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Editors note: When we think of Robert De Niro and Italy, it’s easiest to focus on the Sicilian town of Corleone, because of his Oscar-winning turn in The Godfather: Part II. But De Niro wanted to focus on Naples, which director Paolo Sorrentino brought to life in The Hand of God. De Niro was so moved, he wrote a guest column for Deadline on why the film touched him so dearly.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorJohn Stankey and Brian Roberts are wrestling with different sides of the same problems.For Big Media, the fourth-quarter earnings revelations so far have reinforced predictions that 2022 is the year the honeymoon ends for the promise of new streaming ventures. Now it’s entrenching time.

Carl Kurlander, who went from being director Joel Schumacher’s assistant to writing St. Elmo’s fire with him, wrote a look back on that film for Deadline as well as a tribute when the director passed away., Kurlander today shares memories about Louie Anderson, the comic and actor who died last Friday in Las Vegas at age 68. Kurlander co-authored The F Word: How to Survive Your Family with Louie Anderson and was a consultant on his The Louie Show on CBS. His other credits include St Elmo’s Fire, he has been a senior lecturer at the U of Pittsburgh and producer of Chasing Covid and other titles. Here he discusses the empathy Anderson showed to most everyone around him, and many career breaks he provided, actions informed by the slights and hardships he faced in his own life.  

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticBy the time New York Magazine published its thorough and extremely damning new piece on how Joss Whedon and his entertainment empire fell apart, I couldn’t summon much more than an exhausted sigh. After years of loving his work, followed by years of reconsidering everything I knew about it within the context of the serious allegations against him, Whedon’s downfall in my own world was so swift and complete that I couldn’t stomach the idea of reopening that door at all.Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is the reason I first started thinking critically about television.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticThe year “The Matrix” came out — 1999 — already had a sci-fi ring to it. It was the year Prince had imagined as the run-up to the apocalypse, a premonition that would be echoed in the Y2K jitters.

Chris Willman Music WriterThe sale of Bruce Springsteen’s catalog to Sony Music Publishing — part of a deal that also includes his master recordings, estimated to have cost Sony around $500 million overall — could mean his body of work will be exploited for considerably more commercial licensing.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticI liked Steven Spielberg’s emotionally energized, visually bustling “West Side Story” just fine, though I’m not as over the moon about it as some of my critical colleagues. There’s an ecstatic tone wafting through the reviews.

Jeff Rabhan When Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams prophetically titled their song “Blurred Lines,” no one could have predicted, sampled or interpolated the tidal wave of internet-hatched accusations of theft directed at industry hitmakers, or the onslaught of frivolous and dubious claims that this deeply flawed verdict would bring to light.Relying heavily on emotional testimony and the views of laypeople to determine what constitutes “infringement,” the 2015 verdict has set copyright law (as

 Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr. Travis Bickle, Michael Corleone, Daniel Plainview, and Patrick Bateman all represent a dark part of ourselves.

Chris Willman Music WriterA moment of silent, please, for “This Is Spinal Tap,” as that satire formally abdicates its title as the best and truest movie ever made about what it’s like to be in a rock ‘n’ roll band.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticReviewing a lavish new Hollywood musical in the Sept. 29, 1968, issue of The New Yorker, Pauline Kael wrote, “Barbra Streisand arrives on the screen, in ‘Funny Girl,’ when the movies are in desperate need of her.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorThe Biden administration made a statement earlier this month when the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the $2.1 billion sale of Simon & Schuster.Merrick Garland’s body block of the deal that ViacomCBS struck with Bertelsmann’s Penguin Random House sends the message that the White House is paying attention to the pace of consolidation in media and entertainment.

Clayton Davis The Oscars are at rock bottom in the eyes of the public. The good news is, there’s nowhere to go but up.There are great films in the running for the top prizes — yet the consensus is that there isn’t much to be excited about, nor are people looking forward to the March event.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorThere is a Native film from 1989 about a road trip called “Powwow Highway” starring Gary Farmer and A Martinez. It’s a wonderful film that I enjoyed, and I highly recommend it to people who haven’t seen it.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticLike casual social hugs and the daily commute to the office cubicle, the platform movie release has been a casualty of the age of COVID. You remember the platform release, don’t you? It used to happen quite a bit this time of year.

Ran Geffen The past two decades have been a boon for composers, AV music publishers and production music library owners as content had a certain freedom of movement between various networks and platforms.

Sierra Teller Ornelas When Mike Schur, Ed Helms and I pitched our show “Rutherford Falls,” I wore my “power pieces” to every meeting. I sported Native American jewelry that I knew would make me enter each room with my chin a little higher, and my back a little more straight.

Chris Willman Music WriterFor more than 50 years, there was one word that crystallized the usually unspoken fear that a major concert event could turn deadly: Altamont. Now, for years to come, and maybe even generations, barring any worse disasters, that buzzword is likely to be Astroworld.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticI disagree with other critics all the time, and don’t generally blink an eye about it, but as soon as the news dropped that “Eternals,” the Marvel epic directed by Chloé Zhao, had received the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score (48% fresh) of any film in the 13-year history of the MCU, making it the first official “Rotten” film in the series, my hidden-agenda detector went on high alert.

Megan Townsend LGBTQ comic book and superhero fans have long been waiting to see themselves reflected in the pages and stories of the heroes they love. While progress has been made in the books themselves, that content has often been minimized or entirely erased when it comes to adapting those stories for the big screen.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticQuick, which of the following describes Timothée Chalamet? He’s the brightest male star of his generation. He’s an actor who has been in a handful of independent hits (“Call Me by Your Name,” “Lady Bird”) but has never, on his own, in the classic sense, truly opened a movie.

Jason Flom Lava Records founder Jason Flom is best known as a one of the most successful label heads and A&R reps of the past 30 years, with top posts at Atlantic Records and Virgin-EMI, and founder of Lava Records, with a remarkably diverse track record of artists, ranging from Tori Amos and Katy Perry to Kid Rock and Lorde.

Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentIt’s fun to make awards predictions in October, which is kinda/sorta the start of Oscar season.But here’s some perspective: In October 2018, audiences greeted Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” so rapturously that many were predicting an Oscar sweep. It ended up with one win (original song), out of eight nominations.

Rachel Mason The last time I saw Halyna, she asked me, as she always did, “What’s happening with your projects?” And I knew which ones she meant. Not the documentaries (boring camerawork) but the ones that involved the most complex, creative and wild shots.

David Israelite Guest ColumnistThis guest column was written by David Israelite, president & CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association, the trade association representing American music publishers and their songwriting partners. Variety welcomes responsible commentary; please send music-related inquiries and submissions to [email protected]. They say there are no secrets in the music industry.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticOccasionally a critic will write something that gets readers seriously riled. God knows I’ve done it.

Meghan McCain, 36, didn’t hold back against Katie Couric, 64, in her latest column for DailyMail, published on Friday October 15. The former View co-host accused the broadcast legend of being biased after she admitted to editing out a portion of an interview she did with late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg where the justice criticized NFL players like Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the national anthem in a 2016 interview.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticThe second memo that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos issued to Netflix staff about Dave Chappelle and stand-up comedy only proves that he doesn’t understand why people are actually upset about how Chappelle approaches transgender people in his new special “The Closer.” In his first response, Sarandos emphasized that even if “some people find the art of stand-up to be mean-spirited … our members enjoy it.” In the second, he again asserts Chappelle’s right to “artistic

Maria Egan Chief Music Officer, SpliceImagine it’s 2025. The global music business has been radically transformed and disintermediated.Over 100 million new songs have been uploaded to DSPs in this one year.

Crystal Echo Hawk Representation is revolutionary. Seeing Native people, who we are today and celebrating us, is necessary and it matters.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticWhen I saw “The Many Saints of Newark,” I wanted it to immerse me in the lives of New Jersey mobsters in the late ’60s and early ’70s the same way that “The Sopranos” immersed us in the lives of New Jersey mobsters at the turn of the 21st century. The film more or less achieves that.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic“Dune” has the potential to be the biggest movie of the year. But however well it does or does not do at the box office, it’s undeniably the biggest, grandest slice of movie in a long time.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticMike Richards’ first episode as host of “Jeopardy!” — one of what would end up totaling only five — taped Aug. 19 but only aired, after his ouster, on Monday night.

iOS - Android Many people fall into the trap of going on to what is called a ‘Standard Variable Rate’ with their mortgage lender.This means that your initial deal has expired and you’re usually on a higher rate, which can fluctuate if rates change, making it more difficult to budget your money effectively each month.We recommend taking a look at which rate you’re on first and see when it expires, if not already.If you’re on a Standard Variable Rate, then now is the time to look at your options.

Julia,” the documentary we directed about Julia Child, was the piece de resistance of our filming experience. On the sidewalks of Paris’ 7th arrondissement, where Julia and her husband Paul spent their early years together, cafes pulsed with voracious patrons.

Gene Del Vecchio In its most recent quarterly earnings report, Disney announced that the number of Disney Plus paid subscribers swelled to 116 million as of July 3. Wall Street noticed, as one headline from a financial publication shouted, “Disney Stock Leaps After Earnings Blowout.” Since the introduction of Disney Plus on Nov.