Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! - WWDTM: Billy Porter, Mark Ronson, Tara Dower, and more!

Episode Date: February 22, 2025

This week, we celebrate one last President's Day with special guests Mark Ronson, Billy Porter, Tara Dower, John Leguizamo, and James MarsdenLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Thank you. We'll be right back. From NPR in WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm the voice so rich, Forbes put it on a list. Chioki Iansen, and here's your host at the Studer Baker Theater in downtown Chicago, filling in for Peter Segal, Tom Papa. Thanks, Schiocchi. And thank you, everybody. This week was President's Day, and we're honoring George Washington's 293rd birthday

by trying to bake a cake you can safely eat with wooden teeth. Just be careful blowing out those candles, George, or your whole mouth is going to go up in flames. And since we're already celebrating, let's keep the party going with one of our favorite guests from the past few years, actor, writer, and comedian, John Leguizamo. Peter started by asking him how it felt to finally achieve the pinnacle of show business success, his own PBS special. Yes, an overnight success after 40 years.

So the series American Historia, the untold history of Latinos, I understand was inspired by one of your many one-man shows, in this case, your own personal examination of Latino history, right? Yes, you know, it was based on Latino, Latin history from morons because I learned my son was being bullied and I wanted to give him, weaponize his knowledge and his history of his people. You know, I didn't know we finished building the railroads. I didn't realize we were the first fighters to create unions in the 1930s.

And then, you know, we've been persecuted, but we've also contributed so much. We just reached a milestone last year we contribute three point two trillion dollars to the GDP yearly as a Latino culture. Wow my son is a huge fan of yours and by that of course I mean because of your Ice Age movies and TV shows. Yes I'm so happy to hear that. We're about to do Ice Age 6. So you play for those unlucky not to have seen the 4,000 Ice Age movies and TV shows and video games, you play Sid the Sloth, a prehistoric sloth, and we read that you actually got really deep into the research for his voice. Is that right? You know, yeah, because I did like 50 voices for the director, Chris Wedge, and

he wouldn't, he said, I just want you to do your voice. I go, I don't want to do my voice. I want to do a voice. I'm an actor. So I did, you know, Southern voice for the slob, because he's slow. Then I went a little more ghetto on him. Come on, come on, what you want, what you want? And he goes, nah. So then I got Discovery Channel footage, and I saw that slob stored food in their cheek pouches, and it would ferment, and they'd get drunk. And so I started eating the sandwich, and I put it in my cheek pouches,

and I walked around the house waiting for it to ferment, and it didn't, but how? Then I got slushy, slushy in my mouth, and I called the writer, Chris, guess who this is? And he was like, I have no idea. Shit the slots, I found myself, and that's how I got the writer, Chris, guess who this is? And he's like, I have no idea. Shit the slots. I found myself. And that's how I got the job. Wow.

That's amazing. You do belong on PBS. Yeah. Next time I'm sitting watching the movies with my son, I say, you know, that's historically accurate. Among the many, many things you do, you've done these one-man shows where you play all these characters.

And as you just demonstrated, you're really, really, really good at voices. Have you ever used that power for evil? Yes, of course. I mean, when I was much younger, it was great because people, you know, when the school would complain, they would call my house and I would answer, it's my mom. And I go, oh, he what? No, he's fantastic. Oh, you want to expel him? No, he's, he's fantastic. Oh, you, you, you, you want to expel him?

Well, expel it for me. And I would mess with them for hours and they wouldn't be able to expel me. Really? They tried to expel me, yeah. Did your mother know you were doing that? No. No. Well, not she knows now because you blabbered. Um...

You, you mentioned your mother. We also read that like your mother to this day sees like everything you do and offers a critique afterwards. Yeah, my mom's very judgmental. I think I get it from her a little bit. We both watch PBS too much. Yeah, I know man, I'm telling you. And she does, she comes to every show and like she sits front row and then she comes afterwards, oh Joan that was fantastic but I didn't really like the punch line, it didn't

really hit the way I thought it would hit, it didn't murder. And I was like mom please stop criticizing you, just my mom, just be unconditionally loving for once. Is she going to critique this? Is she going to listen and go oh I don't think you talked about me enough? I'm not going to tell her about this. OK, yeah. All right, that's fine. That's the only way to keep her away.

Well, John Leguizamo, it is such a pleasure to talk to you again. And this time, we have asked you to play a game that we're calling Can We Fix It? Yes, We Can. So this year, as I'm sure you know, because everybody's been celebrating, this year marks the 25th anniversary of Bob the Builder. Oh, wow. The beloved kids show about a British contractor

whose trucks are alive. So in honor of that, we're going to ask you three questions about, I guess we'd call him Mr. Builder. Get two out of three right, you'll win our prize for one of our listeners. Bill, who is John Leguizamo playing for? Nora Wing of Ithaca, New York. All right.

Here's your first question. You ready? Nah, go for it. I'll do my best. Bob the Builder is popular around the world, but some changes needed to be made internationally to show there, including which of these. A, in France, they had to add clocks to the background

to prove that no one goes over their 35-hour approved workweek. B, in Canada, Bob always includes maple syrup as a construction material in his projects. Or C. In Japan, they had to add a fifth finger to his animated four-finger hand so that kids did not think Bob the Builder was a member of the Yakuza. Oh, shoot. I'm going to go with Canada and maple syrup because it sounds ridiculous but plausible. So you think that Bob the Builder in Canada, they just cut in things as of now to like to make sure this sticks,

here's some maple syrup. And they go, hey sorry, hey. Oh wow, I thought I was in, that was amazing, I thought I was in Toronto. No, the answer was actually C. You see, as is well known in Japan, if you're a Yakuza member and you displease your boss, they cut off one of your fingers. So a four-fingered animated character would have unpleasant connotations. Oh, that's dark. It is, it really is. I didn't want to go that dark.

All right, here's your next question, John. You have two more chances. Bob the Pilder is more than just a very popular kids TV show. Which of these is another example of Bob's cultural dominance? A. He once went to number one on the UK singles charts with a cover of Mambo Number Five. B, Alexander McQueen had an entire runway show of Bob the Builder-inspired designs. Or C, he had a best-selling cookbook called Can You Bake It?

Yes, You Can. Oh, man. I'm going to go with A. You're going with A? You're right. Yes, he did a cover of Mambo Number Five. What're gonna go with A, you're right, yes. He did a cover of Mambo No. 5. What a relief. Alright, you have one more question.

If you get this right, you win. Bob the Builder popped up in a surprising place a few years ago when people browsing the on-demand menu of Britain's Channel 5 saw a picture of Bob as the image representing what show? A, the season premiere of Britain's Got Talent, B, a documentary about 9-11, or C, the movie Eyes Wide Shut? Eyes Wide Shut, sort of the sexual, all the sexual, lovey- Yes, I know, yes. Just imagine Bob the Builder wearing one of those weird masks that Tom Cruise was having,

you know? I won't picture that, so I'm going to go with A again. You're going to go with A again. Britain's got talent. The idea of like, oh, this guy's got talent. He can build stuff. Yeah, he can build things, right? I mean... Yeah.

Sadly, the answer was B, a documentary about 9-11. Wait, no, I meant B. I meant B. Oh, he meant B. He meant B, Bill. He meant B. Let's give it to him. Yeah, okay. I'm sure... I mean, I thought I had misheard you. And of course you were right. I mean, I thought I had misheard you. I mean, I thought I had misheard you. meant P, Bill. He meant P. Let's give it to him. Okay.

I'm sure, I mean, I thought I misheard you. And of course you were right. I have an accent. I have a New York City accent. Exactly. A-B. Yeah, exactly. B.

You know, apparently if, the way it worked was if Channel 5, you know, and this not works, you turn on your streaming service, there are these icons indicating the shows you could be watching. And with Channel 5, they didn't happen to have a picture to go with any given show. They just plugged in a picture from Bob the Builder. So Bob was the image for this 9-11 documentary and also something called Murdered by My Daughter. So Bill, how did John Leguizamo do in our quiz? Two out of three.

Yay! Now you did good. Amazing. I'm brilliant. I love it. Two out of three! Yay! Now you did good! Amazing! I'm brilliant, I belong on PBS. John Leguizamo is an actor, writer, and producer whose new series, Voces American Historia,

The Untold History of Latinos premieres on PBS September 27th. John Leguizamo, what a great thing to talk to you again. Thank you so much. Good luck with the show, We'll see you next time. Thank you. Thank you. So fun. Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye. Before we wrap up this segment, here's a fun moment with some of our panelists. Paula, one of the most famous prehistoric animals was the saber-toothed tiger.

Sure. A fierce and deadly predator. Oh, yeah. And scientists now believe they know why they went extinct. What was it? Because they weren't procreating. I mean, that has to be correct. That is, well...

Yeah. More specifically, a lot of the males became unattractive why the tooth exactly they went extinct because of their very big teeth yeah it's just not appealing to a female of any species a saber-toothed tiger formally a smilodon informally Bernie a smile so adorable. That's like a children's story. If you talk to a paleontologist and say, oh, do you work with saber-toothed tigers? They'll go, there's no such thing as a saber-toothed tiger. They're called smilodons.

How do you know that? Because you talked. Because I have been reading a lot of books about old animals with my son. I'm not sure what level these books are, because really, there's one wherein it said don't talk to scientists who study this and mention Sabretooth Tiger because they will just lose it. Yeah. That's ridiculous. I would like, wait, wait, don't tell me it has a website, doesn't it? I believe we do, yes.

Okay. I want to see a copy of the book that cautions the reader. The young reader. Yeah. I'm assuming how old is your son that you're reading this book to? My son is four. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You're not one of those parents who's already pushing your kid to get into college, are

you? All right. I want you to go to college, but here's a tip. When you get in there, do not, for the love of God, your mother and I love you very much, but there's one thing out with which we cannot put. Coming up, it's like- Wait a minute, coming up. What's the name of the book? When we come back super producer Mark Ronson and ultra runner Tara Dower. One of

them had their toenails surgically removed but you're gonna have to wait to find out which one. That's when we come back with more Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR. Support for this podcast and the following message comes from Lumen. When your metabolism is working properly, you will feel the benefits. With the Lumen device, you can measure your metabolism through your breath. And on the app, it lets you know if you're burning fats or carbs and gives you tailored guidance to improve your nutrition, workouts, sleep,

and even stress management. Take the next step to improving your health. Go to lumen.me-slash-weight to get 20% off your Lumen. Lumen. From NPR in WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Chioki Iansen, and here's your host at the Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts Building in downtown Chicago, filling in for Peter Segal, Tom Papa. Thank you, Chioki. This week we're celebrating President's Day by building our own team of rivals with

some of our favorite guests from the past few years. I'm having so much fun. I can't wait to see what we do for Autocrats Day next year. While we prepare for that, here's our interview with Grammy-winning producer Mark Ronson. When he joined us in August of 2023, guest host, Nagin Farsad, asked him if he remembered the first time he heard the mega hit Uptown Funk in the wild. I do. I remember being in an Uber and hearing it, like, I think I was like coming home, maybe I was a little drunk coming home from a club at two in the morning. It was like,

it was the first time I ever heard it on the radio and it was the most exciting thing ever. And I remember saying to the driver, I was like, this is me. And he was like, he's listening to like Bruno Mars going like, don't believe it, you know, and he's like, it doesn't sound like you. Like I'm like, obviously no, I mean, I produced it,

but anyway, no, it was so exciting. Did you have an inkling then that it was going to be this worldwide phenomenon? Well, not by the Uber driver's reaction, but I almost thought that. I thought, you know what it was? That song we worked on for a really long time, about seven or eight months, because Bruno

was such a perfectionist, I kind of am, Jeff Basker, the other producer, we are in our work, so by the time we finally stopped bickering about it and got it to a point where we all felt good, we were like, wow, if it passed this peanut gallery, at least we know, you know, we feel good about it, but everything that happened after that

was just such a wonderful thing. I mean, when you put a song out It's no longer yours. It belongs to everybody and then they decide what happens with it So that's kind of what happened with that song. So I want to talk to you a little bit about being a DJ We talked before the show and as you know, I have in fact shaken my booty as it were At a club where you were DJing. And it was just an incredible night. It was so fun. But it made me think, you probably see a lot of weird stuff on the dance floor.

Are you basically embarrassed for everyone as you see them dancing to your music? Or? No, if anybody's dancing, that's good enough for me. So I have seen some, one of my favorite things, you know, in my early days of DJing in clubs in New York in the 90s, RuPaul once came into the club or somewhere where I was DJing.

And this was when Ru was in sort of plain clothes in a very handsome suit and came up to me and was just like at the end of the night, you're making me dance so much, you're making my booty hurt. And I just thought that that was so cool that I put that on a business card. I just made these little pieces. Business cards that just said like, you're making my booty hurt, RuPaul. Available for weddings and bar mitzvahs. Well, let's talk about Barbie, another worldwide phenomenon.

I want to talk to you about scoring the movie, which you also did. Now that you've scored a movie, do you find yourself scoring dramatic moments in your own life? Or just like mundane, you're just chatting with the barista and then it's like meh, meh, meh, meh. It's funny because now I'm just so hyper tuned to like, it could be the music in a Burger King commercial. I'm like, oh, I see why they did that.

That song legit slaps. Be cases. Have it your way. So, I heard this weird factoid about you. Is it true that the song, I Wanna Know What Love Is, was written about your mom? Yes, that is absolutely true. I would hope so, because that would have been insulting. You don't get to talk about somebody's mama like that. My stepfather's, Mick Jones, who my mom married when I was 10, and he wrote that song for

her. It's definitely setting the bar pretty high as a kid. Okay, well, you're not going to write anything as good as that for anybody. But also, what was more funny is that he had written a song, he tried to tell that he wrote the song Waiting for a Girl Like You as well. That was another big ballad that he had for her. And she was like, you wrote that song like five years before you met me. He's like, right, but I was waiting for a girl.

Now that's, that's, that's man mad right there. That's man mad right there. Well, Mark, we've asked you here to play a game that we're calling... What about that downtown funk? So you, of course, released the smash hit Uptown Funk, so we're going to ask you about downtown funk or stinky city smells. You, of course, released the smash hit Uptown Funk, so we're going to ask you about downtown funk or stinky city smells. And amazingly, in this quiz, we only use the word urine once. Now answer two out of three questions correctly and you'll win our prize for one of our listeners.

Bill, who's Mark Bronson playing for? Brad Martin of Seattle, Washington. It's a 206. I have to represent. Let's go. Let's go. All right. Here's your first question.

Most towns come to their funks naturally, but some create their own, including Lincoln, Nebraska, which in the winter smells like what? Is it A, nutmeg, which they mix in with their road salt? Is it B, new car smell from their factory that makes artificial new car smell kicking up production? Or is it C, animal pee, which they spray on their pine trees to keep people from stealing them for Christmas trees? I'm going to go with C, because that's the funkiest.

And that is correct. The answer is animal pee. The whole thing about the funk, and I know that I'm not on camera for most people, is like that kind of face, you know? And like, nutmeg does not make you big. All right. Here's your next question. Lots of cities have bad smells, but not every city has a song about how bad it smells. Which of these is a real recording?

Is it A, the aroma of Tacoma? Is it B, my dear Eureka, how Eureka? Or is it C, Pueblo, Colorado smells like a rotten egg made of dead skunks? Good luck punching that one up, Bronson. I'm going to go with A. Yes, it is the aroma of Tacoma. Some combination of a paper mill and oil refinery and Tacoma's natural stank made A smell so strong it was immortalized in song. Not gonna lie. It's a bop, actually.

Do you know that that mill is closing down? So the aroma of Tacoma is going away in the next few months. So sniff it while you got it, people. All right. So here is your last question. GQ Magazine published a list of the best smelling cities in the world, including New Orleans, which they praised for what combination of scents? Was it A, incense and sweat? Was it B, old beer and frying fat?

Or was it C, strawberry hurricanes and puked up strawberry hurricanes? I, just, C sounds so good. I'm sorry the answer is B. Old beer and frying fat got New Orleans on the good smelling list. All right Bill how did Mark do on our quiz? Well he's a winner two out of three. Mark congratulations we'll give you another Emmy for this. Mark Ronson is a Grammy and Oscar winning producer, writer and DJ who composed the score and produced the soundtrack for the Barbie movie. Mark Ronson, thank you so much for joining us on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Thanks so much.

In November this past year, we talked to ultra runner Tara Dower. She had just become the fastest person to ever complete the Appalachian Trail, having hiked all 2,200 miles in just over 40 days. The numbers were so unbelievable, Peter had to double check them. First question, did we get the numbers right? About 2,200 miles end to end, main to Georgia, and you did it in 40 days, 18 hours, five minutes. Is that right? Six minutes.

Oh, excuse me. Oh, you are superfluous. So break that down. To travel that far in that period of time, how far did you have to travel per day, and how much time did it take to travel to run every day? The least amount of miles I did in a day was about 35 and the most I ever did was 62 in a day and I was every day I was moving for about on average like 17 and a half hours a day

17 and a half hours. Okay. Yeah kind of amazing and and how much were you able to sleep? On average about five hours and at what point I mean Okay, that's kind of amazing. And how much were you able to sleep? On average about five hours. And at what point, I mean, I guess you ran from Maine to Georgia, so were you starting to hallucinate by the time you were in New York, say? Yeah, well, the compounding exhaustion came around, I'd say Maryland, it got pretty bad.

I remember some like little hallucinations I had, like little devils sitting on logs. And I saw a white cat and a lion. And I saw my friend sitting on a log. So the hallucinations were getting pretty bad around the middle of the trail. Maryland is about halfway through. Well, it must be comforting knowing, that's not real.

There's not a cat and a devil here. I might as well just keep running. There's no threat. Yeah, well, I've had hallucinations during 100-mile races that I've done, and some of those have been really concerning. And I think, you know. Oh, give us an example.

I'm lucky. There was a hunter with a huge, huge, ginormous gun. And he was asking me where I was going and what I was lucky. There was like a hunter with a huge, huge, ginormous gun and he was like asking me where I was going and what I was doing and I was like, oh crap, like is this real? And it was in the middle of the night, it was at 2 a.m. on a trail by myself. You know, if you ask a hallucination, if they're hallucination, they have to tell you. That's a rule. Do you eat while you run? Yes, yeah. I mean, that's, you have to like be utilizing, you have to eat wherever you can. I mean, I'm eating, oh, I think it was like eight to 10,000 calories a day.

So I mean, you just have to like eat and run. You have to do as much as you can when you run. And do people bring you- The only time I stopped during the day was to use the bathroom. Yeah. They have bathrooms use the bathroom. Yeah. They have bathrooms in the trail. That's nice. And so when you say you're eating,

so you're just like people are coming up. She thought it was a bathroom. You may have been hallucinating a bathroom. Yeah. It could be someone's car. You can't guarantee that was a bathroom. So I'm trying to feel that you're running along and your friends are with you.

You have a lot of support, I know, in order to do this. And they run up to you and they give you, hand you a banana or whatever it is you're eating and you just stuff it in your face as you keep running. Yep, yep, that's about it. Just keep moving, eat. My favorite was gummies, and I like Rice Krispie treats, and goldfish. I loved goldfish.

Right. Wow, that's so unhealthy. Yeah. It's the calories though, right? I was expecting you to be like broccoli and then other forms of broccoli. A couple more questions. First of all, I understand that you said once that you have decided after lots of experiences, negative, positive, but you've just decided that you're done with toenails. Oh, yeah. I got four toenails permanently removed before I went out on the trail.

And that was the best decision I ever made. Wow. You were dumb with them. You were tired of them getting bloody and coming off. Oh, yeah. How did you choose? They would fall off all the time. Were you playing this little piggy?

And you were like, this little piggy goes and goes. This little piggy gets slaughtered like, this little piggy goes and goes. This little piggy gets slaughtered. Yeah, that was it. We did it in a meanie, minie, moe. No, so my big toenails are always the ones, during these feats, they always fall off. And it's very painful and they get infected.

And so I was like, that one's coming off. And then I asked the podiatrist if we could take them all off. And he was like, no, but we can do two at a time. So I decided on just a random toenail. It's like Sophie's Choice with toes. What's next? What's the next achievement? And when are you going to be ready to do it?

Yeah, I guess tonight. And to see how fast I can get through a pint of ice cream. There you go! Now we're talking. Now we're talking. Well, Tara, we are delighted to talk to you, and we have asked you here to play a game that this time we are calling Try a Stroll Down These Appalachian Tales. So, you ran the whole Appalachian Trail, but you went through it too fast this last time

to hear any of the myths and legends of that particular region. So, we're going to ask you three questions about folktales from the places you ran through. And if you get two right, you'll win our prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they like on their voicemail. So, Joshua, who is Tara playing for? Sarah O'Dell of Redmond, Washington. Okay. Here we go.

Here's your first question about Appalachian tails. In West Virginia, they still celebrate the Mothman, that's the mysterious creature that first appeared in 1966 near Point Pleasant, West Virginia. What was the headline in the Point Pleasant Register newspaper the day after the Mothman's first sighting. Was it A, insects seem to be rather large this year? B, couples see man-sized bird creature something? Or C, annual rummage sale draws record crowds? I'm going to have to say B.

You're going to go B, couple see, man-sized bird, creature, something. You're right. Yeah. Yes. To be fair, it was something, and there is now an annual Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant if you want to go down there and find out all about it. So cool. She's like, it's a hallucination.

All right. Here's your next question. Now, while Mothman is probably the most famous Appalachian cryptid, he's not the only one out there, next time you run the trail you might also run into which of these? A, the phantom trucker who stopped to use the bathroom at south of the border and never returned. B, the lost hiker and angry ghost who died of starvation and demands trail mix from every passerby or see a Bigfoot like creature called Wood Booger? Oh man, I'm gonna have to say B. You're gonna go for the lost

hiker, the ghost that demands trail mix from every passerby? No, it was the wood booger. Yeah, he's called the wood booger because he's like the boogie man. Not because of his, you know, texture. He's the boogie man. Okay, last Yeah, he's called the Wood Booger because he's like the boogeyman. Not because of his, you know, texture. He's the boogeyman. Okay. Last question. If you get this one right, you win. You've heard of Sasquatch, right? There are stories of Sasquatch in the area. But in West Virginia, there is a terrifying beast that, unlike Sasquatch, walks on all fours. Sasquatch stands up.

What do they call this mysterious creature? A, the sheep-squatch, B, big feet, or C, independent Senator Joe Manchin. I would say A. You're going to go for A, sheep-squatch. That's right, Tara. Yay! It's called sheep-squatch because of its thick white fur or so they say.

Joshua, how did Tara Dower do in our quiz? Well normally she just got the two points but every one of the toes that she sacrificed is actually worth a quarter point. So we're just going to give you a perfect score. Nicely done. Yay. Tara Dower is the fastest person ever to complete the Appalachian Trail. Tyra Dower, thank you so much for joining us on Way, Way, Way, Way, Way. Yeah!

And get some rest. Take care. Bye-bye. When we come back, one of the most fashionable people to ever walk a red carpet and the actor who made jury duty look fun. That's when we come back with more Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR. From NPR in WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Chioki Ianssen, and here is your host at the Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts

Building in downtown Chicago, filling in for Peter Segal, Tom Papa. Thanks, Chioki. This week, we're honoring Presidents Day by listing as many executives-in-chief as we can. So far I've got Washington, Lincoln, and the guy Harrison Ford played on Air Force One. We'll keep working on our list. In the meantime, here's some great guests from the recent past. In February of 2023, guest host Peter Gross talked with Tony, Grammy, and Emmy winner Billy Porter, who became iconic for his amazing, elaborate red carpet looks.

Peter asked him about how he almost skipped acting entirely to become a Pentecostal preacher. And I preached my first sermon when I was probably around 10 or 11, and I knew immediately, nope. It's not the traditional, you know, it's not the traditional way. and I knew immediately, nope. Not that. Well, we are all... It's not the traditional, you know, it's not the traditional way. We're very happy that you were so unhappy at that point. You are a style and fashion icon in addition to, we'll get to, you know, the performing and stuff that you do, but I'm really, as somebody who, you can't see me Billy, but I am wearing an extremely boring outfit. Just to follow up on that, Billy, Peter's outfit right now, he bought at whitecisheteroman.com.

It kind of looks like he's about to ask us to leave the restaurant. Adam, you can stay. But no, Billy. Oh my God, that's hilarious. My question was going to be, you're always sort of pushing the envelope, and every time you have a look that goes in a new direction, and it sort of stakes out new ground. Do you feel sort of pressure every time you have a new event? Like, what is it like for you to sit with a designer and think, what are we going to do next? How am I going to top my last thing?

Or do you even feel that pressure? No, I don't really feel that because it's what comes naturally for me. Good. And I also have a styling team, Todd Hunter and Colin Anderson, and sometimes others. That's fun. I have a lot of, I choose it, but they know what I like. Yeah, what options to give you.

Yeah. Can I ask a question? Whenever I see people on the red carpet, there's always someone skulking behind them, like tugging at a ham or something, you know what I mean? Like positioning the gap. Who is that person?

And how did they get into that job? What is the name of that job? I just really want to tug at things for a living. That's really funny. Most of the time it is either a publicist, because they don't let a whole lot of people on the red carpet anymore. Oh, I know. Since COVID, you don't have a whole lot of people.

Well, also, Billy, many of your outfits are very large. They take up a lot of space. You're a perfect person for the COVID era, because if you're wearing, you know. Totally. Are there any things that you've worn on the red carpet that's like extremely fashionable and extremely stylish but also extremely uncomfortable that then like during the award ceremony or the event that you're in, you're just like, I'm going to change into some sweatpants because

I'm going to sit here for three hours. I can't be sitting in this like birdcage looking cape thing or whatever. Yeah, you have to think about that and think about what you're going to take off. The hat that I wore to the Grammys that opened and closed. For people who don't know, it was this hat that sort of had this, it was like a 180 degree sort of curtain that was motorized and he's saying it was very heavy and it motorized and it just opened up like a curtain in front of his face. It hurt so bad it left a mark. Oh no. It almost cut me. It left an indentation. It was so heavy.

I was going to say you're a singer, you're an actor, you're a director, you have a degree in screenwriting. Is there anything that you're like bad at? Yes, a lot of stuff. I can't draw, Yes, a lot of stuff. I can't draw, I can't play the piano. That's my biggest dream. I think it's God's way of making sure I stay humble. If I could sit down and play the piano for myself while I sing, I wouldn't need nobody. So you're in this new movie, 80 for Brady, about four women in their 80s who go see Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. Can you tell us about it? First of all, it's the gayest sports film ever made. And...

I don't know, Mighty Ducks. And... And it creates a conversation subversively. It doesn't seem like we would be together, but yet we are. And the story reaches everybody. Did you talk him into retiring again? What do you think he should do? What can you see Tom Brady doing next?

What would be a fun sort of like left turn thing for him to do? I mean, I love you all and I love Tom Brady, but I don't have the brain space to think about what he should do next. You got it. You got it. You got it. You got it.

You got it. You got it. You got it. This has been really- My brain is already full up. Good, yeah, you think about you. You think about you, Billy Porter. And you know what?

We're gonna think about you too, because we have asked you here to play a game that we are calling... And Envy Davis as Alice. Your new movie is about a bunch of Tom Brady fans, so we thought that we would ask you about the original Brady Bunch, which is the Brady Bunch. Okay. Okay.

So answer two of our three questions correctly about the most successful second marriage in TV history and you will win our prize for one of our listeners. Bill, who is Billy Porter playing for? Kefi Kim of Los Angeles, California. All right, here we go. Here's your first question. For our younger listeners, The Brady Bunch was a sitcom about a blended family with three boys and three girls.

And one source of tension was that all six kids shared one bathroom, which was especially difficult. Why? Was it A, each kid used a different shampoo, so there was barely room in the shower for a person? B, the bathroom didn't have a toilet? Or C, the bathroom didn't have any doors? Something weird.

I want to say C. C, the bathroom didn't have any doors? Yeah. The answer was actually B, the bathroom did not have a toilet. It was? Yep, it did not have a toilet. What? In 1970, here's why.

In 1970, you could not show a toilet on television. What? Really? Yep, that's why those kids all held it in for five years. Pretty insane. Okay, you still have two chances to win here, Billy, so we're going to keep going. Here's your next question. Okay. That's why those kids all held it in for five years. Pretty insane. Okay, you still have two chances to win here, Billy, so we're going to keep going. Here's your next question.

Okay. I watched the Brady Bunch a lot, but I didn't watch it like that. No, and I'm glad you didn't. I'm glad you didn't. In one of the most famous episodes, Peter Brady hits Marsha with a football and he breaks her nose. So, how did the director of the episode film that stunt? Was it A, they used a macrame football

that the director's wife had made? Was it B, Maureen McCormick, the actress who played Marcia, threw a football away from her face and then they ran the film backwards? Or was it C, they actually hit Maureen McCormick in the face with a football? All right, I'll say C. You'd be right.

Yay! Very good. with a football. All right, I'll say C. You'd be right. They actually did it several times apparently because the prop guy off-screen kept missing her nose. They had to do it over and over again. Okay, here's your last question. If you get it right, you're gonna win. See, that's before there were laws in. It's called... We got laws in place now. It's called Marsh's Law. Very specific. You can't throw anything harder than a taco at someone's face. I don't know.

All right. Here's your last question. Nowadays, the Brady Bunch is considered a classic, but in the 1970s, the cast, they weren't really such a big deal. For example, which of these is true was it a They had to pay to park at the lot at ABC B the cast was not provided food except for the bag lunches that Carol Brady made during the episode Or see the then president of ABC thought that all of their last names were actually Brady

I think a you'd be right again were actually Brady. I think A. You'd be right again. It was A. They had to pay to park at ABC. Bill, how did the other Bill, Billy Porter do on our quiz? Billy Porter got two out of three. You won, Billy. Great job.

Oh, thank you. Billy, it was a pleasure. You are a treasure. And it was just a real joy to talk to you. Oh, thank you. Yeah. You can see Billy Porter in the new film, 80 for Brady. Billy Porter, thank you so much for joining us on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Bye-bye. Finally, in June of 2023, we talked with actor James Marsden, who had just starred in Jury Duty, the hidden camera sitcom where one normal unsuspecting guy thought he was the foreman on a real case and that one of his fellow jurors was actor James Marsden. You know what? We'll just let him explain it. Basically, it was how do we create the office,

populate the jury duty with a bunch of improv artists, myself playing a kind of heightened version of myself, a sort of entitled Hollywood celebrity version of myself, and one guy that thinks the whole thing is real. But I'm very curious as to how you Got involved in this very experimental thing I imagine they said to you we want you to play this arrogant version of yourself to see if we can annoy our hero enough To hate you and the whole thing may be a complete disaster in which case everyone will hate you for pranking this guy

And you're like sign me up Absolutely well I'd be lying to you guys said it didn't sound fun to kind of lampoon your, like I said, the entitled Hollywood actor who just wants every conversation to be about him. Right, right. So you've been talking about it, doing a lot of interviews, and I read that you said that at certain points during the production you actually began to worry if you were the one that they were trying to fool somehow? Like if the real thing was let's get James Marsden and tell him that we're

doing this thing with another person who doesn't know that it's fake but in reality that's an actor and James won't know that it's fake. It's literally true. I mean you just, you just, I've never done a project like this, so you don't trust anyone. No, you don't. The final episode, or rather the penultimate episode, you reveal everything to him. How did it feel on that day? Were you guys worried about what his reaction would be? Were you afraid, for example, he'd freak out and be angry or upset or something? Yes. Yes.

We were more nervous about that moment than any other moment in the show because, you know, you just think, well, if that was me, how would I react? I mean, I can't even handle a surprise birthday party. Right. Alone, being surrounded by, you know, everyone in his reality for three weeks was putting on a show. And that's a long time to mess with somebody's human experience three weeks of their life. So we made sure that we all ran up to him immediately afterwards and let him know that yes, all those, you know, the kind of absurd circumstances that we put him through was fake, but the friendships and like getting to know each other, that was all very real. Right, right.

And I heard that you had to spend time with him and like talk him down and like assure him that you really, after it was all over, and like, no, I really like you. We're friends. So I kept in touch with him for a good, you know, couple of weeks, months after, just checking on him to see how he was doing, and he was like, a couple of weeks after, he was like, am I still being filmed? Really? He was like, James, are they,

is there a camera in the flower pot, really? No, I was like, there's no reason why you should believe me, but I promise you, it's all over, my friend. Oh, God. All you can do is keep it a secret for one year now until the show comes out. Exactly. No problem. You, in your remarkable and eclectic career, have played the guy who gets the girl, like

in 27 Dresses, and you play the guy who should get the girl, but doesn't, like in the notebook. Go on, go on, twist the knife. You have to agree with every right-thinking person that in the notebook. Go on twist the knife. You have to agree with like every right thinking person that in the notebook Rachel McAdams should have married you. I mean come on. Well that didn't create quite a stir in the audience there. No no no. Not as much as you might have hoped. There is a young generation now that like she should have been with you. The relationship with Noah was a toxic relationship. Well, James Marsden, it is a pleasure to talk to you

and we have invited you here to play a game we're calling. Objection. So as we have been talking about, you served on this fake jury, so we thought it would be a natural thing to ask you three questions about real juries. Get two of these right, you will win our prize for one of our listeners.

Bill, who is James Marsden playing for? Shane Gill of Cleveland, Ohio. All right. Ready to play? I'm going to have to. I'm going to try. I'm going to crack. Here we go.

Here we go. Here's your first question. The jurors in a murder trial in Britain in 1994 arrived at their guilty verdict by doing what? A, observing that the defendant had his fingers crossed during the whole trial, B, asking a Ouija board if he did it or not, or C, waiting for the made-for-TV movie to be produced about the trial and then seeing how that ended. I'm just gonna have a little fun and go with A. You're gonna go with A, that is fingers crossed the whole time on the stand.

No, it was actually the Ouija board. What? They were sequestered as you were in jury duty and they got together in one of the hotel rooms and they pulled out a Ouija board and they asked him if the guy was guilty and he said he was. Once asked if the guy was guilty and Ouija said he was.

Once discovered the verdict was reversed. Okay, you have two more chances. A juror in another British case got sentenced for contempt of court. What did she do that was so bad? Was it A, every time the plaintiff spoke the juror made the law and order dun dun sound? B, she insisted that she outranked the jury foreman because she was the five men Or C, she friended the defendant on Facebook and kept him updated and what was going on in the jury room? I'm gonna go with C. You're right. That's what she did. Interestingly, in that case, the juror served two months for contempt of court and the defendant

got off entirely because of the mistrial. All right. Here's your last question. Get this one right. You win. Here we go. One juror in a trial a while ago said he couldn't serve in the jury because he had terrible gas.

And the judge refused that request, not a good excuse, put him on the jury, and then what happened? A, he eventually farted so terribly in court that the judge vomited and a lawyer fainted. B, his story was made into the classic courtroom film, 12 Stinky Men. Or C, the man exploded. I'm going to have to go with A. I mean, all of these sound crazy. That's what happened, apparently. The judge should have listened.

Bill, how did James Marsden do in our quiz? He won our game completely with two out of three right. There you go. That's the verdict. James Marsden stars in Jury Duty. It's on Amazon. Trust me, try it and you will probably spend the rest of the night watching the whole thing. James Marsden, thank you so much for joining us on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

Bye. That's it for our one last President's Day for old times sake edition. We'll see you all next week, but first let me tell you that Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is a production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago in association with Urgent Hair Productions, Doug Berman, Benevolent Overlord. Philip Gotica writes our limericks. Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. Our tour manager is Shayna Donald.

BJ Letterman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Dornbos, and Lillian King. Special thanks to Monica Hickey and Hannah Anderson. Peter Gwynn is the only chief we hail to. Our Vibe curator is Emma Choi. Technical Direction, Lorna White. Our CFO is Colin Miller.

Our Production Manager is Robert Newhouse. Our Senior Producer is Ian Chilag. The Executive Producer of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is Mike Danforth. Thanks to everyone you heard, to all our panelists, Chiokia Anson and all our guests. And thanks to all of you listening. I'm Tom Papa and we will be back next week. This is NPR. Bella DiPaolo is glad if you're happily married, but she is perfectly happy being single. I would love to have someone who took care of my car or someone who cleaned up the dishes

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What's good, y'all? This is Gene Dumpy. what you love today at plus dot npr dot org. What's good y'all. This is Gene Dempe, one of the co-hosts of NPR's Code Switch. This month we got a special three part series for you. We're diving into America's favorite sport. That's football, of course. From peewees to the pros, we're exploring what the game tells us about race, labor, and power in the United States.