National Board of Review Postpones Annual Gala Amid Omicron Surge

EXCLUSIVE: With the Omicron variant continuing to surge across Los Angeles causing many of the major agencies keep their offices closed, sources tell Deadline WME is planing a transitional return on January 31 with hopes of a full return on February 15. Insiders add that boosters will be required in order for WME employees to return and that things could still change given the fluidity of the situation.

With infections still surging, Los Angeles County’s cumulative number of Covid cases throughout the pandemic surpassed the 2 million mark today, with 43,582 new cases confirmed. Those new cases lifted the county’s cumulative case total to 2,010,964 since the pandemic began. Daily cases in the county set an all-time high on Sunday at 45,584.

UTA has confirmed that veteran ICM entertainment brand marketing agent Brett Pacis has joined the company’s Entertainment & Culture Marketing practice, which is a division of newly acquired MediaLink. Its clients include Delta Air Lines, General Motors, Google, LinkedIn, among others.

California Governor Gavin Newsom today announced he has activated the California National Guard to support local communities with additional testing facilities and capacity amid the surge in Covid cases driven by the Omicron variant.

While the red carpet premiere for the fifth film in the Scream franchise was scheduled to take place next Tuesday, January 11, it has been canceled due to Covid safety concerns, Deadline has confirmed.

The coronavirus pandemic started in late 2019, spreading to the U.S. in early 2020, and as of 2022 it is still affecting Hollywood — and the rest of the world.

HBO Max has canceled the January 8 red carpet Los Angeles premiere of James Gunn’s anticipated HBO Max series Peacemaker amid a surge of the Omicron variant. We hear the decision was made before the holidays out of an abundance of caution as Covid cases skyrocketed.

Better safe than sorry! On Tuesday, December 28, Sarah Jessica Parker and the entire SJP Collection boutique staff announced the closure of the New York City flagship as the Omicron variant continues to spread at a jarringly fast rate.

There will be no browsing for now at Apple’s New York City stores amid a surge in Covid-19 cases. Some one dozen locations in the city, including Fifth Avenue, SoHo, Grand Central and World Trade Center, will be temporarily closed to shoppers amid the rise in cases.

More bad news for Broadway.

Slamdance Film Festival is going completely virtual in 2022. The start of the festival will be delayed by a week and now run from January 27 till February 6.W Magazine’s Best Performances party was postponed.

The National Board of Review announced this morning that they will postpone their annual Gala, which was set to be held on Jan. 11, 2022 in New York City, to a later date. NBR is the latest awards gala to postpone during the upcoming Oscar season due to the rising Omicron variant alongside Critics Choice Awards and AFI Luncheon. Palm Springs International Film Festival canceled their awards gala.

New Covid Cases in Los Angeles doubled in the past 24 hours, according the the county’s director of Public Health, the total number of cases rose from 3,052 on Tuesday to 6,509 today.

Fox will not be ringing in 2022 from Times Square. The network said on Tuesday that it has canceled its planned broadcast from New York City on New Year’s Eve due to the surge of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.Fox will air replacement programming instead.

Guided By Voices have cancelled two upcoming New Year’s Eve shows as a result of the recent surge of COVID-19 cases.The band were due to play Atlantic City on December 30 and New York City’s Brooklyn Made on December 31 but those dates will no longer go ahead, as confirmed by a statement on Twitter.They wrote: “Due to unforeseen circumstances, and out of an abundance of caution with the recent spike in COVID-19 cases, we unfortunately need to cancel the upcoming shows in Atlantic City on

While the 2022 New York Film Critics Circle Awards were scheduled to take place at Tao Downtown in NYC on January 10, they’ve now been postponed due to the recent surge in Covid-19 cases witnessed across the country, with a new date for the ceremony to be unveiled early next year.

which canceled the Awards Gala portion of the event that had been scheduled for Jan. 6.

Jagged Little Pill, the Broadway musical of Alanis Morissette songs, will not reopen at the Broadhurst Theater following its current Covid suspension, producers announced tonight.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorBAFTA Los Angeles’ annual awards season tea party, set for Jan. 8, has been canceled.In a letter to studio executives, BAFTA wrote, “In an abundance of caution, we have taken the difficult decision to halt our plans to host the BAFTA Tea Party on January 8 in Los Angeles.