Rachel Handler

We need her on this. Yeah, we need her on this. We need her.

Metrograph, call us. Please call us. We want to program Nicole Kidman's age gap romance series. And then the last one is The Hours.

I can't say exactly why, but I have many possible theories. That's my guest today.

I love him.

Me too.

What job is this? Who are you writing for? What are you talking about?

No.

Selene. Selene.

Her grandparents are French.

Oh, loved. Are you okay?

Baby, give me your hand.

Right.

Yeah.

Yes.

Obviously.

Oh, right. It's like a joke.

When they finally go down into the bunkers. Oh, my God.

Think about that.

Right. They will post from the bunkers. Oh, my God. They will. They have Wi-Fi down there for sure.

It's so grim. That's just where my head goes immediately always. I'm so sorry.

Thank you.

She probably has no sense of what's going on for most of the world. I don't know how you fix that. Do you have like a proletariat like advisor? Like, I don't know. I don't know how you fix that.

I think for me, there was a moment where the facade kind of fell off during early COVID, during the Imagine video. I don't know if you guys remember that. When, you know, it was like Gal Gadot. And I think my Kristen Wiig got in there somehow. I honestly don't even remember who else it was. But when they all got together and made this video, like, it's going to be okay.

We're going to get through this together. From their mansions and their Hamptons homes and their, you know, Malibu beach houses. It was so shocking to sort of see them not even recognize that massive gap. And they had early access to tests, to vaccines. It was a completely different reality.

And I think since then, celebrity culture has just been degrading further because I think it's about class consciousness. I think it's about you know, solidarity. I think it's about like a developing sense of, oh my God, like not just celebrities, but the oligarchs and the billionaires now run this country.

Celebrity culture dying to me is not necessarily about like, oh, they're degrading their image or they're, they're like slumming it with Uber Eats ads. It's more about people reclaiming power and understanding that that's not aspirational, that actually like celebrity is actually harmful.

I don't even think we have a high level of access to them. I think that's an illusion. I think that's a flattening effect of social media. Now they all have Instagrams and TikToks and whatever. But it's not actual access. I think what we're missing is real access. There's sort of like. disappearance of actual access in profiles and celebrity culture reporting.

I think, you know, we don't have an actual understanding of what's going on in celebrities' lives because we don't actually, they're just presenting whatever they want. They're the ones who are saying, oh, this is my, you know, a day in my life, but it's not real. None of it's actually real.

When I think about like what I want from a celebrity right now, it's like I want them to be spending their social capital, like getting arrested, protesting for a palace. And I want that type of celebrity. Or I want somebody who is like an absolute monster, like insane person. And if the people who are behaving that way like also want to try to sell me $28, you know, hands up.

It's the illusion of access.

I feel like actually though, Chapel and Dochi are examples of celebrities that I'm sure they don't, they haven't made enough money yet to be completely detached from reality. And I think maybe there is a level of genuine authenticity there. I think those are two examples of people that I'm sure in like a year will not be speaking to their fans that way anymore.

Yeah. And that's when you lose your mind. That's when you lose your mind.

I'm like, then give me something to like wash my hands about. Oh, I like that.

Oh, I didn't know that.

I love you, Beyonce. Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's going to change anytime soon. Like, I don't see, I think it's just getting worse. And I certainly don't think it's like the biggest problem facing, you know, solidarity and class consciousness and like an actual sort of like working class revolution. But what I want from a celebrity right now.

It's like, I either want you to be a chapel runner and you're like getting into altercations with photographers and saying, being a little bit messy, but you know, provocative and interesting and, and you know, putting her money where her mouth is with the Grammy stuff and all of that. Like I want them to be spending their social capital.

I want like Hunter Schaefer, like getting arrested, protesting for Palestine. I want that type of celebrity. Or I want somebody who is like an absolute monster, like insane person. Like I want, like I want like old school celebrity. Like a real diva. Yeah.

Yes. Oh, that was a good one. Yeah. Like I want that. I want that. I want that. And if like, if the people who are behaving that way, like also want to try to sell me $28. Hands up. I'm like, then give me something to wash my hands about. Oh, I like that.

The cruel absence of God. I don't know. Capitalism. We're all suffering. Everyone is suffering under the current state of affairs and I think that shows up in strange ways. I think to your point about like parasocial relationships, I think everyone is just like yearning for connection and it's like connect with each other and you know, burn down instead.