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- [00:04]
A
I spent $40,000 on shoes. What's the matter, Morty?
- [00:15]
B
Great gowns.
- [00:17]
A
Beautiful gowns.
- [00:18]
C
Fashion has changed. No, it hasn't.
- [00:24]
A
Hi, I'm Lauren Garrone.
- [00:25]
C
And I'm Chelsea Fairless.
- [00:27]
A
And welcome back to the Every Outfit podcast. And Chelsea, how was your ride over here today?
- [00:33]
C
It was chill. Why?
- [00:34]
A
Your drive was not Disrupted by the WeHo sinkhole on Sunset Boulevard?
- [00:41]
C
Well, I've been avoiding Sunset, so for
- [00:43]
A
those who don't live in la, although I do believe this made national news, we awoke last Thursday morning to the news that a century old water line had ruptured on Sunset Boulevard, sending 6,17 million gallons of water rushing down the streets of West Hollywood.
- [01:01]
C
So insane, so apocalyptic. And I just want to point out for those of you who don't live in Los Angeles, the place where this happened is like the worst place that this could happen. Like the worst intersection that this could happen in.
- [01:14]
A
For us.
- [01:15]
C
For us, this is the intersection where there's the Supreme Store in the former Tower Records building. There is Book Soup, one of our favorite independent bookstores. It is where Dialogue Cafe is where I get my breakfast burritos. It's a bad congested intersection to have
- [01:33]
A
a sinkhole of things that we deeply care about that are now closed indefinitely. Yeah, I've learned a lot about our water lines over the past week and I didn't know how many were over 100 plus years old. Evidently this stretch of sunset was due to be repaired because you know, it is a 110 plus year old waterline. But it wasn't due to be replaced until 20, 2031.
- [02:01]
C
Insane. What are we paying these taxes for? Seriously, I can't go to Book Soup, for fuck's sake.
- [02:08]
A
Think about the authors who had a Venzit Book Soup that now have to go to what? Skylight? No shade. Skylight's fabulous.
- [02:15]
C
Yeah, we like skylight too. How are the pipes doing around Skylight?
- [02:18]
A
I don't know, they're probably a hundred years old as well.
- [02:21]
C
If Skylight floods, where will our friends have their book events?
- [02:25]
A
Our homes, I guess. You know, there's been a lot of talk about how LA is not the same since COVID or man. Everyone who lives here now missed out. 2012 was like the real time to live in Los Angeles. A sentiment I've never quite understood, but I'm now starting to believe a little bit. I'm like, if Book Soup certainly closes, I'm like, let's call it a day. I don't know where else I would live, but let's wrap it up.
- [02:51]
C
You know what? The Book Soup in the LAX International terminal lives on.
- [02:57]
A
So there's water damage to Dialogue Cafe, which seems to have gotten the brunt of the damage. Supreme and Book Soup remain closed, mostly because people cannot access the stores. And I got scared because Book Soup, it was being reported that they're closing indefinitely, which seems to be not true. As soon as the street is open, they will be open again.
- [03:20]
C
Book Soup will be fine.
- [03:22]
A
However, I mean, as soon as this happened last Thursday, they were like, oh yeah, we're going to have this all repaired by Monday. Which everyone's like talking about the aging infrastructure, but now it's fixed. I'm like, yeah, no, no. The one part of the 110 plus year old water line got replaced. Like everything behind it and in front of it, still 110 years old. And I feel like not enough people are talking about that.
- [03:44]
C
What if Maxfield floods? What then?
- [03:47]
A
So I don't know if you saw the news this morning, they were hoping to have it open by today, but they did some water testing and there is a leak. And also, and I want you to brace yourself when I say this, there was a water leak in front of Candle Delirium this morning.
- [04:03]
C
I saw that. And if a hundred year old pipe fucks with Candle Delirium, I'm rioting.
- [04:08]
A
I just had a thought. You know, you see online all the time, it's like you can buy a town for $10,000. What if we open every outfit ville and we can like have our own version of Book Soup and Candle Delirium, all our favorite things.
- [04:23]
C
The dream.
- [04:24]
A
So this obviously is a slightly tragic time for Los Angeles. It's certainly a wake up call about our city's aging infrastructure. However high time for local news.
- [04:36]
C
Oh for sure. That's one thing that Los Angeles excels at.
- [04:40]
A
So as we mentioned, this corridor that is now closed is home to supreme, which took over the old Tower Records location. And every Thursday they have a drop. And the second thing I thought of was when I saw this sinkhole was like, oh, what about the supreme drop today? It didn't end up happening, but there were some people who showed up, including these two gentlemen who were interviewed by Fox Local News.
- [05:07]
B
It's a tragic day on Sunset Boulevard. Unfortunately, we had to park around like a mile, half a mile away and we walked here. All the surrounding streets are completely closed off. No way. Traffic is crazy. And we have, unfortunately we came from the ie the Inland Empire for the supreme job and we don't know what's happening? This is, like, a big event in supreme history. Summer, spring, 2026. And, like, we don't know what's going on.
- [05:33]
C
I'm just going to say this. These kids are posers, because if they were real streetwear freaks, they would know that there was no drop. That Thursday supreme does take time off between their spring drop and their fall drop. So the reason why there were two people at the store that day and not 200 is because there actually was no drop.
- [05:54]
A
Wow. You heard it here first on the Every Outfit podcast.
- [05:58]
C
Also, I'm annoyed I missed the Paris's burning drop, which was the only thing I cared about from the spring collection.
- [06:06]
A
Oh, no.
- [06:07]
C
I got the hat, but I failed to secure the T shirt and the hoodie just because I wasn't, like, thinking about it. Because usually, like, when supreme does collaborations that are a bit, like, fruity, shall we say, like a Leigh Bowery or a Divine, it's usually not the collab that the kids are, like, you know, knocking down the door to buy. So I didn't even think it would be an issue.
- [06:29]
A
And yet it was.
- [06:30]
C
It was.
- [06:31]
A
And you're not about to pay a high markup.
- [06:34]
C
I will buy the T shirt on Grailed, but it just, like, is dehumanizing to be a woman in her early 40s shopping on Grailed. You know, like, whenever I have to do it, usually because I'm buying tat, like a Christmas gift or something, whenever I have to do it, I feel weird about it.
- [06:51]
A
You're like a mom having to go into Hot Topic in the mall. You're like, why am I here? Yeah.
- [06:57]
C
It just feels strange and unnatural for
- [06:59]
A
me going Back to the WeHo sinkhole, as I call it. Can I play you my other favorite local news clip from all of this coverage? Because it's become my new vocal stimulus.
- [07:11]
C
Sure.
- [07:11]
A
So crazy.
- [07:12]
B
Oh, my God.
- [07:13]
A
It's like we're living in the revelations in the Bible.
- [07:17]
C
It does feel biblical. She's right. The earth swallowed up two people. They're fine. They survived. But they did fall into the sinkhole. Although I'm sure that, like, settlement from the city of West Hollywood would make it all worth it. So some people have all the luck.
- [07:33]
A
Well, the fascinating thing and the curious thing about Los Angeles is there's a city of Los Angeles, but within Los Angeles county, there are several micro neighborhoods and cities that have their own mayor. And so this happened on the border of, like, I think the Sunset Boulevard part is Los Angeles, but the water that went downhill, that's the city of West Hollywood. So we've gotten a lot of the Mayor of West Hollywood who I was previously unaware of.
- [08:02]
C
The Mayor of West Hollywood before that mayor used to live in my old apartment complex in West Hollywood.
- [08:09]
A
Excuse me now.
- [08:10]
C
Although I think he had to resign because he got canceled. I don't want to get into it.
- [08:15]
A
We don't have to. Let's move on to some happier Los Angeles news. If you've listened to our podcast, you know that we have spoken about, probably ad nauseam, about the closing of the Arc Light Theater, which was our go to theater.
- [08:31]
C
It also encompasses the Cinerama Dome, which is an architectural landmark in Los Angeles. This beautiful dome shaped theater.
- [08:40]
A
More importantly, what we really miss, I mean other than the caramel popcorn, are the bartenders. Yes, in particular one bartender, one otter
- [08:51]
C
whose name escapes me.
- [08:53]
A
But we know his favorite film was
- [08:54]
C
Orlando and we know that he made the best Moscow Mule I've ever had with the most scrumptious candied ginger as a garnish.
- [09:06]
D
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- [10:16]
A
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- [10:17]
D
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- [10:44]
A
So, good news. I feel like every six months we've reported, like, I hear it might be reopening. Oh, they resubmitted their liquor license. Maybe that means something. We finally have concrete news. Sony and Alamo Drafthouse will be reopening not only the Cinerama dome, but the 14 screen multiplex that was the Arc Light will now be the Alamo Drafthouse Hollywood. So I guess, Chelsea, we have to start going to the Alamo Drafthouse.
- [11:11]
C
I have mixed feelings about this. I hope that they lean into what the Arc Light was more than impose the Alamo Drafthouse isms on that theater.
- [11:24]
A
Yes, because the chatter I've heard recently about Alamo Drafthouse is that the whole thing. And there are several theaters like this. I mean, we've gone to Nighthawk, which has a similar. Like you can place orders with a waiter.
- [11:37]
C
Nighthawk is the. The upscale version of Alamo Drafthouse.
- [11:41]
A
But I guess people are mad because it's gone to a QR code system. Here's the thing. The beautiful thing about Arclight that is truly missing from most theater chains is that they wouldn't let you in if you were five minutes late. And I'm sure most of you are like, yeah, but there's 30 minutes of trailers. Who cares if I'm five minutes late? Nuh. The ArcLight had three trailers max.
- [12:03]
C
Right?
- [12:04]
A
So the idea of a waiter. I agree with you. Previously I'm like, I would do anything for this to reopen. But I'm like, I don't know if I can handle waiters handing chicken sliders and burgers in the middle of us watching an Isabelle Huert film.
- [12:19]
C
I'm fine with that. It's the fact that people order on their phones.
- [12:23]
D
Right.
- [12:23]
A
And Arclight was also a strict no cell phone theater.
- [12:27]
C
Yeah, I just don't like seeing people's phones. I obviously appreciate a movie theater that has a bar and serves food and stuff. But, like, be careful what you wish for. Like, ordering a margarita at an Alamo Drafthouse is like Russian Roulet.
- [12:42]
A
But I mean, we've been dealing with now years of the AMC McGuffin Bar.
- [12:48]
C
That's true. I don't know. I think the thing about Arc, like that was good is that it Had a separate standalone bar that was solid. Like, I like going to that bar. I once saw Amber heard FaceTiming Elon Musk at that bar. And, you know, I don't necessarily need the drink to be delivered to my seat. I can get it.
- [13:05]
A
My question is, are they bringing back the caramel corn? Because that's what made Arclight unique when it comes to concessions. Although I got to say, the Vista concessions, top notch.
- [13:16]
C
What makes that theater unique is the amount of celebrities that go there to see movies. Like, I've had some of my craziest sightings at the Arc Light.
- [13:25]
A
Yeah, I feel like I saw Charlize Theron on a date at the Arclight.
- [13:28]
C
I've seen Charlize at the Arclight. I randomly saw Steve O twice at the Arclight.
- [13:33]
A
That checks out. You used to live very close to Steve O. So you had many run ins with him.
- [13:38]
C
It's just a fascinating, legendary theater, and I really hope that the magic is still there.
- [13:43]
A
So because it has sat there just decaying for the last six years, they are going to restore it. Certainly the Cinerama Dome, which has been open since the 1960s, they are targeting a 2028 reopening. So for my 40th birthday, we can all go to the Arc Light.
- [14:04]
C
Perfect.
- [14:05]
A
So it's going to be another two years until it's open. But I did see a video. I'm gonna drive by it because I want to see it for myself. But starting last night, the lights of the Cinerama dome were lit up again for the first time in six years.
- [14:20]
C
Beautiful.
- [14:21]
A
Which I feel like is a good transition for us to talk about the amazing production designer Barbara Ling, who passed away as she was the production designer for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which features the lighting up of the Cinerama Dome in the film.
- [14:36]
C
Yes. And the production design she did on that movie was so amazing because she did transform Sunset Boulevard and made it look exactly how it looked in the
- [14:45]
A
late 60s and Hollywood Boulevard.
- [14:48]
C
This was a woman that I was totally unfamiliar with by name until I read her obituary. And I realized, like, she's the best production designer ever. She won an Oscar for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. But we are probably most excited about the fact that she did the production design for Less Than Zero and Batman
- [15:08]
A
Forever and Batman and Robin. You know, let's put some respect on the Uma Thurman Poison Ivy. But, yeah, it seems like for a period of time, she was Joel Schumacher's go to production designer because she also did Falling Down. I mean, A lot of great LA films. Less Than Zero, Falling down the Doors, which I know you have some feelings about.
- [15:29]
C
I respect the production design, though. I haven't seen the Doors in a really long time. But to me, like Batman Forever. Batman and Robin are so formative. Like what she did with Two Face in the Riddler's lair.
- [15:45]
A
Oh, yeah.
- [15:45]
C
Like their bifurcated lair. Incredible. That sort of imagery will be in my head for the rest of my life. And same with Less Than Zero. Frankly, I've been meaning to re watch that ahead of the shards.
- [15:56]
A
You know, I'm always down to rewatch Less Than Zero. That's usually I rewatch that film at Christmas because shockingly, that is technically Christmas film.
- [16:05]
C
Also, I looked at her IMDb. She has a really major IMDb photo. And she started her career as the lighting director for Peewee's Playhouse.
- [16:14]
A
That's right.
- [16:15]
D
Yeah.
- [16:16]
C
So major.
- [16:16]
A
She will be missed.
- [16:18]
C
Barbara Ling, you killed it.
- [16:20]
A
As always with this show, sometimes we have hard pivots, and I think this is a hard pivot. From Barbara Ling to us discussing the World cup halftime show, which we watched
- [16:31]
C
together at the Abbey. We went there for drag brunch. Instead, we watched the World cup, which was fine. I've actually watched a lot of the World cup games.
- [16:40]
A
Because your wife keeps bringing you to bars and forcing you to.
- [16:44]
C
Yes. So I've kind of gotten into it. So by the time the final game came, I was like. I felt like in it in a way that I don't usually feel in it with sports, you know, and it
- [16:54]
A
was interesting because a lot of people came to the Abbey for the drag brunch. And I think everyone, even the drag performers themselves, were surprised about, like, oh, okay, so everyone really seems to be into this World cup situation. Can we say how I think you predicted that Spain would be in the finals? Because when we were in Palm springs, we Spain 1.
- [17:18]
C
For the record, I don't know if you actually watched the game. Congrats to Spain.
- [17:22]
A
Yes, I watched an hour and a half for them to score exactly zero goals, and then one goal was scored. Still don't understand the sport, but good on you who love it. But we went to the outlet mall, of which there is a Carter's, which is a children's clothing store. And I was like, oh, this would be a great game. Like Tat and Chelsea, why don't you style an outfit for little baby Morty? And the only thing you deemed cute was the World Cup Spain jersey. This was back in May. You had no idea.
- [17:53]
C
Well, it was the best. One of the other options. It's hard to find a cool outfit in a store like that, but I think I succeeded.
- [18:01]
A
You absolutely did. It became relevant, and you had no idea. So I like to say that you're the one that made sure. Not the players, but you're the one that made sure that Spain got into the finals and won the World Cup.
- [18:14]
C
It was all me.
- [18:15]
A
Okay, let's get into the halftime show.
- [18:17]
C
Obviously, we were most excited to see
- [18:20]
A
Madonna, which, when I rewatched it so that we could talk about it on the show, I was like, I think Madonna got the worst placement. Like, I think she got the least screen time of all the performers.
- [18:33]
C
She got screen time, but no one that was actually in the stadium could see her because her entire performance was backstage.
- [18:42]
A
Essentially, I feel like BTS got to sing all of Dynamite and Madonna got like, 15 seconds. It's also very clear that Madonna, who has a new album out, was like, why don't I perform something from my new album? And they were like, how about music?
- [18:57]
C
I don't know. Maybe she knows that music is like a more unified, more popular song. Like, even though she has this very relevant album, she is also a legacy act. So I think music was a good choice for her. And she did sing a bit of Bring your Love or something in there.
- [19:16]
A
Danceteria.
- [19:17]
C
I don't remember which one.
- [19:19]
A
Also, I didn't see her on the Celebration tour, but in particular, it's a remix of music that has Disco Inferno in it, which is how she performed music during the Confessions tour. Right. It's like a very specific version of music.
- [19:34]
C
I thought it was cool, but I would have been so pissed if I was actually in the stadium because all those people saw was her step out onto the field and say, music makes the people come together once.
- [19:46]
A
I mean, presumably they're looking on screens watching her perform.
- [19:51]
C
Sure. But not that exciting if you're actually there. Also, I think the performance was pre recorded because, like, the jump between when she was in the car and when she walked out onto the field was like 2 seconds.
- [20:05]
A
100%. I think you are correct. But I was more distracted by the fact that it seems that Madonna opened for the Muppets.
- [20:15]
C
Okay. Yeah. Then Madonna stops singing music and the White Stripes Seven Nation army starts playing. Being played by the Muppets.
- [20:24]
A
Right. Jack White wasn't there. Instead it's Gustavo Dudamel, who is the former conductor of the LA Philharmonic, conducting the Muppets.
- [20:33]
C
And I was like, what the. And tat was like, this is a huge sports song, which I had no
- [20:40]
A
idea it is that I at least knew. I was just more shocked that Jack White wasn't there.
- [20:46]
C
Yeah.
- [20:46]
A
Then you had BTS singing Dynamite.
- [20:49]
C
Great. Although I associate that song with the Pandemic. Like when I hear it I feel like I should be like cloroxy my groceries or something. You know, I think it came out before, but I just remember BTS singing that song in so many like Pandemic award shows. You know, like they do it like on the top of a building or like whatever.
- [21:10]
A
I'm so outside of the K pop fandom that truly every time I hear bts, I do think it's people talking about behind the scenes footage.
- [21:22]
D
You want to hear something wild? Chell Plastic doesn't just disappear. It breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces that stick around in our environment.
- [21:31]
C
I know, it's terrifying. There are microplastics in the oceans, in our food, even our cleaning products. But thank God we use Blueland.
- [21:40]
D
At Blueland they believe cleaning shouldn't come
- [21:42]
A
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- [21:44]
D
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- [21:52]
C
And of course their color coordinated forever bottles and tablet forward approach is an exceptionally chic way to clean your house.
- [21:59]
D
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- [22:11]
C
Personally, I love their laundry tablets. They're proven to tackle tough stains. And also I don't have to lift like an ugly plastic jug. I just throw in one of Blueland's pre measured tablets and wash as usual.
- [22:24]
D
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- [22:37]
C
Make the switch today. Get 15% off your first order by going to blueland.com outfit. That's blueland.com outfit. So Justin Bieber also performed Justin Bieber
- [22:52]
A
who was intro by Jason Sudeikis as lasso character doing some kind of skit.
- [22:58]
C
Oh, that's what that was.
- [23:00]
A
That is what that was.
- [23:02]
C
Yeah, I was confused by that part.
- [23:04]
A
But see, I feel like Justin Bieber got to sing more of Hallelujah than Madonna got to sing music. I'm sure some Madonna fanatic has like done some infographic of how much time Madonna was on screen performing versus everyone else.
- [23:19]
C
Yeah, but Bieber was great. He Sang that Hallelujah song. Not like the Leonard Cohen one, like his. His Hallelujah song from one of those Swag albums.
- [23:31]
A
Everything. Hallelujah.
- [23:32]
C
He was great, gorgeous voice.
- [23:34]
A
And then, of course, how can you not have a World cup halftime show where Spain is in the finals and not have Shakira performing?
- [23:42]
C
She still got it. And it was nice to see this sort of dance component, which we also got from bts, but we didn't get from Justin Bieber or Madonna, really.
- [23:52]
A
And did you notice who performed last? It was technically Coldplay, but it was hard to see with all of the children singing.
- [24:01]
C
Wait, Coldplay was there? I thought it was just children singing. And then Kermit and Miss Piggy.
- [24:06]
A
No, no, no. I watched it back again and I'm like, that's Chris Martin. I was like, oh, okay. Yeah, of course Coldplay would be playing.
- [24:13]
C
Can we briefly talk about Miss Piggy's look?
- [24:16]
A
I wasn't planning on it, but I should have expected this.
- [24:19]
C
It's fine. She was worried, like, Like a soccer jersey, Like a net soccer jersey under an evening gown, which very Patricia Field type styling.
- [24:30]
A
How else did you expect Miss Piggy to be styled at a World cup event?
- [24:35]
C
But wow, Coldplay. Who knew?
- [24:37]
A
Jell. I rewatched the halftime show yesterday in preparation for the podcast, and I kept rewinding it. I'm like, is that Coldplay? Is that some band I just am unaware of? And I'm like, no, that's Chris Martin and his beaded bracelets.
- [24:51]
C
Yeah, he loves that shit. How that band got to be the biggest band in the world is one of life's greatest mysteries.
- [24:59]
A
I feel that way about Foo Fighters continued relevance as well, for sure. And also Red Hot Chili Peppers.
- [25:08]
C
Yeah, I wouldn't think that Red Hot Chili Peppers would still be so big now. Or, like, even, like, Green Day. Like, I saw some poster for Green Day and the Smashing Pumpkins were opening for Green Day, and I was like, in what world does that make sense? I just think of those as being bands on the same level.
- [25:25]
A
It was that goddamn American Idiot album. Like, a whole group of Gen Z preteens became fans of them. And now they're adults.
- [25:35]
C
And also, like, older people, like boomers that hadn't been Green Day fans. I feel like that album converted a lot of them too. Remember, there was a whole Broadway musical.
- [25:46]
A
There was. And probably what you saw is that they were touring American Idiot, because I think it's the 20th anniversary, so that's probably what Smashing Pumpkins were opening for.
- [25:56]
D
So wild.
- [25:57]
A
So I Kind of feel like this episode is a bit of a summer pop culture culture catch up. Because we're going to talk about some things that have been popular this summer that we're just getting around to watch and then other things that are newer that we're going to discuss. I suppose I owe you an apology. I don't know. I was accosted by you at lunch last week and you were like, how dare you not tell me about Widow's Bay. I'm like, we talked about it on the pod, babe.
- [26:23]
C
Okay, but only after it got like night 19 Emmy nominations.
- [26:26]
A
There was a hotline question. To be fair, I had just finished it and I had told you that I think you would like it. I wasn't sure if you would be into the humor. I knew making fun of horror tropes you would enjoy.
- [26:38]
C
I love the humor. Who could have a bad word to say about this show? It's so good.
- [26:43]
A
Of course, we love the breakout character, Patricia.
- [26:47]
C
Yes. Well, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the show, basically Matthew Rhys plays this long suffering mayor of a small New England town, an island called Widow's Bay. And he has this mission to make it the next Martha's Vineyard, which he succeeds at because a New York Times article comes out and all these tourists start coming to the town. But then he realizes that it's haunted.
- [27:12]
A
Yeah, it's Jaws, but with supernatural spirits.
- [27:15]
C
And every episode is him grappling with a different kind of haunting.
- [27:19]
A
Yeah, that is what was so fun about the show for me. And when we were initially talking about it, it gave me the feeling I had when I used to watch Buffy as a kid. Because I think as things have pivoted towards streaming, it is about these season long arcs where with network television, you used to have Episode of the Weeks, it was more what's called episodic, where you could just drop in for an episode, not know what's going on. Most sitcoms are like this, right? Obviously there is an overarching storyline for the season, but it is very like Monster of the Week each episode.
- [27:57]
C
Yeah. And episode four, the one where Patricia throws a party. Incredible. Because this episode specifically is referencing horror stuff that we love. Carrie, clearly a big influence, but also like the pagan horror movies like the Wicker man and Midsommar and stuff like that.
- [28:18]
A
I also love this trope now that you've seen the show where there was a Michael Myers esque serial killer and they feel that. And Patricia is a woman in her 40s. I mean, she's like our age. The Town's women of her age don't like her because they think she lied about surviving the Michael Myers attack.
- [28:38]
C
So good. Also, this show does such a good job of conveying what. What being in a small town is like, where everyone does know each other and everyone has known each other for 10,000 years. Like, it gives me the sort of warm, fuzzy feeling that I also got from watching Schitt's Creek or like a somebody somewhere where you're just like in this contained space with these very like, eccentric people.
- [29:03]
A
Katie Dippold, who created the show, is using these tropes that we mostly associate with very grounded kind of coming of age stories of. Of, you know, the small town. I just want my kid to get out of this small town and go to the city and make a name for himself. And it's imbued with these horror concepts where it's like he can't because the spirit won't let his son leave the town.
- [29:26]
C
The Sea Hag episode also so good. They took a really big swing with a flashback episode.
- [29:33]
A
Yes. With Hamish Linkletter as the originator of the town. The town, Widows Bay, is a fictional town somewhere in Massachusetts, you assume. But it was shot where my cousins grew up in Manchester by the sea. And a town called Rockport, which I was explaining to you is a dry town. For those who don't know, there are towns.
- [29:56]
C
Horrible.
- [29:57]
A
Even though there's no longer prohibition. Sometimes there are towns in different states who have elected to be a dry town. And Rockport is one of them. So that means no liquor stores. You can't order wine in restaurants. But if you go like just over to the next town, you can drink. We should, now that you've seen the show, shout out. Dale Dickey, who plays Rosemary, who has the scene stealing moment in, I think the penultimate episode where she's explaining the lineage of the original mayor all the way down. And she's like, like, dead baby, dead baby lesbian. Patricia's like, I don't like the way you're saying that.
- [30:39]
C
And I'm excited for season two because I want all of these characters to have their own very special episode. We didn't get one with Jeff Hiller's character this season, but hopefully in season
- [30:49]
A
two, the great Steven Root. Just wonderful casting all around.
- [30:53]
C
He's major. He's so good. Today's episode is brought to you by Tachytry. They make it easy to see a licensed psychiatrist online who takes your insurance and just a few days talk.
- [31:05]
D
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A
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D
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- [31:31]
C
I'm an insomniac, so I should probably look into psychiatry.
- [31:34]
D
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D
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- [32:02]
C
That's great. How do I get started?
- [32:03]
D
Well, Chelsea, it's easy.
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A
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D
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A
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D
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A
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D
you're actually making progress over time.
- [32:21]
C
Head to takiatry.com outfit to complete the short assessment and get matched with an in network psychiatrist in just a few minutes. That's tachiatry.com/outfit to get matched in minutes.
- [32:36]
A
The one thing that I don't exactly enjoy about the show, and I feel like this is a great transition into the next TV show we're going to talk about. Obviously by the end we understand Matthew Reese's son has a consequential role in the overarching story of Widow's Bay. But it's like with these shows with people like Gen X people or Elder Millennial, I'm like, I don't need a storyline with the kid. I don't care that he doesn't feel like he fits in and is getting into trouble.
- [33:04]
C
Oh, I like the kid. I like the father son plotline. I think the kid's great and I like that he's, you know, a bit rebellious and he's one of the many people that's like constantly fucking over the mayor, his father. Yes.
- [33:19]
A
Well, this brings me to a new show that we watch five star Weekends, which I was, it was sold to me, I assumed by the poster art of Jennifer Garner and Chloe Sevigny and Darcy Cardin and Gemma Chan. And Regina hall of like, oh, this is like a now and then esque show about a group of, I don't know, childhood girlfriends or college friends. And they've come back together. No, instead, this is a nightmare blunt rotation of a friend curation. These are. Jennifer Garner's husband dies. It happens in the first three minutes of the show. Mysteriously, he dies. And to get herself back on track, she's decided to visit their home in Nantucket and invites friends who don't really know each other but are from different parts of her life and also make content as she is a late in life food influencer.
- [34:15]
C
Right. This show is so wild because it's like it can't figure out if it's wine country or if it's Big Little
- [34:23]
A
lies, you know, it's clearly based on a book. I mean, it is based on a book.
- [34:28]
C
Yes, by Ellen Hilderbrand, who also wrote the Perfect Couple, the source material for
- [34:34]
A
the Nicole Kidman Show.
- [34:36]
C
The Nicole Kidman show, also set in Nantucket. All of her books are like romance and mystery in Nantucket.
- [34:45]
A
Oh, that explains a lot.
- [34:48]
C
Yeah, she's like a beach read type novelist that a lot of women are obsessed with. With basic women. It's part of basic culture, which we
- [34:56]
A
are allies of basic culture. We even at times participate in basic culture. But bringing.
- [35:01]
C
We're participating in it right now.
- [35:04]
A
But bringing this book to the television screen, I'm sure in book form, I imagine it has a very similar structure to the TV show. But the idea that this is not even a long weekend, it's just a straight up weekend that is stretched out into eight episodes. I was like, oh, no.
- [35:22]
C
I got into it though. I wouldn't say that this is a great show. But did I enjoy watching it? Absolutely.
- [35:30]
A
Well, this show should be for me because I love the actor Timothy Oliphant, who was in a movie called Catch and Release with Jennifer Garner where Jennifer Garner's fiance dies and Timothy Oliphant was his friend who knew that the fiance was cheating on Jennifer Garner. Interesting overlaps, but like, I should be so pumped about this reunion. And I'm like, I frankly find Darcy Cardin's storyline the most compelling.
- [35:57]
C
Oh, for sure.
- [35:58]
A
Who is Jennifer Garner's friend? So they're all friends from different parts of her life. Some know each other. Like Regina hall is her college best friend. Chloe Sevigny is her childhood best friend who Chloe Sevigny's mother basically raised Jennifer Garner and Chloe Sevigny and Regina hall have some beef. Darcy Cardin is Jennifer Garner's. Friend because they have kids the same age.
- [36:22]
C
And Gemma Chan is the new friend who is estan.
- [36:26]
A
Jennifer Garner has so few friends that she decides to invite her Internet fan to her home in Nantucket.
- [36:35]
C
Okay, I can't handle you being mean to Jennifer Garner's character, because that's what this whole show is about. All of her friends treat her like shit. They constantly make fun of her, like, influencer shit, even though she doesn't even do anything. She just, like, makes food for them to eat. You know what I mean? She's not like a content monster, actually.
- [36:56]
A
I mean, we've seen content monsters in the wild, and Jennifer Garner is not that. You are so correct. She's making elaborate pastries and they all can't be bothered to eat it because they have monster hangovers. Yeah.
- [37:09]
C
And they all have all of their own drama and bullshit that they're bringing to her doorstep.
- [37:15]
A
Look, it is always good to see Chloe 70 in a television series. It is also especially great to see her in a limited series that is not a ripped from the headlines true crime adaptation.
- [37:28]
C
Totally. Although it's deeply bizarre to see Chloe 70 in a show like this, we don't see her in comedies all that often to begin with, especially mainstream comedies like this. Like, she had to deliver a line that was like a joke about Funyuns. And I was like, oh, my God,
- [37:46]
A
that's what it was. Jennifer Garner makes beautiful pastries and frittatas. And Chloe Sevigny is like, where are the Funyuns?
- [37:54]
C
Some of the dialogue in this show, like, do you remember when Regina hall and Jennifer Garner was shopping? And she's like, what do you think about these shoes? And Jennifer Garner's like, don't you already have them? And she's like, oh, right, I do. I forgot. And I'm like, who's writing this? Do they think women actually talk like this? There was also, like, Chloe Sevy had, like, an insane line of dialogue. Dialogue where she said that, like, grudges were her retinol or something. And I was like, girl, I mean,
- [38:23]
A
you say that, but I feel like the last time I was in Target, I saw a shirt that said that. So at the top of this, I was referencing how when there are shows about certainly women of a certain age, I don't need daughter storylines. Her daughter also shows up and there's just a through line of her in almost every episode. And I get it. She's lost her father. Which, before the fuck ads start writing emails to us, is Josh Hamilton, who played the Chicago Lawyer who had phone sex with Miranda in season three.
- [38:58]
C
Thank you.
- [38:58]
A
He's also the dad in eighth grade.
- [39:00]
C
Right. Loved him in that.
- [39:02]
A
He was also in House of. Yes.
- [39:04]
C
So you are right that Darcy Cardin is the best character. She's the funniest, she's the chillest, she's the most interesting.
- [39:11]
A
Well, she has the best arc, which is like she's married to a shitty husband who completely controls her and overrides her. And then she finds her voice by the end.
- [39:21]
C
Yeah. But also, I couldn't help but notice that she's now typecast as a lesbian because her and Roberta Calindres, who plays her love interest in Five Star Weekend, both also played lesbians in the League of Their Own reboot series. Like Darcy Cardin was Abby Jacobson's love interest on that show.
- [39:41]
A
Now that's interesting. So she just has lesbian face is what you're saying?
- [39:45]
C
I guess. Yes.
- [39:46]
A
I'm not done talking about the daughter story lines because I want to bring up that the daughters in these series, Jennifer Garner's daughter and Chloe Seven's daughter, are played by Nepo babies. I don't know if you clock this.
- [39:59]
C
Whose babies?
- [40:00]
A
So Jennifer Garner's daughter in the series, Caroline Shaw, is played by Harlow Jane, who is the daughter of Patricia Arquette and Thomas Jane.
- [40:10]
C
Okay.
- [40:11]
A
Okay, cool. And Chloe 7's daughter is played by Wes Ducov, the daughter of Tay Leoni and David Duchovny.
- [40:18]
C
Wow.
- [40:19]
A
See, Harlow Jane can sort of hide behind it a little bit better. But Wes Dey, you're not like, whose daughter could she be?
- [40:25]
C
This is perfect for 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon because remember how Chloe 70, was in that Patricia Arquette Gypsy Rose Blanchard movie?
- [40:34]
A
Yes, the limited series, of course. So I think this is. Is maybe not a limited series. I will be honest. I have one episode left. I'm like a fourth of the way through the last episode, which is Monday Morning Departures.
- [40:46]
C
Did you see her have her mental breakdown yet?
- [40:49]
A
Oh, yeah. Okay, well, did she have another one other than the broom in the.
- [40:53]
C
No, no, just the broom one. But I found that to be quite funny and satisfying.
- [40:58]
D
Yeah.
- [40:58]
B
Yeah.
- [40:59]
C
I think there will be another season. It seems like a lot of people are watching this show. Why not?
- [41:03]
A
Not at any part in watching this series, did you ever go like, oh, this is kind of what a Hamptons episode would have been like, where Carrie grieving the loss of Big, bringing all of her girlfriends old and new together might have been like?
- [41:18]
C
Yeah, I did think about and just like that at times when I was Watching this,
- [41:24]
A
I am so glad we
- [41:25]
D
have Warby Parker as a sponsor of this podcast. I started wearing Warby Parker glasses exclusively about a decade ago and I have never looked back. I actually got two new pairs, the Butler Eyeglasses in black and the Franny sunglasses. Before Warby Parker, shopping for glasses was a nightmare. There were the unstylish options at my eye doctor's office or it was spending an entire paycheck for designer glasses at some fancy eyeglass place that was always in a strip mall for some reason. And then Warby Parker came along. Nothing comes close to them on quality, price, selection and customer service. Their prescription glasses start at $95 so you can actually get get quality and stylish frames at an affordable price. Another struggle for me finding glasses that actually fit my face. What I love about Warby Parker is their virtual try on option which I have used in the past but this time I went in store to try on in person. Warby Parker has over 300 retail stores or hey, you can go online. They have everything you need for happier eyes. That includes contacts, online eye exams and sunglasses. Warby Parker is covered by major eye insurance plans and they make it incredibly
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D
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- [42:57]
A
Okay, shall we get into some movies? Sure. Well, we watched a documentary which bless, I know a lot of you guys have been asking us to discuss the model Cult docu series on hbo. I've watched it. I don't think Chelsea has. Let me just say, bring back documentaries. Not everything needs to be a three part docu series.
- [43:19]
C
No.
- [43:20]
A
However, Fabio plays a consequential role in that docu series in a way I was never I could have never expected.
- [43:27]
C
See, now I'm in.
- [43:28]
D
Now I'm like, why is there not
- [43:30]
A
a documentary about Fabio?
- [43:31]
C
There should be because I still think about that photo of him like when a bird flew into his face while he was on some sort of roller coaster. Constantly. Yeah, it's one of the all time great celebrity photos.
- [43:43]
A
Yeah. Because I so associated him as a harlequin model. But I guess he was also a very successful male model. The whole thing about the documentary. If you've seen the trailer, if you've seen the series is that one of the biggest male models of the 80s 90s, Hoyd Richards was in this cult. And a contemporary of his. Was Fabio in the cult or in
- [44:05]
C
the world of male modeling?
- [44:07]
A
In the world of male modeling. Because when the guy finally gets out of the cult, he stays with Fabio who, like, helps him deprogram.
- [44:16]
C
I've been meaning to watch it. It seems very up my alley.
- [44:19]
A
Yeah, but not everything needs to be three hours. There's certainly not three hours of story with model cult. Sorry. This is clearly a format that has been delivered down from different streaming networks. But it was so lovely to watch this Robin Bird documentary, Bang my box. And it is a fast hour and 20 minutes.
- [44:39]
C
Yeah.
- [44:39]
A
Although it did leave me with a lot of questions.
- [44:42]
C
Totally. It's produced by Sarah Jessica Parker also. Guys, I know what you're thinking. No, we have not received the jalapeno wine yet.
- [44:50]
A
A lovely representative from Enviva Wine heard us and they are sending it. It's actually supposed to be here tomorrow. Okay. Yes, soon we will drink the jalapeno wine on air. I'll make sure to get some grapefruit so we can garnish it.
- [45:06]
C
So Robin Byrd, if you aren't familiar, hosted a cable access TV show in New York from the late 70s to the late 90s where she mostly had like random sex workers on. There was a lot of go, go dancing. She took live calls on the show. It was a very loose, fun time
- [45:28]
A
capsule of a show that became a cult show and people even like us. It was corrected, I think on our last hotline episode. I'm like, I've seen the Robin Bird show. I think it had a feed in Los Angeles and I was up at a sleepover. But some fuck, it was like, that's impossible. So I don't know. I saw a differ Robin Byrd knockoff public access show. But the lore of it got to people like Chelsea and I, who evidently have never seen the show before.
- [45:55]
C
Well, I had seen the Sherry Oteri SNL sketch about Robin Byrd before I saw the actual show. I didn't realize it was based on something real until I moved to New York.
- [46:05]
A
Right. And so the documentary follows Robyn in her 69th year of life. The documentary spans a year from her 69th birthday to her 70th birthday, which we learned in the documentary. She loves suspended Serendipity 3, but it goes over her background, where she was born, how she came to New York, how she got into porn, how she ended up having this public access show.
- [46:31]
C
Yes. She had previously Briefly been a porn star. She was in Debbie Does Dallas. She wasn't Debbie, but she was in that film.
- [46:39]
A
She was a teacher.
- [46:40]
C
In the documentary, there's this really funny part where she basically talks about how she started to go to swingers clubs just for fun. And she would be all of these porn stars at these swingers clubs. And they were finally like, you should just do porn. And she was like, okay. And that's how she fell into it. But then the Robin Bird show took off and she actually managed to monetize this show by the grace of God
- [47:04]
A
through the success of 900 numbers.
- [47:08]
C
Yeah.
- [47:08]
A
Which would charge people $5aminute to talk to someone. Not Robin directly.
- [47:15]
C
Yeah. But she'd advertise these hotlines during the show and in the papers and stuff. And she had gay ones, trans ones. She was servicing everybody, so to speak.
- [47:26]
A
What I don't think I had a grasp of was how much of a gay icon she was and an ally to the gay community. Certainly at the beginning and in the throes of the AIDS crisis.
- [47:38]
C
Yes. She was a very big proponent of safe sex practices. Excuse me, safer sex practices. I've been told that no sex is actually safe.
- [47:47]
A
Oh, okay.
- [47:49]
C
But there's this really amazing part in the documentary where they show this clip of Robin talking, like back in what I assume to be the, you know, late 80s or early 90s. And she's basically like, I saw three of you guys, which is fine, you can. But none of you were wearing condoms, which means that my message isn't getting through to some of you. She's just like screaming at random gay guys, like through her cable access television show.
- [48:16]
A
I mean, in her defense, we learn in the documentary that iconic bar Julius's would just have the Robin Bird show on whenever it was on.
- [48:25]
C
There were also a lot of great New York characters that popped up on that show intermittently. We saw footage of Annie Sprinkle, Sandra Bernhard, Michael Musto, who looked like he was 12 years old.
- [48:38]
A
Yeah.
- [48:38]
C
In that clip that they showed.
- [48:40]
A
And I thought an interesting thing that they did with the documentary is there are no talking heads. Like, it doesn't cut to Sandra Bernhardt talking about her experience with Robin Byrd. It seems that Sandra Bernhardt was interviewed, but it's just played over voiceover over archival footage, which was refreshing.
- [49:01]
C
Yeah. It was just visually so interesting to watch because of the way that show looked and. And it was really cool and inspiring because Robin Byrd, previously to getting into porn and stuff, had wanted to be an art director. She had gone to SVA and she starred in and produced this show, really, for decades. For decades, yeah.
- [49:23]
D
And the.
- [49:24]
A
The main thrust of the documentary is her longtime lover, husband, Shelley, has dementia. And I mean, there's a lot of, like, unanswered things. They joke about being hoarders, but, like, I mean, clearly this could be a lost episode of Hoarders. The room that she's interviewed in and is showing all of her archive tape. She has a tape of every episode of the Robin Bird Show. I mean, it's never addressed that. There's just clothing stacked to the ceiling.
- [49:55]
C
Yeah.
- [49:55]
D
But the big question of the documentary
- [49:57]
A
is, was the Robin Bird show important? She calls the tapes her babies. What do I do with this essentially ephemera. And then by the end of it, she learns that she can have it archived and it could be donated to a museum.
- [50:11]
C
But, like, which museum?
- [50:12]
A
I know.
- [50:13]
C
Where was that guy from?
- [50:14]
A
There's a lot of unanswerable questions because it goes through the normal documentary format where we learn where she came from. The beginning of the show, they never discuss the end of the Robin Byrne show, which ended in 1998, and kind of what she did afterwards, it kind of dovetails into the. Are we going to archive these tapes? Wait, they keep the tapes then? I don't want to archive them. Oh, okay, we're going to archive it.
- [50:40]
C
If they're not going to the Library of Congress, I feel like they should go to the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, which did an incredible exhibition about cable access television years ago, which I think was like, the first of its kind.
- [50:53]
A
Well, it's funny because when she's talking to her husband at one point, she's
- [50:57]
D
like, these could be at Harvard. And like, I'm.
- [50:59]
A
I'm like, what? I was expecting a title card at the end of, like. The archive of the Robin Bird show was donated to someone.
- [51:08]
C
Tell us if you know.
- [51:10]
A
She also maintains a residence in the Upper east side, as well as Fire island, where she met her husband.
- [51:17]
C
That house goals.
- [51:19]
A
Well, I also have a lot of questions about that because she's like, oh, I got a jumbo loan, and then I bought this house in Fire Island. And I'm like, is that loan paid off? Like, are you upside down on the loan? Like, what's going on? Are you guys living on Social Security? Are you living on a fixed income?
- [51:34]
C
She said they were living on a fixed income. I think she retired at a certain point from the phone sex hotline stuff.
- [51:40]
A
Well, yeah, once the Internet took over, there wasn't really a use for 900 lines.
- [51:45]
C
Totally. And you know, as she said, she started aging and didn't want to be in a bikini on TV all the time.
- [51:52]
A
Which. Fair, fair enough. Robin Bird is also the type of female celebrity or personality that we don't have anymore. I mean, obviously anyone can get a certain amount of fame, but like, to me, she falls into the Angeline category of like this sort of underground icon. This, like those who know, know totally.
- [52:15]
C
But in a weird way, she also set the stage for OnlyFans and in the case of Angeline, being an influencer.
- [52:23]
A
And I do admire the documentary's restraint in its sort of sole focus because I do feel like a lot of recent documentari documentaries have gone above and beyond to connect something from the past to something that's currently happening. For example, that Woodstock 993 part documentary went out of their way to connect Limp Bizkit performing to like the rise of maga. And I was like, we don't need this. We don't need to do this. Just tell me why everyone's holding candles. And that's ultimately why a big fire was set. Don't try to connect that to like the Red Hot Chili Peppers plateau as people set the fairgrounds on fire to January 6th.
- [53:04]
C
Well, speaks to the pervasiveness of the patriarchy, I suppose.
- [53:09]
A
Anyway, love this documentary. Wasn't expecting Sarah Jessica Parker's production company to be the minds behind this, but more stuff like this pretty matches.
- [53:18]
C
Totally. Robin was a television pioneer that did set the stage for shows like Sex and the City to exist and did advance the conversation around sexuality, at least on a local level in New York. New York, which, you know, if you have a small show like that that's watched by a lot of influential people, which it was. It can have a huge impact.
- [53:38]
A
Which I imagine the entry point for Sarah Jessica Parker is the fact that she is a longtime New Yorker and probably watched the Robin Bird show.
- [53:48]
C
But I love that Robin Bird is so not media trained. She gave some quote to, like someone. I think it was on a podcast or something where she was like, I always thought that Sarah Jessica Parker hated me because we had a really like, awkward interaction on island like 10,000 years ago. So I never in a million years thought she would want to produce my movie.
- [54:08]
A
Love her.
- [54:09]
C
I'm like, poor sjp. Probably just had like an awkward night or something.
- [54:14]
A
I mean, probably Robin Bird was naked, like, and crazy. Fully naked on the beach, yelling at people. Sarah Jessica Parker, you have a career because of me.
- [54:27]
C
She, like runs away into Andy Cohen's like Fire Island House.
- [54:33]
A
Yeah. I'm just imagining a naked robin bird chasing after a clothes Sarah Jessica Parker.
- [54:40]
C
All right, next movie on the agenda. I love Boosters, which I think we both saw over a month ago, but it didn't really fit into one of our episodes until today.
- [54:50]
A
No. But I will say since I've seen the film, the score has been just playing in my head that.
- [54:56]
C
Ha ha ha.
- [54:59]
A
Like, if you're looking at me and I'm not speaking, I'm just sort of looking in the distance. Just understand that that's what's playing in my head.
- [55:06]
C
The score was great. And guys, if you've ever wished that set it off was more like Scooby Doo, this is the movie for you.
- [55:16]
A
And I think a lot of people thought that that was what the movie was going to be because when it first came out, we both missed it in theater. Theaters. I saw a lot of tweets of people walking out of this film because I think they were like, oh, it's a fun. Keke Palmer steals clothes movie. And, you know, weren't expecting, I don't know, Lakeith Stanfield to be a scorpion looking demon and that there's like a teleportation device that is based around Marxist beliefs. There's a lot of ideas going on in this film. Film.
- [55:51]
C
Oh, for sure. It has a very overt socialist agenda. It is about wealth inequality and race and class and exploitation. And that's shown through this sort of group of boosters that are just constantly robbing clothing stores and their fraught relationship with Demi Moore.
- [56:12]
A
Yes. In particular, they are robbing metro designers, which is the brand that Demi Moore runs. A, as we learn in backstory, an MIT Studio 54 Wunderkin designer who now works out of Oakland, California. Which everything else that we see in the film I could get my head around. But obviously Boots Riley lives in Oakland. All of his films are set in Oakland. I understand why it's set in Oakland, but I'm like, huh, the fashion epicenter of the world is Oakland.
- [56:46]
C
I love it. And I loved Demi Moore and especially her office in this movie. I think the look of the movie speaks to me more than anything because it has this like, very insane, sort of pop, psychedelic, 60s inspired look to it. It's kind of like halfway between like an early 2000s target commercial and like the Holy Mountain.
- [57:10]
A
Well, the whole idea is that it seems that not just every metro designer store, but almost weekly the store is changing around one central color. Yes.
- [57:22]
C
Which gives it that Target commercial quality.
- [57:24]
A
And the wealth inequality I think is perfectly shown in the fact that the people working in the store, specifically Issa Gonzalez, when she gets her paycheck, it's like she actually owes Metro designers money. Money because she has to wear the fashions and that's deducted from her paycheck.
- [57:43]
C
Yes, I liked the fake stores a lot. Where it lost me was when it became really, really sci fi.
- [57:50]
A
We both saw Sorry to Bother your together in theaters and I think we forgot how weird that film ends up being. Because when I think about it like it's very much a Boots Riley film. Dare I say it might be the most Boots Riley has ever. Boots Riley.
- [58:07]
C
It is like watching a feature length
- [58:09]
A
music video with some interesting ideas that he. I think he is successful putting these very heady ideas about income equality and his own feelings about, I mean socialism, almost communism into the film. I do find the more interesting storyline is the Poppy Lou storyline that takes place in the factory in China that makes all of the Metro designer clothing.
- [58:36]
C
Right.
- [58:37]
A
And also a very important thing in clothing production that is very toxic, which is the shaving of denim which you see happening in the background and is one of the things that the workers are striking so that they don't have to do that.
- [58:52]
C
The costumes also were quite good by Shirley Kurata who also did everything everywhere all at once.
- [58:59]
A
Yes. I mean it must have been a very fun film to do the production design of and the costumes of.
- [59:04]
C
Cuz no one like does anything this extreme ever. No, visually and you know, it's not just that it's sort of bold and graphic. It's really like absurd in a lot of ways. The clothes and the production design like Demi Moore's studio is like permanently on a 45 degree angle. Unexplained. We don't know why. No, we don't care.
- [59:26]
A
Demi Moore, I loved in this film doing something very different. She often does. Not to your point about Chloe 17, not really doing comedy. I don't think Demi Moore does a lot of comedy. Not that I can think of. Maybe at the beginning of her career. But I mean obviously she's played very arch characters like her villain character in Charlie's Angels. But she often looks like Demi Moore. Her hair has always been the same. That long hair I love. I assume it's a wig.
- [59:55]
C
Yeah.
- [59:56]
A
But like the blonde hair with the
- [59:58]
C
jet black roots in the suits and stuff. It was a very good look for an evil fashion designer.
- [60:05]
A
I did think given Boots Riley's own socialist beliefs that the workers would end up taking over the Company, but they don't. Their terms are just met and they make slightly more money. I was like, oh, oh, okay. So Demi Moore still runs the company. So that was a little bit of a letdown.
- [60:27]
C
Yeah, for me it fell apart at the end or in the final third of the movie. I think I prefer when it was a bit more grounded. When it was just about shoplifting.
- [60:37]
A
Yes. And I think a lot of people sort of lost their minds. The weirder and weirder the film got. Like, this film is something I call a frequency film. I guess all movies are frequency films. But like you really have to be dialed into this frequency totally to enjoy it. It. But yeah, the end starts to feel like Zoolander. Anytime there's like a darkened warehouse with a fashion show, it just makes me feel like Zoolander totally.
- [61:01]
C
Although I will say the set of the fake fashion show was inventive in the scheme of fake fashion shows in movies.
- [61:09]
A
Absolutely. So is this an every outfit recommends I would recommend.
- [61:13]
C
But you have to be okay with the absurdity of it all, which I think a lot of people would be like, this is just too much for me.
- [61:21]
A
And it is absurd in different ways. Like even the absurdity in materials. Like at one point there's just like clay animation.
- [61:32]
C
Yeah. It's nice to see someone do something with seemingly no constraints.
- [61:36]
A
As I said, I think it's the most Boots Riley has ever. Boots Riley Neon put out this film. And I just. I wonder what the notes call was when he delivered the script. Because it really feels like a film where it's like, here's $20 million. Like. Like come back when it's finished.
- [61:51]
C
Yeah. Also very like heavily Michelle Gondry inspired. Yeah.
- [61:57]
A
Like the scene where Kiki Palmer's trying to run away.
- [62:00]
C
Like all of it. It just reminds me of that sort of pop absurdist kind of thing.
- [62:05]
A
So that was a film that we missed in theaters. But now we're going to talk about Maddie's Secret, which is out in theaters, although I think it has a pretty limited run. But if it is playing in a theater near you, I think think this is a big recommend.
- [62:19]
C
Oh, for sure. This is a new movie written and directed by John early, who we love. He plays a woman who is an on camera personality and a recipe developer at a Bon Appetit type company.
- [62:34]
A
Gourmet Me.
- [62:35]
C
Gourmet Bee. But she struggles with a dark secret, which is that she is bulimic.
- [62:41]
A
So I went into Maddie's Secret knowing very little about it because I didn't need to know more than John early plays a woman named Maddie and he wrote and directed the film. As I was heading into the film, you were like, oh, it's about bulimia. And I was like, oh, interesting.
- [62:58]
C
Yes. It's clearly inspired by Lifetime movies, after school specials, TV movies about bulimic women. There's a famous one called Kate's Secret, which I've never seen, but I assume that that's where the name comes from. I have of course, seen the Calista Flockhart one that we have probably referenced many times where she vomits into Tupperware.
- [63:20]
A
Yes. We'll get into the inspirations in a little bit, but just to give an overview of the plot, Maddie is a dishwasher, as you said, at this faux Bon Appetit web magazine. And she becomes on camera talent and her success reawakens her eating disorder. And then the second half of the film is her in recovery, which was not what I was expecting going into this movie because I. I wrote to you after I got out of it because I saw it before you. I'm like, oh, this film is for sickos who've seen Lauren Greenfeld's thin and unhealthily romanticized girl Interrupted.
- [63:58]
C
Totally. The Girl Interrupted influence was very clear because there was kind of like a mean girl click within the sort of eating disorder recovery program that was very like the Angelina Jolie character.
- [64:12]
A
And it reawakened me. I mean, I don't think I've seen Lauren Greenfeld's documentary thin in 15 years.
- [64:21]
D
Maybe.
- [64:21]
C
Yeah, I mean, it's taunts me to this day.
- [64:25]
A
I know. I feel terrible to be like, there's kind of like Easter eggs from the documentary Thin in Maddie's Secret. But it's like if you've seen it, you can't unsee it. Which is giving you a cupcake on your birthday. That's from the documentary Thin, the Talking Stick. But to me, and this is just in the background of a scene, the drawing of an outline of yourself.
- [64:46]
C
I can't.
- [64:47]
A
Which is to me the most memorable scene from the documentary Thin, where they first make the girls draw a life size outline of what they think they look like and then they put them in that and then outline them. And if you're like, Lauren, why did you spoil that for Maddie's Secret? They don't do a full on recreation of that. It's just on the wall as art direction.
- [65:09]
C
Yeah, you just see like these crude drawings in the background in incredible detail.
- [65:14]
A
There is also a fake version of the bear called the boar. And a lot of this film. Certainly a runner of this movie is satirizing content creation culture. Food influencers. Connor o' Malley plays the boss, specifically,
- [65:31]
C
like millennial food influencer culture. Like the multiple Fly by James references in this movie. Perfect.
- [65:40]
A
We talked about this when we were talking about Beef Season two. But it's really exciting because I feel like for so long media that we were watching particularly films were kind of devoid of referencing the contemporary culture. I don't know if that's just the nature of how long it takes movies to go from script to screen, but it is so exciting to see things that we use in our daily lives like pop up in a film like Fly by Jizz.
- [66:07]
C
Totally. John's performance I feel like we should get into because he is playing this like very naive, kind of very good natured character with like total seriousness in a way that did remind me a lot of Elizabeth Berkeley's performance in Showgirls,
- [66:28]
A
which John early famously, or I guess famously to us, did a recreation of the thrusted scene with whole Escola and Caperland.
- [66:37]
C
Yeah, that was incredible. And that scene also we see referenced in Maddie's Secret because she starts of course like going to exercise classes that feel very much inspired by that scene in Showgirls.
- [66:51]
A
Yeah, the tone is very difficult to nail down one in explaining it to people, but also like it is a genuine piece of camp. And. And John talks about this in the Los Angeles Times piece where he's profiled about Susan Sontag's different ideas of camp of. It's very difficult to make accidental camp as well as intentional camp. But it is a send up to Lifetime TV movies. But it also has this 1950s melodrama tone.
- [67:24]
C
Totally.
- [67:25]
A
And it's sort of the opposite of I Love Boosters. Tonally, where the film is, is both films are heightened from the jump, but I Love Boosters is relatively grounded and then gets crazier where I feel like Maddie's Secret is campy and satirical and maybe something out of Adult Swim. And then by the end it becomes completely grounded.
- [67:47]
C
Well, it's a really fine line to tow because he clearly doesn't want to make fun of eating disorders, but he does want to to make fun of movies that have been made about eating disorders. So approaching this sort of subject matter in a sensitive way is an extremely hard thing to do. And I think he did do a good job of doing both.
- [68:07]
A
Well, I think that's probably why we didn't see our favorite media representation of Bulimia, which is the Calista Flockhart TV film where I mean, we saw this as children, but we still remember that she throws up in Tupperware and then hides them and her mother or someone finds it. To be fair, in this film, you know, you don't need to see someone vomiting.
- [68:30]
D
Right.
- [68:31]
A
You see Maddie go to the bathroom and you know what she's doing.
- [68:35]
C
Yeah. Although we do see some, like, pretty insane post vomiting scenes.
- [68:40]
A
Yeah. I can't believe we've spent this long without mentioning that Christian Johnson is John Early's mother, Maddie's mother in the film.
- [68:49]
C
Incredible performance. Perfectly cast. There's almost a physical resemblance, like with John in the wig and everything.
- [68:57]
A
Oh, absolutely. I mean, by the end of the film, by almost.
- [69:00]
C
I mean, there is a strong, strong physical resemblance.
- [69:04]
A
By the end of the film, when you've been with John as Maddie for the last, you know, hour and 20 minutes or whatever, when Kristen Johnson comes into the film and they're sitting next to each other, you're like, yeah, that's mother and daughter.
- [69:15]
C
Yeah. We also should mention Kate Berlane man is in this movie. She is John's longtime comedy partner. She plays the classic trope of this sort of lesbian best friend that's in love with Maddie.
- [69:29]
A
Her best friend Maddie, who is married to a man in this film, a loving man who just wants the best for her.
- [69:36]
C
Yeah. But there's a funny bit with Kate Berlant where she, like, infiltrates the eating disorder clinic, like, pretends to be bulimic, anorexic, whatever.
- [69:47]
A
Well, she's also the lesbian character that's, like, constantly fucking straight women and different women. And, like, one of the women she's fucking, she explains, does special effects makeup and she had her fuck up her teeth and make them all brown and rotted.
- [70:00]
C
So wild. But that brought to mind this movie trope, which we've seen a lot. Although the only example of it that I can think of is David Arquette in Never Been Kissed, where he infiltrates the high school in order to sort of help Drew Barrymore's character out, to help her get popular or whatever. This was like the Girl Interrupted version of that.
- [70:22]
A
Yes. I want to talk about this film fully with you, but also I do want to preserve some of the plot points because if you do have a chance to see this film, I think everyone should very much. Every outfit approved.
- [70:35]
C
Yes. This has our seal of approval for sure. Also, I saw it at the most fabulous movie theater in Culver City.
- [70:42]
A
I know. By the time we got to Maddie's Secret, we had to see it in pretty esoteric theaters. I'm glad the Culver Theater turned out so well.
- [70:50]
C
The Culver Theater is beautiful.
- [70:52]
A
I saw it at the Lemley NoHo next to the lovely Chipotle.
- [70:56]
C
Wait, where's that?
- [70:57]
D
It's on Lankershim in the NOHO Arts District.
- [71:00]
A
Chelsea, have you never been to the NOHO Arts District?
- [71:04]
C
Oh, I didn't know they had one.
- [71:05]
A
No.
- [71:05]
C
Shade to no. I like no ho.
- [71:07]
A
I love North Hollywood. I just. That's something clearly that the city council was like, it's the NOHO Arts District, and there's nothing around it that makes it a NOHO Arts District.
- [71:16]
C
Well, I hope that this movie has an expanded release and gets into Hollywood theaters at some point.
- [71:23]
A
And congratulations to John. This is such a success. I mean, the writing, the direction, the fact that he used his own home as Maddie's home, It's just very inspiring. Wearing Chelsea, have you heard the helicopter in the sky? Because that's the helicopter that's over the Candle Delirium. Checking out the. The water damage.
- [71:43]
C
But are the Troodon candles okay? The boys in WeHo need their Trudon candles.
- [71:49]
A
Guys, we have to wrap up this podcast because Chelsea needs to drive to Candle Delirium and make sure it's okay.
- [71:56]
C
I'll report back next week.
- [71:58]
A
All right, guys, we'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. I.