AFI Fest 2019 will host "An Evening With Peter Morgan" which is to include a conversation with Academy Award®-nominated, Emmy Award®-nominated and Golden Globe®-winning writer and producer in tribute to his celebrated career, followed by a Gala screening of the highly anticipated third season of Netflix’s The Crown. In attendance alongside Morgan will be season three cast members Olivia Colman, Tobias Menzies, Helena Bonham Carter, Josh O’Connor and Erin Doherty. The event will be held on Saturday, November 16, at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre.
“Peter Morgan has an unmatched talent in creating some of the most engaging historical dramas,” said Michael Lumpkin, director, AFI Festivals. “With the bold and brilliant move of introducing a new cast for season three of The Crown, Morgan takes us deeper into the politics, pageantry and personalities of the British royal family.”
The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world–Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street–and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown. Colman takes over the iconic role as Queen Elizabeth in season three. The new season also features Menzies as Prince Phillip, Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret and newcomers O’Connor as Prince Charles and Doherty as Princess Anne.
Morgan is an international award-winning writer for stage, screen and film. As well as receiving Oscar®and BAFTA Award nominations for his screenplay for Stephen Frears’ The Queen starring Helen Mirren, Morgan won a host of international awards including Golden Globe, British Independent Film and Evening Standard British Film Awards. The award-winning and Tony-nominated play Frost/Nixon received critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic before being adapted into a multi Academy Award®-nominated film of the same name. The film garnered five Oscar®nominations, including Best Screenplay. Morgan’s many other film credits include the award-winning The Last King of Scotland, The Damned United and Rush, directed by Ron Howard. Morgan’s extensive television credits include The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries, the critically acclaimed The Deal–the first part of Morgan’s Tony Blair Trilogy (BAFTA Award for Best Drama)–The Special Relationship and Longford. Morgan wrote the award-winning West End play The Audience starring Mirren.
AFI Fest takes place November 14-21, 2019, at historic theaters in Los Angeles. Screenings, Galas, and other events will be held at the TCL Chinese Theatre, the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres and the Hollywood Roosevelt and will open on Thursday, November 14 with the world premiere of AFI Conservatory alumna Melina Matsoukas’s Queen & Slim. Academy Award®winner Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell will have its world premiere as a Gala screening on Wednesday, November 20, and the festival will close with the world premiere of George Nolfi’s The Banker on Thursday, November 21.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads โ essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More