Talent agency DDA (Dattner Dispoto and Associates) has made some key moves in its leadership ranks. Juanita Tiangco moves into the role of VP, Commercials and Music Videos. She studied at New York’s Brooklyn College, majoring in Theatre Arts before starting her career working with a postproduction house in Hell’s Kitchen. She next worked as production supervisor at New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Art’s film department before first joining DDA in 1990. She ran DDA’s New York office for five years, repping talent including Harris Savides, Lance Acord, Salvatore Totino, Tami Reiker and Jim Fealy. Tiangco returned to DDA in Los Angeles in 2005. She has been an agent for 26 years; 16 of those years with DDA. Last month, she represented DDA at the inaugural Cannes Lions Entertainment for Music Awards, where her client DP Malik Sayeed’s “Formation” music video for Beyonce took home the coveted Grand Prix honor. Additionally at DDA Dan Burnside steps into the role of VP, Features and Television. Burnside started with the company in 1999 as an assistant after working in the distribution department of Rysher Entertainment and at several production companies. Representing many of feature and television’s most noted cinematographers, including Manuel Billeter, Jim Hawkinson and Rachel Morrison, Burnside has been integral to building DDA’s features and television department. DDA’s two new VPs join Bill Dispoto, who now assumes the role of company president. Dispoto joined the company in 1995 as a talent agent, stepping up to VP in 1999. He became partner in 2001. Dispoto’s career with the company has seen him guide and support the careers of many A-list artisans, including Maryse Alberti, Bojan Bazelli, ASC, Christian Berger, Paul Cameron, ASC, Jeff Cronenweth, ASC and Claudio Miranda, ASC. Fay Dattner continues in her role of agency founder, where she makes her expertise available to staff and clients….
Biamp Systems, a provider of innovative, networked media systems, has secured Livella Brand Group as its newest representing partner in the Midwestern United States, covering Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. Livella will distribute Biamp’s professional AV products including Tesira, Audia, Nexia, and Vocia. Headquartered just outside Kansas City in Lenexa, Kansas, the Livella team serves a wide breadth of markets from AV design consultants and systems integrators, to tour sound companies and musical instrument resellers….
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More