Together with
Holy Grail. ICYMI, a factory-sealed iPhone 4GB from 2007 was auctioned this past weekend for over $190,000 — nearly 400x its original retail price. But what makes this record-breaking relic so special? Well, it turns out the first-edition smartphone is regarded as a “Holy Grail” by Apple collectors due to its limited production run. Apparently, Steve Jobs 86ed the device shortly after it launched because of poor sales.
BTW, we have a used iPod Shuffle for sale if anyone’s interested. Remember those?
In other news… Wall Street has beef with Hollywood, a French billionaire eyes CAA, and old Gap gets some new love.
Top Trends
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ENTERTAINMENT
Wall Street turns on Hollywood studios over strike concerns
The Future. Despite studios bending over backwards to please Wall Street, the investor class isn’t too happy about the “double strike” that has effectively made Tinseltown a ghost town. While a deal will eventually get worked out, there may be an expiration date for when the damage done no longer becomes fundamentally transformational to the entertainment industry.
Creative cents
It doesn’t seem like Hollywood studios are winning the PR war with their VIP audience.
Moody’s pegs the total cost of what the WGA, DGA, and SAG-AFTRA are asking for at $450 million to $600 million annually (for comparison, studios spent a combined $140 billion on content last year).
PP Foresight says the strike will probably be a long one, thanks to the leverage of two unions being on strike simultaneously.
Macquarie and Wells Fargo note the strike will significantly impact film and TV production, leaving holes in the release schedule starting this fall.
Third Bridge says that’s bad for companies trying to make sure their streaming subscribers don’t churn and whose networks are facing advertising crunches.
Barry Diller, chairman of IAC and Expedia Group, founder of Fox Broadcasting Company, and former CEO of Paramount, said if a deal isn’t reached by September 1st, “these conditions will potentially produce an absolute collapse of an entire industry.”
No one wants to see those credits roll.
ENTERTAINMENT
In negotiations…
Pinault shops for CAA as agency growth gets fashionable
The Future. Billionaire and luxury king Francois-Henri Pinault is reportedly in talks to buy Creative Artists Agency in a massive deal. If the sale closes, expect many Kering-owned brands, including Gucci and Bottega Veneta, to have a larger role in outfitting Hollywood.
Reach for the stars
CAA may be getting a French makeover.
Pinault, the largest shareholder in fashion conglomerate Kering SA, may purchase CAA from private equity firm TPG for $7 billion.
Puck’s Matt Belloni says that’s a sky-high number, but it’s in the ballpark of rival Endeavor’s $11 billion market cap (though that’s mostly buoyed by UFC).
The deal could still fall apart, but it would keep CAA private while still under the ownership of a public company (TPG went public last year).
The potential deal shows deepening ties between entertainment and fashion is becoming a new strategy for expanding luxury houses’ influence to a new generation. Case in point, LVMH tapped Pharrell as its men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton, and Saint Laurent launched its own dedicated production company.
And in case you were wondering: yes, Pinault’s wife, Salma Hayek, is a CAA client. It looks like she’ll be a lifer at the agency.
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How about some summer skin to go with that summer bod? Tiege Hanley is offering TFP readers an exclusive 30% off your first box AND a free gift.
FASHION
Time capsule // Illustration by Kate Walker
Vintage Gap is so hot right now
The Future. Thanks to a surge in interest in all things 90s and a general cultural fascination with Y2K, Gap has unexpectedly entered the cool kids’ wardrobe once again… but only its vintage pieces. That’s both a blessing and a headache for Gap, which may need to find a way to re-monetize its past and bring back the ethos that made those clothes famous for its current offerings.
Fitting for Y2K
Old Gap is getting some new love, according to Business of Fashion.
On eBay, products tagged “Y2K Gap” doubled this year, while those labeled “90s Gap” were up double digits.
On Depop, searches for “vintage Gap” were up 114% last month.
The most popular items included T-shirts, sweatshirts, denim, leather jackets, and anoraks.
Gap, which has suffered lagging sales for years (sales are half of what they were back in the early 2000s) and an overall loss of influence in fashion (lack of cultural identity; a drop in quality), is trying to reclaim its history as a new money-making opportunity.
The brand brought in designer Sean Wotherspoon, founder of the Round Two vintage retailer, to curate a line of vintage Gap apparel… and it sold out fast.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
It’s Taylor Swift’s world, and we’re just living in it: the artist has become the first woman in history to have four albums on Billboard’s album chart at the same time and the first artist since The Beatles to have singles from three different albums on Billboard’s Hot 100 simultaneously. Read more → variety
Amid the actors strike, SAG-AFTRA is starting to issue work waivers for truly independent productions, including the Rebel Wilson-starring Bride Hard and the Biblical drama The Chosen. Read more → deadline
Since actors can’t attend premieres during the strike, the Haunted Mansion premiere at Disneyland had a red carpet packed with the likes of Mickey Mouse and Snow White. Read more → thr
Fashion & E-Commerce
A new line of Vans Vault sneakers come already beat up, dirty, and duct-taped, just like how you remember your skateboarding teenage years… but they’ll still cost you $130 a pair. Read more → highsnobiety
Fashion retailer SSENSE’s newest style concierge is an AI chatbot that integrates with ChatGPT. Read more → bof
Expedia Group is launching a rewards program, One Key, that’ll work with all its brands: Expedia (of course), Vrbo, and Hotels.com. Read more → bloomberg
Tech, Web3, & AI
Apple is testing whether helping you track your mood with your iPhone and Apple Watch can ultimately improve it. Read more → wsj
EVs aren’t just for the road — they can be used to power your home when the electrical grid is strained. Read more → nyt
The app Mixhalo, developed by Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger and his wife Ann Marie Simpson-Einziger, uses 5G to let concertgoers stream the highest-quality sound of the show from the band’s soundboard. Read more → insider
Creator Economy
SAG-AFTRA has released the strike rules for content creators, including not doing promo work for studios and not attending events sponsored by struck companies (if you want to one day join the union, you’ll need to follow them). Read more → tubefilter
For its revenue-sharing feature, Twitter is rejiggering its rate limit and “animal or fictional character” account policies. Read more → techcrunch
Threads is already experiencing a 20% drop in daily active users and a 50% drop in overall engagement, according to CNBC. Read more → complex
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.