What's news: Mayor Mamdani decries the Paramount deal. In its wake, Kara Swisher says she’s out at CNN. Notoriously hot-tempered superagent Ari Emanuel shares his origin story in an excerpt from his new memoir. Sony snags TIFF breakout The Surgeon, Michelle Yeoh’s first action role in years. Ella Langley topples Mariah Carey. — Julian Sancton
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“A Shameful Monument to Corruption” |
►Paramount concerns. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani criticized the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger following Monday’s settlement. Hizzoner shared his sentiments on X Tuesday afternoon: “America is free only when the media is competitive, independent, and accountable to the people. This merger strikes a chilling blow against that freedom — and hands even more power to billionaires like David Ellison to decide what Americans see and hear, all while lifting scrutiny off the federal leaders who pushed it through.” Mamdani’s criticisms came after The Hollywood Reporter reported that factions appeared to form within the alliance of 12 states who sued to stop the merger. New York was among the holdouts, alongside Connecticut, Minnesota and Nevada. The story.
Final hurdle. The federal judge overseeing the now-settled challenge from a dozen states over Paramount‘s $110 bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery will consider on Thursday whether to dissolve their joint agreement not to close the deal. The purpose of the hearing is to “address certain outstanding questions regarding the factual and legal underpinnings of the parties’ proposed consent decree” and its implementation, according to a court document filed on Tuesday. Winston Cho reports.
“Terrible media owners.” Kara Swisher says she’s going to make good on her previous threat to leave CNN now that Paramount Skydance has cleared its last major legal hurdle to acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery. On her Pivot podcast yesterday, the outspoken tech journalist, a CNN contributor since 2023, told her co-host Scott Galloway that she’s done with the network when her contract is up at the end of the year — and perhaps much sooner — because she doesn’t want to work for Paramount CEO David Ellison and his father, Larry: ‘Fuck these guys.’ I don’t want to work for them. I just don’t.” In case her animus wasn’t clear, she added: “I’d rather work for Rupert Murdoch.” The story.
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Inside Ari Emanuel’s Earliest Days in Hollywood |
►Old Yeller. In an exclusive excerpt from his explosive new memoir, Roll the Calls, WME superagent Are Emanuel details his early days in the CAA mailroom, a frenetic period of coffee runs, couch surfing, and replacing Mike Ovitz’s toilet paper, amid constant shouting and beratement: "Sometimes it feels as if the yeller is actually getting off, as if they’re a textbook sadist, and sometimes it feels like basic revenge, because the yeller got yelled at when he worked in the mailroom." The excerpt.
— PLUS: Interviewed by Rachel Maddow at the 92Y last night, Emanuel said Donald Trump told him he’s excited about a Vance-Rubio ticket in 2028. The Q&A got heated as Maddow pressed Emanuel on, among other contentious topics, the Ellison takeover of Hollywood. “You’re getting frustrated,” Maddow said. “I’m not frustrated,” Emanuel replied, seemingly a little frustrated. The story.
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Broadcast TV Bounces Back |
►Orders on the rise: Despite the structural forces weighing on the network TV business, there’s also a good deal of optimism among those who work there. Network shows don’t draw the on-air ratings they once did, but they make up a lot of the difference when they hit streaming platforms. The media giants that own both networks and streaming services seem to have figured out that the two platforms can support one another. And among the people who actually make the shows, there’s a growing sense that the network model of producing shows on a set schedule is a good way to do business. THR's Rick Porter with the analysis.
—Brotherly Love. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson sat down with THR’s Jackie Strause to discuss their new Apple TV series Brothers, which riffs on the rumor that the two close friends and former True Detective co-stars might be related. And if you believe the rumor, their sibling chemistry (read: ballbusting) in this interview won’t exactly disabuse you — especially when McConaughey ribs his plausible half-brother for his Emmys antics. The interview.
—Tick Tock. The ratings for Sunday’s 60 Minutes are a tale of two comparisons. The CBS newsmagazine, in its first season under Nick Bilton’s tumultuous leadership, improved on its numbers from a year ago, but it fell off a little week to week in the absence of a big lead-in from the NFL. The numbers.
—Duck Dynasty. Disney+ has officially greenlit a new Darkwing Duck animated series featuring the voice talents of Mark Hamill, Seth Rogen, Lizzy Caplan and Lilimar. The show, which first debuted in 1991, follows the adventures of Darkwing Duck, the iconic crime-fighting superhero alter ego of Drake Mallard. In the new iteration, Hamill will take on that role, with Rogen as Launchpad McQuack, Caplan as Gosalyn Mallard and Lilimar (Inside Out 2) as Duckie. The story.
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Indie Movies Are Back Too, Says Brad Pitt |
► ‘Beast’ Mode. Attending the San Sebastian Film Festival for the first time since 2009, Heart of the Beast star Brad Pitt was asked what he makes of the indie film landscape. The star was buoyant: “I think the current setup has actually been really conducive to independent [films], in a really cool way because more eyes are getting on these projects. It feels even as strong as in the ’90s.” The film’s director, David Ayer, agreed: “I think there’s new pipelines of discovery out there, new auteurs. We have people coming in off YouTube or the internet,” he said, referencing young horror directors Curry Barker and Kane Parsons. The story.
—Counterpoint: The Paramount-Warner Bros deal is coughing up just $5 million a year for indie films. The story.
—Nepo Watch. Jack Nicholson’s daughter Lorraine had a unique upbringing that included frequent childhood visits to the Playboy Mansion during one of Playboy’s peak eras. Now Lorraine is tapping into that mansion past to make her feature directorial debut with Playmates, a coming-of-age drama acquired by Searchlight Pictures. Leading the cast will be fellow nepo baby Lily-Rose Depp, the daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis. The story.
—What’s up, Yeoh? Sony is scrubbing up to take on The Surgeon. The studio has landed the medical action title that bowed at TIFF in what is described as a competitive situation. No financial figures were made available for the deal, which encompasses rights for North America, Latin America, Italy, China and Hong Kong. Going into the fest, The Surgeon was one of the more buzzed-about titles. It stars Michelle Yeoh as a newly retired surgeon who is kidnapped in order to perform surgery on a mystery patient. Then, she must use her medical skills to escape — dispatching bad guys with anatomical precision. The story.
—Why would she deceive you? Nathan Fielder’s daring Elizabeth Holmes doc drops its first full trailer — and you will want to see everything. The trailer.
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“Choosin’ Texas” Is the Longest-Running Number One In Hot 100 History |
► Move Over, Mariah. Ella Langley‘s “Choosin’ Texas” made chart history on Tuesday, as the country smash officially holds the record for most weeks at Number One on Billboard’s Hot 100, securing its 23rd week atop the chart. Langley takes the title from Mariah Carey‘s perennial holiday anthem “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” affirming “Choosin’ Texas’s” status not only as the song of the summer but as one of the biggest hits of the decade, already 6-times platinum according to the RIAA. “Choosin’ Texas” first topped the Hot 100 during the week of February 14. The story.
—Zero Day Taylor Swift has new music on the way, as the pop superstar revealed she’ll be releasing her new single, “Patient Zero,” on Friday. “I’ve been impatiently waiting to tell you that my brand new single “Patient Zero” will be out on September 25 (!!!!!!!!!!!!),” Swift posted on Instagram on Tuesday. Swift had put up a 24-hour countdown on Monday set to 2 p.m. ET, and with the reveal, she’s listing three different collector’s edition CDs for the single for the next 24 hours. The story.
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►“Good for a couple of chuckles, little more.” THR’s chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews the Apple TV buddy comedy Brothers, in which Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, playing themselves, explore the possibility that they’re related. “Depending on the episode you’re watching, Brothers is a very meta but largely unstructured comedy in which the interaction between its stars and our awareness of their identities is the source of its periodic laughs, or else a very cliché-driven sitcom about an odd couple of friends, or else an even more meta commentary on cliché-driven sitcoms.” The review
In other news...
—Like, Subscribe and Govern: The White House is creation its own media ecosystem
—More Xbox layoffs hit as massive reorg continues
—Minions creator Pierre Coffin signs with WME
—‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton signs overall deal With Sony Pictures
—Mahershala Ali agrees that Marvel’s scrapped ‘Blade’ reboot Is Kevin Feige’s “biggest failure.”
—A historic Malibu winery with Hollywood roots closes after losing tasting room to Palisades Fire
—Hayden Panettiere died from toxic effects of Fentanyl, among other drugs, according to a coroner's report.
—George Lucas says he was going to make three more ‘Star Wars’ movies but “decided to retire” from directing
What else we're reading...
—Brooks Barnes sizes up David Ellison’s expanding influence: “the Hollywood equivalent of Superman, Caesar and Midas combined.” [NYT]
—Archrival AI titans Sam Altman and Dario Amodei head to New York to warn UNGA of the risks (of the technology they themselves are developing). [Reuters]
—Joseph Howlett asks whether OpenAI solved the wrong marquee math problem (or solved it the wrong way). [Scientific American]
—Faith Hill finds that Match Group, America’s biggest dating company, is betting on trad values. [Atlantic]
Jessica Prupas meets the Indigenous women protecting Peru’s Amazon rainforest. [Nat Geo]
Today...
…in 1969: 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' premieres. The film, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, impressed critics, claimed box-office glory and four Oscars. The original review.
Today's birthdays...
Hasan Minhaj (41), Alex Proyas (63), Anthony Mackie (48), Alyssa Sutherland (44), Bruce Springsteen (77) , Bevin Prince (44), Christopher Miller (51), George C. Wolfe (71), Rob James-Collier (50), Skylar Astin (39), Jason Alexander (67), Mary K. Place (79), Rosalind Chao (69), Joshua Oppenheimer (52), Julio Iglesias (83), Jermaine Dupri (54), Darcey Silva (52), Matt Hardy (52)
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