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(Stock image by Kevin Mueller via Unsplash)

The Tennis Channel has renewed its long-standing partnership with the International Tennis Federation (Itf) for exclusive U.S. media rights to several high-profile tennis tournaments, the organizations announced on Monday.

The deal runs through 2027 and includes domestic TV coverage of the Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup, the flagship international team competitions for women’s and men’s tennis. The cable sports network has held domestic TV rights to those tournaments since 2009.

The agreement also grants Tennis Channel international rights in several European territories. For the first time, the network will air the Billie Jean King Cup in Spain, a key growth market for women’s tennis. Additional territories covered under the new deal include Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The 2024 Billie Jean King Cup Finals will be held in Shenzhen, China from September 16 to 21. The Davis Cup Final 8 will take place in Bologna,...

Netflix is adding linear channels, Tubi has new sports documentaries coming, and other stories you might have missed this week.

It’s almost time for Friday follies! The work day is plugging right along, and when it’s over, most will get a lovely two-day break to recharge. But before we bid goodbye to the week that was, we have to fill in our diligent readers on all the smaller-sized streaming stories they may have missed in the course of the week.

Read on to see the stories you need to know about, but may not have had time to catch in the course of your weekly comings and goings!

Which streaming stories did you miss this week?

WNBA extends deal with Scripps

Netflix adds live channels in France

Acorn TV promotion yields record viewing hours, signups

Tubi adds new sports documentaries

Netflix plans to open more ‘Houses’ in the U.

Naomi Osaka’s return to pro tennis after a break to give birth to her child will be captured in The Second Set, a documentary picked up by Tubi.

The film is set to premiere on Fox Corp.’s ad-supported streamer in August. “The Second Set will deliver an intimate look into the life of Osaka as she navigates balancing her career with first-time motherhood and is described as a love letter to her daughter, Shai,” the doc’s producers said in a synopsis.

Tennis superstar Osaka added in her own statement: “This film is special to me because I’ve learned so much about life through Shai and she brings me so much joy. I’ll always look fondly on this period of our lives.”

Osaka’s defeat of Serena Williams to win the U.S. Open women’s title in 2018 vaulted her to pro tennis fame. But that...

Larry David had never appeared in a commercial — at least until 2022 when he debuted in a Super Bowl ad as part of a campaign for cryptocurrency platform Ftx in a spot titled “Don’t Miss Out.” In it, he takes on his Curb Your Enthusiasm persona as a skeptic who travels through time and scoffs at inventions until he’s pitched Ftx as a safe and easy way to get into crypto. “Ehhh, I don’t think so,” he says. “And I’m never wrong about this stuff. Never.”

The ad ends with a title card that states, “Don’t be like Larry. Don’t miss out.”

Later that year, Ftx collapsed. The fallout included investors suing David, who was allegedly paid $13 million for appearing in the commercial, and other big names who endorsed the company.

Most claims in that lawsuit against David and a host of celebrities accused of...

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It’s official — the “King” has achieved legendary “Ken” status. While LeBron James has no doubt made his mark on the court, he’s continuing to make an off-court impression on Barbieland, too. The legendary basketball player will first be immortalized as the first professional male athlete to receive a Barbie Ken doll in their likeness, recognizing his positive impact on culture, fashion, and community.

The LeBron James...

Last month, we announced the launch of FREEAgent, a new podcast from creative entrepreneur Kenny Annan-Jonathan.

Guests so far have included Naomi Osaka’s longtime agent and business partner, Stuart Duguid, and writer Daniel-Yaw Miller. The pod also serves as the first project from Annan-Jonathan’s independent production house Trnsmission.

“We’re interested in all the above: documentaries. Everything,” Annan-Jonathan says of the ambitions of the company, which he launched to sit alongside marketing and talent management agency The Mailroom.

Annan-Jonathan tells us the company will focus on creating long-form content that bridges the gap between the business of both sports and culture. Annan-Jonathan knows the connection between the two well. Alongside his own agency work, he serves as the Creative Director of the English Premier League side Crystal Palace, the first such role established at a professional English club.

Below, Annan-Jonathan digs into his overall ambitions for Trnsmission and...

After the star graduate of an elite Belgian tennis academy commits suicide, her shocking death triggers an investigation into the late teenager’s relationship with the (now suspended) older male coach who’d been so instrumental to her success. That investigation gradually but inevitably comes to focus on the coach’s latest protégé, who’s spent the last several years under his wing, and is on the cusp of qualifying for the Belgian Tennis Federation. People can’t help but suspect that she knows a thing or two about how coach Jeremy (Laurent Caron) treats his pupils when no one else is around to see. Her friends, her parents, the administrators at her school… everyone is eager for her to fill in the blanks, but Julie keeps quiet.

Needless to say, Leonardo Van Dijl’s “Julie Keeps Quiet” doesn’t regard that as much of a spoiler. This impressive debut...

Exclusive: Naomi Osaka’s longtime agent Stuart Duguid is among the first guests to feature on FREEAgent, the new podcast launched by creative entrepreneur Kenny Annan-Jonathan.

Dropping weekly with guests that straddle the worlds of sport and culture, FREEAgent will focus on high-profile names who work behind the scenes and do not often speak publicly yet still wield widespread influence in their industry. Guests set for the pod include well-known names from the world of basketball, fashion, and music.

Annan-Jonathan is the show’s host. He is the founder of the marketing and talent management agency The Mailroom and media house Trnsmission. In 2023, he was appointed Creative Director of the English English Premier League side Crystal Palace, the first such role established at a professional English club.

Duguid is the co-founder of the talent management agency Evolve and the Emmy Award-nominated production company Hana Kuma. He runs the company alongside...

Maria Sharapova’s height of 6ft 1 ¼ (186.1 cm) is considered tall, not just compared to the average Russian woman but also in general. For comparison, Serena Williams is 5′ 9″ (175 cm), while Naomi Osaka is only 5ft 9 ¾ (177.2 cm).

The average height for women varies by country, but in Russia, the average height for adult women is around 5ft 5in (165 cm). Therefore, Sharapova’s height is significantly above average for both Russian women and women in general.

Maria Sharapova, towering at 6ft 1 ¼ (186.1 cm), exuded elegance in a draped black gown with a cinched waist, while Patty Jenkins, at 5ft 5 (165.1 cm), dazzled in a celestial-patterned floor-length dress with sparkling embellishments as they posed together at the 9th annual Breakthrough Prize ceremony on April 15, 2023, in Los Angeles, California (Credit: Faye’s Vision / Cover Images)

Maria Sharapova’s Astonishing Growth Spurt and Statuesque Presence

Maria Sharapova had a rapid growth spurt during her teenage years. In early...

"I just need to concentrate on school and tennis." Film Movement has unveiled an official US trailer for an acclaimed indie film titled Julie Keeps Quiet, a Belgian thriller about a star tennis player. This premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in the Critics Week sidebar, then played at the Karlovy Vary, Melbourne, Vancouver, and Toronto Film Festivals last year. As the star player at an elite tennis academy, Julie's life revolves around the game she loves. When her coach is suddenly suspended following the suicide of one of his female protégées, all the players at the academy are encouraged to speak up about their experiences with him. Julie, however, decides to keep quiet. Executive produced by tennis champion Naomi Osaka, the film is a "tense, taut, artfully hushed debut feature" by Belgian writer-director Leonardo van Dijl. Led by newcomer Tessa Van den Broeck whose key performance "embodies the different ways trauma is internalized,...

Gender-neutral baby names have been on the rise over the last couple of years. Many celebrities have joined in on the trend, opting for gender-neutral names for their new arrivals. We’ve rounded up Tk names celebrities have used to inspire your naming journey.

1. NFL player Trevor Lawrence and his wife Marissa gave their first baby, a girl, the moniker Shae. Athlete Naomi Osaka used the same moniker but a different spelling – Shai – for her daughter and actor Josh Peck used this spelling for his son.

2. The name Townes was popular with two celebrities in 2024. Actress Hilary Duff gave her fourth baby, a girl, the name and actor Alexander Ludwig named his second baby, a boy, by the moniker.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hilary Duff (@hilaryduff)

3. Dancers Peta Murgatroyd and Maks Chmerkovskiy chose a gender-neutral place name for their son: Milan.

4. Singer Shay Mooney and...

The Belgium submission for the 2025 Oscars blends the sports intensity of “Challengers” with the emotional weight of “She Said.”

The hauntingly titled “Julie Keeps Quiet,” which is screenwriter Leonardo Van Dijl’s directorial debut, was shot on film like fellow tennis drama “Challengers,” but the comparisons end there. Tessa Van den Broeck stars as a top player at an academy who stays silent when her older male coach is suspended amid an investigation.

The official synopsis reads: “As the star player at an elite youth tennis academy, Julie’s life revolves around the game she loves. She trains hard, pausing only for class or physical therapy before returning to the gym fixated on making it into the Belgian Tennis Federation. When her coach Jérémy is suddenly suspended following the suicide of one of his female protégées, all the players at the academy are encouraged to speak up about their experiences with him.

Spoiler Alert: This post spoils the finale of The Sex Lives of College Girls Season 3.

Another semester at Essex College has come to an end in the finale of Season 3 of The Sex Lives of College Girls.

Showruner Justin Noble directed the Season 3 finale, which ends on a very different note compared to the Season 2 finale which had some tension brewing between Pauline Chalamet’s Kimberly and Alyah Chanelle Scott’s Whitney as well as some uncertainty for Amrit Kaur’s Bela.

“Very intentionally, this is a finale that chooses joy. These girls have come into their sophomore year of school. They’ve been challenged severely, and it felt only right that we should show the wins for all these young women who succeed in all these different ways,” Noble told Deadline. “The title for this episode was in the works for a while, it’s called ‘Essex Strong,’ and...

Note: The following story contains spoilers from “The Sex Lives of College Girls” Season 3, Episode 10.

“The Sex Lives of College” wrapped up Season 3 with an unexpected reveal: A coming out story for Amrit Kaur’s Bela.

Despite only dating guys throughout her time at Essex, Bela’s romantic interest is piqued by Hailey (Melinda Belle Adams), the host of the storytelling show she joined in last week’s episode. After kissing Hailey at a party, Bela officially comes out as bisexual to her roommates — a twist showrunner Justin Noble said hasn’t been in the works since Season 1, but one that doesn’t surprise him.

“Bela has always been this character who’s down to try anything, do anything,” Noble told TheWrap, adding that many sheltered teens like herself have “massive discovery journeys” in college. “I wanted Bella to be a counterbalance to the story we did with Leighton (Reneé Rapp...

Naomi Osaka has sadly ended her run in the 2025 Australian Open.

The 27-year-old tennis pro ended a match against competitor Belinda Bencic early during the third round of the competition.

She cited a recurring injury that flared up and provided an explanation in an interview.

Keep reading to find out more…

Naomi explained that she had suffered an injury to her abdomen while speaking with the press. She added that this is something that she has struggled with over the years.

“I kind of have a history of it since I was a teenager. At least once a year, I’d get an ab strain. For me, I want to say it’s more the way my serve is — it’s quite explosive,” she said, via Sports Illustrated.

Naomi continued, adding, “Unfortunately, it carried on over to the beginning of this season.” She said that it became “way worse” after...

The first tennis major of the season begins this weekend with the Australian Open, featuring the defending men’s and women’s champions Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka as well as nationally-ranked fan-favorites Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz, Coco Gauff, Nicolas Jarry, Daniil Medvedev, Naomi Osaka, Jessica Pegula, Ben Shelton, Iga Swiatek, and more.

Australian OpenLive play-by-play from MelbourneListen on the App

Listen on the App

Australian Open 2025 How to Listen

SiriusXM takes you down under to Melbourne every evening at 7pm Et for live coverage of the Australian Open.

Channel Numbers

January 23–26 Car: Channel 81

ESPN Xtra App: Channel 81

ESPN Xtra Preview Show

Get ready for 2025’s first Grand Slam with Tracy Austin and Dan Graca as they host their annual preview show of the Australian Open, available to stream now on the SiriusXM app.

Tracy Austin & Dan Graca2025 Australian Open Preview ShowListen on the App

Listen on the...

Tennis superstar Naomi Osaka and rapper Cordae have announced their separation after five years together.

In an Instagram Story post on Monday, Osaka confirmed the news, stating, “We are no longer in a relationship. He’s a great person and an awesome dad. Honestly really glad our paths crossed because my daughter is my biggest blessing.”

Naomi Osaka and Cordae End Five-Year Relationship

The couple, who began dating in 2019, welcomed their daughter, Shai, in July 2023. Osaka previously opened up about the challenges of motherhood, describing her birth experience as “traumatic” and expressing her desire to limit the number of children she has.

Despite facing personal and professional challenges, Osaka has remained dedicated to her tennis career. She returned to the court in 2024, acknowledging that motherhood has significantly impacted her perspective.

“Giving birth to my daughter changed my mindset a lot,” Osaka shared with ESPN last January. “It’s also made...

Naomi Osaka and her boyfriend Cordae have broken up.

The 27-year-old tennis star announced the news that she and the rapper, also 27, had gone their separate ways.

Keep reading to find out more…

The pair are co-parents to a baby girl, who was born in 2023.

On her Instagram Story, Naomi shared, “Hi everyone, just wanted to say that Cordae and I are no longer in a relationship. No bad blood at all, he’s a great person and an awesome dad. Honestly really glad our paths crossed because my daughter is my biggest blessing and I was able to grow a lot from our experiences together.”

The split might have happened sometime in the last month because they were last seen together at a celeb’s birthday party back in December.

King Richard's ending solidifies the story of a dedicated father and two young girls who were destined for big things in the world of professional sports. Taking a rather unique approach to a typical sports biopic, King Richard tells the true story of the unusual childhood of tennis champions Serena and Venus Williams through the perspective of their father, Richard Williams (Will Smith), who envisioned great things for his daughters as tennis stars, but also sought to give them a normal childhood.

King Richard's ending takes place at the 1994 Bank of the West Classic, a Wta Tour tournament still in existence today. It's Venus's first professional match, but she's already received massive media attention and a $3 million sponsorship offer due to both her evident talent and Richard's involvement with the media. The ending subverts some expectations of the sports movie genre but also speaks to the message about Richard's...

“Julie Keeps Quiet” director Leonardo Van Dijl was joined by professional tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou for a Q & A following a recent screening of the film in Los Angeles. They sat down with Variety‘s Jenelle Riley to discuss Belgium’s entry for Best International Feature at the 2025 Oscars. Watch the full video interview below.

Julie (Tessa Van den Broeck) is a star player at an elite tennis academy. When her coach falls under investigation and is suddenly suspended, all of the club’s players are encouraged to speak up. But Julie decides to keep quiet.

One of the film’s executive producers is four-time Grand Slam tennis champion, Naomi Osaka. She was in attendance as well, introducing the film to a packed audience including Academy members, press, and other invited guests, at the Creative Artists Agency. “Julie Keeps Quiet” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in...

In a now apocryphal story about the genesis of his cinematic career, playwright and novelist Justin Kuritzkes happened to flip the channel to watch the 2018 U.S. Open championship tennis match between Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams. Beyond just the matchup between two of the sport’s most formidable competitors, he saw something broader in this moment: two people alone, unable to directly communicate, and yet totally linked.

That dynamic inspired Challengers, Kuritzkes’s first screenplay written on spec. That film’s eventual director, Luca Guadagnino, approached him in the middle of production to take a crack at adapting William S. Burroughs’s controversial second novel, Queer. Guadagnino purchased the recently available rights to the novel, which captured the filmmaker’s attention in his younger years to the extent that he tried writing the script himself.

It’s hardly a stretch to see why he entrusted Kuritzkes with the task...

So many stars stepped out to attend the 2024 GQ Men of the Year Party on Thursday night (November 14) in Los Angeles, and we’ve got all the photos!

The annual event took place at Bar Marmont with an American Rodeo theme. Dwayne Johnson, John Mulaney and Pharrell Williams co-hosted.

We pulled together photos of more than 40 stars on the guestlist so that you could see who was there and what they wore for the special occasion.

Head inside for all of the photos…

Keep scrolling to see photos of all of the stars at the event…

Dwayne Johnson

John Mulaney

Machine Gun Kelly

Pharrell Williams and Helen Lasichanh

Diplo

Dove Cameron and Damiano David

Fyi: Dove is wearing Yvon. Damiano is wearing custom Diesel.

Jhene Aiko

Jordan Chiles

Anderson .Paak

Fyi: Anderson is wearing a David Viato suit and Garren Still accessories.

Walton Goggins

Kiernan Shipka

Big Sean

Finneas O’Connell...

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What do World Cup Champion and eight-time Ballon D’or Winner Lionel Messi, four-time NBA Champion and four-time Olympic Medalist LeBron James, and Ncaaw Champion Angel Reese have in common? Not just their impressive laundry list of accomplishments and athletic feats, but their ability to lock in and stay focused on the game ahead — with a little help from Beats headphones, of course.

The audio giant has tapped...

The fall festival season has wrapped up! Each year, dozens of movies premiere at festivals with distributors looking to launch them before they’re released in theaters or on streaming services. But dozens more are independent films without distribution that came to the festivals looking to be discovered. This year, over 200 movies made their world premieres across the Venice Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival, and we’ve seen some big name movie sales across all four.

Right as Venice got underway, we saw U.S. deals for two of the biggest competition titles on the slate, Pablo Larraín’s “Maria” to Netflix and Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” to A24. A24 also picked up the rights to Venice Silver Lion winner “The Brutalist” in a competitive situation. And some of the hottest discoveries like “Nutcrackers,” “September 5,” and TIFF Audience...

Life swings between triumph and failure in the enthralling “El Gran Salto” produced by Atresmedia TV in collaboration with Banijay’s Diagonal TV, the force behind shows such as “Isabel” and “La Catedral del Mar.”

Spanish star Óscar Casas stars as Olympic Gold Medalist gymnast Gervasio Deferr. The series is written by “Bye” scribe José Rodríguez and based on the Olympian’s own book of his struggles.

“Success is like a pendulum; it goes back and forth and is very delicate because if you don’t control it, it can screw up your life,” Deferr’s coach advises in the series opener.

This metaphor sets the tone for a five parter, which chronicles Deferr’s Olympic victories and profound personal struggles. Taking the reins is Catalan Director Roger Gual, “The idea from the beginning was to show the two sides of sports: success and failure. In Gervasio’s case, success came very early,...

Film Movement has bought North American rights to Belgium Oscar entry “Julie Keeps Quiet” which is executive produced by tennis champion Naomi Osaka, and world premiered at Cannes’ Critics Week.

A feature debut directed by Leonardo Van Dijl, “Julie Keeps Quiet” went on to play Karlovy Vary and Toronto, and will next screen at the BFI London Film Festival following its Cannes bow. The movie will have its U.S. premiere at the Hamptons Film Festival.

The drama stars newcomer Tessa Van den Broeck as Julie, a young and promising tennis player who faces a dilemma when her prominent coach is suspended after the suicide of a former prodigy. Suspicions of inappropriate conduct arise and pressure starts mounting for Julie to speak up. As she refrains from sharing her experiences, her silence leaves the investigation and the coach’s future in limbo.

“Julie Keeps Quiet” is slated for a theatrical...

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The Shop answers the question of what it would be like to be a fly on the wall while the most influential people in sports, entertainment, and politics shoot the breeze. Created by Randy Mims and Paul Rivera, the face of the show is LeBron James, who appears in select episodes. The show is set in the place where candid conversations often flow — the barbershop.

The Shop has also spawned a skincare line,...

One of the world’s most recognizable sports stars is joining the fray to launch his own production company.

Lionel Messi, the footballer who jumped to the Mls Beckham-style in a late-career move to play for Inter Miami, has set up a film and TV banner titled 525 Rosario, a reference to his hometown address in Argentina. It’ll set up shop in both Miami as well as Los Angeles.

The shingle was formed as a joint venture between the Messi family and Smuggler Entertainment, the production company behind the Apple TV+ series Messi’s World Cup: The Rise of a Legend and Messi Meets America. 525 Rosario will get a CEO in Tim Pastore, who also runs Smuggler, produced Messi’s World Cup and holds producing credits on titles like Free Solo and Jane Goodall doc Jane.

The plan is for 525 Rosario to tackle editorial content, presumably more unscripted docs, as well...

Leonardo Van Dijl’s Julie Keeps Quiet has been selected as Belgium’s submission for the 97th Academy Awards in the best international feature category.

Van Dijl’s feature debut premiered in Cannes’ Critics’ Week, winning both the Prix Sacd and the Prix Fondation Gan.

Julie Keeps Quiet is a story of a star player at an elite tennis academy. When her coach falls under investigation and is suspended, the club’s players are encouraged to speak up. But Julie decides to keep quiet…

Tennis champion Naomi Osaka is executive producing the movie through her company Hana Kuma. The film...

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U.S. tennis star Taylor Fritz came up just shy of taking home the U.S. Open title this weekend, losing to Jannik Sinner in a three-set battle. But aside from making history as the first U.S. man to appear in a Grand Slam final since 2009, Fritz also turned heads with his choice of footwear.

After years of wearing Nike tennis shoes, Fritz turned up to the U.

Naomi Osaka is out of the U.S. Open after just two rounds.

The 26-year-old 4-time Grand Slam winner lost in her second round match at the 2024 U.S. Open on Thursday night (August 29) in New York City.

Naomi was eliminated 6-3, 7-6 (5) by Czech player Karolina Muchova. The New York Post noted that Naomi made 21 unforced errors during the match, with 17 of them being in the second set.

While Naomi used to be ranked No. 1 in the world, she’s currently ranked No. 88 after taking nearly a year and a half off of work to focus on her mental health and to welcome her first child into the world. We’re sure she’ll be back up the rankings in no time!

Browse through the gallery for more photos from the tennis match…...

Naomi Osaka is opening up pregnancy rumors.

The 26-year-old tennis star spoke out in a TikTok video over the weekend about the difficulties she faced during pregnancy, as well as whether she’s welcoming more babies.

A comment on a previous video questioned if she was pregnant, to which she responded.

Keep reading to find out more…

“I just wanna say, I’m not preggos, but if I was, I wouldn’t want many more,” she said, adding “because giving birth was traumatic. But thank you, though, for your blessings.”

She welcomed her first child, daughter Shai, with rapper Cordae in July 2023.

Find out who were the highest earners among female athletes in 2023.

Watch her respond…

@naomiosaka Replying to @Lundazi ♬ original sound – Naomi Osaka 大坂なおみ...

Jake Paul thinks he’s got the dub with his new men’s body care brand–and so do investors like Paris Hilton and Naomi Osaka, who just chipped in $14 million to help it grow.

Both Paul brothers have courted controversy for years now, and despite (or because of?) that attention, have transitioned into building big, loud personal brands that can turn over millions of dollars in sales. Older brother Logan has Prime, and now Jake’s brand W, which launched into Walmart in June, told The Hollywood Reporter it’s already raked in seven figures, and is on track to surpass $50 million by the end of this year.

The $14 million Series A it just raised valued it at over $150 million. The round was led by Paul’s own Vc firm Anti Fund as well as Shrug Capital, and investors included the aforementioned Hilton (with husband Carter Reum) and Osaka,...

On the night before the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony, Hollywood arrived in Paris ready to party.

Charlize Theron, Serena Williams, Rosalía and Omar Sy co-chaired a Prelude to the Olympics event at Paris’ famed Fondation Louis Vuitton on Thursday, with Comcast NBCUniversal chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, Lvmh chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault, Louis Vuitton men’s creative director Pharrell Williams and Anna Wintour serving as hosts for an evening celebrating sports, culture, music, fashion and art.

Stars were out in full force at the event, with a guest list that included Zendaya, Mick Jagger, Jeremy Allen White, LeBron James, Zac Efron, Queen Latifah, Snoop Dogg, Elizabeth Banks, John Mulaney, Judd Apatow, Steven Spielberg, Jon M. Chu, Baz Luhrmann, Spike Lee, Daniel Kwan, Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka. Tyla performed inside the party, while Pharrell teased his new single “Triumphus Cosmos,” with a message timed to the Games.

Pharrell curated much of the evening,...

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K-pop phenomenon Jennie made headlines when she and her Blackpink bandmates parted with their label Yg Entertainment and launched independent endeavors. Now Jennie is going solo in a different way; the multi-hyphenate singer and actress partnered with Beats to showcase the brand’s new Solo Buds. In the 30-second clip, released on the 20th, she dances against a sleek black, white, and red backdrop wearing an all-black outfit and sporting the new earbuds.

Exclusive: Ross Raphael is joining CAA Sports.

Raphael will work at the intersection of sports, entertainment, and brands, helping create content opportunities, new businesses, and brand-building opportunities for the agency’s sports talent clients. He will be based in CAA’s New York office beginning July 1.

Raphael comes to CAA Sports from WME, where he most recently served as partner. Throughout his nearly 15-year tenure with the agency, he represented such athletes as Anthony Edwards, Joel Embiid, Alex Rodriguez, Tracy McGrady, and Russell Westbrook; former President of ESPN John Skipper; documentary filmmaker Brian Knappenberger; and HGTV stars Ben and Erin Napier.

Raphael has participated in various thought-leadership discussions, recently delivering a keynote conversation on athlete-driven media companies at Variety’s Sports and Entertainment Summit in 2023, and he was featured on the publication’s Family Entertainment Impact list in 2022.

CAA represents several athlete-backed production companies, including Dwyane Wade’s 59th & Prairie Entertainment,...

Exclusive: Publicist Alex Schack has been hired by align PR as a Vice President.

Schack’s client roster includes Jurassic World franchise star and filmmaker Bryce Dallas Howard, Anna Sawai, Rosa Salazar, Madeline Brewer, Camilla Luddington, Phoebe Tonkin, Christian Serratos and more.

Said align PR founder and CEO Nicole Perez-Krueger, “We are excited to welcome Alex to the align PR team. With her extensive experience in running successful and strategic publicity campaigns, she brings valuable expertise that will add to our talented publicity teams and contribute to expanding our client roster with more traditional talent from film and television. Her work in the industry and client list speak for themselves, and we’re excited to embark on this next chapter with her.”

Schack comes to align PR from Narrative. During the course of her public relations career she has worked at Slate, and began at I.D. PR.

Founded in 2019 by Perez-Krueger,...

Cannes Critics’ Week title Julie Keeps Quiet, directed by Belgium’s Leonardo Van Dijl, is to be released in the UK and Ireland through Curzon’s Artificial Eye distribution label.

It unfurls as an elite tennis academy star’s coach falls under investigation and is suddenly suspended. All of the club’s players are encouraged to speak up, but Julie decides to keep quiet.

The feature is produced by Gilles De Schryver, Gilles Coulier, Wouter Sap and Roxanne Sarkozi for De Wereldvrede (Belgium), and co-produced by Delphine Tomson, Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne for Les Films du Fleuve (Belgium), Nima Yousefi...

Tennis champion Naomi Osaka’s company Hana Kuma has boarded Leonardo Van Dijl’s debut feature “Julie Keeps Quiet” ahead of its world premiere May 18 in Cannes Critics’ Week. The film is being sold by New Europe Film Sales.

Osaka and her longtime agent and business partner Stuart Duguid are behind Hana Kuma, an Emmy Award-nominated creative house, and will serve as executive producers on the film.

“Julie Keeps Quiet” tells the story of Julie, the star player at an elite tennis academy whose life revolves around the game she loves. When her coach falls under investigation and is suddenly suspended, all of the club’s players are encouraged to speak up. But Julie decides to keep quiet.

“I’m so excited to be joining the incredible team on this film with a subject matter that resonates so deeply with me and Hana Kuma,” said Osaka. “Leonardo is an incredible...

BET announced the 2024 BET Awards nominees today. Drake leads the nominations with seven, while Nicki Minaj has six.

BET also announced “BET Awards” 2024 performance lineup, which includes GloRilla, Latto, Muni Long, Sexyy Red, Shaboozey, and Victoria Monét.

The BET Awards 2024, will air live on BET on Sunday, June 30, 2024, at 8 pm Et/ Pt.

Here are the nominees:

Album Of The Year

11:11, Chris Brown

A Gift & A Curse, Gunna

American Dream, 21 Savage

Coming Home, Usher

For All The Dogs (Scary Hours Edition), Drake

Jaguar Ii, Victoria Monét

Michael, Killer Mike

Pink Friday 2, Nicki Minaj

Best Female R&b/Pop Artist

Beyoncé

Coco Jones

Doja Cat

H.E.R.

Muni Long

Sza

Tyla

Victoria Monét

Best Male R&b/Pop Artist

Brent Faiyaz

Bryson Tiller

Burna Boy

Chris Brown

Drake

Fridayy

October London

Usher

Best Group

¥$, Ye, Ty Dolla $Ign

2 Chainz & Lil Wayne

41

Blxst & Bino Rideaux

City Girls

Flo

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Tennis star Naomi Osaka offered her response to Luca Guadagnino’s buzzy tennis movie Challengers on Thursday, sharing her own moves on the court set to the movie’s viral techno score.

On TikTok, Osaka posted a video of herself moving through a tennis serve and twirling her racket with her fingers after writing, “Me after watching Challengers.”

Though the tennis player has no official ties to the hit movie, which stars Zendaya embroiled in a love triangle with Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes previously told Business Insider it was Osaka’s 2018 win over Serena Williams that partially inspired the film.

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Exclusive: LeBron James, Naomi Osaka, and Joel Embiid have signed on to lead the selection committee for this year’s Uninterrupted Film Festival, an LA-based film event focused on the intersection of sports culture and filmmaking hosted in collaboration with Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Enterprises.

James, Osaka, and Embiid will select the short films to premiere at the festival through an open call for submissions. Selected films will debut at the festival and become the inaugural class of Uninterrupted Film Festival award recipients.

Mounted across two days in Los Angeles, the Uninterrupted Film Festival is run by Uninterrupted, a brand within The SpringHill Company (Tshc) founded by James and his close business associate Maverick Carter. This is the festival’s second year in operations.

“Teaming up with LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s The SpringHill Company in the heart of Los Angeles for a film festival...

'Challengers' screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes thinks the "cinematic" nature of tennis made it ideal for a movie.The scribe has penned the script for Luca Guadagnino's new movie that focuses on a love triangle on the tennis circuit and realised that the sport was ripe for the big screen after watching the controversial US Open final between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka in 2018.Justin told Variety: "I just happened to be watching the US Open in 2018. It was the match between Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams in the final, and it was very controversial because Serena Williams got penalised for receiving coaching from the sidelines. She got very upset and said that she didn't do that – but that was the first time I had heard about that rule."Immediately, it struck me as really cinematic, that you're all alone on the court, that there's only one other person...

Despite the parallels between both films, screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes did not mine much from his own life to write “Challengers” in the same way his wife Celine Song did for her Oscar-nominated film “Past Lives.”

“‘Challengers’ is a pure fantasy for me,” Kuritzkes recently told IndieWire over Zoom. Having gotten hooked into obsessively watching tennis after the infamous 2018 U.S. Open match between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka, he added that “‘Challengers’ really came out of this desire to have information about the matches I was watching. It was really something that I think a lot of people who watch tennis do, which is that you transpose a personality onto the player from these little crumbs that you’re given. It’s what tennis commentators do all the time. They see somebody make a little motion or something, and they go, ‘Here’s what he’s thinking. Here’s what...

Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O'Connor were all trained by Olympic bronze medalist and former tennis champion Brad Gilbert for Challengers, impressing viewers with their on-screen tennis skills. While Mike Faist played tennis in high school, neither Zendaya nor Josh O'Connor had played tennis before Challengers. Brad Gilbert spent the most time training with Zendaya for a total of three months.

Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O'Connor are all such naturals onscreen in Challengers, their convincing performances have prompted curiosity about whether they're actually playing tennis in the romantic sports drama. Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes, Challengers enters the world of professional tennis through a heated love triangle between Zendaya's Tashi Duncan, her husband Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), and his ex-best friend and Tashi's ex-boyfriend Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor). Although Challengers is not based on a true story, Kuritzkes was inspired by the controversial championship...

As Zendaya’s star rises in the wake of “Dune: Part Two” and now “Challengers,” the tennis film reminds viewers that she also has Marvel’s “Spider-Man” franchise with Tom Holland under her belt.

“Challengers” watches Zendaya play a fierce and ambitious woman whose career-stopping injury puts her in the position of coaching her professional tennis-playing husband, Art Donaldson (Mike Faist). Strategizing, she decides that a low-stakes Challenger tournament in New Rochelle might get some of Art’s mojo back — but things get complicated when the washed-up Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) takes the wild card slot to try and qualify for the U.S. Open. Patrick dated Tashi when she was in college at Stanford alongside Art, who used to play doubles with Patrick when they went to boarding school.

A line in the film calls to mind the actress’ rendition of “Mj,” aka Michelle in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

[Editor’s note: The following interview includes some spoilers for “Challengers.”]

Justin Kuritzkes managed to hit an ace with the first feature-length screenplay he’d ever written “that I felt good enough to share with anybody,” he joked during a recent interview with IndieWire over Zoom.

The playwright, author, and to some most memorably “Potion Seller,” credits the controversial 2018 U.S. Open final between Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams that began to devolve after an umpire penalized the latter tennis legend for allegedly receiving coaching from the sidelines.

“She immediately got really upset and said, ‘I didn’t do that. I would never do that.’ And I had never heard this rule before because I wasn’t massively into tennis. But immediately, this struck me as intensely cinematic,” said Kuritzkes. “You’re all alone on the court and there’s this one person in the stands who cares as much about what happens to you as you do, but you can’t talk to them.

Challengers is not based on a true story, according to writer Justin Kuritzkes. Kuritzkes discussed in an interview how the characters were fictional, but the story was based on real events and stories in the world of tennis. Kuritzkes cites a specific match in the U.S. Open that inspired Challengers.

Zendaya's latest movie Challengers left many fans wondering if the film had some real life inspiration as its masterful story unfolded. Challengers chronicles the story of Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), a tennis champion who becomes a coach after a career-ending injury. While assisting her husband Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) out of his ongoing losing streak, the couple are confronted with a face from the past in the form of Tashi's former lover and Art's former best friend Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor), heating up their upcoming match and reigniting old feelings.

The film was directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes.

Luca Guadagnino's new film "Challengers" is set in 2019 during a pivotal tennis match between tennis pro Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and the struggling also-ran Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor). Watching from the stands is Donaldson's wife, the former teen tennis prodigy Tashi Duncan (Zendaya). Tashi looks incredibly concerned, and the two players seem to hate each other. The film then begins a series of flashbacks, stretching back 13 years to when the characters were all teenagers. It seems that Art, Patrick, and Tashi once had a three-way makeout session in a motel room that cemented their physical and emotional attraction for years. Tashi briefly dated Josh, while Art, retaining a crush, attempted to sabotage their relationship. Art and Tashi would begin a romance after she sustains an injury, with Tashi becoming Art's coach. Resentment bubbles apace.

It's all very soapy, of course, but Guadagnino tempers the melodrama with excellent attention to detail,...

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange Ftx, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for defrauding investors.

Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York set the sentence today in a hearing in New York Federal Court. He said the long sentence would serve as a deterrent, that Bankman-Fried had lied on the stand during his trial, and that he felt there was a risk of him repeating similar crimes.

Speaking before the sentence, Bankman-Fried said what happened to Ftx customers has “been excruciating to watch.” But, he said, “I don’t think the reasons for that have been properly told.” The 31-year-old said he had made a series of bad decisions and thrown his life away.

In November, the former crypto king was found guilty by a Manhattan jury of seven counts of fraud in a scheme that cost Ftx customers over $10 billion. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams...