This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by senior entertainment reporter Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox each week, sign up for it here.
This week:
- Stanning Amy Schumer.
- Stanning Jennifer Coolidge.
- Stanning Grey Poupon.
- Stanning Tony Danza.
- Stanning Tinky Winky.
Jennifer Coolidge’s “Holiday Pour” Is All I Think About Now
I haven’t seen The Watcher, but I am still confident in proclaiming Jennifer Coolidge’s character, a real estate agent named Karen, the best thing that’s been on television this year.
The horror series is based on a New York magazine article about a couple who bought a house in New Jersey (that’s not the scary part) and begins to receive unsettling letters from someone who calls themselves “The Watcher” (the scary part). The couple never moved into the house and the article doesn’t solve the mystery of who sent the letters—a bummer!—but the series fictionalizes what would have happened if they did.
It is, as friends and colleagues have told me, not entirely a mess, which is surprising given Ryan Murphy’s track record at Netflix. And Coolidge apparently steals the show, which, let’s be honest, is not a surprise at all.
Given the clip of her in the show that’s gone viral—and changed my life completely—it’s easy to understand why.
In the scene, she is having lunch at a country club. The waitress pours her a glass of white wine. Before she walks away, Coolidge’s Karen calls her back. She’s going to need an extra “holiday pour,” she explains. A holiday pour! This is entertainment as a public service.
What is a “holiday pour” of wine? Let me explain what I learned after reading an article titled “What Is a ‘Holiday Pour’ of Wine?”
According to the article, it is a glass of wine that is filled to the brim. It is the kind of serving you enjoy while on holiday, “when you don’t have to get up in the morning.” I would counter that it is the kind of serving you enjoy while living your damn life on a Tuesday or Wednesday in this rotten hellscape of a world we’re in. It’s 2022, babe. Every day needs a holiday pour. (But I understand the sentiment.)
I am immensely grateful whenever Jennifer Coolidge is on my television screen. I am even more thankful when she is on my screen delivering a line about food and/or beverages that I will immediately incorporate into my own vocabulary. Do you “look like the Fourth of July?” Well, it “makes me want a hot dog real bad.” And I’m going to need a “holiday pour” of wine to wash it down.
Breaking News in the Special Salad Saga
If you have eight or nine hours in your day, please contact me so that I can discuss the story of Olivia Wilde, Jason Sudeikis, and the “special salad” with the depth and specificity that the topic deserves.
In lieu of that, know that exes Wilde and Sudeikis apparently got in a fight once because she was making her “special salad”—with her famous dressing that Sudeikis felt an apparent intense, emotional connection to—for her new beau Harry Styles. The internet tracked down a recipe that Wilde made once on the Food Network, and then the actress-director sent the Great Special Salad Saga of 2022 into overdrive by posting a screenshot of Nora Ephron’s Heartburn that had a recipe for a vinaigrette that, we can all assume, she used.
That was all an appetizer—the salad course, if you will—to my favorite twist in the drama. My colleague Fletcher Peters made a video and wrote a post about making the salad dressing herself (as Ephron says, everything is content!) and was immediately contacted by the director of communications at Kraft Heinz on behalf of Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard. Yes, Grey Poupon’s got a publicist.
“Grey Poupon Has Entered the Chat,” the email’s subject line read. (Phenomenal subject line. No notes.) Following its starring role in Wilde and Ephron’s recipe, the mustard is releasing a limited edition jar, with a name inspired by the title of Wilde’s new movie: “Don’t Worry Dijon.”
Just outstanding. I love it so much.
The Boss Is Back
It is very meaningful that, after a polarizing first season, the Sex and the City sequel series And Just Like That… has chosen to fully embrace absolute chaos. Case in point: this new casting news that I 100 percent endorse.
It was announced this week that Tony Danza will play Che Diaz’s father in the sitcom about their life. In the Season 1 finale, in which Che revealed they are moving to Los Angeles to shoot the TV series, they said what seemed like a throwaway line of dialogue but then became a casting imperative: “Tony Danza is coming in to read for my father. He’s not Mexican or Irish, but he is Tony Danza.”
Damn straight he’s Tony Danza. It is high time for the Danzaissance.
I’m Weirdly Thrilled This Kids Show Is Returning
My king gets to keep his purse! I am already exhausted by the inevitable discourse around the Teletubbies reboot, which hasn’t even premiered yet. (It debuts Nov. 14, which gives Tucker Carlson weeks to prep his tirade against Tinky Winky.)
What to watch this week:
The Banshees of Inisherin: If Colin Farrell doesn’t get his Oscar nod, we ride at dawn. (Now in theaters)
Aftersun: King of tender, moody brooding, Paul Mescal, broods tenderly and moodily. (Now in theaters)
Acapulco: This is a really fun series that flew under the radar in its first season. Rectify that for Season 2! (Now on Apple TV+)
What to skip this week:
Black Adam: Bold decision to cast the Rock as a superhero and strip him of all charisma. (Now in theaters)
My Policeman: Harry Styles, just because you’re handsome doesn’t mean you should be in movies. (Now in theaters)
