Nobody will be keener to see the success of the BBC‘s reboot of Gladiators than TV executive Dan Baldwin — also known as Mr Holly Willoughby.
Not only is he making the show for the Beeb via his company Hungry Bear, he has also pulled a shrewd move by setting up a talent agency to represent all the new stars he hopes it will create.
This ‘brand-new generation of superhumans’ (that’s according to the Beeb) have been signed up to the HB agency, which was quietly set up by Baldwin in June, just before the show was filmed.
So far, Steel, Viper, Sabre, Fire, Bionic, Legend, Diamond, Athena, Apollo, Dynamite, Nitro and Giant are on board — which is 12 out of the total of 16.
They are athletes, bodybuilders and sporting stars who will become familiar to viewers as they battle members of the public during the show, which will go out later this autumn.
The couple met in 2004 when Dan (pictured: left) was a producer on the Ministry Of Mayhem show and Holly was a presenter
This ‘brand-new generation of superhumans’ (that’s according to the Beeb) have been signed up to the HB agency, which was quietly set up by Baldwin in June
The news means that Baldwin can make money from successes the show’s stars have outside of Gladiators, if they sign advertising deals, appear in other programmes, make personal appearances and so forth. A 25 per cent cut would be standard.
In a similar way, Simon Cowell made money from the successes of the X Factor recording artists, whom he signed to his record label.
It also means Holly and Dan have his ‘n’ hers talent agencies.
Holly Willoughby, a stalwart of This Morning, left her long-time agency YMU in August 2020 to set up her own company, Roxy Management. She remains Roxy’s sole client.
There was a legal battle with her old agents, which was settled finally in the summer of 2022. That has left her free from the ‘sunset clause’ which would have seen YMU taking a cut of her future earnings.
Baldwin’s Hungry Bear Media is a highly successful production company which was founded in 2014. Other shows it makes include Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, The Wheel and Freeze The Fear With Wim Hof.
Latest accounts show that in the year to December 2021 it had net assets of £256,000 — a sharp fall compared with £1.8 million the previous year, due no doubt to the disruption caused by the Covid pandemic. It was said that the company claimed £10,000 in furlough payments.
Holly is said to be worth around £10 million after her successful career on daytime TV.
Holly Willoughby, a stalwart of This Morning, left her long-time agency YMU in August 2020 to set up her own company, Roxy Management
The couple met in 2004 when Dan was a producer on the Ministry Of Mayhem show and she was a presenter.
They were married in 2007 and have three children.
They live in South-West London and have a second home in Portugal.
Willoughby has been presenting This Morning alongside a roster of other co-hosts since her ‘best friend’ Phillip Schofield quit the show earlier this year. He said that he’d had an ‘unwise’ and brief relationship with a runner on the programme, and apologised for lying to conceal it.
Gladiators — a UK version of an American show — was made by LWT for ITV and ran from 1992 to 2000. Presenters included Ulrika Jonsson — who famously had a fling with Gladiator Hunter, real name James Crossley.
Temple, the Sky drama series set in the tunnels beneath a London Underground station, has been axed. Says an insider: ‘Sky felt they had taken the story of surgeon Daniel Milton, played by Mark Strong, as far as they could over two series and the show won’t be coming back.’ The hard-edged thriller, which was based on the Norwegian series Valkyrien, starred Strong — agent Merlin in the Kingsman movies — as a doctor trying to save his dying wife, who sets up an illicit medical clinic in a bunker underneath Temple station.
British film director Gareth Edwards jokes that we have about ‘a month’ before the AI apocalypse, as depicted in his film The Creator, is upon us.
Edwards, who also directed Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, said: ‘I think the trick with AI is to get the timing right — there’s a sweet spot where it’s before the robot apocalypse and not after, which I think is in November, or maybe December.
‘When you write a film, especially a science fiction film, you try to avoid putting in a date. But at some point you have to, so I picked 2070. Now I feel like an idiot because I should have gone for 2023.’
British film director Gareth Edwards jokes that we have about ‘a month’ before the AI apocalypse, as depicted in his film The Creator, is upon us
He added: ‘When I started writing this it was 2018 and it did feel back then like this was 30 years away. But when we were filming, we were in the middle of the jungle and I looked at my phone and there was a whistleblower account from one of the big tech companies, thinking that the AI had become self-aware.’
The premiere of the Netflix Beckham documentary will be big news next week — there is a screening in Mayfair followed by a party at The Twenty Two hotel for David Beckham… and his wife Victoria and their family will be front and centre.
But don’t hold your breath for a Spice Girls reunion. Neither Geri nor Mel B will be there, and Mel C is also looking ‘unlikely’. Emma Bunton will attend, though.
But don’t hold your breath for a Spice Girls reunion as neither Geri nor Mel B will be there, and Mel C is also looking ‘unlikely’ – Emma Bunton will attend, though
Sandra who? After the Oscars, you’ll know!
German actress Sandra Huller, 45, is shaping up to be the woman of the moment at the 2024 Oscars. Zone Of Interest, in which she plays the wife of a Nazi camp commandant, is the UK entry in the International Film category.
She is also being tipped for a Best Actress nomination for Anatomy Of A Fall, in which she plays a novelist accused of killing her husband. The two films were premiered in Cannes this year, with Anatomy taking the Palme D’Or — and Zone Of Interest, based on the Martin Amis novel, winning the runner-up Grand Prix.
German actress Sandra Huller, 45, is shaping up to be the woman of the moment at the 2024 Oscars
Her dog in Anatomy Of A Fall is also in world-conquering form. Border collie Messi plays a pivotal role in the film as family pooch Snoop and won the Palme Dog, a just-for-fun contest in Cannes.
And they’re off! The awards race hots up, despite strike
Did anyone hear a starting gun? This month’s Vogue has landed with a heavy thud . . . and with Leonardo DiCaprio and his Killers Of The Flower Moon co-star Lily Gladstone gracing the cover. Inside the pair talk about the film, which also stars Robert De Niro, in detail, over 11 pages.
The magazine observes that they ‘lead the season’ — the awards season, of course. Yes, March is a long way off, but everyone is thinking about the Oscars already.
The two stars give interviews conducted before the strike, and pose in finery, styled by editor Edward Enninful in a shoot also undertaken before July. But with the publicity being printed deep into the industrial action, some might see it as a rather cynical circumvention.
Meanwhile, the film’s director, Martin Scorsese, will be in London to support the movie when it has its UK premiere next Saturday, as part of the BFI’s London Film Festival.
This month’s Vogue has landed with a heavy thud . . . and with Leonardo DiCaprio and his Killers Of The Flower Moon co-star Lily Gladstone gracing the cover
He is going to give a talk to a selected audience — as are fellow film-makers Greta Gerwig and Sofia Coppola. All three will be part of Oscars conversations with their respective films (Gerwig for Barbie and Coppola for Priscilla). Directors are allowed to talk, but actors not — at least not until the strike is resolved.
The festival opens with Saltburn, written and directed by Emerald Fennell of Promising Young Woman fame. The Brideshead-meets-Talented-Mr-Ripley tale divided audiences at Telluride Film Festival, with one critic calling it laborious, puerile and empty — although the performance of its star, Barry Keoghan, was generally lauded.
Presenter Dermot O’Leary has revealed he turned down Strictly Come Dancing because it’s too physically demanding.
He said: ‘It’s brutal. I’m good friends with (current contestant) Angela Scanlon — that poor girl! You know when people do the Marathon des Sables [an ultra-marathon in the Sahara]? She’s going through that now.’
He added: ‘I had a lunch a couple of years ago, because the people that work on it are good friends. But it’s just not a burning desire for me.’
Phoebe’s millions saved by deal
Some girls have all the luck! I hear Phoebe Waller-Bridge was told her £60 million Amazon deal would be suspended — less than a week before the writers’ strike was resolved, meaning she won’t be affected after all.
Waller-Bridge initially signed up to develop, write — and possibly star in — high-profile TV series in 2019
Waller-Bridge initially signed up to develop, write — and possibly star in — high-profile TV series in 2019, when she was super-hot thanks to the international success of Fleabag.
That deal was renewed in January, even though she hadn’t gone into production on anything — a circumstance blamed on a combination of Covid and her ‘perfectionism’.
Earlier this month, with the writers’ strike in its fourth month, many of the biggest names in telly saw their deals put on ice, including Donald Glover, her stablemate at Amazon.
But happily that’s all now resolved.
Meanwhile, I hear that she absolutely IS engaged to film-maker Martin McDonagh — but absolutely will not be talking about it, and has asked her friends to keep their mouths shut, too.
Film’s king of camp cosies up to Saudis
Surprise and dismay has greeted the announcement that long-time LGBTQ+ ally Baz Luhrmann will be the president of the jury of the Red Sea International Film Festival — held in repressive Saudi Arabia.
Luhrmann, who is married to costume designer Catherine Martin but has declined to categorize himself as ‘straight’ and whose over-the-top aesthetic has seen him reign as the king of camp cinema, will be in Jeddah from November 30.
There he will undertake publicity and judging duties for the festival, which is run by a foundation chaired by the Saudi culture minister.
Critics regard it as a part of the regime’s ‘arts-washing’ and ‘sports-washing’, in which glamorous international events are held in order to distract from human rights abuses. Homosexuality remains a crime punishable by death in the kingdom. Cinema itself was banned in Saudi until 2017.
A spokesperson for Human Rights Watch told me: ‘For a number of years the Saudi government has been using this high-profile festival as a means by which to draw attention from its egregious human rights record — and they are continuing to do this.
Luhrmann is married to costume designer Catherine Martin but has declined to categorize himself as ‘straight’
Earlier this month Luhrmann (left) attended Vogue World in London on the arm of close pal Edward Enninful (right), the gay editor-in-chief of British Vogue
‘It is deeply concerning that this festival is engaging powerful artists and performers and celebrities who have made use of freedom of expression through their art and yet are participating in a festival which is hosted by the government which does not tolerate that freedom.’
The message to Luhrmann from the charity is: ‘If you must go, then use your platform to raise awareness about the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia.’
Luhrmann’s publicist has not returned requests for comment. In a statement he said: ‘It’s an honour to be presiding over this year’s Red Sea International Film Festival Jury, alongside leading and emerging lights in the industry, and to be part of the evolution of change happening through cinema across the Arab region, Asia and Africa.’
Earlier this month Luhrmann attended Vogue World in London on the arm of close pal Edward Enninful, the gay editor-in-chief of British Vogue.
Last year’s festival president was Oliver Stone. He caused outrage when he said that the imprisonment of Julian Assange was worse than ‘cutting someone up’, a reference to the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the behest of the Saudi regime.
The financing arm of the festival backed Johnny Depp film Jean du Barry and his forthcoming picture Modi, about the artist Modigliani. Funds were also directed to the Netflix film Ferrari, starring Adam Driver, and Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
