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Following a tough few months that has seen mass layoffs, Canadian national broadcaster CBC has welcomed a one-year investment of CA$42M ($30.4M) from the federal government.

Alison Hammond shared a simple yet emotional message as she made her debut hosting the late Paul O'Grady's For the Love of Dogs. The This Morning star was chosen to continue the late entertainer and staunch animal lover's legacy he created at Battersea Cats and Dogs Home.

Tim Chan If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Millions of people tuned into CBS to watch Billy Joel‘s Madison Square Garden concert over the weekend, and the special — celebrating his 100th consecutive performance at MSG — has spurred a rush of last-minute ticket sales for his remaining residency dates. Joel and Madison Square Garden Entertainment announced last year that the singer will end his record-breaking residency at the iconic New York venue this July.

Lola has been roundly panned by critics.The film marks her directorial debut, which she also wrote and stars in as the titular character, who is trying to get by on money from working in a drugstore and strip club while also protecting her younger brother from their alcoholic mother.The movie’s synopsis reads: “Lola James works to save enough money to get her little brother, Arlo, out of their toxic home.

Cosm, a 5-year-old provider of production services for tech and media companies, is branching into physical venues.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Micheal Douglas went viral last year when he told THR on the “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” red carpet that he would only be interested in returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Hank Pym in a fourth “Ant-Man” movie “as long as I can die.” It turns out that was actually Douglas’ wish for “Quantumania.” Appearing on “The View” (via Entertainment Weekly) to promote his new Apple TV+ historical drama series “Franklin,” Douglas revealed that he actually wanted to be killed off from the MCU in the third “Ant-Man” movie. He even asked for a huge special effects bonanza to help send Hank Pym into the great beyond.

William Earl Writers employed by “Sesame Street” producer Sesame Workshop have voted unanimously to support a strike authorization vote from the Writers Guild of America as the April 19 expiration of the current contract approaches. The 35 writers represented by the union have been in negotiations with the production company behind “Sesame Street” and other children’s programs since February.

EXCLUSIVE: Chernin Entertainment has preemptively acquired an untitled erotic thriller pitch from Emily Siegel, Deadline can exclusively reveal.

Trainspotting, has died at the age of 64.The Scottish actor appeared in Danny Boyle’s 1996 film playing the father of Kelly Macdonald’s character Diane. His other credits include the 1985 cult classic Restless Natives, in which he played Will ‘The Wolfman’. The news was confirmed by his agent, who said he died “unexpectedly in hospital” on April 14.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Max Cutler sold Parcast Studios, his scripted-audio entertainment start-up, to Spotify in 2019 under a deal in which Spotify ultimately paid nearly $90 million. Cutler went on to become Spotify’s VP, head of talk creator content and partnerships — inking exclusive licensing deals with podcasters including Alex Cooper, Emma Chamberlain and Markiplier, and managing the company’s partnership with “The Joe Rogan Experience” — before exiting last year. Now Cutler is back in the game with the launch of Pave Studios.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Participant, the 20-year-old film and television production company whose mission was to inspire social justice and humanitarian action, is shutting down. Founder Jeff Skoll broke the news to a staff of roughly 100 on Tuesday.

EXCLUSIVE: Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) is set to executive produce and star in the newly greenlit Lifetime movie The Bad Orphan. Chloe Coco Chapman will make her television debut alongside Brandt and additional cast members Mark Taylor (Reacher) and Eve Edwards (The Good Doctor).

EXCLUSIVE: Former Verve TV lit agent Matthew Doyle is transitioning to management and joining Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment. Starting this week, he will be working out as a of the company’s Los Angeles office.

EXCLUSIVE: Revenge star Emily VanCamp has found her next role, and it’s a juicy one.

Alex Ritman “Shazam” star Zachary Levi is set to headline rock-climbing action thriller “Free Fall” for XYZ Films, with acclaimed New Zealand stuntwoman and stunt coordinator Zöe Bell tapped to direct. The film — written by Sean Finegan and Gregg Maxwell Parker — tells the story of a father’s attempt to reconcile with his estranged daughter on a rock-climbing trip that turns deadly as an accident leaves them stranded hundreds of feet in the air.

Naman Ramachandran Studiocanal’s Amy Winehouse biopic “Back to Black” debuted atop the U.K and Ireland box office with £2.77 million ($3.4 million), according to numbers from Comscore. It was neck-and-neck for the second spot. Entertainment Film Distributors’ “Civil War,” directed by Alex Garland and starring Kirsten Dunst, debuted with £1.82 million, including previews.

Baby Reindeer fans have called for Jessica Gunning to win 'all the awards' for her portrayal of a sinister stalker in the new Netflix series. The drama, which has received a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, released on April 11.

The family of TikTok star Kyle Marisa Roth has confirmed her sudden passing in an emotional social media post. Kyle, who was known for her controversial celebrity opinions, was just 36 years old when she died. Her cause of death has not been revealed, however, she has been open about her battles with mental health and her journey with colon cancer.

India–Taiwan co-production “Demon Hunters” will be unveiled at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. The action-horror-comedy film is directed by Chen Mei-Juin (“The Gangster’s Daughter”) and produced by Light House Productions (Taiwan) and Kleos Entertainment Group (India), with the backing of the Taiwan government. The cast is headlined by India’s Arjan Bajwa (Prime Video series “Bestseller”) and Taiwan’s J.C.

The stars of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are insanely popular on social media!

The Vice President is no longer heading to late-night.

EXCLUSIVE: Alloy Entertainment has promoted Elysa Koplovitz Dutton to the role of Executive Vice President of Theatrical Film Production, the company’s President and Chief Creative Officer Leslie Morgenstein announced on Monday.

EXCLUSIVE: We understand that Marvel underwent a handful of layoffs Monday, with 15 employees impacted across Marvel Entertainment in New York and Marvel Studios in Burbank.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer Marvel laid off 15 staffers on Monday, including lower-level production and development employees in Marvel Studios in Burbank as well as employees in the Marvel Entertainment division in New York. The layoffs were predicated by the overall reduction in Marvel’s slate of film and TV titles after the challenges of the 2023 releases led the company to reassess the rapid increase in productions to feed the launch of Disney+.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Chris Hemsworth recently revealed to Entertainment Tonight that he tried hard to land a role in a Kevin Costner-directed project only to learn that Costner had cast himself as the character instead. The “Thor” star did not reveal what the movie was, although he described it as something “abstract and interesting …a small story about a man and a woman.” “There was a movie, a script that I’d read and loved and was like, ‘I want to get that,’ and then someone said, ‘Kevin Costner has that [role],’” Hemsworth said. “I’d love [to have] him as a director.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor HarbourView Equity Partners has made an investment in Mucho Mas Media, the Los Angeles-based content company behind the new golf-themed movie “The Long Game.” The deal calls for HarbourView Equity to executive produce films with Mucho Mas co-CEOs Javier Chapa and Vincent Cordero. With HarbourView’s investment, Mucho Mas intends to expand the scope of its activity in film and TV.

EXCLUSIVE: MindRiot Entertainment, the transatlantic indie behind Danielle Deadwyler’s Parallel, and the upcoming OceanGate pic Salvaged is moving into production on Trash Talk, a docuseries about NBA Hall-Of-Famer Gary Payton. 

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Even Stevens” and “Kim Possible” actor Christy Carlson Romano revealed on “Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that she is not going to watch the Investigation Discovery documentary series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” because “it’s extremely triggering” and “I’ve made a choice for several reasons to opt out of watching that imagery.” She also said that she once turned down the network’s request for her to participate in a similar kind of doc. “Quiet on Set” explores misconduct and abuse allegations behind the scenes at Nickelodeon in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Syndicated talk strip “Tamron Hall” has been picked up for a sixth season, ABC News was set to announce on Monday. The show, distributed nationally by Disney Entertainment, airs on the ABC-owned TV stations, as well as on stations owned by groups including Hearst, Scripps, Nexstar, Tegna, Gray and AMG. The news keeps “Tamron Hall” on the air through the 2024-2025 TV season.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Disney has confirmed that Korean webtoon-to-screen adaptation “Low Life” is poised to begin production. When valuable treasure is discovered off the coast of Korea, the country’s biggest degenerates come crawling out of the woodwork in the hope of striking it big. Word spreads after a fisherman got lucky and kept a piece of the booty for himself.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Award-winning country star Lainey Wilson will be the subject of a documentary special being produced by Robin Roberts‘ production unit at ABC News Studios, to be seen on Hulu, with a premiere date set for May 29. The Roberts-led division has several such projects in development. The host indicated that the doc-style specials will focus of telling the stories of empowered women.

Many of us long to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. And a great way to escape is to invest in your very own home from home, making it easy to plan a quick getaway whenever you need and providing the perfect place to entertain your friends and family.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Last week, Amazon Studios/Prime Video senior VP announced that Chris Brearton was leaving Amazon “to pursue a new opportunity outside the company.” Now we know what that opportunity is: Brearton, who had most recently served as vice president of Prime Video Studios Corporate Strategy at MGM+ and MGM Alternative Television, has joined indie media company AGBO as a partner. At AGBO, he will join company leaders Anthony and Joe Russo (the directors who co-founded the company in 2017) and partner Donald Mustard.

Pierce Brosnan And Amir El-Masry have signed on to star in the sports drama Giant from AGC Studios about the life of British-Yemeni boxer Prince Naseem “Naz” Hamed and his rags-to-riches ascent to a world championship under the tutelage of his Irish-born boxing trainer Brendan Ingle.

EXCLUSIVE: Amit Dhanuka has joined forces with Indian filmmaker Shashank Khaitan at Mentor Disciple Entertainment as a partner.

Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway shared its poignant final instalment over the weekend, marking the end of their hit ITV series. Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly offered moving farewells as hosts.