Author: frkhokhar@gmail.com

At a transformative moment for the media industry, Hearst is looking into potential dealmaking to help its TV businesses, which include dozens of local TV stations and a 50 percent stake in A+E Global Media, better compete with tech giants. Hearst CEO Steve Swartz sent his annual letter to employees Tuesday, outlining the status of…

Edoardo Baldi, among Hollywood’s favorite chefs, plates a dish of sweet corn tortellini at the pass in the gleaming kitchen of his forthcoming steakhouse at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills. It’s a new variation on one of his trademarks — sweet corn agnolotti — which he began serving at his late father Giorgio Baldi’s…

A few months ago, Francine Maisler told me a story about securing Wunmi Mosaku for a key role in The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s buzzy sequel to the Oscar-winning The Social Network. She’d recently cast Mosaku in Sinners, which had just been released to enormous success. “I worship the woman, and I said, ‘Aaron, I…

Adam Baidawi has been named global editorial director of GQ. Baidawi comes to the role after having served as deputy global editorial director of GQ and head of editorial content at British GQ since 2021. He takes over the role after Will Welch announced he was leaving to work with Pharrell Williams in Paris. His…

Revolving around three generations of women — played by Anna Calder-Marshall, Juliette Binoche and Florence Hunt — within one troubled family, Berlinale competitor Queen at Sea offers a scathingly unsentimental look at the complexity of caring for an elderly person with dementia. Shot in London, this scrupulously realist work by multi-hyphenate Lance Hammer (his first…

Mehdi Mahmoudian, the Oscar-nominated co-writer of Jafar Panahi‘s It Was Just an Accident, has been released from prison in Iran, after 17 days inside, according to local media reports. Mahmoudian was released from Nowshahr Prison along with Vida Rabbani and Abdollah Momeni, all arrested for signing the so-called “Statement of the Seventeen” condemning the actions…

Neon has landed the rights to Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s next film, All Of A Sudden, the latest from the director behind the Oscar-winning Drive My Car. Neon landed the North American rights to the film, which is currently in post-production, with plans for a theatrical release. Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto star in the film, playing…