Elaine “Lainey” Lui has a well-established presence in the entertainment industry. Between her massively popular website, laineygossip.com, and her multiple television roles, she has demonstrated her expertise as a pop culture fan and analyst. I got the chance to speak with her about everything she does, the entertainment industry, and how she balances it all.
We start with discussing Lui’s newest project, Cravings: The Aftershow, a podcast style show on Crave TV where she and guests discuss episodes of various TV programs, starting with HBO’s The Outsider. They break down, discuss, and debate all the elements of the episode. “People say we are at the peak of TV shows,” Lui says, talking about how television has becoming increasingly well written and well thought out, with even single episodes inspiring essays, “The way we think about TV is so unique to this era, and our show taps into that. It’s a niche environment.” Following The Outsider, the show will pick up one of the other series that is featured on Crave TV. Lui, who describes herself as a TV nerd, says partnering with Crave TV for this show was a “natural marriage,” not just because of her relationship with CTV media properties, but because of the amount original and other programming available on the service; “I am a pop culture analyst, these are the shows I watch, these are the shows I write about.”
On top of Cravings, Lui works as an anchor for entertainment news show eTalk and popular daytime television show The Social. While she brings entertainment knowledge to every position, each show relies on a distinct mood and set of skills. “Each show has its own DNA, its own personality,” Lui explains. The Social is opinion based, where the women have a conversation with each other—sometimes becoming debate. Her approach to that show is tailored to the concept. She shifts gears for eTalk, a quick and fast-moving news show, but incorporates lessons she has learned from being on The Social, the only one of her television roles that is regularly live. “Working live is a completely different skillset,” she states, “and having that skillset can help me react in the moment during eTalk.” Lui also says “Cravings is fun because it’s like a combination of eTalk and The Social” and she can bring in her entertainment reporter background as well as her own flair, chatting and often debating with her guests.
Lui considers being a writer her number one job, and writing and researching for laineygossip.com is the first thing she does every morning. The logistics of running the site while fulfilling all her other roles are straightforward: getting up early (“this morning I got up at 4:30, started writing at 5”) and getting super organized. Lui—who describes herself as a very rigid, structured, and “really really disciplined” person—sets time blocks for writing during the day, setting an alarm for one whenever she has time, even if it’s only ten minutes. Such structure is necessary when you are as busy as Lui is, “This week I will have shot 13 hours of TV and will have produced 15,000 words on laineygossip.” In order to make those hours and words happen, there are meetings, there are interviews, there are rehearsals. Sometimes there are other events—for example, the week this interview was conducted, Lui had hosted the world premiere of Transplant and recorded a couple of podcasts. To keep organized on this scale, Lui credits her use of alarms and to-do lists, but also the “great team” that she relies on, including a site manager for laineygossip.com and an amazing team of coordinators who keep her on track.
With such a busy schedule, I ask what Lui does to take time for herself. What does she do to step away from the madness, to slow down, to practice self-care? “I try not to work on the weekends, but it’s impossible sometimes,” Lui says, “I try not to work on the weekends, I try to have time to myself in the evenings. I try to shut things down after seven pm.” Her current obsession during her personal time may sound surprising, but perhaps not, considering how clued in she is to cultural obsessions and phenomenon. “I watch BTS videos!” Lui reveals, “BTS is my obsession. It’s self-care for me.” She goes on to praise their talent and personalities, as well as the sheer amount of content available out there of and about them. When not consuming BTS content, Lui tries to work out 3-4 times a week. When she is unable to make all her gym sessions, she walks her dogs, another activity that she refers to as “definitely self-care for me.”
“I’d like to write another book, a work of fiction this time,” Lui muses when asked what other areas of entertainment she would like to tackle, “I’d like to try screenwriting. I consider my first profession writing. But I would need to find some time.” Creative, hardworking, and curious, there are so many areas that Lui would like to be involved in if she had all the time in the world, including producing and directing. In fact, throughout our conversation, Lui is passionate about what goes on behind the scenes on television; “I think the sexiest place in television is the control room. I’d like to see what happens in the control room and edit bay,” she says, saying that she has expressed interest in hanging out more behind the scenes on both eTalk and The Social but rarely has the time, “It’s become a running joke at this point.” As it is, the upcoming year sees Lui wrapping up the first season of Cravings, and hoping for a second season of both that and Love Island After Sun. She has also recently stepped in as an Anchor on eTalk while Danielle Graham is on maternity leave, which Lui views as a big responsibility, wanting to do the position justice. As for laineygossip.com, Lui and her team are currently working on a site redesign, “The site redesign is a short-range plan but serves long-range goals,” she explains, “We are trying to grow the site in different ways.”
Before I let Lui get back to her busy day, I ask if she has any advice for people looking into getting into television and the entertainment industry. She immediately goes back to her passion from before—the control room. She firmly believes that it’s important to be curious about all the players involved in creating television and events, not just fixate on the job of those in front of the camera. She is obsessed with producing, says “editing is an artform,” loves how directors multitask, and has interest in how all the elements come together to create what people see. With her passion, interest, and knowledge, it’s easy to see how Lui has become one of the most successful—and busiest—people in Canadian entertainment.
Photography: Margarita Menard
Hair: Keisha Williams
Makeup: Nikki Strachan
Styled by Katie Tobin
Location: Preto Loft
