Judd Apatow Says Studios May Not Want to Quickly Resolve Writers Strike: ‘They’ve Probably Been Planning This for Years’

Eamonn Homes has said Phillip Schofield has 'finally been caught out' but is 'not the only guilty party' over his affair.

People are being urged to look out for the common warning signs of thyroid disease with an expert is urging not to ignore certain 'tell-tale symptoms'.

Comedian Jack Whitehall has said that he does not want to turn into his father when he becomes a dad.The Bad Education star, 34, is expecting his first child with girlfriend Roxy Horner, after he announced the news on social media. During an appearance on BBC Breakfast, Whitehall was asked whether the news had enabled him to reflect on his relationship with his father, to which he responded: "I just don’t want to turn into him." The comedian is known for starring alongside his father, Michael Whitehall, 83, in the Netflix show Jack Whitehall: Travels With My Father, which sees the duo travel around the world together.

Celine Dion has cancelled her upcoming world tour.The songstress, 55, was set to jet across the globe to perform some of her hit tracks for fans but, as her health continues to deteriorate, Celine has cancelled the tour.  She shared on Instagram: "I'm so sorry to disappoint all of you once again... and even though it breaks my heart, it's best that we cancel everything until I’m really ready to be back on stage...

Dame Esther Rantzen has admitted she's 'not good at regrets' after revealing her lung cancer has progressed to stage four. The 82-year-old broadcaster, known for presenting BBC series That’s Life! and founding charities such as Childline, confirmed in January that her lung cancer had spread.

60 movies and television shows have left Disney+ and Hulu. That includes Sundance crowdpleasers like “Timmy Failure,” initially-intended for theatrical releases like “Artemis Fowl” and “The Once and Future Ivan,” big-budget IP adaptations like “Willow” and “Y: The Last Man,” and high-concept YA dramedies like “Stargirl” and “Rosaline.” Once such casualty is “The Princess.”Released in August of 2022, the original high-concept hybrid of “Die Hard” and “The Raid” features Joey King (star of “The Kissing Booth” trilogy) as a princess trapped in a tower having to fight and kill her way floor-by-floor to save herself and her family from a violent coup attempt.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Zooey Deschanel loves to cook. Her specialties include risotto and various French dishes she learned from visiting family overseas. Even so, her new Max food series, “What Am I Eating?,” is not about her life in the kitchen. “I didn’t want to do a show where it’s like, ‘I’m an actor – watch me cook!’” Deschanel told me Monday night at a dinner celebrating the “What Am I Eating?” premiere. “Nobody wants to see me do that.” Except maybe her boyfriend, “Property Brothers” star Jonathan Scott. “Whenever someone says something to me like, ‘How was your pandemic?’ I always say, ‘I was living my best life,’” he said. “She is gourmet. She is a great chef.”

told co-host Donna Farizan Wednesdsy night on SiriusXM’s “The Happy Hour.”Lautner’s wife, Taylor Dome, joined him and said she knew his comment would go viral among Taylor Swift’s fans, who did indeed react positively. “She’s like, that’s gonna really trigger the Swifties. Or, I mean, they’re supportive of it,” Lautner added of his wife Taylor’s thoughts.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jeremy O. Harris is best known as the playwright of “Slave Play,” which picked up a record-setting 12 Tony Award nominations in 2021, but he’s also a producer on HBO’s Emmy-winning “Euphoria.” During an interview as part of Variety and Kering’s Women in Motion talks at Cannes, Harris called on Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav “to make a deal” so that the ongoing writers strike can end and “Euphoria” Season 3 can go into production as scheduled. “All I’ll say is Sam Levinson is not a scab,” Harris said about the “Euphoria” creator not crossing picket lines to go into production. “He’s not a scab. David Zaslav, make a deal. That’s what I’ll say about Season 3 of ‘Euphoria.’ Make a deal, David. It’s easy. Just come to that table.”

Kelly Rizzo is paying tribute to her late husband, Bob Saget, on what would have been his 67th birthday.Rizzo took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a slideshow of snapshots featuring the late comedian — including a few of them both of them smiling together — alongside a caption honoring his memory and his life.«Happy birthday,» Rizzo shared. «This truly never gets less weird or surreal. But the gratitude grows every single day.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Peppermint wants back on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” She famously was runner-up in Season 9 when Sasha Velour took the crown after her iconic rose petal-filled finale lip sync. “I would love to go on ‘All Stars,’” Peppermint tells me on this week’s episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. She was asked to compete in 2018 but was already booked for the Go-Go’s Broadway musical, “Head Over Heels.” “I will happily go onto the show if they invite me,” Peppermint says. “It is quite expensive and quite an investment, but I do think it could be worth it.” Peppermint will next be seen in “A Transparent Musical,” opening May 20 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. She plays Davina, a role originated on the “Transparent” television series by Alexandra Billings. Peppermint recalls having “two-person watch parties” with her music producer when the series first premiered on Amazon in 2014.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney has pegged total cash content spending at around $30 billion for this year — but the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike may drive that down, CFO Christine McCarthy said. “If you haven’t noticed we’re in the middle of a writers strike,” McCarthy said, speaking Wednesday at MoffettNathanson’s Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York. The WGA walkout may reduce Disney’s cash spending on content for the balance of the year, she said. At the MoffettNathanson conference, MCarthy appeared alongside Disney president of ad sales Rita Ferro. The two Disney execs spoke a day after the media conglom’s upfront presentation in the Big Apple to ad buyers and brands — which was noticeably light on scripted fare, given the writers strike. Marvel’s Kevin Feige previewed upcoming Disney+ series “Secret Invasion,” featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Don Cheadle, and announced premiere dates for “Loki” Season 2 and “Hawkeye” spinoff “Echo.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Javier Bardem is gushing over Austin Butler’s work as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in “Dune: Part Two.” “Seeing him bald or seeing him with hair, he’s an amazing creature to look at,” Bardem told me at the world premiere of “The Little Mermaid” in Los Angeles. “You can look at him for hours and go, ‘Oh, my God — how beautiful you are.’” Bardem continued, “On top of that, he’s so nice. He’s so generous, so funny and so committed. He has done an amazing job. I’ve only had a couple of moments with him, but I would see him and it was like, ‘Wow, [he] is the character.’” Feyd-Rautha is the evil nephew of Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and the brother of the sadistic Glossu Rabban, played by Dave Bautista. The two brothers are in competition to become the Harkonnen family’s successor on the planet Arrakis.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor UPDATED: Producers of the Tonys will file an appeal of the WGA’s waiver denial. The decision was made Monday during a meeting of the Tonys management committee. A source tells Variety, “Everyone is still trying to see if there is a workable solution.” On Friday, the Writers Guild of America denied a request for a strike waiver from the show’s producers, meaning the Tonys won’t be televised on June 11. Ariana DeBose was set to return as host but it is believed she’ll cancel if the strike is still on. The Tonys were scheduled to take place at the United Palace in New York’s Washington Heights. The ceremony was to start at 8 p.m. ET and air live on CBS, as well as the streaming service Paramount+.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Trace Lysette is in a hotel room on 8th Street in New York City when she jumps on a Zoom video call with Variety to talk about her new movie, “Monica.” In just a couple of hours, she’s set to walk the red carpet at the indie drama’s premiere at the IFC Center. “I used to turn tricks a few blocks from there,” Lysette says. Like so many trans women, Lysette once turned to sex work as a means of survival. “I was a young person alone in New York doing God knows what to survive,” says Lysette, who was raised in Ohio. “Last night we had a screening at The [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community] Center here. That was so heavy for me because I got my gender identity therapy there 20 years ago.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Joe Russo is sounding the alarm about artificial intelligence. Six days before the Writers Guild of America (WGA) called for a strike, I spoke to Joe Russo at the Los Angeles premiere of “Citadel” about his concerns regarding AI. The use of AI has become a major point of contention between the guild and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTA). “I think everyone should be scared of AI,” Russo said. “I don’t know if you’ve heard any of the Drake ‘songs’ that have been dropping on social media, but it’s here. It’s not going anywhere.” The “Avengers” director said in order for AI to work, it must be a “tool servicing us rather than us servicing the tool.”

Well, this is a big bummer and perhaps an unfortunate sign that Universal has lost faith in the project, at least on the theatrical level. “Please Don’t Destroy,” the new upcoming comedy from the “Saturday Night Live” trio Please Don’t Destroy, produced by Judd Apatow, is no longer going to be released theatrically by Universal.

ongoing Writers Guild of America strike will end.Speaking to Variety on Saturday (May 6), Apatow shared that he thinks the ongoing strike is a calculated business move on the part of Hollywood studios, who were unwilling to meet the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) demands.“I think they probably already know what they’re going to bend on,” Apatow said. “I would assume they already know what date this is going to end. They’ve probably been planning this for years.”“I always think that whatever happens, they could have figured it out already.

Judd Apatow is opening up about the ongoing writers’ strike.

Day four of the writers strike and there’s no sign of slowing down for the writers marching in Hollywood.