English Entertainment
Eva Longoria to host & produce ABC’s The 2006 Alma Awards
MUMBAI: The 2006 Alma (American Latino Media Arts) Awards, which features the hottest stars from the worlds of film, television and music, are scheduled to air on ABC Television Network. The awards will be hosted by none other than Eva Longoria (Gabrielle Solis of Desperate Housewives). What’s more, Longoria will also be a producer of the awards.
“I am honored to host this important television special. As a past Alam recipient, its even more meaningful for me to play such a major role in highlighting our Latino talent in Hollywood,” said Longoria.
The show is organised by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organisation in the US. The annual Alma Awards recognises and celebrates Latino artistic achievement in American film, television and music.
NCLR president and CEO Janet Murguia said, “The National Council of La Raza is very excited to relaunch the NCLR Alma Awards. The show provides an opportunity for the Latino community to celebrate excellence in the entertainment industry, while educating others about the contributions of Hispanic Americans to this country.”
The awards will feature celebrity appearances (to be announced at a later date), as well as an eclectic mix of performances, spanning the worlds of pop, rock and Latin music in both English and Spanish.
Among the highlights of the 2006 Awards ceremony will be presentations of The Entertainer of the Year Award and the NCLR Vanguard Award.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
