ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY and AWARD NEWS FROM HOLLYWOOD, compiled by REBECCA KEEGAN
Thursday, September 28, 2017
It's Thursday, and I'm writing this in silk pajamas and a smoking jacket in homage to Hugh Hefner.
Hello from L.A., where we're beefing up V.F.'s West Coast team, taking a close look at the Academy Museum, and steeping ourselves in Hef lore.
MEET THE TEAM
It takes a village to cover Hollywood, and our village is growing. Today I'm delighted to share the news, on behalf of Vanity Fair digital director Mike Hogan and VF.com editor Matthew Lynch, that we're making three key additions to our HWD team: executive awards editor Anna Lisa Raya, who will edit two special awards-season print editions of the magazine and deepen our day-to-day coverage of the industry; Hollywood correspondent Nicole Sperling, who will join me on the beat writing features and breaking news; and executive director, entertainment Bellinda Alvarez, who will spearhead sales and partnerships in the "For Your Consideration" category for V.F. All three will work out of executive west coast editor Krista Smith's L.A. bureau, alongside senior Hollywood writer for VF.com Julie Miller and me. In tandem with our New York team, led by HWD editor Hillary Busis, we intend to bring V.F.'s signature glossy touch to this year's awards season, and continue to keep you up to date on the events of the day with this newsletter. Thank you for being one of the nearly 100,000 subscribers who have come on board to HWD Daily since we launched in December. We're glad you've joined the party and you're welcome to bring a plus-one. Black tie optional.
CONSTRUCTION JUNCTION
With the collection of Hollywood power players assembled on a stage in Los Angeles Wednesday, you could launch a thousand franchises. Instead, Disney C.E.O. Bob Iger, NBC Universal vice chairman Ron Meyer, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, and Israeli-American media mogul Haim Saban convened inside a construction site at the historic May Company Building to pitch another big idea: the long-awaited Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. "I've been in the business for almost 40 years," said Kennedy, who chairs the Academy's museum committee. "I think I share with many people in this room that we're all kind of incredulous that this could be a company town and we don't have a motion picture museum. We should have the world's most pre-eminent motion picture museum—and now we have the opportunity to have that." Together with L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, new Academy president John Bailey, museum director Kerry Brougher, and Saban's wife, philanthropist Cheryl Saban, the group made a pitch to journalists, including me, about the progress of the museum's $388 million capital campaign—which included a new, $50 million donation from the Sabans—and its construction, which is moving toward a 2019 opening. A modified version of that pitch will happen again Thursday night, during one of the Academy's rare, all-member meetings held at the industry group's Wilshire Blvd. headquarters and streamed for members outside L.A.
Tensions have arisen within the Academy about spending on the museum project, which Iger said is now three-quarters of the way toward its fund-raising goal. Among the announcements made Wednesday was the news that Meyer will chair a new board, separate from the Academy's board of governors, to oversee the museum and presumably to differentiate the priorities of the two. But the real star of the day was the building itself, designed by architect Renzo Piano to connect a Streamline Moderne-style department store built in 1939 with a new concrete and glass sphere containing a 1,000-seat theater. As we toured the site in Academy-branded construction hats, we heard from museum personnel about construction challenges they've faced—including the discovery of the fossil of an Ice Age sloth, which has since been partially excavated; the need to earthquake-proof the sphere, which can move two feet during a seismic event; and the dilemma of accommodating Piano's rounded design with the realities of the what this museum is all about—the exhibition of movies. "Theaters are usually square," said Rich Cherry, the C.O.O. of the Academy Museum. "This one is round."
Just weeks after her second Emmy win for her work on Saturday Night Live,Kate McKinnon is on the cover of the November issue of Vanity Fair—with the cover line "What Happened? Kate Happened." Featuring photographs by Annie Leibovitz, the story by Lili Anolik reveals McKinnon as a famous person eager to maintain her privacy ("'You don't want to talk about your personal life?' She gives a fast, nervous shake of the head") and still working through the emotional impact of portraying would-be president Hillary Clinton on S.N.L. Anolik writes that McKinnon "tears up" when she remembers watching the presidential debates to prepare for the show. "I love doing impressions of politicians because the task is always to imagine the private lives of these people whose job it is to project an image of staunch, unflinching leadership and grace, and that's just not how human beings, in their heart of hearts, work," McKinnon says. "In doing that for Hillary Clinton, who I admire so much, I started to feel very close to her, just trying to imagine her inner life."
IN MEMORIAM
V.F.'s Laura Bradley writes:
On Wednesday, Hugh Hefner died of natural causes in his home, the Playboy Mansion. Although he will always be best known for the magazine he founded, the mogul's fascinations went far beyond publishing. For instance, it's a little-known fact that he saved the Hollywood sign—twice. He also loved a good cameo, as seen during several TV appearances, including stops at The Simpsons, Sex and the City, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Don a smoking jacket and watch a couple; as controversial as Hefner could be, he was also nothing short of iconic.
MONEY TALKS
V.F.'s Yohana Desta writes:
This might be the juiciest item of the day: The Hollywood Reporter's annual salary report, which details who makes what in the industry, from the highest-paid movie stars to the lowliest on-set key grip. While the over-arching theme here is that Hollywood salaries just aren't what they used to be—especially for non-movie star actors, producers, and screenwriters—there's still plenty of money to be made in the ever-changing business. The usual suspects pop up on the list here and there; we're reminded once again that Jennifer Lawrence and Dwayne Johnson can still earn old school salaries, taking home $20 million-per-picture checks on top of lucrative backend deals. The figure slides down for stars in less certain vehicles; Jessica Chastain, for example, only nabbed $700,000 for her role in the low-budget project Women Walks Ahead, while the newbie cast of It were paid SAG-AFTRA scale, between $65,000 and $75,000. T.H.R also looks into other fields, reporting that highly experienced makeup artists, boom operators, camera operators, and more can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. The list also highlights the salaries of some of TV's current stars, like Mandy Moore, who is likely making $75,000 to $85,000 per episode of This Is Us, while the young stars on Stranger Things nabbed about $30,000 per episode.
BLERG!
V.F.'s Hillary Busis writes:
This is one of the most dire fall TV seasons in recent memory—but though few new network shows are worth your time, there are a couple of returning gems worth keeping an eye out for. At the top of the list is Tracey Wigfield's utterly charming NBC Great News, which premieres its second season tonight in a plum time slot right after the return of Will & Grace. Wigfield cut her teeth as a writer on 30 Rock, and the influence certainly shows—but her nascent series is also a delight in its own right, from its ridiculous rat-a-tat punch lines to its able performers, including the great Andrea Martin and a surprisingly fine-tuned Nicole Richie as a vapid cable-news host. No broadcast series can truly fill the Liz Lemon-shaped hole in your heart, but if any gets close, it's this one.
That's the news for this sunny Thursday in L.A. What are you seeing out there? Send tips, comments, and Hef's Maltese Falcon statuette to Rebecca_Keegan@condenast.com. Follow me on Twitter @thatrebecca.
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