How Matthew Belloni became the must-read columnist for Hollywoods executive class.
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Make it quick, Im at a screening, he said into the phone.
(Were not supposed to be in these, he whispered to me.
This is one of those situations where you just have to act like you know what youre doing.)
The deal is significant, later reported to be worth $21 billion.
Thousands of jobs are baked into the transaction; a few rich executives stand to get even richer.
The lights dimmed as he put away his phone.
WWE is going public tomorrow, he told me.
What am I going to do with that?
They are like religion to me, says Mark Shapiro, Endeavors president, of Bellonis missives.
Netflix chief Ted Sarandos and the super-agent Rich Paul have both appeared as guests.
Unlike other high-profile Hollywood columns of the past,What Im Hearingis centered on the structures of the business.
But Bellonis scoops themselves dont necessarily move much.
Nobody in town knows what the fuck is going on, he says.
And that lack of confidence creates a need for independent voices.
Belloni broke that story too.
(Byron Allen has also emerged as an increasingly serious contender.)
The business is almost certainly going to be less profitable, smaller, and more niche.
Belloni writes the way he speaks: chatty, a little bitchy, like a know-it-all parent.
His public persona is as a complete jackass, says Belloni.
Hes a constant source of comedy.
He blames Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy forStar Wars contemporary languor.
The easy choices will no longer cut it, he wrote last October.
Hes advised Kennedy to let go of theStar Warsfranchise multiple times.
The trades would never say that, he tells me.
Even though there hasnt been aStar Warsmovie in five years.
But sometimes his targets feel personal.
I have been lied to by her many times and Ive caught her in lies, Belloni tells me.
(Thats his opinion, and hes entitled to it, Novak counters.
Anyone who knows me knows thats the opposite of who I am.)
He took over as top editor in 2017; the MeToo movement began a few months later.
Youd never know that from the press, and youd never know it from that roundtable, he says.
And now I dont have to care about Julia Robertss publicist.
Well, I guess I will now, when she calls and screams at me.
(Robertss publicist declined to comment.)
Being a start-up, Puck is an inherently risky proposition, but Bellonis involvement comes with notable upsides.
(Nikki was a terrorist, Belloni says.)
This posture is part of what has made him a complicated figure in an era of rising labor movements.
(It would later unequivocally win on this point.)
(Alper did not provide examples in the thread.
She did not respond to a request for comment.)
His coverage missed the forest for the trees in many cases.
One could chalk this up to the nature of Bellonis services.
Im not affected, Belloni says of the criticism.
So its a totally different mind-set.
That fundamental alignment underscores Bellonis singular position in Hollywood.
Thats another difference between me and Nikki Finke, he says.
I never write anything that I wouldnt say to your face.
