Mornin! 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 Tuesday, June 2, 2026.
Where I hope all of you Hollywood film development execs had a fun Monday searching around YOUTUBE for the next horror hit.
If only I remembered where the 3/4″ tape of my “killer rats” junior year short film production was in my mom’s basement! 🙇♂️ Nothing quite like being 30 years ahead of one’s time.
But regardless, hopefully your morning staff meeting was less lively than the one at 60 Minutes yesterday. 😳 #PelleyUnleashed! Maybe they can get Diane Sawyer to come back? Sounds like they’re gonna need some correspondents . . .
YUP: PARAMOUNT is doing its best to at least capitalize on the Backrooms 🔥 with Scary Movie marketing (gonna guess it’s a bit late to add a joke to the movie), tacking on a brief parody to the top of trailer spots before movies last weekend.
YES: Even MCDONALD’S is getting in the A24 business.
BTW: Obsession once again came in higher on Sunday revenue estimates, hitting $27.4M for the weekend, up from the $26.4M estimate.
AND: The NY TIMES Company has spent over $20M so far in its lawsuits against OPENAI, PERPLEXITY and other AI companies.
THEN: Toy Story 5 will get a Taylor Swift song called “I Knew It, I Knew You” that drops on Friday and harkens back to her country roots . . . and, of course, it comes with 3 different versions and a CD you can buy #TaylorRules. See you at the Oscars in March.
ALSO: Over 10k lawyers have left the federal government since Trump took office (about 3,200 have been added). Many have gone to work in Democratic state AG offices or non-profits working against some Trump admin policies.
- 9 federal agencies have deficits of -20% or more since Dec. 2024. Homeland Security was the only division to have a net positive number.
WELL: Add Florida to the list of AI haters! The state is suing OPENAI over accusations of knowingly releasing an unsafe product and ignoring safety warnings — and if there’s one thing Floridians know well, it’s ignoring safety warnings.
OOPS: META’s AI support assistant bot was letting bad actors (our favorite kind of actors) change the email associated with INSTA accounts . . . simply by asking it to, after using a VPN to change their location, essentially. I mean, training a “two-factor authentication” dataset for AI bots seemed wasteful.
- META has since fixed the “bug,” according to Mac Rumors.
PLUS: Add YOUTUBE Creator to the list of titles Jason Kelce has — he’s launching a Kelce Versus YT series today on his channel (159k subs) where he tries to learn how to play new sports. The show is backed by his podcast benefactor, WONDERY.
AH: SIRIUSXM is adding TUBI as a non-exclusive distro partner for its video podcasts, including Conan O’Brien and Trevor Noah.
- TUBI also has a deal with the Crime Junkie pod and its AUDIOCHUCK parent company, struck in the fall.
KUDOS: To Texas — the Women’s College World Series in softball will feature TEXAS vs. TEXAS TECH . . . the same 2 teams as last year. Catch the action on ESPN tomorrow and Thursday night (against NBA Finals and Stanley Cup action on ABC).
OH: Steph Curry is taking his footwear talents to . . . China? He signed a 10-year sneaker & apparel deal with LI NING. Gonna guess this one doesn’t get an Affleck/Damon movie to go with it.
AH HA: Even farmers are discovering there’s more money in the work around the product than the product itself — meet the Montana farmers clearing 6-figures in digital platform and related sponsorship revenue and sometimes . . . just $5k in profit for the year on their actual crops (in a bad year).
FINALLY: I’ll round out up top here today with some welcome justice in the world.
- Joseph Sanberg, co-founder of ASPIRATION (the company involved in the totally shady/seemingly longest NBA investigation ever into possible side payments to Kawhi Leonard via Steve Ballmer’s LA CLIPPERS), was sentenced to 14 years in prison on 2 counts of wire fraud charges related to faking customers and revenue as the company raised funds from investors.
- Stock short seller Andrew Left was convicted on 13 counts of securities fraud, essentially for using X to fraudulently influence stock trading positions he had.
💼 Get a Job
It’s #JobBoardTuesday at The Wakeup! If you’re looking to hire someone — drop me a note to be included here! seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com or connect with me on LINKEDIN here.
- CNN — VP, East Region News ($162k to $302k)
- ALLOY — VP, TV Development & Production ($161k to $299k)
- GQ — Director, Global Video Programming & Strategy ($180k to $210k)
- PARAMOUNT TV — Director, Content Acquisitions ($130k to $170k)
- NEON — Director, Exhibitor Relations ($105k to $120k)
- BLACKSTONE — SVP, Production ($170k to $250k)
- NBA — Director, Media Partnerships ($170k to $190k)
- VOX MEDIA — Supervising Producer, VMPN ($120k to $140k)
- PARAMOUNT — Sr. Producer, Social & Podcast Video ($170k to $200k)
- APPLE TV — Film Producer ($98 to $149/hr)
- NYT/THE DAILY — Senior Producer ($124k to $135k)
- AMAZON MGM — Marketing Manager, Series ($80k to $141k)
- AMAZON MGM — International PR Specialist ($76k to $134k)
- NBCU — Coordinator, TV ($50k to $60k)
- AMAZON MGM — Production Coordinator, Marketing ($77k to $135k)
- WB PICTURES — Publicity Coordinator ($39k to $74k)
- WALT DISNEY ANIMATION — Casting Associate ($65k to $84k)
- ABC/HULU — Assistant to Head of Animated Series ($59k to $79k)
- 3 ARTS — Assistant to Partner ($22 to $25/hr)
- DISNEY ENT. TV — Assistant, Casting ($65k to $87k)
- PARAMOUNT — Assistant, TV Comms ($54k to $60k)
- WWE — Writers Assistant (no salary indicated)
- UTA — Assistant, Comedy Touring ($23 to $27/hr)
- NYFF — Publicity Assistant ($23/hr)
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