”Twas the weekend before Christmas, and if you’re a younger person you’re statistically more likely than not to be headed home to family. But if you happen to be among those who felt especailly motivated and/or disenfranchised by the perils of life on Earth, you may have instead headed to Phoenix, Arizona, where tens of … Read more
There are very few things a Hollywood executive can count on these days; certainly the thankfully almost-concluded year of 2025 has underscored that reality. But one of the scarily scant number of chalk bets that do remain is that a movie produced by James Cameron will draw a crowd to theatres and find a way … Read more
It”s an unfortunate reality of the media business calendar that the come-to-Jesus moments for those whose livelihoods rely on hard numbers occur around the times of the holidays themselves. Such results are usually received around the time that the “hard eight” weeks of the advertising year come to an end–the ones where a goodly number … Read more
Once again, the best laid plans of mice and men oft times go astray, especially when this man was intending to muse about a mouse of a project that dropped yesterday on Netflix (more on that–but, pinky promise, not all that much more–in a tad). But then as has tended to be the case more … Read more
It actually hasn’t been all that long since I was last choosing to spend extra time in my office around this time of year. In my line of work, it was all the more necessary as we frequently rescheduled oft-postponed vendor presentations to the last full week of the year–which most willingly went along with … Read more
In the wake of a truly lost weekend where most of the voices–including mine–reflected a cacophony of shock, despair and futile soul-searching, the current leader of the free world took it upon himself to offer his version of healing–the kind that comes to mind while literally taking a sh-t on a overly gilded toilet in … Read more
I sometimes get asked how I determine what elevates in my mind to the point that it’s worthy of a musing. Usually, something of interest turns up in my inbox or DM, or I happen to actually see something in a physical newspaper or even IRL, since I’m fiercely determined to still immerse myself in … Read more
Once again, I must plead relative ignorance and throw myself on the mercy of the court of public opinion that I am simply not enough of a fan of professional wrestling to know the full storyline and career trajectories of its more prominent personalities. But I do know that an awful lot of people do, … Read more
Call me either paranoid or pragmatic, but I just simply could not get on the bandwagon of celerating Dick Van Dyke’s centennial under now. You can blame a couple of game show personalities, a coach and perhaps a few of my ex-relatives for that. We are a culture that tends to obsessed with big numbers, … Read more
There are many adjectives that one could justifiably apply to Disney’s venerable czar Bob Iger, now four years into a board-requested second act after a 15-year that outlasted most of his peers. That run began with a groundbreaking deal that VARIETY’s equally seasoned Andrew Wallenstein recently revisited that he teed up thusly: On Oct. 12, … Read more