The romantic recession is officially over. We’re deep-diving into the massive slate of book-to-screen adaptations just announced, including the spicy hockey romance the internet is obsessed with, and the cult-classic fake dating story finally getting the movie treatment. If you’ve spent the last year spiralling over these characters on TikTok, your weekend plans for the next two years are officially sorted.

Then, we’re looking at the "terrifying" side of technology that has one of our favourite leading ladies calling out "losers" in the industry. From massive layoffs at a major studio to the digital ‘resurrection’ of an iconic actor, we explore the high-stakes feud between creative souls and the robots taking over Hollywood.

Plus, a look at the historic night where a young star’s vision became a reality. We’re breaking down the wins from the biggest night in British TV and the heartbreaking tribute to a late, great icon that left the room in tears.

Love binge-watching TV? The Spill has launched a new podcast called Watch Party where we deep dive into the shows everyone’s talking about. Follow the feed on Apple or Spotify now.

Plus remember The Spill drops the tea twice a day in this feed so follow us for all the latest entertainment news…

OR you can WATCH our show in full length video on the Apple Podcast app - make sure your phone is up to date and enjoy the watch! Link here.

THE END BITS

Find and follow us on socials:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespillpodcast/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thespillpod

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thespillpodcast/

Read all the latest entertainment news on Mamamia: https://mamamia.com.au/entertainment/

Support Independent Women’s Media:

https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe/

Your subscription helps us continue to tell the stories that matter to women.

Want to join the conversation?

Have feedback or a topic you want us to discuss? Send us a voice message or email us at thespill@mamamia.com.au and we’ll get back to you ASAP!

Executive Producer: Monisha Iswaran

Audio & Video Producer: Michael Kean

Mamamia acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which we have recorded this podcast.

You're listening to a mom with Mere podcast.

That you said there for.

Oh is that your chair?

I feel like this seems to be higher. Does this need to be higher? Or are we good? That feels it feels low?

Is this is this?

Yours?

Is all right?

It seems to be.

I don't know if they've been done yet. Oh that's fine.

Maybe I just don't want to touch it and then get in trouble.

Unless someone did it and I just blacked out.

And if you're listening, sorry, I don't know how to do it.

True, I don't want to break stuff.

Well, whoever did this has a really awe.

Yeah, I don't think.

I would break. That would be insane, that would be nuts.

Come on on, it's got to be stronger than that. If this now, I.

Broke it because I'm so strong and tall and I don't even know my own strength. It's crazy. Sometimes.

Oh my god. I feel like we did a lot of stressful topics for today, just in terms of time prep.

Yeah, I feel like time just was like You're like, I'm going to run down fifteen different books.

We're going to not get to any of them, and.

I'm going to talk through the whole generally AI.

I'm going to talk about AI in Hollywood.

I'm like reading peer reviewed things before this.

I'm like, so, can you also sitting here? All right? I kind of do, but like I'm not. I'm usually looking at like other hosts. Sometimes I see you just.

A bit hard, Okay, I feel like it has to be what needs Yeah that's okay, because I'm doing the first two, and then we I think just say like, shut up honestly, yeah, we'll try to.

I think I'm going to be stopped starting in order to get to do the a I want.

Yeah, that's okay, we'll be fine.

Yeah, I think Laura, I don't know, I'm going to have the flow is going to be.

We'll be fine. But yeah, I can see you, so like we're good for the first two.

I think I see you and I ignore, not intentionally, but I because usually Laura is like.

I do as well, Yeah, because I normally sit there in mind and I'm.

Like, I think, now will you do it? And then Laura keeps going.

Yeah, I do as well, to be fair, Yeah, yeah, that's fine. Cool, all right, I'm ready to stare at the thing and smile.

What do I look like? I don't know.

You look nice.

Okay, you look nice too.

I don't, but I'm okay. I always wear a pillow because otherwise I like if I sit across, like my knees too. I didn't notice.

Yeah, I realized that last week and I was like, oh, but I don't think.

It's okay to bring it all right? Money, cute? Oh my god? Maybe teas and teeps on the pod.

It's oh my god, it's happened. You've accepted. I accepted too.

Did you you get told about how someone in Korea was like to Laura, Oh, the Tina's said this.

I was like, oh my god, cute. You're like I was here first, and now I'm being grouped into it.

I actually like it. I like having more tenas. It's fun.

What's it called when it's like no, Like you know when there's animals and they're like, it's a flock? Oh yeah, what's the name of that group? Plural plural? No, but there's a name for like the grum the grammar. It's a it doesn't matter.

Why can't I think of it?

I know it's like we'll get is a group. It's a group that's annoying. That's going to annoy me, but google it after Yeah, it's not.

Right now, thing, let's think about Okay, we're ready, okay, oh wait, we don't have to clap anymore. I was like a clap. Let's clatch, all right? Three two one from Mama Mia. Welcome to the Spill your daily pop culture Fixed. I'm Tina Burke, and I'm to propose teas and teeps. Producing one tries to keep starting.

It's not catching on.

It's happening. Everyone's talking about it today. It's the two teenas on the show, and we've got a lot to get through. We're going to be talking about a very interesting discussion that is happening in Hollywood with sorry, I.

Can't hear it is really it's very quiet.

Sorry, it's just like you know when it's rozy, because you're like, I can't hear anything. Yeah, sorry, it's just doing that weird thing where because I can't hear it, then I can't hear anything. Yeah, that's way better. Is that too loud for you? Sorry?

No, it's quiet for me. That's your head for Okay, So it's still it's kind of quiet.

Yeah, yeah, oh that's real loud.

Yeah, I think that's good.

Is that better? Yeah, I'll pick up just what we're talking about today.

Thank you? Whoa, oh, hello, you look okay?

Love you all right? And no and no I'm not in the middle of a sentence. It's fine. I'll just start from like the Today. We've got a lot to get through. We have so much to get through. Today we're going to be talking about a current trend in Hollywood and what it means for all the rom com girlies, which you and me very much are. We've got some exciting stuff to get through. We also have something a little less exciting to get through that is going on in Hollywood, a very big talking point about technology in the way that it is being used. But first we need to talk about the fact that the Bafter TV Awards have quite literally just happened this morning for us overnight in the UK, and there's quite a lot of wins for us to get through. So one of the shows that one was Adolescents and it won four times, which is historic. It's the most that anyone has ever won.

It was one of my favorite shows that came out last year.

That's a good hot take, pea breast. Yeah, no one has had that but they won four awards, so they won Lead Actor for Stephen Graham, Best Supporting Actress for Christine Tomarco, Best Supporting Actor for Young Owen Cooper, and Best Limited Series. So it's the first time that a show has ever won four Baptists at the TV Awards, and they've beaten like Killing even Happy Valley and a few other shows that had three before. But it was actually really sweet. Obviously, every time they've won, it's been really beautiful, and they've both given really great speeches. Like Owen Cooper, you do forget how young he is.

Oh my god, so young and doing so much.

Yes, and he always sees inspiring speeches and like you just wonder if he sat at home and thought about like the quotes he wanted to share and things like that. It's so sweet. And so today when he won, he said, like John Lennon said, you won't get anything unless you have the vision to imagine it.

Oh my god, it's just sweet.

That's so much like a wait, he knows who that is, I know. And then when Stephen won, he like kind of said, as the young man said, I'm going to quote the Beatles, and he was like, all we need is love Like it's just kind of a sweet way to round out what has been a very like history making success totally awards season for them. But I do feel like a lot of people are confused as to how Adolescence is still winning awards at this point in time.

Yeah, I do feel like that feels many moons ago now and that was still talking about it. But I guess it made such an impact and it's still being recognized for.

That, so I do understand. But it does feel like it just is the gift that keeps on giving for them.

Yeah, And I think it's because so with limited series, because it's only ever like a one and done thing. Same with Baby Reindeer. We feel like the award season goes on forever, but it's actually because when the awards season is like set for the nominations period is kind of farther further away by the time you get to the awards show. So say like when Oscar's movies come out, they usually come out, say like December January, and then you have all the season. But that's just because that's how film All wants it signed. But with the limited series awards, so for the bafter TV Awards, For example, the awards being given out this year are being given out for the first of January to the thirty first of December twenty twenty five. So even though Adolescents came out in January twenty twenty five, now in May twenty twenty six, it's been comcorded. But it feels like a million years because the first awards they got were like September last year at the Emmys, And I don't think it feels that way for other shows because they're usually like still on the zal goal, so you're you kind of forget that you're being awarded for the work the year prior. But it was a really lovely award moment for them and kind of rounds out what they've been doing. And also, have you seen the pictures.

They look they look so sweet.

But Ohen Cooper's had like a little growth spur.

No, but they just grew up so fast.

These kids, I feel incredibly old. I'm like, in the span of like the year and a half, I'm like, oh, he's.

Growing supper Man child now, yes, oh.

My god, blessings. I love that child so much, but he's growing into a young adult and it's really sweet. To see. But obviously they were not the only ones who won awards today. So winners included Code of Silence, Last One Laughing UK, Celebrity Traders, which I personally really love, how are You It's Alan Patridge, and Gaza Doctor is under Attack. So those are just some of the things that won. But one of the ones that did win was the Studio for Best International Series. Have you seen the Studio? It's so good?

App Okay?

But Seth Rogen is obviously the career and the star of that and he won the award and picked it up for Best International Series. But the late great Catherine O'Hara is the star of the series, and so when he won, he dedicated the award to her, and it was just such a sweet moment and kind of just it's so tragically sad when someone does pass in the middle of an award season that like their show and the things they've been nominated, but it's also kind of lovely to see the speeches.

That such a celebration of their life and.

What absolutely and so he said, it would be remissive me not to mention Catherine O'Hara. She meant so much to us. I assume her work was as important to you all over here as it was to us. So this is for Catherine, which was just inca sweete But we will chuck the links in the show notes for people to go and watch the speeches. And you should definitely check out the adolescent speeches because I think the last ones were going to get at this point. They won every award they possibly. Is that long enough great, because I'm gonna talk a lot in the next section. Ah mm hmm. Okay, I'm scared too much. But also I'm scared that I'll go over Yeah, okay, great? How long was that five? Beautiful? See look at me, I'm being so speedy today she gets mad at me. So we have something really exciting to talk about today, which is just like my passion in life, my reasons, which is romance books and romance book adaptations. Now you're a really big rom com girly.

I love a rom com I get around, but for some reason books, I'm slower on the uptake, yes, but specific to romance.

But you read like romance books when you were reuteed in Twilight.

And I was all in Twilight a vampire academy. I was all up in that.

Maybe I really, and I went hard and fast, like I was finishing books like in a day.

Yes, okay, you need to get back into it, I know, and you've got some and I've got some to talk to you about. I was the same. I didn't used to read romance books like I'd again read Twilight, read a lot of stuff when I was a teenager, but I.

Do only human.

I mean, how could one resist Twilight's It's a good book about time based on wathering lights, which is always a fun fact that kills me. But I was like that. And then in twenty twenty, when we were kind of in lockdown and I joined TikTok like everybody else, and I was, you know, scrolling for hours. That was when I got into kind of BookTalk recommentations for the first time. And I was always reading, I think, like you, a lot of like sad girl books and a lot of like.

Like the most recent book I've read was A Little Life. Yeah, so that's like that's where I'm I'm.

That's where we're at, you know, That's where I was, only too. And then I got into romance books, and let me tell you the times we have over there on our romance BookTalk. It's delightful. And the thing is it is now I guess, like the gold standard for Hollywood in recent years and especially in the next few months, for the romantic TV shows, the romantic movies to be based on books that are already really popular on book talk.

So interesting, it's really.

Like, it's amazing, and it's also got like I guess it's downsides. But for me as someone I'm sure like you who loves rom coms, there haven't been that many of them. So I'm going to take it and I want this to happen, And.

I guess they need it to have that first run on social media, Like the audience already exists and they're just tapping into you know, I feel like it takes on a life of its own.

TikTok, Yeah, one hundred percent. So one of the ones that has already taken on a life of its own is off campus and it comes out this Wednesday.

I'm really excited for it.

Have you seen the trailers.

I've seen the trailers. I'm sat for it obviously off the back of heated Ravali. I'm here for hot people playing hockey.

Yes, hot people playing hockey. We want to do it to talk about it. So if you guys follow us on this Spill Instagram, you would have seen our first interview clip go up over the weekend. Chelsea our senior entertain Sorry it's not at all. Chelsea our entertainment writer did do an interview with them. She got up at the crack of dawn to the cast. God bless that girl. We'll be putting it all up on the Spill Socials so you can check it out. But the show essentially is a college hockey romance kind of bridgetony in the fact that every season, every book follows a different romantic lead. So it's being called like heated rivalry meets bridges, but I keep calling it the straight hockey show. I don't know what I'm allowed to say.

That those are a strong cell, both a strong cell, so each one, yeah, follows a different love interest.

The first season is going to drop on Prime all at once this Wednesday. I do think it's dangerous, I know, going to lock in. Remember though, like the summer I Turn Pretty when it first came out, was like a full season drop, and I think Primes kind of learned like to get the hype to get everyone excited they're going to do a full drop and then maybe for season two they'll do that thing of like weekly drops, strip feed half seasons. So I'm very excited to see how the buzz builds for this one. But it is written by El Kennedy. There are four like interconnected standalone books. Do you know what that means?

Like each could stand alone like the plot. Yeah, excellent, that's what it says.

Come join me in the interconnected standalone book Top Girlies. We love it. So there's all the standalones and then there's a collection of novella's as well, but so we know that at least there are four main love interest guys. They're very funny, they're very buzzy, it's very cute. All of the junket stuff is so good so far, and season one is going to follow like the unlikely romance of a serious music student. Her name is Hannah Wells. She's played by Ela Bright. And then the star hockey player at the university, Garrett Graham, lovely a little alliteration in a romance. He's played by Belmont Comelli. And it's a fake dating pact that turns real, which we love.

In a little and unexpected Romance.

Yes, so it's gonna be pretty huge. We think, like we posted the trailer on the Spell, we posted this junk eclip and I'm just getting around as people are getting around.

It's crazy, and I.

Think it really speaks to the fact that we just want to see romance. We just want to see and there's been a lack of it. We've been yearning, we've been wanting it. And I do think for me, Off Campus is signaling like this real shift into this new era in TV and film, and that is like the book adaptations error because it is the only thing in the rom comp space that is cutting through. And you know, I really loved Eternity last year. I really loved Materialists, but those were like romantic dramas. They weren't exactly like an old school, buzzy nineties romace bit.

Materialists doesn't feel like Romance.

No. I loved that movie, but it was a very different kind of thing, but exactly. And I think that BookTalk has really like built this new road for Hollywood. And when I think about it, I kind of think about, do you know the lipstick theory.

As in like the economic yes, yes, yeah, so like when when historically the world goes to shit, Let six sales go up.

And I kind of think that that is like what is happening with romance and with books, because it is a little something that makes you all better. It is something that you can buy that is going to be fun and entertaining or interesting to you or beautiful to you, like a lipstick. But if you combine like horrifying news cycle, economic downturn, like what I think is also a romantic recession for the girlies. A lot of women are talking about the horrors of modern dating. It's understandable that there's been a rise in romance books in the US alone in the last five years. Like romantic fiction has doubled any sales. Wow, And like you see it now in bookstores too. You go in and they have huge walls of like romance sections. It's a whole thing. And I think that that is thanks to like TikTok in a big way as much as people sort of talk shit about talk and like I do think that that has really helped with like you know, recommendation and the community, the community that have built. I think it's great, it's interesting, and so I think off the back of that, with the success of like Summer Right Time, pretty all the boys I've loved before bridgeton, like Hollywood's noticing, and that was a lot of where heated rivalry came from, was seeing you could get a built in audience, like you said, get a cool soundtrack, get some unknown cue, and you can have a major hit on your hands. And so we've got like, it's not that hard guy, It's not that hard guy. And like obviously, adaptations have always existed, like I'm sure you've seen all the Nicholas Sparks once the Notebook. We all loved it. We had a great time, Princess Diaries, all the astin adaptations. It's always been a thing. But I do think that this new era is very much about the spicy kind.

Of books as well, and they're pumping out quicker.

And they're coming so much faster, which is good because like with Laura and I talk about this all the time, and I'm sure you feel it too, Like The Devil bes Prata has made four hundred and thirty three million dollars globally so far the sequel. But people just want to go spend money or go hang out with their friends and watch like a cool show on a Sunday night about love, and we're not getting that many previously. We're about to enter I mean Prime Video I think is literally calling it like the Summer of Love. Oh my god. We have so many adaptations coming, so you've been privy to some of this. But the Emily Henry Cinematic Universe is on the way. We can't talk about that again because we've talked about it fifty thousand times, least passionately. But for anyone who doesn't know, we've got beach read, happy Plays, funny story and book lovers all in development. That's a conversation for another day because we've talked about it too much. But what I do want to tell you about is the Love Hypothesis. Touch is coming to Prime Video next month. So we've got off campus this month, Love Hypothesis next month. And that is adapted by from a novel by Alie Hazelwood and Do We Love, We Love, We Love. It's a bit of a cringey book, okay to me, to me, I don't want to get canceled. I love Alie Hazelwood.

It's my least favorite of her, but a little bit of cringe is good sometimes.

But it's still really fun, and I actually think it's gonna make such a good tea like TV series or actually is it a hold on, sorry, mom, it's a movie I forgot. I know. We'll just say from the start there it's a little cringe, but I do think it's gonna make a really good movie. So Lily Ryan Hart from Riverdale, he is kind of the creative force behind me, since she's starring in it as Olive Smith. She's a third year PhD candidate and she's trying to convince her friend that, like, you know, she's romantic. Her friend's like, oh, on dates, do this and she's like, no, no, I'm fine, I have love interest. So she goes out into the hallways and she kisses the first guy she sees, all sure, And it turns out that man is a guy called Adam Carlson and he's a grumpy young professor, and he also agrees to a fake dating scheme with her. Like everyone's doing fake ding.

Yeah, maybe that's the new thing.

It's the new hot thing. Every like forget Enemies to love us were doing fake dating. But the thing about this one was the casting. So I think I've spoken about this, possibly before, but Tom Bateman was cast as the love interest. He is married to Daisy Ridley. Daisy Ridley was in Star Wars as I.

Was like suspense Star Wars.

Hold on, why did I forget her name? I've spoken about this so many times. Sorry, im on, I'm fucked up today.

You have like so many books to talk about. We're all good.

Tom Bateman is married to Daisy Ridley. Daisy Ridley played Ray in Star Wars opposite Adam Driver as Kylo Renn. This book is fan fiction of Kylo ren and Ray. What so it started as fan fiction about Star Wars turned into like a science y rom com, and now the actual husband of the woman who plays Ray, who this romantic character is based on, is starring in the film. That's insane and like they're actually one of the few couples in Hollywood who are willing to talk about like this, like love that law. It's so weird and convoluted. But he's come out being like, actually, yeah, I didn't know when I read it and signed on for it, but we know and we think it's really cute. Oh my god. Like so, I'm just so excited for this to come out and for everyone to see it and know that rest like arapickly playing Adam Driver fanfic in this rom com and that his own wife who is based on So that one's coming June tenth, and I think You're gonna love it.

Yeah, I love it.

We're gonna have.

Even the law that even the law gets it across the line for me.

Another one I Think You're Gonna Love is going to be Every Year After. It's based on a book called Every Summer After. It's also going to be on Prime That is going to be very the summer I turn pretty cold.

Okay, I'm in.

So it's based on a girl called Persephone.

Phrase that is such a good name is well yeah, So for.

Six summers, it's like Persephone and Sam were like best friends. They would hang out, they would read together, they'd you know, work together at the restaurant, and then you know, it turned into something more. And then one fateful evening something bad happened and then oh no, yeah. So then years later she returns back to where they're from, which is like a beautiful lake setting. So it's gonna be very summary, very laky, very beautiful in Canada. She returns back for Sam's mother's funeral and they sort of rehash the past and go through it all. What's interesting to me about this one is in the book they're like thirty and it flushes back to summer. But the TV show seems to have just cast one age group of people, So I'm not sure what's tough. And I also feel like I'm the only one confused because every time I open up, like any comment section on this series, everyone's like, I love them, and I'm like me too. No one noticing that what's going on? Who are these people? So I think they're going to play older and younger versions of themselves, but it does seem like maybe there's gonna be some definite changes.

To at least And how do you feel about that?

I'm okay with it. Okay, I'm okay with a change team in profos. I may not seem like I would be based on how I am.

Yeah, I'm surprised.

Yeah, but I'm okay with this one this time.

I think, okay, I'm glad you're okay.

We also have to talk about one because there were pap photos everywhere last week while they were doing a few final reshoots. Megan Fairhee from the Bowl type white lotus. She is starting with Penn Badgeley in a rom com called You Deserve each Other.

These castings are great, aren't they amazing? All about that?

So it's based on Sarah Hogle's book, and it's like a Lover's to Enemies to Lovers storyline, And essentially they are two people who are engaged and are meant to be getting married, but they've both fallen out of love with each other and so they both don't want to have to be the one to call off the wedding and don't realize they've both fallen out of love with each other, so they start doing shit to mess with each other and try to get the other one to call off a wedding. So it's kind of like did you ever watch like What Happens in Vegas with Cameron DIA's It kind of feels if you're like that in a in a romancy way with marriage.

Like that sounds like not romantic.

It sounds not romantic get all. And it sounds awful, but I think it's going to be a hectic time. So that one is currently I think slated for a cinematic release, so we might be getting a cinema rom common in these modern times. Absolutely insane.

Love that.

Another one that I think you're really gonna love Why are you laughing? Is the Chestnut Spring series on Netflix. It's based on Cowboy Spot What And it is also like.

I didn't even know that was like a subgenre.