Shut Up And Drive

a chef's board down at the restaurant downstairs. Not twenty something dollars, but it's all for shoot though on it. You know good cheeses, some salami, you know, things like that that are really tech. And Tutsi and Gizmo Gizzy wasn't here, but Tutsi's always loved that meat board because she just loves meat, and she's been eating so healthy at Andrea's house. I figured take her on a date and give her some of that good old Italian stuff. And we got there and she just wasn't in the mood.

And I said, you know what, I'm just gonna get a sal bringing upstairs, and I got her some grilled chicken and that was fine, and you know, it's been so long since I've actually had her for a day or so. It was great. But then, you know what, five fifteen in the morning, I wake up, for whatever reason, I look and she's sitting up in bed staring at me, not scratching me, just staring at me. And I make believe I don't see it. We've all done it with our dogs, as if to say, I'm going back to bed,

and so are you. I wake up again ten minutes later, still staring. Now she's closer. It's like one of those paint things in a horror movie. There was a TV show when I was a kid called Night Gallery. Oh my god. It was so scary. It was like a Twilight Zone kind of show. Every week, you know, they'd have these eight short half hour you know, scary scenarios.

And there was this one episode where this woman had a painting in her house of her house right and I s old watercolor of her old house on the hill, what have you. And then one night she wakes up in a start. She's crossing the painting in her foyer and she looks at it, and now there's a man in the painting, and he's at the bottom of the hill. She thinks she's crazy, telling her friends. The friends look, the man's not there. When she's home alone, the man's there.

The next night she goes to bed, she wakes up. The man's closer. The third night, the man is knocking at the door, and suddenly she hears the knock of the door. It was very scary. I must have been ten years old. I don't remember how it ended. I feel like Darren mcgaffn was in it. Maybe I'm wrong. I was wrong about weird Al Yankovich should sing like a surgeon about Madonna. I didn't. Somebody reminded me he's sang that nineteen eighty five, forty years ago. It slipped

my mind. I don't remember that, but maybe that was stuck in the cobwebs of my mind when I said it. So my bed, But she's sitting up staring at me, and finally at five dirty So let's you want to go peep outside once the dog hears you wanna. She knows what the rest of the sentence is, you want to go peep outside? She knows put everything on her. We go downstairs, she does her business and it's called out in Nevada at five thirty am. But she does

her business. Then she wants to sniff everything and act like she's the King of Aria, the Queen of Aria. I get it back in the room, and then she went back down for a few hours. But yeah, it was great to be with her, really great. I also want to mention something, and I'm not I'm not saying this with any anger or any kind of retribution, but one of my patrons who's been following me since my New York City day, so I love her. She's always on the page. She always enjoys herself and says things

about the show. And this is not to cast dispersions, but she did mention today on the Patreon page, Aja, you know, I wish you'd find some peace and calm. I'm not here to hear these stories. I really wish you'd find some peace. When I first read it, I said, God damn it, Like, can't anybody understand that I'm just so brutally honest about my life, the ups, the downs, the all arounds. I don't pull any punches, and you can read me like a cheap paperback at the beach,

and I make it so you can do that. You know what, I'm pissed. You know what, I'm happy. You know when there's a storm on the horizon. Now, I'm not gonna get into it, because all these stories that I'm dealing with in my soul and heart are not only my stories to tell. I gotta sit on them, but they still affect me as a human being, and sometimes that can come out in a show where I'm a little bit more anger driven, more emotional. You know. Listen,

you know you guys know me. It's been almost eight years. You know who I am. There's no secret, there's no surprise. Do you know Joe Rugan's wife's name, No, his kids, No. And listen, that's his prerogative. You know everything about my life. And I like it that way. Not everybody in my life likes it that way, but I do. So I wrote her a letter saying, listen, you know there's a lot of things going on that I can't tell, so just bear with me. Blah blah blah. I wrote her.

I said, look, I don't want you to leave. I love your loyalty, but please, there's sometimes there are things brewing like I didn't even say this, right. I go downstairs to get an uber at the bottom of Aria, and there are enterprising people who come with their car and go to the uber area hoping that someone's Uber didn't show up, and they're in a hurry, and they'll ask a complete stranger for a ride, even though he's not Uber or lyft. So'm I sit in this. I

can't make this. I took a picture to make sure you guys believe me. I get this uber. When I sit in the car, the lady goes, I'm not making fun, but she said, well you se curate code. I said, oh my god, I gotta I gotta do. I said, nineteen twentyn what one nine two zero? And she's pointing at her ears. Second deaf Uber driver I've had in the last four years. I didn't get mad. Look, she's trying to work. And actually the rest of the ride we spoke. She was a truck driver, a cross country

all forty eight states. I take my hat off to this woman. She ain't young either, She's like fifty eight fifty nine. Man, that's a lot of hard work. But to be an uber driver get this on her second day doesn't know directions, asking me where do I go? I said, han, I really don't pay attention when I go to this office or this studio, but I can kind of get you there. I had to kind of get her there. Before we leave. There's a car blocking two lanes of traffic and it's like a semi circle

outside of a whole. Tell you know what it looks like. And people are honking. This guy's not moving. Nobody can move. Six Uber drivers can't move, and no one's doing anything. Now, about twenty yards to my left, there's like an altercation with somebody that Metro Las Vegas police are there, playing clothes guys and shit. So I said to the lady, hold on, I'll put it into this. I go to the guy in front of us, who's not moving his car and blocking everybody, and I tap on his window.

I say, hey, man, you gotta move, bro, you're blocking two lanes. People gotta go to work. We got things to do. I'm a little animated. No cursing, no putting him down, just going just move the car, bro, you can't stay here. Okay. He finally moves. I get back in the Uber. We're stuck at the red light. Can't make it right on red, I gotta tap on my window. It's a cop playing clothes with the fucking shield hanging out of a sweatshirt. Hey, what's your problem, I said,

not the officer. The guy was just he wasn't moving. He's not even an uber driver. He can't be down here trying to get fares. That's not right. But you hit his window, you punched it. I said, I didn't punch it, so I tapped it with my knuckle. That's an arrestable offence, I said, officer. Listen, I'm from cops. I'm sorry, I'm late, but this guy's not moving. He should be more in trouble than me. He's not allowed to be here looking for rids. Then the guy goes

aj Benza. I says, yeah, oh I watched your poker show. I said, oh, well, I'm late for it, all right, listen. Then he got really uh aj. Look. Then the Italian came out of him. Listen, I know you got odd. You to calm down. Everybody's got work to do. I said, I get it, But my man, the guy shouldn't be here, okay, but don't tap on windows. That's an arrestable offence. All right, I'm sorry, he let us go. Jesus Christ. So the patron wrote me, aj find peace and calm. You're right.

Still haven't found it yet, But I still think I was in the right by telling I got to move his fucking car. That's all I just do. I do, just like I'm in the right with that cerebral palsy. A person who got her double mestectomy. One of my patron's wife has been a nurse in that field with you know, handicapped miners or children, and blah blah blah. And she says, this doesn't seem right. He can't this

person can't communicate. This girl can't communicate. She communicates with a message board like Stephen Hawking, Like that should not be enough for doctors to perform that surgery. So I feel I'm right again. You know, you can't just lop off someone's breasts because they said so through a message board, you know what. Anyhow, I'm not man, I'm just trying to tell you where my life is at certain points. Okay,

let's move on. Anthony Mackie. This kid, I thought I was gonna just go Banana Zova because of what he said. The actor Anthony Mackie. He's the new Captain Americain America is now black, Okay. The movie's called Captain America Brave New World. And he had a quote that went viral the other day about what Captain America represents and basically he was saying, it doesn't really necessarily mean just America.

So people were banging that quote around like crazy, and he said something that I didn't think was really I think it was tacky. He said in Italy promoting the film, Captain America represents a lot of different things, and I don't think the term America should be one of those representations. Really. His name is Captain America. Is that it's about a man who keeps his word, who has honored dignity and integrity and American but whatever. He don't want to talk

about that. But I think people got in his ear because later on he made another post that said, I'm a proud American and taking on the shield of a hero like CAP is the honor of lifetime. I have the utmost respect for those who serve and have served our country. CAP has universal characteristics that people all over the world can relate to. Good. I'm glad he found

his smart footing. But then I did some research and I found out that the first Captain America, Chris Evans, kind of said the same thing back in twenty eleven, and this, you know, this got by me. I wasn't doing the podcast back then, but he said. They asked Chris Evans, what does it mean to you? He said, well, I'm not trying to get too lost in the American side of it. This isn't a flag waving movie. It's red, white,

and blue. But it just so happens that the character was created in America during wartime when there was a common enemy. Even though it is Captain America. I've said before and interviews, it feels more like he should just be called Captain Good. All right. You know, look, man, if you go further back, because I ready to go bananas over Anthony Mackie, what happened here? Massive emergency responds

DC fire, small airplane crashes at Reagan Airport. Okay, I gotta keep politics on all day because there's so many things Trump is doing. I can't take it right. Kennedy getting roasted by the by the Senate. It's been crazy today, but I'm here for it. But you go back and look at what the actual comic said. You go, wait a minute, maybe Anthony Mackie and Chris Evans aren't that wrong.

And then because there's an example from way back when where Captain America says in a comic, listen to me, all of you out there, you were told by this man you're a hero, that America is the greatest country in the world. He told you that Americans were the greatest people, that America could be refined like silver, could have the impurities hammered out of it and shine more brightly.

And he went on about how precious America was, how you needed to make sure it remained great, and he told you anything was justified to preserve that pearl, the great price that is America. And then he said, well, I say America is nothing without its ideals, its commitment to freedom of all men. America is a piece of trash, a nation of nothing. A flag is a piece of cloth. My god, I fought Adolf Hitler not because America was great, and because it was fragile. It's a very good point.

I gotta admit. I knew that liberty could be easily snuffed out here, as in Nazi Germany as a people, we were no different than them. When I returned, I saw that you nearly did turn America into nothing. Now you gotta ask yourself if Anthony Mackie, a black actor, had said that, Wow, there'd be a firestorm. All Mackie is doing is kind of reiterating that same sentiment about

that character. And you know, initially I was ticked off about the way that looks so many people with this anti America sentiment that I thought, why is this guy who's so lucky to be an actor? Just what a wonderful life, you know, and he's got to talk like this. But if you go deep into the story, you'll realize that it isn't exactly what it sounded like. Okay, what I do have an issue with is I don't think

Captain America should be black. I don't look if other heroes, superheroes like Cyborg, Luke, Cage Storm, or Blade, who were all black, if they were suddenly cast with white actors, they'd be hell to pay from black Hollywood. First of all, Hollywood is too chicken shit to even attempt to do that. So don't bite my ass if I say the superheroes who we created many decades ago as white superheroes. I

think they should remain white. I'm a writer. If I write a book about me and my gay cousin Gino, and many years later you make Geno black, No, that's not the sentiment. You can't do that, just like you can't change the statue of the guys planning the flag at Iwo Jima. But they went ahead and did that, and that, in my opinion, led to so much DEI nonsense, an affirmative action bullshit. And that's why Trump is erasing all of it because it's not true. It's a false

way of living. It's a lie. If there were no Asians on top of that hill, don't put an Asian on the hill man in the statue, don't do it. That's a piece of art. What's next, Mona Lisa should have an afro? What are we doing? It's art. Whether it's a superhero movie or a paint thing that's hanging in the louver, it's the same thing. Man can't change it, and it's not racist to say that. Look, I got no issue with the black president. I voted for the guy the first time. But I don't think there should

be a Black Captain America. I'm not going to watch the movie. It's not racist, It's just I like things to stay in the original way the artist created them. Let me also ring in a little bit with this Baldoni Justin Baldoni Blake Live stuff, because you know it's every day in the papers. It's not going to go away. Christ The trial has not even set for the twenty twenty six. But as I told you, there's not going to be a trial. These folks will all settle because

this is nonsense. It's nonsense. But there's now regurgitation of old texts and different sorts of things that we're seeing between Baldoni and Blake Lively. And if you look at the early exchanges between the two, they had a friendly working relationship before things took on a very bad turn. In that movie, it ends with us. If you haven't

seen it yet, yeah, you should see it. Like I said the other day with the whole you know, domestic violence angle, you should see it because there's too many guys out there who you know, you just can't do that sort of thing. And I was honest enough to tell you all I've been there, not punching, not throwing someone down the stairs. But I've been that guy in my youth who would grab somebody whatever. Just a fucking stupid way to live your life. And it's not right

and I can't unsee it. So I watched it. I think you all should too, because even though you may not have done those things, I bet you thought of it. I bet it flash across your head. Either way, it's not the point. The point is since the suit was filed by Blake Lively for two hundred and about fifty million, and then Baldoni counted with a four hundred million dollar suit. Since then, we've seen a bunch of texts and emails

that was sent between the two. You go way back to twenty twenty three in the spring, and they were constantly communicating, these two And this is the part of being a big star, or even being married to a big star that you got to put up with in Hollywood, not just the love scene that we see in the theater.

You go, Christ, how could my God, it's got to be tough to be married to that beautiful actress and have this guy, you know, fake having fake sex with their and this is God, it's got it's hard to just like how was work today, Honey, today was a love scene. They know. They circle that on their calendars. They know when it's coming up, and so do their mates.

Either way, these two were talking left and right, sharing stories, sharing pictures of themselves different parts of their lives, commiserating over whose family had somebody sick in it. They were sending jokes to each other, memes you know, and Lively wrote at one point, it's such a good feeling to get work done that we're proud of, and to do it together. It just clicks when we find it, and that's just as rewarding as filming it or editing it

or marketing it or releasing it. This is all storytelling. This is why we do it. And then she thanked Justin Baldoni for his quote collaboration, saying that she was quote really proud of what they're doing. Now you've seen some screenshots they're being released at nauseum that show Baldoni loved the message and wrote back, I like sentimental Blake, and she wrote back, never met her, and then he

said I also like asshole Blake. Don't worry, and then she ended the exchange in a very self deprecating manner by saying I've met her some of my suppositories. Okay, Look, two people excited to be young and rich and famous and making a movie, both feeling happy and lucky just to be alive and be so fortunate. You can get high standing next to people like that as I have. What I've been in movies with major, major people. It's catching.

And before the first day of filming, Blake messaged Baldoni to say how grateful she was that what they built so far, and she said, I'm so excited at the start tomorrow, but it's only one piece of the journey offungoul of the journey we started months ago. She wrote, thank you for caring so much about me, for putting every bit of you into showing it, and he praised her back. And this is where look, man, it's this

some flirting going on. He wrote back, I'm not going to tell you that you're amazing because you tease me for being so sentimental, but you were amazing today. I'm sorry, that's a flirt alert. Ladies. What do you think, guys, what do you want your wife getting that text? I mean, if you marry an actress who's beautiful, that's gonna happen. It's part of the territory. But still, she wrote back, thank you. I do appreciate it. I'm just a bull, but it means a lot to me. I care a

great deal and always want to deliver. And again he says, you were terrific. I'm proud of everything we did today. But really, every day these two go back and forth. Meanwhile, she claims in this suit that he sexually harassed her on set and those intimate scenes, that frigging scene and the rooftop which I highlighted, and she said it made her feel uncomfortable on more than one occasion with his sexually suggestive remarks. I'd say, you know my suppositive. I

suppos that's kind of not sexual, but it's suggestive. It was going back and forth. But this rooftop scene, which I said the other day was the phony scene of all time. Early on, Blake Lively said she wrote that scene, and now we've come to find out that her husband, Ryan Reynolds wrote that scene. And now that I think of it, if you've seen the movie, the lines she says sounded an awful lot like she was speaking as

if she was dead. Really, especially that dumb line I told you guys about I read somewhere that Maraschino Cherry is staying your system for seven years or they close cancer. I forget. Can't you see Bata boy Ryan Reynolds saying that and thinking, I just came out with a brilliant line. I got a brilliant line. Now I got my phone call my phone commercial. That's who he is. He's very breathy. He says things like this. That's not gonna come out

of a woman on a rooftop meeting a stranger. But I heard some audio of Justin Baldoni leaving Blake a message in like one point thirty two am. Excuse me, there comes a point where there's no more phone calls. We'll talk again tomorrow. I don't like that shit. When I dated an actress years ago, I told you I come home and after six o'clock at night, the work day is over. I don't want to hear about your

got season, your additions. You can't sit there at dinner and clamor on about how it went and how you think you did. It's over. Let it go go out there again tomorrow and make your name, make your mark. But it gets very annoying when you date an actress or an actor who's gung hol on making. It takes a special person, typically a person in that field, to understand it. But the phone message he leaves it's very

breathy and flirty. I know, guys, I love being with people and being in somebody's face and face to face. I feel like that's where I excel. And I've definitely fallen short in our texting because there's so much to communicate, so much is happening Blake. Look now that I know, I saw the movie and have gotten to really focus on anymore because I didn't watch the TV show he was in back was it Jane Jane the Virgin, whatever the I don't like those shows. I didn't watch Gossip

Girls either that she was in. But I do find him compelling. He has the vulnerability quotion. He seems kind, at least on film. But I think what Blake and Ryan have done to him is just real shit. You know, don't forget Ryan Reynolds wanted to pay him and take over the sequel of this movie. And again, like I said, Blake lively lyed and said she wrote the scene. She didn't, her husband did, really, and then they got him expelled from William Morris because Ryan and Blake are both big

shots there. Baldoni's just coming up the ladder, although he's gonna get a lot of work after this. I'm telling you, you know, they had the fame, the weight, the connections that he didn't. They came across like school yard bullies. But I don't find her text to him sentimental at all. I think she sounds condescending because she speaks to him like she's the director and she's not. He's the director. They're both actors, but he's the director and he also

produced it, and he bought the rights to the book. Okay, she should be in deference of him telling me was terrific. After he wrote amazing, she wrote, proud of you today. You know all that shit marketing, editing, releasing that this is not it's not mutual. That's his job, you know. And then there's there's emojis being used in their text and such, and I can't get at all that stuff. But look, man, these people, I've heard from people close

to them that they're gonna settle. And Justin went away to Hawaii with his wife to kind of think things over after we fouled that formed a million dollar suit, and I'm sure it will be. I trust the person who told me. But there's a lot here that went on between these two that I gotta ask you a question, and I can tell you I would be okay with my best friend texting my wife what words Justin wrote, but I would not be okay if my wife texted

him what Blake Lively wrote. Does that make sense? But I'm not the least bit surprised because I said Blake was suspect for beginning. Now I think Blake and her husband are suspect because they're both huge narcissists, so is Justin, but not on the level Blake and Ryan are. And I think she comes across condescending. We've seen her in interviews many many times where she does not treat journalists

the right way. I mean, she's pregnant and the journalist says, oh, I love you, bump, and she says to the girl who's clearly not pregnant but overweight, I like yours too. You know what, who says something? What woman says something like that? And you know what, let's be honest. Okay, she was seeing Ryan knowing he was married to Scarlett Johanson, just like Angelina, Joe Lee and Brad Pitt. Let's just put her in our in our uh, in our sights and think of the kind of girl she is. Maybe

she needs. Ryan Reynolds is boring after she dated Leonardo DiCaprio. I don't know, could be, but her career isn't like her husband, so you know she's not there in terms of money. And if they have a split, the child support alone for four kids would be a tight grip on her husband. Let's see where their marriage plays. But like I said the other day, with respect to this story, I think Ryan was is jealous and engineered this whole thing to keep his wife, who had chemistry with Baldoni,

from straying. That's what I really think. But gun to my head, I would not like a man texting or lieving phone messages for my wife at two o'clock in the morning. I mean, he sounds innocent, but I also know the sound of a man's voice when he's into a woman and angling to see what she feels. You get me. They're all guilty. They're all Hollywood assholes. And that's why I said this will be settled before long.

And speaking of Hollywood. I'm not going to clote asshole, but Hollywood people, Cameron Diaz is a I don't know. People think this movie with Jamie Fox back in Actions enough for her to get back to acting, because she's mentioned she's got some projects. This is a woman who retired from acting, hadn't been on the red carpet for years. She stepped away in twenty fourteen after she did Annie, which I've never seen and will never see because I can't stand that song. But Back in Action as a

horrible movie. Cameron Diaz, who in her day was a sexpot, funny. Oh my god, something about Mary Charlie's angels. There's too many to count. Cameron, that the woman, she was a teacher. Oh she was great. And I used to see with the Playboy Mansion, and I'm not gonna cast dispersions. We all were younger and crazy, but Cameron was a fall down drunk at the Mansion. She was falling over bushes and laughing. She's a crazy girl, party girl, fun girl.

She married a goddamn rock star. That's where she is. But now she's got another movie coming out called Outcome with Keanu Reeves and Jonah Hill. She's going back to work. Listen. I don't know who's telling her she needs to be back at work, but Cameron Diaz had a specific look, you know. And when she said no to everything and walked away from acting, I kind of felt like, that's not a bad move. Like she did it. She made

so many movies. Then she started up was it a home goods business or whatever it was, but she was making money with the business. She had a couple of kids. Their names are another story. A son named Cardinal and a daughter named Radix. I think that's like, what is that? That? Is that some kind of airborne illness a Cardinal gets They catch radicks from another bird, Radis and Cardinal. I don't know what people are doing to these poor kids. But look, she wants to get back on the saddle.

I think it's a bad idea. I think it's better stay home, be a mom. You got plenty of dough. And if you're thinking that back back in action is going to be the springboard that leads you to a bunch of new films, it's not. It's such a bad movie. Jamie Fox has is afro painted on. I don't know how much topic they used on top of his head to make it look completely black. But every guy over forty years old has a hole in the back of the head like Saint Anthony. But big shot actors never

have that hole. You wonder why. Yes, I know they have hair systems and all sorts of rugs and tupe's and plugs. But Jamie Fox gets his head painted on, and Cameron is as beautiful and fun and sexy as she was. That's not who she is anymore. It just isn't. So I look it. Man. Just be home with your kids, be a devoted mom, which I'm sure she's great at. Let your husband do his thing with the music and having a ball, and live you wonderful life. No one's

clamoring for you to get back at it. Make a movie every two three years one get your three four million dollars, and you know that's fine. But I don't want anybody misleading or telling up we need you back out. Are you the best thing that have happened? No, she's not.

Don't let them fool you, Cameron, Because actors and actresses love to hear how great they are and how great they look, and that gets there, It gets their engine burning and they begin to think they're better than they really are, and that's when they come up looking like

a fool. And I don't want to see that with her because I think she's too cute and too sweet, and she's had too much of a good time all these years with the movie she's made that really left the mark on us, So I don't want to see that. That's just my personal opinion. A short show thirty one minutes, maybe thirty two. I got thirteen hours of poker tomorrow and woke up early, Like I said with TUTSI, five

o'clock in the morning. I'm going to hit the pillow early tonight, get back at it tomorrow, thirteen hours in the booth again for two episodes that I'm here again tomorrow. Me and Agavina were doing everything as a bit, so we're keeping up all into the bargain tune into that. That still actually is a lot fun. I love that show because I have half the work to do and I can bounce back and forth with my best friend of fifty plus years. We're in the same way. You've

learnt about so many things as inside jokes. Whoever hasn't heard it yet, listen to it. It's really fun. And the two of us have a chemistry that you can't manufacture, and it began way back in nineteen seventy three, seventy four. Longtime folks, long time check it out for old friend's sake. I'm aj Benz and that was your rather short but jam packed episode of Famous a Bitch for January thirtieth, twenty twenty five. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow