MEMO TO: HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV FR: STEVE LEBLANG, MEDIA CONSULTANT/NERVOUS JEW RE: ONE OF A FEW MILLION REQUESTS FOR HELP Your Holiness, Years ago you served the city of Chicago as a respected Cardinal during a trying era–after all, your tenure began after Michael Jordan played his last game for the Bulls. Now, … Read more
Not all that long ago a media executive could practically recite from memory what their schedule would be like during upfront week. When you’re jetlagged, multi-tasking and frequently dealing with conference calls that could often extend into early evening East Coast time having some semblance of order was one less thing to fret about. You’d … Read more
Let’s be clear: To me, Jon Voight seems like a decent hang. He’s had a remarkably lengthy and influential career as an actor, one that dates back to 1969 when he was among the first cast members of an X-rated movie to be nominated for Academy Awards. No, he didn’t get nekked or engage in … Read more
Seen any good ads lately? Don’t lie. In all likelihood, you have. For as much as we may be in love with the narrative that in a world of infinite entertainment options we’ve discovered the Holy Grail of personalized curation that would allow us to eschew those tacky distractions, once again it falls on the … Read more
In the same manner that your local big box store somehow begins stocking back to school merchandise on July 5th, Halloween costumes on Labor Day and Christmas decorations around Rosh Hashonah, Hollywood studios have effectively declared May Day as their kickoff to summer. Mind you, there’s no official holiday anywhere in sight, college students are … Read more
The result of the 151st running of yesterday’s Kentucky Derby was simply way too low-hanging fruit for most publications, and those that love to overreact to them, to ignore. The creative ATHLETIC duo of Alex Kirshner and Sam Settleman took the bait in this morning’s PULSE newsletter: Sovereignty used a late surge to pull ahead … Read more
It’s been one of THOSE weeks, one that’s had a disproportionate amount of pressure and emotional turmoil. Plus a few of the teams that I follow with some emotional investment saw their post-seasons end, meaning the ability for me to find some sort of escape hatch with them is gone for the summer. So trust … Read more
I’ve made a career out of studying and knowing as much as possible about folks from generations other than mine, and I wouldn’t be alive without the connections to folks significantly younger than me. Plus, much like my dad was, I’m blessed with a somewhat youthful-looking face that now that’s it’s unencumbered by greying hair … Read more
Were it not for the breaking news that dropped yesterday from THE WRAP’s Josh Dickey, I would still have missed a story that originally dropped more than a month ago that I frankly found pretty intriguing. So my bad, Sharon Waxman, for overlooking the expose your Umberto Gonzalez offered on March 20th which kicked off … Read more
Let’s not fool ourselves. This wasn’t the biggest story in media yesterday by a long shot. But I do know who many of my readers are and to them it was a big deal. And to me, it threw me enough of a curveball to remind me of how much things have changed, so anything … Read more