Scheananigans with Scheana Shay - TMI with Perez Hilton

Episode Date: October 23, 2020

Perez Hilton is back! First things first, they clear the air from a misunderstanding that occurred the last time he was on Scheananigans. They talk about his new book, “TMI: My Life In Scandal” and he opens up about the challenges he faced growing up in Miami, the latest with Andy Cohen, and what he thinks about Paris Hilton’s latest documentary. He also shares his biggest regret… Tune in now to find out what it was! Scheananigans with Scheana Shay is produced by ACTIONPARK MEDIA. Follow us on Instagram: @scheana @scheananigans @actionparkmediagroupSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

From Vanderpump Rules to Vegas and everywhere in between, it's time to party with Sheena Shea. This is Shenanigans, and now here's your host, Sheena Shea. What's up, everyone? Welcome back to Shenanigans. Today, we are doing our first virtual butt in studio podcast. I've got Jamie Lynn back in the house co-hosting. Hello. And I'm so excited for our guest.

We were just talking about him two episodes ago. I wanted to get him back on. Returning to Shenanigans, Mr. Perez Hilton. How are you? Hello. I am not in studio because I'm one of those, not crazy people, but overly cautious. Yeah.

Because my mom lives with me. My mom is very high risk. She's got asthma. She's got diabetes. She's in her late sixties and she's already guilted me so much about possibly getting her sick. I just though I'm at a loss for everything because how much longer is this going to go on for? Even if we get a vaccine soon, not everybody's going to take it and it's not going to be a hundred percent effective. So how much longer is this going to go on for even if we get a vaccine soon not everybody's gonna take it and it's not gonna be 100 effective so how much longer is it's gonna go on for i honestly thought at the beginning of quarantine like this is like saint patrick's day i moved into my house in palm springs i was like oh by my birthday like we'll be partying like i was like planning a birthday

party like out in san diego and then it was like, Oh, Coachella is not happening. Stage birthday. And now we had no ones. Yeah. But like in the beginning, they weren't giving us the full story. They were like just another 30 days. They were trying to, you know, feed us information slowly. Coachella is in October. Well, they told us originally the whole point of quarantine explicitly said was so that the hospitals wouldn't be overfilled with people. There could be enough hospital beds. But here in Los Angeles, where I am and where you're recording, we can't even go to the gym. The gyms aren't open unless they're outdoors. And the one that I go to isn't. And more importantly than the stupid gym, my kids are not in school and they haven't been since March.

How are you doing that? Are all three school age? Yes. A five-year-old, a seven-year-old and a three-year-old. And it's just so frustrating because every city, every state is doing things differently. I have friends in Florida, friends in New Jersey, whose kids are back in school. Yeah, even in Orange County, they gave the option of at this point virtual or going to classes or doing some form of a hybrid. So but LA is just lagging behind a little bit of that.

But if you had the choice, you would send them to school, I assume. Absolutely. Because kids, according to everything I've read, and from what I've also heard from other parents, kids do better in school. I know that my kids are struggling and emotionally and in other ways suffering as a result of it. It's not about me not wanting them here. It's about me being hyper concerned because my kids are in those formative years where the learning blocks of everything are being taught totally and i don't want them to like not be able to like read well i mean i i keep saying well everybody's going to be falling behind so everybody will be on the same page anyways um last time i was on your show, were your listeners, because I don't know the feedback,

were your listeners upset that I asked you a lot of questions? No, they weren't upset about that. What some were upset about and what I was just saying when Heather McDonald was here a couple weeks ago, I wanted to apologize for, was kind of jumping in really quickly and asking you about some stuff in the past. I felt really bad. And then we texted after and I was like, I mean, you of all people, I wouldn't think you're easily offended.

But the fact that some of our listeners felt that way, I was like, I was kind of just like trying to give him shit. And it was like an icebreaker. And I was also like very nervous to have you on my show because I've followed your career since the start. So to be now in the position where I'm interviewing people I've been a fan of and who weren't always a fan of me, I was like freaking out a little. So I talked about it on my podcast. I'm a big boy, you know, I can't handle anything.

It just felt like, you know, I love sex. It felt like skipping foreplay and going straight to anal. I've been guilty of that before. So. Oh, wow. Okay. So let me just ask you all the questions that I want to know. Okay. First, first, I did not know this, but are you living in Palm Springs full time? So now I'm actually in San Diego. We quarantined there full time at my house I bought last year. And then at the end of June, San Diego opened gyms back up and my boyfriend's a gym owner. So since then, he's been able to be in business. So for all of July, also, as I was going through just having a miscarriage, I was in Palm Springs by myself a lot of the time. And I just didn't want to be there. I was wasting money on rent in LA. It's no secret. We're not filming right now. So I'm like, what are we doing? Our leases are up now. I'm on month to month. I'm

not in my apartment. So we got a place together on the beach in San Diego, and I'll be there until rugby season starts up in like January. We'll get a place in LA again, too. until rugby season starts up in like January, we'll get a place in LA again too. Oh, cool. That's interesting. I do think that when it comes back, which it will, there will be a bunch of new cast members.

And I know the OG cast doesn't like new cast members. And there'll be, of course, at least one or probably more, I would think, diverse characters. I hope so. I mean, our show definitely is lacking in that. And we have so many options, so many friends, so many people who work at the restaurants.

And you said, Perez, last Shenanigans episode, that you would like to make a little appearance. I know. They're definitely lacking a gay male presence. Andy Cohen and I are beefing these days. So I don't, well, he's not, he's not the development person anymore. So I would listen, you know, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm hungry. Well, you brought it up. So what, what's the story with Andy Cohen? What's going on with that? I've talked about it, but I want to share with you a little bit more detail

because I've seen the response that I've gotten from folks as you know, you are trying to be a mom and I love that. You know, I love being a dad. And for the last seven years, I've tried to get on the air, this show about gay dads. I pitched it to everybody and I partnered with Buna Murray, the OGs in the space of reality. They do the Kardashian show. They did the Simple Life. They did the Real World. And even with Buna Murray attached and a casting tape, no network wanted to buy it. They all told us off the record it was too gay. But on the record, it's too niche, too niche. Our audience wants to see themselves. They want to see women on the show. But in the room, I would always tell people, yeah, it's a gay dad show, parentheses, and all the women in their lives, the grandmother. You mean Will and Grace?

Yes, exactly. So even though everybody turned it down over the last seven years, whenever I would meet with production companies or networks or syndicators, I would always bring up this idea again, because I'm genuinely passionate about it. And then last year, I emailed Andy Cohen after the birth of his son and the birth of Anderson Cooper's son. I'm like, wait a minute. I never thought Andy and Anderson would have kids. And now they are, it seems like the right time to try to bring this back to life so i emailed andy i have his contact info and i and i am thankful i know he's busy he took the time to email me back and he said yeah these people are right it is too niche for bravo and i don't even think there's a home for it on nbc i mean on universe on e which is part of the nbc universal umbrella now i find out a couple of months ago, a month and a half ago,

that Andy is working on a gay dad show for Bravo. Have you said anything to him? And when I emailed him, I was very specific. I said, I'm so passionate about this and I'm not an idiot. I'm a smart enough person to know that there are some networks that for their reasons may not want me as talent. I am passionate about this and I would love to work on it as a producer, if not talent. I just want to be involved in this and I want to make it happen. So when I heard about it, you know, it's like dating, right? If you find out that somebody

you like is now dating somebody else and they had led you on or whatever it is, or if you find out that somebody you like is now dating somebody else and they had led you are or whatever it is or if you're hurt by somebody you like like you don't want to hit them up you feel like a loser i i felt like i'd be groveling if i emailed andy but what i did do was i had my manager hit up the production company that andy partnered with to develop this gay dad show and they straight up told my manager no no, he's not involved as talent or a producer. So to all the people that are saying I should sue Andy, like I said, I'm not the smartest person on the planet, but I'm not an idiot. I'm never going to sue Andy Cohen. I'm never going to sue Bravo. I don't want to totally destroy and burn that bridge. And also, unfortunately for me, Gay Dads is a concept I had. It wasn't a formatted

show. It's not something that I copyrighted that I could sue over. It's not property that you own. And I feel genuinely hurt. I would love to do it with another company. Here's another update. Even that process has been hard. Trying to find now another production company. I've had now more than one turn me down because they don't want to also now get in trouble or piss off Andy or Bravo by beating them to the market with a gay dad show or coming out at the same time. And so it's like, it may never happen. And I just have to put it out into the universe. But God, karma will send another opportunity my way. Cause you know, I would love to do TV. That would be such a good show too.

Back to your show. Back to my show and over to your book. So we'll get to it. We'll get to it. Well, you and Stassi unfollowed each other on that show. I thought you meant my podcast. No,

no, no, your TV show. You and Stassi unfollowed each other recently. Yeah. Who unfollowed who first? I unfollowed her first. Oh,

why? I actually just spoke about this on the hashtag no filter podcast. Long story short, she thought that I was sharing her private messages to me in my huddles groups, which is like a live Zoom FaceTime interaction with fans. And I'm like, first of all, we barely talk, so we don't have very many private messages to share the only thing that I recall mentioning in a group with them about text messages was about the message she sent me about my miscarriage and how sweet it was and maybe I read a part of the text I don't recall doing that but I do remember talking in the huddles about how sweet the message was she sent me. And also about this app I have called Community where I can text with fans. A fan had asked after she got fired, like,

have you checked in on Stassi? How is she doing? And there were hundreds of messages. I responded to one. And I said, haven't heard back from her but spoke to Bo. That was all just like, yes, I've checked in. That was it. And I guess that got screenshot put in like a Facebook chat. And she was like, please don't be talking about me right now. And I was like, I've checked in. That was it. And I guess that got screenshot, put in like a Facebook chat. And she was like, please don't be talking about me right now. And I was like, I'm so sorry. That was the only message I responded to. So between that one text and me sharing her sweet miscarriage text, one of those pissed her off.

And she said that she had no desire to talk this out with me and she wanted to remain surface level and i was just like you know what first of all it's bullshit because it's not even true but the fact that you don't even want to hear me out you know i said we've been surface level for years stassi i'm fine continuing that way i wish you the best and then i unfollowed her i'm like you know what i don't follow people i'm not friends with anymore so you want to be surface level then i'm not going to follow you i had her on mute for months anyways. It's no secret. She never liked you. Exactly. If she if she legitimately considered you a friend, that is not the text you would

receive from her. She would say, I heard this from so and so. This is what I heard. What do you have to say about it? Yeah. She didn't give you the opportunity for any of that. So she was just looking for an excuse to cut you off, basically, which she didn't even need one. No, she didn't need to do that. That's just shitty. So bye, girl. One one thing that I've noticed, though, very tellingly, is that she I don't think had lost any of her following on Instagram. No, it went down and then it went right back up. Yeah, it's interesting. So do you think she'll be able to have a comeback? I think she'll always figure it out for sure. I don't ever see Stassi Schroeder going away from the public eye.

She may take a break, but she'll always come back. Here's another question. I'm just full of questions. I'm sorry. The world has changed so much in 2020. I never would have thought that, well, the two, to me, as the pop culture observer, the two big breakouts, pop culture stories outside of, you know, coronavirus and the election are TikTok really exploding this year and OnlyFans also exploding. and OnlyFans also exploded. Speaking of TikTok, I had a question for you because my sister told me that she had seen a TikTok

you posted about Paris Hilton that she went to show me and she's like, wait, it's gone. She's like, ask him why he deleted it or if she just couldn't find it. It was like about her documentary. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't delete it. It's still there.

Okay, we just couldn't find it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I was talking about her documentary. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't delete it. It's still there. Okay. We just couldn't find it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I was talking about her documentary that I enjoyed it in the sense that the part where she was talking about her traumatic experience at that boarding school in Utah, that was real and that was really moving. The rest of it, like you mentioned surface level, it felt surface level in that I know her so well. And I know, and I work with people that have worked with her as well. And the Paris that she presented herself as on that documentary is not the real Paris. And I get it,

that's fine. You know, she wants people to see her as this businesswoman, entrepreneur, survivor. But she's still at 40 years old, a party girl. And there's nothing wrong with that. I would just love to have seen a more full picture of her or even the fact that and actually, now that we do know about her traumatic past, it would explain things a lot more, like her drug use, which she's never once ever talked about. She's done a lot of drugs. You said in your book, though, you had never seen her do any drugs. No, except for weed. Okay. Which isn't like a big deal. But even that, like if she talked about it, she's like, yeah, lot of weed it helps with my PTSD it helps my anxiety I would have loved I just would have loved for it to have been more real because isn't that the whole point of a documentary to be

real yeah a little deeper I see what you're saying so where do you stand with her right now oh good because that clip at the very end of the clip, I said all that. And then I said, and she's one of the nicest people that I've ever met. She's so nice. I don't have a single bad thing to say about her. That was just a critique of what I saw, which is my job. And that's why I get in trouble. Because even though I like people, like I went to go see a year or two ago, both Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey in their Vegas residence. Oh, yeah. You talked about this on Heather's podcast. Yeah. And then I got in trouble or like whomever.

Like, you know, if I if I give my opinion on Madonna, right. Madonna is my number one artist of all time. My biggest inspiration in life. I don't have to prove myself as a Madonna fan. I am, and I'm a fan forever, but I'm not sheep. And I'm not a stand that is just blindly following somebody. If Madonna says or does something that I think needs to be called out, I will. Some people are like, well, no, you should just support. You should keep that to yourself. Don't talk about it publicly if you're her fan.

It's your job. What I love about that story about Madonna, and I am obsessed with her as well. She's my idol too. But you had said, I think she's playing too much guitar in this tour. And she brought you back the next night, put you in the front row and said, Perez thinks I'm playing too much guitar. Deal with it. And that's the way to handle it. I love that about her. I love that story. Yeah. She is a boss. And I'm jealous you met her.

I've met her a few times. That was like the wildest dream come true for me because I grew up fantasizing about just even seeing her in concert because she didn't tour for like a decade. The longest time. Yeah. She took off from touring from 93 to 2001 when I was a teenager. And I wanted to go see her in concert so bad. And then when she finally did go back on tour, her first tour back to drown world tour in 2001, I had just graduated college was a broke post grad. So I charged my $250 ticket,

which I didn't have the money for. And a few years later I ended up filing for bankruptcy, not because of Madonna, but because of making a bunch of poor decisions. That was the start of it. You know what? I had tickets for that tour as well. And I remember she canceled because I was in I was going to go see her in New York City. I was living on the East Coast at the time and she was sick or whatever.

And she canceled it. And at that point, she was saying that was going to be her last tour. And I remember crying. I called up my dad crying i'm never gonna see madonna until this day i haven't seen her live but i've really never seen her either that would be so iconic damn she puts on a great show next to madonna who would you say you've had your biggest like starstruck like oh struck like, oh my God, moment meeting. It was in the fall of 2006. I had only been doing what I do for two years. So it was still very early on. And I was working on a pilot for a TV show for VH1 and Gloria Estefan was right up there with Madonna for me because I'm Cuban from Miami and gay. So she was royalty for me. Did I share this story on Heather's podcast? No, but I did read about it in your book.

Okay. So listen, I don't know if people listening know how things work on television. If a stranger asked me to do a pilot for them, I'd be like, okay, how much can you pay? Because I'm not going to waste my time for a stranger if it's not going to air, if it's only for a pilot. But Gloria did that for me as a favor. And her time is money. By that point, 2006, she was already one of the biggest stars on the planet and was so kind and generous. And it's come full circle because now she's got a new talk show on Facebook Watch with her daughter's Red Table Talk, the Estefans. And I'm obsessed with it. I love it.

Oh, I didn't know that. I love that. I love the Jada one with her daughter and her mother. So this one is just as compelling to me, too. That's awesome. I loved her growing up as well. Oh, the 90s. That was a good time to be a kid.

So you grew up in Miami, Perez? I did. What was that like? I mean, it must have been very, there's a lot of music coming out of there. And every time I always go to Miami, I just love it because it doesn't really feel like the U.S. almost. It feels just I love it. I love all the passion. And you can walk into any place and I'm sure it's not like this right now, but any restaurant people are dancing on tables and just it's just a very sexy vibe. I love it there. It was both the best thing for me and the worst thing for me. which do you want me to start with the positive

or the negative? Start with the negative. We'll end on a positive. All right. It was the worst thing for me because, and I hope it's changed, but I don't know. I mean, I don't think it's changed that much. I was just watching the Gloria Estefan show and they had an entire episode dedicated to her daughters coming out because Gloria Estefan's. And they had an entire episode dedicated to her daughters coming out because Gloria Estefan's daughter is dating a woman and she didn't quite put a label on herself. She didn't say I'm gay or lesbian or queer or whatever, but she's been in a same sex relationship for four years. And to this day, I still think it is like this. The Latino community is not the most accepting of gay people, but not even that. And this is what's sad to me.

They're not even accepting of just different people. If you grew up in Miami and you're a heterosexual girl or guy and you tell your mom and dad, I want to be a playwright or I want to be a sculptor. I'm passionate about sculpting. I want to be, you know, in the best museums in the world. Your parents would probably be like, that's weird. No, I don't want you to be a sculptor. I want you to have a dependable job, be a dentist, or an engineer, or a nurse, or a dentist or an engineer or a nurse or a politician. That's what all of the people that went to my school did. And my school, like I grew up in the Cuban hood, right? Like everybody was Cuban. And even then it was even, it was much more of a monolith. Thankfully now, while it's still Latino dominating,

it's grown more diverse. There's a lot of people from Venezuela that have moved to Miami and from other parts of South and Central America. But in the 80s and 90s, it was mainly just Cubans. And I went to this all-boy Jesuit school where your differences weren't celebrated. It was all about being like everybody else. And I never felt accepted by my family or by my community. I never felt celebrated, much less, you know. And I just knew there was more to the world than that. That's why I wanted to go to college in New York City, because the more logical thing for me to have done was to go to school in Los Angeles because I wanted to be an actor. But I rebelled against L.A. because it reminded me too much of Miami. So I was just drawn to New York. That makes sense.

Yeah. So, yeah, I never felt comfortable in Miami, but the positive of it are two huge positives. Growing up surrounded by the children of immigrants and with immigrant parents, I didn't have a lot growing up. And my parents left a communist country to start over from scratch here. And they programmed me. They instilled in me from as early as I could remember the importance of an incredible work ethic, not just working hard, working harder than everybody else. And I attribute all of my success to that work ethic. And secondly, in Anglo America, the word gossip has negative connotations

to gossip, be gossiping, gossipy. It's kind of frowned upon. But in Latino culture, it's not. It's celebrated. And it's much more commonplace. Everybody does it. And it's not viewed as a negative. You're just like, you're just informed. And hello, like my mother was the biggest chismosa there was. She knew everything about everybody from the neighbors down the block to the parents at my school. And I grew up hearing her talk and gossip. And I grew up reading all of her gossip magazines.

So that informed what I did. And it just never imprinted on me that doing what I did at the beginning or now was or is bad. I don't view it as bad. I never did. Along the way, you know, how I used to do things that was bad, but the greater act of, you know, just talking about celebrities, that's not bad. Yeah, that's so interesting. Right. And you have a chapter in your book dedicated to your father or your father and your grandfather. And that was a very sad chapter to read.

But what kind of propelled you to include that in the book? Were you kind of against putting it in? Did someone have to talk you into doing it? Because it seems very personal, but I'm glad you put it in. But what's your feeling on that? Thank you. Yes. And actually, yes, I didn't want to put it in the book for many reasons. So if you haven't read it, in my memoir, I talk about how my dad and grandfather both passed away within a week of each other when I was just 15 years old. And I don't think I mentioned, I haven't really talked about this. So when you have something

as traumatic as that happen, you can approach it many different ways. Some people might turn to drugs and alcohol. Some people might, you know, self-harm. Some people might go to therapy and work through it. I almost just never processed it and pretended it didn't happen. But clearly, I knew it did. I went in to record the audio version of my book in August, and I had been away from the material for quite some time by then. And reliving this, writing it was fine, but it was when I got in the studio and the booth and started talking it. And then after that, I have been grieving since then. You know what? It sounds weird for me to say this, but I'm happy that you're going through that.

Because five years ago, I lost my father and my grandmother within a two week period. But I was an adult when that happened. And I had the tools to know how to seek out treatment and the right ways to grieve. I can't imagine that happening to me at 15. Yeah. And my grandfather lived with us. So he was like a second dad. And, you know, I have a lot of regret and questions. You know, I always was resentful towards my mom and sister because

they were able to say goodbye to my dad he had an aneurysm and it happened very quickly but he knew he was dying he just knew he's like i'm gonna die and my mom was able to say goodbye to him and i wasn't so yeah i didn't the reason i didn't want to put any of my early life in the book is because I thought it was boring. No, not at all. Literally. It gives such a overall,

like well-rounded persona to who you are and who people think you are. And I have personally enjoyed reading it so much. I don't read. I'm not a big reader and I'm already, I think I have like 50 pages left. I just got the book two days ago because it was sold out. Congratulations. Thank you. There's an audio version if people don't like to read. I narrated it myself. You can get it at Perez Hilton book.com. But yeah, honestly, I am so floored that it did sell out on Amazon and it keeps selling out because I think maybe my publisher was not expecting it to do this well. I didn't sell it to a big publisher.

It's an indie publisher. I didn't get a huge advance. I viewed this book as just another piece of content, but one that I cared about a lot because it's my story and my family's story. I set the bar really low and I, and I said to myself, even if it doesn't sell any copies, hopefully I can get some press out of it.

And at the end of the day, anybody who is in entertainment knows that what you need to do more than anything is just keeping your name out there, keeping the hustle going, especially 16 years later. Totally. Like, it's crazy to me because I am the original influencer. You are. You are.

The shelf life of an influencer now keeps getting shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter. It's scary. And I have so much empathy. And I literally not like sit down and pray, but I'm sending all of the positive vibes for these young influencers on TikTok that are just 16 and 17 and exploding because the likelihood is 95% of them will not be able to sustain that. And what that's going to create, I hope I'm wrong,

but that is going to create a generation of these former influencers that might be incredibly depressed or turning to drugs or alcohol because now all of a sudden they're 26, and nobody cares about them anymore. When they were 17, they were so popular. That's so true. I mean, forget about the influencers. Just everybody in general, with social media being the way that it is, I think, you know, I've read that suicide rates sadly are up

since the start of, you know, Instagram and all of this social media, especially among young girls. But I kind of want to move on to a juicier topic since we did bring up your book. I have a question for both you and Sheena. Let's do it. Okay. How good of a kisser is John Mayer?

Oh my God, this chapter of your book, I was going to almost just skip and read that chapter first after hearing you talk about it on Heather McDonald's show. But I was like, no, I'm going to start the book from the beginning. And then the day before yesterday, I got to that chapter. And I mean, it's so good. So obviously, we have to bring this up. You know, we're Eskimo siblings with John Mayer in a makeout way. up you know we're we're eskimo siblings with john mayer in a makeout way i gotta say i probably didn't enjoy it that much it was awkward you're like what the fuck is going on exactly because i'm like what the fuck is going on but it lasted five minutes perez he wanted to mind fuck me. It worked. He did.

Yes, it did. Yeah. Everything about it was so surreal from that to then Jessica Simpson rubbing his dick while he was making out with me. And she had her hair covering her face. She would like, and she was, I got to applaud Jessica though, because she was very honest in her memoir. I started writing mine before I even knew she was coming out with hers. And I, I said in mind, you know, she's a big boozer and she was, so it was nice to hear that she now has been sober for many years. So good on her.

How long have you been working on your book before you got it finished? It was such a long process because my co-writers are Swedish and they live in Sweden and we would only do writing in person. We didn't do any of this Zoom stuff. So we'd come together, we'd talk, I'd pour out ideas and tell stories and then we'd come back and we'd write and we'd review and then we'd talk some more. And then they'd go away and then come back in three months or four months. And we did that. So it was like a two-year process. But I'm really happy and proud of the work that we did together.

And I'm thankful for them because, keeping it honest, I didn't want to release a memoir. I was nervous and afraid to, because if the book failed, I would have, I was viewing that as a reflection on me and my popularity or, or my past or whatever. So I was actually trying to sell another book at the time. I was working with a different co-writer on a health and wellness book. And I pitched it and everybody passed. Yeah, it's not as juicy as TMI, My Life in Scandal. Have you heard from anyone in the book that you've, you know? No, I keep hoping that I would hear from somebody.

Great material. Yes. Who would you say you still have the best relationship with? And who have you had the biggest falling out with? I don't really have a good relationship with anybody these days because I barely even see my non-famous friends. I mean, even before the pandemic. Like, my life is just about my kids. Right. And now during the pandemic, like my life is just about my kids. And now during

the pandemic, I just don't see anybody. But having said that, you know, I still keep in touch with everybody. Like I still talk to Paris. I still talk to Lindsay and everybody else. I don't know if I mentioned this recently, but even Lindsay, I DM'd her the other day, a couple of weeks ago. Did I share this? Because you listened to Heather's show. Yeah, I don't think I remember you saying anything about Lindsay recently. Okay. So I DM'd Lindsay because I had an idea. People may not know this about me, but I have a huge heart and I'm an idea person. I'm an Aries. I'm very creative and I love helping people. And I had this random idea. I'm like, oh my God, I need to tell Lindsay this ASAP.

So I DMed Lindsay and I said, you should tweet or do an Instagram post or an Instagram story about Paris's new documentary. That'd be a nice thing to do. And it would get you a lot of press. And you know what her response back to me was? I haven't watched it yet. I'm like, that's not the fucking point. That's not the point.

The point is just to congratulate. You don't have to watch it to congratulate her on it. Congratulate her on it. So she still did. She never did it. She never did it. That sounds like a very lindsey thing to do right but i haven't seen it why would i do that other than lindsey lohan um

i wanted to ask you about amanda bines because i saw obviously i read in your book that you guys used to be close and then it was crazy how you were like, you know, it was almost like a foreshadowing when she said, you know, Hollywood. I forget the exact quote, but it was like, if you're not already crazy, it'll make you crazy. And like, where do you guys stand? When was the last time you talked to her? I haven't talked to her in a very long time. And, you know, neither have some of her former really dear friends and co-stars that we know in common um the wildest thing about amanda bines is she was the most normal person yeah like we would meet

up for coffee would meet up for lunch we'd meet up for lunch, would meet up for dinner. And even though she was much younger than me, she would give me advice. She was somebody that I turned to for advice that was a confidant and like professional. Like I would have a lot of events, like I'd have this party or that event or this whatever. And not only would she be the kind of friend that would show up to your event she would show up early she'd be one of the first people there so then when everything happened it just felt like out of nowhere and wild and you want to know the craziest craziest thing what really triggered all of this for amanda bes. And people, if you don't believe it, you have to research it. It wouldn't affect a normal person this way.

But if you are somebody who has mental illness in their family, but have never exhibited that yourself, excessive marijuana use can trigger that. And you would never think that marijuana would be what would. No history of mental illness in my family. Thank you. And she's basically, she's also talked about that in interviews too, that it was really the marijuana. And I've done enough research that,

yeah. I mean, listen, don't get it twisted. She then did a bunch of other drugs, too. She did other things. But it was really the, it somehow caused psychosis. Yeah, you know, it can. It happens to a family member of mine, actually. Okay, then maybe it was you who I was talking about this with recently. I remember hearing something along the lines of marijuana and mental illness recently, but it wasn't about someone famous.

It was just in general. Yeah, it was a combination, though. It wasn't just the marijuana. Is that why you were saying you don't like smoking? No, I didn't say that. But I've never been a fan of any of that. Okay, it about someone famous. It was just in general. Yeah, it was a combination though. It wasn't just the marijuana. Is that why you were saying you don't like smoking? No, I didn't say that, but I've never been a fan of any of that. Someone close to me in my family was in college, as most people do, experimenting. And they just had a bad trip on a combination of a couple different things. This person then had to drop out of college.

And all the doctors said there's a permanent imbalance now in the brain due to that drug trip so you know it's it's scary it can definitely happen yeah i hope she i hope she's okay i know i just she's the man came on the other day and i was watching it and i'm just like oh like because we're about the same age and i mean i grew up watching all that and the amanda show and she was like my little idol as a kid I always looked up to her and then reading your book and then just I like looked at like her Instagram and just seeing the tattoo on her face and just where she's at now it's just it's it's genuinely sad how that can just happen to people it also makes me think of Britney Spears if you can talk about her for a second. I was about to mention Britney. Yeah. On an animal level, we are animals. Okay. We're

humans, but we are animals. And at least these two animals, uh, and don't read that the wrong way, uh, because people think different things and have their own opinions about their boyfriends. But it makes me happy to know that they're being soothed. They have partners, even if Brittany's boyfriend is just using her. And even if Amanda's boyfriend is just using her, at least they have companionship. And I don't think they would stay in the relationship. I hope they wouldn't stay in the relationships if they were being abused or if it was toxic or whatever. It may not be true love. They may not end up marrying either of these two boyfriends, but at least they have somebody to kiss and cuddle with.

And that is healing. Kissing and cuddling and more can be healing. I don't know. I haven't kissed anybody since 2018. And I haven't had sex since 2015. Where's John Mayer when you need him? He's back in 2005. Speaking of things that you and sheena both have in common i just discovered recently that you and she were both on an episode of victoria oh yeah i don't have the

same episode no a different episode i don't remember if we had talked about this on my podcast or not but i just watched the episode you were on and it was so funny. Why were you watching Victorian? We were doing research. Also. So Daniela Monet is my business partner. So I'm an investor in the restaurant sugar taco in which she is as well. And so she has a podcast that you were recently a guest on and I heard you, maybe not so recently, but exactly.

And you were talking about that scene in victorious and how it's like one of your most asked questions. Well, especially on Tik TOK. Are you on talking about that scene in Victorious and how it's like one of your most asked questions. Well, especially on TikTok. Are you on TikTok? Yeah. Sheena? Uh-huh. Have you posted the clip on TikTok? No.

You should. You need to. I guarantee you it'll blow up. Okay. Oh, my God. It'll get you millions of views. Amazing. Victorious content does so well on TikTok. So, yeah. So, Jamie was like was like wait did you know he was on an

episode of Victoria's I was like wait what I was like I gotta watch this so we pulled up the YouTube video of you watching it with your kids which was so adorable and yeah I had done I don't remember even honestly what season it was but the episode was called Beck Falls for Tori and she played my stunt double I'm like an actress and she booked a role as a stunt double because her friends all convinced her to lie on her resume and Victoria Justice Victoria Justice so she ended up like playing my double but then one of the guys played like her double and it was like this whole thing where on set we had the actual stunt person myself victoria and then the guy taking her place all in the same outfits like four of us in this exact same dress playing one person basically but it was so much fun and i remember being on set i

only had it was a co-star i was like under five lines but i was on set for the entire week and i remember this cute little red-headed girl like Disney Channel or Nickelodeon, whatever, walking around with the most beautiful singing voice. And I was like, wow, that girl has a really great voice. I had no idea Ariana Grande would come out of Cat, but it was a fun show. How did you get on that show, Perez? I knew the creator and executive producer of that show Dan Schneider they just offered it to him he didn't even have to audition I know I wish everything were that

easy I remember my audition yeah I I played myself so it wasn't it wasn't a stretch yeah I've done some really awesome things like I was on Victorious I was on Girl Meets World on the Disney channel I was on an episode of Glee With Lindsay Lohan Like the young kids on TikTok Have no idea but I really am an icon Yeah If you do say so yourself

I also loved Girl Meets World Like I'm an adult who still watches those kids shows And I've also known Ben Savage for years So when he told me about like this new show Like the new Boy Meets World coming out I'm an adult who still watches those kids' shows, and I've also known Ben Savage for years. So when he told me about this new show, the new Boy Meets World coming out, I was like, I gotta watch it. And it was such a cute show.

See, and then when you have kids, you can go back and watch these shows with your kids, and you can secretly like them. But you're like, oh yeah, it's Ivy's favorite show. Yeah, and they'll think you're so cool. Yeah. So I know there's a chapter in your book that I actually haven't got to yet. So forgive me if you answer this in it. But I want to know with everything that you've been through in your career, what is your

biggest regret and what are you most proud of? My biggest regret is how I did things at the beginning, Because at the beginning, everything was so new. I mean, even social media was new. A lot of it didn't exist when I started in 2004. There was no YouTube, TikTok, Twitter. Yeah, there was none of that. Instagram. The only thing that existed in 2004 was Facebook.

And it was such a long time ago that in 2004, Facebook was by invite only. And just for college students. I remember you had to have a college email address. Yeah. Eventually it became a different thing. You know, some people might argue that, oh, you know, being salacious and mean is what made you popular. But I disagree. That's what people think. I now own every aspect of my light and shadow. And I know that I am special. I'm a star. Yeah. Well, you're an innovator and there aren't many of those. Totally. I'm also crazy, you know, and that craziness would have still gotten me a lot of attention.

I would have still been successful. I didn't need to do all of that. I did all of that because it was cheap. It was easy. It was my insecurity. I also view me and all those girls back in the day, Brittany, Lindsay, Paris, Kim, Nicole, all of them, we were all drug addicts and attention was our drug. And we were jonesing for that next hit of attention

what will i write what will they do what will i say where will they show up at what will they leak what's gonna happen it was insane um so yeah i regret that i genuinely regret that it was you know not the right thing to do i also regret regret it for selfish reasons. I've talked about this. Maybe one of the reasons why AMD doesn't want to work with me is because I'm me, and I have my baggage and my reputation. So I know that I still have opportunities that are not presented to me because of who I am. And the bigger issue is, it's not even a concern. I know that in the future, my children will most likely get discriminated against because of who I am.

So that's my biggest regret. But my thing that I'm proudest of is that I was able to help my mom and sister. I was able to support my family and make it a family affair. My mom works with me. Well, she doesn't do anything now, but during normal times, my mom is like my gopher. My mom will go get groceries. She'll put gas in my car. We'll go to the P.O. box, do all the errands that take time.

And my sister also works with me still. So she helped us, coordinate us today. And she's my COO. Oh my God, I didn't even realize that's who your assistant. Now I'm thinking the name in your book and Barbie. Oh, that's your sister. And it's a lot of pressure. Oh my God. I have five people's livelihoods depending on my ability to earn. My three kids, my mom, and my sister. That's why 16 years later, I don't work any less. I actually work more and sleep less now because it's not just about the website. It's about my website and my podcast and my two YouTube channels and my TikTok and my

Star Sonas and cameos and my Instagram and my every and everything that I have to hustle so hard because as I talk about in the book, I made a lot of financial, I have a lot of financial regrets. I made a lot of financial mistakes, which is why I love to talk finances with young talent and young influencers. And I tell them, do this, don't do that. Be wary of that. Like, like stupid things. Like I didn't even start an investment account until I was 40. Oh, wow. I know. Would that be your biggest piece of financial advice or is there something else that, that

wisdom you can share? Yeah. My biggest, my even more important than that, Yeah, my biggest, even more important than that, though that is very important. In America, I grew up and I think a lot of people, we grew up hearing this concept of you need to live within your means. Everybody's taught you need to live within your means. No, you need to live below your means. Just because you can afford to do this doesn't mean you're always going to make that much money. The entertainment industry has changed so much. People are now getting paid a lot less

for the same things that they used to do 10 years ago. Save, don't spend as much. So yeah, start an investment account account and also if you're making a lot of money as sheena i think has done or no well she said in la she was renting maybe you still have your palm springs house also buy property yeah yeah i bought one house that's that's good for now until brock and i buy one together yeah even better than buying a house i always tell young people buy your if you're a hot Instagrammer, YouTuber, TikToker, that you're making crazy money, instead of moving into the apartment building where all the other TikTokers are, buy a duplex and a couple years, move out and rent out both of those two units and keep that. So ideally, you really save as much as possible and diversify.

So have some income generating property and invest in the stock market. Have somebody who knows what they're doing do that for you. I was just afraid of it because I was never taught about finances. I was never taught about these things. My mother passed on all of the bad things. Like she filed for bankruptcy too. I should have mentioned that in the book today. I don't remember. I filed for bankruptcy in my mid twenties and my mother filed for bankruptcy as well before that, you know, when my dad died, he left behind insurance money and she squandered it all. She was never good with money. She never taught me the importance of or how to balance a checkbook and all those

things. So I was afraid of the stock market, but eventually I just talked to enough people and did my own research and I found out and I learned and I looked. The stock market, obviously there's not anything that's a hundred percent, but it's a lot like the housing market. If you put money into it and you do the long play, you sit on it for more than 10, 15 years, then you'll make a good amount of money doing that. But you have to have the patience to sit on it and not touch that.

Totally. So anyone can do it. And it seems so scary if you don't know about it. And I had put it off for a very long time as well. But but during the pandemic, I said, you know what, I'm going to learn about it. I'm going to start investing. The prices had dipped quite a bit. And so I said, this is a good time to do it. And I don't regret it at all. I, I, uh, I'm very happy with what's going on with stock. Even for other parents, like stupidly, I did not start an education fund for my kids until around the same time that I started my investment account. I'm 42, but my oldest is seven. You know, I could have started it way earlier than that. And I've now learned it's not only good to make money doing that,

but money that you put in an investment account for education is not taxed. And if you want to send your child to private school, middle school, high school, elementary school, you can use that to pay that off as well. But obviously you're not going to make that much money. You know, to grow it, you need to keep it in there a long time. But, you know, maybe use it for high school if you're struggling with finances when high school comes. Totally. That's great advice. That's really good advice.

I do have one final question. Do you know how many times you've been sued? I'm curious. Oh, God. Well, well over a dozen. I wasted at least one to two million dollars in legal bills, settlements. And now it's like fudge. You know, what would I what would I be able to do with a million dollars cash? Like, yeah, like so much. You know what? You can look on the bright side to that.

And whatever you did to get sued, perhaps you've made three or four million from doing it. So hopefully it was worth it. Yeah, I was just curious after, there's like a part in your book when you talk about how you had the office at Coffee Bean and the guy came in and you guys have to read his book. That happened more than once.

Yeah. So I was like, I wonder how many times he actually has been sued. Crazy. A lot. Well, if you guys haven't already, be sure to order or pick up wherever you get your books. TMI, My Life in Scandal with Perez Hilton. Also, check out his podcast,

the Perez Hilton Podcast with Chris Booker, his YouTube channel, his TikTok. You're all over the place. You are so busy. And I just want to thank you so much for taking the time and coming back on Shenanigans. Any final things you want to shout out or final thoughts, final questions? Final thoughts, just light and

positivity. And it saddens me that so many people view politics as entertainment. I view entertainment as entertainment. Okay. That's what I do as entertainment. To me, politics is essential in order to function as a society. And I wish that all of those people that were hooked on the drama of politics just found new hobbies. I think America needs to heal. And this sounds so silly. Like, why the hell am I saying it? This is just what I felt like saying. I just wish this has been such a traumatic year for the world.

And I just wish healing for us all. And I know that people more so than ever are experiencing depression. Suicide is up. So many people are struggling and overeating and drinking or domestic abuse is up and all of this. So I think what you're doing, Sheena, and providing people entertainment on your podcast is of service and important. And everybody just breathe. Yeah, seriously. Just breathe. Focus on your breath. Yeah. And I agree with that. We all want the same things. I think because this year has been so hard and we've been so divided, it would be wonderful if we could all kind of just find all of our commonalities rather than focusing on the

differences. I would love that. All right. Well, thank you so much, Perez. I really appreciate you being here. And I can't wait to finish your book. And I'm going to pass it on. You need to actually, no, I'm not going to pass it on to you because you need to order

your own. I'll buy it. And there's a website. It's PerezHiltonBook.com. Boom. Thank you. All right. Thank you.

It was a pleasure. Thank you so much. All right. Have a good one. You too. Bye. Bye. And now we're going to wrap it up

with our reviews of the week. Who do we got, Jamie? Okay. Well, as usual, we're doing one negative and one positive, and I'm sorry to read this to you, Sheena. I can take it. It's okay. They're both from Monday.

They were both posted after the Heather podcast, which everybody seemed to have loved, so that's wonderful. Awesome. So here's your negative from Jada. That voice, one star. I can't handle it. Her voice was completely normal on the podcast where she talked about her miscarriage, but on all the others, she really turns on her fake voice.

She sounds ditzy. She'd be better off just talking normal. So I should be depressed all the time? I hope not. That was a sad podcast. It was sad. Here, and I mean, this is, if Brock was here, he'd be like, you're not taking constructive criticism. First of all, I can't change my voice. So I am going to comment on that because when I'm doing YouTube, when I'm doing my podcast, I am hosting. So I guess I do kind of turn on more of like a hosty voice. Yeah.

But I feel like when we get in conversations we're in conversations but there's times when you know you need to ask the question you got to do your intro and your outro and i definitely noticed like this is what brock had to get used to when i was vlogging at first because he's like why are you talking different and i'm like i'm hosting i'm not just going to grab the camera and be like so like it was if i was talking to you like yeah we're going to go to speed circuit today and do like go-karts if a campster balls that it's like all right so today here's what we got coming up you turn up the energy a touch and that's normal yeah so i that i can't even take it as constructive criticism because it's just my voice she can't change her voice

i can't change my voice but thank you for comment. I can work on trying to be more conversational and less hosty, especially when it comes to like deep topics like we were talking about last week. Right. My voice is my voice. I was almost the reason I was hesitant to start a podcast because I'm like, do I want to listen back to my voice? Do I want to have to make an editor listen back to my voice? I feel so bad for Justice when he's editing my vlogs that he has to listen to my voice over and over and

over everybody hates their voice when they hear it but then i have people who say they love my voice so which one is it exactly okay moving on jada but thanks jada okay the next one they've used this term that's been popping up lately calling kiki-ing. And I don't know where this term originated from, but it means shooting the shit, basically. Okay. Girls chatting. So the title is It's the Kiki-ing for me. And this is from It's Mindy. Five stars. I love listening to Sheena and Jamie. You spelled my name wrong, by the way. Just Kiki-ing together. The guests on the podcast blend well. And I love how everyone just talks like a conversation with all of us listening. But I really love it when Sheena and Jamie just talk about their lives and what is going on with them.

Heather McDonald was such a perfect guest, and the vibe between all the ladies was just so organic. Aw, I love that. That was nice. So, yeah, so we're still wondering if we should do like a drinking and podcasting special episode or additional episodes or sounds like some people do want that. Just, you know, girl talk. Okay. Yeah. So do we do like maybe one episode a month where we just kind of shoot the shit or do we do a bonus episode for the people who like listening to more interviews?

That's, I think, what we need to kind of decide. Let us know or we need to figure it out. But we'll take this into consideration for sure. Yes. We will be back next week with my boyfriend, Brock. We have a fun episode planned for you guys. And I can't wait. Talk to you then. Bye.

Thanks for listening to Shenanigans with Sheena Shea. Download new episodes every week on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Looking fine and I got my girls with me With the boys at the table getting tipsy Miss me, kiss me one more time Get over here boy, I'ma make you mine Do you want it? Let me see you shake that Do you need it?

Let me see you shake that Do you want it? Let me see you shake that Come and get it Let me see you shake that