“In a regulatory filing, Discovery and AT&T said the time period had expired for the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to try to block the $43-billion merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia, the parent company of HBO, CNN, TBS, Cartoon Network and the Warner Bros. film and TV studio.  AT&T currently owns WarnerMedia, but the cellphone giant has been eager to exit Hollywood after its failed foray into the entertainment business.”

Paul Rudnick: “There will no longer be print editions of Entertainment Weekly and InStyle, which makes me sad. I love both magazines and I’ve written for them. And if parents can’t find copies in their children’s backpacks, how will they know those kids are gay?”

Discovery And AT&T WarnerMedia Merger Gets U.S. Antitrust Clearance

Jane Campion: “I remember when I was at film school and there was only Gillian Armstrong and how much gratitude I had for her just being there in that space. And for me thinking, “Oh, a woman can do this too.” Just needs one person there to help you feel it’s possible. Of course there were others as well. Many, but not many enough.”

Barry Diller Corp Ending Print Editions Of Entertainment Weekly, InStyle; 100 To Be Fired

Mark Harris: “I started at EW in late 1989, three months before its launch. The magazine gave me my career, and gave so many wonderful writers and editors a home. I hope its legacy is that at its best, it brought people closer to a world they loved. We tried. During the 16 years that I was there, we jokingly called EW “My First Magazine” because a lot of our readers (and staff) were so young. People still tell me that they were the kid in their school or the obsessive in their town who read every issue. That’s who we did it for. I’ve learned over decades not to be sentimental about businesses, brands, titles. But I am very sentimental about colleagues, and I am wildly privileged to have worked with the ones I had at Entertainment Weekly. Love, respect, and good wishes to all the alums.”

“Republican State Representative Bryan Avila says he read somewhere that Disney offered an employee program on diversity that said America’s founding involved ‘systemic racism.’ Well, Avila didn’t like hearing that. So he has proposed a new law to stop private companies from telling employees things he finds objectionable. Specifically, he wants to prevent hurt feelings.”
Florida Politicians Target Disney

Glenn Kenny’s Criterion Liner Notes To Miller’s Crossing

Here’s The 2022 SXSW Lineup

Beloved Talent Manager Chris Huvane Was 47

David Poland On The Oscar Nominations

Gregg Goldstein On The Five Years And $3.4 Million It Took To Set Flee On Journey To Three Oscar Nominations

“Village Roadshow Entertainment Group sued Warner Bros. for breach of contract over the studio’s decision to release Matrix Resurrections simultaneously on HBO Max and in theaters. ‘WB’s sole purpose in moving the release date forward was to create a desperately needed wave of year-end HBO Max premium subscriptions from what it knew would be a blockbuster film, despite knowing full well that it would decimate the film’s box office revenue and deprive Village Roadshow of any economic upside that WB and its affiliates would enjoy, especially as compared to a 2022 exclusive theatrical release.'”

Justin Chang, January 27: “If I’m being presumptuous about my colleagues’ tastes, I’m more hesitant to rationalize the motives of academy members, though that hasn’t stopped me from optimistically wondering if they might give Drive My Car a whirl — and give the movie not just its expected due in the international feature race, but also the Oscar nominations it deserves for best picture, director, lead actor and adapted screenplay. If that’s too tall an order, let’s just focus on the big one: best picture, a category that will feature a generous 10 nominees this year. You’d think that one of those nominees would be the year’s most widely acclaimed movie.”

Douglas Trumbull Was 79

Belfast, CODA, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog, West Side Story

Walken Speaks: “Somebody said to me once, ‘The truth is good, but interesting is better.’”

“The Joe Rogan Controversy Is About Joe Rogan Saying Racist Things: Spotify’s podcaster’s defenders seem eager to not engage with the core issue, which is Rogan saying racist things over and over and over again.”

Jeffrey Katzenberg On Quibi’s Nearly Two-Billion-Dollar Burn: “I couldn’t be prouder of what we built and delivered. The big idea of a next generation of film narrative, longform stories in quick bites. The content that was made, the talent that contributed to it, the studios that made it. They exceeded my expectations. But I am humbled by its failure. It clearly did not have a product–market fit. We can argue about, was it the product, was it the market at the time we launched, or was it never to be a fit? But we do get up everyday and take a little TV with us and have in-between moments. Will it never be a product–market fit? I’m not sure. So I’m humbled. In life I believe the greatest lessons you learn are from your mistakes and misses and not your successes. Trying to follow your exact path on your next success usually doesn’t lead to success. But the learnings from failure are powerful. I am humbled, but not humiliated by it, because I am proud of what we did.”

At 90, John Williams Still Scoring With Indiana Jones and The Fabelmans

China Restores Fight Club Ending