Variety and iHeartPodcasts Team Up to Launch New True Crime Podcast ‘Variety Confidential’

MUNA teamed up with Boygenius for two songs last night (August 20) during the latter’s headline concert in London.Both bands shared vocals on MUNA’s ‘Silk Chiffon’ at the end of their support set at Gunnersbury Park before they teamed up again for ‘Salt In The Wound’, which featured on Boygenius’ 2018 debut EP, at the close of the supergroup’s set. You can view footage of both tracks below.During the former, which featured on their self-titled 2022 album, MUNA kicked off the track before Phoebe Bridgers joined them to sing her vocal part on the song.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Chief Correspondent Britney Spears has spoken out for the first time to address news of her divorce, which broke earlier this week. Posting on Instagram, along with a video of her dancing, Spears confirmed that she and her husband of 14 months, Sam Asghari — whose birth name is Hesam Asghari — have split. “As everyone knows, Hesam and I are no longer together,” Spears wrote in her caption.

William Earl Variety has promoted Elsa Keslassy to Executive Editor of International, according to an announcement from Variety‘s co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton. In her new role, Keslassy will lead the magazine’s global team of award-winning correspondents, while helping guide its reporting at the leading international film and television festivals and markets.

Hallmark Media today is entering the scripted podcast space with the new original podcast series Crimson Hearts Collide, a romance-mystery from the company’s Mahogany content initiative.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Chief Correspondent Britney Spears and her husband Sam Asghari have separated after 14 months of marriage, and Variety has learned the pop star is being represented by a dream team of Hollywood lawyers as she prepares for a divorce. Spears has retained top divorce lawyer to the stars, Laura Wasser, and will continue to work with her powerhouse attorney, Mathew Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor who famously got her out of her conservatorship and out of the hands of her father’s control, Variety hears.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Chief Correspondent The first project that Netflix greenlit after inking a mega-deal with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, is finally coming. More than two years after the streamer gave the go to “Heart of Invictus,” the docuseries will debut Aug.

World of Wonder has announced the drag queens who will compete in season one of “Drag Race Germany,” the first German iteration of the award winning “RuPaul’s Drag Race” franchise. The show is set to premiere on Sept.

Despite the cheating scandal that broke them up, Ariana Madix and ex Tom Sandoval are making the best of it as they’re forced together to film the upcoming 11th season of “Vanderpump Rules”.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Henry Deas III, a longtime Variety advertising sales executive who specialized in film festivals and international markets, died Aug. 6 in Culver City. He was 75.

Outlander bosses have shared a never before seen clip of Outlander author and creator Diana Gabaldon on the season 7 set earlier this year.

Naman Ramachandran “The Long Shadow,” a true crime drama by “Hijack” and “Lupin” creator George Kay, has revealed a stellar cast. Directed by BAFTA-winner director Lewis Arnold (“Sherwood,” “Time,” “Des”) the 7 x 60′ for U.K. broadcaster ITV and streamer ITVX, drama is a depiction of the five-year hunt for serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, focusing on the lives of the victims who crossed his path and those of the officers at the heart of the police investigation.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Chief Correspondent The biggest YouTube star in the world — Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast — is being sued by Virtual Dining Concepts, the ghost kitchen company that operates his virtual restaurant chain, MrBeast Burger. Virtual Dining Concepts and Celebrity Virtual Dining (VDC) are suing the YouTuber and his Beast Investments for failing to honor his contractual obligations, as well as intentional tortious interference.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor About six years ago, Imagine Entertainment went on a diversification push to add top-shelf documentary and nonfiction content to the company’s roster, as well as kids and family entertainment and branded creative marketing, among other content-related businesses. The timing was spot-on. Imagine has been able to grow along with the boom in demand for original content from platforms, not just in the U.S.

EXCLUSIVE: Alex Baskin, executive producer of hit reality series such as Vanderpump Rules and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, is expanding into new genres of television, including true-crime and scripted, after leaving MGM-owned Evolution Media.

Speidi’s back!

Addie Morfoot Contributor While corporate consolidation has led to smaller documentary production budgets and fewer indie doc sales, the demand for true-crime docus has skyrocketed over the last few years. That’s good news for documentary production companies like Dan Cogan and Liz Garbus’ Story Syndicate.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Chief Correspondent After dominating the box office and breaking records with “Barbie,” Mattel has officially arrived in Hollywood. In 2018, after a tumultuous period of declining toy sales, Mattel brought in a new CEO, businessman Ynon Kreiz, who had a vision to turn the storied toy company into an IP-driven machine, essentially creating a Mattel cinematic universe. Now, with the immense success of “Barbie,” the path is clear for Mattel to make whatever they want — and they already have a ton of projects in the works with A-list partners attached.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The world of documentary, news and nonfiction content is as varied as the work done by Rachel Maddow, Dawn Porter and Roy Wood Jr. Those three are among the industry notables set to appear at Variety and Rolling Stone’s third annual Truth Seekers Summit, a daylong gathering for the nonfiction production sector to be held Aug. 2 at New York’s Second, an event location on 6th Avenue.

J. Kim Murphy The morbid draw of true crime — vicariously experiencing other people’s tragedies by sifting through the elements that caused them — goes under the microscope in the kitschy whodunnit “Susie Searches.” Sophie Kargman’s feature debut, expanded from her short of the same name, plays on the dangers that come when voyeur becomes an interference, but the sort-of thriller doesn’t have the bite to investigate the provocative sympathy it has for its meddling antihero. An aspiring gumshoe, Susie is first introduced as a precocious grade schooler, sitting beside her mother, Anne (Jammie Patton) as the two read a detective novel — the nice kind that encourages adolescent curiosity and ends with a virtuous sleuth catching a mustache-twirling menace.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood’s largest employers are wrestling over complicated contract proposals in a business turned inside-out by the transition from linear to streaming. But some of what’s on the table isn’t so complicated. Some of the discord between labor and management that led SAG-AFTRA to go on strike on July 13 is rooted in money and the hard reality of making minimum rates in Hollywood. SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher has vowed publicly that securing a hefty increase in minimum pay rates across the board is a deal-breaker issue for the union. Talk to any established working actor and it becomes clear why. Most of them say they’ve been dragged back to working for scale in a marketplace that has paid high-wattage stars record fees but put the squeeze on everyone else down the call sheet.