Power 100 Women; Viola Davis' Wisdom; Moonves Misled CBS Probe; 'Casting Couch' Culture; Oscars Tap Hart; THR Diversity Initiative; Lena Dunham Apology

What's news: The Hollywood Reporter reveals the Women in Entertainment Power 100. Plus: Leslie Moonves reportedly misled CBS investigators, Kevin Hart has been tapped to host the Oscars and THR unveils its new exec training initiative. — Will Robinson [The Hollywood Reporter - Today In Entertainment]( December 05, 2018 What's news: The Hollywood Reporter reveals the Women in Entertainment Power 100. Plus: Leslie Moonves reportedly misled CBS investigators, Kevin Hart has been tapped to host the Oscars and THR unveils its new exec training initiative. — Will Robinson [On the cover:]( The second of two issues this week, joining the [Actor Roundtable](, Viola Davis reveals herself to best-selling author and leadership guru Brené Brown in a raw exchange about trauma, healing, politics and how Time's Up is changing Hollywood: + Being honest with yourself: "I had the Oscar, I have two Tonys, I have the Emmy, I have a big house, and still — bam — unfulfilling. Then I realized it's because I'm not living for significance and legacy," Davis says. "And this is a big one, and this sort of hurts a little bit: I'm finally admitting to myself that a lot of the jobs I've taken in the past, because I knew that they would further my career, have been things that I have not been proud of. They put more money in the bank, they raised my status, but at night they keep me up." + Change after #MeToo and Time's Up: "I think everybody's fighting to be seen now, and I don't think anybody is quiet about it," she says. "That's the one great thing that has come from this zeitgeist. I'll tell you what I think is underrated: anger. Because what anger does to you is, it makes you realize when someone has crossed a boundary. Now people have gotten angry, they're like, 'I may have been quiet for a while, but I can't be quiet anymore. You've got to see me.'" + Her industry impact: "I don't have to walk into the room like a dude, and have a pretend penis and sling it on the table and say, 'I'm in the room now. You need to freaking listen to me,'" she says. "I can come exactly how I am and I feel that my story, my understanding of people, my experiences, my vulnerability, my need to even embrace people, all of my feminine energy, is going to make me powerful. I think that's going to make me a game-changer." [Full cover story.]( Letter from guest editor Lena Dunham. "I did something inexcusable," Dunham writes in THR's Women in Entertainment issue of defending Girls writer Murray Miller after he'd been accused of sexually assaulting actress Aurora Perrineau. "There are few acts I could ever regret more in this life." [The full letter.]( Moonves' Casting Couch Exploitative practice: Like other men accused of misconduct, former CBS CEO Leslie Moonves allegedly tried to use the promise of an acting job to get what he wanted from a woman — in this case, her silence — and to do so he reportedly enlisted casting director Peter Golden, Rebecca Keegan reports: + "Occupational hazard": Several casting directors say they receive the kinds of queries Golden got from Moonves with regularity. Stories like "That’s not who we are, but it is part of this culture," says Heidi Levitt, who cast The Artist, JFK and The Joy Luck Club. "Are casting directors put in compromising situations? Absolutely, yes we are. But so are people in ... practically every field that has a power structure of gatekeepers." + Ulterior motive: More than 20 years after Moonves and Bobbie Phillips' meeting on the Warner Bros. lot, concerned about whether the actress would speak to New Yorker journalist Ronan Farrow, Moonves called Golden and asked him to find her a part. Golden says that Moonves' request did not seem different from any other casting query. "You take the meeting. You do the audition," says another casting director who has cast CBS projects. "I find it annoying, but it's a part of the job." [Full story.]( -> New Moonves accuser shares her story: June Seley Kimmel, who has recounted her experience with the ousted CBS mogul to company lawyers, recalls her traumatic 1985 encounter: "It made me feel like I was part of a [pathetic little club](." * CBS report on Leslie Moonves' workplace misconduct leaked: Investigators said they [received]( "multiple reports" about a network employee who was "on call" to perform oral sex on Moonves, The New York Times reported late Tuesday. Longtime communications head Gil Schwartz reportedly drafted a resignation letter for Moonves in August 2018; Moonves didn't sign it, and Schwartz never told the board of its existence. [[NYT](] * Manager Marv Dauer defends Moonves actions: Meg James checks in with the source and Moonves collaborator detailed in The New York Times' expose: "His clients were never A-list — at his height, his roster was full of soap stars — but for many years he had a successful business. Now Dauer is just struggling to contain the damage." [[Los Angeles Times](] Elsewhere in TV... ► Hulu CEO talks bidding for sports rights. "We're a subscription-driven business, and we know that sports has a tendency to drive subscriptions," Randy Freer said. Hulu currently has more than 20 million subscribers in the U.S., but Freer said he is [eyeing]( 30 million-plus in order to truly scale the business. ► Comcast CFO talks direct-to-consumer plans. "Some form of direct-to-consumer we think will make sense for us," Mike Cavanagh told a UBS conference. "It is not going to be a strategy that's just 'Let's go copy what Netflix has done.' Our model will ... [take advantage]( of all that we are good at." ► David Nevins touts more Star Trek, streaming stats. Since expanding his purview past just Showtime, now holding the title of chief creative officer, CBS Corp., as well as chairman and CEO of Showtime Networks Inc., Nevins explained his new gig quite simply: “My job is to develop and bring in the best creative content for our networks and platforms." * Backend's endurance. “[Backend is not dead](,” he said. “The backend we’re able to generate on those platforms is unrivaled.” One show with boffo backend, The Big Bang Theory, is about to end its wildly successful run. And Nevins is not worried about an heir, because he believes the network already has one in Young Sheldon. ► NPR boss stepping down. CEO Jarl Mohn, will depart at the end of his contract in June, Stephen Battaglio reports. "Mohn was a rock radio disc jockey in the 1970s under the name Lee Masters and held executive posts at cable networks VH-1 and E! Entertainment Television." [[Los Angeles Times](] ► Megyn Kelly's former Today hour ditches 30 Rock studio. One of the features of Kelly’s show was a live audience, and Studio 6A could hold more than 200 people. But it also [added]( as much as $50 million annually to the budget of Megyn Kelly Today, Marisa Guthrie reports. ► Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen set to host CNN's New Year's Eve again. The duo is [re-teaming]( once more after the network fired Cooper's co-host Kathy Griffin in 2017 for posing with what appeared to be a decapitated Trump head. ► NBC unveils Alternative Directors Program all-female inaugural class. The finalists include Sharon Everitt, Madeline Fuste, Sarah De La O, Carrie Havel, Annetta Marion, Cari Townsend and Liz Zanin. [Details.]( Deals and greenlights... ► Netflix renews Narcos: Mexico. The second season of the Mexico drug-cartel drama will be [season five]( of the Narcos franchise overall. ► Hulu sets innovative two-show Grisham Universe franchise. Code Black grad Michael Seitzman and Detroit 187 alum Jason Richman will oversee The Rainmaker and Rogue Laywer, which will be [interconnected]( shows that can also stand alone. ► Hulu inks anime deal with Sony's Funimation Ink. The partnership [will give]( Hulu exclusive U.S. streaming rights to hit Japanese anime series like Tokyo Ghoul, Attack on Titan and My Hero Academia. ► Warner Bros. TV signs Bill Lawrence to new overall deal. The new WB deal runs for five years and is worth an eight-figure sum, Rick Porter reports. Lawrence's company, Doozer, has [also set]( a comedy project starring comedian Brent Morin to NBC. ► Apple orders Kevin Durant-produced basketball drama to series. The Golden State Warriors star will executive produce Swagger, which [hails]( from Imagine Television and CBS Studios. ► Apple adds Edward Burns, Kerry Bishe to Amazing Stories. Production on the individual episodic anthology has [begun]( in Atlanta, with Game of Thrones favorite Mark Mylod set to direct an installment. ► Apple's M. Night Shyamalan's series adds Toby Kebbell. The War for the Planet of the Apes actor will [star opposite]( Lauren Ambrose in the thriller. ► HBO renews My Brilliant Friend. The second season will [focus]( on the second book in Elena Ferrante's four-part series. ► NBC renews The Good Place. The comedy, set for a fourth season, is the second show [to earn]( a place on NBC's 2019-20 schedule, joining Will & Grace. [Quoted:]( "It's not easy, but second seasons are notoriously harder. Still, based on the impressive execution of the original concepts, you shouldn't underestimate [creator Justin] Marks (who is now serving as showrunner) and the writers and their ability to make it all work." — THR critic Tim Goodman, praising Starz's Counterpart season two. ^Dana Walden goes it alone: The 26-year Fox veteran, who will segue from chairman of Fox TV Group to chairman of Disney TV Studios and ABC Entertainment, opens up about her conversations with Bob Iger, flying solo (without longtime business partner Gary Newman) and her efforts to keep Channing Dungey at ABC, Lacey Rose reports: + Navigating the holding pattern: "Initially I spent a lot of time with the network team trying to see the advantages of being an independent network in an environment where all the other networks are vertically integrated," Walden says. "Very quickly we saw an opportunity, and it was a pitch that resonated with independent studios. ... The network has far more development with third-party suppliers than it has over the past five or six years." + Lessons from Fox: "Over the past year and in our development the year before is, we really thought a lot in this fragmented world about who is available to us, who wants to watch broadcast. What does that audience look like?" she says. "OK, we know who they are, we know Thursday Night Football is coming in, how do we create shows that are excellent for that audience. Going into ABC, that's the playbook. Making sure we have the best possible content for ABC." [Full story.]( -> The Women in Entertainment Power 100: From Tiffany Haddish to Nicole Kidman, Oprah Winfrey to Jennifer Salke, they've led through constant change, survived mega-mergers and stepped up creation to meet a seemingly insatiable global appetite for content — amplifying fresh, diverse voices along the way. [Power 100.]( Digital digest... ► New media companies handling old media problems. Gabriel Sherman reports on the larger worry digital media publishers face in a grim future as brands are forced to downsize or shut down. “The whole media sector is under pressure, unless you’re a FAANG company,” said Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff. [[Vanity Fair](] ► AT&T's Otter Media lays off 10 percent of staff in restructuring. "Otter Media [completed]( a long-planned reorganization today to make our business more focused, profitable, and ultimately better positioned to harness the opportunities in the dynamic digital media landscape," a company spokeswoman said in a statement. ► WarnerMedia's tiered streaming plan takes shape. Netflix and Hulu will be hardest hit if the AT&T-owned service follows Disney's lead and [claws back]( franchise movies and TV shows as deals expire, Etan Vlessing reports. Ratings notes... ► The Good Doctor ends 2018 on up note. The show's 1.4 rating among adults 18-49 is currently running 0.2 ahead of last week, when it was also [bumped]( in two markets for football. It will likely finish at 1.1 or 1.2, up from a final 1.0 a week ago. Talking points... ► Michael Avenatti officially rules out a 2020 presidential run. Avenatti said in a statement via social media that he did not make the decision "lightly" and was doing it "[out of respect for my family](." The attorney also said he would continue to represent Stormy Daniels. Coming attractions... ► Trailer: Ellen DeGeneres returns to stand-up in Relatable. The special was filmed on the comedian's first stand-up tour in 15 years and follows her limited-run jaunt, An Evening With Ellen DeGeneres, that took place in August. [Watch.]( Behind Netflix & WarnerMedia's new $80M Friends streaming deal. Sources tell Lesley Goldberg that the hit comedy could stream on both Netflix and WarnerMedia's SVOD platform as part of a potential multiyear deal. This pact marks a massive uptick from the four-year agreement the companies signed in 2014 that brought Friends exclusively to Netflix in a pact worth $30 million annually. [Much more details.]( 'THR' Exec Initiative Advocating change: The Hollywood Reporter, teaming up with Amazon, WME and more announce the Young Executives Fellowship Program, designed to create a pipeline for future film and TV leaders from low-income and underrepresented high school students in Los Angeles. + Program details: Starting in April and continuing annually, 25 underrepresented and low-income high school juniors in L.A. will be selected to participate. “This is not a mentorship — it’s regimented job training designed to get results,” Matthew Belloni, THR's editorial director told Brook Barnes. "So many panel discussions, so little action." * Background: The program has been in the works for the past year, led by THR executive editor Stephen Galloway. It is the result of dozens of conversations with top executives from major networks, agencies and studios, all of whom were asked: “What’s the single biggest problem you’ve encountered in fully diversifying your offices and productions?” * The advisory board: Belloni, Amazon's Jennifer Salke, WME's Ari Emanuel, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, Martin Luther King III and Casey Wasserman are among those who will serve. [[The New York Times](] Elsewhere in film... ► Kevin Hart to host 91st Oscars. The star is [emceeing]( the event for the first time. First-time producers Donna Gigliotti and Glenn Weiss will oversee the show, with Gigliotti serving as producer and Weiss on hand as co-producer and director. * Will he help ratings? The last two Oscar shows were hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and produced by Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd. But each year ratings declined, with a record-low 26.5 million viewers tuning in for last March’s broadcast, which adds to the pressure the new team will face in mounting the kudocast. ► eOne international film head Alex Hamilton stepping down. The London-based executive [leaves]( after more than 10 years at the company. ► Landmark Theatres sells to billionaire Charles S. Cohen's indie film company. Cohen Media Group [closed the deal]( with Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's 2929 Entertainment on Tuesday. Landmark president-CEO Ted Mundorff will stay in the top job. ► Surviving R. Kelly premiere evacuated after gun threat. The premiere was being held at NeueHouse Madison Square and [featured]( special guests including #MeToo founder Tarana Burke and #OscarsSoWhite founder April Reign. ► Venom gets release extension in China; Bumblebee locks down date. Some 26 days into its release, Sony's Spider-Man spinoff continues [to earn]( more than $1 million per day, building on its $265 million China total. ► Terry Crews, Danai Gurira, Leslie Mann, Christian Slater to reveal Golden Globe nominations. The press conference will [take place]( at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Thursday. In addition to announcing the nominees, the HFPA will make a major announcement about the awards ceremony during the press conference. ► APA names Jim Osborne head of talent. He [reps]( many of the agency's top clients and will replace Ryan Martin, whose contract expires at the end of the year. ► Gerard Depardieu changes residence in Russia after tax issues. After [obtaining]( Russian citizenship under president Vladimir Putin’s decree in January 2013, Depardieu was originally registered in the city of Saransk, the capital of Mordovia region in Central Russia. Deals and greenlights... ► I, Tonya director in early talks to tackle Disney's Cruella de Vil pic. Alex Timbers was on board [to helm]( the project, which has Emma Stone playing the dog-hating fashionista but the Mozart of the Jungle co-creator ran into scheduling issues. ► Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis' movie in the works at Netflix. Production is already (and secretly) [underway]( on a feature version of the popular and barb-filled show that hails from Funny or Die. Scott Aukerman, who directed many of the show's segments and co-created the show, is helming the movie that once again sees Galifianakis as the inappropriate host of a low-budget talk show. ► Anne Hathaway eyes starring role in Sesame Street movie. Warner Bros. is behind the project that would be [directed by]( Portlandia co-creator Jonathan Krisel, with 21 Laps' Shawn Levy set to produce with Michael Aguilar. ► Divergent filmmaker in talks to tackle G.I. Joe spinoff Snake Eyes. Robert Schwentke has been [tapped]( to direct Paramount’s pic centering on the popular, eponymous character. -> Column: Belgium's foreign-language Oscar submission is danger to transgender community. "Girl succeeds at one thing: showcasing the cruel ways trans people are continually reduced to and defined by their bodies, though without a stitch of self-awareness," Oliver Whitney writes. [Read.]( [Quoted:]( "The two-hour film has had a great run for about 100 years but it's become a very predictive format. It's difficult, I think, to work in it. ... It's sort of like saying, 'We all like sonnets, so let's tell sonnets for 100 years, as many ways as we possibly can.'" — Joe Russo, at the Business Insider Ignition conference. ^Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is the most beloved holiday movie, poll finds: A new nationally representative THR/Morning Consult poll sheds some light on the most liked films, as well as if Die Hard is a Christmas movie, Mia Galuppo reports: + Top pics: The poll, which surveyed 2,200 adults from Nov. 15-18, found that the animated Rudolph is the most beloved holiday film, with 83 percent of respondents having a generally favorable response to the title. Runner-ups included the animated A Charlie Brown Christmas (81 percent), the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (80 percent) and Home Alone (78 percent). + The John McClane question: Just 25 percent of Americans consider Bruce Willis' ascent up Nakatomi Plaza a holiday affair, while 62 percent say it's not, with men slightly more likely than women to say Die Hard is a Christmas film (32 percent vs. 20 percent). 28 percent of Americans who responded in the survey associate the action pic with their holiday tradition. [Full results.]( Honorees... ► AFI reveals 2018 film, TV award winners. The AFI Awards, which focus on American films which are deemed culturally significant, selected Black Panther, If Beale Street Could Talk, A Quiet Place and A Star Is Born among others. Because it falls outside the group’s criteria, the AFI decided to recognize Alfonso Cuaron’s Mexican-made Roma with an AFI special award. [Winners]( | [Feinberg analysis]( ► Nicole Kidman wins Australian honor for Boy Erased. Sweet Country takes six awards at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts awards, held in Sydney Wednesday night. [More.]( ► Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson to receive ASC Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to the trio of films for which he earned cinematography Oscars (JFK, Hugo and The Aviator), Richardson [collected]( six additional nominations. On the festival circuit... ► If Beale Street Could Talk star Regina King to receive Chairman's Award at Palm Springs. The three-time Emmy winner [will collect]( her hardware at the event's annual awards gala on Jan. 3. Musical notes... ► Drake tops 2018 Billboard charts. Swift [tops]( the year-end Billboard 200 Albums recap with reputation, making her the first act to have the year’s top album with three different releases. She previously did it in 2015 with 1989 and in 2009 with Fearless. * Drake also tops Spotify's 2018 list with 2.8 billion streams. Following the rapper on the 2018 list of top artists are Post Malone, XXXTentacion, J Balvin and Ed Sheeran, who was Spotify's most-streamed artist last year. Drake is also Spotify's [most-streamed]( artist of all-time. In memoriam... ► RIP Philip Bosco. The Broadway veteran and Tony-winning actor also known for his big-screen work in such films as Working Girl and The Savages died Monday night at 88. [Obit.]( Academy unveils first look at museum displays. Opening in late 2019, the new space will take visitors from the first silent movies through Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey stargate, Gregg Kilday reports. [Photos.]( No More Excuses Striving for understanding: For THR's largest shoot ever, 62 members of Black Women Who Brunch (a networking group co-founded by Lena Waithe) gather to discuss how the industry can better understand black women in Hollywood, Rebecca Sun reports: + Origin story: Together with Erika L. Johnson, then writing for BET's Being Mary Jane, Waithe and Nkechi Okoro Carroll decided to create a network of black female TV writers themselves. Twelve assembled for the March 2014 inaugural meeting of what came to be known as BWB; today, the membership nears 80. * Their goal: "This group is the proof" against and antidote to "people saying, 'We can't find any black female writers,'" says Johnson, now a co-executive producer on NBC's upcoming The Village. BWB holds potlucks at Okoro Carroll's house every few months (usually about 30 members are available at one time) to toast triumphs and troubleshoot challenges. "It's not just a community we're building, but a resource," says Waithe. [Full story.]( What else we're reading... — "How Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 2 Explores Sexism in Comedy." Emma Dibdin reports: "If you have a pretty girl in any sort of industry that has a foot up, the easiest way to cut her down is to say, 'Oh, you slept with somebody to get there.' That's today." [[THR](] — "The Enormous Life of Anthony Bourdain." Drew Magary remembers the icon through those closest with him: "He's gone now. And while everyone I talked to for this story is still coming to grips with the enormity of that loss, one can also sense a fierce determination among them that Bourdain's work cannot end with him." [[GQ](] — "Before I Was Homer, I Was Bart." Chris Kornelis reflects on watching The Simpsons with his young son: "As a parent, I don’t love the way Homer so often isn’t there for his children, but [Al] Jean reminded me of something that I had forgotten in the years between age 7 and 36: 'Even a little, little kid realizes Homer’s not a smart father.'" [[The Wall Street Journal](] — "Roma May Not Win Best Picture, But Viewers Will Still Win." Keith Phipps writes: "Every film like Roma, which likely wouldn’t have made it to such a wide audience without Netflix’s help, is a victory for the audiences who get to see it, and for an industry that sometimes struggles to support distinctive and daring work." [[The Verge](] — "A Hallmark Christmas Fan Watches Netflix’s Holiday Movies." Kaly Soto compares: "The Netflix stars are more youthful and the films are solidly secular, while Hallmark movies sometimes have a strong religious message. Like their Hallmark counterparts, the Netflix movies are lovely to look at, with lots of snowscapes and great interiors." [[The New York Times](] What else we're watching... + "Julia Roberts calms down by playing mahjong." [[Late Show](] + "Margot Robbie challenges Saoirse Ronan to do best Australian accent." [[Tonight Show](] + "Karen Gillan does Britney Spears impression & talks Avengers." [[Jimmy Kimmel](] + "Bill Burr hates when people pretend parenthood has changed them." [[Late Night](] From the archives... + On Dec. 5, 1997, Miramax unveiled Good Will Hunting, a heartfelt drama starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Robin Williams that went on to win two Oscars at the 70th Academy Awards: "Director Van Sant has distilled the personal stories to breath-gasping dimension and he has layered in the philosophical themes in correct perspective — as subsets to the human stories." [Flashback review.]( Today's birthdays: Frankie Muniz, 33, Adan Canto, 37, Jessica Pare, 38, Paula Patton, 43, Lynne Ramsay, 49, Margaret Cho, 50, Morgan Brittany, 67. Enjoy reading this? Six days a week, look for Today in Entertainment in your inbox to stay up-to-date on the industry. Sign up for this newsletter (and others) at [THR.com/Newsletters](. Follow The News Is this email not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser.]( ©2018 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved. 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