EXCLUSIVE : Novel , the growing British podcast studio behind the likes of The Superhero Complex, has made one its most significant hires yet, bringing in PRX and Radiotopia exec Julie Shapiro as Executive Creative Director. Shapiro will steer Novel’s creative output, coming a few weeks after the outfit hired The Daily Senior Audio Producer Austin Mitchell as Creative Director, Production and Today in Focus ‘ Joint Exec Mythili Rao as Managing Editor. Shapiro has spent the past six years overseeing the growth and evolution of independent podcast studio Radiotopia, where she was instrumental in developing Peabody-nominated and Pulitzer-finalist Ear Hustle. She also co-founded the Third Coast International Audio Festival in 2000 and has been a vocal advocate of women in the podcast and radio industries. She said she is “deeply impressed by [Novel’s] creative ambitions and dedication to craft,” adding: “ I’m keen to bring my experience and artistic vision … [Read more...] about British Podcast Studio Novel Continues Hiring Spree By Signing PRX & Radiotopia Exec Julie Shapiro As Executive Creative Director
Continually asked to sign into icloud
Billy Porter Signs First-Look Deal With FX Productions
Pose star Billy Porter has signed a first-look deal with FX Productions . Under the agreement, he will develop content for FX through his new production company Incognegro with producing partner D.J. Gugenheim. “Billy Porter was an incredibly accomplished artist before joining FX’s Pose to deliver the iconic, breakout, award-winning performance that helped define the series as one of the most memorable and groundbreaking in recent TV history,” FX President of Original Programming Nick Grad said in a statement. “Billy has excelled as a writer, director and so much more — and we are excited to help him produce bold new stories that reflect his vision and unmatched style.” “I’m so glad I’ve been blessed to live long enough to see this day. The day where my queerness was my liability, to now where it grounds my work in personal authenticity and power. This is where we change the conversation. This is where they have the guts to tell the stories that resonate on the … [Read more...] about Billy Porter Signs First-Look Deal With FX Productions
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ And ‘American Hustle’ Scribe Eric Warren Singer Signs With WME
EXCLUSIVE : WME has signed Eric Warren Singer , one of the screenwriters behind Paramount’s summer smash Top Gun: Maverick . The Tom Cruise sequel nearly 30 years in the making hit theaters on May 27 and has thus far grossed over $907 million worldwide, registering as the highest grossing film of 2022. Singer shares screenplay credit on the Navy aviator action-drama with Ehren Kruger and Christopher McQuarrie, having worked from a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks, which was based on characters created by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. Singer came to Top: Gun Maverick after collaborating with its director Joseph Kosinski on the critically acclaimed drama Only the Brave , based on the true story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, which starred Josh Brolin, Miles Teller and Jeff Bridges. He co-wrote that film, based on Sean Flynn’s GQ article “No Exit”, with Ken Nolan. The screenwriter’s first script, The Sky Is Falling , sold to Sony and cemented him as as … [Read more...] about ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ And ‘American Hustle’ Scribe Eric Warren Singer Signs With WME
WME Signs ‘The Black Phone’ Star Mason Thames
EXCLUSIVE : Mason Thames , who stars opposite Ethan Hawke in the upcoming Blumhouse/Universal film The Black Phone , has signed with WME for representation. In the horror film from writer-director Scott Derrickson, Thames plays Finney, a 13-year-old boy who is abducted by a child killer and locked in a soundproof basement. Subsequently, he begins receiving calls on a disconnected phone from the killer’s past victims. Pic is set for worldwide release on June 24 and will become available for streaming on Peacock 45 days later. Thames recently wrapped a lead role opposite Mel Gibson in David Henrie’s thriller Boys of Summer . The 15-year-old actor can also be seen on the Apple TV+ sci-fi series For All Mankind , and continues to be represented by Goodman, Genow, Schenkman. … [Read more...] about WME Signs ‘The Black Phone’ Star Mason Thames
How an NHL Enforcer Broke His Body — and Turned to Psychedelics to Heal His Brain
Riley Cote ’s journey to enlightenment began in earnest when a hulking man punched him in the face. Cote, now 40 and retired from professional hockey, remembers the moment with a dark laugh. He’d gotten into this particular bust-up one night during the 2009 season with one of the NHL ’s most vicious fighters, and took the worst of it, waking the next day with his left eye blackened shut. “What,” he asked himself, “am I doing?” He drove to the Philadelphia Flyers training facility and got into the shower. Feeling congested, he reached for a tissue. He didn’t realize he’d suffered a cracked sinus, so what happened next was physics. When he blew his nose, the air — rather than coming out of his nostrils — inflated his face. The pressure surged instantly behind his good eye and closed it tight. Team trainer Derek Settlemyre heard Cote scream. “His whole face had swollen up,” Settlemyre recalls. “We tell them, if they think they have a fracture, ‘Don’t blow your nose’ — and he … [Read more...] about How an NHL Enforcer Broke His Body — and Turned to Psychedelics to Heal His Brain
With Roe Falling, LGBTQ Families Fear They’ll Be the Supreme Court’s Next Target
When Obergefell v. Hodges was decided in the Supreme Court — making same-sex marriage the law of the land — Leanne Mertzman woke up to a text message from her best friend in law school: “Isn’t it cool that your daughter will never know a world where you’re not married?” It was June 2015, and Leanne’s wife, Allison, was 20 weeks pregnant with their first child. That October, Leanne cut her daughter’s umbilical cord, and two years later, she did the same for their second. At the time, many nonbirthing parents in LGBTQ couples took the step of formally adopting their children, a process called second-parent adoption that aimed to add an extra layer of legal protection against anyone who might try to challenge the legitimacy of their family. But Leanne’s name was on both girls’ birth certificates, and in 2015, with same-sex marriage settled by the Supreme Court, Leanne thought, “I feel safe.” She doesn’t feel safe anymore. Last month the Supreme Court’s draft Dobbs v. … [Read more...] about With Roe Falling, LGBTQ Families Fear They’ll Be the Supreme Court’s Next Target
Bassist Doug Wimbish on Nearly Joining the Stones and Madonna’s Insane ‘Erotica’ Party
Rolling Stone interview series Unknown Legends features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the business, but some are less well known to the general public. Here, these artists tell their complete stories, giving an up-close look at life on music’s A list. This edition features bassist Doug Wimbish. As the in-house bassist for Sugar Hill Records, Doug Wimbish played on songs that make up the foundation of hip-hop as we know it today, including Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five ’s “The Message” and “White Lines,” and the Sugarhill Gang ’s “Apache” and “8th Wonder.” “We cut all of that Sugar Hill music from scratch,” Sugarhill Gang rapper Master Gee told the crowd on the 80s Cruise earlier this year before bringing Wimbish onto the stage. “There were no samples. That was all done by real musicians like Doug Wimbish. I’m here today … [Read more...] about Bassist Doug Wimbish on Nearly Joining the Stones and Madonna’s Insane ‘Erotica’ Party
Drugs, Bluegrass, and Bass Fishing: How Billy Strings Outran His Past and Infiltrated the Mainstream
Billy Strings backs his black Jeep Gladiator down to the lip of Nashville’s Percy Priest Lake and hops out to unhook the tricked-out bass boat he’s towing behind him. The heavy sounds of Primus, one of his favorite bands, spill loudly out of the cab, where old Combos wrappers, cigarette butts, and fishing lures are strewn about. Strings, in a Dickies work coat with “Boomer” embroidered over the heart and a “Billy Strings” patch on the opposite side, lets his cigarette dangle from his mouth while he frees the boat from the trailer in a pair of white fishing gloves. “I love this little fucker,” he says, tossing me a line attached to the boat before jumping back into the Jeep to park it nearby. “Just walk it into the water like a dog — and don’t let it float away.” Soon, Strings is bounding back down the parking lot, onto the small dock, and behind the wheel of his boat, a 16-foot Tracker he bought as a birthday gift to himself a few years ago. On board, there’s about a dozen … [Read more...] about Drugs, Bluegrass, and Bass Fishing: How Billy Strings Outran His Past and Infiltrated the Mainstream
Jake Paul Gives Tommy Fury An Ultimatum, Fight Me Now Or Never!
Jake Paul is over Tommy Fury duckin' him ... giving Tyson 's little bro an ultimatum -- fight me now or fight me NEVER -- and it appears to have worked! "Tommy Fury, you pulled out last year. Then you agree to fight me now but your dad is trying to pull you out again? We've given you everything you asked for," Jake wrote, listing out the so-called demands. "$2M purse ✅ Paul's alluding to their 2021 fight that never came to fruition ... after Tommy sustained an injury. Tyron Woodley ultimately took his place, and was knocked out . Now, Jake says Tommy's running out of time, and must sign on the dotted line ASAP ... so they can fight August 6 at Madison Square Garden. Getty To hammer home the point, Jake went on Instagram and said, "We're 45 days away from the fight," continuing ... "We agreed to his 2 million dollar purse, we agreed to VADA testing, extra flights, extra rooms, extra tickets to the fight." Paul added, "It … [Read more...] about Jake Paul Gives Tommy Fury An Ultimatum, Fight Me Now Or Never!
Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine Talks Upcoming Album, ‘The Sick, the Dying … and the Dead!’
In the six years since Megadeth released their last album, Dystopia , Dave Mustaine has survived a cancer scare, a global pandemic, and his 60th birthday. This summer, the steadfast speed-metal pioneers will put out its 16th album, The Sick, the Dying … and the Dead! , a typically breakneck thrashathon that musicians a third of Mustaine’s age would struggle to keep up with. Did Mustaine have any reservations about the album title, a Black Plague reference he picked before Covid-19 became the new plague? “No,” he says on a Zoom from Switzerland, where the band is on tour. “For me to let the occurrences in modern current history tell me what I’m going to do and what I’m not going to do is not going to sit well with me.” Is there any particular reason he’s still writing speed-limit–crushing ragers today? “Well, I still have a couple of bands in my crosshairs that I’m going after,” he says, leaving the groups’ names up to readers’ imaginations. Regardless of his motivations, … [Read more...] about Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine Talks Upcoming Album, ‘The Sick, the Dying … and the Dead!’