Academy President and CEO on Oscars Changes: We're "Making Every Effort to Contend With a Very Difficult Global Crisis" (Q&A)

Moments after news broke on Tuesday that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' board of governors had approved major rule changes ahead of the 93rd Oscars, some of them in response to the ongoing pandemic, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with the organization's president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson about the developments and the road ahead. That conversation is reprinted below with light edits made to questions and answers for the sake of clarity.

* * *

What do you hope the biggest takeaway is from Tuesday's announcement?

Rubin: We are making every effort to contend with a very difficult global crisis, and at the same time serve our members well and honor the great work of wonderful filmmakers. We've worked hard to thread that needle and stay true to our core value of honoring theatrical exhibition.

What prevents you from getting 5,000 submissions this year? Given that there will probably be fewer distinguished films in the running, why wouldn't every Lifetime or Netflix movie that was originally intended for TV now enter the Oscar competition?

Hudson: The Oscars require films that were meant for theatrical exhibition — that is the core heartbeat of the Academy, that your intention was to make a theatrically released film. This year we will look at the schedules that we already had for theatrical releases, and also contracts — when you make a film, you make it under the theatrical rules of the DGA, and if you're non-union your intention can also be made clear. So that's not a difficult determination.

Right now people are watching a lot of content on TV, and one of the breakout ratings hits has been ESPN's 10-part Michael Jordan docuseries The Last Dance. If its filmmakers or ESPN were to argue that they regard it as a 10-part film, as was the case with O.J.: Made in America four years ago, is there anything that would preclude it from being eligible for best documentary feature or even best picture?

Hudson: If you meet our requirements for being a movie — you have been scheduled for a theatrical release, which the ESPN series was not, and you are presented in one sitting, which the ESPN series is not — then you are eligible for the Oscars. But that doesn't apply to this series, even though it's terrific content.

What is most important to know about the consolidation of the sound editing and sound mixing Oscars into one best sound Oscar? It has been suggested that the idea originated in the Academy's sound branch...

Rubin: This 100 percent came out of a request from the sound branch, which worked very hard to bring this to the forefront after reviewing a long history of overlap in the recipients and the films that they worked on across the two awards categories.

Hudson: It reflects the current creative partnership between the mixers and the editors. One production sound mixer, two supervising sound editors and three rerecording mixers are considered "the team," so it's inclusive of those two awards, but reflects the partnership that those two teams have already on every film.

Has there been consideration given to doing something that there is a precedent for, which is extending the Oscar eligibility window beyond 12 months? There was no Oscars ceremony in 1933; there were 16 months between the 1932 and 1934 ceremonies...

Hudson: We are in week seven of this stay-at-home order, so we have been considering everything for an awards ceremony scheduled for 10 months from now, which seems like four lifetimes from now, since each week feels like a year during this pandemic. So we'll continue to assess that.

How will you proceed with the international feature film Oscar this year? You have just enabled all members to serve on the preliminary voting committee that helps to determine the Oscar shortlist for that category — but many countries may not have even released a film yet, and if the pandemic goes into the fall, as experts are predicting, they may not get to before the clock runs out...

Rubin: It's difficult to predict what the incoming films will be from around the world. We don't know the status of movies wrapped or yet unfilmed — it's all to be determined once we get a sense of what's available.

Hudson: If they have scheduled a release in their country and they can't release a film in their country, the committee will take that into consideration for those films.

Looking down the road, is there any scenario in which you can imagine holding the Oscars ceremony as scheduled on Feb. 28, 2021, but without an audience — as the Golden Globes ceremony was conducted in 2008 due to the writers strike — or is an audience so integral to the Oscars that you would postpone the ceremony until one can be there?

Rubin: I think it's impossible at this early date to predict what form the Oscars will take, other than the fact that we look forward to celebrating movies in the most appropriate way given the way this all unfolds.

Hudson: I mean, David and I can't even sit in a room together right now, so we can't contemplate 10 months from now.

The Oscars

Alamo Drafthouse Won't Reopen Texas Theaters This Weekend

Earlier on Monday, the state's Republican governor said certain businesses could begin flipping on the lights as of Friday.

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on Monday cautioned consumers it won't reopen its Texas locations this weekend hours after the state said it would begin lifting stay-at-home orders instituted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alamo — headquartered in Austin — is one of the country's leading independent cinema chains and operates 40-plus locations across the U.S. Virtually all Alamo locations have have been shuttered since mid-March because of coronavirus concerns.

"Opening safely is a very complex project that involves countless new procedures and equipment, all of which require extensive training. This is something we cannot and will not do casually or quickly. We will not be opening this weekend," an Alamo spokesperson said in a statement. "But know this, when we do open, we will be providing the safest possible experience for both our staff and our guests and we can’t wait to see you all again!”

The statement came in response to remarks made earlier in the day by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who gave the go-ahead for certain businesses, including cinemas, to reopen as of Friday as long as crowds are limited to 25 or fewer people.

Alamo joins a chorus of theater circuits who say they don't expect to flip on the lights until summer even as a number of states begin relaxing shelter-in-place edicts. They include AMC Entertainment and Cinemark Entertainment, two of the country's three largest circuits (Cinemark, like Alamo, is based in Texas).

The prevailing hope among Hollywood and theater owners is that cinemas will be back online in time for Christopher Nolan's Tenet, which set to open July 17. It is possible that cinemas could begin opening on a staggered basis in June, and offer repertory titles for a short period of time. But it all depends on the number of COVID-19 cases in a particular jurisdiction.

The majority of the country's 5,500-plus movie theaters have been shuttered since March 20, while Hollywood studios quickly pulled their movies from the spring and early summer calendar.

Maya Rudolph Reveals Kids of 'SNL' Alumni Put on "Delightful" Zoom Talent Show

The actress also shared her appreciation for the at-home versions of the Saturday-night variety show when she visited 'Late Night With Seth Meyers' on Monday.

Maya Rudolph revealed details of a talent show put on by the children of Saturday Night Live alumni when she visited Late Night With Seth Meyers on Monday.

Calling the event "delightful," Rudolph explained that the Zoom talent show was Tina Fey's "brainchild." She added, "We got our older kids to get together and plan it. And as you can imagine, it was pretty great."

In addition to Rudolph and Fey, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer, Paula Pell and Emily Spivey also participated in the event.

While Rudolph shares four children with her partner, Paul Thomas Anderson, only their two youngest performed in the talent show. "They claimed that they had jokes, which is always a little scary cause that's improvised," she said of their performance. "They just ended up doing a lot of bickering in costumes for a while. I think my son was dressed as a hamburger and he was bickering with my daughter, who was holding a sword."

Talent shows are not the only way that the former SNL stars have been using Zoom. "We did a Zoom birthday party for our good friend Paula Pell recently and the wigs, the wigs came out," Rudolph said of her extensive wig collection.

During the Zoom birthday party, Rudolph wore a long red wig and played a character inspired by Netflix docuseries Tiger King. "She was like Carole Baskin, but for dogs," she said of the character. "She had a dog sanctuary. She was pretty hateable."

Rudolph and Seth Meyers last spoke about the current episodes of SNL. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the show has aired two episodes filmed from castmembers' homes. Meyers said he found the episodes "fascinating," while Rudolph called them "lovely."

"I loved the very first episode for that. I felt like it really held on to that spirit. It reminded me so much of that spirit of when we worked at that show," she said.

Rudolph then reflected on how they similarly had to make the most of the show after 9/11. "I remember having to come into the writers room and figure out what we were going to do in light of what was going on," she said. "I remember the day that they said, 'Hey, there's anthrax in the building.' And we had a show that week and then we lost our host and then our host came back."

"These things all started flooding back in my head of like, 'Oh yeah, we kept working,'" she continued. "There's a looseness and a joy and a goofiness in those episodes."

Rudolph also shared her favorite moments from the recent at-home episodes, including seeing Kenan Thompson "in a blanket as a costume" and Brad Pitt playing Dr. Anthony Fauci.

"It's all so beautiful. Everybody pitching in and doing it," she said. "Seeing Tom Hanks host that first week, getting to meet people's cats. It's beautiful. It's the spirit of the show that I genuinely love the most."

She also shared the quarantine-themed dinners that she has with her children and Anderson. Rudolph said that she got the idea when Fey sent her a video of her daughters putting together a "themed airline dinner," which featured the girls being waited on by a fake flight attendant.

"Everyone gets an iPad and everyone gets their order taken," she said. "Your dinner's brought to you. And then you have an iPad and possibly a glass of wine and then you watch your show and eat in silence. It was magical."

She noted that her kids loved the themed dinner, while she and Anderson enjoyed eating in silence. "It was pretty awesome," she concluded.

Watch Rudolph's appearance below.

Oprah Winfrey to Deliver Commencement Speech for Facebook Graduation Event

Awkwafina, Jennifer Garner and more stars are also set to speak, while Miley Cyrus will perform her 2009 hit "The Climb."

Facebook on Tuesday announced the star-studded lineup for its upcoming event, #Graduation 2020: Facebook and Instagram Celebrate the Class of 2020. The multi-hour live event will stream on both social media platforms on May 15 at 2 p.m. ET.

Oprah Winfrey will deliver the commencement speech, while other notable names — including Awkwafina, Jennifer Garner, Lil Nas X and Simone Biles — are also set to speak. Elsewhere, Miley Cyrus will perform her 2009 hit song "The Climb."

#Graduation 2020 will be broadcast on Facebook Watch and will be available on facebook.com/facebookapp, with portions of the livestream posted to the official @Instagram account on Instagram, as well as on contributors’ accounts.

Facebook's announcement comes after other companies have shared adapted graduation plans due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Her Campus — the female-focused company that owns Spoon University, College Fashionista and InfluenceHer Collective — shared on Monday that it is organizing I'm Still Graduating, an online graduation ceremony, to take place May 15 at 12 p.m. ET. Eva Longoria, Radhika Jones, Margaret Cho, Brooke Baldwin, Liam Payne, Jesse McCartney, Andrew Yang and Tamron Hall are set to speak at the ceremony, which will feature speeches, toasts and performances. 

Elsewhere, Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Fallon, John Legend and a dozen others are recording speeches specifically for seniors who are missing their graduation due to the coronavirus pandemic. Their orations will be available May 15 as part of the iHeart podcast special Commencement: Speeches for the Class of 2020. 

Daisy Ridley in Talks to Star in 'The Ice Beneath Her' Thriller

Andrew Lazar is set to produce and the 'Ready or Not' filmmakers to direct for STX the movie adaptation of a Swedish crime novel.

Star Wars star Daisy Ridley is in talks to take a lead role in the crime thriller The Ice Beneath Her for STX Entertainment, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

The movie project, which STX will finance, is based on the 2015 novel by Swedish author Camilla Grebe about a young woman found beheaded in a business tycoon's marble-lined hallway, a crime that comes to resemble an earlier unsolved killing and quickly develops into a race against time.

Three members of the collective horror filmmaking group Radio Silence — Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett and Chad Villella — are on board to direct and produce alongside Andrew Lazar (American Sniper). Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett directed the cult genre hit Ready or Not.

New Line Cinema was earlier set to adapt the Swedish novel, with STX now also picking up the worldwide distribution rights.

Ridley, a breakout star of 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, also appeared in Fox's adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express and Disney's Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Ready or Not mixed horror and comedy as it grossed $57 million at the worldwide box office on a $6 million budget. The collective, which also made segments for popular horror anthology V/H/S and Southbound, is also developing an untitled bear-centric horror comedy described as Good Boys meets The Revenant.

STX is known for films like Bad Moms, I Feel Pretty, Hustlers and The Gentlemen. The company last week said it agreed to a stock-for-stock merger with India's Bollywood movie major Eros International to create a combined film and television firm, titled Eros STX Global Corp., and to release 40 feature films in 2020.

Ridley is repped by CAA.

Kesha, Barbra Streisand, Matt Bomer Voice Support for LGBTQ Centers During GLAAD Fundraiser

Billy Eichner and Lilly Singh hosted 'Together in Pride: You Are Not Alone,' which aired online and also featured Adam Lambert, Billy Porter, Dan Levy and Melissa Etheridge.

Kesha, Barbra Streisand, Matt Bomer, Adam Lambert and more stars took part in GLAAD's Together in Pride: You Are Not Alone, a fundraiser hosted by Billy Eichner and Lilly Singh that aired online Sunday. 

The event benefited CenterLink, a coalition of more than 250 LGBTQ community centers that are providing critical services such as medical care, mental health counseling, virtual support groups, hot meals, HIV testing and more during COVID-19. GLAAD said Sunday night that the event raised an initial donation of more than $225,000 for CenterLink and local LGBTQ centers affected by COVID-19, with money still being collected. The Ariadne Getty Foundation was GLAAD's largest donor, with $150,000 donated to the event.

During the event, Lambert, Bomer and others shared their own personal stories of coming out via video, from the confines of their own homes.

Lambert, who came out in 2009, noted how much has changed in the past 10-plus years. He made headlines in that same year when when he kissed another man during a performance at the American Music Awards.

"I kissed a guy for three seconds and the industry went crazy," Lambert said during the event. "The next day I had to apologize. … I tell that story to somebody now who has not heard about it, and they are shocked: 'Really?' A lot has changed in 10 years.

Lambert added that "it definitely taught me a lot very quickly; it taught me what my boundaries were publicly."

The Queen frontman also noted that his Feel Something Foundation has partnered with GLAAD to auction off some of the looks he's worn on stage for LGBTQ causes. The auction runs on eBay through May 6.

Bomer talked about coming out as well as his current experiences living in isolation with his family amid the coronavirus pandemic; he's married to publicist Simon Halls, and the couple have three children.

"It's been a period of adjustment," he said. "I feel for all parents and kids, dealing with academic and emotional needs."

Meanwhile, Kesha performed her song "Rainbow," which she described as being "about seeing a rainbow through a shitstorm," while wearing a sweater with a rainbow on it; Mj Rodriguez and George Salazar, part of the cast of the Pasadena Playhouse's Little Shop of Horrors, performed a moving rendition of "Suddenly Seymour"; the cast of Broadway's "Jagged Little Pill" sang the titular song; and Melissa Etheridge performed her song "Pulse," which she wrote for the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016. Alex Newell also performed during the event.

Streisand did not appear on camera but was featured in voice-over, urging viewers to donate money to benefit the cause.

Others who appeared on-camera included actor-singer Javier Muñoz, who is HIV positive. He used his experience to bring a message of positivity to viewers amid the coronavirus pandemic: "Having experienced living with HIV, there's a little less fear, a little more courage, a little more experience behind this that says, 'I'm still here after all that. I'm OK. We can be OK.' … Not to make less of what someone would go through with COVID, but to say, 'You can survive this.'"

YouTube star Gigi Gorgeous and designer-model Nats Getty, who wed last year, also made an appearance. The latter noted that her company has been making masks and donating them out to hospitals, the Los Angeles LGBT Center and more organizations that need them. In addition, all the money made from the sale of the masks — more than 100 are produced each week — is being donated to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.

Jonathan Van Ness of Netflix's Queer Eye gave tips for staying groomed and styled amid isolation, saying it's more of a state of mind than how one actually looks.

"It's not so much about how we're … looking but about how we're feeling," he said, adding that nobody needs to be spending a lot of money to look good amid the current situation. "Get creative with what you have. ….[But] it's OK if you don't want to change clothes all the time."

Former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and Chasten Buttigieg used some of their time during the event to encourage viewers to vote when the time comes.

"It couldn't be more important," said Pete Buttigieg. "If you care about climate … if you care about rights for our community, if you are what happens in the courts, if you care about each other, this is more than ever the time to vote."

Other guests included Rosie O’Donnell, Wilson Cruz, August Getty, Sean Hayes, Dan Levy, Tatiana Maslany, Ross Mathews, Tyler Oakley, Bebe Rexha, Shangela, Brian Michael Smith, Patrick Starrr, Sharon Stone and Michelle Visage.

Actor and producer Erich Bergen worked with GLAAD to create the event, which also featured the debut of a clip from Hulu's upcoming Love, Simon spinoff series Love, Victor.

Kristen Anderson to Oversee Freeform Communications

Freeform has found its new PR chief.

Kristen Anderson has been tapped to serve as vp communications for the Disney-owned, younger-skewing cable network. In her new role, Anderson — who was hired before the novel coronavirus largely shut down the industry — will oversee Freeform's corporate and consumer media relations. She will have oversight of show publicity, industry relations, awards outreach and talent relations. She will also manage the cabler's annual Freeform Summit. Anderson will report to Tricia Melton, senior vp marketing, and fill the void that was created late last year when vp communications Naomi Bulochnikov-Paul was promoted to work alongside former Freeform head of originals Karey Burke at ABC.

"Kristen jumped right into the role, starting on March 16, the first day of shelter in place, and quickly proved to be a collaborative, creative and strategic executive," Melton said. "Her impeccable track record and commitment to Freeform’s future success will be crucially important in this incredibly competitive ecosystem. We are truly excited to have her on board and know she will make an indelible mark on one of Walt Disney Television’s most dynamic and critically acclaimed brands."

Anderson joins Freeform from Netflix, where she led campaigns for nonfiction programming including the Emmy-winning nature docuseries Our Planet. The gig brings Anderson back into the Disney fold after she previously served as a director of PR at ABC and launched series including the Shonda Rhimes-produced Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder. During her time at ABC, she also worked on multiple seasons of Grey's Anatomy and Dancing With the Stars.

Anderson left ABC in 2016 to work directly with Rhimes' Shondaland banner in the newly created role of vp marketing and communications, where she managed the promotion of all of the company's series, development and talent relations. Anderson has also had roles at Bravo and AMC.

"I am excited to be back with Walt Disney Television leading the talented and passionate communications team at Freeform," Anderson said. "The network has a clear vision and understands both the power of their content and the power of their audience. They excel at being inclusive, bold and entertaining, and I look forward to building on all their successes to date and driving their business forward in a meaningful way.”

Anderson's arrival comes as Freeform is now searching for a new network president, as Tom Ascheim will depart later this summer for a role at WarnerMedia.

Freeform

Academy Sound Branch Governors Brief Members on Consolidation of Editing, Mixing Oscars (Exclusive)

Among the major rule changes implemented Tuesday by the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is one that has no connection to the ongoing pandemic: the consolidation of the best sound editing and best sound mixing Oscar categories into one best sound category, which is likeliest to be the most divisive alteration of them all.

Shortly before the Academy changes broke publicly, the organization's three sound branch governors, Kevin Collier, Teri Dorman and Scott Millan, emailed the members of their branch to give them a heads-up about what was coming — a communication that The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively obtained.

The trio went to great pains to celebrate the move "into one unified award," which reduces the number of Oscar categories presented on the telecast from 24 to 23, but will recognize the same number of sound editors and mixers as before (up to six), saying that they were "very pleased to share" news of the change, which came "after years of debate and months of collecting feedback."

They reported that the change had the support of the branch, based on outreach they made on Dec. 4 and Feb. 6: "A majority of the responses indicated that, as a whole, our branch felt it was time to take this significant step." They also added that subsequent to that, "This was the unanimous decision reached by a joint meeting of the Sound Branch Executive committee and its Rules Committee."

In summation, they suggested, "Combining our awards under one banner will give us more unity as a community. Understand that this consolidation in no way eliminates the number of potential statuettes that the Sound branch will receive, and will in no way diminish the contribution of any member to the soundtrack. Instead, it will unify us into the 'team' we represent."

The full text of the email appears below.

* * *

Fellow Sound Branch members,

We sincerely hope this letter finds you all in good health.

Though these are uncertain times, normal life will resume and we would be remiss if we did not look down the road. That said, after years of debate and months of collecting feedback, we’d like to update you prior to this news being publicly announced.

We are very pleased to share that commencing with the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, the Sound Branch will combine our Sound Editing and Sound Mixing awards into one unified award. This was the unanimous decision reached by a joint meeting of the Sound Branch Executive committee and its Rules Committee.

On December 4th and February 6th, emails were sent polling the entire branch for opinions regarding whether our awards should be merged. A majority of the responses indicated that, as a whole, our branch felt it was time to take this significant step.

Changes in the way we work and the evolution of our roles through the use of digital technology have advanced this change. Our leading principle in the discussion has always been keeping recognition for both disciplines of sound editing and sound mixing. Combining our awards under one banner will give us more unity as a community. Understand that this consolidation in no way eliminates the number of potential statuettes that the Sound branch will receive, and will in no way diminish the contribution of any member to the soundtrack. Instead, it will unify us into the "team" we represent. No one individual can do their job without the total collaboration of the team. We do our best work when we work together, and now our award will actively reflect that.

If there are any questions please feel free to reach out. Questions or comments can be sent to us via [redacted email address]. We will also be setting up a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section on the members-only section of the Academy’s website. The combining of our awards finally acknowledges the magnitude of our collective contributions, and we are genuinely excited about our future, together.

Sincerely,

Kevin Collier, Teri Dorman & Scott Millan

Amoeba Music's Iconic Sunset Boulevard Location to Close

“This is heartbreaking for us,” reads a statement posted to the store's website. “We never envisioned not being able to give the store the send-off it deserves, to give you all a chance to say goodbye."

The doors to Amoeba Music’s iconic Sunset Boulevard location have permanently closed ahead of schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic.

On Monday, Amoeba announced that the famed Los Angeles retail outlet would not be reopening at its original location, where it has sat since 2001. All efforts will now be focused on opening the store at its new space on Hollywood Boulevard, where it is slated to open in the fall.

“This is heartbreaking for us,” reads a statement posted to the Amoeba website. “We never envisioned not being able to give the store the send-off it deserves, to give you all a chance to say goodbye. We had so many events planned to celebrate our history at 6400 Sunset! But we are facing too many mitigating circumstances that simply won't allow for it.”

The statement notes that because music stores aren’t considered “essential” businesses by the state of California, it most likely wouldn’t be able to open even if “safer at home” restrictions are eased this summer. Even if it were given the go-ahead, the statement continues, reopening would place staff and customers of the store, which sees over a million visitors a year, at risk of contracting the virus.

Along with its sister locations in San Francisco and Berkeley, Amoeba Music Hollywood shuttered in mid-March following the implementation of statewide “stay at home” mandates by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Earlier this month, the company launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the costs of rent and other bills, along with health care coverage to furloughed staff members, that has so far raised more than $216,000 toward a $400,000 goal.

“With our energy focused on the new store...we will have more time and resources available to manage this move and get the new Amoeba ready for prime time before our initial projections, and hopefully in line with a return to some degree of ‘normalcy’ within our community," the statement continues. "We will also return our focus over the summer to getting Amoeba.com updated with more used and collectible pieces to serve as a bridge to the new store opening.”

Amoeba had already planned to shutter its Sunset Boulevard location permanently this fall after developer GPI, which bought the building for $34 million in 2015, announced it would be moving forward with its plans to erect a 26-story mixed-use complex on the site. The new Hollywood Boulevard location is just two blocks east and two blocks north, directly next door to the Fonda Theatre.

“There are so many unknowns and uncertainties for a business like ours,” the statement continues. “The only thing we do know for certain is that we want to survive. We want to be there for our amazing customers and our incredible staff long after this pandemic disappears. The only way we can keep Amoeba Hollywood alive in the long run is to make this difficult decision now.”

This story first appeared on Billboard.com.

'Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story': Film Review

Netflix's unauthorized doc recounts the case of a teen convicted of murder and later granted clemency due to the changes in law and culture since her trial.

In 2004, when she was 16 years old, Cyntoia Brown shot and killed a man she alleges had picked her up hours earlier in a Nashville parking lot intending to pay for sex. Despite claiming self-defense, Brown Long, who has since changed her surname to reflect her marriage, was tried as an adult and convicted of murder in the first degree, and eventually sentenced to 51 years in prison. The year of her trial, she was likely seen as just another lost cause — a mentally ill murderer, a teenage prostitute.

Over a decade later, however, thanks to the cultural shifts of #MeToo, changes in Tennessee's legal code and greater awareness of human trafficking, Brown Long is now more widely viewed as a victim of childhood sexual abuse. Over the past few years, as she and her legal advocates appealed for clemency, celebrities such as Rihanna and Kim Kardashian publicized her plight, fomenting the social media campaign #FreeCyntoiaBrown. In August 2019, she was released on a commuted sentence after serving 15 years in prison for Johnny Michael Allen's death.

Brown Long's story is indeed extraordinary. Yet, while Netflix's flimsy, pathologizing documentary Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story introduces you to the basics of her groundbreaking case, it ultimately does little to elucidate the wider social, racial or political contexts that led to her conviction or commuted sentence. In fact, it leaves enough gaps to make you question its entire point of view.

Director Daniel Birman, who shot his footage before Brown Long was able to legally consent, shapes this case into a reductive personal redemption tale without providing audiences much sense of the legal system that mutated around his subject and other imprisoned women in similar scenarios. With all of the saintliness of a cobbled-together cash-grab, Murder to Mercy is a mere tabloid exclusive come to life.

Seemingly repackaged from his 2011 film Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story, this Netflix collage incorporates interviews with courtroom recordings, each chronological chapter bookended with cheesy graphics that evoke Hard Copy in the late 1990s. These interviews include troublingly intimate footage of teenage Brown Long pouring her heart out about her incarceration or undergoing grueling psychological testing. Her assessors diagnose her with a personality disorder, and later, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder after her biological mother confessed on camera to drinking non-stop while pregnant. These moments are intended to warm you to Brown Long, a mere child, but they also medicalize her, rendering her object instead of subject. Under Birman's gaze, she's a specimen to be studied, not a flesh-and-blood person.

Yet, even then, his narrative is spotty. We learn, in dribs and drabs, that Brown Long's biological mother, Georgina, placed her up for adoption when she was 2 years old, but we aren't privy to the pertinent details of how her loving adoptive mother, Ellenette, came into her life. Nor do we learn much about Brown Long's years before the doomed day Johnny Michael Allen brought her back to his home. We're told Brown Long took up with a brutal boyfriend-turned-pimp called "Kut" who forced her into sex work, but little else is said about him, or even Allen, for that matter.

We hear from various attorneys and activists who believed in Brown Long's potential to rehabilitate, but the documentary spends barely any time digging into the vast and organized operation to free her. Most of the film, instead, features Brown Long during the time of her incarceration, her younger self speaking candidly about her fate. These moments aren't touching, but invasive: You feel the guilt of inadvertently reifying her pain just by watching.

The most effective scenes aren’t with Brown Long herself, because despite her lucid vulnerability and wisdom at such a tender age, this older footage feels more exploitative than expository. Instead, Birman’s greatest successes here are his interviews with his subject's captivating, though downtrodden, biological family and their calcified perspectives on the cycles of abuse that may have contributed to the young woman's troubles. Her biological mother, who is only 16 years older than her daughter, harrowingly describes childhood sexual abuse, suicidal mental illness, forced sex work, crack cocaine addiction and her own incarceration.

Meanwhile, Georgina's elderly mother recalls, in detail, the violent rape that led to her own pregnancy, and even advocates a form of eugenics, wishing her own mother had had a hysterectomy at age 16 so she herself could never have been born.

Unfortunately, Birman mostly ignores the racial politics of the case, not even questioning, through editing, whether conscious or unconscious racism could have influenced the decision to try biracial Brown Long as an adult or convict her of felony murder. It is another example of the director eschewing his authorial voice.

Inserting himself into the doc, revealing exactly how he has shaped this narrative over the course of a decade, would have lent authenticity to his story. The film never explains how this footage was shot, though, at one point, an interviewee makes a passing reference to how Birman’s long-ago documentary first got him interested in helping Brown Long. Remaining behind the veil disingenuously obscures his personal role in the case and renders Murder to Mercy little more than a cinematic pat on the back.

Directed by: Daniel H. Birman
Premieres: Wednesday (Netflix)

New York City Mayor Aims to Create Roadmap on How to Rebuild Amid COVID-19

The mayor, a Democrat, said at a news conference that city leaders he’s invited to help plan the city's recovery should give him the roadmap by June 1. He said a full rebuild will take about 20 months.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday he hopes to have a roadmap by June 1 on how to rebuild the city after the coronavirus threat subsides.

The mayor, a Democrat, said at a news conference that city leaders he’s invited to help plan the city's recovery should give him the roadmap by then. He said a full rebuild will take about 20 months.

He also said the latest statistics on people being treated for COVID-19 continued to be stable or decline.

The number of people in the city's hospital intensive care units had dropped from 785 to 768. De Blasio said the city can’t begin reopening until decreases continue for 10 to 14 days. He said such a fall would signal it was time for the first steps in opening up.

“The health indicators have to give us the all clear,” de Blasio said. “We restart when we have evidence. There’s no on-off switch here. It’s a series of careful, smart moves.”

L.A. Lakers Return $4.6M From Stimulus Loan Program

The team, thought to be the NBA's second-most valuable franchise, qualified for the program because it has only about 300 employees.

The NBA's Los Angeles Lakers have repaid a loan of roughly $4.6 million from coronavirus business relief funds after learning the program had been depleted.

The Lakers applied for the loan under the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, a part of the federal government's $2.2 trillion stimulus package. The Lakers' request was granted in the first round of distribution, but after the fund ran out of money in less than two weeks, the team returned its loan, as did several wealthier business including Shake Shack and AutoNation.

The Lakers issued a statement Monday confirming what happened.

“The Lakers qualified for and received a loan under the Payroll Protection Program,” the statement read. “However, once we found out the funds from the program had been depleted, we repaid the loan so that financial support would be directed to those most in need. The Lakers remain completely committed to supporting both our employees and our community.”

ESPN first reported the Lakers’ decision.

The Treasury Department issued further guidance for the loan program last week, asking companies not to apply for the funds if they don't need the cash to survive.

The Lakers qualified for the program because they have only about 300 employees. But the team is thought to be the NBA's second-most valuable franchise, with Forbes estimating a value of roughly $4 billion.

The 16-time NBA champions play in the nation's second-largest media market, and their current roster, led by superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis, was on top of the Western Conference when the NBA suspended play last month.

The Lakers haven't furloughed or fired any employees during the coronavirus pandemic, and the franchise doesn't plan to make any cutbacks. The team's top executives agreed to defer 20 percent of their salaries until later this year or early next year.

Hillary Clinton Endorses Joe Biden for President

Clinton made her announcement during a Biden campaign town hall to discuss the coronavirus and its effect on women.

Hillary Clinton, the first woman to become a major party's presidential nominee, endorsed Joe Biden's White House bid on Tuesday, continuing Democrats' efforts to coalesce around the former vice president as he takes on President Donald Trump.

Clinton made her announcement during a Biden campaign town hall to discuss the coronavirus and its effect on women. Without mentioning Trump by name, Clinton assailed the Republican president and hailed Biden's experience and temperament in comparison.

"Just think of what a difference it would make right now if we had a president who not only listened to the science ... but brought us together," said Clinton, who lost the 2016 election despite leading Trump in the national popular vote. "Think of what it would mean if we had a real president," Clinton continued, rather than a man who "plays one on TV."

Biden, as a former vice president and six-term senator, "has been preparing for this moment his entire life," said Clinton, a former secretary of state. "This is a moment when we need a leader, a president like Joe Biden."

With her historic candidacy, Clinton remains a powerful — and complex — figure in American life. Her 2016 campaign inspired many women, and her loss to Trump resonates to this day. The female candidates in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary often faced skepticism that a woman could win the White House.
Biden has pledged to select a woman as his vice president.

Given her 2016 experience, Clinton could offer Biden unique insight as he prepares for the November general election. Her endorsement is the latest example of leaders from across the Democratic spectrum rallying behind Biden.

In recent weeks, Biden has picked up support from former President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and leading progressives such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Hillary Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, has not yet publicly endorsed Biden and has kept a lower profile during the Trump era.

The swift unification around Biden stands in stark contrast to four years ago, when Hillary Clinton was unable to win over a significant portion of the electorate's left flank. Sanders battled her to the end of the primary calendar and waged a bitter fight over the party platform before endorsing her and campaigning for her in the fall. Hillary and Bill Clinton have argued that Sanders' push deeply wounded her campaign against Trump.

The Trump campaign sought to foment the same tension on Tuesday by arguing that the Democratic establishment is again asserting itself.

"There is no greater concentration of Democrat establishment than Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton together," Brad Parscale, Trump's campaign manager, said in a statement. "Both of them carry the baggage of decades in the Washington swamp and both of them schemed to keep the Democrat nomination from Bernie Sanders."

During a wide-ranging conversation, Biden and Clinton sidestepped talk of campaign strategy and tactics, instead sticking mostly to policy proposals and critiques of Trump, from the president's penchant for conflict to recent reports that he ignored repeated warnings about the coronavirus threat, including in his daily intelligence briefings throughout January.

They pitched themselves as friends, recounting their time together in the Senate and recalling their breakfast meetings at the vice presidential residence when they served in the Obama administration. Still, the Clintons and Biden have never been especially close allies. Biden's nearest alignment with Hillary Clinton came during Obama's first term, when Biden was vice president and Clinton was secretary of state. Both had sought the Democratic nomination in 2008 — and both were dogged by their 2002 votes as senators in favor of the war powers resolution that President George W. Bush used to invade Iraq in 2003.

Biden suggested in his 2017 book, Promise Me, Dad, that Obama favored Clinton's 2016 presidential bid over the possibility of Biden running. With Obama by his side, Biden announced from the White House Rose Garden in 2015 that he wouldn't seek the presidency the following year.

As first lady and secretary of state, Clinton was among the leading voices in women's rights discussions around the world. She made headlines during her husband's first term with forceful advocacy for women during a United Nations conference in Beijing, where the Chinese government was under fire for human rights abuses.

"It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human rights," Clinton said.

She punctuated her argument with a line that has been replayed countless times since: "Human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights."

Yet Clinton's advocacy for Biden presents complications. After decades in the spotlight, she's a polarizing figure criticized for everything from her push for a health care overhaul in the 1990s to her decision to remain in her marriage following her husband's affair with a White House intern.

Her presidential endorsement comes as a former Senate staffer has recently accused Biden of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s, when he was a senator from Delaware. Trump made Bill Clinton's affairs an issue during the 2016 campaign despite his own indiscretions and allegations of sexual assault.

Biden campaigned for Hillary Clinton in the fall of 2016, and he's said often during the 2020 campaign that she "would have made a great president."

He has nonetheless implicitly criticized her campaign by saying Democrats did a poor job of reaching white working-class voters who defected to Republicans in 2016. As recently as an April 15 fundraiser, Biden touted ability to win "the kind of folks I grew up with," the "high-school educated" population who believe Democrats have abandoned them, and he sometimes boasts he can carry Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — the three states where Clinton's narrow losses handed Trump an Electoral College majority.

Biden studiously avoided such talk with Clinton at his side Tuesday. "I have to tell you something completely honestly," he said near the end of their chat. "I wish this were us doing this and my supporting your reelection for president of the United States." 

Watch Live: Meryl Streep, Patti LuPone and More Stars Pay Tribute to Stephen Sondheim

A host of notable names are gathering to perform in a special virtual concert 'Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration' that will benefit youth in underserved communities.

Hollywood stars and Broadway veterans are teaming Sunday to celebrate the 90th birthday of the legendary composer Stephen Sondheim. In a special virtual concert, titled Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration, more than 20 powerhouse performers are uniting to sing songs of inspiration from the Sondheim catalog.

Meryl Streep, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Mandy Patinkin, Christine Baranski, Donna Murphy, Kristin Chenoweth, Sutton Foster, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kelli O’Hara, Aaron Tveit, Maria Friedman, Iain Armitage, Katrina Lenk, Michael Cerveris, Brandon Uranowitz, Stephen Schwartz, Elizabeth Stanley, Chip Zien, Alexander Gemignani and, from the cast of Pacific Overtures at Classic Stage Company, Ann Harada, Austin Ku, Kelvin Moon Loh and Thom Sesma are all set to perform.

Raul Esparza will serve as host and producer. Drama Desk Award winner Mary-Mitchell Campbell is the evening’s music director, with Paul Wontorek serving as director.

The free online event is set to take place on the exact 50th anniversary of the opening night of Sondheim’s groundbreaking musical Company (the original production debuted on Broadway on April 26, 1970).

Take Me to the World will act as a fundraiser for ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty), an organization that connects performing and visual artists with youth from underserved communities in the U.S., encouraging them to break the cycle of poverty.

"The world is in a hard place, and we are all searching for something great. Well, Stephen Sondheim is greatness personified. So, we’ve assembled a group of people who love Steve and have worked with Steve and have been inspired by Steve to sing his music and share some joy and some heartache together," said Esparza in a statement. "We may be far from Broadway right now, but Broadway is never far from us. Besides, Stephen Sondheim turned 90. How many times do you get to be 90? 11?  So come on, say it, get it over with, come on, quick…happy birthday."

Take Me to The World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration is set to air Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on Broadway.com and the Broadway.com YouTube channel.

TV Ratings: '9-1-1' Tops 'Voice' Clip Show in Demo

Monday was a fairly quiet night in the broadcast ratings, as all five English-language networks were down year-to-year in adults 18-49. All but The CW declined week-to-week as well. 

Fox's 9-1-1 led the night in the 18-49 demographic with a 1.2 rating and was the only show to climb above the 1.0 mark for its initial airing. Its 6.58 million viewers nearly tied a Voice clip show for the lead in total viewers. Following 9-1-1, the season finale of Prodigal Son was steady at 0.7 in the demo and 3.53 million viewers.

The Voice still managed to lead primetime in viewers with 6.63 million, and it drew a 0.9 in adults 18-49 with a recap show. With the smaller lead-in, Songland declined to 3.44 million viewers and a 0.6 demo rating.

The Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart was steady week-to-week with a 0.6 in the demo and 2.86 million viewers. The Baker and the Beauty also held with a 0.5 and 2.47 million viewers. The CW's Roswell, New Mexico (0.2 in adults 18-49) improved on last week, and Whose Line Is It Anyway? was steady at 0.2. CBS aired a full slate of reruns.

Also of note: The premiere of Como Tú No Hay Dos tied for the 18-49 lead at 10 p.m. with a 0.6, matching Songland.

Fox's 0.9 rating among adults 18-49 led the network rankings in primetime, edging the 0.8 for NBC. Univision finished third at 0.6. ABC's 0.5 was fourth, and CBS and Telemundo tied at 0.4. The CW averaged 0.2.

Bookmark THR.com/Ratings for more ratings news and numbers.

TV Ratings

Writers Guild Advises Members On Next Steps After Court Ruling

"The agencies will be required to defend, in public, those practices that for decades they sought to keep private," the guild stated.

A day after a Los Angeles federal judge dismissed most of the Writers Guild of America's claims in its lawsuit against the major agencies, the guild wrote a note to its members on its next steps. 

"This is not the 'victory' they predicted or that they needed, which was the complete dismissal of the lawsuit," read a letter signed by the WGA's agency negotiating committee, referring to plaintiff agencies CAA, UTA and WME.

On April 28, judge Andre Birotte dismissed 8 of 14 claims, with racketeering and federal price fixing charges unable to be refiled by the guild. Of the racketeering charge, the federal judge wrote that the "Guild's allegations fail to demonstrate that they face a real or immediate threat of irreparable injury."

The guild, in its Monday letter, noted that the "most disappointing of those dismissed was the racketeering charge."

"Discovery – which the agencies have reason to fear and which has already begun – will now proceed in force. The agencies will be required to defend, in public, those practices that for decades they sought to keep private," the guild wrote to its members. 

After the ruling on Monday, UTA, CAA and WME released a pointed statement claiming that the guild leadership has "led thousands of writers over a cliff, wasted their member dues on failed lawsuits, and left them without agents to represent and advocate for them for more than a year."

The Writers Guild has 14 days after the April 27 ruling in order to file an amended complaint. The guild's note to members on Tuesday is below: 

Dear members,

Yesterday the federal judge handed down a decision on motions in the lawsuit the WGA filed against WME, CAA and UTA. He upheld some of our claims and dismissed others. The most disappointing of those dismissed was the racketeering charge. But the core claims of our lawsuit – namely, that packaging is a breach of fiduciary duty, and that the agencies have committed antitrust violations by fixing the price of those packages – those claims remain.

While the agencies are predictably claiming victory in hopes of undermining member solidarity, in private they are not celebrating. This is not the “victory” they predicted or that they needed, which was the complete dismissal of the lawsuit. Instead, six powerful claims that, in their scope, call into question the entirety of the packaging regime will now continue to trial. Discovery – which the agencies have reason to fear and which has already begun – will now proceed in force. The agencies will be required to defend, in public, those practices that for decades they sought to keep private. For those purposes, six claims is enough.

Through all of this, our goal has always been the same, to realign agency economic interest with ours. This lawsuit remains powerful pressure in that direction. And it operates alongside our greatest asset: your solidarity in continuing to deprive the remaining unfranchised agencies of their writer clients.

With the judge’s decision yesterday, there will be no lifeline to shield the agencies. We look forward to proceeding with discovery and then to trial.

In solidarity,

WGA Agency Negotiating Committee  

How I'm Living Now: Wanda Sykes, Comedian

From her home in Pennsylvania, the Emmy-winning comic acknowledges she's been light on jokes: "Right now, we're too deep into it to step back to see what's funny about about it."

With production grinding to a halt in the face of the novel coronavirus, the entertainment industry has found itself navigating uncharted territory. To offer a better sense of how, The Hollywood Reporter is running a regular series that focuses on how Hollywood's writers, actors, directors, executives and others are living and working in these challenging times.

Wanda Sykes is waiting out the pandemic from her home in Pennsylvania, which she shares with her wife, Alex, their 11-year-old twins and an au pair. From the basement, the Emmy-winning comedian has kept busy writing her forthcoming Netflix series, The Upshaws, and pitching new ones. Here, she opens up about her new normal, which includes "weird" Zoom pitches, a necessary cocktail and watching the news in secret.

Let’s start easy: how are you?

I'm tired. I'm just tired. I don't know where the day goes. I get pissed when I see these people taking up hobbies and learning another language and reading books. I'm like, where do you find the time?! [Laughs] I've been working from home, so it's a lot of meetings, our writers room for this Netflix show, The Upshaws, wrapped last Friday [April 17], and then the kids take up so much of your time. And then it's, "Oh, I guess we have to eat. Let me open up the cafeteria." The majority of my time now is the cafeteria lady, the janitor and the hall monitor. It's crazy. By the time they go to bed, Alex and I sit down to watch something and we barely make it through an episode of anything. We both fall asleep.

Where were you, professionally, when the pandemic hit?

We were in production on The Upshaws, which I'm doing with Mike Epps. We were shooting episode five. That Friday morning, Regina Hicks, the showrunner, and I were talking, and she said, "We shouldn't be here," and I said, "I'm feeling the same way. It's crazy that we're still working." So, we decided we were going to call Netflix -- and within a half hour of us having that conversation, Netflix called us and said, "We're shutting down." So, they made the call and they've been great with the communication and helping out the crew. It's been really great on that front. But the writers were able to continue to write, and that was a saving grace because I didn't just sit here all day and wonder what the death count is and have I watched my hands enough. 

In that room, did you find COVID-19 factoring into plot?

When we were breaking stories, we kept saying, "Everyone is at the house and then shelter-in-place happens and they have to stay in the house together." We're talking about it and we all laugh, but it's like, "You know what, when we get through this, I don't know that we want to revisit it." I want to watch up a show where things are good -- or maybe we'll talk about it, but i don't want to live in it.

What about its impact on our culture and our economy?

I don't know. We pitched our stories and the arc of the show already -- that was a long time ago. We haven't gotten a mandate from Netflix that says, "You've got to tackle it." And I don't know how we can include this into the stories that we've already laid out for these characters. because if they're concerned about a relationship as a deadly virus is going on, it looks kind of petty, you know? But we're dealing with a working class family, so money is alway an issue. The issues that a lot of people are dealing with now are already built into this show.

Back to you, what does your day look like now?

I'm usually up by 8, and then the kids eat, read and get ready to start class at 9 and then Alex and I discuss the day. She goes into her office, and I go down into the basement. I have a couple of projects that I've been asked to work on and I never had a chance, so I'm now looking into those things and trying to develop a few other shows. We'd had a couple of projects in the works at Netflix through our production company, and of course everything got shut down. And we were doing a big comedy festival with Netflix and that's on hold -- who knows when we're going to be doing live shows again. But networks are buying now because they're going to need content, so it's about getting things ready to pitch. We've actually had a couple of pitches via zoom, which is ... weird.

That can't be easy, particularly with a comedy.

It's weird. You pitch a joke and then you wait a second until you get the laugh. So, there is that second where you go, "Ooof." Also, it's like, what do I wear? And I'm all, "I'm not getting dressed up for this bullshit." It's so funny because today Alex actually put on a nice shirt today, and I go, "Where the hell are you going?" And she was like, "I just felt like it today." And I say, "You must have some real important emails, huh?" [Laughs]

You make part of your living performing in front of crowds as a standup. What does the path back look like?

I don't know when that's going to come back. I seriously doubt it will be this year. Until we get a vaccine, I don't know who wants to risk that. And I don't know how you're going to get insurance to have a show. And then the audience that would show up? That's not my audience. My people are sheltering in place. 

And what about the content? Will you lean into all of this?

I'm definitely going to talk about it when I get back on stage. But I think it's going to be tricky finding that sweet spot where it's personal yet relatable but also I don't want to be this angry comic on stage yelling about Trump. Look, I knew he was going to be bad but I never knew he would be this bad. Never. So, I guess it's finding that area where we can laugh at it without just getting angry and it's all, "Fuck him. Fuck him." It has to be funny. I have to find the joke in it. And right now, we're too close... too deep into it to step back to see what's funny about about it.  

What have you learned about yourself in this period?

Oh, I'm a real nervous Nellie. Like, we went for a walk in the woods yesterday, and a tree had fallen -- it was a good size tree, and my daughter wanted to walk across it and my wife was like, "Go ahead." And I was like, "Nope. Nope. Nope." And she was like, "She's done it before." And I'm like, "What?! You let her do that? Maybe back in February, but not now. She falls off of that tree, breaks her ankle now and we have to shove her into Children's Hospital by herself as we wait outside to see what happens. No!" I'm very much in the, "Let's not do that" camp now.

What’s the best advice you’ve given or received about staying sane right now?

Be smart, listen to the scientists, and if you are a person of faith, lean into it. That's what's getting me through -- leaning into it. Like, okay, there's a purpose. And it's so crazy, I was watching Christiane Amanpour and [she had on] Sir David Attenborough, who does all of the nature shows, who said, "If you think the birds are louder right now, it's because they are." The animals are all coming back out because we're inside. They know we're grounded, basically. And they're enjoying it. We've got rabbits running around our backyard, there was a fox this morning. And the air is cleaner, too. So, it's like, maybe this will just be a little reset. But, like i said, if you have faith, lean in. And also, there's always alcohol. 

Anything you've learned or made routine during this time that will carry over into your post-pandemic life?

I think the longest I've been away from my family was, like, three weeks one time and I'm never going to do that again. This [time with them has been] so important, and the conversations I'm having with them now, I am grateful for that.

What are you watching, reading or listening to as a reprieve?

I mix it up. My wife always has on ChérieFM, it's a French radio station, and I love it because it's very eclectic. And he just passed but I always have the Bill Withers Pandora station on. And because I got to work with her back in January, I listen to Brandi Carlile. Love her. Brittany Howard, too. And of course, Earth Wind and Fire and Prince.

What or who have become your go-to news source during this period?

NPR, PBS, Christiane Amanpour, Rachel Maddow. When the kids start classes at 9, I check in on Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC. I like her. And Nicole Wallace, too. But I have to sneak it in because we don't like to have the news on in front of the kids right now.  

How would you describe your Corona era wardrobe?

Ooh, a lot of swag. Free stuff. Alex asked me the other day, "Is every t-shirt you're going to wear from somebody's show?" And pretty much, yes. It's all of the late night shows. I got the Jimmy Kimmel shirt, a Jimmy Fallon shirt, a Colbert one. I got a Last Week Tonight baseball cap that I wear. It happened that first week -- you do laundry and it's like, "Hm, don't put this shirt away, let's leave it right here. I just might do that again."

Is there a cause that's become particularly important to you in these times? 

I've been helping out food banks. I'm been donating to those. It's crazy because when I was on my last tour, I would do these meet and greets. It's a VIP ticket, they pay $100 on top of the price of the ticket and I'd do a meet and great for 40 or 50 people, and all of that money I'd donate to that city's local food bank. I had no idea how important that would be. So, I'm still doing that.

What’s atop your to-do list once this is all over?

Oh, we want to go to Fire Island. Can't wait.

Radhika Jones, Eva Longoria, Brooke Baldwin to Speak at Virtual Graduation Ceremony

Margaret Cho, Andrew Yang, Liam Payne, Jesse McCartney and Tamron Hall are also set to perform at "I'm Still Graduating," an online commencement event.

As the novel coronavirus outbreak has overturned college graduation plans nationwide, one college-focused media brand is planning a star-studded virtual ceremony to celebrate the Class of 2020.

Her Campus, the female-focused company that owns Spoon University, College Fashionista and InfluenceHer Collective, announced Monday that it is organizing "I'm Still Graduating,” an online graduation ceremony, to take place Friday, May 15, at 12 p.m. ET. Eva Longoria, Radhika Jones, Margaret Cho, Brooke Baldwin, Liam Payne, Jesse McCartney, Andrew Yang and Tamron Hall are all set to speak at the ceremony, which will feature speeches, toasts and performances. 

Also confirmed to appear at the event are Billie Jean King, Kenneth Cole, John Kasich, Rebecca Minkoff, Saweetie, Hailie Sahar, Lauren Akins, Hunter McGrady, Jaime King, Alisyn Camerota and Drax Project, among others (see the full list and RSVP at ImStillGraduating.com).

Besides famous faces, the ceremony will feature the accomplishments of select members of the Class of 2020. Interested individuals can apply to participate to perform or speak, with applications due April 30. Participating students who sign up at ImStillGraduating.com can also create an online, sharable "graduation page" to share photo and memories, connect with other graduates and record 60-second videos. 

“We are ecstatic to announce this incredible group of speakers and performers across industries who share in our enthusiasm around rallying behind the Class of 2020 to give them the graduation they deserve,” co-founder, CEO and editor in chief of Her Campus Media, Stephanie Kaplan Lewis, said in a statement about the event. “We’re turning the letdown of a missed graduation experience on its head and bringing together the lineup of our dreams to deliver commencement addresses and performances that will inspire, motivate and uplift at a time that this year’s graduates, and all of us, need it most. This will be an immersive, electrifying, unifying experience beyond what could have been possible at any individual graduation ceremony.”

Earlier in the month iHeartRadio announced its own graduation initiative: In an upcoming podcast special, the company will play commencement speeches that Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Fallon, John Legend and others recorded for seniors.

The Future of 'Ninja Turtles' to Be Told in 'The Last Ronin'

A lost piece of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles history is about to be seen for the first time — and, in the process, reveal the future of the heroes in a half shell, courtesy of the men responsible for creating the characters in the first place.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin is a five issue comic book miniseries from IDW Publishing, by TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman with co-writer Tom Waltz and inker Andy Kuhn, taking the characters two decades into a future first imagined by Eastman and co-creator Peter Laird for a storyline that never saw the light of day.

Heat Vision breakdown

"About 10 years ago, I re-discovered a 20-page outline for a TMNT story that Peter and I wrote together back in 1987," Eastman said in a statement about the new series. "The story was set 30 years in the future, which, as written then, was set in 2017. Reading through it again, I drifted back to a very different time in TMNT history — back when it was all about the comics, mostly just Peter and I writing and drawing the issues, pre-everything the world would soon come to know about these characters that we'd created and called the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

The storyline was revisited and updated — moving the setting to 2040 — by Eastman, before he shared it with Waltz, leading to this new series.

"When Kevin first showed me the outline that he and Peter had created back in the '80s, I was gobsmacked," added Waltz, who's been collaborating with Eastman on the franchise since IDW took over publication in 2011. "Beyond Peter Laird's eerily prescient technological and sociological predictions, the story idea itself was exciting and versatile, designed in a way that it could be easily modified to fit into the many different TMNT iterations that have existed over the years, without losing any of the core elements injected into it by both Kevin and Peter.”

Eastman describes the finished product as "a heartfelt love poem to all the TMNT universes of the past [that] offers up an intense look at one possible future — firmly based on and adapted from an original 33-year-old idea, from the original creators.”

Each issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin will run 48 pages, with the first being released in three editions: a regular edition featuring cover artwork by Eastman and two retailer incentive editions, featuring a cover by Eastman and a cover by Mateus Santolouco; the regular cover and interior pages can be seen below. The series will launch later this year.

Actors' Equity Enlists Former OSHA Chief to Help Reboot Live Stage Safely

The union's model standards could help the film and television industry, as well.

Actors’ Equity Association, the union for stage actors and stage managers, on Friday announced that epidemiologist and policy veteran Dr. David Michaels will consult for the union, effective immediately, to help develop health and safety standards for theater work in the era of COVID-19. 

The engagement of Michaels, a former head of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, comes about a week after Equity issued a statement that it is “unclear under the current circumstances” how production can resume and asked members to call their regional Equity office if they are offered work. 

“David’s expertise will be invaluable during this unprecedented time,” said Equity executive director Mary McColl. “Ultimately, while the employers are solely responsible for ensuring the health and safety of all actors and stage managers, Equity is committed to being an industry leader to help develop model health and safety standards that will eventually allow us to reopen and maintain a safe and healthy workplace.”

Equity’s efforts could also help inform the film and television industry, which faces social distancing issues on production sets and in cinemas. The Directors Guild of America on April 16 appointed a committee, headed by Steven Soderbergh, that will consult with epidemiologists on rebooting the industry. The International Cinematographers Guild, a unit of IATSE, has also weighed in, and last week, a coalition of Hollywood unions — including the American Federation of Musicians, DGA, IATSE, Teamsters, SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America East — sent an email to members mentioning a list of activities that included production workplace protective measures, but without details.

On Monday, unions in an industry with similar concerns — construction — released guidelines for workplace safety on building sites, venues that are not dissimilar to film and television sets. The recommended practices, promulgated by the North American Building Trades Unions and a research center, encompass training, screening, social distancing, decontamination, personal hygiene and respiratory protection.

Meanwhile, on April 21, Equity’s governing council unanimously passed a new internal membership rule that its 51,000 members may only return to work when the union deems it safe to do so. Michaels will be a key part to implementing a plan where member safety is put first and decisions are made with a clear safety and scientific basis, the union said. 

Michaels has conducted epidemiological studies of diverse populations, including typographers, nuclear weapons workers, construction workers, bus drivers, jail inmates and others, and studied such health threats as asbestos, tuberculosis, silica, workplace accidents and more. He has received medals for his efforts on behalf of workers and for his advocacy of scientific integrity.

Currently a professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health of the George Washington University, Michaels served as the Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA during the Obama administration, from 2009-2017, and as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environment, Safety and Health from 1998-2001. He received his Masters of Public Health and PhD from Columbia University. 

April 27 2:38 p.m. added construction trades guidelines

Bleecker Street Sets VOD, Hulu Release for 'Military Wives'

The drama about British women who form a choir while their soldier spouses are away, which stars Kristin Scott Thomas and Sharon Horgan, will be rolled out Memorial Day weekend.

Military Wives, the latest movie from Oscar-nominated director Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) and starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Sharon Horgan, is set to march into homes May 22.

Bleecker Street will release the film during the Memorial Day weekend on AppleTV, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu simultaneously, with additional plays on virtual cinemas and in movie drive-ins. The mainly digital release for the pic follows no traditional multiplex screens being available to Bleecker Street for Military Wives during the coronavirus pandemic.

Produced by London- and Los Angeles-based banner 42, the film is based on the award-winning BBC documentary series The Choir: Military Wives and tells the story of a group of misfit women who form a choir on a military base.

To build buzz for the release. Bleecker Street will partner with choir groups, performing arts centers, community centers, military organizations and theatrical exhibitors through an expanded “Community Cinema” program that sends half of all revenue to those groups.

“We want the joy and emotion of this film to be seen by as many people as possible, and Memorial Day weekend felt like the right moment to share this moving and inspiring movie,” Bleecker Street CEO Andrew Karpen said Tuesday in a statement.

Military Wives portrays a group of women from different backgrounds whose partners are away serving in Afghanistan. Faced with their loved ones’ absences, they come together to form the first military wives choir, helping each other through some of life’s most difficult moments and quickly finding themselves on an international stage.

Military Wives made its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Rosanne Flynn and BAFTA nominee Rachel Tunnard (Adult Life Skills) wrote the screenplay, with 42’s Ben Pugh and Rory Aitken (In Darkness, Jerusalem) producing with Tempo Productions’ Piers Tempest (Driven, The Wife).

Italian Kids Film 'My Brother Chases Dinosaurs' Wins European Young Audience Award

Stefano Cipani's drama, about a boy with Down syndrome, won the first-ever European Film Academy youth prize to be handed out virtually due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Italian children's film My Brother Chases Dinosaurs has won this year's Young Audience Award from the European Film Academy.

The drama follows Jack and his brother Gio, who has Down syndrome. When he was a child, Jack's parents told him his brother was a special being with superpowers but as he gets older, Jack begins to doubt them and is almost ashamed of him. Stefano Cipani adapted the film from the best-selling biographical book by Giacomo Mazzariol.

Overall, 2,000 young jurors from 32 European countries voted My Brother Chases Dinosaurs as this year's best European film for young audiences.

Because of the stay-at-home orders in place across most of the continent amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, this year's award ceremony was a virtual event. The 12- to 14-year-old jury members watched the nominated films online and the winner was announced via a virtual ceremony streamed live April 26 on the European Film Awards website.

EFA Productions, EFA’s in-house production company, is releasing My Brother Chases Dinosaurs and the two other EFA Young Audience Award nominees — Dutch feature My Extraordinary Summer With Tess and German drama Rocca Changes the World — across Europe on VOD platforms including iTunes, Google Play, Microsoft and Pantaflix as well as local and regional services including Balkan-based platform Cinesquare and Spain's Filmin!.


 

Sondheim 90th-Birthday Tribute Filled With Stars, Technical Difficulties

The special featured performances by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Meryl Streep, Patti LuPone and more, kicked off on YouTube more than an hour after the announced start time.

Josh Groban, Nathan Lane and Jake Gyllenhaal honored composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim on Sunday with an online 90th birthday concert that was stuffed with his songs, but delayed by technical difficulties.

The starry special called Take Me to the World featured performances by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kelli O'Hara, Lea Salonga, Judy Kuhn, Katrina Lenk, Aaron Tveit, Laura Benanti, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Patti LuPone and Bernadette Peters, who closed out the show with a triumphant version of "No One Is Alone" without any accompanying music.

Sondheim actually turned 90 on March 22, but plans to celebrate were taken online after Broadway shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. The celebration on Sunday night coincided with the 50th anniversary of the opening of Sondheim's Broadway show Company, and served as a fundraiser for Artists Striving to End Poverty.

Sutton Foster was the first to sing, picking "There Won't Be Trumpets" and her young daughter, Emily, wished Sondheim a happy birthday at the end. Christine Baranski, Audra McDonald and Meryl Streep each downed glasses of booze to team up for a raucous "The Ladies Who Lunch."

Neil Patrick Harris sang "The Witch's Rap" and thanked Sondheim: "He made me love theater, he made me love music, he made me love rhythm," he said. Harris' children also played a role in the performance, bowing at the end.

Jason Alexander of Seinfeld fame told of being challenged by the composer, while Annaleigh Ashford and Gyllenhaal reunited for a song from their 2017 Broadway partnership, the Sondheim revival of "Sunday in the Park With George."

There was a duet from Beanie Feldstein and Ben Platt, who sang "It Takes Two." Victor Garber recalled raptly hearing "Johanna" from "Sweeney Todd" for the first time. In a video from a field with his dog, Mandy Patinkin said of Sondheim: "He simply turns my darkness into light."

There was an intimate vibe to the event, with many musicians and singers dressed in T-shirts, minimal makeup and in front of simple backdrops.

"I've got to go make dinner," said Melissa Errico confessed after singing "Children and Art."

Starting fashionably late, the tribute kicked off on YouTube more than an hour after the announced start time.

"Send in the singers!" one cranky fan posted, riffing off Sondheim's classic tune "Send in the Clowns" — that was later sung by Donna Murphy.

It was hosted and produced by Raúl Esparza, who starred in the Tony Award-winning revival of Company in 2006. Esparza blamed the tardiness on technical difficulties, tweeting, "The curtain always goes up late on opening night."

During one aborted start, Esparza appeared, but his opening speech could not be heard and he abruptly walked off-screen. ("They should have hired the ‘SNL' folks," said one online commentator.) Esparza later appeared in short videos offering personal commentary and sang "Take Me to the World."

The delay and the fact that many of the videos were pre-taped reminded some of Fox's 2019 broadcast of the musical Rent, which used pre-recorded material for much of the show after a performer was injured during a rehearsal.

Sondheim's shows include Merrily We Roll Along, Sweeney Todd and A Little Night Music. He also worked alongside Leonard Bernstein as a lyricist for West Side Story.

Steven Spielberg honored Sondheim's photographic knowledge of film and thanked him for helping on the filmmaker's upcoming version of West Side Story.

"For me it was like going back to school and meeting my most favorite professor," Spielberg said.

Lane, a frequent collaborator, joked that the oft-celebrated Sondheim was "an unsung hero" of the American theater.

"Here's my little show business adage for this evening: If at all possible, try to work with a genius," Lane said. "They're fun. They're smart. They're inspiring and they tend to bring out the best in you. And that's the kind of genius Steve is."

Unions Ask Congress to Restore Business Expense Deductions for Hollywood Workers

Their goal: restore tax deductions for unreimbursed business expenses, which can be quite large, even for working- and middle-class personnel.

A coalition of almost 20 entertainment unions, management organizations and associations on Monday urged Congress to pass legislation restoring deductibility of business expenses for entertainment workers, which was effectively eliminated in the 2017 tax revision championed by Republicans and President Donald Trump.

That was a change that hit unionized actors, crew, directors and writers especially hard, because entertainment is one of the few industries in which workers are categorized as employees yet have potentially large unreimbursed business expenses: agent and manager commissions, attorney fees, training classes, equipment and more can add up to as much as an estimated 30 percent of a worker’s income.

In contrast, when professionals in corporate positions — executives, computer programmers, managers — incur business expenses, the employer usually pays or reimburses those costs.

That’s not the case in entertainment. And none of those expenses are deductible unless the worker is an independent contractor — which for legal reasons is virtually never the case with union-covered gigs — or establishes a loan-out corporation. But that latter mechanism can entail costly accounting and legal fees, and create tricky accounting and legal issues for middle-class, let alone working-class, personnel.

The tax code does take account of this dilemma already, but the so-called Qualified Performing Artist deduction is currently all but useless, since it caps eligibility at $16,000 in adjusted gross income, a figure that has not been increased in the three decades since the provision was enacted. The coalition sent a letter to Congressional leaders asking them to support raising the cap to $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for couples filing jointly.

Despite its name, the Qualified Performing Artist deduction is not limited to actors, but they are among the workers hardest hit.

“Today, SAG-AFTRA, joined by our sister entertainment unions, urged Congress to provide additional relief for our members and industry colleagues by updating the tax provisions allowed in the Performing Artist Tax Parity Act in upcoming relief packages,” SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris said in a statement. “Updating the Qualified Performing Artist deduction in the current tax code to expand work-related deductions will provide relief for middle class working performers who are affected by COVID-19 production shutdowns.”

Read the letter, below.

April 27, 2020

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader McConnell, Minority Leader Schumer, and Minority Leader McCarthy,

We write today on behalf of more than 500,000 workers in the entertainment industry. Like many during these uncertain times our workers have been devastated by the financial impact of COVID-19 with a complete shutdown of production and live performances.

As Congress works to provide relief to the nation during this unprecedented crisis, we urge you to consider the Performing Artist Tax Parity Act, H.R. 3121, a bipartisan bill introduced by Representatives Judy Chu and Vern Buchanan. The bill modernizes an existing tax deduction and allows entertainment industry workers to keep more of their hard-earned money. The update is also included in S. 3232, the Promoting Local Arts and Creative Economy Workforce Act of 2020 (PLACE Act) introduced by Senator Brian Schatz. With the deadline to file income taxes moving to July, hundreds of thousands who have not already filed their taxes could benefit if H.R. 3121 were included in any relief package.

H.R. 3121 updates the Qualified Performing Artist deduction (QPA) put into the tax code by President Reagan in 1986. The QPA was initially an important tool for artists to be able to deduct the business expenses they incur to pursue their careers. However, the QPA capped adjusted gross income at $16,000, which has not changed since enactment almost 35 years ago.

These are not celebrities on the red carpet. They are the working-class men and women in front of and behind the camera, on stage and off, who are the lifeblood of our industry. These taxpayers need tax relief now.

Unlike most other workers, entertainment industry employees can spend on average 20-30 percent of their income on industry-related expenses such as agents, managers, promotional materials, equipment, and travel. These expenses come directly out of their own pockets. In the past these expenses had been covered by miscellaneous itemized deductions. However, recent changes to the tax code increased the standard deduction and eliminated those provisions, preventing entertainment employees from deducting their ordinary and necessary business expenses. This resulted in an industrywide tax increase for working class creative professionals.

H.R. 3121 will correct that issue by raising the QPA adjusted gross income to $100,000 a year for single taxpayers and $200,000 for couples filing jointly, with a built-in phase out to transition the taxpayer out of the deduction. As the country works to reignite our economy, this deduction will be an enormous benefit to entertainment workers and aid our industry in getting up and running again.

We appreciate your efforts on behalf of America’s workers and urge you to include this language in any future relief packages.

Sincerely,

Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)

Actors’ Equity Association

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)

American Federation of Musicians

American Association of Independent Music (A2IM)

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers

Berkshire Theater Group

Broadcast Music, Inc.

The Broadway League

League of Resident Theaters

Music Artists Coalition

Music Publishers Association

National Music Publishing Association

Recording Industry Association of America

The Recording Academy

Songwriters of North America

Writers Guild of America, East

Writers Guild of America West

Department for Professional Employees, AFL–CIO

'Vanilla': Film Review

Two virtual strangers go on a three-day road trip together in Will Dennis' romantic comedy.

Road trips are a comedic narrative staple that are as reliable as they are formulaic. That's why you'll find Will Dennis' first feature enjoyable, even as you're all too aware of its narrative gears moving too heavily. Despite its familiar aspects, Vanilla chugs along nicely thanks to frequently witty dialogue and the terrifically charming and funny performance by its leading lady, Kelsea Bauman-Murphy, making a film debut that heralds the promise of bigger things.

Dennis, who wrote and directed, also plays the lead role of Elliot, a struggling tech designer whose uptightness is signified by his neatly tucked-in button-down shirts. In need of money after failing in his attempts to peddle an ice cream delivery app to skeptical show owners, he's looking to sell his van in which he spent many happy hours with his ex, Trisha (Taylor Hess), for whom he still pines.

He winds up selling it to Kimmie (Bauman-Murphy), an aspiring comedian who tries out her one-liners on the unamused customers of the struggling pizza parlor owned by her "ex-uncle" Sal (Eddie Alfano, Shameless, nearly stealing the film), where she works as a cashier. But when Kimmie's negligence results in the shop being overrun by rats and having to temporarily close, she tries to return the vehicle and get her money back to help Sal out.

Elliot refuses, but makes her a counteroffer. In the meantime, Trisha, who works as a production coordinator on a movie shooting in New Orleans, has offered to buy the van for the production. Cue the inevitable road trip from NYC to the Big Easy, with Elliot and Kimmie going on the "world's longest first date" despite her not unreasonable trepidation.

"Don't murder me, okay?" she asks as the journey begins.

The ensuing tentative foray into romance is not without its complications, as Elliot doesn't divulge that the trip will reunite him with his former love and Kimmie doesn't tell him about her lucrative side hustle which she engages in even during the trip.

It's hardly a believable plot setup. The filmmaker doesn't help matters by indulging in far too many cutesy and overly broad touches, including Elliot and Kimmie creating collaborative dance moves during rest stops, opening fortune cookies upon crossing state lines and posing for goofy photographs at various stops along the way. Another plot element that doesn’t work involves Elliot's frequent phone calls to his mother (theater veteran Kathryn Grody), who's involved in a romantic relationship with a decades-younger boy toy (Johnny Sibilly, Pose).  

But there are also some terrific scenes, such as Kimmie attempting to perform her stand-up during an open-mic night hosted by a hilariously acerbic emcee (Anthony Devito). More importantly, the pic's dialogue is often fast and funny, with Dennis largely playing agreeable straight man to his talented co-star. Bauman-Murphy, who's worked as an associate and web producer on Last Week Tonight With John Oliver and Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas, manages to be both charming and edgy, sexy and funny, displaying pitch-perfect comic timing with her sardonic delivery of the frequently raunchy material.  

Benefiting from its location shooting in such locales as Washington, D.C., and New Orleans, Vanilla proves far more flavorful than its title would suggest.

Available on VOD/Digital
Production company: Will Dennis Productions
Distributor: Gravitas Ventures
Cast: Will Dennis, Kelsea Bauman-Murphy, Kathryn Grody, Eddie Alfano, Taylor Hess, Johnny Sibilly, Aparna Nacherla
Director-screenwriter: Will Dennis
Producers: Will Dennis, Adam Peryer, Tom Atwell
Director of photography: Tom Atwell
Editor: Catrin Hedstrom
Composer: Zak Engel

87 minutes