Piers Morgan Uncensored - Snow White & The 7 Controversies

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

When Disney executives signed off a big budget remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, they probably thought it was a very safe bet for a company in dire need of a hit. A time-honoured fairytale - beloved by millions - which spans generations, borders and creeds. What could possibly go wrong? Well, almost everything. Rachel Zegler, who stars as Snow White, condemned Prince Charming as “weird” and “a stalker,” adding that she “hates” the original. Leaked photos from the set revealed that the seven dwarves had been axed - replaced by multi-racial and gender non-specific magical humans - after Peter Dinklage said it was “backwards” to cast real dwarves as dwarves. Disney responded to the growing controversy by delaying the movie for a year and replacing the magical humans with CGI garden gnomes. They feature prominently in the first trailer, which dropped over the summer. More than one million people have “disliked” it on YouTube, making it one of the most-hated previews in cinematic history. The cherished fairytale has become a grim morality tale for meddling Hollywood hacks. Audiences watch movies to escape the hectoring, virtue-signalling insanity of the modern world - not have it ladled down their throats Joining Piers to debate this and lots more..two of You Tube’s most outspoken commentators- Nerdrotic & The Critical drinker.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I like to call them adult pretenders. The president who did the most selfless thing that anybody's done since George Washington. And I agree with Quentin Tarantino. George Clooney is not a movie star. We're here to discuss Snow Ice. What do you want me to say? Because they replaced the dwarves with CGI abominations,

pretending like Rachel Ziegler is the first of the mall when she looks like Lord Farkwood in the film. Jake's Bond has always been gay. I don't know why you can't see it. Because they're obviously recruiting for the next bond. I am available. Well, when Disney executives signed off a big budget remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, they probably thought it was a very safe bet for a company in dire need of a hit,

of time-honoured fairy tale beloved by millions, which spans generations, borders and creeds. What could possibly go wrong? Well, it turned out just about everything. Rachel Zegler, who stars as Snow White, condemn Prince Charming as weird and as stalker, adding that she hates the original. Nice start. Leaked photos from a set revealed that seven dwarves had been sensationally axed,

replaced by multiracial, gender, nonspecific, magical humans. After Peter Dinkley said, it was backwards to cast real dwarves as dwarves, even though he's made a whole career out of being a real dwarf who's played dwarves in movies and made millions doing it. The usual suspects race to defend this bold and progressive gesture, but that particular tale ended with a shock twist. I think you should live in the 1930s, actually, Pearce, because that's where you belong, really,

listening to what you were just saying then. Also, I'm going to quote Warwick Davis, because he said he finds it patronising when people are offended on his behalf. And you've just spent a five-minute monologue being offended on his behalf. And I think that's ridiculous. Well, let me bring in Dylan,

because Dylan is also offended, and he happens to be a dwarf actor. Yeah, and he was offended on his own behalf. So it turned out, I was right. Disney responded to the growing... controversy by delaying the movie for a year and replacing the magical humans with what looked like CGI Garden Gnomes. They featured prominently in the first trailer that was dropped over the summer. On the wall, the fairest, one of all. While audiences have responded in their droves,

in fact, the trailer has broken records. More than a million people have disliked it on YouTube, making it one of the most hated previews in cinematic history. The cherished fairy tale has become a grim morality tale for meddling Hollywood hacks. Audiences watch movies to escape this kind of hectorate, virtue signaling, the insanity of the modern world, not have it thrown in ladles down their throats. We're head to debate all this and lots more, two of YouTube's most outspoken and popular commentators,

Gary Beechler, who's a.k. Nadrotic, and Will Jordan, aka the critical drinker, and here in the studio, unscensored contributor Esther Cracko, and the occasional comedian James Barr, fresh from what he tells me, was a very successful trip to the Edinburgh Festival. I'll see if there's any evidence for that later. But welcome to you all.

How are you, Jay? Do you miss me? Hello. Did I miss your peers? Not really. And this whole snow white thing is just performative outrage. Actually, you're right. You know what? We're going to start the new autumn season, if you're like, of this, or the fall, if you're watching in America,

with a point of immediate agreement between me and Jones Bar. That's exactly what this is. It is performance. But it's performance of outrage. But it's by Disney and by Hollywood. On your part. Really? Why? Yes, absolutely.

Because this is a movie that was made in 1937 and was being remade in 2024 and you sit here moaning about the differences between those two movies like 1937 were the glory days. What? Well, what are you talking about? Why are you offended by this movie? Why do you think people are not like...

Because they replace the dwarves with CGI abominations. They are pretending. like Rachel Ziegler is the fairest of the mall when she looks like Lord Farkwood in the film. Somehow, Galgado, who's easily one of the top 10 most attractive women on the planet is some evil, ugly stepmother, which she is not. I don't know how she burst out laughing.

None of it works. Who's the fairest of the mall? None of it is actually the truth. Yeah. Let's bring in our two YouTube experts because Critical Drinker, your YouTube video on the trailer has now been viewed nearly two and a half million times. And you said the new

dwarf's look is nightmare fuel. You explain that for us, please? Yeah, so what they've obviously tried to do is retain the artistic aesthetic of the cartoon from the 1930s, but transpose it into a live-action movie, and it just looks horrific. It's so out of place. And when you see them dancing next to Rachel Ziegler, who's an actual human actor, it just looks awful.

They don't match up. They're deep into the uncanny valley. It is the worst possible choice they could have made. It would have been so much. it would be so much easier if they just used actual dwarf actors I don't know why they haven't done that Why is no one offended about the new

Lord of the Rings show on Amazon where they have actors non-dwarf actors playing dwarfs? Why are we not talking about that? Why is no one offended about that? Why are we just picking on Disney? Well, I am now you mentioned it. You should be. There's room for this. Yeah, we could have them in. But it isn't, is there? You're just firing outrage.

I'm offended about the whole show personally. Because they're trying to do something different. Hey, man, you want to talk to me about rings of power? I will talk your ear off for hours. But we're here to discuss Snow White, so what do you want me to say? No, exactly. I want to bring in No, Drolle. Because what this is really about is the fact that the people who are most angry about this

are not people like me who were saying, why the hell are they doing this? It's such crap. It was actual dwarf actors who rely on movies like this, which literally are about Snow White and the Seven Dwar's. They rely on that for really significant income. If you're a dwarf actor and you land apart in one of these movies, you make a lot of money. And yet suddenly it's been taken away from me. That's what incenses me on their behalf.

Yeah, this is where political correctness paints itself into a corner every single time. You find yourself with very strange bedfellows in this. And it's not just the actors. It's Disney fans. Disney fans are offended by Rachel Zegler's comments, disrespecting the movie that made Disney. Disney. And this is why there is one million dislikes on this trailer. And it's a culmination of

creative, uh, create a bankruptcy. Is it this, if this movie just existed on its own, it probably wouldn't be that much of a controversy. But if you add a singular Peter Dinklage interview that cost dwarf actors their, uh, their jobs. Yeah. And Zegler out there popping off and fanning the flames along with everything Disney's done over the last six years, you have Snow White. Yeah, I mean, that's exactly the point. But this is photo out. James, here's my point, here's my point, Jay. If you had a gay-themed movie, right,

and it had potentially parts for six great gay characters, right? Say there was a book and it had six great gay characters in it. And there were lots of gay actors who would love to play those roles, right? And suddenly it was decided that that could not happen, that actually no gay actors. actors would be allowed to play any of those roles. You would be on here leading the charge of outrage that gay actors were being deprived work when it was literally in their wheelhouse. And that's the argument, which I don't think you're quite computing. No, I can, and I agree

with you, I would be somewhat outraged, but I think there's something deeper going on here in that we're talking about stereotypes. I'm normally offended if a gay person misses out on a gay role, if a straight person is playing a camp, overtly gay, stereotypes. Right. So why are you not upset for the dwarf? Because I think what they're trying to do here is make it more inclusive. Plus, also remember, the original, they're trying to, they're excluding the archetypes. They're literally excluding wolves. Why are we pretending that Hollywood is a fair place for actors?

It's not about that. Why are we sat here? They didn't even, hold on. The world isn't a fair place. They were cartoons in the original film. Well, they have a human actress. So they have a human actress dancing next to six, But how far do we go with this faux outrage?

Are we going to say that actual, like, in the movie pets, all pets need to be actual animals? Because you are, are we going to say that Yoda needs to be played by? It's people like you that would be outraged that if an actor is not gay, you shouldn't play a gay role when actors are literally paid to act. So how about we just let actors act? And if you're going to cast human beings as human roles, then you shouldn't replace them with CGI abominations and say,

I mean, if a dwarf van, I don't know what you keep saying. I don't know why you keep saying. It's an abomination. There are so many CGI movies. It is an abomination. There are so many people that have played dwarves that have been, they've used CGI to do that, and no one's outraged.

You're just outraged because Disney are trying to make the world a better place and you want to live in 1937. Ain't nobody at Disney's making the world a better place, man. And I don't know why you keep using the word outrage. No one's outraged about this movie. People are laughing at it because it's a joke. It is a combination of everything bad about modern movie making. you've got a movie called Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

that doesn't have dwarves in it. You've got the fairest of them all who's put up against Gal Godot and somehow Galgado is jealous of Rachel Zegler and you've got a story about the search for true love that's no longer about true love. What even is this movie? It's a hollow, vacuous joke.

And I can add one more. I'll let Nadrotic do this because there's a league scene that was shown at the recent D-23 reveals that the modern empowered Snow White won't even allow domestic labor being carried out by herself. Instead,

she orders the dwarves to tidy up themselves, even when they've had a hard day down the mind. It's their house. I mean, No, Joddy, isn't this taking the whole virtue signaling stuff to a ridiculous degree? Absolutely. If you want to remake the movie,

just remake the movie in live action. Note for note, it would probably be much better, but it's so obvious now because of the blight of intersection that's spread throughout our entire society, that we can't have a woman holding a broom. Not that Rachel Zegler would know what to do with a broom, other than fly on it, but I mean, it's, that's what it is,

and it's predictable, and it's what Drinker just said. It's, nobody's outraged, it's mockery. And we all know, the moment, we all know, we all know, I haven't seen it yet, but I would lay even money. The moment Prince Charming moves in for the kiss while she's asleep, he gets arrested. Right?

Exactly. Immediately. She hasn't given him consent. Arrested and taken off to Harvey Weinstein's prison. The original story is problematic. Why is everyone ignoring that? Why should a woman walk into seven male, seven bloke's house, right? Seven dwarfs house and clean it for them.

It's their house. I don't care how long they've been working. Do the cleaning or do the cleaning of her. They're letting her stay there. They've been down a mine all day. Why isn't she down the mine? Well, they shouldn't be? But hold on, hold on.

What about gratitude and being a decent person? They're letting her stay there for free. And by the way, how dare you stigmatize cleaning as a job? I know, I'm just saying that I think it's weird that you're all saying. Not a cleaners watching the show thinking, wow, really? You're saying that it's beneath a woman to clean? No, I'm saying that everyone should clean, especially the person that owns the house. Are you saying it's demeaning for a woman to clean the house?

James, that's not what I said. James, I'm letting you know this out. If I ever let you live in my house for free, you are cleaning. And just to make matters even more. critical drinking. We then had Rachel Zegler, who'd already been gobbing off, left, right and center,

causing endless problems. She then shared the trailer on social media and added free Palestine, despite the fact that her co-star, Galgado, is Israeli. So you can imagine what that's done. That's just poured kerosene all over the place. Does she even know where Palestine is?

Yeah, the promotional tour for this movie is going to be wild, man. Yeah. But you get them two together. I mean, I don't know why she felt they need to do that. It's, if there's one thing you want to do, particularly when you're someone like Rachel Ziegler, who's already in hot water,

just stay away from politics for a little while. Just try and promote your crap movie and try and salvage something from this mess, but I guess you just couldn't help herself. The odd thing is actually a nodding. Disney have just had a monster, monster here. There's some, haven't they? Yeah.

Two. They've had, too. They've had actually a pretty good year. If you think about it, Planet of the Apes, most with Fox properties, but Planet of the Apes did, okay. Alien Romulus is doing Alien Romulus is doing pretty good. Inside Out

Two was the biggest movie of the year. And you know what none of them did? Wolverine is still crushing it. Right. And none of them went down this stupid road. Right? In other words, when Disney just does what we want Disney to do, which has made great movies. I think Disney is a great company. Historically, a fantastic company.

And it's done some great stuff this summer. Just do what you're good at. You don't need to do this stuff. If you just brought out a movie with Snow White and Dwarf actors, everyone would have gone, great. that's the movie we want to see. It wouldn't have been a problem. No.

It wouldn't have been a problem. Disney helps fan the flames because they're so risk-averse and they're so afraid of looking bad to one part of the audience. They don't give a crap about the majority of the audience who are just normal people who want to go and be entertained and escape. Exactly. They are so worried about their own people. Yeah, it'll be a bomb.

I can guarantee it. Yes. I want to shift to something else, which is we're going to play a set-up quote for this. In Venice Film Festival taking place this week, One of the big movies premiere there is called Queer, starring Daniel Craig. Very annoyed on your behalf, James. You didn't get the nod for that. Don't see why Daniel Craig, a straight guy, got the role when you're out there.

He is hot of him. Talk about a stereotypical job made in someone's name, queer. He plays a lonely middle-aged gay character obsessed with a much younger gay man in 1940s Mexico. The reviews have been brilliant. Apparently Craig is fantastic, even though he's a straight guy, I'm a gay guy. There we go. Some sort of man can be great, to shame you or not. But the contentious point is this.

The press conference is the press wanted to know the answer to the question whether Bond could ever be gay. Let's watch. Do you think there could be a gay James Bond? Guys, let's be adult in the room for a second. There is no way around the fact that nobody would ever know James Bond desires. Period. Having said that. Sorry? We don't know James Bond desires. He's the single straightest guy in the history of mankind.

There's never been any suggestion by Ian Fleming, the author, or by the broccoli family or anybody else, that he was anything or is anything other than a 100% red-blooded straight guy. really a 100% red-blooded straight man. How do you know that for sure? I am. We know you don't go into any because I look at you and feel zero urges. But I'm only one gay. You know, there's a lot of different

gay people out there. One of them might take you fancy. Maybe you're on Google having a little flutter in some bisexual pornography peers. And that will be absolutely fine. The point is we don't know what Daniel Craig. We do know James Bond. Have you seen his wife? It's categorically impossible.

You can have a wife and still fancy other people. Have you seen her? It's very normal. It's categorically impossible that he sleeps every night next to that woman and somehow has a different thing. It's interesting, I mean, surely the obvious answer is no. Obviously, no. Bond can't be gay, right? No, Bond can't be gay, and unfortunately nowadays,

bond can't be Bond. Any kind of masculinity is considered toxic masculinity. And, I mean, it's arguable with Daniel Craig. But I would say this is just, This is just the access media again, trying to get headlines of this. Bond can't be gay. And I would just say, go ahead and make it. If you think, if you feel that strongly about it,

is seen as toxic masculinity. Can you just explain that? Oh, yeah. That's an interesting thing to say, and I don't believe that. Yeah, no, far away in a drink, because I can definitely help you there, because in the last movie, he was basically a massive drip. He would, I would use a stronger word, but massive drip we can use. He was walking around being subservient and then decided

to do the noble sacrifice, although he was perfectly healthy and could have run 100 yards to the right, walked into a missile to die for toxic masculinity. And that's why the Bond films have gone down.

Well, he died for the rest of your sins. And how many women did he actually seduce? Literally seduce. I plan to commit many more. He's not allowed critical drinker. He's not allowed to seduce women. No. Because of Me Too in time.

No, because that's seen as unacceptable. I think it's dangerous to suggest that you're only a man if you're seducing women. There's a lot more going on. I don't think that's this suggestion. But Bond is a very particular kind of man. He is.

I'm sorry, I'm suggesting any woman. And he is not allowed to get them. He's not allowed to seduce women anymore. Also, these women... There's very little skill in reducing men. These women in Bond songs, they are drag names. Let's be honest. Pussy Galore is a drag name. Like, Bonds has always been...

That is a drag queen name if ever ever have one. Drag artists have taken those names and stolen them. Ridiculous. Pussy Galore was called that. Pussy Galore was most definitely not played by. a drag queen, put it that way. These queens, this, James Bond has always been gay.

I don't know why you can't see it. Oh, God. You see, this is the job, isn't it? It's categorically impossible. Yeah. To act opposite Halliberry. But more importantly, Esther, Esther, would you ever watch a bomb movie

if he was turned out something to be gay? No, because that's not, anyone who's read the books knows that James Bond is. He, I'm sorry, he's the ultimate man. He is, he's smooth, he's charismatic, he's a ladies man, intelligent, he's very strong.

He's a quintessential man. He's a quintessential man. He's a lady's man. You know what's interesting to me? He's a heterosexual man. You're about to be a ladies' man. It's allowed. Let's put it this way, right?

Let's put it this way, James. Because by the way, you know what's interesting to me? Why does it matter that he's... Hang on, hang on. I'm going to bring in critical drinking here. He's trying to save the country. You know what's really interesting is, Daniel Craig, in Queer, the movie,

plays this lonely middle-aged gay guy who apparently runs around, screwing everything that moves, right? So he's a man's man. He's a guy's guy, right? But the moment you call James Bond, who is the great serial seducer, a lady's man, he,

James Barr, enraged, enraged. But if a gay guy in a movie about a gay guy runs around having lots of sex with lots of gay guys, that's fine. It's very much. I'm not enraged. I'm enraged by you suggesting that James Bond is only masculine because he's having

sex with those of women. That's part of it. Maybe that's one small part of it. He kills people. He kills the bad guys. He has sex with lots of women. He drinks. Awful. Yeah.

Shaken not stares. That's a bit of a rainbow flag. Let me bring a critical drinker. Critical drinker. I think we have neutered bond to the extent where he would not surprise me if he came out in the next movie. Pretty much. Yeah.

And the result is he's not a character that people aspire to anymore. He's not an interesting character. He's just generic action hero who's not even particularly good at it. Daniel Craig never seemed particularly invested in playing Bond and he always seemed reluctant to do it. He always seemed like

he resented the aspects of Bond's personality that made him who he was and so I'm not surprised that he's happy to go along with this. I mean ultimately it was the director of that movie rather than Daniel Craig himself who was answering the question about Bond being queer but he was happy to just shut up

about it, I suppose. Let me give you the check The checklist for Bond, because they're obviously recruiting for the next bond, I am available, right? And the checklist should be very straightforward, right? He's got to be a red-blooded heterosexual bloke who likes having sex with a lot of women. Doesn't like being held in a community relationship, but he's open about that. He smokes nice cigars, probably Montequistos. He likes to drink bourbon or he likes to drink, you know, his vodka martinis, whatever it is. He likes to drive fast cars, Aston Martins.

He likes to do daredevil things on motorbikes and helicopters and other things like that. Hikes out with people with drag queen names. And he likes to kill the bad guys to save the good people from extinction. So in the interview, Barber Broccoli is going to sit down and go that sort of thing doesn't play. That sort of the joke is not a lot of him in the last movie is to someone who basically starts crying every five minutes, right? He's not allowed as a Jews woman, right? And it has to sit there. It's so dangerous to sit here.

You can't happen, right? I guarantee you what's happened. Yes, it is bad for everyone's help. And it's so dangerous to sit here with millions of people watching this, Piers, and say that to be a man, you have to shag women, smoke cigars. I didn't say that. That's what you're suggesting. No, no.

I said to be James Bond. You have to. That is the character that Ian Fleming created a vote about. It's dangerous to want to shagg women and smoke cigars. What are you talking about? That's awesome. He's not going to be shagging many women if he's crying. I'll say that, though.

If you don't knew that stuff has to ever truly. Also, I would shag whoever they needed to to get information, no? Isn't that how being asked for the spy works? So, yeah, he could sleep with whoever he wants. It doesn't matter. Like, he doesn't need to be a ladies man. But the point is he's not allowed to. People like you...

The character does need to be a ladies man, though. Of course he does. Honestly, I want James Bond to have sex with... By the way, did you ever see a Bond girl complaining? Did you ever see a Bond girl complain about the way he treated? All I'm saying is maybe James Bond wants to take a gold finger. I can say this as a woman. As long as it's revealed that James Bond has slept with a man, absolutely not.

You've been at the Edinburgh Festival too long, sunshine. There's no redeeming. Let's get things back up Australia and narrow. George Clooney. So let me start with you here, Ned Trulay. George Clooney at the same Venice Film Festival, suddenly decided he would speak for the first time because he was asked about the op-ed piece

he wrote for the New York Times. It was about two weeks after the infamous debate that Joe Biden did with Donald Trump, where obviously the world saw what I'd been writing about for two years, which is unfortunately Joe Biden is now having a form of senility and incapable of being president. And George Clooney, who'd been a longtime friend of Joe Biden, who'd received awards from Joe Biden, who'd hosted a fundraiser in Los Angeles, literally about 10 days before the debate,

in which he lauded Biden on stage as one of the greatest things. sliced bread. He then wrote an op-ed lacerating him, saying he cannot be the nominee going forward or the Democrats will lose. He's too old, it's sad, and blah, blah, blah, blah. And he had been asked about this until the Venice Film Festival. And he was asked, and people started clapping about the fact he'd been such a hero. And Clooney did this. I really want to know what you think was the impact of the op-ed you wrote for the New York Times, asking President Biden to step down, which he eventually did. You know, I've actually never had to answer that question,

so I suppose I'll do it here. The person who should be applauded is the president who did the most selfless thing that anybody's done since George Washington. You know what's hilarious, the dronicky about this, is that there was nothing selfless about what Joe Biden did in standing down. He was told by Nancy Pelosi that we can do this the easy way or the hard way was the exact quote that was reported. In other words, you're gone, sunshine, and we either do it easily where you stand aside or we put the knives in your back like Julia Caesar. She was one of the stabbers.

Clooney was Brutus, two Georgie Baby, and there he has the goal in front of the world to say, you know, all the applause should go to this heroic, man for suddenly deciding he had to stand aside, like George Washington. Now, for historians watching, George Washington stood down after serving two terms. He was the first American president, the founding president of the United States. He served two terms, and he decided himself not to serve a third. Thought it would be good for democracy not to, even though he would have won quite comfortably. That was the situation for George Washington. Joe Biden was forced out of his second potential term.

before we could even start it by a bunch of Democrats led by George Clooney and Nancy Pelosi and others because they knew he couldn't win. So completely different. So the comparison was absurd. But I'm really focused here, Najjordi, from a, as you're a movie guy, to see a movie superstar like George Clooney being so breathtakingly hypocritical, the guy who literally plunged the metaphorical knife into Biden's back, suddenly wanting us to think he was, you know, this was a selfless,

wonderful act and he's the new Washington. Did he make you as sick as it, didn't me? Yes, and I like to call them adult pretenders because that's what they are. They're professional adult pretenders, and I agree with Quentin Tarantino. George Clooney is not a movie star. I don't think he's putting any butts in any seats, but he definitely has influence as a celebrity.

And it shows you how friends are in Hollywood and Washington, which are essentially the same place and it's just as scripted. They're not friends at all. and for him to come out and run the party line that was probably written for him because I doubt George thought of that on his own to say that he did the most selfless thing by stepping down and now we're saying everything

like he's old and tired and practically we've had a zombie for our presidency as a president for the last four years and those of us who were saying it were demonized but now it's totally okay to say it. There's a lot of that going on this year by that by the way. It's been utterly breathtaking. Esther,

This is where I have a real problem, right? It totally just owned it. If he just said, you know what, actually my personal relationship with Joe Biden was not as important for me as the future of democracy in the United States and the party and winning the election was more important to me.

If he said that, I would really respect him. I actually think he was right, by the way, in what he wrote in his op-ed. Where I think I find it stomach churning is to now play this whole, Joe Biden was the greatest. He's a martyr. Washington.

Yeah. And he selflessly fell on his soul. No, he didn't. I mean, I think we need to start making a mental note of people like George Clooney. Because I don't think for a second that he didn't know about Joe Biden's senility. I think everyone that was around him, everyone that was in a circle knew that this man was going gaga and decided to play along until it became so surprising that for some reason the leader of the free world can hardly tie his own shoes. So I think we need to make a mental note.

But also we need to remember that celebrities, I don't know why we pedestalize them. When you have the DNC sort of event where they have the operas and all these celebrities thinking, yes, we are going to coronates the next leader because we know so much. You have to remember celebrities don't live the same lives as the rest of us. They don't pay the same taxes. They don't have the same worries. They don't know the average sort of worries of a normal person. So we need to stop treating these people like mini-deities. George Keney doesn't know anything about anything.

He just sits there and starts to sermonize about things that really are completely about. Look, to be fair to be, I'll be critical drinker in a moment. To be fair to, I've known him a long time. You know, he does have things he cares passionately about. Sudan is one of them. I've interviewed him about that with his dad, as a journalist. He's definitely very committed with that. He's been very committed to a number of causes.

But critical drinker, the problem here is not really even George Clooney wanting to pontificate. He's a big Democrat donor. He held a fundraiser and so on. You know, people know his politics. It's the hypocrisy of it all. It's the fact that he's now trying to be. the big cheerleader for the guy he's literally just assassinated.

I think it's all about presenting a unified front. And if he was to sit there and rubbish Joe Biden and say like, hey, should we check in and make sure he knows that he's even dropped out of the race at this point? You know, it's going to create a bad look. And so it all has to be this unified wall of positivity that they put out to the world.

Yes, Joe did the selfless thing. Give him a round of applause. And now let's put all of our support behind the next candidate before they drop out or we decide someone better needs to replace her. You know, that's all it is. It's presenting that positivity towards the world. What was great was that the DNC, you saw them all carrying, I love Joe Banners. And it cut to Nancy Pelosi who had a I Love Joe banner and was trying to say the words, but they weren't really coming out very naturally.

And then it turned out the next day it was reported, Joe Biden's refused to talk to her since she stabbed him in the back. And I very much suspect that despite being compared to George Washington, and preposterously, that Joe Biden has probably not talked to George Clooney since either. And why should he? They've just ended his career and stopped him running again. It's the double standard is what gets me. I don't really mind them if they want to take a political position, fine.

Don't be a hypocrite about it. Own your assassination, which is what they did. James Barr, you were almost looking like you were agreeing with. I was agreeing with Esther, because I thought it was an important point that celebrities are not normal people. because I find it the most alarming thing about people supporting Trump is that they talk about him like he's a normal person, but he's not, he's a celebrity. So he's just as bad as any politician, if not worse than a politician, because he's a celebrity.

And celebrities, I don't think, I think I agree here, can't really be trusted. So it's odd when people say, oh, he's a normal guy just like me, when actually he's actually a celebrity. Well, actually, I would say in my experience, a lot of celebrities can be trusted more than politicians. Right, I'm not sure. I think they're the same kind of thing.

And we live in a world also where politicians are almost by automatic definition. They are celebrities. So we can't look at a politician and say, oh, they're a normal person just like me because actually they are also a celebrity. It's the audacity of someone like Katie Perry being like, oh, I'm Katie Perry, by the way,

vote for Joe Biden. And you are? Are you going to pay my bills? I think it's the same as when Obama came to you gay and said everybody had to vote for Maine. That's sort of people's backs up. Chronicle drinker, you want to say? Yeah.

Yeah, it's the idea that they're somehow better informed than the rest of us mere mortals as well. Like Gary summed out perfectly. They call them adult pretenders. Like, you read lines of a script. You pretend to be someone else for a living. Why should I give a shit what your political opinions are? Why do you get, like, the deciding say over what I should vote for?

You don't understand me and you don't understand the real world. This is why I think Taylor Swift is pretty good at the way she handles herself because she doesn't necessarily say who you should or shouldn't vote for, but she will disagree with certain policies like she has done with Trump. Which I think is fine, but she won't say who to vote for. and particularly now she has a big burly boyfriend from the NFL, which is a sport watched by a lot of Trump voters, right? So you're not going to see her, I'm absolutely convinced.

I think we might hear from her before the election. I don't think so. You don't think the DNC were begging her to appear at the convention? Of course they were. She doesn't need the money. They can't bribe her, so I don't know what would be convinced her to do it. I remember a big Hollywood star when I was having a big old running with the NRA at CNN about guns. and I remember a massive Hollywood star pulled out of an interview with me.

I won't say it was, but I respected him. He rang me and he said, look, I really want to do your show. He said, but you're being so strident about this in one particular way. I have a massive following. He was an action movie hero. I have a massive following in Middle America where a lot of people own and like guns. And right now, it would be difficult for me to come on your show because you're being so. And I respected him for saying that.

I said, I get it. We'll do it when things have calmed down a bit. and I respect that kind of honesty. But also, I respect to his own position, which I don't want to align on either side publicly here. I've got people that like my movies who are Democrats and people who are Republicans, why should I piss half of them off?

You don't need to. Yeah. You know, the smart ones don't. Tom Cruise doesn't talk politics. I mean, he's a bit of a whack job when he comes to Scientology, but he doesn't talk politics for a reason. It's why everyone loves to go to his movies. And if you notice, there's a bit of a generational divide.

So it tends to be younger actors like the Rachel Zegler's and demand us, whatever her name is, that don't care about ticking people off. They just talk because they think, oh, I'm part of this new kind of ordained class in Hollywood and everyone loves me. Actually, Hollywood is about the money. So if you piss off enough people and you become radioactive,

they will drop people. And also, Galdow. But older actors understand that. Galgado, I can't ever forgive or forget the Imagine video during the pandemic where you've got a bunch of multi-millionaire celebrities to sing about imagine no possessions from their mansions where they were in lockdown.

It's like, do me a fact. And none of them could sing anyway. That was one of the most poorly judges. We can all agree on that, right? It was an outrage. Just quickly on music, we're just going to wrap it up. But we're talking about Oasis, who are getting back together after a very long, very angry, noisy feud.

Do Americans buy into the Oasis hype as much as we do over here right now? No. There's a lot. Okay. This is huge in the UK and there's a lot of people who like them here and there was a lot of people who are excited but this is just I mean

having seen so many bands get back together and the state that music's in it's probably a perfect time for them to come back together because music's awful right now. Pop music is terrible. How dare you? Sabrina Carpenter is amazing. My daughter loves Sabrina Carpenter. I can't say it. Taylor Swift is amazing. Absolutely not.

This is just typical oh, the women are taking over nonsense. They're not talented. I'm sorry. Who said anything about women? I said music by men and women suck, right? It just completely sucks right now and it's all hyper pop music. How many

stadium bands are selling out? Selling out stadiums? None. It's all bands. We know the best theory 40 years old. Yeah, the best theory I heard actually is apparently from next year is when OASIS can sell their catalog. So all of these big rock bands are selling their catalog for

hundreds of millions of dollars to record companies so they can own the rights. Noel obviously wrote almost all of Oasis's songs. So he stands to make potentially up to half a billion if they sell all the rights away. And it was put to me, and it's a good theory. The reason they finally swallowed it with each other's hatred for each other is if they get back together,

it's the biggest possible platform to put your music back out there to amp the value of the catalogue. And they probably missed just playing in front of 100,000 people going nuts and the sales of the tickets were insane. Critical Dringer, are you an Oasis fan? Did you join the Stampede? Are you angry that the ticket system was such that if you did get through, you something got scammed for 300 quitted ticket? No, I didn't join the stampede because I knew that you were going to have to journey to Mordor and back and like undergo like a hundred different trials just to get in the queue to order a ticket for like a massively inflated price.

So I didn't even bother. I liked them back in the day. They were huge when I was in high school. So if you'd ask me to pick a band, hey, it would be, which one would you like to see you get back together? Oasis probably would have been top of the list, so it's kind of interesting to see.

But yeah, it's just another old act from, like, decades ago, that are now making a comeback, because no one cares about most of the modern stuff. I think that's right. Certainly in terms of live performing. I mean, that's the point, James, isn't it? I mean, Oasis are a fantastic live band.

They've got great melodies. Great melodies? Did you really just say that? They do have great melodies. They do. Would you go to an oasis? Absolutely not. No, I have no interest.

But you wanted a straight pride and this is it, Pears. So I hope you'll be going. Do you know what? Yeah. It's about time. Why not? Yeah.

Why not? I mean, I do think so. Why don't we have a straight pride month of shows, including led by Liam and Noel. They're also just a bit... I mean, Liam's definitely said some homophobic stuff in the past. Well, here's him with one of his big fans, me.

We met at a wedding there, actually. And I'm only putting that up there because I don't want Liam to forget when he comes to the friends and friends and family VIP tickets, which I'm sure he'll be allocating very carefully. I'd like to remember those special moments we shared at that wedding, Liam, because I'm mad for it. You could probably afford to buy a ticket, Piers.

Why don't you buy one? Because I'd rather get a freebie. That's how you stay rich, James. Why buy anything in life if you can get a freebie? I mean, let's be honest. Yeah. Thank you very much, everybody, for joining me. It was a great comeback panel.

Cheers. Much appreciated. Although it kills me to admit this, apparently James' show was quite successful in Edinburgh. Yes, it was actually. Lots of people that don't mind you. You'll be so successful that we won't be able to afford you sooner. Anyway, thanks all. We'll catch up soon. Thank you very much. Thank you.