Category: media

What’s safe now? Uh, mannequins. “We’ve had a lot of strange looks and questions like, Do you really want to do this? … But everyone is game. They are getting their first latex kiss.” – The New York Times

While some big stars have already died, Sunday shook the Bollywood world further. “Superstar Amitabh Bachchan was in a ‘stable’ condition in the isolation unit at Nanavati Hospital, the facility said in a statement, after he and his son Abhishek Bachchan were both admitted following positive tests late Saturday evening. And soon Abhiskek Bachchan’s wife, the heralded actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, also entered hospital. The couple’s daughter tested positive for Covid-19 too.” – CNN

The movie, which also topped the box office 40 years ago, is a big hit with the drive-in crowd. “Empire’s dominance follows Ghostbusters’s success over the July 4 weekend and Jurassic Park and Jaws’ victories the weekend before. Black Panther and Inside Out also made this weekend’s box-office list, with drive-ins being the main venue for moviegoers to enjoy anything on a big screen during the coronavirus pandemic as big theater chains like AMC wisely keep pushing back their reopenings.” – The AV Club

And it’s an intense reckoning, after two white stars of a Real Housewives spinoff were fired when news went public that they had “called the police on former castmate Faith Stowers in 2018 in an attempt to implicate her in a crime she did not commit.” Some of the dominos may be starting to fall – but “as is the case in many corners of the entertainment industry, the ones with greenlight power are also still overwhelmingly white.” – The Hollywood Reporter

Without new movies, it will be hard – but without any trust in safety, it will be much harder. “The vast majority of the country’s nearly 5,550 indoor theaters remain shuttered, and the recent surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in multiple states has postponed what was already expected to be a slow recovery.” – Los Angeles Times

And here’s why: “Pulling Facebook ads in July, as they slash their ad budgets anyway, was for many a win-win of saved money and boosted image. But now? Given the response from civil rights leaders and the results of the two-year audit, how can a brand return to the platform until real, measurable change is actually made?” (Also, Zuckerberg thinks the boycott means nothing – and advertisers could change that.) – Fast Company

The bad news, according to the report: Only 72,000 subscribers stuck around and decided to pay $5 a month (or $8 without ads) for the service. That conversion rate, around 8%, does not bode very well as Quibi battles its way through COVID-19 and a crowded streaming field.About 4.5 million total downloads of the app have occurred to date, Sensor Tower estimates. – Deadline