THR's 2023 Emmy Nominees Guide; Cher Talks Biopic; WGA Calls for Legal Scrutiny of Netflix, Amazon and Disney; Winners From Hollywood's Summer of Toys

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( August 18, 2023 What's news: The Nun star Bonnie Aarons is suing WBD over her share of merch revenue from the Conjuring franchise. Michael Lewis has blamed Hollywood accounting for The Blind Side profits dispute. A group of Lizzo's dancers have come out in support of the embattled singer. Lisa Vanderpump isn't so sure a union for reality stars is a good idea. — [Abid Rahman]( Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at [tips@thr.com](. THR's 2023 Emmy Nominees Guide ►They're all here! THR has put together a handy, and rather fancy, guide to the 21 nominees for comedy, drama and limited series at the 2023 Emmys. Meet the creators, producers, writers, directors and stars of the top shows through in-depth interviews, all conducted in compliance with strike rules. [The guide.]( —"Obscures and hides the true amount." Warner Bros. Discovery has been accused of shorting The Nun star Bonnie Aarons of her share of merchandising revenue for playing the demon nun in the Conjuring universe. Aarons was paid $71,500 for The Nun, which grossed over $365m against a budget of $22m, according to the complaint. Her contract included a $175,000 bonus tied to box office performance on top of a share of profits from merch exploiting her character. [The story.]( —"Michael Oher should join the writers strike." Michael Lewis is deflecting blame at himself and the family accused of exploiting the retired NFL player Michael Oher, the subject of his best-selling book The Blind Side, toward the “Hollywood studio system.” Lewis told the Washington Post that he and the Tuohy family have each received roughly $350,000 from the profits of the movie. He said that the Tuohys planned to evenly split their share with Oher, who declined the payments in what may be a prelude to a lawsuit. [The story.]( Cher Is Saving the Animals, One Elephant at a Time ►"The thing about my life is that there’s too much." [Mikey O'Connell]( spoke to THR Icon Cher, who reveals she's heading back to the studio, still writing that memoir, rethinking her biopic and, yes, starting a gelato empire — but, at 77, the world’s most recognizable mononym is primarily concerned with liberating Billy, a pachyderm at the L.A. Zoo. [The interview.]( —"You’re lookin at a man who is thankful." Jamie Foxx says he’s feeling more like himself three weeks after he spoke out for the first time about his medical complication in April. In the brief Instagram post, the They Cloned Tyrone actor expressed gratitude once again for those who have supported him before sharing how he’s feeling in much better health. [The story.]( —"We have been so honored to share the stage." Lizzo’s “Big Grrl” and “Big Boiii” dance crews are showing their support for the singer after a lawsuit alleging a hostile work environment and abuse was brought against her by three of her former tour dancers. In an open letter shared on the group’s Instagram on Thursday, they said that they “had the time of our lives” while on The Special Tour, which concluded at the end of July. [The story.]( —"I don’t know, advocating for a reality star union. I’m not sure about that. I’m really not." Lisa Vanderpump says that she’s “very happy with what I’ve been paid over the years” and that she’s “not sure” about how a union can represent “people that are normally plucked out of obscurity.” In a recent podcast appearance, the Vanderpump Rules star and exec producer shared her opinion, weighing in on the Bethenny Frankel-sparked effort to unionize reality TV. [The story.]( WGA West Calls for Scrutiny of Disney, Amazon and Netflix Deals ►"An alarming window into the future of media." The WGA West has released a 15-page antitrust report arguing Disney, Amazon and Netflix are poised to become “the new gatekeepers” of the entertainment industry. THR's [Winston Cho]( and [Katie Kilkenny]( report that the paper, released Thursday, argues that recent mergers and deregulation “have laid the groundwork for a future of increased market power that could soon leave just three companies controlling what content is made, what consumers can watch, and how they can watch it.” [The story.]( —"People are just not wanting to be seen out and about." Autumn in Hollywood is typically jam-packed with fundraising events, from the A-list Academy Museum and LACMA galas to charity dinners toasting celebrity honorees. But like almost everything else in the industry, these events have been put into question by the dual strike. THR's [Kirsten Chuba]( writes that stars are walking a careful line with both attending charity events and agreeing to be honorees amid the strike, as SAG-AFTRA restricts red carpets with studio logos on the step-and-repeat. [The story.]( —"They have become the forgotten casualties during these strikes, overlooked by the media." Motion Picture & Television Fund president and CEO Bob Beitcher wrote an open letter to the industry on Thursday, calling for greater support of below-the-line crewmembers amid the double strike. The MPTF — which supports working and retired members of the entertainment community via health and social services — has gone from 100 calls a week to 1,000. [The story.]( The Surprise Winners From Hollywood's Summer of Toys ►Toy town. THR's second-nicest man [Aaron Couch]( and that scally [Ryan Gajewski]( write that the toy market is seeing unexpected gains following the release of Barbie, Transformers and other titles, while the underperformance of The Flash at the box office has hurt its merchandise: “Anything related to this film is kind of dropping.” [The story.]( —Priorities. Facing 91 felony counts and a potential combined sentence of 700 years in prison, former President Donald Trump is seemingly more concerned about the photo choices at Fox News. Trump complained Thursday that the cable news outlet keeps using images of him that make him look heavy and orange: "[Fox and Friends] purposely show the absolutely worst pictures of me, especially the big ‘orange’ one with my chin pulled way back. They think they are getting away with something, they’re not." [The story.]( —Time to rediscover Burn Notice. The summer of Suits continues, with the legal drama racking up its fourth consecutive week of more than 3b minutes of watch time — and resetting the record for acquired series on Nielsen’s streaming charts yet again. The former USA Network show, which streams on Netflix and Peacock, had 3.88b minutes of viewing for the week of July 17-23. That surpasses the previous week’s 3.67b minutes, which in turn eclipsed the previous two weeks’ totals for Suits. [The streaming rankings.]( —"It’s a movie that cannot be remade." Jan de Bont, the director of 1996’s Twister, has revealed he wasn't consulted about Universal and Amblin's upcoming sequel. In a new interview, the Speed filmmaker said no one had asked for his input on Twisters, the Lee Isaac Chung-directed disaster movie due for release in 2024. De Bont said that he feels it will be completely different from his version, especially since visual effects technology has changed so much since. [The story.]( 'Blue Beetle' Director Relieved His Characters Have DCU Future ►"We survived regime changes throughout this whole process, and that was a testament to the hard work that everybody put into it." THR's [Brian Davids]( spoke to Ángel Manuel Soto, the director of the rather good Blue Beetle. The Puerto Rican filmmaker talks about moving his superhero movie from HBO Max to theatrical, being the lone ambassador for his movie amid the actors' strike and his hopes for the future with these characters. [The interview.]( —"OxyContin, you can almost think of it as a war. It’s an epic war that’s been going on for way too long with a very high body count." Brian also spoke to Painkiller director Peter Berg on how turning the legal disclaimers at the start of each episode in the Netflix drama series turned into something profoundly emotional. Berg also discusses Friday Night Lights, The Leftovers and his very resolved Vince Gilligan beef. [The interview.]( —"That’s the brilliant thing about Joel’s screenplay: He found all the gay parallels to Jane Austen-era England." THR's [Tyler Coates]( spoke to director Andrew Ahn about his Hulu feature Fire Island, starring Joel Kim Booster. The filmmaker discusses how he captured a summer vacation full of queer romantic intrigue for the Emmy-nominated movie inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. [The interview.]( —"It was important for me that viewers saw that George and Tammy were just like us — they, too, had things to overcome." In a guest column for THR, Georgette Jones, the daughter of George Jones and Tammy Wynette, says Showtime’s limited series George & Tammy finally tells the honest and definitive story of the country music legends’ relationship and captured her parents as human beings first and musical icons second. [The column.]( Thank Pod It's Friday ► All the latest content from THR's podcast studio. —TV's Top 5. THR's [Lesley Goldberg]( and [Dan Fienberg]( break down the latest TV news. In this week's episode, Simon Rich, the creator of FXX's Man Seeking Woman and TBS's Miracle Workers, drops by to discuss his recent opinion piece for Time , titled “I’m a Screenwriter. These AI Jokes Give Me Nightmares.” There's a segment on reader questions about the industry’s post-strike future and one on the TCA Awards and as always there's Critic’s Corner, in which Dan offers a guide to what to watch (or skip) in the week ahead. [Listen here.]( —Awards Chatter. THR's executive awards editor Scott Feinberg talks to the great and the good of Hollywood. In this episode, Scott spoke to Ben Winston. One of TV's top producers reflects on coming to America with James Corden to launch The Late Late Show and its hit segment-turned-spinoff Carpool Karaoke, why the Grammys has been his toughest producing assignment and what it's like putting producing televised concert specials for Adele and Elton John. [Listen here.]( In other news... —Sandra Hüller [stars in trailer for Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall]( —Peter Dinklage [juggles his feelings for Anne Hathaway and Marisa Tomei in She Came to Me trailer]( —Godzilla [roars in first look at Apple TV+ and Legendary’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters]( —Britney Spears [and husband Sam Asghari split after one year of marriage]( —Neon [expands marketing team with Alexandra Altschuler, Don Wilcox joining as vps]( —New York Film Festival [unveils Spotlight slate]( What else we're reading... —Mark Harris weighs in on the Bradley Cooper Maestro controversy and says the "jewface" criticism isn't really about the nose [[Slate]( —Eric Levitz reflects on the Oliver Anthony phenomenon and the incoherence of right-wing populism [[Intelligencer]( —Scaachi Koul excoriates the new Netflix docuseries Depp V. Heard, that she feels was made by an algorithm [[Bustle]( —Niche one: Coleen Rooney publicly talks about the "Wagatha Christie" case for the first time [[British Vogue]( —Here's your Friday list: "Cat performances, ranked" [[Vulture]( Today... Today's birthdays: Edward Norton (54), Robert Redford (87), [Kaitlin Olson]( (48), Christian Slater (54), Dar Salim (46), Madeleine Stowe (65), Andy Samberg (45), Josephine Langford (26), Sarita Choudhury (57), Craig Bierko (59), Madelaine Petsch (29), Malcolm-Jamal Warner (53), Denis Leary (66), Martin Mull (80), Richard Harmon (32), Glenn Plummer (62), Carole Bouquet (66), Nina Oyama (30), Parker McKenna Posey (28), Anna Akana (34), Shalom Brune-Franklin (29), Elizabeth Chambers (41), Mizuo Peck (46), Emma Amos (59), Neha Mahajan (33), Max Winkler (40) This email was sent to {EMAIL} by The Hollywood Reporter. Please add email@email.hollywoodreporter.com to your address book to ensure delivery to your inbox. 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