51 stories by "Gene Maddaus"
After 47 years, the Aretha Franklin concert documentary "Amazing Grace" finally arrives in theaters Friday. Alan Elliott has told the story of how he rescued the unreleased footage from the …
A Los Angeles city councilman proposed on Wednesday that the city require movie theaters and sports venues to serve vegan food. The law would make Los Angeles the first city in the nation to…
Howard Kagan, the Broadway producer who placed a Hail Mary bid for the Weinstein Co. on Tuesday, told Variety that he was shut out of the process because the company refused to turn over inf…
The Weinstein Co. declared Tuesday afternoon that Lantern Capital was the winning bidder in its bankruptcy sale, turning away a late bid from Broadway producer Howard Kagan. The company anno…
The Weinstein Co. sale is not settled yet, as a second buyer submitted a late bid for the company on Tuesday. A source told Variety that the bidder is Howard Kagan, a former partner at Harbi…
The son of playwright Paul Zindel filed a lawsuit on Wednesday alleging that “The Shape of Water” was based on Zindel’s 1969 play, “Let Me Hear You Whisper.” Da…
The board of the Weinstein Company voted on Friday to fire David Glasser, the company’s chief operating officer. Glasser was set to become CEO of the company under a new ownership grou…
Redbox went on offense against Disney on Friday, filing a federal suit accusing the world’s leading movie studio of engaging in anti-competitive behavior. Disney sued Redbox back in De…
Adam Hicks, the former star of Disney’s “Zeke and Luther,” was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of a string of armed robberies. According to the Burbank Police Department…
Redbox has fired back against Disney’s efforts to block it from selling download codes, alleging that Disney’s copyright lawsuit is simply an effort to thwart a competitor. Disne…
A set decorator on the Shanghai Disney resort filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday, alleging she was fired because she needed to take time off to care for her ailing father. The suit, filed by …
Disney filed a federal trademark lawsuit on Thursday in an effort to block a mobile app based on a “Star Wars” card game. At issue is “Sabacc,” the card game first re…
The Fox lot in Century City has been a movie studio for more than 80 years, the place where classics like “Hello Dolly!” and “How Green Was My Valley” were filmed. Bu…
Jon Heely, the director of music publishing at Disney, has been charged with three felony counts of child sexual abuse. Heely, 58, of Santa Clarita, is accused of sexually abusing two undera…
John Lasseter, the head of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, and one of the most powerful figures in the entertainment industry, acknowledged Tuesday that he had crossed the line with…
The Walt Disney Company is going to battle with its insurer, AIG, as it seeks coverage for a massive settlement in the “pink slime” defamation case. In a motion in federal court,…
A ticket broker used an army of bots to buy up 30,000 tickets to “Hamilton,” along with hundreds of thousands of other orders, according to a federal suit filed by Ticketmaster o…
Bill Nye is accustomed to explaining complicated concepts to children, but even he has struggled with the byzantine mess that is studio accounting. According to a lawsuit filed Thursday in L…
A former Disney Channels Worldwide executive filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging she was subjected to a two-year campaign of retaliation, and was ultimately fired, after reporting her boss fo…
An expert in child development filed a federal lawsuit on Monday alleging that she pitched Disney and Pixar executives on a TV project that bears a striking resemblance to the 2015 film R…
Disney kicked off the summer movie season on Thursday night with the premiere of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," the fifth installment in the venerable franchise. Hundred…
Disney CEO Bob Iger insisted that he is stepping down in 2019 in remarks at a USC tech conference on Thursday. “Succession is a complicated thing, and I felt and the board felt, we cou…
A veteran screenwriter filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday accusing Disney of stealing his idea for the hit animated film “Zootopia.” Gary Goldman alleges that Disney took character …
The case for building a Disney theme park in Shanghai is obvious on paper. With a population equivalent to the entire U.S. living within a three-hour drive, the opportunity was simply too bi…
The Walt Disney Company held a graduation ceremony for its in-house accelerator program on Thursday, giving nine companies the chance to pitch their plans to change the entertainment industr…