Comcast chairman and co-CEO Brian Roberts. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Comcast executives have notched thousands of frequent-flier miles this month, pinging between the Winter Olympics in Italy, Super Bowl in San Francisco, and, this weekend, NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles. But beneath the sports-media blitz that NBCUniversal’s parent has dubbed “Legendary February” are questions about the cable giant’s future, and whether the Brian Roberts-controlled company must engineer a major deal to enjoy more “legendary” months ahead.
Comcast briefly joined the initial bidding for Warner Bros. Discovery, dropping out to see Netflix prevail and Paramount persist. That followed its bid for Fox’s entertainment assets in 2018, driving up the price for eventual winner Disney, but again balking at the prospect of overpaying.
Going forward, however, Comcast faces significant challenges and major decisions, centered around its struggling streamer, Peacock, which hemorrhaged $552 million in losses during its most recent quarter. In conversations with Status, several former executives and current employees…
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Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie in "Wuthering Heights." (Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures)
A Low Bar for ‘Wuthering Heights’: Since her impressive debut with "Promising Young Woman," Emerald Fennell's directing trajectory has been on a slowly downward arc—first with the lurid excess of "Saltburn" and now with "Wuthering Heights." Her latest film takes such sweeping liberties with Emily Brontë’s classic novel it hardly resembles it at all. Still, it's ravishing to behold, thanks largely to Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi—seemingly designed to send English lit majors screaming into the night—but probably should have been called something else.
Admittedly, there was room for another timed-for-Valentine’s Day version of Bronte’s tale of love, obsession and revenge, but frankly, even with the overt bodice-ripping (those things can be really hard to get off), the film feels unfortunately designed for…
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