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

First up today, Matt Belloni charts the ripple effects from Endeavor’s finally consummated go-private, and what the future holds for Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell—who, combined, made a tidy $274 million in cash yesterday as part of the $25 billion deal. What’s next for two of the industry’s most formidable dealmakers?

Plus, below the fold: Julia Alexander inspects Peacock’s counterintuitive (and possibly brilliant) local sports gamble. Lauren Sherman spotlights the fresh collateral damage from Richard Baker’s empire-building Saks Global experiment. Abby Livingston documents the next stage of the Democrats’ evolving identity crisis. And Scott Mendelson identifies what
actually doomed Disney’s Snow White live-action remake.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Lauren gabs with writer Max Berlinger on Fashion People about the Proenza boys’ appointment at Loewe. On The Town, Matt and Lucas Shaw debate the most important upcoming movie for each major Hollywood studio. On The Grill Room, Julia Alexander and Dylan Byers examine how YouTube bigfooted the news media
industry. And on The Powers That Be, Eriq Gardner links up with Peter Hamby to illuminate Trump’s crusade against blue chip law firms and the chilling effect on the legal world.

HOLLYWOOD

Now that Endeavor has finally gone private in a $25 billion deal, one significant plotline is that both Ari Emanuel
and Patrick Whitesell will be extricated from the day-to-day drama of the talent agency wars. Emanuel, for his part, has been kicked upstairs to “executive chairman” of WME Group while he continues on as C.E.O. and executive chair of TKO, which houses UFC, WWE, Professional Bull Riders, and other lucrative sports assets. Whitesell, on the other hand, will have no title at either WME or TKO, nor will he stay on the board of WME. Instead, he’s launching a new, still-unnamed company with $250
million of Silver Lake’s money and keeping an ownership stake in WME that he’s rolling over from Endeavor. The colossal windfall for a duo that climbed the Hollywood ladder from the bottom almost defies logic—but if this is indeed a kiss-off from Ari to Patrick, it’s the kind that leaves very few hard feelings.

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SPORTS

Comcast is folding its four regional sports networks—the last vestiges of its old NBCSN strategy—into Peacock,
offering live games in Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, and Sacramento for an extra $15 to $25 a month. This move, both calculated and opportunistic, won’t stop the broader decline of R.S.N.s, of course, but it is a crucial experiment for NBCU. By leveraging an owned-and-operated platform, the company can gauge just how vital local sports viewership is to the success of its larger streaming ambitions—and, more importantly, what price fans are willing to pay to keep
watching. It all begs the question: If the early streaming wars were a race to see who could disrupt TV the fastest, is this next phase a marathon to see who can reinvent it first?

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FASHION

Among the nearly 80 stores liquidated yesterday by Hudson’s Bay to support its six remaining Canadian locations
were multiple Saks Fifth Avenues and Saks Off 5th outlets. The news redirected attention to the drama that Richard Baker—chairman of both Hudson’s Bay and Saks Global—and his C.E.O. at Saks Global, Marc Metrick, have been facing ever since Metrick sent out a now-infamous Valentine’s Day letter to brand partners, outlining a plan to repay them much more slowly. In recent days, Lauren uncovered a few new details that explain Metrick’s letter: In addition to the weighty closing costs
of the company’s acquisition of Neiman Marcus, Saks Global faced concession bills and debt to wholesale partners. Now, some insiders are wondering whether the multibillion-dollar deal to merge Saks and Neiman Marcus will be worth the cost.

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Now

WASHINGTON

One of the many terrifying changes foisted upon Democrats since Donald Trump’s victory in November has been the need
to loosen up. Four years too late, Democrats are wondering how the party of the working class came to be viewed as the party of the managerial class—a movement that cares more about message discipline and avoiding wrongspeak than actually appealing to voters. Now, members are being encouraged to let their hair down—posting impromptu videos, engaging more with unfriendly media outlets beyond Morning Joe and the Times bubble, and using the occasional swear. The
pivot to spontaneity is a noteworthy departure from the iron-fisted comms control of yesteryear, but, as Abby reports, experimentation comes with new risks.

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HOLLYWOOD

Most assumed that the Snow White reboot would be doomed by bad press, or the Fox News–led backlash against a
so-called “woke” version of the classic fairy tale, or Rachel Zegler’s criticism of Israel and Prince Charming’s “stalker”-like moves. But as Scott notes, it wasn’t that audiences had political qualms about the star, or the supposed lack of sisterly camaraderie between Zegler and co-star Gal Gadot, or even beef about Disney’s decision to cast seven C.G.I. dwarfs. The problem was that no one cared about a $270 million live-action remake of Disney’s Depression-era Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs. The original was known for being Disney’s first animated movie, rather than for its popular appeal. Is it a big surprise that parents didn’t pile the kids into the Kia Sportage and race to the multiplex?

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FASHION

Lauren is joined by journalist Max Berlinger to discuss the Proenza boys’ appointment as creative directors at Loewe…
and who might be great at Balenciaga. They also get into the Nike opportunity, and why the Internationalist is an underrated sneaker. Plus, Max shares his firsthand account of the Printemps store opening in New York last week, and Lauren and Max share some of their favorite clothing stores in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.

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HOLLYWOOD

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to look at the upcoming theatrical slate for each of the major movie studios
and determine which movie matters the most for the strategy of each company. Matt finishes the show with a prediction on where the newly available Bourne franchise will land next.

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MEDIA

Puck streaming guru Julia Alexander joins Dylan for a high-level conversation about YouTube’s stranglehold on the
news industry—and the seismic shift it’s triggering. Julia explains how digital creators, news influencers, and opinion leaders across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are rewriting the playbook, forcing legacy media giants to either adapt or risk irrelevance in a world where independent voices are driving the narrative.

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WASHINGTON

Eriq Gardner joins Peter to unpack Donald Trump’s ongoing crusade against blue chip law firms. He breaks down how
left-leaning firm Paul Weiss caved to Trump, agreeing to $40 million in pro bono work and other eyebrow-raising concessions. Eriq explains the chilling effect on the legal world, as firms shy away from taking meritorious cases against the government, worried that challenging Trump could put their business, and future, on the line.

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