Tim Cook’s looming retirement caps a 14-year run defined by record growth and disciplined execution. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Apple CEO Tim Cook is poised to retire as early as next year after 14 years at the helm, according to a Financial Times report last week citing multiple anonymous company insiders. Rumblings about Cook’s exit come amid accelerated succession planning by the board and senior executives, the report says.
Some observers suggest Cook, 65, may not step away entirely, but could transition into a role as chairman of the board. Others, including Bloomberg editor Mark Gurman, believe the leak from unnamed insiders may be an intentional effort to prepare the market for a major leadership shift. Most experts don’t expect any changes before Apple’s next earnings release in January, but say a handoff could occur ahead of its mid-2026 developer conference and product launches.
What’s clear is that Cook, who succeeded Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011, is nearing the end of his run as Apple’s longest-serving CEO, putting renewed attention on both his legacy and the question of who comes next.
Tim Cook’s unparalleled legacy
Apple’s growth under Cook has been staggering. The company’s market capitalization stood at $350 billion when he took over 14 years ago. Today, it’s approaching $4 trillion—more than an elevenfold increase. For comparison, the S&P 500 rose just over 460 percent in the same period.
Just a year into the job, Cook restructured Apple’s leadership team, dismissing senior vice president of retail John Browett and accepting the resignation of Scott Forstall, then senior vice president of iOS. He redistributed many of their responsibilities to existing leaders in an effort to ease internal tensions.
Cook has overseen the release of 48 iPhone variants—from the iconic iPhone 4 in 2011 to the bold iPhone 17 Pro this September—while steering the launch of major new product lines including the MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple Vision Pro. Under his leadership, Apple also introduced the M-series silicon chips, a multiyear transition that reshaped the performance and energy efficiency of the Mac lineup and reasserted Apple’s dominance in hardware design.
Beyond devices, Cook supercharged Apple’s services business, expanding the App Store ecosystem and launching new offerings such as Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+ and Apple Pay. These services have grown into a multibillion-dollar pillar of Apple’s business, helping the company diversify its revenue streams and build one of the most powerful subscription ecosystems in the world.
Cook has turned Apple into “the most valuable business in the world while keeping its products central to everyday life,” Natalie Andreas, communication management professor at the University of Texas, told Observer.
Still, Apple faces criticism for lagging behind rivals in the artificial intelligence arms race, even as its Apple Intelligence features roll out slowly. Many of the capabilities remain in beta. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Apple has shelved plans for a more affordable, lighter Vision Pro headset (codenamed N100) and is instead diverting resources toward building A.I.-powered smart glasses that directly target Meta’s Ray-Ban-style devices.
“Whoever takes the reins will face big challenges in artificial intelligence, immersive technologies like the Vision Pro, and increasing global regulation,” Andreas said.
Tim Cook’s successor
John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering and a direct report to Cook, is widely viewed as the leading candidate for the top job.
Ternus has been at Apple for more than two decades. He joined the product design team in 2001 after working as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems. In 2013, Ternus was promoted to vice president of hardware engineering under Dan Riccio, overseeing development across the iPad, Mac, and AirPods product lines. By 2020, he had taken on responsibility for the iPhone hardware, and in January 2021, he succeeded Riccio as senior vice president of hardware engineering. In late 2022, his purview expanded further when he was put in charge of Apple Watch hardware.
Under his leadership, Ternus has played a pivotal role in some of Apple’s most ambitious hardware efforts, including the transition of Mac computers to Apple Silicon. He has also regularly appeared at major Apple events, presenting new iMacs, MacBook Pros, redesigned iPads and other flagship devices.
Ternus is “one of the few leaders inside the company who blends engineering depth with the same person-first philosophy Apple was built on,” Steven Athwal, founder and CEO of The Big Phone Store, a refurbished tech gadget company, told Observer.
“He’s charismatic and well-regarded by Apple loyalists and trusted by Cook,” Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has written.“Apple probably needs more of a technologist than a sales or operations person.”
Ternus has also begun taking a more public, outward-facing role. He has appeared at high-profile product launches and greeted customers, including during the iPhone 17 launch in London. At 50 years old, he is about the same age Tim Cook was when he became CEO — a symbolic point often raised in succession discussions.
Talent agency Gersh has dropped Succession actor Dasha Nekrasova as a client following an interview she conducted with white nationalist Nick Fuentes on her podcast Red Scare.
The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the news on Sunday, a few weeks after Nekrasova hosted Fuentes on an episode of Red Scare, which she co-hosts with Anna Khachiyan. Nekrasova was previously represented by Gersh agent Jason Klorfein.
Nekrasova has additionally been dropped from a previously announced role in actor Gabriel Basso’s directorial debut Iconoclast, THR has confirmed. Basso is known for playing the lead in Netflix’s The Night Agent and J.D. Vance in the streamer’s adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy.
Nekrasova told Fuentes at the top of the more than two and a half hour podcast that “I’m such a fan, honestly.” They talked about Hasan Piker, vaccinations and Kanye West, among other topics.
THR has reached out to Nekrasova’s attorney for comment. On the social platform X, Nekrasova reposted a Variety story about being dropped from Gersh.
On HBO’s acclaimed series Succession, Nekrasova played Comfrey, a publicist for Jeremy Strong’s media scion character and a love interest for Nicholas Braun’s hapless “Cousin Greg.” In a small part in the A24 film Materialists, she plays a friend of Dakota Johnson’s main character and a fellow matchmaker. Nekrasova has also appeared in The Beast, Dickinson and Mr. Robot.
The far-right Fuentes heads a group of so-called “groypers” who oppose immigration into the U.S. and feminism and espouse extreme Christian nationalist views. Fuentes has generally remained on the fringe of the political right, and a recent appearance on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s podcast — where he said, among other remarks, that “organized Jewry in America” challenged American unity — has sparked backlash and divided the “Make America Great Again” movement.
Apple’s board of directors and senior executives have been accelerating succession plans for Tim Cook, sources told the Financial Times.
After serving as CEO for 14 years, Cook may step down as early as next year, the report said.
Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, 50-year-old John Ternus, is widely seen as the most likely successor, but no final decisions have been made yet, sources told the FT.
The engineer joined Apple’s product design team in 2001 and has overseen hardware engineering for most major products the tech company has launched ever since, according to Ternus’ LinkedIn profile.
He has also played a prominent role during Apple’s most recent keynotes, introducing products like the new iPhone Air. Ternus had been rumored to be Cook’s potential successor, according to previous reports.
The company is unlikely to name a new CEO before its next earnings report in late January, and an early-year announcement would allow a new leadership team time to settle in before its annual events, the FT said.
The succession preparations have been long-planned and are not related to the company’s current performance, which is expecting strong end-of-year sales, people close to Apple told the FT.
Apple did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment and declined to provide a comment to the FT.
The $4 trillion company is expecting year-on-year revenue growth of 10% to 12% for its holiday quarter ending in December, fueled by the release of the iPhone 17 model in September.
Ternus would take the helm of the tech giant at an important time in its evolution. Although Apple has seen sales success with iPhones and new products like Airpods over the past couple of decades, it has struggled to break into AI and keep up with rivals.
Apple has been criticized by analysts this year for not having a clear AI strategy. And despite approving a multibillion-dollar budget to run its own models via the cloud in 2026, it was reported in June that Apple is even considering using models from OpenAI and Anthropic to power its updated version of Siri, rather than using technology the company has built in-house.
Its AI-enabled Siri, originally slated for 2025, will be delayed until 2026 or later due to a series of technical challenges, the company announced earlier this year.
Apple has also lost a number of senior AI team members since January, many of whom have joined Meta’s AI and Superintelligence Labs during talent poaching wars this year. The exodus of Apple’s AI execs included Ruoming Pang, former head of Apple’s foundation models and core generative AI team, who joined Meta with a compensation package reportedly worth $200 million.
The company is also dealing with increased competition from one of its most influential former employees.
In May, Sam Altman’s OpenAI acquired startup io for about $6.5 billion, bringing in former Apple chief designer Jony Ive to build AI devices. The 58-year-old designer was instrumental in creating the iPhone, iPod, and iPad.
Cook, Apple’s former operations chief, turned 65 this month. He has grown the company’s market capitalization to $4 trillion from $350 billion in 2011, when he took over the CEO role from company co-founder Steve Jobs.
Under Cook, Apple became the first publicly traded company to reach $1 trillion in market capitalization in 2018—then it became the first company to reach $3 trillion in market cap in 2022.
But more recently, its stock price has been lagging behind Big Tech rivals Alphabet, Nvidia, and Microsoft, though Apple is trading close to an all-time high after strong earnings were reported in October.
Apple has also dealt with tariff complications as U.S.-China trade tensions have disrupted its supply chain.
Cook has previously said he’d prefer an internal candidate to replace him, adding that the company has “very detailed succession plans.”
“I really want the person to come from within Apple,” Cook told singer Dua Lipa last year on her podcastAt Your Service.
Living through messy family drama? ❌ Reading about messy family drama? ✅ One thing about us here at THP: we could never get tired of dysfunctional families! Justinian Huang’s new novel, Lucky Seed, takes family politics and drama to another level.
Lucky Seed stars the Sun Clan, a wealthy family living in Los Angeles known for its billion-dollar company, Sunfang Global. But when the role of company president and sole inheritor to the Sunfang trust requires a male heir by blood, there is nothing this family won’t do to secure their future.
With the soapiness of Succession and a diverse cast like Crazy Rich Asians, we may have found our latest book obsession. Here are (lucky number) three reasons why Lucky Seed is a must-read!
Image Source: HarperCollins Publishers
Book Overview: Lucky Seed
Content warnings: parent deaths, murder and attempted murder, attempted suicide, mentions of drug addiction and use, rape, sexism, homophobia, hospitalization, pregnancies, car accident, graphic sex, some violence (Read at your discretion!)
Summary:The billionaire Sun Clan of Greater Los Angeles is your typical American family, with power-struggling aunties, emasculated uncles, scheming cousins, scandalous secrets and a fortune teller on retainer. But at the end of each combative day, the Suns are chained together with golden handcuffs, whether they like it or not.
Yet strange storms are a-brewing. Their matriarch, Roses Sun, is grappling with an existential crisis: she must produce a male heir that bears the clan’s surname. She fears that if her generation is the one in which their esteemed lineage ends, they will be punished as “hungry ghosts” in the afterlife—an ancient but very real Asian superstition.
Faced with this terrifying fate, Roses summons her favorite nephew, Wayward. Believing him to possess the “lucky seed,” Roses presents Wayward with a mandatory suggestion: to father a baby boy who will inherit everything. When the other members of the Sun Clan catch wind of Roses’s plot, all hells break loose. Wayward’s family will now clash like never before in an epic war over the future of the Suns…if there is a future at all.
Yet through the chaos, Wayward sees opportunity. What if he can leverage all the conflict into a solution for his problematic family? What if he can reunite the Sun Clan by healing them? And what if the tumultuous Suns can finally learn how to love each other for the first time?
Crazy Family Dynamics
Imagine the most dysfunctional family and multiply it tenfold. That’s how chaotic and scandalous the Sun Clan in Lucky Seed is. Starting from the way the late Big Boss Sun grew his company at the expense of other people, one of which was his close friend and business partner. Then we get to his children and their strained relationships caused by betrayal, blackmail, and constantly butting heads: Roses, Iris, George, and Hyacinth. The next generation of Suns (April, Wayward, Isaac, Felicia, and Lola) mostly tolerate or ignore one another, though some of their resentment has been brewing in recent years. Now with a multi-billion dollar trust on the line, everyone vies for their shot at producing a son who will ultimately inherit it.
It Keeps You Guessing
We were somehow able to predict a few of the plot twists in Lucky Seed (not to brag or anything). But the secrets and surprises never seem to end with the Sun Clan. Like what does a murder investigation in Hong Kong have to do with Roses’s fortune teller? Or who gains the most from spying on the Sun Clan and planning their demise? Some of the shady dealings between family members and secret conversations we become privy to are so unexpected. Yet they are all interconnected to the main drama: and that’s how each of the Sun cousins finds a way to inherit the family fortune. We especially love getting the added perspective of the family dog, Houyi, who is ultimately a hero in his own right.
The Cathartic Ending
Whew, we had to take a few breaks reading through the ending of Lucky Seed because the consecutive big reveals kept wailing on us. We fast forward through each of the respective pregnancies (we won’t spoil who to keep the element of surprise). In a much-anticipated family reunion at a baby shower, everyone’s secrets and schemes come to light. Characters we once rooted for turn into the villains of the story. Long-missing relatives show their hand in manipulating the Sun Clan. We were so scared for the fate of a few characters. But suffice it to say that everyone gets the ending they deserve. Slowly but surely, most of the siblings’ relationships and parent-child relationships are on the mend. And the future of the Sun family is as bright as ever.
In this twisty and dramatic contemporary novel, Lucky Seed by Justinian Huang follows one wealthy family’s path to securing the family fortune. Filled with dark plots, betrayals, and surprise reveals, it’s become our latest book obsession!
Lucky Seed by Justinian Huang comes out November 11th, and you can order a copy of it here!
What do you think of Justinian Huang’s new novel? Do you plan on reading Lucky Seed? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!
An investigator into Milo’s disappearance, as played by End of Watch’s Michael Peña, who is the father of a child with a disability, serves a vital function to the story from a practical sense—but also a personal one for Gallagher. “My child has autism and is disabled, and a lot of that storyline came from my own life,” she tells VF. To play the parent of a child with such challenges meant casting someone as soulful as Peña. “Michael did a really, really great job of encapsulating the feeling of isolation. You’re not having the same experience as other parents. You’re not hitting the same milestones. You don’t have the same outlook for your child’s future,” she says. “You are on a lonely island. It might be an island full of tons and tons and tons of love, but it is a little lonely. Every time [Peña] walks on the screen, I kind of smile,” says Gallagher. “He just makes everything better that he’s in.”
Keeping a firm separation between work and life was key in keeping Snook’s own sanity as a first-time mother on All Her Fault, directed in part by 3 Body Problem’s Minkie Spiro and The Handmaid’s Tale’s Kate Dennis. “There was one moment where the director whispered in my ear to think of my daughter [during a scene],” says Snook. “I was like, ‘Nope, I’m out.’ It was a well-meaning direction, but if I’m thinking of that I go into a hypervigilant stress response: ‘We need to call the hospital. We need to call the police.’ Bringing in actual reality is less useful as a performer than using my imagination. But that’s just me: I see kids play and really believe that they are a dragon. I can access the same thing without thinking about my own daughter.”
Sarah Enticknap/PEACOCK.
With some time and distance from the emotionally charged experience, Snook has come to appreciate the level of difficulty that she and her costars rose to—particularly in the show’s propulsive conclusion. “The person with whom I’m in the revelation scene in the last episode really challenged themselves to go to a place that they’re not necessarily required to in other roles they’ve done,” she says cryptically. “They were so compelling and so fucking good—I’m excited for them.”
I’ll never forget the first time one of my best team members resigned. My immediate reaction? Panic.
Who would handle their workload? How would the team respond? And, if I’m being honest, what did it say about me as a leader?
If you’ve ever had a star employee walk into your office and hand over their notice, you know the sinking feeling that comes with it. It can feel like the rug has been pulled out from under you.
But here’s what I’ve learned over the years: while a resignation might sting at first, it can also spark growth in ways you didn’t expect.
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Step 1: Don’t react emotionally
It’s natural to feel frustrated, or even blindsided. But decisions made in the heat of the moment usually aren’t the best ones. Take a step back and process the news before doing anything else.
Instead of rushing to “replace,” ask yourself: What has changed since this person was hired?
Your company has likely evolved. The role should too.
Step 2: Rethink the role, don’t just backfill it
Too many leaders panic-post the same job description, copied and pasted from years ago. That’s a missed opportunity. Before you start recruiting, consider:
What skills does the team actually need right now?
What outcomes are most critical for the next quarter, or even the next year?
Would a blend of freelance and full-time talent make more sense?
At Creative Niche, I’ve seen companies transform by taking a pause here. Instead of simply plugging the hole, they realigned roles to better fit their business strategy, and ended up stronger than before.
Step 3: Hire with intention, not urgency
The temptation is real: fill the role as fast as possible to ease the pressure. But a quick fix can lead to bigger problems. A rushed hire risks poor fit, disengagement, or turnover down the road
In fact, a bad hire, or burning out your remaining team while you scramble, can cost far more than a thoughtful recruitment process.
Instead, define what success looks like in the role. If you were sitting here a year from now, what results would make you say, “That was a great hire”? Map out clear 30, 60, and 90-day goals before you ever post the job.
Step 4: See the bigger opportunity
Yes, losing a great employee hurts. But it also forces you to reexamine your team structure, refine your priorities, and even uncover hidden talent already on your team. Sometimes the best opportunities for growth show up disguised as setbacks.
When One Door Closes, Another Opens
At the end of the day, a resignation doesn’t have to signal a crisis, but it can signal possibility. Yes, it’s natural to feel the sting when a top performer walks out the door. But I’ve seen firsthand that these moments often push leaders to think more strategically than they would have otherwise.
Maybe that means redesigning the role to better reflect where the business is headed, or uncovering untapped potential in the people who are already on your team. Maybe it means slowing down and taking the time to find someone who’s not just a replacement, but a real driver of growth. Whatever the outcome, a departure can act as a reset button, an opportunity to align your talent with your vision for the future.
So the next time you lose someone great, don’t ask, “How quickly can we fill this?” Instead, ask, “What could this open up for us?”
That simple shift in perspective can turn what feels like a setback into one of the most pivotal growth moments for your company.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
Brian Cox, a proud Scotsman, left little to the imagination on Thursday night as he wore a kilt to the world premiere of Glenrothan, his Scotch whisky drama and directorial debut, at the Toronto Film Festival.
“Is it that bad?” an immodest Cox asked after a film-goer in the Roy Thomson Hall audience during the post-screening Q&A put up his hand to warn the manspreading Successionactor he was showing on stage far more than sturdy calves as his traditional black tartan pleated skirt unceremoniously lifted.
“Or that good?” a grinning Cox then asked the audience by now in raucous laughter. “You have to wear the kilt the proper way. The kilt is designed to make you cool and free. And it’s a fucking wonderful freedom,” Cox then insisted after finally putting his knees together.
Cox turned his attention to Glenrothan, his Scottish family drama set in the rural highlands and centering on two estranged brothers who reunite in the land of their birth. Donal, played by Alan Cumming, has returned home from America to see his older and ailing brother Sandy (Cox), only to reopen old wounds and finally reconcile with their shared past to save the family whiskey distillery.
While arguing he wanted with Glenrothan to tell the story he wanted to tell, unlike other filmmakers in Hollywood who just “cover their ass… or not,” a ruffled Cox then added with another below-the-belt jibe about his kilt fashion.
“What an unfortunate phrase. I’m really sorry about this. I never thought I’d be in this position,” Cox told the TIFF audience apologetically. Still later, when calls of “Your legs! Your legs!” were heard again from the first few rows of the TIFF venue, Cox called out to Glenrothan producer Neil Zeiger in the audience for apparently urging him to dress to kilt for the world premiere.
“Whose idea was it to wear these fucking kilts?” Cox cried out with faux outrage. “Certainly not my idea. It was the producer’s idea. They always try to fuck you up, at the end of the day. They can be so vengeful sometimes,” he added.
“You’re probably wearing underpants,” Cox then questioned Zeiger, who was himself wearing a tartan kilt and who nodded in the affirmative. “The kilt is about being free and easy,” Cox then advised, before adding sheepishly: “It’s hard not to wear underpants.”
The Toronto Film Festival continues through to Sunday.
Jeremy Strong has ignited Oscar chat with his performance in The Apprentice as Roy Cohn, Donald Trump’s mentor and lawyer during his hinterland as a property developer in Manhattan, but he’s revealed that every studio initially passed on the project.
Strong told The Times of London that the film, co-starring Sebastian Stan as Trump, did not find US distribution for months. As we’ve previously reported, after The Apprentice premiered at Cannes, and the Trump campaign widely publicized a cease-and-desist letter that threatened legal action. It labeled the film a “libelous farce,” and “direct foreign interference in America’s elections,” because some financing came from Canada and Ireland. The whole thing was a bluff, but an effective one. Potential distributors ran for cover.
Strong told The Times: “I found it profoundly disturbing and a dark harbinger of things to come. Frankly, everyone in Hollywood passed on it because they were afraid of litigation or repercussions. I don’t think Hollywood has ever been a bastion of bravery, but that was disappointing.”
The film lays out Trump’s life in the 1970s, when he took over the family property business and began his empire-building under the tutelage of Cohn.
Strong calls it a “Frankeinstein movie” saying: “They told us not to frame it like that, but let’s be honest. Cohn’s malign legacy is one of denial and that is what he passed on to Trump: this detestation of the world and a need to punish and act out with hatred.”
Finally, some good TV. MAX, the artist formerly known as HBO, is back to dominating my Sunday nights with its highly addictive, highly stressful brand of terrific television.
After The Idol flopped so badly, I worried that MAX wouldn’t ever live up to its glory days. But Industry, which was a compelling quarantine-watch that I feared might fizzle out in its third season, has proven itself to be the streamer’s latest juggernaut — and possibly one of the best shows of the year.
Move over prestige period dramas and fantasy epics – the hottest show of the fall is all about the cutthroat world of high finance. HBO’s Industry has quietly become must-see TV for its potent cocktail of ambition, excess, and anxiety that capitalizes on our love for “eat the rich” dramas.
It’s like Succession and The White Lotus had a baby, except instead of the quiet comedy of the former or the slow, sleepy thrill of the latter, Industry is an anxiety-inducing feat of stress and success. While The Bear’s third season was just a flash in the pan, thanks in no small part to its immediate release of all of its episodes, Industry is coming out one episode at a time and really allowing us to sit in the stress it creates. And I love every second of it.
Industry, like all the beloved shows du jour, revels in depicting the bad behavior of the obscenely wealthy. But unlike overly didactic versions of this like Blink Twice or even Don’t Worry Darling,Industry follows a cohort of young finance hopefuls, exploring how a generation raised on social media and economic instability navigates the rarified air of high finance. The result is a show that feels both timeless in its examination of power and greed and painfully specific to our current cultural moment.
What is Industry about?
Simply put, Industry is about investment banking. But what an antidote to the “looking for a man in finance” song that went viral this summer. If these are the men in finance, keep them away from me! Industry follows a group of analysts at Pierpont, a fictional London investment bank. But it spins all stereotypes on their head.
There’s the spoiled nepo-baby heiress Yasmin (Marisa Abela); the prototypical Oxford boy who turns out to be a sensitive scholarship kid; Rob (Harry Lawtey), the privileged Nigerian golden boy suffering from disillusionment; Gus (David Jonsson); and our main anti-hero Harper (Myha’la), a Black woman from a state school who is both a prodigy and a fish out of water.
Now in its third season, Industry has solidified its place as the rightful heir to the anti-hero drama throne once occupied by titans like Mad Men and The Sopranos. But instead of 1960s ad men or New Jersey mobsters, we’re following viscous Gen-Z frenemies It’s a world of obscene wealth, ruthless competition, and morally bankrupt decision-making. And though Harper, — called a “diminutive Black woman” in a recent episode — might seem the opposite of my beloved yet deeply flawed Don Draper, she’s a talented outsider struggling to make it in a world of wealth. And talk about an underdog we hate to love rooting for.
The cast makes each of their characters so compelling we can’t look away — even when they’re making a trainwreck of their lives. Myha’la anchors the show with her complex portrayal of Harper Stern, bringing a fierce intelligence and vulnerability to a character who could easily have become a caricature in less capable hands. Marisa Abela’s Yasmin Kara-Hanani has become a fan-favorite for her portrayal of a woman navigating the intersection of wealth, privilege, and gender politics in the boys’ club of finance. “I got a surprisingly large gay following,” she says in one of her opening scenes this season — and I get it.
But it’s not just the charm and quotable quips. What sets Industry apart is its unrelenting pace and frenetic energy. In an era where prestige TV often favors measured storytelling and slow burns, Industry hits like a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart. Honestly, it shares more DNA with the anxiety-inducing rhythms of The Bear with an upper-class flair.
Admittedly, the middle of the second season dragged. And with all the finance jargon and plotlines heavily contingent on the ups and downs of the market, sometimes it’s tough to follow. Sometimes I call up my friends who are deep in the trenches at Goldman or J.P. Morgan to simply translate whatever I just saw — and to provide a lens on what’s actually realistic. I worried that the third season would let me down. But instead, it ratcheted up the show to a level of intensity that shows Industry at its best.
Watch the Industry Season 3 trailer here:
Why Industry Season 3 is a game changer
This latest season doubles down on the show’s stress-inducing tendencies, with the most recent episode drawing comparisons to the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems for its relentless tension. The last time I was this stressed watching an episode of television was during The Bear season 2’s famous episode “Fishes.” If you know, you know that episode was a departure from the Season’s quiet meditations on its characters. It was the epitome of a chaotic family Christmas. And it was critically acclaimed for a reason. Similarly, White Mischief breaks from the narrative to focus on giving us heart palpitations.
Rishi has been a character on the sidelines who delivers some of the best — though sometimes pretty vile — one-liners. But in this episode, we get an unprecedented spotlight on Rishi as he navigates an even more chaotic Christmas than Carmy’s family. From work to home and back again, the episode takes us through a harrowing 48-hour period of gambling, drugs, and increasingly risky trades. And though it takes such a narrow focus compared to other episodes of the show, this episode exemplifies everything that makes Industry so addictive.
Season 3 has upped the ante considerably, with the addition of Kit Harington (of Game of Thrones fame) as an unstable — and perpetually shirtless — tech CEO disrupting the lives of our beloved Pierpoint characters.
But what exactly is the point of Industry, beyond giving viewers weekly panic attacks over concepts they barely understand? At its core, the show is an examination of ambition and its costs — literally and metaphorically. Through its characters’ struggles and their differing axes of identity — the rich trying to get richer and the poor trying to be just like them — it asks how far we’re willing to go to succeed in a system that may be rigged from the start. Through its ensemble of deeply flawed but magnetic characters, Industry explores the toxic allure of power and wealth and the toll it takes on those who pursue it relentlessly.
As we head further into Season 3, fans are on the edge of their seats to see how the various plot threads will interweave and resolve. Will Harper’s risky plays pay off and allow her to rebuild the glory she tasted for a moment at Pierpont, or will her house of cards finally come crashing down? Can Yasmin successfully navigate the minefield of office politics and her complicated personal life? And where the hell is her father? Will Harry get his emotions under control and deal with his grief instead of drinking it away? And just how long can Rishi’s luck hold out before everything implodes spectacularly?
I mean, we all saw the ending of Uncut Gems…
These questions — combined with the show’s sharp dialogue and on rushing pacing — have made Industry appointment-television for all of us who tuned in to watch Succession and White Lotus. It’s the kind of show that demands to be watched in real-time, lest you fall behind on the water cooler — or, more accurately, Slack channel — discussions the next day. In a television landscape often dominated by IP-driven content and safe bets, Industry feels fresh and unpredictable.
The week between each episode feels unbearable. But if you’re like me, the best way to distract yourself from the wait between good TV episodes is to watch more good TV.
Now, if you like Industry, you’ll like these shows — and vice versa. From timeless rewatches to new favorites, this is what I’m watching while waiting for the next episode of Industry.
1. Mad Men
For the Industry fan craving another dose of high-stakes professional drama, Mad Men is the ideal binge. Set in the cutthroat world of 1960s advertising — March 1960 to November 1970 — this AMC classic shares Industry‘s fascination with ambition, power, and the moral compromises we make in pursuit of success.
Jon Hamm’s Don Draper is the OG antihero who paved the way for Industry’s morally ambiguous leading characters. Like Harper Stern navigating Pierpoint’s treacherous waters, Draper’s journey from mysterious outsider to advertising titan is a masterclass in reinvention and survival. Mad Men may swap Industry‘s glass-and-steel offices for wood paneling and cigarette smoke, but the underlying tensions feel remarkably familiar. Both shows excel at exploring workplace dynamics, gender politics, and the psychic toll of constant performance.
With 16 Emmys and universal critical acclaim, Mad Men set the gold standard for prestige TV. Its influence on shows like Industry is undeniable, from the meticulous period detail to the complex character studies. The type of stress it creates is different and more simmering, as you wonder if Don Draper is going to get away with his indiscretions and if his company will retain their accounts. But it’s just as thrilling. For viewers who appreciate Industry‘s incisive writing and nuanced performances, Mad Men offers seven seasons of equally riveting drama.
2. Succession
HBO’s critically acclaimed drama about the dysfunctional Roy family and their media empire shares Industry’s fascination with wealth, power, and the corrupting influence of both. Where Industry focuses on hungry young graduates clawing their way up, Succession examines what happens when you’re born at the top — and the constant fear of falling. Both shows excel at depicting the often absurd world of the ultra-wealthy, balancing sharp satire with genuine pathos.
Jeremy Strong’s Kendall Roy could easily be a glimpse into the future of Industry’s most ambitious characters, What happens when you achieve everything you thought you wanted, only to discover that it’s not enough? The ensemble cast, including Brian Cox, Sarah Snook, and Kieran Culkin, delivers performances as nuanced and compelling as anything in Industry. With 13 Emmy wins and counting, Succession is the definitive show about wealth and power in the 21st century. Succession‘s razor-sharp dialogue and complex character dynamics will feel instantly familiar to Industry fans.
3. The Sopranos
HBO’s groundbreaking mob drama paved the way for the complicated anti-heroes that populate shows like Industry. Both shows excel at exploring the psychological toll of existing in a world of constant pressure and moral compromise. The Sopranos may focus on organized crime rather than high finance, but the themes of loyalty, power, and the American-Dream-gone-sour resonate strongly with Industry’s explorations of late-stage capitalism.
The Sopranos set the template for the kind of nuanced, morally complex storytelling that Industry excels at. For viewers who appreciate Industry’s deep character work and unflinching look at a cutthroat world, The Sopranos offers 6 seasons of unparalleled drama. Each time I watch Industry, I can relate to Tony’s panic attacks.
4. The Bear
If Industry is the adrenaline rush of a million-dollar trade, The Bear is the heart-pounding intensity of a dinner service in the weeds. FX’s breakout hit about a high-end, fine-dining chef taking over his family’s struggling Chicago sandwich shop shares Industry‘s frenetic energy and exploration of high-pressure work environments.
Jeremy Allen White’s Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto — like Industry’s Harper Stern — is a talented but troubled protagonist trying to prove themselves in an unforgiving world. Both are prone to panic as much as moments of pure genius; we can’t help but root for them while hoping they finally get out of their own way.
Both shows excel at depicting the toll that constant pressure takes on the characters, balancing moments of triumph with crushing setbacks. The Bear swaps financial jargon for kitchen slang, but the underlying tension feels remarkably similar. The Bear has quickly established itself as one of TV’s most exciting new dramas, finding moments of connection and humanity amidst the chaos.
5. The Fall of the House of Usher
For Industry fans seeking a different flavor of high-stakes drama, The Fall of the House of Usher offers a gothic twist on tales of wealth and corruption. Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s works, Mike Flanagan’s Netflix limited series shares Industry’s fascination with the dark side of ambition and power. Bruce Greenwood’s Roderick Usher — the patriarch of a pharmaceutical dynasty — can be viewed as a cautionary tale for Industry’s young strivers. Both shows excel at exploring the moral rot that often accompanies great wealth and influence.
Where Industry finds horror in plummeting stock prices, Usher leans into supernatural terrors. Yet both understand that the most frightening monsters are often the ones we create ourselves while in pursuit of success. It’s too new for major awards, but Flanagan’s track record (including the acclaimed The Haunting of Hill House) suggests Usher will be a contender.
For Industry viewers who appreciate that show’s psychological depth and examination of familial legacy, The Fall of the House of Usher offers a compelling, horror-tinged alternative.
6. The Morning Show
Apple TV+’s The Morning Show shares Industry‘s fascination with high-pressure work environments and the often murky ethics of corporate America. Swapping finance for broadcast journalism, The Morning Show offers another perspective on ambition, power, and the price of success. Jennifer Aniston’s Alex Levy and Reese Witherspoon’s Bradley Jackson — like Industry’s Harper and Yasmin — navigate a cutthroat world where personal and professional lines are constantly blurred.
NBC’s Good Girls offers a fresh spin on the high-stakes world of finance that Industry inhabits. Both shows explore how financial desperation can drive people to cross lines they never imagined they would. The stress in Good Girls is more visceral and violent, but the underlying question is the same: what would you do for money?
Where Industry finds drama in legal (if ethically dubious) financial maneuvers, Good Girls dives into outright criminality. Yet both understand that in a world driven by money, the line between legitimate business and organized crime can be surprisingly thin.
8. Severance
Apple TV+’s Severance shares Industry‘s interest in the dehumanizing aspects of corporate culture — albeit through a surreal lens. This sci-fi thriller — about employees who surgically divide their memories between work and personal life — offers a different flavor of workplace anxiety. Adam Scott’s Mark Scout, like many of Industry’s characters, grapples with the all-consuming nature of his job. Yet both understand that in our late-capitalist world, the boundaries between work and life are increasingly blurred.
9. Billions
For Industry fans craving more high-stakes financial drama, Showtime’s Billions is the natural next step. Following the chess match between a hedge fund king and the U.S. Attorney determined to bring him down, it shares Industry‘s fascination with the ethical compromises and psychological warfare inherent to the pursuit of vast wealth.
Where Industry focuses on young graduates entering the world of finance, Billions examines those at the very top of the food chain. These aren’t messy college kids living in a house flat who don’t know what to do with their money. These characters have far more to lose — but they’re playing equally fast and loose with their love and money.
Blake Lively has managed to pull off the impossible. It used to be rare for a television star to make the crossover to movie stardom. From George Clooney to Will Smith, few actors in the 90s pulled off that feat. And while it’s a bit more common now, only a select group have soared from teen drama to A-List status.
In recent years, we can point to stars like Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, and Charles Melton as proof that there’s life beyond the soapy high school drama. But let’s be honest: they’d be nothing and nowhere without the original cast of Gossip Girl.
The 2000s drama was ahead of the curve. Shows like Succession and White Lotus have taken up its mantle by commenting on the lives of the elite from the inside but those prep school kids blazed the trail. And leading the pack, forever changing what we think of Grand Central Station, is Blake Lively.
Decades later, she’s still on top. She’s a beloved A-Lister with an enviable marriage, an even more enviable friend group (Taylor, if you’re looking for more besties look no further), and a thriving career.
But how did she go from preppy headbands to Hollywood royalty? And, even more recently, why does her career feel like it’s always on an insane upward trajectory? Especially when, if we have to admit it, she’s not the greatest actress around. Likability and beauty can get you far — but Blake’s career is astounding. Is she really all that or is she just… really pretty?
Blake Lively’s Rise to Fame
Before she was Blake Lively: Hollywood Icon™, she was still the coolest girl on our screens. Her role in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was pivotal for millennials everywhere. Alongside America Ferrera (Hey Barbie!), Amber Tamblyn, and Alexis Bledel, this ultimate girl gang rivaled her current Swift squad. We all wanted to be them. We all wanted to wear her pants.
She retained that mantle of being unattainably cool in her pivotal role: Gossip Girl.
As Serena van der Woodsen, Lively became the ultimate It Girl. Just like her character, she was the epitome of elite 2000s girlhood. She was like Paris and Nicole with an old-money sophistication. She was all bandage dresses and blowouts both on screen and off. Who didn’t try to recreate at least one of Serena’s outfits — and with disastrous results! — in the show’s heyday?
Post Gossip Girl, Blake faced the stingy choices available to young female stars once their adolescent drama rolled its final credits. For women, the desire to grow up in the public’s eyes leads to a string of sexualized roles. Or, the need to branch out manifests in less-than-successful career pivots — sorry to Leighton Meester’s one song.
While Blake didn’t go any of these routes, she didn’t make the splash she yearned for, either. She did a string of subpar movies that are not worth the watch. She starred as a perpetually beautiful woman who didn’t age in The Age of Adaline — kind of a reverse Benjamin Button except her biggest problem was staying hot forever. Then she starred in the clunky, Gone Girl-esque thriller A Simple Favor alongside Anna Kendrick. Though critics panned it for its nonsensical plot, confusing characters, and flat acting, it found cult fans on streaming and is even an iconic role for many fans — even recently announcing a sequel (we’ll get to that).
She also had forgettable roles as the hot love interest in films like The Town, a cult Boston crime film for which she put on an okay Boston accent, and Savages, a movie recently revived by Netflix.
As her most notable works post Gossip Girl, this isn’t the most robust resume. Yet Blake has retained A-List status. I wouldn’t call her an It-Girl, she’s not out partying or having abrat summer, but every time she steps out, she makes headlines. At this point, she’s known as much for her idyllic marriage with Ryan Reynolds and her friendship with Taylor Swift. Her daughter even has a feature in Taylor Swift’s “Gorgeous” — probably a bigger career credit than anything Blake has appeared in since Gossip Girl.
Meanwhile, many of her Gossip Girl castmates have found success beyond the series. Penn Badgley stars as the creepy serial killer Joe in Netflix’s You. As one of the streamer’s biggest shows, Penn has been catapulted back into the hearts of audiences everywhere — even if his character isn’t the typical heartthrob. Chace Crawford is subverting his pretty-boy looks in The Boys on Amazon, another smash hit series. His character, The Deep, is disturbed and dumb, and played with a brilliant blend of criticism and compassion by Crawford, who doesn’t merely rely on his looks … though he definitely could.
Not to mention her Sisterhood co-star America Ferrera starring in Barbie, the hottest movie of last summer, and being nominated for an Academy Award. Not her first award buzz, never forget Ferrera’s Emmy-nominated turn as Betty Suarez in Ugly Betty, one of the most addictive shows of the 2000s.
With everyone else in her orbit going on to transcend their roots and prove their actual talent, why hasn’t Blake done the same? And however has she managed to stay the most relevant? So the question is: Is she actually a solid actress, or are we all just distracted by how outrageously gorgeous she is? It’s like when your crush says something and you laugh even though it wasn’t funny. Are we all just crushing on Blake Lively?
Blake Lively Is The Queen of the Met Gala: Why did she skip Met 2024?
Testament to her enduring A-List status, Lively is one of the people’s favorites at The Met Gala, which she generally attends with her husband year after year. As one of the biggest and most exclusive annual events on the planet, only a handful of celebrities are invited to the Met steps each and every year. Blake is one of the lucky few.
Usually, the invite list is determined by who was most relevant that year. Whose press tour dominated culture and fashion headlines? What musicians were everywhere? Who were the industry It-Girls? Lively hasn’t fit that bill since the 2010s, yet there she is, smiling on the Met Steps each and every year.
It makes some sense when you consider how viral Lively’s looks go every year. She’s an easy muse — so designers never miss when dressing her. Therefore her absence at the 2024 Met Gala was remarkable. Many were hoping she’d revive the success of her most memorable gown from the Heavenly Bodies exhibit. But alas, nothing. Some speculated a falling out with Anna. Others, another pregnancy. Or was Blake finally just … uninvited?
Turns out, she was just busy being a mom and working on her various projects. I’ll admit, I was skeptical when I heard this. What projects? Lively’s biggest projects are The Met and Kansas Chief’s games. Sometimes I think she’s as much of a nepo bestie as Travis Kelce is a nepo boyfriend. But I recently ate my words. Blake Lively has a stacked Q2 — proving we too can finish the year strong even if we were lagging in the first half.
Blake’s Been Busy: Everything Blake Lively has been up to in 2024
So what are all these projects Lively is so busy with? Surprisingly, a slate of blockbuster films and a brand new business. She’s already embarked upon various press tours, which is why she’s everywhere right now.
Her most prominent, and controversial, venture for the year: starring in the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s blockbuster It Ends With Us. This BookTok favorite is divisive to say the least. While Colleen Hoover’s genre of easy-to-read romantic fiction went viral, the literati aren’t a fan. The main point of contention: the writing is stinko. But to each their own. And on this particular book, Hoover’s critics are accusing of profiting from abuse and trauma because the film romanticizes an abusive relationship.
Yet, the power of BookTok compelled the studios to adapt this novel into a big budget movie starring Lively alongside Justin Baldwin, known for Jane The Virgin. For a minute, thanks to last year’s succession of strikes, it looked as though the movie might be scrapped. Call it Lively’s luck, but production continued against all odds and here we are: moments away from its big premiere.
Watch the Trailer for It Ends With Us here:
But that’s not the only press tour Blake is on. She joined her husband Ryan Reynolds on the press tour for Deadpool and Wolverine, even upstaging Reynolds and his co-star Hugh Jackman with her look for the final premiere.
Alongside Gigi Hadid, she appeared on the red carpet at Lady Deadpool. Little did we know, this was a hint of things to come. In case you forgot (I definitely did) Lively had a brief role as Lady Deadpool in the canonically awful Green Lantern films. She kind of reprised the role as the voice of Lady Deadpool in this new movie — just one of many cameos and Easter eggs in Marvel’s latest bloated action flick.
When not campaigning for wife-of-the-year, bestie of the year, or promoting It Ends With Us, she’s been filming the much-awaited sequel to A Simple Favor. She and Anna Kendrick have reprised their roles: mysterious Hot Mom (Lively, obviously) and Bored Mommy Blogger (Kendrick in an abundance of floral sundresses and wedges).
This sequel comes so long after the original because, despite the initial bad reviews, it found another life on streaming platforms. So, get ready to comfort-watch or hate-watch when it comes out — I’ll be doing both.
But Blake isn’t only trying to pump some much needed life back into her acting career. She’s enetered her Business Mogul Era. She’s already founded the brands Betty Buzz and Betty Booze and now she’s branching into beauty. Known for her scorching flowing locks, why wouldn’t she make a haircare brand?
The collection is called Blake Brown Beauty after her maiden name — which Reynolds joked he only just found out. Priced at $25 and under, Blake Brown Beauty is launching exclusively in Target to corner the affordable haircare market. The line consists of shampoos, masks and styling product. If there’s one thing the world needs more of, it’s celebrity beauty brands, right?
Promising to give the world that Blake Lively shine, the brand is a departure form many DTC celebrity beauty ventures, such as Cecred by Beyonce, Rate Beauty by Selena Gomez, or Hailey Bieber’s rhode. Instead, Blake is doing what she does best: going for mass appeal. It’s worked so far, might as well bet the house (or the hair) on it. But let’s be real, unless her shampoos come with a personal stylist and a Hollywood paycheck, we might just be setting ourselves up for disappointment.
This approach is similar to another celebrity whose success Blake takes major cues from: Jennifer Aniston. Before there was Serena, there was Rachel. From inspiring trends to becoming the people’s princess, Aniston and Lively have a lot in common. Namely that they’ve built gigantic careers on an average amount of talent. Pretty privilege is really kind to some.
Now, I’m no hater. I love looking at beautiful people as much as the next person. But as we brace ourselves for a Blake resurgence, someone has to say it: she’s prettier than she is talented.
The truth is, Blake Lively, like Jennifer Aniston, has found her niche. She’s good at being likable, at being the girl next door (if the girl next door lived in a mansion and was married to Deadpool). And in Hollywood, that’s a skill in itself.
So, is Blake Lively overrated? Maybe. Is she the second coming of Meryl Streep? Probably not. But is she good at what she does? Absolutely.
At the end of the day, Blake Lively is like that really pretty, really nice girl from high school who you want to hate but simply can’t. She’s not changing the world, but she’s not trying to. She’s just out here, living her best life, making us all wish we could pull off headbands and making Ryan Reynolds Instagram posts slightly more tolerable.
So here’s to you, Blake Lively. You may not be perfect, you may not be revolutionary, but damn it, you’re doing your thing. And sometimes, that’s enough.
So while I won’t be tuning into her latest slate of films or buying her beauty brand, I’ll be enjoying her press tour simply for the opportunity to decide which of her looks hit, and which of them miss.
We’ve reached peak quiet luxury. Maybe that happened quickly, when influencers flooded the TL with that stunningly resilient trend striving to convince you that all you need to look like you stepped out of Succession was .. Zara? But now, with Stealth-Wealth and Recessioncore still topics of major interest, strange sartorial ephemera of the rich are emerging as piecemeal trends.
From tennis bracelets (and tennis, but that’s thanks to Challengers) to Van Cleef necklaces, it’s the details that become the most unlikely trends. But it’s all about how you wear them. When paired with Gen Z’s Y2K style, they become emblematic. When paired with a Zara set on a West Village girl, she’s taking it seriously.
But you’re not real if you’ve seen what I’ve seen: an army of Prep school teenagers carelessly tossing on jewelry that costs as much as their private school tuition merely to accessorize their school uniforms. And what shoes did they wear with those Spence skirts and Dalton blazers? Boat shoes, of course.
It’s an evil convergence. Prep’s stubborn return to the zeitgeist — Rowing Blazers, I’ll never forgive you — and Sofia Richie’s impact on the skyrocketing interest in Stealth-Wealth. This means people are hungrier than ever to take a peek into the lives of the rich — then steal into their walk-in closets as big as a football field and try on their clothes.
The Sofia Richie effect
It’s been a year since the iconic Richie-Grainge wedding that sparked the Gen Z obsession with old money. Since that year, we’ve slowly been creeping into territory that sends a chill down my spine.
At first I thought it was just one more microtrend. However, I was soon proven so wrong. Instead of moving on, people everywhere made Sofia Richie their style icon. For good reason — she’s a Virgo, her taste is impeccable. But just like fellow nepo-baby Hailey Baldwin-Bieber’s wedding, the stylish ceremony sparked a chain reaction I never could have predicted.
Let’s use Hailey as a case study. After she wore Nike Air Force Ones to her reception, the shoe was ubiquitous. Sorority houses didn’t know peace for years. And it didn’t stop there. Signature pieces of Hailey’s off-duty style became biblical references. Her leather jackets, baggy jeans, and Clean Look vibe were everywhere.
But once a Supreme dies, a new queen must take her place. Sofia Richie answered the call.
While her so-called “old money” looks are actually new — new and custom Chanel, she’s become the face of Stealth-Wealth. It’s worth mentioning that Sofia Richie is a nepo baby whose money and prestige comes from her father, Black pop singer Lionel Richie. She’s not the old money heiress this trend is supposed to harken back to — which, to me, feels subversive.
Nevertheless, the masses are eating it up. Sofia’s transformation from trendy party girl to Stealth-Wealth wife and mother is inspiring to all of us. Though most will never grace the rooms with those who are decked out in Loro Piana and Brunello, we can wear a cashmere (blend) sweater and pretend.
This summer, the Stealth-Wealth status symbol is a surprising one: the boat shoe.
Why boat shoes?
Think about it: what says privilege like owning a boat and constantly sailing or a lake or on the sea? Boat shoes hint at an old-money lifestyle. They say you’re always prepared to be onboard a sailboat, yacht or sloop, that you have a tight jaw, and frequent clubs and restaurants that don’t allow sneakers, and you went to a prep school that has a biz-caz dress code.
I can tick the last box, which is why this trend makes me physically ill. At the sight of boat shoes — Sperry topsiders in particular — I’m transported back to high school. And no one wants that.
I can almost see the hoard of preppy kids in salmon garb and monogrammed backpacks, with their Sperrys as the cherry on top of their Brooks Brothers and Vineyard Vines outfit combinations.
Now, the fashionable set have taken the shoe over. Pairing them with trendy prep-inspired brands like Rowing Blazers and Aime Leon Dore, they’re taking back Prep.
Unlike hipster yuppies who took over Williamsburg and Portland in 2013, this isn’t playfully-ironic. It’s serious. You’ll see boat shoes with summer dresses, Gen Z oversized denim and carpenter pants. What an unlikely pairing — workwear and Prep, the opposite of workwear. Talk about high-low juxtaposition.
How to style boat shoes for summer?
If you’re planning on styling boat shoes for the summer, keep this in mind. Styling boat shoes correctly means achieving a balance between embracing new-age Prep without looking like a Prep school dweeb.
Do not go full quiet luxury with them. Put down the striped sweater and definitely don’t drape it around your shoulder. You’ll look like you’re cosplaying as someone in an ivy league a cappella group.
Instead, pair unexpected styles and aesthetics with boat shoes. They’re this summer’s cowboy boot. You’ll see them with flowy white maxi skirts and threadbare vintage tees. You’ll see them with ripped denim and oversized pants. You’ll definitely see them at the US Open, but you’ll also see them in the club. Don’t believe me? If the office siren aesthetic made it to the club, so will this.
The one benefit of this trend: unlike many other microtrends, boat shoes are usually made to be worn to death. They’re practical, comfortable, and easy to slip on while still being dressy. They’re a less casual option of Birkenstock Bostons and a counterpart to the loafer trend. No wonder Gen Z-loved brands like Miu Miu made their own and Saks is selling their distressed leather boat shoes for $925 a pair! Outrageous.
As they grow more high fashion, it’s a clear sign that boat shoes are here to stay. But they’re not your grandmother’s boat shoes, not my prep-school nightmare. They’re something else entirely. It just depends how you style them.
Whether you’re in love with quiet luxury or eager to experiment with the next trend, you can wear boat shoes with any aesthetic. I just won’t be joining you. God forbid, if LL Bean boots are in for fall, I’m abandoning everything and giving it all up for a beige capsule wardrobe.
For now, I’ll watch timidly as everyone dons a shoe I disavowed in my youth — and they’ll look good while doing it.
Shareholders shop for items at the Pampered Chef display at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder’s meeting on April 30, 2022 in Omaha, Neb. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Tomorrow (May 4), Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) will kick off its annual shareholder meeting in the investing conglomerate’s home base in Omaha, Neb. This year, Buffett will host the meeting without his right-hand man, Charlie Munger, who passed away late last year at the age of 99. Thousands of Berkshire shareholders will look for updates on Buffett’s succession plan as well as his next big bet, as the company is also set to report first-quarter earnings tomorrow morning.
It will not be the first time Buffett leads the shareholder meeting by himself, though. He held Berkshire’s 2020 meeting—virtually due to Covid-19—without Munger and said, “It particularly doesn’t feel like an annual meeting because my partner of 60 years, Charlie Munger, is not sitting up here.”
Munger’s passing in November put Berkshire’s energy business chief Greg Abel and insurance chief Ajit Jain in the spotlight. In 2021, Munger revealed at that year’s shareholder meeting that Abel would succeed Buffett as CEO if anything happened to the CEO. “The directors are in agreement that if something were to happen to me tonight, it would be Greg who’d take over tomorrow morning,” Buffett told CNBC subsequently. He added that, if for some reason Abel couldn’t do the job, Jain would step in as CEO.
Abel, 59, and Jain, 70, were promoted to vice chairmen of Berkshire Hathaway’s board in 2018 and have taken on a larger role in recent years. “Ajit and Greg have rare talents, and Berkshire blood flows through their veins,” Buffett wrote in his 2018 letter to shareholders.
In April this year, Abel joined Buffett on his business trip to Japan, where he made large investments in the country’s top trading houses. Abel “does all the work, and I take the bows—it’s exactly what I wanted,” Buffett told CNBC at the time.
Another item in focus at tomorrow’s meeting will be Buffett’s next big bet, especially given Berkshire’s giant cash pile. At the end of 2023, Berkshire had a record $168 billion in cash. Shareholders are eager to know how Buffett plans to invest that money.
During the December quarter, Berkshire reduced its stake in Apple (its largest holding), Paramount Global and HP while increasing shares in Chevron, Occidental Petroleum and Sirius XM Holdings. Also late last year, Berkshire acquired a mystery stock that the company requested the SEC for permission to keep confidential. Shareholders may expect the company to share more details about that as well.
Shows like Downtown Abbey, Palm Royale, and more have showed the big, big rich lives – and a few even touched the marijuana counterculture movement.
It seems we can’t get enough about the lives of the very rich. Shows including Downtown Abbey, Succession, the Gilded Age, and Palm Royale are all over and people are loving it. Ryan Murphy has done well and is just off his latest series Truman Vs.The Swans. All of this highlights the extremely well to do and how they live life. But did you know about the gilded age Heiress who helped the marijuana movement?
The Mellon family is in the rare category of being big then and still today. On the East Coast they continue to still have pull and cache like the “new money” Gates, Zuckerberg and Bezos. An old family from Pittsburgh, they made the start of it all in banking, the Mellon in today’s BNY Mellon. The family includes Andrew Mellon, one of the longest serving Treasury Secretaries, along with famous members in the judicial, banking, financial, business, and political professions. Bunny Mellon was one of the great philanthropists and art collectors. A dear friend of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, she designed a number of significant gardens, including the White House Rose Garden
But it was Peggy Mellon Hitchcock, another Mellon heiress who helped the counterculture. Her mother was a Mellon and her father, Thomas Hitchcock Jr., was a leading polo player and a partner at Lehman Brothers. Peggy was a spitfire and was as comfortable in the family’s many homes as in a smokey jazz club with artists. Spirited and fun she was always open to what’s new and what’s next. She had an unlikely relationship with Timothy O’Leary. She persuaded her brothers to let O’Leary have use of their joint family estate Daheim (also known as Millbrook or the Hitchcock estate).
For 5 years, O’Leary, thanks to Peggy lived like a king and had guests including Allen Ginsberg, Charles Mingus, and R. D. Laing to the old monied manse. What went on is the stuff of legends with a blend of art, marijuana, money, new ideas, psychedelics, music and love. The The New York Times’ Luc Sante, described it as “a period filled with endless parties, epiphanies and breakdowns, emotional dramas of all sizes, and numerous raids and arrests.” Nina Grabol shared it was “a cross between a country club, a madhouse, a research institute, a monastery, and a Fellini movie set.”
Peggy was responsible for helping the counterculture rest, regroup, and move forward. Who knew this would be the early path to rescheduling?
Hertz Global Holdings Inc. is replacing its chief executive officer in the wake of a disastrous bet on electric vehicles that the company began unwinding in recent months.
Stephen Scherr, who ran Hertz for just over two years after three decades at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has decided to step down, the rental-car company said late Friday in a statement. It’s replacing him with Gil West, the former chief operating officer of General Motors Co.’s Cruise robotaxi unit. West also will join the board of directors on April 1, according to the statement, which confirmed an earlier Bloomberg report.
Scherr, 59, joined Hertz several months after it emerged from bankruptcy and started making splashy wagers on electric vehicles. Under new owners Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management, the rental company announced plans to order 100,000 vehicles from Tesla Inc., sending the automaker’s market capitalization soaring past the $1 trillion mark at the time.
Hertz doubled down on EVs in the months after Scherr took over, placing big orders with Polestar, the electric-car maker owned by China’s Geely and Sweden’s Volvo Car, and GM. The company ended up buying a small number of cars from the two companies, a spokesperson said.
Those bets went awry last year, when Tesla slashed prices across its lineup to keep growing vehicle sales. This hammered the resale value of used Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers just after Hertz had added tens of thousands of those vehicles to its fleet.
By December, Hertz started selling off 20,000 electric vehicles, or about a third of its EV fleet. Germany’s Sixt SE — a leading car-renter in Europe — is taking even more drastic measures, phasing Teslas out of its fleet entirely.
Hertz announced its EV sell-down plans in January, citing lackluster demand, costly depreciation and expensive repairs. The Estero, Florida-based company took a $245 million charge and reported its biggest quarterly loss since the pandemic.
Shares of Hertz fell 2% after regular trading in New York Friday.
Scherr’s successor, West, was one of nine Cruise executives that GM dismissed at the end of last year after California regulators accused the company of withholding information about one of its self-driving vehicles striking and dragging a pedestrian.
Prior to joining Cruise as COO in early 2021, West held the same position at Delta Air Lines Inc. There, he played an instrumental role in the integration with Northwest Airlines and was credited with improving efficiency and performance.
“Gil is a fantastic operator. We worked side-by-side for a dozen years,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said an interview. “He’s an innovator, he loves technology, he’s meticulous, he’s curious and he loves a challenge — all great attributes.”Play Video
Even before they completed the Hertz acquisition, Tom Wagner at Knighthead and Greg O’Hara at Certares had identified West as a CEO candidate and approached him about leaving Cruise, according to two people with knowledge of those discussions who asked not to be identified. But GM, which had big plans for robotaxis at the time, didn’t want to let West go. So the investors installed Mark Fields, who’d run Ford Motor Co., as Hertz’s interim CEO and conducted a full CEO search, settling on Scherr in February 2022.
Once he’d left Cruise, Wagner and O’Hara approached West again, confident that by virtue of his firsthand experience with EVs and appreciation for the pitfalls of electrification, he’d be a better fit. And they liked that, as a resident of southwest Florida, he wouldn’t have far to travel to Hertz headquarters, the people said
West will be the latest in a long line of Hertz CEOs tasked with turning the company into a more profitable player and stiffer competitor for closely held Enterprise Holdings Inc. and Avis Budget Group Inc.
Before Knighthead and Certares swooped in to take Hertz out of bankruptcy, billionaire investor Carl Icahn struggled to put a shine on the century-old business as its controlling shareholder. Misreading the car market has cost Hertz in the past, including under John Tague, the former United Airlines COO whom Icahn installed as CEO in 2014.
Tague inherited an aging fleet from ousted CEO Mark Frissora and went long on passenger cars as consumer tastes were shifting to sport utility vehicles. He lasted a little more than two years in the job.
Hertz said Scherr will assist with the CEO transition until he leaves the company and its board on March 31.
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‘Succession’ stars Kieran Culkin, Nicholas Braun and Matthew Macfadyen share sweet reunion
Updated: 3:25 PM EST Feb 25, 2024
“Succession” stars Kieran Culkin, Nicholas Braun and Matthew Macfadyen shared a sweet reunion at the SAG Awards Saturday night. The trio were seen sharing a loving hug at the awards ceremony, before reuniting on stage to pick up the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.Co-stars Alan Ruck, Alexander Skarsgård, J. Smith Cameron, Justine Lupe, Fisher Stevens, Dagmara Dominczyk and David Rasche also appeared on stage to celebrate their win.”One last hurrah, I think,” began Ruck, who accepted the award on behalf of the cast. “I think right now you’re looking at some of the luckiest people on the planet and some of the most grateful because not only did we get to all work on one of the best television shows, you know, maybe ever, we made friends for life.”And I think the magic of “Succession” was that the writing was so fabulous. It inspired all of us to bring our A-game from the very beginning.”He concluded: “And we got off on watching each other work, and we caught lightning in a bottle. Lucky, you know? So, now we’re thrilled to be recognized by our peers.”It was the end of an era for the show’s cast as they rounded out their final award ceremony of the season. Despite losing out on Lead Actor and Lead Actress SAG awards to The Crown’s Elizabeth Debicki and The Last of Us’s Pedro Pascal, Succession’s fourth and final season scooped multiple gongs at the Emmys and Golden Globes last month.Culkin beat his co-stars Jeremy Strong and Brian Cox to the Best Actor prize at both ceremonies, while Sarah Snook and Macfadyen triumphed in the Best Actress and Supporting Actor categories.
The trio were seen sharing a loving hug at the awards ceremony, before reuniting on stage to pick up the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.
Co-stars Alan Ruck, Alexander Skarsgård, J. Smith Cameron, Justine Lupe, Fisher Stevens, Dagmara Dominczyk and David Rasche also appeared on stage to celebrate their win.
“One last hurrah, I think,” began Ruck, who accepted the award on behalf of the cast.
“I think right now you’re looking at some of the luckiest people on the planet and some of the most grateful because not only did we get to all work on one of the best television shows, you know, maybe ever, we made friends for life.
“And I think the magic of “Succession” was that the writing was so fabulous. It inspired all of us to bring our A-game from the very beginning.”
He concluded: “And we got off on watching each other work, and we caught lightning in a bottle. Lucky, you know? So, now we’re thrilled to be recognized by our peers.”
It was the end of an era for the show’s cast as they rounded out their final award ceremony of the season.
Despite losing out on Lead Actor and Lead Actress SAG awards to The Crown‘s Elizabeth Debicki and The Last of Us‘s Pedro Pascal, Succession‘s fourth and final season scooped multiple gongs at the Emmys and Golden Globes last month.
Matt and James Andrew Miller talk about whether Lorne Michaels will step down and, if so, who could replace him
Matt is joined by journalist, author, and SNL expert James Andrew Miller to discuss whether Lorne Michaels will actually step down after the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live in 2025 and, if so, who is best suited to replace him. They also discuss the state of the show, its struggle with political humor, and its lack of star power.
For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, What I’m Hearing …, click here.
Watching a frazzled Kieran Culkin take home the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series at the Emmys? Perfect. Culkin has been winning awards for his work in season 4 of Successionas Roman Roy but taking home the Emmy for the final season is different. Especially when Sarah Snook joined him and took home Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
An emotional Culkin took to the stage, started to thank everyone and made a quip about being afraid of getting yelled at by Doris Bowman (Anthony Anderson’s mother and better known as “Mamma” whenever she’s on shows with him). What was really sweet was watching as Culkin thanked his wife, Jazz Charton.
The two married in 2013 and have two children together, who Culkin thanked. He thanked his “beautiful wife” and went on to say “for sharing your life with me and for giving me two amazing kids.” But two isn’t enough for Culkin clearly because he said, on stage, that he wants to have a third child. “And Jazz, I want more. You said maybe, if I win!”
It was, frankly, an adorable speech. For so many, they either know they’re going to win and are very composed or we get really honest and raw speeches, like Culkin’s. Maybe it is because he has often lost at the Emmys for Succession but to finally see Roman Roy take home the big prize, especially with the final season? It ruled! Actually, all the Succession wins were great!
Culkin joined Saran Snook in the first timers club and to see Shiv and Roman win was amazing. Snook thanked her daughter, who she was pregnant with during filming, saying that her “biggest thank you” was to her, even if she “is to someone who won’t understand anything that I’m saying at the moment, but I carried her with me in this last season. And really, it was her who carried me.”
She went on to dismiss her own talent and joke that it was easy acting while pregnant. “It’s very easy to act when you’re pregnant because you’ve got hormones raging. It was more that the proximity of her life growing inside me gave me the strength to do this and this performance, and I love you so much,” Snook said. “And it’s all for you from here on out. Thank you.”
Some of the best characters on the show!
(HBO)
While I am a Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) girl myself, season 4 really highlighted the work that both Snook and Culkin have put into Shiv and Roman in the show’s four season run. Roman and Shiv used to be at each other’s throats, furious with each other as the younger siblings, but watching them be there for the death of Logan Roy (Brian Cox) all before chaos ensued by the end? Truly perfection from my favorite rich horrible family.
The cast of Succession taking home Emmy awards is no surprise but to see Culkin and Snook get theirs for the final season is amazing.
Sarah Snook is an accomplished Australian actress known for her versatile performances in film and television. In the critically acclaimed TV series Succession, Snook brilliantly portrays Siobhan “Shiv” Roy, the only daughter of media tycoon Logan Roy.
As Shiv, Snook navigates the complex web of family politics and corporate intrigue, delivering a nuanced performance that captures the character’s intelligence, ambition, and internal struggles as she grapples with her role within the powerful and dysfunctional Roy family in the ruthless world of media conglomerates. Her portrayal has earned widespread praise, contributing to the success and acclaim of the show.
Sarah Snook opens up about her career
Sarah Snook is currently enjoying success and acclaim as an award-winning actress, but she recently shared some challenges she faced in the industry, particularly regarding her appearance. In a recent interview with The Times, the Succession star disclosed instances where she encountered criticism from influential figures in the entertainment business.
Early in her career, after winning a role, Snook experienced a disheartening moment when a casting director bluntly told her they didn’t want to hire her because she was a “nobody.” Despite securing the part based on the preferences of the writer and director, she was subjected to demands to alter various aspects of her appearance, including whitening her teeth, darkening her hair, and losing weight.
The difficulties didn’t end there for Snook. After accepting the role and complying with the stringent appearance requirements, she faced a humiliating incident when she decided to indulge in “the tiniest bit of chocolate cake”. A producer openly criticized her in front of the cast and crew, highlighting the broader issue of infantilizing women in the industry and questioning the need to restrict their autonomy in decision-making. She said, “And all the while I am dying inside. The infantilizing of women, to not be able to make their own decisions, why would we do that to women?”
Such instances of criticism and pressure related to appearance have long been a part of the entertainment world. In 2017, Carey Mulligan spoke about feeling “belittled” on film sets, while the following year, Rose McGowan revealed being told that her success hinged on men finding her attractive in order to secure roles.
In reality, bullying and undue pressure related to appearance are not novel occurrences in Hollywood. Sarah Snook’s recent victory at the Golden Globes is even more commendable considering the challenges she faced in an industry where such issues persist.
Sarah Snook reveals gender of her baby
Sarah Snook graced the red carpet at the 2024 Golden Globes, radiating joy as she shared exciting news about her personal life. Beaming with happiness, Snook disclosed that she recently welcomed a baby girl. When asked about motherhood, she expressed, “I love it. She’s the best”. Snook happily shared developmental milestones, mentioning that her baby is standing with support, although not yet walking. She continued, “She’s standing. Not walking yet, but she’s standing supported. She’s great. I love her.”
The actress initially revealed her journey into motherhood in May 2023, reflecting on the last episode of Succession. During her pregnancy, Snook hinted at the impending arrival of her baby, stating that it wouldn’t be much longer, particularly when she was around 32 weeks pregnant. She explained, “Like two months? Well, I’m at 32 weeks. I mean, you couldn’t super tell. Because it’s not super big, at least at the moment.”
Snook’s announcement about becoming a mother coincided with her and her husband, Dave Lawson, celebrating their second wedding anniversary. The couple had a secret ceremony in February 2021, a decision influenced by being in lockdown together at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a Vogue Australia cover story in November 2021, Snook fondly shared the story of falling in love with Lawson during the lockdown in Melbourne, referring to him as one of her best mates.
With nearly 600 members, the Critics Choice Association (CCA) is the largest group of entertainment journalists in the U.S. and Canada. But before you roll your eyes at a televised awards ceremony based in the judgement of a bunch of schlubby scribes, know this: The Critics Choice Awards is historically the most accurate predictor of Academy Award nominations, which makes its assessments of cinematic and television achievement of particular note to those who follow splashier races like the Oscars and tomorrow night’s Emmy Awards.
Nominations were announced in December, and voting ended Friday for this year’s awards, which will be announced on January 14, 2024. The awards ceremony will air live for viewers in the Eastern time zone from 7-10 p.m. on the CW, but will be tape delayed most other places. One exception is Los Angeles, where local CW affiliate KTLA-5 will broadcast live from Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar; the station will also air red carpet arrivals starting at 2 p.m. PT.
In addition to host Chelsea Handler, who returns for her second year in the role, folks on that carpet include Harrison Ford, who’ll be presented with this year’s Career Achievement Award by director James Mangold. Margot Robbie will also be on stage to present America Ferrera with the gender equity-focused SeeHer Award; other presenters include Angela Bassett, Daniel Levy, Natasha Lyonne, and Oprah Winfrey.
Even before the awards began, the CCA named some of the nights winners from the red carpet. The Holdovers‘ Dominic Sessa was named the year’s Best Young Actor/Actress, Quiz Lady was named 2024’s Best Movie Made for Television, and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse took home the Best Animated Feature award.
Below, find a complete list of Critics Choice Awards 2024 nominations with their winners in bold; it will be updated throughout the evening. We also have coverage of the red carpet’s best fashion and looks.
Film Awards
Best Picture
American Fiction Barbie The Color Purple The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon Maestro Oppenheimer Past Lives Poor Things Saltburn
Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Maestro Leonardo DiCaprio, Killers of the Flower Moon Colman Domingo, Rustin Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
Best Actress
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall Greta Lee, Past Lives Carey Mulligan, Maestro Margot Robbie, Barbie Emma Stone, Poor Things
Best Supporting Actor
Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer Ryan Gosling, Barbie Charles Melton, May December Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
Best Supporting Actress
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple America Ferrera, Barbie Jodie Foster, Nyad Julianne Moore, May December Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Best Young Actor/Actress
WINNER: Dominic Sessa,The Holdovers
Abby Ryder Fortson, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Ariana Greenblatt, Barbie Calah Lane, Wonka Milo Machado Graner, Anatomy of a Fall Madeleine Yuna Voyles, The Creator
Best Acting Ensemble
Air Barbie The Color Purple The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon Oppenheimer
Best Director
Bradley Cooper, Maestro Greta Gerwig, Barbie Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer Alexander Payne, The Holdovers Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Adapted Screenplay
Kelly Fremon Craig, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Andrew Haigh, All of Us Strangers Cord Jefferson, American Fiction Tony McNamara, Poor Things Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Original Screenplay
Samy Burch, May December Alex Convery, Air Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer, Maestro Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie David Hemingson, The Holdovers Celine Song, Past Lives
Best Cinematography
Matthew Libatique, Maestro Rodrigo Prieto, Barbie Rodrigo Prieto, Killers of the Flower Moon Robbie Ryan, Poor Things Linus Sandgren, Saltburn Hoyte van Hoytema, Oppenheimer
Best Production Design
Suzie Davies and Charlotte Dirickx, Saltburn Ruth De Jong and Claire Kaufman, Oppenheimer Jack Fisk and Adam Willis, Killers of the Flower Moon Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer, Barbie James Price, Shona Heath, and Szusza Mihalek, Poor Things Adam Stockhausen and Kris Moran, Asteroid City
Best Editing
William Goldenberg, Air Nick Houy, Barbie Jennifer Lame, Oppenheimer Yorgos Mavropsaridis, Poor Things Thelma Schoonmaker, Killers of the Flower Moon Michelle Tesoro, Maestro
Best Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran, Barbie Lindy Hemming, Wonka Francine Jamison-Tanchuck, The Color Purple Holly Waddington, Poor Things Jacqueline West, Killers of the Flower Moon Janty Yates and David Crossman, Napoleon
Best Hair and Makeup
Barbie The Color Purple Maestro Oppenheimer Poor Things Priscilla
Best Visual Effects
The Creator Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Oppenheimer Poor Things Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Best Comedy
American Fiction Barbie Bottoms The Holdovers No Hard Feelings Poor Things
