| 1. HOW SHERATON IS MODERNIZING ITS BRAND: Sheraton, one of Marriott International's legacy hotel brands, isn't known for its trend-setting features, like those of sister brand W Hotels. But after Marriott and Starwood's merger, the hospitality company has committed to making Sheraton more modern and appealing, with changes that include an updated logo. Adweek: "But fixing up Sheraton is work Marriott had nonetheless committed itself to. Last summer, it unveiled a new Sheraton lobby design and announced the start of a systemwide transformation of the legacy brand. Now comes the latest step in that effort—a new Sheraton logo. Which is a more significant step than it might seem. Though Sheraton’s old logo had been around since the 1970s, it was, and remains, among the most recognizable in the hospitality industry. And because the Sheraton brand had such a deep history—two Harvard classmates founded the hotel chain in 1937—Marriott officials, with a creative assist from Grey New York, were careful how they went about updating its corporate badge."
2. NETFLIX WILL BE ABSENT FROM CANNES FILM FESTIVAL: Despite ongoing negotiations between Netflix and the Cannes Film Festival, the streaming platform, once again, won't have any films screened in or out of the competition this year. Netflix withdrew from last year's Cannes after the festival ruled that films that weren't going to be released in French theaters couldn't compete. Variety: "The ongoing talks between the two sides have been friendly, including a dinner in Los Angeles just over a week ago with Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Scott Stuber and Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux, who was in town for a summit hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press, one insider said. The meeting was one of several held since Netflix and Cannes’ bitter spat before last year’s festival, which led the streamer to take Roma to Venice instead, where it won the Golden Lion. ... The Cannes-Netflix relationship has continued to obsess industry players and journalists, leading some to make fanciful speculations as to how their standoff might end. One scenario entailed an extended local run in French theaters for Cannes award-winning Netflix films before the titles are made available on the streaming service; another suggested that those films be temporarily removed from Netflix’s platform in France for the duration of their theatrical release. But neither of these scenarios is conceivable for local exhibitors, according to a source at the Federation of French Exhibitors."
3. SHOOTING NEAR SXSW LEAVES ONE INJURED: A shooting on Sunday in near South by Southwest's main hub in Austin left one injured and resulted in an arrest. Austin police detained parties involved on 6th Street, which has numerous venues and bars that host festival events. Billboard: "Another shooting took place hours after the 6th Street incident, and Austin police chief Brian Manley briefed the media a few blocks away from that shooting—which took place on 7th Street and involved two parties in vehicles that fled the scene, one injury of a passerby and an eventual altercation with Austin police—early Sunday morning. ... In addition to these two shootings that took place in the early hours of March 17, there were three separate shootings that sent five people to the hospital early Saturday morning (March 16), with one of them also occurring near the epicenter of SXSW." | 