Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (FOXA.O) is interested in acquiring a minority stake in Viacom Inc’s (VIAB.O) Paramount Pictures, a source close to the situation said on Wednesday. The company would be interested in exploring a deal that would create synergies fo... More »
(Variety.com) – “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” steamrolled past records, debuting to a gargantuan $170.1 million over Easter weekend despite being pilloried by critics. That ranks as the top opening weekend for a DC Comics film, the best March launch eve... More »
DOHA Qatar’s Al Jazeera broadcasting network is laying off about 500 employees or more than 10 percent of its staff, it announced on Sunday reflecting financial pressures on the tiny Gulf state due to low global prices for oil and natural gas. Most of those af... More »
HAVANA The Rolling Stones rocked a massive crowd at a free, outdoor concert in Havana on Friday, capping a week of engagement with the West for the Communist-led country that once censored the veteran British band’s music. The Stones started their first-ever s... More »
LOS ANGELES Microsoft is “deeply sorry” for the racist and sexist Twitter messages generated by the so-called chatbot it launched this week, a company official wrote on Friday, after the artificial intelligence program went on an embarrassing tirade. The bot, ... More »
WASHINGTON – Republican Ted Cruz on Friday denounced an article in the National Enquirer tabloid claiming he had extramarital affairs as “complete and utter lies” and accused rival Donald Trump of being the source of the story. The story took the Republican pr... More »
HAVANA When Carlos Carnero’s rock band Los Kent plugged in guitars and drums to play Rolling Stones covers on Cuba’s Island of Pines in the 1960s, soldiers stopped the gig at gunpoint in minutes and marched the musicians onto a boat heading back to the mainlan... More »
Playboy Enterprises [ICONAP.UL], the owner of Playboy magazine, is exploring a sale, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters, in a move that comes after the storied magazine stopped publishing nude photos of women and put up the iconic Playboy Mansion u... More »
LONDON Shakespeare’s skull is likely missing from his grave, an archaeologist has concluded, confirming rumors which have swirled for years about grave-robbers and adding to the mystery surrounding the Bard’s remains. Four hundred years after his death and bur... More »
WASHINGTON Atlanta’s airport was briefly evacuated on Wednesday over a suspicious package while U.S. law enforcement agencies and travelers were on edge a day after deadly suicide bombings by Islamist militants rocked Brussels. Passengers were ordered out of p... More »
Activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP, which is leading an investor revolt against Yahoo Inc’s (YHOO.O) management team, is seeking to remove the entire board of the struggling Internet company, the Wall Street Journal reported. The activist investor, which o... More »
NEW YORK Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz turned to Twitter to defend their wives’ honor after a Super PAC put out an ad featuring Trump’s wife nude and Trump threatened to “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife. Trump’s threat came on Tu... More »
Apple Inc will integrate Apple Pay with its Safari browser later this year, allowing users to make purchases from mobile websites, technology website Re/code reported, citing sources. The mobile payments system will be available to shoppers who use iPhone and ... More »
PHOENIX Former Major League catcher Joe Garagiola, who achieved more lasting fame as a sports announcer and television host after his retirement from baseball, died on Wednesday at the age of 90. “We are deeply saddened by the loss of this amazing man who was ... More »
SAN FRANCISCO Amazon.com Inc, under pressure from an activist shareholder to disclose its policies on gender pay equality, said on Wednesday its female employees earned as much as their male counterparts, according to a survey it recently conducted. The disclo... More »
Movie studio Warner Bros went ahead with Tuesday’s London premiere of “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” its new superhero movie, but skipped the traditional red carpet press interviews following the attacks in Brussels. “Our hearts go out to the victims o... More »
BERLIN German media group Bertelsmann (BTGGg.F) on Tuesday reported a 4.7 percent rise in full-year core profit and reiterated it wanted to raise its stake in Penguin Random House, the book publisher which helped to drive the earnings increase. Bertelsmann con... More »
LOS ANGELES A Los Angeles judge tentatively ruled on Friday that certain documents can be made public in a lawsuit that challenges the mental competency of 92-year-old media mogul Sumner Redstone. Medical records will remain sealed to protect Redstone’s privac... More »
ASTANA Kazakh officials and their visitors will have to leave their smartphones at the door of government buildings from March 24 in line with a new policy aimed at preventing leaks of sensitive documents, a leaked document showed on Thursday. The memo cites “... More »
WASHINGTON/BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump refused to take responsibility on Sunday for clashes at his campaign events and criticized protesters who have dogged his rallies and forced him to cancel one in Chicago last week. ... More »
(Variety.com) – Disney’s “Zootopia” cruised to another box office victory this weekend, picking up $50 million and barreling across the $100 million mark domestically. After two weeks of release, “Zootopia,” the critically acclaimed story of a plucky rabbit po... More »
FRANKFURT A former employee of Volkswagen’s (VOWG_p.DE) U.S. subsidiary is suing the company for damages, claiming he was unlawfully fired after flagging internally what he alleged was illegal deletion of data, a group of German media outlets said on Sunday. T... More »
Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes has apologized for suggesting security guards at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris may have had advance knowledge of the Islamic State attack at the venue that left 89 people dead. The California-based Eagles of Dea... More »
AUSTIN, Texas Online harassment and sexism is demeaning women and can no longer be brushed aside as an ugly side of social media and the gaming industry if they are to thrive, panelists on Saturday said at the South By Southwest (SXSW) tech meeting in Austin. ... More »
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. First lady Michelle Obama and representatives from nine former presidential families led a bipartisan gathering of politicians and celebrities in paying memorial tribute to Nancy Reagan, whose love for her late husband, Ronald Reagan, was h... More »
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. Attorneys for wrestling celebrity Hulk Hogan rested their $100 million privacy invasion case against the Gawker news outlet on Friday, wrapping up a lively week of testimony in a Florida lawsuit examining the posting of a sex tape in moder... More »
LONDON For the last six years, Prince William and his wife Kate have been the darlings of the world’s media, gracing the front pages of newspapers and magazines across the globe with their good looks, easy charm and two photogenic children to boot. In the last... More »
U.S. networks are changing the way they develop and release new shows, and even commercials, as they seek to adapt to new TV viewing habits and profit from the “binge-watching” made popular by video streaming services like Netflix. The changes could help offse... More »
NEW YORK iHeartMedia Inc, the largest owner of U.S. radio stations, on Wednesday secured a temporary restraining order from a state court in Texas rescinding notices of default it received from a small number of its senior creditors. The San Antonio, Texas-bas... More »
TOKYO Sharp Corp’s (6753.T) two main banks are set to lower interest rates on billions of dollars in loans and offer other financial support as part of a planned takeover by Taiwan’s Foxconn, a source with direct knowledge of the plan said. The move is partly ... More »
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. As a larger-than-life celebrity, Hulk Hogan considered it entertainment when he embellished his sex life but the Gawker news website crossed a line by posting a video of him having sex with a friend’s wife, the former professional wrestler... More »
LOS ANGELES “The Matrix” filmmaker Lilly Wachowski, formerly known as Andy, came out as a transgender woman on Tuesday in a candid post entitled “Sex change shocker – Wachowski brothers now sisters!!!,” four years after her sister Lana Wachowski revealed she w... More »
iHeartMedia Inc has hired Moelis & Co as a financial adviser, the most significant step yet by the largest owner of U.S. radio stations to deal with its $21 billion debt pile, according to people familiar with the matter. The move comes as iHeartMedia, one of ... More »
TEL AVIV Israel’s culture minister had a blunt message on Sunday for liberals worried about what they consider efforts by the government to stifle dissent in the arts: “Cut the bullshit.” Free-speech debate in Israel has grown fierce under conservative Prime M... More »
ISTANBUL A day after Turkey’s top-selling newspaper Zaman was taken over by the state, it dropped its criticisms of the government on Sunday and published flattering stories on President Tayyip Erdogan. The episode is the latest twist in a long-running conflic... More »
LONDON Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and actress and model Jerry Hall celebrated their marriage with a blessing service on Saturday at St. Bride’s church on London’s Fleet Street, the spiritual home of British journalism. A star-studded guest list included actor ... More »
LONDON Rupert Murdoch wed former supermodel Jerry Hall in a low-key ceremony in central London on Friday, the fourth marriage for the media mogul. The 84-year-old executive chairman of News Corp (NWSA.O) and owner of 21st Century Fox Inc, and Hall, 59, smiled ... More »
WASHINGTON One of Donald Trump’s sons appeared along with a white supremacist while giving an interview on a conservative radio show, adding to concerns that the front-runner in the battle to be the Republican candidate in November’s presidential election is w... More »
JAKARTA Global Internet-based firms could have their services blocked in Indonesia if they do not obtain “permanent establishment” status in the country and pay Indonesian tax, government officials said on Monday. Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro told rep... More »
LOS ANGELES Catholic Church abuse movie “Spotlight” was named best picture, the top award at Sunday’s Oscars ceremony, after a night peppered with pointed punchlines from host Chris Rock about the #OscarsSoWhite controversy that has dominated the industry. In ... More »
LOS ANGELES The 88th Academy Awards, the highest honors in the movie industry, were handed out a ceremony in Hollywood on Sunday hosted by comedian Chris Rock. Following is a list of winners in key categories for the awards, also known as the Oscars. BEST PICT... More »
LOS ANGELES They were supposed to free up Oscar recipients to say something profound during their 45 allotted seconds on stage. But the thank-you scrolls that ran at the bottom of the screen for the first time at the 88th Academy Awards on Sunday didn’t notice... More »
LOS ANGELES Comedian Chris Rock launched his return stint as Oscar host on Sunday by immediately and unabashedly confronting the racially charged elephant in the room – the furor over the all-white field of performers nominated for Hollywood’s highest honors. ... More »
LOS ANGELES Vice President Joe Biden made a special appearance at the Oscars ceremony on Sunday to advocate for victims of sexual assault and introduced a powerful performance by Lady Gaga that featured survivors of sexual abuse. Biden came on stage to rousing... More »
HONG KONG Four of the five Hong Kong booksellers who went missing in October appeared on Chinese television confirming for the first time they’d been detained for “illegal book trading” in mainland China. The five booksellers – including a British and Swedish ... More »
MEXICO CITY U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s political rhetoric is “racist,” and evocative of Adolf Hitler, former Mexican President Felipe Calderon told reporters at an event in Mexico City on Saturday. “This logic of praising the whit... More »
A U.S. appeals court on Friday overturned a $120 million jury verdict against Samsung, finally handing the South Korean smartphone maker a significant win in its longstanding patent feud with top rival Apple. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit i... More »
LONDON Britain’s globally respected broadcaster, the BBC, was told on Thursday it was guilty of serious failings in its handling of Jimmy Savile, a celebrated TV and radio showman revealed after death to have been one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders. ... More »
BANGKOK Sitting in her busy Bangkok noodle shop, Bunruen Klinnak professes “love” for Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a 2006 military coup and later fled abroad. But Klinnak, 55, also fears Thaksin’s return to politics c... More »
LONDON The “in” camp is ahead by a 12-point lead ahead of a referendum on whether Britain should stay in or withdraw from the European Union, but the gap has narrowed, according to the latest opinion poll. Support for staying in stood at 51 percent, while 39 p... More »
SAN FRANCISCO The legal showdown between Apple Inc (AAPL.O)and U.S. law enforcement over encryption, no matter the outcome, will likely accelerate tech company efforts to engineer safeguards against government intrusion, tech industry executives say. Already, ... More »
Hollywood studio DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit, helped by the worldwide television release of its movie “Home” and higher licensing fees. Shares of the company, which produced the popular “Shrek” and “K... More »
Prosecutors took unusual steps in enlisting victims of the San Bernardino attack in the government’s heated battle with Apple Inc(AAPL.O) over access to an iPhone belonging to one of the shooters, according to people involved in the effort and legal experts. F... More »
GUATEMALA CITY An audit by a committee appointed by FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, has concluded that broadcasting contracts between Guatemala’s soccer federation and Mexican media magnate Angel Gonzalez were awarded below market value, say sources with... More »
Time Inc (TIME.N), publisher of Sports Illustrated, People and Time magazines, has been exploring a bid to acquire Yahoo Inc’s (YHOO.O) core Internet business for several weeks, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Tuesday. Time Inc has been re... More »
ROME Italian author Umberto Eco, who became famous for the 1980 international blockbuster “The Name of the Rose”, died on Friday, Italian media reported. He was 84. La Repubblica newspaper said it had been informed by the family that Eco died late on Friday ni... More »
BOSTON Institutional Shareholder Services on Friday recommended Viacom Inc investors withhold support for six of the media company’s directors, as the largest proxy adviser cited several concerns including their oversight of executive compensation. ISS, which ... More »
LOS ANGELES Media mogul Sumner Redstone was under “undue influence” from people around him when he replaced his designated healthcare agent last fall, his ex-girlfriend argued on Thursday in her lawsuit challenging the elderly billionaire’s mental competence. ... More »
A wild elephant went on a rampage in a village in West Bengal on Wednesday, damaging around 100 structures, villagers said. Video taken in the village of Ektiasal showed the beast wandering around and knocking over flimsy huts. The elephant strayed into the vi... More »
NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES Advertisers played it safe and light with the most expensive ever Super Bowl ad slots on Sunday, shunning previous years’ attempts to be outrageous, emotional or thought-provoking. Mountain Dew rolled out a creature made from a puppy, a mo... More »
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Hollywood fumbled the ball during a quiet Super Bowl weekend at the multiplexes as new releases such as “Hail, Caesar!” and “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” failed to make much noise. For the second weekend in a row, DreamWorks Ani... More »
FRANKFURT The vast troves of consumer data held by big Internet companies should be scrutinized in merger probes because they have a big impact on competition, the president of the German antitrust watchdog told a newspaper. “Until now, markets in which no mon... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. and UK spy agencies and police may soon be allowed to directly ask media companies in each others’ countries for email and online chat data for people being investigated, under a tentative bilateral deal, officials said on Friday. As government... More »
WASHINGTON Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) has shut down more than 125,000 terrorism-related accounts since the middle of 2015, most of them linked to the Islamic State group, the company said in a blog post on Friday. Twitter has said it only takes down accounts when th... More »
NEW YORK British rock band Coldplay may have won several Grammy awards for its music, but it has yet to convince Twitter users that its mellow ballads are suited for the normally peppy Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday. On Friday, many on the social media pla... More »
PARIS French choreographer Benjamin Millepied said on Thursday he was stepping down as director of dance at the Paris Opera after little more than a year in the role, citing personal reasons. The 38-year old — who is married to Hollywood actress Natalie Portma... More »
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Kung Fu Panda 3” showed plenty of power at the U.S. box office with a solid opening weekend of $41 million at 3,955 theaters as the durable family franchise dominated moviegoing. Disney’s launch of Coast Guard rescue adventure “The... More »
NEW YORK – Bill Cosby’s lawyers may face difficulty in convincing a Pennsylvania judge this week to throw out sexual assault charges in light of what the disgraced comedian’s defense team characterizes as a decade-old non-prosecution deal, legal experts said. ... More »
Amazon.com Inc posted its most profitable quarter ever on Thursday but the world’s No. 1 online retailer still managed to disappoint Wall Street by badly missing estimates, sending its shares down more than 13 percent in after-hours trading. The results, as we... More »
Apple Inc has assembled a large team of experts in virtual and augmented reality and built prototypes of headsets that could one day rival Facebook’s Oculus Rift or Microsoft’s Hololens, the Financial Times reported. A secret research unit, housing hundreds of... More »
SAN FRANCISCO Apple Inc (AAPL.O) forecast its first revenue drop in 13 years and reported the slowest-ever increase in iPhone shipments as the critical Chinese market showed signs of weakening, suggesting the technology company’s period of exponential growth m... More »
SAN FRANCISCO/MUMBAI As China sales show signs of cooling, Apple Inc(AAPL.O) is touting India’s appetite for iPhones, betting that rising wages and an expanding middle class will pull consumers away from the cheap alternatives that currently dominate the marke... More »
HONG KONG/ BEIJING Xiaomi Inc [XTC.UL], China’s second-biggest smartphone vendor, more than doubled Internet services revenue in 2015 to about $564 million, an internal document reviewed by Reuters showed, but still fell well short of an internal target of $1 ... More »
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa/IOWA CITY, Iowa U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump withdrew on Tuesday from a debate with party rivals this week out of anger at host Fox News (FOXA.O), leaving the last encounter before Iowa’s pivotal nominating contest witho... More »
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) CEO Tim Cook has been generally bullish on the prospects in China over the last year, but the latest quarterly results released Tuesday show the company faces headwinds in its second-biggest market. Following are quotes from Cook on China ov... More »
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton would be “happy” to participate in an additional debate beyond those already planned if the other candidates agree, a spokeswoman for Clinton said on Tuesday. Clinton is campaigning in Iowa ahead of state ... More »
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday that “most likely I won’t be doing the debate” on Fox News in Des Moines, Iowa, scheduled for Thursday night. The billionaire businessman made the comment at a news conference in Marshalltown,... More »
NEW YORK A U.S. news channel and a newspaper will host a debate for the Democratic presidential contenders in New Hampshire a few days before the state’s primary election, but it remained unclear whether the party will relax its rule banning candidates from no... More »
LOS ANGELES Actor David Duchovny, best known for his role as Fox Mulder in sci-fi television show “The X-Files” has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the 2,572nd on the famed boulevard. Duchovny starred in the award-winning series from 19... More »
Acclaimed movie writer-director Woody Allen is turning his attention to the small screen, with a new streaming television series for Amazon starring pop star Miley Cyrus. On her Instagram account, Cyrus confirmed on Monday she had been cast for the show, posti... More »
Al Jazeera America, the cable television news outlet controlled by Qatar’s royal family, has issued a WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) notice, stating that it will lay off 197 employees with the shut down of its operations in America. T... More »
Fox News Channel said on Thursday it would join with Google to host the Republican presidential primary debate to be held on Jan. 28 in Des Moines, Iowa. The debate will incorporate real-time Google trends and data to determine questions for the candidates and... More »
European pay-TV group Sky Plc has struck a deal to screen programs from CBS Corp’s popular Showtime stable, including Billions starring Damian Lewis, as competition for top shows heats up among European broadcasters. The licensing deal will allow Sky to offer ... More »
Bloomberg LP will get an opportunity to contest a U.S. judge’s order requiring more than 100 people to disclose if they shared confidential information with the media company’s reporters about the bankruptcy of Molycorp Inc. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher S... More »
BOSTON Media giant Viacom Inc said on Wednesday it cut the compensation of its top two executives, Executive Chairman Sumner Redstone and Chief Executive Philippe Dauman, as the company faced business pressures and a sharp drop in its share price. Although Via... More »
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp said rumors about the company’s interest in buying microblogging site Twitter Inc or building a stake in it were untrue. Twitter’s shares, which rose as much as 14 percent on Wednesday, pared some gains and closed up 4.1 percent at $... More »
WILMINGTON, Del. A U.S. judge on Tuesday denied a request by media company Bloomberg LP to stay an order requiring more than 100 people to disclose information they shared with its reporters about the bankruptcy of the largest U.S. rare earth mining company, w... More »
HONG KONG One of Hong Kong’s staunchest pro-Beijing lawmakers said a bookseller’s tearful confession on state television to a hit-and-run accident more than a decade ago in China is unlikely to appease public concerns that he may have been abducted. The Sunday... More »
Director Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett Smith said on Monday they will boycott next month’s Academy Awards ceremony because black actors were shut out of nominations, and the Academy acknowledged it needed to do more to promote diversity. The Oscar acting ... More »
BERLIN Facebook Inc (FB.O) began a Europe-wide campaign on Monday to thwart extremist posts on social media, after German politicians in particular raised concerns about a rise in xenophobic comments linked to an influx of refugees. The U.S.-based group launch... More »
MUNICH The world’s most popular messaging service, WhatsApp, is dropping its token $1 fee still levied on some users as it experiments with making businesses pay to reach their customers, Chief Executive Jan Koum said on Monday. In addition, the Facebook-owned... More »
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Its long reign is over. After four weeks atop box office charts, Disney’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has ceded first place to Universal’s “Ride Along 2.” The comedy sequel picked up a leading $34 million across 3,175 venues and ... More »
DUBLIN Apple’s (AAPL.O) European headquarters in Ireland was briefly evacuated on Monday while police searched the premises following a security alert that staff said had been completed and they had returned to work. Irish police, who were assisting in searche... More »
NEW YORK Major U.S. growth mutual funds have been among the largest sellers of Apple Inc (AAPL.O) shares over the past six months, fueling speculation that the company’s days of supercharged growth have come to an end. Amid concerns that iPhone sales may be se... More »
Gifts of sex toys, glitter and nail polish are not what the armed protesters who seized a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon were expecting when they put out a public call for supplies to help get them through the winter. The occupiers, who took over buildings at ... More »
Al Jazeera America, the cable television news outlet owned by Qatar-based Al Jazeera Media Network, is shutting down less than three years after its high-profile launch, the network said on Wednesday. The U.S. cable network will cease operations by April 30, t... More »
LOS ANGELES As Los Angeles celebrates its fifth straight year of record-breaking tourism, officials in part can thank visitors from China who, despite their reputed disdain for lying on the beach, now make up the second-largest group of international travelers... More »
LONDON Legendary British rock star David Bowie, who framed hits such as “Ziggy Stardust” with daringly androgynous displays of sexuality and glittering costumes, has died aged 69 after a secret battle with cancer. A chameleon and a visionary, Bowie straddled t... More »
The iconic Los Angeles mansion of Hugh Hefner, the founder of the Playboy empire, is being put up for sale for $200 million, Playboy Enterprises said, one of the highest asking prices for a private residence in the United States. The Gothic Tudor-style mansion... More »
LONDON UK Athletics (UKA) has called for world records to be wiped clean and drug cheats to be banned for at least eight years in radical proposals aimed at heralding a new unblemished era for the sport. UKA’s document “A Manifesto for Clean Athletics” was pub... More »
