Putin

The theme of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, ‘United by Music,’ announced both the annual musical extravaganza’s all-embracing intentions and its status as a joint endeavor. With 2022 winners Ukraine unable to host in Kyiv due to the war, the U.K. – last year’s runners-up, thanks to Sam Ryder’s soaring…

Offering a singular perspective on Russia’s current pariah status in much of the world is Gaukur Ulfarsson’s “Soviet Barbara,” probably the most enjoyable — as opposed to depressing — documentary involving the invasion of Ukraine you’re likely to see. It focuses on Icelandic multimedia artist Ragnar Kjartansson’s preparation for exhibits…

Jeff Shell, the former chief executive of NBCUniversal, forfeited stock grants and options worth $43.3 million after he was fired for cause, according to a Comcast regulatory filing. Shell was terminated as CEO of NBCU over this past weekend after an internal investigation into his relationship with Hadley Gamble, an international correspondent…

Jeff Shell was forced out as CEO of NBCUniversal after an internal investigation into his relationship with Hadley Gamble, an overseas correspondent for CNBC, two sources confirmed to Variety on Monday. In a securities filing on Monday, Comcast said that the company received a complaint of “inappropriate conduct,” including sexual…

“Abbott Elementary,” “Better Call Saul,” “Severance,” “Mo,” “Reservation Dogs” and “We’re Here” are among the entertainment nominees as the Peabody Awards’ board of jurors revealed 42 nominees for this year’s Peabodys in entertainment, arts, children’s/youth, podcast/radio, interactive & immersive, and public service. They join the 27 news and documentary nominees announced by…

Nadya Tolokonnikova, the founder of the politically charged punk group Pussy Riot, has been named one of Russia’s most wanted criminal suspects. The news first appeared on the outlet Mediazona, an independent news site founded by the band to cover the country’s courts, law enforcement, and prison systems in an…

When he began working on his sophomore documentary feature, “Iron Butterflies,” in 2019, Ukrainian filmmaker Roman Liubyi said he was “making the film as a warning, before the Third World War.” The film, which world premiered at Sundance, follows the Russian disinformation campaign surrounding the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight…

Back in 2001, Sean Penn found himself next to Jack Nicholson in a speeding car on the way to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin. The two actors were in Russia for the world premiere of “The Pledge” at the Moscow Film Festival. The Penn-directed psychological drama starred Nicholson as a…

Back in 2001, Sean Penn found himself next to Jack Nicholson in a speeding car on the way to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin. The two actors were in Russia for the world premiere of “The Pledge” at the Moscow Film Festival. The Penn-directed psychological drama starred Nicholson as a…

Sean Penn went to war and a movie broke out. That is, in effect, the story behind the making of the documentary “Superpower,” a gripping cinematic portrait of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on the eve of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.  Co-directed by Penn…

After narrowing down 144 eligible documentary features to a remarkably strong shortlist of 15 docs, the Academy’s nonfiction branch whittled down that batch to five nominees: “All That Breathes,” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” “Fire of Love,” “A House Made of Splinters,” and “Navalny.” It’s a quintuplet of powerful…

Twitter war erupts as Gilmour is accused of being a “Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac.”