Drama Showrunner Roundtable; Oscars Delayed; Splash Mountain Outcry

What's news: THR's Drama Showrunner Roundtable, the Oscars and BAFTAs are officially postponed, Disney reckons with Splash Mountain outcry, Cineworld plans to reopen Regal theaters in the U.S. July 10, pickups and cancelations at NBC and ABC, MRC adapting 28 Summers. Plus: Warner Bros. launches its own virtual comic-con alternative, and Laverne Cox on the Supreme Court's landmark LGBTQ rights ruling. --Alex Weprin [The Hollywood Reporter]( [The Hollywood Reporter]( Today In Entertainment JUNE 16, 2020 What's news: THR's Drama Showrunner Roundtable, the Oscars and BAFTAs are officially postponed, Disney reckons with Splash Mountain outcry, Cineworld plans to reopen Regal theaters in the U.S. July 10, pickups and cancelations at NBC and ABC, MRC adapting 28 Summers. Plus: Warner Bros. launches its own virtual comic-con alternative, and Laverne Cox on the Supreme Court's landmark LGBTQ rights ruling. --Alex Weprin What's news: THR's Drama Showrunner Roundtable, the Oscars and BAFTAs are officially postponed, Disney reckons with Splash Mountain outcry, Cineworld plans to reopen Regal theaters in the U.S. July 10, pickups and cancelations at NBC and ABC, MRC adapting 28 Summers. Plus: Warner Bros. launches its own virtual comic-con alternative, and Laverne Cox on the Supreme Court's landmark LGBTQ rights ruling. --Alex Weprin [THR's Drama Showrunner Roundtable] THR's Drama Showrunner Roundtable ►Drama Showrunner Roundtable: Damon Lindelof, Courtney Kemp and more tackle race, cops and resuming production. Five top TV creators — Watchmen's Lindelof, Power's Kemp, The Good Fight's Michelle King, Little Fires Everywhere's Liz Tigelaar and The Terror: Infamy's Alexander Woo — talk candidly and passionately with THR's Lacey Rose about inclusive writers rooms ("Do better"), studio notes on flawed police portrayals ("I don't think cops would do that"), and examining one's own assumptions: "Having those moments in your body where you realize that you're a part of the system — it's humbling." --Damon Lindelof: "[W]hen we were putting together the writers room [for Watchmen], I reached out to [Ta-Nehisi Coates'] agent because I was like, 'I want to talk to him about what I'm doing here, I want to acknowledge that he inspired this work. And he's a comics writer, so maybe he has ideas for Watchmen, or at the very least I can present to him the big idea and he can tell me whether or not it's cool.'... About two months later, I heard Mr. Coates on a podcast saying, 'All these white people in Hollywood are trying to reach out to me so that I will give them the approval stamp for their projects, and I'm not interested in doing that.' At first I was like, 'That's not what I was doing!' And then I was like, 'That is exactly what I was doing.' And this is part of the culture of appropriation that the show was trying to first shine a light on but then criticize. And having those moments in your own body where you realize that you're a part of the system, it's … 'humbling' isn't even the word for it, it's depressing." --Courtney Kemp: "A lot of procedural TV would hire a black person or a woman, and if they got to hire me, they got both and they didn't have to hire anyone else. So even the question of "How do you curate a room?" "Do better" is the answer. Do better. I wouldn’t be here in my career if Robert and Michelle [King], if Greg Berlanti, if people who didn’t look like me hadn't hired me and hadn't already been comfortable with having someone who is different from them before it was trendy, before it was cool, before you [had] an ability to be virtuous by doing it. And so to me, this is a question that even implies white fragility. How do you curate a room? You do it." --Liz Tigelaar: "What we set out to explore with the show [Little Fires Everywhere] was this idea of white liberal women who feel like they are "post-racial." That they have it all figured out and that they've done their part because they see the world in this binary way, you're either racist or you're not racist. We've used the term 'microaggressions.' Obviously the show takes place in the late '90s, and that's not a term certainly white people were using then, but the show really explores that [concept]. And what we hoped is that by exploring that white liberal woman who legitimately doesn't see herself as racist, or the experience of a Black, queer artist or a Chinese immigrant who is in this country illegally and has to fight for her daughter, they are jumping-off points for dialogue." [The roundtable](. THR's Drama Showrunner Roundtable ►Drama Showrunner Roundtable: Damon Lindelof, Courtney Kemp and more tackle race, cops and resuming production. Five top TV creators — Watchmen's Lindelof, Power's Kemp, The Good Fight's Michelle King, Little Fires Everywhere's Liz Tigelaar and The Terror: Infamy's Alexander Woo — talk candidly and passionately with THR's Lacey Rose about inclusive writers rooms ("Do better"), studio notes on flawed police portrayals ("I don't think cops would do that"), and examining one's own assumptions: "Having those moments in your body where you realize that you're a part of the system — it's humbling." --Damon Lindelof: "[W]hen we were putting together the writers room [for Watchmen], I reached out to [Ta-Nehisi Coates'] agent because I was like, 'I want to talk to him about what I'm doing here, I want to acknowledge that he inspired this work. And he's a comics writer, so maybe he has ideas for Watchmen, or at the very least I can present to him the big idea and he can tell me whether or not it's cool.'... About two months later, I heard Mr. Coates on a podcast saying, 'All these white people in Hollywood are trying to reach out to me so that I will give them the approval stamp for their projects, and I'm not interested in doing that.' At first I was like, 'That's not what I was doing!' And then I was like, 'That is exactly what I was doing.' And this is part of the culture of appropriation that the show was trying to first shine a light on but then criticize. And having those moments in your own body where you realize that you're a part of the system, it's … 'humbling' isn't even the word for it, it's depressing." --Courtney Kemp: "A lot of procedural TV would hire a black person or a woman, and if they got to hire me, they got both and they didn't have to hire anyone else. So even the question of "How do you curate a room?" "Do better" is the answer. Do better. I wouldn’t be here in my career if Robert and Michelle [King], if Greg Berlanti, if people who didn’t look like me hadn't hired me and hadn't already been comfortable with having someone who is different from them before it was trendy, before it was cool, before you [had] an ability to be virtuous by doing it. And so to me, this is a question that even implies white fragility. How do you curate a room? You do it." --Liz Tigelaar: "What we set out to explore with the show [Little Fires Everywhere] was this idea of white liberal women who feel like they are "post-racial." That they have it all figured out and that they've done their part because they see the world in this binary way, you're either racist or you're not racist. We've used the term 'microaggressions.' Obviously the show takes place in the late '90s, and that's not a term certainly white people were using then, but the show really explores that [concept]. And what we hoped is that by exploring that white liberal woman who legitimately doesn't see herself as racist, or the experience of a Black, queer artist or a Chinese immigrant who is in this country illegally and has to fight for her daughter, they are jumping-off points for dialogue." [The roundtable](. [Oscars Delayed] Oscars Delayed It's official: As a result of the global pandemic, the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony has been pushed back from Feb. 28 to April 25, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and its Oscars broadcasting partner ABC announced on Monday. In turn, the Oscars eligibility period for feature films — which began on Jan. 1, 2020, and was set to expire at the end of Dec. 31, 2020 — has been extended to Feb. 28, 2021. The annual Governors Awards dinner has also been canceled. --In a statement, the Academy indicated that the Oscars will still be held "at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood" and "will air live on ABC," an apparent rejection of the possibility of a pre-taped and/or virtual gathering. And the Academy emphasized, "The intent going forward is to ultimately return to awarding excellence for films released in the January-December calendar year." [The story](. +BAFTA followed suit: The British Academy's 2021 film awards, which were postponed earlier this year due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, have been pushed to just ahead of the Academy Awards next year. On Monday, BAFTA said next year’s British Academy Film Awards will be held on Sunday April 11 2021, allowing the U.K. awards show to remain among the last of the Oscar precursor award shows. The change from the earlier announced date of Feb. 14 allows for an extended eligibility period. [More](. +And: The British Academy also revealed that it is making temporary changes to the eligibility criteria for its 2021 film awards. Essentially, the tweaks are there to assist those films impacted by the COVID-19 lockdown, including those moved to a VOD release rather than theatrical after cinemas closed. [Here are all the changes](. +Meanwhile: Oscar voters react to Academy's new inclusion plans. The organization's board of governors recently announced its "Academy Aperture 2025" plan to try to further improve the diversity of its membership and Oscar nominees. Over the days since, THR's Scott Feinberg has surveyed Academy members from across the organization's 17 branches to get a sense of how they feel about the announcement. Quote: "I'll be very curious to see what the requirements look like, in practice," said Jordan Horowitz of the producers branch, a best picture Oscar nominee for La La Land. "But I do think the Academy realizes that there's an incredible amount of work we need to do in order to tip the scales towards equality, so this feels like a good and well-intentioned step on that path."[The story](. ►Cineworld to reopen U.S., U.K. movie theaters on July 10. The Exhibition giant, which owns the Regal chain in the U.S., is set to reopen some of its European cinemas next week, with its U.S. and U.K movie theaters reopening on July 10. Having closed its sites in mid-March due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and previously having said it would restart operations next month, the U.K.-based company on Tuesday detailed its reopening schedule for the nine markets it operates in, with the Czech Republic and Slovakia going first on June 26. [The story](. ►MRC to adapt Elin Hilderbrand romance 28 Summers. MRC has picked up the rights to the latest from Hilderbrand, the New York Times best-selling "beach read" author, ahead of its release. Charlie's Angels producer Elizabeth Cantillon, who is attached to produce the adaptation. The book, which was published by Little, Brown on June 16, centers on a one-weekend-per-year affair, and its profound impact on the lovers and the lives of the people around them. [More](. +Ben Stiller, Oscar Isaac team for London. Stiller will direct Isaac in the Lionsgate film, which is an adaptation of a short story by The Snowman author Jo Nesbo, and will be written for the screen by Eric Roth, who won an Oscar for Forrest Gump and was last nominated for A Star Is Born. [More](. No Comic-Con? No problem! With this year's San Diego Comic-Con canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Warner Bros. is creating its own event to promote its slate of comic book movies and TV shows. The studio will hold DC FanDome, which will stream for free Aug. 22 beginning at 10 a.m. PT at DCFanDome.com and be available online for 24 hours. --This could be the most extensive looks yet at a number of high-profile projects, including Matt Reeves' The Batman, which shut down production in March amid the coronavirus pandemic, and James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, which has been tightly guarded after wrapping filming in February and has yet to release any footage or photos. [The story](. Oscars Delayed It's official: As a result of the global pandemic, the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony has been pushed back from Feb. 28 to April 25, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and its Oscars broadcasting partner ABC announced on Monday. In turn, the Oscars eligibility period for feature films — which began on Jan. 1, 2020, and was set to expire at the end of Dec. 31, 2020 — has been extended to Feb. 28, 2021. The annual Governors Awards dinner has also been canceled. --In a statement, the Academy indicated that the Oscars will still be held "at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood" and "will air live on ABC," an apparent rejection of the possibility of a pre-taped and/or virtual gathering. And the Academy emphasized, "The intent going forward is to ultimately return to awarding excellence for films released in the January-December calendar year." [The story](. +BAFTA followed suit: The British Academy's 2021 film awards, which were postponed earlier this year due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, have been pushed to just ahead of the Academy Awards next year. On Monday, BAFTA said next year’s British Academy Film Awards will be held on Sunday April 11 2021, allowing the U.K. awards show to remain among the last of the Oscar precursor award shows. The change from the earlier announced date of Feb. 14 allows for an extended eligibility period. [More](. +And: The British Academy also revealed that it is making temporary changes to the eligibility criteria for its 2021 film awards. Essentially, the tweaks are there to assist those films impacted by the COVID-19 lockdown, including those moved to a VOD release rather than theatrical after cinemas closed. [Here are all the changes](. +Meanwhile: Oscar voters react to Academy's new inclusion plans. The organization's board of governors recently announced its "Academy Aperture 2025" plan to try to further improve the diversity of its membership and Oscar nominees. Over the days since, THR's Scott Feinberg has surveyed Academy members from across the organization's 17 branches to get a sense of how they feel about the announcement. Quote: "I'll be very curious to see what the requirements look like, in practice," said Jordan Horowitz of the producers branch, a best picture Oscar nominee for La La Land. "But I do think the Academy realizes that there's an incredible amount of work we need to do in order to tip the scales towards equality, so this feels like a good and well-intentioned step on that path."[The story](. ►Cineworld to reopen U.S., U.K. movie theaters on July 10. The Exhibition giant, which owns the Regal chain in the U.S., is set to reopen some of its European cinemas next week, with its U.S. and U.K movie theaters reopening on July 10. Having closed its sites in mid-March due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and previously having said it would restart operations next month, the U.K.-based company on Tuesday detailed its reopening schedule for the nine markets it operates in, with the Czech Republic and Slovakia going first on June 26. [The story](. ►MRC to adapt Elin Hilderbrand romance 28 Summers. MRC has picked up the rights to the latest from Hilderbrand, the New York Times best-selling "beach read" author, ahead of its release. Charlie's Angels producer Elizabeth Cantillon, who is attached to produce the adaptation. The book, which was published by Little, Brown on June 16, centers on a one-weekend-per-year affair, and its profound impact on the lovers and the lives of the people around them. [More](. +Ben Stiller, Oscar Isaac team for London. Stiller will direct Isaac in the Lionsgate film, which is an adaptation of a short story by The Snowman author Jo Nesbo, and will be written for the screen by Eric Roth, who won an Oscar for Forrest Gump and was last nominated for A Star Is Born. [More](. No Comic-Con? No problem! With this year's San Diego Comic-Con canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Warner Bros. is creating its own event to promote its slate of comic book movies and TV shows. The studio will hold DC FanDome, which will stream for free Aug. 22 beginning at 10 a.m. PT at DCFanDome.com and be available online for 24 hours. --This could be the most extensive looks yet at a number of high-profile projects, including Matt Reeves' The Batman, which shut down production in March amid the coronavirus pandemic, and James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, which has been tightly guarded after wrapping filming in February and has yet to release any footage or photos. [The story](. [What To Do About Splash Mountain?] What To Do About Splash Mountain? ►Disney mum on Splash Mountain outcry. Demands to rebrand the classic ride have been gaining traction as its storyline is tied to the disavowed 1946 film Song of the South, Ryan Parker writes. Quote: "On the one hand, the modern Disney company has always known it was not suitable for an American audience. So there was no VHS release under [Former CEO Micheal] Eisner during the '80s, and Iger was absolutely clear that it wouldn’t ever come out," J.D. Connor, USC School of Cinematic Arts associate professor, told THR. "But on the other hand, it’s sitting there with the Academy Award-winning best song ("Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah") that is incredibly catchy and, out of context, seems harmless. For Disney, for decades, the question was not 'How is Song of the South racist and how do we come to terms with that?' but 'How much can we get out of it without getting in trouble?'" [The story](. ►Manifest renewed at NBC; trio of rookie series canceled. NBC is firming up the remainder of its scripted lineup. The network on Monday night handed out a third-season to bubble drama Manifest as it also canceled three rookie series: Bluff City Law and comedies Sunnyside and Indebted. --NBC has yet to reveal its schedule for the 2020-21 season, Lesley Goldberg reports. It's unclear if the network will "corona-proof" its schedule (like Fox and The CW) with scripted fare that has already been filmed or if it will roll the dice and proceed as business as usual (like CBS) with the expectation that the guilds and studios can work out safety protocols to resume production. The network is expected to announce its fall schedule by week's end. [The story](. +For Life renewed for season 2 at ABC. The Disney-owned broadcast network has handed out a second-season renewal to the legal drama from exec producer 50 Cent. Meanwhile, ABC has canceled fellow freshman drama The Baker and the Beauty. [More](. Elsewhere in TV... +Apple is adding an Israeli espionage thriller to its roster. The tech giant/streamer has boarded drama series Tehran, from Fauda writer Moshe Zonder. Apple TV+ will serve as a co-producer on the series from Cineflix Rights and Israeli network Kan 11. As part of the deal, Apple will serve as the exclusive streaming home to the series in all territories. [More](. +The Sinner renewed for season 4 at USA. The NBCUniversal-owned cable network has also added a pair of unscripted shows, Instant Family and The Rev, to its lineup. [More](. +Autism comedic drama from Jason Katims nabs Amazon series pickup. The retail giant/streamer has handed out a series order to a coming-of-age comedic drama formerly titled On the Spectrum, from the Parenthood and Friday Night Lights alum. [More](. +Jessica Chastain snags TV rights to Alice Feeney's His & Hers. The actress' Freckle Films and Endeavor Content will develop the latest novel from the author of Sometimes I Lie. [More](. Disney argues spouses aren't protected under pregnancy discrimination laws. Thanks to the streaming age and an unusual lawsuit from a former Disney employee, a New York federal judge may soon take a crack at clarifying whether pregnancy discrimination laws cover just those individuals carrying a baby — or their spouses too. On Friday, Disney submitted a motion to dismiss the suit with the argument that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act as well as New York State Human Rights Law "only provide protection to a pregnant employee, not to an employee whose spouse is pregnant." [The story](. +All the time and money on California's new privacy law wasted? As owner of the Weather Channel app, IBM is fighting the contention made by the L.A. City Attorney's Office that it has violated California's unfair competition law by deceptively collecting private geolocation data from users and selling it for profit. [More](. +Supreme Court rules LGBT people protected from job discrimination. The court decided by a 6-3 vote that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as Title VII that bars job discrimination because of sex, among other reasons, encompasses bias against LGBT workers. [More](. +Laverne Cox on historic SCOTUS decision protecting LGBTQ workers: "It's a win for America." The actress, transgender-rights advocate and executive producer of the upcoming documentary Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen brought attention to the case at the 2019 Emmy Awards. [The interview](. ^Audible expands originals slate with projects starring Kevin Bacon, Yvette Nicole Brown. The subscription business, which is known for its large offering of audiobooks and other spoken-word entertainment, has tapped voice talent including Carrie Coon, Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon and Yvette Nicole Brown as it invests to bring more original and exclusive stories to listeners. [More](. ►BET Awards nominees: Drake leads the nominations with six nods. The rapper is up for best male hip-hop artist and video of the year, while he earned two nods for both best collaboration and viewer’s choice for his features in Chris Brown's "No Guidance" and Future's "Life Is Good." Megan Thee Stallion and Roddy Ricch collected the second most nominations with five nods each. Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Brown, Lizzo and DaBaby follow with four nominations each. [The full list of nominees](. +Also: For the first time, the BET Awards will be simulcast on CBS this year. +Meanwhile in Canada: The canceled Banff World Media Festival has revealed winners of its Rockie Awards, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag scooping the Grand Jury Prize and the best comedy series in the juried competition. Also Monday, HBO's Gentleman Jack took home the best English language drama series prize, while HBO and Sky TV's Chernobyl nabbed the best limited series crown. [The winners](. Two grim advertising forecasts... +On the one hand: U.S. advertising spending, excluding political advertising, [will drop 12.9 percent](in 2020 to $207.9 billion driven by the novel coronavirus pandemic and resulting recession before swinging to a 4 percent gain in 2021 to $216.6 billion, ad giant GroupM forecast late on Monday. +The other take: MagnaGlobal predicts that U.S. advertising revenue [will fall 4.3 percent]( this year to $213 billion, or around 17.0 percent when excluding political advertising, driven by the novel coronavirus pandemic and the resulting recession. ►Jurassic World: Dominium U.K. production to restart in July. Universal has confirmed that production on the Colin Trevorrow-directed movie — which was among a number of big-budget productions forced into hiatus in mid-March due to the novel coronavirus pandemic — will pick up again on July 6 at Pinewood, where pre-production is due to kick off this week. [More](. ►Broadcast TV ratings: A weather-delayed NASCAR race that pushed into primetime gave Fox a bigger-than-usual audience for a summer Sunday, but it fell a good bit short of ABC's game-show lineup, which carried the network to a victory among adults 18-49. CBS' 60 Minutes kept its spot as the night's most-watched show. [The numbers](. Revolving door: River Road Entertainment [has named]( veteran Hollywood producer Kim Roth as co-president and chief creative officer, and also promoted Christa Zofcin Workman to co-president and COO... UTA [has promoted]( agents Chelsea McKinnies and Emerson Davis to become partners at the Hollywood talent agency... Metro Goldwyn Mayer [has named]( veteran film producer Michele Imperato as the motion picture group's president of physical production... Publicity veteran Michelle Slavich is leaving Warner Bros. Pictures [for Netflix](... Saloon Media [has hired]( former Pier 21 Films exec Melissa Williamson to get the longtime factual TV producer into scripted dramas and comedies... ►TV review: Daniel Fienberg reviews HBO's Perry Mason, writing "with a strong lead performance by Matthew Rhys, an ensemble to die for and impeccable Depression era production values, the show makes a solid case for itself without ever exactly giving a compelling answer as to why, of all the available IP in the world, this was the brand anybody wanted to mine." [The review](. ►Critic's notebook: Will the 2020 Emmys reflect TV's socially conscious moment? With voters spending lockdown with their televisions, incumbent series out of the way and cries for social change in the news, relevant shows might get their day in the sun, Inkoo Kang writes. [The notebook](. In other news... --Magnet Releasing, Magnolia Pictures' genre arm, has [acquired the North American rights]( to Alone, the English-language remake by director John Hyams of Mattias Olsson’s 2011 Swedish film Gone. --The annual Star Wars Celebration, which was scheduled to take place at the end of August in Anaheim, [has been canceled]( amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. --American Slavery Project (ASP) is [partnering with more than a dozen theater companies]( for a presentation of Black Women and the Ballot, a collection of three short radio plays that will be available to stream on Friday, June 19, also known as Juneteenth. --In one of the more unexpected corporate synergy moves in recent memory, DC [has announced]( To The Max, a new digital comic book series created in collaboration with HBO Max, in which three regular people achieve their full potential with the assistance of a superpower dog. It's all to help promote the launch of the new WarnerMedia streaming service. --Studio City Toronto [has broken ground]( on 70,000 square feet of new soundstages, including a 36,000 square foot jumbo stage for Hollywood studios and streamers to use when they return north to shoot film and TV originals post-pandemic. What else we're reading... --"Jon Stewart is back to weigh in" [[NY Times](] --"For Black producers, canceling Cops is an empty gesture" [[WSJ](] --"Fortnite maker Epic Games nears funding at $17 billion value" [[Bloomberg](] --"NBCU responds to ANA's call to shift TV upfront by pushing for bigger change" [[Ad Age](] Today's birthdays: Phil Mickelson, 50, Laurie Metcalf, 65, Eddie Levert, 78, Diana DeGarmo, 33, John Cho, 48. What To Do About Splash Mountain? ►Disney mum on Splash Mountain outcry. Demands to rebrand the classic ride have been gaining traction as its storyline is tied to the disavowed 1946 film Song of the South, Ryan Parker writes. Quote: "On the one hand, the modern Disney company has always known it was not suitable for an American audience. So there was no VHS release under [Former CEO Micheal] Eisner during the '80s, and Iger was absolutely clear that it wouldn’t ever come out," J.D. Connor, USC School of Cinematic Arts associate professor, told THR. "But on the other hand, it’s sitting there with the Academy Award-winning best song ("Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah") that is incredibly catchy and, out of context, seems harmless. For Disney, for decades, the question was not 'How is Song of the South racist and how do we come to terms with that?' but 'How much can we get out of it without getting in trouble?'" [The story](. ►Manifest renewed at NBC; trio of rookie series canceled. NBC is firming up the remainder of its scripted lineup. The network on Monday night handed out a third-season to bubble drama Manifest as it also canceled three rookie series: Bluff City Law and comedies Sunnyside and Indebted. --NBC has yet to reveal its schedule for the 2020-21 season, Lesley Goldberg reports. It's unclear if the network will "corona-proof" its schedule (like Fox and The CW) with scripted fare that has already been filmed or if it will roll the dice and proceed as business as usual (like CBS) with the expectation that the guilds and studios can work out safety protocols to resume production. The network is expected to announce its fall schedule by week's end. [The story](. +For Life renewed for season 2 at ABC. The Disney-owned broadcast network has handed out a second-season renewal to the legal drama from exec producer 50 Cent. Meanwhile, ABC has canceled fellow freshman drama The Baker and the Beauty. [More](. Elsewhere in TV... +Apple is adding an Israeli espionage thriller to its roster. The tech giant/streamer has boarded drama series Tehran, from Fauda writer Moshe Zonder. Apple TV+ will serve as a co-producer on the series from Cineflix Rights and Israeli network Kan 11. As part of the deal, Apple will serve as the exclusive streaming home to the series in all territories. [More](. +The Sinner renewed for season 4 at USA. The NBCUniversal-owned cable network has also added a pair of unscripted shows, Instant Family and The Rev, to its lineup. [More](. +Autism comedic drama from Jason Katims nabs Amazon series pickup. The retail giant/streamer has handed out a series order to a coming-of-age comedic drama formerly titled On the Spectrum, from the Parenthood and Friday Night Lights alum. [More](. +Jessica Chastain snags TV rights to Alice Feeney's His & Hers. The actress' Freckle Films and Endeavor Content will develop the latest novel from the author of Sometimes I Lie. [More](. Disney argues spouses aren't protected under pregnancy discrimination laws. Thanks to the streaming age and an unusual lawsuit from a former Disney employee, a New York federal judge may soon take a crack at clarifying whether pregnancy discrimination laws cover just those individuals carrying a baby — or their spouses too. On Friday, Disney submitted a motion to dismiss the suit with the argument that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act as well as New York State Human Rights Law "only provide protection to a pregnant employee, not to an employee whose spouse is pregnant." [The story](. +All the time and money on California's new privacy law wasted? As owner of the Weather Channel app, IBM is fighting the contention made by the L.A. City Attorney's Office that it has violated California's unfair competition law by deceptively collecting private geolocation data from users and selling it for profit. [More](. +Supreme Court rules LGBT people protected from job discrimination. The court decided by a 6-3 vote that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as Title VII that bars job discrimination because of sex, among other reasons, encompasses bias against LGBT workers. [More](. +Laverne Cox on historic SCOTUS decision protecting LGBTQ workers: "It's a win for America." The actress, transgender-rights advocate and executive producer of the upcoming documentary Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen brought attention to the case at the 2019 Emmy Awards. [The interview](. ^Audible expands originals slate with projects starring Kevin Bacon, Yvette Nicole Brown. The subscription business, which is known for its large offering of audiobooks and other spoken-word entertainment, has tapped voice talent including Carrie Coon, Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon and Yvette Nicole Brown as it invests to bring more original and exclusive stories to listeners. [More](. ►BET Awards nominees: Drake leads the nominations with six nods. The rapper is up for best male hip-hop artist and video of the year, while he earned two nods for both best collaboration and viewer’s choice for his features in Chris Brown's "No Guidance" and Future's "Life Is Good." Megan Thee Stallion and Roddy Ricch collected the second most nominations with five nods each. Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Brown, Lizzo and DaBaby follow with four nominations each. [The full list of nominees](. +Also: For the first time, the BET Awards will be simulcast on CBS this year. +Meanwhile in Canada: The canceled Banff World Media Festival has revealed winners of its Rockie Awards, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag scooping the Grand Jury Prize and the best comedy series in the juried competition. Also Monday, HBO's Gentleman Jack took home the best English language drama series prize, while HBO and Sky TV's Chernobyl nabbed the best limited series crown. [The winners](. Two grim advertising forecasts... +On the one hand: U.S. advertising spending, excluding political advertising, [will drop 12.9 percent](in 2020 to $207.9 billion driven by the novel coronavirus pandemic and resulting recession before swinging to a 4 percent gain in 2021 to $216.6 billion, ad giant GroupM forecast late on Monday. +The other take: MagnaGlobal predicts that U.S. advertising revenue [will fall 4.3 percent]( this year to $213 billion, or around 17.0 percent when excluding political advertising, driven by the novel coronavirus pandemic and the resulting recession. ►Jurassic World: Dominium U.K. production to restart in July. Universal has confirmed that production on the Colin Trevorrow-directed movie — which was among a number of big-budget productions forced into hiatus in mid-March due to the novel coronavirus pandemic — will pick up again on July 6 at Pinewood, where pre-production is due to kick off this week. [More](. ►Broadcast TV ratings: A weather-delayed NASCAR race that pushed into primetime gave Fox a bigger-than-usual audience for a summer Sunday, but it fell a good bit short of ABC's game-show lineup, which carried the network to a victory among adults 18-49. CBS' 60 Minutes kept its spot as the night's most-watched show. [The numbers](. Revolving door: River Road Entertainment [has named]( veteran Hollywood producer Kim Roth as co-president and chief creative officer, and also promoted Christa Zofcin Workman to co-president and COO... UTA [has promoted]( agents Chelsea McKinnies and Emerson Davis to become partners at the Hollywood talent agency... Metro Goldwyn Mayer [has named]( veteran film producer Michele Imperato as the motion picture group's president of physical production... Publicity veteran Michelle Slavich is leaving Warner Bros. Pictures [for Netflix](... Saloon Media [has hired]( former Pier 21 Films exec Melissa Williamson to get the longtime factual TV producer into scripted dramas and comedies... ►TV review: Daniel Fienberg reviews HBO's Perry Mason, writing "with a strong lead performance by Matthew Rhys, an ensemble to die for and impeccable Depression era production values, the show makes a solid case for itself without ever exactly giving a compelling answer as to why, of all the available IP in the world, this was the brand anybody wanted to mine." [The review](. ►Critic's notebook: Will the 2020 Emmys reflect TV's socially conscious moment? With voters spending lockdown with their televisions, incumbent series out of the way and cries for social change in the news, relevant shows might get their day in the sun, Inkoo Kang writes. [The notebook](. In other news... --Magnet Releasing, Magnolia Pictures' genre arm, has [acquired the North American rights]( to Alone, the English-language remake by director John Hyams of Mattias Olsson’s 2011 Swedish film Gone. --The annual Star Wars Celebration, which was scheduled to take place at the end of August in Anaheim, [has been canceled]( amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. --American Slavery Project (ASP) is [partnering with more than a dozen theater companies]( for a presentation of Black Women and the Ballot, a collection of three short radio plays that will be available to stream on Friday, June 19, also known as Juneteenth. --In one of the more unexpected corporate synergy moves in recent memory, DC [has announced]( To The Max, a new digital comic book series created in collaboration with HBO Max, in which three regular people achieve their full potential with the assistance of a superpower dog. It's all to help promote the launch of the new WarnerMedia streaming service. --Studio City Toronto [has broken ground]( on 70,000 square feet of new soundstages, including a 36,000 square foot jumbo stage for Hollywood studios and streamers to use when they return north to shoot film and TV originals post-pandemic. What else we're reading... --"Jon Stewart is back to weigh in" [[NY Times](] --"For Black producers, canceling Cops is an empty gesture" [[WSJ](] --"Fortnite maker Epic Games nears funding at $17 billion value" [[Bloomberg](] --"NBCU responds to ANA's call to shift TV upfront by pushing for bigger change" [[Ad Age](] Today's birthdays: Phil Mickelson, 50, Laurie Metcalf, 65, Eddie Levert, 78, Diana DeGarmo, 33, John Cho, 48. [Image] [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( Is this e-mail not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser.]( ©2020 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved. 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