Happy holiday weekend and welcome back to What I’m Hearing. Hollywood seems to be closed for the long weekend, so I’m doing a shorter email today.

Reminder: Sunday’s issue will come on Monday, and I’ll have a (hopefully) smart conversation with my Puck partner William D. Cohan about the fall narratives in media, entertainment, and finance.

And if you’re looking for some weekend listening, on my podcast this week I had a serious conversation about the future of movie theaters with chief lobbyist John Fithian, and I had a less serious debate with reporter Justin Kroll about which stars under 30 we would buy or sell. For real.

Let’s begin…

• Ezra Miller’s flack attack: It will surprise no one to learn that Ezra Miller, the troubled star of next summer’s $200 million Flash movie, has recently gone without a publicist. But that’s changed. I’m told Miller’s CAA agent Scott Metzger has brought on New York-based Susie Arons to help guide Miller through this very perilous situation. Tough gig, but Arons is a crisis P.R. expert at 42 West with experience handling films like Hunger Games and talent like Oliver Stone. And she’s also involved in several mental health causes, which is certainly relevant in this situation. (Arons and Warner Bros. declined to comment.)

• The Baumbach movie cost HOW MUCH?: Let’s play the parlor game of awards season: What did Noah Baumbach’s White Noise actually cost? Netflix isn’t revealing the number, though a source there insists the effects-heavy comedy noir is “only” in the $70 million range. Others laugh at that number, believing the actual figure to be about double that, with Covid costs. (One source with ties to Netflix says it’s closer to $150 million.) How in the world can an adaptation of a dark Don DeLillo novel from the director of Marriage Story cost nine figures, and will the audience justify that expense? Luckily, we have all of awards season to debate.

• House of the Dragon slayer: I broke some news on Twitter on Tuesday (follow me!) that Miguel Sapochnik, co-showrunner of House of the Dragon, will leave ahead of Season 2. It’s not surprising; the Thrones alum had to be convinced to return, and he’ll stay with HBO to develop other shows. But what I didn’t say on Twitter is...

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Why is Tendo out? With film chief Scott Stuber’s future plans the subject of industry chatter, and analysts openly questioning the hit rate and nine-figure spending on direct-to-streaming movies, some have suggested that Nagenda might be the fall guy for Netflix’s spotty output. There’s probably some of that, and he and Stuber are said to have been especially vocal about wanting marketing campaigns for individual titles and putting some in theaters exclusively, which Reed Hastings and Sarandos may have ultimately found frustrating. But the full story, based on my conversations with insiders, is more complicated. (Nagenda and Netflix declined to comment.)...