English Entertainment
Star World to air Jimmy Kimmel Live on 20 April
MUMBAI: The beautiful Emily Blunt appeared on the latest episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! promoting her upcoming fantasy film, The Huntsman: Winter’s War. During her chat with popular host Jimmy Kimmel, Blunt spoke about her special Frozen connection, her little admirer, riding an imaginary animal and her panic attack during her husband’s on-stage fashion disaster.
The show will air on 20 April 2016 at 11 pm.
With her character Freya, the Ice Queen in her upcoming film strongly resembling Elsa from Frozen, Kimmel pointed the striking similarities out to the actress, to which the actress revealed he wasn’t the only one. She said, “Charlize’s son was on set a lot and he’s obsessed with Frozen so he really thought I was Elsa,” Blunt said. “And then he got really disappointed because he saw me in my sweatpants one day with the white hair on, and he just looks at me and goes, put on your dress. Like, he was really bummed about it. Put it on now.”
But that’s not all, according to Kimmel, the actress looked like a lump on a golf cart while shooting for the film, all thanks to the imaginary wolf-bear! Thecharacter Freya rides a wolf-bearinto battle, but since it actually doesn’t exist, Emily was required to ride a green contraption to give the same effect.
Blunt had to mimic a swaying movement while riding side-saddle in the golf cart, which she hilariously replicated for Kimmel. She revealed, “So I’m just like this on it, driving at a glacial pace towards the other actors, and I just remember coming towards Jessica Chastain and she was like this, trying not to laugh ‘cause she knew if she made me laugh, the whole shot would be ruined,” Blunt said. “You’re talking about 50 horses, 100 extras. The reset takes an hour.”
Blunt also spoke about a panic attack she got thanks to her husband’s recent fashion disaster while onstage for his play. She told the host, “John came out for his first scene, and his suit jacket was tucked into his pants… like, really tucked… wedged… I heard myself say, oh my God, no. And I just knew that everyone was gonna see… everyone’s gonna get the right angle at some point… I was panicking.” The actress felt a sense of gratitude towards the savior Hank Azaria, her husband’s co-star who came behind and removed the jacket before too many audience members noticed. “
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
