The Traitors finale was so juicy we HAD to have a big old debrief: was Charlotte robbed? Did it all get too personal? What are the funniest The Traitors tropes? We also discuss Holly Willoughby’s first interview since a terrifying plot to kidnap and kill her was foiled a year ago, as well as Jameela Jamil’s unique ‘protection method’ against misogyny. Plus: has Angelina Jolie been snubbed by the Oscars because Hollywood favours Brad Pitt, despite her abuse allegations? We’re also sorry to report that our honey Leo Woodall’s ‘maths thriller’ Prime Target is... not thrilling. But luckily we do have plenty of other excellent recs for you to get stuck into!

Make sure you leave us your books recs in the comments! And DM us your thoughts on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@straightuppod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠hello@straightuppodcast.co.uk⁠ and as ever please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and a rating on Spotify, lysm!

Huge thanks to our sponsor⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Yonder⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the incredible lifestyle rewards credit card packed with rewards you’ll actually *want* to use. Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠yonder.com/straightup⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Reviews/recs

We were not expecting to be weeping over the glossy Molly Mae Amazon doc hunnies, but it got us!! We discuss all the revelations and ‘the Molly Mae paradox’. We also had to dive into the latest explosive lawsuit in this increasingly wild It Ends With Us saga, which has now pulled in Taylor Swift and, er, Game of Thrones. Does the flippant public reaction suggest the worrying end of the MeToo movement? And we’ve got a veritable spy extravaganza of reviews and recommendations this week, including Cameron Diaz’s first return to acting in over a decade. Plus, is We Live in Time up to the hype?

DM us your thoughts on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@straightuppod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠hello@straightuppodcast.co.uk⁠ and as ever please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and a rating on Spotify, lysm!

Huge thanks to our sponsor⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Yonder⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the incredible lifestyle rewards credit card packed with rewards you’ll actually *want* to use. Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠yonder.com/straightup⁠⁠⁠

Borrow responsibly. £15 a month. 18+ and UK only. Rep 66.7% APR var. T&Cs apply.

Get an extra month free on top of BFI Player’s 14-day free trial using our code STRAIGHTUP at⁠ ⁠player.bfi.org.uk/⁠⁠

Get 20% off the adaptogenic coffee that changed our lives, London Nootropics, using our code straightup at⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠londonnootropics.com/⁠

Recs/ reviews

• Anora’s Mikey Madison: ‘I never felt naked filming those scenes’, Style
• Are You a Charlotte? podcast
• I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers, Guardian
• Willem Dafoe, The Louis Theroux podcast
• Molly Mae: Behind it All, Amazon Prime
• The paradox of Molly-Mae Hague, The New Statesman
• How the Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively legal battle ends, to us, Vulture
• Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni and the collapse of the Hollywood
• MeToo era, New Yorker
• We Live In Time, cinemas or pre-order on Apple TV
• Let’s Talk About the Way We Live in Time Deals With Death, Time
• Back In Action, Netflix
• Day of the Jackal, Sky Atlantic
• The Agency, Paramount Plus
• Killer, Netflix
• Severance, Disney+

Nicole Kidman’s erotic thriller Babygirl is finally out and so ofc we had to see it and give you our verdict this week huns! Before our spoiler free-review, though, we discuss all the latest pop culture stories, from Lily Allen’s reported divorce to Heidi Montag’s musical comeback. As always we’ve got lots of TV chat, plus our thoughts on two of our favourite books of 2024, both about the financial anxieties of young women. Debates on OnlyFans, money diaries and more ensue!

DM us your thoughts on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@straightuppod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠hello@straightuppodcast.co.uk⁠ and as ever please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and a rating on Spotify, lysm!

Huge thanks to our sponsor⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Yonder⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the incredible lifestyle rewards credit card packed with rewards you’ll actually *want* to use. Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠yonder.com/straightup⁠⁠

Borrow responsibly. £15 a month. 18+ and UK only. Rep 66.7% APR var. T&Cs apply.

Get an extra month free on top of BFI Player’s 14-day free trial using our code STRAIGHTUP at ⁠player.bfi.org.uk/⁠

Official London Theatre has amazing discounts on the biggest and best London shows until Jan 31. ⁠⁠officiallondontheatre.com/seeitlive⁠

Get 20% off the adaptogenic coffee that changed our lives, London Nootropics, using our code straightup at⁠⁠⁠ ⁠londonnootropics.com/

Recs/ reviews:

• Infactuation, Heidi Montag
• Missing You, Netflix
• Playing Nice, ITV
• Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever, Netflix
• When women do anti-ageing it’s called Goop, when men do it, it’s science, The I
• Avicii - I'm Tim, Netflix
• Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Rufi Thorpe
• Come And Get It, Kiley Reid
• Babygirl, in cinemas now
• Harris Dickinson, the Run-Through with Vogue
• Women Really Want to Talk After Seeing ‘Babygirl’, New York Times
• The Secretary, Amazon Prime Video
• Birth, Amazon Prime Video

Happy 2025 hunnies and welcome back, we’ve missed you! First up this week we’re debriefing on the holidays, from New Year’s resolutions to the culture that kept us entertained. Next, a deep-dive into the explosive developing story on the numerous (and ongoing) lawsuits surrounding It Ends With Us costars Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively. Is the world of crisis PR as dark as it seems? And finally, some great new film recs for you, randomly both starring Nicholas Hoult: Lily-Rose Depp’s ‘sexy vampire’ film Nosferatu, and Clint Eastwood’s crime thriller Juror #2.

DM us your thoughts on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@straightuppod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠hello@straightuppodcast.co.uk⁠ and as ever please, please, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and a rating on Spotify, lysm!

Huge thanks to our sponsor⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Yonder⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the incredible lifestyle credit card packed with rewards you’ll actually *want* to use. Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠yonder.com/straightup⁠⁠

Borrow responsibly. £15 a month. 18+ and UK only. Rep 66.7% APR var. T&Cs apply.

Get an extra month free on top of BFI Player’s 14-day free trial using our code STRAIGHTUP at player.bfi.org.uk/

Official London Theatre has amazing discounts on the biggest and best London shows until Jan 31. ⁠officiallondontheatre.com/seeitlive

Get 20% off the adaptogenic coffee that changed our lives, London Nootropics, using our code straightup at⁠⁠⁠ londonnootropics.com/

Recs discussed:

• The Traitors, BBC One
• Supacell, Netflix
• Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, BBC iPlayer
• Blake Lively’s Suit Exposes the Twisted World of Hollywood Misogyny, The Nation
• 'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine, New York Times
• Who Trolled Amber, Tortoise
• Juror #2, rent via Amazon Prime, Google Play and Sky
• Nosferatu, in cinemas now

The startling new data revealing the sharply declining fertility rate in the UK taps into the fraught and personal conversations that we’ve been having since turning 30: are we ready to have kids, financially and emotionally? How has everything from increased gender equality and the thriving child free movement to social media and the pandemic skip affected our reasoning? We try to answer all these questions and more in this two-part series on the societal and cultural issues shaping how we think about parenthood in modern Britain.

Next week we will discuss: male infertility, IVF & egg freezing, the child free movement, the taboo of the ‘unnatural’ mother, how pop culture has influenced our idea of parenthood, plus loads more listener DMs.

As mentioned in the intro hunnies, this is a re-run of our most popular episode from this year, so our new listeners can discover, and because it feels so timely still given November's new fertility data! Plus we didn't want to leave you without anything during the holidays. If you've already listened, maybe give it another go! Part two will run next week.

DM us your thoughts on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@straightuppod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠hello@straightuppodcast.co.uk⁠ and as ever please, please, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and a rating on Spotify, lysm!

Get an extra month free on top of BFI Player’s 14-day free trial using our code STRAIGHTUP at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠player.bfi.org.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Official London Theatre has amazing discounts on over 50 London shows until Jan 31, from Mean Girls to Tina the Tina Turner Musical, Stranger Things and more! Check them out at ⁠OfficialLondonTheatre.com/seeitlive

Hunnies we’ve made it to the end of the year! And our Christmas present to you is a definitive top 10 across both TV and film of 2024, so that you are happily entertained over the next few weeks. Also, we thought it was a good time to dive into Hugh Grant’s ‘freak show era’ now that his intriguing new horror film Heretic is out, and of course it wouldn’t be Christmas without a feminist reappraisal of Love Actually. We hope everyone has a lovely festive break, but we send big hugs and thoughts to anyone struggling at what can be such a difficult time of the year. We are also VERY sorry about the glitching audio which begins part way through this episode due to a mysterious tech diff. We didn’t want to leave you with nothing this week, so we’ve tried our best to make do with the audio we have. Hopefully you can forgive us!

DM us your thoughts on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@straightuppod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠hello@straightuppodcast.co.uk⁠ and as ever please, please, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and a rating on Spotify, lysm!

Huge thanks to our sponsor⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Yonder⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the incredible lifestyle credit card packed with rewards you’ll actually *want* to use. Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠yonder.com/straightup⁠⁠

Yonder membership is subject to eligibility and you’ll need to be over 18 and a UK resident to apply. If you sign up, only borrow what you can afford to pay back. The representative rate is 66.7% APR variable. Membership fees and other T&Cs may apply.

Get an extra month free on top of BFI Player’s 14-day free trial using our code STRAIGHTUP at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠player.bfi.org.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Official London Theatre has amazing discounts on over 50 London shows until Jan 31, from Mean Girls to Tina the Tina Turner Musical, Stranger Things and more! Check them out at OfficialLondonTheatre.com/seeitlive

Recs:

• Heretic, in cinemas now
• Hugh Grant’s Most Convincing Character ‘Hugh Grant’? New York Times
• No more Mr Nice Guy: how Hugh Grant transformed himself into an edgy national treasure, Observer
• Smartless podcast episode with Hugh Grant
• No Good Deed, Netflix

Our best TV & film of 2024:

• Anora

• Challengers
• Blink Twice
• Poor Things
• La Chimera
• Wicked
• The Substance
• All of Us Strangers
• Speak No Evil
• Inside out 2
• Baby Reindeer
• One Day
• Rivals
• After The Party
• Say Nothing
• Mr and Mrs smith
• Kaos
• Boarders
• The Perfect Couple
• High Potential

Sabrina Carpenter has been accused of ‘marketing’ herself using problematic Lolita references, so we discuss in light of her new Netflix Christmas special A Nonsense Christmas. Plus, Keira Knightley is back on our screens with the highly entertaining spy thriller Black Doves, but will the media be kinder to her this time? Also, ‘brain rot’ is the word of the year, to which we hard relate, and Amy Adams’s new motherhood horror film, Nightbitch, has left us reeling.

DM us your thoughts on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@straightuppod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠hello@straightuppodcast.co.uk⁠ and as ever please, please, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and a rating on Spotify, lysm!

Huge thanks to our sponsor⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Yonder⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the incredible lifestyle credit card packed with rewards you’ll actually *want* to use. Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠yonder.com/straightup⁠

Yonder membership is subject to eligibility and you’ll need to be over 18 and a UK resident to apply. If you sign up, only borrow what you can afford to pay back. The representative rate is 66.7% APR variable. Membership fees and other T&Cs may apply.

Get an extra month free on top of BFI Player’s 14-day free trial using our code STRAIGHTUP at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠player.bfi.org.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Get 20% off our fave adaptogenic coffee using our code straightup at https://londonnootropics.com/

Recs:

• Is doom scrolling really rotting our brains? The evidence is getting harder to ignore, Siân Boyle, Guardian

• Black Doves, Netflix

• Black Doves review – Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw’s gleefully pulpy Christmas gift, Guardian

• In ‘Black Doves,’ Keira Knightley is a mother and an assassin, LA Times

• Keira Knightley: 'Turning 40? It looks rather great', the Times

• A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter, Netflix

• Your fave is selling a pedophilic fantasy, Jade Hurley on Substack

• She was a child influencer. Her fans were grown men, New York Times
• Nightbitch, in cinemas now
• Amy Adams and Marielle Heller on toddlers, incontinence and Nightbitch, the Guardian