Ira and Louis break down Lizzo’s lawsuit, Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Aniston’s social media drama, Survivor legend Cirie Fields joining Big Brother, and director William Friedkin’s legacy. Plus, they play an IMDb themed game of celebrity called Known For where they guess a celebrity’s most popular credits. And Bethany Cosentino joins to discuss her new solo record Natural Disaster, American mall culture, and more.

TRANSCRIPT

[AD]

 

Ira Madison III And we are back with an all new Keep It. I’m Ira Madison, the third.

 

Louis Virtel I’m Louis Virtel, reporting live from my parents basement in the suburbs of Chicago. You will not believe the amount of straight paraphernalia surrounding me right now. My younger brother Mark recently moved out, but all his debris is still here. There are 750 remote controls to video game systems that all look like they are space age. I don’t know. I don’t know anything about video games anymore. Nothing. My knowledge ended with Chun-li. That’s when it started. That’s when it ended. Lara Croft That too.

 

Ira Madison III Where’s the Playboy magazines?

 

Louis Virtel I know. I’m sure there’s like, Yeah, Playmate of the Year 1988 is lingering around here somewhere. A Samantha Fox poster somewhere around here.

 

Ira Madison III I actually used to love vintage like Playboy magazines.

 

Louis Virtel Who would be in them? Like, what was the whole thing we loved about them? I know there’s some cachet to it now.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, rather than just like a random, like, nineties celebrity. But it was just like I would find, you know, like when people say that, you know, I read it for the articles I thought I did. Like they were very interesting, like the Q&A they would have with people.

 

Louis Virtel Right.

 

Ira Madison III And they seemed a little bit like classier. Like if you found the Penthouse, though, that was that was a little raunchy.

 

Louis Virtel To quote the movie, The Beguiled, Bring me the anatomy book about me. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III I knew exactly what you were going for. I love that movie. I love that quote. I feel like we don’t talk about that movie enough.

 

Louis Virtel It well, it is this sort of like sinister breath of a movie. Like it’s very I would describe it almost as an unassuming movie, even though a couple of gruesome things occur in it. Everybody’s great in that great performance from Nicole, great performance from Kirsten Dunst.

 

Ira Madison III Mm hmm. And who’s in the Clinton?

 

Louis Virtel Mr. Colin Farrell.

 

Ira Madison III Mr. Collin Farrel. Yes, my king. Showing his arms on the SAGAFTRA after straight line.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, now, see, I have to say, I kind of thought we would get more updates about, you know, people at his level on on the picket line.

 

Ira Madison III Charlize was there the other day for her birthday.

 

Louis Virtel She was?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, that’s fucking rad. Well, also, the Academy just put a clip of her in Young Adult on their Instagram and people are commenting how much they love around Young Adult. Meanwhile, it’s super awkward because she wasn’t nominated for Young Adult, so it felt a little insecure on the Academy’s part.

 

Ira Madison III You know, they love to do shit like that, though, don’t they? Like I love whenever a award here happens to and someone’s not nominated, but they love sneaking those clips into the show just because like, oh, maybe we’ll trick, you know, the audience at home who’s watching and they’ll think that their fave is nominated. So they’re not even here?

 

Louis Virtel No, Danielle Deadwyler is nowhere in sight. But speaking of the academy, we just lost the director, William Friedkin, who won for French Connection, but obviously directed The Exorcist and also a rad interview. We just read his interviews if you ever get a chance. But this man also directed The Boys In The Band. This man also directed Cruising. And I have to say, whatever you have to say about those two movies, it’s a great kind of credibility. He went hard. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III First of all, I love a man who really seems like he should have had a podcast.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Oh.

 

Ira Madison III Constantly, constantly opinions. And it’s it’s funny because it’s like, I love when someone dies. Don’t love when someone dies. I love.

 

Louis Virtel It. I love it.

 

Ira Madison III I love it was.

 

Louis Virtel Slay. Dead.

 

Ira Madison III But it’s interesting when someone dies and people have sort of decided now that they will celebrate things that they’re saying, you know, because I feel like a lot of his like a lot of his like fun interviews and stuff that people are like, this is amazing. Look at him shaking the table, etc.. Modern day people try to do that now and they’re like, they’re being mean.

 

Louis Virtel Sure. Right.

 

Ira Madison III You know, like you could not be out there like him trash The Exorcist to say, say how much of a piece of shit it was. And also the clarity of him saying Exorcist he compared Exorcist two to someone taking Tolstoy and making like a porno musical for the sequel added, Like, are we saying The Exorcist is Tolstoy?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, I see. The Exorcist, much as I Love It is a very weird movie because it’s about an actress going to Washington, D.C. to play a part. And that’s where the expert, like Linda Blair, her daughter, Ellen Burstyn, the daughter becomes possessed. And then the just the events occur. There’s just very few Washington, D.C. set amazing movies. Actually. It’s just a weird place for that movie to take place, though. You can obviously go to those locations in the big stairwell where a certain death occurs. So if you’re in D.C. and, you know, in need of iconography, seek out The Exorcist locations.

 

Ira Madison III Well, The Exorcist is also a movie that I think about after just because my friends Josh Miller, his dad, was in The Exorcist, so he played the priest.

 

Louis Virtel Wait a minute. Jason Miller.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Joshua. John Miller.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Jason Miller is also a Pulitzer winning playwright. He won for writing a play called That Championship Season.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I don’t know if you ever knew this or if, like, listeners know this, but Joshua, John Miller and his partner Mark Fort, and I think you’ve met them. They wrote The Final Girls that horrible.

 

Louis Virtel Oh.

 

Ira Madison III And that movie was sort of based on, you know, his life story of sort of like having a dad who’s in this like, famous horror movie who passed away. You know, that’s what that was the inspiration for the Final Girls sound.

 

Louis Virtel The best horror, I think just occurred in the seventies. There’s just something about that decade where you want to see murders in that kind of lighting on those gross streets, you know, sleaze. That’s something we don’t have in movies anymore. Sleaze and also snaz. Like are the two essential 1970s qualities, the sleaze of like the the New York you see in the movie Klute and then also the, like, sweaty dance floor culture of something like Saturday Night Fever. These are the things I miss the most. I think, actually, those are my two favorite things you can have in a movie.

 

Ira Madison III But even like Cruising, right, you know, or Boys In The Band seem seem quaint now.

 

Louis Virtel Especially Boys In The Band. Yes. Right.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. But Cruising like had protests and they they call it anti-gay at the time. You can’t watch that movie and tell me it’s anti-gay. Okay. Cruising along with a double feature with a nightmare on Elm Street two, Freddy’s Revenge. Okay. Like that is that is pure fagot free on screen. And The Boys In The Band is. I liked the update and I like the the play Revival. I like the play Revival more than the film. Even though, you know, like the the cast of the Revival, they were all in the film, the one that Ryan directed. That was fine, I thought. But I like the play revival more. But I love the original film just because it feels more. I don’t know, visceral. Maybe it’s just because it’s 70s. It feels like a time capsule, but it just. It feels. It feels a bit more vicious than, you know, the remake was.

 

Louis Virtel And more vicious than things like, you know, Heart Stopper and the traditional gay law we got. You know, these days it’s all right by it once upon a time. No, I like Heart Stopper just watching it, you know. Yeah. You know, it’s very.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, no, no, no. It goes down like candy. It’s like, not something you think afterwards. But I want to say about The Boys.

 

Ira Madison III Did you finish it?

 

Louis Virtel No, I just started. It. Just started it. Love that kid’s eyebrows. Still still a fan. The original Boys In The Band. I feel like people don’t talk about that movie a lot. And it’s this movie that exists obviously, before the advent of things like AIDS and stuff. So you’re seeing people in a big city, gay friends hanging out there doing like kick lines and, you know, making Judy Garland jokes at each other. And it’s just nice to see, you know, fags hanging out. It’s you know, it’s fabulous in that way. And then finally, when the melodrama sets in and the, you know, I guess we’ll call it internalized homophobia becomes external. It’s a little awkward. And how visceral is the word you chose? It is, but also. I don’t know. It’s fun to see dated gay things because it feels like we don’t have any gay things. So I don’t know. It’s like there’s a lot of there’s a lot to mind there if you haven’t seen it yet from the early seventies. A lot of fun performances and one or two actual good, honest.

 

Ira Madison III Mainstream American film to use the word cunt.

 

Louis Virtel Get out. Progress, you see?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. You know, And now you go to the Renaissance Tour and it’s like cunt, cunt, cunt.

 

Louis Virtel I actually did. I actually just watched footage of the Renaissance, and I didn’t realize that word is just on the screen. Oh, that’s pretty. Yeah, I wouldn’t have guessed that for beyond, say, 15 years ago. You know.

 

Ira Madison III Weirdly enough, it’s at the Eras tour, too, you know?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, it’s me saying it in the aisles, screaming.

 

Ira Madison III It never goes out of style. Who goes up on the screen?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, she is still here. My God, she’s not in, like, a 58 day bender here in, uh, in L.A..

 

Ira Madison III Did you see it?

 

Louis Virtel Did I see the Eras Tour? No, I had you know, I had to wash my hair that night, so I didn’t get all seven nights. I had to wash my hair again. I said if a ticket fell in my lap, I would have gone. But. But, you know, my lap remains unadorned.

 

Ira Madison III You know, one day you’ll get that man out of your hair, you know, and you will have the time. Yeah. The Arabs tour.

 

Louis Virtel By the way. Can we just. Okay. I’m sorry about the sidebar. Wash that man right out of my hair. That’s got to be one of the greatest songs ever. A musical theater history. The turn of phrase of wash. That man right out of my hair is so gross and also awesome. Nelly FOrba, a straight character.

 

Ira Madison III Well, I mean, it’s raunchy, too, because, I mean, she’s washing this cum of her hair.

 

Louis Virtel No, the visual is there for me, I I’m I’m sure audiences thought the same thing. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III I also want to lastly point out about William Regal and his like a couple of his last movies were just adaptations of Tracy Letts’ plays Killer Joe and Bug.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Interesting choices.

 

Ira Madison III Doug. Scared the hell out of me.

 

Louis Virtel Really?

 

Ira Madison III Ashley Judd. Michael Shannon I don’t know. I mean, that one’s about, you know, like tinfoil conspiracies and, like, them going crazy. It is creepy.

 

Louis Virtel Well, also, you put Michael Shannon in a movie, period, and I’m already wigged out. I’m already hiding out of the seat. There’s just something about first of all, people just shouldn’t be that tall. Second of all, the menacing quality he brings, I’m telling you, there was a time when Christoph Waltz stole all of these roles, and then Michael Shannon came by, and it was like the cycle before the weed. All those roles went to Michael Shannon afterwards.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, I feel like what’s interesting about him, too, was, you know, like maybe what was interesting about the seventies, like the snap and the sleaze that you brought up was the fact that, like, I mean, like all those directors, they’re they’re like influences were like Godard, get our Fellini and, you know, like Kurosawa and, you know, like, who are people’s influences now?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Right. No, nothing. Everything is pretty clean. Esthetically now. Yeah. I don’t know. I don’t know if these people are lapping up that that real gross shit anymore. Maybe horror fans. Maybe.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I still need to see Talk To Me. Which I hear is great.

 

Louis Virtel So I have not fucking seen Talk To Me either. I’m actually a little behind on movies this year. I still haven’t seen Past Lives. I’m Louis. What am I doing with my time if not seeing Past Lives.

 

Ira Madison III Well travel around in basements.

 

Louis Virtel No, that’s true. I have a PlayStation so I can do my podcast. It’s hard times over here.

 

Ira Madison III All right. We have got a fun episode, actually. Well, we’ll talk about the Lizzo scandal, which is not so fun.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. One of our most fun topics, if if I’m being honest.

 

Ira Madison III Maybe Curious George finds that topic fun with the bananas and everything.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, right. The man in the yellow hat. He’s on this case. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III She’s the man in the yellow hat.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. We need to not illustrate that. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III But also, I’m going to introduce Louis to one of my favorite games, which I’ve been playing lately on, like, group trips, because, I mean, like, you know, speaking of Boys In The Band, right? You know, going on trips with girls, eventually you like, you run out of conversation, you run out of conversation about, like, the mundane details of your life and you want to play a game. And I feel like I’m not some of my friends aren’t so much board game people, but we love like variations of celebrity.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III And so we’re going to play this game called Known For, which involves IMDB. And we’ll get to that a bit later.

 

Louis Virtel Can’t wait. And our guest today is the fabulous Best Coast alumna and now solo artist Bethany Cosentino, whose album I Am just loving. And I have to tell you, the Liz Phair vibes are bouncing off this fucker.

 

Ira Madison III Truly, when I was talking to Bethany about coming on Keep It and I was like, This is actually an album that is going to be one that Louis loves.

 

Louis Virtel And I just texted the whole Keep It thread like, I am loving this album. So I feel a little predictable right now and overly seen.

 

Ira Madison III We will be right back with more Keep It.

 

<AD>.

 

Ira Madison III All right, Louis. In the words of Cardi B in the song Rumors. I’m going to teach you about big girl coochie.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, my God. Let me get my number two pencil out. The note cards are ready.

 

Ira Madison III Lizzo is under fire lately, and unfortunately, it has nothing to do with my petition to stop her from playing that goddamn flute.

 

Louis Virtel Excuse me. I just want to say that the flute was always cool. And if you haven’t seen Alanis Unplugged in 1999 and the solo she busts out in after that, I will be good. You’re missing out.

 

Ira Madison III I knew you were, like, a closet, floutest enthusiast.

 

Louis Virtel So that sounds like someone being accused of being gay in a Tennessee Williams play. I knew you were a flutist. Geraldine Page screaming that at somebody.

 

Ira Madison III I was just maligning Geraldine Page.

 

Louis Virtel What for?

 

Ira Madison III For stealing Whoopi Goldberg’s Oscar.

 

Louis Virtel That’s usually how she comes out these days. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trip to Bountiful is an amazing performance. Geraldine Page is awesome. Also a cooky woman.

 

Ira Madison III I saw Cicely Tyson.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, me too.

 

Ira Madison III Bountiful. Yes. And so I’ve never seen on Geraldine Page the film with Geraldine. I’ve never seen that film. But I’m like, I’ve seen the Cicely Tyson version of that. So I feel like it would not it would not live up.

 

Louis Virtel Well, I’ll say this about the Geraldine Page version. There’s nobody yelling her lines in her ear. Like in the Cicely Tyson one you saw. So it’s probably a little better.

 

Ira Madison III Wow.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, God love Cicely Tyson.

 

Ira Madison III You told Harpo to beat her. This slander. She is in the ground, Louis.

 

Louis Virtel So is Charlie. She died, like, a year after that.

 

Ira Madison III She’s further. She can’t hear us. I mean, she died a year after Cicely.

 

Louis Virtel No, no. Geraldine Page died, like, a year after she won the Oscar.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. Yeah. So, see, she’s further in the ground. She’s probably not even there anymore. Grave robbers.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, It’s always coming after mid mid-eighties. Best actress winners. I’ll say one thing about both Cicely Tyson and Geraldine Page before we have a conversation that people actually want to hear. Both married to interesting people. Cicely Tyson, married to Miles Davis. Geraldine Page, married to Rip Torn. Okay, moving on.

 

Ira Madison III I’m honestly. I was thinking, I think we talked about that when Cicely died, which, by the way, I don’t know if we’ve ever said this on the podcast. Do you know? Do you know that we had do you know that we had that bitch booked?

 

Louis Virtel Say that a fucking gain.

 

Ira Madison III Remember. Remember we had like, when we get when we do a little behind the scenes, like we go through, we confirm gas and we book people, etc.. And remember, Cicely Tyson was doing her book press was planning a book press tour, but then she died.

 

Louis Virtel But she actually took one look at us on the itinerary and she’s like, actually, this is my time to leave. She’s like, Thanks so much.

 

Ira Madison III Go into that light.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. So it’s about.

 

Ira Madison III Go into that light.

 

Louis Virtel You two have fun. Good night.

 

Ira Madison III But I think we said this around the time that she died to reading her memoir, which is fantastic, by the way, if you haven’t read it. I would love to, like, see a play, a movie. Something about her relationship with Miles. Miles Davis. It’s just seems sexy.

 

Louis Virtel No, I mean, come on. Who’s not writing this for the fucking blacklist? What else are you writing about? That’s how you get on the blacklist. I’ve heard of these two celebrities. Write a little thing about them.

 

Ira Madison III Let me tell you what’s not sexy. This Lizzo lawsuit.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, thank you so much. God, you’re really a transition. Okay. Yes. What is going on here?

 

Ira Madison III So she has been sued by three of her former dancers for discrimination and creating a hostile work environment. And, well, first of all, I didn’t know that was something you could sue for. I feel like Louis has a case.

 

Louis Virtel Moving along. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III But the dancers are Arianna Davis, Krystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez. And they’ve alleged sexual harassment, religious harassment, racial harassment, disability discrimination, assault and false imprisonment.

 

Louis Virtel These are all, by the way, on American Gladiators events. I wanted to just say that. Go ahead. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III All of this is happening on Days of our Lives right now.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. So part of.

 

Ira Madison III The stunning nature of from their attorney, the stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly. While privately she weight shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are not only illegal, but absolutely demoralizing. This is a key point of the lawsuit. Listen, we are you know, we’re not Chris Gardner here. You know, we’re not about to get into all the legalities of this case. I’d rather we just reveal we, like, have a lot of grace right now. But. What’s interesting is, like it says not only illegal but also demoralizing. I feel like I need to point out that a lot of outlets were running with the fat shaming element of the story, which I feel like was, you know, get people to be like, Oh, look, Lizzo isn’t practicing what she preaches or, you know, like Lizzo was employing Fatphobia as well. But they are not actually suing for that. Got it. So I feel like that was just to be like in the public conversation, as it were. They’re also suing Lizzo’s dance captain Charlene Quigley, who’s accused of preaching Christianity against premarital sex in the workplace while oversharing her masturbatory habits and sex life with her husband. Okay, girl. But the one thing I want to say about that. I. Whatever you think about the Lizzo element of it all this Shirleen heffer

 

Louis Virtel She is fucking shady.

 

Ira Madison III She definitely did that shit because you are being sued for trying to force Christianity on these backup dancers. And the first thing you do is go to Instagram and make it Instagram live like God loves you. And even if you don’t think he does, he loves you. He’s watching, He’s under your bed, he has your phone taps, he’s talking to your grandma, he’s reading your tax returns. Like that video was basically a threat.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. And also just that vibe you get from somebody who is a zealot where they’re looking at you and seeming to hold eye contact, but their eyes are crossing. You know what I mean? That kind.

 

Ira Madison III Of like.

 

Louis Virtel Me, this person thinks they’re communicating with me and they look like they’ve eaten the bad berries helped me.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, we just had Aly and AJ on the show and Aly was of course in Easy A, and that was giving very Amanda Bynes an Easy A.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Right. A fine Amanda Bynes performance, by the way.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, But honestly, I think Amanda Bynes is completely a performance. I think she’s Charlie Kaufman.

 

Louis Virtel I think it’s Joaquin Phenix in that one documentary. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, yeah. And that’s coming out is going to come out directed by the Safdie Brothers.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, God. Right.

 

Ira Madison III She’ll get an Oscar.

 

Louis Virtel It’ll be like, barely. It’ll be on the indie awards circuit for a split second, and then it’ll go. Yeah. Anyway, No, you’re right. This woman, I mean, like, if you’re going to accuse this woman of anything harping on religious themes and being shameful about it does sound kind of correct. Based on what she post on Instagram. Very strange choice to post that.

 

Ira Madison III One of the answers says that when she resigned, Lizzo aggressively approached her, cracking her knuckles, balling her fists as she feared that Lizzo was going to hit her and one of the other dancers had not intervened. This has been denied by Lizzo, obviously, she said, that I am very open with my sexuality and expressing myself, but I cannot accept to allow people that use that openness to make me out to be something I am not. Unfortunately, she is being defended in the court of public opinion by Grimes and Jameela Jamil.

 

Louis Virtel Oh God. Charlie’s Fallen Angels.

 

Ira Madison III As she’s also hired Marty Singer as a lawyer who was also defendant Bill Cosby, Johnny Depp and Jonah Hill.

 

Louis Virtel My heroes. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III First of all, I know that, like, this is always a thing that people do online where they’re like, oh, she’s guilty. Guilty. You know, What’s that? What someone that’s like. Rep. Rep. These, you know, like, reprehensible people. I want to point out, though, that, like, I feel like there’s not that many high powered lawyers that you would immediately go to, like taking like a case like this. Right. I mean, there’s a lot. But like. I feel like a lot of lawyers have represented awful people. You know, I’ve seen.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, no, that’s the job, right? No, it’s a judge based on that is, you know, obtuse.

 

Ira Madison III Speaking of Jonah Hill, though, by the way. Did you see his new paparazzi photos?

 

Louis Virtel Yes. With his high waisted pants.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, high waisted pants. I mean, she maybe she was on her way to a carpenters concert, first of all.

 

Louis Virtel Excuse me. I’m there. He may not join me, and I’m in the box seat.

 

Ira Madison III He was looking slender. He was giving Louis a few years ago. Oh, sure know. Yeah. Before your muscle Dad’s transformation. Oh, right.

 

Louis Virtel But I was more of a shaggy from Scooby Doo. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III He’s giving the Shaggy from Scooby Doo. And I only bring this up because, like, there’s an interview in People magazine where he was talking about talking to his therapist about, like, getting over, like, his addictions and whatever. And he was essentially talking about how he’s addicted to love.

 

Louis Virtel Robert Palmer called. He said, it’s not stepping on my game. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III And I love the concept of a love addiction.

 

Louis Virtel I have been told before that love addiction and sex addiction are treated a bit synonymously. Anyway, now I’m weighing in on something I know nothing about.

 

Ira Madison III We can ask Eric Benet. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel And John Leguizamo.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Yeah. Three famous sex addicts.

 

Louis Virtel Right. I think they’re the highest ranked ones, too. Oh, and David Duchovny. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Was he?

 

Louis Virtel Yes, I believe. Once upon a time, too.

 

Ira Madison III I thought he just because I was thinking he just played one on Californication.

 

Louis Virtel No, I believe that was part of his life, too. Okay. But back to Lizzo. I will say. Whatever happened here, to me, it sounds like, all right, she treated some people horribly and they’re trying to find a legal way to address it. And like some of the things they say, I’m like, yeah, that sounds dubious, like being in a club and you feel pressured to do certain things with certain performers. And there’s just an uneasiness about the working with this person and then having this like leisurely rowdy life with her too. I get that that’s kind of confusing. And there’s gray areas there and stuff. But I have to say, I feel like people are treating this with extra irony because Lizzo preaches whatever, don’t be fat phobic or accept that whatever. I don’t think I think it’s possible to treat people like shit and then also literally believe you are preach that, you know, treat people with respect. I don’t find that to be hypocritical. I just think it’s like, all right, she messed up a few times or maybe she’s hard to work with or whatever. And then intellectually you can still believe these other things. I just feel like a huge part of why this is so titillating to people as they think that any woman who says, you know, treat people with kindness is secretly a bitch.

 

Ira Madison III Mm hmm. Yeah. You know. I think there’s there’s the weird element of this case where it’s like people have been waiting to get lives. And I’ve always tried to understand it because, I mean, like, yeah, she’s kind of corny. She’s not particularly for me.

 

Louis Virtel That’s I would say the worst thing about her music is it’s a little corny for me. That’s what I would say. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, it’s not for me. I remember like a couple of weeks ago there was a report about like she had done a concert and the concert was stopped for like 30 minutes so she could give like, pep talks to, like, people in the audience or whatever. And I was like, Well, that sounds like hell. That’s like, because first of all, I’m like, Baby, if I’m at a concert, I’m drinking. I’m probably on some kind of drug. I’m having a good time. 30 minutes of your time as a 12 year old girl, like, believe in your dreams. I don’t think so, honey.

 

Louis Virtel And also. Right. Anybody could say, believe in your dreams. You don’t need to take time out to, like, recite these aphorisms that come from any which place, any greeting card you would ever see.

 

Ira Madison III Mm hmm. But no, I mean, yes. I mean, people contain multitudes, and there can be a person who, you know, believes in, like, uplifting and stuff. And then also just, you know, like a bitch behind the scenes.

 

Louis Virtel Or, like, has bad days or whatever. And I don’t mean to denigrate or say that I disbelieve their experience. I just don’t think there’s added irony in someone having a message and then also being a little bit of a dick.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I will also say that there’s been so much conversation, you know, too, about like what the lawyers are doing here and, you know, like, I’m not going to speculate, but I feel like this is being brought in to the court of public opinion to sort of force a settlement or something and not really go to court, because I’m because I’m also just like we’re on TMZ. Which is one thing. But then like going on News Nation with Chris Cuomo, who I did not know was still alive.

 

Louis Virtel I thought he was the man of no News Nation. Yeah, right right alone. I did not News Nation.

 

Ira Madison III I did not know he was like hosting a show which looks like a weird bizarro version of Fox when you look up Chris Cuomo. News Nation. Just like images of it. It’s like a photo of him and then like some other like white blond women and stuff behind him. And I’m like, it’s truly bizarre on Fox News. Oh, I’ve also never heard of it before. But it’s also there’s also a funny irony of him reporting on this, given he was fired for covering up his brother’s arms scandal.

 

Louis Virtel Right, right, right. Yeah. What do we think of Lizzo’s retorts, which I would say are very in-your-face, is what I would choose. Like she says, I’m just it’s a lie.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, she says it’s a lie. There’s another thing that I want to point out to. And this is getting into like The Real Housewives of it all. I remember when the Erika Jayne stuff happened, Right. You know, and people were lambasting her for not showing support for the victims or whatever, etc.. Right. You know, like. In a noncriminal case in a case where you are being sued. If you have any kind of statement that shows sympathy for the victims, shows that you understand where they’re coming from, etc., like you’re losing, you know, like your lawyer is. Any statement that someone releases who is being sued? Their lawyer has gone through that statement with a fine tooth comb to make sure that this is not something that will affect you in court.

 

Louis Virtel Right, right, right.

 

Ira Madison III So it has to be in your face and cold by nature.

 

Louis Virtel Again, I do not want this to come off as like I’m siding with Lizzo, but I am thinking about her rise to fame. For years and years, she was this person who was kind of like on the rise and around like she’s the kind of person who would host a red carpet for, like the VMAs as a sort of pseudo celebrity on the fringe and to.

 

Ira Madison III Land on MTV. You know that.

 

Louis Virtel Right, Right. Yes. I remember watching this telecast with a couple of friends, and she was literally on the red carpet with people named Steak and Mike. It was Steak, Mike and Lizzo, that’s what the krod said. And I remember we were all like, Who the fuck are these people? But I did remember thinking Lizzo was really funny and I have this weird feeling, and this is just something I kind of feel this way about Ellen DeGeneres, too. It takes these people either they had their fame taken away from them or it took them extra long to get there so that once they actually do rise to the level of a giant star, they are extra protective of being there. And I feel like in that space, that’s where you can get people who are vicious and territorial or, you know, just like very protective and then rude and awful. You know, I kind of think that’s where that comes from or that’s just what I wonder.

 

Ira Madison III You know what I think the best way to go about the fame business? Have a brief burst of fame early. Maybe becoming an asshole and self-involved. Sure. Then you settled into, like, a normal rut. I’m talking about ourselves.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, sorry. I didn’t even recognize me in this hall of mirrors you’ve provided.

 

Ira Madison III You know, we burned Bright Louis, and now. Since the year six of talking about this pop culture share.

 

Louis Virtel I know we haven’t outgrown it yet. We haven’t moved into, Yeah, why isn’t this a podcast about luxurious housing or something?

 

Ira Madison III One last thing I want to say about like the Lizzo thing. If you are a current in private and you want to like, preach kindness. Publicly because, like, you think it’s good for your image or whatever. Don’t. Because you know what? We love assholes. The American public loves assholes. I mean, listen, I mean, like, they’re people are making salacious jokes or whatever about, like, Ariana Grande or whatever, but, you know, like, honestly, stealing people’s men is kind of like, likable and fun for celebrity. You know.

 

Louis Virtel It gives us something to talk about.

 

Ira Madison III It gives us something to talk about. And it makes you interesting and it makes you not boring.

 

Louis Virtel There is a an editorial in The Washington Post right now that’s about Lizzo. And the title is something like the message is don’t DFI celebrities? How fucking idiotic are we? Did the Washington Post turn into a Zynga from 2004? And then secondly, who is deifying Lizzo? You enjoy her music. It’s great that she’s around. About Damn Time. Great song. I’m okay with that Grammy.

 

Ira Madison III With white women at SoulCycle. Okay.

 

Louis Virtel Hey.

 

Ira Madison III Let me tell you, let me tell you something. Those instructors were probably scrambling this week. Who do you think they replaced? Who do you think they replaced J?. What do you think they replace Juice with?

 

Louis Virtel Oh, God. Well, first of all, Juice and its assorted remixes can be an entire playlist. So you’re right. Some people just had to start from scratch. But in that case, you know, those people are probably shifting to Taylor Swift with ease. I do have to say.

 

Ira Madison III Do you remember when Lizzo attacked this like Pitchfork writer because they compared the album Because I Love You. They said the music was very like Natasha Bedingfield, very mass market, produced for playing in grocery stores, playing in jams, etc., which is hilarious. It’s hilarious that this person clocked that. It’s hilarious that Lizzo got pressed about it. But also she wishes that she wishes she wrote these words. Okay.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, please. No, we don’t. We’re talking about the work of Natasha Bedingfield. Now, honey, if you haven’t listened to a Single recently, that is my fucking jam.

 

Ira Madison III She snapped all the way on that fucking album.

 

Louis Virtel Like, Oh, yeah, that is.

 

Ira Madison III We’re not making pop like that anymore. Okay, We’re not making pop for you to step out in your pants. Low rise denim jeans, a shirt, a shirt with, like, sort of a skirt that you’re wearing over the jeans.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, yeah. Yeah. You made a killing it. Charlotte Ruess Yes. You are the wet seal. You are dripping. You are the dripping sail. Okay, we need to play IMDB the game now. I’m thrilled and I’m ready to win.

 

Ira Madison III Yes, But first, we will be back with Bethany Cosentino.

 

Louis Virtel Okay.

 

<AD>

 

Ira Madison III Our guest today belongs on the Mount Rushmore of Queens of Summer. You know her from her iconic work with the Rock to our Best Coast, making emotional Golden State anthems for over a decade. But now that I’ve moved to New York, any little something different and she has delivered that with something completely new and different. Her debut solo record, Natural Disaster. Welcome to Keep It, the stunning and talented Bethany Cosentino. Hi.

 

Bethany Consentino What an intro. Thank you so much.

 

Ira Madison III Thank you for this album. Really. Louis and I were talking this morning. He was about how much he was enjoying it. And I’m really loving this, like, new vibe from you. It feels it feels like Best Coast inspired. It feels like in that same realm, but it’s completely like something 90 something like Liz Phair. Like it’s, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s a bit more, you know, like loose and like. I don’t know. Louis I have more descriptions.

 

Bethany Consentino I love. I love to be loose. Thank you.

 

Ira Madison III I also want to say this morning. I have a friend staying with me and I was listening to the album again before we recorded, and he was like, What is this song? Like Natural disaster. And he was like, Because it’s the hottest summer. That line. He was like, I’m feeling that actually is if feel the world. The summer is burning hot especially here at the city and that song it’s been really good.

 

Bethany Consentino It’s somebody on Twitter said it was like a dystopian Soak Up The Sun. And I was like, that’s truly what I love to hear and thank you so much. Yeah, I didn’t realize that the summer that it came out would literally be the actual hottest summer on record. Kind of jarring, but thank you. That’s awesome. Thanks. I love hearing that.

 

Louis Virtel We’ll also speaking of Soak Up The Sun, you’re apparently a gigantic Sheryl Crow fan.

 

Bethany Consentino I am.

 

Louis Virtel And you can hear a little bit of that in this record. I can’t even pick a favorite Sheryl Crow song. She’s somebody who I’ve always loved, like that era of music I’m obsessed with, like Liz Phair and Alanis Morissette. But Sheryl Crow is somebody I learned a little bit later. I love her self-titled album the most, but I was wondering, like, what’s your favorite Sheryl Crow era or album or song?

 

Bethany Consentino My favorite, I think also it’s so funny because I literally have this Tuesday Night Music Club poster behind me.

 

Louis Virtel Holy shit, you do.

 

Bethany Consentino It’s like. It’s like she just, like, looms over my shoulder. But I feel like every time I like, do an interview, she comes up, obviously, because I’m such a massive fan and she was a huge influence. But I feel like people probably are like, Oh, this girl’s trying to wear like Sheryl Crow skin. Like she wants this skin suit of Sheryl Crow. But it’s just like I move a little bit. It’s like, there she is. Globes I think Globes Sessions is my favorite album. And I think the reason why is because she obviously is like her writing is very personal and like, relatable. But I think that album is when she finally started to just sort of be like, the songs are almost like diary entry like, and I’m the kind of writer that, like I write about my feelings and emotions. I love all, you know, like I love when people use metaphor and shit, but I’m just more of a person that’s like, This is the way that the world makes me feel. And I’m going to talk about that in song. And I think that album for her is like her version of like opening in Sheryl Crow’s diary set to like.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, it’s very straightforward.

 

Bethany Consentino Melody is Yeah, yeah.

 

Louis Virtel I am not surprised to hear that. I feel like the comparison is evident.

 

Ira Madison III I feel like I need to do a show Crow dive and I feel like I would if I feel like maybe that’s the album to start with because like, obviously I feel like, yeah, I’m very like, Soak Up The Sun, you know, I’m very like, All I Want To Do, you know, like I’m very like upbeat shopping at the Target, Sheryl Crow. Yes.

 

Bethany Consentino You know, I feel like from what I know about you, Ira, from the Internet, I think you’d be a Sheryl Crow Stan.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. There’s also the song When Matt Roger’s on the show a couple of weeks ago, We’re talking about how I guess Sheryl Crow has perfect pitch and which makes sense because she was just recruited out of nowhere to be on the Michael Jackson bad idea to say, I just can’t stop loving you. So it would make sense that she’s that talented.

 

Bethany Consentino But yeah, crazy, incredible singer. Yeah, for sure.

 

Louis Virtel I also read that while making this album, you know, your first solo one, it was both the easiest and hardest thing you’d ever done. I was wondering if you could elaborate on that, because to me, this feels so effortlessly you in a way that I would just it just sounds like exactly the format you would want to deliver this music and the sound like the guitars, the the. Breeziness of it all feels very signature you. So was wondering what was both easy and hard about it.

 

Bethany Consentino I think that. I appreciate that a lot. Thank you. I think for me, the ease came with just knowing exactly what it was that I wanted to do. Like Best COast last album came out at the top of the pandemic, like before. Before COVID came. You know, it was like two weeks into tour and the world shut down and it was just like, okay, nobody can do anything. And I was just sitting around at home trying to figure out like, okay, am I going to be able to ever tour this record? Should I? You know, it’s like doing the dumb live, like acoustic guitar livestreams in my living room just being like, This is literally hell on earth. I don’t want to play into an iPhone. And I started to really think about like, what have I always wanted to do? And what I’ve always wanted to do is make a really different style of music, a different style of record. Like I’m a singer, that’s what I that’s like my main instrument. And like, I always wanted to make something that felt like I could tap into a lot of my influences, like Linda Ronstadt’s, my favorite singer of all time, and I was like, I want to make something that feels kind of more like that. And so I knew exactly what I wanted to do. But the process of like stripping myself away from the identity of like Bethany from Best Coast, I think was really hard for me. And also it was just like it was very uncomfortable for me, too, to have to like, acknowledge within myself that I felt that I had outgrown a part of myself and that I needed to kind of evolve and move on and try something a little bit different and more grown up. So it was like the growing pains were really hard, but the actual like idea of what I wanted to do came to me very quickly and that I just sort of, like, followed.

 

Ira Madison III Mm hmm. It’s interesting that you say, you know, like you wanted to, you know, tap into some different influences and maybe even the sort of like growing pains element of moving on from Best Coast because I feel like what always sort of, you know, appealed to me when I first heard the group was obviously, you know, I was I was living in California at the time, but I feel like I discovered best coast around when I discovered like tennis as well, you know, And I feel like it was that sort of like, I don’t know, just moving to California, this sort of like modern dream pop era vibe that was going on that feels very like pressing it there, like music you just want to, like, listen to when you’re driving in the car in California, what I guess where you’re sort of like influences that you feel like you were drawing on then if you feel like because, you know, I feel like, you know, you say, you know, like you have your Linda Ronstadt, like you’re Sheryl Crow and like you’re able to tap on that on your solo album. But how were you drawing inspiration in the band, I guess, and how is that different now that you’re just working solo?

 

Bethany Consentino Well, I think with the first Best Coast album, it was so inspired by like because I moved to New York to go to college and like, I was over California, like, I was like, I hate it here. I’ve been here my whole life. I’m tired of it. I was like, in my fucking Carrie Bradshaw, I’m going to be a journalist, you know, imaginary mindset of like, oh, moving to New York and being a writer and going to college, it’s so easy. And then I got there and was like, Jake Lowell, this is not what I thought it was going to be at all. And I am like such a California girl that the weather for me, like the winter, was just so extreme. I was like, I was not built for this. And so around that time, I really started dipping into like all of the music that, like, really reminded me of California, like The Mamas and the Papas. The Beach Boys, like a lot of 60, is sort of like Phil Spector. That kind of like sound is what I sort of gravitated to. And I just sort of like decided like literally woke up one day and was like, I don’t want to be here anymore. I’m going to go back to California. I’m going to drop out of college, literally packed up all my shit and moved home over one weekend, came home and just started like writing music that felt like it was very evocative of that sort of energy. And my collaborator and bandmate with Best Coast, Bob Bruno and I have known each other since I was like 17. And we always had that like kind of pop, but specifically like Beach Boys kind of love of pop. We had that in common. And so I didn’t know really know anybody else that I could, like, reach out to, to be like, can you help me with Because like, I can write songs, but I need someone to help me like record them and I don’t know how to play bass and drums and all of these things. And I reached out to him and was just like, I’m going to move home and start a band. Do you want to do this with me? And he was like, Sure, to start sending me music. So I just started sending music. And I think that the combination of his love of more kind of. Surf rock and the tones of the guitar and shit like that mixed with my love of like, melodic, straightforward pop melody. The blend just sort of very organically worked. And I think that as time went on with Best Coast, I was always trying to tap into other things. Like, I think the second record was very influenced by a lot of stuff that I would say this my solo record is inspired by, but I just felt like the formula always went back to the like, easy breezy, this California sunny thing. And I think that like it just I think intrinsically it was just that’s what that’s in the DNA of Best Coast. I don’t think it will ever be something that like doesn’t exist within the music that that we make, you know, under the name of West Coast.

 

Louis Virtel You mentioned how during the pandemic it was annoying to have to perform into an iPhone. But my question is, what would you consider the ideal performance space for you? Like when you’re thinking about performing live, what’s the venue where you just picture yourself and prefer to be how I.

 

Bethany Consentino Well, I’m actually playing my first full band, like solo show in L.A. in September at the Troubadour. And like I grew up going to the tour. I saw like every show when I was in high school, like the Troubadour was like the place I wanted to be. And like when they asked me, Where would you want to play this record in L.A.? Like what? You know, what venue within this capacity would you be interested in? That was like, my immediate first response was the Troubadour. And I don’t know if it’s just because it’s obviously such a legendary place, but it’s also so tethered to like my own memories as a high school student, going to see like every fucking band on Saddle Creek, like I was at every Rilo Kiley show in L.A., Like, you know, that was like my favorite shit in the world. So I think that, like, that is my I’m really excited to play this album there, but I love like, don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to do like a massive theater or like if you open for a band and you get to play in an arena, like that shit’s cool. But I love like an intimate space. I just think it’s fun. You can connect with your audience easier. They’re literally right there, and I just like feeling like we’re all kind of, like, packed in, enjoying the experience of the songs.

 

Louis Virtel The Troubadour is one of the few places on Earth I can think of that actually might be too legendary. Like if I if I were a musician performing in that space, thinking of like, you know, Linda Ronstadt, for example, that’s where like the Eagles, whatever and addition to like, like a drunk John Lennon getting thrown out of a Smothers Brothers show it also additionally, Elton John. Elton John.

 

Bethany Consentino Elton John Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel The the weirdest thing about that space, though, is it’s right down the street from gay West Hollywood, like feet from it. And those two worlds just do not go together at all. That is always blown my mind.

 

Bethany Consentino I actually like last year, I can’t remember. Maybe it was earlier this year I did. Like I was invited to come do a tribute like a pre-Grammy salute to Lucinda Williams, who’s one of my favorite songwriters. And I it was at the Troubadour, and I went and sang and then my manager and I like right after, like left. And we went to well, actually, we had dinner at Pump. Then we went.

 

Ira Madison III To they were going to say Pump.

 

Bethany Consentino So then we went to the Abbey and I was like, This is the funniest night of like Pump. Then Lucinda Williams at the Troubadour, then the Abbey. So it was kind of like all of my interests.

 

Louis Virtel And those things are right next to each other. It’s very crazy about the Abbey, which is, you know, like, like the world’s headquarters for vodka. Cranberry is right by where Lucinda Williams would naturally play.

 

Bethany Consentino Was literally in, like, a boho, like dress with cowboy boots at The Abbey. And I was like, This makes no sense, but I’m obsessed with my hair.

 

Louis Virtel Oh.

 

Ira Madison III So you went to I knew you were going to say Pump, because I met you. I feel like you and I first bonded online talking about Vanderpump Rules and Bravo.

 

Bethany Consentino Yeah. Yeah. Bravo-head for life over here.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, truly, I mean, I feel like there’s so much I could ask you about. Bravo, but one. Real Housewives of New York. Are you loving it? Have you watched it?

 

Bethany Consentino I’ve watched the first two episodes, and I don’t know if it’s just that I’m so preprogramed with the old bitches that like these new women. I’m just like, I’m trying. Like, I don’t want to give up on it. I love Jenna. First of all, Jenna is a queen.

 

Ira Madison III I’m Jenna Lyons is just an icon.

 

Bethany Consentino Incredible. But I’m just a little bit like I think I need to really, like, work. On detaching from the relationship of the old and sort of allow the new. I think I’m having growing pains similar to like I’m like I really feel like I’m ready for this change, but at the same time I’m like, Wait, but this is hard. I miss like fucking Sonja Morgan falling down. Although I am watching the Crappy Lake show, which is kind of hitting that spot for me to.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I feel like what’s really interesting to me about rebooting a show is obviously, you know, we’re getting like there was a lovely episode this week where one of the new Housewives Brynn Whitfield is discussing growing up Biracial. And I feel like we’re still still in that first season of like things that you don’t really get in later seasons of Housewives where they’re explaining who they are to the audience. You’re still getting to know them. I feel like it’ll be a for like, maybe there’ll be something great in the finale. But I feel like people like season two before, like, you know, all the characters and now you can just get straight to being ridiculous.

 

Bethany Consentino They have to I think they have to like, introduce, especially because, again, this reboot, you know, it’s like younger women and people talking about things that actually matter and standing for something. And like, I think that it is a little bit like, okay, now I want to see you be messy as fuck. Like, that’s what I watch these shows for.

 

Louis Virtel Stripped of Dignity always in this space. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III It’s, it’s sort of like that. Your regular sort of like media diet, like Bravo, whatever they like. Is that fun to, like, tap into after you’ve been, like, making music all day? Like, too? Or it’s just like, what else do you what else do you consume besides music? And you know, these bitches on Bravo?

 

Bethany Consentino That’s my like I call it my smooth break, my smooth brain TV time. It’s just like, I don’t think I can just, like, sit and watch women be wasted and screaming at each other and sometimes have really beautiful emotional moments. And like, I just think that for me, I don’t like I’m the kind of person that when I’m stressed out, I go to the mall like, that’s where I go. Like, I’m literally like, I need to go for a walk. I need to clear my head and I go to the mall and people are like, The mall is not like a relaxing place. I’m like, For you, it’s not. But for me it is. And I feel the same way about Bravo shows, where they’re all like screaming and there’s chaos. It’s like something about that just makes it so that my brain just shuts down and it’s like all of a sudden it’s like there’s a silence and it’s just me and like, these crazy wasted people talking about how rich they are. And I’m like, This is exactly what I needed. This is exactly what I needed.

 

Louis Virtel I was gonna say. I’ve never related to anything more than someone saying, I love going to the mall because when you’re like, when you’re constantly perusing, when you’re constantly perusing, you’re not thinking about whatever’s going on in your life.

 

Bethany Consentino Exactly. It’s just like you’re such a it’s like people watching. You’ll all of a sudden be like, Oh, there’s a sale. I’m going to go check that out. And then you’re like, Never mind, everything in here is heinous. I’m going to get a Wetzel’s pretzel. Like.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Bethany Consentino Yes, I grew up, like, going, That was like, what I did for fun was like I went to the mall because, I mean, like, I’m from L.A., but I grew up in Glendale, like, up at the very top of, like the two, so in the suburbs. And we would take the bus like down to the Glendale Galleria pre Americana, like pre like any of that. And I would just go like when the hot topic opened, my friends and I got like $20 from our mom and like took the bus and like, went and like, stood in line to go to the hot topics. For me, it’s just like it’s what I still do. I’m like, Oh, I have a day off, especially on tour. If I have a day off on tour and there’s a mall or like a fucking Olive Garden, Cheesecake Factory, that kind of vibe, I’m like, That’s where I’m going. And like, I just like things that make me feel comforted. And I know that it’s all like they’re all going to be the same. Every Cheesecake Factory is going to be equally mediocre. It’s always going to have the same hideous interior, and I can always count on that.

 

Louis Virtel With a like Reshape the Sauces menu. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III I feel like Louis and I are having a table culture. We’ve talked about this before too, just because I feel like, first of all, I mean, like we’re of the age where, like, you know, like, what else would you do during that time and on the weekend, too? And I feel like specifically. In the nineties, early 2000, where there was like a movie theater in a mall, two or Barnes and Noble, you know, you’d go there and you’d be like, I’m reading the book, and then I’m going to go see this movie at 130. And it’s it also does not need to be like Tomb Raider, right? You know, it could be like it’s literally like whatever movie is out this weekend that is new that I have not seen. But you’re going to see.

 

Louis Virtel I guess it’s a Rat Race or whatever. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III And there’s something that’s just fun about it. I mean, whatever I visit home, you know, it’s like I take my niece to the mall or walk around with my grandmother at the mall, which is which is a new development, I feel like, because I. I used to loathe. Being anywhere in the mall with my parents, you know, and then when you go back. But I feel like when you go back home for the first time after college or something, like the first time, like you’re really in the mall with your parents and you feel like fine with it. You don’t feel like, you know, they’re like taking away from like your private space. It’s like, Oh, we’re just a couple of adults at the mall now.

 

Bethany Consentino Yeah, that’s what you like. Really know that you’ve, like, grown up and evolves is when you can go to the mall with a member of your family and not be like, Leave me alone. Give me $10 to go get Wessels Pretzels, Panda Express, Leave me alone. It’s like, no, I’m the same. It’s like I feel like sometimes I don’t know what to do with, like, my parents. My mom doesn’t live here, so when she comes and visits, sometimes I’m like, we could go to the Americana and then we just, like, get lunch and walk around and go to Barnes and Noble and she goes to her section and I go to mine and I’m like, Oh, this is nice.

 

Louis Virtel Truly, I can’t think of a better experience to have with your family because you can hang out or not hang out. Also, if you’re at the Glendale Americana, I absolutely know you’re going to Padres for lunch, so which is among my favorite places in L.A., period. Good, Good place to eat anyway, but when I had no money, you could get an $11 like ham and cheese over there. Very ideal.

 

Bethany Consentino The line, though, I. I’m not like, it’s tough.

 

Louis Virtel It is tough. It is tough. Yeah. Yeah. Also, all those people are in line for desserts. Girl, it’s like one m You do not need a fucking tart right now. What is happening?

 

Bethany Consentino But I see. Walk out of there with, like. Like, like the biggest boxes. And I’m like, Where are you going? Like, where are you taking all of these places? That’s just for you. I mean, no shame, but genuinely, sometimes I’m like, is are all these people going to, like, a brunch or like a, you know, like after church potluck? I don’t understand the vibe.

 

Louis Virtel Right? No. Where could they all be going? Yeah, but Portals provides for it, and I can’t think of another place like that. Anyway, that’s my shout out department.

 

Ira Madison III I know there’s a lot of authentic food I can get here, like in New York City, but I really do need to find a way to replicate the didn’t-I found your experience.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, yes, it is.

 

Ira Madison III It is really just it’s magical is what it is.

 

Louis Virtel I love it. Once. Ah, once your entire party has arrived.

 

Bethany Consentino Yeah, exactly. You got to think about doing what I always do.

 

Ira Madison III My best friend, you and I, we always go to identify when we are seeing like a movie at all the two places that it’s that you know there and then it’s also at Westfield Century City.

 

Louis Virtel Century CIty?

 

Ira Madison III Yes, that one. We always do the thing where you walk up and like you get the bar seating because there’s like tables by the bar and then there’s a bar seating. You’re just like the two of us. It’s like we go there and we sit there, like, whenever. And then you always walk past the people who are just, like, waiting there for, like, a table. And sometimes you see people it’s like there’s only, like, three or four of them. And like, I don’t think everybody knows about the bar scene because I’ve never I’ve truly never had to wait longer than like 2 minutes to be seated. It turns out fine that shit.

 

Bethany Consentino Sorry to bring it back to the Cheesecake Factory as I might be an ambassador for them, it’s hard to tell. But the Cheesecake Factory has the same vibe. It’s like they have table top, but like. Like the high tables, like in the bar section. And, you know, like the Cheesecake Factory on a Friday night is like a two hour wait. And I’m like, What are these people waiting this long for? And then you just see that there’s a table and you’re like, All right, sake, I’m going to go. I’m going to get buy brown bread. I don’t need to wait in this two ass hour line.

 

Louis Virtel I was literally just going to use the words brown bread one.

 

Bethany Consentino That bread is so good.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, the other addicting thing is to get getting the butter and that little tin, you know, which is so cute. I like to scrape the butter off, put it on the brown. Yeah, you know what I mean?

 

Bethany Consentino Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III I tell you, The Cheesecake Factory at the Grove, some of the best vodka martinis ever had in my life. Okay, Like that. But that bartender knows what he is doing there, and I can’t see waiting for, like, 2 hours or, like, a fucking Cheesecake Factory. But let me tell you something. In college in Chicago, we would wait for Grand Lux Cafe. The the upscale Cheesecake Factory. Oh, sure. What some people have either never heard of before. What? I bring it up to them or don’t know that it’s like part of, like, the Cheesecake Factory family. But.

 

What is it called? I don’t know what it is.

 

Louis Virtel The Grand Lux Cafe.

 

Ira Madison III Cafe.

 

Bethany Consentino Oh, I know what that is. Okay, Okay.

 

Ira Madison III There was one when I first moved to L.A.. There was that one.

 

Bethany Consentino In the Beverly Center. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III But it closed very quickly and then was just, like, abandoned for, I feel like five years. Yeah, they were just like ghosts and rats running around in that old, brainless kind of thing. And now they’ve replaced it with, like, what is it, like Yardbird or whatever?

 

Bethany Consentino It’s. I think it’s one of those kind of places.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I love the Beverly Center. I’m sorry. It is.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, that is. It’s a big space chateau. There’s no windows. I love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

Bethany Consentino It’s. It’s a good one. I’m not going to hate on the Beverly Center. I agree with you. I think it’s a good mall.

 

Louis Virtel I think Century City that feels like Bowser’s Castle to me. That’s, like, the most fun to walk around. And there’s a lot of sun there, so bring the SPF. But I enjoy it. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III How is there? You talk about when you’re touring and you like to visit like a mall or something is there, you know, because Keep It’s international. International Is there a mall that you remember or that you love visiting that is outside of like California, like one where you’re like you’ve been on tour and you went here and you were like, you know what? The vibes are definitely immaculate at this mall in like, I don’t know, Akron or something.

 

Bethany Consentino Oh my God. I I’m sure there is. Like I, I’m having a really hard time remembering, like, because I was literally been to probably like, I’m not joking. I’ve gone to a mall and probably like every place I’ve ever been before, like even in Europe, I’m like, Where’s mom? What kind of malls you have here? But like, I would say that like the mall that’s probably obviously left the most lasting impression on me is the Mall of America, because it’s so fucking insane. Like the first time I went there, I was just like the theme park inside. Like, it’s nuts. I’m just like, if there is and there’s nothing. And that’s the most apt title for it. It’s literally I feel like America in a nutshell is that place. It’s like you’ve got a SpongeBob SquarePants log, right? And then you have like every fucking store that’s ever existed and you can like it just like you can spend your whole day there. It’s Disneyland.

 

Louis Virtel Also, once upon a time, the amusement park in that in the Mall of America was Snoopy themed. And I remember I was a kid and I was terrified of everything. I was terrified of rides. And I specifically was terrified of the, you know, the thing where you sit in a swing and it swings around. It’s like like a giant kind of I would call it a whirligig that was themed after the kite eating tree in Peanuts. And I just want to say that that was bone chilling for a child. Just remember that even know the year was 1997 and I was scared. Yeah, but I loved the moment of trauma. Yes, right.

 

Bethany Consentino Right, right. It’s it’s it’s nuts. Also, I going back to the Beverly Center conversation and really just to tie all of this in with my music career and my obsession with malls, one of the first Best Coast shows, truly, was at the Bloomingdales at the Beverly Center. Like, Oh my God. Randomly we got hired to come play some. Like, I don’t even know what I honestly want to say. It was like Seven jeans because it was like that era of like Seven jeans is is doing a new like capsule collection and they’d love to have you come play. And they literally set up this like budget ass stage in the center of Bloomingdales. And it was just like midday. It wasn’t even a week, a weekend, it was like a Wednesday at like 2 p.m. So it was just like mom shopping and just like stopping and watching for like 2 seconds and then leaving. It was like, truly, when I think back to it, I’m like, What was that like the era of the early 20 tens where they were just giving money left and right to be like, Come play a show at Taco Bell Cantina. Like it was like, okay, sure sounds good to me.

 

Louis Virtel I would have glanced up from my Theory polos to watch you. Sure.

 

Ira Madison III I miss the era of the mall concert. I miss the era of honestly like Fashion’s Night out.

 

Bethany Consentino Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III If you remember that. That was the like I think they had it in L.A. too, but like in New York too. Like it was just like Fashion’s Night Out there. Like we’re having like, these parties in malls. And I just I remember like hearing, like, Kim Kardashian’s jam debuting, like, at outside of, like a mall somewhere. And that is really what we need to get America back to. Mall concerts.

 

Bethany Consentino I agree.

 

Ira Madison III Mall concerned. It’s okay.

 

Bethany Consentino I’m going to do a tour of the mall with this album. That’s what I’m working on.

 

Ira Madison III I watch, like old clips of like Britney Spears or something, you know, like performing at the mall. And it’s really just like you’re just walking around with your mom, like wearing pants. You’re going you’re going in the hot topic or something. And then like, you hear like baby one more time blaring in the middle of the mall. You go there, I’m just like you, Here’s a show.

 

Louis Virtel It could be that era of Tiffany. Yes. Do throw in a Tiffany cover and you’ll be saying.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Bethany Consentino I’m pretty sure. I’m pretty sure I was pretty. I don’t remember how old I was, but I’m pretty sure I saw Tiffany play at the mall, like when I was a kid.

 

Louis Virtel No, no, no. I’m sure she’s at one right now. I think we’ve sentenced her to a life of the mall, Yeah.

 

Bethany Consentino She’s still there.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, she’s in line at Denty Funk.

 

Louis Virtel Her last name is Galleria. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Bethany Consentino Tiffany Galleria. That’s a gorgeous name.

 

Louis Virtel Bethany. Thank you so much for fucking being here. Jesus Christ, you are the best.

 

Bethany Consentino Oh my God. Thank you for having me. I was so excited when I heard that I was asked to be on the famed Keep It. So thank you.

 

Louis Virtel And the album is a blast, by the way. I recommend everybody pick it up.

 

Bethany Consentino Thanks.

 

Ira Madison III Natural disaster. It is out. It is amazing. And like, I’m just really excited to see you do and we’re excited to see you play it live.

 

Bethany Consentino Catch me touring it at malls around America. See you guys in 2024.

 

[AD]

 

Ira Madison III If there’s one thing I know about Louis, it’s that according to IMDB, he wrote for the Oscars 2023. The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, 2020 and Match Game 2016.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, my God. All technically true. Match Game was something I did like on the side while I worked at Billy on the Street. I had like, they would want, like, 20 questions today. By the way, it is hard to write for the match game. You think it seems like easy, like knock knock jokes? Absolutely not. You have to come up with like a beginning, middle and ending and then have to be able to write things that, like other people can solve or insert a joke into. It was hard. Don’t, don’t, don’t. You can’t just do it in 20 minutes like I thought you could.

 

Ira Madison III And we all know that I’ve played such iconic roles as L.A. Hipster in You and Self on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. So. I want to find out what IMDB has to say about other actors in this game. That I’ve been playing lately. It’s called Known For. So the concept is you basically just go to IMDB and you look up a celebrity and known for on their page. Usually has it has four projects there. And what’s interesting about this is it’s not always the four most recent. It’s not like they’re for most major. It’s based on metrics like popularity is based on metrics of like people searching for it. It’s also based on their credits in it. Like, if they were like a co-producer or something, like it’s going to be ranked higher, Like there’s a bunch of different things that go into it. But it is fun trying to figure out what someone is known for. So I’m going to go first with your fave, Jane Fonda.

 

Louis Virtel Who? A crazy question. She’s had so many different versions of popularity, but they’re all largely by gone. I’m going to say. So there’s multiple answers to this.

 

Ira Madison III There’s four.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Grace and Frankie.

 

Ira Madison III No.

 

Louis Virtel Get the fuck out. Okay. Try again. Monster in Law.

 

Ira Madison III No, They are all films.

 

Louis Virtel Jesus.

 

Ira Madison III Just so you know. All films.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Oh, okay. Okay. 9 to 5.

 

Ira Madison III Now.

 

Louis Virtel On Golden Pond.

 

Ira Madison III No. There’s only one from the 2010s. And the rest are prior to 1990.

 

Louis Virtel Wow. One from the 2010s. Our Souls At Night. Oh, no, no, no. It’s got to be Book Club.

 

Ira Madison III No.

 

Louis Virtel Jesus Christ. It’s not Our Souls At Night. What else is she even in? 80 for Brady?

 

Ira Madison III Well, that’s too recent.

 

Louis Virtel All right.

 

You mentioned one of them already in this episode.

 

Louis Virtel How am I right? Because, of course I would. What else is Jane Fonda in from earlier? From the. Okay, I’m going to go before 1990 because I’m losing my mind. Barbarella.

 

Ira Madison III That is one of them.

 

Louis Virtel Thank God. I thought I was losing my mind. Klute.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Well, that means Klute has had a bit of a renaissance. I’m excited to hear that. The China Syndrome.

 

Ira Madison III No.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, God. What are the other two?

 

Ira Madison III Another one is from the seventies and the other one is from 2015.

 

Louis Virtel 2015? Youth.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Wow. What a crazy choice. She’s in that movie for 2 minutes. Lots of good performances in it. It’s a pal of Sorrentino who did the Great Beauty. It’s like Michael Caine and weirdly, Paloma Faith is in that movie. But Rachel Weisz gets a great short performance in it. And then there’s one. And from the seventies. Can I get a year on that.

 

Ira Madison III 78.

 

Louis Virtel Coming Home?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Wow. So people are watching, Coming Home again. That kind of blows my mind. I guess she did win an Oscar for it, but.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, it’s also like ratings. That is the art of rate it like 7.3 out of ten on IMDB.

 

Louis Virtel So I am picking Ben Affleck.

 

Ira Madison III Okay, I’m going to start with Gone Girl.

 

Louis Virtel You are correct. Gone Girl is one of the four.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. Argo.

 

Louis Virtel You are correct again. Which of course he was not nominated for best director for. But it did win best picture. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. I feel like one of those fucking Batman movies he was in.

 

Louis Virtel I will actually spare you. Mysteriously, it is not. And I am. I’m surprised that nothing.

 

Ira Madison III Not even Justice League.

 

Louis Virtel No, nothing. Nothing. This is actually a pretty clean slate for for Ben Affleck, I have to say.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. Good Will Hunting.

 

Louis Virtel It is correct. Yes. That’s the third one. And you have one more.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. And it’s a clean slate for Ben Affleck. So what decade?

 

Louis Virtel It is the 2010s.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. Is it dogma?

 

Louis Virtel Nope.

 

Ira Madison III Okay.

 

Louis Virtel I’ll throw out, though. This one. The Town is is other known for. Doesn’t that feel like pretty like legitimate, like those four movies.

 

Ira Madison III Because he directed that, right? Correct.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Yes, Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Okay, That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Blake Lively.

 

Louis Virtel I remember her riving about. Yes. And also one of those like.

 

Ira Madison III Casey Affleck.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Do you know what I just watched the other day, To Die For? And which, of course, I’ve seen before. But Joaquin Phenix and Casey Affleck in that movie. Weird to have two best actor winners being so young in a movie together.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, I feel like everyone in that movie I mean, all three of them, like Nicole, too. Like they all went on to just be like.

 

Louis Virtel Right. And you know who kind of didn’t Illeana Douglas. And she is amazing in that movie. She gives the performance of Lizzy Caplan dreams in that movie.

 

Ira Madison III Well, given Lizzie Caplan’s career, she’ll be starring in To Die For, the TV series.

 

Louis Virtel No kidding. No kidding. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Which honestly would work as a television series.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, totally. It has. I mean, honestly, the whole thing has a Ryan Murphy vibe. I’m surprised we don’t have that show, actually. The movie Network could also be a limited series. Surprise. We don’t have that either.

 

Ira Madison III I’m going to give you the Mafia mama herself Ms. Toni. Toni Collette.

 

Louis Virtel Now, this is a good one because Toni Collette is not in many like franchise-y things or something. So it’s like, what kinds of prestige are bubbling to the top? It absolutely has to be the sixth sense.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Thank God. So I’m on the board. Toni Collette. I think the A24 vibes are heading and Hereditary is one of the four.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Thank God. Okay. I’m doing really well. I’m feeling hyped. Toni Collette again. How bout About A Boy?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, and one more. All right, this is going deep. But I feel like it has stood the test of time. Muriel’s Wedding.

 

Ira Madison III No.

 

Louis Virtel Oh. Almost a clean sweep.

 

Ira Madison III She is not. She’s not top billed in this film.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, she’s not top billed. Okay. What is she about? This is definitely not it, The Hours.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Oh. Oh, never mind. I was born for this game. I thought I was going to crash and burn. All right, I’ll give you one more Ira.

 

Ira Madison III Okay.

 

Louis Virtel Let’s see here. Oh, I have to click on this one. I’m sorry. Oh, this is fucking amazing. Okay. Ira, your movie star is Madonna.

 

Ira Madison III Oh, God.

 

Louis Virtel And these things are indeed movies.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. W. E.

 

Louis Virtel Can I tell you something? It is not up here, but I recently learned that w e has a 6.2 rating on IMDB. Who the fuck gave that a five for the Oscar? Isaac stands up and about. Yeah, right. A star was like, We’ve got to do something. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III I forgot how many black kids she has, and they went to see Beyoncé together and took a photo. I was like, Oh. And then I forgot that two of them are twins.

 

Louis Virtel Right, right, right, right. That’s such a cute picture. I was. I was like to see Madonna and Beyonce hanging out.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Okay. Desperately Seeking Susan.

 

Louis Virtel Absolutely not. And much as we love Susan Seidelman, I was just talking about this movie with my friend Devin over the weekend who watched it. The craziest thing about desperately seeking Susan is that it was not written for Madonna. People that were up for that role were like Ellen Barkin and Melanie Griffith and Jennifer Jason Leigh. It’s like, Wow. Once upon a time, Madonna had to contend with Jennifer. Jason Leigh That’s how the eighties worked.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. You know what’s funny about that? It’s sort of the same genre. You know, lesbian-y. I watched Kissing Jessica Stein for the first time.

 

Louis Virtel Written by Jennifer Westfeldt, the ex of Jon Hamm.

 

Ira Madison III Jon Hamm. And he’s so good in that movie, right? It’s like a different role than he normally plays. I thought it was lovely. I thought it made me feel, like hungry for like a new. New York, Indira.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Because it feels very nineties feels very like, oh, these like just people on the street. It’s the movies just like people on the street having conversations or having conversations at work, you know, it’s just like that. Like Jackie Hoffman’s in it. Yeah, that kind of fucking movie, you know, like, that is what I’m at. It’s just like I feel like New York indie movies of that era. It was just like. Power lesbians and people working at art galleries and going to coffee shops and drinking wine.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, please. No. I love that like, era of, like, nineties movie where like, the Broadway community is all making cameos. Like, please let me see Debra monk with three lines, please. Yeah. Okay, I’m going to give you these answers. But like.

 

Ira Madison III Avita.

 

Louis Virtel Avita is correct. Yes, you have. Let’s see if you can get the next three without missing.

 

Ira Madison III Okay, wait. I got. I only got one of them, right. You got that? I got A League of Their Own.

 

Louis Virtel You are correct. Yes. That’s the highest rated right here. There are two left and they have a 4.7 and a 6.1. I’m going to tell you that I believe both are a little overrated here.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. Oh, wait. The biggest movie that she’s ever been in is not Dick Tracy. She did. She did a Bond movie. She’s in it. She’s in it too. Die Another Day.

 

Louis Virtel Die Another Day is correct. Yes, that as the 6.1 here.

 

Ira Madison III I always forget that she’s in that movie.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. She plays the fencing instructor, Verity Benson.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III That’s the opening of the movie, too, because, like, they’re fencing and then it goes right into her song. What a zany fucking song.

 

Louis Virtel Barely a song. Also, at the time is still one of the most expensive music videos ever made. It’s like a pretty cool video.

 

Ira Madison III Can I get a costar for the last one?

 

Louis Virtel Okay, I am going to give you a costar, but it’s not the main one. Since she came up already. Illeana Douglas.

 

Ira Madison III Year.

 

Louis Virtel 2000.

 

Ira Madison III Are The Next Best Thing.

 

Louis Virtel I can’t believe that knoced into place for you. Also, speaking of movies around that time, it’s one of those movies where she’s a yoga instructor and lives in the hugest house you’ve ever seen. That’s not how life works. How life works.

 

Ira Madison III I got. I’ve been like. My writing has been, like, firmly entrenched in my late nineties, early 2000. So I’ve also just been like, literally, like poring over like movies released in 2000 and 2001 to see if it’s something I want to write about. And I’m like, I saw this and I’m like, I saw this once in theaters and I cannot believe. I’ve never thought about it since. Honestly.

 

Louis Virtel Honestly, if you wanna watch Rupert Everett.

 

Ira Madison III No.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III But we were just talking about him last week.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. If you want to watch something cool with Madonna and Rupert Everett on VH1 in the late nineties, they did a thing where they revisited all of the places Madonna used to hang out before she was famous and the apartment she lived in. And he does it with her. And they are so fun together. You forget that they were like a cool friendship for a while. He was her Debi Mazar for a moment. But anyway, okay, this game is fun and unfortunately, we’re going to play it 15 more episodes because I love these games.

 

Ira Madison III I am going to do this one more because I know you got to get it so quickly. Nicole Kidman.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Nicole Kidman. It has to be Moulin Rouge.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. It has to be Aquaman.

 

Ira Madison III No, no franchise movies.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, great. Great, great. Nicole Kidman. She’s also, of course in.

 

Ira Madison III All prestige.

 

Louis Virtel Oh. Love it. She’s got. It’s got to be The Others?

 

Ira Madison III No.

 

Louis Virtel Damn it.

 

Ira Madison III No horror.

 

Louis Virtel Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel All right. That’s really shocking. A movie I love. Maybe that’s my favorite Nicole Kidman performance. I’m also going to add the Lion.

 

Ira Madison III Now, they’re both early. 2000s.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, at The Hours.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel And one more. Well, what am I forgetting? From the early 2000s.

 

Ira Madison III No one thinks about this damn movie but.

 

Louis Virtel The Interpreter?

 

Ira Madison III But. But. But someone won an Oscar from it.

 

Louis Virtel No one thinks about this movie. It’s. Oh, Cold Mountain.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, God. Okay.

 

Ira Madison III Clownery, that movie.

 

Louis Virtel But that would be as longish. That’s a movie that has good parts in it, but like, feels like less than the sum of its parts because too much of it is not interesting.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel And then Renee Zellweger, of course, squawks. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Yes, that was fun. I love this game. It’s truly one of the it’s like I feel like sometimes celebrity is hard to play when you’re with a group of like other people. Just because the way our brains work about like, thinking about, like and remembering pop culture, it’s just like it’s hard to play with some people who feel like like, like they don’t think about, like, totally, like, can’t recall, like, a celebrity’s name or something, but they know, like the movies and stuff. I feel like this one is more fun and easier to play with people. And if you’re giving people hints like it gets people more involved in the game too, you’re sort of like, Well, this person was in the movie and then they’re trying to remember costars. And yeah.

 

Louis Virtel It’s a little bit more like Family Feud, like First Thought. Yeah, this is as opposed to like deep insight type stuff. Yeah. Okay. We’ll play this more in the future.

 

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

 

Louis Virtel First of all, Keep It to me for not having a Benadryl nearby. I’m like sniffling, like I’m lost in the goddamn meadow today.

 

Ira Madison III Second of all, why, you’re in a basement at home. Like, right. Like how long? How long has your family had that house?

 

Louis Virtel 25 years. So 25 years. Largely heterosexuality building up in here. So I can only.

 

Ira Madison III Midwestern basements. There’s so much going on down there.

 

Louis Virtel Dubious. No. The amount of cartons of goldfish crackers that have been down here alone. Moving on. My Keep It, unfortunately, is too. Shall we talk about all the time and Keep It? That’s now back. Thrilling to watch. I am, generally speaking, enjoying the new season. But Big brother Sirree Fields from Survivor is now a contestant along with her son and the most of the cast save one cast member. Don’t know that it’s her son. Keep It to this twist.

 

Ira Madison III Izzy, who is demented.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III She is stalking Siri on the live feeds.

 

Louis Virtel I think Keep It to this because it’s just not going to pan out for three. Everybody in the house is going to figure out that fucking this kid is her cat. I just don’t think it’s that interesting. And they’re both going to get eliminated soon. I could be wrong. Look, Siri is a fierce player and it’s really somebody who is interesting to watch again and again. This is somebody who was famous for losing Survivor four times, but is basically considered the Glenn Close of Survivor. She is an amazing, legendary player. It just hasn’t worked out that she’s won the big prize. She did win the show Traitors, which was a lot of fun to watch, even though the editing at the end of that season felt very weird to me. And I don’t actually know who knew what F-E-N, but good for Cirie watching that $250,000.

 

Ira Madison III So do you follow the feeds?

 

Louis Virtel Not yet.

 

Ira Madison III Okay, so the feeds are started this week and I will say not to ruin anything for you or anyone who doesn’t follow the feeds. What is so interesting about this game with Siri in it right now is that one. You know, as Big Brother fans, I feel like we’ve been. Forced to watch like season after season of like these big like 12 person alliances that just sort of like steamroll the house. And you basically just had like people sitting around doing nothing all summer, you know? Right. This house is in chaos. The house is the house is split along two alliances. The alliances are constantly shifting. People do not give these people liquor. Please give them liquor at some point because they’re all off their fucking rocket. I want to talk about Riley, who’s the head of household Jared Suri’s son, literally sitting with her being like, Who are you aligned with? And her telling him names like like everyone is everyone is so crazy right now. There was a moment yesterday where Cirie, like, went to the dining room. As she came out, she was like, Don’t let me go to the diary room. Goddamn lost your goddamn minds. Like people are. People are running around this house in such an insane way every day that, like, I’m. I love following watching the feed sometimes, but I really love watching the live updates on Rob has a podcast. Rob says to me now I love his coverage of like Big Brother and Survivor, and the daily updates from Taryn Armstrong are like, fucking fantastic. Like he’s on YouTube and he recaps everything that’s been happening. So if you don’t want to watch the feeds or like just search Twitter for clips, it’s very.

 

Louis Virtel Three episodes a week is not enough for you, which you should go to a hospital.

 

Ira Madison III But it’s not. It’s I’m like, I was I was talking with a friend about like this and like seeing Andy Heron tweet about it, just like when Big Brother is on me being a feeds person, I it’s useless for me to be out in public because I am just scrolling the big brother hashtag looking for updates constantly and I will say is fun about the Cirie Twist is survivors edit it, you know and the trader says edit it right. And what’s really fun about this and the feeds is you’re getting to see like people always talk about Siri’s missed. She’s very good at convincing other people to do things right. It is so interesting watching it at work in ways that we never had access to see it on Survivor because Survivor is compact into like, you know, one hour each week, but you’re actually watching conversations that might not even make the air. It’s so interesting. Like the first day to her son, she sat him down and she said. Now. I overheard you telling someone. We’ll talk later. When I came out of the room. Clean that up. No one needs to know who you’re talking to later.

 

Louis Virtel No, Cirrie being like there’s a way to play this game and you’re not doing it right. And I fucking saw it. Like the sweetness sort of fading and the the gameplay vixen coming in to play. I mean, it is quite messy.

 

Ira Madison III And people watching it being like, Oh, she’s completely believing something someone is telling her life. She’s being snowed. She’s not as smart as I think she is. Then that person leaves the room and she talks to her alliance member. It’s like it’s good that she didn’t fall for that at all, but she’s so good at, like, not breaking character. That is just fascinating. And she just fascinates me as a person, like she’s a fucking surgical nurse. And I’m just like. But when you see her coming to these games, it’s just like do you have CIA training?

 

Louis Virtel Right? No, it was very casual. The mastery, it’s a very it’s very strange. Yeah. It makes you realize that like people you socialized with, like there’s a lot going on in some people’s heads that you’re not privy to. You know what I mean? Like, it is, like, instructive about being a person I want to say about Big Brother. So if you don’t watch the show, I guess be thankful because once you do, it really invades every part of your brain and you’re thinking about it as you have just witnessed with me and Ira. So anyway, yeah, move on. I have to tell you this, the season may be fascinating, so we may be coming back to it. You may want to catch up. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III And the benefit of Cirie being on, I will say, is that like I have plenty of friends who watch Survivor who’ve never watched Big Brother and now they’re watching and checking out the feeds. So I feel like she’s introducing gameplay into this that we haven’t seen in a while. And I would love for CBS. I would actually love for them to start adding in other like Survivor players to Big Brother like because for so long I feel like we’ve had they get like recruits on the show who don’t know what they’re doing and they’re just being pretty but they don’t all need to be a Cirie. Like you don’t need to get Parvati. You’re like Ozzy or like someone on the show, like get someone on Survivor who like, was good but like, maybe got taken out like halfway through their season or something and then just like, put them in the show.

 

Louis Virtel Right? I think that’s smart. I mean, like the people who are interesting with gameplay gameplay or tricky, that’s what you want to see on Big Brother. When there are people who don’t do that, it’s like, What am I even watching? Like, I’m not in this for like the double dare, like stunts they have to do, you know?

 

Ira Madison III It is So it is a very corny show.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Right. You won’t believe. It’s that nutty, the shots, but also generally pretty amusing. Ira, what is your Keep It?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Yes. Also, before my Keep It, I just want to say thank you to casting for Hison, maybe the hottest gay man we’ve had on this show in years.

 

Louis Virtel And he’s like 11 foot four and utterly wrapped and a burlesque dancer at night, which usually I would have contempt for. But I want to see the burlesque.

 

Ira Madison III A doctor.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Ira Madison III A Doctor slash burlesque dancer at night. It is either a bad movie from the eighties or like a procedural waiting to happen.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, no kidding. No kidding. I want to see the pasties. Ira, what’s your Keep It?

 

Ira Madison III My Keep It this way. Goes to Miss SmartWater herself. Jennifer Aniston.

 

Louis Virtel What is she up to now?

 

Ira Madison III So this weekend, Jamie Fox posted an Instagram that said they killed this dude named Jesus. What do you think they’ll do to you? Hashtag fake friends. Hashtag fake love. Brilliantly. He’s talking about, you know, a fake friend. I said, hashtag fake friends. You know, he’s talking about a Judas in your group, etc.. Jennifer Aniston liked The Post. The only reason we know about this is because it was reposted by an Instagram account, which, by the way, has like 28,000 followers. Like, no one no one is following this. This Instagram sort of sort of like a Zionist Instagram account. You know, it accused Jamie Foxx’s of being anti-Semitic.

 

Louis Virtel Got it.

 

Ira Madison III Also, what went unseen, too, is in that same post, they also accused Cardi B of being anti-Semitic because, as you know, she beat those charges this week. And after she beat the charges, she tweeted a photo of two Hasidic Jews. Referencing the line in her song Bicken Head, where she raps lawyer is a Jew. He goes on to up all the charges.

 

Louis Virtel Got it. I say.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. That went unnoticed, by the way, because no one follows this fucking account, Right? You know. Right. But because Jennifer Aniston’s like, was visible in it, someone must have sent it to her. And she immediately ran Instagram and denounced Jamie’s post on social media say that it was horrifically anti-Semitic. She would never support antisemitism, etc., because obviously if you do not know, there is the, you know, long running, you know, thing from like Nazis, evangelicals, anti-Semitic people who use the phrase, you know, like saying they killed Jesus, referring to the event.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Right.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. They you know, the Jews, are they. But, this ignores the fact that in, you know, black colloquial speak, they usually refers to just like, one, they can refer to one person. You know, like the streets are talkin. I could just be Louis is talk it you know it could just mean me are talking and hash tag fake friend implies a Judas. And I don’t know if like this is something that you’ve heard growing up, you know. But I just feel like particularly for black people, like there’s always like this term about like the Judases in your camp, you know, or like, you know, like they kill Jesus, they’ll kill you too. You know, it’s not about an anti-Semitic thing. It is about the Judases in your camp. You got to watch out for the Judases, the Opps, the whatever. You know, it really is a thing about a differences between two languages. Right.

 

Louis Virtel Got it.

 

Ira Madison III And I feel that. It was right of Jamie Fox to apologize and just say that that is not what he intended. And I thought that that would have like dead at the conversation. But people are still going back and forth debating this thing, talking about like, well, this is anti-Semitic or like, well, this is black, you know, like language. And I’m like, girl, this man just got out of a coma and now he’s had to go do all this all weekend. Like, I feel like I feel so bad for him. And the fake friend must be Jennifer Aniston because you’re friends with this man. You like the Instagram posts? I just like DM him or something, you know, to a meat shop to that post was wild to me. And then to not also apologize publicly either for setting it off when he said that his intent was misconstrued is wild to me. All she’s done is turn off comments on Instagram.

 

Louis Virtel Hmm. The thing is, he has beaten death and he has beaten Shazam. And I need him to beat this rap.

 

Ira Madison III And I get some people saying, you know, like, we need to be vigilant in these times, etc.. You know, there’s a lot of racism. There’s a lot of anti-Semitism like going around in the U.S. that is being mainstreamed. But. It is just wild to me that people’s first instinct was to jump to the idea that all of a sudden Jamie Fox decided that he hated Jews on a Saturday afternoon, right. With no.

 

Louis Virtel And Jennifer Aniston was waiting for the moment to be like, here, here.

 

Ira Madison III Right. With no inclination of this before. Immediately we jumped to the theory that, oh, Jamie Fox is being anti-Semitic, which was wild to me, you know, because Jay would think Jamie Fox does as he minds his damn business.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right, right, right.

 

Ira Madison III Do you do? We didn’t even know that his ass was dating Katie Holmes for years.

 

Louis Virtel I am still getting over it. I can’t believe that happened to us.

 

Ira Madison III Like, that’s the definition of being a celebrity who minds your business. Right.

 

Louis Virtel Because Katie Holmes is somebody who, once upon a time had her own entrance into the Manhattan Wholefoods. She was so famous. So to get away with dating for that long is very crazy.

 

Ira Madison III The bitch is still famous. Okay. I tried to go to Balthazar a few weeks ago with Ty and we tried to have dinner and it was  shut down for a private event. And I’m like, Who’s this private event? And then you see, like. Katie Holmes has been photographed on a red carpet and I’m like, Oh, okay. She sat down Balthasar.

 

Louis Virtel And you were left with just pieces of April, which sucks. Crumbs of April.

 

Ira Madison III And you know what? To shut down Balthasar on a monday night when I’m hungry. That was disturbing behavior.

 

Louis Virtel But I was trying to get to the reference. I was like, I didn’t have it. I didn’t have it. I should have been there. That was good.

 

Ira Madison III Besides me being pissed off at Miss Aveno Lotion over here. Who still has not apologized. The one thing I want to go back to, as we were discussing last week, and we said on Keep It for six years running, celebrities get off social media.

 

Louis Virtel We will like you more. It’s just the truth.

 

Ira Madison III Because you know what? This was nonsense from Jennifer Aniston. And I’m not going to attack my brother, Jamie Fox, because he did just, you know, pop up out of a coma. Okay. You know, he is he is giving Another World storylines from 1994. You have too much money, brother, to be online talking about hashtag fake friends. No. Okay.

 

Louis Virtel Honestly, this is.

 

Ira Madison III Going to be too much about you to sub tweet. You make too much money to sub tweet.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, no kidding. We could all learn from this. In fact, right now I believe you are teaching Mrs. Tingle. There. I did it. Okay. Okay. We need to go away. Katie Holmes, We. We speak your name, Katie Holmes.

 

Ira Madison III Well, that’s our show this week. Thank you to Bethany Cosentino for being here. We’ll see you next week. And Louis and I are going to go.

 

Louis Virtel Best one yet. Yeah. Oh, so good.

 

Ira Madison III Keep It is a Crooked Media production. Our senior producer is Kendra James. Our producer is Chris Lord and our associate producer is Malcolm Whitfield. Our executive producers are Ira Madison, the third and Louis Virtel.

 

Louis Virtel This episode was recorded and mixed by Evan Sutton. Thank you to our digital team, Meghan Patzel and Rachel Gaewski, and to Matt DeGroot and David Toles for production support every week.

 

Ira Madison III And as always, Keep It as recorded in front of a live studio audience.