Matt Belloni, editorial director of the Hollywood Reporter, joins Kim Masters to discuss top entertainment news stories of the week.
- Viacom's newest strategy involves focusing on their six strongest brands (MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Comedy Central, BET and Paramount) and integrating more of their cable properties into Paramount movies. This seems to be a Disney-esque approach -- having multiple silos like Pixar, Lucasfilm, etc. Except in Disney's case, their properties are currently much, much stronger than Viacom's.
- As Hollywood continues to grapple with Trump, several big talent agencies are taking a stand. The biggest move so far has come from UTA, which announced it will forego its annual Oscar Party and instead give $250,000 to the ACLU, as well as hold a pro-immigration rally a few days before the Oscars. WME-IMG has announced they will form a PAC related to protecting diversity, but its exact purpose is still unclear. That agency is in a trickier situation because Ari Emanuel used to be Trump's agent and they represent a broader range of clients, some of whom may not be as liberal as the rest of Hollywood.