Hollywood Week: The New Paramount, NFL/Disney Deal, Fran Drescher/SAG, Trump/LA Olympics, Kelley Mack

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Category: Entertainment News

Published on Saturday, 09 August 2025 11:46

Written by Janet Walker

With the Skydance-Paramount merger finally closed, CEO David Ellison continued to announced his board of directors this week, which included a who's who of Hollywood insiders, movers, and shakers, each with decades of industry knowledge and experience.

Paramount, a Skydance Corporation, Completes Board

David Ellison the CEO of the newly formed Paramount, a Skydance Corporation, has announced his Board of Directors which includes current and former industry executives, including former Paramount Studio Chief Sherry Lansing.

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Of the current executive structure at Paramount, the only returning will be Co-Chief Executive George Cheeks. According to The Los Angeles Times, "Cheeks becomes chairman of TV media, which includes the CBS properties and cable TV channels, including MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET. Dana Goldberg, who has worked with Ellison for nearly 15 years, will rise to co-chair of Paramount Pictures alongside Josh Greenstein, who until last week was Sony Pictures' motion pictures president. In addition to overseeing the Melrose Avenue film studio, Goldberg will run Paramount Television Studios and Nickelodeon Films. In recent years, Goldberg has served as Skydance's chief creative officer."

Begins Offloading Announcements

Ellison and team announced this week, the National Amusements, the 759 theaters owned by the Redstone family and acquired under the terms of the deal, are now on the table, as Ellison and team begin to offload real estate and other holdings, paring the giant down to Ellison's vision. The theaters are located throughout the United States, the UK and Latin America.

The movie theater chain are the first rumored real estate holdings up for sale as Ellison begins to streamline the behemoth in order to build the conglomerate into a future tech and entertainment company similar to Apple or Amazon.

With four major properties the original Paramount Studio lot, and the Santa Monica studios are expected to remain in the portfolio. The two main New York buildings, the CBS Television Black Rock broadcasting building and the Paramount Headquarters in Times Square could both soon find themselves on the table.

With the recent move by the Disney Company to relocate their local ABC affiliates and other programming from the longtime home in Lincoln Square to Hudson Yards, an area that is burgeoning with media presence, it is quite possible other will soon also make the move. Known for a more digital presence, Hudson Yards could be the new home of Skydance-Paramount production facilities. Although with an established presence at West 57th and 10th Avenue, the strategy may simply be to build around the campus, which has yet to experience the elevate pricing surge Hudson Yards has experienced.

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NFL Takes Stake in Disney's ESPN

The National Football League announced this week a deal with the Walt Disney Company to purchase a 10% stake in the Mouse House's ESPN Sports network.

"In return for the equity stake worth more than $2 billion based on recent valuations of the network, ESPN will take over the NFL's cable properties, including the NFL Network. Disney will distribute RedZone, the popular channel that continuously updates fans on the slate of Sunday contests," The Los Angeles Times reported.

Additionally, the deal allows the NFL seven regular season games and allows for cross marketing of the billion dollar sports merchandizing market and content market to EPSN from the NFL. As Disney continues to improve its relationship with ESPN, the streaming market that is transforming the living room experience, continues to push the company into an aggressive action against streaming giant Netflix, who has secured the NFL Christmas Day streaming rights for $150 million.

The sports market and streaming continues to be the hot ticket. While most networks and their streaming services are concentrating on the U.S. sports market, Netflix has also secured the FIFA soccer rights.

Who is the Next SAG President

With the infamous 2023 SAG-AFTRA negotiations barely in the rearview, the actor's union is gearing up for the upcoming 2025 elections, and the 2026 contract negotiations. SAG President Fran Drescher, who helped navigate the contentious 2023 contracts talks, has decided not to seek a third term.

The recently released candidate list indicates that actor Sean Astin and Chuck Slavin, a local New England board member, have each announced their intention to seek the position.

"Astin has previously served on five separate SAG-AFTRA negotiating committees, including the most recent contract won after a historically long, 118-day strike in 2023. He is also a member of SAG-AFTRA National and LA local boards, and a National convention delegate," Deadline reported.

The deadline for nominations has passed. A full list of candidates will be available next week with voting scheduled from August 12 to September 13, 2025.

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Trump Appoints LA Olympics Committee

President Trump, this week, signed an executive order addressing the upcoming 2028 Olympics, held in Los Angeles from July 14 to July 30, 2028, to form a committee comprised of his cabinet members who will assist in the planning, implementation, and execution of the XXXIV (34th) Olympiad and will include assistance in the planning and implementation of visa processing and credentialing programs for foreign athletes, coaches, officials, and media personnel; and ensure operational readiness across law enforcement, counterterrorism, transportation, and emergency response functions.

Both the Olympic Committee and the Trump Administration have banned transgender athletes from competing. "The United States will not let men steal trophies from women at the 2028 Olympics," Trump said.

Kelley Mack, Beloved The Walking Dead Actress, Dies

Kelley Mack, who appeared on Season nine of The Walking Dead, died this week at her home in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was 33.

"After experiencing pain last fall in her lower back and legs, Mack was diagnosed in late November with a diffuse midline glioma, a rare type of astrocytoma, a cancer that starts in the central nervous system. "Due to the biopsy surgery on my spinal cord," she said on Instagram in January, "I have lost the use of my right leg and most of my left leg, so I now get around with a walker and a wheelchair," The Los Angeles Times reported.

Mack, who played "Addy," a Hilltop Community survivor, who befriended Henry, for the entire season was killed off when she and others were returning from the Kingdom and were kidnapped by Alpha and were murdered and the Whisper's placed their reanimated heads on stakes to mark the border of their territory.

She returned to her hometown in January 2025, after the LA Fires, and began aggressive treatment. Committed to retaining some perspective she continued working and secure a voice over gig as late as April, before treatment made it increasingly difficult.

Kelley Mack died August 5, 2025. She is survived by her parents, siblings, and fans.

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

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 has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," and "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a former member of the International Federation of Journalists.