Ballen Studios Hires Cadence13’s Zak Levitt As Head Of Production, Sets New Podcasts

Refresh for latest…: Here we are with a sort of hybrid weekend at the international box office: there were fresh entries from the Hollywood studios, as well as major new titles timed to holiday play in local markets, and a holdover that’s continuing to rack up records.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill giving unemployment benefits to striking workers, which was backed by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA. “Now is not the time to increase costs or incur this sizable debt,” he wrote in his veto message Saturday.

Hackney Diamonds. “Sweet Sounds Of Heaven” showcases the iconic lineup of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and Steve Jordan, with the added brilliance of Stevie Wonder’s piano accompaniment.

Tom Sandoval is owning his controversial reputation.

Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old Australian media magnate whose creation of Fox News made him a force in American politics, is stepping down as leader of both Fox’s parent company and his News Corp. media holdings.

Sasha Urban editorNetflix has released the teaser trailer for “Griselda,” a limited series starring Sofia Vergara as the infamous Colombian drug trafficker Griselda Blanco, who was widely known as the “Godmother.” From writer-producer Eric Newman and director Andrés Baiz, both “Narcos” alums, the series follows Blanco as she builds one of the most profitable drug cartels in history while simultaneously parenting her three sons. She ran a notoriously ruthless and violent cocaine trade in New York and Miami in the 1970s and ‘80s after immigrating from Colombia, before she was arrested in 1985.

EXCLUSIVE: The Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s industry-focused AGORA section has selected 15 projects from 14 countries for this year’s Crossroads Co-production Forum. Scroll down for the full list of projects. 

Naman Ramachandran iHeartPodcasts and The Meteor are launching “In Retrospect,” a pop culture podcast by Emmy-winning journalist Susie Banikarim and New York Times editor Jessica Bennett. Each week on “In Retrospect,” Banikarim and Bennett revisit a pop culture moment from the 80s and 90s that shaped them, to try to understand what it taught them about the world and a woman’s place in it.

Gavin Newsom said in an interview today that he has been “deeply involved with talking” to both sides of the long-running Writers Guild strike and “we’re going to be meeting again later this week.”

Spencer and Heidi Pratt are opening up about their stance on reality star fame.

Moby is not actually a relative of author Herman Melville.The producer has said for years he was distantly related to the famed Moby Dick writer, and that he was nicknamed Moby by his parents at a young age in reference to his purported great-great-great-uncle.However, The Genealogy Detective seems to believe the contrary. In a new three-part series, hosts Mary Duffy and Adam Mellion brought the claim into question, studying both Moby’s relatives and Melville’s and looking into their family trees.They claim they found no definitive link to the famous author, they did find an apparent genealogical connection to inventor David Melville, who filed a patent for the first gas lighting system in America.Stereogum approached Moby for comment, to which he replied: “Ha, no idea if it’s true or not, but it’s flattering that people I’ve never met would spend time looking into my genealogy.”Meanwhile, the producer also revealed earlier this year that he has previously tried to start metal bands with Björk, Tommy Lee and Dimebag Darrell.The group he almost started with Lee and Dimebag was supposedly called The Sober Fucks.

Like most rising star comics today, looking to further build their audience while reaping due rewards for their work, Joe Pera is self-releasing his latest special, Joe Pera: Slow & Steady, taking it directly to YouTube. Taped to a packed house at The Opera House of Williamsburg on June 15th, his new hour will premiere on Friday, October 6th at 8:00pm ET, exclusively on his YouTube channel @JoePeraComedy.

Like Minded Labs has joined forces with Adobe for the creation of a TODA Live plug-in, enabling creators to collaborate virtually by natively sending video and audio into a TODA Live room. The technology creates a single space for directors, editors, producers, executives, and creators to collaborate in real time from anywhere in the world.

A Broadway revival of Anton Chekhov’s classic Uncle Vanya, with a new translation by playwright Heidi Schreck, will be staged this spring by Lincoln Center Theater. Lila Neugebauer (The Waverly Gallery) will direct.

Chris Evans is looking forward to his future family with his wife, Alba Baptista. A source tells ET, “Chris has been in love with Alba for a while. They share a special connection and are so happy

The horrific story surrounding the murder of an electrician who was shot dead before having acid poured over him will be revealed in a new podcast. Dad-of-two Liam Smith, 38, was killed yards from his front door in Wigan in November last year.

A bill that wouldmake striking workers in California eligible to receive unemployment benefits was approved on Wednesday by a 4-1 vote of the state Senate’sLabor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee. Senate Bill 799, which has already been passed by the state Assembly, now goes to a vote of the full Senate. If approved there, it will be up to Governor Gavin Newsom to either sign it into law or veto it. Last year, he vetoed 169 bills while signing nearly 1,000.

The wedding festivities aren’t over for Chris Evans and Alba Baptista!

Rob Lowe, Burt Reynolds and Ice-T starred in a low-budget movie called Crazy Six in 1997. The movie, which told the story of powerful mafia families vying for control of the arms trade, was written by Galen Yuen, who is the focus of a new original podcast series for Apple.

Chris Evans and Alba Baptista were joined by some of their nearest and dearest to celebrate their recent marriage.