Category: 5. Entertainment

For those of you harbouring the impression that a career in the Pakistani television industry equates to a thriving bank account, director and producer Mehreen Jabar is here to burst that bubble.

“Our drama industry has progressed a lot, and there has been a very high viewership,” conceded Mehreen during a virtual interview with Drama Pakistani. “But behind the scenes, there is a lot of compromise and this industry operates in a very unprofessional way. That is the sad part.”

The New York-based Ek Jhooti Love Story director, who has accrued a rich catalogue of work over her three-decade career, lamented that actors and crew have a constant struggle extracting payments out of Pakistani production houses.

“You know, in the US, they have many problems, but over there, payment schedules are kept. You know you will be paid,” she illustrated. “But in Pakistan, with every channel and production house (and yes, some are better than others), you have to chase them like beggars, asking when you will be paid.”

Mehreen confirmed that this is not an issue limited to just actors. “Everyone faces this, from actors to the spot boy to the director,” maintained the filmmaker. “There is no system. You ask anyone, and you will get thousands of stories about payment issues.”

The director noted that in this shambolic set-up, it is the behind-the-scenes crew members who pay the biggest price. “If you compare the salaries of our light men and crew (because you have to make things in a certain budget), what they are paid, it is very low,” rued Mehreen. “There is no union here, so no one can really fight for their rights – but they are the ones who work the hardest […] I don’t know how this cycle will ever break.”

The director elaborated that owing to this frustrating state of affairs in the Pakistani entertainment industry, taking on a project in her country of origin has proved to be a largely unrewarding experience.

“It’s very frustrating to be shooting in Pakistan sometimes. The smoothest in my experience has been either a short series, because those end in about 35 days, or if a brand is involved,” she mused. “Which is the sad thing, because our drama industry is the biggest industry media wise, since we have no films and our musicians are strugglings. So our TV industry has to find a way to make the behind the scenes environment better!”

Mehreen, however, has limited hopes of a radical industry change. “I’ve been working for 30 years now, and sometimes I feel the issues I faced then still exist today. In fact maybe they are even worse!”

Can Lucy Liu, Justin Theroux, B.J. Novak and Pauline Chalamet spell Gabbana?

Their fashion knowledge will be put to the test as the actors join the cast of “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” And they won’t be the only new faces around Runway magazine. Other newcomers to the call sheet include Broadway stars Helen J. Shen (“Maybe Happy Ending”) and Conrad Ricamora (“Oh, Mary!”), as well as comedian Caleb Hearon.

Meanwhile, two recognizable characters, Tracie Thoms, who played Lily, the handbag-loving best friend of Anne Hathaway’s character, and Tibor Feldman, who portrayed Irv Ravitz, the chairman of Runway’s parent company Elias-Clark, will reprise their roles in the sequel.

They will appear alongside the original film’s stars, Meryl Streep, Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci.

Disney’s 20th Century Studios is backing the sequel, which is currently in production and set to open theatrically on May 1, 2026. Though plot details haven’t been confirmed, the story reportedly follows Runway’s terrifying editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Streep) as she navigates her career amid the decline of traditional magazine publishing. She faces off against Blunt’s character, her one-time assistant who is now a high-powered executive for a luxury group, with advertising dollars that Priestly desperately needs.

David Frankel, who directed the 2006 film, and Aline Brosh McKenna, who penned the original screenplay, are returning for the sequel along with producer Karen Rosenfelt. Based on Lauren Weisberger’s novel, a roman à clef about working for Anna Wintour at Vogue, “The Devil Wears Prada” follows aspiring journalist Andy Sachs (Hathaway) who is hired as an assistant at a glossy fashion magazine but finds herself at the mercy of her demanding boss. The film was a critical and commercial success, earning $326 million worldwide and an Oscar nomination for Streep.

Liu is best known for the “Charlie’s Angels” trilogy, “Kill Bill” and, more recently, “Set It Up” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence.” Theroux, who worked with Liu on 2003’s “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle,” has since starred in “Miami Vice,” “The Girl on the Train” and “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” Novak broke out as a writer and star on “The Office” and made his feature directorial debut with 2022’s “Vengeance.” Chalamet, the older sister of Timothée Chalamet, rose to fame in the HBO Max comedy series “The Sex Lives of College Girls.”

Novak is repped by CAA and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Thoms is repped by Schachter Entertainment and The Gersh Agency. Shen is repped by Artists & Representatives, Solstice Talent, and Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis. Feldman is repped by Jamie Harris and Justin Busch at Clear Talent Group and Jodi Schoenbrun Carter 1022m Management. Ricamora is repped by Paradigm Talent Agency.

That’s all.

LOS ANGELES:

Vampires, zombies and the Grim Reaper are killing it at the box office. At a time when superheroes, sequels and reboots have grown stale among audiences, horror has emerged as an unlikely saviour, entertainment industry veterans say.

This year, scary films account for 17 per cent of the North American ticket purchases, up from 11 per cent in 2024 and 4 per cent a decade ago, according to Comscore data compiled exclusively for Reuters.

Thanks to the box office performance of Sinners and Final Destination: Bloodlines, and new installments of popular horror films hitting later this year, including The Conjuring: Last Rites and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, cinema owners have reason to celebrate.

“We have identified horror as really one of the primary film genres that we are targeting to grow,” said Brandt Gully, owner of the Springs Cinema & Taphouse in Sandy Springs, Georgia. “It can really fill a void when you need it.”

Producers, studio executives and theatre owners say horror has historically provided a safe outlet to cope with contemporary anxieties. And there is no lack of material to choose from: the aftershocks of a global pandemic, artificial intelligence paranoia, the loss of control over one’s body, and resurgent racism.

“It’s cathartic, it’s emotional, and it comes with an ending,” said film data analyst Stephen Follows, author of the Horror Movie Report, which offers detailed insights into the genre. “Horror movies give space to process things that are harder to face in everyday life.”

The often low-budget productions allow for greater risk-taking than would be possible with high-cost, high-stakes productions like Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. The creative freedom has attracted such acclaimed directors as Ryan Coogler, Jordan Peele, Danny Boyle and Guillermo del Toro.

“Horror movies are an accountant’s dream,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore senior media analyst. “If you’re going to make a science-fiction outer-space extravaganza, you can’t do that on the cheap. With horror films, a modest-budget movie like Weapons can be scary as hell.”

Audiences are responding. Coogler’s Sinners, an original story about Mississippi vampires starring Michael B Jordan, was the year’s third highest-grossing film in the US and Canada, according to Comscore.

Movie theatres are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic which broke the movie-going habit, and increased viewing in the home. Mike De Luca, co-chair and Warner Bros Motion Picture Group, which released Sinners, said horror was a genre that manages to get people out of the house.

“It’s a rising tide that lifts all boats,” he said. “You know, we’re trying to get people back in the habit of going to the theatres.”

Fear knows no geographical bounds. Half of all horror movies released by major US distributors last year made 50 per cent or more of their worldwide box office gross outside the US, according to London-based researcher Ampere Analysis. The breakout international hit The Substance, for example, grossed over USD77 million worldwide – with around 80 per cent of that from outside the US.

Streamers also are similarly capitalising on the appeal of the genre. AMC’s post-apocalyptic horror drama series The Walking Dead, became one of the most popular series when it was added to Netflix in 2023, amassing 1.3 billion hours viewed, according to Netflix’s Engagement Report. Director Guillermo del Toro’s film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s gothic novel, Frankenstein, is set to debut in November.

Date night

Horror films are ideally suited to watching in movie theatres, where the environment heightens the experience.

“What you can’t do at home is sit in a dark room with a hundred other people, not on your phone, and jump,” said Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum, producer of Halloween, Paranormal Activity and other lucrative horror franchises. “You can’t really be scared when you watch a horror movie at home.”

Big-budget movies that the industry refers to as “tent poles,” such as Captain America: Brave New World or A Minecraft Movie, remain the lifeblood of movie theatres. Over time, these blockbusters have elbowed out more moderately budgeted romantic comedies and dramas on movie screens.

Against this backdrop, horror has been quietly gaining momentum.

The genre broke the USD1 billion box office barrier in the US and Canada for the first time in 2017, Comscore reported, buoyed by the film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, It, and Jordan Peele’s exploration of racial inequality in Get Out.

Announcements of new horror films from US producers have risen each year for the last three years, including in 2023, when the Hollywood strikes significantly impacted production, according to Ampere Analysis.

The number of US horror films that went into production last year was up 21 per cent over 2023, Ampere found.

“While more arthouse fare and even some tentpole superhero franchises have had mixed fortunes at the global box office in the wake of the pandemic, horror remains one of the key genres that audiences still make a point of seeing in the theatres,” wrote researcher Alice Thorpe in a report for Ampere’s clients which she shared with Reuters.

The researcher’s own consumer surveys revealed horror is the favorite genre among two-thirds of film-goers, ages 18 to 24.

“Anytime a teenager graduates to wanting to take a date to the movies, horror gets popular really fast,” said Warner Bros’ De Luca. “It’s a great film-going experience to take a date to because you get to huddle with each other and gasp and hoop and holler.”

Freak show

Horror has been a cinematic staple from its earliest days, when Thomas Edison filmed Frankenstein on his motion picture camera, the Kinetograph, in 1910. The British Board of Film Classification introduced the “H” rating in 1932, officially designating the genre. But it didn’t always get Hollywood’s respect.

“In the first half of the 20th century, it was seen as a freak-show,” said Follows. Perceptions began to change with the critical and commercial success of films like Psycho, The Exorcist and The Shining. Director Steven Spielberg ushered in the summer blockbuster in 1975 with Jaws, a re-invention of the classic monster film.

In recent years, horror films have become part of the Oscar conversation. Peele collected an Academy Award for best original screenplay in 2018 for Get Out. Demi Moore received her first Oscar nomination earlier this year for her portrayal of an ageing Hollywood star who will go to any lengths to stay beautiful in The Substance.

Not every horror film connects with audiences. M3GAN 2.0, a sequel to the 2022 low-budget film about a killer robotic doll that grossed USD180 million worldwide, brought in a modest USD10.2 million in the US and Canada in its opening weekend, according to Comscore.

 

Mexican actor Manuel Masalva is on the road to recovery after contracting an aggressive bacterial infection in March that left him in a medically induced coma for weeks.

In his first social media post since the onset of his illness, the “Narcos: Mexico” actor updated his followers on his current health status via Instagram on Monday evening.

“I am healing. I want to profoundly thank you all for the support you have given me and continue to give me, in every sense, every one of you,” Masalva wrote. “This [process] has barely begun, there is much more left to go, but I feel blessed, strong, reborn and well-accompanied. … God has given me a new life.”

Masalva first felt the onset of an ailment when he arrived in Dubai in March, following a trip to the Philippines, revealing that he ended up spending 105 days in the Dubai hospital that first treated him for his prolonged illness.

The actor first arrived in the Middle East city on March 18, his manager Jaime Jaramillo Espinosa told The Times in April.

“[After] about two days in Dubai, Masalva began to feel internal discomfort and pain which increased by the day,” Jaramillo Espinosa said.

On March 26, Masalva underwent emergency surgery after doctors discovered the bacterial infection, which prevented him from traveling back to his home in Mexico. The following day, the infection reached his lungs and he had to be put into a medically induced coma.

Masalva thanked the Dubai hospital staff for their work and for the distinct culture that “overflowed with love and spirituality.”

“I don’t know if I really understand all of what’s going on or just a part of it, it’s been an eternity and there are still some parts missing, I just want to the strongest thanks that I can give to God, my family, my doctors and all those people that have supported me since the start of this process. I owe you all my life,” he wrote.

Masalva played the role of Ramón Arellano Félix in the Netflix drama series “Narcos: Mexico,” alongside Diego Luna, Bad Bunny and Scoot McNairy. He has also been featured on the telenovela “La Rosa de Guadalupe” and recently in the series “La Guzmán.”

Cardi B and NFL star Stefon Diggs have silenced breakup rumors with a surprise joint appearance in a workout video uploaded by Diggs.

The video comes days after fans noticed Cardi had deleted all photos of Diggs from her Instagram, sparking widespread speculation about the couple’s relationship status.

The rumors intensified when Cardi B posted a cryptic message during Paris Fashion Week, simply stating, “I’m sooo tired.” Social media quickly filled with theories, many believing the couple had split. However, Diggs’ recent YouTube video, titled Mental Reset, featured Cardi B joining him for a workout, casually crushing the narrative of a possible breakup.

The unexpected gym vlog took fans by surprise and reignited speculation—this time, about whether the social media wipe was a marketing move. Some believe it was a brief fight, while others point to Cardi B’s upcoming album Am I the Drama?, dropping on September 19, suggesting the drama may have been part of a PR strategy.

Cardi B responded to the gossip with fiery posts on X, telling fans to “Get off the internet… ENOUGH!!” She later added, “Enjoy these looks and day …..and ignore the bored.”

The couple, who went public earlier this year after Cardi’s split from Offset, had been seen vacationing in France, with Diggs reportedly renting a Victorian castle for her. Despite the digital drama, their public workout appearance suggests they remain together—if not as lovers, then at least as teammates in life and fitness.

Stay tuned as Cardi gears up for her album release and fans continue watching this headline-making duo.

The design and development of multifunctional sports and entertainment complexes in Asia faces many challenges.  These include economic constraints, budget limitations, the need for transportation upgrades, and land availability.  However, these complexes are pivotal in fostering social integration, enhancing community wellbeing, promoting active lifestyles and diminishing social isolation.  

Future development strategies for multifunctional sports, cultural and community clusters must therefore incorporate comprehensive planning that addresses these diverse challenges.  A multidimensional approach should encompass the following five foundational elements of the planning and design of sports and entertainment infrastructure to ensure its successful integration into the broader urban fabric. 

Venue program
A thoroughly detailed venue program is crucial and should be meticulously developed before the commencement of preliminary design. This foundational program should extend beyond the standard requirements of feasibility studies and specifications for hosting major events. 

 

Urban connection
The significance of barrier-free and traffic-free connections between the city, neighbourhood and sports and entertainment precinct cannot be overstated. These connections can create safe and welcoming public spaces when carefully planned in the project’s early stages. The project can ensure the precinct is a community-centric space that is also designed with climate in mind, particularly in Southeast Asia where areas like large open plazas should be avoided due to the urban heat island effect. 

 

Inclusive design
The cultural context and increasing enthusiasm for sports and social activities among the female population in Asia necessitate specific architectural and design considerations for public and community-use zones within stadia and their broader precincts. Architectural planning for these areas must prioritise the needs of all ages and genders as well as people with disabilities.  Ensuring these zones are safe, well-lit, and free from obscured areas enhances security and accessibility for all users. 

 

Functional integration
One highly effective strategy for ensuring regular visitor traffic to a stadium is the integration of multifunctional zones within the main venue.  These zones can include a health clinic, potentially linked with a sports rehabilitation centre offering programs for residents.  Additionally, incorporating libraries with free public access and dedicated study areas caters to the educational needs of young people.  Educational facilities, sports schools and sports academies are also crucial, nurturing talented athletes from an early age and fostering a strong sports culture. 

 

Cultural integration
Sports and entertainment precincts are now increasingly recognised not just as venues for their core activities but as vital cultural hubs capable of hosting a diverse range of events.  These versatile spaces are ideally suited for concerts, shows, musicals and theatre productions and can even function as open spaces for markets, art galleries and cultural festivals.  The deliberate incorporation of such multifaceted features into the architectural design of future buildings is crucial.  This approach cultivates a vibrant cultural point of attraction that benefits not only the residents of the immediate precinct but also the broader city. 

Kesha admits she as turned to a Korean skin care technique for anti-ageing.

The singer, who appeared on Monica Lewinsky’s podcast, Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky this week, revealed that she has applied the salmon DNA on her skin.

“I haven’t done that yet,” Lewinsky said, before adding, “Like salmon DNA in your face. I haven’t done that.”

Kesha said, “I put the salmon DNA in my face.”

“Oh, you did?” Lewinsky replied. “Did you like it? Well, your skin is gorgeous.”

“Thank you. I can thank the salmon sperm,” Kesha said through a bout of laughter. “It’s like a Korean trick.”

This comes days after fellow singer, Miley Cyrus, admitted that she has done the same procedure. Speaking on Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle Hotel in New York City.

“I tried that salmon sperm,” she shared. “Have you heard about that? I tried it.”

“Tastes strange, but my skin looks good,” Cyrus added before clarifying, “I didn’t mean to drink it. It’s just like a whole mask.”

The Disney Channel alum then joked, “I never met the salmon. It came pre-packaged. I don’t even know if it is what it says it is. I don’t know, but I do feel like my skin’s looking good.”

Netflix officially started production on the fifth and final season of Outer Banks, marking the start of the end for the hit adventure drama.

New behind-the-scenes photos gave fans a first look, but the release date was still under wraps. Season 5 was expected to arrive in 2026, as filming would run through next year.

The series became a massive hit over the years, crossing 200 million views. But with the stars getting more popular and production costs going up, the team decided it was the right time to wrap things up.

The creators, who had always planned five seasons, stayed on as executive producers to finish the story strong.

Chase Stokes, Madelyn Cline, Madison Bailey, Jonathan Daviss, Drew Starkey, Carlacia Grant, Austin North, and Fiona Palomo were all back. But Rudy Pankow, who played JJ and was loved by fans, was missing from the new photos, leaving many wondering if his character would return.

However, Season 5 will continue from where things left off, with a surprise twist where Sarah Cameron is expecting John B.’s baby.

This new chapter adds more drama and emotion to their story.

While Rudy seemingly isn’t part of the final season, he landed a lead role in the film Reminders of Him. Whereas, Madelyn Cline also stayed busy with a major part in the new horror movie I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Fergie is bringing new energy to one of her biggest hits two decades later — and this time, she’s filming it on the real London Bridge. 

The 50-year-old singer teamed up with actress Megan Stalter to recreate the music video for her 2006 song London Bridge in a fresh, playful twist for the upcoming Netflix series Too Much.

In the updated visual, Fergie and Stalter take a cheeky tour of London, dancing across the actual London Bridge, sipping tea, and even getting swarmed by paparazzi. 

But it’s not all glitz and glamour, at one point, Stalter mimics Fergie’s iconic dance moves in front of the King’s Guard and ends up getting “arrested” in a hilarious moment.

The video kicks off with Fergie poking fun at the setting. 

“Now you see why we didn’t shoot here originally,” she jokes, before a flashback to her original video plays, the one famously filmed at London’s more iconic Tower Bridge, which still makes appearances in the background of this revamped version.

Directed by Mia Barnes, the new video also teases scenes from Too Much, a series created by Lena Dunham and starring Megan Stalter as Jessica, a New Yorker who moves to London after a breakup and finds herself unexpectedly falling for a British musician named Felix.

Reflecting on the decision to revisit the song and its video, Fergie shared in a press release how she felt an instant “connection” to this project “as an American girl who once had her own adventures in London while filming the video for London Bridge.”

She insister why she couldn’t “say no”, considering “that the series was written and directed by Lena Dunham and starring the brilliant Megan Stalter about an American girl navigating her own London experience.”

Fergie also revealed the song’s special place in the project, sharing that the director said “London Bridge was the only song she could imagine introducing the show.

And for fans of the original, Fergie offered a playful nod to her return. 

“So off we went to London to reimagine the original London Bridge video, only this time, we did it right.”