Iron Manfred, Pelosi’s Pincer Movement, Baldwin’s ‘Rust’ Reprisal

Happy Friday and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon memo featuring Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Matthew Belloni digs into David Zaslav’s bombshell epiphany: With frustrations emanating from Wall Street analysts, back-to-back summer box office bombs, and more fresh layoffs on the way at WBD, something needs to change—and now.

Plus, below the fold: Lauren Sherman measures the pressure facing Kim K to bring Skims to market. John Ourand and MLB commish Rob Manfred chew over the league’s headwinds and silver linings. Tara Palmeri charts Nancy Pelosi’s invasion of the Biden bunker. Peter Hamby dissects the remarkable impact of women voters over the age of 50. On Fashion People, Lauren sits down with legendary stylist Paul Cavaco to ruminate on Esquire’s halcyon days, his 16-year run at Allure, and how the industry has changed. On Somebody’s Gotta Win, Tara and Alex Thompson unpack the Dems’ internecine war. And on The Powers That Be, Eriq Gardner joins Peter Hamby to break down a pair of pressing legal developments: Trump’s classified documents case dismissal and Alec Baldwin’s Rust reprisal.

MATTHEW BELLONI

Warner Bros. Discovery’s well-compensated C.E.O. faces the reality of new pressure from Wall Street analysts, box office bombs, a fresh round of layoffs, and no answer for the worsening economics of television, as he contemplates the inevitable: Something big needs to change.

LAUREN SHERMAN

The Kardashians are under pressure to turn their most successful brand into an I.P.O.-ready, multichannel revenue machine that rewards their investors, justifies a $4 billion valuation, and fully supplants Victoria’s Secret—and soon. Can they pull it off?

JOHN OURAND

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred expounds on the pitch-clock, the multiplatform problem, and the challenge of getting Gen Z to love the game.

TARA PALMERI

With pressure mounting in Congress, the long arm of Nancy Pelosi is working through surrogates to bypass Biden’s inner circle and convince him to exit the race with dignity. “Nancy is historically always a first mover on legislation, and Schumer is always a closer,” said a senior Hill source with knowledge of the campaign. “It’s going to be the collective pressure.”