SNL Lorne-isms, Tom Cruise’s Big Week, and Izzy Reports on the Role Model Concert

This week on the Torg Stories Podcast, we’ve got some SNL Lorne-isms, Tom Cruise had a big week, Anne and I both saw the film The Whisper Man, and Izzy gives a report from the Role Model concert. 

Stories Bill Read or Watched: 

1. SNL Lorne Michaels biography. Here are some work. I’m doing interesting work how do other people feel you know his answer is just didn’t reveal a lot. Did you happen to read it to but golden lines: 

• Remember Podunk! You’ve got audience in all fifty states.
• The quickest way to kill off somebody talented is to let him do everything he wants. 
• Cocaine is God’s way of telling you you have too much money. 
• One of the unusual things about SNL is that the writers are in charge of producing their own pieces. 
• When there are too many things going on in a scene, he says, “You’re putting a hat on a hat.” (Another term for this is premise overload). 
• When the details are accurate, your brain goes, “Somebody’s taken care of this.” 
• “Do it in sunshine,” which means, don’t forget that comedy is an entertainment. Colors should be bright, costumes flattering.
• Michaels dropped in and out, and at one session he made a plea: “Please don’t use cocaine. It doesn’t make you funnier. It only makes you think you’re funnier.”
• It’s a 672 page paperback. I just made it to the 50% mark. 

2. The 2026 Emmys! 

• A fun freshman show, the Apple TV horror-comedy “Widow’s Bay,” nearly ran the table on the comedy side.
• Matthew Rhys (Rees) is a beast after all. Rhys made history on Monday by becoming the first person to win two lead acting Emmys in one night. He took home prizes for the Netflix crime thriller mini-series “The Beast in Me” and the Apple TV horror-comedy hit “Widow’s Bay.”
• But Parton also received her own dedicated tribute from Reba McEntire, another beloved country music superstar, who shared a decades-long friendship with Parton in which they sometimes sang and acted together. McEntire performed one of Parton’s songs, “Appalachian Memories,” a ballad about the region’s cultural heritage.
• Click here for NY Times article. 

Anne’s Read or Watched This Week: 

1. “Tom Cruise: Hollywood’s Most Elusive Star Speaks” by Zach Baron Interview in GQ

• Tom Cruise Interview
• Interesting how he answers questions – he kind of ignores it and answers it by saying he loves working with people and figuring out how to make the best movie.
• Talks a lot about having personal goals and challenging
• When asked if he fears death in regards to doing stunts like in MI films:   “But here’s the thing: How do we use these tools to create an emotional effect on an audience? And is it communicating what we want to communicate? So do I fear death? No. I don’t. It’s not like I’m not afraid. I don’t mind the feeling. I understand life has certainties and uncertainties. And in making movies and living life, what interests me is: Let’s move the uncertainties more into the certainties, but I want to create other uncertainties, so that we’re moving forward and it’s part of the adventure of it.” Are you ever afraid onscreen or off? TC: There’s stuff where you want to feel that. You want to feel that uncertainty. But I’m not afraid to feel afraid. I don’t know how else to say it. I’m not afraid to go, “Okay, I know this is a leap and let’s take the jump. Let’s go.” And I try to recognize things that I don’t know, and I don’t pretend to know things that I know and things that I don’t know. So that’s how I feel about it. Are you afraid of death? Are you afraid to be afraid?
• A Cruise line that makes me think of Izzy: “I mean, these guys that are painting backgrounds and building the sets and moving the cameras, lighting, every area of making a movie—it’s light, architecture, the design, all of it, to entertain audiences,”

2. The Death of Trotsky by Josh Ireland

• The Death of Trotsky
• Interesting, easy to read. Gives some nice insight to Trotsky/Stalin plus the guy (Ramon Mercader agent for NKVD) who ultimately killed Trotsky with an ice pick. Plus some Frida Kahlo and Diego Revera mentions.
• How far will you go for your beliefs? Political or otherwise. Most of us think it is wrong to murder, but some people have such strong belief in the moral rightness they will do anything.
• Good exchange illuminating Stalin that Kamenev related, the group is day drinking and talking with each other (all communist party leaders), answering the question “What is the finest thing in the world?”
  • Kamenev: “Books”
  • Radek: “A woman, your woman”
  • Rykov: “Cognac”
  • Stalin: “The greatest delight is to mark one’s enemy, prepare everything, avenge oneself thoroughly, and then go to sleep.”

3. The Whisper Man on Netflix directed by James Ashcroft

• Starring Robert De Niro
• The Whisper Man
• Avg movie, did creep me out
• Never live in a big old house with creepy open windows and mail slots in the door

Izzy Podcast Agenda and Notes 

1. Role model concert 

• He did not play the Wedding which is very important 
• He is just as amazing and beautiful in person 

2. Watched the film Obsession finally

• It was made so so well for the budget of 740,000 and on a 20 day schedule. Did not like the story line, thought writing got weird at the end. 

3. Started watching Gilmore Girls for the 7th time because fall has begun. 

• Talk about Rory’s boyfriend controversy 
• I have no alone time at school but I create moments to watch now 

Honorable Mention

• learned that the secret lives of Mormon wives are a big deal and people in Utah see them around with other men and gossip about it 

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