Casting News for Natalie Portman & Halle Bailey, Taylor Swift is Highest Paid Celeb, Ann Sarnoff Becomes 1st Female CEO of Warner Bros. and the Emmys
Natalie Portman Will be the Goddess of Thunder
By Caroline Antonacci
At this year’s comic-on, the makers of Thor: Love and Thunder announced that Natalie Portman will be the goddess of Thunder. In past movies, Portman has been portraying Jane Foster. Portman wrote about this news on Instagram as she said, ”So thrilled to share the news with you today at #sdcc2019 that I’ll be returning to the @marvel#mcu as female Thor with legends @taikawaititi @tessamaethompson and @chrishemsworth. (Remember this as the before picture for when I get jacked).” In a 2014 comic book storyline, Thor loses his power, and Jane picks up the hammer, becoming the goddess of Thunder. People, especially women, are overjoyed by the news and what this symbolizes. Before this, Natalie Portman had said that she was “done” with Marvel, Taika Waititi, the director, convinced her to stay by making her own superhero. Recently, the director of Thor: Love and Thunder has clarified that Portman will not be the “female Thor”, but instead will be her very own character, the Mighty Thor, goddess of thunder. Thor: Love and Thunder will be in theaters November 5, 2021.
Halle Bailey Will Be Ariel in Disney’s Live Action Movie The Little Mermaid
By Samantha Friedman
Singer and actress Halle Bailey is set to play Ariel in Disney’s upcoming live-action movie The Little Mermaid. The 19 year old Chloe x Halle and Grown-ish star is ecstatic about this role, and says that it is “a dream come true” to be cast as a Disney princess in a live-action remake. The film’s director, Rob Marshall, says that Halle represents “a rare combination of spirit, heart, youth, innocence, and substance” which are essential qualities to play the iconic role of the mermaid Ariel.
Actress and comedian Melissa McCarthy is also rumored to star alongside Bailey as the villain and sea witch, Ursula. McCarthy has not confirmed involvement, but has hinted that she is in talks with Disney.
Ocean’s 8 and Crazy Rich Asians actress Awkwafina is also in talks to play Scuttle. Canadian actor Jacob Tremblay is rumored to join the cast to play Ariel’s best friend, the fish Flounder.
As for the soundtrack to this film, Alan Menken, writer of the score to the original 1989 The Little Mermaid and Lin-Manuel Miranda will join forces to create new music for the remake.
Taylor Swift Is the Highest Paid Celebrity of 2019
By Samantha Roskind
Taylor Swift was revealed to be the highest paid celebrity of 2019, according to Forbes Magazine’s annual list. At only 28 years old, Swift’s ‘Reputation’ Stadium Tour made $266.1 million, which is the most amount of money a tour has earned in American history. Also, as of the beginning of July, Swift had earned $185 million. Her single, “ME!” received 100 million views in just a couple of days and it was number two on the Billboard Hot 100.
As for the world’s second highest paid celebrity, Kylie Jenner claimed that spot having earned a net worth of $1 billion as of August 27th. Jenner also holds the (controversial) title of the youngest self-made billionaire.
The world’s 100 highest paid entertainers of 2019 earned collectively 7% more than last year’s list. Rounding out the rest of the top ten earners are #3 Kanye West, #4 Lionel Messi, #5 Ed Sheeran, #6 Christiano Renaldo, #7 Neymar, #8 The Eagles, #9 Dr. Phil McGraw, and #10 Canelo Alvarez.
Ann Sarnoff Becomes the First Female CEO of Warner Bros
By Natalie Wexler
In late June 2019, Ann Sarnoff became the CEO and chairperson of the entertainment company Warner Bros, a position that was held by men for the first 96 years of the studios existence.
Sarnoff grew up in Massachusetts before getting her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and her MBA from Harvard Business School. After graduating, Sarnoff began her career with Makaron Associates as a strategic consultant before working in the corporate development department Viacom.
While at Viacom, Sarnoff worked with Nickelodeon, helped to create the children’s network Noggin (a collaboration between Nickelodeon and Sesame Workshop), and launched the channel TVLand. She also worked on merging together Country Music Television and VH1.
In 2004, Sarnoff took a break from the entertainment industry to become the COO of the WNBA and then went to Dow Jones, a business and financial news company, in 2006 to be their President and Senior Vice President of Strategy.
Eventually Sarnoff returned to the TV world and joined the BBC where she quickly ascended the ranks going from the COO from BBC Worldwide North America to President of BBC Studios Americas where she helped to launch BBC Earth to being the head of BBC Worldwide’s Global Production Network where she launched the North American streaming service Britbox.
Now Sarnoff will be the first female at the helm of Warner Bros, a studio responsible for franchises such as Harry Potter, The Dark Knight, and The Hobbit.
2019 Emmy Awards
By Natalie Wexler
With the fall comes a new school year, the beginnings of a crisp in the air, new TV series, and shows returning to the air that also took a summer break. Consider the Emmys a parent teacher conference of sorts: rewarding actions of the past year while seeing what we can improve on.
The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards will be taking place on September 22nd, 2019 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles and broadcast on Fox. Programs that aired between June 1st, 2018 and May 31st, 2019 were eligible for nominations.
Like the 2019 Oscar Awards, this year’s Emmys will also not have a host and will instead rely on celebrity guests to fill time in between awards.
This year, Game of Thrones won for having the most nominations in the history of the ceremony with 32 nominations, beating out a 25 year record of 26 nominations held by NYPD Blue.
See the full list of nominations here.