TV & film
Star Witness
Every week, two hosts pick apart a celebrity scandal that changed the conversation, tracing how fame, power, and public opinion collided.
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Episodes
The archive
24 episodes, newest first.
- Russell Brand: Does the Defense Hold?Russell Brand took the stand at Southwark Crown Court on October 28, and the Russell Brand trial now turns on how he came across under oath. Last time we covered the prosecution's opening. This time it's the defense's turn. We look at what Brand said about the Channel 4 documentary, why he says no one agreed to testify for him, and how he handled questions about the encounters at the center of the case. We also cover the judge's midtrial ruling that directed a not-guilty verdict on one count and replaced it with attempted indecent assault, and what that does and doesn't mean for the other six counts in 2026. One host hears a defendant fighting for his life. The other hears a witness whose own words raise questions. Neither is easy to dismiss.
- Matthew Perry: Who Was Accountable?Netflix's three-part docuseries The One About Matthew Perry premieres October 27, 2026, one day before the third anniversary of Matthew Perry's death. Five people were charged over his ketamine overdose, and the woman dubbed the "Ketamine Queen" received a 15-year sentence. This episode asks what a documentary told by family and close friends can say about the people around a star, and what it leaves to the court record. We lay out who was charged, who pleaded guilty, and what each person was sentenced to. Then we hold the doc up against the sworn record to see who gets named and who doesn't. Becca leans toward the grief and the context. Miles pushes on accountability. They disagree about how much a loved ones' story can ever tell us about blame.
- Russell Brand: Can a Jury Forget the Exposé?Russell Brand is on trial at Southwark Crown Court in 2026, and the case began with a documentary and a newspaper investigation. He has pleaded not guilty to all seven charges involving six women, including three counts of rape. Becca and Miles walk through what the prosecution said in its opening. They look at how a jury was picked when the exposé behind the case is now something jurors are asked to set aside, and what the judge told the panel. They also weigh Brand's own claim that the case is part of an agenda against his voice, and compare this trial with other exposé-to-accountability cases the show has covered. Becca leans toward the media context. Miles presses on accountability. They disagree about whether a fair jury can really unsee a story.
- Tyra Banks v. Netflix: Who Owns the Edit?Tyra Banks is suing Netflix over a 2026 docuseries, and the question is who controls a confessional once the cameras stop. Banks says her 3.5-hour interview was cut to about 16 minutes to make her look like she brushed off a contestant's sexual assault claim. Netflix says she signed an agreement allowing the edit and that this is ordinary editorial judgment. The hosts treat the complaint, the waiver and Banks' video comparisons as exhibits ahead of the October 30 hearing on Netflix's motion to dismiss. They ask whether a heavily edited confessional can be defamation, or whether it is simply how the genre works. All allegations are unproven. Becca and Miles disagree on who deserves sympathy, and on whether the woman who helped build the reality machine can now escape it.
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- Weinstein: Was Nine Years the Real Sentence?Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 15 years on September 23, 2026, for the Miriam Haley assault, and the number is not the simple part. Becca and Miles walk through the case file: the 2020 conviction that brought 23 years, the conviction that was overturned, the retrial that convicted him on the Haley count and acquitted him on another, the May mistrial on the Jessica Mann charge, and the fourth Mann trial prosecutors chose not to pursue. They look at what Judge Farber said, what the defense asked for, and why a California resentencing still hangs over the Weinstein case. They also ask what accountability means when a founding #MeToo case takes this many trials. Becca presses on consequences while Miles pushes on process and media narrative, and they do not land in the same place on what nine years really means.
- Jay-Z: Did the Law Just Protect His Accuser?Jay-Z just lost his fight to punish the lawyer who filed a rape allegation against him, and a California appeals court says that's exactly how the system is supposed to work. This episode traces the September 9th ruling that upheld anti-SLAPP protection for attorney Tony Buzbee's demand letters, what Associate Justice Anne Richardson actually wrote about the evidence, and why Jay-Z's malicious-prosecution claim is still alive in New York federal court. Becca and Miles also connect the ruling to the music industry's uneven reckoning, from Drew Dixon's settlement with L.A. Reid to a new rape lawsuit against producer The-Dream. The real question isn't whether the underlying allegation is true, it's whether suing an accuser's lawyer into silence can still work in 2026, and the hosts do not agree on who comes out looking worse.
- Grok's Spicy Mode: Who's Liable Now?Elon Musk's Grok chatbot has been caught generating nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes of Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, and Ashley St Clair, the mother of Musk's own child, and now California wants answers. This episode traces the paper trail from a viral experiment to Attorney General Rob Bonta's 2026 cease-and-desist letter, asking whether the user who typed the prompt, the platform that hosted the image, or xAI itself should be held responsible. We look at St Clair's lawsuit, xAI's surprising countersuit against her, a growing class action naming Stability AI as a co-defendant, and a legal fight over whether Section 230 can shield a company that built the abuse feature on purpose. Becca and Miles don't land in the same place: one wants to talk about the women caught in the crossfire, the other wants xAI's executives in a courtroom.
- Diddy's Appeal: Can Acquittal Still Mean Prison?Sean Combs walked out of his trial acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking, yet a federal judge still handed him a 50-month sentence built on the very conduct jurors rejected. This episode traces the Second Circuit appeal, the defense's 'thirteenth juror' argument, and the April oral argument where judges grilled both sides without tipping their hand. Becca and Miles also follow the civil suits still trailing Combs, including a dismissed defamation case and a pending balcony-incident trial. The real fight: is acquitted-conduct sentencing a constitutional loophole, or the only lifeline accountability has left. Expect Becca and Miles to land in very different places on who this system actually protects.
- Lizzo Wins: Is the Truth Selective?Lizzo just won a lawsuit, but three other women suing her are still headed to trial, so who's actually telling the truth here? A federal judge tossed wardrobe stylist Asha Daniels' harassment and discrimination case on September 1, ruling the alleged conduct amounted to "the ordinary tribulations of the workplace," while a separate 2023 lawsuit from three former backup dancers survives and moves toward trial. Becca and Miles use the judge's own reasoning as their evidence file, comparing how one case fell apart on the specifics of Title VII and ADA law while another kept its core claims intact. They dig into what got Lizzo personally dropped from one suit years before it was dismissed, and what Lizzo herself has said publicly about the case she says she won't settle. The hosts don't agree on what winning one lawsuit actually proves about the other one still pending.
- Lively v. Baldoni: Who Really Tipped the Scale?Blake Lively just testified about the exact moment her case cracked open, and it wasn't a lawyer who handed her the ammunition, it was a friend. This episode traces how a mutual friend of Lively's and Taylor Swift's, Ashley Avignone, moved from group chat to evidentiary backbone in a costly legal battle. We follow the paper trail from a publicist's frantic outreach to an unsealed exhibit showing Swift, Lively, and Avignone celebrating in real time. Along the way we ask whether Swift's camp was a bystander or a strategic player, and why Baldoni's team wanted her deposed at all. Becca thinks the friendship network is the real story here; Miles isn't so sure anyone but the lawyers actually held the power, and their disagreement runs straight through the verdict. Blake Lively, Taylor Swift, Justin Baldoni, 2026 deposition, It Ends With Us lawsuit.
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What the show is
Star Witness treats each case like a hearing: what happened, who was involved, what evidence exists, and what the fallout tells us about the culture that created it. Built for pop culture fans who want more than gossip. If you follow the headlines but want the full story behind a public reckoning, this is your show.
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