Entertainment
Iowa State AG Says She’s Taking California to Supreme Court Over Paramount
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced plans Tuesday to take California’s Rob Bonta to the Supreme Court over the state’s Paramount lawsuit. Bird published an op-ed in Daily Wire sharing why she plans to bring California directly to the Supreme Court over filing a brief in the state.
In the article, Bird argued that Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. would help the economy rather than hurt it, stating that “twelve states have overridden that judgment for the entire country, and Iowans never got a vote.”
“California is once again trying to be the country’s regulator. And once again California is defying common sense to raise costs around the country. That makes this a dispute between states, and the Constitution says those can only be heard in the U.S. Supreme Court,” Bird wrote. “Iowa cannot sue California in a district court, because Congress said so. Intervening in California’s chosen forum raises the same problem — at least until the Supreme Court tells us whether it agrees with Congress that it is the only court that can hear this case. Without that ruling, we would be walking into a case filed by California before a judge with no authority to decide a controversy between states.”
Assuming that Iowa could get oral arguments scheduled between Oct. 2026 and April 2027, a decision wouldn’t be made until late June or early July.
More to come …
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movies
Ted Hodgkinson To Join Hay Festival As Creative Director
Ted Hodgkinson, the Southbank Centre’s longtime director of literature and spoken word, is leaving the London institution to join Hay Festival in the newly created role of creative director.
Hodgkinson will officially join the Hay Festival team in the autumn. In the new role, Hodgkinson will be responsible for leading the event’s artistic and creative strategy and public programming.
He joins Hay’s executive team, led by Chief Executive Julie Finch. The wider executive team also includes International Director and co-Deputy CEO, Cristina Fuentes La Roche; Executive Producer and co-Deputy CEO, Adrian Lambert; Director of Communications and External Affairs, Christopher Bone; Finance Director Amanda Cartwright; Production Director Georgie Cooke; and Commercial Director Penny Compton.
“We’re delighted to welcome Ted Hodgkinson to Hay Festival Global as our new Creative Director,” Finch said in a statement. “Ted joins us at a pivotal moment, as we build towards our 40th anniversary in 2027 and respond to growing demand for Hay Festival platforms in the UK and around the world.”
Discussing his new role, Hodgkinson said he aims to build on the event’s “exceptionally strong foundations while being bold and ambitious in reimagining the programme for audiences in Hay-on-Wye and around the world, fired by the belief that its brightest years are still ahead.”
Across his decades-long tenure at the Southbank, Hodgkinson programmed more than 3,000 events, including the now-buzzy London Literature Festival, and expanded the Southbank’s cultural relevance with ambitious programming that mixed the institution’s classical literature programming with contemporary flourishes, like the partnership with Dua Lipa’s Service95 Book Club.
He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). He also serves as a trustee of English PEN, New Writing North and The Arts Foundation.
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movies
ReelShort Strikes Microdrama Deal With Indonesian Streamer Vidio
ReelShort has struck a deal with Indonesian streaming platform Vidio to bring hundreds of microdramas to local audiences, as well as co-produce new short dramas with Indonesian production houses.
ReelShort catalogue titles will be available on Vidio starting on September 1 through the dedicated Short Drama tab, launched by Vidio last year, for subscribers on the TV Extra, Platinum, Platinum Extra, and Ultimate packages.
The initial offering will include more than 200 titles across popular genres including romance, billionaire romance, fantasy and family drama, with a wide selection of titles available with Indonesian dubbing and subtitles.
In addition, a “sizable” slate of short drama series co-produced with Indonesian production houses will be made available across both platforms. In a statement, Vidio said the collaboration “creates opportunities for Indonesian creative talent to gain production expertise and knowledge from ReelShort’s global short-drama experience”.
The partnership, brokered by AR Global Media Network, is ReelShort’s first in Indonesia and is part of a wider expansion across Southeast Asia that has also included strategic partnerships with AIS in Thailand and Globe in the Philippines.
According to recent data from Media Partners Asia (MPA), ReelShort currently leads the short-form drama market with an estimated 29% global market revenue share. In Q2 2026, Vidio reached 5.8 million paid subscribers across Southeast Asia, ranking third regionally.
MPA data also shows that Indonesia has emerged as Asia-Pacific’s largest market for short-form drama consumption, accounting for 39% of the region’s total audience.
Sutanto Hartono, CEO of Vidio, said: “Vidio continues to evolve alongside the changing ways Indonesians consume entertainment. As audiences increasingly look for content that fits seamlessly into their daily lives, we want to ensure they can find every type of entertainment they love on a single platform, from live sports, local originals, global entertainment to now, the rapidly growing format of short dramas.
“Our partnership with ReelShort not only responds to this emerging audience demand but also strengthens Vidio’s position as Indonesia’s most comprehensive entertainment platform, offering more choice, greater convenience, and an even richer viewing experience for our subscribers.”
Joey Jia, Founder and CEO of Crazy Maple Studio, owner of ReelShort, said: “Our partnership with Vidio marks a significant milestone in ReelShort’s Southeast Asia growth strategy and reflects a fundamental shift in how audiences are consuming entertainment.
Indonesia is one of the region’s most dynamic entertainment markets. We see tremendous potential not only to expand access to our global catalogue, but also to create original stories for Indonesian audiences. Through our planned local productions with Vidio and Indonesian production partners, we look forward to combining ReelShort’s global experience in developing high-performing short-drama IP with local creative talent to build stories and franchises that resonate locally while reaching audiences across the region and beyond.”
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movies
Marlo Miazga Debuts M Media With “Deeply Personal” Doc For CBC
EXCLUSIVE: Canadian producer and showrunner Marlo Miazga is launching a production company with a “deeply personal” documentary for CBC about her death of her teenage son.
M Media will operate out of Toronto, as a IP-focused media business making scripted and unscripted content, with former Sphere Media boss Miazga at the helm.
Miazga’s debut commission, Ground Control, is a feature documentary that has been in development alongside a memoir she is writing for Random House Canada titled Ground Control: Losing My Child to Suicide. The book, co-written with journalist Katrina Onstad, details her tragic story of losing Miazga’s 14-year-old son, Mars, to suicide in 2020 and the aftermath.
Canadian pubcaster CBC has now greenlit production. This will begin in October with delivery aligned for spring next year following the official launch of the book on January 26, 2027. Production finance is in place with Telefilm Canada’s Theatrical Documentary Program, the Canada Media Fund’s POV program and the Roger Documentary Fund all contributing.
Directing the film is Chase Joynt (No Ordinary Man), with Greg Beer and Onstad the writers. Miazga will be joined as an executive producer by Catalyst founder Julie Bristow, who is a long-time colleague and an advocate for mental health, with Ryan Dias also an exec.
Ground Control will have a theatrical run in Canada, which is being handled by Eyesteel Films. Worldwide rights are being shopped.
Miazga is one of Canada’s premiere producers, and was most recently President and exec producer at Sphere Media’s Unscripted and Kids & Family arms. At Sphere, she oversaw docs such as Monkey on a Stick: Murder, Madness and the Hare Krishnas, an adaptation of Anne Allan’s book Dancing with Diana: A Memoir and a doc series based on Sophie Grégoire Trudeau’s memoir-cum-manifesto Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other.
Return to entrepreneurial roots
The launch of M returns Miazga to her entrepreneurial roots, having co-founder her first company, NewroadMedia, in 2011 with CBC exec Ann Marie Redmond.
She went on to work with Bristow, another former CBC exec, at Bristow Global Media (BGM), where she developed, created and produced several shows. BGM was ultimately sold to Kew Media, and later became part of Sphere (then Datsit Sphere) when Kew went into administration over six years ago.
She left Sphere in July last year, at which point she began work on her new venture.
“As M Media officially launches, the greenlight for Ground Control marks a deeply personal and professional turning point,” said Miazga. “After this period of reflection and planning, I’ve built the foundations of a company rooted in resilience, creativity, and ethical storytelling.
“We know how to make great shows, that has been proven countless times. The secret now is how to make them whilst experimenting, learning, adapting and remaining open, curious and kind. I’m now ready to tell the most important story of my life and to bring other stories that matter to audiences worldwide.’”
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