February 8, 2022 • 19 mins
The rollout of the Pfizer’s Covid pills has faced shortages and criticism that state health departments are not prioritizing those at the highest risk of serious illness. The Biden administration has purchased 20 million courses of the treatment but has only been able to release 265,000 courses due to production delays. Benjamin Ryan, contributor to NBC News, joins us for a look inside the U.S. rollout.
Next, Frontier and Spirit Airlines have agreed to a merger worth $6.6 billion that would make them the fifth largest airline in the country. The move will see them keep their ultra-low fare business model and cause some worry for other airlines who have not rebounded with business and international travel customers. Leslie Josephs, airline reporter at CNBC, joins us for this deal that could create 10,000 jobs by 2026.
Finally, full-frontal male nudity is going mainstream in Hollywood. With the rise of streaming platforms that are largely free from ratings rules, more men including some big stars are becoming more comfortable with baring it all. Be warned however, it may not be the real thing as many times prosthetics are used. Ellen Gamerman, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for what it takes to make a nude scene happen.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Tuesday, February eight. Hi'm Oscar Ramirez in Los Angeles
and this is the daily Dive. The rollout of Fighter's
COVID pills has faced shortages and criticism that state health
departments are not prioritizing those at the highest risk of
serious illness. The Biden administration has purchased twenty million courses
(00:21):
of the treatment, but has only been able to release
two and sixty five courses due to production delays. Benjamin Ryan,
contributor to NBC News, joins US for a look inside
the US rollout. Next Frontier and Spirit Airlines have agreed
to a merger worth six point six billion dollars that
would make them the fifth largest airline in the country.
(00:42):
The move will see them keep their ultra low fare
business model and caused some worry for other airlines who
have not rebounded with business and international travel customers. Leslie
Joseph's airline reporter at CNBC joins US for more on
this deal that could create ten thousand jobs. By Finally,
full frontal male nudity is going mainstream in Hollywood with
(01:05):
the rise of streaming platforms that are largely free from
ratings rules. More men, including some big stars are becoming
more comfortable with bearing it all. Be warned, however, it
may not be the real thing, as many times prosthetics
are used. Ellen Gammerman, reporter at the Wall Street Journal,
joins us for what it takes to make a nude
scene happen, it's news without the noise. Let's dive in.
(01:29):
What we're saying is that only a few states are
actually doing this and limiting the drugs most very highest patients,
which means that it's quite possible in other states without
that kind of limit station without that kind of prioritization,
the drugs simply isn't having much of an impact as
it could. Joining us now is Benjamin Ryan, contributor to
NBC News and you can find his stuff at ben
Ryan Ryder on Twitter. Thanks for joining us, Ben, thanks
(01:52):
for having me. Let's talk about what's going on with
these fighter COVID pills. When fights are announced that they
had these COVID pills that would help in the treatment
of people that could get severely ill, everybody was doing
jumping Jack's over there like, thank God, we have more
things that we can help treat people with. But right now,
what we're seeing and what we've seen kind of throughout
(02:13):
the pandemic with rollouts of vaccines other med occasions, it's
very uneven. Pretty much every state has their own rules.
Sometimes they're prioritying the people that are most vulnerable, most
at risk. Other states are a lot more lacks in
their rules. And what we're seeing is that it's kind
of hard to come by these new Fighter pills. So
then tell us a little bit more about it, please,
(02:35):
So you know, we know that there's a great shortage
of these pills. They take about six to eight months
to manufacturers, so Fighter doesn't expect that there will be
a robust supply until about April. The Bide administration ordered
and paid for twenty million doses, ten million of which
would be available by the end of June, and then
the following ten million byting into September. So in the meantime,
(02:56):
we're getting about hundred thousand tax of the pills distributed
by the federal government to the state health departments every
other week. In the series of a great wave, and
many people hostialize, many deaths, etcetera. So I spoke with
a lot of medical ethicists who said that in the
space of such a shortage, you really need to limit
the availability of such potentially life saving medications to those
from whom it would do the most good, and research
(03:18):
suggests that for people who are the highest risk we're
talking about people are immuncompromised, are people who are unvaccinated,
are over sixty five, and especially if they have other
health conditions that raise the risk of hostilization and death
for COVID, for those people who would only need to
treat perhaps about eighteen of them to prevent one hostilization
and death outcome, and the farther you go down the
(03:38):
tears of risk, if you will, you go to too
younger people, people who are vaccinated, who are boosted that
sort of thing, the higher that number needed to treat
to prevent one of those postillizations and death becomes, and
therefore the less of a public health impact the use
of the drug can have. So what we're saying is
that only a few states are actually doing this and
limiting the drugs those very highest patients, which means that
(03:59):
it's quite possible in other states without that kind of limitation,
Without that kind of prioritization, the drugs simply isn't having
much of an impact as it could when they were
doing these studies, they were being done in people that
were unvaccinated because that's where they thought that it would
make the most impact there. So that's why unvaccinated people
are so high up on that list too. When you
(04:19):
do slay like this, in order to have a statistically
significant result, you want to go into the patient populations
who are at the highest risk, who have the highest
likelihood of having the outcome that you're trying to prevent.
So that's why something like that would be done in
those very high risk patients. So it's a question though,
because will people who have a certain misonality or whatever
is about their life, for their lifestyle or something that's
(04:40):
prevented them from getting vaccinated, Well, those people also be
unlikely to take a medication that could save them from
oscillization and death when they're early on in these course
of COVID nineteen because you have to take packs of
it within five days of symptom onset. So that's a
big unanswered question that I'll be very interested to see
in the coming months. But BOK with a lot of
doctors who are somewhat optimistic to say that there's a
(05:03):
big difference cognitively in the attitude that people have of
taking up preventative that would prevent something that you might
get versus you're sick. Now, hi, doc, please make me better.
A lot of doctors have said, I feel optimistic because
that's just the way that human mind works. People are
afraid of needles. There's something about being injected with something
that freaks people out, but they're very used at taking pills,
(05:24):
even though it's still something going into your body either way.
It's just a cognitive difference that people have that have
made doctors a bit optimistic that unvascinated out there might
be at least willing to take this this medication. You
profiled a woman named Abby Robinson in your story who
basically had to call all sorts of pharmacies to see
where she could get it. She I think she was
(05:45):
in the Long Beach, California area. She had to end
up building down to Orange County, which is kind of
a drive in certain cases, and you know, she was
had to be basically in her sick and state and
on the hunt for the medication. Luckily, there are a
couple of web sites that people can look up if
you Google find pack livid website HHS that's the Health
(06:06):
and Human Services Administration Google HHS and fine packs of it.
You should be able to find these websites that will
pinpoint at least where they've been delivered. But then you've
got a call the pharmacy and make sure they actually
have it, because it could be gone by now. So yes,
it is. I can take it very rude for rude
and curse word for what it is. But it's a lot.
It's very difficult interde One family, the husband to get
(06:27):
packs with it for his wife, drove two hundred and
thirty miles each way to get packs of it from
a pharmacy in southern Georgia. He was driving from Atlanta.
He drove nine hours round trip to get pack to
it for his wife. So we're seeing a lot of this,
but a lot of what's actually happening, though, is that
people who might not be at the greatest risk of
hostilization or death from COVID, they're nevertheless getting prescriptions for
(06:51):
these and then going to Great Lakes to get it,
and they're leveraging the financial resources they have. I spoke
with one woman who got found packs with it for
her friends. She was kind of helping him out he
was very stick and he paid a medical courier in
California four hundred and seventy dollars to go pick up
packs of it for him and drive a hundred miles
to his house in California. So it's said that the
people with the greatest wherewithal, with the finances at the time,
(07:13):
who can speak English, whatever it is that gives you
an edge, although the ones that are getting it, and
sometimes those advantages are not very well associated with actually
being high risk possilization and death, and so that the
disadvantaged populations of the country are being disadvantaged even further
by this first come, first serve system. Benjamin Ryan contributed
(07:34):
to NBC News and you can find all of his
stuff on Twitter at ben Ryan Writer. Thank you very
much for joining us, Thanks for having me. Especially it's
a fantastic day for Colorado because it just means that
Colorado's hometare on the airline is going to be be
(07:56):
a major player from a competitive perspective and provide much
to competition. Joining us now was Leslie, Joseph's airline reporter
at CNBC. Thanks for joining us, Leslie, Thanks for having me.
We saw a new merger This is going to be
happening between Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines. They're the two
largest low cost carriers in the US. It's a deal
(08:18):
worth six point six billion dollars. They're now going to
be the fifth largest airline in the country if everything
goes ahead and gets approved. So some interesting moves on this.
This is the first big merger we've seen since so Leslie,
what are we expecting at of this deal. Well, you
do have the two biggest discount airlines, as you said,
kind of coming together. This is a business model that
(08:40):
has been based on very aggressive expansion. You can kind
of chart it all the way from maybe like after
the financial crisis and the recovery and the buston oil
prices that has made flying a lot cheaper. Since that,
we're going the other way now to essentially expand around
the country in various parts of the world, you know
as far south Peru, offering no frill stares, cheap ticket
(09:03):
and you pay for everything else your carry on bag,
your check bag, your seat assignment and things like that.
So um it's had a lot of influence on driving
down fairs in certain markets. And now the airlines that
are larger than they are if they're going to have
a really big competitor to deal with. Now, Frontier and
Spirit have had their fair share of criticisms, sometimes bad
(09:25):
press right when things go wrong. As we said, their
ultra low cost, so you have to end up paying
for everything, check a bag, all that stuff. This is
the business model they're going to continue with though the
low fares that they want to just expand that, make
more routes and open it up to more people. That
is the idea. And this is a merger. This has
to get through both the Department of Transportation and then
(09:45):
the Justice Department, and the Biden Injustice Department has been
directed essentially to take a very close look at consolidation
and various industries, you know, everything from food production to
tech to airlines. And they've large suit American Airlines and
Jet Blue over their partnership in the northeas not even
a merger, so that does kind of indicate that it
is going to get a lot of scrutiny and a
(10:06):
big question that the d J is going to have
to answer or the airlines are gonna have to show,
is that it's not going to drive up fairs. So
a combined Spirit in front here. Sure they can have
a little bit more pricing power, but if they get
away from offering cheap fairs to their core customer, that
could end up hurting them in the long run. But
those things that you mentioned, I mean very strict about
(10:28):
fees for bags and packing your seat and kind of
recovering from uh like a I don't know, a storm
or something like that, because maybe they don't have the
frequencies of larger airlines, you know, like everybody's favorite punchline,
a Spirit airline. But the practices that they've had over
the years have been adopted by some of the major
airlines like United an American, and you know, you go
(10:50):
to book a flight on American and ensure like if
you get a regular economy ticket, you're getting your your
seat assignment, but some are blocked off and you have
to pay even without extra up room, you're having to
pay for that for a preferential location on the plane.
So a lot of these practices, you know, people kind
of roll their eyes or make fun of it, but
it's it's kind of become the norm. So this deal
(11:12):
does come at an interesting time in the pandemic. There's
a lot of other airlines that haven't completely gotten their
footing back, you know, those that rely a lot on
business travel or even international travel. So the pandemic hasn't
been the worst thing for these low cost carriers, you know,
people looking for deals and whatnot, and beyond that, you know,
they see it as a real growth opportunity obviously for
(11:33):
the big merger. But they said they're going to create
ten thousand new jobs by so in four years time,
will there'll be a lot more jobs with it too, right,
And so far they're saying no furloughs expected. You know,
they're adding ten thousand jobs. And one of the big
challenges that airlines have had and recovering in the pandemic.
You know, demand is coming back, especially for domestic leisure travel,
(11:55):
but they don't have the employees to meet it. And
sometimes they've been very hungry for revenue growth and kind
of going after those customers, but then the employees aren't
there to really support the operation. Pilots highly skilled, and
trains looks very expensive to train. Those pilots have hindered
some of the growth plans of some of the airlines
we've seen so far, and even cut back on some
(12:17):
routes whereas a merger between Spirit and Frontier could maybe
alleviate some of those immediate staffing issues, although it'll it'll
take a long time to integrate the airline, sometimes to
get take more than a year, but demand is coming back.
Those airlines did fare a little bit better in the pandemic,
but it's been painful for all airlines. And still no
real word on what the new name if if they
(12:40):
take a new name right to reflect both if they
mash up the names or anything like that. We don't
have that part of it yet either, we don't, and
people on Twitter or trying to figure out if it's
going to be for It or Frontier or something um
so it's not clear what they're gonna call it where
they're going to headquarter it. So you know, of Frontier
(13:00):
is based in Denver and Spirit is based near Fort Lauderdale.
But Bill Frankie, who is kind of one of the
architects of this, who has previously invested in Spirit now
is a big backer of Frontier, is going to be
the chairman, and that means it could be in Phoenix,
So who knows, and you know, it will take a
few months for them to figure that out and once
(13:22):
they do that, just kind of merging their staff, their technology,
booking websites, all that stuff. It's going to take months
and months. Even with Alaska and Version it took over
a year. Leslie Joseph's airline reporter at CNBC, thank you
very much for joining us. Thank you, and the intimacy
(13:49):
coordinators are also there for the crew because it's a
two way street and sometimes the crew can feel quite
awkward between takes when actors don't necessary early cover up.
Joining us now is Ellen Gammerman, reporter at The Wall
Street Journal. Thanks for joining, Sellen, Hi, thanks for having me.
Let's talk about kind of a shift that we've been
(14:10):
seeing in Hollywood. We're starting to see some more nudity,
but more male nudity, full frontal nudity. We're seeing this
in films with Bradley Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch. But I guess
male actors are getting a lot more comfortable with it.
It's also kind of a reaction for more equality, oddly enough,
to get more nudity out there, you know, I guess
(14:33):
from men as opposed to just women. It's kind of
a commonplace thing now for women. It seems like so
there's a lot of stuff going on with it. So Ellen,
walk us through some of this. What are we seeing? Yeah, sure, Well,
it used to be that when you saw full frontal
male nudity, it was kind of shocking in a way
that it wasn't for female nudity, and the movie might
even have an n C seventeen rating, and it might
(14:55):
be talked about upfront as a big sort of controversial
saying about a movie. But now it's just happening in
movie after movie and streaming series after streaming series. And
part of it is because of these streaming platforms, they
don't have to abide by ratings rules and they are
by and large and so they're just kind of going
(15:15):
for it with what they're putting on, and movies are
keeping pace as best they can with these performances. I
think actors believe that are more authentic for the actual
exposure and vulnerability that they say they're showing by not
having clothes on for certain kinds of scenes. Now, let's
(15:35):
talk a little bit about how these scenes are put together,
because that's pretty interesting. So there's a lot of conversations
that go on between the stars themselves, directors, producers, and
in this I didn't know. Somebody called an intimacy coordinator
who kind of helps uh smooth out all the rest
of the deal that's going on there. Right, So newte
scenes involved so many conversations from the team of the studio,
(16:00):
OH and their high level executives and the actors team
of representatives. They first talk about what's going to happen,
and then when you get closer to the actual filming
of the new scene, you have what's called an intimacy coordinator.
It's someone who they don't have to be on set,
(16:20):
but more and more especially post me too. They really
are pretty much most sets that have any kind of nudity,
and they talked to the actor. They prepare the actor
for exactly how many cameras will be in the room,
how many people will be in the room, how many monitors,
what's going to happen to the film, what's going to
happen to the outtakes? Is there a still from this
(16:42):
scene that can be used in a billboard? All kinds
of questions around their comfort, and it gives actors another
chance to back out, I suppose if they really don't
feel comfortable or tweak the arrangement. In some way, and
the intimacy coordinators are also or for the crew because
it's a two way street, and sometimes the crew can
(17:05):
feel quite awkward between takes when actors don't necessarily cover up.
You mentioned there's a kind of unwritten rule for privacy
that you know, when a new scene is being done
and the actor comes out, you know, everybody else in
the crew that's not directly involved, right, they'll turn away
to give them the privacy that they need. And and
it's kind of vice versa to something you know, the
(17:25):
actor should put a road back on. Sometimes they don't,
so there could be a lot of awkwardness in it.
One thing that complicates it also is that new scenes
typically are filmed where they shut the air conditioning off
to help the actors feel more comfortable not be freezing cold,
which means that it gets very hot quickly on the set.
(17:47):
Everyone begins sweating, and so the actors might not be
in a hurry to cover back up because they're just
so sweaty and exhausted. Oh no, that's uh, that would
be some great behind the scenes, I guess, right, and
so and then to you know another point, right, So
(18:07):
it's not always what you're seeing is is true to form, right,
there's the use of a lot of prosthetics that happen,
especially with some of the male actors too. It's amazing
how realistic these prosthetics have become. And also any doubts
that you might have can be erased in post production
and and things can look very real and indistinguishable. In fact,
(18:30):
I talked with some intimacy coordinators who said they would
not be able to tell the difference between real and
fake once the movies on the screen. And sometimes it's
a prosthetic because the reason that you're showing the anatomy
is for a narrative purpose. There's going to be something
different about it, like a comedic effect or something like that.
(18:52):
So in those cases they use prosthetics. But it's also
just certain actors feel that is what they call a
costume piece, just one added layer that makes them feel
just a little bit more comfortable if it's not really them. Well,
you know, just for all the audiences out there right,
(19:13):
get ready to see some more of this possibly, so
either enjoy it or be aware. Ellen Gaberman, reporter at
the Wall Street Journal, Thank you very much for joining us.
Thanks so much. That's it for today. Join us on
social media at Daily Dive Pod on both Twitter and Instagram.
(19:36):
Leave us a comment, give us a rating, and tell
us the stories that you're interested in. Follow us on
I Heard Radio, or subscribe where you get your podcast.
This episode of The Daily Dive was produced by Victor
Wright and engineered by Tony Sarrantino. I'm Oscar Ramirez and
this was your Daily Dive
It's Tuesday, February eight. Hi'm Oscar Ramirez in Los Angeles
and this is the daily Dive. The rollout of Fighter's
COVID pills has faced shortages and criticism that state health
departments are not prioritizing those at the highest risk of
serious illness. The Biden administration has purchased twenty million courses
(00:21):
of the treatment, but has only been able to release
two and sixty five courses due to production delays. Benjamin Ryan,
contributor to NBC News, joins US for a look inside
the US rollout. Next Frontier and Spirit Airlines have agreed
to a merger worth six point six billion dollars that
would make them the fifth largest airline in the country.
(00:42):
The move will see them keep their ultra low fare
business model and caused some worry for other airlines who
have not rebounded with business and international travel customers. Leslie
Joseph's airline reporter at CNBC joins US for more on
this deal that could create ten thousand jobs. By Finally,
full frontal male nudity is going mainstream in Hollywood with
(01:05):
the rise of streaming platforms that are largely free from
ratings rules. More men, including some big stars are becoming
more comfortable with bearing it all. Be warned, however, it
may not be the real thing, as many times prosthetics
are used. Ellen Gammerman, reporter at the Wall Street Journal,
joins us for what it takes to make a nude
scene happen, it's news without the noise. Let's dive in.
(01:29):
What we're saying is that only a few states are
actually doing this and limiting the drugs most very highest patients,
which means that it's quite possible in other states without
that kind of limit station without that kind of prioritization,
the drugs simply isn't having much of an impact as
it could. Joining us now is Benjamin Ryan, contributor to
NBC News and you can find his stuff at ben
Ryan Ryder on Twitter. Thanks for joining us, Ben, thanks
(01:52):
for having me. Let's talk about what's going on with
these fighter COVID pills. When fights are announced that they
had these COVID pills that would help in the treatment
of people that could get severely ill, everybody was doing
jumping Jack's over there like, thank God, we have more
things that we can help treat people with. But right now,
what we're seeing and what we've seen kind of throughout
(02:13):
the pandemic with rollouts of vaccines other med occasions, it's
very uneven. Pretty much every state has their own rules.
Sometimes they're prioritying the people that are most vulnerable, most
at risk. Other states are a lot more lacks in
their rules. And what we're seeing is that it's kind
of hard to come by these new Fighter pills. So
then tell us a little bit more about it, please,
(02:35):
So you know, we know that there's a great shortage
of these pills. They take about six to eight months
to manufacturers, so Fighter doesn't expect that there will be
a robust supply until about April. The Bide administration ordered
and paid for twenty million doses, ten million of which
would be available by the end of June, and then
the following ten million byting into September. So in the meantime,
(02:56):
we're getting about hundred thousand tax of the pills distributed
by the federal government to the state health departments every
other week. In the series of a great wave, and
many people hostialize, many deaths, etcetera. So I spoke with
a lot of medical ethicists who said that in the
space of such a shortage, you really need to limit
the availability of such potentially life saving medications to those
from whom it would do the most good, and research
(03:18):
suggests that for people who are the highest risk we're
talking about people are immuncompromised, are people who are unvaccinated,
are over sixty five, and especially if they have other
health conditions that raise the risk of hostilization and death
for COVID, for those people who would only need to
treat perhaps about eighteen of them to prevent one hostilization
and death outcome, and the farther you go down the
(03:38):
tears of risk, if you will, you go to too
younger people, people who are vaccinated, who are boosted that
sort of thing, the higher that number needed to treat
to prevent one of those postillizations and death becomes, and
therefore the less of a public health impact the use
of the drug can have. So what we're saying is
that only a few states are actually doing this and
limiting the drugs those very highest patients, which means that
(03:59):
it's quite possible in other states without that kind of limitation,
Without that kind of prioritization, the drugs simply isn't having
much of an impact as it could when they were
doing these studies, they were being done in people that
were unvaccinated because that's where they thought that it would
make the most impact there. So that's why unvaccinated people
are so high up on that list too. When you
(04:19):
do slay like this, in order to have a statistically
significant result, you want to go into the patient populations
who are at the highest risk, who have the highest
likelihood of having the outcome that you're trying to prevent.
So that's why something like that would be done in
those very high risk patients. So it's a question though,
because will people who have a certain misonality or whatever
is about their life, for their lifestyle or something that's
(04:40):
prevented them from getting vaccinated, Well, those people also be
unlikely to take a medication that could save them from
oscillization and death when they're early on in these course
of COVID nineteen because you have to take packs of
it within five days of symptom onset. So that's a
big unanswered question that I'll be very interested to see
in the coming months. But BOK with a lot of
doctors who are somewhat optimistic to say that there's a
(05:03):
big difference cognitively in the attitude that people have of
taking up preventative that would prevent something that you might
get versus you're sick. Now, hi, doc, please make me better.
A lot of doctors have said, I feel optimistic because
that's just the way that human mind works. People are
afraid of needles. There's something about being injected with something
that freaks people out, but they're very used at taking pills,
(05:24):
even though it's still something going into your body either way.
It's just a cognitive difference that people have that have
made doctors a bit optimistic that unvascinated out there might
be at least willing to take this this medication. You
profiled a woman named Abby Robinson in your story who
basically had to call all sorts of pharmacies to see
where she could get it. She I think she was
(05:45):
in the Long Beach, California area. She had to end
up building down to Orange County, which is kind of
a drive in certain cases, and you know, she was
had to be basically in her sick and state and
on the hunt for the medication. Luckily, there are a
couple of web sites that people can look up if
you Google find pack livid website HHS that's the Health
(06:06):
and Human Services Administration Google HHS and fine packs of it.
You should be able to find these websites that will
pinpoint at least where they've been delivered. But then you've
got a call the pharmacy and make sure they actually
have it, because it could be gone by now. So yes,
it is. I can take it very rude for rude
and curse word for what it is. But it's a lot.
It's very difficult interde One family, the husband to get
(06:27):
packs with it for his wife, drove two hundred and
thirty miles each way to get packs of it from
a pharmacy in southern Georgia. He was driving from Atlanta.
He drove nine hours round trip to get pack to
it for his wife. So we're seeing a lot of this,
but a lot of what's actually happening, though, is that
people who might not be at the greatest risk of
hostilization or death from COVID, they're nevertheless getting prescriptions for
(06:51):
these and then going to Great Lakes to get it,
and they're leveraging the financial resources they have. I spoke
with one woman who got found packs with it for
her friends. She was kind of helping him out he
was very stick and he paid a medical courier in
California four hundred and seventy dollars to go pick up
packs of it for him and drive a hundred miles
to his house in California. So it's said that the
people with the greatest wherewithal, with the finances at the time,
(07:13):
who can speak English, whatever it is that gives you
an edge, although the ones that are getting it, and
sometimes those advantages are not very well associated with actually
being high risk possilization and death, and so that the
disadvantaged populations of the country are being disadvantaged even further
by this first come, first serve system. Benjamin Ryan contributed
(07:34):
to NBC News and you can find all of his
stuff on Twitter at ben Ryan Writer. Thank you very
much for joining us, Thanks for having me. Especially it's
a fantastic day for Colorado because it just means that
Colorado's hometare on the airline is going to be be
(07:56):
a major player from a competitive perspective and provide much
to competition. Joining us now was Leslie, Joseph's airline reporter
at CNBC. Thanks for joining us, Leslie, Thanks for having me.
We saw a new merger This is going to be
happening between Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines. They're the two
largest low cost carriers in the US. It's a deal
(08:18):
worth six point six billion dollars. They're now going to
be the fifth largest airline in the country if everything
goes ahead and gets approved. So some interesting moves on this.
This is the first big merger we've seen since so Leslie,
what are we expecting at of this deal. Well, you
do have the two biggest discount airlines, as you said,
kind of coming together. This is a business model that
(08:40):
has been based on very aggressive expansion. You can kind
of chart it all the way from maybe like after
the financial crisis and the recovery and the buston oil
prices that has made flying a lot cheaper. Since that,
we're going the other way now to essentially expand around
the country in various parts of the world, you know
as far south Peru, offering no frill stares, cheap ticket
(09:03):
and you pay for everything else your carry on bag,
your check bag, your seat assignment and things like that.
So um it's had a lot of influence on driving
down fairs in certain markets. And now the airlines that
are larger than they are if they're going to have
a really big competitor to deal with. Now, Frontier and
Spirit have had their fair share of criticisms, sometimes bad
(09:25):
press right when things go wrong. As we said, their
ultra low cost, so you have to end up paying
for everything, check a bag, all that stuff. This is
the business model they're going to continue with though the
low fares that they want to just expand that, make
more routes and open it up to more people. That
is the idea. And this is a merger. This has
to get through both the Department of Transportation and then
(09:45):
the Justice Department, and the Biden Injustice Department has been
directed essentially to take a very close look at consolidation
and various industries, you know, everything from food production to
tech to airlines. And they've large suit American Airlines and
Jet Blue over their partnership in the northeas not even
a merger, so that does kind of indicate that it
is going to get a lot of scrutiny and a
(10:06):
big question that the d J is going to have
to answer or the airlines are gonna have to show,
is that it's not going to drive up fairs. So
a combined Spirit in front here. Sure they can have
a little bit more pricing power, but if they get
away from offering cheap fairs to their core customer, that
could end up hurting them in the long run. But
those things that you mentioned, I mean very strict about
(10:28):
fees for bags and packing your seat and kind of
recovering from uh like a I don't know, a storm
or something like that, because maybe they don't have the
frequencies of larger airlines, you know, like everybody's favorite punchline,
a Spirit airline. But the practices that they've had over
the years have been adopted by some of the major
airlines like United an American, and you know, you go
(10:50):
to book a flight on American and ensure like if
you get a regular economy ticket, you're getting your your
seat assignment, but some are blocked off and you have
to pay even without extra up room, you're having to
pay for that for a preferential location on the plane.
So a lot of these practices, you know, people kind
of roll their eyes or make fun of it, but
it's it's kind of become the norm. So this deal
(11:12):
does come at an interesting time in the pandemic. There's
a lot of other airlines that haven't completely gotten their
footing back, you know, those that rely a lot on
business travel or even international travel. So the pandemic hasn't
been the worst thing for these low cost carriers, you know,
people looking for deals and whatnot, and beyond that, you know,
they see it as a real growth opportunity obviously for
(11:33):
the big merger. But they said they're going to create
ten thousand new jobs by so in four years time,
will there'll be a lot more jobs with it too, right,
And so far they're saying no furloughs expected. You know,
they're adding ten thousand jobs. And one of the big
challenges that airlines have had and recovering in the pandemic.
You know, demand is coming back, especially for domestic leisure travel,
(11:55):
but they don't have the employees to meet it. And
sometimes they've been very hungry for revenue growth and kind
of going after those customers, but then the employees aren't
there to really support the operation. Pilots highly skilled, and
trains looks very expensive to train. Those pilots have hindered
some of the growth plans of some of the airlines
we've seen so far, and even cut back on some
(12:17):
routes whereas a merger between Spirit and Frontier could maybe
alleviate some of those immediate staffing issues, although it'll it'll
take a long time to integrate the airline, sometimes to
get take more than a year, but demand is coming back.
Those airlines did fare a little bit better in the pandemic,
but it's been painful for all airlines. And still no
real word on what the new name if if they
(12:40):
take a new name right to reflect both if they
mash up the names or anything like that. We don't
have that part of it yet either, we don't, and
people on Twitter or trying to figure out if it's
going to be for It or Frontier or something um
so it's not clear what they're gonna call it where
they're going to headquarter it. So you know, of Frontier
(13:00):
is based in Denver and Spirit is based near Fort Lauderdale.
But Bill Frankie, who is kind of one of the
architects of this, who has previously invested in Spirit now
is a big backer of Frontier, is going to be
the chairman, and that means it could be in Phoenix,
So who knows, and you know, it will take a
few months for them to figure that out and once
(13:22):
they do that, just kind of merging their staff, their technology,
booking websites, all that stuff. It's going to take months
and months. Even with Alaska and Version it took over
a year. Leslie Joseph's airline reporter at CNBC, thank you
very much for joining us. Thank you, and the intimacy
(13:49):
coordinators are also there for the crew because it's a
two way street and sometimes the crew can feel quite
awkward between takes when actors don't necessary early cover up.
Joining us now is Ellen Gammerman, reporter at The Wall
Street Journal. Thanks for joining, Sellen, Hi, thanks for having me.
Let's talk about kind of a shift that we've been
(14:10):
seeing in Hollywood. We're starting to see some more nudity,
but more male nudity, full frontal nudity. We're seeing this
in films with Bradley Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch. But I guess
male actors are getting a lot more comfortable with it.
It's also kind of a reaction for more equality, oddly enough,
to get more nudity out there, you know, I guess
(14:33):
from men as opposed to just women. It's kind of
a commonplace thing now for women. It seems like so
there's a lot of stuff going on with it. So Ellen,
walk us through some of this. What are we seeing? Yeah, sure, Well,
it used to be that when you saw full frontal
male nudity, it was kind of shocking in a way
that it wasn't for female nudity, and the movie might
even have an n C seventeen rating, and it might
(14:55):
be talked about upfront as a big sort of controversial
saying about a movie. But now it's just happening in
movie after movie and streaming series after streaming series. And
part of it is because of these streaming platforms, they
don't have to abide by ratings rules and they are
by and large and so they're just kind of going
(15:15):
for it with what they're putting on, and movies are
keeping pace as best they can with these performances. I
think actors believe that are more authentic for the actual
exposure and vulnerability that they say they're showing by not
having clothes on for certain kinds of scenes. Now, let's
(15:35):
talk a little bit about how these scenes are put together,
because that's pretty interesting. So there's a lot of conversations
that go on between the stars themselves, directors, producers, and
in this I didn't know. Somebody called an intimacy coordinator
who kind of helps uh smooth out all the rest
of the deal that's going on there. Right, So newte
scenes involved so many conversations from the team of the studio,
(16:00):
OH and their high level executives and the actors team
of representatives. They first talk about what's going to happen,
and then when you get closer to the actual filming
of the new scene, you have what's called an intimacy coordinator.
It's someone who they don't have to be on set,
(16:20):
but more and more especially post me too. They really
are pretty much most sets that have any kind of nudity,
and they talked to the actor. They prepare the actor
for exactly how many cameras will be in the room,
how many people will be in the room, how many monitors,
what's going to happen to the film, what's going to
happen to the outtakes? Is there a still from this
(16:42):
scene that can be used in a billboard? All kinds
of questions around their comfort, and it gives actors another
chance to back out, I suppose if they really don't
feel comfortable or tweak the arrangement. In some way, and
the intimacy coordinators are also or for the crew because
it's a two way street, and sometimes the crew can
(17:05):
feel quite awkward between takes when actors don't necessarily cover up.
You mentioned there's a kind of unwritten rule for privacy
that you know, when a new scene is being done
and the actor comes out, you know, everybody else in
the crew that's not directly involved, right, they'll turn away
to give them the privacy that they need. And and
it's kind of vice versa to something you know, the
(17:25):
actor should put a road back on. Sometimes they don't,
so there could be a lot of awkwardness in it.
One thing that complicates it also is that new scenes
typically are filmed where they shut the air conditioning off
to help the actors feel more comfortable not be freezing cold,
which means that it gets very hot quickly on the set.
(17:47):
Everyone begins sweating, and so the actors might not be
in a hurry to cover back up because they're just
so sweaty and exhausted. Oh no, that's uh, that would
be some great behind the scenes, I guess, right, and
so and then to you know another point, right, So
(18:07):
it's not always what you're seeing is is true to form, right,
there's the use of a lot of prosthetics that happen,
especially with some of the male actors too. It's amazing
how realistic these prosthetics have become. And also any doubts
that you might have can be erased in post production
and and things can look very real and indistinguishable. In fact,
(18:30):
I talked with some intimacy coordinators who said they would
not be able to tell the difference between real and
fake once the movies on the screen. And sometimes it's
a prosthetic because the reason that you're showing the anatomy
is for a narrative purpose. There's going to be something
different about it, like a comedic effect or something like that.
(18:52):
So in those cases they use prosthetics. But it's also
just certain actors feel that is what they call a
costume piece, just one added layer that makes them feel
just a little bit more comfortable if it's not really them. Well,
you know, just for all the audiences out there right,
(19:13):
get ready to see some more of this possibly, so
either enjoy it or be aware. Ellen Gaberman, reporter at
the Wall Street Journal, Thank you very much for joining us.
Thanks so much. That's it for today. Join us on
social media at Daily Dive Pod on both Twitter and Instagram.
(19:36):
Leave us a comment, give us a rating, and tell
us the stories that you're interested in. Follow us on
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This episode of The Daily Dive was produced by Victor
Wright and engineered by Tony Sarrantino. I'm Oscar Ramirez and
this was your Daily Dive
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