Tag: Entertainment-HollywoodReporter

BAFTA has launched a “comprehensive review” of its 2026 Film Awards ceremony, the British Academy has said in a letter to its members, after the N-word was shouted while Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were onstage.

The big news out of Sunday night was the outburst from Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson, who has said he is “deeply mortified” if anyone thought his tics were “intentional.” The I Swear executive producer has a neurological disability that causes involuntary verbal tics, such as loud swearing, and also said in his statement that he has campaigned for most of his life to bring awareness and education to Tourette’s. His life inspired I Swear, and members of the Tourette syndrome community got candid with The Hollywood Reporter about the widespread misunderstanding around the condition here.

BAFTA released a full apology to the wider public on Monday explaining they apologized “unreservedly” to the Sinners actors, and thanking Davidson for making the decision to leave the ceremony halfway through.

THR understands that Warner Bros. executives immediately requested the slur not be broadcast on the BBC, which aired on a two-hour delay. Questions have arisen over the broadcaster’s decision to include the slur. They have since apologized and removed the ceremony from streaming service iPlayer. BAFTA jury member Jonte Richardson even announced his decision to quit his role after the “utterly unforgivable” handling of the incident by BAFTA and the BBC.

On Tuesday, a letter was sent to BAFTA members addressing the situation that arose, stating that they take the duty of care to all our guests “very seriously and prepared extensively in order for John to be able to be present in the room.”

“We made those in attendance aware of the tics, announcing to the audience before the ceremony began, and throughout, that John was in the room and that they may hear involuntary strong and offensive language, noises or movements during the ceremony,” BAFTA said in the letter, referring to the preshow warning and disclaimers from host Alan Cumming. “We fully understand our intention to be inclusive in no way diminishes the impact of what happened.”

“It was a very complex situation and we understand you will have many questions,” the letter concluded. “Please rest assured how seriously we are taking this.”

Read the letter to BAFTA members in full below.

We would like to address the situation that arose during the EE BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday night, in which highly offensive language that carries incomparable trauma and pain for so many was heard. We issued a statement last night, and we want members to hear from us directly, too. Please find our public statement here.

We recognise this has impacted members in a multitude of ways – we want to acknowledge the harm this has caused, address what happened and apologise to all.

One of our guests, John Davidson MBE has Tourette Syndrome and has devoted his life to educating and campaigning for better understanding of the condition. John is an executive producer of one of the nominated films, I Swear. The film highlights that Tourette Syndrome is a neurological disability that causes involuntary verbal tics, that the individual has no control over. Such tics are in no way a reflection of an individual’s beliefs and are not intentional.

We take the duty of care to all our guests very seriously and prepared extensively in order for John to be able to be present in the room. We made those in attendance aware of the tics, announcing to the audience before the ceremony began, and throughout, that John was in the room and that they may hear involuntary strong and offensive language, noises or movements during the ceremony. We fully understand our intention to be inclusive in no way diminishes the impact of what happened.

Early in the ceremony loud and involuntary tics, including one in the form of a profoundly offensive term, were heard by many people in the room. Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage at the time, and we have apologised unreservedly to them, and to all those impacted. We have also thanked Michael and Delroy for their incredible dignity and professionalism – and regret they were put in this position in the first place.

During the ceremony, John chose to leave the auditorium and watch the rest of the ceremony from a screen, and we have also thanked him for his dignity and consideration of others, on what should have been a night of celebration for him.

We are in contact with the studios involved and conversations are ongoing. We want to assure all our members that a comprehensive review is underway. You may have also seen the BBC have issued their own apology for the broadcast.

It was a very complex situation and we understand you will have many questions – please rest assured how seriously we are taking this. If you’d like to contact us, please email membership@bafta.org.

We take full responsibility for putting our guests and members of the academy in a very difficult situation and we will learn from this.

We will keep inclusion at the core of all we do, maintaining our belief in film and storytelling as a critical conduit for compassion and empathy – as firmly demonstrated by this year’s nominated and winning films.

King Ludwig II of Bavaria, an eccentric visionary known as the “Fairy Tale King” and also sometimes as the “Mad King,” and his mysterious death are the subjects of a high-end fiction crime drama with the working title Ludwig, which is currently in the works from W&B Television (Pagan Peak, Dark, 4 Blocks). And Beta Cinema unveiled at a London TV Screenings event on Tuesday that it has boarded the series as international partner.

“His death became a famous cold case,” Beta said about the drama about the royal. “But who was he really? Ludwig is a cinematic journey into the king’s fantastical world, rich with pomp and gold. Yet behind all the splendor and spectacle stood a deeply enigmatic man — as mysterious in life as he was in death. Set in the late 1800s in Bavaria, Ludwig is a fascinating and tragic tale of life and queer love, infused with a captivating crime story at its heart.”

The series follows psychologist Gustav Zimmermann who is tasked with reviewing a psychiatric report on King Ludwig II, a document that was designed to determine whether the king was incompetent to rule. “The more he invests in discovering the reasons that led to Ludwig’s removal from power, the closer he gets to revealing the secrets of the king: his struggles with power, his longing for freedom and his profound forbidden love,” according to a synopsis of the drama.

Filming on the series has wrapped at historical locations, including the famous Castle Neuschwanstein and the Residenz, the former royal palace in the heart of Munich. Filming also took place in the Czech Republic.

Up-and-coming talent Luis Pintsch (22 Lengths) stars as King Ludwig II, alongside Felix Mayr (Unorthodox, Senna), who plays psychologist Zimmermann, Aaron Friesz (Corsage, Franz K.), Carlotta Bähre (Ku’damm 77), Jonathan Kriener (Chabos), Tom Wlaschiha (Stranger Things, The Boat), Francis Fulton-Smith (Empire Oktoberfest), and Karl Markovics (The Counterfeiters, Babylon Berlin), among others.

Ludwig is directed by Nina Vukovic (Kleo season 2) and Sebastian Ko (Tatort), who both also served as writers. Head writers are Dominik Kempf and Marianne Wendt. Jan Prahl (The Signal) is the director of photography.

Oliver Vogel, Quirin Berg, Max Wiedemann, and Dominik Kempf serve as executive producers, Stefan Mütherich as co-executive producer, and Gretha Heisig as associate producer.

“The global fascination with Ludwig is no coincidence,” said Ferdinand Dohna, head of content at Beta Film. “He was a romantic dreamer with rock-star allures, who accepted no compromises when the realization of his visions and dreams was at stake, most notably Neuschwanstein Castle, which famously inspired Disney’s iconic castle logo.”

He added: “Like every good romantic hero, he failed in the end and died under mysterious circumstances at a young age. These are the ingredients for larger-than-life characters, brought to life in this miniseries by an outstanding creative team and magnetic cast that will resonate with audiences around the world.”

Ludwig is produced by W&B Television for ARD Degeto, BR, ServusTV and SRF. The series is supported by the German Motion Picture Fund (GMPF), the Bavarian Film and Television Fund (FFF Bayern), with the support from the Czech Audiovisual Fund’s Production Incentive. Beta Film is handling international sales.

Jeffrey Epstein has kept public relations professionals busy with crisis management work ever since Palm Beach police first arrested him on prostitution charges in 2006. The latest tranches of Justice Department documentation provide fresh insight into who they were, what they did and how much they were paid.

These spin doctors are employed to win in the court of public opinion even as their typically high-profile, resource-rich clients often pursue legal cases in court or in arbitration. Frequently, they’re tapped by law firms, who shield their efforts behind the cloak of attorney-client privilege. These government disclosures offer a rare window into the how their work unfolds.

Among the earliest communications advisors Epstein brought onboard appears to have been the New York PR guru Dan Klores, who handled damage control for Paris Hilton when her sex tape leaked and for fellow publicist Lizzie Grubman after she plowed into 16 people in her father’s Mercedes SUV in the Hamptons. Bank records indicate Epstein paid Klores’ firm $10,000 in January 2007, as the FBI pursued its probe into the financier. Klores’ services for Epstein were not detailed in the DOJ materials.

Soon after, as media coverage of the case intensified, Epstein switched to Klores’ former boss Howard Rubenstein, a dean of the field who’d wrangled messaging for World Trade Center leaseholder Silverstein Properties after Sept. 11 and for Kathie Lee Gifford during her sweatshop saga. When New York magazine interviewed Epstein, its reporter met the mogul in Rubenstein’s office. To the New York Post, at the time also a Rubenstein client, the flack asserted that Epstein had “no business relationship” with Jean-Luc Brunel or Brunel’s MC2 Model Management. Documents have since shown that Epstein was a key financial backer of the late Brunel and MC2, now considered key conduits in his sex trafficking operation.

Post-Rubenstein, Epstein reached out to the seasoned flack Ken Sunshine about representation. His CV has included troubleshooting for Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Sean Combs, Harvey Weinstein and Epstein pal Bill Clinton. Nothing came of their talks.

Epstein also worked with Merrie Spaeth, a White House Director of Media Relations during Ronald Reagan’s administration. She’s best known for advising the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the right-wing veterans group that attacked 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s Vietnam War record. According to Bloomberg’s review of a trove of e-mails which the outlet obtained from Epstein’s personal Yahoo e-mail account, Spaeth helped Epstein pen drafts of a public apology in 2008 which was never released. This was months before he pled guilty to a Florida state charge of procuring an underage prostitute. She also provided media coaching on how to respond to anticipated inquiries about his predations. When Bloomberg asked her about this, she said she “ultimately terminated the engagement because of my discomfort with it.”

Immediately after Epstein completed his probation in August 2010, the publicist R. Couri Hay — whose experience was mostly with New York society figures, luxury brands and institutions like Lincoln Center — sent him a detailed strategy proposal to help resuscitate his image, outlining a cost of between $15,000 and $20,000 per month on a six- to 12-month retainer agreement. “You have a very colorful story but it’s not all black nor is it strictly black and white,” he wrote Epstein. “I can help you turn your reputation around.”

Hay suggested securing positive press centered on Epstein’s financial support for scientific research. “At the appropriate times we could discuss possible photo opportunities with Pulitzer prize-winning scientists and other VIP’s that would demonstrate their respect and trust for you at targeted events,” he wrote. In addition, he proposed the endowment of a “Pulitzer Prize in Mathematics,” noting that he’d “have to check into the feasibility.” If not, he assured, “we can find an equally prestigious institution that would.”

Questioned about this exchange in November 2025, Hay told The New York Times he’d never ended up working for Epstein and contends he didn’t understand how “heinous” the financier was. He described himself as “blinded a little bit by the glamorous facade that Jeffrey and Ghislaine [Maxwell, now imprisoned for child sex trafficking] put on in social circles in New York and in Palm Beach.”

Epstein went on to engage Mike Sitrick, a legendary L.A.-based cleanup specialist who Fortune once compared to Harvey Keitel’s fixer character Winston Wolf in Pulp Fiction. Sitrick has mopped up for Michael Vick following his dogfighting scandal, Vince McMahon when former WWE personnel alleged sexual abuse and trafficking, and the Church of Scientology in response to investigative exposes.

A key focus of Sitrick’s work for Epstein was handling the growing media interest in Prince Andrew’s association with the financier, especially after the Duchess of York called Epstein a pedophile. The royal has since been stripped of his title and on Feb. 19 was arrested this week by British police on corruption charges amid a public firestorm over his ties to the billionaire.

Records uncovered in the files appear to indicate Epstein tried to stiff the PR czar, who was employed via the financier’s then-attorney Roy Black. In March 2011, he complained to Sitrick, “We accomplished very little this week,” despite acknowledging they’d “stopped four articles that I know about and tomorrows is very toned down.” Epstein’s takeaway was that his reputation “got pounded.”

Soon after, Epstein stopped paying Sitrick’s fees, so Sitrick took him to court. “Despite the salaciousness of the coverage in both the U.K. and the U.S., Mr. Sitrick and his team were able to stop stories that would have aired on TV and in the mainstream media in the U.S.,” Sitrick’s legal team wrote to Epstein’s counsel that July, adding that Sitrick had worked “days, nights and weekends” to address “a tsunami of negative publicity.” In 2015, Sitrick won a default judgment for $155,000. “I have no idea why he didn’t pay the bill,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter. “No one ever expressed dissatisfaction with our work before or during the litigation.” (Sitrick notes he never met Epstein in person.)

Meanwhile, from the time of Epstein’s release, Spaeth spent years checking in. “I just wanted to touch base and make sure you were feeling more secure,” she wrote him in 2011. “You know you can always call on us.” Four years later, she wrote Epstein’s assistant, “Just want him to know he has friends who are thinking of him.” Spaeth told the Dallas Morning News on Feb. 4, “I am embarrassed that I had any involvement whatsoever including our follow ups with him.”

Another of Epstein’s optics consultants in the years leading up to his July 2019 re-arrest and death a month later in federal custody was power publicist Matthew Hiltzik. His firm represented Elizabeth Holmes as the Theranos scandal erupted, as well as Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp amid their litigious disputes with exes Angelina Jolie and Amber Heard.

An invoice in the Justice Department tranche shows that Hiltzik Strategies charged Epstein $25,000 for the month of June 2017. Hiltzik, who appears to have been introduced via the writer Michael Wolff, produced a memo suggesting approaches to help recalibrate his client’s image. It included questioning the integrity of attorneys who’d brought claims against him and leveraging what Hiltzik termed “third party validators” to speak out on Epstein’s behalf. The listed potential proxies included a group of then-respected names — Larry Summers, Bill Gates, Noam Chomsky, Bill Richardson, Kathy Ruemmler — who’ve since been tarnished by their association with Epstein.

That October, the day after The New York Times published its landmark exploration of Harvey Weinstein’s own sexual misconduct, which precipitated the #MeToo movement, Epstein wrote Hiltzik, “how do you rate harveys strategy? are you help=ng?” (The error-laden prose is due to a mix of the financier’s nonstandard typing and the DOJ’s formatting corruption.) The strategist, who had worked for Weinstein years earlier, quickly replied, “It is not wise,” adding, “And while I have spoke= to him, I did not formally engage And he didn’t list=n to wise advice from several reasonable people who tried to help.” Hours later, Epstein responded, “I truly wish him well.”

In December 2018, a month after Miami Herald journalist Julie K. Brown began publishing her explosive investigations into the Epstein saga, the financier had his high-profile attorneys Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz draft a newspaper op-ed to defend him. Epstein later looped Hiltzik into an email thread, requesting his thoughts — to which the scandal handler wrote back, “there should be a line in there somewhere which clearly confirms that JE understands and recognizes that he did something wrong.”

Hiltzik tells THR that he never worked on managing the publication of any story about Epstein, and says he broke off ties with the financier after Epstein spurned his advice to take public accountability.

Few figures aside from Epstein have cycled through so many crisis gurus in so short a time. But his death isn’t the end of his gainful contribution to the spin industry. With the DOJ’s latest document dumps, such consultants are freshly in-demand among the hundreds of powerful people named in them. (Exhibit A: Risa Heller, soon to be fictionalized by Lizzy Caplan in a Netflix drama about her crisis PR job, is now busy with the evolving fallout for media mogul and L.A. Olympics czar Casey Wasserman.) Occasionally they offer on-record statements, attributed to an unnamed spokesperson or representative. More often, they’re busy pushing off-record messaging behind the scenes, hoping to position their clients in the best possible light — given the circumstances.

While globally, Soho House recently completed a $2.7 billion deal to once again become a private company, domestically, the members’ club is focusing on refreshing its art. Since the brand began acquiring and curating art in 2009 at Soho House 76 Dean Street, its growing collection has become one of the biggest connection points with members, leading programming and driving interaction. Rooted in each House’s location and featuring both emerging and established artists from that city, the Soho House Art Collection has grown over 17 years to more than 11,000 works.

“It will hit 15,000 artworks in the next five years,” says Kate Bryan, Soho House chief art director. Since she joined the company in 2016, Bryan has been focused on growth, taking the collection from 2,000 pieces to where it sits today. The acquisition strategy revolves around direct relationships with artists and galleries. Once their work is selected for a House, they are invited to become a member. Bryan does not purchase art at auction; every work is owned by Soho House and stays within the collection. Her team has created a proprietary database with geographic tags (birthplace, base, education) to catalog artists for specific House openings. Now, pieces are even being loaned to major museum shows, such as the Tate’s spring/summer exhibition on Hurvin Anderson. A coffee table book is also in the works.

“Galleries are very supportive of our collection, because it’s a public showcase for the artists. It’s not disappearing off into a home that no one ever sees again,” Bryan says. “Artists come in and see their work, see people interacting with it. We use our collection. We don’t put things in storage. If we acquire it, it’s for a place and it’s going up.”

Soho House West Hollywood and Soho Beach House in Miami, both opened in 2010, recently unveiled new art that has significantly shifted their aesthetics. L.A. artist Eric Uhlir created a monumental commission for the West Hollywood club, the largest in Soho House’s history at 65 feet long and 6.5 feet high, a four-panel site-specific painting wrapping around the grand entry staircase. Uhlir is known for blending pop culture references with his love of classical painting, abstracting history, nature and contemporary visual clues onto canvases of cinematic scale.

On the opposite coast, when Soho Beach House came up for an overall design refresh, the art team took the opportunity to ask: “What story do we want to tell now?” With a curatorial focus on photography, the Miami House’s original collection has been refreshed by an international roster of artists that reflects the city’s cutting-edge spirit and place in the art world as host to its flashiest yearly gathering, Art Basel. Blue-chip and internationally known artists such as Isaac Julien, JR, Laurie Simmons and Marilyn Minter collide with niche and emerging artists such as Sarah Maple, Cornelius Tulloch, Anna Carey and Marcus Maddox, working with polaroid, performance-based imagery, collage, cameraless photography, solarisation, digital manipulation, hand-printed works, lenticular, fabric and wood-based prints. All of these Soho Beach House artists are also represented across the 32 Soho Houses worldwide. “Try and think of another city that welcomes as many people for art in a gargantuan international moment. We thought we should reflect that spirit in this collection,” she says.

While Miami’s art scene has catapulted into the pop culture stratosphere, Los Angeles has shifted from “secondary market” to global center of contemporary art, powered by film, photography, design and studio culture and arts fairs like Frieze L.A. (Feb. 26 to March 1 at Santa Monica Airport). Soho House has mirrored that rise with the art collections at its network of four L.A. properties. West Hollywood, co-curated by Kate Bryan and Anakena Paddon between 2023 and 2025, highlights artists born, based or trained in Los Angeles. The collection is anchored by blue-chip figures including Ed Ruscha, Judy Chicago and John Baldessari, alongside high-visibility contemporary names such as Walead Beshty, José Parlá and Hebru Brantley. The Luckman Club collection, installed in late 2024, features Los Angeles painters John Reagan, Erin Wright, Greg Ito, Pui Tiffany Chow and Emily Ferguson. “L.A. is now an important center for contemporary art with Frieze, major museums and so many artists having moved to town. The California art scene has always been staggeringly important, but it feels like the spotlight has come back onto it in a new way,” Bryan says. Soho House will host Frieze events at both its West Hollywood House and Holloway House throughout L.A. art week.

Bryan’s curatorial philosophy reveals how the collection comes to life. Her approach deliberately departs from the traditional gallery or museum model in favor of a more immersive, member-informed style.

“I don’t have a white box. It’s a different way of curating but one of the benefits that I have is that I’m spending so much time with the members and I can sound them out on something a year before I do it,” she says. “When we build the permanent art collection, it becomes a jumping-off point for the House. We invite the artists to come and do talks and the artists are in the Houses, because they’re part of our membership.”

In turn, that member-first approach has helped shape a collection whose influence extends well beyond the Houses themselves.

“Some of the works that were acquired at the beginning are from artists who are impossible to get work from now,” she says. “There’s so much in the early collection that is still really powerful now, and all those artists have gone on to staggering fame but it is not as if we’ve sat around going to be a star in the future. We don’t worry so much about prices rising or longevity. We think about relevance to the here and now, and artists we believe in, want to support and have around. Then, as a happy byproduct, the collection starts to have a legacy and more cultural value.”

Soho House is making other significant changes throughout its portfolio with new Houses planned in Palm Springs and Soho Ranch House Sonoma, as well as Soho Farmhouse in upstate New York and Soho Flatiron in New York City. In Europe, Milan, Madrid, Lisbon and Soho Farmhouse Tuscany will join the family. The group will open its 50th House — Soho House Tokyo in the Minami-Aoyama neighborhood — in April 2026. Soho Beach House is currently renovating its bedrooms and will debut a Soho Health Club, which will host the first international Wellness Summit across both Miami Houses. Miami Pool House adds four padel courts, a Health Club Café and an indoor-outdoor gym. Soho House West Hollywood features a new garden restaurant by Nancy Silverton. Persian restaurant Berenjak made its Los Angeles debut at Soho Warehouse. Soho House Holloway will add pickleball courts. When it opens, Soho House Los Cabos will feature club spaces, a Soho Health Club with a pool, Cecconi’s, a Sunset and Cabaret Bar and 15 bedrooms.

 

Taylor Sheridan can do it all, I guess.

Simon & Schuster revealed on Tuesday that it will publish the debut book from the Yellowstone creator, How to Not Die in Prison. Up until three years ago, Paramount owned Simon & Schuster; until recently, Paramount also had Sheridan securely under its corporate umbrella.

How to Not Die in Prison is described by the publisher as “a no bullsh*t, darkly funny survival guide to life in a maximum-security prison.” Sheridan has never been to prison — but his co-author has. How to Not Die in Prison is cowritten with “prison-hardened ex-con” Tom Nelson, and will publish on June 23, 2026.

“There is no book of rules for life in prison — until now. How to Not Die in Prison teaches readers everything they need to know to make it out alive, from how to survive a prison riot, a lockdown, a stabbing, a hit, and solitary confinement to how to get a job, not go insane, make prison ramen, give a prison tat, and (allegedly) make a shiv,” the description continues.

Sheridan’s personal association with anything close to all of that is his Jeremy Renner-starring series Mayor of Kingstown.

“You might wonder what in the world gives me the knowledge or wisdom to write a survival guide to prison,” Sheridan writes in the book’s introduction. “Well, I’ll tell you — absolutely nothing. I’ve never been to prison. But, like every man, I’ve certainly wondered how I would survive if circumstances ever put me there. That morbid curiosity sent me on a journey to understand the politics and dangers of prison. When researching for Mayor of Kingstown, I learned very quickly it’s way better to avoid going to prison than figuring out how to survive one.” 

“I wish I could’ve heeded Taylor’s advice all those years ago and read the F*cking Book, but that’s exactly the point: there was no Fucking Book to speak of because I hadn’t yet been spit out through the system and gained the knowledge that my co-author currently refers to as wisdom,” Nelson wrote. “Hey, one of us has written hit TV shows and Academy Award-nominated movies, and the other has spent much of his adult life behind bars in medium and maximum-security prisons. If that’s what makes for good wisdom and entertainment, I’ll take it.”