Incredibly, we’ve limped into our seventh month of continuous labor shutdown since the writers strike began May 2 (with SAG-AFTRA joining on July 14). Our colleague, Elaine Low, was first to write yesterday of the studios’ “last, best and final offer” to the actors after two weeks of intense negotiation.
She reports:
The high level of optimism earlier this week that a deal might be reached before this upcoming Monday has since been tempered, though not cooled completely.
Here’s hoping for good news today, but in the event there isn’t — make sure to check in with Sean McNulty’s Sunday night The Wakeup newsletter tonight for paid subscribers. It will contain more details from Elaine about what’s really going on behind the scenes.
RUH-ROH AT HBO
Meanwhile, it was a breath of fresh air to get a good old-fashioned, low-stakes scandalette to occupy our minds for a couple of days this week. For a brief window, we averted our eyes from Israel-Gaza and existential questions about the industry to hold mouths agape over a bemusing and embarrassing executive mistake, as it was revealed that HBO’s celebrated Casey Bloys ordered fake Twitter accounts to fire back at critics.
As Kathryn VanArendonk of Vulture, one of the targeted critics, told Peter Kiefer and Claire Atkinson:
“There’s something a little bit fun about the fact that… an HBO executive would make a sock puppet account to yell at a TV critic.”
Richard shared his thoughts as well, while also ranking his top choices from this year’s AFM, including this one: When passengers on a jet flying from Sydney to Los Angeles become infected with new strains of zombie viruses, Vanilla Ice and Sophie Monk are forced to team up to contain the contagion before the US Air Force shoots it out of the sky.
‘Daddy Gang’ Goes Hollywood
As Hollywood struggles for relevance with younger generations, Nicole LaPorte profiled Gen Z Call Her Daddy podcast phenom Alex Cooper as she and her fiancé-producer Matthew Kaplan — producers of Netflix’s Love at First Sight — expand into TV, film, and soon music:
Back to Reality: Israel-Gaza and Our Own Wars
As the situation in the Middle East devolves alongside Hollywood’s tempers, Richard looked at where this is taking us. His prognosis: nowhere good.
☀️The Wakeup
Sean continued to deliver the best and most comprehensive coverage of the entertainment business. Stay tuned this week for his breakdowns of the big kahuna earnings calls on tap, for paid subscribers only: TKO, WBD, Endeavor, Lionsgate, AMC Theaters and a company you may have heard of called Disney.
🎧 Podcasts
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THE ANKLER
Nicole joins to talk about her recent feature, and the crew plays a game of “let’s guess the broadcast TV advertising rates!”:
Listen on Apple
MARTINI SHOT
Listen on Apple
Transcript here
🪧Strikegeist
👓 The Optionist
IP Picks🔎: ‘The Bear’ with a Dose of Country Music Plus, a British-set thriller with Big Little Lies vibes and a mission to take back stolen Nazi treasure.
