

"He's not a guy who would search for fame or money," he added.

Wang's parents - a small-business owner and a factory worker in Chengdu - supported his dreams, his father said in a letter written after his death. But they could not underwrite his entire education. His financial straits became so difficult his second year at Chapman that he almost dropped out before the school came through with additional money, Li said.

Stephen Galloway, dean of Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University, confirmed that the school had supported the student with grants and that he had already largely completed his coursework. It will award him his master of fine arts degree posthumously, he said.

Tears, horror and heartbreak are how Galloway described the reaction among the Orange County-based faculty to the loss of the popular student.

"This was the first and only serious incident involving any of our students in any of our memory," Galloway said in an interview.

The pressure on film students can be considerable.

"There's a lot of work if you're a student, and filming is psychologically and physically taxing and that's why you have to put very strict measures in place so that they are taught to keep themselves safe," Galloway said.

He added the school has a full-time safety officer whose only role is to focus on the safety of student productions. The school has yet to confirm the details of what happened, Galloway said.

However, Peng Wang, who also went by Aaron, was volunteering on a project for a different school.

The production was an "authorized student project" for an intermediate directing course at USC, according to interviews and a film school certificate seen by The Times. That document shows that a graduate student named Ting Su got USC approval on April 5 for a shoot with a cast and crew of 10 or more. Su is listed as the director and another USC student, Bingliang Li, as the producer.

Lawyers representing Su and Li said in a joint statement that the students were deeply saddened by the accident and were cooperating with the investigation. "We think, before anybody makes any statements, that they should let the investigation play out," the representatives said.

Li was driving the off-road vehicle at the time of the crash and Su was one of the passengers, according to the CHP.

Another document dated April 12, stamped by USC's physical production department, was to allow the students to rent equipment. The haul included a generator, dolly, cables and a shelter tent with a replacement value of $20,000.

USC has not detailed publicly what information its student filmmakers disclosed to faculty and administrators about the production.

Reached by phone, the dean of the university's School of Cinematic Arts, Elizabeth Daley, noted that there were "legal issues here" and declined to comment.

"I am under instructions not to discuss this and I intend to follow those instructions," she said.

A subsequent statement from the university suggested the students had gone rogue in using an off-road vehicle and shooting in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, a remote expanse of desert three hours and more than 230 miles from the USC campus.

The university said under policies governing all student productions at its School of Cinematic Arts, "any shoot taking place more than 50 miles away from our campus, or involving the use of all-terrain vehicles, would have required very specific approvals from the school."

"We are unaware of any such approvals having been requested or provided in this tragic matter," the statement said.

It was unclear where the film crew rented the vehicle. Companies that rent similar vehicles said that no special permits or training are required for adults to operate the vehicles.

"They drive just like a car," said Jason Davis, who owns an Arizona company that rents vehicles like the four-seater "side by side" that the crew was using. He and others said most rollovers occur when the driver makes a sharp turn.

"We get our side by sides rolled all the time. We've never had a death, never had a broken arm," Davis said.

The death has been a blow for Wang's university friends with whom he collaborated on various projects.

Xiaojun "Teddy" Jian, a roommate and friend of Wang, is a graduate student at Chapman focusing on cinematography and was one of at least two Chapman students Wang asked to work with him on the USC film shoot.

Before the shoot, the USC film production was notably disorganized, Jian said. The script changed repeatedly and the filmmakers seemed strapped for time to prepare but unwilling to cancel the shoot, he said.

Even with the uncertainty, Jian said that it was hard for aspiring filmmakers to turn away on-set work, even unpaid.

"Cinematography students would love to shoot as many [films] as we can to get more experience and have more things to put on their resume or portfolio," he said.

Jian said that USC declined to insure the filmmakers because the reimbursement value of the cameras and other equipment was too high. The process of finding different insurance was time-consuming, delaying the crew even further as it prepared to leave for the shoot.

Jian had to drop out of the shoot because of a conflict and was at home the afternoon of April 15 when a crew member from Chapman called with news that Wang had been injured and asked him to look for his health insurance information.

Jian made a fruitless search and then called the classmate from Wang's bedroom to say he couldn't find a card.

"She told me that he is dead already," Jian recalled.

"The thing I felt was just empty and nothing," he said. "I just lay down on his bed. I don't know how long."

The Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles and Chapman students have been in contact with Wang's parents. His family wants to come to the U.S. to collect his body, which remains in a morgue in Imperial County pending an autopsy.

Chapman students are raising money to help the family pay for the trip, according to Patrick Skeyhill, student body president of the graduate film program. The university also plans to help cover costs, Galloway said.

Skeyhill shared the letter written by Wang's father. In it, Hualun Wang detailed how the family was already struggling because of the contributions they had made to their son's education and the serious illnesses of his grandmother and uncle, and described his admiration for his son.

"He was exemplary in both character and duty," Hualun Wang wrote, adding, "My son died pursuing what he loved."

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His Hollywood dreams lured him from China. He was killed during a USC student film shoot

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Under the noonday sun on April 15, cinematographer Peng Wang, 29, was in the back of an off-road vehicle traversing Imperial County's sand dunes with three other filmmakers, working on a movie for the University of Southern California's prestigious School of Cinematic Arts.

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Earlier this morning, the two Golden Lions at the Venice Biennale-the top honors at the prestigious biannual art event, which opens to the public today-were awarded to Simone Leigh and Sonia Boyce, representing the United States and the United Kingdom respectively. It marks the first time in the Biennale's 127-year history that the prize has gone to a Black woman artist, with both Leigh and Boyce also being the first Black women to represent their nations in Venice. It feels reflective of this year's already singular Biennale, which sees women outnumber men within its main halls for the first time; a key priority for artistic director Cecilia Alemani when taking up the mantle.

Leigh won the Golden Lion for her monumental sculpture Brick House, which greets visitors in the opening gallery of the central exhibition in the Arsenale. (If it looks familiar at all, it's probably because the 16-foot-tall bronze bust was previously exhibited on the High Line in New York.) It marks a bumper year for Leigh at the Biennale, where she also represents the U.S. at the American Pavilion. Titled "Sovereignty," her exhibition there has served as one of this year's highlights: In a dramatic makeover of the neoclassical, Jeffersonian building, Leigh covered the structure with a thatched roof inspired by a traditional African rondavel, in keeping with her subversive meditations on the legacy of Western colonialism. Inside, meanwhile, a mix of ceramics, bronzes, and video pieces provide a powerful overview of Leigh's investigations into how women of the African diaspora have been represented across art history. The Biennale jury was led by the Whitney Museum curator Adrienne Edwards, who said that Leigh's Brick House received the award for being a "rigorously researched, virtuosically realized, and powerfully persuasive monumental sculpture."

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Simone Leigh and Sonia Boyce Make History at the Venice Biennale

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Earlier this morning, the two Golden Lions at the Venice Biennale-the top honors at the prestigious biannual art event, which opens to the public today-were awarded to Simone Leigh and Sonia Boyce, representing the United States and the United Kingdom respectively.

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You may never have heard his name but if you are a surfer - particularly a surfer of a certain age - you have surely seen Butch Cornelius' work. Raised alongside elite surfers and surf artists of his day, he brushed against fame yet never really had it. Still, the aesthetic of the former graphic artist, who now lives and makes art in Eureka, echoes in the surfing world today.

Clifford "Butch" Cornelius grew up in the Pacific Beach community of San Diego. A classic SoCal surf-and-skate neighborhood, it is famous for producing both the first popular polyurethane surfboards by Gordon and Smith Surfboards (or G&S as the company is widely known), as well as many talented surfers.

Cornelius spent his formative years playing in Mission Bay, gravitating to stand-up surfing in 1958. His social circle included the likes of Butch Van Artsdalen - called "Mr. Pipeline" for his prowess surfing big waves at Pipeline in Hawaii - and Mike Hynson, renowned surfboard shaper and star of the cult classic documentary The Endless Summer. Along with surfing, Cornelius honed his artistic skills early on. He mingled with slightly older surfers who were cartoonists and design professionals, like Mike Dormer who created the iconic Hot Curl surf cartoon.

By the time he hit high school, Cornelius was an avid cartoonist, selling his work to kids on the playground. During his sophomore year at Mission Bay High School, he got his first big art breaks. "When I was in 10th grade, Hobie opened their shop in Pacific Beach," he said. "When the shop opened, Butch Van Artsdalen asked if I could sell my drawings there." With that, a career was born.

Cornelius made a name for himself around Mission Bay with his single-sheet comics. He also started silk-screening T-shirts for both Hobie and Surfer magazine out of the shop's back room. In 1962, as SoCal's surf scene grew, Pacific Beach Surf Shop hired him to create its logo. Used until 2016, his iconic drawing of a rubbery, big-footed surfer with a shock of blonde hair and clutching a surfboard next to hand-drawn lettering is arguably one of the longest-running logos in surf history. Over the years, the company has emblazoned it on everything from surfboards to stickers and hats. Although the Pacific Beach Surf Shop logo is well-recognized in the surf world, perhaps even more iconic is what came next: art for the legendary Windansea Surf Club.

According to Cornelius, in 1963 rumor had it Surfrider Beach in Malibu (now Malibu Lagoon State Beach) was closing to develop a boat harbor. Several of his cohort got together at the Hobie store to discuss participating in the "last-ever" Malibu Invitational surf contest. The hitch was they needed to be a formal surf club to enter. So, they created one.

The group of ragtag surfers founded the Windansea Surf Club, an organization that has since made a prestigious name for itself all over the world. Cornelius' original design for the club remains its identifying mark. It is a throwback reminder of those early surf days, a time before major corporate sponsorship and big money for surfing events. "We decided on a name [at the meeting], and boom! I went to the back, grabbed a blank T-shirt and a red felt pen and that was that," recalled Cornelius. "The club went to Malibu and won just about every trophy. I thought about cleaning it up, but we liked it. They still use my design to this day - it's been in movies, ads for Vans shoes, it's everywhere."

Cornelius went on to have a long career, drawing comics, cartoons for the Windansea newsletter, logos for magazines and surf and skateboard organizations, as well as mural work in San Diego. He also worked as an U.S. Army illustrator after originally being drafted for the Vietnam War in 1967. Eventually, after what he reflects upon as years of too much surf and partying, he wanted a change of scene.

"Surfing was my heroin," Cornelius mused. "I dropped everything for a wave - I skipped work, whatever. I was doing just enough to get by and at the same time, I hung out with famous cartoonists like Scott Shaw. These guys were doing their artwork and I wasn't. I couldn't get myself into art the way that I wanted to."

In addition to his desire to concentrate on his artwork, Cornelius also suffered from PTSD and had developed skin cancer related to his exposure to Agent Orange used by the U.S. government while in Vietnam. It was time to get out of the sun. He found his way to Humboldt County in 1991 to truly concentrate on his art.

Moving around Southern Humboldt for almost three decades before settling in Eureka a few years back, Cornelius mostly designed silkscreen T-shirts and logos, including for Reggae on the River in 2000 and 2001, before getting deeper into murals and Buddhist-inspired artwork. He spent years pumping out graphic design and artwork that many Humboldt folks are familiar with, like graphics and logo lettering for Dazey's Supply, title lettering and 10 years of cartoons for The Trader magazine, and even hand-drawn movie posters for the old theater in Garberville.

While the San Diego crew still requests artwork, Cornelius has retired from design work. These days you are more likely to find him hanging out on his own, meditating or working on his surfing-inspired paintings and spiritually infused dragon pieces in his home studio. Unfortunately, more than 30 years of his portfolio, including much of his original surf and skate work, burned in a fire several years back. Still, Cornelius says he is content with his mark on the world, representing as it does some 50 years of surf and skateboard history and the design landscape stretching from the beaches of Southern California to Humboldt.

Tamar Burris (she/her) is a freelance education writer and relationship coach. Her book for children of divorce A New Special Friend is available through her website www.tamarburris.com.

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You may never have heard his name but if you are a surfer - particularly a surfer of a certain age - you have surely seen Butch Cornelius' work. Raised alongside elite surfers and surf artists of his day, he brushed against fame yet never really had it.

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https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/elon-musk-financing-twitter-takeover-1235237779/

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Tech billionaire Elon Musk is moving forward with his potential bid to acquire Twitter, revealing that he has lined up $46.5 billion in financing for a possible tender offer for the company.

The financing was disclosed in an SEC filing Thursday. According to Musk's filing, the financing includes commitments from Morgan Stanley and other financial institutions. Musk has not yet decided whether he will make a tender offer for Twitter (to buy shares directly from existing investors); he may take other steps to further the proposed takeover, per the filing.

Musk "is exploring whether to commence a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of [Twitter's] Common Stock" for $54.20 per share, "but has not determined whether to do so at this time," according to the filing.

Last week, Musk - the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the wealthiest person on the planet - proposed to buy Twitter for about $43 billion in a hostile takeover, offering $54.20 per share for the social media company. Last Friday, Twitter adopted a "poison pill" plan to fend off a potential hostile takeover, designed to stop any individual or entity from amassing more than a 15% stake in the company by buying shares on the open market.

Musk is exploring whether to move forward with a tender offer for Twitter "given the lack of response by Twitter" to his previous buyout offer, according to Thursday's filing.

"[W]e don't believe [the financing] puts Musk any closer towards reaching a deal given: 1) our view that the board likely wants to avoid selling to Musk, and 2) the added poison pill creates a more challenging backdrop," CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino wrote in a note Thursday. "We think Musk could look to increase his stake closer to 15% to put additional pressure on TWTR, but we think he will ultimately need to have constructive conversations with the board to be successful."

Musk earlier this month disclosed that he had acquired about 9.2% of the shares in Twitter, making him the largest shareholder in the company. The mercurial billionaire had reached an agreement to join Twitter's board on the condition that he amass no more than 14.9% of its shares. Musk later reversed course and decided to not join the board - before making the unsolicited overture to take Twitter private.

A Twitter rep said the company had received Musk's updated proposal. "As previously announced and communicated to Mr. Musk directly, the board is committed to conducting a careful, comprehensive and deliberate review to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and all Twitter stockholders," the spokesperson said.

The financing package Musk has lined up (for what the filing calls "Project X") comprises $21 billion in equity financing, $13 billion in debt facilities and $12.5 billion in margin loans. In addition to Morgan Stanley, other banks participating in the financing include Bank of America, Barclays, MUFG, Societe Generale, Mizuho Bank and BNP Paribas.

Musk is a Twitter power user who currently has 82.7 million followers on the platform. He's indicated that he is interested in owning Twitter - which he has called "the de facto public town square" - in order to have it more rigorously adhere to principles of free speech. Musk has criticized Twitter's "failure" to let its users engage in free speech.

"A social media platform's policies are good if the most extreme 10% on left and right are equally unhappy," he tweeted Tuesday.

Twitter's stock has risen around 20% since Musk disclosed his 9.2% ownership stake. Amid a drop in broader market indexes, Twitter shares closed Thursday up 0.7% to $47.04 apiece.

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Elon Musk Secures $46.5 Billion in Financing for Potential Twitter Takeover

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Tech billionaire Elon Musk is moving forward with his potential bid to acquire Twitter, revealing that he has lined up $46.5 billion in financing for a possible tender offer for the company. The financing was disclosed in an SEC filing Thursday. According to Musk's filing, the financing includes commitments from Morgan Stanley and other financial institutions.

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https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/chris-rock-mom-will-smith-oscars-ban-1235062868/

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Chris Rock's mom, Rose Rock, is sharing her thoughts on Will Smith slapping her son at the 2022 Oscars ceremony one month removed from the moment.

Rock, an author and motivational speaker, that the comedian is doing well but "still processing" the incident that led Smith to resign from the Academy. The organization has since announced that Smith, who won best actor for his performance in King Richard, is banned from all events, including the Oscars ceremonies, for the next 10 years.

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"I told someone, when Will slapped Chris, he slapped all of us, but he really slapped me," Rose Rock said. "When you hurt my child, you hurt me."

When asked what she would say to Smith, Rock replied, "I have no idea what I would say other than, 'What in the world were you thinking?' Because you did a slap, but so many things could have happened. Chris could have stepped back and fallen. You really could have gotten taken out in handcuffs. You didn't think. You reacted to your wife giving you the side-eye, and you went up, and you made her day because she was bowled over laughing when it happened."

Regarding the 10-year ban, she said, "What does that mean? You don't even go every year." Rock, who pointed out that she didn't think the Academy should have taken away Smith's Oscar, went on to say she was "really, really proud" of how her son reacted in the moment.

She added that she didn't think the apology Smith posted to his Instagram account on the day after the ceremony felt genuine. "I feel really bad that he never apologized," Rock said. "His people wrote up a piece and said, 'I apologize to Chris Rock,' but something like that is personal. You reach out."

Smith's slap followed Chris Rock making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, having a shaved head. The comedian has largely remained mum since the Oscars.

Earlier this month, Chris' brother Kenny Rock told the Los Angeles Times that he didn't find Smith's apology to be genuine.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.

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Chris Rock's Mom Calls Out Will Smith's Oscars Ban: 'You Don't Even Go Every Year'

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Chris Rock's mom, Rose Rock, is sharing her thoughts on Will Smith slapping her son at the 2022 Oscars ceremony one month removed from the moment. Rock, an author and motivational speaker, that the comedian is doing well but "still processing" the incident that led Smith to resign from the Academy.

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https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/from-cinq-music-raising-100m-to-midems-return-in-2023-its-mbws-weekly-round-up/

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Welcome to Music Business Worldwide's weekly round-up - where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW's round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world's best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.
We learned this week that historic music trade expo Midem is returning to Cannes, France, in early 2023, with a new owner.

Midem's former owner, Reed Midem, confirmed in December that it would no longer be operating the 55-year-old event.

The City of Cannes Municipality has now acquired the Midem brand from RX France - the owner of subsidiary Reed Midem - and will be running the event under the leadership of Cannes Mayor, David Lisnard.

The aim for Midem, according to the City of Cannes, is for it to become the "unmissable global meeting place" for the music business, which it promises "will be accessible to as many people as possible thanks to affordable accreditation prices".

Also this week, Cinq Music raised $100 million from its Los Angeles-headquartered parent GoDigital Media Group.

GoDigital confirmed that it's investing its largest funding round yet into Cinq and that the funds will be used by Cinq to "purchase music rights, both masters and publishing, and to further its international expansion".

Plus, Justin Blau's $55 million-backed blockchain-based music investment platform revealed that Spotify 's Director, Premium Content Strategy Darya Pourshasb has joined the company as Head of Global Artist & Label Partnerships.

Pourshasb will oversee artist relations and music partnerships at Royal, and tells MBW that she'll be "looking to bring a variety of artists to the platform, from independent artists to icons that span musical genres and markets".

Elsewhere, Bob Roback is leaving his role as CEO of Ingrooves Music Group after seven years, while US-headquartered music distribution and payments platform Stem confirmed this week that it's raised $20 million in new funding.

Here's what happened this week:

Five months ago, it looked as if Midem would likely be gone for good.

The 55-year-old music trade expo's then-owner, Reed Midem, confirmed in December that it would no longer be operating the event, which had historically been held at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France.

But now, a new twist in the tale: MBW has confirmed that Midem will be back in Q1 2023... with a brand new owner.

MBW understands that, after a year of negotiation, RX France - the owner of subsidiary Reed Midem - recently sold the Midem brand to the City of Cannes Municipality.....

This week, GoDigital confirmed that it's investing its largest funding round yet into Cinq - USD $100 million - in order for Cinq to "purchase music rights, both masters and publishing, and to further its international expansion".

In a press release, GoDigital confirmed that its music portfolio is backed by Bank of America as lead lender, with East West and Union Bank rounding out the syndicate.

Additional details of the $100 million Series D funding round were not disclosed....

Darya Pourshasb, Spotify's Director, Premium Content Strategy, since 2018, has joined blockchain-based music investment platform, Royal.

Pourshasb joins Royal as Head of Global Artist & Label Partnerships, and will oversee artist relations and music partnerships at the company.

Royal tells MBW that Pourshasb will be focused on bringing a variety of artists to the platform "from independent artists to icons"....

Bob Roback is leaving his role as CEO of Ingrooves Music Group seven years after joining the distribution and services company, MBW can reveal.

In that time, Roback has led Ingrooves through significant revenue growth, as well as global expansion into territories including Australia, Brazil, Japan, India, South Africa, and Spain.

One defining moment for Roback's tenure as Ingrooves boss was the sale of the Los Angeles-headquartered company to Universal Music Group in 2019. (UMG was previously a minority shareholder in Ingrooves.)...

US-headquartered music distribution and payments platform Stem confirmed this week that it's raised a $20 million new round of funding.

The investment is being led by QED Investors, a significant venture capitalist firm in the fintech space.

It's also being supported by Block, Inc., a global techn and financial services company. QED Investors and Block, Inc. are joined by previous Stem investors Slow Ventures and Quality Control ...

MBW's Weekly Round-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world's best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs. Music Business Worldwide

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From Cinq Music raising $100m to Midem's return in 2023 : It's MBW's Weekly Round-Up - Music Business Worldwide

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Welcome to Music Business Worldwide's weekly round-up - where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW's round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world's best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.

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Lizzo Joins Harry Styles for One Direction Favorite at Coachella Weekend 2

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All the rumors were true: Lizzo joined Harry Styles onstage during his Coachella Weekend 2 headlining set for a classic cover ("I Will Survive") and for a One Direction favorite, 2012's "What Makes You Beautiful."

Adorned in colorful feathered boas, Lizzo took the stage for the Gloria Gaynor hit and strutted alongside Styles as they delivered the female empowerment anthem. They then segued to One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful," which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The tune is among the boy band's most popular songs, nearing 700 million streams on Spotify alone.

🎥|Harry Styles and Lizzo, performing 'I Will Survive' live from #Coachella tonight!
23.4.2022 pic.twitter.com/IJ6Gc6fj6K

- OT5 Daily (@OT5Dailys) April 23, 2022

Earlier on Friday, Lizzo teased her appearance at the festival on TikTok by putting her own twist on the app's latest meme of a girl hitting her hip on the side of a bed and screaming in pain (and perfect pitch). "I'm bored otw to Coachella," Lizzo wrote in the caption, causing fans to go wild speculating that she would appear alongside Styles.

Lizzo's Coachella cameo comes after the release of her new single "About Damn Time" last week, followed by her stint on "Saturday Night Live" pulling double duty as the host and musical guest. Last weekend at Coachella, Styles brought out Shania Twain to duet her 1999 hit "Man! I Feel Like a Woman" as well as 1997's "You're Still the One." The crowd last weekend, Variety reported, topped 100,000 for Styles' set.

Lizzo and Styles' friendship goes way back, starting when Styles performed a cover of Lizzo's "Juice" for his BBC1 session in December 2019. The next month, the two got to perform the self-love anthem together in Miami during Lizzo's Super Bowl concert, and Lizzo returned Styles' favor by covering "Adore You" during her BBC1 session. Ever since, they've snapped plenty of pictures together at awards shows - even holding hands during the 2020 Brit Awards - and have gushed about their friendship in the press.

Both pop stars also have new albums on the way, with Styles' "Harry's House" due on May 20 and Lizzo's "Special" coming July 15.

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Lizzo Joins Harry Styles for One Direction Favorite at Coachella Weekend 2

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All the rumors were true: Lizzo joined Harry Styles onstage during his Coachella Weekend 2 headlining set for a classic cover ("I Will Survive") and for a One Direction favorite, 2012's "What Makes You Beautiful." Adorned in colorful feathered boas, Lizzo took the stage for the Gloria Gaynor hit and strutted alongside Styles as they delivered the female empowerment anthem.

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As Mask and Vaccine Mandates Fall, Covid Rates Soar Among Touring Musicians

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From the T.S.A. to the Coachella festival, from your local supermarket to your local music club, mask and vaccination mandates continue to fall across the country, in the face of all credible scien…

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Can an Art History Frame Help Expand the NFT Market?

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An upcoming auction by Sotheby’s is the latest attempt to recast crypto collectibles as an artistic evolution and perhaps draw interest from a wider circle of collectors.

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https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/confirmed-deezer-going-public-at-1-16bn-valuation-via-merger-with-spac-in-france/

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It was rumored last week - now it's a done deal.

Streaming company Deezer has reached a definitive agreement to combine its business with I2PO, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) based in France.

As a result, Deezer is to publicly list on the Euronext Paris, seven years after its last attempt at an IPO failed.

On a fully diluted basis, the I2PO merger gives Deezer a pre-money equity valuation of EUR €1.050 billion (USD $1.13bn at current exchange rates).

That valuation corresponds to an enterprise valuation of approximately €1.075 billion ($1.16bn), I2PO confirmed today (April 18).

In that announcement, I2PO called Deezer "the second largest independent music streaming platform in the world", confirming that the service currently has 9.6 million subscribers globally.

I2PO's announcement also confirmed that Deezer generated revenue of EUR €400 million in 2021, and stated that the plan for the merger was to be a "catalyst for Deezer's next stage of growth, with the ambition to achieve €1 billion revenue by 2025, and a clear path to operating profitability and positive cash-flow".

After the merger is completed, the combined company will benefit from the cash currently held by I2PO, in addition to cash raised through a PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity).

This PIPE has been subscribed by most of the existing shareholders of Deezer including Access Industries, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Orange, Kingdom Holdings, Eurazeo and Xavier Niel, as well as a group of long-term French and international investors including Groupe Artémis, Bpifrance and Media Participations.

Via the PIPE (and a non-redemption undertaking), a total amount of €135 million ($145m) has been secured to date.

I2PO says this amount meets "the minimum cash condition [needed] to pursue the group's growth strategy, regardless of final redemption rate".

I2PO will be renamed Deezer upon completion of the merger.

Iris Knobloch, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of I2PO, commented: "With its well-established brand, first-class management team and scalable platform, Deezer is poised to continue to capture a significant share in the booming music streaming growth.

"This is a perfect match and a transformational deal that will deliver long-term value creation for our shareholders as Deezer is a unique asset with considerable strategic avenues for future growth.

"With Deezer's hybrid B2B/B2C strategy to enter key international markets, its highly competitive technology and focus on ESG, we are confident that the company is well-positioned to disrupt and consolidate while providing a high-quality music streaming service to millions of users around the world."

"With Deezer's hybrid B2B/B2C strategy to enter key international markets, its highly competitive technology and focus on ESG, we are confident that the company is well-positioned to disrupt and consolidate while providing a high-quality music streaming service to millions of users around the world."

Iris Knobloch, I2PO (soon to be renamed Deezer)

François-Henri Pinault, co-founder and Member of the Board of Directors of I2PO, declared: "We launched the first European SPAC dedicated to entertainment and leisure with the ambition to take a European champion to new heights. In Deezer, we have found the ideal combination. I2PO brings an extensive international network and a complementary skill set to help develop Deezer as the leading independent music streaming platform through strong positions in selected key markets. We are excited to accompany one of the emblematic European tech leaders in its next chapter as a public company listed in Paris."

Matthieu Pigasse, co-founder and Member of the Board of Directors of I2PO, added: "Music is life. It is the only universal language. Where words fail, music speaks. As a longtime investor in the media and entertainment world and a customer of Deezer, I know first-hand that Deezer is the home of music, with the best experience possible and a unique potential. 'The future is unwritten' said Joe Strummer (The Clash). With Deezer, we're going to write together the future of music streaming, with a great team, fantastic tech capabilities, a differentiated business platform and an ability to scale."

Guillaume d'Hauteville, Chairman of the Board of Deezer, said: "Deezer has been accelerating its momentum substantially over the past months, reaching again double-digit growth in February. With the imminent launch of the RTL+ partnership in Germany, among other developments, the future of Deezer is brighter than ever.

"We chose to go public via a merger with I2PO as this route allowed us to review our future business plans and opportunities with an excellent team, increase our financial means, keep our strategic potential, and provide liquidity to our current and future shareholders.

"I would also like to thank all Deezer employees, its management team and historical shareholders led by Access Industries, for having allowed the company to become what it is today and for continuing to do so with further investments as part of this transaction. In addition, today's transaction is another landmark for Access Industries as we like to help our music and digital investments, such as Deezer, Spotify, Beats, Warner Music or DAZN, to name a few, grow and become references in their respective markets."

Jeronimo Folgueira, Chief Executive Officer of Deezer, added: "Today marks an important milestone in Deezer's history as we embark on a journey to become a publicly traded company on Euronext Paris. I am thrilled to partner with I2PO who will provide us with the expertise, the global network and the capital we need to execute our strategic plan.

"We are uniquely positioned on the growing music streaming industry, with a very competitive product, a clear strategy and an experienced and renewed management team to seize this opportunity and create substantial shareholder value."Music Business Worldwide

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Confirmed: Deezer, with a $1.16bn valuation, is going public via merger with SPAC in France - Music Business Worldwide

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It was rumored last week - now it's a done deal. Streaming company Deezer has reached a definitive agreement to combine its business with I2PO, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) based in France. As a result, Deezer is to publicly list on the Euronext Paris, seven years after its last attempt at an IPO failed.

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https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/15/black-pain-and-punishment-at-the-oscars/?fbclid=IwAR39k5pT6ag_XjCeLHZyhQi621QUtq9WVuF_-5B4YahdkjQz1oQ6IvkkDKU

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The Academy announced a ten-year ban on Will Smith from attending its events after Smith slapped Chris Rock during a live telecast of the 2022 Oscar's ceremony. Rock had joked about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The Academy also praised Rock for his composure, vaguely suggesting an assumption that Rock could have slapped back.

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EXCLUSIVE: A week into the $50 million defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, the marquee player is about to take the stand.

Depp will testify on his own behalf Tuesday in the exceedingly high-profile case that is taking place in Virginia's Fairfax County Courthouse, we've learned. If all goes to plan, the ex- Pirates of the Caribbean star will take the oath and the stand in front of a seven-person jury, Heard, a platoon of lawyers, the cameras and Judge Penney S. Azcarate during the later part of the morning

Depp will continue on the stand Wednesday for cross-examination, a source close to the actor's team says.

Depp's longtime pal and sound technician Keenan Wyatt is also expected to testify Tuesday for the Oscar nominee's side.

Once the much delayed trial was finally given a start date last year, Depp and ex-wife and Aquaman star Heard were always assumed to be testifying in the bitter multimillion-dollar matter, but it is a surprise that the actor is going so early in what is planned as a five-week trial.

Other big names scheduled to testify during the trial include James Franco, Avengers star Paul Bettany, and potential Twitter boss Elon Musk.

Awaiting the outcome of the case presented by Depp's Brown Ruddick LLP attorneys Camille Vasquez, Ben Chew and Jessica Meyers, Heard's testimony has not be given a date yet. Kicking off on April 11 and running Monday to Thursday in the Washington, D.C.-adjacent jurisdiction, the trial will go dark from May 9-12 as Azcarate will be attending a previously scheduled judicial conference.

The already harsh and often explicit court clash between Depp and Heard, who divorced in 2016 amidst restraining orders and competing media narratives, started when the actor sued his Rum Diary co-star in March 2019 in Virginia for a late 2018 Washington Post op-ed about domestic abuse and the potential fallout for victims. The Heard-penned article never actually mentioned Depp by name, but in his subsequent filing the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas actor declared the piece cost him lucrative roles and "devastated" his career.

Since then, as the two have engaged in the legal equivalent of trench warfare, Heard has tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to have the case thrown out or moved to California. Failing that, she countersued her former husband for $100 million in the summer of 2020.

In addition to the direct matter at hand, pink-slipped Fantastic Beasts star Depp, who has a high burden to meet to prove actual defamation, is certainly now attempting to refocus the conventional impression of his behavior. That impression had been solidified in the mind of many by his November 2020 UK loss in a "wife beater" libel action against Rupert Murdoch's tabloid The Sun. Depp has proved unsuccessfully in appeal efforts in that damning case on the other side of the Atlantic.

With a ponytailed Depp and Heard both in the courtroom Monday, the jury heard more video testimony from Dr. David Kipper, who was hired in 2014 to treat Depp for an addiction to opioids.

Kipper said he never witnessed Depp abuse Heard nor did he witness Heard physically attack Depp. He also was serving as Depp's internist, and said he determined that Depp was experiencing a dopamine imbalance, and he diagnosed him with bipolar disorder, chronic substance abuse disorder, ADHD, depression, insomnia and chronic reflux. The testimony also featured highly charged text-message exchanges between Depp and Kipper where the actor talked of his "monster" and other aggressive statements about Heard and their relationship.

As he did on April 14, Kipper, who still counts Depp as a patient, recounted more details of the aftermath of a March 2015 incident in Australia in which Depp's fingertip was severed. Debbie Lloyd, Depp's private nurse who worked with Kipper, testified that she arrived at the Depp-Heard rental home to find it "a mess."

"I remember there was some writing on the wall and I remember a smashed TV," she said. But she acknowledged hearing conflicting accounts of how Depp severed his finger. "I had heard that Amber threw a bottle of vodka at him, I had heard that he slammed it with a phone," she said.

In notes, Lloyd also told the court of a 2014 visit to Depp's home where the actor "sitting with bloody knuckles" after supposedly punching a white board in frustration. The notes from the nurse additionally stated that on an October 2014 set visit Depp was "verbally aggressive to another person on set so no apparent reason."

Lloyd told the court via video Monday that she believed Depp and Heard's arguments during their marriage were a "trigger for him emotionally."

With Lloyd still on the virtual stand, the court is expected to be in session today until around 2 p.m. PT.

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Johnny Depp To Take The Stand Tomorrow In $50M Defamation Trial

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EXCLUSIVE: A week into the $50 million defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, the marquee player is about to take the stand. Depp will testify on his own behalf Tuesday in the exceedingly high-profile case that is taking place in Virginia's Fairfax County Courthouse, we've learned.

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Panic says it switched battery manufacturers after discovering drained power cells in early models. I haven't run into issues with the battery in my test unit. I played on and off for several hours, and the battery sat at around 30 percent before the day's end. Most of the time, I'm only playing a game here and there, whenever I have some free time, so you likely won't have to recharge via USB-C for several days.

My initial impressions of the console were tempered last year, partly because I was able to try only the four games available at the time. I've now dipped my toes into all 24 games, some more than others. I should note that the games are released in a serial manner across "seasons," so you won't get instant access to every single game when your Playdate arrives. Instead, two games are delivered per week on the same day for 12 weeks. (You'll always have unfettered access to every Season One game once they've landed on your machine over Wi-Fi.)

Almost like how everyone watches each new installment of Moon Knight at the same time, it feels like Panic wants to build the kind of social engagement you typically see when a TV episode airs. I'm not sure I see that happening; many of these games don't have the kind of depth that would warrant that sort of collective excitement. But it is a way to keep the Playdate feeling fresh, with something new waiting around the corner-for three months, at least. There's no word on whether there'll be a Season Two, but a Panic spokesperson says if there are additional seasons, they likely won't be included in the console price the way Season One is.

You'll be happy to know that anyone can make a game for the Playdate and release it at any time. These indie games are dead simple to side-load onto the device. At the moment there's only one-Bloom by RNG Party Games-which costs $10. It's a Tamagotchi-like idle game where you check in on your character's flower shop, and can even monitor their conversations with friends and family over the course of several real-life days. It's not my cup of tea, but I know a few folks that'd sip it.

Eventually, Playdate says there'll be a Playdate Catalog, which you can think of like an app store where you can find or buy games outside of the titles offered in Season One. The open nature of the system means you can expect to find the unexpected-like this media player a developer is creating to turn the Playdate into an iPod of sorts. (Yes, there's a headphone jack.)

In case you're wondering how accessibility-friendly the Playdate is, there's good news. You can install an application called Playdate Mirror on Windows, Mac, or Linux, plug your Playdate into the PC, and launch the app. You'll instantly see your Playdate's screen on your computer. You can make the virtual screen larger so it's easier to see, use standard controllers to play, and can have the sound route to an assistive audio device. This app lets streamers record gameplay audio and video too. It worked flawlessly when I tried it.

Much of what I've said before about the hardware hasn't changed. The Playdate is still the size of a stack of Post-Its. It's awfully pretty; the firm Teenage Engineering, which is known for its bright and whimsical gadgets, handled the industrial design. It's almost like the Playdate is meant to sit on my desk as a nifty, retro clock instead of a portable handheld.

One concern I have is with quality control. My unit has a visible scratch on a corner of the inner glass. Panic offered to replace my unit but didn't mention what might have caused the scratch. Inspect your Playdate whenever you get it.

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The Playdate Packs Hours of Gaming Fun in Your Pocket

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Panic says it switched battery manufacturers after discovering drained power cells in early models. I haven't run into issues with the battery in my test unit. I played on and off for several hours, and the battery sat at around 30 percent before the day's end.

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On Saturday, 100 gecs made their Coachella debut-unfortunately, it was cut a bit short. The duo of Dylan Brady and Laura Les were in the middle of performing "Money Machine" from their 2019 album when crew members started rolling pieces of equipment offstage. Then, the sound abruptly cut out. The crowd shouted, "gecs! gecs! gecs!," before Brady and Les retreated backstage. Representatives for the band offered no comment when reached by Pitchfork.

Prior to launching into "Money Machine," Les addressed the crowd, saying: "We just got a couple more for ya tonight." But "Money Machine," or at least, part of it, was the duo's final song for the evening. Watch it all happen below, and follow along with Pitchfork's full coverage of Coachella 2022.

Following the release of their last studio album, 100 gecs dropped the guest-packed remix LP 1000 gecs and the Tree of Clues. The duo have since issued 10000 gecs singles " MeMeMe" and " Doritos & Fritos."

Check out the track review for " Doritos & Fritos" and revisit Pitchfork's Cover Story " This Is Your Brain on 100 gecs."

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100 gecs' Set Ends Abruptly at Coachella 2022

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On Saturday, 100 gecs made their Coachella debut-unfortunately, it was cut a bit short. The duo of Dylan Brady and Laura Les were in the middle of performing "Money Machine" from their 2019 album when crew members started rolling pieces of equipment offstage. Then, the sound abruptly cut out.

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Billie Eilish Brings Out Blur's Damon Albarn for Gorillaz Classic at Coachella

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Billie Eilish already made history as the youngest person to headline Coachella when she took the stage on Saturday night. So it may have been surprising to her young fans that among her guest stars was a 54-year-old: Damon Albarn, of Blur, Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad and the Queen fame. Appropriately, he joined in for the song "Getting Older," after which she helped cover Gorillaz's "Feel Good Inc." (with Posdnuos of De La Soul lending a hand).

FEEL GOOD INC ✨@billieeilish x @Damonalbarn at #Coachella pic.twitter.com/c32dMfF4LN

- Damon Albarn Unofficial (@DamonUnofficial) April 17, 2022

"Shut the fuck up and pls give a fucking warm welcome to Gorillaz Damon Albarn," said Eilish in introducing the singer. "This is the craziest shit I've ever experienced," she continued. "This man changed my life in a lot of ways, and changed my complete view of what music could be, and what art could be, and what creation could be. My first favorite band ever was the Good, the Bad and the Queen when I was six years-old and Blur changed the world and Gorillaz changed the world and this man is literally a genius, and that's that."

Albarn was the second surprise of her set, following an appearance by Khalid for the song "Lovely."

Billie eilish and Khalid - Lovely, Coachella pic.twitter.com/h8aGfEaA9A

- kdkrown (@girlonsaturn__) April 17, 2022

Eilish's set, which ran through nearly 25 songs, was an exercise in pure showmanship, taking the crowd to musical highs and even some lows, like when the singer implored the audience to crouch, then jump, while she and her dancers amped up the energy. Eilish's whispery vocals pierced through the drone, ably played by her brother Finneas, as well as the drums, which took on their own ferocity as the show neared its end - particularly on the closer, "Happier Than Ever."

It was a sentiment Eilish carried throughout the set, stopping to tell the audience, "I want us to be grateful that we are alive and breathing and we're here. It's been such a crazy three years and we deserve to feel good and be happy and feel safe and calm."

Clearly relishing her time onstage, Eilish did a victory lap at show's end, blowing kisses to her fans and waving enthusiastically as she exited .

See below for her full set list:

Bury a Friend
I Didn't Change My Number
NDA
Therefore I Am
My Strange Addiction
idontwannabeyouanymore
Lovely
You Should See Me in a Crown
Billie Bossa Nova
GOLDWING
Halley's Comet
Oxytocin
Ilomilo
I Love You
Your Power
Overheated
Bellyache
Ocean Eyes
Getting Older
Feel Good Inc.
When the Party's Over
All the Good Girls Go to Hell
Everything I Wanted
Bad Guy
Happier Than Ever

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Billie Eilish Brings Out Blur's Damon Albarn for Gorillaz Classic at Coachella

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Billie Eilish already made history as the youngest person to headline Coachella when she took the stage on Saturday night. So it may have been surprising to her young fans that among her guest stars was a 54-year-old: Damon Albarn, of Blur, Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad and the Queen fame.

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Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively’s Group Effort Initiative Partners With Netflix To Bolster Below-The-Line Representation

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Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s Group Effort Initiative has partnered with Netflix on a new initiative that will expand underrepresented communities’ access to below-the-line career op…

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The poignant and heartfelt documentary "Cow," directed by Andrea Arnold, is a displaced movie. For all its virtues, its most interesting action isn't onscreen but only hinted at. This lacuna reflects a widespread documentary practice that's also a conventional lapse in aesthetic judgment. Arnold and her crew followed a single dairy cow named Luma, at a cattle farm in Park Farm, in Kent, England, for an intermittent four-year period. The film (which opens today in theatres and is streaming on many services) observes her through the cycle of life, from calving and giving milk through the travails of old age, amid the structured workdays on the farm. Employees guide Luma and the many other cows to the stalls where they're connected to electrical milking machines, into fields where they romp, into pens where they feed, into other pens where Luma is mated with a bull and becomes pregnant again. But the filmmakers are absent.

"Cow" filters out the basic personal element. It doesn't show the crew's interactions with the farm workers, who seemingly pretend that the crew and equipment aren't there; the efforts of the crew to stay close to Luma; or the conspicuous intrusion of Arnold and her colleagues setting up shop, with their equipment, at the farm and in the nearby fields where the animals graze. For that matter, the film also excludes the backstory on which it inevitably depends: the negotiations by Arnold and the producer, Kat Mansoor, with the farm's management that set the terms for filming there, the implicitly transactional basis for the film's very existence. These omissions are not a new issue with documentary filmmaking; the self-erasure comes up often (as in the Oscar-nominated " Honeyland," in 2019) and seems baked into other agrarian films such as "Gunda" and "Four Seasons," as if both implying and concealing the incongruity of filmmakers' presence in natural and rustic settings.

In "Cow," the drama is thin and the ideas are distant. Closeups of Luma are the film's emotional engine. (The cinematographer is Magda Kowalczyk.) These images have a soulfulness that's then, at times, amplified into majesty by compositions in which sky, terrain, and other animals fill the frame with a sense of united, grand-scale, wide-ranging power. They're the exception-and they merely punctuate the film's sense of observational, reportorial information delivery. It's all the more reason why the movie, despite the ambling pace, resembles the narrow train of a Hollywood fictional narrative.

The paradox of "Cow" is the paradox of modern documentary filmmaking, an aesthetic revolution that was born-in the United States and in France-on the basis of technological innovation, the ability to film while recording synchronized sound with lightweight and portable equipment. In 1960, Robert Drew produced " Primary," in which he was able to dispatch a crew to Wisconsin to embed with the campaigns of Senators John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey as they competed for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Around the same time in France, the filmmaker Jean Rouch and the sociologist Edgar Morin collaborated on " Chronicle of a Summer," in which they and their associates stopped people in the street to ask about their lives, and then probed further to explore the connections of work, private life, and politics-and to examine their own filmmaking process.

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Morin coined the term "cinéma vérité" for their project; Drew eventually borrowed the term for his work (he also used "candid drama" and "reality filmmaking"). Unlike Rouch and Morin, Drew (whose movies included " The Chair," " The Children Were Watching, " and "Crisis") didn't feature the filmmakers discussing their work on camera or overtly interacting with their subjects. Nonetheless, Drew centered on the filmmakers' presence, not their absence; for him, filmmaking was a unified field in which he and his crew were inevitably participants in the events that they recorded. That participation is revealed most often in the behavior of the subjects, who, far from going about their business as normal, speak to the filmmakers, address the camera, perform for it, and acknowledge its presence and its power. Drew's candid dramas are based in the subjects' realities-starting with the very fact of being filmed-and the emotional and intellectual authority of his work is rooted in these self-conscious performances.

All great ideas are subject to corruption; all original artistic practices risk being reduced to formulas. Much documentary filmmaking practice has devolved to the so-called observational or fly-on-the-wall method, where filmmakers get permission to embed themselves in a setting that interests them and collect recordings with the authenticity of the real-while excluding the reality of the filming. They shape their material as the fiction of what it would have been had the filmmakers not been present. At its best, this very idea resounds with a kind of directorial chutzpah-it's what Frederick Wiseman has been doing since the beginning of his career, and the audacity comes from what he does with his disappearing act, creating scenes of immense length and complexity, in which his participants seem to be performing not for his sake but for their own, as an essential aspect of their identity and social lives. His narratives have vast arcs allowing for vast digressions because his principal subject is the abstract frameworks of institutions. He does the analytical work that seemingly builds out under the action as it advances.

Few documentary filmmakers have followed Wiseman into the radical potential of self-elision from onscreen events. Far more often, the arm's-length observation is a sedimented convention, an unconsidered assumption about the very definition of documentary filmmaking-a choice, and a bad one, that is taken for essential and natural. The past decade-plus has been a time of grand renewal in documentary filmmaking; the very notion of creative nonfiction has been developed and expanded, as in the work of such filmmakers as Robert Greene, Penny Lane, Khalik Allah, Nanfu Wang, Theo Anthony, Courtney Stephens, and Pacho Velez, among many others. At the same time, new technology has made its power felt, often negatively. Digital video cameras, which dispense with the high cost of shooting film and make it possible to record enormous amounts of material, invite a snippety editing process that squeezes as much material as possible into a film's standard duration.

It would be absurd to even suggest a moratorium on the observational method, but it's no less absurd to consider it uncritically-and the most vital criticism that the practice needs is that of filmmakers themselves, in action. "Cow" reflects an admirable and fascinating motive: to enter into the daily experience and the inner life of a farm animal. Arnold, a major artist of cinematic fiction, has made characters' self-presentation, their sense of performance in daily life, a crucial part of her most original drama, " American Honey." In "Cow," Arnold hasn't considered her subjects or her place in their world as stringently or as originally. The strongest moments of "Cow" evoke her fervent and empathetic dramatic sensibility but not a strong awareness of the possibilities of documentary form. In this, she's far from alone; more than any one filmmaker's omissions, "Cow" reflects the unquestioned conventions of the time.

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Why a Documentary About a Cow Reveals the Limits of an Art Form

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The poignant and heartfelt documentary "Cow," directed by Andrea Arnold, is a displaced movie. For all its virtues, its most interesting action isn't onscreen but only hinted at. This lacuna reflects a widespread documentary practice that's also a conventional lapse in aesthetic judgment.

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Elon Musk Offers $43.4B to Buy Twitter | Billboard News

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Skip to main content Days after saying Twitter should convert its headquarters into a homeless shelter, "free speech absolutist" Elon Musk announces he wants to buy the company. A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry

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https://hyperallergic.com/716122/smithsonian-announces-landmark-decision-to-repatriate-benin-bronzes/

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Monte-Carlo and Atlanta based production outfit Force Majeure, led by producer Dario Kirola, has acquired rights to the New York Times bestselling book series Relentless by Karen Lynch.

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Monte-Carlo and Atlanta based production outfit Force Majeure, led by producer Dario Kirola, has acquired rights to the New York Times bestselling book series Relentless by Karen Lynch.

Relentless is an action-oriented urban fantasy YA franchise. The series centers around Sara Grey, a secretive high school senior with a mysterious ability to heal creatures. Since her father's murder years ago, Sara has submersed herself in the dangerous world of shifters, vampires, demons, and faeries, where she makes covert deals on the black market and searches for answers about his death. Her search puts her in the sights of a ruthless enemy and leads her to Nikolas, a lethal half-demon warrior, who reveals the shocking truth about who Sara truly is and why her father was murdered.

The franchise has a loyal following both in the US and abroad and has been translated and published in five other languages. Force Majeure edged out several interested parties to secure the deal and will adapt the franchise into a series, with Victoria Rose (Tunnels) attached to write the pilot. This latest acquisition is one of several prestige IP adaptations planned for producers Dario Kirola and Hrisheek Panchmatia under their Force Majeure banner in the near future.

Force Majeure was represented in the deal by attorney Clifford Lo, and Karen Lynch was represented by the Metamorphosis Literary Agency and attorney Maggie Marr. Victoria Rose is represented by UTA, First Friday Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman.

About Force Majeure:

Force Majeure is an international creative studio and media company based in Monte-Carlo and Atlanta, whose projects have won numerous global awards and accolades. The company incorporates film & TV development, financing, and production, as well as brand & strategy consulting. The company's global presence and local expertise allows it to source noteworthy local language stories and IP and turn them into memorable content that travels across borders and cultures. Force Majeure's long-term clients have included several leading Fortune 500 companies.

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Force Majeure Acquires Rights to Relentless YA Supernatural Bestseller Franchise

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Monte-Carlo and Atlanta based production outfit Force Majeure, led by producer Dario Kirola, has acquired rights to the New York Times bestselling book series Relentless by Karen Lynch. Relentless is an action-oriented urban fantasy YA franchise. The series centers around Sara Grey, a secretive high school senior with a mysterious ability to heal creatures.

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Is Crime in NYC Actually Soaring? 2022 Crime Rates in Perspective

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Statistics suggest The Big Apple remains one of the safest big cities in America, and despite a recent surge in crime, the odds of getting victimized remain very low. And while major crimes – especially property crimes – have seen a large uptick in New York City since the start of the pan…

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When director Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrives in theaters May 5, audiences will meet America Chavez, the Marvel comic book character brought to life by young actor Xochitl Gomez. Ahead of its release, the fan-favorite hero's addition has already received praise, with her inclusion seen as a win for representation, as she is the rare Latina superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film will also acknowledge the character is gay, as she is in the comics, according to sources.

For comic book writer Joe Casey, seeing Chavez soar to new heights is bittersweet. Casey is proud of his work on America Chavez and what she represents. Yet, like many comic book writers before him, Casey feels a tinge of regret watching his creation take off without him being meaningfully compensated for it. Casey has not received payment for America Chavez, outside of the page rates he got when working for Marvel as a writer, when he and artist Nick Dragotta introduced the character in 2011. (Casey rejected what he describes as a "pittance" of an offer ahead of her Multiverse of Madness appearance.)

Now, as Casey speaks out for the first time about his compensation, he is cautious not to sound aggrieved. The writer says he hopes going public will help other creators receive better terms when their work is turned into films, streaming series and action figures.

"The fact is, Marvel owns America Chavez. That's not in dispute on any level, but there are still systemic flaws in the way that creators are neither respected nor rewarded," Casey tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Marvel publishing declined to comment, noting it does not speak about individual creator agreements. During his time at Marvel, Casey never signed any paperwork regarding the character, though he understood Marvel owned anything he created there.

Casey's work at Marvel dates back to the late 1990s, with credits including titles starring the X-Men, the Hulk, Iron Man and the Avengers. He has since found success as one of the creators of the popular Ben 10 animated franchise, which gave him firsthand knowledge of how even the smallest amount of profit participation can add up to significant sums for creators, thanks to merchandising and licensing deals. Members of his entertainment company, Man of Action, also negotiated with Marvel for the 2014 Disney animated film Big Hero 6, and received more favorable terms, which, as Casey notes, shows Marvel can make these agreements sweeter for creators, should it choose.

Several years ago, when Casey learned Marvel intended to include America Chavez in the Doctor Strange sequel, he contacted the publisher to request paperwork that would also cover her previous appearances in animated TV episodes and video games.

Marvel publishing sent over a special character agreement for him to sign that included a cash offering. Casey ultimately declined to sign the special character agreement, and his lawyers expressed his dissatisfaction with the offer. Though Casey declined to say how much Marvel offered, the sums for other creator agreements is said to be in the $5,000 range, though a source on the Marvel side disputes that figure, saying they are generally higher. Marvel is not legally obligated to pay creators when their work is adapted; however, it is customary for them to invite creators to movie premieres and give them cash compensation for appearances.

To date, Casey has not received a second offer, though the Marvel source notes that conversations are ongoing. The writer, however, feels the company is stonewalling him. He also is frustrated that there was no transparency as to how Marvel arrived at the offer number.

"Marvel has paid me nothing for America Chavez, not only for appearing in the Doctor Strange sequel, but in numerous animated TV episodes, for the numerous action figures they've made of her, for video games she's appeared in," says Casey. "They seem to be fine with that."

The issue of creator pay has been talked about in comic book circles for decades, dating back to when Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster sold the character for $130 in 1938. The late, legendary artist Jack Kirby was vocal about his own financial mistreatment by Marvel, despite co-creating much of its universe with Stan Lee.

In recent years, creator Jim Starlin went public with his pay grievances and ultimately received a better deal from Marvel for the use of the villain Thanos, who was at the center of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, two of the biggest films of all time. And last year, star writer Ed Brubaker shared his dissatisfaction with his pay for co-creating the Winter Soldier, the character played by Sebastian Stan in billion-dollar film franchises and Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Rival publisher DC is generally said to better compensate creators when their work is adapted for the screen. As former DC president and publisher Paul Levitz noted to THR last year of his philosophy: "Christian Bale liked looking at [Batman artist] Tim Sale's work before he would go out and strike a pose. ... I'm not sure how you value that. But when you have a movie that is as successful as Batman Begins or Dark Knight, it says that there's something there. And you should say thank you in some fashion."

Casey was well aware of the history of comics and aggrieved creators when he worked at Marvel, and went into it with open eyes. He resolved not to create characters for Marvel. Still, over the years, he couldn't resist creating a few for the publisher, including America Chavez.

"For me, it's not about money. It's not even about the respect. I would never expect to be respected by a corporation," says Casey. "If I'm in a position where I can afford not to take their insult of an offer, and be able to talk about it, maybe the next guy - where that kind of money could change their life - would get a fair shot of receiving that money."

It is unknown where America Chavez will end up next, but it's safe to say there's much more in her Marvel Studios future. For a time, she was even considered for a part in Spider-Man: No Way Home, in which she would have played the sorcerer's apprentice type role that ultimately went to Ned (Jacob Batalon), according to a knowledgeable source. No Way Home, which stands as the No. 6 movie of all time globally, was initially supposed to open after the Doctor Strange sequel and so her No Way Home part was cut.

Now, she's poised to fight side by side with Benedict Cumberbatch in his latest appearance as Doctor Strange. As for Casey, he hopes speaking up might help change things on a systemic level at Marvel, which he wishes would be transparent for how it arrives at creator compensation.

Says the writer: "I'm a happy guy. I'm not disgruntled. I'm not bitter. Because I know this is how this goes. I also know this is how you change things, by talking about it."

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America Chavez Co-Creator Declines Marvel's "Insult of an Offer" for 'Doctor Strange 2'

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Writer Joe Casey, who says he was offered a "pittance" ahead of his character's big-screen debut, is speaking out in hopes it could help other creators: "There are still systemic flaws in the way that creators are neither respected nor rewarded."

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https://variety.com/2022/music/news/rebecca-corry-speaks-up-comedian-louis-ck-grammys-dogs-1235233799/

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After the Grammys earlier this month, comedian Rebecca Corry got hit with a flood of press requests, and not for any part she'd played in the proceedings. Everyone wanted to know what she thought of Louis C.K. somewhat shockingly being awarded the Grammy for best comedy album, when it was assumed by many who don't pay much attention to the comedy community that he remained in some kind of industry exile after being accused of, and admitting to, serial sexual misconduct. Corry, who had been among multiple women in the entertainment business to speak up in a 2017 New York Times investigative story about being harassed by C.K., made it clear on Twitter that she was not up for talking about it: "Dear media, I'm happy to speak with you about my 30 years in comedy, my national life-saving nonprofit, [or] what I'm working on now and will further accomplish. Perhaps reach out to his girlfriends for comment. And Daily Beast, you spelled my name wrong."

In other words, for a "silence breaker," Corry has stayed pretty quiet, declining to talk to the press about the sordid encounter and its aftermath since she wrote a 2018 Vulture essay about it ... and not addressing it in her stand-up. But even before this month's Grammy win refocused attention on the C.K. scandal (along with raising new questions like "What was the Recording Academy thinking?"), Corry had already been coming to a conclusion that it was something to process into her act after all. In a set at L.A.'s UnCabaret alternative comedy night in March, she was trying out some material about it that could ultimately come into play in a touring act - or a special, if she gets one. It's clear Corry has some doubts about whether that's possible, since she believes cancel culture is mostly running one way in this case, and she's been a real recipient.

With no little initial reluctance, Corry agreed to talk with Variety for her first interview in years about how the situation has shaken out and continues to shake out for her. She says she doesn't regret speaking up in 2017, and that the damage didn't begin with the New York Times expose - it began in 2005, she says, when she turned down C.K.'s on-set request to masturbate in front of her. Unlike some of the women in the article who assented, Corry had some real agency on that set, as the co-writer, co-producer and co-star of a Fox pilot C.K. was hired for as an actor. She's still exercising that agency today, looking at finding a way to reclaim narratives so that a victimizer is not the main character in her story. And all these years later, she may finally be coming to terms with how to make an ordeal into the stuff of comedy, even comedy that's at least half-serious.
You've turned down requests to talk about the Louis C.K. thing since 2018, and when he won his Grammy a couple of weeks ago, you basically tweeted to the media that they - we - should go away. It's not a surprise that people are curious to hear from you on this, though.
Why am I constantly being asked to speak on cancel culture, the joke that is the #metoo movement and C.K. every time he's in the news cycle? I don't care what that guy does, and of course cancel culture is real. I'm living proof. The moment I was sexually harassed at my job, I was canceled. That's how it works, kids. And referring to me as a "victim," "accuser," "silence breaker" or "one of five women" has grown tiresome and is now intolerable. My name is Rebecca Corry - take note, Daily Beast, fix it.
Do you think Netflix might take you up on it?
I am an actress, writer and comedian and have been for 31 years. I have a career, credits and talent. I didn't run away and hide for a decade when things got hard like (Dave) Chappelle did. I stayed and have never stopped doing stand-up comedy and creating and never will. I've done my time and paid my dues and then some. So let's talk about what I'm doing and when my Netflix special is happening. There are people who have been doing stand-up for five minutes with comedy specials and others with multiple specials who suck. So when's mine? I'm ready when you are, Ted.
So you do feel you got blacklisted?
No. I will never get a Netflix special, ever. [Laughs.] I'm gonna be canceled again when this comes out. I wish being canceled caused weight loss. I'd be so cute.
Do you think you got "canceled" because of the 2017 New York Times article?
Is a frog's ass water-tight?... That line would kill on a Netflix special. Listen, I can't prove I'm blacklisted, but I feel and see it. Being on the "one of five women" list absolutely affects potential opportunities and makes the Hollywood lemmings want to distance themselves from me. I'm currently pitching two shows, and while I know how hard it is to sell a show, being on the "list" is not helping. Certain people won't touch it because of their past or current affiliations. I also won't work with assholes, so the playing field is narrow. But I'm lucky to have the best agent on the planet and we aren't giving up.
You have had a charitable organization for years, Stand Up for Pits, and you do annual fundraising events in different cities. How has that been going?
No, I was canceled in 2005, the day it [the encounter with C.K.] happened. This bullshit about the predators being the ones who get canceled is a cute idea but not true. They don't get canceled, they just get an adult "time out." Their behavior is interrupted momentarily, but fear not, they have hardcore fans, millions of dollars and will always hold the power. The people who get canceled are the ones whose lives and careers have been fucked with, and mine has. [With C.K. apparently operating mostly independently right now, Variety has been unable to reach reps for comment.]
Have there been any repercussions because of you being in the public eye for these other reasons that have affected the charity?
It's absolutely amazing. We have one coming up April 24 at Gotham Comedy Club in New York City. Pit bull-type dogs are discriminated against, they're abused, victimized, wrongly vilified and murdered every single day in this country. And so my organization is dedicated to educating, advocating and saving the lives of these voiceless victims. And one thing I want to address right now is how incredibly generous, kind and amazing comedians have been. I'm grateful to every comic that has and continues to perform at Stand Up for Pits events over the past 12 years. These events have and continue to save millions of lives through comedy. There are so many good-hearted comics and so much about the comedy community I love - one bad apple doesn't spoil the bunch.
You riffed on that the other week in your UnCabaret set, where you said you were talking about any of this for the first time in years - painting the picture of thrashing a comedy-club green room, like an out-of-control rock star, but with used tampons. It's fair to say it was a highlight of the set.
Yeah, a few. One worth mentioning is a club owner who didn't allow my charity events for dogs back at his clubs - which I sold out all of but one - because he said I "threw my dirty tampons all over the green room." He also said one of his club managers said I was "difficult because I wanted everything to be perfect." That's true; I do want everything to be perfect and when a club manager is apathetic and careless I will voice how I feel about it because I want whatever is going wrong to be fixed. That's my job as a producer. If that makes me difficult, so be it. As for the being accused of throwing used tampons all over a green room... [Laughs.] I said, "I'm sorry, what are you saying?" And he repeated it. I said, "I'm not sure my brain can handle what you're saying." And he was like, "Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it's true or not." I was livid and later sent him an email that said, "Please let whatever manager who said the tampon thing about me to stop. If I find out from anyone that kind of defamation is being said about me, it will be a problem." To which he replied, "You can count on my sealing this up, but I would expect the same in return." ... Think about that. This club owner actually told me that he expected the same (silence) in return, which is grotesque and mind-numbing, to say the least.
So, after keeping things related to this out of your act for the five years since you went public, you are ready to include some of it, and do it in a special, if anyone steps up?
It sure was. It's turning out to be a hilarious bit. It'd be great on Netflix.
Are you building an entire set around this?
A hundred percent. Yes. I'm absolutely going to be talking about this. It's part of my story and it's my story to tell.

Hell no. My life and experiences are so much more than this gross debacle.
You were back on stage in 2017 within two weeks of the New York Times article coming out. What was that like, coming back out but not wanting to talk about it in your act at the time?

Do you feel like the one who put you in this position has come out on top, in the public eye? A lot of people who don't follow comedy closely were surprised by the Grammy win. There was an assumption maybe he had gone away. But the people who vote on the Grammys in that division are largely members of the comedy community, the way the voting rules have been reconfigured. If it's comedy-world people largely responsible for that voting, does it feel as if the stuff of five years ago never happened?
I walked out on stage and it was so quiet. It was packed and everyone was just staring at me, and I was just like, "So anyways, how's everyone?" ... I still get nervous when I go on stage that someone's going to hurt me, because of the death threats and dick pics I got sent, and because of how some of his fans come for me. I've gotten some really scary and mean emails and still do whenever he's in the news cycle. So there's still this lingering feeling of like, am I in danger? It's really fucked up when you have to hire security while performing stand-up but I have to.
He named his special "Sorry," and that blatantly sarcastic album title is what won the Grammy.
The thing is, I don't care. I also don't care who voted or who likes or dislikes him. I don't care what people assume or think they know. I simply don't care about any of it.
If it seems like all is forgiven and forgotten in some parts of the comedy community, that's puzzling to some people. Is there maybe an aspect where, because comics and people who love comedy have it ingrained in them that irreverence is king... maybe behavior that seems sexually assaultive to one person gets written off as just the most extreme example of irreverence to someone steeped in shock value?
It's a cute title. Has a real ring to it. Something only a comedic genius would think up.
Why are you willing to address all these things in your act coming up, when you weren't at the time or since?
I wasn't sexually assaulted, so I would never speak to that. In fact, if I could make this a glass-half-full moment: I, unlike some of the others, was lucky enough that I never had to see him ejaculate. But can you imagine if Dr. Fauci did this to someone at his work? Would it be brushed off as "aaahhh... it's just his thing "? I know Fauci won't be reading this, but just in case he does, I want to congratulate him and the millions of men all over the world who go to work every single day with women and don't harass them. One of the easiest things to do is not masturbate at someone, and you guys are living proof. Keep up the great work.
Is that a key part of being a comedian?
It takes time to process it. And so much about it was so unbelievably painful and disappointing and sad and hurtful, and many times I feared for my safety, as I said earlier. I'm now able to process it and find some of the funny in what is a disgusting and absurd circumstance. I think it just takes time to process trauma into humor.

I have no idea, but I've been processing trauma into humor my entire life. Even when I was a kid. It just took me five years to be able to find the humor in this specific situation.
Have you felt sorry for speaking up?
But to be very clear, him wanting to pull his little peen in front of me did not traumatize me. It was more pathetic, shameful and infuriating, but not traumatizing. It's being on this list, his call sheet: losing opportunities, the comedy community not being supportive and all the other shit that comes with this. That stuff is traumatizing.
You talk about the negative reactions, but there have been positive, too - some have regarded you as heroic for being a whistle blower.
Nope. "Not Sorry." Great title for a Netflix special, Ted.
And finding some humor in it, this many years later...
No, no, no. That makes me uncomfortable. All of that has felt ridiculous from day one - hashtag "MeToo," or [as Time magazine said in a cover story] "silence breakers." I'm no whistle blower or silence breaker. I didn't uncover some dark secret. All I did was tell the truth about something that was well known for years by most everyone in my industry. I am no hero and to suggest that is absurd. When he called me in 2015 on what we like to call his fake apology phone tour, I was like, "Fuck... I'm on the call sheet. I'm still on the list." I spoke out [two years later] because of how I was treated at an event in 2017 by someone in his circle. It was clear I had no option. You know, that whole lose-lose thing. I'd had enough.
Like the alleged tampon tantrum incident?
I'm a comedian. That's what I do.
Maybe you don't think of yourself as a role model, but in thinking of other people who might be in comparable positions, do you have anything you'd say to them?
Did you just say "tampon tantrum"? [Laughs.] Yes, no matter how you look at it, it's absurd. So is how many times I've used the word "masturbate" in my adult life.

I'm a role model for eating carbs and then laying down, but not this crap. I would say that I would never tell anybody how to handle anything like this or comparable to it in any way. You handle it however you feel is best for you. If that means staying silent, so be it. If it means screaming it from the mountaintops, so be it. No one else has a right to judge how someone handles being put in a lose-lose situation. Oh, and spay and neuter your pets. Adopt, never shop.

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Comedian Rebecca Corry on Why the Louis C.K. Sexual Harassment Story is Finally Becoming Part of Her Act

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After the Grammys earlier this month, comedian Rebecca Corry got hit with a flood of press requests, and not for any part she'd played in the proceedings. Everyone wanted to know what she thought of Louis C.K.

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How an ordinary New Mexico couple pulled off $150 million art heist

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How an unassuming married couple pulled off a $150 million heist and got away with it.

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Can an Art History Frame Help Expand the NFT Market?

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An upcoming auction by Sotheby’s is the latest attempt to recast crypto collectibles as an artistic evolution and perhaps draw interest from a wider circle of collectors.

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https://www.cnn.com/style/article/baltimore-museum-guards-exhibit-trnd/index.html

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Written by Zoe Sottile, CNN

On most days, Rob Kempton guards the many beautiful works on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art -- but this weekend, he's curating them.

Kempton is one of 17 officers participating in " Guarding the Art," an exhibition featuring 25 unique works selected by members of the BMA's security team. The exhibit, open from March 27 to July 10, gives guests a glimpse into the world of art as seen by the guards who watch over it.

The idea for the exhibit came from Amy Elias, one of the museum's trustees. A conversation with a friend led her to consider "how the guards spend more time with art than anyone else," she told CNN. "And so I went home at night and I thought, well, wouldn't it be interesting to hear from the guards about what pieces of work they find most meaningful?"

Kempton, who joined the BMA's security team in 2016 jumped at the opportunity to participate. "I had never been a security guard before," he told CNN. "But working at the BMA, being surrounded by art, was something that struck me as important."

In fact, his love of art has "deepened" so much that he completed a degree in Museum Studies at Johns Hopkins University after joining the museum.

"Guarding the Art" presented an opportunity to both hone skills he had developed in his studies and "learn real hands-on experience in the gallery," he said.

Creating conversation among visitors

The exhibit provides a fun and interesting perspective into the art world, but it's also very serious.

Participating guards engaged in a two-year process to select works, design the installation, create content for a catalog and other materials, and plan visitor tours and other public programs.

"What's most interesting is that, (through) the pieces of art that are selected, you learn about the guards and why they collect them, through the stories they tell that are attached to each piece," Elias said.

Kempton chose two abstract paintings to include in the show: Grace Hartigan's Interior, "The Creeks" (1957) and Alma Thomas's Evening Glow (1972).

"I just love how it's such a confrontational painting," he said of Hartigan's piece. "It's so large, I feel dwarfed by it when I look at it often." Kempton finds himself drawn to "the rich, opaque colors. Really intense and improvisational palette knife scraping," he said.

Alternately, "Evening Glow is a painting that I knew well from working here," he said. "And it was always a painting that I could return to and, and engage in." Kempton added that he wanted to highlight Alma Thomas, an "underrecognized, under-acknowledged artist."

Kempton often looks for opportunities to engage with visitors over the artwork. "I've always thought that these are the best moments to create conversation among visitors, where we can have a commonality already," he said.

"I hope that visitors come away from this with a new experience, and that they're sort of challenged and inspired by seeing such disparate objects in conversation with each other," he added.

Challenging the status quo

Asma Naeem, BMA's chief curator, says "Guarding the Art" is part of the museum's efforts to challenge the status quo and highlight underrepresented voices in the museum world.

Inviting guards to curate an exhibition "is a simple idea," Naeem told CNN. "But it's asking some very profound questions about who is art for? Who are museums for? Who gets to talk about the arts? Who holds the knowledge? Are there other kinds of people who have knowledge about art that we want to be hearing from? And the answer is: Yes, absolutely."

Naeem said the works showcased in the exhibit cover a variety of themes, including the Black Lives Matter movement, the Covid-19 pandemic, and guards' own relationships with their jobs. Security guard and guest curator Alex Lei, for instance, chose Winslow Homer's painting Waiting for an Answer (1872), a reflection on the large stretches of waiting involved in his daily work.

Involving security guards in curation is "something that every museum can do," said Elias. "And, you know, I think it would be interesting for lots of other museums to be doing this."

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baltimore museum of art opens exhibit curated by its own security guards - cnn

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Museum exhibit curated by its own security guards opens in Baltimore

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Written by Zoe Sottile, CNN On most days, Rob Kempton guards the many beautiful works on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art -- but this weekend, he's curating them. Kempton is one of 17 officers participating in " Guarding the Art," an exhibition featuring 25 unique works selected by members of the BMA's security team.

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https://variety.com/2022/music/opinion/remove-master-recording-slave-1235230283/

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During the spring and summer of 2020, as protests across the country illuminated the systematic injustices Black Americans have faced and continue to face, the music industry was one of many that was called out to take accountability and action for its treatment of a group of people that is largely responsible for its many decades of profitability. While the industry's unfair treatment of Black Americans is longstanding and deep-seated, one seemingly simple course of action is to cease all usage of the term "master recording," which may sound innocuous but, as detailed in Variety's expansive August 2020 interview with Pharrell Williams, derives from the words "master and slave."

For those not aware, the terms have long been used to distinguish between a source recording (the "master") and the subsequent copies made (the "slaves"), which has led to a pervasive use of both terms in many industry contracts. Although these charged words have been normalized to indicate a dominant/ subservient relationship, it does not negate the weight that they carry, especially in context of the music industry.

For as long as the music business has existed, Black performers often have been in a subordinate position to label executives, the majority of whom are white, even though their music is the vital resource upon which this industry is founded. Digging deeper, when you consider that most of these performers do not have control or ownership of the underlying copyrights to their music, parallels can easily be drawn to how slaves did not have autonomy over their lives since they themselves were the property. Many of these performers, most famously Prince and Kanye West, have outright said that their experiences in the music industry have felt like modern-day slavery.

This business has been dominated by white men since its inception, so when coupled with the well-known exploitation of Black artists, the already insensitive use of the phrase "master recording" carries an even more sinister sting. Artists such as Williams, have voiced their discomfort with reading these words in their contracts and have called for changes to be made.

As soon as I realized the term's origins, I implemented a policy in my firm to no longer use the term "master" in our contracts, and to implement this change into any agreements that we negotiate on behalf of our clients. Sony, Universal, Warner Music Groups and Sound Exchange have either removed or have vowed to remove this language from their form contracts and license requests moving forward; the American Association of Independent Music's board voted unanimously to remove this language from their contracts prospectively as well. While this is a most critical step in the right direction for the industry at large, I am dismayed at the reticence of other attorneys to embrace this change.

Some attorneys feel that removing the phrase "master recording" is unnecessary because it is only interpreted negatively by a few people, so they personally do not feel the need to stop using it. This blatant and short-sighted disregard for the psychological and emotional impact that this phrase can have on others speaks exactly to what many people marched for in 2020: You cannot detach the word "master" from its roots in American Chattel Slavery, regardless of the other word with which it is combined. Thus, using the term "master recording" while being aware of its racist inception is a microaggression, whether it is being used maliciously or not. Words have an undeniable impact, and the continued use of this racist language reinforces the negative connotation of the term's origin. There are plenty of words that can be used in place of "master" and still convey the same unambiguous meaning, such as "sound" recording, which is the official terminology used by the U.S. Copyright Office for registration of these works.

To be frank, it is easy for many of my white male colleagues to dismiss the use of these words as "not a big deal" when it has never affected them.

Whether the phrase offends a handful of people or thousands is irrelevant: It is a point-blank racist term that must be removed from our industry's vocabulary if we want to continue to work to rectify our past injustices. Sylvia Rhone, the first African-American woman CEO of a major record label, put it best when she stated, "If it bothers even one person, we're taking it out."

It is my hope that this sheds light on the issue - enough so that more can and will embrace this impactful change. Removal of such language is a simple yet meaningful step that can make our industry a more welcoming and inclusive space and allow us to reinforce the principle that music is for everyone - no matter one's race, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or background.
Dina LaPolt is the founder and owner of LaPolt Law, P.C., one the industry's leading law firms and the only firm of its stature founded and run by a sole female attorney. Dina also serves on the Executive Leadership Council of the Black Music Action Coalition and was also one of the recipients of their 2021 Change Agent Award at their Music in Action Awards Gala.

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Why the Music Industry Must Remove the Racist Term 'Master Recording' From Its Vocabulary - Now (Guest Column)

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During the spring and summer of 2020, as protests across the country illuminated the systematic injustices Black Americans have faced and continue to face, the music industry was one of many that was called out to take accountability and action for its treatment of a group of people that is largely responsible for its many decades of profitability.

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This is important as Sony and Microsoft are 2 of the largest players within the gaming industry and supporting epic games with such a large fund may represent future trends within game companies.

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Epic Games recently announced an epic new wave of fundraising, notable both for the $2 billion it's pulled in and for an eye-raising firm present among the leading partners: Sony. The makers of PlayStation VR have invested a cool $1 billion in Epic to further "the development of new digital fan experiences" and the "metaverse."

Today's news comes fresh on the heels of Epic showing off some impressive new tech. Last week, Epic Games hosted a showcase for the release of Unreal 5, the latest iteration of its powerful 3D rendering engine, featuring a number of high-profile developers, including The Coalition (a Microsoft-owned studio best known for recent Gears games) and CD Projekt Red (who's developing the next Witcher game in Unreal 5). As for stuff you can actually get your hands on today, Unreal 5 was used to create , a tech demo for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S with graphics so real-looking some people were like, "Woah, I can't tell what's real or what's not, man."

This isn't the only significant investment Sony has made in Epic. In 2020, Sony invested $250 million in Epic for reasons that, at least publicly, could only be defined as "a bunch of business buzzwords." A year later, Sony poured a further $200 million in for much of the same. Today's investment, the third to date, is more than twice the prior two-combined.

It's not totally clear what all this money is for, whether it's laying the groundwork for eventual PlayStation exclusivity of future games developed by Epic or, as heavily suggested by statements from the CEOs of both companies, more about beefing up Sony's virtual reality endeavors. (Sony's PSVR2 is coming... at some point.) Representatives for Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Epic Games, meanwhile, simply redirected Kotaku toward the press release announcing today's news.

"This investment will accelerate our work to build the metaverse and create spaces where players can have fun with friends, brands can build creative and immersive experiences and creators can build a community and thrive," Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said in the release.

"We are thrilled to invest in Epic to deepen our relationship in the metaverse field, a space where creators and users share their time," Kenichiro Yoshida, chairman, president, and CEO of Sony, in a press release. "We are also confident that Epic's expertise, including their powerful game engine, combined with Sony's technologies, will accelerate our various efforts such as the development of new digital fan experiences in sports and our virtual production initiatives."

Sony has been on a bit of a spending spree lately, most notably with its $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie, the makers of Destiny, meant to spearhead a push into live-service games. Last year, Sony picked up Housemarque and Bluepoint, both of whom aren't known for online multiplayer games but, instead, rather for luxuriously produced single-player PS5 games ( Returnal and the Demon's Souls remake, respectively). And in 2019, Sony paid $229 million to bring Insomniac, the studio behind PlayStation-exclusive hits like Ratchet & Clank and Marvel's Spider-Man, into the fold.

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Sony Goes Big On Epic Games With Whopping $1 Billion Investment

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Epic Games recently announced an epic new wave of fundraising, notable both for the $2 billion it's pulled in and for an eye-raising firm present among the leading partners: Sony. The makers of PlayStation VR have invested a cool $1 billion in Epic to further "the development of new digital fan experiences" and the "metaverse."

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Hottest brand in the industry right now Balenciaga debuts its new campaign and spokesperson

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Balenciaga's stark-white Instagram feed is no longer. The brand has debuted a new phase of its multi-tiered campaign: a series of videos and photographs, to be published on social media, featuring high-profile talent and creative director Demna's latest pieces.

Each day of the campaign, a clip, portrait, or occasional still-life snapshot of friends of the brand with a selection of its new products, will be released-all photographed by Stef Mitchell (the Australia-born, Brooklyn-based artist who has previously shot Balenciaga muses and whose work has appeared in publications including i-D, British Vogue, Mastermind, Replica, T Magazine and M le Monde).

Today, the brand released its image featuring brand ambassador Kim Kardashian in the red Political Campaign Shrunk Zip-Up Hoodie, bubblegum pink spandex Pantaleggings, and the Le Cagole XS Shoulder Bag in light pink Arena lambskin with aged silver hardware.

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Balenciaga's drop features read-to-wear pieces in its signature sultry silhouettes, in midnight black and bright pinks and reds-the hues of the moment for the hot label of the moment. There are also ironically casual sweatshirts and nods to Y2K fashion-most notable in the low-cut jeans, chunky hardware, and the Le Cagole bag.

The photographs are simple but highly produced, with the garments and the celebrity models taking center stage-no distractions, not attempts at deceiving the viewer. Balenciaga wants you to take in its sharp content in your first scroll.

And it makes sense. Like Demna-who recently staged a full-scale snowstorm during his Paris fashion show, to not only flaunt the expanse of his creative boundaries, but to show support for Ukranian refugees-Kardashian needs the spotlight. Maybe that's why she is a Balenciaga darling, and why Demna, too, chose Mitchell-known for her photographs of ultra-confident, independent youths-to capture the clothes through her lens.

Balenciaga began teasing the multimedia phase of their campaign on April 7, when they dropped a photo of BFRND (the composer behind every Balenciaga show since fall 2017) in a black hoodie and sweatpants, a silver ear cuff, and the brand's futuristic Space Shoe made of matte black rubber-a true sign of our times.

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Balenciaga Debuts New Phase of Its Multi-Tiered Campaign, Featuring Kim Kardashian

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Balenciaga's stark-white Instagram feed is no longer. The brand has debuted a new phase of its multi-tiered campaign: a series of videos and photographs, to be published on social media, featuring high-profile talent and creative director Demna's latest pieces.

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"Daniel Roher directs a riveting account of how the charismatic Russian opposition leader narrowly survived being poisoned by a nerve agent"

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n August 2020, Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition leader and general thorn in the side of Vladimir Putin, was taken gravely ill on a flight home to Moscow from Siberia. An emergency landing saved him; Navalny was hospitalised and treated for what turned out to be poisoning with a nerve agent. He fled to Germany to recuperate in exile, and through an undercover investigation that could have been lifted from a political thriller, he and his team gradually pieced together the facts behind the assassination attempt that nearly claimed his life.

Documentary film-maker Daniel Roher's tenacious camera follows throughout. It's a genuinely exciting piece of storytelling, a propulsive real-life quest for truth driven by ingenious tech-geeks and the disarming force of Navalny's personality.

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Navalny review - extraordinary documentary about the attempt to kill Putin's rival

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n August 2020, Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition leader and general thorn in the side of Vladimir Putin, was taken gravely ill on a flight home to Moscow from Siberia. An emergency landing saved him; Navalny was hospitalised and treated for what turned out to be poisoning with a nerve agent.

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Ollie Upton/Hulu; Eddy Chen/HBO; RICARDO HUBBS/NETFLIX

The Emmys have been making history in recent years as younger actors like Jodie Comer ("Killing Eve") and Jharrel Jerome ("When They See Us") have risen to the top. This year the television academy could take it a step further. There's a chance we could see all three lead actress categories go to women in their 20s.

SEE Directors Guild Awards TV nominees roundtable panel: 'Dopesick,' 'Hacks,' 'Mare of Easttown,' 'Station Eleven,' 'The Underground Railroad' [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW]

"Euphoria" star set a new record when she won Best Drama Actress in 2020 at the age of 24, which made her the youngest winner in the history of that category. The provocative teen drama returned for its complete second season this year after airing a couple of specials in 2020 and 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. And with the reigning winner, Olivia Colman ("The Crown"), out of the running this year, Zendaya has the opportunity to swoop back in for her second trophy after she turns 26 on September 1. And indeed she is the front-runner in our odds for Best Drama Actress, just ahead of Laura Linney ("Ozark").

Another 20-something tops our predictions for Best Movie/Limited Series Actress: 27-year-old Margaret Qualley, who earned critical acclaim for her performance as the impoverished title character in "Maid." She earned Critics Choice and SAG Award nominations for her performance, though at those events she has had to face off against the formidable Kate Winslet ("Mare of Easttown"). But Winslet already won her Emmy last year, so Qualley won't have to worry about her in 2022.

SEE Could 'Squid Game' give 'Succession's' supporting men a run for their money at the Emmys?

Best Comedy Actress will be more challenging for zoomers. The highest-ranked 20-something in our odds there is Elle Fanning ("The Great"), who will be 24 by the time the Emmys roll around this fall. Our users place her seventh with 20/1 odds. There is one current 20-something ahead of her, Selena Gomez ("Only Murders in the Building"), but she turns 30 on July 22, 10 days after the Emmy nominations are announced and about two months before the statues are handed out.

It may be difficult for Fanning to challenge returning champ Jean Smart ("Hacks") and past winner Rachel Brosnahan ("The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"), especially since "The Great" underperformed in its first season, which only received noms for writing and directing. However, Fanning did pick up her first individual Critics Choice and SAG Award noms for her performance this year, in addition to the show's second SAG Award nomination for its ensemble cast, so don't rule out a year-two breakthrough for her and the show.

PREDICT the 2022 Emmy nominees through July 12

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don't miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

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Could Gen Z sweep the Best Actress Emmys?

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Ollie Upton/Hulu; Eddy Chen/HBO; RICARDO HUBBS/NETFLIX The Emmys have been making history in recent years as younger actors like Jodie Comer ("Killing Eve") and Jharrel Jerome ("When They See Us") have risen to the top. This year the television academy could take it a step further.

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https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-diversity-in-media-and-entertainment-affects-young-people

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Our Student Reporting Labs program, which leads journalism training in middle and high schools around the United States, asked teenagers why representation in pop culture matters to them.

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How diversity in media and entertainment affects young people

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Our Student Reporting Labs program, which leads journalism training in middle and high schools around the United States, asked teenagers why representation in pop culture matters to them.

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On TV, the attendees of season two, episode one's New Year's Eve party were engaging in all manner of gleeful teenage messiness, but on set, sources claim, a much grimmer scene was unfolding. Production sources told the Daily Beast in a report from March 4 that the atmosphere on Euphoria's set was "hellish," consisting of 18-hour work days, chilly weather with no holding areas for extras, and meals provided long after the six-hour mark that SAG-AFTRA mandates. But in a statement, HBO says "production was in full compliance with all safety guidelines and guild protocols."

"It's not uncommon for drama series to have complex shoots, and COVID protocols add an additional layer," HBO told the Daily Beast. "We maintain an open line of communication with all the guilds, including SAG-AFTRA. There were never any formal inquiries raised." The report also claimed a union representative was called to set after receiving complaints.

Another source told Variety that no formal complaints were issued to SAG-AFTRA. "Advocating for professional performer work categories like background actors and enforcing contractual provisions is one of SAG-AFTRA's core functions," said a spokesperson in a statement to Vulture, without confirming whether complaints were filed. "This includes the routine enforcement of contracts at the worksite through our National Field Services Department which is charged with resolving any on-set violations by working with the company's production staff members to immediately correct the issue(s) in connection with performers' employment."

Director and writer Sam Levinson was a trending topic of discussion each week as fans criticized the improvisational nature of season two and highly publicized reports that he had disagreements with main cast members. No one from the cast has responded to reports of set conditions at this time. The onscreen drama returns when Euphoria season three premieres in 2024.

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HBO and SAG-AFTRA Respond to Euphoria Set Reports

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On TV, the attendees of season two, episode one's New Year's Eve party were engaging in all manner of gleeful teenage messiness, but on set, sources claim, a much grimmer scene was unfolding.

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https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/hbo-max-pricing-warner-bros-discovery-1235225448/

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Will Warner Bros. Discovery Hike HBO Max Prices?

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WarnerMedia and Discovery are on the cusp of officially closing their deal. With the change in leadership at the new Warner Bros. Discovery, will there be pricing changes for the new conglomerate&#…

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This article is extra applicable to my industry because I am currently interning for Dead & Co's management!!

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Are Dead & Company’s Truckin’ Days Over? Deadheads React on Social Media Following Rumor Scare

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Grateful Dead founding member Bob Weir is a straight shooter. When I asked him about life after the final “Fare Thee Well” shows in 2015, he told me (via Billboard): “We’ll see. I’ve got some miles…

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In September of 2017, as a barn in Watertown was being cleared to be sold, the contractor found large canvases with car parts painted on them. The space and its contents had been deemed "abandoned," so he called his friend Jared Whipple, a car mechanic from Waterbury, because he thought he might like them.

The next day, Whipple went to the dumpster where he said retrieved the hundreds of art pieces wrapped in plastic and covered in dirt. He later discovered the art was created by Francis Hines, a Washington, D.C.-born artist that resided in Connecticut and New York. According to an art curator, the pieces are collectively worth "millions" of dollars.

"I immediately started researching," said Whipple, who spent the next four years doing research on Hines and contacting the artist's friends and family.

Now, Whipple has collaborated with galleries in Southport and New York City, to build a large Hollis Taggart, which has exhibit of Hines' work. The exhibit will showcase and offer for sale 35 to 40 pieces of the found art from May 5 to June 11 at both Hollis Taggart Southport and New York galleries.

Art curator and historian Peter Hastings Falk estimates that Hines' "wrapped" paintings can be sold at around $22,000 and his drawings at around $4,500 - which would make the collection found by Whipple to be worth millions of dollars if sold in its entirety. Whipple did not disclose exactly how many pieces he retrieved from the trash but said there are some he will not sell.

When Whipple originally found the pieces, his first thought was to hang them in his indoor skateboard park in Waterbury called " The Warehouse" for Halloween. But after finding out about the artist behind the collection, which included paintings, sculptures and small drawings, he decided against it and started contacting people in the art world.

"I've always been a mechanic and I'm known in the skateboarding world but not in the art world. So trying to get people to even open your emails and take you seriously was a huge challenge," said Whipple.

The first person in the art field that became interested in Whipple's findings was Muldoon Elger, a retired art dealer who owned the Vorpal Gallery in San Francisco. Elger, who had exhibited Hines' work in the 1980s, connected Whipple to Hastings Falk.

"I was so intrigued. I went there to his garage to look at the paintings. I was just really surprised at what I saw," said Hastings Falk.

Comparing Hines' work to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's art, Hastings Falk was most intrigued by the artist's wrapping art. Wrapping is an art technique in which fabric is tightly wrapped around an object. Christo and Jeanne-Claude are known for their wrapping installations across Europe - their most famous being the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. In his career, Hines wrapped more than 10 buildings in New York, including the Washington Square Arch, JFK Airport and the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

"Hines is really New York's wrapper," said Hastings Falk, who mentioned that while Christo and Jeanne-Claude are the most known wrappers, they never did work in the city. Hines is considered an abstract expressionist master and his style was uniquely innovative, according to Hastings Falk.

Hines developed his career in New York's Greenwich Village and kept his life's work store in the Watertown barn where Whipple found the art. The artist died in 2016 at age 96 and has two living sons living in New York and Florida.

During his research, Whipple also found friends and family of Hines and started to build an archive of his career; he even became friends of the artist's family, he said, who have allowed him to keep and sell the art. In late 2021, Whipple showed some pieces at a retrospective exhibit for the in Waterbury titled " Mattatuck Museum Discovering New York's Wrapper: The Art of Francis Hines." He didn't offer any pieces for sale at that exhibit.

A few months ago, Whipple decided to sell some of the art that he found with the intention of getting Hines' name recognized in the art world. He learned that artwork is taken seriously after it is sold for great large sums of money, he said. After the exhibit at Hollis Taggart, Whipple hopes to get Hines' work to major New York galleries, he said.

"I pulled it out of this dumpster and I fell in love with it. I made a connection with it," said Whipple, adding that he hopes to make Hines an established name in the art world. "My purpose is to get Hines into the history books," he said.

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A CT mechanic found hundreds of pieces of art in a dumpster. They're worth millions.

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In September of 2017, as a barn in Watertown was being cleared to be sold, the contractor found large canvases with car parts painted on them. The space and its contents had been deemed "abandoned," so he called his friend Jared Whipple, a car mechanic from Waterbury, because he thought he might like them.

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'Dancing With the Stars' to Move to Disney Plus After 30 Seasons on ABC

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" Dancing With the Stars" is moving to Disney Plus after airing for 30 seasons airing on ABC, Variety has confirmed.

The show has received a two-season renewal at the Disney-owned streaming service for Seasons 31 and 32, with the new season to debut in the fall. " DWTS " will be the first live series to stream on Disney Plus.

Variety has confirmed the series will not air repeats on ABC and strictly be available via Disney Plus. News of the move was first reported by Deadline.

"'Dancing with the Stars' has entertained fans for 16 years on ABC, and we are excited to bring this beloved show exclusively to Disney+ as the platform's first-ever live series," said Kareem Daniel, chairman, Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution. "The show's broad appeal, as well as the overwhelming popularity of its Disney-themed competition nights, make Disney+ the perfect home for 'Dancing with the Stars' while continuing to expand our demographic reach."

The move is a serious blow to both ABC and broadcast networks in general, which have staked their relevance in recent years on their ability to deliver live audiences as broadcast ratings for scripted programming continues to dwindle. More and more, media giants like Disney are shifting resources over to their budding streaming businesses, leaving broadcasters with fewer and fewer shows to fill their airtime. Should "DWTS" prove to be successful on Disney Plus, it opens the door for even more shows to be shifted over to streaming.

"'Dancing with the Stars' has been a beloved staple on ABC for 30 seasons and brought so much joy to millions of viewers," said Dana Walden, Chairman of Entertainment, Walt Disney Television. "As we're significantly expanding our unscripted slate at ABC, this is a great opportunity to introduce this show to a whole new generation of fans on Disney+. We're so grateful to our incredible partners at BBC Studios and look forward to continuing our relationship with them on this spectacular series, which will continue to be overseen by Rob Mills and the talented Walt Disney Television Alternative team."

"DWTS" is produced by BBC Studios. The show began airing on ABC in 2005.

"The fact that our iconic global format 'Dancing with the Stars' will now set the record as the first live series on Disney+ represents a major growth opportunity and a bold next step forward in the evolution of the franchise," said Valerie Bruce, general manager of BBC Studios, Los Angeles Productions. "This unprecedented move, combined with our two-season pick-up, is a testament to the proven power of 'Dancing with the Stars' and a resounding vote of confidence from our great, supportive partners at Disney, showing how much they value and believe in the brand."

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'Dancing With the Stars' to Move to Disney Plus After 30 Seasons on ABC

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" Dancing With the Stars" is moving to Disney Plus after airing for 30 seasons airing on ABC, Variety has confirmed. The show has received a two-season renewal at the Disney-owned streaming service for Seasons 31 and 32, with the new season to debut in the fall.

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https://variety.com/2022/music/news/grammy-snubs-surprises-lil-nas-x-justin-bieber-eilish-arlo-parks-1235222650/

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The full of surprises, this year hardly being any exception. Grammys, unlike the usually more-or-less accurately forecasted Oscars, are always Jon Batiste receiving a leading five wins? Who saw that coming - except for anyone who saw him coming in with a leading 11 nominations and figured the math might translate?But that arithmetic did not carry over for the highly nominated Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X, who went home empty-handed (but still full-hearted, let's hope), or produce the results quite expected for Olivia Rodrigo and the Tony Bennett/Lady Gaga teaming.

Meanwhile, during the pre-telecast Premiere Ceremony presentation, live-streamed on the Recording Academy's YouTube channel, there were other kind of surprises including some seemingly honest confusion about given names and gender involving best new artist nominee and pre-telecast presenter Arlo Parks and veteran bluegrass picker (and pre-telecast winner) Bela Fleck. After all, the Grammys are one very, very long day for all involved.

Here's a rundown of this year's biggest snubs and surprises:
SURPRISE: Silk Sonic sweeps
The duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson. Paak had the only perfect record of the night, at least among nominees with a significant number of turns at bat. "We are really trying our hardest to remain humble at this point," said .Paak, "but in the industry we call that a clean sweep."

They won in all four categories in which they were nominated: record of the year, song of the year, best R&B song and best R&B performance. If they'd been up for album of the year (Silk Sonic's collection won't be eligible till next year, because it came out after the Oct. 1 cutoff), they probably would have gotten that one, too. So anyone who would prefer to see the love thrown around a little can be grateful for small favors, and that Silk Sonic will have some different categories to dominate in 2023. In retrospect, Silk Sonic being Grammy bait shouldn't have been as big a surprise as it was, given the way Bruno Mars swept with six wins when he was last up as a solo artist four years ago. (As a footnote, though, Silk Sonic did within one single vote of not getting that clean sweep, as the duo tied for R&B performance with Jazmine Sullivan.)
SNUB: No presenter calls Lil Nas X by his name
"Can't believe I lost all my Grammys," wrote the hip-hop artist on Twitter. "I am now no longer gay!" Here's a man who not only doesn't avoid the subject of his losses, he leans into it. Of course, he still has his "Old Town Road" victories from two years ago to keep him warm. But any thought that Nas would be rewarded for coming out as boldly as he did were quickly set aside.

Even if he was never the leading candidate to win album or record of the year, how does he lose for music video when he had the water-cooler clip of the year with "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)"? That's easy: He loses when that video stands in the way of the Recording Academy and its love affair with Jon Batiste.
SURPRISE: Jon Batiste is the popular kid
Batiste didn't "sweep" like Silk Sonic did. Even so, in winning less than half the categories he was up for, he was still the biggest winner of the night, because he came in with an astonishing 11 nominations and prevailed with five of those. That included the album of the year prize as well as some subcategories, like two wins for American roots, where he won over some performers who are far more associated with that genre.

"The creative arts are subjective," he said in giving an acceptance speech for album of the year. And the Academy subjectively gave him a big, wet kiss. It was always a possibility Batiste would do this well, though. In his night job as band leader for Stephen Colbert, he's worked directly with a large number of Academy voters and their teams, with positive interactions. He's a symbol of genre agnosticism, despite his jazz chops. "We Are" is nothing if not the feel-good album of the year, even for a lot of jazz-haters who just dig his R&B-pop chops. And, as Brandi Carlile told Variety on a red carpet this week (after collaborating with him on leadership of MusicCares' Joni Mitchell tribute), "I loved working with Jon - he's a true abstract, a true avant-garde and an absolute genius. He's our generation's Herbie Hancock."
SNUB: Olivia Rodrigo is not this year's Billie Eilish after all
As a teenager, Rodrigo should be thrilled by her three Grammys her first time out, and probably is. She was foreordained to win best new artist; no one lost their Grammy lottery by getting that one wrong. That's phenomenal, right? So calling this a "snub" may be a misnomer... except for the over-heightened expectations of just how much the commercial and critical phenomenon of her success might translate to a clean sweep of the top four categories, a la Eilish did two years ago. But in the end, "Drivers License" did not prevail in record or song as widely predicted. Again, who would have guessed that a voting bloc still largely made up of thousands of middle-aged guys would not clutch a song about passing driver's ed to their collective bosom? \

SURPRISE: Voters haven't canceled Louis C.K., and are surprisingly unafraid to admit it

After four years of being embattled for sexual misconduct allegations that would have killed many another career, Louis C.K. is seemingly A-OK with the Academy and won for best comedy recording. Many will see this as voters turning a blind eye to one of the most flagrant examples of #MeToo the industry has seen... and as giving the Academy a black eye in turn.
SNUB: BTS and Justin Bieber are pop bridesmaids again
If they gave an award for "most phenomenal performance on the Grammys," the K-pop group would be up for it in 2023. But in lieu of anything like that, the seven members probably don't care about losing out on a lone nomination again nearly as much as its massive fan base known as ARMY does. Bowling over a mass TV audience like they did Sunday night is its own reward.

But maybe Bieber is not as sanguine about going home empty-handed, as he and his team are known to have taken the Grammys seriously in the past. The institution certainly takes him a lot more seriously than it used to; he was up for seven awards this year (and tied for that amount with Doja Cat and H.E.R.), second only to Batiste's 11. Truth be told, Bieber wasn't forecasted to win in any of the major categories; "Justice" was as strong an album as he's ever made, but his primary competitors just had more interesting stories coming into the voting. Still, it's gotta sting.
SNUB: No back-to-back Oscar/Grammy combo for Billie
We're going to go out on a limb here and guess that, even going 0-for-7, Billie Eilish doesn't really care that she was shut out at the 2022 Grammys, after dominating the 2020 awards, after winning record of the year in 2021, and after just receiving an Oscar last week. Not to underestimate anyone's capacity for disappointment, but Eilish seems so grounded, and has been so rewarded, the phrase "happier than ever" might even still apply this week.
SURPRISE: A bigger look for country music on the show than in the nominations
Country music got a big snub when the nominations came out in November: Out of 40 possible nominations the genre could pick up in the top four general categories, country claimed only one - a nomination for Jimmie Allen as best new artist, which he was destined to lose to Rodrigo. But watching the show, it was curious that the climactic moments were reserved for Carrie Underwood (who premiered a new single) and, finally, Brothers Osborne. Maybe this was the network's way of reminding us that it is hosting the CMT Music Awards for the first time, in just eight days.

Regardless, it was a hell of a good night for Brothers Osborne, and not just because of that finale slot. Winning for country group/duo performance during the pre-telecast, singer TJ Osborne gave an emotional speech about how their winning song "Younger Me" was born out of his experience coming out as gay in 2021. At the recent ACM Awards (also in Las Vegas), the brothers talked backstage about how their country radio airplay has been on the downswing, without blaming it on any one factor. But their optics were in winning form at the Grammys.
SURPRISE: Misgendering during the pre-telecast
There were a couple of awkward slips regarding gender during the long Premiere Awards pre-telecast presentation. Host LeVar Burton introduced female presenter Arlo Parks, a nominee for new artist and alternative album, as "a Gen Z artist from London that is blurring the boundaries of music with a brave new artist and lyrics that are immersed in his own personal experience." Not much later, ironically, as a presenter, Parks did he same thing to another artist, accepting an award on behalf of male bluegrass veteran Béla Fleck as "on her behalf." (Asked later about the gender mixups, Parks told Variety: "It is what it is.")
SNUB: Tony Bennett doesn't get quite as rewarding a career sendoff as expected
There was a lot of prognosticating that Bennett's swan-song recording, in combination with Lady Gaga, would win album of the year as a sentimental favorite in honor of the 95-year-old's entire career. In the end, voters might have decided that his winning that honor in the mid-'90s for "MTV Unplugged" was sufficient in giving him a late-career position on the top Grammy rolls.

Anyway, Gaga's salute to the Alzheimer's-stricken Bennett (who briefly introduced her via video) was better than any award could have been. If you weren't touched by her final gesture, to put her own hand on her shoulder where his had been in the overhead picture, you might never have had a heart to leave in San Francisco anyway.

Still, you have to wonder if Grammy producers themselves expected the Gaga/Bennett project to win album of the year. Everyone would have loved to see Gaga give a heartfelt speech in honor of her destined-to-be-forever-absent collaborator... and the place to ensure that would happen would have been by giving best traditional pop album a spot on the telecast. When that category was relegated to the pre-telecast, it was if the Grammys were signaling: Don't worry, she'll get her shot at the end of the show. But Batiste's momentum ensured that was not to be.
SURPRISE: Jazmine Sullivan gets her due in R&B categories
OK, it shouldn't be wholly surprising that the woman many are considering the current or next queen of R&B should fare well. After all, Variety 's own predictions said that Sullivan would get best R&B album. But it was still widely considered an upset when she prevailed in that category over H.E.R., Leon Bridges and the seemingly indomitable Batiste, and maybe just a little less so when she tied with Silk Sonic for R&B performance. It feels almost inevitable that she'll move up to a spot as a nominee in the top general categories her next time around.
SNUB: Less famous but arguably more deserving candidates in other genre categories
It certainly didn't go down in the country, Americana and American roots categories like it did in R&B. When Jazmine Sullivan beat some bigger names in her division, it felt like the exception to a rule. That rule was felt when Chris Stapleton added three more Grammys to his pile; although any Stapleton win can hardly be counted as a crime, it felt rote when a Mickey Guyton is being denied her shot.

Things didn't go any better for the Black women of Nashville (recently collectively profiled in Variety) in the American roots categories. Batiste prevailed in two of those, even though he has never been considered part of that community. Of course, the Grammys are obligated to follow any rules about who is Americana and who's not, and there's a fine argument to be made that Batiste is. But that neither Yola nor Allison Russell (whose album was named best of the year by Variety and second-best by the New York Times) could get in a win among their multiple nominations is just quizzical, unless they split the vote, or unless members were just voting across the ballot for Batiste. Similarly, a win for Los Lobos on a covers album even they admitted wasn't a passion project felt anticlimactic. At least Rhiannon Giddens won for folk album - possibly by virtue of there being no more famous person in the category.
SNUB: Kanye West can add to his list of reasons to beef with the Grammys
Ye was not completely shut out, mind you. He won best melodic rap performance for "Hurricane" and best rap song for "Jail." But the fact that he lost out for even best rap album for "Donda" (to Tyler, the Creator), let alone album of the year, bordered on feeling like a statement - particularly when the album had more than 70 co-nominees as producers and songwriters. If every one of those dozens of nominated collaborators had had a few friends in the Academy who voted for it, it should have been a shoo-in for rap album.

- With reporting by Shirley Halperin and Ellise Shafer

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Grammy Snubs and Surprises: Silk Sonic and Jon Batiste Go Big; Lil Nas X, Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, BTS Shut Out

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The full of surprises, this year hardly being any exception. Grammys, unlike the usually more-or-less accurately forecasted Oscars, are always Jon Batiste receiving a leading five wins?

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Wang takes on sole writing duties for Jon M. Chu’s sequel starring Henry Golding and Constance Wu, Deadline understands, which comes after the successful first 2018 feature that followed a Chinese-American professor’s experience meeting her boyfriend’s mega-rich Singaporean family. Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong and Michelle Yeoh also starred in the first feature

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‘Crazy Rich Asians 2’ Sets New Writer Amy Wang; Replaces Peter Chiarelli And Adele Lim

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EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros and Color Force have set up-and-coming Chinese-Australian writer Amy Wang to pen Crazy Rich Asians 2, Deadline can reveal, replacing Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim following a…

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https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/rob-wells-led-music-tech-startup-orfium-acquires-japan-based-content-company-breaker-inc/

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ORFIUM, a music tech startup run by Rob Wells, the former global digital head of Universal Music Group, has acquired Breaker INC, a Tokyo-based promotional, marketing and content company.

Breaker will become ORFIUM Japan and says that it will "instigate new partnerships"in the world's second biggest music market across music, gaming, entertainment and anime.

ORFIUM develops technological solutions for the music and entertainment industry (record labels, publishers, CMOs, film companies, rightsholders).

The company claims that its products "reinvent" how technology "discovers, dissects, and tracks" audio and visual catalog usage.

Headquarters in Los Angeles and London ORFIUM also has an R&D team in Athens, Greece.

Breaker was founded in 2013 by Alan Swarts, formerly Vice President at MTV/Viacom in Japan, and John Possman, Co-Founder of DFR Asia.

Launched as one of the first YouTube-centric companies in Japan, Breaker says that it has since built a global influencer network, produced big budget original content (including YouTube FanFest Japan and a YouTube Originals movie), and managed social media accounts on behalf of media and entertainment companies.

Breaker's board of directors includes Shigeo Maruyama, ex-CEO of Sony Music Japan as well as ex-Chairman of Sony Computer Networks.

"We expect ORFIUM's technology to deliver significant increases in revenue for Japanese creators and rights holders, much like ORFIUM already does for its partners around the world."

Alan Swarts, CEO of Breaker, said: "Whether it's influencer marketing or social media management or content production, Breaker's mission has always been to be of service to creators and rights holders in monetizing their intellectual property.

"Breaker is excited to continue with this mission and to expand our capabilities by bringing ORFIUM's world class rights management technology to the Japanese market.

"We expect ORFIUM's technology to deliver significant increases in revenue for Japanese creators and rights holders, much like ORFIUM already does for its partners around the world."

"Japan is the second biggest music market on the planet with local uniqueness and incredible domestic content and talent."

Rob Wells, CEO of ORFIUM, added: "I am delighted to be bringing Alan and his team into the ORFIUM organisation. He has done a sensational job with Breaker and we are looking forward to supercharging his future efforts with our technology.

"Japan is the second biggest music market on the planet with local uniqueness and incredible domestic content and talent.

"I look forward to working with music companies, studios and domestic Japanese creators to bring more value from the digital ecosystem." Music Business Worldwide

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Rob Wells-led music tech startup ORFIUM acquires Japan-based content company Breaker INC - Music Business Worldwide

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ORFIUM, a music tech startup run by Rob Wells, the former global digital head of Universal Music Group, has acquired Breaker INC, a Tokyo-based promotional, marketing and content company. Breaker will become ORFIUM Japan and says that it will "instigate new partnerships"in the world's second biggest music market across music, gaming, entertainment and anime.

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https://qz.com/2150019/grammys-2022-how-afrobeats-is-changing-the-us-music-industry/amp/

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Artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, and Jon Batiste are up for trophies at the 2022 Grammy Awards on Sunday. But one winner is already clear: the genre of Afrobeats.

To be sure, Afrobeats doesn't need the Grammys' recognition. Percussion-heavy and highly danceable, the genre (which originated in Nigeria) has an increasingly massive global fan base.

But it's nonetheless noteworthy that Afrobeats artists have racked up Grammy nominations for three years running, including this year's nomination of Wizkid's Made in Lagos for Best Global Music Album and Wizkid's song " Essence" (ft. Tems) for Best Global Music Performance. Last year, Afrobeats star Burna Boy took the global album award for his album Twice As Tall, while Wizkid shared a Grammy with Beyonce for " Brown Skin Girl " as Best Music Video.

What Afrobeats' rising popularity means for African artists

The Grammys' embrace of Afrobeats music matters because it's introducing the music industry establishment to a wide variety of African music and artists, even beyond the genre itself, according to Beninese singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo, who's also nominated in the global album and performance categories this year. (While not an Afrobeats artist herself, her new album Mother Nature pairs her with a number of Afrobeats stars.)

In a recent interview posted on the Grammy Awards website, Kidjo explained:

I think the Academy has, for the first time, a grip on the complexity of the music that's out there. Today, we have a vehicle, and it's Afrobeats. Because if you take any music from any part of Africa and put it in Afrobeats, it gives you a different flavor of Afrobeats.

The music that we do can make people say, "Oh, this language is different, or this aesthetic." But because you have the pulse of Afrobeats in it, you can consume and discover music from north to south, east to west, and central Africa in a way that we haven't [before]. The Afrobeats is underlining all those traditional rhythms.

In this way, Afrobeats appreciation at the Grammys opens the door for the Western music industry to gain a better understanding of just how diverse African music really is.
🎧 For more intel on African music and new artists, listen to the Quartz Obsession podcast episode on Afrobeats. Or subscribe via: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher.
That's an important step, not least because the Grammys has historically had a pretty narrow view of what constitutes global music, as producer Ian Brennan recently wrote for NPR. "Over two-thirds of the 197 nominations in the history of the global categories have been shared by just six nations: Brazil, India, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa - and the United States," Brennan observes. He also notes that while the African continent has more than 50 countries, only 14 have had artists nominated for a Grammy.
Want to learn more about all things Afrobeats? Check out our Quartz Obession podcast on the music's history and future, and listen to our Quartz playlist on Spotify below.

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Artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, and Jon Batiste are up for trophies at the 2022 Grammy Awards on Sunday. But one winner is already clear: the genre of Afrobeats. To be sure, Afrobeats doesn't need the Grammys' recognition. Percussion-heavy and highly danceable, the genre (which originated in Nigeria) has an increasingly massive global fan base.

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Las Vegas, NV - SZA was among the array of stars at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada on Sunday night (April 3). After 13 nominations, the TDE songstress finally landed her first Grammy award as her "Kiss Me More" collaboration with Doja Cat won Best Pop/Duo Group Performance.

SZA's big moment came with a bit of difficulty, though, as she hobbled to the stage on crutches to accept the award alongside Doja Cat. "Thank you, Doja," she said after the Planet Her star showered her with praise. "Thank you to my momma, thank you to God and just thank all of y'all."

Following the awards ceremony, SZA - clutching her shiny new gramophone along with her crutches - spoke with backstage in the TV/radio room, where she gave an update on her long-awaited new album.

"Very much so," she replied when asked if the project is coming soon. "I just actually finished it up in Hawaii recently."

While she didn't divulge too much detail, SZA did hint at the album venturing away from the themes and sounds of her previous effort, 2017's , which was nominated for Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards while debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200.

"It's probably my most unisex project yet, if that makes sense," she added. "It's definitely for everybody, in a different way."

SZA also explained why she was on crutches, revealing she sustained an inconvenient (if slightly comical) injury the day before the Grammys.

"It's very funny because I fell out of bed right before it was time to leave and get ready for this, like the day before," she said. "But that's the way it goes. Everything awesome in my life has always come with something very random, but it just adds to the energy."

Top Dawg Entertainment president Terrence "Punch" Henderson shed more light on SZA's injury on Twitter while applauding her for not letting it ruin her big night.

"SZA twisted her ankle the night before the awards, really hours before. She almost cancelled," he wrote. "It was super inspiring to see her power thru and make it at the tail end of the red carpet and then go up on stage with crutches to get the trophy with doja. Salute."

Crazy day man. SZA twisted her ankle the night before the awards, really hours before. She almost cancelled. It was super inspiring to see her power thru and make it at the tail end of the red carpet and then go up on stage with crutches to get the trophy with doja. Salute. 🙏🏽

- Punch TDE (@iamstillpunch) April 4, 2022

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SZA Gives Update On 'Unisex' New Album While Explaining Grammys Crutches

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Las Vegas, NV - SZA was among the array of stars at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada on Sunday night (April 3). After 13 nominations, the TDE songstress finally landed her first Grammy award as her "Kiss Me More" collaboration with Doja Cat won Best Pop/Duo Group Performance.

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photograph by Kathleen Odenthal

What Is Hip-Hop, and Why Is It Important?

Hip-hop is more than a music genre; it is a culture that has shaped America since the 1980s. Its influence has spread across the United States, impacting politics and media culture. This article explores hip-hop's social impact on the United States.

Topics This Article Covers

How hip-hop music influenced America

Hip-hop in the 20th century

Critics of hip-hop

How hip-hop promotes social awareness

The evolution of hip-hop's MCs

How hip-hop redefined cultural norms

Genres and artists that influenced hip-hop

Effects of the "Hip-Hop Nation"

This article also includes an FAQ section at the bottom. This section goes into more detail on hip-hop's inception and provides fun facts and trivia for those who are true fans of the genre.

How Hip-Hop Music Influenced America

Hip-hop has had an overwhelming influence on the Black community in America (as well as American society as a whole). Hip-hop is more than music; it's a full and vibrant culture. Since the 1980s, hip-hop has influenced and uplifted America, speaking up for generations and providing a voice to marginalized populations.

Opponents of hip-hop culture argue that the music is aggressive in nature and promotes social rebellion. That said, provocative lyrics do not negate the fact that hip-hop is a vocal outlet for many people in America. For decades, hip-hop has provided a platform for MCs and rappers to express their opinions about society, the government, and the treatment of African Americans in America. This outlet is especially crucial to the Black community, but if people opposed to hip-hop tried to embrace the culture rather than attack the culture, it would benefit society as a whole.

Hip-Hop in the 20th Century

The final decade of the twentieth century, often simply referred to as "the nineties," marked extensive social changes in American history and social culture. One example of influential new trends that took place in the nineties centers on the evolution of hip-hop culture.

The history of hip-hop stems from Black community consciousness within the United States. Additionally, hip-hop culture can be viewed as a direct response to the socio-economic issues that spawned from that history. Through musical expression, the Black community, as well as other traditionally marginalized groups, turned their discontent from the injustices they faced into productive protest, helping to restructure social attitudes and opportunities.

The late eighties saw the inception of this musical movement, but the force and substantiation associated with hip-hop music largely developed throughout the span of the nineties. Following this line of thought, the nineties saw large changes in music and culture. So much so that the U.S. experienced the establishment of a veritable "Hip-Hop Nation." And, despite controversy over the legitimacy of the music (in terms of its occasionally vulgar lyrics), hip-hop marks a national movement with the power to uplift an entire sector of the national community.

photograph by Kathleen Odenthal

Hip-Hop Timeline

Critics of Hip-Hop

Despite the national prevalence of hip-hop in the United States, there remains a strong and vocal fraction of the community who believe that hip-hop represents social subversion, chauvinism, aggression, vulgarity, profanity, and little else.

One such argument likens the hip-hop community to a mere vehicle for antagonistic social insurrection rather than a credible method of productive social reform. Some believe that "Members of the hip-hop nation form an 'imagined community' that is based less on its realization through state formation than on a collective challenge to the consensus logic of U.S. nationalism" (Decker, 54). This argument attempts to undermine the intentionality of hip-hop and its effects; thus, promoting the notion that any positive socio-cultural change was a mere offshoot of rebellion.

Hip-hop has always been controversial, and for good reason. When you watch a children's show and they've got a muppet rapping about the alphabet, it's cool, but it's not really hip-hop. The music is meant to be provocative-which doesn't mean it's necessarily obnoxious, but it is (mostly) confrontational, and more than that, it's dense with multiple meanings. Great rap should have all kinds of unresolved layers that you don't necessarily figure out the first time you listen to it.

- Jay-Z

While the basis of hip-hop's opponents' arguments is founded and reasonable, they do not in any way mitigate the overall influence of the "Hip-Hop Nation" as a notable medium for social mobility, particularly for Black and other marginalized communities. "More than simply entertainment, hip-hop is a major part of contemporary identity circuits-networks of philosophies and aesthetics based on blackness, poverty, violence, power, resistance, and capitalist accumulation." (Pardue, 674)

Music has been a powerful technique for engendering social awareness throughout American history. Music simultaneously reflects trends, ideals, conditions in society and inspires attitudinal progression and social change. To this end, hip-hop in the United States can be perceived as "a blend of reality and fiction" insomuch that "rap music is a contemporary response to conditions of joblessness, poverty, and disempowerment... it is a rebellion against white America's economic and psychological terrorism against Black people." (Smitherman, 5)

The increasing popularity of hip-hop culture throughout the nineties can be likened to an actual social revolution of significant proportions. Traditionally, oppressed groups are able to use the music to convey their plight and circumstances. And, in that way, they rebel both overtly and covertly against oppressive conventionalities within that society.

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How Hip-Hop Music Has Influenced American Culture and Society

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Hip-hop is more than a music genre; it is a culture that has shaped America since the 1980s. Read more to find out how hip-hop has influenced society in the United States.

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The U.K. government has halted its insurance scheme for film and television.

Known as the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme, the £500 million ($657 million) plan was first unveiled in July 2020, was and extended for a further six months in Oct. 2021.

The scheme supported 95,000 jobs and led to a record £5.6 billion production spend, according to the U.K. Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). "Peaky Blinders," "Killing Eve," "Gangs of London" and new film "The Phantom of the Open" were among productions supported by the scheme.

"Insurance trade bodies have stepped up work with commercial firms to provide cover to the U.K.'s booming screen industries as the government's successful Film & TV Production Restart Scheme comes towards its planned closure," said a DCMS statement. "As the sector emerges from the pandemic, brokers and insurers will now work with the film and TV industry to manage risk so productions can go ahead without the taxpayer needing to step in."

In the past few weeks, there has been intense lobbying from U.K. film and TV groups to extend the scheme and they met with the DCMS for this, but to no avail. Producers' body Pact, while lauding the scheme's success, has expressed disappointment at it not being extended.

"Pact is disappointed that the U.K. Government has not accepted the U.K, broadcasting and production industry's pleas to extend the Production Restart Scheme and provide a short term transition from the tax payer-backed PRS to a fully operational commercial insurance market," Pact said in a statement. "Whilst it is true that some commercial insurance companies will underwrite the risk of COVID to U.K. production, this will not yet be at the capacity that is required by the market and does not fulfil the government's stated ambition of transitioning to a 'viable commercial insurance' market at the end of April 2022."

"Pact members and the wider industry now face a very messy period where some productions will be able to get cover and others will not due to the limited number of insurance providers in the market," statement said, adding, "It is clear from our own research that there will inevitably be some productions that will not be able to get cover for COVID-related losses and may subsequently not be able to proceed."

Tim Thornhill, director of entertainment at leading insurance firm Tysers, told Variety, "This was a hugely successful scheme to support the sector provided by DCMS. There is currently no solution from commercial insurers to cover COVID in the U.K. because of the heavy insurance market losses in the last couple of years. When something is available from insurers, it will likely be limited in its capacity and coverage, meaning it may not be available to all that need it."

"We can only hope that the impact on some areas of the industry is not felt too hard, as insurance is often required to secure financing and investment," Thornhill added.

Meanwhile, government ministers lauded the scheme's success.

U.K. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said: "The Film & TV Production Restart Scheme has played a vital role helping our world-beating screen industries continue to thrive despite the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic. As we learn to live with COVID, it is great to see the industry working with production companies to make sure they have the cover they need to create high-quality content for viewers at home and abroad."

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said: "Our world-leading film and TV industry supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, and our Restart scheme played a vital part in keeping it going throughout the pandemic. The success of our scheme means that commercial insurers can now work with the industry to provide cover, so the U.K. can keep producing the films and TV programmes we all love."

Lloyd's Market Association, British Insurance Brokers' Association and London & International Insurance Brokers' Association in a joint statement said: "The insurance industry recognises the success of the Restart Scheme in providing cover to this important sector at a time when the market could not. Brokers, underwriters and their clients are in active discussion with the government as to how the commercial market could resume providing cover for this challenging risk. Our aim, as always, will be to provide insurance solutions to our clients wherever possible."

In all, the scheme supported 1,172 productions across 1588 locations around the U.K.

The scheme remains open to productions' applications until Apr. 30, 2022 and will provide cover until the end of June. It has paid out £12 million in claims to date. The DCMS predicts that by the scheme's closure it will have covered losses totalling an estimated £53 million.

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U.K. Halts Film and TV Production Restart Scheme, Industry Predicts 'Messy Period' Ahead

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The U.K. government has halted its insurance scheme for film and television. Known as the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme, the £500 million ($657 million) plan was first unveiled in July 2020, was and extended for a further six months in Oct. 2021.

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It's not often that a TV series does right by its LGBTQ characters, many of which are doomed to a fate of being killed off, grossly stereotyped, and fall victim to harmful tropes.

Elliot Page (he/they), previously known as Ellen Page, came out as gender nonconforming in late 2020. This was a huge step in not only their personal life but in his career as well. Page started playing Vanya Hargreeves in Netflix's The Umbrella Academy in 2019. So viewers were left to wonder whether or not he would continue playing Vanya, who previously identified as a queer woman in the show. But, to pleasant surprise, Page announced that Vanya has transitioned to Viktor ahead of the long-awaited season 3 of the series.

For the writers (and Netflix) to allow Page's character reflect their own transition is a massive step in the right direction for not only the show but Netflix. I can't name many shows that have actively shown the journey of a character transitioning. Only the problematic handling of Max's character in The L Word back in 2006. Hopefully, the show will do right by Page and Viktor in this new season and will help usher in a new era in trans representation, which started with Ryan Murphy's Pose in 2018.

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Elliot Page’s ‘Umbrella Academy’ character will come out as transgender in Season 3

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‘Meet Viktor Hargreeves,’ tweeted Elliot Page, the trailblazing transgender actor and star of Netflix’s ‘Umbrella Academy.’

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Jim Carrey 'fairly serious' about retiring after latest film

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The documentarian Mantas Kvedaravicius is reported killed in Mariupol.

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“Killed in the besieged southern city according to colleagues and the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s information agency, Kvedaravicius, 45, had spent years covering the conflict in Ukraine. His film “Mariupolis,” which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2016, offers a searing portrait of the southern port city, which battled Russian-backed fighters in 2014.”

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A Lithuanian documentary filmmaker has been killed in the besieged southern city of Mariupol, according to his colleagues and the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's information agency.

The agency said on Sunday that the award-winning filmmaker, Mantas Kvedaravicius, had been killed in an attack by Russia "while trying to leave Mariupol."

A Lithuanian news agency, 15min, reported that Mr. Kvedaravicius was rushed to a hospital but could not be saved. The reports could not be independently confirmed.

Mr. Kvedaravicius, 45, had spent years covering the conflict in Ukraine. His film "Mariupolis," which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2016, offers a searing portrait of the southern port city, which battled Russian-backed fighters in 2014.

In a 2016 interview with the Odessa Review, a monthly magazine, Mr. Kvedaravicius said that he had wanted to capture "how regular people carry on with their everyday lives mere steps away from a war zone, gunshots, explosions and death."

"The factories, the sea, the omnipresent soldiers, the sounds of the violin blending with the sound of the exploding shells - all of this forms the surrealism of an ordinary city during wartime," he told the Odessa Review.

Since Russia's invasion, Mariupol has emerged as an emblem of the humanitarian crisis sweeping Ukraine. Weeks of Russian bombardment on the city has trapped thousands of civilians with limited their access to food, water and electricity.

In 2011, Mr. Kvedaravicius was awarded the Amnesty International Film Prize for "Barzakh," his film about Russia's war in Chechnya.

As reports of Mr. Kvedaravicius' death circulated on Sunday, fellow filmmakers and journalists posted messages of mourning and condolences on social media.

"RIP dearest talented Mantas. A terrible loss for Lithuanian cinema community and all the world," Giedre Zickyte, a fellow Lithuanian documentary director and producer, wrote on Facebook. "Our hearts are broken."

Vitaly Mansky, a Russian film director, wrote that Mr. Kvdaravicuis was killed "with a camera in his hands" while working to document a "war of evil, against the whole world."

The news of Mr. Kvdaravicius's death came after the death of a prominent Ukrainian photojournalist filmmaker, Maks Levin, whose body was found near the capital of Kyiv on Saturday, according to the office of Ukraine's prosecutor general.

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The documentarian Mantas Kvedaravicius is reported killed in Mariupol.

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A Lithuanian documentary filmmaker has been killed in the besieged southern city of Mariupol, according to his colleagues and the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's information agency. The agency said on Sunday that the award-winning filmmaker, Mantas Kvedaravicius, had been killed in an attack by Russia "while trying to leave Mariupol."