Hello everyone!
Reminder: Our 25% off sale happens only twice a year — and it expires at midnight tonight. If you haven’t become a paid subscriber, we invite you to spend your second half of the year the same way the smartest people in the business do: with The Ankler. Reminder, the offer is for first-time subscribers only and good only for annual subscriptions.
Meanwhile, this week, known for big fireworks, did not disappoint. And our newest Ankler staffer, Matthew Frank, found himself firing off some rockets.
Matthew is an OG Ankler-ite, starting as our intern while attending the University of Pennsylvania. The just-graduated English major — yes, they still exist and they come to Hollywood — worked at an AMC Theatres in high school cleaning theaters and selling popcorn (who’s to say how those posters for Uncut Gems, Knives Out and Jojo Rabbit ended up in his trunk?). As a first-year at Penn, he cold-emailed Entertainment Strategy Guy about copy-editing his columns. More recently, he wrote a great piece about how college professors are counseling new grads to stay away from entertainment during the industry’s downturn.
Matthew moved to L.A. last week, where he was emailing Barry Diller in between Ikea runs, and delivered three hot-button stories: Diller’s take on his long history of negative comments about the movie business as he considers a bid for Shari Redstone’s controlling stake in Paramount; a detailed report about Biden campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg’s relentless self-promotion and calamitous strategic error in misleading donors about the President’s physical and mental fitness; and a news break about Diller’s revelation to him that he and wife Diane von Fürstenberg are done supporting Biden.
Matthew even made time to make his LAist debut discussing the Paramount drama with Morning Edition’s Susanne Whatley:
Expect more from Matthew in your inboxes, but please welcome him — and invite him to your events or out for coffee — at matthew@theankler.com.
This may have been a short work week, but it was an eventful one, so here’s what you missed, in case you missed it:
Biden’s So-Called ‘Secret Weapon’ Implodes; Diller Walks
George Clooney said Katzenberg would bring Hollywood-style storytelling to Biden 2024. Turns out that story — that Biden’s age is his “superpower” — needed a rewrite. Now Hollywood donors are furious with the Quibi founder, with James Carville telling The Ankler that Katzenberg was “pissing up a rope”:
Katzenberg was known as the “Golden Retriever” when he worked for Diller and Michael Eisner at Paramount. Read what Diller told us now about his former assistant’s role in agewashing Biden, and also, his answer when asked if he’s still supporting the President’s re-election:
More Killer Diller
When reports surfaced that Diller was considering a bid for a controlling stake in Paramount (recall he lost out to Sumner Redstone in a battle to buy the studio in 1994), Matthew reached out for comments from Diller about why in the wake of 40 years of acid remarks about the entertainment business:
‘I Have Worked Maybe 15 Days in the Past 18 Months’
The production contraction continues to take a personal toll. In this week’s (paid subscribers-only) Series Business, Elaine Low shares the story of an assistant director who went from making as much as $130,000 annually to just $7,000 last year and how he’s coping:
Rushfield’s Endless Feast
Richard offers his (rave) review of Universal’s new commissary on the lot, where the birria tacos are perfectly charred and it’s all the flavored water you can drink:
Prestige Junkie: Shhh! A Quiet Place Director Talks
Katey Rich chatted with A Quiet Place: Day One director Michael Sarnoski about how he made the third installment in the horror franchise his own:
Carmy & Co.’s hit series dropped all 10 episodes of once, a move that FX felt it had to do with Katey questioning the wisdom of the decision:
THE WAKEUP
Hollywood never stops, and neither does Sean McNulty, breaking down the new Paramount-Skydance almost-deal and Candle re-org with his usual aplomb:
🎧 PODCASTS
MARTINI SHOT
Parking on the Top Floor Rob Long on what an old DeLorean with ‘Alf’ plates taught him:
👓 THE OPTIONIST
FINAL HOUSEKEEPING!
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