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Seth Abramovitch

Senior Writer

Seth Abramovitch is a Senior Writer at The Hollywood Reporter and the Southern California Journalism Awards’ 2022 Print Journalist of the Year. He has earned 13 Los Angeles Press Club Awards for stories like “Searching for Shelley Duvall” and “The Tragic End of Witold Zacharewicz.” He has previously written for The Atlantic, New York and Esquire.

‘It Happened in Hollywood’ Podcast: 5 Secrets of ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’ As Drag Classic Turns 30

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert premiered to a rapturous, midnight-screening reception at Cannes on May 15, 1994. The tart, feel-good comedy follows a trio of Sydney drag queens — Terrence Stamp, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce — who travel by bus (that’s Priscilla) to a gig in the Outback, finding their way […]

‘It Happened in Hollywood’ Podcast: Why Tom Cruise Photoshopped Himself Into a Picture of David Fincher and Cameron Crowe

Filmmaker Ed Zwick — whose new memoir Hits, Flops and Other Illusions has just come out — joined The Hollywood Reporter‘s It Happened in Hollywood podcast for the show’s season five premiere. Zwick has directed some of Hollywood’s biggest stars in films like 1989’s Glory (starring Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick), 1994’s Legends of […]

L.A.’s Graffiti Tower Sparks Broadside From Rick Caruso As Mayor’s Office Scrambles

It’s the 30-story elephant on the Los Angeles skyline — and seemingly no one, including Mayor Karen Bass, has decided what to do about it. The Oceanwide Plaza luxury development has stood next to Crypto.com Arena vacant and half-finished since 2019, when its Chinese developer, having already spent $1.1 billion on it, ran out of money.  […]

Is Eric Idle Broke? 5 Revelations Made by the Monty Python Co-Founder on X

To borrow a phrase from Paddy Chayefsky, Eric Idle is mad as hell, and he’s not going to take it anymore. The founding member of Monty Python, 80, has taken to X in recent days to clear the air on a number of matters regarding the legendary British troupe — whose catalog (four seasons of […]

50 Reasons We (Still) Love Hollywood

Let’s not sugarcoat it — 2023 was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year for Hollywood. For starters, obviously, there were the strikes, which for nearly five months turned backlots into ghost towns, costing the industry an estimated $6 billion in lost wages and other collateral economic damage. Then there were the layoffs, beginning […]

Devo Whips Sundance Into Shape With New Doc

There has only ever been one Devo — and there will likely never be another. The new wave band best known for their 1980 megahit “Whip It” was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1973, when two sets of brothers — Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh and Gerald and Bob Casale — met at Kent State University […]

Cheryl Hines … as First Lady? The ‘Curb’ Star on Life After Larry and Marriage to RFK Jr.

It’s Christmas at the Kennedys’, and a happy sort of chaos has upended the family home, nestled in the affluent L.A. enclave of Mandeville Canyon. Conor, 29, the heartthrob son once romantically linked to Taylor Swift, has emerged from the backyard sauna and is wandering around the house in a towel. His striking sister, Kyra, […]

Looks Like He Made It: Barry Manilow at 80

Barry Manilow is standing poolside at his Palm Springs home, a spectacular, eight-bedroom hillside villa with far-reaching views of the Coachella Valley. He’s taller than one might expect — a little over 6 feet — and rail-thin, which makes him appear even taller. Manilow is relaxed this morning, tapping one spindly leg to a tune […]

Mary Kay Letourneau’s Ex-Husband Vili Fualaau Reacts to ‘May December’: “I’m Offended”

In Todd Haynes’ May December, Natalie Portman plays Elizabeth Berry, an actress obsessively researching a married couple with a scandalous past. The similarities between the couple’s story and the Mary Kay Letourneau case — which May December screenwriter Samy Burch has cited as her inspiration — are striking. But in an ironic twist, no one […]

6 Norman Lear TV Episodes That Changed the World

TV giant Norman Lear, who died Dec. 5 at 101, leaves behind arguably the single most valuable body of work ever committed to the medium. On seminal series like All in the Family, Maude and The Jeffersons, Lear dared to tackle issues then considered unthinkable sitcom fodder — rape, abortion, homosexuality, racism, alcoholism — with a genius’ eye and ear for […]

George Santos Expulsion: Paul Rudnick, Steven Cojocaru and More Hollywood Experts Offer Post-Congress Career Advice

Disgraced ex-congressman George Santos may have been expelled from the House of Representatives on Dec. 1 by a vote of 311-114 — but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the story for the alleged serial grifter and sometimes drag queen from New York. HBO Films has already optioned The Fabulist, a book about Santos’ […]

Hollywood Rabbis Prepare for Fraught Hanukkah: “This Is the First Time I’ve Seen People Really Afraid”

The entertainment industry’s rabbis say that in the eight weeks since Oct. 7 — a horrific chapter in Jewish history encompassing Hamas’ massacre, Israel’s ensuing Gaza invasion and the worldwide response to it all — their congregations have been roiled by crises of identity and safety not experienced in America since the Holocaust. These faith […]