Mike Fleming Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Henry Cavill said it’s always been “very important” to maintain his ties to Superman, with the actor just recently being able to announce his return as the Kryptonian Kal-El. He tells Deadline, though, that for a moment, he’d had to accept that whatever future he might have with the beloved DC character was outside of his control.

Good afternoon Insiders, thanks for always sticking with us. Max Goldbart here talking you through a packed week in the global entertainment world. Read on, and sign up here.

The Cannes Film Festival officially announced the selection of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis in Competition at its press conference in Paris on Thursday, confirming Deadline’s scoop from Mike Fleming earlier this week.

Deadline is continuing to bolster its formidable international ranks with the hire of respected industry vet Stewart Clarke, recent Creative Director of the Edinburgh TV Festival and former international correspondent at Variety.

Ellie Duque has joined Deadline as President. Duque will bring her vast experience to help the continuing evolution of Deadline beyond being the preeminent breaker of Hollywood news, and into other domestic and international platforms. Duque replaces Stacey Farish, whose resignation was accepted during the summer. Duque will report to Tom Finn, Penske Media’s Executive Vice President of Operations and Finance based in Los Angeles. She starts October 9.  

EXCLUSIVE: The Sands International Film Festival of St Andrews will return for a third edition set to run from April 19 – 21, 2024.

The topic of streaming loomed large over the keynote industry session of the Sands Film Festival’s second edition, featuring Joe Russo and Cinetic Media founder John Sloss.

A Pinellas County, Florida medical examiner’s report indicates that Fame star Irene Cara’s official cause of death was Arteriosclerotic and Hypertensive Cardiovascular Disease. In layperson’s terms, she had a hardening of the arteries and stress on her heart as a result of high blood pressure.

Jake Kanter has rejoined Deadline as International Investigations Editor based in London.

As Deadline’s Mike Fleming reported back in June of this year, Redbird Capital Partners has today confirmed details in that story. Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Gerry Cardinale are launching an artist-led studio that partners with filmmakers to empower creative vision and broaden access to profit participation.

Deadline has hired former Business Insider Entertainment Reporter Zac Ntim as International Film Reporter, based in London.

As part of the opening day here at CineEurope in Barcelona, Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri shed some light on everything from the upcoming Minions: The Rise of Gru to whether we’ll see a same-sex kiss in a future Illumination title and how one long-ago misfire helped inform his career.

Uber writer-producer Taylor Sheridan is excellent at keeping secrets, namely how Casey Dutton’s vision quest at the end of Season 4 of Yellowstone changes the character as he moves forward. But star Luke Grimes wouldn’t have it any other way.

Deadline has hired Jesse Whittock as International TV Co-Editor, based in London.

Three days after he was attacked by Will Smith at the Oscars, Chris Rock made his first public appearance at the opening show of his Ego Death World Tour in Boston.

MIKE FLEMING: Joe, I thought it a good idea to go back and compare our feelings, days after we live-blogged the Academy Awards for Deadline on Sunday. I must say right up front, I am ashamed of the position I took, in respecting Will Smith for standing up for his wife when she was insulted by Chris Rock, because Jada Pinkett Smith has alopecia and that is why she keeps her hair close-cropped. The person I should have lauded was Rock, who had the discipline to keep his cool after being shockingly assaulted onstage. Smith blew what should have been the pinnacle of his inspiring career, and I blew it in not recognizing the incalculable damage he did to his legacy, and the Academy Awards.

As Deadline broke yesterday, Beyonce has now been officially confirmed to sing in one of the slots of Best Original Song contenders on the 94th Oscars. As noted in the Deadline article speculation is her performance of her nominated song (co-written with DIXSON) called “Be Alive” from King Richard will take place via satellite from a Compton tennis court. That aspect however was not in the Academy’s long awaited announcement of plans for the Best Song presentations. As my colleague Mike Fleming noted the formal announcement would come after voting closed, and indeed it did exactly at 5pm PT which is the same moment ballots had to be in to Pricewaterhouse. The campaign is over. All that is left now is the show itself.

Taylor Sheridan remains a busy man.

The Many Saints of Newark writer David Chase and stars Ray Liotta and Alessandro Nivola discussed the Sopranos prequel Saturday at Contenders Film: New York. Speaking with Deadline’s Mike Fleming, Chase and Nivola zeroed in on the explosive rage of Nivola’s character, Dickie Moltisanti, while Liotta had a different perspective on his role.

Right before nominations were announced this morning Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences President David Rubin confirmed Deadline’s exclusive from last week that the upcoming 93rd Annual Academy Awards show would be coming from both the vast Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles as well as their usual haunt, the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Tom Grater International Film ReporterHello and welcome to International Insider. Tom Grater here bringing you our latest rundown of international news, including some exciting TIFF deal-making action, a key hire in the German TV market, and the winners from the first major film festival to take place in the pandemic era.Pre-market nerves: “How will this year’s market play out? Who knows?” Wrote Deadline’s Mike Fleming on the eve of this year’s Toronto Film Festival.

David Robb Labor EditorSAG-AFTRA today put the kibosh on Songbird, one of the first movies to shoot in Los Angeles during the pandemic, telling members not to work on the film because it “failed to complete the signatory process and is therefore not signed to any applicable SAG-AFTRA agreement.” In the past, however, many such Do Not Work orders have been resolved once producers clear up the paperwork with the union.As Deadline’s Mike Fleming reported on May 19, Songbird is a pandemic thriller