WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar Is Negotiating Exit After Discovery Merger Announcement

Regina Hall is gearing up for her big night hosting the upcoming 2022 Academy Awards, where she'll be sharing the spotlight with co-hosts and comedy icons Wanda Sykes and Amy Schumer. Needless to say, she's looking forward to the experience and is bringing her best to the stage.Hall stunned in a shimmering, golden dress on the 2022 Independent Spirit Awards red carpet on Sunday, where spoke with ET's Will Marfuggi about her upcoming high-profile gig.Hall, who took the stage during Sunday's show to present the award for Best Supporting Male, said her brief appearance at the Independent Spirit Awards would be something like a trial run for what's to come.«It's a little test on the stage, right before the big stage,» Hall said with a smile.Looking toward the future, the celebrated actress said she's looking forward to sharing hosting duty with the two stand-up comedy legends.«I think it's exciting, like, it's Women's History Month, it's quite historic, like all of us together,» Hall said.

For children of all ages, school presents plenty of fabulous experiences, but it can also be challenging as they progress through the years.

It was a family affair at the Balenciaga Fashion Show!

Kenedi Anderson just landed her biggest fan.

Sharareh Drury administratorSPOILER ALERT: This piece contains spoilers for the Season 6 premiere of “Outlander,” which aired on March 6. Nearly two years have passed since the fifth season of Outlander wrapped, ending on an incredibly solemn and foreboding note. Claire’s brutal assault by Lionel Brown (Ned Dennehy) and his gang of men was eventually avenged by Jamie (Sam Heughan) and the men of Fraser’s Ridge.

Machine Gun Kelly had some bad news to break to Travis Barker.

Keslie Dolin will bring you to tears.

Outlander season 6 is here! —based on the sixth book of the series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes—premiered with an 80 minute super-sized episode in which the Christie family moved to Fraser's Ridge, Lionel Brown's brother, Richard, made a very imposing appearance, and the American Revolutionary War loomed in the not-too-distant future. Most important, we reunited with Claire and Jamie and Brianna and Roger.

Bob Odenkirk, the experience of having a massive heart attack and almost dying on set is something that will be on his mind to some degree for the foreseeable future. The same goes for his co-star, and the woman who saved his life, Rhea Seehorn.The co-stars walked the red carpet at the 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica on Sunday, and they spoke with ET's Will Marfuggi about Odenkirk's shocking near-death experience.According to the actor, it was actually more frightening for Seehorn than for himself.«She got scared, I wasn't scared.

Though the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine has pulled the nation apart, influential cultural figures around the world have come together to show support for the country currently under Russian invasion. Joining the ranks? Balenciaga creative director Demna, who heart-wrenchingly recalled his own past as a refugee in a statement he shared supporting Ukraine at Balenciaga’s Paris Fashion Week Show on Mar. 6.

The 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards wonderfully returned to an in-person event on Sunday. That was the good news.

On Sunday's Euphoria Season 2 finale, Dominic Fike, who plays Elliot, took out an acoustic guitar to sing a warm, heartfelt song to Zendaya (Rue) that touched on their rocky friendship. Today, the Florida singer has shared a studio version "Elliot's Song." And don't worry, it is shorter than the lengthy in-show version, which was memed to death online. "Elliot's Song" was written with Zendaya (who contributed vocals to the studio version) and was produced by series composer Labrinth.

Anitta rocks a classic black and white ensemble while arriving at the Givenchy Womenswear Fall/Winter 2022/2023 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on Sunday (March 6) in Paris, France.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorMatt Reeves and production designer James Chinlund have worked together before “The Batman.” The pair’s collaboration has been focused on creating grounded worlds, based in reality. That approach was no different for building the world of the new DC adaptation.Reeves wanted fans to feel like they were in a complete world in which a viewer could feel like they could get on a bus and go to Gotham.

Miss. America 2016 Betty Maxwell is ready for her next crown.

Dua Lipa is facing a second copyright lawsuit over her hit ‘Levitating’, less than a week after it was reported that Artikal Sound System had sued the singer for allegedly plagiarising their song ‘Live Your Life’.As Billboard reports, in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court on Friday (March 4), songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer allege that Lipa “duplicate[d]” the “signature” opening melody for ‘Levitating’ from their 1979 song ‘Wiggle and a Giggle All Night’ and 1980 song ‘Don Diablo’, performed by Cory Daye and Miguel Bosé respectively.“The signature melody is the most listened to and recognizable part of the infringing works and plays a crucial role in their popularity,” the complaint reads.

A comedy of manners. The Courtship might seem similar to plenty of other reality dating shows, but there’s one major twist: it’s set in Regency England.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefSouth Korean cinema audiences turned out to see “The Batman” but little else over the weekend. That activity put “The Batman” firmly on top of the weekend box office chart, but it left overall business at deeply depressed levels.“The Batman” earned $2.01 million between Friday and Sunday according to data from the Kobis data service operated by the Koran Film Council (Kofic).

Leon Bridges has announced he’ll be embarking on a four-stop tour of Australia later this year.Bridges revealed the news earlier today (March 7) via his social media, sharing a photo of the tour poster.He’ll be playing the first two shows in Perth and Melbourne in September, then heading to Brisbane and Sydney for two October dates, with the latter taking place at the iconic Sydney Opera House. He’ll be supported by Australian musician Milan Ring for all shows except Sydney.General tickets for the dates go on sale Friday, March 11, with pre-sale tickets available from Wednesday, March 9.

The Courtship, viewers are introduced to Nicole and her trusted Court, made up of her father, Claude, her mother, Claire, her sister, Danie, and best friend, Tessa, as they moved into a castle in the English countryside to begin her 19th-century foray into the dating world.After settling in, Mr. Edwards, the show's narrator and Nicole's guide along her journey for love, presented her and her Court with 16 letters of introduction from her potential suitors, which were read with excitement and a few laughs ahead of the night's welcome ball, where her Court helped choose some of her dates for the evening.Arriving in carriages and on horseback, the 16 men vying for Nicole's heart made their way to the palace, where they were greeted with all the pomp and circumstance one can expect from an episode of , traditional twists on modern music included.There, Nicole met a few of the men and even left with six of them, chosen by her Court for a group date, but there was one lucky gentleman who caught Nicole's attention for her first one-on-one date.

“The Lost Daughter” was the big winner, but the 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards will also be remembered as the year that the Indie Spirits moved away from the Oscars in more ways than one.After decades as the show that takes place the Saturday afternoon before the Academy Awards (or, a couple of times, two or three days before the Oscars), the Spirit Awards moved to a Sunday three weeks earlier, with Film Independent president Josh Welsh explaining, “Shifting earlier in the awards season will allow us to shine an even brighter light on the films and shows we are excited to celebrate.”The move was considered an attempt to influence awards season more than it could in its usual spot, which takes place after Oscar voting has stopped; this year, the Spirit Awards showcased its favorites before Academy voters could even begin casting their ballots.But the date change didn’t really matter, because the Indie Spirit Awards’ connection to and influence on the Oscars has never been more minimal. And that’s likely to be true even though a few of Sunday‘s winners – supporting actor Troy Kotsur, documentary feature “Summer of Soul” and international film “Drive My Car” – will likely repeat at the Oscars in three weeks.Nothing will come out of the Spirit Awards with awards-season momentum that it didn’t already have – because this year’s Spirit nominations were so singular, and so independent, that Academy members couldn’t vote for them if they wanted to.

Chris Coelen is opening up about the criticisms Abhishek “Shake” Chatterjee has about how he was presented to audiences in Love is Blind.

Gigi Hadid is showing her support for those suffering in Ukraine and Palestine.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorAT&T CEO John Stankey positioned the proposed merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery as letting the companies — and their investors — better tap into the global direct-to-consumer opportunity, by separating the media assets from the telco.“I think, realistically, HBO Max would not be where it is today without the combined strength” of WarnerMedia and AT&T, said Stankey, speaking Monday at the J.P. Morgan Technology, Media and Communications Conference.Having said that, Stankey added, what became clear is that in order to “seize the multi-hundred-billion-dollar opportunity” in direct-to-consumer streaming, WarnerMedia needed a different investor base and structure that would position it for global expansion.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorAs soon as news broke May 16 about AT&T’s proposed deal to combine WarnerMedia with Discovery, the guessing game began about what the megadeal would mean for top executives at the company.The initial takeaways: It’s a good sign for CNN boss Jeff Zucker and a bad omen for Jason Kilar, who in his one year in the job as CEO of WarnerMedia might have ruffled too many feathers as he tried to refashion the company for the streaming wars.Discovery CEO David Zaslav is set to run the new combined entity, and Kilar was not party to the deal talks, suggesting that AT&T CEO John Stankey had lost confidence in the ex-Hulu chief ’s approach and strategy after hiring him last year.

AT&T CEO John Stankey and CFO Pascal Desroches held a 45-minute WebX town hall for WarnerMedia employees this morning, offering additional information about the entertainment unit’s upcoming merger with Discovery.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaAT&T chief John Stankey and Chief Financial Officer Pascal Desroches were asked tough questions about the implications of the pending merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery during an all-hands meeting of studio employees on Tuesday.Stankey tried to placate worried staffers by assuring them that he was going to advocate on their behalf and also urged them to “stay the course” during the months it will take for the deal to close. Media coverage has largely focused on AT&T’s decision to spin off WarnerMedia as an ignominious retreat by the telecom giant from the content business, one that added unsustainable debt to its balance sheet.

Jason Kilar expressed his “pride, passion and affection” for the WarnerMedia staff in a memo Monday and stressed “how important I believe it is in this moment for us to continue to keep our focus and to live up to our potential as a team.”

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorThe first swing in the talks that led to the union of Discovery and WarnerMedia was an email sent by David Zaslav to John Stankey on Feb. 13.That was around the time that the Discovery CEO and his AT&T counterpart had planned to meet for a golf date at the storied Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament in central California that is sponsored by the telecom giant, as they did last year.

Makan Delrahim, who as the Justice Department’s antitrust chief during Donald Trump’s administration challenged AT&T’s combination with Time Warner, has a different view of the planned spinoff of WarnerMedia.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIn the wake of a mega-deal with Discovery that seems primed to shake up the media landscape, AT&T chief John Stankey and WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar urged employees to stay focused on their jobs while they wait for the pact to close.“During this period, our direction and mission remain the same,” Stankey wrote in a staff-wide memo obtained by Variety. “The market and product strategies underway across WarnerMedia are consistent with a merged, post-close company.

On Friday, people left work, came home and sat down with their friends and/or family, and watched something on TV. But John Stankey, the CEO of AT&T, and David Zaslav, the Discovery CEO, were holed up in the latter’s house hammering out a multi-billion dollar deal that would forever change the face of Hollywood.

Discovery combine into a single media juggernaut was hatched during a series of meetings and calls in the Greenwich Village townhouse of Discovery chief David Zaslav.But it might never have come about were it not for Zaslav and AT&T chief John Stankey’s shared passion for golf. The two men were commiserating via text message about how, due to COVID restrictions, they weren’t going to be able to see each other in person at last winter’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.