Vance vs. Walz, Paris Fashion Chatter, Bettman’s NHL Fantasies

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

First up today, Peter Hamby offers an election update from North Carolina, the centerpiece of a Republican campaign to microtarget the cord-cutting, beer-swilling, live-sports-streaming male demo in battleground states. (Naturally, Peter spent the entire weekend watching Trump ads.) Then he digs into the latest Puck-Echelon poll, which finds Kamala ahead—but still struggling to connect with swing voters on anything more than vibes.

Plus, below the fold: Lauren Sherman gathers all the front-row chatter from Paris Fashion Week. John Ourand and NHL commish Gary Bettman candidly assess his league’s media strategy and the decaying R.S.N. picture. Scott Mendelson chronicles yet another Lionsgate flop and what lies ahead for the Megalopolis distributor. On The Powers That Be, Abby Livingston joins Peter to unpack tonight’s undercard between J.D. Vance and Tim Walz. And on Fashion People, Lauren and Ssense’s Steff Yotka dig into their favorite collections from Paris Fashion Week and Chanel’s creative director hoopla.

PETER HAMBY

During 72 hours in North Carolina, I became the target demo for a Republican ad blitz painting Kamala’s America as a dystopian, crime-ridden hellhole. Meanwhile, the latest Puck-Echelon poll shows Harris leading 49-44, even though voters still don’t know what she’s for. Does it matter?

LAUREN SHERMAN

The endless, anxiety-filled game of designer musical chairs took a back seat during Paris Fashion Week to a series of fashion-for-fashion’s sake shows at Rick Owens, Jonathan Anderson’s Loewe, Nadège Vanhée’s Hermès, Seán McGirr’s McQueen, and Alessandro Michele’s Valentino debut. And, yes, there was gossip, too.

JOHN OURAND

Gary Bettman, now in his fourth decade running the NHL, has seen it all—labor headaches, expansion, media existentialism, and more. Here, he talks candidly about the league’s distribution strategy, the decaying R.S.N. picture, new markets, and technological changes. Thankfully, he doesn’t make any puck jokes.

SCOTT MENDELSON

With six bombs in a row, the ‘Megalopolis’ distributor has leaned on foreign presales to paper over an astoundingly bad slate of 2024 movies. Thankfully, at least, the next year is looking up.