Share This Podcast

Ira and Louis discuss Prince Harry’s fast-selling memoir Spare, Madonna’s Celebration Tour announcement, new reality game show The Traitors, one hour Drag Race episodes, Andrea Riseborough’s Oscar campaign, and their Ins and Outs of 2023. Plus, Ira is joined by Meredith Marks to discuss this season of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

 [AD]

 

Louis Virtel And we’re back with another episode of, let me check, Keep It. I’m Louis Virtel.

 

Ira Madison III And I’m Ira Madison, the third. And let me tell you, I woke up this morning to an announcement and I already knew what Louis was about to talk about on this damn show.

 

Louis Virtel You can see the stars in my eyes. The lucky stars in my eyes. Well, we were anticipating this for a while, but Madonna is going on a world tour celebrating her 40 years in the business, 40 years of hitmaking. And I’m just going to say, first of all, I just tweeted this, actually, that when I saw the announcement in which she does a video in which she’s playing Truth or Dare with Amy Schumer and a bunch of people, I believe Kate Berlant’s in there, too.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel And Amy dares her to go on tour. And they and Amy’s like, I need you to do all your old hits like. And she starts singing Open Your Heart. And she says, La Isla Bonita. And then Madonna sort of sings along to La Isla Bonita. Except would you call that singing? Because what fell out of her grill?

 

Ira Madison III I have obviously going to be seated for the tour, although probably like in the pit or something, because it’ll be at Madison Square Garden. But I’m excited to see Madonna at Madison Square Garden, to be honest. But that if that’s a portend of the tour, listen, I mean.

 

Louis Virtel It’s not right.

 

Ira Madison III Well, I know. I know that bitch has still got it with the moves. You know, we saw the last tour and she will, she will take whatever ancient herbs she needs to whatever.

 

Louis Virtel Whatever ginko sponsored tour.

 

Ira Madison III Whatever ice baths that she will be taking to prepare her joints for this. Fine. But the singing, and I like, I also am worried that we’re going to get the old songs we want to hear. But are we going to get the versions of them that we want?

 

Louis Virtel Oh, right. I’m. Well. Will they be trap-a-fied? Will they be reggaeton-a-fied?

 

Ira Madison III What country has she been in the past year?

 

Louis Virtel I know.

 

Ira Madison III The sounds of Zimbabwe.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, right. But the song is Cherish. Yeah, exactly. So because, like we saw the Madame X tour, which, as you know, was a prison experiment where Madonna trapped her fans in an underground bunker without their phones and tortured them.

 

Ira Madison III We luckily went late because we do know that Madonna. Fair warning if you if you’re planning to go to the Celebration tour and you’ve never seen Madonna live, do not be on time.

 

Louis Virtel No, but and by the way, once upon a time, her whole thing was punctuality. She she’d be the person who showed up to any shoot like an hour ahead of time. And now, I don’t know, like she read an article about Lauryn Hill and decided that that should be me. But we saw the Madame X tour and though she can still move somewhat, like I just don’t know how she’s going to make the scale of this tour work. It’s going to be a lot of production voodoo, I think, as it always is, but.

 

Ira Madison III A lot of dancers.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, a lot of dancers. Millions of dancers. Yeah. When I realized how much I’d be spending on this, I said, God, give me strength. Like like a character and women talking.

 

Ira Madison III Listen, Ticketmaster needs to die.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, it’s worrisome.

 

Ira Madison III There are too many. There are too many. Everyone is on tour this summer. And although and I’m still concerned that Beyoncé is never reemerging.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. She. She was very satisfied with what she did this past year. She’s like, what if I live in this cocoon? But if I suffer.

 

Ira Madison III I’ve had it. Yeah, you’ve all got enough.

 

Louis Virtel Right. You get a Rihanna Super Bowl. I feel like I’m covered somewhat. Somehow I’m going to stop.

 

Ira Madison III And even though we’ve discussed that, by the way, I still keep forgetting that Rihanna is about to do the Super Bowl, mostly because it feels like there’s been no real rollout.

 

Louis Virtel Right.

 

Ira Madison III Besides those two Black Panther songs, which I have not listened to since since I saw the film.

 

Louis Virtel And if Gold Derby is correct, she will be Oscar nominated for that song too, even though it’s getting to the point where I’m going to need money if I’m going to listen to it again. I just don’t need to be settled down that much. I don’t need to be lulled.

 

Ira Madison III It’s still ironic that song is called Lift Me Up.

 

Louis Virtel It’s right. It’s not what’s occurring to me mentally as I listen to this song. I’m trying to follow the instructions.

 

Ira Madison III But the other big news out of this weekend was the best reality show you all need to be watching, which is the traitors on Peacock. And I want to talk about how. I haven’t seen the UK version yet. I’ve heard of lot, but.

 

Louis Virtel I hear is great. Which I hear is great. Yeah, I guess.

 

Ira Madison III But the gays were talking and I think that this was a perfect blend of getting the Bravo gays and also the reality competition gays together because Louis and I were at this party Gay Watch in Venice this weekend, and I was in the bathroom discussing the show with someone and truly, like two people popped their heads over a stall. Ever. Like, are you talking about the Traitors?

 

Louis Virtel Right now, I’m kind of shocked that’s gotten everywhere, given that it always feels like with with the Mole, which is the show its most closely compared to, it feels like a show you constantly have to explain to people and you have to be like, oh, well, it’s not really like Survivor. It’s not really like Big Brother or, you know, any other reality show. It’s just this thing where somebody is a spy and you’ve to figure it out. I will say this. I heard a lot of comparisons. I do think The Mole is a better show.

 

Ira Madison III It is. It is.

 

Louis Virtel You know, because then you get to play at home. You don’t know who the moles are. And so you’re sussing out you have you have various reasons to suspect different people, who’s sabotaging missions, who’s not taking the quiz every week. You know, there’s lots to think about that helps you solve it. This is like sitting outside of a game of Werewolf. So you’re watching, you know, who is out, you know, who are the quote unquote traitors and the moles are and you know, who is trying to figure out who they are. There’s three people working against the group, picking them off one by one in the middle of the night. If you’ve literally it’s exactly like Werewolf. It’s exactly like it.

 

Ira Madison III Is Werewolf the same as Mafia?

 

Louis Virtel Yes. At least as I’ve played it. Yes. It’s said and I thought it was smart that they use a mix of reality characters and non reality people. There’s people, there’s housewives and there is Big Brother contestants. Rachel Riley is back.

 

Ira Madison III The Ryan Lochte.

 

Louis Virtel Ryan Lochte, what a crazy choice. I mean, they really.

 

Ira Madison III To see his doofy self on TV. It’s it’s kind of funny because you maybe, you know, maybe this is what comes with celebrity or just being a goofy white straight man. But, you know, I like I pretty much have forgotten about like when we were all angry at him.

 

Louis Virtel Right. I know. I mean, as a friend of mine reminded me, known liar, Ryan Lochte. So it’s kind of good casting for this sort of.

 

Ira Madison III I think the celebs helped to get people to watch. I think the game would be better probably without celebs, because I feel like some of the non celebrity people were a bit muted at first.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, definitely.

 

Ira Madison III Except for one of the players, Christian, who is absolutely deranged.

 

Louis Virtel He was he was a mix of like, well, this is not spoiling anything because they tell you who the they choose the traitors at the beginning of the game. And then we watch them conspire and figure out how they’re going to operate as the game is going on. So you see both sides of the coin. But Christian is this combination of making wild swings and during the game in which he’s supposed to be furtive and yet also convincing, like, is it crazy just because we’re on the outside and we know he’s a traitor? Or would we to have been convinced if he were inside the game, you know?

 

Ira Madison III Well, it’s also I think that, you know, not having played it before that maybe like a season two of Traitors like people would be playing a little bit better because there was this thing where anytime someone smart would figure out who a traitor was and they’d voice that, everyone would assume that they were the traitor. Right. To throw suspicion of someone else. I was going to know when I was talking.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Right. I was very unimpressed with certain. Like people would all gang up on like this woman Kate from Below Deck.

 

Ira Madison III Icon. By the way.

 

Louis Virtel She is very beleaguered during the course of this show. Yeah

 

Ira Madison III Almost enough to make you want to watch Below Deck. I was like, I don’t know how she was so compelling, but also, like, completely irritated with the game as well.

 

Louis Virtel Right, right, right. The weird thing about this show is they do have challenges to build money, but they are completely unrelated from the mole aspect of the game. Like both sides, the Traitors and what they’re called faithfuls in this game are working together to build a pot. And then at the end of the game, only one side wins that money. So they have no reason to sabotage the games like in the Mole. But what’s weird is that means there’s no real drama there. It’s just people like beating challenges. You know, that kind of reminded me of old road rules, you know, where like, seven people would be set up to like, Oh, if you can all, like, paraglide over this jetty and find a buried treasure, you get the money. You know.

 

Ira Madison III As we’ve said this before on the show, but like I do miss Road Rules. I like I was such a great show. I’m watching the current season of the Challenge, which is always fun. I mean, and shout out to my new favorite team, Horatio and Olivia. But, I will say, I think that Road Rules could come back. Like, The Challenge.

 

Louis Virtel It’s a great show.

 

Ira Madison III People forget about it and like, no one even thinks about Real World anymore. But I think that like the concept of sticking people in an RV road Real World style again and then having them do competitions would be compelling.

 

Louis Virtel It reveals something about the people when they, like, band together and do things. It’s like a very wholesome show ultimately. And I do want to say one last thing about The Traitors,  Alan Cumming as the host. Okay, We had this man on Keep It, and I said specifically to him, You’ve only hosted the Tonys once and you have very little hosting in your background and you were such a natural at it. Why don’t you do more of it? And he went on to say, Well, he specifically made choices not to be sort of pegged as a presenter because like, you know, over where he’s from, that’s like its own business. Like certain people just end up hosting forever. This bitch has been holding out on us because I don’t know what barrel of money we dropped kicked out him to host the show. He is fucking fabulous. He is like he comes strolling in. He is in Masterpiece Theater mode. So you are getting, like, a murder from him at any given turn. He is dressed like gay ass Inspector Gadget. Looking fabulous. Really, I mean, Emmy nomination worthy hosting on this show. I’m so glad they got Alan Cumming to do this.

 

Ira Madison III An Emmy nomination worthy acting for Cirie Fields revealed that she has truly just been because, you know, like we said, Christian is initially tapped as one of the traitors. So is Cirie and so.

 

Louis Virtel Survivor legend, Citie. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. And so is Cody Califore.

 

Louis Virtel From Big Brother.

 

Ira Madison III From Big Brother. And also The Challenge. She just I mean, Cirie’s just a legend and it’s great to see her on TV again. So, I mean, that’s also the draw. If you’re a Survivor fan, like you just you just want to watch her. But yeah, I would I would love to see I always sort of wish that she’d been back on Survivor in that season where Rob won. I think it was Redemption Island, where he played with a bunch of idiots on because she would have cleaned up.

 

Louis Virtel And famously Cirie has not won any of the seasons of Survivor. She’s been on even though she’s a herald and player in many regards. No, the key draw of this show outside of the game and by the way, I wish we could talk about the end of the show because I have questions about that too. Specifically the editing of the end of the show.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel But watching her manipulate people and have them not only trust her, but literally be like, Would you be the godmother to my kids is so crazy. I’ve never seen anything like that.

 

Ira Madison III But that’s how she played Survivor to, you know, like sort of like without ego, letting people come to her and have it feel like they were in the driver’s seat, you know, as opposed to the other like cocky players who need to be like, I’m running this, you know? Yes. Because there’s a certain way to play Survivor. We’re like and we’ve gotten them, you know, like not to get into all of that, you know, because we got an episode to do. But, you know, there’s a certain point in like Survivor now, you know, where people are like, oh, you you were carried to the end, you know, And like that thing that always happens now, which was the detriment to Good Sense, who should have won this year, but there’s just a sort of like ability to play the game where it feels like once you get to the end, no one feels like they carried you. Everyone feels like. Still, somehow you worked some magic to get yourself in the end and make everyone love that you voted them out.

 

Louis Virtel Right? Yes. Yeah. It’s like this reverse psychology thing. I will say something else about this show. It bothers me that the money is divided up between only people who survive because the Traitors are picking up people somewhat, picking off people somewhat randomly on the show, like it has nothing to do with how good they are at the game. Like on the Mole, you’re eliminated because you did the worst on the quiz that week. It’s like a merit based loss. Whereas here it’s like, Well, it makes no sense. I mean, like, you pick off people because they’re doing well, in fact. So I don’t know. That bothers me too. There’s just gameplay elements that aren’t as solid asThe Mole. But watch the whole show. You get Alan Cumming, you get lots of character, you get people who are so stressed out all the time, which is really the core of why we like these shows.

 

Ira Madison III Speaking of reality, we’ve got a bravolebrity.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Joining us this week. Well, joining me this week, Louis is disengaging from the conversation, which is appropriate because it’s the queen of disengaging herself, joining Meredith Marks from the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.

 

Louis Virtel I’ll let you get this fucking Jen Shah shit out of your system once and for all. Enjoy.

 

Ira Madison III All right. By the way, I’m sometimes proud of the Keep It episode titles. Like, sometimes they’re, like, perfunctory. Sometimes they’re like, really good. Sure. But the best one I ever came up with still has to be when Judge Shah was arrested and we talked about it at an end of the episode, Shah Real Monsters.

 

Louis Virtel One of the great classic Supo cartoons. Take that rugrats.

 

Ira Madison III And that she turned out to be a monster.

 

Louis Virtel See? You were right. You were on. What we do here is detective work. If you haven’t detected that yet.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And then we will also be discussing the. The name on everyone’s lips this week. Prince Harry.

 

Louis Virtel Everyone’s frostbitten lips. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III His memoir, Spare, is, I believe, one of the fastest selling nonfiction books at this point.

 

Louis Virtel Which is insane. I mean, take that Encyclopedia Britannica or whatever. I don’t know.

 

Ira Madison III I think also because we’ve also seen it like video clips of angry Brits buying tons of copies of the book to burn it. You know, that helps him, right? Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel It’s like what? There used to be all that footage of Sinead O’Connor CDs being, like, run over in the streets and, it’s like so you bought them? Okay.

 

Ira Madison III The like the disco burning, too. Yes. Oh, yeah. That. It’s like you went to the record store and bought this Silvester record that.

 

Louis Virtel By the way, in that BGS documentary where they talked about that. Yeah. I will not get over how they were like they were burning disco records. They would assume they were disco records, but it was really just black people on album cover. Like they were just wrong.

 

Ira Madison III Come on. Nina Simone.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, like Smokey Robinson or something. Just anybody. Count it as disco.

 

Ira Madison III Meanwhile, Captain and Tennille. Safe.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, yeah. Oh, God. And thriving. Not together anymore, but thriving.

 

Ira Madison III And then we also are going to get into the trend that has taken over your social media the past few weeks. We’re going to talk about what’s in and what’s out in 2023.

 

Louis Virtel I can’t wait. And I hope this is helpful to everybody, including me.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. So we will be right back with more. Keep It. The Duke of Sussex has dropped his notorious tell all memoir. And when we say tell all, we mean tell more than anyone needs to know about someone’s frostbitten todger.

 

Louis Virtel Mountbatten-Windsor is out. Frostbitten Todger is in. Harry Frostbitten Toddgr. The frostbitten Todger clan.

 

Ira Madison III Okay, so I was reading this book, but I do want to highlight the fact that I could not listen to the audiobook because the clips that people released online were terrifying.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Also, there’s a real deadpan quality to the way he reads it, which I think must have had some allure for people because obviously the stories are vivid as you just described, but he really does not seem to be reacting to them in any way. It’s not like listening to a book by, you know, an audiobook by Amy Poehler or something where she’s really living the emotions along with, you.

 

Ira Madison III Know, it was giving very you know, I we talked about Mariah’s book on this show. Right. And I feel like that is still the gold standard for a really good, you know, memoir. And that listening to her read it out loud, you know, it was you were very engrossed like you felt pulled into Mariah Carey’s life, you know, And this felt there was like there was so much distance in the audio quality, which is why I went to the reading. And let me tell you the reading. I don’t know if he wrote this himself.

 

Louis Virtel He wrote it alongside the guy who also wrote The Tender Bar, which I only saw the Ben Affleck movie, but apparently. Oh, good.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. So that is why the prose. Baby. The prose is giving. Okay.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, really?

 

Ira Madison III Like the opening. The book starts out. We agree to meet a few hours after the funeral in the Frogmore Gardens by the old Gothic ruin. I got there first. I looked around. Saw no one. I checked my phone, No texts, no voicemails. They must be running late, I thought. Leaning against the stone wall. I put my phone and told I put away my thought and told myself. Stay calm. The weather was quintessentially April. Not quite winter, not quite spring. It’s like it’s giving.

 

Louis Virtel Arthur CONAN Doyle here.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, it’s. It’s a thriller.

 

Louis Virtel I will say about the details in this book that have picked up a lot, namely the stories of how he got frostbite or whatever. And he keeps saying what toddler I got. And again, this isn’t entirely crazy for a celebrity memoir. In fact, you can basically expect one or two TMI tidbits that get people talking, but it wouldn’t make headlines if it were just somebody who normally releases this kind of book, which is Rob Lowe. You know, it doesn’t sound like out of line, but something someone like that would say. But man, we were really just starved to know what this man’s true personality is. Because even through like the interview tidbits we got on Oprah and stuff, I don’t think it came through. So I think it was all starved. Yes, right. It was all Meghan. So I think people are starved, too, like what is actually going on between him and William? And I was shocked how derisssive was physically of William.

 

Ira Madison III He was like this bald bitch.

 

Louis Virtel He kept being like, Baldy here. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III He said it like The Chainsmokers talking about Halsey.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Fuck you, bald bitch.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. That should be a tweet. You should get on that.

 

Ira Madison III Which side note, apparently, Selena Gomez is dating one of The Chainsmokers.

 

Louis Virtel That could just be anybody I see on the street here in L.A.. So Godspeed to her and Chainsmokee.

 

Ira Madison III It is interesting to sort of get into Harry’s mind now, right? Because. US growing up, you know, like when we were like, when we were like college, you know, because, like, we’re about, um.

 

Louis Virtel We’re a little younger than he is. Yeah, because I think he’s 84, maybe.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. So Harry is 38, so he’s like, jump over years older than us. But, um, he was constantly in the media when we were like in college, you know, like his party boy days. And then, you know, his military period was when he really sort of like, was like, um, dropping out of the media, etc., you know? But like, Prince Harry was always sort of in the news for us. So we saw that side of him. And now it’s interesting for him to be back in the spotlight with his, you know, sort of his. Patti LaBelle new attitude.

 

Louis Virtel I think. I think you’re giving his attitude more credit than it deserves already, even by comparing him to Patti LaBelle. But I appreciate that.

 

Listen, he stirred it up.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, that’s true. That’s true. Yeah. I feel like actually reading the book, it does unfortunately devolve into like this guessing game of who’s leaking what to the media, which it’s not something I need him to really speculate about, Like just focus on what actually happened in your life. Like the press around the royal family is always too annoying anyway. And also into like in a way, the fact that he gives voice to certain. Theories about who hates who in the royal family. Again, even like making fun of his brother. Like, it almost feels like the press is winning in a way. Like they got more out of him than they deserve.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And there’s always these questions about is this going to take down the monarchy and whatever. And so I guess he’s not even he’s not even on that tip. You know, it doesn’t even seem like he wants to destroy the monarchy. And you know what? You should. But the weird part about this book is that, you know, the whole narrative circling him, mechanism, bending about, you know, like the media and avoiding, you know, like the racism there, etc., and. Then this book is sort of like, Well, maybe you need to read a little anti-racism book list, Harry. I mean, there’s the. It’s been talked about, obviously, but the what he’s talking about, you know, like being in Afghanistan, you know, and talking about like killing people and calling white people that he killed there, chess pieces, you know, and not really sort of understanding, you know, how the U.S. and like Europe, you know, sort of like destabilized that country and Europe just sort of destabilized a lot of Africa in general. It’s just sort of. Read a book? I don’t know. Like. Like, did he take no courses in school? It’s just like the understanding is not there. He comes across kind of dumb, you know, like saying things like, there’s this passage where someone’s like. Well, you were born in the U.K. or something, but, you know, like your heart is in Africa. And I’m like, Girl, shut the fuck up.

 

Louis Virtel Back to the bar. Yes. Yeah. I think something that kind of prevents me from really digging into Prince Harry is someone like Princess Diana really wrapped herself in with pop culture. I think a better example is Grace Kelly. She was royalty, but there was always the stronger tied to other things in actual entertainment that, like, kept you kind of it was just another you know, we need intrigue when we look at like a megastar or like specifically a really great actor. And royalty was sort of this other brand she had. And obviously she did give up moviemaking to become an actress. But historically, when I think about, you know, her moving to Monaco, marrying Prince Rainier, you know, her tragic death in Monaco, etc., that’s all something that just kind of bubbles under the surface when I’m watching her movies. And so it’s just like a fun sort of like fan boy, golden age of Hollywood place to live and mentally for me. Whereas with Harry, I’m sort of like, I just don’t know what any of this is supposed to do for me, other than I do think Meghan Markle is an interesting person. I like when people are like, Did she have Beyonce’s permission to share that text with the entire world? I’m like, I don’t know. But I’m fascinated that she chose to.

 

Ira Madison III What’s funny is in any other celebrity, it would have been like, Oh yeah, you know, like they’re fine with Meghan Markle sharing that. She got a text from Beyoncé. I don’t know about that.

 

Louis Virtel No, because, I mean, the Beyonce’s security situation is like fodder for an access deep.

 

Ira Madison III So you brought up Grace Kelly, by the way, and, you know, thinking about Elton doing, you know, Candle in the Wind, Diana’s version, Meeka made Grace Kelly song. Um.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, I remember 2007. I was there.

 

Ira Madison III Who do you think would make the posthumous Meghan Markle song?

 

Louis Virtel Oh, wow. So this is going to be quite a few years from now.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Who who who, gosh. It has to be a kind of balladeer. Well, Adele, do you have it in you? It has to be a U.K. personality.

 

Ira Madison III Mm hmm. But like someone, you know, someone probably, like, maybe that person’s not even around yet because, you know. You know, I think that fleeing from the monarchy, it means that Meghan isn’t going to befall a death in a tunnel.

 

Louis Virtel Right, right, right.

 

Ira Madison III You know, a myterious death.

 

Louis Virtel I think something needs to be pointed out about Candle in the Wind, which is it is also one of the gayest songs of all time. You know, it’s just a guy, a gay guy, you know, with his portrait of his favorite celebrity, waxing philosophical about what her death means. And so maybe it has to be, you know, like choice of on I don’t I don’t know how familiar with the monarchy it’ll be.

 

Ira Madison III Cher Lloyd.

 

Louis Virtel You know how I haven’t thought of Cher Lloyd In a minute.

 

Ira Madison III I am always thinking of Cher Lloyd.

 

Louis Virtel In fact, Elton John has several like the pre his coming out, just really gay choices. It just astounds you. Like we have such, you know, vivid vocabulary about what it means to be gay, how gay men express themselves now. And people just didn’t have a clue when he wrote like Philadelphia freedom about how rad Billie Jean King is or the bitches back about how he the bitch is back. Like people just weren’t thinking I I have brought this up on the show before. If you haven’t listened to rapper her up recently, which is his duet with George Michael in the mid eighties and also featured on the track is Cocaine. Because these girls are wilding out. They are they are rapping basically about actresses of the Golden age, like Vivien Leigh comes up, Marlena Dietrich all these models and they keep saying talking about how they want to wrap her up, which is like it kind of sounds like, Oh, we want to sleep with these hot women. But as you know, it’s Elton John and George Michael. So guess what wasn’t happening? That.

 

Ira Madison III They want to take her on an eighties fashion montage as what they want. Right.

 

Louis Virtel They’re like Mahogany baby. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III There are their shares. They’re Cher’s boyfriend in Clueless.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, they are exactly that. Christian. Yes. Who just wants things to be beautiful and interesting. One of my favorite lines in the movie.

 

Ira Madison III You know that Theo James said that he would love to play George Michael.

 

Louis Virtel Which makes sense. I mean, well, the haircuts there and the eyes are there. I wonder if he’s a little past the age when he would play George Michael sort of at his prime, but. Right. If we’re getting older era, if we’re getting busted out of the tree. An era. Sure.

 

Ira Madison III That’s the era I want to see to be. You know, I don’t like to see all that wham! Shit. Okay. I want to see George Michael being a whore.

 

Louis Virtel We are going to get that movie. I don’t think that’s like. I think we’re reaching for the stars there. Also, I just want to say about George Michael quickly, that video he made outside after the scandal where there’s like the spinning fucker you’re in. I’m so fucking good. He really was like one bad bitch.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, listen, we just hope that Anthony McCarten stays far away from that. That’s great.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, God. Though, as you know, I defend I Want to Dance with Somebody. I don’t know if I want the script of it, but I love certain tasteful choices he made in there.

 

Ira Madison III Now, also.

 

Louis Virtel Bohemian Rhapsody, as you know, was a movie about four large teeth that I have to disagree with.

 

Ira Madison III You know, I would also just be called outside the George Michael story.

 

Louis Virtel Great. All right. Intriguing.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Also going back to I was Googling Grace Kelly when you were when we were talking about her. And I didn’t know that she died in the car crash, too.

 

Louis Virtel In 1982. Yes. I believe her death was on the first issue cover of USA Today.

 

Ira Madison III Her. Diana. Car crashes. What’s going on?

 

Louis Virtel I don’t know. And of course, the extra irony with Grace Kelly is if you’ve ever seen to Catch a Thief her, that Hitchcock movie with Cary Grant, she is driving in Monaco and it’s some of the very streets she was driving on when she passed away. So but also, by the way, Princess Stephanie, that’s a name that has long been forgotten and people need to look up. She was a fascinating royal.

 

Ira Madison III Do you think the queen, who I still believe killed Diana.

 

Louis Virtel Sure.

 

Ira Madison III Do you think she was like she got that USA Today? Like it came to the castle as she was reading it. And like. Like if in my mind, I’m imagining a thriller where Charles or Harry, like, as a kid or something like is checking, checking granny’s room, her boudoir, and there’s sort of this old tattered copy of the USA Today about Grace Kelly’s death. And it’s like, that’s how she did it.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, it’s like, circled in red. Yeah. Real, real. Rebecca situation. He’s, like, searching the corridors and finding traces of. Yeah, Granny, Of course, being the Judith Anderson. Mrs. Danvers in this situation.

 

Ira Madison III I did not watch the last Rebecca because I heard it was garbage, but.

 

Louis Virtel Passable. I mean, Lily James was really good at it, and I did not come in expecting to be rooting for her. She did a great job. Kristin Scott Thomas. Less so, but fine. A B.

 

Ira Madison III But I love like a Rebecca type film about Harry, Meghan and Diana.

 

Louis Virtel Well, it sounds like they lived it. I mean, here they are in this like all the state wondering what the why they’re there, basically how they belong and just haunted by people who do nothing but, you know, stroll the corridors all day there.

 

Ira Madison III Can I say also that the end of the book references the title and.

 

Louis Virtel Because he’s the spare heir. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. So the phrase spare comes from, you know, like just the heir and the spare, you know, like the the other kids, you know, who are like their life could be, you know, like the the Margaret’s you know, like the you’re not supposed to take the throne, but you’re in the line of succession, you know. The book ends with she jotted down some notes in a kind of journal, which she shared. I read them as a love poem. I read them as a testament, a renewal of our vows. I read them as a citation, a remembrance, a proclamation. I read them as a decree. She said that was everything. She said, That is a man, my love. She said, That is not a spare.

 

Louis Virtel Nearly not. Oh, okay. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Come on Tender Bar.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. You’re right.

 

Ira Madison III That is just that is that is writing.

 

Louis Virtel I really am curious what the fuck these two are going to do next. Like, what is. Again? Now that they’re apart from the thing. The reason we know them. Where can they go next? That involves us and who they are. Like, do they? Do they do the Simple Life and join society in some televised way.

 

Ira Madison III I know. Like the number like this. The Daily Mail is always just writing. And they were like, Has this book damaged? You know, their potential future in Hollywood? I’m like no. They’re famous.

 

Louis Virtel It’s a massively popular book. It’s a massively popular book.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And and, you know, all the stuff that he wrote about, like killing people in the war, you know, like, Americans don’t care about that. Actually, war gets us horny.

 

Louis Virtel Right. It’s it’s a fun game for the big, fun men whom.

 

Ira Madison III We I wish I hope they do something exciting now because, like, I’m not listening to that podcast.

 

Louis Virtel I know, I know. I just I can’t imagine a hot take they would have nor namely Harry would have that would, you know, inspire me to keep listening, though of course, I don’t understand podcasts altogether. I listen to Sirius XM and Yacht Rock Radio. How do they play Christopher Cross eight times a day when he has four songs, I want to know.

 

Ira Madison III A lot of Steely Dan.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, you’ve got that right, bitch. Woof

 

Ira Madison III Uh, what’s your favorite Steely Dan song?

 

Louis Virtel Used to be. Did do it again. And now it’s Brooklyn, which is a track off. Can’t buy a.

 

Ira Madison III Thrill, huh? I think mine is like. But I think what? It’s like a dirty word.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, great. Now they’re all. They’re all music. You. You’re dancing to while you’re wearing cufflinks right on the yacht.

 

Ira Madison III I’m looking forward to having, like, a yacht moment this summer and just really just vibing Steely Dan, tennis, Hall and Oats. It’s what I need.

 

Louis Virtel Christine only Fleetwood Mac. As you know, I believe Christine is the definitive female yacht rock entertainer.

 

Ira Madison III She’s got rock and Stevie sort of like. I feel like. I feel like Steve is giving pots and pans smashing. She’s a precursor to, like, Hyperpop Charli, S-E-X, you know? Right. So a door slamming. Well, coke snorting a lot of a lot of things about the weather. There’s always some thundering or something going on, which is ironic because, you know, thunder only happens when it’s raining. Christine wrote that one.

 

Louis Virtel So, no, she did not.

 

Ira Madison III That was actually it was okay. Which makes sense. You know, thunder only happens when it’s raining, so.

 

Louis Virtel And as you know, her meteorology degree came into. Yes effects there. Thank you so much, Stevie.

 

Ira Madison III I just imagine Stevie Nicks walking into the room whenever they were recording anything. And it was always probably like. 20 minutes before Stevie would stop talking about what was going on in her life. No. Okay. Are you ready?

 

Louis Virtel Right. No, because they of course, they set up all the candelabras for her and all the draperies that she needed. So she’s storming around, moaning Lindsay’s name. Hands and knees and the sky. And Christine’s like. Can we just thing this melody and move it along? Not a bad Christine.

 

Ira Madison III No, that was.

 

Louis Virtel Not a bad Christina president, I have to say.

 

Ira Madison III Really good impression. You should do more impressions.

 

Louis Virtel I know. I you know my heart. I want to be one of those Animaniacs people like Tress McNeal, who does, like, 70 voices.

 

Ira Madison III But, I mean, listen, you’re already doing Buster Keaton work on Jimmy Kimmel.

 

Louis Virtel That’s right. That’s me.

 

Ira Madison III Which also. You got to see my new pop queen in rehearsals.

 

Louis Virtel Renee Rep?

 

Ira Madison III Sabrina Carpenter.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, it’s Sabrina Carpenter was there, and. Oh, my God. Did she inspire a following? It was almost frightening.

 

Ira Madison III I’m obsessed with her now. Like the last third of the Josh Bassett Olivia Rodrigo triangle. But like, this random song of hers, Nonsense. Obsessed.

 

Louis Virtel Okay, I’m going to listen to it right after this. She really seemed like the third most important person in that triangle for a while with her, Joshua Bassett and Olivia Rodrigo. And I’m happy to say she’s rising to second.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. All right. Well, I think we said enough about Prince Harry.

 

Louis Virtel I think we expressed how interesting he is. We’re respectful to that and then moved on to more pressing things.

 

Ira Madison III All right. Well, we’re back. I’m going to engage with Meredith Marks from The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. While Louis sits it out. Louis, you’re going to miss all your pressing Housewives questions.

 

Louis Virtel I’m like Zoe on Zoom, who is allergic to latex. So she couldn’t do any of the balloon games. That’s me.

 

<AD>

 

Ira Madison III I am very excited to engage with the Queen of disengaging herself. An OG of the SLC. Please welcome Meredith Marks to Keep It.

 

Meridith Marks Well, thank you for having me. And today I am engaging and engaging it all.

 

Ira Madison III Um, it’s great to see you. I’ve, I’ve famously I’ve, I’ve met you once before in New York City during the period where I feel like after season one, everyone from your cast discovered like all of the hot like parties that were going on in New York and you would pop up at all of them. So I would see, like you, I’d see Whitney, Jen at them, the Lisa would pop up. But then I was like, Who was letting you all know about like Ty Sunderland parties in New York City?

 

Meridith Marks Well, you know, for the last, I don’t know, ten, 15 years, I probably I spent less time in New York now than I used to. You know, I used to spend 35, 40% of my time. So that was just normal stuff for me. I’m at a lot of parties in New York. I can’t answer for anyone else. I have no idea. But, you know, for me, I mean, I know Jen was living in New York for a while as well. I mean, not living, but spending a very large amount of time. And as far as you know, Lisa, what you know, I have no idea. I can’t answer that.

 

Ira Madison III So let’s talk a bit about just in general being on Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. You know, I feel like we’ve seen so many iterations of Real Housewives and that I remember, you know, when this show started, it really just sort of clicked like everyone was talking. I remember watching the premiere and saying, this show is wild and I’m obsessed. And I feel like it was sort of a runaway hit immediately. How are you sort of approach to. Be on the series. Had you watched Housewives before? Did you have any trepidation about sharing your life in this way? And then how did that change once you saw the first season airing?

 

Meridith Marks So a long time before we ever started, you know, season one, it was probably like a year and a half, I don’t know, it was a long time before I got a text message from a friend of mine who owns my favorite restaurant in Park City, Handle. And it was both to me and to Liza together. And she just said, you know, my husband’s college friend is a producer in L.A. and they’re you know, they’re looking to do a show in Utah. Would you talk to them? And I didn’t know I was being cast. I thought it was just because I own a store on Main Street, You know, let’s chat and see what happens. And that’s probably what the approach really was. You know, they were just trying to build things out. And so I did. And that’s how it all started. And once I realized that I was being cast in, once I realized it was Housewives, no, I had never watched. And I went and watched because everyone was like, every every city is so different, which I now realize is very true, you know. So I went back and I thought, Well, I’ll just watch one episode of every city. So I get a flavor for it because I don’t know what my city is going to be like. And, you know, yes, it gave me a flavor, but it was a big mistake because I didn’t understand like a full season and a story arc and all this other stuff that, you know, comes along with any kind of television show. You know, it’s not just like these isolated little moments, which is what I saw. You know, and I mean, that’s just not realistic in life, in TV, in anything. You know, it’s like obviously things aren’t in isolation. So that was my big bubble. But in a weird way, I actually think it was really good for me because, you know, I think that when you don’t have any kind of preconceived notions in your mind of what you’re stepping into, what you’re doing, you don’t see yourself, like, fulfilling these these roles or anything like that. You’re just doing your thing, you know? And I think it was actually really positive. And I’ve sort of cut back on watching because I think it’s better for me not to, you know, you don’t get seeds planted.

 

Ira Madison III Mm hmm. Do you remember which ones you if you watched a bit of every Housewives city, do you remember, like any highlights from something you did watch before you started?

 

Meridith Marks I mean, you know, I was like all of her films, relatively benign. It’s like little, you know, piddly arguments. You know, I’m like, this is not a big deal. It’s the only thing that really was a big deal if somebody accused someone else of doing coke. I mean, why would you ever do something like that? You know, and like, to me, I thought that was such a big deal. And now I’m like, the accusations fly loud. Do right? Just like, ah, who cares. You know? But, you know, it was like it was funny. I mean, I had no clue. No clue.

 

Ira Madison III What has your relationship with your family sort of been like sense being on TV? You know, because I know that during season one, you know, initially, you know, a lot of your arguments, you know, stemming with Jen were coming from, you know, how she was talking about Brooks online and sort of like how has he adjusted to, I guess, being on TV and now, you know, launching his fashion company. And also, by the way, I got this at Bravocon, a Brooks Marks hat.

 

Meridith Marks I love it. So, you know, it was a little bit of a journey for Brooks. I don’t think any of us expected. I like I said, I had literally no idea what I was really getting into. Literally none. And especially like on the social media side, I didn’t even know all this stuff existed. Like all these fan accounts, all this like Housewives, Twitter, like Euro Clue. And even my kids who, like, did watch some housewives. I mean, they didn’t watch all of them, but they did watch some. They didn’t really know about that. Even some of my close friends who are very avid fans were shocked by all of that. Like, it’s a whole world.

 

Ira Madison III It’s a whole ecosystem.

 

Meridith Marks Yeah, it’s wild. It’s so wild. And so we had like, no expectation of any of that. Like, I didn’t even think that my kids would get much attention from it. You know, I thought maybe, you know, from their friends or whatever, but I didn’t. I had zero clue. So it was definitely surprising. It was a lot to navigate. You know, at the time it was a lot for Brooks as he was, you know, figuring out things in his own world himself. And so it was really, really tough that first, like, I don’t know, a few months, I guess basically the first season of airing was really rough and it took a moment and it takes time to get thick skin to realize that one person’s tweet is not going to change your life. You know. It’s one person, you know, And even if you have 500 people saying the same thing, who cares? I’m living my life. I know my truth. Brooks knows his truth. Whatever anyone wants to say, they can say, you know, and we move on. It’s just it’s just it’s not that deep. At the end of the day, you know, It’s just it’s hard to adjust and get to that point. So it took a moment. But he’s great. He’s doing really well. He’s working on his brand and he graduated from NYU. And he’s just he’s really growing up and moving forward. And it’s incredible. I’m really, really, really happy for him. He’s in a great space now.

 

Ira Madison III Well, congrats on having a kid who went to NYU because I did as well. So I love anyone who’s gone to NYU.

 

Meridith Marks Congrats to you, too. It’s such a great school. Really is.

 

Ira Madison III Um, you know, I joked about the disengaging earlier. That became, you know, like a catch phrase in season one for you. What would you say that, you know, you learned from that season to sort of where you are now? Because that was, you know, that was a funny moment. But you know, it also, you know, the response from people watching it also seemed like you were pulling back from some of the conflict that people wanted to see on the show. Did you make a conscious decision, like in season two and then season three going forward to. Engage in maybe things that you realize that now you sort of had to do to make a TV show happen.

 

Meridith Marks Yes or no? Um, so I do honestly think, like, you know, look, you saw my journey with Seth. We have been through extensive couples therapy, and and the first thing that you’re taught is when the conflict gets heightened to a level where you know that it’s just you’re not going to get resolved and it’s just usually say things that are nasty that you don’t even mean, and the other person will do its best to step back and disengage, as I like to call it. Um, but and so, you know, that was something that for me was just very realistic. Like there is no why, why would I engage in some of this stuff, and especially when there’s a lot of alcohol involved and, you know, things get go a little haywire. So, you know, I thought that that was actually very immature of me. And I could say some of my later behavior was a bit more immature, you know, I mean, I’ve mixed feelings, like in some sense, when people think that you’re just going to disengage, they feel that they have free rein to kind of just pick at you and attack you and this, that and the other, because you’re like, well, she’s not going to bother. And and that’s really wrong. And that’s a lot of what happened, especially, you know, and when you saw what happened, like with my father’s memorial and Zion, I mean that still to this day is extremely painful for me what went on, you know, that being weaponized against me was just cruel. And I realized that in some of these circumstances, I have to fight back, because if I don’t, we’ll just, you know, you you see all the stuff like they say whatever they want. They say it like it’s the truth. And I’m like, wait a second. That’s just you can’t say this stuff about me. It’s not true or or you can’t pick at me. You know you can’t. I’m a very strong person. And, you know, going after someone said, Father, that’s cruel. It’s disgusting, and I’m not going to allow it, you know? So there are certain things that I feel that I had to do that maybe I. I’m not proud of it, but I understand why I made those choices that I made. And, you know, perhaps some of the other women should learn to lead with kindness, and I wouldn’t need to engage at all.

 

Ira Madison III Well, that’s true. That, you know, not not to even bring that up, but to take that to season three. One of the things that we noticed, you know, going into the reunion and watching this season, there are a lot of clips in sort of this season that there were in the trailer that didn’t end up in the actual show. And one of them seemed to be you having a conversation with Whitney in the finale. And we’d seen it in the trailer and we weren’t expecting it. And it sort of seemed really interesting, if only because, you know, you had the conflict about the funeral in season two and then going into season three, it seemed like you were both back and forth in a good place, not in the good place. And so can you enlighten us as to sort of what that disagreement was about in the finale that we didn’t get to see?

 

Meridith Marks Yeah. So, you know, I think you saw a little bit at our season two reunion of Whitney. And honestly, I’m not sure what what you saw or didn’t because I don’t remember what was shown and what wasn’t.

 

Ira Madison III But the clip was I feel like, you know, I know what.

 

Meridith Marks I’m talking I’m saying from from season to reunion, from when this whole thing when we were in Zion, she came after my father’s memorial to my faith more than anybody else. Maybe not behind my back, behind my back. There were definitely other players involved, but to my face, she kept coming at me and and I couldn’t understand why she was being so mean. Like, I was like, what is going on? Like, I thought we were fighting. Like I thought we were friends. Like, you just don’t do that to your friend. And I couldn’t understand it. And afterwards, she had explained to me that, you know, Lisa had started all this confusion, which we all did see with her and Heather. She had the date wrong. And she did start all this confusion regarding my father’s memorial and Whitney was trying to explain to me, look, this woman is saying to you, she’s your your sister, your friend of ten years, and she’s behind your back stirring up all this drama about your father’s memorial and then trying to wipe her hands clean and saying, I didn’t do it. I didn’t have anything to do with it. And you need to know that you’re a friend of ten years is really just a total piece of shit. She’s not your friend. And that’s what Whitney said to me. And so I very easily forgave Whitney for her bad behavior because I thought, okay, well, you know, she said she was drunk and just it was a bad delivery, but she was trying to give me another message. And I said, Well, I’ll see what happens. And I waited and I watched and I saw and I did see that Lisa did actually start the confusion by having the dates wrong and whatever else. And so I thought, okay, fine. And then we fast forward and now all of a sudden we’re in Arizona and Whitney is trying to say, I said things I did not say, you know, Yes, I said there were rumors and I didn’t believe them. That was all I said. She went into gross detail of a multitude of stories, way more than what you saw, on and on and on that and purported these things to be truths, you know? And it wasn’t like, Oh, I heard these rumors, too, and I don’t believe them either. It was let me give you very clear detail on everything. And I believe it’s true. And and I even during that conversation, said Whitney, some of that sounds absolutely preposterous. Like I cast doubt on the stuff she would say. And then we fast forward to Arizona, and she’s busy trying to point fingers at me and make me responsible for that. And it just saying that there are rumors out there and I don’t believe them. But maybe there’s a bigger problem. And Lisa actually needs my help is a very different thing than saying she traded sex for loans to our company like totally different things. Okay. Very different. And and I apologize on the spot to Lisa about it in Arizona. I also texted her an apology when it aired because I felt bad that her feelings were hurt by it. I did. I really did feel badly that hurt her feelings because clearly I did. Hmm. And so the problem came in for me that Whitney had told me that we were really friends, that she had gone after my father that way to show me that Lisa was such a horrible friend. Yet she threw me under the bus and her cousin under the bus and Angie Herrington under the bus on a quest to befriend this absolute piece of shit friend.

 

Ira Madison III Mm hmm.

 

Meridith Marks That’s where we had a big problem. And I thought, Well, what are your motives here? Are your motives here that you really just want to be Lisa’s friends so badly that you just don’t care about anyone else? Are your motives here that you feel really guilty about your poor behaviors you’re trying to projected on to others? Are your motives here really that you’re still have a problem with Lisa, You’re befriending her to actually take her down? True. I didn’t know. I don’t know. And to this day, it doesn’t add up. Her behavior didn’t make any sense to me last winter at all.

 

Ira Madison III Mm hmm. And, you know, speaking then of the entire Lisa situation, I want to ask one. It must be hard. One having a falling out with someone you’ve known for ten years, you know? I mean, I’ve recently gone through something similar. I think many people are used to something like that, and it’s probably harder on television. I would like to ask, do you feel as if you would have been able to forgive Lisa’s rant if you hadn’t been pressured to apologize or sort of get over it so quickly? Do you think that like going back into filming and having to be around her again, like sort of hindered a natural healing process?

 

Meridith Marks Yes and no. You know, yes, I do think that what people don’t recognize is that literally I saw this, you know, and a few weeks later we’re moving on, you know, whatever. So, yeah, that was a bit daunting. I did forgive her in Arizona and in like we all know, we only see snippets. But you saw we hugged. You saw I mean, at the dinner with her and Whitney and Heather, she was really upset, like, because I know what it felt like to her. Every time somebody would talk about those rumors, she felt it was giving life to it. And it was like very, very upsetting. And I mean, I comforted her. I was like, you know, I was we were like, fine. And was it normal and like it was before? No, because quite frankly, before her childish tantrum, I had 1,000,001 red flags that Lisa was not really my friend. And I kept giving her the benefit of the doubt over and over and over and over and over again. But I asked her over and over and over again, I feel hostility. There’s something wrong. I feel some things are. Are we good? What’s going on? Da da da da da. And every single time, and even at her own Vida party after her tantrum, her answer was the same every single time. We are good. We are good. If you feel hostility, it’s coming from you. And this was after she had her tantrum, too. She said that at her own dinner party. She said those exact words to me and I was just like, Wow, that seems like gaslighting one on one, doesn’t it? So yeah, I mean, it’s like crazy. It’s me, not her. No, honey, it’s you. You have a problem with me. Clearly. And I sensed it and felt it for. Oh. Over a year. And I had asked her repeatedly. And so and it’s not just that there were little underhanded things that were going on. And I kept saying, no, no, no. Either I’m getting misinformation or I’m not understanding her intentions or I repeatedly gave her the benefit of the doubt repeatedly. And so then, you know, she has a tantrum. I forgave it in Arizona. I think we’re moving forward and some other things occurred that I think you’ll find out about at Reunion.

 

Ira Madison III Mm hmm.

 

Meridith Marks Now, I was moving on, but she wasn’t. And if you notice, after Arizona, 99.9% of the times that that rant is ever mentioned again, it’s not me bringing it up. I just answer. But I don’t bring it up because that wasn’t the issue anymore. I mean, it was part of the issue. But I moved on like I moved on, you know? Yes, of course I’m going to be wary and I’m not going to dive in head first and trust you immediately tomorrow. But my thing was, you know, let’s move forward. You’re not really giving me any. I don’t understand why this happened because I said you had shitty renovations, which I never said because I never even saw her finished house. She doesn’t really invite people over Ventura housing twice in the ten years I’ve known her. So it wasn’t that because I didn’t say it. I never saw the completed home. I couldn’t have commented on her renovations. And, you know, I don’t really know what it was. I asked her 100 times and she told me there was no problem. So and we all saw that. I asked her every time. She said I didn’t support her. She got a season two reunion. She acknowledged I did, in fact, support her. So, no, I don’t really understand where it came from, but that was okay. I don’t understand where it came from. I didn’t understand why it wouldn’t happen again. She refused to give me any real reassurance when I asked her what she was willing to do to change her behaviors. And I just went on. I was like, All right, well, time will tell. Her actions were show me. And she took actions which showed me. Not my friend. .

 

Ira Madison III No.

 

Meridith Marks That’s okay.

 

Ira Madison III How does it feel having like even even with the forgiving and getting over the rant itself, you know, it taking on a life of its own and moments where it’s like Ray Fiennes, you know, doing the monologue in the clubhouse with Andy Cohen.

 

Meridith Marks You know, I don’t care. I mean, that was actually very entertaining. You know, her, Lisa’s tantrum says a lot more about Lisa than it does about, you know. There’s no truth to anything in her tantrums. So I really don’t care about that. It shows exactly what happened. She’ll. She’ll get a glimpse of a little something, you know, she’ll here. Oh, Meredith. And something that other people, when they were separated. Now, she’s a horrible part of New York, and that’s what Lisa does. She takes a little piece of information that and by the way, may not even be true. You know, like she did with her. You’ll see in the reunion  too, with her pill popping comment. She hears a little piece of a rumor and takes it and amplifies it to something that it was not to begin with and says it as if it’s a truth, you know, And a lot of it is projection and a lot of it is the same kind of rumors I hear about her. So there is as much truth to these things about her as there is about me. I’ve heard these same rumors about her, all of them, every single one of them that she said about everyone else. I have heard in some capacity about her. So it’s just as much truth about her. If she wants to give credence to rumors and make them a million times worse, so much even hers to share.

 

Ira Madison III Would you say that conversations like this and rumors and things like were heightened in your life once you all became, you know, on a national spotlight? Did you feel like more people wanted to tell you things about the other women or were talking about your life more?

 

Meridith Marks Of course. Of course. And that’s why I don’t believe it. And that’s why I say the rumors. And I don’t believe them, you know, And that’s a very big difference. There’s a very big difference from saying, I’ve heard rumors, I don’t believe it, but maybe there’s a bigger problem going on. Maybe my friend needs my help. Then I hear a rumor and I am now suddenly going to make it ten times worse than it is and say it as if it’s a fact and a true other very different thing. So if you want to say there is nothing, I have not spread rumors. I’ve said I’ve heard rumors and that I didn’t believe them. There is a very big difference from that. The FCC filing is a fact like it’s a public legal document. And sorry, there’s I talk about FCC filings every day I trade. It should not be a big deal. If you want to be big business, you should not get you should be happy. People are talking about your FCC filing if you really want to be big, big business. Otherwise, stay small potatoes. Not my problem.

 

Ira Madison III Of course. And you know, in the talk of forgiveness and everything to I guess the other big question, you know, everyone sort of had is, you know, in season two, you were very just sort of it seemed like happy that Jen was sort of getting a little bit of a come out that’s, you know, or leading up to that trial, you know, the bathtub moment, etc.. And then in season three, you were very close to her. And even on the team with Heather, you know, who would at least travel to New York to be there with her. How did you get to a place of forgiveness with her? I want to know. And, you know, just sort of how do you feel rewatching that scene now, knowing literally what was occurring while you were, you know, there to support her?

 

Meridith Marks It’s really it’s very hard. I mean, first of all, it’s interesting to me that people think I’m not a forgiving person because obviously I am like, how did I figure out how to forgive and move forward with Jen? Jen. Took accountability for her actions. Number one. Okay. I didn’t hear a bunch of excuses. And this that. Well, I did at first, but she did take accountability. She did apologize. She did take the time to sit down and meet with Brookes to apologize to him, which to me meant a lot. She was very, very, very aggressive in making sure that meeting happened. You know, it wasn’t just like she it was important to her. And that made it important to me. So that was a big thing right there. And so we kind of, you know, then I lost my own father and it made it a lot easier to understand some of the struggles she had. She also was very forthcoming with her struggles with her own mental health, which also allowed me to have give a lot more room to somebody. Because when you when someone honest about another problem in their life, it makes it very easy to say, okay, I understand why they did that. It wasn’t really against me. They have other things going on. You know, and that’s what I was looking for with Lisa was like, is there something bigger going on so that I can feel like this wasn’t really an attack on me and my family and everybody? And that’s what I was trying to discover. It didn’t go that way, but whatever. So then you will find out more about this, that reunion. So I’m not going to spoil that. But there were things that I learned very early on last winter and January that almost made it impossible for me not to support Jen and just given everything I was dealing with and everything else that went on, there were just so many more connections. You know, and then we connect. I mean, we connected on a lot of things. Like, we all know these are snippets you don’t see every moment, but, you know, we connected with a lot of the stuff that went down with Jenny. We connected with just I finally understood Jen and how she communicates and a lot of the back story of why and a lot of it was triggers for her. And I didn’t get that before. Once I understood it, I was able to sit down with her and usually calm her down and get her and say, Jen, I hear you. But, you know, you making this accusation is not what you’re really trying to say. You’re trying to say you’re triggering, triggering things from my past and it’s upsetting me. And instead you’re so upset that you’re not verbalizing it. And she was like, you’re right, help me, you know? And so that’s what we really did. I really did get to connect on that level. And then obviously going to New York and seeing what I saw and whatever else, it’s it’s very hard to, you know, knowing what we all know now, it’s hard to digest them. But I do think there’s truth to the statement she made in court was just that she was embarrassed and didn’t want to own her actions because it was just so such a hard pill to swallow. And, you know, it’s I mean, this whole situation is absolutely sad. You know, it’s horrible, obviously, for the victims. The victims were always there. They all you know, and that’s a lot. I think the audience feels a lot of like, why aren’t we talking more about the victims and this, that and the other? And and that’s a fair question. But the reality is no one ever doubted that the victims were there. There was never a denial of these victims. It was only was Jen involved? What was her knowledge? Did she know what was going on? And so that’s why there wasn’t that much conversation, because we all felt for the victims, regardless of Jen’s involvement, you know, there is nobody in our circle that would say they didn’t feel for those victims. No, but, you know.

 

Ira Madison III Do you think you could have gotten her off if you were defending her in court?

 

Meridith Marks I wouldn’t count on me. I barely ever practice law at all, and I certainly did not practice criminal law. So that would be to her detriment.

 

Ira Madison III Lastly, is Mary Cosby still wandering around Salt Lake? Has anyone seen her?

 

Meridith Marks Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I talked to Mary last week. You know, I, we, we text, I don’t know, probably once a month or so. You know, I like to check in on her, see how she’s doing. I mean, Mary makes me smile. She makes me laugh. She’s funny.

 

Ira Madison III She’s very funny.

 

Meridith Marks Funny.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Meridith Marks Yeah. I hope. Hopefully we get her back. I don’t know.

 

Ira Madison III We’d love to see her back. We’d love to see her back. And lastly, I’m going to Park City soon with a group of, like, gay friends for, like, a week. At what restaurant? Like, do I need to visit?

 

Meridith Marks Well, for sure. Handle.

 

Ira Madison III Okay.

 

Meridith Marks That is like the impetus of our show.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Meridith Marks Without Handle, we might not have had our show. Right. So for sure. Handle. My friends just opened a new restaurant where Tamayo used to be. I’m. I’m hoping to go, I think, on Thursday, and I’m. My gosh, the name is. I want to say it’s Pine Cone. It’s Pine something. They’re going to kill me. Oh, my gosh. I haven’t been yet. That’s the only reason I can’t remember. But I’m dying to try it. Brand new. It’s Bill White. He owns, like, several restaurants in town. Seven or eight. So that’s wonderful, too. I mean, I’m guessing it should be wonderful. All of his stuff is great. Sure. Handle that. Firewood is really good. Yuuki Yama for sushi. I mean, we have our fair share, and then, of course, you know, all the hotels have great. I’m. I’m at the Montage now. The food here is always great. STEIN Eric’s and Goldner Hirsch has excellent, excellent, excellent.

 

Ira Madison III Okay, great.

 

Meridith Marks One of my favorites.

 

Ira Madison III Apparently, is the only place you can find Vida in Park City. So we’re trying to find it to see if it’s good. Have you do you like it?

 

Meridith Marks Well, you know, I. I really am not drinking much tequila these days because it’s not agreeing with my acidity, my level. So. But yeah, you know, it’s it’s good, but I have nothing negative. I just not what I’m doing right, right now. It’s not nothing. No knock on Vida. No knock on Lisa. I just have acidity and it’s not working for me. This is.

 

Ira Madison III Great. Well, thank you so much for being here, Meredith.

 

Meridith Marks Thank you. Thank you. Fun to chat with you.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. You can watch the first part of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City reunion when it airs next week on Bravo or the next morning on Peacock. Thank you so much.

 

Meridith Marks Thank you. Thank you. Have a great day. This was so fun.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, you too.

 

Unidentified <AD>

 

Ira Madison III All right, Louis, now that we’ve had a couple of weeks to get settled into 2023, I feel like it’s time for us to say definitively what trends and tropes can be left in last year. This is our in and out list of 2023.

 

Louis Virtel My first in. I’m pretty certain about this. And of course, it comes in waves over the years and you can always expect some form of it, but I think it’s going to culminate here. Is horny gay Super Mario Brothers memes because we’re getting that movie this year. And I’m telling you something, people are really amped and I feel like the movie is going to hit and I feel like you’re just going to get in our way. More of the Thirsty wild Luigi content that you thought was maybe five years ago. But it’s going to it’s going to come back is something about Mario is. What is the brand of Mario? It’s cartoonish, but it’s also about power ups. It’s also about like invincibility. So there’s a it’s like cartoonish and cocky. And they’re also men with huge butts. So it’s like horny, too. Anyway.

 

Ira Madison III I feel like the original Donkey Kong is more horny because you’ve got, you know, a mark on the barrel of those barrels to get up to him. And Donkey Kong looks hot. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, no. Yeah. The original Donkey Kong is set at the Eagle in New York. Donkey Kong is standing on the top layer, throwing barrels down, and you’re just trying to weave your way up to the roof where you know, Alan Cumming is hanging out.

 

Ira Madison III You know, I try. They need to add on gay apps. Okay. I’m tired of bears. Okay. We’re Kongs.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong, Jr. You know, there’s mid-sized gorillas, too. What are. What’s your first in of the year?

 

Ira Madison III My first in of the year is and I said this online already, but I’m having a criterion year.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, sure.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I bought two criterion’s last. I bought All About my Mother and I bought All About Eve, as I mentioned weeks ago was were in my top ten movies ever. But I just feel like I’m really devoted to this sort of,um, one, physical media.

 

Louis Virtel Definitely.

 

Ira Madison III And two, I like displaying like my cultural tastes, you know, around my apartment. And, you know, when you just have books, you know, that’s part of an aspect of my life. But like, we’re movie and TV people, you know? So I guess I like the idea of some of my favorite films now being on display in a way that they used to be when like growing up, you know, you’d always have like the films that your parents loved are like right there by the TV constantly. It’s like they never moved so.

 

Louis Virtel Totally.

 

Ira Madison III You know, I see my version of Jagged Edge. Yeah. Oh, my grandmother. It was always next to the TV set, Jagged Edge, and, like, G.I. Jane.

 

Louis Virtel A minor. Glenn Close smash. I’m glad to hear it. Yes, I do think there’s something annoying about the fact that if you’re a movie person, you want to display that you’re a movie loving person. Your choices are like movie giant movie poster. My compromises, I have simply giant portraits I’ve found off like bootleg sites that are probably illegal, or you have like DVDs, which you can kind of see, you know, Criterion Collection type stuff. It does feel like there should be a midsize option that, you know, sort of satisfies the size of a book thing. I recommend if people are into displaying their movie loving ness, looking up lobby cards on Amazon, which are like, you know, like just eight by elevens or whatever. But if you, you know, display a bunch of them at once, I think it’s really striking. I have a bunch of lobby cards for a movie called Pretty Poison with Anthony Perkins and to say, well, they have ones of Boys in the Band. Yeah, that’s just like, that’s sort of an inch and they look like old Hollywood.

 

Ira Madison III So I’m also a fan of the, like, the large coffee table books. Like I just got a Wong Kar wai one, you know, And then there’s like the the PTA one that just came out recently, you know, like I have an Almodovar one. So stuff like that where it’s like the director’s there, you can flip through it and see the gorgeous images like of their films.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III I just got a French Videodrome poster.

 

Louis Virtel I’ve never seen Videodrome every time I watch a Cronenberg movie. My question is just what the fuck is wrong with this man?

 

Ira Madison III It’s I watched it for the first time this year, and it is it’s. It’s still with me.

 

Louis Virtel Okay! That’s how I feel, right! That’s how his movies are. Like Dead Ringers is always, like, kind of lingering in my mind. Like, that’s too much blood for a movie. I just can’t watch it.

 

Ira Madison III But what a great fucking performance  in Dead Ringers, by the way, from.

 

Louis Virtel My dad, Jer.

 

Louis Virtel Jeremy Ines

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Jeremy Irons. You know, Videodrome, unfortunately, stars that go. James Woods Oh.

 

Louis Virtel We’ve talked about this before, but he might be among like, actors who are the worst. Like, I think he’s more talented than Jon Voight. Like, I think he’s like that. Good. And yet also that horrible like the disparity. But you know, the gay version of that would be Kirstie Alley, for example. But James Woods, really it it’s unfortunate you ever seen Salvador so good. Anyway, moving on. Do you know what I think is out this coming year and I don’t mean to say this dismissively to the people who make their money on it, I just it doesn’t fill me with a good feeling any more. I feel it has peaked Onlyfans. I’d just  be done with it. I’ve seen all you can bring. I know how you look when you fuck and you produced it yourself on your fucking phone. I just don’t need years and years of it. It now to me has that echo of it has the echo of like cameo, you know, it’s just like, yeah, that was a fun novelty toy for a little while.

 

Ira Madison III I feel like when it comes to that, I like the people who are giving production value. You know, I would love to see like kids. Well, I guess there are people who, like we’re actually doing porn before, you know what studios and now they like work with other people and like are actually creating real content. You know, I think I’m over the. Just every third person you meet, like, has an onlyfans or an art and it’s okay. But like, you’re not really stepping it up here. It’s just isn’t that a very lazy.

 

Louis Virtel That’s also what you’re describing as a very we have a phenomenon of every third gay person you meet is making money on onlyfans in some way. Also, another thing that I fucking can’t stand when somebody like that is on Grindr and they have in their profile something like if we meet up, you have to film or we can’t hang out or whatever. I don’t know. It sort of feels to me like if I ran into you at a party and I took out a record and I said, If you’re going to talk to me, I have to be able to use that on my podcast. I’m like. Like every social interaction, you can’t treat like a business proposition. I just find that cold and soulless.

 

Ira Madison III You guys are turning dating into The Apprentice, right?

 

Louis Virtel Truly. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III This competition is go out and find people who want to fuck on camera while also drinking Trump ice.

 

Louis Virtel Oh my God. The brands on that show should be a montage. I’m going to pitch that to Kimmel. Come on.

 

Ira Madison III Trump Steaks. Come on.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, yeah. Vodka, no. And it goes on and on. What do you think is out this year?

 

Ira Madison III My out. And a friend of mine and I were talking up my friend Lucas Timm and I were talking about this, the way that people used to say, the way that uninteresting gays used to say we should be on a reality show because they think their lives are so interesting.

 

Louis Virtel Right.

 

Ira Madison III And it’s no, we want to watch aging women who have real lives and careers and things to lose on television fighting with each other. I don’t want to see, you know, gays who work at Zara fighting with one another.

 

Louis Virtel I can just see that I can go into Zara.

 

Ira Madison III But what’s out now is describing instead of saying that he said the new thing is saying when you’re on like a vacation, oh, this is just like The White Lotus or something, you know, Because you know what? Those people are awful.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Right. That’s sort of the point

 

Ira Madison III So what you’re actually saying about yourself and also, does one of you want to die?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, yeah. Not everything is like the White Lotus. I agree. Just because your, your your. What’s that word for when your lifestyle creeping, you’re hanging out at a fancy place. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III There are. There’s other forms of vacation media. Okay. Maybe you’re on a Why did I get married trip.

 

Louis Virtel Yes The Road to Morocco or the Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour movies of old. That would be nice to bring back. I’m sorry I’m also 175 years old. Yes. Beach Blanket. Bingo. Yes. Annette Funicello. I passed your star on the Walk of Fame every day. We respect you.

 

Ira Madison III All right. What’s something else that’s in for you?

 

Louis Virtel Well, I think we’re going to elevate Greta Gerwig to the level of, I don’t know, Godard this year, thanks to Barbie. I don’t know that the movie will actually be everything we need it to be. And by the way, I don’t need it to be anything. So she sort of already wins. But it’s going to be a huge moment. And I it’s the must see movie of the year. And I don’t think I had a script in mind before where Greta Gerwig necessarily directed the must see movie of any given year. You know she’s she tends towards smaller projects. I just by the way for the first time watched Mistress America, which I had never seen before. She is so fucking good in that movie. Very happy for her. I think what’s in this year is elevating her to the, you know, the level of the directorial gods we’ve loved over the years.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And meanwhile, Noah Baumbach’s out here making the must not see films of the year with White Noise.

 

Louis Virtel Was white nice was just not it. I like his movies. Like I thought Marriage Story was great, you know.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I do love Noah Baumbach. I’m just being a bitch.

 

Louis Virtel Right. But as far as you know, of course, Team Jennifer Jason Leigh also. So it’s with reservations, too. I love Noah Baumbach.

 

Ira Madison III Piggybacking off of your Only Fans thing being out, I would say, you know what I think he should be in this year. Bring back romance.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, sure. I have lots of thoughts about that.

 

Ira Madison III I think people should be falling in love again. I think people should be wanting to date. I like maybe it’s because I’m watching Sex and the City, you know? But I feel like people should be having these conversations, too, about like monogamy versus non-monogamy, but like falling in love versus not falling in love and like, what like? There’s this amazing tweet from Donna Smith that was basically about. What is it? It’s like wanting people to have. You know, situation ships that weren’t hollow, that actually meant something. And I feel like a lot of people you might know, you may have someone that you like, you’re sort of seeing or sort of like hooking up with. But I feel like a lot of people, like in this era of everyone who has a man looking for another man. Um, I think that, like, there’s so many of these relationships that just feel sort of. Empty lately, and I want to bring some pizzazz back to them, too. You know.

 

Louis Virtel I hope we do a better job in this coming year of defining the space between hookup and long term relationship. Because I think I mean, speaking for myself, most of my relationships are in between there. It’s, you know, as Fran Lebowitz said, I am very shocked to say Fran Lebowitz speaks for me on this issue. But she said, like living with someone isn’t important to me, but romance is important to me. And those are like two distinct things. You know, like, I think there’s there’s a satisfaction quality to romance that goes beyond hooking up that I yeah, I like just defining that space a little bit more because we’re still speaking in pretty heteronormative terms about what it means to be with somebody, you know?

 

Ira Madison III Mm hmm. And I think it involves more honesty and, you know, like.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Some people aren’t prepared to do that. And I’m going to segway here.

 

Louis Virtel You’re falling out of your face. Go ahead. Yeah, I’ve.

 

Ira Madison III Going to segway that right into my out. I am not anti open relationships at all. But I will say while I am looking for a man this year. Keep, keep. Keep your keep your legs closed to unmarried men. Okay. Most people who are married keep their was close to unmarried men because I’m tired of competing in the dating pool with couples.

 

Louis Virtel You’re right. There’s two of them. I mean, it’s just unfair.

 

Ira Madison III That. Enough.

 

Louis Virtel Any athletic competition, we would not be paired up.

 

Ira Madison III You have a man, you want another man. You know what I think should be in for four couples this year? A boyfriend. Okay. Like, if you want to have a third in your relationship, who is your boyfriend that you’re regularly seeing? I’m fine with that. But you know what you don’t need to be doing? Scooping up a different man every weekend because some of us are looking for that man.

 

Louis Virtel Got it. Got it. Also, let me just say something about couples dating a third. It’s just inherently very funny because there’s treachery. It’s so like there’s a villain. It’s so like, you need an alliance. You know. You’re never safe except yourself because you’re. You’re being honest with each other. Allegedly, for now. It’s so fun.

 

Ira Madison III And it’s honestly, I do It is a little funny and it is a little bit like it is a bit. It is a little bit like playing the mole or trade. Yes. Because if you’re at a party. Right. And and you see someone and, you know, they’re sort of like you’re like, who is this man? And they’re around. But, you know, you’re friends with this couple and then you meet them. They’re like, Oh, that’s our new boyfriend or something. And like, oh, they came into the game with an objective.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, right there, an interrupt to her. And going back to pop culture, my last out is female vocalists who sound like children. I just don’t. There are guys, as you know, I’m a Carly Simon Stan and I put her on the other day. One of my favorite songs by her is called The Right Thing to Do, and just the vocal on it is so free and there’s no other word for it. Adult The joy of hearing somebody in their full, sincere voice saying, I cannot do. And by the way, this this girl is like the Yale of what I’m talking about. I cannot do Ellie Goulding vocals anymore. I cannot, you know, like, Well, but I can’t. I can’t do it. We’ve we’ve hit this note. 80,000.

 

Ira Madison III You know, I’m a Gould digger.

 

Louis Virtel I’ve not heard that before. I’m a Gould digger. When it comes to Elliott Gould. Moving on.

 

Ira Madison III She delayed her album because she’s back in the studio with Calvin Harris. She’s going to give us BOPs. Okay.

 

Louis Virtel All right. Well, I need her to take up cigar smoking or something like let’s drop it an octave.

 

Ira Madison III Actually, if you want to talk about people with that, you know, like sort of like indie, like sort of like, you know, babyish voice. Let me tell you who is opening for Taylor Swift on the Aries tour. Gracie Abrams.

 

Louis Virtel Hmm.

 

Ira Madison III Guess who her dad is?

 

Louis Virtel Go on.

 

Ira Madison III JJ.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, my God. What!

 

Ira Madison III And the vocals are very like that indie, like a high pitch sort of thing. And also just sort of like, you know, like guitar singer songwriter thing. And I’m just sort of like, who? How is she opening for Taylor Swift?

 

Louis Virtel That is very, very shocking.

 

Ira Madison III Like Taylor trying to get a movie at Bad Robot.

 

Louis Virtel Even though I do stand that secretly J.J. Abrams has really gay taste. I think I brought this up before I interviewed him once, and he talked about how when he was a kid, he wrote a play about Edith Head, the Hitchcock costumer, legendary Hollywood costumer, because he she was the only person who made cool clothes for bigger bodies. And I was like, Damn, you just earned some credibility with me that I did not know you were going to get.

 

Ira Madison III J.J. Abrams I want to read that.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, I mean, he wrote about he was like a teenager or something. Yeah. Anyway.

 

Ira Madison III But I’m just like, there’s. I just want to say, like it would be different if Gracie Abrams was making like, like pussy poppin music, like something for the clubs. Like, if she was giving, like, okay, I’m going to give you pop hits. Okay. But the fact that it’s just like a guitar in this weepy indie shit, I’m just like anybody listening to that.

 

Louis Virtel Don’t get into virtuous way. Okay.

 

Ira Madison III I guess I’m going to skip the opening act on that tour date.

 

Louis Virtel And of course, it’ll be at the Rose Bowl anyway. So you’ll be spending ten years getting to see it. It won’t be a problem.

 

Ira Madison III All right. Well, those are ins and outs, which really felt like we gave an elongated Keep It segment.

 

Louis Virtel Which, anyway, I can cheat on that front. I’m happy to.

 

Ira Madison III And when we’re back, our actual Keep It segment. And we are back with our favorite segment of the episode. It’s Keep It. Louis, what’s yours?

 

Louis Virtel Well, something sinister is happening in the world of Oscars campaigning, but I think it’s mostly a good thing. Keep It guesst, Andrea Riseborough was in a movie this year called Too Leslie, which was really well reviewed. I think it has something like an 85 a Metacritic, which is well ahead of plenty of the other Oscar contenders this year. She gives a performance as a woman who wins the lottery and then blows all the money and then her life is again a shambles.

 

Ira Madison III Like Nicolas Cage.

 

Louis Virtel Very much in the universe of a Nicolas Cage. Anyway, her performance is an A-plus. It is not an A, It is beyond that. She is so compelling, so real. I mean, I’d hate to say it, but when you hear her talk in her soft spoken British way and then listen to this oftentimes feral character, I would really compare it to something like like Estelle Parsons and Bonnie and Clyde or something. It’s so shocking, so jarring. But anyway, she was basically counted out as a contender for this movie. No one was talking about it. The best actress category seems like it’s shaping up to be pretty like we know it’s Cate Blanchett. We know it’s Michelle Yeoh. Michelle Williams is sort of on the bubble now, but we’ve got Viola Davis in the picture. Danielle Deadwyler in the picture, the main stars were there. Suddenly, out of nowhere on Twitter, many celebrities released the same tweets about Andrea Riseborough until Leslie. Mia Farrow, Joe Montana. The list goes on. But they didn’t put an ounce of effort into whatever this is. Andrea Riseborough got an email and said, Here’s what I want you to put in the body of the tweet. Send it out, Mia. And here’s my keep. It goes to the people who are cynical about this because let me tell you something. If you saw the movie, you wouldn’t be cynical. It’s that fucking good a performance. It’s weird that it got left behind. There are great performances every year that don’t get considered for this reason, in that this one is better than most of those performances. So I’m going to say you can snicker at the fact that she was, I guess, her connections from the many popular movies she’s been in. But the fact of the matter is, Andrea Riseborough is such a weird chameleon that I don’t think she’s caught on because as several tweeters have pointed out, she’s unrecognizable from role to role, and that is to her detriment. You know, there aren’t too many Tilda Swinton out there, you know, who just get to be a completely different thing, whatever they do. And we, you know, appreciate them about it. So I say go for it. Andrea Riseborough I want to see you in the final five.

 

Ira Madison III You want to see her rise.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, that’s the one, yes.

 

Ira Madison III In her borough of choice.

 

Louis Virtel I the boroughs. Yes.

 

Louis Virtel She’s from Staten Island to Queens. Here comes Angela Riseborough.

 

Ira Madison III She’s great All up in Matilda the musical.

 

Louis Virtel Right. I was very happy to see her in that. She was the only amazing part of the Death of Stalin. She’s good in Birdman. She was. Excuse me. This woman gave an A-plus performance in a movie directed by Madonna. I’m sorry. This woman deserves, like, the Congressional Medal of Honor for that. The movie was W.E..

 

Ira Madison III Not just Madonna. A-plus performance in a film directed by Tom Ford as well.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Which we only have a couple of those. Colin Firth.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, because Jake Gyllenhaal is also in that movie, which by the way, we didn’t bring it up last week when we were talking about movies. But now that we’re talking about performances that should that were probably going to be glossed over when the nominations drop. Jake Gyllenhaal. An ambulance is a career best performance for him.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, that’s so interesting. I’ve not seen it. I was discussing that movie with our friend Andy Favreau, who has a brief role in that.

 

Ira Madison III But he does. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is fantastic. And I know we’re talking about Michael Bay, but I’m like, it’s it’s great. And Jake Gyllenhaal is just it’s like he did lines of coke before he walked on the set and he’s just at this high octane the entire film and it and it never feels like he’s going like he hit like a plateau, like he keeps going higher and down.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. So watch this movie also at the Louis for Acting Academy. We recommend you do several lines before every scene. So I’m glad to see the practices being carried out.

 

Ira Madison III Also, Regina Hall for a sort of mid movie, but call for Jesus, Save your soul. Regina Hall is great in everything. I mean, remember also. Support the girls who support the girls, which I always do.

 

Louis Virtel Awesome. Yes, you too. And we do. That performance is fabulous. She also like steers that movie and there are crazy characters all over the place in that movie. Normally, Regina Hall would be one of the crazy characters, but it’s you forget that she can bring such a groundedness to performances, too.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. So more actresses like Regina and Andrea should be sitting in these emails. Okay, where’s our where’s there consider poster?

 

Louis Virtel Right. No, I want to say this hearkens back to the Melissa Leo for the fighter thing, except she was already in contention. So that kind of campaign felt so weird. But it’s a noble version of there’s a very famous Oscar campaign for an actor named Chill who is in the John Wayne movie The Alamo. And he ran this sort of tacky, his publicity people ran this tacky campaign saying, yeah, the people at the actual Alamo don’t remember the Alamo as much as as much as audiences remember. Chilwell’s in the Alamo is so tacky. But that energy, that fervor for an Oscar, I’m thrilled to see it.

 

Ira Madison III Actually true in U.S. history class. They only taught me about Showgirls and not the actual Alamo.

 

Louis Virtel You know. Isn’t that a shame? Right. Well, he has a cool name, you understand?

 

Ira Madison III So my Keep It this week goes to the drag race fans who are upset that the show is an hour now.

 

Louis Virtel As opposed to seven, which it used to be.

 

Ira Madison III First of all, I’m a little worried that gays are about to descend on MTV like January 6th. The way that people have been tweeting deranged about this is I have never seen a level of like anger like this over a TV show length. Let me point out something. One, the show ballooned to too much content a few years ago, which was actually around when the show stopped being as amazing as it used to be. The best seasons of the show were an hour. I do not think you need more than an hour of the show. The problem might be that there’s too many queens now.

 

Louis Virtel That is exactly the problem. That’s the problem. Yes. It’s a lot to get in for 60 minutes.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, Yeah. But 60 Minutes is it’s fine. And also Untucked still exists. The whole point of Untucked was to give us extra content beyond an hour of the show.

 

Louis Virtel Right.

 

Ira Madison III You know.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Ira Madison III And then it became like, now the show’s like 2 hours and here’s untucked as well. And I’m like, I’m sorry. I enjoy Drag Race. I’m not one of those people who needs to spend my Friday evening watching, like hours and hours of content of Drag Race. I would like a succinct show.

 

Louis Virtel Right now there is this unspoken reality TV universe that began a few years ago with like The Bachelor becoming 2 hours, The Apprentice being 2 hours where it’s like, Who fucking decided this? I mean, it’s just there’s not enough story to go around. It’s really crazy. I mean, I have historically enjoyed certain two hour episodes of Drag Race, but not all of them.

 

Ira Madison III Not an acting challenge episode. Okay, So now this week is going to be like Snatch Game. And granted, fitting two Snatch Games into one episode seems like a very hard task. But I will also say there have been a lot of Snatch games in recent years where I’m like, They could have cut that all together.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, absolutely. No. For the most part, I think this is good. I mean, if and then we’re going to rally all around this real friends of WeHo show and that will truly drive people to the brink. So I’m looking forward to that fallout.

 

Ira Madison III But also blaming real friends of we I mean, I’m fine with them being a scapegoat, but the show’s on MTV now and the ratings are up. It would have been any show besides real friends of WeHo. I feel like they were never going to have it be longer than an hour because, you know, MTV, it’s for their audience now, not just for the old Drag Race fans. They want new fans. And if you’ve grown up watching MTV, they like it fast and for the youth.

 

Louis Virtel Right. It’s also just fun that people are mad at MTV for a new thing. Other than playing Ridiculous too often. So I consider this excitingly modern.

 

Ira Madison III MTV’s Back, Baby. All right. Well, that’s our show.

 

Louis Virtel There was quite a lot in it. I’m almost sorry we couldn’t commit really to the topic of Harry. But again, I think he’ll be more interesting in the future, even outside of this book, which is

 

Ira Madison III He looks so intense on the cover, you know, looks a little hot, but not too hot. One of the hottest things ever was his arm. Oh, he had those, like, shirtless photos before.

 

Louis Virtel The party boy photos in Vegas too.

 

Ira Madison III Those. And when I worked at Radar magazine, if you all remember, Radar magazine was sort of like the sort of like a comical sort of like print magazine that sort of was like snarky, for lack of a better word. But the covers always used to be Photoshopped things and they Photoshopped a cover of like shirtless hair, like sitting on a throne back during his drunk party boy days. And I cherish that cover. It’s the is one of the best ones, second only to a Tom Cruise cover which recreated the. Like the arrows going into like Muhammad Ali, like that classic photo. It was that. So that was circled like the like Suri, Kate, Katie Holmes, like stuff where everyone was like, kill Tom Cruise. Now I’m like, let him rise. Well.

 

Louis Virtel Well, Tom Cruise does have Saint Sebastian Energy. Yeah. You know, taunt and tortured.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. All right. Well, thank you to Meredith Marks for joining us on Keep It this week. And we’ll see you next time. Keep It is a Crooked Media production. Our senior producer is Kendra James. Our producer is Chris Lord and our associate producer is Malcolm Whitfield. Our executive producers are Ira Madison, the third. That’s me. And Louis Virtel. This episode was recorded and mixed by Evan Sutton. Thank you to our digital team, Matt DeGroot, Nar Melkonian and Delon Villanueva for production support every week. And as always, Keep It is filmed in front of a live studio audience.