Luntz on ’24, Elon’s X Fantasy, Hollywood’s Age Gap

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your pocket guide to Puck’s latest reporting.

Today, we lead with Bill Cohan’s definitive dissection of Simon & Schuster’s $1.6 billionish sale to KKR, and what’s around the bend for Shari’s debt-trimmed, deal-fit Paramount Global.

Plus, below the fold: Dylan Byers annotates ESPN’s controversial foray into sports betting. Tina Nguyen communes with G.O.P. pollster Frank Luntz about his view on ’24. On The Powers That Be, Baratunde Thurston and Peter Hamby chew through Elon’s short-sighted calculation to turn X (née Twitter) into an everything app. And on The Town, Matthew Belloni and Rick Nicita consider the ramifications of Hollywood’s gerontocracy.

WILLIAM D. COHAN

Now that S&S is coming off the books, and with BET likely next, what might a market look like for a deal-fit, debt-trimmed Paramount Global?

DYLAN BYERS

Notes on ESPN’s $1.5 billion gaming deal with Penn.

TINA NGUYEN

The legendary G.O.P. pollster apostate discusses the party’s latest apocalyptic turns: the martyrdom of Mike Pence, why voters are souring on DeSantis, and whether Tim Scott (or Joe Manchin!) can win Iowa.

PETER HAMBY & BARATUNDE THURSTON

Baratunde Thurston joins Peter to explain Elon Musk’s short-sighted fallacy of turning X—nee Twitter—into the new full-blown everything app of our time.