Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Matt Belloni rolls out Part One of his annual Hollywood predictions, packed with fresh reporting and prognostications from Puck insiders Julia Alexander and Eriq Gardner, envisioning 20 surefire, 100 percent probable events that could reshape Hollywood in the year ahead. Will Zendaya crack box-office records? Will Brett Ratner’s Rush Hour 4 shoot in Saudi Arabia? And will Sydney Sweeney’s next blockbuster endorsement deal involve… male enhancement? Almost certainly, but only time will tell.

Plus, below the fold: Julia Ioffe explores how Trump’s smash-and-grab operation to apprehend Nicolás Maduro might embolden China and Russia. Lauren Sherman reports on the latest Saks Global headwinds and Jonathan Anderson’s Dior debut in stores. And John Ourand reveals how Amazon secured this weekend’s highly coveted Packers-Bears playoff.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Matt and Lucas Shaw reunite on The Town to answer Hollywood’s most burning questions in 2026. On The Grill Room, Dylan Byers, Julia Alexander, and Matt discuss the ongoing WBD bidding war. On Fashion People, Lauren and Vanity Fair’s Marisa Meltzer consider the latest points of fashion world intrigue. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and Abby Livingston chew over Tim Walz’s decision to abandon his reelection bid in Minnesota amid an intensifying fraud scandal.

HOLLYWOOD

The town’s favorite year-ahead forecast returns, with input from some of my best sources—plus a few celebrity Puck friends. The future of Star Wars, Instagram Reels, Rush Hour 4, and Sydney Sweeney foretold in the first of two parts…

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"A devilish and dynamic adaptation…Tessa Thompson is fantastic" — LA TIMES

From writer/director Nia DaCosta comes a provocative, modern reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play. Hedda (Golden Globe®-nominee Tessa Thompson) finds herself torn between the lingering ache of a past love and the quiet suffocation of her present life. Over the course of one charged night, long-repressed desires and hidden tensions erupt—pulling her and everyone around her into a spiral of manipulation, passion, and betrayal.

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WASHINGTON

Trump’s largely consequence-free projection of military power in Iran and elsewhere laid the groundwork for last weekend’s shocking action in Venezuela—and validated a new framework for MAGA-style interventionism. But what happens when Xi starts playing by the same rules?

FASHION

A timely report on the Saks Global saga following former C.E.O. Marc Metrick’s departure, chairman Richard Baker’s assumption of the role, and the $100 million-plus interest payment debacle. Plus: Is Dior resetting its prices?

SPORTS

When the streamer landed a potentially classic playoff matchup between the Bears and Packers this weekend, it looked like the league could be catering to a new favored partner—but executives on all sides of the equation pointed to the thorny decision tree the league stares down this time of year.

HOLLYWOOD

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to ask their most burning questions for Hollywood in 2026, including whether another strike is imminent, how NFL rights negotiations will affect the shows and movies made for streaming, what types of movies David Ellison will make as the head of a major studio, whether Universal can unseat Disney as the box office champion for the first time in over a decade, and much more.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

"A devilish and dynamic adaptation…Tessa Thompson is fantastic" — LA TIMES

From writer/director Nia DaCosta comes a provocative, modern reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play. Hedda (Golden Globe®-nominee Tessa Thompson) finds herself torn between the lingering ache of a past love and the quiet suffocation of her present life. Over the course of one charged night, long-repressed desires and hidden tensions erupt—pulling her and everyone around her into a spiral of manipulation, passion, and betrayal.

LEARN MORE

MEDIA

Matt Belloni joins Dylan and Julia to chart the latest updates surrounding the Warner Bros. Discovery bidding war between Netflix and Paramount—and what each side stands to gain or lose. Then they dive into Hollywood’s accelerating A.I. anxiety in light of Disney’s pact with Sora 2, the upcoming film slate for 2026, YouTube’s rights deal with the Oscars, and more. Plus: Matt explains his choices for Hollywood’s heroes and villain of the year.

FASHION

Lauren is joined by return guest and Vanity Fair senior staff writer Marisa Meltzer, who is also the author of Soft Power on Substack and the fall bestseller It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin. They discuss just about everything in the news: Rama Duwaji, why Bernard Arnault should buy Bergdorf Goodman, the red carpets at the Critics Choice Awards and the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the return of fur, the fashion in Marty Supreme and Sentimental Value, in-store Dior, and plenty more.

WASHINGTON

Abby Livingston joins Peter with fresh reporting from Capitol Hill on how Republicans and Democrats are responding to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Then they turn to Tim Walz’s decision to abandon his reelection bid for Minnesota governor amid a mounting social services scandal, and what the episode reveals about the increasingly brutal realities of modern political life.

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