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Ira and Louis discuss the 96th Academy Awards, Madonna’s Celebration Tour, and the ongoing Kate Middleton drama. Martha Plimpton joins to discuss her new role in HBO’s The Regime and more.

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Ira Madison III And we’re back with an all new episode of Keep It! I’m Ira Madison the third. And unfortunately, I lost last night.

 

Louis Virtel Oh. You did. To who? And also, where were you? Because it wasn’t maybe the Oscars.

 

Ira Madison III Oh, the Oscars were it last night?

 

Louis Virtel No.

 

Ira Madison III Well, let me tell you something. I was in a room with Rami Malek, and he said, this is my award. And then he hit me.

 

Louis Virtel Oh my God. It’s nice to know he’s around and not just 11th build an Oppenheimer or whatever he was.

 

Ira Madison III Someone tweeted, imagine you’re Bradley Cooper and your film loses an Oscar twice to a Rami Malek film.

 

Louis Virtel Oh my God, he’s right in that. In the Leonard Bernstein diary, he still keeps, I’m Louis Virtel. I am wearing gray, which you can’t see on a podcast. It’s not a visual medium. You might be watching this on YouTube, but I am, of course, in mourning because I was backstage at the Oscars, which I was part of the writing staff for, and then suddenly it was over. It just after months and months. I mean, literally, Oscar season is twice what we now consider a Christmas season, and once it’s over, it’s just, wow. I guess I go back into not watching movies for a while or doing anything. So it’s sort of like, I don’t know who I am at the moment. And I’m also sleep deprived because I saw Madonna for the second time this week last night too. So forgive me for being on my last, strand of adrenaline as we zoom into this episode, but I’m thrilled to talk about the Oscars.

 

Ira Madison III Well, the Oscars aren’t over on my Instagram feed.

 

Louis Virtel No absolutely. And I’m.

 

Ira Madison III Let me tell you that.

 

Louis Virtel I’m posting, I’m posting pictures with everybody I’ve ever met. Just yeah. Staffers on Kimmel, whose name I’m not sure about there are on main now.

 

Ira Madison III You know, it’s always nice when we see you in a suit, so.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, sure. No, I love feeling like fancy, first grader getting communion, you know what I’m saying?

 

Ira Madison III Okay, so before we get into the Oscars, though, you obviously were writing for the ceremony, but you’re backstage. You’re there. Did you have any fun interactions with people that you adore?

 

Louis Virtel Well, I have to say, I’m almost taking it for granted at this point. The running into Diane Warren, because first of all, so.

 

Ira Madison III She’s after you.

 

Louis Virtel I know in 2019 and in 2020, I hosted, on behalf of the Academy, I was their red carpet correspondent on the, on the carpet. And there, of course, Diane Warren was nominated both those years. Last year when I was writing and I was walking around backstage, Diane Warren, there she is, telling me she is, going to shit herself. She’s so nervous about performing the song Applause last year. And then this year, her song, from that Cheetos movie The Fire Inside that Becky G performed at the ceremony. She was walking around before, and I’m like, I know we tend to nominate her every year, but it is just rare to run into someone that kooky and strange and and all the time, like she’s just your neighbor. And so I’m already, mourning that she’s just not around, you know, she’s she’s like the ghost of the Dolby at this point.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, you’ll see her next year. Yeah. Like, I, I won’t say who, but I won’t say who. But someone recently told me, they said, let’s say, you know what, Diane does. She is looking through the trades, calling up people as soon as movies are announced. And she’s like, I’ll make a I’ll make a song for your film. So she will be at the Oscars next year. She will be there every year until she wins.

 

Louis Virtel She’s circling things in the classified box with a heart like Desperately Seeking Suzanne.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Can you imagine getting a call from Diane every year? You know, because, you know, there’s people. She’s called up Scorsese. He’s like, Diane, I don’t need a song for this movie.

 

Louis Virtel We just spoke with the Osage and they’re not interested at this point.

 

Ira Madison III She’s like, I’ve been working on my drumming. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel You know, should have some feathered jewelry ready to go at this particular Oscars for the fire inside. She had giant flames on her lapels. Anyway, there’s lots to talk about at the Oscars, but, okay. To begin, the awards rollout, I mean, I don’t think there was, technically speaking, a true surprise other than Poor Things picking up more technical awards than maybe some people may have guessed. Maybe some people thought Barbie would pick up more of those. But even so, like, I’m happy with who went home with everything. Like I would have picked Paul Giamatti over, Cillian Murphy, for example. I probably I mean, I got to pick Sandra Hoover over Emma Stone ultimate, but like, I feel like all the winners are good additions to the histories of those categories, like thinking of like, Emma Stone in Poor Things. There are just not many bizarre performance in the Best Actress canon. You know, I kind of think of like, maybe Kathy Bates in Misery, where she gets to be a villain, as well as reveal strange parts of her obsession as the movie goes on. But really, it’s a it’s a category that we have historically devoted to relatable ness. And, and this character, even though she’s, you know, learning the sort of basic aid components of life as she turns into a sentient thing. It’s a weird performance, you know, I can’t compare it to anything else. That’s one in the category.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, I find hooking and reading very relatable.

 

Louis Virtel The two oldest professions. You are a double major, shall we say?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Trying to escape Christopher Abbott. Okay. Yeah. I’m. I’m constantly escaping him. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel I loved him in the movie, by the way. I feel like a lot.

 

Ira Madison III He’s amazing.

 

Louis Virtel Discussed in that film. And he comes in in the last, you know, fifth of it or so, but.

 

Ira Madison III He’s actually had a very big year. I feel like in, in between that. And then he also was in, that play, with Aubrey Plaza, the John Patrick Shanley play. Yeah. Just people be talking. Those are his players. He has to play right now, like the laundromat, which is about people at the laundry mat.

 

Louis Virtel Not the Steven Soderbergh movie of the same name.

 

Ira Madison III Oh, no. Remember that.

 

Louis Virtel Right? No. And then we were like, Sharon Stone and Meryl Streep were just throwing them together. Now, I didn’t even know that was legal. By the way, speaking of, things I want, clarifications about, I totally, did not know that the Mary McDonnell of Dances With Wolves was on that fucking major crime show you were talking about. I just totally messed that up.

 

Ira Madison III And The Closer.

 

Louis Virtel I know that. I’m sorry. I’m sorry to this Mary McDonnell. I am passionate about her. And the movie Passion Fish starring Mary McDonnell.

 

Ira Madison III Thank you for apologizing. Because I felt gaslit.

 

Louis Virtel 1944, best actress. In the Bergman. I’m back to my old self. Great.

 

Ira Madison III All right, so we are going to get into the entire Oscar ceremony from start to finish. But also, we are delighted to have the wonderful Martha Plimpton here to join us this week.

 

Louis Virtel She is on the Kate Winslet show The Regime on HBO. Also one of my favorite celebrities, one of those people where you don’t know what she’ll be cast to do in any given project. She’s usually part of a terrific ensemble, which is a, thing we get into with her. But you’re just so grateful to see her. It’s like, oh fuck yes. That person who I know is real and, delivers something authentically human every single time. I just watched Running On Empty recently. She’s amazing. In that show, she brings up Parenthood. Another great performance. Anyway, we get into all of it.

 

Ira Madison III I watched I Shot Andy Warhol for the first time, a movie of hers for the mid-nineties, and she has like, I don’t know if you seen her hit a red carpet in the past two years or something. And you see Martha in sort of a funky, almost faux mohawk, like really sort of like chic, X-Men sort of. Look, she should be in an X-Men movie, by the way.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. I dig.

 

Ira Madison III That sort of look. She has that haircut in I Shot Andy Warhol, so it’s it’s funny to see that it’s sort of a throwback to a hairstyle she had in the mid 90s.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. She really there’s also just a resting sort of like sarcasm. And yeah, the quality that can only come from, you know, the best of Gen X.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. So we have a lovely chat with her coming up in this episode to also as I mentioned last week, go to IraMadison.com and get tickets to my live comedy show with Cody Rigsby, Jay Jurden, and Peyton Dix at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on March 20th. Tickets have gone pretty fast, but we still have a few left, so grab those if you’ve been waiting to get them, do it now. IraMadison.com is where you can get the tickets. We will be right back with more Keep It.

 

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Ira Madison III All right, let’s get into the actual ceremony. Louis, first of all, you wrote for the show.

 

Louis Virtel I know. How brave of me?

 

Ira Madison III Everyone I know was trying to guess which joke is a Louis joke? Which joke is a Louis joke, etc.. I feel like I pinpointed one of them. The Gerard Depardieu joke was definitely you. Someone was definitely like, we need a French actor.

 

Louis Virtel I can confirm that you are correct. That actually was a me joke. Honestly. Molly McNerney, who is the executive producer of the Oscars, head writer at Kimmel and also Jimmy Kimmel’s wife. She actually just told us all, like, if you guys talk about the show, like, stop claiming you wrote certain parts of it, or other people didn’t write parts or whatever, because it’s not about being territorial. Obviously we’re all in this together and like it’s literally the entire staff of Kimmel, so it’s like a horrible thing or whatever. That said, I’m particularly proud of writing the Gerard Depardieu joke, which was, Jimmy was addressing messy the dog from anatomy of a fall in the audience, and he said, God, the last French actor to eat his own vomit on set was Gerard Depardieu, I believe, you know, something like that. No, not the exact wording. Well, first of all, it’s such a pleasure to roast the, visibly horrible, Gerard Depardieu. I hope he burns in hell. Secondly. But it was one of the final meetings before the Oscars where we were all sitting around going over the initial versions of the script, and somebody said the words French actor, as you said, which, of course sent me into Wiki brain, which sent me to that joke. And it’s just, rare that you actually just voice something out loud and it becomes something that somebody has to write down, and it goes into the show. You know, most of the time I’m, I’m slaving over a document like typing and backspace saying and typing again. So that was a pleasurably SNL esque addition to the show. I imagine that’s how that show works, you know?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Louis from Temecula.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. That’s me. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III I will actually say that more so than I’ve seen any Gerard Depardieu films or even heard about him being a monster, which I feel like happened later in, our lives. Like, as an adult, I learned this. I just feel like I knew that name and heard it constantly from studying French in school for some reason. Gerard Depardieu is his name is in textbooks. When you’re learning French as a American, student learning French and like middle school or high school. Like, I heard the name constantly.

 

Louis Virtel There is like a rule that we only get new French celebrities every 5 or 6 years or so. You know, it’s like it’s like, oh, it’s the mid 2000. Here comes Marion Cotillard. You know.

 

Ira Madison III Does Timothee count?

 

Louis Virtel If we pronounced it correctly. But we don’t. So I think he’s dropping you know he’s doing a Louis Virtel. He’s saying however he wants to say.

 

Ira Madison III Remember the period when Bradley Cooper used to speak French in interviews?

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Ira Madison III He used to. And honestly. This was a precursor to the Bradley Cooper that we have now to talk about the Oscars ceremony and the Maestro of it all. When he was in Alias, when he was in, The Hangover, those movies, there was there were always sort of viral moments where Bradley Cooper is speaking French in an interview. He he’s worldly, you know, he’s more than the film that he’s in, you know, like, he this is someone to really pay attention to. And now we’ve arrived at the Bradley Cooper that we have in culture right now, and we should have seen the signs.

 

Louis Virtel That he would do the, I’m the full of soul megalomaniac. I’m not a regular megalomaniac.

 

Ira Madison III Maestr went home with nothing.

 

Louis Virtel Quite a few things. Went home with nothing. Killers of the Flower Moon went home with nothing, which is Scorseses third movie to get ten nominations and no wins. Remember the movie The Irishman? You don’t have to remember because it’s still playing wherever you first saw it. So, go back to it. You’re almost halfway through.

 

Ira Madison III So. And what was the third one?

 

Louis Virtel Gangs of New York, which I’m sorry to report to you as this is your favorite Scorsese. You’ve only said it hundreds of times, and I know you’re trying to get in with Marty, but.

 

Ira Madison III I see you try to get in with Francesca, to be honest onTikTok. Invite her to lunch or something. Of course I’ve mentioned that. That’s my favorite, Scorsese on this podcast before. Also, other side note, Juan Ramirez, who’s been on the show before, says that he for some reason, he was going down a rabbit hole listening to previous Keep It episodes. So we’ve done this show for six years. So what are we talking about? And he’s like, well, for one thing, you’ve ranked the scream movie 17 times.

 

Louis Virtel We’re almost at the permanent rankings. Almost.

 

Ira Madison III We’ve had many conversations on this show that have probably just repeated themselves, especially around award season. So I’m sorry. Or, if you’re a person who enjoys that, here we go again.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. I’m sorry. We’ve been talking for six straight years. Dementia is going to enter the picture, so I’m just that’s just the way it is. But, talking about the other acting wins category, obviously everybody knew Devin Joy Randolph was going to win. But I have to tell you, you know, since I’m writing for the show, I’m stressed about the monologue when Jimmy’s going to get back on stage and get back to making jokes. When they got to the five actresses presenting to the five nominees, which they had done before, more than a decade ago, I, you know, you underestimate reading the copy like that. It’s going to be affecting or that it’s going to how it’s going to play, really, because it started with Mary Steenburgen presenting the nomination to Emily Blunt, which was pleasurable. And also they’re sort of kind of like, the same to me, like a pleasure to see. They’re in a lot of stuff. They’re always up to something different and you just love them.

 

Ira Madison III Question. What was Mary Steenburgen? What was her win for?

 

Louis Virtel A movie called Melvin and Howard from 1980, which was directed by Jonathan Demme?

 

Ira Madison III Okay. That photo, she was Latina fishing when they dropped the five actresses. Everyone in the room I was with, we were looking at that photo and I was like, who the fuck is about to come out? Yeah. And then she came out and I was like, Mary Steenburgen, when did that happen?

 

Louis Virtel And also she was, of course, wearing the same dress she wore when she won two, which is more than 40 years ago. That was pretty cool to see to worn differently, which I very, Project Runway, day to evening sort of transformation.

 

Ira Madison III She had to get the Tallulah out of it, too. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Ted Danson. Yes. Yeah. But, when David Randolph was sitting there, you know, hearing just this sort of fabulous introduction to her, character and also to the fact that she was wearing her grandmother’s glasses in the movie before lovers, which was brought up. And she was like. And I think the line was, it was so nice to see the movie through her lens and yours. You saw an entire season’s worth of buildup just boil over, like, this is somebody who, I think I mean, how overwhelming that must be to get all this praise for a performance, all this praise for, you know, a really well regarded movie. But it just, I think after a while, it’s not just relentless, it’s an accumulation. And it was it was nice to see that moment where she really got to take it all in. I mean, it’s sort of a rare television moment where you saw all of something hit someone. I think most of the time when somebody’s about to win an Oscar or go up on stage, it’s, they’re in the surreal portion. They’re like, I’m just looking at a bunch of people, and I’m feeling weird about it, you know? But you, in that moment, really got to see her take it in. And I thought that was just so fabulous.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, with her stolen script. I’m kidding. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel That is a weird story to come out a day before the Oscar came out. It’d be one off the person accusing, The Holdovers screenwriter Alexander Payne, I guess, of ripping off these other works. But it’s like a really. Well known screenwriter who wrote things like Luca.

 

Ira Madison III So, that’s about the movie. About the sweet little gay fish. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel But there’s no queer component to it. Don’t ask. They’re like, it’s all accidental.

 

Ira Madison III So we know he’s a liar.

 

Louis Virtel Right? There it is. All right, we solve that.

 

Ira Madison III I will say that that controversy. And I don’t know if it’s got to go anywhere else, by the way, but the night before the Oscars, I’m out at a party and someone is asking me how The Holdovers. You know, this whole thing with, like, The Blacklist. I like the plagiarism. And I truly was like, what the fuck are you talking about? And they pulled it up on their phone and I said, and then I’m sitting in a corner for 30 minutes, like scrolling through this. It’s like, I’ve just discovered this.

 

Louis Virtel There’s this whole manifesto about how The Holdover script is lifted from this earlier Blacklist script that was never produced, called Frisco. And, I if the author of this claim meant to make it clear he did not do it because he kept being like, well, every instance of this phrase is this phrase in The Holdovers. And if there’s lists and lists and lists of these things and I’m like, well, then it’s a different script. It’s more like the closest thing he’s come to, like a slam dunk claim is that some of the scenes set up seem very similar.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I mean, well, I mean, if, creators of splash are going to shoot The Shape of Water for ripping off that movie.

 

Louis Virtel Fish fucker one and two, as I call them.

 

Speaker 3 A Hollywood baby, right? Anyway, Davine won. And that was beautiful. And then we got Robert Downey Jr winning, which, you know what? One, I don’t need to see men on stage do it. I don’t need to see five men walk out and talk about other men.

 

Louis Virtel It’s confusing when we give them man awards. What are they going to do with them?

 

Ira Madison III That was for the actresses. Okay.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III But it was nice to see Robert win. I like Robert Downey Jr. This is the thing about his win for Oppenheimer. I liked his role in the film. It wasn’t the maybe the role that I would have given the Oscar to. I probably would have given it’s Ryan Gosling, to be honest, for.

 

Louis Virtel Giving it to Robert De Niro. I thought he was the best supporting.

 

Ira Madison III Performance of the year. I mean, that was chilling. His role was chilling in that movie, but. I like Robert Downey Jr. He’s so likable. And he he’s been fun the entire award season. So I don’t begrudge the win. And I also think as you were talking before, you know, adding to the, history of the category, it’s nice to see Robert Downey Jr with a trophy.

 

Louis Virtel Totally. I will say, I do think some people suffer during an awards season. They give all these speeches. And someone like Robert Downey Jr, I think benefits from, when it’s like a lower stakes award he wins. He loves going up there and sort of making a ton of jokes, keeping it super lighthearted, bringing up things from his very well-known past. And I think in a way, like he he gives all these anecdotes away. And then by the time you get to the final award, the Oscar, there wasn’t as much left. He had some sincere moments in the speech, but this thing happened sometimes where when you give enough speeches, I think you end up plateauing and maybe even going down a little bit. By the time the the biggest award comes. I call this Christoph Waltz syndrome. Watch all of his speeches leading up to the Inglourious Basterds win, and then the final one. It’s like pretension took over or something, and he made some weird allusion to how we’re all on a continent. I didn’t understand it.

 

Ira Madison III But also, when he came out, I was like, where are you been, baby?

 

Louis Virtel You know my theory about him, right?

 

Ira Madison III For Tarantino to make another movie?

 

Speaker 4 Yeah. I believe a force named Michael Shannon came by and took all those roles. He’s like, I’m tall and menacing, too. And I’ll do a weird voice.

 

Speaker 3 As Christoph Waltz. Tall.

 

Louis Virtel I don’t know. I just know that he. This is a bizarre Louis Patel factoid. When I first moved here, I worked for this awards or. I’m sorry, I worked for this company. And they through this award show where they needed someone to write the patter for people introducing other people. Christoph Waltz came to deliver an award to somebody, and I had to write that. Okay. So I’m like, what, 21 years old, 22 years old, sitting in bed with literal goldfish, the like the giant carton you put your hand down, that’s like from Costco and it should be legal. I get a call from an unknown number and suddenly I pick it up. It is a German man on the line talking about is Louis. I am liking the script so far, but I didn’t know what was happening. Somebody had given him my number. I’m a child. I’m a child in bed listening to Christoph Waltz talk about whatever. He has such a German, kind of literal quality. Like, he gets into the intricacies of words and, like, always looks to me like he’s about to say the word a spider. Always, every single time. And I thought it was kind of novel to have him give the, speech to Ryan Gosling for Barbie just because it’s a cuckoo nomination. He’s sort of a cuckoo guy, so to pair them together felt really funny, ultimately. And you could see the puzzlement on Ryan Gosling’s face, to which I thought was rewarding.

 

Ira Madison III I know also, Ryan Gosling just feels like he and Christoph should be in the same sort of universe in a film. Yeah, I don’t The Fall Guy weirdly feels Tarantino esqe if we haven’t even seen this fucking movie, and we’ve been hearing so much about it. By the way, do you know that Spielberg also loves this movie, which is coming out? There was an interview where Ryan Gosling said that Spielberg came up to me. I thought he was going to talk to somebody else, but he came up to me. He’s like, I love The Fall Guy. I’m like, great, when is this movie coming out?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. I assume we’re getting it sooner than later, but, I before we move on, should we talk about the I’m Just Ken performance? Would you not live up to the expectation for you?

 

Ira Madison III I had fun watching. Yeah, I loved the, Diamonds are a Girl’s best friend reference.

 

Louis Virtel Ding, ding.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel I prefer blonds to the gods.

 

Ira Madison III Yes, yes. But that was a beautiful sort of nod. Everybody was having a good time. I will, unfortunately say that I was in the restroom when it came on. And then it was dark, so I had to rewatch it later, and I was upset because it was the only performance I was looking forward to. Sorry, Becky G, and I was disappointed to have missed the beginning of it. I feel like maybe I missed some of the magic by not seeing it happen organically, and just watching it later on YouTube.

 

Louis Virtel I will say being there, it was so shocking the amount of people in the performance like so going backstage to like, wow. And Slash appeared wearing his Amy Sherman-Palladino vest top hat. But there were so many people. And also, by the way, they were all kind of short, which did not read on television, but you just saw all these fucking cans lined up and, you know, it’s it’s like when you are keeping an eye on the extra people in the Madonna tour. It’s like, wow, just a history of grinder is here. Look at all of these people. The Olympics of not tapping me back.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I thought the performance was fine. And I’m glad that Ryan got to have his moment and the jokes in the beginning as well. About. Great. Mark, I thought that they were fun. Jimmy got to it and then moves on.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Oh, but I’m going to allow you to expound. What did you think of the monologue? And, don’t worry, I’m not easily sharable.

 

Ira Madison III I thought the monologue was fun. Actually, I thought it was a really good monologue. I always love, Jimmy’s monologues, to be honest. And I thought that, I will say. The opening of the show felt a little bit long.

 

Louis Virtel Which as in, the monologue?

 

Ira Madison III Just the monologue and the stuff before it. I was late getting to the screening of it. And when I arrived, at the screening of the Oscars that I was going to, I was like, oh, we’re still not even into the monologue yet. You know, I feel like this.

 

Louis Virtel Not happened because it started late. Yes. Which is because there were protesters there who, like certain cars, couldn’t get into where they needed to get into. And I think that’s like the first time that’s ever happened. The Oscars starting five minutes later than they were supposed to.

 

Ira Madison III Oh, yeah. And then Amy Schumer ran them over so that if she made a clear path. Okay.

 

Louis Virtel And we could do the Oscars.

 

Ira Madison III Sarah Silverman was in the car with her. Get out. That’s why she wasn’t there with the Maestro cast.

 

Louis Virtel Got it, got it, got it, got it, got it. One more note about Jimmy. I was surprised at the end of the show. So Trump tweeted that he hated the show or hated Jimmy, which was somewhat okay.

 

Ira Madison III So this was real.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, it was real. It’s from his. Okay. Which which I didn’t know. Jimmy commanded us to come up with jokes about it, and I was sort of like, why do we even want to bring this up? Like, who cares? Etc. but I underestimated that. He would read the tweet and then make the audience, quote unquote, guess who it was that I think was really funny. And like, I was flattered to hear a lot of people be complimentary about that part of the show. But then I forgot that people don’t understand. He does this every night of his life, but every night there was like a spontaneous thing that he, in the 11th hour, will have to respond to.

 

Ira Madison III He’s Emily Nussbaum, okay. Trump likes to watch.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Right. Right. Good Lord.

 

Ira Madison III Our former US culture critic.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. No. He’s like, he’s not different from Rex Reed. He’s like Rex Reed, you know, like I’m upset about this fucking thing. And, well, I saw it. And that’s all I have to say about it.

 

Ira Madison III I’d be with you. Think about Trump before the politics of it all. He his his most infamous tweets were about Robert Pattinson and, Kristen Stewart. You’d say, leave, leave her, Robert, you know, she’s a cheater, etc. of like you were you were an old man loser sitting at home. Well, he he’s Wendy Williams in that documentary, to be honest, just rereading the papers, scrolling through the tabloids, looking for things to tweet. But he didn’t even have a talk show at that point. You know, he was just tweeting constantly, and now he still does it. It’s like, sir, you are ostensibly running for president and you’re watching the Oscars bashing Jimmy Kimmel, not even on Twitter, whatever it is. I left finally, thank God. You’re tweeting from Truth Social.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. Which is two of my favorite words to associate with him. Not not a lying, antisocial person at all. Certainly. So anyway, back to the Oscars. I’m sorry to go down that path.

 

Ira Madison III No, it’s it’s I’m happy to know that that was actually real, because as Jimmy was reading it in the room, I thought maybe, maybe his mind’s really gone. At this point. Tucker, you want to talk about, you know, Joe Biden’s brain? Let’s talk about Trump’s brain. As I was hearing it, it sounded almost like a parody of Trump tweeting, to be honest. I was like, is this really him? Or is this just as a joke? So now I know it was real.

 

Louis Virtel No, I mean l-o-l, yes, it’s definitely real. You know what I will say? So that was at the end of the show. Something that is always a little disappointing at the Oscars is the Best Picture speech. I think a couple things are at play here. One, the night is already over. So we’ve seen the big award. There’s not nothing really to say about. Obviously, there are only a few occasions on which Best picture really is a surprise. Something like parasite, brilliantly announced by Jane Fonda, of course. Yeah, but in the case of this land. All right. Well, yes, if there’s a fiasco, that’s a different story. But here, like there, just at this point, was nothing left to say about Oppenheimer. You know what I mean? It’s like we gather what was great about it. You’d be an idiot not to notice the technical perfection of it. The wonderful multiple performances we’ve awarded with Oscars already. But I was charmed to see Cillian Murphy later on, on Madonna’s Instagram at her Oscars party that she insisted on throwing during her stay in LA.

 

Ira Madison III And she does it every year.

 

Louis Virtel She called him her favorite actor. What the hell?

 

Ira Madison III Okay.

 

Louis Virtel What? What movies is she into these days? This is somebody who used to be obsessed with, like, TCM type things. Like, can’t stop bringing up the movie breathless or, you know, like, like Smokey, torrid romances of yore. And she’s a Cillian Murphy. Stan, I’m wondering how this happened for her. Maybe Oppenheimer.

 

Ira Madison III Now, you know she was in Red Eye.

 

Louis Virtel You think so?

 

Ira Madison III Come on. Red Eye is that girl. Okay, I’m also Red Eye, I think that movie came out on my birthday the year that it came out. I fully remember going to see it with my mom, and sitting with my grandmother on my birthday. So that’s, that’s a Cillian Murphy classic. I feel like she loves that movie. Also, we’ll never see him again because she locked him in the basement.

 

Louis Virtel At this particular party, Madonna was wearing a sign around her neck that said, leave me alone. I’m tired. Which I do have to say, and I guess we’ll get into this when I get into my Keep It. But it’s I’m always so relieved when she is funny. Sometimes I just don’t always get it anymore. She used to be like the Groucho Marx of pop stars. We don’t really get that anymore.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, but she throws that party every year, right? So it was it was nice to see. I was scared for a second when I was scrolling through Madonna’s Instagram photos for the party, because it’s really ugly. I don’t think there are that many cameras and things there. That’s sort of the point of that party, sort of like when Beyonce and Jay-Z throw their party to, but you’re just scrolling through it, and then all of a sudden they’re just Cillian Murphy next to her with the side. And I was wondering if she kidnaped this man. Getting back to Best Picture, I will say to comment on what you were saying about, you know, why the speeches never that interesting to is that one. When best pitcher wins, all the other producers sort of come up, and the people who’ve worked on the film, especially like these Hollywood people who produced it, they never seem to have it in their minds to try and come up with an interesting speech or anything. Any sort of fun story to say. It’s always just people come up and they’re either talking about the process or they’re talking about working with Nolan, or they’re just rattling off names of other people in the industry who, you know, have worked on the film. And it’s just it doesn’t feel emotional to me. There’s no big hook that happens with Best Picture, to be honest, and I don’t know if it’s a problem to fix with the award ceremony, but I don’t know if your producer at least come up and give us something. You know.

 

Louis Virtel You’re right. I think it’s like one of the least emotional points of the evening. Weirdly, there was that year, of course, where they tried putting Best Actor last because they thought Chadwick Boseman was going to take it and they were banking on an emotional moment, closing the show, and they flopped. So maybe that scared people off.

 

Ira Madison III So I will say though, that best picture was fun, if only because what the fuck was Al Pacino doing?

 

Louis Virtel Well, okay, I have lots of questions.

 

Ira Madison III About sounding like Christopher Walken. For one, if my eyes were closed, I would have thought it was Christopher Walken. Two, everyone in that room was probably wondering, is this another fiasco like La La Land, beating Moonlight again because. He just walked up to that podium and said, Oppenheimer, I’m sorry, are we going to? Are we going to mention the nominees one more time? Like, are we going to do the whole starboard drag? It was really just Oppenheimer, and I was wondering what is happening.

 

Louis Virtel Right? Well, I think that was like the best song where, because we had been introduced them before, there was no plan to restate the nominees that said the the, this, the I’ll say the speed and the tone which he took on was giving a little bit Elizabeth Taylor announcing Gladiator a little bit of that. But, it’s weird, like people are sort of accusing him of like being a little disoriented. But honestly, this man is still performing Richard the Third, like at a school in the Valley for the hell of it. Like, he’s very, like, aware of how to be captivating on stage, etc.. And also his direct quote was my eyes see, Oppenheimer, my favorite Zora Neale Hurston title.

 

Ira Madison III We will be right back with more Oscars.

 

Louis Virtel [AD]

 

Louis Virtel Okay, so now let’s get into the Billie Eilish of it. She is the youngest person to have two Oscars ever. She is seven years old. How do you feel about that?

 

Ira Madison III I fucking love Billie Eilish. She is to steal a word from you. Just read to me, not us. You know, I, I wrote an elevator with her at the Met Gala, last year, and she had video. So the elevator. And she’s just. She’s just talking. Hang it out. Chill around talking to people in the elevator. Say hi. I’m just like, this is just a cool girl. And she sort of feels authentically herself. And it’s just so fun watching them come up on stage. And, first of all, embracing Ariana and Cynthia Erivo like they were both excited for Billie to be winning as well. She looks great. The performance was great. I just I’m always happy to see Billie, at an awards show. To be honest, I’m always happy to see a performance. I’m always happy to see her win. I love her.

 

Louis Virtel I also you’re right. There is like, just a a strange calm about her. Like, she’s, like, done all of the, you know, mental math you have to do to like, make yourself feel, un crazy and a giant, around being a part of a monoculture when you just have been, like, springboard into fame. Like seconds ago.

 

Ira Madison III If you told me she was that bitch from Orphan who secretly is 60 years old. Yeah, but looks younger because she’s thieves. So wise. They are? Yeah. Yes.

 

Louis Virtel No. I truly love her. And it’s cool to have somebody that young with that. But with two Oscars to say nothing of Emma Stone, who now has, two Oscars.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, it was slight.

 

Louis Virtel It was slightly painful, though, to watch Annette Bening lose again. This is now her fifth nomination. I appreciate that she was dressed in sort of a Shogun esque robe. Because that’s sort of that’s the layer of, like, gravitas she’s bringing to an award show. You know, she’s like, I’m married to Warren. I’ve seen it all.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, with the side glasses on as well. She looked she looked hot. I love Annette Bening. She will probably get a lifetime achievement Oscar at this point because they keep playing in her face.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, precisely. Precisely.

 

Ira Madison III She should have won for 20th Century Women.

 

Louis Virtel I did this whole snubs video for, but you can see it on a YouTube channel. But I get into that and Amy Adams and arrival the same year. Painful situation. Painful situation. But, also, by the way, I’m happy for Emma Stone. As I said, I think that’s a qualified win or whatever. Lily Gladstone has been the speechifying star of award season this year, and I wish I don’t know what we can do with her now in terms of speeches for the next couple months. Just to satisfy that urge, I have to watch her, be the word of the year. Rad. But I hope we got that. I as like Emma Stone. I hope we see her again and again. She really has, like a poll on the screen. There’s a gestalt to Lily Gladstone when she’s on the screen.

 

Ira Madison III There’s an interview that she has with Cate Blanchett. You should search for it. I don’t I don’t remember what it was on. I saw it on Instagram in the reels. You know what? Once one of those reels is gone. You can’t get back to it.

 

Louis Virtel No. Right. It’s rude to ask. Actually disappeared into the ether.

 

Ira Madison III But she has an interview with Cate Blanchett where they’re talking about, acting and the process, etc. and the way that Lily talks about being on screen and the way that, you know, just sort of like, commanding, the attention of the camera, well, you know, being a part of sort of a large, tapestry, of what’s going on. She sounds like a director when she’s talking. And so I’m really excited to see what else she does on screen. But I’m also really excited to see her possibly behind the camera, giving us so much more. I mean, there’s so much that’s going to happen in Lily Gladstone’s career. I feel, you know, I don’t think that this is an actor who is going to fall by the wayside after this big moment. You know, I don’t I don’t see her in Catwoman.

 

Louis Virtel Right. We should establish that you should see certain women with, Lily Gladstone. If you haven’t. Probably her most awesome role up. I’ve not seen that movie. She talked about fancy dance that came out this year, too. That’s it.

 

Ira Madison III Only recently got distribution, so I believe that that will be coming to a theater near you soon.

 

Louis Virtel The one real stunt we had on the awards this year in terms of a skit, was John Cena and a tribute to the streaker. Thank you Laura, which is 50 years ago. 50 years ago, the guy who ran naked behind David Niven. This time we had John Cena come out and pretend to be nervous about presenting naked, and he and Jimmy had a little rat a tat before he sort of waddled on to the stage with an envelope. A. His knees. I have to tell you, I have no gift for, like, writing physical comedy. I think we can thank, my co-writers, Greg Martin and Jesse McLaren for the majority of this, thing. It was like a triumph start to finish. I was like, John Cena is absolutely perfect for this because one, he’s in the Best Picture nominees in Barbie, but two, he’s sort of prestige adjacent, right? Like he comes from wrestling. He’s in these crowd pleasing roles. He’s, you know, someone like the Rock. So and so. He’s huge, like the Rock, like, and everybody knows who he is. But he has this, relationship to quote unquote important movies that these the, the contrivance of having to be naked at the Oscars makes sense for somebody like him. It just worked out so well. And he was clenched very last minute to do that role. We were on, they filmed us for CBS this, this morning last week at Kimmel for our final meetings. Ted Koppel came in and talk to us. That was fucking weird. Ted Koppel, coming up.

 

Ira Madison III To you looks very serious. And it was. I love that it had a very, I don’t know, like 1970s documentary film, maybe the Ted Koppel of it all.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. But, you can see in the footage there, Molly goes and we still need a naked guy. Like, up until the last minute, we did not have that role filled. You know, I think a lot of people turned it down. Obviously, you know, there’s some risk to doing it, but, Jesus Christ, you can, learn your shapes by looking at the naked body of John Cena. I was like, shit. Trapezoid. Rhombus. Jesus Christ, I’d forgotten wrestlers look like that.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, who needs to count sheep before bed anymore? Okay, okay, okay, I you recounting John Cena, body.

 

Louis Virtel Part mother Hubbard. Chill out. Little Bo Peep, who up there all the same to me.

 

Ira Madison III Little Jack Horner.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Right. Until Sondheim puts them all together. It’s really confusing to me.

 

Ira Madison III Though, I mean, that that was one of my favorite moments of the show. Obviously, John Cena looks great, but also, I love John Cena as well. I think he is a really fun actor. I enjoy his work. And if you haven’t seen Peacemaker, we didn’t get to talk about it when Daniel Brooks was on the show. We had a lot of other things to discuss, but it is a sort of spinoff of Suicide Squad, and it’s very funny if you like the boys, if you like Gen V, it’s very much in that vein. And Danielle Brooks and John Cena are amazing in that show. Also, one of the best opening credit sequences on a show I’ve ever seen.

 

Louis Virtel He also was very funny in the movie blockers, which costarred Ike Barinholtz, and I have not given Ike Barinholtz his props yet. This man who won the jeopardy! Celebrity tournament was that invited for the first time ever in the history of the celebrity tournament, to appear in the actual Tournament of Champions against people who’ve won the show 14 times, etc.? This man beat a 13 time champion and then got to the semifinals and had he wagered differently, would be in the finals of the Tournament of Champions. He’s like, yes, a smart celebrity and also a cool person who seems to just be like, I would run into him all the time on the picket line. Like trivia. People find each other, you know what I mean? Yeah, it’s like, I don’t know clowns, I don’t know do clowns all know each other? I imagine it’s like that.

 

Ira Madison III That’s a great classic Keep It episode. I was great when we interviewed him, I think. Yes, twice, to be honest. And, also, yeah, one of my favorite people to run into. He’s so funny. Yeah. He’s so sweet.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Totally. So I was very gratified watching him during the, jeopardy! Turn into champions. He absolutely belong there.

 

Ira Madison III So back to awards. Best director was Christopher Nolan, which, of course sort of saw that one coming. I felt a little bad for Justine Triett, but I think that she’s she’ll she’ll have a moment again at some point maybe.

 

Louis Virtel Emily, we at least got her the screenplay Oscar, which, yes, there are a lot of contentious words in that fucking script. We talk with Martha Plimpton about how in mass she has these great combative moments with other actors like and out. And, man, you just get all these surprising confrontations and anatomy of a fall. You get this tutorial and how the French legal system, quote unquote, works. But it’s a shocking movie, very rewatchable, I think, even though it’s an epic film. Also just something about the way Justine Triett walks to a stage like, well, I mean, I want to sing that song Ring of Keys from, Fun Home. You’re bearing, like, her lesbian admirer.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I’m happy that she got the, Oscar for her screenplay. Also very happy for Cord Jefferson winning, for American fiction, best adapted screenplay, which was an unexpected win. I thought, but there’s such a groundswell of support for cord in the industry. You know, I’ve known him for. For years. So many other people have known them from years from working on, sitcoms as well. And then for also being a journalist, before he was a TV writer. So, you know, both industries, there are a lot of people rooting for Cord Jefferson. And a wonderful speech, too, about, sort of making movies that are less expensive. You know, you can make multiple films that are cheaper, instead of making one big, very expensive film that may be flops.

 

Louis Virtel I love when people pick something novel to say during a speech that you can think about later. When he did that, you know, and, Iowa debris, talked about, like, thanking your, assistants, like the people who actually the nuts and bolts of whatever we do. I have this dream of winning an award at something like, not the Oscars, but, I mean, I’m not a movie star or whatever, but I’m saying something where there’s a room of people who are luminaries, and I literally point different people out and tell people which movies of theirs to watch that I like. It’s like people still orientation when it comes to these amazing stars. Like, if I’m in a if I’m in a room with Meryl Streep and Meryl Streep in front of me, I’m like, has anybody here seen a cry in the dark? Why is nobody coming up to me and just talking about a cry in the dark at random? This should be my life in this room. While I’m with all of these famous people who allegedly care about movies. You know, I think everybody should think of a novel angle before they go up there. That isn’t just thanking certain people around them who are familiar and, you know, obvious.

 

Ira Madison III Think I thought we established you need to tell people to watch The Laundromat. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. I can get I can get to that. I can get a.

 

Ira Madison III Isn’t Timothée in that movie?

 

Louis Virtel No. Timothée and Meryl are in Don’t Look Up.

 

Ira Madison III I must have been thinking of Don’t Look Up. I it it’s David Schwimmer is in The Laundromat. And Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas. Wow. I have not seen this movie. I should watch it.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, that is, mind blowing. Which reminds me, remember the movie Let Them All Talk? With Meryl Streep, Diane West, Candy Bergen. Lucas Hedges, which, by the way, come back to us. Lucas Hedges. As I say, every three episodes, I’d.

 

Ira Madison III Like to not remember that film.

 

Louis Virtel I enjoyed that movie. I thought, Diane Weiss killed it.

 

Ira Madison III I thought the performances were great in the movie. I didn’t enjoy it that much.

 

Louis Virtel It was very filmed on a real boat. And then they decided, is this a movie? Kind of. We’ll put it out.

 

Ira Madison III Should have been a murder. Where was Parot?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, you’re right, you’re right. By the way, I think the ultimate supporting wins are when it’s a role that feels like it belongs in a whodunit. You want to have, like a supporting win where the character has, like a little bit of a gimmick. They get one liners, there’s something up with them. So you’re constantly wondering about them. You know, I’m happy for these empathetic roles. Like Dave. I enjoy Randolph’s or historical roles like, Robert Downey Jr, but really, ultimately I want somebody who has an iconic look and seems like they might be up to no good, like something closer to Alice.

 

Ira Madison III You know, I will actually.

 

Louis Virtel Say that’s not.

 

Ira Madison III A lot of the other ones felt very appropriate. You know, it felt appropriate that, Ludwig one four score for Oppenheimer because that’s like a gorgeous score. I love his music. It’s appropriate that Poor Things were done for costume, you know? These. I love that Godzilla minus one, won an award. I fucking love that movie. It’s one of my top, movies of the year. And if you haven’t seen guys. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel You will not. Yeah. You will not expect the emotional. I would.

 

Ira Madison III Give that very.

 

Louis Virtel Very, very.

 

Ira Madison III It set. But it is very, Hollywood 40s melodrama with some of the twists and like just the acting in it. I mean, truly, that last scene in the hospital feels like it could have been, like, Tarnished angels or something, you know, like, this was this was a Hollywood hotel. So it’s a gorgeous film. And I was glad I got to see it in theaters. It feels appropriate that the Zone Avengers one for sound.

 

Louis Virtel I think that’s the most, interesting win of the night as well.

 

Ira Madison III That’s an overture. The soundtrack for the movie last week. AD. Truly, the movie starts, right? It’s just pitch black and you’re hearing the score, and then it happens again at the end. It’s the movie is very sound forward. If you have not seen this movie in theaters, you must. But.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Also, it’s pitch black at first and you’re just hearing these noises and that what that does is like changes your expectations of where to find crucial details in the movie, like at iTunes, you to the decibel level of of what’s going on in the movie. But something I want to say about the zone of Interest that I also think has gone underrated. Not only is it interesting how they layer in the the sounds of Auschwitz way in the background, so that you’re not ever consciously paying attention to them, even as the dialog is going on and you can hear a little bit in the background? The interesting thing to me about this movie is that the sounds don’t often sound horrifying, like the sounds sound a little bit like. I don’t mean to sound glib about this. Six flags like you’ll hear like a train go by like a scream. As if somebody is being moved quickly. You know, it’s just like it could almost be mistaken for good noises or like pleasurable noises until you hear, like, the pop pop of a gun or something. But the that vagueness is also extremely well realized. Again, I can’t think of.

 

Ira Madison III Anyone that’s, I love Jonathan won.

 

Louis Virtel Please, please go see it.

 

Ira Madison III That was obviously misinterpreted by a lot of people. I couldn’t believe the amount of people immediately after it being, I can’t believe that you would refute your Jewish ness for a film about the Holocaust. I was like, you know what? There was a whole sentence after that. Well, let’s listen with our ears. I was not what he was doing. He was talking about an occupation and rejecting that. I love the sound I loved. I sort of love what the movie represents more than I actually loved the film, ultimately. I mean, it took me a long time to see the film because I was just sort of. It’s running like having to sit in a theater and bracing.

 

Louis Virtel It’s a bracing idea.

 

Ira Madison III More bracing than the sort of execution of it for me, to be honest, but I, I respect it.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, well, it goes subtle to the extreme. You know what I mean? Like, you don’t get them. I mean, like, at the end, you’re.

 

Ira Madison III That was a great ending.

 

Louis Virtel Clean Auschwitz in a in a twist. It leaves you to assess the devastation afterwards. That doesn’t put it all in front of you. Which is just, yeah, obviously you’re not alone.

 

Ira Madison III I personally felt like the focus on, you know, Sarah Hula and her family, I felt like, yes, I get the point here. You’re looking at the banality of evil, and you’re looking at people who are just sort of, profiting off of it, and living beside it and not really having any sort of, you know, inclination to feel bad for what is happening. There are a lot of moments where it really sort of hits. I felt like the movie for me had a lot of ideas that were presented, and then no real sort of conclusions. Not that the movie needs to have conclusions all the time, but I felt like this was particularly setting up a okay, well, I’m doing this for a point. And then there sort of wasn’t a point.

 

Louis Virtel I will say, when you’re talking about the movie.

 

Ira Madison III I know.

 

Louis Virtel It’s kind of hard to get around just the phrase the banality of evil as the all encompassing point. Like you kind of get it from those words. That said, I think the thing to seek out is obviously not just the sound design. It is also an acting movie, like you’re watching these people live their lives and the way Sandra is, they live full, complete lives, like with concerns and ambitions and problems and, you know, wishes for their family and stuff, of course, while this other thing is going on. So they have a lot to inhabit. So watch it for the acting, as well. Obviously, Sandra, maybe.

 

Ira Madison III My response is more of the people in the house are are saying, well, the point of it is to learn that the Nazis weren’t all cartoon villains. They were real people. And I think that, you know, if you are a person with a, fully developed adult brain of the world, you could understand that, yes, evil people are three dimensional, and that’s what makes them more evil, to be honest.

 

Louis Virtel Right? Right, right. Right. You know.

 

Ira Madison III She likes to.

 

Louis Virtel Really?

 

Ira Madison III Like she wants to take care of you. She loves to take cha cha in between fighting the Planeteers. Okay?

 

Louis Virtel Doctor blade is always a crazy, fabulous one. Originally voiced by Meg Ryan. If you’re unfamiliar with the Captain Planet universe.

 

Ira Madison III We talk about the win for the Boy and The Heron. Louis and I do not hate animated films.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, yes. Oh, my God, I made a joke. I was like, I don’t want to see all that. I it’s also just like, it’s one of those things where I’m not, an authority on animation, so I like it. I don’t know that maybe they.

 

Ira Madison III Sounded a little bit.

 

Louis Virtel Like me, because I haven’t much.

 

Ira Madison III To compare. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, who had a lot of things to say online, whether that’s what Spider-Verse set out with. Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, did he?

 

Ira Madison III Storm, about, oh, I say winning, but I will say about The Boy and The Heron, I don’t know if I mentioned this on the show before, but, Miyazaki is actually my pop culture blindspot. Never seen a single one.

 

Louis Virtel I think it’s something that basically has to be taught to you. You have to be like in the way that like TCM pushes you to learn about whatever the films get. You name an actor Barbara Stanwyck. This, like, you basically have to be led down the path to find.

 

Ira Madison III But I promise you, there are at least two people in my life, I have discovered, this within the past few months and are adamant that we will be having a, a miyazaki, marathon this spring this summer, so I will, I will be seeing all of the films, and then maybe we’ll finally have a, you know, Miyazaki episode. Okay. Yeah. I also have someone on as a guest co-host who sort of knows what they’re talking about too. Wonderful. So you too. So so so. Yeah. So the internet can’t yell at us.

 

Louis Virtel They can slap us personally.

 

Ira Madison III I think we’re pretty thorough with the Oscars here. So, when we’re back, we are joined by the fantastic Martha Plimpton.

 

[AD]

 

Speaker 3 Our guest today makes us light up every time we see her on screen. From early breakthrough performances in films like The Goonies to her acclaimed stage work and iconic TV roles in the likes of Raising Hope, The Good Wife, The Real O’Neals, one of my personal favorites. She has captivated audiences with her talent, authenticity and charisma. A Tony nominee and Emmy winner and activist, part of an acting dynasty, she is back with HBO as the regime. We’re beyond thrilled to welcome to Keep It the amazing Martha Plimpton.

 

Martha Plimpton Thank you. That was a lovely introduction. Thank you.

 

Louis Virtel We are happy to have written it. I am, I am so in awe of how rad you are. Literally one of the people I like. I can’t pick a signature role. There are so many things you’ve done where I’m just like, Thank God that was her. Like, you come on the screen. I’m like, oh, a real person bringing real feelings. I’m sure she’s probably going to say something really deadpan that devastates. I’m really excited. Now, this is our, Oscars episode, and I wanted to start by asking you, do you have a favorite moment of being at an award show? Just over the years you’ve been in entertainment? I can think of a couple times like you were at the Emmys once, with an ensemble of actresses who did a little bit once. If you had a favorite.

 

Martha Plimpton That was pretty awesome. I got to say, that was the year Amy Poehler. I was out to dinner with her, and she came up with this notion that we would do this pageant thing. And she had done, you know, she’d obviously been to many, several of these before and, had done different bits with the, with the, nominees in her category, you know, funny bits. But I think this one was pretty pretty much chopped. It was a pageant when and Melissa McCarthy was the winner, and we had arranged to have like a big, big bouquet of red roses and a tiara for her, and it was pretty awesome. Yeah. And Rob Lowe, you know, presented it. And Sofia Vergara was kind of like, you know, he was like the Bert Convy of I don’t know who who is that way maybe Bert Parks.

 

Louis Virtel Burt Parks, Parks. Yes.

 

Martha Plimpton Parks. Thank you, thank you.

 

Louis Virtel And you can count on me to sort out showbiz Burts. Yeah. Thank you.

 

Martha Plimpton Very much. Thank you. I’m sure always need someone like you around.

 

Ira Madison III Watching you in The Regime.

 

Martha Plimpton Yeah, that was pretty fun.

 

Ira Madison III You’re very first scene with Kate Winslet is so funny to me to set the scene for people listening. It is a very long table that you two are seated at, and you’re sort of like talking across the table at one another. Was that fun to do? Was that weird to try to have a conversation like that or with the filming of it, actually, did it feel a little bit easier because you have the camera in front of you and you’re not really shouting across a table at Kate once, like the entire time?

 

Martha Plimpton No, we were that far from each other. And it was actually it was actually the very first scene on the very first day of filming that we did. So it was kind of like being shot out of a cannon, you know? Yeah, I was very nervous. I had just closed a play the night before I flew to Vienna, and then we started filming at, like, what, five? And then you get, you know, you show up at five in the morning on a Monday. And, I was very nervous and very and but so was Kate because it was sort of her first day of school, too. You know, she’s, of course, you know, incredibly on top of it and just, you know, really knows her stuff. And she’s fantastic. I really loved it. But it was it had that sort of nervous energy, you know what I mean? Which I think sort of it might have actually helped, you know, the, the scene a little bit.

 

Louis Virtel Also, Kate Winslet is somebody who, when she takes on a role, I actually don’t know what she’s going to bring to it. She has so many performances now that have nothing to do with each other. Like this does not remind me of Mare of Easttown at all. Where do you at all?

 

Martha Plimpton That’s probably a very good thing.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. That’s right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nothing about this is saying the Wawa to me.

 

Martha Plimpton Yeah yeah, yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Did you know what kind of performance you would be giving when you sat down with her? Like, how do you, like, clue each other in what you’re going to do?

 

Martha Plimpton We’d had some rehearsal, which was good. And we done, you know, a table read and stuff. And we had, like, a huge table read with everybody in the whole cast for the whole series around a table. And, you know, like, it was kind of like, you know, like Centcom. It was like there were TV screens around and cameras everywhere for, because we were in the UK when we did it. So, you know, we had all the execs and everything remotely sort of tuned in to watch this crazy, like, marathon, read through. But. So I did have some idea of how sure, you know, what this character was going to be like. But, we did have rehearsal, too, which was great. We had some rehearsal and, and, so we kind of knew what the dynamic was going to be ahead of time. And. And I loved I think she’s.

 

Ira Madison III I was reading this interview with you from like 1990.

 

Martha Plimpton I love what she did.

 

Ira Madison III With, doing research for that’s from Bond Magazine. Now, it was it was actually a really great interview. Honestly, I feel like so much has not changed.

 

Martha Plimpton Oh, God.

 

Ira Madison III About things that you would have had to have complain about in the industry since then, which is unfortunate, but.

 

Martha Plimpton No, no, what did I say? You can’t you can’t quote people. You can’t. When someone is 53 years old, you can’t quote them at 26 or you know what I mean? You because everything, everything at 26 years old says is is is idiocy. So. No, no I’m not. I cannot take responsibility for what I said when I was 26. You know,.

 

Ira Madison III There’s only one part where you say that you hate MTV and everything that it represents. Which I could understand in 1996. But. At least. Yeah.

 

Martha Plimpton Little did I know that they would stop playing videos.

 

Ira Madison III At that point. At it. Yeah.

 

Martha Plimpton I mean, if I could, if I had to go back now, I would say I loved MTV. It was the most innovative, entertaining thing on television.

 

Louis Virtel I imagine that’s one like Singled Out and The Grind. We’re taking over and stuff. You’re probably like, oh, we’re getting away from the Elvis Costello because.

 

Ira Madison III There’s a moment where you’re basically talking about your acting career and you’re talking about how you didn’t really want to do bigger sort of commercialized movies in Hollywood, because you would end up having to play the best friend role. And then when I think about how a show like Raising Hope came along for you, you had the opportunity to be a lead role on a show and sort of have fun with that every week for years. And I just wonder, you know, like, TV must have really sort of changed the game for how you felt your career was going to take place.

 

Martha Plimpton Well, I mean, certainly Greg Garcia did. I mean, you know, I’ve been doing mostly plays at that point and, and, you know, he really he gave me a really fantastic job that, you know, really did sort of change my life and in a lot of ways. And, you know, I met one of my dearest friends on God’s earth, Garret Dillahunt. And, you know, I made some lifelong friendships during that show, and it completely changed the trajectory, at least financially for me. I mean, I was a theater actor at that point for over ten years, almost exclusively, except for the occasional, like, guest spot or whatever. You know, I was I was living hand-to-mouth largely. And so when raising Hope happened, it just really it made a lot of, I mean, I could finally pay my bills.

 

Louis Virtel I also want to say that, like, obviously early in your career, you’re known from that time first for The Goonies, but then all these other roles came along that I would say are some fabulous, prestigious roles. But did it at all feel afterwards like you were spoiled by being in such good, interesting projects with, by the way, almost exclusively amazing ensembles? I’m looking through every project you’ve done. It’s like I think you’re like closer to every actor than Kevin Bacon is, seriously.

 

Martha Plimpton Yeah, I yeah, we we could, we could, we could come up with a, with an alternate game like that. Although, I’m not sure if it’s quite true. Right. Kevin, I think Kevin’s got a few more, notches on his belt than than I do in that regard, but. Yeah, I’ve been really fortunate. Really lucky. And, yeah, great ensembles and really nice good people, you know, and good interesting scripts and, you know, but it’s like all actors, you know, who are jobbing, you know, if they’re lucky jobbing actors, you know, character actors and, you know, you go where the work is and you do what you find them, you think is going to be the most fun.

 

Louis Virtel Do you have a favorite ensemble that you’ve worked with that like maybe the dynamic continued, years later where you  plaall still, talk, etc.?

 

Martha Plimpton Oh, well, I mean, there are different different, since you were like, I did a play in England.

 

Ira Madison III I love that play.

 

Martha Plimpton Years ago.

 

Ira Madison III I love that play.

 

Martha Plimpton Lynn Nottage play.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, right. Pulitzer winner.

 

Martha Plimpton Yeah, yeah, it’s pretty powerful play. And we did it in, at the Donmar. And then we moved it into the West End, and. And those people are still extremely, very much part of my life. And we’re very good friends still. In fact, one of them, we just drop by here the yesterday he went to the Oscars. So they’re me. He was at the Oscars, and, he was he was on his way to the airport, and he popped by and we had a glass of wine before he got on the plane. It was really good to see him, but. Yeah. And The Coast of Utopia was another play that I did where I made a lot of, I mean, I knew a lot of those people for many years before, but, but I made a lot of very, you know, friends that are very near and dear and close to my heart, including Kelly Overby, who she and I, co-founded this charity together a is for. And we still work together, you know, pretty much all the time on that. So. Yeah. And, and and of course, Raising Hope. I mean, I hope that I get to work with Garret Dillahunt and Greg Garcia for the rest of my life. I mean, I you know, when, whenever Greg calls, I’ll be there. Whatever.

 

Ira Madison III By the way, I do also have to say that I had the pleasure of seeing Coast of Utopia as right when I moved to New York. It’s right. When I moved to New York, I was going to NYU, and I saw. I saw the entire series, by the way. Yeah. One of the great things about theater where you do the show.

 

Martha Plimpton It’s brilliant.

 

Ira Madison III And then it’s done. You know, you can never really sort of revisit it unless it’s something like company which has been filmed or something for Lincoln Center. Do you ever revisit some of your earlier film roles, or do you sort of prefer to leave everything in the past?

 

Martha Plimpton I don’t I don’t have, you know. Film festival nights of my own movies. In fact, there’s some of them I don’t even watch just because I can’t. I’ve just already done, you know. So, no, I’m not, I don’t I don’t go and revisit them. I mean, I you know, that doesn’t mean I don’t love them or, you know, it’s just, you know, I although I was sort of curious. I haven’t seen parenthood in a really long time. Like a really, like, maybe since it came out. And I’m kind of curious to see it again. It’s tough for me to go back and watch things because I, I’m, I’m not obviously objective. I’m very, very hypercritical of my own performance and, and I’m really, like self-absorbed that way. It’s just difficult for me not to go, not to pick up apart what I’ve done and go, oh, Martha, why did you do that? And, why? You know, I generally don’t like what I’ve done. I don’t like my work very much.

 

Louis Virtel It’s interesting that you say that because when I watch your earliest roles, like, I’m so immediately grateful because there’s such a grounded, intelligent sense where it’s like we don’t have many young stars, where it just feels like they already had an adult like quality. But it wasn’t a precocious quality. It was just like they just felt like real people immediately. Like Kristy McNichol felt a little bit like that to me. Like maybe about ten years before that. And, I mean, I it just felt like there’s a quiet confidence about whatever you did. Did you feel confident on those early films?

 

Martha Plimpton Oh, no, no, no, no, I did not feel confident at all. No, I was no, I did not feel confident. And, you know, I mean, especially in a movie like Parenthood where, like, you’re working with every other person you look at is your hero, you know what I mean? And that movie was, I was very nervous during that movie, and Ron Howard could not have been nicer or sweeter or more dear and more lovely and more genuine a human being. But I don’t know, I think, you know, you’re a teenager. I was a teenager. What? You know, what did I know about anything? You know, and and, of course, when you’re in your late teens and early 20s, you think you know everything, or, you know, at least sometimes you do, but. Yeah. No, I was not. I was not confident and all. I think maybe part of that might come from the fact that I was from New York rather than, you know, Los Angeles or some other part of the country. You know, I so I had a little bit of an arrogance about me, and unearned arrogance, that I think a lot of New York kids have, you know, they sort of think, you know, they carry themselves a little bit more with a little more swagger.

 

Ira Madison III When do you think that maybe self-assurance came into your roles, where you felt like, I know what I’m doing on set, thinking of you just even bringing up New York? I told Louis before we did this interview I watched the first time I shot Andy Warhol, actually, which is very hard to find. It’s on YouTube and just watching oh wow, Mary Herron’s film and seeing this as sort of like a prototype for American Psycho. Lili Taylor is giving so much of what Mary would bring into that later film. I think think of you in that movie. When you’re first on the screen in Washington Square Park, you’re walking. You have to flirt with this woman who walks by. And it was like, this just feels like Martha Plimpton. I knew who you were immediately in that. And even something like 200 cigarets, which is such a New York late 90s movie, I feel like during that period did you feel like, I know what I’m doing? And I’m, like, delivering Martha.

 

Martha Plimpton No. No. No. No. You’re not. Why? Because I’m not delivering, Martha. I’m delivering a character. And and I’m not even sure if that expression existed in the early or late 90s, whenever the hell we shot that movie. No, I just. No, it’s just. It’s not. It’s not really, it. I mean, it’s lucky. It’s fortunate. And I’m glad that, that work has, you know, sort of. I don’t know. Stands up. You know, over time, that’s really good. And I’m really glad and proud of that. Although, you know, I don’t think about it too much, you know, but, you know, I just think, I don’t know what it is, and I think it’s what you’re saying, basically, and you’re complimenting me, and I’m really appreciative. Thank you very much. Thank you very, very much. And I’m glad that that it that it seemed that way or glad that it that it still feels that way. That makes me happy.

 

Louis Virtel You said also somewhat recently that movies basically don’t interest you anymore. You really prefer the worlds of TV and theater, and I was wondering if that still holds true. If you find that TV and theater are maybe more satisfying to do ultimately nowadays.

 

Martha Plimpton Well, I don’t I don’t think that it’s that movies don’t interest me. I mean, that that would be a weird thing to say. I think it’s the movies that I get that I read that are that are sent to me, or even or maybe the fact that not very many are, and I’m bitter about it. Maybe it could be that, you know, I mean, I’m just being honest, you know what I mean? I mean, the couple of the 1 or 2 independent films that I’ve made in the last, what is it, 25 years, have really meant a lot to me. And I really love them. And I really, you know, and I really feel proud of them. But, you know, and don’t get me wrong, I would love to be in a marvel movie. I would absolutely love it. But, you know, they don’t. They’re not they’re not calling, you know. So, I mean, so I go where the work is and TV and film is and and. Oh, sorry. TV and theaters is, you know, largely where the work is for an actor. Of my whatever it is. Age, gender, whatever, whatever you want to call it. You know.

 

Louis Virtel I do want to say, though, by the way, you were in that movie mass last year, which, if people haven’t seen it, that it’s, a lot of actors, my favorite kind of movie, who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf type movie where it just everybody’s squaring off in a in a quadrangle, and, you in and out are so fabulous in that movie. And it’s just it’s it’s one of those movies like, like the Denzel Washington fences or something, where it’s like a merging of both theater and, and film in a way that we so rarely get anymore. So I just think it’s it’s a rare cool movie, and I hope it was a gratifying experience.

 

Martha Plimpton Thank you. It was actually a really, really gratifying. I mean, I don’t know if gratifying is even the right word. It it was an, it was a real sort of a spiritually and emotionally and creatively, fulfilling experience. And, yeah, that movie, I’m incredibly in love with every single person who was in that movie and who made that movie, including the writer director Frank Kranz. I think it’s. It’s a very I mean, one hesitates to use words like this, but I think it’s a very important film and, and it’s, but it’s a small film and it, it’s, and it and it creeps up on you. I think what, you know, a lot of people did say that it reminded them of a play, and I suppose one could sort of do that. But I think you can with film, you can get much more inside. A moment, then you can in the theater. In the theater, I think, you know, you things are shaped by so many, scenes, you know, forces like the picture is. It’s right there. And you’re sort of sitting outside of it and observing and just to put it really simplistically, but but I think for film, you can, you can pause on a person’s face once they’ve stopped speaking, or you can cut to another person’s face when someone else is speaking. So there’s a you can get inside a moment much more. I suppose dramatically or something than you can with a plane. I think that’s one of the extraordinary achievements of that film, is that it has it’s, as you say, it’s just four people squaring off, two couples, you know, in a room for an hour. And, and yet it has such momentum and, and, such forward motion. It’s, it’s almost like it’s it’s relentless. It’s.

 

Ira Madison III And I have to lastly ask, which I ask every theater actor who comes here. You’ve done Glass Menagerie. I mean, you worked with Steppenwolf for a few years too. Are there any roles in theater that you feel like have eluded you still like one that you still are looking forward to, hopefully playing at some point?

 

Martha Plimpton Yeah, I mean, there’s lots of things I’d love to do. It’s just, you know, you imagine yourself doing them. But I don’t know that there’s any one, you know, that we. Because I think when you name them, they become more like. You know what I mean? Because you know what I mean? Like I want to do, blah, blah, blah, and then forget it. You’ll never do it. It’s just never gonna happen. You said it. You put it out there, you know, and it’s reverse affirmative differential.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, they call it.

 

Louis Virtel Defermation.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, it’s defermation me.

 

Ira Madison III So start going around saying the roles you don’t want. That. Then they’ll never come to you.

 

Martha Plimpton Right, right. Right. Right, right. Exactly. But, but, you know, things come also that surprise you that you’d never think that you that you would be able to do or want or know how to do or whatever. And they and they come to you and they and suddenly you’re like, oh, oh, I guess I, I guess I will do this, you know, and that’s kind of really more fun to me, you know what I mean? You know, not not really. Having a plan is, is kind of more fun to me.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Well, thank you so much for being here. We are huge fans. And also, you weren’t just as rad to talk to. I’m so thrilled you came here.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Thank you for being here.

 

Martha Plimpton Than you so much for having me. It was lovely chatting with you guys. My pleasure.

 

Ira Madison III And we are back with our favorite segment of the episode, Keep It. During our episode recording, Beyonce announced the title of Act II it is Cowboy Carter. I love that woman.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, my God, it’s so adorable. Cowboy Carter also feels like somebody who would be in my nephew’s kindergarten class. Cowboy. Come here.

 

Ira Madison III Cowboy Carter.

 

Louis Virtel No snacks.

 

Ira Madison III Is that’s the sequel to Johnny Guitar? Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, you’re you’re.

 

Ira Madison III Honest to God. I’d love to see obviously.

 

Louis Virtel Johnny Guitar always when.

 

Ira Madison III It does drop in, you know, a couple weeks. Also next week we will get into Ariana Grande album as well. I have a lot to say about it, but we obviously do not have time to discuss it this week. Just know. I love it. I do. And two. Okay.

 

Louis Virtel oh. You do? Okay.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. And, where the Kerry nation plays the party once a month, and, deejay Nita, who is a Arian-nator. They were playing some tracks from the album, and it sounded great in, like, a club house music setting. So I was not. It was very unexpected to hear like, a track from the new album that night. And I think it sort of made me and everyone else there loved the album, like a bit more. So, yeah. But Keep It. Louis, what is yours this week?

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Well, as a journalist, I went to the Madonna concert. Sure, I understood it, you know what I’m saying? There’s a lot of images going on. Yes. So I had a ticket for yesterday Monday’s show. But I abruptly on Thursday with my, friend John Hatch, also a giant Madonna fan, find him on Twitter. He, we had heard Kylie was going to be there, as I think everybody in the room did. And so we were like, we don’t even know what that means, what she could possibly do with Madonna. So we went. Let me just see. It’s like, this is the tour you have to see, because I don’t think she’s going to do a greatest hits thing like this again. I mean, just the sheer amount of, like, mega bangers. That’s it’s it’s vogue. It’s, a burning up. What? She plays guitar. She gets down to. Don’t tell me. Hung up. Has a moment. Ray of light is this explosive moment where she’s flying through the air and she’s dressed exactly like RuPaul. During the, the episode, Roman Monet exchange fakes the splits. So she has the, the visor on and the, like, the, shock white hair at that. At that moment. Anyway, I liked the show the first time. The second time I was seeing it from a different angle on the other side of the auditorium. I actually liked it three times as much. I. I’m sorry to say that seating sort of matters because you you miss certain images or you miss certain insane dancers. Of course, at the end they all come out in different variations of Madonna throughout the. We’ve seen versions of that, like at the MTV Music Video or Video Music Awards, where the bunch of drag queens crowd of.

 

Ira Madison III 1000 Madonnas.

 

Louis Virtel Madonna Persona, it was basically a version of that again. And it was cool to see. Yes. Right. And and that’s not all of them, you know what I’m saying? Like, it could be like 75,000. My Keep It. The show opens before she goes on stage with just the radio single version of Wannabe Starting Something by Michael Jackson. First of all, your Madonna just play a Madonna song or give us a remix or something. Don’t. Don’t put on Sirius XM The Groove and play a Wannabe Starting Something by Michael Jackson. And also, by the way, I think we all kind of think this ultimately, when you hear Michael Jackson in a public place, a part of you winces a little bit like, didn’t we go through this and like learn like, all right, we have to like revise what we think of this part of history because it is ultimately disgusting and vile. And we we just haven’t resolved what to do with all of that legendary music, really. But to hear it like that, like it’s going to kick off this night of Madonna music felt strange. And then later, while she’s changing outfits, this, a silhouette of two dancers dancing and one is Michael Jackson and one is the silhouette of Madonna and the Like a Virgin attire. They do a little dance together as, montage of photos of them together.

 

Ira Madison III Okay, I was waiting for you to see this.

 

Louis Virtel First of all, I know you only met twice.

 

Ira Madison III Montage of photos. Baby, there were three. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel It’s from that one Oscars where she sang. Sooner or later, she brought him his her date and like, it’s like when Jeremy Irons wins and stuff, but, like, they were friends. Also, he repeatedly called her a witch. And of course, by the way, Michael Jackson being mean or salty, that’s for sure.

 

Ira Madison III Personal photos are so Polaroids, there’s no of them hanging out at dinner. Hanging out at each other’s homes? No. It’s giving very. Give it up. Delicious. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel It’s giving Getty Images yeah.

 

Ira Madison III And to put that moment in the show, too. It’s just. So what are we doing there, girl?

 

Louis Virtel She’s also it’s that thing again, which we’ve talked about time and time again with the Basquiat and all that, too enamored of having known famous men. It’s like what she thinks legitimizes the fact that she’s a legend. You know, she’s like, did you know that I. Whatever, hang out with Michael Jackson? Did you know that I dated Tupac who comes up in the show? Did you know that, Prince did the guitar thing on like a Prayer? Whatever. It’s like. I’m not saying those aren’t important footnotes in her history, but that’s exactly what they are. Footnotes. Like, I don’t need to be reacquainted with that right now. I know it’s.

 

Ira Madison III Waiting for me to drop out of this show. Well, it was yeah. It was.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Of course we saddle dancers.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III I’m sad. I’m sitting there. I’m sitting there high as hell on ketamine.  By the way, and saying, Is Michael Jackson here? Is he back for the dead?

 

Louis Virtel Also, by the way, in that silhouetted footage, the Michael Jackson dancer, that to me looks like Michael Jackson dancing. Like Madonna in the Like A Virgin of it is throwing ass like she’s dancing. She’s dancing like like she’s on Soul Train. I was she was like, I know that I know that’s that Jody Watley typecast. Excuse me. Yeah. No, absolutely. It was way. It was way too like. So you think you can dance athletic dancing as opposed to that sort of freestyling as club dancing of.

 

Ira Madison III Like a virgin dressed Madonna silhouette and then the Michael Jackson silhouette. It was giving, Big Bad Wolf, little Red Riding Hood and Into the Woods. Hello, little girl. Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Right. There was danger apparent. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III And I thought the girls were safe.

 

Louis Virtel Oh my God. Other than that, the show was wonderful. Yes. Rutgers is IRA it. And I want to say, by the way, that when Kylie appeared absolutely flawless, they did an extremely slow version of I Will survive Together. But it sounded good. And it must be said about Kylie Minogue. And I wouldn’t say this about many other people who’ve had this long a career. She is absolutely better than ever. Like see her now? She’s got, of course, the giant catalog of hits, but she’s also just got her voice sounds so rich, her banter so funny. And I’ll say, classically, Australia’s.

 

Ira Madison III Happy to be there. She’s she’s always.

 

Louis Virtel She’s just.

 

Ira Madison III Got to pick out a red carpet.

 

Louis Virtel It was cool to see her.

 

Ira Madison III Who like, she’s, she’s just been really sort of hitting the awards circuit. She was at the Oscars. She was at the Vanity Fair afterparty. She’s she’s just been everywhere lately as she’s been such a joy to watch.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, totally. And I love the outfit she wore. Was a toast to when Madonna attributed Kylie 20 years ago wearing a shirt that said Kylie Minogue. She cut. Kylie copied that outfit altogether with the words Madonna.

 

Ira Madison III My Keep It this week.

 

Louis Virtel Is great to say, IRA,  what is your Keep It?

 

Ira Madison III We’re gonna have to talk about it again, baby. The, what is going on with the Royal family?

 

Louis Virtel No. Okay. We will save a special segment for this. But just now, I am probably the last candidate to be embroiled in this thing. And finally, with this Photoshop business where our hands are coming out of nowhere and coughs are matching up, and Kate herself, like, I look, I try to use the computer and I messed up or whatever, she said. It’s really.

 

Ira Madison III Stupid. Mind boggling. I’m sorry. It is. Last time we talked about it on the show, it was where is this half her? She’s been missing in action. And you know, we’ve been told that the, duchess was going to be taking an extended sort of break to recover from a surgery or whatever. So we were we were expecting like, she’s going to be gone. You know, there were like we told people, but then people just sort of saying, where is she now? Where is she? And the internet rumors were being fueled and so they released a photo first. Last time we talked about it, there was a photo of someone sitting in her car in heavy sunglasses. And it was maybe you. You took that crime scene photo of Caitlyn Jenner. Tried to have us think that it was Kate driving that car. Okay.

 

Louis Virtel It was giving alien at the end of AI. I was like, what? Okay.

 

Ira Madison III It giving to whoever was, masquerading as Melania Trump for the last two years. Yeah, of the Trump presidency, but.

 

Louis Virtel Right.

 

Ira Madison III If that that was not enough to sate the public interest. So they released a family photo of Kate and the children. This photo. First of all, it was very obvious that this photo was taken in about November or December and just held to be dropped later. Which, by the way, I’ve done on Instagram before. Many celebrities have done it, to hide weight loss or weight gain, etc. but it’s a thing that people do, but do not lie to us and say that this is a photo that was taken this week. When you’re in the midst of a where is this woman sort of mystery? You know, it’s like, you can’t do that when we’ve been wondering where she is. And then you also get to it when the Photoshop in the photo is so horrible, it’s so horrible that you have to pretend that Kate Middleton herself has Adobe Photoshop on her phone, that she has face tuned downloaded. It’s tweeting out. You know, I’ve just been practicing with, Photoshop a bit at home. Excuse me. Are you fucking kidding me?

 

Louis Virtel Practicing and just throwing it out there. That is. It’s such a weird situation. I just so surprised it was handled this way. Also, it’s like some people were accusing this particular Photoshop of lifting a picture of her from the cover of Vogue magazine and putting it on. Okay, now I feel like Kate Middleton kind of. I don’t buy that the same in pictures. Like she makes the same smile. So I don’t know that that’s true. And but yeah, and I write like it would take a lot.

 

Ira Madison III There were TikToks showing that they actually wearing the same outfits from an event around November. And mostly some of those outfits were either the color was darkened or changed, etc., to make them look different. And some people who, you know, the Royalists tried to point out, people aren’t allowed to wear the same outfit again and other people responded one those people generally aren’t royals. And two, when does an entire family rewear the same outfit that they wore on one specific day? Again? Okay.

 

Louis Virtel You better be The Partridge Family and you better be on a multi-colored bus headed to the venue, because there’s no other way.

 

Ira Madison III To get together. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, there better be some tambourines and you better be getting off of us. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel So the the bell bottoms better be flaring. Yes. It looks like Shirley Jones, we speak your name.

 

Ira Madison III They’re just, like, just coloring in things. Darkening stuff. Also, you’re telling me Kate is recovering from surgery and she’s wearing. She’s wearing tight jeans. I can’t even wear. Yeah, jeans makes.

 

Louis Virtel No sense either.

 

Ira Madison III Okay, so.

 

Louis Virtel Rita Rudner, who.

 

Ira Madison III I go to dinner  with my sweat pants on. Oh. What? Oh my God.

 

Louis Virtel I’ll take that on the road. Take that on the road for your stand up.

 

Ira Madison III Old tea, bubbling up on TikTok, too, about the alleged affair, that Prince William had with this right woman named Rose Hanbury. But he asked the Marchioness and.

 

Louis Virtel Named her name her title.

 

Ira Madison III Chernoble. No, it’s. It’s Chaumont Delay.

 

Louis Virtel Sorry. It’s the.

 

Ira Madison III The Marchioness. Us. The Marchioness of Chaumont. Delay.

 

Louis Virtel The Marchioness. It sounds like. Like if Elton John’s trying to get a spot at a restaurant.

 

Ira Madison III You have to say you have to say her name back. It’s to defeat her. You have to. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel It seems like something they say is a spell on Waverly Place.

 

Ira Madison III The Independent, by the way, to run a story. Who is the Marchioness of Chaumont Delay? On March 10th. Because they were being messy as hell. Just running this, to bring that tea back up. If you if you look at all TikToks from about like a couple years ago, there were rumors that Prince William was having an affair with Rose, around the time Kate was pregnant with their third child. And there were other rumors that around that time, to quell those stories in the press, William and the royal family offered up Meghan Markle as a sacrificial lamb because that is around the time that Meghan was pregnant, too. And they started running all these stories about how she was touching her baby bump and how she was, you know, like overdoing it and like just really sort of hammering Meghan in the press. There were also the other rumors then that that’s when. Harry had a falling out with his brother because one he was having an affair in the same way that their father did when he was involved with Diana. And also he felt that, you know, the royal family was tarnishing Meghan to sort of, prop up William and Kate. So that is if you search William, lady Rose on TikTok, you will find plenty of, tea from years ago. So for The Independent to run this story about who was lady Rose right now. Was them having a gag?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Right? Right. But also, please don’t go too far into the Reddit TikTok holes because you simply will not come out. That will simply be the last of you. It just goes on and on and on. You can endlessly feed this need to really make the royal family interesting when they are often not people are craving, but.

 

Ira Madison III Damn.

 

Louis Virtel Interesting this from the royal family absolutely stopping

 

Ira Madison III Holding this shit together. She died, and all of a sudden it is. Yeah. World War three over there. It is like.

 

Louis Virtel No one’s in charge. Everyone’s got keys.

 

Ira Madison III It is giving. Who is the current sheikh to the photo show to be writing? A play about sort of the downfall of the royal family currently. Because this is giving. This is giving Leer. This is giving. And I think it’s going to be a Scottish play.

 

Louis Virtel I think it’s probably going to be William Shakespeare. How about that?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, that’s our show this week.

 

Louis Virtel Precisely, precisely.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Wolf and end up being a lot of show. Yeah. Thanks for sticking around. I got I hope I have things to contribute now that the Oscars are over, but God willing, you know, Kate Middleton has.

 

Ira Madison III Pledged, you know, we won’t be watching movies on Instagram. Pop music was literally coming out week to week, so the girls are keeping us fed. Also, who is the new Madonna? Did you see this post?

 

Louis Virtel Okay, so slow down.

 

Ira Madison III I’m done with you.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, no. Cardi B, by the way, was at the show last night, and I bring that up. She was a fabulous looking and the perfect voguing guest.

 

Ira Madison III I bring that up because someone’s.

 

Louis Virtel Kicking around like all the stars.

 

Ira Madison III Is like you go to the website NewMadonna.com. Someone is teasing. That they’re the new Madonna and a new look and vibe is coming. And there are rumors that it’s Jojo Siwa.

 

Louis Virtel Okay, interesting thing to just claim. Nice girl. Seems like a nice girl. Okay. Anyway, we’ll see you next week.

 

Ira Madison III Don’t forget to follow Crooked Media on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. You can also subscribe to Keep It on YouTube for access to full episodes and other exclusive content. And if you’re as opinionated as we are, consider dropping us a review.

 

Louis Virtel Keep It is a Crooked Media production. Our producer is Chris Lord. Our executive producers are Ira Madison, the Third, Louis Virtel, and Kendra James. Our digital team is Megan Patzel, Claudia Shang, and Rachel Gaeski. This episode was recorded and mixed by Evan Sutton. Thank you to Matt DeGroot, David Toles, Kyle Seglin, and Charlotte Landes for production support every week.

 

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