Disney

A BELOVED influencer, actor and Broadway star has died after a lengthy battle with a rare form of cancer.

Bret Hanna-Shuford, 46, passed away just days after posting a heartbreaking photo from his hospital bed of him smiling alongside his husband.

Dad-of-one Bret shared a positive Christmas Day picture where he tragically looked ahead to 2026 and said “hope to see you all soon”.

On Saturday, his partner Stephen Hanna confirmed the sad news that Bret had peacefully passed away.

Stephen said: “It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that early this morning we said goodbye to the most amazing man, husband and Papa in the universe.

“Bret Hanna-Shuford left this world peacefully with love surrounded by his family.

read more in celebrity deaths

SAD END

Tommy Lee Jones breaks silence on daughter’s death as details of her arrest emerge

“Our hearts are broken but we will continue to make him proud of us.”

He leaves behind his young three-year-old son, Maverick.

The actor, who had roles in the Wolf of Wall Street, Little Mermaid and Wicked, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer over the summer.

Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) and T-Cell Lymphoma – both rare disorders – left Bret in and out of hospital in his final months.

Both cancers attack the body’s immune system with T-Cell Lymphoma being among the deadliest forms of the disease.

Bret and Stephen were best known for their ever-growing social media page which detailed their family life.

Broadway Husbands managed to amass over 255,000 followers at the time of Bret’s death.

The account would go on to update followers on Bret’s health in recent months.

In October, he revealed he spent three days unconscious in the ICU due to the disease attacking his immune system.

His illness also forced Bret to step away from his graduate studies at the University of Central Florida.

The couple had only just moved into their new home in Orlando at the time.

A GoFundMe was launched for the Broadway star in August.

As of Saturday evening, the page has raised over $315,000 of its $350,000 fundraising goal.

One of the final posts on the fundraiser from December 12, stated how Bret had been in hospital since Thanksgiving.

A post from a friend read: “As many of you may have noticed, posts have been rather radio silent from both Bret and Stephen.

“These past few weeks have been some of the toughest that they have faced in this cancer journey. Bret has been in the hospital since just before Thanksgiving.”

But Bret was believed to have been improving health wise.

“As of today, Bret is looking and feeling better. His liver enzymes have plateaued, which is good, and he is back in the right direction with his oxygen,” the post continued.

He also directed an episode of the Emmy Award-winning Hulu series Only Murders in the Building in 2023, according to his IMDb page.

Bret is also known for his acting and producing work on Disney Royals, Disney Animazent Trio IRL, and In Rehearsal with… Stranger Things the Musical.

He and Stephen, who works at Walt Disney World, tied the knot in April 2011.

The Walt Disney Co. has settled claims that it violated child privacy laws, said the U.S. Department of Justice, with a federal court entering a stipulated order resolving the case, on Tuesday.

The company agreed to pay $10 million in the case in September.

The Justice Department had alleged that Disney Worldwide Services and Disney Entertainment Operations failed to accurately identify some YouTube video content as “Made for Kids,” enabling Disney and other parties to collect personal data from children under 13 years old. This information was then used for targeted advertising without parental notice or consent.

The Federal Trade Commission investigated the matter and referred the case to the Justice Department.

The alleged activities violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act that requires websites and other online parties to safeguard the personal information it collects for children under 13 by notifying parents and obtaining their consent prior to acquiring such data.

“Supporting the well-being and safety of kids and families is at the heart of what we do,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement in September. “Disney has a long tradition of embracing the highest standards of compliance with children’s privacy laws, and we remain committed to investing in the tools needed to continue being a leader in this space.”

In a statement Tuesday, Assistant Atty. Gen. Brett A. Shumate said, “the Justice Department is firmly devoted to ensuring parents have a say in how their children’s information is collected and used. The Department will take swift action to root out any unlawful infringement on parents’ rights to protect their children’s privacy.”

In addition to the $10-million penalty, the stipulated order prohibits Disney from operating on YouTube “in a manner that violates COPPA and requires Disney to create a program that will ensure it properly complies with COPPA on YouTube going forward,” said the Justice Department.

Disney could not immediately be reached for additional comment.

Settlement comes after US Federal Trade Commission accused the entertainment giant of unlawfully collecting children’s data.

Disney has agreed to pay $10m to settle allegations that it breached child privacy laws in the United States, authorities have said.

A federal court approved the settlement to resolve allegations brought by the US Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice said on Tuesday.

The order also requires Disney to operate its YouTube channel in accordance with data-protection rules and establish a programme to ensure future compliance.

Disney had agreed to settle the claims brought by the US antitrust watchdog in September.

The civil case stems from allegations that Disney collected children’s personal data without parental consent via its videos on YouTube.

Antitrust officials alleged that Disney had wrongly designated more than 300 YouTube videos, including content from The Incredibles, Toy Story, Frozen, and Mickey Mouse, as not being aimed at children.

YouTube requires content creators to designate videos as “Made for Kids” or “Not Made for Kids” to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule.

Under the rule, companies in the US are prohibited from collecting data from children below 13 without parental notification.

Other major companies that have paid settlements under the rule, which has been amended several times since its enactment in 2000, include Google and Microsoft.

Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The Justice Department is firmly devoted to ensuring parents have a say in how their children’s information is collected and used,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A Shumate said in a statement.

“The Department will take swift action to root out any unlawful infringement on parents’ rights to protect their children’s privacy.”

Disney, which has its headquarters in Burbank, California, is one of the world’s largest entertainment companies, with revenue for the fiscal year 2025 reaching $94.4bn.

Walt Disney Co. is on track to fully integrate its streaming platforms Hulu and Disney+ in 2026.

Hulu isn’t disappearing; Disney hasn’t set a date to retire the stand-alone app. But the Burbank entertainment giant is making progress on its plan to fold Hulu content into the Disney+ platform sometime next year.

The Burbank entertainment giant announced last summer that it was merging Hulu programming onto Disney+. Executives declined Tuesday to provide a timetable for the launch of the integrated platform.

“We are building on Disney’s value proposition in streaming by combining Hulu into Disney+ to create a unified app experience featuring branded and general entertainment, news, and sports, resulting in a one-of-a-kind entertainment destination for subscribers,” Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger told Wall Street analysts during an August earnings call.

Disney acquired the controlling stake of Hulu as part of its $72-billion purchase in 2019 of much of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox assets. But the full integration of Hulu was paused until earlier this year, when Disney finalized its purchase of Comcast’s one-third stake in the service after a testy dispute between the two rivals.

Until 2019, Hulu was owned by Comcast’s NBCUniversal, Disney and Fox.

Earlier this month, Disney engineers refreshed the Disney+ homepage to allow users to seamlessly move among its various catalogs — Disney+, Hulu and ESPN.

Disney has said Hulu will live on as the global brand for general entertainment, with such shows as “Only Murders in the Building,” “Paradise” and “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”

As part of the Mouse House’s choreographed months-long rollout, the company switched the Star tile for international Disney+ customers in October. Now, the green Hulu logo appears for those users. (Star, a popular television service in India, was also among the Fox assets that Disney acquired nearly seven years ago.)

Disney separately operates Hulu + Live TV, a pay-TV service with popular broadcast and cable channels, including ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and ESPN. Eventually, that service will be folded into the Disney+ app.

Hulu subscribers will continue to be able to access the app well into next year.

After the launch of the combined platform, Hulu subscribers will be able to watch Hulu-branded shows, but Disney is designing the experience to entice users to upgrade to a Disney bundle. The company’s goal is for fewer subscribers to drop their plans and, instead, spend more time on the Disney+ app.

As the year draws to a close, Disney is celebrating a successful year at the box office. It released two movies that surpassed $1 billion in global ticket sales: “Zootopia 2,” and “Lilo & Stitch.” The James Cameron movie “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” which debuted this month, so far has made more than $750 million worldwide.

The company’s TV programmers are under pressure to boost their slate of original television and streaming shows.

Disney mustered just three entries in Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 for the last week of November, according to the rating agency’s most recent report.

All were acquired shows, including “Homeland,” a decade-old Showtime production that runs on both Hulu and Netflix. “Homeland,” starring Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin, was ranked fifth for that week, lagging well behind Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” which broke records. Paramount+’s “Landman,” from Taylor Sheridan, was the second-most popular streaming show.

“Bob’s Burgers,” a show created for Fox and available on Hulu, ranked seventh. “Bluey,” an Australian cartoon distributed by Disney+ was the eighth most popular streaming show.

Disney programmers are preparing reboots of nostalgic 20th Television-produced shows, including “Malcolm in the Middle” and “Scrubs.”

For “Malcolm in the Middle” fans and the Walt Disney Co., 151 episodes weren’t enough.

The beloved sitcom, which ran seven seasons on Fox in the early aughts, is returning for a four-episode arc on Hulu April 10. The reunion brings back such viewer favorites as Bryan Cranston as Hal, Frankie Muniz as Malcolm, Jane Kaczmarek as Lois, and a couple of Malcolm’s TV siblings.

The limited series — “Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair” — is set nearly 20 years after the original went off the air. Muniz’s character, Malcolm, is beckoned back to his dysfunctional family to help celebrate Hal and Lois’ 40th wedding anniversary.

Disney teased the trailer Monday.

Disney acquired the rights to 20th Century Fox studio programs after buying much of Rupert Murdoch’s entertainment assets in 2019. The deal gave Disney such blockbusters as “The Simpsons” and “Avatar.” Recently, the Burbank entertainment giant has dipped into the Fox vault to mine the trend of comfort food TV for millennials, boomers and Gen Z. Executives have watched nostalgic programming take off on streaming services, including Disney+ and Hulu.

The return of “Malcolm in the Middle” should draw viewers who have followed Cranston’s career even before his standout performance in AMC’s crime drama, “Breaking Bad.” Muniz also has remained popular in pop culture; he’s also a race car driver affiliated with Ford.

Jane Kaczmarek as Lois, Bryan Cranston as Hal, and Erik Per Sullivan who played Dewey in the original “Malcolm in the Middle” on Fox.

(FOX)

A recent study from National Research Group found that about 60% of all TV consumed is library content.

The NRG study found that, among Gen Z, 40% of respondents said they gravitated to older shows because they are comforting and nostalgic. Disney’s own research has shown that a quarter of the shows young people list as their favorites were produced before 2010.

Disney’s ABC is also bringing back the quirky hospital sitcom, “Scrubs,” on Feb. 25. That comedy, set in the fictional Sacred Heart Hospital, will reprise the bromance between Zach Braff and Donald Faison’s characters, which the pair have recreated recently in T-Mobile TV commercials.

The show, which ran from October 2001 to March 2010, was also produced by 20th Television along with Bill Lawrence’s Doozer Productions.

Sarah Chalke will return, and John C. McGinley will guest star. The show will run on ABC, and a day later on Disney’s Hulu.

Most of the original “Malcolm” cast returns for the limited series except notably Erik Per Sullivan, who played Dewey. He’s no longer an actor so the part now is played by Caleb Ellsworth-Clark.

In the show, Malcolm has a daughter, played by Keeley Karsten, and a girlfriend, played by Kiana Madeira.

The Wilkerson’s classic mid-century house in Studio City, which served as an exterior for the show, reportedly was renovated years ago.

The original series ran on Fox from January 2000 to May 2006. Those episodes stream on Hulu.

Los Angeles Times’ former television critic, Howard Rosenberg, in 2000 called “Malcolm in the Middle” the “smartest, sharpest-written, most original comedy of the season.”

The reboot is produced by Disney Television Studios and New Regency. Linwood Boomer, who created the original series, also returned as writer and executive producer. Ken Kwapis directs the four episodes and also serves as an executive producer.

Beyond reviving the shows, Disney has also collaborated with advertisers to make throwback commercials to run in classic films on its streaming platforms and TV networks.

Staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.

As “Avatar: Fire and Ash” headed to the big screen this month, theater owners held their breath.

In an uneven year that saw two billion-dollar hits and a viral “chicken jockey” craze, but also a disastrous first quarter and a nearly 30-year-low at the October box office, the end of December was the last chance for theaters to make up ground.

But even James Cameron and the Na’vi — the latest “Avatar” film has already grossed more than $472 million globally — couldn’t save 2025 from a disappointing conclusion.

Box-office revenue in the U.S. and Canada is expected to total $8.87 billion for the year, up just 1.5% from last year’s disappointing $8.74 billion tally, according to movie data firm Comscore. More troubling is that 2025’s domestic box-office haul is projected to be down more than 20% compared with 2019, before the pandemic changed audiences’ movie-going habits and turbocharged streaming in ways that the exhibition industry is still grappling with.

The problem: Fewer people are buying movie tickets. Theatrical attendance is running below last year’s levels, with an estimated 760 million tickets sold as of Dec. 25, according to media and entertainment data firm EntTelligence. Last year, total ticket sales for 2024 exceeded 800 million.

Part of the explanation for the falloff in cinema revenue and admissions lies in the movies themselves.

Industry experts and theater owners say the quality and frequency of releases led to dips in the calendar that put extra pressure on the other movies to perform. Once-reliable genres such as comedies and dramas are facing a much tougher time in theaters, and female moviegoers — who came out in droves in 2023 for “Barbie” — were underserved in a year that largely skewed toward male-leaning blockbusters.

“It’s fair to say that 2025 didn’t quite reach the levels many of us expected at the start of the year,” Eduardo Acuna, chief executive of Regal Cineworld, said in a statement. “A big part of that comes down to a lack of depth in the release schedule, and the struggle of many smaller titles to break through.”

Even big-name stars such as Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell, Dwayne Johnson and Sydney Sweeney couldn’t prop up attendance for films such as Sony Pictures’ “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” A24’s “The Smashing Machine” and Black Bear Pictures’ “Christy,” all of which flopped.

And despite the critical acclaim and stacked cast list for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” the film has stalled domestically at $71 million, with a global total of $205 million.

“One Battle After Another” had a budget of about $130 million, while “The Smashing Machine” reportedly cost $50 million and has grossed just $21 million worldwide.

“The challenge facing Hollywood is how to reconcile the budgets of these films with how much they can earn in theaters and down the road, eventually, in streaming,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore.

Universal Pictures’ “Wicked: For Good” hauled in more than $324 million, but it was one of few big blockbusters targeted to women. (Taylor Swift’s “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” which brought in $50 million globally, was another.)

Though the summer was marked by a number of big films, including Warner Bros.-owned DC Studios’ “Superman,” Universal’s “Jurassic World Rebirth” and Apple’s “F1 The Movie,” most were geared toward male audiences.

Female-focused films are “are few and far between,” said Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations, an entertainment data and research firm. “There should be something for everyone playing most of the time, and that isn’t the case.”

To be sure, there were some bright spots for the industry, including success from young audiences.

Warner Bros. Pictures’ “A Minecraft Movie” was the highest-grossing domestic film this year, with $423.9 million. Close behind was Walt Disney Co.’s live-action adaptation “Lilo & Stitch,” which collected $423.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and a total of $1 billion worldwide.

Counting those two, five of the year’s top 10 domestic-grossing films had PG ratings, including “Wicked: For Good,” Disney’s animated “Zootopia 2” and Universal’s live-action “How to Train Your Dragon.”

“In general, the good news about the year is that most of the big hits involved young audiences,” said Tom Rothman, chair and CEO chief executive of Sony Pictures’ motion picture group. “There is a bit of a youth-quake.”

Disney capitalized on the big year for family-friendly fare.

The Burbank entertainment giant recently crossed $6 billion at the global box office for the year, powered by billion-dollar hits such as “Lilo & Stitch” and “Zootopia 2,” and marking the company’s biggest year since 2019. (Though it wasn’t all sunny for Disney this year, as Pixar’s original animated film “Elio” misfired, as did the live-action film, “Snow White,” which was mired in controversy.)

Another notable youth driver was “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle” from Sony Pictures in partnership with its anime banner, Crunchyroll. The film had a massive opening weekend haul of $70 million in July on its way to a domestic gross of $134 million and a global total of $715 million, highlighting the increasing popularity of anime.

“The mainstreaming of anime at the theatrical box office is a really significant part of what happened this year and a really good sign,” Rothman said. “You’re bringing in young audiences.”

Not surprisingly, established intellectual property — whether video games, known franchises, novels or comic books — still topped the charts this year, with nine of the top 10 domestic films tied to an existing title.

That familiarity at the box office counts when moviegoers, particularly families, are looking for movies to watch. Viewers can be choosy about how they spend their cash and time, and may not always want to gamble on a movie they’ve never heard of.

“Meaningful IP still has an advantage in getting people to come to the theater, though it’s not the only way to do it,” said Adam Fogelson, chair of Lionsgate’s motion picture group, which saw success this year with an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel “The Long Walk,” as well as franchise film “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.”

Horror flicks also scared up plenty of business in 2025. Warner Bros., in particular, had a string of wins in fearful films, including Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” Zach Cregger’s “Weapons” and “Final Destination Bloodlines.”

In one notable exception, Blumhouse had a rare miss with “M3GAN 2.0,” the follow-up to the 2022 cult favorite. In an interview on “The Town” podcast, Blumhouse Productions Chief Executive Jason Blum blamed the sequel’s shortcomings on a change in genre from the original.

As 2025 draws to a close, industry insiders and theater owners are more optimistic about next year’s box office prospects.

Several big films are set to release in 2026, including Christopher Nolan’s much anticipated “The Odyssey,” Disney and Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Doomsday,” Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three,” as well as Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” from Universal, Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment.

That anticipation is also clouded by the uncertainty of the impending Warner Bros. deal and what that will mean for movie releases.

Many cinema owners fear that a takeover by Netflix will limit or eliminate the theatrical exclusivity of Warner Bros. films, though Netflix executives have said they will honor the company’s current and future commitments to the big screen. And if Paramount were to buy the company, theatrical exhibitors fear that the number of films would decrease, leaving them with less content to show. (Paramount CEO David Ellison has said the company did not plan to release fewer movies.)

Any deal is expected to take at least a year to complete.

In the meantime, Hollywood will wait to see how strong the 2026 slate truly is.

“There are a lot of great titles out there, and that’s why people have been calling 2026 a return to form,” said Bock of Exhibitor Relations. “Even though 2026 is very promising, can Hollywood keep delivering year-in and year-out?”

Following a $1-billion-grossing, Oscar-winning smash could have left writer and director Jared Bush and director Byron Howard feeling like rabbits in the headlights, but they seem to have outfoxed the challenge. “Zootopia 2” has already stampeded past $1 billion to surpass its predecessor, and the awards nominations have just begun slithering in. But how did the sequel survive such high expectations, stay as socially relevant as the original and navigate the peril of too many cooks in the kitchen?

“Animation’s a team sport,” says Howard, referring to the sheer number of people who worked on the film over five years. “It’s 700 in the crew, but in this building, it’s about 1,000 and another 300 in Vancouver. So it’s everyone’s collective ideas, saying, ‘Here’s where we can do better.’ So everyone has skin in the game and they all want these movies to be great. It’s an emotional investment.”

The creative team screened “Zootopia 2” for all of Disney Animation multiple times in various stages of development. A feedback system enabled every employee to respond.

Bush says Disney regularly seeks internal reactions after screenings, “but we asked way more direct questions for this one, like at an audience preview. Then we shared that feedback, unfiltered, with the entire building. That allowed people to see that their feedback mattered because you could actually see ideas that came in [manifest] from screening to screening.”

Bush and Howard acknowledge that having that many collaborators keeps the inspiration flowing but also allows fragments of the colossal group brain to sneak into the film unnoticed. Even they aren’t sure where all the in-jokes are planted.

A “story jam” — reminiscent of a TV writers room — was just one of many avenues for collaboration in the making of “Zootopia 2.”

(Disney)

Like its predecessor, the sequel is packed with movie references and animal puns — “A Moose Bouche”; “Gnu Jersey” — and the directors are quick to spread the credit (or blame). “ ‘A Moose Bouche’ — we’ve gotten emails about that one,” says Howard. “Cory Loftis, our production designer, came up with it.”

There’s a “Star Wars” cantina bit, a soupçon of James Bond in the score at a fancy gala and dashes of Steven Spielberg in the camerawork. It’s easy to spot “Ratatouille” when an animal chef is revealed to have a rat under its hat, but Bush asserts there’s a second reference in that moment — the animal declaring “I knew it!” isn’t just any raccoon, but “Raccacoonie” from “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” That character is itself a “Ratatouille” reference (and, Bush points out, “EEAAO’s” Oscar-winning supporting actor Ke Huy Quan voices “Zootopia 2’s” lead snake, Gary). So it’s a reference coupled with another reference to another film’s reference to the first reference. Whew.

Those Easter eggs, including an extended callback to Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” — the realization of which they credit to animator Louaye Moulayess, a “Shining” superfan — speak to a willingness to cater to audiences beyond kids. Presumably, most children attending “Zootopia 2” haven’t watched Kubrick’s film. That’s a shoutout to the grown-ups for bringing the kids and, hopefully, discussing the historical practice of redlining with them after the show.

Byron Howard, left, and Jared Bush.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

The first “Zootopia” was not notable just for funny talking animals but also the fact that the funny animals were talking about bigotry and stereotyping. Perceptive viewers may have noticed a mammalian bias in the original — there were no reptiles to be found in its near-perfect society. It turns out they were discriminated against as a class and denied their rightful place as residents, as we learn in “Zootopia 2.” Bush said that concept fit right in with “continuing this discussion about how we as human beings have a hard time looking past each other’s differences.”

Howard says the diversity-as-strength theme plays out not just in grand terms but also in the dynamic between the two protagonists, Judy (a rabbit, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick (a fox, voiced by Jason Bateman): “Nick and Judy are such different, contrast[ing] characters that are really stronger [together] because of those differences, and that speaks to something we really value, which is differences between each other as a working pair,” he gestures to Bush and himself. “We continue to thrive in that way.”

Howard agrees with the comparison of him and Bush to conductors of a giant orchestra, listening for notes being played just right. He thinks of composer Michael Giacchino “onstage with those virtuosos at their respective instruments; we work with masters all around us, so we have a lot of trust in them.”

However, he admits with all those voices, “Writers have a tough time here because we scrutinize these movies and redo them over and over and over again. Jared is a great example of someone who thrives in this environment.”

Bush, explaining he came from the culture of TV sitcoms and all their constant revisions in writers rooms, says, “We have this amazing luxury of being able to rewrite and rethink and absorb these better ideas over years. It is an extreme luxury.

“There’s nothing else like this in Hollywood that I’ve seen — that level of deep collaboration and iteration. There’s no place I’m ever going to be that I will love as much as this.”

The year was 1923, and thousands of people a month were flooding into Los Angeles in hopes of finding a job in the nascent film business.

Many planned to start as background actors, dreaming they’d be discovered by a director and finally get their big break. These behind-the-scenes actors would wander from studio lot to studio lot, lining up in hopes of being cast.

But the chaos of aspiring actors searching for jobs eventually became too much. Even silent screen star Mary Pickford took to warning wide-eyed newcomers that they should save enough money to survive for five years before coming out to Hollywood.

Out of calls to create safeguards around this fledgling business, and more order around background acting opportunities, emerged the Central Casting Corp.

Central Casting — now so eponymous that its name has become a cultural phrase — celebrated its 100th anniversary earlier this month.

I recently spoke with Mark Goldstein, president and chief executive of the Burbank-based company, to talk about changes in the industry, including the threat of artificial intelligence, runaway production and the role of a background actor in 2025.

Goldstein acknowledged the tough environment for background performers, also commonly known as extras, who populate restaurants, parks and other film and TV scenes to make the environment seem more realistic — all without saying a word.

After the lows of the pandemic, and then the explosion of content during the peak TV era, one of the main challenges for Central Casting’s members is just finding new roles, he said.

“There’s been a little bit of a pullback in production over the last year,” said Goldstein, who serves as president and CEO of Central Casting as well as production finance and management tools firm Entertainment Partners, which owns the agency. “It’s really just constantly finding the right roles for people.”

In Southern California, of course, jobs have been more scarce as production has flowed to other states and countries offering steeper film incentives.

Then there is the advent of computer-generated imagery, which has lessened the need for massive crowd scenes that were once standard.

“Before [CGI] technology, we may fill up an arena, like we may fill a 5,000-person shoot or a 10,000-person shoot,” Goldstein said.

Remember the long lines for casting calls?

No more.

More recently AI has been a key concern for background actors, though Goldstein said he doesn’t think the new digital tools and the rise of synthetic characters will eliminate the need for background actors.

“There’s a lot of conversation [about] is it human or technology? And we kind of view it as human and technology,” he said. “The consumer wants believability, and so there’ll be situations where it’s really important to have the human role involved, but there may be other situations where AI and technology can be helpful.”

He added: “We have legendary people that started their career because they wanted to follow their dream to become an actor in Hollywood,” he said, ticking off the names of famous alumni such as Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Eva Longoria, Will Ferrell and Brad Pitt. “And we don’t see that changing.”

Despite the challenges, aspiring actors still register with Central Casting every day, Goldstein said. The company has 200,000 background actors in its database, with more than 20,000 new names added a year. About 3,000 are placed in roles each day, the company says.

One of those is Jaylee Maruk, 38, who signed up with Central Casting in 2009 and has worked steadily ever since.

Maruk works often on “Grey’s Anatomy” and has credits on Hulu’s “Paradise” and Apple TV’s “Shrinking.” She once stood in for Greta Lee in Apple TV‘s “The Morning Show.”

“What I love about doing background is it really gives a solid foundation about what it’s like to be on set and what the expectations are,” Maruk said.

But she worries about her future, especially with the rise of AI and the migration of production.

“Productions will pack up and leave,” she said. “They’ll go somewhere cheaper, and it’s becoming harder and harder for us. That’s really the biggest concern, trying to entice and support productions staying here.”

Towns in far-off countries like Hungary and Turkey can be made to look just like places in America, she says. And they can cast local residents instead of U.S.-based performers like Maruk. After all, background actors don’t have speaking roles, so not speaking English isn’t a problem.

“We want our work to be here,” said the Lake Balboa resident. “Our families are here, our lives are here.”

Last year, I got a glimpse into the world of background acting when I covered the annual Los Angeles Union Background Actors Awards. Though tongue-in-cheek at times — the awards themselves are called Blurries — the ceremony and winners’ speeches also highlighted these actors’ key roles in Hollywood.

I met background actors who had done the job for years, including one who got his first role as a 12-year-old in “Hello, Dolly!” Many talked about the difficulty of the last few years and the desire for respect for their professional work. Some were full-time background actors; others did the work part time. All were passionate about what they did.

“It really is just preparedness and luck, as they say,” Maruk said. “And also just having a lot of motivation and resilience.”

Stuff We Wrote

Film shoots

Number of the week

James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” brought in $89 million in the U.S. and Canada during its opening weekend. Globally, the film made $346 million, with big hauls in China and France.

That opening total came in at the lower end of box office analysts’ expectations and is also less than the massive opening weekend for its predecessor film, 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which grossed $134 million in its domestic debut. But “Avatar” films tend to build momentum at the box office over subsequent weekends, so the Na’vi aren’t vanquished yet.

In addition to “Avatar,” this past weekend also saw strong performances from Angel Studios’ animated “David,” as well as Lionsgate’s thriller “The Housemaid,” pushing the year-to-date domestic box office total a slim 1% above the same time period last year. That’s helpful for theaters but doesn’t bode well for the box office’s overall performance this year.

Finally …

My colleague Josh Rottenberg looks at what movie stardom will mean in an age of AI. In that story, he has an interview with the creator of Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated character that recently sparked a furious debate in Hollywood about the role of synthetics in film and TV.

THE Muppet Show is making a 50th birthday comeback — with pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter joining as a special guest. 

Disney has revealed Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and the gang are back for a one-off special, more than four decades after the curtain came down on the beloved original series.

The show will stream on Disney+ from February 4, promising fans “music, comedy and a whole lot of chaos” from the original Muppet Theatre.

In a teaser clip, Kermit’s green arm can be seen turning on the lights of an old studio, before placing down a mug with his name on it.

The show originally ran from 1976 to 1981, with a generation of kids singing along to the theme tune: “It’s time to play the music. It’s time to light the lights.”

The series became so popular that big name stars clamoured to be guests, including Sir Elton John, Johnny Cash, Diana Ross, John Cleese and Debbie Harry.

read more on sabrina carpenter

NIGHTY TIGHTS

Sabrina Carpenter shows off her legs in sweatshirt & tights in New York City

‘SHORT N’ SWEET

White House slams Sabrina Carpenter for defending ‘sick monsters’

It was broadcast in more than 100 countries and in 1978 Time magazine called the show “the most popular television entertainment now being produced on Earth”.

The series won a host of awards, including Emmy, Grammy and Bafta gongs.

Despite the lights going out on the main series, the Muppets Tonight talk show ran from 1996 to 1998.

Other short-lived TV projects followed, including a mockumentary series in 2015, the Muppets Now short form series in 2020 and The Muppets Mayhem musical comedy series in 2023.

A host of movies included The Great Muppet Caper in 1981 and The Muppet Christmas Carol in 1992.

The last film, Muppets Most Wanted, in 2014, starred British comedian Ricky Gervais.

Muppets creator Jim Henson died in 1990 and Disney bought the rights in 2004.

Sabrina, who has had four UK No1 singles and two UK No1 albums, is an executive producer for the new show, as is Canadian comedian and actor Seth Rogen, who was in the 2020 series.

Walt Disney Co. is expanding its presence in the Middle East, inking a deal with Saudi media conglomerate MBC Group and UAE firm Anghami to form a streaming bundle.

The bundle will allow customers in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to access a trio of streaming services — Disney+; MBC Group’s Shahid, which carries Arabic originals, live sports and events; and Anghami’s OSN+, which carries Arabic productions as well as Hollywood content.

The trio bundle costs AED89.99 per month, which is the price of two of the streaming services.

“This deal reflects a shared ambition between Disney+, Shahid and the MBC Group to shape the future of entertainment in the Middle East, a region that is seeing dynamic growth in the sector,” Karl Holmes, senior vice president and general manager of Disney+ EMEA, said in a statement.

Disney has already indicated it plans to grow in the Middle East.

Earlier this year, the company announced it would be building a new theme park in Abu Dhabi in partnership with local firm Miral, which would provide the capital, construction resources and operational oversight. Under the terms of the agreement, Disney would oversee the parks’ design, license its intellectual property and provide “operational expertise,” as well as collect a royalty.

Disney executives said at the time that the decision to build in the Middle East was a way to reach new audiences who were too far from the company’s current hubs in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Dec. 17 (UPI) — Chairman Brendan Carr said the Federal Communications Commission isn’t independent from the Trump administration in testimony Wednesday before Congress, during which the word “independent” was removed from the agency’s mission statement online.

Carr’s comment came as members on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee questioned him on who the FCC answers to in the wake of a controversy that led to the brief suspension of Jimmy Kimmel‘s late-night talk show on ABC.

The Walt Disney Co. suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! from Sept. 17 through Sept. 22 in response to comments he made about the assassination of right-wing activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

The controversy stemmed from Kimmel suggesting the alleged gunman who killed Kirk was a pro-Trump Republican.

The Make America Great Again “gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” he said in his monologue.

There was some discussion in the early days after the shooting as to the alleged shooter’s political leanings — he came from a largely right-wing family but had made some more left-leaning comments in recent months.

Just before the suspension, Carr described Kimmel’s comments as “truly sick” and threatened action against the network. At the time, Nester Media Group, which owns multiple ABC affiliates, was awaiting approval from the FCC for its planned merger with Tegna, prompting some to view Kimmel’s suspension as political.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said at the time. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Carr denied that Kimmel’s suspension had anything to do with government censorship and instead blamed it on ratings.

Democrats on the committee questioned Wednesday if Carr was truly acting independently or if he was beholden to Trump’s politics, The Hill reported.

Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., asked, “Yes or no, is the FCC an independent agency?

“On your website, it just simply says, man, the FCC is independent. This isn’t a trick question.”

“Congress did not include for-cause removal in the Communications Act,” Carr said. “So, formally speaking, the FCC is not independent.”

During testimony, the FCC’s website was updated to change the wording of its mission statement, eliminating the word “independent.” When asked about the removal, an FCC spokesperson cited the change in the administration 11 months ago.

“With the change in administration earlier this year, the FCC’s website and materials required updating. That work continues to ensure that they reflect the positions of the agency’s new leadership,” the spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., accused Carr of being the chairman of the “Federal Censorship Committee,” saying he made “mafia threats” toward station owners in the wake of Kimmel’s comments about Kirk.

“And these broadcasters, they feel that censorship,” Markey said.

Carr said the broadcasters involved issued statements saying they made their decisions to suspend Kimmel independently of what he said about Kimmel.

“If broadcasters understand, perhaps for the first time in years, that they’re going to be held accountable to the public interest, to the broadcast hoax rule, to the news distortion policy, I think that’s a good thing,” Carr said, according to ABC News.

FASHIONISTA Gwen Stefani has shown her fans how to slay Christmas style. 

Gwen, 56, performed in front of a Disneyland castle in a sneak peek of her Christmas Day TV special in a tiny dress and fur.

She was dressed in head-to-toe winter white, including a cropped fur jacket and sky-high platform boots. 

The chic outfit also included a tiny tiered white skirt which exposed itty bitty lace shorts underneath. 

In the post, the crooner told fans to “tune in Christmas morning,” for the Sleeping Beauty’s Castle for Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade.

Fans expressed their excitement for the Christmas concert in the comments on Instagram. 

SNOW MY!

Gwen Stefani, 56, looks half her age as she shows off long legs in music video

short shrift

Gwen Stefani, 56, wears TINY dress at NYC tree lighting shocking fans

“I absolutely can’t wait to watch your performance, Gwen! Also you look like a gorgeous Disney princess,” one commenter wrote. 

“Yay, cannot wait for your performance of my all-time favorite version of “White Christmas!” another fan commented. 

A third fan stated, “You are stunning. How don’t you age!?”

The concert, which will play on ABC, Disney+, and Hulu, is slated for performances by Coco Jones, Bebe Rexha, and Nicole Scherzinger. 

Most read in Celebrity

The parade will be hosted by Dancing with the Stars alum Alfonso Ribeiro and Ginnifer Goodwin, with Maia Kealoha serving as parade correspondent. 

HAPPY MARRIAGE?

Gwen fans recently suspected relationship challenges with her 49-year-old husband, Blake Shelton.

Their marriage was called into question ever since Blake released a cryptic breakup song entitled Hang On earlier this year.

Rumors ran rampant when they didn’t attend the CMA Awards in 2025, even though Blake received a nomination.

Days later, Gwen posted a photo on her Instagram Story where she received a sweet kiss from Blake – indicating all was well.

A source close to the couple told The U.S. Sun: “They’ve gone through real challenges, nothing manufactured.”  

“There were times when the tension was high enough that people close to them quietly wondered if the relationship could take the strain.

But the source insisted that Gwen and Blake are committed to making their marriage work: “They showed up for each other instead of checking out.”

A group of entertainment industry workers launched a new coalition that aims to advocate for the rights of creators amid the growing AI industry.

The group, called Creators Coalition on AI, was founded by 18 people, including writer-director Daniel Kwan, actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Natasha Lyonne and producer Janet Yang, former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Gordon-Levitt said the group is not limited to Hollywood luminaries and is open to all creators and the skilled workers around them, including podcasters, digital content creators and newsletter writers.

“We’re all frankly facing the same threat, not from generative AI as a technology, but from the unethical business practices a lot of the big AI companies are guilty of,” he said in a video posted on X on Tuesday. “The idea is that through public pressure, through collective action, through potentially litigation and eventually legislation, creators actually have a lot of power if we come together.

The coalition’s formation comes at a time when Hollywood has been grappling with the fast growth of artificial intelligence tools. Many artists have raised concerns about tools that have used their likenesses or work without their permission or compensation.

The tech industry has said that it should be able to train its AI models with content available online under the “fair use” doctrine, which allows for the limited reproduction of material without permission from the copyright holder.

Some studios have partnered with AI companies to use the tools in areas including marketing and visual effects. Last week, Walt Disney Co. signed a licensing deal with San Francisco-based ChatGPT maker OpenAI for its popular Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse and Yoda to be used in the startup’s text to video tool Sora.

Kwan told The Hollywood Reporter that when Disney and OpenAI’s deal was announced many people felt “completely blindsided.”

“On one hand, you can say that this is just a licensing deal for the characters and that’s not a big deal, and it won’t completely change the way our industry works,” Kwan told THR. “But for a lot of people, it symbolically shows a willingness to work with companies that have not been able to resolve or reconcile the problems.”

There has also been lawsuits filed against some AI companies. Earlier this year, Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery sued AI business Midjourney accusing it of copyright infringement.

The Creators Coalition on AI said it plans to convene an AI advisory committee “to establish shared standards, definitions, and best practices as well as ethical and artistic protections for if and when AI is used.” Some of the principles the group lists on its website include the importance of transparency, consent, control and compensation in the use of AI tools, sensitivity to potential job losses, guardrails against misuse and deepfakes and safeguarding humanity in the creative process.

“This is not a full rejection of AI,” the group said on its website. “The technology is here. This is a commitment to responsible, human-centered innovation.”

“This is not a dividing line between the tech industry and the entertainment industry, nor a line between labor and corporations,” the group said . “Instead, we are drawing a line between those who want to do this fast, and those who want to do this right.”

The idea for the coalition was sparked by Kwan, who produced a documentary about AI, which comes out next year, Gordon-Levitt said in his video. He said work on the group began in the middle of this year. Already the collective has many signatories, including actors Natalie Portman, Greta Lee, Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom.