Welcome back to What I’m Hearing, coming at you from hot and humid L.A. We’ve reached the point of this strike-addled August where actors and writers are praying for early-morning picket duty, and the moguls are praying their friends and relatives don’t post pictures on their yachts.

Today it’s a notebook dump, all-Thursday Thoughts edition of WIH. As always, if you’ve been forwarded this email, become a Puck member here.

Let’s begin…

• 3 big questions for the Writers Guild meeting: I’m told the AMPTP is planning to put a revised offer/response to the WGA proposals on the table at tomorrow’s official sit-down with guild leadership. (The AMPTP declined to comment.) That leads to 3 major questions (with a hat tip to Puck contributor Jonathan Handel):

1. Will the studio proposal address mini-rooms, a success-based metric for streaming residuals, and A.I.? Those have emerged as the Big 3 wedge issues, and the WGA leadership has said they won’t do a deal unless each is addressed. I’m told this new proposal will be different from what’s been discussed previously, but how different?
2. Will the WGA continue to push new demands? Studio-side negotiators felt like the guild was moving the goalposts in last Friday’s meeting-before-the-meeting, making new health insurance asks and wanting the ability to honor SAG-AFTRA picket lines even after a WGA deal.
3. Will both sides act in good faith? As I’ve reported, AMPTP boss Carol Lombardini didn’t even want to meet with the writers last week and only did so because her studio bosses told her to. On the other side, the writers used the meeting to publicly blast the studios’ “anti-union playbook” and rile up their members. So the fear around town is that this meeting will devolve into a P.R. platform. The question is whether the studios are serious about making concessions, and whether the guild will be productive rather than performative.

• Enter Chernin, stage right: Former News Corp. executive Peter Chernin was among the small group credited with the backchanneling that ended the 2007-08 writers strike, but Chernin, now an independent studio head and prominent media investor, has been staying out of the current labor unrest. The Times reported last month that Chernin was telling people he hadn’t even been asked to get involved. Well, now he’s involved. I’m told that over the past couple weeks, he’s been quietly conferring and advising both sides, with a focus on the WGA strike. Hopefully he’s as persuasive as he was 15 years ago. (Chernin’s rep declined to comment.)

• Parsing the new pressure on studios: There’s really only one way to read SAG-AFTRA’s support today for the push by Bethenny Frankel and attorneys Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos to unionize reality TV talent: Leverage. Does SAG-AFTRA actually care whether Housewives or Challenge contestants get healthcare and residuals? Probably not. But unionizing reality talent would be disastrous for studios, which count on unscripted shows being cheaper—and to fill time during strikes. When the studios settle with the actors, I’m guessing that guild support for the Love Is Blind cast goes bye-bye.

• Iger’s desperate cash grabs: It’s hard not to look at Disney C.E.O. Bob Iger’s recent moves as knee-jerk plays for quick cash: his reveal of big price hikes for ad-free Hulu ($18 a month) and Disney+ ($14, bundled for $20), both designed to meet Bob Chapek’s 2024 profitability goal; the fire sale in TV; and the quixotic quest for a deep-pocketed investor for ESPN. Now, most troubling: the Worldwide Leader’s sad $2 billion gambling gambit with Penn Entertainment, an also-ran, downmarket gaming outfit that incinerated $850 million in a terrible deal with the scumbag Barstool Sports impresario Dave Portnoy and is now looking to the Walt Disney Co. for a lifeline. Disney really shouldn’t be in business with a company like Penn, especially on this scale, but Iger has few alternatives.

  I know, Disney’s interim C.F.O. Kevin Lansberry insisted the company’s cash reserves and leverage amid the cratering TV business are not problems, but Iger genuinely seems scared—scared of the expenses required in the streaming business; scared of the Wall Street investors who have pushed down the stock and asked growth and profitability questions he can’t really answer; and scared of the upcoming Hulu buyout. (Many analysts have pegged the deal as a $10 billion or so expenditure, but the valuation negotiation with Comcast could put a much higher price tag on the asset.) And then there’s the upcoming NBA rights negotiation, where Iger will almost certainly face off with Apple and Amazon, and maybe even Google.

  Is Iger so scared that he’d panic-sell the whole Mouse to Apple? I still say no, for many reasons, not least of which is the regulatory nightmare and the destruction of his builder legacy at Disney. But Iger’s refusal to rule it out yesterday suggests he’s at least a little afraid that at some point, there might not be another option. The blunt truth is that this is just the beginning of Iger’s moves. Disney stock jumped 5 percent today, so what other short-term revenue plays with long-term consequences will Iger pursue next?

• Quantifying the Barbie Effect: Here’s a crazy stat: More than 1 in 5 Barbie moviegoers are post-Covid newbies, meaning 22 percent either couldn't recall the last film they saw in a theater, or it was the first film they’ve seen in a theater since the pandemic. That’s according to a new survey of 1,800 people over the past three weeks, which the research firm The Quorum shared with me. Check out the breakdown:

• Doing the math, that equates to about 9 million people in the U.S. that came back to theaters for Barbie. (I’m sure there were similar numbers for Top Gun: Maverick.) The survey shows that 40 percent of that subset said the Barbie experience reminded them how much they love going to movies, and that they would go more often. Another 45 percent said they would go more often, but that cost is an issue. Only 15 percent said this was a one-off experience. So if this momentum is real, which will be the first movie to really capture all these Barbie theater converts?

• Crunchtime for the Globes: Now that the strike-threatened Emmys have moved from September to Jan. 15, a day after Critics Choice on the awards season death march, it’s time for the Golden Globes to put up or shut up. The Globes still don’t have a TV/streaming deal in place for the 2024 show, despite announcing a Jan. 7 date. I’m told NBC/Peacock, which aired the 2023 show on a Tuesday for a fraction of the once-hefty $60 million+ license fee, made a lowball offer back in March, which Dick Clark Productions (now controlled by Jay Penske’s Penske Media and Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries) politely declined. Since then, NBC has scheduled a Sunday Night Football game for Jan. 7, and I’m told CBS, Fox, Netflix, Amazon, ABC/Disney+/Hulu, Apple TV+, the Turner networks and even the Roku Channel have all passed on the Globes, with multiple sources citing the high asking price (the lingering toxicity from the H.F.P.A. diversity/ethics scandal probably didn’t help).

  Who’s left: CW? YouTube? Shudder? Or maybe Globes producers will face reality and accept a giant haircut to get the show distributed somewhere. (A rep for the show did not get back to me and H.F.P.A. president Helen Hoehne declined to comment.)

• Dealing with the boobs in China: Congrats to Kelly Bush Novak, publicist for Chris Nolan. Her “Fuck China!” past comments in a trade interview did not stop the People’s Republic from granting her client’s Oppenheimer a coveted release date on Aug. 30. We’ll see how many theaters Universal gets. I’m told China’s censors were O.K. with the anti-Communism references but that Nolan has been asked to make one big concession: Florence Pugh’s topless screentime must be cut to conform with the censor’s no-nudity policy for Western imports.

• Vanna’s veiled threat?: Vanna White may have scored a raise for Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, but she’s still pushing for her first salary increase in 18 years on the syndicated show, once Pat Sajak is replaced by Ryan Seacrest next year. Recently, when White was out sick for a day of taping “Teachers Week” episodes, Wheel producers and Sony TV replaced White with a California Teacher of the Year named Bridgette Donald-Blue. A smart producing save, or a veiled message sent to White’s aggressive lawyers: Go ahead, push us harder.

• Zaz’s work, play, and Tay Tay: Warner Discovery C.E.O. David Zaslav posted a cute pic on Instagram Stories of himself enjoying the Taylor Swift concert with buddies John McEnroe, Irving Azoff and Kevin Costner, which reminded me: What the heck is going on with Costner’s Horizon, the $100 million first-of-a-trilogy Western that Zaz’s Warners is supposed to distribute in the U.S.? The movie, funded by a mysterious backer and Costner himself, was shot last summer and still doesn’t have a release date. A Warners source says a release this year is not happening, but a date sometime next year is now being discussed with Costner.

Correction: Jonathan wrote Sunday that “SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee, which operated by majority vote in the recent past, now ... requires unanimity.” Actually, the committee has a new emphasis this cycle on seeking consensus, but does not require unanimity.

Got a question, comment, complaint, or your own cute pics with David Zaslav? Email me at Matt@puck.news or call/text me at 310-804-3198.