‘The White Lotus' Season Three Highlights Luxury Timekeeping With Gold Rolex Watches and Bejeweled Timepieces
While fans of 'The White Lotus' are counting down to the Season Three finale episode, which will premiere on Sunday on both Max and HBO, WWD is taking a closer look at the watches seen on the show throughout the season. From Victoria (Parker Posey) and Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) coordinating in gold Rolex watches to the luxurious Jacob & Co. Fleurs de Jardin worn by Sritala Hollinger (Lek Patravadi), here are some of the timepieces catching the viewers' attention with their bling.
Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) is seen wearing the Nantucket watch by Hermès in the first episode of Season Three. The timepiece features a 17mm rose gold case with an anti-glare sapphire crystal, a white mother-of-pearl dial and quartz movement. It's currently available at hermes.com for $15,850. Different styles vary in price, growing from $3,975 to $153,400.
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Victoria Ratliff (Parker Posey) is almost always seen with her Rolex in the show. The style chosen for the character is the Day-Date II, also known as the President's watch, which can be purchased with different dials and bezels. The Rolex Caliber 3156 movement powers it and offers a power reserve of approximately 48 hours. The style features the President bracelet, characterized by its semi-circular three-piece links. A similar 18-karat yellow gold version of the watch with a champagne diamond dial is on sale for $36,800 at luxury jewelry and watch retailer Avi&Co.
Like his wife in the show, Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) also has a penchant for Rolex, always wearing the Rolex Day-Date 40. Introduced in 2015, the style features a 40mm Oyster case crafted from 18-karat yellow gold, Everose gold or platinum. It comes with a fluted bezel and scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, as well as Cyclops lens. It's powered by the Rolex Caliber 3255 and boasts a 70-hour power reserve. The style is available in various dial designs, including champagne, chocolate with diamonds or blue. Retailer Luxury of Watches sells a similar style by $49,995.00.
The Cartier Baignoire worn by Laurie (Carrie Coon) was first conceptualized in 1912 and named 'Baignoire' (French for 'bathtub') in 1973. This watch features a distinctive oval-shaped case, quartz movement, a beaded crown set with a sapphire cabochon, a sapphire crystal case and a black varnished calfskin leather strap. Cartier currently sells the watch for $7,250.
Saxon Ratliff (Patrick Schwarzenegger) has worn different watches throughout the season, including the Rolex Milgauss. Launched in 1956, the Milgauss was the first watch to resist magnetic fields up to 1,000 gauss, thanks to its innovative ferromagnetic shield inside the case. The name 'Milgauss' derives from 'mille' (French for thousand) and 'gauss,' a unit of magnetic measurement. Key features include a 40mm Oystersteel case and the striking lightning-bolt-shaped orange seconds hand. A pre-owned model can be found for $8,891.00 at Bloomingdale's.
Lochlan Ratliff (Sam Nivola) wears the Swatch x Omega Moonswatch 'Mission to Saturn' in the show. The watch is part of the Bioceramic MoonSwatch collection, inspired by the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch. This model features a 42mm bioceramic case in sandy beige and a brown Velcro strap. The brown dial includes distinctive subdials, with the seconds subdial at 6 o'clock uniquely depicting Saturn's rings. The tachymeter bezel showcases the 'dot over ninety' detail, a signature Speedmaster element. The watch is priced at $270 at swatch.com.
Sritala Hollinger (Lek Patravadi) wears the Jacob & Co. Fleurs de Jardin, designed to evoke a blooming garden on your wrist. This timepiece features a 42.5mm case crafted from 18-karat rose gold or white gold, with options for intricate gem settings including rainbow sapphires and diamonds. It features a manually wound JCAM31 caliber, boasting 444 components, 43 jewels and a 48-hour power reserve. The Fleurs de Jardin is on sale for $380,000 at Jacob & Co.
Fabien (Christian Friedel) is seen in the show wearing the Tag Heuer Carrera Chronograph watch. Introduced in 1963, the Carrera was named after the grueling Carrera Panamericana road race, reflecting its roots in precision and endurance. The modern collection features various models, including the 44mm steel chronograph (Ref. CBN2A1B.BA0643). Powered by the in-house Caliber TH20-00 automatic movement, the Carrera Chronograph offers an 80-hour power reserve and operates at 28,800 vibrations per hour (4 Hz). The watch is available at tagheuer.com for $22,400.00.
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Parker Posey reveals ‘The White Lotus' fans are making sure she's living a comfortable life
'Thank you, darling! I dressed up for you! I got the flowers in the kitchen!' Parker Posey says, accepting a compliment on how fabulous she looks popping up on our Zoom interview from the Chateau Marmont, wearing her now signature pink glasses and a chic scarf. Although the certified Legend earned her first Emmy nomination last year for guesting on Prime Video's Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Posey considers this her first real awards season, and she's doing it right. If you watched Season 3 of HBO's The White Lotus, you already know that Posey could do no wrong as Victoria Ratliff, the North Carolina matriarch whom show creator Mike White described to the actress as a younger version of Grey Gardens' eccentric Big Edie. Having grown up in Louisiana and Mississippi, Posey couldn't wait to choose her (much-imitated) Southern accent. "I love how funny it sounds. I love how there seems to be an emphasis on feeling but not actually what you're saying," she explains. She zeroed in on Victoria's lines about her country club life. "She's under this grip of achievements, and money, and what people should do and how they should live," Posey says. "I looked at her as someone who was programmed in this kind of male-dominated world. But underneath it all, there was someone lost and waiting to come out. That's why I like her [tsunami] dream so much [in Episode 3]. A character has a dream, then that gives such another dimension to her and what's going on with her." More from GoldDerby Animal skins, clothes-swapping, and those terrifying masks: How 'Yellowjackets' costume designer works with Liv Hewson and cast 'The Last of Us': Gabriel Luna on shooting flamethrowers and what Season 3 could mean for Tommy 'The Studio' dominates 2025 Astra TV Awards with 4 wins, including Best Comedy; 'Severance' takes Best Drama Here, Posey shares how she found inspiration for some of Victoria's most memorable moments — and which scenes fans won't let her forget. Gold Derby: You've said that if Victoria hadn't been funny, she would have come across as a terrible person. Was that your biggest challenge, making her likable? Parker Posey: Yeah, you're exactly right. You know, The White Lotus is already like a brand. So we know what kind of characters we're dealing with. We're dealing with the 1 percent, and then the hospitality industry in these hotels, right? Everyone likes a snob when you look at characters in movies and TV shows, like the person who's just obnoxious. So having a [slips into Victoria's drawl] snotty way of talking, it's really juicy. So I was happy to be able to deliver that. I mean, I hope it's OK. You know I wasn't always confident, in the beginning especially. But I love Evil Under the Sun and Murder on the Orient Express, and these characters, they're almost drawn, they're kind of animated. I remember being a little kid and watching these movies and looking forward to being a grown-up and acting this way. Maggie Smith, and who else was in Evil Under the Sun? Peter Ustinov. You know they had this style and this way of being that you knew they were acting and having fun as they were playing these people, you know, but they were very drawn. It was very archetypal. And so that was fun to enter into that story world of whodunit, you know, and just playing someone who you don't really know what she's capable of doing. Do you trust her? Is she trustworthy? Is she high on lorazepam? What's going on? So all that stuff was such good fun. There's an arc with Victoria, from almost childlike to formidable: When she arrives at the White Lotus, I love how nervous she is when Pam (Morgana O'Reilly) brings up taking a test. And then cut to when she's off the lorazepam and she's the one, not husband Timothy (), who finds a way to stop Piper () from staying in Thailand. What was it like for you to play that change? It was so fun to just play a full-on woman, you know. Like, when she's in a bad way and she needs to take to bed, she's gonna take to bed. And Timothy and the whole family is going to abide by that and take care of mom and worry about mom and hope she's OK. And then, like on a dime, she can drink a cup of coffee and get the show on the road and do some detective work. [Laughs] That kind of drama. She's just a drama queen. Tell me about filming the scene in the finale when Piper reveals to Timothy and Victoria that she isn't staying in Thailand. It's so fun to watch you, as Victoria, figure out what Piper's really saying. You escalate Victoria's response to the hug. Was the thumbs up you give scripted or something that just came to you? No, that was totally scripted. And that was such a beautiful day of work for Sarah Catherine. We shot a lot in a condensed amount of time, and we shot that, I think, within the first or second week. So I didn't know really what the path of Piper was. … It's so tragic in that scene, so much about not being able to escape your family and to accept the limits of what you are capable of doing. And so really what she's saying is, "I'll never be able to leave you." And it's that powerful mother and father that have their child going, "I gotta come back to you." I just thought it's just such great writing and such a great arc. But that was all Mike White. She hugs, and she's like [gives a thumbs up], "Got her!" [Laughs] Jason told me how much he with a live audience and hearing people's reactions to certain scenes. Is there any particular scene you'd have loved to hear the response to? I haven't watched the show yet, and I wasn't there for the finale [screening] because I was working. But I talked to John Valerio, our editor, and I said, "Can you remind me of the piña colada scene? Because all I remember is, it was at like 4 o'clock in the morning. We improvised a lot of different bits, right? We were talking about desserts?" He's like, "That's not in it." He said in the editing of that scene, what was fun is the stuff that was added, just the energy of the scene. Mike would throw out funny lines, like ["Is that it, Tim? Have you ever heard of wine?"]. To be able to work with an ensemble, and to be able to build moments along with the director, who's written the story and knows it so well, it's like all these characters coming to life right in front of his eyes. It's such a remarkable thing. Every actor I've spoken to this awards season has talked about how much they love that on-set collaboration. It made me wonder about a line in Episode 2, when Victoria finds out that Jaclyn () is a famous actress and says, "Actresses are all basically prostitutes… if they're lucky." The laughter from your costars seemed genuine. Was that scripted or something thrown in? "If they're lucky" was thrown in, yeah. And that was my first day of work. Mike is so funny, because you can just hear him cackling. Has anyone done his cackle for you? Patrick (Schwarzenegger) has. It's like [shrieks twice]. Another scene that I thought might also have been enhanced by you was the house party in Episode 7 when Victoria is talking to the Thai beauty (played by Praya Lundberg), asking why she's with her older boyfriend, and telling her to come to North Carolina: "Are you scared of him? I could get you out of this." Praya was a really lovely person. We just connected on set [filming an earlier scene], and I adored her. And I told Mike. I was like, "I love Praya. Can we have a scene with her?" And he thought about it. And then he was like, "I know what I wanna do. I'm gonna bring her into the party," to the scenes that you're talking about. But that [dialogue] was all Mike. … We spent almost seven months [in Thailand], and when I went back to the premiere, people there were like, "Welcome home." Like, it's so hospitable, and the people are so lovely and kind. So I still feel like I'll be returning there soon, even though I'm not. What was cool about the experience was there was the hotel working next to us, and the Butlers. Did I read that you and Natasha Rothwell took the butlers out to dinner? God, that was such a perfect night. That was such a perfect night! Yes, we took our butlers at the Four Seasons. [Names them.] We bonded with them. They were just such cool women, you know. And when they knew that I like to just hang out — we were staying there for like two months — I felt like I got to know them a little bit, and to know just the kind of people that they are. And I just love them. "You know Khun Parker, you don't need a man if they don't enhance your life. And if they don't enhance your life, why…." [Laughs] They were, like, giving advice. … One of my favorite nights was going to set watching Lisa perform [as Mook]. And I watched Lisa dance, and it was so beautiful. 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That moment, when she says, "I don't want to live an uncomfortable life, I don't have the will," that's when you don't really know what's gonna happen to Victoria, this being at the end of her rope and what she's been through. [With] those little lines, we get to bring in the history of person. I had the essential oils and the lotions, and you just see how spoiled she is. But also, you know she's broken. She's kind of a mess, and then on the other side, she gets it together, and she's able to, like, Sherlock Holmes this stuff and get her daughter back. I love Mike White and how he writes women! We're talking about a writer who writes great women, and they're alone. They stand alone in a man's world. I feel so lucky I got to play it. 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Making of ‘Mid-Century Modern': How comedy legends created Hulu's freshest sitcom starring Nathan Lane and the late Linda Lavin
Crafting a hit comedy is all about collaboration, and Mid-Century Modern proves just that. Hulu's multi-cam sitcom, set against the vibrant Palm Springs aesthetic, benefits from decades of combined expertise poured into every frame by its talented behind-the-scenes team. Led by co-creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan (Will & Grace), the all-star crew of this freshman series shares their insights in an in-depth discussion about the making of Mid-Century Modern. The panel features legendary director and co-executive producer James Burrows, editor Peter Chakos, cinematographer Gary Baum, and production designer Greg Grande. (Watch the full Making of Mid-Century Modern panel above.) 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The cocreators revisited an old script they had worked on years ago titled Senioritis, shedding its original retirement home premise but keeping the heart of telling stories about people with lives and relationships spanning decades. Mutchnick adds, 'We didn't understand why a network, in the glow of the Friends craze, didn't want to make a show about Tony Curtis, Alan Arkin, Sandy Dennis, and Elaine Stritch. But, you know, we put a pin in it, and now we get to kind of visit that world.' SEENathan Lane, Matt Bomer, Linda Lavin, Pamela Adlon: Here is every 'Mid-Century Modern' Emmy acting submission One major turning point for the series was bringing in producer Ryan Murphy, whose expertise in casting elevated the show to new heights. Mutchnick recounts, 'Ryan was very clear from the beginning, 'I don't do what you guys do, but there is a thing that I do very well, and it's casting and marketing these shows.' And he really delivered with flying colors.' Murphy had Nathan Lane on board by the end of the day, and sparked the team to rewrite the part of Jerry for Matt Bomer. The casting process wasn't just about securing big names, but finding the right chemistry. Kohan recalls seeking validation from their director, James Burrows, when considering Linda Lavin: 'Jimmy said, 'She's a heat-seeking missile with a joke. She's the best of the best.' That was basically the end of that conversation.' Mutchnick notes, 'You put these casts together and you know that when you're done, the show is either going to work or it is not going to work. One weak link on a multi-cam stage can bring an entire show down. We didn't have that here.' Editor Peter Chakos adds, "Working with [Max and David] is always great because I know the show is going to be hilarious. It goes back to Will & Grace. These are the funniest shows I've ever worked on — Will & Grace and Mid-Century Modern. They're funny shows with endearing characters. It's so important in a sitcom that you like the characters when you're watching them." Burrows, who has directed some of TV's most iconic sitcoms (Taxi, Cheers, Will & Grace), emphasizes the collaborative process as the core reason he signed on to direct Mid-Century Modern. 'For me, the most important thing is not the cast to begin with; it's the writing and the ability of the collaboration between me and the writers. A lot of times, I'll read a really good script, and I talk to the writers, and there's no flexibility. They're defensive instead of defending their material. This was different.' Burrows also reveals that the magic truly emerged during the cast table read: 'I think all of us were incredibly and pleasantly surprised when these guys interacted with one another like they had been together forever.' Production designer Greg Grande echoes the importance of harmony across the team, saying, 'It's not just the chemistry of the cast. It's the chemistry of the entire group of people. Whether it's notes from Jimmy or Max and David, it becomes a beautiful experience. You capture something only so many times in your career.' Grande also shares his vision for bringing mid-century Palm Springs architecture and design to life. 'Palm Springs is near and dear to me. I had a house out there, so I know it well. Bringing to life that flavor of layering and detail was a joy.' Both he and cinematographer Gary Baum worked to ensure the production design felt like a dynamic character in the show. Baum brought a cinematic flair to the multi-camera sitcom, saying, 'I try to bring some cinematic values into the show that you normally don't see on a sitcom. With Greg's design, I had complete support from Max, David, and Jimmy. That's the fun part—the vibrant color and the detail.' The sudden loss of Linda Lavin during production shaped the final few episodes of the season, forcing the writers to pivot with a delicate balance of grief and comedy. Kohan reflects, 'The first adjustment is — this is a big personal loss. We're all grieving. And then you go to this idea that now we have to honor her and the character. Fear hits first—what are we going to do? Then over time, with the collaborators, you come to a place where it's like, yes, this is what I would have wanted for Linda.' Mutchnick adds, 'We knew very early on that if we didn't deal with it directly, it wouldn't be truthful. So we wrote the experience we just had and infused it with the love we had for her.' With so many career Emmy nominations (and wins) among them, it's no surprise this team values what awards recognition means for a show's future. Kohan points out, 'Validation from something like an Emmy nomination is significant. 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‘And then somebody throws a piece of sh-t at you': ‘The Diplomat' star Ato Essandoh on Stuart getting honeytrapped
One of the elements of Netflix's The Diplomat that lends itself to being an addictive drama is how the show juggles huge political turmoil alongside relationship drama and often comedic complications for the core characters. Case in point, Stuart Heyford (Ato Essandoh), the deputy chief of mission of the U.S. embassy in London. Besides his duties being the right hand for U.S. ambassador Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), Stuart had a tumultuous second season. After surviving the Season 1 finale explosion, he recovered enough to return to work and randomly met a woman (Adrienne Warren) with whom he hooked up, only to find out there was nothing random about it all. His ex-girlfriend Eidra (Ali Ahn), the CIA station chief, set it all up to ensure he was ready to come back to his job. More from GoldDerby Emmy experts analyze Limited Series race: Why 'Adolescence' is 'the one to beat' as voting begins Making of 'Mid-Century Modern': How comedy legends created Hulu's freshest sitcom starring Nathan Lane and the late Linda Lavin Parker Posey reveals 'The White Lotus' fans are making sure she's living a comfortable life Here, Essandoh tells us whether he likes to know what's coming on the hit drama, his experience meeting real-life foreign service members, and the challenges of working with crutches. Gold Derby: Outside of the politics, is just a fun show to watch. Do you feel that from the inside? Ato Essandoh: Yeah, I still remember reading that pilot script for the first time. I read it off of my phone because the casting director sent it to me and I hate reading things on computers and screens, but I couldn't put my phone down. It was so good. Stuart went through it in the second season. How was a lot of that to play? I always marvel at Debora Cahn, our show creator, and her ability to create these real people and put them in really serious circumstances and still pull out the humanity and the humor out of it. So it's one of those things where I've done enough shows where I want to read scripts and talk to the showrunner just to see what's going to happen. But with Debora, I don't want to talk to her. I just want to see what happens in the read-through when I get the script. It's always something that's really surprising. So getting Stuart set up with a honeypot and how Eidra reveals it to him was kind of amazing. That whole thing coming from a place of "I just got really lucky and I really needed it." And then chopping my legs out right from under me. I wanted to ask about that Episode 4 scene in particular because Stuart does go from having that next morning glow to just being shocked and furious in a matter of seconds. Plus, the interaction was recorded! What were the challenges for you in that scene? I keep going back to the writing because the writing gives you the highs and the lows, so it's almost not challenging. It's challenging when there's nothing there to work with, but who doesn't know that feeling of literally getting up out of bed, skipping? The sun is shining, birds are singing, and then somebody throws a piece of sh-t at you. Do you know what I mean? I just couldn't wait to get to set to try all the different takes I could have on coming from a high, high, high place and getting cut out by somebody who I really, really love and who I really, really respect, which is even worse, you know? Did you play around with how big you should go once that reveal comes out and Stuart grows immediately furious? A little bit because I'm always afraid of being too big because I'm naturally a big guy and I have a big voice and I don't want to be too theatrical. But how do you play that since, literally, your ex-girlfriend has just video-recorded your hookup and it's now a national secret? I think what I found was a good place of just shock and awe and absolutely being crushed on this whole thing. I hope I did it well, but people who have watched it have given me pretty good feedback, so I'm pretty happy with it. Also, during Season 2, we see Stuart's recovery from the explosion at the end of the first season. Were there challenges working with those crutches? Those crutches were really annoying. The first episode that I had to use them were great, but then you see that you have five more episodes. Even the little squeaky thing that they do when you use them, that just sort of got under my skin so much. Also, because of the position that I am in, I don't want it to be a big thing. I'm trying to look like I am healthy, I'm cured. And the thing that these people [in government] do is that they live these lives and they're so human, but they have to put on this mask and nothing fazes them. Every time I see a Tony Blinken [former U.S. secretary of state] on television talking very calmly about what might be going on in Ukraine or China, I know that there's much so much going on in his head. And I know that there's a ton of people behind him scrambling like little cats. Netflix So it sounds like watching some of these real political figures takes on different meaning after being in the world of Yes. Funny thing, I went to a Fourth of July party and it was filled with the foreign service. And I was talking to the person whose job I play on the show, this wonderful man named Matthew Palmer. We were just having a conversation about the show and then I think the ambassador of, let's say, Azerbaijan just walks up to him and they start talking policy. And then the ambassador looks at me and goes, "Oh, hey, aren't you in that show?" And I'm like, "yeah." And so then we just segue from Ukraine to talking about my show and then back to needing to figure out what this triad was going to be. Was that a little gratifying that they knew you and knew the show? It was wonderfully gratifying because we're big with the foreign service. If nobody else in the United States likes us, the foreign service really digs us, and that's a really good feeling. Tell me about working with Ali as Eidra. She and Stuart are broken up in Season 2, but do you play that Stuart still has feelings for her? It's hard enough to be in the same room with an ex, let alone have to work with them! That's what I play because I'm naturally a romantic and I just think Stuart loves this woman because who doesn't love somebody who's just powerful and in charge? And also it's nice, maybe from an ego standpoint, to have somebody that's so powerful who actually digs you and wants to spend time with you. He wears his heart on his sleeve in a way that I think Ali's character does not. And I think that dynamic is what is fun to love. So I play it that way, and she can just sort of shut everything off, but I know underneath that hard candy shell is a creamy nougat. SEE 'What's next?' Allison Janney on playing a 'badass' on The Diplomat and The West Wing 25 years later I know some of your scenes are on stages, but then others are on location and are just so grand and stately. How is that for you? Yeah, the offices are on a soundstage but everything that you see outside is actually real. Like, we shot at the U.S. Embassy and we shot at St. Paul's Cathedral. It's a lot of location porn, really. Like, the place that doubles as the ambassador's residence is some sort of royalty and one of the tables inside of the lobby was owned by Napoleon. And they tell us that. And I'm like, "Wait, Napoleon? That Napoleon?" And they're like, "Yeah, that Napoleon." It's the other character of the entire series. I saw a Season 1 interview where you called Debora a mad scientist due to the show's writing. Do we see some of that mad scientist work in the Season 3 scripts? Yeah, mad scientist was a great start for her, but now I think she's like a wicked sorceress at this point. She's gone metaphysical now. The depth of the characters are one of the things that I love because it is a character study and you wonder how far she can take these characters. You get it in Season 1, which is a lot of world-building. And then Season 2 comes off like a rocket. Of course, then it's, where are they going to go in Season 3? I really think she's got voodoo dolls and stuff like that. Like, she's gone away from science and now it's magic. I love it. Stuart's job involves keeping a lot of secrets because he's privy to a lot of information. How are you personally at keeping secrets? I'm pretty good. I'm actually proud of my secret-keeping ability sometimes. My girlfriend begs to differ, but I am pretty good at being a confidant. And what's interesting is that in Season 2, Stuart gets left out of all of these secrets. And that's what really gets under his skin, which is amazing. The guy just survived a bombing and I think the thing that really kills him is he's not one of the cool kids anymore and he doesn't get all these secrets. He walks into a room, they're all like, "Stuart's here',"and they walk away. So that's another little thing that Debora throws in that I love that she makes us play with. What is one word to describe Season 3? Emotional. 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