Media Monday: Depp’s Second Act & The Journal’s A.I. Shrug

**Jon Kelly** (0:02)
Well, the right is always better at withstanding scandals than the left, which usually just start, you know, eating each other alive, starting with their toenails.

**Peter Hamby** (0:13)
Welcome to The Powers That Be Daily, Puck's podcast focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley and Hollywood, and the players who run it all. I'm Peter Hamby. It's Monday, August 31st, which means it's Media Monday. Today, Jon Kelly and I look at the Johnny Depp comeback. Yes, it's happening with Hollywood studios embracing the fact that movie stars are movie stars, no matter their past sins. We also look at the Wall Street Journal running a high-profile op-ed that was written almost entirely by AI, and why the Journal editorial page stood by it and said, it didn't violate their policies at all.
We'll discuss all that and much more on today's episode of The Powers That Be.
Happy Monday, everybody, and welcome to The Powers That Be. If it's Monday, it's Media Monday. Today, we're going to discuss the Wall Street Journal shrugging over AI. One of their biggest contributors to the op-ed page admitted he wrote an article using AI, and the editorial page editor was like, yeah, that's fine. We're going to discuss whether that would fly at other news organizations. We're also going to talk about whether Johnny Depp can make a comeback. There are some films already in the works proving out that stars are stars, are stars no matter what, no matter what sins they have in the past. Matt Bellamy had a great piece on how Hollywood thinks about Johnny Depp because he puts butts in seats. John, good to see you, buddy. We're taping this before the debut of College Football Saturday.

**Jon Kelly** (1:56)
Yeah.

**Peter Hamby** (1:57)
Let's just admit it, we're taping this on Friday. Are you waking up early to watch the Dublin game tomorrow, Bill Belichick versus the Horned Frogs of TCU in Dublin?

**Jon Kelly** (2:07)
I'm excited to watch it. They opened the season against each other last year too, and the Tar Heels had one great draw. That's when Jordan and Randy Moss and all those guys were there, then they got totally pounced.
I'm excited for week zero, as they call it now, Peter. I was going to ask you about, just give me your 30-second version of Lane Kiffin. Do you care? Big deal? Little deal? No deal at all?

**Peter Hamby** (2:33)
I mean, Jon Oran's been writing about this.
The attempt to recruit NFL athletes. I mean, there's nothing to say about it other than it's this vintage Lane Kiffin, you know? And he's got a judge backing him here, even though the SEC and other conferences are saying, you can't have players go to the NFL and come back. I think Lane just exists to test every boundary.

**Jon Kelly** (2:56)
I love Lane Kiffin. I think it's unclear what's legal or not legal anymore in college sports. You got to keep pushing the boundaries. Good for him. It sounds like it's not going to work out. Bigger question to my mind is how long Bill Belichick and Jordan Hutton make it.
Just last thing here, Peter, before we get into it, what are the chances that Bill Belichick and Jordan Hutton will both be at the UNC home opener week zero game next season?

**Peter Hamby** (3:24)
Oh, man. I'd go on Cal-She and look at this if it's not already a wager contract they have.
I say there's a 10% chance that happens.

**Jon Kelly** (3:33)
I was going to go to 30 Okay, 10, that's, yeah. I think we're on the same, the right side of history here, Peter. But as obviously at Puck, we root for love.

**Peter Hamby** (3:42)
Well, I think we're implying that Jordan and Bill Belichick's relationship will last longer than his tenure at UNC. Oh, that they both survive the season.

**Jon Kelly** (3:52)
Yeah, we'll see. Hard to imagine they don't, I don't know. I can't, I don't see this ending well. But anyway, let's get to the show, I guess.

**Peter Hamby** (4:01)
Let's talk about Johnny Depp. I'm going to skip to the very last line of Bellamy's piece from a few days ago and what I'm hearing. This is what it said, Real movie stars are such an endangered species these days, that people seem willing to forgive and forget. The long rumored, awaited, whispered about comeback of Johnny Depp is now upon us. He is in a movie coming out this fall called Ebenezer, which is a gothic take from Paramount on a Christmas carol. Apparently Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein of Paramount, they did a little screening of this in New Jersey of this film. And not only did the film score very well, Johnny Depp himself scored very well. There's an interesting line in here, women over 35, who you think might be most put off by Johnny Depp's personal behavior, rated the movie most favorably, I'm told, with Depp's scores in that demo hitting 90%.