Variety

variety.com — ESPN is laying off nearly 400 employees as it seeks to improve profitability, the company confirmed. In a statement, ESPN said, "We are implementing changes across the company to enhance our continued growth while smartly managing costs. While difficult, we are confident that it will make us more competitive, innovative and productive."

variety.com — 20th Century Fox and Marvel released their second full-length for "The Wolverine" today starring Hugh Jackman. SEE ALSO: 'X-Men' Casts Peter Dinklage as Villain This latest trailer, which will be attached to "Fast & Furious 6″ when it opens this weekend, further explains the story line of Logan aka Wolverine's journey to Japan and amps up the action including an impressive fight set on a bullet train which is sure to be one of the main set pieces of the film.

variety.com — Five minutes into "The Hangover Part III," a giraffe is gruesomely decapitated by a freeway overpass. While this unfortunate event is ultimately tangential to the film's plot, it nonetheless marks its best shot at leaving a lasting legacy, with the phrase "beheading the giraffe" perhaps someday supplanting "jumping the shark" as the cliche of choice to mark a franchise's official descent into pitiable pointlessness.

variety.com — The Weinstein Co. has won rights to "Passengers," the indie sci-fi drama with Keanu Reeves and Reese Witherspoon starring. SEE ALSO: Reese Witherspoon Apologizes for Arrest (VIDEO) The project has been for sale at Cannes with Exclusive Media handling international rights and CAA handling domestic.

variety.com — FX Networks has promoted Julie Piepenkotter to the position of exec veep of research, putting her in charge of program and consumer research for the company's current and upcoming networks. Piepenkotter will oversee research for FX, FXM and FXX. The latter launches September 2.

variety.com — Anne Heche's TV roles have hewn toward the whimsical, and "Save Me" - a half-hour premiering with back-to-back episodes on NBC - is no exception. Echoing the movie "Hello Again" (which makes sense, since at times Heche seems to be channeling Shelley Long of post-"Cheers" vintage), Heche plays a suburban woman who has a spiritual epiphany after a near-death (or was it actual death?)

variety.com — Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist who was a founding member of The Doors, has died. He was 74. Publicist Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald says in a news release that Manzarek died Monday at the RoMed Clinic in Rosenheim, Germany, surrounded by his family. He had been stricken by bile duct cancer.

variety.com — Big cable operators remain unable to shake the stigma of poor service and chronic rate hikes, once again turning in dismal scores for TV service on the American Customer Satisfaction Index that - on average - are lower than any other consumer sector.

variety.com — Dan Petrie Jr. is set to direct indie drama "Dawn Patrol" with Scott Eastwood and Jeff Fahey starring. Project was announced at Cannes, where Red Sea Media is handling international sales. Petrie will produce with Rick Dugdale through their Enderby Entertainment banner along with Eastwood.

variety.com — The specter of cord-cutting has finally caught up to American pay TV providers, which have suffered their first net loss of subscribers over a 12-month period, according to an analysis by Leichtman Research Group. The research firm found that the 13 biggest U.S.