Before we get into the episode, we want to issue a trigger warning as we do discuss issues around animal cruelty as well as eating disorders. On today's show, a Melbourne nightclub is slammed for using animals as props. Ruby Tuesday, Matthews calls out influencer watchdog account for body shaming her and how TikTok is helping the monarchy remain relevant. Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the hottest influencer.
And pop culture news twice a week.
I'm Okay, Torbert, and I'm getting very excited because Sophie, you may be my Hills neighbor soon. Yeah, I'm getting ahead of myself. It's the first time my partner and I have ever made an offer on a house, so I'm already picturing myself in this house. I'm becoming a new person, a Hills person, because I live forty minutes away from U Kate, so you've been very eager to
try and get me in your area. That being said, I think there might be other people interested in this house that we have to beat out.
Look, i think I'm going to be more disappointed for you if this offer is not approved.
We actually walked past the house the other day and unfortunately it was pissing with rain. But I realized I've become such an old person because I was noticing all the beautiful trees on the street. Well, it's just such a nightmare of a time to be looking for a house because the interest rates are through the roof. So I feel in a very privileged position that we're even able to put an offer on a house at the moment.
But it's yeah, I'm getting really excited, but I feel like I'm in for a bit of a fall.
We'll see. We'll keep you updated.
It's pretty funny because our parents went and had a look at the house over the weekend, and they're so weird because they give the real estate agents a fake name. Well, the worst thing is that Mum came and looked at the house with me a couple of weeks ago, so they already know it's her. They said, ohso are you looking for someone else.
And she's like, oh, yeah, Mum's.
Mum's strategy is that she will point out everything that's wrong with the house.
Because when Dale and I were looking.
We'd walk into this house and she'd be like, there's a crack and this is shit and this is terrible.
And then we'd walk out and she go, I love it. You're like, well I thought you had.
She rode a pros and cons this for this other house that was near me, and I'm like, why are you running all the cow I'm sensing it's time to leave my rental because we've got some new neighbors and they're lovely people, but they constantly have their garage door up anytime I'm out the front. Oh hello, you know, there's all these times are you're going to have a conversation. I just want to get something in my car, So
basically they're just waiting in the garage to talk to you. Yeah, that is the difficulty with being friends with your neighborhood because I'm on a street where everyone's really nice and it's like kind of like a Ramsey Street atmosphere, but it's almost annoying because sometimes you just want to pop out of your house and go straight to the car and not speak to anyone. But you're on the hills
where the houses are sort of far apart. I'm in a townhouse situation when we share a war with these people and it's just I'm over it.
I've got to get.
Out of it. Yeah.
I think it's a sign that you need to leave. But two rights don't make your rights absolutely.
Two rights don't make it wrong. Correct, two rights wrong. Yes. Melbourne night club Two Wrongs has come under fire for using animals as props during their relaunch event on Saturday Night. Olivia Rodgers' new boyfriend, Morgan Waterhouse's pr agency is facing criticism for the activation after organizing the exclusive, invite only event. Now, So, for those who aren't from Melbourne, can you explain more
about this venue yet? So? Two Wrongs is a restaurant and a cocktail bar located on Chapel Street.
I would also describe.
It as a nightclub. It has a DJ and also a huge dance floor. Now. Isaac Constantine and Zachary Riggs are the founders of the venue. They also run a string of other venues in Melbourne. Two Wrongs appears to have been operating since twenty fifteen, but has undergone a rebrand so. The new branding includes Japanese writing in the logo and the menu is described as having a Japanese fusion.
The rebrand is said to be inspired by the epic battle of c and space whatever that means, and the venue has been reimagined into the depths of underwater Neo Tokyo now. The owners were interviewed back in twenty fifteen about the venue and they said that people take things so seriously in Melbourne in regards to hospitality, and they like to have a lot of fun with their venues.
He said they want to also provide a grungy experience for their patrons while having a laugh too, explaining that two Wrongs is for those who appreciate style and class, as well as the option of playing Nintendo while you wait for a table. Now. The venue also controversially back in twenty fifteen promoted itself as having an all male bartending lineup. Now, Olivia Rogers's new boyfriend, Morgan Waterhouse is at the heart of this unfolding controversy.
That's right, Kate, So just for some.
Background, Olivia officially debuted her relationship with Morgan back in April, following weeks of speculation. Rumors are the couple actually started dating back in December twenty twenty two, just a few months after her shock split from her ex husband Justin mckainn In October. Now, since Hard launching their relationship, Morgan is a regular fixture on Olivia's Instagram. They recently attended Australian Fashion Week together and they have shared their adventures
on a number of brand trips. Now, as well as modeling and creating content, Morgan runs a PR agency called Champagne Leila Now. The business doesn't have a website, which is actually really odd for a PR agency, but it does have an Instagram account and has a following of nine thousand on Instagram. The business describes itself as specializing in luxury PR, event hosting, VIP liaison and private parties. It also states that it partners with exclusive venues, restaurants, bars,
events and brands across Australia. On his agency's Instagram, it said this Saturday, twenty seventh of the fifth We Go japan Now, whoever posted this, I think it is Morgan chose to use Japanese characters for the word Japan, so I think he meant to write this Saturday, we Go Japanese. The post continued, Lila takes on a collaboration with one of our all time favorites. If you know, you know,
strictly invite only Now. This was accompanied by a carousel of very grungy photos of Japanese men and women either smoking or giving the finger. The launch event was attended by a sea of Melbourne influencers, predominantly micro influencers, and to my absolute horror, the venue had reptiles at the launch event for guests to pass around and take photos of. I was pretty taken aback when I saw this online now.
It appeared to be a pr activation that Morgan Waterhouse's company had set up, as he was really front and center with the reptiles. So large snakes as well as crocodiles were being used as gimmicks and being casually passed around like props for influencers to take photos and videos with to promote the venue. It was as though the animals were being used as accessories. It was really gross.
Another Instagram story shows a bald man with a baby crocodile draped over his head while two people are taking photos of him. This man is in fact the owner of the business that supplied the reptiles to the nightclub. So he is a Melbourne identity who goes by the name of Snake Man. His real name is Raymond Hoser We will touch on his reaction to this controversy later. It's quite disturbing that this man is actually the owner of the reptiles and that's how he wants to treat them.
Public is setting the tone for how the rest of the patrons are going to react to the animals. When I first saw this image of Morgan Waterhouse with the crocodile, I thought, is he over in Bali or something. And I was shocked to hear that this was actually a venue in Melbourne because even in the videos you can hear the music is absolutely pumping. Surely these animals are petrified.
I just felt so sorry for them. There is a lot of confusion with snakes because a lot of people assume they're deaf because they don't have exterior ears.
But I did some.
Research into it, and they have two auditory pathways that enable them to detect sounds as vibrations through the air and in the ground. Experts say the snakes are very sensitive to loud noises and it can cause stress in snakes, which can lead to major health problems. It's similar for crocodiles. A lot of loud noises cause stress, and crocodiles actually have excellent hearing, so it can also lead to the crocodile being aggressive if there's a lot of loud noise.
And I'm assuming the flashing lights wouldn't have been great for these animals either. They would have been absolutely petrified. Not to mention that everyone was getting free drinks, so they were probably drunk when they're handling the animals. It's not like you're going to be very careful with them in that situation. It does worry me having animals in these sorts of environments because you don't know if animals are being fed these drinks or the food that's around
the place. It doesn't appear to be much care was being taken with them. I wonder what insurance this company has because I know with petting zoos that go to different parties like kids parties, they have different liabilities and also the venue liabilities as well. And also I've heard that it's really hard to get insurance, especially if those
animals and a petting zoo are around drunk people. Yeah, it hasn't been a good couple of days for two wrongs because in addition to this animal controversy, the nightclub has also been accused of cultural appropriation with a number of staff dressed as geishas. So, for those who don't know, Geishas are Japanese performers who are trained in traditional Japanese performing art styles like dance, music, and singing. They're also known for being proficient hosts, so it's unclear if the
workers dressed as Geishas were Japanese or workers appropriating the culture. Now. We first sparked discussion in our Facebook community on Sunday night about this event, and consequently it was picked up by Ozzie influencer Opinions and also Tea Time with members absolutely outraged by these photos and many found the images very distressing and enraging. Now. Two Wrongs page became flooded
with negative comments after this. One user wrote passing around animals in a bar is just cruel, great rebrand, while another wrote cultural appropriation to promote your club is one thing, but using animals as a prop to be passed around is fucking gross. Yuck. Now. In response to the backlash, Two Wrongs quickly untagged all the Instagram stories which featured the reptiles. Unfortunately, Morgan Waterhouse didn't appear to get the memo, so his PR agency still had the Instagram stories with
the animals up. He is on a trip at the moment, a sponsored trip with Olivia Rodgers, so I don't know if the messages were coming through. Now Olivia wasn't at this event though, was she No, but her best friend and stylist Paul Versaci, who actually introduced Olivia and Morgan, he was at the event, which surprised me. The rest of the influencers there was pretty much made up of a lot of micro influencers. There weren't too many big
names that I recognized. And now you said Paul was there, but he was also photographed with the snake around his neck, which wasn't a good look for him. It definitely wasn't. Now, prominent animal protection group called Community Representations of Crocodiles is calling for an investigation into the incident. Now. This is
a group that is supported by Bob Irwin. A spokesperson for the group slammed it as irresponsible and said nature protection rules need to be updated to combat wildlife interactions in social media. Now, another prominent animal actor, Bailey Mason, who goes by the name Warrior for Animals, also called
out the venue. Now, you may have heard of Bailey because he's got fifteen thousand followers, and he sparked global anger about live dolphins being used in avatar II promotions, so he actually contacted Two Wrongs directly about what he called animal cruelty and exploitation. So a spokesperson for the venue responded, writing, Hey, Bailey, thank you for the message. We did our due diligence with the animal events company
and they ensured the environment was safe. But we take your feedback very seriously, and upon reflection on the event, we will not be having animals in the bar for future events like these. I appreciate the amicable message, Bailey, Please consider this event as a lesson learned. I scroll through your page and support all the work and love you put into animal safety.
What does everyone think of the response?
Well, I think it's pretty good for a private message. I'm assuming the owner thought it may be shared publicly, so that's why he wrote such a good message back. I think it's an okay message, but I think that there needs to be an official statement put out by Two Wrongs. Is now a lot of press attention around this story. I am wondering whether Morgan's PR team is going to put something together for him in the next.
Couple of hours. I'll be too busy on holiday.
I just wonder, though, did they do their due diligence with this company, this event's company, because the handler, Raymond, he's come out and he's given a statement to Yahoo News and he said everyone had a fantastic time.
The snakes look happy, the people look happy. What the fuck is wrong with that? I mean, that's.
Hardly a professional comment, is it. It really makes you think, what's going on with this company. It doesn't appear that Raymond has a great reputation in the industry. He did also tell Yahoo that the snakes are decades old, and he was referencing that to say that they're very comfortable interacting with humans. He's taken a lot of care with them. He also says that criticism stems from a misunderstanding about reptiles. He also bizarrely added into the interview that he was
recently criticized for taping an animal's mouth shut at a venue. See, that's not making things any better. I always wonder how these sorts of controversies end up happening, because surely there are a lot of people involved in the decision making process. You've got Morgan Waterhouse's pr company, who have clearly pitched
the idea. Then you've got Two Wrongs and their owners that have approved it, particularly when this isn't a new thing in the nightclub space, because back in twenty nineteen, a Melbourne nightclub was under investigation for having a live pony inside its venue as part of an opening night promotion. Now it's pretty gross because this pony was dressed up in a pink cowboy hat and on its back it had the words pony is back bitch written in ink.
The RSPCA confirmed at the time that it was investigating and so the animals used in performances must be treated with respect and not objectified or subjected to indignity or ridicule. There was also another recent event at Maurice Jones Coo where they featured parrots at the event, and in the past, as you mentioned, Ami, we have seen animals appearing at nightclubs in Bali. I just can't believe in twenty twenty three venues think that this is acceptable, particularly for venues
like Two Wrongs. You have had a lot of experience in the game. They've been in the industry since at least twenty fifteen. Now we touch on the fact that Olivia wasn't at this event, But what do you guys think would have happened if she had been pictured with some of these animals, because we have seen recently what a battering Emmclair has received after she revealed she'd killed two cats.
As a child.
Maybe she was at the event and just didn't get photographed, because I highly doubt she wouldn't be there to support Morgan. She seems to be at so many events with him recently. Well, it looked like she had an event on with another friend that night. Luckily I was watching eagerly on because I thought, oh, maybe she's going to meet up with him after, and I was thinking this would be a terrible look for her because there's so many brands that do not rightfully want to be connected with any sort
of animal cruelty. The ironic thing is that if Morgan wasn't dating Olivia, I don't think as many people would have even known about this event, and they wouldn't have seen the images online, and he wouldn't be copying this flag now. Well, for him, he has been a micro
influencer for a long time. He has gained a couple of extra thousand followers ince it's hard launching his relationship with Olivia, So I think it will be a learning curve for him that what he does is going to make news now, and it is a reflection on his girlfriend, Olivia, who has a big following, so he needs to be careful with what he does. I don't think this has anything to do with it. I'm not saying it does, but it reflects on her because they're so closely linked.
He's become a part of her personal brand. I know, but I think it's a bit unfair to blame somebody like a living I'm not her boyfriend's action.
I'm not blaming her.
I'm saying it reflects on her because she they are so closely linked. I don't think anyone's blaming Olivia here. She didn't even attend the event. But I think it is an interesting conversation about personal brand and the fact that who you choose to date, unfortunately does reflect on you when they do something like this.
Alao is on my forty thousand dollars tennis court.
You are confrontational and aggressive. Yeah, all right.
I don't particularly want to talk to you.
Because I actually get offended even looking at you down. It doesn't look Ruby Tuesday Matthews has called out influencer watchdog account dutch Minti for body shaming her. The Byron Bay fashion designer revealed she's struggling with her mental health and has called for the hate to stop. No, Kate, how did this all start? Well, it's quite clear from following the account dutch Minty that they have some beef
with Ruby Tuesday Matthews. They normally are quite balanced with their posts, but it can get very snarky when they talk about Ruby Tuesday Matthews and also Sophie Gwidolin Now. A few weeks back, the account was very vocal about calling out Ruby about her brand's hat promotion, which featured a photo of her son that many believed was exploitative. More recently, during a Q and A, they commented on Ruby's thin frame and shared a photo of her postpartum
weight loss. The account concluded many people are of the opinion she has an eating disorder. Now. Ruby responded to dutch Minty, sharing screenshots from the Q and a. She wrote to the page that constantly bullshits and smears hate against me. You have absolutely no idea what I'm currently going through. I can tell you I'm not okay. I had a baby seven months ago and went back to work three days later, packing thousands of orders for our small business that you tried to boycott a week ago.
Again, I have.
Been very transparent, seeking help and trying my best. I'm currently working two jobs and looking after three children that I have taken one hundred percent of the time for reasons I keep private. She then went on to say that she receives horrible messages off the back of comments and speculation that Dutch Minty makes about her. Ruby also asks a page to stop commenting on the way she looks and said, I understand I'm.
Very thin due to serious stress.
The pictures that you have attached above are right after I lost a baby at sixteen weeks. Please leave me alone. She reiterated that she has always been thin, but is currently thinner due to her current life situation. She further explained that as she is the sole provider and primary caregiver for her two children from a previous relationship, she doesn't have the option to take a break. She wrote,
family therapy is not cheap, pediatricians are not cheap. I need to continue to work, and for me, this is my line of work. She followed up by sharing a photo of her breastfeeding her daughter holiday as she packed orders for her business. She wrote, breastfeeding and packing orders, this is what a small business looks like. I just don't understand you. Why you want to rip me down so much, kicking me when I'm down. It literally never stops now. Dutch Minti shared Ruby's response to her feed,
and she was slammed in the comments section. Many people said they were unfollowing the page, while others called for dutch Minti to leave Ruby alone. I think it's a really interesting topic because we have obviously discussed Ruby Tuesday, Matthew's most recent brand controversy. And I think when you open up your life as an influencer, you are inviting people to have opinions about your life. But I do think that there is a line, and I don't think
it's anyone's business to speculate on someone's weight. I thought in twenty twenty three we will pass commenting on women's bodies. I think a lot of these pages do take it too far sometimes, and I think, as you said, Kate, there is definitely a line, and I know when we discuss topics we're going to talk about, we talk about
that line, we say no, that's not appropriate. I think there needs to be more management of this because because it has this anonymous nature, as we've discussed many times, these people feel like they can say anything without any repercussion. I think these pages also have to take the influencer's mental health on board. Again, it's about discussing the issue, not discussing the person. And it's quite clear that Ruby is struggling at the moment. Yes, her brand campaign wasn't it.
It wasn't good, But it doesn't mean it gives people this green light to continue to bully her and comment on her weight and her appearance and her mothering. It is interesting to have her behind the scenes perspective of the amount of hate that Ruby has received off the back of this page because I think a lot of the time, in particular with the new laws that are coming in place, companies or entities like this, they have to manage their comment section to ensure that there's not
bullying or her. But you can't control, really if that's going to then generate hate in the DMS. Yeah, and I think by dutch Minty adding Ruby's response to the Q and A on her feed, she thought she was going to be supported. She thought that that comment section was going to be like, oh, you know, bagging out Ruby, But it was the complete opposite. And I actually found that a really positive thing because it shows that people aren't just blindly following these pages, that they are actually
challenging what is said on there exactly. And I think maybe some of these page owners might think, oh, wow, everyone's backing one hundred percent what I've saying. I've got tens of thousands of followers, but a lot of them are just there for the gossip, and they will turn on the account owner. I also think it's great that Ruby was able to humanize herself, and I think that's why so many people resonated with that post.
Yeah, I agree.
I think the fact that Ruby can humanize herself, whereas this anonymous person on this page can't really humanize themselves. I think that's why everyone has been sticking up for Ruby, and I think that everyone knows a line has been crossed. Yeah, I'm just a bit over these anonymous accounts wielding so much power.
I'm all for them.
Holding influences to account. But when it comes to bullying and directing trolls to influencers, I think enough is enough.
We will Behave you think yeah?
Yes? Gives that? Yet? Yeah?
I'm good.
Sympathy British of it. The Royal Family is experiencing a resurgence of popularity thanks to TikTok. Prior to the coronation, interest in the Royal family was waning, but that appears to have changed so interestingly. Twelve days before King Charles's coronation, stats showed in the UK that seventy eight percent of over sixty five's backed the monarchy, or just thirty two percent of eighteen to twenty four year olds did. The survey also revealed more people and not interested in the
Royal family than interested in them. However, this has all changed so according to The Daily Mirror Royal editor Russell Myers, the Royal Family are beginning to appeal to jen Zea's thanks to TikTok, and this could be exactly what they need to.
Keep the crown going.
Yes, and Kate Middleton is a very important part of trying to get the younger generation interested in the Royal family. She's been called their secret weapon, and has recently been voted the favorite working royal in a recent opinion poll. It's ironic because we never actually hear Kate Riddleton talking about anything. Sorry, I love Megan and I'm a huge
Kate Middleton fan. I think that this survey has been done on me, because as soon as the coronation happened, my TikTok feed was full of Kate Middleton and I've eaten it all up.
I love her.
We do hear a talking, we hear talking to the people who are waiting in line to greet her, and she is lovely. I follow the Prince and Princess of Wales on Instagram and their pr team has done an amazing job. That videography job. I'm actually so jealous. I would love to do that, but they're always showing Kate. She's like she was playing the piano the other day, or that was a good shot. She looks so elegant playing the piano.
And also I.
Really like the fact that she takes her own photo, so she's really interested for two ptography, so she's always taking the photos of the kids for their birthday. Yeah, it was this more human side that we're seeing on social media, and the Royals are definitely booming on TikTok. The hashtag royals has over six billion views. The Daily Mail, who are members of the Royal row to have even launched their own specific royal TikTok called Daily Mail Royals,
where they share all their Royal news. And this explosion of Royal content on TikTok started with the death of Queen Elizabeth and intensified with King Charles's coronation. It's quite funny because there's TikTokers who have now become really influential voices on the Royals, like twenty eight year old American Amanda Matter. So Amanda has one point two million subscribers and it was at the forefront of TikTok's coronation coverage. Yeah, I am loving all this content. I've seen them popping
up on Snapchat as well. I wasn't just sure if that's because of my algorithm, but it seems like a lot of people are also enjoying this content. And this is where jen Zetta's are discovering old news, rumors and scandals about the royal family that they never knew about.
It the stuff that we grew up with. I actually think it started during the coronation because a lot of people were searching Princess Diana on there and there were a lot of TikTok saying this is our real queen, and then as soon as you're interested in her, then you're like, what's the new Princess of Wales doing? What was she like? Yeah, well, there's a couple of videos
that are really going viral on TikTok. Of course, there are the Diana videos of her interview with Martin Bashier back in nineteen ninety five, and there's also this video of Diana.
I don't know if you've seen it. She's running a.
Race at Prince Harry's school. It's absolutely iconic. People are loving the cake content as well, particularly videos of her before she got married to Prince William. They're the party picks, aren't they, of them all out at the night club. I've also seen poor Prince William. They keep showing this photo of him of what he would look like if he got his teeth and hair.
I've seen that he looks hot.
Yeah. People are apparently fawning over the younger days of Prince William as well as Prince Edward I didn't realize he was okay looking back in the day.
Do you know what also you failed.
To make is Louie. Everyone's obsessed with creating tiktoks of him having meltdones as well. I think Louis is great for their brand because it makes Kate Middleton look human. All moms can relate to having this annoying child that's not behaving. It's annoying, He's just a normal kid, and I think it's humanizing the whole Royal family. He is being framed as the new Prince Harry a bit of
a character. But Princess Charlotte is also hugely popular because a lot of people have realized how much she actually resembles Princess Diana. I saw her side, I went viral. Everyone was saying it's the Princess Diana's side because it looked like she did it to Charles and Camilla.
See.
When I see all of this stuff on TikTok, I think there's no way that the Royal Family aren't going to be relevant moving forward. I do feel a little bit uncomfortable about the intense interest in the younger members of the royal family, though, especially in this TikTok era. I mean, imagine them going to school like Princess Charlotte and George and Louie. People are gonna whip out their phones like they're going to be doing tiktoks about every move.
The thing that's concerning from reading Prince Harry's book is that the media create characters for the children which might clearly not apply to them. So Harry grew up being the naughty boy, so he almost took on that persona.
So with Louis, he's a three.
Or four year old kid, and we're already saying, oh, he's going to be the naughty one. He's going to be the one getting with all the girls, like he doesn't know himself yet. How do you know yourself in that environment? He's going to go back. I mean all kids have phones now. When he's twelve, we're probably looking all these articles thinking, Okay, this is what the media expects me, this is what the public think I am.
I'm going to be that. They've almost framed Princess Charlotte as like a Hermione character because she's always telling George what to do, and I mean it is entertaining, But my concern is what about when they go to school. The royal children are protected by certain guidelines in place with the press so they aren't hounded by paparazzi. But now with the popularity of social media, everyone is a journalist and you can't prevent the general public from filming
them or kids at school filming them. So the royal family are going to have to think about how they manage this scenario moving forward. Well, I think that's all we've got time for today. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Outspoken. If you have enjoyed it, could you please make sure you are subscribed on Apple podcast and also Spotify, and we will be dropping part two of our deep dive into Mitch Orwill on tomorrow's show.
This podcast was recorded on the traditional land of the Ghana people of the Adelaide Plains. We pay respect to elders past and present.