James Vatuska (3:20)

Hi, Marjorie. How are you doing?

Marjorie Hernandez (3:21)

Good. Thanks so much for joining us today. Well, first of all, introduce yourself and tell our listeners who you are and what you do there@dailymail.com yeah, my name.

James Vatuska (3:32)

Is James Vituska and I'm a senior US showbiz reporter at DailyMail.com I focus on everything involving a list celebrities. And I've been doing this for 20 years. I've known actually, Marjorie, at past outlets. I worked at, I started Entertainment Tonight and then I worked at Us Weekly and then I worked at Radar Online. Okay. Magazine, Star Magazine, National Enquirer and In Touch. And then I worked at TMZ before coming to Daily Mail.

Marjorie Hernandez (3:58)

James has all of the exclusives, all times.

James Vatuska (4:01)

Yeah.

Marjorie Hernandez (4:02)

We're so happy that you're taking the time out to speak to us today. Well, actually, we're here to talk about some of the exclusives you've broken here@dailymail.com and one of the ones that went absolutely viral was the one titled Jealous Diddy is Raging that Luigi Mangioni is getting more attention than him in Brooklyn Prison. Now, for those who are not aware who Luigi Mangione is, He is a 25 year old man who's accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson back in December as he was headed to his Manhattan hotel. Now, Thompson was in New York for an annual investors conference when Manioni allegedly shot him from behind. In that case, like Diddy's case, gained worldwide attention. But really unlike Diddy's case, Manioni has received a lot of public support. And now both Manioni and Diddy are housed in the same jail, the Metropolitan center in Brooklyn. And now, James, can you talk about what your sources have said about how Diddy is coping with prison life and also about Mangione's presence in the prison and how that's affecting Diddy.

James Vatuska (5:17)

Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, I know I actually have two sources within, you know, in that, in that realm right there. You know, one of them is close to, you know, Luigi, I'll say instead of Mangioni, I'll say, you know, Luigi's legal team and another one is within the prison system. And so, you know, prior to being transferred to the. To the Brooklyn facility, I mean, he was getting so much, I guess, love mail, and he was getting so many, you know, people were sending him gifts, and people were starting to go fund me and, you know, donate all this money to him. When he went into the prison, everybody knew who he was. You know, even at the prior place, you know, the prisoners were cheering for him out the windows and like, yeah, free Luigi. And so it's interesting because you have Diddy in the same prison, whereas, you know, Diddy hasn't actually been, you know, convicted of anything yet, but, you know what I mean, Luigi allegedly shot someone on camera, but yet the prisoners, they're team Luigi, you know what I mean? And so, you know, this is Diddy having his ego burst. Even inside prison is creating issues for him, you know, I guess emotionally, you know, I mean, he doesn't like the fact that, you know, Luigi went in there, you know, and has everybody's support and love, whereas Diddy goes in there and everybody wants to kill him, so to speak. But you know what I mean? And I feel like that's interesting because they kept them separated, and then also because they share the same legal team, his lawyer and Diddy's lawyer are husband and wife, I believe.

Marjorie Hernandez (6:27)

Right.

James Vatuska (6:27)

So, which makes it even more interesting that there's, like, you know, like polar opposites. And, you know, it's gonna be interesting when this goes to trial just for both of them to see kind of what happens here.

Marjorie Hernandez (6:36)

Your insiders are saying that he is allegedly jealous of the fact that Mangione is being hailed as this hero, whereas he once was a hero of New York.

James Vatuska (6:46)

You got the. You got this young guy who's, you know, extremely attractive. You know, I could say that, you know, in prison, who is, you know, getting all this attention. And he is incredibly jealous of him for. For many, many reasons. It's like, you know, he's got all the love, and, you know, that was Diddy's last album, was Love. Yeah, coincidentally, you know, but Luigi's got all the love and support from people inside, and, you know, they're helping him. He's still getting all these donations and tens of thousands of dollars that, you know, in money that's come to him and just endless gifts. And Diddy's doesn't get anything. He's definitely. There's some jealousy issues going on there.

Marjorie Hernandez (7:13)

There's a really big, stark contrast between the two. But interestingly enough, you mentioned their attorneys are married to each other, so that's Interesting as well.

James Vatuska (7:21)

It is. It is interesting. And, you know, and, and, and from what I've heard, you know, they're still kept separate, but, you know, some, Some sources, some people say inside that, you know, that they've crossed paths, but, like, you know, I don't see the two of them dining together anytime soon.

Marjorie Hernandez (7:34)

Right. That would make an interesting interaction. I highly doubt that would happen, though. But also, one of the other exc exclusives that you've had was with former radio hosts and. And TV host Wendy Williams.

James Vatuska (7:48)

Yes.

Marjorie Hernandez (7:48)

Who for years had been a critical of Diddy.

James Vatuska (7:51)

Yeah, absolutely.

Marjorie Hernandez (7:52)

Can you talk a little bit about what your insiders and Wendy have said to you about Diddy?

James Vatuska (7:57)

It's strange because, you know, I went, no one hadn't heard from Wendy for years. You know what I mean? And then, you know, I'm. I'm on, you know, our server system looking, you know, through. Through, you know, data, I guess, you know, and, And I find a number, and I was like, oh, I'm just gonna call it. You know what I mean? And then as soon as she picked up, she's all, hello. And I'm like, this is Wendy Williams. And I knew right away, you know what I mean? But there was a little bit like, shoot, should I keep on the call? Because, you know, apparently she's suffering from a disability, you know, and she just started talking freely, you know, and one of the first things that she started talking about, you know, she. She was. She was kind of, you know, her normal gossip queen self, you know, and, and she sounded normal to me. You know, I will be honest and say that, you know, she sounded normal, you know, and she was. She was very, very coherent, and she was also very. She also could remember specific details about things such as her interactions with Diddy. Now, she always called Diddy out, you know, on her show, the Wendy Williams show, she would constantly call him out.

Marjorie Hernandez (8:48)

Right.

James Vatuska (8:49)

You know, And. And say, you know, basically what, you know, these are, you know, what he's. What he's going through now, what he's dealing with now. It's kind of like she would. She knew then, and she would say it then, you know what I mean? But, you know, now people, you know, went back and they're like, whoa. Wendy told us this years ago. Well, she told me that her first interaction with Diddy was when she was a younger. I believe she was a young reporter. And it was. It was probably like 25 years ago. So she's remembering this exact, you know, event, and she was driving to a Diddy's event, I think it was at the stadium or something like that. And then all of a sudden she was stopped because there was cop cars everywhere. And this was the event where people were. It was a Diddy party that. It was like one of his first, where he threw and people were trampled to death. You have to look at the exact location, everything like that. But it was pretty big news at the time. And she says, you know, that was her first, you know, interaction with Diddy is that he took no accountability for it. He did, you know, no apology, nothing. It was just kind of like. So her immediate, you know, interact. You know, his. Her immediate first. First impression of him was he's kind of, you know, a slime ball. But then, you know, all of the rumors that piling up and piling up, she kept calling him out and calling him out, and she did to me.

Marjorie Hernandez (9:53)

Wow. Would that shock you that she can recall all of those details?

James Vatuska (9:56)

Yeah. Years later, 100%, because this is, you know, I was the first one to talk to her, the first reporter to talk to her and years. You know what I mean? So this is, you know, and I was very, very hesitant to do so because if she's suffering from a mental disability, then I don't want to, you know, be on the phone, you know, doing an interview with someone who's, you know, who's not mentally well, because that's, you know, goes against my principles as a journalist, too, because it's just. That's just kind of slimy. You know what I mean? So I, you know, but. But hearing her talking, she goes, how you doing?

Marjorie Hernandez (10:26)

You know, he said, her. Her. How you doing?

James Vatuska (10:30)

And she remembered, you know, details about, you know, from the past. So it's like, I don't really know, you know, and now, you know, I'm also close with her family now. I just did another exclusive, their exclusive statement on. Over the weekend on Saturday about, you know, their family's reaction. And they're not saying. They're not. They're not saying that Wendy is. They're not saying that Wendy is not, I guess you could say impaired, disabled. You know, what they're saying is that they want her to be in Florida with them so that she could be cared for by her family. And that's all. That's all they're asking, you know, Wendy, she's under the guardianship of someone who's taken all of her money, allegedly, you know what I mean, who she's never met, and. And. And forced her into this guardianship. It's very, very similar to, you know, it's kind of reminiscent of what Brittany went through, I think, in a lot of ways. And it's, and it's, and it's sad. But, you know, her, her one, you know, thing that she's always going to be sure of is, is, is Diddy. And, you know, and the allegations that she made venture, she was the first person to call him out.

Marjorie Hernandez (11:19)

Yeah, we wish the best for Wendy and to do well, hopefully that she's doing okay. But going back, you have other exclusives that you have naming Diddy, one of them having to do with Justin Bieber can about that and what's going on in, in that.

James Vatuska (11:35)

Well, no, here's, here's some exclusive information, Marjorie, that actually haven't done in a story yet. And I was saving for you. You know, and this is that if you look at, you know, Justin Bieber's behavior over the past couple weeks, he's been, you know, he's been unfollowing people from his Instagram. One of them being Scooter, one of them being Usher. All these people that kind of brought him up and were supportive of him through his career, Haley's dad, Steven, you know, he's just dropping all these people off his Instagram. But the one thing that's interesting about this is that he's still following Diddy.

Marjorie Hernandez (12:03)

That's kind of shocking.

James Vatuska (12:04)

It is very shocking, you know, and people haven't, people haven't realized this. And I, you know, I believe that the reason is by unfollowing him, I believe, you know, and from my sources said it's going to, you know, kind of throw him in this whole, like, oh, so what are you avoiding? You know what I mean? And so he's trying to be as transparent as possible when all this goes to, you know, when all this goes to court and everything like that, because he knows he's going to be involved. The mountain of evidence of things that took place with, between Justin Bieber when he was underage and Diddy is endless recordings and videos of partying and when, you know, he was smoking weed with him and age not 18. And at the time it wasn't even legal. So, you know, there Justin was taken advantage of in a lot of ways. And, and it's quite sad, but I feel like, you know, a lot of the things that he's going through right now are as a result of his, you know, of what he went through back then in his adolescence with, with, with Diddy, you know, and just, and now it's like, you know, what's interesting, though, is that he, he drops everybody. Scooter, all of these. Because him and Scooter is still under contract.

Marjorie Hernandez (12:56)

That's Scooter Braun.

James Vatuska (12:57)

Yes. Good. Or Braun. So it's like he has, you know, good relationship with him. You're still under contract with him, but he drops all of these people and shuts them out of his life, but keeps Diddy there. So it's, it's, it's. It's interesting to see, you know, and then, and then he had this whole, I didn't unfollow Haley yesterday or, you know, his wife. And it's like, why would you come out and say that? But not. Why are you still following Diddy as your only celebrity? You know, it's just, you know, it'd be interesting to see, you know, if he's brought into court. And then also, you know, what the Kardashians involvement is in it as well.

Marjorie Hernandez (13:26)

Right. I mean, that's what everybody is really curious about is who will be on this witness list or what celebrities. A list celebrities will. Could be called to. To court. I mean, that would be.

James Vatuska (13:38)

Yeah. You know, and I know this is, you know, the podcast about Diddy. And the one thing that, you know, is interesting, I feel like, is that, you know, they have, they have all this, you know, obviously they, they have enough evidence to keep him in prison. You know, he's tried to. He's tried to, you know, bail how many times. And, you know, 50 million was it, I believe, or something around there. 50 million, you know, and they keep, they keep him in there, you know, and it's like, so obviously the government, they, they have something on him that we don't know yet. I believe they have to, you know, because, you know, it has to be more than just, you know, Cassie and his, you know, and, and, you know, these alleged, you know, parties that he had and like that, you know, and so it's going to be big and it's going to be. It's going to kind of like pull the rug out from under. Under a lot of. A lot of his circle, you know, and I feel like people are terrified of this, this trial coming up if they have reason to be, you know what I mean? It's like they wouldn't keep him in there and deny him bail if they didn't have a mountain of evidence against him. You know what I mean?

Marjorie Hernandez (14:28)

Well, also, we have to say that Justin hasn't really come out and made any statements concerning any allegations with him. Or anything related to Diddy. So he's kept quiet on that. So we'll see, we'll see what happens and we'll see who will be called to trial. Well, our sources are saying that this trial won't even happen in May. I think it's scheduled for May 5th at this point point. But there's still a lot of legal back and forth between the attorneys and the prosecutors.

James Vatuska (14:56)

No, yeah. And, you know, and, and this week didn't, did, did he said he had there, his attorneys, I guess, you know, said they have a tape that's going to clear his name. That's kind of, you know, that's kind of interesting because if they have this, you know, if they have this or had this available, you know, then he wouldn't be sitting in prison, you know. So it's, it's going to be interesting, I think, mainly for my focus, you know, not so much on the court aspect because that's, that's your, that's your ball part, you know, that's your game, you know, but more of the people that are involved. And I know that you said, you know, Justin's never made a statement and, you know, and that's in just not saying anything at all is also very telling, you know, I mean, because there's no doubt, you know, from sources and also from photos, videos, you know, that, that they were close and other people, you know, Kardashians who also, you know, try to distance themselves as much as possible when they were super close with Chris and, you know, the whole, they're all one little circle. It's, you know, everybody's trying to distance themselves. But there's all of this footage and, and, and, and photos taken by, you know, paparazzi over the past 15, 20 years. That's gonna, like, already kind of can't really break free of that, you know. So it's interesting when celebrities, I think that, you know, such Jay Z try to say, you know, one thing when there's photos and, you know, evidence that shows another thing. So it's like this is before AI too.

Marjorie Hernandez (16:02)

We have so much more coming up, but for now, let's pause for a break.

James Vatuska (16:15)

FOREIGN.

Marjorie Hernandez (16:23)

Welcome back. And we're still here with senior US showbiz reporter@dailymail.com James Vatuska. And I was just wondering also what your sources are saying about the fact that there is, we have Jay Z and you mentioned the Kardashians. There's a lot of pretty much they've, they've left Diddy by the wayside. And they're not supporting him at all. I mean, this kind of pretty much he's blackballed forever.

James Vatuska (16:46)

No, that's, that, that is interesting you say that because, you know, there's a lot of people that don't know how, how connected Diddy and, and the Kardashians are. You know, his, his management company, which is tristar, same, you know, same Lou Taylor, which is the same management company that Britney Spears had, you know, and accused her in the book and also in her, in her lawsuit. I mean, you know, her, her in court of, you know, taking advantage of her, stealing all of her money. You know, so Diddy is managed by Lou Taylor and tristar as well. Well, guess who else is managed by Diddy, Lou Taylor and tristar. All of the Kardashian family. So, you know, they have, they have, they have connections that go very, very deep with him. Not to mention years and years of hanging out. And you know, and there's Chloe said something along the lines like on, on, you know, her show about going to his freak off parties and how nobody wore clothes and you know, so there's things that they can't avoid now, you know, and I don't think that they ever thought that, you know, this day would come. It just goes to show that it doesn't matter how powerful you are, James.

Marjorie Hernandez (17:39)

You definitely have a lot of insiders, know a lot of people in the business. You've been doing this for years. How has that changed in terms of how you make connections and gather the information? You know, say from now till even.

James Vatuska (17:54)

Five years ago, you know, it's a lot more. The thing is that, you know, celebrity and tabloid has changed so much. The landscape has changed so much. All the sources that I have right now are it's either mainly the celebrity themselves or the celebrities very close to them or just people within their, you know, management team. And you know, that gets very vetted by our legal, as you know, by, you know, Daily Mail's legal team to make sure that, you know what, the information that I got is coming from someone who is reputable. Whereas I remember days at Us Weekly and, and there were times where I was, you know, they would say, I need you to go to Cedar Sinai Hospital and sneak into the baby ward and take a picture of the baby and just pretend that you're, or like you're, if anybody asks, you're there visiting a friend, like things like that, you know, you know, you need to go. One time I had an assignment. You need to go to Vegas to get In Pamela Anderson's wedding. I don't care how you get it because we have other people posing as the caterers, you know, so those are things about, you know, journalism and about this industry, and specifically that would not fly now. You know what I mean? It's very, very. People have gotten very, very over the gossip, over the tabloid aspect of it, and I feel like it's become much more. Not only harder to break news also, but like, you know, like, in order to get, you know, accurate information out there. Right. I believe it's much, much more difficult. But that being said, because it's, you know, because I have all these connections that I've built. I've built my connections up over the years by basically, you know, gaining the respect of everybody along the way. I started as a production assistant and then news desk and the night news desk and then segment producer and then producer and then reporting. So it's kind of like I've taken these little steps and along the way and I feel like, you know, I've gained, you know, the trust of all of the. Of these celebrities and also their, you know, their, Their camps for the most part, because they're still going to be, you know, there's still going to be people that, you know, get pushed back from it. It's like I give you 24 hours to comment every single time I do a story. I give everybody involved in the story 24 hours to comment and I reach out. So it's like, you know, if they, if they have a problem with it, then you should have said that when I reached out, you know, but, you know, we wouldn't go forward with information that we didn't believe was accurate. You know, and my stuff online now for Daily Mail gets several million hits a month on my show. You know, the last week I had, I believe I got 500,000 just on one story. So it's, you know, a lot of people are interested in celebrity, you know, and not only just collection, it's when.

Marjorie Hernandez (20:07)

The legal world and the celebrity world combine is when you get a lot of these hits and huge stories.

James Vatuska (20:14)

Yeah, yeah. And you're seeing it a lot now, too. You know, I mean, it's, it's, you know, with this new administration, it's going to be interesting to see just how interesting this next four years are going to be. You know, I just, I'm. I'm glad that I focused on, On. On. On Hollywood and celebrities rather than. Than. Than politics.

Marjorie Hernandez (20:30)

Politics. So, James, do you have a stack of celeb stories that are so, so hot that we can't even get it past the release.

James Vatuska (20:41)

I have 20 years of, I have, I have like, you know, 15, 20 years of those stories, you know, and things that, that I, if I didn't live through certain things, I wouldn't believe that it actually happened. You know, I mean, for example, when I was at, I was on Britney Spears duty when she was at, you know, her, her going through her, her whole period and I would wake up at 8 o' clock in the morning and, and be on her all day long every day, you know, and we got access, you know, eventually we got access inside of her camp and your team and we're going to lunch with her and, you know, things that I saw that I'm like, blew my mind, you know, but that I've never could say because they're too hot now. Nowadays, you know, I definitely get information. I have three things just on the top of my head. One of them is a celebrity who had an affair in Cannes, who cheated on their wife and they have kids and they're very, very a list. But I can't do anything with it because that would never get through Legal.

Marjorie Hernandez (21:29)

James has all the tea.

James Vatuska (21:31)

I'll tell you, I'll tell you after the call. But you know, like, those kind of things, it's like you can't get through Legal. And I know they're true because, you know, I know for that one, for example, I know a woman who was there with them in Cannes while they're having an affair. Those kind of things that you can't report, you know, And I mean, and you know, also there's, you know, the drug usage and everything like that. You can't report any of that too, you know, now there's all the law surrounding, you know, mental health and all this other stuff. So there's a lot of things that, that don't get past even my editor. A lot of things that I said to her and she's like, are you, are you freaking kidding me? Like, no, I'm like, Emma, Emma works in London with you guys now, you know, but like, she's, she's still my editor. And you know, she's, she's brilliant, you know, but it's like she'll really, she'll go like this, like. And I'll just hear. Or this text message, like a pause, and I'm like, okay, moving right along, you know, so I don't get hung up on these things that I know that can happen. But yeah, no, I have some, I have some dirt that would ruin a lot of things for a lot of people.

Marjorie Hernandez (22:23)

Well, we have to note that all of your stories are vetted by our legal team before it goes out.

James Vatuska (22:29)

Yeah, by both sides. I mean, by our legal team. And not only that. I mean, not only do I have to, you know, give their identity to leave my team. First name, last name, but also my affiliation with them. And I've had to, you know, in. As I started Daily Mail, you know, I had to show proof of my affiliation, connection with them. Text messages, conversations, phone numbers, phone logs, you know, I mean, so it's not just like, who's this? Oh, my source is Ray from Brooklyn. Like, you know what I mean? They have to go by, you know, different levels of legal because it's just, you know, and so I've worked hard to get the sources that I have right now, and, you know, I try to use them as best as I can. Sometimes they don't want to give any gossip, and that's unfortunate, but they do what I can.

Marjorie Hernandez (23:07)

So going back to the Mangione and Diddy story and how Diddy is jealous of Mangione, what kind of was the process that you went through with legal and also with your sources to kind of bring that story home?

James Vatuska (23:22)

Yeah, this one was a little bit more difficult, you know, because of everything that was involved in it and, you know, in the. And the, you know, its. It was a big, big, massive story, you know, but so, you know, for this one in particular, I had. I had someone speaking directly to someone within Luigi's first legal team in. When he was in Pennsylvania, you know, on hours conversations with that person, I won't say who, you know, it could be anywhere within that legal team. And then, you know, but I had to give that to our department, you know, to show, you know, that. And then also, you know, show proof of the conversation that took place, you know, and if it's, you know, you ask, it's a one party or two party, you can record it by asking and getting approval, you know. And then also I also had to show, you know, for the prison side of it, I have a woman that I've known for, gosh, she was probably like 10, 15 years. I met this woman through my father, you know, and she works in a. I will. I guess I could say, you know, reentry. The reentry program for when prisoners get dismissed. And, you know, she finds them, you know, she gets them back into, you know, society. And so, you know, she has deep connections within the prison and has been a great source for mine for years. So, I mean, you know, I had to go through that, you know, and show, and not only that, show proof of my, my relationship to her, you know, and for that it was, you know, Facebook screenshots and, you know, things like that. But it's like, I know it's a hard time, you know, trusting someone, especially as a reporter who says, oh, my source says, but I mean, the reason that, you know, we say sources because we these people give us some information that's pretty damning and, you know, it could cause their life to be in, I hate to say, but in this ditty thing, you know, caused serious harm or possibility to, you know, to their life alone. So it's like, you know, you have to really protect your sources. And I feel like, you know, after vetting them to our legal team, now that they know who they are, then it's like, you know, I can use them really for anything in the future as well.

Marjorie Hernandez (25:00)

So for now, that's it. Thanks again to Jay Flatuska for coming on the show. It was a pleasure to have him here. And as we prepare for Diddy's trial in May, what other trials would you like for us to cover? Let us know by email the trialalailymail.com or you can WhatsApp us on 447-7966-57512 and please start your message with trial as ever. Thank you for listening. Please share all your comments, suggestions and thoughts on the Trial of Diddy on on Apple or Spotify and follow us on TikTok@DailyMailCrime. Do follow trial of Diddy as we will be here each week with fresh information, new insights and some expert guests. Goodbye.