'Doomsday Scenario'; Trevor Noah, Inc.; Comedy's 40 Most Powerful; Quibi's $100M Ad Haul; New THR Cover

What's news: Quibi has already inked $100M in ad deals, a new bill could mean a "doomsday scenario" for Hollywood, fresh words between the WGA and ATA, should Sony split itself up? Plus: Comedy's 40 most powerful people, and Netflix talks numbers. --Alex Weprin June 19, 2019 What's news: Quibi has already inked $100M in ad deals, a new bill could mean a "doomsday scenario" for Hollywood, fresh words between the WGA and ATA, should Sony split itself up? Plus: Comedy's 40 most powerful people, and Netflix talks numbers. --Alex Weprin Trevor Noah Inc. [On the cover](: When Trevor Noah first took over Comedy Central's 'The Daily Show' in 2015, he was 31 years old and relatively unknown to U.S. audiences. How could he be the one to succeed Jon Stewart? Then came the 2016 election and President Trump. Noah talks to Lacey Rose about how he found his voice at the show, and his fast rise in the comedy business. ►"The South African millennial, who came of age under apartheid, recognized on that November evening that he was better equipped than most to talk about this particular category storm," Rose writes. "What seemed terrifying to so many in the Comedy Central audience felt familiar to him. Noah saw in Donald Trump the attributes and governing style of an African dictator, which he masterfully showcased in an early Daily Show segment that quickly went viral. Noah's outsider perspective was suddenly an asset." "'I know what it's like to live in a country that's extremely divided by race — where people feel like it's crashing every day and they don't trust that their president has their best interests at heart," he says now, as the sashimi platter he'd ordered arrives. And we joke about it not to minimize it but to try and heal the wounds. Where there's no conflict, pain or tragedy, I don't know what to do. I'm a horrible superfluous comic. If anything, I'm only trained in this.'" [The full story](. ►Should Sony split itself up? The company did not take activist investor Dan Loeb's suggestions when he last targeted the company in 2013, but Paul Bond finds that investors think the company might be willing to listen this time around. [The full story](. ►"[T]he Guild is not interested in making a deal." So suggests a statement from the talent agencies Tuesday afternoon, after the Writer's Guild of America still hadn't responded to the latest offer from agencies to writers made a week and a half ago. The statement from the agencies suggests they may take a more aggressive approach in the war of words against the WGA. “Moving forward, we will pursue a course that defends and protects our employees and maintains writers’ ability to choose the agents, agencies and business models that are best for them,” continued the statement. The WGA tells Jonathan Handel that they are planning a response to the ATA offer "this week." [More](. Elsewhere in film... --The dark side of Franco Zeffirelli: Abuse accusers [speak out]( upon the famed director's death. --Gloria Vanderbilt [remembered by]( documentary director Liz Garbus: "Her strength and resilience gave her a power" --Men in Black and when spectacle [isn't enough](. A 'Doomsday Scenario' ►A new bill in California taking aim at "gig economy" firms like Uber could have a profound effect on Hollywood. The bill, AB 5, seeks to protect workers from being misclassified as independent contractors, thus depriving them of benefits like minimum wage and workers comp. What is making Hollywood nervous is the issue of loan-outs, where talent form their own company and loan out their services to studios. Ashley Cullins writes that it could cause a "doomsday scenario," with no exemption for entertainment workers, effectively leaving loan-outs "dead in the water." +"That test will necessarily lock talent out of being an independent contractor if it passes in its current form," says talent lawyer Rick Genow, whose clients include Debra Messing, Anthony Anderson and Henry Golding. "The economic impact would be somewhat devastating to both talent and the studios." [The full story](. The raging fire that allegedly destroyed thousands of master recordings controlled by Universal Music Group spurred a settlement between UMG and NBCUniversal. Now, however, Eriq Gardner reports that the settlement may become a jumping off point for new litigation from musicians and artists whose work was destroyed in the fire. [The full report](. +An unnamed woman is suing the Church of Scientology, claiming that she was targeted and harassed for working on the A&E series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. [More](. Casting roundup: Michael Fassbender [will star]( in Lionsgate action spy thriller Malko... Eddie Murphy and Jamie Foxx are [among the guests]( on the next season of Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee... Ruth Negga [will make]( American stage debut in the title role of Hamlet... Revolving door: Eliza Clarke will be the [new showrunner]( for the FX series Y: The Last Man... Susan Ruskin has [been named]( dean of the AFI Conservatory... Henry Golding is [launching]( his own production company, Long House Productions... Ken Segna has joined MRC Television (a sister company to THR) as executive vp and head of development... Elisabeth Shue has [signed]( with Gersh... Angelina Jolie is joining Time magazine as a contributing editor... ^Donald Trump continues to make the media a prime target at his rallies. At his official 2020 kickoff event Tuesday night, he quickly pivoted to attacked the press in attendance, as Jeremy Barr notes. CNN cut away from the rally after the crowed began chanting "CNN sucks." [More](. +South Carolina Democrats [are giving]( MSNBC exclusive access to the state's Democratic Convention, much to the chagrin of Fox News, CNN, C-SPAN. and others. Renewal/cancelation watch: TruTV has renewed [Tacoma FD]( and [I'm Sorry](... Netflix has renewed [Queer Eye]( for two more seasons... Chambers, starring Uma Thurman and Tony Goldwyn, was [canceled]( at Netflix. Elsewhere in TV... --Daniel Fienberg [reviews]( Showtime's miniseries about Fox News, The Loudest Voice. --CBS is the first studio in the industry to [sign a pledge]( committing to audition actors with disabilities for all new projects going forward. --Viacom-owned VidCon [is expanding](to Latin America. Mexico City will host a new edition of the conference in 2020. --In yesterday's newsletter we misspelled Kirsten Dunst's name. Also, while her show On Becoming a God in Central Florida was originally developed for YouTube, it did not debut there. We apologize for the error. --Bob Saget [remembers]( Lew Klein, who helped launch his career. --Ratings for the MTV Movie & TV Awards [plummeted]( year over year. Comedy's Most Powerful ►THR's 40 Most Powerful People In Comedy includes household names and comics just starting to break out. It includes top-tier executives and producers, and agents and managers that work behind the scenes. From the late night hosts and comedians like Amy Poehler and Adam Sandler to comics that fill stadiums every night like Kevin Hart and Sebastian Maniscalco, the list is wide-ranging, covering every aspect of the business of comedy. Check out [the full list of comedy's Most Powerful here](. ►Quibi won't launch until next April, but it has already banked $100 million in ad commitments. Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, speaking at the Cannes Lion festival, say that the service has pre-sold the advertising inventory to six brands, including Google, Walmart, PepsiCo,P&G, Progressive, and ABInBev. The streaming service expects to have $150 million in inventory booked by launch. [The story](. +Elsewhere at Cannes: Spotify chief content officer Dawn Ostroff [explains why](the Obamas want to produce podcasts for the platform. +Meanwhile at CineEurope: Can crowdsourcing fill movie theater seats? Tech supplier GDC Technology and Malaysia's Golden Screen Cinemas are going to try. At CineEurope, the company's announced the launch of an on-demand platform called GoGoCinema that tries to tackle that problem. [More](. Also: STX International [teased]( My Spy, 21 Bridges, and Hustlers, among other films. ►Netflix sends a signal to the stars. How else to interpret new viewership numbers from the company, claiming that 30.9 million people watched the Adam Sandler-Jennifer Aniston comedy Murder Mystery in its first three days on the service. Netflix has begun to strategically leak select viewership data in recent months, and many of the leaks appear designed to reassure creative talent that the shows and movies their produce for the service are being viewed. [More](. +Scott Feinberg weighs in on how Netflix could unseat HBO as the "channel" with the most Emmy nominations. [More](. On the scene: Around 50 or so people gathered at Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter Tuesday night, where they crafted potions and battled wizards while sipping butter beer. Well, virtual wizards, at least. The event was hosted by video game publisher Niantic, celebrating the release of a new augmented reality game, Harry Potter: Wizard's Unite. Comedian Tiffany Haddish hosted the event, touting her love for the franchise. Here's Patrick Shanley's [full report](. What else we're reading... --"Is the show Cops committing crimes Itself?" [[NY Times](] --"Weinstein victims settlement hits another roadblock." [[LA Times](] --"Eight women accuse Hollywood filmmaker Max Landis of emotional and sexual abuse: ‘We’re not people to him’" [[Daily Beast](] --No surprise here: the CBS board is planning another bid for Viacom. Lot's of open questions remain, however. [[WSJ](] --"John Legend: Music streaming has ‘changed everything’" [[CNBC](] --"Big advertisers and social media form alliance to fight ‘unsafe’ content online" [[WSJ](] From the archives... On June 19, 1987, the comedy Roxanne hit theaters. Steve Martin, who also wrote this adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, starred as a big-hearted, and big-nosed fire chief who falls in love with a beautiful astronomer. [The Hollywood Reporter's original review](. Today's birthdays: Jean Dujardin, 47, Kathleen Turner, 65, Lara Spencer, 50, Paula Abdul, 57, Salman Rushdie, 72, Zoe Saldana, 41 Thanks for reading! Please send me feedback, tips, and suggestions so that I can help make Today In Entertainment more useful to you. You can email me at Alex.Weprin@THR.com. Follow The News Is this email not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser.]( ©2019 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Preferences]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Terms of Use]( June 19, 2019