Dear Gossips,   

Maria sent this to me over the weekend with exclamation points and they were warranted. This clip made me laugh and I kept expecting it to be more of a conversation than it is. Was it the Easter break? Coachella? Are not enough people watching Hacks? Or is that people don’t remember? 

 

The thing is, you don’t have to watch Hacks to get in on this gossip. Just know that the main character, Deborah Vance, played by Jean Smart, gets pulled over. And she’s all indignant about it with the cop. The dialogue… is familiar. As pointed out by this Twitter user who cut together what may have been the inspiration. 

“This is beyond!”

 

Thank you to Ariel Karlin, Lucia Aniello, and Paul W Downs, the writers credited with this episode, for this gossip Easter egg. And it’s the best kind of Easter egg – if you know, you know, and if you don’t know, carry on with the scene, it works just as well and doesn’t take away from the story. And this can’t have been an accident, right? 

 

You know what makes it even funnier and actually might be an accident? Reese Witherspoon was arrested in 2013, specifically on April 19, 2013. The episode with Deborah’s arrested aired last Thursday, April 17. So basically they f-cking timed the release of the episode during the exact week that Reese was pulled over 12 years ago. Probably a happy coincidence of scheduling but it only adds to the hilarity. 

 

And like I said, no one’s really picking up on it. Credit and respect to that Twitter user for clocking it, but it’s not really that viral. The show posted images from the scene on Instagram but I don’t see anyone talking about in the comments either.

 

One of the reasons… is that the younger generation doesn’t know that it happened. I was just in a meeting for ETALK and brought it up and at least one producer had no idea who the voice was when I played the stitched clip. 

Here’s me being an old lady again shouting at the sky: how can you gossip about celebrities when you don’t have any gossip foundation?!

The Hacks writers’ room obviously has the gossip foundation. Chef’s kiss, tip of the hat, four seasons in and they’re still operating at the highest level. Because it’s not like this doesn’t work for the overall theme of the show. Hacks is (in part) about celebrity, about show business, it’s satire, and it’s centered around generational difference – in comedy, in writing, in ambition and also, clearly, in gossip! The layers! 

Please note – a few days after the arrest, Reese apologised for her behaviour. She has also addressed it in recent years, including in 2020 on a podcast when she called her behaviour “embarrassing” and “really stupid”. Hopefully, then, if she’s even aware of that episode of Hacks and that they might have borrowed from her incident, she can laugh about it too. 

Yours in gossip,

Lainey