Tag: Entertainment – Variety

Jeff Garlin revealed in a recent interview on The Daily Beast’s “Obsessed” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that he had undiagnosed bipolar disorder during the making of ABC’s “The Goldbergs,” which he notably exited from after an HR investigation into multiple claims of inappropriate conduct against him. The 1980s-set family sitcom, which ran for 10 seasons and 229 episodes from 2013 to 2023, starred Garlin opposite Wendi McLendon-Covey. Garlin exited in 2021.

“At the time, I was undiagnosed bipolar,” Garlin said on the podcast, noting he got his diagnosis after exiting the series. “I was miserable on the show, and I was miserable with my performance. And [Wendi] was always trying to tell me, ‘Hey, you’re really great on the show.’ I didn’t believe her. I just got to the point where I had to quit, and she was very resentful.”

Garlin added, “Being bipolar, I was either one of three things: dark, dark, dark, dark, didn’t talk and look at anyone; happy to the point of mania, never turning off my thing; or mean — really, really mean.”

McLendon-Covey reacted to Garlin’s comments on Instagram by disputing his comments: “Huh. Let’s just say I remember things very differently, as does the crew, the other actors, the writers, and our executives.”

When Garlin exited “The Goldbergs” in 2021, two sources close to the production confirmed to Variety that it was a mutual decision between the actor and the network. Shortly before, Garlin addressed allegations against him in an interview with Vanity Fair, acknowledging that an HR investigation into his on-set behavior had been ongoing for the past three years and dismissing a rumor that he had been fired from the series.

“We have a difference of opinion, Sony and myself. Okay. My opinion is, I have my process about how I’m funny, in terms of the scene and what I have to do. They feel that it makes for a quote ‘unsafe’ workspace,” Garlin said at the time. “Now, mind you, my silliness making an unsafe workspace — I don’t understand how that is… I am always a kind and thoughtful person. I make mistakes, sure. But my comedy is about easing people’s pain. Why would I ever want to cause pain in anybody for a laugh? That’s bullying. That’s just uncalled for.”

The allegations against Garlin ranged from unwanted hugging and touching people on set to telling jokes that made others uncomfortable. McLendon-Covey later said during an interview with Andy Cohen for SiriusXM that Garlin’s exit was “a long time coming.”

“That it finally happened, it was like, ‘Ok, finally someone is listening to us.’ But that was kind of hard though because we had lost George Segal in real life,” she added. “To have to go through another loss on a sitcom…you can’t keep asking your audience to mourn people. That’s not why they tune in… I’m exhausted by that topic and the PTSD of it all. I just feel like the less people know about that, the better. No one benefits from knowing anything.”

“The Goldbergs” was in the middle of filming its ninth season when Garlin was fired. As Variety exclusively reported at the time, producers decided to keep Garlin’s character on the show for the rest of the season by using off-camera dialogue and unused takes pulled from earlier episodes, as well as previously shot images of Garlin. The actor’s stand-in was also used in group scenes, but he was shot from the back. The final result was visually awkward and earned so many complaints on social media that McLendon-Covey even weighed in at the time.

“This season threw us for a loop because it’s hard to incorporate someone who doesn’t want to be there and wants to leave mid-scene, and we weren’t about to rewrite the second half of the season,” the comedian wrote on Twitter at the time. “We’re doing our best.”

When “The Goldbergs” kicked off its 10th and final season last fall, the show killed off Garlin’s character.

Roseanne Barr and her original “Roseanne” co-star Michael Fishman are still feuding over the cancellation of the show’s 2018 reboot. Fishman made headlines in August for saying “the show was rightfully canceled” after Barr posted a tweet that appeared to link Barack Obama’s advisor Valerie Jarrett, who is Black, to “Planet of the Apes.” Barr was accused of being racist but has long maintained that was not her intention.

During a new interview on the “Can’t Be Censored” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly), Barr was asked to weigh in on Fishman’s comments supporting ABC’s decision to pull the 2018 “Roseanne” reboot. She did so by unleashing a tirade against her former co-star.

“He fucking doesn’t even fucking know what I said, even though I’ve explained it 10,000 times for nine years on the Internet,” Barr said. “He hasn’t even taken the time to listen to what I say because he’s a bigot. And he’s a brainwashed bigot.”

Barr claimed that Fishman once asked her to clarify her controversial tweet that got the reboot canceled, to which she told him: “Let me explain this, Michael, go and fuck yourself and stay fucked ‘till the day you die. Don’t put my name in your fucking mouth; shut the fuck up. You are an ignoramus and a bigot, and you have no idea what I said because it contradicts the Democratic Party platform that you’ve had shoved down your throat and up your ass. So just fuck you. You have no geopolitical context whatsoever to discuss what I said.”

“Roseanne” was canceled after Barr tweeted: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” The tweet was widely perceived as a racist insult toward Valerie Jarrett, although Barr claims otherwise. She stressed in her new interview that she was evoking the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and that “Planet of the Apes” is a nickname she used to describe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“You think I said Black people look like monkeys,” Barr continued in her lashing out at Fishman. “Go fuck yourself, you little fucking worm. And I’m glad they fired you because I was the only reason you were ever on that show. They wanted to get rid of you in the reboot and I made them take you back.”

Barr is referring to Fishman’s abrupt exit from “The Conners,” the ABC sitcom that continued the “Roseanne” franchise sans Barr following the reboot’s cancellation. “The Conners” ran for seven seasons, with Fishman reprising D.J. Conner for four seasons before revealing in 2022 that “I was told I would not be returning for season 5.” It’s never been confirmed why ABC dropped him.

Fishman has always opposed Barr’s tweet. He “vehemently” condemned the post after the “Roseanne” reboot was canceled and called his co-stars’ comments “reprehensible and intolerable.” She fired back at the time by posting: “You throw me under the bus.”

In a video posted to his Instagram in August, Fishman spoke out against claims that it was “woke crap” that got the “Roseanne” reboot canceled.

“I get these kinds of ignorant and inaccurate comments daily,” Fishman said. “After eight years, turning the other cheek is really not helping. So, I guess the world failed to learn the lesson, so I’m going to point out — we are perpetuating a lie, and people are using a political smokescreen to justify the indefensible… Those justifications, they’re leading to real consequences, real crimes, situations like Trey Reed and Tasha Fortune, because dehumanizing people is never a joke.”

Fishman acknowledged that comedians can make people laugh at the “darkest” of topics, but “sadly, in this case, there was no joke. And the show was rightfully canceled.”

David Ellison, seeking fresh capital for a merged Paramount-Warner Bros., is considering reaching out to Elon Musk — the controversial tech mogul who is the world’s richest person — to “become part of a syndicate of equity investors into Paramount,” according to a report by Semafor.

According to the report, citing anonymous sources, “Musk’s name is one of a number of wealthy individuals that Paramount CEO David Ellison has considered tapping for the syndicate,” but it did not identify others Ellison is supposedly mulling as investment partners. The Semafor report said the amount of Musk’s potential investment in Paramount could not be learned.

Paramount declined to comment. A rep for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk, the one-time Trump administration official who leads SpaceX, Tesla and X, among other businesses, had a net worth estimated at about $950 billion as of Wednesday, per Forbes.

Paramount’s deal to merge with Warner Bros. Discovery is close to the finish line, after the company reached a settlement with 12 state attorneys general to settle their antitrust lawsuit over the pact. The judge in the case has scheduled a hearing Thursday to go over the points of the proposed consent decree; pending the judge’s approval, the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger is expected to close in about two weeks.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison (David’s father), who is also one of the world’s richest men, has business ties to Musk: Larry Ellison invested $1 billion in Musk’s 2022 deal taking Twitter (since renamed X) private. Larry Ellison also invested in Tesla in 2018, and served on its board for several years.

For Paramount’s WBD deal, valued at $111 billion, Larry Ellison has personally guaranteed $46.7 billion in equity financing. In addition, Paramount has lined up $24 billion in commitments from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. According to Paramount, the three Middle Eastern funds would own 38.5% of the combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Last week, the FCC approved Paramount’s petition to allow 49.5% of its equity to be held by foreign entities if the Warner Bros. Discovery merger is consummated.

Among the top-line terms in Paramount’s settlement with the states: Paramount is prohibited from selling the Paramount Studios or Warner Bros. lots in the state for at least five years, and is obligated to invest at least an additional $300 million on film production in the U.S. annually (for a total of $1.5 billion over five years). The newly merged company also must release at least 30 movies for theatrical distribution in the first two years (something Ellison has repeatedly promised he would do) and at least 32 in years 3-5, with a 45-day window for wide-release films.

In addition, under the proposed settlement, the merged Paramount-Warner Bros. also will be subject to monitoring by a “news editorial independence board,” which will establish “guiding editorial and journalism principles for” for CNN and CBS News.

Comedy veterans Colin Mochrie (“Whose Line Is It Anyway?”) and Andrea Martin (“Evil,” “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) have boarded “Any Way You Want Me,” joining Callan Potter (“Heated Rivalry”), Cobie Smulders and Iris Apatow in Rana Strazza’s romantic drama, which is now shooting in Toronto.

Strazza writes and directs the film, which takes place in 1950s New England and is designed to play like a picture from that period. Fina Strazza stars as Billie Blake, who comes back to her hometown after her mother comes into a dress shop through an inheritance. Next door is a diner run by Calvin Wilkes (Brian Altemus), her boyfriend from high school. Thrown together with him again, Billie has to confront the honesty and the deception that brought their relationship to an end.

Smulders’ credits include “Shrinking,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “The Lincoln Lawyer” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Apatow appears in Alexandra Pechman’s Toronto title “Magazine” and has “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” on the way. Altemus is known for “Brilliant Minds” and Harlan Coben’s “Shelter.”

In keeping with the classic Hollywood pictures it draws on, the film has assembled a cast steeped in stage as well as screen work. Martin, a Broadway veteran, has won two Tony Awards from four nominations. She is also an alum of “SCTV” and has worked opposite Steve Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy and John Candy. Mochrie likewise came up through theater before improv made him an international name.

Fina Strazza made her Broadway debut at eight, playing the title role in “Matilda.” In 2025 she landed a Tony nomination for best performance by a featured actress in a play for “John Proctor Is the Villain,” in which she appeared with Sadie Sink. Smulders won the 2017 Theatre World Award for her debut performance in Noël Coward’s “Present Laughter,” opposite Kevin Kline.

“It’s great to get a chance to return to my stage roots with the pathos of this film, which started when I studied at Studio 58 in Vancouver, and of course at Second City,” Mochrie said. “Improv and theater are closely related, and there’s something incredibly exciting about bringing that experience into Rana’s world. I’m thrilled to be working with Andrea, Fina, and the rest of this wonderful cast.”

Marium Carvell, Rebecca Ablack, Jennifer Hui, Michaela McGowan, Robert Fulton and Joseph Daly complete the ensemble.

First Magnitude Films and Stagg Forrest Films are producing. The shoot is set to wrap in mid-October.

Fina Strazza is repped by Paradigm, Mara Entertainment and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Smulders is repped by UTA and Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman. Altemus is repped by Innovative Artists and Linden Entertainment. Potter is repped by The Talent House and David Dean Management. Apatow is repped by UTA, 3 Arts Entertainment and Ziffren Brittenham LLP. Mochrie is repped by The Characters, and Martin by Play Management and Gary Gersh at Innovative.

Singaporean director Ang Geck Geck Priscilla’s “Ah Girl” will open the sixth Jakarta Film Week, set for Oct. 21–25, and Yosep Anggi Noen’s “The Sea Speaks His Name” (“Laut Bercerita”) will close the festival in its Indonesian premiere.

The program was unveiled Sept. 23 at a press conference at CGV Grand Indonesia, where Jakarta Deputy Governor Rano Karno and the Ministry of Culture’s Ahmad Mahendra joined the festival team. This year’s edition carries the theme Encounters, succeeding 2025’s Reignite.

“Six years of Jakarta Film Week have taught us that this festival is not just about screening films, but also about bringing together the people behind them, discovering new talent, and strengthening Indonesia’s film ecosystem. Encounters is a reflection of that meeting point,” said festival director Rina Damayanti.

The Global Feature Competition lines up Jane Schoenbrun’s “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” Markus Schleinzer’s “Rose,” Nagahisa Makoto’s “Burn,” Rafael Manuel’s “Filipiñana” and Abdallah Al-Khatib’s “Chronicles from the Siege.” The Currents strand includes Alice Winocour’s “Couture,” Karim Aïnouz’s “Rosebush Pruning” and Leyla Bouzid’s “In a Whisper,” and Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia” is also on the program.

On the Indonesian side, Yogi S. Calam’s “Togel” and Andrew Kose’s “Harga Teman” will premiere in the Direction Award section, which also features Luki Herwanayogi’s “Our Son” and Bernardus Raka’s “Nobody Loves Kay.”

Kamila Andini’s Indonesian Oscar hopeful “Four Seasons in Java,” a co-production spanning Indonesia, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Saudi Arabia and Singapore, plays in the Global Feature Official Selection. That section also has Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s “9 Temples to Heaven,” Pete Ohs’ “Erupcja” and Sarah Arnold’s “Too Many Beasts.”

Four titles come out of Next Step Studio, a joint Indonesia–France initiative: “Holy Crowd,” from Reza Fahriyansyah and Ananth Subramaniam; “Annisa,” from Reza Rahadian and Sam Manacsa; “Original Wound,” from Shelby Kho and Sein Lyan Tun; and “Mothers Are Mothering,” from Khozy Rizal and Lam Li Shuen.

“For the first time, audiences will also be able to watch eight short films set in Jakarta through Jakarta Film Fund,” said program manager Novi Hanabi. “This is a new achievement for us in facilitating emerging talent among filmmakers in Jakarta.”

Three of those shorts were made under the fund’s student arm, a partnership with the J-Youth Film Festival 2026.

On the industry side, JFWNET returns with a Producers Lab, Pitching Forum, Talents Hub, Industry Talk and Festival Meeting. The Producers Lab has picked 10 up-and-coming local producers, drawn from Jakarta, West Sumatra, West Java, Central Java and Kalimantan. The Pitching Forum slate covers genres including horror and animation, with producers looking for local and overseas partners. Talents Hub participants were put forward by Minikino Film Week, Mollucas Film Festival, Craft Animfest and Layar Indonesiana locally, and by CinemaWorld Singapore, the Philippines’ QCinema International Film Festival and Vietnam’s Autumn Meeting internationally. The program is designed to feed participants into initiatives such as Goedam, BIFAN Fantastic School and Platform Busan, with support also available toward Cannes.

JFWNET is also working with Cerita Anak Nusantara, a Netflix-backed contest seeking story pitches for kids’ and family content, organized with the Indonesian Film Producers Association (APROFI) and the Indonesian Film Board (BPI). Ten projects from cities around the country will pitch during the festival.

“JFWNET–Industry Program seeks to open doors for young filmmakers, providing a space where they can grow, connect with international partners, and take their next steps, as demonstrated by our alumni. Each year, this ecosystem continues to expand and welcome new faces,” said Gayatri Nadya, the festival’s head of industry.

Industry partners include Netflix, ACFM Platform Busan, the Cannes Film Market’s Short Film Corner, the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum, HKIFF Industry, QCinema and the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.

For general audiences, the Emergency Broadcast and Herstory strands use cinema to open up discussion of current issues, Fantasea joins the international competitions in showcasing current trends in world cinema, and Family Time offers screenings aimed at all ages. Young Indonesian actor Ali Fikry has been named festival ambassador as part of a push toward younger viewers.

“The Jakarta Provincial Government sees Jakarta Film Week as a strategic partner in realizing Jakarta as a cinema city. Through collaboration with the Jakarta Film Summit and Jakarta Film Commission, we hope to further open the capital’s film ecosystem to industry professionals and the wider public,” said Karno.

The Jakarta Provincial Government organizes the event with the Jakarta Film Commission, with backing from the Ministry of Culture’s Directorate General of Cultural Development, Utilization, and Promotion. International cultural partners include the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Cinecittà, the Japan Foundation, Erasmus Huis, Institut Français Indonesia and the Italian, Dutch, French and U.S. embassies. Country showcases include an Italian Screen strand featuring Pietro Marcello’s “Duse” and Silvio Soldini’s “The Tasters,” along with the Dutch-focused Bioscoop Belanda.

Ahead of the main event, the festival’s JFW360 outreach program has hosted quiz events, shorts programs at JITEX and a free streaming slate of 24 shorts on Vidio, available Sept. 20 through Oct. 20.

Screenings will be spread across CGV Grand Indonesia, Galeri Indonesia Kaya, Mercure Jakarta Cikini, Paviliun Raden Saleh Artotel, Taman Ismail Marzuki, CGV FX Sudirman and FX Sudirman.

The Jakarta Tourism and Culture Agency set up Jakarta Film Week in 2021.