Tootfinder

David Ellison's disrupt-and-delay strategy on the Netflix-WBD deal hinges on US and EU regulators or Trump killing it outright or attaching onerous conditions (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/biz/news/david-ellison-w…

What Is David Ellison’s Warner Bros Discovery Endgame?
Paramount Skydance CEO is betting the regulatory tide will turn against the Netflix deal

About Me
Hussein Rashid, PhD, is founder of islamicate, L3C, a consultancy focusing on religious literacy and cultural competency.
He works with a variety of NGOs, foundations, non-profits, and governmental agencies for content expertise on religion broadly, with a specialization on Islam.
Academia
Hussein has a BA in Middle Eastern Studies from Columbia University, a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, and an M

Netflix execs refute a rumor that creatives making movies or shows are told to repeat plot points in dialogue often because viewers are distracted by phones (Michael Schneider/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/netflix-execs-not-asking-re…

Netflix Execs Say They're Not Really Asking Creatives to Repeat Plots
At a press conference on Wednesday, Netflix execs stressed that they're not really asking creatives to repeat TV and film plots.

Décapitée et ostracisée au Salon de l’agriculture, l’Agence bio est au bord de l’explosion | Mediapart
https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/200226/decapitee-et-ostracisee-au-salon-de-l-agriculture-l-ag…

Décapitée et ostracisée au Salon de l’agriculture, l’Agence bio est au bord de l’explosion
La ministre de l’agriculture maintient son plan de démantèlement de l’agence de soutien à la filière bio et a fait en sorte de déclencher une procédure de licenciement de sa directrice Laure Verdeau.

Prince Harry testified at London's High Court in his privacy case against Associated Newspapers, saying many articles made him "paranoid beyond belief" (Ellise Shafer/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/global/global/pr…

Prince Harry Daily Mail Case: Couldn't 'Complain' About Press as Royal
Prince Harry took the witness stand at London's High Court on Wednesday in his privacy case against the publisher of U.K. tabloid Daily Mail.

Fact Check: Variety Did NOT Report Ian Miles Cheong Was Killed By An Iranian Missile In Dubai: https://benborges.xyz/2026/03/03/fact-check-variety-did-not.html

The MPA has sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, demanding it add safeguards against infringement on Seedance 2.0 and stop AI training on studios' IP (Gene Maddaus/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/motion-picture-assoc…

Motion Picture Association Pushes ByteDance to Curb Seedance 2.0
The Motion Picture Association sent a letter to ByteDance on Friday urging it to delete studio IP from the Seedance training dataset.

Sony sends ByteDance a C&D letter over Seedance 2.0, joining Netflix, Paramount, WBD, and Disney in condemning the model's AI-generated copyright infringement (Gene Maddaus/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/sony-seedance-protest-1236666951/

Sony Joins Studio Protest Against Seedance 2.0 Infringement
Sony has joined in the studios' protest against infringement on Seedance 2.0, citing 'Breaking Bad' and 'Spider-Verse' AI clips circulating online.

By not airing Colbert's interview with Talarico, CBS bowed to FCC pressure preemptively as the agency hasn't formally eliminated talk show equal time exemptions (Naman Ramachandran/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/steph

Stephen Colbert Says CBS Blocked James Talarico Interview
Stephen Colbert revealed CBS lawyers blocked his 'Late Show' interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico over FCC equal time rule concerns.

Nielsen: CBS's Golden Globes coverage reached 8.7M viewers, down 6% from 9.3M viewers in 2025, which was down 2% on 2024; the ceremony clashed with NFL coverage (Selome Hailu/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/golden-globes-2026-ratings-nik…

Golden Globes 2026 Ratings: 8.7 Million Viewers Against Football
The Golden Globes reached an average of 8.7 million viewers on Sunday night, which marked the ceremony's third year airing on CBS.