Happy Friday and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon digest of Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Matt Belloni reveals how the entertainment industry’s de facto arbiter of quality, Rotten Tomatoes, “has been diluted and corrupted to the verge of incoherence.” With a hand from Puck’s researcher, Maya Tribbitt, Matt puts hard data and inside reporting behind the remarkable grade inflation that has undermined the platform’s credibility—and which is reaching a crescendo at a time when everyone is already suspicious of Hollywood.

Plus, below the fold: Ian Krietzberg examines the promise and perils of Slingshot’s new A.I. pocket shrink. Lauren Sherman chronicles the headwinds facing Alessandro Michele’s Valentino, exclusively for Inner Circle members. John Ourand assesses why the NFL isn’t rushing to go all in on streaming. And Abby Livingston digs into how Trump’s redistricting war has scrambled House Dems’ midterm calculus.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Dylan Byers and Julia Alexander connect on The Grill Room to break down Paramount’s imminent acquisition of Bari Weiss’s The Free Press. On Fashion People, Lauren rings up former Barneys co-C.E.O. Gene Pressman to discuss the alchemy of a high-end retail experience. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby is joined by Marion Maneker to assess the scope of the apparent side dealing at Sotheby’s—and the stakes for Patrick Drahi, its reclusive billionaire owner.

At a time when everyone is suspicious of Hollywood, the industry’s biggest arbiter of quality has become rigged, providing the assessment that Hollywood wants rather than the critical feedback that it needs.

Slingshot, which counts a16z as an investor, recently launched “Ash,” a new therapy chatbot that’s being billed as a cheap pocket shrink. Is this an improvement on the current anthropomorphizing of ChatGPT, a preview of the inevitable, or just a really bad idea?

This is how bp does refining.

bp supports ~300,000 US jobs. Like the science, engineering & skilled labor jobs that produce energy products Americans rely on. At our refinery in Washington state, we make traditional fuel for jets and vehicles and also produce renewable diesel. See how else bp is investing in America.

The generationally talented designer’s Roman idyll with Valentino is still problematic, one year in, and now the house’s newly appointed C.E.O., Riccardo Bellini, needs to make it work. Plus, news and notes on his successor and the Fendi sitch.

Yes, YouTube is streaming its first NFL game tomorrow from Brazil, and yes the NFL seems to be conceding to the long-inevitable march toward streaming—even embracing YouTubers like Dude Perfect. But don’t let that fool you. The NFL is still about the TV business, and business is still good.

Until recently, conventional wisdom held that Democrats would almost certainly retake the House in 2026. Now, amid the political wreckage of the redistricting arms race, they’re no longer so sure.

Julia and Dylan break down David Ellison’s imminent acquisition of Bari Weiss’s The Free Press—and how her anti-establishment worldview could reverberate through the editorial DNA of CBS News. They also explore how the likely nine-figure deal could spark a fresh cycle of digital media M&A, and what it augurs for the Substack economy and creator economy writ large. Then Dylan and Julia decode the landmark Google antitrust ruling that effectively sanctifies the company’s “pay-to-play” strategy.

This is how bp invests in America.

bp added $190+ billion to the US economy over the last three years. From people working to produce oil and gas in the Gulf of America and Permian Basin, to investments in refining and bioenergy projects nationwide, and so much more, see all the ways bp is investing in America.

What a week. Lauren is joined by Gene Pressman, grandson of the founder of Barneys New York and author of They All Came to Barneys: A Personal History of the World’s Greatest Store. Gene was co-C.E.O. of Barneys in the 1990s—a golden age for fashion—and he has a lot of opinions on what makes a good store, how fashion moves in and out of popular culture, why Hermès is best in class, and plenty more. To start, Lauren is joined by New York Times reporter Jessica Testa to discuss the passing of Mr. Giorgio Armani and the appointment of Chloe Malle as head of editorial content at American Vogue.

Marion Maneker joins Peter to outline the reputational storm engulfing Sotheby’s and its reclusive billionaire owner, Patrick Drahi, stemming from a sprawling New Yorker exposé that suggests employees have been feathering their nests with off-book side deals. As Marion further explains, this now gives rival Christie’s fresh ammunition as the auction giants joust for big-spending clientele.

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