Hollywood Breakdown

A motorcycle racer named Joi "SJ" Harris died on the set of Deadpool 2 this week while attempting a stunt for the film. Harris was an accomplished racer, but did not have stunt experience. Some in the stunt community are asking why she was hired in the first place, and saying that her death could have been prevented.

Disney announced this week that it will pull its content from Netflix and launch two streaming services of its own -- one for sports and one for Disney properties. There are some caveats, but there's no questions that this represents a fundamental realignment of the media world.

Business in Hollywood can be boom or bust, and for independent film studios, it's more of the latter at the moment. The problem is exemplified by two struggling companies, Open Road and Broad Green Pictures.

The show that created some of the most conversation at this summer's gather of the Television Critics Association is one that doesn't even exist yet. The announcement alone of a new HBO show where the South won the Civil War and slavery is still legal set off a firestorm.

A year ago, it seemed like the Chinese company the Wanda Group was well on its way to buying up a large chunk of Hollywood. But several deals that felt solid before are now incredibly fraught.

This year's Emmy nominations show the dominance of streaming TV. HBO led the pack, but Netflix was right on its heels. Hulu, which had critical success with The Handmaid's Tale, also did well.

President Trump has called CNN "fake news," and last week he tweeted a GIF of himself tackling a symbol of the network. His fans vociferously hate the media and journalists are decrying the potential for violence. All of this may be good for ratings, but is it good for the American people?

In an effort to continue its push for increased diversity, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences welcomed a large class of new members this week, many of them women and/or people of color. But some of the names of the list have raised eyebrows because certain inductees have relatively little experience in film. 

Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the original directors of the forthcoming Han Solo movie, were fired and replaced by director Ron Howard. This hardly every happens in Hollywood, especially because production was already well underway -- sources say they were four-fifths of the way through filming.

Controversy swirls around the upcoming airing of Megyn Kelly's interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The marketing of the episode has been problematic -- including a picture of the two of them smiling together in a car.