Straight Up

Latest Episodes:

Picture This’ Ryan: introversion, Irish stereotypes and why he doesn’t want kids Apr 20, 2023

Show notes

Hello darlings, have you missed us? Kathleen is back from Mexico so Straight Up is back to business and we have an excellent celebrity interview for you today: Ryan Hennessy, frontman of Picture This, the childhood friends turned Irish mega band who flew to the top of the Irish charts with their debut album in 2017. If you go weak for an Irish accent and swoon over gorgeous introspective songs about love, breakups and existentialism then you are going to absolutely love em.

We met Ryan one sunny afternoon in Kings Cross and chatted all about why they're the most 'egoless band out there', why young female fans should not be patronised, and why he might be the only artist that never drinks before a show. And his anecdote about a mental house party in LA - which also inspired a song - might well be one of the craziest stories Straight Up has heard to date.

Plus: why he wasn't offended by controversial Irish film Banshees of Inisherin, the song inspired by his big existential crisis and his thoughts on masculinity and fatherhood.

Leave us a little review, and rate us on Spotify, it helps boost us in the charts and then we can continue getting more fabulous guests and spending time curating juicy, informative content about all things celeb culture. And let us know what you think on Insta @straightuppod

Check out Song To Myself here: https://songtomyself.lnk.to/PictureThis

If you want to see Picture This live, they're headlining Koko on the 27th April, tickets here

Follow the band @picturethis on IG and Ryan @ryanhennessy_

Thank you to Huel for supporting this episode. In case you haven't heard, Huel is the game-changing, high protein nutritionally complete meal you can have in a shake that has got both of us into the best shape of our lives, and feeling our healthiest, too! Our fave is the Black Edition – get a free shaker and a T-shirt when you order at huel.com/straightup

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Celebrity journalism's big existential crisis Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

Hi gorgeous ones! Today we round up our mini celebrity journalism series with the fourth and final part (listen to parts one to three by scrolling back in our archive - they’re super juicy!). And it’s all about celebrity journalism’s uncertain future: in an era in which celebs increasingly hold all the power, and publications are losing their relevancy, who needs who?

After Ellie reveals a shock celebrity encounter that got her feeling all kinds of existential angst, we discuss why and how celebs are choosing to disrupt traditional media, from Dua Lipa's newsletter and podcast to the now ubiquitous A-List tell-all Netflix documentary. Whereas celebrity journalism used to be a highly calculated game paying dividends for both sides, today it seems to have become something a lot less strategic.

But it's not all doom and gloom for the media huns, as we make the case for why the traditional interview still holds an important place in our culture, and why celebrity journalism more broadly is important in holding the powerful to account.

Make sure you answer our themed question on Spotify! And let us know what you thin on Insta @straightuppod

Ps we're off for a two-week break after this episode but don't go anywhere, we'll be back on April 20 with a VERY fun interview. See ya then!

Thank you to Huel for supporting this episode. In case you haven't heard, Huel is the game-changing, high protein nutritionally complete meal you can have in a shake that has got both of us into the best shape of our lives, and feeling our healthiest, too! Our fave is the Black Edition – get a free shaker and a T-shirt when you order at huel.com/straightup

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jordan Stephens: sex on screen, male shame and Andrew Tate Mar 23, 2023

Show notes

Jordan Stephens is in the studio today angels and this is defo one of our favourite chats to date – you are going to absolutely love this one! Jordan shot to fame as a teenager as one half of Rizzle Kicks, they disbanded in 2016 and he went on to pursue a super successful, incredibly varied career, from actor and painter to children’s book author (as well as still releasing music ofc).

We sat down at Brixton Village studios to debrief on the rise of Rizzle Kicks and being thrown into fame overnight as a teenager, from the “delusion” that got him there in the first place, to the wild and ultimately unsustainable partying that came with such success.

Jordan gets into what his subsequent five years of sobriety have been like and his myriad talents, including being an actor, and his views on everything from Penn Badgley's no intimacy rule for filming, to Andrew Tate and toxic misogyny.

Plus, why he absolutely loves how famous his partner, Jade Thirlwall from Little Mix, is, how they complement each other, their creative intimacy, and their plans when it comes to getting married and having children.

And thanks VERY much to Shure for gifting us our sexy new mics, the MV7s, which we can highly recommend to any new or current podcasters. Grab yours atShure.com

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Fat suits, Jennifer Lawrence’s comeback and popping the Paul Mescal hype Mar 16, 2023

Show notes

Welcome back angels! We’ve got a corker of a chat for you today, where first we quickly debrief on our favourite Oscar looks, before getting into The Whale, for which Brendan Fraser took home Best Actor, and Hollywood’s surrounding fat suit controversy. Is the portrayal of his character Charlie is ethical? And why are weight and morality all too often confused? Plus Jonah Hill’s life-long struggle with his weight and self-image, as portrayed in his Netflix documentary Stutz.

Then, we pop the Paul Mescal hype after seeing his arthouse hit Aftersun, which we, unlike the rest of the world, unfortunately did not love. Also, the dreamy Austin Butler as Elvis in the new Baz Lurman film, Jennifer Lawrence’s comeback and Cara Delevingne’s recent renaissance post a much-documented ‘unravelling’. Plus, Kathleen’s favourite new bar discovery, a Mexican meets Japanese underground spot in Notting Hill, Viajante 87.

Recommendations:

The Whale
Stutz on Netflix by Jonah Hill
Elvis (Baz Lurman film)
Austin Butler on Mark Maron’s podcast
Jennifer Lawrence BuzzFeed
No Hard Feelings (JLaw film)
Planet Sex on BBC iPlayer with Cara Delevingne
Viajante 87 bar, 87 Notting Hill Gate
Mae Stevens “If We Ever Broke Up”
Miley Cyrus “Endless Summer”

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SG Lewis: ‘songwriting camp’, fame freebies and Face-timing Elton John Mar 09, 2023

Show notes

Hi darlings, we’re back today with a chat with the man who got us turning our kitchens into dancefloors over the pandemic, and has just released one of the most disco-tastic albums of 2023, AudioLust and HigherLove. SG Lewis (or Sam, to his friends) is, as Kathleen says, a pied piper of the party! Makes sense that he’s also super-producer to some of the world’s biggest stars, from Mabel to Dua Lipa, and has worked with icons such as Elton John.

Sam Zoomed us from LA to talk about what his career spent working with some of music’s biggest stars has taught him about fame, money and success, as well as entertaining us with some excellent red carpet stories and revealing what the mysterious ‘songwriter camps’ are really like.

Plus we have got all our cocktail loving Huns covered with a review of what might be our top new London bar: SOMA, in Soho. And Ellie gives us the lowdown on her favourite new female comedians for International Women’s Day, while we also both get stuck into the juiciest controversy of the moment, the explosive fallout from HBO’s upcoming show The Idol, which has been accused of ‘male torture porn’. How did a show satirising fame become the very thing it was meant to satire? And what does this mean for its very famous co-creator The Weeknd?

Recommendations discussed:

SOMA
Dans Le Noir?
Guilty Feminist Podcast ( IWD episode not yet out!)
Comedian Helen Bauer
Comedian Michelle de Swarte
The Rolling Stone expose on The Idol

Enjoy!

Thank you to Huel for making this episode possible. Huel is a high protein, nutritionally complete meal that you can have in a shake in a load of amazing flavours, and which has totally changed the game for us since we started weight lifting, helping us to get back to the gym, build muscle and save money. huel.com/straightup

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The epic Peltz-Beckham wedding fall out, Paris Hilton’s birth phobia and horror’s hottest actor Mar 02, 2023

Show notes

First up today darlings is a whistlestop recommendation rundown for New York, where Ellie celebrated her 30th last week, followed by a blow-by-blow look at the car crash that is the Peltz-Beckham wedding lawsuit drama. Then, a further debrief on the unofficial first family of Britain, from whether we think Victoria Beckham is a nice person, featuring *alleged* intel from Kathleen, who once met one of the Beckham’s nannies, to Ellie’s experience of interviewing a rather handsy David.

Also on the topic of weddings, we cover the rise of the “couple podcast” and debrief one of Kathleen’s fave new discoveries, Jaime Laing’s Nearlyweds, plus, our new celebrity crush, the actor Mia Goth who is currently starring in Infinity Pool, the new horror dubbed “White Lotus for sickos” and is the lead in two of Ellie’s favourite horror films, X and Pearl (out now).

We also get stuck into Paris Hilton’s decision to use a surrogate because of her crippling phobia of childbirth, which was triggered, in part, by the abuse she experienced at boarding school, as well as the revelation that her sextape “One Night In Paris” was the first bit of porn either of us ever saw (we’re so sorry! We understand the ethics of this now!). Finally, a debrief of Selena Gomez’s documentary My Mind and Me, in particular the excruciating press day scenes and her incredible mental health advocacy.

Then a hilarious look at former Elle Editor Farah Storr’s latest Substack newsletter, where she gives “the world’s best restaurant” a brutally honest review that reads just like the amazing chef thriller we recently recommended, The Menu.

Recommendations discussed:

Homefire by by Kamila Shamsie
Big Vogue Still Trying to Push the Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz Agenda, Gawker
Nearlyweds podcast with Jaime Lang and Sophie Haboo
Jaime Lang on Elizabeth’s Day’s How To Fail
Infinity Pool starring Mia Goth
X and Pearl both starring Mia Goth
Paris Hilton’s Glamour cover story
Diary of a CEO episodes with Romesh Ranganathan, Richard Hammond and Charlie Sloth
Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me, Apple TV
The World’s Most Dangerous Roads, Dave
Farah Storr’s review of “the world’s best restaurant” Noma, Substack
Jay Rayner’s Le Cinq review for the Guardian

NYC recommendations:

The Williamsburg
Gotham Comedy Club
The Book Club in East Village
The Sex Museum
Lafayette for brunch
Misi for brown butter pasta
Sunday in Brooklyn
Tompkins Square Bagels
Dante bar in Chelsea for $10 martinis
Little Ned cocktail bar

Thanks so much to our amazing sponsors for this episode:

Huel, a high protein, nutritionally complete meal that you can have in a shake and which has changed the game for us since we started weight lifting, and is helping us to get back to the gym, build muscle and save money. huel.com/straightup

Get 10% off your first month of therapy with our new paid advertiser BetterHelp: the flexible and affordable online therapy service which can match you with a therapist within 48 hours, with video or phone sessions starting from £50 a week. Get your discount at https://www.betterhelp.com/straightup2023/

And thanks VERY much to Shure for gifting us our sexy new mics, the MV7s, which we can highly recommend to any new or current podcasters. Grab yours at Shure.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mae Muller: body image, TikTok stardom and celibacy Feb 23, 2023

Show notes

Hi gorgeous ones, this week we have the equally gorgeous Mae Muller in the studio, who many of you will no doubt recognise from her absolute belter I Just Came to Dance which was permanently on the radio just before Christmas, as well as her viral TIkTok hit Better Days which she even performed on Jimmy Fallon. Trust us when we tell you she’s gonna be a star!

Over her fave drink, an Aperol Spritz, we had such a fun chat talking everything from first unglamorous jobs to dating in the public eye and her (now broken) year long celibacy journey. Plus, how fame has impacted her body image, why she’s built an all-female team around her and her most memorable ‘don’t you know who I am?’ moment.

Another highlight was debating over the pros and cons of Stan culture, and we almost died laughing when Mae took the opportunity to beg her fans to change their fandom name from the.. ahem…Mullshitters.

Check out Mae Muller's amazing music and her socials here: https://bio.to/MaeMuller

Let us know what you think by reviewing the episode on Spotify or dropping us a DM on Insta @straightuppod

Thanks so much to our amazing sponsor for this episode:

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Brit Awards goss, Rihanna’s big reveal and Kourtney K’s vagina gummies Feb 16, 2023

Show notes

Sorry about the hangovers, huns, because first up today we’re give you the full behind the scenes debrief on the Brit Awards, where we had a rather raucous evening on Saturday night, starting with drinks at the gorgeous Shoreditch bar Seed Library and culminating with the star-studded Universal Records party at Soho House’s 180 The Strand. We then get stuck into all the other biggest talking points of the past week, from Rihanna’s epic pregnancy reveal at the Superbowl, to the Chat GPT takeover, as well as our top TV and podcast picks right now, from HBOs’ zombie masterpiece The Last of Us, to Strippers In The Attic, a no-holds-barred series on what really goes down at strip clubs. Enjoy darlings and as ever please rate, review, subscribe and send this episode to a friend!

Let us know what you think by reviewing the episode on Spotify or dropping us a DM on Insta @straightuppod

Recommendations discussed:

Seed Library at 100 Shoreditch ( our fave bar discovery of 2023!). Book via seedlibraryshoreditch.com
Watch RiRi at the Superbowl via NFL's YouTube
The Last of Us on HBO
Happy Valley
Next Level Chef on ITV X
Strippers in The Attic podcast
'The Last of Us’s gay love story breaks new ground for an entire genre' The Independent

Thanks so much to our amazing sponsors for this episode:

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

RAYE: survival, songwriting and success on your own terms Feb 09, 2023

Show notes

Gang we are so excited to have none other than RAYE on the podcast this week, one of our favourite artists and an absolute icon on the British music scene at just 25-years-old. The South London gal released her debut album independently on 3 Feb after a very public dispute with her label last summer – they’d stifled her and controlled her creatively for seven years – and now, is telling her story on her own terms and enjoying more commercial success than ever before (her most recent amaze single, Escapism, went to No1). Ellie was unwell for this one (*sob*) and so Kathleen sat down to talk to RAYE about her incredible journey and resilience, from surviving abuse at the hands of the music industry’s darkest figures, to thriving as an independent artist after calling out injustice. We get deep about forgiveness, standing up for artists, Black Mirror-worthy media events, the power of therapy and finally having your moment.

Check out RAYE’s incredible album My 21st Century Blues here: https://raye.orcd.co/m21cb

Let us know what you think by reviewing the episode on Spotify or dropping us a DM on Insta @straightuppod

Thanks so much to our amazing sponsors for this episode:

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Pamela Anderson’s sex tape nightmare, Miley Cyrus’ revenge and fine dining horror Feb 02, 2023

Show notes

Hi darlings, this week we get stuck into some VERY juicy topics, starting with, is the new Amy Winehouse biopic doomed to fail? Plus, having watched the brand new Pamela Anderson documentary on Netflix, how much did her sex tape colour the public view of her? And can sex tapes ever be empowering?

Also, having both watched the very entertaining black comedy The Menu, about an acclaimed pompous (and murderous) chef starring our fave Anya Taylor Joy, we reminisce over some of our most absurd memories reviewing some of the world’s finest restaurants (it’s a hard life huns).

Finally, is there more to J Lo’s new marriage romcom than meets the eye, and why Miley Cyrus’s Liam Hemsworth revenge song Flowers is the latest savvy mood in celebrity meta marketing.

Let us know what you think by reviewing the episode on Spotify or dropping us a DM on Insta @straightuppod

Thanks so much to our amazing sponsor for this episode:

Helping us to get back to the gym, build muscle and save money is Huel, a high protein, nutritionally complete meal that you can have in a shake and which has changed the game for us since we started weight lifting. Vegan, naturally-flavoured, free from nasties, complete with 26 vitamins and minerals and, most importantly, extremely tasty, it’s the easiest way to up your protein intake and make those gains. huel.com/straightup

Recommendations discussed:

Pamela, a love story on Netflix

‘Pamela Anderson: The only man to treat me with respect? Hugh Hefner’, The Times

The Menu on Disney Plus and in cinemas

Shotgun Wedding on Amazon Prime

An Attempt to Make Sense of the Jennifer Lopez Wedding Industrial-Complex Canon, Vulture

Miley Cyrus Flowers

Miley thread: https://twitter.com/mileycyrusvibez/status/1614391250396012545

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