Neil Freiman

So I think David Ellison has been maybe a boogeyman a little bit in this industry as someone who's going to come in and try to cut jobs.

But Damon Lindelof said, look, I think David Ellison loves movies.

Just I'm looking out for the, quote, thousands, thousands of grips and gaffers, drivers and decorators.

And so it's those blue collar workers that these stars are using their platform to look out for.

Well, this deal, as I said, is expected to close later this year.

It's undergoing reviews in the UK, the United States, but they're not expected to sort of raise any antitrust concerns as actors and some politicians have worried about.

OK, the American consumer is getting pinched and squeezed like a cute baby being introduced to the friend group.

New fees, surcharges and add on costs are increasingly getting tacked on to the end of bills as companies dip into customers wallets to pay for their own growing expenses.

Some of these add-ons are new as a result of the war in Iran.

Think fuel surcharges for flights.

But fee proliferation has been going on for months, even years, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Per a 2025 J.D.

Power survey, 34% of small businesses were adding credit card surcharges, and one-fifth of restaurants are currently adding surcharges or fees to checks, up from 16% four years ago.

according to the National Restaurant Association.

A dollar here, two dollars there may not break the bank, but it sure is annoying, which is exactly how researchers have described this nickel and diming.

A report released earlier this year explored the so-called annoyance economy, the extra fees, the mountains of paperwork, the difficult cancellation processes Americans deal with on a daily basis, and concluded that the annoyance economy costs up to $165 billion a year in time and wasted money for American families.

and it's taking a serious toll.

On Friday, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment reading fell to its lowest level ever, worse than in the 2008 recession or the pandemic.

And one of the reasons maybe why we're so beaten down, why we acquiesce to this is that what companies are doing is they're shifting the blame with these surcharges.

So Delta, United, all these airlines are raising fees and bag fees.