Hollywood

The 2025 iteration of Superman is worth a watch if the subject matter at all catches one’s eye. Eschewing a decade of attempts to twist the character into darkness, this reboot embraces the morality at the soul of an American icon.

Gone are the attempts at a moral middle ground or a blurring of the story in an attempt to subvert tropes. The film’s heroes are unquestionably morally good. Its villains are unquestionably depraved. In short, it represents a cinematic return to normalcy.

Netflix chief Ted Sarandos is making no secret of the fact his company is eager to use AI in “content production” because it’s faster and less expensive.

“Netflix Inc. has begun using artificial intelligence video generation software from startup Runway AI, testing the waters with a technology that’s controversial in Hollywood,” reports the far-left Bloomberg. “Sarandos said the company is using AI in content production. That includes creating special effects shots more quickly and cheaply than it previously had been able to with traditional visual effects tools and processes.”

Remember that hoary question from Philosophy 101 — If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a noise? Well, we now have a television equivalent.

CBS’s decision to end its long-running ‘Late Show’ franchise touched off a firestorm—and is a grim sign for a challenged television format

“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was profitable as recently as a few years ago.

Now, it loses about $40 million a year, according to a person familiar with its budget. On Thursday, CBS pulled the plug on the show and an entire franchise launched in 1993, making it the biggest casualty yet among late-night talk shows contending with cord-cutting, changing tastes among younger viewers and declining ad revenue.

The budget for the show, filmed in New York City’s Ed Sullivan Theater, includes a live band, a staff the host said numbered 200 people, and an annual salary of $20 million for Colbert, according to a person familiar with the show’s operations.

The Colbert show, like all late-night programming these days, was hemorrhaging money. But please, don't let that interfere with your conspiracy theory. https://t.co/R18rd2FV67

— Rod Dreher (@roddreher) July 19, 2025

Broadcast TV has now fallen to less than 20 percent of TV use, according to the latest Nielsen viewership survey.

Nielsen only started tracking all TV use on all platforms four years ago and now includes streaming and Internet-based services. But in that time, regular broadcast TV has cratered in viewership.

Two of the biggest movies this summer are Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning and F1, starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, respectively. The two movies have something interesting in common — both are star vehicles for men in their sixties. Brad Pitt will be 62 later this year, and Tom Cruise just turned 63 last week.

Pitt and Cruise aren’t exceptions, either. The biggest male movie stars are all aging. Clooney is 64 and McConaughey is 55. Ben Affleck, also out with a big action film this year, is 53 next month, and his buddy Matt Damon turns 55 later this year.

Rapper and music producer Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has been a New York City tabloid sensation for my entire adult life. His ‘King of the Players’ reputation was burnished by his public exploits, such as turning up at the 2000 Grammy Awards with then girlfriend J-Lo in a plunging green Versace dress, his involvement in a shooting at a Manhattan nightclub and pictures of his butler walking behind him carrying a parasol to shield him from the St Tropez sun. At no point have I ever thought, ‘He seems like a nice guy’.

A look at the list of guests for the various late-night TV comedy shows finds that 99 percent of them have been liberals and only one was center right.

According to a review of all the guests on the five major late-night shows, there was nearly no inclusion of center right guests. The survey was compiled by the Media Research Center and followed the guests on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.