WGA East-Represented Gimlet & Parcast Employees Blast Parent Company Spotify In Wake Of Layoffs

Linlithgow and East Falkirk MP, Martyn Day will be holding a cost of living crisis event at the Reconnect Regal Theatre in Bathgate on Friday, November 4 from 12:30 – 4pm. The MP will be joined by representatives from a range of organisations. The informal drop-in is a chance for constituents to get up-to-date advice on issues such as energy, benefits, debt, food, clothing and more.

EXCLUSIVE: Academy Award and Emmy nominated producer David Permut and Dawn Krantz have acquired Chaya Doswell’s script Wildfire. The team are currently meeting directors and plan to shoot early next year.After accidentally starting a wildfire, seven-year-old Lu, mute and from an abusive home, slyly tricks Merribelle, a hard-working trans woman, into kidnapping her — sparking a beautifully unexpected bond with a devastating expiration date.

Judas Priest surprised fans by playing ‘Genocide’ live this week (October 13) for the first time in 40 years.The band launched the latest US leg of their ’50 Heavy Metal Years Tour’ in Wallingford, Connecticut earlier this week (October 13th) and performed ‘Genocide’ to the surprise of many fans in attendance.The set list featured fan-favourites as well as other rarities together with songs from the band’s acclaimed 1982 album ‘Screaming For Vengeance’, which turns 40 this year.Check out the moment the band played ‘Genocide’ below and view the full setlist:Judas Priest Setlist:‘The Hellion / Electric Eye’‘Riding on the Wind’‘Heading Out to the Highway’‘Jawbreaker’‘Never the Heroes’‘Beyond the Realms of Death’‘Judas Rising’‘You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’’‘Steeler’‘Between the Hammer and the Anvil’‘Halls of Valhalla’‘Firepower’‘Genocide’‘Screaming for Vengeance’‘Hell Bent for Leather’‘Breaking the Law’‘Living After Midnight’Recently, the band’s Rob Halford said he was “a bit pissed” that Judas Priest weren’t honoured as one of the main performer inductees for the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame this year.The metal band will accept the Award for Musical Excellence at this year’s ceremony, which will take place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California on November 5.

Bosses of Strictly Come Dancing are said to be on the hunt to find the mole who keeps leaking the show results, before they're aired on TV.The results show is recorded after Saturday night's main show, but the results aren't aired until Sunday night, and details of the celebrity to be voted off are kept hush-hush. After the voting line has closed and the results show has been recorded, someone appears to be leaking the top-secret information. Last night, Strictly fans were left in shock as the leak revealed the two celebs in the dance off.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Fremantle has acquired international distribution rights to “East Side,” the latest series from “Shtisel” producer Abot Hameiri, starring Yehuda Levi, a Series Mania 2022 best actor winner for “Fire Dance.” Taking 100% ownership of Abot Hameiri last year, Fremantle, which also co-financed the series, will bring “East Side” onto the  market at this next week’s Mipcom trade fair and conference in Cannes. To debut on Israel’s Kan 11 channel, “East Side” turns on Momi,  a former Israeli secret service agent hired to take over a Palestinian neighbourhood, one home at a time. He attempts one last sale in order to set up for life his 18-year-old daughter Maya who is on the autism spectrum. The challenge is to wrestle ownership of a grand hotel which dominates entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City. Whoever controls the entrance controls the City, Momi is told. But the owner, the new Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, says he is not for selling.  

The One Show host Alex Jones raised laughs with an unexpected jibe at co-presenter Ronan Keating as they chatted to singer Fleur East about landing in the dreaded dance-off on Strictly Come Dancing. Last weekend Manchester's Hits Radio presenter Fleur was in the bottom two with her professional dance partner Vito Coppola.

Fleur East has admitted that she is “so so sad” after the elimination of pal Richie Anderson following their tense dance-off.The former X Factor contestant and professional dancer Vito Coppola found themselves in the bottom two on Saturday despite falling into the middle of the leaderboard during movie week on Strictly Come Dancing. Fleur, 34, and Vito, 30, danced the American Smooth to Part of Your World from the Little Mermaid, earning themselves a score of 29 from judges Anton Du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas.TV and Radio presenter Richie Anderson, 34, danced the Samba with partner Giovanni Pernice to Lion King’s Hakuna Matata. Ultimately, Richie got the axe.

Strictly Come Dancing fans flocked to Twitter in outrage following Sunday night's shock dance-off. Viewers were stunned as Richie Anderson and his dance partner Giovanni Pernice and Fleur East and Vito Coppola were asked to reprise their third week dances again after the red light of doom landed on them.

The second contestant to exit Strictly Come Dancing is Richie Anderson and his partner Giovanni Pernice after a shock dance-off with Fleur East. The radio DJ was booted from the show tonight after being in the bottom two with singer Fleur.

Planned Parenthood will invest $5 million in the state of North Carolina ahead of the midterm elections this November, the company announced Friday. Planned Parenthood Votes and Planned Parenthood Action PAC North Carolina said the money will be used across 14 legislative swing districts to produce ads, mailings, phone banks and assist canvassing efforts. The investment is part of the abortion provider’s $50 million national campaign to protect reproductive rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify terminated at least 38 employees across the Gimlet and Parcast studios as the company canceled 11 original shows, according to the unions representing employees of the divisions. In a joint statement Friday, the two unions said the layoffs represented about 30% of their members. “These aren’t small cuts, they are massive restructurings,” the Gimlet and Parcast unions said. Some Spotify employees were given as little as an hour to close out their work, according to the unions. The statement does not allege that the company violated the terms of its agreements with the unions. “Yesterday, Spotify chose to create chaos instead of treating employees with the dignity and respect they deserve,” said the Gimlet and Parcast unions, both of which are affiliated with the Writers Guild of America East. “The fact that Spotify chose to handle these cuts in this way shows their disregard for both their employees and their audiences.”

All 40 writers and editors at Vox Media’s The Dodo are threatening to go on strike against the popular website for pet lovers. Represented by the WGA East, they say they’re “the lowest paid unionized workers at Vox Media, and also one of the most diverse units at Vox Media.” The two sides, the guild said, remain “far apart” in their contract negotiations.

Spotify has named new managing directors for its Gimlet and Parcast podcast studios the day after news that it plans to cancel a combined 11 original podcasts and eliminate about 5% of its podcast headcount.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify has appointed new managing directors for its Gimlet and Parcast podcast studios — Nicole Beemsterboer and Liliana Kim, respectively — coming amid the company’s cancellation of 11 original podcasts from the two divisions. Spotify elevated Beemsterboer (above left), a former longtime NPR exec who joined Spotify this year, to the role of Gimlet’s managing director. She takes over for Lydia Polgreen, who left Spotify this spring to rejoin the New York Times as an opinion columnist. Prior to joining as Gimlet’s head of news and knowledge in March, Beemsterboer spent more than 15 years at NPR as a producer where she led the creation and reorganization of the public media org’s first longform podcast unit, the Enterprise Storytelling Unit. At NPR, Beemsterboer worked on shows including “Embedded,” “Invisibilia” and “White Lies.”

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic It’s been said that former President Donald Trump corrupts all who enter his orbit — that it’s impossible to deal directly with him without taking on his amorality and crassness. “The Lincoln Project,” a new documentary series on Showtime, depicts that process among his political opposition. Here, people devoted to ousting Trump mirror his rhetorical style and his self-regard. And it’s in subtly making this case that the documentary succeeds, even as it grows punishing to watch. The Lincoln Project, a circle of former high-level Republican strategists who made viral anti-Trump ads, seemed throughout the 2020 presidential election to be, Trumpishly, more focused on brand promotion than political work. “No one’s ever fucked with a candidate like we’ve fucked with a candidate,” Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson says early in the doc; those schemes include a Times Square billboard, attention-getting for attention’s sake.