SM Entertainment CEO airs suspicions that founder Lee Soo-man attempted offshore tax avoidance

Doyoung, Jaehyun and Jungwoo, members of the K-pop boyband NCT, are set to debut as a sub-unit.Earlier today (March 9), South Korean media outlet Sports Today reported that the three K-pop idols are set to form a trio sub-unit as part of their work with the boyband. Notably, the three singers previously worked together on the song ‘Can We Go Back’, which they performed at the 2022 MBC Gayo Daejejeon, as well as a Christmas medley posted on the official NCT YouTube channel.Their label SM Entertainment has since confirmed the report.

K-pop agency SM Entertainment has released a statement in support of internet giant Kakao’s tender offer to buy a large stake in the company.Yesterday (April 7), Kakao – which currently holds 4.9 per cent of the SM Entertainment – announced a tender offer to buy up to 35 per cent of the company for ₩150,000 per share. If successful, this bid would make Kakao the largest shareholder of the K-pop agency, over BTS label HYBE, which has acquired nearly 16 per cent of SM.Soon after Kakao’s announcement, SM Entertainment released a statement signalling support for the deal, citing “[Kakao’s] respect [for] the current management’s efforts to address factors that have hindered SM Entertainment’s growth”, according to CNN.In the statement, SM Entertainment also said that the Kakao deal would “ensure autonomous and independent management of the company, as well as the continuous and independent activities of SM artists”, per Yonhap News Agency.“Unlike HYBE seeking to take over SM’s board of directors through a hostile merger and acquisition, Kakao is the best horizontal and strategic partner for the successful implementation of the ‘SM 3.0’ vision as it respects SM’s own tradition and identity,” the statement reportedly said.Following Kakao’s tender offer yesterday, shares of SM Entertainment jumped 15.07 per cent to close at ₩149,700.

Angelique Jackson Hot on the heels of a historic opening weekend for “Creed III,” Jonathan Majors has set his next movie with Amazon Studios, titled “Da Understudy.” Majors will star in and produce the film, under his Tall Street Productions banner, partnering with Westbrook Studios and Amazon. The project tells the story of “life imitating art when the understudy of a Broadway production finds a role he’s willing to kill for.” Tom Hamada, Zach Stauss and Tyler Cole wrote the screenplay, which is based on an original story by Cole and developed in-house by Westbrook. Amazon Studios landed the script on spec in a competitive situation. Sources tell Variety Spike Lee is in very early talks to direct the film, which would reunite the filmmaker and Majors after 2020’s “Da 5 Bloods.”

K-pop agency SM Entertainment, escalating its battle against BTS label HYBE.Kakao and its subsidiary Kakao Entertainment said today (March 7) in a regulatory filing that it is tendering an offer to buy up to 35 per cent of SM Entertainment for ₩150,000 per share – a 25 per cent hike over HYBE’s own bid last month. If successful, the offer could see Kakao own nearly 40 per cent of the entertainment agency, up from its current 4.9 per cent stake.“With the direction of the three companies’s growth facing a threat, Kakao decided it is inevitable to secure the largest shareholder position to protect the partnership with SM Entertainment,” Kakao said in a statement, per Reuters, adding that the bid is to ensure stable management at the music label.Kakao’s new offer sent SM Entertainment shares soaring 14 per cent to ₩148,500 today, according to Reuters.

EXCLUSIVE: Leo Messi is getting the animated treatment.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A court in Seoul on Friday blocked a proposed move to issue new shares in K-pop talent agency SM Entertainment to Korean tech giant Kakao Corp. and its Kakao Entertainment subsidiary. An injunction was sought by Lee Soo-man, one of the pioneers of the Korean contemporary music industry, but who is recently at the center of a storm of controversy. Lee, who has fallen out with his company’s current management team, announced at the beginning of February his plans to sell a 14.8% stake in SM to HYBE Corp., the firm behind hit group BTS and a rival to SM. It then emerged that SM’s management was proposing to issue new shares to the Kakao pair, giving them a 9.05% holding, and sign an exclusive distribution contract. The share stake would make Kakao the second biggest shareholder in the firm after HYBE and dilute its influence.

Che Lingo has released new single ‘Out The Blue’ and shared details of his sophomore album ‘Coming Up For Air’.The album follows his critically acclaimed debut ‘The Worst Generation’, and will see the AIM Award-nominated south Londoner talk about mental health and anguish to the full extent“CUFA is an intimate and personal look at myself and the people like me who find it hard to see themselves sometimes,” said Che Lingo. “The CUFA album in my own way is to let people know that they aren’t alone in these trials”.In anticipation of his follow-up record, Lingo has released ‘Out The Blue’; a sombre track to help “break out of the cycle of pressures, inherited and personal, that he and so many suffer from”.Speaking of what inspired the song, Lingo talked of “Times where I felt like I was drowning, fighting things, emotionally and mentally I couldn’t even see and repeating that cycle…This is a story about times like that and how I sung and rapped my way through it.

Following the announcement that he will be starring as Khashoggi in the musical We Will Rock You, actor Lee Mead appeared on Good Morning Britain, where he revealed the results of his recent hair transplant. The actor, 41, left fans shocked recently when he appeared on This Morning earlier this month, having shaved off his famous curly locks prior to undergoing the transplant. Appearing on today's GMB (February 28) Lee opened up about his transplant to hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The upcoming Shondaland Netflix series “The Residence” has added 11 new cast members, Variety has learned. The new cast members are: Andre Braugher, Edwina Findley, Molly Griggs, Jason Lee, Ken Marino, Al Mitchell, Dan Perrault, Bronson Pinchot, Susan Kelechi Watson, Isiah Whitlock Jr., and Mary Wiseman. The group joins previously announced series lead Uzo Aduba. The official logline for the series states, “132 rooms. 157 suspects. One dead body. One wildly eccentric detective (Aduba). One disastrous State Dinner. ‘The Residence’ is a screwball whodunnit set in the upstairs, downstairs, and backstairs of the White House, among the eclectic staff of the world’s most famous mansion.”

SM Entertainment, HYBE has criticised a recent partnership the K-pop agency has forged with South Korean tech giant Kakao.Earlier this month, Kakao shared that it had acquired a 9.05 per cent stake in SM, which would have made it the second-largest shareholder of the company after founder Lee Soo-man. HYBE later announced that it had struck a deal to acquire a 14.8 per cent stake in SM from Lee, thus becoming its biggest shareholder.

SM Entertainment boyband NCT’s “infinite” expansion will come to an end in 2023, the K-pop agency has confirmed.On February 25, SM Entertainment shared the latest in its series of videos about its new ‘SM 3.0’ strategy. In this video, SM’s co-CEOs Chris Lee and Tak Young-jun answered fan questions and also announced the end of boyband NCT’s expansion in 2023.

Jamie Lee Curtis is joking about the nepo baby debate!

Angela Bassett wins big at the NAACP Image Awards. The actress took home three trophies for Outstanding Actress in a drama series for 9-1-1, Supporting Actress for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and the biggest award of the night, Entertainer of the Year.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar season used to boil down to one main thing for Condé Nast: Vanity Fair‘s party. While the famed bash is back this year, there’s also a more consequential reason for the company to feel festive: The New Yorker‘s record five nominations across all three short film categories.

HYBE Labels CEO Park Ji-won has issued a new open letter addressing the K-pop company’s recent acquisition of the majority stake in competing label SM Entertainment.The statement was published in Korean, English and Japanese earlier today (February 22) via HYBE’s official Twitter. It announced the completion of HYBE’s acquisition of a 14.8 per cent stake in SM, a deal which the company struck with SM founder and former chief producer Lee Soo-man earlier this month.This officially makes HYBE, home to the likes of BTS, SEVENTEEN, NewJeans and more K-pop acts, the single largest shareholder in SM.

Erling Haaland has made a habit of being in the right place at the right time for Manchester City - but teammate Ederson has dismissed the idea that any of his 32 goals have been easy.

SM Entertainment CEO Chris Lee (also known as Lee Sung-soo) has claimed the label’s founder Lee Soo-man is the reason why aespa’s new music has been delayed.On February 16, Lee, who is one of the K-pop agency’s two current CEOs, released a 30-minute statement regarding the company. In the video, which is the first part of a series, Lee made several allegations about SM’s former chief producer Lee Soo-man.According to Chris Lee’s video, Lee Soo-man was the reason why aespa’s music has been delayed.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Multimedia Music has closed an eight-figure deal to acquire the music publishing and music master rights from the entire film music library of STX Entertainment, including film titles such as “Bad Moms,” “The Gentlemen,” “Den of Thieves,” “Greenland” and “The Foreigner,” and music from leading composers including Hans Zimmer, Cliff Martinez, Marcelo Zarvos, Hauschke, Chris Lennertz, Andrew Lockington, Clinton Shorter and Nicholas Britell. STX will continue to develop and produce a slate of films through the studio’s new partnership with Lionsgate, but the Multimedia Music deal does not include rights in any of STX’s current or future slate of films.

ShowBiz Cinemas — which features bowling and movies under the same roof — before selling his interest in the company in December 2021. The younger Mitchell also served on multiple boards, including as former chairman for Variety the Children’s Charity of Texas, as an advisory board member for the National Association of Theatre Owners and Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation, as well as a board member for Chuck Norris’ Kickstart Kids.“Tandy and I founded Cinemark nearly 40 years ago and could not be more proud of the company it is today,” the elder Mitchell said.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International BAFTA’s new CEO Jane Millichip is preparing to welcome the largest group of nominees to ever turn up at this weekend’s film awards. It’s exciting, says the executive, both from a red carpet perspective, but also as a testament to the growing appeal of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. “It’s the real mandate of BAFTA that people are flying from all corners of the world to come to our ceremony. I’m really proud of that, to be honest,” says Millichip. Guests confirmed to attend as presenters include Brian Cox, Catherine-Zeta-Jones, Cynthia Erivo, Diego Luna, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jamie Dornan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jodie Turner-Smith, Julianne Moore, Lily James, Martin Freeman, Matthew Modine, Rami Malek, Regé Jean Page, Rita Wilson, Sir Patrick Stewart, Taron Egerton, Toheeb Jimoh and Troy Kotsur.