It’s gotta be Taylor over Hailey Bieber’s $1 billion sale of Rhode cosmetics, not just because Swift finally bought back her Big Machine masters after a six-year saga that saw her become the world’s biggest recording and touring star, and invent an entirely new category of music: re-recordings. She also set a template for more artists to own their work, and helped run her nemesis, Scooter Braun, out of the representation business. Low-key runner-up: Steve Rales, the billionaire investor and Wes Anderson benefactor, scored the year’s best per-screen average for The Phoenician Scheme (I know, those mean nothing) as his Conclave continues to enjoy a Pope Leo boost on streaming, and the Indiana Pacers, in which he holds a 20 percent stake, are in their first NBA Finals in 25 years. Honorable mention: Exhibitors. Share prices for the theater owners Cinemark, Marcus, and my buddy Adam Aron’s AMC are all up since Memorial Day, as is Imax, on the holiday weekend numbers and projections for the rest of the year. A little more…: I’m a bit more pessimistic about this summer (let’s see how Pixar’s Elio matches up with last year’s Inside Out 2, the biggest animated movie ever). But the overall release volume is up, a diverse slate of movies is working, eight of the past nine weekends came in higher than last year, and the domestic box office crossed $3 billion, which is 124 percent of 2024 at this point, though still just 71 percent of 2019, per Screendollars.

“Yes, I think I am. I think I am.“ —Lesley Stahl, the 60 Minutes correspondent, when asked by David Remnick on the New Yorker Radio Hour if she was angry at owner Shari Redstone, choking up a bit as she described the “punch in the stomach” of Bill Owens resigning and Paramount negotiating to pay off Trump. Speaking of Paramount… Shari brought three new directors onto the gallows—sorry, the board of directors—of Paramount Global today. A big welcome to the shitshow to Mary Boies, attorney, wife of famed litigator David Boies, and a former CBS employee; Charles Ryan, a partner at the venture firm Almaz Capital who once owned movie theaters with the Redstones in Russia; and Roanne Sragow Licht, a former judge in the Boston area. All will stand for election at the shareholder meeting July 2, and, if the whole Trump thing isn’t settled before then, will be forced to approve any settlement. Why is Shari doing this now?: First, she needed a bigger board from both a logistical and optical perspective, especially since current director Judith McHale is leaving. Second, I think she wants more cover to shield her from the inevitable lawsuits that will fly like Tom Cruise on the wing of a plane once a Trump settlement is announced. And finally, of course, if the Skydance deal falls through, someone is gonna need to manage the company, especially since Redstone’s National Amusements may find itself in bankruptcy court. Good times.

400 million MrBeast subscribers on YouTube, as of this week, making him the most-subscribed-to channel. He averages 100 million views per video. [Social Blade] 45,000 Number of movies, TV shows, and sports broadcasts available on leading streaming services in the U.S. in May, up 5 percent from February. [Gracenote/Nielsen] 75 percent Year-over-year increase in scripted spinoff series airing on linear and streaming platforms. [Luminate] 62 percent Completion rate of the average Netflix television title in the top 25, higher than the 53 percent among top TV titles on Prime Video. [Digital i] 25 and 47 Rank of the Indianapolis and Oklahoma City media markets, respectively, the first time two teams from outside the top 20 will meet in the NBA Finals. Ouch for ABC. [CBS Sports] Now here’s Kim’s report…

A couple weeks ago, a woman whom I’ll call Nancy noticed that Black Entertainment Television was planning a tribute to its popular music video program 106 & Park at the BET Awards on June 9 in Los Angeles. The show, which ran from 2000 to 2014, played hours of R&B and hip-hop at a time when Britney and the Backstreet Boys dominated Total Request Live on sister network MTV. “The legendary music video series is being celebrated with a full reunion of its most beloved hosts and a lineup that captures the essence of a cultural era,” the post read. Among those scheduled to appear was A.J. Calloway, who hosted the show from 2000 until 2005, when he joined the syndicated TV show Extra. And he wasn’t beloved by Nancy at all. Nancy has alleged that Calloway raped her in 2013, and she is hardly his only accuser. I first reported an allegation against Calloway in 2018, when Sil Lai Abrams went on the record with an accusation that he had sexually assaulted her in his car in 2006. At the time, Abrams reported Calloway to New York police, offering DNA evidence. He was arrested and charged under sections of New York law related to forcible touching and attempted sexual misconduct. Ultimately, the case was dismissed on procedural grounds. Two other women would later report him to the police for alleged rape, one in New Jersey and another in California, but no action was taken. Calloway’s attorney at the time denied any misconduct, saying, “Mr. Calloway has never sexually assaulted anyone and is devastated that he is being falsely accused of such terrible conduct.”

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After that first allegation became public, I spoke with five more women—including Nancy—who leveled assault allegations against Calloway and, in early 2019, I reported the accounts of three who accused him of rape. (A fourth woman, who had reported him to police in California, alleged that Calloway had raped her in 2010 but asked me to withhold details of her story.) Warners eventually said it had begun an internal review, in light of the allegations, but found “nothing to suggest that Mr. Calloway has ever engaged in workplace misconduct.” (Conduct off the clock apparently wasn’t considered relevant.) After the additional allegations, however, the studio said it was “expanding [the] ongoing inquiries.” Warners finally severed ties with Calloway in July 2019—a year after I had reported the first allegation against him. Now, six years later, it appears that BET is planning to give him another platform. Seeing an Instagram post about his upcoming appearance on the awards show, Nancy emailed me with a question: Where is the accountability? “It’s devastating to see someone who caused so much harm quietly welcomed back into the industry, seemingly because enough time has passed,” she wrote. “Is that all it takes? For the dust to settle? The idea that I might have to see his face onscreen again is unbearable.” (Calloway did not respond to requests for comment regarding the 106 & Park reunion or the resurfaced allegations. Both BET and Paramount, its parent company, declined to comment.)

Ever since the #MeToo movement exploded in 2017, people in Hollywood and elsewhere have wondered about a path back for alleged abusers. So far, I can’t think of anyone who has modeled the ideal rehabilitation or really, any effort to take responsibility for their alleged behavior and make amends. My brightest hope was Louis C.K., who seemed sufficiently intelligent and introspective to think deeply about his acknowledged conduct and emerge with an exploration of the dark forces that had motivated it. Instead, he’s become the biggest disappointment—he circumvented Hollywood, releasing new material directly through his website and selling out shows for his still-devoted fans. Others who have been accused of misbehavior have managed some form of a return to work. James Franco had a movie at Cannes last month, as did Kevin Spacey. (I don’t think any major studio would hire Spacey, however, even though two juries let him off the hook.) Mad Men creator Matt Weiner had not been working much since staff writer Kater Gordon accused him of sexual harassment in 2017, but New Regency just gave him a deal to write a TV adaptation of the 1989 film Dead Calm. No public company would touch animation guru John Lasseter after I reported on harassment allegations against him at Disney, but David Ellison hired him at Skydance, his privately held production company. Ellison has also lined up Jeff Shell, who had his own scandal at NBCUniversal, as president—if the merger with Paramount goes through. (From a legal standpoint, hiring someone you know had engaged in alleged misconduct doesn’t put a company in the strongest position.) Given the seriousness of the allegations against Calloway, it’s surprising that BET and its C.E.O., Scott Mills, are including him in the upcoming show. (There has been speculation that this reunion is a precursor to a relaunch of 106 & Park, given these recognizable-I.P.-hungry times.) Contrast that possibility with the recent treatment of French actor Théo Navarro-Mussy, who was accused of sexual assault by three former partners. (The case against him was dropped last month, but the women plan to appeal and file a civil lawsuit.) The actor was banned from the red carpet in Cannes this year—a decision that the producers of the film he was in called “obvious” because they support the festival’s position of “not providing a platform to any person suspected of sexist or sexual violence.” Navarro-Mussy has denied the allegations but said he understood the decision by festival organizers. (Imagine that: Cannes doing better than BET.) News of the planned 106 & Park reunion was also a bitter pill for Jeannie Delgado, who in 2019 went on the record with me in The Hollywood Reporter with an accusation that Calloway had raped her in 2009. “It is deeply troubling that this individual is being celebrated, despite well-documented allegations from [several] women involving rape and sexual assault,” she told me in an email. She continued, “Given the current cultural climate and the increased visibility of cases like the Diddy trial, one would expect an organization like BET to demonstrate greater awareness and responsibility when it comes to issues of sexual abuse and the protection of survivors. This celebration sends a disheartening message, undermining the progress so many have fought for.” When I talked with culture writer Shamira Ibrahim about Calloway, she pointed out that the BET Awards had honored Sean Combs as recently as 2022. By then, his volatility had been well established. In 2019, ex-girlfriend Gina Huynh alleged in a podcast interview that he had abused her physically and emotionally. The 2023 federal indictment accused Combs of engaging in a pattern of abusive behavior against women and others over the course of two decades, with the help of his employees and members of his entourage. How secret could the conduct have been in the inner circles of the music industry?

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Diddy is facing judgment now, of course, and plenty of lesser alleged abusers remain banished, for the moment. Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, and Les Moonves have been ostracized by the entertainment industry. Yet there’s been a vibe shift—fueled in part by the noxious rise of the so-called manosphere—that has set the stage for the creeps to come creeping back. The planned celebration of 106 & Park is happening while Trump, who was held liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll, and who has a couple dozen other accusers, is in the Oval. Pete Hegseth, who has been accused of sexual assault, was confirmed as Defense secretary, where he literally tried to erase the achievements of women and people of color from military history. (Trump, who has denied Carroll’s account, and others, is appealing the case. Hegseth denied the allegations against him, but acknowledged that he made a payment to the accuser.) We have an administration that reportedly leaned on Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on the infamous Tate brothers, both of whom face multiple allegations of trafficking of minors, rape, and money laundering. Trump even said he’d consider pardoning Diddy. Looking with dismay at the BET plans, Ibrahim called the choice to replatform Calloway “a really misguided decision by the producers of the show”—including Jesse Collins, who has executive produced the Grammys, the Emmys, and other such shows. Calloway “has done multiple radio hits since this was announced, and no one is asking, ‘Are you going to address these allegations?’” she said. (Calloway has done interviews with Vibe, the popular Breakfast Club podcast, and Way Up With Angela Yee; clearly, the allegations didn’t impact those promotional appearances.) “The lack of media concern is reflective of the current backlash era we seem to be in,” Ibrahim continued. “Five, six years ago, if this had been announced, there would have been a much more significant outcry. [But] we’re prematurely absolving him—just for the sake of entertainment.”

Drumroll… here’s how your media C.E.O.s ranked on the 2024 pay package list for S&P 500 companies… [WSJ] 8. Ted Sarandos, Netflix ($61.9 million) 10. Greg Peters, Netflix ($60.27 million) 14. David Zaslav, Warner Discovery ($51.9 million) 19. Bob Iger, Disney ($41.1 million) 30. Brian Roberts, Comcast ($33.9 million) 31. Michael Rapino, Live Nation ($33 million) 63. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta ($27.2 million) 127. John Wren, Omnicom ($21.7 million) 192. Ari Emanuel, TKO ($18.1 million) 221. Philippe Krakowsky, Interpublic ($16.4 million) 337. Sundar Pichai, Alphabet ($10.7 million) 399. Chris Winfrey, Charter ($5.8 million) 412. Andy Jassey, Amazon ($1.6 million) So… Zaslav made nearly double John Stankey, the AT&T C.E.O. who previously held his job, and Zuckerberg, whose Meta is worth about 65 Warner Bros. Discoverys. Got it. Under construction for eight years, and with a new executive director in former Fox and Paramount studio chief Jim Gianopulos, what, exactly, is L.A.’s George Lucas museum going to be? [NY Times] Nick Quah captures the confusion among publicists over what media, if any, actually moves the needle these days [Vulture] Lucas Shaw offers some good examples of sitcom-style shows that are working on YouTube. [Bloomberg] Ryan Murphy took up “residency” at the Chateau just so he could get a magazine to run a photo spread of his residency at the Chateau, right? [Interview] Producer and Friend-of-WIH Jamie Patricof got the Adolescence team together for a smart conversation. [With Jamie] Throw new logs in the form of lawsuits from an aggrieved extra and an allegedly stiffed costumer onto the dumpster fire that is Kevin Costner’s Horizon movies. [THR] Jim Dolan is personally deciding where the celebs sit at Knicks games. (Also, unlike with the Lakers, everyone except Spike Lee is there for free.) [NY Mag]

Readers were VERY concerned with my Thursday item on whether Barry Diller bulk-bought his own book and prompted the “dagger of death” next to his entry on the Times bestseller list… “Barry would never buy his way onto a bestseller list!! You kook! So not him.” —A producer “FYI Barry is telling people he didn’t [bulk buy], says he has no idea who would buy so many books [to prompt the dagger].” —An executive I asked if this person believed Diller… “Honestly not sure.” “My money’s on Geffen or Eisner or Bezos—one of those guys who wanted Barry to feel good about the book. Maybe Ari [Emanuel] did it just to embarrass him.” —Another executive I asked “This is amazing. Just shows money can’t quite buy everything.” —An analyst

Have a great week, Matt Got a question, comment, complaint, or an invite for Larry David to attend your wedding? Email me at Matt@puck.news or call/text me at 310-804-3198.

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