Julia Louis-Dreyfus Says Antonin Scalia and Elena Kagan Had Weekly 'Veep' Recap Lunches

As it turns out, the same people who were satirized on Veep also loved Veep. Next, we’re going to hear that Rupert Murdoch watched Succession.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus snagged six consecutive Emmys for her performance as vice-president-turned-president-turned-not-president Selina Meyer on the Armando Ianucci series, but the legendary comedic actress says that her trophy case should include a casual comment made to her by Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan. According to an interview Louis-Dreyfus did with Vanity Fair, the Obama-appointed associate justice once told her that she and her ideological adversary, the late Antonin Scalia, had a standing appointment to discuss each week’s episode of Veep over their lunch breaks.

Somehow, it seems astoundingly likely that Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh have a similar tradition for The Handmaid’s Tale.

The judicial branch isn’t the only arm of the government where Veep fans come from both sides of the aisle. In 2017, Louis-Dreyfus told Jimmy Kimmel that the combatants in the 2012 election (the fictionalized starting point of the series itself) are both big Veep fans. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both approached the Seinfeld star to express their admiration, though probably not at the same time.

Romney even unintentionally contributed a line to Veep when expressing his admiration to Louis-Dreyfus — the man who gave us such bangers as “binders full of women” and “I don’t care about poor people” told Louis-Dreyfus of the gaffs that made migraines for both Meyer and Romney, “The truth is if you’re running, if you’re explaining, you’re losing,” which resonated in the Veep writers’ room enough to make it into a script.

Because no party affiliations are ever established on the show, it makes sense that Veep would be accessible to anyone in the political sphere. Maybe this is how we heal the division in the country right now — Trump might not duck the debates in this upcoming election cycle again if we replace them with HBO watch parties.