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Two scoops! It’s the optimal ice cream portion — I hope you enjoyed some on July 4th — and it’s what The Ankler served up this week with a pair of exclusives that had the town buzzing. But first: Today only, you can upgrade to a paid yearly subscription at 25% off and finally get full access to everything The Ankler has to offer. A paid subscription gives you top-in-class career insight and insider information you can’t get anywhere else — always unvarnished, independent and fearless. No trade slop, no gossip, no bait-and-switch headlines. Just the smartest, most authoritative reporting in the industry, including:
Now, back to those two scoops! First, there was Richard Rushfield’s Tuesday bombshell about the HFPA, where he broke news that the organization had voted to reconstitute itself and investigate the Golden Globes’ nope-not-yet-completed-despite-reports sale to Jay Penske and Todd Boehly. The move by the group’s legacy membership — which also voted Thursday to oust Helen Hoehne, who transitioned in 2023 from leading the nonprofit HFPA to running the for-profit Golden Globes, LLC — could spell the unwinding of the deal, which was announced two years ago but has yet to win approval from California Attorney General Rob Bonta. It was a development so major that the Penske-owned trades, which haven’t touched the mounting troubles and conflicts at the Globes, actually were compelled to follow Richard’s reporting (in a rare move, some of them even credited The Ankler, because journalism). Then, on Wednesday, Lesley Goldberg brought you a Last of Us shocker: the exit of Neil Druckmann, who co-created the OG game, from the hit HBO series. After serving as EP, writer and director on the first two seasons under showrunner Craig Mazin, Druckmann is stepping back ahead of the third to focus instead on his next title for game publisher Naughty Dog. Lesley’s deep sourcing and trusted reporting put her way ahead of the crowd on this one — check it out. Matthew Frank also stirred up conversation with his feature on the AI fight at top film schools, where professors teach and embrace the tech even as students rage that it’s cutting off their entry-level path to Hollywood. Matthew dove into the fraught debate with top industry stakeholders including CAA’s Alan Braun and Ken Ziffren, plus students and deans at USC, AFI and Chapman, as Lionsgate vice chair Michael Burns offered this warning to the industry’s next generation: “Participate in the revolution or sit it out.” Now, without further ado, ICYMI, even more of our best of the week: Series Business: Apple Series Wish List
Richard Rushfield
Reel AI: Veo 3 & 118,000 Lost Hollywood Jobs
ESG: Disney Threats & Weaknesses
Prestige Junkie: Oh Yes, Oscar Harbingers
The WakeupSean McNulty lays out the details of Paramount’s $16 million Trump settlement, what comes next for the Skydance merger talks: Monday Morning QBs
The Rushfield Lunch
🎧 PODCASTSTHE ANKLER
MARTINI SHOT
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