Sabrina and Barry are kinky, Taylor vs Billie (?), Bridgerton interviews and breaking furniture, under-radar vampires, friends of Kevin Spacey, on RM’s 'Right Place, Wrong Person' and more
Show Your Work: Bridgerton Edition, yesss! Fascinating. I never realized you might interview the talent so many times, and that managing those recurrent interactions is a careful dance. You make it look easy - love hearing about the grind that goes into getting the gold.
I was in Madrid last month for a holiday and there was Bridgerton ads everywhere (including a floral bench photo op in the botanic gardens!) It was a cool reminder of how global stuff like this truly is.
And yes, more Interview with the Vampire hype, please! This season is fire (and it gets better - I've seen up to episode 6.) Ben Daniels is killing it as Santiago, the entanglement of Armand/Louis/Lestat is so beautifully fleshed out, and Daniel Molloy continues to be way better in the TV series than the novels.
This is the best adaptation of the novels I have seen, even with some of the time changes. They have captured the spirit of the books far better.
We probably weren’t ready for it when the original movie came out, especially with all the queer elements erased. And then the awful sequel movie I have tried to forget existed.
It is just too bad Anne wasn’t around to see this because I think she would have loved it. (She was too generous in her praise of Tom Cruise especially when you see Sam Reid).
I do adore the Neil Jordan film, it must be said. It's miscast across the board and yet it works, and it also nails the lascivious, baroque tone of the book. But I do think the AMC series has done an excellent job at reinventing these characters without losing their core essence. Jacob Anderson's Louis is tortured, yes, but he's also sardonic, driven, considerate, and unwilling to be trampled over. And having a competent Armand? That's just terrifying!
I'm late to the universe. The Queen Charlotte season seemed to be everywhere for promotion. Was it like that for the previous two seasons? I recall Simone Ashley, but not like Queen Charlotte, and the third season seems to be everywhere like QC. South Africa to Brazil and everywhere else.
I watched the first episode but it didn’t grab me to the point where I wanted to add AMC to the roster. If it were on a different streamer I’d probably have given it a second chance.
Is this sportification of music fandom just for the pop girlies and is it recent? I came up in the time that if your fave singer or group got mainstream appeal, you were expected to abandon them for daring to go "mainstream and selling out". Mind you, that wasn't me as music was never the thing that got me all worked up but it was what I saw my peers doing in droves. It was hard to go all army when there was no social media to mobilize for your faves though. Someone in one of my college classes at NYU wrote a whole essay about deciding to give up on her favorite group because when she went to see them at The Bottom Line (RIP) she saw a bunch of suburban girls from Long Island show up in a cab and she decided that if that type of person was now a fan, she couldn't be one anymore. I realize this is very Gen X thinking but I can't tell which type of behavior is weirder.
For sure, no one cares about selling out anymore. That moment has passed. I see it mostly with pop music, so I do think it affects those artists more than artists in other genres. And it does feel like it's gotten big within music in just the last few years. People would always note when artists hit big milestones, but this actual competition that "my fave must be number one all the time", that feels new.
My take on why "selling out" is a non-issue, frankly, comes from having seen too many Behind the Music docs about artists going broke, often at the hands of their own record labels. It seems like they are realizing that fame is fleeting and most music careers don't span 40 years. By that logic, I understand why newer artists (and athletes actually) are fine with securing outside brand deals, etc. and setting themselves up to be financially stable long after the spotlight has waned. I'm not mad at it.
I don't know if it was how I felt about pop (I care more about vocals and that's not being litigated), but I would FOR SURE rethink my hip-hop faves if I saw Gwyneth Paltrow (demographic, not the person) singing along with OutKast. Gwyneth is not singing for the same reasons, and I don't want to know what she thinks they're talking about. We can sing other songs from a variety of genres, but please don't quote Wutang to my face. It's disturbing. Keep that in your car. Skip the words you should skip. I saw someone post pictures from a Snoop concert and I just blinked so slowly I was almost asleep or trying to erase the image. Fortunately, he's not my lane. Tupac? Sleep, come get me. MIB please zap me. I will concede Biz Markie's 'Just A Friend '.... that's rated E for everyone. Lauryn Hill is mostly for many. No zap needed.
That's great specificity because there is a real reason why hip-hop is considered music that belongs to the people it was made by and for. One of my high school teachers knew one of the guys in Biz's recording session for Just a Friend and said that he really was just screwing around and then they realized "hey, that's a song" and true musical ecumenical bliss was made.
There's a Biz Markie doc, All Up in the Biz that I enjoyed. None of his circle liked the song, but he went with his opinion and it's a classic. The part about his rep not paying the licensing fee because he thought he could negotiate down which resulted in lawsuits was new information. Your job is to make things happen, not harder. Biz deciding to nope the artist lane and pivot, while keeping music, was inspiring. He left the circus to the clowns.
Members of BTS are so disciplined, productive, and accustomed to working in a collective that as long as they don't have to be around absolute dicks, they should all breeze through military service. (And even if they are, I feel they, or at least some of them, would be savvy enough to disarm the dicks and turn them into fanboys.)
I am so glad you wrote about the gamification of the pop girlies. The podcast Every Single Album from The Ringer talked about it too this week. They seem to not think there is an actual feud (I tend to think there is a minor one about chart positions) but the stuff they had to say about Billboard Charts was super interesting. For instance, while Taylor and TTPD are still holding number one (for now) overall Billie's album is getting more streams on Spotify. To me that can indicate that this is indeed just becoming a stan war. Quick let's buy all of the varients every artist releases to keep them in the top.
The solution I think is simple...Billboard has to stop counting every single varient as a part of what gets you to number one. Pick a number you're allowed to use to count (2 or 3) or a time limit (any varient released after a certain number days the album comes out doesn't get to go to the OG count or something.) Because all that's gonna happen is the cycle will continue. Artists want accolades and top spots, their stans want to "prove" their artist is the best so we get fiftyleven album varients for no good reason.
I doubt billboard will change anything because selling variants is a way to gin up album numbers and as we know, record sales have been devastated by streaming/digital. They gotta move those units where and how we can.
It's good! I feel like the hosts manage to be major fans of taylor while also not falling into the too wild end of the swiftie spectrum. But yeah you're right. Billboard wants the numbers too. It's just annoying. I think because I've never been very competitive I don't relate at all at needing to be number one.
I'm very late to this thread but Billie is young and talking loud. I don't think she realizes that she is potentially provoking Taylor. Taylor Swift is extremely vindictive and I'd advise Billie to not provoke the Apex Predator of the music industry who has a history of retaliating by deliberately dropping her work the same time as her enemies. I do think fans have stoked the flame, but the flame is real. Billie and Finneas don't really like Taylor, and we know that because Finneas was caught on mike saying something shady about Taylor like, 'Be careful or she'll sue you.' Taylor is precisely the kind of person a socialist at heart like Billie doesn't like, and Billie is young and punk rock right now, so she'll speak her mind. She's right, but she also plays the game, so. If Billie really wants to beef with Taylor, it will not end well for her. It may seem like Billie can afford to beef with Taylor but Katy Perry thought she could afford it and we thought she could and look how that ended for her. Music is already moving away from Billie's whisper beep beep music and Billie will have to adapt. The feud is something to keep an eye on.
The movie business topics are great. No hugs means you ruin things. There was something written about TCM programming being affected. I was relieved to find I was not making it up. Initially, it felt like these directors were navel gazing and including more current work that I didn't have interest in watching. Out of Africa is absurd unless you watch it on mute. Yet, I'm glad to have seen what people think is important (Natives getting lost in their native land didn't set any alarms off when writing this???) I still prefer the original hosts and don't need to hear from Spielberg unless he's a guest. He doesn't have an uncle with movie gossip from the early 20th century. I need work mess, not nostalgia.
Sarah giving a breakdown of movie lawsuits makes me wonder what the person suing thinks they can control about someone else's experience. Duvernay used research from her subjects and their cohort, but the woman suing is upset about her portrayal. Who made you keep the mom out of the interrogation? Then it turns out she settled without money, and didn't want to agree to not disparage the 5 publicly (DNA evidence says it's not them, but ma'am wanted to keep calling them guilty). She wanted to control everyone, but herself and now she has the disclaimer in a new spot and got dragged by Duvernay... again. This reminds me of the SATC episode where Carrie runs into the writer gf of her ex (Aidan?) who's written a character based upon her. What can you control about how someone else experiences you? It feels bad, but it feels like it is going to get worse for her.
I don't think Linda Fairstein was defamed, frankly, but there was direct correlation to the show coming out and her losing a book deal, being asked to vacate board seats, etc. to me that's like, karmic justice after everyone found out you're a shitheel, but I can see how a court of law wouldn't take social nuance into consideration.
I don't know where to find the social nuance in her losing her money because she was caught lying. She could have settled, but she wouldn't agree to not lie about the men. Losing a business because you want to keep lying seems like a perfect court case. Maybe that's why she settled without money and just a sentence move???
I have Bridgerton brain rot and my TikTok algorithm keeps it fed. Lainey’s ETalk interview with Nicola and Luke was in my For You feed and it was so good! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
“PEOPLE, for instance, is dated on Mondays but goes on sale two Fridays before its Monday date.” I didn’t know this, how strange it’s that far in advance! Saturday AM would be a good time for burying something, I agree…though perhaps for the sake of you who work in media Friday is still better for letting you preserve some of your weekend!
I love that photo of Lainey and Nicola because their poofy dresses look like they're trying to be friends.
Show Your Work: Bridgerton Edition, yesss! Fascinating. I never realized you might interview the talent so many times, and that managing those recurrent interactions is a careful dance. You make it look easy - love hearing about the grind that goes into getting the gold.
Yes! Love hearing the inside baseball and strategy employed by the squawk team 💞
I was in Madrid last month for a holiday and there was Bridgerton ads everywhere (including a floral bench photo op in the botanic gardens!) It was a cool reminder of how global stuff like this truly is.
And yes, more Interview with the Vampire hype, please! This season is fire (and it gets better - I've seen up to episode 6.) Ben Daniels is killing it as Santiago, the entanglement of Armand/Louis/Lestat is so beautifully fleshed out, and Daniel Molloy continues to be way better in the TV series than the novels.
This is the best adaptation of the novels I have seen, even with some of the time changes. They have captured the spirit of the books far better.
We probably weren’t ready for it when the original movie came out, especially with all the queer elements erased. And then the awful sequel movie I have tried to forget existed.
It is just too bad Anne wasn’t around to see this because I think she would have loved it. (She was too generous in her praise of Tom Cruise especially when you see Sam Reid).
I do adore the Neil Jordan film, it must be said. It's miscast across the board and yet it works, and it also nails the lascivious, baroque tone of the book. But I do think the AMC series has done an excellent job at reinventing these characters without losing their core essence. Jacob Anderson's Louis is tortured, yes, but he's also sardonic, driven, considerate, and unwilling to be trampled over. And having a competent Armand? That's just terrifying!
I'm late to the universe. The Queen Charlotte season seemed to be everywhere for promotion. Was it like that for the previous two seasons? I recall Simone Ashley, but not like Queen Charlotte, and the third season seems to be everywhere like QC. South Africa to Brazil and everywhere else.
I love it so much & am glad it’s getting attention. Everyone is so well cast & doing an amazing job. I want endless seasons!!
I watched the first episode but it didn’t grab me to the point where I wanted to add AMC to the roster. If it were on a different streamer I’d probably have given it a second chance.
I had never even heard of this show, it’s now on my list!
Is this sportification of music fandom just for the pop girlies and is it recent? I came up in the time that if your fave singer or group got mainstream appeal, you were expected to abandon them for daring to go "mainstream and selling out". Mind you, that wasn't me as music was never the thing that got me all worked up but it was what I saw my peers doing in droves. It was hard to go all army when there was no social media to mobilize for your faves though. Someone in one of my college classes at NYU wrote a whole essay about deciding to give up on her favorite group because when she went to see them at The Bottom Line (RIP) she saw a bunch of suburban girls from Long Island show up in a cab and she decided that if that type of person was now a fan, she couldn't be one anymore. I realize this is very Gen X thinking but I can't tell which type of behavior is weirder.
For sure, no one cares about selling out anymore. That moment has passed. I see it mostly with pop music, so I do think it affects those artists more than artists in other genres. And it does feel like it's gotten big within music in just the last few years. People would always note when artists hit big milestones, but this actual competition that "my fave must be number one all the time", that feels new.
Looks like they've learned it from Kpop
My take on why "selling out" is a non-issue, frankly, comes from having seen too many Behind the Music docs about artists going broke, often at the hands of their own record labels. It seems like they are realizing that fame is fleeting and most music careers don't span 40 years. By that logic, I understand why newer artists (and athletes actually) are fine with securing outside brand deals, etc. and setting themselves up to be financially stable long after the spotlight has waned. I'm not mad at it.
I don't know if it was how I felt about pop (I care more about vocals and that's not being litigated), but I would FOR SURE rethink my hip-hop faves if I saw Gwyneth Paltrow (demographic, not the person) singing along with OutKast. Gwyneth is not singing for the same reasons, and I don't want to know what she thinks they're talking about. We can sing other songs from a variety of genres, but please don't quote Wutang to my face. It's disturbing. Keep that in your car. Skip the words you should skip. I saw someone post pictures from a Snoop concert and I just blinked so slowly I was almost asleep or trying to erase the image. Fortunately, he's not my lane. Tupac? Sleep, come get me. MIB please zap me. I will concede Biz Markie's 'Just A Friend '.... that's rated E for everyone. Lauryn Hill is mostly for many. No zap needed.
That's great specificity because there is a real reason why hip-hop is considered music that belongs to the people it was made by and for. One of my high school teachers knew one of the guys in Biz's recording session for Just a Friend and said that he really was just screwing around and then they realized "hey, that's a song" and true musical ecumenical bliss was made.
There's a Biz Markie doc, All Up in the Biz that I enjoyed. None of his circle liked the song, but he went with his opinion and it's a classic. The part about his rep not paying the licensing fee because he thought he could negotiate down which resulted in lawsuits was new information. Your job is to make things happen, not harder. Biz deciding to nope the artist lane and pivot, while keeping music, was inspiring. He left the circus to the clowns.
another wonderful mailbag. I so appreciate these and the insight into the work aspects of the hard jobs you all do!
Members of BTS are so disciplined, productive, and accustomed to working in a collective that as long as they don't have to be around absolute dicks, they should all breeze through military service. (And even if they are, I feel they, or at least some of them, would be savvy enough to disarm the dicks and turn them into fanboys.)
I am so glad you wrote about the gamification of the pop girlies. The podcast Every Single Album from The Ringer talked about it too this week. They seem to not think there is an actual feud (I tend to think there is a minor one about chart positions) but the stuff they had to say about Billboard Charts was super interesting. For instance, while Taylor and TTPD are still holding number one (for now) overall Billie's album is getting more streams on Spotify. To me that can indicate that this is indeed just becoming a stan war. Quick let's buy all of the varients every artist releases to keep them in the top.
The solution I think is simple...Billboard has to stop counting every single varient as a part of what gets you to number one. Pick a number you're allowed to use to count (2 or 3) or a time limit (any varient released after a certain number days the album comes out doesn't get to go to the OG count or something.) Because all that's gonna happen is the cycle will continue. Artists want accolades and top spots, their stans want to "prove" their artist is the best so we get fiftyleven album varients for no good reason.
I need to go listen to that episode.
I doubt billboard will change anything because selling variants is a way to gin up album numbers and as we know, record sales have been devastated by streaming/digital. They gotta move those units where and how we can.
It's good! I feel like the hosts manage to be major fans of taylor while also not falling into the too wild end of the swiftie spectrum. But yeah you're right. Billboard wants the numbers too. It's just annoying. I think because I've never been very competitive I don't relate at all at needing to be number one.
I'm very late to this thread but Billie is young and talking loud. I don't think she realizes that she is potentially provoking Taylor. Taylor Swift is extremely vindictive and I'd advise Billie to not provoke the Apex Predator of the music industry who has a history of retaliating by deliberately dropping her work the same time as her enemies. I do think fans have stoked the flame, but the flame is real. Billie and Finneas don't really like Taylor, and we know that because Finneas was caught on mike saying something shady about Taylor like, 'Be careful or she'll sue you.' Taylor is precisely the kind of person a socialist at heart like Billie doesn't like, and Billie is young and punk rock right now, so she'll speak her mind. She's right, but she also plays the game, so. If Billie really wants to beef with Taylor, it will not end well for her. It may seem like Billie can afford to beef with Taylor but Katy Perry thought she could afford it and we thought she could and look how that ended for her. Music is already moving away from Billie's whisper beep beep music and Billie will have to adapt. The feud is something to keep an eye on.
The movie business topics are great. No hugs means you ruin things. There was something written about TCM programming being affected. I was relieved to find I was not making it up. Initially, it felt like these directors were navel gazing and including more current work that I didn't have interest in watching. Out of Africa is absurd unless you watch it on mute. Yet, I'm glad to have seen what people think is important (Natives getting lost in their native land didn't set any alarms off when writing this???) I still prefer the original hosts and don't need to hear from Spielberg unless he's a guest. He doesn't have an uncle with movie gossip from the early 20th century. I need work mess, not nostalgia.
Sarah giving a breakdown of movie lawsuits makes me wonder what the person suing thinks they can control about someone else's experience. Duvernay used research from her subjects and their cohort, but the woman suing is upset about her portrayal. Who made you keep the mom out of the interrogation? Then it turns out she settled without money, and didn't want to agree to not disparage the 5 publicly (DNA evidence says it's not them, but ma'am wanted to keep calling them guilty). She wanted to control everyone, but herself and now she has the disclaimer in a new spot and got dragged by Duvernay... again. This reminds me of the SATC episode where Carrie runs into the writer gf of her ex (Aidan?) who's written a character based upon her. What can you control about how someone else experiences you? It feels bad, but it feels like it is going to get worse for her.
I don't think Linda Fairstein was defamed, frankly, but there was direct correlation to the show coming out and her losing a book deal, being asked to vacate board seats, etc. to me that's like, karmic justice after everyone found out you're a shitheel, but I can see how a court of law wouldn't take social nuance into consideration.
I don't know where to find the social nuance in her losing her money because she was caught lying. She could have settled, but she wouldn't agree to not lie about the men. Losing a business because you want to keep lying seems like a perfect court case. Maybe that's why she settled without money and just a sentence move???
Her defense: "Lying is my cash cow, Your Honor."
I have Bridgerton brain rot and my TikTok algorithm keeps it fed. Lainey’s ETalk interview with Nicola and Luke was in my For You feed and it was so good! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
“PEOPLE, for instance, is dated on Mondays but goes on sale two Fridays before its Monday date.” I didn’t know this, how strange it’s that far in advance! Saturday AM would be a good time for burying something, I agree…though perhaps for the sake of you who work in media Friday is still better for letting you preserve some of your weekend!