Lachlan Cartwright

Welcome back to Source Material. Landing in your inbox each and every Monday evening, we peel back the curtain to reveal what’s really going on inside the world’s most powerful navel-gazing industry. You can subscribe here and you can send questions, tips and complaints here. If you’re CAA, one of the most powerful talent agencies in the world, and Will Smith, one of your biggest A-list clients, lights his career on fire by slapping Chris Rock on live TV while the world watches, what do you do? You can look at history for starters. WME dumped Mel Gibson as a client […]

This exclusive reporting appears as one of several scoops featured in this week’s edition of Source Material, the media newsletter that pulls back the curtain to reveal what’s really going on inside the world’s most powerful navel-gazing industry. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here. — Barstool Sports bro-in-chief Dave Portnoy may have a mole inside Insider, staffers at the Axel Springer-owned news outlet fear. Portnoy has infamously launched a relentless legal crusade against Insider over two articles detailing claims that he violently assaulted women while having sex with them—and it appears as though he may have had […]

This exclusive reporting appears as one of several scoops featured in this week’s edition of Source Material, the media newsletter that pulls back the curtain to reveal what’s really going on inside the world’s most powerful navel-gazing industry. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here. — To fill its upcoming Rachel Maddow void, MSNBC almost took a time machine back to the good old days of 2011. Keith Olbermann, who shaped the network’s liberal voice before being canned more than a decade ago, was in lengthy discussions with NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell and news boss Cesar Conde to […]

Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from The View for two weeks over her Holocaust comments. “While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments,” ABC News president Kimberly Godwin said in a note to staff. “The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.” “People are really upset and don’t understand why it took two days,” an ABC executive told The Daily Beast. This story is developing and will be updated. Source link

MailOnline’s publisher and founding editor Martin Clarke is stepping down, he announced Friday. “Earlier this year I indicated to Lord Rothermere that, after 12 incredible years building MailOnline into one of the world’s biggest news websites and having established it as a substantially profitable business in its own right, I wanted to pursue new challenges,” wrote Clarke, who served as DMG Media publisher and CEO/editor-in-chief of MailOnline and DailyMail.com, in a statement. He will officially exit the post at the end of February 2022. DMG Media CEO Rich Caccappolo will take over Clarke’s duties while the search for a new editor […]

Peter Rice, the top Disney executive overseeing ABC News, boasted last year to staff about improving the culture at the news division and not shying away from “tough conversations.” But three weeks after a bombshell lawsuit publicly accused Good Morning America’s former executive producer of sexual assault, angered staffers say Rice has failed. Late last month, a producer who works closely with GMA co-host George Stephanopoulos sued her former boss, Michael Corn, alleging he sexually assaulted her and created a hostile work environment. Corn, now president of news for Nexstar’s cable upstart NewsNation, has strenuously denied the allegations and ABC denied […]

A bombshell lawsuit against the former top producer of Good Morning America has ignited a firestorm behind the scenes, with co-hosts George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts allegedly at each other’s throats over the handling of claims that their former boss sexually assaulted multiple women at the network, four people with knowledge of situation told The Daily Beast. The fallout from the lawsuit has engulfed ABC News, with staffers furious about the company’s handling of the matter. As such, recently installed news president Kim Godwin, who came into the job promising to clean up the culture, is now in her fourth month […]

Rachel Maddow, who was seriously considering ending her long run at MSNBC, has decided to stay put after all. Insider broke the news of Maddow’s new multiyear contract, which was confirmed to The Daily Beast by two people familiar with the matter. Maddow, 48, will continue to host her nightly show, which has MSNBC’s highest ratings, but the new deal also calls for her to pursue new projects with parent company NBC Universal. “This uniquely positions Rachel and MSNBC to capitalize on the evolving and fast growing media landscape for years to come,” one of the sources told the Beast. As […]

Jeopardy! will have two hosts for the first time in the storied game show’s history. Sony Pictures Television is set to announce that Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards will host the long-running daily syndicated program and actress Mayim Bialik will host primetime and spin-off specials of the famed quiz show, The Daily Beast has learned. The current version of the show, which was hosted by the late Alex Trebek for 36 years, has featured a series of guest-hosts following Trebek’s death last year as executives grappled with who was best to fill the iconic role. Richards, who had been the frontrunner […]

The lyrics to the legendary Australian musician Peter Allen’s iconic song “I Still Call Australia Home” have been bouncing around in my head over recent months as my homeland goes through one lockdown after another trying to keep the “lucky country” safe from COVID. Australia, where I was born, initially did incredibly well handling the pandemic, closing borders and containing outbreaks, with around 1,000 deaths recorded, dramatically less than the U.K. or the U.S. But it has since made an epic mess of its pandemic response, and it is now clear Australian citizens who live and work overseas will pay the […]

Fox News host Juan Williams has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently in quarantine, The Daily Beast has confirmed. Williams had filmed alongside his co-hosts on The Five as recently as Wednesday. “I’m not great but I’m not dying or anything. I’m worried about myself and my family. My wife doesn’t want me to come back to the house right now. On lots of levels it’s concerning,” Williams told The Daily Beast. “It’s one of those things that they have wanted that show back together and some anchors are working from home but they wanted us back,” he said. “I’m […]

The New York State Department of Health says it is investigating a Hasidic wedding that was scheduled in upstate New York Monday evening at a synagogue where throngs of people were seen gathering without masks and not practicing social distancing. Officials were so concerned about the event, originally set to take place at the Congregation Yetev Lev synagogue in Kiyras Joel, that they issued a cease and desist order to leaders of the Satmar sect just hours before it was due to get underway. Still, a steady stream of bearded, black-hatted men were seen gathering at the massive synagogue around the […]