The Gist
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Every year, the Today cast gets serious about their <a href="https://comicvibe.com/this-halloween-dress-like-your-favourite-pop-culture-obsession/” title=”This Halloween, Dress Like Your Favourite Pop Culture Obsession”>Halloween costumes.
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This year was no exception, and host Jenna Bush Hager dressed up as Phoebe Buffay, the iconic character played by Lisa Kudrow on NBC’s Friends.
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Today anchor Savannah Guthrie also paid homage to a Friends character, dressing up as Jennifer Aniston’s character, Rachel Green.
The Today cast’s Halloween costumes are always something to look forward to, as celebrations for the October 31 holiday are always a firm staple in the show’s annual calendar.
And this year didn’t disappoint, with looking markedly different as Phoebe Buffay, played by on the NBC sitcom Friends from 1994 to 2004. Joining in on the Friends tribute was Bush Hager’s co-host , who dressed up as ‘s character, Rachel Green.
On October 30, Bush Hager channeled Phoebe’s bohemian spirit in her getup, wearing long, blonde hair, a 1990s-style choker necklace, and a patterned ensemble. To fully immerse herself in the character, Bush Hager performed a rendition of Phoebe’s classic song “Smelly Cat,” bringing a guitar and even a real cat to set for good measure—except Bush Hager changed the lyrics to “Sheinelley Cat,” a tribute to her co-star . The cat, by the way, was Bush Hager’s real-life cat, Maisie, according to Today.
Of the Halloween costumes the show dons every year, costume designer Staci Greenbaum said, “Every year is something different, but this year’s been really fun.” Greenbaum said she started by creating Bush Hager and Guthrie’s Friends looks, noting that it was tricky to pin down a single iconic look of Phoebe’s and Rachel’s.
“We’re taking some liberties,” she said, noting that the costumes are more about capturing the essence of the characters, rather than making exact dupes of the characters’ outfits.
Bush Hager is a fan of Phoebe, she told today—and a fan of “Smelly Cat,” too. “I love this song,” she said. “I mean, I know it. I’ve memorized it.”
“I love Friends,” she added. “I watched the entire thing.” She said that “The Wedding Episode” and “the We-Were-on-a-Break episode” rank as some of her favorites, adding, “I’m a little bit of a romance girly, so I loved all that.”
Producers asked Bush Hager to perform “Smelly Cat,” and “They were like, ‘Okay, you need to memorize it,'” she said. “I’m like, ‘No, it’s memorized.’ Because first of all, I’m a cat girl, but also it was so much a part of our culture back then.”
As for portraying Rachel, Guthrie said, “This is right in my wheelhouse. I was probably a little younger than those characters, but I aspired to be them. They were living in New York City, they were young and single. So it spoke to me as another young person trying to make her way in the world.”
“You identify with the characters 100 percent,” the anchor added. “The lines are iconic, and everyone knows exactly what you’re referring to when you say to them, ‘We were on a break.'”
She listed Friends as one of her “Mount Rushmore” television shows, adding, “Every generation has those shows that are more than just something you watch to waste time—that are really more of a cultural milestone for you.”
Read the original article on InStyle
