Hollywood Week: Paramount-WBD, CBS-Bari Weiss, Nick Reiner, Gene Shalit, David Hockney

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Category: Entertainment News

Published on Saturday, 13 June 2026 10:10

Written by Janet Walker

The Paramount-Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery deal received the greenlight from the Justice Department this week, paving the way for the $110 billion merger that is expected to reshape the studio landscape and create the largest Hollywood studio.

Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery Deal Approved by Justice

Anti-Trust regulators greenlit the Paramount-Skydance Warner Bros Discovery deal this week, issuing a statement indicating they foresee no issues with the merger of one of the oldest Hollywood studios, with the new Paramount-Skydance corporation.

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"In a statement, the Justice Department said it had concluded its eight-month investigation and found that the deal was unlikely to harm consumers because of corporate combination in streaming, linear television and content production," The Washington Post reported.

Even as David Ellison, the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, is experiencing challenges with his decisions to promote unqualified friends to positions of authority diminishing the value of the brand, the expectation is that the merger, which will combine the Paramount-WBD assets including broadcast news conglomerates CNN and the struggling CBS, the vast film libraries and franchises of Paramount and Warner Bros, as well as streaming channels, HBO and HBO MAX which will be absorbed into Paramount Plus streaming.

Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav, put the struggling studio up for sale early December 2026, which initiated an initial sale to Netflix for only the film division and assets, Ellison continued his effort through a series of hostile bids, and court challenges until Netflix refused to up the ante. Ellison effort to secure the entirety of the WBD company upped the stock prices to $27 per share and the deal, moved forward.

While the deal has moved quickly through the Trump Administration's Justice Department, as one would expect, due to the close personal friendship between the Ellison's and Trump, the merger has not yet cleared every hurdle.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that his office is reviewing the merger, and the deal is not complete. Other dissenters of the deal have indicated there will be legal challenges, and the British and EU governments has also announced they would be reviewing the merger and invoke antitrust issues.

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Nick Reiner Seeks Trust Fund

Nick Reiner, 32, the son and accused murderer of his parents Rob Reiner, 70, and Michelle Singer Reiner, 70, has petitioned the Los Angeles County Court to access his trust fund established by his deceased parents to fund his legal defense.

Immediately after his arrest, on December 14, 2026, Reiner retained high profile criminal defense attorney, Alan Jackson, who is known as one of the nation's most sought after criminal defense attorneys and has represented Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein. Jackson subsequently withdrew from the case, amid unknown speculation, although he did issue one statement stating, "Pursuant to the laws of this state, Nick Reiner is not guilty."

Jackson recently revealed the verbal confirmations he received from the Reiner siblings of payment from Nick's irrevocable trust fund did not materialize as the reason for his withdraw from representation.

Jackson has supported Reiner's petition to access funds that were scheduled to be paid out two years ago, on Reiner's 30th birthday.

"In a declaration supporting Nick's petition, Jackson writes, "Mr. Reiner's siblings participated in communications concerning the representation and agreed verbally to act as third-party payors for Mr. Reiner's defense. The family representative and family members assured me that the retainer agreement would be promptly returned and that the agreed-upon funds would be promptly paid." The attorney adds, "My decision to proceed was based on my understanding that Mr. Reiner had retained my firm and that the agreed-upon fee would be funded by third-party payors," People.com reported.

Reiner was arrested hours after his parents were discovered deceased in their Brentwood home.

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Gene Shalit, Beloved Film Critic, Dies

Gene Shalit, the long-time film critic for NBC's Today Show, known for his puffy, curly, black hair and oversized bushy moustache, and puns in delivery, died this week. He was 100.

Shalit, who worked for the network for forty years, holds the record for longevity, especially in broadcast medium, where ratings often dictate the value of the on-air talent. Shalit, who was also known for his lampooning of some of Hollywood's favorite directors and actors, managed to keep his gig even as the "Today Show" team continued to evolve.

In addition to film reviews, Shalit also served as a celebrity interviewer. During his heyday, he was also mimicked by Jim Henson's Muppet's who turned Bert, into a Shalit's twin, played himself in films, served on game show panels, and was lampooned on NBC's Saturday Night Live.

"During Mr. Shalit's 40 years with "Today," anchors came and went, the mix of news and entertainment changed, and the show grew from two hours to four. Mr. Shalit became an emblem of lively constancy amid shifting lineups, delivering ample helpings of Borscht Belt humor to sleepy viewers and serving as a harmonizing presence on a show known for backstage rivalries," The Washington Post reported.

Throughout his career, his appearance drew many a comment, and during his interview with Sophia Loren, the iconic Italian actress couldn't resist running her fingers through his hair. Photographed before his death, Shalit kept his appearance the same as it had been for more than seven decades, albeit now white.

Predeceased by his wife, Nancy, who died in 1978, and his daughter Emily, who died in 2012, Gene Shalit is survived by five children.

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David Hockney, Painter and Icon, Dies

David Hockney, the 20th century British artist and gay cultural icon, widely known for his landscape works that bridged his two loves, the California Coast and his home in Yorkshire, England, died this week. He was 88.

Hockney encompassed a visual artistic ecosystem, that included paintings, polaroids, photographs, drawings, sketching, through the use of both traditional instruments, pens, pencils, watercolors, and the modern, electronic mediums, including an iPad. He remained inquisitive and curious even in his later years, when he would witness colors or optical imagery that he, throughout his breath of work, had not seen previously.

"He went several times to a show of portraits by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres at London's National Gallery in 1999 and was greatly taken with the photographic quality of Ingres' 19th century drawings. Certain that Ingres had used something optical to achieve that quality, Hockney bought himself a camera lucida, a small device that works like a prism. He then applied Ingres' methods — as Hockney imagined them — to his own portraits of friends and family, and in 2001 he published "Secret Knowledge," exploring his theories on early artistic uses of optical devices," The Los Angeles Times reported.

Born in 1937, in Yorkshire, England, Hockney moved to California in the 1960s, where the culture and lifestyle was better suited for him. His fascination and passion for the Hollywood Hills, Mulholland Drive, and Malibu, was more than a passing fling, as he lived and rented a studio for decades producing many of his famous paintings such as The Splash, (1966) and A Bigger Splash, (1967).

Finding himself inspired by landscapes he traveled to Paris, painting Le Parc des Sources, Vinchy, in 1970, a captivating landscape of two men absorbed in the beauty of nature. The small attention to details, a brush stroke of brown paint, on the back of the chair, depicting the faded, peeling paint, and appearance of rust, and the difference in each of the chairs, is enough to captured the attention before even absorbing the fullness of the work.

Hockney's vast collection can be seen in the Los Angeles County Museum, (LACMA), The Tate Gallery in London, The Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as well as museums around the world.

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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.