Shari’s Choice, Arnault Succession Twists & ESPN Murmurs

Good morning,

Thanks for reading The Backstory, your weekly review of the best new work from Puck.

It was another remarkable week: Matt Belloni and Bill Cohan got to the bottom of the Paramount debacle; Julia Alexander scrutinized the new Netflix narrative; Lauren Sherman read the latest Arnault succession tea leaves; John Ourand uncovered ESPN’s secret negotiations; Dylan Byers chatted with Jim VandeHei about Washington’s media evolution; and Marion Maneker previewed auction season. Meanwhile, Teddy Schleifer captured the All In guys’ latest Trump infatuation, Tara Palmeri chatted with the former president’s favorite pollster, and Eriq Gardner assessed the odds in his N.Y. criminal trial.

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FASHION:
Lauren Sherman sorts through the Hedi Slimane murmurs and tracks the latest Arnault intrigue.
and…
Rachel Strugatz reports on a private equity beauty imbroglio.

ART WORLD:
Marion Maneker previews a $60 million tranche of spring auction goodies.

WALL STREET:
Bill Cohan analyzes John Paulson’s latest deal jiujitsu.

SILICON VALLEY:
Teddy Schleifer captures the political evolution of David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya.

MEDIA:
Dylan Byers examines the evolution of the D.C. media bubble.
and…
John Ourand gathers all the deal heat coming from the NBA broadcast rights auction.

HOLLYWOOD:
Matt Belloni and Bill debate whether Shari Redstone will go with David & Gerry or Apollo.
and…
Julia Alexander deciphers Netflix’s new Madison Avenue strategy.
and…
Scott Mendelson tracks the horror genre’s box office decline.

WASHINGTON:
Tina Nguyen profiles the new Mike Johnson.
and…
Julia Ioffe explains what’s really going on at Columbia, and Peter Hamby conveys the latest polling on Gen Z’s opinions about Biden and Israel.
and…
Tara Palmeri chats with Trump’s favorite pollster, and Eriq Gardner offers up an analysis of his legal odds.

PODCASTS:
Matt and Peter talk Hollywood politics, D.C. culture, and new projects with Aaron Sorkin on The Town.
and…
Tara and Abby Livingston discuss the Johnson makeover on Somebody’s Gotta Win.

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.

Party Politics

On Thursday evening, my partners Matt Belloni and Peter Hamby took the stage on the rooftop of the Riggs hotel, in the Penn Quarter of Washington, for an interview with the only person that everyone in town can agree on liking: Aaron Sorkin. Naturally, we were in town hosting Puck’s inaugural White House Correspondents’ Dinner week soirée, along with WME and Snap, and toasting the only issue that everyone in town agrees on: the importance of the fourth estate.

Photos: Shannon Finney/Getty Images for WME

Washington is beautiful this time of year, and the room was elegantly cramped with swells like Jeffrey Katzenberg, John Boehner, Anita Dunn, Tim Ryan, Jon Favreau, and Joanna Coles, whom I chatted up about her new gig at The Daily Beast. Elsewhere, there was Peter Baker, Symone Sanders, Kasie Hunt, Scott Mulhauser, Andrew Bleeker, Bradley Singer, and so many of my partners—including Puck’s latest addition, the legendary political journalist John Heilemann.

About 15 minutes into the conversation—a uniquely Puck confection illuminating the intersection of Hollywood and D.C.—Sorkin looked apologetically at his publicist Jodie Oriol, who was seated in the front row, and offered a candid admission. His next project, he confessed to a room of politicos and media types who were sure to keep it a secret, was going to be about January 6th. The room gasped at the notion that one of the darkest moments in recent American history was going to get the Sorkin treatment. Soon enough, our party was on Drudge.

Standing on the balcony during the opening minutes of our event, the well-regarded Washington Post reporter Ben Terris asked me why our young company, which hasn’t even been in market for three years, decided to decamp to the swamp for the busy cherry blossom social season. I’m not a party guy, I told him, as absolutely everyone who knows me can attest. But I came of age at The Graydon Carter Finishing School of Social Events, a place called Vanity Fair in the early to mid-aughts, where details mattered and vivifying a brand through events was both the expectation and part of the business proposition.

And that’s especially true for a brand like Puck, where we aspire to bring our readers into the room as never before, with proximity to the decision-makers and the real inside conversation. In fact, the night before our party, Matt, Peter, and I had joined our partner Dylan Byers for his annual pre-WHCD week private dinner at the Jefferson. The evening was off the record, and so I can’t go into any great detail, of course. But I will say that no one brings them out like Dylan… No one…

I’ve shared some pictures of the party because, well, why not… But if you have any time this weekend, I’d turn your attention to a piece we published right before Dylan’s dinner. It’s a candid conversation with Jim VandeHei, the former co-founder and C.E.O. of Politico and current co-founder and C.E.O of Axios, about the evolution of the media business—particularly the Washington ecosystem. I’ve known Jim for years and admired his career greatly. He’s proven, once and again, that reward only follows risk in our industry. And he’s managed it all with great aplomb.

In VandeHei in Full, Jim also chats candidly about his new book, Just the Good Stuff, which chronicles his entrepreneurial adventures and the lessons learned along the way. “I don’t sit here and think I’m a self-help guru. In fact, I fucking hate that term,” Jim told Dylan. “I’m an entrepreneur and a C.E.O., but I’m really a journalist at heart. And I’m in the unique position where we’ve started a couple media companies, hired and run large staffs, and we took notes. I observed this stuff, I think I’m decent at synthesizing this stuff, and people seem to respond to it in a really positive way.”

I’ve learned a lot from Jim during my own entrepreneurial journey. Five years ago, this very week, I took a trip down to Washington to meet with Jim and his business partner, Mike Allen. I had just quit my job in media and was segueing, very briefly, into private equity, all in the pursuit of starting Puck. Jim and Mike sat me down and shared, in stunning detail and with unnerving honesty, the key moments on their expedition. It’s a conversation I return to weekly, if not more frequently, and I’m glad Jim will now share it with others. After all, as the media industry remakes itself, this is truly the story of our time and a hallmark obsession here at Puck.

Have a great weekend,
Jon

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