Latest in Serena Williams

UPDATE, 10:56 PM: The tennis rackets and tensions have come down in the lawsuit over Will Smith’s film about the life and legacy of Serena Williams and Venus Williams’ father. Less than two months after TW3 Entertainment and Power Move Multi Media filed a breach of contract complaint against Smith’s loan-out company, R…

A group led by some of the biggest names in Hollywood and women’s soccer have joined with financiers including Alexis Ohanian, Kara Nortman and gaming entrepreneur Julie Uhrman to secure rights to bring a National Women's Soccer League team to Los Angeles in spring 2022. Investors in the expansion franchise, dubbed…

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and husband of Serena Williams, has resigned from the company’s board and is recommending his spot be taken by a black candidate. In addition, Ohanian wrote in a blog post that he would use future gains on his Reddit shares “to serve the black community, chiefly to curb racial…

Care to see Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Naomi Osaka, Kei Nishikori and Maria Sharapova play tennis this week? IMG said Wednesday that eight of its top tennis clients will face off via the Mario Tennis Aces game exclusively for Nintendo Switch. They will be joined in doubles matches by celebrities such as Gigi…

EXCLUSIVE: Jon Bernthal is in negotiations to star as coach Rick Macci in King Richard, the Reinaldo Marcus Green-directed Warner Bros drama about how Richard Williams guided his prodigal tennis playing daughters Venus and Serena from the Compton courts to preeminence in the sport. Will Smith plays Richard Williams…

Nike's controversial “Dream Crazy” commercial, an extension of the brand's “Just Do It” campaign, took the win for outstanding commercial at Sunday’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards. "Dream Crazy" was created out of Wieden & Kennedy Portland and produced out of Park Pictures and Joint Portland. Narrated by former NFL player…

The upset by Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu over superstar Serena Williams at the US Open Women’s tennis tournament propelled the network to a 2.7 overnight rating for its three-hour telecast. That’s ESPN's best for the event and up 13% from a 2.4 year ago, the previous high. The two-hour match portion, which saw…

Last night’s women’s semifinals at the U.S. Open, which saw Serena Williams defeat Ukrainian fifth seed Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-1, earned a 1.6 rating for ESPN. That’s up 14% from a year ago and equals the sports network’s best for that round since 2017 when all four players were Americans. The telecast’s rating peaked…

Snapchat is adding more shows and contributors to its creator community, a list headlined by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Serena Williams. The first of the newly conceived Creator Shows premieres Wednesday, with debuts scheduled through the rest of the summer and into the fall. Also on the Creator Shows roster is…

Warner Bros is looking like the favorite to capture King Richard, a spec script by Zach Baylin that has Will Smith poised to play Richard Williams,  the father of Venus and Serena Williams. This deal will fall in the $60 million budget range, making it as big an auction as we’ve heard of this year, this side of the…

EXCLUSIVE: Even though there were no major tennis tournaments last weekend, the minds of industry leaders were courtside anyway. They were reading King Richard, a spec script by Zach Baylin that has Will Smith poised to play Richard Williams. He is the father of Venus and Serena Williams. Despite having no tennis…

Steve McQueen's female-centric heist movie Widows might be packed with familiar and accomplished women like Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki and Michelle Rodriguez, but magnetic breakout Cynthia Erivo still jumped off the screen in her first ever feature. Erivo is a storied stage actress, and has already won an Emmy, a…