Jordan Peterson sued Wilfrid Laurier University for $1.5 million CAD after staff compared showing his lecture to a Hitler speech. He says the school still hasn't learned.
With a "proof of life" for Peterson surfacing amid rumors about his health, his 2018 Aspen Institute sit-down with Bari Weiss is getting pulled back up.
It started in a closed-door meeting.
Wilfrid Laurier staff compared showing a Peterson lecture to playing a speech by Hitler.
He answered with a lawsuit. $1.5 million CAD.
It wasn't the only one. Across 2 suits, the total came to $3 million CAD.
His verdict on the school: "They haven't learned their lesson."
He wasn't in a forgiving mood about anything else either.
Weiss brought up another target: "Mishra in the New York Review of Books."
Peterson repeated his own words on stage.
"I said you're a sanctimonious prick, and if you were here, I'd slap you."
"So you don't regret that?"
"Not a bit."
His reason was personal. He talked about a friend, a native carver and a survivor of residential schools in Canada.
He started buying the man's art 15 years earlier. The carver designed the third floor of his house.
About 2.5 years before that talk, Peterson was inducted into the carver's family in a big ceremony.
Then came the line that set him off. He says Mishra accused him of "romancing the noble savage."
"Watch your step buddy, you don't know what the hell you're talking about."
He wouldn't even give the man his name: "whatever the hell his name was."
$3 million CAD in lawsuits for one fight. A slap offered in the other.
Watch him tell Weiss about it.
Did Laurier earn that $1.5 million CAD bill, or is Peterson just too stubborn to let anything go?
Jordan Peterson sued Wilfrid Laurier University for $1.5 million CAD after staff compared showing his lecture to a Hitler speech. He says the school still hasn't learned.
With a "proof of life" for Peterson surfacing amid rumors about his health, his 2018 Aspen Institute sit-down with Bari Weiss is getting pulled back up.
It started in a closed-door meeting.
Wilfrid Laurier staff compared showing a Peterson lecture to playing a speech by Hitler.
He answered with a lawsuit. $1.5 million CAD.
It wasn't the only one. Across 2 suits, the total came to $3 million CAD.
His verdict on the school: "They haven't learned their lesson."
He wasn't in a forgiving mood about anything else either.
Weiss brought up another target: "Mishra in the New York Review of Books."
Peterson repeated his own words on stage.
"I said you're a sanctimonious prick, and if you were here, I'd slap you."
"So you don't regret that?"
"Not a bit."
His reason was personal. He talked about a friend, a native carver and a survivor of residential schools in Canada.
He started buying the man's art 15 years earlier. The carver designed the third floor of his house.
About 2.5 years before that talk, Peterson was inducted into the carver's family in a big ceremony.
Then came the line that set him off. He says Mishra accused him of "romancing the noble savage."
"Watch your step buddy, you don't know what the hell you're talking about."
He wouldn't even give the man his name: "whatever the hell his name was."
$3 million CAD in lawsuits for one fight. A slap offered in the other.
Watch him tell Weiss about it.
Did Laurier earn that $1.5 million CAD bill, or is Peterson just too stubborn to let anything go?
Usher was facing a lawsuit from Quantasia Sharpton, with press reports putting the demand at about $20 million, when a paparazzo caught him out at lunch.
With the first night of his joint tour with Chris Brown ending in Atlanta with unhappy fans and feud rumors, this 2017 street clip is getting pulled back up.
Two huge stars. Usher's hometown. And the two never came out on stage together.
Now go back 9 years.
August 11, 2017. Usher is out at lunch with Jermaine Dupri. The Hollywood Fix camera is there.
It starts friendly.
"What up Jermaine, what's up Usher?"
Then comes the question.
"Do you have any comments on the recent allegations that you didn't disclose that you had herpes with the girl?"
"Is she just lying, making it up?"
The reply:
"Excuse me, can you please leave?"
The camera doesn't leave.
"So you don't have any comment?"
"No comment."
One more try gets this:
"No, no, no, man."
"Take it easy, man."
The money is why this was more than a bad lunch.
Sharpton's attorney was Lisa Bloom. Press reports talked about demands around $20 million.
They also reported a $1.1 million payment to another woman in 2012, 5 years before this clip.
So the reported demand was about 18 times that 2012 number.
These are allegations and press reports, not a court ruling.
The questions keep coming anyway.
"Any comments on the lawsuit, Usher? Are the women lying?"
"Do you feel bad?"
No answer in the clip.
Watch it play out.
Was "no comment" the smart move, or did it only make things look worse?
Usher was facing a lawsuit from Quantasia Sharpton, with press reports putting the demand at about $20 million, when a paparazzo caught him out at lunch.
With the first night of his joint tour with Chris Brown ending in Atlanta with unhappy fans and feud rumors, this 2017 street clip is getting pulled back up.
Two huge stars. Usher's hometown. And the two never came out on stage together.
Now go back 9 years.
August 11, 2017. Usher is out at lunch with Jermaine Dupri. The Hollywood Fix camera is there.
It starts friendly.
"What up Jermaine, what's up Usher?"
Then comes the question.
"Do you have any comments on the recent allegations that you didn't disclose that you had herpes with the girl?"
"Is she just lying, making it up?"
The reply:
"Excuse me, can you please leave?"
The camera doesn't leave.
"So you don't have any comment?"
"No comment."
One more try gets this:
"No, no, no, man."
"Take it easy, man."
The money is why this was more than a bad lunch.
Sharpton's attorney was Lisa Bloom. Press reports talked about demands around $20 million.
They also reported a $1.1 million payment to another woman in 2012, 5 years before this clip.
So the reported demand was about 18 times that 2012 number.
These are allegations and press reports, not a court ruling.
The questions keep coming anyway.
"Any comments on the lawsuit, Usher? Are the women lying?"
"Do you feel bad?"
No answer in the clip.
Watch it play out.
Was "no comment" the smart move, or did it only make things look worse?
Gilbert Arenas says Wizards owner Abe Pollin handed Michael Jordan a $10 million check on his way out. Jordan threw it away and walked out of the building.
With Arenas calling Americans in the EuroLeague "trash" and Jae Crowder and Nick Young firing back at him, his 2021 VladTV clip about MJ is getting pulled back up.
While Arenas was negotiating with Washington, Jordan was playing his last NBA season.
MJ was supposed to become the owner after that. So Arenas and his dad asked Pollin the obvious question.
"Hey, what's up with the Jordan thing? Why didn't you sign him back?"
Pollin's answer: he loves the players, so he asked them what they wanted.
"The players did not want Jordan back."
This wasn't Dream Team Jordan. It was Jordan at the very end of his career, with the same Last Dance mentality.
Arenas does the impression: "I want six championships… what you all gonna do for me?"
He says the young guys weren't ready for it. To them, the icon had turned into the bad guy.
"If this is what he was as a player, we don't want him as an owner."
Then came the exit. Arenas says MJ was told he wasn't coming back and was handed a $10 million check.
He tossed it and left.
Six rings. One $10,000,000 check. Straight in the trash.
And Arenas isn't some hater. He says he went to MJ's camps every summer as one of his counselors.
Hear him tell it.
Did Jordan make the right call walking away from $10 million, or did pride cost him?
Gilbert Arenas says Wizards owner Abe Pollin handed Michael Jordan a $10 million check on his way out. Jordan threw it away and walked out of the building.
With Arenas calling Americans in the EuroLeague "trash" and Jae Crowder and Nick Young firing back at him, his 2021 VladTV clip about MJ is getting pulled back up.
While Arenas was negotiating with Washington, Jordan was playing his last NBA season.
MJ was supposed to become the owner after that. So Arenas and his dad asked Pollin the obvious question.
"Hey, what's up with the Jordan thing? Why didn't you sign him back?"
Pollin's answer: he loves the players, so he asked them what they wanted.
"The players did not want Jordan back."
This wasn't Dream Team Jordan. It was Jordan at the very end of his career, with the same Last Dance mentality.
Arenas does the impression: "I want six championships… what you all gonna do for me?"
He says the young guys weren't ready for it. To them, the icon had turned into the bad guy.
"If this is what he was as a player, we don't want him as an owner."
Then came the exit. Arenas says MJ was told he wasn't coming back and was handed a $10 million check.
He tossed it and left.
Six rings. One $10,000,000 check. Straight in the trash.
And Arenas isn't some hater. He says he went to MJ's camps every summer as one of his counselors.
Hear him tell it.
Did Jordan make the right call walking away from $10 million, or did pride cost him?
Drake Bell filed for bankruptcy owing $1.597 million, with a big tax bill on top. At the time he was bringing in $2,820 a month.
Streamer N3on just said he feels bad for Drake: a former millionaire, shorted by Nickelodeon, now driving a $25K car. That has people pulling this 2014 clip back up.
The Drake & Josh star filed in 2014.
People magazine got the court papers, and the numbers were brutal.
Monthly income: $2,820.
Monthly expenses: over $18,000.
That's more than 6 times what was coming in, so he was about $15,000 short every single month.
And it fell apart fast.
In 2012, he made over $400,000.
In 2013, he made $14,099.
That's a 96% drop in one year.
The Buzz said it on air:
"Drake Bell is now realizing just how hard that is especially when the work slows down as you grow up."
Then TMZ reported the other hit. The former child star also had a big tax bill to deal with.
"That's definitely a hard hit to take."
12 years later, a streamer is the one feeling sorry for him over a $25K car.
Watch The Buzz report.
Did Nickelodeon leave him short, or was the real problem $18,000 a month going out on $2,820 coming in?
Drake Bell filed for bankruptcy owing $1.597 million, with a big tax bill on top. At the time he was bringing in $2,820 a month.
Streamer N3on just said he feels bad for Drake: a former millionaire, shorted by Nickelodeon, now driving a $25K car. That has people pulling this 2014 clip back up.
The Drake & Josh star filed in 2014.
People magazine got the court papers, and the numbers were brutal.
Monthly income: $2,820.
Monthly expenses: over $18,000.
That's more than 6 times what was coming in, so he was about $15,000 short every single month.
And it fell apart fast.
In 2012, he made over $400,000.
In 2013, he made $14,099.
That's a 96% drop in one year.
The Buzz said it on air:
"Drake Bell is now realizing just how hard that is especially when the work slows down as you grow up."
Then TMZ reported the other hit. The former child star also had a big tax bill to deal with.
"That's definitely a hard hit to take."
12 years later, a streamer is the one feeling sorry for him over a $25K car.
Watch The Buzz report.
Did Nickelodeon leave him short, or was the real problem $18,000 a month going out on $2,820 coming in?
Adrien Broner was ordered to pay about $830,000 to a woman from a Cleveland nightclub case. In 2020, he left the courtroom in handcuffs instead.
With Broner caught on video fighting DeenTheGreat after the blogger cut ties with him, this old cleveland.com clip is getting pulled back up.
It started in 2018. A woman sued him over an assault at a Cleveland night club.
The bill came to about $830,000. The boxer who flashed cash for years told the court he was broke.
Judge Nancy Margaret Russo wanted his answers in the civil lawsuit. Broner said he'd already given them.
"I answered them to the best of my ability… I'm not changing my mind."
The judge didn't move either.
"As soon as you get them answered I'll release you from county jail and not a minute…"
Then Broner tried his own way out.
"Ms. Nancy, now I got a fight coming up… after the fight I can just pay them."
Her answer: "That's irrelevant to me."
"You have ignored basically every order I've given you."
He was held in contempt and sent to jail.
About 2 years from the night club to the cuffs, with $830,000 still hanging over him.
Watch the courtroom clip.
Broke for real, or just betting the next fight would cover it?
Conor McGregor now says he outsells everyone. In his biggest fight, Floyd Mayweather was guaranteed $100 million. Conor was guaranteed $30 million.
Conor just claimed he sells more than Canelo and every other fighter, maybe all of them put together. That has fans digging up the 2017 press tour again.
July 2017, a few weeks before Mayweather vs. McGregor.
Floyd reaches into his stuff and pulls out a check. A $100 million check.
"Let me show you what a hundred million… look like."
Conor didn't flinch. He went right after Floyd's tax problems.
The way he told it, that check was headed straight to the tax man.
The crowd loved it. Then the Nevada commission put out the actual numbers.
Floyd's guarantee: $100 million.
Conor's guarantee: $30 million.
That's a $70 million gap. Floyd's number was more than 3 times Conor's.
Put another way, Conor was guaranteed 30 cents for every dollar promised to Floyd.
The guy laughing at the check had the smaller check.
Now he's the one saying nobody sells like him.
Watch Floyd wave it around.
Was Conor the real draw, or did Floyd get paid like it for a reason?
Conor McGregor now says he outsells everyone. In his biggest fight, Floyd Mayweather was guaranteed $100 million. Conor was guaranteed $30 million.
Conor just claimed he sells more than Canelo and every other fighter, maybe all of them put together. That has fans digging up the 2017 press tour again.
July 2017, a few weeks before Mayweather vs. McGregor.
Floyd reaches into his stuff and pulls out a check. A $100 million check.
"Let me show you what a hundred million… look like."
Conor didn't flinch. He went right after Floyd's tax problems.
The way he told it, that check was headed straight to the tax man.
The crowd loved it. Then the Nevada commission put out the actual numbers.
Floyd's guarantee: $100 million.
Conor's guarantee: $30 million.
That's a $70 million gap. Floyd's number was more than 3 times Conor's.
Put another way, Conor was guaranteed 30 cents for every dollar promised to Floyd.
The guy laughing at the check had the smaller check.
Now he's the one saying nobody sells like him.
Watch Floyd wave it around.
Was Conor the real draw, or did Floyd get paid like it for a reason?
Bill Belichick paid a $500,000 NFL fine out of his own pocket over Spygate. He still says it was a misreading, not cheating.
With Belichick, 74, reportedly opening up on Instagram about what ended things with 25-year-old Jordon Hudson, his old interviews are getting pulled back up.
This one is from May 2008, on CBS's Eye to Eye. The first time he answered the Spygate claims himself.
The NFL had hit him with a record $500,000 fine for a coach. The Patriots paid another $250,000 and lost a first-round pick.
That's $750,000 total, and his personal share was double the team's.
Armen Keteyian read him the September 2006 memo: videotaping signals "is prohibited on the sidelines… during the game."
"That seems pretty crystal clear, Bill."
His answer: "It says during the game, but it does not say during the playing of the game."
Keteyian pushed: some would call it "flat-out cheating."
Belichick pointed to the league's constitution and bylaws. "I interpreted it incorrectly. So I was wrong."
Unfair penalty? "It wasn't my penalty. It was the commissioner's decision."
And his best defense: "If that was our intent, then we would have done it in a more discreet way. We were open about it."
Hear him explain it.
An honest misread, or a $500,000 gamble that got caught?
Bill Belichick paid a $500,000 NFL fine out of his own pocket over Spygate. He still says it was a misreading, not cheating.
With Belichick, 74, reportedly opening up on Instagram about what ended things with 25-year-old Jordon Hudson, his old interviews are getting pulled back up.
This one is from May 2008, on CBS's Eye to Eye. The first time he answered the Spygate claims himself.
The NFL had hit him with a record $500,000 fine for a coach. The Patriots paid another $250,000 and lost a first-round pick.
That's $750,000 total, and his personal share was double the team's.
Armen Keteyian read him the September 2006 memo: videotaping signals "is prohibited on the sidelines… during the game."
"That seems pretty crystal clear, Bill."
His answer: "It says during the game, but it does not say during the playing of the game."
Keteyian pushed: some would call it "flat-out cheating."
Belichick pointed to the league's constitution and bylaws. "I interpreted it incorrectly. So I was wrong."
Unfair penalty? "It wasn't my penalty. It was the commissioner's decision."
And his best defense: "If that was our intent, then we would have done it in a more discreet way. We were open about it."
Hear him explain it.
An honest misread, or a $500,000 gamble that got caught?
Elizabeth Holmes owes Theranos investors $452 million. She's paying about $25 a month.
With Nathan Fielder's "You Can See Everything" out and a Holmes lookalike contest making the rounds, Nightline's tapes of her 2017 SEC deposition are getting pulled back up.
Her backers included Rupert Murdoch and the Waltons. Walgreens alone put in $140 million.
Then she was sworn in. "Do you swear to tell the truth…?" "I do."
The woman who always seemed to have all the answers suddenly had none.
"I don't know specifically." "I'm not sure." "I just don't know."
She said "I don't know" more than 600 times.
The SEC went through her claims one by one.
Emergency rooms and hospitals? No. The battlefield? No. A medevac helicopter? No.
Then the Fortune cover story: more than 200 blood tests, ramping up to 1,000, all without syringes.
Her answer under oath: "Reading it now, I don't think it is."
At $25 a month, that's $300 a year. Paying off $452 million would take about 1.5 million years.
Watch her answer the SEC.
Did she really not know, or was "I don't know" the only safe answer left?
Charles Barkley says he lost $1 million in a single day at the casinos somewhere between 10 and 20 times.
With Ernie Johnson announcing this is his last season on Inside the NBA, Chuck's 25 years next to him have fans digging up old Charles clips. This one is from his 2014 sit-down with Graham Bensinger.
He starts with the good news. "I've won a million dollars probably four or five times."
In a single day.
Then the other side. "But I've lost a lot more millions in a single day."
How many? First he guesses "at least 10 to 15." Then he raises it.
"I've lost a million, somewhere between 10 and 20."
Why no exact count? "Because we're going back to the 80s."
Do the math: $10 million to $20 million gone on his worst days alone. Against 5 or 6 winning days, that's up to 4 losing days for every win.
Did it get out of hand? "Yeah, no question it's gotten out of hand."
He quit for about two years. Then one night his friends gave him their diagnosis.
"Gambler's not your problem. You're just an idiot."
Hear what Charles said back.
A gambling problem, or just an idiot with a lot of money?
Charles Barkley says he lost $1 million in a single day at the casinos somewhere between 10 and 20 times.
With Ernie Johnson announcing this is his last season on Inside the NBA, Chuck's 25 years next to him have fans digging up old Charles clips. This one is from his 2014 sit-down with Graham Bensinger.
He starts with the good news. "I've won a million dollars probably four or five times."
In a single day.
Then the other side. "But I've lost a lot more millions in a single day."
How many? First he guesses "at least 10 to 15." Then he raises it.
"I've lost a million, somewhere between 10 and 20."
Why no exact count? "Because we're going back to the 80s."
Do the math: $10 million to $20 million gone on his worst days alone. Against 5 or 6 winning days, that's up to 4 losing days for every win.
Did it get out of hand? "Yeah, no question it's gotten out of hand."
He quit for about two years. Then one night his friends gave him their diagnosis.
"Gambler's not your problem. You're just an idiot."
Hear what Charles said back.
A gambling problem, or just an idiot with a lot of money?
Ryan Reynolds spent 11 years trying to get Fox to make Deadpool. It grossed $782 million, and it only happened because the test footage "accidentally" leaked.
With Reynolds turning 50, his 2016 Tonight Show story with Jimmy Fallon is making the rounds again.
He called the project "the worst relationship I've ever been in. On again, off again."
The script was written six years before that interview. It leaked online, and Deadpool fans "went nuts for it."
So Fox gave them "a small amount of money" to shoot test footage.
Then it "sat on the shelf for four years, as it does. They didn't do anything with it."
A little under two years before the interview, that footage hit the internet.
"The fans freaked out… and overwhelmed Fox, and Fox basically had to greenlight the movie."
Even then, the studio cut $7 million from the budget, leaving about $58 million. The movie made $782 million, more than 13 times that.
The catch: Fox owned the footage. Leaking it was "sort of illegal."
Only 4 people had it: Reynolds, writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and director Tim Miller.
"I know that one of us did it."
He says he's only 70% sure it wasn't him.
Watch him dodge the question.
Was Fox playing it safe, or did it almost leave a $782 million hit on the shelf?
Ryan Reynolds spent 11 years trying to get Fox to make Deadpool. It grossed $782 million, and it only happened because the test footage "accidentally" leaked.
With Reynolds turning 50, his 2016 Tonight Show story with Jimmy Fallon is making the rounds again.
He called the project "the worst relationship I've ever been in. On again, off again."
The script was written six years before that interview. It leaked online, and Deadpool fans "went nuts for it."
So Fox gave them "a small amount of money" to shoot test footage.
Then it "sat on the shelf for four years, as it does. They didn't do anything with it."
A little under two years before the interview, that footage hit the internet.
"The fans freaked out… and overwhelmed Fox, and Fox basically had to greenlight the movie."
Even then, the studio cut $7 million from the budget, leaving about $58 million. The movie made $782 million, more than 13 times that.
The catch: Fox owned the footage. Leaking it was "sort of illegal."
Only 4 people had it: Reynolds, writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and director Tim Miller.
"I know that one of us did it."
He says he's only 70% sure it wasn't him.
Watch him dodge the question.
Was Fox playing it safe, or did it almost leave a $782 million hit on the shelf?
Ric Flair owed the IRS $230,000 in 1992. Vince McMahon covered it after one phone call.
With Flair back at the same bar where he fell and ended up in the hospital days earlier, his old Valuetainment interview is making the rounds again.
In 1992, he was in Tokyo. He couldn't sleep.
"I was drinking myself to death."
So he called his boss with one question: "Can I have 230 grand?"
Vince said yes. The IRS got paid.
Then came 2005 and the divorce.
Vince lent him $800,000, paid out bit by bit over three years. That's roughly $267,000 a year, to "pay the lawyer, pay my ex-wife to live."
In total, that's more than $1 million going from Vince to one wrestler.
The line that stuck with the loan: "I wouldn't lend my own son this damn money."
Then Vince offered him an out: "If you want to go upside down, I won't hold it against you."
Flair says he didn't take it. "I paid him back every time… So I'll pat myself on the back for that."
He was 40 when he came to Vince, and he says he brought "a lot of talent" and was "easy to get along with." Years later, when Flair was sick, Vince FaceTimed him and called his wife Wendy every day.
Hear him tell it.
Loyal boss, or a legend who should never have needed a $1 million lifeline?
Ric Flair owed the IRS $230,000 in 1992. Vince McMahon covered it after one phone call.
With Flair back at the same bar where he fell and ended up in the hospital days earlier, his old Valuetainment interview is making the rounds again.
In 1992, he was in Tokyo. He couldn't sleep.
"I was drinking myself to death."
So he called his boss with one question: "Can I have 230 grand?"
Vince said yes. The IRS got paid.
Then came 2005 and the divorce.
Vince lent him $800,000, paid out bit by bit over three years. That's roughly $267,000 a year, to "pay the lawyer, pay my ex-wife to live."
In total, that's more than $1 million going from Vince to one wrestler.
The line that stuck with the loan: "I wouldn't lend my own son this damn money."
Then Vince offered him an out: "If you want to go upside down, I won't hold it against you."
Flair says he didn't take it. "I paid him back every time… So I'll pat myself on the back for that."
He was 40 when he came to Vince, and he says he brought "a lot of talent" and was "easy to get along with." Years later, when Flair was sick, Vince FaceTimed him and called his wife Wendy every day.
Hear him tell it.
Loyal boss, or a legend who should never have needed a $1 million lifeline?


