Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon medley of Puck’s best new reporting. First up today, Kim Masters charts the cinematic arc of Tom Cruise’s career—from Risky Business, to the infamous Oprah couch-jumping incident, to the secret “project” to rehabilitate his public image, to his heroic efforts to save the theatrical business after the pandemic—as one of the last true movie stars returns to Cannes for the premiere of Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning. The eighth and (likely) final installment in the Mission franchise marks the end of not only the Redstone era at Paramount, but also, perhaps, an era in Hollywood itself… Plus, below the fold: Lauren Sherman considers how The Row can retain its place in the fashion firmament as the “quiet luxury” trend begins to fade. John Ourand chronicles how tariff uncertainty and recession fears are spooking advertisers during New York’s upfronts week. And Abby Livingston digs into the G.O.P.’s shifting internal calculus surrounding Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” Meanwhile, on the pods: Dylan Byers and Julia Alexander join forces on The Grill Room to reveal the biggest themes emanating from the upfronts. John Heilemann rings up Emmy Award–winning documentarian Davis Guggenheim on Impolitic to discuss his new Apple TV+ film and storied career. On Fashion People, Lauren and Sarah Shapiro debate the particular appeals of The Row and Donni. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and Bill Cohan examine the supposed “pause” of Trump’s trade war with China and its ripple effects.

Twenty years since he jumped on Oprah’s butterscotch-yellow couch, a retrospective on the season in which Tom Cruise nearly lost his career—and the brain trust that helped him save it. Read Now

The Row defined the pandemic-adjacent era of TikTok- and Succession-fueled “quiet luxury.” Now, with the trend moving on and a wholesale strategy that’s reliant on beleaguered department stores, the Olsens are facing their next challenge. Read Now

CONGRESS: Protect Community Banks from Credit Card Mandates The Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Mandates will raise costs, limit credit access, and devastate local financial institutions. Credit unions and community banks in all 50 states strongly oppose this bill—and for good reason. It threatens to upend the payments system, harming smaller institutions card programs while corporate megastores like Walmart and Target cash in. Carve-outs don’t work—we’ve seen that before. Congress must reject false promises from retail giants and stand with the nearly 10,000 community-based institutions serving over 140 million Americans. Say NO to Durbin-Marshall.

Live sports may be the last programming category coveted by both linear networks and streamers equally, but given the miasma of confusion on tariffs and the economy, not even the NBA and NFL can get advertisers to throw caution to the wind. Read Now

Republicans are enjoying a sudden reprieve from the looming economic calamity of tariff-induced dislocations and the specter of empty shelves. But there’s still plenty of political pain ahead, from a battle over SALT and Medicaid cuts to nagging fears that the G.O.P. could be in trouble in Texas. Read Now

Julia Alexander reunites with Dylan to explore the key themes emerging from this week’s upfronts in New York, from NBC’s live sports strategy to David Zaslav’s expected decision to spin off WBD’s decaying linear assets. They also consider Fox News’s status as the lone thriving cable news business, and why the NBA might be the best-positioned sports league for the next era of media. Listen Now

CONGRESS: Protect Community Banks from Credit Card Mandates The Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Mandates will raise costs, limit credit access, and devastate local financial institutions. Credit unions and community banks in all 50 states strongly oppose this bill—and for good reason. It threatens to upend the payments system, harming smaller institutions card programs while corporate megastores like Walmart and Target cash in. Carve-outs don’t work—we’ve seen that before. Congress must reject false promises from retail giants and stand with the nearly 10,000 community-based institutions serving over 140 million Americans. Say NO to Durbin-Marshall.

John is joined by the Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentarian Davis Guggenheim to discuss his new film for Apple TV+, Deaf President Now!. Davis also retraces his storied career as a nonfiction director, connecting the dots between his past films—and reveals why getting fired by Denzel Washington from Training Day changed his life, and for the better. Listen Now

Puck’s retail correspondent, Sarah Shapiro, joins Lauren to discuss the latest tariff-war news, the C.E.O. change-up at D.T.C. luggage label Away, and the prospect of a Barneys New York drama series created by the people behind The O.C. and Gossip Girl. They also explore, at length, the appeal of two very different, but very popular, brands worn by plenty of moms on the private school drop-off circuit: Donni and The Row. Listen Now

Bill Cohan joins Peter to unpack Trump’s erratic trade war with China, the ripple effects on the markets, and the chatter on Wall Street about whether MAGA insiders might be profiting from advance knowledge of tariff announcements. Bill also discusses the $400 million jet the Qataris have gifted Trump, as well as the president’s various memecoin and crypto dealings. Listen Now

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