Journalists love a great character, especially when they go off script. From this trailer alone, it’s clear that Holmes no longer wants to play the billionaire girl genius with a black turtleneck, deep voice, and game-changing technology that could run hundreds of medical tests from a single drop of blood. Now, she’s a clueless eccentric, an innocent in mom jeans with a beatific smile and unblinking eyes fixed on her “soul mate” Evans, a controlling striver who treats us to full-frontal nudity and other helpings of dubious judgment. We meet two cherubic babies—Holmes’s “angels”—whose birth delayed her trial and sentencing. Why not invite a comic to join the family for your last 34 days of freedom, prior to starting a 135-month prison sentence for investor fraud and conspiracy? Crazy kids! Pass the popcorn!

I like the movie. I also recommend watching Tilda Swinton’s mirror scene in Michael Clayton to get a feel for the self-conscious way in which Holmes rehearsed—and rehearsed—her now-ditched persona modeled on her perception of Steve Jobs. Go look at the number of patients and doctors who were deceived, her clueless star-studded board, the number of people who bought into the dream because they wanted it to be true. (We called her an extraordinary entrepreneur and subsequently challenged her model.) 

The problem with quirky characters is that they can distract you from important parts of the underlying story. When Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg went on Joe Rogan’s show last year, we paid more attention to his “masculine energy” makeover from nervous-nerd-in-a-hoodie to tech-bro-in-streetwear, complete with a gold chain and luscious curls. The host was too busy discussing bow hunting and jiu-jitsu with Meta’s newly macho main character to delve too much into his controversial policies that later led to an $18 billion settlement. 

We have an equally kooky cast of characters dominating today’s business discourse. There’s Elon Musk with his erratic X posts, moonshots, and personal push to repopulate the planet; Dario Amodei and Sam Altman publicly debating whether their products will kill us as if such things are beyond their control; Jeff Bezos morphing from a customer-centric everyman to a bulked-up billionaire cruising on half-billion-dollar yachts and sending Katy Perry into space. The stories could practically write themselves, unless we pause to look into what’s really going on.

Before getting too caught up in Holmes 2.0, though, look at the lies, damage, and corruption that landed this character in jail.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top leadership news

Nvidia CEO is the biggest foil to AI doomerism

Jensen Huang has repeatedly rejected warnings about AI’s existential threat to humanity, mounting a robust defense for going full speed ahead. In an interview two weeks ago, he said “2030 is not going to be the end of the world.” Earlier in September, Huang also argued that governments should be regulating “actual and pragmatic harm” instead of “hypothetical, theoretical harm.” 

Iran’s currency is getting obliterated

With Iran’s economy in free fall, the country’s currency is getting dragged down too and continues to find new depths with the regime facing a major cash crunch soon. The exchange rate hit more than 2.5 million rials to the U.S. dollar, less than a month after its previous record low of 2.2 million on Sept. 2. It was near 1.5 million at the start of this year and at 920,000 in August 2025.

Where Americans are moving by generation

According to U-Haul, baby boomers and Gen Xers favor warm, lower-cost destinations in the Southeast. Younger Americans, meanwhile, are still gravitating toward the country’s most populous states and cities. California ranked No. 3 among U-Haul net-gain states for millennials and No. 2 for Gen Z, while Census data show the state’s overall population fell 0.5% between April 2020 and July 2025.

The markets

S&P 500 futures are down 0.13% this morning. The last session closed up 0.73%. The STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.33% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.45% in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 2.40%. South Korea’s markets are closed. China’s markets are closed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.28%. India’s NIFTY 50 is up 0.58%. Bitcoin is up at $86k.

Around the watercooler

MacKenzie Scott’s first novel in 13 years is being called ‘baffling’—and critics are left asking what message she’s trying to send by Sydney Lake

Gen Z can’t control the future, so they’re paying witches and tarot readers to make it feel more manageable by Tatiana Sataua

Meet the ‘mini Erin Brockoviches’ fighting off eminent domain—and the shadow of Amazon—as a data center hands out $10,000 to their neighbors by Sasha Rogelberg

Even ‘Bond King’ Bill Gross warns ‘don’t own bonds’ as long-term debt enters a new ear of volatility by Jason Ma

‘We need to trust our employees’: This billionaire CEO went from counting cars in the parking lot past 6pm to embracing hybrid work by Preston Fore

CEO Daily is curated and edited by Joseph Abrams, Jason Ma, Claire Zillman, and Lee Clifford.