When MySpace ruled the web

Rewind to 9–15 July 2006, when your Top 8 could end friendships, everyone suddenly had an opinion in 140 characters and celebrity reality TV decided skating on knives sounded like a great idea.

🌐 MySpace officially wins the internet
Move over Yahoo! Mail. MySpace became the most visited website in America, proving we'd happily spend hours tweaking glittery profiles, choosing the perfect autoplay song and stressing over who made the Top 8. 

🐦 Twitter enters the chat
A tiny new website asked one simple question: ‘What are you doing?’ No hashtags. No retweets. Just 140 characters that would eventually change news, politics and how often strangers argued with each other online.

🎬 Captain Jack rules the box office
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest stayed number one, Davy Jones' CGI blew everyone's minds and that ending left an entire generation impatiently waiting for the next movie.

⛸️ Australians discovered ice is slippery
Dancing on Ice glided onto Channel Nine with celebrities, sequins and an alarming number of injuries. It was reality TV at its wonderfully unhinged mid-2000s peak and somehow ballroom dancing suddenly looked like the safer option.

💥 Mumbai rocked by coordinated bombings
One of the week's biggest news stories saw seven bombs explode across Mumbai's rail network during peak hour, killing 189 people. It was a devastating attack that reshaped railway security and remains one of modern India's defining tragedies.

🤘 Sepultura turns a page
Founding drummer Igor Cavalera was officially replaced, marking the end of one of metal's most iconic line-ups. Fans were split but the band kept marching on.

📚 Stephanie Plum was back on the case
Janet Evanovich's Twelve Sharp topped the bestseller list, serving up murder, mayhem and yet another reason readers couldn't quit Team Ranger versus Team Morelli.

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

Transcript is auto-generated. 

T minus 20.  

I want. 

To forgive you. I hate. 

This long decent relationship. And I want to forget you. have no style or succession. This is a beauty. This is very nice. Yeah, boy. 

If you're new here. Welcome to T-minus 20. Every week we rewind exactly 20 years to uncover the biggest news, pop culture moments, tech breakthroughs and wonderfully weird stories from the mid-2000s. It's part nostalgic trip, part time capsule and part wait. That happened in the same week with your host, Joe and Mel. Hello, Mel. 

Hello. Whether you live through it or you're discovering it for the first time, we'll help you relive 1 gloriously chaotic week at a time. And this week, the week where chaotically reliving is the 9th to the 15th of July, 2006. 

It's stupid and lame and small. Yet master blogger Robert Scoble can't keep his fingertips off. It's real addictive. And users are popping up all over the globe. 

Yeah, users are popping up all over the globe. We're talking about the week that MySpace peaked, but Twitter was born and that's where all those users were popping up all over the globe. This is before Facebook took over. 

Yeah, I think Facebook was still just in the universities at this stage. This is where MySpace top eights could start real life arguments. Your profile blasted emo music and Twitter was just basically asking you what you were doing. 

Tobin Dean. The world's greatest skaters are coming down under to train 9 faces you know in a situation you won't. The new Australian series, Torglen Dean's Dancing on Ice on Channel 9. 

Dancing on Ice all depends on what suburb you're in as to how you look at that. That's Australia's most dangerous reality show in that context, though, I think. Yes, I can't believe they did it in hindsight. 

Oh, I just remember the injuries. That's all I recall from that show. Everyone getting injured and they were horrendous. And we're going to dig in on them too. Spoiler alert and maybe a trigger warning. 

That's right. Karl Stefanovich on ice. There's a headline for you. 

We don't have the key. We can't open whatever it is we don't have that it unlocks. So, what purpose would be served in finding whatever need be unlocked, which we don't have, without first having found the key? What are losses? So, we're going after this key. You're not making any sense at all. Any more questions? 

It'd be Captain Jack Sparrow and the Pirates of the Caribbean. 

Yes, the big release will actually top of the box office this week. Dead Man's Chest. 

Yeah. 

Smashing records. 

I enjoy the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and I can't wait to. 

Maybe because you get to talk like a pirate. You enjoy pulling that out, don't you? 

I know, but you find it a pain in the ****. 

Yeah, I do. 

Sorry about that. Look, what can I say? It's been a it's been an interesting couple of weeks. There is some things that I need to clear up here. You know how you know how people issue retractions? when they kind of don't get their facts right. And they kind of, especially in the newspapers where they bury it. 

Or if you offend someone. I remember back in the radio days having to do a few retractions after people got offended by certain things over the years. 

Yes. 

You'd have to say sorry. 

Yeah. 

Read out a written statement about how sorry you were for what you said about the person. 

Absolutely. And you never ever meant it, but you just did it because the boss. 

Was really cross at you. Yes, read this out, please. 

It's like, you read this piece of paper and apologize or you're fired. That was basically it. 

I think I kept one. I think I've got one filed away somewhere from one that I had to make. 

It's like, I'm terribly sorry. I really regret what I said and it'll never happen again. What are you sorry about? 

Who have you offended? 

Well, no, I haven't offended anyone, but I've just realized that like in editing previous episodes, well, there are a couple of things have happened to it. Time of recording. 

Well, don't tell me someone else has died. 

No, So at the World Cup, we talked about the World Cup a couple of weeks ago. 

Oh, Ronaldo. 

Yeah, OG Ronaldo with the record. 

The stupid hair in the record. 

Yes, so he broke the record, but then he was He was bumped off into second position. And then of course, at time of recording, that was all okay. 

And you were like, oh, he's still #2. 

Don't worry. And then the World Cup's on and Lionel Messi has broken the goal scoring record in this year's World Cup. The exact same day the episode came out, thus making our information inaccurate. 

Well, no, hang on. The episode comes out at what, 6, 5 or 6am? What time did Lionel kick his goal? Lionel. 

Lionel. 

Lionel. Isn't it Lionel? 

Again, it's like dancing on ice. It depends on what suburb you're from. 

That's the Camba pronunciation. But what time did he kick it? 

Oh, I think it had happened sort of a few hours before. 

Oh, so we don't even have receipts? 

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Or even simultaneously it could have happened. So there was that. And then also in that episode, I think we talked about the 5,000th episode of Neighbours. 

And Harold? 

Yes, we're talking about Harold Bishop and you said he played the trumpet and I'm like. 

No, I'm sure he played the trumpet. 

He didn't play the trumpet, he played the trombone. 

And that's right. 

And what I actually fact checked me. Well, what I meant to say, I got my horns wrong. I've got my horns crossed, some crossed horns. 

Oh, that's terrible. 

So I got a bit muddled up in the horn section and I believe that Harold actually played the tuba. The tuba. Yes. 

Well, and when he talks, he sounds like a tuba. When he gets annoyed, yeah, and he's not... I don't believe you. I'm going to. I'm going to. 

You actually going to cross fact check my fact checking? 

Harold Bishop, wasn't it? 

Yeah. What instrument did he play? 

Neighbours. 

It'd be like he was a drummer. He's absolute madman on the road. 

And he was in there. 

He was like the Keith Moon of Ramsey Street. 

Well, look, it's actually predicted my question. I think a lot of people must be confused by this. 

Yeah. 

Let's have a look. Do we trust? do we trust AI? Because AI agrees with you. 

Not really, but I'm fairly certain it is the tuba. 

Wikipedia said, oh, Wikipedia, well, okay, he did play the tuba, but he's an interesting tidbit. 

He's in the salvo, so he would have played the tambourine as well. 

He's an interesting horn fact. He actually hated playing it. The actor hated playing it. Yes. So it was one of the, he wished the producers would have picked a different instrument. He hated playing the tuba on Neighbours. 

It's quite a cumbersome instrument. He did not enjoy it. 

He did always look a bit angry and annoyed when he was playing it, didn't he? 

Did. 

I thought, oh, it's just because it's a difficult instrument, but he actually hated it. 

I thought he was concentrating really hard. 

That's terrible to know that he actually hated it. 

Well, you know, I mean, there's a lot of, not everything that you do when your job is going to be pleasant. And if playing the tuber is the thing that he's doing under sufferance, I don't think things are that bad. 

I'm not having to read out apologies on air or anything. 

Exactly right. It's like you blow into that instrument or it'll be your job. Actually, that's a lot like radio as well. Anyway. 

Another Harold tidbit. 

Oh, do you? Okay. 

Just on the Salvation Army. 

Sure. Somebody just blew into that instrument as well. Yes. 

I'm good at that. 

Yeah. 

Very good at that. 

The recorder. 

Very good at that. In 2003, Harold had a stroke and his personality changed. He actually left the Salvation Army in 2003 in Neighbours. 

Oh, that's a plot. 

And that was when he became, remember, I forgot this bit. He was a peeping tom. What? Harold became a peeping tom. 

That's unbelievable. 

He pinched Izzy on the bottom. 

Oh. 

Peeping Tom. It was windows and pinching bottoms. 

Let's not defame the national treasure that is Harold Bishop. It's the Hatches, Matches and Dispatches clue anyway. This is a little segment we do to hook through at the end of the show, the Hatches, Matches and Dispatches segment where we discuss celebrity birth, deaths and marriages. And this week we have a match. 

A marriage, yes. 

A marriage, a marriage from a couple of celebrities who were out partying and said this. We just went and saw Cirque du Soleil and... 

You want some vodka? She's bringing me in because I have the vodka. Did you like Cirque du Soleil? I saw the Beatles love Cirque du Soleil. 

It was awesome. 

Oh, Young Love. Going to Vegas, Cirque du Soleil, having some vodka and some snacks in the middle of being interviewed. Yeah, Young Love, any clues as did they last? No, they did not. Well, there you go. Of course, of course not. We'll find out who that is at the end of the show. 

A string of powerful explosions happened in India's financial capital, Mumbai. 

The blasts took place in local trains during evening rush hour. Nearly 200 people were killed and about 900 were injured. 

You know, we haven't done a lot of bad news recently as far as talking about the war in Iraq and stuff like that. We kind of have deliberately avoided it. We've touched on it and then moved on because there's other stuff that happened in the 2000s. However, I think that this one had to be mentioned this week. The Mumbai bomb blasts that happened, as you heard in that news report then, a series of coordinated bomb blasts that ripped through Mumbai's suburban rail network during the evening peak hour in one of India's deadliest terror attacks. You know, it's interesting. the things that you do and don't remember from the news. And I feel like, I feel like this was a big story, but I feel like it was a big story over in our country that kind of disappeared pretty quickly. 

And I think early 2000s. we still, international news didn't make headlines in the same way that it does now because we're not as connected as we are now. And you don't have these live updates over social media. So I remember it being on the news, but I don't remember it dominating headlines more than just on the 11th of July, this is what happened. And obviously this has come, I think almost to the day, pretty close to 12 months after London and certainly did not get the same amount of coverage as what the terror attacks in London did. But over here in Mumbai, 7 bombs explode within 11 minutes of each other. And it's through the suburban rail system, which carries millions of passengers every day, often called the city's lifeline. The devices were hidden inside pressure cookers and left on first class train carriages. And happened right during rush hour with, I think the toll there was revised to around 200 in terms of the time. 

Yeah, that's right in the news report. I think initial reports were about 189 and then it obviously increased. I think it's sort of increased over time too as some of the injured people succumbed to their injuries. which is terrible. But the reason why this does matter, and the reason why it is worth talking about even 20 years after the fact, is because it is one of the biggest terror attacks that had occurred in India since the 2001 Parliament attack. And it led to massive increases in railway security over there, anti-terror legislation. And it really continued to cast a light on the vulnerability of public transport around the world. Now, I know maybe not as westernised as other countries like England who have faced those terror attacks almost a year prior. But still, I think it just shows vulnerabilities across the board. 

It does. And I think with this story as well, what was also pretty shocking to a lot of people was that activities resumed as normal the next day. The financial capital largely went back into business as usual, which in some ways was a symbol of the city's resilience, but also in other ways it was like, whoa, whoa, you know, is it safe to do so? Do we need to stop and acknowledge what's happened as well? 

Yeah. and I just, I wonder, I mean, some people would say that's a sign of resilience, but I'm sure there's a lot of victims and families of victims that would have just been like, hold the phone. 

But also, investigations to figure out who was behind it. 

Well, they jumped to it pretty quickly with the investigations too. So they very quickly laid blame on a Pakistan-based militant group called Lakshar-e-Tabar. who were working with the banned Indian group Students Islamic Movement of India. Now, between 2006 and 2015, the manhunt happens while they're trying to find these people. They catch 13 men. One was acquitted when they went to trial while 12 were convicted. And this is in 2015. It's almost a decade. A decade after the atrocity has occurred. they're convicted in 2015. Five get the death penalty, seven receive, or I don't know if they get the death penalty, they were sentenced. Sorry. 

Yeah. 

Five were sentenced. This is why you got to fact check, folks. Five were sentenced to death, seven receive life imprisonment. 

But. 

Yeah, there is a but. 

The investigation was criticized over the years. People felt that the confessions had been coerced. There were also questions raised about witness identification as well as forensic evidence. 

Well, and this is what I, this is what really baffled me is it's like they were really quick to draw blame on that group and then capture those men, and I know that their kind of manhunt goes on for quite some time, but like there's a decade almost before, they've got the suspects and laid the blame, there's a decade before any of this stuff is brought in front of a court and goes to trial. 

But then last year. The Bombay High Court acquits all 12 convicted men, ruling that prosecutors had failed to prove the case and that key evidence was unreliable. 

Isn't that terrible? 

They were all, yeah, it was overturned last year. 

And I think that's why it's definitely worth discussing through this lens as well, because with those guys being acquitted, because of no evidence or lack of evidence. It's like, did they, but did they just get away with it or has somebody else done it? 

Yeah, if it wasn't them, who was it? 

Who was it? Exactly. So it's a pretty defining moment in global history, really. And obviously Indian history and, you know, it feels very unresolved. Change of pace, change of pace. Let's move into the more nerdy side of things with the technology and just the technology segment this week. 

No innovation here. Not being in a bit of this week. 

I'll change the chapter headings eventually. 

No, I think you can leave it open. You can leave it open. And I feel like I haven't had any. Actual feedback. I haven't had any qualitative or quantitative data come through yet. But I do feel like our foray into the innovation arm of technology and innovation in our previous episode, a raging success. 

Right, so you're on board? 

I'm still waiting for the comments to come through to prove that claim. But I do feel like it would be well received. So I think we can retain the innovation provided we can go back to the innovations catalogue at some point. 

I mean, I don't care if anyone else is happy. As long as you're happy, then I'm happy. 

Okay, good. That's great. 

Great. 

No innovation this week though. It's purely tech and we're going to talk MySpace to start with. This time, 20 years ago, for the first time ever, MySpace overtakes Yahoo Mail to become the most visited website in the US, marking the peak of, or the peak of the start of the social networking boom. 

I do feel like it is a bit of a peak. I mean, you've got, this is, you've got an email account, thousands of people, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people checking their emails every day. 

Well, that was what it did, yeah. Early 2000. I got to check. 

My email before social networking. There was email. That's it. That's all it was. And so now, people are going on to MySpace. Now, what I think is though, I don't think it's just, I think it's like MySpace users probably haven't overtaken the amount of Yahoo Mail users. They're just spending more time on the platform and going back and forth. Exactly. 

Well, you've got to, yeah, you've got to add new songs, you've got to move the top 8 around as well. Someone probably ****** you off on the reg, so you'd have to change that topic probably daily, maybe a couple of times a day, depending on how annoying your friends were at the time. 

There's a lot of curation that has to occur. 

The skin. Remember the skin? 

Oh, goodness me. Yes, I do now that you've reminded me to remember. 

I had a lime green one. Well, I made one for us, remember? 

Yes. 

I've never been able to go find it again. 

No, it's gone. 

But it was lime green. I was going through a lime green phase. I don't think we had any friends, though. I think we did it as a business. 

Tom's got a hard drive somewhere with everybody's details on it that he stashed under his. 

I'd love to go back and get it because, yeah, I did put some music on there. I think I put our voiceover demos on there. 

I wouldn't even know where to start. But, well, I mean, but back then, it's a big deal. 

Very big deal. 4.5% of all US web visits knocking Yahoo Mail from the top spot. And Yahoo Mail had dominated for quite a few years. This is still pre-Facebook going public. 

That's right. 

So things do change. 

Very significantly when Facebook enters the chat. But Facebook still in university. That's right. It's still in university. 

Mainly. Yeah. And this is peak MySpace with the customization. People are learning how to code. We're starting to discover bands as well and music. 

I think that was really the coolest thing about MySpace was the music side of it. Like that was quite wonderful. As far as exposing people to music and finding out what your friends will see, I think that was the most enjoyable part of it. 

I liked the creativity of it all. Like I hated when Facebook, not that I had a Facebook, but I hated the fact that when that came in, it was just all the same. I loved... I loved the rogue looseness of MySpace. 

You can put a little bit of code in there. 

And some people just had these beautiful pages that just looked stunning and other people just complete loose units. 

Couldn't give a toss. 

It was great. It was great. You never knew what you were going to learn. 

It was like, it was part of the fun. It was like covering your folder in school or something. You know, that's what it was like. It's just, there was a way to express yourself. 

And then some people had air bubbles in their contact and some people did a good job. 

And Jesus Christ, like, wasn't that a nice way to express yourself? Yourself on social media compared to how people express themselves on social media now. 

Well, this is the big shift from going to the internet for information. versus going to the internet for social interaction. This is where it did start to shift. 

And in hindsight, it just feels like... 

Can we just go back to the information? 

It feels like MySpace was better engineered for social interaction in some respects, maybe because it was too loose. Who knows? I mean, you know, there was probably hate groups manifesting over there as well. We just didn't see them because we didn't like the same music. 

Or it took, you know, 10 hours for the hate speech to load. That's right. Because, you know, we had a lot of flashing gifs at that stage. songs. That took a while to download on the old dial-up. 

Or somebody coded it wrong and the text went vertical instead of horizontal. Yeah, who knows? Who knows? But there you go. I mean, that was the thing that basic HTML that it taught you and stuff, be a computer hacker before you know it. 

We're all coders. We're all coders back then. So in terms of where it is today, News Corp buys it in 2005. So last year in T-minus 20 years, they paid 580 million at that stage. It's It's declining and that happens very quickly when Facebook comes on the scene. In 2011, they then sell it for 35 million. So they paid 580 million. They're selling it for 35 million. 

That's like, that's like when you go to see if you can trade in some of your old Apple products. And it's just. 

You can have $2.00 for that. 

It's like, I've got a Gen 1 watch and they're like, yeah, we'll put it in the e-waste for free. You know. 

No, actually we'll charge you and. 

Get rid of it. I paid 700 bucks for that. Like a decade ago. It should still work. This is how odd why I want something to last longer than that. I mean, if I'm paying $580 million for something, I want it to last longer than five years. 

Thirty-five million it was bought for by advertising company Specific Media. Or is that Pacific Media? Specific Media. 

I don't know. 

And JT. Timber Timber Lake. 

Remember he bought it? Yeah. Was that after he was in the Facebook movie? 

He plays, he played the guy in the Facebook movie in 2010, yeah. So he's being the Facebook movie guy, and then he decides to buy MySpace in 2011. Yeah, that's weird. And I think he used it to debut his comeback single in 2013. And I remember it being all over the mediums, oh, Timberlakes bought it. Wow, this is going to be great. 

But he was playing the Napster guy that became the Facebook guy in the Facebook movie, and then he bought MySpace. 

Yeah, but that wasn't in the movie. He bought it in real life. 

That's right. I'm glad he was in the movie. Just wanted to clarify it. Yes, point of clarification. 

But remember, it was very, it was very beautiful. It looked lovely. Didn't look anything like the wasteland it was, you know, in 2006. But by this stage, because there was talk about it, coming back and taking over from Facebook, but by this stage, people were too embedded in the Facebook ecosystem. They weren't going to come back. Twitter's really big. Instagram has launched by this stage and it just, it just didn't work. 

There's no such thing in that world as going back. 

Yeah. 

With these platforms. It's just, it's not going to happen. 

Is Clubhouse still a thing? I remember I spent quite a while in different rooms listening to people on stages. 

I haven't logged in. 

Being invited up to stages. 

Is that still a thing? I haven't logged into Clubhouse for about two years. 

I called Butter, which was going to be the next big thing. I don't think I ever even logged into it. I just downloaded it because I was told it was going to be the next big thing and it's still sitting on my phone. I don't even know what that is. 

Yeah. Somebody told me that there was this one called Grinder that played some heavy metal. No, that's not what that was. Anyway, so that was good. But over on the other side of the social media landscape, there was another juggernaut on the rise. And that was Twitter. So Twitter gets its public release. This time, 20 years ago. 

The latest cyber drug of choice is called Twitter, an addictive concoction of blogs, Google Maps, personal websites, and text messaging, all bottled into one network and delivered to users in real time. Three weeks ago, I had 90 followers, and today I have more than 2,000 followers. But here's the twist. Users no longer need a PC or a blog. Messaging can be typed by cell phone. That's its selling point. You can only type 140 characters. And that's actually what makes it real attractive for groups. Now, anywhere from 2 friends to 2,000 friends can know where you are every minute of every hour of every day. 

60 to 70,000 new messages coming in per day. 

They say despite its popularity, most of the postings are banal. Like tonight, there was a posting from someone saying, I'm just making a protein shaker waiting for my girlfriend to get out of the bath. And it certainly generates A question. Do we need to know that much information about the people in our lives in 140 characters or less? Dana? No, that's the answer. No. 

CBS News. CBS News put them at Dana. Dana doesn't want to. 

I agree. It's a good point because it just kept going from there. Here's my dinner. 

Yeah, that's right. 

I'm down at the pub. I'm having a beer. 

It's funny. 

I'm hanging out with so-and-so. Because I was like, I just farted. 

So I was like, oh, I have to try this. Like I have to try Twitter. And you might recall we did discuss it earlier on, but that was the first tweet. 

That was when Jack Dorsey sent the tweet. That's right. That it wasn't open to the public. Then he's just being a bit of a twit tease at that stage. 

A twit tease. 

**** tease. He twarted, he teased his twarts. I don't know. But yeah, it wasn't open to other people then. So we're just going to rehash because we can. 

Yeah, well, yeah, no, it's not rehashing really. But I do remember the whole mundane, you know, I'm doing this, I'm doing that stuff. And so I'm like, well, I better get on board and assimilate and do it because everyone else is doing it. And then I kind of veered away from it pretty quickly. But there was like probably a window of about six months where I was using it. every day, several times a day, because that's what you were doing. And then, and it was connected to my Facebook. So I was sending it out and it was aggregating. And I still get reminders of stuff of when I was on Twitter and I just look at it and just go, oh, ****. What the **** was I doing? 

I joined it because I was at a seminar or something and they were live tweeting people's tweets up on the big screen. And I was like, what is this? So I joined Twitter while I was at this seminar. 

Oh, mate. 

And I thought, isn't that great? And then all I did was follow the people at the seminar because that was all I knew how to do. 

Well, they probably had something worthwhile to say. Yeah, they did. 

I mean, I'm looking. When I first learned about 3D printing, actually, it was a big day. I joined Twitter and my brain exploded about 3D printing. 

Yeah. so there's something worthwhile to say. Like I'm looking at the stuff that I'm doing and I'm just going, you're like, no wonder nobody likes you. 

I couldn't. I can't get back in there because I refuse to update to X. Oh, you. 

Don't want to update. 

It's finally locked me out. I can't get in there. 

So you haven't had a look at it since 2023? 

No, I could still get in there. I couldn't. I couldn't. X tweet, whatever it is. I couldn't make an X. But I could still go in there and have a look. I could have a little fossick around. But now I can't even get in there. So Elon's kicked me out fully because, well, I just don't want the X logo on my phone. I like the bird. Did you know the bird logo is actually still one of the biggest brand logos of all time, even though it doesn't exist anymore? 

Well, yeah, isn't that great? So the sound doesn't happen either anymore. I don't even know what the X sound is. I mean, I feel like the X sound should be like... Do you know what I mean? Let's get into music, shall we? 

Yes, I'm just figuring out where we want to start. 

Oh, you're not sure. You tell me. 

I'm not sure. 

You tell me. I'm ready. I've got my finger on the trigger and I'm ready to pull it. 

Let's start in the UK then. Nelly Furtado, Man Eater. How good was, you know, spatula singing guy? Found him again last night. 

Oh, the guy on Instagram. 

Yeah, I love him. 

What's the name of his account? 

Hang on. 

Because we should really give him a plug. 

I do, I share him often and he thanks me whenever I share one of his videos. 

We do share the spatula guy quite often. 

He sends me a thank you. He's lovely. 

And that's the of content that I want to enjoy these days because it's not divisive or controversial it's just a little bit of fun and he's wig collection he has a remarkable collection of wigs so and he's very good at lip syncing and being the different characters. 

NNGWE 17 at NNGWE 17 yes it's a really. 

Handle to plug but yes it is but do yourself a favor. 

He's Nelly Furtado was incredible and he very good wig selection for that one and then he was also being Timber so he must have been doing the other one with Timberland so he was playing Timberland and Nelly and then he popped in as a producer or someone. 

Else and so what I love is that he spends a small fortune on wigs but will not lash out for a prop microphone and he's just more content just to have the spatula. 

But the season he's not holding the spatula. The spatula's just hanging there and he sings against it. And sometimes he goes a little bit crazy and he puts a filter on and he puts a filter with a pair of earrings if he's being a lady. And then he'll put a beard one on if it's a guy with a beard. That's all I have to say about that. In Australia, it's still Shakira. 

Oh, that's right. We're in the charts. I don't know where we even are anymore. 

I know I'm on the light, my hips don't lie and I'm starting to feel it's right. All the attraction, attention. See, baby, this is perfection. Boy, I can see your body move. I'm half animal, half man. I don't really know what I'm doing. 

Half animal, half man. She's just going to be in the charts for a little while, I think. Should we just do the US charts? Sure. I think you're crazy. 

I think you're crazy. I think you're crazy. Put me in the trail. 

Going down leave me in the mall it's going down leave me in the club it's going down. 

Do I make you cry the only question is do I make you cry I know I'm on the light my hips don't I'm starting to feel it's night all the attraction attention This is perfection. 

So, Nelly Furtado, still number one. Yes, Shakira, hips don't lie. Yep, she's everywhere. Idol Guys, #3. Meet me at the mall. It's going down. Young jock. 

There's a missed opportunity there too when we discussed his thing because I'm like, you know, he sounds Scottish. And that'll be good. Meet me at the mall. It's good dude. Young jock. 

No, not quite. And look, new entry to the top five, but we have discussed this song at length, so I'm not going to do that again. 

Isn't he late to the party in the States though? That was Barkley. That was Barkley with Crazy. 

I think it was at least at different times in the UK, in the States. And this probably, they probably pulled it and now they've put it back out there or something. Remember that's one? Yeah, I don't know. 

Maybe. Let's do some heavy metal news. There you go. That's the drumming of Igor Cavaliera in the group Sepultura, which is a bit unfair because he's actually been replaced in Sepultura this time 20 years ago by Jean Dollabella. He was the, and Igor Cavaliera, of course, is the founding drummer of Sepultura. So this is big news. Now, this is after more than 20 years with that band and there's been a lot of disagreements and tensions within the ranks of Sepulturia, I think about a decade prior. Ivo's brother Max had quit the band as well. So the two brothers, you know, and it's interesting. I love bands with brothers just always do really well. Like you think about Sepultura in the 90s, the late 90s, they were one of the biggest metal bands on the planet. They were huge and because they came from Brazil and they had this really tribal kind of sound and they certainly paved the way for nu metal as well with their sound. I think a lot of nu metal bands would cite groups like Sepultura as has a big influence. And so Max is out, brother Max is gone. And that's what I was going to say about brothers in bands like Alex and Eddie Van Halen, Dimebag and Vinnie Paul, Max and I got Cavalieri. Do you see the Gallaghers? Yes, the Gallaghers. Gallaghers. Gallaghers in Oasis, not quite metal band, but I mean they could if they wanted to, I guess. 

What about those twins we knew that always auditioned for? 

Oh yeah, they're not going anywhere, those boys. But anyway, I think there is something to be said for siblings in bands. I mean, I worked for a band that had two brothers. 

I guess you could practice all the time, couldn't you, if you're living at home together. And you'd know each other's rhythm. 

There is a certain. 

I feel like you'd be very, you'd be very connected and in tune with one another. I feel like that would be helpful. 

There's definitely a certain synergy, I think, that occurs. So, I mean, for Igor, I was actually surprised at the time that Igor had held on and hung around in Sepultura for as long as what he had. There's a lot of family. tension that contributed to Igor. 

Getting out of there as well. 

Family tension and internal disagreements. So he's torn. He's torn between the band, he's torn between his family. And then Jean Dollabella, he previously played with a Brazilian band called Eudora. And the first album featuring him would be called Dante 21. And this is the end of, you know, the longest running sibling partnerships in heavy metal, really. like with Max and Ivor Cavaliera out of the band? 

How many people were in the band in total? 

Well, there's only like, there was Max, Ivor, Andreas and Paolo, the bass player. So Max Cavaliera. 

So a lot of them have changed. 

Yeah. 

So is it still legitimately them then, really. 

Well, look, a lot of people sort of went, no Max Igor, no Sepultura, but I think Sepultura, Andreas Kissa, the guitar player, really carried the torch, as did Paolo, the bass player. Derek Green was a great replacement for Max as well. Like they just, they continued on as Sepultura, and they released some great albums in their own right outside of having the Cavalieras in the band. So it was almost 10 years to the day that after Max left that Igor left, and then now we've got Dollar Bella in there and they're still going. Igor does reunite with Max and Men Fences, and you can catch Igor and Max Cavaliera playing together now in the Cavaliera Conspiracy, and they're doing a lot of those classic Sepultura songs under that name. Despite a lot of those changes in lineups, Sepultura have been going on really successfully too for over 20, 20 years since I got left. But they have announced their farewell tour as well. So they're on their farewell tour at the moment and they're going to call it a day pretty much. And that's the end of Sepultura as not as we know it, I mean, as forever. As we know it with Max Igor, that was gone a long time ago, and now Sepultura itself are just calling it a day, which is a little bit sad. But, you know, did you ever listen to much Sepultura back in the day? 

I did. When I was friends with some metalheads at college, they used to make me listen to that metal show that was on. 

Oh, 3 hours of power. Great show. 

That was in the middle. Is it in the middle of the night on a Thursday? It was very late. 

Yeah, it was late 9 until midnight. 

It was very late. Yeah, 9 o'clock till midnight. But they made me prove that I listened. So I had to write down all the songs that they played and then I'd have to take it into school in the back of my exercise book. I think I was in their history class. And so I sat with them in history and they're like, did you listen? Tell me all all the songs and so I'd flick it over and quite often, yes, Sepultura were in the lineup. 

Yeah, I think it's interesting too with this band because back in the day where you didn't have access to information as freely and quickly as what you did these days. A lot of people were fans for this band for quite some time but mispronouncing their name and calling them Sepultra? 

I had an argument with someone about that because I hung out with the Metalhead so I knew I was right and I had an hour-long argument with someone's brother over that. And the Metalheads actually made me a mixtape. And again, this is the beautiful thing about music back in the day before the internet, before streaming. They made me a Sepultura. I've still got it in my briefcase. My cassette briefcase. They made me a mixtape of Sepultura. Was it Chaos AD? 

Chaos AD, great Alice. 

And they made me an Alice in Chains mixtape. And instead of like the full album, they just gave me the best album. 

The best fits. There you go. 

And I used to listen to it in the bar. 

Stick that in your streaming service. 

Exactly. 

Yes, and it wasn't until the interview where they went, where you actually heard, I think, Max or Iga or a lot of them. 

I'll say the name. 

Sepultura, and everyone went, oh, ****. Pronouncing that wrong the whole time. Time to unpack all things big and small screen out of our 20-year-old time capsule. Let's go to the number one in the US box office, matey. 

How much do you know about Davy Giles? 

You owe me your soul, and it's time to pay up. 

If there was anything that could be done. 

Well, there is a chest. 

The dead man's chest. To find it, you must see it to the end of the earth and beyond. 

We have our heading. Sparrow. Elizabeth, you know, these clothes do not flatter you at all. It should be a dress or nothing. I happen to have no dress in my cabin. We're looking for this. The chest of Davy Jones. 

What is in the chest? 

Dar. There be treasure in that chest. 

I love this movie. 

It was the second. 

Yeah, it was so good. The first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies are great. 

How many are there? 

Oh, there's heaps now. There's a lot of old stranger times. 

I don't think I've seen any. I think I've been in another room when you've been watching one. 

Oh, they're really fun. 

I've never watched one. 

Oh, they're so much fun. 

I just don't like pirates. 

They're pretty... 

What about video pirates? 

It depends if they're giving me a pirate movie that I'd like. 

Would you like a copy of Back to the Future? I got two VCRs at home. I'm a bit rich and I can give you a copy of... 

Remember that? When people used to like get into the video piracy. 

Oh, when you hooked the two VCRs up. Yes, you'd plug them, you'd have a special plug at the back. 

That was a sign. 

That'd be a sign of wealth, but also a sign of the fact that you might be a petty criminal. A video pirate. 

I forgot about that. Yes, I knew someone that had two that did that. 

There you go. 

I wanted to borrow my grandparents one so I could hook it up to our one, but I wasn't allowed. 

No, that'd be illegal. 

Yeah, your parents will let you. So this is the second Pirates, Pirates of the Caribbean film. 

This is on DVD, not to VHS. 

Continue to break box office records, this one. And I think this was like the number one movie in Australia and the United States. Maybe, I don't know if, oh yeah, for this week. Johnny Depp, obviously, Captain Jack Sparrow, just a massive character from that time period. Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley. And my favourite, this was my favourite with this, is Bill Nye as Davy Jones, which was just a fantastic character. 

And what was Davy Jones? Was there something weird about him? 

Yeah, they had the squiddy octopus tentacles on his face. His beard were tentacles. 

That was quite advanced CGI, wasn't it? 

Yes. He'd be talking through his tentacles. Yes. 

That's right. I don't know what he. 

Looks like because I didn't watch it. Yes. 

And directed by Gore Verbinski. It was really good. 

Grossed over a billion dollars worldwide. 

Yeah, it was a great movie. It's Disney's biggest live action franchise at the time, I'm fairly certain. And this is before they buy Marvel and all of that stuff as well, I think, before Marvel really takes off. So it was their biggest live action franchise. Johnny Depp, a defining character as Sparrow, although I think he went a bit too method actually became him in real life a little bit. He certainly smelled like him according to all reports. Yeah. And yeah, the revolutionary CGI for Davy Jones, it was great. The only downside about this particular movie, which is just an absolute thrill ride from start to finish, it's so enjoyable, was the fact that it ended on a cliffhanger. And it was another year before the next one was going to come out. So yeah. But I mean, the way to do it. 

Do you think we'd do you think today we'd wait? I don't think we would. I think we're so used to everything being on demand. I don't think we'd hand. I think our heads would actually explode if that happened. If there was a movie franchise that ended on a cliffhanger and you had to wait another year, they'd be right. 

I think you'd kind of have to. I don't know. I think this is how you get your event cinema, though. It's like we've been waiting a year and now there's an. 

I don't think people would. They'd get over, they'd move on to something else. 

Maybe. they'd. Yes, well, exactly. Maybe they'd move. move on to Dancing on Ice. Dorval and Dean's Dancing on Ice. This is, what a show. I mean, what a show. Australia joining the celebrity skating craze as Dancing on Ice bursts onto Channel 9 with a flurry of, I don't know. 

Things. Ice. 

Ice. 

Ice. 

Ice skating. 

Ice skating. 

It was a British show. Originally, yes. 

I think it's, yeah, it's a franchise across the world. 

Not content with Dancing with Stars, we thought we'd throw them on the ice. 

Well, I think this is the thing. Dancing with the Stars was such, well, I was working at the Channel 7 affiliate when Dancing with the Stars first happened. And everyone in the corridors was like, that's ridiculous. That's not going to rate. How stupid is it? And everyone was just like, can you believe that? 

How wrong were they? 

And then it came out and it was just the most Biggest unexpected hit for Channel 7 at the time. So Channel 9 is like, how do we top that? 

Well. 

Let's top it with some real life danger and then put the celebrities on ice on a pair of blades. 

What would go wrong? Not to mention, let's get two of peak 1990s, early 2000s TV's greatest hosts. I, don't even, that was a, it was a weird introduction. I kind of made it awkward, but I'm talking about, I just, yeah, Jamie Jury, greatest stripper, and Sammy Lucas. 

What's Sammy Lucas? She was on one of the animal shows. Was it Totally Wild? 

She was everywhere. Sammy Lucas was everywhere. She was. 

She was a kids game. Was it Totally Wild? I'm pretty sure she was a Ranger. 

She did a couple of holiday shows. That was a different person. Do a couple of holiday shows there. Occasionally would fill in on the weather, on some of the breakfast TV. Pretty sure she did a spread in Ralph at one stage. I hope I'm right with that. Otherwise, she could be quite upset. 

You're making your attraction. You'll have to do a sorry letter again. Jamie Jury though, is he doing gardening like backyardy blitzy stuff yet or is he still fresh from the strippers at this stage? 

Oh no, he's been backyard blitzing for a while. He's been on Burke's backyard and whatever. 

Wasn't he on Dancing with the Stars? I feel like he was on Dancing with the Stars. Anyway, he was the host, but it was judged by international skating experts, not judged by them, they were just the hosts. And it was Channel 9's answer to Dancing with Stars. And so first season, I think we had Michael Slater, Gian Rooney, Annalise Brackensack, or is it Bracken Seek? 

Bracken Seek, yes. 

Bracken Seek. Jake Wall One, he's a model. Is that the one that's married to... 

Yeah, Sammy Lucas never posed for Ralph Magazine. 

Well, can you please make a sorry retraction? 

I'd like to apologise there. She was, I think she was linked. in coverage as being one of the country's sexiest women, but by the magazine. 

Oh, okay. 

But she'd never actually post for the magazine. 

I'm glad you cleared that up. 

Yes. Radio, TV. 

Yeah, I did say radio. 

Yeah, she was big at the time. 

What TV shows? Well, you've got that up. What was the animal one? I'm sure she's on like Totally Wild or something. 

Appeared on the Nine Network as a weather presenter. Let's just go proper weather presenter for today. Yep, Totally Wild. 

Totally Wild. I knew it. 

News reader for American Rosso. Guest presenter on the morning show with Larry. So she's done a few things. And quite a few things. 

Good hair. Good hair. I always liked her hair. 

Great hair. 

So yeah, Jake Wall wins. And runner up, none other than Karl Stefanovic. 

Yes, Karl Stefanovic on ice. 

And let's see how the judges have scored tonight. These scores are out of 6. Belinda 5.0, Mark 5.0, Alisa 5.0, Jason 5.0, Karen 5.0. What a score. 25 points are over, start the night. 

I'll tell you what, team, you've got to be happy with that. Straight fives. I'll tell you what, I'm going to be honest with you all, I didn't feel my legs for a second of that whole routine. It's a very busy routine. It's just great fun. It's a great classic song. I remember listening to Bobby Darren when I was a kid and it's just great to be able to perform to it. So is that why you chose it again? Yeah, it was, yeah. We wanted to do something the crowd could get into and have a bit of fun with. And it was good. Linda, how did you feel? Second last performance. You've got one more shot to make it work. 

That felt great. It felt really good. We had such good energy out there between us as well as in the whole audience. So it's great. 

Yeah, good on you. Carl, you couldn't feel his legs, but I mean, that's not the first time he's been legless on national TV, is it really? While I was busy looking up that stuff and I was distracted, did you go through all the injuries? 

No, I think we need to make a warning first because some of them are quite graphic. 

Oh, for the injuries. Yeah. 

So in the Australian one, so it did only last one season. I think we need to point this out. And I do remember because we're all happy over at the Channel 7 affiliate because they're like, oh, they're coming after us and then everyone got injured and we're like, ha ha, suck it. Nobody likes your stupid ice dancing. They like people dancing on real floors. 

Paso dobles and whatnot instead of. in the date and the, half axel. 

Done. It only lasted one season and it cost apparently, and I don't understand why, because you'd just be going down to the ice skating rink. It cost several $1,000,000 to produce. 

Really. 

Why? 

Probably in insurance. 

Yeah, okay, medical bills. 

Exactly. In insurance. 

So let's go through the Australian injuries first. And if you are a little bit queasy, you might want to just skip to the next chapter. Right. Okay, Michael Slater severed a tendon when he's part. 

My goodness, he's a cricket player too. That's not very good for business. 

Yes, tools of the trade. John Rooney dislocated an ankle. Annalise twisted an ankle. And in the UK, this is where we start getting gross. Greg Rutherford. 

Yes. 

Did what he referred to as a self C-section after falling on his own skate blade, slicing deeply into his lower abdomen. Oh my goodness. Had to have some pretty serious surgery. 

That's horrible. 

Jennifer Ellison sliced her own scalp while doing a scorpion move. That's where you do a back kick. 

Oh, and your leg goes over the top of your head. 

She sliced the back of her head. 

So the momentum from the skate is like. 

And she's a blunt. 

Taking a divot out of. 

Oh my God. And as she's going, her blonde hair is turning red because there's just blood ******* out everywhere. 

That's freaking awesome. That's like something out of wrestling. 

I actually wanted to watch that one. 

Yeah, that sounds amazing. 

I'm sure it's on the internet somewhere. The professional skater, so the partner, Yibin Mok, sliced her leg, exposing her tendons. 

That's gross. 

Yes, and Vanilla Ice was in it. I love that Vanilla Ice has gone. Dancing on Ice, Vanilla Ice. This is great. It's a great tie-in. I'm going to go for it. And he did. He fell and suffered a concussion and needed stitches. Poor old Vanilla Ice. 

Poor old Vanilla Ice on Ice dancing. 

He was getting around in the reality shows early 2000s, wasn't he? Because he was on, what was the Surreal Life? 

Surreal Life. And I mean, would Vanilla Ice have danced on ice to his own stuff? Do you reckon? 

Look, I don't know. I didn't check, but I would have liked to have thought so. Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice on Dancing on Ice. 

Yeah, that's a that's a lot of ice. Oh. Oh. I've got a book. Oh. 

12 sharp. 

Yeah. 

Janet Ivanovich. 

Oh, it's a Stephanie Plum, Janet Ivanovich book. 

Ranger time. 

Ranger. Let's go. 

How exciting. 

It's been a while. 

All right, let's get some music. This one's called Amiga by Scott Buckley and you can go and find like a whole bunch of copyright free stuff on this channel called Breaking Copyright if you search for it on YouTube. Here we go. There you go. That sounds kind of, for anyone who doesn't know, this is books we didn't read, okay? So we just get the New York Times bestseller and then we go on to Goodreads and we find out what it's all about. So. 

Welcome to Trenton, New Jersey, where bounty hunter Stephanie Plum's life is about to implode in Janet Ivanovich's wildest, hottest novel yet. First A Stranger Appears. Is that the title? 

First A Stranger Appears? No, Twelve Sharp. Oh, that's just in all caps. 

So I thought, oh, the book's called Twelve Sharp. Sorry about that. While chasing down the usual cast of miscreants and weirdos, Stephanie discovers that a crazed woman is stalking her. Then the stranger reveals her secrets. Do you need a Winnie Blue? I find this voice really hard to maintain, but I'll keep going in the interests of quality entertainment. The woman dresses in black, carries a 9mm Glock, and has a bad attitude and a mysterious connection to the dark and dangerous Carlos Manoso. Street name, Ranger. Carlos Minoso. Carlos Minoso. 

That's not what I was visualizing. 

Ranger. Ranger. Next, somebody dies. The action turns deadly serious and Stephanie goes from hunting skips to hunting a murderer. Hunting skips. 

Skips. 

Yeah. 

Aussies. Yeah. Hey, we're hunting skips today, mate. Oh, **** I better get out of here. 

All right. Soon the chase is on. Ranger needs Stephanie for more reasons than he can say. And now the two are working together to find a killer, rescue a missing child, and stop a lunatic from raising the body count. When Stephanie Plum and Ranger get too close for comfort, vice cop Joe Morelli, her on-again, off-again boyfriend, I'll stay out of it, Morelli, steps in. Will the ticking clock stop at the stock of the stock of the **** of the stomp clock? Shock, rock, what? Stroke of 12. Stroke of 12. Or will a stranger in the wind find a way to stop Stephanie Plum forever. Filled with Janet Ivanovich's trademark action, non-stop adventure, and sharp humour, 12 sharp shows her why... Jesus! 12 sharp shows why her novels have been called Hot stuff by the New York Times and Ivanovich herself, the master, San Francisco Examiner. 

That was a lot. Was. 

Yeah, I can't read that. I didn't realize the synopsis was that long. 

Carlos Manoso. 

Carlos Manoso. 

Carlos Manoso, AKA Ranger. 

Now, I was very lucky on the Goodreads today. I was reading through the reviews. And one wonderful reviewer actually put in some of the Ranger Stephanie dialogue. 

Right. 

Because we know from our previous forays into the reviews on the Goodreads, everyone's moist for Ranger and Joe. Everyone loves the love triangle. I feel like there might be a little bit of sexual tension and maybe a bit of relations that occur in the book. I feel like it's soft **** basically, because everyone's always commenting. So I was wondering, what's going on? Why are all these women so obsessed with the Ranger? 

In my fanfic, Marelli and Ranger are lovers. 

So I've actually got A couple of bits of dialogue between Stephanie and Ranger, and I was wondering if you'd like to act it out with me. You can be Stephanie and I'll be Ranger. 

See, can you do like with a name like Carlos Manoso? 

Well, I'm going to go with Skip Ranger. He's going to be Aussie. 

Oh, he's going to be Australian, because I'll be like. 

Australian Ranger. 

My name is Ranger, AKA Carlos Manoso. I can try. No, that's alright. 

No, I can't do that. 

Okay, so I'm who am I? I'm Stephanie. 

You're Stephanie. 

Well, I think just for the sake of, you know, giving Lois a bit of a thrill, I think Lois could play Stephanie. 

Yeah, I think Lois can get her on the old speed dial. 

Oh, I'm not going to dial her in. She's outside. Oh, of course she's yours. She'll come in. Hang on a sec. 

Hello. 

I hear husband of yours called. 

I don't know. He just always disappears when you show up. It's very weird. 

I hear you need an actress. 

I do. I would like you to play the role of Stephanie. Yes. From you're a big fan of Janet Vanovich, aren't you? I love them. Yes. 

Much better than those Michael Crichton books people keep giving me for Christmas. 

That wasn't Michael Crichton, that was the other guy. 

Who's telling the story here, *****? 

OK, fine. I stand corrected. It wasn't Michael Crichton. It was someone else. 

It's a river, I say. Is there a river? 

OK, sure. 

Come on, time is money. 

I'm on the clock. All right, I've got I've got a few passages and I'm sure you've read this one of Stephanie and Ranger. So you're going to be Stephanie and I'm going to be Ranger. Are you ready to go? 

Deep, dark passages with Ranger. 

Good, great. Well, this will be very realistic then. 

Can I start off as Stephanie, do I? 

Yes, please. 

Or is that right now you start off with Ranger, don't you? 

No, that's Stephanie. I'll be mad at you. 

Oh, that... 

Whoops, a broke character. I'll be mad at you. 

Can't be mad at me. I'm cute. I might even be adorable. 

Spending time with you is always a learning experience. 

There are other things I could teach you. 

Shouldn't tell me things like that. I'll take advantage. 

Oh no, that was Ranger. 

I f**king told you. I told you I had the characters wrong. 

No, this is right. There's 2 Rangers in a row. 

Oh. 

Stephanie, you shouldn't tell me things like that. I'll take advantage. 

That makes so much more sense. No, you won't. You're Ranger. You're the guy who protects me. 

Yes, but not from myself. 

Just out of more of a curiosity, Ranger, how would you define your role in my life? 

I'm dessert. 

That gives me pleasure. But isn't it especially good for me? Go straight to my thighs, which would be really nice. Sorry, I'd lived a little bit there. 

Something that could never be the base of your food pyramid. 

See, there's where I was in trouble. Dessert was the base of my food pyramid. 

One Ranger is all you'll ever need. 

I just need to go out for a bit. I might get Joe to come back. 

I'm not surprised. Go and have a nice cold shower. Bye, Lois. Thank you. That's very good, Stephanie. Jesus Christ. She's a bit hot and bothered, wasn't she? Yes. 

Oh, she's all flustered and red in the face. 

Calm myself down. OK. 

This seat is. 

All right. Not great. Cindy 5 stars. 

Yeah. 

This is Cindy's review of 12 sharp. Car casualties, 0 ****** 2 peanut butter and olive sandwiches, one. 

Wow, she's done a real summarise the book. She's got a real stocktake there, hasn't she? 

Car casualties, but a couple of ******. 

And some peanut butter and olive sandwiches. One peanut butter and olive sandwich. ML Blair, five stars. The word babe filled with so much innuendo that you start to hyperventilate. Nice. 

Five stars. Loved it. Yes. 

Loved it. 

Loved the innuendo. 

This is cool. We've got 5 star reviews. 

I'm pretty sure this is soft ****. 

Yeah, well, you know. 

There's not a lot of one-star reviews. K, five stars. Enjoyed getting to know Ranger a bit better. He's so easy to look at. Pitch yourself trying to tame the lion. 

Trying to tame the lion, Carlos Manoso. Jilly, five stars. Lots of ranger in one of those books. Always makes me give an extra star. He is dark, mysterious, alpha in a good way, and sexy, AF. 

Whoa. 

Yeah, it's a bit hot and heavy in the comments. Cathy, five stars. 4.5 rounded up to five. Fun with Ranger. 

A little bit of range danger. 

All right, let's go. 

And 2 ******. 

Lauren, one star. Was I not reading the same book as everyone else? I can't believe how many five-star ratings this book got. All the characters are totally unlikable, especially Stephanie. She has a boyfriend who she seems to be feeling somewhat serious about in this book, but then she lets a male friend live with her. Fine. But then she lets him share her bed and stick his tongue down her throat whenever he feels like it. Immoral *****. And the friend's name is Ranger. Give me a f***ing break. Only an unlikeable ********* goes by the nickname Ranger, and only an unholy ***** would find that hot. 

Jesus, that ***** needs to loosen up, doesn't she? 

Where did she come from? Wow. That's a very successful book for one that we didn't read. Five stars there, yeah. 

I'm actually tempted. I really want to know. I really want to know just how racy it gets. I feel like it must with all those five-star reviews. 

After Lois has been in here, I'm tempted to Febreze this seat. Let me tell you, it's just not good. Anyway, it's time for the Hatches, Matches and Dispatches clue. And this week we actually have a match. 

Yeah, a wedding. 

A wedding. A wedding from celebrities that said this. 

We just went and saw Cirque du Soleil and we're good. You want some vodka? 

She's bringing me in because I had the vodka. Did you like Cirque du Soleil? We saw the Beatles love Cirque du Soleil. 

It was awesome. A little bit tipsy in Vegas there. If you said Avril Lavigne and some 41 frontman Derek Wibley. Yeah, they got married. 

They did in Montecito, California. 

Montecito. 

But the rest of the world didn't know until two days later. It made news on the 17th of July, but it actually occurred on the 15th with around 100 guests. Avril wore a Vera Wang. wedding gown. They had dated for around 2 years before they became engaged. And this was one of the biggest celebrity weddings of 2006 because they were both pretty hot property at this stage. 

Although the cute pop punk couple, like some 41 with that kind of, you know, naughty boy punk band and she was the clean cut, sort of clean cut, but still pop punk chick. 

Yeah, with the ties and the eyeliner. 

Still seemed quite innocent though. 

Bit of a power couple. 

Yeah. 

It was surprisingly traditional though, the wedding itself. despite the punk image of the two of them. They were married for just over three years before somebody. 

They're both Canadians, weren't they? Yes, they are. They're Canadians. And then she, and then after they got divorced, she married another Canadian, Chad Kroger from Nicoback. 

I never knew this until we started doing this podcast. I did not know that. was weird. 

Yeah. But I don't know if Chad and Avril are friends still, because they got divorced in 2015. 

No, yeah, I don't know. 

But Avril and Derek are still friends. They still get on quite well. Derek has actually spoken about how he supported her through a battle with Lyme disease, which is a nice thing. Well, if you're married, that's quite, you know, that's the sickness part, the sickness in health, yeah, better or worse. All of that, so I don't think they get the better or worse stuff too much in celebrities. As soon as it gets worse, they're like, oh, I'm out of here. Yeah, we're going to get someone else. You know, that's how celebrity marriages seem to work these days anyway. And not us though, we're going on strong, doing this podcast for you, T-minus 20. Don't forget, this is the end of the show, by the way. 

Yeah. Yes, it is. 

You can find us on the socials. You can search for T-minus 20 podcast, Facebook, Instagram. And I mean, I say TikTok, but I don't even like that platform much anymore these days. 

You don't like it because you're in charge of posting to it and then you got sick of doing it. You haven't posted to it since... Twenty twenty-three, I don't think. 

It's just full of ****. I mean, it's. 

People are mean, though, like, they are. 

They're a terrible time. They're just angry and mean, and I don't understand. 

It's very busy. It's very busy. I can't keep up with the pace of TikTok. It's just lots of noise and moving things and just, no, it's too much. 

And the algorithm pushes terrible things to me. So I just don't want to be. 

I think you're to blame for that. 

Yes, possibly, but I don't know what I said or did or what it heard. But it was something. Probably need to delete my search history or caches or something. I'm not sure. What is happening next week? 

Next week? Oh, let's have a look. Oh, someone by the name of Lily Allen enters the chat. 

Oh, we like her. 

We do. 

Yeah. 

An earthquake in Java. 

We don't like those. 

We don't like that. 

We probably need to talk about it. 

Our favourite emo magician. 

Oh. Favourite magician is not 2 words that I've heard you say together. 

I use owl loosely. I don't mean me. I mean everybody else. 

It's the royal owl. 

Yeah, the royal. Yeah, I hate magic. And I hate this guy actually, to be honest. But interesting to talk about. So we'll talk about him. 

Well, speaking of magic, it's time for us to disappear. 

Oh, good one. 

****. See you next week.