What a Creep Season 22, Episode 7: Mark Schwahn, ‘One Tree Hill’ showrunner

“One Tree Hill “was a popular CW show with all the ingredients for success – attractive actors, dramatic storylines, a complex timeline, and was filmed in North Carolina. However, the show was marred by the inappropriate behavior of its showrunner, Mark Schwahn. His harassment and mistreatment of the cast and crew were brought to light by writer Audrey Wauchope in a series of tweets in 2017, during the height of the “Me Too” movement. This followed the investigation of another CW showrunner, Andrew Kreisberg, who was accused of sexual harassment and creating an unsafe work environment on The Flash. Kreisberg was paid $10 million to leave.

Today, we are discussing the impact of a toxic boss on a workplace and the bravery of the women who spoke out against this behavior. Their actions have set a new standard for a safer and more respectful work environment, particularly after the recent strikes in the United States.

Sources for this episode:

· Buzz Feed· Buzz Feed 2· Buzz Feed 3· Drama Queens Podcast· Drama Queens Podcast (Apple)· Variety· Variety 2· Screen Rant· Screen Rant 2· EW· EW 2· EW 3· Decider· Insider· Hollywood Reporter· Best Life online· Deadline· Deadline 2· The Wrap· Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast· AV Club· Burn it Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood by Maureen Ryan

Trigger warnings: Sexual harassment, sexual assault, and workplace abuse

What a Creep Season 22, Episode 6: TMZ

Just in case you don’t know what TMZ is: It’s a tabloid news organization. They have a website, a TV show, and a webcast.

It’s known for breaking celebrity gossip like Mel Gibson’s antisemitic rant during his drunk-driving arrest, the death of Heath Ledger, all the stories about Britney Spears, detailing every little thing about Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan back in the day, and the death of Michael Jackson.

The biggest story that TMZ refuses to cover is that they’re a garbage gossip site with a history of misogyny, harassment, racism, and abuse toward the celebrities they cover and their own employees.

Sources for this episode:

Buzzfeed
Buzzfeed
The Cut
The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast
The Guardian
Jezebel
Lainey Gossip
The New Yorker
Pajiba
ThinkProgress
Wikipedia

Trigger warnings: Sexism, sexual abuse, and suicide

What a Creep Season 22, Episode 5: The Salt Creek Kidnappings (Real-life Wolf Creek)

In 2016, two backpackers traveling through Australia teamed up to check out the Salt Creek region of South Australia through the Gumtree website (kind of like Craig’s List for ride shares). They didn’t know that the 6’6” man who agreed to drive them to the Coorong beach was a violent offender who preyed on women looking for adventure. This is a story about Creep Roman Heinze and the resiliency of two women who survived his attacks and helped this loser be sent to prison.

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Trigger warning: Kidnapping, sexual assault, and rape

What a Creep Season 22, Episode 4: Justin Roiland from ‘Rick and Morty’

Justin Roiland is a voice actor, animator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known as the co-creator of Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty.

Roiland used his success to start conversations and develop relationships with young fans, including some who were underage. This is called grooming. He’s also been credibly accused of domestic violence, and just last month, several people accused him of sexual assault.

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Trigger warning: Domestic violence, sexual assault, and grooming

What a Creep Season 22, Episode 3: Osage Murders (The story real story behind “Killers of the Flower Moon”)

The movie “Killers of the Flower Moon,” directed by Martin Scorsese and based on David Grann’s book, is the story of the Osage Indigenous tribe’s “Reign of Terror” in Oklahoma during the early 20th century. In this episode, we delve into one of the earliest cases investigated by the newly formed Federal Bureau of Investigations, which unfortunately did not solve every murder. We also discuss how these crimes have affected the victims and their descendants for over a century.

Sources for this episode:
· Rolling Stone

Trigger warning: Murder, racism, police brutality

If you are looking for ways to help Israeli and Palestinian victims, here is a list of some organizations promoting providing relief.

 

What a Creep Season 22, Episode 2: Ashley Madison

Ashley Madison is a website for people in committed relationships who are looking to have an affair. Its slogan was “Life is short. Have an affair.” Obviously, this website is creepy. But on top of that, this website, in which discretion is key, didn’t keep its user data private and enlisted thousands of bots to scam customers out of their money.

Sources for this episode:
Trigger warning: Adultery and suicide

What a Creep Season 22, Episode 1: Jann Wenner

Jann Wenner was the editor of Rolling Stone magazine from 1967 to 2019, covering everything from the Beatles to Woodstock to Live Aid and even Hip Hop at some point in the 1990s. He made millions as rock culture’s gatekeeper and key in developing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For decades, critics derided Rolling Stone as a bastion for a white, male-centered worldview with little appreciation for women or people of color. This past week, his interview with the New York Times over the release of his book The Masters: Conversations with Bono, Dylan, Garcia, Jagger, Lennon, Springsteen, and Townshend, which is a compilation of his interviews with seven artists he considers cultural icons that created the “Zeitgeist” that shines brightly to this day.

When asked why he didn’t include any women or people of color, his response:“When I was referring to the zeitgeist, I was referring to Black performers, not female performers,. It’s not that they’re not creative geniuses. It’s not that they’re inarticulate, although, go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my guest…The people I interviewed were the kind of philosophers of rock. Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as “masters,” the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.

Today, we discuss Wenner’s long career and where he winds up in the Creep category.

Trigger warnings: Racism, misogyny, and sexual harassment.

Sources for this episode:
· Vulture

What a Creep Season 21, Episode 10: Russell Brand

We covered Russell Brand as part of our “Quartet of Comedy Creeps” in season eight of our show. He has managed to be exposed as an even BIGGER Creep, with several women alleging he sexually assaulted them over the years. He denies this, blaming the oligarchs in the “MSM” (mainstream media) for setting him up. This guy SUCKS; plenty of evidence backs us up in the sources below.

Trigger warnings: Sexual assault and rape

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What a Creep Season 21, Episode 9: Hilaria Baldwin with special guest Kristen Meinzer of Daily Fail

Sonia Mansfield is still in Ireland having the time of her life, but fear not cohorts–we have an excellent special guest to help us call out some Creeps! Kristen Meinzer (How To Be Fine / Daily Fail / By The Book / Movie Therapy with Rafer & Kristen Author, So You Want to Start a Podcast / How to Be Fine) discusses one of our most confounding subjects. Hilaria Baldwin was a popular yoga instructor in NYC when she met and married one of our Creep subjects, Alec Baldwin.

Between posting intricate (and lingerie-heavy) poses on Instagram and appearing on several shows as a Spanish cooking expert, something lurked underneath her heavy accent (“How you say, ‘cucumber?”) and European. She was a Boston girl named Hilary Hayward Thomas who was making up a whole persona.

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What a Creep Season 21, Episode 8: Truman Capote – Creep or Not a Creep? with special guest Alicia of Trashy Divorces

While cohort Sonia Mansfield invades Ireland with her combination vacation/work trip–the Creepy train keeps moving with our special guest, Alicia of the Trashy Divorces podcast, to first talk about the Joe Jonas and Steve Harvey divorces, which sent us reeling. Then, we get into our main subject–writer Truman Capote (1924-1984) and whether or not he was a Creep. From his peripatetic childhood to being the king of party givers to his eventual decline due to alcoholism–Capote lived a BIG life.

We discuss his early writing career, his friendship with Harper Lee, the making of In Cold Blood, and his betrayal of his “swans.” He achieved the greatest heights as a writer but died bitter, broken, and lonely at the age of 59.

Harper Lee (1926-2016) became a recluse who only released one book after her Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird with 2015’s controversial Go Set a Watchman. (Margo has an interesting story about a Creepy computer guy and Harper Lee!) Alicia’s other podcasts are Trashy Royals and Done & Dunne.

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