Fastest-Growing College Degree in Hollywood is . . .
And guess the fastest sinking? Plus: Silicon Valley gets creepier, streaming's churn woes, and Sir Iger!
Welcome to the Jamboree, my weekly series of quick(ish) takes on the industry’s passing parade.
This Week’s Jamboree Playlist
Knights of Cahuenga
And now there are two.
The ultimate mogul arms race just kicked into high gear.
I hate to say, I told you so (JK — I don’t really hate to say it) but we warned that it could come to this. In 2022, upon the investiture of Dame Donna Langley, I wrote:
If it gets out that entertainment execs are eligible for knighthood and damehood, there will be no end to it!
Can you imagine if Tom Rothman started insisting everyone address him as Sir Thomas? No one would survive!
Not all knighthoods are made equal however. Dame Donna is a full-blown Dame Commander of the British Empire, a title to which she is eligible as a British citizen, and bearing all the rights and duties thereof. Presumably she could order the British fleet to sail through the Panama Canal backwards, or have Big Ben chime the Fast and Furious theme music or something. (Myself, I would have ordered all British subjects to see Strays on opening weekend, which is why no one makes me a Commander of anything.)
Sir Robert, on the other hand, as an American, was bestowed with a mere honorary title which doesn’t even allow him to play fetch with the late Queen’s corgis.
In any event, dangling the possibility of knighthood has kept the British elites jumping on command for a thousand years, but now that it’s in the water that not one but two studio heads have been knighted, will any mogul who has not been knighted be able to live with themselves? Can you imagine sitting between Dame Donna and Sir Robert at the AMPTP dinner and having to introduce yourself to anyone? Oh, hi, I’m David. But call me Dave . . . Could you pass the salt, your grace?
But what can a studio chief do to curry favor with His Majesty’s inner circle?
Presumably, England is like everyplace else and Prince William has a script he’s been waiting to get into the right hands that you can set up some meetings on . . . maybe take out a very long option.
Beyond that, is it too early for a King’s Speech reboot? Maybe a King’s Speech cinematic universe? Or if you run a certain streamer seeing to it that — weirdly, suddenly — every episode of The Crown disappears from all searches on one’s platform?
Do people still want tickets to the Golden Globes?
Don’t Call It a Death Spiral
Although that’s generally what you call a situation of rising prices paired with decreasing service in an environment of intense competition, please, I beg you, let’s not.
