Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY July 2, 2021.

Where hopefully your username was still available when you set up your GETTR account yesterday 🤞.

But it’s 4th of JULY weekend 🤠 – so I trust you also got your invitation to Kelly Clarkson’s pool party in Toluca Lake. She just laid out $5.4 million for her new house there so be a pal and bring your own 30 pack to contribute 🍻. Also – I call the couch in that guest house.

AND: Meghan McCain is leaving “The View” at the end of July… as I’m thinking you’ve heard.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

UNIVERSAL adds Ray Liotta, Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson to Elizabeth Banks’s next directorial effort “Cocaine Bear”

Not that we need any more information than the title… but it’s based on a true story that involves a bear discovering a discarded shipment of cocaine in Kentucky. Pretty sure I don’t have to clarify that it happened in the 80s.

Here’s the true story from the Northern Kentucky Tribune – Fun Fact: you can visit the bear today thanks to the magic of taxidermy. #theMoreYouKnow 🌈

Shooting begins in August in… Ireland. Ok that part I didn’t see coming. Alden Ehrenreich and Jesse Tyler Ferguson also joining the cast. /Deadline

BLEECKER STREET buys James McAvoy / Sharon Horgan couple in the pandemic lockdown dramedy “Together”

Takes US rights, No price disclosed. Pic directed by Stephen Daldry (“Billy Elliot”, “The Crown”). Hits theaters Aug 27, and PVOD in Sept TBD. /THR

ALSO IN MOVIES

Ice Cube wants the rights to the “Friday” franchise in exchange for doing a 4th (and final?) installment ,“Last Friday”. WB… not having it, calling it “extortionate”. Spat ensues according to Joe Flint at The WSJ.
BLUMHOUSE suing EMMETT/FURLA production co (and others) over unpaid work it did on the Frank Grillo HULU movie “Boss Level”.
- Essentially… BLUMHOUSE was enlisted to re-cut / salvage the film, and they paid for the editing/fx work out-of-pocket with the agreement that they would get 5% if their cut sold afterward. HULU then bought it for close to $12 mil… but BLUMHOUSE never got a check for $600k. Good “business of Hollywood” details in the THR read for the inclined.

IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE

SAG-AFTRA will have a new president this year – Gabrielle Carteris not running for re-election, and is endorsing Fran Drescher. /Deadline
SEARCHLIGHT promotes DanTram Nguyen and Katie Goodson-Thomas as co-Heads of Film Production & Development. /THR
VIACOM CBS folds International departments under Domestic exec leadership – Entertainment Cable networks head Chris McCarthy, NICKELODEON/Family Entertainment head Brian Robbins, and CBS head George Cheeks will now also oversee the international sides of their respective areas. /THR

📺 THE TV SET

Dennis Quaid leaves PEACOCK’s “Joe Exotic” series

“Scheduling conflict” cited. Bill Fichtner will now play “Rick Kirkham” instead. /Variety

ALSO IN TV

Joel Kim Booster (“Shrill”) joins Maya Rudolph’s upcoming APPLE TV+ series about a woman who gets $87 Billion in a divorce settlement. He’ll play Maya’s character’s assistant. That’s 2 new jobs in 2 days for Joel 👏. Obviously he’s invited to Kelly Clarkson’s BBQ this weekend. /Variety
ABC & NBC give answers on their remaining in-limbo pilot projects, although if you had one at either place I’m guessing you know this news already. /THR
Initial COMIC CON At-Home TV show panels schedule released. Lotta FOX so far, but more coming. Begins Fri July 23.

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

You can now post 3 minute videos on TIKTOK (vs current 1 minute limit)

There’s not much else on this one – I basically put this here so I could put that gif up there (its from America’s Funniest Home Videos so I’m sure he’s fine). The update will roll out over… “the coming weeks”. So I’m glad I don’t have to go back in time to use it. 🙇‍♂️ /THR

ALSO: US TOK users average one full day on the app a month (24.5 hours) according to app tracking firm APP ANNIE. I mean as we’ve all seen, study after study often says that octogenarians cite “Wish I spent more time on TIKTOK” as a top 5 end of life regret.

YOUTUBE is TOK’s main rival for your time at 20 hours a month for US users, and this data is likely a strong factor behind INSTA’s announcements this week trying to morph their app into a combination of both.

ALSO IN MEDIA

CLUBHOUSE finding second life on Android – 6.9 Million global downloads in June according to SENSOR TOWER. APPLE iOS still under a million (880k). /The Information
Former AXIOS reporter Alexi McCammond who had a notoriously brief stint as the head of TEEN VOGUE, is heading back to AXIOS to cover the 2022 mid-term elections. /CNN’s Reliable Sources
Springsteen, Paul Simon, Jennifer Hudson are the first names announced for the big August 21 CENTRAL PARK concert that Clive Davis is putting together for NYC. /Variety
BESSAMER CAPITAL, the financial firm who was going to co-manage Britney’s conservatorship with her dad, pulls out. So… that leaves dad back as wholly in charge of her $60 Million estate. For now. /Variety
PENSKE MEDIA CORP (PMC – owner of VARIETY, DEADLINE, ROLLING STONE, BILLBOARD, etc) sets 3 day festival celebrating LA culture Dec 2-4 called LA3C. PENSKE bought half of SXSW in April, so this seems to be the first attempt at putting that expertise to use. No specifics on what events to expect or locations. /THR

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

ROKU down 5%. Something I said yesterday?

CINEWORLD (REGAL Cinemas parent company) +5.6%

If you’re working today – send the email to a co-worker 📬

I mean ya gotta run out the clock til Summer Friday exit-time somehow.

👩‍💻 THE FSS FEED:

(new Stuff to Watch this weekend)

FRIDAY

IN THEATERS:

UNIVERSAL “The Forever Purge” – Only in Theaters

UNIVERSAL “Boss Baby: Family Business” – Sequel where Alec’s voice is joined by voices of James Marsden and Amy Sedaris among others. In theaters or Watch it here on PEACOCK PREMIUM

HULU/SEARCHLIGHT “Summer of Soul” – Docu on the Harlem Culture festival of 1969, directed by Questlove. In theaters or Watch it here on HULU

STREAMING:

AMAZON “The Tomorrow War” – Sci-Fi future alien war movie with Chris Pratt. Watch or Add to your List here.

TV:

NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: Tampa Bay at Montreal game 3 (Tampa up 2-0 so far). Kicks off at 8p on NBC, or stream on PEACOCK.

SATURDAY

You do you… but I’m gonna eat hot dogs and drink beer, probably while watching the EURO CUP soccer matches on ESPN at 12noon (Czech vs Denmark) and on ABC at 3p (UKraine vs UK).

NBA Semi-finals game 6 – Atlanta vs Milwaukee, 830p on TNT.

SUNDAY

NBC Macy’s NYC Fireworks! Plus a bunch of pre-taped musical performances and I’m guessing a lot of OLYMPICS talk. Take it up a notch and do a shot of beer anytime someone says PEACOCK. Kicks off at 8p.

SHOWTIME “The One and Only Dick Gregory” documentary – airs at 9p.

NY TIMES WEEKEND READS

The gears won’t crank up again til Tuesday, so some links from 3 good NY TIMES reads this week if inclined for something to read in the sun. Or if you’re on the East Coast… in the rain.

Joe Rogan profile – I personally have no idea how people find time to listen to a few 3 hour podcast episodes a week (or even 1), but this piece does a good job detailing the development of his career, the podcast, and his personality pretty in-depth if you’re curious how this all kinda built.
Dan Schneider was behind many of NICKELODEON’s biggest shows of the aughts and early 2010s (“iCarly”, “The Amanda Show” etc). He parted ways with VIACOM in early 2018 and hasn’t really been heard from since. NY TIMES looks into allegations of verbal abuse toward staff, and has an interview with him, his first in years.
And finally a piece on the flight attendant who sold her first book for a million dollars, and then the book rights to UNIVERSAL for about another million this year. The book, “Falling” comes out this week. And yes it’s about a plane.

If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it: