The Viall Files
E1050 - Ashley Darby Talks RHOP, Variety's Ramin Setoodeh, RHOSLC, Traitors Trailer & Christmas Shopping
18 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What holiday traditions are shared in this episode?
Our favorite part of the holidays is spending time with our family from baking cookies, decorating the house, and walking around the neighborhood. Everyone seems to be in the holiday spirit. And there's nothing that gets us in the spirit more than a Starbucks holiday beverage.
Now that we have River, I'm really trying to create memories and traditions that she will carry on throughout her life.
And something that I'm really loving doing, we did it last year, and obviously we're going to do it again this year, but it's going to Starbucks, getting a holiday drink, and then driving through the neighborhoods and looking at all the Christmas lights on all the houses and seeing all the houses decorated and the blowups in everyone's front yard and sipping on our warm, hot drinks.
I look forward to that.
Holiday drink.
Also back in my sales days when I worked from home, I'd always go to a Starbucks and work because I wanted to get out of the house. And definitely during the holiday season, I get my peppermint mocha and you just kind of see people coming in like different. You kind of feel the holiday energy with people coming in during Christmas time. It was always really enjoyable.
I really had to get out of the house when I was stuck at home working.
Well, the Peppermint Mocha is a Starbucks signature espresso combined with steamed milk, mocha sauce, and peppermint flavored syrup. It's topped with whipped cream and dark chocolate curls. What more could you ask for?
Delicious.
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Chapter 2: How do Starbucks holiday drinks enhance the festive spirit?
The Peppermint Mocha? Yeah. We used to, when I worked there, we would put ristretto shots in it, and we would mod it a bit.
Well, it was a white chocolate mocha, and then during the holiday season, I transferred over to the peppermint.
There's no better feeling than when the cups turn red at Starbucks. I know. That is so true. Another favorite of mine is the caramel brulee latte. That one is so good. Yeah. That's my favorite. The caramel brulee is Starbucks' signature espresso. It's topped with whipped cream and caramel brulee topping. Rediscover the little moments of joy that make the holidays brighter at Starbucks.
Step into the warmth of the season with a visit to Starbucks, where every sip makes the holidays feel a little bit more special.
Well, don't forget, together is the best place to be. Connect over your holiday favorites at Starbucks. holiday shopping stressing you out? Well, Nellie and I rely on Amazon's AI shopping assistant, Rufus, to find the perfect gift for everyone on our list. Just tell Rufus who you're shopping for, and it suggests great options while keeping your budget in mind.
It's especially helpful since Amazon was just named the lowest price U.S. online retailer for nine straight years, with prices up to 14% lower than competitors. Visit Amazon.com and look for the Rufus icon for smarter, more affordable holiday shopping. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Vile Files Reality Recap Edition.
I'm your host, Nick, joined by my marvelous bodacious.
Bodacious.
Wow. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious wife, Natalie Joy. Natalie got me a thesaurus for Christmas. And so on my New Year's resolution is to learn more adjectives that appropriately describe my wife.
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Chapter 3: What are the challenges of holiday shopping?
No, Mary is a band. She is a band.
Chapter 4: How does the podcast transition to discussing AI in shopping?
She does every instrument herself, and then it all sounds like a band. You're like Ed Sheeran?
Yeah.
you're Dick Van Dyke and Mary Poppins the one man band literally I guess kinda yeah I can sequence some drums she harmonizes with herself she does yeah she loops I'm not the best singer I can get by well Leia can sing Leia can sing Leia can should we do a collab can we Christmas can we Christmas that's what we're
For our audience. Okay. And they're listening and viewing pleasure.
Okay.
I'm happy to announce on the next episode, Leia and Mary.
And Kyle. And Kyle. Spectacyle.
Members of the household.
Cassie's also a very talented.
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Chapter 5: What is the Oscar buzz surrounding Dwayne Johnson's performance?
Obviously... with his performance in The Smashing Machine. Everyone's raving about it in Hollywood. Is Dwayne Johnson going to win an Oscar? Or if not, can you give us maybe like a hot take in terms of award season of someone who you think might surprise people this year?
So I think that Dwayne Johnson definitely had a chance and is in the conversation to win an Oscar. I don't know if it's a done deal.
I think Best Actor is incredibly competitive, and I think it's going to come down between Ethan Hawke, who's in a movie called Blue Moon, who's never won an Oscar before, Leonardo DiCaprio, who could win his second Oscar for one battle after another, and Timothee Chalamet, who's been nominated—this will be his third nomination if he's nominated— You heard it here.
Transitioning off of actors on actors, obviously there's a tragedy in Hollywood with the death of Rob Reiner and his wife. A very sad situation. With Variety, you guys are kind of like a go-to spot for what's going on in Hollywood, the behind the scenes and things like that. I want to focus more on Rob Reiner's legacy and just his impact on Hollywood in general.
I don't know if you have any updates or information to share on the situation or the case, but I just wanted to get your perspective as the co-editor-in-chief of Variety about the situation and just talk a little bit about Rob Reiner and his impact on Hollywood in general.
This has been an incredibly difficult week for everyone in our newsroom and everyone in Hollywood, because the thing about Rob Reiner is that he was universally beloved by everyone. I even saw the other night on Fox News, James Woods, who worked on a movie called Ghost of Mississippi that Rob Reiner directed, talking about how even though they weren't politically aligned, he was such a good guy.
He was so nice. He always, when he talked to my journalist, he always was very thoughtful and kind and very generous with his time. He wasn't one of those Hollywood directors that looked down on people, he invited everyone in.
And I think when you look at the clips of the great movies he's made, when you look at all the tributes to when Harry met Sally and how pivotal that was in most people's lives and him partnering with Nora Ephron and bringing Nora Ephron into the industry because she was obviously a journalist for many years and mentoring her and
working with everyone from Elijah Wood to Whoopi Goldberg and just really, really having such a huge heart. This has been profoundly sad and affected everyone in Hollywood because he was such a kind man. He was such a humane man, as Dan Daddario writes in our magazine this week. And it's really, really hard for us to process what happened.
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Chapter 6: What is Rob Reiner's legacy and impact on Hollywood?
You know, a lot of legendary actors really trusted Rob and were willing to like work with him and when they might not be working with others. But I'm curious for me, like what are some of your favorite Rob Reiner films?
He directed even Rumor Has It with Jennifer Aniston. I mean, I think my favorite is When Harry Met Sally. I love that movie. Even watching the clips of the final scene between Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, it is such a perfect movie. It lands so perfectly. But when I was growing up, I remember watching actually one of Rob's movies that was panned. It was called North.
It was about Elijah Wood as a young, I think, boy that was trying to get to the North Pole. And I think Roger Ebert famously panned that movie and and wrote that he hated, hated, hated, hated, hated that movie. But Rob Reiner always talked about how he actually still had a special place in his heart in that movie. And there's some funny one-liners.
And I haven't... I don't know if you've ever seen North. I haven't watched North since I was a little kid. But I actually liked that movie growing up and never understood why all the critics hated it. It was one of those movies, I think, if you grew up in the 90s, you really liked. And we didn't know that it was so... like it won Razzie awards and was hated by the critical community.
But I think for us growing up, it was, it was a movie with Elijah wood around the time of flipper. And it was, um, it was a movie that I enjoyed growing up.
I think probably as a first Rob Reiner movie, I saw, I saw a recent interview with Rob Reiner and obviously there's a lot of content going around of old interviews he did. And I'm a huge, huge fan of the princess bride. And he talked about, there's this interview about like one shot in the movie he really hated and,
And he talked about it because the shot was backlit and then you could see the glare of the sun reflect on the, on the camera. And the reason he said he hated it is because, you know, for anyone who understands like camera work, it like you made you realize that this is being filmed. Right.
And so he talked about as an actor and a direct, as a director and a filmmaker that when he's making movies, he, he doesn't, It's not about the director or the actors. He wants to make it, he wants to immerse the audience in real life. And I thought that was just a really, there was this no ego in it for him, right? You know, and I think so many people in Hollywood want to get their credit.
They want to be, you know, the directors want people to talk about, oh, the camera work or the way they shoot their movie. And like, oh, that's a, that's a, we know that shot because of that actor where Rob was all about just like, I want people to be inside the movie. I want them to be focused on the film. I want them to feel like they're in the world I'm creating.
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Chapter 7: How do the hosts feel about the recent events involving Bronwyn?
And you kind of lose the truth. How do you feel like the industry and the people involved are dealing with this very dark and sad situation?
Right. So there's been reports that they were the family was at Conan O'Brien's Christmas party and there was an argument between Bill Hader and Rob Reiner's son. I think that right now people are really focused on on remembering Rob and trying to grieve and heal Rob. We don't know all the specifics of this case. We don't know what exactly happened in that house.
Certainly, this is going to be a prolonged trial. There's going to be new details that emerge. But I think right now the industry is focused on remembering Rob and his wife, Michelle, and they were philanthropists, too. They were very instrumental and
passing legislation for gay marriage in california they were always looking out for people they were friends with the obamas this was a power couple in hollywood that did a lot of good and used their influence and spotlight and clout to affect change and do good and i think that is what everyone is focused right now because i think it's just too hard to focus on the specifics of the case it's so horrific and so sad that it's it's really hard to make sense of that yeah absolutely
Well, Ramin, we really appreciate you taking the time. We're excited to watch the Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence actors on actors. And I personally loved the father and son duo. I'm a huge fans of both those actors. And they were just so witty and funny, just the banter back and forth and giving each other shit.
I was one of my favorites so far this season, and I'm really excited to see the Jennifer Lawrence and Leo one as well.
Thank you very much. That was the first time they talked to each other on camera for such a long time. And they could have a reality show, too. All the Skarsgårds. I think people would watch that.
Oh, that would be so great. Ramin, really appreciate you taking the time. Anything you want to plug or promote before you leave us?
Just to watch these conversations. I know the holidays are coming up. People have free time on their hands. There's 13 episodes. We worked really hard on them, and they're available on Variety's YouTube page and on CNN's new streaming platform.
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Chapter 8: What are the key takeaways from the latest episode of RHOSLC?
It is so interesting, just like the brain work behind these viral moments, you know?
I love hearing him talk about like how this could be like the reality, like the behind the scenes, the reality TV, all like the, yeah, the petty drama and people talking with their teams and like, but you don't want to like ruffle feathers. Like that would be so fascinating. They're all like a real entourage kind of thing.
Have you ever seen the Christopher guest movie with Catherine O'Hara for your consideration? Oh my God. One of my favorites. It's so, I mean, it's basically that it's just, it's Catherine O'Hara. She's in this, um, Awful movie. It's called Home for Poor. And Great Holiday. Great Holiday. And it's basically it's a bad movie and it's super melodramatic and they make fun of it the whole time.
But then there's a rumor that she might be up for.
an oscar and so the entire movie is her in this campaign and it's so silly and they it's so silly it's so funny everyone should go watch anything for guests anything best in show it's one of the non-mockumentaries that he did it's like it's waiting for government yeah but it's still improvised it's like all improvised and it's just the funniest people alive just like making fun of the
campaign trail. It's awesome. Everyone should watch it.
I like what Ramin said where it's just like right now everybody is just like focusing on honoring Rob and Michelle and people like Rob and Michelle Reiner who just led their life with like so much empathy and so much love for humanity and just people and storytelling and what those movies like did for people and just what their art did for people that it just doesn't become this
sensationalized tabloid story because it just kind of goes against every single thing that like it goes against his impact and his and like their family's impact is so much more than this tragic event and I don't know it just like it makes me really really sad about the world to be completely honest
Yeah, it's a sad situation, but we appreciate Ramin taking the time and talking about actors on actors. Be sure to check that out. There's some great interviews available for you guys all to watch and certainly enjoy. Up next, Ashley Darby from The Real Housewives of Potomac joins us next. Ashley Darby, welcome to The Vow Files. So great to have you.
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