Hollywood Week: Shari Redstone, Paramount/Skydance Deal, 60 Minutes/Trump, Disney, Buffet Estate

Details

Category: Entertainment News

Published on Saturday, 07 June 2025 11:55

Written by Janet Walker

Paramount owner Shari Redstone,71, revealed she is currently undergoing treatment for Thyroid cancer after a spring diagnosis detected a tumor. While the growth has been removed, Redstone indicated the cancer had spread and she is receiving radiation treatments.

As news of her medical issues surfaced, various media outlets indicated that Redstone kept the cancer diagnosis quiet, only telling a family, and a few close associates of the development.

Hollywood Week: Tribeca Film Festival, Kevin Costner, Taylor Swift, AMA, Sean Combs Trial, Loretta Swit

Paramount Skydance Deal

With the Paramount/Skydance deal bogged down in Federal Communications Commission, rumors that the multi-billion acquisition is teetering on the edge of collapse has begun to surface, through no fault of Ms. Redstone nor David Ellison, son of Oracle founder, Larry Ellison.

The festering thorn in the side of the deal is a lawsuit filed by President Trump over an interview with the democratic challenger Kamala Harris, in which he has alleged he was poorly portrayed, and filed a lawsuit against 60 Minutes, the long running news talk program, and its parent company Paramount.

"Lawyers for Paramount and Mr. Trump have been locked in settlement talks for months. While the sides have inched closer to an agreement, no settlement appears imminent, two people with knowledge of the talks said. The president has been seeking more than $25 million, and Paramount recently signaled that it would pay $15 million. The two sides are consulting regularly with a mediator," reported The New York Times.

Hollywood Week: Cannes Film Festival, Denzel Washington, Barry Diller, Billy Joel, George Wendt

60 Minutes/Trump Lawsuit

While many would see the settlement with the president as a greasing the wheels, the facts remain that Trump main tactic is the financial squeeze. While both sides want Trump out of their business dealings, no member of his cabinet will cross him. Paying the president because his feelings were hurt over deceptive edits, journalistically, is an affront. However, in the long run, payment serves several ends, including the end of the stranglehold the FCC has on the deal, and more it removes the presidents influence from any aspect of Paramount and its subsidiaries including CBS. Throwing money at the problem usually works. It should work this time also.

The Trump/60 Minutes stand off is not the first time the news program coverage has draw the attention of Ms. Redstone, who has been vocal over various segments including the recent segment dealing with the desperation of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

The turmoil at CBS was not simply due to the lawsuit and the coverage of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an undercurrent of news bias had been brewing for some time and affecting the entire news division. Since then, the former president of CBS news, Wendy McMahon has resigned and according to George Cheeks, the co-CEO of Paramount Global and president and CEO of CBS, no replacement has been named. Bill Owens, the long running Executive Producer for 60 Minutes also stepped down, after 37 years, and explained his decision was based solely on restraints placed on him.

Even as Ms. Redstone navigates the challenges of her medical condition, the show, as it were, must go on, and with the $8 billion dollar acquisition, lingering, managing the hurdles to the completion are of paramount importance.

Hollywood Week: Paramount Takes a Knee, 60 Minutes, Virginia Giuffre, Sophie Nyweide

Disney Continues its Restructuring

The Walt Disney continued with its restructuring efforts, releasing another 200 employees this week, as the company continues its track to reduce its global workforce by 7,000. With the changes in the consumption of programming, the streamlining hit the television division particularly hard, with the majority of the lay-offs coming in film and television marketing, publicity, casting and departments once critical to television programming.

""We continually evaluate ways to invest in our businesses and more effectively manage our resources and costs to fuel the state-of-the-art creativity and innovation that consumers value and expect from Disney," a rep for the company stated in September. "As part of this ongoing optimization work, we have been reviewing the cost structure for our corporate-level functions and have determined there are ways for them to operate more efficiently," reported The Hollywood Reporter.

Janet Walker, Screenwriter, Novelist, and Publisher of Haute-Lifestyle.com, Featured in ELLE Magazine

Jimmy Buffett Estate in Turmoil

A storm is brewing in Margaritaville, as Jane Buffett, the wife of singer and entrepreneur Jimmy Buffett, has filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior court to have the co-trustee, account Richard Mozenter, replaced.

Her husbands $275 million estate is not earning the dividends it should and while not accusing the account of fraud, Ms. Buffett is not satisfied with the manner in which he is handling the trust.

"As a result, the majority of Mrs. Buffett's net worth is controlled by someone she does not trust, and to whom the trust for her benefit must pay enormous fees — more than $1.7 million in 2024 to him and his firm — no matter how badly he treats her," the petition said," reported The New York Times.

Mr. Mozenter also filed a petition, allegedly Ms. Buffett in unfit and lacks the ability to manage her own finances, indicating Mr. Buffett expressly set up the trust in this manner to ensure Ms. Buffett would be financially solvent. However, according to sources, Ms. Buffett is unable to receive any information on the estate's activity.

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 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 is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a former member of the International Federation of Journalists.