Speaker 1: Welcome to Movie Crush, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, Welcome to Movie Crush Friday Interview edition. And boy, everybody,
Speaker 1: this was this is a big one. We got the
Speaker 1: opportunity to talk to Merril poster Um and she was
Speaker 1: kind of laughing. I told her a few times during
Speaker 1: the episode that we don't, you know, get the likes
Speaker 1: of her and here very often. But Merril is a
Speaker 1: is a producer, sort of a legendary producer in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: UM for many, many years has worked on Oh boy,
Speaker 1: I mean the list of films that she's had her
Speaker 1: fingerprints on as producer, executive producer, executive in charge of production,
Speaker 1: I mean, you name it, it's um really really stunning
Speaker 1: movies like Chicago and Chuck a Lot and Cider House
Speaker 1: Rules and Copland and Beautiful Girls, the movie that we
Speaker 1: decided to talk about actually UM because that was the
Speaker 1: one that she enjoyed working on the most. Um. It's
Speaker 1: a really, uh pretty impressive resume. And uh, if I
Speaker 1: thought about it too much before we recorded, I probably
Speaker 1: would have been a little too nervous to sit down
Speaker 1: with her. But we had a great talk about producing
Speaker 1: and what that means and how she got her start
Speaker 1: in the business and how scrappy she was early on
Speaker 1: to to make her name as a woman in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: and it was really really cool and enlightening. And um,
Speaker 1: I just want to say to the sort of the
Speaker 1: elephant in the room with Meryl is that she was
Speaker 1: Harvey Weinstein's a sort of right hand person for many
Speaker 1: many years and worked at Mirramax's head of production and
Speaker 1: amazing job during their great, great run of amazing films,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, she was obviously a little bit
Speaker 1: nervous about being interviewed, something that she doesn't do much anymore.
Speaker 1: But you know, she left Mirrormax I think about seven
Speaker 1: years ago. I told her that that wasn't what this
Speaker 1: show was about, and that the criminal justice system had
Speaker 1: had taken care of that situation and there was no
Speaker 1: need to to drag her through that again. And she
Speaker 1: really appreciated that, and I think that was that was
Speaker 1: definitely the right call to make for this episode. And
Speaker 1: but I did want to throw that out there, um,
Speaker 1: because you know, she worked for Mirrormax for many many years,
Speaker 1: one of the one of the great production companies for
Speaker 1: many many years. But we all know how that turned out,
Speaker 1: and I was just thankful that. Uh she is doing
Speaker 1: great and she has a great new podcast with our network.
Speaker 1: Uh not new, they actually have just been granted a
Speaker 1: season two called Call Your Grandmother, which everyone should listen
Speaker 1: to when we're gonna talk about that on this episode
Speaker 1: as well. So here we go with the great, legendary,
Speaker 1: super awesome Merrill Poster, my new pal on the movie
Speaker 1: Beautiful Girls, in kind of a little retrospective of her
Speaker 1: whole career. Are you in New York right now? Yes?
Speaker 1: How's New York right now? I mean it was freezing yesterday.
Speaker 1: I wasn't here. I've been in Florida. I came back.
Speaker 1: I mean, truth be told, I came back from Florida
Speaker 1: last week and I was there for a month. So
Speaker 1: that's nice. As New York still pretty um ghost towny
Speaker 1: or kind of kind of. I mean, when you go
Speaker 1: to certain in my area, it's not. I'm on the
Speaker 1: Upper West Side, so my area isn't. But if you
Speaker 1: go to certain parts of the city, it's really strange.
Speaker 1: Like if you're a midtown it's really really weird to
Speaker 1: see that. It's very upsetting when you see stores closed,
Speaker 1: it's it's beyond upsetting. I hate it. And everybody's going
Speaker 1: like there's like one place to go now, like happening
Speaker 1: place to go now for lunch and dinner. It's like
Speaker 1: the same place. Everyone's like, how come you were there?
Speaker 1: I said, because it's the happening place that everybody wants
Speaker 1: to go to. So they picked that place because it
Speaker 1: used to be you know, you used to have choices,
Speaker 1: but now so you know, there the restaurant at Barney's
Speaker 1: or um, Michaels. I mean, there were so many choices.
Speaker 1: Now it's Avat for lunch and dinner. Really because they're
Speaker 1: doing it the right way. I guess it's a big restaurant.
Speaker 1: Uh well, I'm kind of curious. You know. We always
Speaker 1: love to talk about the people's youth and on the
Speaker 1: show and kind of what inspired and we we don't
Speaker 1: get people of the likes of you on the show
Speaker 1: very often, So thank you for coming on, by the way,
Speaker 1: it's a pleasure. Um. But what was your childhood like
Speaker 1: as far as movies go, where did you first get
Speaker 1: that bug? Um? I probably first got my movie bug
Speaker 1: from my grandmother. My grandmother, UM grew up on the
Speaker 1: Upper West Side and she loved movies. As a kid,
Speaker 1: and she been wrote about skipping school, leaving school to
Speaker 1: go to a movie. So she was more of the
Speaker 1: kind of grandmother who wasn't playing on the floor with us,
Speaker 1: but would take us to see my brother and I
Speaker 1: to see movies. That's when we were with her, That's
Speaker 1: basically what we did. Because she lived in Manhattan, it
Speaker 1: was easy to get there, and and and we went
Speaker 1: to movies. I remember seeing Uh, Well, this frightened me.
Speaker 1: But I remember seeing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang scared me
Speaker 1: a lot. I think it's still yeah. And when I
Speaker 1: saw Wicked, the monkeys freaked me out. You know, I
Speaker 1: went back to that time. I thought it was a
Speaker 1: really scary moving Yeah, the monkeys and then the Wizard
Speaker 1: of oz To always had a problem with the flying monkeys,
Speaker 1: was very scary for me. And then, um, I remember
Speaker 1: her taking me to see Bed Knobs and Broomsticks, which
Speaker 1: is playing at Radio City Music Hall. Um. So she
Speaker 1: took us to the movies. My brother and I a lot,
Speaker 1: and my parents were big movie goers as well. My parents,
Speaker 1: I think they thought they were in show business. My
Speaker 1: dad was in the garment center, and I think people
Speaker 1: in the garment center kind of felt there that they
Speaker 1: were part of the entertainment industry because they would go
Speaker 1: to the Copea Gabana and they would go UM two
Speaker 1: different clubs. I mean, growing up, if we went to Florida,
Speaker 1: um for for Christmas for two weeks we went to
Speaker 1: a hotel called the Diplomat, and you would have a
Speaker 1: group they're called the Fifth Dimension who were playing. And
Speaker 1: so it's just a whole exposure to show business in
Speaker 1: a way. Um, My mom once had me stay home
Speaker 1: from school because she saw that Marjorie Morning Star was
Speaker 1: on TV. Really and she wanted me to see it.
Speaker 1: She thought it was very important that I see that movie.
Speaker 1: So that's cool. So it was sort of always And
Speaker 1: you know, your brother is Randall Poster, one of the
Speaker 1: great music supervisors who done plenty of work but made
Speaker 1: his name with Wes Anderson in large part for his films.
Speaker 1: So you were Randy, we were. Yeah. We used to
Speaker 1: watch the Channel seven movie, um, the Million Dollar Movie
Speaker 1: if you know about that. It was in New York.
Speaker 1: It was in New York. It was the ABC, the
Speaker 1: Channel seven movie, and they had a theme each week,
Speaker 1: and so like Tony Curtis was a theme. So my
Speaker 1: brother and I always used to watch that together you
Speaker 1: got your start in the business. I mean you always
Speaker 1: hear about these classic stories of starting in the mail
Speaker 1: room in Hollywood and that that was your story, right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. I have to say, in my whole career,
Speaker 1: the biggest deal, the biggest thing, was that I got
Speaker 1: the job in the mail room at William Morris. And
Speaker 1: I was the second female trainee to be in the
Speaker 1: mail room because they didn't have trainees, they didn't have
Speaker 1: women in the mail room before, and um, it was
Speaker 1: really a hard job to get. I I went to
Speaker 1: Tulane and I was on this committee and the speaker
Speaker 1: symposium thing, and there was a dinner at the president
Speaker 1: of the university's home and Alexander Haig was being It
Speaker 1: was for Alexander Haig who was speaking, and I was
Speaker 1: sitting next to his aid, a guy named Woody Goldberg.
Speaker 1: And what he was talking to me And if you
Speaker 1: look at my name tag, it doesn't read Jewish Meryl poster.
Speaker 1: But I think if you look at me or talk
Speaker 1: to me, you quickly realize that I am. So he said, um, Meryl,
Speaker 1: you know what are you doing after school? And I said,
Speaker 1: I don't know him a sophomore, and he said, I
Speaker 1: think you would make a great agent. So I said okay.
Speaker 1: So he said, I'm gonna put you in touch with
Speaker 1: a woman at William Morris and see see if you
Speaker 1: can get a job there this summer. Okay, thank you.
Speaker 1: I get in touch with this agent at William Morris
Speaker 1: and she says that they only hire the children of
Speaker 1: agents there for the summer, and that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: there's no openings. Okay, so I had to take I
Speaker 1: was doing, of course at ny U for some credits,
Speaker 1: and at the end of the summer, I called personnel
Speaker 1: just randomly and I was fortunate to get this woman
Speaker 1: on the phone named Ruth Ann Cioni and she had
Speaker 1: just started there. She was an associate and I guess
Speaker 1: they call it human resources, but at the time they
Speaker 1: called it personnel. And I asked her if I could
Speaker 1: get an informative interview and she said yes. So I
Speaker 1: went in there and I interviewed and talked to her,
Speaker 1: and she said to stay in touch, and I went.
Speaker 1: I studied in London that semester my junior year, and
Speaker 1: I sent her postcards. When I traveled somewhere, I would
Speaker 1: just sent her a postcard, and then I came home
Speaker 1: Christmas break and I saw her and she said, there's
Speaker 1: still nothing available. To stay in touch. So the next
Speaker 1: semester I was studying in Florence, and I traveled all
Speaker 1: over and I sent to postcards from everywhere, and I
Speaker 1: called and there was nothing available. And by time, at
Speaker 1: some point my add stop sending money to the American
Speaker 1: Express office and I had to come back and uh.
Speaker 1: I worked as a receptionist in the garment center that summer.
Speaker 1: I went back to tu Lane in the fall, and
Speaker 1: I was in touch with her, and at that point,
Speaker 1: I think at the end of the summer, she told
Speaker 1: me that I needed to know how to type to
Speaker 1: work in the room. So I didn't know how to type.
Speaker 1: Christmas Break, my senior year, I took a short methods
Speaker 1: Secretarial Skills at the Penta Hotel, which is across the
Speaker 1: street from the garden in the basement. I went there
Speaker 1: every day and learned how to type. I went back
Speaker 1: to school for the second semester of my senior year
Speaker 1: and kids are starting to interview. At that time, different companies,
Speaker 1: advertising agencies and whatnot would come and interview students for
Speaker 1: jobs and my friends would say, well, aren't you interviewing
Speaker 1: and I said, no, I'm going to work at William Morris.
Speaker 1: I said, I know how to type, and I could
Speaker 1: be attempt. I now know how to type, it can
Speaker 1: be attempt. I'm not going to take some job I
Speaker 1: don't want. I want to work. I want to work there. Okay,
Speaker 1: So now I'm finished with school and I go I
Speaker 1: actually now get to meet the head of personnel at
Speaker 1: William Morris and he says to me that, um that
Speaker 1: I need a connection, that you really need to know
Speaker 1: someone to get into the program. So I kept saying
Speaker 1: to my parents, don't you know someone? You must know someone,
Speaker 1: And finally they realized that the cantor at my temple
Speaker 1: was good friends with this guy named Lee Solomon. And
Speaker 1: Lee Solomon was a personal appearance agent. In fact, when Kathie,
Speaker 1: Lee and Regis were on, they used to refer to
Speaker 1: him and sometimes you'd see him. He's a guy, you know,
Speaker 1: slick back hair. I think that, yeah, a flower in
Speaker 1: his pocket, very slick. And he booked, you know, for
Speaker 1: Atlantic City in Las Vegas. So I mean, it's not
Speaker 1: when everyone says to me, oh, the cantor your temple,
Speaker 1: but our temple was very small, and I had gone
Speaker 1: to Yeshiva, which is a Hebrew day school, when I
Speaker 1: was younger, so I knew Hebrew pretty fluently. By time.
Speaker 1: It was my Bob Mitzvah, and so I was the
Speaker 1: best student he ever had. I was his prize student.
Speaker 1: It was like a breeze compared to everyone else. So
Speaker 1: I knew the cantor pretty well. It wasn't that bizarre. Um.
Speaker 1: So I met with him for like five minutes, lease Solomon,
Speaker 1: and he said okay, and then I was put through
Speaker 1: the process and it was to me, three different agents
Speaker 1: and they question you and then you start So what
Speaker 1: is it about the mail room? I mean, it's such
Speaker 1: a path to kind of get your foot in the door.
Speaker 1: Why mail room? Is it just because it's the sort
Speaker 1: of entry position or is there something about the job
Speaker 1: specifically putting you in touch with people at the company constantly? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean at the time, it was it was what
Speaker 1: I should do, you know, I didn't know to be
Speaker 1: I didn't know anything else. Maybe a page program at
Speaker 1: one of the networks, but I just knew of that
Speaker 1: as an entryway, and I didn't know what it really entailed.
Speaker 1: I just knew that that's how you get in. And
Speaker 1: so you really do work in the mailroom. I really
Speaker 1: did work in the mail room. UM you read at
Speaker 1: that time, you could read all the all the emails,
Speaker 1: not all the emails, all the memos. And they also
Speaker 1: would um they would have all the meeting minutes. They
Speaker 1: would transcribe the minutes from all the meetings, the different meetings,
Speaker 1: whether it be from TV, talent, music, they all had
Speaker 1: their meetings and they were all too inscribed, so you
Speaker 1: could UM read the minutes. You could take home. You
Speaker 1: take home them. It's too hard to read all of
Speaker 1: them there, but you could take home the minutes, right,
Speaker 1: and that's how you learn. And then they also would
Speaker 1: for the who their clients were, they were in bold
Speaker 1: and a memo clients were in bold, so that's how
Speaker 1: you learned too the clients were as well. And then
Speaker 1: UM and then you would uh read scripts. And when
Speaker 1: you delivered mail like the you would try to get
Speaker 1: the card to be on the floor of what you
Speaker 1: wanted to get into. So if you wanted to get
Speaker 1: into music, you would take that card or books or
Speaker 1: whatever it was. So I wanted to be in UM
Speaker 1: in casting, I guess, and so I would take that
Speaker 1: car and then they'd ask you to read scripts sometimes
Speaker 1: the assistants and cover it so and then sometimes you'd
Speaker 1: fill in on a desk when somebody was out and
Speaker 1: it was really fun. I really enjoyed it. Um. But
Speaker 1: they didn't have women delivering packages, so that was good. Also,
Speaker 1: they didn't put us on the subway to deliver packages,
Speaker 1: so we stayed in the house. I mean sometimes you
Speaker 1: did little um runs of some sort, but nothing big.
Speaker 1: And then about six months, no really, about three or
Speaker 1: four months into working in the mail room, I get
Speaker 1: a message that the president of William Morris wants to
Speaker 1: meet with me. And I'm like, oh god, I know
Speaker 1: I put the mail in and I took the mail
Speaker 1: out certain of it. And so he um asked me
Speaker 1: if i'd like to work for him. That he had
Speaker 1: a regular secretary and she came into like eleven and
Speaker 1: he get in earlier. So, um, you know, when I
Speaker 1: come work, you know, and it's not like I can
Speaker 1: say no. So I was like, okay, it wasn't my
Speaker 1: ideal per se, because it wasn't a training desk. As
Speaker 1: he was the president, he didn't as many clients. It
Speaker 1: wasn't like I listened in on the phone calls. So um,
Speaker 1: in the morning, I would get there and he would
Speaker 1: call me from his apartment he was two blocks away,
Speaker 1: to ask me for breck, tell me what he wanted
Speaker 1: for breakfast. And at the time, unfortunately for me, the
Speaker 1: cook had quit, so I had to order it from
Speaker 1: the deli across the street, and then I would have
Speaker 1: to call down to the mail room to pick it
Speaker 1: up because I couldn't leave my desk, so they would
Speaker 1: bring it to me and then I would transfer it
Speaker 1: into China. But it was nothing. It was like toasting coffee.
Speaker 1: It was really not a big deal what he ordered. Um,
Speaker 1: And so how did I did that? And then I
Speaker 1: also read magazines and highlighted all the clients and the newspapers,
Speaker 1: and someone would come up and they'd see me reading
Speaker 1: people magazine like, oh my god. I said, no, this
Speaker 1: is my job. I have to do this and so um. Simultaneously, UM,
Speaker 1: I covered the visiting office that was next door, and
Speaker 1: that was when mostly board members from l A came
Speaker 1: into town and they used that office, so I worked
Speaker 1: for them. So I got to know people from l
Speaker 1: A because and high ranking people because um they were working,
Speaker 1: I was helping them. And also the chairman of William
Speaker 1: Mars was in that suite also, so I got to
Speaker 1: know him as well. Wow, so you get a job
Speaker 1: where you're sort of know all the inside ins and
Speaker 1: outs and then you ingratiate yourself to people by working
Speaker 1: hard and hustling, and that's that's how you do it. Well.
Speaker 1: Then I went to Mr Stevens and I said to him,
Speaker 1: because someone had someone had gotten a really good trainee job.
Speaker 1: It was actually on Kevin Eubane's desk, and I didn't
Speaker 1: have the opportunity and the girl, the girl who got
Speaker 1: it is actually one of my best friends now. But
Speaker 1: I despised her because she came from out. She came
Speaker 1: from not in the program at all, she just came
Speaker 1: from the outside and she got to be his assistant.
Speaker 1: So I said, I complained to Mr Stevens about it,
Speaker 1: that it wasn't fair and being at his desk, I'm
Speaker 1: not having those opportunities. So then he said, okay, I
Speaker 1: hear you, and then ultimately put me with a woman
Speaker 1: who is head of casting for talent for head of
Speaker 1: casting at the department. It's called how it was called
Speaker 1: talent casting, then it's called talent now. Now is that
Speaker 1: Did you get your start before you started producing in casting? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I wasn't really casting. You put together lists,
Speaker 1: but it was being It was being an assistant. And
Speaker 1: the thing about being an assistant at William Mars or
Speaker 1: at any of the agencies is that you really trained.
Speaker 1: You don't get training at production companies the same way
Speaker 1: you do at an agency. You learn, you see the
Speaker 1: whole big picture. When you're at a talent agency, you
Speaker 1: know who everybody is, You have everybody's phone number. Those
Speaker 1: are the days of you know, there's no computer or
Speaker 1: cell phone. I still have certain numbers memorized. I tell
Speaker 1: Susan by Mal, who's a manager. I said, I can
Speaker 1: still remember because she represented um Marissa Tomei, who I
Speaker 1: worked with a lot the client, and I still remember
Speaker 1: her phone number. There's some phone numbers that you just remember. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: Now we've talked a lot about on this show about
Speaker 1: and you know, my limited work in the film industry
Speaker 1: over the years. I used to p a and do
Speaker 1: art department stuff and the stuff you should know how
Speaker 1: a one season TV show, and I've tried to explain
Speaker 1: to people. I think there's a lot of confusion to
Speaker 1: general listeners and movie fans about what producer means because
Speaker 1: there's so many kinds of producers. My wife was a
Speaker 1: producer for a while. Kind of can you break down
Speaker 1: sort of a bird's eye view of some of the
Speaker 1: different kinds of producers and then ultimately what you did
Speaker 1: as a producer? Okay, well, um, there really are all
Speaker 1: different kinds of producers. When people want you to define
Speaker 1: what does a producer do? There are all different kinds
Speaker 1: of producers. And I think the number one thing about
Speaker 1: a producer is problem solving. That that's really a key,
Speaker 1: A key characteristic is problem solving. And um, I was
Speaker 1: an executive, but the way that my company operated was
Speaker 1: that we were very produced OIO. So we weren't like
Speaker 1: like they would they would call someone a suit. As
Speaker 1: an executive, we were in suits, we were in the
Speaker 1: we were in with them. We were in the trenches
Speaker 1: with the filmmakers and often guiding it much more so
Speaker 1: than a producer. Okay, we would take a lot of responsibility.
Speaker 1: So uh, for I think the best way I can
Speaker 1: I can give you examples of movies and what the
Speaker 1: producer did on this one or that one? Um, well,
Speaker 1: should we talk about the movie that we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about and how I could say that producer or
Speaker 1: do you want to wait? Let's wait on that one.
Speaker 1: But can we go through some of your other movies,
Speaker 1: because you've you've worked on some of the greatest movies
Speaker 1: that have ever been made and some of my favorite movies. Uh,
Speaker 1: And I did want to talk about Copland. I think
Speaker 1: that was James Mangold's first film, right, No, kate Leopold
Speaker 1: was no, Heavy was his first movie. Actually, that's right,
Speaker 1: that's right, Okay, with that he did, Yeah, then he
Speaker 1: did Copland and he did kate Leopold, right well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so for Copland, like, what did you do
Speaker 1: on that movie compared to other films? Well, on that movie,
Speaker 1: I had worked with the producers, Carrie Woods and Kathy Conrad.
Speaker 1: I'd done a bunch of movies with them before, so
Speaker 1: I was really sort of part of their team. And
Speaker 1: he had wanted I remember that, it's the things that
Speaker 1: you remember. So Jim had wanted Nick Cage for the part, okay,
Speaker 1: for the Stollane part. Yeah, Okay, that's what he wanted.
Speaker 1: He wanted Nick cage and I don't remember what happened.
Speaker 1: All I remember is that I've been in London on
Speaker 1: a movie and I came back to the office a
Speaker 1: Tribeca Film Center and I walked into a press a
Speaker 1: press um, what is it? A press press junk? No
Speaker 1: press conference, a press conference, and it they're sitting at
Speaker 1: it's being announced that Sylvester Stallone is playing the part.
Speaker 1: I didn't even know that was happening. And I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: I mean, ultimately Jim was very happy about it, but
Speaker 1: at the time I don't know how thrilled he was
Speaker 1: about it. Yeah, it ended up being a great part
Speaker 1: for still and here and you know, a lot of accolades.
Speaker 1: I think. I think he was pretty great in it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But I will say one of the worst part, one
Speaker 1: of the worst things about being in the movie business,
Speaker 1: at least for me, was research screenings. And we remember
Speaker 1: the first research screening we had. A research screening. I
Speaker 1: don't know if your audience knows, is when you recruit
Speaker 1: people to see a movie. When the movie's over and
Speaker 1: you don't do and when the movie is over, you
Speaker 1: passed out a questionnaire. People fill out a questionnaire and
Speaker 1: then you select about twenty people to be the focus group,
Speaker 1: and someone leads the focus group and uh, talk about
Speaker 1: how they feel about the movie, what they should do.
Speaker 1: I mean in New York City, it's like they're all
Speaker 1: they're all go to film school. Feels like they're telling
Speaker 1: us and it is the worst, worst part. It was
Speaker 1: the worst part by far. I think of what I
Speaker 1: did because like Slide was there for our first UM
Speaker 1: research screening and he was in UM. He was in Uh,
Speaker 1: I'm like losing my mind. He was in wearing something incognito.
Speaker 1: He was like incognito. So they start the focus group
Speaker 1: and the focus group is just tearing him apart. I
Speaker 1: thought I would die. It was talking about how bad
Speaker 1: he is. It's ridiculous and just going on and on.
Speaker 1: It's just so embarrassing. Oh my god, sitting and listening
Speaker 1: to that and that. And I've been down that road.
Speaker 1: I've been, Like I said, if I ever wrote a book,
Speaker 1: someone said it should be I've been in the parking
Speaker 1: lot with all of them, because you go into the
Speaker 1: parking lot while they're taking doing the questionnaire. You go
Speaker 1: into the parking lot, you know, so they don't see
Speaker 1: the person and then they sneak in when they do
Speaker 1: the when they do the focus group. So I've been
Speaker 1: in the parking lot with George Clooney, Sydney Paul. I've
Speaker 1: been in the parking lot with everyone, and it's very
Speaker 1: tense because they're worried about how it's going to be,
Speaker 1: and it's very very tense. So much power is put
Speaker 1: into that and so much goes into it's amazing, like
Speaker 1: they spend so much money on these movies, and then
Speaker 1: there's a room full of just movie goers kind of
Speaker 1: deciding the fate on some very important calls. I what
Speaker 1: I'll tell you, what I found is that if a
Speaker 1: movie doesn't score well, anything you do doesn't really bring
Speaker 1: up the score very much. But if a movie scores well,
Speaker 1: like Chicago scored really well, of course right now we
Speaker 1: could have made it score. It scored say, and there
Speaker 1: were a couple of things that we could do to
Speaker 1: take it to a hundred, and we did. We changed
Speaker 1: she re Renee rerecorded the last song um with more Heart,
Speaker 1: and there are a couple of little things we filled in,
Speaker 1: but it was basically it was basically that song and
Speaker 1: then just a couple of little things and it was
Speaker 1: we didn't need to do it, but it brought the
Speaker 1: movie over the top. And that's where I found it
Speaker 1: was only worth it if you have you know, like
Speaker 1: you have a an elephant, what do you say like
Speaker 1: a pig? You can't put lipstick on a pig. And
Speaker 1: I went through this so many times, so many times.
Speaker 1: It was just so aggravating, and it was really only
Speaker 1: the movies that worked, Yeah, that that really made sense
Speaker 1: to put more money into it. Well, I mean, you've
Speaker 1: got a great list of credits, but what do you
Speaker 1: I mean, surely you've been in this situation before where
Speaker 1: everyone knows that the movie is not good despite the
Speaker 1: best efforts. Like, what do you do in that situation? Cry? Really,
Speaker 1: it is so deflating, and you just and you and
Speaker 1: it's like beating you up. I mean, week after you know,
Speaker 1: you're doing all these screenings and speaking to these filmmakers,
Speaker 1: and it's just it's so demeaning and demoralizing. It really is.
Speaker 1: It's horrible. Let's talk more about Chicago, because that's a
Speaker 1: fantastic movie. It's one of my favorite movies and one
Speaker 1: of the movies that got me into musicals more than
Speaker 1: I ever had been. Um, what else can you you know,
Speaker 1: we all we all want to hear insider stories. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, there's a million of them with that one.
Speaker 1: Just give me one or two. Um, I mean, was
Speaker 1: it all? I'm sure it was a tough shoot when
Speaker 1: you're talking. It wasn't the shoot. It was putting it together.
Speaker 1: You know, it had been put together before and and
Speaker 1: and actually I was on maternity thankfully when it fell apart.
Speaker 1: But initially it was it was owned by this producer
Speaker 1: named Marty Richards. And Marty Richards was a very flamboyant
Speaker 1: theater producer who was married to Mary Lee Johnson of
Speaker 1: Johnson and Johnson. So she had she had been dead
Speaker 1: when we started the process. And he just threw money.
Speaker 1: He threw money in a lot of things. He had
Speaker 1: a beautiful apartment at the River River um terrorists, that
Speaker 1: was called the River Terrorists, I think, and he had
Speaker 1: the rights and he was piste off because um, the
Speaker 1: theater rights he did not have. So that kind of
Speaker 1: bugged him because it was doing really well. It ended up,
Speaker 1: you know, blowing up on Broadway and was playing and
Speaker 1: he didn't get anything from that. The Weissler's Barry Weisler
Speaker 1: actually one thing that was funny was that Barry Weisler
Speaker 1: came to us that he wanted to direct it. Meeting
Speaker 1: with him. Yeah, what, Marty wasn't there, And I'm sitting
Speaker 1: there the whole time while he was talking about and
Speaker 1: I thought, I mean, I'm not telling this to Marty.
Speaker 1: He'll go crazy, He'll go nuts. And the guy went nuts.
Speaker 1: Usually as it was, this was just like I'm laughing inside,
Speaker 1: like there's no way this is happening. But when we
Speaker 1: I saw it. I initially saw it when it was
Speaker 1: done City Center and they had just read it, you know,
Speaker 1: they used to do plays, and I had no idea
Speaker 1: what it was really about or what to do with it.
Speaker 1: And I was tasked with making a movie out of it,
Speaker 1: and I really had no idea what to do. And
Speaker 1: I would read the play over and over again and
Speaker 1: then read some background on it to get an idea
Speaker 1: of it. So what its statement was about about fame?
Speaker 1: So I learned. I really literally lad the play every
Speaker 1: week to see more and more of what was in it,
Speaker 1: and UM met with a lot of directors and writers.
Speaker 1: It was a very very one time. At one point
Speaker 1: at the beginning, Madonna and Goldie harn were attached. I
Speaker 1: think I knew Madonna was at one point. Yeah, which
Speaker 1: makes sense. And at that time one point, Stanley Donning,
Speaker 1: the legendary director Stanley Donna did Singing an the Rain
Speaker 1: directed Singing in the Rain and Charade. He was up
Speaker 1: for directing it, and we had had some meetings with him,
Speaker 1: and then I had to fly out to um to
Speaker 1: l A over Fourth of July weekend with him to
Speaker 1: meet with Madonna. And my grandmother was still alive. You
Speaker 1: talked about my grandmother told me all about movies, talked
Speaker 1: about movies all the time. And I called her and
Speaker 1: I said, I'm taking Stanley Donnin out to uh to
Speaker 1: l A to meet with Madonna for Chicago. And then
Speaker 1: I said something Stanley, and she goes. She said, that's disgusting.
Speaker 1: He's a star. He has to fly to her. And
Speaker 1: I said, I know, I know, it's just the way
Speaker 1: it is. And when I said something Stanley, I said,
Speaker 1: and he makes me call him Stanley, he won't let
Speaker 1: me call him Mr. Donnon. Wow, that's funny. That didn't
Speaker 1: work out. Um There was one point, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: there's so many incarnations of this. So we had done
Speaker 1: a movie called she's all that. Yeah. Course, and it
Speaker 1: was immensely successful for the company, and rob Iskov had
Speaker 1: directed it, so there was a thought that, you know,
Speaker 1: he should be doing He wanted to kind of do Chicago.
Speaker 1: We made the company a lot of money. Um, so
Speaker 1: he was given the job to direct it. It wasn't
Speaker 1: un universally UH agreed to unanimously. It wasn't met with
Speaker 1: great UH enthusiasm and then not through him. But we
Speaker 1: then hire Larry Gilbert to write it, or I think
Speaker 1: Larry was hired before. I can't remember. But Larry decided that, um.
Speaker 1: And you know Larry Gilbert, you know, he didn't he
Speaker 1: wrote mash he wrote he wrote on favorite show as
Speaker 1: a kid, Tutsie. He you know, he's done a lot
Speaker 1: and anyway, so Larry decided that he's not going to
Speaker 1: talk to Rob Biscoe. He's decided he's not talking Rob Biscoe.
Speaker 1: He then decides he's not talking to Marty Richards, the producer,
Speaker 1: nor is he talking to the head of my company.
Speaker 1: He's only going to talk to me. He decided. He's like,
Speaker 1: I'm only talking to And I said, Larry, I'm very flattered,
Speaker 1: but really like, this is not good for me. This
Speaker 1: is not helping me. And I was like, really, I like,
Speaker 1: we can hang out, but this is not really helping
Speaker 1: me at all. That part, that whole grouping disintegrated and um,
Speaker 1: and then Nick Heitner was going to direct it and this,
Speaker 1: and then he was going to have Charlie's in it,
Speaker 1: and I don't remember the other I think Charlie's was
Speaker 1: gonna play Roxy and Marty Richards had a relationship with
Speaker 1: Katherine Zeta Jones and she was going to play Valma.
Speaker 1: I was a matary leave, and I really took my
Speaker 1: maternity leave because I was setting a precedent for everybody
Speaker 1: following me that I really did not. I did the
Speaker 1: things I had to do, but I really took my
Speaker 1: maternity leave, and the whole thing blew up. I was
Speaker 1: not a part of it, thankfully. And so when I
Speaker 1: came back from maternity leave, we were on square one
Speaker 1: and I met with so many people. I met with
Speaker 1: David Fincher, I met with Robbie Bates, I met with
Speaker 1: Curtis Hansen. I mean just so many, so many people,
Speaker 1: and no one had a take that spoke to me
Speaker 1: at all. I didn't it just didn't feel it is
Speaker 1: a gut thing you're looking for. I mean, for me,
Speaker 1: it's a good thing. But when I hear it, you know,
Speaker 1: I just it just didn't sound. It just didn't feel right.
Speaker 1: And I was passing on all these pretty big people.
Speaker 1: And Robbie Bates was he still brings it up. I
Speaker 1: think that He's like, wow, you were brutal. When he
Speaker 1: gave me a sake, I was like, that's terrible. And Uh, Anyway,
Speaker 1: he acknowledged to me later on that the movie was
Speaker 1: great and he understands why. So Um, I got a
Speaker 1: call from an agent and I see um. And he
Speaker 1: said to me, and at that time, we had the
Speaker 1: rights to Rent, although we did not make I have
Speaker 1: nothing to do with the movie Rent. It ended up
Speaker 1: being sold. Had nothing to do with it, but we
Speaker 1: had bought it. I had bought it but didn't make it.
Speaker 1: And so he said to me, Um, would you meet
Speaker 1: with Rob Marshall. He just directed Cinderella on television? And uh,
Speaker 1: and I know an Annie. I'm sorry Robiscoe did Cinderella.
Speaker 1: He said, he just did Annie for television and I said, oh,
Speaker 1: I saw that. Um, it was pretty good. He goes,
Speaker 1: would you meet with him for Rent? So I said sure.
Speaker 1: So Rob wasn't big enough to come in for Chicago. Yeah, previously,
Speaker 1: and Chicago is going to be a big event movie.
Speaker 1: Whereas I think that Rent, we could take more of
Speaker 1: a more of a shot, a swing, you know, we
Speaker 1: could take a swing on that. So Rob comes in
Speaker 1: and he says to me, Uh, do you mind if
Speaker 1: I give you my take for Chicago? And I said sure,
Speaker 1: And he proceeds to tell me exactly how the movie opened,
Speaker 1: which is how the movie opened, and he said, you go,
Speaker 1: you go through her eye. You go through not renee,
Speaker 1: he said, you go through her eye and you see
Speaker 1: her on stage. I mean, he set the whole thing up,
Speaker 1: and he took me through the whole thing. And I said,
Speaker 1: that's it. That's so cool. And so when you hear it,
Speaker 1: you know it. Yeah, I guess. And Rob was so
Speaker 1: dynamic that I knew he could draw a talent like
Speaker 1: he's very charming, Like I knew that wouldn't be a problem.
Speaker 1: And also with us supporting it, you know, we could
Speaker 1: get the talent right. And you weren't worried about just
Speaker 1: the lack of experiences as a film director either. I
Speaker 1: don't know, I wasn't you know. I thought that this
Speaker 1: take was so amazing. Um, and he had the right
Speaker 1: sensibility and um. And then we interviewed different writers. I
Speaker 1: think it was four writers in Marty's house. I remember
Speaker 1: where a lot of action took place and um, and
Speaker 1: it turned out like Bill Bill Condon got the gig
Speaker 1: and it went. The script came in pretty great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's a movie. I will anytime I see
Speaker 1: it's playing, I will, I will turn it to that
Speaker 1: channel and I'll tell you what happened with Renee so
Speaker 1: so UM. So I had done. I had done a
Speaker 1: movie called Price Above Rubies with Renee and I became
Speaker 1: friendly with her on that movie. And um, and the
Speaker 1: first person we went to, uh, Reese Witherspoon. We went
Speaker 1: to and she said she couldn't sing. So now obviously
Speaker 1: with coal Miner's daughter, we found out that you can
Speaker 1: walk the line. Yeah, yeah, what did I say, daughter?
Speaker 1: Same same idea, Yeah, mark the line, which Jim Angel directed,
Speaker 1: and um. And then the other person they had to
Speaker 1: have like a real innocence to them. And we couldn't
Speaker 1: go to Kate Hudson because of the history with Goldie
Speaker 1: Hawn and I don't know. I don't know what. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know if we went to I
Speaker 1: don't know what if we went to Gwyneth or or not.
Speaker 1: But there weren't really any choices, and we had Katherine
Speaker 1: Zada Jones attached, and I said, you know, I can,
Speaker 1: I can. There are plenty of people who can play
Speaker 1: the part of Alma, you know, Michelle Peiffer. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of people who can play that part. But but
Speaker 1: this part, she had to be innocent. There was a
Speaker 1: lot to it. They had to be an innocence to it.
Speaker 1: And I felt that Renee would be perfect for the part.
Speaker 1: So I called her agent and she calls me back
Speaker 1: and she said, Renee, uh said she can't sing and dance.
Speaker 1: And I said, you know, um, I'll be judge that. No,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you something. This This sounds so pretentious, but
Speaker 1: we had made the movie Talented Mr Ripley, And when
Speaker 1: Anthony Manguela cast Jude Law and cast Matt, I said
Speaker 1: to him, how do you know they can sing? And
Speaker 1: he said, I if you act well enough, you can
Speaker 1: act singing well enough. And Matt stood in my mind.
Speaker 1: That stayed in my mind, and so she came back
Speaker 1: and said no, and this agent owed me a favor,
Speaker 1: and I said, I'm calling in my favor. I said, um,
Speaker 1: Renee has to come in and meet with Rob and
Speaker 1: just meet with him. That's the favorite. Just meet with him.
Speaker 1: And so she did and he worked with her dancing,
Speaker 1: and then on that we went to dinner at a
Speaker 1: place called West which is right near where I live now.
Speaker 1: And somehow Rob got her to sing Somewhere over the
Speaker 1: Rainbow and that was it, huh. And that was it,
Speaker 1: and we negotiated. At the time, there was so much
Speaker 1: business with her for oh and know so we've done
Speaker 1: Bridget Jones Sirey with her, uh huh, that Bridget Jones
Speaker 1: Diary two Cold Mountain in Chicago. It was a combined negotiation, right,
Speaker 1: And I literally was bereft. I was so I was like,
Speaker 1: I need her for the movie. I need her for
Speaker 1: the movie. I can do without, I can do with
Speaker 1: the other parts, but I need her to play that part. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's why she thanks me for the Cold Mountain.
Speaker 1: I didn't have anything to do with her being cast
Speaker 1: in Cold Mountain, but when she won the Oscar for
Speaker 1: Cold Mountain, she gave me a lot of props because
Speaker 1: of the because of the Chicago thing. You've been thanked
Speaker 1: on that Oscar stage quite a bit over the years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess so. Well, there are different levels of can't sing.
Speaker 1: You know, there are people who genuinely can't sing and
Speaker 1: I cannot sing tone deaf. And then if you get
Speaker 1: someone that can carry to him but maybe don't feel strong, uh,
Speaker 1: you can coach them up and get vocal coaches and
Speaker 1: sweeten it a bit and you can work with that,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, it worked out great. She was fantastic.
Speaker 1: She was absolutely fantastic. She was absolutely really she she
Speaker 1: was absolutely fantastic. Yeah. And Katherine's Ada Jones was someone
Speaker 1: I think I was sort of medium cool on until.
Speaker 1: I mean, I like tor Find but after Chicago I
Speaker 1: was just blown away. I was like, man, she has
Speaker 1: got the goods. I did not know that she could
Speaker 1: do that stuff. I didn't know she could dance and
Speaker 1: sing and uh. And Richard Gear and John c Riley.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was just Richard Gear was my idea. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I remember seeing um in the credits of a
Speaker 1: Pretty Woman that he had composed that piano tinkling that
Speaker 1: he had done, so it made me think that he
Speaker 1: was um musical okay. And then the funny thing is,
Speaker 1: so then we did Chicago and he and he learned
Speaker 1: how to dance and did all the dancing and he
Speaker 1: was really great to work with. And that's the most
Speaker 1: acclaim he's ever gotten, critical claim he's ever gotten for
Speaker 1: a part. And then we had the movie. I was
Speaker 1: working on the remake of Showy Dance, uh, and I
Speaker 1: went to him first, and of course at first he passes,
Speaker 1: which they all do. And I said, listen, Richard, I
Speaker 1: spent a lot of money on dance lessons for you.
Speaker 1: You owe me this. And his agent, who was the
Speaker 1: biggest agent in Hollywood, ed Lamotto at the time. I
Speaker 1: was so scared of him before because when I was
Speaker 1: an assistant at William Morris, he was scary and he
Speaker 1: had yelled at my friend. I never spoke to him,
Speaker 1: and every time, you know, there was a call that
Speaker 1: I was delegated, I was like, I can't call back
Speaker 1: at La Motto. I can't go back at La Matto.
Speaker 1: And the funny thing is that when we hired Richard,
Speaker 1: he would call me and and thank me. It was
Speaker 1: just so crazy. I couldn't believe Ed La motto. And
Speaker 1: I used to call my friend who I sat next
Speaker 1: to as an assistant at Willie Marson, I said, can
Speaker 1: you believe that? La Motto called me. I mean, I
Speaker 1: would say, can you believe at La Motto? And then
Speaker 1: when I spoke to him about Shawe Dance, he said,
Speaker 1: you make Richard do it. We'll make Richard do it.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was just mind blown. That's amazing. It's
Speaker 1: so cool to hear these stories because I think, I
Speaker 1: know people know it's tough to make movies, but I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone understands how tenuous it can be before
Speaker 1: those cameras start rolling on day one, and how it
Speaker 1: can just go away and fall apart, and really good
Speaker 1: projects with great people attached. Yeah, I mean that's I
Speaker 1: gave an interview and I would saying when I got
Speaker 1: into television, and when I had a TV show that
Speaker 1: was ordered, we had um Project Runway All Stars. It
Speaker 1: was a new version of Project Runway. I was in
Speaker 1: charge of it, and we were vera Wang pulled out
Speaker 1: a week before shooting. Oh my gosh. And someone's like, people,
Speaker 1: aren't you nervous? Like what are you gonna do? I said,
Speaker 1: I don't know someone's going to be in that chair.
Speaker 1: I said, it's not going to fall apart. Someone is
Speaker 1: going to be in that chair. And it's easier with
Speaker 1: that feeling like we'll find the person. It's going to
Speaker 1: be someone. Well, that's the producers do. My wife, we
Speaker 1: it's so funny. You can't stop producing. She hasn't done that.
Speaker 1: She runs her own business now, but she hasn't produced
Speaker 1: in fifteen plus years and she still produces everything. And
Speaker 1: we always laugh. I'm like, you'll always be the producer,
Speaker 1: no matter what the problem solver. And you know, it's
Speaker 1: great she's and I think many many women who work
Speaker 1: in as producers are scrappy and smart and get the
Speaker 1: job done and are just not to be fucked with.
Speaker 1: And that's who I married. Well, Kathy Conrad was one
Speaker 1: of those producers for sure. And I learned a lot
Speaker 1: from her. Yeah, because she came out of physical production.
Speaker 1: She knew a lot about physical production. Right now, what
Speaker 1: do you mean by that by physical production? She uh,
Speaker 1: the things that a line producer knows, um camera, also
Speaker 1: about VP, the camera, the days at a day, all
Speaker 1: the a lot of that stuff, all the money known
Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, And I learned a lot from her.
Speaker 1: That's so cool. Well, before we talk about Beautiful Girl
Speaker 1: some I do want to talk about your podcast project, um,
Speaker 1: which is really really wonderful. I heard you just got
Speaker 1: picked up for a season two. It's called Call Your Grandmother.
Speaker 1: And tell us about this idea and how it's been
Speaker 1: working on it and why podcasts. Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: I can't believe what a success it's become. It happens
Speaker 1: to be a huge success. We've been on the Apple
Speaker 1: homepage for two weeks, UM, so I'm really excited about
Speaker 1: I I can't believe it. And as a lot of
Speaker 1: projects I do, this came from my own personal life. UM,
Speaker 1: my mom is a big character. And someone had said
Speaker 1: to me, my my niece and my and my daughter
Speaker 1: had put together an Instagram account called illy Grammy Graham,
Speaker 1: which means I love you Grammy. They call a grammy
Speaker 1: gram and they put all the things of my mother's
Speaker 1: singing and dancing on the podcast on the Instagram. And
Speaker 1: someone had said to me, you know, your mother should
Speaker 1: really have a show. And I thought, all right, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not giving my mother a show. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to do that. But I started thinking about podcasts because
Speaker 1: podcasts were starting to take off, and I started to
Speaker 1: think about the popularity of Golden Girls and the Barber
Speaker 1: streisand kind of character the barb streisand kind of grandmother
Speaker 1: Jewish grandmother thing that people found that they love and
Speaker 1: there's an attraction to it. So I thought about all that,
Speaker 1: and I mean, I would really scrappy about it. My
Speaker 1: niece was home. She had taken a she deferred a
Speaker 1: year from college. I made her do a deck for me,
Speaker 1: put together a deck for me. I had an old
Speaker 1: intern help her do it, and I gave a lot
Speaker 1: of revisions. She saw me in a totally different light,
Speaker 1: my niece from that, instead of being Aunt Meryl yeah
Speaker 1: and deadline wannot And so I called um. I called
Speaker 1: the head of Serious who I had worked with before,
Speaker 1: and I said, I don't want to meet with you.
Speaker 1: I said, I want to meet with your podcast person
Speaker 1: and he said okay, and he set me up. And
Speaker 1: I said, to the guy, let me hear you know.
Speaker 1: I want to know everything about podcasts. I want to
Speaker 1: learn about how to and I asked a lot of
Speaker 1: questions and he gave me some background. So I said, okay,
Speaker 1: I said, I have I have a podcast for you.
Speaker 1: I said, I'm not going to show you my paper.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to show you. I just want you
Speaker 1: to listen to me. So I tell him about Graham.
Speaker 1: I give him a whole spiel about grandmothers and golden
Speaker 1: girls and and I said, there's something to be had
Speaker 1: for easy listening and not being so caught up into
Speaker 1: a thriller or being having to dedicate hours and hours
Speaker 1: that you know, if you're driving, it's a fun bite.
Speaker 1: And when after I told the whole thing, he said,
Speaker 1: and I was only Ellie Grammy Graham at the time,
Speaker 1: and he said, you know, I thought I heard every idea,
Speaker 1: but that is a great idea. I've never heard it.
Speaker 1: And I said, okay, you know, let me come back
Speaker 1: to you. So then I was having breakfast with my
Speaker 1: very good friend is the head of Spotify, don Ostro,
Speaker 1: and I don't think of her in terms of being
Speaker 1: the head of Spotify. I really think of her as
Speaker 1: my friend. But at the end I realized and I
Speaker 1: said to her, oh, by the way, I have a podcast,
Speaker 1: and I don't think you're gonna like it. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's gonna appeal to you. But if I sell it,
Speaker 1: I don't want you to think I didn't bring it
Speaker 1: to you. No, No, I said, I think I'm gonna
Speaker 1: sell it, and I don't want you to. So she said,
Speaker 1: we'll tell me what it is. So I told her.
Speaker 1: She goes, I love it. She said, can you bring
Speaker 1: it to my people and pitch it? And I said sure. So,
Speaker 1: um I did that and they really liked it, and
Speaker 1: I said, I'll come back to you. I wasn't committing
Speaker 1: to anyone. And then I was having dinner with my
Speaker 1: friend Mindy Grossman, uh, who's had of weight Watchers now,
Speaker 1: and I was telling her this and she said, I
Speaker 1: just met the most fabulous woman at my heart. She's
Speaker 1: the head of marketing. She's incredible. I want you to
Speaker 1: talk to her and I said okay. So she said,
Speaker 1: will you meet with somebody in my New York office
Speaker 1: and I said sure, and I met. I met with
Speaker 1: Man Guesh, and literally five minutes into the meeting, I said,
Speaker 1: I'm doing this with you. That's great. I thought he
Speaker 1: was amazing. Yeah, Man is great. Uh. You know one
Speaker 1: of my work buddies, and we were talking kind of
Speaker 1: offline before. One of the nicest guys you're ever going
Speaker 1: to meet. He is, like, don't be fooled. He is.
Speaker 1: I agree with that. He is super smart and not
Speaker 1: saying he can't be nice and smart, but he will.
Speaker 1: He will lull you into his charms with just what
Speaker 1: a kind of hearted soul he is. But he's really
Speaker 1: got his ship together and is super smart and awesome. Well,
Speaker 1: they actually bought two podcasts for me. I have to
Speaker 1: get working on my other podcast. Can you talk about
Speaker 1: that yet or no? Yeah, it's called how to Produce
Speaker 1: a Divorce. I had created the show girlf i Guide
Speaker 1: to Divorce. There's no book called Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce.
Speaker 1: I made that title up and and so it's not
Speaker 1: really talking about divorce. It's talking about putting together movies
Speaker 1: and talking about like I didn't know how to get divorced,
Speaker 1: so I thought about getting divorced like making a movie. So, um,
Speaker 1: when you hire a lawyer, it's like hiring a director, um,
Speaker 1: and so like that. So I can talk about the
Speaker 1: movies that I've done and how it relates to that.
Speaker 1: Very interesting, but I have to I have to. I
Speaker 1: have to get onto that call. Your grandmother is great.
Speaker 1: I understand that you've been renewed. Now for season two,
Speaker 1: which is super exciting. It is exciting, and we get
Speaker 1: to go right away because my stars are so uh yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't have any time to waste, although they're going
Speaker 1: to be around a very long time. I guarantee you
Speaker 1: that they're incredible. I always say I say that they're
Speaker 1: my best talent I've ever worked with, because you know what,
Speaker 1: They're always available and they always say yes. They never
Speaker 1: say no. Oh, I love it, and I bet they're excited,
Speaker 1: and it's just what a kick for them. Yeah, they are.
Speaker 1: They said that during this time they were so isolated
Speaker 1: that they couldn't see their family and that this has
Speaker 1: been the greatest experience. They're so thankful. They're incredibly respectful
Speaker 1: to the team. At my heart, really sweet and uh
Speaker 1: they're always on there. Really it's it's incredibly the most
Speaker 1: dynamic personalities. That is so cool. My wife's uh, my
Speaker 1: grandmother in law is a hundred Oh my god. This
Speaker 1: year I had her hundredth birthday and I can't hear
Speaker 1: great but as sharp as attacks still, which is really cool.
Speaker 1: So she's have your your wife close to her? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: really close. Have her listened to the last episode of
Speaker 1: Call Your Grandmother it's it's so tough, it's so great,
Speaker 1: and it's not the one with my mother. It's really great.
Speaker 1: How many episodes are in the season six and then
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're putting together a bonus episode. Okay, cool, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's I think the show that listeners to
Speaker 1: this show will really love It's it's so easy to
Speaker 1: listen to. It's so relatable. You learn about lives. You know.
Speaker 1: One of the questions I had asked is where were
Speaker 1: you when Franklin Roosevelt died? Not John Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt.
Speaker 1: And it was so interesting. You know. One grandmother had
Speaker 1: said that she didn't understand because her whole life he
Speaker 1: had been president and no one knew of a different
Speaker 1: another president because he'd been in term almost for it
Speaker 1: was going on his fourth umb Yeah, yeah, yes, fourth term. So, um,
Speaker 1: there's that. I think that there there's want to be
Speaker 1: Their joy of life is very apparent. Um. I think
Speaker 1: that they feel badly about kids today, teenagers today. That
Speaker 1: and there's one line that um, a grandmother had said
Speaker 1: that for women that it was much easier because they
Speaker 1: knew what their role was. It was very well to fine.
Speaker 1: Interesting Yeah, that's really interesting to consider. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's it's it's a great history lesson, and that's part
Speaker 1: of what I wanted to I wanted to UM bring
Speaker 1: forth because I know in my family that you learned
Speaker 1: about UM historical based on your ancestors. It's it was
Speaker 1: very tied in and you know, it's it was so universal.
Speaker 1: And I knew this was going to be the case
Speaker 1: that I had I asked them, had asked them the
Speaker 1: question was post how did you feel about your grandmother?
Speaker 1: Every single one of them said, oh, my grandmother was
Speaker 1: an old lady. And they said, and I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: trust me sixty what I'm talking about, but she was
Speaker 1: an old in the fifties, even she was such an
Speaker 1: old lady. Yeah, it's that perspective. And I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people have. You know, I lost my grandparents
Speaker 1: largely when I was in elementary and high school, so
Speaker 1: I wasn't you know, I was close to them, but
Speaker 1: I just I so wish I could speak to them
Speaker 1: as an adult now with that perspective. And uh, and
Speaker 1: I think your show is a little bit of a
Speaker 1: conduit to that for people that didn't get to do that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people have been It brings them closer. You know, when
Speaker 1: someone's left you the more when you talk about them,
Speaker 1: it makes you feel close to them. Or when something
Speaker 1: is brought up it's it's not you know, some people
Speaker 1: are under the myth they think that, oh, if you
Speaker 1: bring up someone who's died, it's sad for them, but
Speaker 1: it's not. Really. They like talking. I mean, I know
Speaker 1: how I feel that you want to talk about the person. Yeah, absolutely, Um,
Speaker 1: all right, so we can move on to Beautiful Girls.
Speaker 1: What we usually do on the show is sort of
Speaker 1: deep dive on someone's favorite all time movie. But since
Speaker 1: we were having you in, you had the great idea
Speaker 1: of talking about kind of your favorite movie that you
Speaker 1: actually worked on, but it's my favorite movie altogether. Also,
Speaker 1: of course, is it okay? I watched it against the morning?
Speaker 1: And what about this movie made it your favorite work experience? Well,
Speaker 1: it was my favorite work experience because we were all
Speaker 1: about the same age. Demi was the director, head was
Speaker 1: the funnest, funnest guy ever. Matt Dylan was my heart
Speaker 1: throb from high school of course all of our right so,
Speaker 1: and Lauren Holly was my age and Tim Hutton was
Speaker 1: really fun. He was really he really Uh, he's a
Speaker 1: real character. Tim and I mean all the casts we
Speaker 1: were just all around the same age. Uma Thurman and
Speaker 1: Michael Rappaport and Mira Sorvino, Rosie O'Donnell and Abeth Gish,
Speaker 1: Martha Plimpton, Noah Emerick is so underrated. Well this was
Speaker 1: was first moving, was it really? Yeah? It was supposed
Speaker 1: to be Oliver Platt and then he couldn't do it,
Speaker 1: and then we cast a no Namer named Noah Emmer.
Speaker 1: He's such a good actor. I don't think he's a
Speaker 1: nice guy to but I mean right down the line,
Speaker 1: even like Pruett, Taylor, Vince and Matt's Purlick. In these
Speaker 1: little parts, like everyone was a person that you know
Speaker 1: and like a recognizable face. And I'd love to talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about the Yes, Sam Robards, what was
Speaker 1: casting like for that movie? I felt like I did
Speaker 1: the casting hand in hand with um Carrie Woods was
Speaker 1: the producer and Kathy Conrad was the producer, and Ted
Speaker 1: and myself, and that's how it really kind of had
Speaker 1: Marjorie Simpkin. I can't believe Marjorie Simpkin was the casting director,
Speaker 1: and I think, well, she must have brought forward Noah
Speaker 1: Um and I remember making the deal for for all
Speaker 1: those actors. It was with a guy who was a
Speaker 1: lawyer at the time named Billy Rose. He was the
Speaker 1: production lawyer. He then became an agent at U T A.
Speaker 1: And now he's like a real estate mobile, I think.
Speaker 1: And he and I would make those deals together. And
Speaker 1: I remember it was schedule left. It was called, which
Speaker 1: was fifty dollars that they all got scheduled left, uh schule.
Speaker 1: I so clearly remember that I got them all blankets, um,
Speaker 1: heavy blankets with beautiful girls embroidered on it, which they loved.
Speaker 1: And um. We were holed up at the Hyatt Hotel
Speaker 1: in Minneapolis and yeah, my daughter's popping in here. Sorry,
Speaker 1: that's okay, and um and we would all have dinner together.
Speaker 1: It was very, very cold. There was one instance when
Speaker 1: we were shooting the scene on the ice skating rink
Speaker 1: with Natalie and it was so cold out, it was freezing,
Speaker 1: and I was standing next to a heater, a portable heater,
Speaker 1: and my um my jacket went up in flames, like
Speaker 1: like feathers coming out everywhere. Yeah, and I was so mortified,
Speaker 1: you know, as the studio exact um, having my jacket,
Speaker 1: you know, being on a set like like The City
Speaker 1: Girl Come to the Country or Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 1: the other thing that happens to in a movie like
Speaker 1: this is one of the most fun things that can
Speaker 1: happen when you're working on a even the TV commercial
Speaker 1: is when you go to sort of a smaller town
Speaker 1: and you stayed in mane it and you just sort
Speaker 1: of take it over and descend upon this this town. Um,
Speaker 1: that's a lot of fun going on location like that,
Speaker 1: I imagine. Yeah, I mean I went to the Mall
Speaker 1: of America with Tim once. I remember the largest it
Speaker 1: was the largest mall in the country. But we really
Speaker 1: didn't leave the hotel that much because it was really cold. Yeah. Hey, kiddo,
Speaker 1: I told you couldn't interrupt this one. Okay, sorry, can
Speaker 1: you go upstairs give me kiss upstairs? All right? Or
Speaker 1: stay down here and to speak quiet? Sorry about that.
Speaker 1: I got one of those, okay, two of them. Actually
Speaker 1: get there older. I have a girl and a boy. Okay, Um, well,
Speaker 1: actually I always think about uh, I know, I can
Speaker 1: figure out what a movie was by where what happened
Speaker 1: with my kids? I mean, in my life, I got
Speaker 1: I met my husband at the ex husband during Copland,
Speaker 1: I got engaged. During Price Above Rubies, I got UM.
Speaker 1: I was pregnant with my daughter during Cider House Rules,
Speaker 1: which was really freaky, and I was first and I was, yeah,
Speaker 1: they thought that I was in this, and when I
Speaker 1: was on location, they thought I was in it. And
Speaker 1: I gave birth to my son while we were making Chicago. Wow.
Speaker 1: So it's sort that serves as the timeline for your life.
Speaker 1: Totally my timeline. That's so cool. Um. One of the
Speaker 1: things I also wanted to talk about with Beautiful Girls
Speaker 1: was just executive in charge of production? Is what your
Speaker 1: title is listed as? And right, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: You're just they're kind of at all times overseeing everything.
Speaker 1: You know. A lot of the titles are kind of
Speaker 1: we're kind of made up whatever you wanted them to be. Um.
Speaker 1: I Carrie Carrie Woods was the producer UM and Carrie
Speaker 1: produced Kids, he produced Rudy, he produced So I married
Speaker 1: an axe murderer before and Carrie I knew when I
Speaker 1: was an assistant at William Morris. He was a visiting agent.
Speaker 1: Remember I said I worked for visiting agents. He was
Speaker 1: a visiting agent that I worked for. And so I
Speaker 1: knew him from that and I just didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I learned a lot about being a production executive from
Speaker 1: him and um and so I guess I don't know
Speaker 1: how my title came up for that, because that's the
Speaker 1: only I don't. I think I have that credit on
Speaker 1: some other movies, but in the end end credits, but
Speaker 1: not the way it is on this movie. Um, but
Speaker 1: You're in the weeds basically. I was definitely in the
Speaker 1: weeds on this one. Definitely, very much so. Scott Rosenberg,
Speaker 1: the writer we uh we did things to do in
Speaker 1: Denver when You're dead, um, And Scott has a big
Speaker 1: personality and he was on set every day. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just personalities that are very warm and inviting. And
Speaker 1: Joel Stillman was Ted's producing partner, who's a great guy,
Speaker 1: and he was a producer on the on the movie. UM.
Speaker 1: Ted was friends with um Greg the singer Greg Dully.
Speaker 1: Yeah he died? Oh did he? Greg Dolly? I might
Speaker 1: be I might be wrong, but I think so Afghan Wiggs,
Speaker 1: like or the barber end in this movie, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought I recognized him. Um, Matt Dylan, he's alive,
Speaker 1: by the way. I just had to look okay, sorry, Vakota, Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Um So, Matt Dylan is sort of an intematic, enigmatic guy,
Speaker 1: and he's always somehow maintained to this private life that
Speaker 1: is sort of unmatched in Hollywood. I don't want you
Speaker 1: to betray anything, but what's he what's he kind of
Speaker 1: like as a dude. I mean, I really like I
Speaker 1: think that I'm always going to sort of that crush
Speaker 1: from a far thing with Matt. And actually, when we
Speaker 1: were on set, I mean we're all young. I was single,
Speaker 1: and Ted goaded me to go into um, Matt's trailer.
Speaker 1: He's like, you know you want to, you know you
Speaker 1: want to make out with him, you know you want to,
Speaker 1: and he just goaded me that I don't. I went,
Speaker 1: I started, I went into his trailer, and Matt started
Speaker 1: walking towards me. I was like, I can't do this.
Speaker 1: I'm too professional. He still kind of teases me till
Speaker 1: this day about that. Yeah, you should have made out
Speaker 1: with Matt Dylan. I know, I know, but I was,
Speaker 1: you know, I was young at the time. I wanted
Speaker 1: to be I was so professional. I wouldn't do that. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: of course, I think that was probably the right call.
Speaker 1: He even wrote something on the poster, the one sheet
Speaker 1: to me about free the Beast any And the funny
Speaker 1: thing was, I was on the street a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago with my daughter and we ran into Matt
Speaker 1: and she had just seen The Outsiders and she was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god. She couldn't believe when he said a
Speaker 1: low and this and that. Um. So, you know, my
Speaker 1: favorite moment in that movie is when he and Uma
Speaker 1: see Che's in the car and UMA's walking by, walking
Speaker 1: home at night, and she says, you know, I'm easy.
Speaker 1: It only takes three words. And she says good night,
Speaker 1: sweet girl, and she walks away and Matt looks in
Speaker 1: the mirror with that face and he says, good night,
Speaker 1: sweet girl. I mean, I mean every time, that just
Speaker 1: completely melts me. Yeah, that's a good scene. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's a movie that I love the sort of I
Speaker 1: love movies where you can't go home again kind of
Speaker 1: plot line, and in the people in a small place
Speaker 1: that are kind of stuck and the one person that
Speaker 1: manages to get out and they come back and how easily, um,
Speaker 1: they fall right back into that place. You know, as
Speaker 1: soon as Willie comes home he's he's right back in there.
Speaker 1: He's not the city guy anymore. He's getting drunk with
Speaker 1: his friends every night at the same bars. And uh,
Speaker 1: I really just of that kind of movie for some reason.
Speaker 1: What's sort of a precursor Entourage. Also, I think that
Speaker 1: there's some qualities, some qualities in there, but um, it's
Speaker 1: I think, you know, he never really says it's Scott,
Speaker 1: but it is somewhat semi auto autobiographical. Really. Yeah. Rosie
Speaker 1: O'Donnell has that great scene too, and it made me
Speaker 1: sort of miss her as an actor. And I think
Speaker 1: she she could have been so huge, and you know,
Speaker 1: she had a good career as an actor, but I
Speaker 1: think when she was in the right role, she could
Speaker 1: just do anything. And and you know she went into
Speaker 1: TV and all that. But when I when I saw
Speaker 1: this last night or this morning, I was just like, man,
Speaker 1: she was fantastic. Well it's like the part was written
Speaker 1: for her. Yeah. But um I did another movie with
Speaker 1: her after that called Wide Awake, where she played and none.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, um, and she was she was really good
Speaker 1: in that too. Uh. Who else didn't want to talk
Speaker 1: about I'll tell you something. So we did the one
Speaker 1: sheet for that movie for beautiful Girls. They had made
Speaker 1: her face thinner. Oh really, and she and she would
Speaker 1: not have it, and she saw it, she would not
Speaker 1: have it. Did they change her? Yeah, they had to
Speaker 1: change about it for her. I love that. And then
Speaker 1: and it's sort of a smallish part. Emma Thurman signs
Speaker 1: on and this was kind of, um, well that was
Speaker 1: Scott's dream. Yeah, And it was very very hard to
Speaker 1: make her schedule work. It was really hard because everyone
Speaker 1: was coming in and out with the schedule and she
Speaker 1: had to be boarded in such a way that she
Speaker 1: could finish her part. I remember, I remember very clearly
Speaker 1: that it had to be someone like her, Like I
Speaker 1: can't imagine anyone else in that role, because this person
Speaker 1: comes into town. One of the themes of the movie
Speaker 1: is just through Michael Rappaport is sort of this obsession
Speaker 1: with beautiful women and models and uh and then you know,
Speaker 1: she kind of sweet sweeps into town and takes everyone's
Speaker 1: breath away. M hmm. Yeah. Yeah, she was perfect for it,
Speaker 1: but it was it took a lot to get her,
Speaker 1: not to get her, agree, it was it took a lot.
Speaker 1: Took a lot to get her for the part. There
Speaker 1: was so much. It was after polpe fiction. Oh okay, sure,
Speaker 1: So it wasn't easy to make all of that happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know it's funny because I did. I don't
Speaker 1: think I think that Michael had done zebra Head before
Speaker 1: he did Beautiful Girls. I think so, And then I
Speaker 1: had done Um. I did Copland with him and Paul
Speaker 1: Bearer with him. I said a lot of time with Michael,
Speaker 1: and he was young, you know when I first met him.
Speaker 1: I've met him a couple of times. I don't think
Speaker 1: of him the way everyone else does. I don't think.
Speaker 1: I only think of him as from those days. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, he's a cool guy. He's he's super nice guy.
Speaker 1: I met him at a podcasting one time, and I
Speaker 1: liked him a lot. I thought he was super cool.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm working so now I just um option
Speaker 1: Steve Madden's biography Steve Madden The Shoe Guys had a
Speaker 1: crazy life, and Michael's attached to play the part is
Speaker 1: based on Steve, but it's not gonna be all Steve
Speaker 1: and Michael's going to play that part. Oh cool, So
Speaker 1: getting back together, yeah, I mean, and that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's a big project for him. Well, I think we're
Speaker 1: all lucky and it'd be fun to work together. It's
Speaker 1: perfect for it. I mean. The cute thing was that
Speaker 1: Natalie Portman because Natalie was thirteen years old when we
Speaker 1: did it, Okay, I was curious, So she was twelve actually,
Speaker 1: and she invited a couple of people that are about Mitzvah.
Speaker 1: And when we had big dinners together, her mother would
Speaker 1: be at the dinner. It was hard, you know. Her
Speaker 1: mother balanced it very very well. She really did, because
Speaker 1: her kid was younger than every It was. It just
Speaker 1: it just was handled really well well that she wasn't
Speaker 1: made to feel like a little girl, but she It
Speaker 1: was just everyone was super appropriate. Um. It's funny because
Speaker 1: all the people in Hollywood it was known as like
Speaker 1: the cool set to go to. So agents came there
Speaker 1: and they just hung out. They just wanted to be round.
Speaker 1: It was just a cool set, fund set to be on.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, just because of that amazing cast and Ted
Speaker 1: really said a great tone. Ted was a very unique person,
Speaker 1: very unique. What a how many movies had he done
Speaker 1: at this point he'd done the ref and that was
Speaker 1: such a good movie. I think that's it, really, man.
Speaker 1: I always forget that we lost him. That's just I
Speaker 1: don't I definitely don't. Died. He died the night before
Speaker 1: my son's bristly, seven days after my son was born,
Speaker 1: and I got a phone call and they said Ted died.
Speaker 1: I said, Ted, Who. I just couldn't believe it. What
Speaker 1: a talent, and you know, what a talent. What a
Speaker 1: great guy, great guy, unique guy. No one is like Ted,
Speaker 1: No one was like Ted. Was just something else, a
Speaker 1: whole other kind of person. What was he like as
Speaker 1: a director, Like what what? What magic did he ing?
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know what kind of magic? He
Speaker 1: was just such a great guy and the way he
Speaker 1: brought everyone together. I can't really say I wasn't involved.
Speaker 1: I really didn't think about that at that time. I
Speaker 1: was young, you know, and I had other things to do.
Speaker 1: Once he was hired. It wasn't me who necessarily hired him.
Speaker 1: I did know him because he had worked at MTV
Speaker 1: with a really good friend of mine from college. But um,
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't know about
Speaker 1: that yet. I wasn't. I wasn't that um savvy at
Speaker 1: that point about things like that. But I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's one of the biggest parts of the job of
Speaker 1: a director, right is your personality and managing personalities and
Speaker 1: bringing people together. Yeah yeah, I mean Rob Marshall has
Speaker 1: that quality for sure as well. Definitely. Well, I know
Speaker 1: I've kept you for a while. Do you have any
Speaker 1: other thoughts on Beautiful Girls or anything else? Um? You
Speaker 1: know they were going to It's so sad because we
Speaker 1: were making the movie Flirting with Disaster at the same
Speaker 1: time as we were making Beautiful Girls. We discovered that
Speaker 1: on the show what that we were doing that at
Speaker 1: the same time, Flirting with Disaster. That was Michael ian
Speaker 1: Black's favorite. Yeah, yeah, I heard him. But we made that.
Speaker 1: And actually we've been speaking to Ben Stiller about directing
Speaker 1: Beautiful Girls, and he said that he wanted to be
Speaker 1: in Flirting with Disaster. Um, yeah, okay. If you had
Speaker 1: said to me that Verdon with Disaster is going to
Speaker 1: be a way bigger, a bigger hit than Beautiful Girls,
Speaker 1: no one would believe it. For Girls was the project
Speaker 1: and what really heard us and I've learned a lesson.
Speaker 1: And actually, when my heart came to me and they
Speaker 1: said that they wanted to change the title of my
Speaker 1: show from Billy grahmmy Graham to call your grandmother. I
Speaker 1: was like shore and they were shocked that I was
Speaker 1: so acquiescent. And the reason I learned was on Beautiful Girls, Uh,
Speaker 1: about two weeks before we're supposed to open, they wanted
Speaker 1: to change the name because Show Girls had come out
Speaker 1: not long before it, and all the creative people UM
Speaker 1: wouldn't um. I wouldn't give into it, and they should
Speaker 1: have should me too. What I had so much? What
Speaker 1: was the title going to be? I don't know what
Speaker 1: the new title was going to be, they didn't say,
Speaker 1: but just the notion of changing it from Beautiful Girls,
Speaker 1: I just couldn't. We couldn't fathom it. And it's stupid
Speaker 1: because what the thing is titled is no reflection really
Speaker 1: on the content. It's the marketing to get people to
Speaker 1: see it or listen to it. And I learned that
Speaker 1: lesson interesting. Well, maryl this has been great. Thank you
Speaker 1: for taking the time. We don't think the people of
Speaker 1: your caliber on this show much. Thanks sharing that that
Speaker 1: insight for for all this big time Hollywood stuff. It's
Speaker 1: my pleasure. I love talking about that movie. I have
Speaker 1: to say it was a great time. It really was,
Speaker 1: and I love what it turned out. Well, thank you.
Speaker 1: It's just fantastic, thank you, thank you so much. And yeah,
Speaker 1: we're in for a new season of Call Your Grandmother,
Speaker 1: and everyone should really check it out. It's it's a
Speaker 1: it's a really special special show and it's not a
Speaker 1: major commitment like it's twenty five minutes an episode. Yeah,
Speaker 1: totally agree, very very cool episode if you can. If
Speaker 1: you don't, you listen to an episode and don't like it,
Speaker 1: you're I don't know, you're a little you're a little
Speaker 1: dead inside. All right, Well you said it not men.
Speaker 1: All right, thanks, all right, take care, thank you, bye.
Speaker 1: All right, everyone, I hope you enjoyed that. I gotta
Speaker 1: tell you, I could talk to Meryl all day long
Speaker 1: and just basically listen to stories about the movies that
Speaker 1: she's worked on. I love this stuff. I love hearing
Speaker 1: insider stories about movies in Hollywood. And I just put
Speaker 1: it in, put it right in my neck, everybody. Maybe
Speaker 1: she'll come on again one day, who knows, Maybe I
Speaker 1: can take her to lunch one day when I'm in
Speaker 1: New York. Who knows. She's a very nice person and
Speaker 1: uh a force to be reckoned with in in production
Speaker 1: and I'm so glad that she has decided to do
Speaker 1: her podcast All Your Grandmother with us at I Heart.
Speaker 1: It's a super cool addition to our roster and I
Speaker 1: hope to get to meet her in person one day.
Speaker 1: She's awesome. So big thanks to Merril for coming on
Speaker 1: check out her show. Season two was just announced that
Speaker 1: it was renewed, so more great Granny's come in your way.
Speaker 1: And uh, I hope you enjoyed the show. And until
Speaker 1: next time, take care of yourselves and go watch one
Speaker 1: of merril Posters great movies. Go watch Chicago again. That's
Speaker 1: my advice. Movie. Crash is produced and written by Charles
Speaker 1: Bryant and Merl Brown, edited and engineered by Seth Nicholas Johnson,
Speaker 1: and scored by Noel Brown here in our home studio
Speaker 1: at pont City Market, Atlanta, Georgia. For I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.