ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY and AWARD NEWS FROM HOLLYWOOD, compiled by REBECCA KEEGAN
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
It's Tuesday, the World Series starts tonight, and I'm looking forward to the moment when Justin Turner's beard attains sentience.
Hello from Los Angeles, where we're breaking our N.D.A.s, abandoning The Walking Dead, and getting napkin-folding tips from Amy Sedaris.
TAKE THIS N.D.A. AND SHOVE IT
Non-disclosure agreements are common in the media industry; virtually anyone who has ever stepped on a Star Wars set and agreed not to spill secrets about who holds the lightsaber will have signed one. But the recent wave of sexual harassment allegations has revealed how N.D.A.s can also have a chilling effect, allowing the alleged behavior of Harvey Weinstein and others to persist in secrecy for decades. Onetime Weinstein assistant Zelda Perkins has become the first of the producer's former staffers to break her non-disclosure agreement in a barn burner of an interview with the Financial Times's Matthew Garrahan. "Unless somebody does this there won't be a debate about how egregious these agreements are and the amount of duress that victims are put under," said Perkins, who worked for Miramax's London office in the late 1990s. "My entire world fell in because I thought the law was there to protect those who abided by it. I discovered that it had nothing to do with right and wrong and everything to do with money and power."
In the piece, Perkins details behavior similar to that of other Weinstein accusers—massage invitations, him emerging into a business meeting in a state of undress, verbal abuse—as well as an incident Weinstein allegedly had with another staffer at the 1998 Venice Film Festival that was disturbing enough to spur Perkins to quit, and seek a lawyer. "I wanted to expose him [and] thought that we could go to Disney," Perkins said, assuming Miramax's parent company would shut down the behavior. "But the lawyers were reluctant. They said words to the effect of: 'They are not going to take your word against his with no evidence.' " Instead, Perkins received assurances that safeguards would be put into place to keep Weinstein in line; she signed an N.D.A. and left the company with a £250,000 settlement. Among the stranger details in Perkins's tale is that she was not allowed to keep a copy of the document she signed as a frightened, 24-year-old assistant after 12 hours of questioning by Weinstein's lawyers that ended at 5 a.m. Perkins, who now works for a theater production company, said she kept her secret for 19 years.
By Eric Gaillard/REUTERS.
THE WALKING DECLINE
V.F.'sLaura Bradley writes:
Here's some news we're guessing AMC doesn't love: Sunday's Walking Dead Season 8 premiere shambled down to a five-season ratings low. Variety reports that the latest chapter netted 11.4 million total viewers Sunday night, and averaged a 5.0 rating with the key 18-49 demo—the lowest-rated premiere since Season 3, which brought in 10.86 million viewers and garnered a 5.8 in the key demo. It's natural for shows to lose viewers over time, and given that the show remains cable's No. 1 drama, we're guessing AMC is far from panicking yet. Still, it seems the pressure is on for Season 8 to deliver. Here's hoping Rick and his group are up to the task.
THE DRESSMAKER
V.F.'sNicole Sperling writes:
Finally, we have a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis in his much-talked about, little known Christmas release, Phantom Thread, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film—supposedly the last for Day-Lewis before he rides off into the Irish sunset to pursue his other passions, namely shoemaking and stonemasonry—centers on an enigmatic dressmaker who falls in love with a young, independent-minded woman (Hanna's Vicky Krieps), who disrupts his glamorous 1950s post-war lifestyle. The second collaboration between Day-Lewis and Anderson after There Will Be Blood has been the subject of a slew of rumors, since most details of the film have been kept under wraps. We are here to confirm some of those rumors: Day-Lewis is in fact the lead actor in the movie and will therefore likely be competing in the Oscar race against the likes of The Darkest Hour's Gary Oldman,Call Me by Your Name's Timothee Chalamet,Hostiles' Christian Bale, and a handful of others. Day-Lewis went deep into character, as he usually does, but he has no plans to become a full-time dressmaker in real life. And while the movie touches on the theme of obsessive passion, it has a romantic, gentle tone—nothing like the S&M flavored Fifty Shades of Grey. What is true is the R-rated flick will open on Christmas Day, and we will likely become obsessed with it. Need yet another reason to show up? Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood supplied the score. And though the studio also won't have an official run time until November, it can assure us it will be much shorter than the length floating around the rumor mill: three hours.
STUCK IN THE MUD
V.F.'sKatey Rich writes:
For all the ways Netflix has completely upended the TV industry in recent years, the streamer has made much slower progress at the movies—with awards campaigns for films like Beasts of No Nation stalling out, and even high-profile acquisitions, like Sundance winner I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore, getting lost in the sea of original Netflix content. But November may change all that as Netflix debuts Dee Rees'sMudbound, a period drama with critical acclaim and awards buzz to spare. As V.F.'s Richard Lawson writes in this month's rundown of what's new on Netflix, "Mudbound is a heavy meal worth digging into. Violent, angry, and tragic, it's not exactly a feel-good family movie. But you'll get enough of that at Thanksgiving, won't you?"
HOME SWEET HOME
V.F.'sHillary Busis writes:
In At Home with Amy Sedaris, the erstwhile star of Strangers with Candy and current star of BoJack Horseman tackles her trickiest role yet: that of Amy Sedaris. Sure, she's been playing a heightened version of herself for years on various talk shows—but still, Sedaris tells V.F. contributor Joel Keller, this setup made the process more difficult: "There's a live audience [on those shows]. An audience gives you an incredible amount of energy, and it's good for your timing . . . Doing it without an audience and playing yourself, you can't gauge it. You can't hear people laughing; you don't know how you're doing." Thankfully, Sedaris gradually figured it out; the new series is just the sort of twisted, absurdist comedy one would expect from the woman who created Jerri Blank. Catch it starting tonight on truTV.
WOODY'S WOES
V.F.'sYohana Desta writes:
Woody Allen has come under an astonishing amount of fire since the Harvey Weinstein scandal. First, he bungled his initial remarks about Weinstein, saying he was sad for both the women affected and for the producer himself, whose life "is so messed up." Then he warned people not to turn the scandal into a "witch hunt," where "every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself." Shortly afterward, Allen had to release another statement clarifying that initial remark, making it clear that he thinks Weinstein is "a sick man." Now, his upcoming film, currently in production in New York is facing heat for featuring a cringeworthy plot line. According to Page Six, the "perversely timed" drama is about an older man (played by Jude Law) who sleeps around with young starlets. He's accused of sleeping with a 15-year-old "concubine," who turns out to be a 21-year-old woman (played by 19-year-old Elle Fanning). Considering the nature of the Weinstein scandal, perhaps this isn't the sort of film audiences are looking for right now. In a statement to V.F., a representative for Allen said that the rumors about the plot are "completely false," and that the Fanning character is 21 throughout the entire movie. In addition, "the script was written several years ago and has no bearing on any current events." So there's that.
That's the news for this scorching Tuesday in L.A. What are you seeing out there? Send tips, comments, and burned N.D.A.s to Rebecca_Keegan@condenast.com. Follow me on Twitter @thatrebecca.
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