☀️ Wahlberg's Dog Falters, Strong Panda Rules
DIRECTV makes local TV optional / New state attempts NETFLIX tax / Derry Girls follow up lands at NETFLIX
Evenin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on SUNDAY, March 17, 2024.
Where a Happy St. Pat’s Day to you all 🇮🇪! My barista even correctly pronounced my name today!
But today’s real winner is PGA golfer Scottie Scheffler, who is getting a $4.5 Million check (or cash suitcase 🧳, depending how he rolls) for winning the Players Championship.
The loser(ish) is Wyndham Clark, who could have tied for the lead/caused a playoff if this putt dropped 😩. He’ll have to console himself with $2.7 Million, but that’s a tough way to miss out on a shot at another $1.8 Million.
AND: Here is your men’s March Madness bracket (with 3 of the 4 #1 seeds having lost their conference tournaments, ahem), and women’s March Madness bracket. Men start on Thursday, women start on Friday.
THEN: IATSE and AMPTP negotiations pick back up again tomorrow, with the cinematographers, art directors, editors and set painters/sign writers’ guilds set for meetings during the week.
PLUS: Country music star Jimmie Allen and one of his accusers have reached a “mutual accord” and dismissed their lawsuits (sexual assault and defamation, respectively) against each other. She is still pursuing her case against her former employer, Jimmie’s former management company, and Jimmie is still facing a second lawsuit from another woman.
AND: Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS tour is now hitting pause on reproductive rights groups handing out condoms and morning-after pills at shows due to concerns around the younger demos in attendance, but the organizations will still have a presence at shows, and the tour is still giving a cut of proceeds to support them.
ALSO: This is a really worthwhile read from Bloomberg this weekend — not on the entertainment business, but the economy at large.
Namely how much high interest rates have really squeezed Americans purse strings — especially in lower income brackets, mainly due to the uneven spread of credit card debt. This chart alone is something:
And so is this one 👇 — remember, it’s the economy stupid.
Note: The President does not have any direct power over the federal interest rate, although I’d think another term for current Fed chief Jerome Powell is uh, unlikely if Trump wins.
WAKEUP BOX-OFFICE POLL
Kudos to the bears who knew where the dog would end up by Sunday.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
