← The Nerve with Maureen Callahan
The Nerve with Maureen Callahan
Meghan & Harry’s Finances EXPOSED, Fergie's Sex Tape Fears, and Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds' Deepening Debt
01:10:18
Maureen Callahan is joined by "Naughty But Nice" reporter Rob Shuter to dish on the latest in celebrity scandal and drama, including talks of Meghan Markle returning to acting to alleviate the Sussexes' rumored financial troubles, reports of Sarah Ferguson living in fear that she may have been recorded during her alleged sexual trysts with Diddy, rumblings that Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are unable to finish construction on their upstate NY mansion because they are in massive debt, new information behind Emmanuel Macron getting shoved by his wife while disembarking an airplane last year, and Stephen Colbert's new claims that he never really wanted a television career. Then Maureen discusses the new Netflix documentary on Kylie Minogue, followed by a deep dive into her career, relationships, and more. Rob Shuter: https://robshuter.substack.com/ Quince: Refresh your wardrobe with timeless, high-quality pieces from Quince—go to https://Quince.com/NERVE for free shipping and 365...
Loading summary
Transcript86 lines
- [00:02]
A
The all new tropical butterfly refresher is now at Starbucks. Dive into juicy guava and passion fruit flavors with mango, pineapple, popping pearls bursting in every sip. Ice cold, instantly refreshing and impossible to put down. Made for summer, only at Starbucks. It's my first day of work and I need to make a big impression from executive producer Mindy Kaling. This is our sexual harassment training. Hands off to coworkers.
- [00:28]
B
Now sign this saying that I trained you or you're fired. Yes, ma'.
- [00:31]
A
Am. Work relationships are too messy.
- [00:34]
B
I just met the woman of my dreams. You gotta chill out and not come on too strong. That goes against my entire personality, but I'll try. Watch the new Hulu original series not suitable for work. Premiering June 2nd on Hulu and Hulu on Disney for bundle subscribers.
- [00:49]
A
Terms apply. If you're listening, this is a Pomeranian receiving pets and then using his paw to grab his human's hand to say, keep going. I know it well. Hello and welcome to the Nerve at Night. I am your host Maureen Callahan. We have a ton, a ton to get to. Today we begin. The story advances. The scandal is worse. Gossip coming out of the Royals camp. We're talking to Rob all about it. Reports that Sarah Ferguson is living in fear of what Diddy might do next. You won't believe it. Then we've got Harry and Meghan. Are they on the brink of real, real money problems? Seems so. Same for psycho arsonist Ryan and his equally vile wife, Blake the snake. As far as we know, we've got tons of other celebrity gossip and behind the scenes info. The stuff Rob has to say, you know, every time we talk to him, he'll be like, you know what I remember from this time working as a publicist for this person. He's going to bring in someone who is at the white hot center of, of like I'm going to say, the biggest political scandal of the late 20th century. He was right there. He was right there. Then we are going to do another. Our next segment is going to be about a documentary that dropped on Netflix over. It was either last week or over the weekend. I was hearing a lot from the troublemaker community about this doc. We know we have a huge Aussie contingent. I was, I was more interested in this documentary than I even thought I would be. It's multifaceted, faceted rather. And there are several other major, major cultural icons who come into play. So this is going to be fantastic. And this is one of the, one of I, I've wanted to talk about this guy for a long Time on the nerve. And this is the perfect way to do it. If you know Kylie, I'm sure you know the powerhouse rock star of whom I speak. And so we ask you troublemakers, are you ready? Are you ready? Let's go. Do you want to be more deliberate about what you wear day to day with pieces that just feel effortless, comfortable and have you looking put together instantly? If so, and who doesn't? Quince has the solution. Quince makes it so easy to refresh your everyday wardrobe. This spring they've got timeless pieces made from premium materials such as 100% European linen organic cotton. That stuff breathes ultra soft denim. Their lightweight linen pants, dresses and tops. Stop. Start at just $30. Breathable, easy to wear, perfect for repeating packing, traveling with all season long. I have Quint. I have Quint clothing and I love it. I love it. The fabrics feel and look elevated. They are flattering. They fit like they are tailored without trying too hard. The price will have you doing a double take. It's the real deal. Everything at Quint is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. Know why? Because Quint works directly with ethical factories and they cut out the middlemen. So go ahead and refresh your everyday wardrobe with luxury you'll actually use. Head to quince.com nerve for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. And now Quince is available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N c e.com nerve for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's quince.com nerve. Joining us now is celebrity reporter extraordinaire and author of the Must subscribe substack, Naughty but Nice. The hottest, most sizzling gossip sheet going. Rob is also the author of the book every troublemaker is reading this summer. It started with a whisper. Welcome back to the Nerve, the one and only Rob Shooter.
- [05:41]
B
Good to see you, my friend. It's good to be back.
- [05:44]
A
Okay, we've got so much to get into. I saw this story. I thought of you first in particular. It is a banger of a piece in the Inquirer, Fergie's sex tape Terror. The headline, I don't even really need to read from it. Sarah Ferguson is living in fear that. Oh, my God, they call. This is amazing. I got a quote from this. They call Sean Combs now. Imprisoned sex fiend, sad woman beater, you know, arsonist, alleged, what have you. Sean Combs. She lives in fear that Combs kept sex tapes of the two of them in assorted Video library. We all know whether there's actual factual proof or not. Everybody got filmed in. Insider exclusively tells the National Enquirer There is a 99.99% chance that Sarah Ferguson is on tape. Rob, what do you know?
- [06:43]
B
Yeah, this is amazing report. And the Inquirer has done it yet again. They seem to be the only people in the game at the mom breaking these blockbuster stories. So I tip my hat to them for that. I worked with Diddy, so 20 years ago, I worked with Diddy, and I can absolutely confirm that there are cameras everywhere in his home. When you walk into his home, when I was working with him, he was living on Park Avenue. He had a townhouse on Park Avenue, the entire house. And you would go in and you'd first walk into the lobby, a beautiful marble lobby with a staircase and an elevator and cameras, cameras everywhere. And the red flag for everybody should be you have to walk through a metal detector. So to get into Diddy's home, you walk through a metal detector. There are two guards sitting with guns, may I add, in the lobby of the home. You get in, you go up in the elevator, whether it be to his living room or his office floor or maybe even his bedroom at the top. And there are cameras everywhere. In fact, I knew at the time it was weird because when I went to the bathroom in his house, I looked around, like I looked in the. In the corners of the room to see if there'd be cameras in the bathroom. I didn't see any, but I did see cameras in the living room, in the kitchen, in the dining room, in the lobby. Diddy recorded everything, hours and hours and hours of tape. So if anything happened between the Duchess and Diddy, we know they were friends, we know they knew each other, we know they hung out in the same circle, then it will be on camera.
- [08:20]
A
Rob, I'm sure Diddy had cameras hidden in the, in the, in the rooms of the home one would think would be private bathrooms, bedrooms, et cetera. But you have to. Your antenna have to go off. I understand you were working for him. You walk into the lobby, the foyer of a multimillion dollar ritzy townhouse on Park Avenue, and. And you're going through a metal detector with two armed guards like you're walking into federal court. Shades of things to come. I mean, that says to me, this is a bad, dangerous guy who knows a lot of bad, dangerous people. And he probably did have something to do with Biggie and Tupac.
- [08:59]
B
Yeah, you would think that would be the response. I was so intoxicated with power as a 20 year old kid, I'd come to New York. My first job was working with Diddy and I was absolutely beguiled by him. I wrote this op ed for the Hollywood Reporter about that. I didn't see anything or did I choose not to see anything. And it really has this didi trial. It's really made me sit and confront myself and confront my past and think about what I did and didn't see. Of course I saw it. Of course I saw the red flags. It just goes to show you the power of celebrity. We talk about that all the time on your show. But I actually lived it. I lived it and I failed it, Maureen. I don't think I would fail it today, but I did fail it. There is something so intoxicating about celebrities and Diddy intoxicated. Everybody was that was around in me. Sarah Ferguson, Naomi Campbell, we were all like Sika fans. We were all bowing down at the throne of his diddiness. And I think Sarah Ferguson, she had hung out literally with queens, with royalty. And she treated Diddy with the utmost, utmost respect, almost definition. And I think that's why, I think that's why he got away with so much for so long that he knew he had this power over people.
- [10:23]
A
You know, this really does get. First of all, I love Rob that like you can admit, like, yeah, I was really young and I was kind of starstruck and then I was give an entree into this world. But it's also worth, you know, this is something we discuss. This is why the nerve exists for this discussion in particular. You're talking about the early 90s and this is before the Internet, before everybody had a phone in their pocket, a camera, a video, a video camera in their pocket. The discussion of celebrity was quite different. Celebrities were valorized and you could see why someone like Usher's mother or even Justin Bieber's mother would be like, well, he's so famous, it's got to be safe. Because it seems like there's so many eyes and so many people around this person and this person is so much vested in maintaining their image that they have to be safe. And now we're learning it's exactly quite the opposite.
- [11:15]
B
Yeah, it's the most dangerous, most dangerous demons of them all, Maureen. Because there are so many layers of COVID up. There's so many layers of mystique. There's literally publicity people to shape their image. You think you know these people and you absolutely don't. Just a few days ago, I finally got around to seeing the Michael Jackson movie, which is a total lie. But it did get me thinking about Michael Jackson and how parents would allow their kids to spend time with him and that now, hopefully, maybe I, fingers crossed, wouldn't happen. But you're right. Back in the 90s, it was a different level of fame because. Because we didn't have the Internet, because we didn't have cell phones, because we didn't have social media. The only thing we really knew about celebrities was what their publicists released in photographs or. Or interviews. It was still in the age of celebrity journalism. I've been doing this a long time. I know you have too, my friend. And. And it has changed. We're now allowed to ask questions that we couldn't ask back then. If I had interviewed Diddy 20 years ago, my editor would have told me to be respectful and make sure you do not upset him now because of shows like the Nerf, because of substacks like mine, we don't have to worry about that anymore. And I think that has been one of the true blessings about independent media. Let's not forget Vanity Fair had a glowing cover of Diddy. He was on the COVID of that at the. And they never asked any serious questions. That pendulum has swung. And so Sarah Ferguson should be very, very careful, because if a tape exists 20, 30 years ago, the palace had the power to erase that tape, to make sure that tape disappeared. They don't have it today. If the tape exists, I. I believe it does. Then when Diddy gets out of jail, expect a lot of this stuff to be leaked.
- [13:10]
A
I'm sure it does exist. And it really goes to the question, you know, you've been reporting this for quite some time, that Diddy is not going to serve out the entirety of his slap on a wrist sentence. And it's stuff like this that leads everyone to believe this is Epstein adjacent, that the Illuminati is involved. Every single powerful person is involved. Diddy can float that Trump is going to give him a pardon. And Trump doesn't really push back on it and say, no, I've got nothing to do with this guy anymore. He's a piece of shit.
- [13:38]
B
Yeah, yeah. It feels like the them and us, doesn't it? It feels like the Epstein class here, and it's really, really alarming. And patting myself on the back for a moment, one of the reasons I came clean about my history with Diddy and working with him when I was in my early 20s is I had to say something. Why hasn't Anna Winter said anything. When I was working with Diddy, she called him four times a day. I know because I was answering the phone, she would have people call me, where is Estee Lauder? They released the multimillion dollar fragrance with Diddy at the peak of his success start. Where's Clyde Davis? Clyde Davis, the legendary music executive who bought Bad Boy Diddy worshiped Clive. When I was working with Diddy, if Clive called, we got Diddy. That was not a call that he would ever miss. These people have said nothing. Absolutely nothing. And shame on them. Shame on them not. And this isn't easy. This is an easy thing to stand up to. I'm not a hero here. It's pretty easy to say did. He's a monster. That isn't that hard. Boring. Yet I find it so interesting that so many people in the fashion community in, in the, in the music business, in the TV business. Diddy made a lot of money for MTV on making the band and all those shows. Not a single one of those corporate outlets have said a word about.
- [15:01]
A
We'll keep banging that drum. Rob, to your point, where's his bff Ashton Kutcher? Where's he. Where's Oprah protector? A self appointed protector of women everywhere. Where's Jay Z? Where's. He's got. He's got two daughters and a wife. Where's he. You know, it's, it's so. It's, it's, it's. It's celebrity industrial complex rot. And these people cannot be let off the hook because if we know they knew. On to Meghan Markle dusting off her suits. Now, there's been multiple reports. Star magazine. It's the COVID story of one of their more recent additions, Meghan and Harry going broke. They've protected themselves with a question mark but the reporting inside is that things are very grim. Page six banner story on May 13th per Sarah Nathan. Meg dusting off her suits. Money is tight, said a source in the know as another double sourced told us that Markle and Harry need at least $6 million a year just for operating expenses in their home in Montecito. There have been rumors that Markle has been speaking to Hollywood executives. Those who will take recalls that is my side to start acting again. She is looking for a steady role. Reports have it in a TV show but this is roundly denied by Sussex insiders. What do you know, Rob?
- [16:33]
B
Yeah, I read this Star Magazine story. Like you word for word, it is multiple sources and it felt like a story you might see in the Financial Times. It was very detailed in their finances. They really dug deep into the fact that this couple spends a lot of money every month and doesn't have a lot of money coming in. It's that simple. You know, from whatever job you have, whether you be a royal, you work in entertainment, you work in a restaurant, you know how much money comes in. And it's always a bad idea when more money is going out than coming in. And so that's the problem here. Forget tiaras, forget royal titles. They're living beyond their means. Now. Some would argue that he doesn't know any other way to live. I can actually sort of understand that from the day he was born, he was literally born into a palace. He, Meghan wasn't. Meghan had a middle class background in California, and now she lives a life of a major celebrity. But she did live in Canada for a while while she was filming suits. And so she knows how to balance a checkbook. And somebody around them needs to figure this out quickly because all the money that he inherited, the millions and millions he got primarily from his mommy, Princess Diana, and his great grandmother, the Queen Mother, left Harry money, too. Most of that money is gone. It is. It is a story as old as time. Forget royalty, just celebrities going bankrupt. Elton John, who has sold, what, 2,300 million records, filed for bankruptcy. They spend too much money. It is very, very expensive to live the life that they want to live. And most celebrities don't earn that money. In my celebrity days, the nicest department that I ever went to, and I went to some really amazing celebrity houses, was Sting and Trudy Styl. And it was magnificent, and it was on the park and probably 40, $50 million. But he earns that money as one of the most successful recording artists who wrote his own songs of all time. So I understood how the money was coming in and then you saw how the money was going out with Harry and Meghan. All we see, Maureen, is the money going out. Where is it coming in? His book was a hit. He made millions from his book, but
- [18:39]
A
he didn't taxable income.
- [18:41]
B
That's right.
- [18:42]
A
And you've got agents and managers and lawyers to pay off. So, you know, money, money, you know. But you also said, so the Queen mother left Harry $10 million to the rest of us. That sounds like, you don't have to worry. You're going to retire in style, you know, catastrophic illness, no problem. Harry's blown through it. What did he get from Diana? 30 million.
- [19:04]
B
30 million from Diana.
- [19:06]
A
Gone.
- [19:07]
B
It's gone. And it's hard to, it's hard to understand that until you see the way, way that they live and the staff and the buy offs and you know, allegedly here, the payouts that have happened. There have been a lot of staff members around Harry and Meghan who have complained and have disappeared. And as we know from the workplace, that often comes with some sort of settlement, maybe financial. And so there's a lot of money here that we will never understand. Designers are not lending her her clothes anymore, so she's paying retail value for that. Their security bill. They, they feel as if they need protection like the, the President of the United States. They have more protection than many, many celebrities. In my early PR days during the Bill Clinton scandal, I was working with Monica Lewinsky just for a short period of time as such a baby. And she became the most famous person in the world. And nobody had ever spoke, heard her speak until the Barbara Walters interview. I was with Monica in the, in the Village and she didn't have the money to pay for dinner. She didn't have the money to have security. She didn't have the money for a driver. So I remember walking from a restaurant to her apartment in the West Village and these photographers jumped out. And I felt bad because just was overwhelmed with the cost of celebrity in every sense of the world. Not just in the sense of what it took away from her personally, but just how much money it would cost to have a driver, a security guard, hair and makeup. Hair and makeup. But Meghan never leaves the house without a glance squad that could cost five, $10,000 a day. The expenses in going into being a celebrity at the level that she wants to live is enormous. The money is gone. And people have said to me why it was so reckless to spend it. My sources who, who are close to Meghan and Harry push back and say they were so arrogant they assumed they would make it. So when they were spending all that money, they didn't think, hold on a minute, me and you, Maureen bro, we got 10 million. I gotta make that last till the day I die. I gotta figure out a budget of how much I can spend each year until, you know, hopefully I get to 90. Maybe I'm figuring out they were so arrogant they didn't care about spending because they assumed, foolishly assumed millions would be coming in. Never did.
- [21:33]
A
These two are discount royals for the reality TV TV era. Because as you're speaking, Rob, you know what I'm thinking of all those Real Housewives who have not learned the lesson from those who have come before. They all Overspend themselves into bankruptcy on plastic surgery and logo designer clothes and leased luxury vehicles and leased houses so that they can give the impression of wealth, thinking that that is going to be enough to catapult them into a level of celebrity where the money will come back and then some. And that is the worst idea possible. It never works. They all wind up in bankruptcy.
- [22:10]
B
They all wind up in bankruptcy. They spend so much money. And then, and this is where I do have some sympathy for them. For some people on reality shows, certainly the housewives, for a minute, they feel like they are Taylor Swift. For a minute, they do feel like, wow, I'm a big deal. They never think it's going to end. They never think it's going to stop. It always stops. And so they spend too much to become famous, and then they become famous. And then the money does come in. They do get endorsements, but then the money stops. The minute they are no longer on that show, it's over. And now look at the housewives. The new cast for New York are filming right now. I'm told they're doing it for 20% what the original cast was paid.
- [22:54]
A
Starvo Star.
- [22:56]
B
Yeah.
- [22:57]
A
What's the figure per episode, do you
- [22:59]
B
think it's a 5 or 6,000 per episode?
- [23:02]
A
Why?
- [23:02]
B
That's what they're getting paid.
- [23:03]
A
That's change in the couch cushion. Couch cushions for Bravo.
- [23:07]
B
Yeah.
- [23:08]
A
So for 6,000 per episode.
- [23:11]
B
So for the whole season, we're talking 150,000.
- [23:14]
A
We're not after taxes and your agents negotiating that deal and managers, and it's nothing. You're netting like 75k. Maybe you can't.
- [23:23]
B
You can't do the show now unless you're wealthy. And that's why the show has become so twisted and it's no longer fun. Because the only people that have access to be on reality shows are the ones that can subsidize the show, subsidize Bravo by their own personal wealth. And that's why these ladies now are very, very wealthy but terribly boring. And people that I would love to see on the show, I've recommended some friends of mine who I think would be great on the Housewives just didn't make enough money. They just didn't. They couldn't afford that lifestyle. Remember, every time the housewives go to a restaurant or throw a party, they pay for it. Not Bravo. Bravo does not pick up the tab. I was out once with Bethany and they were filming it and the tab came and Bethany, who's very cheap, I think we split it and I was like, it's not my show. It's your show for Bravo.
- [24:11]
A
Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait. You were out to dinner with Bethany. Is this pre or post selling Skinny Girl for a reported 100 million?
- [24:20]
B
This is before Skinny Girls, but she was claiming in the press that she was earning millions of dollars on the Real Housewives. And we were at a place in midtown. The cameras were there. And I remember I'd never done reality tv. It wasn't my thing. It's still not. But I kept looking into the camera, and Bethany's like, oh, no, no, no. You have to ignore the camera. So I remember her sort of coaching me a little bit, and I said, oh, that's sort of interesting. And. And then at the end of filming, we got a bar tab. We'd had a couple of drinks each, maybe an appetizer, and I just assumed Bravo would pick it up. It wasn't. Wasn't terribly expensive, but it was expensive, and they didn't. The housewives have to pick up those taps.
- [24:58]
A
I can't believe Bethany made you split it. You were working with her. You are a scene partner for her. Let's get real.
- [25:08]
B
Very, very cheap.
- [25:10]
A
I love that. I love that little tidbit that she's cheap. You know, all these people are coming out of the woodwork on Instagram saying, hey, I sent you free stuff, and you wore it on your. On your reels, and you didn't tag me. What the f. Have you ever left a doctor's appointment feeling like you got no real answers or useful insights into your actual health? You get told, hey, everything looks normal. Great seeing you. But you leave with zero useful information or an actual plan. Introducing Superpower. Their app breaks down insights around metabolism, hormones, heart, health, vitamins, toxins, even your biological age, which can often be different from your chronological age. Plus actionable recommendations you can actually use. They also make it incredibly easy. A licensed professional can come to your home, or you can visit a nearby lab and get comprehensive lab testing. With more than 100 biomarkers, this is way more proactive instead of reactive. So make this the year that you stop guessing about your actual health. With Superpower For a limited time, nerve listeners get $20 off. To unlock your new health intelligence, Head over to super bow superpower.com use code nerve for $20 off your membership. That's Code Nerve. After you sign up, they're going to ask you how you heard about them. Please support our show. Tell them you're a troublemaker and that the nerve sent you. So good. So Good. So good. Everything you want for summer is at Nordstrom Rack stores now and up to 6, 60% off. Stock up and save on the brands you love, like Vince, Sam, Edelman, Frame and Free People. Join the NordicLub to unlock exclusive discounts. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite Rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. A text says, you're on my mind. A bouquet from 1-800-FLowers says, you're my everything. Heartfelt moments belong in the real world, not just your phone. For 50 years, 1-800-Flowers has helped millions of people make memories that'll last a lifetime. With gifts they'll cherish forever. Their expertly curated arrangements and gift baskets shipped nationwide with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Don't wait for the next big moment. Make it when you visit 1-800-flowers.com sxm today, that's 1-800-flowers. Com sxm okay, now onto one of my favorite gossip stories recently. So this goes back to. I think this happened before the Nerve existed, but. So remember last year when French President Emmanuel Macron was shoved on a plane by his wife? And this is an image. This is a Warholian image for the ages. We only saw Macron's face with her hands all over his face, stuffing him backwards and then getting out of the plane. And he was like, nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong. Here's what went down for a new book that was published in France. Brigitte, his wife, caught him texting with an Iranian born, I believe she's an actress. She's younger, she's gorgeous. The text she found President Macron telling Golshifta Ferrani, I find you very pretty. He insisted it's platonic. Or she insists it's platonic. The quote from Le Parisienne magazine or newspaper. What hurt Brigitte? Okay, this is. This is. Oh, my God. The publicist in you, Rob, is going to die. What hurt Brigitte was not so much the contents of the message as what it hinted at. A possibility, nothing tangible or that could really be denounced. But the idea alone was enough. And apparently she never looks at her husband's mobile phone, resulting in the shove seen around the world. I love it.
- [29:33]
B
It's a great story. First of all, before we jump into the story, before I jump into the story, there was a time when the Nerve didn't exist. That's like saying there was a time when Harry Potter didn't exist. How is that possible?
- [29:45]
A
Oh, Rob, you flatter the Nerves. Flattering.
- [29:48]
B
First of all, it's, I don't even think of the day that this show was not around. But back to, back to the story. It is fascinating, isn't it? Here he is on Air Force France. Air Force One, I'm not sure. Yeah, his version, his version of that. And they're about to get off and that's when she, that's when she puts her hand on his face. If they didn't, if they hadn't opened that airplane door so quickly, we wouldn't have seen this. So he's literally about to walk off the plane. I think they, in a foreign country. And instead of reading his notes or who he's going to meet or his speech. Maureen, before you and I meet somebody in have a little my notes. If I'm interviewing somebody. He decided to text his potential girlfriend. What an awkward moment to do that. And does that tell you a lot about his arrogance? But he's getting off the plane. Air Force One, let's call it. And instead of like thinking, I'd say to my assistant, my, my, my team, who am I meeting? Who's on the red carpet? Whose hand do I have to shake? And I meant to take photographs. He's so casual, he's so blase about it that he pulls out his phone and he texts his potential piece on the side. I find that just so fascinating. I don't believe for one second she doesn't look at his phone. If you look at someone's phone, you look at the phone. It's quite difficult. Now, I should point out too, and this is just a, it's not a short joke. It's just a, an observation about physicality. He's very short, so you only have to just look down your nose a little bit to read his. Like, I'm so tall that if you, you can't read my phone because it's up here. If I was short, you just have a little diaborin. I can read. So she did read his phone. She gave him a shove. I, I, it makes me though, it makes me like them more. I like that these two have their moments. We've all had them. We've all had a moment with our partner. We've all had an annoying moment with a friend. And sometimes when it's caught on camera, I love it when they come back from a commercial break on a morning show and it's just a little bit too quick and the anchors are not quite ready for it. It's probably happened here on the Nerve too. It actually entertains me endlessly whenever I go to those morning shows. I find what goes on during the commercial breaks far more interesting than anything actually on the show. So I felt as if we got a little look into. Into a life, a marriage, an airplane that we shouldn't have been seeing.
- [32:14]
A
There are three things this story makes me think of and two I believe are very salient. One, the French president's phone is not encrypted. And it should be. It should be to. The French are not as cool with infidelity as they would love us to believe per their branding. And number three, this is a deep cut, Rob, but do you remember back when Obama was running in like 07? I believe it was Michelle who found text messages between Barack Obama and Scarlett Johansson. Do you remember that story?
- [32:48]
B
I do remember that story.
- [32:49]
A
And it was like, oh, she's just a donor. She's just a big Dem donor. And it's like, what does Barack Obama. What is he talking to Scarlett Johansson about?
- [32:59]
B
Let's get real, right? You can tell a lot by. By somebody's phone. Friend Nancy Grace says if anything happens to me, hand over my phone and she'll find it in five minutes. You know, everything by someone's cell phone, by who they're texting. And you can tell, you can tell a flirty message from a business sort of response. And so I think this is highly suspicious. Highly delicious. And I'm here for it. Bring it up.
- [33:29]
A
Same. Same. Okay, can we talk about Stephen Colbert and your exclusive? Because we were woodshedding this guy all last week. Stephen Colbert apparently now is selling the line, trying to that television was never really his dream. Television. Your exclusive. Stephen Colbert's life After late night as TV king dethroned, king of a faded realm, searches for a purpose, passion and a second act beyond cbs. He is now looking for something that has apparently I'm imbuing this, but more spiritual meaning something more. More just has more gravity than television. So it's theater, okay? It's not building houses with Habitat for Humanity or donating his riches or, you know, it's not that it's theater. He wants to do Broadway.
- [34:28]
B
He's going to be Cats. He'll be a touring rider. Mr. Mestopoulos, it's so fascinating. We talked a moment ago about housewives and reality stars thinking it's never going to end. Television stars, period, are like this too. In many ways. Stephen Colbert is being very housewife about, about this, about this cancellation. It's interesting to me that the people, once they're canceled, once you're fired from a job. I've done it. I, I convinced myself I never liked that job. And how dare they. And then the truth is, if you hadn't been fired, you'd still be sitting behind that desk. He had no intention of leaving that show. He would have been there for the next 10, 20 years as long as he possibly could have. Nobody leaves those shows. They get pushed out of them. And so the fact that he's got pushed out, he's got to figure out what the next chapter is. It's a tough thing, isn't it? Because when you spend a long time doing something, a decade doing something, even if you don't do it very well, you've done it for so long, it becomes your identity, it becomes your life. Now he has enough money that he can take a moment, he can really sit and think about it. A lot of my friends who have lost their jobs, they have to take the next job that's offered them. They've just got to pay the bills. He's in a luxurious category where he doesn't have to do that. And trying to figure out what you want to do with your life is probably a good idea if you've got such a privilege, if you've got that opportunity. I don't think landing on becoming a musical theater star is maybe the best calling here. Like you said, not built in homes for Habitat for Humanity or, you know, he's not doing anything grand even running for office, despite what you might think of his politics. There's something that's sort of quite noble, I think about, about that he's not looking at that. He'll be, he'll be in Miss Saigon in six months of Chicago.
- [36:15]
A
You're so right, by the way. The guy who thought he was like, saving American democracy from itself and he was so lit up every night in opposition to, you know, the White House is like, no, I don't. That doesn't really attract me. You know what attracts me more?
- [36:30]
B
Fame. It's so rude because it makes you believe that, that all that was all nonsense. He should be running for office for the last 10 years. You know, put your money where your mouth is. He's been spouting political, political talk for decades.
- [36:51]
A
So do it.
- [36:51]
B
You know, if you want to know who somebody is, you listen to what they say. And so despite what you might think of his politics, you might be for it, might be against it. You can't argue. He's not a political person. I thought he would, would get into politics and I sort of Would tip my hat at him for doing no, not going to do it. Which now makes me believe the whole thing was just performance art. It was never, it was never anything he really cared about. And you know, if you really cared about Broadway, you should have supported them more while you had a TV show.
- [37:19]
A
You support during the strike.
- [37:22]
B
Yeah, support them, go and see more shows, go and buy tickets for shows. And you know, if you want to support something, it's interesting that these stars who fall, they, they, they convince themselves that they didn't really fall, but they were never actually quite that happy doing it and they look forward for the next thing and you know, he'll probably put it off. I wouldn't be. There's been so many cast stunting in Chicago and musicals on Broadway. You wouldn't be surprised if in six months we find Stephen Colbert playing the lawyer in Chicago on Broadway. So it might come true. I think it's disappointing, particularly to his fans that he's abandoned his politics now. Gone now that he doesn't have the safety.
- [38:05]
A
Did you say Stephen Colbert?
- [38:07]
B
I think I did.
- [38:08]
A
I love it. Stephen Cole, blah Koblah, you, you know, to your point, before we transition to the other repeat offender in the culture who was on Stephen's last show, to your point, you know, Jon Stewart. Okay, again, whether you agree or disagree with his political stripes, when he left the Daily show he poured a lot of his cultural capital and time into getting justice for those who were working the pile on 911 and were suffering with grave, grave medical illnesses and turbo cancers. And he got a lot done. A lot. And again, you cannot deny that he did something important with his fame. And to your point, Colbert doesn't give a shit about any of this. If he really did, he'd be taking that. And I think that's part of why stars like the Colbert's of the world actually fail. Because we can all see that fundamentally there is a real inauthenticity there. He doesn't believe the shit he was slinging night after night. And to this point, if you are a fundamentally decent religious man, the religiosity is strong with this one. How is it that you have Ryan Reynolds, psycho arsonist Ryan Reynolds, who with his wife tried to destroy Justin Baldoni's career and use their A list friends, the Taylor Swifts, the Matt Damon's, the Ben Afflecks to do it? Ben apparently did not respond to any of those missives or the one that we know of, but he's in the audience on the final show with lines with Speaking lines. We're going to take a look at this, and then I want your reaction to it. Rob, Here we go.
- [39:49]
B
Ryan Reynolds. We'll break it down. Ryan. Ryan, it's great to see you, but I hate to tell you, buddy, you're not my last guest. Ouchie. Okay, well, you know, in that case, I'm just happy to be here, you know, pay my respects to the. One of the world's greatest entertainers on his last night at the Ed Sullivan Theater.
- [40:10]
A
Wow. Well, thank you.
- [40:16]
B
Thank you so much, Ryan. That means so much to me. I was talking about your keyboardist, Corey Bernhard.
- [40:28]
A
Okay, all right, that's, that's, that's fine. We can let that go. Rob, Rob, Is it, is it, is it just, you know, birds of a feather, really?
- [40:40]
B
Yeah, it is. That's what it is. But there's, there's something about that video clip that I find so interesting. I'm told that he rehearsed this. There was a rehearsal. He was there for rehearsals. I. I'm told that he didn't have anybody to sit next to him. If you look around him, they're all audience members. Other celebrities were groups together, and I don't think anybody really wanted to be with Ryan Reynolds. He was at the end of a row, too. And so there was no person on his right hand side. And I'm told that after he did that bit, he left. He didn't even have the decency to stay for the rest of the taping.
- [41:11]
A
Oh, you mean Ryan doesn't have class?
- [41:13]
B
I think that's what I'm saying. And so turned up did his lines. They rehearsed them. He, I'm told he tweets them. He has a lot of opinions.
- [41:21]
A
Oh, well, the great Ryan Reynolds, you know, you got, you got. Let's take what he has to say. He's such a brilliant writer and thinker. Yes, of course. This gag with bananas.
- [41:33]
B
Obvious, isn't it? It's so stupid. And I do love, too, though. I spoke to somebody who works at the show and I was like, you didn't want Blake there? And they said, no, he could have brought Blake. The show was fine. If he had turned up with Blake, we would have got two seats. We saved two seats for Ryan. And we're actually shocked that he didn't have a publicist, a manager, a friend, anybody. Nobody wanted to sit next to him at that tape. And sitting around him are strangers. And so he was almost like a seat filler. They pushed him in, he did his bit, and then he got out but no Blake there now that was Ryan's choice. That wasn't Colbert's, that was Ryan. So maybe Ryan knows just how toxic and damaged Blake is at the moment. He didn't want to. That this was Ryan's time to shine and. And he might have been right if he had turned up with Blake. The story we would be talking about would have probably been Blake and the Hotspur and the balls of showing up after. After everything that has gone down. And so lots of things about it interesting. But ultimately how dull it was. I thought it would be better. I thought it'd be funnier and wittier. These are meant to be a list comedians, a list actors. Ryan fancies himself as a writer. I think he has his own ad agency. He thinks he can write patter and jokes and sketches better than anybody. I thought it's just a silly sitting there with a bunch of bananas.
- [42:58]
A
Not the brains behind this ad agency. He's not the brilliant person he wants us all to think, you know, and to your point, like this goes right back to, first of all, the nerve moves, the culture. Okay, Ryan Reynolds, psycho arsonist. Ryan Reynolds is radioactive as his is equally odious wife Blake. But to. To what we were talking about with Harry and Megan, the reports are that Blake and Ryan are in a lot of debt. A lot. The New York Post is reporting that Those two are $2 million again, if their net worth is supposedly hundreds of millions. But they're $2 million deep in contractor debt on an unfinished dream house they're building in upstate New York. They're not worth nearly what they would have us believe. They spent way more on this bullshit litigation than they would have us believe. A friend of the nerves sent us aerial photos of their estate in the UK and we're looking at them right now. They're on a full screen. And we are told that this house conservatively would have gone for $12 million. It's about 40 minutes outside the nearest town. And the upkeep. Look at the landscaping on that thing alone. Look at the vegetation growing on the house alone. These guys, I think they are. I think we're going to be seeing a massive fire sale. And I. I don't think the marriage survives this despite. Despite this staged pap walk they did over the weekend. And we're going to show this real too. You can tell it's staged because they're carrying nothing except a cup of coffee. She's got a cup of coffee and like her iPhone slung over her on like a body chain. I don't know about you, Rob, but when I leave the house, especially in New York City, I've got two bags. I've got a tote bag full of reading material and water. And then I've got a handbag with my money and my iPhone and my this and my that, like, and that's just to go from like point A to point B. They've got nothing on them. This was staged to show, hey, everything's cool, we're great, the marriage is great, our lives are great, our careers are great, our bank accounts are great.
- [44:56]
B
Yeah, I had a report on my substack about this, that they've carefully planned this out. This is part of the comeback tour. And what they're doing is they're finding moments where there are no reporters, there are no questions, it's just photographs. She recently turned up at the Met. Didn't do any questions. She recently turned up at a store, a fancy designer store, Fendi. No questions, just photographs. Blake and Ryan know the power of a photograph. It's worth literally a thousand, a million words. That's the cliche, but there's a lot of truth to that. They want to be seen out there looking glamorous, looking gorgeous. They want us to forget anything they've done and just remember them for, for shallow reasons which they might actually pull off. They're, they're a very good looking couple here. And my, my feed is flooded with these new sort of, these photographs, these stage pictures. I was in that business, I would call up the paps. I know how to do this. Most of the photographs that you see of celebrities, 80% are stage pictures. Let me tell you, when you know a picture's real, they're picking their nose, they've got a big spot on the face. A mascara is really. If the picture looks too good, then somebody has been called, some photographer has been called. Blake knows how to play this game and she's going back to her old tricks. I hope they don't work, but expect to see lots more pictures of them in Central park with puppies eating ice cream on bicycles. They're going to, they're going to really double down on this. We're going to get to see a lot of them, but they're not going to do any talking because they can't, they can't answer the questions.
- [46:29]
A
Well, the nerve is going to make sure we keep our boot on their metaphorical necks. I don't think that playbook is going to work anymore. And Rob, we love having you here to spill and give all those, like, really great insider bits. You really? That thing that you talked about with Diddy and the metal detector and the armed guards. Oh my God, like, you blew my mind. I had no idea that ever existed.
- [46:55]
B
To your credit, you're the only one that asks. There's no show like the Nerve.
- [46:59]
A
And the French president should really get his Secret service to encrypt his phone. It will make carrying on affairs much more easier. Much more easy. I should say that was grammatically incorrect.
- [47:09]
B
Let it go. We're friends here. Good to see you, my friends. Take care.
- [47:12]
A
Great to see you. Take care. Coming up, we have got to talk about a pop culture doc that dropped over the weekend. And it goes beyond this one subject. It goes into other areas of culture and the way celebrities were once upon a time, consumed and understood to be and what we now know. And this one I'm really, really excited to talk to you guys about. We are back in a minute. Coffee lovers and I am among them. Know the struggle. You want the taste. You want the ritual and the energy. But sometimes caffeine overload happens and that comes with jitters, anxiety and a hard crash at the end of the day. That's why Mud Water has created their new Low Calf coffee blend. It tastes like actual coffee because it's made with organic arabica beans, but it also has functional mushrooms like Lion's Mane and Cordyceps Plus L Theanine. It delivers real coffee flavor with only 45 milligrams of caffeine, so you get a calmer, more balanced boost. Super grounding, really smooth energy. I love, and I think you guys will too, that everything here is USDA organic, vegan, non GMO and they use the Swiss Water decaf process with zero chemical solvents. If you want to make the switch to a cleaner start to your morning to cleaner energy throughout the day, head to mudwater.com and grab your starter kit right now. Nerve listeners get an exclusive deal up to 43% off your entire order plus free shipping and a free rechargeable frother when you use Code Nerve. Yes, up to 43% off with code Nerve at M U d w t r.com after your purchase, they're going to ask how you found them. Please tell them you're a troublemaker and that the Nerve sent you. Abercrombie just dropped the perfect swim book. That last minute beach trip you've been dreaming about. The new coastal inspired prints and patterns are great for any destination. Plus, thanks to Abercrombie, packing for vacation is even easier with reversible swim. Perfect for mixing, mixing, matching and customizing your look. Prep for summer with Abercrombie. In the app, online and in stores. A text says you're on my mind. A bouquet from 1-800-FLowers says, you're my everything. Heartfelt moments belong in the real world, not just your phone. For 50 years, 1-800-Flowers has helped millions of people make memories that'll last a lifetime with gifts they'll cherish forever. Their expertly curated arrangements and gift baskets shipped nationwide with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Don't wait for the next big moment. Make it when you visit 1-800-flowers.com sxm today, that's 1-800-flowers. Com sxm we are back. Now, before we get into this pop culture segment, I heard from a fair amount of you who were also watching the Netflix doc, the three part Kylie Minogue Netflix doc. And there's a lot of stuff happening in the culture that I totally want to talk to you guys about. But this doc I thought was worthy of going a little bit deeper on because it's not just about Kylie. It's about other musicians, really important ones of that time. And it's a portrait of an artist. Kylie Minogue was kind of this confection and she was in many ways invented by these producers and these image makers. And she became this sort of bubbly pop princess of the 90s. She wasn't really taken very seriously. She had been an actress on a very, very popular Australian soap called Neighbors. And then she became a pop star. And she talks a lot about not having confidence in herself. She was, she was criticized as sort of just really just not one of the cool kids. And you have to remember where she was sort of coming up, you know, in as the 90s were coming up and grunge was a warning, you know, things were about to shift for good. But she talks a lot about two musicians who really impacted her, both men, one of whom was a great love of her life, if not the great love of her life, Michael Hutchins of inxs. And if you're of a certain generation, you know, I mean, for me, Michael Hodgins was like my first real intense rock and roll crush, and millions of girls around the planet felt the same way. And then there's Nick Cave, who was of a different ilk. And we'll get to Nick as well. But in this doc, she gets with Michael Hutchins and she's in awe of him on just about every level. And she, she doesn't say it, but she intimates that she was worried that she wasn't, like, cool enough for him. Like Michael Hutchins, if you're unfamiliar, he. He was the front man of the Australian band In Excess. They should have been voted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. This time around, the. They were not. But Michael Hutchins was like a mashup of Jim Morrison and Mick Jagger and then wholly his own thing. Like, wholly his own thing. One of the greatest rock and roll front men of all time, for my money and many other people's. And here she talks about advice he gave her that really began to shift the way she thought about herself as an artist and a performer. Here we go.
- [53:44]
B
At that point in time, I didn't have any belief in my voice, so I would lean to just doing lots of dancing. And Michael had some advice that stayed with me. Some stillness is okay on stage, I guess. You don't have to be running around all the time.
- [54:08]
A
So she really took that to heart. And then you see her talking to her choreographers and saying, you know, can we figure out a way for me to be a little bit more still and let the audience absorb it? Then we go to episode two, which I call the Singing Budgie. That was the derisive term, budgie, that the Australian press had for her. And they were writing her off as kind of this bimbo. And her response here, it's a very young Kylie Minogue, but it's dead on. She did have more confidence in herself than maybe she even knew at the time. Here we go.
- [54:44]
B
Why do you think it suits people to portray you as some kind of invite? Because it's easy, and then I'm not a threat to them. There's something pretty remarkable about young Kylie Minogue. Gossip columnists write her off as the single singing Budgie. Well, the budgie's feathers are ruffled.
- [55:05]
A
So then she talks about discovering that there was this Kylie night at. At a nightclub, and her manager says, do you want to go? He's like, they're. They're drag queens doing you. And her answer is like, yeah, I want to go. And she goes, and she sees all these drag queens performing as her, and it gives her. So, again, it's more confidence. You know, she's. She's appealing to people. This woman who has been dismissed as nothing more than bubblegum and cliche and a bimbo, you know, she realizes if she's hitting marrow with, like, the drag community, she's hitting marrow with the misfits and the outsiders, and that's a great place to be. It's a great place to be. Then she talks about the gig that changed things for her. And she talks about Michael Hutchins watching from like smack in the middle of the crowd. He's not backstage, he's not on the side of the stage, he's smack in the middle of the crowd. And I'm gonna guess he chose that so that he could really take in her performance as an audience member and see what her strengths were and what she still needed to work on. Just a guess, but here we go.
- [56:18]
B
We caught ourselves singing Budgies. Remember what I was wearing my amazing shiny tights that I was obsessed with. I remember Michael being smack bang in the middle of the crowd. Kai's got this real sweet, innocent image. I was really not the person that people think she is. There's a lot of strength singing Budgie. You know, that's a horrible title. Whoever wrote that is probably fat and bald and 50 years old, but they look 70 and they've got bad breath and can't control themselves and they're probably jealous. We've gone from I should be so lucky to kite into diva in one place. She wanted to see the video makers, she wanted her own stylist. The guys that we worked with here for years. She just went, I'm not working with those guys anymore. Whether it's stylists or photographers or whoever, I'm working with them rather than just being force fed their ideas.
- [57:31]
A
It's amazing that in a documentary that's airing in 2026, you still see the guy who, you know, quote, unquote discovered her, made her a pop star. Say, you know, suddenly she became a diva and she wanted input on her own image, on the stylists, on the photographers, on the music she was making. You know, there is no way any male artist would be talked about like that. Kylie Minogue was like, I don't want to be a product. I am a person. I think I have things to say. I'm learning about myself and I'm growing and I need to grow. And she was also probably smart enough to know that being like a pop princess has a shelf life. You age out of that. We'll come back to Michael Hutchinson a minute, but Nick Cave comes into this story and this is fascinating to me. Nick Cave also has a connection to Michael, but we're going to focus on Kylie and his relationship right now and. Or his relationship with Kylie. So Nick Cave was like this very dark. He was the frontman for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dark underground goth, you know, fringe artist. And his specialty was the murder ballad. Okay. A collaboration has floated between Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue, the Australian ray of sunshine. The wholesome Australian ray of sunshine known as Kylie Minogue. Here's Kylie talking about this idea being floated to her and not really even knowing who Nick was. Here we go. Nick reached out and I was like,
- [59:24]
B
who? Like, huh? I was not the demographic of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds fan club, but there is an Australian thing. They just do shit, right? They just do stuff and they don't think about it too much. They just give stuff a shot, you know? And she's like, yeah, okay.
- [59:46]
A
So she collaborates with Nick on a song called. It's either Wild Rose or they Call Me the Wild Rose. And she talks about Nick Cave getting her out of her vocal, the vocal tricks, the techniques that she had come to rely on, and getting her to sort of strip everything back and sing the song as a story. And it's an incredible song. And she. It's a different Kylie Minogue that you see. The thing that sort of links these three Kylie Minogue, Michael Hutchins, Nick Cave back to Kylie is that, you know, I've read a lot about Michael Hutchins, and there's a great documentary about him called Mystify that was done by a longtime collaborator, Richard Lowenstein, or Lowenstein, I'm not sure how you pronounce his name. It's fascinating and it's worth watching. He's very complicated guy. There was a lot going on with him and. But from what I also have read, Michael Hutchins was jealous of Nick Cave because Nick Cave had artistic cred. He had real street cred. And Nick Cave was jealous of Michael Hutchins because he was a global rock star and a frontman who knew how to. How to run a crowd. Michael Hutchins died by suicide. That was the official finding many, many years ago. But to the top of that Kylie segment, talking about how she talks about this throughout the doc, that he saw in her many gifts and that he never pushed her to be cool, to be someone she wasn't. He just pushed her to be her. Like, he just helped her believe in herself and that she should do whatever she wanted and be whatever kind of an artist she chose to be. There is a biography of Michael Hutchins, one of two written by his sister, and it ends with this incredible letter written to her by a former classmate of Michael's. They knew each other when they were 10 years old. And this boy was named Tim Stewart now man. And after reading about Michael's death, he reached out to the family and spoke about what Michael Hutchins was like at 10 years old. And I'm going to read some of this because it really goes to, I think the qualities and character traits that we exhibit as young children that really are kind of can tell you a lot about the kind of person that child will grow up to be. Now this, this man, Tim wrote to the family upon reading of Michael's suicide. Why did I experience such very real pain and emptiness for someone I've not seen or heard from in well over 40 years? It certainly wasn't an overzealous fan reaction per Michael's celebrity status, for I only knew him as my schoolmate, soccer mate, teammate and close friend. In fact, he had misremembered Michael's surname. He thought his name was Michael Hutchinson. So he never put together that the rock star known as Michael Hutchins was in fact his friend who he misremembered as Hutchinson. Tim continues. Maybe it's because as a young American boy in a foreign country, this was in Hong Kong, he was my only true childhood friend. Maybe it's because he was my only memorable connection to my unusual past. Maybe it's because he was front and center of the few happy childhood memories I was able to recall. What I do know, however, is that Michael was without doubt the foremost critical player during two of the most vulnerable years of my life. The true character of a person is not what's written or said about the individual. People can write and say what they want regardless of what is true or false. That's a nervy statement if I've ever heard one. Tim continues. One's true character can only be identified in how one behaves in all given situations and how one treats and or reacts towards other True character can never be evaluated simply on how we behave in public, but on how we behave in private when no one is looking. And this brings me to Michael. Our family had moved around a lot and rarely stayed anywhere long enough for me to make friends. My parents were also missionaries and very strict when it came to our interaction with non religious individuals or groups. Needless to say, as a result, I was severely lacking in social skills and was terrified of anything outside of my comfort zone. Making friends was definitely not in that zone to make life more challenging. I was the only lad in Colon or in Hong Kong, as far as I was concerned, who suffered with Tourette Syndrome, a disability that few doctors understood anything about at the time. The countless nights I cried myself to sleep after enduring a day of mumbled insults, mocking stares and being shunned as a quote our word by every child and adult alike. I was nine years old, excuse me, nine, when I found my first friend. His name was Michael Hutchins. He was my only friend. There were no others. My Tourette's made me quite noticeable, an embarrassment for those who were around me, but not for Michael. Oddly enough, Michael never even seemed to notice my tics, although they could be quite severe at times. Never did he stare, nor even acknowledge my grunts and quirks. And it was almost as if he never even noticed them. I wasn't stupid. I knew full well he could see and hear just fine. But unlike everyone else who would quickly leave when I jerked or grunted, Michael never did. He always stayed. Although Michael was always an awesome playmate, looking back, I am astounded at the level of maturity he displayed that far surpassed what one would expect from a thoughtful adult. Michael was very aware and in tune with my physical challenges and emotional insecurities. Yet as a nine year old boy, he chose where he wanted to be. It just happened to be alongside me, a place where no one else ever wanted to be. He became my sole encouragement when all others bullied me and mocked my quirks and went out of his way to protect me from dwelling in a very dark place. What child does that? Or even knows to do that? For the first time in my life, I had a real person, not a make believe one who actually cared about me, who genuinely liked me. If he didn't, then he would have left long ago like all the others. Not once did Michael distance himself from me. That's not what a best friend does. I can distinctly remember trying to determine in my mind whether Michael's outreach of friendship was genuine or was I simply being pitied. It didn't take very long before I got the answer I was looking for. Michael had absolutely nothing to gain and everything to lose by openly choosing to identify me as a friend. Michael seemed well liked by everyone and interacted comfortably with the cool kids at school. How shocked I was when my newly found friend, unapologetically and without a hint of hesitation, asked me in front of everyone, including the cool kids, if I would come to his home for his birthday party. I suddenly felt like the most important kid alive. I was shocked and thrilled that my dad even let me attend. Michael paid no mind that my dad stayed for the party. In fact, it all worked out for the better because Michael was the perfect host and impressed my father so much that I was given his official approval to revisit unescorted Tim Kept the pictures from that birthday party in which Tim is the standout. Of course there is Michael, he writes, and everyone else in their casual shorts and flip flops alongside me in my best summer clothes. He's overdressed, knee high socks, penny loafers, accessorized, of course, with a Cub Scout neckerchief and slide around my neck and a pen clipped to my collar. No sooner did I walk in when a boy asked out loud in a mildly patronizing tone, what are you wearing? Before I even had a chance to evaluate his question and conjure up a defense, Michael replied, whatever he wants. Topic closed, conversation over. What a great day indeed. I no longer ate my lunch alone or sat by the fence watching others play. He's put in. This is the last part of the story he's put in during a soccer game. Tim is as a replacement. And he's obviously, he's not athletic, he's not good. Michael is on the team. As the game went on, Tim writes, every time I gained access to the Paul to the ball, excuse me, I'd make sure I took my three allotted steps before kicking the ball back down the field. I was so nervous they lost the game. I could still hear people snickering and occasionally someone would shout out what Tim had been shouting out on the field. 1, 2, 3, kick. 1, 2, 3, Kick. Tim writes, Michael's life lesson to me was all about friendship. As the rest of the players walked back to the tram, they made it a point to keep their distance from me. Michael, on the other hand, walked the entire way back to the tram by my side. He didn't say anything profound and he did not tell me I did a great job. He just walked with me. It wasn't until we got onto the crowded tram that Michael put his hand on my shoulder and with everyone listening, smiled at me and said unapologetically and proudly, you're allowed three steps. You could have heard a pin drop. Tim writes in a few words, that 10 year old boy shamed everyone on that tram, including all the adults and parents. For the remainder of the ride, that tram car stayed completely silent. And these things that, that, that, that thing that Tim kept saying on the field every time he got the ball as they lost the game. One, two, three, kick. In Excess's breakthrough album, Kick. That does it. That does it. For today's edition of the Nerve at night. Come back and see us on Friday for a full edition of the Nerve. We will be doing tons of troublemaker feedback to make up for today, which was just overflowing with good good stuff and we've got so much more in store for you. In the meantime, keep your feedback coming. Email me at maureenevilmaycaremedia.com or DM me on Instagram at Maureen callahanrider or over at the Nerve show if you haven't already. Go subscribe to our substack. That is our weekly email full of bonus content plus bonus video behind the scenes peaks. All great stuff. TED Talk. Sometimes he gets in there without me knowing. Just go to thenerveshow.com that's the mothership. You'll subscribe right there every Friday after the last full Nerve of the week before the Mini Nerve on Saturday you get a little bonus content. It's all good fun. Plus Nerve Merch. We hear you in the comments saying we want we want mugs and baseball caps. Totes with nerve sayings. They are over there. They're available for you. Round two of Merch is available now. Head over to shop the nerve.com for that and we will see you again back here on Friday for a full edition of the Nerve where you will never guess what we're about to say next. Abercrombie just dropped the Perfect Swim book. That last minute beach trip you've been dreaming about. The new coastal inspired prints and patterns are great for any destination. Plus, thanks to Abercrombie, packing for vacation is even easier with reversible swim. Perfect for mixing, matching and customizing your look. Prep for Summer with Abercrombie in the app, online and in stores.
- [73:35]
B
Yo, it's Jay USO from WWE and I'm Jimmy uso. Chumba Casino and WWE are hyped for the biggest event of the summer, SummerSlam. I know I can't wait. There's nothing better to do while we're waiting than playing Chumba Casino. Sign up today and you can win a VIP experience with Chumba Casino and with WWE for SummerSlam. So what are you waiting for? Four Play Jumbo Casino and enter for your chance to win. Let's Jumble. No purchase necessary.
- [74:01]
A
VGW Group Void.
- [74:02]
B
We're prohibited by law. CTNC's 21+ sponsored by Jumbo Casino.