County Sherman Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America told members Sunday to be ready to hit the picket lines if no agreement is reached by midnight on Monday. In an email, the guild asked members to fill out a “picketing survey,” providing their preferred time and location to join in, by noon on Monday. “The greatest amount of leverage we collectively bring to a strike action is the withdrawal of our labor,” the guild wrote. “Picketing is a key tactic to demonstrate that we are all in this together, and that until a strike is resolved, it’s not business as usual.” Negotiators for the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers worked on Saturday and Sunday at AMPTP headquarters in Sherman Oaks. The email provided no update on the talks, other than to say that the negotiating committee “continues to bargain with the AMPTP with the goal of reaching a fair deal by tomorrow’s May 1st contract deadline.”

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will meet again on Saturday, as they try to reach a deal before the writers’ contract expires at midnight on Monday. The negotiations are expected to go right up to the deadline. If no deal is reached, a strike could begin as early as Tuesday morning. The negotiators have been meeting regularly at the AMPTP office in Sherman Oaks. Though there have been no breakthroughs, there also has been no indication that talks are breaking down. Production has slowed in Los Angeles, according to data from FilmLA and anecdotal reports from labor leaders. As of Friday morning, FilmLA — which handles permits for location shoots — did not have any shoots scheduled for Tuesday or afterward for scripted shows.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “Emperor of Ocean Park,” the best-selling novel by Stephen L. Carter, is being adapted into a TV series at MGM+. MGM+ (formerly Epix) has ordered 10 episodes of the show. The order brings the book’s long road to the screen to near completion. It was originally optioned back in 2001 ahead of the book publishing. Multiple attempts have since been made to adapt the book into a film and later a television series, though none of those projects have moved forward until now. “Emperor of Ocean Park is much more than a murder mystery,” said Michael Wright, head of MGM+. “While it is an engrossing whodunit in its own right, it also explores important themes of middle-and-upper-class Black identity, making it an outstanding addition to MGM+’s slate of engaging and thought-provoking original series.”

.”The series is produced by John Wells Productions (JWP) in association with Warner Bros. Television, where JWP is under an overall deal.“We’re tremendously excited to be producing Sherman Payne’s thrilling adaptation of Emperor of Ocean Park, and to be associated with his talented team,” Wells added.

MGM+ is moving forward with its series adaptation of suspense thriller Emperor of Ocean Park.

EXCLUSIVE: SAG winner Hugo Weaving (The Lord of the Rings), BAFTA winner Joanna Scanlan (Notes On A Scandal), IFTA winner Ruth Bradley (Guilt), Tom Brooke (Empire of Light) and James Callis (Battlestar Galactica) have joined the season four cast of spy series Slow Horses, starring Oscar winner Gary Oldman. 

Trump critic Maggie Haberman to provide indictment-inspired ASMR for total relaxation through trying times. “These days, it’s hard not to feel stressed out and overwhelmed. Sure, Trump got indicted.

Prime Video has rounded out the fifth and final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel with a stellar list of guest stars and a key recurring.Hank Azaria (Brockmire), Sutton Foster (The Music Man), Darren Criss (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story), Danny Strong (Dopesick) and Sean Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) are joining the fifth and final season as guest stars with David Paymer returning to reprise his role as Harry Drake. Additionally, Tony-nominated Alexander Gemignani (Carousel) has been tapped for a heavily recurring role in Season 5. Character details, other than Paymer, are not being revealed.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The WGA and Hollywood’s major employers are set to resume contract talks on Wednesday as the sides aim to make progress in sorting through complicated compensation issues and averting a strike. Negotiators for the Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are expected to sit down again in person Wednesday morning at AMPTP headquarters in Sherman Oaks. The WGA had planned to take a two-week break after March 31 to begin the process of a strike authorization vote, with talks tabbed to resume the week of April 17. The guild’s current three-year contract expires on May 1. A rep for the AMPTP declined comment. The WGA did not immedately respond to a request for comment.

Leaving April 1Turbo FAST: Seasons 1-3Leaving April 3What Lies BelowLeaving April 7HushLeaving April 9New Girl: Seasons 1-7Leaving April 11Married at First Sight: Season 10Leaving April 12The Baker and the Beauty: Season 1Leaving April 18Cuckoo: Seasons 1-5Leaving April 20The Mr. Peabody and Sherman Show: Seasons 1-4Leaving April 23We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaksLeaving April 24Bill Nye: Science GuyLeaving April 25The IT Crowd: Series 1-5Leaving April 27Señora Acero: Seasons 1-5Leaving April 28Ash vs.

Sophia Scorziello editor Nneka Garland, an Emmy-winning producer on “General Hospital,” died Monday in Burbank. She was 49.  She had suffered a heart attack at her home in Sherman Oaks, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Garland joined the ABC soap opera in 2001 as an executive assistant and spent the last 22 years working on the show. In 2021, she became a producer of “General Hospital” and shared a Daytime Emmy win for outstanding drama series. That same year, show writers named recurring fictional character Nneka (Arlondriah Lenyéa) after Garland. 

is doing some housekeeping. The streaming platform is removing only 18 titles this month, though some are binge-worthy classics.

Netflix subscribers might not be happy with some of this news.

Leaders of SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399 showed their support for the WGA on Monday, posing with WGA leaders shortly before the 11 a.m. start of the Writers Guild’s contract negotiations with producers at the AMPTP’s headquarters in Sherman Oaks.

Much like the beginning of a Congressional hearing on a hot potato political topic, expectations for the first day of talks between the WGA and AMPTP were high, but largely began with formalities.

With its contract talks with the AMPTP set to start this morning, the WGA is telling its members in a new video what to expect in the coming weeks amid an expected media blackout on the negotiations.

Just hours before the WGA and the studios are scheduled to start stridulous talks on a new overall contact, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have decided to publicly play nice, firmly.

EXCLUSIVE: Lana Turner’s mobster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato was allegedly stabbed to death in her house by her daughter Cheryl Crane in 1958.

EXCLUSIVE: The Killing and Suicide Squad alum Joel Kinnaman is set to star in AR Content’s adaptation of John Nixon’s Debriefing the President. Kinnaman will star as former CIA analyst Nixon who wrote the non-fiction book about his experience of being the first American to identify and interrogate Saddam Hussein following his 2003 capture.

EXCLUSIVE: Fast-rising filmmakers Travon Free and Martin Roe have signed with CAA for representation, at the same time announcing the Paramount Pictures film Razorblade Tears, based on the New York Times bestselling novel by S.A. Cosby, as their next project.

#Bensler forever! Christopher Meloni wished Law & Order: Special Victims Unit costar Mariska Hargitay a happy 59th birthday — and had a ton of fun doing it.

Regal parent Cineworld is rejecting the leases of three dozen more theaters as part of its ongoing bankruptcy proceeding, including some major locations.

Shawn Mendes sits outside of a coffee shop and lets out a big yawn on Wednesday morning (October 19) in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Megan Thee Stallion had a busy night this past Saturday (October 15) when she hosted and performed on NBC’s Saturday Night Live. Her double-duty appearance was promoted last week with two skits: a sketch featuring a nude Sarah Squirm and a more traditional, outtakes-style promo reel with Heidi Gardner.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Jack Harlow will serve as the host and musical guest on the next episode of “Saturday Night Live,” set to air on Oct. 29. “SNL” announced the booking on this week’s episode, which also features another music star as both host and musical guest: Megan Thee Stallion. This reps the first time Harlow has hosted “SNL,” and his second time as musical performer. He made his ‘Saturday Night Live’ debut as musical guest on March 27, 2021, alongside host Maya Rudolph. Harlow released his major label debut “That’s What They All Say” in 2020, and followed that up with this year’s “Come Home the Kids Miss You.” In 2021, he was named Variety’s hitmaker of the year.Harlow was just named songwriter of the year at the SESAC Music Awards. 

Megan Thee Stallion is pulling double duty on Saturday Night Live this week (October 15) as the show’s host and musical guest. And today (October 12), NBC released a promo sketch for the upcoming episode featuring Meg alongside one of SNL’s newer cast members, Sarah Sherman (aka Sarah Squirm). In the sketch, Sarah — who joined the show’s cast in 2021 — pops by Megan’s temporary office at 30 Rockefeller Plaza to gauge her hype level for her appearance this Saturday.

Christopher Meloni is loving being a “zaddy” at age 61.

Near the start of the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Broadway revival of the musical 1776, a cast made entirely of actors who identify as female, transgender and nonbinary, with multiple representations of race and ethnicity, step into the gold-buckled shoes, literally, of the men who would come to be called the founding fathers. We can only imagine how things might turn out differently, both for the musical and in some alternate real-life universe.

Frank Rizzo The opening moments of this exuberant, thought-provoking and radical revival of “1776” makes it clear who was missing from John Trumbull’s famous painting of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. As the female, transgender, non-binary and racially and ethnically diverse cast arrives on stage, exchanges street clothes for period waistcoats and literally steps into the black buckled shoes of this country’s forefathers, we know immediately that this will be a theatrical re-imagining not only of history, but the acclaimed Tony Award-winning 1969 musical. Co-directors Diane Paulus and Jeffrey L. Page apply a bold Brechtian brush to this picture with its casting, staging, musical arrangements and design. Without changing the narrative, it adds layers of context that offer further shadings to the musical, even though at times the results are somewhat crude, clunky or overdone.

Todrick Hall will need to pay.

Actress Mariska Hargitay joked about being her longtime "Law & Order" co-star Chris Meloni's "second wife" on Monday at the red carpet for the beloved show's 24th season. Mariska Hargitay stars as Detective Olivia Benson on "Law & Order: SVU" (Will Hart/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images) "I mean, I don't think I'll be marrying him any time soon, but I am kind of like his second wife," she told People. "Wife, therapist, bestie, sister, mother." The jokes came in response to Hargitay being accidentally listed as Meloni's wife on the actor's Wikipedia page.

EXCLUSIVE: Francesca Eastwood (Old) and Milo Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge) have been tapped to star in Clawfoot — a cat-and-mouse thriller from Yale Entertainment, which is currently in production in Los Angeles.

Marsha Hunt, one of the last surviving actors from Hollywood’s so-called Golden Age of the 1930s and 1940s who worked with performers ranging from Laurence Olivier to Andy Griffith in a career disrupted for a time by the McCarthy-era blacklist, has died. She was 104.

Kendall Jenner and Devin Booker are enjoying a night out!

New romance alert?? But just how new is it…

Marilyn Monroe’s death. The iconic actress died young, when she was 36 years old, leaving behind a legacy of intrigue and memorable images. While Monroe lived a luxurious life once she acquired fame, her youth was marked by conflict and struggle, moving from home to home and having difficulty making ends meet.