Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon assortment of Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Bill Cohan games out David Ellison’s audacious, as-yet-unofficial bid to swallow Warner Bros. Discovery whole. While the company’s stock popped after the Journal leak, the process would be grueling for WBD chief David Zaslav, who insiders say is loath to give up one of the most coveted jobs in Hollywood. But, as LightShed’s Rich Greenfield suggests, Zaz’s only option might be to “take the money and run.”

Plus, below the fold: Julia Ioffe chronicles how the State Department leveraged a smattering of religious bias claims to ignite a culture war. Rachel Strugatz digs into the record-breaking debut of Hailey Bieber’s Rhode at Sephora. Lauren Sherman scoops the exit of Oscar de la Renta’s co-creative directors. And for Inner Circle members, Marion Maneker and Independent Art Fair founder Elizabeth Dee discuss the fair’s move to the historic Breuer Building and the state of New York’s art landscape.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Matt Belloni is joined on The Town by Rotten Tomatoes awards editor Jacqueline Coley for a deep dive into how their rating system really works. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and Julia Alexander discuss the TikTokification of the NBA and the G.O.P.’s crusade against social media following Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

WALL STREET

News and notes on the latest deal philosophies regarding the Ellisons’ unsolicited takeover bid: Larry’s liquidity, Zaz’s optionality, and the WBD board’s disposition.

WASHINGTON

A Trump administration report claims that anti-Christian bias is pervasive inside the State Department. But multiple Christian employees say they never felt targeted—and now they worry members of other faiths are being targeted instead.

FASHION

Backed by a billion dollars from E.l.f., Hailey Bieber’s Rhode has finally arrived at Sephora and is taking the beauty business—and its many skincare competitors—by storm. Meanwhile, Sephora itself is pivoting to favor newer, TikTok-favored labels, showing that even legacy brands aren’t forever.

FASHION

Oscar de la Renta’s co-creative directors since 2016, Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia, are leaving the business to focus on their 10-year-old ready-to-wear label, Monse.

ART

A conversation with the fair’s founder about relocating to the Breuer, growing organically, and New York’s ongoing lack of cohesion between auction houses, art fairs, and galleries.

HOLLYWOOD

Matt is joined by Rotten Tomatoes awards editor Jacqueline Coley to reveal how Rotten Tomatoes ratings work, the reasoning behind its binary grading rubric, whether the system favors certain movies, why Tomatometer scores have increased over the past 10 years, and why Rotten Tomatoes is so popular in the current online movie criticism landscape.

MEDIA

Julia Alexander joins Peter to discuss the TikTokification of the NBA, and how commissioner Adam Silver is tiptoeing the line of dominating the algorithm and flatlining on TV. Then they pivot to the G.O.P.’s renewed crusade against social media in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s murder.

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