Marion on The Morning Show

When I messaged Sarah the other day about the news that Marion Cotillard would be joining The Morning Show for season four, she replied that she’s convinced that Duana and I are the only people who watch the show, lol. This is not true; almost everyone I work with watches The Morning Show but that could just mean that it’s a kink for those of us who have careers in broadcasting. 

So my question is… do you watch The Morning Show? And if so, is it a hate watch? Because while I can’t not watch TMS, I agree that it’s a mess. Not trying to defend it, because at times it is indeed indefensible, the mess might have something to do with the fact that TV people are messy! Yes, the choices these characters make are absurd – but if you’ve spent any time in a broadcast studio, you’d know that there’s a huge grain of truth in the why behind their decisions, and this includes producers as well as on-air talent. Anyway, please let us know if you watch it since I’m trying to convince Sarah that there actually is an audience. 

So about Marion on The Morning Show – it’s about the most commercial project she’s taken on in a while, and she’s a big get for the series, which likely means that her role will be meaty. According to the press release, she’ll be playing Celine Dumont, a “savvy operator from a storied European family”. I mean it would have to be for Marion, an Oscar-winning actor, and one of the most famous actresses in France. 

Speaking of Oscar, this is an interesting intersection, or re-intersection between Marion, Jennifer Aniston, and Reese Witherspoon. It was Joanna who reminded me of this post I wrote from back in 2015 titled “It Should Be Marion”. Jen was nominated that year for a Golden Globe and SAG for her performance in Cake and there was a lot of hype about her leading into the Oscar nominations. Both she and Reese (for Wild) were actually in contention. Marion had also delivered an incredible performance in Two Days, One Night and she was named Best Actress by the New York Film Critics Circle which is what that post was about and the point I was making was that as amazing as she was in that film, she did not have the hype, and there was a machine behind Jennifer’s campaign. 

Jen was carrying a lot of momentum through award season, especially with the SAG nomination. The five nominated best actresses for the SAG that year were Jen, Felicity Jones, Julianne Moore, Rosamund Pike, and Reese. And then came the Oscar noms… 

Felicity, Julianne, Rosamund, and Reese all made it onto the Academy’s list. But instead of Jennifer Aniston, the Academy nominated Marion Cotillard. At the time, if you remember, it was talked about as a “snub”. The MiniVan Majority doesn’t know Marion Cotillard and their hero is Jennifer Aniston. The MiniVan Majority, however, is not the film industry. As mentioned, Marion had already received the Best Actress award from the NYFCC. Jen was good in Cake but Cake itself is not a good film; Two Days, One Night, directed by the Dardenne brothers was generally more well received. Also, the Academy knows Marion, they’d already awarded her. In the end, Jen brushed it off and still ended up presenting at the Oscars that year and Julianne Moore won the Best Actress Oscar. 

And now, nearly a decade later, we find three of those actresses involved in that year’s race on the same television series. Jen, Reese, and Marion will share the screen in season four of The Morning Show. 

As for Marion’s personal life, because we haven’t talked about that in a while on this site – she and Guillaume Canet have been together now for 17 years but there are constantly rumours that they’re separated or about to separate, especially since they’re rarely together in public. He denied it last year and again a couple of months ago in March so either they’ve broken up very, very, very quietly, and have been able to contain it, or they’re fine, even though no one wants to believe it. The fact that she’ll be working on American television, though, probably won’t help. I’m sure someone somewhere is already floating the theory that she took this job as part of her exit strategy. 

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