She’s got a new attitude! Martha Stewart debuted a fresh cut — and it has her feeling as confident as ever.
22.03.2023 - 16:47 / variety.com
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Say goodbye to Rooster Teeth’s longstanding rebus-style logo of the rooster and the windup chattering teeth. The fandom and comedy entertainment company, a division of Warner Bros. Discovery, is turning 20 years old on April 1. To mark the two-decade milestone, Rooster Teeth is introducing new logos (pictured above) along with a new tagline: “Just Playing.” The new branding will be rolling out over the next several weeks. Last year, Rooster Teeth approached Austin-based creative agency Guerilla Suit to create a new visual brand identity that was “as dynamic, playful and unconventional” as the organization itself, said head of marketing Adam Bersin (who joined RT a year ago from Amazon Studios). “At the core of the strategy, it’s making people realize Rooster Teeth is a digital media company that brings together all of these different interests of our creators… with comedy being the backbone of it,” Bersin said.
Matt Hullum, co-founder and chief creative officer, acknowledged in an interview, “Probably we’ve been a little bit overdue for a fresh coat of paint because we’ve been so busy evolving and staying ahead of the internet and all its changes.” The new Rooster Teeth branding is aimed at preserving the company’s original spirit of playing around with friends, he said: “It’s always been about fun.” The new Rooster Teeth icon, a capital “R” stylized as a rooster’s head, nods to the original logo. The vivid orange-red and electric-blue color scheme is intended to bring “new life and energy to the brand,” with an updated look that “reflects Rooster Teeth’s desire to stand out as opposed to blending in,” according to the company. For its 20-year anniversary, Rooster Teeth is running a
She’s got a new attitude! Martha Stewart debuted a fresh cut — and it has her feeling as confident as ever.
EXCLUSIVE: Yulin Kuang has been tapped to adapt and direct Emily Henry’s popular novel Beach Read into a feature film for 20th Century Studios. Original Film is producing.
Puns grow knee-high – and in bawdier moments a bit higher – in Shucked, the new musical comedy that combines the winking hayseed humor of Green Acres and Hee Haw with the decidedly urban, gently subversive camp that peppered the Off Broadway scene in the ’90s with kitschy fare like Ruthless!, The Real Live Brady Bunch and Theatre-A-Go!-Go!’s Valley of the Dolls parody.
“Shucked” is the best new musical of the Broadway season so far. The Southern comfort show, with a tuneful country score by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally and a superb book by Robert Horn, is just so damn funny. If any of the outrageous yokel characters open their mouths to do anything but sing, 99% of the time they will deliver a winning joke or pun. The receptive audience sits in a state of perpetual giggle, with heads bobbing up and down like buoys. An example of the sense of humor: A scamp named Peanut (Kevin Cahoon, brilliant) is a walking Poor Richard’s Almanac who colorfully announces his unhinged, universal truths as we howl back.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Donald Trump, who on Tuesday became the first former U.S. president to be indicted, is looking to generate some cash from supporters by selling T-shirts with a fake mug shot. On Tuesday, Trump was arraigned and charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The former president and TV personality pleaded not guilty to the charges. Trump was not expected to have his mug shot taken after he surrendered to authorities in Manhattan. But that didn’t stop Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign from trying to cash in on the unprecedented arrest and indictment.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk is now using the design of Twitter itself to make hilarious (?) jokes. On Monday, without warning, the iconic Twitter bird logo on the home button of the social network’s web version changed to the “doge” of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency. (Twitter’s mobile apps weren’t changed.) The doge image (of a Shiba Inu) is part of the logo of the Dogecoin blockchain and cryptocurrency, which was created as a joke in 2013 — to mock other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Musk, who bought Twitter last fall in a $44 billion deal, is a well-known superfan of the Doge meme and he has promoted Dogecoin both on Twitter and during his appearance last year hosting “Saturday Night Live.” After the change to Twitter’s web logo Monday, the value of Dogecoin rose more than 20%.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor If nothing else, $44 billion has bought Twitter power-user Elon Musk status as the No. 1 most-followed account on the social network. As of Thursday morning, Musk had 133.088 million users — up more than 20% since he closed the Twitter deal last October. That pushed the billionaire ahead of the previously most-followed account, that of Barack Obama, who currently has about 133.042 million followers. (To be sure, this is according to the public counters operated by Twitter, which Musk controls.) Musk, a self-proclaimed free-speech “absolutist,” is notoriously fond of posting memes and jokes on Twitter. (Prior to his acquisition, according to Twitter’s legal team, Musk also used the service to disparage the company and its employees.) Musk has claimed he did not buy the company “to make more money” but to “try to help humanity, whom I love.” He also has said he was “obviously overpaying” for Twitter.
“We’re going to have to deal with it and correct it,” Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board of Supervisors member Brian Aungst Jr. said today of a vote taken by the then Disney-controlled Reedy Creek Improvement District in February. “It’s a subversion of the will of the voters and the Legislature and the governor. It completely circumvents the authority of this board to govern.”
reported TMZ. The 20-year-old singer spent her big day with her mom, Barbara, and a small group of both her and her mom’s friends, according to the outlet. Things at the party took a turn when Bhabie began shaking her tail feathers and twerking up a storm.
More love and more drama! 90 Day Fiancé: Love in Paradise is returning for its third season with five new couples and one returning duo who are navigating the ups and downs of their complicated romances.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Rob Wilk, most recently global head of advertising at Microsoft, joined Snap as the first president of Americas overseeing the Snapchat parent company’s sales in the region. Wilk, who is based out of Snap’s New York offices, reports to Snap COO Jerry Hunter. In the new role, Wilk will run sales across the U.S., Canada and Latin America and will be responsible for supporting and managing its largest advertising partners in the region. Wilk steps into the Snap job after the departure last summer of the company’s two top ad sales execs, Jeremi Gorman and Peter Naylor, who joined Netflix. “We were impressed not only with Rob’s hands-on experience building a large and growing advertising business, but also his approach to leading customer-centric sales teams and developing strong, sustained customer relationships,” Hunter wrote in an internal memo to Snap staff Monday.
EXCLUSIVE: Two-time Emmy winner Nicole Kidman (The Undoing), nine-time Emmy nom Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan), The White Lotus standout Meghann Fahy, two-time Critics’ Choice Award winner Dakota Fanning (The Alienist), and the Flora and Son duo of Eve Hewson and Jack Reynor are in various stages of negotiations to star in Netflix’s The Perfect Couple, sources tell Deadline. The limited series, to be directed and exec produced by Emmy winner Susanne Bier (The Undoing), comes from Gail Berman’s The Jackal Group and Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A bumper crop of Steve Martins will be on display in a new audiobook coming out this spring from Pushkin Industries. “So Many Steves: Afternoons With Steve Martin” will be published on May 2, 2023, by Pushkin, the audio production company co-founded by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg. The project condenses a year’s worth of conversations between Martin, 77, and his friend of more than three decades, New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik. In the audiobook, according to Pushkin, Martin is “more candid than he’s ever been” about his many lives — as a comedian, actor, writer, musician, magician, art collector and more. Over several sessions, all recorded in Martin’s Upper West Side apartment, “So Many Steves” features commentary about Martin’s creative pursuits along with never-before-shared anecdotes from life on set. In their conversations, Martin reflects on his career, from his early days working as a magician to his rise to Hollywood stardom, and what inspires him to keep challenging himself as an artist. Martin, with banjo in hand, scores the audiobook himself.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotter, a digital media company that pays YouTube creators cash for the rights to monetize their video libraries and helps them grow their fanbases, hired Paul Bakaus as executive VP, product and creator tools. At Spotter, Bakaus will focus on developing products and tools to serve creators and deliver on Spotter’s mission to provide value and resources to YouTubers in addition to capital. Bakaus will dual-report to Spotter CEO and founder Aaron DeBevoise and chief strategy officer Rob Gabel. Bakaus most recently served as head of creators at Koji, ecommerce platform designed for for social media sellers. Prior to joining Koji in April 2022, he spent more than eight years at Google, most recently as head of creator relations where he launched and led the “Google for Creators” program. Before Google, Bakaus worked at games company Zynga. He also is the creator of jQuery UI, a widget and interaction library that has been used by millions of websites to build interactive web applications.
New Order have backed the #LetTheMusicMove campaign against proposed changes to US visa rules that would impact touring artists.Last month saw the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announce that it was planning to raise touring visa fees for foreign acts by more than 250 per cent.The DHS said in its proposal that applications for a P visa, which is for acts arriving in the states to perform temporarily, would increase from the current rate of $460 (£375.23) to $1,615 (£1,317). Meanwhile, the longer-term O work visa would jump from $460 (£375.23) to $1,655 (£1,349).Numerous musicians have since spoken out against the plans, saying that it would be “a huge hardship to pay such high visa fees”.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Yellow Veil Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to the erotic thriller documentary “We Kill For Love” ahead of its world premiere at the Overlook Film Festival. The company is planning a domestic release later this year and will represent the film for international sales with a launch at the upcoming Marche Du Film in Cannes. Written, produced, and directed by Anthony Penta, “We Kill for Love” depicts the long-gone world of direct-to-video erotic thriller, an American film genre that once dominated late night cable television and the shelves of neighborhood video stores.
Pete Davidson is giving fans a sneak preview of his new comedy series from Peacock.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Me want… nonfungible token? Sesame Workshop is introducing the first digital collectibles based on the iconic Sesame Street kids’ brand. The first NFTs from the initiative will feature Cookie Monster, the beloved blue cookie fiend from the show, with the initial drop scheduled for March 19 on the VeVe digital collectibles app. There will be one Cookie Monster NFT collectible with 5,555 editions for sale, priced at $60 each. According to Sesame Workshop, additional Sesame Street collectibles will be released later this year. NFTs are unique identifiers that verify ownership of digital content. The craze for NFT collectibles kicked off in earnest in early 2021 and has continued since. A number of studios, TV networks, sports leagues and athletes, actors, musicians, artists, gaming companies and more have launched NFT initiatives, looking to generate revenue and engage with fans.
EXCLUSIVE: Drift director Anthony Chen is gearing up to direct his first US-set project, Heartbeat: A New York Story, about the rarely-told experiences of the Asian gay community during the AIDS epidemic in 1980s New York.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After nearly 10 years on Netflix, comedy “New Girl” will be leaving the streaming service to get a new dual home on Hulu and Peacock. “New Girl” will be available on Hulu and Peacock beginning April 17, 2023. Under a shared agreement between Disney and NBCUniversal, Peacock and Hulu will share streaming rights to all seven season of the show, comprising 146 episodes in total. “New Girl,” starring Zooey Deschanel, first began streaming on Netflix in the U.S. in the summer of 2013. The show’s ensemble cast includes Deschanel, Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, Lamorne Morris and Hannah Simone. “New Girl” originally aired on Fox from 2011-2018.