Legally Blonde [TEASER]

5m

A conversation about Legally Blonde has to do with the Supreme Court … how? Because we assume in Elle's universe she's now chief justice, and John Roberts teaches PE at a middle school in Buffalo.


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5-4 is presented by Prologue Projects. Rachel Ward is our producer. Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons provide editorial support. Our researcher is Jonathan DeBruin, and our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.


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Transcript

Girls, I'm going to Harvard.

You mean like on Bayguay?

Let's all go!

Road trip!

No!

No, I'm going to Harvard Law School!

Why?

Hey everyone, this is Andrew Parsons from Prologue Projects.

I'm still filming it for Leon.

On this episode of 5-4, the hosts are talking about a film that has shaped the greatest legal minds of our generation.

You're breaking up up with me because I'm too...

blonde?

No, that's not entirely true.

Don't!

My boobs are too big!

Legally blonde may seem just like a goofy fish-out of water story, but if you look closely enough, you'll see a critique of many of the biases that still pervade the legal profession.

On the other hand, A 22-year-old movie is guaranteed to have some pretty outdated depictions of, well, almost everyone.

This is 5-4, a podcast about how how much Warner Huntington III

and the Supreme Court sucks.

Welcome to 5-4, where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that have left our law dated and reactionary, like a feminist film from the year 2001.

Yes.

I'm Peter.

I'm here with Michael.

Hey, everybody.

And Rihanna is taking the week off.

We're giving her a break, you know?

Things have been a little crazy over in Palestine.

So

giving our girl a rest.

And,

oh my God, is that

is that Rachel Ward's music?

Our producer, Rachel Ward, stepping in front of the mic.

Rachel.

So not only do I have to be on the show, I also have to pick music for myself now.

I got to score this thing.

Yeah, well, otherwise, it won't make sense.

What would your walk on music be?

Just whatever is free, you know.

Yeah, we're not paying a dime for it, or whatever it is.

Yeah, now we are doing a much-requested episode, really.

Surprisingly high demand for this episode, considering this has absolutely nothing to do with the premise of our podcast.

None.

But today we're going to be talking about Legally Blonde.

Yes.

The 2001 classic with Reese Witherspoon and others.

Come on, you can come up with one other name.

Jennifer Coolidge.

Selma Blair.

One of the Wilsons.

Luke Wilson.

Luke.

Now I'm thinking of people who I saw in the movie in the background.

I was like, oh, he's in this, but I can't remember who it was.

The guy from Criminal Minds checked her in

at Harvard.

Yeah.

And then there was a guy who looked like Charlie Sheen in the restaurant, but I don't think that was him.

I really don't think that was him.

Yeah.

So we wanted to talk about the big themes in the movie and also talk about like what it gets right and wrong about law school and the law

and whether we have something to learn from this movie or whether it's just a weird, vaguely problematic 22-year-old film.

that we should all discard of and move on from.

Right.

I think that ship has sailed, honestly.

Yeah.

It's true.

The film is sort of, it's like a cult classic, but in a mainstream way.

It's extremely popular with law students, female law students, especially, and just generally popular with women, I think.

Yeah, this is a classic, like, I put this movie on three to four times a week movie.

For sure, there are people who watch this movie every week.

Yeah.

And one of them is my wife.

So I told her that we were doing this, and she was like, can I write up a series of questions from a non-lawyer that I have about this movie?

And I was like, yeah, sure.

And then she like immediately opened her laptop and just started going nuts, furiously typing

and then sent me a Google Doc like 15 minutes later.

And so we will be drawing from her questions.

I just opened it for the first time.

There are a lot.

I cut some.

I think they're good.

And I had some of the same ones.

Yeah.

So let's talk big picture, I guess, first.

The big themes in the movie.

I think the primary theme, the real heart of the movie is this message of like female solidarity.

Yes.

Right.

Like the real premise is sort of Elle Woods, Rhys Witherspoon's character, is like this Ditzy blonde, and she might not like or be liked by.

other quote-unquote types of women, right?

The stodgy old female professor.

The radical lib lesbian.

Yeah, the sort of like frumpy nerd.

And the message of the movie and where like the movie ends is like, no, we are

all better, like unifying behind our sort of common experience as women.

And that's sort of the heart of the movie.

It's sort of just a Chick's Rock movie in a lot of ways.

Hey, folks, if you want to hear the rest of this episode, you're going to have to subscribe.

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Thanks.