Category: Entertainment

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have won awards separately and together — most notably an Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting — and they will reunite to pick up another honor next week in honor of Robin Williams.

The pair starred opposite the late legend in Gus Van Sant’s 1997 film, which also earned Williams an Academy Award for best supporting actor. And they will be making the trek up to San Francisco to receive the 9th Robin Williams Legacy of Laughter Award presented to them by Glenn Close‘s nonprofit, Bring Change to Mind, at the organization’s Revels & Revelations Celebration. The fundraiser is set to take place at the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture on April 27.

Setting the stage for a special night, Affleck and Damon will be presented with their Robin Williams Legacy of Laughter Award by Robin’s children, Zak, Zelda and Cody Williams. It’s an honor designed to recognize “their impact and the power of storytelling and connection to spark real change.”

Affleck and Damon also released a joint statement to The Hollywood Reporter about the news and their friend. “Robin wasn’t just someone we admired. He made our dreams come true. We owe everything to him. He said yes to our movie and we got it made. Receiving the Legacy of Laughter Award, created in honor of Robin Williams, is incredibly meaningful to us. His legacy isn’t just about his talent and how much he made the world laugh — it’s about how deeply he cared. This honor carries his spirit, and that means everything to us,” the duo said.

The event, a milestone moment for Bring Change to Mind as it celebrates 15 years of impact and a decade steering student programming, will also fete philanthropist Pam Baer with a Champion of Change Award to acknowledge her leadership in advancing mental health awareness. The event, supported by lead sponsor American Eagle Foundation, is also supported by individual, foundation and corporate donations. Per official details, it’s already sold out.

Founded by Close in 2010, BC2M is a national organization dedicated to ending the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness by working with leading scientists to make a difference in the lives of teens and adults. The cause is personal for Close as her sister, Jessie, lives with bipolar disorder and her nephew, Calen, lives with schizoaffective disorder. The Revels & Revelations Celebration was mounted as a “powerful night of storytelling, celebration and impact” by bringing together advocates, partners and community members under a shared mission of making sure that every young person feels “seen, supported and empowered” to talk openly about mental health.

Williams died by suicide at age 63 on Aug. 11, 2014. His work with the pair on Good Will Hunting left a lasting impact.

“It was the very first day of shooting and Ben and I went to the set. We weren’t working that day and we just saw them rehearse and we were kind of sitting off to the side of the camera,” Damon previously told E! “By the time they said, ‘Action,’ tears were just falling down my face. I couldn’t believe it. I was just looking at Robin start to speak and say these words that Ben and I had just worked on for five years.”

He continued: “After the scene ended, [Robin] came over to us and he saw us. He put his hand on our head and just said, you know, ‘It’s not a fluke. You guys really did this. You really did it.’”

After his passing, they both offered tributes. “Thanks chief — for your friendship and for what you gave the world,” Affleck shared on social media at the time. “Robin brought so much joy into my life and I will carry that joy with me forever,” Damon said in a statement. “He was such a beautiful man. I was lucky to know him and I will never, ever forget him.”

Prior recipients of the Robin Williams Legacy of Laughter Award include Amy Poehler and Ryan Reynolds. Affleck and Damon most recently teamed on The Rip for Netflix. Damon next toplines Christopher Nolan’s star-packed The Odyssey.

U.S. film and TV production in Canada rebounded in 2025 as the local industry finally put the devastating impact of Hollywood’s year of strikes in 2023 in the rearview mirror.

The latest annual economic report from the Canadian Media Producers Association, representing local indie producers, points to foreign location and service production in Canada, mostly by American producers, rising 9.5 percent to CAN$5.32 billion (US$3.9 billion, compared to a year-earlier CAN$4.86 billion.

That production activity includes visual effects work done by Canadian VFX studios for foreign films and TV series. Hollywood production growth was due mainly to TV series production rising 12.1 percent to CAN$3.42 billion (US$2.51 million) and the total volume of other foreign production – including TV movies, specials, pilots and single-episode shoots — increasing by 54.4 percent to CAN$366 million (US$268.2 million).

The overall increase in Hollywood TV production last year offset a 2.2 percent fall in foreign movie production across Canada. The major American players active north of the U.S. border continues to be led by Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV+ as they center around production hubs in Toronto and Vancouver.

The big U.S. series to shoot in Canada last year included IT: Welcome to Derry, The Last of Us, Doc and Happy Face, while big budget movies to shoot in Canada included Frankenstein, Tron: Ares and Final Destination: Bloodlines.

Last year’s foreign production rebound was down, however, from the record CAN$6.62 billion in budgetary spending reached in 2023, just before the impact of the Hollywood actors and writers strike was felt by the Canadian industry as local soundstages went dark and production crews were left idle.

The Hollywood industry consolidation and the end of the Peak TV era is also working to reduce American production levels. U.S. film and TV production accounted for 398 projects in Canada last year, or 87 percent of overall foreign location shooting north of the U.S. border, with much of that concentrated in Ontario and British Columbia.

That compares to in all 425 U.S. film and TV series projects shot in Canada in 2024, which represented 86 percent of overall foreign production activity. The rebound in American production last year offset a 2.2 percent fall in local homegrown film and TV series production to $3.62 billion (US$2.65 billion), according to the CMPA report.

The overall volume of production in Canada rose last year by 4.6 percent to CAN$10.17 billion (US$7.54 billion, but that was 15.8 percent down on the peak of CAN$12.07 billion reached in 2023.

Mick Betancourt, a veteran writer, producer and showrunner with a long list of credits on crime dramas and action series like the newest seasons of the Alan Ritchson-starrer Reacher, witnessed a violent crime happening in real time on New York City’s Lower East Side as if it were ripped straight from one of his scripts.

Rather than sit idly by to see how it played out from afar, he sprang into action to chase down the suspect who — spoiler alert! — ended up in handcuffs by the time the harrowing incident was over. But not before Betancourt bolted approximately half a mile (or more) as he pursued the suspect over 15 minutes, a scene that had its own ebbs and flows and ended in time for Betancourt to make early dinner reservations with his wife.

“I grew up in a chaotic and violent area and with some violence in my own house and this felt a time when I could do something about it, though I don’t know if any of the Brown or Harvard guys I’ve worked with are chasing guys down like this,” said the native of Chicago, whose resume includes work as a showrunner, writer, executive producer, director and actor. “I also don’t know what the gods have in store for me now so this might’ve been my last hurrah.”

It started late afternoon on Friday, April 10, when Betancourt and his wife were standing near their hotel, Nine Orchard, near Canal Street, and he witnessed a man sprinting past them. “I spotted a bottle of alcohol in the sprinter’s left hand, a short, stocky bottle, like Don Julio. I turned to my wife and said, ‘The shit’s about to hit the fan,’” per details Betancourt laid out in a new Substack post published on Sunday titled “To chase or not to chase, that is the question.”

Moments later, Betancourt, who turned 52 in recent days, spotted a man in his mid-50s, someone he presumed to be the owner of a nearby store where the alleged robbery took place, running after the suspect. He caught up to him and a scuffle ensued, all of which Betancourt witnessed.

“As they wrestled, I looked around and nobody was helping. Nobody jumped in — including me,” Betancourt writes, adding that he pondered the worst possible outcomes were he to get involved. “In a flash, during the standing wrestling match, the robber got a hold of one of the store owner’s legs, lifted it up, effectively whiplashing the owner from a standing position, to slamming his head into the concrete. That THUMP is an unforgettable sound. The whole block, which had been watching, gasped, said ‘Oh fuck’ or screamed. The shop owner’s body went limp, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his arms flopped out to his sides like he was crucified.”

Betancourt assumed the store owner was dead based on body language. He made a split-second decision to take action. “I didn’t want to go back to the scene and see them pulling a sheet over the guy or running caution tape around him and think I could’ve done something in that moment,” he said. So when the suspect took off running, Betancourt “gave chase” by kicking it into high gear.

He laid out the extensive and tense scene in detail, and he sprinted after the man across several New York City blocks. “God cursed me with little alligator legs, but in a cruel twist of fate and irony, he made those hairy little fuckers fast as lightning,” wrote Betancourt.

At one point, he caught up to him and screamed, “Get on the ground now!” The serious direction gave the man pause and he did slow down long enough for the men to exchange words. The suspect also seemed sure that the man was fatally injured, as he told Betancourt that his actions were in self-defense. Betancourt, who is sober and in recovery for more than two decades, tried to reason with the man as he believed he might be in the throes of addiction.

Their exchange was brief as the man wouldn’t give up and he got away again. But Betancourt wouldn’t give up. He sprinted after him again, and when he lost his whereabouts momentarily, he sought the help of two elderly women who weren’t overly helpful in pointing out the right direction. In a twist of fate, Betancourt then ran past Housing Authority police officers who assisted in the effort and eventually called for backup from the New York Police Department.

Betancourt recalled that four NYPD cars arrived on scene, one carrying the store owner, who was alive, alert and came to identify the alleged thief while pressing a bag of ice on his head. “I couldn’t believe it. I really thought he was dead,” wrote Betancourt, who was able to then give an official statement and eventually reunite with his wife, who was still outside the hotel. “When I got back to the hotel, a woman who worked there, who saw the whole thing begin, called me a hero. No, I thought, I was a coward who decided to do something about it.”

The Hollywood Reporter verified the incident with the NYPD. A spokesperson in the office of the deputy commissioner for public Information confirmed that 35-year-old Iysa Muhammad was arrested and charged with third-degree robbery and second-degree assault after allegedly stealing two bottles of liquor from a store on Grand Street. The 37-year-old man, who was injured in the alleged assault, was transported to NYC Health and Hospitals/Bellevue in stable condition. The investigation is ongoing.

As for Betancourt, his legs were gassed and it took a few hours to decompress, but he’s now back home and back at work on the upcoming season five of Reacher as a writer and executive producer. He worked on season four, which is expected to debut sometime in 2026. He also worked on the Amazon Prime Video spin-off series, Neagley, focused on Frances Neagley, played by Maria Sten. Betancourt’s other credits include The Purge, Shots Fired, Wicked City, Chicago P.D., Chicago Fire, Ironside, Necessary Roughness, The Mob Doctor, Detroit 1-8-7 and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

When he’s back on set, he’ll have something to talk to Ritchson about after the in-demand star recently had his own wild real-life encounter near his Tennessee home that also looked like it could’ve been ripped from one of his episodes.

Zayn Malik has canceled his upcoming appearances, including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, as he recovers from an undisclosed medical condition.

On Friday, the singer posted a photo on Instagram of himself lying in a hospital bed, wearing a hospital gown with tubes attached to his body.

“To my fans – Thank you to all of you for your love & support now & always- been a long week and am still unexpectedly recovering,” he captioned the photo. “Heartbroken that I can’t see you all this week, I wouldn’t be in the place I am today without you guys and am so thankful for your understanding. Thank you to the incredible hospital staff of Drs, nurses, cardiologist, management, admin and everyone who has helped along the way and continue to. You are all legends! Big big love xx z.”

On Monday, People reported that Malik had pulled out of upcoming promotional appearances surrounding his new album, Konnakol, as he continues to recover.

Earlier this month, he was booked as a guest on Tuesday’s edition of The Tonight Show. But updated listings for Tuesday’s episode show that he’s no longer scheduled to appear.

Tuesday’s guests were originally planned to include Malik as the night’s musical guest, along with Nikki Glaser and Ella Stiller. The updated listing now features Glaser, Stiller, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and comedian Isabel Hagen as the night’s scheduled guests.

Sources also suggested to People that Malik will be pulling out of other planned promotional appearances, including fan meet-and-greets. 

It’s still unclear what Malik is being treated for but People cited a source saying the former One Direction singer is seeking medical treatment from the “No. 1 cardiologist in the world.” 

The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to a rep for Malik for comment.

It’s been over two months since Casey Wasserman made the surprise move under pressure to put his namesake company up for auction after facing an artist exodus when his decades-old emails with Ghislaine Maxwell surfaced in the Department of Justice’s Jeffrey Epstein documents.

Since that time, potential suitors have been gaming out a few questions, namely: Is this a fire sale? Is Wasserman willing to break up his sprawling firm into pieces? Is there an appetite to buy the company whole — or just pick off clients in each division? And is Wasserman serious about a sale or is this the equivalent of a homeowner putting a beloved property on the market at way too high of a listing price in the hopes of chasing off all but the highest bidders?

On Monday, the first round of bids were submitted to investment bank Moelis & Co, which is handling the auction process. (Ken Moelis, who runs the firm, sits on the Wasserman’s LA28 Olympics Committee board and had advised on the mogul’s major acquisition of Brillstein Entertainment Partners in 2023).

Among suitors: Big 3 Hollywood talent giant United Talent Agency has submitted a non-binding bid to move along in the auction process. The agency, now run by David Kramer, has been in growth mode since a fund operated by the private equity firm EQT Partners became the largest outside investor in the Beverly Hills-based company in 2022. (One wrinkle with UTA’s bid, it likely couldn’t or wouldn’t acquire Brillstein from Wasserman due to a conflict of interest deal with the Writers Guild regarding agency ownership of production entities.)

A perhaps dark horse suitor is WME mogul Patrick Whitesell’s upstart firm WTSL, which he founded along with ex-Endeavor exec Jason Lublin last year. That representation company had launched with a football talent agency titled WIN Sports Group. In his bid for Wasserman assets, Whitesell has not yet partnered with an additional financial backer but is in active talks regarding funding if WTSL chooses to proceed with its overture.

The private equity crowd also seems eager for opportunities to jump in to the space. Goldman Sachs’ major deal in November 2025 for Excel Sports Management kickstarted interest given that the investment bank hadn’t backed a representation business previously.

Among agencies that did not submit bids: WME Group and Creative Artists Agency, the two other major Hollywood representation giants. A Wasserman rep declined to comment on prospective suitors. The New York Times earlier reported that UTA and WTSL were planning to submit bids.

In addition to its core sports representation division — which has rolled up countless boutique shingles since the company was founded in 2002 — Wasserman comprises a notable music agency group built from its 2021 acquisition of Paradigm’s music division, a major production-management firm in Brillstein and a marketing services unit.

One other question may be how easily his businesses may be untangled if the company is sold in pieces. When Wasserman made his blockbuster deal to acquire Brillstein in 2023 he told The Hollywood Reporter that the company wouldn’t continue operating as a standalone silo. “It will still operate in the public domain as Brillstein but we don’t operate our businesses separately,” Wasserman said at the time. “We’re one company and one culture working together on behalf of and for and with our clients.”

While more than 20 performing artists peeled off from Wasserman during the February scandal — including Laufey, Chappell Roan, Best Coast and John Summit — only U.S. soccer star Abby Wambach from the sports unit publicly posted that she was parting ways with her reps. The company formally rebranded from Wasserman to distance itself from its founder, talking the name The Team in March.

Wasserman’s sports unit is likely a crown jewel given it’s seen as the second-largest in the industry after market leader CAA. The division generated $266 million in revenue in 2024, 29 percent of the company’s total revenue, an S&P Global report from June of last year detailed. CAA’s sports division generated $578 million that year.

At the table along with Wasserman to navigate the sale decision is Providence Equity Partners, which took a notable stake in Wasserman in November 2022 to fuel growth at the company. Providence was founded by Jonathan Nelson, who is also on the board of directors of the Chernin Group. The private equity firm took the place of two investors, RedBird Capital and Madrone Capital, which took ownership stakes in pro teams — football club AC Milan and the NFL’s Denver Broncos — and as such couldn’t own a stake in a sports talent representation firm like Wasserman. In February at the height of the artist exodus on social media, a rep for Providence said the firm was “fully committed” to investing and expanding the company’s “capabilities across sports, music, and entertainment.”

Wasserman issued an apology for his correspondence on Jan. 31, shortly after the latest DoJ Epstein Files tranche was released, saying, “I am terribly sorry for having any association” with Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in conspiring to sex trafficking minors with Epstein. In the files, Wasserman exchanged a serious of flirtatious messages with Maxwell in 2003. He also took a flight with Epstein, Bill Clinton and others to Africa in 2002.

The mogul, who is chairman of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Committee and has led the city’s bid since 2014, has been backed by the board of directors at LA 28 and has stated that he plans to keep overseeing the organization ahead of the Summer Games. LA 28 said it had enlisted outside law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP to review Wasserman’s emails with Maxwell in 2003, three years before Epstein was first arrested in Florida on a count of soliciting prostitution. “We found Mr. Wasserman’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented,” it stated on Feb. 11.

After a pause on social media and a teardown of its old website skin, The Team is going on about business as usual, publicly anyway, announcing signings, launching new initiatives like a leadership advisory and executive search practice led by former Bloomberg exec Amy Segal and listing open jobs, L.A.-based “Content Creator,” “People Coordinator” and “AI Engineer” roles among them.