Tootfinder

A look at eight pitch decks startups used to raise funds for AI tools for Hollywood, offering scaled dubbing, script analysis, synthetic voice/video, and more (Lucia Moses/Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-startups-hollywood-pitch-…

AI startups are raising millions to disrupt Hollywood. Read the pitch decks 8 used to get funding.
AI startups aim to shake up Hollywood. Read the pitch decks explaining how their tech is tackling production, special effects, distribution, and more.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #DriveTime
Frankie Goes to Hollywood:
🎵 Relax
#FrankieGoestoHollywood
https://labedit.bandcamp.com/track/frankie-goes-to-hollywood-relax-labedit
https://open.spotify.com/track/5WJ92b9eMC0xZ7BaukU1E4

In statements to the US Senate antitrust subcommittee, the DGA, PGA, and WGA raise concerns over the WBD sale amid hearings about Netflix's pending acquisition (Katie Campione/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2026/02/hollywood-guild-conce…

Hollywood Guilds Raise Concerns With Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Over Warner Bros. Sale Amid Netflix Congressional Hearings
The WGA, PGA and DGA all submitted prepared testimony to the Senate antitrust subcommittee regarding the potential sale of Warner Bros.

HBO Max's 4K Mad Men re-release had multiple errors, including lacking post-production edits in some scenes; a source says Lionsgate delivered the wrong 4K file (Tony Maglio/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-ne

The ‘Mad Men’ 4K Stream on HBO Max Had So Many Problems (Not All of Which Involved a Barf Machine)
But the best one definitely did.

Bonfire of the Murdochs book excerpt: how Rupert Murdoch bought into 20th Century Fox and learned about Hollywood, with the help of Barry Diller (Gabriel Sherman/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus…

How Rupert Murdoch Bet Big on Fox — And Changed American Culture Forever
An exclusive excerpt from 'Bonfire of the Murdochs' tells the inside story of the Australian mogul's bumpy introduction to Hollywood, and the origins of his TV empire.

TIL that the famous ILM special effects studio isn't in LA/Hollywood, as I though it was, but in San Francisco.
Go figure.

This whole thread is just… 🧑‍🍳🤌💋
#ttrpg #shadowrun https://xeno.glyphpress.com/@jack/115657286026101126…

Jack Graham (@jack@xeno.glyphpress.com)
Attached: 2 images Shadowrun 1e Archetypes: Hollywood Cast Mage: Jeff Goldblum /1 #shadowruncasting Credit: Shadowrun 1e illustrators Jeff Laubenstein, Tim Bradstreet, & Larry MacDougall

George Clooney Punches Back After Trump Attacks Him: "We Have to Make America Great Again. We'll Start in November" (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/george-clooney-pushes-back-trump-attacks-french-citizen-1236462527/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260102/p23#a260102p23

🛰️ Satellite data reveals new insights into sustainable groundwater usage in the Hollywood Basin
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-satellite-reveals-insights-sustainable-groundwater.html

Satellite data reveals new insights into sustainable groundwater usage in the Hollywood Basin
Groundwater is a critical resource in Southern California, where long-term drought and climate change place increasing pressure on local aquifers. Some regions, like the Hollywood Basin (a small region in and around the West Hollywood neighborhood), are increasing their reliance on these aquifers in order to reduce the amount of water imported from elsewhere. A new Caltech-led study provides the most detailed picture to date of how the Hollywood Basin responds to groundwater usage, revealing th…

The Real Reason We’re All Annoyed With Quentin Tarantino https://jacobin.com/2025/12/hollywood-film-tarantino-kill-bill/

The Real Reason We’re All Annoyed With Quentin Tarantino
With nothing but a new cut of Kill Bill to offer, Quentin Tarantino has gone into semiretirement right as American cinema is fighting for its very life. And to make matters worse, he won’t stop talking smack.

Udo Kier ist tot: Deutscher Hollywood-Star stirbt mit 81 Jahren https://www.digitalfernsehen.de/news/inhalte/buntes/udo-kier-ist-tot-deutscher-hollywood-star-stirbt-mit-81-jahren-1164921/

Udo Kier ist tot: Deutscher Hollywood-Star stirbt mit 81 Jahren
Udo Kier spielte in in über 200 Filmen mit. Zu seinen Auftritten gehörte auch die TV-Serie "Hospital der Geister".

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MiddayShow
Father John Misty:
🎵 Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings
#FatherJohnMisty
https://fatherjohnmisty.bandcamp.com/track/hollywood-forever-cemetery-sings-12
https://open.spotify.com/track/3O30ywyRk6EKT68sBvVqOP

Strange little plane at Hollywood Burbank airport

Jane Fonda warns that a WBD merger in any form is an alarming escalation in media consolidation, threatening the entertainment industry and the First Amendment (Jane Fonda/The Ankler)
https://theankler.com/p/jane-fonda-op-ed-the-wbd-deal-puts

Jane Fonda Op-Ed: The WBD Deal Puts Hollywood, and Democracy, at Risk
What terrifies me — and should terrify anyone who cares about a free society

God bless StreetsLA.
▶️ How StreetsLA Took On Scientology and Shut Down Their Hollywood Operation
#streetsla

Tech-Milliardär Ellison garantiert Teil des Warner-Gebots
Das Hollywood-Urgestein Warner Brothers ließ die Familie des Tech-Milliardärs Larry Ellison mit einem Übernahmeangebot abblitzen. Ellison bessert nun nach.

Leigh Steinberg on a Christmas night when the Cowboys, history, and Hollywood converged https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/dallas-cowboys/news/leigh-steinberg-christmas-night-when-cowboys…

TikTok US says it has resolved technical issues and glitches that have impacted core features, such as video likes and view counts, over the past week (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

TikTok Says U.S. Service Now Fully Restored After Dayslong Outage Sparked by Cold Weather
The outage happened just days after U.S. companies, including Oracle, assumed control of the domestic operations of the video platform.

Porn has long been a proving ground for new technology.
When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century it was quickly deployed to print bawdy pamphlets.
Adult films were put on video in 1977, a year before mainstream Hollywood ones,
and dominated sales for some time.
When Minitel, a French precursor to the internet, was launched in the early 1980s, erotic services initially accounted for between one-third and a half of all traffic.
I…

NBC's Savannah Guthrie cancels plans to travel to Milan for Winter Olympics coverage, amid a search for her missing 84-year-old mother (Jackie Strause/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/sava…

Savannah Guthrie Pulls Out of NBC’s Winter Olympics Coverage as Mother Remains Missing
The 'Today' co-host's mom, Nancy Guthrie, was reported missing on Sunday, with her disappearance now being treated as a possible kidnapping or abduction.

An interview with Christopher Nolan about becoming president of the Directors Guild of America, labor negotiations, studios striking AI deals, and more (Katie Kilkenny/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Christopher Nolan Wants to Know Where All the Hollywood Jobs Are, Too
In his first interview as president of the Directors Guild of America, the ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Dark Knight’ helmer called a recent downturn in employment at the union “very troubling.”

‘The most dangerous man in America’: how Paul Robeson went from Hollywood to blacklist
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jan/21/paul-robeson-hollywood-blacklist-mccarthyism?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

RIP - Schauspielerin Catherine O’Hara ist mit 71 Jahren gestorben
https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/amerika/schauspielerin-ohara-tod-100.html

Hollywood-Star Catherine O'Hara ist tot
Ob als gestresste Mutter in "Kevin - Allein zu Haus" oder exzentrischer Soap-Star in "Schitt's Creek": Catherine O´Hara brachte Generationen von Zuschauern zum Lachen. Nun starb sie im Alter von 71 Jahren in Los Angeles.

https://mstdn.plus/@gcvsa/115629686468055123 Truth is stranger than fiction. unbelievable, harvard, dominant hegemony privilege etc etc

Scott Mills, the president and CEO of BET, is exiting the company after 23 years; BET's president of media sales Louis Carr will take over as CEO (Tony Maglio/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/scott-mills-out-as-ce…

Scott Mills Exits as CEO of BET
President of media sales Louis Carr takes over the role.

RIP Isaiah Whitlock Jr.
The 71 yr old actor was perhaps best known for playing the corrupt Senator Clay Davis in the Baltimore based HBO series The Wire.
Born on September 13, 1954, in South Bend, Indiana, after numerous football injuries kept him off the gridiron he found the stage. His first Hollywood film roles did not occur until the early 1990s earning small roles in Gremlins 2: The New Batch and #Goodfellas

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music
Laufey:
🎵 Castle in Hollywood
#Laufey
https://open.spotify.com/track/3zTnSPti5JjNsowJH4SS3u

CBS Evening News co-anchor Maurice DuBois will exit CBS News on December 18, as EIC Bari Weiss and President Tom Cibrowski overhaul the evening newscast (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-ne

Maurice DuBois to Exit CBS News as Bari Weiss Preps Evening News Overhaul
DuBois follows his co-anchor John Dickerson, who will leave CBS at the end of the year.

№ 8 Adam Hinton 6'4" from Hollywood Hills, California looks for a way around the Princeton Tigers -- I took this photo yesterday but I'm heading back to Newman this evening to catch a game against the Pennsylvania Quakers
#photo #photography

A wonderful documentary about the Amazing Randi, magician, skeptic & debunker of charlatans & frauds.
(And the intro features clips of him walking about the famous Magic Castle in Hollywood where video is disallowed!)
▶️ "An Honest Liar"
https://youtu.be/Q3b-q9W0AJw?si=f1SISR

Sources: Disney has been hesitant to license its IP to Roblox because it doesn't consider it a safe platform, bucking the trend followed by Netflix and others (Jennifer Maas/Variety)
https://variety.com/2025/gaming/news/roblox-fortnite-hollywood-…

Roblox and Fortnite Team With Hollywood: Brand Collabs, Safety Issues
How Roblox and Fortnite are being utilized by Hollywood studios to spread brand awareness, even as safety proves to be an issue.

Along with Spotify, The Joe Rogan Experience also topped Apple and YouTube's podcast charts in 2025, dominating all major platforms for the first time (Caitlin Huston/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/…

Joe Rogan Dominated All Major Podcast Platforms in 2025
His podcast topped Spotify's 2025 global list, released Wednesday, as well as Apple and YouTube.

David Ellison baut mit Skydance und der frisch geschluckten Paramount Global an einem Medienimperium, das perfekt ins Familienbild passt: Vater Larry kontrolliert mit Oracle die Cloud, Sohn David die Screens. Die Ellisons digitalisieren Macht – von der Datenbank bis zum Blockbuster.
#Medienkritik #Hollywood

mdr.de – Radio, Fernsehen, Nachrichten für Mitteldeutschland | MDR.DE
Nachrichten, Sport, Kultur, Unterhaltung, Audios und Videos aus Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thüringen und der Welt. Und das MDR-Programm in Radio und TV.

CBS pulls a 60 Minutes segment with contributor Peter Attia that was set to re-air after the Super Bowl, as Attia's name appears ~1,700 times in Epstein docs (Rick Porter/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-ne

CBS News Pulls ’60 Minutes’ Segment With Peter Attia From Rerun After Epstein Files Revelation
Attia, named a contributor to the network last week, is named in the latest release of documents related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

#Memphis: there’s a free brake light repair clinic this Saturday! Don’t be giving #Trump’s #tAsKfOrCe nazis a reason to pull you over; make sure your lights are good.
Volunteers will be replacing brake and…

'Melania' Review: Brett Ratner's Melania Trump Documentary Is an Unabashed, Fly-on-the-Gilded-Wall Fawn Job (Frank Scheck/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/melania-review-brett-ratner-melania-trump-documentary-1236489604/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260130/p159#a260130p159

Netflix: Keine Änderung an Kino-Zeitfenster nach Warner-Kauf
Dass Netflix als Streaming-Spezialist das Hollywood-Studio Warner Bros. kaufen könnte, sorgt für Unruhe bei Kino-Betreibern. Netflix beschwichtigt.
h…

Versant says it has acquired Free TV Networks, which owns several digital broadcast and FAST channels, and INDY Cinema Group, which will fold into Fandango (Rick Porter/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Versant Plans Fandango FAST Offering, Acquires Digital Broadcast Operator Free TV Networks
The company is also adding movie theater operations outfit INDY Cinema Group to its portfolio.

Hoe groot de Epstein zaak eigenlijk was heb ik me nooit gerealiseerd...
Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social€):
'Epstein Survivor Lisa Phillips: Many survivors came forward, and we began comparing notes and working with people in Congress.
As we started connecting the dots, we realized that some of us were sent to the same person in Hollywood for movie auditions. Some of us went to the same modeling agency…'
De bodem lijkt nog niet in zicht...
📽️
#EpsteinFiles

I'm a Hollywood writer; so I put on a sports jacket and take off my brain.

🔊 #NowPlaying on #BBCRadio3:
#SoundOfCinema
- Composer Brian Irvine's Harmonising Hollywood and Alyn Shipton chooses his Pick of the Flicks
Join Edith Bowman for a celebration of the greatest movie soundtracks- plus composer Brian Irvine with Harmonising Hollywood and Alyn Shipton chooses his Pick of the Flicks
Relisten now 👇
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002prfr

Nielsen: CBS' Grammy broadcast averaged 14.41M viewers, down 6% from 15.4M in 2025 and a 17.09M post-pandemic high in 2024; Disney will broadcast it from 2027 (Rick Porter/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/2026-gra…

TV Ratings: Grammys Draw 14.4 Million Viewers, Decline in Final Year on CBS
The audience for the awards falls by about 6 percent from 2025.

Substack hires former Google exec Mark Swierszcz as its head of partnerships in Canada, its third-largest market worldwide, as it expands beyond the US and UK (Etan Vlessing/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Substack Bets On Canada as Next Expansion Market (Exclusive)
“We’re moving quickly,” Farrah Storr, head of international at Substack, tells THR after hiring Mark Swierszcz as its new Canadian head of partnerships, with more country hires in the works worldwide.

🎞️ Cinemas and unions sound alarms over Netflix-Warner Bros. deal
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2025-12-05/netflix-warner-deal-how-theaters-and-unions-are-reacting
🆓

Cinemas and unions sound alarms over Netflix-Warner Bros. deal
Hollywood unions and trade groups raised concerns about the proposed tie-up between Netflix and Warner Bros.' film and TV studios, HBO and HBO Max.

Fubo reports Q1 revenue up 40% YoY to $1.55B, up 6% to $1.68B pro forma after closing Disney's Hulu merger, and 6.2M North American subscribers, down from 6.3M (Etan Vlessing/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Fubo Hits 6.2 Million Combined Subscribers After Closing Disney’s Hulu Merger
The sports-first streamer and ESPN also unveiled a reseller and marketing deal to expand the reach and distribution of Fubo services.

More than 500 writers, actors, and technologists launch the Creators Coalition on AI to push standards for how AI is trained and used across creative industries (Chris Gardner/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/gen

Hollywood Insiders Unite to Fight for Future of Industry With Launch of Creators Coalition on AI
The organization, which published four distinct goals and a call to action while gathering hundreds of signatories, hopes to act as a central coordinating hub to upgrade industry systems and institutions.

HBO Max's 4K Mad Men re-release had multiple errors, including lacking post-production edits in some scenes; a source says Lionsgate delivered the wrong 4K file (Tony Maglio/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-ne

The ‘Mad Men’ 4K Stream on HBO Max Had So Many Problems (Not All of Which Involved a Barf Machine)
But the best one definitely did.

Trying very hard to maintain my calm.
☑️ Hollywood stars, politicians pay tribute to Rob Reiner and his wife following their shocking deaths
Reiner, 78, was found dead alongside wife, Michele Singer Reiner, 68, at their home in Los Angeles on Sunday.
https://www.<…

Rob Reiner death: Tributes pour in for filmmaker and his wife, Michele
Hollywood luminaries and political heavyweights expressed their shock and sadness Sunday night upon learning that prolific director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their Los Angeles home.

Michail Chkhikvishvili,
a self-described cult leader who called himself “Commander Butcher”,
did not look like a Hollywood vision of a contemporary terrorist,
despite the bizarre, almost made-for-TV extremist actions he planned,
such as having people dressed as Santa Claus hand out poison candies on the streets of New York.
Chkhikvishvili appeared in a Brooklyn court last week as one might find an office IT tech:
close-cropped hair and black-rimmed glasses…

Among media stocks in 2025, WBD surged 172%, Fox jumped 47.3%, Paramount Skydance rose 29%, Netflix was up just 5.7%, and Disney was up 2.25%; Comcast fell ~20% (The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Hollywood Stocks in 2025: Winners, Losers and Surprises
The M&A-boosted Warner Bros. Discovery, as well as Sphere Entertainment, Fox, and Imax were among the gainers, while Netflix moved little, and some cinema operators declined over the past year.

Netflix changed movie distribution and its executives now think that licensing shows leaves money on the table; YouTube may help Netflix's WBD antitrust case (Ben Thompson/Stratechery)
https://stratechery.com/2025/netflix-and-the-hollywood-end-game/

Netflix and the Hollywood End Game
Netflix is driving the Hollywood end game, likely confident it can increase the value of IP, and fend off YouTube.

25 year run of #Hollywood hipster #livemusic venue began with providing ice & glasses for #BYOB customers is closing in 2026.
But #HotelCafe

Hollywood Doesn't Want Netflix to Buy Warner Bros. (Sharon Waxman/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/opinion/netflix-warner-bros-hollywood.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/251207/p64#a251207p64

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #SonicReducer
Hunx and His Punx:
🎵 Alone in Hollywood On Acid
#HunxandHisPunx
https://hunxandhispunx.bandcamp.com/track/alone-in-hollywood-on-acid-2
https://open.spotify.com/track/5KZq4gwGMaN1c9ITPSuv8v

How the rise of AI has divided Hollywood, as some oppose the use of the technology while others say they are exploring ways to utilize AI tools (Lucas Shaw/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-ai-hollywood/

From Seinfeld to Shawshank, Rob Reiner changed Hollywood for ever https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/dec/15/rob-reiner-director-this-is-spinal-tap-when-harry-met-sally?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Employers slashed more than 150,000 jobs in October,
the largest wave of layoffs in more than 20 years,
a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Nov. 6.
From tech to Hollywood, retailers and utilities,
U.S. companies are intensifying job cuts and workforce reductions that began in 2024,
as they focus on cost savings and leaner operations amid a challenging economic environment.
Firms have pointed to a myriad of causes for their layoffs,
fr…

Layoffs are hitting. See the major companies cutting jobs in 2025.
Verizon, Amazon, Target and Paramount are just a few of the many companies to have announced layoffs in 2025.

Luma AI opens its first international office in London and appoints former WPP and Monks executive Jason Day to lead its global expansion outside the US (Georg Szalai/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Luma AI Opens London Office, Led by Former WPP Executive Jason Day
Putting multimodal artificial generative intelligence (AGI) into "the hands of creative professionals around the world – be they marketers, gamers, or film studios – will transform the entire creative process."

The first four episodes of Stranger Things 5 were the second-biggest premiere for any Netflix original series, behind only the second season of Squid Game (Rick Porter/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-new…

‘Stranger Things 5’ Scores Netflix’s Second Biggest Premiere Week Ever for a Series
Only season two of ‘Squid Game’ has had a better opening in the streamer’s internal measurement.

Spotify paid out $11B to the music industry in 2025, up 10% YoY, bringing its all-time payments to $70B, and now accounts for ~30% of recorded music revenue (Ethan Millman/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/mu

Spotify Paid Out $11B in Royalties to Music Industry in 2025, All-Time Payments Surpass $70B
Spotify head of music Charlie Hellman called payouts "the largest annual payment to music from any retailer in history."

Disney says ESPN is valued at ~$30B and the NFL's 10% equity stake in ESPN valued at ~$3B; Disney has the right to buy back NFL's stake in 2034, per a filing (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

ESPN Valued at $30 Billion As Disney Reveals New Details on NFL Deal
Disney has the right to buy back the NFL's stake beginning in July 2034, with the league holding an option to acquire more of ESPN.

Always always always adopt your pets.
Shelter dogs have such wonderful personalities.
▶️ Rob Lowe has some thoughts about surprise puppy presents
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2025/12/23/rob-lowe-do…

Rob Lowe says dog adoptions should be like a Hollywood 'screen test'
Rob Lowe is known for being an avid dog lover. He shares what he's learned from years of being a dog dad and partnership with Ultimate Pet Nutrition.

A look at Rupert Murdoch's California Post, which will focus on LA, Silicon Valley, and Sacramento when it launches in 2026; Ian Mohr will lead CA Page Six (Lachlan Cartwright/Vanity Fair)
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/rupert-murdoc…

Rupert Murdoch’s Last Hurrah: Conquering Hollywood With the 'California Post'
California is a veritable news feast—politicians with national ambitions, climate disasters, the twin industries of Hollywood and tech. And News Corp sees a media weakness to exploit.

Wicked: For Good's and Zootopia 2's strong opening sales quieten Hollywood's resurgent pessimism about the movie business, even as US ticket sales decline YoY (Lucas Shaw/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters

Sources: SAG-AFTRA "is building a war room to oppose" the WBD-Netflix merger, including plans for a potential strike (James Franey/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2025/12/22/media/hollywood-actors-union-could-strike-over-ne…

Exclusive | Hollywood actors' union secretly plotting possible strike over Netflix-WBD merger: sources
Hollywood actors could go on strike over the planned Netflix-Warner Bros. Discovery tie-up, with their trade union secretly plotting a possible work stoppage in the New Year over fears the merger c…

Q&A with Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters on Netflix's stock roller coaster, viewer engagement, ads, the WBD acquisition, regulation, competition, Hollywood, and more (Ben Thompson/Stratechery)
https://stratechery.com/2026/an-intervi…

An Interview with Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters About Engagement and Warner Bros.
An interview with Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters about engagement, competition, and the Warner Bros. acquisition.

UCLA study: among the most-watched streaming series in 2024, 80% of lead actors were white and white men accounted for 79% of all show creators, vs. 77% in 2023 (Payton Turkeltaub/Variety)
https://variety.com/2025/streaming/news/hollywood-diversi…

Hollywood Diversity Report: Underrepresented Stories Grow on Streaming
The Hollywood Diversity Report for 2024 streaming TV from UCLA reported fewer leading roles for women and women of color than in 2023.

Sources: Disney has been hesitant to license its IP to Roblox because it doesn't consider it a safe platform, bucking the trend followed by Netflix and others (Jennifer Maas/Variety)
https://variety.com/2025/gaming/news/roblox-fortnite-hollywood-…

Roblox and Fortnite Team With Hollywood: Brand Collabs, Safety Issues
How Roblox and Fortnite are being utilized by Hollywood studios to spread brand awareness, even as safety proves to be an issue.

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan publishes his annual letter, saying the platform wants to fight "AI slop" and strengthen parental tools, and touts new AI Shorts tools (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan’s Big Ideas for 2026: More Superstar Creators and Transparency, Less AI Slop
The executive published his annual letter to the YouTube community Wednesday, outlining his priorities for the video platform.

Sources: White House officials discussed antitrust concerns over Netflix's interest in WBD, questioning if a deal would give Netflix too much power in Hollywood (Charles Gasparino/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2025/11/…

Exclusive | White House officials have raised antitrust concerns over Netflix's bid for Warner Bros. Discovery: sources
A high-level meeting that took place about 10 days ago hasn’t been previously reported. Several White House officials also suggested during the sitdown that a broader investigation is necessa…

A profile of Matthew Belloni, the writer of Puck's What I'm Hearing newsletter and host of The Town podcast, who has become a must-read for Hollywood news (Irina Aleksander/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/business/matthew-belloni-puc…

Matthew Belloni Is Yelling ‘Iceberg!’ on the Hollywood Titanic
Matthew Belloni has grabbed the movie industry’s attention by saying they’re about to sink.

On Joe Rogan's JRE, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck discuss Hollywood and AI; Damon says Netflix wants movies to restate the plot because viewers are on their phones (Jack Dunn/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/matt-damon-netfl…

Matt Damon: Netflix Wants Movies to Account for Viewers on Their Phone
Matt Damon says Netflix wants movies to restate 'the plot three or four times in the dialogue' to account for viewers using their phones.

More than 500 writers, actors, and technologists launch the Creators Coalition on AI to push standards for how AI is trained and used across creative industries (Chris Gardner/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/gen

Hollywood Insiders Unite to Fight for Future of Industry With Launch of Creators Coalition on AI
The organization, which published four distinct goals and a call to action while gathering hundreds of signatories, hopes to act as a central coordinating hub to upgrade industry systems and institutions.

Nielsen: Christmas Day 2025 set a record for US streaming usage with 55.1B minutes, or 54% of all TV viewing for the day, up by 3.9B minutes on Christmas 2024 (Rick Porter/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Christmas 2025 Was the Biggest Streaming Day Ever in the United States, Says Nielsen
The month of December also marked another all-time high for streaming usage.

How the rise of AI has divided Hollywood, as some oppose the use of the technology while others say they are exploring ways to utilize AI tools (Lucas Shaw/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-ai-hollywood/

Hollywood’s AI Experiments Are in Conflict With What Actors and Directors Want
The entertainment industry is torn between keeping up and keeping talent happy.

Greg Peters says Netflix plans to bring new content types like video podcasts to its vertical video feed, and plans to roll out a new mobile UI later in 2026 (Caitlin Huston/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Netflix Is Testing Vertical Video Features For Mobile
The streamer plans to add video podcasts into its mobile feed and upgrade its mobile user interface.

Don Lemon is released from custody on a no money bond; Lemon's lawyer says he intends to plead not guilty (Winston Cho/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/don-lemon-released-arrest-church-pro…

Don Lemon Released After Arrest Over Coverage of Minnesota Church Protest
The government has accused the former CNN anchor of interfering with church-goers' rights to freely practice their religious beliefs.

Netflix changed movie distribution and its executives now think that licensing shows leaves money on the table; YouTube may help Netflix's WBD antitrust case (Ben Thompson/Stratechery)
https://stratechery.com/2025/netflix-and-the-hollywood-end-game/

Netflix and the Hollywood End Game
Netflix is driving the Hollywood end game, likely confident it can increase the value of IP, and fend off YouTube.

A profile of David Ellison, who is trying to build a media empire that could dwarf even the Murdochs' with help from his father and Oracle founder Larry Ellison (Reeves Wiedeman/Vulture)
https://www.vulture.com/article/larry-david-e…

Can Larry and David Ellison’s Oracle Money Buy Hollywood?
With help from his father, Larry, and their billions in Oracle money, David Ellison is trying to become the biggest studio mogul in Hollywood history.

NBC says the 2025 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade drew a record 34.3M viewers across NBC and Peacock, up 8% YoY; NBC's live broadcast averaged 25.4M viewers (Kimberly Nordyke/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-ne

2025 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Gobbles Up Record 34.3 Million Viewers Across NBC and Peacock
NBC's live airing alone topped 25 million viewers.

A survey of 700 Hollywood insiders: 52% think Netflix will buy WBD, 80% say they use AI in their work, 30% predict Josh D'Amaro as Disney's next CEO, and more (Lucas Shaw/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-12-21/…

Spotify paid out $11B to the music industry in 2025, up 10% YoY, bringing its all-time payments to $70B, and now accounts for ~30% of recorded music revenue (Ethan Millman/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/mu

Spotify Paid Out $11B in Royalties to Music Industry in 2025, All-Time Payments Surpass $70B
Spotify head of music Charlie Hellman called payouts "the largest annual payment to music from any retailer in history."

YouTube TV and TelevisaUnivision strike a deal to return TelevisaUnivision channels to YouTube TV; YouTube will launch Primetime Channels in Mexico (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

TelevisaUnivision Channels Return to YouTube TV as Companies Strike Deal
Nearly two months after the Spanish-language media network went dark on the service, it will return, with YouTube bringing its Primetime Channels offering to Mexico with ViX.

Ryan Lizza claims Olivia Nuzzi regularly shared "opposition research" that she obtained from sources with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his 2024 presidential bid (The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/pol

Ryan Lizza Claims Olivia Nuzzi Would Share “Opposition Research” With Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The claim is the latest in a series of explosive allegations about the Vanity Fair West Coast editor and the Health and Human Services Secretary, who allegedly had an affair last year.

In a staff meeting, Bari Weiss says CBS News will be "toast" if it clings to its broadcast audience and will put a "huge emphasis on scoops...scoops of ideas" (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-ne…

Bari Weiss Unveils Sweeping Vision: “I Am Here to Make CBS News Fit for Purpose in the 21st Century”
Weiss rallied the troops and outlined her vision at an all-hands meeting Tuesday morning, naming a lineup of new contributors: "Our strategy until now has been to cling to the audience that remains on broadcast television. If we stick to that strategy we're toast."

YouTube streaming the Oscars in 2029 makes Netflix's WBD bid less likely to face antitrust issues, as it shows Netflix might need WBD to compete against YouTube (M.G. Siegler/Spyglass)
https://spyglass.org/future-of-hollywood-youtube-netflix/

YouTube Hands the Best Acquisition Oscar to Netflix
With YouTube poaching The Academy Awards, it sure feels like Netflix is going to be allowed to buy Warner Bros now...

With a $1.7B global box office, Disney's Zootopia 2 becomes the highest grossing animated film from a Hollywood studio, behind the Chinese hit Ne Zha 2 (Jeremy Fuster/The Wrap)
https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/zootopia-2-animation-bo…

'Zootopia 2' Is Now Hollywood's Highest Grossing Animated Film Ever With $1.7 Billion
The Disney sequel has passed Pixar's "Inside Out 2" with $1.7 billion grossed worldwide

TikTok's first awards show, held on December 18, handed out 14 awards, including Creator of the Year for Keith Lee; at the event, none of the screens worked (Kirsten Chuba/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Inside the TikTok Awards: Paris Hilton and a Labubu Cannon Take Center Stage While Tech Issues Plague Inaugural U.S. Show
The event, which streamed live from the Hollywood Palladium on Thursday, handed out 14 awards and battled problems with its video screens.

A look at David Ellison's potential proxy fight for WBD, which could be Hollywood's most explosive battle in terms of cost and public scrutiny (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

The Fight For Warner Bros. May Get Much Uglier
After multiple rejections, David Ellison could hit the nuclear button in his quest to wrest the studio empire from would-be-buyer Netflix. But this next fight may be a more public — and bruising.

Zootopia 2 grossed $624.6M in China through Sunday, nearly as much as every other Hollywood movie released in the country in 2025 combined (Ben Fritz/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/disney…

An interview with Substack CEO Chris Best about the new TV app, how videos and livestreams complement editorial content, plans for audio posts, and more (Etan Vlessing/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/substa…

Substack CEO Unpacks Logic of Launching a TV App
On the heels of Instagram rolling out a Reels app for connected TV, newsletter creators can now offer videos and livestreams to subscribers via Apple TV and Google TV.

First Lady Melania Trump and director Brett Ratner held a private screening of their controversial Amazon-funded documentary, Melania, at the WH on Saturday (Lexy Perez/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/m

Inside the White House Screening for Amazon’s ‘Melania’ Doc (Exclusive Photos)
The White House held a private screening of the doc on Saturday night that included black-tied VIPs, monogrammed popcorn tubs and a military band playing movie tunes.

Ampere: US sports rights spending expected to increase 20% by 2030 to over $78B; recent NBA and MLB rights deals will account for nearly half of all spend (Tony Maglio/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

New NBA and MLB TV Deals Will Drive Global Sports-Media Spend to $78 Billion in Five Years
Ampere Analysis forecasts a 20 percent increase by 2030.

Amazon MGM TV Chief Peter Friedlander restructures the unit into genre-based teams, moving away from a structure around wholly owned series and co-productions (Rick Porter/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/amazo…

Amazon MGM Studios TV Chief Peter Friedlander Sets Major Reorganization
Laura Lancaster and Nick Pepper are leaving the studio, while Netflix alum Blair Fetter joins as head of genre series.

PG-rated movies dominate the US Box Office, driven by films like A Minecraft Movie; an NRG study finds kids want a social experience with friends and family (Ben Cohen/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/wicked-

Hollywood Is Reeling—and PG Movies Have Never Been So Popular
The PG rating has become the king of the box office. The entertainment business now relies on kids dragging their parents to theaters.

None of the 25 dramas and comedies in N. American theaters in the last three months had $50M in sales; October had the lowest box office on record, except 2020 (Brooks Barnes/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/business/media/box-office-co…

Why Hollywood’s Star-Studded Movies Are Failing at the Box Office
It has been a brutal three months for dramas and comedies.

Q&A: Stephanie Ruhle, Katy Tur, Ali Velshi, and Brandy Zadrozny talk about MSNBC's rebrand to MS NOW, extending their work to platforms like YouTube, and more (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

How a Cable News Channel Starts Over: A Candid Chat With MS NOW’s Anchors
Stephanie Ruhle, Ali Velshi, Katy Tur and Brandy Zadrozny sit with The Hollywood Reporter for a discussion about the changes coming to the channel formerly known as MSNBC.

Anonymous Content, the production company whose lead investor is Emerson Collective, names Ford Foundation ex-president Darren Walker as president and CEO (Robin Pogrebin/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/23/arts/design/darren-walker-anonymou…

For His Next Act, Darren Walker Is Heading to Hollywood
Anonymous Content, a production company whose top investor is Laurene Powell Jobs’s Emerson Collective, has named Darren Walker as president and chief executive.

A US judge denies WBD's bid to block Sling TV from selling short-term offerings that let users sign up for access to its bundles for as little as one day (Winston Cho/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/…

What’s a “Subscription?” Warner Bros. Discovery and ESPN Find Out the Hard Way
Dish Network leveraged ambiguity around the term in licensing deals with Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney to offer short-term Sling TV subscription passes.

Q&A with Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters on Netflix's stock roller coaster, viewer engagement, ads, the WBD acquisition, regulation, competition, Hollywood, and more (Ben Thompson/Stratechery)
https://stratechery.com/2026/an-intervi…

An Interview with Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters About Engagement and Warner Bros.
An interview with Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters about engagement, competition, and the Warner Bros. acquisition.