Welcome back to What I’m Hearing...
Happy Sunday, I’m mixing it up today and having some fun with the absurdities of possibly the longest and most painful Awards Season of the modern campaign era. I’ll have more on the Oscars on Thursday, as well as some fun discussions/debates on the podcast. (To sign up, just enter “The Town with Matthew Belloni” on Spotify or Apple or in your podcast app.)
Discussed in today’s email: Bob Chapek, Jeff Shell, Rachel Zegler, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Keaton, Sian Heder, Keith Olbermann, Pete Hammond and Metaverse Bob Iger.
But first…
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Who Won the Week: Mike Hopkins
The Amazon executive emerges with huge power after the closing of the $8.5 billion MGM acquisition, setting an interim leadership team of film chief Mike DeLuca, TV head Mark Burnett, and C.O.O. Chris Brearton, all reporting to him, alongside Amazon Studios head Jen Salke.
A little more on this: MGM was Hopkins’ deal, so it makes sense that Amazon’s Jeff Blackburn, S.V.P. of Global Media & Entertainment, is letting him run the integration. But few think this interim structure will become permanent. Salke, for instance, is currently on even footing with her new colleagues, which likely won’t sit well with her long-term. (Amazon declined to comment.)
Runner-Up: Sian Heder
The filmmaker’s CODA emerges as the best picture Oscar favorite (annoying brag: I called this weeks ago!) after a big win at the Producers Guild, which uses the same preferential ballot employed by the Academy.
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Quote of the Week
“I don’t know what they wanted that they didn’t get.”
–Rachel Shukert, The Baby-Sitters Club showrunner, becoming the latest to voice confusion and frustration over Netflix’s decision to cancel a show after two seasons, adding: “I feel like Netflix’s internal metrics can change month to month. Something that was fine three months ago is suddenly not what they need.”
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Puck’s first annual, totally subjective and partially grievance-based salute to the oddities and embarrassments of Hollywood’s interminable Oscar season.
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By the end, the months-long run-up to the Oscars can seem like a death march for the weary nominees, not to mention the “teams” around them, the marketers behind the elaborate campaigns, and the awards media that covers it all like it’s Biden vs. Trump. This year, with the late-March show and unending Covid protocols, it’s even worse. When I was at The Hollywood Reporter, a few of us vented with an annual feature called Awards Season Awards, which chronicled the absurdities of the billion-dollar Oscars Industrial Complex.
Alas, that franchise died when I left a couple years ago, so I’m reviving it here as Oscar Week officially kicks off in L.A. So enjoy these 21 categories, all of which are presented here live and in full—unlike the winners on the actual show.
Most Emotional Plea for an Oscar Ticket
Rachel Zegler
The West Side Story star posted today on her Instagram that she’s hoping for “some last minute miracle” after being left off the invite list. A Disney insider notes she’s shooting the Snow White sequel in London and is No. 1 on the call sheet, and co-star Ansel Elgort isn’t attending either because they aren’t nominated. But let’s see how long this lasts. Spielberg hates to be embarrassed, and he could certainly pay for any production delays out of his very large pocket.
Whiplash Award
Jane Campion...
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FOUR STORIES WE'RE TALKING ABOUT
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As markets slip, media companies are beginning to ask, what if everything Netflix thought it knew turns out to be a lie?
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Joe Biden’s former Ukraine advisor reveals how the White House assesses Putin’s military objectives, his sanity, and his endgame.
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How an unsigned editorial upended Twitter, presaged a new Times agenda, and revealed its challenges in the post-Trump era.
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With markets off their euphoric highs, the conventional wisdom appears to have changed overnight for Netflix...
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