After a one-day delay and amidst whispers of settlement talks, Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation trial against Fox News is finally beginning today in Wilmington, DE.
Jury selection is wrapping up before opening statements are delivered before Judge Eric M. Davis. So, now that It's On, what are the main issues and stakes in Dominion vs. Fox? Who are the players and who is likely to win?
Deadline spoke with trial watchers including heavyweight Hollywood litigator Patricia Glaser. “Based on what I know, which is just a little bit, and what I’ve read, which is a lot, I think, Houston, they have a problem,” the Glaser Weil partner said. >>>First Amendment angles |
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Fallout - Talent management firm Entertainment 360 has dropped Jonathan Majors. The recent move by Majors’ longtime manager comes three weeks after the Magazine Dreams star was arrested on domestic violence charges in New York City. Majors’ departure was due to issues surrounding the actor’s personal behavior. PR firm The Lede Company also initiated a break with the Ant-Man actor within the last month. >>> WME Still With Him
Staying Power - While some major studios sacrificed big tentpoles to streaming during the pandemic, Top Gun: Maverick was destined for the big screen, and once it got there, both the film and its durable star proved they had staying power. That meant the biggest payday of his estimable career for Tom Cruise and a massive payday for Paramount. >>>$391M Profit
Huh, Huh. Cool! - Paramount Global's free streaming outlet Pluto TV is beginning to offer full previous seasons of the media giant's series before their new seasons premiere on Paramount+. The initiative starts Thursday with Mike Judge’s Beavis & Butt-Head, with iCarly, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, Queen of the Universe, Joe Pickett and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds following over the next few weeks and months. >>> 30-Day Window
"The Post-Movie Star Era" - “We’re in a post-movie star era except for maybe Tom Cruise,” Cinetic Media Boss John Sloss said at the keynote industry session of the Sands Film Festival, which also featured Joe Russo. Sloss added that streamers are bolstering the distribution of docs, but the growing popularity is also an inadvertent result of a decrease in the draw of classically defined movie stars. >>> Panel Discussion
And Then There Were Four - Lionsgate and Legendary are still in contention to acquire a majority stake in indie film and TV studio eOne. There are two other suitors, private equity firm CVC Capital Partners and distributor GoDigital Media Group. Deadline reported a month ago that Fremantle also was among the bidders. It has since dropped out. >>>Price Got Too High For Some |
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Exclusive Amazon Studios has acquired Brian Otting’s script Never Too Old to Die as a starring vehicle for Sylvester Stallone. The action comedy to be produced by Stallone and Braden Aftergood for Balboa Productions concerns a mysterious murder within a retirement home for spies which sparks a Cold War hero’s personal mission to find the assassin living among them. Exclusive Morris Chestnut is joining the ABC Signature-produced Reasonable Doubt as a series regular. The Onyx Collective and Hulu original drama has also been renewed for a second season. Chestnut is set to play Corey Cash, a charming, media-savvy defense attorney who often represents underdogs. Exclusive In the Heights and Transformers star Anthony Ramos looks to have found another big franchise as he is in talks to join Twisters, a new chapter to the 1996 box office hit, for Amblin Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell are also on board. |
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BY THE NUMBERS
98% - The percentage by which WGA members approved the guild's authorization to strike |
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More News
👀 Outer Banks and The Mandalorian were the most-watched streaming shows in March, according to Nielsen. The company reported that viewers watched 4.6B minutes of Outer Banks following the release of Season 3 in February — more than any other streaming program. Also on Netflix, You tallied 3.6B viewing minutes for the month. On Disney+, The Mandalorian drew more than 3.6B viewing minutes.
🌈 Hollywood is increasingly taking intersectionality into account when creating stories for film and TV, despite minimal overall improvement regarding representation for marginalized groups in the last two years, according to Luminate’s latest Entertainment Diversity Progress Report. Since 2021, “the idea that each individual is defined by multiple identities across race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, etc., is a reality that seems to be increasingly taken into consideration by Hollywood’s content creators."
🎙️ The Late Late Show with James Corden has set its guests for its final broadcast. Harry Styles and Will Ferrell will take a seat on the couch joining Corden for the show’s last episode on Thursday, April 27, wrapping up the CBS late-night series’ eight-year run.
👁 CBS programming generated more than 281B minutes of viewing across all dayparts in the first quarter of the year, with more than 30% dedicated to primetime content. According to the broadcaster, primetime entertainment programming tallied more than 92B of the network’s total minutes watched. The FBI franchise alone drew more than 15B minutes viewed with the NCIS franchise right on its heels.
📺 FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel took the NAB Show stage Monday to announce a new public-private initiative led by the National Association of Broadcasters to guide the next steps of what is known as “NextGen TV.” Simply put, the new setup is capable of delivering ultra-high definition (4K) images, two-way interactivity, greater accessibility options, and multi-screen applications to televisions via over-the-air broadcast signals working in tandem with broadband. |
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Trending  The Season 15 finale of Ru Paul's Drag Race saw a 17% increase compared to the Season 14 finale on VH1. The episode also had the highest audience share ever for a RuPaul’s Drag Race telecast.
🔻 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis insisted that he and the state Legislature can and will overturn any Disney development deal and retake control of the acreage that’s home to Walt Disney World. DeSantis then rattled off a list of things they might do with adjacent land, including building a state prison. | |
Obituaries 🕯 Ahmad Jamal, the pianist and band leader who helped pioneer the influential style that would come to be called cool jazz, died Sunday of prostate cancer at his home in Ashley Falls, Mass. He was 92. 🕯 Blair Tindall, the concert oboist whose 2005 memoir Mozart In The Jungle was adapted into a hit 2014 comedy-drama series on Amazon Prime, died of heart disease in Los Angeles on April 12. She was 63. 🕯 Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries |
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On the Radar
Tue - Fox-Dominion suit begins; Netflix earnings
Wed - Abbott Elementary S2 finale
Thu - Star Trek: Picard show finale
Sat - Earth Day
Mon - CinemaCon starts |
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'Idol' Moment - The latest teaser for HBO's buzzy series The Idol has dropped, featuring a glittery turn from Lily-Rose Depp and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye in his sophomore acting effort. The Idol stars Depp as Jocelyn, a pop star who, after a nervous breakdown derailed her last tour, is determined to become America’s reigning pop queen. In the process, she enters into a romance with Tedros (The Weeknd), a nightclub impresario who may also be a cult leader. The project will debut out of competition at next month’s Cannes Film Festival. |
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