Live from New York City,
it's The Wendy Williams Show.
How you doing?
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Now, here's Wendy!
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Hi!
Welcome to the show and thank you for watching.
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Say hello to my cohosts, my studio audience.
How you doing?
How you doing?
Okay, today let's get started.
It's time for Hot Topics.
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Thank you.
Thanks, thank, you, thank you.
Make yourselves comfortable.
Well, you know the big story of the day.
You do know, right?
Yes!
The rest of us struggle while the rich
continue to take advantage of us.
Lock them all up!
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You know the story but it doesn't get told
until it gets told here, so come on, let's go.
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(laughing)
Felicity Huffman, you know, and Lori McLoughlin
were among 50 people charged yesterday with
this massive nationwide college cheating scandal.
It's disgusting.
Horrible, horrible, horrible.
I feel like all the parents should be charged.
(audience cheering)
And go to jail.
And go to jail and pay huge fines.
And I feel like the kids will be next to be charged.
I think that all these kids knew exactly what
was going on.
You remember what it was like when you went to college,
taking those SATs and the PSATs.
And then having to go to those classes,
those enrichment classes, from town to town,
to learn how to take a test.
How dare they?
(audience cheering)
Well, so far, here's what's been said.
The scandals involving 33 rich parents paying
to bribe their kids to get them into some elite colleges,
including but not limited to Yale, Stanford,
and Georgetown, hmm.
Huh.
(audience laughing)
At the center of a scam is a man named Rick Singer.
Rick allegedly got paid 25 million dollars over seven years
by rich people working this scam, working it.
The first way that Rick was working the scam was he
would have someone take the SATs or the Act test.
I don't know what the Act test--
The ACTs.
Oh, the ACTs, oh, I know that.
(audience laughing)
Back in the olden days, they didn't have the ACTs
but my Kevin took the ACTs so I know about that.
It's easier, the ACTs are easier than the SATs.
The SATs still ask questions that a lot of
people don't know the answer to.
Like they'll ask elitist questions and
then people not so elite won't know the answer.
Anyway, take the test for the kids or
have the proctor correct the answers right there
at the test, or go to the house and erase answers
and put the right answers in.
(audience groaning)
This guy Rick was telling parents to lie
and that their kids would, lie and say things like
the kids have learning disabilities
so that they could take the test alone.
You know, like my kid has a problem in crowds,
can he please take the test alone and cheat.
The second way is that Rick would pay to bribe
college coaches, the athletic department now we're
talking about, to admit that kids would be recruited
as athletes and play the sports.
Only, these kids weren't playing the sports.
The kids, did you see some of the pictures?
They were Photoshopping the kid's faces on
college athletes bodies.
(audience groaning)
Like in the case of Lori McLoughlin,
her kids don't crew.
She had them photoshopped on crew pictures.
Yeah, yeah.
(audience groaning)
Like she and her husband are the worst of the lot so far.
Full House, what's gonna happen to Fuller House?
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Do you cancel the show because she's a liar?
I wouldn't mind.
I mean, this is terrible.
Felicity Huffman is being accused of paying $15,000.
This is the lesser of the two evils, they say.
Paying $15,000 to arrange for a proctor to change
her oldest daughter's test answers.
Now the oldest daughter is the one with the brunette hair.
That's her whole family.
You know her husband, William H Macy, he's involved.
By the way, William, happy 69th birthday today.
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So there's their family.
The brunette is the one who is, who got over with this.
The blonde is smart and she told her parents,
I don't wanna be involved with this scam.
I really wanna take my test, mom, dad.
(audience cheering)
Yeah.
I wanna be honest, good for her.
So Felicity was in court yesterday.
They rolled up at her house like 6:00 in the morning,
honey, the whole house was asleep.
Both daughters were there, William H was there,
he was asleep, and Felicity knew that she'd have
to turn herself in but the Feds are like,
we're not gonna allow you to just drive your Volvo
to the station and quietly turn yourself in.
We're gonna make a scene for all the neighbors to see.
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They had guns drawn and everything.
They had the guns out, they put her in the cuffs,
they threw her in the back of the car.
They rolled the lights.
The sirens were playing.
And they took her in.
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So, she's charged with conspiracy to commit fraud
and that's punishable by 20 years in prison.
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So she was released on $250,000 bond,
which is nothing, it's only money for the rich.
That 20 years though, boy.
She won't get 20 years though.
I figure they might stick her with five.
Even if they stick her with three,
who's gonna be friends with these liars now?
And who's gonna be friends with their kids?
And then they're gonna have to have several seats
next to Jussie Smollett or something.
(audience cheering)
People who play one thing but really are another.
Her actor husband, William H Macy, you know,
he's on that hit show, Shameless, perfect title.
Well, he showed up in court also,
only they didn't arrest him.
And people in our Hot Topics meetings were like,
well, why didn't they arrest him and charge him?
And I said, because this story has so many layers,
they're gonna prosecute each individual person.
This is gonna be going on for years, ladies and gentlemen.
And I got news for you, for you kids who are in college
right now who got in legitimately,
unfortunately, they're gonna have to go through
your admissions records and find out whether you
cheated your way in.
And then when they find out that you didn't cheat,
that you were honest, you'll have a great story
to laugh and tell.
But for you kids who are cheating and lying, get ready.
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And Lori Laughlin, her husband is Mossimo,
you know him, he does those cheap and cheerful
clothes at Target.
We've all got Mossimo t-shirts and leggings and junk.
Yeah, yeah, uh huh.
Well, Lori and Mass are paid $500,000 to have
their two daughter recruited, to play crew at USC,
a good school, a hard school to get into.
So Lori turned herself in this morning because
last night she was in Toronto,
so they were just waiting for her at the border,
I don't know.
(audience laughing)
And then Moss was in court but
they didn't do anything to him.
They're both being charged with conspiracy and
mail fraud, and all kinds of other stuff.
Here in New York, there's this show, Good Day New York,
it comes on right before us.
And Lori, did you see the morning that Lori was there
with her daughter, Bella, who's really pretty?
But has ugly ways, apparently, like her mother.
(audience laughing)
Well, there's Lori with her two daughters,
but the one, Bella, came on Good Morning,
I mean, Good Morning New York, Good Day New York
back in 2016.
While we're struggling to get our kids in school,
here go these rich people, go.
I want her to go to college.
She's a senior right now in high school and
she's doing all of her college apps right now.
Oh, we'll be finding out soon, won't we?
Yeah, so I think that's important.
It's not something that I did, I didn't go,
so I think for her, I really want that even more.
And I just feel like you should have a backup plan
and a degree.
(audience laughing)
She wants it even more, a backup plan.
So Bella, excuse me, Olivia, Olivia, everybody,
she's a YouTube star.
Yeah, rich, a cheater, and a YouTube star.
(audience laughing)
This video is her talking about college and
it had people furious.
She's since then shut down her YouTube page but
we looked at the last post that there was and
people were killing her.
Take a look at this.
With work, it's gonna be hard.
My first week of school, I'm leaving to go to Fiji for work
and then I'll be in New York a bunch this year for work,
and traveling to a different country because
I'm creating something with this country.
And that's for work.
So I don't know how much of school I'm gonna attend
but I'm gonna go in and talk to my deans and everyone,
and hope that I can try and balance it all.
But I do want the experience of game days, partying.
I don't really care about as school, as you guys know.
(audience groaning)
(audience laughing)
I mean, what more is there to say about this story?
This is really disgusting.
Clap if you were privileged like this richies and
could do this, that you would.
Be honest, cohosts, be honest.
(light clapping)
Okay, okay.
You know, a year ago this time at the Hunter household,
me and my son were at ground zero of being really happy.
We applied for early admissions and when I say we,
you know as the parent, you are enrolling them
in those courses and they start at like 8:00
on a Saturday morning when all you wanna do is sleep.
You've gotta wake up and take your kid there.
And then the courses are like two hours a piece
and very expensive, I might add.
And then you sit in the back of a parking lot
because what's the point in going home?
And you're reading your morning paper and
talking on the phone and stuff.
And then you're cracking your kid's skull because
you want them to write the right essay,
the correct subject.
And then you're staying up until like 2:00 in the morning
when you gotta be here for a live show,
moisturize and stuff.
You're staying up cracking skull because
there might be words misspelled or
he didn't use his thesaurus,
or he's not taking it as serious.
And then all of a sudden, he gets it.
One of the smartest things that my husband and I did,
and I have to say, we first of all told him
where he was going to school and
that he wasn't going to school in Florida.
Where he was going to school, we dictated that.
And yeah, you say of course but at the end of the day,
he wore us down by selling us his smartness.
Like, mom, dad, I got this, mom, dad, I got this.
After a while...
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After a while, me and my husband were just like,
okay, he's got it.
But if he doesn't, we'll crack his skull.
And so, he chose his school and we were like, mmm hmm.
Mind you, we had taken him prior to the other campuses
of the schools we wanted him to go to.
And he walked around the campuses like, mmm hmm.
So at the end of the day, he chose Florida,
he chose his school, he chose everything.
And so far so good, but damn it, man, damn it, man.
You know what, it almost makes you not even wanna go
to college and I know what they say,
oh, you have to go to college.
I graduated from college but I gotta tell you something,
college is overrated these days.
(audience cheering)
It's expensive, it's judgemental to get into.
You drive your parents crazy, you break their retirement
because parents borrow from their retirement
to send you to school.
And then if you don't earn that money,
then the parents are stuck working forever and
you'll never...
Anyway, this is what kids should do these days,
this is just me thinking.
If Kev was a sophomore in high school right now
and I'm seeing this story, I'd be like, you know what,
it's time to hatch a family plan and
me and your dad are gonna help you with it.
But you're gonna be one of these kids that
becomes like a Zuckerberg or something like that,
without going to college.
You get on there.
You know, these kids are making money without
even going to school.
And all you gotta do is have a plan.
Forget college, that's all.
(audience cheering)
As if I wasn't mad enough about that,
then I had to find out about this Bachelor.
Did you watch?
(audience groaning)
Ugh, I wasted a whole season watching a show
that I was never invested in to begin with.
(audience laughing)
So Colton ended up getting Cassie back, they are together.
They will go on and get married, they'll have babies,
they'll have a spinoff show, all right.
And he's still a virgin!
And he's still a virgin.
(audience laughing)
And he's still a virgin.
And then this Hannah B, she's the next Bachelorette.
Well, she's the one who lost to Cassie.
And she's a mean girl, she's a beauty queen girl,
like oh my gosh, I can't believe you're not
as beautiful as me.
Like she's a mean girl.
So when they first said, I started falling asleep.
I watch The Bachelor.
I had the most delicious snack.
I had, do you like a patty melt?
(audience applauding)
Well, I had a patty melt on the rye bread,
accompanied by a large order of buffalo chicken wings,
fried hard, deep, deep in the barbecue sauce,
and I love the dressing that goes along with it,
not ranch, bleu cheese.
And I don't know where Serendipity 3 gets the bleu cheese
but I suspect that they have ties to Bleu Cheese Mania.
So I'm eating and I'm watching and then I fall asleep.
And then I wake up and I hear, Heather B,
excuse me, Hannah B is the new bachelorette.
I was like, that's it, I'm done,
I can't wait until tomorrow to come talk to you, done.
Anyway, so let's talk Jussie Smollett.
(audience cheering)
The other big story, I'm sorry we have to talk about
it again but this is what people are talking about.
All right, this is gonna be short though.
He showed up to court yesterday.
He didn't have to show up.
He strutted like George Jefferson.
(audience laughing)
Very disrespectful.
He had a crew of people.
Everybody's got their sunglasses on.
You know how disrespectful that is.
A beautiful cashmere coat, no doubt.
And he was only there, he showed up for a hearing
where the judge ruled that the cameras would now
be allowed in the court room.
(audience cheering)
We will definitely have to watch that with a good snack.
Anyway, Jussie didn't have to be there at the court
but people are saying that he's saying, Jussie is,
that this is his way of showing up to show everybody
that he's confident, that he's innocent,
that he didn't do this.
Jussie, you messed up.
And the court system's gonna get you and
we're all gonna be watching.
(audience cheering)
That's it with that.
There's some black actresses that are calling
for Hollywood saying that Hollywood does not have
enough black hairstylists.
(audience applauding)
Wow.
You know our friend, Yvette Nicole Brown?
Well, Yvette started the controversy when she posted,
most black actresses come to a new set with their hair
all ready done or they bring their wigs and
clip ins with them.
It's either that or take a chance that you'll look
crazy on screen.
I've heard this a lot and I've seen this a lot
and this actually is not an old story,
in terms of actresses and stuff.
I don't know what the union says and
you can have a black person do your hair
and it still looks jacked up as well.
But I know if you're on a popular show and
your hair is being fried at 425 degrees everyday,
even the best hair is gonna thin out and break off.
Like wigs and clip ins are the best thing ever.
So I'm glad she's talking about this.
She's not the only one though.
It's not just like black actresses.
I was watching Tucker Carlson last night.
I know, I don't agree with the things he says
but I gotta tell you something,
I don't know what system that is on top of his head.
(audience laughing)
(audience cheering)
And his hair gets bigger and thicker with every episode,
every episode.
And then remember back in the day,
the legendary show, Divorce Court,
used to star Judge Mablean Ephriam and
the judge was fired from Divorce Court
while it was a hit with the ratings because
they said she was a pain in the neck because
she would hold up production getting her black hair done by,
I don't know whether the stylist was black or white,
her black natural hair done.
So they're curling and curling.
They're like, Mablean, you're holding up,
this is costing money, you're holding up time.
And then they finally said, well, you're fired.
And that's when they brought in Marilyn Milian.
But this has been going on for a really long time.
I just say, you gotta just surrender to the clip ins.
Look, those Housewives, Lisa Rinna,
she's got beautiful hair but she uses clip ins,
I see clip ins in that.
Not all the time but she uses clip ins.
And Lisa Vanderpump uses a variable,
no, she uses a partial, it goes all the way right here
and then the rest of this is her natural hair.
Partials and clip ins and stuff.
It's not just for black people anymore, that's all.
(audience cheering)
Two people I admire that got me to where I am in my head,
Oprah and Howard Stern, I always tell you that.
(audience cheering)
For two very different reasons.
Howard Stern has a new book coming out,
it's like number one on Amazon,
it's gonna be number one for a long time.
Everybody's gonna buy this book.
It's his first book in over 20 years and
it's called, he still looks good, doesn't he?
Yes!
It's called Howard Stern Comes Again.
Well, they say...
(audience laughing)
No, that Howard's been gone, stop with the laughter.
(audience laughing)
Howard is so Hollywood right now that this book
is gonna be, this is what you're gonna,
and Howard, I love you, but since you've gone Hollywood,
everything that you say is so predictable.
Every story is gonna be about, you know,
oh, I love this one and then we went on their yacht.
He's a Hollywood insider now, which sucks because
you started like me, being of the people.
But at some point, you sat behind that microphone
for too long and now you are the people.
And for somebody like me, like it hurts,
I've been on Howard's show twice and this,
I often get in the streets like, Wendy.
(audience cheering)
Wendy, we heard you on Howard, it's on YouTube.
Anyway, if you'd like to get this book,
and you should get it, it hits shelves in May.
(audience cheering)
Well, that's it for Hot Topics.
But don't you worry, we got more great show.
The star, Ryan Destiny, is here and
she's the star of the show Star.
But up next, celebrity fan out.
So grab a snack and come on back.
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