The nominations for the 98th Academy Awards have been unveiled, with vampire period horror film Sinners emerging as the year’s biggest contender.
The film earned a record 16 nominations, setting a new mark for the most nominations in a single year and surpassing One Battle After Another, which secured 13 nods.
Other strong contenders include Frankenstein, Marty Supreme and Sentimental Value, each receiving nine nominations across several categories.
The awards ceremony is scheduled to take place in Hollywood on Sunday.
Below are nominees in key categories:
Best Picture Bugonia F1 Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another The Secret Agent Sentimental Value Sinners Train Dreams
Best Director Paul Thomas Anderson — One Battle After Another Ryan Coogler — Sinners Josh Safdie — Marty Supreme Joachim Trier — Sentimental Value Chloé Zhao — Hamnet
Best Actor Timothée Chalamet — Marty Supreme Leonardo DiCaprio — One Battle After Another Ethan Hawke — Blue Moon Michael B. Jordan — Sinners Wagner Moura — The Secret Agent
Best Actress Jessie Buckley — Hamnet Rose Byrne — If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Kate Hudson — Song Sung Blue Renate Reinsve — Sentimental Value Emma Stone — Bugonia
Best Supporting Actor Benicio del Toro — One Battle After Another Jacob Elordi — Frankenstein Delroy Lindo — Sinners Sean Penn — One Battle After Another Stellan Skarsgård — Sentimental Value
Best Supporting Actress Elle Fanning — Sentimental Value Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas — Sentimental Value Amy Madigan — Weapons Wunmi Mosaku — Sinners Teyana Taylor — One Battle After Another
Best International Feature Film
The Secret Agent (Brazil) It Was Just an Accident (France) Sentimental Value (Norway) Sirat (Spain) The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia)
Best Animated Feature Arco Elio Kpop Demon Hunters Little Amelie or the Character of Rain Zootopia 2
Best Documentary Feature
The Alabama Solution Come See Me In The Good Light Cutting Through Rocks Mr. Nobody Against Putin The Perfect Neighbor
Films With the Most Nominations Sinners — 16 One Battle After Another — 13 Frankenstein — 9 Marty Supreme — 9 Sentimental Value — 9 Hamnet — 8 (Leadership)
Fans of Disney‘s 1970s animated feature Robin Hood aren’t likely to be feeling particularly merry after the latest update about a potential live-action remake.
During a recent Reddit AMA, filmmaker Carlos López Estrada said that the studio was not moving forward with his planned photorealistic musical. The Hollywood Reporter exclusively reported in April 2020 that Estrada was in early development on the movie for streaming service Disney+ after deals were finalized prior to the industry shutting down amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s dead, sadly,” Estrada wrote in response to a question about the project’s status. “I say ‘sadly’ because I actually thought there was something really special (and original!) there. Some truly extraordinary music we had figured out for it.”
The Blindspotting director added, “I keep daydreaming about doing it independently with different characters.”
THR previously reported that Kari Granlund was writing the script for a feature remake that would be a hybrid of live action and CG. Granlund worked on the screenplay for Disney’s 2019 version of Lady and the Tramp, which became the studio’s first remake to debut on a streaming platform.
Disney has continued to prioritize its theatrical remakes of classic animated properties. This includes a live-action take on Tangled, which is back in active development after THR reported last year that the film’s progress had been paused in light of Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot’s live-action Snow White underperforming at the box office. Since then, Disney has had a massive hit with the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, while Barry Jenkins’ prequel Mufasa: The Lion King also had a strong showing.
Director Thomas Kail’s live-action remake of Moana hits theaters this summer. Additionally, the studio has been developing a live-action spinoff of Beauty and the Beast villain Gaston and a remake of Hercules from filmmaker Guy Ritchie.
Robin Hood hit theaters in 1973 and used animated anthropomorphic animals to tell the classic story of the heroic outlaw. Robin Hood and Maid Marian were depicted as red foxes, while Little John was a brown bear, and Prince John was a lion. The film surpassed $32 million at the domestic box office ($234 million today) and earned an Oscar nomination for the song “Love.”
Bob Iger, who is soon ending his run as Disney CEO, said during a conference call last year that the studio has focused its efforts on theatrical releases after having previously attempted to ramp up its Disney+ roster.
“We all know that, in our zeal to flood our streaming platform with more content, that we turned to all of our creative engines, including Marvel, and had them produce a lot more,” Iger said. “We’ve also learned over time that quantity does not necessarily beget quality.”
During his Reddit conversation, Estrada also responded to a question about his experience co-directing Disney’s 2021 animated feature Raya and the Last Dragon.
“Disney was so special and so hard,” Estrada said. Noting that he was Disney Animation‘s first director of color, he continued, “Needless to say, I lasted only a few years there. But they were really great years. I wouldn’t trade them for the world. But I do have some proper crazy Disney stories that I should share someday.” (THR)
The BBC has said the broadcast of a racial slur shouted at the Bafta Film Awards ceremony was the result of a “genuine mistake”, and is examining why it was not removed from iPlayer sooner.
Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson involuntarily shouted a racial slur while Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting one of the categories.
The shout was not edited out of the subsequent TV broadcast, which aired on BBC One on a two-hour delay, and the ceremony remained on iPlayer until Monday morning.
Director general Tim Davie said the BBC “profoundly regrets” what happened, adding that the team editing the ceremony had not heard the word and did not intentionally leave it in.
The racial slur was audible to those in attendance and for some viewers at home, although the sound quality was muffled.
“Our initial evidence gathering has found that no-one in the on-site broadcast truck heard this when they were watching the live feed,” Davie said in a letter to Dame Caroline Dinenage, the chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.
“Because no-one in the broadcast truck was aware it was on the live feed, there was therefore no editorial decision made to leave the language in.”
The BBC’s chief content officer Kate Phillips previously apologised and told staff that a second racial slur that was heard by the production team had been edited out of the broadcast.
Davie confirmed the second instance of the racial slur being shouted occurred within 10 minutes of the first, when Sinners star Wunmi Wosaku was accepting the best supporting actress prize.
“In that instance, the edit team did hear the racial slur on the feed and removed it immediately from the version of the ceremony that would be broadcast later that evening,” Davie said.
“It appears that soon after the second incident, the edit team in the truck started receiving reports, including from Bafta, that a racial slur had been shouted during the ceremony.
“Our understanding at this point is that the team editing the show in the truck mistakenly believed they had edited out the incident that was being referenced, on the basis that they had heard and edited out the slur shouted out during the best supporting actress award.
“Therefore, when they were told a racial slur had been shouted, they believed they had removed it.”
Davie also addressed criticism that the Bafta ceremony was not removed from iPlayer until just before midday on Monday morning, when attention was drawn to it by journalists and viewers on the night.
“Following broadcast on BBC One, further reports, including on social media, drew attention to the first instance of the racial slur,” Davie acknowledged.
“Our current understanding is that the on-site team did not believe that the slur was audible on the broadcast, and the show remained on iPlayer unedited that evening.”
Davie said there had been “further discussion about the incident overnight”, before the issue was escalated to Phillips, who authorised the removal of the ceremony from iPlayer.
“We are now looking in more detail why the team did not ascertain sooner that there had been two instances of the use of the racial slur, and why post-broadcast further action was not taken to edit or remove the programme from iPlayer sooner,” he said.
Davie said the BBC had learned lessons from the broadcast of Bob Vylan’s set at Glastonbury last year, and had additional Editorial Policy staff on shift for the Bafta Film Awards. (BBC)
MultiChoice Group says it plans to discontinue Showmax, it’s streaming platform, as part of a broader review of its digital strategy.
The development comes five months after Canal+ Group, a French TV channel, tookover MultiChoice, the South African pay-TV operator.
In a message to customers dated March 5, the company said the decision to stop operations was taken after a “comprehensive review” by the board, noting that the move is aimed at strengthening its overall digital offering.
“Following a comprehensive review, the Showmax Board has taken the decision to discontinue the Showmax service in the near future,” the company said.
MultiChoice added that the decision reflects its focus on ensuring “long-term sustainability in an increasingly competitive streaming environment”.
The company, however, said the streaming platform will continue to operate for now and that subscribers will experience no immediate disruption.
“Importantly, at the moment there will be no interruption to your current service. You can continue streaming as usual, and no action is required from you at this time,” the notice reads.
“Importantly, at the moment there will be no interruption to your current service. You can continue streaming as usual, and no action is required from you at this time,” the notice reads.
MultiChoice said further details on the shutdown timeline and transition plans will be communicated to subscribers ahead of any changes.
“We understand that this news may raise questions. Showmax subscribers are a priority for us, and we are working on plans to ensure clear communication and a smooth transition when the time comes,” the company said.
“We will share further details well in advance, including timelines and any future steps, should they be required.”
The company also reiterated that streaming remains a central part of its strategy, adding that it will continue investing in content, technology, and partnerships.
“Streaming remains central to our strategy. We will continue to invest in premium content, technology innovation and partnerships to deliver the best possible entertainment experience to our customers,” MultiChoice said.
Showmax, a subscription video-on-demand platform, was launched in South Africa in August 2015 by MultiChoice.
The streaming platform was set up to compete with global streaming services and respond to growing demand for online entertainment.
Showmax offers movies, series and documentaries streamed over the internet rather than through scheduled television. (TheCable)
Michael B Jordan, Jessie Buckley and the late Catherine O’Hara were among the big winners at this year’s newly titled Actor awards.
Previously known as the Screen Actors Guild awards, the Actors are voted on by a membership of more than 160,000 actors. The name change was to provide “clearer recognition in terms of what the show is about”.
Jordan beat out the hotly predicted favourite Timothée Chalamet for the best lead male actor award, for his dual role in acclaimed vampire thriller Sinners. Jordan paid tribute to director and longtime collaborator Ryan Coogler, and the “love and support” from the many actors in the room who watched him grow up in the spotlight. This weekend also saw Jordan pick up the NAACP image award for entertainer and actor of the year.
The big screen ensemble award went to the cast of Sinners, also including Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku. “This project is anointed and from that standpoint, we’re all anointed to be part of this incredible journey,” Lindo said on behalf of the cast.
Buckley followed her wins at the Baftas and Golden Globes with another best lead female actor award for her performance in Chloé Zhao’s semi-fictionalised period drama Hamnet, beating Emma Stone and Rose Byrne. “I have been categorically changed by so many people in this room and beyond,” she said on stage.
Sean Penn was named best supporting male actor for his performance in One Battle After Another after also winning the Bafta last weekend. The actor was not at the ceremony to accept his award.
Weapons villain Amy Madigan enjoyed a surprise victory, beating favourite Teyana Taylor to take home the award for supporting female actor. “It’s such an honour to be here, I’ve been doing this for a long ass time,” she said, adding: “As you can tell, I’m nervous and overwhelmed and just so happy.”
After major wins at the Emmys and Golden Globes, Apple’s freshman industry series The Studio also dominated tonight’s comedy trophies. It picked up three awards, including a win for comedy ensemble against competition from previous winners The Bear and Only Murders in the Building.
The Studio’s co-creator Seth Rogen was also named best male actor for his role in the show, beating co-star Ike Barinholtz, while the late Catherine O’Hara, who died in January this year, was given a rare posthumous award for her performance.
Rogen collected on her behalf to a standing ovation from the audience, calling it a “very sad honour”.
“I know she would have been honoured to receive this award from her fellow performers,” he said, praising her “ability to be generous and kind and gracious while never ever minimising her own talents and her own ability to contribute to the work she was doing”.
The drama ensemble award was given to the cast of breakout medical drama The Pitt, beating The White Lotus and Severence. “I’ve never been more proud of a group of people in my life,” star Noah Wyle said. “We’re so grateful for this, I can’t even tell you.”
Wyle, who had previously won with the ensemble of ER four times in the 1990s, was also named best male actor in a drama series and used his speech to praise the work of labour unions.
Netflix’s smash hit drama Adolescence continued its impressive awards run, with a win for Owen Cooper as best male actor in a limited series. At 16, he’s become the youngest ever winner in this category, after Emmy and Golden Globe wins. The actor, who recently appeared in Wuthering Heights, wasn’t in attendance to accept.
Michelle Williams beat Cooper’s co-star Erin Doherty to win best female actor in a limited series for her role in acclaimed comedy drama Dying for Sex, her second Actor award after winning for Fosse/Verdon in 2020. Doherty had already won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her performance.
The Diplomat’s Keri Russell was a surprise first-time winner of the female actor in a drama series award, beating Pluribus’s Rhea Seehorn and The White Lotus actors Parker Posey and Aimee Lou Wood.
Harrison Ford was the recipient of this year’s life achievement award, presented to him by Woody Harrelson who called him “a true renaissance man” in his introduction.
“I feel incredibly grateful for this kind attention but to be clear, I’m also quite humbled,” Ford said onstage, joking that it was a prize for “being alive”. He later added, in an emotive speech, that he sees himself as “a lucky guy – lucky to have found my people, lucky to have work that challenges me, lucky to still be doing it and I don’t take that for granted.”
The year’s stunt ensemble awards were won by Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and The Last of Us.
The ceremony, which aired live on Netflix, was hosted by Nobody Wants This actor Kristen Bell, who kicked the night off by saying: “I think the world could use some levity right now so we’re gonna keep things fun tonight.”
The night was light on political speeches but on the red carpet, wearing an “ICE out” pin, Wunmi Mosaku called ICE “atrocious”. “I don’t believe in what this administration is inflicting on the people in this country,” she said.
Later in the evening, Sag-Aftra president and Lord of the Rings actor Sean Astin offered “a sincere prayer for peace” on behalf of the acting community.
Last year’s winners included Timothée Chalamet, Demi Moore, Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldana for film and Anna Sawai, Jessica Gunning, Jean Smart and Colin Farrell for television. (Guardian)
Netflix’s stock is surging as investors applauded its decision to exit the race for Warner Bros Discovery, a months-long bidding war with Paramount Skydance for some of Hollywood’s most prized assets.
The stock jumped more than 10 percent on Friday. That came on the heels of Netflix’s decision on Thursday evening that it would not match Paramount’s latest $31 per share bid or raise its offer of $27.75 a share for Warner Bros’s studio and streaming assets, stating that the deal was “no longer financially attractive”.
Warner had given Netflix four business days to come up with a counteroffer for Paramount’s latest bid — but Netflix, instead, responded less than two hours later, declining to raise its proposal. It said the new price it would have to pay made the deal “no longer financially attractive”.
“We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros′ iconic brands,” Netflix’s co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a joint statement. “But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”
The decision was welcomed by investors. Shares of the streaming giant had shed more than 18 percent since Netflix announced its deal with Warner Bros on December 5.
The latest move is a “tick in the box” for discipline, said Ben Barringer, head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot.
“What you want from a management team is an ability to look at acquisitions, value them, pay what they think is a fair price, but to not overpay.”
Analysts and investors had questioned whether Netflix’s bid was a defensive attempt to block a future competitor or an offensive shift away from its historically disciplined build-versus-buy approach.
“A positive turn of events in our view, as we believe NFLX’s withdrawal from the race will leave it free to refocus on its business, while its closest competitors grapple with long and distracting regulatory approval and merger integration processes, and with PSKY saddled with sizable deal debts,” HSBC analysts said.
Shares of the David Ellison-led Paramount, meanwhile, were up 17 percent.
Paramount’s deal, valued at $110bn, including debt, represents nearly 13 times Warner Bros’ EBITDA – earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation or core profits – this year, according to estimates from LSEG. That is well above what Paramount is worth on the same basis, which is 7 times its estimated earnings.
A tie-up with Warner Bros would allow Paramount’s storied Hollywood studio to tap into Warner’s deep trove of intellectual property – including franchises such as Fantastic Beasts and The Matrix – across film, television and streaming.
“WBD’s largest asset is declining, and the company is still under debt from its last failed merger. But this deal is more about Ellison taking over Hollywood and ego than it is about good business sense,” said Ross Benes, senior analyst at Emarketer.
For Paramount’s streaming unit, a combination with HBO Max and Discovery+ would reshape its position in a streaming era long dominated by Netflix.
“Paramount was the streaming market laggard, and it needs Warner Bros’ content and capabilities to play catch-up. It will need more than Harry Potter for the deal to work its magic and enable Paramount to fight off Netflix, Disney and Amazon in the streaming wars,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.
In the fight for Warner Bros, the Paramount consortium – backed by Larry Ellison, billionaire and ally of United States President Donald Trump, and led by his son, Paramount CEO David Ellison – also boosted its termination fee to $7bn and expanded its financing commitments, including $45.7bn in equity.
“There is a right price and wrong price for any acquisition, and the pressure is now on Paramount to prove the big financial outlay is worth it,” said Coatsworth. (AlJazeera)
The BBC has apologised for not editing out a racial slur from its Bafta Film Awards coverage after a guest with Tourette’s syndrome shouted out when two black actors were on stage.
John Davidson, whose life story inspired the film I Swear, shouted the N-word as Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the first prize of Sunday’s ceremony.
The moment was not edited out of the BBC One broadcast, which was shown on a two-hour delay, and remained on BBC iPlayer on Monday morning before the ceremony was removed.
A BBC spokesperson said: “We apologise that this was not edited out prior to broadcast and it will now be removed from the version on BBC iPlayer.”
The shout was audible in the broadcast, although many viewers would have struggled to make out the word.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the BBC had made “a horrible mistake” by not editing it out at the time, adding: “I think an apology is important, they need to explain why it wasn’t bleeped out.”
In its statement, the BBC said: “Some viewers may have heard strong and offensive language during the Bafta Film Awards.
“This arose from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette syndrome, and as explained during the ceremony it was not intentional.”
The corporation declined to comment further on why it wasn’t initially edited or bleeped out.
After the ceremony, Lindo told Vanity Fair that he and Jordan “did what we had to do” as they carried on presenting the category, but also said he wished “someone from Bafta spoke to us afterward”.
In a statement, Bafta said it acknowledged the “harm this has caused, address what happened and apologise to all”.
Tourette’s is characterised by sudden, involuntary and repetitive movements or sounds, known as tics.
Between 10% and 30% of people with the condition have tics that produce socially unacceptable words such as swearing – known as coprolalia – according to the Tourette’s Action charity.
Davidson, a Tourette’s campaigner from Galashiels in Scotland, who was made an MBE in 2019, shouted loudly several times before and during the Bafta ceremony.
He said on Monday that he was “deeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intentional or to carry any meaning”.
“I have spent my life trying to support and empower the Tourette’s community and to teach empathy, kindness and understanding from others and I will continue to do so,” he said in a statement.
“I chose to leave the auditorium early into the ceremony as I was aware of the distress my tics were causing.”
Bafta said it took the duty of care to all its guests seriously and had started “from a position of inclusion”, taking measures to inform attendees of Davidson’s presence and that they may hear strong language.
“Early in the ceremony a loud tic in the form of a profoundly offensive term was heard by many people in the room,” the statement said.
“Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage at the time, and we apologise unreservedly to them, and to all those impacted. We would like to thank Michael and Delroy for their incredible dignity and professionalism.”
Bafta also thanked Davidson for his “dignity and consideration of others, on what should have been a night of celebration for him”.
“We take full responsibility for putting our guests in a very difficult situation and we apologise to all,” it added.
“We will learn from this and keep inclusion at the core of all we do, maintaining our belief in film and storytelling as a critical conduit for compassion and empathy.”
During the ceremony, host Alan Cumming referred to “some strong and offensive language” from someone with Tourette’s who therefore had “no control over their language”, adding: “We apologise if you were offended.”
Hannah Beachler, the production designer from the film Sinners, wrote on X: “The situation is almost impossible, but it happened 3 times that night, and one of the three times was directed at myself on the way to dinner after the show.
“I understand and deeply know why this is an impossible situation. I know we must handle this with grace and continue to push through.
“But what made the situation worse was the throw away apology of ‘if you were offended’ at the end of the show. Of course we were offended.”
Jordan’s former co-star on The Wire, Wendell Pierce, posted: “It’s infuriating that the first reaction wasn’t complete and full throated apologies to Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan.
“The insult to them takes priority. It doesn’t matter the reasoning for the racist slur.”
Oscar winner Jamie Foxx added in a comment posted on Instagram that the slur had been “unacceptable”. (BBC)
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” continued its awards season streak by winning the top prize at the 79th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) on Sunday, with the British awards also recognising homegrown talent across categories.
Following in the footsteps of Hollywood ceremonies last month, the BAFTAs gave the best film award to the offbeat thriller “One Battle After Another”.
Paul Thomas Anderson won the best director award for the political thriller, which has struck a chord with its portrayal of a deeply polarised United States — and also won the most prizes of the night with a tally of six.
“Unfortunately, the title makes sense,” Anderson told reporters after the ceremony. “It just does start to seem like one battle after another these days. But stay hopeful.”
Chalamet’s ping-pong drama “Marty Supreme” left the night with no awards — having been nominated in 11 categories — but Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” walked off with three wins in the technical categories.
Vampire period film “Sinners” left the night with three awards, including for best score and best original screenplay.
The BAFTA ceremony, often seen as a weather vane for the Oscars in three weeks time, recognised British and Irish talent in some of the top categories.
Loud cheers erupted in London’s Southbank Centre when British actor Robert Aramayo triumphed over established stars Timothee Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio to snag the best actor honour.
Aramayo, the underdog in the category, won for his portrayal of a man with Tourette syndrome in “I Swear”, inspired by the real life story of Scot John Davidson whose life was irrevocably changed by the condition.
“I honestly cannot believe I won this award. I really, really cannot,” said a tearful Aramayo, who had already won in the rising star category.
“I’m just really happy that ‘I Swear’ has shown a spotlight on something that is really, really misunderstood,” he added.
Ireland’s Jessie Buckley continued her winning streak for her heartwrenching portrayal of Shakespeare’s wife Agnes in “Hamnet”, scooping the best actress award, beating off strong competition from stars including Kate Hudson and Emma Stone
“This really does belong to the women past, present and future that have taught me and continue to teach me how to do it differently,” said Buckley, who made history as the first Irish actress to win a BAFTA in the category.
Unlike France’s Cesar Awards or Spain’s Goya Awards, which champion national cinema, the BAFTAs are open to all nationalities. As a consequence, the awards have previously faced some criticism for the American-dominated roster.
This year however, local talent got wide recognition.
“Hamnet” won outstanding British film, and Nigerian-British actress Wunmi Mosaku won best supporting actress for her role in “Sinners”.
Adapted from a novel by Maggie O’Farrell, “Hamnet” follows William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes as they navigate the loss of their son in plague-ravaged Elizabethan England.
“Sentimental Value” won in the foreign language film category, becoming the first Norwegian film to win at the BAFTAs, according to director Joachim Trier.
The intimate drama follows the relationship between two daughters and their estranged father, as he struggles to reconnect with them while making a film in their now hollowed-out family home.
“We felt ready to try to talk about family life, intergenerational trauma and all those things we don’t know how to talk about,” Danish-Norwegian filmmaker Trier told reporters.
Hollywood and British royalty were in attendance, including BAFTA president Prince William, his wife Princess Catherine, and A-listers DiCaprio, Chalamet and Cillian Murphy.
William, the eldest son of King Charles III, was the latest royal to go about business-as-usual at the end of a dramatic week that saw his uncle and ex-prince Andrew arrested.
The Prince of Wales said he was not calm “at the moment” when asked about whether he had watched “Hamnet”, according to the PA news agency.
“I need to be in quite a calm state and I’m not at the moment,” William told Elaine Bedell, chief executive of the Southbank Centre.
But even the heir-to-the-throne smiled wide as Paddington Bear came onto the stage to present the award for best children and family film. (Channels)
The chair of the US’s top media regulator claimed on Wednesday that journalists had been tricked into covering claims by the late-night host Stephen Colbert that he had been blocked by his network from interviewing a Texas Senate candidate.
Brendan Carr, the avowedly pro-Trump chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), made his comments after Colbert accused the Trump administration and CBS of censorship.
CBS has countered Colbert’s claims in a statement, saying it had not blocked him from interviewing James Talarico, a Texas Democrat, but had merely provided legal guidance that such an interview might trigger equal time regulations that would require him to also platform Talarico’s campaign rivals.
“I think yesterday was a perfect encapsulation of why the American people have more trust in gas station sushi than they do in the national news media,” Carr said, speaking at an FCC meeting in his first public comments on the controversy. “I think you guys should feel a bit ashamed for having been lied to and then run with those lies.”
In guidance issued in January, the FCC said that daytime and late-night talkshows would not automatically be eligible for exemptions to the equal time rule, which was enacted as part of the Communications Act of 1934. Based on Colbert’s comments, CBS had faced criticism for “corporate capitulation”, as the lone Democrat on the FCC, Anna M Gomez, put it, for enforcing the rule even before the network had received a complaint.
But Carr told reporters that the FCC was simply enforcing the rules on the books. “If you have a legally qualified candidate on, you have to give comparable air time to all other legally qualified candidates, and we’re going to apply that law,” he said. “There was no censorship here at all.”
Networks can request exceptions for what are called bona fide news interviews – but Carr said that CBS and ABC’s parent company, Disney, had not done so. Late-night and daytime shows had previously operated under the assumption that host-conducted interviews with politicians would qualify for the exception, based on past precedent.
A day after his initial broadside against his bosses, Colbert on Tuesday night harshly criticized a statement released by the network that contested his version of events. In the end, Colbert aired the interview – but only on YouTube, where it has piled up nearly 6.1m views by the time of publication, far greater than the average traditional television viewership for the Late Show. The controversy has also been a boon for Talarico’s campaign, which has said it raised $2.5m in the 24 hours since Colbert’s initial comments.
On Wednesday, Carr also confirmed to the Guardian that the FCC had opened an enforcement action into ABC’s The View over an appearance Talarico made on the program earlier in the month. He declined to provide further comment on the nature of the investigation.
“Every single broadcaster in this country has an obligation to be responsible for the programming that they choose to air, and they’re responsible whether it complies with FCC rules or not, and if it doesn’t, those individual broadcasters are also going to have a potential liability,” Carr said.
But, in her own remarks, Gomez took a different approach. “This equal time rule issue is just one of a long pattern of this administration using the FCC to go after content it doesn’t like,” she said in response to a question from the Guardian. “What you are seeing is using and weaponizing our enforcement process in order to pressure broadcasters to self-censor.”
Colbert, whose show ends in May, said it was “really surprising” that CBS had not consulted him on the statement it released on Tuesday afternoon, which he said seemed to be written by a panel of lawyers. At the end of his segment, Colbert picked up a printed copy of the statement as if it was pet waste.
“Here’s where I do want to tell the lawyers how to do their jobs: they know damn well that every word of my script last night was approved by CBS lawyers who, for the record, approve every script that goes on the air,” Colbert told viewers. “They told us the language they wanted me to use to describe that equal time exception. So, I don’t know what this is about.”
While it’s unusual for a network host to criticize their employer, Colbert said he did not wish to start a war with CBS – though he did take a shot at the network.
“For the record, I’m not even mad,” he said. “I really don’t want an adversarial relationship with the network. I’ve never had one. I’m just so surprised that this giant global corporation would not stand up to these bullies.”
Gigi Sohn, who served as counselor to then-FCC chair Tom Wheeler during Barack Obama’s administration, said she was less concerned about the equal time rule than about what she fears is unequal enforcement of it to crack down on liberal media opposition to Trump.
“My feeling is that if Stephen Colbert is going to give James Talarico 20 minutes to basically give a campaign speech, then CBS should provide equal opportunity,” she told the Guardian in an interview. “In theory, I don’t oppose what he’s doing. What I worry about is that it’s going to be unevenly unenforced.”
Sohn also said that the onus was on rival candidates, not the FCC, to request and pursue the equal time opportunity.
“It’s not for the FCC to go around sniffing around what The View did three months ago,” Sohn said. “[Carr] has a tendency to start his own investigations when nobody is complaining. If Carr sets his enforcement bureau out to find liberal bias shows and starts to go after them, that’s not how the equal opportunities rule is supposed to work.”
Carr ended his comments to reporters with an attack on Colbert, who has relentlessly mocked him on his show. Carr said that Colbert sees that, with the cancellation of his show, his time in the limelight is “coming to an end”.
“That’s got to be a difficult time for him. I get it,” he said. “But that doesn’t change the facts of what happened here.” (Guardian)
Warner Bros. has joined a parade of studios in blasting ByteDance for “blatant infringement” on its new AI video service, accusing the Chinese company of facilitating user-generated knockoffs of its iconic characters.
The studio’s legal counsel fired off a letter on Tuesday to John Rogovin, the general counsel of ByteDance who happens to have previously worked as general counsel at Warner Bros. The letter takes note of Rogovin’s prior service in defense of the copyrights of Superman and Batman.
“These characters are the lifeblood of the company,” wrote Wayne Smith, the executive VP of legal at Warner Bros. Studios. “ByteDance is now engaged in blatant infringement of the very same properties you spent many years protecting.”
Warner Bros. demanded that ByteDance cease training on its characters and implement guardrails to prevent further infringement.
ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, released Seedance 2.0 last week, announcing it represents a “substantial leap in generation quality” over the prior versions. Within days, social media sites were flooded with cinematic-looking clips of Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt, Batman fighting Spider-Man, Superman fighting Thanos, and other permutations.
Users also posted “alternate endings” to films and TV shows, including one of the HBO series “Game of Thrones.”
The Motion Picture Association and SAG-AFTRA quickly denounced the new platform, while Disney and Paramount sent cease and desist letters last week. On Monday, ByteDance pledged to implement additional safeguards “as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users.”
That promise did not satisfy Warner Bros., which said in its letter that the focus on users is misplaced.
“[T]he users are not the ones at the root cause of the infringement,” Smith wrote. “They are merely building on the foundation of infringement already laid by ByteDance as Seedance comes pre-loaded with Warner Bros. Discovery’s copyrighted characters. That was a deliberate design choice by ByteDance.”
The letter cites posts on X, formerly Twitter, that include Seedance videos of characters from “The Matrix,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “Harry Potter,” “Rick and Morty,” and “Game of Thrones.” It also cites fight scenes involving Batman, Catwoman, and Superman.
Warner Bros. acknowledges that ByteDance appears to be taking steps to block text prompts involving its characters.
“While this is a promising indication that we may resolve this dispute business to business, it nonetheless begs the question why guardrails that can so quickly and easily be implemented were not present upon Seedance’s release,” the letter states. (Variety)
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