Pitaro’s Dream Venu, Mar-a-Lago Factionalism, Music Industry Shudders

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon missive from Puck HQ.

First up today, Lauren Sherman pulls back the curtain on what really preceded Peter Hawkings’ sudden ouster as Tom Ford’s creative director. Was it the “Vanilla Sex” non-scandal scandal? Penny-pinching overlords? Or was it simply that Hawkings, despite all his considerable talent, isn’t Tom Ford?

Plus, below the fold: John Ourand gets the MoffettNathanson view of Zaz’s NBA rights imbroglio, the NFL’s CBS deal, Venu’s nine-year event horizon, and more. Peter Hamby punctures the Democrats’ Kamala Harris sugar high. Scott Mendelson hunts for signs of life in the ’24 box office. On Somebody’s Gotta Win, Tara Palmeri is joined by CNN’s Kasie Hunt to delineate the growing factions within the Trump campaign. On The Town, Matt Belloni and Lucas Shaw debate whether the music industry has actually peaked. And on The Powers That Be, Julia Ioffe rings up Peter to reveal the Blob anxieties regarding a wider war in the Middle East, before unpacking the most complex prisoner exchange since the Cold War.

LAUREN SHERMAN

So what really led to Peter Hawkings’ sudden ouster from Tom Ford, the brand he’d help his mentor create and eventually sell for $2.8 billion? Was it just declining sales? Vanilla Sex? New penny-pinching overlords? Or what if Hawkings desperately wanted to be Ford, and tried to be Ford, but just simply wasn’t?

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JOHN OURAND

News and notes on the NFL’s CBS deal, Venu’s nine-year tour, and NBA rights with MoffettNathanson’s Michael Nathanson and Robert Fishman.

PETER HAMBY

While Democrats celebrate their shiny new presumptive nominee, particularly on the eve of her veep selection, Kamala Harris still faces a trifecta of challenges that could turn today’s “irrational exuberance” into another 2016-style shocker. Herewith, the bear case for Harris…

SCOTT MENDELSON

Has the box office finally bottomed out? Despite a rough first quarter, ’24 is shaping up to be an inflection year, with an encouraging fourth quarter upon us.