Two teas in a pod which Teddy Mellencamp and Camra Judge.
Hi, guys, welcome to another episode of the twat Seat. I'm doing this one solo with one of my dear friends. Alex Baskin, CEO and the newly launched thirty two Flavors Entertainment is the executive producer of long running hit shows including the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Orange County, Vanderplump, Rules, and Botch as well as forthcoming series for, among others, Netflix, Hulu and Paramount Plus, as well as a feature film.
As the president of Evolution Media, he oversaw more than four dozen series during his tenure, and he, along with his business partner, sold the company to MGM in twenty seventeen. But to our surprise this year on Orange County and Beverly Hills, thirty two Flavors, Alex Bastin's company has taken over. So let's get them on, mister Baskin.
Cambra Judge, how are you.
I'm good, I'm good. You know I have to film right after this, right, Oh, I know, I know, you know.
Yeah, let's get you your other job.
Right, so we'll make this quick, right, so okay. So I was up at three in the morning and I watch I listened to Once Upon a Con I listened to the first episode and half of the second, and I was hooked.
Go allead.
So basically. Television personality and founder of La based organic Italian food and accessory company Pizza Girl, Caroline Diamore is taking back control with her powerful new crime series with iHeart Podcasts, premiere in February twelfth, twenty twenty five, on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere the podcasts anywhere you can hear them. The series chronicles de moors transformation for victim to relentless crusader as she exposes David Bloom, the notorious asshole. Yeah, does that set him up?
That is that's a very fair summary. And you know this came to be because I had read an article in the Early Times about this really prolific con man that since the eighties had stolen tens of millions of dollars. He was known as the whiz Kid of Wall Street in the eighties because he stole money from people, including the Rockefellers and even his own grandparents.
So what a real charmer.
Yeah, I mean, this guy is a special breed of asshole. So fascinating story. And then I saw on Instagram that Caroline had been conned by him, and I thought, here's an opportunity to put a face on this story. And and so basically we chronicle, you know, it's his bilking a bunch of people out of money in this apartment complex in which Caroline lived, and sort of how they
all put together what he was doing. And then Caroline decided, you know, like he sort of read in the summary that she was not going to be a victim and that she was going to take the fight to him and that she was going to bring justice to him. And so it's a story that is gripping because it's true crime, and we're all interested in true crime. But it also is empowering, and that's why it's one that I'm happy to bring to life and that I think people are going to be super interested in hearing.
Now you're producing this podcast, correct, right? So once Potacom features exclusive interviews with Willoom's victims, including survivors from his earlier multi million dollar bust in Manhattan in the eighties and the nineties, like you said, uncovering his long trail of fraud across Hollywood and Manhattan and delivering shocking revelations
about his tactics. Now, in episode one I listened to, like I said earlier this morning, touches on Caroline's upbringing, the death of her mother, her TV career, drug addiction, famous friends like the Kardashians, Paris Hilt. I mean, this is packed full of interesting information and the scary encounter she had with Jeffrey Jeffrey Epstein at only seventeen years old, and also covers how she met David Bloom during COVID at her apartment building.
Yeah, and I and I think, what's so this is a very Hollywood story obviously, and you know when she just touched on. But what I like about this too is Caroline is of Hollywood, but always have been looking for her big break. So I worked with her on the Hills and she was known for a number of different things. Was like friend of Paris Hilton, the whole thing.
And when she was really vulnerable and this was during the pandemic and this was coming off of being on the Hills and a divorce, this assle took advantage of her and so she right when she was you know, sort of most susceptible to someone offering up an edge and to connect her to powerful people so that her business would break through. Then he took money from her, and she did not have any money at.
That time, and a single mom as well, right.
Single mom exactly, so you know, taking care of a little girl. And that's why I thought it was a story that needs to be told. And I think if we can bring any awareness to this, I think that's great. And you know, these are not infrequent stories. There are cons out there. A lot of victims don't come forward because there's a shame associated with it, because we like to think of ourselves as smart people for this and
so this happens. And so that's sort of where I thought, you know, it's also an important story to tell because I think it takes the stigma out of having been conned. And I think it's important that we talk about these things.
And then I just think it's an interesting story because cons are so twisted, you know, and and so I always think, like, when people do things like this, why not just apply you know, all of that that zealous all of that zealousness, you know, and sort of that passion toward doing something that is legitimate, but the truth is CON's con like that is what they do, so they don't do that.
Yeah, have they made a series about him yet?
He's been featured in I think a bunch of one offs in anthologies, so I don't know that there's a full series about him. Again, I find him really interesting is he's been doing it his entire life and he grew up relatively well off, so he grew up in Manhattan. He went to Duke like, this is not a guy who had to turn to the life of crime. He chose to turn to a life of crime.
What is wrong with people? I feel like more you more nowadays that people are just turning to crime.
Yeah, yeah, I think that's right, and I think people can justify all sorts of things in themselves. But he was very blatant about it, and he had he has certain go to stories, and you know, again he did this to an entire apartment building full of people. You also hear in this exclusive confrontations between Caroline and him, and so she recorded a lot of their exchanges where she calls him out and then she presents tapes to the DA. He has been charged, So that's.
The good thing and is Ann jail right now.
He is, and we're waiting for resolution of the case. And the DA takes this really seriously, which is which is great, and you know, so hopefully that's a deterrent to other people who do this. But yeah, no, I think that I think people are gonna be super interested in hearing the story. And and again, it isn't just sad. There is a part of it that is empowering because Caroline becomes a crusader in a way that you know that I think is pretty inspiring.
Yeah, and she has a co host on the podcast. I'm not quite sure who that is.
Yeah, it's her friend. So it's her longtime friend, and so she sort of bounces all of this off of him, and he was supportive of her as she was going through this, you know, so that she wasn't she wasn't alone during all of this. And look, she's doing really well on the other side of this. And so, you know, this con took advantage of her interest in getting her hurt, her line of products in Whole Foods at all, and he sort of faked that he had a Whole Foods connection.
He actually impersonated an executive from Whole Foods and now we've come full circle and she actually is in Whole Foods, has a real business and doing is doing well. So the point is like there can be life on the other side.
Yeah, I'm glad. I was going to ask you how is she doing now after this, because this wasn't that long ago.
No, it was only a couple of years ago, and said it was she was really down in the dumps, and she was going to go in one of two directions. This was either going to be the thing to have broke her or the thing that she used as fuel to achieve everything that she wanted to and she went the ladder direction. And so I think that's the takeaway. I think that's possible. Not that it's easy. Some people are completely devastated by this and frankly just don't have
any money left. So there's that, you know. But I think the point is like we have to take the fight to the wrongdoers and not let them all win.
Well, she doesn't seem like a girl that is just gonna sit down and let this happen to her. She's very outspoken. I like her line in her second episode in the podcast, if you live in Hope, you die and shit.
Yeah, I mean, I mean, he definitely took this to the wrong person. You know, she's not the person that that you want to con because she's smart, capable, resourceful, resilient and and so ultimately she drew from those qualities and got her revenge in the best possible way.
Yeah. So we're excited, and I know Teddy's gonna be super excited because true crime is like her passion.
I hope people listen to it and love it and you know, like I said, learn something from it potentially, and let's not let the assholes win.
Yeah, well, let's get into a few other things.
Let's do it.
Let's do it. Mister housewife. I feel like you probably can make a true crime podcast about some housewives as well.
I have no idea.
Is there anyone in particular?
Well, I think I think that obviously, like our world in general, is littered with these like so crazy you can't believe them stories, and I think that's the the you know, the power of nonfiction, right is the crazy stuff that happens. And so it's happening all over the place.
I watched the first episode last night of Scamanda. Have you heard about that? The girl that faked you for ten years. That's pretty good. That'd be a good thing to cover on podcast.
Such a crazy story. So and I and I think too, you can see how influencers would have that power over people, and you can see how intoxicating that is, and so you know, in the wrong hands, with someone who is capable of doing that, it's it's pretty frightening.
Yeah, So Housewives, let's get back. Do you ever does it ever get exhausting being a producer of Housewives?
Yes, and it's and I think that the challenging thing is like when it's not exhausting, sometimes that means that there's nothing happening and it's boring. But yeah, it does. You know, I've always said I recognized how difficult it is to be on the show, and you know, you've been on the show longer than anyone.
And it's done as running Housewives bush tags.
And we were we got together a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about this and this was, you know, on the eve of season nineteen, and one of the things we were talking about is it isn't easier with every successive season. It's actually harder. And it's the same thing in making the show. It's a really it's a taxing show to do.
Yeah, I mean I had a very lovely season, Thank you very much. Who would you say, how many housewife calls do you get a day?
I would say that it varies, and I'm better over the years of like, I'm not the first person that everyone calls where it used to be, So I still get a number of them, but a lot of them are calls from the producers that have been talking to the housewives or the vander Pump cast or the Valley cast or whatever else. So I'm sort of usually I'm the second call, not the first call.
Of these days, by and large, all thank god, right.
Oh god. Anything I can do to you know, to like screen them out, it's great for my life. Yeah.
Me and Teddy are actually have we have a like a flashback podcast for old housewife shows, and we just finished season three. I think it was of OC, which was my first season. I'm like, oh my god, this is so painful to watch. I keep thinking like why did they bring me back? Like, I am like, what what did you see in me?
You changed the game, my friend? So I really I think that the first two seasons I don't even know that. It was a very different show. And so it started as this like slice of suburban life, and the women didn't cross paths all that much. You know. It was like a big deal when like Gina and Joe would get together. It's like, oh, wow, they exist in the same dimension, you know. And then the show became about the relationships between the women and it got louder, you know.
And I think really starting with season three, which just coincidentally happens to be your first season.
Yeah, so it's what one season wonder deserves a second chance. Kimberly Quinn, Peggy Tano's Lizzie, Peggy Shalahan, the hundredth Housewife, Elizabeth Vargas, Noela or doctor Jen.
I'm gonna have to go with Elizabeth Vargas. I think that doing the having her first season in COVID was a challenge and so and I think we were in a transitional time and as you know, we didn't have you on the show at that point. Yeah, so that was just that was but I felt like you won the show because.
She tried to replace me, Alex, she tried to replace me.
You're one of a kind of turns out, but I think that was I think a tough season to join because we started was transitional. You weren't a part of it. We were, We started to film and then we had to stop down for COVID, and so I just think it was just joined. And so I'm not sure that was an entirely but you know, fair.
Run for her, oh for sure. And now looking back, do you wish she would have just put it on pause for one year?
Maybe? Yeah. I hadn't even like thought about that, but but I think that's possible. I think we did the best that we could, and I think the production worked, you know, really hard under the circumstances, but it was not really conducive to making the show.
Yeah. I talked to Elizabeth on social media and she's always so sweet, so supportive, so pro I really like her. Now next season we'll be season twenty. Yeah, twenty years of housewives, Like who would have ever thought? Do you think that the network will have any like special plans, bring back like all the oldies and just go for it.
Well, I don't know that the show itself would change too much because I don't think you want to be too self conscious and I don't think you want to you know, be Yeah, I think you have to, you know, sort of stick to documenting the reality. But I imagine that there'll be a celebration of twenty years, because very few shows ever get twenty seasons, and I can't think of any in the genre. I know, the Real World ran for a long time, but that was different because
it was a different cast every season. I think this is you know, I would say unprecedented without over using that that term, and so I think that that that'll be you know, memorialized and celebrated.
I feel like Housewise is a very well oiled machine at this point, and I feel like it could just keep going. Obviously, Yeah, I'm not going to be you know, throwing blows and insults at sixty.
I don't know about that. I could see you for I could see you making it to season forty, you know, or even sixty.
Yeah, you have to rename it the Golden Girls.
Maybe in the nursing Home. I don't know.
Yeah, well that's a that's a thought. Are you going to miss Alexis this season?
Yeah? I thought, you know, look, obviously it was a very tough season for Alexis, and she took a lot of blows and she wasn't well received, and that was really hard for her. But but I think that, you know, she added a lot to the show regardless of what people think of her. She certainly had a memorable turn this past season. Yeah, And so I appreciate anyone who does the show and just sort of, you know, lets it all kind of hang out, and she did that,
So I do appreciate it. I think that even for her greatest detractors, I think they have to say the season was more interesting in it because she was a part of it.
It would be a totally different season if Alexis was not on it.
Yeah. Yeah, and I'm sure other things would have happened and would have popped up. And obviously it was hard to see how purple it was to Shannon. But at the same time, there's a reason that the audience, you know, enjoyed watching the season and it was really well received. And part of that means not everyone is gonna be well liked.
I know, alex keep reminding me, I got fired. Not everybody's well liked. What's next, You're gonna give me, You're gonna fire me?
Now? Well, I don't know, let's see.
Yeah, exactly. The day is young. You haven't filmed yet. Yeah, Now let's move on to your other new show. Yeah, Denise Richards and her Wild Things. Now what can we expect from this show? Are we going to see Charlie.
Yes, yeah, so, which is great. So you see him get together for a meal with Denise and Lola, one of their daughters, and it's really fun. I like the fact that it's a blend of comedy and drama, and so it's not one of those over the top reality sitcoms, so you know it is. It's completely real, but it's through the wacky lens of Denise Richards.
And whacky is a good word to use when it comes to Dennis, because I was dying laughing when she one of the daughters said something like, you're such a bitch, dude, and She's like, don't call your sister dude. I'm like, oh my god.
It's the wit and wisdom of Denise. And and so
she really is. She's been very strong and resilient, not just to survive in Hollywood all of this time and to continually remake herself, but also to have gone through that very public marriage and divorce and uh, and now this is you know, sort of her on the other side of it, and it's her daughters as young adults and and you know, sort of the way we frame it is you know, she's now faces the greatest challenge she ever has in her entire life, you know, which
is which is them? And so I think she's a kind of fun. We couldn't be more excited that it's on Bravo, which I think is fun. I think it has shades of early days Kardashians again with sort of you know, the the Denise Richard's gloss on it. There's a ton of cameos, so there's appearances from everyone from half the Hilton to Garcel and Sutton to Camille Grammar to America.
And Charlie's Charlie's ex wife as well, and kids.
Broke Bueller and and their kids, you know who Denise has been very involved with. She's a she's a nursurer and a uh and a caretaker.
Is she's like really big into animals and she's a very levy person. Can't when does it air?
March fourth?
March fourth? Okay? Any update on banner pump rules.
We are we're getting set, We're we're really excited about it. We are not endeavoring to make the same show we made before. So it's a new group, all of whom are very interconnected and live together, work together, kind of figuring things out together, which is you know, really the premise of the original vander Pump Rules, but this is a different expression of it, and it's a lot of fun and and so we're trying to, you know, sort of embrace what was great about the original. But I
don't really consider it a reboot. I think, you know, that's that's sort of the word that's thrown around. My view is it's just a it's a brand new group that work at the restaurant, and so, you know, it's a new series that carries on the legacy of the original.
Can you give us any update? Is there any former Vanda pop Roules cast members that will potentially get us spin off?
Well, I think all things are possible. I I you know, there's nothing to announce. Obviously, we did that successfully on the Valley and that second season is uh insane, by the way, So very excited about that. But that's what I would say. I mean, you know, obviously, you know book the Bravo universe is strong, you know, and and sort of as Denise Groves out as well, there's always an appetite to revisit the lives of the people who inhabit it, and so you know, all things are possible.
And how about the Valley any teaser?
The only I can say is you will be absolutely gripped from the first minute and it never lets off.
And it is the craziest season two of any show I've ever made, and positive sense, it is uh fast paced, it is fascinating, it's relentless.
It's the story behind some of the headlines that you've read. And then I'm glad things haven't leaked, you know, But like I'm not over promising it is. It's that good.
What's the air date on that?
It's soon?
Okay, so it's not announced yet, so well great, So Teddy and I are going to recap that as well.
Oh you're gonna I can't wait ear your recaps.
You guys don't have a lot of compent so super excited about that. But yeah, that's all I have for you, Alex. Is there anything else do you want to plug or tell us about?
No, I thank you for highlighting Once upon a Con. I really appreciate it. It's a project that means a lot to me. And then mostly I just want you to get to work.
Yeah, okay, I got thirty minutes, and actually I got twenty five minutes until the camera crews to get here.
So yes, you better get going.
I better get going, all right. Well, it's nice to see your face. Thank you, Bye bye,