Emergency Exit Podcast Network

This week, we threw ourselves into the hotel-issued bathrobe that is Maid in Manhattan and found it two sizes too absurd. With Jennifer Lopez playing a maid-turned-mistaken-socialite and Ralph (Ray? Rafe?) Fiennes as the blandest romantic lead money can buy, we tried to find some substance in a movie so fluffy it might actually be Scotchgard-resistant. We also spent a concerning amount of time arguing about how to pronounce “Ralph” and why Bob Hoskins, of all people, was trapped in this cinematic housekeeping assignment. From awkward bathroom run-ins to a Nixon-obsessed child to the tragic misuse of Stanley Tucci, we couldn’t help but pick apart every baffling beat of this film. Why does JLo keep getting asked to run errands like a personal assistant? Why does her son speak like a retired political speechwriter? Why does Ralph Fiennes keep showing up in movies where he clearly doesn’t want to be? These are the kinds of questions that kept us going—well, those and the occasional inappropriate joke about magazi