Disney Entertainment TV Studios Suspend Deals With Producers, Including Yara Shahidi, Justin Hartley & Billy Porter, Will Pay Assistants Amid Strikes

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Country star Hardy announced on social media Tuesday that he is canceling or postponing his next three concerts, due to what he described as “serious anxiety” and panic attacks that have “landed me in the hospital.” He indicated that these conditions have “taken over my life” over the last two weeks, and represent delayed trauma from a bus accident a year ago. The singer noted that he expects to be in better shape in nine days, when he will resume his fall headlining tour on Oct. 12 in Jonesboro, AR.

King Charles III thanked workers at a sawmill in Aberdeenshire that has bought thousands of tonnes of timber from a nearby royal estate. The Monarch made his second visit to the James Jones and Sons Limited sawmill at Aboyne, which has bought timber from the Balmoral Estate for more than 34 years.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Paris Hilton is getting her X on. The influencer and entrepreneur — who has 16.6 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter — announced a deal with the social platform owned by Elon Musk for an array of content and commerce initiatives.

Taylor Swift brought so many of her celebrity friends to the Kansas City Chiefs vs. New York Jets football game and we’ve identified nearly every person sitting in her private suite!

The Alexander McQueen fashion show during Paris Fashion Week had some big stars in the front row!

In the 22nd week of his Deadline podcast Strike Talk, Billy Ray sits with WGA Negotiating Committee co-chairs David Goodman and Chris Keyser to learn what happened inside the room during the negotiations and what gains were made in the deal struck Sunday with the AMPTP.

Now that the Writers Guild of America strike is officially over, deals that were suspended are in the process of being reinstated.

EXCLUSIVE: (Updated with SAG-AFTRA statement) As the WGA leadership and members move forward on the scribes’ tentative agreement with the studios and streamers, the 160,000-strong actors union could be sitting down with the AMPTP within days.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has reached a tentative agreement with the major Hollywood studios to end their strike!

according to Variety and other outlets. They called the new contract “exceptional” and said it would have “meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership.”“What we have won in this contract – most particularly, everything we have gained since May 2nd – is due to the willingness of this membership to exercise its power, to demonstrate its solidarity, to walk side-by-side, to endure the pain and uncertainty of the past 146 days,” part of the email from the WGA Negotiating Committee states, Variety reported.“It is the leverage generated by your strike, in concert with the extraordinary support of our union siblings, that finally brought the companies back to the table to make a deal.”The likely deal comes as both sides took part in intensive bargaining over the weekend.There were signs last week that the strike, which brought Hollywood to a halt for 146 days, appeared to be nearing the end when the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers issued a joint statement that they were back in talks.The Alliance represents studios, streaming services and producers in the negotiations.Union leaders met Wednesday with top studio bosses including Disney CEO Robert Iger, Warner Bros.

EXCLUSIVE: Canada’s Waterside Studios and UK-based podcast producer Blanchard House are teaming up.

BreAnna Bell Fox Entertainment Global is expanding its content slate, adding new unscripted programming from Fox Alternative Entertainment, Gordon Ramsay’s Studio Ramsay Global, and TMZ. Announced for MIPCOM 2023, the new content will be joining original animated content from Bento Box Entertainment, live-action comedy from FOX Entertainment Studios; and more than 20 movies produced by MarVista Entertainment.

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate Television has joined other studios in suspending overall and first-look deals with non-writing producers who are not rendering services due to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. I hear those impacted include Paul Feig‘s Feigco Entertainment, Eric Tannenbaum and Kim Tannenbaum‘s The Tannenbaum Co., Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly‘s Timberman/Beverly Productions, Michael London‘s Groundswell Productions and Power universe star Joseph Sikora.

Apple has become the latest entertainment company to suspend additional overall and first-look deals this month as the WGA strike is getting past the four-and-a-half-month mark.

Netflix has set October 20 for the premiere of the penultimate seventh season of Emmy-winning animated series Big Mouth. The streamer also unveiled a first-look teaser and announced new Season 7 guest stars Megan Thee Stallion, Lupita Nyong’o, Stephanie Beatriz, Zazie Beetz, Padma Lakshmi, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Billy Porter, Rosie Perez, Brian Tyree Henry, Zach Galifianakis, Randall Park, Chloe Fineman, Beck Bennett, Zach Woods, Mark Duplass, Thandiwe Newton, Paul Scheer, Brandon Kyle Goodman, Jon Daly, and Andy Daly.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Jennette McCurdy will dig into emotions she’s been struggling with in a new weekly podcast, “Hard Feelings,” launching this fall. The author and former actor will employ “her characteristic candor and dark humor” in the podcast, according to Lemonada Media, the independent podcast network that is producing “Hard Feelings.” McCurdy, author of bestselling memoir “I’m Glad My Mom Died,” was in the original run of “iCarly” on Nickelodeon before starring in her own spinoff series, “Sam & Cat,” alongside Ariana Grande. “I’m thrilled and utterly terrified to launch my new podcast, which will be an intimate look at my experience processing hard feelings,” McCurdy said in a statement.

More studios are suspending additional overall and first-look deals almost four and a half months into the WGA strike.

With the ink still drying on a closely tracked carriage renewal with Charter, Disney execs Dana Walden and Jimmy Pitaro told Deadline in an interview that the agreement’s details suit the current streaming/linear hybrid environment.

EXCLUSIVE: Leslie Small has been set to direct the buddy comedy Happy V-Day and actioner The Raid, under a two-picture deal with Winter State Entertainment. Prep on both titles is underway, with production dates to be set upon the resolution of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

Data and analytics executive Chunguang Yu has joined Disney Entertainment Television, Networks & TV Business Operations as SVP, Data, Measurement and Advanced Analytics.