All writers

Todd Spangler

variety.com
30
articles (90 days)

Recent articles

Jury Rejects Elon Musk’s $150 Billion Suit Against OpenAI and Sam Altman
Elon Musk’s lawsuit accusing AI powerhouse OpenAI of violating its charter as a charitable organization was unanimously rejected by a federal jury. The nine-member jury in federal district court in...
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Spotify, After Massive User Backlash Over Disco-Ball Icon, Says Regular Logo Will Return Next Week
Haterade rained down on Spotify’s 20th birthday party celebratory disco-ball icon — and, after acknowledging the backlash, the streamer says the old 2D logo will return to users’ phones next week. ...
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Amazon’s Alexa+ Now Produces AI-Generated ‘Podcasts’ Featuring Chats Between Two Robot ‘Co-Hosts’
The podcast sector suddenly may have a big new player: Amazon’s Alexa+ AI-powered voice assistant. Alexa has been answering billions of users’ queries since it was first released in 2014. Now Amazo...
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Newly Expanded Elton John Impact Awards Honoring LGBTQ Trailblazers and Allies Unveiled: Recipients Include Chappell Roan, Laverne Cox, Melissa Etheridge
Music icon Elton John already had an award named after him. Now it has become a bigger awards program: The Elton John Impact Awards, which are being presented to influential members of the LGBTQ+ c...
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Donald Trump as James Bond? White House Posts Image of President as Gun-Wielding 007
Donald Trump has shared AI images on social media of himself dressed as the Pope and as a Christ-like figure healing a sick man. Now Trump’s White House has extended his self-mythologizing tendenci...
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ESPN’s Mina Kimes Wins ‘Celebrity Jeopardy! All-Stars’ Final, Landing $1 Million for Her Chosen Charity
Mina Kimes’ degree in English from Yale served her well in the finale of “Celebrity Jeopardy! All-Stars”: The ESPN football analyst correctly answered the show’s game-deciding trivia question to wi...
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Spotify Debuts New Logo: A Disco Ball to Celebrate Its ‘Party of the Year(s)’
Spotify users who updated their mobile app this week saw something new and unexpected: a new icon on their phones that’s a shimmering green 3D disco ball. Spotify has been a bit coy about what the ...
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Donald Trump Discloses at Least $220 Million in Q1 Financial Transactions, Including Purchases of Paramount, WBD, Netflix, Disney and Comcast Securities
President Donald Trump disclosed thousands of financial transactions for the first quarter of 2026 with a total value of at least $220 million (and as much as $750 million), including those involvi...
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Byron Allen on How He Plans to Use BuzzFeed to Create a ‘Premier Global Free Streaming Service,’ What It Means to Be Taking Over Colbert’s CBS Time Slot and Why He Wants to Buy Starz
With two recent deals, Byron Allen has elevated his profile in both late-night TV and the digital media space. He’s about to take control of struggling media company BuzzFeed, and next week he is g...
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Charter Adds Discovery+ to Select Spectrum TV Plans for No Additional Cost, Joining HBO Max in Cable Company’s Streaming Lineup
Subscribers of Charter Communications’ higher-end Spectrum TV plans now have access to Warner Bros. Discovery’s Discovery+ for no extra charge. Of course, much of the content on Discovery+ (but not...
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Gap Inc. Hires Another Ex-Paramount Exec in Push to Expand Fashion Brands to TV, Film and More
Gap Inc. has enlisted former Paramount executive Lourdes Arocho as part of the retailer’s “Fashiontainment” strategy to ink partnerships for its apparel brands in music, TV, film, sports and more. ...
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Webtoon and Warner Bros. Animation Reveal Four More Webcomics in Development as Animated Titles
Webtoon Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation announced four new animated titles based on popular Webtoon webcomics that are in development as part of their strategic partnership. The companies ...
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YouTube Unveils Exclusive Shows From Alex Cooper, Trevor Noah, Kareem Rahma and More at Upfront
YouTube once funded creator-driven original content — but the streaming giant wound that down several years ago and instead embarked on a strategy to promote shows YouTubers are already producing t...
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Paramount Skydance Defends WBD Merger by Arguing That Neither Paramount+ nor HBO Max Could ‘Catch Up’ to Netflix, Disney or Amazon on Their Own
Paramount Skydance is continuing to insist that the David Ellison-led company’s $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery will bring “new competitive energy to the entertainment ecosystem,” i...
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EBay Rejects GameStop’s $56 Billion Takeover Bid: ‘Your Proposal Is Neither Credible nor Attractive’
Online retailing giant eBay has turned down GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen’s unsolicited $56 billion takeover proposal, calling it “neither credible nor attractive.” On May 3, GameStop submitted a nonbind...
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‘The Netflix Effect’: Streamer Claims It Has Contributed More Than $325 Billion to Global Economy in Last 10 Years, Launches Site Touting Impact
What’s good for Netflix is… good for the world? In January 2016, the streaming giant expanded its service to an additional 130 countries and territories, reaching more than 190 overnight. Now it’s ...
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Byron Allen Is Buying BuzzFeed, Will Become CEO
TV and media entrepreneur Byron Allen is acquiring a majority stake in BuzzFeed — investing $120 million in the 20-year-old digital media company — and will become CEO. Allen plans to expand BuzzFe...
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Netflix Sued by Republican Texas Attorney General, Who Alleges Service Is ‘Spying’ on Users and Is Designed to Be ‘Addictive’
Netflix is in the crosshairs of Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas, who filed a lawsuit against the streaming giant, alleging violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act...
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Jimmy Kimmel to Air Rerun on Night of Stephen Colbert’s Final ‘Late Show’ Out of Respect for His Friend
Jimmy Kimmel, in a tip of the cap to Stephen Colbert, will air a repeat of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on May 21 — the date of Colbert’s final late-night show on CBS, ending his 11-season run on the netwo...
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Bravo and Peacock Dive Into Microdramas: ‘Southern Charm’ Star Madison LeCroy and Heather Gay’s Daughter Georgia Will Star in Ultra-Short Shows Coming This Summer
How to pull Bravo fans deeper into the Peacock app? NBCUniversal has a new short answer: It’s gearing up to launch the very first Bravo “unscripted microdramas,” hoping to latch on to the vertical ...
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Trump Media, Parent of Truth Social, Reports Q1 Sales of $871,000 and $405.9 Million Net Loss
Trump Media and Technology Group, operator of social-media platform Truth Social, reported a massive net loss for the first three months of 2026 and less than $1 million in total sales. For the fir...
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Opposition Mounts to Paramount-WBD Merger. Will It Make a Difference?
There’s a lot of sound and fury against David Ellison’s pending $111 billion megamerger with Warner Bros. Discovery. But what changes to the current terms of the pact will it signify — if any? Mark...
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OnlyFans Valued at $3.15 Billion in Deal to Sell Minority Stake to Architect Capital
The parent company of OnlyFans, the porn-friendly creator site that rakes in billions of dollars in annual revenue, has sold a 16% stake to Architect Capital for $535 million. The deal announced by...
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ABC Says Trump’s FCC Probe Into ‘The View’ Over Equal-Time Rule Threatens to ‘Chill Critical Protected Speech’
Disney’s ABC is firing back at the FCC, accusing the agency of engaging in actions that “threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech.” The issue involv...
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Sony Pictures Entertainment Revenue Flat for Fiscal Year 2025 at $9.9 Billion, Profit Takes Hit From Shutdown of Pixomondo VFX Division
Sony Pictures Entertainment revenue came in roughly flat for fiscal year 2025, as higher sales at its Crunchyroll anime streamer and the success of global blockbuster film “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no...
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Disney+ Mexico Expands TV Azteca Deal, Including Rights to Livestream 24-Hour Reality Show ‘MasterChef 24/7’
Disney+ is expanding its content offering in Mexico through a new agreement with TV Azteca.  Under the new deal, the upcoming season of “MasterChef México 24/7” will be available on the Disney+ pla...
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White House Slams Mark Hamill as ‘Sick Individual’ After ‘Star Wars’ Actor Posts Image of Donald Trump Dead
UPDATE, 12:20 p.m. PT: Mark Hamill deleted the image of President Donald Trump lying in front of a gravestone from his Bluesky account. In a new post Thursday, he wrote: “Accurate Edit for Clarity:...
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BBC’s Katty Kay and Anthony Scaramucci Are Taking Their ‘The Rest Is Politics: US’ Podcast on Seven-City Tour
Anthony Scaramucci, who had an extremely short-lived tenure as White House director of communications during Trump’s first time in office, and Katty Kay, BBC U.S. special correspondent, are hitting...
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Rupert Murdoch Lauds CNN Founder Ted Turner: ‘A Great American and Friend’
Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner were business rivals — and their Fox News and CNN news networks remain fierce competitors. But Murdoch and Turner were also friends. In a statement following news abou...
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Disney Revenue Rises 7% in Earnings Beat, Disney+ and Hulu Streaming Income Pops 88% to $582 Million
Disney’s first earnings with Josh D’Amaro as CEO are out — and he has generally good news to report in his Wall Street debut. The Mouse House pulled in revenue of $25.17 billion, up 7%, for the thr...
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