Piers Morgan Uncensored - ‘Baldoni Got SHAFTED!’ Blake Lively Fallout, Emilia Pérez Scandal And MORE!
Episode Date: February 7, 2025“Politics is personal” as the old saying goes, so no one should be surprised that the rightward geopolitical shift that Trump’s re-election has brought to pass would affect other areas of Americ...an life. The US entertainment industry for example, is reeling from the new President’s zero tolerance for woke. Blake Lively’s attempt to ‘cancel’ Justin Baldoni has backfired spectacularly and Selena Gomez’s recent anti-deportation outing on Instagram has brought her nothing but accusations of performative ‘virtue-signalling’. Plus, trans actress Karla Sofía Gascón, star of Oscar-nominated Emilia Pérez is in hot water after some unsavoury tweets were unearthed... Piers Morgan speaks to his assembled culture vultures; Youtuber The Critical Drinker, radio host and comedian James Barr, Uncensored contributor Esther Krakue, influencer and YouTuber Shallon Lester and pop culture pundit from 'Popcorned Planet' Andy Signore for their expert takes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
There's a very quick feminist backlash reaction to assume that she's being coercion.
She's in an abusive relationship, and maybe she is.
I don't know.
If I had that body, I might be doing the same thing.
You will see AIDS.
I'm not surprised anymore.
We live in a world where wet-ass pussy is a number one song.
And, you know, Megan, the Stallion's shaking her butt next to Kamala Harris.
I mean, like, we are at a place where it's just a new normal.
Men to woman, a woman to men.
Man to woman.
From penis to vagina.
You're basically taking away a best actress nomination from an actual woman.
woman. Everybody hates it. They managed to piss everybody up. Oh God, it's horrible.
So that's two hours and 12 minutes. I'm never getting back. Thanks, Pierce for that.
Mycologist. The Justin Baldoni War with Late Lively. She sounds like an absolute nightmare.
For me, Captain America represents a lot of different things. And I don't think the term
America should be one of those representations. If you're making tens of millions
pretending to be a superhero, call Captain America and you're American, big up American.
If you don't want to talk about this issue, don't do this movie.
Go be in the weird trans movie and sing the penis and vagina song.
It's a Marvel film.
It's boom, boom, boom, boom, happy days.
President Trump's executive order that only two sexes exist marked a profound cultural shift.
It hasn't, though, reached Hollywood yet, where a transgender star has been nominated for best actress for the very first time.
The musical drama, Amelia Perez, focuses on a Mexican drug lord, transitioning from male to females, has been nominated for.
13 Awards, creating Best Film and Best Director.
To woman, a woman to men.
Men to woman.
From penis to vagina.
What would you like to know about it, Madam?
I want to know it all.
What is the protocol?
The techniques and the risks.
How many operations?
How much time do you need?
Mammoplasty.
Yes.
Vaginoplasty.
Yes.
Pinoplasty
Yes
Laryngeoplasty
Yes
Mamoplasti
Yes
Vasinoplasti
Yes
Pachinoplasty
Yes
What have I just watched
I've heard about this
I've just said
Is that what it is
Unbelievable
Anyway is it actually any good
Well based on that
I know my view
But maybe I'm just unenlightened
Or is this the last gasp
of the virtue signalers
Do you want to me to discuss all that
A great deal more is my culture panel
Will Jordan
A.K.A. the critical drinker
the radio host, James Barr, uncensored contributor Esther Crackoo,
influencer and YouTuber Shannon Lester,
and the host of Popcorn Planet Andy Signal.
Welcome to all you, a stellar panel to debate all this stuff.
We're going to come to Amelia Perez soon.
I mean, it's quite a moment when a transgender actor
is now up for best actress.
That does mean a biological male may win an award for women.
We can debate that in a moment.
You can all get your thoughts about that done.
But I want to start first of all with the Grammys.
And I want to start first of all with Kanye West and Bianca Sensori,
which is a weird name for somebody who is about as uncensored as my show.
This is what happened on the red carpet last night.
Okay, let's start with the critical drinker.
I mean, look, Kanye's been going down some weird places for quite some time.
Taking your girlfriend to a red carpet of a major event like the Grammys and basically making it a strip off pretty much naked.
What do we think of this?
I mean, I've no idea if you actually made her do it,
but that has really taken revealing attention-grabbing dresses
to their logical conclusion.
Like, why bother wearing anything at all?
I guess if you've got no particular talents and no abilities,
well, that's a great way to grab headlines.
Good luck to her, I guess.
Yeah, I mean, Shalun, is it sexist?
What do we feel about?
What do women think of this?
I mean, obviously any woman can do that.
Yeah, I think that there's a very quick,
feminist backlash reaction to assume that she's being coerced,
she's in an abusive relationship, and maybe she is.
But there are a lot of women out there who would literally do this.
Go to a NASCAR rally sometime.
You will see a hefty representation in the population
of women who are absolutely fine getting attention for their body.
And I don't know.
If I had that body, I might be doing the same thing.
God limited me because he knew.
As beautiful as her body is,
and I'd love to know who her fitness trainer is,
she needs to be in a mental asylum.
If you are leaving your house naked,
you are mentally unwell,
and indecent exposure, it's still against the law the last time I checked.
I don't really know why we should have to tolerate this.
I woke up this morning, sunshining, the birds tweeting,
stretched, went on my phone, and I saw Bianca's bare ass.
I don't know why anyone has to tolerate it.
To be fair, if you look at your Instagram feed with your poll dancing,
I'm not naked.
I quite often wake up to see yours.
And what's the difference?
What's a difference?
I'm not naked, and that is fitness.
Genuinely curious.
I'm not naked.
Parading around your poll all that.
What's the difference?
I have clothes on.
Yeah.
That's the difference.
Scounty.
What about on your own fans, Esther?
You wish.
You could afford me.
Trust me, I do not.
I have not seen a woman that naked for that long since I exited the womb.
Okay.
And it was a very shocking thing to wake up.
I'm sure I've...
I mean, look, obviously, Kanye is all about...
Well, yay, as you know, is all about getting our attention.
Now, when he does it for his music, he's a genius.
That's the problem, though, isn't it?
You've immediately said it's for him.
Yeah, when it's inflammatory things he says,
obviously that's got him into terrible trouble recently for very good reason.
When he's using his girlfriend like this, it just is a bit odd, isn't it, James?
Yeah, it definitely feels coercive.
Also, a lip reader looked into what he said as she took the coat off and he was like,
I got you.
So it does appear to be that he basically made her do it.
It just feels a bit gross, doesn't it?
But I was questioning it because I was like, if it had been Esther on the red carpet,
like owning her womanhood, if it had been Lady Gaga, would I have the same opinion?
I probably wouldn't, but I think because she's doing it with a man.
Nothing to do with being naked and mentally unwelled.
It just doesn't feel right.
These two are mentally unworked.
They don't seem the full ticket.
Anytime peers, you want to hit a red carpet together and do the same thing,
I'll happily take on the carpet.
You know what?
I would not want to strip off in front of you on a red carpet because it would just humiliate you.
But I would.
I do. Yeah.
I mean, Andy, look, we're sort of laughing about it.
But yay is he wants to be cool now.
He's in a weird place.
I mean, he just, even by his standards, the last couple of years have been very weird.
do you think he's I mean is he all there is she all there or be watching some weird ongoing meltdown what do you feel about it
I mean nothing shocks me from yay anymore he knows what he wants big boobs big butt and he wants a woman who's going to flout it
I mean I don't know I'm not surprised anymore we live in a world where wet ass pussy is a number one song and
you know megan the stallion shaking her butt next to Kamala Harris I mean like we are at a place where it's just a new normal
I remember my parents being all scared when Elvis shaped his hips like it's
just a new place we live in.
I was more shocked that Beyonce won
Best Country Album. It's not a country album
and Rock Nation. It's not a country album.
But you know what I think about that?
I'm glad you raised that. Here's what I think about that.
She should have won best album before,
right? She shouldn't have. And she's never
won Best Album of the Grammy. How could
Beyonce never have won Best Album at the Grammys?
Because they're better artists. There's
some artists that have better albums.
Beyonce's one of the top three female artists at all time.
But it doesn't mean she has to win everything.
She's far from a press.
I'm sorry, her husband bought her a Grammy.
And then she had the audacity to sit there looking shocked
because Hollywood is full of a bunch of pretenders
that don't have a legitimate bone in their bodies.
Oh, please.
She's see her.
I've seen her acting.
I've seen her in films before.
She's a much better actress than that.
She was like, thought.
I feel like the wardrobe malfunction
would not have happened if she was expecting it.
I mean, she literally pulled her top up
because it was falling down.
So I don't know.
I think if to watch the video.
I think she was clearly shocked.
I saw the video.
She was definitely faking it, sir.
She was not shocked.
Her husband might be like, oh, happy birthday.
I just look, I just think someone that talented should have won best album.
I mean, Taylor Swift's won it four times, right?
Also, the album is talent.
I mean, I love Taylor Swift, but I'll be seriously saying as a musician,
she's four times as good as Beyonce.
I don't think so.
It's not always about talent.
It's consistent.
What was that, Shahn?
Yeah.
She's four times consistent.
Like, Taylor can craft an album where almost every song is really good.
Beyonce has hits.
She has actual hits, like a few here and there.
off of every album.
She doesn't craft an entire good album
that you can put on and listen all the way.
I think Lemonade might want to call you up
and have a go at you for that
because Lemonade is an incredible album.
Jay Z can have another affair
and then maybe she'll be in the contention
for best album.
Jay Z should have another affair
and have Rebecca with even better hair.
Do you know what I like?
I like the fact we're debating the quality of their music
because once again,
Lady Gaga's up there.
I bound to know one of my admiration of her talent.
She's unbelievable, sing a songwriter,
actress, everything, right?
But she made this speech, which I just thought was so lazy.
So let's take a look at what she said.
It's such an honor to sing for all of you.
And I just want to say tonight that trans people are not invisible.
Trans people deserve love.
The queer community deserves to be lifted up.
Music is love.
Thank you.
Now, critical drinker, has there ever been a time when trans people have been more visible?
I mean, literally in the history of planet Earth.
Also, we now have a gay month dedicated to gay people.
I don't even get half an hour as a straight guy, right?
So this idea that the most forgotten people on the planet
are gay and trans people is for the birds.
I'm going to come to the gay member of our panel for this,
but it's honestly for the birds.
And the whole point about the trans debates.
You can't say birds anymore, peers.
That's really gendered and quite offensive.
But that's all done, mate.
Since the Trump win, all the woke stuff's over.
It's gay.
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slash peers now on with the show my point about her intervention was she's obviously appealing
to the choir i get that and they all cheer and they all stand up and everything else but actually
the whole point about the trans debate i really feel for trans people who's been who've been
the victims of this who didn't want anything to do with this is that
The relentless campaign by the trans activist to basically erode women's rights,
that has been the problem.
And that has been what has now been corrected,
things like biological men in women's sport and so on,
has been rightly corrected.
But it's that that's caused the furorory and the problem.
And I think it's exposed a lot of trans people to a mockery they should not have been exposed to.
But it's happened because of this relentless attack on women's rights.
Am I wrong?
Well, I mean, I just, I want to start by saying thank you to Lady Gaga.
And I agree with her wholeheartedly.
I, too, support good things and condemn bad things.
So brave stance there.
But yeah, as for the rest of it, I guess I would defer to actual trans people in terms of their opinions on this stuff.
I don't know how it makes them feel.
I don't know, you know, what their opinions on, how they're represented in Hollywood and the music industry and so on.
it does feel a bit pandering,
but that's just me as an outsider looking in.
Yeah, James, I mean, it is just virtue signally, isn't it?
It is, come on.
I mean, you've said a lot there, Piers.
It's very difficult to, like,
give you a snappy answer to what you just said.
But I think really the issue is that,
well, you're making it out that queer people
by protesting for trans rights have caused this.
They've bought this on themselves.
No, no.
That is sort of what you've said.
Once again, you've misquoted me.
Right.
I said that I feel sorry for trans people
who just want a quiet life.
Well, yeah, of course, some people just want a quiet life.
They don't want the attention.
I agree with you on that.
And that's completely fine.
Some people do deserve that.
But you can't victim blame trans rights activists and say that because they were trying to...
But it can when they deliberately damage women's rights.
That's the point.
That's what the whole debate's been about.
But really, what's happened to...
I mean, also his chat GPT executive order about there only being two genders doesn't even make any sense
because you can't be a male at conception that just doesn't happen biologically.
Do you remember when David Beckham got all that backlash during the...
the Qatar World Cup because he was going and he was apparently supposed to be an icon for the LGBT
until the Qataris waved enough money in his face to make him read them.
10 million are they? Exactly. I think this idea that, you know, celebrities are just trying
to draw attention to a worthy cause and this all the good and will in their heart is ridiculous.
Lady Gaga is a known, you know, gay icon and power to her, her music is popular amongst that.
So am I, but there's so this idea.
I'm a gay icon. It doesn't make me make speeches about how invisible they are when they're literally the most
visible people in the world.
Trans women are not the biggest threat to women.
Abusive men are the biggest threat to women.
And there's a lot of them.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
And if Trump wants to protect women,
we should write an executive order
to protect women from himself
because he's had over 26 people accuse him
of abusive behavior.
I'm sure that means he's guilty.
Trans women are abusive men.
If they're in our spaces,
even if they're just trying to live a quiet life,
that's still within our space.
I don't care how quiet they are.
If they're in a locker room with us,
I don't care if they're loud or quiet.
They're in there.
And in my purview, I don't know that they're all there.
And I don't know what's going on behind the scene
with someone who wants to chop off their genitals
and turn them inside out.
But I don't know that I need them up against me
and me feeling guilty for feeling a little bit unsafe.
I think anyone...
And also, also, in the UK,
over half of trans-identifying prisoners
in prison are there for sexual assault.
So for you to sit there and pretend,
like women have no basis for feeling uncomfortable is ludicrous.
I never said that.
I never said that.
Well, you just said that the biggest threat is not trans people,
but...
Well, there are way more.
By the way, trans women are men.
Just to remind you, the first minister of Scotland literally had to resign
because she put a male rapist into a woman's prison
because he just went, by the way, I'm a woman.
And they put him in a prison full of potential victims.
It's really complicated.
It's not. It's not complicated.
It is really complicated.
And women...
Here's why it's not complicated.
I want fairness and equality for all trans people,
right to the point it erodes fairness and equality for women.
That's it.
If we reach that beautiful...
But they need to be in their own third lane.
Like they are carving out something that has never primarily existed in nature.
And that's fine.
Be a pioneer, don't come into Arlene, don't come into a man's lane or woman.
You want to be in this third thing that has never existed.
That's good, dude.
You just can't erode women's rights in the process.
Let me turn to Andy about this debate raging, obviously, about the best actress nomination for the star of Emilia Perez.
So it's Korea Sophia Gascon, who is a trans actress.
biological male at birth.
What do we think of this?
I mean, this has been part of my problem with it as well,
that you're basically taking away a place there
for a best actress nomination from an actual woman.
I mean, shouldn't this be something that everyone should feel concerned about?
I mean, is this fair? Is it right? Is it equal?
I will say she's good in the movie.
The movie is pretty bad, like really bad.
Well, that clip and I watched it.
He has a written good scene where she's losing her kids
and she's a woman and now
and I don't know, I don't want to step in all those
landmines, but yeah, it's a complicated
issue. What's weird about that movie to me is like
the trans community hates it, the gay community hates it,
the Spanish community hates it.
Mexico hates it.
Everybody hates it.
Everybody hates it. They manage to piss everybody off.
The only people who like it is the academy,
which is weird. Yeah, but critic a drinker.
I mean, you're a movie buff.
I mean, from a movie point of view,
Is it any good or has it been powered by virtue signaling this thing?
Oh, God, it's horrible, yeah.
I literally had to watch it for this segment.
So that's two hours and 12 minutes.
I'm never getting back.
Thanks, Pierce for that.
My apologies.
Yeah, all of the songs are terrible.
I mean, I know you played that clip earlier,
but that's just a tiny sample of this.
All of the songs have no melody.
There's nothing catchy about them.
They're just discordant noise throughout this.
The plot is just a basic crime drama.
But it's just got this layer of like the transgender main character with a bit of like weird days of our lives soap opera mixed in.
And it does not make for a good movie.
None of those elements mesh together.
So yeah, it's a horrible two hours and 12 minutes.
Like every character sucks in it, right?
The premise basically is that the main character is the main character is a cartel boss who is responsible for dozens, if not hundreds of deaths of innocent people.
But then he becomes a woman and it's all forgiven.
and we just forget that about them.
And suddenly their treaty does this amazing stint-like person.
If you say you're trans, it erases any of your sins.
You just say your trans are gay or non-binary and it's fine.
This couldn't have happened to a more deserving.
It's not real, you know that, right?
It's just a movie.
It's literally a made-up film.
I'm sorry, I'm so happy that this man has been nominated for the best-saccom.
But it's like supposedly a serious movie.
Right, but Queen here is talking about it like it's true.
It's completely made up.
It's emblematic of what's going on in our culture.
It's really not.
It's not.
Also, a minute ago, you said that things that don't exist in nature shouldn't exist, which is a wild thought.
Because McDonald's doesn't exist in nature, but I'm sure we still eat that.
What have I eaten?
McDonald's probably doesn't exist in nature.
You said you can't be trans because it doesn't exist in nature, but it's such a wild thing to say that something can't exist if it doesn't exist in nature.
What are you talking about?
All right, you know what, let's move on from trans stuff.
I think it's just, I want to move to is my favorite story, I think, in showbus is, you.
the Justin Baldoni war with Blake Lively,
which seems to me, initially I felt quite sorry for Blake Lively.
Then I've been reading all the messages between them all,
which he's been putting out, obviously.
And it just seems like a pair of absolute weapons-grade narcissists.
Now, spray-gunning each other with as much dirt as they can possibly do,
having spewed lovety-dovey stuff to each other for months on end.
I mean, again, critical drinker.
This is in your world.
I thought it was a great film.
I've got to say, I've not been to the cinema
and actually sat through a movie
and been as quiet and as attentive
as I was to that in a long time.
I thought it was very, very well done.
A, do you agree?
And B, what are you making these two
now just trying to destroy each other in public?
Well, A, I haven't seen the movie yet,
so I can't speak to that.
It's really good, honestly.
I highly recommend it.
I thought it was great.
And they're both great.
any drama? Yeah, I mean, as for the drama between them, like if what he's alleging is true,
she sounds like an absolute nightmare. I mean, I get the impression that it's like a prima donna
that's come in, tried to take over and hijack the movie. And when she didn't get her way,
she brought her much richer, more successful and powerful husband into lay down the law.
And the result was a disjointed production that had all kinds of problems behind the scenes.
And Baldoni, by the sounds of things, got completely shafted in this one.
So if all of this is true, he's 100% justified in sooner.
I don't know if it is.
It's all coming out.
I mean, Esther, we've been around the block longer than neither of us who care to mention.
Me, certainly more than you, but in terms of these kinds of stories.
But it seems to me when you get to a stage where the guy who makes this huge blockbuster film
that makes a ton of money and they should be basking in the glory of it and probably winning a lot of awards as well,
that he's now got a website dedicated to speak.
spilling the dirty laundry about his co-star in the film is unprecedented.
I mean, it's shocking.
In many ways, I'm quite glad for like new media and all of that,
because I can imagine how many people in the past have been victim
to the kind of stunts that Blake Lively and her husband have pulled,
now apparently in conjunction with Taylor Swift,
who has oddly decided to distance herself from the couple,
which is an interesting development.
Look, I went through the 160-page timeline and evidence documents
that Justin published on his website in detail,
as well as what he presented to the court,
because it was fascinating.
It was fascinating.
I mean, if even only half of what he's saying is true,
Blake Lively is a complete nightmare.
This is an actress that was hired to be in the film,
and yet she's asking the director,
who's also her lead for the cuts and the edits,
and she's decided to take over the wardrobe,
and she gets to choose her wardrobe,
and they pay for it.
That's unprecedented.
No one's ever heard of that.
And then she has the audacity to call her husband
and Taylor Swift had dragons,
and that Justin Baldoni
and the producer try to sexually harass this woman, this mad hatter,
who no sane man would go near with a 10-foot barge pole.
It is so offensive and so ridiculous.
I mean, I urge everyone to just read through everything that Justice...
I mean, it's shocking.
It's compelling.
I mean, Andy, it's sort of unprecedented that stars of this magnitude
would dish it all out in public to this extent.
I mean, she began with, I think, the New York Times,
very well orchestrated, obviously, onslaught against him.
And I read all that and thought, wow, poor boy.
Blake Lively. I've got to say, I'm not really thinking that now. The more I read about this,
the more I think Stain on Lawyer grew some hours is the publicist involved, the actors involved,
everybody involved seems to be absolutely horrible. Well, you say we haven't seen it before,
but we kind of have with Johnny Depp and Amber Hurd. Well, that's true, yeah, but that only came
out in the end in court, right? And Johnny did something I think a lot of people took notes to.
Yeah, that's true. He dropped all the evidence. And I think Team Justin, which, you know,
same PR rep who rep Johnny
who rep Johnny was behind this.
Blake sort of saw that as,
oh, you're trying to use an Amber Heard tactic,
but she didn't even realize like, that's not a good defense.
That means you're guilty because Blake, you know, Amber lied.
It's been astonishing.
Like I just jumped off my life.
We had 30,000 people watching the new hearing
because the judge is trying to reprimand Justin for dropping receipts.
And I'm just saying they're like, how is this allowed?
Like Blake Lively dropped a lawsuit with all his text.
Cherry picked those texts.
removed emojis and like intent and backstory to these texts.
Deleted, literally outright deleted certain sections of the text.
Yes.
100% took it all, is re-edited and now they're mad.
They're mad at Justin for releasing the full context of those texts.
It makes no sense.
And the worst part of all of this, she decided to promote a film about domestic violence
by flogging her alcohol brand,
even though we know that most domestic violence cases are involved drinking by the part of the abuser.
and she got her husband's PR company
that wasn't signed off by Sony
to take over the promotion of the film.
What did Ryan Reynolds have to do with this film
that Justin Baldoni's production team bought in the first place?
I don't want to interrupt,
but I do think someone needs to stick up for Blake's right here.
Oh, go ahead.
I've got to say, like, I'm not going to defend the decision
to talk about florals on the red carpet
or to promote alcohol or whatever.
But I just think we should point out
that a lot of celebrities are annoying.
Like a lot of celebrities do promo products when they're promoting a film that is quite normal in Hollywood culture.
How many promo films have you seen with the Holocaust being promoting?
Promoting what?
What were you going to say?
What were you going to say?
Well, I'm sure it was going to be wildly offensive.
No, but like, seriously, when you're promoting certain films, you don't, you don't, in conjunction,
I'm not sure there's a rule about that.
Of course.
Would you promote an oven brand if you're doing things about the Holocaust?
The point is, this is a woman who said privately on set to various people,
like, I'm not okay with this decision, I don't like that.
We've seen the clip of them both interacting
where she did feel like she was trying to take charge
of a situation she was uncomfortable in.
No, she was.
And I'm just trying to take charge of a situation.
You could put the period there.
She was not uncomfortable.
She could do it with either lens, I think.
Yeah, if you close one eye and then shoot the other one.
I think there's a hidden language when you feel uncomfortable,
and if you've experienced something where you feel uncomfortable,
then you can read into what she's saying.
Do you know what, when I start here, I'm sorry, Jo.
I can finish a point.
I just want to say, that originally,
kind of scuff, though, honestly, that's all been banned as well now.
But listen, a woman is trying to say she's uncomfortable,
and then she's been hit with a retaliation to that.
You know what she could have done?
She could have pulled out of the film
and retain her $400 million fortune that she has with her husband.
The real shame for me, Shannon, is that,
have you seen the movie?
I have, yes.
It's an amazing film.
I thought it was great, and I thought the acting in it from both of them
was fantastic.
And in fact, I remember thinking, wow, the chemistry here is,
is wildly good, you know,
and the twist is great and everything else.
I mean, literally, I want to go and watch it again now.
I'm thinking about it. It's such a great, well-made film.
And that's what's sad.
It's like, they should all be basking in the glory of this film,
and instead, they're just kind of kill each other.
Isn't that one of the allegations, though,
it's not about...
Well, I'll let Shannon go first,
and I come to Critical Drinking.
Shannon?
Like, none of this was ever about making good film.
It was about power.
It was about power.
And now that power is backfiring.
They try to play it out in the public.
That didn't work.
They don't want Justin playing it out in the public.
the only way Blake and Ryan could salvage
what's left of their reputation,
which they don't even realize.
I truly don't think they realize
how reviled they are.
I don't think they realize they're losing.
If they did something that no litigious celebrity
has ever done, which has come out and be like,
we made a mistake.
Suing someone is a nightmare.
It's stressful.
It's expensive.
It's a life ruiner.
And you know what, dude,
even if we're right,
it's not worth it.
We're going to back away.
I bet Justin would call off the dogs also.
Yeah, I mean, pretty good drinking.
What's been fascinating to me.
Critical Drink here, what's been really interesting to me
is the way, the modern phenomenon of publicists
through useful journalists
using digital outlets and social media and stuff
to just wage a kind of warfare against somebody
surreptitiously under the radar where it just goes viral.
And I just remember reading all this stuff about Blake Library,
thinking, what's causing all this?
Why is she getting all this hate? Because I love the film.
Now, you look at it in totality, and you think,
I was probably a little bit too sympathetic
given what's now being published.
I think ultimately all you need is a good PR firm
and a few thousand bot accounts
and you can make pretty much any story
turn into reality on social media.
That's the scary reality of the world that we live in now.
Yeah, I think that's really true
and it's really actually quite disturbing.
All right, Andy, I want to play you a clip
of Selena Gomez crying about Trump
and his immigration deportations.
I didn't say that I feel sorry.
All my people are getting attacked.
The children.
I don't understand.
I'm so sorry.
I wish I could do something, but I can't.
I don't know what to do.
I'll try everything I've...
I mean, Andy, that was genuinely one of the most pathetic things
I've ever had to endure watching on social media.
In her moment of deep...
That clip's clearly going to solve it all, obviously.
It's a whole idea.
When you're crying like that and you're a massive star,
your first thought is,
I better just Instagram live this to the world,
just in case they don't capture my full sincerity.
Of course, I mean, look, my wife's in Puerto Rico,
she's had concerns.
I'm not going to say that people aren't allowed to have concerns.
What I find frustrating about this is it's so performative.
It's so unhelpful.
It's like, why are you doing this?
Why would you think that's,
I think all social media needs an are you sure button.
It's so narcissistic.
Yeah.
She got an are you sure button.
It came in the response that came from the public who just bombarded it.
What on earth are you doing?
And it was just so cringinging.
Yeah.
People were so over this.
I totally agree.
You should be crying over Amelia Perez, if we're being honest.
Yeah, this kind of performative activism, this like fake outrage and the fake tears,
like it's done.
Like that sort of thing peaked several years ago and people are just so like wise to it now.
We've got no time for it.
And she got rightly mocked for something like this.
James, just bringing in the defender of the indefensible.
I mean, there can't be a defense for this.
I mean, I do agree that just going live on Instagram
whilst crying is a choice.
It's a choice.
It's definitely a choice.
I don't think she's acting, though.
Like, we've seen her act.
I don't think that is Selena Gomez acting.
I do think that's real.
Also, I would just want to say,
Selena Gomez is not a fan of mine.
And after a documentary that she filmed,
she did an interview with me
and came off the back of it saying,
that was really pointless.
So if you hate me...
So she had...
So she has got a brain thing.
Yeah, exactly.
I'm a fan of Selena Gomez,
and it makes sense that she's...
It makes sense that she's sad.
I mean, there's a lot of people being deported
and losing their families.
Well, actually, what's happening in the moment?
Well, actually, that's the point, though.
Again, I call it the TikTok information train
where she probably just watched a few TikToks, right?
Because the reality is, in this first phase of these deportations,
they are almost exclusively illegal immigrant criminals.
And by the way,
White House pointed out, even if they weren't
actually breaking new crime.
Actually, let's listen to the White House press secretary.
Let's watch her this.
Say that I'm so sorry.
Only people are getting back.
Children.
Seeing that video, it's hard to believe that it's actually
genuine and real because she's an actress.
You don't know who you're crying for.
Sorry, by the White House press office.
And the White House press secretary made another point,
which was notwithstanding the fact that these people there talking
have actually lost their loved ones
and there's no sign that Gomez crying for them
over illegal immigrants killing their loved ones.
But the other point she made,
which I thought was just very simple and powerful.
Actually, if you're an illegal immigrant to the United States,
you are already a criminal.
You're breaking the law.
And I've just renewed my visa today, right?
It's a laborious process.
Actually, Green card, even more laborious.
Citizenship, even more laborious.
For all those who go through the legal,
process of doing these things.
Why should people who just wander
over borders, whether it's America, the UK
or whatever, I think people are pretty sick of it
actually. Sick of people just abusing
a system to better their lives.
Great, you know, immigrants bring a wonderful
thing to many countries
in totality. It doesn't mean that
illegal immigration should be tolerated.
In some cases, they don't have a choice to wait because
their lives are at risk. Do you know how much fraud
you have to commit being an illegal
immigrant in a country to actually state?
to get employment, to get access to hospitals and public services.
Like on every single level you are committing fraud.
It's not just the illegal entry.
I think if it's a choice between being murdered where you currently live and then...
Then you claim asylum.
Claim asylum, the legal way.
Yeah, you claim asylum.
Yeah.
I mean, that's an asylum seeker program.
It's specifically designed for that.
Let me bring in Andy, because you're American.
It just seemed to me it was too early to do that anyway,
because the narrative of the story at the moment is pretty restricted to
to pretty unpleasant people
who've done pretty unpleasant crimes
as well as being there illegally.
That was the first tranche of this deportation movement.
Yeah, I just think everyone's not as educated as need be.
We're all reacting to TikToks.
I don't disagree with you.
Even I don't feel like I fully understand what's happening.
So many things are promised or offered
and that we don't know.
I still stand by.
While I think some people have issues
that they can be worried about,
I know my wife, she has,
I don't want to get the specifics of it.
But my point is, I know people are concerned about what's this mean.
And, you know, I do get worried.
But Selena Gomez is not helping it.
I still stand by that's incredibly performative.
And she should do more homework before she goes cries and rallies her base to get all emotional as well because she's clearly not as informed either.
She could put some of her hundreds of millions of dollars.
Well, as they immediately point out.
Of her money towards the cause, that could be nice.
Let's turn to captain.
Where is all of this outrage in the run up to the election?
I mean, this election didn't happen overnight.
Was she campaigning?
Was she handing out leaflets?
Was she volunteering?
Was she doing petitions, foundations?
Or was she liking mean tweets about Hinkley Baldwin?
I think that's how she was studying.
I live in a very dumbed-down world now, driven by TikTok, actually.
Which I like.
TikTok's fun, you know, everything else.
But it also is the number one news source for people under 25.
And this is what happens, is they see often deliberately slanted or edited or just completely
disingenuous clips lasting 20 seconds.
and they think that gives them a worldview
about Trump's immigration policy.
The truth is that Trump, you know,
under Biden, nearly 10 million people,
it's been reported,
came in illegally over the border
in the southern border over four years.
That's completely unsustainable.
You don't have to be right or left wing or anything.
You just have to accept that is completely unacceptable.
And he can't go on like that.
So he's decided to start by deporting
all those you are here illegally in America
who break the law again.
That seems to me completely
reasonable? Anyone disagree? I mean, it's reasonable, but also let's have some empathy
for criminals. No, I just, I think the people are affected by these decisions. You know,
you know, you know, who do you want, James, who do you want empathy for? Well, we're talking about
people who have families, maybe their families are also with them. If they've broken the law,
obviously they shouldn't be in America. You know we should have empathy for, but there are other people
connected to those people. It affects a lot for the underage brides stuck in Afghanistan,
were being pushed to the back of the queue of the asylum process to the United States
because some illegal immigrant from Mexico that decided to jump over the border and potentially
commit a crime is being asked for us to give them this our sympathy by James Bond.
I never said has sympathy. I said have empathy. I said have empathy.
The point is, is there a clip of Selena Gomez crying for the victim of those mothers talking
about their children being murdered? Of course not because it doesn't cross her mind to do that.
And it's about it's a bit like the argument with Israel.
and Hamas, right?
When I've got a lot of sympathy for the pro-Palestinians
who start by saying October the 7th was horrendous,
I completely condemn it, and then put their case, fine.
If they can't do that, and the whole world view
about that story is driven exclusively
by anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Jewish sentiment,
I have no time for it.
And it's the same thing, it's driven by TikTok.
You see the anti-Israeli stuff all the time,
and you never ever see the other side of it.
And these people get brainwashed into thinking
there is only one way looking at these things.
I see it on every one of these stories as well.
One side pumped out.
Sennie Gomez, all she cares about
is what she thinks the little children
being snatched in the street and deported.
That is not what's happening at the moment.
Now, as not to say it may not happen,
but who was the biggest deporter
of illegal immigrants in American history as president?
Barack Obama.
Yeah.
He was a deporting chief in Mexico.
That was his nickname.
Three million people he deported in eight years.
you know how many liberal friends of mine know that statistic or care?
Zero.
I test them all the time.
They do not know.
And that's my problem with this.
It's all bullshit, performative, ill-informed crap, and it serves nobody.
Talking of which, let's go to Captain America.
I literally just said, let's have some empathy.
Captain America.
I don't mind where you put the empathy.
I've got no empathy.
I've got my empathy vowel for stupid people.
He's extremely low.
Anthony Mackey, Captain America.
He described, well, let's just watch what he said.
This is in Rome.
For me, Captain America represents a lot of different things,
and I don't think the term, you know, America
should be one of those representations.
Like, it's about a man who keeps his word
who has honored dignity and integrity,
someone who is trustworthy and dependable.
I mean, again, let me start with you, Andy,
is the American-looking puzzle there?
What was he saying?
I mean, he's pandering to Rome.
He wants to pander the non-American countries
that he's promoting his film in because Marvel's tanking
in all countries.
And I can see why he did it.
But I also just think he's such a bozo.
Like he knew that was going to get clipped.
He knew how much people are looking at not only Marvel,
but just movies in general.
And it just sounds so anti-American.
Yes.
But I do believe he was just trying to sell his movie abroad.
So I'm not as offended as most.
But I totally accept why people are upset with him.
because it's Captain America.
We're the audience.
Marvel is dying right now.
I used to be so excited for every Marvel movie.
I do not care about this movie at all.
And that's really bad that even Marvel fans are like,
maybe I'll catch it on Disney Plus.
And he needs to promote it heavily to make its money,
but not on the expense of saying it's not American.
I just think if you're making critical drink,
you're tens of millions wearing tights pretending to be a superhero,
the least you can do if you're called Captain America
and you're American is big up America, right?
If your basic marketing position is America sucks, says Captain America, this ain't a great idea.
I tend to agree with Andy on this one. I don't think he was trying to necessarily badmouth America, more so the fact that he knew he was in Europe and he was preaching to a European audience.
And I think what he was trying to say was more just, this is a sort of universal heroic character that people all around the world can look up to.
It's not uniquely American. I don't think he expressed it in the best way he could have.
and I think he knew it in the middle of actually saying it,
which is why he tries to then backtrack.
There's a little bit more footage
where he's kind of stumbling over his words
and hesitated because he knows he's said something wrong
and he's trying to think of the right way to salvage it.
He can't ultimately.
It's just an unfortunate PR flub.
It happens to everyone.
It happens to the best of us.
You know what, though, Shallon, I mean,
that's very generous, I think, a critical drink.
Unusually generous if I may say so.
Yeah.
Because honestly, you've got one job if you're Captain America in the movies.
right? Because everyone in America will love it if you say, I love America. That's all you're going to say. I love America and I couldn't be more proud to play Captain America.
Yeah, they're not coming to see Captain Europe or Captain Rome. They just made that movie. It's called Conclave. They've got that film. This is like the Blake Lively thing. It's like, get on board. Get on board with the PR machine. If you don't want to talk about this issue, don't do this movie. Go be in the weird trans movie and sing the penis and vagina song. Like, you have often.
out there if you didn't understand people.
I'm actually going to have nightmares about that clip reward.
And God knows what poor critical drinking went through.
Two hours of it.
It was an experience.
It really was.
Esther, your thoughts on Captain America?
You see, the thing is, it's a very cultural problem
where these American celebrities feel the need to just overshare
and to go off script and something.
Another part of the world, if you're promoting a film,
particularly a film that has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in,
you stay on script.
The film is great, it's been an honor of, you know, being part of this cast, whatever.
But these, it's American celebrities and this culture of narcissistic culture in Hollywood that makes them say, oh yes, this doesn't really represent what America is right now.
Who asked you? Who asked you? Who asked you? Who cares? Did anybody ask you anything about what you think about America right now?
Also, this is why they should never get into politics. Go watch the great film that we spend a lot of money making it.
But I guess he's not, is he's just like trying to skirt around the issue. He's not saying it with his chest, right?
No one's asked him about the issue. Your, your business there is to promote the film. Close your mouth and do it.
Well, in a way, the movie in itself is kind of about Captain America versus government.
When you see the film, that's kind of where it's tapping into.
It's a Marvel film.
It's a comic book film.
It's a boom, boom, boom, kabum, happy days.
Just speak to that.
It's like James Bond.
It's like James Bond.
On your fans channel, that's there.
We've had this debate before.
Look, we've had this debate before.
It's like James Bond, right?
You just want James Bond to be a hard-drinking, wildly promiscuous assassin.
That's it.
twinkling in his eye, and that's it.
A womanizer. All you want. That's what women want him to be.
It's what men want him to be.
And if the wokeies, just leave him alone,
bring him back from the dead,
he was his last scene crying,
not allowed to touch any women.
The whole thing was just a complete fiasco.
So now we've got to bring him back to the old
franchise of Bond.
And we've seen someone that's going to take him back
to the good old days.
James?
Bond, I can't believe we're having this conversation again.
He's our Captain America, isn't it?
Not really.
They're very different.
It's a completely different type of movie.
They're not at all similar.
I understand why you're drawing comparison there, but they are...
I think it's because there's this ongoing thing about what has happened to James Bond franchise.
They killed him.
But we don't know because...
They're having to...
They don't know the next...
I love James Bond and I want them to go back and find somebody...
I think Daniel Craig was an incredible bond, so multi-layered.
And...
And I think that's what we need from our men.
He hasn't a modern man.
He was an emasculated drip by the end.
He became a wetting.
No, no.
He didn't become a wedding.
He was a wetting.
And in real life, you get wearing a papoose.
I mean, it's just ridiculous.
I don't want to hear about your work for.
Anyway, great panel.
Thank you all very much.
Great to see you all.
James, welcome back.
Thank you.
It's been a while.
Don't leave this along next time.
Cheers, everyone.
Thank you.
