Marketing Chiefs Talk Digital vs. Linear, Tighter Budgets and Scoring Viral Successes: ‘TikTok is Ground Zero Right Now’

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Here we are at the precipice of an uncertain yet familiar place. The question of whether the TV and film industry will be shut down by labor action will be answered one way or another by the time Monday ends on the West Coast. In broad strokes, the Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers face one of three basic outcomes as the WGA contract expires at midnight PST. Behind Door No. 1 – the sides reach a tentative agreement. Door No. 2 — they agree on a short-term extension, which is unlikely but could be anything from 12 hours to 12 days, or more. Door No. 3 – the talks are called off by one side or the other — or both — and picketing ensues in Los Angeles and New York on May 2.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The New York Dolls’ wildly original debut album got Martin Scorsese through the making of “Mean Streets” in 1973. Years later, Dolls frontman David Johansen enlivened the soundtrack of Scorsese’s HBO series productions “Boardwalk Empire” and “Vinyl.” Scorsese is also a regular listener of Johansen’s Sirius XM series “Mansion of Fun.” Finally, after Scorsese caught Johansen’s career-spanning cabaret set at the Café Carlyle, the director-producer – a storied teller of New York stories – decided that the time was ripe for a documentary on the proto-punk scion of Staten Island. “Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” which debuted April 14 on Showtime, chronicles Johansen’s evolution from the Dolls to the lounge-y pop of his Buster Poindexter period through his present day life as a husband, stepfather and eminence grise of New York’s music scene.

William Earl Variety will return in-person with its TV FYC Fest on June 7 in L.A., featuring HBO/Max Chief Casey Bloys, Kerry Washington, Elle Fanning, Janelle James, Gina Rodriguez and Weird Al Yankovic. Fanning (“The Great”), James (“Abbott Elementary”), Rodriguez (“Not Dead Yet”) and Washington (“UnPrisoned”) will participate in a roundtable celebrating Disney’s TV female comedy standouts. Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content will offer his vision for TV storytelling with Cynthia Littleton, co-editor-in-chief of Variety, in what will be his first interview following the series finale episode of “Succession.”

Dolly Parton is taking her music in a new direction. ET's Rachel Smith spoke to the 77-year-old singer, and she dished all about her upcoming rock album, .Parton decided to put out a rock album after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an honor she initially declined. Eventually, though, sheopted to accept the distinction «gracefully,» and, in response, put out an album befitting of it.

A “Succession” mystery has finally been explained.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter WME has hired Carly Frankel as an agent in the digital department and Samantha Korn as an agent in the talent department focused on comedy, Variety has learned exclusively. Frankel will focus on the agency’s podcasting business, including the comedy, personal development, and narrative nonfiction verticals. Prior to joining WME, she was senior development executive at Wondery, having originally joined the company in 2019. In that role, she worked across creative and business development to identify original podcast concepts and to bring them to production. She was previously at Wondery where she most recently served as a senior development executive, working across creative and business development to both identify hit original podcast concepts and bring them to production. Following Wondery’s acquisition by Amazon Music in 2021, Frankel was instrumental in designing the company’s consolidated greenlight and deal protocols for original programming. She is based in WME’S Beverly Hills office.Korn comes from “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” where she most recently served as a creative executive for Colbert’s production company, Spartina. Prior to that, she started her professional career at CAA and went to “The Late Show” to work for then-executive producer and showrunner Chris Licht. In addition to “The Late Show” and its associated specials, her credits include “Pickled” for CBS and “Tooning Out the News” for Paramount+. She is also based in the Beverly Hills office.

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter Variety has hired acclaimed magazine writer Stephen Rodrick to be a chief correspondent for the publication. In his new post, Rodrick will write cover stories and longform pieces about Hollywood, movies, TV shows and important figures in the entertainment industry. His work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, New York and The New Yorker. He has spent the past decade writing for Rolling Stone. “Stephen is one of the best magazine writers in the country,” say Variety co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton. “His arrival at Variety comes in a year where we are experiencing unprecedented digital growth. We are so excited to start publishing his beautiful, literary writing in the pages of our weekly print magazine and online.”

During “Succession” season 4, episode five, “Kill List,” written by Jon Brown and Ted Cohen and directed by Andrij Parekh, the Roy siblings — Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv (Sarah Snook) — are summoned to Norway for a team-building retreat by GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård).

Variety’s Entertainment Marketing Summit in Los Angeles, marketing pros came together to discuss their challenges, best practices and triumphs. Here are the highlights from the event, held Wednesday at 1 Hotel West Hollywood. Competition for Attention Is Fierce In the summit’s opening session, moderated by Variety co-editor-in chief Cynthia Littleton, panelists spoke about dealing with trying to win viewers amid the flood of content across platforms. “We’re competing with everything… This is no longer a linear-timeslot thing,” said Margaret Walker, SVP, NBC brand strategy and audience growth. Domenic DiMeglio, chief marketing officer of Paramount Streaming, said that staying close with fans on social can help inform content-development strategy. For example, he cited “Teen Wolf,” which ended its run on MTV in 2017 but “had a really engaged, rabid social fanbase.” That led the company to develop a “Teen Wolf” movie for Paramount+ that premiered in January.

Scheana Shay is telling the world what she knows!

Peter Caranicas Deputy Editor This year, Variety’s Power of Law breakfast at The Maybourne Beverly Hills on April 19 is treating attendees to not one but two keynote conversations with industry players: showrunner Damon Lindelof, interviewed by Variety Co-Editor-in-Chief Cynthia Littleton, and executive Erica Huggins, interviewed by Variety Chief Production Officer Claudia Eller. At the Power of Law event – where City National Bank is the presenting partner and Signature Resolution is an official partner – the pair will offer their insights into the rapidly evolving entertainment landscape to an audience of invited attorneys who form this year’s Legal Impact Report honorees.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Charter Spectrum has filed a lawsuit accusing Lionsgate of reneging on an agreement to deliver a third season of the “Manhunt” anthology series that was connected to the cable operators carriage of the Pop TV channel. The suit, filed late Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, underscores the Byzantine nature of dealmaking between media giants these days, and it demonstrates the desperate measures that studios have taken to keep low-profile cable channels on the air. At the time of the events in quesiton, Lionsgate jointly owned Pop TV with CBS. But Lionsgate’s motivation changed after it sold its stake in Pop TV to CBS in 2019, according to the suit.

Jake Gyllenhaal knows all about those «Jacked Gyllenhaal» memes. The actor — who is currently in intense UFC training for the upcoming remake — recently sat down with ET's Cassie DiLaura to discuss his new film,, and weigh in on the internet's unquenchable thirst for his movie muscles.«That's a wonderful nickname,» he joked. «It's been an incredible experience and it is [amazing] working with actual real fighters, working with the UFC, reimagining a classic. There's been a lot of the physical [work].»That's not to say that filming was a walk in the park.

Emily Longeretta Sophia Bush, Hilarie Burton and Bethany Joy Lenz are continuing to use their voices to spread awareness about the abuse they suffered throughout their television careers. During Monday’s episode of the “Drama Queens” podcast, the actors were joined by Danneel Ackles to recap the Season 4 finale of “One Tree Hill.” However, the discussion turned into a much more emotional one that explained why they keep speaking out about the behavior of creator Mark Schwahn and what they experienced on later jobs. First, Burton claims that Schwahn told everyone she was doing cocaine while filming the episode, during which she was taking caffeine pills to make it through the night shoots. Ackles and Burton also alleged that he then called their next employers to say they were problematic. Lenz added, “He was super happy to say anything that he could to keep people from hiring us at any moment.”

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor As seasoned espionage pros, they didn’t give up much, and they didn’t indulge in too much nostalgia. But for an hour or so on Wednesday evening, five core players of “The Americans” reunited in Midtown Manhattan to share stories and spread a few compliments for work they did together on the highly lauded FX series. To mark the 10th anniversary of the spy drama’s debut, stars Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys and Noah Emmerich were joined by showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields for a lively reunion conversation hosted by the Paley Center for Media. Fields reminded his colleagues that Superstorm Sandy made a surprise guest appearance in “The Americans” pilot, turning the production schedule upside down just before they were scheduled to begin shooting the pilot for DreamWorks Television and Fox Television Studios.

Bella Hadid has spoken out in support of Ariana Grande after she reminded fans to stop commenting on body image. The 29-year-old pop star went viral earlier this week when she begged followers to stop passing judgement on her changing body and now supermodel Bella, 26, has weighed in on the situation, reiterating to her own follows that they "never know" what a person may be going through at any given time. On Wednesday (12.

Pumping the breaks. Tom Sandoval claims he and Raquel Leviss have taken a step back in their relationship — and aren’t dating — after their affair made headlines.

EXCLUSIVE: Six-time Academy Award nominee Jim Sheridan (In the Name of the Father) has inked a deal to co-write, direct and produce the historical drama I Am a Man: The True Story of Chief Standing Bear with Andrew Troy.  

Ariana Madix may be dealing with the fallout of her ex-boyfriend Tom Sandoval‘s highly publicized affair with their “Vanderpump Rules” co-star Raquel Leviss, but there is an exciting opportunity on the horizon for the reality star!

Ariana Madix may be dealing with the fallout of her ex-boyfriend Tom Sandoval's highly publicized affair with their  co-star Raquel Leviss, but there is an exciting opportunity on the horizon for the reality star! A source tells ET that Madix is currently «in talks» to join  for season 32, though nothing is firm. The upcoming season of ABC's hit dancing competition is set to premiere in September 2023. , which was the first to break the news, reports that Madix “has already received all of the approvals and sign-offs from NBC Universal,” the parent company of Bravo, which produces . As many know, Madix and her reality TV cast members have been embroiled in an affair scandal, now dubbed «Scandoval.» Last month, news broke that Madix and her boyfriend of nearly 10 years, Sandoval, called it quits after she discovered he was having an ongoing affair with Leviss. Sandoval and Leviss' affair began over the summer, in July 2022, but it wasn't until March that she saw an inappropriate video of Leviss pop up on her then-boyfriend's phone.