Society Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

“Unfair and coercive” buyout practices are putting creatives at “a considerable risk” and legislation must be implemented to stop them, a collective of authors rights groups has said.

Paradise, directed by Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage, is playing in the Icons: South Asia section of Mumbai Film Festival, fresh from its world premiere at Busan International Film Festival where it won the Jiseok Award.

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon MGM Studios has snapped up rights to Rebecca Yarros‘ fantasy book series The Empyrean, and is moving to develop its first title, Fourth Wing, for TV alongside Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society.

The Castle Douglas branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society recently held a celebration evening.

The Visual Effects Society (VES), the visual effects industry’s professional global honorary society, has announced the Society’s newest VES Fellows.

One of Britain's largest building societies has launched a £200 switching offer as well as a linked savings account paying 8 per cent interest.

Peter Caranicas Deputy Editor The annual New York Greek Film Expo has been set for Village East Cinema in Manhattan and the Barrymore Film Center in Fort Lee, N.J. on October 5-15.

Great Absence, the second feature film from Japanese director Kei Chika-ura, is receiving its world premiere in Toronto International Film Festival’s Platform section. Inspired by Kei’s real-life experiences, the film tells the story of an actor living in Tokyo who is forced to travel home when the police call to say his father is suffering from dementia and has lost touch with reality. Making matters worse, his father’s second wife appears to be missing. The actor makes the trip home with his own wife, full of conflicted emotions over a man who left the family when he was still a child, and starts an exploration into the mysteries of his father’s life.

An ex-prisoner who was behind bars with a recently escaped terror suspect says he represents a "menace to society". Daniel Abed Khalife, an ex-soldier, escaped from HMP Wandsworth in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with a prison source reportedly claiming he did so on the back of a delivery van.

Aton Soumache and Joann Sfar’s French studio Magical Society has launched a UK arm helmed by Saving Mr Banks producer Paul Trijbits, whose drama indie FilmWave has shuttered after a decade.

Naman Ramachandran James Corden and Emma Thompson are among the industry leaders featuring in the speaker lineup of the U.K. Royal Television Society’s annual convention.

The Visual Effects Society has composited its first group of 2023 honorees.

You may not realize that there are several celebrities that are geniuses who have joined Mensa, the high IQ society!

A dad told the mother of two of his children told her 'I'll strangle the life out of you' as he throttled her following almost four years of abuse. Lee Ellison, 43, has now been jailed for the attack - and for coercive and controlling behaviour towards his former partner.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Messages have been pouring in to pay tribute to Jess Search, producer and co-founder of U.K.’s Doc Society, who died Monday from brain cancer at the age of 54. Search was a founding director of Doc Society, the mission of which is to “unleash the transformational power of documentary film to address the two critical and intertwined issues of climate change and democracies in crisis.” Before that, she was a commissioning editor at Channel 4 and a founder of Shooting People, the online filmmakers network.

Jess Search, a British documentary veteran who co-founded the Doc Society, has died aged 54 from brain cancer.

Sophia Scorziello editor Jess Search, producer and co-founder of U.K.’s Doc Society, has died. She was 54.

The Hollywood Radio and Television Society has elected 12 new board members and six new advisory council members, and extended CEO Melissa Grego’s contract through 2025, the organization announced Wednesday.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Melissa Grego, a former Variety reporter who brought new energy to the Hollywood Radio and Television Society as CEO and helped expand its membership base to the largest in its 76 year history, has extended her contract with the organization to 2025. The news comes as the HRTS, which provides programming, fellowship and other support for executives, aspiring industry leaders and others across the business, has announced a newly elected group of board members and advisory council members. The news was announced on Wednesday by HRTS president Odetta Watkins — whose day job is serving as head of drama series at Amazon Studios — and Grego. Grego, whose previous work as a journalist also included overseeing the TV trade Broadcasting & Cable as its editor, joined HRTS in 2017 and immediately began collaborating with its board (which also includes HRTS chairperson Dan Erlij, the senior partner and co-head of TV literary at UTA) to grow the org’s various programs and create some new ones.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Jess Search, a titan of the documentary world and co-founder of the U.K.-headquartered Doc Society, is stepping away after 18 years following a brain tumor diagnosis. The executive revealed her condition in a newsletter post sent to members on Thursday. “Today I am sharing that I’m currently under the care of a neurosurgeon because like 300,000 others every year around the world, I’ve been diagnosed with a brain tumour,” Search wrote. “I’m stepping back from Doc Society — after 18 years of nonstop creative collaboration, dedicated craft, joyous partying and fierce camaraderie.”

DORIAN TV AWARDS NOMINEES—FULL LISTBEST TV DRAMAInterview with the Vampire (AMC)The Last of Us (HBO)Succession (HBO)The White Lotus (HBO)Yellowjackets (Showtime)BEST TV COMEDYAbbott Elementary (ABC)The Bear (FX on Hulu)The Other Two (HBO Max)Poker Face (Peacock)Somebody Somewhere (HBO)BEST LGBTQ TV SHOWInterview with the Vampire (AMC)A League of Their Own (Amazon)Somebody Somewhere (HBO)The Last of Us (HBO)The Other Two (HBO Max)BEST TV MOVIE OR MINISERIESBeef (Netflix)Daisy Jones & The Six (Amazon)Dead Ringers (Amazon)Fire Island (Hulu)Rye Lane (Hulu)BEST UNSUNG SHOWA Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO)Derry Girls (Netflix)Jury Duty (Amazon Freevee)Los Espookys (HBOReservation Dogs (FX on Hulu)Somebody Somewhere (HBO)BEST NON-ENGLISH SHOWElite (Netflix)Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Netflix)Los Espookys (HBO)Smiley (Netflix)Young Royals (Netflix)BEST TV PERFORMANCE—DRAMAKieran Culkin, Succession (HBO)Melanie Lynskey, Yellowjackets (Showtime)Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us (HBO)Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us (HBO)Sarah Snook, Succession (HBO)BEST SUPPORTING TV PERFORMANCE—DRAMAMurray Bartlett, The Last of Us (HBO)Jennifer Coolidge, The White Lotus (HBO)Meghann Fahy, The White Lotus (HBO)Nick Offerman, The Last of Us (HBO)Aubrey Plaza, The White Lotus (HBO)BEST TV PERFORMANCE—COMEDYRachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary (ABC)Bridget Everett, Somebody Somewhere (HBO)Natasha Lyonne, Poker Face (Peacock)Ali Wong, Beef (Netflix)BEST SUPPORTING TV PERFORMANCE—COMEDYAlex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs.

SPOILER ALERT: The following story contains details from the series finale of HBO‘s Barry.

Whoopi Goldberg is not happy where society is at right now.

Whoopi Goldberg might be getting in trouble with 's network — ABC. The 67-year-old co-host of spoke out against another ABC show during a panel discussion this week.While discussing the recent Anna Nicole Smith documentary,, Goldberg talked about society's obsession with judging others.«I think, you know, that we as a society love to watch stuff, to judge folks,» Goldberg said. «I've always thought that the beginning of the downfall of society was with… what's the name of that show?»«That's ABC's » a producer replied, smiling.«It was not always on ABC.

The new movie Polite Society has been released in theaters!

The Cinema Audio Society has set its key dates for the 2023-24 awards season. The 60th annual CAS Awards will be presented live and in-person on Saturday, March 4. The venue is TBA.

EXCLUSIVE: On the heels of a record-breaking TKO with their Michael B. Jordan-directed boxing pic Creed III for Amazon/MGM, Jordan’s Outlier Society will team with the Mission: Impossible franchise’s Christopher McQuarrie to produce Iron Curtain, a new action thriller in early development at Amazon Studios.

Editors note: This review was originally published May 22 after its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The film opened in New York on Wednesday and today in Los Angeles.

More than a decade on, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the Rochdale child grooming scandal 'remains one of the greatest failures of our society'.

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios has won a competitive auction and sealed a high-six figure outright purchase of The Dwelling, an unpublished short story by Aaron Jayh. Michael B. Jordan and Liz Raposo’s Outlier Society are attached to produce. Jordan is potentially starring.  

Naman Ramachandran Kate Winslet and Kit Connor took the top acting prizes at the U.K.’s Royal Television Society Programme Awards on Tuesday. Winslet won leading actor, female, for Channel 4’s “I am Ruth.” Winslet won for playing Ruth, who witnesses her teenage daughter Freya (Winslet’s real-life daughter Mia Threapleton) retreating into herself as she becomes consumed by the pressures of social media. Winslet made a powerful speech, saying: “It has never been a harder time to be a parent, it has never been a more dangerous time to be a child in an online world. So let’s hope that the next Online Safety Bill implements significant and seismic change that will fundamentally help towards securing the safety of all of our children by recognizing and criminalizing harmful content.”

Carlos Alcaraz volunteers during the Miami Open Unites campaign on Monday (March 20) in Miami, Fla.

A new zebra pedestrian crossing has been installed on a busy road in Trafford as part of a push to support active travel in the area. However, a video shared widely on Twitter has shown motorists ignoring this as a pedestrian waits to cross it.

The Cinema Audio Society has its new board of directors and officers.

The Fabelmans, The Banshees of Inisherin, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical were among the big film winners Thursday at the Casting Society’s 38th annual Artios Awards.

Julia MacCary editor “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Abbott Elementary” and “Yellowjackets” received top honors at the 38th annual Casting Society Artios Awards. The ceremony honors top casting spanning films, TV and theater. The celebrations were in-person for the first time in three years, taking place in Los Angeles, New York City and London, with hosts Yvette Nicole Brown, Amber Ruffin and Gordin Griffin, respectively. EGOT winner Rita Moreno received career honors with the Lynn Stalmaster Award, which was presented by her “80s for Brady” co-star Glynn Turman. The Associated Casting Director / Unscripted Casting Producer Spotlight Awards went to Joy Gordo, Jenn Noyes and Martin Ware. Other top honors included United Agents (London), Leslee Feldman, Black Theatre United, Jessica Sherman and Simone Bär.