Ousted Grammys CEO Deborah Dugan and the Recording Academy have reached a confidential settlement over why the former leader was let go from the organization.
"The Recording Academy and Deborah Dugan have agreed to resolve their differences and to keep the terms of their agreement private," the academy and Dugan said in a joint statement late Thursday.
Dugan was fired days before the 2020 Grammys. She has since said the awards show was rigged and muddled with conflicts of interest. The former CEO of Bono's (RED) charity organization was the first woman to hold the title of president and CEO at the academy.
The settlement comes weeks after the academy said its interim leader, Harvey Mason Jr., would be its official CEO. This week the academy named Valeisha Butterfield Jones and Panos A. Panay as co-presidents of the organization.
"Barbenheimer" was a phenomenon impossible to manufacture. But, more than a year later, that hasn't stopped people from trying to make "Glicked" — or even "Babyratu" — happen.
The counterprogramming of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" in July 2023 hit a nerve culturally and had the receipts to back it up. Unlike so many things that begin as memes, it transcended its online beginnings. Instead of an either-or, the two movies ultimately complemented and boosted one another at the box office.
And ever since, moviegoers, marketers and meme makers have been trying to recreate that moment, searching the movie release schedule for odd mashups and sending candidates off into the social media void. Most attempts have fizzled (sorry, "Saw Patrol" ).
This weekend is perhaps the closest approximation yet as the Broadway musical adaptation "Wicked" opens Friday against the chest-thumping sword-and-sandals epic "Gladiator II." Two big studio releases (Universal and Paramount), with one-name titles, opposite tones and aesthetics and big blockbuster energy — it was already halfway there before the name game began: "Wickiator," "Wadiator," "Gladwick" and even the eyebrow raising "Gladicked" have all been suggested.
"'Glicked' rolls off the tongue a little bit more," actor Fred Hechinger said at the New York screening of "Gladiator II" this week. "I think we should all band around 'Glicked.' It gets too confusing if you have four or five different names for it."
As with "Barbenheimer," as reductive as it might seem, "Glicked" also has the male/female divide that make the fan art extra silly. One is pink and bright and awash in sparkles, tulle, Broadway bangers and brand tie-ins; The other is all sweat and sand, blood and bulging... Read More
