Vice Media has appointed Nancy Dubuc, the former head of the A&E Networks, to be its chief executive as the company tries to rebound from sexual misconduct allegations.
Dubuc had stepped down Monday at A&E. She’s been a Vice board member and worked with the company to develop the Viceland cable network. Shane Smith, the company’s co-founder, said that he’ll let Dubuc run the company as he concentrates on making deals and creating content.
Vice has grown exponentially since its founding as a rock fan magazine in Canada in the early 1990s. It produces news and lifestyle material over a variety of platforms and is especially popular among young consumers.
Smith said he will become the company’s executive chairman.
“I get to work with one of my best friends and media heroes,” he said. “We are a modern day Bonnie and Clyde and we are going to take all of your money.”
Dubuc called it one of the rare moments in a career to work with the creative people at Vice.
Vice has apologized for a “boy’s club” culture at Vice that was uncovered in an investigation by The New York Times, which said it had talked to more than two dozen women who had experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct there. Vice suspended its president, Andrew Creighton, and chief digital officer, Mike Germano, in January as it investigated allegations against them. The Times said it had found four settlements involving harassment or defamation accusations.
Vice promised to make half of its workplace female by the year 2020 and have pay parity by the end of this year.
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