The Press Box - Ep. 274: 'Jam Session' With Juliet Litman and Amanda Dobbins

Episode Date: March 9, 2017

The Ringer's Juliet Litman and Amanda Dobbins celebrate Connie Britton's birthday (5:00), discuss Brad Pitt's rumored reunion with Jennifer Aniston (12:00), and Meghan Markle wins. Then, Ringer writer Allison P. Davis joins to give her thoughts on Emma Watson's press tour for 'Beauty and the Beast' (22:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Jam Session. I'm Juliette Littman. I'm Amanda Abbins. Happy International Women's Day. And to you. Thank you. We are women. So we are celebrating ourselves and other women in this world today. We are. And I would like to take this moment to encourage you to do that as well in your own life. Totally. Not just the women you love, but the women you work with. Women you don't like. Yeah. And the, you know, the women who help you in ways big and small every day in your life. I agree. and we're going to celebrate some women we do and do not like today on this podcast as we do every time. Let's start with a beloved woman, Connie Britton, who just turned 50 over the weekend.

Happy birthday, Connie Britton. Can't believe she's 50. Doesn't look a day over 35. She looks incredibly good. She's been around for so long and just like has not aged. It's wild. I think also, listen, I think just Connie Britton looks incredible. This is a good lesson that if you've got good hair, you milk it as long as possible.

She has, there aren't a lot of 50-year-old women these days rocking like the full blowout. How does she do it? I mean, she must travel with someone, right? I guess. I'm sure there are extensions too. I mean, I'm sure there's a whole science to it. But I'm just saying she's still committed to it at age in which many women feel that that's not appropriate for them. And I think it's inspirational.

Whatever hair you want to have at any age, you can do it. And Connie Britton proves that. She looks so great. It's amazing. Yeah. So she celebrated her 50th birthday. with some friends. Yes.

And I think it was Austin. I did a lot of research into this. I wasn't sure if it was L.A. or Austin. There was some competing information. Can I just say, can I interrupt here here on International Women's Day say to you, I was lucky enough to be sitting behind Juliet's large computer monitor as she did some of this research. And I just want to let the listeners know you, this was a master at work.

I have never seen such investigative skills. She was doing four things at a time. but she was on the case. CSI Juliet. It was inspirational. Thanks, Amanda. I really appreciate that. I have a lot to from you. The Twitter keyword search is essential. Yes. Incredible. Something that I learned to do a few years ago. That's how you get like citizen journalism involved. A random person who just takes a photo of Connie Britton. I want to know about that. That's true. I, uh, so it just was really inconclusive, which leads me to believe Connie Britton's very private, which was cool. Which is cool. Yes. Oh, no, they didn't did a post about her birthday. I also saw this. The name of the post was

Connie Britton celebrates her birthday in Austin. I actually didn't even realize that. But I think the reason that both ohnily didn't, I think it may have been there, is because Sophia Bush of One Tree Hill and one of the Chicago shows, like Chicago Med or Chicago. Fire, Chicago. I think it's fire. I think she's a paramedic, but I'm not sure.

Okay. I don't know. The Dick Wolf Chicago shows. Sophia Bush had a birthday picture where she was wearing the official Connie Burton birthday guest t-shirt. Yes, we'll come back to that. And it said, hashtag keep Austin weird. So I think it was in Austin, but I'm not positive.

The other conflicting information, though, is it looked like Lake Bell was there, and she was seen in L.A. over the weekend. So I don't know. Interesting. Very tough. I think it was in Austin, and I'm not positive it was Lake Bell. Any information on where Taylor Kitch spent his weekend? He was also at the birthday. Yes.

And I went through a lot of Taylor Kitch fan accounts that I did not know existed. There's Your Daily Kitch, there's Taylor Kitch Daily. There's, like, Kitch fans. the wide world on Instagram and they didn't have a lot of updates again a private person I guess if I lived in Austin like every time I saw Taylor Kitch I would take a picture So don't you think just the fact that there is

not that much information is a sign that it was in Austin? Yeah because if you were paparazzi I guess people in Austin are possibly more productive of Connie and Taylor and Senator his privacy totally because of what they gave to the community Right because they live there because that's her

Friday lights shot So she was wearing a crown slash tiara at her 50th birthday and her friends were wearing CBSO shirts. I thought it was CV50, but it wasn't. It was CBSO. What's S.O? I don't know. Are you sure it wasn't just bad typography? You're a typography expert. Yeah, I thought it was 15. Then another hashtag was CBSO. So I don't even know. It was a lot of mystery. It was like a real, it was like a real party for her actual friends. Who would have thought it wasn't just for Instagram? It's wild. Yes, though. The first. fact that they had t-shirts and hashtags and wore posting on Instagram would lead us to believe

that it was not quite as much for just her friends as say like you or I might do. It seemed like Sophia Bush just had a great time. I don't know. She was, she just, and all the pictures I saw, seem like she was just killing it. Yes. But I just would never have guessed Sophia Bush and Connie Britton were tight. Is Sophia Bush like irrelevant to you at all? I know of her. Um, great. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't really have a lot of feelings about her one way or the other. Right. Like, I think she only really matters to the, to the idiots like me who loved one tree hill. I didn't mind one tree ho. Oh, good. It was like I didn't keep up with it. I do, you know, there's the famous John

Jeremiah Sullivan essay, which, uh, is also wonderful. I really recommend that. That was a great one. I can't believe I just recommended a JJS essay on this podcast, but anyway. Whatever. It's about him living in Peyton's house. Yeah, it's great. Here's my question. Okay. what do we make of, I guess we don't know who else was there. Everyone, but Connie Britton, is substantially younger than Connie Britton, which I think is very interesting. Yeah, it's true. A lot of friends in her 30s and now we know she's 50. Yeah. She's just young at heart.

I guess that's it. I mean, be friends with whoever you want to be friends with. It is interesting to me. Yeah. Well, do you want to address how she left Nashville? Oh, yeah. Oh, you're setting me up for this. Okay, so, yeah, no, it's fine. It's time. It's time. I promised I would do this. I, guys, I love Friday Night Lights, Friday Night Lights. I love Tammy Taylor. I think Connie Britton sounds great and I am happy that she's 50.

I have some concerns with her behavior over the last few weeks. I'm just going to voice those here. Number one, I do not think the way that she handled her Nashville departure was the kindest to the fans and to the people who had invested a lot in her career. and also in caring enough about that dumb show that it got picked up on a second network, which was like not guaranteed. Nashville was almost canceled every single season. Much like Friday Night Lights. Exactly.

But it had like a very passionate fan base, a lot of people. And people were mostly watching for Connie Britton, who is beloved. It was canceled by ABC, moved to CMT. People were very excited about it. It was doing pretty well on CMT. And then she just pieced out. I saw a theory that she agreed to stay on so the show would get picked up. Do you believe that is true?

I think so. And that she didn't want to stay, but she wanted the show to continue. So she was like, I'll give them a few more apps. I just, I just think that killing, there's ways to get rid of a character other than killing them. This happened on the good wife, too. It's true. I know it's a little more tricky with Connie Britton's character on Nashville because she's a mom, than like with Will Gardner, who was just like a singleton or whatever.

Yes. But they just don't always have to die. Like, just leave the door open for a return. That's not a dream sequence. Like, it just doesn't have to be like a gruesome death that shocks everyone. It's not fair. Just make it a little bit easier sometimes. Yeah, I would agree.

Anyway, I'm sure that there was some sort of negotiation, and I'm, you know, involved at first tank for a certain amount of time or else the show wouldn't get to last. And that's obviously a lot of jobs and a lot of cast and crew. And it was a little. It was rude how she did it. It was rude. Also, I just like, her Instagram post that went up instantly kind of addressing the issues.

Yeah, she was prepared for this. She was prepared. She doesn't think a single other cast member. She thanks the characters and the creators, which is on the one hand, just a tremendous, tremendous active shade and just really expert. On the other hand, you know, it doesn't. It's pretty rude. It's like going to Oscars like not thanking your coworkers.

I think Honeybren might be a little rude. That's what I'm out here saying. And that's okay. I'm rude too. Then I have to say tiaras and t-shirts at your 50th birthday. Listen, not at your 50th birthday. At any birthday? I support the t-shirt.

They don't support the tiara. Yeah. Okay. The t-shirts are fun. I like a free t-shirt. I like a favor. Yeah, that's true. And if they're like creative, I don't mind it.

Sure. You know, it's not what I would want for my birthday. I would happily wear a T-shirt for your birthday. Thanks. Because I know it would make you happy. That's your love language, as it were. But tiara is just like a, no. It's a bridge two-bar.

You shouldn't wear tiaras. I wore one once on a live stream when the crown one, but that was a joke. So please don't call me a hypocrite. You also didn't wear it the entire time. It was just a few minutes. Yeah, that's true. I don't think past the age of, Four?

I was going to say five. And then I was like, maybe I should leave it till 10 because people should have room to creatively express themselves. Yeah, I don't know. No at birthdays, no at bachelor's parties. Crowns are a bad look. I suppose you could do it for Halloween, but Juliet and I don't believe in Halloween. I don't acknowledge that holiday.

That's tough. Yeah. Not a great week for Connie Britton in terms of her social media, but that's okay. I did know she did some individual post thanking in the various cast members, which is kind of a whole, it was weird to lead off with thanking your character. Okay. Like that's just a strange move. I mean, she's, she did post the picture.

She's still even tagging, she's not adding Hayden Pettier and she's just doing hashtag Juliet. Like, is that just she doesn't understand social media? She might not. She's 50. Is she just trying to do the show promo? Do you think she does her own social media? I don't know. Who do you?

Do you think most people do their own social media or do you think most people outsource it? Where are you on this? I think a lot of people outsource it. Yeah. I think the risk to make a mistake and then be castigated for it is like too high. Yeah, I would agree with that. And also it's just kind of so many of them are doing kind of like they have whatever promotional obligations they have to do for the shows, etc. They definitely have social media managers.

Yeah. A lot of athletes have been caught like messaging with random. randoms though so athletes they that use both other people and control their own actresses kind of different yeah who knows life of an athlete you know it's it's so true i do know it very well as you know so do i all right let's move on happy birthday connie britt yeah happy birthday you've got great hair that's that's the moral of the story um another hot topic this week this is a really hot one to be really quite frank yeah apparently brad pitt texted jennifer aniston I think it was a happy birthday.

Yes. Another birthday. On February 11th. That's like wild. And then, according to Us Weekly, he has been, quote, confiding in her. I'm reading from Us Weekly. Brad told her he's having a hard time with his split and they exchanged a few texts reminiscing about the past. Okay.

Remincing about the past. Jennifer Addison's married, I think. Yes, they are married. married. Back off, Brad. That's not okay. I would also like to spend a moment reminiscing about the past as I did the other night. I told you. I was waiting for a pizza to cook and so I decided to read the Jennifer Anderson 2005 Vanity Fair profile, the famous sensitivity chip profile, because that's just a normal thing to do. This is scathing still and really hard. It's really raw. On him or her or both. Okay. So let me read.

read you the first two lines. Okay, please do. When Jennifer Aniston opens the door to the Malibu bungalow she's been hold up in lately, she gives me a radiant smile and an effusive hello. Then she bursts into tears. Oh my God. So that's like, that's where we are. It's really, the craft, the craft of this profile is really amazing because Jennifer Aniston is like, she's definitely there to talk about her tough year, so it's not off the table, but she won't, she's trying to, very hard not to speak in specifics, and she won't bad mouth Brad. She's just kind of using like therapy speak about how she's a, she talks a lot about her therapist, which I respect.

But then because she won't say anything negative about him, she's clearly authorized other close friends to say like really negative things about her. And basically she puts all of her mean thoughts and words into the mouths of other people. So she doesn't have to say it, but it's still like everyone thinks Brad's a terrible person who was never nice to her and didn't let her have a nice couch and then cheated on her for a while and what a dirtbag. Oof.

It's really good publicity management. Sure. And also does not make him seem very nice. I mean, they really both, I think, made each other look bad. They made, he made her seem like a pot head. Or at least, I mean. I mean, she might be. Who knows?

But that was like something that, like, no one really knew about her until after their divorce. Right. And it just didn't seem, they made each other. They made you all that look bad, in my opinion. It was really messy and extremely public. Yeah, extremely public. Well, they also were so public with, like, being in love. That's true.

So you kind of, like, once you've opened that can of worms, how do you close it, you know? That's true. They were cute, too. I mean, I could, like, picture their black and white wedding photos in my head. They were ubiquitous. Yeah, absolutely. And all the red carpet photos. Yeah.

But it's really remarkable how forthcoming she is about the breakup. way that I just don't think would happen now for someone of their caliber. Totally. They would just never talk about it because you can just post some Instagrams about like, I did some yoga and I'm healing and like respect yourself. And that counts as your comment on your breakup. Right. And then you can just move right along.

And like that's kind of like your official statement that you keep pointing people towards. And it's like also like unmediated. So every outlet has like the same access to it. And it's just sort of like there for everyone to aggregate basically. Yeah. It is really different. It's interesting. It's interesting. I really recommend everyone go back and, you know, I could read therapy quotes all day. It's really fascinating. So he's now he's texting her. Apparently he had to get her number from a mutual friend because he didn't have it. I definitely wasted at least 30 minutes trying to figure out like the mutual friend chain. And I don't have it fully worked out, but somehow I think it involves Jonah Hill. Oh, interesting. That was like my step one. Okay. Brad to Jonah Hill via, um, money ball. Yes. And then what, like, what's the connection of Jonah Hill, Justin Thoreau, and Jennifer

Right. There's got to be a comedy connection. Right. But I was trying to work it out because they are from different camps. So it's probably a manager or something. Although, but then I was like, wait a second. If you're Brad Pitt and you're trying to get Jennifer Anderson's number, you're not going through the husband.

No. So then I guess maybe Jonah Hill is wrong. I forgot that I realized that. I don't even know who Jennifer Anison's friends are, except for Courtney Cox. in Chelsea lately. What's your last name? Chelsea Handler.

But it definitely wasn't Chelsea Handler because she said like really rude things about Angelina Jolie. Although no, but also him. So he probably wouldn't do it. Jennifer Aniston and Justin Thore were photographed having dinner

with John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. So I was trying to think through that chain. Okay. And then I was like, is it? Well, John Krasinski has Damon. Yeah, to Klooney and Damon. Yeah, that's what it is.

That's what it is. And then Klee. Tony and Damon are both friends. Brad Pitt. Obviously, promotions love it. Right. Okay. So he figured it out. Great. John Krasinski. He's a connector. This is such good CSI work. See, you are a true expert in the field. It's pretty wild. Brad Pitt, you're not allowed to be texting Jennifer Anderson after you cheated on her very publicly. Can I tell you the other thing that Brad Pitt's been doing with his time? Yes, please do. He skipped the Oscars. Perhaps you noticed he wasn't there. I did notice. I can speak it was lack of star power in my opinion. at the Oscars. Yes.

Yeah, that's true. Ryan Gosling is. He was also like silent. He just like give him the mic for like 10 seconds. Gosling? Yeah. Yeah, no, I would be great with that. Seriously.

All right. Anyway, Brad Pitt wasn't there because. This is from the Hollywood reporter. He was hold up creating a sculpture at a British artist home in Frogtown. He had been there for nearly 10 days. So Brad Pitt is literally just. in some random ass warehouse in Frogtown. Just like creating for 10 days straight without a break.

My dude. My dude. Rain it in. Also, there's just a lot of things you can infer from that. But my guess is Brad Pitt didn't want to be asked questions on the red carpet. Yeah, of course not. Yeah. Though he did go to the Golden Globes.

Perhaps he loves that place Salazar, that new restaurant. I'm about to say the only thing in Frogtown is a Mexican restaurant that doesn't have heat lamps when I need them. So, yeah. I was surprised he didn't go because it was movie one, moonlight. That's true. Yeah. You know, maybe he didn't want to upstage their night, which is generous. Right.

He did get a lot of flak. Unfortunately, some other people did. He did get a lot of flak for that with 12 years of slave, so. Yeah, Brad Pitt is not making good choices, which I guess we do. But Jennifer Aniston don't respond. Come on. Block that number. Yeah.

Put his number. on the call block. That's a good lesson. Let's talk about the statute of limitations. Is there is there a statute of limitations to responding to the ex who brutally You got to wait a minimum of 12 hours. Oh no, I meant like years. Oh.

Like five, you know, 10 years ago, Jennifer Anderson should not and would not have responded. Has enough time passed? I think it's like seven years. Okay. So they're good. She's just being the bigger supportive person. Yeah, but still, she just shouldn't respond. Like, I think it's okay.

I guess it's like, no, I don't think it's okay. He shouldn't text her. Sorry, dude. You're done for. I also agree with that. But that's like we're advocating that people hang on to their, their pettiness and anger for years. And that's not a healthy way to live. I guess.

It's what I would do. Me too. However, honor yourself and don't hang on to your anger, but only after seven years. I would extend it to 10. After 10 years, a decade. Give yourself a decade. And then you can move on. Okay.

Great. Great. Let's move on to a couple still in love, Prince Harry and Megan Markle. We won't talk about them every week, I swear. But they were in Jamaica and she was wearing a phenomenal dress. They went to a wedding. Yeah, so this is big news. They were photographed, like, out on a date in the world together.

He was, like, admitting to large groups of people that they are, in fact, together. Yes. Which indicates that their relationship is pretty serious. Two more related to Megan Markle. It's been a big week. They were on the cover of us weekly with, like, engaging. engagement soon. I have no idea if that's true. Well, yeah, no way to verify that one.

Right. The other thing I'd like to say is that Megan Markle just wrote this week, wrote a what I thought was pretty lovely op-ed for a time about some of the work that she is doing, basically destigmatizing, like, women's periods. And then how that gets in the way of education and, like, girls who can't go to school. Sure. It's really lovely. I thought it was cool that she was doing this work. She's a good egg. I really, really am rooting for Megan Markle. Me too.

In life and also I think it would be great if they got married. Totally. Also, suits pretty good season. That's on right now. Okay. Great. I like her. I mean, yeah, she seems like a real person.

It's kind of cool. Yeah. I don't know, Harry, good job. I completely agree. I like her. It's so great when substantive women like her are rewarded for being who they are. Not to say that he's a reward. But, you know, I just feel like it's great that she's just, you know,

doing her thing beloved it seems that she is doing getting what she wants in life which is what you absolutely um let's talk about our sponsor and then after that we're going to come back with our friend alison davis talk about emma watson all this month we're asking you to tell a friend about a podcast they'll love consider telling them about jam session on channel 33 right now think of a friend your mom anyone you care about what podcast would they really love all right you got it now do it tell them about it in real life or on social media or text them or use Facebook messenger, whatever you prefer. And they don't know what podcasts, show them how to get them.

That would be ludicrous. But, you know, use the Apple podcast app. There's Overcast, there's Stitcher, really however you get them. Tell us what you recommend using the hashtag tripod. That's hashtag T-R-Y-P-O-D. Thanks just writing the word. And now we are very pleased to welcome Ringer staff writer Alison Davis to JamSession to talk with us about a very important subject,

which is Emma Watson and the thousands of interviews that she has been giving in the past two weeks. Allison, welcome. Hello, thank you. Seriously, thousands. Does it feel like she's been... What, sorry? Is it seriously thousands?

She's everywhere. She's been giving more than the usual frequency of interview, or is it just like because she's so noticeable. I can't tell. There's been a lot of Emma. So, Allison, can you give like the basic context for people who have maybe not been following Emma Watson's press tour as religiously as the three of us have? Sure.

Well, I mean, the whole thing is for the live action Beauty and the Beast, which is her first, like, big, like, Emma Watson's full wadded role. She plays Bell. Everyone's very excited about it. It's like Hermione 2.0, whatever. So she's been out on the road doing the worldwide press tour as the movies premiering in different cities. I think she's been going since, like, the last week of February. And I don't know why that feels like it started early, and it's also been really high frequency,

but she's been giving, she's been on all the talk shows, all the covers of the magazines, doing little press junkage showing up on, like, web series, doing multiple Facebook, live, due and days. So it's just been, like, a lot of Emma Watson all at one. Yeah, it does feel like she's really out here, selling this movie. She is doing more than the average movie star does right now, I would say. I think it's just like weird that this is her first like big thing. I feel like she's so

omnipresent that it's weird that this is actually kind of like a like a landmark moment in her career. Well, I was going to say also I do feel like part of the reason that she is so inescapable is because Emma Watson is very internet friendly. Like yeah, you know, she is of a certain age and has been of a certain generation where we've always kind of been talking about her on the internet. You know, there's the Harry Potter aspect. And

I don't know, she's like a, she's an internet famous person. Would you say, Allison? Yes, I agree. And like the heat for she campaign. Like, there's all these little virally sort of thing where you're always talking about her, I feel like. She had that banger with Lynn Manuel

Miranda last year. Oh yeah. Some may not consider it a banger. Okay. That's, I I would choose to move past that. But that was part of the heap or she campaign. Alison, where are you on that particular video? I want to insult Juliet if he did like it, but I'd prefer just to ignore that blip in Emma Watson's resume. It was a lot of earnestness in one video.

That's true. Yeah, so this is a good point. And Allison, in your piece today on The Ringer, where you are assessing the various winners and losers of this never-ending press tour, you did bring up Emma Watson's earnestness. And I wanted you to expand on how you feel about. at it generally? I don't want to be a jerk, and it's so wonderful that she's so sweet and, like,

such a nice-seeming person. And I think that worked really well for her when she was, like, a child actress, and it was like, oh, she's so well-behaved and British. We love her. But when you're, like, turning it on full blast in every interview about, like, your childhood dreams of playing Bell and beating the cease coming true, it starts to ring a little disingenuous, if not, like, just... I'm so annoyed by her, which is unfair because, like, I think, I think she's fine, but I can't even tell anymore because she's been too, like, sweet and wide-eyed and blinky and, like, excited about being a Disney princess for the past two weeks.

Yeah, it doesn't help that she has, she's like, I'm so excited that I get to be a Disney princess. It's like, if I'm, I'm so excited that I get to be Lara Croft or I'm so excited that I get to be, like, the first female president. I'd be like, right on, sister, you too, but she's like, I'm Belle. I made it. I don't, it's tough. That's, that's a little hard.

I do wonder, though, if it's like, there's some generational stuff at play here, microgenerational, I should say. Because I was going to compare

her a bit to Anne Hathaway. Oh, yeah. There are a couple things. One, I think it's not quite as thirsty, no,

no shots to other people, but also that she doesn't, people seem to like the earnestness. I like Ann Hathaway I like Ann Hathaway too But do you know what I mean in the sense of There's definitely a persona

That she typifies Sure I just don't know Is Emma Watson a good actress Like is there any evidence that she is? That's a great question Allison How did you think she was in Beauty and the Beast?

You know There was a similar quality Like there was a very And I don't know if this was just because it's Bell and, like, you have to be, you know, the IRL Disney princess, but there was a lot of wide-eyed blinking and, like, head shaking and, like, cutesy sort of anger and toughness. I don't know. It was like a Tutsi roll pop, sort of. That was kind of what her performance was to me. The thing about Disney movies is, like, why do they have to be live action?

Like, that's just sort of, like, setting her up to fail because when it's a cartoon character, it's more, it's easier to, like, like accept the very like sugary aspects of her. But when there's a real person attached to it, it's so much more uncomfortable to be like, why is she obsessed with this beast? And what about Stockholm syndrome and all of these things? It's like setting her up and like in and the way I am not a Harry Potter head at all. But from my seeing of two of the eight Harry Potter movies,

it seems like she didn't have to really contend with like the same sort of like fictional or like cartoonish to live action, even though in some ways it's not not that different. Yeah, I mean. Right. It's asking the audience to make, like, a lot of allowances for, like, oh, she's in love with a minotaur. And, like, it just felt, I don't know. There's a lot of weird things you have to work through just to enjoy the movie.

Right. Yeah. And, like, if she wants to be taken seriously in her press tour, like, they have to ask her certain questions that don't really, like, make sense for the film she's promoting. Right. Right. Right. She's also, it's a princess film. Yeah.

It's hard. Like, in Harry Potter, you can. express a sense of wonder because there's real fucking magic in the world and that's exciting. I would be stoked if there were magic. But, and I guess they're real princesses too, you know, and I also read about Cave Middleton with like great enthusiasm, but there is something about a sense of wonder about being a princess that maybe does not align with the rest of her press tour, which has been heavy on the feminism. Totally.

Yeah, that's like the crux of it. Yeah. So that's interesting. Allison, do you want to talk a little bit about Boob's Gate? Oh, God. We chose Boobstate. That's what we're going to, okay, I think. Boobstate. So Emma Watson, in the lead up to the movie, is obviously going to be in every fashion magazine that will, you know, we'll photograph her. So she's on the cover of Vanity Fair this month. And in the portfolio, she's wearing sort of like a, like, like, you know, Like a fish net? I don't really understand the shirt, but it's like a high fashion. It's kind of like a rug on her shoulders.

Yeah, okay. It's like a netted rug sort of thing where a lot of, I would say, perhaps most of her underboob, but like maybe just two-thirds of her boob without the nipple is, they're showing. So you see your boob. I just want to clarify, it's two-thirds of one boob. So it's really just a third. It seems like her nipples are airbrushed. does it doesn't make her nipples are airbrushed out?

I don't know how you would not get any ariola in this, in this, uh, draught on her. Oh, they're definitely airbrushed out. But that's like, that's such a fashion magazine thing to airbrush out nipples because like underboob is fine, but nipples make it porn. It's ridiculous. Right. Right. So this stayed high fashion, but it didn't really matter because, of course, like, uh, there was sort of like the eruption of like, you talk about feminism, but yet you're showing your boobs in a magazine, which I feel like is an argument that we have to stop having. But then the beehive reminded all of us that Emma Watson's actually sort of a hypocrite because in an interview in 2014, she appeared to have criticized Beyonce for being both sexual and declared herself a feminist.

And here she was doing the same exact thing. So once you get that beehive on your chase, it's like controversy has boiled over and Emma Watson sucks with being a feminist because she has boots. And then somehow Gloria Steinem got roped into this at LAX at the baggage claim. I know. She just wanted to get her bag. Alison, I think you made a good point in your piece, which is that literally the only winner in this is Beyonce, who got roped into something that was not about her and then had a bunch of people defending her feminism.

Right. Yeah, this is a true mess. And I think you made a good point. We have to stop having that argument about whether you can show one. third of your middle area and still value women as equal participants in society. Just a thought on International Women's Day. Alison, there's one more thing I wanted to talk to you about. And it's something I learned while editing your piece.

Could you tell me about Celine Dion's role in the new Beauty and the Beast film? It hurts me even to talk about it, but I can dig into the paint. So, see, you know, the Beauty and the Beast, I believe, was such a smash hit because of her powerful rendition of the title song, Beauty as Beast, that she recorded in 1991. And I didn't know that she won the Oscar for it, but Amanda, you can partly added that. So now, in, like, the 2017 edition where they're trying to, like, revamp everything a little bit, they've added songs to the original score, which it didn't need. and one of them is a new song for Celine Beyond, which is like super cheesy. They play it during the credits.

It's supposed to be this emotional ballad, but it's like, it sounds like a bad karaoke song. And they gave the original song to Ariana Grande and John Legend to cover, which breaks my heart for Celine. I just want to go on a record and say, this is a fucking outrage. That's where I stand on this. That is incredibly disheartedly.

respectful to Celine Dion who is an icon and that song. Unimpegible. Love Celine. Incredible. And you're shunting Celine Dion to the side for Ariana Grande. I just am not okay with this. Alison, you love Ariana Grande. Don't deny it.

I do love Ariana Grande. I love her. But I also think that everybody should know their place within the pop diva universe. And Ariana Grande is not worthy of a Celine song yet. She's just not. She's got Kai. What if she's done it? What have she done it without John Legend? It was really the John Legend that bothered me.

I was John Legend. I was going to say, I would have made it worse for me. I'm pro-John Legend. Did you like the movie, by the way? I did. Okay. It was an enjoyable two hours. I definitely love an audience that will sing along.

Sure. We all got to sort of sing along, too. But I think that they tried to, they tried a little bit too hard to remind us that it was like 2017 and like the world's a little bit woker now. So they like tried to play up some of like the tendencies of like that, oh, we had a gay character, but we're really going to push that up. And like Emma Watson was really trying to play up. But I'm a strong woman, but we didn't need that. The subtext was already there, you know. Sure.

Sure. Working too hard. Also, ooh, I'm sorry. I have a conspiracy that I think Emma Watson was heavily auto-chewed, and you could tell in every song. I believe that. That's a bold claim. I know. Yeah.

It is notable she hasn't been singing on the press tour. Seriously. We do have a week to go. I just want to say maybe she's waiting to pull out all the stops. That's the most incredible thing. This movie is not out for another week and a half. So she is still going to be around selling the crap out of this movie. So, you know, maybe her carpal karaoke or whatever is still to come.

Maybe. She did get action from La La Land. Maybe she wasn't a good enough singer. Actually, I think she dropped out herself. Also, I mean, well, those are some standards. And I liked Lala Land. I can say that now because the better film won. Anyway.

Allison, thank you very much for this searing insight. Thank you, guys. Anytime. We'll have you back soon. Okay, thanks, guys. Bye. If you like Emma Watson or if you hate her, check out Allison's article in the ringer. Let's move on to our two segments.

One is DTR to find the relationship. And I want to talk about Ed Shearren. Oh, no. Ed Shearhan has a new record out. And there's one song on it that I really like. I'm sorry, but I do. And he's doing- Is it the one about anal bleaching?

What did you say? Is it the one about anal bleaching? No. Okay. Don't worry. Okay. That should like stop being a thing in music. I blame you Kanye West.

Yeah. Like let's just move on from that trope. I think it's definitely not good to try to reheat that trope, especially if you're Ed Shearin. I'm just going to put that out there. Anyway. Agreed. He's wearing the same green jacket for every performance he's done on this press tour. Ed Shearin?

Yeah, it's kind of weird. I just also want to point out that like, well, what color green is it? Like Army green. Okay, that's better. It's like a fatigue jacket. Yeah. I mean. Like he could have, it's like, it's like, it's like,

very high-end J. Crew. I once saw him perform in a lime green t-shirt, which I just, it does not really go with his coloring. Yeah. Very strange choices. So, uh, he said in this article that when he was, um, he opened for Taylor Swift on her, was it 1989 or red? Oh. It was, I think red because everything has changed is on that.

Yes. And he came out and sang that with her. Yeah. I like that song too. Um, he said that he, that like all of her famous friends were around. Like he would like, wake up. up in the morning and like, just be like, wow, how did I get here? And like, like, hooking up with her famous friends.

Doesn't name names. But is Ed Shearin trying to insinuate that he's part of Taylor Swift's squad by association? Like, what, what's he trying to imply here? Like, does he just want us to know that he's hooking up with Taylor Swift's friends? I mean, I think understanding, sorry. I think understanding what he's trying to do would necessitate, like, understanding Ed Shearin. And I just don't get it.

I think it's really, I just thought that. I was gross. And I can't read whether I think it's just trying to be cool by association. I think he's just like trying to be like a lad in the local parlance and talk about his cool things. And maybe also distance himself from a Taylor Swift relationship rumor. Oh, interesting. So he's trying to define the fact that him and Taylor are not a thing. Exactly. In the crudest way possible. Which I just let's. There's a lot of emphasis on his drinking this press tour. Like a lot. Yeah, again, which I guess is like him trying to be a British dude, just like one of the guys, I guess. I guess so. It's kind of strange.

You would go to the pub, as it were. Yeah, he just seems like he's trying to like prove he's some sort of dude. I'm just like, let your music speak for yourself. It's immensely popular. That's sufficient. Maybe he doesn't like his reputation as this super cheesy troubadour. That's possible. However, he should just embrace it. I mean, it's making him a lot of money. He just got his first U.S. number one single for Shape of You. Great. He could mean more about Ed Shearron on the ringer as well.

That's true. For Rob Harvilla's article. Okay, moving on. One thing you just can't stop thinking about. What's yours? This size of the wine glasses on Big Little Lies. Oh. Nice one.

I have talked with you about this for a while. So I guess I have been working out a kind of a crackpot theory that I don't know that totally holds. But the size of a TV character's wine glass correlates to whether they're a good character or a bad character. Here are my data points. Yeah, what are you leaning towards? This is why it's a crackpot theory that I have not like turned into a blog post.

Because as you're going to see it doesn't really hold. Okay. So I first noticed it because Reese Witherspoon's character in Big Little Lies at dinner when she's fighting with her daughter is using kind of the smaller wine glasses that you get at say like a tritoria. Sure. Or that like say if your husband bought them at IKEA and won't get rid of them, no matter how much you ask for larger glasses.

Just experience, you know, no one in particular there. As opposed to like the kind of giant shardinay wine glass that you might associate with, say, a real housewife or Olivia Pope, which will come back to, or. like the caricature of a Reese Witherspoon character, right? Which is like you picture Rees Witherspoon and you picture like the wine glasses that can hold a whole bottle of wine in them. Right. Filled with white wine.

Which like that is not a judgment at all that is said with like so much love. But so I noticed that and I was like, huh, that's interesting. And then you go to Laura Dern whose character is triumphantly nasty and is sitting on the, her beautiful porch with a giant wine glass. Huge. And then I'm just putting all the data together. Right. And then I was like, okay, but what about Olivia Pope?

Because we love Olivia Pope. Sure. But as Alison Davis pointed out to me when discussing this theory, the Olivia drinking a goblet of wine is usually right before she's about to make a terrible fits related decision. It's true. So, and then Real Housewives are usually have the goblet in one hand while they're yelling. at someone else, right?

Which I don't want to, like, put a moral judgment on that because it's entertaining and, you know, why not. That's my working theory. Interesting. So big goblet, bad decision. Yes. More, which, you know, attracts the more wine. Sure.

Yes. Yes. I just feel like it's, you know, it's like a visual metaphor that is popping up in TV everywhere. Totally. And I'm going to keep looking at it. yeah what sorry particularly to explain women yeah interesting all right i like it i'm working through it i'll keep you updated yeah how many more episodes do you have to go to work through five more five yeah or four maybe i think it might just be seven wow okay i like the show it's good i don't love it but i like it's very

enjoyable yeah and i think it's like pleasant television it should be yeah it's fun yeah um and i think everyone's doing nice performances. Reese is great. Reese is incredible. I actually think I'm warming up to Nicole Kidman. I know you disagree. Yeah. She's never done it for me.

It's just like it's good and enjoyable and that should be enough. Yeah. I agree with you. I've been thinking about Reese a lot too. Great. I can't believe Ava's 17. Nothing makes me feel older than Ava being 17. Can you believe it?

It's wild. She can like she can certainly drive. She can almost vote. I don't know. She's like a real human. And she looks just like Reese. Just like Reese. I think we just forget how young Reese was when she had kids.

It's so wild. Really, really young. Bill Simmons reminded me this week that it's the 18th anniversary of cruel intentions. Oh, good. Like when? Like two days ago or three days ago. It's wild. What a time for Reese.

I love her. Me too. I just. She's great. What's not to love. What a triumph. Thanks for listening to everyone. And don't forget to check out the ringer for more Allison Davis for more Ed Sharon.

And we have a special episode next week. It's our off week, but we'll be back. We'll be back. You can't escape us. Yeah. Thanks for listening. Have a great week. Thank you.