What links Emily in Paris to the New Labour glory years?
Emily in Paris
The show that launched a thousand les takes-chaud is back: on Wednesday Emily in Paris lands on Netflix for its second season. The hate-watch programme sees Lily Collins take on more adventures of a gauche American on the Rive Gauche.
Josephine in the Panthéon
Emily has a plush apartment on Place de l’Estrapade in the 5th arrondissement, which sits virtually in the shadow of the Panthéon, where the great and good of French life are interred. Last month, Josephine Baker was admitted into the mausoleum, making her the first black woman to be so honoured.
Cush in character
Many have written and performed work about the French-American singer, dancer, actor and resistance fighter. In 2013, Cush Jumbo staged an acclaimed one-woman play Josephine and I at the Bush theatre in London. The English actor earned wider fame for her role as Lucca Quinn in the US legal drama The Good Wife, and its (arguably superior) spin-off The Good Fight.
Sheen in politics
The Good Fight has had an array of high-profile guest stars, including Michael Sheen with a turn in season three inspired by real-life lawyer Roy Cohn. Regardless of the many varied parts he inhabits, though, Sheen will always seem inextricably linked to Tony Blair, a role he has played in three films.
Phil in Switzerland
New Labour nostalgists who got moist-eyed at the recent BBC Blair & Brown documentary series fondly recall the moment in 1997 when the party finally swept away the Tories, but not everyone was quite so happy. Phil Collins (he of Genesis, not Blair’s speechwriter) famously declared he would leave Britain if Tony entered No 10 – he later moved to Switzerland. Phil, of course, is the father of Lily, star of Emily in Paris … mais sérieusement.
Pairing notes
Watch Lily Collins was among the starry cast in Bong Joon Ho’s 2017 “creature feature” meat industry satire Okja (on Netflix), co-written with former Guardian columnist Jon Ronson.
Eat The elegant Café de la Nouvelle Mairie sits on Place de l’Estrapade: enjoy a steak hache or just a good sit watching Emily in Paris superfans photograph themselves at key locations nearby.
