THR Investigates
Irish “Heiress” Who Conned Reality TV Producer Extradited to Northern Ireland
Marianne Smyth, the American whose elaborate con of a reality television producer was the subject of a 2020 Hollywood Reporter story, has been extradited to Northern Ireland to face trial over a separate alleged scam she ran there. Smyth was extradited on Tuesday, according to statements from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Police […]
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The 9/11 Documentary You’ll Never See
The person sitting on a bed and being interviewed for a documentary is clearly in distress, tears welling. “Can we take a break for a second?” Delaney Colaio, 18, asks the co-directors of We Go Higher, a documentary about the life experiences of “9/11 Kids,” people with parents murdered in the 2001 terrorist attacks. Someone […]
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Murder in Paradise: The Killing of a VFX Legend
Deep in the lush mountains of the Caribbean island of Dominica, amid stands of lemongrass, giant ferns and palms, three roads converge where two lives ended, violently. A few weeks before Christmas, the bodies of Daniel Langlois, a French-Canadian philanthropist and Hollywood animation centi-millionaire, and his partner, Dominique Marchand, were found at that spot, in […]
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Irish “Heiress” Who Conned Reality TV Producer Arrested Again
Marianne Smyth, an American woman who conned a reality producer and allegedly several other figures in and around Hollywood between 2013 and 2017, has been arrested in Maine as Northern Ireland seeks to extradite her to face charges. Smyth — whose colorful theft from American Ninja Warrior and Shark Tank producer Johnathan Walton as she […]
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Scandal in Oz: Was “Over the Rainbow” Plagiarized?
Norwegian pianist Rune Alver carefully unfolded the brittle sheet music and began caressing the keys of the baby grand. He had found the classical piece buried in an archive and believed it hadn’t been heard in maybe a century. But as he delved into the second section, Cantando, he felt a shiver run down his […]
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Wall Street’s War on Soho House
When, in a Feb. 7 report, short-sellers eviscerated Soho House — pronouncing it “a zero,” prophesying it would “meet the same fate” as notorious IPO flameout WeWork — the company’s crisis of cool had already been years in the making. The publicly listed private members club, a seeming oxymoron bearing the sticker symbol SHCO, has for […]
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Does LACMA Have a Looted Art Problem?
Michael Phillips — producer of The Sting, Taxi Driver and Close Encounters of the Third Kind — learned in early January 2023 that a Buddha sculpture he owned was plundered. An anonymous online activist collective, Lost Arts of Nepal, had publicized a previously published photo of the object, residing on a low glass table in […]
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Is the Embattled Young ‘Rust’ Armorer Getting a Fair Shot?
On Oct. 21, 2021, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, then 24, arrived at the Bonanza Creek Ranch just south of Santa Fe, New Mexico, an hour or so before sunrise and reported to her job as the armorer and props assistant on the set of the low-budget indie Western Rust. She took a COVID test, swung by the catering […]
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Inside the Hidden Poverty Crisis at Universal Studios
Evelyn Arceo works 40-plus hours each week at Universal Studios Hollywood. During her overnight shifts, she prepares the pink-iced Simpsons donuts found in Springfield and the apple pies served at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The single mother, an eight-year veteran of the park, earns $19 an hour. She’s been struggling to pay rent […]
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Train Wreck? A Mogul’s Battle Against The Bel-Air Subway
Fred Rosen doesn’t mind if people consider him a villain. He made that clear during his fortune-making run at Ticketmaster, which he turned into a polarizing behemoth. “I was running ‘the evil empire’? I was running a business. You know who liked me? My clients. Did I love being called an asshole? Not particularly. Could […]
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The Golden Bachelor’s Not-So-Golden Past
[Editor’s Note: On April 12, around three months after ABC’s Golden Wedding, Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist announced they are getting a divorce. Read that story here.] By sharp contrast to the young cads with sixpack abs previously populating the hot tubs on ABC’s The Bachelor, Gerry Turner, the handsome, 72-year-old star of The Golden Bachelor spinoff, brought fresh […]
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John Amos and a Family at War With Itself
In July, TV legend John Amos’ 53-year-old son, K.C., ended up in a New Jersey jail after his 57-year-old daughter, Shannon, claimed that K.C. had sent her “terroristic” threats over text message that made her believe that her life was in danger, according to a police report. These included a photo of a rifle with […]
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