Latest / Mini Scroll / NYC roommate TikTok drama, Alex Reads Tarot exit, Club Chalamet jumped + Naomi Jon merch situation

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NYC roommate TikTok drama, Alex Reads Tarot exit, Club Chalamet jumped + Naomi Jon merch situation · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Coming up today on Mini Scroll, the New York City roommate drama
• 0:04
  taking over TikTok, Alex reads Tarot's shocking announcement, a
• 0:08
  Simone Scroll revival, and Naomi John's album box controversy.
• 0:14
  Hi everyone. Welcome to Mini Scroll, the
• 0:18
  daily Internet culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories
• 0:21
  from social media, the creator economy, and the digital space.
• 0:24
  Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
• 0:27
  I'm your host, Lauren Meissner, the founder of the youth digital
• 0:31
  media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini School
• 0:35
  everyone. And you may have noticed that I
• 0:39
  sound a little bit sick, and that's because I completely
• 0:43
  jinxed myself when last episode I said that I hope that we come
• 0:47
  back from the break and I'm Zen and refreshed and ready to go.
• 0:52
  And on Friday of the break, so like 2 days ago, I came down
• 0:56
  with stress strep throat and like a bad strep throat.
• 1:00
  You guys like fever, vomiting, like my throat looked
• 1:04
  disgusting. I obviously have the whole team
• 1:07
  working from home this week. I'm going to work from home on
• 1:09
  Wednesday when Annabelle records I'm on antibiotics.
• 1:12
  I do feel significantly better than when I came down with it.
• 1:15
  But could you believe that like 2 days before I'm coming back I
• 1:20
  get sick when I had all week to get sick.
• 1:22
  Also I got sick when I was on a weekend away with my book club.
• 1:27
  We were like 2 1/2 hours outside of Sydney and I started feeling
• 1:30
  freezing. We're sitting at dinner on
• 1:32
  Friday. I'm like so cold I'm so achy.
• 1:34
  I'm like what is going on? All the food looked disgusting
• 1:37
  to me like I had no appetite and I was like Oh my God what is
• 1:40
  happening? And then it was all downhill
• 1:42
  from there and I ended up leaving Saturday morning because
• 1:45
  I was like too sick to stay. So really I jinxed myself there.
• 1:48
  OK, so next time I say anything like that, remind me of this.
• 1:53
  Remind me not to jinx myself. But anyways, I hope you guys
• 1:57
  survived without us last week. I really did miss you.
• 2:00
  It was nice to have a break. Of course, it's always nice to
• 2:02
  like have a bit of a reset and be able to have some brain space
• 2:06
  for other things. But honestly, I really did miss
• 2:08
  you guys and I'm excited to be back.
• 2:10
  And we have 4 big stories for you guys today.
• 2:12
  All right, the first story that I have for you guys today.
• 2:14
  I'm sure you guys have seen this on your For You page, but there
• 2:19
  is some major drama going down in the New York City TikTok
• 2:22
  community around a roommate situation.
• 2:26
  So a TikTok user named Ek has gone viral for a series of
• 2:29
  videos about her roommate in New York City.
• 2:32
  Her first video was posted at the end of May.
• 2:34
  She was sitting on a fire escape and she was talking directly to
• 2:37
  the camera. She explained that she's a full
• 2:39
  time artist in New York City and that her current roommate is
• 2:42
  kicking her out. At the end of June.
• 2:43
  She was on a 2 month sublease and the fact that she was on a
• 2:47
  sublease and was subletting is key to this story.
• 2:51
  OK, so throughout the series she details why her roommate has
• 2:54
  been difficult to live with and why this situation has been a
• 2:58
  struggle for her. 24. Hours ago I was told by my
• 3:00
  current roommate that I was being kicked out at the end of
• 3:03
  June even though I moved in a month.
• 3:05
  The quickest back story on me, I'm a full time artist in New
• 3:08
  York City and I've always wanted to live here.
• 3:09
  I broke up with an abusive ex, quit my job, moved here with not
• 3:13
  a lot of money. Through all of last year I've
• 3:15
  just been aching to find how I felt like this place was it.
• 3:19
  I have one roommate and when I met them seemed like everything
• 3:22
  was fine. There was a verbal agreement we
• 3:23
  were going to be resigning in July and that was when I was
• 3:26
  going to join the lease. When I moved in in May her tone
• 3:29
  changed and it felt like she started policing me over things
• 3:31
  that were so elementary. I'm about to turn 30, this
• 3:34
  person is mid 20s but acting like her in high school she
• 3:38
  would not allow me to store things on the top 2 shelves in
• 3:40
  the cabinet because it quote stresses her out.
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  My entire issue with her through this last month has just been
• 3:46
  her lack of compromising. Aside from this, there are also
• 3:49
  a couple contextual factors, as she continuously noted
• 3:52
  throughout the video. First, she repeatedly mentions
• 3:55
  how she has come from an abusive family environment and that this
• 3:58
  whole situation is a way for her to practice standing up for
• 4:01
  herself. Second, she's had this lifelong
• 4:03
  dream of living in New York City, and it hasn't been easy so
• 4:06
  far. Since moving to New York City,
• 4:07
  she has lived in five sublets, and this one is the best in her
• 4:11
  opinion. And 3rd, she has used this
• 4:14
  moment of virality to tell viewers about her art shop,
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  Which is to be expected. OK, so when Ek mentioned to the
• 4:20
  roommate how she was feeling with the living situation,
• 4:23
  that's when things really kicked off.
• 4:25
  This is a bit convoluted this story, but here is the rundown
• 4:28
  from EK's point of view. So in response to EK's concern,
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  the roommate said that maybe they aren't the best fit to live
• 4:36
  together. Then there was a bit of back and
• 4:38
  forth between the two. At first, the roommate said she
• 4:41
  actually has other people interested in leasing the place.
• 4:44
  Ek did double down and say that she really enjoys the place.
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  Eventually, the roommate offered Ek to keep the place to herself
• 4:51
  as in like take over the lease. Then she later ended up
• 4:54
  informing the landlord that she would be staying.
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  This LED Ek to get in touch with the landlord and understand what
• 5:00
  her rights are. Shortly after, Ek was informed
• 5:03
  by the landlord that her roommate would be leaving and
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  that she had to find a roommate in 24 hours to keep the
• 5:08
  apartment under her name. She ended up finding someone and
• 5:12
  submitting the details. The landlord then came back
• 5:14
  saying that they make less than the required income because
• 5:17
  there will be a rent increase. The new roommate has then backed
• 5:21
  out. For the last two weeks I've been
• 5:22
  dealing with not knowing where the fuck I'm going to be living
• 5:24
  at the end of this month because my roommates like.
• 5:26
  I don't want to live with you anymore.
• 5:28
  I turned into a whole thing. I made several videos about it
• 5:30
  and then she was like, how about you stay and I'll leave.
• 5:33
  Week and a half goes by, she changes her mind again, says
• 5:36
  that she's staying. And FYI, we're not resigning the
• 5:39
  other. And so for the last like
• 5:40
  3:00-ish weeks, there's just been this tumultuous up and down
• 5:43
  of me not knowing where the fuck I'm going to be living if I need
• 5:46
  to start packing. Should I be looking for a
• 5:48
  roommate here? Should I be looking for a new
• 5:49
  place? I haven't been able to get in
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  contact with the landlord all this week.
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  The last I heard from them was on Monday.
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  Their phone number wasn't working until I tried calling a
• 5:57
  number and I got a hold. Of the fucking.
• 5:59
  Landlord. They were literally like, yeah,
• 6:01
  you know, so like you said that you were staying and renewing.
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  You were going to bring in like a new roommate.
• 6:04
  We never got forms from you. And I was like, no, no, no, no,
• 6:07
  no, no. I emailed you all this week.
• 6:09
  They were like, yeah, you know, we, we've been trying to get in
• 6:11
  contact with her. She emailed us on Monday saying
• 6:13
  that she was staying, but we tried calling and she hasn't
• 6:16
  picked up. And I'm just like today is
• 6:18
  Friday, June 12th and. You've been keeping.
• 6:22
  Up with this fucking story. It it gets.
• 6:24
  To a point, it gets to a point that I'm now just like, do I
• 6:27
  even have to leave? Amid this whole thing, Ek did go
• 6:30
  on to set up a GoFundMe for financial support in case she
• 6:34
  had to cover rent without roommates.
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  This was, as you may have expected, met with some
• 6:40
  skepticism because people on Tiktok do not love a rogue
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  GoFundMe. And there was a lot of people
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  being like, I know you're a full time artist, but a lot of
• 6:48
  artists when they're trying to make it or even just like
• 6:51
  throughout their entire careers, they have to have part time
• 6:53
  jobs. They have to have side hustles.
• 6:55
  They have to do whatever they can to make ends meet.
• 6:57
  She later shared that she will be donating part of the funds to
• 7:00
  an organization that help people struggling with finding housing
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  in New York City. OK, so around legitimately
• 7:07
  almost like 30 videos later, the roommate shared her side of the
• 7:11
  story. Her name is Marilyn and she has
• 7:13
  over 50,000 followers at the time of recording.
• 7:16
  Marilyn said that she wanted to clarify a few things in Ek
• 7:19
  story. She expressed confusion about
• 7:21
  the whole thing, saying that Ek started subleasing a few weeks
• 7:25
  prior, noting that a sublease is temporary.
• 7:28
  So Marilyn said that she doesn't owe Ek anything and has, in her
• 7:32
  opinion, given her enough time to organize her living
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  situation. Instead, Ek has gone on to make
• 7:37
  a series of videos speaking poorly about her.
• 7:40
  Marilyn also called Ek out for the GoFundMe, saying that she
• 7:43
  should probably get more of a full time job alongside her art
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  if she wants to pay rent. And that is what a lot of TikTok
• 7:49
  users were saying too. A sublet I met about a month ago
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  made a 30 part TikTok series about me and I want to address a
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  few things. You started subleasing a few
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  weeks ago. A sublease is temporary by
• 7:59
  definition. Meaning I don't owe you shit.
• 8:03
  You are not entitled just because you moved in.
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  I feel like I gave you plenty of notice and time to make
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  arrangements so that when you re sign the lease you won't be
• 8:13
  stressed out. You even admitted that you found
• 8:15
  someone within a day. The real issue is that the rent
• 8:19
  increase and now you need to qualify for the lease yourself.
• 8:22
  And that is not my problem. That's just how New York renting
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  goes. I feel like that's how renting
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  goes in any state. You have moved five times within
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  a year at this point, babe. There's a common denominator and
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  it's definitely not the people that you're sub leasing from.
• 8:36
  I feel like at this point it's you.
• 8:38
  Throughout all your videos there was a consistency of you talking
• 8:42
  about me, about my situation, my bills, my pay stubs, my proof of
• 8:47
  income. When in reality I have a job, I
• 8:51
  pay my bills on time, I even secured my new apt.
• 8:54
  I think you're projecting what you're lacking on to me.
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  You didn't start a go fund me because you lost your job, you
• 9:00
  have medical expenses to take care of or have hard times at
• 9:04
  this moment. You started a go fund me because
• 9:08
  you don't have the funds for the apartment and instead of being
• 9:11
  honest about that you're blaming me.
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  People have asked you multiple times why don't you get an
• 9:17
  actual job and your response is always I'm an artist.
• 9:21
  There is plenty of artists in New York City that still have
• 9:24
  regular jobs because they know rent needs to be paid at the end
• 9:27
  of the day. And instead of finding a job,
• 9:30
  you decide to basically scream, call me out of my name, say that
• 9:36
  I am a nightmare roommate, blaming me for not wanting to
• 9:40
  resign the lease with you. Which is crazy.
• 9:42
  In the latest video posted a couple hours ago, Ek saying this
• 9:46
  is her last video. OK, she addressed the GoFundMe.
• 9:48
  She didn't acknowledge Marilyn's video, but in the TikTok, she
• 9:52
  notes that the issue is not her being able to pay rent, it's
• 9:55
  about taking over the whole apartment.
• 9:57
  She also admitted that she probably shouldn't have taken
• 9:59
  this issue to social media, and she says that she will now be
• 10:02
  taking a hiatus from social media.
• 10:04
  So I hear I'm being called Fire Escape girl now.
• 10:06
  I figured for my final statement on this entire matter, I should
• 10:09
  end it here. My community has watched me
• 10:11
  struggle to find my footing in New York for over a year now.
• 10:14
  I got into a bad habit of just bouncing sublet to sublet,
• 10:17
  trying to buy myself time to get on a long term lease.
• 10:20
  I've always dreamed of living in New York.
• 10:22
  Anyone who has known me for years knows how much I love the
• 10:24
  city. So when I took the leap I was so
• 10:26
  blessed to find success early on with my small business.
• 10:30
  I also had other side gigs. I'm a photographer and a
• 10:33
  videographer, but I also do other side gigs at the the
• 10:36
  Internet is not aware of. So it has never been an issue of
• 10:38
  not being able to afford rent. All of my bills have always been
• 10:41
  paid on time. I was just never supposed to
• 10:44
  take over an entire apartment and the security deposit and a
• 10:48
  guarantor all at the same time. Over a month ago there was a lot
• 10:52
  of confusion that rose up of whether or not I was even going
• 10:54
  to be able to stay in the current apartment that I have
• 10:57
  started documenting that on social media and I fully take
• 11:00
  ownership. None of this would have happened
• 11:02
  had I not come to social media in the 1st place.
• 11:04
  I have learned my lesson. I will not do this again.
• 11:07
  And as my community was watching all of this unfold in real time,
• 11:11
  they were asking for other ways to support.
• 11:13
  I fully recognize now how tone deaf it came across by setting
• 11:16
  it up. I didn't consider that and I
• 11:18
  should have. So the sentiment around this
• 11:20
  whole situation has really shifted.
• 11:23
  Initially people were positive towards Ek, like supportive of
• 11:27
  her, and then I think when Marilyn dropped her video and
• 11:31
  the fact that Ek kept making increasingly more videos about
• 11:35
  the situation, people were more on Marilyn's side and seeing her
• 11:39
  perspective more. Although I will say there are a
• 11:42
  good number of like Reddit and TikTok users who feel like both
• 11:45
  are in the wrong and that it really is just like a
• 11:47
  communication breakdown that has caused this.
• 11:50
  OK the next story that I have for you guys today is that Alex
• 11:53
  Reid's Tarot has quit tarot. So I have been covering this
• 11:59
  here and there on Tiktok during the break, but I thought it was
• 12:02
  worth mentioning here. Alex Reid's Tarot has been 1 of
• 12:05
  Tiktok's most famous tarot card readers She had almost 1,000,000
• 12:09
  followers at her height and Hayley Williams like that Hayley
• 12:13
  Williams Hayley Williams Paramore Hayley Williams
• 12:16
  actually mentioned Alex reads tarot in one of her songs from
• 12:19
  her album that she put out last year, love me different.
• 12:21
  So she really was that girl, OK. Last week, Alex announced that
• 12:24
  she would be giving up her account and tarot for religion
• 12:28
  after finding Jesus Christ. She posted a video to her TikTok
• 12:32
  reading from a statement and also went on to wipe her entire
• 12:35
  account. In the video, she says her
• 12:36
  opinion of tarot has changed over the past year or so.
• 12:39
  At the same time, she found herself re evaluating her
• 12:42
  relationship with faith in God. At this point in her life, she
• 12:45
  feels the two cannot coexist. However, she does maintain that
• 12:48
  her previous readings were authentic and sincere, despite
• 12:52
  many social media users now calling for refunds.
• 12:55
  This will be my final post. I am not going to be offering
• 13:00
  any more readings or sessions, I'm not going to be creating any
• 13:04
  more tarot content, and once this account is gone, I will not
• 13:09
  be returning. This truly isn't something that
• 13:13
  I say lightly, as this has been my life, my my work for years.
• 13:21
  And looking back, tarot has always been a very significant
• 13:24
  part of my path. It's been my path, my routine,
• 13:29
  and in many ways a huge part of my identity.
• 13:32
  And walking away from something like that isn't easy.
• 13:36
  There's sadness, but at the same time there's a peace in that
• 13:40
  decision that I can't quite explain.
• 13:43
  And I don't know exactly what comes next for me.
• 13:46
  But what I do know is that Jesus Christ has saved my life and I
• 13:51
  can no longer ignore that reality.
• 13:55
  So thank you for being a part of this chapter of my life and I
• 13:59
  genuinely wish every single one of you the best with what comes
• 14:03
  next. Now people were shocked about
• 14:05
  this in general. This is not the first like major
• 14:08
  Tarot or like astrology creator to quit because they found Jesus
• 14:14
  Christ or they found religion. So people are kind of like what
• 14:17
  is going on in this space, first of all, but second of all, now
• 14:21
  it's led to all these conspiracy theories about like the specific
• 14:24
  video itself and like what people are like trying to
• 14:27
  dissect from it. So one of the main conspiracy
• 14:30
  theories, because Alex was filming near a window, which she
• 14:33
  did confirm in another video, you can see like shadows and
• 14:37
  stuff behind her. There's all these people that
• 14:39
  are like, Oh my God, she has like a demonic presence attached
• 14:43
  to her. People think that because she
• 14:46
  was mentioned in the Hayley Williams song that put like a
• 14:49
  spotlight on her, like that put like too much attention on her
• 14:52
  and therefore she possibly got hexed by people who were like,
• 14:56
  jealous and envious of her. And that the shadows that we can
• 15:00
  see in her goodbye video are representative of that, of like
• 15:04
  the demons that are now, like, haunting her basically and are
• 15:08
  putting her on this different path.
• 15:10
  OK, that's one of the conspiracy theories.
• 15:12
  Another theory was based on her repost.
• 15:14
  So I guess she was reposting a lot of things about like
• 15:16
  relationships and stuff recently and people thought maybe she
• 15:20
  found a boyfriend who was like really religious.
• 15:23
  Those series are a little bit unhinged OK?
• 15:25
  Especially the first one. And usually the most obvious
• 15:29
  answer is the correct one. And this is one that a lot of
• 15:33
  people have noted as well where, you know, sometimes there is
• 15:36
  like this pipeline between tarot and organized religion and the
• 15:40
  alt right. And she is possibly on that
• 15:43
  pipeline right now. Now, amid the speculation, Alex
• 15:45
  did go on to post another video offering clarification, and it
• 15:49
  has since been deleted. In the video, she clarified that
• 15:52
  this decision was not the result of a new boyfriend of
• 15:54
  conservative politics or some demonic presence.
• 15:57
  She reiterated that this past year has been a massive shift
• 16:00
  for her, especially coming off the the back of a breakup.
• 16:03
  I didn't think I was going to make another video.
• 16:05
  I said I wasn't, but unfortunately I kind of feel
• 16:08
  like I'm going to have to. Maybe not.
• 16:10
  Unfortunately, I think this presents me with a better
• 16:13
  opportunity now that I've witnessed the unfolding over the
• 16:18
  past less than 24 hours. I've not been to sleep.
• 16:21
  I've watched every content creators take on this.
• 16:25
  Everyone, every single one. Not one has gone left.
• 16:30
  Every comment I've sat with it, I've given time to really sit
• 16:38
  with what was being said. I stand by what what I've said.
• 16:44
  It's not been with any ill will, any harm.
• 16:46
  I'm not a MAGA supporter, Never have been, never will be.
• 16:50
  I love all people. I think all people are
• 16:53
  wonderful. I think all people deserve joy.
• 16:55
  There have been a lot of conspiracies thrown out.
• 16:58
  And as much as many of you may say no, it's fact.
• 17:00
  Because my intuition, I'm here to tell you that some of you are
• 17:03
  just point blank wrong. And This is why I felt the need
• 17:07
  to sit and make this video this morning because it's very hard.
• 17:15
  It's very hard anyway to see your own humanity be dissected
• 17:20
  and quantified online. Some people are just getting
• 17:23
  this so wrong. There is no man.
• 17:25
  I've been single for nearly a year, came to the Internet
• 17:29
  candidly going through that time.
• 17:32
  Always wanted to share my journey to try and help other
• 17:35
  people that has been packaged now under conspiracy with my
• 17:40
  repost. Because of what I was reflect on
• 17:44
  and because what I've been going through and because of what I've
• 17:47
  been working through. People put two and two together
• 17:50
  and they've been getting 50. She's given this all up for a
• 17:53
  man that there's a man somewhere behind this.
• 17:56
  I'm afraid to say that there's not and that you're point blank
• 17:59
  wrong and that that conspiracy has been blown out of the water.
• 18:04
  I've made a lot of decisions in my life for myself.
• 18:07
  Not all of them people agree with, but I can.
• 18:11
  I can absolutely say that I've made every decision myself, and
• 18:14
  this one is no different. Now other content was made
• 18:18
  dissecting shadows, reflections. Where I film, I always film
• 18:25
  adjacent to a window. You can see the window here.
• 18:29
  That was a window. That was a shadow, not a demonic
• 18:33
  presence. Oh, she she's lost her sparkle.
• 18:36
  Oh, there's something off that feels about this.
• 18:38
  Yeah. Because it was a huge shock to
• 18:40
  you all. I knew how massive this was
• 18:42
  going to be. And that script that I was
• 18:45
  forced someone standing over the room was empty.
• 18:50
  It was just me and you in there, me and my phone like.
• 18:54
  Now now she did delete this video, but she has continued to
• 18:58
  repost supportive content about her.
• 19:00
  I was just so surprised you guys.
• 19:03
  So as somebody who has followed Alex, I'm not like that woo woo,
• 19:06
  but like I like a tarot card every once in a while.
• 19:10
  I don't mind an astrology. I can't believe I'm saying that
• 19:13
  'cause if you asked me that like 2-3 years ago, I would have been
• 19:16
  like, what the fuck are you talking about?
• 19:18
  But I don't mind it here and there.
• 19:20
  I have followed Alex for a long time and I will say while I am
• 19:23
  like surprised on one hand, I also feel like there has been a
• 19:29
  shift in her like they're she's taken time away.
• 19:32
  The way she's shown up online has felt different in the past
• 19:36
  year, maybe 2 years I would say. She just hasn't seemed like
• 19:40
  she's like a fully in it anymore.
• 19:41
  Like she's lost that passion is how I would have described it.
• 19:45
  Can you guys tell him? Losing my voice.
• 19:47
  I'm trying really hard not to make this like the most annoying
• 19:50
  episode ever. OK, the next story that I have
• 19:53
  for you guys today. Of course something happens with
• 19:56
  Simone while we are on break. Annabelle saw one of you guys
• 20:00
  commenting this on Reddit and it is so freaking true.
• 20:04
  So I have revived Simone Scroll. I never thought she would see
• 20:09
  another day. I honestly wasn't sure.
• 20:11
  OK, but we have revived Simone Scroll for one day and one day
• 20:15
  only. This story is a little bit old
• 20:17
  now but I had to include it. So Simone Kromer of former Club
• 20:21
  Chalamet fame is going viral for allegedly getting into a
• 20:24
  physical altercation with another fan in Paris.
• 20:28
  So we all know that Simone is no longer ride or die for Timothy
• 20:30
  Chalamet. She is now full time standing.
• 20:33
  Connor story from heated rivalry under story Glory To make a Long
• 20:37
  story short, Simone was allegedly waiting outside of
• 20:39
  Connors Hotel in Paris when she got into a physical altercation
• 20:43
  with another fan. The fan in question is the
• 20:45
  Twitter user named at Micah. Don't you dare.
• 20:47
  The account is private at the time of recording.
• 20:50
  So according to reports from Complex and Rolling Stone, this
• 20:53
  fan had allegedly shared to their followers that Simone was
• 20:57
  waiting outside the hotel asking what they should do.
• 21:00
  Soon after, they quote tweeted writing So just had a fight with
• 21:04
  Club Chalamet. Story time tomorrow.
• 21:06
  As the Rolling Stone piece explains quote.
• 21:09
  According to the fan, they noticed Kromer while waiting
• 21:11
  outside of Stories hotel and became concerned for the actor's
• 21:14
  safety. When Story exited the hotel,
• 21:17
  they claimed Kromer raced toward him.
• 21:20
  When the fan confronted Kromer, a verbal and physical
• 21:22
  altercation ensued. Before I get into Simone's
• 21:25
  series of events and what she says happened, can I just say
• 21:29
  the thing with Simone is she has this reputation and some of it
• 21:33
  is for good reason, right? She has had decades of being
• 21:36
  unhinged and displaying really inappropriate behavior towards
• 21:41
  her fan objects. OK so she has this reputation
• 21:44
  because of herself, but I also do believe she somewhat has this
• 21:49
  reputation because she has become somewhat of like a lol
• 21:52
  cow. And that is partly because of
• 21:55
  her age. Because I do not believe in my
• 21:57
  heart of hearts, knowing how rabid the heated rivalry fanbase
• 22:01
  is, that Simone was the only fan possibly rushing to get closer
• 22:08
  to Connor's story in this situation.
• 22:10
  OK, so Simone said that she was in Paris, it was planned a year
• 22:13
  ago, she was with her family. It was not because Connor's
• 22:16
  story was there, but obviously their plans just worked out
• 22:19
  where Connor was there. She says that when she got to
• 22:22
  the hotel, she noted that one of the fans seem to recognize her,
• 22:25
  which made her uncomfortable and feel unwelcome.
• 22:27
  And then things escalated when crowd control started.
• 22:30
  This is what she said. Finally, around 5:10-ish, the
• 22:33
  crowd started to swell up closer to the entryway as people were
• 22:36
  coming. As I recall, I was moving along
• 22:38
  with everyone else and was and trying to maintain whatever
• 22:41
  visual advantage I could muster, as was everyone else.
• 22:43
  Next thing I feel is someone grabbing my backpack with such
• 22:46
  force that I almost lost my footing.
• 22:48
  I thought it was a mistake but it really did feel like someone
• 22:51
  was forcefully pulling me back out of anger.
• 22:53
  Like what the fuck is going on? I turn around and it's her.
• 22:56
  She glared at me and said I know who you are, I know who you are
• 22:59
  bitch, you bitch. And she tried to remove my
• 23:01
  fucking dermatologist recommended fucking SPF mask
• 23:04
  from my fucking face and I moved her hand away.
• 23:07
  What the actual fuck. I was truly flabbergasted.
• 23:10
  I remember telling her don't fucking touch me again.
• 23:12
  She called me a bitch again. That's when I took her Manson
• 23:14
  family recruitment photo. Then I promptly called her the C
• 23:17
  word. Then she shut up and I turned
• 23:19
  around to look out for Connor. She proceeded to tell everyone
• 23:22
  with an earshot that I'm a stalker.
• 23:23
  Like a fucking town crier. All that was missing was a bell.
• 23:26
  I told her that I'm not a stalker.
• 23:28
  Simone is truly a wordsmith. So she went on to include
• 23:32
  pictures of the fan as well as the sun protection that she was
• 23:35
  wearing that day. And I think she shared the sun
• 23:38
  protection because other fans of Connor story and he did rivalry
• 23:42
  were saying that she was in like disguise and she was claiming it
• 23:45
  was sun protection. But a lot of fans thought she
• 23:47
  was like in a disguise because like, Simone is as famous as
• 23:51
  like Timothy Chalamet now, at least in my world, she is like
• 23:56
  famous. It's like she is a famous fan,
• 23:58
  right? So I also could kind of
• 24:01
  understand because of the reception that she receives,
• 24:04
  again, largely because of her own behavior, I could see why
• 24:08
  she may want to go out in a disguise, she continued.
• 24:12
  Quote I'm on vacation in Paris and the last thing I ever wanted
• 24:16
  was an encounter with a mad loon from this toxic community.
• 24:20
  I really need a break from this because people are so eager to
• 24:22
  embrace this lie of calling me a stalker.
• 24:25
  I'm too busy for such a degrading activity.
• 24:27
  It insults my intelligence. I regret not walking away after
• 24:31
  realizing that quite a few people waiting at the hotel have
• 24:33
  policed the fandom so much online that they are policing it
• 24:37
  in the real world. That last line, I feel she ate.
• 24:40
  I feel that is a mic drop. I feel that is a Reed.
• 24:43
  The rest of it Simone Simone, it's OK.
• 24:46
  Like own that you love to allegedly stalk your fan objects
• 24:53
  like that's OK. That's part of being like a
• 24:55
  rabid fan is following them around the world, I guess.
• 24:58
  OK and then Micah, don't you dare reportedly went on to quote
• 25:01
  tweet Simone's tweet writing hi babe just stopped you from
• 25:04
  running toward Connor and assaulting him.
• 25:06
  Security can back me up and so can many fans.
• 25:09
  I just don't know if we have seen Simone display like violent
• 25:16
  behavior, you know, where people are like genuinely concerned
• 25:19
  that she's going to assault these fans.
• 25:21
  And if they were, I don't know if it's like another fans job to
• 25:25
  be, you know, pulling her back and getting physical with her
• 25:28
  when there is security there. You've just admitted that on
• 25:31
  Twitter. There was security there.
• 25:32
  OK. The final piece of this is
• 25:33
  Simone has gone on to respond to quite a few fans who were
• 25:36
  offering support. In one tweet, she wrote, do not
• 25:39
  pity me. My age is not an issue.
• 25:41
  I'm not a wilting flower. And I know how to defend myself.
• 25:43
  I wasn't hurt so I didn't file police report.
• 25:46
  I'm posting this for public record in the fandom.
• 25:48
  Karma works better that way. OK Queen.
• 25:52
  I think her age is an issue in the sense that if she was an 18
• 25:56
  year old fan girl who was running these fan accounts and
• 25:59
  was still like kind of as unhinged as she is.
• 26:02
  Like I don't think that people would be as protective of their
• 26:06
  fan objects like against her if that makes sense.
• 26:09
  And I think they would maybe receive her in a different way.
• 26:12
  People find it very bizarre that she is 59 years old and obsessed
• 26:16
  with these like young men and makes it like her entire online
• 26:20
  persona and personality and then like is claiming not to be like
• 26:24
  a weird fan stalker. People have a lot of like
• 26:26
  questions around that and issues with that.
• 26:29
  But regardless, putting your hands on somebody, physically
• 26:32
  fighting with somebody is truly never OK.
• 26:36
  It's never the answer. I fear we have reached a really
• 26:39
  scary peak in fandom culture where like Simone said, like
• 26:44
  these fandoms that are policing the online spaces are now
• 26:47
  starting to police like IRL and taking matters into their own
• 26:51
  hands from like the lore that they know about other fans who
• 26:55
  may also be there. And like taking it upon
• 26:58
  themselves to like protect the fan object against that person,
• 27:01
  regardless if something was or was not actually transpiring.
• 27:04
  OK. And the last story that I have
• 27:05
  for you guys today is OG YouTube.
• 27:07
  Naomi John is facing scrutiny after sharing some recent
• 27:11
  financial struggles. Really relating to her music
• 27:13
  career, Naomi John is a German creator who first became well
• 27:16
  known for her beauty, hair dyeing and lifestyle videos.
• 27:20
  Today a lot of her content is about trying new foods and
• 27:22
  testing scammy clothing websites.
• 27:25
  People do love her content and she has a lot of fans, but she
• 27:28
  also isn't without criticism. She does receive some scrutiny
• 27:32
  for kind of like feeding into overconsumption with this kind
• 27:35
  of content, but that is not really the point of today, of
• 27:39
  this story at least. So aside from doing content
• 27:42
  creation, she also puts out music and she has been touring.
• 27:44
  She is an independent artist. So this comes out of her own
• 27:47
  pocket, which leads into the story.
• 27:50
  So in a video posted four days ago, she shared that she is in a
• 27:53
  difficult situation. Naomi claims that the
• 27:55
  manufacturer that produced the album boxes for her recent
• 27:58
  Strawberry album is now bankrupt.
• 28:01
  They went bankrupt after selling out her inventory.
• 28:04
  So album boxes, they're like basically these little like
• 28:07
  merch boxes that you get and, and you unzip them and they have
• 28:10
  a bunch of stuff in them for the album.
• 28:12
  So she had fronted roughly €45,000 to cover production
• 28:16
  costs, money that she says she expected to make back and used
• 28:20
  to finance her recent European Tour and pay her team.
• 28:24
  But because the company folded, she now has to absorb the full
• 28:26
  €45,000 loss on her own. In the video, she directs her
• 28:30
  followers to a new merch drop and frames it as a way that
• 28:34
  she's working to earn back enough to compensate her team
• 28:37
  for their work. So she's basically asking her
• 28:40
  followers, her subscribers, to buy her new merch.
• 28:43
  Many of these people would have already bought, you know, these
• 28:45
  album boxes and things that are, like, not going to get delivered
• 28:49
  to them now because it's gone bankrupt.
• 28:50
  The company's gone bankrupt. So she's asking them to buy new
• 28:54
  merch to help pay her team. OK, so on YouTube, where her
• 28:58
  fandom is, obviously most people are very sympathetic of the
• 29:02
  situation. Naomi does give this big pained
• 29:07
  comment and explains like why she's not going to use some of
• 29:12
  the money from like her brand sponsorships and like other
• 29:15
  projects that she does online to fund her music career.
• 29:18
  She basically says that every project, every business needs to
• 29:22
  stand on its own. And if her music can't stand on
• 29:25
  its own and she has to funnel like other money to her music
• 29:29
  career, then it's not a viable business.
• 29:31
  I think that's actually kind of a very like 1 dimensional way to
• 29:35
  look at business as somebody who has been building a media
• 29:37
  business now for almost 7 years. And so obviously I have a lot of
• 29:41
  connections in this industry. I speak to a lot of people doing
• 29:43
  this. Like it's actually very common
• 29:45
  because like media, music, like these creative industries, like
• 29:48
  they're very hard to make money in.
• 29:50
  It's actually really common for there to be some type of like ad
• 29:53
  agency or, you know, like other elements like content creation,
• 29:58
  agency, whatever that's like attached to the media business
• 30:02
  that like actually funds like the front facing business, which
• 30:06
  makes very little money. And then there's like a boring
• 30:09
  business behind the scenes that actually like makes the money
• 30:12
  and funnels the money to the front facing business.
• 30:14
  That's like a very common business model.
• 30:15
  OK. So while her YouTube viewers are
• 30:17
  relatively understanding, Reddit is not as understanding.
• 30:21
  Many are questioning her response but also questioning
• 30:24
  how truthful she's being in terms of her finances.
• 30:27
  So 1 user wrote quote. By the way, she just commented
• 30:30
  on the same video and it's the weirdest reply to ever exist.
• 30:33
  She's basically saying I won't put money from my other projects
• 30:36
  into my music project but I love making music and you all should
• 30:38
  sustain me. People are commenting that they
• 30:41
  paid for vinyls and other stuff and never received anything and
• 30:43
  she's not responding to them. Another wrote quote.
• 30:45
  She 100% owes way more than 45 K to tours.
• 30:49
  The size she did can easily be over 100K.
• 30:52
  I find it odd she never says how much she was expecting to get
• 30:54
  and how much she made off the tour.
• 30:56
  If I were to guess she probably owes more up to 100 to 200 K.
• 31:00
  But it is her fault she released the tour too fast in my opinion.
• 31:03
  Like she should have waited until the money she was
• 31:05
  expecting actually got to her then planned the tour.
• 31:08
  She owes people money and it is tacky to ask fans again to buy
• 31:11
  shitty merch to bail her out. The same people who never got
• 31:14
  their merch from their other releases.
• 31:16
  Yeah, like at the end of the day, you are the only person
• 31:18
  that can save your business in hard Financial Times.
• 31:21
  And while releasing merch is a strategy for that 100%, playing
• 31:25
  the guilt card where it's like, oh, I need to pay my team,
• 31:31
  please buy this merch, I think is a really inappropriate
• 31:36
  strategy to bring to your audience.
• 31:39
  I think it's fine to share with your audience like the hardships
• 31:42
  that you're going through that this company did go bankrupt,
• 31:46
  that musics a hard industry to make money in where you're at
• 31:49
  financially. Like I think that's all fine and
• 31:50
  they can make their own decisions from that.
• 31:52
  Like obviously they can buy the merch or they don't have to.
• 31:55
  Like it is what it is. But I think letting your fandom
• 31:59
  know, OK, this has happened and now I can't pay my team, so
• 32:02
  please buy this merch so that my team can get paid.
• 32:04
  Like everybody is in such hard Financial Times right now.
• 32:08
  It feels like that guilt card is just not quite right because we
• 32:14
  all know how it is to be like financially strapped.
• 32:17
  So of course we're going to immediately put ourselves in the
• 32:20
  shoes of her team who are what she's saying, not going to get
• 32:23
  paid unless we buy this T-shirt or buy the sweater or whatever.
• 32:26
  So of course people are going to be like, oh fuck, okay, I guess
• 32:29
  it's like the least I can do. It's just kind of like, I
• 32:31
  understand what people are saying online where it's like
• 32:33
  feels a bit like tacky. I don't know if it's the right
• 32:35
  move. But I also think at the end of
• 32:37
  the day, no ones making us buy this merch.
• 32:40
  She's one responsible for digging herself out of this hole
• 32:43
  and getting her team paid and it is up to the fan or the consumer
• 32:48
  if they want to support her or not.
• 32:49
  Anyways, guys, that's it for many scrolls today.
• 32:51
  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
• 32:54
  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
• 32:56
  Please Spotify star rate US. I love you and I will talk to
• 33:00
  you guys tomorrow. Bye.
• 33:02
  Centennial World Podcast network operates on Gadigal land.
• 33:05
  We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the
• 33:08
  traditional custodians of this land, and pay our respects to
• 33:11
  elders both past and present.