Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon digest of Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Ian Krietzberg investigates what’s really going on with the flurry of subpoenas that OpenAI has been issuing amid Sam Altman’s legal war with Elon Musk, who sued the company last year to prevent it from becoming a for-profit business. With hundreds of billions riding on OpenAI’s restructuring, is this standard legal procedure—or something more calculated?

Plus, below the fold: Peter Hamby connects the dots between Gavin Newsom’s redistricting push and the governor’s ’28 ambitions. Eriq Gardner charts the latest beats in the A.I. copyright wars and their implications for Hollywood. Marion Maneker reveals how the major auction houses are gearing up for London’s Frieze art week. Sarah Shapiro considers whether the beloved shirtmaker Charvet can resist the industry’s obsession with growth. And exclusively for Inner Circle members, Julia Alexander evaluates whether we’ve reached the apex of the athlete-owned media company trend cycle.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Matt Belloni rings up Apple S.V.P. Eddy Cue on The Town to discuss the tech giant’s true Hollywood ambitions. On The Varsity, New York Times sports business reporter Ken Belson joins John Ourand to discuss his new book on the NFL and the league’s cultural dominance. And on The Powers That Be, Peter and Leigh Ann Caldwell consider Marjorie Taylor Greene’s mercurial politics and Stephen Miller’s ascendance within the second Trump administration.

A.I.

In the wake of OpenAI’s countersuit against Elon Musk, Sam Altman’s company has sent a flurry of subpoenas to nonprofits asking for information about their funding sources, among other things. Is this a pro forma byproduct of their legal battle with Musk—or an intimidation tactic?

WASHINGTON

Democrats have poured more than $140 million into the off-cycle ballot initiative to gerrymander California, counter Trump’s efforts to manipulate the midterms, and—perhaps most importantly—hand Gavin Newsom the political trophy he needs to cement his status as the presumptive Democratic frontrunner in 2028. But there are plenty of voters who don’t trust Gavin, too.

HOLLYWOOD

One area of the law likely to draw more fire is the messy question of who has legal standing to object to A.I. outputs—an issue inflamed, of course, by OpenAI’s unveiling of Sora 2, which sent Hollywood into a familiar panic, scrambling to figure out how to opt out.

ART

Now in its third decade, London’s Frieze art fair occupies a different world than it once did, as New York and Paris have taken on greater importance for auctions. Now the major houses are rethinking what London is for.

FASHION

In an era of endless expansion, private equity fervor, and imitation luxury, sometimes the most radical business strategy is simply refusing to grow.

SPORTS

Athlete-owned sports media companies, and video podcasts in particular, have become legit competitors to the mainstream sports media ecosystem in the fragmented, omni-channel media universe. But have we reached Peak McAfee?

HOLLYWOOD

Matt is joined by Apple senior vice president of services Eddy Cue to discuss all things Apple in Hollywood, including the latest momentum for the studio after big hits like Severance, The Studio, and F1; the business model of the streaming service; whether the company would ever bolster its library by acquiring a studio; its interest in sports rights; its commitment to releasing movies theatrically; and whether Apple is serious about sticking around in Hollywood for the long term.

SPORTS

Ken Belson, The New York Times’s longtime sports business reporter, swings by the pod to discuss his new book on the NFL’s gargantuan and many-tentacled business, aptly titled Every Day Is Sunday: How Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft, and Roger Goodell Turned the NFL Into a Cultural & Economic Juggernaut. They break down the league’s long arc to cultural dominance and whether anything can derail its success.

WASHINGTON

Leigh Ann Caldwell joins Peter Hamby to discuss Marjorie Taylor Greene’s whiplash-inducing pivot from QAnon-adjacent wingnut to Obamacare-curious economic populist. Is she reinventing herself for a 2028 presidential run, or just impossible to pin down? Then they turn to Stephen Miller, the Rasputin-like architect of Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda, and why Republicans are privately uneasy about his metastasizing influence inside the White House.

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