AMC Taps New York to Help Populate ‘Dead City’

Man, we feel like a concert.Country icon Shania Twain, midway through her sprawling North American ‘Queen Of Me Tour,’ is stopping into New York for three huge gigs at Bethel’s Bethel Woods Center For The Arts on Monday, July 3, Syracuse’s St. Josephs Health Amphitheater on Saturday, July 8 and finally New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, July 11.And if you want to see the “Still The One” singer live, we’re happy to report that there are unbelievably affordable last-minute tickets available.At the time of publication, we found tickets going for as low as $20 before fees for her Bethel show.That “impresses us much.”Sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves.Tickets were a bit more expensive for Syracuse and New York City Twain concerts starting at $100 and $60 before fees, respectively.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox News agreed to pay $12 million to Abby Grossberg, a former producer for Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo, who alleged the Fox Corp.-backed outlet had coerced her into providing false testimony in a deposition related to a recent defamation suit levied by Dominion Voting Systems as well as operating a hostile and discriminatory workplace. In her suit, filed in the Southern District of the State of New York earlier this year, Grossberg alleged she was harassed and forced to give inaccurate information in the Dominion matter, which Fox agreed to settle for $787.5 million in April. Parisis G. Filippatos, an attorney for Grossberg, did not respond immediately to a query seeking comment. “We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter without further litigation,” Fox News said in a statement.

Kelly Clarkson is opening up about her life.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Liquor giant Diageo PLC said it was severing ties with entrepreneur Sean Combs after the celebrity filed a suit alleging Diageo had not supported joint ventures involving Ciroc vodka and DeLeón tequila. Combs sued Diageo in late May in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleging that the company, which also distributes Johnnie Walker and Captain Morgan, among other liquor brands, had neglected the spirits under their joint control. He also alleged Diageo had undermined the business by marketing Ciroc and DeLeón as “urban,” rather than something for the general market. In a filing made Tuesday in the same jurisdiction, Diageo called for the suit to be dismissed and said it would no longer be working with Combs, who over the years has launched a clothing line and restaurants and has a stake in the Revolt TV cable network.

New York Daily News.Given the use of anti-gay slurs, and the seeming randomness of the attack, the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the attack.Police have released a photo of the alleged assailant and are asking for the public’s help identifying him. The suspect is described as a bald man between 25 to 40 years old, and was last seen wearing a black T-shirt, black pants, dark brown boots, and carrying a black book bag.Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish speakers, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).The attack comes at a time when anti-gay sentiment is on the rise in response to increased LGBTQ visibility.Recently, three men were caught on surveillance camera destroying Pride flags mounted on a fence near the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.In May, a homeless man was charged with several hate crimes for allegedly defecating on an LGBTQ Pride flag and wiping his behind with another.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles has announced a special initiative to help save Rockwood Music Hall, the long-running independent New York City music venue, which is in danger of closing. The #PreserveRockwood benefit concert series will launch on June 30 with Bareilles and will be an opportunity to see artists perform in the venue’s intimate setting while helping to keep it alive. 100% of the proceeds from the shows will be donated to Rockwood to help continue a space for independent and emerging artists to perform. Other artists initially joining the series include Chris Thile and Michael Daves (July 1), Amy Helm (July 6), Isabel Hagen (July 10), Ingrid Michaelson (July 20), Elle King (July 31) and The Lone Bellow (August 10), and more.

Thania Garcia On the heels of announcing a string of back-to-back tour dates in Europe and the U.K., Fred Again has announced new dates in the United States. The trek will include a record-setting eight-night residency at Los Angeles’ Shrine Expo Hall that kicks off on Oct. 24 and ends on Nov. 2. He will additionally play Miami’s III Points festival on Oct. 20 and deliver three back-to-back sets in New York’s Forest Hills Stadium, another first for the venue. “We’ve had some of the most beautiful times ever here,” the electronic DJ and producer stated in the caption of his U.S. tour announcement on social media. “As I said in the last post I do jus [sic] wanna say that I do very much wanna come back to lots of other cities down the line. But right now for the type of things I want to try wit [sic] the show and musically it made most sense to set up in one venue for more shows rather than moving about.”

EXCLUSIVE: Blockbuster animated feature The First Slam Dunk will open Japan Cuts, a festival of Japanese cinema in New York, which will also feature a special tribute to late Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. 

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Sirens appear to be flashing around an attempt to revive one of the biggest law-enforcement reality series launched in recent years. A New York judge has denied a motion to dismiss a copyright suit against the producers of a successor program to the once-popular series “Live PD,” ruling that A+E Networks, the show’s original distributor, may continue in its quest to seek claims of copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and unfair competition against the Reelz cable network’s show, “On Patrol: Live.” “A wise man once observed, ‘If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him,”” wrote Katharine Polk Failla, a judge hearing the case in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York. “The fine line between permissible imitation and wholesale duplication is at the heart of this lawsuit.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor NBCUniversal is, for a quick moment, taking “Live, from New York” to a lounge found in a beach-side resort in France. Fresh episodes of “Saturday Night Live” have been in short supply in the U.S. due to the Hollywood writers strike, but NBC’s late-night mainstay could generate some interest on Wednesday at the Cannes Lions advertising festival. In a showcase led by NBC News’ Willie Geist, “SNL” executive producer Lorne Michaels will hold forth with cast members Bowen Yang, Chloe Fineman, Mikey Day and Ego Nwodim as part of a broader bid by NBCUniversal to get Madison Avenue to align itself with the program at it nears its 50th season in the fall of 2024.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan team up for an unlikely duo in the latest spinoff. follows Maggie (Cohan) and Negan (Morgan) traveling into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, long ago cut off from the mainland as they search for Maggie's missing teenage son, Hershel (Logan Kim).

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Carolines Entertainment has tapped Horizon Sports & Experiences as its agency of record to develop sponsorship, brand activation, experiential and hospitality strategies to engage audiences across a variety of platforms on behalf of the 2023 New York Comedy Festival. HS&E, part of Horizon Media, will provide sponsors its full suite of data and analytics services and solutions. The 19th annual festival is slated to return in November. In an era when a writers strike has advertisers wringing their hands about how to align their brand messages with new comedy content, the festival, which started in 2004, may provide an alternative, says Neal Gluckman, HS&E’s senior vice president and head of sales, in an interview. “Brands still need to be out there,” he says, and the festival attracts a young, engaged base and also generates a lot of social-media content as comedians, venues and fans share their expereinces.

Thania Garcia Latin Grammy-nominated rapper Eladio Carrión is adding a second leg to his “Sauce USA Tour,” Variety can exclusively reveal. After completely selling out the first leg, Carrión’s 16-city lineup now includes its first stops in New York’s MSG Theater and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Palladium. Carrión is set to deliver performances of his firey rap and urbano hits, namely those coming off his latest “3MEN2 KBRN” album, which included features from influential hip-hop titans like Future, Lil Wayne, Myke Towers, 50 Cent, Quavo and many more. With a start date of Oct. 7 in Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom, part two of the “Sauce USA Tour” will see support from Venezuelan rapper Big Soto as the opening act. The first leg of the tour was announced last December, with a start date of May 5 in Texas.

reported the news for The New York Times.. “At the end of this process, we will have more than 100 beat reporters on teams.”Coverage of the NFL and English Premier League will remain similar because those stories attract a lot or interest from readers.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor In NewsNation, New York City isn’t the de facto location for a morning-news program. On Monday, the Nexstar Media-backed cable-news outlet expands its Chicago-based “Morning in America” to four hours and adds Markie Martin, formerly the network’s Dallas correspondent, as a co-anchor alongside Adrienne Bankert. There is some precedent for such a format. Robin Meade succeeded at it for 20 years by holding forth from Atlanta on behalf of HLN. Her program, “Morning Express,” was canceled earlier this year by Warner Bros. Discovery in a cost-cutting maneuver. “I grew up in small-town Oklahoma, and often felt that national news networks catered more toward big-city lives,” says Martin in a recent interview. “I think our content lines up with what every American cares about on a daily basis.” Martin arrived in the Windy City for her new assignment just about a week ago, and was in need of furniture for her new apartment.

The stars of the new musical New York New York sealed their performance with a kiss at the 2023 Tony Awards!

Shawn Mendes has announced his new song and he appears to be using a photo of New York City’s orange sky as the single artwork.

Governors Ball 2023 have confirmed that the festival is still set to go ahead as scheduled, despite the unhealthy air quality in New York.This year’s instalment is set to take place at its new home of Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens this weekend (June 9-11), and will feature headline slots from Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo, and Odesza.However, the future of the 2023 festival was thrown into question following the city experiencing an air quality crisis. Created by over 400 active wildfires taking place in Canada, vast stretches of smoke have spread across several states in the northeastern part of the country — with the air quality in New York described as “very unhealthy” by Mayor Eric Adams (via New York Times).As of yesterday (June 7), CBS reported that the haze conditions meant that the city had some of the worst pollution in the world, and residents were urged to limit their exposure to the outdoor air until the situation passes.Despite the conditions, organisers of Governors Ball have confirmed that the three-day festival is expected to go ahead as planned.“We’re closely monitoring the air quality with weather experts and are in close contact with city officials,” a statement from the festival read, shared on Twitter.

Chris Stapleton fans in upstate New York are missing their shot of "Tennessee Whiskey."  Stapleton postponed a performance of his "All American Road Show" scheduled for Thursday night.   "Due to the ongoing air conditions in the greater Syracuse area, tomorrow night’s show at @StJosephsAmp will be rescheduled," he tweeted to fans.  "All previously purchased tickets for the original date will be honored for the new date.

Ethan Shanfeld Despite the air quality crisis in New York due to the Canada wildfires, as of Wednesday afternoon the Governors Ball festival is still set to take place this weekend in Queens. “We’re closely monitoring the air quality with weather experts and are in close contact with city officials,” a representative for the music festival said in a statement to Variety. “As always, the health and safety of New Yorkers is our top priority. At this time, the festival is continuing as planned. We are hopeful that conditions will improve in the coming days and are looking forward to a great weekend!” The three-day music fest, often referred to as Gov Ball, is scheduled for June 9-11 at Flushing Meadows with headliners Lizzo, Odesza and Kendrick Lamar. Lil Nas X, Haim, Lil Uzi Vert, Rina Sawayama, Diplo, Lil Baby, Omar Apollo, Pusha T, Aespa, Giveon and Sofi Tukker are also set to perform.