Netflix–Paramount Meddling & NBC Sports’s Survival Guide

Trump’s Comms Crisis, Hollywood’s Theater Horrors, Wall Street’s Iran Bump

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to Puck’s best new reporting. Here’s what you need to know…

What I’m Hearing: The “Block the Merger” open letter opposing Paramount’s Warner Bros. acquisition has 3,000 Hollywood signatures—and there’s some potentially suspicious financing behind it. Eriq Gardner investigates whether Netflix is actually astroturfing the protest. [Read More]
The Varsity: NBC has outmaneuvered streamers and signed multibillion-dollar sports rights deals despite all the doomsayers heralding the demise of broadcast television. John Ourand shares his exclusive interview with NBC Sports’s Jon Miller about the network’s strategy for surviving the streaming age. [Inner Circle Exclusive]
The Best & The Brightest: Exclusive polling data reveals voters’ profound confusion surrounding Trump’s Iran “excursion”: 22 percent of voters believe the war is about nukes, 20 percent say it’s about oil, and 13 percent think it’s merely a show of power. Peter Hamby parses the White House’s self-made comms crisis. (And how the feud with Pope Leo is landing with voters, too…) [Read More]
The Hidden Layer: Maine Gov. Janet Mills has until Friday to sign, or veto, the country’s first moratorium on A.I. data centers—and she’s been conspicuously silent about her looming decision. Ian Krietzberg breaks down why Democrats, including Mills, have been grappling with this high-stakes question. [Read More]
Wall Power: The Fondation Louis Vuitton just opened a major 300-work Alexander Calder retrospective in Paris, capturing the art world’s imagination. Marion Maneker annotates the catalogue and the show’s provocative subtext. [Read More]
Line Sheet: About nine months after Ty Haney returned to Outdoor Voices—the brand she founded, then lost, then watched get run into the ground—her first major move is selling the brand’s renowned exercise dress at Sam’s Club for $22. Malique Morris offers an inside look at the headwinds facing OV’s Haney II era. [Read More]

Meanwhile, on the pods…

The Town: Matt Belloni sits down with producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Emma Thomas, and Cinema United C.E.O. Michael O’Leary, to discuss their deepest fears about the state of the entertainment industry. [Listen Here]
The Powers That Be: Peter Hamby rings up Bill Cohan to assess the disconnect between Main Street’s economic anxiety and seemingly unshakeable optimism on Wall Street. [Listen Here]

HOLLYWOOD

Eriq Gardner

WarnerMount vs. The Gathering Storm

Suspicions are building inside Paramount and beyond that Netflix is astroturfing Hollywood’s “Block the Merger” campaign and engaging with regulators about the deal. Netflix denies it all—but the growing push to kill WarnerMount is very real.

SPORTS

John Ourand

NBC’s Miller Time

An exclusive conversation with NBC Sports’s Jon Miller about the network’s recent multibillion-dollar sports rights investments, the stunning durability of broadcast television, competing with trillion-dollar streaming giants, and plenty more.

WASHINGTON

Peter Hamby

Trump’s Brain Fog of War

Exclusive new polling finds that Americans have no idea what the president is trying to achieve in Iran—probably because he keeps changing the story, himself. And they’re not thrilled about his war with the pope, either.

A.I.

Ian Krietzberg

The Data Center Debate Cannot Hold

Maine’s Democratic governor is weighing the nation’s first statewide ban on new data centers amid soaring electricity prices. But not everyone in the party thinks the A.I. backlash is good politics—and it might be even worse policy.

ART

Marion Maneker

Alexander the Great

The new Alexander Calder retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton reminds us that the artist was a true revolutionary before he became a mainstream staple. It also shows off the influence and market activity of the Calder Foundation, where the artist’s grandson is still calling the shots.

FASHION

Malique Morris

Outdoor Vox Populi

Ty Haney returned to Outdoor Voices last summer to relaunch the brand and, if all went according to plan, surpass $100 million in annual sales. Now its exercise dress is sold in Sam’s Club at a huge markdown. The new owner says that is a good thing.

HOLLYWOOD

Matthew Belloni

What Scares Hollywood’s Top Producers the Most About the State of Movies

Live from CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Matt is joined by producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Emma Thomas and Cinema United C.E.O. Michael O’Leary to discuss the petition to block Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros., the impact of P.V.O.D. and S.V.O.D. on the theatrical industry, the benefits of working with a major studio, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners deal, and what scares them the most about the state of the industry right now.

WASHINGTON

Peter Hamby

William D. Cohan

The Powers that Be Daily, Starring Peter Hamby

Wall Street’s Iran Bump

Bill Cohan joins Peter to make sense of Wall Street’s latest head-scratcher—big banks posting record profits, even as an Iran-driven energy shock accelerates inflation and sends gas prices climbing. What’s driving the disconnect between economic anxiety on the ground and seemingly unshakeable optimism on Wall Street?

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