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Rob Lowe revealed that he had a good sense of humor when he neared the end of his time on The West Wing, and he even showed off a prop he made before he officially parted ways with the series.

In a TikTok video posted on Thursday, Lowe spoke directly to the camera as he stood in a storage room. “So a lot has been talked about my issues, such as they were on The West Wing, which I love. I love that show and I love everybody in it,” he began. “It’s all good now, but there were some difficulties.”

Lowe said that at one point, “they had sort of written [him] off the show” and it left him feeling like he didn’t have “a lot to do.”

“So I made these and I sent them to everybody affiliated with the show. The network, the studio, producers,” Lowe...

Tim Bagley is looking back at trying to land a role on Saturday Night Live.

In a new interview, the 67-year-old actor – who has appeared on shows including Grace & Frankie, Will & Grace, Web Therapy, and Somebody Somewhere – recalled being a member of the sketch comedy troupe the Groundlings back in the 1980s.

Despite being a part of the group that launched the careers of many SNL stars, Tim claimed that back at that time, he couldn’t audition for the NBC sketch comedy series because he was a publicly out gay man.

Keep reading to find out more…“I was out as a gay man and people knew that they would not hire openly gay people,” Tim alleged on The Julia Cunningham Show, referencing SNL boss Lorne Michaels and late manager Bernie Brillstein.

“[They] had kind of a thing where they did not hire gay people, so I never got to audition,...

Tim Bagley recently appeared on Radio Andy’s “The Julia Cunningham Show” and revealed that he was never given the opportunity to audition for “Saturday Night Live” due to his sexuality. He also opened up about the struggles he faced growing up gay in a society and household that labeled his identity a mental illness.

TV’s Unsung Gay Icon: Tim BagleyThe Julia Cunningham ShowListen on the App

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“I was out as a gay man and people knew that they would not hire openly gay people,” Tim said about the “Saturday Night Live” audition process years ago.

“It was Lorne Michaels and Bernie Brillstein had kind of a thing where they did not hire gay people, so I never got to audition,” the “Somebody Somewhere” continued. “All my friends did, and I was always kind of a standout at The Groundlings, but I was out, and...

Barry Diller’s colorful, candid new memoir Who Knew is a book that can’t help but read a bit like a bookend. Not necessarily for himself, or even for his cohort, but for the era of colorful, candid memoirs authored by Hollywood heavyweights.

It’s an entertaining shelf. Paramount head Bob Evans’ The Kid Stays in the Picture is the lodestar, followed by volumes from a pair of trailblazing female producers: Julia Phillips’ You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again and Lynda Obst’s Hello, He Lied. Those at the margins of the business have told some of the most memorable stories (recall Golden Age sex broker Scotty Bowers’ Full Service), although there have been revealing accounts at or near the top from managers Bernie Brillstein and Jerry Weintraub, indie legend Christine Vachon and the super-agent Michael Ovitz.

These days, two factors are pushing the fun out of memoirs.

With the exception of one solitary journalist, pretty much everyone in the world seems to like Martin Short. In addition to the fact that he’s made us laugh in classic shows like Sctv, and iconic movies such as Three Amigos, he also seems to be a genuinely nice guy. Jiminy Glick, on the other hand, is a giant asshole.

Short recently guested on Amy Poehler’s new podcast Good Hang and attempted to explain his rotund alter-ego’s casual meanness, which surprises even him sometimes. After all, not every interviewer would be so cruel as to introduce Ice Cube as “Vanilla Ice.”

“The thing that was weird for me doing Jiminy Glick was that, because it was improvised, I would say things that even shocked me afterwards,” Short explained.

One example of an unexpected improv going south involved Edie Falco, of Nurse Jackie and The Sopranos fame. “I remember interviewing Edie Falco,...

The 50th anniversary of “SNL” is about to kick off.

Acclaimed Academy and Emmy award-winning documentarian Morgan Neville is honoring the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live” with docuseries “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night,” which he executive produces. The four-part series offers a behind-the-scenes look at the history of the beloved sketch series, with each episode taking a different perspective on how the show began.

More than 60 SNL alums are interviewed onscreen, including Amy Poehler, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Molly Shannon, Pete Davidson, Stephen Colbert, Tracy Morgan, Bob Odenkirk, Tina Fey, Seth Meyers, John Mulaney, Larry David, Will Ferrell, Rachel Dratch, and Fred Armisen.

The first installment, “Five Minutes,” is about the audition process. Emmy Award winner Robert Alexander directs the first episode, which includes never-before-seen audition footage and firsthand accounts from alums as they reflect on their preparation and journey to the “SNL” stage.

The second episode,...

Wild and crazy guys, the van down by the river, and, of course, more cowbell – just some of the classic sketches shown in the new trailer released today for Peacock‘s four-part docuseries SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night.

“Anybody can do comedy,” former cast member Tracy Morgan says at the start of the trailer before delivering the punchline – “But are you funny?”

The upcoming docuseries promises lots of funny moments from the history of Saturday Night Live. In the trailer, Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell, Dana Carvey and Amy Poehler are among the famous faces speaking about the venerable NBC late-night series. Andy Samberg reveals he threw up after auditioning.

The docuseries, Peacock says, will offer a behind-the-scenes look “at some of the American late-night comedy institution’s most iconic elements and rich history.”

The docuseries, executive produced by Morgan Neville, includes four episodes, each taking “a different creative approach...

Peacock has released a first look at SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, a new documentary series that offers a behind-the-scenes look at some of the American late-night comedy institution’s most iconic elements and rich history.

Executive produced by Academy and Emmy Award winner Morgan Neville, SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night streams exclusively on Peacock beginning January 16.

SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night is a four-part docuseries honoring the legacy of SNL, with over 60 contributors, including SNL alumni, and covering decades of SNL history. Spotlighting some of the show’s most iconic elements, each episode delves into the rich history of SNL and pulls back the curtain on the audition process, the writers’ room, the fan favorite “More Cowbell” sketch and the pivotal Season 11.

Each episode of the docuseries takes a different creative approach to the tapestry of Saturday Night Live and embraces the unique vision of their award-winning directors: Emmy Award winner Robert Alexander...

Here at FandomWire, we search high and wide, turn over every stone, and search to the ends of the earth to cultivate a list of “The Best 100 Television Shows of All-Time!” Why? Because we can! So, please sit back, read our list, and write down what you have seen and agree with. Lastly, jot down quickly which of these great shows you must check out immediately!

100. Jeopardy! (1964 – present) Jeopardy | Image via Sony Pictures Television

Created by Merv Griffin

I’m not sure you can include a list of the best television shows ever without mentioning the American game show classic Jeopardy! The show has become ingrained in the American lexicon, with host Alex Trebek becoming a television and trivia icon. You simply can’t discuss the best shows without it.

99. Bargain (2022) Bargain Season 1 (2023)

Created by Jeon Woo-sung

Bargain is a near-perfect K-drama horror thriller. With performances brimming with anxiety-ridden stress and humor,...

Jason Reitman’s recent Saturday Night movie told the story of how a young upstart producer named Lorne Michaels dared to revolutionize late-night television with his bold new vision for a sketch comedy series unlike any other, ultimately succeeding in his goal despite network meddling and Milton Berle’s attempts to to crush Chevy Chase’s soul with his giant hog.

The movie would have been a tad less triumphant had it included a post-credit scene in which Michaels bails on the show after just a few weeks for purely petty reasons. But reportedly, that’s what happened.

Bill Carter, author of the quintessential late-night comedy text The Late Shift, recently spoke with Susan Morrison, author of the upcoming biography Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live, for LateNighter. According to Morrison, one notable story about Michaels is the time he quit his own show less than a month after it premiered.

In general, I don’t have a problem when movies based on actual events fudge the facts. Filmmakers should be allowed some leeway when trying to craft a compelling story, and besides: If they make things up, you can always research the true story to find out what’s been exaggerated or left out. It’s hardly a mortal sin.

But in the case of Saturday Night, the backstage comedy-drama that follows a young Lorne Michaels (Gabriel Labelle) in the 90 minutes before the launch of his new variety show Saturday Night — it would later be renamed Saturday Night Live — it’s a history so many people think they know. There have been multiple books about SNL’s early days, as well as countless interviews over the years from the show’s many cast members. To be a fan of SNL is to be obsessive about its legacy, conversant in all...

The Cable Guy has become a cult classic that's looked back at fondly by many fans. However, the film didn't set the box office on fire as much as other Jim Carrey movies from the era, seen at the time as a disappointment.

Released in 1996, The Cable Guy starred Carrey as a demented stalker who forces himself into the life of a customer, played by Matthew Broderick. Directed by Ben Stiller, the film had comedy legend Judd Apatow serving as a producer. Per Deadline, Broderick and Apatow reunited for a chat at the Tribeca Film Festival, and the two spoke about The Cable Guy. They joked about the exorbitant $20 million paycheck Carrey received for the film, with Broderick quipping of his own pay, "I got a Swiss cheese sandwich." However, Broderick said he actually felt sympathy for his co-star because of how much pressure the high pay put on him with the role.

On the bill for the penultimate evening of the Tribeca Festival was Matthew Broderick and Judd Apatow and it was easy to assume that they’d go down Cable Guy memory lane.

The movie, which was plotted as another big Jim Carrey tentpole back in 1996 post Ace Ventura, Dumb & Dumber and The Mask, saw the comedy star get paid a then astounding $20M for the Columbia Pictures movie. The Ben Stiller directed pic was a memorable one for Apatow, who produced it, as it’s where he met his wife Leslie Mann. The Cable Guy failed stateside, a stone in Carrey’s then box office tentpole streak only grossing $60M stateside. Broderick played the straight comedy guy in the movie to Carrey’s acerbic cable technician. Carrey was drawn to what was a hot script back in the ’90s sparking a bidding war for $750K; the project much darker and...

Ileen Maisel, who served as a studio executive at Paramount, Lorimar and New Line Cinema and as a producer on films including Onegin, Ripley’s Game and The Golden Compass, has died. She was 68.

Maisel died Feb. 16 of cancer in London, her home for the past 34 years, her sister, Hollywood publicist Cheryl Maisel, announced.

Maisel received a BAFTA nomination for best British film for producing Samuel Goldwyn’s Onegin (1999), starring Ralph Fiennes, and was said to be most proud of her work on the Fine Line Features thriller Ripley’s Game (2002), starring John Malkovich.

In addition to the New Line fantasy The Golden Compass (2007), which starred Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and grossed $372.2 million at the global box office, her other producing credits included Twelfth Night (1996), Inkheart (2008), and Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism (2015).

Born in Los Angeles on April 6, 1955, Ileen Marla Maisel began working for entertainment journalist Rona Barrett...

Editor’s note: Downton Abbey and The Gilded Age writer Julian Fellowes has written a heartfelt salute to his friend and colleague, the producer Ileen Maisel, who died in London on February 16 aged 68.

Ileen Maisel was born in Los Angeles, California, where she was raised. In fact, her father had moved there from Alabama to work in retail sales, so she had no immediate help with a career in show business, but it was clearly enough that she breathed the same air as the great filmmakers of the past and present. It is no surprise to learn that by the age of 15 she was working for the entertainment journalist Rona Barrett.

From then on, she embraced, bathed in, and generally loved the film industry until the end of her life. There was never much doubt as to where she was headed and she was still young when she entered the industry.

One of the ghostwriter’s most valuable skills is getting their subjects to talk. So, when I gathered L.A.’s most successful ghostwriters at the Formosa Cafe to gossip, they knew all my tricks. In desperation, I went with the most transparent of all reporting techniques — buying them all fruity cocktails.

A reputation for discretion is not only how they get work, but how they avoid getting sued; they sign nondisclosure agreements for every memoir they write. But even if they revealed nothing scandalous about their famous clients — or at least nothing that couldn’t be discovered with a Google search — I learned a lot about the curious craft of ghostwriting and the types of personalities drawn to help famous people tell their life stories. Also, I learned why I am far too egotistical to do their job.

Sitting around the table were Neil Strauss (who has written memoirs for Rick Rubin,...

Leave it to Adam Sandler to deliver the animated surprise of the holiday season with the “SNL”-influenced “Leo” (currently streaming on Netflix). It’s a smart, funny, existential musical comedy about a jaded 74-year-old class pet lizard (voiced by Sandler), who dispenses advice to Florida fifth graders. It’s also a return to the indie roots of his last animated musical, “Eight Crazy Nights.”

But “Leo” is more personal. It’s the second Sandler family affair this year, following “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah”: Sandler’s wife, Jackie, and his daughters, Sunny and Sadie, voice characters in the film. In fact, the genesis of the project occurred when Sandler put on “Grease” for his daughters when they were tweens and realized that it was inappropriate.

That got Sandler thinking about doing a musical comedy centered around “Grease” for the fifth grade with long-time collaborator,...

Adam Sandler is heading back to fifth grade for his latest film, Leo.

In the Netflix animated movie, the star voices a 70-year-old lizard named Leo, who for decades has served as a class pet for a rotating group of fifth graders. One day, he learns he only has a year left to live and plans to escape to freedom, but instead has to rescue the students from their mean substitute teacher.

Sandler, who also co-wrote and produced the project, told The Hollywood Reporter at its Los Angeles premiere on Sunday that he was inspired to a do a version of “Grease for the last year of elementary school,” while working with writer-director Robert Smigel to craft a musical comedy. Sandler stars in the voice cast alongside his daughters Sunny and Sadie, as well as wife Jackie, marking the second family collaboration they’ve done this year, after You Are...

“Perhaps if people talked less, animals would talk more,” observes one of the human characters in “Charlotte’s Web,” a kiddie classic that serves as both the butt of several jokes and an inspiration for Adam Sandler’s animated “Leo,” an endearing Netflix original that strikes just the right balance between heart and fart jokes.

Basing the way Leo sounds on his squeaky-scratchy, slightly guttural impression of the late Hollywood agent Bernie Brillstein, Sandler voices a crusty old iguana who’s spent three-quarters of a century — practically his entire life — trapped in an elementary school classroom. Leo’s wisdom is largely limited to what’s taught in fifth grade, though he’s observed enough kids over his 74 years that the lizard reckons he’s qualified to advise this crop. Truth be told, he’s cheaper and more consistently helpful than your typical child psychologist.

Sandler’s an old pro when it comes to animation,...

The Palm Beverly Hills has closed. Long the shorthand for industry power dining, it was for years run by Bruce Bozzi, the fourth generation in the family steakhouse business. A complicated court battle led to a 2020 sale to the hospitality firm Landry’s, whose brands include Del Frisco’s, Mastro’s and Morton’s. Below, Bozzi — husband of CAA co-chair Bryan Lourd and buzzy podcaster — sums up the storied, singular, nearly half-century run of the restaurant, which opened in West Hollywood in 1975 (where it was known for the many celebrity caricatures on the walls) and moved to Beverly Hills in 2014.

***

You won’t be able to tell the story of Hollywood without The Palm. It’s where on the same day you’d find Richard Zanuck in one booth, Bernie Brillstein in another and Mike Ovitz in a third. My favorite screen memory is Karen Walker in Will & Grace...

Wasserman has finalized plans to acquire Brillstein Entertainment Partners. The entertainment management and production company run by Cynthia Pett and Jon Liebman will now be under the umbrella of Wasserman’s sports marketing and talent management.

The current Wasserman clients, including but not limited to athletes and musicians, will now be able to potentially more closely participate in films, shows or related content created by Brillstein and using the IP already existing within Brillstein. The pitch to current and future clients is an exchange of services and ideas across marketing, representation, content creation and talent management arms all under one proverbial roof.

“Cynthia [Pett] and I will continue to be co-ceos and will continue to run our production company/talent management company,” co-ceo Jon Leibman told TheWrap. “We will retain our identity.”

Concurrently, Wasserman Chairman and CEO Casey Wasserman told TheWrap, “Every company we acquire we operate as a single...

Just over a year ago, the leadership of Brillstein Entertainment Partners — a pioneering Hollywood company founded in 1969 by talent broker icon Bernie Brillstein, who managed names like Lorne Michaels, Garry Shandling, Brad Pitt, Nicolas Cage and Mike Myers — started thinking about strategic options for their business, including a sale.

The management and production firm had been led by co-CEOs Cynthia Pett and Jon Liebman since 2005, when the duo bought out the stake of executive Brad Grey and Brillstein-Grey dropped the latter name from the shingle. (Notably, the late Grey, who went on to become CEO of Paramount Pictures, took the backend interest in HBO’s The Sopranos, which had been produced by Brillstein, with him.)

Liebman, a New York entertainment attorney who joined Brillstein in 1998, says informal conversations were held in 2022 with Casey Wasserman, whose namesake company — which includes sports talent agents and a booking agency — has been on the acquisition hunt,...

Wasserman is closing in on a deal to acquire Brillstein Entertainment Partners, TheWrap has learned.

A source tells TheWrap that the two parties, who have been negotiating for months, could close a potential deal within the next 30 days or not at all. Representatives for Wasserman and Brillstein did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.

Bernie Brillstein founded the talent management firm in 1969 and formed a television production company with Brad Grey in 1986 known as Brillstein-Grey Entertainment. Grey, who died in 2017, would later leave the company to become the head of Paramount Pictures.

Bep’s clients have included Brad Pitt, Brendan Fraser, Florence Pugh, Cole Hauser, Adam Sandler, Kaley Cuoco, Robe Lowe and Sarah Michelle Gellar, among others. Its television producing credits have included “The Sopranos,” Disney+’s “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers” and Apple TV+’s “Central Park.”

Bep began exploring a sale in February, Deadline reported, with...

Brillstein Entertainment Partners is looking to “fuel the momentum” of its production company after striking a first-look deal with Paramount Television Studios.

The management company’s production banner Brillstein Creative Partners will co-develop and co-produce scripted series for Paramount+, Showtime and CBS as part of the multi-year deal.

It comes after Deadline revealed earlier this year that the company, launched by Bernie Brillstein, was exploring a sale with Casey Wasserman one of the frontrunners.

Brillstein Creative Partners has been ramping up its efforts in television development and production with several projects in development at major streamers including Netflix, Amazon, Onyx and Apple TV+.

It recently hired former Netflix and Made Up Stories executive Allie Goss, who produced series including Netflix’s Anatomy of a Scandal and Apple’s Roar, as President of the production company.

Brillstein has also produced series including Disney+’s The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers and Apple TV+’s Central Park,...

On a recent episode of the "Fly on the Wall" podcast, comedian Chris Rock talked about watching the Safdie brothers' film "Uncut Gems" and being incredibly impressed by Adam Sandler's performance. Rock was also made incredibly melancholy, however, as he immediately began to think of the later actor/comedian Chris Farley. Rock felt that, had Farley survived, he would have eventually had the opportunity to reveal his own dramatic acting chops, something Farley was never able to display in his film career prior. Rock and Farley both began performing on "Saturday Night Live" in 1990, and they both rose to fame rapidly. Farley, however, wrestled with addiction and health problems for many years, and died of an overdose in 1997. He was 33.

Farley's death hit the world of comedy hard, and many of his friends and co-workers have come out over the years to say what a kind, shy, decent guy Farley was.

Oscar-winning screenwriter, playwright and film director Christopher Hampton was on feisty form in a masterclass in Qatar earlier this week as part of the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra talent incubator event (March 10-16).

Hampton, who won Academy Awards for the screenplays of Dangerous Liaisons and The Father and was Oscar-nominated for Atonement, urged aspiring screenwriters in the auditorium to try to retain some sort of control of their work and creative vision.

“I would advise anybody to try to get at least some sort of associate producer credit to maintain a grip on the material and you have to fight… fight with a lot of people,” he said. “They don’t want to give it to you. They don’t want to give you those powers, but I’ve always argued that since the writer is the origin of the piece, they deserve to be respected.”

“Don’t be...

John Belushi remains the poster child for the entertainer who burned bright but had their light extinguished far too soon. The comedian came up through the ranks of Chicago's fabled Second City comedy group and was a member of the inaugural season of "Saturday Night Live." Belushi honed his disruptive, physical style of comedy in the early seasons of "SNL" with characters such as Samurai Futaba and one of the Killer Bees alongside Dan Aykroyd.

In 1977, Belushi would add movie star to his resume with the role of Bluto Blutarsky in the film "National Lampoon's Animal House." Plus, ffter three appearances on "Saturday Night Live," the characters Joliet Jake (Belushi) and Elwood Blues (Aykroyd) were developed into their own 1980 hit movie "The Blues Brothers."

Belushi was integral to "Saturday Night Live's" early success and stayed with the show through 1980 before transitioning completely to movies. But it's also fair to...

Exclusive: Brillstein Entertainment Partners is exploring a sale of its venerable management/production company. Several are circling, but sources said Casey Wasserman has emerged as a front-runner to bring Bep into the fold alongside his formidable sports and music divisions.

Like every possible deal, this one could fall apart and Bep principals could decide to stay independent. It would be the latest move in management after 3Arts made a deal with Lionsgate, and Anonymous Content, with investment from Laurene Powell Jobs, recently linked with Automatik.

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If this did happen, it would invoke the legacy and...

It's such a sad irony that Chris Farley is often remembered as a tragedy considering the hilarious human that he was. Substance abuse cut short the life of a star in his prime — and on the verge of breaking beyond the physical comedy he was known for.

After honing his craft at Chicago's historic Second City comedy group, Farley joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live" in 1990. Some of his most memorable characters included the Chicago Bears Superfan, motivational speaker Matt Foley, the host of The Chris Farley Show, a mall food court Gap Girl, and of course, a dancer auditioning for Chippendales. But by the mid-1990s, Farley had outgrown the small stage of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. After shining in bit roles in "Airheads" and "Billy Madison," Farley was ready for a starring role, playing alongside David Spade in the 1995 film "Tommy Boy." The movie became a cult classic and...

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Billy Crudup in The Morning Show. Billy Crudup, ‘The Morning Show’

Nominated for best supporting actor in a drama

“I remember hearing Olympia Dukakis speak about acting, and this one quote always stuck with me: ‘Don’t have the reason why you became an actor be the reason why you remain an actor.’ So many actors end up in the profession because at some point in their childhood they loved performing and being in front of a group of people — having the laughs and the attention. You can get confused as you get older because you’re like, ‘I don’t need the attention anymore. All of my training is in acting — what do I do now?’ Taking it seriously as an adult is different...

Exclusive: George Freeman, who saw a 20-year run at WME end in June and continued to represent most of his clients independently as manager, has landed at Brillstein Entertainment Partners. He has brought a lengthy list of clients with him.

Freeman’s list includes Russell Crowe; Dennis Quaid; director Ramin Bahrani; Adarsh Gourav, director and star of the upcoming Netflix film The White Tiger; American Gods, Hannibal & Pushing Daisies writer/EP Bryan Fuller; Florence Pugh, Oscar-nominated Little Women star who next co-stars in Black Widow); actor Arinze Kene (stars with Rachel Brosnahan in Amazon’s I Am Your Woman); actor Russell Tovey (Looking and Years and Years); and director Josie Rourke (Mary Queen of Scots).

A publicist before becoming an agent, Freeman said he chose Brillstein because he had such lasting relationships with its partners along his career track. None longer than CEO Jon Liebman. That relationship goes all the way back to kindergarten.

Steve Martin recently said that he has known only two perfect people: Carl Reiner and “that son of a bitch Martin Short.” Short and Martin were supposed to hit the road this summer for the type of comedy variety tours they’ve been staging since 2016 — in which they tell jokes and revisit some of their favorite characters, with a little bit of Steve Martin’s banjo playing thrown in for good measure — but pandemic-related lockdowns sidelined the jaunt. The turn of events has not phased the typically effervescent Short, who...

Michael Ovitz still has nothing good to say about Michael Eisner. He and Ron Meyer started to patch things up over dinner a few years ago at Hamasaku, the sushi restaurant that Ovitz owns in West Los Angeles. And the famous threat Ovitz delivered to Joe Eszterhas about having “foot soldiers” marching up and down Wilshire Boulevard? Totally exaggerated in Eszterhas’ retelling via the press.

Those are among the anecdotes and tidbits shared by Ovitz in his new book “Who Is Michael Ovitz?,” due out Tuesday from Random House’s Portfolio imprint. The book isn’t so much a tell-all as it is a take-credit-for-(nearly)-all that went down during Ovitz’s 20-year run as the monarch of CAA.

The 384-page tome offers exhausting detail on how CAA reshaped the movie business in the 1980s and ’90s with its approach to packaging, and how Ovitz engineered the dealmaking behind...

Talent manager George Shapiro helped put Jerry Seinfeld and Andy Kaufman on the map. But that’s only a sliver of his showbiz accomplishments, which include packaging such TV fare as “The Steve Allen Show,” “That Girl,” “Gomer Pyle, Usmc” and specials for Carol Channing, Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. These days, Shapiro, 86, is busier than ever, serving as the producer of the Seinfeld Netflix series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” and serving as manager to his 96-year-old uncle, Carl Reiner; he was also executive producer on last year’s HBO documentary about people over 90, “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast.” A decade after launching his career as a William Morris Agency mail clerk in New York in 1955, Shapiro received his first mention in Variety on April 22, 1965, an item in Army Archerd’s column, saying “Melody and George Shapiro (Wm. Morrisman) were expecting a baby.

Dan Aykroyd has taken to Facebook to further comment upon the Ghostbusters remake, expanding on comments he made to Britain's Channel 4 that Lrm discussed a couple days ago. In the comment, he changes his tune on whether or not the original characters should have been involved.

Paul Feig made a good movie and had a superb cast and plenty of money to do it. We just wish he had been more inclusive to the originators. It cost everyone as it is unlikely Kristen, Leslie, Melissa and Kate will ever reprise their roles as Ghostbusters which is sad.

Where to begin. As the screenwriter of the original movie and with his agent Bernie Brillstein as one of the producers, Dan had a lot more power than your average screenwriter and actor when it came to a potential remake. Add onto that the fact that Ivan Reitman, the original director, had...

Brad Grey, the celebrated manager and producer turned film executive who recently ended a 12-year tenure as chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, has died. Grey, who retired from Paramount mere months ago, died of cancer at home in Holmby Hills, California, according to Deadline. He was 59.

Born in the Bronx in December 1957, Grey began his career while he was a student at the University of Buffalo. He worked as an assistant to Harvey Weinstein during the latter’s early days as a concert promoter, before breaking out on his own as a manager of young New York-based stand-up comics. (Bob Saget was his first client.) In 1984, Grey convinced fellow talent manager Bernie Brillstein to make him a partner in his company; re-dubbed Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, the company went on to produce shows like Mr. Show, NewsRadio, Real Time With Bill Maher, and The Sopranos as well as ...

Former Paramount Pictures CEO Brad Grey has died from cancer at age 59. Grey served as the head of Paramount for the past 12 years, stepping down just this past February. He died with his family by his side at his home in Holmby Hills, California.

Read More: Paramount First Looks: Garland’s ‘Annihilation,’ Payne’s ‘Downsizing,’ and Bay’s ‘Transformers’

Prior to joining Paramount, Grey co-founded management and production company Brillstein-Grey Entertainment with Bernie Brillstein. At Bge, he executive produced shows including “The Sopranos” and “The Larry Sanders Show.”

Grey also co-founded Plan B with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston before the couple split and Pitt took control of the company, Deadline reported. Grey left Plan B for Paramount shortly before production began on Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed,” which won for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Plan B had a first look deal with Paramount for several years before...

Brad Grey, the former chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, died Sunday from cancer at his Holmby Hills home with his family by his side. He was 59.

Grey stepped down at Paramount in February after leading the studio for 12 years. He arrived from Brillstein-Grey Management, the powerhouse talent management agency that he founded with the late Bernie Brillstein in 1984.

While Grey left a mixed legacy behind at Paramount — during his tenure, the studio relied on such franchises as Transformers, Star Trek and Mission: Impossible and also saw the Al Gore climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth win an Oscar —...

Hollywood talent manager Larry A. Thompson will be inducted into the Personal Managers Hall of Fame. The film and Broadway producer, attorney, book packager, author and motivational speaker will join other previously inaugurated members, including Bernie Brillstein, Shep Gordon, Charles H. Joffe, Ken Kragen and Jack Rollins, among others. Clinton Ford Billups Jr. is the president of the National Conference of Personal Managers (Ncopm), which recognizes outstanding careers in personal management and awards the highest recognition bestowed upon a personal manager. Other members of the 2016 class are Rushion McDonald, Doc McGhee, Edie Robb, Jerry Solomon and Jeff Wald. New posthumous inductees include George.

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Looking for good books about the movies to read? We've got a bumper selection of recommendations right here...

A confession. I actually started writing this article in 2013, and the reason you've only reading it now is that I've made sure I've read every book on this list, save for one or two where I've marked otherwise. As such, what you're getting is a very personal list of recommendations. Each of these books has at least something to it that I think is of interest to someone wanting to learn more about film - or just enjoy stories of movie making.

I've tended to avoid picture books, with one exception, as these ones I've chosen are all intended to be chock-full of words, to relax with at the end of a long day. Which is what I did. There are one or two notable omissions, as I'm still...

Ocean’s Eleven producer Jerry Weintraub, a man almost as well known for his sense of showmanship in life as the movies he made, has died at the age of 77.Born in Brooklyn in 1937, Weintraub was raised in the Bronx and obsessed with cinema. In his teenage years, he’d sneaked in to the local Lowes Paradise Theater so often that the manager offered him a job as an usher. He ditched high school at 17 for the Air Force and then used the G.I. Bill to fund his education at Sanford Meisner’s Neighbourhood Playhouse. He took a somewhat traditional route into show business, working as a page at NBC and in the mailroom at the William Morris agency. But his restless spirit meant he sought out more, and became a personal manager to various clients on the club circuit and worked briefly for John F. Kennedy’s presidential...

The following is an excerpt from "Film Craft: Screenwriting,"edited by Tim Grierson. The book is now available from Focal Press. The excerpt below was made available by the book's publisher. Stephen Gaghan’s writing career started quite promisingly, publishing a short story in The Iowa Review before he was even 26. He also impressed the writing staff of "The Simpsons" with a spec episode entitled “Family Wheel of Jeopardy,” as well as producer and talent agent Bernie Brillstein with a collection of "Saturday Night Live" sketches he’d written. But a career in television writing in the 1990s— including stints at "New York Undercover," "The Practice," "American Gothic," and "NYPD Blue" (where he shared an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series)—soon gave way to screenwriting. His first produced film credit was "Rules of Engagement" (2000), which starred Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones, but he received much acclaim for his next film,...

Exclusive: Another very interesting sign from ICM by Jeff Berg‘s Resolution Agency. Leigh Brillstein gave her notice about 15 minutes ago after 25 years working for Berg and then recently Chris Silbermann. She ran ICM’s TV talent department twice and before that was at CAA, first as an assistant in the lit department and later as a talent agent, until 1980. She is, of course, the daughter of the late and legendary Hollywood manager and producer Bernie Brillstein. Update: “Leigh has a great eye for performers and has successfully overseen the careers of numerous award-winning actors while also serving as a mentor for a generation of younger agency colleagues,” Berg said in a statement. ”With the expansion of cable channels and the new digital platforms in addition to broadcast, Leigh’s expertise will become invaluable in helping assure that our clients are fully represented in all aspects of television.”...

It's been nothing but prosperity for Paramount Pictures since Brad Grey took over. And so there's no surprise that the studio is going to keep him right where he is. Grey, who among other things pushed for the successful revival of the Star Trek franchise under J.J. Abrams, extended his deal with Paramount to lead at least through 2017. Grey took over right as Viacom was splitting up its film and television units to create Paramount and CBS Television as separate companies. He also decided to undo efforts to have Emmy-winning writer Erik Jendresen write a Star Trek film prequel, and instead lured Abrams in to create a reboot featuring Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Grey started producing television in 1986 with talent manager Bernie Brillstein to create Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, launching ...

Just last week, we told you about the original Ghostbusters movie returning to theaters next month. Now, thanks to the official press release, we know that it will be for three Thursdays in October, starting on October 13th. The film will be playing at 500 theatres across the Us, and in select Canadian and international locations, and will play one showtime each day in 2K digital with 5.1 surround sound!

Check out the full press release below for details and links.

Press Release:

Who Ya Gonna Call? Sony Pictures Entertainment Brings Its Classic Film “Ghostbusters” Back to Theatres

Culver City, Calif., Sept. 22, 2011 — Get ready for mass hysteria! This October, Sony Pictures Repertory celebrates the original movie Ghostbusters, its franchise, and its fans by bringing the quintessential modern classic back to theatres for a special limited engagement of one showtime one night a week. Starting on Thursday, October 13, 2011 and continuing every following Thursday...

A week ago [1], we told you that the original Ghostbusters would be back in theaters soon for a limited release. Now we've got the details: Sony will put the movie on screens through the month of October, but only on Thursdays, starting October 13. So you might get a chance to see Ivan Reitman's original and still truly entertaining film on October 13, October 20 and October 27. Sony says, "Ghostbusters will show in approximately 500 theatres across the Us on October 13th, 20th, and 27th, one showtime each day, in 2K digital with 5.1 surround sound. Please check local listings for showtimes. Ghostbusters will also be showing in select theatres in Canada and in various international markets; for more information on international locations and dates, please visit ParkCircus.com [2]." This is a good side effect of theaters getting new digital projectors as a result of the 3D boom -- hopefully we'll see more archival releases like this going forward.

Official Press Release:

Culver City, Calif., Sept. 22, 2011 - Get ready for mass hysteria! This October, Sony Pictures Repertory celebrates the original movie Ghostbusters, its franchise, and its fans by bringing the quintessential modern classic back to theatres for a special limited engagement of one showtime one night a week. Starting on Thursday, October 13, 2011 and continuing every following Thursday in October 2011, fans together will be able to see their favorite paranormal psychologists back on the big screen as they save the world from ghosts, ghouls, and Mr. Stay Puft.

Ghostbusters will show in approximately 500 theatres across the Us on October 13th, 20th, and 27th, one showtime each day, in 2K digital with 5.1 surround sound. Please check local listings for showtimes. Ghostbusters will also be showing in select theatres in Canada and in various international markets; for more information on international locations and dates, please visit www.parkcircus.com.

Fans who follow Ghostbusters on Facebook (www.

Get ready for mass hysteria! This October, Sony Pictures Repertory celebrates the original movie Ghostbusters, its franchise, and its fans by bringing the quintessential modern classic back to theatres for a special limited engagement of one showtime one night a week. Starting on Thursday, October 13, 2011 and continuing every following Thursday in October 2011, fans together will be able to see their favorite paranormal psychologists back on the big screen as they save the world from ghosts, ghouls, and Mr. Stay Puft.

Ghostbusters will show in approximately 500 theatres across the Us on October 13th, 20th, and 27th, one showtime each day, in 2K digital with 5.1 surround sound. Please check local listings for showtimes. Ghostbusters will also be showing in select theatres in Canada and in various international markets. For more information on international locations and dates, please visit ParkCircus.com.

Fans who follow Ghostbusters on Facebook (Facebook.com/Ghostbusters) and Twitter (@StayPuft4Eva) or visit Ghostbusters.

Sony Pictures has officially announced that Ghostbusters will be making a return to theaters this October. It will be playing in around 500 theaters across the Us and select theaters in Canada and around the world.

Culver City, Calif., Sept. 22, 2011 — Get ready for mass hysteria! This October, Sony Pictures Repertory celebrates the original movie Ghostbusters, its franchise, and its fans by bringing the quintessential modern classic back to theatres for a special limited engagement of one showtime one night a week. Starting on Thursday, October 13, 2011 and continuing every following Thursday in October 2011, fans together will be able to see their favorite paranormal psychologists back on the big screen as they save the world from ghosts, ghouls, and Mr. Stay Puft.

Ghostbusters will show in approximately 500 theatres across the Us on October 13th, 20th, and 27th, one showtime each day, in 2K digital with 5.1 surround sound. Please check local listings for showtimes.

We previously reported that Sony and Columbia Pictures is bringing back the Ghostbusters to theaters again this coming October! We didn't have many details then but a official press released has hit giving us fans all of the information we need to know to see this classic film on the big screen.

The film will be shown on three Thursdays during the month of October, and will be playing in 500 Theaters across the Us in 2K digital with 5.1 surround sound.

Like I said before, I haven't seen Ghostbusters on the big screen since I was 5 years old, and I'm looking forward to taking my kids to see it on the big screen. It should be a pretty awesome experience for them, since they already love the movie.

If it playing in a theater near you, will you be going?

Here's the full press relese with all of the details:

Get ready for mass hysteria!