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Happy Friday and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon compendium of Puck’s best
new reporting.

First up today, Matt Belloni presents the definitive account of Jen Salke’s unceremonious ouster as Amazon’s top content executive. Alas, Salke was already on borrowed time after a series of big-budget flops—and then the James Bond debacle sealed her fate. Now, with a new org chart, the pressure is officially on Prime Video’s Mike
Hopkins to get the company’s Hollywood machine back on track.

Plus, below the fold: Julia Ioffe unearths the complicated origins of J.D. Vance’s foreign policy views. John Ourand inspects Patrick Whitesell’s post-Endeavor investment in Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions. And exclusively for Inner Circle members,
Lauren Sherman foreshadows how the Prada Group’s €1.5 billion bid for Versace could reshape the luxury landscape. 

Meanwhile, on the pods: Lauren calls up Amanda Greeley on Fashion People to discuss her new tennis-centric activewear line. On The Town, Matt and Dude Perfect C.E.O. Andrew Yaffe debate Hollywood’s YouTube anxieties. On Impolitic, John
Heilemann huddles up with Sen. Mark Warner and Rick Wilson to contemplate the recklessness at the heart of Signalgate. And in a special crossover episode of The Grill Room and The Powers That Be, Dylan Byers and Peter Hamby discuss how D.C.’s scandal of the week has boosted The Atlantic’s reputation among the political and media elite.

HOLLYWOOD

It was a chaotic afternoon in Hollywood following yesterday’s unceremonious ouster of Jen Salke, Amazon MGM Studios’ top
content executive and one of the most powerful entertainment figures of the past decade. Salke, in many ways, was one of the great survivors of the streaming era: She had plenty of hits to her name, but also endured some historically catastrophic flops. Over the years, she also faced a steady drumbeat of internal and external questions about everything from her development strategy to her executive structure—plus, there was the widely held belief that Prime Video chief
Mike Hopkins didn’t really care for her taste or for the middling returns on her lavish spending. But Hopkins is in charge now, and if another Citadel crosses his desk, he won’t have Jen Salke to blame for the decision to make it—or not.

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WASHINGTON

Since joining the administration, J.D. Vance has become one of the most acerbic messengers of Trump’s view that Europe
has taken advantage of American taxpayers by not investing enough in its own defense. But if the president loathes what he perceives as the Europeans’ almost effeminate weakness, Vance’s contempt for the continent’s leadership seems darker—and more ideological. While it’s clear enough that Vance’s team, as one source familiar with their thinking said, believes that “the Europeans are freeloaders,” this source also pointed to potentially deeper roots for this hostility: a mix of post–War on
Terror disillusionment and a reverence for “traditional” Western culture. Both have fueled Vance’s disdain, creating seismic fissures with America’s oldest allies.

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SPORTS

On the heels of his Endeavor exit, Patrick Whitesell’s new, unnamed investment platform has agreed to buy a 10 percent
minority stake in Omaha Productions, valuing Peyton Manning’s production company at $800 million—a staggering number for a production company, but one that sort of follows in the footsteps of recent megadeals, like the $3.5 billion valuation for A24. Whitesell’s financial investment certainly validates Omaha’s track record, and his extraordinary relationships should accelerate their pipeline and deal flow. Plus, his experience and network should help the company enter a wholly
different media category. As Omaha looks to become more than a mere production company, it should also help to have Whitesell as part of the brain trust, given his experience creating a roadmap for Endeavor.

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FASHION

By the end of the Paris shows, the fashion industry had collectively decided that the Prada Group was
definitely buying Versace, currently owned by the beleaguered Americans at Capri, for an estimated €1.5 billion. Sure, C.E.O. John Idol arguably overpaid in 2018, when Capri acquired Versace from the family and their investment partner, Blackstone, for about €1.8 billion. But not every big bet pays off, and to be able to get the majority of the investment back—minus the millions invested over the past seven years—isn’t the worst outcome. Of course, Idol will move forward only
if the price is right. According to Lauren’s sources in Milan and in the banking world, talks are proceeding as planned, and a deal structure could be finalized in the next few weeks.

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FASHION

Lauren welcomes retail exec (and retail royalty) Amanda Greeley to the pod to discuss the launch of her new
tennis-centered activewear line, Spence. They reflect on the D.T.C. boom of the mid-2010s, what modern brands can learn from mall brands (her mom is the C.E.O. of Serena & Lily and also worked at Victoria’s Secret for decades), and why most tennis gear is hard to wear off the court, as well as the importance of the color red. And don’t worry, there are multiple Challengers mentions.

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HOLLYWOOD

Matt is joined by Dude Perfect C.E.O. Andrew Yaffe to talk about the state of the creator economy and why popular
YouTube stars are starting to partner with streamers. He outlines how a popular YouTube channel makes its money, the limitations of YouTube, the benefit of partnering with traditional studios, and why Hollywood is growing more interested in YouTube stars. Matt finishes the show with an opening weekend box office prediction for the newest Jason Statham film, A Working Man.

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WASHINGTON

John is joined by Mark Warner, ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Lincoln Project founder Rick
Wilson to discuss the story eclipsing all other political news this week: Signalgate. Warner, a consensus-seeking moderate Democrat, and Wilson, a bomb-throwing Never Trump Republican, have both come across their share of recklessness, sloppiness, and stupidity in the realm of national security. But neither has seen a more extravagant display of those defects than the Signal group chat in which Trump 2.0 officials shared sensitive details about the recent U.S. attack on Houthi rebels
ahead of the attack. Warner and Wilson try to fathom the unfathomable while cataloging the vast risks involved and the deep lack of seriousness the episode suggests about Trump’s foreign policy team.

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Now

MEDIA

In this special crossover episode with The Powers That Be, Dylan connects with Peter Hamby to discuss the
chatter swirling around The Atlantic, which made headlines this week after E.I.C. Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he was added to a group chat filled with high-ranking national security officials discussing war plans. They discuss why the imbroglio has boosted the magazine’s reputation among the political and media elite, before turning to what CNN’s latest hires reveal about Mark Thompson’s digital transformation master plan.

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