… the imminent release of Pink Panther 2.

Pink Panther 1, Martin’s dreadful, deeply unasked-for remake of the Peter Sellers-Blake Edwards classic, scored an extraordinarily low 38 on Metacritic.

The story today, agreeably promoting an album of banjo music Martin has coming out, equally agreeably doesn’t mention his latest shitty movie, out Friday.

The Times is of course better on this subject than most operations, but one of the things that I think frustrates readers is the sense that there are deals, or at least understandings, behind the scenes.

Was there an actual deal? No—hardly.

However, if Martin’s PR campaign had for whatever reason the desire to have the movie focused on this week and not the record, do I think that the coverage would have been precisely the opposite?

Yes.