Interpublic’s Mediabrands Vows to Raise Ad Budgets for Black-Owned Media by 2023

Matthew Perry is calling out his castmates. During HBO Max's long-awaited reunion special, which featured Perry along with Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer, the 51-year-old actor that brought Chandler Bing to life jokingly lamented about the lack of communication between the cast.The moment happened just as Kudrow, who played Phoebe Buffay, was gushing over the cast's continued closeness.«We stay in touch for sure,» she said.

*SPOILERS ALERT* Friends: The Reunion was a much-deserved celebration of a legendary sitcom that continues to engulf a new generation of fans, almost two decades later, thanks to its reliability in terms of its universal storyline and quirky characters.

Friends: The Reunion has taken social media by storm as first reactions to the epic special have started trickling in from across the globe. The cast of Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer reminisced their good old days as well as set incidents from back in the day.

Gwen Stefani made her return to stage on Tuesday's season 20 finale — and we have to applaud!Gwen took the stage with Saweetie to perform their latest single, «Slow Clap,» rocking a fierce, see-through bejeweled top and checker-print skirt, with a blunt black wig for the up-tempo performance — and of course, earning applause from her fiancé, Blake SheltonThe season 19-winning coach also had to send a supportive shout out to «Blakey,» who has two singers — Cam Anthony and Jordan Matthew Young —

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorJeff Zucker, chairman of news and sports at WarnerMedia, held a company town hall on Tuesday in which he addressed the recent Chris Cuomo-CNN controversy and answered questions regarding return-to-office plans.Zucker suggested CNN staffers who were vaccinated and wished to return to the outlet’s New York offices would likely be able to do so starting in June, according to a person familiar with the event.

EXCLUSIVE: Bondit Media Capital, which became an important funder for independent film and television during Covid, is partnering with Vancouver-based Arcana Studio to launch Bondit Canada Capital.

Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group has sued McDonald’s Corp. for $10 billion in damages, alleging racial discrimination as the high-profile businessman continues to pound big companies for not giving Black-owned media a fair shake as they disburse massive advertising budgets.

Following last week’s first look teaser at the long-awaited Friends reunion, HBO have released a full trailer showing fans exactly what they can look forward to on May 27. HBO Max released the video on Tuesday, May 19 – at round 6pm for all the fans tuning in from the UK – and in just 12 hours it was viewed over 4 million times on Youtube alone.

Nicholas White It’s only been three years since its debut, but Actor Trade, an app that connects actors with each other to read lines for feedback and performance practice, has grown to 20,000 international users.The app, the creation of actors Dylan Mooney and Shondrella Avery, celebrated its third anniversary in April, and is riding a wave of enthusiasm with word of mouth, social media support and pride in Black ownership.“In my heart, we’re not represented in a lot of industries enough,

EXCLUSIVE: The Bleav Podcast Network is launching the new dark comedy podcast The Bystanders starring Jane Lynch and Emmy and Tony Winner Kristin Chenoweth. It will also mark the first scripted podcast from Black Label Media. Heather Morris will also co-star and produce the show with Jaclyn Hales and Ash Lendzion writing, directing and producing the show.

Ben Affleck and Matthew Perryapparently tried to hook-up with much younger women . .

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorIn the space of just a few weeks, a group of Madison Avenue heavyweights — with names like General Motors, Interpublic Group and WPP — has made public guarantees of ad money for some of the industry’s smaller media outlets, all owned by Black entrepreneurs. Getting these companies to talk about ad spending in public is an amazing feat.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorTV usually belongs to the celebrities who play the nation’s favorite characters — people such as Ellen Pompeo, the star of ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” or Milo Ventimiglia from NBC’s “This Is Us.” During the industry’s upfront market, however, many eyes move instead to the network ad-sales chiefs.These execs will be out in full force over the next several weeks, eager to keep the tens of billions of advertising dollars flowing into their companies’ corporate coffers.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNielsen’s TV yardstick has been found wanting.A review of recent Nielsen efforts to map out TV audience activity determined the company likely undercounted TV audiences in February of this year, a development that is expected to intensify a growing rift between the measurement giant and the TV networks who depend on it to set discussions with advertisers that help undergird billions of dollars in advertising.The Media Rating Council, an industry organization that