Steven Gaydos Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content The Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on Oct. 7 inflamed the Middle East region, igniting yet another war with thousands of victims, both Jewish and Palestinian. The repercussions of the conflict are now felt all over the world, signified by massive demonstrations from Paris to Caracas, for and against both sides of the conflagration.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content The enduring artistry of the late film composer-songwriter Michel Legrand is on full display in Todd Haynes’ “May December.” But not everyone is happy to hear Haynes’ usage of the Legrand score from Joseph Losey’s 1971 romantic drama “The Go-Between,” repurposed to jarring (if you don’t like it) but provocative (if you do) effect. Whichever side of that coin you land on, Legrand’s impact upon film music is unlikely to cause debate.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Judi Pulver, a singer-songwriter who became the top music sales executive for Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, died Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 77. Pulver spent about 15 years with Variety, steering all music-related sales and marketing activity.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content Just as she emerged as one of the brightest lights of Latin American cinema, actor Pina Pellicer died by her own hand 60 years ago. Only 30, she had in a short time co-starred opposite Marlon Brando in his only directing effort, the epic Western “One-Eyed Jacks,” and also appeared in one of the most important films in Mexican cinema’s illustrious history: “Macario,” based upon the classic B.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content Since the beginning of the Academy Awards in the late 1920s, Hollywood filmmakers have been making socially conscious films. Many of the best of those have scored the film town’s top honor — Oscar best picture.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content With the 2023 Oscar nominations now in hand, it’s clear that Margot Robbie’s exclusion from the best actress race, along with “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig’s director snub, has outraged the blockbuster film’s massive global fanbase. What everyone seems to be forgetting is that when it comes to Oscar love, especially for actors, Oscar voters annually choose spinach over sweets, meat and potatoes over champagne and caviar.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content In 2012, the world’s film critics considered Federico Fellini’s 1963 Oscar-winning “8 ½” one of the 10 greatest films of all time. By 2022, Fellini’s landmark film had fallen out of the top 30.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content They say failureis an orphan, but success has many fathers; however, that rule may not apply when your child is a bomb that has the potential to end all life on Earth. That is one of the many gut-wrenching and provocative points raised in Christopher Nolan’s awards contender “Oppenheimer,” a bracing and cinematically bold look at the titular scientist who many credit as the father of the atomic bomb.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content “Do you guys ever think about dying?” asks the titular toy at the center of Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s inventive and ambitious screenplay for the mega-hit comedy “Barbie.” In their yarn, the virus of death awareness is planted in Barbie World by a daydreaming Mattel employee named Gloria, who randomly sketches Thoughts of Impending Death Barbie at work one day, thus triggering the tale of the famed doll’s journey from plastic prop to self-empowered woman. I wasn’t daydreaming, but I was casually musing out loud on X, formerly known as Twitter, after my first viewing of “Barbie” about how the film seemed heavily influenced by a book I first read 50 years ago: Ernest Becker’s 1974 Pulitzer Prize winner, “The Denial of Death.” For the uninitiated, Becker’s central thesis is summarized in “Death” as “the idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity — activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man.” I quickly got a private message from documentary filmmaker Laura Dunn.

Valerie Wu Intern Norby Walters, a music agent who hosted the annual “Night of 100 Stars” Oscars viewing party for more than 25 years, died Dec. 10 in Burbank. He was 91.

Valerie Wu Intern “Poor Things,” starring Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo, has already generated a substantial amount of Oscars buzz, becoming a major contender for next year’s awards season. What less people might know about the film is that it was shot in Budapest, Hungary — a location that appealed to the “Poor Things” filmmakers for its “abundant studio space,” “highly skilled crew base,” “favorable costs” and “attractive 30% cash rebate,” according to Christopher Vourlias of Variety. Not only that, but Hollywood filmmakers have historically used Hungary in their productions, with films like “Dune,” “Blade Runner 2049” and “Black Widow” all being shot in Budapest.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content By the time Martin Scorsese‘s music documentary “The Last Waltz” premiered in 1978, the legendary Americana music progenitors the Band, whom the film explores, had gone from “Cahoots” to kaput for two years. The 1976 farewell concert at the center of the film was already a piece of rock and roll history by the time the film debuted.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content When first-time documentary director Leonard Manzella premieres his award-winning “Shoe Shine Caddie” at the Portobello Film Festival in London on September 16, it will represent a kind of return to the former actor’s roots in the international film scene. A professional family therapist for the past 30 years in California, Manzella’s earlier career began when the native Angeleno left Los Angeles for Rome in 1968 “when everything was burning.” In his early 20s and armed with “no contacts and about $50 bucks in my pocket,” a fortuitous introduction to American actor Brett Halsey got Manzella into movies, first as an extra and eventually as a leading man.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content The late great country crooner Conway Twitty had one of the oddest career trajectories of any major act in the country field. With 23 top ten hits in the late ’70s to early ’80s, including 13 number one country singles on Billboard, he was significant indeed.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content Best-known over the past four decades as one of Hollywood’s most durable and versatile leading men and character actors, Dennis Quaid has had a lesser-known but certainly just as committed second creative life — in music. His commitment to his belief in music and in his Christian religion, which began in his Texas youth, comes to life quite emotionally and rousingly in his second album, “Fallen: A Gospel Record for Sinners.” Produced in Nashville, where Quaid and his wife, businesswoman Laura Savoie, now live, Quaid says “Fallen” came about when executives from gospel music firm Gaither Music approached the actor to do a gospel record. “I had previously made one other record with my rock and roll band, The Sharks (“Out of the Box”), and it came out and laid there,” Quaid tells Variety with a laugh.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content Tuesday Weld’s 80th birthday on August 27 is a valid excuse to remind all cinephiles of the wondrous work of one of American cinema’s most gifted and enigmatic actresses. And a reminder is desperately needed because over the six decades of her original, fearless, often lacerating performances in film and television, Weld’s reluctance to promote herself makes Greta Garbo look like Demi Lovato.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content When Robert Aldrich’s 1968 Hollywood insider yarn, “The Legend of Lylah Clare” screens at the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville, Maine, it will represent much more than a simple revival of a New Hollywood-era roman à clef. The film’s presentation on July 12 will include a discussion between actor Michael Murphy, who co-stars in the film, and former MGM publicity director Mike Kaplan, who has from the film’s earliest screenings defended both the film’s director, who Kaplan feels was “grossly maligned” by the depiction of him in Ryan Murphy’s limited series “Feud,” and the film, which monumentally tanked both critically and commercially when first released. 

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content To fully understand rock music legend Bill Wyman, formerly of the Rolling Stones, one must first grapple with some daunting math. Wyman was in the band for 30 years, and he quit the band 30 years ago. When, as in the case of Wyman, you play a key part in the making of records like “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Satisfaction,” “Paint It Black,” “Miss You,” “Start Me Up,” “Gimme Shelter,” etc., it’s not so easy to shift the compass point of your life away from the distant past and toward the present or at least the more recent past. But Wyman, gently, politely, resolutely tries, though the challenge is made more complex by recent headlines announcing Wyman has “returned to the Stones,” which the fine print reveals actually means that Wyman has just flown to Los Angeles to cut one new track on an album made in tribute to their late drummer Charlie Watts.  

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor Variety has named its 10 Comics to Watch for 2023. This year’s honorees will be profiled in a special comedy issue of Variety on July 19. They will then be honored at this year’s Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, held in Montreal July 14-29. There will be a panel and cocktail reception held on July 28, followed by a performance showcase July 29. Variety has been presenting the 10 Comics to Watch list since 2000 and has included such names as Tiffany Haddish, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt and Quinta Brunson. The list comprises stand-up comedians, writers and content creators selected by a panel that includes Variety editors and those in the comedy community that scout, book, cast and represent comics.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content Austrian actor Helmut Berger, the groundbreaking star of European cinematic masterpieces such as Luchino Visconti’s “The Damned” and Vittorio De Sica’s “Garden of the Finzi-Continis,” has died at the age of 78. Berger died at home in Austria from natural causes. In one of European cinema’s most storied and creative periods, the 60s and 70s, Berger boldly established his place in the pantheon of Continental stars via a handful of films directed by Visconti, his one-time romantic partner. “The Damned,” “Ludwig” and “Conversation Piece” were all crafted with standout roles for Berger and the films were hugely successful both at the arthouse box office and with critics and awards groups.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Variety will bestow its International Achievement in Film Award on German production, licensing and distribution company LEONINE Studios at a ceremony at the Cannes Film Festival next month. This award is the most prestigious honor Variety can bestow on an international film company or executive, and is designed to spotlight the honoree’s achievements over the past few years. Steven Gaydos, Executive Vice President, Global Content, Variety, said: “Building on the links to a storied, successful history, LEONINE Studios has rapidly established itself in the past few years as one of the world’s leading producers, licensors and distributors of premium movies and series.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content The power of an important story told with passion and unflinching clarity always transcends the bonds of time. This explains the durability of Shakespeare’s plays when they land in the right hands, and it explains Edward Berger’s adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s fierce anti-war novel, “All Quite on the Western Front,” which is nominated for the best picture Oscar.  Nearly a century ago, director Lewis Milestone triumphed in one of the first Oscar competitions with his Universal Pictures version of the 1928 tome, filmed, remarkably, completely in and around its Hollywood Studio home.   Today, “Front” is registering with voters who are seeing the horrors of war in Europe live and in color as it sadly unfolds again with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content In his bold 1990 interpretation of Luigi Pirandello’s “Henry IV,” the late and legendary Irish stage, screen and music star Richard Harris utters the immortal lines, “Woe to him who doesn’t know how to wear his mask.” Even before his breathtaking big-screen triumph 60 years ago as the rugby ruffian Frank Machin in Lindsay Anderson’s film directing debut, “This Sporting Life,” Harris proved adept at juggling personal and professional personas. He swaggered with macho gusto and great thesping chops through the London stage scene and quickly found key roles in action epics such as “Guns of Navarone” and “Mutiny on the Bounty.” 

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content There’s a film in the Oscar best picture race that has younger Academy voters and a new generation of film critics excited, while their older peers in both camps appear more what one might call agitated.  It’s a fairly neat generational split. The film’s anarchic spirit and unorthodox mix of genre filmmaking and biting social commentary is seen as daring and refreshing by its young fans, while its older detractors are scratching their heads over weird tonal shifts, from comic and rollicking one minute, serious and reflective in the next, shifting from spoofing genre tropes to questioning of societal norms.  The year is 1968 and the film is Arthur Penn’s “Bonnie and Clyde.”  

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content The Oscars’ animated feature category turns voting age this year, which means none of the genre’s masterpieces dating back to the 1930s ever competed for the coveted prize. And that means one of this year’s competitors for the prize, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” represents something of a fresh chance for a story that worked so well for Walt Disney back in 1940 that it still garnered two Oscars — for song and score — and the kind of praise filmmakers of all genres and stripes can only dream of. Variety’s review of Walt Disney’s masterpiece was typical of the ecstatic mood that greeted the film’s release back in early 1940: “Technically an improvement on ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,’ and in many ways quite as captivating in imaginative fantasy, Walt Disney’s ‘Pinocchio’ (Pin-oak-io) is the finest piece of feature length animation yet created. 

Shalini Dore Features News Editor Variety will present Nicolas Cage with the Variety Legend & Groundbreaker Award at the Miami Film Festival on March 5. Previous recipients of the prestigious award include Francis Ford Coppola, Hans Zimmer and Ron Howard. “Year after year, Nicolas Cage proves to be an actor of great range, exhibiting dramatic power and great comedic verve, making his work surprising, delightful and moving,” said Steven Gaydos, Variety EVP global content & executive editor. “We’re excited to see the Oscar-winner’s turn in Universal Pictures’ ‘Renfield’ this year and celebrate his entire career at the Miami Film Festival.” “Nicolas Cage is the very definition of a legend. An Academy Award-winning actor, a global superstar, and a cult icon, everyone the world over is familiar with his inimitable persona and larger than life presence,” said Lauren Cohen, Miami Film Festival Director of Programming. “He is truly one of a kind — the very essence of what we’re celebrating at our milestone 40th edition.”

Julia MacCary editor Variety is set to honor “Fruitvale Station” producer and Significant Productions co-founder Nina Yang Bongiovi with its Creative Impact in Producing Award at the Sun Valley Film Festival in Idaho in recognition of her many achievements. At 10 a.m. March 31, she will participate in a Coffee Talk, which is the crown jewel of the festival, and a moderated conversation to discuss her career. The event is open to the public. The festival will also celebrate Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch event; they will be announced on March 15. “Nina Yang Bongiovi is a compelling storyteller with an impressive filmography, and we are excited to celebrate her career achievement at the Sun Valley Film Festival,” said Steven Gaydos, Variety EVP global content and executive editor.

Michaela Zee editor “Americana Dream” has started production in Louisville, Ky., with all key roles cast in the forthcoming indie musical film. New Orleans-based singer Maggie Koerner will play Billie Carton, starring opposite Nashville-based music artist Sam Varga in the role of Lucky Fontana. “With this amazing cast of real-life Americana music artists, we are on an exciting creative journey that will seem both familiar and completely unsettling to the millions of people around the world who watch reality TV music competitions,” said director and co-writer Ate de Jong. The cast of “Americana Dream” also includes singer-songwriter Stephan Said as Ray Pursell, jazz vocalist Carly Johnson as Precious Blue, AJ Haynes as Lee Post and Michelle Malentina as Gabe. DJ Bombshell, Sylvia Walters, David Domine and Ian McConnell will play supporting roles in the film.

Variety has selected its 10 Actors to Watch for 2022, an honor that dates back to 1998. Past honorees include many future Oscar winners and nominees including Mahershala Ali, Timothée Chalamet, Viola Davis, Adam Driver, Brie Larson and Lupita Nyong’o. This year’s honorees will be feted in the Oct. 12 issue of Variety and at the Newport Beach Film Festival Honors, a brunch reception held on Oct. 16 that also celebrates some of the best and brightest in the entertainment world. The event will be held in conjunction with Visit Newport Beach and the Newport Beach Film Festival.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterVariety has promoted Manori Ravindran to Executive Editor of International and Senior Writer.Ravindran joined Variety in 2020 as International Editor. In her new role, Ravindran will continue to lead Variety’s award-winning team of correspondents based around the world, while expanding the brand’s presence at key festivals and markets and growing Variety’s events outside the U.S., working closely with executive VP of content, Steven Gaydos.

Angelique Jackson Producers of the indie film musical “Americana Dream” have tapped Nashville-based music artists Mary Sarah and Sam Varga to play the story’s central couple, Billie Carton and Lucky Fontana.Sarah and Varga nabbed the leading roles after an extensive nationwide search for singer-songwriters to act in the original musical written and directed by Ate de Jong and co-written by Variety’s Steven Gaydos.“Americana Dream” takes viewers behind the scenes of the film’s titular reality TV music competition program, where Lucky and Billie transition from imposters willing to do anything for money and fame, to a real couple, willing to sacrifice their dreams of success for real love and their real music. Sarah was a finalist on season 10 of NBC’s “The Voice” and is set to star in Justin Ward’s upcoming film comedy “Paradise: The Movie.” Sarah recorded her first album “Bridges,” when she was only 15; the project showcased her talent alongside country music legends including Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard and Tanya Tucker and was reissued through Time Life Records in 2020.Varga has also been performing since his early teens, releasing singles and performing regionally; his dynamic live act garnered significant attention in Austin, Texas before he relocated to Nashville in 2019.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of ContentWith the death this week of Ralph “Sonny” Barger, national president of famed motorcycle club the Hells Angels, a piece of vibrant American pop culture history recedes farther into the past.It’s hard to appreciate today, but when Barger founded the Oakland chapter in 1957, the mythology of the outlaw biker had already been emblazoned on the national consciousness through the Hells Angels’ impact on fashion, movies and music, as a symbol of rebellion. Barger’s death on June 29 at the age of 83 made international headlines because of that reach.Barger was the face of the Hells Angels for decades, but the origin story of the Hells Angels began nearly a decade before when the club was founded in Fontana, Calif., in 1948.

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards, Features EditorVariety has named its 10 Comics to Watch for 2022. This year’s honorees will be profiled in the July 20 issue of Variety and be honored at this year’s Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, held in Montreal July 13-31.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of ContentNearly a half-century has passed since Elvis left the building, permanently. Australian auteur Baz Luhrmann has just unleashed “Elvis,” his big, bold, nearly three-hour biopic, at Cannes and that Warner Bros. bet appears to have paid off.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of ContentActress-director Anjelica Huston may have been born into film royalty and may have fulfilled that royal destiny by becoming the third generation, after actor grandfather Walter and director-actor-writer father John Huston, to score Oscar gold, but her early innings were not the stuff cinema dreams are made of.“Casino Royale” is the film where she first appeared, as an uncredited young teen 55 years ago this month. It is largely regarded as an overcooked comedy fiasco, or as Variety deemed it back then, “an attempt to spoof the pants off the James Bond.” The film had no less than five directors, including her father, John.Variety was kinder to John Huston’s 1969 film “A Walk with Love and Death,” Anjelica’s first starring role, but most other outlets were tougher on the film and Huston’s performance, and it came and went with little notice. In a vain attempt to overcome that fate, 20th Century Fox publicity took Anjelica and her costar, Assi Dayan (son of Israeli war hero Moshe Dayan) on a multi-city promo tour and ran this quirky early branded content item in Variety:“Assaf Dayan romances his costar Anjelica Huston, under the watchful eye of her director-father, John Huston.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of ContentThe first time Bob Dylan was mentioned in Variety was 60 years ago on March 28, 1962. The article’s thesis was that the indie labels were more adept at breaking new music acts.