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👋 This is Warner, founder of AvA. Connect with me here
🎙️ This Friday we have one of my favorite interviews ever. A real life Devil Wears Prada story.. Stay tuned.
💼 Looking for open Entertainment jobs? Scroll to the bottom of this email. Our Job Board now has 211 early career Entertainment roles as well.
🎓Student looking to break into Entertainment? AvA Campus Ambassador applications are still open through the end of the week.
📰 MrBeast buys a bank, Fallen Media Launches The Love Network, and Ninja Turtles goes pizza mode…
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1) Wasserman Artists are leaving the agency after CEO Casey Wasserman’s involvement in the Epstein files.
The 2003 email exchanges between Wasserman CEO Casey Wasserman, who also serves as the chairman of the LA28 Olympics, and Ghislaine Maxwell are indefensible. Full stop. He should be held accountable. It’s completely understandable that artists like Chappell Roan, Dropkick Murphys, Beach Bunny and others are leaving to find representation that aligns with their values.
But a company is more than one person. Wasserman is filled with agents, assistants, coordinators, and support staff who had no involvement, and are now getting hit with the fallout in real time. Some of my closest friends and mentors work there, and “just leave and find another job” isn’t a realistic option for the vast majority.
Accountability should be direct, transparent, and real, but as an industry, we should support the Artists and staff at Wasserman who are facing the collateral damage.
2) AvA EXCLUSIVE: Fallen Media has launched The Love Network, a new division for its growing slate of dating content, including Street Hearts, Love Train, and Sketch My Ex.
“With the success of Street Hearts and Love Train, and the early momentum of Sketch My Ex, bringing all our dating content together under The Love Network was the natural next step,”
Highly produced and thoughtful short form IP continues to dominate. As Colin & Samir said in a conversation we had last month: “repeatable concepts win.”
3) The Great IP Sprawl Continues
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is headed to YouTube + getting a whole empire built around them. Plus Pizza obviously.
Paramount is super-sizing its bet on everything possible IP. The next frontier is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Teeny Mutant Ninja Turtles: 30 short YouTube eps
New books (kids + adult) via Scholastic/Abrams
Mattel toys starting in 2027
And yes… pizza places in LA, Monterrey, Mexico and San Paulo
This is the Disney flywheel in 2026 form: IP → content → merch → IRL → lifelong customers.
4) HarperCollins’ Q4 strategy: Hockey Romance
Heated Rivalry’s success boosted HarperCollins to a record $633 million quarter. News Corp said the series alone “boosting profits by 6 percent.”
5) MrBeast just became your teen’s CFO
MrBeast’s company, Beast Industries, just acquired Step, a money app built for teens/young adults (7M+ users).
Why this matters: This is the new creator playbook. The days of relying on merch are over.
They build an audience
Learn exactly what that audience wants
Then layer on products (or just… buy the product) and slap their distribution on top.
6) Britney Spears said “Gimme More”..
..and sold her entire music catalog to Primary Wave in a deal reportedly worth around $200 million. It’s Britney Bitch.
Every week we drop our favorite recs.
Today we and changing it up with Sombr on Feeding Starving Celebrities.
The two prepare broccoli rabe (Sombr's favorite apparently), he brings his own toaster from home, and practices model walking in the kitchen?
Another booking facilitated by the team at Central Talent Booking.
Our new job board features 211+ early career roles in Entertainment, including:
💼 Coordinator to Film Music Agent/Partner - Kraft-Engel Management - Apply Here
💼 Manager of Brands - This Machine Filmworks - Apply Here
💼 Creators Assistant - CAA - Apply Here
💼 Cssistant to Partner, Publishing - UTA - Apply Here
💼 Associate, Digital - Legends Global - Apply Here
💼 Publicity & Marketing Associate - Hachette - Apply Here
💼 Production Assistant, Art - Mythical- Apply Here
💼 Producer, Interesting Times - New York Times - Apply Here
💼 Coordinator, D2C Tour - Universal Music Group - Apply Here
💼 Coordinator, TV Business & Legal Affairs - Legendary Entertainment - Apply Here
💼 Administrative Assistant, Experiences - Netflix - Apply Here
💼 Coordinator, Performance Media - BritBox - Apply Here
💼 Executive Assistant - Hallmark Media - Apply Here
💼 WNBA Broadcasting Assistant - NBA - Apply Here
💼 Account Executive - Gigwell - Apply Here
💼 Assistant to the Creative Director, Oprah Daily - Hearst - Apply Here
🎒Live Entertainment Production Intern - Disney - Apply Here
🎒Summer Internship Program - LA28 - Apply Here
👋 See you back here on Friday
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This newsletter is written by Warner Bailey and edited by Riley Furey and Dominik Sansevere.
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