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Teamsters Protest Paramount Over Warner Bros Merger Promises & Threats

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The DGA and IATSE may want to play footsie with Paramount over the state Attorney Generals antitrust lawsuit and hopes for a settlement. However, as the WGA has joined the charge against David Ellison‘s currently stalled $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros Discovery, a very strong arm of Hollywood labor has declared it’s time to cut the crap.

“At every step of the way, Teamsters have asked for data to show how this merger would be good for our industry, our members and domestic production,” Teamster Local 399’s Lindsay Dougherty told Deadline today. “Touting worker prosperity, without commitments, while simultaneously threatening their livelihood in the press as a bargaining chip begs the question — what is in this deal for American film and television workers?”

With Paramount leaks threatening to leave California if Golden State AG Ro Bonta and others don’t strike a deal by October 1 clearly in mind the plain speaking Dougherty added: “Fast-tracking corporate greed often lends to the creative and skilled workforce losing. Stop playing games and show us more of your commitment to the workforce.”  

While MAGA friendly Ellison and other Paramount brass have indicted everything’s “on the table,” for better or worst, the hard fact is a trial on the AGs’ action has been set for spring 2027. A timetable that leaves any ParaBros meld frozen and could start accruing hundreds of millions in “ticking fees” for WBD shareholders ( $7 million a day starting at the end of September), as well as more regulatory hurdles for Team Ellison.

Of course, with Oracle founder and David’s dad Larry Ellison personally backing a big portion of the merger amidst a decline net worth, the finances of the WBD deal could get sticky before the actual Oakland-based trial begins. Then, to add to it all, there’s the $80 billion of debut a ParaBros combo will carry — and the pink slipping expected. Plus, even with assurances galore of editorial independence for CNN and a 30 movie a year release schedule, Ellison’s credibility as newly minted mogul intent on a new Hollywood golden era is getting pretty frayed pretty fast the past few weeks.

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Audrey Hepburn’s Son Had “Several Talks” With Lily Collins About Biopic

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More than 70 years after her onscreen breakout, Audrey Hepburn‘s legacy is an indomitable Hollywood presence to attempt to recreate onscreen.

With upcoming films starring Lilly Collins and Thomasin McKenzie as the late 2x Oscar winner, Hepburn’s sons recently shared their curiosity about the upcoming projects, with Sean Hepburn Ferrer revealing his work with Collins on her portrayal.

“We’ve had several talks about it, and I’ve told her that I think she should do something,” Sean told People. “I’ve suggested several things to Lily that have made her giggle and laugh.”

In February, Collins signed on to play Audrey Hepburn in Sam Wasson’s bestselling book Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the Dawn of the Modern Woman, which documented the making of 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Sean added, “I’ve known Natalie Portman since she was 14 and she’s a fantastic person. I’m close to Rooney Mara [once attached to a Luca Guadagnino-helmed biopic about Hepburn], who’s also a delightful girl. But Lily is something special.”

Thomasin McKenzie and Ansel Elgort as Audrey Hepburn and Hubert de Givenchy in ‘Dinner with Audrey

Sophie Elgort

With McKenzie playing Hepburn in Dinner with Audrey, which premiered at Cannes in May, about her longtime friendship with designer Count Hubert de Givenchy (Ansel Elgort), Sean noted, “I don’t know much about the project, but it sounds sweet. McKenzie seems like a very serious young actress. I’ve got my fingers crossed.”

Hepburn’s younger son Luca Dotti agreed, “I’m a curious bystander and I would love to see it.”

“[Collins] has forever been named as a possible successor of my mother, because of her looks and her talents, and Emily in Paris, and because of the fashion,” he added.

Known for her roles in Roman Holiday (1953), Sabrina (1954), Funny Face (1957), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) and My Fair Lady (1964), as well as her years of humanitarian work as a Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF, Audrey Hepburn died of cancer at age 63 in 1993.

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Disney’s Josh D’Amaro On The Biggest Opportunities As CEO & Why Other Media Companies “Are Trying To Look Like Disney”

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Josh D’Amaro attended his first D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, having succeeded Bob Iger five months ago.

On Day 3 of the Disney event, D’Amaro had a sit down with Ginnifer Goodwin where he opened up about the future of Disney and how it’s been for him as the new CEO of the company.

For starters, the executive says “it’s still strange” for people to refer to him as CEO “because I’ve been here for 30 years,” adding, “I started at an entry-level position at Disneyland in 1998.”

“I loved Disney growing up,” he said. “I visited the parks with my family. I remember those moments so clearly. They truly have stuck with me. I’ve been a fan first for my entire life, and then to come and actually work for the company — the moment I got inside the walls, it’s cool to be working for Disney.”

D’Amaro gave a shoutout to the cast members and “the leaders behind the scenes,” who “care about this place, care about the company, care about the fans in a real, genuine way. To be here at D23, it takes a lot of work to pull an event like this, but to see the fandom, to see the rewards of all the hard work that’s been put into making these places and making these stories as special as they are, there’s nothing like it.”

In terms of opportunities that D’Amaro considers for the future of the company he said there are several important things that are important to him at the highest level.

“First is that we are a company that tells the world’s best stories, and we will never — I will never relent on that,” he explained. “So, making sure that we’re making great films like Zootopia, making sure that we’re making the next attraction that just blows people away, the next Broadway show that pulls people in. As simple as it sounds, that has to be the focus of all leaders, quite frankly, at the Disney Company.”

D’Amaro also pointed that currently the industry is at the “intersection of technology and media,” adding, “I don’t think it’s ever been more relevant and more powerful. And this company, the Walt Disney Company, has always thrived in these moments, all the way back to to Walt as he was thinking about film and how to change how films are made, or Disneyland and animatronics.”

He continued, “We’re in this moment where I want to push in to the technology that’s available to us, marry it with this beautiful story making, and push the company forward.”

Lastly, D’Amaro noted that the Walt Disney Company is an accumulation of different things, wether it’s ESPN, a streamer, a theme park, and a film producer.

“We’re the Walt Disney Company, and for anyone that’s looking around contextually at the entertainment landscape right now, it kind of looks like people are trying to look like Disney,” he said. “They’ll try to buy some of this stuff and that stuff. And for us, we have all of that. We have the the best IP in the world. We have the best collection of businesses in the world. We have scale around the globe like nobody else has, and we have talent that everyone wishes they had. So if we now pull this whole company together in one, and show up as one company wherever that is-Disney+, or in a theme park, or at a place like D23-no one can compete with us. There’s nothing like the Walt Disney Company where we can operate as one.”

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Kristen Bell Makes Surprise Performance At Savannah Bananas Game

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For the first time in forever, Kristen Bell has both Frozen and baseball on the mind as she treated sports fans to a surprise performance from Princess Anna.

On Saturday, the 2x Golden Globe nominee popped up in the stands of the Savannah Bananas game against the Indianapolis Clowns in Denver, where she sang her Disney character’s song “For the First Time in Forever” in a mashup with Tony-nominated pitcher Derek Klena singing “Dancing Through Life” from Wicked, in which he performed as Fiyero Tigelaar on Broadway.

“The mashup we never knew we needed,” the team wrote on Instagram with a video of the performance, which also included “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing, complete with the lift.

Following his Tony-nominated 2017 performance in Jagged Little Pill, as well as subsequent Broadway runs in Moulin Rouge!, Sunset Boulevard and Wicked, Klena was scouted by the viral exhibition barnstorming team in December.

Bell’s surprise appearance came after she stopped by D23 in Anaheim to tease Anna’s wedding to Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) in Frozen 3, joining co-stars Idina Menzel and Josh Gad onstage to debut new music and scenes from the threequel. The Disney movie premieres Nov. 24, 2027.

The $2.76 billion-grossing launched with Frozen in 2013, followed by the 2019 sequel Frozen 2.

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