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January 10, 2019 | Las Vegas
Good morning. The newsletter is running late today because .... you know ... Vegas.
• I'm en route to Los Angeles.
Bloomberg/Getty The Jeff Bezos bombshell
Moving the Market: Jeff Bezos has divorced his wife of 25 years and is romantically involved with Lauren Sanchez, the media personality and wife of Hollywood power-agent Patrick Whitesell, sources familiar with the matter confirm. Sanchez and Whitesell are also in the middle of a divorce.
• The Big Picture: The Bezos-Sanchez relationship, which was revealed hours after Bezos and his wife announced their divorce, has shocked Seattle, Silicon Valley and Hollywood and upended the lives of some of the most powerful people in media and technology.
The personal and private details of the affair, or the emotional toll on those involved, are not the purview of this newsletter. But the effect on the egos and public lives of both Bezos and Whitesell would be hard to overstate:
• Bezos, the richest man in the world and head of one of its most powerful and influential companies, has suddenly become fodder for the likes of National Enquirer, Page Six and the Daily Mail.
• Whitesell, who runs his own nation state as co-CEO of WME, Hollywood's most powerful talent agency, has suddenly found himself cast as the spurned husband and is racing to repair his image.
• One media exec likened it to when Paris took Helen of Troy from Menelaus: "Nations have gone to war over less."
There are business implications as well: Bezos' vast financial and stock holdings are now likely to be split 50-50 with his wife, MacKenzie, which could affect Amazon, Blue Origin and The Washington Post, per CNBC's Lauren Feiner.
BuzzFeed's Ryan Mac, channeling the Market:
• "I can't believe I'm gonna buy a National Enquirer tomorrow."
Jason LaVeris/Getty John Lasseter tests #MeToo
Talk of Tinseltown: David Ellison's Skydance Animation has hired Pixar co-founder and former Disney animation chief John Lasseter to run the company, a move that will test the #MeToo movement given the myriad accusations of misconduct against Lasseter at Disney.
• Disney had placed Lasseter on "sabbatical" in 2017 after employees complained about his inappropriate behavior towards female employees. After acknowledging "missteps," Lasseter left the company last year.
The Big Picture, via Variety's Brent Lang:
• "If Lasseter is successful at Skydance, he will be one of the first industry figures to mount a career come back in the #MeToo and Time’s Up era."
How Ellison played it:
• "We did not enter into this decision lightly," he wrote in the announcement. "John has acknowledged and apologized for his mistakes and, during the past year away from the workplace, has endeavored to address and reform them.”
What's Next: Hollywood is watching to see if Hollywood — and specifically Paramount, which is co-producing and distributing the movies Lasseter is now overseeing — will go along with it.
• A Hollywood insider texts: "If you work [at Skydance], this guy just became your boss. So what do you do, quit?"
🎲 Rally the Market 🎲
On a lighter note, what Tinseltown is really talking about is this delightful new video from Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King, which is being passed around Hollywood offices.
If you're enjoying the newsletter, share it with friends.
Jesse Grant/Getty Bob Bakish eyes 'small targets'
Viacom chief Bob Bakish said yesterday that he would "abstain" from commenting on a potential Viacom-CBS merger, but did say that he was focused on smaller acquisitions along the lines of VidCon and Awesomeness.
THR's Paul Bond reports from the Citi TMT West Conference:
• "Bakish said that the Disney-Fox deal, coupled with decisions by Disney and WarnerMedia, now owned by AT&T, to launch their own streaming services this year, presents opportunity for Viacom because it means less content is available to sell."
• Bakish: "A simultaneous reduction in supply from trusted suppliers combined with a resurgence of Viacom is the perfect setup for our company."
Bakish also squashed rumors that Viacom was interested in the 22 regional sports networks that are being sold by Disney and Fox. ... Though as my colleague Claire Atkinson reports, Viacom has held discussions with multiple parties about providing programming to those networks.
• Who will buy those RSNs? There are still several parties eyeing a bid, including Amazon, Sinclair Broadcasting and a host of private equity firms. But as Atkinson notes, those groups have to weigh the value of the channels against the increasing cost of sports rights.
David Becker/Getty Jack Dorsey's NBA experiment
Twitter's Jack Dorsey has struck a new deal with the NBA that could change the way people experience live sports: by focusing on a single player.
Recode's Kurt Wagner explains:
• "Instead of streaming a full game with all the players, graphics, and announcers, starting in February Twitter will stream the second half of some NBA games — yes, only the second half — but the camera will focus on a single player."
• "During the first half of the game ... users on the social network can vote at the @NBAonTNT Twitter account on which player they want the camera to focus on in the second half ... Whichever player 'wins' will be the sole focus of the second-half live stream."
The Big Picture: Twitter is positioning itself as a complement to live television, rather than a replacement.
• Wagner: "Professional sports leagues and their broadcast partners are trying to figure out how to translate great TV content, like live sports, to ... Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and Google. ... At the same time, rights holders like Turner are trying to protect the content they pay billions of dollars annually to broadcast on TV."
Market Links
• John Stephens stands behind AT&T's use of "5G E" (BizJournals)
• Ted Sarandos picks up STX exec Sheroum Kim (THR)
• Sheldon Adelson's paper avoids the #MeToo spotlight (CJR)
Leon Bennett/Getty Showtime faces Fox suit
Former Fox News Channel employee Laurie Luhn is suing Showtime, Blumhouse Productions and journalist Gabe Sherman over her depiction in the planned TV series about former Fox News chief Roger Ailes, Variety's Brian Steinberg reports:
• "In a suit filed in the Superior Court of the State of Los Angeles, Luhn ... alleges [the aforementioned parties] are using her likeness to market and promote the series without her permission."
• "In the suit, Luhn alleges she was never made aware her interviews with journalist Sherman might be used in other works."
• "Luhn is seeking more than $250 million in general damages and punitive damages in excess of $500 million, as well as the ability to see the production and halt use of her likeness without being compensated for its use."
The Backstory: "Luhn provided sordid allegations about Ailes’ behavior [to Sherman] for New York magazine in 2016, claiming he held sway over her for years while she worked at Fox News Channel’s Washington. D.C.. offices, pressuring her for sexual favors in exchange for help with her career and money."
What's Next: In case you missed it, here's yesterday's drama out of Washington, via WSJ's Michael Bender and Kristina Peterson.
One day, someone's going to write a movie about Trump vs. Pelosi.
See you tomorrow, from Los Angeles.
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