Sydney Sweeney's Degrading Role, Emily Blunt's 'Shameless' Acting, & Will Smith's Marriage Drama

Summary

The Nerve with Maureen Callahan

Episode: Sydney Sweeney's Degrading Role, Emily Blunt's 'Shameless' Acting & Will Smith's Marriage Drama
Date: April 24, 2026

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Episode Overview

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.

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1. HBO's Euphoria, Sam Levinson, and the Degradation of Female Stars

[04:54–43:11]

Main Points & Discussion

• Return of Euphoria

  • Maureen addresses the cultural buzz around Euphoria, expressing disdain for “the culture” and major media outlets (especially The New York Times and Rolling Stone) for presenting the show and its creator Sam Levinson as serious, important art ([05:31]).
  • She asserts that Euphoria is “softcore porn run by a guy who hates women” ([01:43]).

• Sam Levinson’s Approach and HBO’s Enabling

  • Levinson accused of projecting sexual frustration and rage at women onto the show’s content ([07:36], [12:00]).
  • Problematic history detailed: alleged chaos on set, two deaths linked to the show’s production ([09:56]), and a reputation for manic, toxic work environments.
  • HBO criticized for promoting exploitation under the guise of artistic daring ([11:39]):

    “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:

  • Examined as another example of Levinson’s misogyny (referencing Lily-Rose Depp’s portrayal and Weeknd’s involvement) ([12:05]).
  • Described as “a sickening rape fan fantasy” ([27:20]), with detailed description of its explicit, degraded content and dismissiveness towards real trauma ([28:02–31:19]).

• Rolling Stone & Other Media Coverage:

  • Rolling Stone expose highlights that most people involved in The Idol were “deeply disturbed” and that a female director was pushed out to make room for more explicit content ([16:17–17:29]).

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Makes for a great moisturizer because the fatty acids are nearly identical to the oils in your own skin...” (sarcastic segue about skincare contrasted against Euphoria segment) ([03:26])
• “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 is is beyond me.” ([14:44])
• “It's all about onlyfans culture and sex work online and hey, money's money... However you get it. Fame's fame, however you get it.” ([12:00])

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2. Sydney Sweeney’s Degrading Role on Euphoria

[18:48–43:11]

Main Points & Discussion

• Sydney Sweeney's Treatment

  • Sweeney asked Levinson to cut some nude scenes; Maureen is deeply skeptical of any real agency she has ([18:57–19:47]).
  • Season 3 points: Sweeney's Cassie is depicted as a dog, collared, explicitly sexualized for online content—a punishment for both her political beliefs (alleged Republican leanings) and her stardom ([24:11–25:25]).
  • Maureen frames these scenes as “child porn adjacent,” especially scenes involving infantilization and classist undertones ([40:33]).

    “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)

  • Euphoria (and Levinson’s work) normalizes pornification of young women, pressures to trade self-respect for attention, and blurs exploitation with empowerment ([21:34], [22:29]).

• Media Gaslighting

  • Zendaya’s character’s early-season monologue used as an example of Levinson’s alleged “gaslighting”—convincing girls that “nudes are the currency of love” ([21:20–22:29]).
  • Sharon Stone’s character as a mouthpiece for the real power of entertainment to shape values ([34:10]):

    “What you see on television directly impacts the way we see one another.”

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Sam Levinson is punishing Sydney Sweeney for becoming a star, for not needing the likes of him anymore.” – Maureen ([19:50])
• “She puts the pacifier back in her mouth... So she's trafficking in, like I would call a child porn adjacent.” – Maureen ([40:33])

Key Scenes/Timestamps

• [21:12–23:06]: Discussion and playback of Euphoria’s opening monologue on nudes as “currency of love.”
• [24:11–25:37]: Description of the infamous “dog costume” scene, described as explicit punishment.
• [35:58–37:58]: Nate (Jacob Elordi) explaining to Cassie (Sweeney) that her online behavior equates to prostitution, Maureen breaks down the scene’s demeaning subtext.

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3. Listener Feedback & Cultural Commentary

[43:11–55:48]

Main Points & Discussion

• Troublemaker Feedback

  • Listeners share how celebrity gossip and pop culture functioned as escapism, trauma processing tools, and (in some cases) as sources of sibling bonding or healing ([46:06–51:54]).
  • Maureen and Marlena discuss the role of gossip in resilience, identity, and even justice, referencing Charlize Theron, Lana Turner, and the accuracy of tabloid journalism ([47:57–51:17]).

• Snatch Badger

  • Listener shares a meme defining “snatch badger,” humorously pinned on Meghan Markle—“a person who aggressively reclaims any conversation and makes it about themselves” ([52:25]).

• Emily Blunt’s ‘Shameless’ Acting & Devil Wears Prada 2

  • Recap of Blunt’s role in the original and sequel; Stanley Tucci allegedly calls Blunt “shameless” due to overacting, and Maureen notes Blunt hasn’t succeeded as a leading lady ([44:00–46:02]):

    “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])

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4. Will & Jada Pinkett Smith Marriage Drama

[58:01–67:16]

Main Points & Discussion

• The Dysfunction Unpacked

  • Comparison to her own parents’ toxic marriage, Maureen suggests Will and Jada should split ([58:07–58:44]).
  • Will’s emasculation through Jada’s public confessions on Red Table Talk, including her “entanglement” with their son’s friend ([59:00–60:36]).
  • Jada’s public language of “my truth” and self-protective rationale deconstructed as self-serving and disingenuous ([60:36–61:15]).

• Will’s Rage and Resignation

  • Clip of Will declaring that he is “retiring from trying to make you happy” ([61:55–62:08]). Maureen interprets this as “real rage.”

• Underlying Issues

  • Jada’s resentment towards Will’s career success (“You got your dream. Why can’t I have mine?”) ([63:52–64:52]).
  • Reference to Will’s ongoing lawsuit relating to alleged sexual harassment and questions around his marriage’s longevity ([65:10–65:52]).

• The Slap Revisited

  • Maureen attributes Will’s infamous Oscars slap to the toxicity of the marriage; says Chris Rock was “the only big man that night” ([66:39–67:16]).

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “They make it our business…so when they ask for privacy at this difficult time, the answer’s a hard no.” – Maureen ([61:15–61:22])
• “If Will got a divorce, he would be a lot lighter and a lot happier. Had he divorced before he was nominated for that Oscar, this likely would never have happened.” – Maureen ([65:55])
• “Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me.” – (Archival Oscars clip replayed) ([66:44])

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5. Notable Quotes (with Timestamps & Attribution)

• “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])
• “I turned (Euphoria) 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.” – Maureen ([06:36])
• “Sam Levinson, my opinion, make no mistake, is a pornographer.” – Maureen ([14:44])
• “Nudes are the currency of love. So stop shaming us.” – Zendaya (voiceover) ([21:21])
• “You cannot raise a generation of women on this as valid, as acceptable as art. It’s not art, okay?” – Maureen ([26:58])
• “It’s just a funny video.” – Cassie (Sydney Sweeney’s character) ([36:12])
• “You’ve been a bad, bad dog.” – Nate (Jacob Elordi’s character) ([37:39])
• “Nobody likes her. Nobody wants to buy her.” – Maureen on Jada Pinkett Smith ([64:52])

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6. Episode Structure / Key Segments (with Timestamps)

• [04:54–43:11] HBO, Euphoria, and the sexual exploitation and cultural gaslighting under Sam Levinson.
• [43:11–55:48] Listener “troublemaker” feedback, tabloid nostalgia, and cultural therapy.
• [44:00–46:02] Devil Wears Prada 2 and Emily Blunt’s “shameless” acting; Hollywood fakery.
• [58:01–67:16] Will & Jada: public humiliation, marital dysfunction, the Oscars slap, and cultural impact.

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Summary

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.

Transcript

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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]

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[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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[Maureen Callahan]

their purchase, but you've got to act now. So make sure to go over to

[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]

That is our weekly email. Go to thenerve show.com if you haven't

[Marlena]

subscribed, you will see a prompt. Would you like the Nerve substack in your email inbox every Friday hours after the final full nerve of the week? Sure, why not?

[Maureen Callahan]

What else are you doing with yourself?

[Marlena]

Be sure to subscribe.

[Maureen Callahan]

It's only five bucks a month and it really does help the show to grow. We want to add another episode, so any help you can give us, we appreciate.

[Marlena]

Plus Nerve Merch. Grab something for yourself or pick something up for a fellow troublemaker@shop thenerve.com and

[Maureen Callahan]

we will see you again tomorrow for

[Marlena]

the Mini and then again next week

[Maureen Callahan]

Tuesday right here at the Nerve, where you will never guess what we're about to say next.

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