Meghann Fahy, one of the stars of the second season of HBO’s “White Lotus,” has recently visited Eminem’s of Mom’s Spaghetti restaurant, a nine-day-only “pop-up experience” in SoHo, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the movie “8 Mile,” starring Eminem as the rapper who calls himself B-Rabbit.
Fahy considers herself to be an Eminem connoisseur and little more obsessed with him. Her go-to karaoke song is iconic Dido-assisted song “Stan,” from The Marshall Mathers LP album, a menacing epic about an abusive loner who is obsessed with a famous rapper. “It’s not his fastest song. But I do think, from a storytelling perspective, it is one of his best.” – She explained that Eminem karaoke was less obnoxious than the alternative.
The shop bumped a bass-heavy hip-hop track. Fahy, who is thirty-two, with a spray of cheek freckles and swishy strawberry-blond hair, shimmied along. Ciara Benko, the pop-up’s publicist, asked Fahy about the first time she saw “8 Mile.” on which, she replied: “Oh, it was in 2002, and I had, like, a s*xual awakening. My friend and I had to watch it in a closet, because we were not supposed to be watching it.”
Near the exit of the shop, Fahy made a beeline for the gift shop. “I looove merch” she said as she picked up a vinyl copy of the movie’s soundtrack. “Does it have the rap battles on it?” she asked. She caressed a T-shirt promoting a showdown between B-Rabbit and his nemesis, Papa Doc. She bought two, one for herself and one for Leo Woodall, a British actor she befriended while in Sicily filming “The White Lotus.” She and Woodall bonded as fellow Slim Shady stans. “He can do all the freestyles from the film!”
For the full story of Meghann Fahy visiting Eminem’s spaghetti restaurant, visit The New Yorker magazine.