The Shameless Golden Globes, and Paramount Takes Warner Bros. to Court

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1:31Amazing stuff. There's also the Globes themselves. It wasn't mentioned last night on the show, of course, but the Globes are unusual in that they are owned not by a nonprofit arts organization or the Hollywood Foreign Press Media Group. Remember, they used to get thanked all the time. Not anymore. Now they're owned by two billionaires, Jay Penske and Todd Boley. and they leveraged the Globes and the Stars to support their other businesses. Penske also owns all the Hollywood trade media outlets, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, IndieWire, hence the Variety announcer during the show. Didn't get the best reviews for that.

2:04And Todd owns the land next to the Beverly Hilton where he's building a huge resort. They made Variety host a Globes party there to support that development, meaning stars like Sidney Sweeney showed up and they thought they were going to a Variety party, but they became unpaid endorsers of photos for a condo building in Beverly Hills. Fantastic riff there. And of course, CBS, which aired the show, is owned by David Ellison, who was there last night. We showed him on the broadcast. He's, of course, trying to buy Warner Brothers Discovery, sitting a few tables over from Netflix, who very much wants to overturn their deal.

2:37And from Zasloff, whose company Ellison sued this morning. Yes, friends at an award show on Sunday night, litigation adversaries on Monday morning. We'll get into that today. Lucas Shaw is here from Bloomberg, And we're going to go into the Golden Globes absurdities and the latest legal salvo in the war for Warner Brothers. From The Ringer and Puck, I'm Matt Bellany, and this is The Town.

3:04Okay, we are here with Lucas Shaw once again. Welcome, Lucas. How were the Globes last night? You were there. I was not. I am on the banned list from the Globes. I wear it with a badge of honor. But you were party hopping. I was. Oh, of course. I go to the parties, but I do not go inside the room anymore since the Penske Corporation owns it and seeks to shut out competitive outlets. He does not apparently think you are competitive. So how was Inside the Room? It is the most fun and least consequential of the major award shows. Yeah. You just hang out at the bar. You just hang out at the bar. You talk to everyone.

3:40Everyone is there. They're milling about. out. The only people who can't really get up and chat are those who are right up front on camera. Yeah. And even some of those people you catch when they're walking in. So how many cigarettes did Sean Penn smoke in the bar? I don't think he was getting up for the bar. He was. Oh, he did. Cause he was, he was caught on, he was caught on camera smoking. Definitely illegal in the city of Beverly Hills. The one nominee who spent a lot of the night in the bar, and I'm not saying this to get her in trouble. She wasn't drinking per se was Emma Stone. Oh, I saw her with a glass of wine.

4:13That's okay. She's having a good time, man. She was having a good time. I wish there were more of this. Craig and I went to the W party on Saturday night at the Chateau, and there were actual stars having an actual good time. And it's so rare to see that at parties anymore because everyone's terrified of phones, and it's all corporate. It's like, finally, you can actually have a good time. That's nice. All right, speaking of the Globes, before we get into the Paramount latest shenanigans and that, I'm going to give you my top five moments of corporate corruption at the Golden Globes. This is your request to get an invite next year.

4:49Yes, I'm lobbying to be invited next year. No, top five cringiest industry slash corruption moments at the Globes. All right. And you can offer your thoughts as well. Craig can weigh in here because he also watched the show. So starting with number five, the UFC security guards appearing to promote UFC on CBS and Paramount Plus. This, I am told, was an idea directly from David Ellison, the newest owner of Paramount. I have not confirmed that, but yeah, that was pretty bad. But you're going to put it out on the podcast anyways. There was an oddly robust police presence at the show last night. Hmm.

5:28Is that because they had the protests about Iran in Westwood down the street? I don't know why, but I can't remember seeing there were like half a dozen police officers in the room. People were texting me bitching about the security line. And like it took like two hours to get your car into the main valley area. Not great, but the Globes clusterfuck is always terrible. Drop off nearby, walk in. Yes, I know. You can't do that if you're a star. You think Paul Meskel, like cruising down Wilshire is not going to get paparazzi? Probably not. Yeah. So you missed that probably. But the UFC security guards doing the little dance.

6:04It was very confusing. You can only do that when introducing nobodies like the heated rivalry guys who don't have any leverage to protest that kind of thing. They probably were told, OK, so you guys are going to be introduced by the UFC people. OK, whatever. Sure. Whereas like Julie Roberts, you try that shit. Her publicist is shutting that down. Yes. She got probably the most attention of any of the stars in the room, at least when she went on stage. Right. I'm sure if Leo had gone. She got a standing ovation. Yeah, man. People only knew people. All right. Let's go to number four cringiest moment of the Golden Globes, corporate corruption.

6:44And this is not a knock on him. I actually I like Mark Malkin. He is a very nice guy. good red carpet reporter been doing it for years but the fact that jay penske the owner of the golden globes with todd boley also owns variety and all the trade publications they put mark malkin into this very prominent role with kevin frazier doing play-by-play announcement when people went to the stage i mean the guy's getting destroyed online it did not work and people think that was a creative choice, but it's Jay Penske promoting his own publication variety by having their person in that booth doing it. And it's just like, you're not doing anyone a favor, man.

7:28This guy, like he shouldn't have been there. Why not? What was the issue? I don't want to like criticize him because he's, he's a very nice guy, but it wasn't good. He fumbled a lot of the names and he was trying to offer like fun facts and quips off the record, but he's not a comedian. He's not, that's not what he does. And he was trying to offer little tidbits of information and came off on his accents weird and do not type Mark Malkin into Twitter slash X today. It will be a waterfall of just like vitriol. And what are you doing? He had some controversies earlier, but like just that is an example.

8:04That's not his fault. It's not Mark's fault. It is Jay Penske's fault. I didn't hate the idea of having like a broadcast booth. No, of course not. They should have gone for Romo and Nance at CBS or something. Or at least like, listen, they're big push for podcasters. Get two comedy podcasters to do it. People, you know, people who could do it respectfully, but also have some fun with it. Like, that's not an easy thing to do, to be funny off the cuff and be informative and be a play by play person. That's right. That's why you get Golden Globes for being a good podcaster now, because it's hard.

8:36Exactly. So, yeah, very bad. And like, it's almost as bad as last year. Remember when they did the studio scorecard last year to try to pressure the outlets into buying more FYC advertising in the Penske outlets? So they would be shamed if they did not win Golden Globes. That went away this year. I don't think next year we're going to see those two in the booth again. All right, next moment, number three of corporate corruption at the Golden Globes, the camera shots. I'm going to count the number of executives that are involved in the show who got their moment on camera last night. David Ellison, obviously, he and his wife were pictured.

9:18He owns the company, CBS, it airs the show. Todd Bowley, who co-owns the Globes with Jay Penske, another billionaire. Jay not shown on camera. Jay does not like attention. He owns tons of media, but doesn't like attention himself. And Todd is there every year. Love it. He also owns the property next door to the Beverly Hilton, the one Beverly Hills development that's being made into an Amman resort and condos where Jay got Variety to hold an event there and promote their condo project. I'm sure the stars whose publicist sent them into that did not love that they ended up being promotional vehicles for a condo sales operation.

9:56I worked with Todd when he owned Hollywood Reporter. I always got along great with him, but of course they showed him on camera. He also owns a big piece of A24, which was up for many awards and won some. George Cheeks, head of CBS, also got shown. Helen Hone, the head of the Golden Globes operation, the kind of Benedict Arnold of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. She turned against all of her former HFPA members when they were taken over by these billionaires and is now the figurehead of the Golden Globes group, all shown on camera. Isn't that pretty par for the course, though? This is not, like, unique to the globe.

10:33David Ellison would be shown regardless, right? They also cut to David Zaslav and to Ted Sarandos and to all of the kind of the big CEOs. That is true. But in this case, I mean, Todd getting shown is very bizarre. I mean, you don't see that at other shows. No, but at the Oscars, you get the accountants. the accountants obviously you have but that's to that's to add legitimacy to the show and the globes did that too they want people to know that this is not just you know jay penske behind the curtain picking his favorites right you don't think the oscars are cutting to ever to dana walden during the show they have cut to eiger in the past i think maybe maybe walden but there were a lot of them on this one and that's i thought it was funny because you know there are lots of stars in the room.

11:18And all of these cutaways are very deliberate. Yeah. Did you notice who was sitting next to David Zaslop, the head of Warner Discovery? There were two people. Well, one was Mike DeLuca, which the head of Warner Brothers, which was hilarious because he got that whole shout out from Paul Thomas Anderson. One of the winners of the night because months after David Zaslop was looking for his replacement, he is now David Zaslop's favorite because he has delivered two major awards contenders and the seemingly certain Best Picture winner. Yes. And the fact that you're sitting in front of the boss that thought about and was actively moving to fire you for the movie that is getting the award on stage and you're being praised for it is one of the funnier things that's happened at an award show in a while.

12:02The other person was Vivi Nero. Vivi Nero. Yeah, that's what... Can we talk about this? Yeah, two scenarios. Why is he sitting with him? I have an idea. That doesn't surprise me. Because he is ubiquitous at these events. He's always He's vacationing. My understanding is like he was on like a boat in St. Bart's with Leo DiCaprio over the holidays. And he's just travels in those circles. That is my theory. He's sitting next to David Zaslav. This guy's a big media investor. He's been around forever. He's been written about Vivi Nero. He's also a big stakeholder in Warner Brothers Discovery. So people were like, oh, that's why Zaslav brought him.

12:39But these every seat in that pit area is heavily negotiated, is heavily discussed. each star gets one guest and that's it and like the fact that he got down there is pretty amazing and what i think happened i think he came with leo leo brought his mom and probably said i'm bringing this other guy and in order to make it okay and not a precedent for everybody else to bring two guests they sat him next to zazla and he was zazla plus one yes that is my guess that make sense do we know the full scope of where vivi nero got all his money we don't we probably don't want to know i'm just i'm just asking because he does he does show up everywhere you're talking you're giving me shit for speculating on this show uh you're just throwing it out there i'm not saying no no i'm not implying i'm not saying anything because i don't know anything i'm asking the question where did because he he is one of those ever-present figures yeah okay so that was sort of my number two is like where people were seated and like Like the fact that Vivi Nero sat next to David Zasloff and got down to that was my number two.

13:44The number one. What's the number one? Polly Market. The fact that the Golden Globes were showing gambling odds during the show, thanks to a paid partnership with Polly Market, encouraging people to bet on the categories. Also kind of spoiling who's going to win because all of the favorites almost ended up winning. pretty new low for an award show. My first question to you is, how much do you think our friends at Dick Clark Productions receive from Polymarket to become the official gambling partner of the Golden Globes? $5 million? Oh, way more. Way more? Way more. I'm thinking 2030, at least.

14:27You're probably right. I mean, it was probably a competitive situation. How many shout-outs did they get during the show? they were on screen with the graphics and a credit to polymarket many many many times okay yeah then maybe more like 15 to 20 yeah and and showed up at the end and the promotional consideration was provided by line um yeah i think i mean they're doing polymarket has nothing but money they're doing a big deal i think i can say this they're doing a big deal with sydney sweeney for her to become a spokesperson for them so those are my top five now i guess the other thing we should have mentioned, given the state of the Warner Discovery auction.

15:03I'm going to give you a question here, Lucas. If Netflix owned Warner Brothers, how many of the 28 Globes last night would Netflix have won? 16. Exactly right. Did you know that? I remembered getting a press release or someone messaging me that the Warner Brothers family had won nine and I knew Netflix was second. Yeah. 16 of the 28 Globes would have gone to Netflix had they owned HBO and Warner Brothers last night. So not a good fact for their likely upcoming antitrust trial. Although I don't know that Golden Globe Awards are going to be a factor in any antitrust case. That's true. I agree with you.

15:43There was a moment right before where, I don't know if they came in together, but Ted Sarandos and David Aza were together walking into the show and then stopped and took a photo and muttered things to one another. I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in, did David Ellison interact with either of them? Because that, you know, FYI guys, we're suing you tomorrow. David Ellison was, they had a corner table and he seated himself in the, in the corner of the corner. So he was not in a situation where it was very easy for anyone to come up and talk to him. And Ellison knew in advance they were doing the CBS news joke.

16:21Like it sort of, it wasn't even that funny. The CBS, like BS news. but they knew in advance. It's like, what are you going to do? You know, you're not going to stop. And then it becomes a story.

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17:48Taking ZipBound with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-5979 or visit zipbound.lily.com. Let's get to the lawsuit because this is pretty predictable, right? Like we knew that they were not going to let this go, the Ellisons, and they are desperately now trying to appeal to shareholders of the company. They know they are not going to get anywhere with the board. They've tried eight times now to buy this company via the board. They continue to be rebuffed.

18:30They refuse so far to raise their offer, which all sides seem to believe is the way to get the board to reconsider the Netflix deal. So they're just going to sue, try to get more information, they say, and they're going to provide their own directors. This is the quote from the filing, Paramount will nominate a slate of directors who, in accordance with their fiduciary duties, will exercise WBD's right under the Netflix agreement to engage on Paramount's offer and enter into a transaction with Paramount. So what do you think? Is this going to matter? I think if you've progressed to the phase of suing someone to let you buy them, it's usually not a good sign.

19:12No, of course not. You said that when they sent that nasty lawyer letter before the deal was announced. I guess what's a little strange to me is that the$30 a share offer that they have been, that Paramount has insisted is the superior offer. They delivered at the very last minute. They have repeatedly said, or the very last minute of sort of the initial phase, and they've repeatedly said it's not last and final. And they've had a month to sort of make an offer that would blow the board away and put a lot of pressure on Netflix. And they haven't done that. Well, they say they don't want to negotiate with themselves because they believe their offer is better.

19:53Right. You know, it gets to the value of the stub and, you know, whether the TV networks are worth$5 a share or$0 a share. Like, there's just a fundamental disagreement here on how much this is worth. You're not negotiating with yourself if the board has said your offer is not as good. Well, but they say that they're going to go around them. No, I know. They disagree. Yeah. But you don't like that strategy. You wouldn't be doing that. I'm not a banker or a lawyer who knows how to do these things. But you don't usually see the hostile strategy win out in the end. It could here. One of the reasons that a lot of people, including the folks at Paramount, thought that they were going to win in the first place was that they were offering to buy the whole company.

20:38And that is a simpler path than doing the Netflix deal and then finding someone else to buy the cable networks or spinning them off. And so they may prevail in convincing enough of these shareholders that their offer is better. And there are shareholders out there who have said, like, you know, we should be talking to them. Right. Or, you know, most of them have said, show us the money. Correct. Give us more. The shareholders just want the best offer. And I think that Paramount has done an effective job of sort of muddying the waters and creating a lot of uncertainty. It's because the two deals are not the same.

21:16Right. That's the problem here. There is a lot of like even some of the shareholders are sort of like, which one is better? I'm not sure. And that's what I think Paramount's going after here is they want Warner Brothers to sort of lay out the math for how they're valuing. but it would not be hard for them to put out math because a lot of analysts have already done it. That's the thing is I think Paramount thinks that they're like, this is their gotcha moment. Like tell us the rationale behind your valuation of these global networks businesses. They'll have that. Yeah. A lot of analysts value those networks at like three to$4 a share, which is pretty much, or let's call it$3 a share, which is pretty much what Warner Brothers is doing.

21:56I know. Well, but then they have the Versant comp and Versant is now not great. In the toilet? Yep, not good for the... They say it's temporary and that once the people who own Versant are people who actually want to own Versant and cable networks, it will return. But who knows? I mean, Paramount's certainly taking advantage of that. But the problem, you nailed it on the head. The problem is that these are two very different deals. And it's not just the assets that are different. It's the way they're going about buying them. So even if it's supposedly a better deal and more money to go with Paramount, you could say, well, what about all the debt that you guys are bringing to this?

22:38And the fact that Paramount is going to take over Warner Brothers with tens of billions of dollars of debt that Netflix will not have, or at least not have as much. And what about the Middle East money that's involved here? And what about the commitment that David Ellison has or doesn't have to this company? and Netflix represents at least an easier explanation for what the next steps are going to be. And that I think is where Warners is going to keep leaning on the extracurriculars, I say, regardless, you know, not just the money. They're going to say, well, okay, even if the money's slightly better, we still like this deal.

23:18Right. And they're just not going to, they're not going to budge. So litigation makes sense. Yeah, if you can sell to a$400 billion company that's a market leader versus selling to a$20,$30 billion company that's in distress, I get that. The question is, where does the fiduciary obligation come in? But the shareholders just want the money, right? I understand. But given if the money is not markedly better, the question is, where does the fiduciary duty come in to require you to take a slightly better offer that you believe is riskier for the company overall? Yeah, I don't know that it does. I don't know that it does either.

23:54Hence, possible litigation. So you were not surprised at all that they sued, the Paramount sued? You know these guys. They're not letting us go. But of the various options in front of them, you thought that that was the most likely or best option? I figured some kind of litigation because they're not getting anywhere with the means they have. They had this upcoming shareholder meeting. It's unclear whether the board or the shareholders will vote at a special meeting or whether they will be presented with this at the annual shareholder meeting. They want to get the attention of Joe Blow's shareholder and force them to look at all the facts.

24:33Right. Well, presumably they have looked at over the last month. Presumably, but no. These shareholders, I mean, I don't know, man. Like, that's what the board is for. Yes, but the major shareholders have looked. Okay. Yeah. The top 10, 20, 30 shareholders of this company are not idiots. They are doing their math. They've done it. Everyone is people. Both sides have likely spoken to all of them. They have a sense of where they stand. Yeah. David Geffen, no dummy. Yes. And just, you know, your average big financial firms. There's also the Trump factor here. People around town seem to think that Netflix has this sewn up with the Justice Department and that they would not be doing this unless either Trump or others within the Trump administration have essentially said that they're going to be able to execute this deal and won't be taken down.

25:25Trump this weekend retweeted an OAN commentary, One America News commentary called Stop the Netflix Cultural Takeover. and basically the article says that the DOJ and FTC should treat this as a top-tier antitrust priority. Not great for Netflix. No, I will, even if Netflix wins the sweepstakes, or I guess continues to win, Warner Brothers goes ahead with this, we know that the Trump administration is going to make their life a living hell. Yeah, but are they actually interested in blocking this Or are they just interested in some concession, pound of flesh, some payoff, whatever you want to call it, and this is all positioning for that?