Marc Malkin-Senior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 7 winner Violet Chachki will honored with the Cultural Icon Award at Tom of Finland Foundation’s 30th annual Tom’s Bar fundraiser. The drag artist, burlesque performer, model and singer will be presented with the award by Dita Von Teese. “Mean Girls” movie musical and “Looking” star Daniel Franzese emcees. The all-day festivities take place June 18 at The Avalon & Bardot Hollywood in Los Angeles. The theme for this year’s bash is “All roads lead to Tom.” “Tom’s Bar is a place where all corners of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies converge for a big party under one roof,” ToFF creative director Richard Villani said in a statement. “Leathermen, pups, kinksters and fetishists of all stripes are welcome to dance and party all day long.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Jennifer Esposito remembers being asked to audition for “The Sopranos” more than once. She declined each time. “I chose to not go up for it when they would call me in because it was like, ‘I can’t relive this,’” Esposito recalls. “The only thing that used to make me crazy about the show when I did watch it was the character of Meadow because she was very nice. The girls I grew up around wanted to kill me, wanted to kill me every day. So it was PTSD.” Esposito grew up among organized crime on Staten Island. “Staten Island is the same Staten Island from when I left when I was 18 years old,” says the 50-year-old actor, whose credits span from television’s “Spin City” and “Blue Bloods” to the Oscar-winning “Crash.” “It’s still the same place. You need to understand that nothing leaves this island. It’s a very strange time warp of a place.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Playing a man who gets entangled in a murder investigation because his wife (Kaley Cuoco) is obsessed with true crime, “Based on a True Story” kind of hits close to home for Chris Messina. When he was a kid, he and a friend actually may have actually discovered a crime scene. “I grew up in Northport, Long Island,” Messina told Variety at the Peacock series’ premiere Thursday at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. “I grew up on Makamah Road, about a block from the Long Island Sound. A buddy and I walked to the Sound and – it was very ‘Stand By Me’ – we found a hand that washed up on the beach.” They immediately called the cops. “We had to report it,” Messina recalled. “I was pretending to be River Phoenix in ‘Stand By Me.’”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor At Thursday’s Los Angeles premiere of “Based on a True Story,” I asked Kaley Cuoco what’s the closest she’s ever been to a crime — because she stars in the new Peacock series as a woman who ends up in the middle of a murder investigation because she is obsessed with true crime stories. Without missing a beat, Cuoco said, “Scandoval.” The “Big Bang Theory” star said she’s been a “Vanderpump Rules” fan since the first season. Like so many viewers, she was “shocked” when it was revealed that Tom Sandoval was cheating on his girlfriend of 10 years, Ariana Madix, with her best friend, Raquel Leviss.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Back in April, James Gunn told me what he was looking for in the new Man of Steel for “Superman: Legacy.” “The next Superman has to be someone who has all the humanity that Superman has, but he’s also an alien,” he said. “It’s gotta be somebody who has the kindness and the compassion that Superman has and be somebody who you want to give a hug.” He added, “We have some really great choices, which I’m excited about.” Could former “The Bold and the Beautiful” star Pierson Fodé be on Gunn’s list? I hear that the 31-year-old actor could be in the running for the coveted role. Sources tell me that Fodé sent in a self-tape, which included a montage of footage showing his very Clark Kent-like childhood on a farm in the small town of Moses Lake, Wash. I’m told Gunn liked what he saw.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Chanel and the Tribeca Festival’s annual Artist Award Program dinner will take place June 12 in New Yor City. Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, Paula Weinstein and Chanel host the festivities. Artists Ana Benaroya, Beverly Fishman, Christie Neptune, Lisa Lebofsky, Natia Lemay, Patricia Encarnacion, Renee Cox, Sheree Hovsepian, Shinique Smith, and Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz will honored. Each have been invited to contribute original artwork to be presented to the 2023 Festival filmmaker winners. “Tribeca and Chanel recognize the significance of representation and the undeniable impact women artists can have when their work and stories are in the spotlight,” Tribeca Festival co-founder and Tribeca Enterprises CEO Jane Rosenthal said in statement. “We are dedicated to celebrating creativity and culture, fostering diverse voices, and encouraging the development of a new generation of visionaries. Our eighteen-year partnership with Chanel underscores our joint commitment to honoring powerful storytelling, artistic excellence, and the spirit of artists supporting other artists. We invite audiences to join us in this celebration and discover the transformative power of women’s artistry, which reflects our reality and shapes our understanding of the world.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor You’d think CBS would have jumped at the chance to snag Carol Burnett’s “90 Years of Laughter + Love” birthday special. Not only did the comedy legend’s variety show run on the network for 11 seasons, but so did its 50th anniversary special in 2017. “We first went to CBS, but they passed,” Burnett told me at an FYC event for the birthday special. “I did my show with them and all my specials, so naturally we went to them.” Fortunately, NBC bought the special, and it went on to score an impressive 7.6 million viewers. It’s now favored to pick up an Emmy nomination. “NBC couldn’t have been greater,” she said. “They’ve been so supportive right from the get-go.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor As “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” finally hits theaters this weekend, the producers behind the trilogy have their attention set on the third installment, next year’s “Beyond the Spider-Verse.” However, that’s not the only web-slinging project that’s on their minds. Producer Amy Pascal says a Spider-Woman and live-action Miles Morales movie are in the works. “You’ll see all of it,” she told me Tuesday at the “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” premiere in Los Angeles. “It’s all happening.” Producer Avi Arad teased that moviegoers will see a “Spider-Woman” movie “sooner than you expect.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor “Euphoria” actor Jacob Elordi and Zachary Quinto star in “He Went That Way,” a film based on the wacky true story of a celebrity animal trainer (Quinto) and his TV chimp Spanky, who spent three days with a serial killer (Elordi) in 1964. While some press reports have described the film as a queer project, Quinto tells me we won’t be seeing him and Elordi steam up the screen: “I wouldn’t say it’s an overtly queer story, but I will say that there are undertones of both emotional and physical tension between these two characters.” The actors became close during filming. “We talked a lot about his desire to do theater,” Quinto recalls. “I was like, ‘Go do a play in London. Go do a play in New York. That’s where you really cut your teeth.’ I’m sure we’ll see him onstage at some point.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” star Ismael Cruz Córdova is opening up about the cast and crew’s mental health while shooting the Amazon Prime Video series. During an appearance on this week’s “Just for Variety” podcast, the actor tells me that an on-set therapist was on hand to offer help after the show received racist backlash against its inclusive and diverse casting. “You need support when this happens because the voices are so loud and they’re coming at you from so many places,” Córdova says. Córdova, who was shooting Season 2 in the U.K. when we spoke, says the therapist’s presence alone was beneficial. “I loved seeing her there, even if we didn’t speak,” he said. “I knew there was someone there seeing me completely. It wasn’t just as an actor.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor About an hour after Bravo released the ratings for the Season 10 finale of “Vanderpump Rules” on Tuesday, producers Lisa Vanderpump and Alex Baskin were in Hollywood campaigning for Emmy consideration at an FYC event. The finale scored big, ending on a series-high with a combined audience of 4.1 million viewers on Bravo, on-demand and the Peacock platform within three days of its May 17 airing.  No doubt interest in the show skyrocketed because of #Scandoval, the drama stemming from Tom Sandoval cheating on his girlfriend of a decade, Ariana Madix, with her best friend, Raquel Leviss.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Is there going be a musical episode of “Only Murders in the Building” in Season 3?! While it hasn’t been officially confirmed that Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez will be singing and dancing at some point, I recently got a tease from musical impresarios Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. “We’ve worked on the next season of ‘Only Murders in the Building,’” Shaiman said. “We’re not allowed to say anything more than that, but you could probably do that math.” The third season also includes appearances by Meryl Streep, Paul Rudd and Jesse Williams.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Zooey Deschanel loves to cook. Her specialties include risotto and various French dishes she learned from visiting family overseas. Even so, her new Max food series, “What Am I Eating?,” is not about her life in the kitchen. “I didn’t want to do a show where it’s like, ‘I’m an actor – watch me cook!’” Deschanel told me Monday night at a dinner celebrating the “What Am I Eating?” premiere. “Nobody wants to see me do that.” Except maybe her boyfriend, “Property Brothers” star Jonathan Scott. “Whenever someone says something to me like, ‘How was your pandemic?’ I always say, ‘I was living my best life,’” he said. “She is gourmet. She is a great chef.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “Fast X,” now playing in theaters. Vin Diesel says spinoffs of the “Fast & Furious” franchise are already in the works, including a female-led installment. “I started developing the female spinoff…in 2017 with other spinoffs, and the sooner I deliver the finale, the sooner I can launch all the spinoffs,” he told me Saturday at the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) Block Party. “Fast X” is the first of a two-part ending, but “it’s bittersweet to think of a finale,” Diesel said. In an interview on May 12 at the Rome premiere, he teased that the ending might be spread out over three films. “Look how many characters and great talent there is in the movie,” Diesel said of the possible 12th film. “There was no way I can pull that off unless I had everyone on for five seconds. These characters are appealing and we need to see more of them.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Malin Akerman may be starring in a new televisions series. The “Billions” actor exclusively tells me that she recently shot a pilot for a dark comedy that addresses suicide. It was written by her husband Jack Donnelly. For Akerman, who plays a therapist on the show, mental health issues hit close to home because her mother struggled with depression for most of her childhood. The experience inspired Akerman’s work with On Our Sleeves, an organization that helps families talk about mental health. “It was up and down with my mom, as it is with depression,” Akerman says. “Sometimes she went real dark and we didn’t see her for days. She would lock herself in her room. And sometimes she was the best thing since sliced bread. And that was so much fun. She’s such a great person. I feel for her. I feel for anyone who struggles with depression.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Sterling K. Brown could be on his way to Broadway. The three-time Emmy winner will star in a reading of a new stage production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” on May 18 in New York City, sources exclusively tell me. Brown will play Randle P. McMurphy, a character famously portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the 1975 movie adaptation of Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel. Sources also tell me that Tony winner Laura Benanti will play Nurse Ratched. The team behind the reading have their hopes set on a Broadway run. The reading is directed by Young Vic artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah. Scott Delman produces. Delman is also on board as a producer of the “Thelma & Louise” musical, which has been workshopped with Amanda Seyfried and Evan Rachel Wood starring.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Peppermint wants back on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” She famously was runner-up in Season 9 when Sasha Velour took the crown after her iconic rose petal-filled finale lip sync. “I would love to go on ‘All Stars,’” Peppermint tells me on this week’s episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. She was asked to compete in 2018 but was already booked for the Go-Go’s Broadway musical, “Head Over Heels.” “I will happily go onto the show if they invite me,” Peppermint says. “It is quite expensive and quite an investment, but I do think it could be worth it.” Peppermint will next be seen in “A Transparent Musical,” opening May 20 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. She plays Davina, a role originated on the “Transparent” television series by Alexandra Billings. Peppermint recalls having “two-person watch parties” with her music producer when the series first premiered on Amazon in 2014.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Martha Stewart had just two months to get ready for her already iconic Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover. She upped her Pilates to three times a week, watched what she ate and stopped drinking alcohol. “I had my regular facials but maybe more frequently and I also got a spray tan,” Stewart, who is up for three Daytime Emmys this year, tells me during a phone interview on Tuesday. “And I’m not a hairy person, but I got a complete body wax.” At 81, Stewart made history as the oldest SI swimsuit model. A model in her 20s, Stewart worked with legends like Richard Avedon. “When I was a model and posing all the time in bathing suits and sporty sexy things, that’s the time I should have been on the cover,” she says before adding with a laugh, “But I wasn’t $75-an-hour model then. I was only a $50- and $60-an-hour model.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Javier Bardem is gushing over Austin Butler’s work as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in “Dune: Part Two.” “Seeing him bald or seeing him with hair, he’s an amazing creature to look at,” Bardem told me at the world premiere of “The Little Mermaid” in Los Angeles. “You can look at him for hours and go, ‘Oh, my God — how beautiful you are.’” Bardem continued, “On top of that, he’s so nice. He’s so generous, so funny and so committed. He has done an amazing job. I’ve only had a couple of moments with him, but I would see him and it was like, ‘Wow, [he] is the character.’” Feyd-Rautha is the evil nephew of Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and the brother of the sadistic Glossu Rabban, played by Dave Bautista. The two brothers are in competition to become the Harkonnen family’s successor on the planet Arrakis.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor UPDATED: Tony Awards Productions has altered the upcoming awards ceremony to conform with requests made by the Writers Guild of America, the union announced Monday evening. As a result, the WGA no longer has plans to picket the show. On Friday, the Writers Guild of America denied a request for a strike waiver from the show’s producers, meaning the Tonys wouldn’t be televised on June 11. Earlier Monday, it was announced that producers of the Tonys would file an appeal of the WGA’s waiver denial. A source tells Variety, “Everyone is still trying to see if there is a workable solution.” Now, it seems that the group has been able to negotiate a potential path forward for the telecast. Ariana DeBose was set to return as host, but it is believed that she would’ve exited if the event was icketed.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor UPDATED: Producers of the Tonys will file an appeal of the WGA’s waiver denial. The decision was made Monday during a meeting of the Tonys management committee. A source tells Variety, “Everyone is still trying to see if there is a workable solution.” On Friday, the Writers Guild of America denied a request for a strike waiver from the show’s producers, meaning the Tonys won’t be televised on June 11. Ariana DeBose was set to return as host but it is believed she’ll cancel if the strike is still on. The Tonys were scheduled to take place at the United Palace in New York’s Washington Heights. The ceremony was to start at 8 p.m. ET and air live on CBS, as well as the streaming service Paramount+.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Trace Lysette is in a hotel room on 8th Street in New York City when she jumps on a Zoom video call with Variety to talk about her new movie, “Monica.” In just a couple of hours, she’s set to walk the red carpet at the indie drama’s premiere at the IFC Center. “I used to turn tricks a few blocks from there,” Lysette says. Like so many trans women, Lysette once turned to sex work as a means of survival. “I was a young person alone in New York doing God knows what to survive,” says Lysette, who was raised in Ohio. “Last night we had a screening at The [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community] Center here. That was so heavy for me because I got my gender identity therapy there 20 years ago.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor The Tonys has asked the Writers Guild of America for a waiver in order to go ahead with plans for Broadway’s biggest night of the year. A source confirms that the request was filed with the WGA earlier this week. If the waiver is not granted, the televised ceremony – set for June 11 — will probably be canceled because presenters and nominees are unlikely to cross picket lines. Ariana DeBose is set to return as host but it is believed she’ll cancel if the strike is still on. The Tonys are scheduled to take place at the United Palace in New York’s Washington Heights. The ceremony starts at 8 p.m. ET and air live on CBS, as well as the streaming service Paramount+.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor It’s one thing to see Tom Cruise seemingly defy the laws of sanity in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, but it’s a whole other experience watching the actor complete his stunts in person. Vanessa Kirby, who reprises her role as the White Widow in “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” says she was on set when Cruise parachuted from a motorcycle after riding it off a cliff in Iceland for the eighth installment of “M:I.” “He did it many times in one day,” recalls Kirby. “He did it consecutively … and repeatedly so he could capture all the different angles and sides of it.” If Cruise was nervous, he sure didn’t show it. “He was just so calm,” Kirby says. “He had no fear. He just found it exhilarating. That kind of belief in cinema and what one could achieve and his passion for it is so inspiring. He kind of believes he can do the impossible and then he does…I love being a part of the franchise. I’m really excited to come back.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Jennifer Lopez and the team behind “The Mother” are already thinking about a sequel. “I think it would be ‘The Daughter,’” Lopez told me Wednesday night at the premiere of the new Netflix action thriller. In the film, Lopez plays a former assassin who is pulled back into her deadly work when her 12-year-old daughter’s (Lucy Paez) life is put in danger. Paez agreed. “The sequel will definitely be ‘The Daughter,’” the young actor said. Not only does Lopez’s character kill at least a couple dozen men in the movie, but the actor’s impressive stunt work also includes motorcycle chases and gunfights while riding a snowmobile. “I was achy, but not hurt,” Lopez said. “I don’t think I’ve ever done an action movie like this. I do a lot of my own stunts because I’m athletic. But I have kids so I’m not going to risk anything.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor “Elite” breakout star Manu Ríos will be at the Cannes Film Festival to celebrate the premiere of “Strange Way of Life,” Pedro Almodóvar’s romantic Western short headlined by Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke and co-starring Ríos. At the Met Gala, Ríos shared with Variety that most of his scenes are with both leading men. But during their time off-camera, “I spent a lot of time with Pedro. He’s the best. It was pretty hot because we shot in the desert in the south of Spain, so it was a lot of time without doing anything and just talking.” He continued, “He’s a really funny guy. It was so much fun.” “Strange Way of Life” marks Almodóvar’s second primarily English-language project, after his short “The Human Voice” in 2020.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Lea Michele’s run in “Funny Girl” doesn’t end until Sept. 3, but she’s already plotting her return to Broadway. In fact, the actor-singer tells me she has her next gig lined up. “I already know what it is,” she teases. But Michele is being tight-lipped on details. “You know it,” she says, hinting it could be a revival of some sort. “It’s very different musically,” she adds. Michele made a triumphant return to the stage in September when she replaced Beanie Feldstein in the first revival of “Funny Girl” since Barbra Streisand originated the role of Fanny Brice in 1964.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Joe Russo is sounding the alarm about artificial intelligence. Six days before the Writers Guild of America (WGA) called for a strike, I spoke to Joe Russo at the Los Angeles premiere of “Citadel” about his concerns regarding AI. The use of AI has become a major point of contention between the guild and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTA). “I think everyone should be scared of AI,” Russo said. “I don’t know if you’ve heard any of the Drake ‘songs’ that have been dropping on social media, but it’s here. It’s not going anywhere.” The “Avengers” director said in order for AI to work, it must be a “tool servicing us rather than us servicing the tool.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Judd Apatow thinks the studios and streamers already have an idea of when the writers strike may end. “I think they probably already know what they’re going to bend on,” Apatow told Variety Saturday at the Rock4EB benefit in Malibu. “I would assume they already know what date this is going to end. They’ve probably been planning this for years.” The writer-director reflected comments heard on picket lines in Los Angeles and New York after talks cratered between the Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the writers union began to strike Tuesday. Apatow explained that he sees the strike as a calculated business move by Hollywood’s largest employers.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Orville Peck may be nervous about bringing drag queens onstage during his concerts in red states, but he refuses to let fear get in the way of fighting for LGBTQ rights. “We played Knoxville, and we did Memphis, and we played a few places in Tennessee and just the South in general. And I doubled down, and I had a drag queen come out in the middle of the show, and I would do a big speech,” Peck tells me. “To me, drag is extremely important not just because a lot of my lovely dear friends do it,” he continues. “It’s a cornerstone of not just gay culture but gay civil rights. It is literally why I have the ability to be an openly gay man in country music. Was I scared? Yes, but I did it anyway because sometimes you just have to do something no matter what.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Stanley Tucci may not be searching much longer. The actor-foodie says he’s “pretty confident” that he’ll find a new home for his cooking and travel show, “Searching for Italy.” CNN canceled the two-season series in December when the network ended its development of original documentary programming. “We’re talking to different companies,” Tucci told me at the premiere of his new Amazon Prime Video series, “Citadel.” “We’ll find out in a few weeks.” The series received seven Emmy nominations, winning for outstanding hosted nonfiction series in 2021 and 2022. 

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Can you believe that June 2 will mark the 10-year anniversary of the Red Wedding scene in “Game of Thrones”? Richard Madden, whose character Robb Stark met a grisly end in the episode, recalls filming the bloody massacre. “I remember a lot of crying because at the end of it, I was going to be apart from my family that I had lived with for five years — my on-screen mother and my wife and this crew that had spent a lot of time together, so it was traumatic not only to shoot but traumatic because I was losing my family,” the actor told me at the premiere of his Amazon Prime Video series “Citadel.” The Red Wedding included the slaughter of several major and minor characters on the show, including Robb, his mother Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley), his bride Talisa Stark (Oona Chaplin) and their unborn child.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor The excitement and buzz continues to build for “The Little Mermaid.” A source tells me that director Rob Marshall and husband, producer John DeLuca, hosted a private screening of Disney’s live adaptation of the 1989 animated classic on Sunday night at New York’s Whitby Hotel. The guest list of about 80 people included Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, Matt Damon and his family, Emily Mortimer, Ben Platt and his “Parade” co-star Micaela Diamond, Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Bob Balaban and Lynn Grossman, Diane and Brian Sutherland, and Scott Ellis. The film’s composer Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who co-wrote three new songs for the movie, were also there.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Nicole Avant and her family have lived through the unthinkable. Her mother, 81-year-old philanthropist Jacqueline Avant, was fatally shot in her Beverly Hills home during a home invasion on Dec. 1, 2021. Jacqueline’s husband, music industry legend Clarence Avant, was also home at the time. “My faith has kept me stable,” Nicole told me Friday morning at the opening of the Jacqueline Avant Children and Family Center at the MLK Medical Campus in the Watts-Willowbrook community. “But it is true that life does begin again and you will smile again. You have to believe that even if you don’t see how that can be, you have to act as if.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor John Mulaney is answering questions about being asked by Comedy Central executives if he was interested in hosting “The Daily Show” when Jon Stewart bowed out in 2015. During a recent appearance on Doug Herzog and Jen Chaney’s “Basic!” podcast, Herzog — who was president of Viacom Music and Entertainment Group, which oversaw Comedy Central, until 2017 — asked Mulaney if he recalled the conversation he had with then-president of Comedy Central, Kent Alterman, about potentially taking over. “I think we were floating your interest in that and you were very lukewarm as I remember,” Herzog said. Mulaney explained that he ultimately passed because, in part, his Fox sitcom “Mulaney” had just been canceled after only one season.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor “Younger” star Miriam Shor has been cast in Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic, “Maestro.” Shor exclusively tells Variety that she is playing actor and model Cynthia O’Neal, a friend of the legendary musician and his wife Felicia Montealegre. Cooper directed the Netflix film, co-wrote it with Josh Singer and stars as Bernstein. Carey Mulligan portrays Montealegre. “I play Cynthia O’Neal, who was a very good friend of the Bernsteins, particularly his wife, Felicia,” Shor said Thursday night at the Los Angeles premiere of her and Cooper’s latest film, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” “I mean, that was unbelievable. Because an actor who also directs, to get to work with Bradley… he’s a savant. It’s miraculous. So that was really special, I was really grateful.”