Transcript: AI and Hollywood's 'Sophie's Choice'
Inside the scramble as showbiz lawyers, agents and legislators agonize over client rights: 'Is it too late?'
Sean McNulty (00:04):
Welcome to The Ankler Podcast. This is Sean McNulty of The Wakeup newsletter here at the Ankler here in New York City on Thursday, April 18th. I'm joined by Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield in Los Angeles, who is back. And I can tell from the look in Richard's eye, he's either still in a sugar high from CinemaCon or he did really well at the slots in Vegas. Richard, which one is it?
Richard Rushfield (00:25):
I'm still feeling the deep-fried chicken and cheese with hot honey hot dog that I had.
Sean McNulty (00:33):
That'll repeat on you for a while, yeah.
Richard Rushfield (00:34):
What happens in Vegas, you end up taking home from Vegas sometimes.
Elaine Low (00:40):
The real question is how much candy did you bring home, Richard?
Sean McNulty (00:43):
Oh, right. Elaine wanted to know. Yes.
Elaine Low (00:44):
Mm-hmm. Give us the full rundown.
Richard Rushfield (00:46):
So they give you a goodie bag. This year was, the goodie bag was sponsored by Paramount filled with candy, which is a size of a pretty large pillowcase.
Sean McNulty (00:57):
Oh, my.
Richard Rushfield (00:57):
And I have two children, so there may have been two full goodie bags returning with me to the house there.
Sean McNulty (01:06):
The luggage stays in Vegas, Elaine.
Elaine Low (01:07):
Amazing.
Sean McNulty (01:07):
So yeah, just got to bring the candy back. No room for the luggage. Yeah.
Elaine Low (01:10):
So the children are not going to sleep for the next two weeks.
Sean McNulty (01:12):
Yeah, yeah.
Richard Rushfield (01:13):
My candy haul weighed more than my clothes and suitcase did coming back home.
Sean McNulty (01:20):
That's a sign of a good trip right there. All right. Well, just a reminder, of course, you can catch The Ankler crew over on LA's number one NPR station every week, every Thursday. That's of course, Southern California Public Radio's flagship radio station 89.3 LAist throughout the day on Entertainment Thursday, programming across Morning Edition, AirTalk, and All Things Considered. And you can reach us here at the pod anytime at podcasts@theankler.com.
(01:42):
In just a little bit today, we'll have a new contributor to The Ankler family joining us. That would be Ashley Cullins, who launched a new column this week called Dealmakers. And she dove into what is being done to protect and enable talent in the burgeoning world of AI.
(01:58):
And another shout out to check out a piece from David Lidsky here looking at Participant, which is a company started by tech mogul, Jeff Skoll, who made several big movies over the past two decades of the company's existence, including the Oscar winners Spotlight and Green Book. He, unfortunately, announced that the company's going to shut down this week. So David took a look at what's afoot there and what the company was trying to achieve in Hollywood, which is kind of movies that matter.
(02:22):
Richard, what was he thinking?