Good morning,

Thanks for reading The Backstory, your weekly review of the best new work from Puck.

It was another fabulous week: Dylan Byers previewed a Zaz-Brian Roberts clash; Matt Belloni and Bill Cohan each advanced the scholarship on the Paramount M&A saga; Lauren Sherman decoded a Marc Jacobs murmur; Tara Palmeri reported on Ivanka’s new and very hush-hush White House dalliance; Marion Maneker got to the bottom of an $86 million art scheme; Teddy Schleifer scooped the former president’s new buddies; and Julia Alexander offered a Baby Reindeer analytics breakdown.

ART WORLD:
Marion Maneker chats with Inigo Philbrick, fresh out of prison, about his plans for a comeback.

WALL STREET:
Bill Cohan digs into the Paramount reckoning.

HOLLYWOOD:
Matt Belloni recalls the Bob Bakish era.
and…
Scott Mendelson previews the 2024 summer box office.
and…
Julia Alexander reverse engineers Netflix’s Baby Reindeer success.

SILICON VALLEY:
Teddy Schleifer breaks the news of Elon’s anti-Biden dinner party.

MEDIA:
Dylan Byers reports on Zaz’s botched NBA bid and Opus One diplomacy.
and…
John Ourand scoops the latest Diamond Sports lifeline from Amazon.

WASHINGTON:
Tara Palmeri gets the readout on Javanka’s new political ambitions.
and…
Tina Nguyen reveals the G.O.P.’s early uncoupling from Israel.
and…
Julia Ioffe gets realpolitikal on the Ukraine funding.
and…
Peter Hamby assesses R.F.K.’s Aaron Rodgers political strategy.
and...
Eriq Gardner previews Hunter Biden’s new legal strategy.

PODCASTS:
Matt and Bill Simmons discuss the NBA rights auction on The Town.
and…
Lauren and Kate Young dish about the Met Gala on her excellent new show, Fashion People.
and…
Tara and Teddy weigh in on Silicon Valley’s new Trump obsession on Somebody’s Gotta Win.
and…
Peter and Julia dig into the Columbia nightmare on The Powers That Be.

Meanwhile, I encourage you to take advantage of our article gifting feature. You can share our work with your colleagues, friends, and family. Subscribers are entitled to 5 article gifts per month.

On some level, Ivanka and Jared Kushner are the world’s least interesting people—attractive, rich, Floridian, vapid, calculating, relatively incurious, and perfect for each other. If they hadn’t been the scions of extraordinary fortune, they’d be just another couple that you nodded at politely, even if you disavowed their politics, during a Mother’s Day brunch run-in at the local country club or maybe your kids’ school fundraiser. Their decision to serve as praetorian guards during the first Trump administration was unprecedented and misguided, sure, but it was also totally unsurprising. Also unsurprising: They didn’t accomplish much, and liked Washington about as much as it liked them. I was hardly flabbergasted, after January 6, when they decided to flee town. In many ways, they seemed like the type of couple, along with Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez, that Miami had been remade to accommodate.

And yet, I won’t pretend to feign disinterest in Ivanka and Jared. I’m from the same generation, and grew up in New York amid the go-go tabloid era that was dominated by Donald and Ivana—and their eventual scorched-earth divorce. I remember the paparazzi photographers hounding Ivanka as she walked into Chapin. And I observed with astonishment, years later, the scandal that engulfed the Kushner real estate dynasty. Meanwhile, I was beginning my career in media when Jared bought the New York Observer. I imagine that these humiliating formative experiences made them both largely impervious to public criticism, and set them up to serve in the most chaotic administration in American history.

As soon as I saw Tara’s note, I rang her up and asked what she was hearing. It was a fascinating tale. Out of the spotlight, but hankering to return, Ivanka was sticking to her public recusal from political life—but she had also begun polling her inner circle about whether she should join the Trump campaign, say, or position herself for a return to the White House. From her reporting, Tara gathered that Ivanka was, in a word, bored. Jared, who has raised billions from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds for his fledgling P.E. shingle, Affinity Partners, would likely remain in the private sector. And, these two being smooth operators, nothing was going to happen until the garish klieg lights of Trump’s legal jeopardy faded. Nevertheless, all the Trumps would likely be photographed together during this weekend’s Formula 1 Grand Prix in Miami, which would only amplify speculation.

Ivanka, Interrupted, Tara’s excellent piece, offers an illuminating encapsulation of the current moment in our politics—both in the G.O.P. and the former president’s family and inner sanctum. Among other insightful details, Tara reports that Melania Trump long ago imagined this scenario and had hoped to entice Kellyanne Conway back into Trumpworld in order to buffer her husband from the influence of the family. Here we go, again…

But if you only have time (or the stomach) to read one piece about the former president this week, I’d turn your attention to Teddy Schleifer’s riveting story, Guess Who’s Coming to Elon’s Dinner. The story is nominally a scoop about Musk’s anti-Biden billionaire dinner party. But on a more cosmic level, it illustrates a rather stunning development within Silicon Valley, where the ruling class is more brazenly announcing their fealty for Trump, their former nemesis. It’s the seed of an intriguing development and significant realignment that is, in so many ways, becoming one of the great stories of our time. And it is, of course, precisely what you should expect to read about in Puck.

Have a great weekend,
Jon