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

First up today, Dylan Byers wades back into the interminable Olivia Nuzzi–Ryan Lizza media world psychodrama, which has been fueled by the former Playbook author’s obsessive Substack crusade against his ex-fiancée. At this point, there are almost too many threads to untangle: Will this culminate in Nuzzi’s departure from Vanity Fair? (Almost certainly.) Has enough attention been paid to Lizza’s pathological obsession with Nuzzi’s downfall? (Probably not.) And will the industry’s countless rubberneckers avert their gaze before the New Year? (Let us pray…)

Plus, below the fold: Bill Cohan translates the one-way email correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and disgraced financier Leon Black. Julia Alexander explains Amazon’s overlooked advantage in the streaming wars. Leigh Ann Caldwell chronicles the G.O.P.’s preemptive blame games ahead of next year’s midterms. Rachel Strugatz digs into the decline of Milk Makeup. And for Inner Circle members, Marion Maneker breaks down the auction data from New York’s $2.2 billion fall sales.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Matt Belloni is joined by Nielsen’s Brian Fuhrer on The Town to discuss why new sports ratings measurements are so important for leagues. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby rings up Leigh Ann to discuss the G.O.P.’s mounting anxieties about a blue wave in ’26.

MEDIA

The star-crossed saga of Olivia and Ryan continues its salacious, shameful pas de deux—ensnaring not just Vanity Fair’s new editor but further tainting journalism writ large. Even worse, it elides the real question: Why is a certain pathetic world hanging on every word of a jilted lover’s creepy account proffered without editorial oversight?

A MESSAGE FROM META

Meta is investing $600 billion in American infrastructure and jobs, creating opportunities in communities across the country.

Phil, a Lead Building Engineer in Los Lunas, New Mexico, has seen the impact that Meta’s investment can bring.

“Supporting my family used to mean leaving my hometown and missing out on special moments,” he says. “Now, it doesn't.”

Explore Phil’s story.

WALL STREET

The recently released, one-sided correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and Leon Black illustrates a discourse between a hustler and a billionaire with too much money and too little time on his hands. So why couldn’t Black get rid of him sooner?

HOLLYWOOD

Amazon has quickly gobbled up viewers on its path to becoming the third-most-used app in streamerdom—largely by becoming the place users go to watch other apps. So how do you actually quantify that kind of audience?

WASHINGTON

Republicans are increasingly resigned to losing their House majority, a fate they ascribe to Speaker Mike Johnson’s mismanagement, and to the redistricting crusade prosecuted by the White House itself.

FASHION

Milk Makeup, the once very cool and extremely fashion-adjacent beauty line, has suffered the slings and arrows of the post-wunderkind blues at Sephora and the Ulta rebound that wasn’t. Now, one of the cool-guy founders is back involved, but is it already too late?

A MESSAGE FROM META

Meta’s AI infrastructure is bringing jobs to local communities.

For Phil—and many Los Lunas, New Mexico locals—supporting his family used to mean “leaving town, and missing moments I couldn’t get back.” Not anymore.

Meta is investing $600 billion in American infrastructure and jobs, creating opportunities in communities nationwide.

Explore Phil’s story.

ART

A deep data-driven dive into the November sales and what they tell us about the art market’s “just right” moment.

HOLLYWOOD

Matt is joined by Nielsen Global Media executive Brian Fuhrer to discuss why NFL ratings seem to be setting new viewership records all the time, how sports-ratings measurements have changed, why these numbers are so important for sports leagues, and which leagues are growing the fastest.

WASHINGTON

Leigh Ann Caldwell joins Peter to discuss the heartburn inside the Republican Party heading into next year’s midterms: last month’s Democratic dominance, Trump’s plunging approval ratings, the G.O.P.’s messaging problem regarding the country’s enduring affordability crisis, and more. Is an insurmountable blue wave on the horizon? Leigh Ann says the Republicans she's spoken to fear that the answer is yes.

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