James Vituska
Appearances
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No, that is interesting that you say that because there's a lot of people that don't know how connected Diddy and the Kardashians are. His management company, which is TriStar, same Lou Taylor, which is the same management company that Britney Spears had and accused her in the book and also in her lawsuit – I mean in court of taking advantage of her, stealing all of her money.
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So Diddy is managed by Lou Taylor and TriStar as well. Well, guess who else is managed by Lou Taylor and TriStar? All of the Kardashian family. So, you know, they have they have they have connections that go very, very deep with him, not to mention years and years of hanging out.
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And, you know, and there's Chloe said something along the lines like on, you know, her show about going to his freak off parties and how nobody wore clothes. And, you know, so there's things that. They can't avoid now, you know, and I don't think that they ever thought that, you know, this day would come. It just goes to show that it doesn't matter how powerful you are.
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Even five years ago. You know, it's a lot more. The thing is that, you know, celebrity and tabloid has changed so much. The landscape has changed so much. All the sources that I have right now, it's either mainly the celebrity themselves or the celebrities very close to them or just people within their management team.
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And, you know, that gets very vetted by our legal, as you know, by, you know, Daily Mail's legal team to make sure that, you know, what the information that I got is coming from someone who is reputable.
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Whereas I remember days at Us Weekly and there were times where I was, you know, they would say, I need you to go to Cedars-Sinai Hospital and sneak into the baby ward and take a picture of the baby and just pretend that you're a guest. Or like, if anybody asks, you're there visiting a friend.
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Like things like that, you know, you need to go, one time I had an assignment, you need to go to Vegas to get in Pamela Anderson's wedding. I don't care how you get it because we have other people posing as the gators. You know, so those are things about, you know, journalism and about this industry and specifically that,
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not fly now you know what i mean it's very very um people have gotten very very uh over the gossip over the tabloid aspect of it and i feel like it's become much more um not only harder to break news also but like you know like in order to get you know accurate information out there right i believe it's much much uh more difficult but that being said because it's you know because i have all these connections that i've built i've built my connections up over the years by
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basically, you know, gaining the respect of everybody along the way. I started as a production assistant and then news desk and then night news desk and then segment producer and then producer and then reporting.
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So it's kind of like I've taken these little steps and along the way and I feel like, you know, I've gained, you know, the trust of all of these celebrities and also their, you know, their camps for the most part because there's still going to be, you know, there's still going to be people that, you know, get pushed back from it.
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It's like I give you 24 hours to comment every single time I do a story. I give everybody involved in the story 24 hours to comment. And I reached out. So it's like, if they have a problem with it, then you should have said that when I reached out. But we wouldn't go forward with information that we didn't believe was accurate.
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And my stuff online now for Daily Mail gets several million hits a month. The last week, I believe I got 500,000 just on one story. So a lot of people are interested in celebrity, and not only just collection.
The Trial of Diddy
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Yeah, yeah. And you're seeing it a lot now, too. You know what I mean? With this new administration, it's going to be interesting to see just how interesting the next four years are going to be. I'm glad that I focused on Hollywood and celebrities rather than politics. Politics.
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I have 20 years of, I have, I have like, you know, 15, 20 years of, of, of, of those stories, you know, and, and, and things that, that I, if I didn't live through certain things, I wouldn't believe that it actually happened. You know what I mean? For example, when I was at, I was on Britney Spears duty when she was at, you know, her, her, her going through her, her whole period.
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And I would wake up at 8 o'clock in the morning and be on her all day long every day. And eventually we got access inside of her camp and her team, and we're going to lunch with her. And things that I saw that blew my mind that I never could say because they're too hot. Nowadays, I definitely get information. I have three things just on the top of my head.
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One of them is a celebrity who had an affair in Cannes who cheated on their wife and they have kids and they're very, very A-list, but I can't do anything with it because that would never get through legal. James has all the tea. I'll tell you after the call, but those kind of things, you can't get through legal.
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I know they're true because I know for that one, for example, I know a woman who was there with them in Cannes while they're having an affair. Those kind of things that you can't report. you know what I mean? And, you know, also there's, you know, the drug usage and everything like that.
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You can't report any of that to, you know, now there's all the laws surrounding, you know, mental health and all this other stuff. So there's a lot of things that, that, that don't get past even my editor. A lot of things that I sent to her and she's like, are you, are you freaking kidding me? Like, no.
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And I'm like, Emma, Emma works in London with you guys now, you know, but like, she's, she's still my editor and you know, she's, she's brilliant, you know, but it's like, she'll, she'll just really, she'll go like this, like, and I'll just hear over this text message or like a pause. And I'm like, Okay.
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Moving right along, you know, so I don't get hung up on these things that I know that can happen, but yeah, no, I have some, I have some dirt that would ruin a lot of things for a lot of people.
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Yeah. By both sides. I mean, by our, by our legal team. And not only that, I mean, not only do I have to, you know, give their identity to leave my team first name, last name, but also my affiliation with them.
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And I've had to, you know, in the, as I started daily mail, you know, I had to show proof of my affiliation connection with them, text messages, conversations, phone numbers, phone logs, you know what I mean? So it's not, Just like, who's this? Oh, my source is Ray from Brooklyn. You know what I mean?
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They have to go by different levels of legal because it's just – and so I've worked hard to get the sources that I have right now, and I try to use them as best as I can. Sometimes they don't want to give anything. gossip and that's unfortunate, but they do it again.
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Yeah, this one was a little bit more difficult, you know, because of everything that was involved in it. And, you know, it was a big, big, massive story. Um, you know, but so, you know, for this one in particular, I had, I had someone speaking directly to someone within, uh, Luigi's first legal team, uh, in, in, when he was in Pennsylvania, you know, on hours conversations with that person.
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Um, we'll see who, you know, it could be anywhere within that legal team. And then, you know, but I had to give that to our department, you know, to show, you know, that, and then also, you know, show proof of the conversation that took place, you know, and if it's, you know, you ask it's a one party or two party, you can record it by asking and getting approval.
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You know, and then also I also had to show, you know, for the prison side of it, I have a woman that I've known for, gosh, she was probably like 10, 15 years.
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I met this woman through my father, you know, and she works in a, I guess I could say, you know, reentry, the reentry program for when prisoners get dismissed and, you know, she finds them, you know, she gets them back into, you know, society. And so, you know, she has deep connections within the prison and has been a great source for mine for years.
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So, I mean, you know, I had to go through that, you know, and show, and not only that, show proof of my, my, my relationship to her, you know, and for that, it was, you know, Facebook screenshots and, you know, things like that.
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But it's like, I know it's a hard time, you know, trusting someone, especially as a reporter who says, oh, my source says, but I mean, the reason that, you know, we say sources because we, these people give us some information that's pretty damning and, you know, it could cause their life to be in, I hate to say it, but in this diddy thing, you know, cause damage.
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serious harm or possibility to, you know, to their life alone. So it's like, you know, you have to really protect your sources. And I feel like, you know, after vetting them to our legal team, now that they know who they are, then it's like, you know, I can use them really for anything in the future as well.
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Yeah, my name is James Vituska, and I'm a senior U.S. showbiz reporter at dailymail.com. I focus on everything involving A-list celebrities. Okay. And I've been doing this for 20 years. I've known actually Marjorie at past outlets.
The Trial of Diddy
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I started Entertainment Tonight, and then I worked at Us Weekly, and then I worked at Radar Online, OK Magazine, Star Magazine, National Enquirer, and InTouch, and then I worked at TMZ before coming to Daily Mail.
The Trial of Diddy
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Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, you know, I actually have two sources within, you know, in that realm right there. You know, one of them is close to, you know, Luigi, I'll say, instead of Mangione, I'll say, you know, Luigi's legal team and another one is within the prison system. And so, you know, prior to being transferred to the Brooklyn facility, I mean, he was getting so much,
The Trial of Diddy
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I guess, love mail and he was getting so many, you know, people were sending him gifts and people were starting to go fund me and, you know, donate all this money to him. So when he went into the prison, everybody knew who he was, you know, even at the prior place, you know, the prisoners were cheering for him out the windows and like, yeah, free Luigi.
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And so it's interesting because you have Diddy in the same prison, whereas, you know, Diddy hasn't actually been, you know, convicted of anything yet, but you know what I mean? Luigi allegedly shot someone on camera, but yet The prisoners, they're Team Luigi, you know what I mean?
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And so, you know, this is Diddy having his ego burst even inside prison is creating issues for him, you know, I guess emotionally, you know what I mean? He doesn't like the fact that, you know, Luigi went in there, you know, and has everybody's support and love, whereas Diddy goes in there and everybody wants to kill him, so to speak. But you know what I mean?
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And I feel like that's interesting because they kept them separated. And then also because they share the same legal team, his lawyer and Diddy's lawyer are husband and wife, I believe.
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So it makes it even more interesting that there's like, you know, like polar opposites. And, you know, it's going to be interesting when this goes to trial for both of them to see kind of what happens here.
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You got this young guy who's, you know, extremely attractive. You know, I could say that, you know, in prison, who's, you know, getting all this attention. And he is incredibly jealous of him for many, many reasons. It's like, you know, he's got all the love. And, you know, that was Diddy's last album was love. Coincidentally, you know, but we just get all the love and support from people inside.
The Trial of Diddy
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And, you know, they're helping him. He's still getting all these donations and Tens of thousands of dollars in money that's come to him and just endless gifts, and Diddy doesn't get anything. There's definitely some jealousy issues going on there.
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It is interesting. And from what I've heard, they're still kept separate. But some people say inside that they've crossed paths, but I don't see the two of them dining together anytime soon.
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It's strange because, you know, no one had heard from Wendy for decades.
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years you know what i mean and then you know i'm i'm i'm on you know our server system looking you know through you know data i guess you know and and i find a number and i was like oh i'm just gonna call it you know i mean and then as soon as she picked up she's all hello and i'm like this is wendy williams and i knew right away you know what i mean but there was a little bit like shoot should i keep on the call because you know apparently she's suffering from a disability today you know and then she just started talking freely you know and one of the first things that she started talking about you know she was she was kind of you know her normal gossip queen self you know and and she sounded
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normal to me you know i will be honest and say that you know she sounded normal um you know and she was she was very very um coherent and she was also very she also could remember specific details about things such as her interactions with diddy now she always called diddy out um you know on her show the wendy williams show she would constantly call him out right you know and and say you know basically what you know these are you know what he's what he's going through now what he's dealing with now it's kind of like she would
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She knew then, and she would say it then, you know what I mean? But you know, now people, you know, went back and they're like, whoa, Wendy told us this years ago. Well, she told me that her first interaction with Diddy was when she was a young, I believe that she was a young reporter and it was, uh, it was probably like 25 years ago.
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So she's remembering this exact event and she was driving to a Diddy's event. Um, I think it was at the stadium or something like that. And then all of a sudden she was stopped because there was cop cars everywhere. And this was the event where, uh, people were, it was a Diddy party that it was like one of his first where he threw and, and people were trampled to death.
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Um, you have to look at the exact location, everything like that, but it was pretty big news at the time. And she says, you know, that was her first, you know, interaction with Diddy is that he took no accountability for it. He did, you know, no, no apology, nothing. It was just kind of like, so her immediate, you know, interact, you know, his, her immediate first, first impression of him was.
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It's kind of, you know, a slime ball, but then, you know, all of the rumors that kind of piling up and piling up, she kept calling them out and calling them out. And she did to me.
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100% because this is, you know, I was the first one to talk to her, the first reporter to talk to her in years. You know what I mean? So this is, you know, and, and I was very, very, uh, hesitant to do so because if she's suffering from a mental disability, then I don't want to, you know, be on the phone, you know, doing an interview with someone who's, you know, who's not
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mentally well, because that's, you know, goes against my principles as a journalist too, because it's just not, that's just kind of slimy, you know what I mean? So I, you know, but, but hearing her talk and she goes, how are you doing? She said her, her, how you doing? And she remembered, you know, details about, you know, from the past.
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So it's like, I don't really know, you know, and now, um, you know, I'm also close with her family now. I just did another exclusive – their exclusive statement on – over the weekend on Saturday about their family's reaction. And they're not saying – they're not saying that Wendy is – they're not saying that Wendy is not, I guess you could say, impaired, disabled. You know what I mean?
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What they're saying is that they want her to be in Florida with them so that she can be cared for by her family. And that's all they're asking. You know, Wendy, she's under the guardianship of someone who's taken all of her money, allegedly. You know what I mean? Who she's never met and forced her into this guardianship.
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It's very, very similar to, you know, it's kind of reminiscent of what Brittany went through, I think, in a lot of ways. And it's sad, but her one, you know, thing that she's always going to be sure of is Diddy. And, you know, and the allegations that she was the first person to call him out.
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Well, here's some exclusive information, Marjorie, that I actually haven't done in a story yet that I was saving for you. Great news. And this is that if you look at Justin Bieber's behavior over the past couple of weeks, he's been –
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unfollowing people from his Instagram, one of them being Scooter, one of them being Usher, all these people that kind of brought him up and were supportive of him through his career. Haley's dad, Steven, you know, he's just dropping all these people off his Instagram. But the one thing that's interesting about this is that he's still following Diddy. That's kind of shocking.
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It is very shocking, you know, and people haven't realized this. And, you know, I believe that the reason is by unfollowing him, I believe, you know, and from what my sources said, it's going to, you know, kind of throw him in this hole, like, oh, so what are you avoiding? You know what I mean?
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And so he's trying to be as transparent as possible when all this goes to court and everything like that because he knows he's going to be involved. A mountain of evidence of things that took place between Justin Bieber when he was underage and Diddy is endless recordings and videos of partying and when he was smoking weed with him at age not 18. And at the time it wasn't even legal.
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So Justin was taken advantage of in a lot of ways and it's quite sad but I feel like a lot of the things that he's going through right now are as a result of what he went through back then in his adolescence with Diddy. And now it's like, what's interesting, though, is that he drops everybody's Scooter, because him and Scooter are still under contract. That's Scooter Braun. Yeah, Scooter Braun.
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So it's like he has a good relationship with him. He's still under contract with him. But he drops all of these people, and he shuts them out of his life, but keeps Diddy there. So it's interesting to see, you know, and then he had this whole, I didn't unfollow Hailey yesterday or, you know, his wife. And it's like, why would you come out and say that?
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But not, why are you still following Diddy as your only celebrity? You know, it's just, you know, it'd be interesting to see, you know, if he's brought into court and then also, you know, what the Kardashians involvement is in it as well. Yeah.
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Yeah, you know, and I know this is the podcast about Didion. The one thing that, you know, is interesting, I feel like is that, you know, they have they have all this, you know, obviously they have enough evidence to keep him in prison. You know, he's tried to he's tried to bail how many times and, you know,
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50 million was it i believe or something around there 50 million um you know and they and they keep they keep him in there you know and it's like so obviously the government they they have something on him that we don't know yet i believe they have to you know because you know it has to be more than just you know cassie and assault you know and and you know these alleged you know parties that he had and like that you know and so it's going to be big and it's going to be uh it's going to kind of like uh pull the rug out from under under a lot of uh a lot of his circle you know and i feel like people are terrified of this uh
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this trial coming up, but they have reason to be, you know what I mean? It's like, they wouldn't keep him in there and deny him bail if they didn't have a mountain of evidence against him. You know what I mean?
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No, yeah, and this week, Diddy said he had – or his attorneys, I guess, said they have a tape that's going to clear his name. That's kind of interesting because if they have this or had this available, then he wouldn't be sitting in prison. So it's going to be interesting, I think, mainly for my focus, not so much on the court aspect because that's your ballpark.
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That's your game, but more of the people that are involved. I know that you said Justin's never made a statement, and just not saying anything at all is also very telling. You know what I mean? Because there's no doubt, you know, from sources and also from photos, videos, you know, that they were close.
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And other people, you know, Kardashians who also, you know, tried to distance themselves as much as possible when they were super close with Kris and, you know, the whole, they're all one little circle.
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It's, you know, everyone's trying to distance themselves, but there's all of this footage and photos taken by, you know, paparazzi over the past 15, 20 years that's going to like already kind of can't really break free of that, you know? So it's interesting when celebrities, I think that, you know, such as Jay-Z tried to say, We are Theresa and Nemo and that's why we switched to Shopify.