This Week in Gossip #11

Emmys did okay, the BAFTAs did not, Taylor Swift did not write a spy novel, and Kanye did not have his teeth removed.

1. The Belated Emmy Awards Were (Mostly) Delightfully Predictable

It felt genuinely weird to have the Emmys happen in January, smack bang in the middle of movie awards season. Still, the delayed ceremony, pushed a few months back thanks to Hot Strike Summer, finally went ahead this past weekend and got the job done. The Emmys aren’t known for surprises, although they can delight in ways that remind you not to hate them entirely. This/last year’s slate could have been called in advance about a year ago, but there were no real complaints.

Succession and The Bear were, of course, the big winners of the night, Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook taking home trophies. Quinta Brunson win for lead actress in a comedy while the Beef team were dominant in the limited series/movie categories, aside from a much-deserved Supporting Actress win for Monster's Niecy Nash-Betts (and let's be honest here, I'm so glad that terrible show won nothing else.) The predictability of it all also meant that some losses were expected but no less painful, such as Rhea Seehorn not getting her long-deserved Emmy because the Academy was still riding its White Lotus high for Jennifer Coolidge. Would I have preferred to see James Marsden or Anthony Carrigan win over Edon Moss-Bachrach? Sure, but his win doesn't make me angry.

One of the things that can make the Emmys a tad tedious is their tendency to commit to a sweep (and do so year after year if they like the show enough.) So, as deserved as the wins for Succession, The Bear, and Beef were, you couldn't help but feel a bit tired by the sameness of it. What, no love for Bad Sisters? Or Better Call Saul, the perennial unloved step-sibling of the decade? Or Jury Duty, one of the funniest and most high-risk comedies of the season?

Then again, can you be truly furious when you’ve seen wonderful speeches by the likes of Ayo Edebiri, Quinta Brunson, Ali Wong, and Trevor Noah? Expecting too much from any awards show but especially the Emmys will only leave you burned. And it could always be worse.

2. Why Was Mean Girls’ Musical Status Hidden From So Many?

This year, Mean Girls turns 20. The teen comedy written by Tina Fey quickly became its generation’s defining example of the genre, a scathing take of high school social dynamics primed to stand alongside the likes of Heathers and Clueless. The film has proven to be popular with Gen Z-ers as well as the millennials for whom it was created, and the memes have been dominant across social media for years. A ton of that film’s dialogue is now just part of our cultural vocabulary, and its influence can be felt across film and TV. Of course Fey and her husband, composer Jeff Richmond, had to adapt it into a Broadway musical. While its New York run was cut short due to COVID, it’s made bank with a national tour (both equity and non-equity), and will open on the West End in June of this year.

Going from movie to musical to musical movie is a whole thing, as evidenced by the likes of Hairspray and The Producers. It's a fancier version of brand expansion. Since Mean Girls is still a beloved film, why wouldn't Paramount want to stretch things out by bringing the musical to the screen? It makes sense. What confuses me is the fact that they seemed eager to hide the fact that it was a musical. The trailers were notably absent of the musical marketing beats for the genre, and TikTok was full of people filming themselves in the theatre (boo) experiencing genuine shock at discovering a musical is a musical.

I don’t know about you, but I love it when a film has to trick me into seeing it by completely concealing its very genre. What a thrill. Deadline recently wrote that test audiences were negative towards musicals, so apparently studios felt that the only way to get butts into seats is deceit. I question much about this logic, but especially the over-reliance on test audiences. They're an easy get-out-of-jail-free card for studios to blame bad decision making on. If you've ever wondered by trailers these days seem to give away the entire film, that's because said spoiler-heavy marketing plays well to test audiences. But of course it does. You just showed them the whole dang thing!