The Endless White Lotus Drama

Season three of The White Lotus concluded on Sunday and we are still talking about it – not what actually happened on the show but what’s been going on behind the scenes, who’s mad at whom, who might not be friends anymore – it’s the reality show behind the scripted show, which totally tracks since Mike White has both been on reality television and has said many times that he watches a lot of reality television. And in true reality TV form, he’s involved in one of the beefs. 

This all started, of course, when Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, the composer of all The White Lotus theme songs, ahead of the season finale, did an interview with The New York Times and revealed that he will not be returning for season four because he and Mike White “had our last fight forever”. Cristóbal compared their relationship to a band, where he’s the guitar player and Mike’s the mercurial singer. And also La Cage Aux Folles:

“You know how there’s Albin, which is like the star, and there’s Renato, who is the producer who is always taking care that Albin doesn’t lose his mind about something, because Albin is the diva and Renato is the guy who is trying to make everything work. To me, the show felt very much like that.”

If he’s comparing himself to Renato… my guy, you did the music, and the music was great, but this is a massive overestimation of your contribution to the show, LOL. 

Anyway, all of this made headlines through the weekend and now Mike is answering Cristóbal’s suck attack with a suck attack of his own. He was on Howard Stern yesterday and claims that Cristóbal is exaggerating the drama. Per The Hollywood Reporter:

“I honestly don’t know what happened, except now I’m reading his interviews because he decides to do some PR campaign about him leaving the show,” White said. “I don’t think he respected me. He wants people to know that he’s edgy and dark and I’m, I don’t know, like I watch reality TV. We never really even fought. He says we feuded. I don’t think I ever had a fight with him — except for maybe some emails. It was basically me giving him notes. I don’t think he liked to go through the process of getting notes from me, or wanting revisions, because he didn’t respect me. I knew he wasn’t a team player and that he wanted to do it his way. I was thrown that he would go to The New York Times to shit on me and the show three days before the finale. It was kind of a bitch move.”

“Edgy and dark” vs “I watch reality TV” – are Cristóbal and Mike White the new Justin Theroux and Jennifer Aniston, LOOOLLLLL. 

Being the reality TV expert that he is, Mike matched Cristóbal cut for cut. Where Cristóbal is accusing Mike of being a megalomaniac, Mike is slapping back on the same level, suggesting that Cristóbal is the one who let the fame and success get to him: 

“By the time the third season came around, he’d won Emmys and he had his song go viral, he didn’t want to go through the process with me, he didn’t want to go to sessions. He would always look at me with this contemptuous smirk on his face like he thought I was a chimp or something … he’s definitely making a big deal out of a creative difference.”

When Howard Stern was, like, why couldn’t this dude just get over it, you’re all working on greatness, Mike led with a compliment before clarifying: 

“He is very talented. [But] I’ve never kissed somebody’s ass so hard to just get him to — to lead that horse to water. Have fun with whatever you’re doing next.”

Boy sh-t is the best sh-t. And now there’s a job opening, one of the most coveted job openings. It would not surprise me if it ends up being Finneas, who is a huge fan of the show. 

@hahakcoolgtgbye

@FINNEAS and i talk #whitelotus and #thebeatles demos #interview #finneas #billieeilish #indie

♬ Enlightenment (Main Title Theme) [from "The White Lotus: Season 3"] - Cristobal Tapia De Veer

But that’s not the only White Lotus mess we’re dealing with. The internet is in shambles over whatever may or may not be happening between Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood. Rick and Chelsea might have gotten their sad forever ending but IRL, Walton and Aimee are acting like exes. 

They were both posting tributes to their characters using Fleetwood Mac’s “Silver Springs”, which is loaded with meaning, IYKYK. But they haven’t been tagging each other in their posts and it turns out, they unfollowed each other on IG a couple of weeks ago. He did name her in his post though. 

But some people on Reddit think he might have blocked her too because her previous comments are gone from his posts. Meanwhile Aimee posted this yesterday: 

You can imagine what some of the speculation has been. I messaged Sarah about this last night, because Sarah has been f-cking with Walton Goggins longer than some of these kids on social have been able to read. From even before Justified. And there’s evidence of this here on this site, I’m bragging for her because she never brags for herself. The mainstream has taken over a decade to catch up to Sarah’s eye. 

Here's what Sarah said when I texted her about everyone wondering about Walton and Aimee: 

“You mean Walton Goggins who’s infamous for not really getting along with his coworkers, that Walton Goggins? I think Jody Hill and Danny McBride might be the only people he has a consistent working relationship with.”

And it may just be as simple as that – he’s one of those actors who has to go through a whole process of release from his characters, like total closure. But in addition to that I think we have to consider what Thailand was for him, beyond his work and the character. As he told GQ earlier this year, Walton was married to a Leanne Knight in 2001. Three years later she died by suicide. Walton recalls:

“I thought it was really unrecoverable for me. Life on the other side of that. And I spent the next three years looking for an excuse—not to end it, but certainly putting myself in situations that were questionable, not with drugs or anything like that, just life experiences and traveling. And I really went all over the world.”

He went to Vietnam, Cambodia, eventually India—but he started in Thailand. When he took the White Lotus job around 20 years later, he knew they’d be shooting there—but the full-circle aspect didn’t hit him until they got to the first location.

“The first island we were staying on,” he says, “I realized, I’ve been on this road before. And then the next island we went to, I realized, I’ve definitely been on this beach before. I know this boardwalk. And all of the things kept coming back.”

There are probably a lot of layers for Walton Goggins in letting go of The White Lotus. Layers that go much deeper than how he gets on with a co-star. 

Attached – Walton out and about in LA yesterday.