Ira and Louis dive into the 2024 Grammys (including Miley Cyrus’ stunning performance, Tracy Chapman’s return to the stage, and Taylor Swift’s alleged snub of Celine Dion), Netflix’s We Are the World doc, NYT’s Connections, and Kandi Burruss’ exit from The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Plus, Juliette Binoche joins to discuss her exquisite new film The Taste of Things.

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Ira Madison III And we are back with an all new episode of Keep It. I am zero time Grammy winner, Ira Madison, the third.

 

Louis Virtel And I am Best New Artist 1987 winner Louis Virtel. That’s a reference to my girl, Jody Watley. I thought we’d start there. Somebody said no, she’s she’s 87. 88 is Tracy Chapman. Once upon a time I knew this really well.

 

Ira Madison III Well, you know what. Tracy Chapman was at the Grammys this weekend, and I feel like she is one of the people that we are talking about the most. This is our Grammys episode by the way. So we’re going to be getting into the ceremony. All the things that people were talking about including Miss Swift.

 

Louis Virtel Good for the Grammys, I have to say, because I felt like there were layers and layers of things that people were discussing and unpacking, which doesn’t always happen with the Grammys.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, so we’re going to get right into the Grammys. First, but we have a beautiful guest this week.

 

Louis Virtel As in, how did this happen to us? It’s very shocking.

 

Ira Madison III I think it kind of fits because we will be talking about a French goddess, Celine Dion, through this week. So it’s only fitting that we are joined by another icon of the Paris series. As it were. Juliette Binoche.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Maybe the most glamorous chocolatier of all time. I have to say, she’s in the new movie The Taste of Things, which is an exquisite viewing. In fact, I don’t know that any actress has been called exquisite more times than this person. I’m sure she is downright sick of it. I think we get into it too. But an amazing Oscar winner. If you think of all the movies she’s done over the years, everything from Certified Copy, Unbearable Lightness of Being, the Three Colors trilogy, she’s just a staggering actress. If I had to put a finger on what is so awesome about her, it is the immediate sense of interiority when she gets on the screen. The minute you are looking at this woman, you are seeing a thinking, feeling person. You don’t have to be acquainted with whatever she’s playing in order to get it. And I’m so psyched she joined us this week.

 

Ira Madison III And let’s just say she clocks us both.

 

Louis Virtel Quite. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Usually Louis and I are the ones surprising a guest with. Oh my God, you know that film? Well, you know that fact about me. But there are two parts that I feel like she said. I don’t know about that one. Right.

 

Louis Virtel Well, she reminded me of a press cycle about a specific movie I was not aware of. And you will get into it because I fucking love the movie, too.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, well, I mean, you weren’t reading Cahiers Du Cinema in middle school.

 

Louis Virtel Which is crazy. You would think that was like my actual textbook that they gave me. But..

 

Ira Madison III So we have Juliette Binoche, obviously. That’s coming up later in the episode, but first, these Grammy’s.

 

Louis Virtel Right. First of all, I want to say there was a lot of smart mouthing out there. You know, a lot of lip, if you will, about people saying like, oh, if you really enjoyed that Annie Lennox tribute to Sinead O’Connor, make sure to get your, prostate exam or whatever. Whatever. Making fun of gays for being old. I’m so sorry. This ceremony was a huge win for Gen-X right in a row. Tracy Chapman, Annie Lennox toasting Sinead O’Connor. Joni Mitchell is not John Ax, but her music is, I think, still a milestone for anybody. You know, 35 and up. They were definitely the best parts of the ceremony. And I say this really appreciating the people who came afterwards. I enjoyed the opening Dua Lipa performance. Miley Cyrus gave a great performance. Her speeches were even better. But if you came away from that ceremony not thinking, oh, those legends deserve to be legends, I mean, open the schools.

 

Ira Madison III Well, I would also say, and when we get into her particular my performance as well, Miley Cyrus is actually maybe the only performer who was giving that Gen-X legend quality. Yes, she was giving VH1’s Divas Live. She’s wearing a Bob Mackie dress. Like she really stepped into her element with the whole look, with the performance, with the sort of devil may care attitude that she had when she was accepting her awards, the reverence that she was paying to Mariah when she first went up, her speech about, I don’t really care about this because I had a beautiful day prior to this. Like that felt like a star, a classic star, and it felt like something we aren’t really getting from current people who are performing. You know, like Dua isn’t really at that level yet because let’s start with Dua Lipa. She opened up the show with Houdini and a preview of Training Session, her new single. It looked good. She was actually killing it with some choreo. I love that she gets better each time we see her.

 

Louis Virtel Right.

 

Ira Madison III I love that she is truly coming from that school of I want to improve each time, because if you remember her during Hotter Than Hell, when she was playing in the London clubs, when you and I, we first saw her at Palladium in Los Angeles. The girl was not giving.

 

Louis Virtel No. The languid ness has elevated to beautiful languor, which is elevating now, and to briskness in the choreography even I saw a hint of brisk.

 

Ira Madison III Shonte, she is staying, when at first she was a sashay.

 

Louis Virtel Right, right.

 

Ira Madison III But I still want to say that she opened up the show, and she is one of the lesser topics coming out of Sunday.

 

Louis Virtel No? Well, also tough ask given the amount of legends that followed. But you’re right, like I, I think the problem is it was a good performance but also standard, like something you would see maybe at the VMAs or, you know, the Billboard Music Awards or whatever. Whereas a lot of the things that we’re talking about at the Grammys were elevated in a way where it could only happen on the Grammys stage, which, by the way, is good for the Grammys because I don’t find any award ceremony easier to trash. You know, just in terms of like, who has too many awards, who’s underrepresented. I’m a little astounded that Taylor won album of the year, even though when you look at the sales and the years she’s had, given that she’s Time’s Person of the year and she’s the only entertainer ever to have won that, it’s incomparable how large she is. So it kind of makes sense ultimately. But at the same time, there is nobody out there and there is no Swiftie in particular who thinks that’s her best album?

 

Ira Madison III None. Okay, not unless you’re one of the deranged ones, who are sending, death threats to people like our friend Jackson Rankin.

 

Louis Virtel He loves Taylor Swift. Anyway.

 

Ira Madison III Now he posted out Midnights was like mid.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, I see.

 

Ira Madison III And got several “Die Fagot” emails the next day.

 

Louis Virtel It’s just so nice to know that people care getting a die fagot every once in a.

 

Ira Madison III While. You know what? I missed that era. Okay? You know, I used to get those at BuzzFeed all the time.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, excuse me, the time I said Lady Gaga didn’t deserve a Best Actress nomination for House of Gucci. Oh, the Die Fagots came fast and they came furious. Joker Farley are due in my inbox.

 

Ira Madison III Getting back to Dua,  I think that Training Session is not giving me memorable song.

 

Louis Virtel Now again, we said that Houdini had fourth single energy, which is tough because that’s the first single. Even though it’s catchy and and grows on you in the way that Dance The Night from Barbie did.

 

Ira Madison III I wish we’d gotten more of that. Actually, I like we got a little snippet of Dance The Night in between both of those songs, but I would have rather heard that song, but I guess she’s saving that for the Oscars.

 

Louis Virtel Right? We’ll see what happens there. I wouldn’t know, I’m not behind the scenes. Why would I, Louis, know anything about that? Moving on.

 

Ira Madison III I know you got a lot of tea.

 

Louis Virtel Right. The problem with Training Session also was, didn’t she kind of do this already? Like, we had the, like, workout video?

 

Ira Madison III Physical.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Slightly speedy yoga is kind of her vibe. And I think we’re doing that again.

 

Ira Madison III This is really giving Emotions B-side Energy. Like it’s.

 

Louis Virtel Lovely song.

 

Ira Madison III This song. Yes of course. And honestly, I think that the Emotions B-sides a lot of those were better than some of the songs on Emotion. But I still feel like every do a thing that we’re hearing now sounds like it could have been on Future Nostalgia.

 

Louis Virtel Definitely, definitely. And again, it’s not like we’re teeming with disco fied music at the moment, so I’m almost embracing that we’re getting these things that sound just like they belong to earlier sessions. But at the same time, repetitiveness is repetitiveness, so I can only say it’s a B-plus ultimately.

 

Ira Madison III And there’s the stagnancy that I feel like is happening within pop music in general, which is sort of why there was this backlash to Midnights winning, you know, because Midnights, if we just get into the Taylor of it all now, you know, Midnights is I would put it as like she’s had ten studio albums so far. She announced the 11th, the Tortured Poets Department, which is coming.

 

Louis Virtel Out, the tortured album title.

 

Ira Madison III Yes Girl, I, I dropped that as a major power. Okay, I was I said, you know what? I’m good. Let’s do theater. Also, the cover isn’t even a tortured poets department. Which poet is that? Sylvia Plath.

 

Louis Virtel Right, right, right. And also, it’s like, maybe it’s meant to be cheeky, but at the same time, it just sounds.

 

Ira Madison III It’s giving Tumblr.

 

Louis Virtel It’s so macabre.

 

Ira Madison III It’s also giving Tumblr.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, yeah. It’s just we’re in our mid 30s now. Can we move into. We’re just legitimate writers and I don’t know, I did not think it was a great Grammys for Taylor even though she won album of the year.

 

Ira Madison III No, I the title is giving. I can’t remember the exact title, but it’s giving. I came up with the idea for a play festival that I wanted to do it in college once, and I remember telling my best friend at the time of roommate A Luke, the title, and he looked at me and he said, no, I don’t think so. And that is what it’s giving. If you tell someone the tortured poets department, it’s giving. Let’s go back to that drawing board. Yes, giving college is giving college writer the first thing that they’re ever, like, really proud of putting out there.

 

Louis Virtel It’s a bit baroque for her. She always has these, like, simple titles, right. You know, Everything Is Red, or Fearless, or folklore.

 

Ira Madison III But I will say that she did drop the song titles and the album is featuring Post Malone, and it is featuring Florence Welch, and one of the producers on the album is.

 

Louis Virtel Quincy Jones? No, probably not.

 

Ira Madison III Louis Bell, who’s worked with Post Malone, and it’s also done, Afterglow by Taylor Swift. Circles. But Post Malone, Miley Cyrus, Cyrus’s Angels like you. So I’m liking that vibe of the album. I mean, I’m a postal worker. As soon as Post Malone was announced, I said, okay, you know what? I’m up. I’m sure I will actually like the album, to be honest. It’ll probably be better than Midnights, hopefully, because at least from the song titles, it seems like this is the breakup album. God, this is the I’m dragging the hell out of him like she has. She has song titles like But Daddy, I love him. I Can Fix Him, So Long, London. She like she’s about to go in.

 

Louis Virtel Right. And allegedly, it may be a play on the fact that Joe Alwyn, her ex, and Paul Mescal and somebody else whose name is escaping me right now. We’re in a texting group called the Tortured Man’s Club. So it may be a play on that. And as you know, there are no coincidences with words and numbers in the world of Taylor Swift.

 

Ira Madison III Don’t tell me. Don’t tell me that, though I know me like, that’s so uncool of Paul, right?

 

Louis Virtel Right. By the way, I just watched a video of him, a promotional video for All of Us strangers where he and Andrew Scott are playing a game together. I actually had underestimated how fucking huge Paul Mescal is. Intimidating killer. Yes. I was like, how do you?

 

Ira Madison III Have you seen him sit in a chair?

 

Louis Virtel Right? No, the chair is like, help.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I mean, we get a lot of Paul Mescal content online. If you follow Jeremy Harris on Instagram, he is, a one man Paul Mescal blogger. And that is the only time you actually see videos of him, actually. So whatever they pop up on film updates, they used to come from Jeremy’s Instagram, but I you see him sitting in a chair, like for his birthday and it was giving BFG.

 

Louis Virtel And not in a mark Rylance way. I will say though. So immediately when Taylor Swift won her first Grammy of the night, she went up to the podium and started pimping this album, dropped the album title and the.

 

Ira Madison III Girl.

 

Louis Virtel Can I tell you something? I don’t know that yes, I am going to defend it because I do think the Grammys are explicitly commercial, like we are all here to say, go and buy the music, you know? And and we exist and our industry is dying. Please help us. So I kind of do like that she had it prepared. I just wish, couldn’t she have been, like a little funnier about it or something? There’s like the way that.

 

Ira Madison III I hated it.

 

Louis Virtel Way she pimped it was like she. If she goes up. And she’s like, this is my 13th Grammy. Have I ever brought up before that? I like the number 13. Stop pretending. These are like in-jokes for like for fans or something. It’s like the entire world is drowning in these references to your minutia.

 

Ira Madison III Oh, you’re holding them hostage? Yeah, every other week. Okay. We’re always trying to solve these riddles. Let’s listen. The thing about announcing this album title, and this is why the tide started turning against Taylor at the Grammys. And I feel like she had a bad Grammys. She won is just constantly sort of oblivious to her privilege as a white woman, and sort of oblivious to the fact that people were getting a little tired of, her capitalistic tendencies. And I feel like for a night that was about celebrating people like Tracy Chapman, Joni Mitchell, you know, and, giving reverence to, just the music industry in general and having these great nights for people like Victoria monet and Coco Jones and, you know, like even Boygenius, you know, who I don’t really care for, but, you know, this is a night where it feels not like the Billboard Awards or the VMAs where you would announce something like that. And I feel like that’s what she announced the last time that she was, because she’s done this before.

 

Louis Virtel Right.

 

Ira Madison III By the way, so it’s not new and it just felt commercial. It felt crass. It didn’t feel in the spirit of the night she announced it. And I’m sure everyone else there is like, okay, girl, I know that the Grammys, everyone is watching it, but she is the one pop star in the world who does not need the fucking Grammy stage to announce an album and get all the eyeballs on her. She could whisper it in a restaurant and it would be on every outlet in two minutes.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Like we will all hear about it.

 

Louis Virtel You are right.

 

Ira Madison III So the fact that she just went up there and is using this as a moment to talk to her fans about this, it’s giving. It’s giving Nicki Minaj.

 

Louis Virtel I’m gonna say it’s giving, Gale Weathers it’s giving By The Book.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah it is  giving Gayle Weathers. I’ll send you a copy. But it’s giving Nicki Minaj. And I don’t mean in the deranged making fun of a woman who was assaulted by her romantic partner.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III And then shot by him, and, you know, sending your fans to, damage her mother’s grave. You know, I last week when we talked about the Nicki Minaj and Megan shit, some people were like, maybe they’re being a little bit too light about this. I think that Megan’s being right about it, too. And she got number one on fucking Billboard now. Like, she does give a fuck. And Nicki has now retreated to doing Instagram lives of her tour rehearsals, trying to get people to come and see this show. Right.

 

Louis Virtel So now suddenly the reindeer games are being played by Nicki. You know what I’m saying? Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Yes,  but it’s Nicki behavior. It’s it’s Sagittarius behavior. To be honest, if I want to get into the astrology of it.

 

Louis Virtel And I don’t.

 

Ira Madison III But this whole idea of I’m getting on stage and I’m talking to my fans in code is very there’s one way to thank your fans, Miley said. Thank you for my fans because my fans have held me down. And that’s more important to me than having a Grammy. And because she got her first Grammys that night, right. But there’s just something about you are the most powerful pop star in the world right now. Most powerful celebrity currently, to be honest. Movie music, anything sports. You’ve already dominated sports. Maybe the most popular sports player at the moment is your boyfriend.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III And you are more popular than him, you know. And so the idea that like, hi, here’s my new album, it’s like, girl, we get it. Like, I’m going to buy the album, right, right, right. Did you have to do this now? Like, give us a speech. Give us a speech that is funny. And when you get to the Celine Dion of it. All right. That is actually my main problem with the Celine Dion thing is that, first of all, people have been crazy on both sides of the coin. Okay? There are a lot of heartfelt speeches from people about how she disrespected Celine Dion, this great woman, she wasn’t raised well, etc. I’m like, okay, girl. I mean, she pays deference to people all the time. I don’t think that it was an intentional slight towards Celine Dion.

 

Louis Virtel She didn’t want to push Celine Dion off the stage. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III No. Okay.

 

Louis Virtel If she did do that, though, I mean, it would be terribly funny. I mean, funny, though, given how, like, everyone’s kind of walking on eggshells around Celine. You know what I mean?

 

Ira Madison III She’s like, I’ve never liked that bitch. That actually, that actually would have been a gag. That would have been a gag.

 

Louis Virtel You know, my dream is for Taylor Swift to sabotage the extreme following she has. Right? Just to be like, I hate these people. And now they’re they’re going to be pissed at me now based on the decisions I make. And I think she should turn to violence. I think it makes.

 

Louis Virtel You go to, like, an old school. Movie or something where they would have a recording of someone backstage. That’s how people used to lose elections in movies. Back when we pretended that we cared about elections and electing good people. Right? It’d be just, someone turning on her bike, and it blasted across the whole Grammys. It’s like, I can’t stand those fucking Swifties. I gotta go. Bye. That would be fucking funny. But this LMG out of it all. When you watch this video and I was doing the play by play. Okay, I know. Okay, I know my football’s okay. Unlike last week when I name someone who was no longer on the 40 niners. Oh, yeah. And people said, IRA, what do you know about football? And I said, absolutely nothing. Okay.

 

Louis Virtel No, my own brother messaged me, said so, does IRA not know that those people are on the team? I’m like, girl, I don’t know either. Don’t even bring it up to me.

 

Ira Madison III But when you watch the video, you see her rushing up there. She’s excited, obviously, as she wants to get out there and do her speech. And that, I think, is inherently the disconnect with Taylor Swift. And maybe that is a bit of awkwardness and insecurities on her part that still pop up there when she’s in these settings, even though she’s been up there multiple times before. She’d already been up there that night. Her mind just is sort of just one track, right? With I’m up here, I have to do the speech, I have to deliver it. And, you know, like I’m going to say what I’m going to say, etc., you know, but.

 

Louis Virtel My extremely engaged fans like, she’s very like, here I am to read the children’s book to the children. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Right. She there’s there’s always there’s. I believe that she loves Dionne. Obviously she was singing along to the song. She knew the words. When Celine was her walkout music was happening, but there was just something about it. Never crossed her mind immediately in the way that it would cross a lot of people’s minds, like Celine Dion. Oh my God. And then she calls you up on stage like for anybody else. I would be like, shake it, right? I would be like, I’m meeting Celine Dion, you know? And she is giving me an award also, like she’s come back from, like, what we thought was a near death, you know, like, that is a moment.

 

Louis Virtel I will say sympathetically. When you went album of the year, all these people come up on stage like the producers and stuff. So you have a lot of socializing to do in that moment. You want to say hi to everybody that’s at the figure that Celine Dion cuts when she enters a room. And by the way, you don’t know if she’s ever going to enter our room again. We don’t know what’s up with her, what’s happening with her life. The updates are all kind of harrowing. She seems to be harrowed by it. There’s like a stricken, kind of fearful look just about her anyway, so I do feel like top of mind in that situation when Celine Dion is there. And I don’t know, it’s like seeing Jack Nicholson or something, you know what I mean? It’s like, oh my God, I can’t believe you’re here and you’re around and you’re part of that. So whatever. I do feel like it’s hard not to be like, how did you not give her, like, a little bit of a moment right on stage then. But at the same time, there’s so much going on. So I don’t know that I can really pin it on her one way or the other, but it was questionable because she went right into the stick of what she does. You know what I mean? So it was that what you were watching was the one track Mind Bang, and also she was she did make the attempt to be like, I’m, I’m toasting other artists. Like, but what she did was drag Lana Del Rey on stage and Lana Del Rey, you can see in her eyes, it’s like you’re making me a prop right now, you know what I mean? Like, it was not joyful that that entire moment and then the skipping Celine was like the insult to injury.

 

Ira Madison III She’s basically bad at improv.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. And by the way, it’s not improv. She does a lot of planning. You know what I mean?

 

Ira Madison III Yes. She’s very methodical. And I think that for her, she’s unable to be spur of the moment. Yes. To be honest. You know, even when she’s being cool and funny and like, public in front of cameras, it still feels very much like she’s planning it, you know, like you saw the back seats stuff of her. Like, put the Grammy on Lucy Jacobson’s head. I’m like, this will be funny. This will be a cool photo. Or, like, Jack, you’re being weird. Like, come over here. It’s like. It’s very much like it’d be cool and funny for me to get this photo to show that, like, we’re having a good time, so let’s do that. And I think that’s where her mind goes. Yeah, yeah. Lana not coming on stage at first and then hiding there. That was also throwing off because she’s like a lot of Del Rey. She’s hiding.

 

Louis Virtel Lana Del Rey was like, I’m going to do it like a dive roll off the stage. She just. She was like, stop, drop and rolling out the exit.

 

Ira Madison III Right? But I think it’s really just that’s the combination of not being able to Ambra because anybody else, even the most disrespectful people in the industry like Nicki Minaj, you know. Yeah. Right. Someone who’s been like a psycho this past week, what can I say is, and even if you’re not going to do a for like, oh, I’m bowing like, deference thing, like, you get up there and you are like Celine Dion, right? For her. Like, and that’s not even just, it’s not even just like a social norm to know. I feel like it’s a. It’s an industry norm amongst not just musicians. Anybody, you know, like if when an icon, like comes out or something at the Oscars or something and you win an award from them, sometimes people, unless if it’s like one of your regular contemporaries. Sure. But you know, if like, someone older, like, comes out and they’re right there and they’re giving you something, you’re like, oh my God, like, give it up for them.

 

Louis Virtel And I think also a big thing is comparing her to Miley, who did all of the things we’re describing, which is Mariah Carey gives her the award. And by the way, Mariah Carey, how do you not pronounce Miley Cyrus correctly? What is happening there? She said Mary Sirissa’s or something. It was, it was. I was at the dentist minutes ago. Whatever came out of her mouth. But Miley Cyrus goes out there and she’s thrilled and she is definitely joking around. And being funny is just a part of who she is. Like, she’ll be funny no matter what. We were describing this quality last week with Nicki Minaj, like Nicki Minaj will be going to like the jail for war crimes and she will be joking, whether that’s how it goes.

 

Ira Madison III Okay.

 

Louis Virtel Give it one year. Give it one year.

 

Ira Madison III But Miley Cyrus was.

 

Louis Virtel So funny again and again while being robbed, right? Like she had Mariah Carey right there. So she’s doing all these things, so we know it’s possible. And then then the second minute we have Taylor Swift there to compare that to.

 

Ira Madison III I’m sorry. I’m sorry they got me on Guantanamo, y’all.

 

Louis Virtel The original Gag City Guantanamo.

 

Ira Madison III Obama said he was going to closed out Gag City and he never did.

 

Louis Virtel Right. No.

 

Ira Madison III Another campaign lie.

 

Louis Virtel Promises broken.

 

Ira Madison III But anyway, I thought people were doing too much with the Taylor Swift of it all. But I do want to lastly say that people were talking about this, this backlash coming to her, which is, is she doing this backlash because reputation Taylor’s version is coming out. I’m like, I don’t think she’s that calculated. oh. I see it’s not. No. Yeah. No, no, I really think that this was, unexpected. Like, oh, people were dragging her for this, and I think that she got that picture quickly. Tree Payne was backstage like Olivia Pope had said. You get this photo with Selena gone right now, and you put it out there and it worked like gangbusters because every swiftie was in the comments of every single person.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, they had time.

 

Ira Madison III Was critiquing her with that photo. They were dropping it. They like nice narrative. They love each other. I’m like, okay, get back to the Tostitos Pizza Rolls Kitchen before they burn.

 

Louis Virtel And one last sympathetic note to Taylor Swift rerecording Reputation must be annoying as fuck. This came out like four years ago, and she sounds the same and it’s just going to sound the same. I mean, that’s a real challenge, I think, to reintroduce that album. That still sounds like it could come out in 2024.

 

Ira Madison III Also, it’s my favorite album of hers.

 

Louis Virtel So I think that’s the one that really, truly elevated your fandom, you know? Yeah, that really is her art pop in terms of you either committed harder or you you shrank a little bit when it came out, as, you know, the choreography, which I believe was done by Julia Stiles in the film, say, The Last Dance took me back a little bit.

 

Ira Madison III Well, Taylor, I’m looking forward to the tortured poets department. Looking forward to Reputation Taylor’s version. It’s actually the one Taylor’s version I have been looking forward to, I think. And Fearless two. I don’t really need Taylor Swift Taylor’s version, but I’m sure we’ll get it. But good luck and don’t fuck it up, all right? When we are back, though, there’s still so much more Grammys to talk about.

 

<AD>.

 

Ira Madison III All right, we’re back with more Grammys chat. And let’s kick it off with our, returning Grammys host Trevor Noah, who was looking good as usual. And I will say, I liked his Grammys stuff better this year. It was a little bit funnier, and he wasn’t haranguing Beyonce the entire time. And I also think that’s why Beyoncé showed up for like ten minutes. She showed up for Jay’s speech. And then if you look at the tweets of people who are there, say that basically she did a meet and greet, like there was a queue of celebrities waiting to get their Getty photo with Beyonce. And then she was like, let me get out of here.

 

Louis Virtel Right, right.

 

Ira Madison III Trevor this year without his havoc, because you remember last year there was this whole. If Beyoncé wins, she will be tied with etc., etc. and it’s like, okay. And he did that same thing with Taylor at the beginning, but he only did it once.

 

Louis Virtel He was giving the carnival barker from They Shoot Horses, don’t they? Which is one of the grimmer roles in cinema history. Gig Young, scary guy. You should read that Wiki sometime.

 

Ira Madison III They should Swifty’s dope. And what if we don’t?

 

Louis Virtel You need to not do that. Okay, I’ll build my bunker today.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Cut that. They’re definitely not going to cut that. They want me dead. But Trevor Noah, I thought was funny this time.

 

Louis Virtel I will say this. It always surprises me. The tenor with which he hosts the Grammys because it’s so different from when he hosts The Daily Show, where his tone is very sardonic and even keel. Whereas when he’s hosting the Grammys, it is lounge host. I am walking around from table to table. I’m asking you about your order. Where are you from? Here comes this person. This person can’t even sit down because I’m screaming at them. It’s such an interesting tactic for a it’s like you, I don’t know. You don’t have to do that much. You know, we’re already overwhelmed by the environs of the room. I don’t know if it feels like a nervous tic or something. I’m not sure really why he picks that literally decibel level to address the crowd with the jokes. I thought some of them were okay. To me, it still felt kind of first thought, like, not really super different than the Jo Koy thing, except Jo Koy’s approach was disastrous. I just feel like you can do a little less. He can do less.

 

Ira Madison III The Grammys don’t really lend themselves to making jokes about people the way that you do the Oscars to the Globes. You know.

 

Louis Virtel Stan culture runs the Grammys. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Stan culture and musicians are thinner skinned, if you can believe it, than the actors, you know, because actors are the least used to. That’s a tradition. You know, you’re lightly being roasted or whatever. You can’t roast an artists. What are you going to be like? Well, you don’t have any Grammys. Katy Perry.

 

Louis Virtel We start the show with that. Yeah. First words out of his mouth.

 

Ira Madison III But moving on from Trevor. We already talked about Dua Lipa. SZA, another big moment of the show and another sort of a disappointing moment, I guess. Her not winning album of the year for such a the big year that she had. Because if you’re talking about someone who also had a humongous year, says really did. Yeah, right. You know, like S.O.S. was everywhere. And culturally, I’d say she’s right up there last year with Beyoncé and Taylor in terms of people are talking about this album, but, you know, I feel like it’s definitely more of a millennial Gen Z vibe of an album. And so, of course, the grand old Grammy voters, aren’t connecting with S.O.S as an album. That’s another problem that I mean, I guess we should address to the Grammy voters are not like the Oscar voters. They’re more akin to the HFPa, as they used to be, and that no one knows who the fuck these people are, right?

 

Ira Madison III No. I mean, and again, it’s like it definitely sways much older, too. I mean, I unfortunately the, the definitive moment is that they would pick Harry’s House as album of the year. To me, that felt like a we’ve heard of Harry styles. Yes, we like that one song. Yes, of course we are going to vote for him. We understand that as opposed to knowing that the Beyonce Renaissance album was what was on all of us, like anybody with taste was caring about that album. That’s what they should have done. I still can’t get over that.

 

Ira Madison III They also seem bitter, though. They also seem like people who vote for vote against things because they want to put someone in their place, you know.

 

Louis Virtel As Jay-Z, basically all but, articulated during that awesome and very funny speech where he says, oh, when I get nervous, I tell the truth. What a funny line. Because now everybody else is nervous.

 

Ira Madison III Also, the Renaissance film reminded me of it because we usually hear him rapping, but it’s so rare that we hear Jay-Z talk anymore. Yeah, I always forget, like, his voice, his vocal cadence and just how, like, amusing it is to hear him talk, to be honest.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Also, I really liked the. Way he put it, the way he kind of slammed the Grammys obliquely when he said, we want you to get it right. We know you don’t have the critical faculties really to do this. So we want to help you out in a way good for him and good for Beyonce that he made that speech. But at the same time, it also is so awkward for Beyonce.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel It’s like I don’t want to stand there and watch her having to hear that. She’s like, not rewarding enough for something, I don’t know.

 

Ira Madison III It feels like begging. Yeah, it feels like beg. It feels like she’s embarrassed by it. But I will also say Swifty’s being mad about this as if he was dragging Taylor. It’s giving more Sagittarius behavior of a hit dog will holler because there are many people who’ve got album of the year over Beyonce, right? You know, and there are many people nominated and obviously Taylor and me, I say our friends, so why would he be dragging your heart?

 

Louis Virtel I saw that AMC ad thing they did. Yes, they are definitely knowing each other and aware of each other. Certainly. Yeah man, it is just staggering that there are only three black women who have won album of the year, and it’s Natalie Cole, Whitney Houston again, that’s an unavoidable album. That was The Bodyguard soundtrack biggest soundtrack of all time and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill that nobody has won it since then. Not a Missy Elliott. Not. Yeah, I mean, it just it speaks for itself, is all I can say. It speaks for itself.

 

Ira Madison III Right. And someone had the full list of, people who’ve been nominated since 1999, with zero wins for album of the year, TLC in 2000, for Fan Mail, a beautiful album. India Ari.

 

Louis Virtel Right.

 

Ira Madison III In 2002. Missy Elliott 2004. Alicia Keys 2005. That was kind of wild to me, because that album is.

 

Louis Virtel That’s the Diary of Alicia Keys, right? Yeah. With No One on it and stuff.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. That album was an escape from Mariah Carey, 2006, Beyoncé 2010, 2015, 2017 and last year 2023. Rihanna 2012 Brittany Howard with the Alabama Shakes in 2016. Which is so interesting because that is also like the kind of album that, they’d give it to. And would it feel weird? Almost like a Jon Batiste, even though Brittany Howard is so fucking amazing. Yeah, like that would feel like one that’s not within the mainstream pop culture of a.

 

Louis Virtel Win that they would stick their neck out for because it’s like legitimate music.

 

Ira Madison III Right? But that would have been an amazing win and a win for a black woman. Janelle Monae in 2019. And this year, H.E.R. 2019, 2020, 2022.

 

Louis Virtel She has been nominated for three album of the year. This woman is a minute old.

 

Ira Madison III She lives that award show, you know that.

 

Louis Virtel And she just lived in an incubator where she was born.

 

Ira Madison III She is the Phantom of the opera. Okay. No. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. All the people that we fought with at the Grammys before, Alison Krauss, John Legend, they have been kicked out in favor of H.E.R..

 

Ira Madison III Cardi B, 2019, Lizzo, 2020 and 2023. Janelle Aiko, 2021. Doja Cat, 2022, Mary J. Blige 2023. And then, of course, SZA, this year.

 

Louis Virtel All right. Well, they’ve got their work cut out for them. Question mark. I mean like I it seems very crazy to me.

 

Ira Madison III What did you think of SZA’s performance?

 

Louis Virtel Really good. I would say it’s sort of mid tier in the ceremony, but again she’s up against icons coming back that you kind of thought you’d never see again. So when Tracy Chapman took the mic and sang Fast Car with, Luke Combs, whose version I think is really good, I enjoyed listening to it. And we, of course, praised him for the fact that he kept the pronouns in the song. I work in the market as a checkout girl, one of the great lyrics of all time. Just something I want to say. And I worked at the market as Checkout girl. I mean, you just want to say it.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel I kind of worried at first that it would be a little bit too slow a performance. But you know what the magic of Tracy Chapman is? The minute she starts singing, you lean in to hear the song. And I want to bring this up as, like a reminder to other people like American Idol. And the world of belters has, like, kind of, like, transformed our brains into believing I’m supposed to grip my seat and lean back when I’m listening to a vocalist. It was so nice to hear somebody who you could tell that come from. This sounds like I’m being derogatory. Coffeehouse culture of like, there’s like a voice that, like, fills the room in just a way. You know, again, it’s the Dionne Warwick, the people where it’s like, I’m listening to the story and in their voice, and I’m being warmed to it. That was so refreshing and just something we do not have anymore.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, you could hear the menthols in their voice.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, yes, precisely.

 

Ira Madison III Like Dionne Warwick.

 

Louis Virtel Who, by the way, was at the Grammys. Yes, yes.

 

Ira Madison III Holding her cigarets.

 

Louis Virtel Excuse me.

 

Ira Madison III And lighter.

 

Louis Virtel Picture. Do you know the way to Converse Casino? Just like we’re the penny slot.

 

Ira Madison III But Tracy Chapman, what a beautiful performance. And I’m glad that this performance happened.

 

Louis Virtel She was so full of life, too. She loved that the people were responding.

 

Ira Madison III The smile on her face.

 

Louis Virtel She has that shy Berkeley professor vibe where it’s just like she’s like, I’ll go back into my white ivory tower momentarily, but for now, I’ll show you that I still got the PhD in musicology skills.

 

Ira Madison III Luke Combs, won me over with this grin that he had on his face off. Like, I can’t believe I’m singing alongside her. And I think that that is exactly what the Grammys should do more of. Yes. And I mean, the Grammys couldn’t technically couldn’t really even engineer this because Luke did it himself by doing the cover of it. But the way that it introduced Tracy Chapman to a younger audience and you have like her fast car was like number one on iTunes now. And I think other people are starting to listen to other music of her, as that self-titled album is just phenomenal. That’s the one that was nominated for album of the year, right?

 

Louis Virtel She won Best New artist in the 80s.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, she won Best New artist.

 

Louis Virtel I love the video for the title song from Telling Stories Too, that was directed by Harb Borretz. There’s a lot of great, the acapella song off her debut, Behind the Wall. That’s a great song.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And it also did wonders for Luke Combs, too, because you have an older audience and not even just an older, older audience, maybe like even a non country listening audience who was introduced to him. And now I’m like, I love his voice. I love this deference that he paid to her. And now I feel like I’m going to listen to some Luke Combs.

 

Louis Virtel And speaking of difference, of course you had Joni Mitchell. And I don’t mean to defame Brandi Carlile, who is wonderful, great vocalist, great writer. When I see her with Joni Mitchell, my immediate thought is like Richard Simmons and whoever that woman is who minds the gate, I’m just like, I’m concerned and I don’t know the full story, okay? But she is so deferential to Joni Mitchell, Joni Mitchell perform. She’s, you know, 80 now. Of course she perform Both Sides Now. I have no idea why I thought she would perform anything, but when that performance started, I was worried that.

 

Ira Madison III Throw the chair, the chair spinning around, I was like, are we at the Tonys?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Also, is this murder by death? Like, what is this? But when she started, I was like, oh, is she kind of in control of this moment? Is it going to be too slow? Because it’s like already a pretty slow song and she’s even taking it down a notch. That was another performance where I was just like, wow, you are really, like wheeled into her vibe and her control and her sense of authority, which has not wavered at all. It was really cool to see that. Also, I really hope people if you want to get into the versatility of Joni Mitchell, my recommendation is, starting with any album. This is somebody who would attack a genre and you would think it didn’t belong to her at all. And suddenly she’s like, in the 80s with Wild Things, Run Fast, a rock singer or, she was a jazz artist in the mid 70s. Unfortunately, the Don Juan’s reckless daughter blackface photos have emerged and they are all over the web again. That is a concern of mine. That’s also one of her worst albums, 1977. But I mean, Courtney Spark, Blue Leads the King, and these are all unbelievable albums, so I hope people really investigate them.

 

Ira Madison III I love those black eyes.

 

Louis Virtel So she really picked a character.

 

Ira Madison III I will also say that another person who. You could hear the menthols. Yeah. Okay. She’s one of the original cigar blue answers.

 

Louis Virtel I think Joni Mitchell is the only artist in history where if you give me, without any music, just her voice, I can tell you what year it is based on how smoky her voice is, like, oh, you went down and out of. That’s got to be help me from Gordon’s Bark or whatever are people’s parties from Courtney’s Bark.

 

Ira Madison III I don’t believe that her albums are on Spotify, but they are on Apple Music. So, Turbulent Indigo, that’s one that I was revisiting, this week. Yeah, because that’s a when.

 

Louis Virtel In the 90s, she had a Grammy. The Grammys decided they hadn’t awarded her enough, I think, and they gave her, a couple of awards for, that and that has a song called Sex Kills on it. She goes pretty.

 

Ira Madison III Hard. Yeah, yeah. Sex Heals is a great fucking song. And the cover is. I was like, of a painting of her. It’s very Van Gogh.

 

Louis Virtel And she did the painting. She often painted all of her album covers. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Giving you Triple threat.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, quite. Every once in a while she’ll give an interview where she’s like, I’m more of a painter than a musician now in that regard. Shut up. What the fuck is that?

 

Ira Madison III But. Where’s the Whitney exhibit?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Right.

 

Ira Madison III Right, right.

 

Louis Virtel And then I feel like there was one other legend. Oh, Annie Lennox, when Annie Lennox appeared and sang that tribute to, Sinead O’Connor during the, tribute. Perfect pairing. Whoever produced the hell out of that, I said Annie Lennox proves that fierce and vulnerable go together. And her first album, diva, which of course has why walking up Broken Glass on it remains on all timer for me. Definitely in my top. No, I’ll say 15.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, speaking of Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs, I remember when Annie reach across the aisle years ago with your Love with Nicki Minaj.

 

Louis Virtel Oh yes. Of course.

 

Ira Madison III Right.

 

Louis Virtel Also, there’s a performance I can’t find online anymore where she did a tribute to Stevie Wonder, and she sang My Cerie Amore. Woof! That performance is a ten. Please go and find that.

 

Ira Madison III I love Annie Lennox and also shout out to Annie Lennox being the only person this entire awards season to call for a cease fire on.

 

Louis Virtel Stage, it was really shocking to hear I did. I mean, and.

 

Ira Madison III The only person.

 

Louis Virtel I mean, it’s shocking to hear because I hadn’t heard it. There’s no contemporary I like. She is the only one.

 

Ira Madison III And of course you do that during a Sinead tribute.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Certainly, certainly.

 

Ira Madison III Obviously we love her. What about Stevie?

 

Louis Virtel Stevie, first of all, as I was going to give you a little bit of funny too, because he likes to sit there and riff a little bit. If you watch the We Are The World documentary, The Greatest Night in Pop, which just came out on Netflix. You get some of this too. He did a tribute to Tony Bennett during the In Memoriam. I will say this if you’re going to do a tribute to Tony Bennett or like do a duet with him with old footage of him. Why not use footage of him in his prime? It was like a later Tony Bennett performance.

 

Ira Madison III You know what? Gaga has all that footage.

 

Louis Virtel She’s like, he she has, like the Prince vaults of just Tony Bennett living.

 

Ira Madison III She wasn’t able to be there, so no one else is allowed to touch. Right. Honestly. Wouldn’t it have been wacky to see Gaga just perched on the piano with Stevie Wonder singing a Tony Bennett song?

 

Louis Virtel Oh, my gosh, that would have been amazing. Where is she?

 

Ira Madison III She’s in the studio, allegedly, allegedly recording new music. But I really just think it’s ADR for Folie au Deux.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, right.

 

Ira Madison III Joker two. Or at least music that’s in it.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, that’s exactly the correct answer. Where is she? In character. That’s where she is.

 

Ira Madison III But yeah, that was it. My favorite Stevie performers. But I mean, Stevie is always going to give it to you. I’ve seen Stevie at the forum. I’ve seen him at the ball. Like Stevie is always great. I’m glad that I’ve gotten to see Stevie, perform in my lifetime, doing some Songs in the Key of Life, actually.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, really? I’m obsessed with an 80s song of his called Go Home, right now, so if you can go and listen to that. I think he performed it on SNL in the 80s, too. Oh.

 

Ira Madison III I’ll I’ll go do that now.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, yeah. I was leaving the studio. This is actually.

 

Ira Madison III Inconvenient.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. What else did we get in terms of performances?

 

Ira Madison III Speaking of legends, honoring legends, Fantasia Barrino honored Tina Turner, and I have thoughts.

 

Louis Virtel Okay.

 

Ira Madison III Obviously, Fantasia sang down, and it was fun seeing her, you know, doing a step. It was honestly lively. And then anything we saw in The Color Purple.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Also the stepping she does like what she does on stage is a little bit more akin to Tina Turner than most other people who’d been, up for this gig. So actually, that was pretty clever that she got the gig.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, but I’m tired of hearing Proud Mary I.

 

Louis Virtel Right? It’s so it’s so the down side of of these people where it’s like, you would think Tina Turner had two songs that that’s what you would that based on what the Grammys and what all these award shows do. Of course. Problem is a good song, but it’s also like a cover. It’s like not actually her signature thing either. You know, you could say the same thing about Respect and Aretha Franklin, I know. But anyway.

 

Ira Madison III It’s also from her era with Ike too. So yeah, how about something after that?

 

Louis Virtel Edit typical male come on from from the album break. Every rule wears that.

 

Ira Madison III It’s giving Prince when he died and we always had to hear when I was cry, you know, it was giving word when Madonna did that tribute and we were like, damn, couldn’t. She has sent a song that was in her range. Yeah. And actually, like fun and upbeat. And for this, when you talk about the popularity of Tina songs too, even in terms of the Grammys, Proud Mary is isn’t even the highest. Like, where was What’s Love Got to Do with right if we’re going with our highest one or typical male or, plantation with a murdered the best? Absolutely. Which I feel like has gotten a new sort of lease thanks to, it being, heavily featured in Schitt’s Creek, right. You know, like younger audiences know that. Or we don’t need another heros.

 

Louis Virtel Like a full medeley, a full medeley. Yeah, that would have been nice. Yeah. Give us something. Give us educate the people even a little bit.

 

Ira Madison III But it was nice to see her dancing with the the crowd. It’s always fun when someone interacts with the crowd. And her little shimmy with, Dua Lipa.

 

Louis Virtel That was a good moment for Dua Lipa. She rose to that moment and she’s like. And shimmying is of course like what she’s the yell at, right? It’s like, she can do that. Wow. And she did that with, Fantasia.

 

Ira Madison III I also want to say that I love, once again, Beyoncé being the celebrity celebrity that, Fred Caesar, when she, posted on Instagram the next day, she said, I didn’t even see you there, Beyonce. I was in the moment. Thank you so much, Quinn, for smiling at me. And I would love to grace the stage with you or recording side with you, so hit me up.

 

Louis Virtel Put it out there. Also, of course, Beyonce has given this Tina Turner tribute before, so, you might automatically think of her for this gig, but of course she has done Proud Mary once in a couple of times.

 

Ira Madison III She was in her best carnival barker look. Yeah, right. Just the still the white hair. She’s going for country now, which really does make me and everyone else obviously think that act two is going to be country theme.

 

Louis Virtel And by the way, there better be an act two.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, it better not be the shit that she always does, or I feel like she is definitely the kind of person who. But she is not Felix. I think she just scraps it.

 

Louis Virtel Right. No, I, I think she could have shunted a lot of us away. Who has? No. I have no idea what happened.

 

Ira Madison III But she’s dressed like so country lately that I feel like she is teasing it to us, you know, and not in an insane way. Because you know what? I also found out? The Swifters are saying that for a minute, Taylor’s website was down, and if you looked in the source code for it. Oh, God. It reveals, like, the album. And who is doing that also?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Meaning what? What? Like, okay, that’s really baffling. And two, it’s time for everybody to get employed. It’s time. It’s time to stop.

 

Ira Madison III We’re looking at website source codes. Okay. We grew up on swordfish. Right. Sorry, Holly. Barry.

 

Louis Virtel I barely saw the.

 

Ira Madison III Movie, okay?

 

Louis Virtel Let alone this. Not one of Jake Gyllenhaal is best.

 

Ira Madison III Speaking to Jake Gyllenhaal, I saw Roadhouse.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Oh, I forgot that came out.

 

Ira Madison III It’s coming out. But he is hot in it. It’s great. I really enjoyed it. It’s not can’t be like the original one, but it’s sexy and it’s good. And, I DM’d Jake Gyllenhaal yesterday and I said, come on, Keep It a he will not respond. No. Interesting. Yeah. Good technique.

 

Louis Virtel The only technique we have. Right.

 

Ira Madison III Well, he also goes to the theater a lot in New York. Next time I see him at a show, he will be getting attacked. Oh, you’re.

 

Louis Virtel Just running up to him like John Wilkes Booth style. Okay.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Watch out. Jake. Also, Maggie Gyllenhaal. Come on, Keep It. Fucking love Lost Daughter. Well, we’ll get into her some other time.

 

Ira Madison III Now we’re like Jay-Z. Yeah. Do better.

 

Louis Virtel Right.

 

Ira Madison III Gyllenhaals. By the way, when you were talking about people giving you coffee shop vocals. You know, not doing that sort of American Idol belting. What an amazing performance from Billie Eilish. Oh.

 

Louis Virtel You know what? I stand corrected. Somebody you do lean forward to hear. I will say, I’m always kind.

 

Ira Madison III Of like, love this song.

 

Louis Virtel I subscribe to her and I think she’s a rad celebrity. Seems very cool. And and nobody appreciates other musicians more. The vibe in the songs, I wonder if it’s, like, a little bit like jazz. Like I’m just not hearing all the intricacies of it. To me, her thing gets a little repetitive, but I do like the song. I don’t love the song. I like the song.

 

Ira Madison III I like the song quite a bit. I’m glad that you’re at least like it. And, even if you don’t love it, I think a lot of the ad time what was I made for it online is being a little performative, but I will say that what I like about this song is it was giving, it was giving pop more. It was giving. She was showing. I like it. So saying, yeah, girls like I got those vocals as if she was putting Renee Rapp on notice. I said, all right, girl, I got those vocals too. But yeah, I just I’m waiting for her to lean in full into that vibe and give us, like, give us a pop album.

 

Louis Virtel Right? That will be amazing because she can fucking do it. She is a great singer.

 

Ira Madison III She is a great singer. And Finneas is a great fucking producer. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel No, I call them the Asmr painters. The brother sister duo lost to sleep. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. So I mean that that moment, that moment was really just amazing to me. And I think she just always kills an award show performance, to be honest.

 

Louis Virtel And apparently what she was wearing, that green and pink ensemble was a throwback to the 1965. I’m not making this up poodle Parade Barbie my second time using exquisite this episode. Yes. Right.

 

Ira Madison III Now. I just want to see Billie Eillish walking a poodle now.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, sure. Let’s do that for an album cover or something. Also, nobody kills a photoshoot like her. She always makes interesting choices.

 

Ira Madison III Some other performances. Travis Scott, very satanic.

 

Louis Virtel That was also very. There was no vibe there. And right after the entire Joni. Incredibly overwhelming, moment, that performance, I felt like I needed an instruction manual, like so. Okay, we’re throwing chairs and moving right along. No idea what’s happening there.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Olivia Rodrigo, who I we love. This is this was fine.

 

Louis Virtel Vampire. Good song. Actually, a song that continues to grow on me. It is a really fun song. It she only went medium octane with the, like, carry bloodshed. And I think we needed a full Suspiria thing, you know?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, that would have actually killed, you know, it felt very like. Okay. You’re bleeding. Are you okay? Yeah. You need a band aid. Are you okay?

 

Louis Virtel Are you okay.

 

Ira Madison III Burna boy? I thought I loved Burna Boys. Look, but I don’t know. And I know it’s Burna Boy. I actually really like Butter Boy, but I feel like it’s a sort of vibe to just sort of like, be what we got on stage, but damn, could we have gotten a single give it up for Brandy Norwood? Like, I didn’t even know that was her at first.

 

Louis Virtel Also, she came right out and Carmen Sandiego was alive and well. She is not in Dora Salon today. She is not in Peking. She is here on stage. Brandy sounded fabulous. Also, brandy is just. Yeah, somebody you can safely call underrated. She has had several fabulous albums over the years. She had one like four years ago that we talked about on the show. But of course aphrodisiac is fabulous. Of course The Boy Is Mine is one of the great radio singles, I always argue. The rare song where the verses are even catchier than the chorus.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And he was underwhelming, I mean, in the performance. But I do love 21 Savage. His new album, American Dream, is kind of all I’ve been listening to all week. And, his joint album with Drake, her loss was maybe the best thing that Drake has done in recent years. Aside from, you know, slinging his dick around on that, private jet today.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, wait. What? I missed this.

 

Ira Madison III This leaked video on Twitter. So, it’s a good dick. Okay, well, he probably linked in himself, girl. After his video of work playing at a concert, and he’ll say, no, I don’t sing that song anymore. Y’all can sing it yourselves. And everyone dragging have or being like, okay, why are you being shady to Rihanna right now? He was probably like, let’s get the public back on my side.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, I see, and he’s like, I have a secret weapon.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. My Yankee candle.

 

Louis Virtel Okay.

 

Ira Madison III Well, I guess is Maple Candle is Canadian, is Mountie Canada.

 

Louis Virtel We’re going to go ahead and move this along.

 

Ira Madison III The last performance of the night was Billy Joel, and I didn’t care.

 

Louis Virtel He. I mean, I will say this about Billy Joel when he walks into a room. I mean, it’s it’s like the Empire State Building is there. I saw him perform in 2019, and it’s like you’re nothing could be more an institution in American music than Billy Joel. So it’s cool that he’s us and he’s very, like, appreciative of musicians. Like his vibe is his vibe is good. Yeah. The song, I mean, of course I’m tap it about it, but yeah.

 

Ira Madison III It was a great song. I mean, Fred Wexler, the man who kept showing up on screen, who produced it with him. Hot as hell.

 

Louis Virtel Good looking man.

 

Ira Madison III So thank you for introducing me to him. He also produced Kanye’s Wolves. So, I mean, they he escaped from, hell to be able to work with Billy Joel. So congrats to that. I was just like, we’re closing out the show with this. You know, we’re Twyla Tharp at.

 

Louis Virtel Speaking of moving on.

 

Ira Madison III Like, can we get some dance? Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. Dad said something like, it’s. It’s just always interesting to me when the show ends on that, on those moments, like a legacy moment like that, you would just rather get something upbeat.

 

Louis Virtel Right? When I think of the Grammys ending, I think of like, Dave Grohl, working with six other legends on the stage, and they’re all, like, banging guitars out, like, you go out on a high note, like you’re holding your ears.

 

Ira Madison III We also got a commercial for you too in the sphere and I really got to see that show.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Also by the way it’s not the sphere, it’s sphere which is such a strange marketing choice. Thus sphere sounds way better.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Okay. I’m going to keep calling the sphere.

 

Louis Virtel It does feel like they’re a little bit trapped there. I’ll, Twilight Zone episode stuck in a snow globe.

 

Ira Madison III Ultimately, the category is in the winds. Who really cares? You know, it’s about the fun speeches. And, you know, I will say that Victoria monet winning for Best New Artist was fucking rad. Yes, I loved her speech.

 

Louis Virtel A little long, but she was funny multiple times, which saved it.

 

Ira Madison III She was. Yeah. And a good story about how, you know, she’s bad. She’s 34, you know, and how like she’s been working in this industry since like 2009 or whatever, and has been grinding and working for other people. And she had this binder that was collecting dust at some other place. And, her manager was like, I’m going to go and work with you. That’s that reminds me of. Oh, God, who was it? Who was it? Katy Perry’s documentary. I think it was Katy Perry’s documentary. Was it like her? A woman who was working with her was talking about how she had, stolen, like, a binder or something out of the, record label and ran with it to go and work with her. Oh.

 

Louis Virtel Well, we we we love crimes when they’re necessary. Sure.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Otherwise, I don’t know. Flowers was a big one other than I. I’m actually kind of surprised that it didn’t win more at the end. But, the thing about the Grammys we can wrap up on is that a lot of the awards do not happen on camera. Yeah. And it’s like, I would have loved to see Fred again and Kylie Minogue on stage.

 

Louis Virtel Right. And it was a thrill that Kylie Minogue won. I mean, could anything be more demure and Australian winning your second Grammy and a career like that? It feels very polite that she would only win two Grammys. Padam Padam takes me instantly back to like, Fire Island and this past summer. It’s not my favorite song of hers, but it’s it’s just so nice that she had that kind of, like, kitsch moment in front of everybody, where we all got to reevaluate that. She is so consistent as a pop star. And when I saw her in Vegas a couple weeks ago, she sounds better than ever. She. I mean, it sounds so obvious. She’s she’s like Carly Rae Jepsen, but people that know her know all of her songs, like them all truly equally. And then she performs them and she sounds better than she does on the record.

 

Ira Madison III I got to see that too, then. And Mariah Carey announced a new Vegas thing, too. Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Which. I think I would go and see. I wonder if it would be different than the number one thing she did or whatever, like what her strategy would be. She’s somebody who is very interested in bringing underrated things out of her catalog, I think. So I feel like I hope she makes interesting choices here.

 

Ira Madison III She said I saw her holiday show in New York at Madison Square Garden, and there was a segment where she did a bunch of songs, throwback ones and some of the emancipation ones that she picked. And M’s equals MC squared one she picked two were unexpected. So she doesn’t love to throw out fun things for the fans.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. Well, of course she like, wrote all of them too. So if I had. Yeah, if I had an ego and I were Mariah Carey, I’d say, well, I wrote all this shit too. You better understand that. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Last comment to Miley Cyrus. Such a fucking song. I loved her moment when she said, don’t act like y’all don’t know the words to this song.

 

Louis Virtel The amount of comments she stuck into the song as she performed it. She was having such a fucking blast up there. The comment about I didn’t forget anybody, but I did forget my underwear. I mean, just like, come on.

 

Ira Madison III Well, you know, that was shade.

 

Louis Virtel To?

 

Ira Madison III Her father.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, I see, I see. Yes, yes, yes.

 

Ira Madison III There’s, there’s been, you know, like a split between the mom and the, like, I forget, like the whole drama of it, but she named everyone except for, Noah and her dad. That’s that. I don’t think I forgot anybody.

 

Louis Virtel Love that.

 

Ira Madison III Except my underwear. And then walked off stage.

 

Louis Virtel And also, by the way, shout out to the fact that she looked exactly like Jane Fonda in five different eras of her career on that stage. It was Barbarella. It was the China century.

 

Ira Madison III Coming Home.

 

Louis Virtel Coming Home. It’s accepting the Oscar for her father, Henry. It’s L’Oreal campaign from the 20 tens. It really was a retrospective of the greatness of Jane Fonda.

 

Ira Madison III Let’s get her at a movie again. Yeah, let’s get Miley in a movie again.

 

Louis Virtel How about the two of them? Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Jane Fonda after 84. Brady said she wouldn’t do any projects unless they were quality. Crazy. So let’s get them together. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Oh, they are. They’re sort of giving, like, the, Keke Palmer Angela Bassett vibe. They’re both sort of. You know what?

 

Louis Virtel Ding ding.

 

Ira Madison III Big, Big Business with all four of them. Remake.

 

Louis Virtel Nothing wrong with Big Business, but that that needs to be taught to the teens. You.

 

Ira Madison III Okay.

 

Louis Virtel You want to see little Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler not only playing twins, but wearing wild shoulder pads? Welcome to heaven.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Mothers and daughters mash up. Also, were you not afraid of what might fall out of Miley Cyrus purse when she opened it on stage? That it was dangling?

 

Louis Virtel Oh, yeah. Because, you know, she’s a rowdy girl.

 

Ira Madison III I was like, what’s up in there? Yeah. Just bottles of Fireball fall out. And last comment about the Grammys. We talked about Celine Dion and Taylor, but Celine Dion looked fucking amazing. La Roche came out of, quote unquote, retirement. I feel like we La Roche’s work so much for someone who’s allegedly retired. He’s Cher, but he’s always sort of comeback tour. But she looked great. The bob. Oh, please. Nothing wrong with a Bob.

 

Louis Virtel Margot Tenenbaum, that was.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel It was looking sharp. As in, like.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Ow, I hurt myself.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. But let’s segue from that French royalty into Juliette Binoche. We will be right back to talk to this living icon.

 

[AD]

 

Ira Madison III We are honored to have this guest here today. She is a renowned actress the world over. Who who’s worked with the legendary auteurs like John Godard, Andre Tracy and Claire Tierney, Olivier Assayas and Christophe Kieslowski, among others. American audiences know her from her classic films like Chocolate and The English Patient, affectionately known as La Binoche in her home country of France. We are so lucky she is back on our screens in the incredible, vulnerable new film The Taste of Things. Please welcome to Keep It the magnificent Juliette Binoche.

 

Juliette Binoche What a presentation.

 

Louis Virtel This movie is exquisite as this is the only word to describe this movie, but I could not believe watching all the intricate camera choreography in this movie, all the amazing glimpses of the food, all the amazing acting that you only had a day of rehearsal before actually shooting this movie. And then I thought, is that something you actually prefer going into a movie with no rehearsal?

 

Juliette Binoche Yes, but before that, we had some videos where we could see how the cook, you know, how the chef was preparing everything. So memory wise, we had it in well, I had it in me. And after that it was just a matter of organizing and who was doing what. And we had the right hand of the chef who was there to help us, you know, direct whether, you know, the some of the gestures were not right. And we had to also, follow the the rhythm that the camera was, you know, looking at things and traveling as well, because it was mostly like a big brush, you know, going around. And so we had to, to organize it the, the day before shooting, how, who was doing what and the pace of it all.

 

Ira Madison III I don’t think I’ve seen such intricate cooking and food displayed like this on screen. Maybe said something like Babette’s Feast, which also show the making of a French dinner. Just want to know, what is your relationship with French food like? Was this where you coming in watching these videos being like, I absolutely have no idea how food is prepared this way, or were you familiar with it just over the years of living in France?

 

Juliette Binoche Well, as a mother, I’ve been cooking and and, you know, in France, and we cook because it’s part of our way of living. I’m not intimidated in front of veggies and stop, you know, and and so I just put my hands into it, and it’s part of what it is. And, and as actors, you know, you’ve got to throw yourself into it. And in cooking you do something before and you do something after. And you know, there’s a chronology you’ve got to respect. And that makes at the end of it, you know, a whole kind of amazing dish because, you know, the, what comes after what you know, it’s really about that cooking, exquisite cooking. I that’s, you know, how I took it anyway. And I had a wonderful person telling me, you know, do it more like this or like that, and that’s easy. You just following the steps of, the person who’s helping you. I would cook like that every day for sure, because it would take too much time. And I love cooking. I love eating, but not that I’m not passionate enough to spend as much time on.

 

Louis Virtel One of my favorite things about this movie is just watching you react to the food you’re eating. And how much of that is your genuine reaction, and how much of that is you having to add something that you’re not experiencing? As you taste the food.

 

Juliette Binoche You know it blends together as an actor. You don’t know what you know. You you’re being real and truthful to the moment and what’s in you. You know the story. But I think if I remember well, because of course I forgot almost everything. But, if I remember well, I, I did genuinely react to what I was feeling because the food was amazing and whom the director really wanted us to have the experience of exquisite cuisine. So that was the challenge of the First lady and the director and everybody, and the right hand of the chef, to prepare it just in time. So it was coming in the right temperature and also good food. You know, you eat it just after it’s been cooked. You don’t wait for hours, you know, before eating it, if you see what I’m saying.

 

Ira Madison III I recently had the chance to see you again on a big screen Friday in New York. They were showing your film Let the Sunshine In by Claire to me, and I just wanted to ask you a bit about what it’s like working with particularly French directors, what sort of sensibility you think that happens on set or in the. Direction of it that’s different from American productions.

 

Juliette Binoche I think the expectations are probably a little different, I would say, because maybe in America, in the US, there’s a sense of, the results, you know, of making having success and making money. It still exists in, I would say, in Europe and in France, but it’s not the expectation. I think the quality of films counts more in a way to start with, because I think that’s the way we are trained in our minds, something like that. I don’t think when Claire Denny is working, she’s thinking, is it going to have success? She doesn’t care. And me, as an actress, I feel the same. I’m more into the moment. In the present moment? What? What? To try and find a truthful way of telling the story. Which is true as well, of course, in America. But I think there’s behind it. There’s the need of of money is probably because you don’t have the help we have in France money wise with the productions. You know, there’s, there’s a whole system that cinema is being supported by the government. There’s money for few films, you know, a year to, get going. So there’s some help. And I think because in America, you don’t have help, if your film doesn’t make any money, you cannot do another film, as in France. We don’t have that, because if it’s quality in the film, you will be helped.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I mean, I even think of three colors, which you start in the three colors, blue being specifically a commission for France and about what France stands for. And I feel like that is just so different from what we would expect a film to be made for in America.

 

Juliette Binoche I don’t know if it was a commission. Maybe I don’t understand that term, but it was just, the producer man coming to wanted to have his stuff, working with his stuff, and he wrote three scripts and it happened. But it was the idea of Christophe Ski. It was not, you know, sort of an idea to put France to work on it, on a pedestal at all. It was just, three stories and, yeah. And because he wanted to work in France, and I remember when we were working, it just wanted to do just one take for each shot. I was asking to do another take because I wanted to explore it. And also I wanted to, make it better. And I had to bargain with him every single time because he was ready to do another take when there was a technical problem. But and I asked him, why? Why don’t you want to do another take? I don’t understand, he said, well, because in Poland I only did one take because film is expensive, you don’t do a second take. And also on the editing room, it’s easier because you have only one choice, I think. But you’re in France, you can do many takes. And so we we laughed about it. As you you are laughing now and in order to, you know. But I had to fight a little bit.

 

Louis Virtel I have to bring up the fact that in this movie, The Taste of Things. Your main costar is your ex partner, Benoit Magomedov, and you have, child together. And I didn’t realize until I saw the screening in your Q&A afterwards last week that you had sort of spoken over the past couple of decades, but not really. I cannot think of another situation where actors have reunited in that way on the silver screen. I, like none, are coming to mind. What was that filming experience like? Was it at all? I don’t know, healing. I don’t know what the word would for that would be.

 

Juliette Binoche I really took it as a gift because we could express emotions through someone else’s words. And it felt wonderful to, to not being stuck, you know, in not seeing each other or not speaking to each other to be able to go into a movement of expressing, you know, through, medium, you know, the art of cinema and, and being able to be next to him and, and tell a story, a beautiful story. And on a certain level, it was healing, but it was mostly healing for a daughter. And that was, for me, very important to make it happen. But it’s like giving this gift to us, you know, was beyond expectation. It’s beyond I never thought I was going to work with Benoit again. So it was a great present.

 

Ira Madison III And you’ve had the gift of so many brilliant costars that you’ve acted opposite of so many brilliant directors. What would you say have been some of the best acting gifts that you’ve learned or picked up in your time from your first film to where you are? Now. Like, has your process changed? Has it stayed the same through each film, or do you just sort of switch it up depending on what kind of project it is?

 

Juliette Binoche Well, you asked so many questions in one piece. And it would take a little more time than that. And then what we have, you know, to answer that and I would have to think about it.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Juliette Binoche I have to say I never prepared the same way. Because, it’s my way to deal with it because it keeps it alive and I don’t anticipate it knowing how much I’m going to prepare. I just my needs are coming real to me. Just when, okay. I’m going to be shooting whether it’s two weeks or whether it’s three months or whether it’s a year. So depending on the, you know, the time I have before shooting on this one, I didn’t prepare because, well, for two reasons. Because I knew Benoit and we’ve been cooking together before in our lives. And also I did some parents films before, so it was not like a new thing. And also cooking. I’ve been cooking my whole life, so it felt like I’ve got to go into it, you know, thinking that it was going to happen. And I think for this film, what I chose to do is to retrieve, to go away in a way, to let things happen by themselves. Confronting Benoit, confronting the making of food, confronting one’s expectations. And so for me, it was more like letting it open, letting it be. Let it be what it is without being willful or thinking too much. Or, you know, I wanted to be alive. And it’s so magical. We’ve got amazing. And if it makes any sense to you. Also because before starting this film, I was preparing Chanel. So this is a TV show I did afterwards, and it was a lot of work for me to do because their energy is very specific. And, also I had a lot of books to read because so many books has been written on my life, and I was studying to shoot the TV show for seven months a month before. So I just finished The Taste of Things, and then I a month after, I was studying the Chanel TV show, and it was like such, such a, difficult thing to do for me. Then I thought, okay, it’s almost the same period of time, but it’s totally different, you know, it’s a different take on everything, you know, the ocean. I’m playing the taste of things. This is serenity that goes with it. Yet this death that goes with it, there’s this long lasting relationship. So the layers, very kind of peaceful in a way, even though death is coming. But then the need of giving life, the need of excelling of what she does, which is cooking, becomes stronger in a way. So it was not simple, but it was clear in my mind. So I just wanted to let it happen in the jump of not knowing which I love as actors, because it’s always should be like that, that you don’t know what’s going to happen. As Chanel, it was a long train, you know, trip for seven months, shooting and, you know, having the script that there were coming one after the other. So I’d never really been on this kind of, roller coaster of shooting.

 

Louis Virtel I was just rewatching Clouds of Sils Maria, which, if people haven’t seen, is. But Juliette Binoche and, Kristen Stewart and Chloe Grace Moretz, and that’s one of the few movies I’ve ever seen where I kind of got the sense, and this may be artificial, that I was getting a glimpse inside the mind of what it’s like to be an actor. And I watching that back. Was there anything vulnerable about playing an actress? Because you’re the kind of person we want to play an actress because there’s such depth there. We just want to understand it.

 

Juliette Binoche Right? I thought I was playing an actress who had ego issues. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Juliette Binoche Yeah, it was. Quite fried. There is a price to deal with. And so. So that was fun. It made it, a little more twist to the comedy feeling, which was, you know, that we didn’t discuss that with Olivia, but I thought it was. The ego is so expanded in a way. You know, the narcissism can be really in a, in a very, dangerous place, if I may say. So it was fun just to encounter this. Big questions with the H coming and, you know, the assistant coming to life and and being a mirror to her own life. So it was fun to play. It was fun to be also, working with Kristen and Chloe very much.

 

Ira Madison III I would have to say one of my favorite roles of yours. I just finally saw the film rendezvous, but it’s such a wild character and film too. And I was just revisiting some of your earlier work too, like the characters that you were playing. How do you feel looking back at these roles now, and is that something that you feel like you would still like to experiment with, or are you happy that some of those wilder roles in your past and you’re happy to leave them there?

 

Juliette Binoche Wow, that was like 40 years ago.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Juliette Binoche And, it was my first chance, you know, and I, I just jump into it. Well, first of all, because Andre Chanel at the time was like the director and he was working with young actors and revealing a lot of young actors. And so I jumped into it at the same time. It was rough because there were a lot of nude scenes, you know, and, and but when I saw the film again, none of that long time ago, it was rough. There was something that was not mature yet, of course, because I was so young. But, I wish I could replay that.

 

Ira Madison III So you would replay?

 

Juliette Binoche No, I wouldn’t, it’s done. I wouldn’t go back.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. So you’re like your clouds. Salisbury, a character like you don’t. You wouldn’t want to replay a role or do something at a stage show that you’ve done before.

 

Juliette Binoche No, because first of all, the years of the 20s in my life have been the most difficult ones. And so you didn’t want to go back to learning what it feels like to, be, you know, abandoned and or what it feels like to feel jealousy or what it feels like. Not that you don’t feel that afterwards, but the first times are bigger then afterwards. So the separation. So falling in love and feeling betrayed and all that stuff. It’s so hard. And you’ve got to learn the lessons, you know, you’ve got to learn what it feels like in order to change and change your values in a way. And. And so acting wise, it’s the same. It’s you learning. You know, I’ve been miserable and damage. I’ve been miserable and dismal. Life lovers on the bridge was very rough to do. Those years have been, you know, trying to survive, trying to evolve and, you know, our lives and seeing the consequences of lying and all this stuff. You learning, like playing the piano of all the notes as a human being. And so when you. Come out of this a little bit. It feels so freeing. And so no way I’m going back to that. That glue of emotions.

 

Louis Virtel That you just brought up damage, which is literally my favorite erotic thriller of all time. I think the acting is amazing, but you as people can’t see you right now. You you just reacted with but looks like horror to me.

 

Juliette Binoche I know it’s rough.

 

Louis Virtel Why?

 

Juliette Binoche You went through the films, but you didn’t read my interviews at the time.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, God.

 

Juliette Binoche Well. It was hard to play with Jeremy Irons, but I’ve said that many times, probably too many times, and I want to turn the page now and it’s already turned, you know, because I, we spoke with Jeremy, but. Probably. I was horrible to him, you know. Any other way round, I don’t know. But for me, it was very hard to work with him. And Louis Malle, who was the director of the film, was very oblivious to what was going on. And so, he was going through heart issues and health issues. And so I was just disappointed. But I couldn’t blame him. But I felt very much by myself. No. Rupert Graves, the actor who’s playing my son of Jeremy, was just wonderful to work with, and thank God he was around and we could, you know, laugh and enjoy the work. Not that many times I’ve been through that kind of, nightmare, so. But it’s true, that sometimes it happens and you’ve got to learn how to still be on the work and still, you know, carry on and and love doing what you doing. Yeah. Because it’s an interesting situation being an actor. You because it’s you’ve got to use your being. You’ve got to use your ego. You’ve got to use everything you have and possibly as a human being, and yet you’ve got to give yourself in a place that has no ego. You’ve got to give your soul.

 

Louis Virtel That really makes me think of Miranda Richardson speech in that movie a lot differently, though, when she’s, like, excoriating him. I’m like, oh, okay, maybe that comes from a genuine place. Who knows? Okay.

 

Juliette Binoche No, you you’ve got to give your soul. You’ve got to give your your your being, your body. You know what it needs to be given. But yet being conscious that it doesn’t being taken into place, that it would be not for the film. You really needed to have the sense you need to use your intuition so strongly because you need to be respected, but you’ve got to give yourself entirely. That’s that. That’s the equilibrium that is difficult to, to find.

 

Ira Madison III On the opposite end of that spectrum. Ben, is there any scene partner that you would say that you’ve worked with? Where do you feel like that is truly one of the best working relationships you’ve been able to have on a film? Like you remember it very fondly.

 

Juliette Binoche I would say apart from two, actors who were very difficult to work with, and I named one most of the time, I really enjoyed working with the actors and actresses. I’ve been, you know, bumping into in films. I’ve, it’s been it’s been mostly the love of sharing because it’s really about that. You know, throwing yourself into the moment of sharing even though they’re you playing conflicts, you know, it’s the trust you’ve got to give each other and the love you’ve got to share because it’s all about, you know, giving to the world, giving to the audience, giving to a hint of awareness of the evolution, of giving emotions so people can feel linking different layers of yourself so people can take this in their lives, in their soul, in their heads, in their, you know, hearts. It’s really, why are you doing it? Because if it’s only, egotistical reasons, it doesn’t go fine. It’s not worth it.

 

Ira Madison III We were nominated for a Tony for one of my favorite plays, Betrayal by Harold Pinter. What is your relationship like to acting when you are performing for people every night on stage, as opposed to just doing it on a film set?

 

Juliette Binoche You know what’s great about acting is good luck. It’s like wine, you know, it needs. In my opinion, years are helping you to go deeper and deeper. And, when you hear Glenn Gould, you know, playing Bach at the beginning of his life and towards the end, it’s really he would play the same things, but totally differently. And it really tells you how much of maturity you need. And I think for theater, it’s even stronger in that way, because it’s not only you giving to the audience, you receiving from the audience, and the dialog that is happening in silence somehow is really the moment. Because I think in the present, in sort of the present, and theater is about present being present in the same at the same moment together. There’s a transmission of something magical that but that’s within this silence. So it’s not only the acting, performing and showing off, you know, what he wants to do and what he wants to show. For me, theater is not that it’s about, something that’s going to happen together, and it’s within this silence of, okay, we listen to something different, and I think the audience is creating the show as well, if you know what I’m.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Juliette Binoche In the cinema, you cannot have that, because you can have that with the DP, with the crew, with, you know, with the director, because it’s happening in that moment, you know, and it’s being filmed in the theater is the present time. It’s a different view. And so there’s something that is so intoxicating because of that co-creation that that, you know, together in that present moment. I think acting is really the art of present, or any art should be the art of present. What does it mean to be really present in the moment? That’s for me. That’s the real question.

 

Louis Virtel Before we sign off, I just want to say you winning an Oscar does not begin to scratch the surface of your talent, but your speech you gave where you acknowledged Lauren Bacall, who at that time was like, considered a frontrunner to win. I thought it was just one of the classiest moments ever at the Oscars. And it’s like, it’s cool to watch that speech back. And by the way, if people haven’t watched The English Patient recently, you I mean, it’s just a scintillating performance. So congrats on that whole era of your life.

 

Juliette Binoche That’s kind. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was going to give it to her because it’s also you thinking about, you know, those actresses or actors who have been working their whole lives, you want to give a special prize to them, you know, and because I do, I couldn’t see her. She didn’t raise her arm. So I thought, okay, then, okay, that that’s what I mean. That’s, you know, that’s what I was thinking in me. I wish the okay, okay, then I’ll Keep It then. But it’s, at the end, she came to me and she said, well, you stole my prize. And I said to her, you didn’t want it.

 

Ira Madison III And thank you so much for being here, Juliet. It’s always just a pleasure to watch you on the screen. But it was a pleasure talking to you today.

 

Juliette Binoche Yeah, I’m happy to. Thank you very much for having me.

 

Ira Madison III And The Taste of Things is out this weekend, so make sure you go and see it. When we are back, Keep It. Okay, we are back with our favorite segment of the episode. Keep It. Louis. What’s yours?

 

Louis Virtel Okay, so as I brought up earlier, there’s this new Netflix documentary called The Greatest Night in Pop, which is about how Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones put together We Are The World. Which as a song, I’ll say it’s in the A minus B plus range. You do have to like, gulp a little bit while singing some of these lyrics, but it is an incredibly catchy song, and it’s of course in the tradition of, you know, Band Aid. Do they know it’s Christmas? Talk about another song where if you look at the lyrics, you’re like, oops, embarrassing, oops. We need to not be talking about people in Africa this way. Moving on.

 

Ira Madison III Do they know it’s Christmas calendars?

 

Louis Virtel Right? It’s. It’s a crazy song. It’s a crazy song. But anyway, like a lot of these documentaries that are coming out on streaming recently, you know, the Bee Gees documentary, The one on Donna Summer, etc., it is just toasting these people. Like it’s not really critical. You’re not getting the sense of like, this is going to be winning an Oscar or anything like that. That said, it is so much fun to watch this come together. People agree to the concert. They’re they’re going there after The Amaz! So there’s this trickling of people from one ceremony to another. You watch is like time is going by and people are getting restless and they order chicken and waffles for everybody to eat. So there’s there’s a lot of, fun, like, anecdotes about being there. And by the way, Lionel Richie, who I guess has just been 51 his entire life and remains 51. It’s crazy to see him just standing there being the same, sounding the same, the richness of his voice. It’s not.

 

Ira Madison III He looks so good at the Grammys.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, he looked amazing. That said, watching this documentary, they did not address a number of things that I’m that I find problematic. And those three things are, number one, you’re telling me you got Bruce Springsteen to do a talking head for this documentary and you couldn’t find Kim Carnes? Where is she? Where is Kim Carnes? It’s been a million years since we’ve seen this woman. The Grammy winner for Betty Davis Eyes, former new Christy Minstrel with Kenny Rogers, also part of, We Are The World. Where was he to? No explanation for the fact that Dan Aykroyd is just in the background of We Have the World. We just don’t know why he’s there. They don’t bring it up. I guess it’s awkward for everybody. I have no idea. But of course, this was 1984, 1985, where he’s like one of the biggest stars in the world. But speak to that moment. I want to know why he’s there. And lastly, they have all this awesome footage of Michael preparing for We Are The World and like, doing a couple of takes and talking to the engineers. It’s really cool and shocking to see. And of course, he’s in an Imperial thriller mode, so he looks like the very picture of the biggest celebrity of all time. And you’re not going to address that. LaToya is in the room. How did this happen? You got to explain how LaToya got there and also what she contributed to the record, because I’m not really hearing it on the record, you know what I’m saying?

 

Ira Madison III Does he have a talking head?

 

Louis Virtel No, she’s not there.

 

Ira Madison III You know what. She she’s still in Mr. Trump’s office. Yeah. Trying to win the Apprentice right. Hahaha. Looking like Casper the Ghost.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Right. What an amazing season of television.

 

Ira Madison III She called her cast for the guest.

 

Louis Virtel Oh my god. Also, I will say the one moment of self-critical reflection that occurs in the movie as Sheila E is does an interview and she talks about how they got her in the studio, and then she felt like they were using her to get the prince, who of course never shows up. But I just want to say about Sheila E, not that she needs this encouragement for me or anybody. At the AMA’s right beforehand she gives a performance that is so legendarily electrifying. Please look up this performance. What I mean there is no second one of Sheila E I know I give that compliment all the time. The drumming, the stage presence, the stage where the she’s a virtuoso. There’s there’s a reason Prince was obsessed with her. There’s a reason.

 

Ira Madison III There’s a reason Bruce Springsteen named his band after her.

 

Louis Virtel The. And the Sheila E band. That’s right. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III They lived on her street.

 

Louis Virtel Those are Sheila’s boys. That’s really all I have to say. I found it really entertaining. 90 minutes, gets you acquainted with the fact that When We Are The World premiered, it was on every radio station in the world at the same time. So you would turn it on and then turn to another radio station. You know, it’s like War of the worlds or something. It took over. So we have not had a moment like that since Total Monoculture.

 

Ira Madison III But did they have the radio in Africa?

 

Louis Virtel They brought their first radio.

 

Ira Madison III What do they know? We Are The World is playing in Africa.

 

Louis Virtel That would be a great follow up single. Do they know We Are The World is playing?

 

Ira Madison III Okay, I have I actually have two Keep Its to be honest. One’s a short one.

 

Louis Virtel All right.

 

Ira Madison III One is a very Louis coded.

 

Louis Virtel Okay.

 

Ira Madison III So I just discovered Connections on the New York Times.

 

Louis Virtel This is a game involving four sets of words. There’s 16 terms on a grid, and it’s your job to group them in terms of connected groups of four. And sometimes there’ll be five things that fit in a group, but only one that fits in another group. So anyway, it’s a word game that you sort out.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I like it. I feel like I want more from it. That’s just the the four groups of words that you’re figuring out. I’m playing it. And then it’s either okay I haven’t figured this out. And then it’s like okay the game is over or it’s I want another way to be communal with the friends and figure out, like who’s playing it with me or something.

 

Louis Virtel Maybe you can compete with your friends at the same time and see if we can get it fastest or something.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I did it at dinner once. But, you know, it’s it’s, I don’t know, I like the game. I kind of want just more versions of it, to be honest. It’s not a real key. But I like the game. I just want more of it. But I feel like you have thoughts about it as a game person.

 

Louis Virtel Well, I mean, there’s a controversy around Connections because the game show I constantly talk about from England, Only Connect, which is the game show where you have to figure out, but for seemingly unrelated things have in common, and you and two teammates sit there and try to solve it on camera. The second round of the game or the third round of the game is Connections. They stand in front of a wall with 16 terms, and have to divide them into four connected groups. It is fair to say the New York Times basically just stole it. As in the font is the same, the look of the bubbles is the same. And in fact, the host of the show, Victoria Coren Mitchell, messaged the New York Times and said, are you aware this has been on television for 15 straight years?

 

Ira Madison III Oh, okay. The the lying New York Times.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, right. It is very jarring. I mean, like as all only connect fans, but it’s it’s not mistaken if you if you have ever seen the show, you know, this is exactly how this goes. I think the New York Times responded with something like, well, you know, there’s no patent on grouping things together or whatever. It’s like, yeah, but it’s the same game down to once you’re down to two groups, you only get three chances to figure it out, like it’s the same thing.

 

Ira Madison III The Gray Lady sounds like the shady lady.

 

Louis Virtel What’s your other Keep It.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. My other Keep It. Is Bravo related?

 

Louis Virtel Okay.

 

Ira Madison III You. So. Yes. Well, actually a little bit, related to you. You know who I’m about to talk about?

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Kandi Burruss is exiting The Real Housewives of Atlanta after 14 fucking seasons.

 

Louis Virtel Jesus Christ on the show.

 

Ira Madison III Basically, what’s happened is last season wasn’t great. It’d been like a couple sort of iffy seasons, but last season was just sort of like a bad season of the show. The show is going to be rebooted. Andy Cohen has promised that it’s going to be a stellar cast. It’s rumored to be led by Kenya Moore and Porsha Williams, who has been on this show. Before I interviewed her. They’re going to be leading this new era, probably with a largely new cast of women. My Keep It, however, goes to people who have been pretending like Kandi didn’t contribute much to the show because in the last few seasons, definitely post Phaedra leaving and season ten. Kandi sort of been this elder stateswoman. You know, she’s not really contributing a lot to the drama, but she’s been a person who’s there and grounds the show. This has been a lot of people pretending like Kandi was boring. Kandi wasn’t offering a lot to the show, and I’m like, Kandi absolutely was The Real Housewives of Atlanta in the same way that Nini was? You know, there aren’t a lot of one liners that you’re throwing out from Kandi, but she definitely had fun, dramatic moments in season two. When she was on the show, she was dating someone named AJ. He died before the reunion.

 

Louis Virtel Even I knew was killed.

 

Ira Madison III Yes, yes, he was killed before the reunion and she still went through with that reunion. Why put her whole life out there for people to consume it? She fell in love on the show. Her current husband, Todd, used to work for the production company that was making Real Housewives of Atlanta, so we got to see their love story blossoms. Mama joyous has always been a staple of the show. She’s had spin offs. She’s never backed away from drama on the show. She’s had a lot of iconic, funny moments with Nini. We see each other fire fighting with Marlo when Marlo was always coming for how she makes her money, and being a sugar mama to her man, Todd. I just think that Kandi Burruss has been an icon before Real Housewives of Atlanta, but also she helped make that show what it was. And I think that, you know, people should put more respect on Kandi Burruss as name.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, and ASCAP Songwriter of the Year winner, please. There should be different versions of respect on her name. Come on now.

 

Ira Madison III She also is the reason why we have that goofy thing. Housewives trying to make singles.

 

Louis Virtel Tardy for the. Party.

 

Ira Madison III She did Tardy for the Party.

 

Louis Virtel Party. Yes. Yeah. Come on. Genius. Well, unfortunately, you said the magic word, Phaedra, and now we have to talk about The Traitors.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. Not my burger licious, but hahahahahahaha! Not my burger licious. She has a quote every week that I am obsessed with.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, also. So she really Dan Kiesling, who is a Big Brother legend. He was one of the traitors this season. That he, attempted to turn on the traitors once the heat was on him, and he tries to get Phaedra out. And Phaedra, you are very aware in that moment, is an attorney and turns ItrillionIGHT back on him and he is absolutely decimated. It needs to be said about this show, though. It is still not a brilliant reality show. Like watching the good people, the faithfuls, to have to suss out the so-called traitors. They just still have nothing to go off of, I don’t think. And like the whole business of once one trader is out, then it’s likely that the traders will recruit another one. And it’s just like that’s there’s no dramatic tension there. For me. I feel like there needs to be firm sides and also firm tasks for the traders to do and for the faithful to do. I think that it just needs to be more like the mole to be a better show. I love the casting and the casting is great, and I love seeing a reality TV show staple, so it’s cool to watch her and her like suspicious Jessica Biel looks.

 

Ira Madison III Squinting like Mr. Magoo.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, right.

 

Ira Madison III Every. I will say that that is always sort of been, even with there’s been amazing seasons of the show, I think I just the second season of the UK version just wrapped and it was amazing.

 

Louis Virtel And I hear Australia is amazing, so I want to get into that.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. But there’s still the basic problem that it’s so slanted for the traders and it feels like hard as a faithful. And when you’re killed and picked off in a way that just feels sort of random and at the whim of the traders, it’s it feels like it’s not evenly balanced. It’s not like a. Yeah. No. And what I like about the mole is that, you’re doing a quiz at least each week of, like, who you think the mole is. And if they stole that or some version of that, I think that there should be some sort of element where.

 

Louis Virtel Merit is a part of why you eliminate it.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. If you are in the bottom of people who sort of doubt know who a traitor is, then you’re eligible to be murdered. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel I think it’s just it’s way more of a game that you would play at a party than should be televised. That’s just what I think about the game. It would be fun to play it.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, absolutely. The same way. Like a bodies, bodies, bodies or like werewolf. These are games that we already play with our friends. Yeah, but if you filmed yourselves playing bodies, bodies, bodies, where’s the tension in that.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. No there’s not there’s not a bit of a concern for me. I will continue watching. I will continue watching. But I would, of course.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, the celebrities are delivering. All right. That is our show this week. Shout out to the fucking Grammys for actually giving us something to fucking talk about this week.

 

Louis Virtel Definitely. And thank you to Juliette Binoche for even acknowledging us as human beings. It’s really above and beyond, very shocking. A thrilling moment for both of us to talk to her.

 

Ira Madison III 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 and our associate producer is Malcolm Whitfield. Our executive producers are Ira Madison, the third, Louis Virtel, and Kendra James. Our digital team is Megan Patsel, Claudia Shang, and Rachel Gaewski. 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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