Tonys Ask WGA for Waiver to Go Ahead With Awards Show

James Cromwell, nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1995 for his role in Babe, expressed solidarity today for the WGA members who are out on strike.

EXCLUSIVE: This is early stage, no deals are done and it might not land until the strike’s over, but the most celebrated play to come along in a good long time is to be turned into a limited TV series with top talent. The play is Sir Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, which had a successful West End run before moving to Broadway last September. I’ve heard that Amblin and executive producer Steven Spielberg are shopping it with Patrick Marber adapting (the Closer writer/director was the play’s original director when it opened in London and he directed the current Broadway incarnation also), and the series will be directed by Stephen Daldry, The Crown multiple Emmy winner.

Jimmy Buffett, the beloved “Margaritaville” singer who canceled a string of performances last fall due to an unspecified illness, has pulled out of a stadium concert planned for tomorrow after being newly hospitalized this week.

SAG-AFTRA’s national board voted unanimously today to recommend that the union’s members authorize a strike in advance of its upcoming negotiations for a new film and TV contract.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Sterling K. Brown could be on his way to Broadway. The three-time Emmy winner will star in a reading of a new stage production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” on May 18 in New York City, sources exclusively tell me. Brown will play Randle P. McMurphy, a character famously portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the 1975 movie adaptation of Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel. Sources also tell me that Tony winner Laura Benanti will play Nurse Ratched. The team behind the reading have their hopes set on a Broadway run. The reading is directed by Young Vic artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah. Scott Delman produces. Delman is also on board as a producer of the “Thelma & Louise” musical, which has been workshopped with Amanda Seyfried and Evan Rachel Wood starring.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor UPDATED: Tony Awards Productions has altered the upcoming awards ceremony to conform with requests made by the Writers Guild of America, the union announced Monday evening. As a result, the WGA no longer has plans to picket the show. On Friday, the Writers Guild of America denied a request for a strike waiver from the show’s producers, meaning the Tonys wouldn’t be televised on June 11. Earlier Monday, it was announced that producers of the Tonys would file an appeal of the WGA’s waiver denial. A source tells Variety, “Everyone is still trying to see if there is a workable solution.” Now, it seems that the group has been able to negotiate a potential path forward for the telecast. Ariana DeBose was set to return as host, but it is believed that she would’ve exited if the event was icketed.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor UPDATED: Producers of the Tonys will file an appeal of the WGA’s waiver denial. The decision was made Monday during a meeting of the Tonys management committee. A source tells Variety, “Everyone is still trying to see if there is a workable solution.” On Friday, the Writers Guild of America denied a request for a strike waiver from the show’s producers, meaning the Tonys won’t be televised on June 11. Ariana DeBose was set to return as host but it is believed she’ll cancel if the strike is still on. The Tonys were scheduled to take place at the United Palace in New York’s Washington Heights. The ceremony was to start at 8 p.m. ET and air live on CBS, as well as the streaming service Paramount+.

No decisions were reached at today’s emergency meeting of the Tony Awards Management Committee, a get-together in which contingency plans were discussed in light of last week’s news that the June 11 ceremony will not be televised on CBS due to the Writers Guild of America strike.

The Hollywood Reporter, which means the show might not be televised on CBS/Paramount+ as planned, or even happen at all. “The Tony Awards is the biggest commercial for the industry at large, and for a show like mine, which is unbranded and just at the stage where we are finally starting to see some lifeblood, it would be devastating to not be able to be part of this,” Mike Bosner, the lead producer of “Shucked,” one of the five shows nominated for Best New Musical, told The New York Times on Friday.TheWrap has reached out to the Tony Awards PR company, as well as WGA, CBS and Paramount+ for comment.The Tony Awards are scheduled on June 11, but the televised ceremony is imperiled by the W.G.A.

Sad news for the Broadway community – the 2023 Tony Awards will not be able to take place as planned on June 11.

22 Kids And Counting star Millie Radford, who is the 22-year-old daughter of Noel and Sue Radford, has shared the exciting news that she is pregnant again. The proud mother-of-two took to Instagram to share her joy with her 108,000 followers, as she unveiled footage of her ultrasound.

Requests by scripted TV production companies to film on location in Los Angeles plummeted 51% in the first week of the Writers Guild’s strike compared to the same week a year ago, according to FilmLA, the city and county film permit office.

As you have no doubt already heard, the WGA is on strike right now. Just over a week into it, this strike has already caused quite a few disruptions, with productions being halted and development coming to a standstill.

Bruce Norris’s Downstate and Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt were named this season’s Best Play and Best Foreign Play, respectively, by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle today.

in solidarity with the WGA, and MTV scuttled plans for red carpet interviews and an in-person ceremony in order to to avoid run-ins with picketers (and lack of talent willing to show up).The show that aired was largely made up of clips of memorable moments from past MTV Movie Awards ceremonies — everything from Jim Carrey accepting his award as Jim Morrison to Sacha Baron Cohen landing crotch-first into Eminem’s face after a “stunt gone wrong.” They even played Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg’s performance of “California Girl” from the 2010 show in full, just to fill some time.As for the awards themselves, nominees from each category were called and the winner then accepted in the form of a pre-recorded message.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Judd Apatow thinks the studios and streamers already have an idea of when the writers strike may end. “I think they probably already know what they’re going to bend on,” Apatow told Variety Saturday at the Rock4EB benefit in Malibu. “I would assume they already know what date this is going to end. They’ve probably been planning this for years.” The writer-director reflected comments heard on picket lines in Los Angeles and New York after talks cratered between the Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the writers union began to strike Tuesday. Apatow explained that he sees the strike as a calculated business move by Hollywood’s largest employers.

Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which serves as labor representatives for Hollywood’s studios, have released a new statement breaking down their stance on the various sticking points that caused a deal with the Writers Guild of America to fall apart. In a four-page document that can be read here, the AMPTP addressed several issues that were raised by the WGA in their pattern of demands, most notably the guild’s proposal for a minimum of six writers on all TV productions with more required depending on the number of episodes.

This Morning viewers wondered if they were 'hallucinating' as they tuned into the penultimate episode of the week. Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby were back at the helm of the ITV daytime show on Thursday (May 4) with more royal chatter ahead of the King's Coronation this weekend.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America West held a rally Wednesday night to demonstrate solidarity with the other Hollywood unions in their collective contract battles against Hollywood’s major employers. About 1,800 guild members attended the meeting at the Shrine Auditorium, and heard from WGA leaders about the reasons behind the two-day old strike. One of the stars of the show, however, was Lindsay Dougherty, the 39-year-old leader of Teamsters Local 399. “We’re all sticking together,” Dougherty told Variety outside the event. “We have an opportunity to change things in this industry, and the only way we’re going to do that is if we’re together.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor The excitement and buzz continues to build for “The Little Mermaid.” A source tells me that director Rob Marshall and husband, producer John DeLuca, hosted a private screening of Disney’s live adaptation of the 1989 animated classic on Sunday night at New York’s Whitby Hotel. The guest list of about 80 people included Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, Matt Damon and his family, Emily Mortimer, Ben Platt and his “Parade” co-star Micaela Diamond, Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Bob Balaban and Lynn Grossman, Diane and Brian Sutherland, and Scott Ellis. The film’s composer Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who co-wrote three new songs for the movie, were also there.