Ramin Setoodeh Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Variety’s creative director HaleyKluge has been honored by the American Society of Magazine Editors‘ 59th annual National Magazine Awards. She received an ASME NEXT Award for Journalists Under 30, which recognize outstanding achievements by early-career print and digital journalists. Nominated by Variety’s co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh, Kluge will be honored alongside Vulture’s Rebecca Alter, The Hollywood Reporter’s Lovia Gyarkye, New York Magazine’s Isabela Quintero and MIT Technology Review’s Zeyi Yang.

William Earl When Donald Trump left his seat in the boardroom as the star of his long-running NBC reality series “The Apprentice” in 2015, in order to run for president of the United States, he had a clear successor in mind. “I said, ‘The best person to hire would be Ivanka Trump,’” Donald Trump says.

, but his performance of “I'm Just Ken” sure won my heart.From the moment stepped out in that glittering pink suit, I knew the memes were imminent—but I didn't know just how obsessed the internet would become. With the help of plenty of the Barbie movie Kens, producer Mark Ronson, and Slash, the 43-year-old actor produced a Hollywood performance like we haven't seen since donned her pink dress and gloves for “” in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)—and yes, I know that's what Gosling & Co.

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter Variety.com was the highest-ranking entertainment business news site every single month in 2023. The online home of legacy brand and weekly entertainment business magazine Variety scored record-breaking traffic last year. An average of 29.1 million unique users visited the site each month in 2023 — and Variety reached a bigger digital audience than consumer news publications such as Vanity Fair and Entertainment Weekly, as measured by unique visitors according to ComScore.

William Earl Variety and “Entertainment Tonight” have partnered to produce the official digital red carpet pre-show for the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards, which will air Jan. 7 live on CBS and Paramount+ The digital pre-show will air live starting at 3:30 p.m. PT on Variety‘s digital and social platforms, ETOnline.com, the Golden Globe Awards website and on the digital platforms of 20 other publications owned by Penske Media Corp., parent company of Variety, which also owns the Globes in a joint venture with Eldridge.

Katcy Stephan Another season of Variety’s beloved interview series, “Actors on Actors,” has come to a close – with a bang. Season 19 is officially the most successful rollout in franchise history, racking up over 145 million views across the brand’s social media platforms. This round of interviews featured stimulating conversations between the biggest stars in this year’s Oscar race.

Ramin Setoodeh Co-Editor-in-Chief Hello, Brooklyn. Is Madonna in the house? It’s after 10 p.m. on Wednesday night, and the Material Girl is nowhere to be found on the first hometown stop of her career-retrospective “Celebration” tour.

Variety‘s Actors on Actors series is returning for season 19!

Valerie Wu Intern Variety has been nominated for 97 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards including nominations for best entertainment publication and best entertainment news website. “We are incredibly proud of the Variety newsroom for another outstanding year as the No. 1 news organization covering the business of Hollywood,” said co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton.

William Earl Variety announced today it will host its annual New York Party on Thursday, Oct. 7, celebrating this year’s cover star honoree, Ice Spice, along with the individuals profiled in Variety’s 2023 New Power of New York Impact List. The New Power of New York Impact List recognizes 50 creatives, executives and entrepreneurs who are making waves in the New York entertainment scene.

Whitney Cinkala Variety has announced the lineup for its annual Business of Broadway Breakfast, presented by City National Bank and taking place in New York on Oct. 2.

2023 MTV VMAs had a camera operator whose job it was to “continuously” film Taylor Swift during other artists’ live performances.That’s according to Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh, who tweeted about “how important” the ‘Midnights’ pop star is to the awards ceremony.Setoodeh shared a clip of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion delivering the debut performance of their latest collaboration ‘Bongos’ at the New Jersey event last night (September 12). The footage showed a cameraman filming Swift close-up as she danced to the song on the front row.“How important is Taylor Swift to the #VMAs?” he wrote above the video.

Stray Kids recently made their debut appearance at the MTV VMAs with a performance of ‘S-Class’, which garnered a huge reaction from pop superstar Taylor Swift.Taylor Swift’s reaction to Stray Kids’ performance of ‘S-Class’ was captured on the ‘POV’ stream of the 2023 MTV VMAs. As noted by Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh, there was a “camera operator tasked with filming her continuously” during the ceremony.During Stray Kids’ performance, Swift was seen nodding her head in approval and vibing along to the song.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Patricia Arquette, Lulu Wang, Finn Wolfhard, Barry Jenkins, Camila Morrone, Willem Dafoe and Colman Domingo mixed and mingled at Variety and Chanel’s annual female filmmaker dinner during the Toronto Film Festival. At the glamorous event, held on Saturday night at Soho House and hosted by Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh, VIP attendees nibbled on tuna tartare, striploin steak and heirloom tomato salad as they toasted the recipients of Chanel’s Women Writers’ Network. The year-round program is designed to advance the careers of women and non-binary alumni of the TIFF Writers’ Studio.

William Earl Variety and the Golden Globe Awards continue their tradition of festival events with an exclusive invite-only party celebrating Italian cinema and talent attending the Venice Film Festival. The event will take place on Aug.

William Earl Variety is adding to its video team. The industry’s leading entertainment publication has hired Ethan Bellows, a veteran video producer with a strong background in digital storytelling, as the head of production. Bellows, who spent a decade at Entertainment Weekly as a senior producer, will be overseeing video coverage for Variety‘s live events as well as producing the magazine’s biggest video series such as Directors on Directors, which last year featured everyone from James Cameron to Ryan Coogler to Taylor Swift.

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter Daniel D’Addario is stepping into a new role at Variety. The journalist, who was brought on as chief television critic in 2018, has been named chief correspondent for the magazine, co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton announced.

William Earl Variety has promoted Elsa Keslassy to Executive Editor of International, according to an announcement from Variety‘s co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton. In her new role, Keslassy will lead the magazine’s global team of award-winning correspondents, while helping guide its reporting at the leading international film and television festivals and markets.

Sophia Scorziello editor Rachel Maddow, broadcast journalist known for her MSNBC slot “The Rachel Maddow Show,” says the secret to successful journalist is simple: “Life is short. Tell the truth and see how it lands. That’s it.” This year, Maddow is being honored with the 2023 Variety and Rolling Stone Truth Seekers Award.

Ramin Setoodeh Co-Editor-in-Chief There was Gatsby. At 11:30 p.m. at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, the amfAR Cannes gala quietly welcomed one of the biggest movie stars in the world to a tent off the Mediterranean Sea. Leonardo DiCaprio had been missing for several years at the glitzy charity auction that marks the end of partying at the Cannes Film Festival, but this year, he not only stopped by, he brought a date — his mom, Irmelin Indenbirken.  At Table 15, near the stage where celebrities tried to wrangle nepo babies and oligarchs for hundreds of thousands of dollars for lavish pieces of arts, vacations and even a car, DiCaprio tried to go incognito (as if that was possible). He wore a baseball cap to the black-tie dinner and kept his head down. (Though baseball caps are part of DiCaprio’s typical uniform, this festival, he’s been all over Cannes, sans hat, for the premiere of his film, “Killers of the Flower Moon.”)

 got a boisterous 9-minute standing ovation after the three-hour epic premiered Saturday at the 76th annual Cannes Film Festival.Leonardo DiCaprio, director Martin Scorsese and the rest of the cast soaked up every second of the ovation displayed at Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France.  posted a snippet of the thunderous applause, and outlet's co-editor-in-chief, Ramin Setoodeh, reports that the nine-minute standing ovation is «the biggest and loudest» of the film festival so far.According to, Scorsese took the mic after the ovation and addressed the excited crowd.«Thank you to the Osages,» he said. «Everyone connected with the picture.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Stuart Ford may have been named Variety’s Billion Dollar Producer, but the AGC Studios founder is already looking ahead to his next big milestone. “We’ve raised more than $1.5 billion in production financing and, the way our cinema business is evolving, who knows, in three or four years from now, I might be standing in front of you having achieved $1.05 billion at the box office,” said Ford. The executive was feted by Variety at a May 19 cocktail reception in Cannes. Many of the super-producer’s business associates and partners, as well as industry friends, dropped by the Croisette villa to toast Ford, who was given the honor by Variety’s co-editor in chief Ramin Setoodeh.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Cate Blanchett kicked off her stilettos on Friday night as she took the stage a Cannes Film Festival party hosted by Variety and the Golden Globes. Because this is Cannes, where women are mandated to wear heels on the red carpet, shoes have become a political symbol on the French Riviera. And indeed, in this case, Blanchett went barefoot to make a statement — to stand in solidarity with the women of Iran. The A-list actor, on hand to present “Holy Spider” star Zahra Amir Ebrahim with a breakthrough artists award, grabbed the trophy and joked, “This is to stab everyone who stands in the way of women’s rights. Up the vajayjay!” In her remarks, an emotional Ebrahimi called attention to her home country, which is “executing innocent people.” She said, “I always thought being an actress was a paradox: serving the emotions of your own and being a flag or mirror or light. This award celebrates this paradox.”

Johnny Depp was seen getting visibly emotional as his new film Jeanne du Barry received a seven-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday (16 May). The French-language film directed by Maïwenn was controversially chosen to open the festival this year.

William Earl Variety and the Golden Globes Awards have announced a partnership celebrating breakthrough artists at the Cannes Film Festival. The event will take place on May 19 at the Barriere Beach at The Majestic Cannes. At the event, Variety will present its Breakthrough Awards which highlights actors whose work have them poised to be some of the most promising talents in the business. This year’s recipients include Cannes 2022 Best Actress winner Zar Amir-Ebrahami, Charles Melton who co-stars in Todd Haynes’ “May December”, Tye Sheridan who stars and produced the film “Black Flies”, and Shaunette Renee Wilson who co-stars in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”

Ethan Shanfeld Variety garnered a record 96 nominations for the SoCal Journalism awards sponsored by the Los Angeles Press Club, with nods across magazine and entertainment journalism, art and photography, video, audio, online content and social media during the 2022 calendar year. Among the nominations announced Friday were Tim Gray for print journalist of the year and Clayton Davis for online journalist of the year. In addition, Owen Gleiberman, Chris Willman and Daniel D’Addario were nominated as entertainment journalists of the year. “We are extremely proud of our newsroom for a banner year in record-breaking traffic, hard-hitting investigative journalism, profile writing and video. These nominations are a testament to the great work Variety is doing covering the entertainment industry,” said Variety co-editor-in-chiefs Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton.

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter Variety has hired acclaimed magazine writer Stephen Rodrick to be a chief correspondent for the publication. In his new post, Rodrick will write cover stories and longform pieces about Hollywood, movies, TV shows and important figures in the entertainment industry. His work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, New York and The New Yorker. He has spent the past decade writing for Rolling Stone. “Stephen is one of the best magazine writers in the country,” say Variety co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton. “His arrival at Variety comes in a year where we are experiencing unprecedented digital growth. We are so excited to start publishing his beautiful, literary writing in the pages of our weekly print magazine and online.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The winners of the 27th Webby Awards have been announced, with Variety taking home two trophies from the annual awards program that recognizes the best of the internet. The magazine’s Variety Power of Women 2022 from Los Angeles won the Webby People’s Voice Award for events and livestreams in the General Video category, and Variety won the Webby for editorial writing in features and design section of the Websites and Mobile Sites category for co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh’s Oct. 26, 2022, cover story on Hugh Jackman. Variety had garnered four 2023 Webby Awards nominations. Other 2023 Webby Awards winners include Lizzo, former President Barack Obama, Doja Cat, Blackpink, the cast of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” the cast of Marvel’s “Wakanda Forever,” Trixie Mattel, Hugh Jackman, Christina Aguilera, Patrick Mahomes, Jimmy Kimmel, Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Trevor Noah. Companies, brands and campaigns picking up Webbys this year include the Apple TV app, Adobe’s Frame.io, ESPN’s “30 for 30” podcast, Headspace, Discord, Nike’s Just A/Run, Etsy, Crooked Media’s “Pod Save America” and Spotify’s Wrapped.

William Earl Nicholas Stango has been promoted to executive producer of video for Variety, a role where he’ll oversee all editorial video production for one of the biggest brands in entertainment news. “Nick is a thoughtful, innovative leader who has created some of our most successful video franchises,” say Variety co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton. “Under his watch, we can’t wait for Variety to continue to grow as the No. 1 destination in the digital space for videos about the entertainment industry.” Since Stango was promoted in February, Variety‘s video team has been on a winning streak. In the 24 hours following the start of the 2023 Oscars red carpet, Variety notched its highest-ever day of social traffic, racking up 122 million video views across platforms. 

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter Alison Herman is Variety’s new TV critic, joining chief TV critic Daniel D’Addario. In the role, Herman will be a key voice in television criticism, writing reviews, commentary, appreciations and cover stories across all of Variety’s platforms. She will work with editor-at-large Kate Aurthur, who oversees the publication’s TV criticism and features. Herman was a staff writer at The Ringer from 2016 to 2023, where she covered television and popular culture. During her tenure, she wrote columns on new shows, profiled performers such as John Mulaney and reported the definitive piece on the aesthetics of “Succession.” “TV criticism is one of the bedrocks of Variety, as the No. 1 brand covering the business of entertainment,” co-Editors-in-Chief Cynthia Littleton and Ramin Setoodeh say. “Alison’s deep knowledge of television and pop culture make her the perfect addition to our team.”

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter Haley Kluge has been named creative director of Variety, where she’ll oversee the design and visual language of our weekly print magazine, website and digital channels. Kluge is the first woman to serve in this role since Variety came under the ownership of Penske Media Corp. in 2013. She worked at Variety from 2018 to 2021 in several positions, including art director. Most recently she spent a year on the design team of Netflix’s Tudum. “We are so excited that Haley is returning to Variety to help steer our talented art department,” co-Editors-in-Chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton say. “Our magazine has been on a roll, and we know that Haley will help elevate our game.”

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter In the 24 hours following the start of the 2023 Oscars red carpet, Variety notched its highest-ever day of social traffic, racking up 122 million video views across platforms.  Top performing videos include Marc Malkin’s interview with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson about the negative reviews that plagued “Black Adam” and fashion footage of stars like Pedro Pascal and Lady Gaga.  Twitter video racked up 59.4 million views, while TikTok accounted for 47.5 million. Instagram earned an additional 15.1 million views for the brand.  Variety’ssocial team, led by social media editor Katcy Stephan with coordinator Rachel Seo, previously saw success through the record-breaking launch of “Actors on Actors” Season 17, which earned over 35 million views on TikTok. Under Stephan’s leadership, the brand gained over 1.5 million new followers across social platforms in 2022.

Ramin Setoodeh Co-Editor-in-Chief At 11:30 p.m., Daniel Kwan was ready for a late dinner. The movie that he co-directed — “Everything Everywhere All At Once” — had swept the 95th annual Academy Awards, winning a historic seven statues, including best picture and best director. But he hadn’t had a bite to eat in hours. So at Vanity Fair’s annual Oscars party, he grabbed an In-N-Out burger from a tray to refuel. But before he could dig in, he was greeted by one of his many fans — named Steven Spielberg. The man who saw his cinematic memoir, “The Fabelmans,” get crushed by the Daniels (as Kwan and his collaborator Daniel Scheinert are called) didn’t seem the least bit upset.

Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles Sunday evening as the show kicked off.Bill Murray, Claire Foy and Rooney Mara were amongst the star-studded crowd left waiting for the green light to enter the venue after a fire marshal blocked the entrance. Videos posted to Twitter by Variety’s co-editor-in-chief, Ramin Setoodeh, showed the “madness,” writing, “Even Bill Murray has to wait.”Another clip showed Foy and Mara waiting in line for entry.“Total chaos at the #SAGAwards as Claire Foy and Rooney Mara are not being allowed inside the ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel — they’re told they need to wait for the Fire Marshal to let them (and hundreds of other guests) inside,” Setoodeh tweeted.The Fire Marshal is not letting movie stars inside the #SAGAwards.

Brendan Fraser first took on the role of Rick O'Connell in back in 1999, and while he went on to star in two other films in the action-adventure franchise, he hasn't reprised the beloved character since 2008’s . Now, nearly 15 years later, the 53-year-old actor is opening up about whether he'd ever revisit the role again.«I don’t know how it would work,” Fraser tells in an interview published Wednesday. “But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit.”When the franchise was rebooted in 2017, it was Tom Cruise who took on the challenge of playing the lead in the film.

Brendan Fraser first took on the role of Rick O'Connell in The Mummy back in 1999, and while he went to star in two other films in the action-adventure franchise, he hasn't reprised the beloved character since 2008’s “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor." Now, nearly 15 years later, the 53-year-old actor is opening up about whether or not he'd revisit the role again.«I don’t know how it would work,” Fraser told in an interview published Wednesday. “But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit.”When the franchise was rebooted in 2017, it was Tom Cruise who took on the challenge of playing the lead in the new film.