1. HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE WANTS TO INTERVIEW TRUMP INAUGURATION PLANNER: The House Intelligence Committee is seeking to interview and obtain records from Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former adviser to first lady Melania Trump and a key planner of President Trump’s inauguration. Associated Press: “The letter said that the House committee on March 19 requested Wolkoff provide unspecified records and also submit to a voluntary interview. It also showed that Wolkoff was subpoenaed to testify in early October before a federal grand jury in Manhattan, where federal prosecutors are investigating, among other things, whether foreigners illegally contributed to the inaugural events. … A spokesman for the House Intelligence Committee, Patrick Boland, declined to comment. Calls to Wolkoff’s residence seeking comment Wednesday rang unanswered. The person familiar with the matter said a sealed court order had prohibited Wolkoff from disclosing the federal subpoena she received for 180 days. The inaugural committee raised an unprecedented $107 million to host events celebrating Trump’s inauguration in January 2017 but has drawn mounting scrutiny in recent months.” 2. PROTEST OF BRUNEI-OWNED HOTELS DRAWS MORE CELEBRITIES: More celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres and Elton John, have joined a protest against Brunei-owned hotels over the country's new anti-L.G.B.T. laws, which include death by stoning. The boycott of the properties started last week, when George Clooney admitted in an opinion piece that he stayed in some of the hotels. The hotels include the Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles and the Dorchester in London. CBS News: "The boycott was sparked last week in an opinion piece by actor George Clooney, who said a boycott of the high-end hotels—where rooms can start at $600 a night or more—is necessary to keep money from flowing 'directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery.' In his opinion piece last week, Clooney noted that he's stayed at many of the hotels owned by Brunei, a small nation located on the island of Borneo, but said he was unaware of their ownership 'because I hadn't done my homework.' He acknowledged that a boycott is unlikely to change Brunei's laws, but said consumers must decide whether they want their money to support laws that violate human rights." 3. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WARNS OSCARS ABOUT POTENTIAL RULE CHANGES TO EXCLUDE NETFLIX: The U.S. Department of Justice has warned the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that its potential rule changes to exclude Netflix and other streaming service films from Oscar eligibility could violate competition law and raise antitrust concerns. Variety: “According to a letter obtained by Variety, the chief of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, Makan Delrahim, wrote to Ampas C.E.O. Dawn Hudson on March 21 to express concerns that new rules would be written ‘in a way that tends to suppress competition.’ ‘In the event that the Academy—an association that includes multiple competitors in its membership—establishes certain eligibility requirements for the Oscars that eliminate competition without procompetitive justification, such conduct may raise antitrust concerns,’ Delrahim wrote. The letter came in response to reports that Steven Spielberg, an Academy board member, was planning to push for rules changes to Oscars eligibility, restricting movies that debut on Netflix and other streaming services around the same time that they show in theaters.” 4. DISNEY-FOX MERGER LOOMS OVER CINEMACON: Studios, movie theater owners, stars, and more have flocked to Las Vegas for CinemaCon, the annual film industry trade show, which kicked off at Caesar's Palace on Monday. While blockbuster successes will highlight this year's show, Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox is already affecting the event. Associated Press: "On a practical level, it means there won’t be a separate presentation from Fox, which always staged an elaborate production, usually involving its former distribution chief in some kind of costume. 'We will absolutely miss the Fox presence, but we also need to support and embrace Disney for what they bring to our industry and what they’re going to look to do to further bolster the distribution line of great product,' said Mitch Neuhauser, the managing director of CinemaCon. 'It’s going to be a very bittersweet convention. But we will change with the times and move forward in a productive way.' In other words, the show must go on. Disney, which has been the market-leader for three years running, along with three of the other major studios, Universal, Warner Bros., and Paramount (Sony is sitting this year out), will come armed with splashy new footage, trailers, and some of their biggest stars to hype their slates for the summer movie season and beyond to an audience of theater owners, from the biggest chains to the smallest mom and pop shops." 5. ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL COMPARED TO FYRE FEST AFTER TRANSPORTATION DISASTER: The first night of Miami's Ultra Music Festival had some dubbing the event "Fyre Festival 2" on social media, after thousands of attendees were stranded on the festival's island home of Virginia Key waiting for shuttles to take them back to the mainland. Many attendees ended up walking the Rickenbacker Causeway to get to where they were staying. Organizers apologized and promised to not have a repeat incident. Miami Herald: "Ultra uses private charter buses to move people in out of the festival grounds. Miami-Dade, which controls the William Powell Bridge connecting Miami’s Virginia Key to the mainland, approved a plan to close off two westbound lanes at 1 a.m. to clear the way for Ultra busses for the Friday night departing crowds. Juan Perez, Miami-Dade’s police director, said Saturday Ultra wasn’t prepared for significant numbers of pre-midnight exits. ... Alice Bravo, Miami-Dade’s transportation director, said Ultra concertgoers were expected to use the Powell bridge to get back to the mainland if buses were running behind or getting full. The issue was so many people walking caused spillover from the segregated pedestrian path on the south side of the bridge, Bravo said." | 