Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Fred again... NYC pop up backlash, Olivia Rodrigo x Taylor Swift feud update + Tammy Hembrow divorce

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MINI SCROLL: Fred again... NYC pop up backlash, Olivia Rodrigo x Taylor Swift feud update + Tammy Hembrow divorce · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
• 0:03
  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
• 0:06
  media, the creator economy and the digital space.
• 0:09
  Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
• 0:12
  I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the youth digital
• 0:16
  media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to mini scroll
• 0:20
  everyone. OK, before I get into the
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  stories for today, obviously this was not a good weekend for
• 0:26
  so many people around the world. I know we just have a lot of
• 0:29
  international listeners and this is like a very scary time and
• 0:33
  I'm not like looking for advice on anything like this.
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  But I did want to say that every time something really major
• 0:38
  happens in the world, especially these last, I don't know, I'm
• 0:41
  going to say like 12 months since doing a Daily News
• 0:44
  podcast. I think long and hard about if I
• 0:47
  want to address things, how I to address them.
• 0:50
  And it's not that anyone has ever made a comment.
• 0:52
  No one has ever asked me to speak out on something that I
• 0:56
  haven't. It's more that I want you guys
• 0:59
  to understand as our loyal audience that it's always top of
• 1:03
  mind for me. And I'm always considering, OK,
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  how can I insert, you know, like my values and my opinions on
• 1:12
  things and my commentary on things into these episodes in a
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  meaningful way that actually lends itself to to, you know,
• 1:20
  critical discussion, but also gives you guys a good
• 1:23
  understanding of where I stand on certain things.
• 1:26
  And I hope I have done that effectively.
• 1:28
  You know, we've talked a lot about how pop culture podcasts
• 1:30
  in general are leaning more and more right?
• 1:33
  And it's very scary. Or they're just like, putting
• 1:35
  their heads in the sand and they don't address any like, social,
• 1:38
  political, humanitarian issues at all.
• 1:39
  And for me, it is finding that balance because obviously, we
• 1:43
  are not a hard news podcast. Like half the time we're up here
• 1:46
  talking about like petty influence or drama, you know
• 1:49
  what I mean? So it doesn't make sense for me
• 1:51
  to always come on and you know, talk about something really
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  major that has happened that is kind of outside of this niche.
• 1:56
  But I do hope I do a good enough job of covering this niche with
• 2:00
  a critical lens, with a left-leaning lens, you know,
• 2:03
  with a lens that allows you guys to understand where I stand on
• 2:07
  certain issues, what my values are.
• 2:09
  I think that's important for any creator, podcast, whatever that
• 2:13
  you are following for you to understand where they stand on
• 2:15
  certain issues. And I hope that I do a good
• 2:18
  enough job of that. It was important for me to
• 2:20
  communicate to you guys that I don't think it is OK for pop
• 2:24
  culture podcast to be like, well, I just cover pop culture.
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  So, you know, we don't have any accountability here when it
• 2:31
  comes to the world issues that are happening because I don't
• 2:33
  agree with that. Pop culture is a reflection of
• 2:36
  society and culture, like a larger cultural impact and
• 2:39
  politics and humanitarian issues like everything that's going on
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  in the world. And I think that's kind of a cop
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  out to say that. So yes, I did want to address
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  that, especially because we are a daily podcast so much which is
• 2:49
  constantly happening and I never want anyone again.
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  I haven't received any comments, but I never want anyone to feel
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  like I am like avoiding talking about things.
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  And I hope I have done a good enough job over the past, you
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  know, year or so of doing mini of covering stories, even when
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  they feel frivolous, covering them with a critical lens and,
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  you know, sharing my values and my politics and my beliefs
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  within it. Anyways, let's get into the
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  stories for today. So the first story that I have
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  for you guys is that we're going to talk about the Fred Again New
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  York City pop up show drama and what it says for, I guess this
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  direction that it feels like marketing in general of like
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  brands, artists, communities has gone.
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  OK. DJ Fred Again is under fire
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  after he hosted a pop up in New York City last week, which
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  allegedly prioritized influencer guests over his paying fans.
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  Last Sunday, rumors started circulating that Fred Again
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  would be hosting a show with Skepta.
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  He posted screenshots of text messages saying this to a
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  friend, but he crossed out the details of where it would be and
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  when it would be. This was obviously to generate
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  some hype. So everyone started looking into
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  this and the hype started building.
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  And this I guess is pretty normal from him.
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  He is known for literally popping up, you know, just like
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  popping up and doing a show randomly.
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  And this FOMO effect is a huge part of his brand.
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  The show was meant to be on Tuesday, so apparently a ton of
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  people took time off work to like be around the suspected
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  area of the show so they could attend.
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  Fans uncovered it would be at the Brooklyn Paramount.
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  So a huge crowd started circulating the venue all day.
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  And then at 5:00 PM on Tuesday, a Ticketmaster link was
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  released. And thousands of people were in
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  the queue with this link. But the link, while people were
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  in the queue, quickly broke. And Fred Again's team announced
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  that this was not a link that they released.
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  So everyone's like, OK, that's random though, because this is
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  like an official Ticketmaster link anyways.
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  And then around 7:00 PM, the link started working again.
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  And it turns out it actually wasn't a fake link, despite I
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  guess what his team was claiming.
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  And so many people were trying to buy tickets.
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  The link kept crashing. It's like classic Ticketmaster
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  story, OK, But at this point there are like thousands of
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  people surrounding the venue and they're all trying to get
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  tickets because even though they're like at the venue, they
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  still need to have the tickets obviously to get in.
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  So thousands of people are outside the venue and apparently
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  hardly any of those people had any tickets.
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  So this is from a user on Reddit, they said.
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  So they post a link to a third party site that asks for your
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  number and Instagram handle. That website then tells you
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  it'll text you. Website crashes.
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  Most don't get texts and those that do are just pointed back to
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  the original Ticketmaster link. Queue with 100,000 people in
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  front of you. What a huge waste of time all of
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  this was. Today someone responded.
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  Same thing happened to me. I was in a queue with
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  three-point 4K in line but then was told no, that's not the
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  right link. However, once the link got sent
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  out, it was the exact same queue.
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  So yes, there was this kind of like roundabout, you know,
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  secret texts to link queue, Ticketmaster vibe that was going
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  on that was making people very frustrated and confused.
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  So fans were kind of like, OK, who ended up getting these
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  tickets? And it turns out, according to
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  fans, this is the theory. At least it was mostly
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  influencers. So there is huge backlash
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  because the theory amongst fans is that influencers got the
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  Ticketmaster link earlier in the day and we're able to secure
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  tickets. This is from wereview.com quote.
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  As a result, the queue ballooned to more than 80,000 people for a
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  venue that only held around 2700.
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  Additionally, ticket resellers capitalized on the frenzy,
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  flipping $60.00 tickets for hundreds.
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  Fans reported hours wasted on vague updates and misleading
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  hype, only to miss out. Safety concerns also emerged
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  when crowds gathered outside amid confusion, triggering a
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  semi evacuation by the New York Fire Department.
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  One disappointed attendee wrote Letting influencers in.
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  And not even your own fans, someone else commented.
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  Wasting so many of your fans time.
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  Tickets popped up on resale for 11K.
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  So one of the reasons why fans think that influencers were
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  prioritized for the show is because there were some
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  prominent like rave music influencers who were posting
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  screenshots of their computer in line for the tickets before 5:00
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  PM. However, other people say that
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  influencers and industry people were in a separate like VIP
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  guest list days in advance. So apparently there were 650
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  people on this guest list and 2500 tickets for fans.
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  I think this is probably the most likely thing that happened.
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  I think if there were thousands of people outside waiting, of
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  course it's going to be hard for you to find people that have,
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  you know, got a ticket to go into the venue because there
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  were not that many tickets available anyways.
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  Like to begin with. I think it's probably less
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  likely that, you know, they prioritized influencers and more
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  that they had 650 like VIP tickets that they were like
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  giving away or, you know, selling in advance to like VIP
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  guests, like influencers. But in general, the backlash
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  around this really highlights how sick the general public is
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  of this FOMO marketing. This type of FOMO marketing is
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  different from what we talked about with Park last week
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  because they also do FOMO marketing, right with having
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  like exclusive drops that sell out.
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  But the difference is that Park, like acquiring their product
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  doesn't require as much time, effort, money and energy as
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  obviously, like taking time off work, being at a venue all day,
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  possibly having to pay for jacked up ticket prices on
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  resale. Like all of this stuff is just
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  kind of like fucking over your fans at the end of the day so
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  that you can have like a viral headline moment that says, like,
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  Fred Again's pop up in NYC sold out in 16 seconds.
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  It's like, yeah, but like, at what cost?
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  Like at the cost of your fans sanity and their money and their
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  time and their effort and their energy.
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  And for a lot of them, probably their loyalty to you at this
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  point. And I think since lockdowns
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  lifted events, pop ups, activations, they are like the
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  thing that every single brand, artist, community is trying to
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  do in marketing. And I think of course, this is
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  largely in response to lockdowns.
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  Everything in marketing now is like, how can you take that
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  community offline because everything is so saturated
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  online. But I think this is a good
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  example of how you can take this strategy like almost too far and
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  it can backfire even when that brand or artist or community
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  like Fred again is so culty. Reddit, TikTok, Twitter, like
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  every platform right now is talking about how like, why
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  can't he just put on a regular show?
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  Like just say you're going to do a pop up, put tickets on sale at
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  a normal time. It doesn't need to be this like
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  secretive FOMO thing. It would still sell out in like
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  16 seconds. He doesn't need to do this
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  anymore because he is so big. But it's like that hype moment
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  that they're all chasing and it's to the fans detriment.
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  OK, the next story that I have for you guys, this is also about
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  like fan interactions. So Bluebird Cafe worker has
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  started a rumor about the alleged Olivia Rodrigo and
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  Taylor Swift feud in an interview with the swiftologist.
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  OK, stick with me. I know that is like a convoluted
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  headline. Zach horian, who is the
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  swiftologist on social media, is a music and culture commentator
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  who was amassed a big following on TikTok and YouTube for his
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  cutthroat takes that often go against the mainstream
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  narrative. Zach was on a podcast tour and
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  while in Nashville, he stopped by the Bluebird Cafe, which is
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  basically like an iconic, iconic country music venue.
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  And it's also where Taylor Swift was discovered by Big Machine
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  Records. So Zach was documenting his
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  podcast tour for YouTube. So when they stopped at the
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  Bluebird Cafe, they were filming and he spoke with one of the
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  team members who works at the Bluebird Cafe.
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  And this team member claimed that when Olivia Rodrigo
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  performed there quote, we vowed to remove any visible signs of
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  Taylor Swift. And you saw Olivia Rodrigo, did
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  you not? Olivia did.
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  Right. There she was right.
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  There in 2023 right 4 guts she came here and played making the
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  bed vampire Lacy. And what happened before, before
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  she started playing, What did you guys do?
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  What was the amendment that you made?
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  We vowed to remove any visible signs of Taylor Swift.
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  In the Bluebird Cafe. Is that serious?
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  It's. That we respect the girlies.
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  So for anyone who doesn't know, the fandoms of Taylor Swift and
• 10:58
  Olivia Rodrigo have been essentially speculating for
• 11:02
  years that there is some major feud that neither of them will
• 11:06
  talk about. It seemed to come about from
• 11:10
  Taylor Swift getting writing credits on Olivia's first album,
• 11:13
  Sour, because some of these writing credits were given after
• 11:16
  the release. And obviously, I think you guys
• 11:18
  probably know, but like, there were so many songs that like
• 11:21
  artists came after Olivia for and we're like, you need to give
• 11:24
  us writing credits on this. So like, she had to do a lot of
• 11:26
  retroactive, I guess, writing credits on this album.
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  And you know, before that, like, Taylor and Olivia seems really
• 11:34
  supportive of each other publicly.
• 11:36
  And then there seems to be quite the rift after this.
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  So this exchange made its way to TikTok and X, and everybody's
• 11:43
  like, oh, my God. This confirms that right now the
• 11:46
  venue's chief operating officer has responded claiming that this
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  staff member spoke quote carelessly because it is
• 11:53
  standard practice that they remove copyrighted images that
• 11:56
  they don't own the copyright for if there will be filming taken
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  place in their venue and for Olivia's performance that she
• 12:03
  was doing, it was being filmed so they had to remove any photos
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  that would be in the shot. Olivia's people did not ask us
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  to remove an image of Taylor Swift.
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  Nobody did. We removed an image of Taylor
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  Swift that was in a position where the filming was taking
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  place. Our employee, who spoke out of
• 12:24
  turn about this, did not understand why that image was
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  removed. He spoke carelessly and
• 12:31
  haphazardly about it, maybe trying to be funny, I don't
• 12:35
  know. But irregardless, that image was
• 12:39
  removed for legal reasons. I feel like what happened here
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  was it's not the swiftologist fault, but like, obviously the
• 12:47
  swiftologist, if you know anything about like Gen.
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  Z Internet culture, music culture, like you would probably
• 12:51
  know the swiftologist. Like they're a pretty big name
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  in the space. So I think it's possible that
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  the venue worker was like excited to get to have this
• 12:58
  little segment on Zach's, you know, podcast tour YouTube video
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  was trying to like spill some tea with Zach.
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  And then Zach was like, oh, let's like, tell me about this
• 13:06
  on camera. And then they said it.
• 13:09
  And obviously, like, I don't know if they knew that it wasn't
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  true or not. But either way, I think what
• 13:13
  happened was like, this person just got caught up in the moment
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  of feeling, like, excited that they had some like, tea that
• 13:20
  they could share with the swiftologist, like with Zach,
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  because he is like such a big name and maybe he's a fan.
• 13:25
  I feel like that is absolutely something that would have
• 13:27
  happened to me like 10 years ago.
• 13:30
  I feel like that's something that happens, like when you're
• 13:32
  younger, you know, you get so excited to be the one that like
• 13:34
  has the information that has the T and then you kind of end up
• 13:37
  like miss speaking. I don't know.
• 13:38
  I don't know if that's me giving him the benefit of the doubt,
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  but like, I believe the venue owner, which is we did not like
• 13:43
  vow to do this. This is making Olivia's team or
• 13:45
  Olivia herself look so crazy. And that's not what happened.
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  Like those images, like we didn't own the copyright to
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  them, so we had to take them down.
• 13:52
  I think that's probably the reality of it.
• 13:54
  But I would be interested to know if this venue worker is
• 13:58
  going to keep their job after this because this has made it
• 14:00
  like into mainstream news. OK, the last story that I have
• 14:03
  for you guys is Tammy Hemro has announced that she is getting a
• 14:09
  divorce. So after months of speculation,
• 14:12
  Tammy Hemro has confirmed that she will be divorcing her
• 14:15
  husband of seven months, Matt Zukowski.
• 14:18
  Tammy and Matt got married in November 2024, so again, just
• 14:22
  seven months ago and they had, you know, a Vogue Australia
• 14:25
  wedding. She wore this like beautiful
• 14:27
  blush pink dress. It was very sweet.
• 14:30
  But even from, you know, the beginning, I think fans were
• 14:33
  kind of skeptical because there seemed to be a lot of questions
• 14:36
  around their relationship, even when they were dating before
• 14:39
  they got engaged, Like they would unfollow each other, re
• 14:41
  follow each other all the time. There seemed to be a lot of
• 14:44
  moments where, like, he temporarily moved back to
• 14:46
  Melbourne and it was like, I thought you guys were like,
• 14:48
  living together. I don't know.
• 14:50
  It seemed a little bit messy even from the outside.
• 14:52
  And Tammy's not really someone who shares her personal life
• 14:55
  that much, you know, like she'll share photos and like, you can
• 14:57
  kind of guess, OK, so this guy's obviously like moved in or
• 15:00
  whatever ever. But you know, she doesn't like
• 15:02
  talk about it that much. So even from the very little
• 15:06
  bits that fans got, there were questions.
• 15:09
  And I think there was a podcast episode as well where her sister
• 15:12
  seems like not super down for him.
• 15:15
  So anyways, there were like a lot of questions.
• 15:17
  And then they got married. And again, it has seemed very on
• 15:20
  again, off again. They'll follow each other,
• 15:22
  unfollow each other. She'll wear her ring.
• 15:24
  She won't wear her ring. And then recently, fans thought
• 15:27
  that it seems like he's moved back to Melbourne.
• 15:29
  Tammy was posting some cryptic stuff about going through a hard
• 15:32
  time in her personal life, and then over the weekend she
• 15:35
  officially announced that she will be divorcing him.
• 15:37
  Did I think this was going to happen?
• 15:39
  No. Did I want this?
• 15:44
  No. Obviously.
• 15:46
  When you marry someone you like, you do it thinking.
• 15:53
  Oh my God, you do it thinking that it's going to be.
• 15:59
  Yeah, well, I blame no one but myself.
• 16:04
  To be honest. I feel like I've made not the
• 16:08
  best choices when it comes to relationships and I've, you
• 16:14
  know, I feel like I, I'm really good at putting on rose colored
• 16:18
  glasses. There are a lot of
• 16:21
  misconceptions going around, so let me clear some up.
• 16:23
  This is not her third marriage. This is her first marriage.
• 16:27
  She has been engaged 3 times. This is the only one that she
• 16:30
  has ever married. I know there's a lot of opinions
• 16:32
  about how she introduces her children to all of these men.
• 16:35
  She moves them into her home and then obviously they end up
• 16:38
  breaking up and these kids have kind of these like male figures,
• 16:41
  like moving in and out and in and out.
• 16:43
  And like, OK, sure, you could say that.
• 16:44
  But I'm seeing a lot of people using that as an excuse, like
• 16:49
  that judgement as an excuse to just be so vile towards her in
• 16:53
  this situation. I think Tammy Hambra was just
• 16:55
  like a hopeless romantic. I think she really wants to be
• 16:58
  loved and she wants that partner.
• 16:59
  And I do think she keeps choosing like, kind of fuck
• 17:03
  boys. And I know people thought that
• 17:05
  Matt was maybe like a good one. So Matt, if you don't know, he's
• 17:08
  from Love Island, Australia. So first of all, girl, do you
• 17:11
  think you're going to find your husband on Love Island?
• 17:13
  Like, probably not. But do you think he was a Love
• 17:16
  Island contestant? Like probably not.
• 17:18
  But I know people were like, oh, he was a good one.
• 17:21
  Whatever. OK.
• 17:22
  However, I saw this so when she announced the divorce on TikTok
• 17:27
  this weekend, I went to his Instagram.
• 17:29
  Somebody commented you're free, Congrats and he liked it.
• 17:33
  If that is not a red flag, okay. You're free from being in a
• 17:39
  relationship with the most famous, successful, richest
• 17:44
  influencer in like all of Australia.
• 17:47
  She is like full A list. You lived in her mansion on the
• 17:51
  water on the Gold Coast. I am sure being with Tammy
• 17:54
  Hambro absolutely skyrocketed his career.
• 17:58
  I'm not saying that she didn't have her own issues that could
• 18:00
  have contributed to their relationship breakdown and that
• 18:02
  his perspective is invalid, but I just think, like, liking a
• 18:06
  comment like that is so shady and that tells me there are way
• 18:09
  more red flags about him than I think the public actually saw.
• 18:13
  It's fucking rude. He was married to this woman,
• 18:15
  OK? You loved her enough and wanted
• 18:17
  to be, you know, trapped with her enough to fucking marry her
• 18:21
  to get all of the benefits of being Tammy Hambro's husband.
• 18:24
  And that's how I feel about that.
• 18:25
  Anyways guys, that is it for Mini Scroll.
• 18:29
  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
• 18:31
  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe and please buy us
• 18:35
  a coffee if you guys want to help us keep independent
• 18:37
  journalism going, if you want to help us keep Mini Scroll going,
• 18:41
  it means so much to us. I love you guys and I will talk
• 18:44
  to you tomorrow. Bye.