Welcome to the premiere of ON THE LOT, a weekly newsletter about the biggest storylines in Hollywood, from red carpets to writers\u2019 rooms. Every Friday, my colleagues and I at the Universal lot in L.A., 30 Rock in New York and beyond will deliver fresh reporting and analysis \u2014 and maybe most importantly, recommendations from industry insiders on what to watch over the weekend. <\/p>\n
This is a free preview of On The Lot. To receive this newsletter, sign up for an NBC News subscription<\/a>.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s edition: Hollywood labor talks (the sequel), what to make of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni hurtling toward a very public trial, and which romance author is making a play for reality TV.<\/p>\n Got tips? (On the SAG-AFTRA contract negotiations or how to get a decent spot in line at Villas Tacos)? You can reach me at rebecca.keegan@nbcuni.com<\/a> or on Signal at thatrebecca.82.<\/p>\n Artificial intelligence, real money<\/p>\n When actors and studios arrived at the bargaining table this week to start hammering out the next SAG-AFTRA contract, a key figure in the conversation was not in the room. And she never will be. <\/p>\n AI \u201cactress\u201d Tilly Norwood<\/a> hasn\u2019t booked a major studio role or landed a top agent. But she is made of computer code, and the possibility that she or other performers like her could soon take human actors\u2019 jobs is enough of a threat that the studios and guild are discussing a proposal nicknamed the \u201cTilly tax.\u201d The idea is that if studios want to hire a synthetic performer, they\u2019ll have to pay a royalty to the union, something SAG-AFTRA\u2019s lead negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland secured in the guild\u2019s 2025 commercials contract<\/a>, its pact with advertisers.<\/p>\n The \u201cTilly tax\u201d is a sign of how quickly Hollywood has moved from treating AI as verboten (remember the uproar<\/a> over \u201cThe Brutalist\u2019s\u201d use of AI to help Adrien Brody with his Hungarian accent?) to quietly accepting it as inevitable. It\u2019s a phenomenon I started noticing this fall, when studios were willing to talk to me about their nascent AI initiatives, but only off the record. They were somehow both proud of their blossoming use of the tech \u2014 primarily to reduce costs and speed up post-production \u2014 and terrified of the blowback they might get. <\/p>\n As if Hollywood needed a reminder of how fast the tech is developing, an AI-generated fight<\/a> between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise went viral this week, generated by a new AI model from Chinese company DeepSeek<\/a>. It\u2019s already drawn heat from the Motion Picture Association<\/a>.\u201dI hate to say it. It\u2019s likely over for us,\u201d screenwriter Rhett Reese posted on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n When I spoke to \u201dNavalny\u201d director Daniel Roher (whose \u201cThe AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist\u201d comes out in March) at Sundance, he described getting sent script notes recently from a studio executive that he was certain were AI-generated. \u201cIn my head I\u2019m like, \u2018I know he\u2019s phoning it in.\u2019 And for the rest of our working relationship, he\u2019s always in that box,\u201d Roher told me. <\/p>\n Though SAG won some AI protections in the deal that ended the industry-quaking 2023 actors strike, Tilly and her Dutch creator, Eline Van der Velden, had not yet arrived on the scene. Nor had Disney\u2019s $1 billion partnership with OpenAI<\/a>, Amazon\u2019s internal AI studio<\/a>, Lionsgate\u2019s new AI officer<\/a> or the Academy\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell\u201d policy<\/a> about AI use.<\/p>\n Negotiations between the studios and the guild are expected to continue into next week amid a media blackout<\/a> that is so far holding better than in 2023. SAG\u2019s president, \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d star Sean Astin, is now in the lightning rod role Fran Drescher previously held, and labor lawyer Greg Hessinger, a former SAG leader, now the voice of the studios, replaces longtime AMPTP president and oft-mocked villain of underemployed writers, Carol Lombardini. No word on who has replaced the heart-shaped plushie that Drescher regularly brought<\/a> to the talks last time.<\/p>\n It never ends with us<\/p>\n When Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni stepped out of Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave\u2018s Manhattan courtroom after their closed door settlement hearing<\/a> Wednesday, the two actors had plenty of reasons to find a resolution to their ugly yearlong legal battle. To recap: Lively filed a December 2024 complaint against Baldoni alleging sexual harassment and retaliation on the set of their film \u201cIt Ends With Us,\u201d which Baldoni also directed. Their lawyers have been racking up billable hours ever since.<\/p>\n Consider where we are now: Lively and Baldoni\u2019s once lucrative careers are on ice. The court filings have managed to make a public spectacle out of the private communications of Taylor Swift, Matt Damon, Sony Motion Picture Group CEO Tom Rothman, WME agent Warren Zavala \u2014 among others. A key question, as NBC News legal analyst Misty Marris put it to me, is, \u201cHow much is this about money and how much is it about making a point?\u201d <\/p>\n Lively has positioned herself as speaking up for women, sexual harassment victims and whistleblowers who face reprisals. The documents and depositions unsealed in the case, however, portray Lively as someone with formidable allies, including her husband, \u201cDeadpool\u201d actor and entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds, megastar Swift and WME, one of Hollywood\u2019s top agencies. \u201cIt\u2019s hard for a lot of people to see an A-list celebrity who\u2019s friends with Taylor Swift as a victim,\u201d crisis PR expert Eleanor McManus told me. \u201cPeople see this as a powerful Hollywood couple going up against a director.\u201d<\/p>\n After investing so much of her public capital in the case, Lively may feel she has to see this through to the bitter end. That entails taking the stand, submitting to cross-examination by Baldoni\u2019s attorneys and enduring months more public scrutiny while her next film, Lionsgate\u2019s \u201cThe Survival List,\u201d and new products from her Betty Buzz beverage brand and hair-care line Blake Brown Beauty wait on the shelves. <\/p>\n Baldoni, meanwhile, is mired in multiple related cases, including a breach of contract suit filed by his former publicist, Stephanie Jones, and lawsuits he has filed against insurers for failing to cover his legal fees.<\/p>\n Neither Lively nor Baldoni spoke to the media assembled outside the courthouse after their meeting Wednesday. When Baldoni\u2019s attorney, Bryan Freedman, was asked if reaching a settlement was his goal, he replied, \u201cThe goal is to win.\u201d The trial is scheduled to begin May 18.<\/p>\n Ah, love<\/p>\n This Valentine\u2019s Day weekend expect thirsty audiences to turn out to see Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in what The Hollywood Reporter called<\/a> an \u201cunabashedly horny\u201d version of \u201cWuthering Heights.\u201d Warner Bros\u2019 publicity department has instructed me to call director Emerald Fennell\u2018s treatment of Emily Bronte\u2019s 178-year-old romance novel an \u201cinterpretation\u201d rather than an \u201cadaptation.\u201d Whatever you call it, it\u2019s gonna make them a ton of money, with an expected box office opening of more than $50 million.<\/p>\n Studios and streamers are aggressively mining the romance genre right now in ways that remind me of how they treated comic books in the early aughts, a topic I\u2019ll delve into in a piece in coming days. For that story I interviewed Lauren Levine, \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d and \u201cReminders of Him\u201d author Colleen Hoover\u2018s intrepid producer, about what she thinks is driving the boom and how long it\u2019ll last. Levine also shared one fun tidbit with me about Hoover, which may tickle her avid fan base: the romance author is currently lobbying for a spot on the Peacock reality show \u201cThe Traitors.\u201d From love to treachery. (Peacock declined to comment).<\/p>\n The hype<\/p>\n Why get your recommendations from an algorithm when you could get them from an Oscar nominee? I asked a few of this year\u2019s Academy Awards contenders what they\u2019re watching, reading and listening to. <\/p>\n \u201cZootopia 2\u201d producer Yvett Marino is listening to Bad Bunny, because \u201che is an artist who exudes the best in us. I\u2019m a proud Latina, and to see his global impact is deeply inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSinners\u201d costume designer Ruth E. Carter is reading \u201cAssata: An Autobiography\u201d by Assata Shakur and \u201cSydney Poitier: The Long Journey\u201d by Carolyn H. Ewers because \u201cthe stories affirm that legacy is built not only by what we endure, but by how we choose to stand in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTrain Dreams\u201d cinematographer Adolpho Veloso is listening to \u201cArriadin por Tu\u201d by Jo\u00e3o Gomes, \u201csome beautiful contemporary Brazilian music,\u201d and watching \u201cThe Traitors,\u201d a habit he picked up on the set of the Netflix period film, \u201cso we\u2019d have some other dramas to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n The dialogue<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I heard the news, I was like, \u2018This is gonna be the best thing that\u2019s ever happened to me.\u2019\u201d \u2014 The late actor James Van Der Beek<\/a>, speaking about his colon cancer diagnosis, in his final interview<\/a> with the \u201cTODAY\u201d show co-host Craig Melvin.<\/p>\n \u201cArtists deserve representation that aligns with their values and supports their safety and dignity\u201d \u2014 Artist Chappell Roan, announcing that she is parting ways with Casey Wasserman<\/a>\u2019s talent agency amid growing scrutiny<\/a> on the mogul\u2019s ties to convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.<\/p>\n \u201cMy theory was that we were gonna be sharks. The rest of the cast was like, \u2018No, we\u2019re gonna be frogs,\u2019 And then we just see this bush moving, and we\u2019re like, \u2018What?\u2019 And they go, \u2018Nah, you guys are gonna be trees.\u2019\u201d\u2014 Jos\u00e9 Villanueva, a Bad Bunny superfan, on what it was like to play a bush at the Super Bowl<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a wrap \u2014 see you next week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to the premiere of ON THE LOT, a weekly newsletter about the biggest storylines in Hollywood, from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-282999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}