715 - The Book Launch, Live!

25:37And specificity is in how it's something unique to the writer's own experience. And that's a thing that an AI just is never going to have. And AI doesn't have a point of view on anything because it doesn't have any internal logic. It's never in a space, it's never in a body, it's never that stuff. So that's why Craig and I were talking about doing a New York Times editorial and stuff and decided against it. But the thesis would have been, screenwriting will survive AI if anything survives AI. because our job, weirdly, is to imagine a place, put ourselves in it, describe what we're seeing, what it feels like, what it's actually driving, to be inside those characters.

26:13And it's a uniquely human experience. Will there be AI-generated screenplays? Of course, but will there be good art made out of this? I don't think so. And so I do feel some safety just because of the things that these systems aren't designed to do. But I wanted to turn back a little bit towards you. I do want to have a little discussion about cultural conversation and criticism. Who will say in the future if the art is good segue man? Absolutely. Oh my gosh, she stole the segue from me. Dude, listen to the show. Absolutely. As critics, so on Slate Cultural Grand Vest, which everyone should listen to, it's phenomenal.

26:47And by the way, Script Notes is completely ripped off from the Slate formula. VR? Yeah. Oh. Because they have endorsements. I gave you so much credit for this. They have endorsements. We have One Cool Thing. Oh my God, we stole it all? Yeah, it's really very similar. Credits work the same. The setup of what we're going to talk about on the episode. My innocence. The fact that we have some structure and it's all just one rambling conversation that comes from Slate. Thank you, Slate. And Slate invented it. No one else had ever done it before. Every week, though, you have three topics and you're picking what things in culture you want to talk about.

27:25But is it harder now? How is it, in the age of this infinitely generated artificial stuff, has it changed? I don't think we are yet beset by actual AI content. The content, the art that we're talking about, the movies, the television shows, is written by humans for humans. And I feel like one of the things that is a perverse possible upside of the rise of AI is that it forces us to really think about and understand what it is to be human and what the point of it is and what's amazing about it and to like seek out and value the best part of it. And that's what I love about art. It's like, I feel like most art is sort of grappling with the question on some level of like, what is it like to be human?

28:18And some aspect of that and some subset of that. And so the opportunity to consume it every week and talk about it with smart critics and try to understand what it means and whether it's good and if so, why? And if not, why not? And it feels like a real privilege and really fun. Craig, you classically are not such a fan of criticism. So talk to me about sort of when Julia says that they're grappling with sort of, is this good, is it resonating, what does it mean? It means they're figuring out if they like it or not. Who cares? But isn't there some meaning and how this fits into the larger picture of the art form.

28:59Yes, there is. So what you said that made my heart sing was, okay, in a world where there's a bunch of AI crap, maybe it's going to make us appreciate the fact that all these things that are made by humans, there are things about it that are good or striving for something. It's essentially looking for the positive impulse. And I think a lot of times people presume that the only impulse behind certain things would be like, make money. And people are like, cash grab. But somebody, the writer almost certainly, was like really trying. Even when other people were like, hey, we're offering you a job, right?

29:33And you got to pay your bills. But that person tried to do something good. And I think following that is a wonderful thing. My issue with criticism really does come down to the notion that some people have a privileged opinion. But really, it just means if you like something or not. And if you do, you do. And I like watching critics fight with each other because it's like, I'm like, there, there it is. There. They don't agree. So what is, in short, what is the purpose of it? Now, the purpose may be to find people that you, like, if you articulate a point that I agree with, that's fun. And especially if I don't like something, it's like disturbingly fun to watch somebody else beat up someone you hate.

30:19But it certainly doesn't help the artists. I know that much. and it has created a kind of culture where everyone is now Roger Ebert. Everyone is sort of looking for that fun thing to put on Letterboxd and usually it's a dunk and I don't think that's good for us. Okay, wait. Sure. I have been like having this argument with you at home by myself for a decade. Well, here's your chance. And I have to say, I really value your opinion so much. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I used to take homeopathic medicine when I thought I was getting a cold. And I don't anymore because of how laceratingly, how viscerally, how trouncingly you demolished the idiocy of homeopathy.

31:07All right, I'm okay with criticism now. Like, honestly, that's a huge win for me. So generally I find you so persuasive and right. And then on this, I find you so wrong. And obviously I have a stake in it because I am a critic or at least I play one on a podcast. But I think like the thing that strikes me about your take on it is that you seem much more focused on the verdict. Like the idea that the point of criticism is a verdict, good, bad, up, down. And to me, the point of criticism and the value of it, both as a practitioner and as a reader and follower of criticism, is the dialogue. is like the conversation, the interpretation, the search for meaning.

31:49Like I think criticism is important because art is important. Like it would be weird if there was Congress and like no one covered it or said what was happening or said if it was good or bad or surprising or new or breaking a norm. We have too much of that, I think as well. But I understand what you're saying and you're right. I do focus on the verdict, but the reason I do that, well, first of all, there are critics who are smart and thoughtful, and you are one of them. And whether I agree with you or not. Have you ever listened to my podcast? Yes, not your podcast, but I've... You just presume it, because I seem like I might be in conversation.

32:27That's fine. I'm a little bit of a transcript reader. I don't... The listening takes too long. I can read so fast. But there are critics that I respect in terms of their analysis and stuff, because I think they're really thoughtful, whether I agree with them or not. I mean, Walter Cha, for instance, has written things about movies I've done where I'm like, that's amazing and he loves it. And also that's amazing and he hates it. And that's sort of an interesting thing. But the reason I focus on the verdict is because that's what the rest of the world focuses on. And I think critics can say to themselves, oh, it's all about everything right up to thumbs up, thumbs down.

33:04But no one else is really listening. They're going for thumb up, thumb down, and then they're combining that into a huge tomato. and that's the only thing anyone looks at and that's what's happened but that's okay you are judging criticism by like the worst commercial output of it and not what the critic is doing which is engaging with the work but that's how gun manufacturers talk a little bit no I'm serious like you can't god damn it You can't ignore how the product is used. Well, it's interesting, though. I mean, we are living in a world with less and less criticism. Like, Alan Seppenwald isn't at Rolling Stone anymore.

33:52Like, there are, you know, there will be fewer paid television critics reviewing season three than season two and season two than season one. And I'll miss Alan because, you know, whether, you know, he liked season one better than he liked season two. But he was a thoughtful. He's a great critic. He's a thoughtful guy, and I read all of that because I was interested in his... Wait, Craig, you read it? Yes, there are a couple of people I read. I'm very specific about it. But there isn't less criticism. There's less paid criticism. The critic industry has almost orchestrated its own demise by propagating and popularizing the verdict.

34:28And now everyone's a critic. But that's just opinions. That's not criticism. Ah, well, tell that to all the people that are opinionating. Well, but don't pay attention to them. Like, I feel like if I have no desire to be a screenwriter, thank God, but if I were making art in the way that you guys make art, the good critics would be important to me. Like, I feel like not following them or reading them would be like making a phone call and having no one pick up on the other end of the line, which is not to devalue the experience of the audience, which is they're moved by your thing and they take the ride of your thing and they have feelings about your thing.

35:02but what the good critic does is assess why it moved you and how it did that. Or why they hate it and why it's stupid and why it shouldn't have been made. You're just reading the right critics. It's so beautiful. That's not beautiful, I assure you. The experience of reading, sometimes it is so personal and so mean and such an exercise in, hey, let's just be a dick. It really is. and I understand that you practice a different sort. Or advocate for, at least. I wouldn't put myself up with the truly great critics of our age. But some of what we call the truly great critics of our age, like I can do a nice tight 40 on why Pauline Kael's most overrated voice in cinema history and should have never been listened to by anyone.

35:50And that's the next 40 minutes of the show. That's the tightest 40 minutes I could do. All right. My natural instinct is to be the peacemaker. who makes everyone happy at the end. But I'm not going to do that now, because I've learned in this book that conflict is good. And we don't have to. So good. Yeah, we don't need to resolve this thing. This is an open, ongoing fight that we love. And it's a perfect time to segue to something that Craig likes much more than rallying on critics, which is a game. I have a game. So we have at least two people out there who have starred books. The third person raised the house slides if we can.

36:29Did the third person find their star? Yes, great. So the three people with stars come up these stairs. Come on up these stairs here. Is there stairs there? Yeah, there's stairs. And join us on stage. And Drew has a stool. Hello, what's your name? I'm Kayla. Hi, Kayla. Hi. Kayla, take a step by the stool. Hi, Kayla. And Valeska, Valeska, very nice to meet you. And hi. Sita, oh my gosh, we have an amazing All right. So Craig, you guys are going to be gathered around this one's stool. Gather around the stool. You're going to want to be close to that bell. If you have the answer, you're going to hit that bell.

37:02Let me ask you a question, guys. How are we with Christmas movies? Okay. All right. So as a reminder to our audience, don't shout out the answer if you know it. Craig will tell the answer at the end. Yes, if you guys don't have it, we can open it up to the audience. It's no big deal. I'm just going to read their five quotes from Christmas movies. Each quote is from a real Christmas movie. It is exact. They're a little odd in their own way. They'll go from not so odd to Otter and Otter. And if you know the name of the movie that this quote is from, you hit the ding dong. All right? You want to practice?

37:39So gentle. Even gentler. Yeah, absolutely. You can hit it hard. Don't worry about it. Yeah, find the inner winner, the person that wants to take the other two down. Okay, first quote from a movie. Though I've grown old, the bell still rings for me as it does for all who truly believe. That is correct. Nicely done. Way to go. All right. So we won't have an 0 for 5 situation. This is great. Thank God. Okay. Here we go. Next one. If this is their idea of Christmas, I got to be here for New Year's. We've got some people who know out there. All right. I'm going to give you a hint. This was the subject of a deep dive episode.

38:28500 episodes. Absolutely. Fair point. It's in the book as well. We're going to turn to the audience? It's in the book. You want to guess one, and then I'm going to go to the audience. Die Hard? Yes! All right. Die Hard. All right. One and one. All right. All right. This one's really weird. Maybe I didn't do such a wonderful thing after all. It's a wonderful idea. No. Say it. Say it. No. No. It's a hard one. Maybe I didn't do such a wonderful thing after all. The Grinch? No. Nightmare Before Christmas. No, now we're just saying titles. Yeah. All right, I'm going to turn it over to the audience.

39:10Miracle on 34th Street. That is correct, Miracle on 34th Street. We are still tied one and one. Yes, I love this one. Ready? Come here, little one. Papa wants to see you.

39:24Elf? Yes. All right. it is elf okay last one longest one my favorite one don't say many of you are going to know it don't say it next to me in the blackness lay my oiled blue steel beauty the greatest Christmas gift I had ever received I'm registering that you can ring it and I'll finish it or whatever received yes it is yes it is Christmas story I'll give the story gradually I drifted up to sleep pranging ducks on the wing and getting off spectacular hip shots hip shots are the last two words of Christmas Story. Now, what is it? We're tied two and two, so we're going to do a tiebreaker. Well, the tiebreaker question is, what interesting fact unites all of these quotes?

40:08They all share one thing in common. Hmm. And it's not that they're in Christmas movies. Yes? Yes? The writer's in the Jewish? It's a good guess. It's a callback, and I like that a lot. That's a very good guess. I wasn't going to do that two years in a row. That said, probably yes. No, I don't believe the writers were all Jewish. Did you have a guess? Were they all men? Oh, hey. Good, maybe, but that's not what I was looking for. Yeah, let's, we'll go past white, male, Jew. Yeah. No, no, something about their connection to the movies themselves, the context within the movies themselves, they're all doing something similar in their movie.

41:04Yes? They're all set by the protagonist? No. I think I know the answer. Okay, don't say it. Don't say it. I'm going to give you three one last chance. One last chance. Yes. The last lines. The last lines of the movie. each one of those was the last line of their movie you know what, good job you guys I think they did great John, tell them what they want so often when you're putting out a book you are creating extra merch for the book and so for the script notes book we have script notes stickers but the stickers were there on the table as you came in I have done three books before this, I did Arlo Finch merch which I still have sitting on a shelf so you guys get Arlo Finch merch so as the winner you get to pick your pick of the three things and I gotta tell you you can't miss on these each one of them life changing first we have an Arlo Finch neckerchief yep yep everyone's Christmas dream an Arlo Finch towel by the way I wish people could see their faces they are they are either crying with joy or deep disappointment.

42:24And finally, an Arlo Finch water bottle because you can never have too many big, dumb water bottles. Which would you like? I'll do the water bottle. Yeah, there you go. Congratulations. Congrats.

42:40Okay. Hey, that's good news. You got the neckerchief. The one you wanted. Thank you, guys. Thank you for playing. You know, I was really surprised by the writers were all Jewish, and I don't know why. I should have seen that coming. Yeah. Yeah, all weird last lines. So maybe I didn't do such a wonderful thing after all as the last line of Miracle on 34th Street, and it is the subject of debate to this day. You'll see a lot of threads on Reddit. Why does he say this? What does this mean? What does it mean? I don't know. I thought they were all voiceovers. Were they not voiceovers? No, they are not all voiceovers.

43:20Our next guest, I'm so excited for, she's a writer, comedian, performer, whose credits include Ted Lasso, a Black Lady sketch show, Bad Monkey, and Shrinking. Welcome back to the program, Ashley Nicole Black. Hey. Well, I hope you enjoyed watching Julie and I beat the fuck out of each other for about 10 minutes there. It literally took everything in me not to run out on stage and join the fight. On which side? Who side did you fight on? Mostly Craig's. Oh, wow. I'm so happy about that, but I would have been okay if you had gone. I mean, you know, I like fighting, so. So Ashley, we're in the Thanksgiving weekend, so this episode will come out later on, but this is the Thanksgiving weekend, and often there are people gathering together, but there are discussions, debates around the dinner table.

44:07It can get a little bit heated, so it's not uncommon to have some heated words there. Thanksgiving drama. Did you have a good Thanksgiving, most crucially? I had a great Thanksgiving. I'm from here, so my whole family's here. So it's very, it's really, it's the best. Yeah. I lived in Chicago and New York for a long time. Then I would see my family like once a year. And it's such a treat to be like, I can just see them whenever I want. Me and my uncle can get tacos. I love that you love your family and you became a writer even though you... My family is black and I do think that it's like a different thing.

44:43I think there is this stereotype of a writer is like, I was so sad and my parents didn't talk to me and I just wrote in my room and I think black people are just like, yeah, I had cool shit to say. I wrote it down. That's great. Our problems are external for the most part. Ashley's book is going to be so much better than ours. Funny shit you say, write it down. It's a simple book. She just sold it. I'm just sort of terrified at how accurately you summed up my childhood with that mean voice. I work with a lot of writers. You were tortured. Ashley, you have your own chapter in the book, so thank you again for coming on the show.

45:23We have now a chapter in the book where we talk through your stuff. When you first came on the show, I remember dropping off a mic at your apartment meeting your great dog, Gordy. Now you have a house, you're a homeowner yourself, you've kept chugging along series after series. I'd love to talk to you about being that middle-of-your-career writer. Because so often we have the writers who are just starting out. You are consistently working on show after show. What is your life like? And as you're on a show, do you always know what the next thing is? What is it like? It's so weird. Because when you're young, and I was cute.

45:57I was so cute. You were so cute? I was so cute. You were cuter? And you know, you're like, you're on set and you're baby producer and you're like, oh my God, this wallpaper, it's not right. And like, oh my God, the showrunner is going to kill me. Like, do you mind changing it? And they're like, oh, you're so cute. We'll change it. And then you get to a certain point and you just have to be like, so this doesn't work and it does need to change. And I can't blame it on anyone else because I'm an EP and no one would believe that my boss was going to kill me at this point in my life. And it's just like such a weird thing to be like, I have the answer to the question and I am going to have to say it.

46:36People don't like it when that happens to women, but I do, I have to say it. It's like just such a weird position to be in. The boss. But not, right? Right. Sort of the boss. Yeah. Sometimes you're in meetings and you're like, oh, it should look like this. And then, oh, well, we'll see what Bill says. And it's like, I said it. We don't need Bill. I did it. We're coming out of Thanksgiving. We've been answering a lot of questions for the book, and we have a lot of leftovers. And so I thought that because we're in leftover-ville, you could help us answer some questions that sort of came from our Reddit AMA and from other times where people were asking us questions online.

47:13And your answers are just better than ours. Do I answer as if I were? No, no, we won. You're a real answer. Wait, wait, that's an option? Kind of. This was a question from Jeff A. When was there a time that has held you back from writing, from setting a script, going to a meeting? How did you get over or not get over that fear? Wait, say the beginning. So what was a time that a fear held you back? A fear held you back. And what worked for you? I would say not a meeting or writing, but as an actor. A lot of times you come onto set, like we were talking about Vince, the first scene that I shot on Bad Monkey, I literally had flown, arrived, put my things in a hotel room, and then we shot that scene at two o 'clock in the morning and it's me and Vince.

48:01So you're like a very low-level actor who hasn't slept in 48 hours and you've never been on this set before, you've never met any of these people, and the first thing you have to do is try to be funny next to Vince Vaughn. Like I would love to meet the sociopath who's not fearful in that moment um and i think the way you get past it is like just to act as if it's already happened and a weird thing about being an actor is you can get fired at any time right so it's not like oh i got the job i deserve to be here no you can get yanked literally at any point and it's like oh so uh yeah we'd your your manager's on the phone That's like, oh, did she want to congratulate me?

48:47No. So you just have to sort of go in and be like, we're in this scene together in this moment, so I'm going to act as if we are both, you know, top-level actors and this is what's supposed to happen. And I will say the great thing is that most of the, like, really, like, crazy high-level actors I've worked with will do the same thing. Just be like, yeah, we're supposed to be in this scene together. Let's go. And you just sort of do that until you get past that initial moment and then do it. That's great advice for anybody going into a room to pitch. You feel like you're not supposed to be in this place.

49:20This is beyond where you're supposed to be at. But you just say, yeah, of course I'm supposed to be here. This is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. Yeah, I am here. You are here, so change the fucking wallpaper because I'm in charge. Wallpaper was the worst example. It's the hardest thing to change. It really is hard. It looks like curtains. Easier. Haley Huang had a question. what is your favorite genre to watch and what is your favorite genre to write? I'm curious if they match up for you or not. No, my favorite genre to write is comedy, hands down. I really got into this to make people laugh.

49:54I'm really curious about how drama writers work because what is the point of a scene if not to get a laugh? But I will say that I watch a lot of drama and crime and I probably watch a lot more of that than comedy. I think I'm probably the flip. I like writing drama because it means I don't have to worry about the punchline, the button, any of that misery. Did it, don't want to do it anymore. But watching comedy to me is... I love watching comedy. We'll do our third rewatch of 30 Rock and it's just so amazing but I just could never do that. I just don't have the stamina or the brain that creates that level of joke density.

50:35I just can't do it. Kind of why we enjoy it, right? Yeah, absolutely. It feels like magic. And probably is why all the Oscars should go to comedies. Also, by the way, no one does, right? I mean, it's a room of 10 people who are creating that joke. No one person does that. But again, I feel like I should be able to do it. I feel like Tina Fey could do that. I'm, of course, comparing myself to a team of experts who spent years doing it. Noah L. asks, when you were first learning how to screenwrite, screenwrite as a verb is just weird. I do not like it. Who were the writers you looked up to and whose voices really inspired you?

51:15Ashley, any screenwriters inspired you as you were coming up? Yeah, Shonda Rhimes for sure. I think Grey's Anatomy came out when I was in college and it was the first show that looked like the world that I lived in. And when I was younger, Kevin Williamson, I loved Scream and Dawson's Creek and those just highly verbal Aaron Sorkin. Very writerly writers. and I still have the issue of overwriting to this day thanks to my love of those writers. Craig, did you have any screenwriters you looked up to? I remember seeing Ocean's Eleven and saying, okay, I need to know who this Ted Griffin guy is. And I remember seeing Out of Sight and thinking I need to know who this Scott Frank guy is.

51:58I read the script for Jerry Maguire and Cameron Crowe blew my mind, even more so than he had already blown my mind prior. with Fast Times and then also Sorkin. You know, I think a lot of people like kind of giggle a little bit because he's so prolific and because there's like that super cut of him reusing dialogue and stuff. But it's great dialogue. Her legs went all the way up to here. Yeah, exactly. But it's great dialogue and he's written that whole A Few Good Men thing. I just, oh my God. Yeah, so good. I think it's also maybe because you said A Few Good Men, it's very theatrical in the sense that as someone who started as an actor, I like it when characters are trying to get a response from the other one.

52:41And it's so weird to me, like in comedies where the actors don't laugh at the jokes. But in real life, like I'm in a room here with you. I would like to make you laugh. And you know that that's my goal. So it's like weird to pretend that characters aren't trying to get something from each other. And I feel like Aaron Sorkin's characters are always like directly pursuing tactics in a way that. The opening of Social Network just watching that ping pong. And apparently, I think it's true, that scene was like, I don't know, 14 pages long. And Fincher was like, Aaron, I can't open a movie with 14 minutes of two people talking.

53:19And Sorkin was like, no, no, no, it's like four minutes. You're reading it too slow. And Fincher was like, okay, record it for me at the pace you want it to be. and he did and Fincher apparently on the day was like, with the script supervisor are we on pace? And when you watch it back the clip is insane. So good. In answering this question I would say there's always movies I admired and eventually at some point I realized people wrote those movies. I didn't know if people wrote those movies. They screenwrote them. But once you actually start reading screenplays which are so much more available now I remember reading Quentin Tarantino's script for Natural Born Killers and going to the last page and like, holy shit.

54:06And going back to page one and rereading it again, you realize like, oh, that's what you can actually do on the page. Reading James Cameron's scriptment for Aliens. And it's like, oh, that's what a movie looks like when it's in Courier. It was just so revelatory. So that thing I think is so much better now is that because of the internet, you can just read all the scripts and you need to read the scripts and not just watch the movies. Let's do one more side dish of a question here. What do you got, Craig? This is a multi-parter from Clara A. I'm an extremely long-time listener who, by happenstance, has found herself in a weekly writing group with local sweetie Meghna Rao for the past couple of years.

54:43Meghna's the best. My question, what is your favorite thing about Meghna? She's not even here to defend herself. She'd be so embarrassed. Alternatively, Craig, do you still love millennials? I don't remember professing that I kind of do I'll do another question because I don't know if you have a favorite thing about Meghanna that seems unfair I feel like she's got great hair she does have great hair absolutely true we're incredibly thankful for Meghanna but it's a very specific kind of the kindest and most positive person just such a great person and yes I still love millennials I like Zillennials.

55:26I think that's my groove. There you go. If you're like 28, 29, 30, 31, that's a good crew. Nitsen has a good question. Do you want to try Nitsen? Yeah, sure. Nitsen asks, as a beginner, is a credit for a bad movie better than no credit at all? What if that movie involves problematic people? Ashley, what's your opinion on this? And Julia, I'm going to open this to you as well. Do you think it's better to have no credits or a bad credit? I'm curious what you guys will say. I really don't know. I think I would lean towards it's better to have a bad credit because the people who care about credits are the other people who work in the industry, and people who work in the industry know that the way the movie turned out is not the writer's fault, particularly when it's an early career writer.

56:11So I think having had the credit and the experience is a good thing, and no one's looking at that going, oh, he must be a terrible writer because the movie turned out bad. It's ding. Ding. Yes, absolutely. Julia, do you ever, do you think about credits? Do you think as you're looking at, you know, you're talking about something on State Culture Grand Fest, are you always mindful of the things they've written around it or are you just looking at that one piece of work generally? Well, a professional critic. Yeah. With some expertise. Oh, man. Yeah, would look at what the person has made in the past and think about how this fits into the history of their career and the genre and the actors, I mean, there's different levels of comprehensiveness in that.

56:57But yeah, I don't think you would look at an early credit and be like, and thus everything they make from there on must also be bad. You take the work on its own terms, but I think you use the rest of the surrounding history as context. What about this idea, what if the movie involves problematic people? I mean, that doesn't seem like something that I would... It feels like writers really don't get... We get blamed for things in reviews that weren't our fault all the time. 100%. Of course. it's like, these actors did the best they could with a bad script. I'm like, oh my God. No, they didn't. But it doesn't feel instinctively like when you see, you know, movies that come out and there's hints of some problematic people involved, does it sort of taint the whole thing?

57:42We're going to do art from the artist, the whole thing, right now? Sure. Yeah, I don't know. I think problematic is a word that can do a lot and go a lot of directions there for this question. But yeah, I think you take the work as the work. The work is the work. I think also people know that writers don't get to choose who's in the movie. It's really interesting because we do get blamed for things that we didn't do or don't have any control over and then we also don't get credit for the things that we do. The number of people asking a director, like when did you guys decide when the character would do this in this episode?

58:20He wasn't hired yet. What are you talking about? We never met that guy when we made that choice. There's a whole booklet that tells him what to do. It is amazing. Follow the instructions well. Yes. All right. Those are some questions that were leftovers. Thank you so much for helping us out with the leftovers. It is time for our one cool things. Oh, yes. All right. Julia Turner, do you have one cool thing to share with us? and I will say like this is a completely stolen from the Slate Culture Gap Fest because they do their endorsements. I do and I'm going to say it on this show instead of on my show so okay I hosted Thanksgiving this week I had some beloved family over we made some pies they brought some cakes because there were also some birthday Thanksgiving week birthdays one of the cakes they brought was the Tom Cruise coconut cake how does everyone know what this is I've never heard of this You don't know about the cake?

59:14Has anybody here eaten? You don't know about it either. I've tasted it. I remember hearing about this, but I don't know what it is. I feel so alone right now. Okay, my knowledge of this comes from Matt Bellany, who has such, to your point about specificity, he has such a good eye for the detail that makes you feel like he was inside a room that you weren't. Although he's very clear that he also is not on the list of people to whom Tom Cruise sends a particular white chocolate coconut bundt cake for Christmas every year. I am not on that list either. Has anybody in this room actually from Tom Cruise received this cake?

59:49Yeah, there's not going to be a big chance of that. No? We're raising the house lights just in case. I've gone down to Rabbit Hole. They send it to the whole staffers. I think they're still raising more lights. Like, I know there's one person. No, weirdly, none of us got me. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. So I'd heard about this. I never tried the cake. it's from a bakery called Doan's in Woodland Hills apparently legend has it this anecdote does not meet my journalistic standards of rigor it comes from a light Google but according to a light Google apparently at one point Katie Holmes and Diane Keaton proposed a contest where they would each present Tom Cruise with a cake and then he would pick which one he liked better and Diane Keaton brought him this cake from Doan's in Woodland Hills and he chose Diane Keaton's cake and now he sends it to everybody for Christmas and you can get it on Gold Belly Ashley, Nicole, you've had it.

1:00:39What do you think of it? It's really good. It was so good. And like everybody says it is and you're like, oh yeah, well you got a cake from Tom Cruise. No, it actually is really good. I mean, I also, white chocolate is like a big no-no for me. Like you tell me white chocolate is in something and I'm like, forget it, I'm not a bunch. And you liked it. This cake is delicious. Wait, so it's not called Tom Cruise coconut cake, I assume. It is called White Chocolate Coconut Bundt Cake, and you can either go get it at Jones in Woodland Hills or you can order it on Gold Belly. And it's excellent, and we were talking about things with problematic auspices, but I just can't lie, this cake was excellent.

1:01:21T &D next week, we're having the... Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I've got to get on this right away. I'm a big believer in bringing... You're making a feast, you're cooking all the entrees, to the sides by dessert. Desserts are delicious. Oh, yeah. No one's upset with you when you show up with dessert. You're not going to be able to top the pie. Melissa just texted me. Thank you, Melissa. We have gotten one of those cakes. Oh. From Tom Cruise? I don't know if it was from Tom, but it was from Dom's. All right. So we have live updates. Craig's wife, Melissa, is here. Yes? And she reports that that cake was actually eaten in the maize and household.

1:02:00Did I like it? It was delicious. Of course it was. Well, that's a little insight into how my life goes. I'm like, I'm alone. I'm the only one here that ate it. Yeah. Ashley, if all black, do you have one cool thing to share with us? Yes. And I may have shared this on the pod before, but I'm on a board of a charity called Letters to Santa. And it is Christmas time. And every year we raise a bunch of money and we buy kids their Christmas presents, but we also give grants of substantial amounts of money to their families. We also did letters to Altadena after the fires. And it's just, you know, our idea is that the solution to poverty is money.

1:02:43So we just give people money. That's interesting. So we're going to send some money to the charity. You can go to letterscharity.org and just donate money if you want to do that. And then closer to Christmas time, I will be posting wish lists of the kids. there's nothing more pleasurable than having a glass of wine and buying a kid you've never met a bike. It's the absolute best. So if you follow me and I'll be posting those wish lists and you can buy kids their presents. You're a good person. That's a good person. This is like the one thing. It's this. It's a big thing though. And then I'm just like walking through the street sticking out my foot and tripping people.

1:03:22So Ashley and Nicole Black, we should all follow you on Instagram which is where I follow you. And because we both follow the same person on Instagram, I can see what you've liked to post. And we need to talk about Simon Sitz. Oh my gosh. We're both going to start crying now. I cry every morning now. So this is a woman who basically fosters dogs and has the most charming stories, but then she adopts them away. And you're like, but what's going to happen? Oh no, then I follow those dogs. I now follow those dogs in all their new homes. Everybody's doing great. Everyone's doing great. Simon himself has a disorder, but it's going to be okay.

1:03:58Craig, what do you have for a wonderful thing? I'm going to go with a little nerdery. I love it. So this fall slash winter, as I often do, I am working with some friends to solve Puzzle Boat. I think it's Puzzle Boat 12, which is put out through Panda Magazine. If you love very hard puzzles, go subscribe. One of the puzzles referenced something called Day of the Tentacle. Sure. Yeah. There we go, dork. Okay. So, you're my kind of nerd. So, I actually, I was not familiar with it because when I was growing up, I didn't have a PC. I just had Macs. And there were like a world of games that were just PC only, like the pixely kind of games that I missed out on.

1:04:44And one of them was called Day of the Tentacle. It was published by LucasArts, sort of by the same team that was, you know, famous for Monkey Island and so forth. Well, turns out you can play Day of the Tentacle now on everything, including your iPad. And writers, Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman, Ron Gilbert, Gary Winnick, it is adorable. It's a lovely concept that involves you three different friends who are sent into three different time periods who can send stuff back and forth to each other through their little time thing. And it's dork funny, you know, like nerd funny, which I love. And actually looks really good.

1:05:18I think they updated the graphics for the iOS version. So if you're looking for something, I don't know, probably costs like$6 or something like that. and you like that kind of point and click classic 90s adventure, check out Day of the Tentacle.

1:05:38My one cool thing is actually the very back page of the Scribner's book that you all have in your hands right now, which is the thank you page. So often you read through a book and there's the thank yous at the end and you're like, I don't know who these people are, I don't know what they did. And so we try to be very specific about who these people were and the work they did that made the Scrivenance book possible. That of course starts with our incredible producers over the years who not only made the show happen, but also got our transcripts together, which without the transcripts there was never going to be a book.

1:06:05The whole team at Crown was fantastic, from buying the book in the first place, but getting it through all the stages of production and getting it into your hands. Jody Reamer, who sold the book for us, is incredible. We had just amazing people the whole time through, including our audience the whole time through. If we didn't have people who were writing in every week and providing questions for us to answer, letting us know that it was actually worthwhile for us to be doing this for 15 years, there wouldn't be a book either. So that's why I think the final thank you is really to our whole audience for making Script Notes possible.

1:06:37Without you or nothing. Thank you very, very much. Thank you.

1:06:43And that is our show for this week. And Script Notes is produced by Drew Marquardt. Drew Marquardt, thank you very much. it is edited by Matthew Shilleli who also did our intro and outro this week thank you to Raven up in the booth Mary, Dax, Brenna, Dan and everyone at Dynasty Typewriter thank you Pamela, Chris Lieb, Patti Lombard and everyone at Chevalier's Books our sort of official bookseller for this event Chevalier's Books is on Larchmont and we signed some extra books so if you're listening to this podcast at home and you're like, man I wish I had a signed book they have some there at the Larchmont location of Chevalier's books.

1:07:20Thank you to Matt Inman, Mary Motes, everyone at Crown Publishing for making tonight possible. Thank you to Julia Turner and Ashley Nicole Black. Thank you, guys. Who out here is a Script Notes premium subscriber? Any premium subscribers? Thank you so very much. And you can sign or become one at scriptnotes.net. And thank you all very much for coming out this afternoon for our live show. Thank you. Thanks, folks. Have a great Sunday.