Putin’s Swing Vote, Art Market Convulsions, Will to Power

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

First up today, Julia Ioffe penetrates the Kremlin’s inner sanctum for a candid readout on Putin’s preferred ’24 candidate. Which U.S. leader is better for Russia: the predictable antagonist or the geopolitical wildcard?

Plus, below the fold: Eriq Gardner dissects the legal squabble shaking Bravo’s reality TV business. Marion Maneker foreshadows the art market’s next boom and bust cycle. On The Town, Lucas Shaw and Matt Belloni jointly scrutinize Will Smith’s calculated return to box office stardom. And on The Powers That Be, Bill Cohan joins Peter Hamby for a rollicking discussion of Shari Redstone’s shocking decision to nuke the Skydance/RedBird deal, before turning to the fate of Elon Musk’s $56 billion balloon.

JULIA IOFFE

Unlike in 2016, and despite Trump’s affinity for strongmen, there’s no consensus inside the Kremlin over which of the two U.S. presidential candidates—the predictable antagonist or the geopolitical wild card—would be better for Putin’s Russia.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

[WATCH] The Inspiration Behind 3 Body Problem
David Benioff, D. B. Weiss and Alexander Woo on creating the drama series.

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ERIQ GARDNER

That’s NBCU’s surprising legal rebuttal to the Leah McSweeney lawsuit. And, even more remarkably, there’s actually some precedent for the argument.

MARION MANEKER

According to proprietary ARTDAI data, we’ve reached the downcycle in the sales of work by emerging artists—further proof, perhaps, that the forthcoming art market revival will coalesce around more prominent historical figures.

MATTHEW BELLONI

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss Will Smith’s return to box office stardom after the success of ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die,’ and if this marks the official return for Smith as one of Hollywood's most dependable theatrical movie stars. They then discuss which movie stars can reliably open an original movie in theaters and whether directors are more bankable than actors.