Generation Mandy Moore
And the definitive Los Angeles Movie Theater Parking Rankings.
Who is more famous, Hilary Duff or Mandy Moore? We know what Juliet Litman thinks! #JamSession10 has conveniently coincided with the renaissance of Hilary Duff, or at least of Mean Mom Group Chat content featuring Duff and other assorted Valley (in spirit at least, haven’t Geolocated anyone) moms. I consumed all this drama through the lens of a Los Angeles Eastsider and also, as Juliet gently reminded me each time we returned to the subject, a woman of a Certain Age. The age in question is “Too Old to Care About Lizzie McGuire.” The age in question is “I remember when Andy Roddick won his single Grand Slam and climbed into the US Open stands to kiss his girlfriend.” The age in question is: Generation Mandy Moore.
Been noodling on this one as a cultural theory of elder millennials, say 1982-1985. People young enough for The Princess Diaries (2001) but far too senior mature for Agent Cody Banks (2003). This is not about picking favorites — Duff and Moore seem to be friends, and on the same side of the Mom Chat Drama, and once again I know nothing about Hilary Duff except that BarbDoesHair does her hair, and I didn’t think this NYTCooking recipe seemed so delicious — but about isolating a new micro-demographic in the vein of Generation Catalano. If we can understand our differences then maybe we can overcome them, etc.
I polled some of my own group chats — same prompt as above, who is more famous? — and here are the findings:
From actual friends who also work in media, same-ish age range as yours truly, one in LA and one in Paris (come back Lauren!):
M: That’s a really hard question.
L: Hilary Duff. Obviously not to us.
M: My instinct was also Hilary Duff, but Mandy Moore was in that Nate Bargatze movie which tells me America knows her [Editor’s Note: Though no one saw it] but I guess my final answer is Hilary.
From a college friend in Houston:
I have caught this debate on Jam Session and unsurprisingly my worldview is yours…but my finger is rarely on the pulse of the people.
From two preschool-mom friends who I suspect are younger than me, but we are spiritually equal in the rearing of small children:
Mom Friend 1: Hilary Duff. Maybe Mandy Moore if the poll is only for people in LA. [two seconds later] Oh no now I’m just watching Hilary Duff music videos.
Mom Friend 2: Oh wow this is a difficult one, but I feel Lizzie Maguire gives Hilary the edge here. Marginally!
Mom Friend 1: Also: Younger. Slept on, but an important show. [Editor’s Note: True.]
Mom Friend 2: Nope not a clue
From a novelist friend, LA-based, currently on vacation so thank you for replying:
Haha for ME it’s Mandy.
From my friend Yasi Salek of Bandsplain and Fast And Loose fame:
Damn this is hard. I think it depends on the demo tbh. I’m leaning Mandy Moore though — network television show etc.
From a New York-based friend who I’m almost certain is younger than me but the relationship is too new and rosy to ask:
My gut is Mandy — she’s stayed in the zeitgeist more consistently. Hilary to me dips in and out. But I will concede that Hilary apparently sold out venues recently. I don’t think Mandy could do that.
And from the collective hive-mind of Scandal Club, a group of friends who used to watch the television program Scandal together and who now all regularly publish books (except for me, I’m the charity case friend):
Published Author #1: Mandy Moore!
Published Author #2: Yes, bc This Is Us
Published Author #3: Duff, she’s so weirdly everywhere.
Published Author #4: I mean for people even 3 years younger than us it’s no contest Duff, right?
No mention of Center Stage which is alarming, but otherwise the findings are conclusive: we all understand that Hilary Duff is empirically more famous — but not to us. Because we are Generation Mandy Moore.
On the anniversary beat, my husband — Zach Baron, author of Last of My Kind! Out Spring 2027! — and I hit ten years in May. We managed to spin a work trip1 into a few days together in Paris, but on the actual day were back in LA with our children and thus celebrated with fried chicken and champagne at home. (The concept came to me during Backrooms. This has been a film review.) Our preferred fried chicken recipe comes from Small Victories, a 2016 Julia Turshen cookbook that is not exactly undiscovered — Ina Garten wrote the foreward and Sofia Coppola gave a blurb— but remains an essential text in the Baron-Dobbins kitchen. The book is organized around simple tips, or “small victories,” that make the recipes more intuitive and you a better cook; Turshen’s fried chicken suggestion is to fry the pieces in the largest available pot, eliminating the stress of oil splatter/spill/chaos. I’m sure there are scientific reasons as to why we cannot cook everything in the biggest available vessel, but I made a regular-sized pasta sauce the other night in our 9 quart Dutch oven and felt calm, cool, collected. Inner poise, to quote Bridget Jones (the book). Julia Turshen has a romance novella out this month with 831 Stories and gives cooking classes over Zoom. Gift ideas abound!
I went to the Landmark Sunset for a screening last night, which reminded me that I still owe the world the definitive Los Angeles Movie Theater Parking Rankings. Here you go:
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown: I turned on Alamo before the rest of you, because they are petty authoritarians with bad food. But this parking structure — 5 levels up a Guggenheim-but-ugly ramp in a downtown mall with usurious rates and surrounded by one way streets — is unforgivable.
AMC Grove: Most people would put the Burbank 16 here but fighting for parking with the Aritzia and the Cheesecake Factory crowd is a negative, plus I swear to you that the structure, lanes, and spaces are narrower than the other parking on this list. Who designed the one-way system and was it Rick Caruso?? Never gonna be mayor with that attitude, my man.2
Landmark Sunset: This used to be bottom of the list — I’ve had friends decline to see movies because they would have to venture into this structure — but I got a P1 spot last night. Good view of the hills!
AMC Century City: Overrun and the exit machines stopped reading your license plate on the way out (creepy, but efficient.)
AMC Burbank 16: Controversially high at number 6 but if you go up the structure instead of down, IDK, parking’s free and relatively close to the theater. Definitely too many back-in parkers, the worst feature of Los Angeles driving culture
AMC The Americana at Brand: So here’s the trick: use the Brand Ave entrance and go directly to the fourth floor. The escalator design could be better but also you have a full thirty minutes of trailers before the movie starts.
Regal Paseo: Smells weird and sometimes there’s a convention across the street. But accessibly-sized and cheap!
Landmark Pasadena: Used to be my number one but the city of Pasadena started charging for street parking on Oak Knoll. It’s about 5 bucks for three hours, leaving you enough time to stop at Vroman’s on the way out. The Landmark bar is now open to the public, FYI, though they still don’t carry Campari. What gives, Landmark?!
Laemmle Glendale: Street parking and metered city lots abound. Once I entered the wrong license plate and got a ticket, but I submitted my parking receipt (for the wrong license plate) and the city of Glendale reversed it! Pasadena would never.
Regal La Canada: You drive right off the 2 and up to the front door. No structure, just wide flat-top spots waiting peacefully for you. Unfortunately the projection at Regal La Canada has not been updated in many years (or at least since I last went in 2024) and so even I cannot see movies here anymore, but I like to know that the suburban movie experience lives on.
On the subject of Madonna arms: yes, of course, please sign me up, but could I also offer the inspiration of Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow? Chiseled, but not creatined. Repeatedly demonstrated in a Cobra pose which suggests that this definition is possible via yoga (it’s not). On The Big Picture this week, I talked briefly about cultural references that are canonical to me — “it’s your day” from Greenberg, “m’am, this is a Wendy’s” — but maybe lost on everyone else. Do these arms qualify? Let’s change that!
Kids music rec: I wrote most of this while sitting next to my 4-year-old and listening to Lynn Kleiner. She is a sort-of SoCal Raffi, with a stone-cold classic album about the power of the ocean. (“Larry the Lobster,” a banger!) We are a “I’m so sorry, I don’t have Frozen in my car” kind of family but I can respect this stuff. Soothing before a swim lesson. (More on this next week.)
And finally, The Real Real Accountability Hour: total breakdown of monthly protocols, I’ve abandoned my principles, I am once again on a intra-family payment program. What happened is that I went 5/10 on my monthly order, and then a Dries van Noten shirt I’d had my eye on for our Toronto shows came back online. I added in some Celine heels because I have a disease. Then the Dries shirt didn’t even work — this is becoming an issue with me and Dries, please remind me next time — and my friend Claire sent me a pair of clip-on earrings that were too Blazy-coded to ignore. [whispers: I also threw in a pair of $80 Prada pants as suggested by Bottom Feeders Anonymous.] Disgrace. Shame. I apologize to you and to myself.
Did you guys hear that I went to Cannes?!!!!!
Rick Caruso is not my man.
Why was I not polled? Why am I being silenced?
I say some version of "ma'am this is a Wendy's" on almost every episode of Bandsplain - I stand with you