Warner Music Names Maria Weaver President of WEA Artist & Label Services Network

AMC Networks has promoted Arianna Bocco to president of its IFC Films division. Bocco for a decade has overseen acquisitions and productions for IFC Films, as well as genre label IFC Midnight.

Us Weekly‘s exclusive sneak peek of Lifetime’s Too Close for Christmas, Jessica Lowndes‘ Hayley attempts to get Chad Michael Murray‘s Luke into the Christmas spirit — and bring some tradition into his life.During the preview, the pair visit a Christmas tree farm and Luke picks out a small tree with very little branches. “It’s not bare, it just has its own thing going on,” he says.

Former Nickelodeon and Universal Kids exec Amy Friedman has been named head of kids and family programming at Warner Bros on a full-time basis.

Mike Fleming Jr Co-Editor-in-Chief, FilmEXCLUSIVE: New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos are right now announcing that Netflix will boost its presence in the state by expanding its ABQ Studios and committing to an additional $1 billion in production spending.The Studio expansion will add 300 acres to the company’s existing studios, located in Albuquerque’s Mesa Del Sol area.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWarner Music Group, which went public earlier this year, reported revenues that were essentially flat for its fiscal 2020, owing to the impact of COVID-19 and several of its superstar artists being off-cycle.“We’re proud of everything we’ve accomplished in the past year, despite the challenging conditions that the world has faced,” said Steve Cooper, CEO, Warner Music Group.

Stormzy in the latest Watch Dogs game, Watch Dogs: Legion, has pushed for Warner Music artists to be included in more big title video games.“We’ve seen it before in TV and movies. Out of nowhere you can have this moment where your streams have doubled, and you’ve got all these new fans,” Miles said in an interview with GamesIndustry.

Taraji P. Henson has had quite a year but is making the most of it.

Taraji P. Henson has had quite a year but is making the most of it.Last month, Henson announced she called off her wedding and split with her fiancé of two years, Kelvin Hayden.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat! You probably can’t even say that now can you? What if the fat geese are offended? Bloody hell, what a bunch of snowflakes. That’s how it goes though, isn’t it?Anyway, as noted, the festive season is approaching, so it’s time once again to have an argument about whether or not saying the word ‘faggot’ in a pop song is appropriate in this day and age.

APPOINTMENTSWarner Music has hired Maria Weaver, whose background is in media and broadcasting, most recently with Comcast Advertising, to become the New York-based President of WEA.

Ellise Shafer editorBen Kouijzer, a music agent for CAA UK who represented electronic acts such as 808 State and Meduza, has died of kidney and liver failure after battling cancer. He was 36.Kouijzer was diagnosed last summer with malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor, or MPNST, and underwent surgery and radiotherapy, according to his GoFundMe page.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – On a military base on the edge of Mexico City, the country's only gun store -- officially called the Directorate of Arms and Ammunitions Sales -- is concealed inside a bland, concrete building. Uniformed troops serve as clerks.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – From nondescript buildings in the industrial nucleus of Wuhan, across wavy seas to dusty tented super laboratories in the heart of Mexico, and then across the jagged southwest border and dispersing like a wild bomb ripping through every crevice of the United States, the growing presence of Chinese drug lords and cartels below the southern border is one that is killing an unprecedented amount of Americans.

Bad Bunny is set to make his acting debut in the upcoming season of Narcos: Mexico.The hitmaker, 26, will play Arturo Kitty Paez – a member of Ramon Arellano Felix’s gang of rich kids from upper society who fell in with the cartel called Narco Juniors – in the third series of Netflix’s true-crime series.Other fresh faces in the new season include Luis Gerardo Mendez, who joins as Juarez cop Victor Tapia, who gets drawn into the fold when he begins investigating a series of brutal killings.

Also Read: NBCU Moves Unscripted TV Development Under Pearlena IgbokweDuring her tenure, Underhill has shepherded drama series including “New Amsterdam,” “Good Girls,” “Bates Motel,” “The Bold Type,” “The Path,” “Chicago Fire,” “FBI,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Parenthood,” “Heroes,” “American Dreams,” “Chuck,” “The West Wing,” “ER” and the upcoming CBS Queen Latifah show “The Equalizer.”“The opportunity to lead Universal Television, the only studio I’ve ever called home, is a dream come true.