36: Pretty Woman (with Sooz Kempner) (Patreon)

Comedian and podcasting queen Sooz Kempner joins the pod from Surrey, England to discuss Garry Marshall’s 1990 smash hit Pretty Woman, which made a massive star out of Julia Roberts and created a new template for the rom-com.

Disney’s grown-up movie division Touchstone Pictures redeveloped J.F. Lawton’s dark dramatic screenplay about the dangers of the L.A. sex trade (originally titled 3000) into a frothy fairy tale about a young and somewhat innocent sex worker Vivian (Julia Roberts) hired by handsome vulture capitalist Edward (Richard Gere) to be his week-long companion for $3000 while he’s in town for a big business acquisition. Despite the arrangement, they fall in love.

Along the way we discuss how co-star Jason Alexander’s career might have gone if he hadn’t been cast on Seinfeld right after this film, Garry Marshall casting Héctor Elizondo in every movie he directed, and how this vaguely problematic but lightweight movie has aged better than you would assume.

Plus a general chat about our respective countries’ racist statues, anti-lockdown weirdos and Reply Guys!

Follow Sooz Kempner on Twitter

Check out Sooz’s podcasts:

The Queen Podcast

Mystery On The Rocks

“Rescue Rom-Com: Sex Workers Reflect on the Fantasy of Pretty Woman” by Kayla Kibbe for Bitch Media, December 17, 2020

Trailer for Pretty Woman (Marshall, 1990)