When the world lost Steve Irwin

Rewind to 3–9 September 2006, when Australia lost two legends, Paris Hilton discovered being rich couldn't get you out of probation and Sean Paul had every dancefloor speaking fluent gibberish.

🐊 Crikey... Australia says goodbye to Steve Irwin
The world lost its favourite wildlife warrior in a tragedy that still feels impossible to believe. After a lifetime wrestling crocodiles, dodging venomous snakes and getting far too close to just about every dangerous animal on Earth, Steve's story ended in the most unexpected way imaginable. Twenty years on, his conservation legacy is bigger than ever.

🏁 The King of the Mountain takes his final lap
Just four days later, Australia was in mourning again as Peter Brock was killed during the Targa West rally. The man who conquered Bathurst nine times didn't die on the mountain that made him famous, making the loss feel even more surreal. It was a heartbreaking week that marked the end of two uniquely Australian icons.

👑 Paris checks in... then checks into jail
A Hollywood DUI arrest was only the beginning. Paris Hilton's legal troubles would snowball into one of the biggest celebrity media circuses of the 2000s, complete with "Free Paris" T-shirts, helicopter chases and enough tabloid coverage to make today's gossip cycle look restrained.

🎤 Sean Paul still had us all mumbling along
Give It Up To Me landed with Keyshia Cole in tow, proving once again that nobody needed to understand Sean Paul's lyrics to know every single word. Peak 2000s dancehall, peak club anthem and another reminder that he quietly owned the decade.

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

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The year is 2006. We head to the hills and learn reality is scripted. Your Sony Cyber Shot uploads 462 blurry regrets. A Facebook poke makes everything complicated. And Twitter's like, cool story, you've got 140 characters. Go. T-minus 20. Rewind 20 years with Joe and Mel. 03 September 2006. T-minus 20. Bringing sexy back. I want to forgive you. 

T-minus 20. I hate this long distance relationship. And I want to forget you. Good job. You have no style or succession. This is a beauty. 

This is very nice. 

Yeah, boy. 

Now, memory is a funny thing. We all remember the 2000s until someone asks actually what happened. And then suddenly, Britney, MySpace, Snakes on a Plane, and low-rise jeans all blur into one giant Y2K soup. 

Yes, and that's where we come in. Hi, I'm Mel and that's Joe over there. 

Hello. 

Every week we rewind exactly 20 years and rebuild the week as it actually happened. One headline, one hit song and one questionable fashion choice at a time. Welcome to T-minus 20 and this week it's a week that all Australians will remember exactly where they were with two of the biggest stories for us of the early 2000s. 

Tonight, Steve Irwin killed by a stingray in a freak accident on the Great Barrier Reef. Tributes for a Queensland adventurer loved around the world. He would have said crocs for all. Stunned visitors pay their respects at Australia Zoo. I think Australia's lost a bloody good bloke today and it's very sad. 

So there was that and then things went from bad to worse. 

Australia loses another hero. Bathurst legend Peter Brock killed in a rally crash north of Perth. 

Special reports, tributes to an Aussie sporting champion. Yeah, so it was one of those weeks where it was like things just went completely from bad to worse. And the nation was in mourning. And that's kind of all we got. Well, we're going to talk about some other stuff as well. We're going to lighten the mood with a little bit of this. 

Even though the guys are crazy, even though the stars are blind. 

A little bit of Paris Hilton, just to cap it all off. 

I think in her mind, probably not so light. A DUI arrest in Paris, which eventually leads to one of the biggest media circuses of the early 2000s. 

So I want to do this early. I thought it appropriate to open the boombox and at least try and have a little bit of fun this week and just get all the petty grievances off our chests before we go into these terrible news stories that happened way back 20 years ago. This is your safe space, the boombox, for your boomer-esque complaints. The things that you maybe get tagged with old man yells at cloud by your friends if you start to talk about it out there in the the real world, but not here and not on this podcast because we're here for you. This is your opportunity to complain and be celebrated, to be lofted high on our shoulders. And instead of having someone go, okay, boomer, we're just going to go, okay, you and celebrate it because we're here. Exactly. That's right. That's what we'll play. We'll play that song. All you got to do if you want to be a part of the boom box being opened is just send your boomeresque complaints into our DMs. You can look for T-minus 20 podcast on the socials. You can send us a message. You could record voice note if you like. If you record a voice note, we will play it. Absolutely guaranteed. That is an ironclad guarantee from us here at T-minus 20. But that is the gist of it. And Mel, you've been trawling through the boombox. 

Yes. 

What have you opened up? 

Well, lots of complaining about the internet. 

Oh, well, yes, that's a daily occurrence. 

Yes, All right, are we ready? 

Absolutely. 

At Scooter Hopper. 1212 or 1212 or 1212? 

Just however way you want to skit it, you probably want to check in for the correct connect, connect pronunciation. Oh boy. 

At ScooterHopper1212 says, I think we kind of lost the plot when we put super fast internet in our pockets and stopped making everyone sit through a little song that sounds like a robot having a nervous breakdown before you could surf the world wide web and wait 45 minutes for a 2 minute web tune to buffer. 

They just don't know how good they've got it, do they really? 

It really did teach your patience, didn't it? 

Absolutely did. 

Two days for a song. 

I also think it contributed to our dopamine addiction that we have these days because it was a much better, you know that old saying, the Motorhead song, the chase is better than the catch. I think that is the epitome of it when you're sitting there waiting for the buffering and the downloading and the robot conniption sound at the very start to herald the buffering the downloading, and then you finally get there. And you don't even have, or you never had the dopamine hit when you actually received the content. It was more on open. It was more just the reveal. And then it would go either way. 

Yeah, and just waiting. I think we're all too impatient now. If a web page takes more than 10 seconds to load, out. 

Tell me about it. 

Back in the day, the little man digging. Remember that guy, that little gif digging? He dig and he dig and he dig and you just sit there going, okay, keep digging. 

And then you go and have a cup of coffee. No problem. You maybe breathe in some fresh air. And then you'd sit back in front of your screen for not as an intensive amount of time. Yeah. 

But now it follows you everywhere you go. 

It does. 

The interview is following you, it's chasing you, chasing you down. 

I do want to narrow it down. It's not just the internet, it's just screens in general. Everything is a screen. 

I heard the other day that when you go into the shop, the screens in there know that you're there. 

The screens in the shop are there. 

Apparently they know that you're there from your Wi-Fi or your Bluetooth or something that you leave switched on the phone because you don't know how to turn it off. 

Oh yeah. 

And the screens in the shops know you're there. 

Oh my God, Mel's here. G'day, Mel. 

Hi. 

How can I help you today? 

Following you around. Use some internet. 

Well, at least the screen notices you. There's certain electronic stores that I go into where the people with all the metal **** in their face and the tattoos, they'll ignore me for a good 45 minutes To the point actually, because I've got tattoos as well, I don't have any metal sh*t in my face, but old people come up to me in that electronics retailer store and ask me if I work there. Gosh, we got booms over that side, recorders over this side. I don't work in electronics and I cannot help you. 

I'm just longing for the day of walking in and seeing your face up on the wall, employee of the month. 

Yeah, I'd help you've been getting a little barcode scanner and just go, let me just ring that up for you and see if I could do you a deal. Yeah, because you know I have so much power in my pocket here. Look, it's a Hatches Matches and Dispatches clue time, the Hatches Matches and Dispatches segment at the end of the show, the clue at the start of the show to hook you through to the end of the show. Celebrity birth, death or marriage. This one is a birthday. 

Well, we've got enough death. We just thought we had to lighten it up a bit. 

Yeah, because this was a thing, because we've got two dispatches that we didn't want to just sort of put in the Hatches, Matches and Dispatches segment because they're not that any dispatch from that segment is a throwaway. And at the risk of digging myself in any further, this is a birthday from a celebrity who said this? 

Is you taking notes on a criminal ******* conspiracy? 

Yeah, are you? Is you. 

Was that a swear word in there? 

It was, but I did that thing. 

That's what we used to do to the rappers in the early 2000s. You'd make the swear go backwards. 

Where instead of saying, instead of saying, it goes, because you played a word backwards. 

Yeah, you did. You did it backwards. Yeah, they did that in a lot of rap songs in the radio edits. 

Just a little production technique that I learned back in the day. We'll find out who that is at the end of the show. 

4th of September 2006. And I think this is one of those days that everyone in Australia who is over probably the age of 30 remembers exactly where they were. I remember exactly where I was when this came on the news. I was at work and we had the news playing in the background. And I remember it being on the news. And I remember thinking, what? 

I was at work too. I had a job. And yes, it went like wildfire through the office. And I think the first reaction was utter disbelief. 

Yeah, The world's most enthusiastic wildlife warrior kisses his wife goodbye, heads out to film a segment out on the Great Barrier Reef and never comes home. Steve Irwin, one of the biggest global exports. known as the Crocodile Hunter, grew up at the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, which later becomes Australia Zoo. And that was founded by his parents, Bob and Lynn Irwin. Age 9, he's already handling crocodiles under his father's supervision. Imagine that, age 9. Age 9, I was crimping my hair and making up dances to the locomotion. He's wrestling crocs. 

Similar, similar pathway. I always think of the Flintstones when they use like the lizards and animals to do things that I just pictured Steve Irwin with a like a crocodile hair crimper, a la the Flintstones. 

Yes, actually. 

You know, like, you know, they... 

That would give a good crimp. 

Like they had pterodactyls wiping the windshield of their car. I figure they could use a crocodile, a little baby crocodile as a hair crimper. 

That's a great idea. 

I'm sorry to take you off on a tangent during what is a very sad and serious day for Australia. 

Let's go back to the seriousness. So he actually took over management of the zoo in the early 90s. And in 1991, he naturalist, Terry Raines. 

Not like a naturalist as in a nudist. Not the nudist. 

She wasn't a professional nudist. 

Well, maybe she was. 

I don't know. 

She may have been, but that wasn't the naturalist title was not that. No, of animals. 

No, it's she liked animals. 

That's right. A signature block was it was more to do with nature as opposed to not wearing any clothes. Liking nature? 

Yes. 

Just a point of clarification. 

Terry was in Australia on holiday. They marry eight months later and instead of filming a traditional wedding video, they filmed themselves catching crocodiles during their honeymoon. And it's that footage that then becomes the pilot for the show The Crocodile Hunter. 

Right. 

Did you ever watch The Crocodile Hunter as a kid? 

Yeah, it was madness. 

Crazy. 

It drove me. I look. I'll get to that. 

96, I think it debuts. 

Yes. 

Broadcast in more than 130 countries, making Steve one of Australia's biggest international celebrities. And the most iconic footage that I think everybody would be familiar with is Steve jumping onto these enormous saltwater crocs often to safely relocate them away from a populated area that they shouldn't have been in. He often swam with tiger sharks and reef sharks, handled king brown snakes, coastal taipans, basically every dangerous venomous animal that could kill you. 

Yeah, and I think while the rest of the world fell in love with Steve Irwin, Australia, and I think Australia was proud of him as far as being an export, but when he first hit the scene, I don't know. A lot of us were like, this bloke is ******* barking mad. 

He's A lot. 

He was a lot. I don't think that he would argue against that. I think he'd be amused by that comment. 

I am. a bit much for some people. 

He a bit much. 

He was bitten so many times that he joked often that he'd stop counting the stitches. Frequently bitten by non-venomous snakes, narrowly avoided bites from some of the more deadly species. He also demonstrated how dangerous kangaroos could be by allowing one to kick him and scratch him while explaining their defensive behavior. Nearly got caught in the pathway of an angry elephant. And I think the difference with Steve is, at this stage, we're used to the calm, polished, observational. Yes, Edinburgh. 

Yeah, they weren't used to it like kind of thing. 

Oh, crikey, come and have a look at this, you know, my God, look at the size of a big bloody crocodile. 

It was somewhere in there might have been a little bit of science, but I'm still struggling to find out where. Look, the Discovery Channel, America, they loved him. They loved him. He was doing the talk show circuit, you know, taking all the animals onto the talk show. I mean, those segments are just, those old segments of him like on the Tonight Show and various other programs like that are just gold. They're fantastic. 

Do you think some of his success may have come from Dundee was massive over in America as well. Do you think it was sort of picking up on the success of that maybe? Of course it was. Yeah, 10, 15 years later. 

As much as I think he was very authentic, well, And this is, I guess this is where my question sort of started to be raised when he first hit the scene. I'm not, I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but I did question the authenticity of that because I was like, there is no way someone can be that much for that long, all the time. There is just no way. It is scientifically impossible. But as the legend of Steve Irwin starts to grow, and as he consistently keeps producing this kind of content. 

Yeah, oh, that is him. 

It's like, I think this bloke's the the real deal. 

Yes. 

Yeah. 

What was the thing we watched and there were two, was it 2 magpies fighting or there's two animals fighting and he came up and broke up the fight? 

Yes. 

That was good. 

Very endearing. 

I like that. 

I remember him on Enough Rope with Andrew Denton. That was one of the, one of the better episodes of that show. I mean, that was a fantastic show from Go to O anyway, all the guests, but Steve Irwin was wonderful on that show. Just talking about his life and all of that sort of stuff. And yeah, I, you know, if you, if the phrase a bit much was, it's not in a dictionary because you don't put phrases in a dictionary But a picture of Steve Owen would be next to it. A lot. Yes. He's A lot. 

And we spoke a couple of years back. So it was at 2002, 2003, maybe when his son was born. Robert. 

Robert and he was dangling him. 

And he was almost cancelled over that. There was a lot of outcry and outrage. So that's still fresh in people's minds. And then we get to this week in 2006, he's filming a documentary series called Ocean's deadliest in far north Queensland, which has nothing to do with stingrays. Let's just say that up front. 

Yes. 

But on the 4th of September, he's snorkeling at Bat Reef, which is near Port Douglas, and a short tail stingray struck him in the chest with its barb, piercing his heart, causing catastrophic injuries. 

This, and that was the thing. I think when they said on the news, It was a stingray. Everyone was just like, what? There's no way that a bloke who has been chased by Komodo dragons rides on the back of crocodiles and boxes with kangaroos. 

I think that was sharks. 

He's going to get taken down by a stingray. Like we see people get done by stingrays all the time. And yes, it hurts and it's very painful and the barbs are terrible and stuff like that. But the odds of something like that happening to, well, I guess they're significantly reduced when you are. the sort of person that just goes and sees animals in the wild and picks them up. But just the fact that it was a stingray completely beggared belief. 

Today the world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest dads on the planet. Irwin was filming a segment on tiger sharks for his daughter's new TV series in an area renowned for sharks, turtles and stingrays. He was swimming in shallows above a large stingray. It turned quickly and lashed out with its tail. The venomous barb pierced Irwin's chest. He left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind. He would have said, Crocs thrill. He was taken to nearby Low Isles. His boat Croc 1 was there. The plan was to medivac him to Cairns Hospital, but he couldn't be revived. 

Yeah, it was tragic. And I think that was when it really hit you, when the news report came in and you're like, oh, this is real. Like he's gone. He's gone. And like I'm a pretty parasocial person because I've been brought up around TV and popular culture. So you kind of, when you're that sort of a person and you're kind of raised by TVs. 

You felt like you knew him. 

A little bit. A little bit. And it just felt like a massive loss. A, a massive shock because of the whole stingray thing. And then B, just the loss of the whole thing. He's gone. And I just, again, the stingray. You know, people would go snorkel. Oh, I went up to the Great Barrier Reef when snorkeling with stingrays had a wonderful time. 

Yeah. And usually, they're pretty placid. They're quite gentle. And injuries, if they happen at all, are usually someone accidentally stepping on one in shallow water. You get a bit of a zark from the barb in your foot or your ankle or your leg. 

Well, that still hurts like buttery. 

It hurts, yes. But fatal stingray attacks, incredibly rare, only a handful recorded worldwide. And I think I think what made it even more improbable was the combination of he was struck by the bar rather than stepping on it. The fact that it hits him in the chest and then it reaches his heart and the catastrophic bleeding, like the combination of all those elements were so improbable Anyway, but layer on top of that, this is the guy that's hanging out with the most deadliest animals. Like this was the last thing you'd expect to happen. 

Yeah, it's, you know, it's so funny. I think at the South Park episode where he was on and they had Steve Owen and he's like, now I'm going to get this animal and stick my thumb in its ********. That's really going to **** it off. And that's what I thought he might have done to the stingray. Because they are just like people, we fed them at SeaWorld. 

Yes. And it's. And they have their little, they almost look like a little happy face when they're swimming around. 

You're like, oh, look at that little guy. 

I think it also changed public perception of stingrays. I think we all hated stingrays for quite a while. We thought of them as these horrendous, vicious creatures and we just. get him out of here. 

Absolutely. And I think at that stage, the bull sharks were going, oh, we've got a bit of a preview, guys. They're going after the stingrays for a while. 

Time for a rebrand? 

Yeah, exactly. We might go and start taking a few tourists. You know, it was just, it is one of those, where were you moments. And it's still to this day very shocking. And I know he's, I mean, he's etched in pop culture history. He's 44 years old. 

Really sad. 

But I mean, what a legacy. I mean, you look at it nowadays. Robert, his son, is just going from strength to strength as a TV host. So it's Bindi set up for massive success. Australia Zoo is a multi-million dollar tourist attraction. Yeah. You know, and the stuff that he did behind the scenes for conservation seems to be, I mean, there's a bit of controversy around that. And I don't want to dig into that too much because I think his legacy doesn't really need to be tarnished. I think the guy, like I said, I was always on the fence about him and a bit speculative in the early days when he came out, because I just thought nobody could be that full on. But I mean, he just, he just, the character of Steve-O and the Crocodile Hunter just endears himself to you. Yeah, it's that larger than the life sort of. 

Yeah. 

So it was a massive loss. a massive loss for Australia. And as we're all reeling from that loss on the, what was that, the 4th of September? 

Yeah, then four days later on the 8th. 

Four days later, our greatest motor racing legend has a fatal accident. And it's not. It's not the way I thought it would have happened on a Bathurst or anything like that. He was in a rally in Tasmania. I'm talking about Peter Brock, Brocky. 

Another great Australian has been killed in a tragic accident. Motoring legend Peter Brock died in a rally crash northeast of Perth just before midday. Brock's co-driver was injured in the crash. 

So we're all sitting around, still reeling a bit from Steve Irwin. I think it's four days after the fact and knowing it's Australia, there's probably a whole bunch of crocodile hunter jokes doing the rounds. People are emailing them to each other and then just waiting 30 minutes for it actually to come through to see what the joke is and whatnot. And so we're all kind of coping with that grief. We've moved from denial to the fact that we've realized that Steve Irwin's gone. And then at lunchtime, four days later, Peter Brock dies in a car accident. 

And I think the thing is, here is like we've lost two icons in the same week. But in both cases, neither of them died the way that most people would have thought that they would because there's risky behavior for both of them. Steve with the animals and the crocs and the sharks and Brocky racing at crazy speeds. I think the circumstances in both cases were so unexpected, it was a matter of nah, surely not. 

Yeah, exactly. Let's bring it back, Peter Brock, for those who maybe don't know. And there's nobody young enough to not know who he is listening to this podcast. So I'm probably... 

For our listener in Germany may not know Brockie. 

Yes, well, would you like me to do this part of German? Sure. 

Nine. 

So Peter Brock, national sporting icon, one of the biggest legends in Australian motorsport. Born in 1945 in Victoria, starts racing in the 60s in an Austin A30 that he modified himself. joined the Holden dealer team, the legendary Holden dealer team in 1969, won his first Bathurst 1000 in 1972, and by the mid-70s was Australia's biggest motorsports star. 

At the height of his fame, he's probably one of the most recognisable sports people. He won Bathurst a record 9 times. I think that's only recently been matched by Jamie Wincup in 2025. In 1979, he won by almost six laps, which was just unheard of and affectionately known as the king of the mountain because he did dominate for so long. 

Yeah. And that's, I mean, he will be forever known as the king of the mountain. But he wasn't just driving Holdens. Like the things that he did for Holden, the company, like he was selling them. They were so successful because he could help them develop performance cars as well. If you go back to the Austin A30s. he'd modified it, obviously learned a lot about cars throughout the course of his career. And all of that stuff and his knowledge and that collaboration led to things like the HDT special vehicles, and I think maybe even the HSVs as well, which was like Australia's answer to AMG. They built high performance Holden rd cars that became very desirable for people. 

Very good for circle work. 

And they were probably the HSVs that I'm talking about. And a lot of them are worth hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars these days. If you've got one and it's in good nick, it's worth a fair bit of money. So what actually happened to him? 

8th of September, he was in the Targa West Rally in Western Australia. At this stage, he's largely retired from full-time touring cars and instead competing in rallies like this. These are rallies that are run on closed public roads over lots of different stages, often with narrow roads, you've got trees and very little room for error. So actually quite dangerous. On this day, he was driving a day Tona sports car, which is a lightweight, high performance Australian sports car. And it was stage two of the rally and around 40 kilometres east of Perth, he enters a left hand bend at speed. The car leaves the road and it struck a tree side on the driver's side. And the impact was so severe that he died at the scene from his injuries. 

Yeah, terrible. His co-driver, Mick Hone, was in the car with him, survived with relatively minor injuries. So that was I mean, that was just devastating for him because the car hits the tree, he looks over, Peter Brock is dead next to him in the driver's seat. And the investigation after the fact couldn't actually identify a definitive cause for the accident, which was, I think, really hard for a lot of Peter Brock's fans because how, why? He's one of the greatest drivers that ever lived. How could he have just wrapped his car around a tree? And so there was no evidence of any mechanical failure with the vehicle. The weather was really good. The rd was dry and it was a real mystery and he had all the safety gear on and the coroner suggested that he simply lost control while negotiating the corner. and then after the car leaves the road in that situation, there's just no opportunity for him to recover. And he goes straight into the tree. And it was devastating, for even and not just for fans of motorsport, but for I think to for the automobile industry, for Holden itself. I mean, he was like the poster boy. for that company. And it was such an iconic Australian company. And I mean, Holden is no more, which is another tragedy. But it just, it was such a shock. Change of pace now as we get into the music with Mel. 

Yes, okay, let's start with the UK charts number one, this time 20 years ago, beyonc� Deja Vu. 

Yes, that's that was the video clip that they all complained about. 

The erratic dancing, wasn't it? 

Wanted to do again. Yes, erratic dancing. 

Very erratic. 

Too much zooming in and out. Can you please do it again and get some other bloke to correct it? 

And they, yes, they weren't, they didn't think that there was chemistry there. 

Yeah, between beyonc� and Jay-Z. Yeah, I don't think there, I don't think there's ever been chemistry between those two. 

He was confusing and alarming as well. was the dancing, erratic, confusing and alarming? 

I mean, beyonc� and Jay-Z are just like some kind of weird entertainment Illuminati type couple. 

Careful. Careful. 

Yes, I don't want to summon demon beyonc�. Have you seen that? 

They're monitoring you like those screens in the shopping mall. 

I just love the clip service. beyonc� is a demon. 

I don't think we're allowed to know. The internet will find you. 

The horror of it all. 

Let's go to the Australian charts. I wish I was a punk rocker is #1. 

Oh, I wish I was a punk rocker. With flowers in my hair I'm seventies, seven and sixteen I ain't revolutions in the air I was born too late into a world that doesn't care Oh, I wish I was a punk rocker With flowers in my hair. 

Sandy Tom, that's been a long time between drinks. She just pops up in Australia. What are we talking about? 

I think it was in the UK, it was number one first, but then we, yeah, we're a bit slow to catch on. But I think it is like record number one in Australia, like the biggest song for us. 

I do remember getting quite sick of it and the fact that it had hit the Australian charts at a time when Steve Irwin and Peter Brock had just passed away. I thought that's not appropriate. 

All right, well, we better go to the US then. Here's the top five. 

Five. Saying what you gonna do to me. When you gonna give it up to me. When you gonna give it up to me. And it's you that I'm whoa You're my scores, boy, you already know I think you're crazy I think you're crazy I think you're crazy How come every time you come around my London, London Bridge Wanna go down like London, London, London Wanna go down like. 

I don't think any of that's appropriate either. 

No. 

Look, I've just, you know, there's two kinds of people sometimes. Well, I don't know. But when people, when something bad happens, right, when there's a tragedy, some people are kind of really stoic and they just kind of suck it up and they press on and they suffer in silence a little bit. And I'm not saying that's okay. I'm just saying that's what happens. And then some people just are offended by every single thing that comes in front of them after that tragedy. 

I like the story with London Bridge when I went and looked in the comments and everyone flocked to London Bridge. 

For the Queen. Exactly. 

All that was nice. 

People do weird things in tragic times, you know. Yes, and maybe that's, yeah, so I mean. 

Going out to Lizzie, number one, London Bridge. 

Fergie. I mean, imagine playing that at the funeral. Imagine if somebody kind of. Queen Elizabeth's funeral and then London Bridge by Fergie comes on. Don't stop. 

Number 2, crazy. Number 3, promiscuous. Number 4, give it up to me, which is a new entry, which we'll talk about in a second. Number 5, buttons. Buttons. Dolls. Feet. 

Yeah. 

The DO double. 

It's a good name for a pussycat buttons. Here's my pussycat buttons. 

We've discussed that before. 

Or was it mittens? Did we? 

Maybe. 

Oh, it's deja vu. Oh, that's offensive. 

No, it's erratic and alarming. 

Oh, sorry, which is... 

Stop being erratic and alarming, please. Let's talk about Shauna Paula. 

When you're gonna give it up to me? 

Give it up to me. 

I don't remember this song. I'm not expecting you to remember it. That's not why I said it. 

I actually thought that Sean Paul just had one song that he released multiple times, if I'm being honest. 

This one sounds a little bit different, but I actually don't remember it. Featuring Keisha, Keisha or Kesha. 

Keisha, I'm going to say Keisha Cole. 

Keisha Cole. I should know that because she was a really big R&B star in the early 2000s, but also. 

That's right. 

I went and listened to some of her songs, but I didn't know any of them. 

That's right. It's not an egg pie that's been left on the bench for too long. Oh, this Keisha is cold. No, it's Keisha Cole. 

Yeah, big R&B star, apparently he recruited her. This song was kind of already big off the back of Temperature. 

Oh, Temperature, yeah, that was a... That was the right temperature to. 

Where he's playing on his guts. 

It's good. 

It's good. And I'm just like, I don't think anything can top that in my mind as far as Sean Paul goes. So this came up and I was like, I don't know. It's not the guy playing his belly. So I'm just not, I'm not as into it this time around. 

I'm entirely unaffected by it. 

I'm a bit indifferent to be honest. If someone played this on their belly, maybe, I'd be a bit more interested. But people did get more interested I think as time goes on because There it is. 

The dance movie. That's all they needed. Some of that Diwali rhythm and rhythm. 

There was lots of lots of dancing in the video clip. And lots of people making those comments in the comments around, you know, Sean Paul speaks in doctor's handwriting. There's three. 

That's very funny. 

There's what was it? Three languages, something, in Sean Paul. And then a few people actually got into the comments and corrected and was like, well, actually, no, that's his that's his name. So can you stop? What? 

Yeah. Oh, they got offended. 

People started defending, started defending. Yes, that their recent comments people came in and yeah, so had a bit of a chat about that. 

Excuse my ignorance. Is that his native tongue? 

Yeah, I think he's of Jamaican descent. Right. 

So is it like a Creole? I've got to be careful here. 

I think you just need to go into the comments and read the comments. No. You'll get the answer. 

No, I'm scared of comments. Be like, why are these old women talking about Sean Paul all of a sudden? Don't they know that he's Jamaican? 

Yeah, I think he's Jamaican and I think some of his songs feature what's referred to as Jamaican Creole. 

There we go. So I wasn't that ignorant. Just half ignorant. 

I think some of the, but I think that's more just some of the words that he sort of throws in there from time to time. 

Hear me now. Something like that. 

No, that's Shaggy. 

You just channeled Shaggy. I thought that was a Shauna Paul. 

No, I think that was a Shaggy. 

Well, I think I've pretty much exhausted everything that I know about this thing, Rebecca. 

Actually, no. I was reading the comments and people were fighting with each other and whatever. But then I found some really nice, and this goes back to our chit chat about the internet following you around now and not being, something you go and do and it's taking forever and it being a thing, being quite the event. Now it's just this evil little thing that chases us everywhere we go. 

Yeah, well, pretty soon it's going to be stuck inside us, I'm fairly certain. 

Yeah, sure. No, doubt. So I liked a couple of the more nostalgic comments. This one here, first song I ever heard in MP3 format. I was at a playground listening to it on a classmate's phone and I remember feeling so jealous because my own phone couldn't play MP3 files. Back then, if a good song came on the radio, we'd just record it with the phone's voice recorder. 

Oh, wow. 

Did you ever do that? I didn't know you could do that. 

No, because it did sound sh*t house. 

Well, that's what they said. The quality was terrible. It crackled and it hissed, but we still had the song. Listen to it with the voice recorder. Isn't that nice? And being jealous of the phones that played the MP3 files. But to me, a phone playing MP3 feels like the future still. You know, I'm still back at cassette. Look. I thought CDs were just incred. Like, how did they? Where's the I don't understand. 

I just feel like we. 

What is this magic? 

We've devolved a little bit as far as our reference points go. Okay. We've got, I can remember where I was when Steve Erwin and Peter Brock died. And now you've got some person on YouTube going, I remember the first time I heard an MP3. 

Sean Paul. 

Is that a real, is that a milestone moment? 

No, but I'm talking nostalgia. That's nice nostalgia. Do you remember where you were when you first heard an MP3? 

No, I actually don't. 

Okay, this one feels a bit more you. I remember when this came out in 2006, just left school. now I'm 30. Oh, no, it doesn't sound like you. Now I'm 30 years old with a kid, mortgage, work. I wish I could go back in time. I miss growing up in the 90s with no stress besides coming home to watch TV, play some PlayStation, eating and linking my mates. time's flying too fast. 

It really is. It really is. You don't have a screen in your pocket and the internet up your ***. in the 90s. This kind of bookends all the serious stuff, which was still very serious for this person. So we've, the box office things, okay, we've got Invincible, which is at the US box office we spoke about, and then, yeah, and then Silent Hills. 

We spoke about that months ago, but again, we're a bit slow. 

Yeah, I mean, most of the stuff now is coming out at the same time as internet, like it's more international release. International release is starting to be more of a thing, but you still get these things that are really slow, like Silent Hill. Yeah, so there's nothing much really else to report in the world of TV and movies from that perspective. 

No. 

But if I play you this... don't match up with Sean Paul actually that would have been good. I just a bit of Paris Hilton stars a blind and Paris Hilton was blind when she was driving a car which got her in big trouble and she got a DUI on the 7th of September. 

She did. She was stopped by LAPD in Hollywood after leaving a Hollywood party. She claimed to have only had just one margarita and played it all down. 

It's a margarita though. Like margaritas are pretty strong. 

Yeah. Can't you set them on? 

If I'm going out with the intention to maybe have a drink and still drive home. 

Yeah, my drink of choice is not a margarita. It might be a light beer. 

It's like a mid-strength beer. And it's probably only one. Okay, it's not give me a margarita. Actually, you know what? I'm only allowed to have one drink because I'm driving. Just make it a Long Island iced tea. 

She failed a sobriety test. 

No sh*t. 

Oh, I wonder if they did the walking one. And I wonder if there's footage of that somewhere because I'd love to see that. 

Touching a nose. 

Yeah, stand on one leg, walk in a straight line. Do they still do that? 

Well, not in Australia. And I've never seen that happen in Australia. That's just an American thing. And I love it. 

I love it. 

I feel like it's more of a humiliation ritual than you think really. 

Yeah, that's why I love it. 

Okay, now rub your tummy and pat your head. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. 

Jump. 

Yeah. 

Hop. Skip. 

Yeah. It's spin around. Are we playing Simon Says or are we trying to figure out if I'm too sh*t faced to drive? 

I wonder if that's got to be somewhere. It's got to be on some body cam footage somewhere on the internet. I'll go and find it afterwards. 

Yeah. 

She then pleads no contest to reckless driving, but it becomes so that in and of itself, that's pretty bad. Pretty bad. But then, leads to a much bigger saga. A few months later, she's caught driving twice with a suspended licence. 

Oh, because of the DUI. 

So licence is suspended. 

And she's like, oh, I'm going to drive anyway. 

Yeah, I've got places to be. 

Even though the gods are crazy, even though the stars are blind, I've got to get to where I'm going. 

I've got fragrances. 

And I can't take public transport. 

You know, got to go sign some albums. 

Yeah. 

She had that book, How to Be an Heiress. 

But hang on. 

Lots of things. 

How does she not have a driver? 

That's a good question. 

What the hell? 

That's a good question. That's a very good question. 

Billy and her hotel heiress, why didn't she just get a driver? 

She liked driving though. Remember she was driving around with Brittany in the car and Lindsay, remember they were all in the car together, hiding together. Paris was the one driving. There's so much footage of her driving with the windows down, the paparazzi taking photos of her. She's always having a good time. 

Even though the guys are crazy, even though the stars are black. 

Loves, loves to drive. 

Yeah. 

Loves to drive. 

I mean, who doesn't? 

And then we get to May 2007 and look, we'll talk about this again next year because we'll just milk it for all it's worth. But in May 2007, she then gets sentenced. So she has to go to court. She gets sentenced to 45 days in jail. Remember this. No work release, no weekend only detention, no house arrest because the judge wants to send a message. A strong message that celebrities are not going to receive special treatment on my watch, dammit, you are going to jail. 

I feel like, that judge obviously had a bit of an axe to grind. 

I think so. 

Probably more about their own profile than anything else. 

Sick of all these celebrities. Famous for what? I don't even know what they're famous for. You're going to jail. Off you go. 

Yeah. 

So she reports to jail on the 3rd of June. I think that's after Kathy drives her while they're listening to Candyman by Christina Aguilera and she's pawing her eyes out. She wasn't driving. Thank goodness. Cathy was driving. 

You check out the episode from a few weeks ago. I think we actually put the video. We did. It was good. 

I love that footage. 

Yeah. 

So she goes to in jail, third of June, 2007. But after three days, the LA County Sheriff's Department lets her go, saying, oh, it's too overcrowded, got some medical concerns. Let's just put her on electronic monitoring at home. 

Throw an ankle brace on her way. 

I remember the ankle. Yes, like that's hot. And she was wearing it with stilettos. Yeah, it was good. It's good. But people were furious. Public outrage, rich celebrity getting special treatment. And judge, old judge mate who wanted to send the message is like, no, that's not what But I said, no, I've sentenced her to jail. Back you go. And so then she had to go back to jail. 

Yeah. 

A little bit later and then she starts crying. Maybe this was where Candyman was playing. I'm not sure. 

Possibly. 

But she reportedly screamed, it's not right. Mum, mum, mum. And there was footage all over the place. 

There's a list of indiscretions. They all become a bit of a blur after a while. 

But it was all over the place. And it led to the free Paris movement, which I forgot because that was very much overshadowed by free Britney of more recent times. But I do remember the free Paris t-shirts that everyone, the really, the tight skinny sort of midriffy t-shirts with free Paris. 

Yeah, I wish, you know, I wish I had, I mean, not like a tight midriffy one, but I wish I had got one. 

I got one, yeah. I'm sure there'd be one on eBay somewhere. 

I reckon they could make a resurgence 20 years after the fact quite easily. 

The best bit with this was. I don't know if you remember this, but a lot of people, a lot of people thought it was a campaign for France. Started buying the Free Paris t-shirts, not realising it was Free Paris Hilton. 

I did not realise that France was under communist rule. 

Yeah, what are we freeing them from? I don't understand. No, it was Paris. And the paparazzi went wild. The news went wild. There was helicopters that, remember she had the police escort. And she came, and I remember she came out of jail straight, was whisked away, straight away to an interview on a late night talk show. 

Yeah, okay. This is interesting. I think Letterman or one of the others, but you know how you were saying. 

Larry, was it Larry King maybe. 

Yeah, maybe it was one of them, or maybe it was like, who was the one from The View as well. But what's interesting in this, and the reason why I haven't got any other grabs about this, they're out there, they're out there. And the reason why I just did the song is because, and you spoke before about, you know, how people were like saying rich celebrity gets special treatment, okay? That was the axe that everyone had to grind. Paris has been done for a DUI and sucked in. She doesn't deserve any special treatment. She's going to jail, ha ha ha. And the shout and fraud about it all was astronomical. The whole world collectively laughed in her face. And when I went back, this is not aged well. When I went back and had a look at some of the tonight shows and the variety shows and even the talk shows like The View, at the time, the commentary from other famous people is revolting. It is absolutely revolting. And like, you know, from Rosie O'Donnell through to even Conan O'Brien, who I'm a fan of, just the jokes and the innuendo. And I'm not talking, I'm like talking like full on **** shaming, right? 

Yeah, because they're still referencing the video. 

Mate, there's no other. There is actually no other word for it. is full on **** shaming for her. And I just, I like, and look at the time, like I'm not saying that I was exempt from it. I'm not saying any of us were. We probably all had a little bit of hey, Paris Hilton pylon sort of thing. Same, but like look at the Monica Lewinsky situation, same thing. Same deal. And it's just It's actually going back and looking at it, was, I found it, I don't want to get like be a white knight or get on a high horse or anything like that. Cause I was, I mean, we're all in the pylon. And if you weren't, you know, good, you're a nice person, but I feel like everyone was. It just hasn't aged well. And it's actually difficult to watch. And it's difficult to see that kind of humor as something that we kind of celebrated or laughed at. I mean, essentially that's a 20-something year old girl. 

And there was so many references back to the sex tape, which reading her book now and understanding the details around that is just disgusting. Like so problematic. 

I didn't know we were going to take this conversation down this road, but you look at the way things happen to people on social media these days and the way people are cyber bullied and how they're told various things or whatever in a public forum and they look trigger warning, they commit suicide. They go to end their life. Have a look at the volume of things that were levelled at Paris Hilton in the early 2000s and how she weathered that. Like that is f**king amazing that she was strong enough to get through that. I think she's awesome. I think she is like, I think she's brave. I think she's stoic. I don't care if she's rich. You can't help the circumstances you're born into and you can't help the way sometimes other people perceive you and treat you. 

Yeah, and it's not just her, it's Lindsay Lohan. And I mean, look, she's, Paris is not innocent in all of this by any means. She did the wrong thing. She was drink driving. You know, she's made problematic comments about other women as well. So, you know, she's not all for the sisterhood back in the day. But she's caught for a DUI and the narrative and the conversation around it is just so disgusting. Yeah, absolutely. Her and Britney and any female growing up in the early 2000s. It's just, yeah, it's not cool. 

You've got to do better, right? And the thing that I think was most shocking to me when I looked at it and went through quite a few of these things is it's big name people who have since probably taken taken far more politically correct stances and spoken out about the exact same kind of thing or similar things. 

But ignored those comments that they made themselves. 

In some form of virtue signaling that may be good for their profile. And it's like, look, I know that you've got to draw a line in the sand. You've got to say it was a different time or it's a moment in time and stuff like that. But also, like, early 2000s is where we're starting to learn about things like digital footprints, you know. And at the moment, those digital footprints are limited to the celebrity world. because we all start to learn from that. But yeah, it's just, it's a, it's, we look back on this stuff so fondly all the time. And when I was putting the show together this afternoon and grabbing that actual, or going to get that content, like I was genuinely like shocked. Yeah. I was like, holy **** that's bad. 

Yeah. And I think too, the other thing that you think about as well, like Timber, Timber, Timber Lake got busted DUI a couple of years ago. Yeah. You did not hear Anything like, that's terrible. That was in the news cycle for maybe 5 minutes. Yeah, And off we move. Like it's just, it's crazy. And I think the other thing about it as well is because of her status, when you look this up and if you do an image search, the images, so the image her mug shot when she was brought into jail. 

That is a great mug shot. 

But that you look at it and you instantly recognize it because it was everywhere over all the tabloids and all the websites. And then the photo of her on release. I remember the outfit so clearly, the green outfit with the white. And it's just this series of visuals. And you know exactly just by looking at the pictures what had happened, when and where, because it was just everywhere. 

That mug shot is iconic. And it's iconic. 

And she looks flawless too. 

It's iconic for so many reasons. It's hot. It is. And she looks fantastic. And it is one of the first I mean, it's not the first. We've seen other ones, but it is one of those big standout famous mug shots from the 2000s, from that time. But also it's the look on her face and the defiance. And I think there's, like, you're thinking, oh, innocent girl, like, you know, silly bimbo making smile at the camera, but all these other shit's flying around and she knows, she's got to know that they're going to talk about it and she's got that face in that mug shot and I'm like, you just stay strong, girl. Hang in there. 

Free Paris. 

Wow, we're there already. It's a pretty quick one, but I feel like it was a good one. There's a lot of stuff in there and I think that'll do. So we'll go to the hatches, matches and dispatches segment with no dispatches because we've already spoken about dispatches. Let's just talk about a celebrity having a birthday. This is one for the ladies. A celebrity having a birthday that said this. 

Is you taking notes on a criminal ******* conspiracy? 

Did you pick up that voice? Sound familiar one more time. 

Is you taking notes on a criminal ******* conspiracy? 

Yeah, that's a very famous line from a TV show called The Wire. If you said Idris Elba, you would be correct. Before he was Heimdall Luther or... just one of the sexiest men in Hollywood. Idris Elba was working factory night shifts while chasing acting gigs and I think he might have got a big break with The Wire but he was born on the 6th of September 1972 in Hackney, East London to parents from Sierra Leone and Ghana and he got his big break as Stringer Bell. 

Is you taking notes on a criminal ******* conspiracy? 

In the show The Wire. Yeah, and he was, I mean, listen to the, so convincingly American in that as well. Yeah, they didn't even know he was British. 

Yeah, He starred in Luther Thor, great show, awesome movie, Beast of No Nation, Suicide Squad. I didn't realise he was also a successful DJ performing as DJ Big Driss. 

Yeah, Big Driss. 

Big Driss at Coachella in Glastonbury. 

I love that. Yeah, pretty cool. 

That's interesting. 

And of course he was the shakiest man alive in 2018. Got an OBE, Order of the British Empire for services for drama. He's a bit of a big deal. He's probably one of the hottest commodities in Hollywood these days. I was really hoping they were going to cast him as the next James Bond. There's been lots of rumours about who the next James Bond is going to be. And I think that Idris Elba is a great front runner. And I think a black James Bond would just really shake things up. That'd be pretty cool. But then there's other talk about, you know, perhaps having a female James Bond as well. And that would really spin that franchise into a, I don't even know how they'd be able to handle that stuff. From all that misogyny that was happening in the 70s and 80s with those Bond films into a female James Bond or a black one. There you go. Idris Elba. But he, didn't come from money, like we said, the parents from Sierra Leone and Ghana. He worked at a Ford factory, in Dagenham to support his acting career. And like I said, fan favorite to pay bonds. Not going to happen, we don't think. Broke the British land speed record for a flying mile in a Bentley. Driving A Bentley. Yeah. So he's done a lot of stuff. Done a lot of stuff. And it's his birthday today. 

Happy birthday, DJ. 

I like him as Duncan Man at Arms in the Masters of the Universe film. 

Oh, that was him. Yeah, he was good. 

He was good in that. There was another movie he was in, I can't remember the name of it, where he played the Prime Minister of England. And I think it was maybe Gerard Butler was the president of the USA. And the two of them were action hero presidents and they went and fought the I can't even remember the plot. I don't think I was supposed to, but it was just the fact that it was those two together being presidents fighting baddies. And he's very good at fighting baddies, is Idris Elba. And I hope he continues to do it for a very long time because it's his birthday. So many happy returns. Idris, from us here at T-minus 20, feel free to drop us a line anytime you like. We'd love to have you on the show. And that's it. That's all we got time for. That is the end of the show. A bit of a sad one this week. We'll be back with more stuff next week. Hopefully less sad, Mel. 

Outer space or the planets? 

We love planets in space. 

An official planet naming. 

Excellent. 

I think Schumacher retires. 

Good. 

One of his retirements. I think he retired a few times, actually. Dog the Bounty Hunter. We have a moment for Dog. We're going to chat about Dog. 

Pour one out for Dog the Bounty Hunter. Is he still alive? 

I think he is. 

He's misses his. 

She, yeah, few years ago. That's very sad. I think that, yeah, and Timber Timber Timberlake's album. 

Oh, we're going to talk about him too. 

Speaking of DUIs, yes. 

Can't wait for that one. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for being a part of it each and every week. Thanks for keeping us in your feed. subscribing, even if it's just sitting there downloading and you're just like, I probably should just delete that one day. No, just let it do. Please, just keep it there for us. You don't have to listen to it, just keep it there for us. But if you do when you've gotten this far, thanks. And we'll see you next week. Come and find us on the socials. T-minus 20 podcast, that's all you got to search for. Facebook, Instagram, probably the best too. Don't worry about all the other ****. Oh, YouTube though. We're on YouTube. You can listen to the podcast at YouTube. If it's not blocked at work and all the podcasting things are, you go over to YouTube and listen to it on there. That's all we have time for. I have said more than enough this evening, this afternoon, this morning, whatever time of day you're listening. Thanks. 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.