Film and TV crew members have reached a tentative contract deal with the major Hollywood studios after months of bargaining, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced Tuesday night.

The resolution arrived before the current contract’s expiration date, finally permitting the entertainment industry to breathe a sigh of relief in the wake of two marathon strikes waged by actors and screenwriters. IATSE’s Hollywood Basic Agreement spans three years and covers some 50,000 craftspeople primarily based in Los Angeles.

The tentative deal includes updated terms related to pay, pension and health benefits, work-life balance, job security, subcontracting, streaming residuals and artificial intelligence.

“From start to finish, your input was invaluable and ensured that our Negotiations Committee was at the bargaining table with clear goals and a consensus for how to achieve them,” IATSE’s negotiating team said Tuesday in a memo to members. “The ratification timeline will be forthcoming and we look forward to presenting to you the complete package.”

A summary of the deal will be released within the next few days, followed by a full copy of the document in roughly two weeks. The deal must then be ratified by the union’s membership before the memorandum of agreement can officially go into effect.

So far, the union has revealed that the deal contains wage-scale increases of 7%, 4%, and 3.5% over the three-year term. It also stipulates that hourly workers are entitled to triple-time pay whenever the workday exceeds 15 hours — an effort by the union to dissuade employers from scheduling marathon shoot days.

Additionally, on-call employees would receive double-time pay on the seventh day of the work week under the new agreement.

The deal includes terms related to artificial intelligence as well, mandating that “no employee is required to provide AI prompts in any manner that would result in the displacement of any covered employee,” according to Tuesday’s announcement.

IATSE and the AMPTP returned to the bargaining table this week after failing to close the deal during the previous round of general negotiations earlier this month. Last to fall into place were terms related to wages, pension and health benefits, according to a union source who was not authorized to comment.

IATSE — which advocates for costume designers, makeup artists, hairstylists, cinematographers, set decorators, lighting technicians, camera operators and other craftspeople — has been campaigning for a new contract since early March. The labor organization’s current pact with the major studios went into effect in 2021 and was set to expire July 31, 2024.

Heading into general negotiations for the Hollywood Basic Agreement, the union was seeking “significant” wage increases to keep up with inflation, higher penalties for rest-period violations, enhanced sick leave and bumps in streaming residuals, as well as regulations around subcontracting and AI. Crew members also demanded funding for their pension and health plans amounting to at least $670 million.

Hollywood’s below-the-line workers concluded general negotiations with the AMPTP about seven months after actors resolved their labor dispute with the entertainment companies.

The overlapping writers’ and actors’ walkouts came as a devastating blow to workers and employers alike. The resulting production shutdown hobbled studios’ release schedules, while countless actors, writers and crew members suffered without work.

Since the strikes lifted, production has been slow to return and numerous entertainment professionals remain unemployed, especially in California, amid a long-brewing industry contraction.

The pullback — largely caused by the companies’ overspending during the streaming wars of the last few years — has manifested in watershed corporate mergers, mass layoffs and shrinking production slates.

Thus, IATSE’s contract campaign arrives at a critical moment for the film and TV business. Initially, both workers and studios were wary of the crew members’ negotiations with the AMPTP leading to another potential strike.

IATSE has never gone on strike in its long history. Nonetheless, members and allies prepared for the worst case scenario by donating money, groceries, meals, shared rides, childcare, temporary housing and other forms of aid to workers in need.

Before launching its contract campaign, IATSE promised that negotiations would culminate in either a ratification vote or a strike-authorization vote.

But it became increasingly clear that IATSE’s dealings with the AMPTP wouldn’t culminate in a walkout once the first phase of negotiations — separate bargaining sessions tailored to the specific concerns of each of the union’s 13 West Coast studio locals — transpired on schedule without incident.

Fresh off the success of the craft-specific talks, the sentiment between the union and the studios was conciliatory and productive approaching general negotiations.

“It’s civil,” IATSE international president Matthew Loeb told The Times in April as the trade-specific negotiations were wrapping up. “Everybody wants to avoid a strike.”

Ahead of the union’s final push, nearly 400 Hollywood actors, writers, directors and producers signed a letter advocating for crew members. Signatories included Quinta Brunson, Mark Ruffalo, Connie Britton, Ryan Coogler, Amy Schumer, Shaka King, Destin Daniel Cretton, Pamela Adlon, Olivia Wilde, Jonathan Groff, Nick Kroll, Lamorne Morris, Lilly Wachowski, Boots Riley, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Natasha Lyonne, Seth Rogen and Kerry Washington.

The letter urged the AMPTP to land on “a fair contract that acknowledges [crew members’] essential contributions to production and allows these behind-the-scenes artists, artisans, and craftspeople to live and retire with dignity.”

“These crewmembers dedicate their lives to their artistry and to their departments– working long hours in often challenging conditions to bring stories to life,” the letter continued.

Teamsters Local 399 — which represents drivers, mechanics, warehouse workers, animal handlers and other tradespeople on film and TV sets — is also pursuing a new contract and has yet to secure a tentative agreement with the AMPTP.

“This is by far the biggest crowd I’ve had in a few years,” said Celine Dion onstage at Lincoln Center last week. She was making a rare appearance to introduce “I Am: Celine Dion,” a documentary chronicling her struggles with stiff-person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes muscle rigidity and has made it difficult for her to do the thing that has most defined her since childhood: sing.

“I cannot believe how fortunate I am to have my fans in my life,” Dion said, pausing to hold back tears as her son, René-Charles Angélil, who was waiting on the side of the stage, handed her a tissue. “Thank you to all of you from the bottom of my heart for being a part of my journey. This movie is my love letter to each of you. I hope to see you all again very soon.”

Director Irene Taylor was not exactly a Dion aficionado when she got a call a few years ago asking if she’d be open to making a film about the French Canadian singer who is known for her powerhouse vocals.

“Honestly, I thought it was not going to be a good fit. I don’t say that out of arrogance. I was like, “What would they want from me? This is not the kind of movie I make,” said Taylor in a video chat. Her previous documentaries include the deeply personal “Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements,” about her deaf son and father. She was eventually won over by Dion and tried to approach her subject “with no peripheral vision,” Taylor said. “I really just tried to look at the person in front of me and what was happening.”

The documentary, now streaming on Prime Video, uses clips of performances and interviews from Dion’s 40-year career and traces the basics of her biography — beginning with her childhood in Quebec, where she was the youngest of 14 children, and then her crossover journey from French-language teen star to a chart topper with power ballads like “Because You Loved Me” and “My Heart Will Go On.”

Weaving archival material with contemporary footage of Dion opening up about her health struggles, “I Am: Celine Dion” shows the singer at her most vulnerable, both emotionally and physically.

Gone are the glitz and glamour associated with her onstage persona; Dion appears mostly makeup-free in casual dress, making goofy videos with her adolescent twins. She comes off as endearingly kooky — at one point she breaks out into the Kit Kat “Gimme a break” jingle — but also self-aware and very funny, like when she delivers an impromptu monologue about her love of shoes.

She is also candid about the extent of her health issues, revealing in the film that she had, by then, been experiencing symptoms for 17 years. What first manifested through occasional vocal strain grew steadily more debilitating, forcing her to find ways to fake it on stage and cancel shows — something that she, a performer with a zealous work ethic and devotion to her fans, found nearly as painful as the physical condition itself.

Perhaps most unforgettably, the film captures Dion as she is stricken with an episode of her illness in the middle of a physical therapy session. While lying on a table, she suddenly freezes. And though she can barely make a sound, her wrenched face conveys the agony she’s experiencing. At the New York screening, audience members could be heard weeping throughout the scene.

Taylor followed Dion for about a year, spending several days with her a month, and found her brave and authentic — qualities that she hopes come through in the film.

“She was down to earth with me,” she said, “so I just wanted to show the woman who showed me herself.”

Taylor spoke with The Times the day after the screening in New York. The following conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Did you know about her diagnosis when you signed up to make this film?

I did not know about her illness when I signed on to do this. She had been withholding it from the world, including me. It all made sense once I talked with her. I realized it was a pretty devastating lie that she was telling people for years. Her athleticism on stage did not suggest that she was sick. Yes, she was canceling some shows, but she found ways to fake it.

In the beginning, I didn’t know what the film would be about. I didn’t really know what my take would be. I just knew it would be a portrait of her. She had asked me, “Is it possible to make a documentary where no one else is in the documentary, it’s just me?” That would sound very self-centered coming from a certain kind of person, but it was a genuine question. I told her, “It’s certainly possible, but it’s going to be a harder road for you because I need more of your time, and I need your authentic self.”

But Celine was so straight with me. She never told me to stop filming. In fact, she said, “Don’t talk to me about whether you can do something or not, because it’ll throw me off. You’re here in my home, you’ve got carte blanche, do what you need to do.” That is a profound tool to give me. She did not get involved in my editing. She did not ask me to change anything. It is a rare opportunity to be able to make a film about a public figure and have that much agency.

At what point did you learn about the illness?

I got a call saying, “Could we talk about this?” It was a call with someone from the record company and a couple of people from her management team and they basically said, “She’s not well, and we don’t have a name for it.” There wasn’t consensus about it. I had that information going into the first day of shooting, and then it was like a fire hose at me. “Seventeen years, I’ve been lying to everybody. I am feeling so guilty.” I was so overwhelmed that first day. I think she had been holding it in for a long time. Over the first half of filming, I was watching her flail, not knowing what she had, and the doctors not knowing what to do about it. Then over time, there was consensus, and she was very relieved when she got the diagnosis, even though it’s an orphan disease. She said to me, “I don’t want to have a rare disease. No one knows how to fix it.”

When she got that formal diagnosis, that is when she wanted to tell the world, and the way she wanted to do that was through Instagram — just tell people directly. So I pivoted in my filmmaking and decided how to incorporate her telling the world into the story.

Irene Taylor said she didn’t know Celine Dion had been battling a deblitating illness for years when she took on the documentary project.

(Richard Shotwell / Invision / Associated Press)

With celebrities and public figures, it can be hard to get them off of their narrative. How did you find her as an interview subject?

I had reservations about making the film, because I saw “Celine Dion” in quotes, as a very cultivated public figure. She had a persona, and I was a little cynical about that. I didn’t want to make a film about someone who had an agenda. It took getting to talk with her, and then just connecting with each other on a personal level about certain personal things. We both love trees. We both raise boys. She was very interested in picking apart everything that was in [the background on] our Zoom calls: “What’s that?” You could tell she was just trying to piece me together.

I had made very intimate films about people I know very well, like my parents and my son. I just didn’t know where she’d fit in. In the end, I realized that the fact that Celine was so used to cameras, the fact that she had lived her life under lights, actually made her a very authentic subject. I realized that, instead of [her celebrity] being something to be wary of, it actually was working in my favor, but only because she had decided, “I have nowhere else to go.” She seemed to have it all. In fact, she was living a very private lie, and she called it a lie. I was amazed at the language she was willing to use to describe herself.

We see Dion have this very intense episode, where it’s clear she’s in excruciating pain. Tell me about filming that — what was going through your head?

This all happened all in a matter of a minute. We were in a physical therapy session. We were 10 minutes out of two days of [her] recording [music] for the first time in several years. She left feeling elated, because she didn’t think she’d be able to do it. Ironically, it is that elation, that emotional high, that can trigger this kind of response. We could have turned the camera off, but we had been filming for eight months at that point, and Celine said, “Film everything.” I thought to myself, “I gotta make sure this woman’s breathing,” so I just pushed my headphones into my ear, and I listened, and I could not hear her breathing. I asked, “Is she breathing?” She was able to squeeze [the therapist’s] hand. I looked at my [director of photography], and we just kept going.

I was actually grateful that about four minutes into the episode, you hear her therapist mention that the cameras are in the room, and he checks with her if it’s OK. I wasn’t sure what she would say in that moment, but she said it was OK. I couldn’t believe what had happened, and I was so grateful she was OK, but I realized that it might be an opportunity, if Celine was up for it, to really show and really validate her suffering.

Six months later, I showed her a rough cut of the film. I was very nervous. I knew there was no way I would ever do this without her consent. She said, “I think this film will help me.” Then she said, “Don’t cut down that scene.”

How did this project change your perception of her? Are you a fan now, or at least an admirer?

A filmmaker should be very wary of getting intoxicated by anything. But I really did allow myself to be inspired by her. We’re almost the same age. I have my health, and I watched someone who was really struggling. She finds so much joy in making music that she is going to come out with something on the other side of this that is going to be very powerful. It may not be the Celine Dion that hit the money notes and basically does three aerobics classes during a concert. It might be a different intensity, it might be a different artistic approach, it might be a different way of performing. But I can tell you she is very focused on being an advocate for people with this disease.

Thomas Brodie-Sangster is in love — and there’s nothing he can do about it!

The “Love Actually” child star, 34, married actor Talulah Riley, 38, in a 14th-century church in the village of Anstey, England, over the weekend. The bride arrived in a horse-drawn carriage wearing an elegant white satin dress and lace-lined veil, while the groom opted for a blue suit, white scarf and floral waistcoat, according to photos obtained by The Sun.

The couple, who recently purchased a manor estate near the church, beamed while onlookers threw confetti as they exited together. Guests followed their carriage to the fields near their home, where the reception featured fairground rides including a merry-go-round, an onlooker told the outlet.

The couple met in 2021 on the set of the Disney+ miniseries “Pistol.” This is Brodie-Sangster’s first marriage. Riley was previously married to tech tycoon Elon Musk — twice.

Though the couple have yet to comment on their nuptials, Brodie-Sangster announced their engagement last July on his Instagram, cheekily noting, “Love is all around.”

Things are looking up for “Chrisley Knows Best” mom Julie Chrisley.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta on Friday said it will vacate the former USA Network reality star’s current prison sentence for tax evasion. According to court documents obtained by local outlet WSBTV, the district court said it “did not identify the evidence it relied on to hold Julie accountable” for multiple years of fraud also involving her husband Todd Chrisley and their accountant Peter Tarantino starting in 2007.

“We cannot independently find it in the record,” the court document says.

The appeals court said it will hand her case back to the district court “to make the factual findings and calculations necessary to determine loss, restitution, and forfeiture” relating to her new sentence. Julie, 51, is carrying out her prison sentence in a facility in Lexington, Ky.

In June 2022, Todd and Julie Chrisley were convicted of tax evasion and bank fraud. Todd, 56, was initially sentenced to 12 years in Florida’s Federal Prison Camp Pensacola. Julie was initially ordered to serve seven years. Last year, both received reductions in their sentences: Todd is set to be released nearly two years earlier than originally scheduled, and Julie 14 months earlier.

The appeal court’s decision Friday marks a victory for the Chrisley family, whose lawyers have been working to appeal the stars’ verdict and prison sentences since late last year.

Attorney Jay Surgent, one of Julie and Todd’s legal representatives, told The Times in an email statement Monday that his team is “pleased” with the decision and noted that Julie may be eligible for an earlier release. While disappointed that the appeals court did not remand Todd, Surgent said he is hopeful for further appeal efforts.

“We also have other legal maneuvers that will be implemented on Todd’s behalf,” Surgent said.

Savannah Chrisley, the couple’s eldest daughter, broke the news of her mother’s appeal on Saturday. “Didn’t necessarily go as we had hoped but we do have a little win,” the 26-year-old “Unlocked” podcast host said on Instagram.

“For that I am grateful and I hope and pray that the judge can send her home,” Savannah said, before adding she is confident her mother “will be coming sooner rather than later.”

Later in her video, she added: “I have some other ideas up my sleeve to get dad home.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jamie Kellner, a pioneering media executive who helped expand the world of broadcast television by creating Fox and the WB networks, died Friday. He was 77.

Kellner also oversaw CNN, TNT and TBS as chairman and chief executive of Turner Broadcasting System.

He died at his home in Montecito after a long battle with cancer, according to a spokesperson for the family.

Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, Kellner first made a name for himself at Orion Entertainment Group, where he spearheaded an effort with Lorne Michaels to buy the rights to original episodes of “Saturday Night Live,” which were cut into 30-minute episodes and sold in syndication.

The lucrative partnership caught the attention of Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller, who in the mid-’80s were plotting to launch an upstart broadcast network to rival the long-established “Big Three”: ABC, NBC and CBS. Kellner became the first president and chief operating officer of the Fox Broadcasting Co.

Launched in 1986, Fox was the first new network on American broadcast television since ABC in 1948.

Kellner poached a young NBC executive named Garth Ancier to run programming.

In a phone call Sunday, Ancier recalled Kellner as a formidable executive who “understood not just TV audiences, he also understood the entire way the TV system in the United States worked,” from affiliates to advertisers. Ancier, who also worked with Kellner at the WB, recalled flying to affiliates across the country, attempting to woo them to Fox.

At the time, few industry insiders thought Fox would have much staying power.

“My bosses — [NBC chief executive] Grant Tinker in particular — believed there would never be a fourth network,” Ancier said. “And they said, ‘On top of that, most of those stations they’re putting together are UHF,’ as if it was like the plague. It just meant we had to be different from the other networks.”

Kellner helped shape the network’s brand identity and make it a destination for edgier content, like the bawdy family sitcom “Married…With Children” — a show that initially attracted controversy but became a long-running hit.

“One of the first tests we apply is: Would one of the three networks do this? And quite often, if the answer is ‘yes,’ then we disqualify it. There is no reason for us to exist if we are going to do what they have already done,” Kellner told the New York Times in 1986.

Fox attracted younger viewers with shows that bucked long-held industry convention, like “In Living Color,” the irreverent sketch comedy show featuring a predominantly Black cast; and “Beverly Hills, 90120,” a high school soap opera that became one of the defining shows of the 1990s.

“The whole reason we did ‘The Simpsons’ was because no one had done animation in prime time since ABC in the ‘60s with ‘The Flintstones’ and ‘The Jetsons.’”

“The most important lessons we learned were to be different, to speak in a different voice than what was available to viewers already, and to get as young as you can get,” Kellner told The Times in 1997.

He left Fox in 1993, just as the network was expanding into a seventh night of programming and had numerous buzzy hits like the “90210” spinoff “Melrose Place.” In just seven years, Kellner had turned a “rickety string of UHF affiliates into a significant competitor,” as The Times then put it.

He soon began shopping around an idea for a fifth broadcast network. In 1995, he launched the WB, which initially made its mark with Black sitcoms including “The Wayans Bros.,” “The Jamie Foxx Show” and “Sister, Sister,” but faced stiff competition from another would-be contender, UPN. “We wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t believe this would be as successful, or more successful, than the Fox network,” he said early in the WB’s reign.

One of the network’s first hits was the squeaky clean family drama “7th Heaven.” Throughout the late ‘90s, the network leaned into teen-centered dramas and ushered in a Golden Age for young adult programming that could be both sentimental and self-aware, with shows such as “Dawson’s Creek,” “Felicity” “Gilmore Girls” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” By 2002, the network, in which he had ownership stake, was valued at $1 billion.

“I think the magic of that place came so much from his form of leadership, which was about taking bets on people,” said Greg Berlanti, who was tapped at age 28 to become showrunner on “Dawson’s Creek” and created two other shows at the WB, “Everwood” and “Jack & Bobby.” He recalled Kellner as an executive who supported creative talent and gave shows time to grow, but could also tell you “what five cities your show was most popular in.”

“I’m so glad I met that kind of leader at that age, someone who led with curiosity and compassion and was clear-headed and honest. He imbued people around him with a sense of faith in themselves.” Berlanti believes Kellner-era WB was “the most successful YA network in the history of television,” in part because Kellner “didn’t see it as a lesser audience.”

While still at the WB, he was tapped to succeed Ted Turner as chairman and chief executive of Turner Broadcasting System, where he oversaw TBS, TNT and CNN. He angered wrestling fans in 2001 by canceling World Championship Wrestling programming on TNT and TBS. He presided over CNN during a period of seismic shifts in the news business, with increased competition from Fox News and MSNBC and the cataclysmic attacks of 9/11.

Kellner was known for fostering loyalty among his top executives, several of whom moved with him from network to network. “He gave you tremendous latitude as a boss and mentor, always empowering you to make bold, decisive decisions and never settling for what’s always been done,” said Brad Turell, who was head of corporate communications at Fox, the WB and Turner Broadcasting under Kellner.

Kellner retired from the business in 2004, when he was just 57.

“I found it hard to believe because he was so competitive, in the best sense of the word, and so vigorous. But when he was done, he was really done,” said Ancier.

He remained busy pursuing passions like sailing and gold. He also opened a winery, Cent’Anni, in the Santa Ynez Valley, and was known for hosting Italian meals at his home.

He is survived by his wife, Julie Smith, daughter Melissa, son Christopher, and three grandchildren, Jake, Scarlett and Oliver.    

The Los Angeles art world is still reeling — eight months after the fact — from the news that Ann Philbin, longtime director of the Hammer Museum at UCLA, is retiring at the end of this year. Philbin — who has steered the museum for 25 years — leaves a transformative legacy.

When Philbin, 72, took the reins in 1999, the Hammer was a regional university museum with fewer than 50 full-time employees and a $6-million annual operating budget. It’s now a globally recognized destination for contemporary art with more than 100 full-time employees, a $30-million annual budget and star-studded annual fundraising galas. It’s known for its strong point of view, a risk-taking and feminist-minded institution committed to supporting underrepresented artists of all stripes.

Discover the changemakers who are shaping every cultural corner of Los Angeles. This week we bring you The Civic Center, a collection that includes a groundbreaking mayor, a housing advocate, a giver of food and others who are the backbone of Los Angeles. Come back each Sunday for another installment.

The museum’s “Made in L.A.” biennial, which presented its sixth iteration in October, has become a staple of the West Coast art scene. Along with the Hammer Projects series, it has shined an international spotlight on the city as a leading art hub, illuminating new experimental artists working across painting, sculpture, installation, multimedia, performance and other mediums.

In March 2023, the Hammer debuted a sweeping expansion and renovation project — Philbin’s longtime vision — that had been two decades in the making and cost $90 million. A consummate fundraiser, Philbin successfully realized the $180-million capital campaign for the project, designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture. The Hammer now has 60% more gallery space, an outdoor sculpture terrace and a more visible entrance on the corner of Wilshire and Westwood boulevards. That’s after having debuted renovated third-floor galleries in 2017, a new courtyard performance space in 2018, a new restaurant in 2021 and a works-on-paper gallery and study room for its Grunwald Center Collection in 2022 — among other things.

Today, nearly every major museum in the L.A. area is run by a woman. There’s Johanna Burton at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Joanne Heyler at the Broad, Sandra Jackson–Dumont at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Kathleen Fleming at the Getty Foundation, Jacqueline Stewart at the Academy Museum, Heidi Zuckerman at the Orange County Museum of Art, Cameron Shaw at the California African American Museum and Lori Bettison-Varga at the Natural History Museum.

But two decades ago, Philbin ran the Hammer in a male-dominated art world. It’s impossible to overstate Philbin’s influence on the museum — and the city. She and the Hammer are one.

Six weeks before Tom Girardi’s criminal trial in Los Angeles is scheduled to begin, federal prosecutors revealed that they intend to introduce key evidence: that the disgraced former attorney allegedly spent more than $25 million of client and law firm money on the career of his reality TV star wife.

Until now, Erika Girardi — a mainstay of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” — has rarely been mentioned in her estranged husband’s federal prosecution. Tom Girardi — once a superstar plantiffs attorney and influential Democratic Party donor — and his law firm’s former chief financial officer are accused of stealing $15 million from several clients in a years-long scheme.

In a court filing Friday, prosecutors said they plan to show the jury evidence that Tom Girardi misappropriated far more than that from his law firm, Girardi Keese, and his clients, including the $25 million they allege he diverted to cover the “illegitimate expenses” of EJ Global LLC, a company he formed for his wife’s entertainment career.

“By directing Girardi Keese accounting personnel to make these payments for the benefit of EJ Global, defendant [Tom] Girardi knowingly and intentionally funneled payments sourced from client funds for the improper personal enrichment of his family members,” prosecutors wrote in their filing.

No underlying evidence was included in the filing, and it’s unclear how prosecutors plan to prove their assertion. They did not mention Erika Girardi by name, nor did they accuse her of wrongdoing or knowledge of her husband’s financial practices.

Instead, prosecutors want to rebut Tom Girardi’s defense strategy of blaming the CFO by showing that Girardi was also misappropriating money to spend on his wife and her career.

Erika Girardi’s lawyer, Evan Borges, emphasized that prosecutors did not say the “Housewives” star did anything wrong and claimed that it was “undisputed” that Tom Girardi and his firm handled the finances and accounting of EJ Global LLC.

“She had no knowledge of the actions of Tom Girardi or Girardi Keese regarding client matters or finances,” Borges said, noting that one judge already dismissed a suit against her because of “ZERO evidence” of her involvement in client matters.

“Years ago, Erika filed for divorce and separated from Tom Girardi, and lives in a rental,” Borges said in a statement. “She is entitled to move on with her life.”

Prosecutors want to bring in the evidence related to Erika Girardi’s company, EJ Global, because of what Tom Girardi’s attorneys revealed at a hearing on Thursday. Deputy Public Defender Charles Snyder indicated at the hearing that the defense will point a finger at the law firm’s CFO, Christopher Kamon.

Snyder said his client wasn’t the one “running the machine” — it was Kamon, who oversaw the firm’s accounting department and 127 bank accounts.

In a separate federal prosecution, Kamon is charged with allegedly running a “side fraud” in which he embezzled millions from the law firm using sham vendors, then spent the funds on home renovations, exotic cars and “female escorts,” according to court papers. Kamon, who has pleaded not guilty in both cases, faces a second trial in October for the so-called side fraud.

Girardi’s legal team plans to cite the alleged “side fraud” by the CFO as a cause for large deficits in Girardi Keese’s accounts.

Further, they plan to argue that Girardi was liquidating his personal assets and putting those funds back into the firm for payroll and expenses to offset money depleted by Kamon’s alleged scheme.

In court Thursday, Snyder said that Girardi’s lies to clients about the whereabouts of their settlement money — what prosecutors called “lulling communications” meant to fend them off — were not meant to swindle victims but to permit Girardi himself to get to the bottom of his firm’s finances.

Kamon’s attorney, Michael Severo, poured cold water on the narrative: “It’s just fiction,” he said in court.

With Girardi’s lawyers suggesting that they’ll shift culpability onto Kamon, prosecutors wrote in their filing that evidence of money misappropriated to pay EJ Global’s bills is “essential” to telling “a coherent and complete story of the charged scheme.”

“Excluding such evidence would only serve to distort the truth and leave the jury with the mistaken impression that only defendant Kamon is to blame for such misappropriation when, in truth, defendant Girardi similarly misappropriated tens of millions himself,” the prosecutors wrote.

Girardi and Kamon are scheduled to go on trial together on Aug. 6. But late Friday, Girardi’s attorneys moved to try them separately, in part because their defense strategies are “mutually exclusive.”

That is, Girardi’s lawyers believe that each man will blame the other. They plan to argue that Kamon wanted to cheat and deceive his boss and exploit an elderly man facing cognitive decline. They also predict that Kamon will claim he was “pressured” into acting at Girardi’s command, according to court papers.

Whether to try the two men separately, or to allow evidence of improper payments to Erika Girardi’s limited liability company, will be decided by U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton, who previously ruled Girardi competent to stand trial.

Staton will also rule on a motion filed late Friday by Tom Girardi’s legal team, which asks the judge to suppress evidence provided to prosecutors by the bankruptcy trustee overseeing Girardi’s law firm, saying that a search warrant was never sought to obtain the firm’s internal files and records.

Girardi’s lawyers have argued that the 85-year-old, who resides in the dementia ward of a nursing home, has no short-term memory and does not recognize them or remember the criminal case against him.

But in her ruling earlier this year, Staton said Girardi “clearly understands the nature of the charges against him.”

Girardi was once a titan of the American legal community who won billions of dollars in settlements for clients in a career that spanned five decades. A landmark payout to residents of Hinkley, Calif., by Pacific Gas & Electric and its subsequent portrayal in the film “Erin Brockovich” helped raise Girardi’s public stature. But he was long an insider in California politics, raising sums for governors, senators and legions of local Democratic politicians.

His firm collapsed in late 2020 as evidence emerged that he had misappropriated millions of dollars of settlements that Boeing had paid to widows and orphans of an Indonesian plane crash. The money never reached the families, prompting a federal judge in Chicago to freeze Girardi’s assets and refer him for criminal investigation.

Girardi and his firm were forced into bankruptcy, and since then, scores of former clients have come forward alleging they did not receive all or part of their settlements.

Girardi and his son-in-law David Lira, along with Kamon, also face federal criminal charges in Chicago in connection with the misappropriation of $3 million from the Indonesian plane crash victims.

A trial in Chicago is scheduled for 2025.

Justin Timberlake knows he’s “hard to love” sometimes but thanked his fans in the Windy City on Friday for doing so anyway, addressing his recent arrest in the Hamptons and subsequent charge of driving while intoxicated in public for the first time.

Apparently, his Tuesday arrest in New York did not “ruin” his world tour after all.

The Grammy and Emmy Award winner, 43, delivered a short but emotional speech Friday night at the United Center in Chicago, the latest stop on his Forget Tomorrow World Tour, as seen in concert footage posted on social media. As the boisterous crowd cheered him on, the former ‘N Sync frontman seemingly humbled himself in front of the sold-out arena.

“We’ve been together through ups and downs and lefts and rights. And, uh, it’s been a tough week. But you’re here and I’m here. Nothing can change this moment right now,” the singer said while holding an acoustic guitar and bowing to his adoring fans. “I know sometimes I’m hard to love, but you keep on loving me and I love you right back. Thank you so much.”

“Now if you’ll oblige me, I’d like to have a little sing-along with you guys,” he added, before launching into the show.

The “Can’t Stop the Feeling” singer was arrested on Long Island after Sag Harbor police saw his gray 2025 BMW UT run a stop sign and struggle to stay in its lane. Police who pulled him over just after 12:30 a.m. alleged the singer’s eyes “were bloodshot and glassy” and “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath.”

“[H]e was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,” according to court papers obtained by The Times. The “Rock Your Body” singer was booked and held overnight in jail, where his mug shot was taken. He was arraigned hours later in Sag Harbor Village Justice Court, on the eastern end of Long Island, the Suffolk County district attorney’s office confirmed to The Times. He pleaded not guilty, the New York Times reported.

In surveillance footage obtained by CNN, a car that matched the police description of Timberlake’s vehicle could be seen running the stop sign near where Timberlake was arrested, but it did not appear to be swerving in the clip.

“The Social Network” and “Trolls” actor had been having dinner and drinks with friends at the American Hotel and was pulled over about a mile away, where he told police officers that he had had only one martini before following his friends home. He refused to take a breath test three times and “performed poorly” on field sobriety tests, police said.

Page Six, citing anonymous sources, reported that the police officer who arrested the singer “was so young that he didn’t even know” who the 10-time Grammy winner was. Another source told the outlet that when he was pulled over, “Justin said under his breath, ‘This is going to ruin the tour.’ The cop replied, ‘What tour?’ Justin said, ‘The world tour.’ ” The remark went viral Tuesday and, along with Timberlake’s mugshot, instantly became a meme.

At the police station, where he spent the night, he handed over his wedding ring, phone, baseball cap, watch and wallet, along with a vape pen and green and blue papers, the kind used for rolling marijuana, according to the New York Times.

“He was freaking out and stayed up all night when he was in custody,” a source told People on Friday. “He’s insisting he only had one drink and it wasn’t some wild night out.”

Timberlake was charged with misdemeanor driving while intoxicated because he refused to take a breath test when he was pulled over, Timberlake’s attorney Eddie Burke Jr. told Us Weekly. The singer was also given two citations, one for running a stop sign and the other for not traveling in the correct traffic lane, Burke said.

He was released on his own recognizance; no bail was set. His next court date will be July 26 — the same day he is scheduled to be in Kraków, Poland, on his Forget Tomorrow tour. Timberlake‘s arrest took place during a brief break on the tour, which stopped in L.A. last month and will run through December.

He has kept a low profile since the incident. His attorney on Wednesday told TMZ that he and the singer look forward “to vigorously defending Mr. Timberlake against these allegations. He will have a lot to say at the appropriate time.” The outlet also reported that the musician, who does not have a previous arrest record, does not plan to check into a rehab facility — a proactive move often used by celebrities to look good in front of a judge and strike a better plea deal in alcohol- or drug-related legal incidents.

The remarks he delivered Friday in Chicago marked the first time Timberlake publicly acknowledged the arrest since it happened.

After releasing his sixth studio album, “Everything I Thought It Was,” in March, the hitmaker set off on his Forget Tomorrow world tour in April. The tour is scheduled to continue in Chicago on Saturday before he plays Madison Square Garden in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The musician landed in hot water last year amid revelations in “The Woman in Me,” his ex-girlfriend Britney Spears’ bombshell memoir, that she had an abortion at Timberlake’s behest while they were dating around the turn of the century. Timberlake’s connection to Spears was also scrutinized in 2021 when a series of documentaries about her protracted conservatorship revisited the media’s treatment of the embattled pop princess, which included accepting his spin on their breakup.

Timberlake — now a father of two boys with actor Jessica Biel — took a lot of heat during that time, prompting a public apology to Spears and to his 2004 Super Bowl co-headliner Janet Jackson that acknowledged he “fell short” and benefited from “a system that condones misogyny and racism.”

In the wake of Timberlake’s arrest, Spears’ fans rallied to send her 2011 song “Criminal” — believed to be an allusion to her relationship with Timberlake — back up the charts. Her fans had some success with that endeavor back in January when they staged a digital-music coup to dethrone Timberlake’s new single “Selfish” by streaming her 13-year-old song with the same name.

The swaggering showman is allegedly having a harder time lately landing roles in Hollywood, Page Six reported, and is facing lackluster sales for his tour and latest album, which dropped off the Billboard 200 chart after four weeks.

“The album didn’t do too well, and I don’t see Justin getting big acting roles right now,” a Hollywood insider told the outlet earlier this week.

“He’s got a bit of an ego,” another industry insider added. “His golden boy image is definitely depleted.”

Meanwhile, the owner of the American Hotel told TMZ that Timberlake would be welcomed back anytime, because he was a model customer, “great guest and a nice guy.”

Likewise, “CBS Mornings” host Gayle King defended the musician Wednesday on air, saying that Timberlake is “a really, really great guy” and adding that the incident was “clearly a mistake” and that she bets “nobody knows it more than he.”

“He’s not an irresponsible person, he’s not reckless, he’s not careless,” King said. “Clearly this is not a good thing, he knows that.”

Other celebrities have either come out against the singer or come to his defense. Comedian Ricky Gervais used the viral news story as a way to plug his own vodka brand on X. But singer Billy Joel, who was spotted at the American Hotel after Timberlake’s arrest, told a New York news station, “Judge not lest ye be judged.”

On TikTok, footage from Timberlake’s May tour stop in Las Vegas began making the rounds, with users commenting on the crooner’s reddish eyes while performing in the clip and speculating about whether that was a precursor to his Sag Harbor arrest.

Artificial intelligence is “exciting,” but guardrails must be put in place to protect labor, intellectual property and ethics, NBCUniversal Studio Group Chairman Donna Langley said Friday at an entertainment industry law conference.

During a wide-ranging, on-stage conversation at the UCLA Entertainment Symposium, the media chief emphasized that first, “the labor piece of it has to be right,” a proclamation that was met with applause from the audience.

“Nor should we infringe on people’s rights,” she said, adding that there also needs to be “very good, clever, sophisticated copyright laws around our IP.”

But once those issues are adequately handled, filmmakers and content partners also need “creative freedom to be able to use technology,” Langley said. She described AI as like any other technological innovation the film industry has encountered throughout its history and said she was interested in anything that can “evolve creativity.”

“As an industry and as a company, we’re better off embracing it and adhering to those pillars … than pretending it’s not here,” she said. “I think it’s exciting. It should be exciting. But we’ve got to get the ethics of it right.”

Langley and Universal Pictures are coming off a big year last year with “Oppenheimer,” which grossed $975 million in global box office revenue and won a slew of Oscars, including best picture.

Langley isn’t the first studio mogul to comment on AI and its role in the entertainment industry. Last month, Sony Pictures Entertainment Chief Executive Tony Vinciquerra told analysts and investors that AI would save the studio money in production.

AI has emerged as a major issue in Hollywood, as technology companies have increasingly courted studios and industry players. But it is a delicate dance, as entertainment industry executives want to avoid offending actors, writers and other workers who view the technology as a threat to their jobs.

The fast-rising technology was a key issue in last year’s dual labor strikes. The respective agreements struck by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists included some AI protections, including a provision that actors must be asked permission and compensated for the use of their digital likenesses.

Still holding out hope that Kevin Costner might return to “Yellowstone?” Let John Dutton set the record straight.

Costner, who starred in the hit Paramount series for five seasons, revealed on social media that his time with “Yellowstone” is officially over. Amid the release of his film “Horizon: An American Saga,” the actor-director said on Instagram late Thursday, “I just realized that I’m not going to be able to continue.”

The Oscar winner, 69, put to rest speculation about a return more than a year after news of his departure broke. Reports about Costner’s exit first surfaced in February 2023, but the actor only confirmed the end of his “Yellowstone” ride in September during a Santa Barbara hearing for his divorce from Christine Baumgartner. At the time he mentioned negotiation issues with the studios behind the beloved series.

In May 2023, Paramount announced that the blockbuster series was to end, with its episodes split into two batches. Costner says now that a return for “season 5B or into the future” is unlikely.

“Yellowstone,” created by Taylor Sheridan, premiered in 2018 and became a blockbuster series for the network. Costner starred as the Dutton family patriarch who owns Montana’s largest ranch. In 2023, he earned a Golden Globe award for his performance. At the beginning of his Instagram video, Costner told fans said “Yellowstone” is a “beloved series that I love, that I know you love.”

He added: “It was something that really changed me. I loved it and you loved it and I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be returning.”

Costner released his statement as he promotes “Horizon,” which was reportedly one reason he decided to leave “Yellowstone. Last year, the Hollywood Reporter reported that Costner and Sheridan were at odds over the former’s “Horizon” schedule and how it allegedly complicated his “Yellowstone” commitments.

“His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus,” Sheridan told the Hollywood Reporter last June. “I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it’s a good one.”

“Horizon: An America Saga,” the first in a four-film series, makes its theatrical bow June 28.