00:00Let me take you all the way back to season three. Shonda and I had a conversation about,
00:04you know, we knew Penelope was going to come forward as Whistledown. I think her stepping
00:09into, you know, her power is in the book, and it only felt right for her to do that in
00:15her season.
00:16But once she became a public Whistledown, there was only, there's only so much story that, you
00:23know, can be had from that because the stakes are a lot lower. There's no secret being kept.
00:28Um, I love the story we did get to tell this season about accountability and Penelope wrestling
00:35with, you know, how to deal with people knowing their writing about her. But ultimately, we didn't
00:41want to squander the voice of Julie Andrews. And I think Whistledown is such a useful device
00:46narratively, thematically, and in terms of the conflict in the show. So now we have a genuine
00:52mystery about who Whistledown is because it's not from the books. The Bridgertons are good gossip,
00:57and any Whistledown worth their salt is going to know that they're going to have to go after
01:02the Bridgertons. And I would say we wouldn't, you know, create a new Whistledown if she wasn't
01:07worth her salt.
