Melinda’s Split Decision, Disney’s Cable Fable, Inside the Upfronts

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

First up today, Teddy Schleifer unearths the details of David Sacks’ once-unthinkable Silicon Valley Trump fundraiser, the return of Palmer Luckey, and Marissa Mayer’s rarefied Biden guest list. Plus, an inside look at Melinda’s exit from the Gates Foundation.

Then, below the fold: Julia Ioffe charts Ukraine’s battlefield setback and Putin’s Cabinet shuffle. Julia Alexander dissects streaming’s biggest misconception. Marion Maneker reports on the art market’s Super Bowl. On Somebody’s Gotta Win, Tara Palmeri and Teddy probe the icy relationship between Nikki Haley and Trump. On Fashion People, Lauren Sherman and analyst extraordinaire Luca Solca trade notes on the latest fashion industry obsessions. And on The Powers That Be, Julia Alexander joins Peter Hamby to reveal what advertisers really think of the streamers during Upfront Week in New York.

TEDDY SCHLEIFER

The latest details on Silicon Valley’s Trump fundraiser, the return of Palmer Luckey, and Marissa Mayer’s guest list. Plus: Gates insiders on why Melinda left the Foundation.

JULIA IOFFE

Notes on Putin’s game theory for pressuring Kharkiv and the real reasons behind his wartime cabinet reshuffle.

JULIA ALEXANDER

The new Bob Iger/David Zaslav streaming partnership has been compared, over and over again, to the halcyon days of the cable bundle. But those facile juxtapositions merely explain how little we really understand about the changes impacting the entertainment industry.

MARION MANEKER

On Monday night, Sotheby’s posted a strong $267 million sale, up 30 percent year over year, including a record price for Joan Mitchell’s ‘Noon.’ So why did it all seem so depressing?