Tag Archives: Netflix

Kevin Spacey Accused of Being A Racist Along With Being A Pedophile

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A security company boss has accused Kevin Spacey of racism claiming the disgraced actor after insulting his  predominantly black employees while on the set of House of Cards. 

Earl Blue, the head of VIP Protective Services, was hired by Knight Takes King Productions to manage on-set security during season one filming of the Netflix series in 2012.

Blue said a group of black security guards were watching the trailer for the show when he heard the actor tell his personal security manager: ‘I don’t want n***ers watching my trailer.’

One of VIP Protective Services employees, supervisor Eric Lyles, 47, corroborated Blue’s allegations and claimed Spacey also refused to shake his hand or acknowledge him.

‘He (Spacey) never spoke to my security guards but he was talking to everyone else. He talked to all the police officers, laughing and joking with them,’ Blue said. 

When Blue raised concerns with set managers about Spacey, who was referred to as ‘The Powers That Be’, he was told: ‘That’s just the way he is; we’ve got to keep him happy.’ 

And despite producers allegedly telling VIP Protective Services – who have provided security services for HBO in the past –  that they were pleased with their work, their $1.1 million contract was not renewed.

Source: The Daily Mail

 

 

 

Filmmaker David France Accused Of Theft of Work, Historical Inaccuracies In Marsha Johnson Documentary

Filmmaker David France Accused Of Theft of Work, Historical Inaccuracies In Marsha Johnson Documentary

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Filmaker David France Accused Of Theft of Work, Historical Inaccuracies In Marsha Johnson Documentary

 

David France  reporter,  author and documentary filmmaker best known for his book and ACT UP/TAG documentary How To Survive A Plague is facing accusations of theft and historical misrepresentation in his latest NETFLIX release The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson.

Transgender activist, filmmaker, and writer Reina Gossett has accused France of stealing work from her to create his investigative documentary saying that France saw a grant application video she made about Johnson, decided he would make the movie, then erased her work from public records and used it himself.

This week, while I’m borrowing money to pay rent, David France is releasing his multimillion dollar Netflix deal on Marsha P. Johnson,” Gossett wrote on Instagram. “I’m still lost in the music trying to #pay_it_no_mind and reeling on how this movie came to be and make so much $ off of our lives and ideas.

David got inspired to make this film from a grant application video that @sashawortzel and I made and sent to Kalamazoo/Arcus Foundation social justice center while he was visiting. He told the people who worked there — I sh/*t you not — that he should be the one to do this film, got a grant from Sundance/Arcus using my language and research about STAR, got Vimeo to remove my video of Sylvia’s critical ‘y’all better quiet down’ speech, ripped off decades of my archival research that I experienced so much violence to get, had his staff call Sasha up at work to get our contacts, then hired my and Sasha’s ADVISOR to our Marsha film Kimberly Reed to be his producer.

France responded to Gossett and Mock on Twitter, saying he had a long friendship with Johnson, and claiming that he’d cleared the matter with Gossett before proceeding with the film. He also added that he supported Reina ‘s work. 

 

 

After viewing The Life and Death of Marsha P. Johnson and as an LGBT historian who knew both Marsha and Sylvia Rivera who is also featured in film another disturbing problem is France’s insistence to leave out certain key points of Marsha’s life which could have attributed to her  possible murder. including: Johnsons diagnosis as schizophrenia and on-going mental problems, details of her family situation and home life, her HIV status, and also her hospitalizations and arrests for prostitution and theft, thus sanitizing his piece and Marsha herself.

 

 

Marsha Johnson was a unique person. She was also a human being and had human problems and that is where France’s work misses the mark. It is not so much about the life of Johnson because so much is left out.  TDALMPJ really more the story of  Victoria Cruz from the New York Anti-Violence Project and her research of looking into Marsha’s death with an extrodinate amount of  screen time given to the late Sylvia Rivera using footage that much of which was not vetted for accuracy.

Do I believe that Marsha P. Johnson was murdered?  Yes I do.  But with the amount of information purposely left out of France’s work I cannot come to the conclusion that his film comes to and if it was included it would shatter the narrative that he in a sense manipulated to achieve.

Marsha P. Johnson was an extraordinary person with a heat of gold who fought for all of the LGBT community’s civil rights.  And while the archive footage in question is without a doubt fascinating and in my opinion the best part of this piece of work.  

 

28 Barbary Lane Lives: Netflix Developing New Installment of ‘Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City’

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Netflix is developing a new installment of “Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City” with Working Title Television U.S. Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis are on board to revive the characters they played in Showtime and PBS adaptations of the landmark LGBT-themed novel series in the 1990s.

As I am sure you all remember, and if you don’t you have a lot of reading to do.  “Tales” focuses on the residents of a boarding house at 28 Barbary Lane run by Anna Madrigal, played by Dukakis. The Netflix series would focusing on Linney’s Mary Ann Singleton character as she returns to San Francisco and the boarding house after 25 years away and most probably would be following the story-lines of the eighth book in the series,  Mary Ann in Autumn (2010)

Twenty years have passed since Mary Ann Singleton left her husband and child in San Francisco to pursue her dream of a television career in New York. Now, a pair of personal calamities has driven her back to the city of her youth and into the arms of her oldest friend, Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, a gay gardener happily ensconced with his much-younger husband.

Mary Ann finds temporary refuge in the couple’s backyard cottage, where, at the unnerving age of 57, she licks her wounds and takes stock of her mistakes. Soon, with the help of Facebook and a few old friends, she begins to reengage with life, only to confront fresh terrors when her speckled past comes back to haunt her in a way she could never have imagined.

Michael Cunningham (“The Hours”) has penned the first script for what is envisioned as a 10-part installment, although the project does not yet have a series order from Netflix. Maupin would return as an executive producer, and Alan Poul is on board to direct. 

H/T to Kenneth in the 212

 

He’s Coming! – WATCH: “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday” (2016) – Official Trailer [HD]!

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A fateful meeting with a (tall, hot, handsome and) mysterious stranger inspires Pee-wee Herman to take his first-ever holiday in this epic story of friendship and destiny. Pee-wee’s Big Holiday premieres March 18, only on Netflix.

Psssst. Tell them Large Marge sent you.

Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, and 100 Other Tech Companies Call For Full Federal LGBT Rights and Equality – Full List

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Tech Companies

 

Fed up with the the ongoing RFRA battles a coalition of over 100 major tech industry corporations including: Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin, Yahoo, Netflix, Intuit, Uber, Salesforce, Cisco Systems, and PayPal has issued a joint statement calling for full federal LGBT anti-discrimination protections.

Joint Statement from Tech Industry Leaders

The values of diversity, fairness and equality are central to our industry. These values fuel creativity and inspiration, and those in turn make the U.S. technology sector the most admired in the world today.

We believe it is critically important to speak out about proposed bills and existing laws that would put the rights of minorities at risk. The transparent and open economy of the future depends on it, and the values of this great nation are at stake.

Religious freedom, inclusion, and diversity can co-exist and everyone including LGBT people and people of faith should be protected under their states’ civil rights laws. No person should have to fear losing their job or be denied service or housing because of who they are or whom they love.

However, right now those values are being called into question in states across the country. In more than twenty states, legislatures are considering legislation that could empower individuals or businesses to discriminate against LGBT people by denying them service if it they felt it violated their religious beliefs.

To ensure no one faces discrimination and ensure everyone preserves their right to live out their faith, we call on all legislatures to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes to their civil rights laws and to explicitly forbid discrimination or denial of services to anyone.

Anything less will only serve to place barriers between people, create hurdles to creativity and inclusion, and smother the kind of open and transparent society that is necessary to create the jobs of the future. Discrimination is bad for business and that’s why we’ve taken the time to join this joint statement.

Sincerely,

Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce
Max Levchin, CEO, Affirm
Mark Pincus, Chairman, Zynga
Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO, Yelp
Jack Dorsey, CEO, Square
Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter
Logan Green, CEO, Lyft
Brian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb
Joe Gebbia, CPO, Airbnb
Nathan Blecharczyk, CTO, Airbnb
Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel
John Donahoe, CEO, Ebay
Paul Graham, CoFounder, YCombinator
Rich Barton, Chairman, Zillow Group
Chad Hurley, CEO, Mixbit
Adora Cheung, CEO, Homejoy
Phil Libin, CEO, Evernote
Trevor Traina, CEO, IfOnly
Nirav Tolia, CEO, Nextdoor
Dion Lim, CEO, NextLesson
Bret Taylor, CEO, Quip
Joe Lonsdale, Managing Partner, Formation 8
Thomas Layton, Chairman, Elance-odesk
Fabio Rosati, CEO, Elance-odesk
Dave Morin, CEO, Path
Mark Goldstein, Chairman, BackOps
Kevin Rose, CEO, North Technologies
Yves Behar, CCO, Jawbone
Padmasree Warrior, CTSO, Cisco Systems
Tony Conrad, CEO, about.me
Sunil Paul, CEO, Sidecar
Michael Moritz, Chairman, Sequoia Capital
Dan Schulman, President, PayPal
Devin Wenig, President, eBay Marketplaces
Robert Hohman, CEO, Glassdoor
Laurene Powell Jobs, Founder and Chair, Emerson Collective
Mohan Warrior, CEO, Alphalight
David Spector, CEO, ThirdLove
Shervin Pishevar, CoFounder, Sherpa Ventures
David Karp, CEO, Tumblr
Reid Hoffman, Chairman, Linkedin
Kevin Ryan, Chairman, Gilt
Michael Birch, CoFounder, Bebo
Hosain Rahman, CEO, Jawbone
John Zimmer, President, Lyft
Bill Ready, CEO, Braintree
Jon Oringer, CEO, Shutterstock Images
Drew Houston, CEO, Dropbox
Bijan Sabet,  General Partner, Spark Capital
Douglas Merrill, CEO, ZestFinance
Tom Sheahan, CEO, RedOxygen
Brian Samelson, CEO, eMaint.com
Daniel Lurie, CEO, Tipping Point Community
Aaron Levie, CEO, Box
Jeff Weiner, CEO, Linkedin
Gary Moore, President & COO, Cisco
Travis Katz, CEO, Gogobot
Joe Davis, CEO, Webtrends
Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft
Brad Smith, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Microsoft
Josh Kopelman, Partner, First Round Capital
Rob Glaser, CEO, Realnetworks
Jason Goldberg, CEO, hem
Evan Reece, CEO, Liftopia
Dave Gilboa, CoFounder, Warby Parker
Neil Blumenthal, CoFounder, Warby Parker
Sean Parker, Chairman, Airtime
Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix     
Charles Phillips, CEO, Infor
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, CEO, Joyus.com
Michael Brown, President & CEO, Symantec
Sarah Leary, CoFounder, Nextdoor
Katie Stanton, VP, Twitter
Karen Appleton, Founder, Box.org
Brit Morin, CEO, Brit + Co
Susan Wojcicki, CEO, Youtube
Melody McCloskey, Founder, StyleSeat
Brandee Barker, Co-Founder & Partner, The Pramana Collective
Greg Tseng, CEO, if(we)
David Tisch, Chairman, Boxgroup
Kristen Koh Goldstein, CEO, BackOps
Jessica Herrin, CEO, Stella & Dot
Brian O’Kelley, CEO, AppNexus
Jeff Lawson, CEO, Twilio
Steven R. Boal, CEO, Coupons.com
Gary Shapiro, CEO, Consumer Electronics Association
Kim Jabal, CFO, Path
Ryan Holmes, CEO, Hootsuite
Alison Pincus. Co-Founder, One Kings Lane
Jeremy Liew, Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Larry Page, President, Google
Eric Schmidt, Chairman, Google
Travis Kalanick, CEO, Uber Technologies
Brad Smith, CEO, Intuit
Mike Huang, CEO, Glow
Aileen Lee, Founder, Cowboy Ventures
Kristen Koh Goldstein, CEO, Scalus
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook
Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook
Chris Nicholas, President, Asymmetrica Labs
Ken Brownfield, CTO, Asymmetrica Labs
Stacy Brown-Philpot, COO, TaskRabbit
Nick Woodman, CEO of GoPro
Tony Bates, President of GoPro
Jack Lazar, CFO of GoPro
Tracy DiNunzio, CEO, Tradesy
John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco
Lorna Borenstein, CEO, Grokker.com
Michelle Peluso, CEO, Gilt
Ben Silbermann, CEO Pinterest
Lloyd Carney, CEO, Brocade
Irakly George Arison, CEO, Shift Technologies Inc.
Evan Goldberg, CTO,  Netsuite
Zach Nelson, CEO, Netsuite
David Hassell, CEO, 15Five
Brian McAndrews, CEO, Pandora Media
Jared Fliesler, General Partner, Matrix Partners
Joshua Kushner, Founder, Thrive Capital
Marissa Mayer, CEO, Yahoo!
Bracken P. Darrell, CEO, Logitech

Netflix To Produce Wachowskis’ New Sci-Fi Series, Sense8 – Will Include LGBT Characters

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Sense8 creators

After a very long wait details about Lana and Andy Wachowski’s  original Sci-Fi series project with Netflix have finally been revealed.

Titled Sense8, the series will run a 10-episode story arch that follows eight people who are linked by a violent vision. Although the characters are located all over the world, they share images of both the benevolent Jonas and the villainous Mr. Whispers.

Sense8 will begin filming in June, with shooting locations including theUnited Kingdom, Seoul, Mumbai, Nairobi, and Berlin to Mexico City, San Francisco, and Chicago.  The Wachowski’s have also released that two of the main characters of the series will include a “closeted telenovela hunk” and a transgender blogger.

Other episodes will focus on a thief from Germany, an Icelandic party girl, a Korean executive, and an African bus driver.

Veteran science fiction writer J. Michael Straczynski, who was responsible for 1990s  sci-fi tv cult series Babylon 5 a will serve as Sense8′s show runner

Source: TVLine.com.

After Loss Of Customers Netflix CEO Apologizes and Announces DVD By Mail – Streaming Web Site Split – Signals It’s Own Death Knell

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From my email box:

Dear Will:

I messed up. I owe you an explanation.

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we are doing.

For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn’t make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us). So we moved quickly into streaming, but I should have personally given you a full explanation of why we are splitting the services and thereby increasing prices. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do.

So here is what we are doing and why.

Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD. DVD is a great option for those who want the huge and comprehensive selection of movies.

I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail. We need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolves, without maintaining compatibility with our DVD by mail service.

So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures, that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently.

It’s hard to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”. We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for streaming.

Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies. One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, but now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements will follow. A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated.

There are no pricing changes (we’re done with that!). If you subscribe to both services you will have two entries on your credit card statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix. The total will be the same as your current charges. We will let you know in a few weeks when the Qwikster.com website is up and ready.

For me the Netflix red envelope has always been a source of joy. The new envelope is still that lovely red, but now it will have a Qwikster logo. I know that logo will grow on me over time, but still, it is hard. I imagine it will be similar for many of you.

I want to acknowledge and thank you for sticking with us, and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly.

Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions.

Respectfully yours,

-Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO, Netflix

So now after they’ve raised prices there will be 2 sites.  Quixster for DVD rentals and the old Netfliz site for streaming

As for the streaming side of Netflix its hardly worth it anymore due to the lack of decent streaming movies and new releases they make available and with Netflix losing Starz, arguably its most important streaming video partner expect Netflix to lose more customers in the near future.

Blockbuster online is looking better and better each day.