'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Early Reviews; Academy's New Class; 'Morning Joe' Hosts Under Fire; Life After Hollywood; The First Reality Star?

What's news: After a premiere last night, Sony's Spider-Man: Homecoming is getting mostly positive early reviews from critics today. Plus: A closer look at the Academy's record invites for its incoming class, MSNBC faces the ire of Trump and an in-depth look at an early reality star. — Matthew Belloni, Erik Hayden and Jennifer Konerman [The Hollywood Reporter - Today In Entertainment]( June 29, 2017 What's news: After a premiere last night, Sony's Spider-Man: Homecoming is getting mostly positive early reviews from critics today. Plus: A closer look at the Academy's record invites for its incoming class, MSNBC faces the ire of Trump and an in-depth look at an early reality star. — Matthew Belloni, Erik Hayden and Jennifer Konerman Have you scanned the list yet? Yesterday Academy invited a record-setting 774 people to join its membership this year, a sizable portion of whom are women and people of color, including Gal Gadot, Dwayne Johnson, Leslie Jones and Jordan Peele. [The list.]( Scott Feinberg's counterpoint: I believe that the Academy's intentions are admirable, but [that its tactics are foolhardy](. The bottom line is that the Academy cannot fix the industry's diversity problems any more than a tail can wag a dog. This is not a problem that can be reverse-engineered. The Academy is the last stop on a film's long journey, should all go well, and if you want to know why the Academy is not nominating more women and people of color, then you need to focus on the earlier stops — the agents and managers, who could nurture the careers of more women and people of color; the studios, which could hire more of them; the distributors and foreign sales agents and marketing execs, who could further push back against assumptions that certain types of audiences will never attend movies featuring certain types of people. Class of 2017 fun facts: Show-biz legend Betty White, at the age of 95, is the oldest of the new invitees. The youngest invitee is Elle Fanning, at the age of 19. The Academy reported that the list, which represents talent from 57 countries, is 39 percent female and 30 percent people of color. Seven of the Academy branches invited more women then men. [Details.]( Meet the New 'Spider-Man' Last night, Sony/Marvel's hyped Spider-Man: Homecoming gathered its stars for its Hollywood premiere. This morning, the review embargo lifted. The verdict, from critic John DeFore's [new review:]( Though it doesn't approach the abominations of recent DC movies, which (with the happy exception of Wonder Woman, but certainly including the cringeworthy Justice League trailer) seem intent on making those initials stand not for "Detective Comics" but "Douchebag Corrosiveness," it represents a creative misstep for the studio — albeit one likely to ride fanboy enthusiasm to much better receipts than those enjoyed by Amazing Spider-Man, the recent incarnation starring Andrew Garfield. Where Garfield's Peter Parker displayed a believable 21st-century angst, we return largely to the character's wide-eyed roots with Tom Holland, whose performance is thoroughly winning even when the script isn't helping him." DeFore's bottom line: "A charming new lead only goes so far in a reboot that smells of corporate strategy." + Early takes: [USA Today:]( "All the best stuff happens when he’s not in his mask." [The Guardian:]("a whipsmart teen movie." [NYDN:]( "Did we really need another one? Hell, yes." [Indiewire:]("Marvel has figured out a way to keep things fresh." Elsewhere in film... ► Box office: Despicable Me 3 eyes big debut. The animated tentpole is tracking to open to $90M or more for the three-day frame before racking up more big numbers on Monday and Tuesday, the official holiday. Meanwhile, Baby Driver could be a winner and The House may open modestly. [Full preview.]( ► Andy Serkis' directorial debut Breathe to Open London Film Fest. Serkis, following in the footsteps of Amma Asante last year, will provide the [curtain raiser]( for the event with a film based on the true story of advocate for the disabled Robin Cavendish. ► Steven Mnuchin escapes film finance fraud suit. The now U.S. Treasury Secretary is clear of a fraud lawsuit that he was dragged into because of his business dealings with Relativity Media, after a N.Y. Supreme Court justice granted a motion to dismiss him from [the complaint.]( ^What happens after fans inherit the film industry. In a guest column, Critic Inkoo Kang writes: "For filmgoers (and critics) who don't keep up with every Marvel project, are only casual Star Wars fans or missed the Harry Potter train, mainstream movie culture has become [frustratingly exclusionary.](" ► Luc Besson's EuropaCorp posts $136M annual loss. Adding more pressure to the Valerian launch in August, the company disclosed an "[underperforming slate](" after 9 Lives and Shut In did poorly and "failed to offset distribution costs to support wide releases." ► U.K. film industry to get $25M infusion. A [new initiative](, backed by the British Film Institute and producers such as Barbara Broccoli, Kathleen Kennedy and others, will see funds from the U.K.’s National Lottery pumped into training and education. ► Life on Bitcoin doc gets VidAngel distribution. The doc about a couple who live using the digital payment system instead of U.S. money, [will debut today]( onthe movie-filtering service that has been butting heads with the major film studios. Rep Sheet Roundup: Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin leaves his longtime agency, WME, for CAA ... Gersh signs Oscar-winning writer John Irving ... Walking Dead alum Steven Yeun signs with UTA. [More here.]( Trump Ire Turns to MSNBC President Donald Trump claimed in a couple of tweets Thursday morning that Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski had a facelift, escalating a long-running feud between the president and the MSNBC hosts, Jeremy Barr writes: The President, who began by saying that he heard the "poorly rated" show "speaks badly" of him, said "low IQ Crazy Mika" and "Psycho Joe" went to Mar-a-Lago for three nights around New Year's Eve and insisted on joining him while Brzezinski was "[bleeding badly from a face-lift.](" It's not entirely clear what caused the president's tweets on Thursday, but on Tuesday afternoon Scarborough tweeted that "@CNN has more integrity on its worst day than Donald Trump has on his best," referring to the network's Russia story snafu that was immediately capitalized on by the president and many in right-leaning media. The Morning Joe hosts have long had a love-hate relationship with the president, ebbing and flowing at various points over the course of his candidacy and now presidency. It was reported back in early January that the pair, who are now engaged, attended a New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, which some in the media interpreted as an unbecoming demonstration of friendliness toward the president. Elsewhere in TV... ► Marvel unveils Inhumans trailer. The upcoming ABC series, centering on a race of superhumans with diverse and unique powers, just got a new [32-second teaser.]( ► HBO's Game of Thrones showrunners tease "longest episode ever." David Benioff and Dan Weiss are only issuing seven installments for the show's seventh season, but it will include two episodes that are "[considerably over 60](" minutes. ► NBC's America's Got Talent, World of Dance dominate daily ratings. Talent is [sustaining]( much of its premiere numbers, averaging a 2.4 rating among adults 18-49 and scoring 12.1M viewers. Neighboring Dance earned a 1.9 rating in the demo and 7.7M viewers. ► Netflix renews F Is for Family. The [pickup]( comes nearly a month after the launch of the series' second season. The raunchy comedy is inspired by the life of stand-up comic Bill Burr, and features Laura Dern and Sam Rockwell as voice talents. ^Lisa Olin's life after Hollywood. When pulling film and TV projects out of her bag of tricks grew stale, Lisa Olin, the onetime exec producer of Roswell and other shows, treated herself to Cake Monkey: "I took my producing skills and [produced a bakery.](" ► Hulu's Castle Rock finds star. Togetherness grad Melanie Lynskey is [set]( as the female lead in J.J. Abrams' and Stephen King's forthcoming anthology. The 10-episode anthology weaves together characters and themes from King's novels. ► Paramount Network's Yellowstone unveils cast. Wes Bentley, Kelly Reilly, Luke Grimes and Cole Hauser have[signed on]( to star alongside Kevin Costner in the straight-to-series show developed specifically for the rebranded channel. ► YouTube's Step Up revival casts Ne-Yo, Naya Rivera. The 10-episode drama, [expected to bow]( on YouTube Red this fall, also counts Faizon Love as a series regular and will feature original songs from Grammy winner Jason Boyd. ► Futurama finds new life as a mobile game. The four-time-cancelled animated cult hit is back in Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow, but co-creator David X. Cohen [hints]( that he's open to offers to revive the show New venture plans digital "copies" of Hollywood stars. An artificial intelligence startup called Oben is reaching out to Hollywood talent agencies with an eye toward creating AI-driven versions of actors and celebrities. But will image-conscious celebrities be willing to fork over [their likeness and voice?]( The First Reality Star? On the 50th anniversary of movie star Jayne Mansfield's death, Erik Liberman has an in-depth look back at what a generation of stars (and Kardashians) owes the shrewd and extravagant trailblazer: "[she was pushing 60 years ahead of her time.](" What else to read... — "The problem of well-made bad TV." James Poniewozik writes: "TV is suffering from competence ... Rarely does a bad show announce itself anymore with klutzy performances and cheap production." [[The New York Times](] — "Paddington Bear, refugee." Rebecca Mead writes: "In the figure of a furry, marmalade-encrusted bear, Michael Bond, who died this week, depicted the struggles that a new arrival to any land faces." [[The New Yorker](] — "'Egypt's Jon Stewart' is living in exile." Jeffrey Fleischman profiles Bassem Youssef, who now "lives in Los Angeles trying to re-invent himself and hoping to land an American TV deal." [[The Los Angeles Times](] — "There’s no money in internet culture." Brian Feldman writes: "the truth is that running a platform for culture creation is, increasingly, a charity operation undertaken by larger companies." [[New York](] — "How Hollywood's most powerful get their news." Actors, directors, producers and studio execs on the THR 100 list share what media outlets they read every day and where they scan for news. [[THR](] Today in 1988... + Eddie Murphy's Coming to America hits theaters. The review: "Except for the effervescent Murphy, this very common comedy doesn't have much more to strut than your average network re-run." Today's Birthdays: Lily Rabe, 35, Melora Hardin, 50, Matthew Weiner, 52, Sharon Lawrence, 56, Colin Hay, 64, Gary Busey, 73. Follow The News Is this email not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser.]( ©2017 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Preferences]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Terms of Use]( June 29, 2017