Break out the turkey basters and bust open the champagne: The Daily Beast Podcast hosts Joanna Coles and Samantha Bee are here for the holiday season. This week, they’re joined by “Beast of the Week” Richard Curtis, the filmmaker whose iconic films—Love Actually, Notting Hill, and Four Weddings and a Funeral among them—define heartfelt British comedy and radiate the warmth of a roaring Christmas fire.
Curtis’ latest venture, That Christmas, is an animated Netflix film—and comes in tow of an honorary Oscar, or Governor Award, given by The Academy to recognize extraordinary achievements in the film industry. (Or, as Hugh Grant, a regular in Curtis' films, has playfully labeled it, a “Better Than Nothing Oscar.”) The award was given to Curtis for his philanthropic work with Comic Relief, a British charity geared towards making the public laugh while raising money. Since 1985, Comic Relief has raised $2 billion.
However, not all of Curtis’s legacy is without critique. Reflecting on feedback he’d received from his daughter, Curtis acknowledged that some of his earlier works might not have aged perfectly. “There are things that I would write differently now,” he admitted. “I think there are one or two things which are off-color now.”
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On a (far) less festive subject, The Daily Beast’s publisher and CEO Ben Sherwood also joined the podcast to discuss his decades of reporting on Lyle and Erik Menendez. Sherwood—who Coles dubbed Benendez—grew up in the same neighborhood as where the brothers' crime was committed, and has followed the case since its inception, reporting first for ABC News—and now for the Daily Beast, as the case (and its many newsy developments ) that continues to captivate the nation.
Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series “Monsters” and an accompanying documentary have in particular reignited interest, helping spark legal developments in the brothers' case that may even see them freed. There’s also been gossipy reporting on prison wives—and prison affairs, of course. “It’s the perfect cultural storm,” Sherwood explained, citing society’s growing awareness of sexual abuse and psychological trauma, which the brothers have alleged motivated the killing of their parents.
“Ben, what do you think it would do for me if Ryan Murphy made a drama about my life?” Coles joked. “I’d fear for everyone around you,” Sherwood replied, citing Murphy’s “incredible imagination.” But then perhaps Coles should have already featured in Murphy’s productions—his American Crime Story series, specifically—as she recounted a surreal dinner with O.J. Simpson at the Oxford Union after his murder trial. Listen to this week’s podcast for that scene and much more.
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