On the morning of July 17, 1929, American film industry titan William Fox and his treasurer Jacob Rubenstein were on their way from Long Island to a round at the Lakeville Golf and Country Club with fellow producers Adolph Zukor, Nicholas Schenck, and actor Thomas Meighan. Foxs Rolls Royce, driven by chauffeur Joseph Boyes, approached an intersection with poor visibility...

On June 7, months into Paramounts negotiations to settle a $20 billion lawsuit over CBS 60 Minutes, President Trump was spotted ringside at a UFC event in Newark, New Jersey. All the usual suspects came to greet him, including Marco Rubio, Mike Tyson and Joe Rogan. So did Hunter Campbell, UFC President Dana Whites lieutenant who later brokered a meeting...

Dr. Phil McGraws Merit Street Media is filing for bankruptcy, and is also suing its distribution partner, Trinity Broadcasting, for breach of contract. Merit Street is less than two years old, having launched in early 2024 with a McGraw-led talk show as its flagship program. In its filing, the company cites a severely strained liquidity position and the failure to...

Los Angeles is going through a rough patch right now well, for a few years actually but theres a silver lining ahead, at least for some film and television productions who can secure subsidies in Californias newly expanded tax credit program. That was the gist of the blue skies mood in Burbank at The Ranch Lot Studios where a group...

Wednesday morning brought blowback to the settlement between Paramount Global and President Trump from Democratic lawmakers and regulators. Senator Elizabeth Warren said that she is demanding an investigation into the settlement, and said that she will soon introduce new legislation to rein in corruption through presidential library donations. With Paramount folding to Donald Trump at the same time the company...

The midnight settlement between Paramount Global and President Donald Trump was greeted by CBS News employees with what one called a reaction of disgust and relief. Disgust, because universally within CBS News and at 60 Minutes, the lawsuit (which was about the editing of an interview the program conducted with former Vice President Kamala Harris) was perceived as baseless, and...

In a widely expected but still stunning decision, Paramount Global has agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit from President Trump, putting an end to a $10 billion lawsuit that he filed against the company over an October interview that 60 Minutes conducted with former Vice President Kamala Harris. The agreement, announced Tuesday evening, doesnt involve of an...

The primary federal regulator of workplace discrimination may next set its sights on the Los Angeles Dodgers. America First Legal, a conservative outfit founded by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, filed a civil rights complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the Dodgers and controlling owner Mark Walters Guggenheim Partners. It alleges illegal discrimination under the...

Warner Music Group will undergo layoffs as part of a wider cost-saving and restructuring initiative, WMG Robert Kyncl told staff in an internal memo on Tuesday. In the memo, reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, Kyncl wrote that WMG is looking to reduce costs by about $300 million to future-proof the company and reinvest in the business, particularly into the music...

Randall Emmett has been released from writers-union jail. The Writers Guild of America West first sentenced the film producer to its strike/unfair list in 2020, following a dispute over payments to writers on the television series Pump. The union claimed that Emmett and business partner George Furla still owed more than $477,000 in arbitration awards to writers on the series,...

Scooter Braun is transitioning his role at HYBE, the South Korean entertainment giant, moving from CEO of HYBE America to an advisory position which will have him joining the HYBE Board of Directors as a director and a senior advisor to chairman and CEO Bang Si-Hyuk. The move marks the end of a five-year run at HYBE, which is home...

What do celebrities who seem to have everything need most? Someone to manage and help look after it all. Every year, The Hollywood Reporter recognizes the towns best and most influential business managers working behind the scenes to manage the financial lives of entertainments most high-profile figures. Business managers in Hollywood work with coteries of lawyers, agents and assistants in...

With its spinoff from NBCUniversal looming (and with it a split from NBC News), MSNBC continues to staff up its nascent news division. The Hollywood Reporter has learned that MSNBC has brought on four correspondents, including some that will be familiar to NBC News viewers. Perhaps most notably, MSNBC has staffed up its White House team, one of the most...