Bob Iger Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

“I know how to change bad news into good news,” Edward L. Bernays, the father of public relations, used to boast. Since he was a nephew of Sigmund Freud, I wonder how he’d find a positive mind-set among today’s practitioners of his craft.

Trustees of New York City’s $250 billion pension funds have warned Disney, Paramount and Comcast that they risk losing investor confidence if they allow the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes to drag on much longer. The WGA has been on strike since May 2, and SAG-AFTRA since July 14.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America responded Tuesday to the latest proposal from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, but any hopes for an easy resolution of the 106-day strike were quickly dispelled. The WGA did bend slightly on a few items, according to sources familiar with the talks. But the union negotiators did not offer the significant concessions that the studio side was looking for in response to its own offer.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer TSG Entertainment, which has invested more than $3 billion in 140 Fox films including “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “The Shape of Water,” accused Disney in a lawsuit on Tuesday of using Hollywood accounting tricks to cheat it out of hundreds of millions of dollars. The slate financier alleged that Disney had engaged in “self-dealing” by diverting Fox films from a lucrative HBO license to its own Disney+ and Hulu platforms. The lawsuit also alleges that Fox engaged in “sweetheart” deals when it licensed its films to the FX cable channel.

So it looks like there might be a big change to the planned Marvel/Disney+ release schedule in 2023.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged The Walt Disney Co. to drop its lawsuit against him, while telling CNBC that he has “moved on” from his battle with company and that it should drop the lawsuit against him.

As the ongoing WGA strike hits 100 days, the entirety of Hollywood wonders how long both that and the SAG-AFTRA strike will last. In the case of WGA, this strike is no officially longer than the 2007-2008 strike, but has a ways to go before it hits the 1988 writers’ strike 153 days, the longest in the union’s history.  Disney CEO Bob Iger hopes neither strike lasts that long, though.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney is coming for the streaming password-sharing freeloaders. Taking a page from Netflix’s playbook, Disney chief Bob Iger announced that the media conglomerate has put a priority on finding ways to convert password-borrowing users into paying customers.

Disney CEO Bob Iger shook up the entertainment industry and Wall Street last month when he declared to CNBC at Sun Valley that linear television may be non-core and that he’s looking for partners for ESPN as the company pivots to streaming.

Hulu will increase its ad-free subscription from $14.99 to $17.99 per month.Disney+ will also see a jump from $10.99 to $13.99 for its monthly ad-free plan.And before you and your close circle decide to chip in for a shared account, you should know that Disney CEO Bob Iger also announced Wednesday that the company is “actively exploring ways to address account sharing and the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and families.”In other words: a crackdown on password sharing, perhaps similar to what Netflix introduced in May, is coming to Hulu. What’s more, the company introduced a new ad-free Disney+ and Hulu bundle — without ESPN+ — called “Duo Premium,” available Sept.

Disney interim chief financial officer Kevn Lansberry said the company is “very comfortable with our current liquidity position” as the time approaches for it to buy Comcast’s one-third stake in Hulu.

Disney’s giant theme park division was first out of the gate in a post-pandemic recovery, showing giant jumps in revenue and profit due to pent-up demand. But the engine is sputtering.

Get ready to pay more for Disney+ and Hulu if you’re a subscriber.

“It is my fervent hope that we quickly find solutions to the issues that have kept us apart these past few months, “said Bob Iger today of the Writers Guild and actors’ union’s strikes on Disney’s earnings call. “And I am personally committed to achieve this result.”

Disney is following through on stated plan to raise streaming prices (welcome news to investors if not to many consumers), as well as launching a bundled version of Disney+ and Hulu and expanding the ad-supported version of Disney+ to Europe and Canada.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney CEO Bob Iger addressed the ongoing writers and actors strikes during the Mouse House’s quarterly earnings call Wednesday, just as the WGA’s work stoppage hit the 100-day mark. “Nothing is more important to this company than its relationships with the creative community. That includes actors, writers, animators, directors and producers,” Iger said.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney, trying to swing its streaming business into the black, has set substantial price hikes for Disney+ and Hulu standalone premium plans in the U.S. — while also rolling out a heavily discounted Disney+/Hulu ad-free combo bundle. As of Oct.

Billy Porter is one of the many working actors being affected by the ongoing Hollywood strikes.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The Walt Disney Co. saw its streaming losses narrow in the second quarter amid an exodus of 12.5 million subscribers from its Disney+ Hotstar streaming platform in India. For the quarter, Disney exceeded Wall Street’s targets on earnings per share but missed on revenue.

Disney saw direct-to-consumer losses shrink and adjusted EPS top estimates for the three months ended in June as CEO Bob Iger said the company’s on track to exceed $5.5 billion in anticipated cost savings.

actors and entertainers are striking in Hollywood and around the country with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) as they demand a rise in pay and residuals in the streaming era.And while the strikes may have a positive outcome in store for actors, Porter is already dealing with the negatives of the situation.“I have to sell my house. I don’t know when we’re gonna go back [to work],” the “Pose” star, 53, told the Evening Standard.“The life of an artist, until you make f–k-you money, which I haven’t made yet, is still check-to-check,” he added.Porter, who played ballroom emcee Pray Tell in “Pose” from 2018 to 2021, revealed he was gearing up to work on a couple of upcoming projects in September.However, due to the strike, “none of that is happening,” according to Porter.“So to the person who said, ‘We’re going to starve them out until they have to sell their apartments’ — you’ve already starved me out,” Porter told the outlet.The actor’s comments come after it was reported that film execs were willing to “allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” according to Deadline.The newly-single Porter also slammed Disney CEO Bob Iger who said actors’ expectations of treatment are “just not realistic.”“The business has evolved,” Porter said, referring to the streaming era of film and TV.“So the contract has to evolve and change, period.

Billy Porter is fired up and feeling the rage, anger and hurt so many Hollywood creatives are experiencing amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA/WGA strikes.The alum recently sat down for an interview with the — as he is currently in London for work — and he revealed that the strike has taken a toll on him personally, and he's been forced to sell his home here in Los Angeles.«I have to sell my house,» Porter shared. «Because we’re on strike.

Billy Porter has revealed the tough reality of being an actor amid the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Billy Porter revealed in a recent interview with Evening Standard that he has to sell his house amid the ongoing strikes in Hollywood in order to save money. Porter, an Emmy winner for his work on FX’s “Pose,” was speaking to the outlet to promote his music career and stayed clear of discussing any of his film and television work. When the topic of the strikes was brought up, Porter said he’s having to take cost-saving measures in his real life as various projects he was set to work on in September have been tabled.

Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said linear television is still the best way to protect the company’s sports programming, which, at the moment, “derives the most value from being behind a paywall, behind the traditional cable and satellite pay-TV universe.”

All DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs at the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District that includes Walt Disney World have been abolished, District Administrator Glenton Gilzean announced today. The board of the area of Orlando formerly called the Reedy Creek Improvement District said the move will end “hiring and contracting programs that discriminated against Americans based on gender and race, costing taxpayers millions of dollars.”

S&P today affirmed its A- investment grade credit rating for Disney after CEO Bob Iger, in a recent interview with CNBC, injected a big dose of uncertainty into what the company may look like going forward.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer, two former high-ranking Disney execs, are working for the Mouse House again — in a consulting capacity. The duo, who are the co-CEOs of media-rollup play Candle Media, have been retained by Disney to help analyze and develop strategic options for ESPN, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement. Staggs, formerly Disney’s chief operating officer, and Mayer, previously chairman of Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer and International and briefly CEO of TikTok, will work with Jimmy Pitaro, chairman, ESPN and Sports Content, on developing a plan for what Disney will do with ESPN going forward.

Bob Iger, with pressure mounting on multiple fronts, has turned to former top Disney executives Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer, hiring them as consultants to the media giant as it defines its strategy.

Could an October surprise be coming to Hollywood’s picket lines and C-suites?

use of AI being a major point of contention in negotiations — major entertainment companies appear to be hiring for jobs in the artificial intelligence field. The Hollywood Reporter searched through job listings and found a number of open positions related to AI.

Comcast President Mike Cavanagh called the notion that the company could enter the picture as rival Disney looks for a strategic partner for ESPN “very improbable.”

Mike Cavanagh, the president of Comcast who was recently named the de-facto head of NBC Universal, said the company remains “committed to reaching a fair deal [with actors and writers[ as soon as possible, so we can get back to doing what we do best, which making great content together.”

Bryan Cranston was one of many high-profile actors to hit the picket line in New York City on Tuesday, speaking at the SAG-AFTRA’s Rock the City for a Fair Contract rally.

Ron DeSantis has been having a hard time out on the campaign trail lately convincing Republican voters that he should be their presidential nominee, and the Walt Disney Company isn’t about to make things any easier for the Florida governor.

Harrison Ford’s stunt double in Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny, set himself ablaze on Monday (July 24) during a demonstration in Atlanta, Georgia.The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) union went on strike earlier this month, after negotiations broke down with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) over streaming residuals and safeguards against AI technology.At the end of the rally, Massa took to the stage in a flame-covered jacket. In the video’s caption on Instagram, he wrote: “We are tired of being burned by the AMPTP.”A post shared by Elena Sanchez (@theelenasanchez)In a follow-up post, Massa added: “We wanted to make a statement and I think we did! It was great to see such a great turnout from our local stunt community, local leadership, and actors who showed up to support us.