Variety Promotes Todd Spangler to Business Editor

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Sony Pictures Entertainment is upping its head of television Ravi Ahuja to president and chief operating officer of the entire studio. While not explicitly stated by SPE chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra in his internal memo regarding Ahuja’s appointment to the No.

Three years after arriving to Sony Pictures, Ravi Ahuja, has been named President and Chief Operating Officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment, effective April 1.

William Earl Variety has promoted Dayna Wolpa to the newly created role of VP of Talent and Programming. Wolpa is an Emmy-winning producer who previously served as Variety‘s managing director for programming and distribution. With her promotion, Wolpa will manage talent and programming for such successful Variety franchises as Power of Women, Power of Young Hollywood, Hitmakers and more.

EXCLUSIVE: After a five-year run at the company and the recent acquisition of Oscar nominee Io Capitano, Robert Aaronson has been promoted to Executive Vice President of Cohen Media Group (CMG).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Will Shortz, the longtime crossword puzzle editor of the New York Times and NPR’s “puzzlemaster” for more than three decades, suffered a stroke last month and has spent the last several weeks rehabilitating. Shortz revealed the injury in a recorded message aired on on NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” on March 5. He has been absent from the show in recent weeks, and at the end today’s puzzle segment, “Weekend Edition Sunday” host Ayesha Rascoe shared an audio clip from Shortz to let fans know the situation.

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate has elevated two executives in its global products and experiences division: Gene Rogers is now SVP of Production and Operations, Global Products and Experiences while Jerry Sabatini has been upped to SVP of Brand Creative, Global Products and Experiences.

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter Variety has promoted Rachel Seo to Social Media Editor, recognizing her considerable contributions to the growth of the brand’s editorial activity across major social media platforms. Seo joined Variety in July 2022 after working in event marketing for ViacomCBS’ VidCon live media division.

Paradigm has hired Kyle Jensen as a Literary Content Agent and Jamie Kaye-Phillips as a Theatre Literary Content Agent, upping Matthew Nutty from Coordinator to Agent in the Talent department.

William Earl Variety will host its annual Entertainment Marketing Summit, presented by Deloitte, on April 24 in Los Angeles. The one-day event will identify the best opportunities to engage today’s evolving audiences and consumers who continue to be fast-moving targets across growing media platforms.

Whitney Cinkala Variety’s annual Power of Comedy event will return to SXSW on March 8 at ACL Live, celebrating honorees Samantha Bee, John Leguizamo, Nick Kroll, Lilly Singh, Andrew Rannells, Hannah Einbinder, Pamela Adlon, Jaboukie Young-White, Robbie Praw and Cazzie David. Variety Power of Comedy is part of the official SXSW Comedy lineup. At the event, Bee will receive the Comedy Innovator Award, presented by Brooke Shields, recognizing her accomplishments as a comedian, writer, author and trailblazing late-night TV host and producer.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Sony Pictures Entertainment communications chief Robert Lawson has been promoted to head of all corporate communications for its Tokyo-based parent Sony. The choice to move Lawson, who joined Sony amid the infamous cyber attack and email leaks at the entertainment group in 2014, into the top corp comms role is indicative of Sony’s significant focus on its entertainment divisions within the company’s larger portfolio; movies, music and gaming accounts for more than half of Sony’s revenue and profit.

Serena Williams is always ready to stun in the tennis courts. In a new TV spot, she joins Netflix to promote its new series, “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” as she provides some stunning tennis serves and masters all of the elements, like the series’ lead character. Serena Williams and daughter Olympia take twinning to a new level on the tennis courtSerena Williams is more in love than ever – here's the proofThe spot shows Williams entering the tennis courts as a blue arrow on her forehead lights up.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Judi Pulver, a singer-songwriter who became the top music sales executive for Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, died Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 77. Pulver spent about 15 years with Variety, steering all music-related sales and marketing activity.

Rooney Mara is hard at work promoting her new movie La Cocina at the 74th Berlinale International Film Festival on Friday (February 16) in Berlin, Germany.

Variety FYC Fest: The Producers. The conversations were moderated by Variety’s senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay and senior awards editor Clayton Davis. ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Producer Daniel Lupi on Filming in Oklahoma, Striving for Authenticity Producer Daniel Lupi became involved in “Killers of the Flower Moon” after the script was rewritten to center the relationship between Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Mollie Burkhart (Lily Gladstone), contrasting from the original version of the script where DiCaprio was playing FBI agent Tom White.

William Earl Variety has promoted Lindsey Elfenbein to VP of global summits and strategic partnerships. In her elevated role, Elfenbein will continue to oversee the brand’s global thought-leadership vertical and expand Variety’s portfolio of B2B and consumer clients across tech, financial, consultancy and pharmaceutical categories.

Variety’s creative director HaleyKluge has been honored by the American Society of Magazine Editors‘ 59th annual National Magazine Awards. She received an ASME NEXT Award for Journalists Under 30, which recognize outstanding achievements by early-career print and digital journalists. Nominated by Variety’s co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh, Kluge will be honored alongside Vulture’s Rebecca Alter, The Hollywood Reporter’s Lovia Gyarkye, New York Magazine’s Isabela Quintero and MIT Technology Review’s Zeyi Yang.

A musical comedy television series created by Meredith Scardino, “Girls5eva,” started life as a Peacock series before getting canceled after a second season. Centering on a one-hit-wonder band from the ’90s who gain a second shot at fame when a young rapper samples their song, the series, fortunately, had enough ride-or-die fans that Netflix deemed it worthy of a season pick-up and bought it from Peacock for season three, which is soon approaching.

William Earl Carolyn Giardina, award-winning journalist and author, has joined Variety and Variety VIP+ as Senior Entertainment Technology & Crafts Editor as Variety expands its coverage of the fast-evolving production technology landscape as well as the Artisans sector. Giardina has devoted her career to covering the art and science of entertainment and brings to her new role a wealth of knowledge of entertainment technology and the creative arts, as well as film history.

What’s (mad) love got to do with it? In the case of “Joker: Folie á Deux,” pretty much everything. So it’s no surprise that director Todd Phillips debuted new images from his upcoming sequel on Instagram yesterday for Valentine’s Day.