Donna Langley Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Donna Langley, Chairman, NBCUniversal Studio Group & Chief Content Officer, has been one of the key figures negotiating with the writers and actors.

Angelique Jackson The first time Donna Langley came to the Cannes Film Festival she was a junior executive working on 1999’s “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.” “I had just been promoted and I was fortunate enough to get picked to come on this trip to be part of the support team, and it was great! It was very different to this experience, I will say,” Langley said, eliciting a laugh from the well-heeled crowd at the Kering Women in Motion dinner, held at the Place de la Castre high above the Croisette. “[But] we had the time of our lives.

Ellise Shafer Film industry players gathered at Mr. Nakamoto at the Mondrian hotel in Cannes on Monday night to celebrate Universal Pictures International.

It seemed appropriate that the location for the annual Women in Motion dinner in Cannes should be at Place de la Castre, atop Suquet Hill where victors of yore could survey their domain. It was certainly the case that honored guest Dame Donna Langley had captured the castle.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Paramount Global may be a direct competitor, but NBCUniversal Studio Group Chairman and Chief Content Officer Donna Langley will be disappointed if the media giant goes away. “It’s sad,” Langley said at the Kering Women in Motion talk at the Cannes Film Festival, noting that a sale of Paramount means there will be fewer Hollywood studios. “These companies have been great and I’m a big believer in this competitive landscape — kind of ‘all boats will rise.

As fears stack up in the industry over a possible Sony and Paramount merger, subtracting one major motion picture studio from the industry, The Chairman of NBCU Studio Group and Chief Content Officer Donna Langley at a Cannes Kering talk weighed in on what that impact will be.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer It’s something out of a movie, the way a young Donna Langley first discovered the magic of film. The chairman of NBCU studio group and chief content officer was in her late teens, broadening her horizons in Paris away from her upbringing on the tiny Isle of Wight off the English Channel. It was there she saw films like Jean-Jacques Beineix’s “Diva,” Luc Besson’s “Le Grand Bleu” and retrospectives on the works of auteurs like Jean-Luc Godard.

William Earl Variety has announced the initial lineup for the Kering Women in Motion Talks at the Cannes Film Festival. This year’s talks include some of the most important women working in cinema. On May 18, Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh will interview NBCUniversal Studio Group chairman and chief content officer Donna Langley, touching on a major year for the studio that includes the upcoming feature “Wicked.” The conversation comes at a pivotal time for Langley and the studio as Universal Pictures will receive the International Achievement in Film award from Variety at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and Langley is receiving the Women in Motion Award at a dinner hosted by Kering on May 19.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The television industry’s annual “upfront” is usually a place where advertisers get to preview new series and specials, not blockbuster movies, so NBC raised eyebrows Monday when one of the first previews it showed to an audience at Radio City Music Hall was of the coming Universal film “Wicked.” NBCUniversal, chief content officer Donna Langley told the crowd, was “excited to build up our story legacy across film, TV and streaming.” Movies and premium cable series from HBO and Showtime used to be something traditional TV advertisers got their hands on only after they had made their way through theaters and pay-TV windows. Now, as a batch of this year’s upfront showcases reveal, they are increasingly being dangled before Madison Avenue as a major reason to support TV companies.

After an opening performance by a guitar-picking Jimmy Fallon — who sung about, among other things, how “next year I’ll be a hologram” — the NBCUniversal upfront got underway Monday at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

In an unusual move, NBCUniversal used its upfront presentation to ad buyers in New York on Monday to debut a four-minute extended first look at its forthcoming film version of Wicked.

Addie Morfoot Contributor In “Hollywood Con Queen,” director Chris Smith chronicles one of Hollywood’s most audacious scams that involved an impostor who posed as top entertainment studio executives to swindle aspiring artists. Based on the original reporting of entertainment journalist Scott Johnson, and his book, “Hollywood Con Queen: The Hunt for an Evil Genius,” the three-part Apple TV+ docuseries features first-hand accounts and insights from Johnson, private investigator Nicole Kotsianas, the alleged con artist, Hargobind Tahilramani, and his victims.

Universal Pictures presentation and Donna Langley — chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group and the newly minted chief content officer of NBCUniversal Studio Group — had yet to step on stage. Her team showed off glimpses of the sexy, action-packed tornado sequel “Twisters,” the Gen Z-leaning creepfest “Nosferatu” from Robert Eggers and an extended sequence from the latest installment of Illumination’s “Despicable Me” series.

Time100, Time Magazine‘s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, includes some notable show business figures, including Taraji P. Henson, Michael J. Fox, Fantasia Barrino, Alia Bhatt, Sofia Coppola, Colman Domingo, and America Ferrera.

The USC School of Cinematic Arts has announced that Miky Lee will deliver the 20024 Commencement address.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent NBCUniversal Studio Group chair and chief content officer Donna Langley will be celebrated at the Cannes Film Festival, where she will receive the Women in Motion Award from Kering‘s chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault, Cannes president Iris Knobloch and director Thierry Fremaux. The awards ceremony will take place at a glamorous gala dinner hosted by Kering on May 19, which will bring together major talent and executives attending the festival.

Universal Studios chief Donna Langley is heading to this year’s Cannes Film Festival where she will be handed Kering’s annual Women In Motion Award.

EXCLUSIVE: After a decade at Paramount Global and its predecessors ViacomCBS and Viacom, Darren Star is making a move. In a competitive situation, the prolific TV creator of such shows as Beverly Hills, 90210, Sex and the City and Emily In Paris, has signed a big multi-year overall deal at Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. No one is commenting on the size of the pact, but I hear it is in the eight figures and in the top tier of premium overall deals; certainly the biggest we have seen since the end of the strikes.

How do you capture Jenne Casarotto? She was at the intersection of theatre, film and television. It all, seemingly, swirled around her.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Oscar-winning directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, known professionally as Daniels, will debut their cinematic follow-up to “Everything Everywhere All at Once” in 2026. Universal Pictures, which recently signed an exclusive first-look deal with the filmmakers, added to its release calendar an “Untitled Event Film Directed by Daniels” on June 12, 2026.

Cillian Murphy shouted out his “Oppenhomies” while accepting his leading actor BAFTA award. After thanking the film’s director Christopher Nolan, producer Emma Thomas and Universal Pictures chief Donna Langley, Murphy said: “I want to thank my fellow nominees and my Oppenhomies and, in fact, all of you in the room. I know it’s a cliché to say I’m in awe of you, but I genuinely am in awe.” Murphy played J.

Albert Einstein had his theory of relativity, and Breaking Baz has his theory of party lift-off.

Universal has entered into a first-look film partnership with Point Grey Pictures, the production company of Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and James Weaver. The deal comes following the companies’ past work together on breakout comedy hits including the Neighbors franchise, Good Boys and Blockers. 

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Seth Rogen‘s production company Point Grey Pictures is teaming up with the studio that backed its raunchy, R-rated hits like “Neighbors,” “Good Boys” and “Blockers.” Universal Pictures has forged a first-look film partnership with Point Grey Pictures, the company that Rogen co-founded with Evan Goldberg in 2011. James Weaver, a longtime producing partner, is the president of Point Grey, which is named after the Vancouver secondary school where Rogen and Goldberg first met.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Jennifer Lopez may have gotten a ton of awards season buzz for her work in the 2019 drama “Hustlers,” but she didn’t walk home with any major honors. In fact, she reflected on not receiving any top prizes in the entertainment world at Monday’s Elle Women in Hollywood event. “I don’t have an Oscar.

Jeff Shell, whose tenure running NBCUniversal came to an abrupt end last spring, is in advanced talks to join private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners.

David Zaslav has a funny way of making friends.

Four days after the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike, Netflix rolled out the blue carpet for the first post-strike Hollywood premiere of a major studio production attended by talent, Season 6 of the streamer’s British royal drama The Crown.

After 118 days of the actors guild being out on strike, SAG-AFTRA and the studios have reached a tentative deal on a new contract that could see Hollywood up and running again within weeks.

This was not how David Zaslav and Bob Iger wanted today to go.

The lead negotiators for SAG-AFTRA and the studios are set to meet later today in what could be the final phase to sealing a new deal and the end to the 117-day actors guild strike.

EXCLUSIVE: A deal may not be in the cards tonight, but SAG-AFTRA and the studios could be heading back to negotiations within hours.

ongoing strike to an end. The offer comes at the end of a renewed wave of negotiations between the two groups, which have been taking place over the past 12 days.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The studios told SAG-AFTRA on Saturday that they have made their “last, best and final” offer, as they seek an end to the 114-day actors strike. The offer includes an enhanced residual bonus for high-performing streaming shows. Under the proposal, actors who appear on the most-watched shows on each platform will see their standard streaming residual doubled.

EXCLUSIVE: There’s real movement in talks between SAG-AFTRA and the studios for a new three-year contract,

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA is set to meet again on Wednesday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers after a “productive” day of talks on Tuesday. The sides continue to project “cautious optimism” about resolving the strike, which is now on Day 110. The studios have warned that they must get a deal this week in order to be able to produce partial seasons of scripted network TV series.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA leadership continued to bargain with the major studios on Sunday, but despite growing optimism around the industry, no deal has been reached yet. The union presented its latest proposal to the studios on Saturday. The two sides were said to be engaged in “productive” talks through the weekend.