Happy Friday and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon
assortment of Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Matt Belloni weighs in on the latest Hollywood streaming drama: Amazon’s controversial decision to send Dwayne Johnson’s Red One to Prime Video less than a month after its theatrical debut. The move raises one of the most pressing questions that will define this next hybrid distribution era: Can Amazon
leverage movie theaters more than theaters can leverage Amazon?

Plus, below the fold: Lauren Sherman explores the fate of Versace after the failed Tapestry-Capri merger. John Ourand takes a microscope to the NBA’s dismal early-season viewership. And Tara Palmeri discusses Trump’s unusual perspective on political capital with his former White House political director
Bill Stepien.

Meanwhile, on the podcasts: Dylan Byers connects with Jon Kelly to discuss the WaPo executive editor search, and Eriq Gardner swings by to dissect Iger’s settlement calculus. On Impolitic, John Heilemann and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy assess Elon Musk’s
rising political clout. On The Town, Matt is joined by Michael O’Leary to discuss how movie theaters can modernize. On Fashion People, Lauren and multihyphenate Tiina Laakkonen rank all the top fashion capitals. And on The Powers That Be, Marion Maneker convenes with Peter Hamby to scrutinize Sotheby’s rolling layoffs and whether the auction house’s cost-cutting will impact buyers.

After only 27 days, Dwayne Johnson’s Red One was plucked from theaters and sent to
Prime Video, a decision that sent yet another wave of anxiety through the theatrical industry and reignited debates over the future of cinema. The move also underscores Amazon’s growing willingness to challenge traditional release windows, leaving many industry insiders questioning the long-term viability of theaters as a primary distribution channel. Indeed, as the streaming wars have intensified, Amazon’s aggressive push into premium content—and its broader strategy for balancing theatrical
and digital releases—has become one of the defining narratives shaping the movie business in 2025 and beyond. 

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Its long-planned merger with Tapestry having fallen apart, Capri is now contemplating selling
key assets to stabilize its business, including Jimmy Choo and even Versace. Acquired in 2018 for $2.1 billion, Versace was meant to be the crown jewel in Capri’s portfolio, driving growth and bolstering the company’s influence in the luxury fashion sector. Now, however, questions are swirling about the future viability of the iconic brand. Who could buy it? At what price? And what will happen to Donatella?

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Instagram Teen Accounts: automatic protections for teens

Parents want safer online experiences for their teens. That's why Instagram is introducing Teen Accounts, with automatic protections for who can contact teens and the content they can see.

A key factor: Only parents can approve safety setting changes for teens under 16. 

Learn more

With aging and often injured stars, and competition from an ever-expanding NFL schedule, the NBA
is struggling to find an early-season audience. But is all the league-wide hand wringing premature? If the ratings slump lasts beyond Christmas—and certainly if it lingers into March, when football season is well over—then it might be time to panic. But conventional wisdom states that the NBA season only truly begins on Christmas Day, and this year, the NBA is facing stiff competition from the NFL (on Netflix… and featuring Beyoncé…). So why isn’t league commissioner Adam Silver more
worried? 

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In a frank conversation with Bill Stepien, Trump’s former White House political director,
Stepien discusses the former-and-future president’s unconventional approach to political capital—and why he never seems to run out of it. As a term-locked president, and with history indicating that the G.O.P. will almost certainly lose the House in the midterms, Trump essentially has 18 months to spend his accumulated capital. In this excerpt from his recent appearance on Somebody’s Gotta Win, Stepien explains how that dynamic will dictate the legislative fights ahead, how he would
advise the president if he were still a part of his administration, why Trump is just now reaching his political peak, and the cabinet appointments Trump will actually fight for.

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Jon Kelly joins Dylan to discuss Matt Murray’s surprising ascent to the WaPo executive
editor job. And then Eriq Gardner swings by to weigh in on Bob Iger’s Trump settlement calculus.

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John is joined by Chris Murphy to discuss the senator’s view that the events of this week
foreshadow the assault on the rule of law that Donald Trump intends to wage once he takes office. Murphy connects the dots between House Republicans’ calls for the F.B.I. to launch a criminal investigation of Liz Cheney, Trump’s lawsuit against pollster Ann Selzer and The Des Moines Register, Elon Musk’s attack on the bipartisan efforts to avert a government shutdown (and Trump’s endorsement of it), the pre-capitulation to the incoming administration by an array of capitalist titans,
and the abdication of the national stage by Joe Biden—arguing that these all are early signs of the onset of oligarchy, and that his fellow Democrats must do more to rescue American democracy.

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Matt is joined by Michael O’Leary, C.E.O. of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO),
to discuss their pledge to spend $2.2 billion to modernize and upgrade theaters, what that actually looks like in practice, and how these new “entertainment centers” will bring people off the couch. They also talk about the biggest successes of the year at the box office, how theaters can improve for the modern audience, how theaters and studios are getting along these days, and more. Matt finishes the show with a prediction on the upcoming Netflix film The Electric State, starring
Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt.

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Tiina Laakkonen has done it all—model, muse, designer, stylist. But for the last decade, she ran
Tiina the Store, in Amagansett. Tiina joins Lauren to discuss why, after years of selling Arts & Science, Dusan, and Sofie D’Hoore to a hopelessly devoted clientele, she decided to call it quits. They also discuss Paris in the ’80s, London in the ’90s, New York in the aughts, the Hamptons in the 2010s, and Karl Lagerfeld.

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Marion Maneker joins Peter to sift through the latest drama at Sotheby’s, with the auction house
revealing nearly 100 layoffs in New York and possibly more to come across the globe. He also takes a close look at the relationship between Sotheby’s C.E.O. Charles Stewart and billionaire owner Patrick Drahi—and how their cost-cutting will impact buyers on a practical level.

Listen
Now

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