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Speaker 1: My apple pie's here.

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Speaker 2: I am a cart of apple pie and ice cream

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Speaker 2: being delivered right now.

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Speaker 3: No, that is nothing missed up.

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Speaker 4: I should have warmed up before I did this interview.

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Speaker 5: I don't know I'd be singing.

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Speaker 6: We wanted to play it the dynamic like Fred Sanford

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Speaker 6: and esther On Sanford and Son and just had a

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Speaker 6: ball doing it. I missed additional sitcoms.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and

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Speaker 3: analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Wednesday, October twenty ninth,

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am

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Speaker 3: co editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm

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Speaker 3: in LA. He's in New York, and Vriety has reporters

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Speaker 3: around the world covering the business of entertainment. It's Power

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Speaker 3: of Women Day. This is Variety's super Bowl World Series

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Speaker 3: and NBA Finals all rolled into one. We're so excited

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Speaker 3: to celebrate five great stars tonight at our annual event

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Speaker 3: in Beverly Hills. We'll also be in the company of

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Speaker 3: ninety plus incredible women from the industry we love, who

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Speaker 3: were featured on this year's Women's Impact Report on today's episode,

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Speaker 3: we'll hear from two Variety superstars. Hailey Klugi and Jennifer

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Speaker 3: Dorn are dynamic duo of art and photography. They'll talk

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Speaker 3: about how they deliver varieties amazing power of women visuals

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Speaker 3: year after year. And Mark Malkin brings us an update

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Speaker 3: on season two of The Pit. He's got a just

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Speaker 3: for Variety red carpet rundown with Noah Wiley and Katherine Lenasa.

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Speaker 3: But before we get to that, here are a few

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Speaker 3: headlines just in that you need to know. Five trillion.

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Speaker 6: Wow.

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Speaker 3: That's their record setting market cap reached this morning by

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Speaker 3: AI chip maker Nvidia. Wall Street continues to swoon for

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Speaker 3: AI companies. It didn't hurt that CEO Jensen Hwang recently

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Speaker 3: said that the company is expecting five hundred billion dollars

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Speaker 3: worth of orders for its chips. The litigation between doctor

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Speaker 3: Phil when the creditors of his Merritt Street Media venture

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Speaker 3: has taken another turn. A bankruptcy judge has ordered the

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Speaker 3: company to go full Chapter seven liquidation in its proceedings,

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Speaker 3: no Chapter eleven reorganization for you, Phil McGraw. He is

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Speaker 3: not surprisingly planning to appeal the decision. My colleague Todd

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Speaker 3: Spangler has done a great job following this complicated process.

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Speaker 3: There's a thaw in the chilly relationship between Netflix and

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Speaker 3: AMC Theaters. AMC has agreed to book K Pop Demon

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Speaker 3: Hunters in three hundred venues as Netflix re releases the

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Speaker 3: animated musical Smash over Halloween weekend. The world's largest cinema

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Speaker 3: chain typically refuses to schedule movies from Netflix because the

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Speaker 3: two companies don't agree on the length of time that

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Speaker 3: a film should remain exclusively on the big screen. But

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Speaker 3: clearly the potential for K Pop Demon Hunters to turn

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Speaker 3: out the coin at the turnstiles this weekend was too

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Speaker 3: enticing for AMC to turn down. A lion of our industry,

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Speaker 3: John Malone has formally stepped down as chairman of Liberty

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Speaker 3: Media and Liberty Global. It's a big milestone for his companies.

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Speaker 3: But does Darth Vader really hang up his cape? Somehow?

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Speaker 3: I think his influence will still be felt. All of

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Speaker 3: these stories and so much more can be found on

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Speaker 3: Variety dot com. Right now, now we turn to conversations

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Speaker 3: with Friday journalists about news and trends in show business. Today.

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Speaker 3: We're joined by Hailey Klugi Variety's creative director and Jennifer Dorn,

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Speaker 3: Variety's visual director. They discuss how they game out the

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Speaker 3: multiple Power of Women covers every year. These are covers

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Speaker 3: that always shout a thousand words. Hailey Klugi, Variety's creative

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Speaker 3: director and Jennifer Dorn, Variety's visual director. Thank you both

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Speaker 3: for joining me. I appreciate you giving me your time

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Speaker 3: at the end of one of your longest processes for

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Speaker 3: creating the incredible photography and art direction and design that

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Speaker 3: really distinguishes Variety in our contemporary era. And nowhere do

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Speaker 3: we show off your great work more than in our

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Speaker 3: twice yearly Power of Women franchise, where we not satisfied

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Speaker 3: to have one cover, we have five covers. From the

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Speaker 3: visual and the artistic perspective, You too, are the drivers.

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Speaker 3: These five covers all have a theme. The wardrobe choices

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Speaker 3: and the visuals are meant for these covers to be

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Speaker 3: looked at as a tableau as opposed to an individual cover.

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Speaker 3: So there's a lot of work that goes on behind

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Speaker 3: the scenes to make them so gorgeous and suitable for

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Speaker 3: blowing up huge and putting in department store windows, as

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Speaker 3: we have done in the past, and it's just a

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Speaker 3: really moment of pride for variety.

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Speaker 7: Every group of honorees has their own personality. And I

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Speaker 7: do try to use the same photographer for all of

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Speaker 7: the covers, which sometimes can be challenging with logistics, but

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Speaker 7: this time our photographer Sammy Dason, and we were using

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Speaker 7: one location in Los Angeles, so it made it easy.

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Speaker 3: Hayley, what would you say are the particular challenges of

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Speaker 3: doing this times five for Power Women?

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Speaker 8: Biggest difference for Power of Women versus a traditional standalone

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Speaker 8: cover is were you looking at them in like a

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Speaker 8: holistic sense? Right? How are these five working together? So

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Speaker 8: in the past, we've had Power of Women in Nashville,

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Speaker 8: and our through line was that we wanted everyone to

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Speaker 8: have like their version of concert sheet, and that was

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Speaker 8: the through line. Or we did a Power of Women

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Speaker 8: New York where we shot them all in studio and

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Speaker 8: then they were all in black, so like leaning into

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Speaker 8: the New York all black uniform. So for this particular

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Speaker 8: group of women, we really wanted to lean into the

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Speaker 8: location of it all and that was kind of our

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Speaker 8: through line. So when I start to look at what

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Speaker 8: do these covers look like from a design perspective. I

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Speaker 8: inherit really wonderful photography that Jennifer produces, and then my

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Speaker 8: version becomes how are these posters? How are these pieces

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Speaker 8: of art? And certain respects And in this case we

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Speaker 8: really linked into kind of the architectural pieces of the hotel.

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Speaker 8: It's a really strong type or typeface that we're using,

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Speaker 8: grading a Gothic that really leans into the architecture. Because

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Speaker 8: the photography and the wardrobe is so feminine and soft

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Speaker 8: and beautiful. And to pair that with the strength of

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Speaker 8: what these women represent and also the strength of the

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Speaker 8: hotel as well, was fun. Always a fun pace to do.

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Speaker 3: Okay, I'm going to test myself here. I'm going with

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Speaker 3: no notes here in front of me. This year's honoree

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Speaker 3: are Jamie Lee Curtis, Kate Hudson, Nicole Scherzinger, Sidney Sweeney,

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Speaker 3: and Wanda Sykes. Folks, while you're listening, go to writea

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Speaker 3: dot com and gaze at these gorgeous photos. They are

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Speaker 3: not wearing the same outfit, but there is a sense

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Speaker 3: of a theme. How do you communicate that to the

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Speaker 3: people that are being photographed.

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Speaker 7: I will try to come up with a few sentences

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Speaker 7: and I send the same group of sentences to every

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Speaker 7: single person, and then I will elaborate on that because

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Speaker 7: everybody reads the same thing differently.

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Speaker 3: Right, very subjective.

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Speaker 7: Typically we do not get all of the honorees at once.

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Speaker 7: It's an evolution in terms of booking this. In this case,

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Speaker 7: we photographed Sidney and Nicole first, so I knew what

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Speaker 7: they were wearing, and as a result of that, I

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Speaker 7: knew what colors they had on. So when photographed the

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Speaker 7: other three honorees, I specifically referenced, please do not wear yellow.

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Speaker 7: So it can evolve over.

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Speaker 3: Time, Hailey. In conceiving the cover, we have five different covers,

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Speaker 3: since every variety cover has that big, beautiful masthead. I

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Speaker 3: love that flying via I always will. But within that

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Speaker 3: there's a lot of play and the particular poses that

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Speaker 3: you obviously take numerous setups and you have some choices,

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Speaker 3: what if you found are the keys to getting that

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Speaker 3: across In the cover, we.

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Speaker 8: Do shoot these women in multiple different setups, so we

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Speaker 8: get to play this fun matching game where we have

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Speaker 8: a beat and C for each woman and then we say, well,

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Speaker 8: be from this pair or from this shoot looks great

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Speaker 8: with a from this one, and we get to look

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Speaker 8: at it as this mix and match puzzle to find

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Speaker 8: that right configuration for the five of them. The thing

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Speaker 8: about Power of Women covers that's so special is that

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Speaker 8: we get to really rely on the strength of the

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Speaker 8: photography and go very minimal elsewhere. We have a logo

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Speaker 8: and we have their names and Power of Women, and

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Speaker 8: that's really the three pieces of it. But there's no

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Speaker 8: additional cover lines or decks. It's a very minimal cover.

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Speaker 8: And then for the inside of the design, similarly, we've

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Speaker 8: got a great group of designers here on our staff.

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Speaker 8: In the same way that Jennifer hires a female photographer,

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Speaker 8: I also have my female designers work on this package

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Speaker 8: as well, and so we get to look at it

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Speaker 8: the covers as posters, and then the inside also a

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Speaker 8: continuation of that story based on the type, the colors,

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Speaker 8: all those sorts of fun elements and bring this package

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Speaker 8: together for all of them.

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Speaker 3: I don't know how you topped yourselves. Every year.

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Speaker 7: Somebody's photographed all the time. You know, there's a lot

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Speaker 7: of trust. They come, they show up, they have their

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Speaker 7: photo taken, and then they leave and then they probably

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Speaker 7: cross their fingers that we're going to do right by them.

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Speaker 7: I take that seriously, and I know Heley does too,

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Speaker 7: so it's nice to see it all come together.

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Speaker 3: I can't wait for the two of you to see

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Speaker 3: your handiwork writ large. I really do love it. We

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Speaker 3: blow up all the covers big and it makes it

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Speaker 3: really feel like an event, and we are celebrating these

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Speaker 3: folks for the right reasons. They're all associated with charities.

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Speaker 3: It's a very big effort, and I am very happy

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Speaker 3: to shed some light for listeners on two of the

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Speaker 3: key women here that make this thing happen. It is

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Speaker 3: incredible work and we deeply, deeply appreciate it.

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Speaker 8: Hi Prie.

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Speaker 3: Now let's hear directly from a few Variety's Power of

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Speaker 3: Women on a Rees. Here's some fun clips from Sydney Sweeney,

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Speaker 3: Nicole Scherzinger, and Wanda Sykes. You heard short quips from

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Speaker 3: those three at the start of this episode. We'll start

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Speaker 3: with Sweeney discussing how she's using her star power for

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Speaker 3: good when it comes to producing.

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Speaker 2: When I'm involved as a producer on projects, I think

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Speaker 2: that for me, at least, the environment just I feel

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Speaker 2: more immersed in it.

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Speaker 3: I know everybody.

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Speaker 2: I have a deeper connection and relationship to people, and

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Speaker 2: I just want to make sure everybody's having a really

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Speaker 2: good time. I try to create activities for everybody, and

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Speaker 2: I love when people feel like a family when they're

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Speaker 2: working together.

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Speaker 3: Now, Sweeney recalls her work in the twenty twenty three

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Speaker 3: feature film Reality, about nsa whistleblower Reality winner, and that's

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Speaker 3: followed by her memories of the warm environment on The

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Speaker 3: Handmaid's Tale. Despite the brutality of the storyline, I.

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Speaker 1: Had to memorize so many lines for Reality. I think

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Speaker 1: that my brain doesn't remember a single thing that I said.

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Speaker 1: That movie was so intense because it was the actual

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Speaker 1: transcript from the interrogation, and so we had everything precisely

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Speaker 1: the same the whole movie in sixteen days, and we

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Speaker 1: were filming like ten to fifteen pages of just pure dialogue,

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Speaker 1: every single diy on site of Handmaid's Tale.

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Speaker 2: It was like they were playing Taylor Swift all the time.

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Speaker 1: We were singing dance.

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Speaker 2: It was such a good vibe, and I remember beinking, Oh,

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Speaker 2: this like this is how such should be, Like this

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Speaker 2: is just so much fun. Everybody's friends, the crew is incredible.

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Speaker 2: It was a really good environment.

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Speaker 3: Now we'll hear from Wanda Sykes on how the Chris

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Speaker 3: Rock Show kick started her TV career, and she reflects

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Speaker 3: on the process of writing for comedy.

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Speaker 6: Specials that was not just on the Chris Rock Show.

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Speaker 6: I was a writer on a Chris Rock show. I

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Speaker 6: started there. Then all the writers we just started ended

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Speaker 6: up casting ourselves in bits or a writer would.

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Speaker 9: Go, hey, I want you to do this bit.

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Speaker 6: We just used each other because we would write bits

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Speaker 6: and cast them. But then it was like we had

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Speaker 6: a crew, and you know, the producer was like, hey,

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Speaker 6: we have like five hour I was left with the crew.

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Speaker 6: You guys got anything.

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Speaker 9: We was like, yeah, let's do this, and we would

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Speaker 9: just do it ourselves.

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Speaker 6: And that's how it kind of started us getting in

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Speaker 6: front of the camera when people right, they go they

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Speaker 6: just named the character Wanda, and they want me.

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Speaker 9: Yeah, I know, okay, they want me. They're looking for me.

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Speaker 9: I could do this. This is easy.

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Speaker 6: Writing a special is a long process. You take the

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Speaker 6: material out, work on it, you see what works, what

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Speaker 6: doesn't work, and of course something big will happen in

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Speaker 6: the world, and then then you throw that out and

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Speaker 6: then you start writing towards what's going on. So it's

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Speaker 6: the fine line of trying to be current but also

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Speaker 6: making it.

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Speaker 9: Big enough where it'll it'll hold up.

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Speaker 6: I am working on a new special I am and

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Speaker 6: hopefully i'll shoot it next year.

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Speaker 9: Top of next year.

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Speaker 6: I test my jokes out on stage in front of

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Speaker 6: the audience. You'll lose friends if you become that comic

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Speaker 6: where you just, you know, running your material by them

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Speaker 6: all the time, or trying to sneak a joke in.

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Speaker 6: And like comics, we called each other out on it.

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Speaker 6: Did you just try a joke out on me? You know?

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Speaker 6: But I do have a couple of comic friends where

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Speaker 6: I can say, hey, let me ask you about this.

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Speaker 3: And here comes Nicole Scherzinger with memories of how she

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Speaker 3: learned to roar when she was a member of the

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Speaker 3: Pussycat Dolls girl group. After that, she dishes about how

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Speaker 3: she came to own the song right there.

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Speaker 4: How did I become the lead singer of the Pussycuddles.

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Speaker 4: Robin Anton used to say, there's a pussy Cat Doll

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Speaker 4: on everyone. There was an actual audition, they saw a

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Speaker 4: gazillion girls. I came in at the eleventh hour. I

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Speaker 4: was the very last person for them to see and

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Speaker 4: it was just because I heard it through the Grapevine

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Speaker 4: and I showed up at the record planned and they

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Speaker 4: didn't even want to see me. They had no time

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Speaker 4: for me because they were in their callbackstages. I walked

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Speaker 4: into this ginormous recording studio and they were like, you

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Speaker 4: can stop right there. What do you want to saying?

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Speaker 4: And I just sang a cappella an original song and

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Speaker 4: then they're like can you dance? And out of nowhere,

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Speaker 4: like I just whipped out a CD from my armpit,

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Speaker 4: I was like hit.

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Speaker 7: I felt like I.

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Speaker 5: Had a top hat on and I wrote I unleashed,

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Speaker 5: and I was wearing like of course it and everything

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Speaker 5: and ready to go. Because I have a theatrical background.

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Speaker 5: I played Vell Mkelly in college, so I just like

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Speaker 5: had my fishnets on and I had my corset on

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Speaker 5: and so it's a lot of years of hard work

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Speaker 5: that got me. But it was just the pussy cat

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Speaker 5: dolls unleashed, the doll.

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Speaker 4: Inside of me. I'm really grateful because I don't think

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Speaker 4: a lot of people know this, but they sent that

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Speaker 4: song to Innerscope for Mary J.

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Speaker 3: Blige.

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Speaker 4: She passed on it and I said, can I sing

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Speaker 4: it please? I remember I listened to it. I drove

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Speaker 4: up really late from the studio. One night, I was

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Speaker 4: in my driveway GOTOS two in the morning and I

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Speaker 4: just listened to it on repeat in my car in

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Speaker 4: the dark, and I just felt like, Oh, this song

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Speaker 4: just like speaks to my spirit, my soul. It's read

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Speaker 4: keep it right there. I love the way you got

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Speaker 4: it right there here. Oh oh oh e eh oh.

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Speaker 7: I like the way that you hold up body.

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Speaker 4: Now watch your mouth out.

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Speaker 7: I like it dirty.

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Speaker 3: Now here's a Just for Variety red carpet rundown with

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Speaker 3: Mark Malcolm. There's a lot of disgusting things happening in

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Speaker 3: season two of The Pit.

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Speaker 10: He's learned thanks Cynthia. The cast of The Pit is

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Speaker 10: teasing season two. Star and executive producer No Wiley tells

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Speaker 10: me that they've completed ten of the upcoming seasons fifteen episodes.

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Speaker 10: I'm really proud of the season. We've obviously said a

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Speaker 10: very hard by ourselves. We're competing with our own shadow. Now.

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Speaker 10: I caught up with Wiley and co star Katherine lanassa

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Speaker 10: Sunday at the Rape Treatment Center and STU Houses Annual Brunch.

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Speaker 10: Season two is set over fourth of July weekend. Our

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Speaker 10: prosthetic team has been working over time where you're gonna

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Speaker 10: be in for some treats.

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Speaker 3: It's fourth of July week and Americans heard themselves and

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Speaker 3: all Serzo is.

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Speaker 10: The NASA said just reading the scripts could prove difficult.

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Speaker 3: Thoroughly disgusting, thoroughly thoroughly disgusting, disturbing, heartbreak, gag news. This

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Speaker 3: is what we do every day at the pet For more.

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Speaker 10: Of my interviews with Wiley and l NASA, check out

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Speaker 10: my column Just for Variety at Variety dot com.

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Speaker 3: As we close out today's episode, here's a few things

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Speaker 3: we're watching for. The fortieth Annual Rock and Roll Hall

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Speaker 3: of Fame Induction Ceremony airs live November eighth on Disney Plus.

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Speaker 3: Highlights from the ceremony will air January first on ABC

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Speaker 3: and head to Hulu the following day. This year's inductees

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Speaker 3: include Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Outcast, Soundgarden,

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Speaker 3: and The White Stripes. Before we Go, congrats to Daniel Radcliffe.

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Speaker 3: He's heading back to Broadway as the star of the

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Speaker 3: solo play Every Brilliant Thing. It opens March twelfth for

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Speaker 3: thirteen week engagement at the Hudson Theater. Thanks for listening.

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Speaker 3: This episode was written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton,

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Speaker 3: with contributions from Hailey Cology, Jennifer Dorn, and Mark Malcolm

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Speaker 3: Stick Snicks hick Picks. Please leave us a review at

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Speaker 3: the podcast platform of your choice, and please tune in

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Speaker 3: tomorrow for another episode of Daily Variety and godspeed to

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Speaker 3: the Dodgers for Game five tonight.

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Speaker 4: Winning the Tony this year has been more than a

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Speaker 4: dream come true and answered prayer. I want to write

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Speaker 4: my own musical and show, and I want to do

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Speaker 4: more on world tours, a movie musical as well. There's

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Speaker 4: so many things that I want to do, get my

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Speaker 4: music out there and continue to try to leave my

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Speaker 4: imprint and make a difference in this world.