Dea Lawrence: Celebs Rumors

Charna Flam Long-time theatrical and commercial agent Samantha Botana-McConnell died on Feb. 18 due to natural causes in Santa Clarita, Calif. She was 79. For 30 years, Botana-McConnell was instrumental to the careers of numerous working actors in Hollywood. Botana-McConnell’s career began at the William Morris Agency, before she moved on to Wilhelmina in the 1970s as a commercial agent. By 1990, Botana-McConnell joined Gold Marshak, now known as TalentWorksLA. In 1995 she opened her own shingle, The Samantha Group, which she oversaw until 2005. In 2005 she partnered with Scott Stander & Associates until her retirement. Her retirement was spent focused on publishing and producing her late husband George McConnell’s work.

William Earl Variety has promoted Dayna Wolpa to the newly created role of VP of Talent and Programming. Wolpa is an Emmy-winning producer who previously served as Variety‘s managing director for programming and distribution. With her promotion, Wolpa will manage talent and programming for such successful Variety franchises as Power of Women, Power of Young Hollywood, Hitmakers and more.

William Earl administrator Variety, Hollywood’s leading provider of entertainment business news, and Luminate, the entertainment industry’s trusted partner for data and insights, have teamed on a data venture designed to bring transparency to viewership levels and rankings for original streaming TV shows and movies. The partnership will include the March 24 launch of two weekly top 10 charts, one covering original TV programs and the other, films produced for streaming platforms.

William Earl On Oct. 5, 2023, Variety announced its inaugural Antisemitism & Hollywood Summit.

William Earl Variety, the iconic entertainment publication, and iHeartPodcasts, the No. 1 podcast publisher globally according to Podtrac, announced Wednesday the co-production of an exciting new true crime podcast, “Variety Confidential.” The podcast dives into Variety’s archives exploring stories of sex, money and murder in the entertainment industry.

William Earl “Hotels on Screen” is a new five-episode video series in partnership with Variety and Hotels.com, spotlighting fictional worlds in fan-favorite TV shows and movies where real-life hotels were used as locations and sets. The series, featuring interviews with actors and artisans, aims to inspire fans and audiences to travel and explore hotels around the world. The new sponsored editorial series launches July 13, featuring the newly released film “Joy Ride” with interviews from stars Ashley Park, Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola, Sabrina Wu and director Adele Lim. “It’s exciting for us to partner with a marquee brand like Hotels.com to support artisans and actors who create content that stimulates imagination and fosters a desire in their audiences to experience these locations for themselves,” said Dea Lawrence, Variety’s chief operating and marketing officer.

Whitney Cinkala Damar Hamlin will receive the Variety Sports and Entertainment Social Impact Award as part of the Variety Sportico Sports and Entertainment Summit, presented by City National Bank on July 13 in Los Angeles. Hamlin will be recognized for his accomplished philanthropy work, including extensive projects with the American Heart Association. He is also preparing for his third season with the Buffalo Bills, following his full recovery from a mid-game cardiac arrest last season. He will also participate in a keynote conversation following his acceptance of the award. Additionally, NBA 2023 MVP Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers will join his WME agent Ross Raphael in a keynote conversation at the event. Embiid and Raphael will speak about their ongoing collaboration in sports, media and entertainment.

William Earl Variety will return to the Croisette for the annual Welcome to Cannes Party hosted in partnership with The Gotham Film & Media Institute presented by Weirdo, a Web3 short film platform. The event will take place May 18 at the Carlton Hotel. Variety and The Gotham will host executives, talent and filmmakers to kick off the 76th Cannes Film Festival, honoring Leonine Studios with the prestigious Achievement in International Film Award, the highest honor Variety can bestow on an international film executive or company. The award is designed to spotlight a number of notable successes and achievements, commercially as well as artistically, over the last few years.

William Earl Variety will present four conversations centered on global incentives and filming at Cannes Film Festival at the American Pavilion on Saturday, May 20 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Panelists from Spain, Hungary, Poland and Film Alula will participate in conversations moderated by Variety reporters John Hopewell, Leo Barraclough and Nick Vivarelli. The panels will highlight each of the region’s facilities, incentives, and filming community. Guests of the conversations will include producers, sales agents, distributors and creatives looking to learn about the different filming opportunities in these regions. Juan Manuel Guimeráns from the General Secretary Spain Film Commission will speak on the Spain Location panel. Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska, Madants producer; Kamila Morgisz, head of film production and film project development at the Polish Film Institute; and Martin Moszkowicz, chairman of the executive board at Constantin Film will discuss production in Poland. Csaba Káel, film commissioner and chairman of the National Film Institute and Ildiko Kemeny, CEO/producer of Pioneer Stillking Films will speak about filming in Hungary. Charlene Deleon-Jones, executive director, Alula, will speak on Saudi Arabia production opportunities.

wcinkala pmc-editorial-manager Variety announced Thursday the programming for its second annual Miami Entertainment Town lunch, to be held on Thursday, April 13, in Miami. The event, in partnership with CN Bank, celebrates the growing entertainment and media industry based out of Miami and recognizes those profiled in Variety’s Miami Entertainment Impact Report. At the celebration, Ronald Day, President of Entertainment and Content Strategy for NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, and Karen Barroeta, Executive Vice President of Production and Development Telemundo Global Studios, will participate in a keynote conversation with Rodrigo Nieto-Galvis, Entertainment Banking Team Leader at CN Bank Miami. The conversation will be centered around Telemundo’s strategy and around music and original programming based out of Miami.

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter In an email to Variety staff on Tuesday, Claudia Eller announced she will return to work as Variety’s Chief Production Officer, effective this week. In this new role, Eller will work closely with Variety CEO Michelle Sobrino-Stearns and Chief Operating and Marketing Officer Dea Lawrence to book and curate Variety’s award-winning live media and events programming. Eller also will also focus on developing longform documentaries for Variety and will serve as the Executive Producer. “We are thrilled to welcome Claudia back to the Variety family in her new role as Chief Production Officer,” said Variety CEO Michelle Sobrino-Stearns. “Since joining Variety in 2013, Claudia has been instrumental to our explosive growth and helped cement Variety’s reputation as the standard-bearer of entertainment industry news. We’re thrilled she is back.”

William Earl Variety has announced the lineup for its annual Business of Broadway breakfast presented by City National Bank in New York on Oct. 17. Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson will join the event for a keynote conversation about their collaboration on the revival of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson,” currently playing on Broadway. The programming will also include a Broadway producers panel moderated by Erik Piecuch, senior vice president and entertainment banking leader of City National Bank. The panel will feature Lee Daniels (“Ain’t No Mo’”), Cindy Tolan (“Death of a Salesman”), LaChanze (“Kimberly Akimbo” and “Topdog/Underdog”) and Ken Davenport (“A Beautiful Noise”). The producers will speak about their experiences premiering new productions on Broadway this season and how the business has changed since Broadway’s return.

William Earl Variety Film Chatter Chart debuted on Twitter on Monday, with “Bullet Train,” “Prey” and “Don’t Worry Darling” topping this week’s list of the most tweeted about movies.Variety Film Chatter Chart, powered by Twitter, tracks the week’s top five trending titles in the world of cinema and the most buzzed about movies based on Twitter engagement. The charts also provide expert analysis of the week-to-week movement of the top films as well as a heat-map tracking conversations around the country, and allow fans to stay up-to-date on the most newsworthy and popular movies of the season.Other films that rose to the top of this week’s chart include “Blonde,” “Easter Sunday” and “Bodies Bodies Bodies.” “We’re excited to build on Variety’s hugely successful partnership with Twitter by connecting with movie fans and stirring chatter around today’s biggest blockbusters,” said Dea Lawrence, Chief Operating and Marketing Officer of Variety.

Carson Burton Some of the top names on America’s sports landscape are ready to share their insights at the Variety Sports and Entertainment Breakfast presented by City National Bank, set for July 21 at the Maybourne in Beverly Hills. From groundbreaking athletes to top industry heads, the morning looks to paint a vivid picture of today’s sports and entertainment scene.Opening remarks from Variety chief marketing officer Dea Lawrence and Richard A. Raffetto, president of City National Bank, will kick off the morning of conversations.

William Earl Variety will partner with Campari to bring the Variety Studio to the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. The interview studio will run May 18 – 25 and feature conversations with top directors and stars attending the 75th annual fest.Talent participating in the interview studio includes Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Michael Banks Repeta, Jaylin Webb and writer/director James Gray from “Armageddon Time” (Focus Features), a coming-of-age story about family and the generational pursuit of the American dream; Julianne Moore and Jesse Eisenberg from his feature directorial debut, “When You Finish Saving the World” (A24), a comedy-drama about a mother (Moore) and her teenage son’s (Finn Wolfhard) complex relationship; Paul Mescal and writer-director Charlotte Wells from “Aftersun” (Pastel), an intimate drama following Sophie (Frankie Corio) as she reflects on a holiday she took with her father (Mescal) 20 years earlier; Alicia Vikander and writer-director Olivier Assayas from “Irma Vep” (HBO), a remake of the French silent film classic “Les Vampires”; and writer-director Park Chan-wook, and actors Tang Wei and Park Hae-il from “Decision to Leave” (Mubi), a thriller following a detective’s investigation of a man’s death in the mountains.

William Earl Variety is pleased to announce the in-person return of its annual Entertainment Marketing Summit, presented by Deloitte, at the NeueHouse in Hollywood on May 24. This year’s summit features keynote speaker Ayesha Curry and such other notable speakers as Josh Greenstein, President, Sony Motion Pictures Group; Jason White, Chief Marketing Officer, MTV Group; Jackie Gagne, SVP Multicultural Marketing, HBO; Adrienne Lahens, Global Head of Operations, TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions; and Jennifer Prince, Chief Commercial Officer, Los Angeles Rams.The one-day event will identify the best opportunities to engage today’s evolving audiences and consumers who continue to be a fast-moving target across growing media platforms.  “We could not be more excited to mark the return of our in-person events with Entertainment Marketing, one of the most successful and sought-after thought-leadership summits that Variety produces,” said Dea Lawrence, Chief Operating and Marketing Officer of Variety.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterToday Variety announced that two key members of the Variety Content Studio (VCS) have been promoted. David Cohen has been upped to creative director, Variety Content Studio and Holly Dillon has been promoted to executive producer, Variety Content Studio.Variety is experiencing exponential growth in branded content and sponsored editorial, both of which fall under the umbrella of VCS.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterAlex Castro, a three-time Emmy nominee and a former producer of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” has joined Variety as VP of video.Castro will lead Variety‘s fast-growing video operation as the venerable entertainment news brand expands the scope of its video production for Variety.com and other digital and TV platforms.