ICYMI: TV Salary Confession; Agony Inside Paramount; Box Office Twister
ICYMI: TV Salary Confession; Agony Inside Paramount; Box Office Twister
Catch up on our recent best
We had an exciting week of shareable moments, most notably Katey Rich’s interview with SNL’s hair and makeup pros Jodi Mancuso and Louie Zakarian, which was picked up everywhere, and Richard Rushfield’s acid-tipped “Keep Calm and Carry On”-style slogans in his column considering the future of the movie business:
Claire and Brenden, I hope you’re reading this morning. Please email me at david@theankler.com, and we’ll arrange to send you the coveted Ankler hat, which, alas, cannot be delivered via Venmo.
Ankler Events
Today’s the day! This afternoon is The Ankler x Thom Powers Documentary Spotlight event in L.A., featuring food and conversations with doc world stars including Andrew Jarecki, James Carville and Matt Tyrnauer, Alex Gibney, Lisa Henson, Fisher Stevens, Bao Nguyen, Lance Oppenheim, Prentice Penny — and late this week we added the director Sarah Gibson and producer Erin Lee Carr of Stormy, the Stormy Daniels documentary streaming on Peacock. Doc executives Carolyn Bernstein (NatGeo), Brianna Oh (Amazon MGM) and Erika Dilday (American Documentary) also will be taking the stage. RSVP here
Now, here’s our best of the week, ICYMI:
The Deals We Don’t Talk About: Personal Finances
Elaine Low’s first Salary Confessions piece — about a TV development exec with an AI side hustle to make ends meet — in Series Business received an outsized response. We’ll have the next in her series tomorrow (for paid subscribers only), so catch up today:
Listen to Elaine talk about her new series with LAist 89.3 FM’s Susanne Whatley on Morning Edition:
'I Think About Job Security Every Day'
Natalie Jarvey reports on how it feels to be working inside Paramount right now, as well as the other legacy players where layoffs, fear and cutbacks have curbed ambitions and any sense of agency:
Rushfield: Box Office Twister
What if the leaders of our entertainment conglomerates, Richard wonders, actually want out of movies? If they aren’t committed to it, guess what, the time is right for someone else to reinvent this $33 billion global business:
As part of our partnership with LAist, Richard had a great conversation with Larry Mantle on AirTalk about the state of the season and what’s to come:
The Ankler Goes to College 🎓
In his Jamboree, Richard digs deep into the latest Otis College report and discovers the radical change in college majors among Hollywood employees, and what it reveals about the state of the industry:
Then Class of '24 grad Matthew Frank (congrats!) talks to leading professors about the ruthless feedback they are getting from Hollywood about working in entertainment after graduation:
The AI Voice Revolution
Erik Barmack explores in his latest Reel AI column how AI voice tech will revolutionize costs around dubbing and the speed of adaptation for global film and TV markets:
Prestige Junkie: If Only Trump had Won an Emmy . . .
In addition to her viral SNL interview, Katey stayed in late night to talk to Seth Meyers about his self-deprecating Emmy-submitted episode, his White House Correspondents Dinner speech that changed history — and how he thinks Donald Trump would have preferred an Emmy over the presidency:
Listen to Katey’s hilarious conversation with Seth on her podcast:
Reality Show Reboot Time!
London correspondent Manori Ravindran taps veteran producers to identify 10 unscripted formats ripe for a successful reboot, à la the new Gladiators. In The Ankler Slack, I pitched Janice to star in one of them! Guess which one:
THE WAKEUP
Your boss gets their news from Sean McNulty, so you should too. This week Sean was the only person to explain clearly the new Skydance offer for Paramount and why WBD isn’t fighting tooth-and-nail for NBA rights (check out what execs learned after putting the full season of games on streaming):
🎧 PODCASTS
THE ANKLER
'My Career Feels Like it's On Life Support' One TV exec reveals their salary and stunted ambition as who — and how — you get hired in Hollywood shifts:
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
MARTINI SHOT
Money, Real Estate & Secrets Rob Long on belt tightening and the things he says . . . in his mind:
👓 THE OPTIONIST
FINAL HOUSEKEEPING!
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