Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to Puck’s best new reporting. Here’s what you need to know…

Meanwhile, on the pods…

HOLLYWOOD

Matt’s annual sit-down with a candid group of teen moviegoers, who share their brutally unfiltered thoughts on the stars and stories that do (and don’t) get them into theaters—from Spider-Man (“always gonna hit”) to Spielberg (“He’s no Nolan”) to Sydney Sweeney (“like… no”).

SPORTS

With commissioner Don Garber’s quarter-century-plus tenure coming to an end next year (or sooner!), the MLS has contracted executive headhunters to embark on a sprawling replacement search. A few well-known names have emerged as early targets—but with big growth ambitions, they’d better get it right.

FASHION

Three years in at Dior, there’s still some lingering skepticism about whether Bernard Arnault’s eldest daughter was suited to lead a turnaround at the world’s second-biggest soft luxury brand. But there are signs that her massive bet on Jonathan Anderson is working. Frankly, the group needs it to.

WASHINGTON

Pete Hegseth’s decision to replace the highly regarded Gen. Randy George with Gen. Christopher LaNeve infuriated senior Army officials. As he prepares to be confirmed to the role, however, LaNeve is trying to mend fences and win converts.

A.I.

With Hollywood and Silicon Valley on a legal collision course over I.P. infringement and celebrity deepfakes, one company thinks it’s struck on a licensing solution that everyone—okay, almost everyone—can live with.

MEDIA

Julia and Dylan join forces to wrestle with A.I.’s growing footprint in journalism—and make the case for what real reporters still bring to the table that no artificial model can replicate. They also take stock of Substack’s current moment of uncertainty, prompted by The Ankler’s high-profile departure to Ben Thompson’s new platform Passport, and consider whether it’s time to hit the panic button.

FASHION

Lauren is joined by Nili Lotan, founder of the namesake fashion brand, for a candid look at what it takes to build a fashion brand from scratch—in her 40s, as a mother, and on her own terms. Lotan discusses the brand’s evolution, how she navigates wholesale and direct-to-consumer, and her growing international presence. She also reflects on formative years at Liz Claiborne and Ralph Lauren, and how the desire for creative freedom became the driving force behind everything she’s built since.

WALL STREET

Bill Cohan joins Peter to chew over the aftershocks from last weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where the chaos inside the ballroom is still reverberating through the nation’s power corners. Then Bill turns to his latest reporting on Sam Bankman-Fried, who’s still angling for a way out of prison—and how the staggering scale of his financial losses could factor into his legal battle.

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