Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to Puck’s best new reporting. Here’s what you need to know… and stick around for Matt Belloni’s postmortem on Hollywood’s transformative half-decade.

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Meanwhile, on the pods…

And now, a Hollywood temp check…

HOLLYWOOD

The first issue of Matt’s industry-defining newsletter, What I’m Hearing, landed exactly five years ago in the inboxes of 300 friends and colleagues in Hollywood. At the time, Peak TV was still in full swing, almost nobody was worried about YouTube or A.I. or David Ellison, and the great roll-up of entertainment assets that defined the past half-decade was just getting started. Indeed, the one constant over the past five years has been the wisdom of the What I’m Hearing community of readers, fans, sources, CAA mailroom employees, one flight attendant on a private jet (true story!), and even the publicists who begrudgingly confirm news they don’t want Matt to write.

In honor of the anniversary, Matt reached out to about 100 industry friends and smart sources to ask a simple question: What’s the one thing that has changed the most in Hollywood in the past five years? Their answers ranged from the brutally frank (“There used to be executives with opinions. Now nobody has opinions.” … “The acceptance of tech companies as the winners. Everything else is just parts.”) to the slightly depressing (“No money for the middle.”) to the genuinely optimistic (“Five years ago, there were no windows and no theatrical movie business. And now the movies are back.”).

Click here to read Matt’s full story.

FASHION

Reddit, the platform that fashion brands have mostly ignored (and for good reason), is becoming a key source for how we learn about them in the A.I. era. Unfortunately, there may be no way to control the trolls.

WASHINGTON

In exclusive new polling for Puck, more than six in 10 Americans say the economy is getting worse—about the same number that want the gas tax suspended. Meanwhile, Vance’s support is slipping—even as he maintains a whopping 19-point edge over Rubio in a possible 2028 primary matchup.

SPORTS

Obviously, the short-lived Rousey–Carano title fight wasn’t the ideal scenario for Netflix’s M.M.A. debut. But it also wasn’t a refutation of the streamer’s “eventized” sports content strategy.

A.I.

With stratospheric funding and a slew of founding talent from OpenAI, Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab seemingly had everything an A.I. startup needed for escape velocity. But as it approaches its 15-month mark, the company has little to show for all that promise and capital.

FASHION

Lauren sits down with Paul Smith and Gabriela Hearst to discuss their new collaboration, their shared love of color and dedication to natural fibers, and the importance of empowering the youth through authenticity and creativity. She also gets a glimpse of their brains by way of a virtual studio and office tour, where Paul shares the objects he has collected from every corner of the world.

MEDIA

Julia and Dylan get into the potential final death of the search traffic era, courtesy of Google I/O, and what it means for digital publishers and news media at large. They also discuss the week’s buying and selling frenzy—New York magazine and BuzzFeed both changing hands—and Barbara Peng’s exit from Business Insider.

A.I.

Ian Krietzberg joins Peter to discuss a wild week for OpenAI, from the (somewhat anticlimactic) denouement of Elon Musk’s “stealing a charity” lawsuit to Sam Altman signaling that a potential I.P.O. filing is on the near horizon. Then they take a microscope to Donald Trump’s latest round of A.I. investments.

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