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This week, Louis is joined by Smith Sisters Live co-host Mariah Smith to discuss the VMAs, Sabrina Carpenter’s new album Man’s Best Friend, Lady Gaga’s new music, Justin Bieber’s Swag II, the Wuthering Heights teaser, and Hollywood’s most legendary celebrity families. They’re also joined by writer/director Nicholas Stoller to discuss season 2 of the AppleTV+ comedy Platonic.

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TRANSCRIPT

Louis Virtel [AD].

 

Louis Virtel And we’re back with an all-new episode of Keep It. I’m Louis Virtel, and oh my God, the Heights are Wuthering. Look it up in the dictionary. Not sure what it means, but they are. Trust me on that. But more exciting, today’s cohost is the fabulous Mariah Smith, cohost of Smith Sisters Live on SiriusXM. Yes. The funny just pops off with this woman.

 

Mariah Smith Oh, God, God. It pops off with you.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, thank you.

 

Mariah Smith Stop flattering me. I’m a blush.

 

Louis Virtel I just want to say, is hosting a SiriusXM show like the most, like you’re put through your paces immediately, like, you learn everything about the biz as soon as you’re doing it. Because how many hours of material have you actually recorded at this point, like millions?

 

Mariah Smith I would say we’re hitting that 10,000 hour mark, and Malcolm Gladwell will be very proud of us. Like, we are… Because we’re daily now, and we just talk.

 

Louis Virtel Right. No, it’s like old school, like radio people, you know, like Betty White once upon a time. I think she said she would record up to four hours a day of radio. It’s like, oh, no wonder you’re like a entertainment legend.

 

Mariah Smith Because you just know how to talk. I’m like, it’s a shock that they let me on the air live as my sisters will always attest to. I co-host the show with my sisters and it does help me censor myself and also just not care what I say or what anyone thinks at all.

 

Louis Virtel You can kind of trust that you won’t say the most profane thing while also actually expressing yourself.

 

Mariah Smith Right, because people don’t like it or they don’t hate it and I don’t care.

 

Louis Virtel Now, do you really jam with your sisters that well? I have three brothers and I enjoy them, but I mean, can I talk to them for hours? Who knows? Where do you fall in the line up? I’m second oldest.

 

Mariah Smith Okay, and what are your differences?

 

Louis Virtel I’m, my older brother’s two years younger than me and my younger brothers are two and two more years. Okay. Yeah.

 

Mariah Smith Okay, so my sisters and I are all two and a half years apart and we are best friends. We get along almost too well as my therapist would say. We’re all in each other’s business at any given moment talking to them all day. We’ll be on FaceTime and our mom is like, are you guys practicing for the show? And we’re like, no, we’re just having a conversation. Just having a conversion, that’s just it. So we’re truly best friends and we’ve all always worked together on different things before we even started the radio show.

 

Louis Virtel And yet, you still gel. I mean, God or the devil’s on your side. I don’t know what’s happening here. Listen, maybe both. Okay. Maybe both. Now, speaking of haunted things, the trailer for Wuthering Heights is out, the new Emerald Fennell joint, who was recently on Keep It. Very funny woman. She also directed Saltburn and won the Oscar for writing, promising young woman in directing it. She was also a Best Director nominee. Here, she’s back and she appears to be horned.

 

Mariah Smith I mean, let me tell you something. I never watched Euphoria. I’ve seen this Jacob Elordi out in the streets. I, you know, I’m always-

 

Louis Virtel Well, he’s taller than the trees, so you can’t avoid him. So you can’t avoid him.

 

Mariah Smith When he walked through that little door, I said, now wait a second. What? I’m looking. When I saw his little arms popping out, he was cleaning something up or doing something hunched over. I said I’m Looking. All right? I might have to be weathering those heights and I don’t like seeing movies.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Oh, you’re anti-movie.

 

Mariah Smith I’m not anti-movie, I’m sort of anti-prestige. I’m no one to be like, I gotta hit the theaters. I am not an AMC Stubbs member. I’m one of the few in entertainment and TV writing that isn’t like this nice little thing popped out. I watch Hallmark movies, X-Men, reality TV, and SVU.

 

Louis Virtel Wow, Mariah, you came here to fight.

 

Mariah Smith I did it, I did, I’m ready.

 

Louis Virtel I can dial into a Hallmark movie every once in a while, especially since now they’re in this business of once every nine times we’re gay.

 

Mariah Smith They’re trying, they’re trying but it’s always the same crop of gay people.

 

Louis Virtel Right. It’s Aaron Samuels from Mean Girls every time.

 

Mariah Smith But it’s sort of equality because it is the same crop of straight people every film as well.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, sure. Lacey Chabert’s still like, God damn it, Christmas is back.

 

Mariah Smith Those people, I’m shocked they don’t have citizenship in Canada, because they are always there filming.

 

Louis Virtel Okay, yes, you’re right. This trailer, uh, deeply smoldering. I have to say, well, Allordering, moving on. Jacob Allordy, I actually stan because he was in, uh, the movie Priscilla where he played Elvis Presley.

 

Mariah Smith I forgot he was one of our elvises during that era!

 

Louis Virtel Yes, when we had multiple ones, yeah. And he was great in that movie. And I didn’t care for the actual Elvis movie we got with Austin Butler. Because I find… I heard it was too long. It was too much, like everything Baz Luhrmann does, a pop-up book.

 

Mariah Smith Yeah, that is the best way to describe it.

 

Louis Virtel Too many images.

 

Mariah Smith It’s almost like if you’re in a haunted house and it’s like what’s coming around the corner like it’s very much a fun house I of sorts. Right

 

Louis Virtel Right, yes, but also like you know the way the kids got the seizures from the Pokemon stuff. That’s how I feel about his movies

 

Mariah Smith It needs a warning.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, precisely. And then we also have Margot Robbie, who I do believe is kind of capable of doing everything in an Emma Stone way.

 

Mariah Smith Emma Stoneway? I do. And I think people, and I don’t want this to come off the wrong way, but as I mentioned earlier, I don’t care. I think that people think Sidney Sweeney is on the Margot Robbie track when that could not be further from the truth.

 

Louis Virtel Well, yeah, she’s in this new movie where she plays a female boxer. And so it’s sort of giving I, Tanya, like which was sort of Margot Robbie’s crowning moment. Barbie’s frowning moment.

 

Mariah Smith Mm-hmm. When people were going to take her seriously. Yeah. I don’t know if that’s in the cards from Ms. Sweeney, but Margot, I ride for my Barbie. Yeah. I love that woman.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, no, she can do anything, and she also is like, has kind of a sly humor about her, so you can kind of underestimate the funny she brings to the screen. Not that she’s bringing it in this role where she’s just climbing this tree of a man.

 

Mariah Smith Ain’t nothing funny about that bosom. No, like I said, well, baby, that’s a little low for them time.

 

Louis Virtel Right? Right. It’s like, it’s the 1700s.

 

Mariah Smith I honestly cover up, I thought it was just ankles, and I’m not saying she shouldn’t show nothing, but it was shocking.

 

Louis Virtel No, the amount of bosom here it’s like she’s one of the ladies in Wild Wild West, the movie.

 

Mariah Smith I have heard of that.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, which is also a historical epic if you’ve not seen it.

 

Mariah Smith I won’t be seeing it.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, Will Smith they tried and they fought a giant spider at the end and I can’t explain why they did that

 

Mariah Smith Can we explain why Will Smith did a lot of things, though?

 

Louis Virtel No, no, no. Oh, his understanding of math alone. You can’t go into those interviews. It’s too dark.

 

Mariah Smith It’s too dark and deep.

 

Louis Virtel Um, but anyway, I have to say I’m looking forward to this movie and I’m a big fan of the old Wuthering Heights adaptations, uh, the one from the thirties with, uh Lawrence Olivier and Merle Oberon. That’s like the first time you got a smoldering man on the silver screen. The Lawrence Olivier was sort of the first real tall, dark and handsome movie star.

 

Mariah Smith Are you serious?

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Mariah Smith I guess Marlon Brando isn’t tall. No.

 

Louis Virtel No, he was the first hot man. That’s the difference.

 

Mariah Smith Yeah, okay, I’m sorry, thank you. Thank you for correcting me. I needed to learn.

 

Louis Virtel That was the first person we could actually picture having sex in a movie.

 

Mariah Smith Ah, but Laurence Olivier was like a…

 

Louis Virtel Yes, like he could also.

 

Mariah Smith Aspirational

 

Louis Virtel Yes, yes, he could hold the Shakespearean skull, and then he could also romance a woman, but Marlon Brando’s like, I’m sweaty, and…

 

Mariah Smith I’m just hot.

 

Louis Virtel Right. And I’m going to invent poppers, you know what I’m saying?

 

Mariah Smith He’s done a lot for our culture.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, continues to.

 

Mariah Smith Always pops up in a room or some memoir now to this day.

 

Louis Virtel No, excuse me, like, if you gave him five minutes, he’d fuck that plant. I mean, he did anything.

 

Mariah Smith If it has a heartbeat and a consent, it’s, he’s.

 

Louis Virtel Right, and I’m sure if you get into the memoirs, it’s dicey. It is. Yes. But anyway, I was initially protective over the kind of text of Wuthering Heights because it’s Emily Bronte’s famous novel and Alex Trebek’s favorite book. Wow. Who knew? But sex it up, why not?

 

Mariah Smith I have never been one to, again, I mentioned I’m not a prestige person. I also have not read many of the, what I’ll call white classics. Like I’m well versed in a Toni Morrison, like lover, but I wasn’t realizing Emily Bronte was doing it like that.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, well, I think emerald finel is sort of like pump the nitrous into this it’s going to be a little more high octane, you know

 

Mariah Smith Man, and then the music by Charlie XCX, we’re in for a…

 

Louis Virtel I do think that’s the one part of the trailer that was kind of ingenious, like making it feel like it belongs in 2025, because this is a tale as old as time, almost literally.

 

Mariah Smith Mm-hmm. I’m sad. I actually, this is something I truly would go see. They got me.

 

Louis Virtel All right, all right.

 

Mariah Smith And Jacob, I will be following his every move.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, and you’ll need a grappling hook because if you want to get to his level.

 

Mariah Smith Maybe I’m ready to climb. I’m Ready. I got a rock climbing gym on standby and I’m practicing to reach the top.

 

Louis Virtel All right, well, this episode we’ll be climbing together as we conquer a whole bunch of vistas. First of all, we’re going to talk about the VMAs and the pop girls in general who’ve put out a bunch of stuff over the past couple of weeks. We got a new Sabrina Carpenter album. We have new tracks from Lady Gaga. Justin Bieber is back in it.

 

Mariah Smith And I would consider him a girly.

 

Louis Virtel The swag continues.

 

Mariah Smith The swag continues. Some would say the swag is depleting in swag too, but I loved it.

 

Louis Virtel Me too. It’s still so aggressive, if you will.

 

Mariah Smith Did you listen to Swag One? Yes. Okay, so I think that Swag Two is slightly poppier than Swag one.

 

Louis Virtel We’ll get into that, that’s exactly what I want to discuss, we’ll discuss that. Our guest today is the fabulous director, who also made a fabulous cameo in the studio earlier this year, Nicholas Stoller, who is here to talk about the second season of Platonic with Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, two of the most dependable and likable salauds there.

 

Mariah Smith Yeah, they seem like two of the celebs you’d want to actually go get a drink with

 

Louis Virtel Also, it’s like, there’s something about celebrities in general where you’re kind of unconsciously keeping track of how many friends they have, if they’re famous too. And when somebody’s out on an island, you’re like, what’s wrong with them? But everybody loves Rose Byrne, everybody loves Seth Rogen. So they’ve got to be having a good time.

 

Mariah Smith God be havin’ a good time.

 

Louis Virtel Also, we’ll talk about celebrity families, the greatest celebrity families in pop culture, since you are a member of a celebrity family yourself, so you better know all about this.

 

Mariah Smith We’re just trudging through. I, uh, but I do know a lot about my celebrity families. I’m kind of upset.

 

Louis Virtel Okay, I have ones I will be protecting deeply, and some would say so aggressively. Okay. So be prepared for that. And you will be prepared for the rest of the episode once we start it right after this.

 

[AD].

 

Louis Virtel Last summer, Sabrina Carpenter dominated the charts with her breakthrough record and the VMA’s new album of the year, Short and Sweet. Now she’s back with her highly anticipated followup, Man’s Best Friend. Some fans say that the cover art is the most interesting thing about it, but Mariah and I will get into our own thoughts. The correct ones right now, then we’ll also touch on the Vma’s Gaga, everything else in the pop world. Are you a Sabrina fan?

 

Mariah Smith I am. I love her. Yeah. I think she’s so funny. I think she’s, so cute. I think she so talented and fun and just quirky in the best way. And she also makes great music.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. No, I have to say she, she’s so good in a way that she kind of renders other stars a little bit moot. Like we kind of at one point thought Katy Perry was the funny pop star. We thought Carly Rae Jepsen was the bubblegum pop girl and now she sort of does both of those avenues a little better than they do. I love you Carly Ray, this is not meant to be a slide.

 

Mariah Smith Yes. Yes. No, I know exactly. I totally understand what you mean, because she has come up in an era where she’s done so much. And she even mentioned in her VMAs speech, like, if you love short and sweet, Man’s Best Friend, or like the 20 other albums I did before this, she’s been working. She’s been ramping up. We were talking about 10,000 hours. She has her 50,000 at this point. And everything she does is almost unintentionally funny, but purposefully cheeky.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, right.

 

Mariah Smith Which I love, I love.

 

Louis Virtel And it’s also, it’s not like she’s being funny in a way where like she is being cooler than the pop music. It’s like, no, she wrote it and it’s like there’s a romantic quality to her melodies and classic pop sound, but then she undercuts it with a real, sometimes vulgar sense of humor and I love that combination. You know, in this new single, Tears, Tear Run Down My Thighs, exactly the kind of gross, but fun and endearing lyric I love from her.

 

Mariah Smith But the first line of the song is, I get wet at the thought of you. I’m like, no one’s doing it like Sabrina.

 

Louis Virtel That is like that reminds me of like Janet, like at her horniest. You know, when like there will be interludes on her album, like 21 seconds moaning.

 

Mariah Smith And that’s what people forget, that’s where we’ve come from. We’re just so used to, I am, everyone knows I’m not a Swiftie, but I love Taylor Swift’s writing, I can respect that, but hers is still very mainstream, very safe, very comfortable in terms of what she’s putting out, no matter the age she is, but Sabrina is just straight out the gate, straight out of the mainstream gate, giving it to us in whatever way she wants.

 

Louis Virtel Right, like genuinely a little controversial, but also like pleasant and conversational. There’s a lot there. And also, I was watching an episode of Siskel and Ebert recently, as I want to do. And they were talking about how the actor George C. Scott was talking about the three things he loves in actors, and one of them is a joy of performing. When I watched Sabrina Carpenter at the VMAs, and she’s, you know, doing her little Betty Boop winks and sauntering around the stage, you can tell she’s enjoying the A lot of it? Some people that’s just not the vibe you know they’re going through the motions and I would say that about other performers that night and god knows I love speaking of tall drinks of water like um Jacob Elordi somber sort of just like falling around the stage being you know six foot seven which by the way is a vibe.

 

Mariah Smith Yes, already he’s won.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, right. And again, I have my rope ladder and I’ll be going on up.

 

Mariah Smith Ready to go.

 

Louis Virtel But no, there’s just the ebullience she brings. That quality of hers reminds me of actual young Madonna, where she was just like, I love you looking at me and I’m looking you in the eye as you do it.

 

Mariah Smith And there’s such an ease, and every motion and action and move, it feels unplanned, but well thought out. Did you see her Christmas special?

 

Louis Virtel Oh yes, which by the way, you would think she would be like three years off from having something like that, but her humor lent itself to that so well.

 

Mariah Smith And her Christmas music is probably going to start rivaling Ariana’s in terms of, you know, younger pop girl Christmas. But that show, I had already loved Sabrina, but after watching that, I was like, I will ride for this girl no matter what. She is it and she is our truest pop star in this moment. And I’m so happy she blessed us with another album so soon after Short and Sweet.

 

Louis Virtel So what are your feelings on man’s best friends?

 

Mariah Smith I think I like it more than short and sweet.

 

Louis Virtel Now that’s crazy. Alright, now why do you like it more?

 

Mariah Smith Because as I was listening, every song felt like a different genre, like never getting laid. And I was like listening to it, and I’m like, oh, this sounds truly, I think like almost country. Like things sound like every genre you could imagine, but still in her voice and still so vulgar yet sweet.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, yeah

 

Mariah Smith And I don’t know, I like the tone better. I like just the sort of more laid back vibe.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, it’s a bit swimmy. My thing is, I think it’s a solidification of her talents and a solidfication of her voice. The lyrics remain witty and she’s always talking about relationships or problems in relationships that are not stereotypes. She’s always finding a problem to have with a guy that I can’t say I’ve heard in a song by Ariana or whomever. And I appreciate that. I do feel like it’s a bit too many lyrics for- for like the kind of classic melodies she’s going for. And sometimes I felt like on this album, the amount of jokes and the amount of lyrics and stanzas we’re hearing was a bit compensatory for the lack of like espresso level melodies.

 

Mariah Smith You’re right. There are none like that. There are not the closest thing I could think to that would be House Tour, which I think that’s probably my favorite song on the album right now. But sort of like swag, how we were touching on that. Those are the leftovers of, you know, the original album. I think a lot of these were recorded for short and sweet and just got sort of bumped off, which is why they all have similar tones in terms of messaging, but they do work together. They’re cohesive as a singular album.

 

Louis Virtel Right, and I want to say there’s a particular feel to that kind of album, like Radical Optimism by Dua Lipa, I don’t know if this is true or not, felt like B-sides of the album that preceded it, Future Nostalgia. The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani felt like b-side of Love Angel Music Baby.

 

Mariah Smith Like the Jekyll and Hyde of albums. And I really like them. I’m like, this is one of the few times where I really think, well, I do wanna hear every artist’s like unreleased music that they couldn’t put on the album for whatever reason. But I think this is very well done in terms of using what you have in the bank to make more content and make more money.

 

Louis Virtel I also love the song Goodbye on the album, which is the last track, because it has that ABBA-esque effervescence, like goodbye, you know, is the big melody, but then it’s a nasty song. You know? Which is very please, please, Please. You know, it sounds like this pleading, romantic, girlish song. And then it is actually a song about, if you fucking embarrass me, I’ll actually leave. You know?

 

Mariah Smith And it’s high time for a young girl to say this. It’s high-time, like, she’s now getting more, a little bit more of the same grace we’ll give our male artists, like with Harry and watermelon sugar. People aren’t talking as much about how vulgar that is.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Mariah Smith You’re right. And they weren’t worried about, oh, our children are gonna be hearing this overly sexualized song, da da da. Why is it okay for Harry to be bopping around in his 70s pants singing about, you know? And she can’t do whatever she wants.

 

Louis Virtel Now, unfortunately, I’m thinking about how that album went album of the year over renaissance.

 

Mariah Smith Don’t get me started.

 

Louis Virtel What under what metric would that be excusable? It was a fine album, right? I remember that song

 

Mariah Smith It was this polite album. It was just like a it was very pleasant. Very hairy. I enjoyed it Can it beat renaissance in any race?

 

Louis Virtel No. No. And also, it’s like, I literally went on a party boat devoted to Renaissance. You couldn’t do that with the watermelon sugar kit. I’m so sorry.

 

Mariah Smith I dare Harry to task his fans, and he has some hardcore fans, to adhere to a dress code at his concert. Dang. And none of them would do it.

 

Louis Virtel No, well, they’re mostly, I say this affectionately, 60-year-old moms, I’m sorry, who look at Harry and be like, oh my God, he looks like Leif Garrett or some 80s heartthrob, and they love that about him.

 

Mariah Smith Yes, and he’s dressing the part.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, thank God. Anyway, sorry to revisit that trauma. Moving on, the VMAs, here’s the thing about the VMS. Every year you think, oh, we don’t really need this award show anymore. You know, it’s like Payola’s Choice, like whoever wins is just like happen to be around. But then you realize it’s an extremely highly produced award show no matter what. So it’s always at the very least entertaining where there are other performers that stuck out to you.

 

Mariah Smith Okay, so first, about the VMAs, I always forget when they’re gonna happen, and then every Sunday I’m like, oh, I guess I’ll watch that tonight. Like, that is what’s going on. I also think MTV needs to get their act together and not air their marquee show on CBS.

 

Louis Virtel That was weird because that used to be like the anti-CBS show and now it’s like all of any cable television is congealed

 

Mariah Smith like mixed in together. I loved, I’m an icon. I love seeing cats. I performed gnarly at the pre-show on the like small stage, but as for the main show, obviously love Gaga.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, Gaga is deeply in her Yorgos Lanthimos stage.

 

Mariah Smith She is doing the most, and the fact that she literally choppered from the arena to go to MSG, beautiful.

 

Louis Virtel You know what my favorite thing she did all night was, and this is so typical of even the earliest days of Gaga, when she won the award, the paper she pulled out was black and matched her outfit.

 

Mariah Smith I connect black with white text. It was beautiful.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Mariah Smith It was, I also. What is that, like gel pen? Who wrote that for her? It did look like gel paint. It looked like, it was like a modern quill and just written through. I do, I was fascinated that so many of our artists were so touched to win a VMA.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, but which is interesting because I mean like is that good acting because I feel like if you’re at the ceremony you kind of know you want

 

Mariah Smith You know, I don’t know when. Ariana crying, I’m like, I get it, I understand it, but sweetie, you’re in Wicked.

 

Louis Virtel Right. You’re an Oscar nominee. Yeah! Yeah.

 

Mariah Smith Like you are-

 

Louis Virtel You might be one again!

 

Mariah Smith Are you okay? Yeah. Like, this won’t get you anywhere near an EGOT, which you’re on the road to it, so save your tears. That’s right. I’m sure they could be used elsewhere.

 

Louis Virtel I feel like people like her are obsessed with thanking people though. You know, like when she won the video of the year award, and we’ll talk about that. She won for a 26 minute short film, which I’m going to say is a little bit breaking the rules. Especially since there were no other ones like that in the category.

 

Mariah Smith Exactly. That’s not a music video. It’s, again, a short film.

 

Louis Virtel It’s like if moonwalker won video of the year it’s like just because you throw Joe Pesci in something and it’s an hour long Doesn’t mean it’s a music video

 

Mariah Smith She said, when she was thinking, like, the Crafty and crew for their long shoot days, I’m like, if you were shooting this for more than three days now, music videos don’t take that long. We know exactly what we’re getting and we’re gettin’ out of there. You should not be shooting a quote unquote music video for days on end and get to know Crafty.

 

Louis Virtel Right, they should not be familiar.

 

Mariah Smith They should not be familiar with all do you should not know the crew Because these should be people you’ve never seen before working on a location. You’ve never been right and you’re in and out

 

Louis Virtel Right. Yeah. Yeah, you’re exactly you’re in like Atlanta for 19 hours and then you leave.

 

Mariah Smith And then you leave. And you mind your business.

 

Louis Virtel I did enjoy her speeches, of course. I mean, she’s a hard person to dislike. And by the way, I try. I want to find reasons for celebrities to have wronged me, but she really is not just like grateful, but like pretty like think on her feet funny. And so I can always appreciate that she doesn’t seem ultra scripted all.

 

Mariah Smith She doesn’t take herself seriously. She takes the work seriously. Like, those are my favorite type of people. You take the work serious, but you don’t take yourself seriously. Which, Sabrina Carpenter lands in that category for me as well. And Ariana’s just so… I just want to hang with her. I want to be her friend. I’m like, you’re so cool and chill and so talented. You shouldn’t be as cool and cool as you are.

 

Louis Virtel I feel like if you became friends with her, that you’d get a window into an even snarkier humor. So there’s sort of an enticement there for me. Like I wanna know the real.

 

Mariah Smith I want to know that what her close friends looks like I bet she goes off

 

Louis Virtel Now, speaking of naughtiness, did you see a performance by this alleged Canadian, though it was not a polite performance at all, Tate McCray?

 

Mariah Smith I wasn’t clocking her as much as I should have been all these years, but that was a great performance.

 

Louis Virtel Excuse me, that is like if The Exorcist happened to Shakira. This woman was on stage. And first of all, it started off like normal pop singing. She did that song, Sports Car, we’ve done 10,000 times. She was looking at us with those porny eyes and she’s one of our porniest pop stars, you know, everything’s like, you don’t know.

 

Mariah Smith Everything’s sultry. Everything’s a look. Everything is a little bit of hair in the face.

 

Louis Virtel The face. Maxim hot 100 every time. Yes. And then she gets down in like the dirt or the sand or whatever that is and her legs are flapping around and it was like satanic semaphore. I wanted to join 1 million moms. I was like, this is not safe. By the way, I love 1 million Moms, my favorite conservative organization. It’s like four moms and an uncle.

 

Mariah Smith Yes, yes, and they’re like, but we are emotionally one million.

 

Louis Virtel Just lying, but here.

 

Mariah Smith You’re you feel about Tate McCrae’s performance as every religious person felt about Sam Smith’s uh performance at the Grammys that one year. What is it? Holy? What was the song? Unholy. Yes. And for me the Tate McRae I was like okay physically she was killing it. I wasn’t really understanding the vocals, because I just wasn’t paying attention. So I don’t know if she can sing. Oh, I don’t know if there are even words in this song. Yeah, I can’t recall any, it was basically like a silent.

 

Louis Virtel No, she was doing it so you think you can dance to this. Her vocals are like goo goo gaga, and I’m like, okay, great.

 

Mariah Smith Great, dancing on top of people, dancing in sand, have at it.

 

Louis Virtel The leg choreography, do you know what it reminded me of? It took me a while to piece together. Dolphin show, Brookfield Zoo. Picture when the dolphins come on up. They get close to the edge. And then they’re like waving at you with the tail fin. And you’re like, that’s so cool, except I’m also scared, Keiko. And there’s always a Keiko

 

Mariah Smith I can’t stand you, that is probably one of the best ways to describe what we saw on television last night.

 

Louis Virtel It was, and also, I mean, just the choreography was so rigid. That reminded me of, like, Rhythm Nation-era Janet. Just the sheer, like leg choreography was militaristic.

 

Mariah Smith She’s very taught, she’s trained, she was on So You Think You Can Dance as a Teenager. She is never going to lose that professional sort of modern contemporary dance vibe. And as a pop star, it’s a little bit hard to see those contending with one another. But I think as she grows, I hope she pulls the Dua Lipa and learns from the feedback do a, basically learn how to move on stage because we were tired of seeing her sway her hips and snap her finger from side to side. Hopefully Tate can loosen up a little bit, but still keep the essence of the sensuality, the kicking, the flipping, the splitting, all of that.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, it does feel like we are lacking slightly in person and as in the connecting with the audience, you know, it’s like I agree It’s like she’s Cirque du Soleil and we can see that but also say something to us

 

Mariah Smith What’s the story?

 

Louis Virtel Again, you’re from Canada, so I know there’s like a fear in you, and I want to see it.

 

Mariah Smith But there can’t be that much fear if she’s in tighty-whities moving her legs like that on TV.

 

Louis Virtel No, her legs were in full pretzels. I mean, she’s like she tied herself up and she said.

 

Mariah Smith And what?

 

Louis Virtel She’s dipped me in honey mustard.

 

Mariah Smith And what? She said I’m ready for my cinnamon and sugar? What?

 

Louis Virtel How lucky that Wetzel got into pretzels. How lucky.

 

Mariah Smith I mean, I know his mom was like,

 

Louis Virtel This would work out for us so much if you could just get into the pretzel industry.

 

Mariah Smith Like you would be doing us all a service and there he did, he succeeded and I love him for it.

 

Louis Virtel You know what I like about the VMAs, too, is because it’s now this like hallowed award show for MTV, they can just bring back people from any era. It was nice to see Jessica Simpson and Ashley Simpson again.

 

Mariah Smith Crazy, it was Ricky Martin?

 

Louis Virtel Excuse me, Ricky Martin, his deal with the devil going amazing.

 

Mariah Smith WHATEVER HE HAS!

 

Louis Virtel Give it to me. I have no guess. HGH Botox?

 

Mariah Smith My face when I saw how jacked he was, I said, how many pushups are you doing every hour? Right. He’s, he’s aging backward.

 

Louis Virtel Now, how many push-ups are you doing onto, like, needles full of shit? Because I have no idea what’s happening here.

 

Mariah Smith Whatever it is, the way he moves, whatever stretches he’s doing, whoever his Pilates instructor is, whoever his personal trainer is, step up.

 

Louis Virtel By the way, the amount of people who, I mean like Steven Tyler was there toasting Ozzy Osbourne. He looks the same as he did in like the jaded video, which is 25 years old now. That was weird. LL Cool J, who I guess is in some like cryogenically frozen Kangle hat all the day. What is happening?

 

Mariah Smith Whatever’s in that hat, it’s like Professor X’s helmet. It is keeping something in and preserving him in such a way. I will say, and I hate to say, whatever LL and Ricky have, spare some for Miss Carrie. Right. She looked beautiful, looked beautiful. But as my sisters and I said, why she never moved on her own was always… Handheld, walked across the stage, was never moving her neck. I feel like she might’ve hurt her back.

 

Louis Virtel Now, let me just say you’re obviously protective over this as the preeminent other Mariah. Yes. So you’re thinking of Mariah constantly.

 

Mariah Smith I’m thinking of the Mariah community, we are one million strong, a.k.a. Two, and I never want to bring another one down.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right, naturally.

 

Mariah Smith And I was so perplexed and I said, baby, I’m gonna need to see you move, bend or twist. Give me a sign of life.

 

Louis Virtel Can I tell you something? I have such conflicting feelings about Mariah Carey when I watch her on stage, which is I’m always happy to see her speak because she allows herself to remain a bit conversationally funny, but then there also seems to be like a stiltedness and a bit of a fear about her. And so it’s like, not only is she sort of being walked around a stage whenever she’s performing, and of course she won the Video Vanguard Award, and she also won her first ever VMA. Every VMA.

 

Mariah Smith She ambassador rhymes. What the fuck is that? That is crazy. And clearly, if they’re good enough to win your video music prestige awards, however many they had that night, you’re telling me not one video was capable of winning a VMA in all these years?

 

Louis Virtel Right, and she’s directed her videos in the past too, so she’s like an innovative performer and video artist in that way, but like watching her, it’s like you’re kind of wishing for another uninhibited moment from her and it’s, like, she doesn’t allow you to have that. It’s like, I sense a reticence about her generally.

 

Mariah Smith I want another Mariah’s World docu-series, as they like to call it, because she was opening up a little bit more, and I think when she allows the world to see her be more free, especially with her kids, then her professional presence becomes a little more relaxed. But there’s always, I just want to shake her and say, it’s okay, listen up, Mariah.

 

Louis Virtel Right, right. We got you. And of course, I mean, if we’re talking about the videos of her career, I can’t even pick a favorite song. I was happy with some of the songs we heard her do sing. We Belong Together was there. We got some Honey in there, you know.

 

Mariah Smith We got obsessed, we got some, got a little bit of that, so.

 

Louis Virtel Do you have a favorite Mariah deep cut I love it now that I know if you know that song which is on music box great song

 

Mariah Smith The thing is, I realize I’m not a deep-cut person. My favorite song is probably Obsessed. I’m very…

 

Louis Virtel Oh yeah, well that’s also a funny song.

 

Mariah Smith So I’m like, and I think of it as one of our, we give Not Like Us a lot of flowers for being one of the most commercially successful like beef disstracks, but this is a disstrack for Eminem and it’s so successful. And I’m, like, this is our pop girlie Not Like us. And I love that.

 

Louis Virtel You’re right, it is. By the way, Not Like Us was also nominated for video of the year. I’m just saying that might’ve been a good win.

 

Mariah Smith A good one, well, might’ve, but in 50 years, they’ll give Kendrick a VMA.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right, right. I can’t wait to see that medley he finally gets to perform. We should talk about Justin Bieber really quickly though. So I also like Swag 2 a little bit better. I feel like, to quote Gypsy, singing out more.

 

Mariah Smith Yes. Yes. And it’s interesting to see his process because we have been invited into literally every step of the process of creating both of these albums almost without knowing it. Like hearing the issues he’s had with Hailey, the way they’re sort of rebuilding through this music. I’m like, she’s a real one for allowing him to put all their stuff out like this. Not just one song, but truly two albums. And hearing him, just his voice and his swag and what he brings when he’s in the studio. Even if it’s the worst thing ever written or performed, I’m still gonna love it.

 

Louis Virtel You know what, I would honestly say that the music he’s putting out now is kind of what Justin Timberlake always dreamed he would be, which is to say it has actual R&B credibility and also it doesn’t feel strained at all. He’s not trying to sound like a heartthrob, he just has a genuine sexuality in his voice and I always felt Justin Timmerlake was pushing in that regard and dressing, you know, and head to toe denim, like the King of Armani Exchange. Like the King of Armani exchange.

 

Mariah Smith Yeah, he would never be a heartthrob. I think anyone who even was a Justin girl and in sync would say, oh, he’s cute, he is handsome. I never in my life have thought of Justin Timberlake as a heart throb, but I have thought of Bieber as a hearthrob

 

Louis Virtel I will say though about Justin Timberlake and all the homosexuals out there know what I’m about to say. That Rolling Stone cover where he was shirtless. If you weren’t awakened, the great awakening.

 

Mariah Smith It was, I’m trying to think, he was kind of.

 

Louis Virtel You’re a beach, I think? Yeah.

 

Mariah Smith Oh, I know what you’re talking about. I know

 

Louis Virtel tan in a way that I don’t usually associate with the Timberlake.

 

Mariah Smith Yeah, so maybe, listen, a broken clock is right twice a day.

 

Louis Virtel Right, right.

 

Mariah Smith Right. So maybe he’s a heartthrob every now and again, but Bieber, his delusion and

 

Louis Virtel Yes, there’s also actual chaos in the album, because it’s a ton of music and going lots of different directions.

 

Mariah Smith 44 songs in total, including both albums, so obsessed.

 

Louis Virtel Um, actually, uh, it’s been a good week for the pop people. And I enjoyed Gaga’s new tracks. Uh, again, she’s deep in her Yorgos Lanthimos. She’s constantly like throbbing and wearing a handmaiden’s outfit.

 

Mariah Smith Just going for it. What is your favorite Gaga song on this album?

 

Louis Virtel You know what? It changes over time. Shadow of a Man is the one I play the most often. To me, that’s also kind of the struttiest and gayest, like… Duh-nuh-duh-duhh-duhhh-duhhhh-nah-nah-nah, you know? Like, I… Treadmill music, which by the way, I’ve never run a treadmill, speaks to me, yeah.

 

Mariah Smith I love How Bad Do You Want Me. When the first time I heard it, I thought it was an old song. And I was like, where did I? Where am I? And I know that’s not popular, but.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Well, also, I mean, like, I’m not a Taylor Swift stan myself, but when people compare it to her, I think it’s favorable because it’s like, it’s got the things she’s really good at, which is a strong melody and some conviction to it. But like, because it is Gaga, it has even a more haunting thing underneath it.

 

Mariah Smith A more, it has just a little more umph under it. And again, as mentioned, I love mainstream pop. Proud to admit it. So if it sounds like something that’d be on the radio 10 years ago, sign me up.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, yeah. God, do I? I mean, honestly, I missed 2009, 2010 Gaga when it was just like pure pop. Yes.

 

Mariah Smith I, that MTV, talk about the VMAs, that performance at the VMS of paparazzi where she has the blood come out of her stomach as she’s being lifted up into the air. Amazing.

 

Louis Virtel I think she is the reigning queen of the VMAs because you know if she shows up, it’s going to be a gigantic production and also it’s not going to be boring in one way or conventional in one because you can tell she hates being bored, which is the closest thing she has to being like Madonna, whose whole career is dictated by, I’m not going to bore myself. I refuse to be mediocre in terms of what I’m actually bringing to the stage. Well that was lovely. Love that. When we’re back We’re going to have the fabulous Nicholas Stoller with us, but before that, some quick housekeeping.

 

[AD].

 

Louis Virtel Today’s guest is the writer and director behind your favorite films like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Neighbors, Bros, and many more. More recently, he’s taken his talents to the small screen with the comedy series Platonic, which I love, and which recently dropped its second season on Apple TV+. He’s here today to talk about all that and more. Please welcome to keep it, Nicholas Stoller.

 

Nicholas Stoller Hello. Thanks for having me.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, my god.

 

Nicholas Stoller This is very exciting.

 

Louis Virtel This show is such a pleasure. It was a pleasure last season, remains one now. And I’m realizing this is basically a company of actors. You have worked with these people. I’m blown away to realize the movie neighbors is over a decade old.

 

Mariah Smith That’s crazy.

 

Nicholas Stoller Yeah, it’s not cool.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah

 

Nicholas Stoller I don’t like it

 

Mariah Smith But even forgetting Sarah Marshall feels like yesterday.

 

Nicholas Stoller Yeah, and it’s like 18 years old.

 

Mariah Smith Which I don’t, I refuse to, no. No, because that means I was up and walking and talking when that came out, so I can’t.

 

Nicholas Stoller Yeah, and Paul Rudd looks the same.

 

Louis Virtel And Kristen Bell looks the same.

 

Nicholas Stoller Kristen Bell looks the same.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, Mila Kunis. In fact, what’s going on?

 

Nicholas Stoller I don’t know.

 

Mariah Smith What are you doing? Clearly, you’re the tie that binds.

 

Nicholas Stoller We did this weird mysterious ceremony when we were there. No, I don’t know.

 

Mariah Smith Can you imagine?

 

Louis Virtel Well, you were on that beach. It could be like a Brady Bunch tiki situation. Yeah. Or it’s like the opposite of old. Yeah, oh, finally. We need that. Exactly. Young. But let’s talk about platonic. What is it like creating comedy with people you’ve worked with this long now? Do you have, do you feel like you have to push them at all to like get them to do new things or no?

 

Nicholas Stoller No, I mean, I think it’s, you know, it’s it is like we all really trust each other and we all really enjoy working together, which is why we keep working together. I know I’ve, on Neighbors, it was pretty clear that Seth and Rose had this amazing chemistry that you kind of don’t run across that much. On that movie, or both movies, Neighbors, Neighbor 2, because they were married, they couldn’t brutally fight with one another, which they’re able to do on platonic. So we knew that when we approached them, and I do platonic with my wife, so there’s already, there’s a lot of Personal stuff happening in the you know in the show in terms of that and so in terms of all of us working together, so yeah.

 

Louis Virtel And also I mean just the show in general I didn’t realize was inspired by your wife and like how she found it difficult to have platonic friendships like how controversial it felt to her to remain friends with men how autobiographical is the show.

 

Nicholas Stoller Yeah, so she thought of the idea. She had, you know, I mean, we both had had like all of us platonic friends and particularly in our 20s and teens and 20s. But she had a few really good guy friends in her from college. And she found that as we got older and coupled up and got married and whatever, she would be spending more time we go out to dinner and I’d be talking to the guy that had been her good friend, and she’d be talking to his wife. And she liked these men’s wives. It wasn’t that she didn’t like them. But she was like, why is this happening? This is so weird. And so we started talking. And it was just kind of a subject that we would talk about in our house a lot. And then one day, she was, like, what about if we did a TV show about this? And I was like oh, yeah, that’s a really interesting idea. And then we were like, oh, wait, what about when Harry Met Sally? It kind of said it. And then, we were, like that’s not a platonic friendship. That’s a romance. And so that’s where it came from.

 

I just want to say about When Harry Met Sally came out, I was just like, what I think people forget about that movie is you don’t really know it’s a romance until the very end. Like they just allow the relationship to exist the way it is and then it ends up choosing that. But it’s not like we broke up and got that together. Set out to be together.

 

Mariah Smith Now, I work with my sisters on a radio show, and we’re very close. Is there like a conversation you had with your wife where you’re like, this is work, and when we’re home, this home? Or do you ever cross that boundary, or is it just, oh, if something comes up about the show, we’ll talk about it, and then…

 

Nicholas Stoller Yeah, I mean we tend to mainly talk about the show when we’re in the room, you know in the writers room We don’t I mean mainly out of laziness. It’s just hard to like write so it’s not even it’s like a rule necessarily and we work really well together There’s not you know, we did a show together called friends from college for Netflix that we did before this And so and it’s really fun working together. We kind of we share You know, I think a point of view on the world and we you know really trusting a shorthand and Basically, we both really care a lot and don’t care at all, is kind of the way we approach it. And so if one of us has a very strong feeling about something, then it will either go in or not go in. And we also trust each other and respect each other. So if she really doesn’t like something, I’m like, there must be something wrong with this idea, or vice versa. Great show writers. Also, can you just talk about having met? And we make out a lot in the room.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, I see.

 

Nicholas Stoller Like a lot.

 

Louis Virtel That creates a dynamic.

 

Mariah Smith As you should.

 

Nicholas Stoller Exactly.

 

Mariah Smith Just let your writers know this is what we’re going for.

 

Nicholas Stoller Go to H.R. And try to explain this. And then there is an H. R. My married showrunners keep making out in front of us. It’s like the weirdest complaint.

 

Louis Virtel They can only complain to you.

 

Nicholas Stoller Exactly.

 

Louis Virtel Talk about having actually met Rose Byrne for the first time, because she’s in this category of actors for me, where they are capable of really anything. But because of that, I almost wonder if it’s like a detriment to them. Like, professionally, that you don’t think of them for any one particular thing, because she could be… She could star in an action movie, she could, you know, be up against Glenn Close on Damages, and just as easily be a crazy, silly person in the movie Spy. So when you met her… Um, did you have to sort of uncork a skill set from her? What, what, what happened upon meeting her?

 

Nicholas Stoller Well, she the first comedy she did was Get Him to the Greek and she yeah So she auditioned and I was like, why is rose burn auditioning because she’d done damages She’d done very great work. That was super serious and we had looked for that part She was playing this character named Jackie q who’s like a pop star And she came into audition and I’m like, this is so random, but okay, and then she was so funny It was crazy and I wasn’t like well, it was one of those instantly like we’re casting her and um, yeah She’s just she’s a total comic genius and she’s very I see she’s like Peter Sellers. She can kind of do anything. I think she’s an incredible physical comedian. And she’s very emotionally logical, if that makes sense. So she’ll come at the script and be like, she’ll very politely be like does this part make sense and we’ll be like oh wait, this part makes zero sense. And that’s where you know comedy comes from is it has to be emotionally logical. And so she’s really good at that. But she’s also just super funny. And She’s very. She’s one of those actors and there’s not many of them who requires no attention like you would if you came onto the set you Wouldn’t necessarily notice that she’s there at first. Yeah, she’s very like she keeps a low profile. I hopefully she

 

Louis Virtel He’s not like Peter Sellers the way he was on set though, where people would just leave in tears all day. Oh, no, no. Okay, that’s nice.

 

Nicholas Stoller Yes, I should say not personally like Peter Sellers.

 

Mariah Smith As, so I’m also a writer and have very strong opinions about actors and actresses being like, well, I changed the script and did X, Y, and Z. So what’s the, in such a collaborative process, and you trust Rose, you trust Seth, do you guys go to them with asking them for their input willingly and are, or is it an open dialog on set? Like, what’s that process?

 

Nicholas Stoller Yeah, I mean, I’m generally quite collaborative. I feel like, you know, I think TV and movies are inherently collaborative since you’re having other people say the things you’re writing, unless you’re acting in the thing, I guess. And so, yeah, I we do table reads where we’ll hear the thing out loud. We get their notes. Seth is one of the great writers ever. So if he has, you on the first season, he didn’t really, you the first you’re figuring out the tone of the show and stuff. I remember we were in production and he came up to us and he was like, the ninth episode just doesn’t make sense. And it was one of those, and we looked at it and we were like, yep, he’s right, it doesn’t make sense. And we, but he’s a producer and a writer. So he was like, he knew the parameters. We had an ADU set, we had a house set. He knew what we could and couldn’t do. And so we re-broke it with him and figured it out. And it became one of the best episodes of the season, I think. So it’s like, so that’s how he, you know, that was, but the second season we didn’t have anything like that. Sometimes he’ll say like, you now he or Rose will be like, oh, I don’t totally get this moment or I don’t understand this. And he, they both do a fair amount of improv. Although, I would say the show is, you know, 80 to 90% scripted by the time we do it, you know. And that’s also because we really know their voices.

 

Mariah Smith Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel You’ve directed so much comedy and I imagine there are times when you’re maybe it’s a physically comic scene or just something where you have to nail that the tone and the timing exactly right where it’s frustrating not to get it exactly right. Can you think of a particular scene you’ve had to realize that it took longer to figure out or you just couldn’t get it right for some reason and then eventually beating it?

 

Nicholas Stoller Yeah, I mean, that does happen. It’s usually because the writing is wrong or the idea I have is too broad or not the right idea. Not usually, it always is because of that. It’s very rare that the actor can’t do it. The actor usually can’t it because it’s bad.

 

Mariah Smith Oh god, that’s very keen advice.

 

Nicholas Stoller Yeah, so usually because I’m and I’m fortunate because I work with a lot of really funny actors So I think that can happen I have certainly worked with actors who are slightly more on the dramatic side where I’ve been like, oh This is their skill set and you know, I understand how to come at them with stuff I mean it happens all the time. There was recently a joke I was trying to figure out on you know on this movie I just did called Judgment Day and we couldn’t figure it out and couldn’t figured out and I just wasn’t getting the right and I was working with a really funny actor and And then I was like, oh, I just had to re it’s not that interesting a story. I rewrote the moment and then I, and then, and I was like, Oh, that kind of works. And so, yeah, so that’s like.

 

Louis Virtel That is a good feeling about a joke, like you sometimes feel like you are a slave to getting that particular, and then you, oh, you can just rewrite it.

 

Nicholas Stoller Yeah, no, I’m not. I’m always like jokes are free. I don’t it’s not something

 

Mariah Smith changeable like as it say don’t get married to a thing in a script because guess what it could be a page one rewrite and

 

Nicholas Stoller Yeah, that’s where we are it has to emotionally make sense. Yeah, if it doesn’t emotionally make since you’re screwed

 

Mariah Smith Even in a comedy which people don’t understand.

 

Nicholas Stoller Oh yeah, comedies are dramas.

 

Mariah Smith Mmmhmm.

 

Louis Virtel Now, speaking of comedies, you also appeared in the television series, The Studio, this year, playing yourself. And you were, of course, with Seth Rogen. Talk to us about being, I guess, not a caricature of yourself, but like somebody in a broad comedy who is Nick Stoller.

 

Nicholas Stoller I mean, I was saying that I basically, there’s nothing in that show I wouldn’t say if like, if the only thing I could make was the Kool-Aid movie, right now we’d be talking about the Koo-Aide movie.

 

Louis Virtel Hahaha

 

Nicholas Stoller Like I’m not too good. I just I just am very lucky and I’ve been able to make my own original weird stuff But if suddenly this hollywood was like nope, no more of that. I’d be like, okay, I’ll do the cooling You know, so so yeah, so it was I mean it, you know, I basically they asked me to do it. I was very flattered Um, and I mainly just didn’t want to screw it up. I Was very nervous about memorizing the lines. I didn’t wanna you know but i’ve directed so much now that I have Some idea of how to do It I guess a little bit and I remember Seth just being like do nothing just don’t do anything. And so that was Although there was one funny thing happen, which is in the first episode, I’m pitching the Kool-Aid movie. And if you haven’t seen the studio, by the way, please watch this television series. Yeah, it’s very funny. They did an amazing job. And I had nothing to do with it besides just getting this, you know what I’m saying. And I’m pitched in the Koo-Aide movie, and the joke in the scene is that Seth doesn’t like my pitch. It’s a pretty mediocre, shitty, like, feminist version of the Koon-Ade movie. It makes no sense. And I pitching it, and Ike likes it, and I’m pitch it, and Seth is getting, I keep looking at Seth, and he’s acting like he doesn’t it. And I’m getting more and more kind of like anxious. And I started to flop sweat, I started a sweat and get like more and red because I was like, it’s not working, my pitch isn’t working. And then the scene ended and I was like, that’s method acting.

 

Louis Virtel You’re shit. You’re a Hagan. It’s bullshit. I was

 

Nicholas Stoller It’s not bullshit. I was like, oh, this is what all these actors are talking about. I now get, I got like sweaty and nervous and like, I felt bad. And I was, like, Oh, okay. It’s real.

 

Mariah Smith That’s an amazing experience for you to have, especially opposite someone you work with as an actor so much that has, I’m sure opened you up to a whole new world of even just writing and creating. You’re like, I get this moment and how they will be in this moment. Cause I too am an actor.

 

Nicholas Stoller Yeah, now I get it now. I’m an actor. I mean actor you’re actually just as good as they are I hope they were intimidated. I yes I did I told them no it was more just a feeling I was like, oh these feelings are real. This is a funny. It was just a funny experience

 

Louis Virtel Also, we have to talk about the movie Bros. Billy Eichner has been on this show a number of times. I’m a former writer for Billy on the Street. That movie has so much legit gay stuff in it. It was Bill.

 

Mariah Smith It was built as a game, move it!

 

Louis Virtel No, also, but it was like, you know, the movie Fire Island’s like this, too, it’s like instructional about certain things that I had just never seen in a movie before. And you, but you also co-wrote the movie with him. You are not of gay experience. I’m not, no. Talk about putting that movie together. I like of gay experiences. There’s still time. Talk about putting that together as Billy, I’m sure, is doing his best to like, sandblast this script with things that are brand new to mainstream audience.

 

Nicholas Stoller I mean, I approached it the way, you know, there’s two kinds of movies I’ve made. There’s like the more high concept movie, like Neighbors or Get Him to the Greek, which and all my movies have something personal in them, it’s not. And then there’s the more kind of, for lack of, it, they’re fictional. So this is not the way to say it, but it’s like a, it it’s something built around a persona. So like Forgetting Sarah Marshall is really built around Jason Seagal. Right. Right. So Bros is built around Billy Eichner. And the process of that sort of movie is essentially a long interview, right? Just interview, you know, like Jason and I talked and talked and talked about his dating, about his romance, and same with Billy. And we just talked and I talk about his entire life. It was basically a long therapy session is the only way I would describe it. And I would take notes and we would talk and talk and talk about is life. He’s gay, and so that was a big part of the conversation. And from the very beginning, we were like, this has to be genuine, otherwise it won’t be funny. And so that that was kind of it. And so there wasn’t really anything off the table. Like it was just like, let’s put in everything that is real.

 

Louis Virtel I was a big fan in that movie of where he worked at the museum with the different LGBT people chiming in about.

 

Mariah Smith The archetypes. yeah.

 

Oh, yeah. Like, Dot Marie Jones, very funny.

 

Nicholas Stoller She’s so funny. There was one thing that didn’t end up in the movie that was funny, which was an off— we were just like, I think this hurts the kind of heteronormative rom-com-y thing, which is that Guy Branum said an offhand comment about Luke’s character. He just went, oh yeah, we’ve all fucked him. Jesus Christ. And then we were like— I mean, I don’t know if that kind of ruins the romance of the movie.

 

Mariah Smith Even though that movie was within the past, what, like five years.

 

Nicholas Stoller Yeah, 2022, yeah.

 

Mariah Smith Yeah, which is like, you could say that today. Twenty twenty two people weren’t ready. Twenty twenty five. That’s probably true. Yeah. Let’s go in and just do an insert and put that in.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, anyways, that was the only thing I could think of. Also, Guy Branum is, of course, on Platonic also, and I was especially pleased to see there’s a storyline where he helps instruct Luke McFarland about how to be on Jeopardy when Guy himself was a contestant on real Jeopardry this year. Did you create that ahead of time, or was it just coincidental? It was coincidental.

 

Nicholas Stoller It was coincidental. That’s talking very weird. Yeah, it was really weird. It was coincidental and guy is like I mean I’m sure he’s like one of the smartest people I’ve ever met and he yeah but we would talk about it he’s like I’m gonna be on Jeopardy and I was like that sounds like my nightmare cuz I don’t know any I know no facts I was like yeah

 

Mariah Smith You seem like you know a lot of that.

 

Nicholas Stoller I don’t, I really don’t. Huh. Yeah. Do you have a favorite underrated movie in your filmography? A favorite under rated, oh, Real Genius. Oh no, in my filmography. Oh, Real genius. We can talk about Val Kilmer too. Oh, in My Filmography. I mean, I do love, you know, it’s like Francesca, is my wife saying, Francesca and I created this Friends from College, it got destroyed by critics. It was one of those crea- and we were like totally like We love it. It’s great. It came out. I mean, I’ve never gotten more it really annoyed the shit out of critics and uh, I love that show. Yeah, so I guess it’s that I guess that would be the thing. I we could have made that forever It was so much fun

 

Louis Virtel And also, I mean, it’s not like a movie, you had so much content and it was an actual TV show. I can’t imagine making a TV show and being like, and ultimately I

 

Nicholas Stoller I hated it. I know. So I think that would be the one. But I don’t know. I really, you know, I’m not very neurotic about the things. I kind of like all the things I’ve made, I think, and when I revisit them, I’ll certainly be like, oh, that scene could be shorter or whatever. But I think I’ll still, to this day, I don’t really know what we annoy people about, but I do really like what that show’s about. We have to talk about real genius.

 

Louis Virtel For a second. Is that a formative movie for you? This is an 80s comedy that was, I think has grown in cult stature over time. Not quite clue level, but like on that track.

 

Nicholas Stoller What is it about that movie? I’ll tell you, I loved it as a kid. I watched it over and over again. And then I watched, I have three daughters. I’m a father of daughters. I have a, I’m one of three daughters! Oh, okay, there you go, nice. And I was braced for eighties, like horrible stuff. And it doesn’t really have much. It’s like, there’s like a light sprinkling of sexism, but not much. It’s also a genre mashup. So it’s a spy movie. There’s a bit of sci-fi in it. It’s really funny. It’s a coming of age story. And the acting is really good. I don’t know, it’s just like a really good movie. And when you watch it, if you watch it, you’ll be like pretty impressed by it. It’s a- I wouldn’t have to go watch that. No, it is a good movie, and then I watched it with my second daughter and she was like, that’s one of the, she like loved it. And I was like oh yeah, this is not, you know, so yeah, it was directed by a woman, which is like very rare for those 80s comedies. Though like love interest is not as like the, you know she never acted in anything again, which is pretty weird and she was really good in it anyways, so yeah. Now, another movie in that vein, Better Off Dead I’m obsessed with.

 

Nicholas Stoller I was obsessed with that too yeah I watched that over and over again.

 

Louis Virtel That’s like you know in a way just like the point of view is so askew and yet so funny. In a way it predates things like um like Nickelodeon’s The Adventures of Pete and Pete in the 90s where everybody’s like too weird by half and like where did they Think of this.

 

Nicholas Stoller There’s a whole claymation sequence where you’re like, yeah, it has a little Sarah Marshall has a bit of that because it’s about a guy getting dumped. There’s definitely some elements of that and I watched that movie over and over again as well. It’s so good. That movie. Yeah. Your own movie you watch? No, not. Yeah. I watched Sarah Marshall over and Over again. I watched it over. No, Better Off Dead. Those Better Off dead and real genius. I watched a million times. And then like not as great a movie. Weird science. I watched a lot.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, of course. No, we did too little with Kelly LeBrock. More to come. You will bring her back. Exactly. Kelly LeBroc. Nick, thank you so much for being here. It’s been a pleasure. Thanks for having me. And the new season of Platonic is on Apple TV Plus right now.

 

[AD].

 

Louis Virtel Mariah, you and your sisters are all pop culture experts and hosts of the Sirius XM show Smith Sisters Live. Since you’re from an entertainment family, and since we love to talk about Hollywood families here on Keep It, we’ve decided to take on the challenge of deciding the Mount Rushmore of Hollywood families. Now there can only be four, and these are all Hollywood families of all time. So I’m assuming we’ll squabble over the final picks, but what criteria did you have when thinking about the question?

 

Mariah Smith Okay, so I think it’s important to obviously take into account notoriety and impact, but I think the idea of longevity and variety, that’s what I mean.

 

Louis Virtel Me too. Longevity and variety.

 

Mariah Smith And what I have in mind are families that have spanned generations. And even if we don’t think of them immediately as our top tier celeb families, they are building the foundation.

 

Louis Virtel Sure.

 

Mariah Smith What do you think?

 

Louis Virtel I wanted variety of family members like there should at least be one person where it’s like they do something totally different than the others Yes, like that’s bizarre. They don’t fit in and then you think about it and you say actually there is a personality connection Like this isn’t one of my families but like Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher Like you’re like, oh Debbie Reynolds like old-fashioned showgirl type Carrie Fisher kind of surly sardonic Yeah, but then you watch them both do interviews. You’re like they to have a similar sense of humor I love like kind of picking up the strands of the family

 

Mariah Smith Even including Billy Lord in that, like you see that but then you also see Billy Lord’s dad and I think was he the head of CAA? There’s all these branches that pop out and it’s crazy when you really get to thinking about them.

 

Louis Virtel Now, who is your first family, maybe your essential family?

 

Mariah Smith My, oh, that is tough. My first essential family is going to be, and I picked them because this family has, I think, three last names. It’s the Hiltons, the Richards, and the Manskys. Wow. I believe from being child actors, we have Kyle and Kim, then of course, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, then of of course Kathy being a Hilton who gave us Paris Hilton and Nikki Hilton.

 

Louis Virtel All these tentacles.

 

Mariah Smith All the tentacles. And then the Wymanskys, who Kyle married Mariso, who she’s now, you know, going through a divorce with, he had a reality show with his daughters, who are now also realtors, and some of them are rumored to be on the L.A. Version of Next Gen NYC. So we have people from before we were even born making an impact, and it’s continuing on.

 

Louis Virtel Who is your favorite member of that many-fingered posse?

 

Mariah Smith Paracelton.

 

Louis Virtel Now, Paris Hilton, by the way, was just at the VMAs last night. And talk about somebody who, I guess it’s just 2005, because she is the same.

 

Mariah Smith Is that I think Paris is the most stunning she’s ever been. Something about looking at her face, I’m like, I love it. I also love that she wears wigs all the time. Oh yeah. And she was at the VMAs on Sunday and her cousin Alexia got married on Saturday and I saw Cathy and Nikki in photos, but I’m praying Paris was also there because I don’t, if that family has another feud, I will lose it.

 

Louis Virtel Who is, and also of course, now you’re talking about the Hiltons, that goes all the way back to Conrad Nicky Hilton, who is Elizabeth Taylor’s first husband.

 

Mariah Smith There we go. Yeah. There we got.

 

Louis Virtel Now, what’s your favorite Paris Hilton just moment period? What’s her definitive?

 

Mariah Smith Sa na sa, sa na sa from, what is it? I was gonna call it Sweet Life. No.

 

Louis Virtel Uh, uh, uh. Simple life. Yeah, with Nicole Richie.

 

Mariah Smith I love The Simple Life and I love their friendship and then also the connection between Paris and the Richies and all that history. Now we have Sofia Richie. Oh my god, I wasn’t even thinking about them in my family chart, but that’s another great one.

 

Louis Virtel I’m gonna start my list with the Baldwin’s and I’ll tell you why. Nice. Now, again, you say the word Baldwin and like, you know, a shiver runs down your face. Yeah, I’m so sorry. But let’s talk about a family that is slightly connected to all sorts of different things. First of all, we obviously have Haley Bieber, daughter of Stephen Baldwin, who is with Justin Bieber, whatever. Underrated though. William Baldwin, aka Billy Baldwin, is married to China Phillips, who is a member of Wilson Phillips. And that takes you to the Mamas and the Papas, that takes to you to Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. And then you’ve got the brothers themselves. Alec, you’ve probably heard of him. You know, extraordinary actor, it must be said. And if you watch the movie Working Girl, some people were just too hot. Too hot. God said you have to stop. God punished him, ultimately. And we know in the ways he did.

 

Mariah Smith I think that’s a very, very great option to have in there. And I also find it so fascinating that Hayley, even being a Baldwin, she took Bieber’s last name knowing that would have more cachet than being a Baldwin.

 

Louis Virtel Right, she’s like, the time is now.

 

Mariah Smith Like the time- I can make the job. It’s to go from two historical last names, truly no one’s doing it like her. And now she’s built a brand in beauty that many can’t contend with.

 

Louis Virtel No, excuse me, she has a famous fucking shake. My girlfriends come from Lamont, Illinois, and they’re like, I gotta go eat the Hailey Bieber shake otherwise I haven’t gone to LA.

 

Mariah Smith And it’s actually delicious!

 

Louis Virtel Right. And it’s like, you know, it’s a cool $33.

 

Mariah Smith But worth every cent because that’s what I’m not making it at home.

 

Louis Virtel No, it’s like a three-layer cake or something.

 

Mariah Smith Right, I’m not going to get, like, coconut silk to put in my algae and mix up with raspberry and strawberries and, no, no. I’m going to Erawan where they’re doing it how they should be doing it.

 

Louis Virtel Right, right.

 

Mariah Smith I, another family in that vein is one that again has multiple names, the Kardashians, the Hadids, the Fosters, the Jenners, and the Thompson.

 

Louis Virtel I mean, they’re the most, certainly the most unavoidable family of our time.

 

Mariah Smith The most unavoidable, and I love how Kendall and Kylie are somewhat stepsisters adjacent to their best friends, Bella and Gigi by virtue of David Foster, his ex-wife. She was once married to Caitlyn Jenner. And Caitlyn was the- step-followers to all of their kids. It’s all this mix and match of stuff, and then obviously the Kardashian-Jenner’s, which goes to the West, which goes to Travis Scott, which go to Tristan Thompson, which goes now to Timothy Chalamet.

 

Louis Virtel This is like we didn’t start the fire. Exactly.

 

Mariah Smith Exactly. They’re the nucleus of Hollywood, whether we like it or not. They are what everything ultimately goes back to.

 

Louis Virtel And also everybody in that family has like a definitive pop culture story or a moment in time, you know, precisely

 

Mariah Smith Like, if we’re saying, and then even their father who represented O.J. Simpson, and then the connection of Faye Resnick. We have, unfortunately, it’s tough, yeah, yeah. Decades since the 80s. You really argued this well. They’ve been in the trenches.

 

Louis Virtel Right. You know what I’d like to say about the Jenners, as compared to the Kardashians, they also have long dark hair, but in a different way. That’s how I define them.

 

Mariah Smith Yes. And I know exactly what you mean when you say that. And I can see the difference, yet I can’t quite explain it.

 

Louis Virtel No, right. And of course, you’ve got Timothee Chalamet there too, who by the way has a real history of dating the daughters of famous people.

 

Mariah Smith He loves it.

 

Louis Virtel It’s like apparently a king.

 

Mariah Smith You got a famous last name, get at me. Yeah. And now Lily Rose, she said, uh-uh, now she’s with a woman.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Lily Rose is with a woman? I think so. I think she’s with someone. She’s in a queer relationship. She was so good on that show. The idol, she was really good on the idol.

 

Mariah Smith I didn’t watch that just by virtue of-

 

Louis Virtel no i mean it was a frightening situation and yet

 

Mariah Smith But she was good?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, oh, she’s a great actress. I love LilybrowsDub.

 

Mariah Smith Okay, that-

 

Louis Virtel Don’t need to see your father ever again, we discussed him last week.

 

Mariah Smith Ever again lock him up

 

Louis Virtel Beautiful Mother, too, Vanessa Paradis.

 

Mariah Smith Her mother is stunning, which is why she has that snatched face.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, precisely.

 

Mariah Smith Another family for you.

 

Louis Virtel I have to go with, I’m so sorry Keep It Listeners, the fondas. Now I am a Jane Fonda stan.

 

Mariah Smith Yeah, I love Jane Fonda.

 

Louis Virtel But Henry Fonda, her father, is one of the esteemed actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood. And I have to say about that, not a particularly versatile actor. You would cast people in movies because they seemed respectable, and so he played these all-American roles in like 12 Angry Men, but the movie he was amazing in was The of Wrath. Which is one of the few movies from the 1940s that feels 20 or 30 years ahead of its time. Another movie from that time that’s similar to that is Black Narcissus. Doesn’t feel like it was made in the 40s at all, but Henry Fonda had this kind of stature and you wanted to believe in his goodness, right? So then he has this daughter, Jane Fonda, who when she starts is kind of in like college comedies and Neil Simon movies and is like even a little bit nervous to be there. She doesn’t like she’s like pretty but like not really stand out people like Anne margaret are doing way better than she is And then she becomes this insane dramatic actress who’s the most cynical presence on screen who could be like Uh a prostitute who’s like dismissive of men like blowing away everybody else on screen And suddenly she has two oscars for clued and coming home Then she starts producing movies and then of course she becomes the juggernaut workout lady and now she’s this And also suddenly, she’s one of the funniest celebrities who ever lived. We talked about this with her when she was on the show. Henry was not a funny man. No. She was very funny.

 

Mariah Smith But she also is one of the greatest activists we have in this time. She’s been arrested many times out on the streets preaching for what is right.

 

Louis Virtel She has that Miley Cyrus nepo quality where she’s like, unconcerned with what like her activism or her attitude will do to her fame.

 

Mariah Smith There’s nothing that can kink that arm. Correct.

 

Louis Virtel Correct. That’s exactly what’s happening.

 

Mariah Smith Like, even with Susan Sarandon, their people have, you know, turned their cheeks. But it’s like with Jane, nothing.

 

Louis Virtel Right. And she remains flawless and, you know, just, like, chic, yeah. Her brother Peter wrote the movie Easy Rider. He was eventually an Oscar-nominated actor for Uly’s Gold. He died recently. And then you have Bridget Fonda, who was in Single White Female and a number of movies. Jackie Brown. And she had a 90s heyday, and she’s married to Danny Elfman. There’s just, this is, that’s four members of a family who are all in-acting. But also have all done slightly different, strange things that connect them to the broader entertainment sphere, and they’re all memorable in their own way. Yeah, I just love all four of them.

 

Mariah Smith Okay, that is a dark horse. I do believe you’ve argued that well. I, one family that I will not take any questions on, the Waynes. Please, oh please. They are longevity, variety, each one of them. Everyone in the family seems to be hysterical. Also with the, just starting at the Damon’s, we have my wife and kids with Damon Senior. Damon Jr. Was on New Girl, Coach, Happy Endings, my favorite show in the world. And they have a show now together, I think, on CBS. Like, these people are unstoppable. They’re amazing. Nothing needs to be said. And also they have the show The Wayans Brothers. And that was one of the most pivotal sitcoms of the 90s. This family, full stop. They are that girl.

 

Louis Virtel Don’t forget about Kim Wayans too!

 

Mariah Smith Stop it at Kim Wain, she is hysterical.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Oh no, Living Color was such an eye-opening show for me as a kid because they went all out. I mean, the laughs were hard. It wasn’t about subtlety. I mean it was just like full out. Their family feud parodies were unbelievably hysterical and that’s of course the show that introduced us to Jim Carrey for the most part too.

 

Mariah Smith And Jennifer Lopez and Rosie Perez.

 

Louis Virtel Oh my god, Jennifer Lopez doing Tate McCray shit from the start.

 

Mariah Smith Say that!

 

Louis Virtel She’s like, she’s like my head’s in a circle now and you’re in a trance.

 

Mariah Smith Dancer’s dancer who ran into pop fame and movies, which I wish she would really stick to dance.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. No, there’s there are people that I call Paula Abdul’s.

 

Mariah Smith Ahhhh

 

Louis Virtel where it’s like, I want to see you do old-timey Gene Kelly shit, you know, and then it’s secondary to me, whatever comes out of the mouth.

 

Mariah Smith Whatever comes out of that, if that makes you happy, just continue to do what makes me happy. That’s all I ask.

 

Louis Virtel Do that too.

 

Mariah Smith Just continue to do that. So do you have another family? What are you thinking?

 

Louis Virtel The Last Family, I have to suggest The Houston’s, as in John Houston, Angelica Houston, Danny Houston. There’s a whole bunch, but I’m a big fan of classic Hollywood. John Houston one of our most esteemed directors, he did like the African Queen. He has a memorable villain role in the movie Chinatown. He’s an Oscar nominated actor himself for the movie The Cardinal. His daughter Angelica Huston is just one of my favorite actresses who first of all anybody with a haircut that’s just lampshade.

 

Mariah Smith I mean, and sticking to it.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Yeah, for 175 years she has kept this up. Oscar winner for Pritzzee’s Honor, she’s in an amazing movie called Enemies of Love Story. She’s also the star of a very little scene movie called The Dead that I’ve talked about on the show before where it’s a 70-minute movie based on a James Joyce short story directed by her father, his last movie. It’s my favorite Christmas movie. You think it’s about one thing, and then in the last 15 minutes she gives a monolog that turns it into something else entirely and you realize this is an incredible performance and an incredible movie, it’s just an epic movie that is so short, which is possible. It’s lovely. It is lovely. Her half-brother, Danny Houston, is in the new Naked Gone movie.

 

Mariah Smith What, oh my god, what?

 

Louis Virtel I know lots going on here and of course she was with Jack Nicholson for years and years and just Pure glamor like people who are only is old Hollywood They are pure prestige and I know you’re not prestige forward. I respect it. Yes They achieved it constantly. Yeah, and Angelica has two great memoirs. I really recommend the both of them and I just love Legacies of people who really are like I’m gonna nail the arts. I’m not just gonna be a participant in the culture I’m going to like slight and of her famous photography with Richard Avedon. She was basically a supermodel before she was an amazing actress.

 

Mariah Smith Man, you’ve given us, wow, the prestige really, really got to me. Okay, should we pick our four?

 

Louis Virtel Oh, sure, please, let’s see here. These are, by the way.

 

Mariah Smith We kind of killed it.

 

Louis Virtel This is a definitive telling, I think, with respect to the Barry Morris, who I think would be seventh.

 

Mariah Smith Which I think, well, I would say the Barrymores or the Hawn-Hudson.

 

Louis Virtel Right, right, a delightful family. Just like Bruce Dern and Laura Dern and Diane Ladd too, but like they kind of needed one more person.

 

Mariah Smith And then, and Oliver is working towards that, I think, in terms of mainstream. But, okay, I am gonna, the Jacksons, duh, ugh.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, I’ll say this. We also have to say something about the Jacksons because that’s gotta be the record for most siblings of note, because they all have a specific, like even Reby Jackson had the song Centipede, you know, before you even get into Michael and Janet and Tito and Jermaine and all the other ones.

 

Mariah Smith And Latoya. Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, right. LaToya, oh my god, my favorite performer in We Are The World.

 

Mariah Smith What my favorite performer and the gift of her with the magnifying glass.

 

Louis Virtel When she had that moment on Celebrity Apprentice.

 

Mariah Smith I mean, classic, history. Okay, so I do think we need to put the jazz.

 

Louis Virtel Okay, let’s say the Jacksons are first, and by the way, Catherine Jackson’s still around.

 

Mariah Smith Still, she is still kicking.

 

Louis Virtel And she had all those goddamn kids in Gary fucking Indiana.

 

Mariah Smith And had to be married to Joe. Right. And we’re going to get that movie soon too with Coleman Domingo. Yes, can’t wait, Coleman Dmingo and he’s going to knock it out of the park. Yeah. All right. The Jacksons, the fond as you convinced me.

 

Louis Virtel I think we have to say the Fondas because all of them were at the top of their form at one point and they all bring something different.

 

Mariah Smith The Kardashians.

 

Louis Virtel I think at this point, you have to say them, because it’s not just, you’d say, oh, that’s a distinctly modern phenomenon, but no, there are traces to the 80s. And also… Historical impact. Literally, it’s been 20 years now. They can’t stop.

 

Mariah Smith And we can’t say it’s just a 15 minutes. These women run the show.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right.

 

Mariah Smith So last place on our Mount Rushmore of Celebrity Families.

 

Louis Virtel It’s either Baldwin’s or Wayans, I think.

 

Mariah Smith I’m gonna go weigh-ins.

 

Louis Virtel Let’s do weigh-ins. For sheer, we are all oriented around one thing. We love comedy. We love comedy.

 

Mariah Smith Yes, comedy and making comedic impact and again, cross generation.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, and also Damon Wayans Jr. Is such a good comic actor and so handsome.

 

Mariah Smith So attractive and so in deep, like he just does nothing wrong.

 

Louis Virtel You know, Happy Endings, not only was that a great show, it’s impossible to pick a best actor on that show. They all were like, they were all popping with all the references and they made, I mean, they made that really hard dialog just like fly off the tongue.

 

Mariah Smith That show, the most, it didn’t get the flowers it needs. And the fact that we only have three seasons is a tragic crime.

 

Louis Virtel There are a few of those shows, like Difficult People, where it’s just like, I guess I’ll just be re-watching these till the end of time.

 

Mariah Smith Honestly, ugh, I think I like this. So the Waynes, Kardashians, the Fondas, and the Jacksons, we did good.

 

Louis Virtel Right. And I agree. And you know, you just don’t want to see a bald one’s face that big on a statue.

 

Mariah Smith No, no, and I don’t even Haley I just don’t want to be reminded of what comes behind her

 

Louis Virtel That’s precise, that’s precise. All right, those are our four. You can go and fight with us in the comments. You know what, I’ll jump right in and probably start crying. I get a little defensive. When we’re back, it’s time for keeping. And we’re back with our favorite segment of the show. It’s Keep It. Mariah, you seem like someone who was born to tell something to keep it.

 

Mariah Smith Listen, I am telling, oh, Kendra Licari, to keep it of unknown number, which I know you haven’t watched. It’s the show on or it’s the documentary on Netflix about a young teenage girl who, starting in October of 2020, was bullied by an unknown bully, texting her the craziest things about how she was gonna have sex with this girl’s boyfriend, how she needed to kill herself, how this girl sucked. The bully was her own mother. This woman was texting her daughter. She had. An anorexic looking ass, no one loved her, she needed it to die, that her, she was gonna suck her boyfriend’s dick and was doing all this nasty, down, low, disgusting, awful things to, again, her own child in high school for years, tormenting her. And guess what? This woman shows up in the documentary and says, she’s misunderstood. And that we’ve all committed crimes, we just haven’t gotten caught. And if we got caught, we’d be in the same position she was. And she only spent a year in prison where she had computer access and was still communicating with her daughter. Kendra LaCarrie, you can keep it. And matter of fact, go back to prison.

 

Louis Virtel Okay, do you know what my mom texts me? Lewis, I love the episode. Listen, it’s not the same.

 

Mariah Smith Not the same. And then this girl would come home crying and her mom would be like, it’s okay, we’ll find them. She was helping with the investigation, trying to find who was texting her child, these lewd and awful things.

 

Louis Virtel Why was she so intent on destroying her own daughter?

 

Mariah Smith She said that she just wanted to.

 

Louis Virtel Wow. I mean, I love it as a villain mode of just like, I’m on zero.

 

Mariah Smith She was like, you know, I’m just misunderstood. And if people, you know, I only told her to kill herself because I knew she wouldn’t do it. Like things like smart, smart, good going. Yeah. You’re a great mother. Unfortunately, I have to watch this. You have to. And there’s body cam footage of her basically arrest with the daughter and her husband in the room.

 

Louis Virtel Where did this take place?

 

Mariah Smith Beale City, Michigan.

 

Louis Virtel Okay.

 

Mariah Smith And again, they filmed this this year. All of this happened within between 2020 and 2023. And the kids are still in high school. It started when they were in middle school, and now the kids aren’t high school and it’s them talking very candidly about what trauma this woman inflicted upon them.

 

Louis Virtel I will say, let’s say my mom was pulling a scam on me and doing this to me, I would know it was her.

 

Mariah Smith IMMEDIATELY!

 

Louis Virtel I feel like I can detect literary voices and like there’s something even about like when people put certain punctuation and stuff like I’m a bit surprised.

 

Mariah Smith And she was speaking in different literary voices throughout all the text. Sometimes she was trying to put on an AAVE sort of thing with like bruh and for real, you be messing with this man. Exactly. But then some sentences would be perfectly punctuated and written like someone who was not a teenager. But this woman had multiple phones, got fired from her jobs and a history in IT and was spending all day in their shed texting her up to 40, 50 times a day.

 

Louis Virtel I mean, I have nothing to say to that other than-

 

Mariah Smith What? What? Go back to jail. Now, what’s your key?

 

Louis Virtel Oh my god, that is so mind-blowing. My keep it has been percolating on the internet for a while now, and I’m only now sort of bringing myself to discuss this fucking thing. Keep it to the Wizard of Oz at the Sphere in Las Vegas, which first of all, it’s very generous to call what they’re doing playing the Wizard Of Oz at The Sphere In Las Vegas because they are cutting 20 plus minutes from the movie. Why? So you’re not even getting the full Wizard Of Oz experience. I think what the problem is is They wanna spend more time on the giant spectacle of The Wizard of Oz. And by the way, not every scene in that movie is like a towering, colorful moment, but they’re using AI to make it fill up the screen. So what you’re seeing is not just the 1939 Victor Fleming classic. You’re seeing the worst of computers fuck with the legendary work of Judy Garland and Ray Bolger and Jack Haley and Burt Lahr. And by they way, has a lion ever been finer than Burt lahr?

 

Mariah Smith They did that and whoever was under that tin man and got sick from that metallic paint

 

Louis Virtel That would be Mr. Buddy Epson kudos to him. Yes, they deserve better He went on to of course be on the Beverly Hillbillies, but I’m not gonna go on from this fucking Like insult to classic cinema. I’m just saying it’s like look. I know we all want to like Do club drugs and be in a big room of stimulating lights or whatever? But it’s Like you are really denigrating one of the few utterly distinct utterly mainstream masterpieces. We have

 

Mariah Smith One of the most classics of classic film.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, we were discussing before the podcast, I think The Wizard of Oz is one of the only movies where every scene is iconic. Every scene of it is famous.

 

Mariah Smith I will say, I agree, but I think also on that same note, the Wiz has that same honor.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, I fucking love the whiz.

 

Mariah Smith And I think because every time I think about both and because you’re also comparing the scenes of like what how the story tracks They should put that on the big screen, too If you’re trying to fill space and fill time and fill whatever leave ai out of this or pick another movie That’s going to give you what you want where you can play the full thing and honor the integrity of the movie.

 

Louis Virtel Like Titanic or something. Yes! Which by the way, that actually comes close. I think almost every scene in Titanic is the same as two. But The Wiz, you play that in the sphere, Mariah, during the subway scene, I’m scared.

 

Mariah Smith I’m actually leaving.

 

Louis Virtel I just say, I don’t need the garbage can to come at me.

 

Mariah Smith I don’t need them flying at me. I’m actually scared.

 

Louis Virtel No.

 

Mariah Smith Because I’m scared when I watch it on my TV.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Oh my gosh. Also, Diana Ross and that so full of life. I would love to see that though in a sphere.

 

Mariah Smith Yeah, love that.

 

Louis Virtel Mariah, thank you so much for being here.

 

Mariah Smith Thank you for having me, it’s been a pleasure.

 

Louis Virtel You’ll be shocked to learn that you are a born talker.

 

Mariah Smith You don’t say.

 

Louis Virtel I know. It fits. Something about it. Tell everybody where we can hear you every goddamn day.

 

Mariah Smith Yes, you can listen to me and my sisters on Smith Sisters Live on Radio Andy on SiriusXM channel 102 at 9 a.m. Eastern, 6 a.p. Pacific every single day of the week. You can follow us at Smith Sisters live on all social media and you can follow me at Mariah, Mariah Mariah on Instagram.

 

Louis Virtel Oh my god, that was Seacrest level.

 

Mariah Smith I’m not usually the one to do my credit. So that was, that was a lot.

 

Louis Virtel Thank you for being here and thank you everybody for listening. We’ll be back next week with more Keep It. 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. Keep It is a Crooked media production. Our producer is Bill McGrath. Our associate producer is Kennedy Hill. And our executive producers are Louis Virtel, Ira Madison III, and Kendra James. Our digital team is Delon Villanueva, Claudia Sheng, and Rachel Gajewski. This episode was recorded and mixed by Jarek Centeno. Thank you to David Toles, Kyle Seglin, and Charlotte Landes for production support every week. Our head of production is Matt DeGroot. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.