Blank Check with Griffin & David - Denim Invasion Live @ DCM18 with John Trowbridge

Episode Date: July 26, 2016

Live from the 18th annual Del Close Marathon in New York City, John Trowbridge (Huffington Post) joins Griffin and David to discuss the Cameron Crowe directed, 2002 Gap commercial entitled “Denim Invasion.” What details can be drawn from this 40 second spot? How does it relate to Ashton Kutcher being fired from Elizabethtown? Where is the proto-flash mob running to? Also featuring surprise appearances from Murf Meyer and Diana Kolsky (Ménage à Trois Radio) for a Burger Report, as well as, director George Lucas (Star Wars) inserting his influence on all of popular culture.

Blank Check with Griffin and David Blank Check with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check Okay, welcome to Blank Check Here are your hosts. Hey, everybody. Here's Griffin Newman.

Hey, everybody. My name is Griffin. Hi. Hi, I'm David. We're the two friends. Hashtag the two friends. We're the only two friends who do a podcast together. Oh, he's patting me on the back. This is our live Del Close Marathon 18 episode of a podcast called Blank Check. Blank Check is made up of miniseries. We like filmmakers, we like directors who have success early on

and then get a blank check that they can use to do crazy projects and sometimes they fail and sometimes they fly. And I think today we're going to be discussing one of the times where a filmmaker really flies. Yeah. It's giving carte blanche where a filmmaker really flies. Yeah. It's giving carte blanche and does something really bold and exciting. So this is our miniseries right now on Cameron Crowe. Yeah, no one's actually heard this miniseries yet, but we're in the middle of it. The fourth episode we've recorded, but none of them have been released yet.

So I didn't think of that until just now. Yeah, right. Yeah, no, this may be really, really poorly thought out. But this is a min a message called We Pod a Cast, covering the films of Cameron Crowe, and today we're discussing what I would argue is maybe... Where would you put it? I'd say it's the

seminal work. I mean, I'd say it's the essential work. I'm course... Did you look up the date? Yes. Okay, good. Yes. I, of course, am talking about his 2002 masterpiece, Denim Invasion, which was a commercial he directed for The Gap, starring Kate Beckinsale and Orlando Bloom. It's a 30-second spot. We're going to discuss that today.

And with us to discuss it is a very special guest. He's a veteran of the UCB theater and a writer for Huffington Post. Ladies and gentlemen, John Trowbridge is here. Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for being here. Yeah, and thank you, audience. This is great. I'd be remiss if I didn't introduce...

Some call him the third friend, but that's not correct. We've only got 45 minutes. I know, so I'm going to go through this very quickly. Is he a friend of ours? Yeah, of course. Yeah, I'm a friend. Hardcore, he's a friend, but he's not one of the two friends. I don't know why you've got to exclude him when you're introducing him.

Because you could say hashtag the three pals. Sure. But we're the two friends. He's our third pal. Goes by a couple names. Ben Hosley. Hey, what's up? Hi.

Producer Ben. Can I listen to you? That makes sense. Yeah, you want to listen to him? As a fan, I'd love to. Oh, yeah, please. Let's see how many you can do. The Ben-ducer.

Of course. Kylo Ben. Correct. The fuckmaster. Yes. Let's see how many you can do. The Ben Ducer. Of course. Kylo Ben. Correct. The Fuckmaster. Yes. It's true. He's not Professor Crispy. We have an audience here for the first time,

so we're letting a lot of people into our safe space. Don't try to be funny either. Don't fucking say that, because that's not funny. His audio is crisp, but that's not funny. That's not his nickname. That's all I can remember right now. Well, he also goes by the Poet Laureate. The tiebreaker. Birthday,

Benny, your birthday was earlier this week. It was yesterday. It was yesterday. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Mr. Positive, the Haas, the Peeper. I've been known to peep. This is a good spot for peeping, too.

We've got big windows. We're in a big loft space. There are a lot of people sitting on inflatable chairs. And Ben's peeping all of them. I am. And, you know, while we have a crowd here, let's make good use of it. If everyone can, in unison,

greet Ben with a hearty hello fennel. Can we get, on the count of three, one, two, three, hello fennel! Wow, that works. He's also Ben Night Shyamalan and Ben Sateawmalan and ben say uh okay great so how much time do we have left two minutes uh no we've got like 40 minutes left okay great that's good because that's about as much time as we need for a half a minute movie 100 because usually we cover

like 90 minute movies and our podcast is five hours long. Right. But this is 30 seconds, so let's sort of set the scene. The year is 2002. Okay? Crow's coming off of an Academy Award win for Almost Famous. Sure, and then he made Vanilla Sky. Which was a big box office success. Sure, sure. Easily cost, he sailed past

100 mil domestic. Probably did at least another 100 overseas. Okay. So he's riding high. He's got a big blank check. And Hollywood turns to him and they go, what do you want to do? And he goes, I want to make Gap sing. I want to make those denim jeans really sing to the public.

And he gets two of the brightest up-and-coming stars, right? So what's Kate being at this point? Well, Pearl Harbor was the year before. I think Serendipity also came out that year, so that was a big sort of Hollywood anointment year. Had she done the Underworld series yet? I think Underworld is the year

after the commercial. Wow. So we're catching her. Spark the Underworld. She's in an interesting place, definitely. Former guest Diana Kolsky is waving to producer Ben. I gotta get her sandwiches. Oh, okay. Ben has to grab sandwiches?

No, it's fine. Well, actually, Diana, I have a sandwich if you want a sandwich. As you may know, we have a regular segment on the show called The Burger Report. Oh, great. Do you have a hamburger? Where we try to find famos and give them burgers.

Diana, I bought 10 cheeseburgers here today. Oh, my God. Because I figure we're at the party space. There are going to be a lot of A-listers here. So, yeah, if you want to... Yeah, please, you just have to eat them in front of us right now so we can... Yeah. Could you eat on mic, though, actually?

Yeah. Yeah, get in here. Okay, so this is... Wait. I'm sorry, Griffin. Don't you have to eat the burger, too? Hey, guys. Or is it just that you see someone eating a burger?

I think you just have to see someone eating a burger. Okay, so Dana Kolsky is here on mic, host of Menage a Trois Radio on the UCB network. Thank you so much for the burger and for the shout-out. I was gesturing about some sandwiches, but now I'm going to just get into a burger. A hamburger sandwich, yeah.

Okay, here I go. Get in there. Wow. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. You can really hear it. Look at that. You can really hear it.

That's incredible. This is great for a podcast. This is great podcasting. Everyone's really into this. It's dry. It's dry on my tongue. Yeah, no. I think that's the burger's dry.

Just for the listener at home, this is a cheap burger that Griffin has sprung for. Yeah, I got $10 $1 cheeseburgers at McDonald's. Okay, wow. So that's our first burger report. And Ben, producer Ben, has his arm around Diana Klosky. This is an amazing moment, everyone. This is our first live burger report. Thank you, Diana.

Okay, great. Fantastic. Thank you. Okay, so 2002, Kate Beckinsale has the attention of Hollywood. She hasn't found her franchise yet. She hasn't found her purchase within the lands of Underworld. And Bloom is like... He's in the middle of Lord of the Rings.

Oh my God. Wait, we got... Alan Starzinski, frequent troll of the podcast. Oh my God. Don't let him skunk us again. Please don't tell me we're going to get skunked by Starzinski, frequent troll of the podcast. Oh, my God. Don't let him skunk us again. Please don't tell me we're going to get skunked by Starzinski. We're not going to get skunked by Starzinski. I'm drawing a very clear line. Murph Meyer from the Chris Gethard Show, podcaster of Menage a Trois Radio.

If you wouldn't mind getting on mic right now and just eating this cheeseburger. You've got to eat in front of the mic. Hey, Alan, if you could do me a favor. We're looking for famous people. If you know anyone of note within the party space, could you please refer them over here so they could eat a cheeseburger on mic? Yeah, let's not talk about that.

So Murph right now is eating a cheeseburger. You know what? I mean, McDonald's is probably going to give you AIDS, but I'll tell you what. It is still the best cheeseburger for the price. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Okay, so another round of applause for the second. The second burger report on Mike.

Orlando Bloom, 2002. We're in the midpoint, right, of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. What month does the Den of Invasion arrive? April. April, okay. So Fellowship already landed big. The wave is up. Lost Best Picture, but there's momentum.

He knows he's got two more in the can. Has Elizabethtown come out? No, and this I think is interesting. This is the origin story for Elizabethtown, right? Because originally Cameron Crowe cast Ashton Kutcher in Elizabethtown. And I got an anonymous scoop from an actor whocher in Elizabethtown. I got an anonymous scoop from an actor who worked on Elizabethtown and said they got as far into doing rehearsals

with the cast a couple weeks out from filming and then were like, fuck, this is not sustainable. Ashton Kutcher cannot be the lead of a Cameron Crowe movie. Was it Alec Baldwin? I'll never tell. Who else is in Elizabethtown? Who else is in Elizabethtown? Who else is in Elizabethtown?

A lot of people. But do you have a guess as to who it was? Yeah, go on, take a guess. Who was the girl? Kirsten Dunst. The great Kirsten Dunst. It was not Dunst. It was a KD or you found?

It was not Dunst. It was a character actor. Have you ever met Dunst? No, I haven't. Have you? No. I'd love to meet her. I bet she's great. Can I tell a really sidebar No, I haven't. Have you? I'd love to meet her. I bet she's great.

Can I tell a really sidebar? Can I sidebar for a second? No, we've got too much to get through. No, we've got time. We'll allow a little bit of time to talk about this. My best friend in high school for like a year, one of the years of high school, you change friends. Teenagers are fickle. I was loyal.

By class, yeah. One year, it was the first day back in the new year to school, and my friend was like, Hey, Griffin, do you like those Spider-Man movies? And I was like, yeah, you know I like those Spider-Man movies. And he was like, you like that Kirsten Dunst in those Spider-Man movies? And I was like, yeah, of course I like that Kirsten Dunst in that Spider-Man movie. And he was like, made out with her.

And I was like, yeah, of course I like that Kirsten Dunst and that Spider-Man movie. And he was like, made out with her. And I was like, what are you talking about? And he went to some fucking, like, you know, like fucking Paradise Island paradise. This is your sidebar story? With his family. Okay, okay. For winter break. Like a while back? This was when we were in high school.

He was 15, and Kirsten Dunst was like 23. And she was the star of Spider-Man movies, and she was like, you're cute, and got drunk at the bar that night, and at midnight was like, I don't have a midnight kiss, do you want to make out? And made out with him. I don't believe that story.

I believe it 100%. What a dirt boy. Right? Yeah, he shouldn't be allowed to kiss. He's a dirt boy. Yeah, there's no way. He's a fucking dirt boy. Anybody who makes out with her shouldn't,

the type of guy that she makes out with isn't a guy that brags about making out with her, I think. I agree. That shows me that he wasn't worthy. Yeah. You know? But Kirsten Dunst, if you want to come and refute that story or corroborate it, please feel free to be a guest anytime you want on the podcast. Sure. Okay, so

the year is 2002. Yeah. Cameron Crowe directs. He's got the Oscar in the hand. Yeah. Beckinsale and Bloom are both stars in flux, right? They're on the rise. They don't know exactly what kind of movie star they're going to be. Yeah, and he smells an invasion in the air, right? He smells...

There's something happening. He feels it in his fingers, right? The khaki era's out. Yeah, exactly. Khakis are 90s, right? Yeah, they're done. Yes. It's the new millennium.

No, there's a denim invasion happening. I think invasion is a key word because this is an aggressive commercial. This commercial doesn't hold any fucking punches, right? Yeah. So we start off crisp, beautiful black and white, right? It's not crisp. I watch it on my phone. Yeah, you watch it on YouTube for 480p or whatever.

But it was also, I think, interesting to note, letterboxed. Like this is before TVs had become widescreen. So the commercial itself was letterboxed. Like on the screen, there's like a white letterboxing. Yeah, it's very white. This is a white commercial. It's a very white commercial. Crisp black and white.

It's fitting that Cameron Crowe made this commercial. Yeah, 100%. And so the first image we see, Orlando Bloom, Kate Beckinsale walking. Very hot couple. Very hot couple. Very hot couple. They're almost canoodling. They're canoodling.

So first of all, they both look incredibly attractive in this. They do. Loose weekend attractive. Yeah. Not like trying to do up cool loose clothing coming out of brunch. Like ha ha ha. Isn't that funny? We just killed brunch. Let's do it. That's interesting that that's your read because my read and I want to discuss this

for a little bit. My read was that they were on their way to brunch. Whoa. Really? I think they're exiting a restaurant. Are they not? But I mean it's Los Angeles. It's like the restaurants all around them. So they might be walking by a restaurant. Alright. I thought they were going to. Do you think they have a deep dive. It's like the restaurant's all around them, so they might be walking by a restaurant. All right. I thought they were going to...

Do you think they have a friend who's a chef at one restaurant, and they were saying hi to him before going to another restaurant for brunch? Without a doubt. That's exactly what I think is happening. That's exactly what I... But they just had one friend who worked at a restaurant. Not the two friends? They didn't have the two friends who worked at a restaurant.

Are they the two friends, or are they... Wait a second. Oh, my God. Is this... Oh, wow. Past guest and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker George Lucas? Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Is this past guest and Academy Award nominated filmmaker George Lucas? Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. George Lucas. George Lucas. Hey, you know, we have a segment here we do on the podcast. We, you know, revamped the podcast a little since you came on, but we have a new segment called The Burger Report. We have celebrities eat burgers. Would you mind eating a cheeseburger? What brand is this? It's a McDonald's cheeseburger. Well, McDonald's is, to the best of my recollection, never done a Star Wars tie-in.

Burger King did for the early films. Did McDonald's do one? That is incorrect. I know for a fact, as a connoisseur of merchandising, that McDonald's did a toy campaign for the Clone Wars theatrically released movie. Oh, but that's a sub-series. You oversaw it.

I oversaw it. Your name was on that thing. Your name was all over that thing. I don't really regard that. No one thinks that's prime Star Wars. You're not going to eat the burger because they never did a campaign for your main films. I appreciate them doing a sub-series, but Burger King was there at the beginning, and then KFC got on

board for Phantom Menace. I'd happily eat a... Taco Bell? If you give me some Taco Bell. They don't make burgers. It's the Burger Report. What? Wait, I thought this was a Star Wars... I thought this was a Star Wars podcast. The last time I was on it, this was a Star Wars podcast, and that's why I dropped by.

You talked about the Star Wars peoples, and my assumption why I dropped by. You talked about the Star Wars prequels, and my assumption was you would never stop. Yeah. I mean, a lot of people, I think, felt that way. You had such a good run. So many great episodes where you talk about how much fun it was to watch the prequels.

I mean, that's a read, I would say, on it. A different read. Dave, back me up here. I know you love the prequels. You loved watching them again and again and again. Your take? Oh, no, he's talking to me. That was posted, yeah. I love the prequels.

I mean, you didn't think, though, that when we recorded, like, our 40th episode with you watching Revenge of the Sith that things were wrapping up? No, I felt like things were just getting started. Time for... The prequels are more fun on the re-re-rewatch. Well, what's your take on the prequels?

We re-watched each one ten times. Weigh in on the prequels. Wasn't a your take on the prequels? We rewatched each one ten times. Weigh in on the prequels. Wasn't a huge fan of the prequels. But you were a fan though. You said you weren't a huge fan of them, but that implies that you were a fan, but not a huge fan.

No, I guess I was below a fan. Well, why would you word it that way? It really sounded like you were a fan. I just want to note for the listeners, George still has the burger unopened in his hand. Yes, hold on. I'm not taking it back from you, because I think... Misa don't want to eat this.

Okay, well... George, we did a long run. We did like nine months just talking about your movie. Nine months isn't even a year. It was almost a year. That's not even as long as Droids ran. We did like 40 episodes, and then we decided, you know,

that it was time to move on. So what's this podcast now? It's about Cameron Crowe. Cameron Crowe? Yeah, we're trying to do like other important filmmakers. So we did M. Night Shyamalan, and then we did Wachowskis, and now we're doing Cameron Crowe.

We're talking about a gap. M. Night did a draft of Crystal Skull. Cameron Crowe did a draft? No, M. Night. M. Night did a draft of Crystal Skull? How was it? Twisty. We would have had to rename it Twistel Skull.

Did you ever work with Cameron Crowe? Was there ever any overlap there in any sort of way? Oh, I mean, you'll have to forgive me. I'm 71 years old. Did I ever work with Cameron Crowe? The brain wheels are turning, people. We can see it happening. I mean, I know that there was no project on record

that you worked on with him. I'm wondering if there was any undeveloped, developed but unproduced kind of... Did he take a pass at droids, maybe? I don't know. Yes, the droids animated series. I'm trying to think. There has to be a connection.

So let me go through. So Cameron Crowe, he wrote... What was his connection to Fast Times? He wrote Fast Times. He wrote Fast Times. Then what? Sniglets? Yeah, he invented Sniglets.

Say Anything and Singles. Then Jerry Maguire. Jerry Maguire. Almost Famous. Then Denim Invasion, the 2002... say anything and singles then jerry mcguire jerry mcguire almost famous then denim invasion the show me the money is based on me that's how is show me the money based on you because i have a lot of money that's not by that count you can take credit for anything related to the economy okay was it what was the bre you know, a reference to you? Yeah. Brexit's a reference. The B-R-E-X-I-T is a droid.

B-R-E-X-I-T. The Brexit droid? And those films did shoot in England. Those films did shoot in England. Yeah, so it directly affected the Brexit. I'll say this. I'll go on record. Maybe if I hadn't made all the Star Wars movies in England,

there would have been no Brexit. So you think... In a world where none of the Star Wars movies were filmed in England, so many things would have changed that there's no way we would have arrived at the Brexit. At least it would have happened on a different day. Give me that. Do you think the world would be better or worse?

I don't know. I mean, who knows? It would have happened on a different day. Give me that. Do you think the world would be better or worse? I don't know. I mean, who knows? It would have been such a profound change. Let me ask you this. So you did the sequel trilogy of Star Wars films. Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, all filmed in England. And then when you did your original trilogy, of course,

which started with The Phantom Menace, the first film, that was shot in England, but then... You moved to Australia. Avenger of the Sith were both shot in Sydney, Australia. Did you sort of have a sense of what was happening? Did you feel like the Brexit was going to happen? Yeah, that was the original Brexit. I thought, I'm going to Brexit this.

Oh, I thought of the Cameron Crowe connection. The first draft of Vanilla Sky was called Vanilla Skywalker. Right. Lucasfilm's lawyers, I had my lawyers swoop in and say, knock it off. Wait, Griffin, we have to, I mean, we're talking about the denim invasion. This is a denim fan right here. Yeah, you wear a lot of denim. I love it. Have you seen the denim invasion? What's the denim invasion. This is a denim fan right here. You wear a lot of denim. Have you seen the denim invasion?

What's the denim invasion? It was a 30-second Gap commercial that Cameron Crowe directed in 2002. We're spending our entire podcast talking about it today. And what happens... Oh, yeah, yes, of course. Second burger from Irv Meyer. Dana Kolsky. And Chris Gethardt, writer, consultant, creative producer,

by legal terms, Will Miles, eating a burger. Will, I just downloaded your comedy album onto my iPod. George Lucas downloaded Will Miles. Yeah, we got it, we got it. We all know who you are. He's seeing you. He knows that you're George Lucas. It's very visually apparent.

I have over 200 songs on my iPod. Yeah, I know. I saw. He's seeing you. He knows that you're George Lucas. It's very visually apparent. I have over 200 songs on my iPod. Yeah, I know. I saw Strange Magic. Thank you. You're the only one. Who here saw Strange Magic? Wow. I didn't care for it.

Did you see it, Murph Meyer? I saw it. You saw Strange Magic? No. I didn't really care for it. Murph is saying off mic that he didn't care for it with a mouthful of burger. I also on mic want to thank you guys for bringing cheeseburgers. Oh, of course.

Yeah, no, we got it. It's all Griffin. Thank you, Griffin. Yeah, of course. Yeah. And John Drobic. What the hell? Thank you.

Yeah. John's not a huge fan, but is a fan of the Star Wars prequels. Below fan. Below fan. Below fan. So what is below fan? The new level of fandom is a below fan. Still a fan, though.

Can we get back to talking about the work at hand? Because we do, I mean, we're way behind. Yeah, come on. We're getting real sidetracked on the Denim Invasion. We've only gotten to the setup, which is that they're walking either in or out of brunch. Okay? So Denim Invasion, yeah. Oh, sorry.

Apparently we're not allowed to eat this area. So I'm allowed to hand out burgers, but then they can't be eaten in this area. So, George, maybe you made a good choice. Yeah, because I want to be a guest for a few more minutes. What happens in the Denim Invasion? Give me the rundown. I'm great with storytelling, so I can maybe tell you how I would do it.

A lot happens. So it's black and white imagery, right? Great. And we start out, we see a beautiful couple played by Kate Beckinsale and Orlando Bloom. I almost said Orlando Jones, which would be an interesting take on this. That would have been better, honestly.

Yeah, Orest Mosas Jones would also be good. He would have been good in this. And the two of them are walking either in or out of brunch. We can't tell, but they're definitely like, it feels like it was like a morning in, you know? Okay, so you think it's a late brunch? Is that what you're saying? I think it's a late brunch. I think they you're saying? I think it's a late brunch.

I think they just couldn't get out of bed. I think they woke up. I think they woke up. I think they had sex. No question. I think they went to brunch. The afterglow is present. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think they both came and then I think they went to brunch. And if I can even go back a step, I think they woke up, did some hand stuff. Whoa. And were like, we're just going to do a little hand stuff.

Griffin's reading this off a piece of paper. It's weird. I think they were like, we're just going to do a little hand stuff, not time for full sex. And then once the hands were moving, they were like, I don't know, let's go the full distance. Then they both came a bunch. I think you're totally correct about that. And I think they came at the same time, because the energy I get from the top of this commercial was that was the first time that happened. So that's why they're grinning?

You don't think they're grinning because of the denim invasion that's coming? Well, I don't think they know it's coming yet. Okay, okay. This is before the thing shot. But they are wearing denim. What? We just got an emergency alert. Oh, no.

It's the denim invasion. Oh, no. Rip off your khakis. Do we know what this is? It's a fire alarm. Oh, great. Yeah, it's just a fire alarm. Oh, no. Rip off your khakis. Do we know what this is? It's a fire alarm. Oh, great. Yeah, it's just a fire alarm. Oh, perfect.

That is the noise that the BREXIT makes when attacking. Can you remind me when the BREXIT appears in the films? Yeah. When Grand Marth Tarkin leaves the room, you'll notice a little droid that is walking around. And that's him. That's the B-R-E-X-I-T. Getting the all clear that it's fine to keep recording.

But if there is a fire, Ben, you have to go first and get this audio onto the internet as quickly as possible. Okay, good. We want the audio crisp, but not burned to a crisp, you know? It's got to be clean, baby. I'm willing to die if this podcast survives because i think this is our best episode i think if we perish this needs to be this needs to be put out in the world this is what i want i don't know what my parents are last will and

testament i want my family to know that i died doing what i loved all right so go back to uh you know hand stuff oh right so they hands off they both came a bunch and they're this is i mean this is i think a real real Cameron Crowe touch. Different tone. Thumbs up. Thumbs up. So he wants to show physical intimacy, right? And love.

Sure. And a hack. A hack filmmaker would just go, holding hands, right? Holding hands. Something basic like that. Someone else might do, like, PDA. Like, they're fully making out. Sure.

And Cameron Crowe, the blocking of the scene, the physicality, they're like fully entangled in each other. Yeah, yeah. And because it's so white, it's like they have one body. It's like they're Siamese people. Yeah, because let's say this, they're both wearing denim blue jeans and white t-shirts, I believe. Yes.

Yeah. In anticipation of the denim invasion. So they have their arms like around each other like this, like almost like they're slow dancing, but they're moving forward in space. And the song starts up. Ben, do you have the song here? You were playing it earlier. Ben is snapping into action.

Dave, while he's getting the audio ready, can I ask, you said Siamese people. Are they similar to Neimoidians? Yeah, yeah, very similar. Why would you even make that comparison yourself? Why would you draw that line? I'm just asking. I'm curious.

But you in the past have argued that the Neimoidians are... Griffin, you've gotten so many fights with him about this. I know. I just want to... Because I feel like half the time you try to skirt any responsibility. Here's the song. Here's the song. Come on.

Let the song wash over you. Right? Okay, so the opening lines of this, feel it in my fingers, feel it in my toes. Do we have the rights to this? Absolutely not. Okay? So you see them, and they feel it in their fingers, they feel it in their toes, you know?

The first time I heard this song, it was actually the remake of it in Love Actually. Yeah. With, feel it all with Christmas is all around me so that's the original to me. And this is by Bill Nighy's character. This is fucking derivative of that joke.

By Bill Nighy's character. I forget what his name is. That sounds weird to do a bit where you pretend that an earlier thing didn't exist to only acknowledge the existence of a later thing. That's the same thing happened to me with Out Cold. You know that Zach Galifianakis acknowledge the existence of a later thing. Yeah. That's the same thing with, same thing happened to me with Out Cold,

you know, that Zach Galifianakis snowboarding movie, which is pretty much just Casablanca, which I saw after Casablanca. And so then I saw that, and then I saw Casablanca, and I'm like, that's just fucking Out Cold. Fuck that. Fucking Out Cold ripoff. It is worth noting that this commercial did air a year and a half before Love Actually came out.

So Love Actually might be kind of paying homage, tipping its hat to the Denim Invasion. Not to be too nerdy, but Wet, Wet, Wet covered this song, and it was featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral, I believe. Interesting. The Richard Curtis joint. So there's a line there. There's definitely a line there where it fits in to the chronology. So they're entangled. They feel it in their fingers.

They feel it in their toes. Yep. And at first read. We don't see their toes. No. But it's implied. Right. That's interesting because they do frame them sort of cowboy style, like just sort of like a little bit.

You get a little bit of the crotch because you need to see that they're wearing the jeans. George Lucas is still here, by the way. Yeah. Academy Award nominated filmmaker George Lucas is still on the podcast. That's right. Alright, carry on, carry on. So you don't see their toes, but it's sort of the magic of cinema that they let you

assume that the toes are there. It's sort of implied. I'm glad I brought this up. Yeah, based on sort of your knowledge of what a human body usually looks like. Yeah, I mean in filmmaking, one of the rules is show, don't tell, but sometimes another rule is sometimes you don't even have to show. No. No, I mean, in filmmaking, one of the rules is show, don't tell, but sometimes, another rule is sometimes you don't even have to show.

No. No, sometimes you just do. Yeah, you just know. He didn't show that there were toes, but he did tell through the song that there were toes.

It's no, don't tell. Yeah. They trust that the audience just knows. No, don't tell. Yeah. I feel like the way you're saying it, it sounds like don't tell. No, show, don't tell, but if don't show, then no, don't tell yeah I feel like the way you're saying it it sounds like don't

tell no show don't tell but if don't show then no don't tell that's that's what you know the public version it gets shortened but that's what real filmmakers and storytellers say is we say show don't tell no unless no then showed and don't show no don't tell and that's written on the side of the USC film building that's right yeah that's right on the side of the USC film building. That's right. So now it's starting up, right? They got the feel, and you think, I think at first read when you're watching the commercial

for the first time, because we all watched it at least two times. I watched about ten. Griffin told me to watch it at least two times. You've got to watch it at least two, because the first time it doesn't really make sense. And then the second time it really clicks. It's sort of like Sixth Sense where you need to know the ending in order to be able to track that.

You gotta have the logic of it mapped out. So when I hear the first time, feel on my fingers, feel on my toes, I'm like, love. They feel love. They're in love. They just came together. Actually, now that I think about it, I don't think they fucked. I don't think they fucked before the thing. I don't think they fucked because I think they woke up,

I think they did some light hand stuff. Okay, you do agree on hand stuff. I do believe on the hand stuff. Yeah. But then I think they were like, oh, fuck. Like, someone saw the time and was like, shit, we gotta go.

We gotta go say hi to our friend, the chef. We gotta go see our friend, the chef. Right. And then they paused the sex. They paused, like, the sexual activity. Right. Because, like, I feel like if you fucked and then you went to go eat, you wouldn't need to hold them on the street.

You wouldn't feel the thrust. Oh, you're saying it's the thrust to hold them and squeeze them on the street. You'd be like, well, we fucked already. Let's just walk across the street to this place. But if you... You're a body language doctor, right? Yes. Okay. We forgot to mention Yes. I write body language

posts for the Huffington Post. But yeah, and so I think if you if you're like, uh oh, well we're gonna fuck later, then that's like a fun thing that you have in your head you know, and then you squeeze them on the street to be like, I'm squeezing you this tight now, but when I fuck you later That's fascinating.

That's gonna be much better. I like that you said paused rather than stop the sexual activity because there's this promise of like, we're going to pick it up. But they got to get to brunch. They overslept. Now, do you think... We establish of course that they are going into a brunch place that they're not

eating at to say hi to their one friend who is the chef. That's our working theory. Right. But do you think at the brunch that they're eventually trying to get to, they are meeting friends there? Because I think that really could change the way you view what happens

in the rest of this commercial. Why don't... I'd say they're meeting friends. Because they look like they dressed well enough to impress somebody. Well, they're wearing Gap. They're wearing their Gap finance. They're wearing Loose Gap.

Yeah, they're wearing Loose Gap. David, do you have something to add? I'm trying to think of, like, so Beckinsale could be meeting, I'm trying to think of Cameron Crowe people they could be meeting. Like, Beckinsale could be meeting John Cusack. Oh, interesting. You're saying are they meeting people from the Crowverse? Who was Bloom in a movie with who was in a Cameron Crowe movie? Well, he was in Elizabeth

Town. I mean, he was meeting his own future character. Other than that, well, he was in Elizabeth Town with Alec Baldwin, who's in Aloha. No, this is no good. Alright, moving on. Depp was never, Keira Knightley was never,

none of the Lord of the Rings people were ever in a Crow movie right? I don't think so Kate Hudson maybe? Kate Hudson was never in a oh no it was in what was the film that he was in with her? let's just say they're meeting up it's going to be Hudson, Beckinsale, Cusack

Bloom that's the brunch date. Right. Okay. Lloyd Dobler. Yeah, in character. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're meeting Lloyd Dobler.

Penny Lane. And Jerry Maggs and Penny Lane, right? Jerry Maggs. Me and Jerry Maggs. Yeah. Showing them the brunch. And so they get, they're walking down the street. They start to feel it.

They look at each other and they have this sort of like, I don't know, should we kind of look? Like they have this weird kind of knowing like, are we, is that like, are we freaks? Like, should we do this? And they sort of nod to each other and they start like running. They start booking it. They start booking it. It's not even like a transition from like strolling

because they're not walking, they're strolling, right? Casually. And they don't do like a soft transition to like, oh, let's power walk, let's jog, let's run. They start... You know how you transition from power walking to jogging to running? Yeah, we all transition. And don't be transphobic here, David.

We all transition from power walking to running. Fair enough. And so they start... Ben didn't like that. Ben hated it. Negative five comedy points. Good, good. They start running full speed,

and you're like, sort of, what's going on here? Why are they running? Are they that late for brunch? But they're, like, smiling as they're doing it, but they're still holding each other, right? Yeah. Maybe not as closely now, because that would limit mobility,

but they're still, like, holding each other tightly. And then you notice in the background... Yeah. ...everyone's fucking running. Not only that, they're all wearing the same clothes. They're all wearing Gap denim. They're all wearing Gap denim. It's like an attack of the clones.

Well, I mean... Thank you. George Lucas is still on this podcast. Yeah, George Lucas is still on this podcast. I just watched the commercial on my cellular telephone. So tell us what you thought of it, George. Well, it looks to me like a classic Star Wars homage. It looks like they're referencing one of the classic lines I use.

It's either some version of this in almost all my movies where people say, we've got to get out of here. It happens all the time. You'll notice people say, we've got to get out of here. And this is a commercial where everybody says it at once. We've got to get out of here. And this is a commercial where everybody says it at once. We've got to get out of here. And then they do it. So you view this commercial as having a sense of threat to it.

You have a clone army. Yeah. And they all got to get out of here. It's a Star Wars double play. So you think there is a clone army. You think a clone army dressed in what you said, my trademark denim outfit. Yeah. And they all basically say with their actions, as in show, don't tell, we got to get out of here.

You're telling me that isn't 1, 2, 3, Star Wars, Lucas. George, were you offended that Cameron didn't come to you for, you know, consult you on this? No, people, look, am I offended? Look, I'd be more offended if he paid me $5 billion to ruin my life. You know? Okay. That's what Disney did. Look, I'd be more offended if he paid me $5 billion to ruin my life. You know? Okay. That's what Disney did. Yeah, I know.

You know, we've had you on the podcast a number of times now, and every time you keep on talking about how wounded you feel by the Disney deal, and then when I press you on it, you deny sort of feeling bad about it. They're great people, and they ruined it. What did they ruin? Star Wars and it. They're great people, and they ruined it. What did they ruin? Star Wars and everything. They ruined everything. I mean, how did you...

I don't think... We haven't had you on the show since The Force Awakens came out. That's true, since Force Awakens came out. That's the thing. You know, I kept my mouth shut. I was classy up until right before the movie released when I compared Disney to white slavers.

Yeah, I remember. Yeah. You know? Right. And... Which is a real thing you said, not on this podcast white slavers. Yeah, I remember. You know? Right. Which is a real thing you said, not on this podcast. It's a real thing I said. I said it to Charlie Rose. I said that selling Star Wars to Disney was

like selling your child to white slavers. Yeah. And I said this knowing that people would hear it publicly. Yeah. It was in front of a camera. A television camera. Yeah, in front of a camera, a television camera. Yeah, in front of a camera. And I intentionally waited

until a month before the release because I'm a class act. So did you see the movie after that? Yeah. What were your thoughts on The Force Awakens? I thought it looked like I couldn't see through all my tears.

It was hard to see. Because the film emotionally sort of overtook you? You were caught with the story it's a good emotional movie yeah get the tears going a few scenes

well I wanted to make a Star Wars movie you know the thing is like when you see a commercial to bring this back to Denim Revolution Invasion

Force Awakens Denim Revolution or what they were Denim Invasion which is better Denim Invasion is better than Force Awakens

honestly if you're looking for a movie recommendation and someone says to you, see Star Wars episode phony, The Force Awakens, I hope you have a better friend with good taste who says, no, watch The Denim Invasion 100 times instead. 100 times would be 50 minutes. That's a brisk film.

Yeah, that's still one third of The Force Awakens, essentially. Well, then watch it a hundred more times. Then you got a feature. Can you explain to me what you dislike so strongly about The Force Awakens? Never. None of it happened. What do you mean none of it happened? It did happen.

They made the movie. Anybody can just make up a Star Wars story. I wanted to tell you what really happened to these characters, and none of that happened. By what metric are these things real? You made up a bunch of stories. I'm a storyteller. Yes, so is J.J. Abrams. No, he's something else.

But when you're saying what really happened, in your mind, what really happened? What would Episode 7 be? What really happened to Force Awakens is not what really happened. Legally, I can't tell you. That's part of my curse and my shame is that I accepted billions of dollars, billions of dollars to keep silent, to keep the truth from people. I wish I could tell you.

I'll tell you this. Han Solo doesn't die. He lives forever. In your episode seven, it is revealed that Han Solo is immortal? Yeah, he lives forever. He gets hit by a force blast. I shouldn't even tell you this. He gets hit by a blast of the pure force, makes him

a forever angel of life. He's a forever angel of life. Look, I don't care. Disney can sue me. This is what happens. Harrison Ford would really love to sink his teeth into it. Definitely. He's definitely a guy who seems to have a lust for life. Would you rather,

yeah, no, you see his earring shines and he gets, So you would have him wear the earring? Sure, the earring. Would Calista Flockhart be in your sequels?

Yeah, and that dancing baby would be in it? The dancing baby from Ally McBeal. Yeah, the dancing baby because that baby was pure CGI just like Jar Jar.

When I saw the dancing baby on Ally McBeal, that's when I knew, I've got to put one of these phony characters in my movie, and it's going to be hilarious, just like Alan McBeal. I just want to be clear about this. This is the chain. In your Star Wars films, there was a character, Han Solo, who was played by Harrison Ford. Because of that, ergo, in your seventh film, hypothetically,

Han Solo, the character, would wear the earring that Harrison Ford, the actor in real life, wears. That's right. Because honestly, if you want to see a Star Wars movie with the number seven in it, you'd be better off seeing Six Days, Seven Nights, where he wears that earring, than you would be seeing, because that's more of a Han Solo movie. Let me tell you something.

I didn't make three Star Wars movies, two Ewok movies, and many more Star Wars related things including that Clone Wars thing you talked about. Yeah, you were a big fan of that. I don't want your dismissive. You just disowned that. That was like your baby. Just to have some teenager sucker stab his daddy.

Because that's what happened. He got killed by a teenager. A moody teenager. I think Adam Driver's in his early 20s. Imagine sitting through Return of the Jedi and at the end of the movie turning to your friends and saying, hey, guess what? I bet some teenager tricks him

into getting stabbed through the front. I bet that's how this ends. Your friends would say, you're dumb. Okay, as opposed to a film in which Han Solo wears the earring that Harrison Ford wears in real life, ergo, Calista Flockhart, his real-life wife, would play a character, ergo, the dancing baby from Ally McBeal, a show she was on previously,

as an actress, not a character, would be in the film. And how would that end? I'm not going to give away the ending. What if someday I buy the rights back from Disney and redo all this? That's your plan. Maybe. Maybe. Are you flipping houses right now with your $5 billion? Is that how you're going to get the money?

Maybe. If I need to, maybe I'll flip Skywalker Ranch. I'll flip it. Do you have any bidders right now? Is anybody on deck? No. No bidders on deck right now. But it's a great place.

We have our own fire department. That's a big selling point. You don't get a lot out. A lot of times people are like, does it have three bathrooms? I'm like, yeah. It's also got its own fire department. It has stained glass by Marsha Lucas. Yeah, built by the man who cuckolded me.

That's true fact. The stained glass was installed by a man who cuckolded me. Oh, I know. I've talked about it a lot on this podcast. Why do I keep that stained glass up? That's a question I'll never answer. Why would you, if a man cuckolded you, would you keep up the stained glass

that he built for your house? No. I mean, that was, that's the five billion dollar question, I would say, because not only was it the man who cuckolded you, but that's how they met, and she left immediately after the stained glass was gone. Yeah, that's right. Like, that symbolizes that moment in your life where everything fell apart. You seem to have

an issue with the idea that Han Solo would wear an earring, but I gave Anakin a rat tail. Yeah, but Hayden Christian said, did he have a rat tail in real life? No, that was a CGI rat tail. Well, that's my point. My issue isn't with wearing the earring. I think you're blurring these lines. Griffin, you're getting sucked

into another debate with George Lucas. Yet another live episode. It's hard not to. We've got five these lines. Griffin, you're getting sucked into another debate with George Lucas. Yet another live episode. It's hard not to. We've got five minutes left. Oh, shit. I'm going to leave. I'm going to leave now. I'm going to leave now.

But I wish you the best. I really do think that congratulations on Denim Invasion podcast. Thank you. So all the remaining episodes are going to be about Denim Invasion? No, it's about other Cameron Crowe films. We're going to go through all of Cameron Crowe's films. Can I recommend, please, if you're not going to do about Star Wars, make every episode of this be about Denim Invasion? No, it's about other Cameron Crowe films. We're going to go through all of Cameron Crowe's films. Can I recommend, please, if you're not going to do it about Star Wars, make every episode of this podcast about Denim Invasion.

Why would we do that? That's a fool's... Because George Lucas asked you. I mean, I asked so nicely just now. Okay, I'll consider it. Yeah, it's under consideration. Thank you. We can discuss.

Oh, you sound like Disney executives. Do you want to take a burger with you as you go? What kind of burgers do you have? McDonald's burgers. You had a cheeseburger. There are other kinds. Do you want to take a burger with you as you go? What kind of burgers do you have? McDonald's burgers. You had a cheeseburger. There are other kinds. What do you have, a Big Mac? No, it's just I got the basic $1 cheeseburger.

No, no thanks. George Lucas, everybody. He could buy $5 billion of those burgers. Thank you, George. Georgie Porgy Lucas, our little baby boy. So this denim invasion. Yeah, so let's get back. We've got a lot to cover still in the commercial.

Somehow we still didn't get to the end of a 30-second commercial. I told you, we don't use the 45 minutes as a constraint on us. I walked in and Ben said, what are we going to do? And I said, I think we're going to talk about the commercial for 45 minutes. A hundred percent. Okay, so the commercial ends with... Yeah, where do we leave it off? They were running

with many people dressed in denim. And they were about to start running. I mean, possibly. And the troggs are on the... An element I think that you glossed over,

Griffin, is that they're holding each other and then they start to walk a little faster, but then they look behind them and see the mob

of models. Clones. Clones. Probably. Model clones chasing after them. And then that's what makes them run faster and faster and faster and faster. But it's unclear, I mean, I think it's very unclear as to whether they're running with or running away from.

Yeah, is it supposed to be a hard day's night thing? Are they being chased? Were they being chased by them before and they ran into the restaurant to hide from them, but now they've been rumbled again? And also, the title of the commercial is Denim Invasion, and here's a real director's flourish. The commercial starts with a title card.

And that's not the YouTube upload, like you put a title card on it. Cameron Crowe uploaded this personally to YouTube. This is on his personal YouTube account. Let's point that out. That is true. The commercial starts with, over the image, a superimposed title that says Denim Invasion.

So very few commercials let you know what the title is, so you have a sense of sort of foreboding dread. Sure. And it's like, are they leading the invasion? Right. Have they become these de facto revolutionaries? Oh, that's interesting. And greatness has been thrusted upon them, whereas they didn't want it

before. Right. That's nuts. Is this commercial about Orlando Bloom and Kate Beckinsale, the actors, who are now getting caught by fans, having a secret affair, or do they just play two fictional characters who are being chased by an ominous group

of beautiful people wearing denim for unknown reasons. It's ambiguous. I like to think that they woke up and they sort of felt like the two of them were, you know, they sort of felt like outsiders. Do you think they felt it in their fingers? And then this group of people made them their leader.

And at first they're like, I don't know what to do with this responsibility. I don't know anything about the denim invasion. I don't know. I guess I think things are fine, but maybe they're not. And now they have to lead this entire revolution across the whole world. Well, they felt it in their fingers and in their toes. That's how a revolution starts.

You get this sort of burning, kind of tingling thing. In the extremities, you're saying. But I also think the key to decoding this commercial is in the main thrust of the song when it really kicks in is love is all around us. And so they're sort of being attacked with love. There's this sense of all these people

wearing denim has activated their powers. It's almost like watching a Cameron Crowe movie, feeling attacked by love. Yes, definitely. Good-looking people being really happy. Let me clarify. Good-looking white people being really happy and madly in love

and just sort of swarming you. We should also mention this commercial is all done in one shot. One take. It's one take, and it feels like they're in a car, but it moves around different sides of them. I watched it like ten times, as I said, and as far as I could tell, they had a crane on a car because at the end

it's like an overhead shot yeah yeah it jumps into the air but it starts at sort of it's like the Bjork video it starts at sort of eye level but at a different perspective like it makes these

massive shifts so you think this is Crowe announcing himself as a visual filmmaker I think so I think this was his touch of evil moment you know

yeah exactly because he was saying like I'm known as a writer I I'm known as an actor. I've got my writing Oscar. Editing. But I don't do a lot of flashy camera work. And he's like, I'm going to move this baby. You know what I'm saying? This is him entering into De Palma mode. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, who do you think shot this? Zygmunt? Yeah, probably. I don't know. We should figure that out. But I also think this commercial was probably prohibitively expensive. That's my sense of it. Now, when Kutcher drops out of Elizabethtown. Four years later? Three years later?

And it was late in the game. They had the rest of the cast set. They were doing rehearsals and everything. What are we going to do? He goes, what's the best working relationship I've had? Crow wakes up Jerry Maguire style, covered in sweat. He gets to his laptop, his power book.

He writes a manifesto. He finds his manifesto about the denim invasion. And he's like, bloom. That's what we'll do. It's bloom. It's spring. We've got to bloom these flowers. Do you think Elizabethtown would have worked if it was bloom and beckonsail? If he'd gotten them back together? I will say this.

I don't think so. I don't think so. There's no circumstances under which it could have worked. Instinctively I say no, so I have to say that. That was reflexive. I almost puked it into the mic. Hey guys.

Should probably wrap up. Alright, we're going to open it up. I didn't win the Hamilton lottery, by the way. I told my Twitter fan I would let you know what happened to me in the Hamilton lottery today. I did not win the Hamilton lottery. I'm sorry about that. How much time do we have? Zero minutes.

Negative minutes? Yeah. I do think they had great chemistry in this video. Sure. I wish they did more work together. I'd love to see them do a film together again. But wait, how does it end? How does it end?

We described the ending. They are running away from the dead people. It's an overhead shot, and they just get sort of swarmed by the crowd. And then it fades to pure white. Pure white. And then there's this weird blue box, and the letters G-A-P appear. I don't know what that means. Which is like, is it the gap between in their relationship?

Yeah, probably. There's always a gap. That's what it means. As much as you feel like you're in love with someone, there's a gap between you and someone else. Do you have a final take? Do you have any takes on relationships? I wanted to ask you guys to say that they didn't have sex, and then they ran, they started the denim revolution,

but then they finally got a moment alone with each other. What do you think the sex acts were between the two of them once they got time to have sex after the denim revolution? I think they had a stomach thing after all that running, and they weren't up for it,

and they had to like wait till tomorrow. I think it was straight up butt fucking. I think they were looking at all these people wearing jeans. Butts are the thing that are intensified and I think he was in this crowd looking at all these butts and he was like, I gotta fuck a butt. Wow, alright. Well, that's our take. That's our show. We're gonna end right there.

Merchandise spotlight. Gap is a national chain. You can go there and buy denim. Are you wearing jeans? No, you're not. I'm wearing like, I think these might be, no, they're Uniqlo.

I'm wearing like a, You're wearing a green jean. I'm wearing green pants. Green jean. Yeah, go to Gap. They have great merchandise from the denim invasion. They're still selling

denim invasion merchandise. And as always, you know, just fuck a butt. All right. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thank you.

This has been a UCB Comedy Production. Check out our other shows on the UCB Comedy Podcast Network.