TheWrap on Monday announced a lineup of speakers for three Power Women Breakfast events in Washington, D.C., New York and San Francisco.
On June 13, National Geographic Global Networks CEO Courteney Monroe will co-host a Power Women Breakfast in Washington, D.C.
The event, to be held at the W Hotel, will also feature a panel focusing on next steps in the #TimesUp Initiative with political strategist Hilary Rosen, National Women’s Law Center president and CEO Fatima Goss Graves and members of TimesUp Legal Defense Fund — an organization that helps individuals find legal representation after experiencing sexual misconduct including assault, abuse or harassment in the workplace.
Emmy- and Tony-winning actress Judith Light will be a featured headliner at TheWrap’s Power Women Breakfast New York on June 15 to discuss her longtime advocacy for LGBTQ issues as well as the goal of achieving 50/50 gender parity in the entertainment industry by 2020.
The star, who has received two Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe nomination for her role in Jill Soloway’s “Transparent,” and who is garnering critical raves for her powerful performance as Marilyn Miglin in FX’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” will join in conversation with TheWrap Editor in Chief Sharon Waxman at the event, held at the Time Warner Center.
FX threw a “finale” celebration for the “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” at the DGA on Sunset Blvd. on Monday night to bookend a season that launched with a Mer-man and models strolling a glittering runway in Hollywood. Why don’t more hit TV shows celebrate the end like this? A few hundred guests (and Emmy voters) got a sneak preview of the last episode and some face time with the stars, writers and directors (including director Matt Bomer, far right) but unfortunately no Ryan Murphy.
Multiple media outlets tried to pry a St. Patrick’s Day-hued Judith Light for commentary on her other series, Amazon’s “Transparent.” The accusations against Jeffrey Tambor and his subsequent exit scrambled the show’s future, but Light is a pro and shut down all inquiries. “We’re here to talk about ‘Versace,’” she said repeatedly. Also Read: ‘American Crime Story’: Yes, Marilyn Miglin Still Sells Perfume
The “Versace” line snaked down Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood and extended to the corner of Fairfax. There were still about 75 people waiting helplessly in a standby line 20 minutes after the show had already started … that’s a good sign, showing that industry fans couldn’t wait two more days for their “Versace” fix.
“I’m not playing a killer. I’m playing a person,” lead actor Darren Criss, who plays serial killer Andrew Cunanan, said. “Once you enter it from that portal, it’s a little easier to understand.” We have a hunch we’ll be seeing a lot Criss over this Emmy season. It’s indisputably his show, even if he claimed a subordinate position in the group photo at the top of this gallery.
Could the series net FX a costume design Emmy nomination? Sure. Some of the memorable threads from this season graced the DGA lobby. There is also a new costume category this year: “Outstanding Period Costumes.” Ryan Murphy’s prior series, “The People v. O.J. Simpson” got a nomination and “America Horror Story: Freak Show” won a prior iteration of this category.
“I just came back from France and people were crazy about [the show],” Edgar Ramirez (left, who played Versace) told The Party Report. When not on stage, Ricky Martin introduced himself to other actors who he didn’t share scenes with. The season finale airs Wednesday night on FX.
Don’t be diverted by the sleek clothes, vibrant colors or transformative work of its lead actors — the crown jewel in the medusa head of “American Crime Story: Versace” is necomer Cody Fern.
From a small mining town in Australia, with only one prior credit to his name, Fern plays the little-known David Madson — a pawn in the game of serial killer Andrew Cunanan, who famously gunned down designer Gianni Versace in Miami in 1997.
That Fern would stand out with his famous costars Penelope Cruz, Edgar Ramirez and Darren Criss is as unlikely as it is exhilarating. His performance as Madson is the show’s true revelation, despite the halo Ramirez brings Gianni, the quiet dignity Cruz affords Donatella and the textured madness Criss gives us as Cunanan.
Let us explain. (Warning: Do not read ahead if you aren’t caught up on the show.)
“Versace,” produced by Ryan Murphy and his “People v. O.J.” team of Brad Simpson and Nina Jacobson, shows Cunanan’s five-person murder spree in reverse. It hooks you with the spectacle and tragedy of Versace being gunned down on the marble steps of his palazzo and walks you back through Cunanan’s horrible journey to that moment.
On this timeline, we meet his victims and friends Madson and Jeff Trail (Finn Wittrock). At the top of the fourth episode, we witness Fern’s big moment: Cunanan violently bashes Trail in the skull and face 28 times with a hammer.
The violence is implicit and the camera doesn’t show the murder, just a slow push on Fern. He conveys abject horror and shock at the act unfolding in front of him. Only after the screams and grunts are through do we see a blood-soaked Cunanan, who immediately retreats into the arms of the terrified Fern, looking for approval.
Madson had a dog, and the animal used in the scene had such a strong reaction that the actors had to do a second take, Jacobson told TheWrap.
“The intensity of that murder was present there at the shoot,” she said. “What’s so great about Cody’s performance is that the horror of the murder is playing out across him.”
After the murder, Cunanan seizes on the violence and confusion to make Madson feel complicit. He pulls him into the shower and washes the blood from them both. He watches as Madson dresses and struggles to find an appropriate response to the crime he’s just witnessed.
Cunanan promises no one else will get hurt if Madson flees the scene with him, so the men set off together on a morbid little road trip. Here they both begin to weigh the consequences of their choices.
“We watched a lot of road movies from the 1990s, there was this trend of road movies. ‘Natural Born Kilers,’ ‘Wild at Heart,’ ‘Thelma and Louise.’ [Episode writer] Tom Rob Smith watched those, and we talked about this being a twisted version of that,” Simpson told TheWrap.
Indeed, Cunanan joyously belts out Technotronic’s “Pump Up The Jam” while Madson stares off into the distance, drudging up his internalized shame over being gay, and wondering how news of the crime will hurt his family, which struggled with his coming out, years before.
“The question becomes, ‘How redeemable is Andrew and how redeemable am I?” Fern said of the episode, speaking from the set of his new gig on “House of Cards.” “How complicit am I in the death of this other person, my best friend? Could I run now if I wanted to?”
To prepare for the episode, Fern said he read the famous testimony of Manson Family member Linda Kasabian, a key witness in the defense of the Tate-LaBianca murders.
“You got the sense that the light went out behind her eyes, ” Fern said.
The episode reaches a second crescendo when the fugitives stop at a roadside bar. Fern’s Madson keeps reaching the end of his emotional rope, only to find more rope. A lounge lizard (played by indie goddess Amie Mann in a stealth cameo) sings an impossibly sad cover of The Cars song’ “Drive.”
Madson escapes to the bathroom, where he breaks the glass of a small rectangular window above the toilet — “Maybe he fits through it, maybe he doesn’t,” Jacobson said.
Back in the bar, reality rushes to Cunanan and tears stream down his face.
When he looks up, Madson has returned to the table. The sweater he wrapped around his fist to punch the window is now tied on his waist.
“The shame, it’s something we wanted to explore in this entire season. Think about Versace. He came out before Ellen, and there were so few role models and people you could look up to. There was so much internalized homophobia, it’s so present with both of those characters, both Madson and Jeff,” Jacobson said.
“It’s more than the murder for Madson. It’s ‘People know you’re guilty for being gay, and guilty of being gay.’ That Cunanan plays on that is so disturbing,” Simpson said.
Tom Rob Smith’s teleplay for the episode is titled “House by the Lake.” That’s where the episode ends, and we won’t spoil what fate awaits the men there.
“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” posted FX’s top limited series premiere in the key 18-49 demographic since “Legion.”
The latest installment of the anthology show drew 1.5 million viewers in that age range and 5.5 million overall when it debuted on Jan. 17. Both Nielsen numbers include three days-worth of delayed viewing.
For reference, the Dan Stevens-led sci-fi series pulled in 1.8 million viewers in the key demo when it hit the network last February.
The night of the premiere, “Versace” came in as the No. 1 show on basic cable in both the key demo and total viewers. These ratings put the Ryan Murphy series at No. 4 in ranked cable series premieres in the 18-49 demo since last January and No. 7 among all cable series premieres since 2016 in that group.
The drama centers around the story of legendary fashion designer Gianni Versace’s (Edgar Ramirez) murder at the hands of serial killer Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), with both the aftermath and events leading up to the assassination included in the tale. The story plays out in reverse chronological order.
All Nielsen numbers cited are based on three days of delayed viewing.
FX threw a premiere for “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” as lavish and opulent as the Versace mansion on Ocean Drive in South Beach.
Over 1,200 guests filled the Arclight Dome (and a spillover second theatre) in Hollywood on a rainy Monday night (Jan. 8) for a screening of the first episode just hours after the last Golden Globes parties wound down.
Planting a premiere on the night after a major awards show is risky business.
However, with key industry stakeholders staying in town for the Critics’ Choice Awards on Thursday and the Television Critics Association Winter Tour in full swing, all the key talent and pieces fell in to place …except one, who had to be hoisted. At the after party, a glitter skinned “Mer-Man” (top) was carried in to place on a fashion runway by two bathing suit models.
Creator Ryan Murphy’s home studio had a gaggle of models pantomiming “1990’s Miami” in poolside vignettes and a nymph rolled down the catwalk in a transparent orb. The runway-as-centerpiece underlined Versace’s prime medium, fashion, something that takes a backseat to the sensationalism surrounding the events in the first episode.
For comparison, the last time I was inside the Arclight Dome for a premiere of any kind, it was for Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight.” That event movie “only” filled the Dome theatre on its own and shuffled guests off to a more quaint party footprint. That wasn’t the vibe here.
“This is something I’ve been waiting my whole life to say,” creator Ryan Murphy told the crowd while he introduced the cast one-by-one. “In 2009, I met Penelope Cruz on a yacht in Bali next to Julia Roberts, and (Cruz) gave me ginger ale so I wouldn’t throw up.”
There is nothing unsteady about how Dana Walden, Fox Television Group CEO/Chairman, feels about the upcoming series.
“Ryan and I play this game when he sends me a cut or a script,” Walden said in her remarks. “He says, ‘Well, what number would you give it on a scale of one to ten?’ Ryan’s on a quest for greatness and he doesn’t settle for less. For me tonight’s premiere is a twelve.”
The show is a follow up season to “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” which set off weekly “fact check” coverage, thrust Marcia Clark back in to the national spotlight, and earned rave reviews for Sarah Paulson, Sterling K. Brown, and Courtney B. Vance on its way to nine Emmy wins.
This new season arrives without unanimous support. Earlier on the day of the premiere, the Versace family came out swinging. They called the series “a work of fiction”.
Neither Murphy, nor Walden, FX CEO John Landgraf, or EVP of Communicaitons John Solberg addressed the controversy in their remarks at the screening, though it has been acknowledged.
The studio is marketing the series with a double qualifier: “inspired by actual events”. The qualifiers “inspired by” and “actual events” are legal shields further down the spectrum than a more precarious billing, such as a “true story.” They also put out a statement that they stand by author Maureen Orth’s reporting on her book “Vulgar Favors,” which serves as the source material for the series.
Based on the enthusiasm for this on both sides of the camera and the corporate muscle leaning in to this, any controversy should only fan further interest in this next chapter of ’90s media storm nostalgia. Much like the opening moments of the show, it’s going to (spoiler alert), go off with a bang.
American Crime Story’s season two, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace”premieres on FX on Wednesday, January 17, at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
“American Crime Story” fans can’t wait for “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” to start — though they’ll have to wait until it ends for the actual beginning of the story. We’ll explain.
The new season of anthology series “ACS” plays out in reverse chronological order, a decision that the producers were asked about Friday at the Television Critics Association press tour.
“This case is famous because of the murder of Versace,” executive producer and writer Tom Rob Smith explained. “The story-telling has to relate to the story itself.”
And that particular high-profile murder took place at the very end of Andrew Cunanan’s (Darren Criss) three-month streak of bloodshed back in 1997. Cunanan had killed at least four others before taking Versace’s life, and then ultimately his own.
As “fascinating” as Andrew’s own background might be, Smith continued, the audience “wouldn’t understand the context” had the show started there. After all, the average TV viewers probably wouldn’t know any of the earlier victims.
“We had to go backwards starting with what people know and then move into what they didn’t know,” he said.
Makes sense. Smith then pulled out a parallel between his back-to-front device and the real-life horror Cunanan created.
“[Andrew] understood that if he hadn’t have killed Versace … no attention would have came to this at all, it would have disappeared,” Smith said of the serial killer.
ACS news 