Latest / Two Ts In A Pod with Teddi Mellencamp and Tamra Judge / Fake Famous & #FreeBritney

Transcript

Fake Famous & #FreeBritney · Two Ts In A Pod with Teddi Mellencamp and Tamra Judge

0:02
Speaker 1: This is Teddy Teapot with Teddy Mellencab. Hi you guys,
0:12
Speaker 1: welcome back to Teddy Teapot. I am so excited to
0:16
Speaker 1: be hosting with one of my besties, Matt, And I
0:19
Speaker 1: asked him, Um, how would you like me to introduce you? Um?
0:24
Speaker 1: And he said, not only as your bestie, but also
0:29
Speaker 1: screenwriter extraordinaire and the next Gary Jeannette. I'm dead, Matt,
0:35
Speaker 1: I mean, hell up. Oh. People often say that to me,
0:39
Speaker 1: and the first time I heard it was actually when
0:42
Speaker 1: I texted to you. And it's just put it out
0:45
Speaker 1: in the universe. Let's put it on our vision boards. Um,
0:51
Speaker 1: it could happen, It could happen here. Listen to this right. Well,
0:55
Speaker 1: we'll send him this episode for sure, so he knows
0:59
Speaker 1: we are his big his fans. Um. So this week
1:02
Speaker 1: we are going to be digging into fake Famous, Brittany,
1:07
Speaker 1: Hillary versus Hilaria, all of the things. Um. First, we're
1:10
Speaker 1: gonna bring on Annabelle Dunne and Nick Bilton, who did
1:15
Speaker 1: Fake Famous. Annabelle is an Emmy nominated documentary film producer
1:19
Speaker 1: who works in partnership with Graydon Carter, who I went
1:21
Speaker 1: to his wedding by the way and Nick Bilton is
1:25
Speaker 1: a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, where he writes about technology, politics,
1:30
Speaker 1: business and culture. Can you manufacture an influencer? All the things?
1:34
Speaker 1: So my first question for you guys is how did
1:37
Speaker 1: you come up with this idea? I'll start with that. So, I, um,
1:43
Speaker 1: I was working at Vanity Fair and Graydon Carter was
1:46
Speaker 1: my editor at the time, and Graydon and Annabelle have
1:48
Speaker 1: worked on films before together, and uh, and Graydon said, oh,
1:53
Speaker 1: we should do a documentary on influencer culture. And I
1:56
Speaker 1: had written about bots a lot on line and I said, oh,
2:01
Speaker 1: I could make an influencer in ten minutes, just kind
2:03
Speaker 1: of tongue in cheeking it a little bit. And he said, well,
2:06
Speaker 1: that's our documentary. And that was essentially how it all began.
2:11
Speaker 1: Quite frankly, what were you Was your goal beginning going
2:17
Speaker 1: into it two show that the world of influencers is
2:25
Speaker 1: more of a of a facade. Was that a goal
2:29
Speaker 1: from the very beginning? I mean definitely. I mean I
2:33
Speaker 1: think that you know when you there. It was two
2:35
Speaker 1: parts of it. The first one was that when you
2:37
Speaker 1: look at the research that has been done, you know,
2:39
Speaker 1: we started in the film these longitudinal studies where they
2:42
Speaker 1: ask kids, what do you want to be when you
2:44
Speaker 1: grow up? Um, you know, forty years ago it was teacher, doctor, lawyer, astronaut.
2:50
Speaker 1: Then it became you know, basketball player, actor. In the
2:53
Speaker 1: eighties and nineties it started to kind of veer a
2:56
Speaker 1: little bit into reality TV stuff. And now seven percent
3:00
Speaker 1: end of kids say they want to be a famous
3:01
Speaker 1: influencer more than any other occupation on the planet. In America,
3:05
Speaker 1: in China they still want to be astronauts. So they
3:08
Speaker 1: haven't completely destroyed over there yet. Um. But so when
3:12
Speaker 1: you look at that, it's that's one set of numbers,
3:15
Speaker 1: and on on the other side of it, there's another
3:17
Speaker 1: set of numbers where when you look at the number
3:19
Speaker 1: of people on Instagram and the number of followers they have.
3:23
Speaker 1: You know, I was looking actually last night, Uh, nineteen
3:26
Speaker 1: point five percent of all Instagram accounts have over a
3:29
Speaker 1: hundred thousand followers, right, uh seven percent or so or
3:35
Speaker 1: over a million, So you're looking at essentially two hundred
3:38
Speaker 1: and something million people who are considered a famous influencer.
3:43
Speaker 1: That numbers just complete nonsense. It's it's impossible for that
3:46
Speaker 1: many people. Half of the population of the United States
3:49
Speaker 1: to be influencers, and so something doesn't add up here. Uh,
3:53
Speaker 1: And that was essentially what we wanted to kind of
3:56
Speaker 1: you know, look at and for some of our listeners,
3:59
Speaker 1: what would you say A makes somebody an influencer? There
4:03
Speaker 1: are different types of influencers, right, We talked about this
4:05
Speaker 1: in the film. There's there's there's micro influencers that have
4:09
Speaker 1: you know, five thousand followers, fifteen thousand followers, and then
4:12
Speaker 1: they go up to the Kim Kardashian level that have
4:14
Speaker 1: you know, two d million. But I think that across
4:17
Speaker 1: the board all of them have some fake followers, you know,
4:21
Speaker 1: and in many respects millions and millions of them. And
4:24
Speaker 1: and and that's essentially what we were showing in the film.
4:27
Speaker 1: We we took three people who had no followers whatsoever.
4:31
Speaker 1: They had a thousand followers or so, and they, um,
4:35
Speaker 1: we showed you know that you can buy them bots,
4:37
Speaker 1: and you can buy them likes, and you can buy
4:39
Speaker 1: them comments, and you can do some fake photos. And
4:42
Speaker 1: their lives changed as a result of it. And we
4:44
Speaker 1: got Dominique, one of the women in our film. We
4:47
Speaker 1: got Hurt of three d and fifty thousand followers and
4:50
Speaker 1: and three thousand of them are not real. So I
4:54
Speaker 1: have a question on that because I had to stop
4:56
Speaker 1: Dominique a little bit, you know, after I watched the
4:58
Speaker 1: documentary as why does when they go deep down all
5:01
Speaker 1: the rabbit holes? So what I noticed is that she
5:04
Speaker 1: would have high engagement on likes, but not as many comments.
5:08
Speaker 1: So is that a common thing when you have bots?
5:11
Speaker 1: Like the bots don't necessarily comment on you. They will,
5:14
Speaker 1: they'll like your pictures, but the comments aren't as high
5:17
Speaker 1: as that. How you can spot a bot? Well, we
5:20
Speaker 1: Annabelle and I had long, long discussions about how to
5:23
Speaker 1: spot a bot? Uh um. I think it's like you
5:28
Speaker 1: look when you you buy the followers, right, and you
5:32
Speaker 1: can buy all different levels and kinds, and you can
5:34
Speaker 1: buy some that are that are really really engaging and
5:38
Speaker 1: they're more expensive, and you can buy some that are
5:40
Speaker 1: just really bad followers. Um and um. And I think that,
5:46
Speaker 1: but that, but then you have to start buying the
5:47
Speaker 1: likes in the comments, right, And so each time you post,
5:51
Speaker 1: you you're you've got to get people fake accounts to
5:54
Speaker 1: like your content to make it look like you have
5:56
Speaker 1: So if you have d followers and you only get
6:00
Speaker 1: you know, a hundred likes, people are going to think
6:02
Speaker 1: something's fishy. So you know, with your account, you'd have
6:05
Speaker 1: to make it seem like, oh, I get like ten
6:07
Speaker 1: to fifteen thousand likes pro post maybe with the exception
6:10
Speaker 1: of some that go higher. And then of course you
6:13
Speaker 1: need the comments. And the comments are actually the most
6:15
Speaker 1: expensive because it's a little bit more work for the
6:18
Speaker 1: for the Boston bot, just somebody run the bots. Like
6:22
Speaker 1: the bots just guess on their own what just say.
6:24
Speaker 1: I'm confused on how the bots know what to say
6:27
Speaker 1: that would make sense. There are three different kinds of
6:29
Speaker 1: them that you can use. One is where you say, um, well,
6:33
Speaker 1: there's four different kinds. There's one way you say comments
6:37
Speaker 1: auto comments on the this person's posts with just emojis,
6:41
Speaker 1: and that's like you do that because then you can
6:43
Speaker 1: kind of get away with the b s a little bit. Um.
6:45
Speaker 1: There's others that say, you know, comment with really with
6:48
Speaker 1: with just words and and you know, usually they're like
6:52
Speaker 1: simple things like you look amazing or or beautiful post
6:58
Speaker 1: or one that was really funny that that Dominique kept
7:02
Speaker 1: getting was I love your curly hair even though she
7:04
Speaker 1: had straight hair. Sou So, they they're not very smart
7:09
Speaker 1: but then you can actually there's the next level where
7:11
Speaker 1: you can pay there's this website called um Wolf Global
7:15
Speaker 1: where you can pay a little more money and you
7:18
Speaker 1: get real people that are commenting on on your posts
7:22
Speaker 1: and um and but it's but you know that it
7:25
Speaker 1: adds up. So we we tried to like limit you know,
7:28
Speaker 1: we had a certain budget, so we tried to limit
7:30
Speaker 1: the number of posts that people commented on. I think
7:34
Speaker 1: it helps to if you visualize yourself in the most
7:37
Speaker 1: crowded marketplace you've ever been, and you're like in a
7:41
Speaker 1: huge bazaar and you're walking through and there's people yelling
7:44
Speaker 1: at you, like over here, look at this what I
7:46
Speaker 1: have for you? And over here, Like we were just
7:48
Speaker 1: trying to show this is such a big economy and
7:51
Speaker 1: there's so many different levels of it and you can
7:54
Speaker 1: you can get into whatever level you want. And I
7:57
Speaker 1: know that, you know, Nick got ripped off sometime, But
7:59
Speaker 1: I think I could say for both of us, like
8:02
Speaker 1: overwhelmingly the boat dealers were great. I mean, we we
8:05
Speaker 1: liked them. They were nice, We were just trying to
8:07
Speaker 1: do a business. They were actually like very honest and
8:11
Speaker 1: always trying to give deals. Sometimes we got ripped off
8:13
Speaker 1: but like Nick spent so much time on these different
8:18
Speaker 1: chat rooms with these different people selling boats, none of
8:20
Speaker 1: whom we ever met, many of whom were in far
8:23
Speaker 1: fune places will never go. But it is a marketplace,
8:27
Speaker 1: it's a thriving economy. So we were really just trying
8:30
Speaker 1: to show like, there's this whole other level going on
8:32
Speaker 1: underneath what you see when you're on Instagram. That is
8:36
Speaker 1: this whole other world. What surprised you guys the most
8:40
Speaker 1: with making this, Like, were there any big shockers? And
8:42
Speaker 1: we were like, oh, this is what we thought. I
8:45
Speaker 1: think for me, what was so there was two things
8:48
Speaker 1: that were surprising. The first one was I had written
8:52
Speaker 1: about bots before. I was a reporter of the New
8:54
Speaker 1: York Times for for ten years. I was a Vanity
8:56
Speaker 1: for for five years, and I wrote very early on
9:00
Speaker 1: in the life cycle of social media, you know, I
9:03
Speaker 1: wrote some of the very first stories on and in
9:05
Speaker 1: some instances the first stories and some of these companies
9:08
Speaker 1: and covered them as they morphed and changed and everything.
9:11
Speaker 1: I wrote the book on Twitter and things like that.
9:13
Speaker 1: And I had written about bots, and I knew they existed,
9:15
Speaker 1: and I'd even like experimented with my own bot farm
9:18
Speaker 1: at one point where I had thirty little baby bots
9:21
Speaker 1: that I looked after, uhum until Twitter killed them because
9:26
Speaker 1: they're not very nice. Um. But I didn't realize just
9:31
Speaker 1: how everything is for sale, Like you could literally buy
9:35
Speaker 1: anything as far as and what if there was a
9:38
Speaker 1: number on the Internet you can purchase that. You can
9:40
Speaker 1: purchase yelled reviews, you can purchase you know, listeners on
9:44
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. You can purchase you know, song downloads
9:48
Speaker 1: on iTunes and and Spotify, you can purchase bids on eBay,
9:52
Speaker 1: just anything, and and the bots are everywhere and there.
9:56
Speaker 1: You know, they are driving political discussions in many respects.
10:00
Speaker 1: And and it's one thing to like read about it
10:02
Speaker 1: and to see it on the periphery, but to to
10:04
Speaker 1: to be up close and in it and realizing that
10:08
Speaker 1: these bought dealers are making they call themselves the the
10:11
Speaker 1: underbelly of the Internet, the bottom feeders of the Internet,
10:14
Speaker 1: and they make tens of millions of dollars on these
10:17
Speaker 1: bought farms. And I think it was pretty shocking to
10:19
Speaker 1: see that. And the other thing that was really shocking
10:21
Speaker 1: to me was I'd assumed, like, okay, like influence the
10:24
Speaker 1: culture not a big deal. It's not really harming society
10:27
Speaker 1: that much. It's just a bunch of people pulling the
10:29
Speaker 1: wool over some brand's eyes. And what I came away
10:31
Speaker 1: from at the very end was realizing that influence of
10:35
Speaker 1: culture is much worse. It is a culture that is
10:38
Speaker 1: designed to make you feel bad about yourself so that you,
10:43
Speaker 1: I want to live this person's life. That's not real. Um,
10:46
Speaker 1: you know, the only way you're gonna feel better about
10:48
Speaker 1: your life is to go on this vacation or buy
10:50
Speaker 1: this product that I got for free or whatever it is.
10:53
Speaker 1: And I think that there was this huge realization that, like, actually,
10:56
Speaker 1: this is making us feel so much worse about ourselves
11:01
Speaker 1: than we actually realize. I know Wiley, you know, had
11:06
Speaker 1: anxiety over it, but as as a gay guy, I
11:09
Speaker 1: kind of I could understand what he was going through
11:11
Speaker 1: because with at least for gay influencers, especially male gay influencers,
11:17
Speaker 1: it's usually so much about the body. So it does
11:20
Speaker 1: it really you know, you're scrolling through and it's just
11:22
Speaker 1: all these people who are just projecting what a body
11:25
Speaker 1: should look like. And I really do feel like that
11:27
Speaker 1: affects people. So I like that you honed in on
11:29
Speaker 1: that um to say that, like, how it can affect
11:33
Speaker 1: people mentally, just scrolling through Instagram and seeing these people
11:36
Speaker 1: giving us a lifestyle that's not real. It's not attainable
11:41
Speaker 1: for most of us, and it's not attainable for even them.
11:44
Speaker 1: So I like that that was a perspective that you
11:46
Speaker 1: were giving the people. It wasn't It wasn't something we
11:48
Speaker 1: we I mean when when we sat down when on
11:52
Speaker 1: a bell and I sat down and like we were
11:55
Speaker 1: thinking about like this film, and we said like, look,
11:58
Speaker 1: there's a version of this where this fails dismally, it
12:02
Speaker 1: doesn't work, uh, And there's a version of it where
12:05
Speaker 1: it works. In the version where it fails, it's it's
12:07
Speaker 1: not it's a five minute part of the film. And
12:10
Speaker 1: it ended up being the other version where it was
12:12
Speaker 1: the film. And we were so lucky that I think,
12:14
Speaker 1: you know in it when you're when you know and
12:18
Speaker 1: in the middle of it and you're like, should we
12:20
Speaker 1: cut this person from the film? They're not. They made
12:22
Speaker 1: their account private, like it's all these things, and then um,
12:25
Speaker 1: we were really lucky that the three people we we
12:28
Speaker 1: chose took three very different routes, uh, and three three
12:32
Speaker 1: different stories. How do you go into choosing those three
12:36
Speaker 1: because you saw all different types of people with big personalities,
12:39
Speaker 1: you know, in the casting room. So how did you
12:41
Speaker 1: choose those three? Well, Um, what's funny is we worked
12:48
Speaker 1: with a you know, a casting agency to help us.
12:50
Speaker 1: We had so many submissions, um, and we needed to
12:54
Speaker 1: fit them all into one day. It's it's funny because
12:57
Speaker 1: on the one hand you're casting this film, but on
13:00
Speaker 1: the other hand, you're documenting the casting. So we couldn't
13:03
Speaker 1: have like a week of casting. I couldn't afford to
13:06
Speaker 1: shoot every day, so we needed to all condense it
13:09
Speaker 1: into one day where we could film this process. So
13:14
Speaker 1: I think that you know, Nick can speak to to
13:16
Speaker 1: it better. But I think we really connected with each
13:19
Speaker 1: of those three kids as they walked in, and they
13:22
Speaker 1: were each so much themselves, and they were so on
13:27
Speaker 1: kind of l a and they were not polished. I mean,
13:30
Speaker 1: Dominique was very open about wanting to be an actress,
13:33
Speaker 1: but Chris and Wiley worked from other worlds, and we
13:36
Speaker 1: really really wanted to to get people that had absolutely
13:39
Speaker 1: no kind of experience in this world and would just
13:44
Speaker 1: let us throw them in. And also like they all
13:47
Speaker 1: were very understanding about the long game, and none of
13:51
Speaker 1: them had set out wanting to be influencers, at least initially,
13:56
Speaker 1: I think it was. What was really interesting is, you know,
13:59
Speaker 1: we got we put out a casting call. We said
14:01
Speaker 1: do you want to be famous? That was the only
14:03
Speaker 1: thing we asked. We didn't say anything else. And we
14:05
Speaker 1: got five thousands submissions, like almost like a bomb went off,
14:09
Speaker 1: um and um, and you know, narrow them down as
14:13
Speaker 1: best we could, and we brought them all in the
14:14
Speaker 1: room and and it was kind of like that scene
14:16
Speaker 1: out of Flash Dance, you know, where she's getting ready
14:20
Speaker 1: to dance in front of the judges, and we were
14:21
Speaker 1: the judges and we're just filtering people in and we
14:26
Speaker 1: kept asking people. We asked him the same questions like
14:29
Speaker 1: how many followers you have? Oh, I have three thousand,
14:31
Speaker 1: I have this whatever. And we've said do you want
14:34
Speaker 1: to be famous? And the the answers were just like
14:36
Speaker 1: comical in some respects. They were like, Oh, yes, I
14:39
Speaker 1: want to be famous so I can make the world
14:41
Speaker 1: a better place. And I want to be famous so
14:43
Speaker 1: I can influence people and making here and like and
14:46
Speaker 1: Chris was like, no, I don't want to be famous.
14:49
Speaker 1: And I remember like everyone looking up being like what
14:51
Speaker 1: is he doing? Here, and he goes, I deserve to
14:53
Speaker 1: be famous, and I was like, oh, that guy is
14:58
Speaker 1: definitely going to be part of the uh and so um.
15:02
Speaker 1: But we also, you know, we we we narrowed it
15:04
Speaker 1: down to around twenty people and uh that all would
15:08
Speaker 1: have been amazing in their own right, but we wanted
15:11
Speaker 1: to really ensure that we didn't pick like there was
15:13
Speaker 1: a basketball player who played for the Harlem globetrots, Like,
15:16
Speaker 1: we didn't want to pick that guy because it's like,
15:18
Speaker 1: people probably be too easy. It's not it's not an
15:20
Speaker 1: experiment when the person already has a following. And so
15:23
Speaker 1: that was that was really an important prerequisite. I mean,
15:26
Speaker 1: I think the craziest thing to me is you can
15:28
Speaker 1: essentially be famous without having a certain talent or you know,
15:35
Speaker 1: even even for when it comes to myself, not that
15:37
Speaker 1: I'm famous or whatever it may be, but I wanted
15:41
Speaker 1: to be an actor as a kid, Like growing up,
15:43
Speaker 1: I thought I wanted to be an actor. I got
15:45
Speaker 1: a couple of big rejections and I was like, well,
15:47
Speaker 1: I'm done, you know, like I'm not doing this anymore.
15:49
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel good. I don't enjoy it. Cut to
15:51
Speaker 1: I'm you know, thirty seven years old on a reality
15:54
Speaker 1: television show, like all right, let's go for it, let's
15:56
Speaker 1: figure it out, and putting myself, you know, on Instagram,
16:01
Speaker 1: trying to be as authentic as I possibly can. But
16:03
Speaker 1: like that also comes with a whole other set of responsibility,
16:08
Speaker 1: a whole other set of like you have to really
16:11
Speaker 1: grow almost a thicker skin than you'd have by going
16:14
Speaker 1: to auditions for you know, an actual talent, because people
16:19
Speaker 1: just uh feel so comfortable over a like over a
16:24
Speaker 1: screen or a keyboard to just attack in any possible
16:27
Speaker 1: way that they can. Oh, I think that this is
16:30
Speaker 1: you know, look, there are tremendous downsides to the world
16:33
Speaker 1: we live in today with technology. There's upsides, but there's
16:35
Speaker 1: there's there's tremendous downside. And I think that you know,
16:39
Speaker 1: they're they're On the one hand, you've got what you
16:41
Speaker 1: what Matt was mentioning with, you know, Wiley and the
16:45
Speaker 1: anxieties and depression and things that he went through, and
16:48
Speaker 1: and teens today going through that everywhere all the time.
16:53
Speaker 1: You know, um, look at the graphs or the rise
16:55
Speaker 1: of social media, and the same graphs are there for
16:58
Speaker 1: the rise of teen depression, teen suicide, team bullying, all
17:02
Speaker 1: these things. I mean, look, we all here are have
17:07
Speaker 1: dealt with that anxiety and that intensity and that bullying,
17:11
Speaker 1: and we're adults. Can you imagine where it's like for teens.
17:14
Speaker 1: I can't even comprehend what it's like. And I think
17:16
Speaker 1: the thing that's so frustrating to me is in all
17:20
Speaker 1: these instances, whether it's like someone going after you on
17:23
Speaker 1: on social media, or or the fact that you know,
17:26
Speaker 1: everyone is obsessed with how many comments and likes and
17:29
Speaker 1: followers and this, that and the other, the responsibility is
17:32
Speaker 1: on the tech companies, and the tech companies truly have
17:37
Speaker 1: zero intention upon fixing this because if they fixed it,
17:40
Speaker 1: they use, the numbers would go down. And if they
17:43
Speaker 1: use the numbers go down, their stock goes down, and
17:45
Speaker 1: then they don't make as much money, and that is
17:47
Speaker 1: all they care about at the end of the day. Well,
17:50
Speaker 1: there was that moment Instagram was debating, right taking away
17:53
Speaker 1: so that you could see the like. So it's funny
17:56
Speaker 1: you bring it up. They were debating taking away likes,
17:59
Speaker 1: not because they wanted to help society and be better
18:01
Speaker 1: people and help that little old lady across the street.
18:04
Speaker 1: The reason they were doing it was because they were
18:06
Speaker 1: serving up more ads on the platform. So most people
18:09
Speaker 1: will go on Instagram and they'll scroll through ten photos, right,
18:13
Speaker 1: and then they get bored and off they go for
18:15
Speaker 1: five minutes before they come back and do it again.
18:17
Speaker 1: So when they started to implement more ads, you would
18:20
Speaker 1: see seven photos and three ads, and you're obviously not
18:24
Speaker 1: going to like the ads as much. And so people
18:27
Speaker 1: like Kim Kardashian were complaining that their likes were going down,
18:30
Speaker 1: and so they implemented this like, oh, we won't show
18:33
Speaker 1: you the number of likes, um, pretending that they really cared,
18:38
Speaker 1: but really it was just another way for them to
18:41
Speaker 1: make more money. That's interesting and I and I know
18:44
Speaker 1: that we have to like break in two minutes, but
18:46
Speaker 1: I have one question to kind of close out. How
18:49
Speaker 1: do we protect our kids people coming up in this
18:53
Speaker 1: world from this? Like how do you open that conversation
18:58
Speaker 1: with your kids? As I started getting into the all
19:00
Speaker 1: to social media are learning about influencers are wanting to
19:02
Speaker 1: tick talk like what do you how would you recommend
19:06
Speaker 1: us doing that? Well? I think you know that was
19:09
Speaker 1: our montage at the end, to showing all those little kids. Um,
19:12
Speaker 1: I think that you know, we know we did not
19:15
Speaker 1: intend to upset anyone in a direct way. We're not
19:19
Speaker 1: trying to make influencers feel bad. We are simply trying
19:21
Speaker 1: to open a conversation here and give people a deeper
19:24
Speaker 1: understanding of what's going on in this world. And I
19:27
Speaker 1: think that's always a good place to start with young
19:29
Speaker 1: people is give them a better sense of the big
19:31
Speaker 1: picture out there, of what's really going on with their
19:34
Speaker 1: favorite so and so's, and you know, just what the
19:37
Speaker 1: bigger world is, and give them tools to understand what's
19:41
Speaker 1: at play, and that not everything looks ever, you know,
19:45
Speaker 1: it looks polished, it's never that way behind. And that's
19:48
Speaker 1: not true in life and online. What else, Nick, I
19:51
Speaker 1: think that you know, I think that we There's a
19:54
Speaker 1: great line from Barton day Thurston, who is a talking
19:57
Speaker 1: had in the film, where he says, um, you know,
20:00
Speaker 1: when it comes to most things in life, we protect
20:04
Speaker 1: our kids. You know. We don't let them drive until
20:06
Speaker 1: they're old enough, we don't let them get alcohol until
20:08
Speaker 1: they're old enough. We try to keep them away from guns.
20:10
Speaker 1: We we do all these things to protect them. And
20:12
Speaker 1: when it comes to technology and social media, we've left
20:15
Speaker 1: them to the wolves. And I think that government it
20:19
Speaker 1: moves so slowly. They have no idea what's happening with technology,
20:23
Speaker 1: and technology moves so quickly. The traditional gatekeepers just aren't there.
20:29
Speaker 1: And I think that that what I realized in the
20:32
Speaker 1: film was I had always thought, oh, when when your
20:34
Speaker 1: kids are teenagers, you've got to sit them down and
20:37
Speaker 1: like explain that that the birds and the bees, and
20:40
Speaker 1: also that technology is bad and so social media. And
20:43
Speaker 1: I realized making the film that you've got to do
20:45
Speaker 1: when they're like three and four years old, like you
20:47
Speaker 1: really have to. It's you're teaching them about technology. At
20:52
Speaker 1: that age, they're learning about YouTube and phones and screens,
20:55
Speaker 1: and I think that that is the age that you
20:57
Speaker 1: really have to start to teach kids that that thing
20:59
Speaker 1: they're seeing on that device is not necessarily real and
21:02
Speaker 1: sometimes can be pretty dangerous. That's really smart. I mean,
21:06
Speaker 1: one of the biggest influence their influencers there is like
21:09
Speaker 1: ten years old, right, the toy review guy. So it's
21:13
Speaker 1: just crazy. But I thank you guys so much for
21:16
Speaker 1: coming on and sharing with us. How do people find
21:18
Speaker 1: you and find out more information? Well, don't don't bother
21:21
Speaker 1: finding us because we don't really use the social media.
21:27
Speaker 1: You want to go leave some negative comments which I'm
21:28
Speaker 1: not gonna see, but go for it. But uh, um,
21:32
Speaker 1: you should watch the film. It's called Fake Famous. It's
21:34
Speaker 1: on HBO max Um. You can't miss it. It's against
21:38
Speaker 1: a giant pink back wall pink wall. Um And uh yeah,
21:42
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having us on the show. Next,
21:53
Speaker 1: we have the co host of Wonderings podcast series Even
21:56
Speaker 1: the Rich, and they did a four part free Britney
21:59
Speaker 1: series and you know how I fail. Oh yeah, we all.
22:03
Speaker 1: I feel like there's like not enough hours in the
22:05
Speaker 1: day to do all of the research that I've tried
22:08
Speaker 1: to do within since I've watched the Framing Britney Spears
22:12
Speaker 1: doc and you guys have dedicated a lot of time.
22:15
Speaker 1: So I figured, Matt and I need to bring guys
22:18
Speaker 1: on to help us. We'd love to. I mean, the
22:23
Speaker 1: craziest thing kind of watching it to me was definitely
22:27
Speaker 1: just all of the things that the press and the
22:29
Speaker 1: media brought out of of Brittany and all the harmful
22:33
Speaker 1: things that like we did, and we we witnessed, we watched,
22:37
Speaker 1: we were a part of, we were rooting on, you know,
22:39
Speaker 1: like it's just it's so unsettling to me. Yeah, that
22:44
Speaker 1: was truly My first thought was just watching this and
22:47
Speaker 1: remembering seeing her in the headlines, like particularly when she
22:51
Speaker 1: shaved her head, like that was huge, and I you know,
22:54
Speaker 1: I'm buying People magazine. I'm getting caught up in this,
22:57
Speaker 1: and it's just like, we are part of the problem.
23:00
Speaker 1: The paparazzi don't, get me wrong, very much to blame,
23:03
Speaker 1: but we're buying these things, giving them, making the market
23:06
Speaker 1: for them, and it's just it's heartbreaking to see what
23:09
Speaker 1: was done to her. Yeah, the paparazzi thing, especially the
23:13
Speaker 1: paparazzo that they interviewed in the dock. Like at the beginning,
23:17
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, he sees what he did, like
23:20
Speaker 1: he's he's remorseful. And then he's like, well, she never
23:24
Speaker 1: told us to leave her alone, And the producers like
23:26
Speaker 1: what about when she said leave me alone? Like, um
23:31
Speaker 1: oh that she just met for like five minutes. I
23:33
Speaker 1: was like, what is this guy talking about back tomorrow?
23:38
Speaker 1: It's fine. It's like you're literally filming her and she's
23:41
Speaker 1: clearly distraught and you're like, she she doesn't really mean it.
23:45
Speaker 1: She hasn't told us to go away. It's like, I'm sorry.
23:47
Speaker 1: Read the room buddy. Really, I mean it was so
23:50
Speaker 1: And then when I saw the part that like the
23:53
Speaker 1: money shot, where she's like, you know, upset with the
23:56
Speaker 1: umbrella and all the things that you like just left
23:59
Speaker 1: Kevin federaline to how she would like wanted to see
24:01
Speaker 1: her kids, I was like, this is like devastating the
24:05
Speaker 1: fact that all she did was take that umbrella and
24:07
Speaker 1: go car shocking. Yes, oh my god, she's stronger than
24:12
Speaker 1: I am. Yeah. Well, and you think about like any
24:15
Speaker 1: day where you just have had a bad day, which
24:17
Speaker 1: everyone has had, and it's like, imagine that like infantism
24:21
Speaker 1: Lee multiplied and then you have paparazzis in your face
24:24
Speaker 1: and it's like, of course, I mean she's so tame
24:26
Speaker 1: compared to what other people would be doing in that situation. Yeah. Yeah,
24:31
Speaker 1: I mean if there's some days you wake up and
24:32
Speaker 1: you're like, actually, um, you guys did a lot of research, right,
24:40
Speaker 1: so you did a deep dive into all of this.
24:42
Speaker 1: Was there anything in the New York Times doc that
24:45
Speaker 1: you felt they missed or they glazed over or they
24:48
Speaker 1: didn't hit on that that the public should be Yeah. Well,
24:52
Speaker 1: I mean so with every series we do, we kind
24:54
Speaker 1: of go back to the beginning when their children and
24:57
Speaker 1: just kind of talk about why they are who they
24:59
Speaker 1: are now. And we talked a lot about Jamie and
25:03
Speaker 1: his drinking and how he was verbally abusive. He was
25:08
Speaker 1: terrible to her and her mom. And when Brittany actually
25:11
Speaker 1: made some money, she bought her mom a plot of
25:13
Speaker 1: land and was like, you can you can put a
25:15
Speaker 1: house on this land. There's no budget, do whatever you want.
25:18
Speaker 1: My only request is that you don't put my dad's
25:22
Speaker 1: name on it, because he had like started this gym,
25:24
Speaker 1: he had filed for bankruptcy, and so like at an
25:27
Speaker 1: early age, she was already very leery of her father,
25:31
Speaker 1: and I think that was kind of missed in the documentary.
25:35
Speaker 1: Just I mean, we all know Jamie's not great, but
25:38
Speaker 1: I think we really kind of touched on how not
25:41
Speaker 1: great he really is. Yeah, but like even Sam like
25:47
Speaker 1: her boyfriend's quote, which was like, I've always wanted nothing
25:50
Speaker 1: but the best for my better better half and will
25:53
Speaker 1: continue to support her, fallowing her dreams and creating the
25:55
Speaker 1: future she wants and deserves. Then he comes back and
25:59
Speaker 1: like doubles down like a day later and goes, now,
26:02
Speaker 1: it's important for people to understand that I have zero
26:04
Speaker 1: respect for someone trying to control our relationship and constantly
26:08
Speaker 1: throwing obstacles in our way. Without mincing words, Sam added,
26:12
Speaker 1: in my opinion, Jamie is a total dick. Yeah, Sam
26:16
Speaker 1: let Fee said that for her current sam her boyfriend
26:20
Speaker 1: boy for example. Okay, so, but like my question is,
26:24
Speaker 1: how did it get to be her father in the
26:27
Speaker 1: first place, Like, why would he ever be the one
26:29
Speaker 1: to get her conservativeship? Yeah? Well, I mean, obviously we're
26:35
Speaker 1: not anywhere near the sexual situation, but from an outside
26:39
Speaker 1: looking in, it just seemed like he is an opportunist.
26:42
Speaker 1: Like she was clearly clearly going through something and a
26:46
Speaker 1: lot of it I think was the result of what
26:48
Speaker 1: the media like put her through, and he, I think
26:52
Speaker 1: just saw an opportunity of, like, you know, I'm her dad,
26:54
Speaker 1: and that in and of itself, just by you know,
26:57
Speaker 1: creating a person, you you have this level of like
27:01
Speaker 1: expectation of being able to help them and take care
27:03
Speaker 1: of them. There's that assumption, and I think he just
27:06
Speaker 1: kind of seized it. And I really there was the
27:08
Speaker 1: quote in the documentary from one one woman who said, like,
27:12
Speaker 1: the only thing she'll say about him is what he said,
27:14
Speaker 1: and he was like She's gonna make me rich or something.
27:17
Speaker 1: And I just thought that was so telling because it
27:19
Speaker 1: really feels like, and you look at like how much
27:21
Speaker 1: money he's getting, it doesn't seem like it's about what
27:24
Speaker 1: she actually needs and what's good for her. It's about
27:26
Speaker 1: how can he leverage himself to get what he wants
27:29
Speaker 1: the most. Yeah, But then I also started stalking the
27:33
Speaker 1: Loue Taylor situation and Sam Lefty, and now I'm confused
27:39
Speaker 1: because not only did this happen with Brittany, then they
27:43
Speaker 1: went to work with Courtney or I don't know how
27:46
Speaker 1: they both ended up with Courtney Love, but both Lou
27:48
Speaker 1: Taylor and Sam Lefty were with Courtney Love and then
27:51
Speaker 1: Lou Taylor was also with Lindsay Lohan and then Sam
27:54
Speaker 1: Lefty was stalking her, so like, were they a team?
27:58
Speaker 1: That's I guess that's a good ary. I mean, we
28:01
Speaker 1: never really uncovered that, but I have my own theory.
28:04
Speaker 1: I feel like Sam let Fee was kind of seeing
28:09
Speaker 1: the things that Jamie was doing, and possibly Lou Taylor
28:12
Speaker 1: because we kind of we kind of touched on lu
28:14
Speaker 1: Taylor approaching Jamie and saying, you know what, I think
28:17
Speaker 1: we should do this conservatorship. And she's the same thing
28:19
Speaker 1: with Lindsay Lohan and Courtney Love and I think Sam
28:23
Speaker 1: was kind of blowing the whistle on this a little bit,
28:25
Speaker 1: and they were like, Nope, let's get a restraining order
28:27
Speaker 1: against him. Let's, you know, let's talk about how terrible
28:30
Speaker 1: he is. He's hiding Britney's dog, he's controlling her life.
28:32
Speaker 1: And part of me wonders if they were just making
28:36
Speaker 1: that up to make him look bad because he was
28:38
Speaker 1: onto them. But that's well, I felt that way too
28:41
Speaker 1: until last night I went onto Courtney loves page and like,
28:47
Speaker 1: she has all these lawsuits against him allegedly because he
28:51
Speaker 1: was stalking her and doing all these things. So it's like,
28:55
Speaker 1: I just it's so convoluted and there's so much going
28:58
Speaker 1: on where really you just feel bad that somebody who's
29:01
Speaker 1: especially inspired so many artists, who was like the mega
29:06
Speaker 1: pop star, like who was just so sweet and kind
29:09
Speaker 1: and like you just loved growing up watching her, and
29:13
Speaker 1: be involved with so many people that just want to
29:15
Speaker 1: take advantage. I mean, who did have been both? Could
29:18
Speaker 1: it have been that Sam Lefty and her father kind
29:21
Speaker 1: of we're both fighting for control of her and kind
29:24
Speaker 1: of manipulating her for their own benefits, right, So maybe
29:29
Speaker 1: have been both sides that they were both trying to
29:32
Speaker 1: do the same. I mean, I feel like anytime somebody's
29:35
Speaker 1: trying to control another person, there's a motive there that's
29:39
Speaker 1: not necessarily about altruism. And I feel like, like like
29:44
Speaker 1: what you're saying, where it's you know, maybe he was
29:46
Speaker 1: against what Jamie was trying to do, but he for
29:48
Speaker 1: sure has his own motivations, and I don't think they're
29:52
Speaker 1: pure um. And so I just think it's kind of
29:54
Speaker 1: like what you're saying, where the person that's getting screwed
29:57
Speaker 1: in all of this over and over and over again
29:58
Speaker 1: is Brittany, Right, And you touch on it a little,
30:02
Speaker 1: you say, um, when she goes to have Jason be
30:06
Speaker 1: the co conservator and you you say, oh, it's just
30:10
Speaker 1: another man taking control of this woman's life. Would this
30:15
Speaker 1: have happened if it were like would this happen to
30:17
Speaker 1: a man? Probably not. I don't think so. I really
30:21
Speaker 1: don't think so. So, you know, is there there's some
30:25
Speaker 1: sexism definitely that no one really is touched on, you know, right,
30:32
Speaker 1: I mean from start to finish it with sexism. I mean,
30:35
Speaker 1: they were sexualizing her at seventeen and it was ridiculous.
30:39
Speaker 1: It was like a ten year old or whatever. What's
30:41
Speaker 1: his name, Ed McMahon. Was it on Star Side, Yeah,
30:44
Speaker 1: And I was like, are you kidding me? Yeah? Child
30:50
Speaker 1: was justin timber like talking like it was on the
30:53
Speaker 1: cover of g Q, correct like loss, like, how does
31:00
Speaker 1: that happen? And we haven't seen this happen to a man.
31:03
Speaker 1: I mean we got Lindsay Lohan, we got Amanda Bindes.
31:05
Speaker 1: We have all these women in conservatorships. I can't think
31:08
Speaker 1: of any famous men that are, you know, famously in conservatorships,
31:14
Speaker 1: so you know, And we also talk about sam Letfie.
31:17
Speaker 1: He used to work for Kevin Federline and he had
31:20
Speaker 1: reached out to Brittany's assistant at the time, Kaylee, and
31:22
Speaker 1: was like, listen, I have all this all is stirred
31:25
Speaker 1: on you meet meet me at this place in Santa
31:27
Speaker 1: Monica and he was just like so weird with her
31:30
Speaker 1: and he's like, you know, I know, people are you know,
31:33
Speaker 1: your wires are being tapped and all this stuff, and
31:35
Speaker 1: she's like what. And then he shows up a couple
31:38
Speaker 1: of years later and he's Brittany's whatever manager whatever. He is.
31:45
Speaker 1: So it was like a really weird thing from start
31:47
Speaker 1: to finish with Sam And then how do you guys
31:49
Speaker 1: think that all of a sudden, Kevin Federline like we
31:52
Speaker 1: he's done, Like you've barely see him. Like it's impossible
31:55
Speaker 1: to almost get information on Kevin Federline, like even his statement,
31:59
Speaker 1: which I'm trying to find right now. Federal Lines family
32:02
Speaker 1: law attorney Mark Vincent Campbell told me News on Monday
32:05
Speaker 1: that Federal Line has no involvement with regard to Brittany
32:07
Speaker 1: and her attorneys asking to remove Jamie as conservator and
32:11
Speaker 1: a stayed out of the conservativeship issues. But he's never commenting,
32:15
Speaker 1: you never see him, Like how is that even possible
32:19
Speaker 1: when her life is like she can't have a second
32:23
Speaker 1: s break. Yeah, I don't know. I was. I was
32:29
Speaker 1: shocked he wasn't even like really mentioned, just like their
32:33
Speaker 1: romance was and we actually talk more about him than
32:36
Speaker 1: justin on our show and we're kind of like, you know,
32:39
Speaker 1: screw this guy, Like he seems so sweet at first,
32:43
Speaker 1: and then it was kind of like, okay, he's a
32:45
Speaker 1: little bit of a cloud chaser, but I mean he
32:47
Speaker 1: tried to get Jamie taken off because of an alleged
32:52
Speaker 1: altercation with their son. He apparently got drunk and like
32:56
Speaker 1: had an issue with their son, So he did try
33:00
Speaker 1: at one point, but he's kind of just faded away now,
33:03
Speaker 1: so I don't really know. So, but as Jamie Lynn's
33:06
Speaker 1: fears now the conservative, Like I've read that, So if
33:11
Speaker 1: she is, why can't they get just a somebody that's
33:15
Speaker 1: not related to her? I know that. I mean that
33:19
Speaker 1: seems like it would make the most sense, given how
33:22
Speaker 1: convoluted this whole thing has become, Like get an uninvolved
33:26
Speaker 1: third party, completely neutral to oversee this and actually assess
33:31
Speaker 1: like is this actually necessary? But they just keep keeping
33:34
Speaker 1: it in the family. Yeah. I mean she did recently
33:36
Speaker 1: get Best Summer Trust to be co conservator, which is
33:40
Speaker 1: a good step definitely, So you know that is kind
33:44
Speaker 1: of an outsider that's not related to her, knows her personally,
33:48
Speaker 1: but Jamie's still there. So it's like, how much can
33:50
Speaker 1: they really do with him still involved? It's so telling that, um,
33:55
Speaker 1: like he yeah so, but he's still in charge of
33:58
Speaker 1: her finances. Like it's just like how does that not scream?
34:02
Speaker 1: Like what his motivation is comes down to money. He
34:05
Speaker 1: doesn't care about his daughter he cares about her money?
34:08
Speaker 1: And how can somebody that has had a notoriously bad
34:11
Speaker 1: relationship with money able to manage billions and millions of dollars?
34:17
Speaker 1: Like here's the thing. I pay people to help me
34:19
Speaker 1: manage my small, little dinky percentage of what Britney Spears makes.
34:24
Speaker 1: So if I tried to manage it myself would be
34:27
Speaker 1: a hot mess. Express like I barely learned how to
34:31
Speaker 1: like bounce and checking account, Like this is a situation
34:33
Speaker 1: like how can he? It makes no sense to me.
34:38
Speaker 1: What are your guys thoughts on her Instagram? Do you
34:42
Speaker 1: think she wants it? Oh my gosh, how much time
34:45
Speaker 1: do you have? I mean I would talk about it.
34:53
Speaker 1: I did a real deep dive. I was sending a
34:55
Speaker 1: Retia screenshot doom in like zooming in her eyes, Like
34:58
Speaker 1: I went deep, And I don't think she runs it,
35:02
Speaker 1: and like we talked about and even recently she does
35:06
Speaker 1: these videos where she's like here's the top five questions
35:09
Speaker 1: people are asking in the comments, like what's my favorite
35:11
Speaker 1: Disney movie? No, one's color that I checked. I looked
35:15
Speaker 1: through all of the questions. I didn't see him. No,
35:18
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. Here's the thing that I I
35:21
Speaker 1: in my deep dive. I found so in that yellow. Um,
35:24
Speaker 1: she's in the yellow and she's saying, what's my favorite
35:27
Speaker 1: Disney movie? Yes, they people are saying it was a
35:30
Speaker 1: response to her sister talking about her in the press,
35:32
Speaker 1: because she says her favorite Disney movie is Frozen and
35:35
Speaker 1: the one sister goes to live in a castle to
35:36
Speaker 1: get away from it all. And then her brother did
35:39
Speaker 1: an interview where he said that Britney was such a
35:41
Speaker 1: terrible driver, and that's you know, she doesn't matter about
35:44
Speaker 1: her not being allowed to drive because she's so terrible.
35:46
Speaker 1: And in that same clip, she says something about they
35:50
Speaker 1: asked her about driving or whatever, and she goes, I've
35:53
Speaker 1: only had one speeding ticket. So people are saying that
35:55
Speaker 1: she's kind of doing that's interesting recalliations to what people
36:00
Speaker 1: are saying about her in the news. Well even but
36:03
Speaker 1: even when she posted the other day, like after her
36:07
Speaker 1: m after the documentary came out, she posted, I can't
36:10
Speaker 1: believe this performance of Toxic is three from three years ago.
36:13
Speaker 1: I'll always love being on stage, but I'm taking the
36:15
Speaker 1: time to learn and be a normal person. I love
36:18
Speaker 1: simply enjoying the basics of everyday life. So is she
36:22
Speaker 1: trying to justify I don't under That's where it doesn't
36:27
Speaker 1: make sense to me that I don't I know, I
36:31
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't think so, I mean, there's no way.
36:34
Speaker 1: Allegedly she's said that she refuses to go on tour
36:39
Speaker 1: or make new music as long as her father is
36:42
Speaker 1: a part of her conservative correct Yes, and I mean
36:46
Speaker 1: what she was supposed to make that announcement in Vegas, Yeah,
36:49
Speaker 1: very much. It's it's one of those things where it's like, fine,
36:51
Speaker 1: you're controlling every part about me. You can't physically control
36:54
Speaker 1: me from not doing this, and I'm not going to
36:56
Speaker 1: do it. So she walked right away. I love that. Yeah.
37:02
Speaker 1: But then if they're controlling the Instagram, they're saying what
37:05
Speaker 1: she has to say, what she has to do. I'm
37:06
Speaker 1: surprised that they're not going in there curating some perfectly
37:11
Speaker 1: fake image. Yeah, that's what's surprising to me. Or or
37:15
Speaker 1: even when she was younger, and or when she had
37:18
Speaker 1: just had her kids and she remember she got in
37:20
Speaker 1: trouble for having her her son on her lap driving. Um,
37:24
Speaker 1: she knew she was going to be doing press about that.
37:26
Speaker 1: You would have thought that her people could have protected her,
37:29
Speaker 1: And not that this would have made it go away
37:30
Speaker 1: or anything like that, but they could have given her
37:32
Speaker 1: some sort of response, like paparazzi were stalking us, the
37:37
Speaker 1: baby was on my lap for two seconds so that
37:40
Speaker 1: I could get away, and you know whatever. It maybe
37:42
Speaker 1: not that that's an excuse, but that's what was actually happening.
37:45
Speaker 1: But instead they prepped her with when I was little
37:47
Speaker 1: in Louisiana, my dad like had me on his left,
37:51
Speaker 1: you know, like all of those things, like you have
37:54
Speaker 1: a mega personnel, like a huge pop star on your
37:57
Speaker 1: hand that's doing these huge press interviews. Why aren't you
38:00
Speaker 1: Why are you helping her along the way? Yeah, nobody,
38:03
Speaker 1: And we say this on our show, like nobody was
38:05
Speaker 1: really protecting her. Actually I saw something online. I don't
38:09
Speaker 1: know how true this is, but when she was shaving
38:13
Speaker 1: her head and she was getting the tattoo that night,
38:16
Speaker 1: someone said that the reason that paparazzi were able to
38:19
Speaker 1: get that photo those photos is because her security guards
38:23
Speaker 1: were like holding the blinds open. So it's like, if
38:27
Speaker 1: that's true, that's really terrible, Like not even the people
38:32
Speaker 1: paid to protect her are protecting her. So do you
38:35
Speaker 1: think because they're trying to get the money from the paparazzi,
38:38
Speaker 1: like the security guards are paid off or they're all
38:41
Speaker 1: this is all a ploy to get the conservatorship. Maybe,
38:44
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe how deep does it go? Who knows?
38:47
Speaker 1: You know, you guys mentioned Um on your podcast that
38:52
Speaker 1: Lynn when she came over to Britney's house at one point,
38:56
Speaker 1: Um she clocked Britney talking like in a high pitched
39:00
Speaker 1: little girl voice, which is kind of and she said
39:03
Speaker 1: maybe it was because she was drugged like the movie.
39:07
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what Britney's voice is like when
39:10
Speaker 1: she does her Instagram videos now right like she kind
39:13
Speaker 1: of has this like high pitched, almost like little girl voice.
39:17
Speaker 1: I just thought it was a weird kind of parallel
39:20
Speaker 1: that it hit me in my head listening when you
39:23
Speaker 1: guys were talking about it, like, oh, that's kind of
39:24
Speaker 1: what she sounds like right now. It doesn't sound like her.
39:29
Speaker 1: So I went back to like post from like three
39:33
Speaker 1: years ago because I have way too much time on
39:35
Speaker 1: my hands, and you can even even back then, I mean,
39:39
Speaker 1: she was still in the conservatorship and things were kind
39:42
Speaker 1: of weird. But even then, her voice is different and
39:45
Speaker 1: she's different even three years ago so it's weird to
39:51
Speaker 1: see the comparison to her posts. Now it just doesn't
39:56
Speaker 1: seem it doesn't seem like her at all, not even
39:59
Speaker 1: a little bit. I mean, I don't think anybody you
40:03
Speaker 1: know is holding up her phone recording her Instagram story
40:05
Speaker 1: with a gun to her being like you have to
40:07
Speaker 1: say X, Y and Z. But I get the feeling
40:09
Speaker 1: that everything she wants the post has to be approved,
40:12
Speaker 1: and basically the only things that people are letting her
40:13
Speaker 1: posts are these like very very like fluff pieces of
40:17
Speaker 1: dancing in her living room and pointing out where the
40:20
Speaker 1: remote control is in her for her TV things like that,
40:22
Speaker 1: which is super innocuous and not going to raise any
40:26
Speaker 1: kind of feathers, and it's giving the illusion that she's
40:28
Speaker 1: got controlled. But I really don't think she does. Right there.
40:33
Speaker 1: One of the things that her fans I saw were
40:35
Speaker 1: clocking was in one of a recent video from the
40:38
Speaker 1: past few weeks, Brittany says, I heard you guys really
40:43
Speaker 1: liked when I did this, and her fans are like, okay,
40:46
Speaker 1: so who told. Evidently the person's actually running your Instagram.
40:50
Speaker 1: So they were like, she's saying this on perpect like
40:53
Speaker 1: is that language purpose? So I would like tell everybody.
40:57
Speaker 1: But then if you're in a relationship with Brittany, like, okay,
41:01
Speaker 1: so for example, restaurants are opened up here. If she
41:04
Speaker 1: wanted to go out to dinner tonight with Sam, is
41:07
Speaker 1: she able to not? As we understand it, she has
41:12
Speaker 1: to get permission. Yeah, I mean, she couldn't be on vacation.
41:16
Speaker 1: I mean at one point, I remember I don't know
41:19
Speaker 1: if this actually ended up in the um in an episode,
41:21
Speaker 1: but we talked about how she had to like clear
41:23
Speaker 1: what she was getting on room service. So it's like,
41:26
Speaker 1: so I don't like, if she's going to a restaurant,
41:29
Speaker 1: she's gotten permission to do that. Yeah, I don't know.
41:32
Speaker 1: Do you guys know Heather mccan, she's a comedian. She's
41:34
Speaker 1: absolutely hilarious. She has a whole thing on Instagram about Brittany,
41:39
Speaker 1: and she she was like, any fans that had gone
41:41
Speaker 1: to a show, reach out to me and tell me
41:42
Speaker 1: what that was like. And somebody that worked a plan
41:45
Speaker 1: in Hollywood was like, she would call down to order
41:48
Speaker 1: lunch and we had to literally just approve her food
41:51
Speaker 1: with her dad, And I'm like, like, she can't even
41:54
Speaker 1: order a salad without approval from her dad, and like
41:58
Speaker 1: some fans were like she just seemed very uncomfortable. She
42:01
Speaker 1: didn't want to be there at the meet and greet.
42:02
Speaker 1: And I mean I had the same experience in Vegas
42:06
Speaker 1: that I was like with a company thing and they
42:08
Speaker 1: did like a meet and grete after, and it's like
42:11
Speaker 1: she is completely controsed. It's it's not like I've been
42:14
Speaker 1: to a bunch of meet and grades where like, you know,
42:16
Speaker 1: you can tell sometimes when the artist is like, oh,
42:18
Speaker 1: I just did a huge show and now I have
42:20
Speaker 1: to like go shake a million people's hands, which would
42:23
Speaker 1: never happen these days. But like it wasn't even that
42:27
Speaker 1: she didn't seem upset that she had to do it.
42:29
Speaker 1: She just didn't seem there. Yeah, she just seemed like
42:33
Speaker 1: she was going through the motions and it was like
42:35
Speaker 1: really sad and hard to watch. And especially because like
42:38
Speaker 1: I remember when I think I was like in eighth
42:40
Speaker 1: grade and we went to Disney and she was the performer.
42:43
Speaker 1: It was like grand night from eighth grade or whatever
42:46
Speaker 1: did and like she would have as everybody backstage. It
42:50
Speaker 1: was so like she was just like the life of
42:53
Speaker 1: the party. It's so kind and wanting to give advice,
42:55
Speaker 1: and like all these kids and like that, really you
42:58
Speaker 1: could feel the life in her, excited to share her
43:01
Speaker 1: journey with others and that he's gone. Even in the
43:06
Speaker 1: interviews in the documentary, like the ones are only on,
43:08
Speaker 1: she's just having fun and she's like laughing and she
43:12
Speaker 1: brushes off the dumb comments about her boobs and like
43:15
Speaker 1: her virginity and all that stuff too now or like
43:19
Speaker 1: even the later interviews and she's just you can just
43:22
Speaker 1: she's just broken. You can just see it. It's really sad.
43:25
Speaker 1: That scene in the restaurant when she's like she goes
43:28
Speaker 1: into the restaurant and just I mean, it's like I
43:31
Speaker 1: back when we could go into restaurants. Imagine like imagine
43:35
Speaker 1: you're you just you just want to go to a restaurant.
43:37
Speaker 1: You might not be having a day. You want to
43:38
Speaker 1: eat good food and you've got thirty cameras just in
43:42
Speaker 1: your face, and I just my heart broke for her.
43:44
Speaker 1: That was it was hard to watch. And she don't
43:46
Speaker 1: even want to eat in front of a boyfriend at first,
43:49
Speaker 1: let alone. Well also there was like, um on, I
43:56
Speaker 1: watched a clip on Watch What Happens Live about Zoe Saldana.
44:00
Speaker 1: Somebody had called in and said, um, you know what,
44:05
Speaker 1: I forget what the actual question was that they asked her,
44:07
Speaker 1: but it was something negative about Brittany, like and it
44:11
Speaker 1: was always response was like so elegant. She's like, you know,
44:15
Speaker 1: I think what you said is actually mean. Brittany was
44:18
Speaker 1: the first pop star that rose like she was able
44:22
Speaker 1: to rise without putting other people down. She never had feuds,
44:25
Speaker 1: she never put anybody down, like she is an inspiration
44:30
Speaker 1: that like we created all of this for her, good
44:34
Speaker 1: for Zoe Ya, Like, I spot what. I forget what
44:38
Speaker 1: the actual question was, but it was like super shady
44:41
Speaker 1: and but it was definitely a different time where anything
44:46
Speaker 1: could be asked to anybody, especially a seventeen year old kid. Yeah,
44:50
Speaker 1: it's gross. We know why it took Lynn so long
44:54
Speaker 1: to get involved. I don't know. I still wonder why
44:58
Speaker 1: Lens not more involved, Like she seems to care from
45:02
Speaker 1: I mean, she's scared to Jamie. Yeah, it wouldn't I
45:06
Speaker 1: would think about it. It's you know, if her daughter's
45:09
Speaker 1: one request after buying the house was that, you know,
45:13
Speaker 1: my dad can't live there. You must not. It can't
45:16
Speaker 1: be a good situation, right, And that was years ago. Yeah, yeah,
45:20
Speaker 1: I know they were on okay terms for a while,
45:22
Speaker 1: like they both show up at her house. We talked
45:25
Speaker 1: about that on the show, and then I don't know.
45:28
Speaker 1: I think she probably sees him for who he is,
45:31
Speaker 1: and she probably and like Jamie Lynn, her sister, doesn't
45:34
Speaker 1: really say anything either, Like she'll comment like hearts and
45:37
Speaker 1: roses on her Instagram, but like why aren't you at
45:40
Speaker 1: her gate with like a cape and night goggles, like
45:44
Speaker 1: trying to get her, Like what are you doing? What
45:48
Speaker 1: what happens next? You guys think? I saw on like
45:50
Speaker 1: the free Brittany Instagram that she may be coming up
45:55
Speaker 1: with her own documentary to tell her own story, and
45:58
Speaker 1: that's allegedly what's going to happen next, But like what
46:01
Speaker 1: do you guys think? Like what's your predicting? It's gonna
46:05
Speaker 1: be hard if she does come out with a documentary,
46:08
Speaker 1: It's going to be hard to believe it unless it's
46:11
Speaker 1: basically her being like this and like I'm free, Like
46:14
Speaker 1: I've been let go of this terrible conservatorship because I
46:18
Speaker 1: mean it's just everything about her for the last god
46:22
Speaker 1: how long has it been now, five ten years has
46:24
Speaker 1: been very carefully curated. You say that very carefully curated,
46:29
Speaker 1: but then it's not. That's then understand like we say
46:37
Speaker 1: carefully curated, because it's controlling, but carefully curated. This when
46:41
Speaker 1: you go on like a glossy Instagram and everything's filtered
46:44
Speaker 1: and everything is like the same color, they're not Yeah,
46:48
Speaker 1: everything's like golden hue, you know, Like but like, I
46:52
Speaker 1: don't know, this might be like a conspiracy theorist in me,
46:55
Speaker 1: I that I would never believe a glossy instagram like
47:00
Speaker 1: me yes, And so it's like I feel like, especially
47:03
Speaker 1: like now with all the technology at our fingertips, we
47:06
Speaker 1: can truly like create something that isn't true at all
47:09
Speaker 1: and make it seem like it's accurate. But it feels
47:12
Speaker 1: like it's just it's just this side of like not
47:15
Speaker 1: perfect where it's like, hmmm, this could be her, but
47:19
Speaker 1: then all of these other things and maybe we're all
47:21
Speaker 1: crazy and maybe we truly she actually is fine and
47:24
Speaker 1: we're seeing things that aren't there. But it's one of
47:26
Speaker 1: those things where it's like we're not hurting anybody, Like
47:29
Speaker 1: we're trying to help her if she needs help, and
47:31
Speaker 1: if it comes out that she actually never needed help,
47:33
Speaker 1: then we're going on our days. But for right now
47:35
Speaker 1: I feel like we're helping up. We're giving a voice
47:38
Speaker 1: to somebody who doesn't have the voice she deserves. Hyeah.
47:43
Speaker 1: And I notice how many celebrities have come forward since
47:46
Speaker 1: the documentary supporting her. I mean, Graham, we're talking about
47:49
Speaker 1: it right now post documentary, like, what does it take?
47:53
Speaker 1: I mean, we've known about this for ten years. Yeah,
47:56
Speaker 1: I think this is what it takes. I think we're
47:59
Speaker 1: getting there. More people talking about it is good, and
48:02
Speaker 1: like Britney fans and die hearts have been talking about
48:04
Speaker 1: it for years, but there's still people that are like, oh,
48:07
Speaker 1: you guys are just conspiracy theorists. Just stop, you know.
48:10
Speaker 1: But sadly, I think it takes some celebrities and some
48:13
Speaker 1: people with some followings and the New York Times to say, hey,
48:16
Speaker 1: there really is something going on. And even her last trial,
48:21
Speaker 1: there was some progress, and you know, the judge didn't
48:24
Speaker 1: say Nope, this conservatorship is never ending. She's just said
48:27
Speaker 1: I'm not removing Jamie right now. So I think I'm
48:31
Speaker 1: optimistic that some steps are being made and I mean
48:37
Speaker 1: she might get out of it. Yeah. And if you
48:39
Speaker 1: look at what conservatorships are traditionally used for, she is
48:42
Speaker 1: a grown woman who whether or not she has you know,
48:47
Speaker 1: mental illness that needs to be treated, that should not
48:49
Speaker 1: be what requires somebody to be under any kind of conservatorship,
48:54
Speaker 1: Like so many people out there are fine. And so
48:56
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where maybe for whatever reason,
48:58
Speaker 1: she truly did. You know, we don't know, We don't
49:00
Speaker 1: know what her health records are, we don't know what
49:02
Speaker 1: went on in that court specifically, But I would be
49:06
Speaker 1: hard pressed to believe somebody who you know is in
49:09
Speaker 1: is in a full grown adult, functioning adult, needs to
49:13
Speaker 1: be controlled in this way. She's not a seven year old,
49:16
Speaker 1: So why are we still treating her like one? Well,
49:19
Speaker 1: even the lawyer in the film that stepped in for
49:22
Speaker 1: a little bit, he was like, she was completely capable
49:24
Speaker 1: of having these conversations with she knew answers, she was smart.
49:28
Speaker 1: She's right, like, there's absolutely no reason for the level
49:33
Speaker 1: of control that's going on. And you guys say it
49:36
Speaker 1: in your podcast. I mean they're saying, oh, she's like
49:38
Speaker 1: just incapacitated beyond belief. Yet oh wait, she can tour
49:42
Speaker 1: her right, Yeah exactly, come on after night. Yeah, it's crazy.
49:50
Speaker 1: Can we just ask your favorite Britney song? Oh? Every time,
49:57
Speaker 1: every time, it's my favorite one. Every time with Lucky
49:59
Speaker 1: is a close second. Oh yes, crap for that, because
50:04
Speaker 1: people come on, it's so fun. Those two are on
50:10
Speaker 1: our like nineties playlists every time. Or should I go
50:12
Speaker 1: somewhere and repeat? Yeah, what's your favorite? I love Lucky
50:19
Speaker 1: so much. I think it's such a great song. And
50:22
Speaker 1: you know I'm not a girl, You're not one. I've
50:30
Speaker 1: got to say. I kind of love every Britney. I
50:32
Speaker 1: love all the different. Yeah. I don't have a problem
50:36
Speaker 1: with any Brittney song. No, he like, even give me more.
50:40
Speaker 1: I would like you actually should black out mother. The
50:49
Speaker 1: only song she can keep is if you see Gamy
50:51
Speaker 1: for me? Yeah? Oh man, I remember I came out. Guys,
50:56
Speaker 1: we really we were caught slipping because if we really
50:58
Speaker 1: would have thought this through, we all should have come
51:00
Speaker 1: in different Brittany errors and dress as Brittany. Now this
51:06
Speaker 1: gives us an opportunity to talk about this more and
51:09
Speaker 1: we find out more information. Yeah, when her dot comes out,
51:12
Speaker 1: we'll I'll dress up for the perfect. I'll give us
51:14
Speaker 1: some time. Yeah. Oh my gosh, thank you guys so
51:18
Speaker 1: much for joining us. How does everybody find you give
51:21
Speaker 1: us the deeds. We are everywhere you listen to podcasts.
51:26
Speaker 1: We're doing The Kardashians right now and second episode drops
51:29
Speaker 1: on Tuesday. Any little tidbits you want to leave us
51:32
Speaker 1: with about just one line or to draw us in. Well,
51:40
Speaker 1: we start off talking about Chris and how she became
51:43
Speaker 1: this like master momager and her like childhood. So that's
51:47
Speaker 1: really interesting a lot about Chris. Yah. Yeah, yeah, Well,
51:58
Speaker 1: thank you guys, We pre sate it. Thanks, thanks, all right,
52:05
Speaker 1: I know we had to take a little break. Um,
52:07
Speaker 1: we'll come back and talk a little Hilaria close out
52:10
Speaker 1: and uh, Matt, Like, I don't think I'm even done
52:22
Speaker 1: with the Brittany conversation. Like there's so much more I
52:24
Speaker 1: need to know, Like, how are we gonna You're gonna
52:27
Speaker 1: get so many more texts I listen. But there's one
52:30
Speaker 1: other mystery that I just was thinking of. They named
52:33
Speaker 1: their first daughter Brittany, but then they named their second
52:37
Speaker 1: daughter a combination of the two. Jamie and Lynn named
52:41
Speaker 1: their second daughter after both of themselves. It's just it's
52:44
Speaker 1: a little weird for me. What do you mean my
52:48
Speaker 1: next child is going to be Teddy Edwin? Oh boy,
52:58
Speaker 1: I can't with you in the duve like this Lee.
53:00
Speaker 1: It's a really great name. Even Katie Perry chose it
53:03
Speaker 1: after I didn't. Just saying anyways, I guess we have
53:07
Speaker 1: to close out with a little Hilaria conversation. So a
53:12
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago, Hilaria I began trending on Twitter
53:15
Speaker 1: as a social media user, and journalist Tracy Morrissey dug
53:20
Speaker 1: into her past alleging that she fabricated Spanish roots after
53:25
Speaker 1: being born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. So then she
53:30
Speaker 1: was like silent on the Graham You didn't hear anything.
53:33
Speaker 1: You know, you saw Alec kind of fighting her battles
53:36
Speaker 1: a little bit, damning people back whatnot or messaging people
53:40
Speaker 1: back allegedly. But then did you see the original apology
53:45
Speaker 1: that was posted after a month of learning? They did? Okay,
53:51
Speaker 1: so I'm just gonna read learning. Well, I'm gonna I'm
53:56
Speaker 1: just gonna say one thing about this and listen. Everybody
53:59
Speaker 1: makes mistake. I get it. I have I live mistakes myself.
54:04
Speaker 1: That being said, here's her actual apology. I've spent the
54:08
Speaker 1: last month listening, reflecting, and asking myself how I can
54:12
Speaker 1: learn and grow. My parents raised my brother and me
54:15
Speaker 1: with two cultures American and Spanish, and I feel a
54:17
Speaker 1: true sense of belonging to both. The way I've spoken
54:20
Speaker 1: about myself and my deep connection to two cultures could
54:23
Speaker 1: have been better explained. I should have been more clear,
54:26
Speaker 1: and I'm sorry. I'm proud of the way I was raised,
54:28
Speaker 1: and we're raising our children to share the same love
54:30
Speaker 1: and respect for both. Being vulnerable and pushing ourselves to
54:34
Speaker 1: learn and grow is what we've built our community on,
54:36
Speaker 1: and I've hoped that we get back to the supportive
54:39
Speaker 1: and kind environment we've built together. Okay, So I understand
54:46
Speaker 1: that she is apologetic, she wants things to go back
54:49
Speaker 1: to normal. I feel it. The problem is that's not
54:53
Speaker 1: actually telling us anything, right, Yeah, I mean it's so hard.
55:01
Speaker 1: So as white people, we have a responsibility to kind
55:06
Speaker 1: of not especially now, we can't appropriate anything right white
55:11
Speaker 1: people have. There's a long history of white people taking
55:15
Speaker 1: other people's cultures and passing it off as us being original. Right.
55:22
Speaker 1: So that's where she should have come out and said, listen,
55:26
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I was raised in Boston. I love this culture,
55:30
Speaker 1: and I didn't mean to offend anybody or steal jobs
55:34
Speaker 1: from anybody, and this and that, but that's not what
55:37
Speaker 1: she's doing. She kind of doubled down on Oh, I
55:39
Speaker 1: this was my culture going up and I own it.
55:42
Speaker 1: So that I think is where the issue lies with
55:45
Speaker 1: a lot of people, right is. But this statement probably
55:49
Speaker 1: took a month to curate, So why post it and
55:52
Speaker 1: then delete it? There was no commenting on it anyway,
55:54
Speaker 1: But like, why post it and then delete it if
55:57
Speaker 1: you've already probably worked on it for a very long time.
56:00
Speaker 1: It probably didn't get the reaction that that they were
56:02
Speaker 1: hoping for, right our people were and whoever someone had
56:06
Speaker 1: to agree to let her post that. I'm assuming her
56:10
Speaker 1: PR people or her crisis management or whoever was involved
56:14
Speaker 1: said yes, go ahead posted. Well, bad on me because
56:17
Speaker 1: I do you follow not skinny but not fat. So
56:22
Speaker 1: she goes down so many rabbit holes about everything. But
56:25
Speaker 1: she posted. I had seen her post first and I
56:28
Speaker 1: thought it was actually hilarious apology and it's it's actually
56:33
Speaker 1: pretty great. Hey, guys, I've been doing a lot of
56:35
Speaker 1: thinking first and foremost, I want to apologize to anyone
56:38
Speaker 1: I've offended with my inauthenticity over the years. I know
56:41
Speaker 1: I have to delve deep and figure out why I
56:43
Speaker 1: felt like the real me wasn't enough why I had
56:46
Speaker 1: to pretend to be someone I am not adapted culture
56:48
Speaker 1: that I simply and truly am not a part of,
56:50
Speaker 1: although I love it very much. I hope you will
56:53
Speaker 1: find it in your heart to forgive me as I
56:55
Speaker 1: try to move forward, work on myself and make up
56:57
Speaker 1: for years of taking opportunities away from Ealse Spanish woman
57:00
Speaker 1: who I am, whom I'm admirer, and I was like
57:04
Speaker 1: amazing like that, But but yeah, she's what she should
57:10
Speaker 1: have said. It's basically I've appropriated this. It's I'm truly
57:15
Speaker 1: like sorry, But I think that's all that needs to
57:17
Speaker 1: be said. I feel like all of that needs to
57:20
Speaker 1: be said like this. It's just it's just so hard
57:26
Speaker 1: because nobody wants nobody wants any of this, but sometimes
57:31
Speaker 1: it's just so hard to just, I guess, I don't know,
57:35
Speaker 1: take ownership and apologize. But either way, now that it's
57:39
Speaker 1: been deleted, now that there was something posted, it's going
57:41
Speaker 1: to create all of this additional buzz and conversation. Whereas
57:47
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know, it's just a hot mess. Well,
57:50
Speaker 1: I mean, how long did she have it out there? For?
57:52
Speaker 1: Not very long a day? Enough if you put something
57:56
Speaker 1: out there for two hours, like people are going to
57:59
Speaker 1: see it, it's gonna be post. You were able to
58:01
Speaker 1: send it to me last night when I couldn't find
58:02
Speaker 1: it right, because it's I mean, the press picked it up.
58:06
Speaker 1: That's my point. Where does she go from? Here? Is
58:09
Speaker 1: the thing? Like she she has a cushy life, I'm
58:14
Speaker 1: sure as it is. The apology just didn't feel genuine.
58:19
Speaker 1: It's not what people needed to hear. And do you
58:23
Speaker 1: Obviously she didn't learn her lesson, because look, if you're
58:26
Speaker 1: on it's you're not even it's more than appropriated culture
58:29
Speaker 1: what she did right, because there's her, She's on film
58:32
Speaker 1: saying she doesn't know what a cucumber is, which is like,
58:38
Speaker 1: I know, it's it's a little more a lot. Well,
58:44
Speaker 1: I I hate that we're out of time because honestly,
58:47
Speaker 1: Matt and I, it's it's a situation how much time
58:51
Speaker 1: is spent going back and forth talking about these topics,
58:55
Speaker 1: trying to understand and like we don't even come at
58:58
Speaker 1: it from a place of like we just need to
59:01
Speaker 1: know all the details on everything. I don't know what
59:03
Speaker 1: that is about us, But I am so grateful for you, Matt,
59:07
Speaker 1: that we can do this together. Even though sometimes you've
59:09
Speaker 1: been recommending documentaries to me that you haven't watched yet,
59:12
Speaker 1: so I find that a little bit shitty. I was
59:17
Speaker 1: just trying to help you out in your lull of
59:19
Speaker 1: television necessities. Can't say I recommend this and you've never
59:26
Speaker 1: watched it. It's just the rules. The Hotel Cecil documentary
59:29
Speaker 1: is out though. It's very good to all the listeners
59:31
Speaker 1: out there. We started it last night, well I will
59:33
Speaker 1: start it tonight, but thanks you guys for joining us.
59:35
Speaker 1: Thanks Matt and you guys. Send in any questions that
59:38
Speaker 1: you have to Teddy Teapot and I'll talk to you soon.
59:42
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Subscribe to Teddy Teapot on her radio
59:46
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to podcasts.