Tag: Entertainment-Variety

Matthew Lillard told People magazine that he would “love” to be in a Quentin Tarantino movie, which is why it “sucked” when the director criticized him last year along with fellow actors Paul Dano and Owen Wilson. Lillard added: “I think he’s a lovely filmmaker, and to just sort of get punched in the mouth just was kind of a bummer.”

During a viral interview on “The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast” last fall, Tarantino slammed Dano as “the weakest fucking actor in SAG” and added that “I don’t care for” Lillard or Wilson either.

“It felt like I had died and was in heaven watching everyone send out their RIP tweets,” Lillard told people about the reaction that followed. “I mean, it was really being a part of your own wake, sort of sitting there living through all the nice things people say after you die… Everyone, from the people at the mall this weekend with my kids to George Clooney and James Gunn and Mike Flanagan, I mean, people have sort of been really generous with telling me how much they loved me and liked my work.”

Many of Lillard’s former Hollywood collaborators used social media to champion him after Tarantino’s comments went viral. Mike Flanagan, who directed the actor in “The Life of Chuck” and cast him in the upcoming “Carrie” series reboot, called Lillard the “the goddamn greatest.” James Gunn worked with Lillard on the “Scooby Doo” movies and called him “one of my favorite guys (and actors).” George Clooney even accepted a prize from AARP and said that he “would be honored to work with” any of the actors Tarantino dissed.

Lillard originally weighed in on Tarantino’s comment while speaking at GalaxyCon in Columbus, Ohio. He said “who gives a shit” while also acknowledging that “it hurts your feelings. It fucking sucks. And you wouldn’t say that to Tom Cruise. You wouldn’t say that to somebody who’s a top-line actor in Hollywood.”

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly last month, Lillard said “it was crazy” to receive so much support from fans and industry names about Tarantino’s diss, adding: “I keep showing it to my wife to convince her that I am worthy, that people still like me. Nobody has to like me. Nobody has to like any actor out there, obviously. It’s personal preference. I am not everyone’s first choice, that is obvious, but to then have that kind of reaction was beautiful.”

Dano similarly received widespread support from fans and industry colleagues. Speaking to Variety at Sundance, Dano said “it was really nice” to see such a reaction and “I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to.”

Over the last few weeks, as the drama around Wasserman Agency founder Casey Wasserman’s presence in the Epstein files and his professional future have unfolded, misinformation has spread at a rate that is rare even for the entertainment business.

Complicating matters further is the fact that reliable information can be challenging to find in this rough-and-tumble side of the industry, as nearly everyone with insight either has a dog in the fight or at least something to gain from launching or furthering one narrative or another.

With that caveat, sources with direct knowledge of the situation tell Variety that, as Wasserman has agreed to sell the agency and the media spotlight has moved to his ongoing status (for now) as chairman of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, things inside its music division have calmed down, as executives (nearly all of whom are bound by contracts) and many of the artists (who are not) take a wait-and-see approach while the company’s name change and sale move forward.

Sources say the brand change is already in motion and a new name for the agency is expected as soon as next week; however, even under optimal circumstances, the sale will take months.

While several artists have left — most notably Chappell Roan and Laufey — and several others, including Sara Bareilles, SZA and Imagine Dragons, are said to be in the process of maybe thinking about possibly leaving (hedging intentional), sources confirm that just two agents have resigned: Kiely Mosiman and Jackie Nalpant, Roan’s agents, possibly in solidarity with their artist.

The process of an artist leaving an agency is often hazy — sometimes they’ll join another agency in a certain area or territory and remain with the previous agency in others, if only for a certain time; one agent spoke of a global superstar leaving one agency, virtually unnoticed by most of the industry, until that superstar announced they had joined a different one, many months later. That haziness often breeds misinformation: Multiple sources tell Variety emphatically that Billie Eilish had already left Wasserman before allegations of Casey Wasserman’s “serial” affairs with junior employees (which he has not commented upon) emerged in 2024, although media outlets and others continue to perpetuate the narrative that she left because of those allegations.

Similarly, reports emerged last week that another big client, Imagine Dragons, had left Wasserman. However, multiple sources tell Variety that the group began speaking with other agencies, notably CAA, late last year, weeks before the latest tranche of Epstein documents was released, and those talks are ongoing, although the group has not left Wasserman (at least, as of today) and is continuing to speak with them as well.

It is also not outside the realm of possibility that artists and the two agents could return the agency when it is under new ownership and/or name.

Indeed, if the key problems — i.e. the behavior of the founder and the fact the company bears his name — are resolved, what’s the issue? That is a question that many of the artists and employees are contending with, or at least putting off until the future becomes clearer. Artists are often fiercely loyal to their agents, who in many cases were the first to spot and promote them, and many follow their agents from one company to another over years. Similarly, agents often travel together from one company to another, sometimes over decades.

While CAA and UTA were both said to be looking at acquiring Wasserman Music wholesale — and some sources said they were just looking at acquiring pieces — neither prospect appear likely at the moment; sources say a sale to a private equity firm or individual is a more realistic scenario.

Of course, the company that buyer will be acquiring has some baggage. Wasserman Music is more of a collection of factions than a unified company, many of which are agencies that the former Paradigm Music acquired on a buying spree in the years before it was acquired by Wasserman in 2021.

What followed that acquisition was a headlong rush for volume led by Wasserman himself, as he worked successfully to make the company a major player: It has more acts at Coachella this year than any other agency. But that kind of growth comes at a significant cost: The music division alone has more than 400 employees, salaries and overhead are said to be considerable, and sources say the profits on booking some of those superstars are unimpressive.

However, those factors, while formidable, are far more everyday concerns than the ones from which the Wasserman Agency is gradually — apparently — emerging.

Variety will have more on the situation as it develops.

Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. and Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao are stepping back into the ring to face each other one more time, and they’ll do it live on Netflix.

The two boxing legends are set to meet in a professional bout on Sept. 19, 2026 at The Sphere in Las Vegas, with Netflix streaming the event around the world. This will mark the first time Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) and Pacquiao (62-8-3, 39 KOs) have faced each other since their historic “Fight of the Century” back in 2015, which Mayweather won via unanimous decision.

Pacquiao has remained active as a professional boxer since then, fighting eight more matches in the intervening 10 years. He most recently fought to a majority draw against Mario Barrios in July 2025. Mayweather, meanwhile, has not fought professionally since he defeated MMA star Conor McGregor by TKO in 2017. He has fought several exhibition matches since then, though, including those against Logan Paul and John Gotti III among others.

Further details about the other fights on the card will be announced at a later date. The rematch was organized and will be produced by EverWonder Studio, Hidden Empire, and Limitless X Holdings. The event itself is being promoted by Manny Pacquiao Promotions and Mayweather Promotions in partnership with CSI Sports/Fight Sports.

“Floyd and I gave the world what remains the biggest fight in boxing history,” Pacquiao said. “The fans have waited long enough—they deserve this rematch, and it will be even bigger now that it will be streamed live globally on Netflix. I want Floyd to live with the one loss on his professional record and always remember who gave it to him. As always, I dedicate this fight to my fellow Filipinos around the world and to bringing glory to the Philippines.”

Mayweather added, “I already fought and beat Manny once. This time will be the same result.”

Mayweather vs. Pacquiao 1 was one of the most anticipated matchups in boxing history. The event drew a record 4.6 million pay-per-view buys and also set a world-record live gate of $72 million at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

This will be the latest high-profile live fight Netflix has streamed. Most famously, the company aired the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson event, which drew 108 million live global viewers. They followed that up with Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano 3, after the two put on a dazzling performance during the Tyson-Paul card, as well as Canelo Álvarez vs. Terence Crawford. Netflix also streamed Anthony Joshua’s sixth round knockout of Paul back in December. Up next, Tyson “The Gypsy King” Fury will fight against Arslanbek Makhmudov on April 11.

Netflix is also beginning to move into MMA, with Ronda Rousey set to fight Gina Carano on May 16, with both women’s MMA legends coming out of retirement.

It’s the crossover no one knew they always needed: ABC’s “The Rookie” will air an episode “prominently” featuring the cast of “Game Changer,” a competition series from indie comedy platform Dropout (formerly CollegeHumor).

The upcoming episode of Season 8 of the Nathan Fillion-led police procedural, which will air March 2 at 10 p.m., is titled “Fun and Games.”

Along with “The Rookie” staples Fillion as John Nolan, Mekia Cox as Nyla Harper, Lisseth Chavez as Celina Juarez and Deric Augustine as Miles Penn, the episode will feature Dropout CEO and “Game Changer” host Sam Reich, as well as frequent Dropout collaborators Vic Michaelis (Peacock’s “Ponies”), Jacob Wysocki, Zac Oyama and Anna Garcia.

Per ABC’s official logline for the crossover episode, which was filmed in part at Dropout’s own studios in Los Angeles, “Harper and Miles feel the weight of their recent mistakes, while Harper is tasked with training Miles. Nolan and Celina are dispatched to a robbery call at the Dropout TV Studios where Nolan encounters a familiar face.”

After airing on ABC, the new “The Rookie” episode will be available to stream on Hulu the next day.

Rebranded from CollegeHumor in 2024, comedy streamer Dropout has been continuously growing in popularity, recently hitting 1 million paid subscribers and expanding its production, development and marketing teams.

Ahead of announcing its “The Rookie” crossover on Monday, the home to “Game Changer,” “Very Important People,” “Dimension 20” and “Make Some Noise,” debuted its first-ever licensed series, the UK comedy “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared.”

See first-look photos from “The Rookie”-“Game Changer” crossover episode below.

On today’s episode of “Daily Variety” podcast, Variety’s Rebecca Rubin explains why Sony Pictures’ family film “G.O.A.T” topped the box office and how Elvis in Imax can still pack ‘em in. And TV critic Aramide Tinubu discusses some of the overlooked gems on her list of the best Black-led TV series of the past 10 years.

More to come

(Pictured: “GOAT“)

Listen to Daily Variety on iHeartPodcasts, Apple Podcasts, Variety’s YouTube Podcast channel, Amazon Music, Spotify and other podcast platforms.

The final numbers are in for fall, and CBS’ “Tracker” continues its winning streak — leading the Eye’s dominance among broadcast networks when both linear and 35 days of streaming viewership of non-sports series fare is tallied.

Of course, add the streamers to the mix, and the final season of “Stranger Things” was no match for the competition: The Netflix series dominated the fall, with an average of 32.86 million viewers. That was followed by Netflix’s blockbuster docuseries “Sean Combs: The Reckoning” (20.64 million) and Paramount+’s surging “Landman” (19.64 million). “Tracker” was next, with 16.65 million — making it tops among broadcast series — followed closely by ABC’s “High Potential” (16.07 million).

CBS, which returns its schedule with new originals this week (now that the Olympics competition has wrapped on NBC), led the fall top ten among broadcast with eight shows (“Tracker,” “Matlock,” “Sheriff Country,” “Ghosts,” “60 Minutes,” “Boston Blue,” “NCIS,” “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage”) — with “Sheriff Country” and “Boston Blue” as the fall’s top two most-watched new series in broadcast. The Eye net also boasted nine of the top 20 series among both linear and streaming.

Streaming is continuing to help expand eyeballs for broadcast fare: “Tracker,” for example, averaged 11.4 million viewers on linear, then another 5.2 million in streaming. “High Potential” was nearly a 50/50 split: 8.3 million viewers on linear, and 7.8 million on streaming. “Abbott Elementary” actually attracts more viewers in streaming on Hulu (4.4 million) than on ABC linear (3.8 million).

These lists don’t include sports, of course, which would add even more broadcast heft to the rankers. But even without sports, the broadcast networks did quite well in the fall. Now, on to midseason — where several additional high performers, like ABC’s “Will Trent” and “The Rookie,” will be added to the mix too.

Here are the fall 2025 rankers:

Fall 2025 Multiplatform 35-Day Ranker: Broadcast+Streaming Originals

Source: Source: Nielsen Panel+ Big Data P2+ Prime AA, L+35, 9/14/2025-1/04/2026 + Nielsen SCR, 35-Day Total Flight for streaming. Does not include specials, finales, or sports that fall within FSD. Does not include series or specials with less than 4 telecasts.

Fall 2025 Multiplatform 35-Day Ranker: Broadcast Originals

Source: Source: Nielsen Panel+ Big Data P2+ Prime AA, L+35, 9/14/2025-1/04/2026 + Nielsen SCR, 35-Day Total Flight for streaming.

Taylor Swift fans kept “hope-alite” alive that “Opalite” would become her 14th No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, even though it faced some competitive headwinds in reaching the summit. The infectious bop came through, reaching the top in this, its 20th week on the chart, and moving Swift just a little bit closer to an all-time record.

Thirteen has traditionally been Swift’s lucky number, but so is 14. (And so will be 15, and so on.) With 14 career No. 1s, she now ties Rihanna for the most Hot 100 leaders in the history of the chart. Who’s ahead of her? Only the Beatles, with 20 No. 1s, and Mariah Carey, with 19 — neither of those presenting anything like an insurmountable mark for someone as prolific as Swift.

“Opalite” follows “The Fate of Ophelia” as her second No. 1 from the album “The Life of a Showgirl.” “Ophelia” spent 10 weeks at No. 1. “Opalite” previously debuted at No. 2, during the week of the album’s release, and was always destined to register as the album’s second-most-popular track. Since then, it had spent several weeks in the top 10 and was a mainstay of the top 20, based primarily on streaming demand. But it was not officially released as a single until the music video dropped on Feb. 6.

Last week would have seemed like a prime time for “Opalite” to top the chart, based on all those immediate video streams. But it was kept out of a top position by the huge resurgence of Bad Bunny’s catalog following his Super Bowl halftime appearance, among other factors. Perhaps seeing the Bad Bunny tsunami coming during that time frame, the biggest push for singles sales was held back a week and came during this latest chart period.

Ubiquitous for four months now among fans, the song had already peaked some time ago on Billboard’s streaming chart; it falls to No. 17 on that register this week. So making it to No. 1 on the Hot 100 this week was much more reliant on increased radio play as well as singles sales.

The radio airplay impressions for “Opalite” were up 17% this week, to 58.9 million, after already taking a leap last week. The most substantial gain, though, was in sales. The single sold 168,00 copies this week, up 2,290%. Of those 168,000, Billboard and Luminate report, 144,000 were physical copies, representing a mix of one vinyl and six CD variants. Some of those editions had gone on sale in January but did not count toward her tally till they shipped during this mid-February time frame.

The sales tally for the single was impressive enough that Billboard reported it was the highly weekly sales for any song since Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” went viral and sold 175,000 downloads in a single week in August 2023.

The number of streams for “Opalite” in this time frame was 11.4 million, down 20% from the week before.

Swift probably would have had an easier path to hitting No. 1 a week earlier if Billboard had not recently instituted a rule change. The publication altered its playbook so that free YouTube streams no longer count in the calculation of a hit. That was presumably one reason why Swift gave Apple Music and Spotify Premium a two-day exclusive on the “Opalite” video, to redirect fans to paid services whose totals still count toward the charts. Regardless, it all worked out for her, even if there was a week of delayed gratification for Swifties to enjoy their heroine getting her latest chart triumph.

Nashville has a very strong presence at the top of the Hot 100 this week, if you count Swift, and you should, as a longtime mainstay and still a part-time resident. Following the former country queen at No. 1 is current country star Ella Langley at No. 2, as her smash “Choosin’ Texas” — which recently peaked at the top of the chart, then took a dip — rose two spots from its No. 4 position last week.

Following those two songs are Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” at No. 3, and Bad Bunny’s “DtMF” (last week’s leader) dipping a few spots to No. 4. Bad Bunny also has two other songs remaining in the top 10 for a total of three, after landing four there last week. “Tití Me Preguntó” is at No. 7 and “Baile Inolvidable” is at No. 10. 

The No. 5 song is Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” followed by “Golden” at No. 7 and Swift’s “Ophelia” still affording her a second spot in the top 10 at No. 8.

Over on the Billboard 200 album chart, Bad Bunny was a holdover at No. 1 with “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS,” the second consecutive and fifth nonconsecutive time that album reached the top.

There were two new entries in the top 10, both from artists debuting more modestly with their current projects than they did with their previous albums.

Brent Faiyaz debuted at No. 6 with “Icon,” collecting 58,000 equivalent album units. His previous album, 2022’s “Wasteland,” bowed at No. 2 with 88,000 as its first-week tally.

Charli xcx‘s soundtrack album for “Wuthering Heights” entered at No. 8, with 51,000 units. Even with an association with a hit movie, this more eclectic project was not exepected to match debut numbers for her last album, the culturally phenomenal “Brat,” which bowed at No. 3 in 2024 with 77,000 units.