T minus 20
The year is 2005... Anakin turns to the dark side, YouTube makes its debut and we’re all couch-jumping for Maria, McDreamy and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo…
T minus 20, rewind to this week in history 20 years ago with Joe and Mel.
T minus 20
Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire with a side of teen angst
🧬 The man who (maybe) cured HIV
Before ‘manifesting’ was a TikTok buzzword, Andrew Stimpson from London apparently manifested the impossible — curing himself of HIV. After testing positive in 2002, he shocked doctors three years later with a clean bill of health. No miracle drug, no experimental treatment — just vitamins, good vibes, and confusion. The world collectively said, “Wait, what?” while scientists scrambled to make sense of it all. Spoiler: they never quite did.
💿 Sony’s spyware surprise
Remember when buying a CD came with actual malware? In 2005, Sony BMG decided music piracy was so bad they’d fight it by installing spyware on millions of computers. Their “copy protection” hid deep in Windows, opened backdoors for hackers, and made everyone’s IT guy cry. Once exposed, Sony’s PR team had to CTRL-ALT-DELETE the scandal — fast. Lawsuits, recalls, and a massive “our bad” followed.
🎤 New music on rotation
It was a wild week for the charts — Kanye was digging for gold, Chris Brown was “running it” (literally and metaphorically), and the Black Eyed Peas were getting humpy. Meanwhile, Madonna’s “Hung Up” was a glitter-ball time machine and Carrie Underwood made her Some Hearts debut — proving Idol winners could go country and conquer.
📚 50 Cent: The literary hustler
Not content with dominating music, Fiddy announced his next empire move — books. G-Unit Novels were coming to a street corner (or cellphone) near you, blending guns, cash, and redemption arcs. Basically, it was “In Da Club” meets English class.
🎬 Harry Potter grows up (Fast)
At the box office, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire had wizards, dragons, and a side of teen awkwardness. Cedric Diggory died, Voldemort rose again, and Harry officially entered his emo phase. The magic got darker — and so did our childhoods.
🔍 Kay Scarpetta gets weird
Patricia Cornwell dropped another forensic thriller, Predator — all autopsies, hackers, and sadomasochistic murderers. Basically, CSI on espresso. Reviewers were split between “brilliant” and “Marino angrily digs angrily.”
Hang with us on socials to chat more noughties nostalgia - Facebook (@tminus20) or Instagram (tminus20podcast). You can also contact us there if you want to be a part of the show.
Transcript is generated automatically.
The year is 2005. Anakin turns to the dark side. YouTube debuts, and we couch jump for Mariah, McDreamy, and a girl with a dragon tattoo. T-minus 20. Rewind 20 years with Joe and Mel. Week of 13, November 2005. T-minus 20. Hey, what do you think? This is a talk show? T-minus 20. It's an icebreaker. Don't judge me yet. This is bananas. You will come home. My question is, who approved that ? Do you see where this is going? Not really. Time machine engaged. T-minus 20 rewinds exactly 20 years to the week when pop culture, tech news and scandal collided. It served up fast, fun, Natalgia Rich for you, maybe the first time listener, and you, the veteran rewinders alike. Atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed. Oh, that was the Batmobile. with your hosts, Joe and Mel. Hello, Mel.
Hello, everybody. This week we are rewinding 13 to 19 November 2005. We're now learning more details about Christina Aguilera's weekend wedding, which reportedly cost $1.5 million in the picturesque Napa Valley.
Oh, $1.5 million wedding in Napa Valley.
Roses, Cathedral Vale. What a mood.
Is she a patron saint of the podcast? I do love her.
I do love her, but no.
She's too normal, I think. Okay. You buy a new music CD, expecting nothing but tunes. But Sony had a different idea. In 2005, they sold CDs that secretly installed a rootkit on your computer.
Whoops. A rootkit.
Yes.
Wow.
And you know, back in the day...
He doesn't need a rootkit.
You kind of do need a good rootkit, but you like to... There's such a thing as consent before you get a rootkit, and we'll talk a little bit more about Sony's massive faux pas. They haven't really learned much, this time 20 years ago... Who pays on a first date? Who pays? Who pays on the first date? Whoever idea it was to go on a date. There's a patron saint of the podcast. That was one of the first pieces of wisdom we ever played for 150 cent.
I know, take the North back. Yes. He had some big news, big side hustle actually for 50.
Really.
Branched out in a very unexpected genre actually.
Is that right? You didn't expect him to do this?
No, I did not.
Well, colour me intrigued. That and more tonight, this afternoon, this morning, whenever the you're listening to it on T-minus 20.
I read something funny the other day. I love this. Waiting to get on a bus. Guy in front is taking ages to pay with his Apple Watch. And someone in the queue shouts, hurry the f*** up, Inspector Gadget. Isn't that great? But also... Oh, wow. It's pretty wild to think that we now pay for our stuff. using our watch.
Yeah, it's unnerving.
It's so weird. It is so weird that all the money that we have is somehow contained in this little thing that tells me to get my *** up every hour.
Well, it's connected to... Yes, but I take your points.
All my money is in there somehow. I don't understand.
I don't either. And there's a...
It's unnerving.
It is unnerving. And it's I've been caught short as a result of it as well. But it's also, it's just like... We haven't quite caught up the receptacle for the watch. Hasn't really caught up with the, like it's all right if it's a self-serve checkout, but I tend to always have a really awkward kind of back of the wrist movement kind of thing that I do when I'm paying from a...
Yes.
And yes, it's just a really awkward, like, weird contortion. People think I'm having an episode.
Yeah, you've got to kind of turn your wrist on a really odd angle. Took me a while to get the phone one right. I thought for a while that you had to turn your phone face down. So here I am paying every time, flipping my phone over in this little dramatic flip.
And you didn't need to do that.
No, I didn't. Nobody thought to tell me. No one thought to tell me. But then I was getting a coffee with someone else and I saw them hold their phone the other way and I was like, you can do that.
Yes.
I can't pay for.
Parking with my watch either, because you've got to go across, because I'm a left, my watch is on my left wrist.
Oh, when you're paying at the, well, you should be paying before you get to the boom gate. That's just, you're making it run wait. I had a cup.
The boom gate. That sounds interesting. That sounds like something very controversial that happened with someone who was born in the generation before us. Oh, a bad case of boom gate.
Well, exactly. Whenever it's on their horn behind you, because you're trying to figure out how to pay with your watch when you should have paid for your ticket at the parking thing. Anyway, I had a coffee cup that you could pay with as well. I've never figured it out, so I never used it.
What a tap and go coffee cup.
The bottom of my coffee cup. Yeah, I had one of those cups.
Oh, I read that. How innovative.
You had to move some money into some chip on the bottom of your cup and you could pay for your coffee with your cup.
That's just got pain in the **** written all over it.
I was too scared. I was like, I'm not going to be the Inspector Gadget bus guy with my coffee cup. No way.
You know what, too, though? As weird as all of those things look like.
I'm paying for my coffee with my cup.
Yeah, but nothing is more weird these days than how you are treated if you hand over cash. They think you're a drug dealer or something.
Oh, yeah. Pull it out of a bum bag.
You think you've got it from some nefarious. Where'd you get that cash from?
Cash, yes.
That's the tone there. That's not a sign of a transaction failing or anything like that. Let me tell you. That's success. Because the transaction that occurred between Mel's lips.
Smells like talent.
And the mouthpiece of that recorder, that transaction has just been etched in the annals of time. The annals of time. Yes. And it heralds each and every week the hatch, match and dispatch clue, which I'm about to play for you. It's usually a celebrity birth, death or marriage. that happens and we play it at the end of the show. This clue, this week, this was a tragedy. I nearly said who it was. Did you? Yeah, it just nearly fell out. I was a bit discombobulated. A celebrity who passed away, this time 20 years ago, who said this. I'm addicted to the satisfaction that I get to tell everybody like you that didn't believe in me, you can stick it up your ***. Yeah, the crowd goes wild. We'll find out who passed away at the end of the show. Over the news, this is a fascinating story. When I was doing a little bit of research for the show, I looked at it and I was like, Because there's a lot of stuff that's happening in the news that we kind of haven't mentioned. I mean, you got to remember there's a war happening over in Iraq in 2000, all these things. And I'm just like a bit fatigued for that. So I'm not looking for that stuff at the moment. We all know it's there. We've discussed it. It's like, I think Saddam Hussein's, one of his lawyers got murdered this week or last week, 20 years ago as well. But I'm looking for stuff that just piques my interest. Human interest stories. Exactly. But something that I might have even missed. And I missed this one. years ago, but it's utterly fascinating. This man cured himself of HIV and announced it on the 13th of November. Cured himself of AIDS. British newspapers run this headline that stops the world cold. Man cures himself of HIV. And the man was a guy by the name of Andrew Stimson, who was a 25-year-old guy from London who had tested HIV positive in 2002. and then three years later tested negative.
And doctors at both Chelsea and Westminster Hospital confirmed that the test results were accurate.
On both occasions, yes.
True, same patient, same medical records. Virus had simply vanished.
That's right. No treatment, apparently. He didn't take any experimental treatments or miracle drugs. I think he still had some treatment, maybe. But he claimed that he'd just been living healthily, like having vitamins and keeping a positive attitude. Because if there's one thing that'll kick AIDS right in the gonads, it's a positive attitude. And the impossible becomes possible. Andrew Stimson's body defeats HIV on its own. That's the claim.
And this is a time when it's still... obviously fatal. It's a death sentence, effectively. It's not like it is at the moment or today.
No.
It was relentless, incurable, it was fatal.
Yeah, so, but treatments were improving. But this is the thing, he's saying no treatment. Okay, all right, yeah.
I think one of the theories was that he might have had a rare genetic immunity, might have had some mutation, which can block it from entering cells. There was another possibility that he had a false positive or early stage infection that the body managed to clear before it fully took hold. They stored his blood samples for further study, but he wouldn't retake any tests, apparently, saying that he was emotionally exhausted from the whole ordeal. It's all a bit too much.
Yes.
So without any more evidence, science couldn't officially confirm what had actually happened or how.
Well, yeah, but I mean, then that's the thing. Like, I'm not gonna, if you got cleared, how would you be? Like, you've had this hanging over your head, and then all of a sudden you, it's like, no, we've checked, we've done the tests, and yes, it's a negative result. are no longer HIV positive. And everyone's like, you reckon? Why don't you go and try that again? I'd be like, no, man, it says it's taking it.
So I'm kind of taking that answer.
He maybe wouldn't, because it is quite traumatic. But then I think that also arouses suspicion as well.
Then people are going, really? Did you switch something? The case still remains one of the greatest mysteries. It wasn't debunked. It was never replicated. They hadn't seen that happen in anyone else. And it did happen at a time, like you say, that the treatments were improving, but they weren't anywhere near where they are now. And I think his story also gave a bit of hope too.
Yeah, definitely. It was, I mean, it's about what's possible, I guess. The idea that under the right conditions, the human body may still be able to do amazing things.
Oh, a big tech scandal. That was the scandal alarm going off.
Yes.
On the 15th of November.
The scandal alarm going off because... if somebody needs to make a phone call and so they have to get off the internet.
Mum get off, yeah, Mum get off the internet. No, Mum get off the phone, I'm downloading a song from LimeWire. And you would have been better off downloading a song from LimeWire on the 15th of November 2005.
I can't believe it would have actually been safer to do that than purchase a compact disc, than to purchase the thing that we take solace in these days, the thing that we miss, that we seek comfort in, physical media. Back in 2005, physical media turned on us.
Turned on us, turned on the house computer.
Yes.
We found out the hard way that our new CDs came with a hidden bonus feature, not a bonus track, spyware.
Yes.
Spyware.
You said it, spyware.
Spyware. Sony BMG, one of the biggest labels in the world at the time, had quietly embedded a secret program into millions of CDs.
Yes, this is, what were they thinking.
They were thinking, we don't want you to rip your tracks off the CD and put them onto the house computer. Because you might be putting it onto, I don't know, the iTunes or to another blank. You might be burning it onto a CD for a friend as well.
And you know, pirating, pirating.
But in reality, it had installed. A root kit.
Yes, a root kit.
A root kit.
There'll be a root kit on me. CD, I'm attempting to pirate.
So not just stopping you from ripping tracks, but also opening the door to hackers.
That's right. So you go from being a pirate to a spy. That was a nice transition. The spy wears on there.
That's a nice transition. I enjoyed that. Thank you.
You're very welcome. It's like, Arrr, Miss Moneypenny. Yeah, exactly.
Backlash was instant.
Yeah, the people were very upset and absolutely like, how dare they.
Exactly.
How dare ye? Yes.
The offending code came from a company called First for Internet, and it was auto-installed when a disk was played on a PC. No consent, no warning, no pop-up.
When you're going to install a rootkit, consent is key. Consent is key. No consent, no rootkit.
It cloaked itself from view, same technique used by all the viruses that were happening around this time.
Yeah, it wasn't good. Wasn't good. And it like, you'd think it was kind of a learning piece for them, you know? I mean, they, because then they, I think what they did is at first they downplayed it, right? They're like, here's an uninstaller, okay? He's an uninstaller. Let's do that, right?
Oh, so they gave you like a patch or something?
But that made it worse, apparently. And then so it did a recall on all the CDs. And then people started trying to sue them. There's class action, PR meltdown.
I want to know which CDs it was on. We might have one out in the shed.
So that's strike, I don't know, maybe that's strike one, right? But then we had the PlayStation hack with all the credit card details. So that'd be strike two. And then there was the actual Sony hack. further down the track where their emails were then hacked and copied and released to the public. so I mean.
But this one is kind of, they did it. They're the ones that put it on there. This one's worse.
Well, yes, it is worse to a degree, but I just feel like maybe they're not learning something here.
No.
Maybe they need to rethink a few things. I mean, this is the thing, though. They wanted to stop piracy and then ended up writing one of the earliest cybersecurity horror stories of the internet in the history of the internet.
There was a cybersecurity expert by the name of Mark Rusanovich who blew the whistle detailing how the rootkit hid system files and compromised security, which went viral, not the rootkit, he's post, and then everybody knew about it, and that's when they scrambled.
Girded their loins and grabbed their pitchforks and torches.
Yeah, I'd like to know what CDs have it, because maybe they're worth something now.
I think there would have been a lot of things that were released.
Who was on Sony BMG? Usher.
Yes, so in November. So it was Madonna. No, Madonna wasn't on Sony BMG, was she? Not sure.
Not sure.
Not sure. You could probably.
But they had a lot of the big pop stars at the time.
Yeah, well, you know, let's have a look. I'm going to get, I want to get into this now, so I'm just going to do a quick search. So 2005, oh my God, you're talking Backstreet Boys?
Oh dear.
N Sync, Westlife.
Would you like a rootkit with your Westlife? Maybe.
Outcast, Manning Street Preachers.
Wow.
Yeah. Jamira Quite Bewitched.
Oh, c'est la vie.
O-Town. And Human Nature.
I've got their CD. It's a signed one too.
Yeah, really.
Yeah.
It's probably got the root kit on it. You've got a signed Human Nature CD with the root kit on it.
A bonus root kit.
Wouldn't that be funny? That'd have to be worth something, wouldn't it? Surely. I'll put that on eBay. I'll start the bidding at, I don't know, I'll let the market decide. good to go into music there, I guess.
Yes, I wonder if any of these artists are on the.
Old Sony BMG root kit.
So Madonna is number one in the UK again this week, as well as here in Australia. You're bopping away, you're right. Yeah, I'm enjoying that a little bit too much.
I don't mind it. was just like doing my kegels. I wasn't actually bopping away, I was just clenching it.
Just making sure, just keeping everything solid down there. Perfect. Over in the US, what did it sound like? Look at this photograph, every time I do it makes me laugh. How did our eyes get so red? survivor. Everybody know the game. Don't stop trying to make it to the top for your skin. I love my lady love. My hump, my hump, my hump. My homestay got you. She's got me. If you can run it, run it. Girl, indeed, I can run it, run it. I ain't saying she a gold digger, but she ain't messing with no broke, broke.
Now I ain't saying she a gold digger, but she ain't messing with no broke, broke. Get down, girl, go ahead, get down. I'm starting again, my anxiety is starting to peak because it's gone down to five now. Me too, mate.
You're a bit nervous. It's probably going to be out, sorry, next week. Number 5, Neil Back Photograph. Number 4, Soul Survivor, Young Yeezy, Feet Acorn, My Humps. Number 3, Run at #2, Gold Dig in the One.
Yeah, that's it. That's it. Is there, was there an album this time?
Oh, there was. Carrie Underwood releases her debut studio album fresh off the back of her Idol win.
Oh, she was the Idol one.
The album is called Some hearts.
Well, good for her.
Transition from TV fame to mainstream country music, blending contemporary country and pop influences. This is kind of... The Taylor Swift sort of story, isn't it? That's what Taylor did too.
She started this country, didn't she?
Carrie did it first.
But she didn't go on to Idol though.
No, That might have been undoing.
She should have gone Nashville instead.
Maybe.
Like Tay Tay did.
Production from Mark Bright and Dan Huff. Includes the singles Jesus, Take the Wheel.
Oh, Jesus, Take the Wheel.
Take the Wheel. What's that about?
I don't know, but I mean, if you're in a car with someone and they're driving, and you need.
To say that, and they say, Jesus, take them all, I'm worried.
You should be.
Worried.
Yeah.
I like your stepmom grabbing onto the Jesus strap.
Oh, the strap in the car. When you go around the corner too fast, she grabs you, oh Jesus.
Grab the Jesus strap one day, we're in the car.
When you grab it, you say Jesus.
She also had songs called Don't Forget to Remember Me, Before He Cheats. That's a very country kind of sounding song, isn't it?
Sure.
Before He Cheats. Wasted and the title track, Somehow.
Yeah, which we just, we played before.
One of the best selling country albums of all time.
She's still doing quite well, isn't she? Carrie Underwood. I feel like she does.
What does she do that one or something with the Keith Urban?
I think so, but she, yes, and she also does,
I think she sings a theme. That's on Clubline Radio all the time.
She sings the theme for Friday Night Football. I think it's like on NBC or one of those. Oh, really?
I don't hate her, but I just don't enjoy that song with Keith. Yeah.
Oh, well, she'd put out an album. Okay, so that's great, but I'm more intrigued by this next story. G unit? Yes, with the side hustle. What's going on?
50 cent on the 15th of knock. I think that's meant to be nove, but I typed a C instead of a V. Yeah. 15th of November 2005. He takes on the book industry, will announce it. that he's taking on the book industry. I'm taking on the motherf*cking book industry. He teams up with MTV Pocket Books to create a series of novellas and graphic novels. GU Netbooks is a street fiction series. It was announced to be rolling out in 2007. And he hooked up with other authors, so he co-wrote across the genre. And the books actually feature members of the G-Unit posse, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, Young Buck, and Olivia, key characters across the books. And I quote, the idea is to tell the truth about the life, the sex, the guns and the cash, the brutal highs and short lies of the players on the streets.
Well, isn't that interesting? I, you know, I always was like, why did G-Unit become like more famous than say, you know, because 50 Cent was one of the big rappers around like Eminem. Eminem had D12 and then Nelly had a bunch of people as well.
Oh, Nelly had, Was it the Saint Lunatics?
Yeah, something like that. But none of those posses ever got to be as big as G-Unit. And 50 Cent explains why. Can you name every member of D12?
No.
I'm going to tell you why. It's because they all had to wait to after the second cycle of their leader. So Nelly's first album popped. Then Nelly's second album popped, and because those albums were hugely successful albums, it took a long time for the record to be over for them to get to the next album. Everybody just came, they became the crew with Nelly.
It's like M, D12's the crew with M. G-Unit, the first record came out, boom.
I forced the G-Unit album to come out.
And this girl didn't want the G-Unit album, it wanted the next 50 Cent record.
It caused Lloyd Banks to sell three million records. Well, 1.8 million records gave like 800 something 1000 because he couldn't even travel.
Game comes 5 million records.
There you go. That's how he did it because he didn't he didn't let him go through the second cycle. So instead of putting the next 50 cent record out, he put a G unit record out and that automatically caused his fans to go over and grab that and not prioritize his next release on that if you know what I mean. It's very strategic.
But also it's not very selfish. It's quite humble, isn't it?
It's very selfless.
Give them some time in the spotlight.
He said that he doesn't get on very well with his, like, the game anymore, does he? He gets on very well with anyone in G-Unit anymore.
Wasn't he having a fight with, was he having a fight with Lloyd Banks?
Possibly. At some stage, I'm sure there was some beef there. But at this stage, he liked them so much, they were in the book.
They were in the book.
Yeah.
Or the book, sir. It was a series. And it was the first of its kind for Pocket, which had been looking to increase its presence in st fiction.
Well, that's very true.
Apparently, that was st fiction book genre was starting to take off in the early 2000s. I've never heard of st fiction, to be honest. honest, but I think they can get a little bit racy.
is that right? Is it a bit like fanfic?
Well, no, but just life on the streets. There is, like we say, there's the guns and the cash, but there's also the sex. So, okay.
Well, he's pretty into the books.
I know he's...
I don't know that I want to hear 50 cent narration audio book if it's got sex in it. It's got sex in it. I'm not really interested because, you know, it's like he lost me. What was that song where he's like, seductive? Like, yeah, it just creeps me out.
He didn't like his seductive.
It made me uncomfortable. I don't look at him like that. I look at him as a North Star. I don't want to know what he does.
Yes, exactly. We want his advice. We don't want his smart.
Yes.
But he was looking, he was looking broader than books as well. So he's branched down into books, but also he was looking at, maybe there's some digital tie-ins with these books. Maybe there's some cell phone downloads of audio and text excerpts.
Just little snippets.
Snipping into, yes, and some audio versions of the books with G-unit music. And he was just like, yeah, let's try everything, see what happens.
Throw as much **** at the wall as you can and see what's next.
announced it. And it it bloody well happened. It wasn't one of these things where it got announced and didn't happen. There was one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, I think about 12 books. Wow. Baby Brother, Death Before December, The Ski Mask Way, Blow, Derelict, Harlem Heat, Heaven's Fury.
Wow.
It's like Heaven's Fury was a bit saucy.
It's like a grown up hip hop version of the Babysitters Club.
Yes, instead of Logan Likes Mary Ann, it's Heaven's Fury.
With Lloyd Banks shooting the out of someone.
And instead of Boy Crazy Stacey, it's Tia's diary deeper than rap.
Boy, oh boy, we missed this last week. And I missed it in particular. It's time to open up the boombox. I feel like we almost, we were borderline booming back when we were talking about the watches and the pay waving and things like that. And we've got to be very careful because that's outside of the safe space. And when you open up the boombox, the boombox is the safe space right here for you to lodge your boomer complaints and have them presented free from judgment. And in fact, identified with and probably praised. you like. All you got to do is go to the Socials T-minus 20 podcast on any platforms like Instagram or Facebook or whatever and get into our DMs with a boom. An audio one would be great if you can manage it, but if you're a bit too boomy, that's okay. No judgement. Like I said, you can do it another way. You can just send us a written one.
Yes, exactly.
Have we got one for this week?
We've got one from Ivy.
Ivy. Yes. Thanks for your boom, Ivy.
Are you ready? Well, look, Ivy, full disclosure, Ivy didn't send it to us. I just found it on the internet.
I thought you were going to back me up there.
Ivy, I am Ivy.
And now I've been caught out in a lie.
Oh, yeah. Oh, you were lying.
I was just trying to perpetuate the fact that we were popular and maybe Ivy had sent in a boom.
No, I think we've received about.
That's what I was thinking. And if you had it turned around and said to me, like, that was a legit one that was sent in by Ivy, I would have been quite surprised.
Do I think I know anyone called Ivy?
I don't know.
I don't know anyone called Ivy. Do you know anyone called Ivy?
Yes, I do, actually.
Oh, you do? Oh, okay.
Yeah, I'll tell you who it is off air.
Okay, great.
Yeah, good. But you do too.
Anyway, I am Ivy 05.
Right.
Are we ready?
Thanks for letting us take you boom, Ivy. Sure.
Incorrect username or password. ***** which one is it?
Which one's wrong? Which one's wrong? I hate that. Yes. Yeah. Well, I think that's designed for your protection. So, you know, is it the username or the password? Which one I'm trying to access your account? Yes. Well, I mean, yeah.
I don't know.
I've had that combination. You know what, actually, that happened to me the other day when I was going to the gym. And I have to use my phone to swipe into the gym. Right. And I got stuck because it logged me out of my account with the latest update. And then I went to log back in and it's like incorrect username and or password. And then I'm like,
***** which one is it?
And then it's like, well, I'm doing the password and I'm doing the thing and it's in save password now because I don't even know what my passwords are.
No, they're all in that little app.
Yes, the little app knows what my passwords are and I don't know what my passwords are anymore because every password that I come up up with is not secure enough. Anyway, I couldn't get back into it. And I asked the lady at the gym, she's like, oh, no, that happens. And I'm like, but I don't. I don't.
But where do we go from here? What do we do now?
That happens. I'll just let you through. I'm like, but then you're not going to know that I'm in the gym.
But also you're a 24-hour gym. What happens when you're not there working on the front desk?
But what happens if I get injured? And I haven't swiped through and there's no evidence of me being. Exactly. And I was really concerned.
Do we even exist? The password holder app thing too is also a bit dicey because sometimes I go in there because I similarly could not log into the gym app for another reason, not to get into the gym, but I was trying to do something else. And it didn't auto-populate the password, but I was like, I'm sure I've got one saved. So I went into my password thing and I had multiple passwords in the password saving thing.
No.
For the same site.
No.
***** which one is it?
Exactly. How hard is that? Oh my God. Thank you. Anyway, it rectified itself and I was able to get back into it.
Oh, you're back in now, you're back in business.
Thanks for triggering us, Ivy. Much appreciated, wherever you may be. Over to the box office. To the box office, a huge movie release, a much anticipated movie release, this time 20 years ago.
Something's coming closer.
I can feel it. This year, Hogwarts will play host to a legendary event, the Triwizard Tournament. The tournament brings together three schools... I love when we do that. ...for a series of magical contests.
People die in this tournament. I didn't ask for this to happen. I don't want eternal glory. I'm scared for you. I'm not ready for this. You don't have a choice. You're the boy who lived.
This year. You're in danger, Harry. His greatest test.
Climbing the tournament isn't the answer anymore. What are you saying?
Will become the darkest hour. Who are you? What do you want? The Dark Lord shall rise again. Harry! Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Oh, my God! There's all this layered production and it all sounds really rich. And then he's like, something's coming. And that's because Harry's going through puberty.
Oh.
That's what's happening.
That's where we're at.
Yeah, the Tri-Wizard Tournament, this big magical competition between the three wizarding schools. I thought that was just Hogwarts, but there's obviously other ones as well. And Harry pops up out of the Goblet of Fire, which puts him into the contest, even though he's underage. But he's big for his age.
What is the Goblet of Fire? I was thinking it was a cup. that you put Sam Booker in and you light it. Remember those lit up shots of Sam Booker?
That was exciting. Yeah, a full goblet of that. My goodness.
No, but that could be a goblet of fire.
No, well, I mean, this is.
Flaming Sam Booker, it was called.
This is one that Harry's name came out of.
Flaming Sam Booker.
Yes.
Oh, his name, I thought you said he popped out of a goblet of fire. But how did he feel the fiery goblet of Sam Booker?
Like I said, Harry's going through puberty, all sorts of shit's coming out of him.
Who knows? Who knows what's happening? It's hard being pubescent wizard.
Yes, well, exactly. Especially when you've got mermaids and mazes and awkward teenage flirting at the Yule Ball. Apparently that was a big event. Cedric Diggory, who was played by Robert Pattinson before he was in Twilight.
I didn't know he was in a Potter.
Yes, he's in a Potter film. He was the golden boy until Voldemort came back and killed him in the finale. Spoiler alert.
Oh, thanks for ruining it.
Yeah, well, it happens. It was a darker Harry Potter film, clearly, you know.
I'm a bit sexy at the Yule Ball by the sounds of it.
I feel like, I feel like more awkward, really. I mean, it's puberty. You got to understand, like there's nothing sexy.
First kisses, awkward dancing, where do I put my hands?
It's just awkward, you know. The things that you've got to cover up. in order to kind, what I'm saying.
Yeah.
So no, we were much more sensible in Australia. We were watching Flight Plan, Jodie Foster. I think that Harry Potter comes out the following week in Australia.
I don't think we had it yet. I'm sure we would have been excited to.
Not quite. So yeah, and that's it. There's nothing much for TV as well. Really f*** all in entertainment this week. So why don't I be entertained by a book we didn't read?
Well, we should have, but we didn't. We didn't have the Goblet of Fire here, so you could have read Predator by Patricia Cornwall instead.
We're too easy playing Guitar Hero from last week.
Oh, yes.
A Predator, you say?
I don't think I like it.
It's not that Predator.
No.
I probably can't use that anyway. Apologies to 20th Century Fox for the film Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
No, this is, I think Mister Scarpetta. We've spoken about Scarpetta.
If it bleeds, we can kill it.
Someone, I can't remember their first name, but it's a series.
She's the detective, wasn't she? Yeah, it's kind of dark kind of.
Forensic stuff too, yes, bodies and things.
So it's like, oh, a bit scary as well. So Scarpetta, now freelancing with the National Forensic Agency in Florida, digs into a case more bizarre than any she has ever faced. One that has produced not only physical evidence that was quite unusual, but also tantalizing clues about the inner workings of an extremely cunning and criminal mind. She and her team, Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, and her niece, Lucy. That's like the comic relief, I reckon, Lucy.
I think Benton Wesley.
The scrappy do of, track the odd connections between several horrific crimes and the people who are the likely suspects as one psychopath safely behind bars and the subject of a classified scientific study at a Harvard affiliated psychiatric hospital. Teasers, Scarpetta, with tips that could be fact or fantasy. That's a bit Silence of the Lambs.
That's one massive run-on sentence to this, and it's still going.
It's still going, sorry. I just paused because there was an em-dash, actually.
Oh, lovely.
I don't think you need the spaces either side of it. The number of killers on the loose seems to multiply. Are these events related or merely random? And what can the study of one man's brain tell them about the methods of a psychopath still lurking in the shadows?
that's a lot, isn't it?
is.
And Paul Weiss, one star, agrees.
Does he?
Lots of stuff happening here.
Yeah.
Autopsies, forensic tidbits.
I love a forensic tidbit.
Sadomasochistic. How do you even say that?
Sadomasochistic.
Masochistic.
Yes.
Not castic.
Castic. That's the past tense.
That's when you're slightly saddo and sarcastic.
Yes, at the same time. whip me harder. Oh, it hurts so good. Sadomasarcastic. Sadomasarcastic.
Yes, computer hacking, self-destructive psychological turmoil.
Tie me up.
Citrus canker.
Citrus canker.
What's citrus canker?
I don't know, that sounds really weird. I don't know what that is.
Well, Paul Weiss then says in brackets, yeah, you read that right.
Well, okay, I'll have to look that up now.
You can maybe explain it.
I don't know if I want to.
Forensic health scenes used as an educational tool for up-and-coming medical examiners and forensic investigators, narcissistic television psychoanalysts, and much, much more.
Comprehensive list. Great review from Paul Weiss. Not so comprehensive. Sham, one star. Same premise as CSI.
But people like CSI. Problem, CSI.
I really do.
Carol, one star. When I hit this passage, I should have put the book down.
I'm going back to the predator.
Here's the passage. Actually, I don't think I can wait.
All right, cool.
Here's the passage where Carol should have put the book down.
Okay.
Nice of you to let me know. Marino says angrily as he angrily digs through a saddlebag for his tire plugging kit as he angrily thinks of Joe Amos getting angrier with each thought.
Oh, yeah, that's a bit painful, isn't it? Anger, angrily, anger. Okay, Jazzy Raquel, five stars. Heart emoji, great read, exclamation point. Heart emoji, heaven was such a great and spiritual woman, comma, that was pushed over the edge because of betrayal. Every single word in that sentence starts with a capital, exclamation point. Heart emoji, Rico, hyphen, self-centered ******* exclamation point. Heart emoji, Gloria hyphen move the on you *****.
Oh, that's for 50 cents book. Oh, that's a review. Are you serious? That's a five-star review for Heaven's Fury. Heaven was such a great and spiritual woman. Whoops, wrong review. Wrong review. That's for Heaven's Fury.
Absolutely massive bumps to you there. How funny. I would have been none the wiser if I'd have carried on that review, except for the fact that it made no sense. I was just blindly going with it, thinking, oh well. I've seen a lot of stuff on Goodreads. Well, it could.
It could happen.
Exactly.
It could happen.
Exactly, but it didn't. So let's go to Hatches, Matches and Dispatches. And before we get to the clue, we actually have a match. We've got a couple in Hatches, Matches and Dispatches. Yes, we do. We teased this at the beginning of the show. Christina Aguilira, I almost had as much of a problem with that as Akorn. I started to sound like Elmer Fudd then. Christina Aguilira got married. on the 19th of November. And she got married to Jordan Bratman, the music executive. Very lavish, star-studded guest list, very intimate. The theme was pure old Hollywood, complete with white rose. She is very old Hollywood. Silver chandeliers, et cetera. Christian Lacroix, ground, gown, ground with an acorn on it. Yeah, look, I'll let some. Inside Edition, I think, is the show.
He also wore a wedding dress designed by French designer Christian Lacroix, who's known for his theatrical looks. The 24-year-old singer popped up at his Paris fashion show just a few months ago. What is it about Lacroix that's special for you? He's amazing. The detail that goes into his work is really incredible. arrived in the wine country on Wednesday and stayed in a $3,500 a night private cottage at the high-end resort Auberge du Soleil. The wedding party came together on Friday night for the rehearsal dinner. The dinner was an elaborate Japanese-themed event decorated with lanterns. The centerpieces were made of pink roses, fresh bamboo stems, and pink cherry blossoms.
Who gives a sh*t Inside Edition? Who cares? They get like that goes on for about 15 minutes. That whole story is so long. And it's just the intimate detail of everything. And I just think, wow, like if you have gone to university and studied journalism and stuff, and then you're getting out there and you're like, I've got a job on the TV. Yeah, for Inside Edition, like this is it. I have arrived. And it's like, okay, you need to go and find out how much they paid for their hotel room, what the centerpieces were, what the decorations were.
I love that job.
Really.
What are you talking about? That's a great job.
You're basically fossicking around the garbage looking for receipts.
You're not being a paparazzi. What are you doing, aren't you? Reporting on the wedding that everyone wanted to know about.
Well, I guess they did. I mean, it was a bit of a punctuation mark on an error for Christina, wasn't it? Because she became a woman.
The paps were there. I think there was like helicopters trying to...
Well, of course.
To catch a view of what was going on.
Well, she's been in the public eye for a very long time, so everyone's very interested. You got to remember she got to start with she's kid on Disney Town.
Yes.
So it's been a while. So she's all grown up and America loves those stories.
Yes, until they don't because the marriage didn't last forever. They divorced.
Oh, did they?
2011, I think it was.
Well, that's disappointing, isn't it?
But you know, it is a bit of a time capsules, the mid-2000s celeb culture, the opulent romantic kind of wedding. And your wedding was in the glossy magazines.
Well, that's why you started to go into so much detail. So I was still rating. That stuff was rating. You didn't just find it on the internet. It was on TV.
Or the TikTok. No, you had to wait. You had to wait till the show was on television at the end of the day to see the wedding and Christina.
Okay, let's get to the clue. A celebrity who passed away very suddenly and very tragically in 2005, on the 13th of November, who said this. I'm addicted to the satisfaction that I get to tell everybody like you that didn't believe in me, you can stick it up your ***. If you said WWE superstar Eddie Grew... Lacroix. If you said, stop. If you said, if you said WWE Superstar Eddie Guerrero. Oh, **** ***. If you said WWE Superstar Eddie Guerrero, Guerrero, if you said ******* hell. If you said WWE Superstar Eddie Guerrero, yeah. You'd be correct. It was tragic. He died in his hotel room very suddenly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, due to heart failure at the age of 38 years old. A shocking find in a downtown Minneapolis hotel.
The body of world-wustling entertainment star Eddie Guerrero. And Ellen Gallus is live at Target Center. What are the fans saying tonight, Ellen? Eddie Guerrero was supposed to perform here tonight, and so fans, needless to say, are shocked. Many of them showed up here tonight at the Target Center with T-shirts and posters honoring the wrestler. Tonight's show very suddenly and very sadly became a tribute show for Eddie Guerrero. Guerrero is one of the WWE's biggest stars. He arrived in Minneapolis late last night for tonight's taping of SmackDown. His body was discovered around 7.30 this morning at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. The cause of death is unknown at this time, but police say there were no signs of foul play.
Yeah, it was tragic. And he was quite big at the time, Eddie. And it sent shockwaves to the wrestling community. He was found unresponsive by his nephew, Chavo, who was also in the WWE after he failed to answer a wake-up call. Because he checked, like they said, he checked in the hotel. They were going to do a house. Yeah, a show in Minneapolis. The cause of death was heart failure brought on by years of strain and the physical toll of his career. And I think there's obviously been speculation about steroid use and all of that sort of stuff. But actually, you know what? I don't want to go into the steroid thing. But he was a second generation wrestler from the Guerrero family of Mexico. He built a huge reputation for his technical skill and his charisma, which you heard there and his storytelling that really did. He was a bit of an anti-hero, like because he used to lie, cheat and steal, but the fans still kind of adored him for the lie cheating and stealing because it was always kind of a little bit slapstick and cheeky. It was great. Like he'd do these things like where he'd pull out a chair and he'd get back into the ring. And when the referee's back was turned, he'd bang the chair on the ground and then throw it to the other guy and then drop down on the ground. And so the referee would turn back around and think that the other guy hit him with the chair and then disqualified him to win the match. And then there was the time where he cheated and won the WWE title. And he cheated. Eddie, get it, get it. Two, yeah, Eddie got it. It's Champion. Here is your winner and the new WWE Champion, Eddie Guerrero. He was a great character. He really was. And I think it was because his personal life was so fraught anyway, like before. So this time he was, his star had, he'd sort of redeemed himself, but he was in addiction, personal demons, all of that stuff in the 90s. He almost lost his wrestling career. He almost died. And then he had this huge comeback, which was legendary. So by 2004, he's at the pinnacle. He defeats Brock Lesnar, he wins the championship, which was a huge storyline for them. And it was because he wasn't the biggest guy, but he had the most heart, and that was the thing that I think really endeared him to the fans. And he brought a lot of heart and soul to that spectacle of wrestling. So you can imagine Brock Lesnar, you know what he's like, he's huge. Eddie Guerrero taking him on and going to town and then winning the title, I think is great. And so when he died, it was really sudden, like he was in Minneapolis, Minnesota to do another house show, another day at the office. WWE paused everything. And you can see the episode online. And they basically paused all the storylines and did two tribute shows on Raw and SmackDown, which was so sad. Everyone was just so emotional because he was quite loved in the locker room and respected by his fellow performers and stuff. They'd spent years in these rivalries with him that were all scripted and they just fell to pieces. They were absolutely heartbroken. And his impact is still felt today. Like he's got a massive legacy in the wrestling community because of the fact that I think because he was one of the greatest Latino wrestlers of all time as well. But he's still, that redemption story and that comeback story still really echoes with a lot of people. And you look at guys like Rey Mysterio, Sasha Banks, Dominic Mysterio, who all credit Eddie as that massive influence. And they still chant for Eddie Guerrero. He's still here.
He's still here.
He's now here. Whenever they do something Guerrero-esque in the ring, like Dominic Mysterio calls on him a lot and uses a lot of the tropes that Eddie used to use and as a tribute to him and he's well aware of it and the fans love it and I think it's great. And so 2005, like it's like time stopped in the wrestling community. I've never seen that happen with a talent. Well, there'll be other stories that we'll probably get to over time, but in particular, this one. It was so sad. And, but I mean, 20 years on, they're still talking about him. He's certainly immortalized by his actions as a professional wrestler, which is great. That is the end of the show. We're done wrapping up. Sorry, I'm ranting about, you know what happens. You know, I start talking about wrestling and I get really excited. And then people are like, oh, you should do a wrestling podcast. And I'm like, I'm not doing a wrestling podcast. Yeet. Wrestling fans are terrifying. And I'm one of them. I should know. Right. Okay. So we're done.
We're done. That's it.
Yeah, we'll be back next week with more stuff. I haven't really, have you had a look?
No.
Oh, okay.
So not sure. There'll be some stuff, some things will happen.
Maybe go to the socials. I think we're videoing again, so we'll put some stuff up. I kind of forgot the cameras were rolling before and so.
Oh, well. Send us your booms.
Yeah, you can do that. T-minus 20 podcast on the socials. That's where you'll find us. Say hello over there. And just remember that we do really adore and appreciate your support.
We do.
Like it means the world to us and it doesn't happen without you either. This is like, what are we up to now? Like how many episodes? I don't know. It's in the high 200s. I think we're around 220. This is our 220 episodes.
We still have our listener from Hess and they still have not contacted.
Yeah.
Maybe they could contact this week. That would be nice. Maybe.
I don't know. How are you going? Maybe they lost their phone. And it's just continually downloading to it. I don't know.
They left it powered up somewhere. Every week, every week there's a download in Germany in Hess. And I love that.
I kind of love that too. But I love every download. Every download is just like a little piece of my heart to every single download. And you can have another piece of that next week. But right now we're going to f*** off because we've done heaps of talking tonight and this morning and this evening or whatever time you're listening to it. Come and find us on the socials. Yep, done that. See you. Bye. Thanks for taking the time to rewind. Join us next time for another week that was 20 years ago. In the meantime, come and reminisce on the socials. Search for T-minus 20 podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.