Insights into Entertainment

Insights into Entertainment: Episode 6 "Schooling the Celebrities"

March 25, 2019 Joseph and Michelle Whalen Season 1 Episode 6
Insights into Entertainment
Insights into Entertainment: Episode 6 "Schooling the Celebrities"
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

This week Michelle and Joe do a quick recap on Captain Marvel. Then we dig into the seedy details of the lawsuit brought by MillerCoors against Bud Light for their now infamous "corn syrup" ad campaign.  We'll discuss the charges of K-Pop star Jung Joon-Young's arrest and how the culture of Korean celebrities differs drastically from that of Hollywood and it's often controversial laden crowd. We finish up our news dive with some curious details on the recent Celebrity College Cheating Scandal before we wrap this week's podcast with our latest Insightful Picks of the Week.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to insights into entertainment, a podcast series, taking a deeper look into entertainment and media, your host, Joseph and Michelle Waylon, a husband and wife, team of pop culture, phonetics are exploring all things from music and movies to television and fandom.

Speaker 3:

Welcome to insights into entertainment. This is episode six, schooling the celebrities. I'm your host, Joseph Waylon, my lovely cohost, Michelle Waylon. Hello everyone. How are you doing today, Michelle? I am fantastic. How are you? I'm awesome. So we have a couple of interesting topics to run down this week. Not nearly as a full of agenda we had last week, so hopefully we should be able to get this done within our half hour time frame. First, we want to start off with a recap of captain marvel after having seen it after last week's podcast. Then we're going to talk a little bit about the Miller cores suing bud light over their ongoing ad campaign that started with the Superbowl. Then we will talk about k pop star, June, June young being arrested on a sex video scandal. And we'll wrap up our discussions in the news with the celebrity college cheating scandal. And then as always, we will finish off with our insightful picks of the week. So let's get right into it.

Speaker 4:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

So captain marvel salt last week, what do you think? It was a very good movie for an origins movie. It was probably one of the best origins movie I've seen in a long time. I would tend to agree. The one thing I think aside from, you know, a very strong plot and solid acting on everyone's part, the one thing that struck me was the technology use to d ade, Samuel L. Jackson. Fantastic.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. Yeah. It, that it looked like the movie had been, you know, been done 10 20 years ago.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. You know what I mean? The fact that, you know, she landed at a blockbuster video certainly helped them

Speaker 5:

definitely. Oh. And the soundtrack being a girl of eighties music and uh, growing up and in that time period that, you know, it was just kind of awesome. Like, yeah,

Speaker 3:

the soundtrack of my high school career. Absolutely. And, and I mean, we saw superpowers, you know, to rival the superman now. Oh, absolutely. She could definitely kick Superman's, but so, you know, in a heartbeat, seeing what she was capable of doing kind of tease is what she's going to do and m game, which I thought was very interesting. Yeah. And I think the whole movie itself was a nice setup for, for m game.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. I haven't watched it, but I, I saw some headlines that, uh, there were a couple of fan made captain marvel two trailers that a couple of people had had gone out to unmade and they said, you know, this isn't official, but it looks really cool if this is what they do with it. So it'll be interesting to see, you know, where, you know, where she went for so long in between this movie and end game. I did like the twist of the scrolls being the good guys. Yeah. That was, that was Kinda Nice. Nice little plot twist.

Speaker 3:

They were the ultimate evil sort of in the comic. So it kind of kind of expected, uh, have to take a little little twist on that though.

Speaker 5:

And of course I, I want goose to have his own movie too. Yes. Well if you can consume,

Speaker 3:

you know, the tesseract and split it up like a hairball later on. He deserves as well

Speaker 5:

movie. Absolutely. Very good movie though. Absolutely.

Speaker 4:

Okay,

Speaker 3:

so corn syrup and the Superbowl, that's really what this whole fight between Miller cores and an Anheuser Busch and there, Bud Lake campaign is about, you know, watched it during the super bowl. It was comical but pointless to me. I don't know how many people actually worry about whether or not someone puts corn syrup and their beer.

Speaker 5:

Probably not a whole lot. Or at least people that drink beer probably don't really care.

Speaker 3:

I would agree. I mean I've seen people put strange things. I had a friend of mine who would put salt in his beer. Okay. Which hey to each his own. But you know, this controversy started back in the Superbowl and it was their King Bud light or whoever the character is that they use going around trying to turn over a giant barrel of corn syrup to someone else besides bud light. Cause Bud light doesn't brew with Corn Syrup. Okay. So there was a series of ads for that on TV and then bud light stepped it up with really a shot across cores bow when they started the billboard campaign in chorus country, they, they put billboards up on a highway and leading from Golden Colorado where courses brewed to Denver.

Speaker 5:

Oh Wow. That's rich. I mean it almost seems vindictive at that point. Right. You know, anywhere else it would have been fine. But there that's, yeah, you're, you're definitely a poking the cage with the stick at that point.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely. So this past Thursday, Miller Corps, which is the parent company of course brewing far a lawsuit against the Anheuser Busch who runs bud light claiming that quote, Anheuser Busch is fearmongering over a common beer ingredient. It uses in many of its own beers as a fermentation. A does not even present in the final product. Uh, their statement went on to say this deliberate deception is bad for the entire beer category, which we are showing the world. We are showing the world the truth. They went on to basically claim it to be a marketing ploy, which isn't working because they point to the declining sales for bud light. Adam Collins, a vice president of communication for Miller Corps says, uh, it's really used only as fermentation, which is the irony of all ironies is that it's not actually in the final product that you drink. So why, why are we at this level?

Speaker 5:

Somebody board, it's really, you know, maybe overall beer sales are down. So, Hey, let's, you know, let's have a controversy. So people will go out and buy our beer and tasted and, and see, and it's almost like the, the cola wars that, you know, every now and then between Coca Cola and Pepsi, you know, like people are going to drink what they want to drink. And if you ha, you know, there's always that person who if you drink bud light, you're always gonna drink bud light no matter what. If you drink cores, you're always going to drink cores there, you know, are are people that are very set in their ways, you know, with certain drinks, you know, unless you happen to go to a bar and they're out of one thing, you get something else, you know. So I really don't, it's kind of silly. But yeah, maybe somebody was just bored. And in the marketing department who knows?

Speaker 3:

Well and, and bud light responds by saying the campaign's about transparency. Quote, the recent budlight campaign is truthful and intended to point out key differences from Miller lite in cores late. Those beers are brewed with corn syrup, but bud light is not. These are facts the company said in its statement, we stand behind the bud light transparency campaign and have no plans to change the advertising. Like, okay, it's fact. But I just don't understand how that's relevant to the average drinker.

Speaker 5:

Right. And the other thing too is honestly the average consumer is getting corn syrup in almost everything that you consume. Right? That's, that's processed, you know, soda and juices and you know, it's a sweetener. It's, it's, you know, what's the everything, unless you know, you're going full organic and you know, and maybe some people that make their own beers, you know, they're like, oh, you know, would be like, oh yeah, you can totally taste the difference. And really I just don't, I just don't, they're just bored. I think

Speaker 3:

it's interesting the point that you made about beer sales being slow because industry experts, I've come out and said this is really just an attempt to attack ingredients and brewing techniques and it's a distraction from the overall drop in sales that local breweries are picking up

Speaker 5:

well On. That makes sense. You see all the local breweries popping up all over the place and you know, it's not only just a brewery but it's, you know, a restaurant or something, you know, so people are going and hanging out and becoming maybe more social, you know, becoming more social drinkers as opposed to the person that's going to go and get their 12 pack, you know, at the liquor store and

Speaker 3:

go home. So this is why we can't have nice ads on the Superbowl. Anyway, moving right along. So K pop, it was big at the Olympics. Obviously we had several k pop stars show up at the Korean Olympics and it's controversial now, just like us pop stars. Now, of course, it's all over the place. So k pop star, June, June young was arrested in a sex video scandal. Uh, he was arrested over allegations that he shared sexually explicit videos of women taken without their knowledge or consent. Uh, the arrest warrant was issued hours after he made a court appearance, which he apologize to the victims, uh, for his actions. He basically admitted fully to Roatan. And this is where we depart from American celebrity. Yeah.

Speaker 5:

Right. They would never admit to doing anything wrong for, you know, months on end until finally. All right. Yeah, I really did that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. This, this, this reads almost like, you know, the ending to a alone order movie TV show where they get to everything.

Speaker 5:

Ryan with an a nice hour,

Speaker 3:

um, 30 year old young came out after he was questioned by police. He delivered a statement, admitting responsibility for the charges. Saying, quote, I am truly sorry. I admit to all charges against me. I will not challenge the charges brought by the investigative agency and we'll humbly accept the court's decision. I bow my head and apology to the women who were victimized by my actions. That would never happen in the year. Oh my God. This would be dragged through the courts. It would be settled out of court. Nobody would have blamed the victims, would never have any kind of redemption. Right,

Speaker 5:

right. And, and that kind of speaks to the culture over there. They're very, you know, apologetic. They know they did something wrong. You know, we're here will, you know, lie through our teeth and, and deny, deny, deny, you know, as long as we can.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. He's currently being held in central soul police station and he's accused of being part of an online chat group that shared sexually explicit videos of women without their knowledge along with several other Korean celebrities, including some re, and I'm gonna pronounce this wrong, Cho, John Hoon. I think they're also alleged to be members of the same group. Now if found guilty and having coming out and admitted your guilt, I'm not sure how you wouldn't be found guilty, but if found guilty he could face up to five years in prison or fine equivalent in US dollars to$26,000 which I think that's a pretty, you know, low some considering the damage you probably did to some of these people.

Speaker 5:

Right, right. Plus the fact that you know, you're a k pop star, you probably, you know, can afford that, can afford a little bit more than that.

Speaker 3:

Well, and John was dropped by his management company, make us entertainment in light of these allegations. So he might not be bringing in the same kind of salary.

Speaker 5:

That is true. Yeah. I'm, I'm guessing his career is probably probably over. Yeah. Unless he goes to, you know, and it could be one of those things where he doesn't perform in Korea anymore, but it goes to another country, you know, five years from now and you know, restarts and you know, in another band that, you know, that could happen. There have been a number of, you know, celebrities all over the world that, you know, have had some sort of sex scandal. Sure. Woody Allen, you know, comes to mind. Yeah. You know, life has been his whole, you know, and, and still, you know, makes movies. So, you know, unfortunately it's a very forgiving, you know, a career path.

Speaker 3:

I just thought it was an interesting story, a comparison since we've been talking about the Michael Jackson documentary and the controversy that surrounds him as well. So very interesting tape culturally. Absolutely. Then in the u s

Speaker 4:

okay.

Speaker 3:

So I had really wanted to avoid talking about this subject, but I don't think I can. Nope. Cause it keeps it, it's, it's like the great, the giant Blob. It just keeps morphing.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. It's a big ball of VR and that just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Speaker 3:

And obviously that's the celebrity college cheating scandal, uh, that had, uh, Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin caught up in the entire scam. So for those who aren't aware, and if you're not, you're probably aren't listened to this podcast anyway cause you're probably under a rock. So I'm nearly 50 people have been charged with taking part in a college admissions cheating plot. The Justice Department officials have said, ah, this is the biggest college admissions scandal they've ever prosecuted. Uh, suspects were alleged to have paid upwards of$6 million to assure their children's acceptance into competitive universities such as Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, and University of Southern Carolina or southern California, sorry. It was run by a man named Rick Singer who's already been indicted for it. He created a, not surprisingly, for profit college admissions company and Newport Beach, California. Uh, sometime around 2011, according to the federal officials, the money would go to one of two illegal activities, either bribing sat or act administrators to altering students' tests by, in some cases, having someone else poses the student to take the test. Or another case is simply correcting the students' answers after they took the test. That seems so much cleaner that way. Why go through the hassle of hiring somebody that's smart. Exactly. The test when you could just, you know, why, why, why implicate somebody else in this if you don't have to write. The other thing was they would bribe college coaches to create fake profiles as the student for the student, as an athlete, regardless of their athletic ability. So not only has this erupted all over the news, every one of their brothers coming out of the woodwork to comment on this. Now former costars are coming out to condemn it. Uh, other celebrities that are completely unrelated to the story are coming out again, dammit. Just because they want to have something to say. And that's the thing. I mean, you've got people that are in the news commenting on this that I don't think of me, the front page of news and a decade. In some cases, people are jumping on it just as great free press. They have an opinion, right? Right. He was like, Oh, I'm against this, so that makes me a good guy. According to the complaint, Huffman and her husband, William h Macy made a report it charitable contribution of$15,000 to participate in the cheating scheme. Now, the interesting thing here is they have two daughters, so they made their$15,000 contribution for their eldest daughter. When it came time for the next oldest daughter, the allegations were that Hoffman was engaged in negotiating this, but they decided not to for the second daughter, which I'm not really sure what that says. As a parent, is it better that you paid money, that she had to get your first order in or that you didn't pay one of the get your second daughter? Is she not the favorite? Right. I don't love you nearly as much as I love her. I don't love you.$50,000 or 10,000, maybe 85, you know, we'll say the interesting thing is a lot of people wondered why her husband, William h Macy wasn't indicted. It turns out the only evidence that the federal prosecutors were able to turn up was his involvement in the second daughter in which they didn't actually, it was like, oh, I didn't know if she did that. Right. Oh, I didn't find out about it until, had to go back to the fact that the check cleared. And that's why we didn't do it for our second daughter cause it was, it was wrong. Right. I wanted her to, you know, work on her own. So the article goes on to say that I'm Lori Loughlin and her husband and I'm going to murder this one. Most of Mo Massimo[inaudible]. Sure. They allegedly agreed to pay bribes totaling$500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits of the USC team. Though neither of them participated in crew team.

Speaker 5:

Right. I remembered seeing that where they posted pictures on their Instagram of them, you know, at like the crew, uh, um, warm up room or something and you know, they were never even part of the team. And I think both of them now have left school cause they will, I believe they, you know, with all the allegations they actually have left while all this is settling down.

Speaker 3:

So, so what are your thoughts on this whole thing? Would you, you know, assuming our daughter is, wants to go to one of these colleges and is not eligible for whatever reason, would you pay a bribe to get her in? No.

Speaker 5:

No. There's, there are hundreds of thousands of different universities and colleges out there. And if you know, if one isn't accessible, there's something else that is, because then what kind of a message are you sending to your, your child at that point? Oh, well I can take care of anything for you. Right. You know, it, it becomes that whole, you know, oh you did something wrong here. Mommy and daddy will fix it. You know, you do something else wrong. It's okay. Mommy and daddy will fix it. Oh, you couldn't get into this prestigious school because you didn't have the grades or you can't take tests. Okay, well mommy and daddy will fix it to you. Well, what happens once you, once you're in school, like how are their grades? How, how have their grades been? Are they paying somebody else to take the classes for you once you get out from college? Are you going to pay somebody else to do your job because you couldn't do it? At some point? You have to have to let them grow up and make their own mistakes and, and make their own decisions. And if they weren't smart enough to get into these schools, well guess what? You know there's community college or don't go to college, go to a technical school.

Speaker 3:

Well, my father was always fond of saying that you don't have to go to college. The world always needs ditch diggers. That it's true. Uh, I agree with you 100%. Um, my take on this was really all right. So I bribed someone to get you in. Now what exactly, you can't keep bribing people to take tests for it. Someone's going to catch on over the course of writing. And of course, you know, there are the quote unquote that

Speaker 5:

have the answer logs to different tests and professors and you always hear, you know, rumors about, oh, take this teacher because we have all the answers will help you out. And you know, so yeah, you know, that goes on at every university, so I'm sure you know, but don't have to go to that school. But you know, like, like I was saying, you know, when are they gonna grow up? You know, when they're, you know, are, is somebody else taking their final exam for, you know, calculus for them, you know, as somebody else, you know.

Speaker 3:

And like you said, once you get out of school, eventually you're going to have, the payoff has shot up, right? You've cheated your way through the whole time, then you're completely incapable of doing whatever it is you're trying to do. Right. So, and, you know,

Speaker 5:

do they need to worry about working in the real world? Probably not. Well, especially, you know, Lori Loughlin his kids, cause daddy is a fashion designer and you know, millionaire, billionaire. So I'm sure if they really wanted to, they could probably go work for daddy and never have to, you know, worry about getting that college

Speaker 3:

gray. So, but the thing is now you're seeing all these lawsuits from all these other students who weren't allowed to.

Speaker 5:

Absolutely. Oh. And, and I think this goes deep to, to the different schools that accepted them and you know, and, and you know, so you start with the, you know, the test taker, you know, the, the, the sat people and the act people, um, you know, and then the, the college admission people that probably got something padded to them too, you know, where you have somebody, you know, a hardworking young adult who, whose parents probably couldn't, you know, afford so many applications to apply to the schools, but they did anyway, hoping that they'd get some sort of scholarship or something. And they're the ones that, that are hurting, you know, from it too.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Yeah. You figured there's only so many seats that they can give people. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. People that don't deserve him, that's deserving people that are getting left out. Yeah, it was a short news week and I think that was all the news that really caught my eye this week. I'm sorry. I think we are ready for our insightful picks of the week and I will bow to you my dear.

Speaker 5:

Sure. So my insightful pick of the week is another Netflix show. Um, I really don't watch a lot of reality shows, um, because some of them are just so scripted and so unreal, unreal. Um, but one that caught my eye when it originally aired, um, was called queer eye for the straight and it was a very interesting show because it took five gay men and they would go and help some straight guy kind of go through like a makeover and some of the guys were kind of down in their luck or they were married or dating somebody and just had a poor outlook on life. And these guys would go in and help to reshape them and do like a whole make-over of their apartment or their house. There'd be grooming, there'd be cooking. I basically, you know, make them a better, better person. And about three years ago, um, Netflix actually rebooted the franchise, just calling it queer eye again with five with the fab five that now we're centered around for the first two seasons. They were centered around the Atlanta area. Season three actually just came out, uh, the middle of March. Now they're in the Kansas City area, so they kind of set up shop and then they, they get nominations from various people that say, hey, you know, this person and has such a hard worker, um, could really use your help. Uh, whatnot. So like the, the one episode was a, um, a wife who is also a prison guard and very into Cammo and just not very girly looking and they go in and transform everything and, and you know, they basically say feminine is whatever you make it to be. It's, you know, it can be, you know, if you like masculine, you need to stop the stereotypes of masculine and feminine. It's whatever you like. If this is what you like, then that's you. So lots of positive messages and all of the seasons they've, they've done, they've helped women, they've helped men, they helped, uh, two sisters, there've been some people that were gay, so, you know, some lesbians. So it's a nice cross culture. You know, the one episode that was really kind of touching was, it was obviously not too long after the election and here they're in Georgia in a red state and they were, and they were helping a very, a very big Trump supporter. And here you have five gay men and you know, and it was interesting to see how they were able to break the barriers. You know, where, where the guy that they were helping said, you know what, never in a million years would I think I'd, I'd be so warm and open to you guys, but I love you. You know, I love all of you like brothers now and you know, so it's, it's interesting how, you know, the show has more from what it was 10 years ago where it was just kinda like, oh, we're gonna, you know, make you look pretty and show you how to eat and eat better. And, you know, groom better to now having, you know, this, this social, you know, understand it. Yes, yes. You know, and, and, and honestly, like almost every episode I ended up crying, you know, cause it's just tugs at your heartstrings and, and it, it just, it, it's just, you know, if you're, you know, you want something a little sappy but yet funny and you know, some of the food tips are actually kind of interesting too. Um, you know, and they do little tips and, and some of the grooming stuff, um, or even the clothes, you know, you know, cause they do, people, you know, they'll, they'll do all different sizes, you know, so, you know, if you're a plus size, hey look, here's some ideas of, of how you could, you know, look better and feel better. And here's some healthier food options. You know, if you're used to eating tater tots and, and, and this, here's what you can make this healthier and takes just as much time. So overall, really good show. I love the cast. I follow them all on, on Instagram. They've been making the rounds because the show, you know, the third season premiered and I was actually kind of upset when I was watching it the other day because I finished the season already. It was only eight episodes. I was like, aw, I know, I know I need to do better with that.

Speaker 3:

Awesome. We're good. So my pick this week is, uh, actually it's on Netflix, but it premiered on Nat Geo and it's national geographics series one strange rock entertainment weekly described it as quote a science show designed to thrill board science students. You recommended this. I give you full props for it. It's hosted by will Smith, which I have to say I did not picture him being a documentary type a host. But the show does not come across as a typical document.

Speaker 5:

And I think that's what, and that's why I told you about it because I started watching it and only had watched like the first five, 10 minutes and I was hooked and I was like, I gotta stop watching this. I got to show it to Joe because he's really going to like this. It's going to be up his alley.

Speaker 3:

It's interesting is it's a cross between a science show, a reality show, and a drama. There's 10 episodes in a season that is available on Netflix, all 10 episodes right now. And what it does is that they basically talk about the natural wonders of the earth. They explore them through the eyes of seven different astronauts who've seen the world. Obviously from a very unique perspective. It's stunning cinematography combined with dramatic scene transitions all narrated into an epic story about seemingly mundane things such as air and they make it sound interesting.

Speaker 5:

Well, I thought the episode that watched with the,

Speaker 3:

the Amazon rain forest, that was the air one and how you know the water gets from here to there and again it was like, wow, that was freaking cold. Yeah. They show the show offers a unique scientific perspective on how so many seemingly disparate things on the planet are linked into a single interdependent and incredibly fragile ecosystem. The air episode that you were referring to, it starts out with dust storms in, in Africa, and the dust storms are picked up by the jet stream and blown across to South America. They dropped the dust there, which is full of fertilizer that helps the brain. Forest Grove and the rain forest itself pulls the moisture up into a river in the air. The way they depicted that river drops snow onto the Andes mountains, the Andes mountains then melt the snow, then pulls all the nutrients out into the ocean, and the ocean then feeds microbiol biological organisms there that then create the air. And it's just the whole, the way that it is shown is so engrossing. It really pulls you in the show. Totally, totally agree. Uh, it's, it's gotta be one of the more unique, and I watch a lot of documentaries on the board and it's, it's gotta be one of the most unique ways of showing signs that really catches people who aren't in the documentary because it plays out like a story. It does, it does. And at the end you see where all the dots and you're like, wow, I get it now. Mind blow. Yeah, I don't have that sound cute. We'll have to get that. Um, so that's, that's my pick of the week. Did you have any closing thoughts there? No, nothing that I can think of. Okay. We will wrap with plugs for all of the ways to get ahold of us. Uh, you can reach us directly on the audio podcast@podcastdotinsightsintoentertainment.com. You can reach us on our website@wwwdotinsightsintothings.com. You can reach us on youtube@insightsintothings.com for video versions of these podcasts. You can reach us on Twitter now at insights on their score things, or you can email us with your questions, comments, and suggestions and comments and insights into things.com and I think that will do it for this week. Sounds good. Thank you so much for listening.

Speaker 6:

[inaudible].

Introduction
Captain Marvel Recap
MillerCoors sues Bud Light
KPop Controversey
Celebrity College Cheating Controversey
Michelle's Insightful Pick of the Week
Joe's Insightful Pick of the Week