Welcome back to What I’m Hearing...
Happy Super Bowl Sunday from L.A., a few hours earlier than usual.
Before we start, some Puck news: We’ve launched events! The first of our Puck Private Dinner series—an intimate, salon-style, invite-only, and off-the-record gathering for industry leaders—took place on Thursday at Jason and Lauren Blum’s house in L.A. Big thanks to the Blums for co-hosting with me, and thanks to the inaugural group of leaders who attended from companies such as Disney, Netflix, Hello Sunshine, Universal, Blumhouse, and The Blacklist. We’ll do more of these with different co-hosts, so watch this space for details.
Also, there’s still time to enter my Super Bowl ratings contest. Respond to this email with your best guess of the total audience, including NBC and Peacock, as reported by Nielsen/NBC. Reply by kickoff today, and the closest guess without going over will win a status-defining Puck tote bag. Good luck!
Discussed in today’s email: Kevin Spacey, Eminem, Roger Goodell, Bob Chapek, Mary J. Blige, Dawn Hudson, Chris Miller, Ye, David Young, and the Bonnie and Clyde of Bitcoin.
Who Won the Week: Bill Lawrence
Who says nine-figure overall deals are dead? The Ted Lasso showrunner scored one this week, a five year re-up with Warner Bros. TV that also allows his agency, ICM Partners, to bank a major commission before its acquisition by CAA becomes official. You’d think that Kevin Spacey couldn’t sink lower. Think again! The disgraced Oscar winner, who in recent years has appeared only in bizarre Christmas videos and an arbitration ruling that he must pay $31 million for imploding the final season of House of Cards, is now using the legal system to harass a Variety reporter—and even hold him in contempt of court. What a guy.
Adam Vary is the reporter. He previously worked for Buzzfeed, where he authored the 2017 article in which actor Adam Rapp accused Spacey of preying on him as a young man. The story sparked a wave of accusers to come forward and marked a key moment in the burgeoning #MeToo movement. Spacey’s career soon disappeared like Keyser Soze.
Tellingly, Spacey never sued Buzzfeed. But Rapp later sued Spacey, claiming the sexual assault caused him severe emotional and psychological damage. That civil case is heading toward trial in federal court in New York, and as part of his defense, Spacey has now targeted Vary. The writer received 29 separate document demands and sat for a 7-hour deposition in December. Spacey’s lawyers say that Vary’s communications with Rapp and their pre-article friendship are relevant to determining Rapp’s credibility and the veracity of his claims.
OK, that’s fine, litigate the case, but Spacey is now demanding another onerous deposition and a raft of documents related to the reporting and writing of the article …
PODCAST 
FOUR STORIES WE'RE TALKING ABOUT 
A behind-the-scenes clash over the Super Bowl halftime show is a case study in the N.F.L.’s effort to protect its brand through a draconian playbook. ERIQ GARDNER 
A candid conversation with Dr. Andrey Sushentsov, a prominent Russian political scientist, about how Putin views the West. JULIA IOFFE 
Disney’s recent streaming rejuvenation suggests some key factors that will dictate the winners and losers in this evolving streaming arms race. JULIA ALEXANDER 
Notes on Diller’s decision to shutter some of his magazines, Fed porn, and Liars Poker war stories. WILLIAM D. COHAN 
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