
Maureen Callahan eviscerates Sam Levinson, the creator and dark mind behind the hypersexualized storytelling in "Euphoria," including Sydney Sweeney’s degrading character role, humiliating scenes, egregious nudity, and what it reveals about the tone and intent behind the series. Maureen also reacts to Stanley Tucci's comments on the set of "The Devil Wears Prada 2" aimed at his co-star turned sister-in-law, Emily Blunt, and how no one seems to know what the sequel is about. Then Maureen reads Troublemaker mail involving a comparison between Lena Dunham and Charlize Theron’s handling of childhood trauma, calling out tabloids for outpacing traditional media, and weighing in on claims that another YouTube show is borrowing The Nerve’s signature woodchipper brand. Finally, Maureen unpacks resurfaced viral clips of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith and dissects the moments fueling renewed scrutiny around their marriage, including Jada’s public remarks, Will’s increasingly strained reac...
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Maureen Callahan
Booster ignition and lift up. If you're listening, this is a Pomeranian in space. Now doing a spacewalk, seeing the moon and the space junk known as Stedman Graham Gale's space junk.
Marlena
Teddy can only dream. I am an astronaut. Someday he will join my ranks. Hello, hello and welcome to your Friday edition of the Nerve.
Maureen Callahan
I am your host, Maureen Callahan.
Marlena
We are closing out our week long story celebration of the Nerve turning one with a banger.
Maureen Callahan
First, we are going to take apart a show that the culture is telling us is very important and has a
Marlena
lot of really smart, insightful things to say and warn about in regards to
Maureen Callahan
what it is to be a young person today. And the Nerve is here to push back vehemently and to call it what it is we porn run by a guy who hates women. And by the time we're through with
Marlena
this, I defy anyone to look at this piece of shit the same way again. Then we're going to touch on the Devil wears Prada 2 which had its premiere in New York City this week. We will be covering the film once it's released and those of us who care to go see it, we'll see it.
Maureen Callahan
We will talk about it.
Marlena
Tell us too, by the way, if
Maureen Callahan
you want the Nerve to cover and how in depth you would like us to cover the forthcoming Michael Jackson biopic. I often hear people pronounce biopic biopic,
Marlena
but I really think it is.
Maureen Callahan
It's the mashup of biography and picture. I think it's biopic.
Marlena
Anyway, that's my own little note. Let us know. You know, the key thing with this
Maureen Callahan
movie is it does not acknowledge any of the things that were problematic about the self dubbed king of pop.
Marlena
Okay, then we are going to get
Maureen Callahan
in to a celebrity couple who not only should have been divorced a long time ago, but who continue to insist on befouling the culture with details of their very fucked up arrangement that frankly none of us need to know. Okay?
Marlena
This is a Friday show and we are Going to bring the troublemakers into the weekend like no other.
Maureen Callahan
Are you ready?
Marlena
Are you ready? Let's go.
Maureen Callahan
A lot of skin care companies out there are purporting to sell wholesome natural products. The trouble is that most of the big names out there are owned by mega corporations and private equity firms that prioritize profit over quality. Fortunately, one company is doing things differently and that is Van Man. Van man started the tallow trend a few years back with their grass fed tallow moisturizers and they have been crushing it ever since. Tallow makes for a great moisturizer because the fatty acids are nearly identical to the oils in your own skin. Your body actually recognizes them. One use and you will feel the difference. Plus there are no chemicals, no filler and and a little product goes a long way. Tallow balm isn't just a moisturizer. It can replace your night cream, wrinkle cream, even Neosporin and diaper balm. It's powerful enough to heal the skin, yet safe enough to spread on your toast. Those are real ingredients. If you are ready to ditch corporate chemicals, go to Vanman Dot shop Maureen and use code Maureen for 15% off your first order. That's code Maureen for 15% off your 1st order. Van Man. Real ingredients, no exceptions.
Marlena
Now we're going to talk about something
Maureen Callahan
that I actually think is, is important
Marlena
but we're going to do it in a nerve way. There is a show that has currently
Maureen Callahan
come back into the culture. It's been years since its last season aired and many people thought that perhaps HBO would do the prudent thing which was just let it die quietly. Did they?
Marlena
No. We are constantly told that, you know
Maureen Callahan
you're going to get programming over at
Marlena
HBO like, like it's premium grade original stuff that's so daring and really important and it's. And part of its importance is to
Maureen Callahan
put push the cultural needle and a lot of it's not true.
Marlena
We're watching Lena Dunham take a victory lap with Girls during her book tour. Girls premiered in 2012. We cover. We covered Lena on our first show
Maureen Callahan
back and what she did with Girls, our first show back from spring break.
Marlena
And what we all saw was highly
Maureen Callahan
misogynistic soft core porn.
Marlena
Their current shows, they've got one.
Maureen Callahan
They're not as buzzy as they would have hoped. There's one called DTF which we all. You know what that's an acronym for in case you don't. Kinsey.
Marlena
If you're watching cover your ears down
Maureen Callahan
to starring Jason Bateman And David harbor and Linda Cardellini as like swingers in
Marlena
the Midwest, you know. Now we're back with Euphoria, which when
Maureen Callahan
this show premiered, I tried to watch the first episode because I was told
Marlena
this was culturally relevant and you want to be part of the conversation, you need to know what's going on.
Maureen Callahan
I turned it off maybe 15 minutes into it. Once a teenage girl showed up at a like super cheap motel 6 to have sex with the dad, the middle aged dad of a friend of hers from high school. I knew exactly what was up here. The showrunner, Sam Levinson is a really fucked up guy. He's got a lot of rage and he's got a lot of rage towards women. A lot. I'm going to guess Sam had it rough in high school. I'm going to guess women didn't look at Sam in high school and that he spent a lot of his time in a basement gaming, going, do you know who my dad is? Because Sam is a Nepo. Sam. Sam's father is the far more accomplished filmmaker Barry Levinson. Sam enjoys taking his actresses, Sydney Sweeney, Zendaya and degrading them and humiliating them.
Marlena
Now, before we get into showing some
Maureen Callahan
of these clips, and I'm going to warn you again, as with the Lena Slash Girls segment, that the Nerve did,
Marlena
these clips are very graphic, but we
Maureen Callahan
have to show them because we have
Marlena
to show the gulf between, say, what the New York Times is telling us about Euphoria. I was going through the New York Times Sunday edition about two or three weeks ago, which I do every week
Maureen Callahan
because it's part of my homework for the week, coming up with the troublemakers.
Marlena
Okay? No less than like in one week. Okay? This is the same edition, the New York Times. Thursday, April 16. Euphoria gets a new look. A major, major profile of like the costume designer. Are you kidding me? Thursday, the same addition from Euphoria to the A listicle, which is like the laziest thing you need to fill pages. So Sunday had a very lengthy profile of Sam Levinson, treating him like a serious artist, like a man of intellect and great creativity. Who knows what he's talking about? The guy is into making women sexually degrade themselves, okay? The younger and more beautiful, the greater the degradation. Let's just get real.
Maureen Callahan
I'm going to quote a little bit
Marlena
though, from the glowing, lengthy New York Times profile published on April 8 in. Sorry, the author is named Joe Cost Cascarelli. If I'm saying that correct, first of all, the Times you should have assigned
Maureen Callahan
this piece to A woman.
Marlena
And you should have assigned this piece
Maureen Callahan
to a woman who's got an issue with the way Sam Levinson depicts women
Marlena
both on this show and in his failed show the Idol. Which we're going to get to. Okay, we're going to get to the Idol, also an HBO show.
Maureen Callahan
I'm quoting.
Marlena
Levinson, 41, is more than happy to luxuriate in the desperation and despair of his characters. Of course he is. He writes them this way. It's a one man band over there. The, the, the Hollywood Reporter recently did a major piece which I was just reading on the Chaos over on the Euphoria set. They've had two deaths so far. The show is in its third season and it took several years off. So two seasons.
Maureen Callahan
Two.
Marlena
Two deaths. One a 25 year old actor who had addiction issues.
Maureen Callahan
This show is all about drugs and sex. That's it.
Marlena
It's sex and drugs. The other was Levinson's former producing partner,
Maureen Callahan
45 year old guy driving with his 10 year old son. Drop dead while driving of a heart attack. The sum and substance of this very well reported Hollywood Reporter piece, the pressures of working with Sam Levinson, who is a Chaos agent, probably did him in some in substance. My interpretation of that article. I am not saying that Sam Levinson was responsible for his death. However, the family made it clear that Sam Levinson was not welcome at the funeral. This is what Sam says on shooting with.
Marlena
Sam's a former addict.
Maureen Callahan
But you know, you read between the lines of some of these stories and
Marlena
they talk about how sam parties till
Maureen Callahan
5am and is up all night writing
Marlena
and pacing and rewriting and tearing up and getting to the set and he's manic, and he's manic and he's manic and you can read between the lines.
Maureen Callahan
I think just my opinion on shooting a show with cast members, young cast
Marlena
members who are struggling with active addiction.
Maureen Callahan
Sam says, quote, I have to deliver the show, but I wanted to make sure that the cast was safe and healthy.
Marlena
Sure you do. Sure you do. Sam, again, before we get to Euphoria because brace yourselves. I'm kind of, I'm kind of helping to build us all up to what we're about to watch. What HBO is telling us is art.
Maureen Callahan
Give me a break.
Marlena
You know, HBO has really, really, really
Maureen Callahan
gone down into the gutter. This is nothing but soft core porn aimed at children, aimed at young people. And it's what Sam Levinson is trying to do is normalize this stuff. It's all about onlyfans culture and sex Work online and hey, money's money.
Marlena
And however you get it. Famous fame, however you get it.
Maureen Callahan
Sam says he's very proud of the Idol. The Idol starred Lily Rose Depp, daughter of Johnny Depp. This goes to show you how sick Hollywood remains, okay?
Marlena
Harvey Weinstein putting him in prison did nothing. Nothing. Sean Combs putting him in federal prison for like the equivalent of a hot second has done nothing. It's done nothing. Lily Rose Dap starred in the Idol
Maureen Callahan
opposite the Weekend, who is trying to get an acting career off the ground now. The minute the Weeknd showed up on my screen in the Idol, I knew exactly what was coming. And you want to know why? And I mean no disrespect to many any man out there who is not like, say, average height at best. No, but there is a strain of guy in the culture, and we all know it, who attempts to make up
Marlena
for whatever slights they think or perceive
Maureen Callahan
they have withstood from women a woman who does not have interest in them. They perceive it immediately as a result of their height.
Marlena
Prince did not have this problem. Prince, 10th anniversary of his death happened this week. May he rest.
Maureen Callahan
The genius that was Prince. The genius that was Prince. The Weeknd is one of these guys. You can tell he's really short and he hates women. He hates women. I would bet Sam Levinson is also a short man, a shorter man.
Marlena
Sam, you know, this is one of those rare instances where the culture and I'm going to talk a little bit
Maureen Callahan
about a column I wrote about the
Marlena
Idol when it first premiered.
Maureen Callahan
I mean, I wrote that column in, In, In a. I, I was enraged by what I had seen. And, you know, again, as I've said, I'm no moralist. I went to art school.
Marlena
You know, but there's, there's stuff that masquerade exceed bed, as we discussed with Lena. There's stuff that masquerades as art that's just perverts trying to get off. A guy masturbating for eight hours a day under floorboards at an art gallery in New York City is not art. It's a. It's a sexual predator and a pervert. My opinion, who can't just get satisfaction out of just being the perv he is behind his own four walls. No, they've got to inflict it on the culture, claim its art, and then say to the rest of us who object and say, first of all, you're a pervert.
Maureen Callahan
You're.
Marlena
You're a smut peddler, you're a pornographer. Sam Levinson, my opinion, make no mistake, is a pornographer. And how women in exec suites at HBO can't call this for what it
Maureen Callahan
is is beyond me.
Marlena
Ladies, find your spines and your self respect. Women didn't burn their bras for this shit. Are you fucking kidding? Sam Levinson thinks the Idol is. Is hysterical. A show about a young pop star, a beautiful young pop star played by Lily Rose Depp, who gets beaten, abused during sex, spanked. He thinks it's hysterical. That's his word, quote, hysterical. And just as Michael Patrick King went on record recently and said he believes that, and just like that, he. That other piece of HBO show is going to. Michael Patrick King said, quote, I think it's going to age really well. I think that show is going to age really well. Sam Levinson thinks the same thing. Where are these getting this idea, these misogynistic pieces of shit? Is it coming from hbo? Now, as for making sure that. Oh, by the way, just before I get to Euphoria, I want to read a little bit from this. Hollywood. This. No, no. This is a Rolling Stone expose. This was from March 1, 2023.
Maureen Callahan
Rolling Stone again, a magazine about rock and roll, about sex, drugs and rock and roll. The Idol was too much for Rolling Stone. The headline, How HBO's Next Euphoria Became Twisted, quote, torture Porn. I'm reading directly from this piece of.
Marlena
In interviews with 13 members of the show's cast and crew, Rolling Stone has learned that basically everybody involved in this
Maureen Callahan
who wasn't Sam Levinson was deeply disturbed by what they were doing. HBO handed the reigns to Levinson only to have him weaken the show's overarching message.
Marlena
The show had previously had a female
Maureen Callahan
director who had been kicked out after filming five and a half of the six episodes. You're gonna tell me this guy doesn't have a problem with women? An experienced female filmmaker,
Marlena
Sam dialed up. Many sources say I'm quoting from Rolling Stone, the disturbing sexual content and nudity to match and even surpass that of
Maureen Callahan
his most successful show, Euphoria.
Marlena
Again, I would like to see the
Maureen Callahan
numbers on Euphoria because as someone else has quoted in one of these pieces,
Marlena
yeah, Euphoria is a success, but it's
Maureen Callahan
not Game of Thrones. And I think they mean both in terms of number and artistry.
Marlena
Quote, what I signed up for was
Maureen Callahan
a dark satire of fame and the fame model in the 21st century. One production member explains, quote, the things
Marlena
that we subject our talent and stars to, the forces that put people in
Maureen Callahan
the spotlight and how that can be manipulated in the post Trump world.
Marlena
However, they said it went from satire to the thing it was satirizing. Quote again from someone on on this show. It was like any rape fantasy that any toxic man would have in the show. And then the woman comes back for more because it makes her music better. This. You got to be kidding. Sam Levinson, per the Independent, as re reported by People magazine, January 26, 2022. How to make sure that his cast feels safe and healthy. The headline euphoria is Sydney Sweeney breakout star. There are three breakout stars from Euphoria.
Maureen Callahan
Sydney Sweeney, Z Zendaya and Jacob Elordi.
Marlena
Euphoria. Sydney Sweeney says she asked director that would be Sam Levinson to cut some
Maureen Callahan
of her characters nude scenes.
Marlena
According I'm reading from the Independent. According to the actress in the latest season of the HBO hit Quote, there are moments where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless. Listen, Sidney, there is no reason your character needs to be shirtless. Ask Sarah Jessica Parker, who starred on a show called Sex and the City for for multiple years and had it in her contract that she was never
Maureen Callahan
to be seen topless.
Marlena
She was never to be seen without a bra there.
Maureen Callahan
No, there's no reason you need to be nude. Okay? Fight for yourself. You've got power now. Use it.
Marlena
Use it for yourself and use it for all the other girls and young
Maureen Callahan
women coming up after you.
Marlena
Okay, I continue. I would tell Sam, quote, I don't
Maureen Callahan
really think that's necessary here.
Marlena
She went on to say, I've never
Maureen Callahan
felt like Sam has pushed it on to me.
Marlena
I doubt that. I highly doubt that because we're going
Maureen Callahan
to look at what he's making Sydney Sweeney do. And trust me when I tell you Sam Levinson is punishing Sydney Sweeney for becoming a star, for not needing the likes of him anymore. She's going to be done with this once she absorbs the way the culture really feels about what Sam Levinson is doing to Sydney Sweeney and, and what Sydney and her people are allowing to be done to her. Sydney continues or was trying to get a nude scene into an HBO show gratuitously.
Marlena
Listen, that's all that HBO really, you know, HBO has given a lot of good stuff to the culture. But, you know, trust me, as much as I love the Sopranos, the only reason they put Tony's back office in a strip club was so they could show female nudity gratuitously as much as possible. Okay,
Maureen Callahan
we're going to look at season one, episode one. This is a scene in which Sydney Sweeney's character is. She's a teenage girl in high school with the body of, of a, of a young woman, like, I mean like a mature, through adolescence young, young woman posing for, for pictures that are surely going to go up online. Here we go.
Zendaya (voiceover)
Here's the thing that pisses me off about the world. Like every time someone's gets leaked, whether it's J. Law or Leslie Jones, the whole world's
Marlena
like, well, if you don't want it
Zendaya (voiceover)
out there, don't take the news in the first place. I'm sorry, I know your generation relied on flowers and father's permission mission, but it's 2019 and unless you're Amish, nudes are the currency of love. So stop shaming us.
Maureen Callahan
Shame.
Zendaya (voiceover)
The who create password protected online directories of naked underage girls.
Maureen Callahan
Cassie's actually super sweet, followed by a very quick montage, but very detailed nonetheless of Sydney Sweeney taking selfies and posing for nude photos to go up online. Now that voiceover was by Zendaya who again, that's season one, episode one. She is laying out the thesis of the show and that is Sam Levinson trying to gaslight and brainwash girls and women especially. She says, oh, you expect respect?
Marlena
That's outdated. Respect for women from men who are interested in them romantically, that's outdated. You got to get with the program. You got to move with the times. You know what the currency of love is?
Maureen Callahan
Nudes.
Marlena
No, I reject it. I reject it. I'll tell you, if one of my
Maureen Callahan
goddaughters came to me and they were
Marlena
like, I'm taking notes from Euphoria, we
Maureen Callahan
would have a Come to Jesus for the ages. Daily Mail headline upon the the re. The reemergence of Euphoria, which just began its third season on HBO three weeks ago this Sunday, headline Euphoria fans appalled at Sydney Sweeney being degraded in new X rated fetish scenes. We'll get to those. We'll get to those.
Marlena
But basically it was, you know, it would, it's, it's Go on Reddit, go on any Rewatch thread. You're going to see response that is disturbed and alarmed. Okay, now let's go to. Oh, we're gonna, we're gonna go right here to the premiere episode of season
Maureen Callahan
three, episode one, this first aired on April 12th. And when I say Sam Levinson is punishing Sidney Sweeney and you know what else? He's punishing her for whatever he believes her political views are. We're not political at the nerve. But when politics enters pop culture and Becomes a wedge. That's when we're going to discuss it. It's believed that Sydney Sweeney is a Republican in the first two episodes of season three. Sam's got a lot of anti Trump rhetoric in his show. Fine. Have at it.
Marlena
It's your show. Those are your beliefs.
Maureen Callahan
Have at it. But I'm telling you, he put Sydney Sweeney. And when you watch this, you're going to think I'm, like, exaggerating for comic effect. Would that I were. He put Sydney Sweeney dressed up as a dog with a leash around her neck on all fours in various settings, taking photos for only fan fans. Excuse me. Having her housekeeper. There's a class element here, too, that's really upsetting. Her housekeeper. Take these highly sexualized photos, and when you look at the opening shot, we'll talk about exactly the visual language and what Sam Levinson is communicating here. This is so upsetting, I cannot believe. Me too. Gave us this.
Marlena
Women of Hollywood. Do something, I beg of you. Here we go. How much is that doggy in the window? The one with the wagly tail?
Zendaya (voiceover)
She spent her free time trying to become tik tok famous.
Marlena
I do hope that doggy is for sale.
Maureen Callahan
Okay, so that. That opening scene, I didn't narrate it in case you're listening, because I wanted the shock of it to just sink in. If you're listening, I would encourage you to watch this to. To just really know what these people are up to. It's a. It's a tight shot of Sydney Sweeney's bare bottom. She's dressed as a dog, but her. Her bare ass is, like, right up in front of the camera. Now, hanging between her butt cheeks is what's meant to be ostensibly a dog's thick tail. But what that reads as, make no mistake, is a hardened. I just have to be as graphic as this guy is. I just. I won't. I won't give any quarter on this one. It looks like a hardened piece of. That she is waving between her butt cheeks. You can't tell me there are not women at HBO or in this production who are not completely appalled and disgusted by this. You guys have got to do something. You have got to do something. You cannot raise a generation of women on this as valid,
Marlena
as acceptable as art. It's not art, okay?
Maureen Callahan
This guy is working out his sexual frustration and rage. That's what's going on here. That's what's going on here. He's angry at women like Sydney Sweeney, who would never him and who voted in a way that he finds repulsive, but probably kind of turns him on.
Marlena
Just my opinion.
Maureen Callahan
Just my opinion. Now back to the Idol for a moment because it all bleeds together. I'm going to read a little bit from the column I wrote for the Daily Mail about this show, which was first published on June 20, 2023. We called it, we called it a sickening rape fan fantasy. And at the time I said, I think it's as poisonous as cancer. And I do. I think it's a cultural cancer and it's metastasizing and it's time we treated it like the medical emergency it is.
Marlena
Cut it out, burn it and throw it away with all the other medical waste.
Maureen Callahan
And I quote, Episode 1 of the
Marlena
Idol opens with Jocelyn in crisis.
Maureen Callahan
This is the Lily Rose Depp character.
Marlena
This is Lily. This is what Sam Levinson is doing
Maureen Callahan
to the beautiful young daughter of a very powerful man in Hollywood. Okay, we're getting off on multiple levels.
Marlena
I continue.
Maureen Callahan
A photo of her doll like face smeared with semen leaked online. A direct reference to the real life hacking of probably private photos of famous women, many in compromising positions that went viral in 2014. Apparently because it needs to be said, there was nothing funny about that. The creators of the Idol, however, seem to disagree. Here is the edifying dialogue to follow about Jocelyn. And these are, these are the comments of her team. Her team who's supposed to crisis manage this. They describe Jocelyn as, as, quote, a face full of cum, as the human
Marlena
cum sock, as jizz rag Jocelyn.
Maureen Callahan
You see how juvenile this stuff is.
Marlena
HBO and the Hollywood industrial complex would
Maureen Callahan
have us believe that Sam Levinson is the second coming of Ingmar Bergman. Okay? Not even John Waters. Not and who I love and adore. John Waters did it. Moving on, the lyrics to Jocelyn's single in the show, quote, I'm just a freak. Yeah. You know, I want to bang. Her boyfriend in the show, played by the Weekend, wields a knife against Jocelyn during sex.
Marlena
He chokes her.
Maureen Callahan
He blindfolds her.
Marlena
He tells her to do everything.
Maureen Callahan
He says, quote, while I suffocate you with my, I want you to choke on it.
Marlena
Keep in mind if HBO and Sam Levinson and the Weeknd do, you know, they tried to sell the culture on this as reflective, you know, as a commentary, a satire on the fame machine and the fame monsters who want it so badly and will do anything for it and you know, the abuses of power that can take place or. But you know, she really wanted it in Levinson and Weeknd show and the weekend show Excuse me, that character, the
Maureen Callahan
Lily Rose Depp character, she really wanted it. She was begging for it.
Marlena
Okay, you try selling that in a culture in which the biggest female pop stars are Billy Eilish, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, a self made billionaire. Try it, Try it. What they did to this character, Jocelyn, as I wrote in the column for the Daily Mail, a show that's been all but forgotten because, you know, HBO did what it does best.
Maureen Callahan
It got this thing, memory hold. They broke this character, they bloodied her, they made her at times unable to literally stand on her own bruised and
Marlena
battered feet because that is the subtlety
Maureen Callahan
of the metaphor here. Jocelyn in the Idol lives and loves to be cut up and choked out during sex.
Marlena
Back to Euphoria, season three, blessedly the last one. I hope Sam Levinson really can't get
Maureen Callahan
more work after this.
Marlena
I hope he has trouble slinging his wares. Just go to only fans, dude, okay?
Maureen Callahan
Just go work in porn.
Marlena
Just do it. You're not. The. The other thing about Sam Levinson is he's not a good artist, he's a bad artist.
Maureen Callahan
He's a terrible writer. Sharon Stone is in season three and
Marlena
she's playing a high powered
Maureen Callahan
production executive. And I find this really, really just, this is like, you know, Sharon Stone, who should know better if what, you know, there's always been controversy over.
Marlena
Did Sharon Stone really not know that when she spread her legs while filming the interrogation scene in Basic Instinct without any underwear on that that wasn't going to make it into the final cut because she wasn't wearing any underwear and she was wearing a short skirt and
Maureen Callahan
she opened her legs, she crossed them
Marlena
and she did it slowly enough to, you know, she's sitting in front of a camera and she always said, I didn't know. I didn't know past the smelling salts. I didn't know. I was totally violated. You know, Sharon Stone had been jobbing around Hollywood for years. She got famous at 34, but back then in the early 90s, that was like making it at 65, you know. So if she were truly violated in that way, I don't understand how on earth in the living she gets involved with the likes of Sam LE Levinson, who is exploiting a whole new generation of young actresses. Okay, this I believe, you know, he was. I think Sam Levinson put the thesis statement of his show and his quote unquote art in Sharon Stone's mouth in this scene. She's going to talk. Episode one, season three of the Power of television. And again, when these people who create this garbage, this sludge, this psychological, emotional, intellectual, moral sludge try to tell us, hey, it's just television. It's just entertainment. Why are you being so upset by it? It's just, if you can't handle it, don't watch it. Don't turn it on. Okay? Listen to Sharon Stone's character as an executive in film and television telling her staff about the power of the entertainment media complex on the way people think. Here we go.
Maureen Callahan
People underestimate the power of entertainment. What you see on television directly impacts the way we see one another.
Marlena
Yes, I agree. I agree. And Sam Levinson is trying to normalize porn among young girls and women. He's trying to say, you know what? You know where you're going to find your greatest power and really claim your sexuality? Degrade yourself. Take tons of nude selfies and spread them online and send them to boys you like and like, you know, who cares? It's the currency of love. Okay? Now, Jacob Elordi's character, by the way, in the. In the intervening years, all of these actors who were younger when this began, you know, they all look like they'd rather be consulting with their wealth advisor at Fidelity, asking how their 401k is
Maureen Callahan
doing and how they should diversify.
Marlena
Jacob Elordi's character pulls up to the
Maureen Callahan
home he shares with Sydney Sweeney's character in a Tesla cybertruck. And that is code. That is Sam Levinson's code for this piece of. Is a Republican.
Marlena
Now, we have more proof of Sam Levinson's rampant misogyny because he's got Jacob's
Maureen Callahan
Nate calling Sydney's Cassie.
Marlena
Actually, I'm not going to spoil it for you, but, you know, she's tricked
Maureen Callahan
out on a bed.
Marlena
On, off, worse, dressed like a dog with a leash around her neck. And she needs this guy to explain
Maureen Callahan
to her exactly what she's doing.
Marlena
Because you know what?
Maureen Callahan
In Sam Levinson's world, a woman who's doing that really doesn't know what she's doing. Here we go.
Jacob Elordi (voiceover)
Think about what you're saying, what you're actually saying. How much is that doggy in the window? Who's the doggy?
Maureen Callahan
I'm a doggie.
Jacob Elordi (voiceover)
All right, so you're for sale. No, no, but what you're saying is you can buy me.
Maureen Callahan
It's just a funny video.
Jacob Elordi (voiceover)
Except you're not a doggy. You're a grown woman, so that makes you a what? A prostitute?
Marlena
Now, Sydney looks shocked. Shocked. A prostitute? Wait, you mean If I'm Sydney selling myself sexually, online or otherwise, I'm a prostitute. Now let's watch Nate, who just right there, morally outraged, morally offended. This will not stand.
Maureen Callahan
Except it will.
Marlena
Except it will. He's gonna degrade this character some more. Here we go.
Jacob Elordi (voiceover)
Come. Sit. You don't need to worry about money. I've got money.
Maureen Callahan
Why haven't we remodeled the living room or the kitchen or the master ensuite?
Jacob Elordi (voiceover)
Maybe we will. But right now I'm investing in myself, in the business. Oh, it takes money to make money.
Maureen Callahan
Let me chip in.
Jacob Elordi (voiceover)
Oh, You've been a bad, bad dog.
Maureen Callahan
So aside from everything that's completely disgusting about that scene, you know, the Jacob Elordi character has to explain that he's making the money because he's the man and she's just the little lady who doesn't need to worry about money. And when she expresses her worries about money, it's not about health insurance or. Or like a six month emergency fund. No, she wants to do, like, really sad feminine things, like do a remodel of the kitchen.
Marlena
Now
Maureen Callahan
we're going to go to a montage. Which really depressed me. Really depressed me. Because I have to think that Sydney Sweeney has some considerable power now. And I have to think that
Marlena
something is.
Maureen Callahan
Something is deeply wrong when a young woman with this amount of power thinks
Marlena
she either has to or that it's
Maureen Callahan
artistically valid for her to be put in these positions by a male, quote, unquote, filmmaker.
Marlena
I use.
Maureen Callahan
I use that word so loosely. We're gonna watch what he does to the Cassie character here. And it is. It's just so depressing. It's so upsetting. Here we go.
Zendaya (voiceover)
It was a shame she was with Nate. Cassie was exactly the kind of girl you'd dream of signing. Beautiful but directionless,
Maureen Callahan
Licking ice cream spilling all over her breast.
Zendaya (voiceover)
So desperate for speech, willing to humiliate herself.
Maureen Callahan
She's good.
Jacob Elordi (voiceover)
I want to be love alone.
Maureen Callahan
American. Flag her up.
Zendaya (voiceover)
Why was she reaching out now after all these years?
Marlena
What does she want?
Maureen Callahan
Do you ever feel like your life can be bigger?
Jada Pinkett Smith (clip)
Me?
Maureen Callahan
Legs wide open.
Jada Pinkett Smith (clip)
No.
Maureen Callahan
Even though you're just a housekeeper?
Jada Pinkett Smith (clip)
See, America, you, my dear. Nobody else but you.
Maureen Callahan
Sydney puts the pacifier back in her mouth. Spreads her legs open on the sofa, wearing white underwear. So she's trafficking in, like I would call a child porn adjacent.
Marlena
Really?
Maureen Callahan
When you're dressing up as a baby to market yourself to the. To the men and the deviants who find that sexually arousing. To say nothing of the classism the disgusting classism in that piece in which the Sweeney character says to her own employee, don't you dream of something more for yourself even though you're just a housekeeper? There is dignity in good, hard honesty work, okay? I don't care what you do if it's good. That housekeeper has more dignity than the Sydney Sweeney character, even though that character is meant to represent money.
Marlena
You know, fuck this guy, fuck this show. And please, can the culture be done with Sam fucking Levinson. And can the women inside the walls of HBO and Hollywood at large continue having their fucking reckoning? Because it's not over yet, sisters. It's not. That's it coming up. Coming up, Troublemaker feedback. We will lighten the load. Back in a minute.
Maureen Callahan
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Marlena
So just head to jonesroad beauty.com use code nerve@ checkout and after you purchase
Maureen Callahan
they're going to ask where did you hear about us? Tell them please, you are a troublemaker and that the Nerve sent you.
Marlena
We are back. Now before we get in to some
Maureen Callahan
troublemaker feedback which all of it is so great. And by the way, thank you to everyone who in email and comments and DMS sent really lovely congratulations and cheers for the Nerve hitting its first birthday. Yeah, we're up and walking and talking, rocking and rolling.
Marlena
Thank you.
Maureen Callahan
We have loved celebrating with you this week.
Marlena
Now here, here's something that I love and Marlena loved this story too because
Maureen Callahan
it just goes to show how fake Hollywood is. And wait till we get to our mini this weekend because we're really going to roll around in some real true Hollywood fucking fakery. You know, the Devil Wears Proditude is about to come out. I suspect this movie is a bomb because everything's like, look at all the,
Marlena
look at all the red Carpet events and, and the press junket. And look at the, look at everything they're dressing in. And listen, watch that trailer.
Maureen Callahan
I defy you to tell me what the movie's about. And that's the point of a trailer, to tell us what the movie's about. So I think it's going to be a big bust. I really.
Marlena
It might make a lot of money in its first weekend because we don't know what it's about. You know what I mean? The marketing is the marketing and it's keeping our eyes over here. So here we go. But anyway, so famously, you know, that's
Maureen Callahan
the movie that made Emily Blunt a name. Hollywood has been trying to make Emily Blunt like a leading lady movie star ever since. It's not happening. It's not happening. And.
Marlena
But she introduced her co star on
Maureen Callahan
that film, Stanley Tucci, who was a widower, to her sister, who I believe is named Felice, I think, and her sister is a literary agent and they fell in love. And so Stanley and Felice are now married. And so Emily is his sister in law.
Marlena
And they're always like, oh, we're just one big happy family, right? Emily and John Krasinski, her, her husband
Maureen Callahan
and Stanley and Emily's sister. I don't think it's that happy. I don't think it's that happy. E news why Emily Blunt's brother in law, Stanley Tucci called her quote, shameless on the Devil wears Prada 2 set.
Marlena
Whenever they would cut, the actress exclusively told ease creator, can't you know E is dying.
Maureen Callahan
E is dying. Anyway, this is the hot. This is the hot goss she gave at the at to E on the
Marlena
red carpet whenever they would cut st.
Maureen Callahan
She calls him Stan. Stan would be like, you're shameless. Shameless. And she said that what he meant by that was quote how much I was overacting.
Marlena
So Stanley Tucci does not think much
Maureen Callahan
of Emily's acting skills as.
Marlena
As do most paying audiences because she's not become a leading lady.
Maureen Callahan
Okay.
Marlena
Troublemaker feedback. Dear Maureen, Troublemaker since episode one. Wow, we love to hear that. We will use your name.
Maureen Callahan
She says, I don't mind you reading my email on air, but for anonymity, please refer to me as Kana from Vegas. So you do know who you are. She writes, I have survived childhood trauma and this is in context of our episodes on Lena Dunham Rob's comments about gossip and why it matters. And the clip we we played and discussed about Charlie's Charlize Theron and the abuse that she survived her mother killed her father, defending the both of their lives. I've survived childhood trauma. Connor from Vegas rights and celebrity gossip took me into a world that was vastly different from the harsh reality I lived in. It was a form of escapism. I think many of us, you know,
Marlena
who had childhoods that were maybe a little bit, you know, my parents really did love me. But it could be.
Maureen Callahan
I always say I'm a product of a difficult home.
Marlena
Okay, Product of a difficult home. So this I can relate to, the stories in celebrity gossip. You know, it's like the first time I heard the Lana Turner story, You know, shades of Charlize and her teenage daughter. Cheryl either stabbed or shot Lana's mobster
Maureen Callahan
boyfriend to death because he was abusive, and it was a matter of life or death. And then the rumor mill in Hollywood
Marlena
was always, did Lana actually do it?
Maureen Callahan
And did Cheryl take the fall?
Marlena
Lana and Cheryl both knowing that the criminal justice system would go way easier
Maureen Callahan
on a teenage girl anyway, you know, I'm saying okay.
Marlena
And back to Connor's email.
Maureen Callahan
If I was honest about my reading
Marlena
list that I had to submit to my English teacher, oh, my God, how much do I relate to this? At your age, it would consist of Essie Hinton, Judy Blume, the National Enquirer, and People magazine. Of course, the last two reading materials were omitted in my report. She goes on to say that she
Maureen Callahan
thinks Lena Dunham and I agree, just my supposition, has gone through some kind of childhood abuse.
Marlena
She does, in her memoir, speak about
Maureen Callahan
being molested by a babysitter. I think it was more than that. I think that. I think Lena was probably abused by others as well. Just my opinion.
Marlena
Lena, this troublemaker writes, embraces her victimhood like a warm blanket.
Maureen Callahan
Yes. And that is not healthy. It is not healthy.
Marlena
This troublemaker says, when I finally shared
Maureen Callahan
the abuse that I endured as a child, I went through a similar phase of victimhood.
Marlena
You need. When you have been gaslit by adults as a child, you. It's affirming to have other people say to you, you're so strong. You're a survivor. You should write a book.
Maureen Callahan
I believe that's what Lena is doing.
Marlena
I do, too. I think you're right. This troublemaker also says, I was struck by how Charlize Theron was able to tell her child her childhood trauma devoid of strong emotions. I could tell, and I may be wrong, that as she recounted the violent events that she survived, it wasn't to
Maureen Callahan
evoke emotions of victimhood or draw sympathy. It was a fact. This is what happened to me. This is my story.
Marlena
I agree with you. That's why I think she's been through
Maureen Callahan
a lot of therapy.
Marlena
This troublemaker says it has taken decades for me to look at what I
Maureen Callahan
endured as a child as objectively as I can. Years of therapy, self reflection and prayer have brought me to where I am now. Gossip is fun as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. Being a career victim is soul sucking. And to have a family and career, despite what I survived, is a miracle. Lena Dunham should take note. Dear Maureen, you can use my name.
Marlena
This is Troublemaker from Roz. Excuse me, Troublemaker. Roz from Texas. Previously la to our conversation about gossip
Maureen Callahan
and what we were talking to Rob about this week. Roz thought of her brother George, who was a year and nine months older than me.
Marlena
I was his shadow as a child.
Maureen Callahan
Uh, we Irish Catholics would call you Irish twins. He was very well read, had hundreds if not thousands of books all over his house and law office.
Marlena
He married a vile and selfish woman. No, really, Troublemaker, I love you. The way you just put that detail right in there, I love it. Okay.
Maureen Callahan
I would go and visit him on Sunday mornings.
Marlena
She would ask me to bring bagels. No way. She was a moocher. She never in 20 years even bought me a coffee.
Maureen Callahan
Anyway.
Marlena
I would walk the one and a
Maureen Callahan
half miles and say I didn't want to carry anything.
Marlena
My brother would have his Sunday Times and all the rag magazines. That's what they called the National Enquirer, the Globe, etc. He would say that these newspaper tabloids
Maureen Callahan
would always be way ahead of the actual papers and more accurate on basic media stories. George was right. My brother Roz, I'm so sorry.
Marlena
My brother died of a heart attack 10 years ago. Parens. We all know his wife was the catalyst. Roz, I love you. She writes.
Maureen Callahan
I miss him every day. I truly enjoy your podcast with your brother Bill. Thank you. I do too.
Marlena
I can see that Bill really thinks
Maureen Callahan
through his answers to your questions and it so reminds me of my relationship with my brother George. Please pass my best, best wishes to Bill.
Marlena
Consider them passed. This is. We're going to show the full screen from Troublemaker Vanessa. I love the show. I too love being a troublemaker. I saw this meme and had to share it with you. Thank you for sharing it, Vanessa. She thinks this sums up Meghan Markle perfectly. We're showing it on screen. Word of the day.
Maureen Callahan
I've never heard of this word before, so this is electrifying to Me.
Marlena
Snatch badger. One word, not two. No.
Maureen Callahan
Hyphen.
Marlena
Snatch, badger. Think of Meghan Markle when you hear this definition. A person who aggressively reclaims any situation, compliment, or conversation and makes it entirely about themselves within seconds. Whatever you've done, they've done it better. You've got a headache. Their head once fell off. Hey, you know what? Meghan Markle is not just trolled. She's the most popular trolled person in the world for the past 10 years, and we've only known her since seven. For seven years.
Maureen Callahan
I think, regrettably, it could be closer to nine. I don't think it's 10.
Marlena
Thank you for the alert. I did not see this. I have been out of the Today show this week for multiple reasons. But this troublemaker who says I can use her name. Thank you. Haley from Kansas City area got an
Maureen Callahan
email this morning from my favorite independent bookstore. And we're in it. People were in it. Even the independent bookstores are currently being befouled. Haley was informed that Jenna Bush Hager will be coming to Kansas City, Missouri on Thursday, June 18, with one of her authors to promote her publishing imprint.
Marlena
I also happen to note there will be no autograph or photo line, but there is an option to pay $287 to go to an after party with the onstage talent. Now, Haley, I may have screwed this up for you. You're gonna.
Maureen Callahan
Here's what you're gonna do.
Marlena
Haley has offered very kindly to go
Maureen Callahan
and report back for the troublemakers.
Marlena
This is a very generous offer because,
Maureen Callahan
like, that's highway robbery, you know, I'm saying. But if you do want to do it, get a friend of yours to sign up and then just Venmo her the the money. Because chances are they're gonna flag you. You have an unusual name. Ask Marlena, who tried to do it with Hoda.
Marlena
Flagged and denied. Final two emails. Oh, my God, Maureen. Zach Galifianakis is a troublemaker. He has a new silly gardening show on Netflix and he has roasted Ryan Reynolds in a couple of different episodes. He is a secret bobo Troublemaker for sure. I love it if true. Okay, Maureen, last one. This. We're going to show this full screen. I just saw this while scrolling on YouTube. I was looking for episodes of the
Maureen Callahan
Nerve to watch tonight.
Marlena
The word wood chipper jumped off the screen. I looked again. It wasn't the Nerve. It was some other show, a copycat, some true crime show. And the full screen we're going to show here in huge font, put her in a wood chipper get original, please. The Nerve is going to trademark it. Hey, if Meghan Markle can trademark Lily
Maureen Callahan
and Archie, I think we can trademark fucking wood chipper. Maybe we can, maybe we can't. I don't know. Anyway, a quick reminder, please keep your feedback coming.
Marlena
Email me at maureencare media.com or DM
Maureen Callahan
me on Instagram at Maureen Callahan, writer, or at the Nerve Show.
Marlena
Remember to subscribe to our substack atthe nerve show.com up next, one of the worst Hollywood marriages of all time.
Maureen Callahan
And how do we know this?
Marlena
Because the two people who are married to each other can't shut the fuck up about it. Back in a minute. Listen up, mo bros. You know, all of you hot heterosexual men who have
Maureen Callahan
manly man jobs and like lots of
Marlena
hot heterosexual sex, this is not for you. Okay? This one is for the ladies. The ladies in the troublemaker cohort.
Maureen Callahan
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Marlena
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Maureen Callahan
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Marlena
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Maureen Callahan
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Marlena
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Maureen Callahan
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Marlena
biologica.com nerve and get up to 32% off of your first subscription order today. We are back. I'm going to ease us into this
Maureen Callahan
segment by saying that there was, there
Marlena
were several years
Maureen Callahan
when I was still living at home where I just thought to myself, God, you know, my parents, it's time.
Marlena
They really should just split up. They should just split up. And, you know, eventually they did wind
Maureen Callahan
up living in separate residences.
Marlena
And I, I feel that I am
Maureen Callahan
now uniquely Qualified to really comment with true authority on Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, who are two of the most dysfunctional people in the western hemisphere, Just get divorced.
Marlena
Will, take a note from Ben Affleck, who just lost $30 million to free himself from the remains of Jennifer Lopez, who's been white knuckling through this divorce, allegedly reportedly.
Maureen Callahan
It's worth your peace of mind, okay.
Marlena
It's worth not having your wife continually emasculate you in the public square, okay. Bringing you on her lame Facebook show Red Table Talk, to have you sit there while she talks about how she fud your teenage son's best friend.
Maureen Callahan
Can you imagine what goes on in that house? Can you imagine?
Marlena
Okay, Anyway, we're doing this because this clip has been making the rounds on
Maureen Callahan
social media this month.
Marlena
It's been rolling around. It looks like it's resurfaced, but it has become a talking point. And so let's just woodshed it, wood chipper it, and then burn it to the ground.
Maureen Callahan
Okay?
Marlena
Here is Jada on her book tour full of brio and vigor, and she thinks she sounds like a strong woman
Maureen Callahan
because you know what strong women do?
Marlena
They make their husbands feel like and cut off their nuts in the public square. And by the way, Jada, currently, that's Meghan Markle's job, okay? She's not going to be giving that up anytime soon. Here we go.
Jada Pinkett Smith (clip)
I was really surprised, and I felt. I was like, wow. He's like, I don't want you to be at the table by yourself. I want to support you. As I was like, oh, okay. So he comes to the table, and, you know, I try to just, you know, and this is a really complex
Jacob Elordi (voiceover)
moment
Marlena
yout son's friend, it's not complicated. Multiple times. He's not in red carpets, and he's
Jada Pinkett Smith (clip)
kind of backtracking, and he's going through this motion, and I'm like. So I'm like, well, I'm gonna have to speak my. My truth, but I'm also going to protect you.
Marlena
Okay, you can stop it right now. Okay, so this a lot of garbage language, My truth, protect him, blah, blah, blah. I don't know in what way you're protecting your husband.
Jada Pinkett Smith (clip)
Who.
Marlena
Who says, well, I need to sit
Maureen Callahan
there and get cuckolded all over again, okay? It's very sick. It's very sick. And they put it out there for public consumption, okay? It's all out there.
Marlena
So we all get to talk about it, you know, if and when they do separate and they ask for privacy
Maureen Callahan
at this very difficult time.
Marlena
The answer is a hard no. No. You made it our business.
Maureen Callahan
It's our business. We're going to have a lot of fun with it. Okay, now here is a clip of Will. And this is how deep and long the sickness has abided of Will talking about how he needed to retire not
Marlena
from show business, which really, he knocked
Maureen Callahan
himself out of show business. And we're going to get to it. But he needed to retire from trying to make Jada happy. Here we go.
Jacob Elordi (voiceover)
That's it. I retire. I retire from trying to make you happy. I need you to go make yourself happy and just prove to me that it's even possible.
Marlena
That's real rage there. That's. That's.
Maureen Callahan
Will Smith has a lot of rage inside of him. A lot. And I think it has a lot of. It has to do with being in this marriage. I think there's a lot about this marriage that is total. And why these two are. I, I have no idea. I have no idea. We're going to get to the lawsuit that Will is facing and why he may, he may still be so invested in hanging on here. If you know, you know, we've talked about it on, on. On a former. Sorry. On an earlier episode of the Nerve. We talked about it. But 50 Cent, that troublemaker.
Marlena
We see you, we see you out in these streets.
Maureen Callahan
We think 50 Cent is a troublemaker.
Marlena
He went all in on Diddy, One of the very few. One of the very few. Made lots of jokes about lube and like reposted that AI of Diddy, like in Rikers. You know, it was. It's great.
Maureen Callahan
I think 50 Cent is a troublemaker. And if you are not, sir, we crown you one. You just are.
Marlena
He posted this video to Instagram on
Maureen Callahan
April 5 of Jada talking about how she needs to find her own happiness instead of relying on her husband to do it. And just listen to her because you're gonna.
Marlena
It's gonna be very easy to locate
Maureen Callahan
the source of Jada's rage.
Marlena
Here we go.
Jada Pinkett Smith (clip)
It is not his responsibility to make you happy. He can't.
Marlena
It's impossible.
Jada Pinkett Smith (clip)
But it took me forever. Hard headed, stubborn, you know, because that romantic idea. And that's why I talk about checking the boxes. It's like I did everything I was supposed to do. You get to have your dream. How come I'm not having mine? And that's because Will was doing what
Marlena
he wanted it to do. Okay. That's the source of the rage. She says it. You got your dream. Why can't I have mine checking all the boxes. She married a man who went on
Maureen Callahan
to become an A list movie star.
Marlena
A list could make any project he wanted. Did Jada become a movie star? No.
Maureen Callahan
The culture doesn't want you, and the culture can sense how up you are.
Marlena
I mean, Will's up, too, but Will can at least do a better. He's a better actor. He was a. He was better for a long time at just being, like, friendly, sunny, happy Will. You know, the Will who first got famous as, like, a wholesome rapper and on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air never cursed and, like, wouldn't kiss a dude in that movie. He made Six Degrees of Separation, you know, because he was such a crazy Christian. I got theories, okay? I got theories, but that's the source of her age. You know, she. She's not famous.
Maureen Callahan
Nobody likes her. Nobody wants to buy her. Okay? So let's just revisit before we get to the.
Marlena
The coda, the end of today's segment, today's episode till we see you tomorrow on the Mini. Will is being sued by a backup
Maureen Callahan
musician who claims that Will was sexually harassing him and broke into. Well, someone. I don't think he names Will, but
Marlena
I think the implication is it may
Maureen Callahan
reportedly allegedly have been Will broke into his hotel room when he wasn't there, left a bunch of stuff that may or may not have included HIV medication and a note that said, pretty soon I will be back here with you, and we can just be alone together. Some in substance. I think a big fat check is going to get cut. And again, the rage in Will, you know, if Will got a divorce, I'm
Marlena
not saying anything, but I am. I do believe that if Will got
Maureen Callahan
a divorce, he would be a lot lighter and a lot happier. And I think had he been divorced before he was nominated for a best Actor Oscar that he won for King Richard, that this likely would never have happened. Never have happened. Let's look at the slap heard round the world, Jada.
Marlena
I love you, GI Jane, too. Can't wait to see it. All right. Okay, I'm out here. Oh, Richard, Here comes Will Smith.
Jada Pinkett Smith (clip)
Oh, wow. Wow.
Marlena
Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me.
Maureen Callahan
Now Will Smith swaggers off after he does that like he's some big tough guy defending the honor of his woman. You know, the. The only big man that night was Chris Rock, who handled it with class and who I only wish had filed a criminal complaint. There is such a thing as killing people with one punch.
Marlena
That does it. That does it for our Friday edition of the Nerve. Come back and see us tomorrow for our Mini, which drops on YouTube at
Maureen Callahan
10am Remember, for now the minis only live on YouTube. We have a banger. It's three cultural offenders who nobody has yet lumped together. And we thank the culture. We thank the mainstream media for willfully looking the other way.
Marlena
Leave it to us. Leave it all to us. Here at the Nerve. We can't get enough. We can't get enough. We've got offenders lined up outside our criminal cultural courthouse for days. So join us tomorrow if you haven't already. Check out our substack.
Maureen Callahan
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Marlena
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What else are you doing with yourself?
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Be sure to subscribe.
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the Mini and then again next week
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Tuesday right here at the Nerve, where you will never guess what we're about to say next.
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Episode: Sydney Sweeney's Degrading Role, Emily Blunt's 'Shameless' Acting & Will Smith's Marriage Drama
Date: April 24, 2026
In this fiery and unapologetic episode, Maureen Callahan takes listeners through a scathing critique of HBO’s approach to "prestige" television, especially the latest season of Euphoria, sharply lambasts Sam Levinson’s depiction of women and Hollywood’s enabling atmosphere, dishes out biting commentary on the upcoming Devil Wears Prada 2, and closes with a blistering take on Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s dysfunctional marriage and its effect on culture. The show balances cultural critique, listener feedback, and acerbic humor, all while never shying away from saying what others don’t dare.
[04:54–43:11]
Return of Euphoria
Sam Levinson’s Approach and HBO’s Enabling
“HBO has really, really, really gone down into the gutter. This is nothing but soft core porn aimed at children, aimed at young people.” – Maureen ([11:42])
The Idol:
Rolling Stone & Other Media Coverage:
[18:48–43:11]
Sydney Sweeney's Treatment
“You cannot raise a generation of women on this as valid, as acceptable as art. It’s not art, okay?” – Maureen ([26:58])
Thesis of the Show (as per Maureen)
Media Gaslighting
“What you see on television directly impacts the way we see one another.”
[43:11–55:48]
Troublemaker Feedback
Snatch Badger
Emily Blunt’s ‘Shameless’ Acting & Devil Wears Prada 2
“Stanley Tucci does not think much of Emily’s acting skills—as do most paying audiences because she’s not become a leading lady.” ([46:00])
[58:01–67:16]
The Dysfunction Unpacked
Will’s Rage and Resignation
Underlying Issues
The Slap Revisited
Maureen Callahan, with contributions from Marlena, delivers an unfiltered takedown of exploitative trends in television and pop culture. This episode’s central pillar is a detailed, explicit, and outraged analysis of HBO’s Euphoria and Sam Levinson’s body of work—decrying the normalization of the sexual degradation of (especially young and female) performers under the pretense of high art. Listener letters add nuance to the relationship between gossip, trauma, and healing. In lighter moments, Maureen skewers Emily Blunt’s acting, exposes Hollywood’s “happy family” mythos, and tears into Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s highly publicized marriage woes—drawing sharp lines between public behavior and personal consequence. Throughout, Maureen maintains a blend of acerbic wit and moral urgency, calling on women in entertainment to reclaim agency and dignity.