Hollywood Week: Ted Turner, Murdoch Circles NY Mag, Met Gala, Tony Nom, Rolling Stones, American Music Awards

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Category: Entertainment News

Published on Saturday, 09 May 2026 11:02

Written by Janet Walker

Ted Turner, the media pioneer who created the 24 hours news cycle concept and turned the public's insatiable thirst for news into a billion dollar business, died this week in his home in Tallassee, Florida. He was 87.

James Murdoch in Talks with Vox Media

James Murdoch, the son of media scion Rupert Murdoch the owner of News Corp, has reportedly been in late stage talks with Vox Media to purchase New York Magazine, and the podcast assets associated with the magazine.

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The Vox Media portfolio, at one time controlled many of the upstart digitals, including BuzzFeed, Vice Media, and Recode, picking up many of the New York based digital start-ups. The portfolio continued to narrow over the years, selling or shuttering many of these assets as the digital market has stabilized from the beginning of the dot.com bubble of the early 2000s.

Media sources, including the Wall Street Journal, reported the Murdoch and his wife, Kathryn, are in late stage talks with a purchase price of $300 million.

"The acquisitions would further expand James and his wife Kathryn Murdoch's portfolio of zeitgeisty media properties. Lupa's investments include stakes in Tribeca Enterprises, which runs the Tribeca Film Festival, as well as Art Basel parent MCH Group. Kathryn Murdoch has invested in the Bulwark, a fast-growing digital news startup for people who don't support President Trump," The Wall Street Journal reported.

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Met Gala

The Met Gala, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual spring event, benefiting the museum's Art Costume Institute, rolled out the red carpet for the once a year display of audacious, over-the-top, glamorous, breathtaking and sometimes speechless exhibition by a curated guest list encompassing the world of entertainment, fashion, politics, society and business and industry.

According to the museum, The 2026 Met Gala theme was "Costume Art," which explored the relationship between fashion and the dressed body. The official dress code is "Fashion Is Art," and the invited guests celebrated the connection between the two with designs referencing art history, from sculptures to paintings.

In 2026, celebrities like Beyonce, who arrived with family, including 14 year-old-Blue Ivy and husband, rapper Jay-Z, who wore a 2.5MM diamond skeleton and headpiece. Designer Thom Browne dressed Dwayne Johnson, Olivia Wilde, Finn Wolfhard, Marcello Hernandez, Chase Infiniti, Bill Skarsgård, Lindsey Vonn, Adut Akech, Skepta and KUN. Other standouts in men's fashion, included Patrick Schwarzenegger, dressed by designer Public School and designers Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne.

Even for those who do receive an invite to one of the most exclusive events of the year, RSVPing doesn't gain entry, as tickets for this select event cost $100,000, an increase of $75,000 from 2025. The PR value is priceless, as the images circulate media throughout the world.

The 2026 event raised $42million for the Met's Art Costume Institute.

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Tony Nominations

The annual Tony nominations, for achievements in theater were announced this week, with two plays, The Lost Boys and Schmigadoon! Receiving 12 nominations each. The two are competing against each other in 11 of the 12 categories, including Best Play. Ragtime received 11 nominations.

"Ninety-six-year-old June Squibb, up for Best Featured Actress in a Play for playing aging widow Marjorie in Marjorie Prime, is the oldest 2026 nominee. Not only that, she's also the oldest Tony-nominated performer of all time! This is also her first nomination, and it's a long time coming: She made her Broadway debut in Gypsy in 1960," reported New York Theater Guide.

Ali Louis Bourzgui, at 26, is the youngest actor to be nominated for a Tony for his performance in The Lost Boys. There are 62 first time Tony nominees. Other Tony facts of the 30 eligible shows, 24 received at least one nomination.

The Tony will be held live on CBS June 7, 2026.

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The Rolling Stones Launch New Album

The Rolling Stones, led by front-man Mick Jagger, recently launched their 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues, in New York City and the first since longtime drummer, Charlie Watts passed away in August 2021.

Jagger, 82, Keith Richards, 82, Ronnie Woods, 78, and Watts recommended drummer Steve Jordan, 69, announced the album at a launch party held recently. Watts will be featured on the "Hit Me Hard," using tracks from previous recording sessions. The longtime rockers pulled in some favs as Steve Winwood, Paul McCartney, Robert Smith of The Cure, and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers collaborate on the album.

Foreign Tongues, will be released July 10, 2026.

American Music Awards

The American Music Awards are scheduled for May 25, in Las Vegas, with announced performances by Keith Urban, Hootie and The Blowfish, Katseye, Maluma, Twenty-One Pilots, Teddy Swims, Sombr, and Riley Green.

The 2026 AMAs, hosted by Queen Latifah, will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas via CBS and Paramount+ at 8 p.m. ET on Monday, May 25.

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Ted Turner, Media Pioneer, Dies

Ted Turner, the media pioneer who created the 24 hours news cycle concept and turned the public's insatiable thirst for news into a billion dollar business, died this week in his home in Tallassee, Florida, He was 87.

Turner, for many is known only for building one of the largest independent cable networks, was also a conservationist owning more than 2million protected acres of land through the United States, and in Argentina, a serial entrepreneur who bought his local sports teams to play exclusively on his networks, and a serial adulterer.  

While his business acumen is widely revered and his list of frontier breaking successes, he brazenly spoke of his infidelities and many relationships even as he remained married.

"But he was also a playboy, even through his three marriages and well into his 70s. His paramours had countless stories and grudges about his brazen infidelity, but he somehow still managed to remain friends with many of them — perhaps a testament to his famed charm," The New York Times reported.

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Raised during the time when parental rights included physical abuse and abused as a child, Turner also explained in his many biographies that he was diagnosed with Bi-polar, a mental health condition that consists of personality swings, from high-highs to low-lows. Hyper sexuality is also a benchmark of bio-polar and would account for his insatiable need for other women, even while he had relationships with many of the world's most beautiful and accomplished women.

In addition to physical abuse, Turner also suffered bullying, disparagement, ridicule and mental abuse from his father. After his father's death by suicide, Turner took over the family business, a mediocre outdoor advertising business in Atlanta, and slowly, with a feracious, almost insatiable, intensity, he began building his empire.

Turner did more than just battle against his own demons, he found against the establishment, the media establishment traditionally headquartered in New York City, Turner kept his growing cable network in Atlanta, and slowly transformed this southern city into a thriving media and business mecca.

In addition to changing the news consumption landscape forever, Turner's CNN was accused of "aiding and abetting" the enemy by Persian Gulf War General Norman Schwarzkopf, who identified, "the media" as his biggest challenge, noting that constant, live television made the war difficult to manage compared to previous conflicts and even went as far to note that D-Day invasion, if the 24 hour news cycle existed in June 1941, would not have occurred. Turner's CNN saw huge ratings during the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial, the 1986 Challenger Explosion, and the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

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Throughout his life, he was driven by an aggressive need to destroy the predictive words and determinations imposed on him from his childhood and set out to champion every endeavor. As an avid sailor, he won the America's Cup, the most prestigious award in sailing, his Atlanta Braves, once considered where National Baseball League players go to end their careers, under Turner's ownership, finally won a World Series, in 1995.

"In 1984, having landed on Forbes magazine's list of the richest people in America, Mr. Turner was speaking to Georgetown University undergraduates when he held aloft a copy of Success magazine with his picture on the cover. His voice, according to biographer Porter Bibb, trailed off into an eerie whisper, and his eyes searched somewhere above the crowd. "Is this enough?" he asked. "Is this enough for you, Dad?,'" The Washington Post reported.

Ted Turner is survived by three ex-wives, including the actress and by all accounts the love of his life, Jane Fonda, and five children.

Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five award-winning screenplays "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," a non-fiction narrative, "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," and "Songs of Freedom: A Collection of Biblical Teachings," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Authors Guild, the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.