Speaker 1: This is Gary and Shannon, and you're listening to KFI
Speaker 1: AM six forty the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: One of the bad signs is that there's so many
Speaker 2: studios right now that are vacant, these big sound stages
Speaker 2: that are not being used for for movie and.
Speaker 3: TV film and TV making anyway, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: A former hotel security guard has testified that Sean Combs
Speaker 2: feared his iconic career would be ruined if the public
Speaker 2: ever saw the video of him beating his girlfriend in
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen. That security guard testified today at the sex
Speaker 2: trafficking and racteering trial Eddie Garcia is his name. Sold
Speaker 2: the federal court jury that Combs repeatedly made a comment
Speaker 2: that he was trying to buy what he hoped was
Speaker 2: the only.
Speaker 3: Copy of the video.
Speaker 2: Prosecutors said the persistent effort to hush up the episode
Speaker 2: fit into allegations that he was using threats and money
Speaker 2: and fame to get what he wanted. Of course, he
Speaker 2: has pleaded not guilty to that. Meta has cut a
Speaker 2: twenty year deal to secure nuclear power to help meet
Speaker 2: surging demand for AI and other computing needs at Facebook's
Speaker 2: parent company. The investment with Meta will also expand the
Speaker 2: output of Constellation Energy illinoid nuclear plant. The announcement today
Speaker 2: is just the latest in a string of these tech
Speaker 2: nuclear partnerships. Because AI sucks up so much electricity, they
Speaker 2: got to figure out where they're going to be getting
Speaker 2: it from.
Speaker 3: Reminder that today is Day for Hope.
Speaker 2: You can go to Day for Hope dot org and
Speaker 2: help our friends out at City of Hope for the
Speaker 2: fifth annual Day for Hope when the City of Hope
Speaker 2: community works together to make hope or reality for everybody
Speaker 2: touched by cancer and diabetes. Again Day for Hope dot org. Well,
Speaker 2: President Trump is talking once again about his big beautiful bill.
Speaker 2: That's where we begin our swamp watch.
Speaker 3: I'm a politician, which means I'm a cheat and a liar,
Speaker 3: and when I'm not kissing babies, I'm stealing their lollipops.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we got the real problem is that our leaders
Speaker 4: are done.
Speaker 1: The other side never quits what what.
Speaker 3: I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: How you train the.
Speaker 3: Swat, I can imagine what can be and be unburdened
Speaker 3: by what has been.
Speaker 1: You know, Americans have always been gone as they're not stupid.
Speaker 2: A political flunder is when a politician actually tells the truth.
Speaker 3: Whether people voted for you with not swamp watch.
Speaker 2: They're all counter knowing well, the Senate is moving ahead
Speaker 2: this week on the President's one Big Beautiful Bill. There
Speaker 2: is a self imposed deadline that they're working against July fourth.
Speaker 2: The President has reiterated that and said that he would
Speaker 2: love to see it by July fourth as well. The
Speaker 2: problem right now, well the it's not the only problem,
Speaker 2: but a big problem right now that Senate Republicans have
Speaker 2: is a guy named Rand Paul.
Speaker 3: Rand Paul is a fiscal hawk.
Speaker 2: He doesn't want to see anything when it comes to
Speaker 2: raising the debt ceiling. He says it is not conservative.
Speaker 2: He told that to see NBC this morning, and in response,
Speaker 2: President Trump has gone after Rand Paul. Not a surprise
Speaker 2: they they don't necessarily agree too much when it comes
Speaker 2: to legislative things. What President Trump said on truth social
Speaker 2: is quote. Rand Paul has very little understanding of the
Speaker 2: BBB Big Beautiful Bill, especially the tremendous growth that is coming.
Speaker 2: Rand votes no on everything, but never has any practical
Speaker 2: or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy parentheses, losers.
Speaker 2: The people of Canada, Sorry Canada. The people of Kentucky
Speaker 2: can't stand him. This is a big growth bill now.
Speaker 2: Rand Paul had said he is open to voting for
Speaker 2: the thing. He's not a complete no. He's no right now,
Speaker 2: but not a complete no. But he said he's not
Speaker 2: going to take responsibility for any debt, said that this
Speaker 2: issue will be owned by Republican if it goes through,
Speaker 2: and he says, I think that is a big mistake.
Speaker 2: He said there are enough deficit hawks who can block
Speaker 2: this bill in the Senate. Paul shared a Fox News
Speaker 2: article on Twitter today saying, I want to see the
Speaker 2: tax cuts made permanent, but I also want to see
Speaker 2: the five trillion dollars in new debt removed from the bill.
Speaker 2: At least four of us in the Senate feel this way.
Speaker 2: John Thune, Senate majority leader, had suggested that they do
Speaker 2: have a path to passing that hopefully before July fourth.
Speaker 2: Those were his words. But we'll see exactly where it goes.
Speaker 2: There's also something interesting that goes on in this process.
Speaker 2: In order for the Senate to use the reconciliation process
Speaker 2: that would allow a budget, it would pass budget packages
Speaker 2: with a simple majority of votes at fifty instead of
Speaker 2: the usual sixty. It has to follow the Bird Rule
Speaker 2: Robert Byrd, the old Senator Byrd. It bars the Senate
Speaker 2: from including any extraneous provisions in a budget bill. So
Speaker 2: anything in the bill, according to the Bird rule would
Speaker 2: be necessary to implement the underlying budget resolution the Congress
Speaker 2: already passed. If this doesn't, if a policy provision does
Speaker 2: not have an effect on the budget, it cannot be included.
Speaker 2: Even the budget changes that they say are merely incidental
Speaker 2: to policy for VI are considered out of order. So
Speaker 2: that's where it gets a little bit complicated, because this
Speaker 2: rule would prohibit Congress from touching Social Security and a
Speaker 2: reconciliation bill. It would prohibit them from increasing the deficit
Speaker 2: for the fiscal year beyond the included bill, and in
Speaker 2: its basic form, everything in the bill has to be
Speaker 2: related to the budget.
Speaker 3: So we'll see if it actually gets that far.
Speaker 2: The President, meanwhile, is said to be obsessed with a
Speaker 2: phone call with President Shi. He seems to think Trump
Speaker 2: does that a call with China's president Shi Jinping is
Speaker 2: going to help reset whatever trade war has been brewing
Speaker 2: for the.
Speaker 3: Last six or eight weeks.
Speaker 2: Even if that conversation does happen this week, and the
Speaker 2: White House has said that they wanted to.
Speaker 3: They said it's likely.
Speaker 2: To happen, but it's still doubtful that this would be
Speaker 2: anything close to the breakthrough that President Trump has has
Speaker 2: been hoping for the United States is trying to pressure
Speaker 2: China to basically reorder the entire top to bottom trade
Speaker 2: relationship that we have with that country, which is, oh,
Speaker 2: I don't know, six hundred billion dollars worth of business.
Speaker 2: Both ways, they don't want to do lasting political damage
Speaker 2: at home. Clearly President Trump doesn't want to hang this
Speaker 2: around the neck a boat anchor around the neck of Republicans,
Speaker 2: and it does question what exactly is the endgame here?
Speaker 2: Kind of puts that question back at the forefront. What
Speaker 2: does Trump have planned at the end of all of this,
Speaker 2: because this looks like every twist in turn is just
Speaker 2: a larger game of chicken is kind of what we're
Speaker 2: looking for. So one former Trump official that says they're
Speaker 2: close to the White House told Politico Trump feels like
Speaker 2: a call between the principles she and Trump is a
Speaker 2: way to cut through a lot of the noise and
Speaker 2: get right to the heart of the matter. They have
Speaker 2: spoken before I mentioned yesterday, they spoke in January before
Speaker 2: Trump took office again, but this would be the first
Speaker 2: call between the two when he is as president for
Speaker 2: the second time, so a lot of pressure on that
Speaker 2: call if in fact it gets to that point. The
Speaker 2: sidelight in all of this is that Trump has been
Speaker 2: name dropped in the ongoing discussions between Kiev and Moscow
Speaker 2: about whether or not they're going to actually sit down
Speaker 2: at a table. Zelenski of Ukraine has said that Turkey's
Speaker 2: president wants a four leader summit to end the war
Speaker 2: in Ukraine in Russia by inviting Zelenski, putin Airdowan, the
Speaker 2: president of Turkey, and President Trump to the table. But
Speaker 2: at this point none of the other three sides have
Speaker 2: said that they expect Trump to be there, and Trump
Speaker 2: hasn't said anything. There was a White House news conference
Speaker 2: a short time ago. They didn't really mention it all right.
Speaker 2: The studio space that exists in southern California, La Burbank
Speaker 2: Century City places like that, a lot of those sound
Speaker 2: stages are going unused, and the percentage of unused sound
Speaker 2: stages would surprise you. We're going to be talking with
Speaker 2: Elaine Lowe from the Ankler in just a few minutes
Speaker 2: about what that means going forward for the business, the
Speaker 2: business in southern California.
Speaker 4: You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
Speaker 4: AM six forty, and we.
Speaker 2: Talk about TV and movies and everything that you're catching
Speaker 2: on your couch or at a movie theater or whatever
Speaker 2: it is that you happen to be loving. And we
Speaker 2: talk about it because that is the business of this town,
Speaker 2: specifically here in Burbank, but obviously in production studios across
Speaker 2: this city and across the county is where the vast
Speaker 2: majority of TV and movies are created in the world.
Speaker 2: And we've repeatedly talked about the industry itself struggling. One
Speaker 2: of the indicators of that is studio space, soundstage for
Speaker 2: film and TV production and whether or not they're busy.
Speaker 2: And I ran into this article on vankler dot com
Speaker 2: a n k L E. R Ankler dot com by
Speaker 2: Elain Low and it says that the current state of
Speaker 2: our sound stages in LA kind of remind us of
Speaker 2: the failure of retail malls throughout.
Speaker 3: The country over the last few decades.
Speaker 2: And Elaine is joining us now writer and host for
Speaker 2: the Ankler one of the top business publications on substack
Speaker 2: taking time for us this morning, Elaine, First, thanks for
Speaker 2: thanks for carving out some time in your day for us.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for having me really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Sure, I read with great interest this piece on the
Speaker 2: state of where we are in terms of sound stages.
Speaker 2: So why don't you just kind of put it in
Speaker 2: a nutshell for us in terms of the square footage
Speaker 2: that exists for production in this town, it's not being
Speaker 2: utilized right now.
Speaker 1: No, there's something like two point eight million square feet
Speaker 1: of studio space. You have the largest operators, which are
Speaker 1: you know, when you count all of their stages together,
Speaker 1: you have Warner Brothers, which is thirty six stages, Universal
Speaker 1: which has thirty, Sony has eighteen, Paramount has twenty nine.
Speaker 1: You know, you look at Radford Studio Center Twentieth Century Studios,
Speaker 1: you know, both known as the Fox Lot. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of sound stage space in LA And you know,
Speaker 1: when we talk about sound stages, we're talking about things
Speaker 1: like Gray's Anatomy, things that are you know, inside when
Speaker 1: they're in a room, you know, sitcoms, game shows, not
Speaker 1: We're not talking about on location like when you see
Speaker 1: a shot out on a street or outdoors. But it
Speaker 1: is a good barometer for how much production is happening.
Speaker 1: And the numbers are pretty stark when you look at
Speaker 1: Film LA's figures, and that's the official La County Film Office.
Speaker 1: The numbers in twenty sixteen, when things were humming along,
Speaker 1: soundstage space was at a high ninety six percent, and
Speaker 1: then obviously that figure dipped during the pandemic when all
Speaker 1: of production was halted for some time, but then it
Speaker 1: bounced back and around you know, twenty twenty two or so,
Speaker 1: you know, you were looking at at about ninety percent
Speaker 1: occupancy again, and that was during the peak of peak TV,
Speaker 1: right when there were six hundred scripted TV shows on
Speaker 1: the air. But that number has come back down again
Speaker 1: after the WGA and STAG strikes of twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: amid a broader industry wide contraction where they've all just
Speaker 1: been pulling back on their budgets and the number of
Speaker 1: TV series that they're producing and the complements of those
Speaker 1: factors has brought soundstage occupancy down to sixty nine percent
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three, which was a strike year. But
Speaker 1: the more stark number is that it's actually down to
Speaker 1: sixty three percent in twenty twenty four, a year that
Speaker 1: wasn't impacted by labor stoppages. And that's what's remarkable that.
Speaker 2: Part of it, the strike part of it, I think
Speaker 2: is what intrigues me because when those were going on
Speaker 2: writer strike and the actors strike, they were just coming
Speaker 2: back from COVID and all the production that was shut down,
Speaker 2: and I had this gut feeling like this is not
Speaker 2: the right time to do this, because you're already dealing
Speaker 2: with an industry that's been punched in the face and
Speaker 2: the guts and then kicked in the crotch. I mean,
Speaker 2: it was in a bad space at the time. Is
Speaker 2: there any blame that can land on the unions for
Speaker 2: those for those work stoppages.
Speaker 1: From the union's perspective, It's look streaming has so severely
Speaker 1: disrupted the industry, you know, and you kind of look
Speaker 1: back to the two thousand and seven two thousand and
Speaker 1: eight writers strike when people referred to streaming as like
Speaker 1: new media, and it was kind of like, well, what
Speaker 1: do we do about this new media? And over the years,
Speaker 1: you know, the economics of TV have really changed so severely,
Speaker 1: and you know, writers and performers really felt like they
Speaker 1: weren't able to, you know, to reap the gains of
Speaker 1: of you know, the many different streaming shows that are
Speaker 1: on you know, massive platforms like Netflix and Disney Plus
Speaker 1: and all of that, and so that was the reasoning
Speaker 1: behind those strikes. You know, certainly the town has still
Speaker 1: been in recovery mode over the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: and I think, you know, talking to people, I talked
Speaker 1: to a lot of agents and producers and showrunners, there
Speaker 1: was a lot of perhaps misplaced optimism going into twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four, coming right out of the strikes, thinking that
Speaker 1: things would bounce back, but that didn't really happen. It
Speaker 1: really didn't pick up again until the back half of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four because the largest guild IATSE, which represents
Speaker 1: you know, something like one hundred and fifty thousand crew members,
Speaker 1: was in negotiations in the top half of the year,
Speaker 1: and so there was some apprehension about going back into
Speaker 1: production when there was potentially a third strike around the
Speaker 1: corner that didn't materialize. They came to an agreement. This year,
Speaker 1: there's been a lot more optimism about the state of
Speaker 1: production though, but it's still kind of notable to see
Speaker 1: how much soundstage use has moved out of LA and
Speaker 1: outside of the strikes. A lot of people would point
Speaker 1: to the tax incentive issue, the fact that there are
Speaker 1: just more appealing tax credits and tax incentives outside of
Speaker 1: California and outside of the country. You know, it's interesting
Speaker 1: when you think about game shows, like you know that
Speaker 1: Rob low game show The Floor.
Speaker 3: Thought I saw that in Ireland.
Speaker 2: If that was that's an amazing The idea of taking
Speaker 2: everything that you have here flying it to Ireland. I mean,
Speaker 2: I know they use some of the people there, but
Speaker 2: still that idea that that's a cheaper move for the
Speaker 2: studios than to produce it down the street here in
Speaker 2: Burbank or something is mindful.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I mean a lot of game shows film
Speaker 1: out in Ireland. It's it's wild and I don't think
Speaker 1: many people, you know, know that the average American viewer
Speaker 1: and they're watching a show like The Floor or something.
Speaker 2: Else, well if they maybe if they had Irish accents,
Speaker 2: that'd make a big difference. Elaine, could you could you
Speaker 2: hang on for a second. I have a couple more
Speaker 2: questions I'd love to ask you. Sure, all right, Elaine
Speaker 2: low Rider and host for The Ankler, one of the
Speaker 2: top business publications. You can read it on substacho to
Speaker 2: the Ankler dot com. You can also search where you
Speaker 2: find your podcasts The Ankler. Th Ankler is a n
Speaker 2: k l e R. Elaine is going to join us
Speaker 2: when we come back.
Speaker 4: You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
Speaker 4: Am six forty.
Speaker 2: We're talking with Elaine Lowe, writer for The Ankler. You
Speaker 2: can find her work at Thenkler dot com a n
Speaker 2: k l e R. And specifically this story regarding sound
Speaker 2: stages and stage occupancy down to sixty three percent in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, down even from the year that they
Speaker 2: were the writers and the actors were on strike.
Speaker 3: And I wanted to ask you, Elane.
Speaker 2: You mentioned that obviously a lot of production has gone
Speaker 2: to places like British Columbia, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee is
Speaker 2: now getting into this game as well. What are they
Speaker 2: doing right that either California or La County specifically is
Speaker 2: doing wrong.
Speaker 1: Regardless of who I talk to, it always comes back
Speaker 1: to the tax and Senates and the tax credit and
Speaker 1: California lawmakers are looking at potentially, you know, there's a
Speaker 1: proposal to more than double that tax credit from three
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty million to seven hundred and fifty million
Speaker 1: right now. But some people say that doesn't even go
Speaker 1: far enough. You know, the way it's structured, you know,
Speaker 1: the intricacies of it just aren't as appealing as other
Speaker 1: states and other places out of the country. And you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't apply to above the line salaries like you know, actors,
Speaker 1: and you know, non scripted you know, we were talking
Speaker 1: about game shows like The Floor, you know, anything that's
Speaker 1: a non scripted reality show, game show, documentary, those are
Speaker 1: all not even eligible for the tax incentive right now.
Speaker 1: So there's an entire part of the industry, you know,
Speaker 1: that would love to be able to be a part
Speaker 1: of that. And you know there's a huge stay in
Speaker 1: LA production campaign to try and keep more production local
Speaker 1: to southern California. But again, it all just comes back
Speaker 1: down to that tax conversation.
Speaker 2: Outside of AI, which brings with it its own set
Speaker 2: of problems for actors and writers, et cetera. Will will
Speaker 2: technology make these sound stages obsolete? At least the way
Speaker 2: we've used them for the last one hundred years.
Speaker 1: These are pretty old sound stages. A lot of them,
Speaker 1: but a number of them are being outfitted for virtual production.
Speaker 1: You know, when you have like a giant led wall,
Speaker 1: you can do things more digitally. And you know, I've
Speaker 1: talked at some folks who are optimistic about repurposing sound stages,
Speaker 1: you know outside of TV and film use. You know,
Speaker 1: they're they're being leased out for like commercial usage or
Speaker 1: like magazine cover shoots or live events or sporting events,
Speaker 1: you know, but in order to actually keep production here.
Speaker 5: I was actually at this AI on the Lot conference
Speaker 5: last week talking to the CEO of light Craft Technologies,
Speaker 5: and you know there's somebody that have a background, they
Speaker 5: have an engineering emmy, you know, and are working on
Speaker 5: AI and virtual production technology, and you know you can
Speaker 5: do a lot.
Speaker 1: With just a green screen. And I said, well, doesn't this,
Speaker 1: you know, disincentivize as somebody coming to a traditional sound
Speaker 1: stage and you know they're there's thee I would tell me, actually,
Speaker 1: you know, I really hope that this actually creates more opportunities.
Speaker 1: You know, if you divvy up a traditional sound stage,
Speaker 1: you know, put up some green paint or a green screen,
Speaker 1: and then maybe you can actually have more occupants in
Speaker 1: a you know, traditional large sound stage setting, you know,
Speaker 1: with that's rigged up with all the lights and acoustics
Speaker 1: and everything. You know, so people are trying to get
Speaker 1: creative with alternate usage. But you know, episodic TV, which
Speaker 1: is really the lifeblood of the industry in LA. You know,
Speaker 1: that's down to twenty percent sound stage use here, down
Speaker 1: from thirty percent year of a year.
Speaker 2: I'm also curious, I don't know if you saw this
Speaker 2: story about actors and producers demanding that their shows be
Speaker 2: shot in LA. Zach Braff has finally signed on to
Speaker 2: reprise his role as JD on the Scrubs reboot, and
Speaker 2: there was a going back and forth about whether or
Speaker 2: not they would. When he signed on, he said, I'll
Speaker 2: do it only if it's filmed in LA despite the
Speaker 2: original plans to have it moved off to Vancouver and
Speaker 2: produce up there. Do you think that's a trend that
Speaker 2: we might see as some of these people saying, some
Speaker 2: of the actors saying they believe so much in keeping
Speaker 2: production in southern California that they make these demands.
Speaker 1: We've certainly seen that from high profile showrunners and producers
Speaker 1: and on screen talent, but it's a very small part
Speaker 1: of a population that has the leverage to be able
Speaker 1: to do that, to be able to say, you know, no,
Speaker 1: we'd like to keep all production here, although certainly it's
Speaker 1: something that a lot of people would like to be
Speaker 1: able to have the power to do. Especially again, there's
Speaker 1: this big stay in LA movement to try and keep
Speaker 1: production here. But again, that conversation keeps coming back to
Speaker 1: the text incentives more than anything else.
Speaker 2: I know you've been writing on TV for a long time.
Speaker 2: What do you watch? What's your favorite show right now?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 1: Gosh, what am I watching? Just finished watching the four
Speaker 1: seasons that new Tina fe Steve Carell series from Tracy
Speaker 1: Bigfield on Netflix. That was fun, And just actually watched
Speaker 1: the season two with Squid Game. I know season three
Speaker 1: is coming up soon.
Speaker 3: You gotta get caught up, caught up.
Speaker 1: I know there's too much TV out there. Well there's
Speaker 1: not too much, but well there's a lot of shows
Speaker 1: to catch up on.
Speaker 3: And it's funny that you mentioned that.
Speaker 2: I know that in your piece you mentioned that peak
Speaker 2: TV probably was twenty twenty two when you said what
Speaker 2: six hundred scripted television shows the.
Speaker 1: TV series were on the air. I mean a lot
Speaker 1: of people call that a bubble. You know, we're unlikely
Speaker 1: to see that level of TV again because you know,
Speaker 1: there are only so many hours in the day.
Speaker 2: But we've broken away from I feel like we've broken
Speaker 2: away from the usual, you know, pre you know, season
Speaker 2: premieres in the end of September. Obviously they're still available,
Speaker 2: but now it seems like every.
Speaker 1: Three year around the industry.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2: Listen, my couch loves it as well, because because it
Speaker 2: gets it gets a lot of good use. All Right, Elaine,
Speaker 2: what a wonderful conversation. Thanks for taking time for us.
Speaker 2: We'd love to have you back on because we know
Speaker 2: that this, this business of show business is UH is
Speaker 2: top of mind for so many people here in southern California.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 2: You bet Elaine Lowe, writer for The Ankler. She also
Speaker 2: hosts the podcast at The Ankler. So go to The
Speaker 2: Ankler t h e A n k l e R
Speaker 2: Theankler dot com uh and find that podcast and listen
Speaker 2: to her talk with a bunch of these industry head honchos,
Speaker 2: et cetera. Yeah, I mentioned and I was gonna do
Speaker 2: this a little bit earlier in the show, but Zach Braff.
Speaker 2: If you hadn't seen, he was the doctor in Scrubs.
Speaker 2: He's been doing a lot of directing recently. Did I
Speaker 2: think ted Lasso for a couple He did some shrinking episodes,
Speaker 2: but he signed on to reprise his role for the
Speaker 2: TV show Scrubs. If you remember that comedy about a
Speaker 2: hospital in the valley, and it comes after these negotiations
Speaker 2: that hit major hurdles over money and his request that
Speaker 2: the series be made in la not Vancouver as they
Speaker 2: were originally planning. So they finally came to an agreement.
Speaker 2: Scrubs is still in development, but no filming location has
Speaker 2: been announced. So good to see that somebody like that
Speaker 2: can throw their weight around and make a difference. When
Speaker 2: we come back, they're trying to hook your kids again.
Speaker 2: Not drugs, not vapes, skincare. We'll talk about these sephoric
Speaker 2: kids in this new investigation.
Speaker 4: You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI.
Speaker 4: AM six forty.
Speaker 2: Told you also about the Sean Didty Combs trial. A
Speaker 2: former hotel security guard testified the Combs feared that his
Speaker 2: career would be ruined if the public ever saw the
Speaker 2: video of him beating up Cassie Ventura in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2: Security guard testified that his name is Eddie. Garcia testified
Speaker 2: that Combs allegedly made the comment repeatedly while he's trying
Speaker 2: to buy what he hoped was the only copy of
Speaker 2: that video. Of course, we all know the video did
Speaker 2: eventually get leaked to CNN, and that led to the
Speaker 2: eventual downfall of.
Speaker 3: Sean Divvy Combs.
Speaker 2: We'll see if he gets convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking.
Speaker 2: There is a bill making its way through Sacramento that
Speaker 2: would try to cut back on a number of skincare
Speaker 2: products sold to tweens. Skincare products then you'd think, you're
Speaker 2: You know, skincare products themselves aren't necessarily bad, but if
Speaker 2: you get into some of the chemicals and the compounds
Speaker 2: that exist in say anti aging ingredients, those can be
Speaker 2: harmful to young skin. It's they call this the Sephora
Speaker 2: Kid's trend, although it wasn't Sephora that started it, but
Speaker 2: it's this trend of cosmetic stores that will sell viral
Speaker 2: skin care brands. Think of your kids watching all of
Speaker 2: these different ads, makeup tutorials or whatever on TikTok, Instagram,
Speaker 2: et cetera. And then they go to the stores to
Speaker 2: go buy those products, and there is a concern that
Speaker 2: some of those products could actually be very, very detrimental
Speaker 2: to the healthcare or to the care of your kid's skin.
Speaker 2: Most shoppers wouldn't know simply by looking at the shelf
Speaker 2: or even the fine print on some of these packages
Speaker 2: that they're potentially dangerous because just like we saw in
Speaker 2: the tobacco industry, when they made the flip to go
Speaker 2: after kids who wanted to vape or who could get
Speaker 2: into vaping, they did the fruit flavors and the rainbow
Speaker 2: unicorn farts, and the brightly colored packaging and the fruit
Speaker 2: shapes on all of this stuff, Strawberry smooth, the baby Facial.
Speaker 2: The CEO of Sephora says that they do not market
Speaker 2: to kids. They said it's incumbent upon them to make
Speaker 2: sure that they're talking to the right audience at the
Speaker 2: right time about the right thing, because the other thing
Speaker 2: is if the product doesn't do anything, the kid's not
Speaker 2: going to come back and buy it. But they did
Speaker 2: say there are promotions on Instagram for things like Sephora Barbie,
Speaker 2: and there are Sephora stickers that you can get and
Speaker 2: cartoons on Sephora. There are other popular brands. One of
Speaker 2: them is drunk Elephant posted a list on its social
Speaker 2: media with products that it says are safe for kids,
Speaker 2: and then another list of products that they should avoid
Speaker 2: in their online FAQs under the younger fan section. But
Speaker 2: if you're just looking at the packaging, you would never
Speaker 2: be able to tell the difference. So this bill that's
Speaker 2: being written that's being worked on right now, Democratic Assembly
Speaker 2: Member Alex Lee wants to target the industry that he
Speaker 2: says is cashing in on this craze. Bill seven eight
Speaker 2: AB seven twenty eight would trigger an age verification flag
Speaker 2: at the register if a clerk scans something that's got
Speaker 2: anti aging products with certain ingredients in it, things like retinol,
Speaker 2: things like the harsher acids that can.
Speaker 3: Be found in some of these things.
Speaker 2: And you kid, if you, if you were a kid,
Speaker 2: you'd need someone over eighteen in order to buy the
Speaker 2: product in the store. There would be a pop up
Speaker 2: similar to this one for vapes when you purchase the
Speaker 2: products online, and with that warning, does it make a difference, Well,
Speaker 2: it hasn't when it comes to the vape industry. Some
Speaker 2: of the opponents of this bill, include the skincare industry, dermatologists.
Speaker 3: They say that this thing is misguided.
Speaker 2: They said the blame should actually lie strictly with social media,
Speaker 2: not the skincare industry. The age restrictions, they say, would
Speaker 2: be too difficult to implement, which it's all it does
Speaker 2: is trigger an age verification flag. Does that mean that
Speaker 2: the store is going to be on the hook for
Speaker 2: the execution of that? Are they going to do it
Speaker 2: on a regular basis? CBS did a whole look into this.
Speaker 2: The Personal Care Product Council represents the skincare industry. They
Speaker 2: said that they spent thousands of dollars targeting lawmakers with
Speaker 2: misleading ads that claim that the bill would require an
Speaker 2: ID to buy cosmetics, which is not the same thing
Speaker 2: as suggesting that someone who's eighteen has to be there
Speaker 2: with you. And again, you you can write this bill
Speaker 2: so that this little flag pops up on the screen
Speaker 2: or there's a warning, or you got to check the
Speaker 2: idea or whatever.
Speaker 3: But how many times have you.
Speaker 2: Seen a retail checker just ignore that or X out
Speaker 2: of it or say that they did look when they
Speaker 2: never checked the ID. The problems I think is when
Speaker 2: you get into the specifics of retinol or acids or
Speaker 2: anything like that gets that specifically targets children. There are
Speaker 2: the concerns that parents are going to be involved with
Speaker 2: all of this, or should be more involved with all
Speaker 2: of this. The director of Pediatric Dermatology U See Davis
Speaker 2: the Healthcare Center said younger kids appear to be the
Speaker 2: target audience for a lot of these viral skin care
Speaker 2: products and that she has seen the adverse reactions firsthand.
Speaker 3: The peeling of the skin.
Speaker 2: A lot of these things will remove the layer of
Speaker 2: kid's skin that can be painful, rashes, you could get sunburn.
Speaker 2: She does prescribe retinoids for acne treatment, but basically it's
Speaker 2: over the counter and typically used in anti aging products.
Speaker 2: If a twelve year old has acne that needs medical treatment,
Speaker 2: they should do it through a dermatists, through an actual doctor,
Speaker 2: not just going to the store and picking it up.
Speaker 3: So that's the other side of that. All right.
Speaker 2: Up next trending stories, we'll talk about what's better movie
Speaker 2: theaters or streaming from your couch and a couple of
Speaker 2: true crime Tuesday stories to wet your whistle. You've been
Speaker 2: listening to the Gary and Shannon Show, you can always
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