Will Paramount produce a PSA (or many) for the Trump admin?

The Business

KCRW

Tv & Film

4.6 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

[Editor’s note: this segment was taped before news broke of the FCC approval of the Paramount-Skydance merger.]

New details from the ongoing Paramount-Skydance merger reveal a $20 million agreement to deliver public service announcements for the Trump administration. And following from the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CBS News braces for potential changes in leadership. Kim Masters and Matt Belloni dive into what’s unfolding behind the scenes.

Plus, an encore of Eric Deggans’ conversation with Lauren LeFranc about her Emmy nominated HBO mini series, The Penguin. The writer discusses the challenges of adapting a well known comic book villain into a complex, three dimensional character and she shares why her perspective as a woman writing a show about a middle-aged crime boss makes for interesting storytelling. And of course, she talks about the joys of working with Colin Farrell, who is both the star of the show and an involved executive producer.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business.
0:05.2	This week on The Business, we revisit Eric Deggans' conversation with the now Emmy-nominated showrunner of HBO's The Penguin, Lauren Lefronk.
0:13.8	When she got the call to create the series based on Colin Farrell's penguin character in The Batman,
0:19.2	she found that depicting the rise of the notorious Gotham
0:22.1	Criminal felt good. It felt very freeing because he is an a hole. He's a lot of things.
0:29.1	But at the same time, I understand, I get it. There's something really exciting about just doing
0:34.9	and saying whatever you want, not caring what other people will think.
0:38.4	Lauren Lefronk talks about the challenges of adapting a well-known comic book villain into a
0:43.1	complex, three-dimensional character. She shares why her perspective as a woman writing a show about
0:48.8	a middle-aged crime boss makes for interesting storytelling. And of course, she talks about
0:53.6	working with Colin Farrell,
0:55.2	who's up for an Emmy as star of the show and also served as a hands-on executive producer.
1:01.2	But first we banter. Stick around. It's the business from KCRW.
1:06.3	I am joined by my partner in banter, Matt Bellany. Hello, Matt.
1:10.1	Hi there. So by the time people are hearing, Matt Bellany. Hello, Matt. Hi there.
1:24.0	So by the time people are hearing this, it's possible the long-suffering Skydance deal to merge with Paramount Global will be approved finally by the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission.
1:25.8	This was a big struggle.
1:28.7	There's going to be lawsuits over this when we assume the deal is completed because whose interest was served would be the question, was it Sherry Redstone,
1:34.5	who was kind of desperate to sell, or was it David Ellis? I mean, who was served. But this drama,
1:39.8	I mean, Trump has not helped them in this matter if there is a lawsuit because he has opened his mouth and said now twice that he has a side deal with Skydance to get public service announcements out of the company.
1:53.4	And he has now said, as of a couple of days ago, that it's $20 million worth of public service announcements.
2:01.2	And, you know, this I think is already quite embarrassing to a progressive community like Hollywood that the tribute was paid.
	...

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