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More than ten years ago, UCLA’s Entertainment and Media Research Initiative (EMRI) began producing the Hollywood Diversity Report, at first annually then biannually, covering both the film and television sectors. The report – partially funded by Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) – is unique in that it aims at providing comprehensive data analyses that relate to racial, ethnic, gender, and other forms of diversity in the entertainment industry and audiences.

If, as psychiatrist Viktor Frankl opined, the meaning of life is to give life meaning, then what of the objects, both big and small, that power our lives but leave behind no small amount of waste? What meaning can be derived in how we treat this material? And what separate meaning, if any, exists in these items themselves? Those are among the questions pondered by Stacey Tenenbaum’s Scrap, an utterly singular and highly ruminative documentary, from First Run Features, now available on DVD and streaming on Amazon and Apple TV. In imaginative fashion, Scrap runs an end-around on more typical environmental nonfiction film posturing.

At 94, James Hong is still unstoppable. With more than 650 film and television credits going as far back as the early 1950s, Hong is one of the most prolific actors ever.

The Easter long weekend in Italy (Monday April 10th was also a national holiday) yielded a rich trove of eggs, if not a bonanza, at the Italian box-office, thanks to the animated nuttiness of the Super Mario Bros adaptation into film. Attendance and grosses increased compared to those of last week and doubled compared to those of the same period a year ago: with over 167,000 ticket payers, the USA-Japan co-production Super Mario confirmed its blockbuster status around the world, ripping up its competitors, topping N.

  You might have seen actress Didi Conn in film credits including You Light Up My Life (1977), Frida (2002) and the TV series, Benson (1981-85). But it’s more likely you know her as Frenchie, one of the infamous Pink Ladies in the hit film, Grease (1978), which features a memorable scene in which Frankie Avalon sings ‘Beauty School Dropout’ to her.

Nothing brings siblings together like the death of a parent. In a particularly bold move, Episode 3 of the final season of the Golden Globe-winning series Succession marked billionaire Logan Roy’s unexpected and shocking death.

On the morning of Monday, December 16, 1935, the body of a young woman was found doubled over on the front seat of her chocolate brown 1934 Lincoln Phaeton convertible parked in a garage in Pacific Palisades. Wearing diamond jewelry and dressed in a mauve and silver evening gown and a mink coat, she had seemingly died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

RiverBlue, an unprecedented documentary, made its mark in 2017 highlighting a powerful question: could fashion possibly save the planet? It portrayed some incredibly stunning, yet at times, shocking images that left us forever changed by the way we look at fashion, and fixated on the impact that the clothes we wear have on our climate and planet. Perhaps the most shocking element in the film is the exposure to the gloomy side of the consumer’s beloved blue jeans.

Amidst all the film events around the world, there was a special one that caught my attention. First, it had been mentioned to me by a friend in tech.

There has been a Laemmle in the movie business literally almost since there has ever been a movie industry. After quitting his job in his late 30s and buying up a series of nickelodeons before then transitioning into the film rental and distribution markets, Carl Laemmle challenged Thomas Edison’s monopoly on moving pictures, and in 1912 co-founded Universal Pictures.