Spotify Laid Off At Least 38 Podcast Employees, Unions Say

When Israeli film director Ariel Vromen called up Ray Liotta to join his film, “1992”, the late screen legend had one question.

Remembering Benjamin. After Benjamin Keough — the late son of Lisa Marie Presley — tragically died by suicide at the age of 27, the Presley family has been candid about navigating their loss.

The Great British Bake Off is one of the most popular reality shows on the air today and fans have been interested in the three judges and how they make their money!

Girls Aloud stars Kimberley Walsh, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts and Cheryl reunited in honour of their late bandmate Sarah Harding while attending the Primrose Ball in London on Saturday evening. The fundraising ball was organised at Harding’s request before her death, in order to raise money for the Christie NHS Foundation Trust and Cancer Research UK as part of the Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify has appointed new managing directors for its Gimlet and Parcast podcast studios — Nicole Beemsterboer and Liliana Kim, respectively — coming amid the company’s cancellation of 11 original podcasts from the two divisions. Spotify elevated Beemsterboer (above left), a former longtime NPR exec who joined Spotify this year, to the role of Gimlet’s managing director. She takes over for Lydia Polgreen, who left Spotify this spring to rejoin the New York Times as an opinion columnist. Prior to joining as Gimlet’s head of news and knowledge in March, Beemsterboer spent more than 15 years at NPR as a producer where she led the creation and reorganization of the public media org’s first longform podcast unit, the Enterprise Storytelling Unit. At NPR, Beemsterboer worked on shows including “Embedded,” “Invisibilia” and “White Lies.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify is axing a small portion of its original podcast programming slate — canceling 11 out of approximately 500 current shows — as it looks to concentrate firepower on the biggest original and exclusive hits. The 11 shows come from Parcast and Gimlet, two podcast studios that Spotify acquired in early 2019 as part of its buying binge in entering the space. The cutbacks will affect about 5% of Spotify’s total podcast staff, some of whom will be laid off while others will be reassigned to other teams, according to a source familiar with the change. No shows at Spotify Studios or the Ringer are being axed. The shows being canceled are: from Gimlet, “How to Save a Planet,” “Crime Show” and “Every Little Thing”; and from Parcast, “Medical Murders,” “Female Criminals,” “Crimes of Passion,” “Dictators,” “Mythology,” “Haunted Places,” “Urban Legends” and “Horoscope Today.” Each of the podcasts will wind down over the next several months; “Horoscope Today” will extend into the second quarter of 2023, the source said.

Jared Leto will star as the late fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld in an upcoming biopic. Largerfeld, who passed away in 2019, is the former powerful artistic director of Chanel.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Jared Leto is set to star in and produce a biopic of Karl Lagerfeld, the iconic fashion designer whose career spanned over 50 years. Lagerfeld, who died in Feb. 2019, is best known for his powerful role as artistic director of Chanel. First reported by WWD, a sister publication to Variety, the project has already been endorsed by Karl Lagerfeld fashion house. The Oscar-winning actor will play the lead role, as well as produce the movie with Emma Ludbrook, through their production vehicle Paradox. The project is still in early stages. A filmmaker is not yet attached to direct.

2022 is shaping up to be a big year for Letitia Wright. Obviously, she is set to have a massive role in the upcoming “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which will no doubt turn her into an instant A-lister.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor More than two years after Kim Kardashian inked an exclusive deal with Spotify for a podcast series focused on criminal-justice reform, the series is finally out. On Monday, Spotify released the first two episodes of original podcast “Kim Kardashian’s The System: The Case of Kevin Keith,” available worldwide. Following the series premiere, new episodes will be released each Monday thereafter. The eight-episode podcast is narrated by Kardashian alongside veteran true-crime producer Lori Rothschild Ansaldi, produced by Spotify and Tenderfoot TV. It follows the story of Keith, an Ohio man convicted of triple homicide who — for nearly three decades — has been working alongside his family to prove he was wrongly accused.

They do! Less than one year after getting engaged, Trace Bates and Lydia Romeike have officially gotten married.

Diane Ladd says she can’t watch her latest movie, ‘Gigi and Nate’, without shedding a tear for the stars who died after shooting the flick. Hollywood icons Christopher Plummer, William Hurt and Peter Fonda all sadly passed away before the drama was released in cinemas in September, which makes it a difficult watch. Diane – who is the mother of actress Laura Dern – said: “I play the mother of a young dead war hero.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The three remaining members of the Try Guys need time to process the events that led the popular YouTube comedy troupe to kick out their friend and co-founder Ned Fulmer, after he confessed to having a workplace extramarital affair. The Try Guys trio — former BuzzFeed staffers Keith Habersberger, Zach Kornfeld and Eugene Lee Yang — said they will take a one-week break from their regular podcast release to “formulate our thoughts” given the announcement Tuesday that Fulmer is no longer part of the group. The next episode of the TryPod is slated for next Thursday, Oct. 6. “The TryPod will be taking a week off, and returning next week on Oct 6. We wanted to take some time to formulate our thoughts before recording the episode,” the group tweeted late Wednesday. “Thanks for being patient.”

Cate Blanchett explores the life of Lydia Tár in the trailer for her upcoming movie Tár.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Ed Helms has managed to find the amusing parts of impending nuclear Armageddon. The actor, writer and comedian hosts “Snafu,” a nonfiction comedy series in which he’ll dissect some of history’s most notorious screw-ups. In the inaugural season, set to premiere Oct. 5 on major podcast platforms, Helms tells the story of Able Archer 83, the NATO military exercise that may have almost triggered a real nuclear war in November 1983. “It kind of felt like a story that needed to be told, and it also seemed like a story that would be fun to tell – it’s loaded with drama and spy-thriller intrigue,” Helms told Variety. “There’s a lot of comedy baked in. But ultimately it’s an intense and somewhat mortifying chain of events.”

OWN for the Holidays' slate!Ringing in its fourth year of spreading excitement for the yuletide season, the Oprah Winfrey Network unveiled two original holiday movies with star-studded casts:, which premieres Saturday, Dec. 3 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, starring LeToya Luckett and Finesse Mitchell, and , making its OWN debut on Saturday, Dec.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has promoted Matt Lappin.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” has promoted Matt Lappin to serve as co-executive producer of the late night show. In his new role, Lappin will help oversee the show’s daily creative direction; his promotion was announced on Tuesday by executive producers Stephen Colbert and Tom Purcell. Lappin was most recently senior supervising producer. As co-executive producer, he’ll be part of a team that also includes co-EPs Denise Rehrig and Tanya Michenvich Bracco. Together, they’re all helping Colbert and Purcell run the ship in the absence of former executive producer Chris Licht, who departed “The Late Show” earlier this year to take over CNN as its CEO.