U.S. Economy Adds 236,000 Jobs In March, Unemployment At 3.5%

BreAnna Bell Fresh off of her turn in Amazon’s “Swarm,” Heather Alicia Simms has joined Gabourey Sidibe’s “1266” pilot at Onyx Collective as a recurring guest star. She’ll portray Lashanna. According to her official character description, Lashanna is Imagine Inc.’s most dichotomous employee: a phone sex worker who is a very religious Christian with quite conservative views on sexuality. She has photos of her kids and grandkids on her wall and is proud of the fact that most of her money goes to tithes and taking care of her grandkids. She joins previously announced cast members Karim Diané, Kristin Dodson, and Kassandra Lee Diaz as series regulars to star alongside Sidibe, who will executive produce and play the lead role of Gabby. Anna Maria Horsford, Tisha Campbell, and Judy Reyes have been announced as recurring guest stars.

saving ‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ from HBO’s chopping block in March, Prime Video has announced that it will be adding the family-friendly movie ‘Merry Little Batman’ as well as the series spinoff ‘Bat-Family’ to its library. Both projects come from Warner Bros.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor When it comes to getting audiences to sample revivals of shows “Night Court” and “Quantum Leap,” NBCUniversal is leaving less of the task to chance. In a different era, a network like NBC would run promos on its own air and be satisfied that those short vignettes urging viewers to try something new were reaching millions of people each day. In the streaming era, TV companies have to work harder. NBC has teamed up with the measurement-technology firm VideoAmp to help it examine the effectiveness of its marketing for the shows it launches. Rather than relying primarily on linear promos, networks have moved more of their outreach to digital and social media, realizing they can leave no media type unexplored in their quest to find viewers.

Jens Richter has added commercial duties to his Fremantle International CEO role.

K.J. Yossman Viaplay’s first U.K. drama commission, “Rebus,” has gone into production in Scotland. The show has also added some new cast members including “Line of Duty’s” Lucie Shorthouse, Brian Ferguson (“The Ipcress File”) and Stuart Bowman (“The Serpent”). They will join Richard Rankin (“Outlander”) as John Rebus, the much-loved character John Rebus from Ian Rankin’s bestselling novels. “Rebus” tells the story of a Scottish police detective who “finds himself at a psychological crossroads,” according to the logline. “At odds with a job increasingly driven by corporate technocrats, involved in a toxic affair he knows he needs to end, and all but supplanted in his daughter’s life by his ex-wife’s wealthy new husband, Rebus begins to wonder if he still has a role to play – either as a family man or a police officer. In a world of divisive politics and national discord, does the law still have meaning, or is everyone reverting to an older set of rules? And if so, why shouldn’t Rebus do so too?”

Siouxsie Sioux has added a date in London to her forthcoming comeback shows.The Siouxsie & The Banshees frontwoman confirmed her live return just before Christmas, with her first live performance in the UK for a decade set to take place at Latitude Festival in July.She also announced three live dates in Europe next month followed by a performance at the Cruel World Festival in California on May 20. Sioux is also set to kick off the Summer Nights At The Bandstand concert series in Glasgow on July 25.Now she has announced plans to perform at the Troxy on September 7.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Peri Gilpin is the latest original “Frasier” cast member to join the series’ revival at Paramount+. Gilpin will guest star in an episode of the series, reprising the role of Roz, whom she played throughout the original show’s 11-season run on NBC. As previously announced, Kelsey Grammer will reprise the role of Frasier Crane, with Jack Cutmore-Scott, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Toks Olagundoye, Jess Salgueiro, and Anders Keith also starring. Bebe Neuwirth will guest star in one episode as Dr. Lilith Sternin. The revival series will take place in Boston, which was the setting for “Cheers.” The official logline states, “Frasier is off to a different city with new challenges to face, new relationships to forge, and an old dream or two to finally fulfill. Frasier has re-entered the building!”

Grimes may have invited anyone who’s currently sitting on the generative AI bandwagon to “feel free to use my voice without penalty”, but that doesn’t mean there are no rules at all in this brave new AI world.Although she likes the idea of “open sourcing all art and killing copyright”, the musician admitted yesterday that “we may do copyright takedowns … for really really toxic lyrics with Grimes’ voice”.The recent surge in interest in using generative AI tools to create new tracks in the style of existing artists – by getting the AI to crunch data linked to the work of those existing artists – has raised concerns in certain parts of the music community.The music industry maintains that training an AI in that way requires a licence from whoever owns the copyright in the existing music. Failure to do so constitutes copyright infringement, and labels and publishers may sue you, or at least urge streaming services to stop distributing music created by unlicensed data mining.But Grimes declared at the weekend that people are more than welcome to train an AI with her back catalogue in order to create new tracks using a machine version of her voice, provided that they are willing to share any royalties those tracks might generate.“I’ll split 50% royalties on any successful AI-generated song that uses my voice”, she tweeted.

“House of The Dragon” is adding new cast members for season 2.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s “Black Flies” starring Sean Penn, and Catherine Corsini’s “Le retour” have been added to the competition lineup of the upcoming 76th Cannes Film Festival. As many as 13 movies have been peppered across several sections, including the competition, special screening, Un Certain Regard and out of competition. Robert Rodriguez’s “Hypnotic” and Kim Tae-gon’s “Project Silence” are joining the Midnight Screening roster, while Amat Escalante’s Mexican drama “Perdidos en la Noche” and Argentinian helmer Lisandro Alonso’s thriller “Eureka” starring Viggo Mortensen and José María Yazpik, will bow at Cannes Premiere, a non-competitive section launched in 2021. Alonso previously won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard with his 2014 movie “Jauja.” Also slated for Cannes Premiere is Valerie Donzelli’s drama “L’Amour et les forets.”

Drake has added 12 new dates to the "It's All A Blur" tour, his 2023 run of North America shows with 21 Savage, and rescheduled some others. The cities that the new shows take place in include Memphis, Columbus, Milwaukee, and Toronto for dates, presumably indicating the return of Drake's hometown concert OVO Fest.

Simon Russell Beale, Freddie Fox, Gayle Rankin & Abubakar Salim have joined the cast of HBO’s House of the Dragon for Season 2.

Drake has officially slated two new dates for his hometown Toronto on his latest tour, “It’s All A Blur”.

Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time has cast Danish model-actress Maja Simonsen, Icelandic actress and former Olympic swimmer Ragga Ragnars, Irish actor Jay Duffy and New Zealand singer, actress and comedian Rima Te Wiata in recurring roles for the hit fantasy drama’s upcoming second season. The announcement was made during today’s virtual panel at JordanCon.

Charna Flam As “The Wheel of Time” prepares to return for a second season at Prime Video, the Amazon Studios production has added four cast members to play characters from Robert Jordan’s series of fantasy novels. The announcement was made Saturday afternoon at JordanCon, which is dedicated to the author and celebrates sci-fi and fantasy writing. Maja Simonsen (“Emily in Paris”), Ragga Ragnars (“Vikings”), Jay Duffy (“Hollyoaks”) and Rima Te Wiata (“Kiri and Lou”) have all joined the series for recurring roles.

Selome Hailu Melissa Fumero, Danny Trejo are set to guest star in the May 2 episode of “Lopez v. Lopez.” Fumero will play Natalia, a Latina mother who mistakes Mayan for white, while Trejo plays Danny Martinez of Martin-E.Z. Movers, who is George’s rival and biggest competitor. Additionally, Judge Marilyn Milian and Erik Griffin will appear in the episode, with character details not yet revealed. Fumero is best known for starring as Amy Santiago opposite Andy Samberg in NBC’s “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” Recently, she voice acted in Samberg’s adult animated Comedy Central series “Digman!” and HBO Max’s adult animated series “Velma.” In 2022, she appeared in the IFC comedy film “Barfight!” and the Netflix comedy “Blockbuster.” Other prominent credits include “One Life to Live,” “Gossip Girl,” “Royal Pains,” “CSI: NY” and “The Mentalist.” As a director, she has worked on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Grand Crew,” “Gordita Chronicles” and the upcoming Freevee comedy “Primo.”

EXCLUSIVE: Three-time Emmy nominee Gail O’Grady is set for a key recurring role in J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan’sMax period drama Duster, starring Josh Holloway and Rachel Hilson.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer “No Country for Old Men” and “Harry Potter” star Kelly Macdonald has joined the ensemble of Searchlight Pictures’ rock opera “O’Dessa.” Written and directed by Geremy Jasper (“Patticake$”), the film is led by “Stranger Things” breakout Sadie Sink and costars Kelvin Harrison Jr., Murray Bartlett and Regina Hall. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the film tells of a farm girl on an epic quest to recover a cherished family heirloom. Her journey leads her to a strange and dangerous city where she meets her one true love – but in order to save his soul, she must put the power of destiny and song to the ultimate test.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Netflix reported its first-quarter 2023 earnings Tuesday. The streamer added 1.75 million net new subscribers in Q1, compared with gaining 7.66 million for the final quarter of 2022, the period during which its low-cost, ad-supported tier launched.

EXCLUSIVE: Daredevil: Born Again actress Sandrine Holt has joined David Cronenberg’s next movie, The Shrouds opposite Guy Pearce, Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger.