Hollywood Week: Skydance Announces Restructure, Savannah Guthrie, Russell Brand, David Walliams, Stacy Keach

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Category: Haute This Issue

Published on Saturday, 14 November 2026 11:09

Written by Janet Walker

Skydance Corporation recently addressed the ongoing restructuring which includes cost-cutting measures across all silos, including reducing technology spend, corporate expenses, and managerial redundancies while maintaining a commitment to quality programming and the court-mandated thirty films per year.  

Skydance Plans to Slash Debt

While Skydance managed to prevail in the acquisition of the Warner Bros. Discovery, which comprised the storied Warner Bros Studio, plus multiple other film and television studios, streaming assets, secondary cable channels, news and media organizations, and many franchise rights, the $80 billion net debt is forcing the compression of assets to cut the expected $6 billion annually.

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Integration of Oracle

"The company also will spend about $4 billion this year on technology and is planning to reduce that by about $1.4 billion. The savings will be achieved by "unifying our enterprise tech stack, streaming ecosystem and broadcast architecture, merging parallel technology functions, leveraging AI coding tools and integrating platforms and systems," the executives said in their letter," The Los Angeles Times reported.

As Skydance CEO David Ellison is the son of Oracle founder, Larry Ellison, the idea that Oracle's technology system would favor heavily in any technological restructuring or cost-cutting efforts would seem like a forgone conclusion.

With the vast entertainment ecosystem now under the Skydance banner, and the $80 billion debt sore that remains the chief point of criticism, the integration of Oracle Systems, even at the rumored $100 million dollar price tag, and will clearly contribute to the expected $1.4 billion in technology savings.

Reducing Redundancies

Restructuring any corporation usually signals a need for debt consolidation, reducing redundancies, and while Ellison has maintained selling off underperforming assets is not an option, currently, the need to trim $8 billion of operating costs over the next year, may not be achievable through the expressed strategy.

With two complete studios, each possessing hundreds of secondary level assets, the managerial redundancies are layered, and part of the addressed restructuring reductions. Ellison expects to employee a similar tested strategy used at Paramount Studios, which resulted in higher than expected revenue

"As we integrate the businesses, we are applying the playbook we ran at Paramount: testing earlier, tailoring our marketing-and-release strategy to the size of each opportunity, enhanced with real-time market data, and strengthening the slate we greenlight," Ellison and [Ynon] Kreiz wrote. "That approach served us well at Paramount," they wrote, adding that Paramount's 2026 slate was on track to generate a half-billion dollars more in profit compared with 2025's film mix," The Los Angeles Times reported.

Ellison and Kreiz further explained their method would include a "disciplined approach to content spending" and expected to spend at minimum $30 billion for "handcrafted storytelling." While not excluding the use of AI, which will become an integral part of some portion of this business model, to date the use of AI does not included generative AI use in creative endeavors.

The Squeeze is On

The film industry, over all, continues to experience a contraction as all major studios are offering early buyouts and retirement packages to long term employees. The ills that the industry confronted six months ago, continued to aggregate and the same costs necessary to film in Los Angeles, and the surrounding area, have increased. Filmmaking remains a challenge, both on the creative and business side. Lower filming costs in regions outside of major cities, equates to a lower overall budget, which allows for the potential of greater theatrical reward.

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Savannah Guthrie Reups with NBC

Savannah Guthrie, co-host of NBC's Today Show, has extended her contract with the network. Guthrie's contract was set to expire at the end of 2026.

Guthrie, whose mother, Nancy Guthrie, 84, was abducted February 1, 2026, by a masked intruder from her Tucson, Arizona, home. The family received two ransom notes, and the celebrity status of Ms. Guthrie, brought a large contingency of state, local, and federal law enforcement officers. After the two immediate ransom notes, no further communication was received.

It is believed that the elder Guthrie, who had mobility issues and needed daily heart medication, died soon after the abduction.

Even as the Guthrie's children, Savannah, Annie, and Charles publicly pleaded for the return of their mother's remains, with elder Guthrie's presumed death, the kidnapper lost any leverage, and further communication would only lead to the possibility of arrest. It is also possible the kidnapper has been arrested for some other crime and is currently incarcerated, which could account for the lack of effort to capitalize on the tragedy.

Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and Al Roker will co-host the 100th Macy's Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, scheduled to kick-off Thursday November 26, 2026 at 8:30 AM EST. The parade will be broadcast live on NBC and will stream live on Peacock.

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Comedian Russell Brand Found Guilty, Sentenced

With the sentencing of comedian Russell Brand, after the British comedian was found guilty of rape, to over ten years in a UK prison, the days of celebrities escaping justice is waning.

On the heels of Brand's conviction and sentencing David Walliams, a British TV personality and co-host on Britain's Got Talent, was outed by The Guardian, as "The Metropolitan police have launched a criminal investigation into David Walliams over alleged serious sexual offences. Walliams, 55, was accused in reports by ITV and the Guardian this week of using his power and celebrity status to prey on young women and teenagers for sex. He has denied any wrongdoing, being a sexual predator or breaking the law."

The allegations date back to the 2000's and the Metropolitan police have urged any person who has experienced an incident that made them uncomfortable, was sexual in nature, or involved unwanted touching, hugging, or graphic pictures, images.

For the remainder of the population who believed that they could surf the coattails of celebrities and escape justice, the day of reckoning is quickly approaching.

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Stacy Keach, Golden Globe Winning Actor, Dies

Stacy Keach, who television fans will remember as the tough and tender fedora wearing detective Mike Hammer, died this week in his home in Poland. He was 85.

Born with distinctive features and a cleft palette birth defect, which required extensive surgeries, leaving a visible scar, Keach would not be dissuaded from following his dream, which may have been mixed with a desire to defy his parents expressed wishes that he not pursue acting.

As his story is told, he took risks, early in his career. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, he furthered his dramatic arts education at Yale School of Drama.

"Frustrated by what he considered the antiquated Yale curriculum, Keach moved to London, where he immersed himself in the works of Shakespeare with the specific goal of becoming an American interpreter of the Bard's work. Upon his return to the U.S., Stacy quickly captured the eye of Joseph Papp, the legendary producer-director of New York's Public Theater. Keach was soon on his way to becoming the most accomplished Shakespearean actor of his generation," The Los Angeles Daily News reported.

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Keach, who possessed an impressive professional resume, with 220 film and television credits spanning seven decades, as well as credits for writing and directing, was born into a theatrical family; his father, Walter Stacy Keach, Sr., was the director at the Pasadena Playhouse theater.

With this type of background and in-depth knowledge of the arts, and training, and even with his contributions across the arts, ultimately securing those star-making roles is totally dependent on a third party.

"On the verge of movie stardom in the 1970s, he was offered the starring role of Father Damien Karras in "The Exorcist," only to have his agent blow the deal during contract negotiations. The part went to Jason Miller. He then lost out to Jack Nicholson for the role of McMurphy in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."' The New York Times wrote.

Losing those roles redefined how Keach approached his profession, it was no longer based on pixie dust promises from agents or others in control, Keach decided to work, to work on what was offered, and if he liked the role, or if the location was inviting, than he decided working was what was most important and waiting was not only draining but debilitating.

Of all the contributions Stacy Keach left the arts, his sound wisdom on working may be what is most remembered.

Keach is survived by his wife, Małgosia Tomassi, and daughter, Shannon.

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Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five award-winning screenplays "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," a non-fiction narrative, "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," and "Songs of Freedom: A Collection of Biblical Teachings," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Authors Guild, the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.