Emily St. Martin
Emily St. Martin covers the intersection of breaking Hollywood news, celebrity accountability and contemporary book culture for the Los Angeles Times. She is an entertainment reporter on the Fast Break Desk and also writes for the Books desk, moving between fast-moving industry stories and more reflective literary pieces. Her beat is defined by how off-screen events, public controversies and new books reshape the stories people tell about fame, gender and power. Before joining the paper, she built a wide freelance portfolio and worked in senior digital features roles, experience that shows in the range of formats she uses, from quick news explainers to long-form reported essays.
Breaking Hollywood news and industry fallout
St. Martin’s daily reporting tracks how decisions in Hollywood ripple through audiences, careers and brands. She covers rapid-fire industry developments such as the shelving of the Madonna biopic planned to star Julia Garner, explaining the creative and business dynamics behind high-profile projects that stall or vanish.
In coverage of television and streaming, she writes pieces like her clarification that “The Last of Us” is not canceled, unpacking renewal plans and production timelines so readers understand what is actually happening behind confusing headlines and online speculation.
She reports on personality-driven shifts in television, including Judge Judy’s retirement and the planned handoff of her courtroom franchise to her son, situating the move within the long arc of reality court TV. When brands collide with cultural fault lines, she covers stories such as Converse apologizing after an ad drew criticism for imagery likened to the Ku Klux Klan, documenting the corporate response and the broader backlash around representation and marketing. Her Fast Break work is tightly focused on what changed, who is affected next and how online culture responds, giving a clear, current picture of the entertainment ecosystem.
Books, authors and cultural memory
Alongside breaking entertainment news, St. Martin writes deeply reported pieces for the Books desk that treat literature as a record of cultural memory and identity. In her interview with Gabrielle Korn about the novel “Long Island Girls,” she frames the book as a millennial time capsule, foregrounding details like American Apparel, AIM and early-Internet angst to show how fiction preserves a specific generational mood.
She distills complex nonfiction into accessible entry points, as in her “5 takeaways” piece on Charles Spencer’s book about his sister Diana, selecting key themes that connect royal history to contemporary understandings of grief, image-making and family dynamics. Her feature on Gloria Steinem’s undercover work as a Playboy bunny revisits a landmark piece of reporting to explain how that assignment changed labor conditions and opened doors for other women writers, tying past journalism to current debates over workplace equity and media representation.
Across these pieces, she treats authors and books as part of the same cultural circuit as film and television, showing how stories on the page help explain shifts in public conversation.
Celebrity, crime and public accountability
A distinct strand of St. Martin’s coverage follows legal cases, violence and loss in and around the entertainment world. She reports on courtroom outcomes such as the sentencing of actor Nick Pasqual to 32 years to life for the attempted murder of makeup artist Allie Shehorn, detailing the charges, the victim’s experience and the broader concern over intimate-partner violence intersecting with Hollywood. In stories about former child stars like Bobb’e J.
Thompson receiving federal prison sentences, she traces the trajectory from early fame to legal trouble, highlighting how public figures move through the justice system. Her piece on the death of Presley Gerber, Cindy Crawford’s son, focuses on the search for the possible source of drugs and the unfolding investigation, linking celebrity, addiction and law enforcement priorities. She also covers incidents such as a driver arrested after reality TV stars filmed a road-rage attack in Hollywood, documenting how viral video, police action and reality television collide in real time.
These stories are reported with an emphasis on official records, timelines and consequences, treating entertainment figures as participants in public institutions rather than exceptions to them.
Queer and gender narratives in pop culture
St. Martin regularly foregrounds queer, trans and feminist narratives in her entertainment coverage. In her profile of Elliot Page tied to his memoir “Pageboy,” she traces his childhood exploration of gender, family rejection and eventual transition, connecting his personal history to questions of representation and the pressures of Hollywood stardom.
She uses that story to examine how one of the most visible trans men in the world navigates trauma, therapy and renewed self-understanding, while also covering the adaptation of his trans identity into his character on “The Umbrella Academy.” Her revisit of Gloria Steinem’s Playboy bunny reporting places that undercover assignment in a continuum of feminist journalism, emphasizing how one woman’s decision to document degrading working conditions made structural change possible and expanded opportunities for future writers. In theater coverage, her report on Geno Segers exiting “Hadestown” after making comments about transgender people shows how gender politics and public statements can reshape casting, employment and audience response on Broadway and beyond.
Across these pieces, St. Martin treats questions of identity not as side notes but as central forces shaping careers, stories and the cultural record.
St. Martin’s broader career includes contributions to major national and international outlets across news, culture and lifestyle, and past work in digital features editing for a regional news group.
She has written everything from viral first-person essays to cultural critiques and editorials and has been recognized with a first-place editorial award from the L.A. Press Club in 2025.
That mix of breaking news discipline, literary sensibility and experience in opinion writing informs how she selects subjects and frames stories on the entertainment and books beat today.
4 more entertainment journalists.
Aaron Couch
Aaron Couch connects fan-driven genre stories with the business of filmmaking at The Hollywood Reporter, where he is film editor and co-writer of the Heat Vision newsletter. He covers big-budget franchises, comic book properties, horror and genre cinema, studio deals, film development and the producers who shape them. His beat includes trailers, superhero films, franchise strategy, comic-to-film adaptations, production deals and the people behind repeatable genre hits. He has written about Tom Holland’s Spider-Man return, Sony acquiring Michelle Yeoh’s The Surgeon, adaptation interest in a Boston Globe article about lesbian bars, and horror producers Roy Lee and Steven Schneider. He reports on both fandom and industry mechanics, connecting trailers, creators and comics with careers, dealmaking, publicity cycles and franchise stewardship.
Adam Blevins
Adam Blevins tracks how major entertainment projects perform, stall, and evolve across theaters and streaming platforms. He is a senior author at Collider covering film, television, superhero and science-fiction franchises, and gaming-related screen projects. His core beat is box office results, streaming performance, release windows, budgets, production changes, cancellations, sequels, and franchise durability. He has written exclusives involving Avengers: Doomsday, The Penguin, and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. Earlier, he wrote gaming features at Screen Rant and became a senior editor at Agents of Fandom, where he interviewed talent connected to Marvel Studios, House of the Dragon, and Planet of the Apes. He also visited the set of The Chosen. His reporting is high-volume, direct, and data-driven, using metrics, release details, interviews, and production context to explain commercial prospects and fan interest.
Adele Ankers-Range
Adele Ankers-Range is a senior writer at MovieWeb who tracks streaming thrillers, book-to-screen adaptations, and industry announcements through the fan conversations around them. Writing professionally since 2015, she has also contributed to IGN, Sideshow Collectibles, Screen Rant, and other genre-focused brands. Her beat covers new and upcoming film and television titles, especially thrillers, high-concept genre releases, literary franchises, and projects moving from development to release. She reports on teaser reveals, casting, release dates, CinemaCon announcements, platform strategy, and early critical response. Her coverage often uses reception metrics such as Rotten Tomatoes scores to show how a release is landing. She returns to adaptations as they develop, following announcements, talent attachments, marketing, and final release details. Her work is fast, news-driven, concise, and attentive to fan theories, speculation, and the reasons a project matters.
Adrianna Freedman
Adrianna Freedman turns fan-driven TV and streaming moments into fast, service-focused entertainment stories for Good Housekeeping. She covers network dramas, procedurals, Hallmark titles, streaming releases and book-to-screen projects, including renewals, premiere dates, cast news, release timing, platforms and pricing. Her work centers on how developments affect committed viewers. She also reports on daytime hosts and celebrities, covering health updates, family milestones, career changes, social posts and fan response without gossip or speculation. Freedman conducts interviews and writes features on subjects such as personal books, career milestones and awards. She has written for or across Hearst titles including ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health and Town & Country, as well as Prevention and Oprah Daily. Her coverage of television, movies, music and celebrity pop culture uses clear language, concise explainers and direct, headline-driven angles.