Mike Lindell v. Fox; Scarlett Johansson v. Disney; Walensky says 'we're not crying wolf;' Olympics feedback loop; NBC's 'bad luck;' Friday's new movies

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TGIF! Brian Stelter here at 10:51pm ET on Thursday, July 29 with the latest on Suni Lee, NBC, Mike Lindell, NPR, Tribune, "Stillwater," and more...

ScarJo v. Disney

One of Marvel's biggest stars is suing Disney. And the lawsuit may have ramifications throughout Hollywood. Here's Frank Pallotta with the recap:

"Actress Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit in L.A. Superior Court on Thursday that alleges Disney breached her contract by releasing 'Black Widow' on Disney+ at the same time it arrived in theaters. The suit claims that this simultaneous release broke an agreement between the star and the company. The suit alleges that Johansson agreed that her salary for the film would be based, in large part, on the film's box office haul," and the streaming option undermined that.

Disney's response came in the form of a scorching statement. First the company said the suit is "especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic." Then it said it has "fully complied with Ms. Johansson's contract and furthermore, the release of 'Black Widow' on Disney+ with Premier Access has significantly enhanced her ability to earn additional compensation on top of the $20 million she has received to date."

Maybe, but the WSJ's Joe Flint and Erich Schwartzel, who broke the news about the suit, cited a source who claimed "the decision to put the movie on Disney+ is projected to cost Ms. Johansson more than $50 million..."

In pursuit of streaming growth

Flint and Schwartzel said Thursday's legal move "could be a bellwether for the entertainment industry. Major media companies are giving priority to their streaming services in pursuit of growth, and are increasingly putting their high-value content on those platforms. Those changes have significant financial implications for actors and producers, who want to ensure that growth in streaming doesn't come at their expense..."

A paradigm-shifting moment?

Brian Lowry writes: "Credit veteran journalist Gregg Kilday with this analogy, comparing Johansson's stand regarding streaming with Olivia de Havilland taking on the studio system in the 1950s, a battle that I briefly wrote about when the latter died last year at the age of 104, and that Variety's Brent Lang explained in more depth here. The bottom line is that new innovations and media in Hollywood invariably shuffle playing fields in terms of who gets paid and when, and it usually takes someone standing up and challenging those shifts in order to rewrite the rules to suit the new paradigm..."

"This is all a negotiation..."

Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw pointed out that this tug-of-war -- with talent wanting "to get paid more upfront when a movie got shifted to streaming" -- has been underway for months already. "We saw this with the initial anger directed at HBO Max/Warner Bros., which ultimately paid all the talent as if their movies were successful," he tweeted. "We saw it again with 'A Quiet Place 2,' where the stars wanted Paramount to pay them more for movies to be released on streaming early." And now, Disney. "This leaves Universal as perhaps the only studio that dropped a movie online and didn't get yelled at by talent (in public)," Shaw wrote. His final point: "This is all a negotiation. Talent fights studio. Studio placates talent. Who benefits along the way? Lawyers and agents."

Resistance "is futile"

"As the business models shift, so come the lawsuits. But resistance to this trend, like when Hollywood killed Napster, is futile," Kara Swisher commented. "The pandemic might be an accelerant and perhaps a cover for the changes, but it's coming and the old system is dead. It's just a matter of laying down now..."

FRIDAY PLANNER

"Jungle Cruise," "Stillwater" and "The Green Knight" arrive in theaters...

President Biden talks with governors about the wildfire season...

Lollapalooza continues in Chicago...

BREAKING

Mike Lindell breaks with Fox News (for now)

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has had beef with Fox News for months. He brought it up with Anne Applebaum when she interviewed him for this profile titled "The MyPillow Guy Really Could Destroy Democracy." (Applebaum will join me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" telecast, BTW.)

But even though Lindell -- in an ever-crazier attempt to prove his pal Donald Trump won the election -- has felt "ignored" by Fox, he has continued to pay the network tens of millions of dollars to run his ads. Now, maybe, that's grinding to a halt. Lindell told the WSJ's Alexa Corse and Ben Mullin that is pulling his pillow ads from Fox because they won't run his promo for a live streamed event that will "prove" Trump won. (Spoiler alert: It will not.) According to Applebaum, Lindell believes the Supreme Court will "decide '9–0' in favor of reinstating Donald Trump to the presidency sometime in August, or possibly September..."

Fox calls it a "pause"

If Lindell really withholds his ad $$ -- and I say "if" because I don't believe a word he says -- it might pinch Fox's bottom line. MyPillow props up Tucker Carlson's show, and is one of Fox's biggest sponsors overall. But I wonder if he needs Fox more than Fox needs him. He relies on direct response ads to sell sheets and pillows. I mean, he became a household name in large part thanks to his omnipresent ads on Fox. That's what the network pointed out in a statement obtained by CNN Business Thursday night: "It's unfortunate Mr. Lindell has chosen to pause his commercial time on Fox News given the level of success he's experienced in building his brand through advertising on the number one cable news network."

In other words... Won't he come right back to Fox when his pillows and towels stop selling? The audience he reaches via Newsmax is much smaller than his reach via Fox...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- The CDC says it will release data on Friday that supports this week's decision to change mask guidance in areas with substantial and high spread... (CNN)

-- Paul Krugman says "it's crucial to understand that we aren't facing a national crisis" with regards to Covid-19, "we're facing a red-state crisis, with nakedly political roots..." (NYT)

-- Chris Cuomo: "The reason we are where we are, and why this variant is changing and becoming more virulent, is not the CDC. It's that too many people are unvaccinated. Period..." (Twitter)

"The war has changed"

The Washington Post reported Thursday night that it obtained internal slides shared within the CDC that said the agency's officials must "acknowledge the war has changed" due to the danger of the Delta variant.

CNN quickly matched the Post's reporting and said the internal report "indicates the Delta coronavirus variant is far more transmissible than older lineages, may cause more severe disease, and that when it causes breakthrough infections, may be as easily transmitted as when it infects unvaccinated people."

"I think people need to understand that we're not crying wolf here. This is serious," CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told CNN. "The one thing I will say is I've been heartened in the past couple of days to see more people taking action in response to the fact that it's bad – more organizations, businesses, states, localities taking the action that's needed to get us out of this."

Per the Post, "the internal presentation shows that the agency thinks it is struggling to communicate on vaccine efficacy amid increased breakthrough infections." You can say that again...

This week's "Reliable" podcast guest

If you were watching "Reliable Sources" on CNN last Sunday, you saw me start to interview Cincinnati pediatrician Dr. Nicole Baldwin, who asked Biden about vaccine misinfo at CNN's recent town hall. But you also saw that the feed from her studio crapped out (ahem, that's a technical term) while I was in the middle of a question. So I invited her on this week's "Reliable" podcast to continue the conversation.

We talked about what she's seeing on the front lines of the vaccination effort; how vaccine skeptics ask questions rather than parrot anti-vax talking points; and why she uses TikTok to get through to people. This point stood out to me: "The anti-vaccine community doesn't have to prove anything," she said. "As long as they plant that seed of doubt... they've won." We ended on a hopeful note, however. Tune in via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite app...

White Republicans are dug in

Looking at the polling, only about 15% of American adults say they definitely will not get vaccinated against Covid. So there's a great number of people who are still "reachable," Harry Enten pointed out on CNN's "New Day" on Thursday. The Black adults who are holdouts are much more likely to say "yeah, I might get the shot" than the White Republican holdouts. Among adults who are unvaccinated, 65% of White Republicans "say, 'No, I definitely won't get it.' That group is going to be the toughest to get," Enten said...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Zachary B. Wolf with the big picture: "It's about to get much harder to not be vaccinated..." (CNN)

-- Will Sommer's insight: "I'm reading a lot of anti-COVID vaccine forums, and it's striking how quickly the posters fold and get the vaccine as soon as it's mandated by their jobs/colleges/govs. The other posters tell them to go off the grid and live in the woods, but not a lot of takers on that idea..." (Twitter)

-- On studio lots "a debate is heating up over vaccination protocols for cast and crew members and how to enforce them..." (WSJ)

-- Here are my two cents about Covid coverage: The main story now isn't about new masking and distancing requirements, per se, it's about the level of compliance or lack thereof...

-- NBC's Brandy Zadrozny is filling in for Brooke Gladstone on public radio's "On the Media" this weekend... (Twitter)

"Even bonkers-er"

I appreciate Shira Ovide for trying to put the "bonkers dollars of Big Tech" into "even bonkers-er" perspective after a week of earnings news. "Tech's Titanic 5 have been big and rich for a long time," but now they have "launched into a completely different stratosphere than even other wildly successful companies in tech and beyond," she wrote Thursday. For example: "The current stock market value of the Big Five ($9.3 trillion) is more than the value of the next 27 most valuable U.S. companies put together."

Her column landed a few hours before Amazon's Q2 earnings, which were stunning yet disappointing. As CNBC put it: "Amazon posts third $100 billion quarter in a row, but still misses expectations." Meaning Wall Street analyst expectations, of course. The company "is also forecasting weaker sales growth in the upcoming quarter," as Clare Duffy reports for CNN Business...

Comcast's earnings story

"Profits jumped 25% in the second quarter as more customers returned to theme parks and theaters that were closed during the worst days of the pandemic," Comcast's hometown paper, the Philly Inquirer, wrote Thursday. Notably, Universal theme parks "were profitable for the first time since the pandemic began." NBCUniversal altogether "saw its revenues rise 39% to $7.96 billion, reflecting the reopening and recovery of the economy." But will it keep recovering?

NBC and the Olympics: Some "bad luck"

"We've had some bad luck" with the Olympics, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said during Comcast's earnings call, probably understating matters. Shell acknowledged a "drumbeat of negativity" around Covid, etc, and said "that has resulted in linear ratings being probably less than what we expected." But there's streaming! Shell talked up Peacock and said the company overall will "be profitable on the Olympics -- which we are very happy with." Meg James has all the context in her LA Times story here...

The social media feedback loop

Everything Katherine Miller writes for BuzzFeed is a must-read. Case in point: Her newest piece about the "Olympics discourse." She points out that "most of the athletes in Tokyo" are just like everyone else with social media accounts: "People who look at their phones" and wonder what others are saying, or not saying, about us. Miller says "it's miserable to share your thoughts and feel like nobody's listening, and it's disorienting and overwhelming to hear everyone's thoughts."

Miller says that "while managing the full onslaught like this is probably just a feature of being a seriously great athlete, or any kind of public figure now, this distance between total silence and endless noise —- and the problems of living in those states, and the way they can be linked -- feels like an information dynamic we'll be dealing with in the 2020s." Read on...

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

By Amelia Burns:

-- With Simone Biles "out of the team competition and then the all-around... many eyes turned to Suni Lee. Those eyes should have been on her the entire time," Amy Bass writes... (CNN)

-- "It's not just you, streaming the Olympics is a mess:" Catie Keck writes that "finding out what's on and where to watch" NBC's coverage "has been a chore, comparable to flicking through a cable TV guide..." (The Verge)

-- Jay Peters reports that iHeartMedia and the NBA will launch "more than 20 new co-produced podcasts as part of a multiyear partnership..." (The Verge)

-- Facebook is "increasingly boosting the concept of the 'metaverse,'" a term "for a virtual world you can live, work and play inside," Steve Kovach writes... (NBC)

-- Kellen Browning and Mike Isaac write that Activision Blizzard is facing a "#MeToo reckoning" as employees call out "the male-dominated video game sector" for "its openly toxic behavior and lack of change..." (NYT)

About Google and Gateway Pundit...

The Center for Countering Digital Hate, which published the now-ubiquitous "disinfo dozen" report last March, is out with a new report aiming at Google. "Gateway Pundit, one of the most prolific publishers of misinformation and conspiracy theories about the 2020 Presidential election, generated up to $1.5 million in Google Ad revenue from November 2020 to June 2021," the center says. According to Forbes, Google says the company has "demonetized" parts of the site...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

By Kerry Flynn:

-- Last night, I misattributed a line that was Katie Robertson's writing about Vice Media's pivot to video to Vice PR exec Van Scott. I regret the error...

-- Substack is acquiring Letter, a service that lets people send public notes, Max Willens reports. The product aligns with Substack's effort to build community among its writers and subscribers. "We're big believers in general of writers collaborating together and networking together," cofounder Hamish McKenzie said... (Digiday)

-- Kelly McBride reports on NPR's updated ethics policy that "eliminates the blanket prohibition from participating in 'marches, rallies and public events,'" potentially allowing its journalists to show support for movements like Black Lives Matter... (NPR)

-- BuzzFeed's book editor Arianna Rebolini is leaving. I recommend reading her newsletter on why... (Substack)

Two stories about Tribune

And they're both set in Maryland, my home state. The first is this NYT headline that couldn't be any more direct: "Hedge Fund Buys Paper. Hedge Fund Closes Paper." Marc Tracy described how Tribune Publishing's new owner, Alden Global Capital, has abruptly shut down The Bowie Blade-News, "a 41-year-old weekly newspaper in Bowie," a paper that proudly said it was "devoted completely to the people of Bowie." Now it's out of print. Tracy has the full story here.

Second, former Capital Gazette editor Rick Hutzell penned an incredible piece for TIME about the aftermath of the shooting; the reality of shrinking resources for print; and Alden's takeover of Tribune. Check it out...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- One of the craziest headlines of the day: "Instagram influencer who laundered money was found with $41 million in cash..." (CNN)

-- "Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer will make $19.2 million in fiscal 2021, about triple what he made in 2019, according to an SEC filing on Thursday..." (TheWrap)

-- "A Los Angeles judge on Thursday dismissed one of 11 sexual assault counts against Harvey Weinstein, giving the former movie mogul and convicted rapist a minor and possibly temporary victory..." (AP)

Lowry's weekend movie reviews

Brian Lowry writes: "The weekend brings a pair of theatrical releases with cloudy futures, waiting for perhaps better news from 'The Suicide Squad' next week. 'The Green Knight' is really a handsome art-house film, casting Dev Patel in a tale spun from the Arthurian legend that has earned rave reviews, but which mostly demonstrates why you don't see a lot of movies based on 14th-century poems. Full review here. Elsewhere, Matt Damon stars as a father trying to free his imprisoned daughter in 'Stillwater,' a movie that intentionally echoes the Amanda Knox case, but which is most notable for departing from past films where Americans could parachute into overseas settings and magically save the day. Read on..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

By Lisa Respers France:

-- Paris Hilton has a cooking show?! That's hot! And it's just one of the new things streaming in August...

-- Fred Durst's new look has shocked some Limp Bizkit fans...

-- Get ready for the awards season buzz: Will Smith stars as Venus and Serena Williams' father in "King Richard..."

-- Candace Cameron Bure has apologized for a "seductive" video she made...

Thursday's buzziest trailer

Via THR: "The Guccis have arrived in style in MGM's first trailer for the upcoming film House of Gucci. The true-crime drama centers on the murder of fashion trailblazer Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), orchestrated by his wife at the time, Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga)." Here's the trailer on YouTube... The film comes out November 24...