So, Demi Moore gets into the sexy podcast game like the rest of us?
It seems Bruce and Ashton’s ex has launched a scripted podcast exploring women’s fantasies. Launched across QCODE, recorded entirely on Zoom, the new show boasts celebrity actors like Betsy Brandt, Carmen Ejogo, and Max Greenfield while Lena Dunham, Melanie Griffith, Lili Taylor, make cameos.
Moore stars here and is also exec-producer for what is so far planned as a series of six 30-minute episodes. Dirty Diana posts every Monday through August 17th.
As she told Vogue, the duality of the Diana character especially peaks to her nature.
“I feel like I too have had two sides of myself—the side that seems to portray feeling confident, but even when I have done things where I’ve had to dress up and feel sexy, it always feels awkward and uncomfortable. Obviously, I’ve had a couple of marriages. More than a couple, three… I just really understood the internal struggle of trying to express yourself and find who you are, and yet the fear to let anybody see it.â€
Foreplay, masturbatory material, just a fun listen? It seems Moore and the series writer-director, Shana Feste are hoping for all three, and I’m sure, much more. “Diana†is recording women’s fantasies while she attempts to get through the drama of her life, and there is a fair (although it might become overdrawn over time) statement about women’s careers in the world presently.
In a move to advertise her new show or just show off (or both), Moore posted a picture this week of her in her plush bathroom, with headphones on, sitting at her laptop on a couch (“A couch in the bathroom?!†many a fan remarked). Moore claims this is the best room in the house for the acoustics needed to record Dirty Diana and also a place she can shut out both her family and her seven dogs.
As to what she’s recording…
I got through the first episode of the podcast, Liz, the only episode ‘up’ presently. It’s certainly recorded perfectly, with well-placed atmospheric sounds and music in the background, the voices clear and genuine sounding, basically, well-acted and produced. We slip from a recording session to “Diana†and her husband “Oliver†in bed—her avoiding his morning sexual advance, so we realize right quick they are presently having some troubles in bed—to her at a psychiatrist’s session asking the doctor to up her dose of the meds she’s on, then to Diana at work, obviously put upon by her male workers, then later her podcast partner Liam coming to her work where he isn’t supposed to be, and…well you get the idea.
It’s tough to arrange things–sound effects, action, actors–in an audio format, and keep things interesting while not making just a jumble of noise, especially the more characters you introduce. Moore and crew do this well. But I am not sure every actor I heard is up for voice acting on this level, it does take a specific skill. And again, there are some themes here that the script lays on a little thick, the points being made might, after time, feel like they are smacking the listener upside the head.
This remains to be seen.
As far as the ‘heat level’? That’s a subjective call. You have to listen to see if the show moves you. But for a free half-hour listen, especially these days where you’re not much going anywhere anyway, why not give Dirty Diana a chance?
You can find it here.
