In the 1991 comedy Soapdish, Sally Field plays Celeste Talbert, a middle-aged soap opera star at the peak of her career whose life suddenly turns upside down when her daughter (that’s a spoiler, but who cares) lands a high-profile role as her co-star while her coworkers secretly begin plotting to have her written off the show entirely. Sad!
Towards the beginning of the film, an unconsolable Talbert is having lunch with her best friend (who happens to be the show’s head writer), Rose Schwartz (Whoopi Goldberg), who suggests a temporary cure for her misery: a trip to a mall in Paramus, New Jersey. “It’s a crutch,” Talbert says through her tears before Schwartz finally convinces her to tag along. “All right, just once.”
Taking a page out of Talbert’s playbook (specifically the one about how to deal with profound sadness and a pathetic desire to be adored), pube-covered nub of orange soap President Donald Trump took a few moments out of his busy schedule Tuesday to surprise White House visitors “as public tours [resumed] for the first time since he took office.”
I wonder how long the feeling will last.