‘Wait, wait. Sorry for interrupting but let me stop you there. This idea of AUs gathering to ‘socialize’ as you put it, is fanciful.’ // ‘To Love and Drive in L.A.’, a story by David Cleden
SPINE-Design Studio Milk & Bone's Designer Alicia Raitt Re-Imagines All 14 of Kurt Vonnegut’s Book Covers to Celebrate His 100th Birthday
Today (11th November 2022) is the anniversary of Kurt Vonnegut’s 100th birthday, and tonight, a collection of Plymouth artists will present ‘Kurt Vonnegut, Centenary Celebration’, an exhibition featuring poetry, art, music and film inspired by the novels of this legendary author. As part of the col
Rick Scott’s Potential Mutiny & More D.C. High School Lunch Table Chatter
The post-midterm inside conversion roiling top operatives’ DMs, text threads, phone lines, and the best tables at Le Dip: Rick Scott’s potential mutiny, Biden realism, Trump’s vice, Ronny euphoria, primary clues, and much, much more.
Writers are angrier than ever, and ready to strike. But between the industry’s streaming arms race and stock market woes, those studio water towers aren’t exactly overflowing with champagne these days. Look out below.
Sans Wolf Blitzer and his “key race alerts,” CNN lost the overall ratings battle to MSNBC on election night. It’s a sign that an era keeps ending, of course, but also that the executives in charge haven’t yet figured out how to create the next one.
The plunging value of entertainment companies presents terrible options: limit streaming spending too much and you risk being left behind; go all in and you risk spending yourself out of business. Is there a magical middle ground?
Next week, the Republican conference will likely add new members who make Marjorie Taylor Greene look like a soccer mom. “I’d say we have a good floor of about 40 hardcore MAGA members,” predicted one insider. What’s Kevin McCarthy to do?
In the last 72 hours, at least twenty CNN employees (on-air talent, rank-and-file staff, and more) have called or texted me, many of them unsolicited, to convey that things have never been worse.
Girls5Eva, a Tina Fey-produced comedy that struggled to break into the zeitgeist at Peacock, was the perfect target for Netflix as it down-shifts from high-budget originals to ad-friendly comfort food. It’s also evidence of a new and sophisticated audience retention tactic to turn network castoffs into global hits.
News and notes on the inside conversation percolating throughout Wall Street: what Elon’s bankers will do with the debt, Apple’s earnings, and the CS First Boston prayer.
A producer’s plea to auteurs (and streamers and “value”-craving audiences) to reconsider run times as both the year-end Oscar contenders and blockbusters try everyone’s patience, even as attention spans are shortening.
The Will Smith Image Rehab Tour, Sponsored By Apple
If anyone wonders whether there are consequences in Hollywood for bad behavior, just juxtapose Smith’s seamless redemption tour for Emancipation with what people were saying about him after the Slap at the Oscars.
Who’s in? Who’s out? Where’s Javanka, and whether to expect cameos from Hope, Bannon, Miller, Stepien, and more? Plus, a special bonus edition of midterm fears on the right and left.
CNN staffers are in a panic over forthcoming layoffs, pining for Zucker, and waiting for the next shoe to drop. The party line is “right-sizing,” but Licht and Zaslav’s new approach—a smaller digital footprint, fewer original series and films, cross-functional consolidation—appears to reflect a growing delta between the CNN they inherited and what they want it to be.
An illuminating conversation with Jason Rezaian, the Iranian-American journalist and former hostage of the Rouhani regime, about the hijab revolution, the response in Bidenworld, and the deepening alliance between Tehran and the Kremlin.
Many on Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue assume that Janet Yellen will conclude her extraordinary career in public service—N.E.C., the Fed, Treasury!—after the midterms. So who will Biden appoint as his next Treasury Secretary? Some guesses and informed speculation…
Paul Newman’s Warring Heirs & Metaverse Estate Planning
The late Hollywood heartthrob turned salad-dressing entrepreneur left behind a billion-dollar food empire and very, very specific instructions for his estate. But even the best laid plans can go awry when there’s money on the line.