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Louis Virtel is joined by Rheeqrheeq Chainey and Kyle Buchanan to break down the biggest moments from Monday night’s Met Gala, dive into The Devil Wears Prada 2, unpack the 2026 Tony nominations, and preview what’s ahead at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

TRANSCRIPT

Louis Virtel And we’re back with an all new episode of Keep It. I’m Louis Virtel. Do you know what I love when a lot of pop culture happens at once? This is a crunch time week. We’ve got a lot to get to. I’m gonna say all of it right now before I introduce the people who are here. We’ve got the Met Gala. We’ve Devil Wears Prada 2. There are Tony nominations. So all categories in all forms of media are being represented today. I needed a lot of help. So who do I have today? Recent invitees to Keep It, and long time just participants. We have Kyle Buchanan back from the New York Times.

 

Kyle Buchanan Happy to be here.

 

Louis Virtel Thank God. And Rheeqrheeq Chainey also back.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, with just takes. It’s like vibes and takes. I love to be here.

 

Kyle Buchanan But I can’t believe this is the first time the three of us have been on an episode together because we see each other like weekly.

 

Louis Virtel No, we accidentally have a salon every week at Akbar.

 

Kyle Buchanan This is perfect. I’m so excited.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey We’re taking it wide, so here we go, this is going to be fun!

 

Louis Virtel Let’s begin with Tony nominees. I just have to start saying the words Tony nominee and a gas tire. First of all, it’s on a gas tie. It’s a frequent, but she’s in Schmigadoon, the musical based off the television show.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey *laughing*.

 

Louis Virtel And I have to say, do you know what I root for?

 

Kyle Buchanan Are you just laughing at the title?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I’m just laughing at this, that we’ve gotten this far in culture. The fact that it’s like Schmigadoon, a bit title, that was two seasons on an Apple, now is a Broadway nominee, I don’t know, sometimes things just make sense. I’m having a great time. Don’t take it for granted.

 

Kyle Buchanan They’ll take it from anywhere.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, but She has always been to me the intellectual ham, you know on Saturday night live Like she could go always so zany playing Martha Stewart But at the same time the appreciation of musical theater like in this in this and she figured in she does like a Parody of patter songs like in the music man and she you know does the Belty songs like as we all know She was on wicked. I’m just so fucking psyched for her. She’s the perennially underrated SNL actress.

 

Kyle Buchanan Do you feel that Ashley Padilla now is sort of in that vein?

 

Louis Virtel Yes, because she’s the hard-bitten suburban mom. Yes. So I do think she’s sort of the heir to that. And she’s caught on in a real way too, so I’m really excited for her.

 

Kyle Buchanan Yeah, and she splits the difference between Jane Curtin and Gilda Radner in a way that I know is very Louis Virtel.

 

Louis Virtel Do you want me to cry on air?

 

Kyle Buchanan Yeah, maybe Poehler now. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, here are the keep it tissues. But otherwise, we also have Cannes coming up and you are going to be attending that. Are you excited this year more so than other years?

 

Kyle Buchanan I am excited. I literally am going to the airport after this show.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, really?

 

Kyle Buchanan I’m changing my jacket so I can get through security. Many zippers on this jacket with people listening. So what am I excited about? There’s a movie called The Man I Love by one of my favorite directors, Ira Sachs.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, yes.

 

Kyle Buchanan Rami Malek is in it. I’ve heard this is a return to form performance.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Oh, yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Ira Sach’s is the one who did Passages with Ben Whishaw, right? And also Love is Strange with John Lithgow, yeah?

 

Kyle Buchanan There’s also a movie, do y’all know The Havies? They were a couple on Spanish Drag Race, they were judges, they’re also directors, they did Veneno. They have a movie coming out called The Black Ball with basically every hot boy Spanish Instagram has to offer and Glenn Close.

 

Louis Virtel Okay.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, I saw something about that.

 

Kyle Buchanan I love that Glenn Close is like I’ve worked with Lee Daniels. I’ve worked with Ryan Murphy. Let me see what the Euro gays have to offer.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey She doesn’t want to stay in the house. And I actually respect that. It’s like, what else is she gonna do? Like this is her whole purpose to like, I guess, terrify us with like little clips at this point.

 

Louis Virtel She was just at TCM Fest over the weekend talking about dangerous liaisons. She also looks smashing.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah, the wig is really wigging.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey No, I think it’s, there’s, Pedro Maldivar has a new movie coming out.

 

Kyle Buchanan Yes, Blue Christmas.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yes. I think, it’s adding to the oomph of Dad has a story.

 

Louis Virtel He’s really provided a lot of that recently. Yeah, right?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, I think that that’s, I mean, we’re really in an era of like, you know what, he tried like post-Cinemail value, but I always love to see what’s coming from the boat city that is Cannes.

 

Kyle Buchanan And I’m always excited for the movies that we’re not anticipating beforehand. Because Cannes has all the legendary directors, but you know, you want to make room for the new surprises, the new class, like what’s the next Anatomy of a Fall or the next Enora going to be? I have my eye on Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, which is…

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Oh, you mean the thing that has lesbian ex Twitter has been talking about every 30 seconds for the last couple months?

 

Kyle Buchanan 100%. I know it sounds like the beginning of a Fiona Apple album title, but it is the new movie from the director of I Saw the TV Glow. Crazy teaser. I’m intrigued.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Uh, well, Julian Anderson and.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Kyle Buchanan Hannah Einbinder.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Hannah Einbinder. Yeah, I mean, it’s like taking a beautiful trope and making it even more gay.

 

Louis Virtel Also, that’s two actresses who have done parentheses shaped hair so well. The Anniston Mole has come back to us.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, that’s gonna be that’s going to hit to be hard

 

Louis Virtel I assume you crave the actual just vibe of being there as much as you crave actually seeing the movies other people you hope to sort of like rub shoulders with

 

Kyle Buchanan Yeah, I mean, you have the most ridiculous life experiences it can, you know, it’s enough to make me forget that like earlier this morning, I was eating a Slim Jim in my boxers on my couch. Like, you’re wearing a tuxedo every day, which is ridiculous. You’re often on yachts. There was a party that I had to get to once via helicopter. Oh, my God. And on the way back, we got kicked out of the return helicopter because Lindsay Lohan wanted to fly it all on her own. So, as a pie. Just like the craziest things happen there, the craziest, I can’t believe this is my life. This shouldn’t be anybody’s life. You’re overlapping with the 1% in a way that is interesting from like a cultural anthropology perspective. You know, yeah, it’s it’s I’m looking forward to the life experiences as much as I’m looking forward the movies. You prefer it to say a Sundance or a Venice or Yeah, they all have their charms. Sundance is fun because it comes right during Oscar season, so you can finally sort of refuel and watch new movies instead of talking about the same ones ad nauseam. And you get to, you’re like discovering new directors, which is really fun. Like new worlds, new stories. Cannes is a lot of like the veterans, so you’re kind of always judging by a big yardstick. Like, is this new Hamaguchi film gonna be as good as Drive My Car? Et cetera, et cetera.

 

Louis Virtel Which by the way, that movie is that bitch. I fucking love driving my car.

 

Kyle Buchanan That bitch, I mean, I’m excited for the next one, too. Same with Almodovar, like he’s a staple there.

 

Louis Virtel The thing about festivals though is I simply do not relate to clapping that much. Who has the effort to sit after a screening? I don’t care if Martin Scorsese is there or if like Saoirse Ronan is kind of looking up at me.

 

Kyle Buchanan I don’t believe you. I think you were about to launch into an eight minute standing ovation when you said on Agastair. Okay. That’s definitely true.

 

Louis Virtel I’ll clap at like a play, you know, like not a movie. They already made the movie

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I don’t know, there’s something, like you have to imagine there’s an applause fluffer. I’ve never been in space but yeah catching the wave and just like pressing it over like no we’re gonna get this to 11.5 minutes because the last one was 11

 

Kyle Buchanan No, they’re 100% is and you can goose it as long as you want they help you goose it because basically what happens is There’s a cameraman and as soon as the the closing credits are done The cameraman is pointing the camera each member of the cast Yeah at the director whoever else is pretty in that row and they will go one by one and get like a minute long Close-up. So if you have a really long cast it’s going to be longer But also if you’re like a hammy person you can get that to stay as long

 

Louis Virtel I’m gonna say I would have little party tricks planned if the camera was gonna be on me like I’d know how to juggle by that point Or something disguise as reveals

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I mean, as a canonically shy person, I might have to just dive and hide. Oh, God, it’s so, it is too much.

 

Kyle Buchanan Sometimes they do in a like, don’t make me sing.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, as she as the woman checks herself in the camera.

 

Louis Virtel By the way, speaking of festival darlings of last year, Rose Byrne is now a Tony nominee. She’s having one of these 1953 Audrey Hepburn years where she gets to be nominated in all sorts of things. She was obviously nominated for If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You, and now she’s up for a, I forget if I talked about this, she’s in this Noel Coward play from the 20s with Kelly O’Hara, also nominated, where it’s two women getting drunk on stage and reminiscing about this guy they both used to hook up with who’s going to be back in town, and now they lament the husbands they actually have.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey It’s so nice when you have a dream and it goes on stage.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Thank you, Noel Coward, for reaching into the future and going into the past. It is a fabulous performance. You should absolutely see that.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, I mean it’s also so wonderful when you have an actor you’ve just like loved from an x-fax original. Yes. Yes, I was original Damages High. I’ve rented that shit. Oh please. Who do you think you’re talking to? We’ve already discussed. I know we already talked about Patty Hughes. But it’s so cool when someone just like keeps deciding to do fresh work also to be near her man Bobby Cannavale, but to just continue to show that their artistry is like more Bass at it than we ever imagined so like good for you miss burn

 

Louis Virtel I also think she and Bobby Cannavale are the definitive salt and pepper couple, which is two people who are, you know, bookends, like absolutely diametrically the same as one another. I used to think it was Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, who are the same, you know, kind of stuffy, brown, stony, intellectual movie maker people, but I think actually the hustle of the character acting in Bobby Canavale and Rose Byrne makes them parallel.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Well, if you look at Rose’s talent in Spy versus Bobby Cannavale in Shall We Dance, like that is a kooky couple inside, beautifully wrapped in her.

 

Kyle Buchanan Also, like, they just have great voices and you wanna listen to their conversations. Like accents that work together.

 

Louis Virtel But they also belong in every movie.

 

Kyle Buchanan But I haven’t actually seen any of these Tony nominees and I know that you two have caught a few. Like what would you recommend if I’m in New York like next week?

 

Louis Virtel Well, I think, honestly, the answer is you have to do Death of a Salesman with Laurie Metcalf. Now, I haven’t seen this yet. I saw Laurie Metcaf in the other thing, the other Tony nominated production. She was in Little Bear Ridge Road. She was not nominated for an acting Tony for that. She was for this role. But I will say, people don’t realize that the 1951 Death of the Salesman with Frederick March and Mildred Donick is one of the best play adaptations ever. And low key Linda Lohman, the role that Laurie Metcap plays, is very underrated as a monolog giving character in this in that show and to see her doing that can’t can’t be beaten. I’m almost sure she’s going to win her third Tony this time.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, I’m gonna go Jaleco Cats, Jaleca Balls, Jalecal Cats, mostly because I’m not a cat’s person, but this reimagining is fabulous and gay and black and Andre De Shields is nominated again and that is a man from Baltimore. Thank you so much. We are specially insane. And Ty Tehnique, I am really in a mood to have some fun, though I love Ms. Metcalfe’s performance as woman I ran into at a CVS. I do, like, we’re in a world where we have to decide where to put our ducats. Also find a little bit of fun.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, Titanic is also fucking hilarious. I saw it now, I think, three years ago.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey It’s so and like it is that that’s also the fun part of being adults now where we’re able to like really follow the process of to see people get their work in front of more audiences so to go from the small theater that I saw it to to now like good for them like they worked so hard.

 

Louis Virtel And I believe our friends are Tony nominees, that means Matt Rodgers and Bowen Yanger are now Tony nominees. As of this morning. Oh, God, they got the T nomination. I don’t actually understand the math of producing and getting the nomination, but I believe they are. No, they are, yeah. Because I feel like they enumerate who gets the nominations later. They’re in.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey They’re in, they are in the press release. Okay, they aren’t.

 

Louis Virtel Okay, there we go.

 

Kyle Buchanan But I was reading that press release and some of these plays and musicals have 50 producers and they all get a Tony if they win. Oh, no. Have you seen the list?

 

Louis Virtel Oh, no. Have you seen the list of the Eka? Have you seen who’s produced who produced a strange loop? It never ends. It’s everybody you’ve ever heard of.

 

Kyle Buchanan Yeah, I feel like we’re daytime Emmy-ing here, and I feel like maybe we should restrict the number.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Okay, but some of us have Emmys, so let’s get them the way that we can get them, okay?

 

Louis Virtel Brilliantly brought up.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Let’s always remind everyone, I will pull it from under the table. I mean, look, I don’t actually have no feelings about that. I think the fact of the matter is it is so expensive to get anything on Broadway. Whoever has a residual check that they want to put forward, that is my only plan to get a Tony. I’m not writing something 40,000 times to anyway, I think that it’s completely fine if people want to just, you know, wash their cash that way.

 

Kyle Buchanan Is there a threshold? Do you know?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey There used to be.

 

Kyle Buchanan But now I could give a hundred and be like

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey No, babe, I think it’s going to have to be a little…

 

Louis Virtel A hundred? Well, that’s what I’m asking. Like, monopoly?

 

Kyle Buchanan Is there an amount that you have to give?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I know there used to be because someone sent me a misguided email a few years ago misreading what my life looked like. Were you flattered, though? I was like, you’re getting a little more delusional in Harlem than I thought you were. But yeah, no, there are people like grassroots fundraising where people are just like emailing their mom’s friends to try to get these pieces forward. Um, but yeah, I think it’s a really. It’s cool, I am okay if the tent is a little bit bigger.

 

Louis Virtel Especially if it means we get Tony nominee on a gas diet, okay, well, that’s fine. That’s fine I’m just saying with the producer

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey And if-

 

Louis Virtel And by the way, she’s up against Rachel Dratch, who is a second time nominee, but she’s for the Rocky Horror Show this time. They’re both gonna lose to Nichelle Lewis in Ragtime, which I think is the musical production of the year. Yeah, I think.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey No cats!

 

Louis Virtel Ragtime vs. Cats is very interesting.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I mean ragtime it’s we’re talking generational music, cats it’s you’re unable to stop smiling. So pick pick your poison.

 

Louis Virtel What if all Broadway musicals should just be Voging balls?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, I think that’s

 

Louis Virtel What if Fiddler on the Roof were, you know, duck walking on the roof. You know what I’m saying?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey No, I really do think Alice Ripley really needs to just be boom boom catting down the thing, it could be really fun.

 

Louis Virtel All right, we have a lot to get to this episode and it’s all crucially important, so thank you for being here. We have no guests because this is just a people who know too much information episode. Thank you for be here, thank you. We will get into, of course, Devil Wears Prada 2, we will get in to the Met Gala speaking of throwing down a lot of money over nothing.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Oh, God.

 

Louis Virtel [AD].

 

Louis Virtel We are fresh off the 2026 Met Gala. The only time the word fresh will be used to describe anything that happened at the Met Galla. This year was sponsored by none other than fashion icons, Jeff and Lauren Bezos. The night was co-chaired by Anna Wintour, Beyonce, Nicole Kidman, and Venus Williams. And the exhibition this year was costume art with the accompanying dress code fashionisart. You got that? Let’s get into it because there’s lots to say. Let’s start with the Bezos of it all. Lauren Bezos or Sanchez Bezos, or Bezos Sanchez, dressed as Madame X, yes, the John Singer Sargent painting. And I guess the deal is that was a controversial painting, so she’s wearing a kind of controversial dress. Did you know that you can’t buy being interesting? She didn’t know that, that’s what that is.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey So annoying though, it’s like if you’re going to be this villain, if you are going to make yourself into a Guy Fawkes mask, why won’t you use the money for something interesting or extravagant or actually make us boo?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, you’re right, it was tepid.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, it was a meditation on navy. Oh your sleeve fell Yeah, and the man repainted the sleeve because the woman was too vulgar bitch. You are a handle that do something fresh

 

Louis Virtel And she also, it’s the move of somebody who doesn’t actually know why she’s there, because she’s like, I can’t provoke anybody because I don’t want to take the attention off the people who actually deserve to be here. But then that would point out that I don t deserve to be here.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I mean, and it’s like, okay, if we want to play metrics of like what it is to deserve to be at the hundred thousand dollar a ticket ball, which, you know, is something that a lot of people aspire to. And I get it. But like. There is no point of view, which has always been the problem there. It’s we’re seeing you try to buy yourself into access because that’ll make you feel accepted in something that you married into recently and aren’t doing anything interesting with.

 

Kyle Buchanan She’s not a visionary, she’s a vendor.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, thank you.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I know you wanted to say it first, so we finally broke the seal on it. But it’s true, it’s like you in the face of protests and union organizers being taken into custody across the street and you’re still not giving anything that’s resembling fashion.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey We get it when you bought the body is somewhat in proportion other than that lately pull that together why does it look like you’re in the i don’t know usable fabrics competition on project right now i think i’m.

 

Kyle Buchanan It was her priority to show off the girls. I don’t think there was any other priority.

 

Louis Virtel That is probably true.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey But it’s like, if you have a checkbook, or I’m guessing gold doubloons shaped as children’s heads, and you’re gonna give it to Schiaparelli, use the artistry. Isn’t that the point of this, is that you are trying to buy yourself into some sort of intellectual proximity? Why not embrace it? It’s because she doesn’t have the capacity or the interest.

 

Louis Virtel Well, let’s also be clear. I mean, there’s lots of people on this red carpet who it’s just, I didn’t care to see lots of the people with the last name Murdoch, for example. This is a pop culture podcast, and I’m sorry, we must focus on celebrities. You’re getting off topic. I don’t know what’s happened to you. I didn t even realize Lauren Bezos was not the only Madame X there. Claire Foy was there. By the way, so good and all of the strangers.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah

 

Louis Virtel I’m so good at that.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey And hers was just styled better, too. It was not… She had a…

 

Louis Virtel Also, she looks like Madame X.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, and she I mean, that’s that’s the body for it. But with her, the shade of gorgeous mask on it again, it is a like first thought reference, but do it better. Yeah. With a more conservative budget.

 

Kyle Buchanan Elevated.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel But I will say, if we’re talking about who won the Met Gala, and I’m not saying there’s a lot of competition this year, I’m so sorry. The answer is Madonna. Madonna was the best outfit at the Met Gala.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Oh, did you like Madonna on a red carpet?

 

Louis Virtel I had a brilliant idea.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Oh, okay. Did you like when she was the sea, the pirate, and the wind?

 

Louis Virtel Just let her be all three.

 

Kyle Buchanan What was your immediate reaction to it?

 

Louis Virtel So Madonna’s look was inspired by the painting, The Temptation of St. Anthony, by the surrealist painter, Leonora Carrington. Now, now first of all, there’s a lot going on here. There’s other people involved with it. She has like a pirate ship on her head, et cetera. But it actually is a tribute to a piece of art she actually cares about. It’s not just, here’s a painting people have heard of so I’m gonna reference it like fucking Lauren Sanchez. Madonna is obsessed with visual art. In fact, I kind of wonder if she secretly cooked up the theme and they built it around her because everything about her is like visual art oriented. Most of her music videos have references to some, like a female artist or something.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah she’s always like always dabbled.

 

Louis Virtel Photographers yeah.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey And I think that I she’s on my list of uh good for having the audacity.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey From the carpet because if the theme dress theme for the carpet is fashion is art let’s actually do something not let’s reference art that it feels like you just printed the fabric yes call me Domingo I love you but what was I’m going to… Have a 360 opinion or perspective that she’s bringing to it. But it also was just like, what if fabric was waves? So I don’t know, I’m not sure it was like her best, but I love her black hair.

 

Louis Virtel It was an installation.

 

Kyle Buchanan It’s very striking if you watch it on the live stream, as opposed to in a picture, like watching all those attendants fan it out, it like makes a strong impression. And also she kind of looks like she did in the Frozen video. I like when she does that kind of like Sea Witch vibe.

 

Louis Virtel Also, this particular artist, Leonora Carrington, was also referenced in her Bedtime Story video. There’s the giantess, I think, is the name of the art. But you’ll see, it’s a one-to-one parallel. But it’s also just nice to see somebody who is actually interested in the art component of this, which reminds me of what we were missing from this year, which was Sarah Jessica Parker. She always, I thinks, makes the Met Gala feel like, give it a little gravitas, because she cares about where all this comes from, like references to art, designers, et cetera. We did have Beyonce and Rihanna doing their thing where we know they’re alive and well, thank God. So they’re alive and well, thank God, you know.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey They are still richer and prettier than us.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, right.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I think that’s important to remind everyone. But there is something too of like, the theme being fashion is art. So which of the celebrities are just referencing the art versus like making the art? Yes, yes. I think also something that was frustrating because I want, I’m sorry, I love watching the fashion show of the Met Gala. Oh yeah. I have, I am not living, I’m not living my politics when I watch this live stream all day. So I want to be odd and like, if you’re in that position, you should want to be inspiring people to like make their own art versus just like being inspired by stuff that has been in on the walls for a long time.

 

Kyle Buchanan Also my rule of thumb here is if it’s something that you could wear basically the same with the same hair and makeup to a movie premiere, you’re not going far enough. This is your opportunity to give more more. And I feel like it’s a lost opportunity if you’re just kind of doing what we know you to do already.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey And it’s like really, I mean, I went to see the exhibit last year for Black Dandyism, and it was, it’s the first time I’ve actually like gotten to go while it’s been up. And it was so amazing because Dapper Dan happened to be there when I was there and you were watching like living art see himself be venerated. I want that part of it to continue. And that brings me back to our sweetener, SJP, of like, the people who are… We will look back as our fashion icons and have set history in this vein. You want that. And I want more from Teyana. I want More from Rir.

 

Louis Virtel I was just going to bring her up because she nailed the black dandyism thing last year. And I just felt like this was a bit paler compared to that.

 

Kyle Buchanan I disagree. She was it and cousin it, like.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I can’t, it was. It was very, again, jellicle ball, but I just still felt like I was more interested in, you know, the few shots from her burlesque party than, you know two nights before. But she is someone you always look we look to because she styles herself and she is at least we know that she is doing it herself.

 

Louis Virtel That is actually interesting. I’m sorry, what this actually is a showcase of is who has anything going on in their head. You know what I mean? It makes you think about these celebrities and what like, just like you were saying, not just the obligation to be interesting, but like the nerve to be interesting.

 

Kyle Buchanan Well, in that vein, Bad Bunny. I really want to talk about this one because I was fascinated by it.

 

Louis Virtel Being an old person or like it evolved that he became old, right?

 

Kyle Buchanan Well, I don’t know. I mean, I think whatever, whatever vein you want to see this through, like I saw this as maybe sort of a commentary on the body aspect of dressing for this year’s theme to come and not be giving hot in a particular way, but to say we all age, I mean maybe not the people who are trying to stave it off on this carpet, but I’ll allow myself too. Like, consider what I’m gonna be like in 40 years. Will I still be a hot daddy? Like, I don’t know. I thought it was a really interesting, provocative thing for a person to do. And also at the same time, I think red carpet dressing and especially Met Gala dressing, it’s meant to present, if you do it right, another sense of self. Like, what don’t we know you for? And Bad Bunny is kind of saying, look, yes, you know me as a singer, but I can also act and he is a good actor. So for him to sort of just inhabit that guy and not do it in a doddering way, I was really interested.

 

Louis Virtel It’s also fucking unexpected. So like, please bring that in.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Let hot people be weird. I think it’s like really fascinating. I mean, there’s a shot of him going up the stairs, greeting his ex-girlfriend’s mother, Chris Jenner. And to see someone who is fighting age every day bless her to be like slowly hugged by hot girls old, I think is like that part of the performance argument was funny to me.

 

Kyle Buchanan And so when it comes to showing a different side of yourself, that’s when I really wanted to get into the heated rivalry boys.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Kyle Buchanan Because I liked what Connor’s story was wearing.

 

Louis Virtel Are you talking about the blazer before he took it off? Yes, I like that a little bit better.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey You’re talking about that Banana Republic blouse that I own?

 

Kyle Buchanan I mean, I think he looks good, but I just don’t think he’s looks.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey No, he is hot. Well, that is not that’s that the goal here and both him and Hudson.

 

Kyle Buchanan And both him and Hudson Williams, it’s like, yes, you’re showing off your bodies, but we kind of already know you for those things. And I think this is a great time for them to be dressing for the jobs they want to get, you know, in the same way that like, when Lupita Nyong’o was having her Oscar season, and she dressed like this beautiful princess and said, you not just going to cast me in these period films, like I want to be the star, or even Coleman Domingo, when he had his first big Oscar season breakout. He was dressing like he was the main event. I am the star. You might not have seen Rustin, but you’re gonna see me on this red carpet. So when I look at Hudson Williams, who I think is really terrific and he did rivalry and very subtle, I’m like, what does he wanna convey? What kind of parts does he want to get? And I see that outfit and I don’t know. You’re like a bullfighter with black swan makeup. What’s that telling me?

 

Louis Virtel I felt like the makeup was the real miss on that part. Because first of all, it matched the outfit too much. It looked like an afterthought or something.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely a to reference and not be unafraid to reference situation. Yes. I hear you in terms of Lupita, because she was pretty young. Coleman is a full person by the time we allowed that talented man to be famous. But with, I think they’re saying what they wanna say, whether or not you agree with this. But what is it? I think Connor says, I am beautiful. Sure, but we know that. Yeah, but I think that might be where it is right now. It’s like, please let me, I don’t have to necessarily, I want to be a Sweetie Pea. And he came as a sweetie pea. I think Hudson wants to be like a little freak, and he is always holding his little scotch glass by the bottom, and that’s what he’s doing.

 

Louis Virtel Connors outfit to me gives it look better in the fashion illustration, you know, just like the silhouette of it with the big arms coming out But then he put it on it was like what if Audrey Hepburn at the height of her powers said I’m going to become a suburban Realtor and that is what we ended up with in that outfit. That’s like one of his least interesting looks I’ve ever seen him wear on a red carpet.

 

Kyle Buchanan We saw the muted matted down here at the Golden Globes already.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey It’s also possible because, you know, he was wearing Saint Laurent, who was the major fashion house sponsor. So it is possible that he was told to put the dress on and smile.

 

Kyle Buchanan Yep, right. Mmmm. Which he did do.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Which he did do.

 

Louis Virtel There’s another point of this whole thing. It’s like, I want to know the stories behind what’s happening. I want see what I can interpret here.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey And who has the power to actually be crafting their look versus, thank you, it was delivered. I don’t know, seeing them on the carpet, I just wrote down, it is crazy that we have gone from a Crave original to the Met Gala in less than six months. And that’s amazing for them. But also, as they’re moving forward and are able to really craft, speaking of crafting their careers and what they want to do, I hope they have more agency than what I’ve seen so far.

 

Louis Virtel But also, by the way, again, when it comes to being famous and then being relevant or important, you actually can’t skip steps. You know what I mean? So it’s like, they’ve done a lot. I mean, again it’s crazy how amazing they’ve cut. But it’s just like, they’ve just got to wait a little while, I think. That said, Sabrina Carpenter has really only been famous, like superstar famous for two years. The amount she is fucking, she just duetted with Stevie Nicks after the Met Gala last night. By the way on SNL 50, she duetted with Paul Simon. I mean it’s, just like. I can’t think of another person who has snowballed like this in maybe 15 years, since Lady Gaga.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, but then she wore a dress of a print of the movie Sabrina and it just made me roll my eyes.

 

Louis Virtel It was very Gatsby looking.

 

Kyle Buchanan I thought this was one of my favorite outfits.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Absolutely. Did you look at the shoes? Clock the shoes!

 

Kyle Buchanan I didn’t look at the shoes, to be fair, but I thought that, yes, her dress made up of film strips from the movie Sabrina, was so witty, so her, very old Hollywood, she looked great, the hair and makeup were extremely on point, like 10 out of 10.

 

Louis Virtel We also are running out of celebrities who are actually referencing kind of like vintage Hollywood in any way, and I crave that.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey But I’m sorry, at a certain point, it’s like you have a Marcel wave. Great.

 

Louis Virtel Also, everybody does try that once.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, it’s like I think I think she’s I think she’s cool and I like really enjoyed her couchel set and her voice is beautiful. The way that she harmonized with Stevie was amazing. And thank you for releasing the clip in real time. Met Gala at Met Galla. But I don’t I think that there’s more than saying I have watched AFI’s best 100 movie list.

 

Louis Virtel And what could that be?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey And this is coming from me. And I see who I’m sitting next to at this table, so I say it softly, but I don’t know. And she is constrained by being a tiny woman, a big head. So there are some fashion constraints there. You don’t want her to be dwarfed by her garment. And you can tell she thought about it and then she was interested in what she was doing. I didn’t find it particularly special.

 

Louis Virtel I think she will do weirder things in the future. She will straight up dress as Lola Bunny on a red carpet. You will see floppy ears and a Space Jam uniform.

 

Kyle Buchanan She conveys Lolo Bunny but also again it’s like you’re dressing for the job you want and she’s referencing cinema she also was doing that in her Coachella set yes because I think she wants to head into like you know her actress lane right now.

 

Louis Virtel And by the way I’m still not over the week one having Susan Sarandon out there and then week two having Gina Davis out there.

 

Kyle Buchanan I’m saying. Give her cinephile.

 

Louis Virtel You go ahead and have gay cred. You go head.

 

Kyle Buchanan She wants to be asked for her letterbox top four.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, well, I mean, that just reminded me of Renata Halpern, which reminded me that Lena Dunham returned to the Met Gala last night in a dress that I would not have put her in, but she’s back. And I think that that’s like, I think it’s how fashion is depicted on bodies. She is a big girl. I love that we saw her there. I think I also was fascinated by a tracking shot of Alex Consonni and Hunter Schafer both. Dolls on the carpet at the same time in a year of conservatism. That still means something.

 

Louis Virtel Hunter Schaeffer is also one of the best looks of the night, for sure.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey She was amazing there is no

 

Louis Virtel Imagine her not looking amazing.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey There was a rack shot of the two of them that was reminiscent of Lady Camden and Bosco on and I say that I cannot let go yeah it was amazing um but I do like especially in a year right after uh black dandyism it was not as black and not as gay and it was that’s and maybe that’s why we’re missing the audacity of the event.

 

Louis Virtel By the way, it took me, I was looking at the color scheme of the room they were all in, because it felt kind of drab to me. And then they’re like, oh, it’s Vincent van Gogh inspired. But when you hear that, you say like,

 

Kyle Buchanan It’s one of those things that I’m sure looked striking and interesting, but was kind of getting in the way of a lot of these outfits. Especially the trains, because it’s the Met Gala. Everyone’s going to have absurd trains. But the floor was so like dishwater colored that I felt like it didn’t make any of those trains look good.

 

Louis Virtel And once you find out that Vincent van Gogh was colorblind and that there was all this like green in his painting that looks kind of drab and dishwatery, it’s like, oh right, you don’t understand that that looks weird and murky.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I was reading something with the carpet production designer and God bless him because he really is somewhere just being like what if the theme this year is red as Cole Kippen said it was.

 

Louis Virtel What? Okay, go ahead, Rheeqrheeq, we have to return to that.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Okay, but I was it’s like how do you make a stage where the dress theme this year was so broad It was giving like the year that people couldn’t figure out how to do Americana Yeah, I think that’s like the the basis of it. It just felt very first thought. But yes, let’s talk about Nicole Kidman

 

Louis Virtel Who wore a red dress and then she said, I wore the red dress to toast red in art. Yes. Which I have to say is one of the colors.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I love her so much. She is so, such a freak.

 

Louis Virtel She’s also so pure and then also weird. I would hear her maybe to Celine Dion in that way.

 

Kyle Buchanan Wait, very much so because there’s something very little girlish about her. I mean, she has like.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey She grown.

 

Kyle Buchanan She’s very smart, thoughtful person. I’ve interviewed her a bunch of times. I’ve sat next to her at like awards shows and stuff. And like, if a beautiful woman comes up to present, she’ll just coo, pretty girl.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey And like sometimes the autism makes you have to say it immediately, like that interview with her and Asap Rocky on the run up to the gala where they’re like, what would you, if you got to switch closets and Asp was like, oh, I’m sure she has some fine shit in there. And Nicole was like oh, well, I would get to kiss his wife, yes. Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Yes. If given the opportunity, make out with Rihanna.

 

Louis Virtel Nicole Kidman is not not poor things, you know, like sometimes sometimes the baby comes out.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, right, right

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I don’t know the it’s okay to have like an earnest expression of need and want immediately. Mama wanted to wear red and have bangs. Mama had red and bangs.

 

Louis Virtel And she brought Sunday rose and it was adorable, you know?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yes, yeah, also we had, you know, two of our chairs brought their children on the carpet Which is like in and so as someone who is it calls herself a Gilded Gal I’m a Gilda H clock twink my damn self We are watching like the rise of these socialite class and like the fact that you know Nicole took her daughters to the shows and they’re like trying to build them up as these the next round of fashion girlies I mean, sure do nepotism. Well, you know, blue looks absolutely gorgeous. And she’s so tall. Right. It’s just really, that stuff is fun and it feels sweet. And like, if you’re gonna take the picture next to Lauren Sanchez Bezos, Nicole, she stood as far away as she could.

 

Louis Virtel I gotta say, it was chilly, as only Nicole can give.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I mean look, Scarpetta Season 2 is shooting now apparently, she needs to make sure the checks keep on rolling in.

 

Kyle Buchanan Nicole’s shooting stuff for Amazon, that’s why, you know, I mean, like if we are going to get a little bit into the politics at all, I think people were sort of implying that stars might stay away because of Bezos’, and I wish they had that sort of conviction. They don’t. I don’t know. They want to work for Amazon.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I don’t know, Mary. I mean, or it just depends on where you are in your career and what your need is, because I was shocked that Mary Louis Streep was not there when all her girls were there. And like,.

 

Kyle Buchanan Is she a Met Gala like veteran? Not really.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey In 2020, she was announced as she was going to host the Met Gola and it shut down.

 

Well, this is also the year to do it with Devil Wears Prada 2.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey And this is the year to do if they’re like, this is a co-pro, Conde Nast co-pros, Devil Wears Prada 2, which we’ll talk about in a second. But it yeah, sure. She probably my girl, probably tired. But I think that there are some people who sat out and there are people who we know are fine because they were at that, what, gray carpeted wedding a year ago, so.

 

Louis Virtel By the way, Anne Hathaway. Smashing look, also.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey She came as Queen Mia Thermophilis Rinaldi. Still on the throne as you know. I love that she was like, as one sequel ends, another one rises. And so I hope Miss Andrews can come out and do one, exactly one scene in that sequel.

 

Kyle Buchanan Wait can i give you three women to rank?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Oh, yeah.

 

Kyle Buchanan Uh… Rihanna. Katie Perry, and Beyonce.

 

Louis Virtel As in?

 

Kyle Buchanan As in their outfits.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey As in, who I want to hold hands with?

 

Louis Virtel You said Rihanna, Katy Perry, Beyonce.

 

Kyle Buchanan Yes.

 

Louis Virtel What was Katy Perry’s look referencing?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey AI’s.

 

Louis Virtel Just oh yeah because like the fingers.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah the sixth finger yeah um i think it was referencing that she just keeps showing up she keep trying yeah right she’s really um

 

Louis Virtel I would go Rihanna, I guess, the best. Beyonce’s was like kind of, it felt to me like something she had worn before or something, it wasn’t like a star-making moment.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey She wore a Robert Woon when she switched into a Robert Woon number for her like chair speech. And that looked much better. Yeah, on the carpet. She spoke about the fact that she was wearing Balmain. She said because Balmain has been incredibly loyal to me. And I was like, okay, okay.

 

Louis Virtel Benevolent.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey So are we so you also noticed some things up with the under garment of it. But my body is art. She was bones. She She was rich bones. She looked great.

 

Kyle Buchanan She understood the assignment.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey But I would only because of I think her beauty look was superior. It would go Rihanna Beyonce Katy Perry.

 

Kyle Buchanan Yeah, I think Rihanna looked the most beautiful. Beyonce’s, it’s almost sort of what you’d expect from her, but she still looked 100 feet tall, like the bones, the feathers, I felt like she was a boss I was gonna scale in Shadow of the Colossus.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey There’s no, I mean, seconds after the Odyssey trailer comes out, there’s no world in which Beyonce hits the carpet and does not look better than most people. Did she look her best? I don’t think so.

 

Louis Virtel Well, again, high bar.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, exactly.

 

Louis Virtel She’s had so many, like, there’s been so many years where she was the number one thing on the red carpet. I also want to shout out Chase Infinity. Mostly just a pretty dress, but it looked amazing.

 

Kyle Buchanan And also on theme. Yeah. Like the body oddy.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, so like my top are Chase Infinity, Nyaak Yai,.

 

Kyle Buchanan Yeah she’s gorgeous.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Speedy Luck was insane. And it was, she was so gorgeous. And someone who every year I remind it exists, Emma Chamberlain.

 

Louis Virtel I said the same, I was gonna say Emma Chamberlain.

 

Kyle Buchanan Wow that was a look though.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey That was gorgeous.

 

Louis Virtel The way John Legend pops up at the Grammys, she pops up in Met Gala.

 

Kyle Buchanan And the power of hair and makeup. Yeah. Because her hair and makeup really helped sell that look.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey There were a lot of beauty stories this year. I think Keke Palmer’s beauty looked amazing.

 

Kyle Buchanan Didn’t love the wig though.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I mean, look, you got a shake and go, you can put on this. She thought she looked damn good.

 

Kyle Buchanan She wears some amazing wigs in I Love Boosters, which is coming up, and I just kind of felt like this was a cast off from that.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey No, I thought she looked, her makeup was so gorgeous.

 

Louis Virtel We must talk quickly though about homosexuality at the Met Gala.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Mm.

 

Louis Virtel Are we done with Tom of Finland references? Luke Evans wore a, I’ll say, mauve tribute to Tom of Fin- And if you don’t know Tom of Finland, it’s like the gay art where it’s, like, they have the mustaches and the biker bodies and, like the police hats and stuff.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I don’t know, I think I’m always gonna be okay with a penis in leather, but I do, again, it did feel like, you know, Luke is currently in Rocky Horror. It did feel an extension of his residency, I guess. It wasn’t inspired. And the people I looked to for inspiration this year, again, Coleman Domingo, I wasn’t obsessed with his Picasso-inspired look. Jeremy Pope looked sparkly, I Guess. Um.

 

Louis Virtel That really was the theme this year. Sparkly, I guess.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I guess. Laws bust down was bust down. I mean, it wasn’t the men were not necessarily giving me what we wanted to see.

 

Kyle Buchanan But what is to account for this like sudden surge in the like leather Tom of Finland look? Like obviously Luke Evans like felt like the most of that lifestyle. Nicholas Holt looks hot as hell. Oh my god, guys, he looked hot as Hell in a way where I’m like there’s like disturbing things here that we should maybe not unpack.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, no. No, I didn’t know he was going to be delivering.

 

Kyle Buchanan Yeah, and but then also you had Patrick Schwarzenegger kind of working that look and looking terrified I honestly would have swapped his look for Hudson Williams.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Well, that’s why I was wondering, are the straight boys, having seen Heat of Rivalry with their girlfriends, like, maybe I should strap something on? I don’t know. Like, where is that trend coming from in a moment where we all are also getting more conservative?

 

Louis Virtel That outfit was definitely wearing him. He was not owning whatever the kind of Johnny Depp hair or whatever he had going on in that outfit. And by the way, I don’t expect like a couture moment from Patrick Schwarzenegger. So it was just sort of silly.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, I think and I mean I think the my favorite guy on the carpet was scepta this But that was what because he is so hot it hurts inside But if he felt like he was doing something he it was all of his tattoos on his suit It kind of it was giving and Tom Brown Did amazing work across the night, so I think that they were with one of my tops

 

Louis Virtel There were also several of course, Kardashians and Jenners, no Chalamets.

 

Kyle Buchanan No.

 

Louis Virtel He’s still in the penalty box, I think.

 

Kyle Buchanan It was a very nipple-forward, Kardashian-Jenner presence.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I mean, it was so, I think of the three younger ones that were there, Kendall, the model looked the best, especially there was a shot of her piece with a sort of cape-like accessory that she looked amazing with.

 

Louis Virtel Yes yeah that was probably the best of yeah I mean Kim Kardashian it’s like the body kind you know I kind of like the color.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey And it’s like.

 

Kyle Buchanan She looked better than she usually does and in a different way.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Not to like out myself, but I watch the show. I know how much that woman cares about what she is doing. Baby, care about a different genre of ass out. Like, I just want, like if you’re, again, if you gonna have the resources for it and also have an obsession of feeling wanting to be included on that carpet as she has spoken about when she was only a plus one to that man. Like, let’s do something fun. And I don’t, she doesn’t even seem like she’s having fun. And that’s the bummer.

 

Louis Virtel But I would also say that’s the reason people like her. She never is having that much fun. And that’s allure.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yes, and All’s Fair season two coming soon. Oh no, I will say- How dare you bring up a television show. My favorite thing- This is my podcast. However soon it is, it’s too soon. I just love the white girls from All’s Fair at Teyana’s party. There’s something, Naomi Watts has never seen Freer now that she has black friends in public. She and Sarah Possley were having a ball and like that’s what you want for, oh, and also Sarah Paulson.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, she looked great.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey She looked amazing.

 

Louis Virtel So we can all agree, Madonna won the night. Thank you so much for-

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey being here, you are dismissed. Thank you.

 

Louis Virtel It is your show, we’ll let you have it.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, by the sea, Mr. Todd.

 

Louis Virtel But we’re not done with fashion yet, we’re going to talk about the Devil Wears Prada 2 when we return.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Whee!

 

Louis Virtel [AD]

 

Louis Virtel Here we are 20 years later and our girls Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, and the incomparable Meryl Streep are back for the Double Wars product too. And let me tell you that we all immediately slipped back into our black leather, over-the-knee Chanel boots, and ran not walked to go see this film. Before we jump into this conversation, I must say there are spoilers ahead. And if you haven’t seen the movie by now, what is wrong with you?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey It’s been days.

 

Louis Virtel Why is no one ready, et cetera. So now that we’ve all seen it, what do we think? I wanna begin by saying, I’m glad we’re talking about this because I’ve never turned on a movie this many times in a single viewing while watching it. At the beginning of the movie, I was like, it’s actually the opposite of my experience with Mother Mary where the first 10 minutes I loved it and then the rest of the move I was, oh, I wrong. This movie started I was too drab and then it had something. I would give this movie a seven out of 10. I’m a fan.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I have a deep love of the original movie, so that’s a hard way to enter the film.

 

Louis Virtel And by the way, it’s basically not the same genre as the original movie.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, it’s not. It’s that’s I think that was my larger note of it. Do not expect a a dreamy eyed girl entering a space. That is not this. This is someone who is on magnesium. Yeah, this is someone is on a dose, but make it the best out of it, but as we entered it, you know, this this movie has been the sequel has been asked for for a really long time. And the creative team is incredibly aware of it by the fact that the theme of the Rudway gala was spring florals. So we, like from that visual cue, you knew that there was a kindness and also an awareness of what’s about to happen. But the issue with a sequel about a magazine is that magazines are dying. And so there is, it is, with love. And so it’s completely impossible to talk about the arena in which the first happened without having an awareness of what’s happening now.

 

Louis Virtel And being dour.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Exactly, and so a lot of the film I sat there being like is this play about us it was really constriction is the word of the day That was hard and so finding the joy and the inspiration of it you had to look a little harder than you did when 20 years ago when we were all kids watching it the first time.

 

Kyle Buchanan I was gonna say, I was a little surprised. I don’t know if you saw on social media, there was a stat everybody was pointing out, which is basically the sequel got the same Rotten Tomatoes score as the original, which is absurd to me because the sequel, the original should have gotten a much higher score. Reminds me of 20 years ago, it was almost all straight men who were delivering these reviews. And that is a sparkling, wonderful piece of Hollywood product. That is a movie that stands up, every scene just works. All the characters work. This one, less so for me. This one felt to me like I was watching a limited series adaptation rather than a movie. There were so many extraneous characters and little bits of subplots that weren’t really paying off. Very subplotty, very subplotic. Like we were gonna get into this more in future episodes.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Well that I think is because someone said, how do we make this less white? And the way they did that was everybody gets someone a little brown.

 

Kyle Buchanan Very “and just like that” of them.

 

Louis Virtel The first thought I had watching this movie was this felt like the “and just like that” to Sex and the City, which is to say they are trying to spread it in a few different directions and deepen the characters. And instead, they’re just watering it all down and making it all feel a little sadder. These characters are listless and figuring out what to do next. But I do think the movie eventually gets a bit funnier and gets back some of the judge that made the original fun. That said, this is not a quippy movie. You don’t walk out of it with one-liners that you’re repeating to other people. And I’m gonna call that an error, but the most glaring error, and the thing that you would think is impossible to get over, but I did manage to get it over it, this movie does not know what to do with Miranda. This is a movie about, she is the doyen of this magazine, but the industry is collapsing around her. So it’s sort of all these crises that are happening at or around her, and she looks like she’s confused as she deals with, and by the way, not even really dealing with it.

 

Kyle Buchanan And also this is when it really starts to feel like a TV show to me because it’s like, you know how like in the early seasons of the TV show, there’s like the villain you love to hate, but they’re so good at it and you love the performance so much that they kind of get redeemed in later seasons. I felt like Miranda was not kind of giving enough of the baddie that we know that she is. And so she was kind of caught in a way station in between the withering Miranda and the somewhat more sympathetic, I’ve got to apologize for all my sins from the first movie Miranda.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Okay, but I think that is just a change of POV and of perspective, right? So the first movie, we’re in Andy’s perspective. She’s 22, she’s right off the, what, union reporting beat from her? Yeah, her big janitor story. Yeah, exactly. And she’s getting those grilled cheeses and a little bit of dick. But that, we never have time in Miranda’s interior. And even when Meryl shockingly didn’t wear makeup for a moment to talk about her impending divorce in the first film, it’s never just her. In this film, we do have some time with just her. Is it possible Miranda was always rosé drunk? I think it probably is, but that’s not something you show your subordinates. And when you get to the point of being almost a peer, but not quite, you get see a little bit more of the woman. And so I accept that as a reason for it. And also you want, Meryl obviously did not enjoy being a stoic statue in the first time, because she always talks about feeling so far away. So that also is actor meets character. All right.

 

Louis Virtel Some of the humanizing of her in this movie, though, I don’t think paid off. Like, I don’t think we needed to meet her husband. Like Kenneth Branagh plays that character. It’s like, what is he doing? What is he doing besides wearing a sweater?

 

Kyle Buchanan We didn’t need any of these love interests. Let’s be very real. Especially Anne Hathaway’s like, God bless this man, I’m sure he’s lovely. But like, you know, in the first movie at least, she’s torn between these two guys, and one’s Adrian Grenier and one is Simon Baker, and they both look hot. Whether you’d wanna be with them or not, there’s an amount of wish fulfillment to her being torn between those two men. There’s no wish fulfillment to debating whether you wanna be on Australian Comedians. All of us on our worst days could pull an Australian comedian, like it’s not doing anything for me.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I don’t think, I think you just don’t have the perspective of a late 30s white woman because I went with one who I saw the original movie with 20 years ago and she was like, ooh, that works for me. So I think that it’s, it’s for the population.

 

Louis Virtel Excuse me, I’m gonna say I’m part of that population. That man was boring.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I, yeah, but I, you know, that’s not my type. I’m saying sometimes I have to stand with the brown haired ponytail bitches. But I think that was for them. But the, from a story perspective, he had three scenes. It was cut to hell. And you could really tell that this, they were fighting for runtime in this film, especially comrade Rick Amaro fully cut out of the film. It was like a real bummer. Yeah, but when the Kenneth Branagh showed up, I thought SVU rules were about to apply, I thought he was about to kill somebody. Or like when Guy Pearce showed up in Mayor of Easttown, he was like, well, he must have done it. He was like no, he was the only one available.

 

Louis Virtel Right, did it as a favor for sure.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Exactly, but like yeah, so in thinking of like where we want to spend our time with these women and Tucci I think it’s like Okay, someone gave the note that they have to have full romantic lives because that’s the only way women can actually be happy But it pulls us away from like actually seeing how they are active in making the plans for their corporate takeover

 

Louis Virtel By the way, it must be said that the redeeming thing about this movie, and again, I would give it a thumbs up, seven out of 10, is the performances of the veterans. Anne Hathaway is great. And by the way I was just fielding at my very workplace the other day. Someone was like, oh god, she was so annoying through the movie. It literally is illegal to call her annoying. You can’t do it anymore. We simply have been there and I’m done.

 

Kyle Buchanan I come to this space to praise Emily Blunt.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, she was the best performance in the movie.

 

Kyle Buchanan She made me laugh out loud. Even if the lines weren’t great, the line readings were tart. And I felt like she did not miss a beat. She picked right up from that first movie. I felt when that first move came out, I was hitting the drum hard for Emily Blund deserves a supporting actress nomination for this. That is one of the funnier comic performances of that era and to see her back in that vein, I loved it.

 

Louis Virtel Emily also add, we’re finally seeing Emily Blunt in a role I want to see her in. I’m sorry, she is applied with a general paintbrush at the film industry. Like she’s fucking Lily James or something. Like she just is like any kind of character who sort of fits between like the others. And she is so much more interesting than that and sardonic and rude. And you know, it’s just like, we have like watered her down over the past 20 years and this is still her most potent character.

 

Kyle Buchanan The rudeness was so fun, and you’re so right, Louis, because I remember when I was beating that drum for Emily Blunt, I was like, she deserves more opportunities, she deserves to be a leading lady, and we’ve now had her as that, and I kind of want her back in supporting, because she can do more interesting stuff.

 

Louis Virtel It’s like the Angelina Jolie problem. We put her in Girl Interrupted, her best role, and then she never did that again. She was never sardonic again.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey We are a table full of people who want supporting actress nominations. So that’s why we are like. Oh, I will have my moments. Baby, when I finally show up as Black Maria Callis. No, I think that, yeah, like, Emily was the most calibrated to, a nod to the first film and like that, a bit more arch comedy and what it is to like have lived a life in media and still trying to figure out what you need. Who did not fit in any movie was Justin Theroux as fake Bezos. That was crazy.

 

Louis Virtel Also, by the way, I was trying to I didn’t know it was just and throw the entire movie

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I was like, that is Photoshopped Justin Theroux when they pass by a photo of him.

 

Kyle Buchanan The funniest thing for me is that using prosthetics, they restored Justin Theroux’s original hairline.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Pre-Turkey, baby, that was like, it was so, also very interesting because Justin Theroux was playing a version of Jeff Bezos before he got the, before he just decided to go full dome and Lucy Liu was playing the version of Mackenzie Scott. And it is like very, that is really funny because we never saw them like interact with each other but to like put caricatures of angel robotic villain in the film where you’re spending so much time trying to humanize everyone else. Really made the glucose spike when he’s talking about how robots will make fashion and art choices going forward.

 

Kyle Buchanan Yeah, you know, we’re talking about how, you know, how dire the movie is and how dire the actual state of the media industry is these days, which the movie reflects. But honestly, the thing that I found the most sort of sadly accurate is that so much of the movie is like hoping that the right billionaire will save you.

 

Louis Virtel And that’s what happens.

 

Kyle Buchanan And that’s kind of where we’re at now and it’s awful.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, and also like the movie ends and like, you know, they’re they’re saved from peril I guess from you know a donor of that kind and it’s like yeah, you’re saved for the next six months Yeah, exactly. And by the way, though, you’d know you’re gonna get another sequel to this

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Well, that’s the thing. It’s like you pull out and everyone’s in their corner offices and it’s, you know, no one has the succession hasn’t happened. Right? So no one has taken the throne. Brian Cox is still alive. So it like there you can feel the space of who and does Andy finally have to make a sacrifice so big that, you know as Miranda speaks to in the car at the end about her children in her life. I don’t know. And I don’t if I necessarily as someone who’s literal, like legal corporation is named after this movie. I don’t know if that’s something that I want to see.

 

Louis Virtel By the way, though, another disappointment I had in this movie, and just a disappointment I have in general, is the quote unquote viral moment in this move, when Andy, she wins a journalism award working for the New York Vanguard, and she’s at a table full of esteemed journalists, and they found out at the table, this is right at the beginning of the movie, that they’re all fired. So when she wins her award, she’s just learned this, she goes up to the lectern to speak, and she goes viral because she starts screaming about the importance of journalism. If you have ever met an actual journalist who’s worked for 20 years, they would be addressing that with the most withering over it, like can you believe it, I’m fired, of course I’m fired. And she’s up there screaming Greta Thunberg style, and it just is like completely, you will never meet a journalist who acts like that.

 

Kyle Buchanan When you started this rant and you said the most disappointing thing for me, I was for sure thinking that you were going to say the dress that Andy wears to the Hamptons because they built this up to be- They built it up.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey They built it up too high.

 

Kyle Buchanan Like an incredible look and then you see her in this shapeless Gabriela Hearst dress that looks like something I would dress a Mian in Tamadachi life and I’m like wait this can’t possibly be it.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I- I-

 

Louis Virtel Go ahead and get a stain on that, we don’t care.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Okay, but that’s the perfect dress to do what ride in the jitney I think that it’s elevated house coats are important and she looked appropriate to meet Jenna Bush Hager at Meryl’s house I guess.

 

Louis Virtel Oh my god, wait Oh my god.

 

Kyle Buchanan Oh wait, let’s talk about that.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Cameo-Pallooza.

 

Louis Virtel Journalism Summit at Miranda’s.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Cara Swisher

 

Kyle Buchanan And also why is Miranda introducing herself or introducing Andy to these people right seems like such a non-Miranda thing to do.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I mean, it’s an A to A minus B from the first one.

 

Kyle Buchanan Yeah, but throw Andy in and let her swim.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, I mean I think that they were having a sharp eye on scenes that existed in the first movie that we want to see again. And it is supposed to be like, okay, so Andy got the interview, she now gets the keys to the backyard, I guess was the point of it. But yeah, it just, you can feel the casting emails being sent out of, like, who’s a veil for? Uh… Party where there’s a lingering shot of a law roach verses uh… Backyard in long island and like that part is fine as you just you’re looking for the candy and make there was not there is a lot of um… See we chris from traders as in this film there was nothing ton of candy

 

Kyle Buchanan Okay, but the cameo we must talk about is Lady Gaga.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, yes.

 

Kyle Buchanan Because Gaga comes into this film, like she is like, whatever you’re writing for me, I’m going to do a legit dramatic scene with Meryl Streep. This might be my only thought. Meryll is coming to the scene like, this is another scene in our comedy. You don’t have to go as hard as this. But Gaga’s like, no, this is dramatic. I am bringing like personal motivation. I’ve written a whole backstory. I’m a panther and that’s, you know, she’s doing her Gaga thing. And it’s so intense the way that she is tackling the scene where she’s trying to convey like realms more than needs to be conveyed. Though I kind of lived for it. It reminded me of, did you ever see the movie The Laundromat? Oh yeah, Sharon Stone. Yeah, Sharon stone has a scene with Meryl in that and Meryls just kind of treating it like any other scene and Sharon Stone is like, I’m going to blow you off the screen Meryll Streep. And she does, she’s sort of out acts her but in a scene where you kind of didn’t need to.

 

Louis Virtel Well, it’s also, it has the vibe to me of they didn’t quite know if they were going to get Lady Gaga. So they wrote a scene that could be pulled right out of the movie. Like they have this like fight in where Miranda is supposed to be acting imperious but in that point in the movie she’s like down bad so it makes no sense. And then we get like the runway sequence where Lady Gaga performs a song that is better than the one with Doechii I think. Oh really? And not that not not that that’s even possible. I miss you.

 

Kyle Buchanan I’m issuing a review to your keep it from last week. I really do think I do think that runway has aged well for me I heard it on the dance floor on Saturday, and it was fun and everybody was singing it.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey That’s what I told you! I told it is for brain rot at 1 a.m. And it works for that time!

 

Kyle Buchanan It’s for Gay Guy Music Video Night!

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Exactly. But I mean, speaking of Stephanie Germanotta, I do feel like there is a rumor that she and Anna at one point had a little bit of tension. And so it’s like rooted in that.

 

Louis Virtel Oh, your reference.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, but it did feel, insert Pop Diva here, Dula Peep would have been amazing in it, but I cannot remember her performance in the movie. And I think that like, that’s frustrating. But also that I think is a function of some of David Frankel’s directorial choices. All of the fun and the camp and the froth was so quickly cut over and it wasn’t, We were not allowed to luxuriate in it. We didn’t really get to see the fashion you know like yeah it’s not really a fashion no like meryl is pumping it into whatever that fashion show is she put a lot of one of her new hips into it as she was walking in but we don’t get to really see what she’s serving and he has a cerulean coat that I’ve been trying to find and I can’t find it anywhere you want both and I get it like let’s we are in a time where we cannot not acknowledge what’s going on around us and the last film happened pre-recession when Conde mass was still printing money. It’s a different situation, but. If we’re, I come to this place for magic, bitch, like show me the magic.

 

Louis Virtel No, I do have to say it’s like I kind of appreciate how journalistically real the movie was in a way, but at the same time, I also didn’t ask for that. I didn’t. So it’s sort of like I can appreciate it to a point. But it’s I don’t I didn’t need like a dramaturg writing like the journalistic story of 2026 in order for me to see the Devil Wears Prada 2.

 

Kyle Buchanan But also with the costumes we did not have the original costume designer back Patricia field did not come back She was replaced by Molly Rogers who also replaced her on “And Just Like That” and the thing about real All about is she will give you craziness But those outfits will be striking and memorable the vogue montage from the original like everything single thing She wears is incredible, and I just don’t think we had that here Although I did kind of like Miranda’s tassel dress, tassle coat.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Well, you look at what you wear right now, you’re a zipper palooza right now.

 

Kyle Buchanan And I was going up for Teyana earlier, you know I like a shimmy situation.

 

Louis Virtel It’s giving me the Elizabeth Hurley paper clippy thing.

 

Kyle Buchanan That’s what I’m going for, obviously.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey If the metric is. If they’re ready to wear. If the metrics. If the metric is clothing, you can do the Charleston in and make motion, totally. But I did not come to this movie for verisimilitude, I came for it for an escape.

 

Louis Virtel And also flair. The original has more flair than this movie, you know.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah

 

Louis Virtel But again seven out of ten for me, what would you give it?

 

Kyle Buchanan Oh gosh, I was really disappointed walking out of this movie, I have to say. But I’m trying to focus on the things that I loved about it and that Emily Blunt performance.

 

Louis Virtel And it really crescendos the final scene with her and Anne is also so great.

 

Kyle Buchanan Yeah, that’s cute. And honestly, I do think that a lot of the goodwill that people have is they just want to check back in with these characters and the moments that you leave them on, like everybody comes up to Anne at the end and it’s like, here’s what I love about you and here’s, what our future should be. She has a good moment with Stanley Tucci. She has good moment with Emily Blunt. She has fine moment with Miranda. And I feel like if you just end things well, if you land the plane, then people are happy. Totally, yes. But I wanted the journey there to be more interesting.

 

Louis Virtel It must be said, though, I do think Stanley Tucci is a disappointment in this movie. He always seemed slow on the uptake to me. It felt like we could have gotten cleaner takes from him, like sharper takes like, like every like, kind of like withering line he says really is out there withering, like I’m like, I’m like leaning in to hear it kind of.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey I will say, though, that Nigel and Andy’s relationship is the thing that I felt most sentimental about watching it in real time. I think that, like, I did have questions about her, like renewed motivation to save Miranda. I think Miranda can save herself.

 

Kyle Buchanan Or is she saving Miranda or taking her down? That was a little confusing to me. You’re writing a tell-all at the same time? That felt like the relic of an earlier draft.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, I agree. I agree, yes.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey You knew Miranda would know about it too, which was like, I kept waiting for her to wink at it and it took it till the end. But something about their relationship with going to get their soup, Stanley and Hathaway, that did warm my cold, cold heart because I’ve had quite a few older gay men lead me to soup.

 

Louis Virtel That said, something about him is also a little abusive, because we find out at the end of the movie basically that he got her this job. He staged it to make it seem like he didn’t arrange it. But then also, he’s like a bastard to her. He’ll say things like, oh, you just want validation from Miranda. It’s like, she wants to know how to do this fucking bizarro job she just got hired for.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey But that’s a that’s just a critique of every millennial because they’re still mad and that they gave us Participation trophies a thousand years ago. And so someone had to wink at it I didn’t have a problem with that because that’s the truth of the matter. It’s like you she did not earn that job It’s a it’s a function of the document. That is the film Don’t ask for someone to pat you on your head. Those women don’t want to give it to you.

 

Louis Virtel I felt like that wasn’t what she was asked

 

Kyle Buchanan But you know, as I’m talking about the push-pull of the Andy Miranda relationship, I realize that I have the exact right person to ask this of. Rheeqrheeq, do you think that the Andy-Miranda relationship, and Devil Wears Prada 2 for that matter, is basically Hacks?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Um, I don’t think that Andy resents, uh, Miranda’s, like, distance. She thinks it’s something that she needs to earn her intimacy. So I think it’s very different. But I do think that when watching the movie, I kept thinking over and over again that that first movie conditioned a generation of young women to think that their older mean boss could treat them that way. And I am a survivor of that. And so, and you grow up and you… Yeah, you grow up and then you either decide, was she really a [Unrecognized] or did she have a bad day? And I think a lot of times they were horrible, but I don’t know, I have an emotional attachment to these actresses, so I had a good enough time.

 

Louis Virtel Before we move on, can I voice the one line from the original, I do not like. Oh! And it might be true to life, as in Anna Wintour may have said it, but when Miranda’s in the car with Andy and she says, oh please, everybody wants to be us, that is not what she would say. She would be so over, I don’t think she is obsessed with access and the prestige of the job. She’s fed up with impatience and so she’s gonna run this whole thing because she can do it. I don’t think it’s I’m enamored of all the glamor of being.

 

Kyle Buchanan I think that is a great line because she realizes her place at the top of the pecking order and wants to retain it. And I have to say, even though I did just sort of dig into this sequel, I do love the analogous scene in this one where she just talks about how much she loves to work. I felt like that was- Yeah, that I get. That was actually a real thing that made me think even more so, that we could have lifted out all of the female characters sort of. Relationships or whatever. Do we need to see Emily Blunt facetiming her ex? We didn’t. We need the Australian comedian. We barely needed Braunov. Because let’s just focus on the women and their relationship to work. That’s kind of the most interesting thing and kind of, the most revolutionary thing.

 

Louis Virtel Let the river run. You know what I’m saying? Working girls.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Um, okay, wait, wait. Did you give a number?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Oh, um…can I just say yes? Yes. I think, no, um, I would give it probably a six and a half.

 

Louis Virtel Okay, yeah, we’re on the same page. Okay, very good. What did you think? Tell us why we were wrong. I’d be thrilled to hear it. We’ll be right back with Keep It.

 

Louis Virtel [AD]

 

Louis Virtel And we are back with our favorite segment of the episode, it’s Keep It. Kyle, what is really perturbing you.

 

Kyle Buchanan I am issuing my keep it to all of the artists who’ve been canceling their concerts lately. In the last two weeks, we have seen major concert tour cancelations from Post Malone, from Meghan Trainor, from the Pussycat Dolls. Now, was I going to go to those tours? No, but apparently neither was the rest of America. And I’m wondering why were some of these people doing arena tours to begin with? Like…

 

Louis Virtel It is confusing.

 

Kyle Buchanan Yeah. Who told the Pussycat Dolls that right now, in 2026, you’d be doing an arena tour? Like, yeah, be careful what you wish for because you might not get it. Like, Meghan Trainor right now? Like, did not make me look. So, concert tickets have gotten so ridiculous now and I think everybody is trying to like gold rush in and this is sort of dealing a reality check to a lot of these people. And while we’re on the concert, an additional keep it to MIA, who got booted from a tour this week, she was on Kid Cudi’s tour, when she inevitably launched into a monolog about how oppressed she is as a brown Republican voter, had the audience booing her. Like, first of all, who’s booking MIA in 2026 and not kind of expecting her to go off? Like, this was bound to happen, like Kid Cuddy, you should have known better. I saw MIA at Coachella a few weeks ago. Diplo brought her out for paper planes, and there was an initial surge of excitement despite her 5G paranoia, just because it’s like M.I.A. Singing paper planes. But she was not together. The paper planes were flying in all sorts of separate directions. Oh, sure, so no air traffic control. So she’s not on this tour. I don’t expect her at Coachella next year, but maybe Nicki Minaj can bring her out as a surprise guest at Turning Point USA.

 

Louis Virtel I wanna say about pussycat dolls, we do still get them at WeHo Pride. My grievance. There’s only three of them, three pussycat dogs, but I’m positive by the time we get to WeHo Pride, there will be two. I don’t know how or why.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, just limping towards that field. It is funny, like, not funny. The ticket pricing situation is oppressive. And so I do think it’s very interesting, people who are like, no, I definitely, me, Post Malone, can get a $700 ticket out of someone right now. Everyone, it’s tough nuggies out there. But my favorite part about all of this is the different, slightly absurd lies everyone is telling about why they’re canceling the tours. It’s like family values, creative differences. There’s, you know, the piano would not set on fire. Like it’s just so, that part I think is really funny because it’s like this fallacy of saving face to their fans, I guess you would call them. It feels very like Spirit Airways, like shutting it down. If you were already going on the flight, you should be stranded anyway.

 

Kyle Buchanan Although, then we must give props to the Pussycat Dolls, because their Instagram message did start with, after taking an honest look.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Ha ha ha!

 

Kyle Buchanan To be fair.

 

Louis Virtel Picture Pussycat’s taking an honest look. Strong image, strong image. Strong image.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Well like yeah, weren’t these, like this is, is this the first try they’ve had to do this tour since they were gonna do it before COVID?

 

Louis Virtel I believe so, yeah.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey So it took them six years to pull it together everybody had to you know get out of morongo i’m guessing that was it

 

Kyle Buchanan Nicole Scherzinger was busy on Broadway, I guess, but I don’t know that that’s the sort of thing that supports a Pussycat Dolls tour. Yeah, no, it’s great.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey No, it’s not. They do have.

 

Kyle Buchanan They do have eight songs.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, and you know, it’s not, you know Meg as the emcee in La Rouge, like it wasn’t, I don’t know how many Pussycat Doll fans were going to set that boulevard and then we’re going to show back up at M&T Bitcoin arena. But like it is, yes, they use the word honest, which I appreciate from the dolls.

 

Louis Virtel Rheeqrheeq, what is your keep at this week?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey My keep it is to people who are still intent on like yucking yums. Paul Kelly was on the red carpet at Met Gala. If you don’t know who Paul Kelly is, that makes sense. He played JFK Junior in love story. Yeah. So one.

 

Louis Virtel A name, by the way, I cannot retain.

 

Louis Virtel His name is Paul Kelly.

 

Kyle Buchanan Is it Paul Anthony Kelly?

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Kyle Buchanan It doesn’t matter if it is, by the way.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey He thinks he deserves a three namer? Paul A. Kelly was on the red carpet for the Met Gala yesterday in the wake of Ryan Murphy’s sponsored trauma on the internet. And he was asked, as she is one of the chairs of the event, if he was excited that Beyonce was there, he nodded, sure. And then when asked what his favorite Beyonce song was, he just like disgustingly nodded. I don’t know. I’m a metalhead. Now look, I am not one of these people who are like, you need to love everything. Everyone can enjoy. The auditory pleasures of their own desire. But my issue is that you don’t have to be dismissive. It’s not chic to say, I don’t like that girl. There are a lot of very popular women I don’t listen to every day. She is the chair of the event. It’s just be polite. It’s okay to be like, oh, I dunno, whatever makes me dance. I know that you were plucked from a, I think, static VHS tape that they had to find to cast that part, and you were the right shape, I guess but like I don’t know, everything is so hard. Everything is so, like just, maybe just have a little enthusiasm or just appreciate that other people love other things. It was just an unnecessary L and it’s already been clipped to hell. Like, and if he didn’t sense that, I mean, some people are not media trained, but if he doesn’t sense that that was coming, it was the first, the only thing you can find at the top of the feed immediately after.

 

Louis Virtel Let me be clear though, like, we’ve all walked into a target before, we’ve all heard of Beyonce.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey And that’s the thing.

 

Louis Virtel I’m sorry. Even if you went to Destiny’s Child.

 

Kyle Buchanan But also like just do what Tom Cruise does when they ask him what his favorite movie is and say all of them.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, it’s so easy, but it’s just like, there was, I didn’t like his tone and I took it personally because it’s like, there are plenty of things that people, you’re not incredibly versed on, but you can be gracious about it. You’re already at, I don’t know, boobodypalooza, like just lean into it and like appreciate that that is someone that a lot of people really enjoy.

 

Louis Virtel Literally, like he could have used most of the same words and still not felt like ick.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Yeah, and it’s like I just hate the like sniff of I am too masculine or I am too uninvolved to like be okay with someone’s like popular choice. Yeah, it like it you don’t impress me much at all. Oh, I miss her.

 

Kyle Buchanan I know…where is she?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey She was in Vegas last year, that was crazy! That was crazy.

 

Louis Virtel Where she will remain, I’m sure. I say that affectionately. My keep it this week is, normally if I’m saying keep it to somebody releasing an album, I’m staying keep it to the album, but I’m not. Mine is to Casey Musgraves, who has a new album this week, Middle of Nowhere. I will call it the third in her Zoloft trilogy. Because she is very, there’s an authenticity to what she is doing. And a lot of the music is good. This is my favorite of her past three albums. But there is still. A very lingering sadness to everything she writes. And when she had the come up, the Renaissance, with the Golden Hour album, that also is a melancholy album, but there also was a lot of wick going on, a lot, even some danceable moments on that album. I am, my keep it goes to her, because I am sick of wondering if this woman is okay. The music is almost so authentic, I feel like I’m still in the brain space of somebody getting over a terrible divorce, which, okay, great, But man, like, we’re like still low on levity, and I want the best for this girl. Speaking of amazing MacGowell looks, one of the few people during the camp year to really nail it with that Barbie look. And I just love her in general, somebody who has that kind of Sabrina Carpenter wink wink vibe, but also like serious songwriter vibe too, so she’s sort of as like light and fluffy or as serious as you want to take her.

 

Kyle Buchanan Have you seen her cover of Kill Bill by SZA?

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Kyle Buchanan I mean, it’s a beautiful voice, but she’s not playing into like the fun and wit and craziness of that song at all. Yeah.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey She has a she has a classic like opera like effect sometimes and I think that it has buried that sort of whimsical Barbie brought out I want to say brought out like all-stars four or five winners immediately after they won like yeah There is something in there that has a vibrancy there that it’s not always forward Well, all I’ve really heard about the album so far is she did is it divorces and horses with Miranda Lambert.

 

Louis Virtel With Miranda Lambert. Yes, they’ve sort of mended fences to put it in country slang. And I guess they had like a very serious dude that Casey Musgraves herself has acknowledged. Horses and Divorces is a kind of fun song, but again, it’s still like, if this album still feels a little waterlogged and like bogged down, like I’m missing like the follow your arrow thing that she had once upon a time that had a lot of like, I guess the word is pluck to it.

 

Kyle Buchanan She’s kind of giving Taylor Sheridan spin-off at this point. They do sort of meld together. Yeah.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Okay, but if she showed up on the Madison, I will watch it. Oh, God, I could have watched that show, but I don’t know. I mean, I, I Casey has a effervescence. You’re totally right. And like, you want to see that up there. You want to see the wig high and the spirit higher.

 

Louis Virtel And the woman she’s the woman who says when I say ye you say ha and then when they did it the wrong time She goes I didn’t fucking say ye like that’s the vibe. Yeah

 

Kyle Buchanan Bring that back.

 

Louis Virtel Also, yeah, Madonna world of harassing.

 

Kyle Buchanan Crowd. I can’t wait for her plaintiff cover of Runway by Gaga and Dochi.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey Summer is, look, I am a child of summer. Summer is approaching. We all want the music to feel like a beautiful drive. And right now, it is a beautiful coma. I can understand that.

 

Louis Virtel And by the way, she has a number of great covers. She did, she’s on a version of Waves with Miguel. That’s one of my favorite vocals of her and her version of Neon Moon by Brooks and Dunn. Picture me touting the works of Brooks and Dunn and listen to me now.

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey The way you pulled that out of a Best Week Ever episode, that was so amazing!

 

Louis Virtel Uhhh. My peers. Thank you for being here today.

 

Louis Virtel Kyle, if I’m looking for you on the internet, where would I find you?

 

Kyle Buchanan You’ll find me at the New York Times and you’ll find me tweeting from Cannes over the next few weeks.

 

Louis Virtel I cannot wait to read it. You better be clapping your ass off. You better better be like Vanna White clapping up there.

 

Kyle Buchanan I will, and I’ll be doing it defiantly thinking of you the whole time.

 

Louis Virtel Okay, good. Tears streaming down your face. Rheeqrheeq, where can we find you?

 

Rheeqrheeq Chainey At ReSquared, this is always fun and incredibly stupid.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, that’s what we’re going for, finally nailed it. And we thank you for joining us. Tell us what you thought of everything. We actually talked about every pop culture topic today. So we exhausted you. Once you wake up, tell us what do you think. We’ll see you next week on Keep It. Keep It is a Crooked Media production. Our show is produced by Caroline Reston, Kendra James, Lindsay Gomez, and me, Louis Virtel. Our team includes Matt DeGroot, Rachel Gaewski, Delon Villanueva, Claudia Sheng, Mia Kellman, Jay Banks, Charlotte Landes, and Jordan Cantor. Our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.