Vanessa Grigoriadis and Natalie Robehmed discuss their experiences interviewing Kim Kardashian and tackle the big questions: Why were PETA activists at Kim’s book signing? What was Kanye’s role in her Forbes cover photo outfit? And how has this media-savvy family managed to keep us all under their spell for so long? Click ‘Subscribe’ at the top of the Infamous show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you get your podcasts. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices A Campside Media & Sony Music Entertainment production. To connect with Infamous's creative team, plus access behind the scenes content, join the community at Campsidemedia.com/join Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What feedback did listeners have about the series on Kylie Jenner?
Yes, welcome.
So since we released our series on Kylie Jenner over the past couple of weeks, which you should go back and listen to now if you haven't already, we've gotten a lot of feedback from listeners.
Yeah. And you all had a lot of questions and a lot of thoughts. And a lot of them were actually about another Kardashian, the original Kardashian, Kim. And as luck would have it, both Natalie and I have had quite a few experiences with Kim. So we are going to take this episode to cover all of that.
Yeah, I can't wait. I'm actually dying to hear from you about your personal experience because we didn't even get a chance to get into that. And me, you. So Vanessa, what I really want to know is how did you first meet Kim Kardashian?
Chapter 2: What was Vanessa's first encounter with Kim Kardashian like?
OK, so I met Kim Kardashian at the Mercer Hotel and it's a place where all the celebrities hang out. And I met her there for a drink. I mean, it was so strange. I remember absolutely nothing about this encounter, which I think is a very usual experience of talking to Kim Kardashian because it's so pleasant speaking to her. But like nothing of that much import actually gets said there.
Chapter 3: Why was Kim Kardashian uncomfortable during their meeting?
She had just had a baby and she was sort of uncomfortable in her own skin, which is something that came up a lot in our conversations. I had also just had a baby. You know, she wasn't feeling very good about the way that she looked, but she was certainly wearing something extremely forfeiting and she was certainly Kim Kardashian. And yet nobody came up to talk, which is fascinating.
Yeah, that's very surprising because I would expect that for like a pre-smartphone era. But this was like, what, 2014, 15, something like that?
Something like that. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure pictures were taken, but, you know, could you sell a picture at that point to TMZ of Kim Kardashian talking on the couch to some random woman or? No, like you could probably sell one of her talking to Tom Brady or talking to somebody where they could be like, is Kim, you know, because at this point she was she was with Kanye.
Chapter 4: How did Kanye influence Kim's media appearances?
But, you know, the story was Kanye. Right. And Kim was sort of like the sub story.
So you met her for a drink. And was that, you know, was this just to get to know each other? Was this like very much on the record for a story? Yeah.
This was to get to know each other. She had never had a cover of Rolling Stone. And if I remember correctly, Kanye didn't want her to do the cover. And so it turned into this thing where Kanye and Kanye's publicist were saying, I don't know about this. Are they going to make fun of you? What exactly is going to happen?
And, you know, she really wanted to do it because, you know, her father is known as the attorney for OJ. But really, he was like a rock and roll guy. He had had a very early magazine that was almost like a type of billboard magazine. And so they had grown up going to lots of concerts. And she used to listen to like Mary J. Blige and Earth, Wind and Fire. And she was just like into music.
And he was, too. You know, so much of Kim's motivation is trying to make her father, who passed away too early, happy and make him proud of her in absentia so she really wanted to do it so I think there had to be this drink where it was like okay talk to Vanessa directly and you know that's how I sold her on it I said look this is going to be an iconic story I promise you
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Chapter 5: What was the story behind Kim's Rolling Stone cover?
I will make sure that this story is memorable and that it tells your fucking crazy ass like Kardashians rise to, you know, prominence story like in all of its full flower. And so she was like, OK, great. And then we were sort of off to the races.
So then you start actually reporting it. And I assume you spent like a day with her. So tell me about that.
OK, so I flew to L.A. I had not watched any of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. So then I'm, you know, on the plane watching all of these reality shows, just like what is happening? It would have taken me like 30 weeks to watch all the TV that had already come out about them. So I'm just kind of haphazardly like clicking on different episodes. So I landed in L.A. So I went to an office.
It was Whale Rock where she was making God knows what. some sort of digital media.
So Whale Rock, I believe they're now defunct, but they were a technology company that was making apps for a slew of celebrities. I mean, mostly the Kardashians, I think. So they had, Kim had this like her own app where you could subscribe. I think it was something like $2.99 a month and you could kind of subscribe.
And it was basically just like a personal blog where Kim was posting like how to look cute with braids, like five clothing ideas for date night or whatever, as well as kind of like exclusive pictures. It was essentially kind of like a gated and paid subscription model for like a personal blog.
Yeah. So I roll up to this place and you never know as a journalist, is this like a real meeting or are you guys just here for my benefit? But, you know, there's like 20 people there and she comes in and it's about like other emojis that they could put out that are not just like Kim crying face that are, you know, related to her life. And she's like, oh, this is cute.
It's like a pregnant belly or like a fur jacket or, you know, little things that relate to her. She's like, I don't want a Speedo that has like nothing to do with me. And then they had emojis of like other family members. And she was like, no, definitely no other family members. They're all going to want a piece of this.
You know, she talked a lot about her family, obviously, like that's her primary thing and the way they sort of split up the pie and the way they all watch the show together and then decide. Like, OK, I'm all right with the way this went down on the show.
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Chapter 6: How did Kim Kardashian's mobile game impact her fame?
Very, very explicitly sexy is what I would say. And the headline just says Kim inside her real world.
Needless to say, the cover was not iconic. And I don't know if the piece was actually iconic, but it's good. It's a good piece.
The Hamburglar was just a mascot, but Jerome Jacobson was the real deal, a McDonald's security chief who almost pulled off the ultimate inside job. On Wondery's podcast, The Big Flop, comedians join host Misha Brown to chronicle pop culture's biggest fails and try to answer the age-old question, who thought this was a good idea? At the time, the McDonald's collab with Monopoly was a genius idea.
Come get a Big Mac and you could go home with a million-dollar prize piece. The only problem? When they picked their head of security, the one guy in charge of protecting those million-dollar pieces, McDonald's drew the wrong card. Comedians Ify Wadiwe and Beth Stelling join Misha to break down what really happened with the McDonald's-Monopoly scandal.
Listen to The Big Flop wherever you get your podcasts.
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Chapter 7: What was Kim wearing during the Forbes photoshoot?
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I mean, so when did you interview them? I've actually interviewed Kim a couple of times. So the first time was for this July 2016 Forbes cover story that I did with her. And just a little bit of background, Kim had this mobile game that was a different thing to the app that you wrote about.
She had this mobile game called Kim Kardashian Hollywood, which I don't know if anybody remembers playing it. I had some friends who played it avidly. But essentially, the entire premise of the game was that you were trying to make it as a celebrity and trying to get more famous.
And it's very interesting because actually this game already existed and the company that made it, Glue Mobile, was seeing that there was some success with this game, with this idea of like people trying to get famous and they decided like we should layer a celebrity over it to kind of like supercharge this game. And so Kim Kardashian, you know, famous for being famous.
That's what she's known for is like for ascending the ranks of fame from Z-list to A-list. They brought her in and it was this kind of incredible deal per my reporting. She was getting 40% of the game's revenue. Not of profit, like of the game's revenue.
Yeah, I'm sure they did give her that. I mean, she made it, right? Like she made it happen.
Exactly. Kim really went to work with this game. You know, she would like send them pictures of her on vacation. She would let them know where she was going, what she was doing. So then they could write that into the game, for example. So she was going to Mexico. You could also be going to Mexico in the game. And it kind of like was a way to live vicariously as Kim Kardashian.
So that's the backstory. So I met her at this, it was actually at the photo shoot for the Forbes cover. And she's there sitting in hair and makeup. She's wearing like this little white robe. She had her feet up on kind of a counter. And she turned to look at me and she's like, Oh my God, so nice to meet you. She immediately got up and gave me a hug.
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Chapter 8: How did Kim's personality come across during the interview?
And I remember being surprised by just how tiny she was. Like, I think she is small. She really is. And I remember looking at her hands and just being like, Oh, your hands are
so small and so immediately she's super personable and she's like how are you you know so nice to meet you you know i hear you're from dubai i love dubai clearly her publicist had done the research on me and given kim the lowdown on who i was and where i was from she's like You know, I hear you're Lebanese. One of my best friends is Lebanese. Like, blah, blah, blah. Oh, my God. Geez.
Really connecting with me. But did you get roses afterwards?
No, I didn't. But we had a very strict no-gift policy. Oh, my God. You guys are so uncorruptible. So moral. Well. So we're on the set of this photo shoot. And this was the era where Kanye and Kanye's stylist were dressing her. So everything was very clearly pre-planned in her wardrobe. And my understanding was that it was kind of pre-approved by Kanye. Right. So we had these photos for the inside.
And then we also had to do the photograph that was going to be on the cover of Forbes. And The cover of Forbes has a very set formula. It's, you know, looking straight on, arms crossed, looking very business-like.
Right.
Business. Yeah. And what she was initially wanting to wear, I believe it was this Balenciaga, straight off to the runway, kind of silk slip dress, almost like a nightie. There was, like, lace involved. Essentially very sexy with cleavage, with shoulders showing. And how I remember it was that... Our photographer and the folks on set were essentially like, this is a little too sexy for Forbes.
This is a lot more skin. Usually it's like an older guy in a suit, you know? And so there was some debate, can we put a blazer over it? And then there was this whole back and forth, like, no, the blazer over it isn't approved by Kanye. That's not the look. I remember phone calls back and forth and whatever, whatever.
So after that photo shoot, I got in the SUV with her and she'd gotten changed at this point. This was the Yeezy era. So she's wearing this like Life of Pablo orange oversized T-shirt. And somehow magically we're in the parking structure in the basement parking structure of where we're going for our meeting. And all of a sudden there's paparazzi there.
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