Good morning,

It was a fabulous week here at Puck: Lauren Sherman got the readout from inside the Met Gala; Dylan Byers dug into the Tucker conspiracy theories; Matt Belloni presaged the coming Hollywood wars; Tara Palmeri listened in on Joe Manchin’s presidential aspirations; Julia Ioffe broke the news on a Biden diplomatic saga; and Teddy Schleifer captured a G.O.P. billionaire’s concerns over The DeSantasy.

Check out these stories, and others, via the links below. And stick around for the backstory on how it all came together.

WALL STREET:
Bill Cohan gives Jamie Dimon the historical treatment.
and…
Baratunde Thurston makes the financial case for climate optimism.

MEDIA:
Dylan Byers dismisses Tucker fables and previews the CNN-Trump revival.
and…
Tara Palmeri puts a D.C. media scandal to bed.

HOLLYWOOD:
Matt Belloni explains the coming theaters of the writers’ strike battle.
and…
Eriq Gardner digs into the force majeure optionality.
and…
Julia Alexander explains Netflix’s insidious new strategy.

WASHINGTON:
Teddy Schleifer hears the murmurs of G.O.P. billionaires’ DeSantis anxiety.
and...
Julia Ioffe untangles the White House’s Evan Gershkovich negotiation.
and…
Tara Palmeri investigates whether Joe Manchin will run for president as a Ross Perot spoiler.
and…
Tina Nguyen has some rare good news for Kevin McCarthy.

PODCASTS:
Matt weighs the 2023 Blockbuster Confidence Scale on The Town.
and…
Peter Hamby and Tara discuss Trump’s surprising campaign competency on The Powers That Be.

Meanwhile, I also encourage you to take advantage of our article gifting feature. You can share our work with your colleagues, friends, and family. Subscribers are entitled to 5 article gifts per month.

Along the way, I’d pass one legendary journalist who rolled calls with the best of them: C.E.O.s, first-name-only top executives, and the whole of the Teterboro set. I never wanted to outright eavesdrop, but I was always stunned by the level of candor I could hear coming across the phone lines—the real story behind the story, the plot only the insiders knew. I’m sure Nate and Andrew wondered why the hell I was around all the time. I was becoming unwaveringly obsessed with creating a product built around that experience: the proximity to the truth, the real story.

Of course, this mantra would become Puck’s credo. And this week, the company produced an exceptional number of stories that brought our community closer than ever to the real plot. To wit, Julia Ioffe’s typically brilliant reportage on the Biden administration’s efforts to free Evan Gershkovich ushered readers into the halls of the White House and Foggy Bottom, where frustrated government officials fear that this detainment horror story could far outlast the Brittney Griner saga. If you want to understand the complex psychological game theory that our diplomats play on a routine basis, please set aside some time to read Inside the Gershkovich Prisoner Swap Crisis.

Meanwhile, the equally perspicacious Tara Palmeri was able to penetrate a private call this week between the leadership of No Labels, an enigmatic and billionaire-funded putative third party, and their ultra-high-net-worth donors. No Labels is the subject of serious fascination in D.C., partly because of the quixoticism of their mission, but also because the identities of their supporters are so secretive. Tara’s readout on the call, and the broader dynamic of the operation, is truly remarkable—it’s a privileged window into political narrative crafting, how power works, and the always-complex marriage of money and politics. No Labels Leaks & Manchin ’24 Dreams also features a fascinating cameo from a very presidential-seeming egocentric senator from Appalachia.

But if you have time for only one delicious Puck piece this weekend, I urge you to pour over Matt Belloni’s extraordinary dissertation on Hollywood’s current powder keg. In Harsh Realities of the Writers Strike, Matt lays out how the streamers have the upper hand, the studios are leaning on the Directors Guild, and why it’s still too early for some august white knight peacemaker, like Bob Iger or Bryan Lourd, to intervene. Despite the writers’ activism on social media and their public unity, Matt notes, the situation is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Indeed, you should count on Puck for the honest truth. Frankly, that’s always the most interesting version of events.

Have a great weekend,
Jon