Thirsty Topics
A weekly podcast dedicated to trending topics on social media, pop culture and entertainment.
Thirsty Topics
Celebrity Ethics, Super Bowl Surprises, and Navigating Privacy in the Digital Age
Can celebrity media coverage cross ethical boundaries? We kick off this week's Thirsty Topics episode with a fiery debate sparked by Hayden Panettiere's controversial interview with People Magazine. As Hayden navigates her return to the spotlight, we question the media's responsibility in respecting her boundaries amidst her personal struggles. This conversation raises critical questions about journalistic integrity and the relentless pressures faced by public figures, inviting listeners to reconsider how fame and privacy intersect in the entertainment industry.
Why did Kendrick Lamar headline the Super Bowl performance in New Orleans instead of hometown hero Lil Wayne? We tackle the buzz surrounding this unexpected choice, pondering marketing strategies and the music industry's intricate politics. From Lil Wayne's gracious response to speculation about Jay-Z's influence, this segment unravels the complexities of artistic recognition and commercial decisions. Throw in potential tensions of a dual performance, and you have the perfect recipe for an engaging exploration of celebrity collaborations and industry dynamics.
Switching gears, we shine a light on pressing issues such as athlete health, the emerging "sharenting" trend, and Diddy's mounting legal woes. Can parental oversharing on social media compromise children's privacy? What does intermittent sobriety reveal about Gen Z's evolving lifestyle choices? We wrap up this episode with a personal touch, sharing anecdotes on parenting in the digital age and celebrating life's joyful moments while advocating for mindful online sharing. Tune in as we dissect these cultural phenomena, offering insights, humor, and candid reflections on today's celebrity-driven world.
Hello everyone, welcome to this week's episode of Thirsty Topics. I am Lauren Selrod and I'm Meryl Clemo. Meryl, welcome back.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I had such a fun show last night at the Comedy Store in La Jolla. What a fun it was like almost 200 people nice it was the nicest crowd ever. So if anyone's there from that show cuz I actually told him to listen today- very nice, very nice.
Speaker 1:Are you relaxed now?
Speaker 2:I feel relaxed. I feel, I feel relaxed. I feel relaxed, but I'm also. I have energy to get into some of these ridiculous topics.
Speaker 1:Yes, there was a lot of crazy stuff going on last week.
Speaker 2:Yes, yep, a lot of the stuff is still kind of trickling into this week. I know Would you like me to start with something that kind of got lost in the shuffle, but still I find relatively interesting.
Speaker 1:You know what? Yes, go ahead and start.
Speaker 2:Okay, so do you know the actress Hayden Panettiere?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love her. She was in Nashville and a few other like great. I think she's a great actress. But you know, she kind of was off the grid for a few years dealing with some personal issues and now I think she's slowly starting to dip her toe in the water. Years dealing with some personal issues and now I think she's slowly starting to dip her toe in the water.
Speaker 2:And, uh, recently she did an interview with people magazine for to promote her movie, upcoming movie and people were saying that. People were saying that people magazine shouldn't have run with the article because in it hayden is speaking very, very slowly. Um, it's not quite sure. No one could tell if she's like sober or not. You know she's speaking the way. I am now tired after a show, basically, but no one has to worry, I'm just drinking hot cocoa here.
Speaker 2:But what happened was people were saying that the magazine was being exploitative by keeping her in it and asking her to take it down. And then Hayden put out a post about it and what I thought was really interesting is she had she said that she was doing an eight hour photo shoot and she was just really tired. She had some family and home issues going on that she was, you know, made her not her normal self. But the thought that I thought, the part that I thought was interesting, was that her rep actually stopped the interview early because it was obvious that she was fading. But then People Magazine assured her and said no, no, no, it's going to be beautiful, we're going to do a great job with it. And then I feel like they kind of screwed her over by ending up publishing it the way that it was. So she had to come out and post this big thing about how she's going through grief. You know, she's just whatever medication she's on is between her and her doctor, and it was just a big kerfuffle, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean. The real sad part about it is is that her representative did the right thing by stopping it. But you know, you can also argue that why did she even attend it in the first place?
Speaker 2:Right, right. And if I was People Magazine, they're probably not going to want to reschedule it, because then what if she cancels? You know, if you have this great interview, I feel like Hollywood stars are. Just there's a big chance that Hayden could be like, never mind. I actually decided to not do it. They have her right then, and there it's a tough call.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean. The sad part about it is, unfortunately, especially when you're doing interviews, depending on the person doing the interview. If they're, let's see how can I say this in a tactful? Way, if they have integrity, they wouldn't have shown it. Yeah, that hot or that viral moment is more important than worrying about a person's image or what their feelings are. Which is one of the bad parts about being in entertainment is how cold some people could be.
Speaker 2:I know, don't you think they have to deal with that? A lot Like what if this is just how Hayden is now? Like you know, maybe she's, this was an extra tired and extra slow version of her, extra tired and extra slow version of her. But I think also, as a general public, we have to come to grips with, like, sometimes, our celebrities that we once were, like you know, perfect looking and just like on the ball, like she may not be like that right now for many different reasons.
Speaker 1:That's true, and the other thing that I think they have to be careful about, too, is other celebrities. See, this, yeah, happens is is that you may have some celebrities if they're big enough, but, like you know what I saw, what you guys did to so-and-so. No, that's okay, I'll take a pass yes, yes.
Speaker 2:And that has to be really jarring as a celebrity, where you're like, okay, you're probably insecure anyway about what you look like now and hayden probably has like a good idea of what is going on with her and then to like put yourself out there and get reflected back by the public like, ah, you look even worse than we thought. You know, that has to hurt on some human level.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and you know the sad part about it is, meryl, even the public sometimes forget that celebrities are human beings too, and you know they have feelings, they have emotions and you know what they have bad days too. Even though they try to hide it, they have bad days as well, too. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I actually love her as an actress, so I hope that she's able to Get whatever emotional and physical bounce back as much as she can for this era, because I think she's a really good actress and really pretty and cool.
Speaker 1:I agree. I agree. We'll definitely keep her in our prayers.
Speaker 2:Yep, not People Magazine. We will not be praying for them, unless they want us to be correspondents, in which case we can tactfully handle all the interviews. Just let us be nice to everyone.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Talk about being nice Now, unless you're from another planet. I know you've heard of Lil Wayne.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Now the Super Bowl is going to be in New Orleans next year and there's a lot of stuff going out over social media about how Lil Wayne felt like he was snubbed, and a lot of his fans and other artists feel the same way. Now. When they had the Super Bowl in California, you know you had Dr Dre on there, you had Mary J Blige, you had basically you know all your West Coast on there and supposedly 50 Cent, when he made that appearance, wasn't supposed to be on there. But Eminem made so much of a big stink he said if he wasn't going to get on there, if you didn't let 50 Cent on there, then I wasn't getting on there.
Speaker 2:Wow, that is really like writing for someone.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely so. Basically, you know, lil Wayne does a lot of entertainment that's coming out of Louisiana. Obviously, the biggest one is Lil Wayne and Lil Wayne, you know, definitely is a GOAT when it comes to what he does. He's well known, people know him, he's done a lot of stuff, produced a lot of stuff. I don't know. Do you think it was a snub by not having him perform in New Orleans?
Speaker 2:I know, okay, I have so many thoughts, I guess, in the first it's Kendrick Lamar who is performing right, correct, correct. Okay, I have so many thoughts, I guess, and the first it's Kendrick Lamar who is performing right, correct, correct, okay.
Speaker 2:So my first thought is like that does make Kendrick make sense for the moment, because of you know, obviously, the whole Drake stuff and I feel like just from a marketing and programming and like overall excitement point of view, unfortunately to me Kendrick does seem like the hotter choice right now and you know, that doesn't mean that Lil Wayne hasn't earned it or that he's not like extremely still valid.
Speaker 2:But I think the overall moment in the wave of like Kendrick Lamar because I feel like he's always been popular, but right now seeing those big, you know those videos of like his amphitheater concerts and I feel like they're wanting to go for that, but I mean it's so funny because I saw some Tik TOKs of people like I wonder why Lil Wayne wasn't picked, and then it was all his videos of him performing, just kind of like screaming into the mic, and I've seen some clips where I'm like I don't, I could see how this might not be like the best marketable option, but I don't know.
Speaker 2:Like I feel like maybe he was snubbed. But also I saw an interview with him where he seemed really humble and aware about that. He was like, oh man, if I knew this I would have kind of tried over the past couple of years, I would have really gotten my shit together even more and like I thought that was a really good, astute observation of him where he was able to like put it back on himself and basically say like I wasn't snubbed out of nowhere, it was more like a combination of me maybe not giving it my all these past couple years versus yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:One sad part about it is we. We tend to forget that the music business is just out of business. Let's face it kendrick Lamar is one of the hottest Entertainers out there, right now no question. But I do understand all the uproar and the upset Because that is Lil Wayne's hometown and who knows when the next time they'll have a Super Bowl there.
Speaker 2:I know, and do you think I know, Lil Wayne stands? Their answer is obviously yes, but to me Lil Wayne is not in the like Rihanna, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, like you know, that type of category I don't know.
Speaker 1:It depends on what genre you like. I mean, like me, I listen to all different types of genres, yeah, but if you're into the hip hop, hip-hop or the rap genre, you know he ranks pretty high. So you know it's it's kind of a give and take because, see, the sad part about it is I could kind of see both sides. I really yeah, yeah, me too I could too.
Speaker 1:you know, I could see from a business standpoint of view why they went the direction they went, but I could also see the nostalgic point of view as well too, being that, hey, lil Wayne is the hottest thing to come out of Louisiana, and you know, you have him in his backyard in his hometown. So I can see both ways. I really can.
Speaker 2:Do they usually make it a purpose to have performers like where it's their hometown? Like was last year, usher um, yeah, last year was Usher. I also didn't know if, like the city that it's in, is that like a running thing to try to get performers like I think sometimes it's a coincidence.
Speaker 1:All depends on what they do cuz yeah you know, the Super Bowl does try and move around to different cities and different venues to kind of pretty much give every NFL team the opportunity to host the Super Bowl. So, like I said, it's a hard thing because I can see I mean, there's a lot of rumblings behind the scene about how Jay-Z had a lot to do with this- oh yeah, I heard that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, because of the beat that's going on.
Speaker 1:I guess he had a prior beat With like.
Speaker 2:Birdman or something. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1:Now I'm hoping that's not the case. If it is, it's kind of pretty foul to do that. But you know, in social media, if it's the case, it will come out at some point. Maybe not soon, but at some point it will will. But I just hope that's not the case because that is kind of crappy to do this to someone, you know just I know because you have a personal beef with them, you know right?
Speaker 2:that wouldn't be right. But what I could see is a scenario where they're like kendrick is just on his game and like, locked in and ready, and we don't know if lil wayne is like, can, like, he could obviously bring it, he's amazing, but like to the. To that extent, I don't know you. Now. Okay, what do you think? If you were Kendrick, would you invite? Would it be a slap in the face? If he asked Lil Wayne? He's like would you want to come out and do something with me, or do you think that's like? That's almost just like. If you don't want me at all, you know, if you don't want me as the person, I'm not even going to be like to a song if it was me, I would probably.
Speaker 1:You know, obviously I'm not going to turn on this opportunity because it is the opportunity of a lifetime, but I would just pull away and say look, you know I apologize. You know, obviously I didn't have anything to do with how this came down. But you know, would you just come on with me? Yeah, a song or something, or maybe a few bars or something, so we can give you your flowers and recognize you as well. Yes, I would expect. Yeah, a song or something, or maybe a few bars or something, so we can give you your flowers and recognize you as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, I would expect yeah.
Speaker 1:To me that would be a classy thing to do.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent. I would expect rejection. I would expect him to say no, thank you, but I would totally nonetheless still throw out the invite and say you have three weeks to let me know We'd love to have you. You have like three weeks to let me know We'd love to have you.
Speaker 1:And I think That'll kind of calm down all the issues as far as You're not going to quiet every single person, but I think the majority of people Will be okay with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true. I see Lil Wayne as very respectable and I know he has a lot of great songs. I just don't know if America Super Bowl is the right fit, but I'm probably wrong. There's a whole subset of that. When I think of Usher and those kind of people, I just think of something that's a little bit more mainstream.
Speaker 1:But I'm probably wrong and people are probably yelling at me like you, stupid idiot well, you know a lot of people aren't aware of this, but little wayne actually has more hits behind the scenes than in front, because you know he's produced a lot of people and there's a lot of big time artists you know, like nikki minaj and other people like that. That's on his label. So you know, besides him as an artist, you know he's produced a lot of hits as well too, over the years yeah, so I wonder a show where he brought out.
Speaker 2:I hate to say he needs like other people, but yeah, like I don't know if he can carry it all by himself, but I'm open to every type of discussion, as we always are.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, oh yes it'll be interesting to see. I mean, they have a little bit of time to work this out, so we'll see how it ends up being right yeah, I have friends.
Speaker 2:One of my best friends actually won tickets to go to the Super Bowl in New Orleans whoa really yeah, yep, it's my, my, like what my best friend from home, michelle, and her husband and it's so funny, they, they have no kids and I feel like they're the living example of doing like dual income no kids, correctly, because they travel all over. And so she's like, yeah, we're going to the Super Bowl, like of course you are, like I love it.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice.
Speaker 2:So she'll be there to report back on any. Whoever it is, kendrick, whoever, there you go, there you go. Well, okay, this is the shining star of our Week. This is the best news we have Is this hippo Mudeng, who I'm obsessed with. Most of the world is obsessed with the hippo. My friends are like please stop Posting mudeng memes Every day. I'm like which Meme am I? So, in case anyone doesn't Know, there's an adorable baby hippo in Thailand at the Khao Kiao Open Zoo named Mu Dang, and she went recently viral because she's so funny, where she's a pygmy hippo, a newborn pygmy hippo, and she became a megastar when her zookeeper started posting pictures of her getting a bath and just like biting the knee of her zookeeper.
Speaker 2:Like you know, it's very funny, obviously it's still a baby biting its knee, and then she'll go from these wild like she'll be happy and smiling and sweet and then the next thing she'll be scowling and upset and it's just the funniest, like side eye and so people just are obsessed. And now people are there's a line to go see her like almost you know an hour long line every day. Um, everyone says she's just even cuter in person and mu dang literally means bouncy pork in Thai, so the name was chosen by fans on social media. Right now she has cartoons, latte art. Everyone and their mother are just obsessed with Mudeng I just love it.
Speaker 1:That is definitely a feel-good story, yep.
Speaker 2:Mudeng is so cute. I'm like why can't I just have a baby hippo?
Speaker 1:You know, the crazy thing is, literally, people will literally just watch that baby, just sleep and just be in awe.
Speaker 2:I know, and of course they had to deal with, which makes me out of my mind upset. But some people were like splashing water at her or you know, like wrestling her, agitating her to try to get her to wake up, and so of course I feel like all of our listeners know. But of course, like when you go to a zoo, please, everyone, just like be respectful. And it drives me crazy when people are like tapping so hard on the glass of snakes or you know anything. It's like these are creatures in their little habitat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's stupid to me because one thing is, when you're pouring water on that animal, what happens is that at some point the zoo is going to get tired of that, and now you're going to be complaining Because there's going to be an enclosure that's far away to keep people close, and then you'd be complaining about that.
Speaker 2:Yes, let Mudang be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just stupid. But yeah, for a dirty animal, it is a cute little baby.
Speaker 2:It's so cute. Honestly, if babies actually looked like that, I would have three baby hippos right now. I would be a mother yeah.
Speaker 1:The only dangerous thing is when they get old. They'll probably kill you, but you know I know it's OK.
Speaker 2:I'd be more than happy to go out that way. I'm happy with that and it's so funny. I saw a video of a guy talking and he was a guy that had a girlfriend and he was talking to a single guy friend and he was like you know that you have a girlfriend when you could talk about a mudang's day, because my boyfriend needs to, I told him you need to know who this hippo is. This is important.
Speaker 1:That is so, so true. I'm going to predict that there's probably going to be some stuffed animals for Christmas this year.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, oh my God, yes, maybe even some Halloween costumes.
Speaker 1:That is true. But yeah, Mudang is a cash cow, no pun intended, a cash hippo oh yeah, they need to have, uh, some type of baby every week to kind of quiet things down in this crazy world, you know yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Mudang is like the one saving grace, and just being able to pick which mood you are is really getting me through this oh yes, oh yes.
Speaker 1:Talk about a mood. Have you heard of Tua Tagovolia?
Speaker 2:I have, I watched the football show, that he was in the HBO show or something.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, you know who he is Good, good, yep, yep. Just for some people who don't watch NFL, he's the quarterback for the Miami Dolphins and he just recently got his third concussion. So now there's buzz around between fans and other people saying that maybe he should consider retiring because he's had a number of concussions within the last few years and it's know it's a big thing about NFL, about player safety. Now I know some NFL players that have played great game over the years. You know this is back in the day and now they're kind of like mush now because of the amount of concussions and the injuries to their bodies. So do you think that, with three concussions in a matter of a few years, do you think they're kind of blown out of proportion or do you think it's a legitimate concern?
Speaker 2:I think it's so concerning. And they have that shell helmet, right, but not a lot of people are wearing that Mm-hmm, or they wear it for practice but they're not wearing it for games, is that?
Speaker 1:right, yeah, from what I heard, I guess it's optional for the place to wear it in the game, where I've never seen in the game, because they're probably.
Speaker 2:You know like, no, I'm not putting that on.
Speaker 1:You know that makes me look you know, whatever, yeah, but I don't know. I mean, you're talking about your head, though, you know.
Speaker 2:I know. Okay, well, I definitely tell me if I'm tell me what you think about this too, but I think it's like obviously it's definitely of concern. Um, I would hate to see him have to stop his whole career at such an early age, you know, just because of these things. But like I don't know anything about football, but I feel like I've been watching some plays of him like that what showing when he gets a concussion, and I'm like is he not training correctly as well? You know, is it a mix of, of course, like concussions just happen and people get like sacked and hurt out of nowhere. But I feel, like one or two of the plays I've seen, he's like like going into it almost. It's almost like are you, is he training and doing the right moves correctly?
Speaker 1:this probably isn't the worst thing to say, but I don't know, I know, I know what you're saying, because when you're getting ready to take a hit as a quarterback, you should be sliding. There is a proper way to slide. I'll admit that I really don't watch a lot of Miami football because I'm a Bears fan. The dangerous thing is that when an opponent is coming close to you and you see that opponent coming, you know you really should be taking a slide, because once you slide, then that that defensive player has to back off. You know they could come up and they could tag you, but they can't give you no shot as you're going down. Okay, right so, and you know, then again he may be prone to it.
Speaker 2:We don't know yeah, yeah, I'm totally not trying to like victim blame and be like it's his fault, obviously. I mean, no matter whose fault it is, I still think with a concussion he's going to have to take obviously some time off. But then also like learn. If he comes back, like learn different moves and different training to the part where, like you said, where he just even if he it's not his first instinct, he has to learn how to like go about it with not injuring himself so much yeah, because the reality is the average professional player, regardless of what they play, plays between five to ten years on average.
Speaker 1:Really. Now, if they're a great player, they can obviously be in a lot longer than that, but this is the average whoa. Even if you you're there, you know, let's say, 20 years, okay, you're still retiring. When you're around 40 or a little after 40, you're still young, very young. You got your whole life ahead. So to me I would say that you know, when you start getting those shots to the heads like that, you really have to think about it and ask yourself how am I going to be for my family when I walk away? Yeah, the reality is that to be retired, even if you have a lot of money, that money does you no good if you're not able to enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and your family and your fame and your everything, absolutely yeah, and again, I don't want to take away from you know his career and everything like that, because I know you, you know you spent your whole life getting here and you're finally at that point at the nfl. I get it, I truly do, but at some point you also think about your health too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I wonder. I understand those like shell helmets or whatever the soft soft helmets. They may be geeky, they may be whatever, but it may just be like. I mean, I would love to hear if it really the reasons why people wouldn't want to wear them, if it's all like vanity reasons or if there's actual performance reasons that are like it slows us down X amount. You know that stuff. But they may just have to come up with, I don't know, a sleeker version of that that people want to wear and agree. And then, because I saw a study where that went down like 50% or injuries went down 50% after people wore those. Yeah, I think it's a combo of things, but I think people do need to. It's a combination of taking it seriously, players learning different ways to not have it happen so often.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I think if one person has the courage to wear it in a game, I think a lot more people will start wearing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah me too, I think you take that first person.
Speaker 2:Yes, I do too. I should wear a helmet even for like recording with us. If it was me, I'd be out of bubble raft and like Also, how annoying would it be if, like I mean, I'm sure he has a very supportive wife, because I saw in these, the show that I watched they all seem like they have very like. Yay, you know, go wives. They all seem like they have very like yeah, you know, go ones. But if you're like, wonderful, my husband is out making a living, great, and then now he's back home and like nursing a concussion again, I'd be like, oh, it'd be time for me to take up some different hobbies or something just to get out of the house.
Speaker 1:But, um, yeah, yeah, well, we'll definitely make sure that we keep them in our prayers and hopefully he doesn't get any more concussions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no more concussions. Ok, oh my gosh, I love this one.
Speaker 1:OK.
Speaker 2:I have to admit, this is the first time I've ever heard the term sharenting, which sounds like a little too close to sharting. Are you aware of sharenting?
Speaker 1:sharting? Are you aware of sharenting? You know what? I wasn't until I looked it up and I was like wow, really Okay. But I do see, I do understand the term though.
Speaker 2:Yes. So sharenting is when, as you could just imagine by combining the two words, when parents share pictures of their kids on social media and they're looking now at the repercussions that that could face for children, when parents are constantly consistently posting pictures of their own, you know offspring how that then affects the kids, getting bullied, predators. You know, like, I have definitely a lot of thoughts about this, where a lot of my friends that have babies it's so weird how they've shared pictures of their babies and then they can see that like it's been saved like 86 times or something, and I'm like who is saving a picture of someone else's child if it's not like your grandchildren, I mean, unfortunately, we know the answer, you know, but a lot of my friends have decided to like not post pictures of their kids at all after seeing their pictures get saved by others online. So I feel like that is, you know, the normal thing about sharing things. It's just, it's kind of annoying and no offense, but like, not many of us want to see the same kids posted over and over.
Speaker 2:Like. Just starting with the surface layer of like, I think we care less than people think we care. But the deeper connection is you don't know who is saving or sharing those types of images, um. And then I feel like the middle layer is just when kids are young. They don't have consent to what is posted of them. So if you're like posting pictures of your kid like splashing around in a bathtub or something like, that's a little embarrassing for a kid to look back and see that it's there online. You know like I would be so mad if I had saw that my, because there are like pictures of me like young and like really, really young, like a little bathtub splashing around. I'm like if that was online on Facebook, I'd be so embarrassed, online on Facebook I'd be so embarrassed.
Speaker 1:No, I agree with you. I mean even with my son.
Speaker 1:Believe it or not, I don't post a lot of pictures if any of them and my son's grown he's 20 years old I still won't post. Now there's certain points, like for a birthday or whatever, I may post something on there, but everyday posts Now do I have some silly, embarrassing photos? Absolutely, but I don't put that out there. I have silly posts of my wife and absolutely posted me. Those are on social media, those are between the family. That's it, cuz I said.
Speaker 1:Part is you're right, bullying thing is a real thing also to one day Some of these kids are gonna become our president, some congresswomen, senators and stuff like that and anything we did in the past. You physically have to figure it out. Anything they did in the past is most likely on social media. So it's a whole different term, whole different time, different term, whole different time. So I think there is such a thing as too much, because I've seen people post picture after picture after picture of a picture of their kids and it's like, yes, you know, teach his own, but uh, yeah, I wouldn't be doing that that is the kind of thing too, is that, especially with babies?
Speaker 2:I felt like to me when you say you posted like cute and funny pictures of your son when he's 20. Like that's that's, that's that's normal. And like funny to me it's when I see people constantly taking pictures of newborns dressed up or like their toddlers, and it's like you'll have Instagram stories and it's like 18 of them every day. I'm like I see I've seen enough of your child. You know like those types of photos are perfect for a family chat. Or you know people create like shared photo albums where there are grandparents and like nieces and nephews that want to see a hundred photos a day after the kid.
Speaker 2:But yeah, and I mean to me it's like less of the bullying thing is real. But I also think people shouldn't be that worried about like like my mom all the time will post pictures of me where I don't have makeup on or I'm not. You know, I'm just like mom. I think I saw something that said, like anytime you think you look good, just look at like the pictures that your mom posts of you. But I think we should worry less and less about that, like I don't care at all about looking good all the time on social media and more about who who is saving the pictures and if they're public. You know these, these weirdos that are just using them for whatever weird purposes they are.
Speaker 1:That's true, it's sad, but you have to be aware of all this stuff and be mindful. As far as baby pictures, I'm not a big fan of that. I have zero pictures of my son when he was a baby on social media Zero, even though we have a pictures of my son when he was a baby on social media Zero yeah. Even though we have a lot of pictures of him, none of them are on social media. But, like I said, to each his own, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I have to remember sometimes too, I think, like out here in Los Angeles, like I'm friends with so many people on Instagram that I don't really know as people, but then when I look back at like some of my hometown best friends from Pennsylvania and like they live a much more, almost like I'm almost envious, you know, like a beautiful but like a smaller online life where, like if they only follow 98 people like, then their, their shared thing is actually people that they like their friends and family. So I always have to remember that, like just because I'm kind of out here in the wild west of online things, like when I scroll on Facebook, I don't even know who the people are Like, who are, who am I looking at, but most people most normal Americans, I feel like are only following friends and family. So I have to keep that in mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I said, you know, if a person wants to do that, definitely you have the right to do it. Just be careful.
Speaker 2:Yes, but we only need 18 photos of them going to kindergarten. I don't think we need. When you're about to post the 19th angle, just stop right there.
Speaker 1:So you mean, 30 pictures is too much?
Speaker 2:It's too much. Them going to kindergarten then coming home. Unless they want to see 18 photos of me shopping at Target like picking out toothpaste, then everything should be allowed. This might even be a hater thing for me to say too, but I don't even like pre-sharenting. When there's too many baby like bump pictures and like pregnancy photos, I'm not the biggest fan of that I haven't seen a whole lot of that though oh, I see too many.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, okay, I I feel like I see like too many, but I don't know. To me you should get one every other day. So you're allowed three and a half photos a week, according to the national council of sharenton there you go.
Speaker 1:Ah, we are at this point right now, where we are about to hit the biggest subject that has happened within the last couple of weeks. Oh man, unless you're in another universe, um, I'm quite sure you've heard of this. Last week, sean Puffy Combs was arrested. He was denied bail twice, even after offering to put up $50 million bail.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Now this week they're saying that there's a target on his back. I don't know. What do you think, meryl? What are your thoughts on this?
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Okay, my first thought is that I don't think I've ever heard of a story where there's so many like tentacles of things going on. You know, like recently I've heard Bill Cosby, 50 Cent, tupac I don't even know what aspect of this we even want to talk about, because obviously there's the abuse and possibly trafficking, racketeering, all these things, the illegal parties, but then there's also the weird ties to all these other things in culture that I've been seeing too, to all these other things in culture that I've been seeing too. So, I mean, to me it's just like it seems like I can't believe he was. I know he was like a big, important, powerful man, but I've never heard of a story where, like even with Harvey Weinstein, I didn't hear that many like side things. I know he was obviously like.
Speaker 2:Harvey was very well connected and had a lot of people in his orbit. But, like with Diddy, I'm just like okay, tupac, bill Cosby, like this is just, it's so much for one person to be involved with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the thing is, is that what's so crazy is you know we've heard of Diddy parties in the past, you know? Yeah, you know, obviously, you know I'm not big enough to even know what happens in those parties but you've heard about him, but the thing is, I think that his downfall was the moment that video came out of what he did to his girlfriend.
Speaker 1:That's when everything turned, because that video came back to haunt him, because that was one of the main reasons why he was denied any bail, because they thought he was so dangerous and he can intimidate witnesses. Yeah yeah, and, like I said, even though Diddy's behind bars and you know, if they have the evidence, obviously justice is going to take its place. But it kind of reminds me, in a kind of haunting way, of how R Kelly went down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know and I think too, it's crazy seeing all of the, just the way that it was kind of hidden in plain sight, with all of the people Like him joking about his kind of freak offs on conan, and then just the kardashians saying that there's so many clips of them saying like oh, what did you do last night? Oh, we went to like a ditty party. Everyone got naked or you know, there's been like drips of it before, but I think before they just phrased it as like it was a wild, cool hollywood party. They didn't really talk about all like the insidious stuff that was going on. The fact that he reached out to one mobster person about trafficking. I'm just like, oh my God, this gets so deep. Even with politicians.
Speaker 1:You know what? I think there's a lot of people that are nervous right now because there's a lot of people politicians, obviously, entertainers, people in the clergy Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, and if you were just there but you didn't participate, okay that's a bad look, but it's a whole different look if they have you on tape doing something illegal.
Speaker 2:There was someone that they were like it's someone that I like. Was it Tyrese? Or someone that they were like, oh, he went to the parties but then he screamed like I got to go to church and he left. I think it was Tyrese. There's someone that's like that was talking about yes, I was at the parties, no, I never went into like the side rooms. And over the years, they have a video where Diddy was like, yeah, he came to the parties, but he would always like scream that he has to go to church in the middle of the week. You're cleared of it all. I think there's also things that we're latching onto, like the thousand bottles of oil and Justin Bieber, these little things that are coming out, but there's so much more behind every mention of a story.
Speaker 1:Now I guess my question is what does he need with a thousand bottles of baby oil?
Speaker 2:I don't want to know.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm sitting there like what does he want with a thousand bottles?
Speaker 2:Then I saw the memes and jokes.
Speaker 1:I don't want to know. I mean, I'm sitting there like what is he doing with a thousand bottles. Then I saw the memes and jokes and I'm like oh, okay, yeah yeah. I don't know if I'm a nerd, I just don't get out enough. But I was like a thousand bottles and then I saw little memes like, oh okay, that's what they're doing.
Speaker 2:Okay, I know I'm just like not depraved enough where, like the thought of like going to a party with like 800 naked oily people just like truly does not sound good to me. Like I, I just want like a buffet or, like you know, like food. I mean, just give me like a meat carving station. I don't need like naked odell beckham or anything like that. It's just so weird, I just don't have. It's like you have to be that kind of empty of a vessel to like constantly need those things to fill you up. You know, no pun intended, but like after a while you would think you just start to feel kind of really gross and dirty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, the real crazy thing is like the, the prison he's, the jail he's in right now, I think is one of the most dangerous jails and they said in the country, really, oh god, they said that a lot of judges Will not send non-violent offenders To that jail because it's so dangerous.
Speaker 2:Oh, he's gonna, oh. And then they have him on whatever. I don't know if we want to say the word here, but they have him on like self-harm, watch, um. And but of course my conspiracy friends are like, oh, that's gonna happen, because like there's plans to take him down, you know who knows who knows, but yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:The thing is he has to be careful because one who may be on the tape. Secondly, I did not even know this myself, but I guess in jail, when you have a high-profile prisoner come in and you attack that person, you get, I guess, points or whatever. Oh, yeah. Where you're the man. Whatever you took this person down or whatever. So he has to be careful about that. And then, because of the nature of how violent he was towards women, you know that is not very popular in jails either.
Speaker 2:No, and kids? I feel like they're not very forgiving when it comes to children, oh kids.
Speaker 1:You probably have to watch your back for the rest of your life.
Speaker 2:Seriously, Absolutely, and not only kids like justin bieber kid and beloved little kids, you know, like uh. So there's some, some video which, who knows the context I'm sure it was a different context, but did you see the video where, like they're at one of kanye's church services and kanye comes down the hill and uh, diddy's like going towards a bunch of of his kids and and kanye goes like no, like kind of like hands off, like go, go, go away from the kids?
Speaker 2:wow, really yeah, I'll send it to you afterwards. Who knows, there could have been something where he could have said no, no, no, like the pizza is over there, you know. Like he could have said something else. It could have not been what we think it is, but it's pretty crazy where, like, kanye goes up to a bunch of kids and, kind of like, blocks them from diddy. But it's pretty crazy where Kanye goes up to a bunch of kids and blocks them from Diddy and is like no, no, no, keep moving along.
Speaker 1:Wow, it's a lot of stuff leaking out now. I saw this video. In fact, it was years ago when Diddy and Mike Tyson was on the Arsenio Hall show. Diddy was sitting next and Mike Tyson was on the Arsenio Hall show, so Diddy was sitting next to Mike Tyson and, like I said, it was only like a small clip, so you really don't really know what the context is. But basically the clip shows them talking and then Mike Tyson takes his hand and moves his hand away from him.
Speaker 2:Oh, I saw that. Yeah, and he pretends to like. He like finds another reason to do it, which is a. You know, as girls we have that move down on dates to be like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm tired but uh, yeah, I was like oh, that don't look good.
Speaker 2:Oh God, again, there's another clip where, like people are saying that he's he's looking at dj collin like he's like a piece of meat, that he's like a roast beef that he's about to eat up. I'm like, oh, this is like and and also, don't you feel like from this whole? I mean, of course, I'm interested in it from our point of view where we talk about it and discuss it, but just from like a like I, I want diddy out of my consciousness and like atmosphere. You know, I wish you could like unsubscribe from people and things because, besides this one hour that you and I are talking, I feel like I I hear way too much about Diddy, but and also, he's 54 and it's just like that's so crazy to like we talked about that a few weeks ago with Dave Grohl, who's like I think 56 or 55, where it's like, I don't know, just as a man in your mid-50s, this is not how life should be going.
Speaker 1:I think yeah, he'll be 55 in a matter of weeks, November 4th.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:The only reason I know that is because he's the same age as me. We're just literally days apart.
Speaker 2:See and lookit, you're thriving Way to make good life choices. Without as much as I know you're, you're somewhere under like 20 baby bottle oil or baby oil bottles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would like to have P Diddy's money, without the parties though.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly. I know you would use it for good.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely, definitely. But yeah, like I said, I feel sorry for his family though, because you know I mean, with all the memes and everything what he's going through. A lot of times we kind of forget that, regardless of how reprehensible things he may have done, he still does have a family and they're going to get the brunt of it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Oh, and that just reminded me. People are saying that Ashton Kutcher is next up on the chopping block and Mila has moved out. There's this whole thing with. Then it goes into the Ashton and Danny Masterson who went to jail or is in jail, I don't know. There's so many subsections of it where it's just like also, how do these people have time to all know each other and party together like that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean. The real sad part about it is Merrill is he's achieved things that most people will never achieve in life. They say he's worth between 600 and 800 million dollars. Even on a low end 600 million. Most people on this earth would never, ever attain a tenth of that right. Right, you've got the power, you have this and that, and then to possibly throw it all away because you think you're above the law is sad. It's just yes, you know, and I think it makes it harder for other people behind them trying to get to that, that level as well too.
Speaker 2:I agree.
Speaker 1:Well, something tells me we're gonna have a lot more coming out on it yeah, I know we're gonna move on to the next subject, but just as a bonus here, um, we're gonna see what happens with the mayor of New York. You heard about that, didn't you?
Speaker 2:No, oh wait, will you remind?
Speaker 1:me. Well, actually this is new. He was literally just indicted. Oh no, I did not know that, it just happened. I want to say, it happened this morning, I think.
Speaker 2:Whoa, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:And basically I guess he was accused of taking I have to do my research, but allegedly it's like $10 million of unauthorized campaign donations.
Speaker 2:What are we learning? People, the higher-ups and the politicians on both sides of things sometimes can be very corrupt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I have a feeling we'll be talking about this next week.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, he should please take that money and make it not smell like urine in the subway system. I'm okay if you're funneling money and using it to not have the whole city smell like urine. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That is true, and if anyone has ever been to New York it is true Times Square does smell like.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and Washington Park and stuff yeah, I do, I love New York really is like the best city, but then it has like those highs and lows where I'll be like this is the most amazing time I've ever had in my life. And then the next thing there's like rats all over. I'm like I hate this. I love this, I hate this.
Speaker 1:You know, the scary thing is some of those rats are pretty damn big too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I've seen them dragging like full slices of pizza and everything. I couldn't do. I love, love, love, love, love New York Like I really do. I think it's magical and I really do think it's like the epicenter of everything. But I couldn't live the life where you're like running to catch a subway Like the subway system is really what would I mean, obviously in the high, high living prices, but like the, the subway, like I couldn't imagine living a life where you're like running down and then you're squished with a million other people, Like the subway is closing. I just like I wouldn't want that in my day-to-day life.
Speaker 1:But I hear you.
Speaker 2:I'm actually trying to plan, as we speak, a New York trip, for I love to go once around Christmas time, oh nice. So yeah, it's always. It's always very nice to go in December, very nice. So hopefully there will still be a city, even with the mayor being behind bars. Okay, well, my last one is a very fun but like kind of fluffy thing where, well, my last one is a very fun but kind of fluffy thing, where the term intermittent sobriety is apparently a thing now.
Speaker 2:So 61% of Gen Z is looking to cut back on drinking, which I mean I go to some parties where Gen Z people are and there is no alcohol to be found.
Speaker 2:There are some pills and some other concoctions, but a sad amount of no little to no alcohol. So the new buzz term tied to growing sentiment around alcohol is you're just treating sobriety drinking more like once in a while rather than weekly or for some daily activity. So instead of making it like you know, let's go out and get blasted this weekend. It's not really part of your like day to day or, you know, game plan. It's more of like, oh, I'm at a wedding, I'm gonna have a drink type of thing, which I love and I mean there's coming out with more and more things about how alcohol is really not even healthy for you, like even in the ways that we used to think it was, even like wine and stuff. So I'm down with it Like I kind of don't care either way. I mean I love that there's less people on the road drinking and driving. I think that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, in this day of age it's amazing that people even get DUIs with Uber and Lyft now, right, and you know, the thing is, even when I was single many, many years ago, I never really drank like that. You know, yeah, I may have had my little drink or whatever when I go out whatever, but I never was one to try and, you know, try and get hammered and all that I just because I want to know what's going on around me at all times. So, yeah, no, I'm not going to say I never do get hammered.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I may have that moment where I'm like all right, I'm feeling good, but I'm doing it at my house, where I know I'm not going anywhere, right?
Speaker 2:Right, it's expensive to have drinking as a habit too. I guess like, especially now, it's like very, very expensive. I do love, I'm very. It's a privilege too, I think, to like I'm very grateful to not have an issue with alcohol. You know, like I know many people struggle with that and like it is a disease and it is like a thing. So I feel grateful for the ability to just like have a drink and enjoy it, and that could be like once a week or once every three months. Like it's kind of not a thing for me and so, yeah, that's, it's a nice thing to be able to. Just sometimes, if you want to be like, I feel like I treat it the way with food, where I'm like, okay, this will go with a nice dinner, and then I'm able to not stress out about it.
Speaker 1:Oh, definitely. I mean I do like this trend of them cutting back on the alcohol. I think that's a good trend, so I applaud that. I really do.
Speaker 2:Me too Cheers to them.
Speaker 1:Well, I know we're at the end, but I'm going to squeeze this one little bit in. Yeah, you're going to appreciate this one. I got to ask you this question Do you think that politicians should be going after comedians?
Speaker 2:I mean, if we're allowed to do it back to them, then I guess going after in what sense?
Speaker 1:Well, here's a great idea. Okay, I mean, here's an example. The other night, I guess, for whatever reason, trump was still pretty pissed off at the joke that Jimmy Kimmel did when he hosted. I want to say what was it? The Oscars this year?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh my God, Jimmy Kimmel gets under Trump's skin so much he is so triggered by him. It's so funny.
Speaker 1:And the funny thing is, you know I'm paraphrasing, but he called Jimmy Kimmel the dumbest person on the face of the earth, the worst comedian this and that. And as I'm watching this, I'm thinking, meryl, like okay, you know, you're just gonna make this worse by doing yeah, yeah. So of course jimmy kimmel went in on him and then he had his. Uh, jimmy kimmel had his wife come in and went in on him like oh, no, really I mean they went in hard too.
Speaker 1:and you then the next day he started going off on on Colbert, on Jimmy Fallon, and it's like, dude, are you doing this? Give them material.
Speaker 2:I mean, yes, I mean I guess like I feel like it's totally fair game for politicians to kind of like throw little jabs here and there at it. But, as you said, I feel like Trump is just almost putting more attention back on these people. And now they're like oh wait, even if most people probably missed what they even said in the first place. So now they're probably like let me go back and actually see you know so it's probably driving traffic.
Speaker 2:I think that, like it's rare that we're going to see more politicians this silly and this kind of just off the whatever. So I don't see it becoming like a trend with that. They're going to start like at Supreme court hearings, they're going to start like watching Conan clips or anything. But I think it's fair game, but it it's a little like we have other things that could be focused on better, you know.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely, and you know there are some, some comedians where it can hurt their careers. There's other ones where they're like oh cool, let's get going.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, yeah, they love it and I do love. I think, like All of these lately have had this Maybe a little bit, maybe less Colbert for everyone, but I love when, like SNL and everything, can make fun of both sides. Like, obviously it's so easy, trump is the main, that is obviously such an easy target. But I like a little bit when they were calling out Biden. I think I'm a little bit less sensitive to that kind of stuff when I can see that they're making fun of things across the board instead of being just so liberal or so on the right wing.
Speaker 1:Now the one thing I I do.
Speaker 1:I do agree with you on well, a lot of things, but the main thing I agree with you on this subject is snl does an excellent job of going after everyone yeah, yeah, yeah and the thing is and I don't know if trump is ever going to figure this out when you go after snl, you go after jim, you go after Jimmy Kimmel, jimmy Fallon and stuff like that, you're actually giving them more material. So, yes, it is going to look like they're being unfair because they're like oh okay, this is what we're doing. Alright, cool, you know, you're literally giving them more material to come after you.
Speaker 2:You're doing that. But yeah, I think it's so funny how, when he tweets out like or what do you tweet it out like taylor, swift is the worst or whatever. It's just like it looks.
Speaker 1:It looks ridiculous oh yeah, especially that one, that one tweet, which I don't know what made him do it, you know, in the middle of the night seemed to be. That's when he likes doing his little tweets and stuff. But anyway, it's like I hate taylor swift. I'm like, okay, you really want to lose this election, don't you?
Speaker 2:I know I'm like do not isolate the Swifties, Because there definitely are a whole lot of Republican.
Speaker 1:Swifties yeah, so please. And it's like because Jimmy Kimmel even brought that up, and it's like first Jimmy thought it was fake, but then he was like no, this is real. You know, so I'm like, like and what is Taylor Swift has how many? What is like 150 million followers. Oh my gosh, and it's like dude, you really want to pick on one of the largest entertainers.
Speaker 2:Yeah it really seems sometimes that he's like an eighth grade bully just having like a meltdown, but but yeah, I feel like in a perfect symbiotic relationship, like all of this kind of falls under the arts, where it's like, you know, comedians are taking or like, commenting obviously and observing on what's going on in culture, and I'm like that's how it always has been, where, like we need comedy to talk about what you know is going on in a lot of things, and politics is one of those. But I think it starts getting weird when people are tweeting or like or. But I think it starts getting weird when people are tweeting or like or just only taking a stance Of like, not being able to include Different Opinions on things.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I think, jimmy.
Speaker 2:Kimmel is hilarious.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, definitely, definitely. We had a lot of stuff we went over today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh my gosh, we covered it. I feel like we should get like a college grade for it, like I feel like we earned an A plus.
Speaker 1:There you go, there you go. Well, we're fine, absolutely, before we get out of here, what do you have coming up?
Speaker 2:oh my gosh, after this, a big nap. No shows, no, no shows this weekend, but next weekend I'll be. I'll be back promoting stuff. Talking about, sharon of my best friends is having a six year old Birthday party that I'll be at.
Speaker 1:Oh, there you go, yep. Okay, meryl, so don't put 20 pictures of him On social media.
Speaker 2:I won't. Maybe one to just my close friends. It'll be perfect, but this was super fun, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was, and thank you everyone for watching and always remember to tune in. We do this every single week, normally on Wednesdays, but we did this today, on Thursday, and then also you can catch not only this show but also previous shows on ElrodTVNetworkcom. Yay, everyone, enjoy the rest of your day. I'm Lawrence Elrod.
Speaker 2:And I'm Meryl Clemo. Bye, everyone.
