‘The New Pope’ Made Such An Obvious Leg-Crossing Joke With Sharon Stone It Was Actually…Brilliant?

If you thought last week’s meeting with Marilyn Manson on The New Pope was interesting, this week’s seven-minute opening scene surely blew your mind, as Pope John Paul III (John Malkovich) sat down with another one of his favorite celebrities: Sharon Stone.

Let’s first establish that she looks amazing. Dressed all in black with funky glasses and a flawless face, Sharon dressed for the occasion of meeting the pope. Let’s next establish that the first thing out of his mouth is, “Ms. Stone, please, I would be eternally grateful if during the course of our conversation you avoided the uncrossing and recrossing of your legs.” The joke is so blatant, so expected, that by even making it at all, via this show’s tongue-in-cheek humor, almost makes the reference…refreshing?

But instead of reperforming her infamous Basic Instinct scene, Sharon gives him a “sure,” as she shifts in her chair.

“What gift have you brought me?” the pope asks, due to the precedent Marilyn Manson set by gifting the Holy Father a painting.

“I brought myself, isn’t that enough?” Sharon asks.

“It would have been had you only promised to stay here for the rest of your life, but I feel you will depart and I will be left with no tangible memory of you,” the pope tells her, as the two then engage in what is likely (and hopefully) the flirtiest conversation a pope has ever had. Sharon goes on to gift him her shoes (yes, with the red bottoms) and he tells her, “You have beautiful feet. However, they are rather large,” to which she replies with only a playful laugh. If you’re asking yourself, what is even happening here? Just remember, this is The New Pope, after all.

The two continue to go back and forth about her request to allow gay marriage for Catholics, which he denies, citing the Bible. “Can the Bible be upgraded?” she asks with a smile. “Alas, the Bible is not an iPhone,” he tells her, a comparison only this show could deliver.

After moving along to a discussion about art, Sharon must inform him, “Holy Father, my adductor longus is falling asleep. May I cross my legs the other way?”

“One moment, if you would,” he tells her, signaling with his hand to all the priests standing in the back of the room. Both the pope and all the men in the room turn their heads the other way. “Now you may,” he tells her.

She crosses and uncrosses her legs, lets them know she’s now comfortable and all done adjusting, and they turn their heads back in her direction as he lectures her about the fact that, “Someday we will all come to appreciate the beauty of sacrifice, though not today.”

Perhaps inside the Vatican, Sharon Stone crossing her legs is like a solar eclipse and it is dangerous to look directly at it happening, no matter how much of a phenomenon the movement may prove to be.

Where to stream The New Pope