Television Academy Appoints Linda Swain as Vice President of Membership and Outreach

Selome Hailu Syrinthia Studer has joined Paramount’s global content licensing division as executive vice president of international productions.After being promoted from serving as executive vice president of Nickelodeon and Awesomeness Films, she will now oversee content strategy, development and production of local language and micro-budget films for the studio’s new business unit. Her purview will focus on originals and culturally specific local language remakes sourced from Paramount Pictures’ film library, with projects releasing via limited theatrical or direct-to-consumer platforms globally.

Kamala Harris is showing her support for the LGBTQ+ community! The Vice President made a special appeareance at Capitol Pride in Washington where she was joined on stage by Rupaul’s Drag Race Season 13 winner Symone, becoming the first Vice President to attend a Pride event.During her speech, Harris talked about the 31 people arrested in Idaho during a Pride event, for conspiracy to riot. “No one should fear going to a Pride celebration because of a white supremacist,” she stated.The Vice President was accompanied by her husband Douglas Emhoff, and she took a moment to reference the deadly Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando where 49 people were killed, as it was the sixth anniversaty of the tragedy.“No one should fear going to a nightclub for fear that a terrorist might try to take them down,” Harris said, adding “No one should fear loving who they love.”“Our children in Texas and Florida should not fear who they are,” she delcared, denouncing the controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorCheyenne Jackson is adding producer to his resume. The actor and singer has quietly launched a production company, Shiny Boy Entertainment, with his husband Jason Landau, the couple exclusively tells me.Their first project is “Brutal,” director Sam McConnell’s comedy short about a news anchor (Jackson) who acquires a leaked sex tape of a longtime U.S. senator.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterDisney Branded Television has promoted Meredith Roberts to executive vice president of TV animation, the studio said Monday.The promotion comes for Roberts following “outstanding creative and operational oversight of the Disney Television Animation studio during a period of significant growth,” per Disney Branded TV.Most recently senior vice president/general manager of Television Animation at Disney Branded TV, Roberts has managed the division since  2018, overseeing development and current animated content and production for kids 6-14 and families, including traditional 2D and CG series, movies and shorts distributed on Disney+ and Disney Channel.The studio has 1,200 half-hours of animated content currently in production for Disney’s streaming and linear platforms, and during Roberts’ tenure in 2020, Disney Television Animation earned more Daytime Emmy Award nods than at any other point in its 38-year history. “A leader of incredible vision and a true champion of artistic talent, Meredith has set a new bar for Disney Television Animation, building upon the single greatest animation legacy in the world to lead a team that is creating the most innovative, magical animated storytelling in the business,” Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded Television, said during the announcement at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in Annecy, France on Monday.

were arrested by police in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, under suspicion of conspiring to riot at a nearby Pride celebration.“No one should fear loving who they love!” the Vice President said. “Our children in Texas and Florida should not fear who they are! Black and brown and women of color — transgender women — should not pay [with] their lives! We should not have to be dealing with three hundred laws in states around our country that are attacking our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters!…“We will continue to build unity, we will continue to build coalitions, we will always be fueled by knowing we have so much more in common than what separates us,” she concluded.

Carson Burton Sony Pictures Television has brought on unscripted executive and producer Michael Weinberg as senior vice president of development in its newly-formed game show production unit, Variety has learned exclusively.In the new role, Weinberg will develop game shows across all platforms and will identify new growth opportunities for the game shows division, which is focused on expanding the company’s footprint in the category. Sony Pictures Television is behind mega-powerhouses “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!”An Emmy-winning producer, Weinberg’s extensive list of game show credits includes “Press Your Luck,” “1 Versus 100,” “To Tell the Truth” and “Don’t Forget the Lyrics.”Earlier this year, Sony made a major push into unscripted content expansion with the $350 million acquisition of Industrial Media.

Jonathan Littman, who helped launch Jerry Bruckheimer Television and has led the prolific TV company for the past 25 years as President, is leaving and plans to launch his own production company. Under Littman’s exit agreement, he will stay involved in several of JBTV’s series, including CSI: Vegas and The Amazing Race, which are the very first two JBTV series (or a followup in the case of Vegas) to get on the air.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorJonathan Littman is exiting as CEO of Jerry Bruckheimer Televison after a 25-year run with the company that included launching the “CSI” and “The Amazing Race” franchises.Littman plans to segue into his own production company. The split came together amicably between longtime partners.

“Happy Pride! So excited to celebrate with all my LGBTQIA+ friends and fans,” wrote the original TV Wonder Woman Lynda Carter yesterday. The actress, who has enjoyed the character’s resurgence in the past few years and her connection to it, wasn’t done with just one tweet.

Paul F. Dean Jr. has been elected 13th international vice president of IATSE in a unanimous vote of the union’s general executive board. Dean, who is the theatrical business manager of IATSE Local One in New York, succeeds James J. Claffey Jr., former president of Local One, who stepped down from IATSE’s executive board last month.

Pride Month — contending that Diana Prince/Wonder Woman was in fact, a symbol of queerness.It all started when she tweeted out an art cover of Wonder Woman gleefully surrounded by rainbows. “Happy Pride!,” she wrote.

A Property Brother is now a Property Father!

Drew Scott and Linda Phan are parents!

This Property Brothers star is now a parent! Drew Scott welcomed his and Linda Phan’s first baby on Wednesday, June 1st.