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  • Disney and TikTok Ink Wide-Ranging Deal, Videos From Tech Platform Will Be Added to Disney+

    Disney and TikTok Ink Wide-Ranging Deal, Videos From Tech Platform Will Be Added to Disney+

    TikTok videos will be coming to Disney+.

    The tech giant and the entertainment giant have inked what they are calling a “first-of-its-kind” content sharing deal, which will allow TikTok videos from Disney fans to live on both of their streaming platforms.

    The deal bears a striking similarity to last year’s short-lived announcement with OpenAI to fold videos from Sora into Disney+… but without the whole AI-generated angle. Creators who opt-in to the program will gain access to Disney assets (think photos and videos featuring Disney characters and IP). A “thoughtfully curated” selection of videos will live on both TikTok and in Verts on Disney+.

    The companies also say that they “will enable best-in-class creators to unlock special rewards and provide them with increased visibility, access to exclusive events and career development pathways,” making it a two-way street of engagement. The partnership will launch in the U.S. in the next couple months, with plans to eventually bring it to other markets.

    “The best storytellers are fans first,” said Asad Ayaz, chief marketing and brand officer for Disney. “That has always been true at Disney, and today, fans are celebrating our stories in entirely new ways. This collaboration creates a new bridge between the stories we tell and the creativity they inspire, giving creators a bigger stage to share what they’ve made, and audiences more to discover on Disney+ every day.”

    “Creators are at the heart of everything we do at TikTok. Their creativity extends the life of films and shows into conversations that fans discover and share,” added Dawn Yang, global head of entertainment for TikTok. “Together with Disney, we’re bringing the authentic creator expression of the TikTok community to Disney+, inviting audiences to experience the shared creativity that makes fandom so powerful.”

    The deal will inevitably turbocharge Disney’s Verts offering, with the company teasing the possibility of creator content there when it launched in March. Vertical video has become a top priority for streamers, recognizing that consumers who watch videos on their phones are just not likely to turn it sideways in most use cases. Peacock, HBO Max, and Netflix have all also rolled out enhanced vertical video offerings in recent months.

    But the Disney-TikTok tie-up also recognizes the role that creators are playing in fandom, with fand of characters and IP, be it Marvel Star Wars or Moana, often turning to social video platforms to dissect, discuss and celebrate those characters and worlds.

  • ‘The Mummy’ Poster Ads Banned From London Underground After Advertising Watchdog Cites ‘Distressing’ Imagery

    ‘The Mummy’ Poster Ads Banned From London Underground After Advertising Watchdog Cites ‘Distressing’ Imagery

    The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that outdoor poster ads for “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” breached its code by presenting an image that gave “a realistic impression of a dead child,” while clearing companion TV and streaming spots for the same campaign.

    The ASA investigated four issues stemming from several complaints about ads for the Warner Bros Entertainment U.K. Ltd. cinema release, seen in April this year. The regulator upheld one complaint and rejected the other three in a ruling published Aug. 5.

    “The ASA received 30 complaints, many of whom believed the ads were distressing for children and adults,” the ASA said.

    Posters on the London Underground and at outdoor sites showed a close-up of a mummified female figure with grey, ashen skin, cracked lips and one eye swollen shut, wrapped in material resembling a shroud and inscribed with hieroglyphic-style symbols.

    The ASA said the figure’s features gave “a realistic impression of a dead child” and that the material wrapped around her added to that impression. Because the posters ran in untargeted locations, including on the London Underground and at a site visible from a children’s nursery, the regulator concluded the imagery was likely to distress young children who saw it. It ruled the posters unsuitable for outdoor display in that form, finding them in breach of CAP Code rules 1.3 and 4.2.

    Warner Bros. had argued the poster’s neutral expression, open eye and absence of a sarcophagus or restraints were deliberate choices meant to reduce distress, and noted the studio’s outdoor buying policy of keeping horror titles at least 100 metres from schools – a standard that does not extend to nurseries.

    The ASA ordered that the poster ads “must not appear in the form complained of” and directed Warner Bros. to keep future marketing likely to frighten young children away from places where they would see it.

    The ruling cited BCAP Code rules 1.2, 4.1, 4.10, 5.1 and 32.3, and CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3, 4.1 and 4.2.

    The ASA rejected a separate complaint that the posters trivialized child loss or ongoing global conflicts, finding that text identifying the image as promotion for a film provided sufficient context, even if some viewers found it distasteful.

    Variety has reached out to Warner Bros. Discovery for comment.

    The campaign also included a TV ad and a matching Prime Video ad depicting a family receiving a call about a daughter who had gone missing eight years earlier, with the father questioning what she was doing in a 3000-year-old sarcophagus. On-screen text read, “Some Things Are Meant to Stay Buried.” Both ran with a post-7:30 p.m. scheduling restriction cleared by Clearcast.

    The ASA found the TV and streaming ads were unlikely to cause serious distress and that their scheduling restrictions were sufficient to limit exposure to young children, rejecting complaints that they should have been kept off air later or targeted more precisely on Prime Video. It also noted Clearcast’s data showing an average children’s index of 31 across the TV placements – well below the industry baseline of 100 that represents typical child viewership, indicating the actual child audience was low. No further action was required for the TV and streaming ads.

    “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” released in the U.K. on April 17 and grossed $2.9 million.

  • ‘Toy Story 5’ and Theme Parks Power Disney in Latest Quarter, as Company Teases Big Changes Ahead

    ‘Toy Story 5’ and Theme Parks Power Disney in Latest Quarter, as Company Teases Big Changes Ahead

    The Walt Disney Co. reported its fiscal Q3 earnings early Wednesday, with films like Toy Story 5, streaming, and its lucrative experiences division powering its results.

    The company missed Wall Street expectations for revenue, but beat them in operating income and earnings per share, with stronger-than-expected theme park performance helping to bolster its bottom line.

    The company also teed up some big changes coming to its divisions, teasing a plan to turn Disney+ into “a comprehensive membership ecosystem,” with the first elements of that vision rolling out early next year.

    Meanwhile, the company’s lucrative consumer products segment will move from being part of Disney’s experiences division and into its entertainment division: “We believe this shift will have strategic
    and operational benefits by bringing the monetization of our IP through consumer products closer to the
    studios that create that IP,” the company writes.

    Disney reported revenue of $25.2 billion, up 7 percent from a year ago, with segment operating income of $5.5 billion, up 21 percent from a year ago.

    In entertainment, revenues were $11.3 billion with operating income of $1.68 billion. In streaming, SVOD entertainment revenue (Disney+ and Hulu minus ESPN) was $712 million, a sharp increase from a year ago, and a signal that streaming is becoming more reliably profitable.

    The company did note that The Mandalorian and Grogu and the live action Moana “underperformed” at the box office, but argued that “these franchise investments contributed to value creation beyond their theatrical releases.” Toy Story, for example, has generated more than $16 billion for Disney as a franchise, it said.

    In experiences, revenues were $10 billion, up 10% from a year ago, with operating income of $3 billion, up 20%. That was despite market concerns around theme parks, especially with Universal recently reporting lower than expected results. The company said that international visitors are still down at its park, but they made up for it with domestic attendance and annual passholders.

    In sports, the NBA Finals helped power ESPN, with revenues of $4.5 billion, up 4 percent, though operating income fell 17 percent to $858 million due to higher NBA rights costs.

    Disney also said that it would use the cash from the $1.2 billion sale of its A+E stake to do stock buybacks, and elaborated a bit on how it expects to use artificial intelligence:

    “With AI, it isn’t simply about efficiency. We use it first and foremost to enhance a creative process that will always be human-centered, artist-driven, and creator-led,” the company writes. “We’ve cultivated the world’s richest portfolio of IP and production experience across a century of filmmaking, giving us an advantage that our peers and no new entrant can quickly replicate.”

  • Ethereum Proposal Would Burn Staking Rewards to Zero if Half of ETH Is Staked

    Ethereum Proposal Would Burn Staking Rewards to Zero if Half of ETH Is Staked

    In brief

    • EIP-8361 would deduct a rising share of validator rewards and destroy the ETH, cancelling issuance entirely at half the supply staked.
    • Its authors say the validator entry queue is adding 1.75 million ETH a month and that every month of delay costs 1.5 points of staking ratio.
    • Isidoros Passadis of Lido called the proposal too complicated to rush and warned it could price expert node operators out of the market.

    Ethereum developers have submitted a proposal that would charge every validator a deduction on each duty it is assigned and burn the ETH, with the deduction rising as more of the supply is staked until it cancels staking rewards outright.

    EIP-8361, a tapered issuance burn, sets a fixed saturation balance of 60.25 million ETH, roughly half the supply at the time of the fork. The burn fraction scales with the staking ratio raised to the power of 1.5, hitting 100% at that balance, at which point a validator performing its duties perfectly earns zero net consensus yield. The change touches only the consensus layer, and Prysm has a draft implementation running to about 300 lines.

    Under the current curve, yield falls only with the square root of the staking ratio and keeps a floor near 1.5% however much ETH is staked, so stake flows in for as long as that floor clears the risk premium stakers demand. Removing it lets the market settle where yield meets that premium, which the authors argue is strictly below 50%.

    Why now

    Ethereum’s staking ratio passed a third of supply in April, and the validator entry queue is saturated at maximum churn, according to the proposal’s co-author Jérôme de Tychey. He argued that a worst case built on conservative assumptions puts more than 70 million ETH at stake by January 2028, north of 55% of supply, with every month of delay worth around 1.5 points of staking ratio. “The window is closing,” he wrote.

    Around 33% of ETH is staked now, paying roughly 2.6%. Imposed at once the burn would cut that to 1.2%, so it phases in over an 18-month transition that temporarily doubles the base reward factor before decaying it back, which with fork lead time gives about two years to adjust. The taper’s shape applies from the first epoch after activation. Issuance would peak near a 20% ratio at about 0.5% of supply a year, then fall to zero at 50%.

    The draft argues that stake beyond a certain level reduces security, concentrating supply with custodians and staking providers, weakening the credibility of social slashing and forcing out solo stakers, who pay income tax on nominal yield. It also holds that dilution taxes unstaked holders and lets liquid staking tokens displace raw ETH as the ecosystem’s working money.

    Large operators are hit directly. Because issuance would fall past its peak, an operator that keeps growing claims a bigger share of a shrinking pot, and one holding half the stake would find growth stops paying once about 31% of supply is staked.

    Lido pushes back

    Isidoros Passadis, Chief of Staking at Lido, argued the proposal attempts too much at once, that its supporting research is “too theoretical,” and that it “lays Ethereum’s hard-fought uniqueness at the sacrificial altar of ETH as money.” He objected to the timing, saying issuance changes had been slated for a later fork.

    Passadis warned the curve could produce a sustained equilibrium near 50% staked with zero nominal yield, which he called “a death-knell for the security of the network,” as operators prioritising expertise and decentralization are priced out by large, minimal-cost parties able to run at break-even. Capping staking only displaces the too-big-to-fail problem, he said, since yield-seeking ETH moves to riskier custodial venues.

    De Tychey addressed that line of attack pre-emptively. “Nobody needs to protect solo stakers from this EIP,” he wrote, arguing they need protecting from a curve that raises dilution indefinitely with no off-switch.

    Consensus issuance accounts for at least 93% of staking yield today, according to the proposal, which remains subject to the EIP inclusion process.

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  • Disney Streaming Profit Doubles in June Quarter, Company Shifting Consumer Products to Studios Division

    Disney Streaming Profit Doubles in June Quarter, Company Shifting Consumer Products to Studios Division

    Disney posted mixed results for the June 2026 quarter, as Disney+ and Hulu continued to boost profits and the theme parks division turning in solid performance. And Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro revealed his latest move to restructure the media conglomerate’s operations: He’s moving most of consumer products out of Disney Experiences and into the entertainment unit.

    In a letter to shareholders accompanying the earnings results Wednesday, Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro said that starting in the first quarter of fiscal 2027 (which runs October-December 2026) Disney will be moving “much” of its consumer products business results from the experiences segment to the entertainment segment. That means that sales for merchandise for “Avengers: Doomsday,” for example, would fall under entertainment revenue and put the bulk of the consumer products biz under Disney Entertainment’s studios group. The consumer products business accounted for $1.1 billion in revenue this quarter, the strongest year-over-year growth in five years.

    “We believe this shift will have strategic and operational benefits by bringing the monetization of our IP through consumer products closer to the studios that create that IP,” D’Amaro, who previously ran Disney Experiences before stepping into the CEO job in March, wrote in the letter to shareholders. “Additionally, we believe this presentation will better reflect the returns our Entertainment segment is generating from the content it produces and make our Entertainment segment more comparable to peer reporting methodologies.”

    On the streaming front, revenue from Disney+ and Hulu was up 11% for the April-June quarter, to $5.53 billion — and operating income in the entertainment streaming segment more than doubled, to $712 million, compared with $329 million in the year-earlier period. Disney said overall streaming subscription revenue was up 15%, to $4.7 billion, and ad sales increased 3%. The company no longer discloses total subscriber figures on a quarterly basis.

    In the letter, D’Amaro also outlined some AI developments at the company, including the Parks division’s recently implemented large-scale use of Disney’s proprietary AI tool, J.A.R.V.I.S.

    “We made our J.A.R.V.I.S. AI tool available to our more than 2,000 Imagineers earlier this year, giving them instant access to over 70 years of institutional knowledge,” D’Amaro wrote. “We’re using AI-powered digital twins and simulation tools to design and stress-test new attractions, including leveraging these tools for the Abu Dhabi park. And we’re applying AI to simplify the booking and planning journey for our guests, while equipping our cast members with AI-assisted tools to better serve guests in the moment.”

    Disney continued to tout the blockbuster success of “Toy Story 5” in the latest quarterly earnings results, revealing the film’s release has also led to the franchise as a whole reaching more than 2 billion hours streamed on Disney+ and record consumer products sales.

    Overall, Disney reported net income of $2.63 billion on $25.2 billion in revenue, with adjusted EPS of $2.06 (up from $1.51 with the exclusion of income tax and one-time impairment and severance charges) for the quarter ended June 27. Revenue was up 7% year over year while net income increased 28% (without those favorable exclusion, income was down 48%) for the period, which is Disney’s Q3 of fiscal 2027. Wall Street analysts on average forecast earnings per share (EPS) of $1.85 on $25.4 billion in revenue for the three months ended June 30 (Disney’s Q3 of fiscal 2026), according to data provider LSEG.

    Total segment operating income was up 21% to $5.6 billion. Free cash flow came in at $3.1 billion.

    Following recent layoffs, D’Amaro noted that Disney remains “highly focused on reducing costs across the enterprise to create incremental capacity to invest for growth and are evaluating a variety of levers, including reductions in labor and SG&A.” The CEO says the company is “mid-stream in this work” and “will provide future updates on our progress.”

    Previously, Disney had set an $8 billion goal for share repurchases in fiscal 2026, which ends in September. With the confirmation of the sale of Disney’s 50% stake in A+E Global Media to an affiliate of co-owner Hearst, Disney said it will use the approximately $1.2 billion in cash from the sale to increase its total share repurchases for the year to at least $9 billion.

    Disney took a $812 million impairment charge during the quarter due to its investment in A+E. Severance costs for the quarter were $88 million.

    Overall, Disney’s entertainment segment (which includes film and TV studios and networks as well as the streaming business) revenue was up 6% to $11.3 billion for the quarter. The division continued to receive a boost from the acquisition of a large stake in Fubo last fall, which it combined with the Hulu live TV business. The addition of Fubo contributed a 4% lift in subscription and affiliate fees revenue, which was up a total of 12%.

    Ad sales for the entertainment division were down 1% on lower rates. Content sales decreased 6% due to a decrease in TV/video-on-demand and home entertainment distribution sales.

    On the movie front, Disney praised “Toy Story 5” for surpassing $1 billion in global box office, bringing the franchise’s lifetime global box office to more than $4 billion, while downplaying recent releases “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” and the live-action “Moana” movie, both of which “underperformed our box office expectations,” Disney said.

    ESPN revenue for the quarter was up 4% to $4.5 billion. Ad sales increased 5% on higher impressions. Operating income declined 17% to $858 million, a larger drop than the 14% that Disney previously estimated due to a double-digit percentage increase in programming expenses, including the timing of new rights agreements, on the close of the NFL Network deal. “Contributing to the lower-than-expected operating income were four-game sweeps in early rounds of the NBA Playoffs and the impact of a network carriage dispute,” Disney said.

    Disney Experiences, which currently houses theme parks, cruises and consumer products, saw June quarter revenue of $10 billion (up 10%) and operating income of $3 billion (up 20%).

    Attendance at Disney domestic parks grew 3% from April-June. Disney World in particular experiencing a “stand-out quarter, with healthy core attendance increases from domestic tourists and annual passholders, and effective summer promotions and new experiences that further supplemented growth,” though Disney notes it has “continued to face headwinds from international attendance at our domestic parks.”

    For the July-September quarter, the company expects total segment operating income of approximately $4.9 billion, with the inclusion of financial results from a 53rd week of operations.

    “Our strong fiscal Q3 results and reiterated full-year outlook reinforce our confidence that we are uniquely well positioned,” D’Amaro said in the letter to shareholders. “Decades of IP investment have built deep fan connections that translate into strong financial results. Our accelerating global guests growth at Experiences, ‘Toy Story 5’s’ theatrical and consumer products success, and strong ESPN viewership gains all helped expand our consumer reach this quarter. Together, our results show a unique ability to engage consumers at scale, both digitally and physically, even amid macro uncertainty.”

    Also Wednesday, Disney struck a content deal with TikTok that will let the app’s creators (initially in the U.S.) make shorts tied to characters and stories from Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, FX and other properties. The resulting creator videos will be available on both TikTok and on Disney+ in the form of “Verts,” the company’s vertical video format.

  • Prateek Kuhad to Make Feature Film Acting Debut in Marginal MediaWorks, D36 and Jugaad’s ‘Drowning,’ Directed by Dar Gai (EXCLUSIVE)

    Prateek Kuhad to Make Feature Film Acting Debut in Marginal MediaWorks, D36 and Jugaad’s ‘Drowning,’ Directed by Dar Gai (EXCLUSIVE)

    Prateek Kuhad, the Indian singer-songwriter known for hits including “Cold/Mess” and “Kasoor,” will make his feature film acting debut in “Drowning” (“Doobna” in Hindi/Urdu), Marginal MediaWorks has revealed.

    Directed by Dar Gai and shot on location in New Delhi, the film marks Marginal’s first fiction feature produced in South Asia, in partnership with Los Angeles-based label D36 and Mumbai-based Jugaad Motion Pictures.

    Kuhad plays Tarush, an indie musician in Delhi who lands one breakout hit and then can’t escape the grip of a criminal record label boss. Marginal founder and CEO Sanjay M. Sharma is producing with the company’s head of film, Milan Chakraborty, D36 co-founder and CEO Abhi Kanakadandila, and Jugaad co-founders Dheer Momaya and Gai, from a story the group developed jointly.

    “The film is like if the Safdie brothers mixed John Carney’s ‘Once’ and Lars von Trier’s ‘Dancer in the Dark’ in the blender that is the contemporary music scene in Delhi,” Sharma said.

    For Kuhad, the project grew out of an earlier collaboration with Gai, who directed the video for his song “Cold/Mess.” “Ever since Dar directed the video for ‘Cold/Mess’ I hoped we would find more ways to work together,” Kuhad said. “So when Abhi and Sanjay brought the idea for a film inspired by my song ‘Drown,’ I was immediately intrigued.”

    Kuhad’s “Cold/Mess” reached No. 1 on Spotify India and was featured on former U.S. President Barack Obama’s year-end playlist; the Gai-directed video was later named Rolling Stone’s Music Video of the Year. His third album, “Full Moon Chamber,” arrived July 10 via Atlantic Records, following a run of sold-out headline tours across North America, Europe, the U.K., Asia and the Middle East. He is repped by CAA and Big Bad Wolf India, with Everyday Rebellion handling worldwide management.

    Gai’s credits include “Three and a Half,” which streams on Netflix worldwide after a stellar festival run; her second film, “Namdev Bhau: In Search of Silence,” played at Busan, BFI London and Palm Springs. Jugaad’s “Last Film Show” was shortlisted for the international feature Oscar. “With Doobna, I wanted to make a film that feels like life right now: real, funny, tragic, chaotic, and impossible to escape, impossible to press a reset button,” said Gai, a Ukrainian native long based in Mumbai.

    Kanakadandila, whose D36 roster spans South Asian-descent artists in the U.S., U.K., India and Pakistan, framed the film as a response to a gap he sees in how the region’s music culture reaches screen. “India has a singular relationship between music and cinema, but there’s a fundamental mismatch between the spirit of the contemporary scene and the format of traditional Bollywood,” he said.

    The film is the anchor of a South Asia-focused push within Marginal’s broader international slate, which also includes projects in Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Europe and Canada. “This is a trillion dollar market, two billion people, more English speakers than the United States itself, and the fastest growing, digitally connected, and largest youth population in the world,” Sharma said. “Just as we’ve seen Korean culture, food, fashion, music and cinema resonate around the world, a similar wave is coming from South Asia.”

    Marginal has produced more than a dozen features in just over five years, including Tribeca 2025 Audience Award runner-up “The Rose: Come Back to Me,” Tribeca Jury Prize winner “Cypher,” and the recently released horror title “Camp.”

  • ‘Ted Lasso’ Makes Long-Awaited Return: When and Where to Watch Season 4 Online

    ‘Ted Lasso’ Makes Long-Awaited Return: When and Where to Watch Season 4 Online

    If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter may receive an affiliate commission.

    In May 2023, Ted Lasso aired its season three finale, titled “So Long, Farewell,” marking what was supposed to be the series’ culmination. Cut to August 2026: The Jason Sudeikis-led comedy-drama is back for its fourth season. The 10-episode season premieres Aug. 5 on Apple TV, with remaining episodes dropping weekly on Wednesdays. Following a seven-day free trial for new subscribers, Apple TV is $12.99 per month. Apple TV is also home to seasons one, two and three.

    For a larger streaming library, customers can opt to bundle and save over 30 percent with the Apple TV and Peacock bundle deal, which comes out to $14.99 per month for the Apple TV and Peacock Premium package, and $19.99 per month for the Apple TV and Peacock Premium Plus package.

    At a Glance: How to Watch Ted Lasso Season Four

    Ted Lasso A.F.C. Richmond Crest Crew Neck Sweatshirt

    official merch

    Ted Lasso A.F.C. Richmond Crest Crew Neck Sweatshirt

    Part of the official Ted Lasso collection.

    When and Where to Watch Ted Lasso Season Four Online: Premiere Date, Air Time

    While the new season of Ted Lasso technically premieres on Wednesday, Aug. 5, Apple TV has been known to drop shows as early as 6 p.m. PT/ 9 p.m. ET the night prior (Tuesday, Aug. 4, in this case). The remaining nine episodes in season four will drop weekly on Wednesdays, leading up to the Oct. 7 finale.

    Apple TV Free Trial, Streaming Deals

    Apple TV comes out to $12.99 per month following a seven-day free trial period. This means new subscribers can binge seasons one through three (available on-demand) and catch the latest episode of season four at no cost.

    In addition to other hit shows like Severance and The Morning Show, Apple TV is home to live sports coverage including Friday Night Baseball, Major League Soccer and, thanks to a five-year streaming deal that kicked off for its 2026 season, Formula 1.

    Deal-savvy streamers can take advantage of the Apple TV and Peacock bundle deal and save over 30 percent. The bundle comes out to $14.99 per month for the Apple TV and Peacock Premium package, and $19.99 per month for the Apple TV and Peacock Premium Plus package.

    Apple TV is also available as a premium add-on to DirecTV’s TV streaming packages. And while DirecTV offers a five-day free trial for new users, it’s important to note that Apple TV will not kick in until that free trial has ended.

    Shop Ted Lasso Merch

    Ahead of the new season, Warner Bros. Discovery’s official online store, the WB Store, dropped a slew of new Ted Lasso merch. Amazon also has an assortment of Ted Lasso Funko Pop! collectibles.

    Ted Lasso Track Jacket A.F.C. Richmond

    official merch

    Ted Lasso Track Jacket A.F.C. Richmond

    Unisex sizes 2XS-6XL.

  • Police Respond to Perez Hilton’s Miami Home After He Appeared to Harm Himself on Livestream

    Police Respond to Perez Hilton’s Miami Home After He Appeared to Harm Himself on Livestream

    Police reportedly responded to Perez Hilton‘s home in Miami after the celebrity gossip blogger appeared to be harming himself on a livestream.

    In graphic clips reposted on social media, Hilton, appearing manic, could be seen in the livestream covered in blood, using an object to cut himself repeatedly.

    The Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office told Newsweek in a statement that deputies responded to Hilton’s home after the office received “multiple calls” about a person livestreaming acts of self-harm. After authorities confirmed Hilton was alone inside the home and spoke with family members at the scene, deputies decided to “tactically disengage while continuing to monitor the situation.”

    “In many incidents involving a person experiencing a mental health crisis or actively harming themselves, deputies prioritize de-escalation by creating time, distance, and opportunities for communication,” the statement continued. “Unless there is an immediate threat to others, slowing the situation and utilizing crisis intervention techniques can reduce the likelihood of a suicide-by-cop encounter and minimize the risk of injury to the individual, deputies, and the public.”

    Local news station NBC6, which had reporters at the scene, later reported that a man, believed to be Hilton, was seen being taken away in an ambulance.

    The Hollywood Reporter has also reached out to the Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office for comment on the incident involving Hilton, in addition to his personal rep.

    Earlier this year, Hilton shared in a lengthy Instagram video that he was hospitalized for three weeks after initially battling the flu before developing “an ulcer, and then a perforation, and then Sepsis,” he said at the time.

    “The Sepsis just kept working and my body kept falling apart,” Hilton explained in the video in March. “Then one night with rapid response came ’cause my heart got out of control. They had to put me on heart medications. And then I developed another infection in the hospital.”

    He added, “It was just such a slow process. I mean, two weeks of just sickness and then another week of getting better before I was released. And that last week was hell because I had already been in the hospital two weeks by then. I was like, ‘I just wanna go home. I just want to be with my babies.’” Perez is a single father of three children.

    Once he was released from the hospital and sent back home, Hilton said he had time to reflect and came to the realization “that God presented Himself to me” during the challenging experience.

    “It was real and this has been life-changing. I’m so grateful,” he added at the time. “I’m excited to start taking the kids to church every week. And to just know that God is real. … I don’t have to hope to believe. I know now.”

  • ESPN Taps Creators to Help Promote the NFL Season and its First Super Bowl Telecast

    ESPN Taps Creators to Help Promote the NFL Season and its First Super Bowl Telecast

    ESPN has lined up its fourth annual “Creator Network” of digital stars who will fan out across the country to promote the 2026 NFL season that is set to culminate with the Super Bowl airing on ESPN for the first time.

    The five members of the cohort for this year are, as described by ESPN:

    Chase Murman (@theQBplug) TikTok | Instagram | YouTube — Founder of The QB Plug, one of social media’s fastest-growing football brands, known for original quarterback storytelling and athlete-first content that has helped redefine how the next generation consumes football.

    Isaac Rochell TikTok | Instagram | YouTube — Former NFL defensive lineman, sports media personality, and creator who combines an authentic player’s perspective with relatable storytelling around sports, fatherhood, and life beyond football.

    Simone Scott TikTok | Instagram — Sports creator, host, and reporter who makes football, basketball, and other sports approachable through clear, engaging content that helps fans better understand the games and storylines driving the conversation.

    Diana Flores TikTok | Instagram — Captain and quarterback of Mexico’s World Champion National Flag Football Team, global ambassador for the sport, and bilingual creator helping grow flag football’s reach ahead of its Olympic debut at LA28.

    Leah Cammarano TikTok — Sports analytics creator and former Carolina Panthers Football Analytics intern who makes advanced football data accessible through engaging, easy-to-understand storytelling.

    “This is a major moment in ESPN’s history, and we have an incredible opportunity to tell that story in new and authentic ways,” said Kaitee Daley, ESPN’s senior VP digital, social and streaming content. “Partnering with creators who have built passionate communities through their distinctive voices and storytelling styles will help bring fans closer to the people, culture and highlights that will define the road to ESPN’s first Super Bowl.”

    ESPN first established its Creator Network in 2022 as the cable giant sought to embrace new forms of content and promotion for its game coverage and studio shows. The 2026 group will be given broad access to attend college football games, NFL events including the upcoming Super Bowl set for Feb. 14 at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium. ESPN and ABC will share the rights to the big game, marking the return of pro football to ABC’s air, some 20 years after the “Monday Night Football” franchise shifted from ABC to ESPN.

    ESPN is one of many blue-chip media brands that have worked to harness the power of buzzy creators to produce social media and video content. In the sports context, NBCUniversal brought influencers and creators to help drive conversation around the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy. In February, the NBA enlisted more than 200 creators to help promote the NBA All-Star Game and All-Star Week events in Los Angeles.

    ESPN’s Creator Network is supported by Blue Hour Studios, a social media-focused brand and media strategy agency based in New York.

  • What David Ellison Is Really Up to

    What David Ellison Is Really Up to

    At first it just seemed like a happy coincidence — a Hollywood agency mogul supporting a Hollywood corporate merger. Ari Emanuel published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal last Tuesday saying David Ellison buying Warner Bros. was a good idea and that those 12 Democratic AG’s who have sued to stop the deal were on the wrong warpath. 

    “The attorneys general should drop this case and get back to enforcing the laws as they are written,” the WME chief wrote, as he extolled a Paramount-WB tie-up and said it would be good for the business. 

    Sure, Ellison had committed last year to pay Emanuel’s TKO $7.7 billion to broadcast UFC fights, a fact he conveniently neglected to mention. And the timing certainly benefited Ellison — earnings were coming, a time when Wall Street would be paying close attention and could express its worry financially about a deal falling through. But still, just a nice little stocking-stuffer under the mogul’s tree.

    Over the past week, however, the support has started to look a lot less like passive presents and a lot more like an active strategy. That strategy? Make it seem like a lot of Democrat-approved personalities have no problem with the merger, isolating Rob Bonta, Tish James and the rest of the dozen AGs suing to block the deal as a bunch of regulatory crazies. Never mind that these are some of the country’s most decorated legal enforcers, with many decades of experience, from places as different as Arizona and Massachusetts. 

    The maneuvers unfolded like a stunt pilot’s careful course-plotting. A few days after the Emanuel op-ed came an anonymously sourced story Friday in the Journal about how one of the preeminent national Democratic leaders, California governor Gavin Newsom, was behind the deal foursquare, according to “people close to the suit.” “Newsom’s office has encouraged Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office, which has independent authority to file such suits, to find a resolution out of court,” the paper said. 

    Never mind that Newsom has a long history of deferring to giant corporations (remember his 11th-hour pro-Big Tech capitulation on Scott Wiener’s AI bill in 2024?) — this merger was going to create jobs! (“State employment would suffer” without a deal, the paper said Newsom has told colleagues, never mind that no credible economist has supplied such evidence.) Another happy coincidence. Or, given that the paper was pointedly not citing sources close to Newsom, perhaps part of an Ellison-led strategy.

    Then today, an op-ed of Ellison’s own in a redoubt of mainstream liberalism, The New York Times. He trotted out all the usual arguments for mergers these days, and against his own naysayers — if we don’t do this the tech companies win, movie theaters should survive, Hollywood should be employed. “What I can promise is the work, and more of it,” he wrote, using the noun four times, which is four times more than he used the noun Donald Trump. (Los Angeles County has determined that determined that the merger will likely lead to less work.)

    Meanwhile, Ari has been hitting the hustings, appearing on CNBC Tuesday morning to rattle off a series of Ellison talking points and praising the mogul. “This is a guy who said ‘hey I’m going to make 30 movies a year, 45-day release,” Emanuel said. “He’s gonna spend he says 30 billion in content a year. We need that for the economy of Hollywood.” The comments wouldn’t have been out of place on the Paramount investor earnings-call Tuesday, where executives touted all these numbers and used words like “pro-competitive” to describe the deal. If there’s one thing we know about capitalism, it’s that combining  two major companies leads to more competition.

    These media hits that aimed to buck the headwinds even involved a literal plane —  the day Bonta and the AGs were suing, Ellison jetted to Washington to lobby for a federal tax credit, a news stunt meant as much to lobby support among Hollywood as to win over legislators. One story the move overshadowed that week: ProPublica’s bombshell report that Paramount allegedly provided gifts to FCC commissioners reviewing the deal.

    More of these pieces and columns are no doubt coming. More foot soldiers arguing for the value to the business, or the First Amendment. Never mind that the WGA — those fierce opponents of free expression! — have just sued to stop the  deal. Doesn’t the world’s richest family have the right to own CNN? Isn’t that enshrined in the Constitution?

    It’s a shrewd flyer, and you need to give Ellison’s team credit for landing it so effectively.

    You also hardly need an advanced radar beacon to see what’s happening. Having courted MAGA and Donald Trump to get the deal federal approval — how many Kennedy Center boxes and UFC ringside seats can one centibillionaire’s son fill? — Ellison is now pivoting to work on Dems to take care of the state challenge.

    Not regulatory-minded Dems, as that group, from Elizabeth Warren to Cory Booker to Adam Schiff, have all been fiercely critical of the deal and asked hard questions about combining the country’s third and fourth biggest pure-play entertainment companies. Not these decorated and often landslide-winning AGs.

    But if you get enough people like Newsom and the Kamala-donating Ari on your side, maybe people won’t notice all the Democrats who aren’t. Or enough of their consistuents will lose interest, causing AGs to do the same.

    Maybe people will magically forget that no fewer than 1,000 creatives, from  Bryan Cranston to J.J. Abrams to Glenn Close to Lin-Manuel Miranda, all signed a letter this spring opposing the deal, noting how a merger “would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries—and the audiences we serve—can least afford it” and lead to “fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world.” But an agent told me it was good for creativity?

    There’s a reason Paramount needs the deal to happen. Warner Bros. Discovery turned in a profit of $1.2 billion this past quarter once you strip out all the money they have to pay as part of the acquisition. That’s a lot of profit for a company like Paramount, which revealed Tuesday that in the same quarter it netted $41 million.

    And there’s a reason Paramount needs the deal to happen soon. Starting Oct. 1, Paramount must pay Warners shareholders $7 million every day until the deal closes. By the second week, they’ll have wiped out all the measly profits they earned this quarter. By the spring, they’ll have wiped out the profits of the company they’re buying. One can’t imagine a lot of joy on Melrose, then, when the word came down Tuesday that the trial won’t start until March.

    Also, the deal is partly bankrolled by Larry Ellison and his significant AI investments. And can that boom go on forever?

    The reality is the AGs may not just have the law on their side — they have the leverage. And with every week that passes they have more of it. Could they extract a major settlement — possibly even carving out CNN? Don’t rule it out, no matter how many UFC fights Ellison attends with the president.

    “Winning comes down to having the best stories,” Paramount CFO Dennis Cinelli told investors on the earnings call Tuesday. Ellison and his allies will keep telling them. That doesn’t mean it will result in victory.