More from Rebecca Keegan
“I Felt an Atonement”: The Making of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’
Martin Scorsese had already been working on Killers of the Flower Moon for a few years when he had a startling revelation. He and screenwriter Eric Roth were adapting David Grann’s 2017 nonfiction book about a series of murders of Osage people in Oklahoma in the early 1920s with the intention that Leonardo DiCaprio would […]
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Sean Ono Lennon and Peter Jackson Partner on Animated Film Inspired by John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” (Exclusive)
In 2021, Sean Ono Lennon was looking for a way to make a music video for one of his parents’ signature songs and feeling creatively stuck—until he had a meeting with former Pixar animator Dave Mullins. The song, 1971’s Happy Xmas (War Is Over), is probably the most popular piece of music John Lennon and […]
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Inside the Battle Over Fran Drescher’s “Robin Hood Fund”
In the final days of the SAG-AFTRA contract negotiations, when pressure was closing in on the guild to end what had been a crippling, nearly six month work stoppage, union president Fran Drescher was holding onto an unusual demand, one that most guild members knew nothing about. Drescher wanted a fund over which SAG had […]
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Fran Drescher’s Role of a Lifetime
In the heat of the actors strike that had ground Hollywood to a halt for months, Fran Drescher told the 34 members of SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee a story about an aikido student in Japan who gets into a tiff with a drunk on a train. Throughout the strike, it has been Drescher’s practice to often […]
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Inside the A-List Pressure Campaign and Powerful Call That Brought SAG-AFTRA and Studios Back to the Table
A call from Disney CEO Bob Iger to SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland on Saturday, Oct. 21, set in motion the long-awaited return to negotiations between the union and Hollywood studios later this week. During that conversation, Iger expressed the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ desire to get back to bargaining and […]
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Second Woman Accuses Composer Danny Elfman of Sexual Abuse in New Lawsuit
A second woman has come forward with sexual abuse allegations against Oscar-nominated and Grammy-winning composer Danny Elfman. In documents filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the accuser, a 47-year-old woman in Maryland going by Jane Doe XX, is alleging that Elfman sexually abused her from 1997 to 2002. She is suing Elfman and his […]
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Taylor Swift Fans Shake It Off At First Screenings of ‘Eras Tour’ Concert Film, With Theme Outfits and Merch
When 13-year-old Zoe King’s parents tried to get tickets for her and her sister, Wrenna, 11, to see Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Massachusetts last spring, they, like roughly one in four Swift fans, were out of luck. “They were all sold out or like $3,000,” says Zoe. So when Zoe’s dad, Pat, saw that […]
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With Taylor Swift, ‘Barbie,’ and Beyonce, Movie Theaters Tell Female Audiences: You Belong With Me
When Taylor Swift and Beyonce appeared sharing a tub of popcorn at an AMC theater in Los Angeles Wednesday night for the premiere of Swift’s concert movie, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, the moment was an Avengers-like teaming of pop culture superheroines. In the midst of the long-running industry strike that has driven studios to […]
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Now What? The Five Crises Confronting a Post-Strike Hollywood
As brutal as 2023 has been for the entertainment industry, it’s possible the town will someday look back on this moment wistfully. And not just because of the picket line solidarity or cozy mogul hangs in the bargaining room. The strikes helped earn gains for Hollywood workers in such areas as streaming residuals and AI, […]
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AI Is Studying My Book About James Cameron to Learn How to Write. So Far, It’s: Robots 1, Humans 0
In 2009, I wrote a book about James Cameron called The Futurist, in which I detailed the Avatar and Titanic filmmaker’s complicated relationship with technology. Cameron has spent his career on the bleeding edge of science, from the visual effects he helped pioneer to the submersibles he designed and rode to the deepest points in […]
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With ‘Cassandro,’ Filmmaker Roger Ross Williams Leaps Into a New Ring
Filmmaker Roger Ross Williams is known for capturing moments of intimacy and awe in documentaries like God Loves Uganda and the Oscar-nominated Life, Animated. With Cassandro, a portrait of gay lucha libre wrestling star Saúl Armendáriz (Gael García Bernal), Williams has brought that sense of warmth and showmanship to his first scripted feature. The film, […]
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Nonprofits Ask Hollywood to Step Up Support as Donations to Abortion Access Groups Slow
Last summer, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion rights groups saw a flood of interest and activism nationally — and from Hollywood. Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Hamilton team raised money for a fund called Ham4Choice that funneled donations to nonprofits that provide abortion access. Harry Styles and Lizzo donated millions to organizations […]
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