In what could be described as a fever dream of an episode, Piers Morgan Uncensored sums up 2025 with a wild assortment of topics and guests. There’s a lot to argue about over Christmas dinner this year - we got a new American Pope and a new US President, who began the year with a ‘Revolution of Common Sense’ - and ended it in a MAGA civil war. Snow White sacked the Seven Dwarves and became the most hated movie of all time - and somehow that wasn’t even this year’s biggest big screen disaster, as the Coldplay couple showed. The UK went mad about flags, the US went even madder over Elon’s apparently fascist salute and the JFK Files were released in a triumph for transparency - but the Epstein Files were not. Piers Morgan welcomes his 2025 review panel; Gary Buechler AKA Nerdrotic, The Verdict with Ted Cruz co-host Ben Ferguson, author of The Case For Cancel Culture Ernest Owens and Uncensored studio contributors Esther Krakue and James Barr. Internet meme sensation Ugandan broadcaster Simon Kaggwa Njala also drops by to ask his most famous probing question, plus Piers speaks to Louis Provost, the brother of Pope Leo - who gives a big confession. Piers also speaks to This Is Spinal Tap and The Simpsons star Harry Shearer about the loss of his friend, director Rob Reiner. Piers Morgan Uncensored is proudly independent and supported by: Oxford Natural: To watch their full stories, scan the QR code on your screen or visit https://oxfordnatural.com/piers/ to get 70% off your first order when you use code PIERS. Shen Yun: Visit https://ShenYun.com/PIERS to buy tickets and waive fees. PDS Debt: Get started with your free debt analysis in just 30 seconds at https://PDSDebt.com/PIERS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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America First and Soccer Football00:08:26
Thank you for coming in.
Thank you for having me.
Good morning.
Why are you gay?
It's still the funniest thing that's ever been on the internet.
Welcome to Uncensored Simon Kagua Angler.
Tell me, Pias, why are you gay?
The biggest winner of 2025 and the biggest loser.
The biggest loser is the Cold Play CEO.
And that whole thing just blew up spectacularly.
Yeah.
So my biggest loser is poor fishermen off the coast of Venezuela.
They're just trying to catch some fish with some cocaine and heroin and crack.
My biggest loser was Rachel Zegler.
I'm not sure if she's a good person.
She shut up about politics.
But she is a talented...
She's very tough.
She can't be talented at Warren House.
Your brother is obviously the most powerful, important, influential Catholic in the world.
I asked him to hear my confession and I spilled all the beans to him.
How spicy were the beans?
That's what I wanted to know.
Everything short of murder and incest.
It's that special time of year again when we gather in front of the TV to eat, drink and have a jolly big argument about the year gone by.
So before you all get there, we're once more gathering on the TV for a jolly big argument about the year gone by.
And there's been quite a lot to argue about.
We've got a new American Pope, the first ever, and a new US president, not the first time we'd had him, who began the year with a revolution of common sense.
He slashed the endless spectrum of infinite genders to simply man and woman, which was all a bit much for statesperson Justin Trudeau, who resigned as the wokest world leader in the history of peoplekind.
Snow White sacked the seven dwarves and became the most hated movie of all time.
And somehow that wasn't even the year's biggest screen disaster, as the legendary Cold Play Cutlers will surely agree.
Vladimir Putin got the red carpet.
Zelensky got a red face after an almighty dressing down for not dressing up.
The famous fibber George Santos was sent to jail, as was the famous fiddler P. Diddy.
Only one of them got a pardon, and George tells me that's because he's had more number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100.
The UK went mad about apparently fascist flags.
The US went mad about an apparently fascist salute.
The JFK files were released in a triumph of transparency.
The Epstein files were not.
A man called Big Balls emerged as the unlikely influence behind massive government cost cutting.
A man called Big John emerged as the unlikely voice of reason in a divided Britain.
Bash!
There was a mega civil war over just about everything, including briefly an actual war with Iran.
Graham Linhan was arrested in Britain for mean tweets.
A British mother was arrested for saying, well, as you well know, I'm not allowed to say it.
The Oxford English Dictionary made rage bait its word of the year, which fittingly enraged me because it's clearly the two words.
And the whole year was, of course, dominated and overshadowed by the brutal murder of Charlie Kirk.
As we know, he loved a debate and with so much to look back on and so much to look forward to in 2026.
That's exactly what we're going to do now.
Joining me on the panel is uncensored contributors James Barr and Esther Kraku, Gary Buchler, better known as Nodrotic, author of the case for cancelled culture, Ernest Owens, and Ben Ferguson, the co-host of the verdict with Ted Cruz.
Well, I couldn't wish for better people really for this than this particular gathering of festive merrymakers.
So the questions for the panel.
And I'll start with you, if I may, Ben Ferguson, your big prediction for 2026.
Donald Trump's approval rating will go up.
I think he's going to actually make sure that the narcoterists are taken out.
And my big, big prediction within that is he's probably going to start hitting targets on land, taking out the terrorists, which I think the majority of Americans are going to be in favor of.
Okay, James Barr, do you agree?
Wow.
I was just here to give you my sassy opinions, my sassy gay opinions.
He loves to hear those.
I mean, his approval rating is up and down.
mainly down at the moment.
Absolutely.
I mean, he's doing a lot, isn't he?
It's America first, but there's a lot going on.
And I'm not sure I can really, I don't really want to comment on.
Piers, I'd love to say congrats to you actually for coming for him the other day.
I thought that your post about him was brilliant and brave.
Well, actually, I don't think it was either of those things.
I criticize him over what he said about the brutal murder of Rob Reiner.
But then I've often criticized Trump over these.
We're in a weird place now where anyone who can be friendly with someone but criticize them is seem to be a little bit odd or very brave and bold.
Why?
I've done that my entire life with you guys.
Never mind anything else, right?
We're all friends, but I've had run-ins with all of you.
I don't think it's either brave or bold or any of those things.
I'm a friend of Donald Trump's, had been for 20 years, but I've regularly attacked him and I've regularly praised him when perhaps others didn't want me to.
To me, there's nothing courageous about it.
The only thing I would say to everybody is it's just better to be intellectually honest, not least to yourself, right?
Just call things as you see them.
Don't let the tribe dictate to you what you should be thinking.
And if facts change on your side, if you have a side, then go with the facts.
It's a lot healthier.
And I think that is...
Fair translation, Piers, what you're really saying is if you haven't yelled at any of us, then we're not really your friends.
So I'm in for that.
I mean, I totally get that.
That's what it means.
If I haven't shouted at you, to be honest, yelling at you, instead of me tweeting here, then we're not actually going to ever be friends.
Do you know?
I've probably shouted more at you, Ben Ferguson, in the last 15 years than anyone else on this panel.
I was shouting at you.
I was shouting at you back in the CNN days.
We were both younger and your hair wasn't as gray.
That's true.
That is true.
But at least it's my own hair color, which is another question.
Let me come to Esther Krakow.
Lovely to see you.
Because you're spending a lot of time in America now.
Being about here for a bit.
Great to see you in London.
What do you think?
What's your big prediction for 2026?
I think that England will win the World Cup.
I hope so.
I really like years.
I always look forward to that.
Well, it's interesting you mentioned the World Cup because I'm going to be watching this very, very closely.
Let's take a look at the predictions market with Polymarket.
Spain is predicted to have a 15% chance of winning the World Cup.
They're the favourites.
France is at 13%.
England on 12%.
So they're all pretty close.
Argentina, the current World Cup champions, 11%.
Then Brazil, Portugal, and Germany, all in the single digits.
I mean, it's going to be an amazing tournament.
England have a great team.
There's no question.
There won't be climate issues.
So that won't be an excuse.
What we are going to see is you're going to see the last World Cup for Leonard Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The two greatest, in my view, to ever play the game.
I'll have Ronaldo ahead of Messi.
Others have different.
But it's going to be an amazing tournament to watch these two great Titans bow out.
I think we can all agree, and sorry about this, Ben, that America have two hopes of winning the World Cup, No Hope and Bob Hope.
But I did like Donald Trump recently.
I have a very American question.
Can there be a tie in the World Cup?
Because I don't like going to sports where there's no winner.
And that's the problem with young football.
Yeah, you can.
In fact, in the early stages, in regular time, there'll be, we call it a draw.
But I did like the fact that Donald Trump recently said it's time that we called what you offensively call soccer football because it came along a long time before your football.
And you get a new name for your sport because your sport is basically rugby with padding and helmets.
Because you're all about it.
I'm willing to listen to this.
As soon as you guys stop having ties in a damn game, like no one wakes up in the morning.
America is like, let's go watch a game where no one's going to win.
Like that's insane.
I'll tell you this.
Let me tell you the best one of all for Americans.
It's the cricket, right?
So we've got the Ashes series at the moment.
Now, there have been two victories for Australia.
But in an Ashes series, there are five matches, okay?
Each one lasts up to five days.
Each day is seven to eight hours of play.
So you can end up with 200 hours of play, and the score can be 0-0 at the end of it.
And that is why Americans will never play cricket or be interested because they cannot get their heads around a sport that could end up with 0-0.
Let me go to Najotic, waiting patiently.
Cricket, Ashes, and Bloodbath00:12:28
Your predictions, I mean, particularly in the movie world, because there were some shocking moments in 2025 of wokeism trying to wreck everyone's fun, but some also some outbreaks of good stuff as well.
What do you think is going to happen next year?
I think it's going to be more the same as basically Hollywood kick the can down the road for way too long, staying with woke way too long.
And now they are trying to adjust midstream and they're finding it really difficult because once we get past the woke, we have a much larger problem aside from AI.
We have creative bankruptcy.
We have all the major releases, the tempo releases that drive the theaters are all some sort of sequel, mid-qual remake, a live-action remake of an animated film that's actually just animated and they aren't really pushing the envelope.
They're not being innovative anymore.
And you know what, Najot?
You know what?
I was reminded of this by the death of or the murder of Rob Reiner.
Awful thing to happen, obviously.
But I was reminded of his extraordinary body of work when he had a run of smash hit movies, one after another.
But they were all different genres, right?
A few good men, when Harry Met Sally, Stand By Me, all these amazing films, which have become absolute classics, one after another.
And I remember thinking, where are any of those kind of movies now?
Where is the great, brilliantly written sitcom, Rom-Com?
Where is the great, where is the great drama like a few good men?
Where is the poignant film like Stand By Me?
And the truth is, they are in very small supply now.
They are.
And that shows the health of the ecosystem of Hollywood and the entertainment capital of the world is we don't have comedies anymore.
Like what was the last great comedy?
And all of those are being pretty much shoved off on streaming now as and your middle of the road film is just made into a streaming series that's purely for content.
Where are the great directors?
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Say this as well.
Where are the coming of age films?
I mean, no one wants to tell a story of what actually growing up looks like anymore because everyone thinks growing up, you're questioning whether you should be taking away.
Nobody growing up actually knows how to grow up.
Like wearing makeup as a boy at the age of 10.
Like everyone is trying to tell a different story about coming of age.
Here's my prediction.
Here's my prediction.
You mean wokeism killed films, Piers?
Is that what they're saying?
Tell me what's going on.
Well, I'll tell you, here's the cat.
The cavalry is coming in this way, I think.
My favorite thing on TV at the moment is Landman, right?
Which is absolutely amazing.
It's brilliant.
Brilliant.
And it's written by the genius that gave us Yellowstone.
And the beauty operation, they don't preach about woke bullshit.
They're proper, old-fashioned.
You know, the men have sex with women.
They're all drinking.
They're all taking drives.
They're all having fun.
Things are being pulling up everyone.
He's a rip on the view.
And he's gloriously inappropriate, right?
In every possible way.
And it's Middle America and it's real people having real lies, right?
And I think you're going to see a lot more of this.
I think people are going to look at the massive success of Landmine, Yellowstone, the what's the one about the hunting wives on Netflix.
Fantastically inappropriate.
They're all lesbians, but they're having a great time.
And I just think you're going to see.
So you only want to see men drinking, eating lamb, and lesbians.
We'll do another story something.
We'll do an unreconstructed broadcasting sequence for you.
I would love a reconstruction.
Just for you, James.
Ernest.
You can be this better.
Oh, please.
Let me bring Ernest in.
Ernest, how are you?
I'm good.
I was just going to say I was surprised no one said anything about any Sydney Sweeney films.
Well, she's a good example.
Well, some of them are shit.
Some of them are good.
I think I highly want Sydney Sweeney.
Ernest, what's your big prediction, Ernest, for next year?
I think MEGA is going to implode.
It's already happening, but it's going to really implode next year in a big way.
It's very obvious as we speak right now.
Republicans are breaking from the House in disagreement over health care that's happening as Republicans try to take the last subsidies that we have of healthcare in America for everyone, whether they're Democrats or Republicans.
And I think this anger that people are having with Trump and even within MEGA itself is going to implode at the midterms next year.
You know what?
I actually, I find myself in a very unusual position of thinking you might be right.
I can tell by Ben Ferguson's fixed green that a little part of him is thinking, you know what, Ernest might be onto something here because it definitely asked you to let me come back on your show publicly.
Please, one year from now, can I do this show?
I'm going to look at both of you.
And I'm going to be like, you had no idea what you were talking about.
But I do think MAGA is having an identity crisis.
And I think the catalyst for it was the Epstein files was the catalyst for it, but you're now seeing it.
Elon Musk.
A lot of it, yeah.
I agree.
I think, Ernest, unusually, your political antennae seem to be a bit on the money here, which is very unusual for all of us.
They're fighting.
They're fighting, even within their own cabinet.
Like, they're backstabbing them.
They're not fighting.
They are literally backstabbing each other.
They don't have to be winning.
That's not over.
And they're not getting anything done.
All right, no, we're trying to do we're trying to do a Christmas special.
Let's not overdo the politics, but we'll definitely bring Ben Ferguson back after the midterms because I suspect we're going to see a bit of a bloodbath.
I want to see a bit of a bloodbath.
Now, one of the most surprising controversies of this year involving the F-word was inspired in no small part by a 2012 interview on Uganda Morning Television, which become one of the most popular internet memes of all time.
Here's a reminder: We bring in the studio this morning one of the gay rights activists, Mr. Should I call you, Mr. Chepe Julian Onzima?
Thank you for coming in.
Thank you for morning to you.
Why are you gay?
Yes, Simon Kagua and Gala's interview on the Morning Bree show went viral again this year, thanks to a bit of promotion from Tucker Carlson.
It's still the funniest thing that's ever been on the internet.
But why is it funny?
And why does almost everyone find it funny?
Left, right, straight, gay.
Well, because it's kind of the key question.
And it's kind of the question that no one in the United States is allowed to ask.
Why are you gay?
Well, Tucker even brought it up in my interview with him last month.
You talk to a Pakistani cab driver and you're like, why are you gay?
And they will start laughing because they've watched the video and they're like, I'm not gay.
I'm a man.
Ask a single Briton why are you gay?
They're like, well, I'm not gay, but it would be okay if I was.
Well, I'm delighted to say that joining me now is the Ugandan broadcaster and interrogator, Simon Kagua Angler.
Welcome to Uncensored.
Oh, pleasure, pleasure to be with you, Piers.
How are you?
You've been described, Simon, as the Piers Morgan of Uganda.
Do you take that as a compliment or not?
Oh, that's quite humbling, though ridiculous.
Your life has changed dramatically since that clip went viral.
You now have your own YouTube channel.
You're hugely famous.
You're probably Uganda's most famous person.
Were you expecting the reaction that you had?
To be quite honest, to me, it passed off as one of those ordinary interviews on a good day at the peak of a very controversial subject when Uganda wanted to introduce the Anti-Homosexuality Act.
So I was only curious to weigh in the conversation, and that's why I invited a lady, a gentle.
Pardon me.
That's when I invited Pepe Juliano Z. Right.
And you listen, I like your direct style of interviewing.
We actually have James Barr with us, who is probably one of the most famous gay people in the country here.
Have you got a question for him, Simon?
Why is he strange?
Oh.
Do you have a question for me?
Simon.
Well, it's nice connecting with you.
Welcome to Uganda.
Thank you.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Simon, what questions do you have for James?
Should I call you Mr. or Mrs?
My name is...
I guess my pronoun is he, so you can't call me Mr. Why are you gay?
I really love Sucking Dick.
Why are you straight?
That's a good question.
Why are you straight?
I'd love to know.
Why am I straight?
Yeah.
Why did you choose?
Is there a delay on the line?
There is a delay.
There is a delay.
He's struggling.
There is a delay.
So, Simon, it's a very good question.
Why are you straight?
I mean, when did you make that decision?
That's a good question.
I was born straight and I've enjoyed being straight.
I have no other option.
Right, but two members of my panel were born gay and have no option.
And over here, we think that's completely normal.
I think Pastor Martin Semper would disagree, but.
Oh, wow.
What do you think of that?
Is there another delay?
Simon, have you been stunned into silence?
I think.
Why'd be a delay?
I think Simon's delay is due to the fact that he's literally living in the 1950s.
Simon, I'd love to know: do you perform the straight obligations with your partner?
I think he has.
Yes, and there is evidence to that.
I got four kids and a very beautiful wife, the most gorgeous, actually.
And I have the crush on pretty ladies.
Really?
Really?
Does your wife mind?
Do you have a crush on pretty ladies?
Apologetically, yes.
Well, you wanted to call me Mrs. Do you have a crush on me?
Am I a pretty lady to you?
Oh, dad, you can't be a Mrs. Can you ask Piers if he's gay?
Because I've been wondering for a while.
Yeah, please ask Piers Morgan.
I need to mean I need this to go viral.
Can you please ask Pierre Morgan the exact same question?
Please ask me, dude.
And I want it to go viral.
He's like, I'm directing right now.
No one does.
Okay, go.
Come on, Simon.
Come on.
Ask me the question.
Tell me, Piers, why are you gay?
Do you know what?
I like to remain ambiguous about my sexuality because there's a lot of money in the pink pound, Simon.
I really recommend you explore your sexuality in public.
I find it quite inevitable that I have to identify as a man.
While at the same time, of course, we are in this era where you've got to be tolerant.
You got to be.
You've got to be social and interact with people of different orientation.
It remains a very contentious issue, though.
Well, it does in Uganda.
It's not contentious in the UK and it's not contentious in the United States, actually.
We don't really have a problem with being.
But having grown up in a very conservative environment, we're still grappling with acceptance to the new norm.
What you would call the new norm.
Out of interest, Simon, what would you do if one of your kids said they were gay?
Uganda, Crime, and Losers00:10:55
I would collapse.
No, you would say, why are you gay, surely?
Where are you gay?
You say, why are you making that decision?
Why are you gay?
No, you made that.
I got to say, I would love to be there.
I would love to be there for that conversation.
You would say, son, son.
Why are you gay?
Simon, we've got to leave it there.
It's been great having you on our censored, and I appreciate you entering into the Christmas spirit with our debate.
Thank you.
Nice to meet you, Simon.
Oh, fantastic.
Fantastic.
If your children need any advice, come out.
Thank you.
And have a lovely time.
Take care, Simon, and have a Merry Christmas to you.
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James, I know you've got to leave us in a few minutes.
So let me come to you with the next part of this and you can answer first.
The biggest winner of 2025 and the biggest loser?
I mean, for me, I think the biggest loser is the Cold Play CEO.
Yeah.
The Cold Play Cuddling and also just Cold Play in general, because I think they felt incredibly awkward about that.
I know Chris Martin felt terrible.
And I mean, you're meant to feel safe at a Cold Play concert and that whole thing just blew up spectacularly.
And my biggest winner, well, I guess Taylor Swift is a big winner.
Yeah.
I think also Magnifying.
Did you watch that clip of Taylor Swift giving all her crew the bonuses?
It's just beautiful.
I mean, she gave them literally 750.
She gave them $175 million worth of bonuses.
Even the truck drivers got 50 grand each, right?
It's really interesting because you don't do that to your panelists, Piers.
No, it would be lovely.
Don't worry.
I'm waiting for my business.
No, we're waiting for our big bag of stuff.
My bonus to you is that I'll have you back on next year.
What could be a greater gift?
And who's your biggest?
Thank you.
Who's your biggest?
You said Megan Markle's one of the biggest winners.
I think Megan Markle is going to run for president in 2026.
So we're moving on from MAGA to MEG, though.
That's the plan.
Oh, from MAGA to MAGA.
The running man is going to be the guy who says, why are you gay?
All right, well, listen, James, I appreciate you coming on.
I know you've got to go.
So thank you very much indeed.
We'll let you go.
Let me come to Nadroni.
Your biggest winners and losers of this year.
Wow, I have given this no thought, but I will say the biggest loser in, well, in my sphere anyway, is for Hollywood would be Hollywood.
They had a horrible year.
They had an October that was the worst box office for them in 30 years without adjusting for inflation.
AI is coming.
They're feeling all the consequences of the ill-timed and stupid strikes that they went on at the same time with the WGA and the Screen Actors Guild.
And they're facing the consequences of also pissing off half the country for about five years straight consistently.
Yeah, I agree.
And who would your winner be of the year?
Oh, man.
Taylor Sheridan.
He keeps cranking out hit after hit.
Paramount somehow let him go.
And he just made a huge deal.
And I don't know what that does for the future of some of my favorite shows right now, including Landman, but he is the biggest winner by far.
I think he's a genius, that guy.
And I think the stuff he does just resonates so well.
Why ever country gets it?
Yeah, that's 100%.
And there's a lesson there for everyone.
Don't sneer at half your audience, right?
Why would you?
Well, Ben, Ben, let me come to you.
Your winners and losers of 2025.
So my biggest loser is those poor fishermen off the coast of Venezuela.
They're just trying to catch some fish with some cocaine and heroin and crack and fentanyl, and they're just getting blown up.
So that's probably my biggest loser of the year is those poor fishermen down there that, you know, somehow look like they're just running drunk.
What if some engines are some of them actually are fishermen?
They're not.
Like, they're not.
I've been fishing a lot.
You don't fish with cocaine and fentanyl.
Like, you don't need seven engines on the back of the boat to get to the back of the bank.
Seven people that do exactly that.
That's how they get it.
Yeah.
No, like this is you're going into conspiracy theory land.
They're hitting narco-terrorists.
I'm so glad it's happening to them.
And I'm glad that the drugs are getting blown up.
300 Americans, and it's just in America, die every day from overdoses coming from those boats.
It's also going to Europe and it's killing people.
We would never allow a plane crash today to be acceptable by terrorism.
Why are we allowing it with narco-terrorism in America alone?
Okay.
And who's your big winner of the year?
My big winner is liberal cities in America that have crime rates that are dropping to all-time lows in my lifetime.
Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, New Orleans, Chicago.
What they're seeing with law and order coming back to these cities because the president is truly saving lives.
And I think that's actually the biggest winner, even though some of the people there don't even realize it yet.
And out of interest, I'm going to come to, so I'll come back to you, Ben, because I want Ernest.
I think you've got a loser is actually a political figure.
Who is it?
My loser is JD Vance.
See, that's interesting because Polymarket have JD Vance as the lead contender to win the 2028 presidential election with 32%, followed by Gavin Newsom on 18%, Alexandro Ocasio-Cortez on 8%, and Donald Trump on 4% because he keeps suggesting he may run again.
I don't think he will.
But on that point, Ben, before I come back to Ernest for his winner, is JD Vance a shoe-in, do you think, to replace Trump on the Republican ticket or not?
No, I don't.
I don't think so.
I think I've said this for a while.
Careful what you wish for.
When you get too close to the sun, sometimes you get burned.
And JD Vance has got to, he's going to have to figure out how to become his own man, his own candidate, while also not making Donald Trump and the base of Trump angry and not being overshadowed.
But I think you're going to see a robust, wide open Republican field.
I do not believe it's going to be a coronation at all.
Do you know who I think the most impressive operator is in that cabinet?
I think it's Marco Rubio.
Yeah.
He's a silent sleeper.
There's no doubt about it.
Yeah.
Okay.
Peters, you remember this when you said Rubio for a second?
This is the guy that grabbed water and was like shaking.
Remember that?
Yeah.
And the pause there like this.
Talk about like the guy who just completely reinvented himself.
They should do a Harvard study and teach the 2.0 Marco Rubio.
He went from almost not even running for re-election as a senator to now look at what he's doing as Secretary of State.
It truly is a political case study and how to reinvent yourself.
And I got to give him credit and his team.
They've done an amazing job.
I agree.
Okay.
And who's your big winner then, Ernest?
Not that I personally agree with all the tactics, but I will say the Democratic Socialists.
They got Mam Dani in there.
Mam Dani.
I mean, I think him alone, actually, it's indisputable that he is one of the big political winners of the year.
And it's been fascinating.
I'm not going to say that that coalition, though, because it's not even just him.
It's beginning to stretch on a conversation nationally based on the economic state we're in.
Like he's opened that door for a larger conversation.
And there's starting to be people in other cities across the country that are also picking that up.
So I would say Democrats are going to be able to do that.
I think there's a real peril.
I mean, apart from the fact he's a massive Arsenal fan, which I do like that about Mam Dani.
He's a genuine Arsenal fan.
He knows all the players, all the history.
I love that.
But it's going to be, in a way, what he does in New York may end up being the referendum for the Democrats going into 2028.
If he turns things around in New York and he turns out not to be the devil incarnate that he's been painted by the right, then that's great.
Crime is going down in cities.
Let me finish.
I'm just going to say, if he turns out to be successful, that could be a real green light for them to choose a progressive candidate.
But conversely, if it all goes to hell in a handcart in New York under Mam Dani, it could have the opposite effect.
You know, I still think the Democrats have to find somebody.
Obviously, he can't run because he's not an American citizen.
But I think they've got to find somebody just a bit more to the center.
They've got to find somebody.
I also want to add this real quick.
I want to say this real quick.
The crime across those cities were going down before Trump came in there.
New York is a healthcare.
I'm sorry.
You can't feel it.
I'm not sure if I can do it.
I say this as someone who's been to New York many times.
It feels extremely unsafe as a woman.
It's been going on in other cities.
I'm sorry to say this, but you couldn't do that without, but we need to stick with some facts because in Baltimore, high crime has gone down without that.
In Philadelphia, high crime is going on without that.
I just hold on.
I just want to say that.
The main platform that these Democratic socialists or the main issue that they're campaigning on is the cost of living, which is basically going to be the do or die for the Republican Party at this point.
Now, there are some indications that energy prices are going to come down drastically next year.
We'll have to wait and see on that, especially with fuel prices and all of that.
But basically, if Donald Trump and the Republicans don't get a handle on the cost of living and the cost of housing, which is the number one issue for America, it is always the economy, students.
People can pretend everything's it, but it is always the economy and Trump's got a lot of work to do, particularly in the run to the midterms.
He's got to get the economy back on track in the way that he promised.
You can launch all the tariff wars and everything else.
I saw the merit, the argument, understood what he was trying to do.
But if the impact is on the average American when they go and buy their week shopping in a negative way, they ain't going to buy it and they're not going to vote for it.
So it'd be very interesting here.
Okay, Esther, your winners and losers for the year.
So my biggest loser was Rachel Zegler, who's...
Really?
I mean, her mouth is the opposite of a mother.
She was brilliant in a vita.
I went to see the first night in London.
She was absolutely fantastic.
Come back.
Come back here.
Yeah, my wife.
The thing is, it's very rare for a single person to cost a studio hundreds of millions of dollars.
Rachel Zegler and Studio Costs00:11:47
I mean, that's a lot of people.
She's shut up about politics, but she is a talented.
She's very.
She is not what makes her a loser because she knows she's talented.
She just can't, she can't be talented at wiring her children.
Did you see the host movie she was in?
She wasn't very good in that.
Well, no, she was great.
I've got to say, Avita, she was fantastic.
Who is your winner?
The ghost of the world's most famous paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, who we could not escape this year.
I mean, he deprinced a prince.
Which is, I think, some sort of new rapidity.
And by the way, there is a long way to go with these leaks from the Epstein files.
You know, you think it's already taken down Prince Andrew, his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.
They've been basically sponged from public life.
It took down Lord Mandelson, the new UK ambassador to Washington.
He had to go.
And that's just some of the early leaks on these emails.
We haven't seen the half of it.
We haven't seen probably a tenth of it.
There are a lot of famous people sweating this Christmas, I can tell you.
And certainly, I totally agree.
They should bloody sweat.
And I want to know exactly who they are and what they did and all the lies they've told probably about their association with him.
Really interesting because to me, the Epstein thing comes down to this.
Those who disowned him when he got convicted for being a paedophile, that's one thing.
Those who carried on consulting with him and partying with him and doing business with him, that's a very different thing.
You can't claim plausible deniability if you knew he was a convicted paedophile.
But we will see.
We'll see.
I mean, the deadline for these files is, I think, three days, isn't it?
So we'll find out.
So they may even, as we're talking, they may even be out.
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Let's go to the next question, which is Pope.
So we'll bring a new guest in here.
The Pope Leo XIV will soon deliver his first Christmas message as the first ever American Pope.
Now, I couldn't get him to do this show, unfortunately, but I'm very pleased to say we have the second best, which is the Pope's brother.
Louis Prevost, welcome back to Uncensored.
Lovely to see you.
Everybody.
Thank you.
Glad to be back.
Glad to talk to you again.
What has it been like for you to be the Pope's brother this year, this momentous year for your family?
To say it's been life-changing is putting it mildly.
It's been a whole new experience, obviously.
Not just from things like this, where people are after us to talk to them and talk about the Pope or how we are as a family still, but just all around everything from my own behavior as a Catholic.
I've gone back to the church more so than I've always been Catholic, but not the best.
But since he's been made Pope, it's awoken me and I've come back to the church.
Really?
How interesting.
The popularity.
It's been quite a change.
Yes, yes.
When you realize maybe I haven't been the best, now my brother's there and I see it's unfortunate, but it's a way of life.
It's like when I'm here with you, people see how I act, that reflects on him as the Pope.
And I don't want to certainly shine a bad light on him or have people continue to say, I'm kind of like the black secret of the family going on.
And I get a lot of heat.
I know some of your guests have been talking about it.
You probably are aware.
I'm pretty much a MAGA kind of guy.
And I get a lot of heat from all over the world for being that.
I get letters in the mail saying I should change my ways.
Oh, I'm a horrible person for supporting Trump, this and that.
And, you know, your brother, the Pope, would be ashamed of you.
You're going to burn in hell.
That stuff never used to happen when he wasn't who he was.
So now I have to take that into account and not that I'm bad or evil or do horrible things, but it just hit me subconsciously that maybe I ought to change my ways, go back to church and start, you know, being more Catholic, being more observant, and then being, shall I say, less hostile to some people that I don't agree with.
You know, I've toned down my tweets and my Facebook posts because they always catch fire, end up on the news saying the Pope's brother said, and the Pope hears it, and then I hear it from him and my other brother about, can you please not be so vocal about things or, you know, so negative.
Every family's got one.
You're the guy.
It's okay.
There's exactly why I'm that guy.
You've got good company here.
Yeah, I can identify Tim.
He wants to be more civil.
But actually, on a serious, I think it's really honest of you to say that, Lewis.
But on a serious point, your brother is obviously the most powerful, important, influential Catholic in the world.
He must be delighted that you've come back to the church so fulsomely.
Yeah.
I would imagine so.
I mean, we haven't talked about that kind of thing.
I know, I'm pretty sure he knew, you know, I wasn't the best Catholic.
I left home before my other two brothers.
They're a lot closer together than I am to them because I was off in the Navy.
They were still, I think, in high school or just starting college.
So I missed a lot of stuff with them growing up.
You know, the thing they remember most is probably me beating up on them all the time.
That means you're a good brother.
That drove them.
That's right.
That drove them to be closer together.
So they talk pretty much every day.
I get to talk to my brother, the Pope, about once a week.
They include me in their conversations just to be civil and keep the family together as best as possible.
Out of interest.
Out of interest.
You have this weekly conversation with your brother, but he's now the Pope.
So what do you talk about, given the context of this extraordinary role he now has?
And don't tell us the weather.
Well, you'd be surprised.
There's very little talk about politics or papal things, duties.
He will tell me before he made his trip to Turkey and Lebanon, the Middle East, he told us he was planning to do that.
So we knew that ahead of time before that came out.
But most of the time, it's just literally family stuff.
Like, how are you?
How are you feeling?
Is the job getting you down?
Are you doing all right?
Are you surviving?
I mean, you know, that's a big step from what he was doing before as basically a missionary.
He was a bishop in Peru for one of the diocese, Chulacanas, I think, or Chiclaya.
I'm not sure.
I don't remember.
And now all of a sudden, he's the head of the whole church.
He's got a lot of duties.
The only time we get to, when we do talk, is late at night for him, 10.30, 11 o'clock at night, right before he goes to bed, because he's done working.
I've got to say, Louis, I've got to say about your brother.
I've never met him.
I hope that changes.
I'd love to meet him, love to interview him.
But I've been, as a Catholic myself, I've been so impressed by him as a Pope.
I mean, to be the first American Pope brings with it enormous pressures, right?
Just never mind anything else.
To be the head of the Catholic Church brings enormous pressures.
He just has a serenity about him and a confidence and a sort of calmness and a wisdom and intelligence way beyond his experience of doing this job.
And I've just found him really impressive as the Pope, I have to say.
It is.
I kind of knew when he did get elected, to us, to me, knowing his background, where he'd been, the previous positions he's held in the Augustinian Order and just in the church in general, even up through when Pope Francis elevated him to Cardinal, that he had a background with people on all levels, all political sides, different countries around the world.
He's been pretty much everywhere.
I thought I was to a lot of places, but he's been all over the place.
He just had the background for it.
He has the personality for it.
He's got the patience of a saint.
He's got the ability to listen and to actually hear and understand what people are saying and then to talk back to them so that in a way that they can understand.
And it's just, again, something about him that we saw way back when he was a little kid.
There was just something special about the way he talked, walked, interfaced with people.
Just incredible from almost day one.
Amazing.
And you knew, you know, we didn't know, but when you have multiple people and your brother's in like third grade, second grade, third grade, and the nuns are saying, you're going to be Pope one day.
And people in the neighborhood, same thing, knowing his proclivity to be, you know, holy and play priest and whatnot.
It was just written all over the place that he was something special and was definitely had a calling.
And this is where it ended, where it brought him to.
And he dragged us with him, kicking and screaming.
Something that I've done.
I'd love to say, Lewis, that he doesn't know yet that you've come back to the church so wholeheartedly.
I think we'll have to send him this conversation because if you're the Pope and your own brother, your older brother, has come back to the church, I think that's a powerful thing.
That's a big thing for...
Here's a brother to hear.
Lewis is, by the way, in a club, a very, very, very small club.
Papal Blessings for Titles00:02:46
Lewis, I just need you one day to change your profile description as I've whooped the Pope's ass.
I just need that one day up there.
Because not many people can say that they beat the Pope's ass.
You did.
You should just stick that in your LinkedIn profile for a while.
Given we all have a request to make, I would like to say that I'm a fan of Arsenal Football Club in the UK, Lewis, and we're currently top of the Premier League and top of the European Champions League.
And if you did, in your next conversation with your brother, have an opportunity to suggest there could be some kind of papal blessing to ensure we win one or both of those titles, I would be personally very grateful.
Who else is in the competition?
I don't want to put any other names in my favorite.
I don't want any other names in your head.
Okay, I hear you.
Louis, I want to end by talking to you.
We don't want to tie.
Lewis, I know you've taken time out to be.
I really appreciate it.
It's lovely to talk to you.
I feel like you're a friend of the show, Nana.
It's great to see you.
Your brother will obviously give his first Christmas message and we'll wait eagerly to hear what he has to say.
But I want to give you the chance to end our chat today by giving you, let's have an alternative Christmas message from you, the Pope's brother.
What would you like to say to people at this Christmas?
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Oh boy, I'm not very popely.
What would you like to see with the world in 2026, Lewis?
Well, you know, obviously we all want to see all these wars all over the place and the nonsense in Gaza and just, again, you know, it's cliché to say whatever.
World peace, right?
We're striving for that.
Trump is striving for that.
Homelessness and Family Faith00:11:59
I also just with my newfound, I shouldn't say newfound, with my return to being full-fledged Catholic, you know, I got to say we need to remember what Christmas is all about, which I've kind of started to do this year.
It's not all about me and what I'm going to get.
It's what can I give to others, you know, what can I give to the poor here in Florida, in Port Charlotte?
What can I give to, you know, to the church, to the homeless?
It's just remember what Christmas is for.
Keep the faith.
Whether you're Christian or not Christian, the spirit of the season is to be loving and friendly and warm to people.
So that's what I would say.
Remember the spirit of Christmas.
Have a happy and joyous Christmas with friends and family.
And at the same time, with the start of the new year, make the new year your best year yet.
What a great message.
Lewis, that's a wonderful message of hope and optimism.
Thank you.
And a reminder of what Christmas is actually about.
And you're so right to say that.
Please send my very best to your brother.
You're the only person that can do it.
And say that from Miss Catholic across the pond in London, I think he's doing a great job.
I'll just add one more thing with your comment about telling my brother about and letting him see this, that I've returned to the church.
He's well aware.
He's well aware that when we were there in October, this is going to go out over public broadcasts, but I asked him to hear my confession.
Really?
And I spilled all the beans to him about my past 50 years.
Wow.
So he's well aware.
That kind of confirmed what he thought, I'm sure.
And now he's aware that I'm back.
That's heartedly back.
That's amazing.
Well, it's when I went to school, you know, in Catholic school years ago, the thought was if you've done this or that, a normal priest can't hear your confession.
You have to go higher up the ladder.
So when this stuff started sinking in, I thought, well, I'm not going to bother my parish priest as he's going to send me to the bishop.
The bishop's going to send me somebody else.
Since my brother's now the head guy, I'm just going to go to the head guy and get it all out there.
Yeah.
Maybe I have some family influence.
I don't know.
But I thought, I said, hey, would you hear my confession?
And he said, no.
And I was dejected and heartbroken.
But eventually we worked it out and he did.
And I'm back.
You know, confession, people that don't go to confession don't know what it's all about.
I can tell you, this is off the topic, but it was like a thousand-pound weight lifted off me when I did that and got back in the good graces of the church.
It was incredible.
It had been obviously a really long time since I'd been to confession.
But yeah, it was very spiritual, mind-lifting, eye-opening, and just brought me right back center square in the church.
And I just feel 1,000% better.
I love that.
Even with my health.
That's cool.
Lewis, I love that.
And just, I don't want to pry, but you said you spilled the beans.
How spicy were the beans?
That's what I wanted to know.
Well, I'm not going to do a confession on the confessional, okay?
We're on censorship, yes.
We're on censorship.
Let's just say.
There may be a lake behind you right now, but he ain't fishing, my friends.
Yeah, no, it's if you can, if you can imagine it, everything short of murder and incest.
I've probably been there, done that.
I love this.
I just love the idea of you in confession with your brother, the Pope, and it's everything but murder.
I just think that is, as someone who has two brothers, the idea of doing that or listening to one of them do it would be absolutely riveting.
Lewis, what an amazing story.
I'm so happy for you that you did that, that your brother facilitated that for you, and you're back with the church.
I think that's just, that alone is an amazing message this Christmas.
So thank you very much indeed for being so candid and for rejoining Uncensored.
I appreciate it.
You're welcome.
Very happy to do it.
Great to talk to you.
All the very best.
Let's come back to the panel.
I mean, wow, that was amazing.
I mean, Ben Ferguson, that's quite something, isn't it, to hear that?
I think it's cool.
I also think it's a really neat message for people that maybe have, you know, broken apart from their faith or even their family because of things that pass.
I really genuinely love the message that you can overcome and there are second chances in life.
I think all of us know people that have made mistakes.
I made mistakes.
Everyone on this panel, I'm assuming, is not a crazy narcissist and knows they've made mistakes in life.
And sometimes it takes years to repair those relationships or to come back to your faith.
But I really hope that story, somebody watching right now sees it and says, maybe it's time for me to go back.
Maybe it's time for me to go back to my family and make amends.
And to know that they're talking every week and they're so different.
They're clearly very different.
That's what families are.
Families are very different.
My sister and I are extremely different, but we come together on a lot of cool things.
And I just got to say, there's a lot of hope and I hope that brings hope to a lot of people right now watching.
Yeah, Nadrali, what did you make of that?
I mean, it's not often you get the Pope's brother talking, revealing something of that enormity to him and his family.
I didn't think it was good timing, but I would have loved to have asked him to like slip in on that weekly conversation.
Like, ask your brother what the Vatican knows about UFOs.
That would be great.
No, I love the confession aspect.
I'm a grateful recovering addict.
So we do our own form through the 12-step program and him talking about that weightlifting.
I think lifting off your shoulders and doing some horrible things in the past, which I have done, I really can identify with that.
I think it's a good thing, particularly with the Rob Reiner situation that we just saw and the importance of family.
And I think it's great that there's a conversation.
The good thing out of that tragedy is we're seeing a conversation about recognizing addiction, recognizing flaws in our family.
And I see people directing people to Al-Anon, which they should definitely go if they have an addict in their family.
That's been on my mind, obviously, the last week and the horrible tragedy of that.
But there is sometimes it's not too late.
There is a second chance.
There was for me in my life.
I was homeless.
I went to prison and I was able to pull myself out of it.
And so many people can.
So to hear them say that was brilliant.
Yeah.
And you know, Esther.
I didn't know that's where you and Pierce met, by the way.
Homeless and on the streets.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah.
Actually, we met a bunch of birds.
We actually met in prison.
But Esther, if you think about some of the warring families, like Harry and Megan with the royal family, with the Beckhams with one of the kids, now gone rogue with his American wife and so on.
There's a lot of it out there.
And then when you talk to families, I mean, I'm always struck by I have a massive family and we always have a big Christmas and we all get around and we all get on pretty brilliantly actually.
But the number of people I know who have a lot of issues with their families is huge.
Either they have really small Christmases because they don't really want to see them or it's always fiery or they've fallen out with them or there's feuds going on for decades.
And when you suddenly talk about it, you realize how prevalent that is.
So to hear Lewis there, you know, the older brother of the Pope, that moment, would you hear my confession and then spilling out 50 years of stuff that he'd obviously felt bad about to his brother, who's now the head of the Catholic Church.
That's quite an amazing thing to hear, actually.
And I think it just shows, despite all the differences, he holds his brother in quite high estimation.
Because I think most people would not do a confessional in the first place, and certainly not to a family member loading 50 years worth of sin, which I'm sure adds up to quite a lot to him.
So, you know, relationships always have their strifes.
But I think there's always that one person in the family that aims to bring people together.
And it looks like in this case, it's his brother who really kind of put his ego aside and anything that he might personally be feeling, especially from an older brother who admittedly beat him up as a kid to let him unburden himself.
Yeah, Ernest, let's end with you.
What did you make of that?
It's an amazing interview, wasn't it?
Yes.
I have a lot of questions.
You face first of all.
I just couldn't beat the case.
So several things.
I mean, for one, I'm just curious what were those sins, but he'll never confess that to us.
I'm just like, it seemed like he had a lot going on, but I'm not going to judge.
But I think for me, it's just, I wonder how the church is going to shape his own politic, you know, because it's really hard.
Like he's talking about love and peace, but then saying that that's the same agenda of a man who isn't as peaceful.
And so I find that to be interesting.
Have you got MAGA members of your family, Ernest?
I don't know.
Oh, absolutely not.
No, no.
And if you do, every single member of your family is left.
Hold on, hold on.
Hold on.
Let me answer this.
You asked me a question.
They're not MEGA.
I have some folks that are conservative, but they're not MAGA, though.
Right.
And so.
What would you do if they were?
What would you do if they said I'm MAGA?
Listen, you know, we will learn how to deal with those problems internally.
What would you do if you had a woke member of your family like myself that you're claiming I'm woke?
What would you do?
I have.
You know what?
I've got members of my family who are very woke.
I think we've got a lot of people.
I've got very woke members of my family and very right-wing members of my family.
How we all come together.
We have a great old tear-up and nobody really cares.
It's like, it's fine.
Right.
So let me say this.
They're not mega.
That's a whole nother extreme.
And I think I've got some relatives who would make MAGA look like a bunch of choir boys.
Trust me.
Right.
So I would say we have people who have different spectrums, right?
And anyone knows the community.
There's spectrums, right?
You got the pragmatic progressives.
You got the moderates.
You got those who are conservative, but they're like pre-Trump.
So they're like Bush adjacent, Connolly's a Rice adjacent type of conservatives, but not MAGA, though.
At this point, the plot is so they just, so they.
They could just be lying to you, by the way.
They could just be lying to you.
Yeah.
Also, it's interesting you've pointed out the ones who dragged the world into an illegal war in Iraq, for example, but you have a problem with the MAGA lot.
And I can tell you.
You don't believe in foreign wars.
The conservative lot, even if they're not MAGA, probably did vote for Donald Trump because the option with Kamala Harris didn't seem to be either.
So I don't know if that's much better.
They may not be MAGA, but they voted for Trump.
One day, Ernest, we'll have Christmas together.
All of us.
We'll have a little uncensored Christmas party.
What a great panel.
Thank you all very much.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very Christmas and prosperous 2026 and look forward to you all being back on Uncensored in the new year.
Thank you very much.
Merry Christmas.
Nick's Death and Holiday Greetings00:03:10
This week we learned of the shocking deaths of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle.
Their son Nick has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and could face a death penalty if found guilty.
Well joining me now is actor and comedian Harry Shearer, who was a longtime friend and collaborator with Rob Reiner.
Harry, thank you so much for joining me.
I'm so sorry for your loss.
I knew Rob a bit.
I interviewed him actually three months ago.
He had a wonderful interview.
I thought he was a great, great man, an amazing filmmaker.
And it was a terrible shock to me.
So I can't even imagine how close friends of his like you must be feeling.
And we'll get to that.
For the audience who may not be aware, you played the bass guitarist Derek Smalls in This Is Spinal Tap and you co-wrote that with Rob.
And you're also Miss Simpsons providing voices for characters including Mr. Burns, Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy and Principal Skinner.
So obviously a lot of people do know you, but that's to put in context in particular your relationship professionally with Rob.
First of all, can I just ask you, where were you when you heard what had happened?
I was in my house here in New Orleans.
My assistant came in and said she had read this sort of headline on TMZ, and my first thought was TMZ.
So I tried to find other sources of information on the internet.
And the early versions struck my wife, Judith, and I as if it had possibly been a break-in, a burglary, which seemed unlikely in that neighborhood.
But we then, you know, followed the story as it developed overnight, and it just got more horrifying by the moment.
When you realized that it was almost certainly their very troubled son, Nick, who'd spoken very publicly about all the problems, as indeed his parents had, what did you feel about that?
They'd obviously had a very, very long number of years of problems with this son of theirs, and it seems to have ended in the most appalling manner imaginable.
Yeah, it's strange because I knew Rob originally, I was involved with another member of his family, and so I was over at the house for several occasions, many occasions where his late father, Carl, and Mel Brooks, two members of Comedy Royalty, were there.
I saw the environment in which Rob grew up.
But despite that, and I knew Michelle, of course, I was not privy to any of the stuff about Nick.
So it came.
I knew Romy a little bit and I had not met Jake.
But the stuff about Nick just came as a horrible surprise.
Rob had kept it fairly much private.
And, you know, my collaborations with him were more on a comedy level than on a family discussion level.
Rob Reiner and Storytelling00:03:11
As an actor, a director, a producer, we did everything, Rob Reiner.
He was really one of the great Hollywood figures, which, you know, given he was the son of a great Hollywood figure, was extraordinary, because that often isn't the case, but he certainly proved to be the exception to that normal rule.
How good was he?
I mean, he had a run of movies which almost defied belief because not only were they all classics, one after another, but they were all different genres.
It was like he could do everything.
You know, he was a great storyteller.
He was a great collaborator.
I think he brought a general sense of storytelling to whatever genre he was working in at the time.
That was one of his chief roles with Spinal Tap and with the sequel, Spinal Tap 2, was, you know, we would sit in a room, Christopher Guest and Michael McKeon and I, the two other members of the collective, and bat around ideas and try to make each other laugh.
And Rob would write down the ones that clicked on 3x5 cards and put them up on a board in the room we were in.
And it was his job to take these funny ideas and to shape them into a movie.
And so storytelling was his art even in that situation where there was no script.
We were improvising these movies based on these ideas that were on 3x5 cards that Rob wrote down.
So, you know, I saw very quickly that that was one of his, aside from comedy and the fact that he was funny, one of his great gifts was storytelling and the ability to shape a story.
What was your favorite of all his movies?
Oh, come on.
I have to say this is Spinal Tap.
It was his, you know, I mean, the sad irony is that I was involved with his first movie and with his last.
But This is Spinal Tap opened so many doors for so many people, including Rob.
That was his first movie, and it opened the door to all the ones that followed.
And it also spawned this series of things.
I mean, the office sort of was inspired by the improvisational nature of Spinal Tap.
And so much American TV comedy, at least, has been done in mockumentary style since that movie.
Although the difference is those, including the office, are scripted.
And This is Spinal Tap really was improvised.
It's a fantastic film.
I mean, he, when I asked him, because actually Robert Redford had died just before I interviewed Rob back in September.
And I'd said that Redford had told me years before when I interviewed him for CNN that his favorite of all his films was Butch Cassidy in a Sundance Kid, but he hated the song Raindrops Keep Falling On Your Head.
And he used to eat it away at him having listened to this song.
And we were laughing about it.
Trump, Dignity, and Charlie Kirk00:04:18
And I said, you know, rather poignantly now, and ironically, I guess, but I said to him, you know, if it was you that suddenly left us, Rob, which I hope doesn't happen anytime soon, I said, but how would you like to be remembered of all your work?
And he said, actually, Stand by Me was the one that he would like to be remembered by.
And I said, when Harry Met Sally, because I said it's like almost a perfect film, I felt.
And he told me a lovely story, which was that he has so many people come up to him who would say they time when Harry met Sally on New Year's Eve.
They start watching it at about 10.30.
So they hit the New Year's Eve scene in the movie exactly at the right moment.
Yeah, exactly at the start of the new year.
And he loved that.
And then there was a lovely twist to it, which I hadn't seen before, where there was an interview he gave quite recently, I think, where he said that originally it was going to end unhappily when Harry met Sally.
They were going to end up not together because he was single at the time and feeling a bit bitter and twisted about his single life.
And then actually he met somebody, fell in love.
It was his wife, Michelle.
And as a result of his change in mood about this, he ended it happening.
Yeah, which I love that story because that turned out to be the love of his life.
Yeah.
Rob had been single for about 10 years at that point.
I had known him at the time of his first marriage.
And yeah, it's an amazing, amazing story come true.
I want to end with a sort of disagreeable part of the whole outpouring of tributes to Rob, which had been extraordinary from around the world.
But one outlier was President Trump, who published this, in my view, very offensive post on his Truth Social platform.
A screed, if you will.
Yeah, and it was just, you know, obviously, look, I knew that Rob Reiner had said a lot of bad things about Donald Trump.
It was no great trade secret.
But it just struck me that for the President of the United States to, from his office, to lay into him in the way that he did, you know, within 24 hours of Rob being murdered by his own son in a terrible family tragedy.
It was just, it seemed very crass to me.
What was your reaction to that?
My reaction was it was not beneath the dignity of the American presidency.
It was beneath the dignity of a local dog catcher.
I just, and yet, you know, I thought this is who this man is, takes every development in the world around him or that he's privy to and turns it into something about himself.
And the extreme narcissism of that moment seemed to me very, very fitting with whatever else I understand about the man.
And the irony is that a clip from my interview with Rob that went viral as a result of what Trump did was when I asked him about the murder of Charlie Kirk.
And he said, look, I didn't agree with him politically, but violence is never, and he was very like, violence is never, you can never accept it, particularly political violence.
And he condemned it unreservedly, which was just, and there was a contrast in reactions to two brutal murders.
And he expressed support for Erica's decision publicly to forgive the murderer.
It's a jarring and amazing contrast to what happened out of the typewriter of the President of the United States.
Yeah, I think it was a great shame.
I wish he'd delete it.
Harry Shearer, what a pleasure to talk to you.
I wish it was under happier circumstances, but thank you for paying tribute to your great friend.
Thank you, Piers.
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