Start a free 14-day trial to unlock unlimited access to Puck.

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

Today, we lead with Dylan Byers’s exclusive reporting on the 60 Minutes debacle. According to several sources, Paramount owner Shari Redstone first began meddling with the show as a result of her frustration with executive producer Bill Owens’s Israel-Gaza package, but has only grown more emboldened since—she also asked CBS C.E.O. George Cheeks whether it would be possible to delay sensitive stories
about Trump or his policies until after she had closed the sale of Paramount to Skydance. Dylan’s remarkable story is below the fold.

Plus: Leigh Ann Caldwell penetrates the House G.O.P.’s private pep rally focused on winning the midterms in ’26. William D. Cohan swings by Lazard’s airy Paris HQ to hear about how Trump’s tariff turbulence is reverberating overseas. Rachel Strugatz reveals the shortlist to lead
Estée Lauder’s newish makeup “cluster.” Marion Maneker previews the May auction catalogues and why a “flight to quality” might give the market a much-needed lift. And on The Powers That Be, Kim Masters joins Peter Hamby to explain Trump’s “special ambassadors to Hollywood”: Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, and Jon Voight.

Amid Trump’s legal torture of CBS, Shari Redstone has played the role of a spineless placater—a
desperate seller eager to settle and liquidate her position in the family heirloom. But her annoyance over CBS News’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict seems to be real—and so are her attempts to meddle with the newsroom’s independence.

Read
Now

The pill penalty’s harmful consequences put patients at risk 

America leads the world in medical innovation—but a flawed policy in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) threatens that progress. The pill penalty discourages the development of low-cost medicines that come in pill or tablet form, and could lead to fewer treatments for cancer, mental illness and other chronic conditions. When we
penalize the development of pills, we risk losing some of our best and most affordable weapons against disease.  

See what’s at stake. 

Senate and House Republicans are determined to stick by the president, even as his poll numbers dip
and more Americans start to question his tariffs, deportations, executive orders, and DOGE downsizing.

Read Now

News and notes on the Trump II economy—whether the tariffs can actually work, America’s role as
world leader, the current market volatility—in a conversation with Lazard C.E.O. Peter Orszag and co-head of European investment banking Jean-Louis Girodolle.

Read Now

All is eerily quiet at Estée Lauder, despite a brand new C.E.O., ongoing layoffs, underperforming
brands, and Stéphane de La Faverie’s executive search for someone to finally lead makeup.

Read Now

The pill penalty’s harmful consequences put patients at risk 

America leads the world in medical innovation—but a flawed policy in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) threatens that progress. The pill penalty discourages the development of low-cost medicines that come in pill or tablet form, and could lead to fewer treatments for cancer, mental illness and other chronic conditions. When we
penalize the development of pills, we risk losing some of our best and most affordable weapons against disease.  

See what’s at stake. 

Tensions are building in the art market over tariffs and other uncertainties, right in time for the
May auction sales. Will they set off a flight to quality—or a retreat from unnecessary expense?

Read Now

Kim Masters joins Peter to unpack the latest twists in the ongoing Paramount-Skydance saga, from
Shari Redstone’s settlement calculus to Brendan Carr’s F.C.C. shenanigans, and what Donald Trump might be angling for in his multibillion-dollar lawsuit against CBS. Then Kim discusses Trump’s “special ambassadors to Hollywood”: Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, and Jon Voight.

Listen Now

Need help? Review our FAQ page or contact us for assistance. For brand partnerships, email ads@puck.news.

You received this email because you signed up to receive emails from Puck, or as part of your Puck account associated with . To stop receiving this newsletter and/or manage all your email preferences, click here.

Puck is published by Heat Media LLC. 107 Greenwich St, New York, NY 10006