The Ben Mulroney Show - NBA players call out the WNBA/Perez Hilton/Bad neighbours

Episode Date: August 7, 2026

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this, we're going to start the show a little bit different, right? This is a story that's been making the rounds. But it's Friday, and the news the past couple of days has been heavy. And we've got some heavy news for you today. But we thought, let's start with something that is just, it's 2026, isn't it? And you know what? I would say watching videos like those cop videos from body cams is a guilty pleasure of mine. Oh, yeah.

Well, I mean, that is one of the byproducts of, you know, the BLM movement and body cams on everybody, which I, by the way, I remember back in the day, I said, I support this entirely. If there are bad people doing bad things, wearing a badge, I want to see it. Absolutely. And it'll also, it'll cut down on the he said, he said of it all.

And there will be a truth, not his truth and my truth, and everybody has their own truth. There will be a truth, right? Well, sometimes truth is strange of the fiction. And this is the headline for you, all right? Canadian driver detained by ICE said she'd never had a real license while carrying 12 fake IDs

this according to Florida police. Let's dive right in and listen to this interaction caught on body cam of a woman. It's a routine traffic stop. She's got, it's a white car and I guess there's some problems with her plates and things.

And so you guys pulled over and let's listen to it a little bit. Hello. Hi, I'm deputy governor to the sheriff's office. The reason I stopped you for two reasons. okay one your taillights aren't on so it's completely dark back there oh I'm so sorry um I live in New York

I'm here in Florida literally just visiting friends and stuff right now I'm at air okay so you don't have a New York like identify idea at all no I've never had a driver's license or anything do you have anything with your name on it in this car? No oh she did all these are fake

yeah the story the story kept changing you could tell though when she got stopped she smiled the biggest smile, I really think she thought that that was going to be enough to charm the guy to let her go. If I got pulled over and I did that like this? Yeah. What would you do?

You're the cop? I'd pull out my sidearm. Oh, God. I thought that was a good smile. I'd pull out my sidearm and I'd say something's up with stretch over here. And so, yeah. No, she thought she was getting away with something. She thought she was getting away with everything.

Turns out, she's not from New York. Her last name, what was her name? Valenzuela. Something Valenzuela. No, no. She's got a different name. And they found that she had 12 different names on 12 different fake IDs. So hauled into jail.

They find out that she was there on a visa, I believe, and overstayed her welcome. So now she's in ICE custody. Now she's in ICE custody. And you know, F around and you find it. Listen, if you are doing bad things and it seems to me, if you're doing bad things, just drive according to the. rules of the road or take an Uber. I struggle to understand.

Why would you put yourself in that position? Also, she's doing ICE's job for them. Yeah. They don't have to go hunt her down. No, she up. Although it'd be hard because of the 12 IDs. Second story in this week, that we've talked about a Canadian in ICE detention.

And both of them, they deserve what they're getting. One was that woman who punched, the Canadian woman who punched some guy who was wearing a MAGA hat or something. Yeah. Yeah, well, yeah, sorry. Not a lot of going around the world doing that. and then this woman, back home she comes,

I wonder she's going to be on like a no-fly list. Yeah. Yeah. Well, hey, welcome back whenever you get here. You can get away, hey, whoever you are, you can get away with anything here. Yeah, yeah, come back here. You can punch A when you want.

And also, you can also use all those IDs and whatever. You can do whatever you want. Yeah. So listen, we knew this was going to happen, all right? We knew that the WNBA, despite a really exciting product that they're putting on the court, despite the fact that there are, butts in seats and eyes on screens and people buying merch and people knowing the names of all of their stars.

It's an exciting time if you're a fan of the WNBA. But when a league is not beholden to market forces, they can do some pretty crazy stuff. They can start taking on issues that are exceptionally divisive. And they can start polarizing people. Despite saying we're all about inclusion, what they're really saying in a lot of cases. We're all about inclusion so long as you believe what we believe. And this all sparked, I mean, it's been bubbling for a while. It was only a matter of time.

But the spark that lit the flame was a WNBA superstar Sophie Cunningham, stating that she stands for protecting girls in girls' spaces and girls in girls' sports. And that was a bridge too far for a lot of people. Battle lines were drawn. and people started taking positions. And because the question ultimately came up yesterday we talked about it, or two days ago we talked about how it was only a matter of time before there was the equivalent of a trans Jackie Robinson moment in the WNBA.

It's only a matter of time before a trans athlete crosses that threshold and joins a WNBA team. And the person they've been talking about is this French star who is just a beast. A beast. And I made the joke, but it's not a joke. There's nothing I could do or say that would make this person feel unsafe. Right? Like it just looks like an athlete, purpose built to destroy opposition. And so now, so the question now is being put to a lot of these people standing,

claiming they stand up for trans rights to see if they can put their money where their mouth is. Let's listen to WNBA star Gabby Williams on this very question. I think it's trans rights right now is our new battle. That's what I think I was saying that like the battles have changed. You know, like our intention is in the same, but now the environment has changed. We see trans people's rights being, you know, stripped away from them. There's a lot of discourse around trans athletes and where they can compete in. I would welcome a trans athlete on my team or against my team any time.

I don't think it's a problem in the world. It's just another way to kind of attack trans people. Sorry, you're not, you're not going to get any uptake here for me on that. take here for me on that. Disagree. But like you say, oh, you'd be willing to play against one. Sure. You're in very, very good shape. We saw her. Gabby Williams is a tremendous athlete as well. But when you go toe to toe with a transgender woman, like that French player who's averaging 20 pounds, 20 points and 20 rebounds per game and probably has a couple of inches on you and has denser bones and a wider frame and a lower center of gravity.

Julie Tatar. You want to compete against that? You want to see your stats go down because they will, because you're going to get your proverbial handed to you. And what happens, Gabby Williams, when Julie Tatar hypothetically plays on your team, do you just shrug off the fact that a woman that you've played with and played shoulder to shoulder with

and you've built a team with and you've watched her live out her dreams of being in the WNBA when she's given her walking papers you're going to be fine with that because that's not the battle anymore now the battle's trans rights okay well feels to me like

it's taking jobs right yeah it's taking jobs but sure if you believe it I I take you at your word and so that's one scenario there's also the other scenario that's playing out where an NBA

sorry, NBC sports commentator suggested that there is this misogyny going on with that proposal for the WNBA champions to play a high school men's basketball team, right? Which they'll never accept. And that is not a sign of misogyny. It's to point out the difference in the games and the difference in the physiology that would lead to the result that I suspect a lot of people know, but do not want to say. But who can speak to that, you think? I think NBA players can speak to that. Probably, yeah. Let's listen to some NBA players on that very play.

Lonzo Ball and Michael Porter, Jr., back to back here. And I mean as respectfully as possible. But ninth grade, Lonzo Ball and the WMBA, it's called crazy. All right? Because look, in ninth grade, I'm over six feet, and I'm dunking. Like, I'm coming through the, like, no girl in the WBA is doing that. Yeah, you know, we're going to end it there because we've got to have. We're going to take a break.

But again, this is a mess of their own making when you speak and pontificate and talk about a fantasy world that is going to get a headbut from reality. This is the headbut from reality. And nobody wanted it. Nobody asked for it except for these weird progressives in the WNBA who don't think that reality applies to their league. And of course, we'll be following it as it progresses. In the meantime, we're going to take a break, a really sad story about one of the most influential people back in the day in entertainment gossip.

Something bad happened to Perez Hilton. We'll talk about that next. Well, we want to approach this next story with respect because Perez Hilton was at a time probably the most influential entertainment celebrity blogger on the planet. In a lot of ways, he set the tone. Or he might have been a product of his time. I mean, there were mean judges on TV and he was mean in his content. But he really, he had a lot of sway in Hollywood.

And he enjoyed it very much. And then over the past few years, it's sort of gone away. I think he sold off some of his properties and stuff. And I don't think he had control over Perezhilton.com the way he used. I don't know. But the point is over the weekend, or was it, how many days ago was this? Last week. Last week.

People were watching a live feed that he was doing on TikTok. And we are not playing the audio. we are not playing the video because it is it is it is gruesome it is a gruesome visual and the sound he was self-harming

there's no I don't want to get even more descriptive than that and it was there were people watching begging him to get help calling the police calling 911 and ultimately they did show up the fire department did enter his home

247 and 247 to make an entry into the house with police. And look, days earlier, there were, there might have been signs. It might have been an early warning system. He was posting odd, odd emotional content, especially the confession about that pivot that he did in his career, where he went from being mean to trying to atone. I knew at the time what I was doing was wrong and I didn't care.

I was so selfish that that was a long time ago and I had changed. And look, the last time we talked about him on this show, we talked about him coming out of a terrible illness. He had sepsis and went into surgery. And he posted what I thought at the time was a beautiful,

a beautiful sort of religious awakening. And I thought that it seemed peaceful to me. I mean, Droulet disagrees, but I think we see what we want in those moments. And I saw that as something quite beautiful. I'm a bit of a cynic with that, considering the stuff that the guy is reported on. And that's where we got to go back to, right? Because that confession that he just mentioned.

He was a net negative. He was a net negative. And if you want an example of how bad he was, look no further than this next piece of audio from Taylor Momsden. You'll remember her perhaps from her stint on Gossip Girl. And now she's a singer. Listen to what she said about what he did to her. Goes and shoots up my skirt. He kneels down, shoots up my dress, and my tampon string had slipped out.

And so my tampon string was sticking out of my underwear. Perez Hilton puts that on the home page of Perez Hilton. You can see like the . . . . . and everything. Like, it's like a very, it's still on the Internet. Have fun looking at it up. But it's A.M. Underage. And the violation and his headline, I don't remember what. it said, but the headline was very negative of like slut. Like look what like look how trashy Taylor is

kind of thing. Yeah, he listen, he did terrible things. He would out celebrities, right? And he was gay himself. So he would out celebrities. And he was known for drawing on the pictures, right? And writing scrawling words like slut on on those pictures. And and he, I think he relished, Amy, being in that, that position of power. And I think it, it corrupted him. And he, because no matter how bad he was, people still went to him. The traffic was there. You interviewed him. I did. Yeah. No, he loved it. Yeah. I mean, yeah, he created a whole brand. Yeah, he said some crappy stuff about me. But in this moment, I mean, you know, some are saying that what happened to him was karma. Because he's lost some money. Like he's not, he's not, he moved. And, and, and I guess his

medical bills took a big chunk out of his net worth. So he was hawking religious murder. to pay for his bills. Both of you have met the guy. Yeah, I met him a couple times. I met him when he was enormous. Let me ask you the question, though. And I met him when he was like super ripped. Now that you know, you know the guy's history,

better than, way better than I do, obviously. Do either of you feel sympathy? Yes. Yeah, of course. Absolutely. Of course. What he went through, like what he did there. Okay, how about a better question then?

Anyone with a mental health struggle? Yeah, yeah. Do either of you understand, though, while there seems to be this piling on online about people sort of going, you know what, this is the karma. Yeah, he ruined people's lives. Yeah, yeah.

He posted naked photos of celebrities without their consent. Like, he did so many awful things. Oh, yeah. But then, like, his business started getting eaten away. I think one of the reasons TMZ became so popular is they said it's almost as if, I don't know if they did this by intention, excuse me. but I think they said, we need to do what he does, but with respect.

We need to set this up like a bureau and we've got to treat this like news. And we're going to give people their fix of that information, but we're going to do it in a more ethical way, a more accountable way. Sure. Well, I think that they break real news and I don't think they cross many lines. Yeah, I mean, paparazzi crosses many lines. Yeah, yeah. But that's part of that world.

I mean, it's not part of the news world. but I don't know. Like he said some crappy things about me. And I know he hurt people. But in this moment, I'm just looking at these kids. He's kids. Yeah. He needs help.

But can we also talk about how we're living in a world where people live stream this sort of thing? It's shocking to me that it took TikTok 12, 13 minutes to pull it down. Yeah. And that's going to be part of the story. we follow later because I think they have to investigate how that happened and why they let that happen, they should have, as soon as somebody

flagged it, it should have been, the thing should have been cut. And how about this? It's not hard to find it. I'm not looking. I'm not looking. It's just, all you have to do is type of, it is not hard to find it. There's a crazy number of people who have reposted this across all social media platform. But you know, it begs

the question, like can somebody atone, like what can someone do who behave that terribly and hurt so many people, what can they do to if and when they realize they did something wrong? I mean, yeah, a tone, but also just stay out of the public eye. Don't live stream a mental breakdown when you have three kids. Yeah, we joke about it with politicians who always keep running for stuff. I say, like somebody needs to tell that person, they're not legally obligated to run. And somebody needs to tell people, you don't have to record everything. And you're validation will never come through a lens talking to strangers.

I don't care if you, yes, we've got the Ben Mulroney community here, right? Like the Ben Moraneseo community. But it's not community in the sense of something where you feel that you're shoulder to shoulder with people. Like we're all in this together. We're like-minded people probably, some disagree, but that's great too. It's a community of conversation. A community of conversation.

It's not your tribe. No. And he just seems so very lost if this was, take the self-harm out of it. This notion of live streaming and posting and trying to get validation from people. It's, I don't know. I don't know. I feel bad for his kids. I do too.

I do. Yeah. I mean, I hope he's getting help. Well, I'll tell you what's going to make this very sad is what's predictable next is he's going to get help. And then he's going to give a tell-all interview and he's going to get paid for it. And he's going to go read the comments. and he's going to, I feel one way or another. And it's like, man, you need to break your relationship with the internet.

You created a big chunk of how we talk, like a lot of this toxicity. Maybe the best thing to do is to step away from it altogether. You know, whether or not he believes, truly believes this whole religious convergence. Whether it's real or not, I think it actually kind of sucks for people who are religious, who do, are part of the church. that he's potentially using them as his means of getting away from his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, I think he's got, yeah, I, oh, I see what you mean. Like, you think he might be saying, um, it's like people who have a come to Jesus moment right, right before they go to, um, right before they go to, um, right before they go to trial

after murdering seven people. And, and this is coming from somebody who is, as, you know, is very non-religious. Respect for religion, non-religious in practice, absolutely. And, uh, and, and, and, and I feel bad for people who do truly believe that they may be having to share that with somebody like this. Well, look, if you are a true believer of Jesus, then you're going to forgive the guy for even that. Look, I don't think he was a good force in the world, but I feel really bad for him and his family, and I hope they make it through. Your summer travels deserve an upgrade with select Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac vehicles connected by OnStar, you can stream, game, and more on the go.

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you'd think we've seen it all. But everything, there's always another thing that irritates the guy next door. And so here to talk about that, we're joined by Nanesh Kotech from Kotech Law. How are you, my friend? I'm great, Ben. Thanks for having me. Yeah. So I would have just assumed at this point we've seen and done everything. Like there's nobody is going to be reinventing the bad neighbor. And yet I'm sure you, you're constantly surprised. I am.

It is very interesting. We do get a lot of calls about this. And sometimes these calls are actually from my personal friends because they know you're a lawyer. They give you a call. I've got this problem. It often boils down to, I would say,

four basic issues. A fence, a tree, music, smoke, or water. Now water is often a big one because you've got grading issues that take a lot to repair. This seems to be what starts the problem, Ben. But you know what happens? Your home to me, I think people look at it is there, there's an emotional attachment. It's your sanctuary. It's your piece of mind. It's also your investment. Yeah, your investment. And eventually though, this fight is no longer about the music. It's no longer about the fence. It is about the perceived disrespect

between the two people. And you don't even remember who started it. I've seen these situations. Person puts a light into their house or their camera has a light. Are they watching me? They put a light in and you do it back or someone does it back. And it really escalates to a point where people, and this happens a lot, Ben, in cottages, believe it or not.

We've had some of those that happens in cottages, the boat access, etc. And people, you know, unfortunately, you know, for the most part, people, you know, the ones I see are when things didn't go so well. Okay. So where this dispute, it's going to cost much more money than it would be just to sit down and fix the drainage, and fix the problem instead of going to lawyers and complaining about each other nonstop

to the police or to the city of municipality. So give me a sense. There's an emotional point here. Well, give me a sense of some of the craziest things that have crossed your desk. Okay. I mean, I've had the light. Okay. I've had those where one neighbor puts up a camera and,

And there's two effects of this, flood and a camera. Because, you know, some of these cameras actually are built in light. They're not so sophisticated. And there's a perception that, okay, you know, we had one. And I'm not going to say, it was the person I knew was on the receiving end of that and, you know, called about it. And so you've got the light shining in. You've got the fear, hey, are they filming, you know, my spouse, etc. And the immediate reaction is to go buy a light, which they did.

to put a, you know, one of those lights back at them. Right. And it escalates. And my, and my says, look, you know, have you ever thought maybe they don't, maybe their camera only is capturing a certain area? Maybe they don't know that lights going in. Yeah, have you told them it is. Yeah.

Can you talk to them before, because before you started? And you know what? That was the issue. They're like, well, why were you shining light on me? No, no, this is it. And you save yourself a lot of trouble. There are no question there are bad people out there. then no question.

Some people will do these things because that's the way they are. But I think for the most part, if you address the issue early in a respectful way, it will go miles and you'll have a relief. But what I don't understand, Anesh is that, like I said, off the top, you would think that with, you worry about fences and stuff like that, we've got land surveys and there are photos and there are rule. Go down to City Hall. We'll find out whose side of the fence, like who's,

who's right and who's wrong. Why do some of these things be, how do some of these things get protracted and drawn out? Right. There are ways to look at this because the city, if it's, for example, if the fence dispute is about who's paying. There is bylaw and the city, you know, if it's a certain, if you tell them in advance and the city can sort of make, make them pay. But if it's where, okay, two private properties, where one person is now put it, the city, unfortunately, will tell you, well, go get a surveyor, you know, then you will pay for your survey. Your surveyor comes out one. person is, well, they're wrong, no. Or maybe they've done their work already.

And this is another one that I've seen where, you know, we threaten, for example, the tort of private nuisance, you know, or trespass, which is, look, you've actually started building on my client's property. And, you know, perhaps our client could have approached them a lot earlier until waiting until the darn thing was, you know, was done and that was costly to move it. But this happens. And the city will not get involved in that. That they're going to look at it.

That's a private issue between the two of you. get a surveyor to come out, measure, and then you can have a discussion. Who do you go after if you're the nuisance and the bad neighbor isn't actually someone living in the house? It's somebody building a house. Right. There's always a property owner, right? So you have to look at it. Somebody owns that land and it might, it could be a builder who purchased it or it's somebody individual or corporation is now building. So you've got them on the hook. Next, I would suggest to you that you also have the builder or, you know, with the main contractor are involved because they have a, you know, a duty to those around to.

I had, I had a doozy, Anesh, I had a doozy next to me once where they were building a house right next door and the guys in the middle of winter were slicing through stone and they weren't using the water feature on the saw. So the dust was going everywhere. I went over there. I said, I said, you guys are like, my kids are breathing in this dust and they said, well, it's really cold. I was like, that is not my problem.

You are, this is your job. It's your job to solve. I am not here. I'm not going to let this happen to my kids. And once they were done with the stones, they did the same thing with fiberglass. It was, it was really, it was really nifty for a while. And I, you know, with the stones, Ben, is the thing.

We just did, we did our driveway. We got put the heated driveway in that stones. It was winter. We have hot water, hot water tap in the garage. And I told them, listen, you're going to cut. And it's much easier to cut when you use water. Yeah. What happened, it is.

It probably was, they didn't have running water. They just wanted to get through it, which is unfortunate because there's a lot of dust. But if you're a professional in the trades and you look at the next door neighbor and you say, well, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. It's winter. No, no. Your job is to know what to do in the winter or you shouldn't be working in the winter. Exactly.

You know, there are a lot of, listen, there's not a lot of licensing sometimes, you know, and I don't want to put contractors down, but to be a GCC, you know, there's not really, you know, I don't believe there's specific license. You don't think about plumber, electrician and so and so for, you know, HFact. There's licensing, but to be a GC, you go out there and you call in trades. You don't know who they're calling in. So some people, unfortunately, don't pick the cheapest contractor. And they may end up with not only upsetting your neighbors, but having a bad result in terms of what you've done, what you've constructed.

Now, if you've got someone next door who is just a repeat offender, just a bad neighbor to end all bad neighbors, You've got some advice about keeping records. Yeah, absolutely. So, okay, so I always start, address it early, start respectfully. Let's assume that hasn't worked. Your scenario is not. I would say, look, educate yourself on your rights. First of all, look at the bylaws, look at where the infringements be.

I'm the last person to say you go tattletail on someone, but maybe there's bylaw infringements. You could legitimately go to the city, and they'll send an inspector, and they could stop the work, for example. I would say, look, you know, there is ultimately litigation. There's private nuisance. There's negligence. There also was trespass.

If it results, for example, in fear for your safety. In other words, there's sort of subtle threats that keep coming out of. Of course, there could be uttering threats. But there also was a criminal harassment component. So there potentially is a police element to this for criminal harassment. And, you know, that happens. Somebody has made you fear for your safety by repeated conduct, maybe put something on your door.

And you hear about these things, you know, people throwing dog poo and, you know, on doors or whatever like that. Do you remember the, and we don't have a lot of time left, but do you remember the incident that was caught on camera with the nuisance, the bad neighbor who essentially threatened a child of Alan Richson? And if people don't know Alan Richson, he's the redwood of a human being who plays Jack Reacher. And his inner Reacher came out in that moment. Well, I don't blame me. You know, protecting your family, we would all do that.

But yeah, so remedies again, just briefly with the city, if it's a bylaw infraction, lawyers, if there's a private nuisance, if it's a trespass, or if in your case, you know, if their negligence has damaged your home, that's a negligence lawsuit. And finally, there is obviously the criminal code and police. If the conduct has escalated to criminal, there also is another one. You can apply before justice to the peace for a peace. bond. In other words, can we bring back the stockade is what I want

on an Ness Kotak? Hey, thank you very much my friend Kotak Law. Come back anytime. I would love the chat. Thank you, man.