S22.E17: will.i.am, Imelda Staunton, Cuba Gooding Jr, George Ezra

[Athena]

Quote

Graham's guests include musician, entrepreneur and The Voice judge will.i.am and stage and screen actor Imelda Staunton, who stars in the new romantic comedy Finding Your Feet. Plus Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr, taking the role of Billy Flynn in Chicago, and musical guest George Ezra performs Paradise.

[dubbel zout]

Not the worst sofa, especially with Imelda Staunton on it. Cuba wasn't quite such an attention hog, and will.i.am barely said "like." (Heh.) 

The first Big Red Chair story was the best.

[attica]

Cuba's comments about the enthusiasm of the Oscar audience for his freak out was quite a bit more insightful than i usually associate with him. Hmm. Maybe i should reevaluate him...

George Ezra continues to look Not At All like he sings. 

[TexasGal]

Cuba was, again, a bit much for me.  I did amuse myself by watching will.i.am’s resting bitch face when Cuba was talking.

[MissLucas]

Two things I remember from this episode: trying to figure out what will.i.am was really thinking and googling recipes for soda bread.

[Quof]

Here you go, MissLucas. I made it for a coworker who had moved from Ireland.  She got teary and said "It's the best I've had since I left home."

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/brown-soda-bread-1916

[MissLucas]

Aww, thanks! I might have to give it a try it sounds/reads lovely with a bit more joie de vivre (for lack of a better term) than the more generic ones I found.

[peeayebee]

More Imelda Staunton, please!

Less Cuba Gooding Jr, please!

I did not like him at all. I didn't like any of his stories. I didn't think he sounded all that great when he sang. Why would anyone hire him for Chicago?

Imelda Staunton, however, was fantastic. I think Graham should have a couch with just a few actors from the Harry Potter movies. Along with Staunton, definitely Emma Thompson,  Miriam Margoyles, and Julie Walters. Maybe also Kenneth Branagh, Mark Williams, David Tennant.... I guess I could go on and on.

[attica]

I remember reading (a long time ago, so it might not still be true) that Imelda and Tom live next door to Emma Thompson & Greg Wise. How fun would their block parties be? 

[sugarbaker design]

14 hours ago, peeayebee said:

Why would anyone hire him for Chicago?

Stuntcasting.  They've been doing it in New York for years, the latest Mama Morton was one of the real housewives.

[dubbel zout]

2 hours ago, attica said:

I remember reading (a long time ago, so it might not still be true) that Imelda and Tom live next door to Emma Thompson & Greg Wise. How fun would their block parties be? 

How fun would it be to borrow a cup of sugar?

[attica]

I'm picturing knocking on GW's back-porch door and murmuring "Gimme some sugar, baby." Or is that not what you meant? :)

[dubbel zout]

LOL. I might mean that! He's so dishy.

[peeayebee]

12 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Stuntcasting.  They've been doing it in New York for years, the latest Mama Morton was one of the real housewives.

Right, but I didn't think they'd do that in London.

[dubbel zout]

Chicago is basically all stunt-casting these days, at least as far as the main roles are concerned. Same with any revival of Grease. The main producers, Fran and Barry Weissler, are known for this.

[applecrisp]

On 2/20/2018 at 9:27 AM, sugarbaker design said:

Stuntcasting.  They've been doing it in New York for years, the latest Mama Morton was one of the real housewives.

Which housewife please. Never heard about this.

[sugarbaker design]

2 minutes ago, applecrisp said:

Which housewife please. Never heard about this.

Two actually, at least that I know of.  Nene Leakes took a turn and currently it's Kandi Burruss.

[Bruinsfan]

At least Nene Leakes has some actual entertaining acting work under her belt thanks to Ryan Murphy. Not that she's not still stunt casting, but they didn't just yank her out of an Atlanta spa and put a mic on her.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 2/18/2018 at 8:51 AM, attica said:

George Ezra continues to look Not At All like he sings. 

George Ezra is unknown in this house (not uncommon with Graham's musical guests), and when he started singing, Mr. Outlier and I looked at each other wide eyed--neither of us expected him to sound like that.

 

On 2/17/2018 at 12:16 PM, dubbel zout said:

The first Big Red Chair story was the best.

I watched two episodes in one night, and can't remember which was which.  On one episode, the first story was about a parrot that said "bonjour," and it sounded like a joke and not a real story to me, and I think Norton even said, "That's not true" as he flipped him.  For the life of me, I can't remember the first story on the other episode.

[MissLucas]

On 18.2.2018 at 5:51 PM, attica said:

George Ezra continues to look Not At All like he sings. 

Just came across a clip of his first appearance on the GN Show and Denzel Washington noticed the difference between his speaking and singing voice and asked him about it. He claimed that he hadn't been a good singer until the day he decided to sing with his 'big voice'.