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

First up today, Matt Belloni digs into the latest chatter surrounding who will or won’t (and should or shouldn’t) bid on Warner Bros. Discovery ahead of Thursday’s initial deadline to submit offers. In this final stretch, David Ellison & Co. are making their case directly to David Zaslav, Netflix is expected to enter the race, and Comcast seems bent on pursuing the Streaming and Studios division. Meanwhile, do recent changes to Zaz’s massive compensation package signal how this might all play out?

Plus, below the fold: Lauren Sherman checks in on Phoebe Philo’s namesake fashion experiment. John Ourand considers whether the YouTube TV–Disney dispute set a new paradigm for sports rights battles. John Heilemann chats with Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan about the lessons his party should extract from their off-year elections sweep. And Scott Mendelson foreshadows Glen Powell’s Hollywood trajectory after The Running Man’s underwhelming opening.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Matt reunites with Lucas Shaw on The Town to discuss the historically dreadful fall box office. On The Grill Room, Dylan Byers and Julia Alexander chew over Olivia Nuzzi’s New York Times profile. On Fashion People, Lauren and stylist Kate Young assess the state of the red carpet following Sunday’s Governors Awards. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and Leigh Ann Caldwell break down the metastasizing Epstein drama and the G.O.P.’s healthcare rift.

Finally, if you missed Leigh Ann’s discussion with Kathryn Bigelow about her new political thriller, A House of Dynamite, presented in partnership with Netflix, you can find a recap of the conversation here.

With bids for the Warner Discovery media empire due soon, the Paramount leaders explained to David Zaslav’s team why their plan is better than others.

Two years into her big experiment launching an independent brand, it’s clear that Phoebe Philo remains the visionary of her generation. At some point, though, Philo will have to decide how much she wants to integrate into the larger fashion system, which has long appropriated and profited off her ideas.

Meta is investing $600 billion in American infrastructure and jobs in communities across the country.

Adam, who grew up in Altoona, has seen the impact Meta's investment can bring. 

“Welcoming Meta into our community helped us create opportunities and start a new chapter for our next generation,” he says.

Explore the impact in communities like Altoona.

As the dust settles following the denouement of the Disney–YouTube TV deal, it’s increasingly clear that the next-gen distributor got a lot of what it wanted during its rash of negotiations this fall. And it’s only a matter of time until it fully eats up the sports business.

Congressman Pat Ryan, a Democrat from the deep purple heart of New York’s Hudson Valley, thinks his party has a lot of work to do despite its off-year election win. Herewith, he makes the case for a broad Democratic coalition, praises the pugnacity of A.O.C., and explains why Trump isn’t a lame duck—yet.

Leading men, take heed: The Running Man remake’s soft opening is a lesson about the difference between bankable I.P. and fare maybe best left to history. Meanwhile, movies made by, for, and/or starring women continue to power the box office with Wicked on deck.

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to investigate a historically bad fall season at the box office by highlighting which issues are real and which are insignificant. They look at larger industry-wide trends, like the shortening of theatrical windows and the rise of streaming, as well as smaller, more recent developments, like releasing independent movies wide rather than platforming them. They discuss whether the “movie-star problem” is overblown or legitimate, and whether this could be explained simply by judging the quality of the films themselves.

Meta's AI infrastructure is bringing jobs to local communities.

Adam, who grew up in Altoona, has seen the impact Meta's investment can bring. 

“Welcoming Meta into our community helped us create opportunities and start a new chapter for our next generation,” he says.

Explore the impact in communities like Altoona.

Julia and Dylan discuss Olivia Nuzzi’s American Canto excerpt in Vanity Fair and New York Times profile, and the increasingly tangled relationship between celebrity culture and legacy media brands trying to retain and grow audiences. They also discuss the fate of The Telegraph, and why Jeff Zucker and Gerry Cardinale can’t seem to get their hands on the storied Tory broadsheet.

Lauren’s guest is the stylist Kate Young. They discuss the current state of the red carpet by recapping Sunday’s Governors Awards and previewing what’s to come in the lead-up to the Oscars. They also debate the value of Rockstuds, The Devil Wears Prada, Phoebe Philo, and wearing a French twist with a hair clip gifted to you by Karl Lagerfeld. Finally, they talk about Chanel and discuss winter coat options.

Leigh Ann Caldwell joins Peter to break down today’s House vote to finally unleash the Epstein files—after Trump’s weekend about-face when he realized mass Republican defections were inevitable. They also dig into the G.O.P.’s healthcare quagmire as worries mount over Obamacare subsidies disappearing, leaving the party on the defensive heading into an election year.

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