Judy Blume, Rachel McAdams & Are You There, God? It's Me Margaret! Plus Disney V. Florida

1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,400 In this episode of Pop Culture Weekly, Dominic Patton, senior editor of Deadline Hollywood 2 00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:10,600 comes on to talk about what the fuck is going on with Disney and Florida and Rachel 3 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:15,200 Mick Adams and the cast of "Are You There, God, It's Me, Margaret, Including Judy, Mother 4 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:17,800 Effendale, Let's Go!" 5 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:22,440 Welcome to Pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon from My Heart Radio. 6 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:28,800 Your Pop Culture News, Views, Reviews and Celebrity Interviews on all the movies, TV, 7 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:31,960 Music and Pop Culture You Crave Weekly. 8 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:35,480 Here's Kyle McMahon. 9 00:00:35,480 --> 00:00:38,080 Welcome to Pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon. 10 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:42,640 I of course am Kyle McMahon and we have an awesome show this week. 11 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:48,120 I'm really excited because we have interviews with Judy Bloom herself and the cast of "Are 12 00:00:48,120 --> 00:00:54,680 You There, God, It's Me, Margaret" and I have very special guest, Dominic Patton, senior 13 00:00:54,680 --> 00:01:00,240 editor at Deadline Hollywood. 14 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:02,040 Oh my God, Kyle, thank you so much for having me. 15 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:07,320 Of course, it is a pleasure and I love when I get to talk to other people in the industry 16 00:01:07,320 --> 00:01:14,000 about, especially about cool things that are, or I guess, sometimes not cool things that 17 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:15,760 are going on. 18 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:17,560 Give me a little bit if you don't mind. 19 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:21,760 What do you do as senior editor at Deadline Hollywood? 20 00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:25,360 Well, I have to be honest without trying to blow my own trumpet too hard, it's kind of 21 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:26,360 what I don't do. 22 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:31,760 I've been at Deadline now for about 11 years when Nikki Fink or not long after she first 23 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:38,680 started it and the way the site has evolved and has become the most powerful trade publication 24 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:42,680 in the industry and one of the most recognized, of course. 25 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:48,600 What I do is I'm in a really lucky position and I often compare myself to kind of like, 26 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:50,880 I'm a floater in a sense. 27 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:55,560 I guess in a way that works out best for me because what I'm able to do is take my background 28 00:01:55,560 --> 00:02:01,200 as a political reporter, as a music reporter, as a TV host and the TV producer and all these 29 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:02,200 other things. 30 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:06,720 I'm able to bring all that and take some of my own skills in terms of our legal coverage 31 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:10,840 in terms of our political coverage, in terms of our labor coverage, in terms of our business 32 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:15,040 and executive coverage because the fact of the matter is that's why they call it show 33 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:16,840 business and not show friends. 34 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:23,000 And I think that a lot of that is I'm able to bring that together and kind of take a full 35 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:25,560 approach to the kind of stories we do. 36 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:31,520 Deadline is a multi-headed beast and led by Mike Fleming and Nelly and Riva, our co-editors 37 00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:36,280 and chief, we've developed ways in which we are not only seen as the best and the most 38 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:40,120 reliable in the industry, but in many ways the most innovative. 39 00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:44,800 We try to take approaches at stories that look at the, that appreciate the intelligence 40 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:48,760 of our readership, appreciate the curiosity of our readership and remind ourselves 41 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:54,880 always that our core readership is really those 25,000 people who are really the, the, the, 42 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:58,840 the, the, the, you know, the deciders in the entertainment industry and the media industry. 43 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:01,000 And, you know, we've been pretty good at it. 44 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:07,280 Yeah, yeah, I'd say I was talking to last episode that, because somebody asked me, you 45 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:08,880 know, where do you get your news? 46 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:13,400 And I said, you know, friends in the industry and press releases, as you know, we get eight 47 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:17,480 billion of them a day and, you know, all kinds of different sources. 48 00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:23,640 One of my go to sources multiple times throughout the day is deadline.com. 49 00:03:23,640 --> 00:03:30,360 I mean, it is breaking news for the industry and it's 24/7. 50 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:36,600 If something's breaking, deadline is on it with great in depth reporting and you know, it's 51 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:42,320 just it is for me and for, you know, everybody in this industry, an industry Bible. 52 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:45,440 God, I mean, I'll put my hand on that Bible, pal. 53 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:46,800 You don't have a problem with that for me. 54 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:51,880 Yeah, but we really appreciate that because you know, I mean, the thing is news is about flow 55 00:03:51,880 --> 00:03:52,880 nowadays. 56 00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:55,840 It's, you know, back in the day when you pick up the newspaper in the morning and read 57 00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:59,080 about what happened yesterday or even look on cable news and what have you, you know, what's 58 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:04,680 remarkable in the digital era is the time lags between things happening and between things 59 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:09,000 being reported and social media is obviously huge a part of this as it is for our coverage. 60 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:12,800 Anyways, you know, that time lag is greatly shortened and compressed now. 61 00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:18,240 So we're, you know, for us, it's not about being first, though first is great. 62 00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:24,320 It's about being best and it's about making sure that our readers get reliable insight, 63 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:28,520 insightful information on what is really happening on our industry. 64 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:31,080 So that might be anything from, you know, company layoffs. 65 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:35,080 We can actually get very specific and get quite granular about where that's happening 66 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:39,200 to hires, to pilots, to new things, to deals and all that kind of stuff. 67 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:43,120 And then all the other things that put our industry together from Wall Street, the main 68 00:04:43,120 --> 00:04:47,200 street to all the lawyers on the 35th floor of their skyscrapers. 69 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:51,120 I mean, that's where that's where the media industry really gets made. 70 00:04:51,120 --> 00:04:55,080 That's where a lot of what happens really goes down and we make sure to have a spotlight 71 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:56,560 on it each and every day. 72 00:04:56,560 --> 00:04:57,560 Absolutely. 73 00:04:57,560 --> 00:04:58,560 And it's done so well. 74 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:04,000 It's, I mean, it was what 2006 that would, that's one deadline officially started. 75 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,000 Yeah, 2006, 2007. 76 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:10,840 I mean, Nikki Fink started it kind of as a, it was almost like a, a byproduct of a column 77 00:05:10,840 --> 00:05:15,200 she had in one of the LA freebie newspapers. 78 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:20,200 But you know, she bought a website because, you know, it was like 10 bucks in 2006 or whatever. 79 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:21,360 And just started that off. 80 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:25,760 And then as, as she got, you know, Penske media got involved and then we got more staff 81 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:26,760 and not too long afterwards. 82 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:28,800 I and a couple other people came on. 83 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:31,840 You know, we were a little kind of hard pirate crew of about six for a while. 84 00:05:31,840 --> 00:05:35,280 And now we've expanded and expanded and expanded and we have international teams. 85 00:05:35,280 --> 00:05:37,920 We have, you know, we're by coastal, obviously. 86 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:40,080 You know, deadlines reach as far. 87 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:45,280 And the great thing is in digital media, you can always keep the conversation going. 88 00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:51,720 And as since digital media is in some ways, it is the step sister, step brother of radio. 89 00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:53,880 Because the conversation never has to stop. 90 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:55,600 It only stops if you want it to. 91 00:05:55,600 --> 00:05:59,120 And as you know, Kyle, in our business, that conversation never stops. 92 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:00,120 Right. 93 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:01,120 Yes. 94 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:06,320 And the one that is that breaking news, I love it. 95 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:07,480 Well, we appreciate that. 96 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:08,800 We appreciate that, my friend. 97 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:09,800 Of course. 98 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:14,640 So today I have later, I'll be talking with Judy Bloom. 99 00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:15,840 We'll be presenting those interviews. 100 00:06:15,840 --> 00:06:18,920 Judy Bloom, Rachel McAdams, the cast of, are you there? 101 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:19,920 God, it's me, Margaret. 102 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:24,480 But I thought what was interesting, one of the things that I said to Judy Bloom is that 103 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:32,840 I love 50 years later that this is now becoming a film because, you know, what I had said, 104 00:06:32,840 --> 00:06:39,320 there was much harder to ban a film, you know, for a local government to ban a film than 105 00:06:39,320 --> 00:06:45,320 it is a book because, you know, her book, many, many of her books, and in fact, many books 106 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:49,680 in America today for some reason are getting banned. 107 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:55,900 And then you, you know, that brings us to the broader point of this week today, in fact, 108 00:06:55,900 --> 00:06:58,200 depending on, you know, when they're listening. 109 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:04,680 Disney is suing Governor Ron DeSantis in, you know, the governor of Florida. 110 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:07,880 Give me that info, what you know so far. 111 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:13,960 Well, look, I mean, what's going on in Florida has been a long brewing situation now between 112 00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:19,640 Disney and the Sunshine State governor who clearly has presidential ambitions. 113 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:23,600 Whether that was successful or not, I mean, I can do math and the polls don't show they're 114 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:29,720 going to be, but he feels like he's got himself, he feels like he's got himself a pretty steady 115 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:30,720 target. 116 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:37,360 He goes after Disney for basically this all started last year. 117 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:41,240 When Bob Schaepack was the head of Disney, but not Bob Eiger who used to be and is now 118 00:07:41,240 --> 00:07:46,120 back, Bob Schaepack is, Bob Schaepack pretty conservative guy, you know, pretty conservative. 119 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:52,440 And Ron Santos and the legislature in Florida, which is entirely Republican control, basically 120 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:55,560 brought in a law that's called the Don't Say the Game Law. 121 00:07:55,560 --> 00:08:00,640 And it had to do with ways in which discussions of gender and identity could be discussed in 122 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:04,640 the elementary school system and now kind of going up into other levels of education in 123 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:05,760 the state. 124 00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:10,640 And a lot of people, and in my opinion, incredibly rightly so, looked at this and said, well, 125 00:08:10,640 --> 00:08:15,600 a, it's a blatant form of discrimination, b, it's a blatant form of political pandering 126 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:20,440 to the mega base and see, it's just wrong on a moral level. 127 00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:24,640 And Disney, which has had, you know, they had the Disney pride parades and days and has a 128 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:29,320 very, has had a very, I would say, organic and holistic attitude towards the gay and lesbian 129 00:08:29,320 --> 00:08:33,960 community for a number of years and one in which they are perfectly aware that members of 130 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:37,240 that community are paying customers of theirs. 131 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:39,200 And you know, as they say, the customer is always right. 132 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:43,760 So you want to make sure that you don't lose money in doing, in doing these things. 133 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:47,200 Disney were oddly silent about this law. 134 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:52,720 And a number of people within Disney, as we wrote about it at the time, started to protest 135 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:56,440 with Mr. Shepack and some of his high command at the time. 136 00:08:56,440 --> 00:09:00,600 And then what led to what was a series of basically political pratfalls with Disney kind 137 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:05,240 of wrapping themselves in different contortions and proportions to say, well, we're against this, 138 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:06,240 but we didn't want to bring it up. 139 00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:08,760 And now we are going to bring it up and so on and so on. 140 00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:12,120 And De Santos had a field day with this because this was a corporate face plan. 141 00:09:12,120 --> 00:09:18,240 So he knocked them around like a cat with a mouse or with a ball of kitty, sort of catnik. 142 00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:19,400 It was good for him. 143 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:20,720 It was great for him. 144 00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:23,440 And then things changed a little bit in Disney. 145 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:24,440 And Bob Iger came back. 146 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:27,240 And Bob Iger, smooth operator. 147 00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:30,160 And that's just because I love to always quote a shut-down song if I can. 148 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:37,400 So he comes in suddenly, Ron De Santos's bully tactics, but Iger pushes back a little 149 00:09:37,400 --> 00:09:38,400 bit. 150 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:42,760 And then he comes back on De Santos, sort of kind of trying to wrap Disney in the flag of a 151 00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:47,640 woke corporation who aren't interested in true American values, et cetera, et cetera. 152 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:52,120 And De Santos, let's be clear, Disney is the biggest private employer in the state of 153 00:09:52,120 --> 00:09:53,120 Florida. 154 00:09:53,120 --> 00:09:59,680 And they have had a massive economic presence in around Orlando for decades since Disney 155 00:09:59,680 --> 00:10:03,920 World opened in about 50 years ago. 156 00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:13,140 So this led to a conflict. And that conflict really came down to what's known as the tax 157 00:10:13,140 --> 00:10:17,040 district jurisdiction of Disney, which for a variety of reasons. 158 00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:20,880 And I won't go into this because I know listeners love nothing more than talking about tax 159 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:21,880 codes. 160 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:27,120 Basically, Disney had a kind of carve out zone where they kind of were in charge of themselves. 161 00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:30,120 They were like their own little fiefdom within the state of Florida. 162 00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:34,840 And I know people who've driven in Bindelville, to Orlando, as you drive towards Orlando, Florida 163 00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:36,680 does not have state tax. 164 00:10:36,680 --> 00:10:39,960 So, thingo, roads aren't so great in many places. 165 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:41,720 But then you get close to Orlando. 166 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:42,720 Roads are very nice. 167 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:43,920 Boads are great. 168 00:10:43,920 --> 00:10:48,040 And a lot of the electrical outlets, not electrical outlets, the electrical towers suddenly 169 00:10:48,040 --> 00:10:51,320 take the shape of a certain mouse is silhouette. 170 00:10:51,320 --> 00:10:53,400 Very beautiful, great branding. 171 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:56,800 That's part of the control that Disney had had over this jurisdiction for a number of 172 00:10:56,800 --> 00:10:57,800 years. 173 00:10:57,800 --> 00:11:02,120 And he says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, your boards out. 174 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:04,360 My boards in were in control. 175 00:11:04,360 --> 00:11:07,640 Igar push his back a little bit and he's like, I don't care what you guys say. 176 00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:08,640 And that all happens. 177 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:11,720 And it looks like Rhonda Center, he's still living a knockout punched to Disney. 178 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:14,080 He's put the mouse down. 179 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:16,080 Not so fast. 180 00:11:16,080 --> 00:11:22,960 Then it turns out that in the dying hours of the previous boards regime, entirely following 181 00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:27,320 the laws that they were supposed to, with public notices in the Orlando Sentinel paper 182 00:11:27,320 --> 00:11:32,800 and notifications of this, that board had a meeting and that board made an agreement with 183 00:11:32,800 --> 00:11:38,680 Disney that essentially handed them all of the control back again. 184 00:11:38,680 --> 00:11:41,160 The Santos is new board. 185 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:45,200 Not saying they're the sharpest tax in the shed, but I'm not saying they're not. 186 00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:48,560 Didn't seem to know this had happened until weeks later. 187 00:11:48,560 --> 00:11:50,600 And clearly the governor did not. 188 00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:55,440 And suddenly, old mentors in now political rivals like Donald Trump, they're knocking 189 00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:59,960 Rhonda Santos around like a cat with a mouse is the guy who got outplayed and outfoxed by 190 00:11:59,960 --> 00:12:04,920 the Walt Disney Corporation major embarrassment for this like so called tough talk in governor 191 00:12:04,920 --> 00:12:09,440 who obviously as we said and everybody else knows has his eye on a White House bid in 192 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:13,040 2024 embarrassing for him. 193 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:17,280 And then this continues and Bob Igar himself on earnings calls and other presentations. 194 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:21,920 Let's talk about how he thinks that the governor Florida is anti business, which to 195 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:24,640 a Republican and it's like a scarlet letter. 196 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:29,040 And he has said that he thinks that it's anti free speech and that this is a silly way to 197 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:32,640 handle this and he's always open to having a meeting and talking to the governor. 198 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:37,840 But this is clearly not a way to conduct business with your biggest employer. 199 00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:43,960 Now, he also has said, hey, we're, by the way, we're not just sitting in Orlando. 200 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:47,560 We're going to invest billions of dollars more in the future. 201 00:12:47,560 --> 00:12:52,800 So we are, we are not only an employer, but we are an innovator within that region. 202 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:58,360 And listen, you go to Disney World and you see that for its animal kingdom that's Epcot, 203 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:00,600 it's rides, you see the whole deal. 204 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:01,960 It's the whole Shabbai. 205 00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:02,960 Right. 206 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:09,000 So the board, DeSanto's is like, this will not stand. 207 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:11,840 I will not let these people do this to me with their fancy ways. 208 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:13,440 I eat smarter than me. 209 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:14,440 Right. 210 00:13:14,440 --> 00:13:18,800 So the board suddenly come in and say, oh, that what happened before is null and boring 211 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:21,000 and they voted out. 212 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:26,560 And within minutes, Disney slapped DeSanto's in his board with a major lawsuit in federal 213 00:13:26,560 --> 00:13:27,560 court. 214 00:13:27,560 --> 00:13:32,080 And this major lawsuit is basically saying the Florida, the governor of Florida and his 215 00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:33,600 board are anti free speech. 216 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:38,160 They're anti business and they are seeking to retaliate against a private company for 217 00:13:38,160 --> 00:13:42,760 disagreeing with his political point of view, which by the way is a common sentiment in 218 00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:45,760 the state of Florida right now, just as Judy Bloom. 219 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:53,120 If you don't buy into platform DeSanto's or play with team DeSanto's, they come after you. 220 00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:54,760 That's the way he wants to run things. 221 00:13:54,760 --> 00:13:59,440 He wants to be as big a bully as Donald Trump, but show he's a little smarter because for 222 00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:03,320 all his folks in regular ways, he went to Harvard. 223 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:06,760 So by close to the elite governor of San Jose, just saying. 224 00:14:06,760 --> 00:14:07,760 Yeah. 225 00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:08,800 So he comes in with that. 226 00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:10,600 They nail him with this lawsuit. 227 00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:11,600 And they're flummox. 228 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:14,480 You can tell they're totally flummoxed by this yet again. 229 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,520 They put out a release of like, this is not, you know, you can't defy the will of the 230 00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:18,520 voters of Florida. 231 00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:19,520 It's like, but we're not right. 232 00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:20,520 We're not the voters of Florida. 233 00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:22,520 The Florida never voted on this. 234 00:14:22,520 --> 00:14:23,520 Exactly. 235 00:14:23,520 --> 00:14:28,640 But in fast and loose with the laws and the fact that you have a Republican dominated legislature. 236 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:32,160 So to show down, it's a big showdown that's going to happen. 237 00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:34,160 Disney are looking to have a judge. 238 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:37,720 You give them a judicial ruling that says this was retaliation. 239 00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:40,680 This is unconstitutional and it will not stand. 240 00:14:40,680 --> 00:14:44,720 And I'm sure the state of Florida will be filing papers of their own fairly soon to fight 241 00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:45,800 back against it. 242 00:14:45,800 --> 00:14:50,320 But this is yet another what we're seeing of a new type of culture war that's happening 243 00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:51,320 in America. 244 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:52,320 And it's a pop culture war. 245 00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:56,200 Now, maybe all culture wars have been pop culture wars to some degree because, you know, 246 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:58,960 you clearly don't want to get into culture war about something no one cares about. 247 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:02,680 You want to talk about it's called pop culture because it's popular. 248 00:15:02,680 --> 00:15:08,720 And in that sense, did I think a number of people saw Disney as a pretty easy target? 249 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:13,540 But they didn't realize, of course, or forgot, is the Walt Disney company has been a major 250 00:15:13,540 --> 00:15:15,960 political force for a number of years. 251 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:21,960 It is well established in both democratic and Republican circles. 252 00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:23,760 And they know how to play hardball. 253 00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:27,200 Just ask, you know, just ask unions, just ask people who they're been letting go in the 254 00:15:27,200 --> 00:15:28,200 past few weeks. 255 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:31,360 They know how to play hardball when they need to get their stock up, when they need to 256 00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:32,760 get themselves in order. 257 00:15:32,760 --> 00:15:33,960 And clearly that happened. 258 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:38,680 And let's remember, back in the middle of the pandemic, Disney got into a lot of 259 00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:44,480 a little bit of a scuffle with California governor Newsom because the laws in California 260 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:47,840 and such lockdowns, the theme parks were basically closed. 261 00:15:47,840 --> 00:15:50,160 And the theme parks are a major revenue source for Disney. 262 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:52,360 There are huge revenue source for them. 263 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:53,360 And that was really hurting them. 264 00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:56,760 And they were, they felt they were trying to bend over backwards to meet him and they felt 265 00:15:56,760 --> 00:15:59,920 the state kept moving the goal post and making it harder and harder. 266 00:15:59,920 --> 00:16:03,720 And it became a real battle, you know, and this is like, you don't expect that. 267 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:04,720 But that happened. 268 00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:09,920 Let's at least say it this way, Disney are an equal opportunist corporate survivor. 269 00:16:09,920 --> 00:16:15,400 Ron Santos has seemed to have put himself in some serious Mickey Mouse quicks sand. 270 00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:19,280 Or as we said in the story we did on this and on it on this, it looks like the house of 271 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:24,280 mouse took the white gloves off and they wanted to show we're not playing around. 272 00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:26,800 But I think that this, we're going to see a lot more of this. 273 00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:28,880 This is presidential politics. 274 00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:34,800 This is playing to the base of who your base are on the left right or the center. 275 00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:37,800 Though many people don't seem to play to the center for some reason in America because it 276 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:39,280 doesn't get you the headlines. 277 00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:40,280 Exactly. 278 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:43,200 But they, you know, you're going to see a lot more of this happening. 279 00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:47,360 As for this particular lawsuit, I would not be surprised if this escalates. 280 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:53,400 It escalates at a fairly quick pace for the American judicial system way up the top. 281 00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:54,400 Mm-hmm. 282 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:55,400 Yeah. 283 00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:56,400 And that's actually what I was going to ask you. 284 00:16:56,400 --> 00:17:03,480 Now, there is, and you can maybe speak to this, if I recall incorrectly, copyright law 285 00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:07,040 was actually changed because of the Disney Corporation. 286 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:08,040 Isn't that correct? 287 00:17:08,040 --> 00:17:09,040 Oh, yeah. 288 00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:10,040 Hey. 289 00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:13,160 So Mickey Mouse should have been in the public domain a long, long time ago. 290 00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:17,720 You know, Disney, yet again, using their lobbyists and great political influence, had Mickey 291 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:20,560 Mouse's copyright status changed several times. 292 00:17:20,560 --> 00:17:26,040 Now, I feel like with the Republican-controlled House, House Representatives in Washington, 293 00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:32,080 Tennessee, and attempted another one, especially with the showdown with the Santos, is probably 294 00:17:32,080 --> 00:17:33,720 not going to happen. 295 00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:39,760 And it looks very likely that Mickey Mouse will go into the public domain sometime in 2024. 296 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:41,320 Winnie the Pooh already has. 297 00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:42,320 Right. 298 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:46,520 But that's not the Winnie the Pooh we know because it's interesting when we talk about copyright, 299 00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:49,120 which again, is as exciting as tax codes. 300 00:17:49,120 --> 00:17:51,520 That's very important, right? 301 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:54,200 When we talk about that, you have to talk about the specifics. 302 00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:58,520 We saw this in some of the lawsuits that Warner Brothers were in at one point with the estates 303 00:17:58,520 --> 00:18:01,840 of the Superman creators as well as a Batman creators. 304 00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:06,360 And we saw some of this with Marvel/Disney, because Disney owned Marvel. 305 00:18:06,360 --> 00:18:10,640 And the state of Jack Kirby, who was one of the co-creators of many of Marvel's biggest 306 00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:16,240 and most well known heroes and titles, went you create and what we know are different. 307 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:17,440 So I'll give you an example. 308 00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:22,440 The Mickey Mouse we know today with the bow tie and the white gloves and the suit and 309 00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:24,160 the little shoes and stuff like that. 310 00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:26,320 That's not the Mickey Mouse we're talking about. 311 00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:27,840 We're talking about the steam bill. 312 00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:28,840 We're talking about Willy, right? 313 00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:29,840 We're talking about Willy, Mickey Mouse. 314 00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:31,760 And that's a noticeable difference. 315 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:35,360 The same thing with Winnie the Pooh and Winnie the Pooh went into the public domain. 316 00:18:35,360 --> 00:18:39,280 We're not talking to Winnie the Pooh with the red sweater because that Winnie the Pooh 317 00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:41,200 wasn't the Winnie the Pooh of the books. 318 00:18:41,200 --> 00:18:43,200 Winnie the Pooh of the books didn't have any clothing on. 319 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:45,000 It was full bear, if you know what I mean. 320 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:47,480 So that's a little different, right? 321 00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:50,440 And so, you know, same thing when there was some of these battles over Superman. 322 00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:54,120 Literally, there were arguments over, yeah, but the Superman you're talking about, 323 00:18:54,120 --> 00:18:58,600 doesn't fly because that didn't actually happen until like about a year after the after 324 00:18:58,600 --> 00:18:59,600 Superman was created. 325 00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:00,600 Right. 326 00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:02,920 He jumped over buildings a lot, but he didn't actually fly. 327 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:06,800 So there's a whole lot of that coming into play and that's always going to be contentious 328 00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:12,440 because of course, we now live in a digitally connected world if nothing else. 329 00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:18,360 So we rules that we had for copyright here in the United States. 330 00:19:18,360 --> 00:19:21,680 That was pretty much all these companies cared about for the most part, right? 331 00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:26,600 But now with the European Union with other jurisdictions and then you have streamers that 332 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:28,440 cross all those borders. 333 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:31,840 Suddenly, you're having different licensing agreements and different availability. 334 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:36,120 So for some of your listeners, if you know this, if you go just over the border to Canada, 335 00:19:36,120 --> 00:19:40,240 Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, wherever, and you put on Netflix, there's different 336 00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:43,040 stuff on Netflix in Canada than there is in America. 337 00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:45,120 And I'm not just talking Canadian content. 338 00:19:45,120 --> 00:19:49,280 There's like different agreements so they might have this action movie here, but not 339 00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:50,280 that action movie there. 340 00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:53,280 It's not necessarily Netflix originals, but stuff. 341 00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:54,280 They license. 342 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:57,200 That's again, how these licensing and copyright deals work. 343 00:19:57,200 --> 00:20:02,880 And that is going to become a major part of this because while Disney might be able to, 344 00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:06,640 though I doubt it, but might be able to find some way to extend the copyright for Mickey 345 00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:11,400 Mouse in America, it might not be go down so well in Brussels with the European Union 346 00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:16,000 where they have many things of reach public domain far quicker than they have on this side 347 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:17,000 of the Atlantic. 348 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:27,960 Yeah, and they are, as you perfectly showed, they are well versed in the legal system. 349 00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:36,920 And so this is a small mom and pop shop that doesn't have the experience to literally take 350 00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:39,040 a Florida governor on. 351 00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:41,480 They are, they're used to doing it. 352 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:42,480 We're telling a warning governor. 353 00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:43,480 Right. 354 00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:48,400 Well, because there are people who are going to paint this as democratic favoring Disney 355 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:49,680 taking on Republicans. 356 00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:55,160 And I say just ask Gavin Newsom two and a half years ago because he would tell you, democratic 357 00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:57,720 Disney took on a democratic governor in California. 358 00:20:57,720 --> 00:20:58,720 Right. 359 00:20:58,720 --> 00:20:59,720 Yeah. 360 00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:00,720 And that is a great point. 361 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:05,120 And it is something I myself, you know, forget as I'm speaking about it. 362 00:21:05,120 --> 00:21:12,120 They ultimately, you know, as most corporations do, are looking to protect themselves and their, 363 00:21:12,120 --> 00:21:15,560 their empire in their case. 364 00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:22,760 Do you think that this could spill over into other companies? 365 00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:34,360 And what I mean by that is, is this going to trigger, you know, other, let's say public 366 00:21:34,360 --> 00:21:40,040 figures, public representatives, government officials that are looking to kind of jump on 367 00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:46,800 this train in their own way with their own whatever anti-woke, you know, company they, they have 368 00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:47,800 a problem with. 369 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:53,240 Well, I mean, maybe, I mean, you know, I live now in the world where I believe anything is 370 00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:54,240 possible. 371 00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:55,240 Yeah. 372 00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:56,240 Yeah. 373 00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:58,600 But I don't think it's the same. 374 00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:03,240 I think, you know, I think the Walt Disney company occupies a very unique place in our 375 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:08,640 culture, both as a business and as a content provider and as an icon. 376 00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:16,240 You know, multi-generational in a way that almost no other company can say they are truly, right? 377 00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:17,760 And the reach of where they go. 378 00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:23,600 So there are the movies, there are the TV shows, there are the TV networks, there are the streamers, 379 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:28,760 there is ESPN, there's ESPN plus, there's these, there's Hulu, and then there's like, cruise 380 00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:29,760 ships. 381 00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:33,440 And then there's theme parks in France, in China, in America. 382 00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:37,640 So they have a place that I think no one truly has that kind of reach. 383 00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:43,080 You know, you look at Comcast, who own NBC Universal, who own NBC, who own Universal Studios, 384 00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:45,560 who you know, that kind of similar, but not the same. 385 00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:50,120 You have corporations and companies in China that have massive assets as well, but again, 386 00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:51,120 it's not the same. 387 00:22:51,120 --> 00:22:56,360 Like, you put Mickey Mouse on a t-shirt and walk down the street anywhere in the world. 388 00:22:56,360 --> 00:22:58,360 And people know who you're wearing on your t-shirt. 389 00:22:58,360 --> 00:23:02,960 It's like if you had a picture of Muhammad Ali or the Beatles or maybe Marilyn Monroe. 390 00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:05,480 Everybody knows who that is and who those people are. 391 00:23:05,480 --> 00:23:10,200 And I would say that in terms of picking a fight with Disney, the other thing of course is, 392 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:15,440 there's a very specific, as we talked about, a very specific jurisdictional element to this 393 00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:20,440 that Disney have in and around Orlando, Florida, that is very specific to who they are and 394 00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:22,640 very specific to where they run their company. 395 00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:23,640 Which has been a court. 396 00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:27,240 I'm sorry, which has been around for like that deal or whatever. 397 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:30,400 That deal was created like 15 or 15 years or something. 398 00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:31,400 Yeah. 399 00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:36,120 Basically, Walt came along and developed land of, really wasn't going anywhere. 400 00:23:36,120 --> 00:23:37,880 Is on Swarthland or something. 401 00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:43,920 He turned it into a massive profit machine both for himself and his company and the state 402 00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:44,920 of Florida. 403 00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:48,960 So I think onto that end, you have Disney in a very unique position. 404 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:52,400 People are always going to find someone if they want to jump on. 405 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:59,440 You know, back in the early 90s, it was Skipper Gore and trying to put censorship on records. 406 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:03,600 And what happened is they slapped on a parental advisory on records and a Stephen Tyler of 407 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:06,360 Erasmus once said, help to sell another million records. 408 00:24:06,360 --> 00:24:08,360 Like because people thought we were cooler than we are. 409 00:24:08,360 --> 00:24:10,480 You know, there's always going to be that. 410 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:15,320 You know, back in them, Jordan Heston, when he was head of the NRA, I believe, came out against 411 00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:21,360 IST and his body count band saying they wanted to kill cops and Warner Brothers records or 412 00:24:21,360 --> 00:24:24,040 Warner Brothers or other label that was owned by Warner Brothers. 413 00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:27,320 They got very, very nervous and they were, they tried to drop it and get out of it and all 414 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:28,320 sorts of stuff like that. 415 00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:31,560 Again, people will find any punching bag they want. 416 00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:35,320 Politicians on the other side of the political spectrum probably will take a swing and almost 417 00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:37,320 anything the Rupert Murdoch owns. 418 00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:43,320 But you're never going to have the kind of foil or enemy or foe that you can have in the 419 00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:44,880 Walt Disney corporation. 420 00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:48,320 And that's, it's just a different animal in all sense. 421 00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:51,120 Yeah, that's, that's a very good point. 422 00:24:51,120 --> 00:24:58,280 And, you know, I think what kind of scares me about it is it is very, it seems very, very 423 00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:02,960 personal here on the side of the governor. 424 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:08,360 And what I mean by that is, you know, he was, he's now making it that, oh, a corporation 425 00:25:08,360 --> 00:25:09,600 shouldn't be able to do this. 426 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:16,800 But the three and a half years prior of your term of that first term, it wasn't a problem 427 00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:17,880 at all. 428 00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:24,080 And now you're, you're kind of threatening with, oh, I might put a jail near, you know, 429 00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:30,280 right outside your hotel or I might raise hotel taxes or put a toll road going into Disney 430 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:39,120 that all seems very vindictive and personal, which is a bit scary from my end because it's 431 00:25:39,120 --> 00:25:46,320 very fascist, you know, I mean, I hate to say that, but it seems very, I mean, I think the 432 00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:51,440 people, I mean, I think to quote, you know, to quote myself from our Disney story, we all 433 00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:54,080 need to take the white gloves out about this. 434 00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:56,800 Like, you know, I don't think Bob Iger is wrong. 435 00:25:56,800 --> 00:26:02,840 When you have a governor or a state representative who is attacking a company in the way that 436 00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:06,280 that Ron Des Santos is attacking Disney, that is anti-business. 437 00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:09,960 You can, now you can paint that mouse anyway you want, but it's still going to have the same 438 00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:10,960 color on it. 439 00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:12,520 That color is not green. 440 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:15,000 It is a very distinctive, uh, mega red. 441 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:23,880 I don't think that I think their governor Des Santos is a little bit more small time than 442 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:29,240 he realizes, you know, he wants, he thinks this is the kind of thing that makes him a national 443 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:30,240 player. 444 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:34,200 He thinks this is the kind of thing that gets the base and the voters, especially primary 445 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,920 voters, really galvanized and activated. 446 00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:39,840 But man, you don't want to be going to war with someone. 447 00:26:39,840 --> 00:26:43,280 We're not only you're fighting Disney, but now Donald Trump's taken sweeps at you for 448 00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:44,280 being a chump. 449 00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:48,240 Like, that's like, that's the kiss of death in the Republican party, you know? 450 00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:51,800 Regardless of what you think about the former president and former celebrity apprentice 451 00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:55,760 host, when he, you know, one thing about Donald Trump, he knows how to go for the jugular. 452 00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:59,600 And Ron Des Santos, who thought he was a tough guy, I guess he kind of brought a knife to 453 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:04,040 a gunfight and didn't realize that Disney and some of his rivals, they're packing 454 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:05,040 heat. 455 00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:10,080 And so what happened here now is you find him in a defensive posture, which like maybe 456 00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:14,800 like, you know, a Wolverine or something, maybe lashes out defensively, but he's already 457 00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:17,640 got himself entangled in this thing. 458 00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:19,360 And you don't want to be entangled. 459 00:27:19,360 --> 00:27:21,360 You want to be proactive. 460 00:27:21,360 --> 00:27:22,360 You want to be the boss. 461 00:27:22,360 --> 00:27:25,160 You want to be the man who shows everyone who is boss. 462 00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:28,400 Now, I don't think that's that position, but I don't think that's a very winning position 463 00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:32,000 for things like, you know, you mentioned earlier, Judy Bloom and Judy Bloom. 464 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:36,760 By the way, is a resident of the state of Florida has her books banned in Florida. 465 00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,280 You know, we are seeing bookbanging happening all over the place. 466 00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:41,360 We are seeing in the state of Montana. 467 00:27:41,360 --> 00:27:42,360 TikTok is now banned. 468 00:27:42,360 --> 00:27:47,240 Now, TikTok is not no longer allowed on government employee phones, many states as well as the 469 00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:51,520 federal government are considering some sort of action because of beliefs and concerns that 470 00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:57,000 this, that this social media device is actually used as a spine device by the Chinese government, 471 00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:00,640 not that other social media don't try to listen in on you, even though they say they don't. 472 00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:04,320 And what have you, that's a very specific, these are national security issues and they're 473 00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:07,880 legitimate issues that need to be discussed by our leaders on the national level. 474 00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:14,840 But this is part of this discussion, you know, like, you know, it's, it's, if there's one thing, 475 00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:21,000 I say this with full reservation, there are out of 100, there are 98 things, including 476 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:28,000 racism, misogyny and a general, a general doofusness that I disagree with Donald Trump on. 477 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:34,640 But I will say one thing here about like, these are, these are legitimate discussions within 478 00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:38,920 the context of a culture within a context of taking this culture seriously. 479 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:41,160 Your show is called pop culture. 480 00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:43,760 I heart radio takes pop culture seriously. 481 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:46,120 Deadline Hollywood takes pop culture seriously. 482 00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:48,320 It is what keeps the lights on around here for us. 483 00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:52,560 And it's also the thing that is a topic of conversation from anyone from your grandmother, 484 00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:57,200 to your five year old and everyone in between on various levels, very shows, they like, 485 00:28:57,200 --> 00:28:59,160 bands, they like, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 486 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:00,560 So this is part of a national discourse. 487 00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:03,120 So you want to get a part of the national discourse. 488 00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:04,600 You jump into that river. 489 00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:08,680 The problem is is you can often find yourself without a paddle. 490 00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:11,040 My analogy is going up further here than I wanted it to. 491 00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:15,880 But I think you can find yourself in a situation where you're not in control of the direction 492 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:16,880 things are going. 493 00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:18,840 And I think that's what we're seeing with the Santos. 494 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:23,200 I think that's what we're seeing with book banning because what is happening is the backlash 495 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:27,800 that is expected in these situations from the left and progressives and perhaps the 496 00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:29,200 personal company being attacked. 497 00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:32,920 You're now seeing other people who are saying, well, that's not a Republican value. 498 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:34,960 That's not a conservative value. 499 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,760 That's not, we're a free speech, but like you can't say, well, we're for free speech, but 500 00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:43,040 only for that guy, you know, I'm for absolute free speech. 501 00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:46,600 Except I don't think you should stand up at a movie theater and scream fire when there's 502 00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:47,600 no fire. 503 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,040 I think free speech is an element of responsibility. 504 00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:54,000 I think the first amendment as a journalist is me great protection and gives me great solace 505 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,240 as a person who lives in this country. 506 00:29:57,240 --> 00:30:00,800 But I think we need to also understand there's degrees of responsibility about this. 507 00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:03,600 And I think what's happening for some of these politicians is they thought they had an 508 00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:04,600 easy mark. 509 00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:06,920 They thought they had someone is like, boom, punch out. 510 00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:09,040 I'm going to get all the applause from the chief seats. 511 00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:14,400 It turns out, unless you land a total knockout, you're not going to get that applause. 512 00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:15,400 Yeah. 513 00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:25,840 And his legislative losses with many other things in his term have been numerous, you know, 514 00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:31,640 from their own. So it does give me a little bit of hope that, you know, this, this may turn 515 00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:38,640 out okay and our, and I know it seems dramatic to say this, but our, you know, United States 516 00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:45,640 in, in this regard is safe because for me, it is a bigger issue. 517 00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:49,280 If there is a government that is able to say, I don't like you. 518 00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:55,400 I'm going to drive you out of the state or, you know, do whatever. 519 00:30:55,400 --> 00:31:05,680 But I can use tax payer dollars to negatively impact you, whether that's a person or a company. 520 00:31:05,680 --> 00:31:11,640 I think that is very threatening to what the US stands for. 521 00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:18,080 So I would even say this cop, I would take it, I would say, yep, agree. 522 00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:19,080 Very high-falutin, but I agree. 523 00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:20,560 I bring it down a bit. 524 00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:25,280 If you're taking, if you're the state of Florida and you're using tax payer dollars to fight 525 00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:30,960 Disney or to sue Disney, you are literally using the money that Disney gave you because 526 00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:34,160 they are such a big employer in that state. 527 00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:38,960 So it seems so, so ludicrously counterproductive. 528 00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:45,000 It seems that it misses the point and to be honest, at this point, and I've spoken to people 529 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:49,600 about this regularly, people are like, so how, what is this all about and why is he in a 530 00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:51,000 war with Disney? 531 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:52,000 Right. 532 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,680 What a Disney done, you know? 533 00:31:54,680 --> 00:32:02,000 How do you think, how long do you think that this could potentially take to resolve, you 534 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:03,920 know, this whole thing? 535 00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:08,000 I think a lot of that has to do with how well Governor DeSanto's doesn't repel with 536 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:09,000 him. 537 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:11,240 And he's flying into some key battleground states. 538 00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:13,440 He wants to get his name out there. 539 00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:14,440 He's a pretty stiff guy. 540 00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:18,200 He's obviously got hired some people to help him kind of loosen up a little bit and have 541 00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:21,960 a little bit more of a back slapping type of way about him. 542 00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:28,320 But he seems to be thin skinned and he doesn't seem to gain this out. 543 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:32,520 I'll just make a comparison, I think, spare is there's a difference between being a tactical 544 00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:35,520 thinker and being a strategic thinker. 545 00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:38,200 Actical thinker is you're going from A to B to C. Right. 546 00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:39,880 That's where you want to go to take it there. 547 00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:43,120 A strategic thinker is like, well, what's up with this whole ABC and alphabet thing and 548 00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:47,120 what does all this mean and how, what do I really, why am I wasting my time with 25 steps? 549 00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:49,960 Why should you take two steps and go from A to Z? 550 00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:53,920 You know, I always my time with the other stuff because my time's important. 551 00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:55,720 So I think that that's what we've hit here. 552 00:32:55,720 --> 00:33:00,200 I think DeSantis been very popular, fanning certain flames in the state of Florida. 553 00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:02,920 I remember this is a guy who barely got elected the first time. 554 00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:04,920 It's, yeah, Donald Trump got him over the line. 555 00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:10,640 That guy was like, it was like less than 20,000 votes got him over the Democratic competitor. 556 00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:13,240 But to win and take all system, you're the governor. 557 00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:16,600 But I think he thinks he's found a winning topic. 558 00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:22,040 And I think in a country where inflation is hitting people for the first time in decades, 559 00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:27,520 where there's still recovery from the pandemic, where there's a worry about divisions about 560 00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:31,520 the power of China, you know, obviously the war in Ukraine and what that could mean for 561 00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:33,440 a larger geopolitical system. 562 00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:36,520 And just like what's up with the schools and the roads, man, and where, like, where's 563 00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:37,520 that stuff being fixed? 564 00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:42,160 I don't think taking on Disney is going to really get too many people galvanized outside 565 00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:47,200 of very small bases of people who already support Ron DeSantis in the state of Florida. 566 00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:49,000 So what could happen? 567 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:53,480 A judge could say, a judge could give the judicial order to Disney want. 568 00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:55,200 Probably not going to happen so fast. 569 00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:59,760 This could escalate Florida Supreme Court, but escalate to the Supreme Court depending 570 00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:01,760 on how it goes. 571 00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:05,480 But I think eventually, you know, state of Florida has a lot of money. 572 00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:08,720 Walt Disney company have a lot of money. 573 00:34:08,720 --> 00:34:12,640 And they've done that, you know, if you want to get in the lawsuit, they'll grind you, man, 574 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:13,640 and they'll keep going. 575 00:34:13,640 --> 00:34:15,480 And, and this is a big thing. 576 00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:18,720 So it's not like, it's not like they're going to be like, yeah, you know, I'll be decided 577 00:34:18,720 --> 00:34:20,560 to settle this and fix it. 578 00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:23,800 No, they're, you know, they are going to stick to their guns on this one. 579 00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:27,480 And I think that it's going to be a long hard battle for the state of Florida and Governor 580 00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:28,680 DeSantis. 581 00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:32,440 And it might be a battle that might end up harming him in the larger battle that he hopes 582 00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:35,200 to be a winner in terms of presidential ambitions. 583 00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:36,200 Yeah, we will see. 584 00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:38,440 This is very, very interesting. 585 00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:45,520 I am, I'm on deadline.com all the time, jacking up for updates on what is going to happen next. 586 00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:47,720 So Dominic, where can we follow you? 587 00:34:47,720 --> 00:34:50,280 Well, of course, you can follow me on deadline.com. 588 00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:54,440 You can also follow my stories and those of my colleagues on deadline, social media platforms, 589 00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:57,240 both on Instagram and on Twitter and many others. 590 00:34:57,240 --> 00:34:58,240 Facebook at deadline. 591 00:34:58,240 --> 00:35:00,640 Pretty much common, not too hard to find. 592 00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:02,760 You can also follow me on Twitter. 593 00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:07,360 My Twitter account is at deadline Dominic, which you know is full of retweets mainly about 594 00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:11,040 soccer games and street art that I love, but also the occasional thing I write about so 595 00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:12,720 that that might be a good place to be. 596 00:35:12,720 --> 00:35:17,240 But the main place, as I said, you can follow us on deadline.com where you'll see all the 597 00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:20,880 breaking news you need to know about what's going on in the entertainment and media industries 598 00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:22,200 each and every day. 599 00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:23,200 Awesome. 600 00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:26,520 Thank you so much, Dominic, Patton, deadline, Hollywood. 601 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:29,000 I look forward to speaking with you again very soon. 602 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:30,000 Thank you, my friend. 603 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:31,000 I do too. 604 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:35,160 Make a break and then I am back with interviews. 605 00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:37,160 Dominic's awesome, isn't he? 606 00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:46,800 So next up, my interview with Judy Bloom, Rachel McAdams, the cast of, "Are you there, God?" 607 00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:53,400 It's me, Margaret, which is out in theaters today or now depending on when you're listening. 608 00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:54,880 All right, we're going to take a break. 609 00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:56,800 We'll be right back. 610 00:35:56,800 --> 00:36:01,280 All right, welcome back to Pop Culture weekly. 611 00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:05,640 So it is our interview time. 612 00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:08,120 I've got some awesome interviews. 613 00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:15,440 James L. Brooks, also known as Jim Brooks and Julie Anzel, who they are the producers behind. 614 00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:17,040 Are you there, God? 615 00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:18,040 It is me. 616 00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:19,040 It is me. 617 00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:20,040 Are you there, God? 618 00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:26,760 It's me, Margaret, which by the way is, if you have lived under Iraq for 50 years. 619 00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:34,520 This book is, geez, I would say one of the most well-known books of all time. 620 00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:36,840 It is multi-generational. 621 00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:44,880 And basically, Judy Bloom wrote this iconic novel where Margaret shares her secrets on and 622 00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:45,880 her spirituality. 623 00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:48,760 She has a parents that have different religions. 624 00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:55,280 She has grown up really non-religious, but she talks to God anyway. 625 00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:58,320 And she talks about sex and all kinds of stuff. 626 00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:03,960 Age appropriately, of course, from a young teenage girl's point of view. 627 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:06,760 And it's very age-appropriate. 628 00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:07,760 It is iconic. 629 00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:09,200 It is classic. 630 00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:12,640 And there's a reason that it is as huge as it is. 631 00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:19,280 So the film is out today from Lionsgate, or now, depending on when you are listening. 632 00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:23,400 And it stars Abbey Rider Fortson, who plays Margaret. 633 00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:26,640 Rachel McAdams plays her mom Barbara. 634 00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:30,760 Kathy Bates plays The Grandmother, which is awesome. 635 00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:39,360 It is written and directed by Kelly Freeman Craig, who wrote and directed The Edge of 17, 636 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:40,760 such a good movie. 637 00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:45,120 And produced, as I said, by James L. Brooks. 638 00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:49,320 And Julie Ansel, who, if you don't know, James L. Brooks. 639 00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:51,760 First of all, have you ever heard of The Simpsons? 640 00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:54,280 And of course, Julie Ansel. 641 00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:57,280 Big broadcast news, Jerry McGuire. 642 00:37:57,280 --> 00:38:02,480 As good as it gets, riding in cars with boys, spanglish, The Simpsons movie. 643 00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:05,080 I mean, like what? 644 00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:07,000 These guys are super producers. 645 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:10,040 So let's start with them. 646 00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:14,560 Let's talk with James L. Brooks and Julie Ansel. 647 00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:15,800 Here we go. 648 00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:16,800 Here we go. 649 00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:17,800 Here we go. 650 00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:24,160 The first one, a fan of both of your works, a fan of the work of both of you. 651 00:38:24,160 --> 00:38:26,160 And this film is no different. 652 00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:31,400 I find it really interesting for me that it is coming out now, with all these book bannings 653 00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:33,280 and that sort of thing. 654 00:38:33,280 --> 00:38:39,160 You have been working on this since I believe 2018 or something like that. 655 00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:43,800 Why was now the time to get it out there? 656 00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:49,120 I think it has to do with a specific filmmaker, Kelly Freeman Craig, who did her first film. 657 00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:52,360 We all did it together, edge of 17. 658 00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:59,040 And then wrote Judy a letter saying, I'd love to adapt Margaret, which Judy had withheld 659 00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:02,400 from making for 50 years. 660 00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:05,160 We went in and saw her. 661 00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:09,360 And in that meeting, she decided to let us make the movie. 662 00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:16,160 And Julie, for you, it's a huge thing, in my opinion, for this to finally have become a movie 663 00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:18,480 after 50 years. 664 00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:25,160 What was it like for you as a creator to be part of this team that was able to make this 665 00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:26,160 happen? 666 00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:28,600 Oh, I mean, it was amazing. 667 00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:34,440 I mean, I read the book when I was 12 and it helped me get through puberty and to know 668 00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:39,960 that it's been doing that for 50 years for women and then to be able to hope that this movie 669 00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:47,400 will also do that in its way and help kids now kind of get through that time and relate 670 00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:49,080 to it and know they're not alone. 671 00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:54,280 I mean, it just, it was an amazing experience. 672 00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:57,000 Again, I love this movie. 673 00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:07,400 I also love that you didn't shy away in producing this from really anything in there. 674 00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:10,920 Obviously, I would assume that's a very purposeful choice. 675 00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:15,360 Was there anything that you were nervous about as you were tackling this? 676 00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:17,120 I remember Kelly. 677 00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:22,040 One of the girls gets her period first and there was a question of what's it like? 678 00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:23,040 What's it like? 679 00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:24,040 The other girls asked her. 680 00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:28,520 Kelly had gone around to all her friends and asked them what it was like and wasn't there 681 00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:29,520 a smell? 682 00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:30,800 Wasn't there a smell catcher? 683 00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:38,160 And she said, and one girl nailed it and she said, "Yeah, monkey bars." 684 00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:45,480 So, so it was just the research was so intimate and you know, women getting together and talking 685 00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:48,760 about it as part of making the movie. 686 00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:55,000 Was it important for you to have, you know, it seems Judy was extremely involved in this? 687 00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:58,440 Was it important for you to have that original voice there? 688 00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:00,840 It was, oh, you always felt blessed. 689 00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:07,600 I mean, when she came to the set maybe five times that each time was reassuring because 690 00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:12,680 we were so nervous about not doing right by her and letting her down in any way. 691 00:41:12,680 --> 00:41:20,320 So when it was she came and said, "Okay, it was like it made a real difference." 692 00:41:20,320 --> 00:41:21,320 I love it. 693 00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:22,720 Thank you both so much for your time. 694 00:41:22,720 --> 00:41:26,720 I can't wait for everybody to see this and you know, they can band books. 695 00:41:26,720 --> 00:41:28,880 They'll have a much, much harder time doing this. 696 00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:31,920 So people will get the message ultimately. 697 00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:32,920 Thank you both so much. 698 00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:33,920 Here here. 699 00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:34,920 Thanks. 700 00:41:34,920 --> 00:41:35,920 Thanks. 701 00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:36,920 Thank you. 702 00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:40,040 I am so like, I'm fanboying out. 703 00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:45,880 I just talked to Jim Brooks, James L. Brooks and Julie Ansel, super producers like Ahus Hu 704 00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:47,960 in, you know, show business. 705 00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:55,640 I love that I talk to them and I love that they have made this iconic book come to life. 706 00:41:55,640 --> 00:42:03,560 Next up, let's talk to the woman herself, the women themselves, writer director Kelly Freeman, 707 00:42:03,560 --> 00:42:07,040 Craig and Judy. 708 00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:08,360 Mother F and Bloom. 709 00:42:08,360 --> 00:42:10,280 Thank you so much both of you for joining me. 710 00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:11,640 I really appreciate it. 711 00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:12,640 Thank you. 712 00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:13,640 Thank you. 713 00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:19,320 Of course, Judy, I'd like to start with you for 50 years, you know, almost. 714 00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:26,400 You have declined, I guess you could say, to allow this film or I'm sorry, the book to 715 00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:27,760 become a film. 716 00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:31,560 Why was it now? 717 00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:32,560 Why was it now? 718 00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:43,560 It's now because the right team came to me at the right time and I said yes and I just 719 00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:47,880 knew that it was the right team and it was and it is. 720 00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:48,880 Yeah. 721 00:42:48,880 --> 00:42:54,040 Yeah, it's such an amazing film and Kelly, you, I mean, from the edge of 17 to this, all of 722 00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:56,560 your work, but I mean you were like me right person. 723 00:42:56,560 --> 00:43:02,320 I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt, but that is, that was in Kelly's initial letter to 724 00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:09,560 me and I had seen the edge of 17 and I'm like, wait, you wrote that and you directed that. 725 00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:11,400 I loved that movie. 726 00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:15,160 That was a credential that no one else has ever come to me with. 727 00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:18,240 I was so excited that Judy Bloom had seen that movie. 728 00:43:18,240 --> 00:43:20,800 I was like, why is that? 729 00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:26,000 And for you, Kelly, when you got that, yes, where you like, like I feel like that's a lot 730 00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:27,560 of weight on the shoulders. 731 00:43:27,560 --> 00:43:28,880 I'd be so nervous. 732 00:43:28,880 --> 00:43:36,080 Yeah, I mean, the real excited and yeah, an incredibly nerve wracking because, you know, 733 00:43:36,080 --> 00:43:44,120 yeah, I just felt a tremendous responsibility to get it right and to make Judy proud and 734 00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:50,920 to make the fans happy and feel like this was, this is the book come to life on film, you 735 00:43:50,920 --> 00:43:51,920 know. 736 00:43:51,920 --> 00:43:56,720 And most of all, just really wanted to deliver the spirit of the book. 737 00:43:56,720 --> 00:44:00,960 And she did all of that and more. 738 00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:04,200 So I'm very, very grateful. 739 00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:05,200 I love it. 740 00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:12,360 I think it's such an incredible film and Judy, for you, you, I believe I read that you said 741 00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:14,400 the film is better than the book. 742 00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:15,720 Did you say that? 743 00:44:15,720 --> 00:44:18,640 I did say that on national television. 744 00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:20,640 Yes, I did say that. 745 00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:27,280 And the reason is, is because you get to see not just a 12-year-old's point of view, but 746 00:44:27,280 --> 00:44:32,520 you get to see a rounded mother, a real mother. 747 00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:39,280 And Rachel McAdams is incredible in this role and a father and a grandmother. 748 00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:41,880 And you get to see the different generations. 749 00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:45,960 And I mean, that's very interesting for me, you know. 750 00:44:45,960 --> 00:44:50,600 So and I think it will be for everyone because you've got the, you've got the book. 751 00:44:50,600 --> 00:44:53,960 I promise you all, you've got the book. 752 00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:54,960 It's there. 753 00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:57,120 Plus, you've got more. 754 00:44:57,120 --> 00:44:59,200 Kelly, how does that feel to hear that? 755 00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:01,920 I, I, I mean, this is Judy freaking bloom. 756 00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:02,920 This is my language. 757 00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:07,400 I'm telling, I've been trying to process it since, since you first said it. 758 00:45:07,400 --> 00:45:12,800 It's, I mean, I, it's the most important thing to me was to make Judy happy. 759 00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:18,120 So I'm just so happy she's happy and relieved to know and all those things. 760 00:45:18,120 --> 00:45:20,120 I'm very happy. 761 00:45:20,120 --> 00:45:22,080 But I love it. 762 00:45:22,080 --> 00:45:25,240 And you know, it's kudos to, to both of you. 763 00:45:25,240 --> 00:45:29,000 I was talking earlier that with all these book bannings and all that stuff. 764 00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:34,680 I love that this movie is coming out now because so many more people will have access to it. 765 00:45:34,680 --> 00:45:40,400 Whether they're local, you know, politicians have decided that the book should be banned 766 00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:43,800 or not, they're going to have this story here anyway. 767 00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:44,800 Yes. 768 00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:50,000 And when we made it, we had no idea that we were going to wind up where we were in the 769 00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:53,040 80s plus plus plus plus plus plus. 770 00:45:53,040 --> 00:45:54,040 Yeah. 771 00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:55,040 Yeah. 772 00:45:55,040 --> 00:45:56,040 Thank you both so much. 773 00:45:56,040 --> 00:45:58,360 I can't wait for everybody to see this. 774 00:45:58,360 --> 00:45:59,600 Have a great day. 775 00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:00,600 Thank you. 776 00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:08,080 Guys, I just talked to Kelly Freeman Craig and Judy mother bloom. 777 00:46:08,080 --> 00:46:09,080 Okay. 778 00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:10,280 Judy bloom. 779 00:46:10,280 --> 00:46:12,040 She wrote blubber. 780 00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:14,800 She wrote tales of a fourth grade, nothing. 781 00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:16,600 She wrote Dini. 782 00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:22,320 She is named one of the most influential people in the world by Tom magazine, one of the 783 00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:27,080 100 most influential people in the world by time magazine. 784 00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:28,080 Like what? 785 00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:29,400 I icon. 786 00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:32,040 She's so, and how cool is she? 787 00:46:32,040 --> 00:46:33,280 She's so freaking awesome. 788 00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:38,640 And there's also a documentary out now called Judy bloom forever, which premiered at Sundance, 789 00:46:38,640 --> 00:46:41,480 which I haven't seen yet, but it looks really good. 790 00:46:41,480 --> 00:46:46,680 And it's basically a documentary centered around Judy mother bloom. 791 00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:47,680 Okay. 792 00:46:47,680 --> 00:46:51,960 So actually, it is on a prime video as now. 793 00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:53,480 I was just told by Justin. 794 00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:54,480 Thank you. 795 00:46:54,480 --> 00:46:55,800 Justin, best producer. 796 00:46:55,800 --> 00:46:56,800 So yes. 797 00:46:56,800 --> 00:46:59,000 All right. 798 00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:00,000 Next up. 799 00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:03,160 And finally, the stars of, are you there? 800 00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:08,880 God, it's me Margaret Abby, writer, Fortson and Rachel. 801 00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:09,880 Make Adam. 802 00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:10,880 Thank you for joining me. 803 00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:11,880 I really appreciate it. 804 00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:13,520 Thanks for having us. 805 00:47:13,520 --> 00:47:14,520 Of course. 806 00:47:14,520 --> 00:47:17,880 So film is absolutely amazing. 807 00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:20,760 You both do such a wonderful job in it. 808 00:47:20,760 --> 00:47:29,440 And I just talked to Judy about, you know, 50 years and now it is out here as a film. 809 00:47:29,440 --> 00:47:35,720 And for you, both of you as actors, you know, I feel like that would make me really nervous 810 00:47:35,720 --> 00:47:39,840 to know that, you know, okay, I'm going to be Margaret. 811 00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:47,040 You know, like, how is that for you knowing the history and cultural impact of this book? 812 00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:53,360 Honestly, I'm just so honored to be the one that was chosen to play Margaret and bring 813 00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:55,120 her to the big screen. 814 00:47:55,120 --> 00:47:59,440 And I'm so glad that Judy loved everything and signed off on it. 815 00:47:59,440 --> 00:48:03,520 I know while she was on set, we were all like anxiously waiting to see her reaction and 816 00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:06,120 be like, oh my God, is Judy gonna like approve this? 817 00:48:06,120 --> 00:48:08,440 Is Judy loving this? 818 00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:14,880 And yeah, I relate to Margaret on so many levels and I have gone through pretty much everything 819 00:48:14,880 --> 00:48:16,520 that she has. 820 00:48:16,520 --> 00:48:24,560 And I'm just so, so lucky that I was able to bring this iconic character to life. 821 00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:27,760 I love that and you do such an amazing job with it. 822 00:48:27,760 --> 00:48:29,280 How about for you, Rachel? 823 00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:33,720 Sorry, what was the question again? 824 00:48:33,720 --> 00:48:37,720 Just knowing the history power of this book. 825 00:48:37,720 --> 00:48:41,040 Yes, yes, I definitely felt pressure. 826 00:48:41,040 --> 00:48:46,960 Yeah, that's half a century that waiting to see what group of people would bring Margaret 827 00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:50,080 to the screen and to be a part of that, I was worried. 828 00:48:50,080 --> 00:48:56,760 I was not, I got the invitation, but it wasn't meant for me somehow. 829 00:48:56,760 --> 00:49:01,960 But yeah, just, I just, yeah, I really wanted Judy to be happy and I've heard that I think 830 00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:02,960 she is. 831 00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:04,280 And that's kind of all I care about. 832 00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:06,400 I'm like, I don't care if everybody hates it. 833 00:49:06,400 --> 00:49:08,840 Judy has to be happy, yes. 834 00:49:08,840 --> 00:49:12,000 Yeah, she told me that it's better than the book. 835 00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:13,000 I know. 836 00:49:13,000 --> 00:49:16,120 And that's a testament to how sweet Judy is. 837 00:49:16,120 --> 00:49:18,200 But yeah, yeah. 838 00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:25,420 And Abby, for you, did you, you know, you're talking about real issues that real girls and 839 00:49:25,420 --> 00:49:30,640 young women deal with as well as bigger issues that we all deal with, but were you nervous 840 00:49:30,640 --> 00:49:35,720 at all to kind of go out and put it all out there on the big screen? 841 00:49:35,720 --> 00:49:36,720 Not really. 842 00:49:36,720 --> 00:49:42,800 I mean, I've, yeah, like I've dealt with everything that Margaret has and I feel like Kelly was super 843 00:49:42,800 --> 00:49:50,280 duper respectful and I always felt safe on set to, you know, talk about all this stuff. 844 00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:59,080 And I think that honestly, we've kind of made this, these topics uncomfortable in society 845 00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:05,280 and along with not wanting to have, you know, the talk from your parents. 846 00:50:05,280 --> 00:50:11,400 And I think that it's so unnecessary because we need to talk about these things and having 847 00:50:11,400 --> 00:50:15,520 that barrier is just not helpful for anyone. 848 00:50:15,520 --> 00:50:20,120 And yeah, I always felt super comfortable on set and I was actually super happy that I was 849 00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:26,640 able to talk about all of these topics in such a unique way. 850 00:50:26,640 --> 00:50:32,760 I think storytelling and filmmaking is such an amazing way to talk about things that you 851 00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:36,560 might not want to have a sit down conversation with with your parents, you know. 852 00:50:36,560 --> 00:50:42,920 I think that the film can be a great opener for, you know, the sex talker, all that stuff. 853 00:50:42,920 --> 00:50:48,800 You can just show them the film, your parents can take the kids to go see the film and you 854 00:50:48,800 --> 00:50:54,280 can have a discussion about it without, you know, talking about yourself, but instead 855 00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:58,600 talking about the characters in the film being like, oh, what did you think about this? 856 00:50:58,600 --> 00:51:02,880 How is this relating to you, maybe? 857 00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:09,120 And I think it's a great way to just have these conversations without making them uncomfortable 858 00:51:09,120 --> 00:51:11,880 or awkward. 859 00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:12,880 I love that. 860 00:51:12,880 --> 00:51:14,520 Thank you both for speaking with me. 861 00:51:14,520 --> 00:51:17,360 I can't wait for everybody to go and see, are you there? 862 00:51:17,360 --> 00:51:18,760 God, it's me, Margaret. 863 00:51:18,760 --> 00:51:19,760 Thank you. 864 00:51:19,760 --> 00:51:20,760 Thank you. 865 00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:26,440 Happy writer, forced it in Rachel McGatham's. 866 00:51:26,440 --> 00:51:31,040 I'm so happy that this film has been made and it's out. 867 00:51:31,040 --> 00:51:32,680 It's a great film. 868 00:51:32,680 --> 00:51:33,680 You gotta show it. 869 00:51:33,680 --> 00:51:38,400 You know, as I said, it's one of those films that you, it's one of those projects that you 870 00:51:38,400 --> 00:51:39,400 know what? 871 00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:42,360 Really hard to ban this movie in Florida. 872 00:51:42,360 --> 00:51:49,960 It still actually ranks as one of the top 100 most frequently banned books. 873 00:51:49,960 --> 00:51:54,400 In America today, as in 2023. 874 00:51:54,400 --> 00:51:58,680 So in any event, that is our show for this week. 875 00:51:58,680 --> 00:52:04,200 Thank you once again, Dominic Patton from Deadline Hollywood. 876 00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:13,160 Links in the show notes and the cast and producers and director writer of, are you there? 877 00:52:13,160 --> 00:52:15,080 God, it's me, Margaret. 878 00:52:15,080 --> 00:52:20,520 And special shout out to Judy Mother Bloom. 879 00:52:20,520 --> 00:52:21,520 See you next week. 880 00:52:21,520 --> 00:52:22,520 I love you. 881 00:52:22,520 --> 00:52:25,680 Well, thank you for listening to Pop Culture Weekly. 882 00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:29,320 You're all the latest at popcultureweekly.com. 883 00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:39,320 I just talked to Judy Maaf in blue. 884 00:52:39,320 --> 00:52:44,320 I just talked to Judy. 885 00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:49,040 I just talked to Judy Maaf in blue. 886 00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:52,280 I just talked with Judy.