CONtent Creators, Scamfluencers & MTV VMAs 2023...Oh My

The 2023 MTV VMAs kneeled before Taylor Swift plus the addition of Afrobeats as a new genre is introduced this year. Host Maddy McClain covers the wins & performances of the music awards ceremony before diving into fall TV series being released. The Hollywood writers' strike keeps things interesting but still many good excuses to stay at home and binge watch.

Danny Masterson from That 70s Show is sentenced to prison for 30 years to life and his famous costar couple is now under fire for their character letter that was made public. 

Finally, we're talking influencers & socialites gone con artist after the latest news of Danielle Nicole Miller being convicted of fraud...for the 3rd time. 

Enjoy your dose of pop culture and entertainment - cheers fam!

Transcript

 Hello homies, muchachos, bichachos, hombres, amigos. Welcome to another episode of Easily Entertained. I'm your host, Maddie McClain, coming to you live from Austin, Texas, where it's a good day for threefold reasons. Number one, number one, because, well, Oh, it's just another day waking up knowing that Texas has beaten Alabama on their home turf, and that, that, my friends, gives me immense pleasure.

So sorry, Alabamians, Alabamans. Sorry, Tuscaloosa. You might hate me, but that's okay. We can still be friends. My dad's side of the family are all Sooners, and we're still friends, so coexist, y'all. Anyways, so that's number one of why it's a good day in Austin. Number two, is, it is officially below 100 degrees.

We have finally hit a day where supposedly it's not going to reach three digits, and that, that That's a gosh dang miracle, guys. It has been hotter than, ugh, because, well, we're ruining the planet. But that's besides the point. Today, it's a little bit cooler, and for that, I'm grateful. Reason number three of why it's a good day is because our boy Drake, Aubrey Graham, is here in Austin, and I get to see him tonight with one of my very best friends, and I'm so, so excited.

So, today is a good day. But what else will we be talking about today, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. We'll cover the MTV Video Music Awards that went down last night, and tell you about all the wins and the losses and... All the shenanigans that went down this year. We'll also talk about Afrobeats in particular, as this genre made its first debut at this year's VMAs.

And kind of give you a little bit of behind the scenes and how Afrobeats, or Afrofusion, has really started to grow in popularity over the last few years. And, um, that's pretty sick because the last time that a new genre was introduced in the VMAs was in 2019 with K pop. So, you know what? Look at us go.

We expanding. And I think that's how it should be. There's... So many more. Jean Ross. So that's very cool. Then we'll talk about That 70s Show, Danny Masterson, who was just sentenced to prison, and in particular Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher's character letter that was released to the public that was written to the judge, and we'll kind of dive into that and why the couple is And then we will talk about TV programs and fall TV shows to look out for this year that are still moving forward despite the writer's strike.

Um, a lot of, a lot of shows have been moved and pushed into 2024, some just to November. because of the strike, um, but there are some that have already been filmed and are ready to rock and roll, but we'll catch up on all that and what to look out for as if you needed more excuses to waste your time on the couch.

That's fine. That's fine. I'm gonna let us all live a little. And finally, we'll talk about the main meat of the podcast. The main entreprene d'entrée, if you will. We're talking about influencers and socialites turned conmen and conwomen. Particularly Con Women. This episode Danielle Nicole Miller, who was featured in Hulu's docuseries.

Um, it's called The Age of Influence. Really interesting. There's, uh, six episodes in the series and I flew through them all. I love that shit. Eat it Up. But we'll talk about that first episode here that talks about Danielle, Nicole Miller, who's an Instagram influencer, who basically flaunted. All of these designer objects and her, like, rich, luxe lifestyle that essentially was all stolen money and she is being put away as of recently to prison again, um, but this time for a very long time.

So I'll talk about that and, uh, it just seems to me that there are so many more con men and women coming out of the woodwork. And... It's a little bit insane, so let's talk about it, right? Right? The

VMAs went down yesterday, Tuesday, September 12th, and Once again, baby, it is Taylor's world, it is Taylor's year, and, uh, we're simply existing. And, um, kudos. So she brought home nine awards from MTV's Video Music Awards. Largely, and a lot of the big, the biggins, the biggins, um, for her music video for Antihero.

Which is... Personally, one of my favorite music videos. I think it's super well deserved, you know, it's kind of like watching Professional football though, like, you know, all the the winners basically already. It's kind of the same big big boys If if you will she took home not only Best video and song of the year.

She also got artist of the year Direction, as well as pop video, so pop specific. She pretty much took it home. She took this whole thing home. She also, um, unbeknownst to her, or maybe she, now she knows for sure, she also took the award of the best, uh, crowd, best vibe in the crowd. She was everybody's hype woman, and she probably was a little drunk, and I loved it.

I loved that for her. She definitely vibes to every song, and I think that's cool for a musician and an artist to support other artists just because. And not always be like competition, you know what I'm saying? Other winners from the VMAs this year were Nicki Minaj in Hip Hop Video of the Year for Super Freaky Girl.

Loved it, loved it. Um, we also have Blackpink won, um, Group of the Year. and choreography. Alternative video went to Lana Del Rey and John Batiste with Candy Necklace and I had never actually even heard the song before. Um, I heard they won and I looked it up and it's pretty solid. I recommend Lana. I feel like she's gone through some shit, you know?

Lana apparently had always dealt with stage fright throughout her career, um, but in recent years as she's gained weight, critics and, you know, media and the general public has not been so kind to her. Shocking, I know, that, um, the world would be so unkind about weight gain. Never heard of that. Um, you can see what mood I'm in.

But anyways, so she's always dealt with that and hadn't really toured for a long time, and there were rumors going around that she wouldn't be touring again. However, she did announce not too long ago, um, that she has a small fall tour that I Believe starts later this month and it's, there are only 10 cities, but Austin is one of them, um, for my Austin friends.

But honestly, award ceremonies have lost their zhuzh, like it's definitely ultimately what these big artists and musicians, whether it's for music or acting or whatever. what they work towards and is obviously an ultimate sign of success in these industries. But I don't know. They've just, they used to be so much better.

Or maybe I was just, I think the world's priorities and interests have totally changed after COVID. It was like, everything was kind of In, on display, how, how the different groups of people in the world really do exist, you know? Like, when celebrities put out that really, really, uh, just jaded, like, so... Just out of touch video that was like they did a Beatles remake and we're all singing like We'll all get through this together and they're like singing from their multi million dollar Malibu homes Side note though.

Why are all of the super super nice rich deluxe luxury houses In the most precarious of places, where like in LA, like up in Malibu, and where like there are so many different earthquake risks and shit and fires and I don't know, I don't know, I guess they can afford to live on the edge a little bit more, so why not, you know, why not risk the 25 million dollar home, um, I don't know.

But, hey, I'd love to I'd love to be in a situation like that. Can't blame them. If I Anyways, I digress. We are way off topic now talking about houses in, uh, the hills.

The performances themselves were very good for the most part. Demi Lovato sang and Doesn't sound so hot. Um, I'm not, I think I've already talked shit on Demi Lovato. I'm, I don't know, I guess this is not a Demi Lovato fan account. Um, yeah, but anyways, Doja Cat also performed. She had her creepy little demon dancers with blood all over them.

Doing whatever she does now, um, in the deep dark interwebs, they think it's some Illuminati, like, there was this whole situation where fans, like, were like, We love you, Doja, and she wrote back and said, I don't love y'all, and her, I don't love my fans, like, that's fake, and, um, People didn't like that. Her fans didn't like her saying she doesn't love her fans, so she lost, like, millions of followers the next day, and, um, she stood, she doubled down.

She stood by it. I guess I get it. It's like, they are all strangers. Like, you don't actually love them, but, like, let's be real. The only reason famous people are famous is because they have an audience, you know? So, I think, uh, a little gratitude goes a long way, don't you know? Um, Who else performed? NSYNC got back together, but no, they did not perform a song.

They just handed out an award, which seems, seems like a cop out to me, you know. Seems like a cop out, but that's pretty cool. At least they're all, they are all staying in there, handing out awards and together for a photo op. So that's pretty fun. Then Olivia Rodrigo also performed Shakira. She won the Video Vanguard Award, which is just like, she's crowned queen of music videos, as she should be.

Um, and that pretty much wrapped up the VMAs. Um, there was a brand new introduction of a genre called Afrobeats, which is a pretty big deal. This was made especially popular in particular by Rima's collab with Selena Gomez on the Calm Down track, Such a Bop, Such a Bop. Afrobeats is the name that the powers that be, the man, society, whoever's in charge of this, uses for the music originating from West Africa.

It's those like, sexy, rhythmic, deep bass, usually upbeat... Um, but definitely not always kinds of songs. Think Burna Boy, Wizkid, Tims, Rima, of course, many of whom are Nigerian, and ooh, another popular song this year was Fireboy, DML's Peru.

You all know it. Afrobeats these days, at least for the last few years, has really been growing in popularity and making a mark within mainstream pop music here in the US. Of course, it's been It's been big in other parts of the world, in West Africa, where it's originated, but we've got, you know, big name players powering up with, with major artists in the U.

S., like Drake on Certified Loverboy, with Tims, uh, making it onto the Top 40 charts, but, and this is a big deal, it, I, you know, apparently, it takes a long time, or rarely do they add genre specific music, it's been bigger. Within the awards circuit, so you've got, you know, the Grammys, you've got the American Music Awards, and Video Music Awards.

Um, this, in the last century, this is the third category to be added. The others were Latin in 2006, and K pop in 2019. That's, I don't know, that just seems ridiculous. There's so many other... There are so there have to be so many different types of music categories that it's wild to me that there's only been three in the last century, but the more you know, the at least this is VMA specific.

The five other genre specific categories include rock in 1989, alternative in 1991, R& B 1993, and pop and hip hop, both in 1999. So then after that, Latin and K pop, and now, um, Afrobeats. So look at that. Look at that. We're all expanding. But it's, I am so into this genre. It's super rhythmic, very dance y. I'm loving it.

And whenever you start to see big aughts.

That's when we started to hear pop artists like Britney Spears or Ed Sheeran or whatever, you know, mainstream pop stars that you think of, when they started adding some electronic or kind of techno EDM beats into their music, it's a sure sign that that thing is blowing up and gonna be huge. Or rather, it already is huge.

That's not a big news to anybody here, but pretty interesting. Um, I read this article that was on Rolling Stone that I found really interesting and kind of, that gives a background as to how Afrobeats has made its way into the top charts here in the U. S. Um, it's called Afrobeats is Everywhere, if you want to read it.

It's really interesting. Um, But essentially, it was popularized largely First, there is Afrobeat without the S music by Fela Kuti in the 1970s, which is another particular genre of music in West Africa, while Afrobeats with the S is more adding in those digitally produced sounds and sung in English as well as West African and Pidgin languages.

While the SAG AFRA and Hollywood Writer's Strike is still ongoing. Which has pushed a lot of fall TV series and movies launch. into 2024 and some into just November, but there are plenty of series and TV shows that I'm personally excited about that are coming out soon. So you have some more to add to your list and things to look forward to.

One of them being Hulu's The Other Black Girl has just released its first episode, I believe, but it's based on a novel that follows editorial assistant Nella, the only young Black woman at her company, who finds comfort when that finally changes. However, upon meeting Hazel, she quickly realizes something sinister is going on at the company.

We love a little bit of thriller. We love a little bit of suspense. This sounds really interesting. And our girl Garcelle from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is in the show, which I find particularly intriguing. Another one that's coming out is that I'm interested in, and I think you will be too. It's coming out on Amazon Freebie.

I guess is, like, another offshoot. I mean, what does Amazon not own, really, these days? Like, they're kind of conquistadors, if you ask me. But on the 18th of September, they're relaunching this Australian soap, Australian drama. I bet soap is... Soap opera probably means something a little different than here in the U.

S., but it's called Neighbors and it's the show that launched many famous Aussies that we know and love, including Margot Robbie and the Hemsworth Brothers. And in the relaunch, uh, coming out of this series, Misha Barton is in it, our girl Misha. I feel like, for me, that Misha Barton was the It Girl, probably when I was too young to be, like, watching The O.

C., but I mean, I had older siblings, right? The rules don't apply to me as much. Anyways, uh, so that sounds interesting. It looks like almost a, um, I don't know, a Friends or a That 70s Show. But, like, modern and, like, more drama based, as well as, I, I don't know. It looks interesting, check it out. Another show coming out.

There are going to be lots of reality TV shows that are kind of getting pushed and Well rather being sped up and launched in this timeframe as what usually happens when there are in the past been rider strikes because, well, you don't necessarily need riders for reality. That's as far as we're told and the belief that we're so supposed to be existing under.

But one of them that's coming out in October on the 12th is House of Villains. It'll be on E, and essentially they have all of these reality T TV villains from. Vanderpump Rules, The Challenge, and Bachelor Nation, and the Trump White House. Yes. Um, they battle it out in quote, physical, mental, and emotional challenges, working to out scheme one another in order to win the 200, 000 cash prize and the title of America's ultimate supervillain.

Amazing. So some of those people include Johnny Bananas. Shake from, um, Love is Blind, Johnny Fairplay, Corinne Olimpios, um, Omarosa, I Love New York, Tiffany Pollard, Jax Taylor, and Tanisha Thomas. So, that should be very interesting. I guess it they're getting meta with us being meta about how there's always Villains in reality TV, so at least they're playing with us a little bit, kind of like that.

And another one that looks interesting, I have yet to read the book, but it's a very popular book out right now, by Bonnie Garmis, called Lessons in Chemistry. This will come out also on October 13th on Apple TV Um, the backstory is basically set in the 1950s, and it's a drama that follows a hopeful scientist who accepts a job.

Hosting a cooking show after being fired from the lab. She then sets out to teach a nation of overlooked housewives and the men who are suddenly listening a lot more than recipes. There have been a lot of good female led dramas lately, and I think that's great. Comes from the likes of, you know, we've Witherspoon's production company, Hello Sunshine, that's launched a ton of these.

really popular dramas, largely from her, she has her book club, and a lot of these books being, are then being turned into TV series, so that's kind of a little, little sad note for ya. But there are things to look forward to, and of course, as we've mentioned, we have Bachelor in Paradise and The Golden Bachelor, so there will be plenty to waste time on.

But it ain't time wasted when you have fun being wasted.

Danny Masterson from That 70s Show was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison last week after he was declared guilty of two counts and convicted on two counts of rape and sexual assault. And this is years in the making of when this all came out. He actually had a total of five accusers and the church of Scientology suppressed four of the five as four of them were in involved in the church.

Although honestly, I don't even know why we even call it a church, like the cult of Scientology rather. Just the crazy shit that comes out about this all the time, like without any. Without any sign of stopping just all the bad news come from here But the accounts and the stories of these women and these survivors are really really Impactful and really horrible what they went through he not only did that, but he also would drug the women and some, and for very, was very violent and physical and really awful.

I, reading them through just breaks my heart and on top of that just These, these women being then kind of the blame flipped on them from the church and, um, were retaliated against. Two of them had even alerted the police and made some, filed a report. After that, they were then stalked by people in the church, were made to feel super unsafe.

Now people are turning their attention to Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis because they, Both wrote letters of support, um, or character letters essentially to the judge prior to the sentencing, along with, I think, 48 others. Um, but now people are very upset by this, understandably, seeing, it, it comes off as disregarding the victims and this is, this is well after hearing of their accounts and I don't know.

When you start having multiple women come forth, it's Yeah, it's, it, that's, that's a topic for a whole other time, but, um, getting someone convicted and, you know, even getting it to trial for cases like this is super hard and super rare, so, you know, I, I, I'm glad some of these women got at least a little shred of justice after what they went through, but, so Mila put out an apology, apology video, and it was really awkward.

Honestly, it just made it worse. It was, Mila Kunis looked, like, angry, which was weird and strange for an apology video. Kind of, like, hurts the whole sentiment, you know? But, yeah, so people are not happy and, um, we'll see what happens there, but they, they basically said that was meant for the judge's eyes and...

Not for the whole public and that was pretty much the apology. So anywho That's that on that Let's talk about Some more scandalous. Well in a different way some more crazy crazy people one being The one, the only, Danielle Nicole Miller. So, this, I learned about this story and this, um, lovely, lovely scenario through Hulu's docuseries.

There's, I think, about six episodes called The Age of Influence, and it goes through different accounts for each episode of either influencers or scammers, and it's, it's super interesting. I just think the whole, the whole storyline, if you will, of people in the limelight and the spotlight just turning out to be complete like con artists is crazy because it's just right in front of your face.

And especially so with Danielle. So. We gotta go back a little to give you an overview, but essentially she is, as of recently, has been sentenced yet again to prison for fraud and I think three counts of wire fraud. She's got, uh, she's got quite a list. This is, I think, the second or third time that she is now in jail.

She's known for being flashy and flaunting all of her designer name brand items all over Instagram. She's mostly an Instagram influencer. She kind of made her way into this kind of elite high social status group of people, but she started in, she lived in New York and went to this super wealthy, well off, like.

Horace Mann, and her dad was like a former president of the Attorney Bar Association out in New York, and her mom was a former Rockettes dancer. So there's that. Back in 2004, Danielle Miller made a A whole video, if you will, involving a Swiffer and herself, and send it to a boy that she liked. You can, like, read into that however you please, but I would prefer to not to explain it to you, but of a sexual nature.

And This was before things went viral. We're in 2004. So this is actually one of the first cases of, A, revenge porn, but also things going viral. And people are texting it probably on their Motorola razors. Or perhaps, oh, I really always loved the, the sidekick. I thought all the cool bitches had sidekicks.

Anyways, so this goes all over... All over town, all over New York and beyond, and the person becomes known as Swiffer Girl, and then not too long later. It is discovered who Swiffer Girl is, but, um, she takes that notoriety with her and she moves to L. A., as one does. As someone who, you know, fame and notoriety, while they are different and separate experiences, they definitely share a lot in common.

You know, it all boils down to attention, validation in some form or fashion, and that I just, you know, those intoxicating little bitches have taken down so many people and including, it turns out, including her. Anyways, so she moves to LA and somehow falls into the crowds of, of Uh, Paris Hilton's brother, Barron, and Paris herself, and becomes friends with this girl, Quentin Esmaye Brown.

This is 2013 time frame, and, um, then it comes out that she has been... She spends a lot of money and they're like, where is she getting this money from? No one's really entirely sure. She's obviously her parents are well off, but so no one really questions it and She's hanging out with also really wealthy rich people.

Well her new friend Quinton Esme Brown Turns out she her mother calls and is asking why she has all these checks withdrawing from her account Um, nearly 20, 000 or something around that. Turns out, they look into it and check the history and, uh, Danielle Nicole Miller, her friend, had been stealing from her and, um, forging these checks.

So, they actually did not go to the police but made her pay them back. And the family made, uh, Danielle pay, pay them back for the money that she had stolen. And, um, Her parents basically disowned her after that. And side note on this too, uh, this is actually a very familiar story. A story for another time, but I too, that, a similar thing happened to me with one of my, um, best friends at the time in college.

So, if you know, you know. But she didn't stop there. And, um, She continued to work with kind of a high profile at the time, a guy named Mackenzie Day, and kind of, they decided to work together with influencers to help create videos. So, they kind of started a business together or something. Well, turns out she'd been stealing from him the whole time and creating LLCs and shit all under his name.

This is snowballing. People are finding this out that she's the scammer. But online, she's still, she's still... post and all of these, you know, expensive looks, either, you know, travel experiences or purses and shit. Um, but you know, she doesn't get away with it the whole time. It's not until she had taken things and escalated them apparently and had been using either a stolen credit card or fake identity To use said credit card at this med spa and in L.

A. Um, she messed with the wrong guy. Because the owner had it out for her and he'd been tipped off that a the credit card company had Been flagged to fraudulent charges and refunded the proper owner So they were on to her and the next time she visited said MedSpa, she was arrested and taken into police custody and then that's when she goes and is eventually Uh, sentenced to prison.

She goes to Rikers Island, and this is where she met, she meets Anna Sorokin, or Anna Delvey. So, she hung out with Anna, and now they're like homies, and they would post on their Instagram stuff together. Uh, especially around the time of when Inventing Anna on Netflix was out. Anna Delvey, for those who don't know, was a far more notorious, um, New York socialite who basically hoodwinked and bamboozled everybody and stole tons of money and made investors think that she was worth all this money and yada yada.

Tale as old as time. So, they hung out and, um, Danielle Nicole Miller, even after coming out of jail after this, continues to deny everything, but then also There's this entire article on New York Magazine, the title itself is, I quote, I'm more so consider myself a con artist than anything. What Danielle Miller learned at Horace Mann and Rikers.

It's a really interesting read. But anyways, so she's really bragging that she considers herself a con artist, and like, well, I'm just good at it, so whatever. But yet also denies things happening. Basically, Baron Rikers. That's where she joins up with her next co conspirator and named Ciara Blas, who herself was locked up for violating parole after she was convicted of identity theft.

So then as the two of these ladies get out of Rikers, they reunite in the real world and start their next con. They had a collective. of maybe 20 or so fake identifications with stolen credit cards and Danielle Miller was the face of all of these people, these 20 stolen identities, and they were caught, um, after that.

Meanwhile, this whole time she's got Instagram stories of her driving a Benz with like a Rolex on and, you know, just really confusing. It's like those people that just say, you know what? I'm just a bitch, you know? And then it gives them free reign to just be an asshole. It's like, no, you don't, you know?

Just because you, you say it and you claim it doesn't give you free reign to be said thing. You know what I'm seeing? So yeah, for her, it sounds like she just chose, you know, I'm just a con artist and then thinks that, you know, makes it okay for her to be a con artist? I don't know. The best part is that she was arrested wearing, and I quote, ahem,

It's in the dead of winter at 3 a. m. She's arrested in a, quote, flimsy Missoni cover up, Herve Laguerre, I hope I said that right, bathing suit, and Valentino Rockstud heels, carrying a Prada purse. So they take her into jail like that. The, this is, uh, the first, the first time when she was arrested. The second time that she was arrested and taken into custody, she had just gotten BBL, Brazilian butt lift surgery.

So... They bust on in. She's like, no, I just got surgery, just got surgery. Like, they can't flip her around and all this stuff. So she's like starfished in this, in the back of like a drunk tank to get her to jail. Which is, uh, just a really funny picture. Yeah, so Swiffer Girl's now in prison, as of recently, for all of the remaining, um, kind of identity theft con she had done with her, her friend from Rikers, and she's going back to jail for a considerable amount of time this time.

I guess that's what happens when you declare yourself a con artist, more than anything. The other, um, arrest she got on was, um, using over 1. 5 million dollars in fake COVID 19 relief loans, um, and spent it all on luxury clothes and designer handbags. So, just a, just a superstar all around, you know? Um, check it out.

Watch that first episode. I know I just kind of walked you through it, but it's still, to put a, a face to the name and to see it play out is...

It sounds like we're all super fascinated by the minds of these scammers, um, who are very unassuming, and kind of the last people you'd expect to be doing shit like that, you know. It always is, it always is who you least expect. That's it today, folks. I hope you That's it today. I hope you enjoyed this episode.

Please give me a follow and you will be notified and sent the next episodes as they become available. Follow on Instagram at easilyentertainedpod and tell a friend. Let me know, comment. I'm And let me know what you like, what you don't like too, I'll take it. Be sweet, you know, be gentle though. I'm fragile.

Let me know what you're enjoying and, um, I'll do more of that shit. Thanks for listening, you know what to do. Keep it safe, keep it classy. Just generally vibe. Alright, bye homies!