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

First up today, Matt Belloni reveals his five biggest insights from the National Research Group’s latest study on the Hollywood stars most effective at getting butts in seats, from the old guard’s staying power (Denzel, Tom Cruise…) to the actors who over-index with Gen Z (Zendaya and Tom Holland), to the dozen-ish fresh faces that seem bound for the A-list, and more.

Plus, below the
fold: John Ourand evaluates Bob Iger’s blueprint for ESPN’s long-awaited D.T.C. streaming service. Julia Ioffe anticipates the ripple effects of Marco Rubio’s looming reconfiguration of the State Department. And exclusively for Inner Circle members, Lauren Sherman reveals how tariff panic has exposed more elemental vulnerabilities for François-Henri Pinault’s Kering empire.

Meanwhile, on
the pods: Dylan Byers and Julia Alexander reconvene on The Grill Room to parse the D.O.J.’s landmark-in-the-making legal battle against Google. On Impolitic, John Heilemann welcomes The New Yorker’s Susan Morrison to discuss her recent biography of SNL creator Lorne Michaels. Matt is joined by stunt coordinator David Leitch on The
Town to unpack the Academy’s new Achievement in Stunt Design category. And on The Powers That Be, Eriq Gardner and Peter Hamby assess F.C.C. chairman Brendan Carr’s MAGA media ambitions.

National Research Group’s latest study on the actors who put butts in theater seats reveals a
number of unsurprising truths: ’90s stars still reign, women are underrepresented (except Zendaya and Margot), and a dozen or so younger stars are building real staying power.

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A draft executive order that would have gutted the State Department turned out to be, in Secretary
Marco Rubio’s words, “fake news.” But a reorganization is coming, and no one is quite sure what it means.

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Disney has been bringing happiness to families and communities for over a century, and continues to
be a powerful economic contributor.

Here’s how: With more than $30 billion in investments in U.S. parks, Disney is creating nearly ten thousand jobs.

Explore Disney’s Impact

The luxury behemoths LVMH and Kering may be able to weather Trump’s tariffs—the ultra-rich aren’t
going anywhere—but more pressing challenges, including a glut of stores, Gucci’s uncertain future, and luxury no longer being cool, are complicating the picture.

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In a fairly candid set of remarks in Nashville, Bob Iger laid out an expressly lucid vision for
ESPN’s forthcoming D.T.C. offering, Flagship—not only the product, but also the true stakes of its mission.

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Julia Alexander returns to The Grill Room to chart the media industry’s biggest
flashpoints: the D.O.J.’s landmark-in-the-making legal battle against Google and the implications for its ad-tech empire; the tantalizing potential of a YouTube-NFL alliance; and Brendan Carr’s escalating campaign against the media.

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Now

Disney has been bringing happiness to families and communities for over a century, and continues to
be a powerful economic contributor.

Here’s how: Since 2017, Disney has nearly doubled spending on film and television content, and is spending $23B in FY25.

Explore Disney’s Impact

John is joined by Susan Morrison, articles editor of The New Yorker, to discuss Lorne:
The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live, her biography of SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels. Morrison argues that no one has done more to shape modern America’s sense of humor than Michaels, and lays out the singular combination of qualities that makes Lorne Lorne—and reveals that, yes, in fact, he was the inspiration for Dr. Evil.

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Matt is joined by director and stunt coordinator David Leitch to discuss the newest category added
to the Academy Awards: Achievement in Stunt Design, which will debut in 2028. David explains how this came to be, the criteria by which the category will be judged, how C.G.I. and A.I. have affected stunts, which stars still do their own stunts, and how stunt design has changed over the years.

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Eriq Gardner joins Peter for a deep dive on F.C.C. chairman Brendan Carr, the pugnacious regulator
who seems to be slow-rolling the $8 billion Skydance-Paramount merger while lobbing rhetorical grenades at Comcast, Disney, YouTube TV, and others. Then they discuss whether Carr’s campaign against Big Media is really an audition to become a MAGA media star in his own right.

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