How Celebrity Gossip Really Works | Rob Shuter

This week on Trigger Warning, I’m serving nightlife, nuance, and just enough chaos to keep it interesting.

Daniel and I kick things off with peak NYC nightlife energy — theater talk, Berlin adventures, Fire Island plans, and a proper celebration of John Waters turning 80 (a cultural icon, a genius, a reason half of us moved to New York).

Then we welcome Rob Shuter — celebrity gossip columnist, entertainment insider, and author of It Started with a Whisper.

And yes, we get into the real stuff.

Rob breaks down his new roman à clef about the entertainment industry, centered on four media insiders who launch a morning gossip show… only to have their own secrets explode on-air.

We talk about:

• How It Started with a Whisper began as a scripted TV series before becoming a novel
• The presales that landed him a three-book deal
• His upcoming novel set in the future of the British royal line of succession
• How celebrity gossip actually works behind the scenes
• The mechanics of red carpets and award show drama
• Working with major stars like Jennifer Lopez (J.Lo) and Sean “Diddy” Combs

If you’ve ever wondered how entertainment PR, media narratives, and celebrity scandals really operate — this is your masterclass.

But this is Trigger Warning, so we don’t stop at gossip.

This episode blends:

✔️ Celebrity gossip and entertainment industry secrets
 ✔️ NYC nightlife culture
 ✔️ LGBTQ+ perspectives
 ✔️ Media politics and public accountability
 ✔️ Sex work stigma and cultural hypocrisy

It’s messy. It’s thoughtful. It’s very New York.

And it’s very us.

Click HERE to order Rob’s book, It Started With a Whisper

@triggerwaringnyc

@redeye_ny

@pridehousemedia

Write to us at: Questions@TriggerWarningPod.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

What happens when you let Enfantrible, now just terrible, Daniel Nardicho, off his leash to say and do whatever he wants? The man who has offended everyone is back.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Along with my brother from another mother, Adam Klesh, we're back with our latest creation, Trigger Warning. A podcast that is not for the faint of heart. Prepare to be offended, enlightened, and highly entertained. Trigger Warning is not a safe space podcast, but answers the questions no one wants to ask. Serves steep in vodka and a dash of bitter.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Each week we'll bring you the highest and lowest in NYC nightlife. So buckle up. You've been warned. Hey guys, you're here at Trigger Warning. I'm Adam Clush. My name is Daniel Ardicio. We're having a slow start.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Yes, exactly. We are so excited about today because we have a good friend of mine. Um, and now it's soon to be you.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

And finally, one of your friends that recognizes me. Exactly. Yeah, when he was coming into the green room, he was like, Oh my god, hi, how are you? I did here's what I love that people always say to me about our podcast. I didn't know we were doing this with you, too. No, I told him you were in it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

He's like, Oh, your brother? Wait, I don't understand. Who's this? What brother? And I was like, Alright, don't worry about it. Oh my god. So, you know, I have to just gonna start drinking now. Start drinking. Yeah, go for it. You just start drinking this hour. This hour. I'm so excited about so many things right now. Okay, because what do you want to tell me about first? John Waters' birthday is today. Eighty years old. Is this 80?

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Is does John send everyone cards on his birthday, or is that yeah, no, no, Christmas.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Christmas. I got his Christmas card. I can't take a scratch off, right? No, yeah, no, totally. Every year it's different. And sometimes it'll be you open it and like something bounce at you. Dog shit. He's always his Christmas cards are so incredible, John Waters. And it's like one of those things. I don't get invited to the actual party. He does a uh a Christmas party. It's kind of one of those things. In Baltimore? Yeah, in Baltimore. I don't get you imagine. I know I can. Trust me, I have. Um, I'm not so far I've not been invited to that. But I you and John are so close.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

I'm shocked you're not invited to that.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

I know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Um, you're like business close, right? Yeah. Like you produce his shows, you guys talk each other. You made the Christmas card list. That's you. Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

And I used to be a good thing. He doesn't even know I exist, and I've ran his spotlight for five years. I texted him today and said, happy birthday. And he says, I can't wait to see you on Fire Island. But you know, it doesn't mean that he's gonna invite me to his Christ, you know, because Christmas uh party is kind of a big deal. No, he's gonna invite you to the signing of his check. Yeah, exactly. And I'm fine with that. Yeah, great. That's what I got. Give me the money. You know, sometimes it's what you get. It's his birthday today, 80 years old. Happy birthday, John. We have John Waters at 80 and Marilyn May at 98. Today?

unknown 2:51

No.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Oh, your birthday was about a month ago. But uh Marilyn May is gonna be happy belated, Marilyn. We love years old. And still doing what she does. Yeah, exactly. It's been a big week, though, in terms of like just in general, like culture. I've been back for uh about 10 days from Zipalite and I'm like loving loving my life.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Did you come down to Dancers again?

SPEAKER_02 3:12

What now?

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Did you come down to the dancer night again? Oh my god, I love uh coming down. So we talked about it on the last episode.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

You came down again? Oh, yeah, totally. Jesus Christ. I'm coming down all the time. I came down when they weren't even here. I was standing around. Waiting for them, waving your 20s. No, I just came down stacks of nickels. Sunday exactly. I hid the bottle of the barrel. I was like, yeah, here. Get out that coffee can again. Exactly. You see, you like you people like change. Harper's gonna beat me if I'm pulling any more 20s. All my life I had to fight.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

So I have a feeling we'll come back to that joke.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Exactly. So, anyway, we have Fire Island, which is gonna be amazing this summer. Uh week.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

I'm so excited to get it. I go back out there tomorrow morning.

unknown 4:00

Really?

SPEAKER_01 4:01

I'm so excited. Yeah, there's a lot to do. Fucking 50 degrees. Why are you excited about this? It'll be open in nine days.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

I'm excited to get it open. Yeah, wait for like three days before and just like slam it all in. That's what we've done the last four years. Why wouldn't it work this season? We have a long underwear party on May 2nd. First? First season. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

You've been saying May 2nd for five months. It's May 1st. And what I love is you know when the first underwear party is, which is May 8th, but you can't subtract the seven. Oh my god, it's really hard for me. Numbers seen a math. Oh, I was in Berlin last week. Tell me about it. Uh first time in Berlin I didn't have sex. First time I've ever been to Berlin, I didn't have sex. Really? Wasn't on purpose. But you had drugs. Oh, tons. Tons. Yeah, absolutely. It's fucking Berlin. I don't, you know. Uh, but no, I went and saw um uh the the bar that I'm one of the founders, Tipsy Bear was wonderful. Um my best friend Tima had his birthday party, which started at like five in the afternoon and then went to like 4 a.m. And then like 20 of us went to Barrakine, and then like I think I walked out of Barrakine like 5 p.m. on Sunday, like, oh, it took like a shower, two hour nap back to Tipsy Bear. It was great, it was brilliant, I love it. I got upgraded, so I was in the live flat, and they brought me a mattress topper. They're like, Would you like a mattress topper? I was like, excuse me. And she's like, I'll be right back. So she went on the oil, she comes back, and I had like a two-inch like body mattress topper that you put on, and I was like, I was out. Wow, she saw what was going on. She looked and said, Do you want a mattress? You should sleep. She also was like, Do you want executive service? Which means like they bring you everything at once, like three little bottles of liquor, and then they leave you alone to go to bed. I bet that's it. I bet she looked at me and was like, Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah. Let's put her, let's put her down. We don't need she's like bear kind of bear kind. We don't need this awake for eight hours. Get comfy, honey. Oh my god, that's so funny.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Well, I've been stuck here, you know, in New York now, which I have a lot of meet and greets. I've heard. I had a great week. I've had a great week. I love I love being in New York. I had someone come over and do a five, six, several eight. Five, six, seven, eight. Um, no, I had a couple uh meet and greets at my apartment upstairs, but I also just love being in New York right now. You're in pants. Uh I'm I love wearing clothes. I love wearing my my sweatshirts. You know, I'm sorry I'm late, I didn't want to go. Sorry, I'm late, I didn't want to come, which is like my motto for today. Everything. No, I just like I've been having such a good time. Rob took me to see We're both making shirts that are jokes. Mine says Los Angeles. Yeah, no, totally right. Wom womp. You can't spell you can't spell flake without LA. Um, so no, I I had a really good week here. It was just so much fun. Like I've a week and a half. I've been like going to I've been cooking so much. Beef Borgignon. You know, you're in your Julia Childs mode. I love cooking in my apartment because it's so cold right now.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

I really want you to take my idea for Fire Island and live where I want you to live, and it's selfishly because you have a kitchen, and I know when you have a kitchen, you cook amazing meals. Yeah, no, totally. I can't wait. I mean if you live somewhere you don't have a kitchen. No, it's just not gonna work. No, no, it's not gonna work. You're like, I'll come on Fridays and Saturdays and stay in the hotel. I'm like, you know, you're not gonna be able to do it. No, I'm gonna sit in the winter.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

I'm gonna go to the pizza place. No, no, it's fine, but for$42. And for 20 weeks. Yeah, exactly. I can't do that. So anyway, I'm trying to figure it out right now, but whatever. Fire Island, I'll figure it out. So, anyway, um uh that was basically I've been back for 10 days and been having such a good time. Have you seen any theater? Well, with Rob, we went to see Titanic. I went to see Meow Meow at Joe's pub the other night, and then literally I took Johnny Dynell and I said, let's go to see Meow Meow, who's it's Australian. I'm excited. I'll look her up. Can't wait. She's incredible. She was doing like Kurt Weil, oh, and like, you know, uh Benjamin Walters, like this kind of like really 1930s kind of yeah, it was really great. That niche niche, niche, exactly, yeah. Um, it doesn't kill me, it made me stronger. And and I I I loved it. It was a really good night. And and then afterward I said, Johnny, you want to go over to um uh Parkside? We're doing Amber Martin and Angela DiCarlo doing a country night, and we had such a good Was she doing her Reba? Yeah, uh the shoulder pad was so big, it was like up this high. Amber Did she do the Reba entrance though?

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Oh, she was I love it when she does that like from the back of the theater for like four and a half minutes.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

And she does the like head shake thing. Amber was in fucking and on fuego. Okay. So it was a great night, and we Johnny and had such a good time. And then afterward, I was like in a cab and I did she do a Scissors Sisters cover? No, she we literally were in the cab heading up to um Johnny's house on 14th and uh whatever uh third. And I said, Oh, we should have gone to Club Coming. Where are you? Philadelphia Club Coming. I haven't been to Club Cumming in since I walked out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Did you to go get your tax money?

SPEAKER_02 8:57

No, I just wanted to walk in and see what was going on, but I didn't go because it was closed.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

But I'm gonna go. No, it's still doing great, I guess. No, I'm just it was funny. I went there one time on like a Thursday at like midnight and the doors were closed.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Well, you know, Darren doesn't like it unless there's coke. Yeah. So anyway, um, it was um it was um it was a it was a good night. It was a good week, actually. I had a great week too. Yeah. Well, I'm glad to hear they're getting a lot done. Yeah, totally. We're living in the world.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

We're good when we're working, living life, smiling, wheeling, dealing. Actually, so anyway, we're gonna be back in the house. Should we bring Robin?

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Robin. Should we bring Rob in? Should we take a break and bring Rob? Rob Shooter. Shooter, yeah. Absolutely. The book is called uh It started with a Whisper. We're gonna be back in just a few moments. Yeah, that's great. Look at you. You're gonna be very excited when you hear about who his partner worked with. Who he, yes, partner worked with. Yeah, I know. I can't wait. Well, look at you with the German. How do you say it in Spanish? Uh oh, I don't know how to say excellent in Spanish. Excellente! Excellent! Excellente. We'll be right back in just a moment here. You're watching Trigger Warning. I'm trying to get sponsorship. Oh, God. I love Breakham Brewery. I know you do. And they make a stonewall IPA for the gays. We all know you do. Um, it's like absolute did that earlier, so we're all good. Exactly. That cracking something. So delightful. So I'm really excited because um we're you're listening to Trigger Warning. My name is Oh, you're watching now. Trigger Warning, you're back from break. You were watching the commercial like in the year. In the 80s. Exactly. There was 80s. What about AIDS, the weight loss drug?

SPEAKER_03 10:27

W Pleasure, W fun. That's the statement of a great mint double mint gum.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

All right. So um I'm I'm really excited because we've had a lot of really good guests on here. I have to say Cheyenne Jackson, Jimbo. Um, actually, that was it. But um The rest have been some real tankers. Alaska.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Alaska was great.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Stormlarge. I mean, we've got some really good people. But this guy, what I love about him is we've had a lot of celebrities on here, but he is what I love it. What I love about him is he's celebrity adjacent in the sense that he's a celebrity. But what he really is, is a gossip columnist that talks about celebrities and has the stories. He's worked with P. Diddy, J Lo, um Alicia Key, John Jovi, Jessica Simpson, and there we go.

SPEAKER_04 11:14

A ton of them, a ton of them. And he has a little book out of the way. Which I'm so excited to talk about. Thank you for having me. It's lovely to be here. Yeah, I love this place. I love this bar, what you've created. It is extraordinary. It's like a little community. When I came in here tonight, there are four acts going on. One upstairs, two downstairs. It feels like a backstage. You feel us like we're backstage at Gypsy.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

You literally came in and there was like We gotta have a gimmick in downward-facing dog when you came in with our fucking asses.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Here's where we're doing the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

And he was like, Oh, I gotta remember to you know renew my easy pass because of the Holland Tummel. There was so much nakedity here. And then upstairs is like lesbian two-stepping. Also a lot of hole. Exactly. Also a lot of hole. Rob's got a new book out called It Started with a Whisper. And I love, first of all, I gotta say this. I love the cover. Yes, it's great. And I have to say this. I I pre-ordered it. I got it yesterday, so I got to read 25 pages today because I read slow. Um I was like, uh, like I'm like seely and color purple. Oh yeah. No, I'm sorry, that's so rude. So anyway, right. I'm laughing, but fuck. That was pretty rough. That was a rough joke. So um it's a romanocleph. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn't it a romanocleph? Yes. Oh, wait. Um that's what we use when we use big words. Adam didn't know the word.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Let me explain what that is. I was like, are you being a douchebag saying love letter?

SPEAKER_04 12:44

A Romanocleph is when you tell a story and you change all the names so that the devil wears Prada is probably the best example of a Romanocleph that's out there.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Or Pamela Anderson's book, which is absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 12:54

So we all know it's Anna Winter, but in the book it's Miranda Priestley.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Right.

SPEAKER_04 12:58

And so you do it for a couple of reasons. One is legally, it makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

So you don't call the lawyers.

SPEAKER_04 13:04

They don't have to unleash the lawyers. And two, if you just tell the real stories, as an author, it traps you within the truth and the reality of situations. And so when you want a happy ending or when you want to change something around, you can't do that unless these are characters you can. Yeah, what's the same thing?

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Or even if you tell the truth, or even if you tell the truth.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Because a lot of the people you worked with, the truth is so outrageous. Right, right. But you know, you I I obviously in the 25 pages I read, you were talking about um we'll just say a very famous pop star that you worked for, who was aforementioned. Um Adam, aforementioned. We do that with a lot of people.

SPEAKER_04 13:44

You want a dad for aforementioned? That means mentioned before.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Yeah, our audience is really stupid, Rob.

SPEAKER_04 13:50

So anyway, we will love this book. This book is for you.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

We have great listenership and viewership, all at a third grade level. All the words are two syllables.

SPEAKER_04 13:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

So um duosyllabic.

SPEAKER_04 14:02

I should have done a children's colored book. Yes, duo syllabic.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Duo syllabic. So it's a children's book about celebrities. Exactly. But it's um one of the uh the people that you worked for, you talk about her, and was it the rumor? I'm not gonna say this because I can't. Um I'm bound by um non-complete, compete, but NDA.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Unleash the lawyers.

unknown 14:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

That's a non-disclosure agreement.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

You're learning a lot, kids, today. So um the whole like thing where there were like you know white roses or you know, carnations. So you dealt with a lot of this in that your world.

SPEAKER_04 14:39

I did, I did. It was a really, really fun world to be in. Uh, and to have all those stories, it it's great. It's really fertile for a novel. However, then you have to tell a story. And so this is the story about four entertainment insiders, four gossip columnists who get a job on a morning show. They create a morning show, a gossip type show. A 13-minute show. Gossip gangs. They create this show for a really struggling cable network, and it looks like the view four people sitting round a table gossiping about celebrities, dishing about all the fun stuff that happened the night before, what they saw, where they went. But it becomes evident very quickly that the real gossip is not about the celebrities, but about themselves. Every person at the table has a secret. And it starts with a whisper. Oh, but see, I haven't gotten into that part because I'm only on page 25. It starts big bang, glamorous TV show, really, microphones, yes, camera cruise, gossip, gossip, gossip. But it ends, the the first chapter ends with a revelation that everybody sitting behind that table has a secret.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Oh, this is so great. Because I know that the whole thing happened with where you were at uh a red carpet and then someone slipped drugs in your pocket.

SPEAKER_04 15:54

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

Um I was just holding them for someone. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 15:57

It was a Did you get caught?

SPEAKER_02 15:59

If you still have them, Adam wants it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:01

No, I have my own here. It was an event where there was a very shady photographer there, but who happened to be very, very talented. Cheffies and so and there's so much drugs in in the celebrity world that they're they're there. And so why am I not a celebrity? When you see these stars dazzling on the red carpet, they might have a little bit of chemical help. And so I remember being on a red carpet and I set up a photograph. These photographs sell for about$400. So if it's a big celebrity, if you take that picture, you can make money. If you get it on the cover of the of the New York Post or the Daily Mail website, you're gonna make money. And so it's a really competitive business. And so the photographers do try and bribe, encourage the publicists to make sure they get the money shot.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

And so it's especially if you car cause a car accident.

SPEAKER_04 16:50

That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Yeah, or you give the kids or you get the babies. And so you um in the first chapter, there's a there's a moment where I'm on a red carpet and I set up a shot of a celebrity who's in the news, and uh and it's not spoken about. It's sort of an unwritten rule. And somebody just slips their hand into my pocket. And it I thought it was money, but it wasn't money. It would have been like I love the truth. It was um it was drugs.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

Took out the middleman. And that's when you decided to become a morning the gossip gang.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

That's when we became so I've got two questions.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

One did you Because Adam's not read the book. He can't read. Uh yeah, no. But to be fair, it's okay. Monosyllabic.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

I'm all about articles and colours. You want the white cow ran. Okay. Uh but no, did you write this uh with kind of having in mind that it could be adapted into a screenplay? It's originally sounds fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 17:47

Originally, I wanted it to be a scripted series. I wanted this to be uh an episodic. Like Sex in the City. I could see it like that, and I I couldn't sell it. So it's really hard to get anybody to invest in you when you do something for the first time, whether it be an author, a playwright, or a scripted show. But it just came out. So the job is well. I think it would I think it will. It's interesting because I had dinner with of all people, Star Jones. Star Jones wrote a. But she cut half a bit. She wrote a bitch. You still do that.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

She's not she's on the jab at all now, so she's just on the jab. She can do all the jab.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

There's not one person in this in club that's not on the jab. That's the drug of choice.

SPEAKER_04 18:25

Yeah, it's a red eye. Star told me when she wrote uh uh Romana Clef, her book Disguised, thank you very much, as the as the view, she couldn't sell it. And so she turned it into a novel, she sold the rights for the novel, and it became a TV show. And so it's stepping stones in life. Like, this is a big lesson for everybody. Because you can't get there right away, you have to find a way around it. You don't take no. And so a lot of my friends would have would have drafted a a scripted show, they would have pitched it, it would have been rejected, and they would have gone home or come here and got a drink.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

A lot of writers are uncasted actors.

SPEAKER_04 19:00

I I wouldn't stop. So I I had these scripts, I had about 10 episodes, and I was like, I could turn every episode into a chapter, and that's why it reads like a TV show. It really does. Every episode ends with a cliffhanger.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

It was very the first 25 pages is like a pilot.

SPEAKER_04 19:15

It's a pilot. It is literally, and so and that's by choice. That's what I like because actually it's really it makes it readable. And that's what I grew up with. Like when we get into Triggered at the end, it makes sense why. But when I was growing up, people did not read books. I I was from a really working class town in Britain. They were not booming them. It wasn't, they weren't that that that that it were smart people, they were really good, kind, decent people, but education was just not a priority. And so for me, I got my education in show business from watching television. And so I'm not the biggest reader. Like when people ask me now when I'm doing these interviews, who inspired you? I love Jackie Collins, I love like all the all the sort of trashy romance novels. Um, but really it was Dallas Dynasty.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

How did you get from the because gossip accommodists have like a really negative, like they're really hated? You know what I mean? But you seem loved now. Like I remember when we first It was a rough beginning. It was a rough beginning to us. I was all your fault. You two hashtag you two. Well, I was I won't go into the whole thing, but I was like, you know, I was hanging out with uh a bunch of people that were celebrities, and so when Rob would come out with something they always thought because we were friends, that I was like hauling him and being like so-and-so's heavy. Oh, I remember this.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Everyone got pissed off at you because they thought you were the mole.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

And I was like, I'm not getting paid for this.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

I'm not getting him.

SPEAKER_04 20:39

In fact, I'm losing money because I give this dick-free drink. Like, get out of my bar.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

I'm not getting paid for this. If you could just step into frame real quick, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 20:47

It's fun though. I had a book party on on Monday, and a lot of my friends didn't want to come because I didn't want to reveal my sources. Like, gossip columnists don't want to have book parties. There was a housewife who kept taking pictures of us together and posted them, and I was like, you were so stupid. Bravo does not want to know that where we talk. And so the thing is with this book is it's about it's a love letter to the business of gossip. Where we find it. Let me like just a quick example. If ever you go to an award show, you can't get into the bathrooms because every stool, every stall belongs to a magazine. So I sent a reporter in there from Us Weekly, from People, from so we all like the other place that I put a gossip column is that a young reporter at award shows is in the elevator. If you ever you're in an elevator and you see somebody just going up and down all night, they're they're texting me what you're saying. Oh, yeah. And so it's a fun world. But if you go to the bathroom, when you go to the bathroom and you put your lipstick on or you you look at yourself in the mirror, thank you very much, and you chitter chitter chatter. Somebody's sitting behind you in a stall. Somebody's sitting behind you in a stall texted me.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Oh, that's amazing. That's wild. Now I went to the I've the only awards thing I've gone to Tony's. And Tony's is not like that, really. I think Tony's is like like there's not really a lot of gossip. Except for the year where the I went with Michael Shulman was writing that shit about Bernadette. That's right. That was a bad year. And she came out and performed. Um she performed, you know, um Gypsy. Gypsy. And I remember being like, oh my god, this is kind of a moment because I'm sitting there backstage because Alan had taken me and I was there with um, you know, his backstage.

SPEAKER_04 22:20

You know, the thing is though, I I learned this name. It was Liz Smith, the the legendary gossip columnist who I love to who told me this there's gossip everywhere. You just gotta see it. And so my rule is when I go out uh on a night, if I go out to meet a source, if I don't come home with a piece of gossip, I've failed. There is gossip everywhere. Michael Mostoes the same way, though.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

He is, he finds it everywhere, he just notices things and it was hard with him because I consider him a friend like I do you, and he would like take me out and we would have like And you're like a pariah's date. But you know how like you're having dinner with someone, and then all of a sudden they're like, so you were saying that Alan is doing a like union blah blah blah, and all of a sudden you're like, oh my god, I was literally having dinner talking to you, and then all of a sudden you're writing down the name of the movie that he's doing with Emma Stone or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 23:04

It's tricky. I um I I try to separate it, I and I think I do a pretty good job of it. I don't I protect my friends, and that's part of being a friend.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Well, you think you stayed around longest because like when I read some of your stuff, like you're very you hint towards things, right?

SPEAKER_04 23:17

You don't like I'm really I I say that I am a a pinch, not a punch. Like Perez will punch you probably in the face. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Say your name, where you were, who you were with.

SPEAKER_04 23:27

Yeah, I I I you know, and there's a nice way of telling stories, and it comes from the fact that I was a publicist. Celebrities love gossip, they love being gossip out. Because it gets their name out there. And they're they're genuinely curious, nosy people, which I think is why when people like look down their nose at gossip, if you take the word gossip out of a sentence and put the word curious in, suddenly they love you. You want a curious kid, you want a curious friend. And we all talk about it. We all talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

And you want to be asked questions, especially in this country, everybody's entertainment.

SPEAKER_04 23:57

But how many times have you been to for dinner with somebody or on a date and they don't ask you a single question? Like ask them, like curious. So I was always a nosy kid and now I'm a nosy adult.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Okay, what's the messiest award show?

SPEAKER_04 24:10

The messiest award show is the Golden Globes before it became clean and before the room. It used to literally just be in a ballroom and nobody really cared about it. It was just the night. And then the thing that made it different, and now this has changed, celebrities couldn't bring in publicists or managers or agents. You had to fight for a ticket, and you might just get one. So Jed Anderson might not get plus one. It might just and so it forces them to talk to one another, and it forces them. If we go for dinner and we sit at a table for ten, we're just gonna talk to one another. So it's often better to do it by yourself. Uh nights that I go out working, nights that I go out. It's like at a wedding when they sit the right people next to me. I like going out by myself because it forces me to go and talk to people.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

But yeah, you're here a lot in the cockpit.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Forcing yourself to talk to people. Or just forcing yourself onto people in the pot cockpit.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

He's been down here talking to people, the hardworking hookers of self-consciousness.

SPEAKER_04 25:09

Look how nosy I was. There's two doors at the back of this room, and I I got myself into one of them. Like, but I did, I was a no the first thing well, it wasn't the first thing I saw. The first thing I saw was all the back doors.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Was something else?

SPEAKER_04 25:23

But then when the when the smoke lifted and the yoga gentleman left, I noticed two doors by the side of the stage. So let me ask you a question now.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

You also worked with, like, you know, besides obviously J Lo, who's incredible. Um, you worked with P. Diddy. I did. Like, is is that weird when you have worked with someone and then all of a sudden you find out that they're a skis bag. They're totally because obviously I've worked with Adam and I found out that he's a total fucking dirtbag.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

And you wouldn't believe the lowlife this motherfucker is.

SPEAKER_04 25:54

The hardest thing about Diddy, and I I wrote an op-ed about it for for the Hollywood Reporter, and it was like, I didn't see anything, I didn't know anything, or did I choose not to see anything? And I think that's a question a lot of people have to ask themselves. Exactly. Did I choose? I was intoxicated by his fame, by his power. And so did it, you know, I when you go to he he lived on um Park Avenue in a in a house, not an apartment. So you had the whole house on park.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

And you were tired from carrying the cases of baby oil to the front desk. Slipping.

SPEAKER_04 26:23

But when you walk when you walk into his house.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

When you walk past when you slipped into his house. Let's be honest. Slip in the front detector.

SPEAKER_04 26:31

He had metal detectors like at an airport. That's a red flag. Like that's not a normal behavior. When you go up to his, maybe it's in your living room, but he had a professional money counting machine in his living room.

SPEAKER_02 26:42

I had that that and a metal detail. So far you've just described Daniel's studio apartment to run red eye.

SPEAKER_04 26:49

The thing is with Diddy, and this is explains why he got away with so much for so long. Yeah, he was charming. Most people. Same with Matt Lauer.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

Matt Lauer, same thing.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Didn't Matt Lauer have like the lock on the door and all the desktop. So creepy. Fantastically creepy. I put one in upset. The turnstile doesn't go back the other way.

SPEAKER_04 27:10

Charismatic. And and like of all the clients, if I was out late with Diddy, he'd give me his car to take me home. It'd drop him off at home. But it's weird because when you don't want to say that, you feel like when you see the dark though, it doesn't sound like he's like that.

SPEAKER_02 27:24

It sounds like he was like mean.

SPEAKER_04 27:26

Yeah, I think that once we find out something about somebody, we we change the way we tell a story. And that's what's so interesting about what I do for a living. Stories change every 10 minutes. So at the moment, you might not be in love, but you might be tomorrow. And that's what's so interesting about covering really the same 50 celebrities or so. Like it's almost like a little soap opera, and all these celebrities live in my street, and I want to know what's going on in each of the houses each day. But Diddy could be everything. I I I guess it's like desperate housewives. That's what it's like. He could be a monster, he could be charming, but you don't have the type of career that Diddy has, and he was friends with Anna Winter and Clive Davis unless you are charming, and that's why he got away with it for so long.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

So, how do you deal with there's an intense dislike for gossip columnists, right? Like there, you know, but how do you deal with that in terms of like I mean, you you move through the world, like I've I've known you for a long time. We go to shows together. You you handle it really well. I'm terribly optimistic. We went to that show the other day and hanging out with Mar Ariana Grande's mother. And all of a sudden, hi Joan. She's like as tall as this clona Willy. And I was like, Is she in there?

SPEAKER_01 28:35

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_04 28:36

You I wanted to get Ariana here, and the way to get to Ariana is through her mom. Yeah, and so she was lovely. We're gonna have Frankie on the show, I think. She was lovely. Um I think that everybody has a story, and if you shut up, they will tell you that story. And a lot of gossip columnists that I know, it's about them. Their ego is so big and I agree. I agree. Like for Renz Hilton. That's it's all it's about. It's not about me. It's it's not my my story. I love telling the story, but I don't I don't want to be famous.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

I don't know a lot about you other than your husband wrote Copa Cabana.

SPEAKER_04 29:16

He did. I'm married to a songwriter and Rami Award winning. What? Yes, I know, right? Epicopa.

SPEAKER_03 29:23

Yeah, what?

unknown 29:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

Bruce, right? Bruce. Yeah. He wrote the fucking Copa Cabana.

SPEAKER_04 29:31

Lola, yellow feather in her hair, and a dress guitar. I know, Adam's Adam's kind of gobsmacked. And Adam's never gobsmacked. I see Barry tomorrow. Barry's in New York tomorrow and we're gonna get dinner. I know. I know. Why? But once again, I have seen what happens when celebrities, when people talk about their romances and put it out there, it never ends well. I love Jessica Simpson. I worked with Jessica for years. Had she not been on that reality show with her husband, she'd still be married. Nick Cliche. And so, like, it's just you see, the housewives do this too. They start the season happily married, and by episode five, they're divorced. Well, Gaga.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Like, what happened with her husband? He wrote that album. Like, is Anna with her? You never hear about him again. Never. It's just, it's so I I Dolly kept her husband. That's so smart. Yeah. Well, he might have not been her husband, but whatever. Clint, Clark, Clint, Carl. No, no, no. Uh uh uh Carl. Carl. Carl.

SPEAKER_04 30:23

Yeah, so Bruce Bruce is um Bruce is very successful. We've been together a really long time. I love him, he's a great guy, but he does not, he doesn't operate in this world.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

No. Which I think is really smart.

SPEAKER_04 30:35

Yeah, I do too. And like I don't drag Bruce out to events he doesn't want to go to, and he's a he'd be terrible at this. Like he just wouldn't be very good at the gossip as a gossip. No, thank you. He's too sm like too smart. I think he's older than you. He's older than me, and so we just we have a perfect life where we both have our own careers. I don't go and sit at Barry Manlow's piano with him when he goes to work. Right. So he's not gonna want to come and sit at a bar listening to Ariola Grande's mother.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

Alright, so we're gonna be back in just a moment. We're gonna talk with Rob. We're gonna ask him his trigger, because we are a trigger warning, and then we're gonna be back in just a few minutes. The book. I started with the whisper.

unknown 31:14

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

I love this. It could be very ASMR. We could just do all this.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

Your whole entire video. It's so nice to have Rob here at Trigger. I started with the Whisper.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

We'll be right back. You're listening to Trigger Warning. You're back here at Trigger Warning. I'm Adam Flesh. And I'm Daniel Nardiccio with Rob Shooter, who just did Nancy Grace and said to us, Um, your podcast is a lot of Nancy, but not a lot of Grace. You also did Megan Kelly.

SPEAKER_04 31:47

I did do Megan Kelly. I got pushback from doing Megan Kelly. Megan Kelly.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

You're really doing the Trump gubernatorial tour. These people But you also did um Gubernatorial.

SPEAKER_04 31:57

I did the morning shows. You know, I'm from the world that if you if you're You're a hustler. I'm a hustler. And I think you have to talk to different people. It's like when Democrats won't go on Fox News, Pete Budej says that's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

Jessica Thartoff is so incredible on Fox. She's incredible. Incredible. I gotta say that. My favorite, one of my favorite people in news, you know? Absolutely. She's incredible because she literally Jesse Waters. Yeah, Jesse Waters and is scop-smacked.

SPEAKER_04 32:24

She's like, you can you can debate. We've become so, so sort of polarized about it. And I get it, the world is so difficult. But I'm not scared. I'll I if you believe in something, you stand up for it.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Do you think part of it is them like saving their own skin though? Kind of like it's all about money. Like Tucker Carlson apologized about money.

SPEAKER_04 32:40

Yeah, it's all about money. Tucker's now walking away from Trump because of the fact that Trump is well Tucker, who's devilishly smart, he's really really is Joe Rogan not so smart, but Tucker is really, really smart. Tucker's seeing a man that's that's frail, an older man who's not gonna run again. And he knows that JD is not the heir apparent, right? And so Tucker's positioning himself to run.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

Don't hitch your wagon to that star exactly.

SPEAKER_04 33:09

And he, if the war keeps getting worse and the economy, he'll let all that sync with Trump and Tucker will come through the middle.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Yeah. You think he'll run?

SPEAKER_04 33:17

I think he will. Wow. Save the take.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

You heard it here first. Wow, you heard it here first. So, what is what triggers you?

SPEAKER_04 33:23

Great question. I love this podcast for that. It makes this show so unique. What triggers me, and I'm being really honest, I couldn't read when I was a child. So here I am sitting here as an author. When I was born, my arm was really damaged. I have a smaller arm, and because of that, I spent an enormous amount of time as a child in hospital. And when you're in hospital, when you're fighting to save your son's arm, it was nearly amputated several times. When you're fighting to do that, reading is not a priority. Right. And so it wasn't that my family was a bad attitude. But yes, it was it was it was not the priority. And so I was like about five or six, maybe six or seven, when they discovered I couldn't read, and I just used to fake it for years. And I like if I read a book, I'd just like make up the story because I couldn't, I couldn't.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

So who wrote this?

SPEAKER_04 34:11

And so what triggers me, what triggers me is when I have to read. And what's what's so interesting about the book is I'm over the next couple of weeks, months, I've been asked to do read-ins. I can't do them. I can come and talk to you. You still can't read? I can read, but I'm so triggered. Well, you're Leah Michelle? I'm so triggered. I am so triggered. Get up there, Leah.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

You can sound it out.

SPEAKER_04 34:30

I was so triggered. When I had my morning show, I couldn't read the teleprompter. I had bullet points. I asked to have cue cards like David Letterman.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

So it's like a personal trigger, call it.

SPEAKER_04 34:38

It's personal trigger. If you asked me if you said it was a teleprompter, write a heading and said read that, I would break into a sweat.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

Because you know, I I remember when kids had polio, they put them in the polio lung thing. Yeah. And I remember watching, they would lay on their backs, and I remember thinking, like, these poor kids were, you know, just you and FTR watching the polio game.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

Exactly. Iron lungs.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

What the fuck, Mary? You're such a you're such a cunt. I remember thinking, like, did anyone go and would like sit with these kids all day long? No. No, they were just sitting in a steel tube. Steel tubes. And nobody talked about it. And I thought about that when you said that because I thought, like, no one went and taught them to read.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

Did you get your did you get a sugar cube in grade school?

SPEAKER_04 35:19

But I'm being serious. But it set me up to do this. It gave me an empathy. Like, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 35:25

So now you just tell people you're like, fuck you, I'll read when you turn it into a television show. And then you cast yourself and make that fucker read. You're like, look at me reading out loud.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

Which brings me to the next thing. What's next? Like, do you want to be on a show? Yeah. Like, I mean, like I've done it.

SPEAKER_04 35:40

I had a morning show. I've had an eight yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:42

You don't want to be Candace Bush, no? No, I don't want to be Andy Conan.

SPEAKER_04 35:45

I no, I don't want to do it. I uh the the pre-sales to this book, first time author. I I couldn't get a book deal. 20 publisher pu publishers rejected it. I finally sold it, and I didn't get much of an advance, and there was very little like um interest in it, and it popped. And before the book came out uh uh a week ago, I signed a three-book deal. So it's uh I know, so I've got another another two books.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

I got your Mariah carried in amazing.

SPEAKER_04 36:12

And it's just on pre-sales. Uh and so and I love it. I really do. The second one's a really tricky. I've got to go to my second book is gonna be called Queen Elizabeth the Third. Oh. And there's a terrible helicopter crash over Belmoral Castle, and the line of succession changes. Oh it's like exos succession kind of it's a I'm calling it a historical novel. It's set in the future, so 15 years in the future. Who's gonna be? Yes, who's gonna be on the British? Who's gonna sit on the throne in 15 years? And maybe she comes from America, maybe she's from Montesanto.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Speaking of sitting on the throne, Daniel has a lovely gift here for you.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

So, you know, Jonathan Groff, everyone has gotten one of these. Um you get it from us as a parting gift. Who? Nancy Grace? Nancy Grave. Did Nancy Grace give you a clone Kelly? Good morning America.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

Good morning America did not give you a clone of Willie. They don't have sponsors like we do.

SPEAKER_04 37:12

And Good Morning America. Do you know who Will Reeve is? Christopher Reeves, Superman's son. Dead on the inside. He is super. Deb. He's dead on the inside. Handsome. Yeah. It was shocking. Oh, he's a he's a very good one. Dazzlingly handsome, like you two gentlemen. So thank you for the gift. What is it?

SPEAKER_02 37:29

Yeah, it's clone a willy. You can make a life-size clone of your cock.

SPEAKER_04 37:33

I put my Willie in here. Yeah. Or you can generous size of the sync Copacabana.

SPEAKER_02 37:41

Thank you very much. I can't thank you enough for doing this. I know you were literally my theater buddy. I was in Zipelite, as everyone knows, our listener and viewers know. I was there from October. Uh and Rob would text me. I'm coming to Red Eye. Do you want to go to the show? I'd be like, No, I can't. I'm in Mexico. Finally, I was like, yes. We went to Titanic. We're going to Lost Boys. Lost Boys? He takes me to shows.

SPEAKER_04 38:02

We've seen some really good because I'm stinkers too, but we've seen some great shows.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

Oh, well, The Stinker was a friend of mine. One of my very good friends wrote. I can't say it. Oh, damn me. Oh, yeah, that was bad. So anyway, um, yeah, but I love this guy. Get the book. So far, I've read 25 pages, and I'm actually going to read more, which is weird because I know.

SPEAKER_04 38:24

I hate that's a really good sign. For somebody like you who can't read very well to read.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

I can't wait to do he honestly.

SPEAKER_04 38:31

I literally was like, you can wait for the movie. You can wait for the movie. Don't even try. It's 400 pages.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

400 pages? What is it? The Iliad of Celebrities? It's 200 pages.

SPEAKER_04 38:48

Just do the first chapter. Let's read some of the quotes. Let's see what people are saying about the book. Do you want to read these at least? Let's go for it, yes. Triggering me.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

I love that you're like, let's read the quotes and then you pass it off. It's fucking triggered. Okay. Read it, Adam. Adam, you can listen to it. Everyone wants to get their hands on this book. Oh, that's Z100, Elvis Duran. Oh, I love Elvis. What a major person.

SPEAKER_00 39:09

I'm doing it tomorrow tomorrow.

SPEAKER_04 39:10

Live tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 39:11

What devil did for the world of fashion, Whisper does for the world of gossip?

SPEAKER_03 39:16

Okay, magazine. Oh, that's a qur magazine.

SPEAKER_01 39:21

That's Nicki. And then if Jackie Collins and Truman Capote had a child, it would be Rob Shooter, Radar Online.

SPEAKER_04 39:29

Quality outlet of the Times.

SPEAKER_01 39:32

Quality.

SPEAKER_04 39:32

And I think Nancy Grace, Nancy Grace is the last quote. Is that just radar, don't? Nancy didn't make the book. She must have given it to me too late.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

How graceful.

SPEAKER_04 39:43

How rude.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

She'll be in the second round.

SPEAKER_04 39:45

I hope she's not watching this. She'll be so effective. Second run. She's in the second one.

SPEAKER_02 39:48

She'll be second run. Well, thanks so much. We love you. Seriously. And thank you so much. I can't wait to go to you on the Lost Boys on Saturday.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

And when he pisses you off, I'm always free for theater.

SPEAKER_02 39:56

Go after the theater ticket. I can't wait to see what you make of this. I shall bring what you make of this.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

When he's done leaking his stories, I know a few celebrities. So I'm always down for theater.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

He definitely knows leaking. All right, thank you for having me. You should pick up dinner, though. And watching. We'll be right back in just a few minutes.

SPEAKER_01 40:16

You're watching Trigger Warning. Oh my God. Having uh Rob blow my mind with his husband. Um, by the way, sorry, you're back at Trigger Warning. I'm still like a little goopy guy. I first of all, I love Barry Manilo.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

Oh, I'm a fan of Lowe.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

Oh, yeah, exactly. Total fan-Lo. Um, he's like a little singing Disney animatronic now, but what a wonderful career he's had. I mean, Mandy, I write the songs like Cobra Cabra. Daybreak is one of my favorites. Because it's daybreaking. Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

Yeah, totally, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

And you just you and Rob just like, oh yeah, my husband and I was.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

You were looking, you were looking right at me. I knew you would get it. Because I thought I didn't know you were a fan of Lowe, but I I knew that you would love that.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

You were kind of gagged. Gooped and gagged.

unknown 41:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

What was my gooning face?

unknown 41:10

What?

SPEAKER_01 41:14

But um he's he's and he was such a wonderful interview, so interesting. He's great. He's a good guy. I love that guy. That trigger about um uh uh reading because he was trying to save his arm as a child. That's kind of crazy, right?

SPEAKER_02 41:27

You know, it's weird with him because you know it's easy to kind of, you know, what at the beginning when I was dealing with him, because I was in like that world right now with Alan and um Anderson and Andy uh Cohen and whatever, it was easy to kind of like get aggressive because he was trying to get gossip. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

Did you ever have to bifurcate your friendships? Because you do have a lot of celebrity friends. You have a lot of people just you have a lot of people that are just in the arts and you were there for the early parts of their career, and as they rose, you were always a fr you're just a normal friend of people.

SPEAKER_02 42:00

You know, I don't really ever want to sell them out, but at the same token, I also realized that it was.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

Which is hard when you bring around a gospel.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

All using currency. This is what I always say. This is kind of like quasi-a trigger, which is you know, um my my I'm gonna go into my trigger, is that okay? Yeah, go for it.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

My trigger is like Is it from last week when I told you to save it? No. It's a new one.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

No great we all have currency we use, okay? Whether it be youth or beauty or money or intellect or fame. Girth. And people kind of get girth. Yeah, totally. Or in your case, lucidity. They like it when it flaps. Play with it. Um and so people so people get in this thing where they kind of think like, you know, I'm a celebrity and this person is like, you know, making money off this, but then also they they don't realize that this person's doing that. Whatever. We all have like kind of a duality. And I have a thing right now where I'm noticing that like, you know, people are making fun of Melania Trump for being like a having been a hooker, right? But then they're kind of demonizing the people that hire her, you know, and we've all been well not we, but a lot many gay people have been in a position of being either a hooker or hooky. And I think that's this weird thing that happens right now where we're like, yeah, exactly. We're we're like in this um environment right now where people are going, um support sex workers, sex workers unite, sex is real sex work is real work. But we're gonna demonize anyone that pays them. Oh, okay. That pays them or hires them or deals with them. We're gonna like make sure that it's embarrassing and humiliating and we shame them.

SPEAKER_01 43:46

Like what we did with Hugh Grant, was it Hugh Grant?

SPEAKER_02 43:48

I mean 30 years ago, or Eddie Murphy, or you know, you know, and Anthony Wiener. You know, well, he used power, whatever. There's a different thing with power. I'm just saying, like, you know, I'm in this. Thing right now where I'm noticing that like people want to go, like, you know, sex workers.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

So if you're a hooker, well, it's very glass houses casting the first stones.

SPEAKER_02 44:09

Like, you know, you're a hooker, unite. But if you hire a hooker, yeah, yeah, you're a sexer, then we're going to go after you and we're gonna make fun of you, and we're gonna how are the people you're supporting?

SPEAKER_01 44:20

How are these sex workers switching to the city? How they make you money if they if you demonize it.

SPEAKER_02 44:24

So it's like, you know, I I'm sorry, but just like leave sex work alone. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I'm sorry. I have been in both positions where I um, you know, in my book, you know, nine uh every inch of the winter, which is coming out. It's called that. He gotta know that he got his advance.

SPEAKER_01 44:43

No, you've been talking about it. Yeah, exactly. That's the right one.

SPEAKER_02 44:49

That'll probably be the New York Times bestseller. I love that it just keeps going. Yeah, I hate that. Um Every Inch the Winner was the name of the name of my uh memoir. And it's about um um you basically I've started out like you know, this, you know, foster kid, you know, whatever, blah, blah, blah. We've talked about that. But like then I went into like, you know, being an actor, and then when you're an actor and you segue into night nightlife, you get into like And then by then you go to be a hooker. Well, no, you get into sex work, and I wasn't a sex worker in the sense that I was like, you know, no, you were just the Pied Piper.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

You're like, I'm not gonna hook. I did, but kind of I did phone sex work for a long time. Oh, you did? I remember as Joey. We talked about that.

SPEAKER_03 45:34

Oh my I gotta make sure my mom's not listening, right?

SPEAKER_02 45:37

No, this is it. Oh, hey, how's it going, man?

SPEAKER_01 45:41

Um, yeah, uh yeah, you're getting turned on. I can't. No, no, I'm just I'm just trying to look because if I see you, it's I'm gonna go limp. Oh, hold on.

SPEAKER_02 45:48

Yeah, you uh you just woke me up. I'm living with my uh mom right now. I can't really, you know, and I can't. I'd give him a taste. I'd give him a taste. Yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah. Totally. A taste of that. Yeah, my jurgens. So anyway, Joey was my alter ego when I did phone sex work, which at the time I I had two phone lines in Williamsburg when I lived with Justin, and like one would ring and it would have a different ring. I can't even believe that that existed back then because I don't think you could do it now. So basically you're saying you got to support the whole circle. No, my point is, and then I did it, uh, yeah, you know, and I was good at it, and I made a lot of money. But now, if people knew that, they would try to shame me for it. But yet they're kind of saying, like, but it's okay if you're the person that they're line. And I'm not my whole thing is you can't shame people. Melania Trump, you know, yes, she showed her snatch in pictures, and I think she's the least classiest lady that a first lady we ever had, not because she did nude pictures, but because what she's doing now, she lied about she can't do seven, like, you know, seven languages, she can't speak seven languages.

SPEAKER_01 46:52

She can't speak one. She's also a terrible person.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

She's a horrible, hum horrible human being.

SPEAKER_01 46:56

She's a horrible human person.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

But my point is like, stop.

SPEAKER_01 46:58

I'm scared if she showed her pussy to all of Poland.

SPEAKER_02 47:00

Like she's a terrible person. And it's not for flashing her twat. But even though I want to come after people on Instagram and you know, Facebook and uh Twitter about her being naked, and it's like not that. Yeah, because you know what? So what if she gave lap dances if she was a stripper, like same as Courtney Love, who I love so much. Anyway, wildly intelligent, you maybe believe a hundred percent Wildly intelligent. Really into her this week is the 32nd anniversary of Live Through This. So I'm into her right now. Jeff Easton have been talking about her a lot this week, and I'm gonna go to the hospital. I met her at Hero. I met her. Okay. Yeah. I have a Courtney. You have a Courtney story? I mean, I met her for five minutes at Hero. All right, so she's great. I have this Courtney story. I'm a huge Courtney Love fan. Okay. I think she's super smart, super, so fucking hot, so great, whatever. And I think she's a smoke show, she's amazing. Incredible. I did this event at Highland Ballroom with Courtney Love. With um Amanda Laporte. Okay. And David LaChapelle came and brought Courtney Love. Love. And I wish I could do it. Loving everyone in the room right now. Right, I know, right? And I went into the back room and Courtney Love was there was a corp carpet bag purse like just open with like stuff spilled out of it. And she's like, I just want a fucking cigarette. I just want a fucking cigarette. Isn't it a big fucking cigarette? And I said, I never mom. I said, literally, mom. Mom. I was like, like that guy at Wendy's that sucked under titties. No, I was like, I know titties. Like you bummed. Yeah, you don't want that ruined. Yeah, yeah. I love her so much. When she was like crouched like an animal, fear a little bit. Yeah, yeah. It's like going to the wake. You hope it's closed casket. You've got good enough memory. It was incredible. So anyway, I love Courtney Love. This is the 32nd anniversary. I've lived through this. The best, one of the best albums I have on my list of top 10. Oh, I loved her band so much, too. Hole is great. Hole is great. Anyway, you love Hole. I know that. So anyway, um I'm like a skegsy. Anyway, um, so that's what I want to say about Courtney Love. And uh she was a sex worker, she did stripping, and she was like not embarrassed about it. And I but now this week I've been listening to and watching about videos about like um her beginnings and stuff, and she talks about when she was a stripper and she was like, you know, I used to I was not pretty, so I had to like show my fucking twad. Yeah. And I was like, girl, I got it.

SPEAKER_01 49:31

Got it, honey.

SPEAKER_02 49:32

I got it. Well, you were pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 49:33

You weren't reading books. I mean, I know what's like I was pretty well. She actually was reading books. Well no, Courtney was reading books. I'm talking about Melania, wasn't it? Or you, you know, you weren't reading books. Mano's the labic. Um, no, my trigger, I guess, is kind of the same as yours in the sense of like you're talking about this like full-circledness of everything where it's like you can't say sex workers unite and then like be angry at the John. So lately in the news last week coming up, and you you see, my Instagram is basically uh 30% follow you, so I don't know. But I've heard it's good. One of the wise ones. No, you're like, it's like 30% what we're doing and like posting and our ticketing site when, and then it's 70% extremely political. Like I'm always posting about like Trump being an asshole, um the the Israeli genocide. I only get that Rennie L O L things, which are like comedy things that you said.

SPEAKER_02 50:24

I literally don't know what you bought.

SPEAKER_01 50:25

I'm talking about my actual posting stories, but I do send post stuff? Yeah, yeah, and I sent I sent our owner group just like funny little like kids getting hurt. I love kids. I'm gonna start. Yeah, start following me. It's good stuff. But no, so I I took a lot of flack. It started with a whisper. It started with a whisper. Um no, it took a lot of flack for like uh there were Israeli people over the world, or there were um Trumpers, whatever, that would like literally come at me like, you've got it wrong, fuck that. And I knew that they were doing it to everybody. This isn't a oh pity me thing. But it has gone so batshit crazy and so far over the edge that you now have people like Tucker Carlson uh, you know, going on and saying like we were wrong and stuff like this. I hate to do this. I'll give him a little bit of credit. It's like he at least made an apology. I think every because I don't want to say, fuck you, you're wrong. I never want to hear from you again. I want to say, I know your mind has changed. Where are you now? Like we when you were ripping my head off and shitting down my throat, where's the apology now? That's what's triggering me nowadays. Or coming after green MMs. Yeah, he was like, you know, why he can't he say like I was wrong about certain things. Just make I was wrong. You know, I I was wrong. I'm sorry, I was wrong.

SPEAKER_02 51:34

He kind of did, though, about Trump.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

No, well, I've even noticed a couple well, he has. That's fine. I'm talking about like what triggers me is the other people in the world who like I now see their posts and they're like, it's gone too far. Uh, Israel is making it shameful to tie itself with Judaism, Netanyahu's government has to go. And I'm like, you weren't singing this song a year ago, and there's been no apology for how outlandish you were of being an asshole. I knew people that were like, people are like, oh, it's a good thing we went into fucking Iran and bombed the shit out of it. That's what those people want. I'm like, you haven't met an Iranian in your entire fucking life. Totally, totally. And also, like, the US was touted for the creation of like the US, the UK, um Russia, and France for creating the international criminal court. And now we're just like, eh, we're gonna go in regime. No, go in and take them up on war crime charges and go through the fucking process.

SPEAKER_02 52:25

Which I think might happen if Dems actually have balls.

SPEAKER_01 52:28

God, if they could just grow a spine and a spin.

SPEAKER_02 52:30

Wouldn't it be amazing if Dems got into power and went like we're going after all of them?

SPEAKER_01 52:34

Yeah, fuck you all. You all broke the law, you're all working on the city. You're all Chrissy Noem, JD Vance, the whole Trump family, Cash Patel, the whole Trump family for their insider trading, like for like the tenth time in the last four weeks, there's been a million dollars like hedged on something happening, like a war bet. Yeah, totally. Hours before he decides to do something. Yeah, it's it's it's maddening. That's my trigger. No, that's a very much a big trick. Like, remain teachable. You can definitely like change your mind and say you were wrong, but I want you to come out and apologize and say you were wrong. But your trigger is so you're sorry.

SPEAKER_02 53:09

Bigger than mine. My trigger's about sex workers. No, but it, but I think it I think I just want to be able to pay for the case.

SPEAKER_01 53:15

Well, I think it relates in the same way as like you have to see both sides, right? Like you cannot say, oh, you hire fucking hookers and be like, my best friends are sex workers, you know. No, you're right. I think you probably deeper than I am. Yeah, I'm like a waiting bull. I got my ankles wet there. It was real deep.

SPEAKER_02 53:35

Well, on that note, you walk on water. On that note, you're listening to Trigger Warning. My name is Daniel Nordicio's. Oh, yeah, you're watching. Yeah, you're watching Trigger Warning. Sorry about that. We keep so involved. We're looking at him totally dreamy. I'm like, Help.

SPEAKER_01 53:50

By the way, I want to show you real quick. We have a you got a wanger before we go.

SPEAKER_02 53:53

Listener, yes, I want to show you our uh the wanger of the day.

SPEAKER_01 53:56

Uh, one of our um We can turn it to the camera, but then we're gonna have to make Josh. Wait, can you just take his face off so Josh doesn't have to fix it in post?

SPEAKER_02 54:02

Oh, there we go. No, we can't, it won't go on YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 54:06

Oh no, it won't. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:07

It's a huge penis. It's a huge penis. I mean, that's that's a big one. I want to just say that is pretty impressive, isn't it? That's a nice wanger. Yeah, it really is. Yeah, he's a good guy. Uh anyway, he listens all the time and he tells me it's his uh Thursday of Guilty Pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

Is he the one that said uh it should the show name should be changed to Josh will fix it in post? No, that was Andy Booter.

SPEAKER_02 54:26

Oh, hi Buter. Hi Booter.

SPEAKER_01 54:29

All right, this is Trigger Warning. Thanks for watching.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

We could talk all night and probably will. Totally, exactly. All right, thank you guys for watching slash listening. We'll talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_01 54:46

Trigger Warning, hosted by Dalen Ardiccio and Adam Meathammer Clesh, is a Pride House media production and produced by Josh Rosensweig. Please note the views reflected in this podcast do not represent the views of Red Eye, the Ice Palace, or any of its subsidiaries. And any reference to Scat, Shrimping, Upper Duckers, Skank, Smash Baiting, Rump Riding, Wolfbagging, Cleveland Steamers, Jigglypuffing, Rusty Trombones, Cosby Sweaters, Mexican Pancakes, and Alabama Hot Pockets are the views of Mr. Ardicho, Mr. Clesh, and his listeners, not the establishment. If you are offended, please seek immediate psychiatric attention.

SPEAKER_02 55:15

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