Whatever combination of passion, narcissism and bravery swirl to form an actor’s decision to tackle Hamlet must merit a spot in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Short of that, we’ll have to rely on the wondrous Janet McTeer’s star turn in Theresa Rebeck’s spirited, funny new play Bernhardt/Ham…

EXCLUSIVE: YouTube has given a pilot order to It’s a Man’s World (working title), a provocative half-hour comedy taking on gender inequality in the gaming industry. It is written by Smash creator Theresa Rebeck and produced by Christina Wayne’s Assembly Entertainment in association with ITV Studios America. It’s a Man…

EXCLUSIVE: Hard to imagine there will be a hotter film package unveiled at Cannes next week than 355, a large-scale espionage film that Simon Kinberg will direct with an all-star international spy cast of Jessica Chastain, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Fan Bingbing and Lupita Nyong’o. They’ll play international…

ICM Partners has signed TV writer and prolific playwright Theresa Rebeck. She was with CAA. In addition to creating the NBC Broadway-themed drama Smash, Rebeck’s series credits include Dream On, Brooklyn Bridge, L.A. Law, and Third Watch, Law And Order: Criminal Intent and NYPD Blue. Her produced feature films include…

Here’s a familiar scene: One couple has invited another, close friends, for a weekend in the country. As significant amounts of alcohol flow from bottle to glass to lips, conversation turns from spirited to merely loud to acridly inchoate. The most engaged combatants — she of the inviter couple, he of the invitees…

Is Bravo — once upon a time the network of Romeo and Juliet but now the home of Real Housewives of Fill In The Blank — taking a page from its past with one of its new scripted series projects? Fortune, a one-hour drama series script in development, from playwright Theresa Rebeck and exec producers John Wells and…

EXCLUSIVE: Smash, which was just renewed for a second season, will return next fall without its creator/executive producer/showrunner Theresa Rebeck. I’ve learned that Rebeck is stepping down as showrunner of the musical drama after its maiden season. Details about her future involvement with Smash are still being…

Brothers and Sisters showrunner David Marshall Grant has joined NBC’s new drama series Smash as an executive producer. He will help creator/executive producer Theresa Rebeck, a playwright and screenwriter. “I couldn’t have asked for a better partner,” Rebeck said. Based on an idea by Steven Spielberg, Smash chronicles…

EXCLUSIVE: I hear FlashForward alum Jack Davenport will co-star opposite Debra Messing in the NBC hourlong pilot Smash, which was based on an idea by Steven Spielberg. The pilot, from DreamWorks TV and UMS, follows a cross section of characters who come together to put on a Marilyn Monroe musical on Broadway led by…

Former Will & Grace star Debra Messing is returning to NBC as the female lead of  another series project set in New York where the male lead is a gay man. Messing is finalizing a deal to star in NBC’s hourlong pilot Smash, an ambitious drama about the mounting of a Broadway musical, which was based on an idea by Steven…