☀️ SKYDANCE Stock Plummet; A24 + Zendaya Again

Mornin! Here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026.

Where after seemingly decades of debate in NYC, horse-drawn carriages in Central Park look to finally be a wrap come 2028.

So if the smell of 💩 in the park doesn’t go away, we have bigger problems.

The park’s chief investigator. Via Giphy

THEN: A new organization has been formed called the AMERICAN ENTERTAINMENT ALLIANCE to push for federal legislation to require the big studios to spend 50% of their movie & TV budgets on projects from independent producers (i.e., not buy almost all of their TV series from their in-house TV arms).

This essentially seeks to restore a new version of fin-syn rules to Hollywood, given that our looming “4 major SVOD streamers” future sounds a lot like our “4 TV networks” past, when those rules were in effect until the mid-1990s.
CAA, WME and UTA all signed on, as did dozens of producers, including Jason Blum, Mark Burnett, Peter Chernin, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer.

WELL: Gotta love the Saudi Arabian national arrested for putting eavesdropping equipment in an OPENAI conference room, having a one-way ticket to Saudi booked for Oct 12. Just missed it by 3 days. 🤏

ALSO: The Saudis have killed plans to build 5 new stadiums for the 2034 men’s World Cup that were in its winning bid proposal for the event, with the Saudi PIF now paying to build just 3 new stadiums, and a total of 10 will hold all matches, according to Semafor — furthering the country’s sports investment pullback.

HMM: The U.K. said it is now “minded to intervene” in the ITV / COMCAST sale (i.e., open the equivalent of an antitrust investigation), but no further specifics as of yet. It also used this phrase around WARNAMOUNT this summer, so take it as ya like.

PLUS: DIS+/HULU set another podcast syndication deal, adding the #truecrime pods Clues and Mother Knows Murder from PAVE to the service in a 1-day exclusive window before being added everywhere else. The deal starts Nov. 9.

OH: ANTHROPIC announced it was cash-flow positive in Q3, according to Axios, with actual revenue (not trailing 12 months) at $16.8B, up 50% from Q2. Granted, the cash flow thing is likely to fluctuate with the $500B in planned future spending . . . but a notable point in the business arc to reach.

KUDOS 1: Hilary Swank announced she’s pregnant with her 3rd child.

KUDOS 2: To the WNBA, whose average game attendance was 21% above its previous high point, at 11.4k — granted, excitement around 2 new teams this year helps fill arenas (on top of a very popular one added in the VALKYRIES in 2025), but still.

51 games also had viewership over 1M, vs. 19 last season — although again, keep in mind:
- The change in sports rights this season may have given them bigger audiences organically — namely, the shift of many games from the little-watched NBA TV network (40 in 2025 vs. 15 in 2026).
- Putting almost all INDIANA FEVER games on a national TV outlet this season likely helped, too.
ALSO: Tickets go on sale tomorrow for games 3 and 4 of the WNBA Finals next week in Atlanta, which are now at the 17k-seat STATE FARM ARENA vs. the 3,500-seat GATEWAY CENTER, where the DREAM still play their regular season games.

FREE IDEA: This heartfelt story about a mother who bought season tickets to the SEATTLE MARINERS as a way to help with her grief after losing her son, often going with strangers who also had lost someone, just feels like a NETFLIX movie I’d totally watch 🙋‍♂️ (and perfect to promote with an Opening Day game).

FINALLY: Just some general items I found intriguing to round out the top today.

This story about the increased use / installation of cameras in high-altitude remote places in California to monitor wildfire activity was pretty fascinating — and has some great footage visuals as well.
A look at a revolutionary tactic with tangible results to improve the lives of people with cancer — exercise therapy! Worth a read to see the results if you have someone in your life battling the disease, or if you are.
Plus, if you’re caring for an aging parent — this NYT read on aging life care managers who can help you navigate things like Medicare for your parent, finding & moving parents into care facilities and doing ongoing check-ins to make sure things are going all right (if you’re not near your parent) was something I’d never heard of, so I thought I’d share here as well. Note that they’re also not financially incentivized to steer you to certain providers, facilities, etc.