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Louis is joined by writers Gus Hickey and Chris Schleicher to discuss the latest edition of Eurovision and the finale of The Comeback. Then they dive into the legacy of Ted Turner and share their favorite classic films listeners should add to their watchlists. Plus, actor Taylour Paige joins to talk about her new movie I Love Boosters.

Taylour Paige photo credit: Simon Emmett.

TRANSCRIPT

Louis Virtel [AD]

 

Louis Virtel And we’re back with an all-new episode of Keep It. I’m Louis Virtel. It’s another all-homosexual edition. If that’s not your thing. I’m warning you now. Spoiler alert, gay men. Two of my best friends are here. It’s Gus Hickey, returning comedy writer, one of the funniest people I know.

 

Gus Hickey Oh, thank you. And thank you for telling everyone that I’m gay.

 

Louis Virtel This is a real in and out situation, like your life is ruined.

 

Chris Schleicher Grandma’s finding out this way.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, yeah And also Chris Schleicher one of my best friends veteran of never have I ever the Mindy project all your favorite funny shows

 

Chris Schleicher Thank you. I’ve come here to be deadly serious.

 

Louis Virtel Oh okay. I was just thinking actually recently, how weird would it be if we both lived in LA and weren’t friends? Like imagine we were both at the same party and someone’s like, there was some other guy mumbling to himself about Susan Hayward. Like it’s so like we have the same interests. It’d be impossible not to be friends.

 

Chris Schleicher We’re the only people at the party talking about Ann Revere.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Yes, a Wellesley woman if there ever was one. Lots going on Chris is also a serious Eurovision expert Eurovision is coming back this coming week and it could not be fucking messier

 

Chris Schleicher Yeah, it’s not a great time to be a fan of Eurovision. I am in the official Eurovision fan club of Ireland, and Ireland is one of the nations boycotting this year because of Israel’s inclusion. So, you know, maybe take this year to go on YouTube and watch some old ones, if you don’t feel morally okay with the competition, because there’s a recent New York Times article that like the government of Israel was using their songs to promote, to culturally sort of whitewash what they’re doing. So, You can watch Celine Dion win first Switzerland. Oh, yes. With Neparte Passo Mois. You can Watch Olivia Newton John lose to Abba. Which I had that dream every night unrelated to Eurovision.

 

Louis Virtel Uh… You are treated in the waves wet

 

Gus Hickey Yes. You can watch Sylvia Knight invent Sacha Baron Cohen. Sylvia Night is from Iceland. Yes. And Sylvia night is like this fake persona of a diva actress who performs for Iceland and then also has like backstage drama with all of the people that work at Eurovision, tells them that she’s going to sue all of them and hates them. It’s really wonderful. No.

 

Louis Virtel No, it’s like one of the few extremely meta performances at Eurovision that went viral because you could have mistaken it for a real performer. You really can’t tell. Like she had kind of the energy of I’m going to say like Tila Tequila, you know, my favorite pop culture reference. By the way.

 

Chris Schleicher Yeah, she was calling people like, I hate those Swedish bitches and the stupid, ugly-

 

Louis Virtel She had it hard as a motherfucker in this parody. Like, feelings were definitely hurt.

 

Gus Hickey She got really in trouble for saying that everyone was fat and ugly. Yeah.

 

Chris Schleicher Yeah, and Greece was a Euro trash nation, but it was all a character and no one was on to it. But yeah, I think Eurovision is a good topic for us because it’s like competitive art, which I’ve realized is like my one addiction as I grew up as a figure skater, the Oscars and this, like I like seeing flags and numbers and like a vaguely unquantifiable thing for us to argue about.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Well, it also just makes you talk about the art. Like, I hate when people are like, oh, the Oscars are so silly. It’s like, name another sustained conversation about a bunch of movies. Like stop pretending we have any other metric with which we can discuss these things.

 

Chris Schleicher Also like the Oscars is a complete grab bag of different genres of like there are old Russian women singing a traditional song on a lute and then there is a hard rock song from Finland That’s like death metal and then There’s like a beautiful french chanteuse like and you have to like which one of these was objectively the best and votes from different nations coming in and I think my favorite feeling in the world artistically right now is Huh? Yeah. And your vision gives you that constantly. There’ll be like a man from Moldova being like, we must have ambition for breakfast. I’m like, yes. And you also get to experience.

 

Gus Hickey And you also get to experience something like Latvian rap that you’d never ever wanted or thought you needed to experience. But it is wonderful. And I think it also like the other thing about Eurovision that’s awesome is you saw the American attempt, the great American song contest, like try and emulate it. And it’s like, no, no. We actually are really bad at this. Yeah, right. All we do is country songs. Every single song was a country song. And that’s why the Eurovision version is better, because they do have these genre-bending versions of… Tiny little piece of art.

 

Louis Virtel The difference between America and Europe in this regard is, Europe has always blended tacky and chic, and we only do tacky.

 

Gus Hickey Yes, and we also like the other problem with that American song contest show was that we cannot laugh at ourselves Everything was so serious. Every song was so maudlin in a way that was unfortunate

 

Chris Schleicher Well, there’s a very interesting dynamic in Eurovision of Western Europe tends to treat it as a very silly kitschy thing, and Eastern Europe takes it like deadly serious and you’ll see a woman like belting her face off for Northern Macedonia. But I’m here to see like Finland’s bustiest woman riding a giant microphone that was like ejaculating flames, like that is spectacle. To say the best person in Eurovison is like the person who sang the best is simply misunderstanding why we’re here.

 

Louis Virtel But that means as gay people watching this though, it’s like you root extra hard for like the kind of outsize women figures too because I’m thinking of the men voting for this. It’s like they’re going to err on the side of the more dignified choices. I feel like it’s not so often anymore that like the ABBA types.

 

Chris Schleicher It sometimes goes back and forth frequently. It’s a ballad because everyone can kind of agree that was sung well. But I encourage you to watch some of the recent gay faves like Eleni Fureira of Cyprus doing Fuego or Chanel doing Slow Mo. A European woman slamming her crotch on the stage so hard that it sends reverberations through the continent are just super exciting. And Cyprus is sending a Love Island contestant this year.

 

Louis Virtel I saw her performances, what’s it’s called, it’s one word. Jala. And by the way, the key to like scoring points is if you can repeat one word 5,000 times, that will do well at Eurovision.

 

Chris Schleicher Grease is sending a song called Ferto, which means bring it, which is another brand of song, which is repeating, like there’s a song, called Cha Cha that did very well was just Cha Cha Cha. This is Ferto Ferto like over and over and it’s this like bro rock sort of thing that also like performs well in an arena that has I think a like pretty good chance of like winning over the public vote, not the jury so much.

 

Louis Virtel Well, also, I feel like things like that do well because they still are kind of novel in the space of Eurovision, where you do still expect, you know, pink b-sides, you know, as opposed to like anything in the rock show.

 

Chris Schleicher But I think one thing that’s exciting about it is that you can listen on Spotify, you can watch the official music videos. The staging of it matters a lot. There have been like total jury favorites or whatever that just kind of like didn’t translate on television and end up getting, I’m so sorry, zero points.

 

Gus Hickey I think you also come away sometimes being like, I’m so excited to listen to that song that I loved by Bambi from Ireland and like put it on my gym mix and then it’s just screaming. And you’re like, oh no, no, it was actually only good when she was flipping around and like ripping off her costumes. Tell me more about Bamby from Ireland. I would love to get to know her. What was it?

 

Chris Schleicher Their name was Bambi Thug from Ireland, sort of self-identified witch, sang a song that was both beautiful and screaming, and got Ireland into the finals for the first time in a long time.

 

Gus Hickey And it’s only the performance that saves it, and you go away and you listen to it and you’re like, I actually wish I had never heard this.

 

Chris Schleicher You are suddenly walking backwards.

 

Louis Virtel The wall. By the way, when Katrina and the waves won and they did win, that was for Ireland, right? Yes, Ireland is tied, unless it was for the UK. For some reason, I want to say it’s maybe they were just wearing green.

 

Chris Schleicher And I’m associating that with, yeah. Ireland and Sweden are tied with seven wins each for the most wins ever. And it seems likely Sweden will overtake this at one point because Ireland has been accused recently of deliberately trying to throw it because they don’t want to spend the money to host Eurovision.

 

Louis Virtel Whoa

 

Chris Schleicher Hosting is kind of like an albatross when you win. It’s like a large amount of security apparatus and finding a city that’s big enough. Like certain countries, like San Marino, if they win, like does not have a venue. Like you have to crash the economy there. Yeah.

 

Gus Hickey One of my other favorite things about Eurovision is when you get to see the hosts, you get to see like the local celebrities from each country. It’s like, oh, I didn’t know that the Mark Consuelos of Moldova looks like this. It’s so funny. And they’re all like, they’re are all Bond villains. They all have Daniel Craig tied up somewhere. Like they, that’s why they like need to get off television as quickly as possible. Which is why when you hear about like the fact that they’re talking out of both sides of their mouths about the voting about for Israel, like it’s like oh yeah, because they’re all Bond villains. Yeah, right.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah right that’s why and also they have the same kind of plastered smile and they have to suffer through the indignity of whatever country they’re from they appear via satellite to present the country with whatever points they get and there’s always a delay so you always get to see them standing there frozen like this like uncomfortable waiting for like you know the teleprompter to to them or whatever.

 

Chris Schleicher There’s also always one who’s more comfortable in English than the others, which leads to amazing cultural comedy. I bet you are feeling very hungry in your nerves right now. Like, possible amazing transition. When I went in Sweden, the hosts were this woman, Petra, who’s iconic, who has hosted many times before, but also Malin Ackerman. Oh, right. Which is totally at ease and charming. But then you hear her speak Swedish, you’re like.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, of course. You bring up Malin Akerman because she appeared in a cameo on this season of The Comeback. She was of course a regular character in the first season of the Comeback, we just saw the final episode of this show, which by the way, is a treasure among, I’m gonna say almost all gay men in LA. Like I don’t know many gay guys here who are obsessed with one, Lisa Kudrow, but two, this show. This season centered around AI and Valerie Cherish, the Lisa Koudrow character taking a role on a sitcom. And can you believe it? Like things went awry, it didn’t go smoothly. I felt like, here’s the thing, when this show started, it was meant to lampoon the obvious indignities about being on reality TV, which were, by the way, well-known at that point. By the time the comeback came around, we already had things like Survivor and Big Brother and a few others, the real world, et cetera. Here, we haven’t really seen the depths of AI yet, so it’s sort of guessing at whatever dystopia we’re walking into, one. And then two, it became extremely didactic about those potential problems, which made it, I think, less fun overall and more like a brochure.

 

Gus Hickey I mean, I think one of my things about this season of The Comeback, which I also, I love each season of the Comeback deals with sort of a transitional phase of television, a like evolution of television. The first one is reality television. The second one is from cable to streaming. And then this one is, from what we have to AI, who knows what that’s gonna look like. And they are sort of prescient in this way that I believe what I was watching felt very prescient. But it is, you also get to watch sort of the evolution of television writing with this show in which like in 2005, it was 13 episodes, which that was the standard back then, which would be crazy now for a cable streaming show to have 13 episodes. And then you get to this season and it sort of has this, it’s this new way in which we have started to write comedies that are just not necessarily funny. And everyone is either on dramas, everyone’s mean to each other, on comedies, everyone’s nice to each. And that’s just sort of what a comedy is now, is that everyone’s Nice. Which kind of takes away the edge of what the comeback was, which was like a lot of people kind of treating Valerie with very little dignity and her having to deal with that. And in this version, which was an evolution for Valerie of like, I’m going to take my power and I’m gonna be. Excellent at the things that I let people walk all over me in previous seasons do. In this season, she’s like, I am in charge, but unfortunately, it was that every single episode, which is also, she just had, her flaw was gone, and that is unfortunately less funny to watch, but it is very satisfying as a conclusion for a character. So I did feel like very emotional at the end that like, oh, she has, she did it. Valerie did it, Valerie became a full person. And then, but it is kind of episode by episode. The comedy is a little diffuse.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, I also think a huge issue is in the first season of the show, she’s dealing with people who are rude to her as a part of doing their job well in the way they like to do it. Whereas on this season, she kept running into buffoon characters who made me feel like it was Lisa Kudrow having to do an improv exercise. Like, oh, I have to meet a full clown now who was like treating me like a crazy person and I’ll diffuse it using like some vague professionalism.

 

Chris Schleicher She was in the Karen challenge from RuPaul’s Drag Race.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, yes, exactly.

 

Chris Schleicher I really like that I’ve seen this quote going around from the finale of Valerie in that final talking, I think you have to agree to be humiliated and I never signed up. I used to do the best with what I was given, right? And it’s kind of beautiful to see this woman who’s been through so many humiliating situations have some agency this season and without fully solving the character, she does the right thing a lot, but after exhausting every other option to not do it, such that… Yes, satisfying, but maybe not as funny to me, but maybe as funny as me yet, because people forget how much of a flop season one was. Why it feels, I think, special to gay people, like, first of all, Lisa Kudrow, but it felt like something we were discovering and we had for ourselves. I had my physical DVD copy of the comeback. I would bring on trips to Palm Springs so we could watch the Palm Springs episode while we were there, and it felt a secret you were sharing, and it was hard to watch for people at the time. People said, I remember saying it was too mean.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, I remember thinking I couldn’t get through the show when it first started.

 

Chris Schleicher To cringe, the stuff about reality TV. So when I was watching the finale, I was feeling like, and this season in general, my chest was tightening, like a lot of discomfort, but like, will I have a job anymore? Is this industry falling apart? With some distance of years, will this feel easier to watch than it does now? Like, is it doing something? Or harder?

 

Gus Hickey Or harder to work. Yeah, right.

 

Chris Schleicher From my new job as an air traffic controller, but.

 

Louis Virtel That. It’s come this way. On the runway? Oh, okay. There’s something kind of Vegas about it. Yeah, no, but you’re right. This season is meant to be a warning. And so it’s like, it will be necessary to check back in in five years.

 

Gus Hickey But the, and in that, to that end, I also think like the Andrew Scott character was the most fully realized villain and fully realized like mirror to Valerie. And so felt her scenes with him, I thought felt A, the funniest and B, the most real. And he kind of had, he had the most intelligence with which he was doing the bad thing. Like he was, he was doing it for the wrong reasons, but you could understand why.

 

Louis Virtel He and Andrew Scott plays this guy who is running this AI sitcom, who is clearly diabolical, but his acting choices are very Miranda Priestly. Like he does not raise his voice. And it’s all like ASMR condescension at all times. I was actually happy to see him in a role like that, making cool, because we just had him in Wake Up Deadman. And I’m like, why did you do this?

 

Gus Hickey You didn’t do anything? Well, it also felt very Moriarty from Sherlock. Like that is a lane for him that is so, so satisfying and yummy.

 

Chris Schleicher I think the season had a tiny bit of a, and just like that problem of losing Samantha. You think that’s one problem? Go ahead. Losing Samantha on that show made other smaller characters have to take up more space in a way that they maybe couldn’t handle. And losing Mickey here, Dan Bukatinsky’s character has to grow. Her husband Mark has to go a bit in a where they were better when they were shrunk a bit more as characters. Totally. And Mickey, like the season two finale, like. Valerie’s connection with Mickey is sort of the heart of the show, and her farewell to him is, I think, the most beautiful moment of the season. To lose that, I thinks, structurally created some things where other characters we were not as invested in had to take up more screen time, and Valerie, we have to lean on more in a way that kind of felt a little imbalanced.

 

Gus Hickey But I did like them leaning on Jane. Jane sort of took the Mickey.

 

Louis Virtel The Laura Silverman character, yes.

 

Gus Hickey She takes like the emotional heart of the show and now the Valerie Jane relationship kind of is the through line through this season.

 

Louis Virtel How disappointing was it, though, at the end when Laura just explains the growth that Valerie has gone through? Like, truly, it felt like Netflix, like round one of notes, you know?

 

Gus Hickey And it was so funny because that is what people in general, I feel like when they watch a show, that’s when they feel like, oh, this show feels like it was written by AI. Because it’s like, oh, it just explains exactly what you just watch and what you’re going to watch and what came previously.

 

Chris Schleicher A lot of people approach value charge to say, one, you’re good at your job, two, you are a good person.

 

Louis Virtel So maybe most shows are just like that now.

 

Gus Hickey Yeah, and it actually, I was emotional in that scene when Jane, when she talks to Jane, and when you see Valerie in the lens of Jane’s camera, I was like, oh, that is very, very smart. I did really like the last scene.

 

Louis Virtel I also kind of do believe that now most Oscar winners do work at Trader Joe’s. I just, I can’t explain it. I just know that they’re there.

 

Gus Hickey It felt very real, I do feel like some days Rosamund Pike is going to ring me up. Yeah, right.

 

Louis Virtel I got a free sample from Ronnie Blankley. It’s a reference to Nashville. These are both nominees, not winners. I just want to say that. By the way, I just wanna say also in general, people pretend like I’m the only person with Oscar winner disease. Chris, who won best supporting actress in 1987?

 

Chris Schleicher That is… God. Olympia Dukakis.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Okay, it took you a second. No, but I explained to my friends at work at Kimmel, I was like, oh yeah, no, my friends and I do Oscar trivia all the time. And as my colleague, Jesse Joyce said, he goes, you mean there’s more of you? So I’m living in that zone and they’re here today. Meanwhile, we have a lot to get to today. First of all, our guest today is absolutely fabulous. Taylour Paige is here. You know her as Zola. She’s on It, Welcome to Dairy. But right now she’s in the new movie, I Love Boosters with Keke Palmer and the fabulous Naomi Ackie. We’ll talk about that movie, which is by the way, deeply eye popping in a way you will not expect, especially since she’s so kind of chill and low key. You’d be like, how can this person contend with this kaleidoscopic universe? But she does. And then also this episode, Ted Turner, media maverick has passed away. His greatest contribution to society, I would say it’s not CNN or even marrying Jane Fonda. I would it is Turner classic movies. So I brought a couple of my classic movie fan friends here to discuss. The greatest old movies to introduce to people who are so far not interested in classic cinema. So we’ll give you a little tutorial on how to do that and what movies to see. And then also to celebrate the death of Rex Reed, the bitchiest film critic who ever lived, we will also pick the classic movies we hate. So get ready for a little love and a little rancor.

 

Louis Virtel [AD]

 

Louis Virtel  Last week, the American media maverick, known for transforming cable news and reshaping the media landscape, Ted Turner died in his illustrious career. He’s been known for founding the Turner Broadcasting System and launching CNN, the first 24-hour cable news channel. His media empire included networks like TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, and of course, Turner Classic Movies. And by the way, Jane Fonda calls him her favorite husband. Which, by the, serious competition. You know, Roger Vadim, Tom Hayden, yeah.

 

Gus Hickey Yeah, the guy from the Trial of Chicago 7. Yes, right. Yeah, he’s in the film.

 

Chris Schleicher And now that he’s gone, you’re Jane Fonda’s favorite living lover. That’s true, yes.

 

Louis Virtel That woman is fucking hilarious. It’s my joy to send a long text from Jane Fond. The woman is pretty snappy. Anyway, today we are talking about classic movies, the ones you can watch to get people involved with classic film. I wanna start with these two. And actually, before I do that, I just wanna say always on this podcast, we are taking about Rear Window, which is still my answer, but we’re not gonna get into that again. Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? Same situation. All About Eve, we always talk about. I think All About EVE is universal, and I bring this up with Taylour Paige. Because it asks the problem, what do you do about a psychopath who is technically doing nothing wrong?

 

Gus Hickey Who’s actually good at her job. Yes, right, she’s just good and insistent.

 

Chris Schleicher Well, I have a transition off of that. Okay. Singing in the Rain, you can show to anyone at any time, any age, and it is like such a joy. And Lena Lamont in that, I think, is not doing anything wrong, played by Jean Hagan. She is sort of a take on Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday, another movie I would recommend for people who are trying to get into old movies. Born Yesterday is a flawless comedy, yes. And she plays this silent film star who has this awful voice up here. And like it’s how are we possibly gonna keep her being a star when she sounds like that and she’s just really struggling to stay in the industry and doing horrible things but you’re kind of as a game I’m watching be like I’m really on board with you and she was the only person nominated for acting from that movie.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, which is extremely strange. And also it was not nominated for Best Picture, which was, and it’s the, I would say the definitive movie musical of all time at this point, at least according to the movie Babylon.

 

Chris Schleicher Which you’re supposed to, it’s supposed to be, I guess, a surprise to the audience that it’s singing in the rain, where I’m like, well, they’re doing singing in the rain. Are they ever gonna acknowledge that? Yeah, I would say it’s pretty blatant, yeah. But I think as someone who always tries to introduce people to old movies and they’re like, can I please watch whatever Netflix put out with Charlize Theron as an old superhero from thousands of years ago? I think black and white is a hard thing for people. So singing in rain, at least, is like the most brilliant technicolor that you’re going to see. And musical makes it fun in a way. I think people think. These movies are going to be boring or chores or homework. And this one is so full of delight. And the amount of banger musical numbers and dance numbers that poor Debbie Reynolds was tortured into performing. She’s always like, yeah, Gene would make me move until my feet bled. It’s my most favorite memory.

 

Louis Virtel And also, it’s interesting that it’s Debbie Reynolds because she doesn’t have a body like Cheetah Rivera or something where it’s like, okay, well, you can clearly do trapeze work and shit. It’s hard dancing that Debbie Reynolds does. And she didn’t do a ton of that in her career. No. She’s a real hooper in this one. And also- Counterpoint, though. Do you think the long ass dance sequence with Sid Sharice will be hard for young wrist to stomach.

 

Chris Schleicher I want a dream ballet in everything. No, oh, me too. I want to dream ballet in Fast and the Furious where we reenact all the races that I’ve had before but with like little people in leotards. But yeah, let yourself be washed over by visual beauty for once. Everything is over lit and bad now. Like watch a scarf from centuries like absolutely take you away into the upper echelons of pleasure. I mean, I think there’s such visual. Sonic beauty in this film is going to be such a joy to watch.

 

Louis Virtel I mean, also, and watch it in the theater if you can. I mean it’s such a pleasure, such a pressure.

 

Chris Schleicher With any of these charger phone in the other room, that’s also my thing. Like I am always on my phone, I love movies. If it is within my reach, I’m gonna pick it up and I’m going to be like, that movie was kind of hard to follow. Was it or was I not paying attention? Right.

 

Louis Virtel No, we can all agree we have attention deficit problems, if not officially diagnosable problems, and movies are doing a lot to contend with that right now.

 

Gus Hickey Yes, and I unfortunately also went on the musical track because I think that it’s a way to get people in and invested, but I went in the opposite direction. I picked Cabaret, which is… Oh, of course. Because I think it’s sort of a musical for people who don’t love musicals. All of the music within the musical are diegetic to germane to the world. It is obviously the story of Liza Minnelli, becoming Liza, it is the story of Judy Garland’s daughter giving a performance in a lifetime. Um but uh it is Weimar Germany, Liza Minnelli uh plays Sally Bowles who’s an inspiring actress and um uh Michael York plays her love interest and roommate and they’re just kind of like uh running up against Nazi Germany taking over uh the hedonism of Weimar Germany and uh all of the musical numbers take place within the Kit Kat club which is where dark in a way that people can feel like, oh, I didn’t know musicals could do this. I didn’t t know that this was possible to feel bad coming away from a musical. And it also has one of the greatest best actress performances of all time, probably top five.

 

Chris Schleicher Definitely top three.

 

Gus Hickey Definitely top three. It’s also the most awarded film, not to win best picture. Bob Fosse beat Francis Ford Coppola for best director for Godfather Part Two. It is that good.

 

Louis Virtel It is for the original guy

 

Gus Hickey Oh, for the original Godfather. It is just an excellent, well-made, sad, dramatic, funny, every emotion is contained within this film. And it’s also very, I think, easy for people to understand because people get World War II.

 

Louis Virtel Also, let me just say that Joel Gray in that movie, he of course won Best Supporting Actor for playing the MC, a role that is now familiar to theater fans worldwide as an Eddie Red Maine role. But that performance, that is a fruity performance your dad can get behind. You know, like I remember that came up the first time I watched Cabaret, I was on the phone with my dad. He goes, he said, this is my dad keeping up with the kids, he goes, Joel Gray was the bomb in that.

 

Chris Schleicher I chose to re-watch Cabaret the night Donald Trump was re-elected because I was like, well, this is where we’re going, I’m going to stare it right in the eye.

 

Gus Hickey But at least I’m going like Elsie.

 

Louis Virtel You were a gay world history teacher. You’re like, I know just the film.

 

Gus Hickey Also, you know, Joel Gray, Bob Fosse, when he took over the film, he said, it’s either me or Joel. And-

 

Louis Virtel Oh, and also the role is very Bob Fosse.

 

Gus Hickey Yes. And he, oh no, not to play Bob, not play. He could have. He just wanted to fire Joel, because Joel was in the original Broadway cast. He was cast, Joel and Liza Minnelli were cast before the making of the film, before Bob Fosse was brought on. And he was like, we need a bigger name. It can’t be that guy. Wow. And eventually the producer was like well, it’s Joel. And so they let him, because Bob Fossey had just directed Sweet Charity, which was a huge bomb. And so, they were like, you’re lucky to be here basically. And he stayed on, and he and Joel Gray just like did not like each other.

 

Louis Virtel First movie I’m gonna bring up, I’m going to say is pretty obvious, is Network, because I think- Yes, yes, my mom. There are only a few films that really feel like, oh, they really get the current moment. I mean, and I hate talking about Network in this regard because it is so tedious. Everyone says the same thing, that it’s prescient, it predicted Fox News, you know, the psychopaths that run TV, you get a sense of those personalities in this movie. It’s true. And also speaking of very unusual best actress wins, we just had Faye Dunaway at Turner Classic Film Festival talking about her role as Diana Christensen in this movie. But just, you love a movie that one, understands media and two, isn’t afraid to tell you it is disgusting. So like it’s about this dying TV network and how this new woman exec has plans to revamp the whole thing to make it watchable again. And basically it’s kind of like Tyra energy. She’s like, she’s like you know what we should do? And her her and her vision includes like let’s have a show follow around terrorists. Let’s have and then there’s this news anchor Howard Beale who’s you know going crazy and she takes advantage of that and seizes on him as a new voice of the people. You obviously know the I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore segment of that movie. The dialog alone, there’s so much that is so fucking funny about this movie. I love that there are radicals in this movie who you would think are the most anti-media characters and they turn out to be the savviest about how to work the media to their advantage in a cynical way. So even that, the cynicism of the movie, which sometimes can feel overwrought in a David Mamet-y, like I’m too cool for movies, I’m to cool for television way, still really funny and watchable.

 

Chris Schleicher It’s both subtle and like a sledgehammer. Yeah, yeah. And it’s, I think, one of your favorite categories of beige excellence. Oh, please, in the late 70s, if you weren’t wearing beige.

 

Louis Virtel To bone, to oatmeal. You weren’t a woman.

 

Gus Hickey Yeah, I also love that best actress win because here is this woman where she never cries doesn’t cry once Which I think is probably pretty rare in a best actress when yeah, and then also Has it has nothing to do with her? Being a woman like it has anything to do, with I’m a mother or I’m wife or it’s like it’s her job She is so fucking serious. That’s her life. That her backstory. That all you need

 

Louis Virtel That’s all you need. Yeah, right. And when she took the role, Faye Dunaway said, what’s the like vulnerable backbone-y part of this character and Patty Shajefsky, I think, or Sidney Lumet was like, there isn’t one. And moving on. It also must be said about Faye Donaway, whose three signature roles outside of Mommy Dearest are Bonnie and Clyde, China Town and Network. Those three roles have nothing to do with each other. She’s not really given credit as an actress with range. And those three roles, I mean, like, name one overlapping thing they have in common, you know?

 

Chris Schleicher That all of the assistants were terrified on set. She threw anything within grasp at them. My next pitch, which has a Louis Fertel favorite genre, is Rebecca, Albert Hedgehog. Oh, sure.

 

Louis Virtel Best Picture winner by Alfred Hitchcock, 1940, yes. You love the genre of I Hate My Beautiful House. People don’t talk about this. I Hate Me Beautiful House is like, have you ever seen like what lies beneath? Like she’s in a wonderful home and could not be more terrorized.

 

Chris Schleicher And I’m obsessed with the genre that Nicole Kidman is amazing at, is my husband trying to kill me. Yes, right. Rebecca, I think is interesting because Hitchcock is always good for people who are looking to get into TCM or old movies because it’s exciting, thrillers, rear window comes up all the time, the birds dialing for murder, like you are thrilled for moment one, he’s the master of suspense. Rebecca is a weird one for him and that’s like three different movies. It starts off as this like daffy rom-com where Joan Fontaine is like, paid companion to an older woman in the south of France, and then meets this dashing man who marries her role in romance, fun fantasy, and then gets brought to his spooky house where his previous wife, Rebecca, looms large over the proceedings, and one of the most iconic characters of Mrs. Danvers, played by Judith Anderson, is this creepy maid, sort of mistress of the house who runs things, who is quite clearly lesbianically in love with the previous wife of… Whom we never see. We never see, and she’s Rebecca. We only know Joan Fontaine as the second Mrs. De Winter. Yes, she doesn’t even have a name. Love characters without a name, and it’s this kind of fun comedy of manners slash spooky thing where she’s always being tricked into misbehaving. She’s ostensibly the mistress of the house now that she’s married this man. But the maid is always tricking her into dressing like the dead wife or something and causing horrible miscommunications and all the while she’s wondering like, did my husband kill his ex-wife and is he gonna kill me?

 

Louis Virtel Yes, no, there’s a fascinating build to it, also because Lawrence Olivier himself before that, you know, is in like Wuthering Heights, it is just like a classically dashing, beautiful man. Hitchcock loved turning those people into psychopaths, like a matinee idol, like focusing on the glint in their eye in another way. I also want to say maybe besides Notorious, it’s probably the most film noir thing that Hitchcock ever did.

 

Chris Schleicher Incredibly gothic and spooky in a way that it doesn’t need, it’s far more beautiful than it needs to be. It’s very beautiful, yes. It could have been much like slicker in the way that I think a lot of his things are very sexy and slick. This is the opening monolog of last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again. You’re in this like fantasy that is very kind of off the beaten path for Hitchcock, but I think really draws you in from the beginning that it’s both suspenseful and spooky. I don’t think he’s as spooky as he is a master of suspense usually. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Also, I was gonna bring up Gaslight because I think something that can reel in new viewers is a protagonist who’s being kind of duped in kind of days, because you get frustrated with them. You’re like, no, figure it out, but that keeps you invested.

 

Gus Hickey And also, if you’re gonna watch Rebecca, it’s really wonderful because you’ll finally understand the references from season three of Devious Maids. Which is based on Rebecca. So you’ve been wondering, where did they come up with this amazing maid character?

 

Chris Schleicher Oh, yeah. Also, watch Gaslight to learn what the word means. I’m so tired of being like-

 

Louis Virtel It was Word of the Year last year, but it comes from this movie from 1944.

 

Chris Schleicher My boyfriend lied to me one time. He’s a gaslar, like, no, my boyfriend took my jewels and put them in the freezer and said, no, you left them there. You’re losing your mind.

 

Louis Virtel That’s gaslight.

 

Chris Schleicher It’s different.

 

Louis Virtel Version, character of lying.

 

Gus Hickey Involved with this. Do you have more? Yes, I, again, dipping into the musical genre, I think if we’re going to try and get people to love old Hollywood musicals, you go with absolutely the perfect musical, which is My Fair Lady. Oh, yes. And I mean, who can’t say no to the most expensive film at the time to be made in the United States?

 

Louis Virtel It sure looks it too. I mean, like the costuming, the dancing, the, yeah.

 

Gus Hickey They have horses running through that soundstage at the Ascot races. It’s really crazy. But it is, if you watch it, the structure is perfect. You get Vintage Audrey Hepburn. You get to watch Rex Harrison invent a new way of singing, which is very interesting.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, it’s that sort of talk singing, but also does have like a songy lilt to it.

 

Gus Hickey And every single person is at the top of their game. If you listen really carefully, you can hear Julie Andrews crying for not getting the role in the back. She was passed over for Audrey because she wasn’t a big enough name at the time. Of course, she would go on to do Mary Poppins the same year and win Best Actress when Audrey Hepburn was not even nominated.

 

Louis Virtel How do you feel about Audrey Hepburn not being nominated for that?

 

Gus Hickey It’s really crazy. I think it was, I think it was malicious.

 

Louis Virtel It’s not a Sterling Best Actress nominee year either. It doesn’t make sense that she wasn’t nominated. I also, as an adult, there are certain people, like when I was a teenager, you know, I was like, you know Julia Roberts isn’t that good. Like at the time things like Mona Lisa sm- I was wrong. Julia Roberts is amazing, never been bad, whatever. Audrey Hepburn is another one of those people where it’s easy to think she’s just like a poster in somebody’s dorm room. She is fabulous most of the time.

 

Gus Hickey I had this disease with Grace Kelly. With rear window, unfortunately I also saw it in a cemetery, which was not, it’s not an ideal viewing experience, but I came away from your window being like, I don’t think Grace Kelly’s that great. And then you watch it again and you’re like, oh no, I’m an idiot. I’m not great, that’s the problem.

 

Louis Virtel No, Rear Window, the sophisticated dialog alone puts in like leagues above most Hitchcock movies. But no, also that’s certainly her best performance. And also Thelma Ritter, who plays the maid in that, or his like kind of housekeeper in that movie. And she had been nominated the previous four years in a row and then not for Rear window, which is fucking bizarre.

 

Gus Hickey I think another thing about My Fair Lady that Gen Z might love is that it’s very sexless. The love is like amorous but not physical. They’re in love with each other’s spirits, which I think people of a younger generation might enjoy. It has been.

 

Chris Schleicher It hasn’t stopped people from shipping Henry Higgins and Liza, though.

 

Gus Hickey Oh, no, no. You ship Henry Higgins and Dr. Pickering.

 

Chris Schleicher After Pygmalion, Shaw was so annoyed by people thinking that they would get together. He wrote this weird postscript that I had to like study in college where he’s like, no, they did not get married. She marries Freddie and has a horrible life. How dare you? This is the canonical story that happens afterwards because he was so frustrated that people were finding something romantic between them. But like, they are in the structure of sort of a rom-com, like we don’t understand each other and then we get married at the end, but they deny that. I think the movie doesn’t get enough credit for being one of the funniest musicals I’ve ever seen. The scene where Liza Doodle has learned to speak in the correct accent but does not know how to speak politely and goes to the Ascot races and completely embarrasses him is one of my favorite comedy scenes of any movie ever.

 

Louis Virtel Also, just the accommodating song of I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face is like the weirdest word choice for what has happened between them.

 

Chris Schleicher It’s up there with My Funny Valentine as shadiest song that’s supposedly good.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, right, right. Also again, the key to my funny Valentine is realizing it’s from a musical where the character is named Valentine. It’s not saying Valentine like in the context of like the holiday or anything.

 

Chris Schleicher Also, favorite Shady song, Wind Beneath My Wings. The opening line of, must have been cold there in my shadow. Yeah. Devastating, if written in a different tone of voice. Yes, yeah. It must have cold. When I was- Can I give you a sweater?

 

Louis Virtel Slayer. Can I get you to-

 

Chris Schleicher Can I get you a sweater for sitting in my shadow?

 

Louis Virtel I wouldn’t I’m glad you brought up Audrey Hepburn though cuz I was gonna bring up charade because I think Something young people can get into is bygone charm of old actors like Cary Grant who by the way was like Just simply the world’s tannist human being. I mean sit like he looks like the orange Reese’s Pizza

 

Gus Hickey Mm-hmm they the colorization actually was a big problem for him. It was much better before. Yeah

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, wow, you’ve spent a lot of time in Palm Springs. You are Umber. But this is a little bit later in his career. It’s a 67 and it’s just an adventure movie that kind of feels like a Hitchcock movie. It’s routinely called one of the most Hitchock, non-Hitchcock movies. But the two of them are just sent on this caper that is like very scenic and visually stunning. I really recommend it. You can watch it every year and find something new every time. And it’s also, they both get chances to be funny. And people, again, do not think of Audrey Hepburn as funny.

 

Gus Hickey Yeah, no, she, I mean, that comic performance in My Fair Lady is, and also, again, Sabrina, she’s hilarious in Sabrina, physical comedy, cracking the eggs, it’s amazing. I also, speaking of colorization, that brings me back to Ted Turner. The National Film Registry was actually created because Ted Turner was colorizing films for Turner Classic movies, and they wanted to preserve the black and white. People were so angry about that that they created the National Film Registry in response to him.

 

Louis Virtel No, it’s it’s Ted Turner’s this weird like category of he cared about old movies But then also was so brusque and stubborn that he would do things that were obviously objectionable But then he would like, you know Barrel ahead with them and also when he started colorizing these movies once upon a time They would be like all pastel looking like the colors were not human. It was not like successful someone

 

Chris Schleicher Someone had watercolored over. I remember always seeing the TV commercials for Shirley Temple box sets where she looked to have been watercolored in and it was horrifying to me.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right, no, it’s all wrong. Now we must get to the bitchy part of this conversation. So, Rex Reed, film critic for the New York Observer, but also the Daily News. Critic for about 60 years. Complete bitch. Rude often, rude in a not funny way sometimes.

 

Gus Hickey Yeah, no, to the point of questioning Marisa Tomei’s Oscar win.

 

Louis Virtel Criticizing criticizing like the weight of certain actresses and said just like an asshole a lot of the time that said it’s fun To hate on things do you have particular? Plastic movies

 

Chris Schleicher I was gonna say in this conversation about Audrey, skip breakfast at Tiffany’s. My least favorite of her nominations. People say they like it. You like a poster that you saw one time. Now that’s the poster. And you like the song Moon River. Yes. There is a horrible subplot of racist Mickey Rooney as an Asian man. But he looks so good, I’m kidding. There’s so many weird daffy characters. There’s scenes that you can pull from it and be like, oh, those were lovely. But the film as a whole, stoinks. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, not as revisitable. I mean, like, we always are obsessed with her and the nun story, which is, that’s a nomination for Audrey Hepburn that people don’t talk about. It’s about a woman becoming a nun and slowly it dawns on her this might not be the place for her. It’s a slow burn, but it is so well done. Her talent is expressed in a way that it’s not in any other movie. It’s like slow cinema, basically. But you’re right, breakfast at Tiffany’s I never revisit.

 

Chris Schleicher Another one I watched recently with the hope that I would love on St. Patrick’s Day was The Quiet Man. John Ford’s movie about Ireland with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. John Ford, one of our greatest directors of all time. It looks beautiful. John Wayne is such a bad actor that I find it impossible to get through a lot of his stuff.

 

Louis Virtel Oh yeah, no, it’s just people like him. They don’t actually appreciate any talent that he’s giving. No, it is crazy that he is a best actor winner for True Grit and he beat only legends that year. He beat Dustin Hoffman, he beat John Voight, who I align with politically more than talent-wise. He beat Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole.

 

Chris Schleicher Yeah, I cannot even his the movie true grit. I think I prefer the 2010 one. No

 

Louis Virtel No, they made that movie, I’m positive, because the original was not good. It’s like my favorite thing about George Clooney is he made Ocean’s Eleven because he saw the original and said, this is not good, this should be fun and full of flair and stuff.

 

Chris Schleicher If I’m giving advice to potential TCM fans, save Westerns for when you’re an addict. I find that they are hard to connect with.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, I don’t love even High Noon, which has the best actor winning performance, and also Grace Kelly’s worst performance.

 

Gus Hickey I also, I do think like maybe modern Westerns I can get into, like Unforgiven and even Dances with Wolves. But, but I… Like, no.

 

Louis Virtel Like, no country for old men or something. Or something, yeah.

 

Gus Hickey They kind of refigured out the genre of like, oh, this is actually better this way with anti-heroes. So I’m going back to the musical genre, The Golden Age of Rodgers and Hammerstein, my favorite Rodgers& Hammerstein musical, South Pacific, it is just, the movie adaptation of South Pacific is just horrible. They dropped the ball on it. It was like the time to make another, they were making the sound of music, they were the making the King and I, everything was going very well. And they make sound of music. Unfortunately, Mitzi Gaynor was miscast in that and they, one of the iconic songs, which is gonna wash that man right out of my hair, they cut down to one verse she sings by herself. The other nurses don’t join in with her. She just sings it and then he comes and they do the next song, which is an unforgivable sin. I know no one else is harping on this, but people must remember. Go watch.

 

Louis Virtel Go watch the Glenn Close TV version instead, of course. People do not remember that Glenn Close was in a TV version of South Pacific playing a character who was supposed to be 30 years younger.

 

Gus Hickey Yes. Part of the plot is that she is slightly too old for marrying age in the 40s, but they were pushing it with the Glenn clothes. They made her about as oatmeal-skinned as you could on the screen. But Harry Connick Jr. Is in that as well. It is kind of fun to watch.

 

Louis Virtel You guys all know I hate this one. The Blues Brothers. This goes back to the beginning of our friendship. Aretha Franklin singing Think At You is not comedy. Why are we doing this? So what’s going on? You’re wearing hats. You have sunglasses. You like the blues. And so you sometimes hold the harmonica to your mouth and move it rigorously. Now what? I just, I don’t understand this SNL sketch as we, Chris and I have talked about many times, SNL in the 70s is a very mixed bag. It’s a lot of people figuring out the television show that will become Saturday Night Live. A lot of the people coming.

 

Chris Schleicher A lot of people coming down off their high or coming up onto a new high while they are in the middle of a weird monolog. Yes, yes.

 

Louis Virtel But like even like Gilda Redder on SNL, she had kind of nothing to do for the first couple of years. Like she came up later in the first five years of SNL and the Blues Brothers were among the first iconic characters on that show. And I admit that they have a iconic look, but as like comedians, just like they have nothing to doing. I’m so uninterested in the music they made. And by the way, they were Grammy nominees for best new artist. Oh.

 

Gus Hickey It makes me want to be a gun owner. We really, the early 70s SNL, it is exactly that 30 Rock joke of the mailbox falling over and being like, the mailbox was Haldeman. They just didn’t, they had no idea what was necessarily funny. They were kind of defining it at the time and they were coming up with it, but to extend it into a two hour film where the joke, the punchline is what they look like, like that’s it.

 

Chris Schleicher I think we need seven more movies and documentaries about Lorne to get to the bottom of what was so exciting about- His crazy mind. Was it kind of all thrown together at the last second? I don’t know.

 

Louis Virtel Oh yeah, remember we got that movie Saturday night last year?

 

Chris Schleicher I try to forget

 

Louis Virtel He was like, I’m gonna put together this TV show, but I have to step outside a second to think about how crazy everything is. Also, he was such a fucking bastard about Carol Burnett. Do you know that like when he put together SNL, like the MO was, we can’t do anything like the Carol Burnet show. Like we hate that, we don’t stand for that or whatever, to the point where Carol Burnette has responded and said, I don’t know what his problem is. And by the way, she like, what? Like I feel like every kind of maverick straight guy has to feel like they’re rebelling against something, and even if it’s like a complete lie. Like, I don’t think of that show and Carol Burnett at odds with each other at all. I think another thing he objected to, funny enough, was Carol Burnet and the cast of that show breaking during scenes. Well, bitch, I guess that came back to you.

 

Gus Hickey It is the signature of SNL, it’s amazing.

 

Louis Virtel It’s not just Jimmy Fallon.

 

Chris Schleicher I miss a sketch that requires you to have in-depth knowledge of Gone with the Wind, to laugh at her wearing the curtain dress with the rods in it.

 

Louis Virtel And by the way, I’ve got bad news for you. If you watch Gone with the Wind, you will have a good time.

 

Chris Schleicher Ted Turner so obsessed with it that one of his sons is named Red.

 

Louis Virtel By the way, I honestly believe his entire interest in classic film is that he believes he’s Rhett Butler. Naming your son Rhett.

 

Chris Schleicher Is like me naming my son Lydia Tarr.

 

Gus Hickey Another thing about Ted Turner being like, you know, this everyone’s existential fear at the moment of oligarchs controlling the media like Ted Turner also was that, but at least he was hot. Yeah, like that was the saving grace.

 

Louis Virtel That was the saving grace. Yeah, where’s our rugged millionaire, billionaires? They’re simply not around anymore. At least he gave us Captain Planet. Yes, that is the weirdest thing about him. But also the early 90s were a hotbed of educational entertainment that you got like money to make or something. Like they needed it on the air.

 

Chris Schleicher Also, it ties in with TCM. Are you aware of the episode of Captain Planet with Elizabeth Taylor and Neil Patrick Harris?

 

Louis Virtel Funny, I wasn’t born yesterday. Yeah, it’s about AIDS. It’s about Aids.

 

Chris Schleicher Neil Patrick Harris plays a kid with HIV and Elizabeth Taylor plays his mother and Captain Planet has to stop prejudice against it. I’m like, this is wild, this isn’t on television. Good for them. Yeah, right. And also of course, the Eastern European girl who has the power of the wind, I feel like did win Eurovision in 1992.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, Linka is exactly who wins Eurovision. The blonde girl from Captain Planet.

 

Gus Hickey We also were trying to remember right before we came on this what was the heart power? What did it do?

 

Louis Virtel It was like you understand animals.

 

Gus Hickey That feels like a rewrite. I would monty, monty. Monty, Monty.

 

Chris Schleicher Looking it up, and I think at the beginning, it was like he could just like calm people down. He could like make the vibe like great for everyone. Yeah, he brought snacks. Ambience, like yeah. Personality higher.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, no, but it was like, it was something about nature, right? It morphed into talking to animals.

 

Chris Schleicher Into talking to animals and telepathy because I think they realize like we forgot to give them a power.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right, right.

 

Chris Schleicher Ted’s got us up 24 hours writing this stuff. We forgot to give a hard…

 

Louis Virtel So we forgot to give Heart a power. But also he’s like Billy from Power Rangers where his real power was like nice gay guy.

 

Chris Schleicher Yeah, secret. Yeah. Yeah, the power of secret homosexuality. Yes, which powers you to remember Olympia Dukakis.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, right.

 

Chris Schleicher This is Barney Actors, and I’ll see you next time.

 

Louis Virtel And she beat three different actresses with what name? Anne. That’s correct. That’s right. Welcome home. Okay, what are your favorite classic movies that you introduce newcomers to? I also want to say Sleuth, which I don’t feel like you guys have seen. No. With Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. Haven’t seen. It’s just all a series that’s based on a play. One guy invites another guy over to his crazy house full of puzzles and games. And that’s the movie.

 

Chris Schleicher A new one I discovered this year, Tea and Sympathy, Vincent Minnelli. Another obstacle I think people have to old movies is thinking that like, everyone’s so old fashioned back then, they didn’t think about hard problems. This is a crazy movie about a boy who’s teased in school for being queer, acting too feminine. And the wife of the coach at school takes an interest in him and invites him to tea and he faces so much bullying over it and it’s this wrestling with these feelings in a way that like. For the time is so mature, I was blown away. So yeah, watch movies like that. And like pre-code movies are like so sexy and weird. Like we think that we’re in this modernity. We’re the first people to ever have these thoughts. Like no, generations before I’ve had these and sometimes they made it onto film in really surprising ways. Totally.

 

Gus Hickey But that’s sort of the joy of classic film, is to like, I think gay people come to classic film and find it more easily because it is like, oh, even 90 years ago, people were feeling the emotions that I was feeling. I’m alone, but look at this reflected back to me. And people just need to have faith that like the human experience was, is present in these films in ways that you will connect to. I’m not in a necessarily deeply emotional way, but I was gonna say, my man Godfrey.

 

Louis Virtel Was going to bring up my man, God.

 

Gus Hickey 90 year old comedy that we are still laughing at with excellent performances. I mean, it’s if you liked Anyone but you but you wished it was good Try my man God

 

Louis Virtel That’s the most Rex Reed thing you’ve ever said.

 

Gus Hickey What?

 

Chris Schleicher Watch a Mae West comedy, you’ll blush. Yeah. Also it’ll be like 33 minutes long, her longest. Yeah, you’re right. No, she was like, we need to get in and out. She was rolled in.

 

Louis Virtel On a gurney to say some sex puns and then go off yes um anyway what are your favorite classic films tell us we will be back.

 

Louis Virtel [AD]

 

Louis Virtel Our next guest is an actor, dancer, and all-around rad person. You may know her from her work in the film Zola, I certainly do, or HBO’s Welcome to Derry. She’s becoming a fixture in the fashion world and now she’s starring in Boots Riley’s new movie, I Love Boosters, which you can catch in theaters May 22nd, please welcome somebody who has never done a podcast before, allegedly Taylour Paige. How do you feel about it, good?

 

Taylour Paige I feel so good about it. This is cool. It’s so cute in here

 

Louis Virtel I, oh no, this room is like deeply curated.

 

Taylour Paige It’s deeply curated. I you guys come curate my room.

 

Louis Virtel The teal alone should be very placating. I hope you feel at home. Yes.

 

Taylour Paige I do and actually teal is a theme and I love boosters

 

Louis Virtel It sure is. I would say the color story in this movie, first of all, before we get into the comedy of this movie the adventure of this movie, the the thrills of this movie, the look of this movie is so shocking. It’s so kaleidoscopic. And I want to begin with the costumes in this movie, which are outrageous and plentiful. How long did like fittings for this movie take?

 

Taylour Paige Well, everything was really expedited and accelerated. It was very much, we all got paid $8 to do this. We all wanted to be there. Shirley, Oscar award-winning costume designer got us together and we pulled favors. It was like, it was very a love story.

 

Louis Virtel Because some of these looks are like full monochrome and then there’s like putting these looks altogether must’ve been shocking. Like did it begin in like look books? Were you like coming through pictures of all this stuff beforehand?

 

Taylour Paige It’s very much just boots his brain. I mean, I don’t know what’s in there. You know, he wears that big hat, but under that hat is a lot of ideas and colors and mixing of patterns and just like whatever to support this wacky, crazy world that he imagines. I mean he’s just genius and Shirley is genius.

 

Louis Virtel I mean, the costumes are genius. It takes two seconds to realize that you’re looking at something very extraordinary. But also, the entire company of this cast are just people seemingly you would want to hang out with. It’s like Kiki Palmer. You’ve got the amazing Naomi Aki, who’s… Oh my gosh. Fellow independent spirit award winner, and Poppy Liu, who is very funny, in addition to Demi Moore in her first real movie role since The Substance. Talk about this company of people.

 

Taylour Paige It’s just, I mean, it’s stacked. Keke Palmer, Asa Gonzalez, Poppy Lu, Naomi Ackie, Lakeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Don Cheadle. I mean it’s like, it kind of incredible. And everyone is just as cool as you can imagine. Just everyone’s at the top of their game. It’s like it was so surreal to be with my contemporaries who are leading this generation of art, of filmmaking.

 

Louis Virtel Also, Kiki Palmer, just in general, we say this a lot on this podcast, is like, she’s like keeping old school talent alive, like she’s just like a whiz bang girl. A whiz-bang girl.

 

Taylour Paige Yeah, she’s a wizard. She’s incredible.

 

Louis Virtel What’s it like just hanging out with her? Does she, I mean, I say this, asking for her health, can she turn it off?

 

Taylour Paige That’s just Kiki. I think she just, actually I don’t know what her human design is, but she’s a generator. Like she just… I think really just loves it. She loves being alive, she loves entertaining and she’s made for this. She’s just a star is born. And I think as she evolves and matures, as we all do, she gets even more sophisticated and clear with what she… It’s like she’s creating the world in which she wants to live.

 

Louis Virtel She’s just one of these people like you wouldn’t never hire. She belongs everywhere. You would hire her to host the Today Show and you would host her to the Oscars. She is.

 

Taylour Paige She is, I think, the most loved person on planet Earth.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, right. I don’t know who she’s God’s favorite. Right. Like, like even like Paul McCartney is like in third or something now, you know.

 

Taylour Paige Third or something. No, Kiki Palmer is I always I joke with her because she’s also a philosopher and we’re both very much thinkers. But I always joke with him like you’re like an 80 year old man trapped in this beautiful 30 something year old body. Yeah. Because every time she speaks every maybe third sentence, it’s a proverb.

 

Louis Virtel You know, yeah, right

 

Taylour Paige and she drops bars and wisdom and she’s like, you know, she’s because, and she’ll drop, you’re like, wow, that was really profound, but then it’s also funny. And I was pregnant shooting this, so I would pee on myself all the time because Kiki just, I’m like, girl, I am not ready.

 

Louis Virtel No, she also is the kind of person who can’t not be funny, and I don’t mean to say that she’s contrived. No, no, she can’t. That’s the language she speaks.

 

Taylour Paige No, she I know it’s the tone. It’s the it’s like she can’t help it. I was we were talking about going to the chiropractor and I was like, you know, they say it could be really good for babies. She’s she goes, oh, no, my baby doesn’t have a spine yet. Like, it’s just everything is like a sing song. Like, you’re like, she’s just yeah, she is the best.

 

Louis Virtel Very funny.

 

Taylour Paige He really orchestrated the best cab.

 

Louis Virtel I also want to say that, like, in every interview you’ve done, you are extremely amusing, too. Please don’t be. Oh, thank you. Kiki’s not the only hilarious person in this cast.

 

Taylour Paige Thank you, that’s very sweet.

 

Louis Virtel Now also, okay, so the movie is called I Love Boosters. A lot goes on in this movie. Like the plot goes a bunch of different directions. It begins with it’s a bunch of boosters meaning they’re shoplifters. My question for you is why is shoplifting the most exciting movie activity to watch? If there is shop lifting in a movie, I’m like, let’s go.

 

Taylour Paige I think because we’re all tired and our pockets are tired and our gas prices, we’re just like, everybody’s just collectively exhausted that if we thought we could get away with stealing things, we would.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah

 

Taylour Paige You know, if we weren’t gonna hurt anybody, but we knew we could be provided for and we could just maybe rest a little bit more, I think collectively, that’s the.

 

Louis Virtel There’s some function in West Hollywood. There’s like a gas station that’s doing an I love boosters free gas promo today.

 

Taylour Paige Free gas, get your free gas.

 

Louis Virtel I saw that and I was like, unfortunately this is really exciting. Like I would rush there. Like, I would rush there.

 

Taylour Paige Unfortunately, you’re with me right now, but you’re not getting free gas.

 

Louis Virtel But you’re not getting pre-gashed. Yeah, it should have been me. It should have been me.

 

Taylour Paige It should’ve been you, but you know, we do what we can.

 

Louis Virtel No, I was thinking of like the most exciting, whatever, moments on TV or movie recently. And I thought of the first scene of the TV show Pose where all the queens like rob a store. And there’s just something about it that’s so like, like, if you get away with it, it’s like, I don’t know, like you won, like you beat life somehow.

 

Taylour Paige I think so. I mean, I think as we all collectively are, we’re in it. We’re in this life. Yeah. It’s not easy. Maybe it just feels like, well, if you got away with it, you you deserve it. I don’t know what it is. I know. I think but also I look like in covid gas prices skyrocket. It wasn’t like you all are at home and you don’t know if you’ll come back to work or if your job will ever be there. But gas prices are still going to rise. It’ s not like, you know, it’s not like poor people. You guys are at home and people don’t know when they’ll work again let’s You know, lower, let’s give the human beings a break. No, there’s been no break. It’s just gotten worse and we don’t have toilet, I mean it’s just been like, it’s ridiculous.

 

Louis Virtel I have to ask more about the design of this movie. This is like the first movie I’ve seen in a long time that feels partly inspired by someone like Roald Dahl. Like there are just like set designs in this movie that are so wacky, like Demi Moore, the main villain, lives in a house that is actually crooked.

 

Speaker 4 Yeah

 

Louis Virtel Like you have to walk up an incline to get through the living room. What was it like just being on the set of this absolutely one of a kind thing?

 

Taylour Paige Oh, it only added to the absurd satirical kind of…

 

Louis Virtel And it’s quite satirical, yes.

 

Taylour Paige It’s quite satirical, but I think it’s, it’s though it’s it feels, I felt it’s symbolic, because our world is sideways. Like when are you ever really leveled, grounded, standing on earth and feeling like, okay, I got this. Like every day is like, every day, is a winding road.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, Cheryl Crowe fan too? I can go deep on Cheryl. Okay. Yeah.

 

Taylour Paige I mean, Indiana, well, she’s not from there, but.

 

Louis Virtel Missouri, yes. Missouri. A little bit.

 

Taylour Paige Missouri, a little, I mean, not too far.

 

Louis Virtel Oh yeah, no, no.

 

Taylour Paige Put it down.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, really unscenic highways between them, yes, and I’ve been there.

 

Taylour Paige Did you do a road trip?

 

Louis Virtel No, well, my mom’s from St. Louis, so I was like, yeah, yeah.

 

Taylour Paige Oh, you’re, oh, okay. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel I have all the cities covered over there.

 

Taylour Paige I love that.

 

Louis Virtel But you’re a born-and-brought LA girl.

 

Taylour Paige Yes, I am.

 

Louis Virtel What’s the best part about growing up in L.A.? You seem really daunted by that question.

 

Taylour Paige Well, I have my thoughts about it. I think that the best is the weather, which is obvious, the weather and, you know, I think LA is a place, it’s exposure, but I think you have to go somewhere else to become. That’s my opinion. Growing up here, I thing it’s important that you leave. I do think, I don’t think it’s normal to have beautiful weather every single day of your life. I think there’s a little bit of a divine, not even divine, there’s an amnesia. Like it’s just hot, like you wanna be outside and not do anything. But I think to become, you need a little bit of grit. You need some weather change. You need layers. You need to be inside on a sad day reading. You need more, you needed variety.

 

Louis Virtel I’m glad to hear that because every day I’m here in LA, I’m so thankful for the weather. Like having grown up in Chicago where it’s just-

 

Taylour Paige Well, you have that contrast, but you need some kind of contrast, I think, to be able to live here.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, no. And so where did you go? Where did where would you venture out?

 

Taylour Paige Well, now I live in New York City, but it was a long time coming and I ended up going to college here and long story short, I stayed here out of guilt for my mother and long story short I just ended up staying here. And then you wake up and you’re like, I’ve only been living in LA, it’s a little bit. I think we have to go places. I think everybody should leave home. I just do. Oh, absolutely. Jesus left home.

 

Louis Virtel We are so like him

 

Taylour Paige You know, well, we could only try.

 

Louis Virtel I’m doing my best.

 

Taylour Paige I’m doing my damn best too

 

Louis Virtel I also amnesia is the right word because in LA it’s like you live on the set of a play, you know It’s like like every day. It’s Oklahoma weather

 

Taylour Paige every day. And it’s like, do you and it’s very like, do you want to go to the it feels like just the days bleed into each other. Yes. Until suddenly it rains that everyone’s like. Oh, my God, it’s raining. Are you going to go too? Blah, blah, blah today. And it like such this it’s just this drama of driving, you know, two miles about how the rest of the world lives and the rest the world adjusts.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, no my first like two months in LA the first time it rained I remember was in some sort of corporate cubicle situation I overheard someone another room saying who is gonna pick up my kids As if like rain would prevent you from having a car or whatever

 

Taylour Paige But that’s how you feel when you’re in LA because you get that, it’s very strange. But I love LA. It’s my home. I did become here and I was very much curious and wanted to like, I’ve got everything I could out of LA.

 

Louis Virtel Now, speaking of that, you did a movie a couple years ago called Mac and Rita with one of the greatest stars who ever lived, Diane Keaton. Speaking of, by the way, amazing clothes in films, namely in this movie.

 

Speaker 4 Yeah!

 

Louis Virtel Talk about having interacted with her, because she is one of one. There is no second Diane Keaton, not just in terms of talent, but in terms what would come out of this woman’s mouth, I’m sure on a daily basis.

 

Taylour Paige A lot of great things, a lot of, she’s very, it’s like your, it’s Diane, it’ like Annie Hall, it’s just icon, it just, but she’s also, she was the most self-deprecating. Welcoming and considerate and just like yeah, like just everything you’d want her to be

 

Louis Virtel And of course like every line reading is just like thank God we said that because where is this coming from and who are you?

 

Taylour Paige Yeah, she was a sweetie pie.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, I’m so glad to hear that.

 

Taylour Paige She is a sweetie pie. I think we never, I don’t think we die. I think we just transform.

 

Louis Virtel Now, I have to bring up Zola, because I think of in the past, I’ll say 10 years or so, the amount of pressure on casting one role that like was already existed in pop culture in some way and people wanted it to live up to whatever, however they were introduced to it, that has to be near the top.

 

Taylour Paige It was pretty tough because your personal relationship with your social media and what you’re projecting this person to look like and then the actual person and those two things needing to work.

 

Louis Virtel So if people have forgotten, it was based on a viral Twitter thread and it was made into this very concise movie. I can’t think of another movie that’s been adapted from Twitter. I don’t think it’s ever been done since.

 

Taylour Paige I mean, I’m sure there will be others, but I don’t I don’t

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, directed by Janiska Bravo and co-written with our friend Jeremy O’Harris. Talk about filming that movie and becoming that character that is based on only a scant few lines of text.

 

Taylour Paige Pretty amazing. That was a really. Wild expanse of time in my personal life, Saturn return. And I was, you get it? And it was, but I was also just, I felt like it was the beginning of a courageous Taylour. Like I was who I needed to be. She’s so embodied and has such agency and was like really just, I mean, sex working. Like it’s no joke. You know what I mean? You’re selling a service, but you’re very much, there’s a protection, but there’s also a kind of understanding of life in them. You know, you walk into a strip club and you instantly are looking at people’s watches. You’re looking at someone’s shoes. You’re look at how that man spoke to the, like, very interesting for me. I really loved the preparation for that. It was, yeah, I worked at a strip clubs to prepare. I worked with crazy girls here in LA. It was like, I was undercover. It was wild.

 

Louis Virtel Are there things you took specifically from that experience that would have been impossible to do the movie without?

 

Taylour Paige I mean, I think you take something with every role, I do. I really, really have such reverence for writing, for filmmaking, for acting. I just, so I think in that space, me coming out of my, you know, toward the end of my 20s, the 20s are so hard. I just honor the, I now feel, I think now in hindsight, I just have so much grace for how hard I went to prep for the role and so much grace for. Someone who had to fake the agency that she had now coming into my body and having agency now. But now I think I would do Zola even differently. Like I have even more, it’s just, it’s all learning, it’s all learning.

 

Louis Virtel You’ve also, Coleman Domingo was in that movie. You were of course in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom with Viola Davis. Who’s your favorite actor to have just watched work on set?

 

Taylour Paige Viola. Oh, yeah. Coleman. I don’t I can’t name because even like working with Kendrick, right? That was live

 

Louis Virtel Oh, of course, yes.

 

Taylour Paige You know, so working with one of the greatest, arguably one of the greatest of all time to like greatest rapper, but to rap with him live like that was just again, it was like the theme has been agency. The theme has been like, it’s almost like the angels have been like you got this you you got it like

 

Louis Virtel Well, specifically in that circumstance where I’m sure you never dreamed you would be in that particular scenario.

 

Taylour Paige Who plans for that?

 

Louis Virtel You gotta say, is that the most kind of surreal thing you’ve done?

 

Taylour Paige Very much so. Yeah. I mean, the most surreal thing I’ve done is given birth.

 

Louis Virtel Oh yeah, there’s that too.

 

Taylour Paige Yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

Louis Virtel You women really have to go through a lot.

 

Taylour Paige We really do. I mean, you know, no big deal. Yeah. Happy Mother’s Day. But yes, uh, that was the craziest thing I’ve ever done. But as far as performing goes, I think yeah, performing live and recording a song with him. And I didn’t know I was doing that that night. Right. Like I meet him and he’s like, so here’s what we’re going to do. And by the way,

 

Louis Virtel And by the way, you just conjured the energy that is who he is, you know, like the stillness.

 

Taylour Paige He’s also just like a walking sage. Yeah. So, but again, it was just so fascinating for me. I felt just so witnessed because he basically was like, you can do this. I know you can this and I did.

 

Louis Virtel That would be even scarier to me.

 

Taylour Paige I know, it’s a little bit scary to be seen, isn’t it?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Taylour Paige . But it’s funny that it’s almost like the baby, the baby you, the baby me, the maybe us, like we’re fulfilling this kind of, I don’t know, I can’t speak for your childhood, not for us to get into therapy, but I think I always wanted attention and I wanted someone to see me. So it’s been, it’s funny to be this age and people are saying like, we do, we do see you, I see you.

 

Louis Virtel Interesting about you being seen. I was learning recently that you are not a horror fan and yet you start on the It series. Welcome to Derry. Now, I thinking about it though, I feel like people who star in horror movies should be afraid of this stuff because that probably makes it more real.

 

Taylour Paige You use it. Yeah, I just look I’m up for a colorful life a colorful existence and I’m always up to be challenged but as far as if I’m gonna watch that on my Saturday night on my tube? No.

 

Louis Virtel No, I have to say I tend to avoid it too because I think bad horror is my least favorite type of movie.

 

Taylour Paige Yeah, you’re like, come on now.

 

Louis Virtel Because the bloodshed doesn’t do anything for me just in general, so it has to be good, you know?

 

Taylour Paige It has to be good. You know, our show though, it’s 1962, so you already have the horror of that time in our country. Right, which goes pretty serious. Which is pretty, it is not funny. And then there’s a clown running around killing kids. So, you know, you have to.

 

Louis Virtel There’s layers.

 

Taylour Paige There’s layers so so it’s it’s uh, I guess it’s good horror

 

Louis Virtel Do you have a favorite cinematic experience in one of your early roles that you think about a lot?

 

Taylour Paige Oh, I love that question. I think Ma Rainey was a turning point because I had shot Zola, that was 2018, and that was such a fun experience. Oh wow, so it was released much later. Um, we shot Ma Rainey in 2019 and I remember sitting at that, at our table read and it was George C. Wolf and Chadwick Boseman and Viola and Denzel. And, and I’m just at this table. Like it’s Thanksgiving, but we’re about to read. And I’m like, what is my life? This is so This is, I remember going to the bathroom and just being like, get it together. You also have a seat at this table.

 

Louis Virtel But also the Denzel and Viola together thing.

 

Taylour Paige Insane

 

Louis Virtel The August Wilson of it all, you know.

 

Taylour Paige Exactly. Oh, you know you’re

 

Louis Virtel Oh yeah, I’ve been around.

 

Taylour Paige Do you know what was actually really cool was, this is actually, I got to tell Austin Butler this, but it was right when Elvis came out. It was 2019 and Baz Luhrmann called Denzel and George to ask kind of about how Austin’s process was because they did Iceman Cometh with him.

 

Louis Virtel Oh

 

Taylour Paige And I was witnessing them sing Austin’s praises to Baz to basically solidify the role. And basically Denzel came in like, he got it, he’s got it. He was so happy. And I’m like, that’s also really cool. I’m seeing also one of the greatest actors of all time be excited about this younger actor coming up who’s about to go play Elvis Presley, who also is one of my greatest friend’s grandfather. Like it just felt.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, no, sweet. That’s also secretly, I’m sure one of the joys of being like a veteran actor is like, you want to see the talent in other people. You want the industry to be great. You hope.

 

Taylour Paige You hope, you’re there like they walk so we could run, we run so they can fly, they fly so we can dance, I guess.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, is there any up and coming talent you can see yourself hyping to other people that you’re really excited about?

 

Taylour Paige Oh my goodness, don’t put me in that position. There’s so many incredible actors, so many. I also, funny enough, my babysitter, she’s 21 and I think she has a great future ahead of her.

 

Louis Virtel Well, you know, let me tell you something every once in a while a babysitter becomes famous I know the woman who babysat for Carole King little Eva sang the locomotion

 

Taylour Paige OK, I was a babysitter, I was a nanny, I cleaned house, I did the thing, too. Like, I hope that we yeah, I want us all to win. And I think movie who’s great right now. There’s so many. I don’t know. I put on the spot.

 

Louis Virtel Do you find yourself watching a lot of movies still? Is it like a part of your diet necessarily? Yeah.

 

Taylour Paige Yeah, I do. I’m a big, I love films. I do, I love films and I love books.

 

Louis Virtel What movie have you seen the most?

 

Taylour Paige That’s kind of embarrassing. It’s probably sound of music.

 

Louis Virtel What would be embarrassing about that?

 

Taylour Paige Well, because it’s like isn’t that like in a little bit maybe that and all about Eve

 

Louis Virtel I think that movie has a universal problem, which is how do you deal with a psychopath who is technically doing nothing wrong? Right. And what’s the answer? You can’t, like, she won.

 

Taylour Paige Oh my gosh, I just felt that in my sacrum. No, you’re, and also it’s just, like you, it’s almost poor Betty Davis in that, right? Cause she’s like, her little eyes are like.

 

Louis Virtel She’s like, I lose like this woman’s on to me. Yeah

 

Taylour Paige Yeah, it’s so good. Oh, and you want to just slap the shit out of her, right? Because you know, yeah, that I think it’s probably Sound of Music and All About Eve. And I always get people to watch All About Eve.

 

Louis Virtel Oh good, you’re on our team. You really should be in this episode. I think so. Two best picture winners, by the way, 1950 and 1965.

 

Taylour Paige Pretty sick.

 

Louis Virtel Okay, well you have great taste and it’s clear based on the company you keep in this movie, which is so much fun.

 

Taylour Paige Thank you.

 

Louis Virtel Thank you so much for being here. Taylour Paige, you’re a doll.

 

Taylour Paige Thank you for having me.

 

Louis Virtel Such a dream.

 

[AD]

 

Louis Virtel And we’re back. It’s time to be somehow even bitchier. It’s the keep it segment of keep it. I guess we’ll start with Gus. Gus, what are you saying Keep it to, this episode?

 

Gus Hickey All right, well, my keep it is sort of a two part thing or one thing that’s gonna lead to a second thing. And again, we can’t get away from awards season. We have sort of entered into this years long awards season, which I really enjoy and it really validates all of my interests. Keep it to that in May, in the year of our Lord, 2026, we are still giving awards to adolescents. No, how? Like, it came out in March 20- He’s an adult. He’s a adult, damn it. He’s now taller than every cast member. I just saw a post of like how tall he’s gotten. It is really insane. It came out March 2025. We are still getting, giving it best TV series of the year. In 2026 May, we need to universalize, or somehow- combine the eligibility windows of these awards programs, BAFTA’s eligibility window is January 1st to January 1, as are the Oscars and the Golden Globes. The Emmys are June 1st, to June 1, which I think is the problem staring us in the face, because that used to be relevant for all television, because it was network television, and that was the only TV that was around. Now TV is on a year-long release schedule. So I do feel like the Emmys are the ones that need to change and standardize these eligibility windows. Although, I hesitate to say that because I also love the fact that there are just random awards in the middle of May. That’s excellent. But this kind of leads me towards the second part of this, which is the fact, that adolescence wins every single award every single time that it’s up. And every series now, it feels like. A movie or television show is good and is deemed awards worthy, it wins everything.

 

Louis Virtel Agreed. The Schitt’s Creek was the beginning of this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

Gus Hickey We’ve got to, I think in this age where consensus is really comfortable, where we are seeking consensus because everything is so chaotic and we want, we want to feel connected and we want to agree with people when we can because everything seems so out of control. I think people are seeking Consensus with like television and film and they’re like, Well, at least I know. Everybody liked this. So if everybody liked this, that means it was good acting, writing, editing. Everything about it was, good which is not true. It’s simply not true, I mean if you look at the Oscar acting nominations from this past year, 11 of the 20 acting nominations are from three movies. That is just not real. Like we just have to, the Amy Madigan nomination for weapons is so exciting because it’s like yes, there is a, that is a tiny thing about a movie that everyone recognized. Elevated the film in a way where perhaps the writing or the editing perhaps other parts of it weren’t awards worthy But this this tiny piece of it everybody recognized was really really special and vital to that film and when we are Struggling for films to find success and find audiences small films these award ceremonies means so much So go and watch other smaller movies and maybe there’s a supporting actress performance that you missed. That’s excellent in this Brazilian film or what have you. I mean, I’m thinking about Ghost Light from two years ago that I absolutely loved, which had an actor performance that was out of this world and nobody recognized it because there are, we just send sort of steamroll award seasons now with one coronation of a program. Like we do not need to nominate every single performer who’s ever had a line on the bear. Yeah, right. We just don’t there. There are other supporting actor in a comedy nominees. There are television shows coming out every second. There’s got to be others out there for us to nominate.

 

Louis Virtel Well, I mean, what you’re talking about is the Jamie Lee Curtis Oscar, which is just by the way, by the way, she’s fine in the movie. It’s like, it’s just but she

 

Gus Hickey And she has a very talented actress who’s had a very long career.

 

Louis Virtel And an interesting career. But in this movie, the thrill of what you’re seeing is you recognize as Jamie Lee Curtis. Like it’s like, it’s an in-joke kind of performance. The character has a punny name. The idea that she would win an Oscar over, for example, Angela Bassett, for example Carrie Condon was that year. Makes no sense, but it’s exactly what you’re talking about. People love the feeling of the rush of voting down ticket on one thing that was great, because the vibe of that movie is so easy to embrace. So if I’m embracing the vibe of that move, I’m voting for everybody.

 

Gus Hickey And you don’t feel like you’re taking a risk. Because you’re like, oh, I’m also going to put it down for sound and visual effects. And it’s like, OK, well, think for two seconds. Maybe there’s another movie with better sound.

 

Louis Virtel Right, but you have to prove to me you’ve thought about the other movies at all. No, this is a disturbing trend, thank you for pointing it out. It’s like you’re writing a feature from the newspaper I’m the editor of.

 

Gus Hickey I came at you with everything I have.

 

Chris Schleicher You’ve done well! And I’m just shaking because now I’m thinking about Jamie Lee Curtis and Ella McKay. And if maybe our Oscar, awarding her with that Oscar, has encouraged her in the wrong direction. That’s true. Because now she has teeth marks in the scenery of everything she’s in.

 

Louis Virtel And excuse me, she’s now in Scarpetta and also going to be murder, she wrote, which is too much to tell.

 

Chris Schleicher Break take a nice long vacation. Yes. See me the courtesy you’ve earned it.

 

Gus Hickey If a loved one of mine is murdered and the detective walks in and it’s Jamie Lee Curtis, I’m really worried. We’re not getting to the bottom of anything.

 

Louis Virtel And she’s giving you a whelp with arms akimbo. Chris, what is your Keep It today?

 

Chris Schleicher So while Gus called for a consensus or whatever, I think my keep it is about us going away from consensus. Oh, okay. Memorial Day is coming up and I was like, why do I feel stressed? And it’s because it’s time for us to start stressing out about what the song of the summer is. Yes, right. I’m already there, bitch. Since 2010, Billboard has been officially crowning it in a way that I think has taken all the fun and the spirit out of it. Apparently the song of the Summer last year was Alex Warren Ordinary, and on my world. Not in my summer world, I’m livin’ it. I should, when I hear a song, that song of the summer, be worrying that I need to reapply my SPF 70 with ectroaluminum. Like, it needs to, it’s not just quantifying what was the number one Billboard hit for the entire summer. It also needs to be a song that had a fun vibe. Quantifying it by Billboard has taken away something special about it and it’s sort of like, almost like straight people ruining things. It was a fun thing, like, what’s the song of the summer gonna be? And I was like, no, it was officially this Morgan Wallen song and you have to deal with it. So I’m saying, let’s like reimagine this. Like it can maybe be side from a Zara Larsen album is my song of a summer because it reminds me of that period in time. Dua Lipa Future Nostalgia will always remind me of the summers inside during COVID. What if I start picking songs from other years, like, uh, let’s say Vanessa Williams, legs keep dancing is my song of the summer.

 

Louis Virtel This is a song no one knows, let me explain it. It is a Latter-day Vanessa- We’re not even sure it exists. It is Vanessa Williams’ song where the chorus line is, the legs are the last to go, so I’m gonna keep dancing. She’s basically threatening that her legs will fall off. They say the legs of the last ago. I think-

 

Gus Hickey I think she’s threatening that when she dies, her legs are going to keep moving.

 

Louis Virtel That is what she’s saying. Like in a sort of like- Like a chicken. Yes, like Peter Gabriel Sledgehammer video, like claymations.

 

Chris Schleicher But if, like, Soak Up the Sun by Sheryl Crow is a song I’m listening to a ton in the summer of 2026, it is my song of summer. Keep it to letting Billboard tell you what your song of the summer is. It can be anything you want.

 

Louis Virtel Well, let me just say on that front, 2023, the song of the summer undoubtedly was Padam Padam. Was it on a chart? Legally, probably not. It did not make the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. No, right, but precisely. And I want to be clear, this is a Grammy winner for best dance recording. This is something that should be decided by panel. It’s sort of like that one judge talking about pornography. I know it when I see it. You know, it’s like, a song of the summer, it’s, like, you have to, I have to hear it, you know? It can’t just be, it happened to have gotten popular during the summer which is the case with, like a Morgan Wallen.

 

Chris Schleicher I stumbled into, Billboard started officially quantifying in 2010, like two or three years in, like Adele, like someone like you was the song, and Summer’s like, no, that is.

 

Gus Hickey That is a deep, deep song of the winter. Yeah. I also fear that if we’re, if these are our metrics for Song of the Summer, my Song of Summer will be the same for many, many summers in a row. Like, Raising Hell by Kesha will be my Song of the summer for the past seven years.

 

Louis Virtel I kinda like her new song, Origami. I haven’t heard it yet. Oh yeah. I’m just a big fan of hers in general. I’m a little bit Bob the Drag Queen bursting into tears over Kesha. A little bit on that person. Now as for my keep it, it also is about music coming out right now. Charli XCX has a new song called Rock Music. Women in Rock. I love it. Pat Benatar, Sex is a Weapon, one of my all time favorite summer songs. I love the oof of heart, any version of Women in Rock, Alanis Morissette or Sheryl Crow, whatever. I am a huge fan of Women In Rock, until today. This fucking song, Rock Music, first of all, it is neither rock nor music, sweetheart. I just wanna say, love Charli XCX. She has that kind of like, the rowdiness and the braininess and the seriousness and the not seriousness of someone like a Madonna, or like. Like Ginger Spice or whatever, just like somebody whose personality is like really addictive and you know, by the way, like the entire, the album Brat, that did not exist before. She came up with that, it was her own vision and it became a definitive moment in music and still remains one. Now she is moving on to, like rock instrumentation is in this song, it’s this like one minute 58 seconds song that has a thump in it, I kinda like, it reminds me of rock music and the way I enjoy everything else. Why did you release this? It is so bad, it is so unlistenable. I can only say I hope it is a prelude to rock music that sounds good and I’ll say more traditional, but my God, it so discordant and tough and I just didn’t want her to release a bad song right now and that is exactly what she has done.

 

Gus Hickey I agree that I hope and believe that it is sort of like what she did before Brat, where she’s releasing these like singles and EPs that didn’t end up on Brat but that kind of formed the sound of Brat. Yes, I’m encouraged in that way. Because it is different. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Um, but it is also not songs.

 

Gus Hickey But maybe she’s getting there, she’s kind of re-

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, she’s kind of reaching for it, right? She’s asking us. Is this a song? I will say

 

Chris Schleicher The Wuthering Heights album I absolutely love. Oh, love!

 

Louis Virtel I forgot to even bring it up. Nails.

 

Gus Hickey Nailed the assignment like yeah, like better

 

Chris Schleicher Better than the movie.

 

Gus Hickey Legally, I can’t. I’m not allowed to comment.

 

Chris Schleicher Um, but yeah, you’re allowed to have a stinker do something

 

Louis Virtel Thank you, Charlie, that’s fun. Yes, right, yeah. There’s a B-side on it, on this particular single that’s also not good. But I also want to say she was very funny on overcompensating, that one episode. Yeah.

 

Gus Hickey Yeah, she actually is a great actress and apparently her Eropchka movie that just came out, Eropcha, where she’s the lead actress in the film is excellent.

 

Chris Schleicher Also, to be clear, I listen to dozens of Eurovision songs every year. Do not listen to my taste in music. Oh, yeah. I said what I like before is songs that go, huh? So, Charlie, I am probably totally wrong about you. I also-

 

Gus Hickey I think the Wuthering Heights soundtrack is one of those examples of like, given an assignment and taking it, succeeding to an A-plus level that you couldn’t even imagine, it makes me think of the song That Thing You Do from That Thing you Do.

 

Louis Virtel My God, I listen to that song still all the fucking time. Though that song is interesting though, because while I love it, and it’s of course written by Adam Schlesinger who did Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Fountains of Wayne. Yeah, Fountaines of Wayne, et cetera. It reminds me more of Elvis Costello or like 70s rock than it does 60s, whatever was going on at the time, but it’s such an addictive song. Also, I love Charlize in that movie being like a horny cheater with the hot dentist.

 

Chris Schleicher That thing you do could be your song of the summer if you choose.

 

Louis Virtel To let it be. That’s right. It’s beautiful and also kind of sad. Just a familiar song that’s around. Pick something else. Gentlemen, thank you so much for being here. Gus, if we’re on social media, where can we find you?

 

Gus Hickey At HickeyLeaks on Instagram, which is a pun that continues to not give. I’m scintillated.

 

Chris Schleicher And Chris. And I’m C Schleich’s run upon on C Spot run. We both. This is one of the craziest things you’ve ever done. It’s also

 

Louis Virtel It’s also it was your Twitter handle too and it’s like such a while. It’s wildly spelled.

 

Chris Schleicher It was my AIM handle when I was in like fifth grade.

 

Louis Virtel It’s giving AIM handle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All of my aim handles were all Madonna themes and I had about 17 of them because I would look for the guy I was obsessed with who I had a clandestine relationship with but then he eventually blocked me. You’re not smarter than me. I have other screen names. How bout that?

 

Chris Schleicher You were causing a commotion.

 

Gus Hickey Yes, if you will, yes. But here comes La Isla Bonita 4. Yeah. Texting, texting you, aiming you. And now your handle’s still here.

 

Louis Virtel It’s a reference to the album Madame X. More music you shouldn’t listen to. Thank you for joining us. Thank you to the fabulous Taylour Paige. We’ll see you next week on Keep It. Keep It is a Crooked Media Production. Our show is produced by Caroline Reston, Kendra James, Lindsay Gomez, and me, Louis Virtel. Our team includes Matt DeGroot, Rachel Gaewski, Delon Villanueva, Claudia Sheng, Mia Kellman, Jay Banks, Charlotte Landes, and Jordan Cantor. Our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.