I’ve just learned on Ozark that ‘no sidebars’ can mean ‘no disctractions/no additional talks/agreements’ depending on the context. That would never had occurred to me if I had just seen the phrase as a standalone. Very interesting…
Here is the snippet:
Ruth: Marty, can I talk to you for a sec?
Marty: Okay.
Clare: No, no, no, no sidebars.
It’s possible that some people actually say this, but I’ve never heard it. This is probably pure Hollywood. In other words the writers totally made it up. It seems like quite a bit of that show is like that. Hollywood types can’t be normal.
I understand what it means though. It’s a reference to sidebars in books. Sidebars might be considered side conversations. So they want to keep it to the point.
In court, a sidebar is a discussion that the jury can’t hear. It’s private.
Here Claire is saying she doesn’t want Ruth and Marty talking without her.
I’ve heard it used in large meetings for a discussion within a smaller group separate from the larger group.
In magazines and newspapers, it’s a side article usually explaining something in the main article.
Interestingly enough, neither DeepL nor Google Translate knows the expression ‘no sidebars please’.