Should Celebs Brave the Shave?

0:00The Rest is Entertainment is presented by Octopus Energy. Now, traditionally, the entertainment gatekeepers had to find you before an audience ever could.

0:08Richard Osman:It's been the biggest change, really, I would say, in entertainment in the last five years or so. Just that generation who grew up making their own content on YouTube, on TikTok and things like that, suddenly finding themselves right at the heart of a culture. And they say no one had to commission it from them. Well, we talked before about Cain Parsons. For Backrooms, he just made his incredible sort of YouTube series of shorts. And within a month, they'd gone so big that people were kind of battering down his door to direct a big movie version of it. And A24 eventually won and he created the Backrooms, which brought a huge audience online for that first weekend that was just a phenomenon.

0:43So by the time the traditional gatekeepers arrive, you may have already proved there's an audience for what you've made. You haven't inherited a routine. You have built one yourself.

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2:11Hello and welcome to this episode of The Rest is Entertainment, questions and answers edition. I'm Marina Hyde.

2:17Richard Osman:And I am Richard Osman. Hello everyone. Hi Marina. Hello Richard. How are you? Yeah, I'm not bad. Ready for some questions. I'll say that. You ready for some questions? Hit me. Hit me with a question. Ever been readier? I've never been. I was born ready. So you have been ready. Well, you've always remained the same amount of ready. Yeah. Okay. Even when sleeping? Oh, yeah. I don't sleep. I wait, like Chuck Norris. That is true. I'm not entirely sure that you do sleep. No, not really. I said before, if I have a message on my phone at 4am, I know who it's from. I waited a long time to send you on this morning.

2:50I'm really, really long. and it was still before six, I think.

2:55Richard Osman:I have a question for you that I think you'll like from Ali Olsen. She says, I've seen Taylor Swift's new haircut. It's now shoulder length, reported in a ludicrous number of tabloids recently. Is this just Swift mania at its most boring or have previous celeb haircuts caused a similar storm? Oh my God, Ali. It's not even the biggest hair story of the week. First of all, yeah, she's got some sort of bangs, as they call it. She's done something different with the fringe. I never really know what bangs are. I hear about them on a lot of American dramas. It's American for fringe, I think. Then now I do know.

3:24Now you do. But the big story is surely the two mega buzz cuts. One, Erling Haaland's buzz cut. And two, I hate talking about him. It's Connor's story from Heated Rivalry for season two. And he's got a buzz cut. This has caused a lot of outrage. A lot of people are like, I loved his hair before. Don't be stupid. He's going to look just as good with this hair in all the 10 minute sex scenes. So don't worry about it. But yes, celebrity haircuts are big. Beckham's haircut was the front page of The Sun if you got a new one. and he had so many different ones. The other day I was reading that part of the issue at the fateful Brooklyn and Nicola wedding was that a lot of David's speech, he talked about what haircuts he had at certain times.

4:10I wouldn't open with it. No, I mean, we've talked about my father-in-law's speech at my wedding before, but yeah, that had a lot of what car he was driving.

4:18Richard Osman:Do please remind us for pod newcomers. For poor newcomers, well, it began with talking about my husband saying, oh, you know, I'm really glad that this person who was there is here because actually we were going to have an abortion. But he is great. But we didn't. And what happens? And then I wanted to be at your birth, but I was doing acid and driving around the canyons in L.A. oh then he I don't know if I mentioned this before the next bit is because he finds out how expensive it is after the birth to have a baby at Cedars-Sinai where Kieran was born so I think they just wrap him in a towel and it's the first of many many midnight flits in Kieran's life so they yeah so they didn't pay they did a birth and run yeah birth and run at Cedars-Sinai do they still owe that money?

5:08they owe so many people money

5:10Richard Osman:Who do you think is liable for that? Do you think Kieran's liable for that money? Yeah, people say you can't take it with you, but I can tell you, you can take quite a lot of your children's money with you. I can confirm. Anyway, rest in peace, my father-in-law. Yeah, haircuts. So, you know, Diana, when she got her hair, when Sam at night did her hair shorter, that was a big thing. Demi Moore shaving her head for G.I. Jane, that was huge. Do you remember Justin Bieber had the swoop? And when he finally cut that off, that was a huge deal. He auctioned some of her hair. When Miley Cyrus went platinum, Jennifer Aniston's Rachel, that was a huge thing, that haircut.

5:45And when she actually gets much better hair later in Friends, I think. My daughter's going through the whole of Friends at the moment. And Rachel has some great hair in Friends. And most sort of awfully, I suppose, Britney's hair getting shaved. This was huge news. So, yeah, haircuts are big. But I have to say that Conor Story and Erling Haaland's buzz cuts are bigger this week.

6:06Richard Osman:I always found one of the things in TV I always found interesting. because this idea of hair and makeup and clothes and stuff being incredibly important to people. And it was never something, I think maybe because my eyes, I just never, it never meant anything to me. But I worked out very, very, very early on that some of the cleverest, smartest, most creative people I knew were also obsessed with that as well. So everything had to be right. And so I've always paid attention to it because my brain would be, oh, why does it matter? And you realize after a while when you're in any sort of visual medium that it does matter and it's some people's job and they're incredibly good at it, about image and making things look good.

6:41Richard Osman:I have, it will shock you to learn, never been good at that sort of thing. But as I could say, I'm here for it. Oh, I love this question. Liam Richard asks, you mentioned in a recent podcast that the entertainment world is run by Toms and Olivias. But if you had to pick your top five Toms and Olivias, who would they be? It's true, though, isn't it? There's a lot of them about. I mean, I guess Olivia makes sense because it's been like the most popular girl's name in the US and UK for sort of as long as records began. But Tom, less so. Okay, so I'm going to do combined top five, if that's all right.

7:13Richard Osman:I'm combining my Toms and Olivia's. So there's lots of good people who are not in this list because there's only room for five. In fact, there's room for more than five because I'm going to go for a joint fifth because I think these two people sort of exist as two sides of the same coin. And I think they are the sort of last two guys to really come through and be universal monoculture movie stars, Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks. You can't put one of them above the other. You can like one of them more than you like the other, for sure. You can prefer the films of one of them to the other, but you can't deny the sheer cultural power of each of them.

7:49Richard Osman:I think there is an equivalence between the two of them, right? I will allow you a joint fifth, and I'm so pleased I'm corrupting you in this way. Carry on. Don't forget, if I had a joint fourth, we wouldn't have a fifth. But I have a joint fifth, so that's okay. Number four, because movie stars are all well and good. There's a thing in We Chase Shadows, my new book, where Rosie goes on Graham Norton and Steve is going up to see it. And his mates in the pub are saying, well, who's on? And he goes, oh, Denzel Washington is on. There's a chef is on. And they go, oh, a chef, that'll be interesting.

8:21Richard Osman:Because over here, we don't really care about big movie stars. Not really. That's not what we really, really. We like homegrown stuff is what we like. So number four, I'm going Olivia Colman. I recognise she is a movie star and I give her great credit for that. But she is one of us. As has the Academy. As has the Academy, which in some ways is probably more important to her because I guess she can't put my respect on a mantelpiece, right? You can't do it. I suppose you could quote me and type it up. It's a lot of hassle in a way that an Oscar isn't. But, you know, from Peep Show and Broadchurch, to start as one of the sort of TV comedy people in the UK, the kind of stuff that we love, and to have gone where she's gone.

9:03Richard Osman:I think Olivia Colman absolutely has to be up there. Number three, Sir Tom Jones. You can't not. I just think the length of his career, funny enough, when we were talking about Doddy Parton on Tuesday's show, there's an amazing story about how she just, as a bet from some of her friends, streaked on Tom Jones's lawn, right? During the filming of 9 to 5, it's like late at night. And she just, yeah. She said, I can't tell you how smoking hot he was at the time. So she said, yeah, I stripped and streaked on Tom Jones's lawn. She said, I don't know if he ever found out, he said, but I did notice two weeks later there was a fence around his house.

9:39He built a fence to stop Dolly Parton streaking across his lawn. I mean, that is a messed up value system.

9:46Richard Osman:But for what he's done across the era he's done, the amount of times he's reinvented himself, what he means to British popular culture, and he stayed relevant and he loves music so much and he still plays great music. You know, the voice is still there. So I have to go Tom Jones. Number two, only because, well, not only because, Oscar winner, nominated many, many times, died at the age of 104, sued Ryan Murphy when she was 100. I'm going for Olivia de Havilland. To have had a career that spans being in Gone with the Wind before the war to suing Ryan Murphy. I mean, if Tom Jones thought he'd had a long career, it's nothing compared to Olivia de Havilland.

10:28Richard Osman:And number one, I'm going to go for because, and again, it's three people. Because I'm going to go for Tom Holland, Tom Holland and Tom Hollander. Because I just think with three of them all together and poor Tom Holland from The Rest is History constantly has to turn up at restaurants to see people being disappointed. And then as soon as he opens his mouth, they go, oh my God, you're the guy from The Rest is History. And then being happy again. And Tom Hollander is very, very, very funny in interviews about firstly people being disappointed he's not Tom Holland, but also occasionally receiving royalty checks for Tom Holland, which, you know, and Tom Hollander is doing pretty well for himself.

11:03Richard Osman:But when he gets the Tom Holland royalty checks, he says it is sobering, I think is what it is. So because those three constantly have to explain who they are to fans of the others, and because of their achievements altogether, I'm going for Tom Holland, Tom Holland, Tom Hollander. We await, as always, at some point, the rise of Tom Holland-est. And it's going to be exciting to see who that is.

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14:01Richard Osman:Welcome back, everybody. Marina, a question for you from Shreya. She asks, I've just read that Madonna is the top nominee heading into the MTV VMAs. My question is, do the VMAs matter? Have they ever mattered? Okay, the VMAs are MTV's, if you don't know, they're MTV's Video Music Awards. and they're another ceremony that isn't the Grammys. You've got to be different. I think they do matter. And I think they've always had a really distinct vibe to them, which is they are an absolute chaos engine in our culture. They are like a pop culture event. And they have been so many times because the Grammys is that real, it's that kind of genteel, it goes on forever.

14:41But it's very kind of establishment. The VMAs, I mean, Madonna, by the way, has been part of a lot of this. by the way she really kind of went particularly big in 1984 all the way back then she did like a virgin in a wedding dress and she lost a shoe she was like writhing all over the floor like you know hi welcome to the building I think it's always chaos basically and it's always those things before we knew what we described moments as viral or whatever these talking points things always happen at the VMAs I'm just going to go through a few of them because they're kind of amazing moments nirvana doing lithium in 1992 like someone throws a guitar and then it gets hit by the guitar um there it's it's all that's all chaos the red carpet is always really out there do you remember little kim going and she had this like purple jumpsuit but it stopped at her waist and she had these kind of nipple pasties on i mean that was a sort of iconic look 2003 madonna again kissing britney spears and christina aguilera that was massive so again all these things happen I think this is 2009.

15:46I mean, think of the aftershocks of this. It's almost like the financial crisis. Kanye interrupting Taylor on stage. Oh, please. I mean, it's always chaos, right? It's always chaos. Things that happen. And what else? Oh, that same year, 2009, Gaga did paparazzi, but covered in blood. And it was really like, oh, yeah, I see what we could achieve with her at award ceremonies. 2011 Beyonce performing and then like everything to show that she was pregnant that was quite a way to announce it that's how Bucks Fizz would have done it Miley Cyrus who's who obviously came from Hannah Montana was a you know uh kind of Disney child if you didn't know what the word twerking was before 2013 you certainly did after you'd seen her with Robin Thicke that idiot from blurred lines they did that they did a sort of medley of we can't stop and blurred lines you knew what twerking was after that everyone knew what it was i i there were lots of moments like this i definitely think that in terms of pop culture they matter but also because no other industry would do an awards show like this the music industry i love it when the music industry is properly music industry and it's like you know you watch the oscars and it's all so genteel and all of those things any of the even like the things that they tell you aren't genteel you're kind of relying on the opening monologue to do something the actual ceremony itself is kind of pretty boring we know what happens you just you don't know what's going to happen at the vmas i love it for that i love the music industry for just like having an absolute you know meltdowns on the red carpet for like having feuds with each other for every it's all completely yeah it's so unboundaried and you don't know what's going to happen so i've and i'm i hope madonna will have something up her sleeve that will scandalize all the boring people who can't stand that she's still working when she's over 60.

17:34I hope something exciting will happen at it this time. She is the biggest nominee and I just said you know I thought the album was really good so yeah that's what I love about the VMAs.

17:43Richard Osman:My favourite thing about the VMAs is when we used to record Pointless or when I used to record Pointless you would we have the same makeup team so there's Pauline and Debbie who would do me and Zander and there was Lisa and there's various others who would do contestants and you know all of this so it's the same to a really really lovely crew uh bambi and just a really good gang they would never really have a day off because you knew in advance when you were recording pointless so that three months would be you know you that's what they'd be doing for that time there would always be two days in any series when they weren't there when there was something that was so big that they had to just just carve it out of their contract because they had to go do it and that was always the vmas so they would always they would go from on a tuesday doing the makeup on pointless doing like contestant makeup and you know going on the floor and sort of touching people up to going to wherever the vmas were that year and working with miley cyrus and you know just these massive massive stars and then come back on the friday and be back just doing me and zander and uh the contestants always with amazing gossip.

18:56I was about to say, you know the gossip was off the scale. The makeup girls are the best, but I'm so jealous of that.

19:03Richard Osman:Yeah, it was amazing because they'd worked for MTV for years and years and years. They were always flown out to wherever it was. They'd flown up from our little studio in Elstree out to the VMAs and then back to us again. Yeah, with every bit of absolutely unrepeatable gossip that is possible to have. Okay, question from Lucy May about the Masked Singer. Lucy says, how do they keep the celebs a secret on Masked Singer? What happens if the judges genuinely work it out too early? I really want to know this. I know a few people who've been on the Masked Singer and they always, it's an amazing setup that they have on that show.

19:40I think rather than me

19:43Richard Osman:give you the answer though, someone who would know far better about it and certainly know far better about how the judges are kept away from people's identities, we have an answer from Davina McCall. I've got a really unique look at the masked singer, Lucy, because I get to go, I got to go behind the scenes because I was a masked singer and I've been on the panel. And the mad thing about being a singer is that no one knows your identity. the sound guys that you are dressed in a cubicle in the back and there's like two people that know who you are the floor manager doesn't know joel doesn't know like the camera crew don't know no one knew that i was behind the mask so that's mad the panel definitely don't know now there have been people that have walked out onto that stage where universally everyone um knew macy gray we she opened her mouth and um she didn't disguise her voice at all so we just knew she's got dion warwick like we all knew um so there was a point where we were kind of all guessing and then really when that starts happening you end up letting go of that singer because everybody knows who they are and sometimes that's quite controversial because they're a massive name but when we all know it's not as much fun I mean we've all realized that it's much more fun when we don't know so have I sometimes wondered if it's someone but maybe gone with another name because I don't you know what I mean like it's not that I'm lying but I'm like but it could be this person um and sometimes i try if somebody's guessed someone and i think oh i think it might be them but i want to be my own person and it might not be them i've been wrong about thinking so they might be wrong don't trust anyone to what i'm trying to say so actually it's pretty true to life the masked singer um and we're all rubbish actors so there you go thank you so much davina Yeah, and it's fascinating because that, of course, is the answer.

22:01Richard Osman:People always say, oh, everyone knows everything and everything's faked. If a show is better if they don't know, that is how the producer will make it. And that show is much better if they don't know, so that's how the producer will make it. And, you know, you talk to contestants who are on it and they sort of, you know, they have to be let out, you know, with hoods over their heads. Like black hoods with a question mark on it to walk down the corridor. So it is kept incredibly secret. And the reason it's kept secret, I say, is because that makes the better show. And people who don't know about telly think everything is faked.