Cate Blanchett brands Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter 'very, very dangerous'

Elon Musk said overnight that his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter can’t move ahead unless the company backs up statements about the number of fake accounts on the platform, which the company has put at under 5%.

The Essex Serpent Apple TV+The British Academy Television Awards (BBC One) | iPlayerFergal Keane: Living With PTSD (BBC Two) | iPlayerClark NetflixThere comes a time in every actor’s life when he must unbutton his period drama shirt and smoulder as if his life depends on it. In Apple TV+’s new six-parter The Essex Serpent, based on the historical novel by Sarah Perry, adapted by Anna Symon, directed by Clio Barnard, this duty falls to Tom Hiddleston, but he rather fluffs it.

Elon Musk said Friday that his planned $44 billion purchase of Twitter is «temporarily on hold» pending details on spam and fake accounts on the social media platform, another twist amid signs of internal turmoil over the proposed acquisition.In a tweet, the Tesla billionaire linked to a Reuters story from May 2 citing a financial filing from Twitter that estimated false or spam accounts made up fewer than 5% of the company's «monetizable daily active users» in the first quarter.«Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,» Musk said, indicating he's skeptical that the number of inauthentic accounts is that low.A short time later on Friday morning, Musk tweeted that he remains committed to the purchase. Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuynIt wasn't clear whether the issue could scuttle the deal. Shares of both Twitter and Tesla swung sharply in opposite directions, with Twitter's stock tumbling 17% to $37.20 before trading opened in the U.S, and Tesla, which Musk had proposed using to help fund the Twitter deal, jumping 5%.

FilmNation is behind some hot packages at the Cannes Market this year with projects that include the noir thriller “Knox Goes Away” which has Michael Keaton (“Birdman“) set to star/direct, the Woody Harrelson thriller “Last Breath,” and the new supernatural film “The Shrouds” from David Cronenberg. Their latest offering going to auction comes from producer Cate Blanchett and is the English-language debut of Greek director Christos Nikou (“Apples“).

“Fingernails” will be set in a surreal future where married couples can undergo a test to see if they are truly in love. Buckley plays Anna, a woman who undergoes the test and doesn’t believe her positive result is accurate, so she takes an assistant job at a “love institute” under an instructor named Trevor, played by Ahmed.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter) and Oscar winner Riz Ahmed (The Long Goodbye) have joined Christos Nikou’s (Apples) anticipated English-language feature film debut Fingernails, we can reveal.

Sasha Urban editorMovie icon Julia Roberts has been named the Godmother of the Trophée Chopard 2022 at Cannes Film Festival.As Godmother, Roberts will present the award to both a male and female young actor on the rise. She follows Godmother Jessica Chastain, who presented the award to Jessie Buckley and Kingsley Ben-Adir at Cannes Film Festival 2021.Zhang Ziyi, Charlize Theron, Robert De Niro, Cate Blanchett, Elton John, Julianne Moore, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Helen Mirren are among previous presenters.

pic.twitter.com/SqcV3WmhqkWelsh “passed peacefully last evening surrounded by those closest to him,” Pam Winter, a partner at Toronto’s Gary Goddard Agency, also told CBC News. No cause of death was given.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterLouis Partridge has joined the cast of the upcoming Apple psychological thriller series “Disclaimer,” Variety has learned exclusively.Partridge joins previously announced series leads Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline and cast members Sacha Baron Cohen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Hoyeon.Based on the novel of the same name by Renee Knight, “Disclaimer” will star Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft, a successful and respected television documentary journalist whose work has been built on revealing the concealed transgressions of long-respected institutions. When an intriguing novel written by a widower (Kline) appears on her bedside table, she is horrified to realize she is a key character in a story that she had hoped was long buried in the past.

Earlier this year, Film at Lincoln Center announced Cate Blanchett as the recipient of the organization’s 47th Chaplin Award, presented earlier this week (April 25) at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Congrats to her, and in the lead-up to this event, Blanchett appeared on The Film Comment Podcast to discuss her entire career.

Spider-Man: No Way Home” and nabbed an 2022 Oscar nomination for “Tick, Tick … Boom!” He also stars in the FX series “Under the Banner of Heaven,” which premieres April 28 on Hulu.“I’m going to rest for a little bit,” he told Variety in an interview published Wednesday. “I need to recalibrate and reconsider what I want to do next and who I want to be and just be a bit of a person for a while.”He also compared the awards season to a churning “washing machine,” suggesting he needed rest and recuperation after it.“I need to just be a bit ordinary for a while,” he confessed.

Cate Blanchett hits the red carpet in a stunning black dress for the 2022 Chaplin Award Gala held at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center on Monday night (April 25) in New York City.

Jameela Jamil announced on Twitter Monday that she has issued her "last tweet" on the social media platform.  Her message comes after Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion. Following Twitter's announcement of its new owner, Musk tweeted, "I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means."  Jamil, a 36-year-old London native, shared four images of herself holding a puppy.  "Ah he got twitter," Jamil began. "I would like this to be my what lies here as my last tweet.

Jordan Moreau Director Adam McKay’s Netflix film “Don’t Look Up,” which starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Mark Rylance and more A-listers, made a splash last winter for how the dark, political comedy eerily mirrored real life. The film tackled issues of climate change and media misinformation, and one fictional tech billionaire character hit even closer to home after Elon Musk and Twitter agreed to a $44 billion deal on Monday.“It’s dangerous,” Blanchett told Variety about Musk’s Twitter takeover, at the Chaplin Award Gala in New York on Monday. “That’s all I have to say, it’s very, very dangerous.”Rylance’s character, Peter Isherwell, an eccentric tech CEO who profits off a comet hurtling toward Earth, was based partly on Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs.

Italian director Luca Guadagnino (“Suspiria“) is a very busy fella with his cannibal film “Bones & All” on the horizon and a new tennis drama, “Challengers” in the works. The filmmaker has many irons in the fire, but it looks like one of them won’t be moving on into the production phase.

Lionsgate  and The Roku Channel have closed a multiyear theatrical output deal for theatrically released Lionsgate films beginning with the studio’s 2022 theatrical releases, the companies announced on Tuesday.Under the terms of the agreement, The Roku Channel will receive two separate windows for each film, the first of which provides exclusive rights to Lionsgate’s film slate immediately following its first window on Starz.The agreement will include properties such as the “John Wick” action franchise, “Expendables 4,” and Eli Roth’s “Borderlands,” starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jack Black.Also on the Roster, Kelly Fremon Craig’s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” based on the beloved Judy Blume classic; “White Bird: A Wonder Story,” starring Helen Mirren and Gillian Anderson; and the Nicolas Cage meta-action comedy “The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent.”“This agreement affirms the great demand for first-run studio movies across a broad array of platforms,” said Lionsgate president of Worldwide Television Distribution Jim Packer in a statement. “This partnership with The Roku Channel shows our ability to capitalize on opportunities in today’s complex television landscape with a multifaceted, layered approach that meets everyone’s needs.” “We are pleased to expand our relationship with our longstanding partner Lionsgate to provide our audience with exclusive first-time, free access to Lionsgate’s theatrical slate,” said Rob Holmes, vice president of Programming at Roku.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorTwitter is now in Elon Musk’s hands. What his successful maneuver to buy the company means for its 200 million-plus users — or for media and entertainment companies that use the platform to reach global audiences — is anything but clear.In the space of three weeks, Musk went from disclosing a 9.2% stake in Twitter to clinching a $44 billion deal for the company on April 25.