Evenin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LINKEDIN here if ya like or email me at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on SUNDAY, August 30, 2026.
Where I’m gonna start off with some Wakeup housekeeping:
- I’ll largely be taking the week off. I may do a column Wednesday, but otherwise, I’ll see you again next Sunday . . . unless NETFLIX decides to try and buy another movie studio.
- I’ll be up at TIFF for a few days in September (Thu., Sept. 10 to Sun., Sept. 14) — I’m sure it’ll fly by, but if you want to meet up or just say hey, drop me a note (contact info is at the top of the newsletter, as always).
- In the larger Ankler picture at TIFF — Katey Rich and Christopher Rosen will also be up there interviewing a bunch of folks in The Ankler’s video and portrait studio at Soluna, and Rushfield will be there as always with his pen at the ready to chime in on your film offerings (as well as your passed hors d’oeuvres).
THEN: In reading more about Dolly Parton’s IMAGINATION LIBRARY since her death, this NY Times story about its importance in the face of ongoing and disturbing state government cuts to child literacy programs makes the efforts of Dolly’s organization even all the more important.
- If you’d care to also donate to the organization, here’s the link.
- The ABC Dolly tribute special got 4M viewers on Tuesday at 10 p.m., while the CBS special at 9 p.m. got 2.1M viewers.
ALSO: Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields Festival this weekend raised $20M for 10 different nonprofit organizations supporting women and girls — $10M from concert proceeds plus $10M from Melinda French Gates to match it.
AND: PENSKE CORP has taken full ownership of SXSW — so, rest assured that now 100% of your attendance money in March is going to the PENSKE empire.
PLUS: Gotta love 2 of the world’s biggest music publishers in SONY MUSIC PUB and WARNER CHAPPELL teaming up to sue ANTHROPIC over what they claim is “one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history.” Nice to see the “copyright lawsuits phase” of the AI story return.
- UNIVERSAL MUSIC, CONCORD and ABKCO already have a major lawsuit against ANTHROPIC.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE PREDICTION
DISNEYFOX’s The Dog Stars came in under even my less than optimistic guess, so it’s a miss for me.
🎥 The Box Office
Don’t stop here
Get the rest of this story — and the scoops and intelligence Hollywood reads first.
Already a subscriber?
Comments
Only Ankler All Access subscribers can comment
Already a subscriber?