Now, stop me if you’ve heard this one before: three interior designers and an office manager walk into a brothel…
This week, the Designing Women are thrown for a loop when an old friend of Charlene’s rolls into town with a big budget and a big secret. (And it’s not that she’s a carpenter.)
If that’s not enough for ya, stick around for a little “Extra Sugar," where Salina highlights a true, national treasure, Ms. Jean Smart.
Want more? Check out these reads:
And that’s right, the house Charlene’s friend buys is real.
Come on, let’s get into it!
Or listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music.
Transcript
Salina: We talk in falsetto when recording has been off.
Nikki: Oh, man.
Nikki: That's the only way to do it now.
Salina: It is.
Salina: But you know what?
Salina: It's worth it.
Salina: It's worth it to be here with you.
Salina: It's worth it to talk Designing Women, and it's worth it to see you in this stained high school shirt.
Nikki: You didn't have to call it stained right away.
Salina: Well, I like it.
Nikki: It's my Meadow creek volleyball my Meadow creek high school volleyball shirt.
Nikki: And yes, it distinct.
Nikki: It is brown, but it's just hair dye, so don't worry.
Salina: I love it.
Salina: I am also in a shirt that's from high school, but it's a little different.
Salina: It's pink, it's covered in puff paint, and it says junior jewels on it.
Salina: And then it has all of my best girlfriends names on the back.
Nikki: Sounds like you were in what was the thing in the Gilmore Girls?
Nikki: The Puffs, the secret society of girls.
Salina: I think they were called the junior jewels or something.
Salina: Our juniors were who were like I've heard that term, and I think it was on that show.
Salina: And not to speak of it as that show.
Salina: I mean, it's the show.
Salina: The show, yes.
Salina: But I didn't watch it then, so it wasn't emulating.
Salina: That show.
Salina: Sure, is what I'm trying to say.
Nikki: Sure, whatever you said yourself.
Salina: I also think that this shirt looks much girlier than I actually am.
Nikki: It doesn't look pink to me.
Nikki: I thought it was white.
Salina: Oh.
Nikki: So I can't even tell.
Nikki: I'm not even getting the view.
Salina: I do have beautiful lighting in here.
Salina: But here's the thing.
Salina: So everybody knows the reason that we are in Nikki's stained shirt, my stained shirt, she just can't see my stains.
Salina: But it is also stained mustard is because we are finding ourselves tonight at episode 14 of Designing Women.
Salina: The name of the episode is Monette.
Salina: Monet is someone Charlene knew in high school.
Salina: Ergo, high school t shirts.
Nikki: We love a theme.
Nikki: Yes.
Salina: So with that and both of us wearing something well, you've got a nice loose shirt on.
Nikki: I do.
Salina: I'm stuffed in here like tuna in a can.
Nikki: Mine is very generously sized.
Salina: It was smart decision making on younger Nikki's mind.
Salina: But here's the thing with all of that.
Salina: Can you go ahead and take us into Hulu's description for episode 14?
Nikki: I sure can.
Nikki: And I will tell you that you're in my head about the Hulu episode descriptions now and how they might not be the best, because given everything we just said about our high school t shirts, this is not the best description of who Monet is and why she's important.
Nikki: At any rate, it says, a dilemma faces sugar bakers when they ponder the morality of their latest and most lucrative clients.
Nikki: It aired on February 8, 1987.
Nikki: The director is Barnett Kelman, a name I think we recognized from the last couple of episodes.
Nikki: And the writer is good old LBT.
Nikki: And since you've been pulling trivia, Salina, do you have a little trivia for this episode?
Salina: There was a little trivia.
Salina: Thank you.
Salina: Internet movie database.
Salina: So Monet will meet her later.
Salina: Her house is later used as the interior of Suzanne's mansion, even though we've already seen the interior of Suzanne's mansion.
Salina: So I guess they are going to switch, change things up.
Salina: We'll have to look to see if it's really, actually different or not.
Nikki: Yeah.
Nikki: And it's kind of funny that they would show the interior of the mansion and have Suzanne say some of the things that she says about it and compare it to her own house, knowing that later in the season it'll become her house.
Salina: There's Suzanne for you.
Nikki: It's funny.
Nikki: You want to jump in to the first part of the show?
Salina: Let's do it.
Nikki: Okay.
Nikki: So at the first part of the show, we get a cold open with the women kind of sitting inside sugar Bakers.
Nikki: Suzanne's telling a story about sitting next to Andrew Young at some sort of, like, dinner or event.
Nikki: Charlene has gotten a letter from back home.
Nikki: Her aunt has been doing some research and she may or may not be related to Loretta Lynn.
Nikki: And then we learn that Mary Jo is having some trouble with her quirky.
Nikki: Quint?
Nikki: Her six year old son.
Nikki: So that's sort of the setup we have for this episode.
Nikki: We learned that Mary Jo's son is a grade school pimp who wants to.
Salina: Be called the Slickster.
Nikki: Oh, my.
Nikki: That is a slick name.
Nikki: She's just having all kinds of trouble with him.
Nikki: He has got a little bit of an attitude.
Nikki: And Suzanne gives a little advice on kids, which I have to give a nod to because I think Suzanne is just hysterical.
Nikki: She says once they're house broken, they go straight off to military school.
Nikki: If they make good grades, they can come home when they're 21, providing they don't play their stereo too loud.
Nikki: I think that's great advice.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: I don't think I expected her to even have had that thought.
Salina: So even her going that far was like more maternal than I expected.
Nikki: Right.
Nikki: That's a good point.
Nikki: I didn't know about that.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: I do think it's probably important to point out that it's not actual pimping that Quint is doing.
Salina: He's demanding little girls go out with him and his friend in exchange for fruit roll ups.
Salina: Want to sort of clarify?
Nikki: It feels same same to me.
Salina: No, it's a good foreshadowing for this episode, I think.
Nikki: Right.
Nikki: I wanted to note here I'm going to make my own fashion comment.
Nikki: And I'm not very big on the fashion comments, but Mary Jo, she has made the full on transition to Victorian.
Nikki: She has gone all in.
Salina: Walk me through it because I didn't notate anything here.
Nikki: She had a very high collared shirt and a cameo brooch.
Nikki: Do you remember this?
Salina: Now that you say it, it is rather hard to forget a cameo.
Nikki: Like, we've watched her through all of her shades of Westworld woman and Southern Frontier woman and now she's in the Victorian era.
Salina: She's Anne of Green Gables.
Nikki: Oh, okay.
Nikki: I feel like that's a reference I should know.
Salina: Oh, no, we'll talk.
Nikki: We'll talk.
Nikki: So I think the letter from home for Charlene may exist to set the stage for what happens next, which is she gets a phone call.
Nikki: Mary Jo answers the phone.
Nikki: Someone asks to talk with Charlene and it's a woman named Monica Marlin.
Nikki: So Charlene picks up the phone.
Nikki: You can tell from her body language she has no idea who this person is.
Nikki: She puts some pieces together and realizes it's a high school friend.
Nikki: Her name used to be Monet.
Nikki: Now she goes by Monica.
Nikki: But she has bought a house in Atlanta.
Nikki: She's coming from St.
Nikki: Louis and wants the sugar bakers to decorate it for $150,000.
Salina: That's a lot of money.
Nikki: I know we're not talking about their money troubles anymore, but they need this money.
Nikki: I get the sense they very much need this money.
Nikki: So they're excited about it.
Nikki: I will say, Salina, you probably looked into this, too, that the case of the missing script on Hulu continues.
Nikki: There's a big section here that was cut out.
Nikki: So she makes a plan with Monica, monet, whichever one you call, what do you?
Salina: Eminem.
Nikki: Eminem.
Nikki: Perfect.
Nikki: That sounds great.
Nikki: Eminem.
Nikki: She makes a plan with Eminem.
Nikki: They're going to come over to the house at 02:00 p.m.
Nikki: That afternoon.
Nikki: What's missing from the script is that Charlene says she wants to go home because she needs to change clothes to something more successful looking.
Nikki: Yeah, and I think that's important because she shows up next at Monet's house separate from the other women.
Salina: Indeed.
Salina: And it sounds like the other part that's missing is the reason she goes and changes her clothes and she wants to put on something that she feels like makes her look nicer.
Salina: Even though she looked nice is because that missing piece she talked about how she really looked up to Monet.
Salina: Monica, she was a little older than was.
Salina: You know how it is when someone's a little older than you.
Salina: When you're just it's a different dynamic.
Nikki: I do know how it is, Salina.
Salina: I miss when people were older than me.
Nikki: You're older than me.
Salina: How dare you?
Salina: You got a birthday coming up soon, though.
Nikki: Not anytime near, not anytime nearby.
Nikki: So anyway, yeah, that part was important.
Nikki: There's a little history here with not that doesn't make it into Hulu's final cut.
Nikki: But the next place we go is to Monet's house.
Nikki: Three of the Designing women are sitting there and Charlene is not there.
Nikki: Monet has just given them all a tour of the house.
Nikki: They're waiting on Charlene.
Nikki: She comes in kind of in a I was going to say floozy.
Nikki: That's not the right word.
Nikki: In a tizzy.
Nikki: She's in a tizzy.
Nikki: Sorry.
Salina: Don't get ahead of yourself.
Nikki: She comes in a tizzy because she got a flat tire.
Nikki: She never gets flat tires.
Nikki: This is a big deal to her, but she's very excited to see Monet.
Nikki: They've fallen, but she's lying right about the flat.
Nikki: What?
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: What?
Salina: She doesn't want her to know she went home to change clothes.
Salina: She's trying to impress her.
Nikki: Poor Charlene.
Nikki: I just thought she had a bad run of luck.
Salina: Yeah, well, we don't really know.
Salina: They're cutting lines on us.
Nikki: Gosh hulu.
Nikki: Get it together.
Nikki: Well, now I'm thinking something entirely different.
Nikki: But anyway, so Monet takes her to give her a tour of the house because the other women have already had one.
Nikki: And a gentleman enters, and he is kind of circling the women while they're talking interior decorating.
Nikki: There's, like, mention of apricot and maybe chintz again.
Nikki: And this man is circling like a shark, and he is circling with an eye for Julia.
Nikki: And he says, if I ask for you, can I get you?
Nikki: And I'm guessing you like Julia's response.
Salina: I do.
Salina: Julia says, I have no idea what you're talking about, but somehow I feel absolutely safe in saying the answer is.
Nikki: So Julia has a really good 6th sense.
Nikki: She knows something doesn't feel right.
Nikki: He ends up revealing, in a roundabout way, that Monica's a madam and that this is a brothel.
Nikki: Yeah.
Salina: With the eyebrow work.
Nikki: I was going to say you're making eyebrows at mm hmm.
Salina: What does that are the it's not for you.
Salina: This is just for the show.
Salina: But they're hanky pinky eyebrows.
Salina: So you're here for the I was.
Nikki: Going to call them the brothel brows.
Salina: That's perfect.
Salina: Brothel brows.
Nikki: And with that, we end this.
Salina: So now this next scene, nikki, I was thinking about it.
Salina: It's really only got one thing going on.
Salina: It's basically all the women except for Charlene have realized that Monet Monica O-M-M.
Salina: She's actually like a madam.
Salina: That house is going to be her brothel.
Salina: They're having mixed feelings about it.
Salina: And this whole next scene is really about breaking it to Charlene.
Salina: Does that seem like a fair description for everybody to understand what we're talking about?
Nikki: Definitely.
Nikki: There's not much more to it.
Nikki: Okay.
Salina: So I thought maybe what we could do is just maybe kind of talk more about our reactions to this scene since there's not, like, a lot of action happening.
Salina: Is that okay?
Nikki: Sure.
Salina: So I actually really like this part, at least in terms of the comedic writing, I thought was pretty spot on, even though there's not really a lot happening.
Salina: So one of my favorite lines is when they're really just trying to it's Mary Jo again.
Salina: She, like, doesn't really know how to hit the nail on the head.
Salina: So she says, we have reason to believe that Monet is practicing the world's oldest profession, to which Charlene goes, monet's a carpenter.
Salina: I just love that she's a peach, that Charlene.
Salina: It wouldn't even cross her mind.
Nikki: Nikki no.
Salina: And then Mary Jo goes on to, um because Charlene doesn't believe her.
Salina: And she says, while you were upstairs, two different men tried to purchase Julia.
Salina: So we only got one.
Nikki: Oh, yeah, that's a good point.
Salina: Apparently, it happened again.
Salina: And we get a little sibling rivalry again from Suzanne and Julia because Suzanne points out that her parts are old.
Nikki: Suzanne, man, she's mean.
Salina: She got to be a one all the time.
Nikki: Yes, definitely.
Salina: Or she gets confused.
Salina: This is another line that we get from Julia because basically, I think our ladies here have varying degrees of how they feel about eminem.
Salina: So Julia is super clear.
Salina: She's being very kind to Charlene, but she is also very pointed.
Salina: And she says they care.
Salina: They'll be there for Charlene.
Salina: But in the meantime, there's no way I'm decorating a 19 room whole house for some two bit floozy who just blew in from St.
Salina: Louis.
Salina: And that's pretty nail on the head there, unlike Mary Jo.
Salina: So my question for you is, how did that hit you in that moment to hear that staunch reaction from Julia?
Nikki: Yeah, I think if this were only maybe like the third time I've seen Julia since she was introduced in the series as sort of more of a liberal, open, free thinking sort of person, I would have been surprised.
Nikki: But we've seen so much more of Julia lately that's a little more buttoned up than I think this liberal kind of umbrella that they kind of tend to put her under would indicate.
Nikki: So I wasn't surprised, really, at all that she was so against it.
Salina: Well, it's a really rigid moral code that she has.
Salina: But I think what frustrates me is the lack of empathy or understanding because she doesn't know anything about this woman.
Salina: And I think we'll get a little bit more of that later in the episode.
Salina: I also understand that there's a legality issue and I'm sure she doesn't want to get caught up in anything that would be dangerous for the firm.
Salina: But it doesn't seem to be coming from that place.
Salina: It just seems to be like things in Julia's mind are black and white and there's absolutely nothing in between.
Nikki: Yeah, she never mentions anything about legal.
Salina: Concerns or anything like and, you know, we get another line here where I think they ask, like, what did Monica say that she does?
Salina: And Charlene said she was in marketing and public relations.
Salina: And Mary Jo said, well, that's close.
Nikki: I feel like as someone with a PR degree, I feel like public relations is sort of like the filler skill they always give in TV or movies.
Nikki: Like, anytime you have a romantic comedy, the girl is going to be in PR.
Nikki: Or like on that show work in Moms.
Nikki: The main character works in PR.
Nikki: So I feel like it's just a filler so it's a funny line, but as a person who actually works in PR, I was like, Come on.
Nikki: Now.
Salina: I was wondering how you would feel about that with your PR background.
Salina: But still crisp.
Salina: It's crisp.
Salina: Then Suzanne talks.
Salina: We kind of get this other perspective because going back to this being someone that Charlene looked up to, suzanne's point is, sometimes our heroes let us down.
Salina: Insightful, right?
Salina: This I actually really love, because she goes down this whole rabbit hole.
Salina: Anita Bryant is who her former hero is, who is also a former beauty queen.
Salina: She was a singer, an entertainer.
Salina: She was also, apparently an anti gay activist.
Salina: It feels even weird to say that today.
Salina: I think the first couple of times I read, I didn't even see the anti part, because that so doesn't even compute for me, that I was like I was like, and she was a gay activist.
Salina: And then I was like, oh, anti.
Salina: She said what she is.
Nikki: She's still alive.
Nikki: Yes.
Salina: Yeah, that's true.
Nikki: Thank you.
Salina: Present tense.
Nikki: I only point that out because I think it's important to say it feels ancient and it feels old.
Nikki: But I don't know that she's changed her opinion on those things, the things that I read.
Salina: I think she's probably firmly set in her ways, because I did have to look her up.
Salina: She was in my references.
Salina: Suzanne always takes a more superficial tack.
Salina: So hers was more about her getting so caught up in this work that she was losing sight of important things, like attending beauty pageants, making sure your hair looks good or whatever it was, but what really, really liked and what I was.
Salina: Hmm.
Salina: I wonder if Nikki feels this about us, because she goes on and on and on.
Salina: And then Charlene asks, I'm sorry, what's your point?
Salina: And she goes, I don't know.
Salina: What's the question?
Nikki: I did think that was very funny.
Salina: So we get Mary Jo's side of things, which I also think is really interesting.
Salina: I think Mary Jo keeps thinking about this $150,000.
Salina: I didn't mention this, but I did look it up.
Salina: And that is a lot more money in today's money, the high end being more like 350,000 something dollars.
Salina: So that's a lot of money to dump into some design, and that's a lot of money.
Salina: Like we were saying that the sugar bakers need.
Salina: Mary Jo, I think, is like trying to find a way around you know, this is her point.
Salina: They can't control what goes on in the bedrooms that they've done for clients.
Salina: And she goes on to say, for all we know, there could be an orgy going on right now in one of our bedrooms.
Salina: Hordes of naked people swinging from one of our antique light fixtures.
Salina: Rising masses of unclad bodies wallowing on our custom made chintz pillows.
Nikki: It looks odly specific.
Salina: Fantastic.
Salina: Well, and I think is it Suzanne who says, have you been watching cable again.
Nikki: Been watching the cable TV again.
Salina: Pretty great.
Salina: Anyways, the scene ends with them deciding to ask her if this is true and what this is all about.
Salina: And that's pretty much where we wrap things up for that.
Nikki: Can I add one thing?
Salina: Oh, my goodness.
Nikki: When the scene opened, Charlene was telling them about a Pink Jackass and it was related to her going to Poplar Bluff High School.
Nikki: And they were the Poplar Bluff Mules.
Nikki: That's the real mascot of a real school.
Nikki: And it's really LBT's alma mater.
Salina: That's cool.
Nikki: So I had to put that pitch in there real quick.
Nikki: I thought that was neat.
Salina: So would you change being the Mustangs to be the Pink Jackasses?
Nikki: I would not.
Nikki: They were the Poplar Bluff mules.
Nikki: Mules?
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: They're not the pink jackasses.
Nikki: They're the mules.
Nikki: But I think her story I don't really remember it now, but I think it was something about, like, a genetic mutation of a mule turned him into a Pink Jackass, I think.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: But, yeah, they really are a real school.
Nikki: That really is their mascot, and that's really where she went.
Salina: So you don't want to be a Pink Jackass is what you're saying.
Nikki: I don't.
Nikki: So in the last scene of the show so do you think it's fair to say that we're basically faced with each of the women's arguments for and against prostitution?
Salina: Yeah, I think LBT.
Salina: Had a little agenda in mind.
Nikki: I think you might be right.
Nikki: So in the scene, the women sit down with Monette and they talk to her.
Nikki: And I want to say they want to understand where she's coming from, but I think they want to tell her all the reasons she shouldn't be doing it anymore.
Salina: It was really strange to me.
Salina: I just didn't understand this approach at all.
Salina: So if you have concerns and you don't really even really know anything, you get together as a group of four and decide to go to someone's house face to face and question to their face their life choices.
Nikki: Yeah, this sounds good to me.
Nikki: Where's it going wrong for you, Salina?
Nikki: This is how you get results.
Salina: This is how your mind and hearts.
Nikki: Right?
Nikki: Exactly.
Salina: Hearts and minds.
Salina: So it's just a terrible plan.
Salina: It seemed very stigmatizing to me.
Salina: I don't know.
Nikki: I wondered if they went into the situation to explain why they couldn't take the business.
Nikki: Like, if they went to explain why this wasn't going to work out.
Nikki: It wasn't so much to criticize her, but to explain.
Salina: But all four of them?
Nikki: Yeah.
Salina: Why not just charlene?
Nikki: Well, Charlene can't do that alone.
Nikki: She can't hurt people.
Nikki: And she didn't want Julia to go alone because Julia would just destroy her.
Nikki: Suzanne really couldn't care less.
Nikki: And Mary Jo is just she's Mary Jo.
Salina: So it's just all of them.
Nikki: It's just all of them.
Nikki: It ends up with four of them anyway.
Nikki: So they all sort of lay out their rationale for either in Monet's case, why she does it in all the other women's cases, why they think that she shouldn't do it.
Nikki: There's a little bit more in there about Charlene.
Nikki: And, you know, obviously we mentioned earlier they went to high school together.
Nikki: Charlene throws out that she's really worried about how her moral compass has changed.
Nikki: But it turns out Monet was doing some of these things, just not making money to do it when she was in high school.
Nikki: A lot more than Charlene ever knew.
Nikki: So they get into kind of a nice, I think nice conversation with Monette about how she ended up.
Nikki: And Monet says, you want me to tell you some sob story about some trauma that pushed me into this really demeaning and horrible line of work?
Nikki: And I think actually she does have a little trauma.
Nikki: It's not sexual abuse.
Nikki: But she tells Charlene, you had a lot of love from your parents and we had a lot of the back of my daddy's hand.
Nikki: So she says, I know you want me to tell you that I was sexually abused or that this happened or that happened and I'm doing this.
Nikki: But really, I think it started because maybe I needed a little affection, but then I started making really good money.
Salina: Yeah, it was a little strange of a set up for me, too, though, because she says, you want this sob story, but then gives a sob story.
Salina: It is kind of sad.
Salina: I mean, not kind of sad.
Nikki: It's not sexual abuse, but it's physical abuse all the same.
Salina: Abuse, abuse, abuse.
Salina: They're all detrimental to one's psyche and other things.
Salina: So it was an interesting way that that was written.
Salina: It made the presentation feel a little weird to me.
Nikki: Well, you said you thought maybe LBT.
Nikki: Had an agenda.
Nikki: You didn't say which agenda.
Nikki: But I'm wondering if you were alluding to the fact that her agenda was that prostitution is all the things that Julia says it is and maybe she really had a hard time building a case for why someone would want to do this.
Salina: Yeah, one thing I wanted to say about the piece with Charlene is that I guess they had, like, some kind of a virginity pact.
Salina: That's another weird thing that young people do.
Salina: I don't know.
Salina: Sitting here and being 36.
Salina: I'm just saying I didn't think of it that way when I was younger.
Salina: I remember seeing it in lifetime plots and stuff.
Salina: Or actually, I remember going to youth group and them having all the kids sign cards that they would stay virgins.
Nikki: Yeah.
Salina: What?
Salina: I wonder if they still do that.
Salina: Is that a thing?
Nikki: I'm guessing some people do.
Salina: It just seems like a strange thing to get together and do as a group.
Salina: Similarly to the way Salina oh palace combined, this virginity shall never be broken.
Salina: I don't yeah.
Salina: Strange.
Nikki: Yeah.
Nikki: So then next comes Julia who argues that prostitutes diminish the rest of women.
Nikki: And Monet pushes back a little bit on this and says, what do you mean?
Nikki: What does that even mean?
Nikki: And she goes into a little bit of a weird explanation.
Nikki: I don't know how it hit you, but basically she says by choosing to be a prostitute, she perpetuates the myth that women are slaves to men.
Nikki: And she makes a case that I can't remember exactly what it was, but the way women appear on the COVID of certain magazines, if the skin tone were reversed and it were a black man on the ground or something, would that be acceptable?
Nikki: And Monet's sort of like, I don't understand your comparison.
Nikki: I think Monet spoke for all of.
Salina: Us and now I'm over here like, I don't want to see anybody on that magazine.
Nikki: What magazine is she referring to?
Salina: Well, I feel like it's a bondage.
Nikki: Magazine, but where is she seeing that.
Salina: She'S got it in?
Salina: I do.
Salina: I don't.
Salina: Which was the one where her and Reese get married and all.
Salina: Whatever.
Salina: There was a whole little thing that she had in there too, about the front of cosmo and somebody being naked from the waist up, except for sitting here thinking stirrups, but like suspenders.
Nikki: Maybe that too, when you said stirrups, that's all I could think.
Salina: That's a different magazine cover.
Salina: By that time we're at Hustler.
Salina: But anyway, so I don't know, I feel like this might be some of LBT kind of coming in.
Salina: Maybe this is a touchy point for her.
Salina: Obviously there are studies, entire bodies of research dedicated to the way that the female body is exploited in entertainment.
Salina: So I do think that there is an argument there.
Salina: I just feel like what Julia is saying is like again, the presentation is just slightly off, I think.
Salina: And she does bring up this point of Monica Monet making good money, but then she says the rest of us have to pay for it.
Salina: So.
Nikki: I don't know.
Salina: It's also going back to the point I made earlier, because she says by choosing by choosing to be a prostitute, that's how she opened all of that up.
Salina: Choose is a very specific word to use here.
Salina: And again, we're presented with a very specific of Monet Monica in this show.
Salina: But the last time I checked, most people don't choose sex work.
Salina: I'm pretty sure a lot of people excuse the word, but it's thrust upon them.
Salina: So I just think there needs to be again, it comes back to me with Julia, like a little bit of a lack of empathy and understanding for anybody except for her beliefs and her rigid moral code.
Salina: And it's really easy to say that when you're someone who's had a life that's full of a lot of advantages, like what we hear about all the time.
Nikki: So I thought you were going somewhere entirely different with the word choose.
Nikki: And this gets to where I come to this episode where I sort of live this.
Nikki: I like for people to be able to choose what they want to do.
Nikki: And in this circumstance, we are presented with a very specific character who has chosen this life.
Nikki: It was something she said that she says, I came into it maybe looking for a little affection.
Nikki: She never alludes to the fact that she came into it because she needed money.
Nikki: She came into it because someone bullied her into it.
Nikki: She was shoved in a room with men thrown on her.
Nikki: She never says any of those things.
Nikki: She says, I was looking for affection.
Nikki: So I went into this line of work.
Nikki: I ended up staying here because of the money.
Nikki: I have a life I couldn't have even dreamed of.
Nikki: So for the rest of the episode, everything else that's said by anyone else doesn't matter to me because that is what she chose.
Nikki: That's what she wants.
Nikki: And that's my approach to this entire issue.
Nikki: Yes.
Nikki: You're alluding to a really big systemic problem and an underground problem.
Nikki: This idea of sex trafficking, this idea of forcing women into and men as well, transgender individuals, forcing people into a situation that they don't choose on their own.
Nikki: That level of prostitution would never be okay in my book.
Nikki: If it's something you choose to do for whatever your reasons are, I'm not going to hate on you for it.
Salina: When I was in school, I had to come up with a debate, and my side of the debate was for prostitution.
Salina: So there are solid points on both.
Salina: I think that was my aggravation with what LBT did here.
Salina: Is it's her choosing of the person who had the choice as the person that she pits Julia against?
Salina: It just seems like this is a very specific she took the most narrow option of how this would really play and then presented her argument against something that may have seemed weak at the that, but I totally see what you're saying.
Salina: I really do.
Salina: Absolutely.
Nikki: So my favorite argument was actually Suzanne's.
Nikki: And what'll come as a surprise to no one.
Salina: It was a good one.
Nikki: Hers is a business case.
Nikki: It's a business case.
Nikki: She basically lays out the point that and she does it much better than this, but she lays out the point that if you marry a man and then divorce him, you can get alimony, pays you for the rest of your life.
Nikki: You don't bank on one night with him or a few hours with him.
Nikki: You can get it for life.
Nikki: I love that business case.
Nikki: I think she's right.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: She compares the whole thing to leasing a car versus buying a car.
Salina: And the way she presents is it's pragmatic.
Salina: And I like that.
Salina: But Monica says, this is your sister, right?
Salina: And Julia says, yes.
Salina: She diminishes us too.
Nikki: I laughed out loud at that line.
Nikki: Oh, my gosh.
Nikki: That was so was you were talking about crisp writing.
Nikki: That was super crisp.
Nikki: That was really well done.
Nikki: Julia gets back into it and basically know, I don't think you're really in this for the long haul and I don't think you really enjoy it.
Nikki: I think you're looking to get out of it.
Nikki: And I think Monet sort of reveals that, yeah, she's been thinking about changing her life.
Nikki: I'm choosing my words carefully there because I don't want to imply any sort of judgment on this person.
Nikki: And she says, yeah, I've been thinking about making some different choices.
Nikki: And so Charlene asks, really, I would beg you, reconsider your life.
Nikki: And I think that's about it.
Nikki: We have another man, Sidle in this time he's got eyeballs for Suzanne and she is finally happy.
Salina: Indeed.
Salina: She really got her says it's really good though because she says as soon as he chooses her, she stands know she saunters because it's Suzanne.
Salina: And she says, finally a man with some taste and walks out the door.
Salina: I think all of my favorite Suzanne moments are her exiting very haughtily.
Salina: It's always a good time.
Nikki: She's got the drama.
Nikki: Did you have any thoughts on this really quick I didn't do it justice.
Nikki: This really quick turnaround of Monet going from sort of like, I make really good money.
Nikki: This is like a legitimate business.
Nikki: Look at my house, look at everything.
Nikki: I have to.
Nikki: I've really been reconsidering my life and thanks for suggesting that.
Salina: I absolutely hated it.
Salina: Yeah, I thought it was complete silliness and I did not think about this till now.
Salina: But in my head I'm now wondering and I'll utter it aloud, was she just trying to get them out?
Salina: Just get out.
Salina: I just needed someone to design my house.
Salina: Trying to put up some red drapes, other sexy offerings.
Salina: I don't know why red drapes are sexy.
Nikki: Red velvet.
Salina: I must be thinking about like yeah, somewhere between that and the red light district.
Nikki: Red.
Nikki: It's a very sexy color.
Salina: It's hot.
Nikki: Well, I don't think she's getting any red drapes from the sugar bakers.
Salina: You're not going to put your apricot.
Nikki: Over here and with that we end the episode.
Salina: We're done with that.
Salina: Are you ready to rate this sucker?
Nikki: I am, but I want you to go first because I want to steal your rating scale because I bet it's oh, okay.
Salina: Well, the rating scale is going to be two bit floozies from St.
Salina: Louis.
Nikki: I thought you were going to go with whorehouse.
Salina: Just straight up whorehouse.
Nikki: But I'll take it.
Salina: I'm sorry I let you down.
Nikki: It's fine.
Salina: I have to tell you that I am going to have to adjust my rating as we go.
Nikki: Oh, okay.
Salina: I had it rated it as a four.
Nikki: My, oh, my.
Salina: Yeah, and I'm gonna drop it to a three after this conversation.
Nikki: I changed your mind or did you change your mind?
Salina: The reason I gave it such a high rating is because I really think there was some top notch writing.
Salina: Like I said, I just think that middle part of the episode was so good.
Salina: I thought the lines were great, the delivery was awesome.
Salina: It really made me laugh.
Salina: I thought it was everything felt specific and well written for that character, except for Monet.
Salina: She was know, the more we talked about it and the more we talked about how unrealistic the end of that was, I'm just going to drop it to a three.
Salina: Actually, this was why I'd had it as a four because that whole last part just felt contrived to me.
Salina: So I don't think I can give it that high of a rating.
Nikki: That's why that makes sense.
Nikki: I would also give it a three.
Nikki: It was definitely a middle of the roader for me.
Nikki: I do love when a sitcom takes a really serious issue.
Nikki: They can't do it justice in 22 25 minutes.
Nikki: However long they have with commercials, that's not a fair expectation.
Nikki: So I love when they take something that people don't necessarily talk about all the time.
Nikki: Prostitution is a really big topic and so to take that and boil it down into something and in that last scene, they did present some different scenarios and some different points of view.
Nikki: I wonder how much network pressure there was on LBT to get that just right or to communicate just the right message.
Nikki: So I would love if we could hear from her where the scene came from.
Nikki: Was it really?
Nikki: Was Julia speaking on behalf of her?
Nikki: Or was this sort of the network saying, like, you could never get away with Oking prostitution on national TV, so you need to leave it with a layer of.
Salina: A that's a really good point because I know just in listening to other TV review podcasts or just digging into different shows that I've enjoyed over the years.
Salina: Definitely have seen things between the showrunner and the network and where they've fought and lost.
Salina: Sometimes you fight and win, but this was a show that had almost gotten kicked off the air right in that end to even talk about this at all.
Salina: I think that's a really good point.
Salina: Let's stop for a minute and recognize the fact that we were even talking about sex work on CBS.
Salina: This is not know right.
Salina: That's a big deal and I think we should acknowledge so thank you.
Nikki: Definitely.
Nikki: So I think it wasn't my favorite episode.
Nikki: I didn't look forward to watching it over and over again.
Nikki: I felt like Monet probably did a little bit.
Nikki: Like she got a little short shifted when it came to really any sort of character development or anything.
Nikki: But it was a short episode, that's fine.
Nikki: But she just felt a little flat to me as a character.
Nikki: So I didn't love this episode, but I didn't hate it.
Nikki: And I do think it was just interesting how they were able to dig into this issue.
Nikki: So good.
Nikki: Solid three for me.
Salina: Nice.
Salina: All right, so I did not have any combination of like, Southern unknown reference, 80s, anything like that.
Salina: Did you have any combos?
Nikki: I'm still not sure I fully understand this category, so I'm going to say no.
Salina: It's possible I made it complicated.
Salina: It doesn't matter.
Salina: Moving on to 80s things, what did you catch, Nikki?
Nikki: Another Candid Camera reference.
Nikki: We've had that one a few times.
Nikki: Yeah.
Nikki: The cable TV, which we talked about was when Mary Jo was imagining all the things that could have been happening in the rooms they had decorated.
Nikki: Suzanne said that to her.
Nikki: And the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Nikki: Yeah.
Salina: The way that they're talking about Oprah, it's very eighty s.
Salina: And not later on when it's like you get a car and you get a car.
Salina: It's more like I'm trying to think of other examples.
Salina: Then Jerry Springer would have been too early, but it was definitely like, today we're going to talk to a sex worker.
Salina: Yeah, it was like that era of Oprah.
Salina: Did you have anything else?
Salina: Does it okay, so the other thing on cable TV is also this idea of it being a reference to naughty TV, like that Phil's Berry of the time, fruit Roll Ups.
Salina: I understand they're still in existence, but there's something that nostalgia cries out in my heart for an 80s Fruit Roll Up when they still had all the dyes, all the good stuff.
Salina: And then also 80s reference for me.
Salina: Was Mary Jo, like, straight up?
Salina: Does the could have had a V Eight commercial?
Nikki: Yeah, I almost put that on my list, but it fell into the same category as Fruit Roll Ups for me, which are the things you can still get.
Nikki: So I didn't really put them there.
Salina: You've got a good argument and I salute you.
Nikki: Thank you.
Salina: How about Southern things for you?
Nikki: Andrew Young.
Nikki: Former congressman, former mayor of Atlanta.
Nikki: He was a civil rights advocate and a close confidant of MLK Jr.
Nikki: Loretta Lynn, obviously a country music legend.
Nikki: You've mentioned several times.
Nikki: The coal miner's daughter and I put crisco in southern things.
Nikki: I'm not sure that's 100% fair, but I did put it there.
Salina: I think Crisco is a really good one.
Salina: And the only other one that I had was that house that she buys, the Chadwick home.
Salina: That's a real house in Atlanta, is that right?
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: I was only able to find one picture of it, and maybe we can either post that on social media or we'll link to it on the website or something.
Salina: One of the two.
Salina: But yeah, and it's a beautiful house.
Salina: What I couldn't tell was going back to see if they actually use an exterior shot or not.
Salina: We may have to do like a side by side or something.
Salina: It's me offering this late at night, so we'll play a little game called Does Salina Remember?
Salina: Stay tuned.
Nikki: You will when you QA this episode later.
Salina: All right.
Salina: When I get to enjoy it down the road.
Salina: References to look up anything you had to search for?
Nikki: I had two things anita Bryant, but we already covered that and I really don't want to give her much more airtime than what we already said.
Nikki: And I really was curious if there really is a union for sex workers, because that's something that Monet mentioned.
Nikki: She was about to become the president of her union.
Nikki: I found mention of some, but it didn't seem very eighty s.
Nikki: It seemed much more like 2000s.
Nikki: So I don't know if one if you looked into this more and found something different.
Nikki: I really didn't do a thesis on it or anything.
Nikki: I just quickly looked into it.
Nikki: I don't know if you found more or if maybe LBT was just like way ahead of the curve.
Nikki: So it's either that or my research sucks, but who can say?
Salina: So I didn't look into it because I just really thought that that was a thing.
Salina: Now you were looking for that in the US.
Salina: Or, like, other countries?
Nikki: Both, actually.
Nikki: What I found was mostly in Europe, which is actually what surprised me because the union wasn't official until like, 2017.
Nikki: And I want to say this was in.
Nikki: I would get it wrong now, so I won't say for sure, but that it didn't happen until 2017 and it was like a hard fought battle to establish a union.
Nikki: So it seemed like a very recent sort of thing.
Nikki: I didn't really find much about a union in the US.
Nikki: Honestly.
Salina: Well, I don't know this will happen, but hey, if anybody knows, let us know.
Salina: Yeah, we'd like to find out also.
Salina: That's important.
Salina: I think that's one of the things that would make it something that's doable that.
Salina: You've got to have protections in place.
Nikki: Definitely.
Nikki: Did you have any other unknown references?
Salina: No.
Salina: That was swift.
Nikki: Man, oh, man.
Nikki: So the next episode will be episode 15 and justice for Paul.
Nikki: And I'm going to go ahead and say spoiler alert.
Nikki: I had this same comment on old spouses never die.
Nikki: The title does not track with the episode at all.
Nikki: I was expecting something entirely different than what we got.
Salina: Do you think they just liked that it was a play on words?
Nikki: Probably.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: It's not great.
Nikki: Probably.
Nikki: So, as always, we'd love everyone to follow along with us and engage.
Nikki: I mentioned last week, I think it's worth mentioning, maybe just another time, maybe every week from here on out, that the easiest way to support us is to share us with family and friends.
Nikki: And if you want to take it that extra step and leave us a rating and or review wherever you listen to the podcast, we would greatly appreciate it.
Nikki: Then visit us on social media.
Nikki: I know I've asked you to do a lot now, but it's all right there on your phone.
Nikki: Visit us on social media.
Nikki: Salina has been doing some very fun things.
Nikki: She's trying to put out clips from the show.
Nikki: I have shared a couple of reels of different things that sort of are going on in my world, in the south, whatever.
Nikki: So visit us on social media.
Nikki: We're on Instagram, at sweettv, Facebook at sweettv.
Nikki: You can email us at sweettvpod@gmail.com or you can visit us at www.sweettv.com.
Nikki: We are listing every episode of ours is there in a blog post where we put some of these show notes of things we mentioned that we'll share.
Nikki: So it's definitely worth visiting because you can find links to old articles and things that we mention in the show.
Nikki: And that, my friend, is it.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: So the last thing that I'll say, nikki loves it when I come behind her with, oh, you're okay?
Salina: Perfect.
Salina: But stick around, guys.
Salina: After the outro music for this week's Extra Sugar, we're going to do a little talking about Jean Smart.
Salina: That's the lady of the hour that plays Charlene.
Salina: So join us.
Nikki: Sorry, I should have said that.
Nikki: I absolutely should have remembered to say that because, yeah, it's going to be a good one.
Salina: Maybe it'll be a doozy, I don't know.
Nikki: They're all doozies.
Salina: So you know what it is.
Salina: I'm going to see you around the bend.
Salina: Bye, Nikki.
Salina: Are you ready?
Salina: Are you ready for extra sugar?
Nikki: I am.
Salina: Wonderful.
Salina: This week's Extra Sugar is dedicated to the wonderful, the talented, the brilliant, the beautiful, the marvelous I could go on.
Salina: And smart.
Nikki: Gene Smart.
Salina: Woo, woo.
Salina: Gene Smart, in case you didn't hear in the regular episode or previously or haven't looked it up yourself, is the lady, the woman, the actor who plays Charlene.
Salina: And I thought at this time, when we've had some pretty big back to back charlene episodes between the cancer scare in Twelve and 13, then she was a pretty big part of this episode that we just covered, episode 14.
Salina: Not to mention that in real life, she's having something that people in Hollywood and different writers are calling the genes or others are calling the smart assaults.
Salina: This is referring to know between that, all that together, it just felt like the right moment to do a little talking about Jean Smart and just what we know her from and some cool stuff about her life.
Salina: So can we talk, Jean?
Nikki: Let's talk Jean.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: I should say that some people don't really love the genes or the smartizants because she's been steadily working for 35 plus years.
Salina: So if you look at her filmography, woman doesn't stop.
Salina: She's a force of nature.
Salina: So I actually was going to call this Jean smart.
Salina: Don't call it a comeback.
Nikki: Well done.
Nikki: I like it.
Salina: So I just wanted to go ahead and start and ask you, do you have any favorite roles before seeing her in this or were you familiar with her at all?
Salina: And other things.
Nikki: I think I knew her from Designing Women again, because my mom watched it when I was growing up, so I knew of her.
Nikki: She was in Sweetheart, Alabama, and she played a really delightful character that I loved.
Nikki: So if it weren't for this show, that's probably where I would know her from.
Salina: Top of my was like it was a really small role.
Salina: She was Reese Witherspoon's ex mother in law.
Salina: But I don't know, she played it so well.
Salina: I don't know.
Salina: I remember seeing it and I obviously was familiar with Designing Women and just thinking like, is this lady drinking out of the fountain of youth or something and just thinking just how beautiful she was.
Salina: And she just has this great charisma.
Salina: And then I'll say that more recently for me.
Salina: She was in The Watchman now that was on HBO.
Salina: And it took the graphic novel that was then turned into a movie, and then they turned it into a series.
Salina: And frankly, she plays a Billy Badass, which was really different to see because normally I see her in these more nurturing roles, so that was a little different.
Salina: And then to take a hill term from that, she played one of Frasier's girlfriends, not nurturing.
Salina: Have you ever watched Frasier?
Nikki: Yes.
Salina: Okay, so do you remember her?
Nikki: I don't remember her.
Nikki: I've never watched all of Frasier.
Nikki: Every episode I've ever watched, I've loved, but for some reason, I've never committed to the whole series.
Nikki: So I know that she was on that show, but I don't know anything about her character.
Salina: Okay, well, funny enough, that connects to this episode that is, like, steeped in high school memories.
Salina: She actually was his crush when they were in high school.
Salina: She was the cheerleader, the popular one.
Salina: Frazier was like a dorky kid, and he gets a shot to be with her when they're adults.
Salina: And it turns out that she is not what he was expecting, but she's very loud.
Salina: She smokes, she drinks a lot.
Salina: She's not sophisticated the way that he is.
Salina: And it was just like a weird match.
Salina: But anyway, so that was something.
Salina: There are two big roles that she's had this year that is part of why they're calling the Genessance.
Salina: One was mayor of Easttown.
Salina: I mentioned that in a couple of episodes ago.
Salina: That's a show with Kate Winslet.
Salina: It's kind of like a Whodunit show.
Salina: Really great.
Salina: I've watched that one.
Salina: And then she also appeared in a show called really, HBO loves her because Watchmen, Mayor of Easttown and Hacks are all HBO shows and Hacks, she's playing like a Joan Rivers type character.
Salina: So I'm not trying to be rude.
Salina: You know who Joan Rivers is, okay, in case anybody else doesn't, that's listening along.
Salina: Joan Rivers is like the matriarch of comedian s's.
Salina: Does that feel just like there used to not be a lot of female comics a lot of female stand up comics, and I think that's who she's really trying to emulate in the show.
Salina: They pair her up with like, a gen z.
Salina: And so they're definitely trying to do like a generation to generation, head to head, two women kind of thing.
Salina: But it's also like this mentorship.
Salina: I was going to propose that we try to watch those episodes and then talk about it here, which I'm still open to doing.
Salina: I had held off on watching the show, but I finally gave in.
Salina: And I just have to tell you, it's delightful.
Nikki: Oh, really?
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: Dark but delightful.
Salina: So just a little plug for that show there.
Salina: And then just to go on a little bit.
Salina: Who is Jean Smart?
Salina: So she's a Seattle native and she was born on September 13, 1951.
Salina: That means that she was our age when Designing Women started, which I thought was kind of interesting.
Salina: Not for anybody else, but maybe for me and you.
Salina: Maybe.
Salina: I don't know.
Salina: I'm looking at your eyes.
Salina: You've got a couple of things in common.
Salina: One, you're both middle children and then she is also quite tall.
Salina: She is 510.
Salina: How tall are you, Nikki?
Nikki: Five nine.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: See?
Salina: Tall.
Salina: So see, you and Jean, you've got things in common already.
Nikki: I knew we were vibing at the same level just because of charlene.
Salina: I'm trying to build that friendship.
Nikki: I appreciate that.
Nikki: Yeah, we have a lot in common.
Salina: So a couple of other things.
Salina: She did theater for several years.
Salina: I think that's really where she got her start.
Salina: And she's done some Broadway spoiler for a couple of episodes.
Salina: From now, we're going to hear Jean Smart sing, and I think I can hear some of that theater training.
Salina: We've also talked about before that she was married to Richard Gilliland, who played JD.
Salina: Mary Jo's love interest on the married.
Salina: I think they met on the show and they married during the run of the show.
Salina: And so this is a crazy kind of factoid that I ran across.
Salina: Delta Burke is actually the one that arranged for them to meet.
Salina: So not only was she matchmaking on the show, she was matchmaking off the show.
Nikki: Well, there you go.
Salina: The other thing that was kind of married, they got married in Dixie Carter's rose garden.
Nikki: I think I did know that.
Salina: Her rose garden.
Nikki: You don't have one of those?
Salina: I never promised you a rose garden.
Salina: I don't even have like never.
Salina: Ryan, that's going to sound bad.
Salina: It doesn't matter.
Salina: I don't plant flowers, so I look at them occasionally.
Salina: Concerned with being typecast, she actually left Designing Women in 1991.
Salina: We'll hit that when we get to that part of the show because she didn't want to be typecast.
Salina: She wound up playing a real person in her very next project.
Salina: I'm going to give you a hint and see if you can guess who it is.
Salina: Because if there's one thing I know you'd love to do at 1011 at night.
Salina: It's play a game.
Salina: So here's the hint again.
Salina: Real person who became famous in the was portrayed in 2003 in an Oscar winning movie.
Salina: I got you.
Nikki: Hold on.
Salina: Say the first part again.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: So the woman that she played became infamous in the then the real woman was later portrayed in 2003 in an Oscar winning movie.
Salina: If you don't get that, I'll give you one more hint.
Nikki: Okay.
Nikki: Give me one more hint because I might have it.
Salina: This is a huge one.
Salina: And this will probably give it away, if that's okay.
Salina: That part was played by Charlize Theron.
Nikki: Oh, is I don't know the person's name.
Nikki: Was it the name?
Salina: This is the first female serial killer, Eileen Warnose.
Nikki: I could see her I've never seen Monster, just to be clear.
Nikki: But based on what I've seen of Charlize Theron in that movie, I could see Charlene Jean Smart looking like that.
Salina: It's crazy, though, right?
Salina: She didn't want to be typecast, so she really went the total.
Nikki: Yeah.
Salina: So that happened in 92.
Salina: And then these are some things that don't necessarily have anything to do with acting.
Salina: So she actually wanted to be a veterinarian before getting bit by the acting bug.
Salina: She was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at age 13.
Salina: And so she was really always been active in public awareness about diabetes.
Salina: For that reason.
Salina: She had her first child in 1989.
Salina: And so I'll be interested to see how they play that on the show because I assume they'll be hiding her behind bookcases and stuff.
Nikki: But we'll see.
Nikki: Or maybe she plays a pregnant character.
Salina: I feel like maybe she does have a kid while she's on the show.
Nikki: Okay.
Salina: But I can't remember they do it.
Nikki: Yeah, they either pretend you're pregnant or pretend you're really not pregnant.
Salina: Yeah, there's not many options is the point.
Salina: So I assume that the options were even fewer in the 80s.
Salina: But she was 38 at the time.
Salina: And I bring that up because I feel like that was highly unusual for them.
Salina: So good for her.
Salina: And then I like it when people break the mold.
Salina: And then her and Richard adopted a child in 2009, and she was 57.
Nikki: Oh, wow.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: And then I just want to end well, actually, first let me say this.
Salina: Do you have any questions for me about anything that I've shared to this point?
Nikki: I don't have any questions.
Nikki: I was going to say earlier when you said how much we have in common, we have one other thing in common.
Nikki: I read an article recently that she considers the greatest missed role of her life to be the character that Sigourney Weaver played in Galaxy Quest, the Tim Allen movie.
Nikki: Do you remember that?
Nikki: That is well, I won't say it's her greatest missed opportunity.
Nikki: She said it's one of the roles that she wished she could have had a chance to play.
Nikki: And I just thought of everything that she could have said in that moment to say Galaxy Quest.
Nikki: And the reason I say that's, similar to me, my husband loves that movie.
Nikki: I have a deep love for Tim Allen.
Nikki: I know he has problematic things.
Nikki: I do still love Tim Allen for some reason.
Nikki: And I don't love Galaxy Quest.
Nikki: And it's amazing to me that this, like you said, someone who's been working steadily for so many years has been in so many things.
Nikki: That was her missed opportunity.
Salina: You know what's funny is that in reading up on some of this, some people are actually attributing the success that she's had.
Salina: She's had success over the years, but just all these really back to back high profile projects to Weaver.
Salina: Oh, yeah.
Salina: Because Sigourney Weaver was supposed to have the role in Watchmen, and Watchmen is what has drawn interest, I think, for these other parts that she's gotten in this last year.
Nikki: Right.
Nikki: The other thing I wanted to say is I've also read that she was filming Hacks, I think it was when Richard Gilliland died.
Nikki: And that was really hard for her to push through.
Salina: Yeah, I can't even imagine.
Salina: One thing that we're going to do is we've got some articles where you can kind of dig in, folks, if you want to, to see different things that Jean Smart has to say.
Salina: And there's a really cool roundtable with her and a bunch of other comedy actors, all women, and they sort of sit down and just talk about what drives them, what they feel like they're best known for all these things.
Salina: And I think a lot of Jean Smart's answers were really surprising.
Salina: And then I'm just going to close it out then with a quote.
Salina: Okay, I quit smoking the day I found out I was pregnant, which was nine years ago, but I'll still smoke in a movie.
Salina: I have other vices, you know, like potato chips and chardonnay, but not together.
Salina: Thank you.
Salina: Gene smart.
Salina: We appreciate your guidance.
Salina: We'll keep our chardonnay and our chips separate.
Salina: All right, guys, that's it.
Salina: We'll see you next time on Extra Sugar.