A Christie Carol, Paramount’s Billionaire Blueprint, Julia on Gaza

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon compendium of Puck’s latest reporting.

First up today, Lauren Sherman presses her ear to the CAA rumor mill to investigate the acquisition chatter surrounding Giovanni Testino’s Art Partner. Plus, why haven’t the big agencies figured out how to make money in the image-making game?

Then, below the fold: Matt Belloni scoops Tom Cruise’s next Maverick adventure. Tara Palmeri offers the essential post-Christie primer to the Iowa caucus. Matt huddles up with five major entertainment union leaders to assess Hollywood’s A.I. threat, and invites Bill Cohan on The Town to dissect David Ellison’s pitch to acquire Paramount Global. And on The Powers That Be, Julia Ioffe joins Peter Hamby to consider Israel’s genocide charges at The Hague, while Ben Landy and Bill audit Brian Roberts’ M&A philosophy.

LAUREN SHERMAN

As the rumor mill spins about the fate of Art Partner, it seems like neither CAA nor WME have truly figured out how to make money in the image-making game.

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MATTHEW BELLONI

Even as Tom Cruise sets a “strategic partnership” with Warner Bros., he may not be available until well into 2025 or 2026.

TARA PALMERI

Christie may be old news as a candidate, but his departure adds a few arithmetic wrinkles to a race that already seemed over. Oh, and his people did trade calls with No Labels...

MATTHEW BELLONI

For the first time since the strikes of 2023, the leaders of five major entertainment unions come together to debate the artificial intelligence threat, what they gained (and didn’t) by shutting down the industry, and the roadmap for negotiations in ’24: “Nothing is off the table.”