Latest news with #MadelineHill
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Jordon Hudson compares herself to Taylor Swift's powerhouse publicist Tree Paine
It's been a busy week for The Sports Gossip Show. Hosts Charlotte Wilder and Madeline Hill announced they joined The Athletic earlier in the week and on Friday, they revealed they received a cold call from Bill Belichick 's girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, where she made an astonishing comparison for herself. The Hudson revelation has been a bombshell - with the hosts sharing an insight into their conversations with the 24-year-old in a special episode of their podcast. Wilder revealed that Hudson called her randomly on a Saturday night. After initially rejecting the call from an unknown number, she picked up and was greeted on the other end by 'Jordon Hudson... the president of your universe.' Wilder said that Hudson had 'an edge to her voice' and wanted to speak about their episode on the Miss Maine pageant. In that episode, Wilder and Hill compared Hudson to Tree Paine - the publicist for international pop icon Taylor Swift. 'She loved that we had said she is Bill Belichick's Tree Paine ... "because I am". She said "everybody loved Bill's media presence until they found out I was behind it."' Paine has been Swift's publicist since 2014 - having helped lead the singer through multiple high-profile scandals and moments. These include her feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, the dispute over her masters with her former record label, Swift's sexual assault trial against ex-radio host David Mueller, and numerous rumors about her romantic life. Paine has been branded a 'PR pitbull' and a 'power publicist' - and has generated a cult following among 'Swifties' for her expert navigation in all things public relations. Inversely, Hudson assumed the role of Belichick's PR guru after his former 'consigliere' - Berj Najarian - left his role at the Patriots for Boston College. Hudson's handling of the media firestorm around her relationship with the coach, the infamously botched CBS Sunday Morning interview, inquiries into her role at the University of North Carolina, the businesses she runs, properties she owns, and personal details about her background and family were not dealt with the greatest finesse. This led to the hire of Brandon Faber from the Chicago Bears in order to right the ship. Hudson's initial call to Wilder broke months worth of cover after that CBS interview and led to multiple days of discussions with the podcast hosts afterwards. Wilder and Hill initially had hopes that Hudson would agree to appear on their show. But as the days passed by and calls went unreturned, they grew uncomfortable with how Hudson was handling things. They said the discussions felt 'like a toxic relationship'. Meanwhile, Hudson appears to have been replaced as Belichick's PR boss after a rough spring and summer of constant scrutiny about her relationship, businesses, and role at UNC 'There were three main questions she had and she is talking in circles, using a lot of legalese,' Wilder and Hill said. 'Words, sort of like her Instagram captions, word salady, not exactly the correct word for what she is trying to say.' Then, when Hudson discovered the podcasters were signing a new contract with The Athletic, she was angry. They explained: 'We tell her (about The Athletic deal) and she is not pleased, she says The Athletic has been awful to me, doesn't like the reporting. Says "I don't want to make The Athletic any money". 'She got very hung up about that in other times. She is sort of obsessed with the legality of how her image can be used. It was something she was very fixated on. She wants intense control without understanding you will never have it.' The Friday after Hudson's unannounced Saturday evening call, the talks fell apart once and for all. Wilder took a call from an irate Hudson that afternoon, and she was screaming at her. 'There is a real edge to her voice this time,' Wilder said. 'She really starts, she's yelling at me, she is crying, she said she finished the rest of the Miss Maine episode and said she didn't like what we said. 'I was like "what?". I thought we were talking about the episode that you watched (in full) the whole time. Complete 180. We had a feeling there was this tension - waiting for the other shoe to drop. 'This goes on for 13 minutes. I am shaking. I've had people yell at me before but because I thought we had built up some level of trust with her, it was incredibly jarring. When someone is yelling at you, you are like 'Oh my God, what have I done?' but we haven't done anything. 'Either she just finished the Miss Maine episode or she had already watched it and kind of wanted to yell at us the whole time. Or if she had watched it, she felt betrayed by people who in her heard were more than reporters. She was like "you have been so nice to my face this week, how can you say these things?". 'To call me, so upset, I was like "what are you doing?". You want to save her from herself. She clearly doesn't trust us anymore, we don't trust her as a reliable narrator about herself. Hill added: 'At times it felt like she was much older, times where it felt like she was much younger... It seems like she's mad at the world, wants it both ways.' Wilder said that very early on in discussions about Hudson appearing on their show, she told her that if an appearance didn't happen they would still discuss their phone calls in a subsequent episode. Given Hudson was aware of how things would play out, it makes her final call to Wilder all the more puzzling. The latest installment of Hudson's erratic behavior is nothing short of nightmare timing for Belichick and UNC, with the eight-time winning Super Bowl coach stepping up his preparations for his team's first game of the season on Monday, September 1. It shifts the spotlight right back onto his personal life - something he has never been able to deal with comfortably or authentically - at a time when football season should be his only talking point. He has defended Hudson staunchly until now. It remains to be seen how he responds from here. The podcasters added that Hudson gave little away about her boyfriend. 'Anytime we asked her about Bill, she would deflect,' they said. 'We got no information about Bill, her role at UNC. She wouldn't give us anything.'
New York Times
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
While gossip is name of our game, we look for the truth behind on-court, off-court dramas
When we started The Sports Gossip Show in October of 2024, we had a refrain: 'We're doing this ourselves.' Because, until today, the only two people working on the show were us, Madeline Hill and Charlotte Wilder, the two gals pictured above. It is now our great pleasure to announce that not only are we no longer doing the show ourselves, we're doing it with the best possible partner in sports media: The Athletic. We're thrilled to be joining its network of engaging, informative and entertaining shows, and we're beyond excited to continue growing our audience with the help of its first-rate team and impressive platform. Advertisement We'll be coming to you twice a week now, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can watch us on YouTube and listen wherever you get your podcasts. The pairing of SGS and The Athletic couldn't be a better fit. Yes, gossip is in the name of our show, but at its core, The Sports Gossip Show does its best to get as close to the truth as possible. Everything we talk about is rooted in journalism and reporting. In fact, many of the stories we've discussed over the past eight months have come from news that talented reporters from The Athletic have broken. What kinds of stories, you might ask? We cover all the juicy, interpersonal happenings surrounding athletes, teams and leagues off the court, field and pitch. We also break down intriguing moments that occur during games, as well as the work drama that unfolds behind the scenes of the biggest franchises. Because we firmly believe that understanding what's happening off the court helps explain what's happening on it. Simply put: If it has to do with sports and there's tension involved, we're on it. (We're also on it if someone gets married or has a baby, but you know what we mean.) We both watch games with one eye on the action and one eye on the 'Personal Life' section of the athlete's Wikipedia pages. We started The Sports Gossip Show because there wasn't a podcast out there that truly spoke to people like us. We've been blown away by the response. It seems that a lot of listeners and viewers out there were hungering for the same thing — a show about sports that doesn't take itself too seriously, is chock-full of information, goes on tangents about clothing brands, our love of bridges, magicians and TV shows while analyzing a personnel decision, and that considers the intangible things (like 'vibes') when it comes to why a team lost. Advertisement The best part? SGS is for everyone, whether you're a die-hard who has stats memorized or you think that Taylor Swift really did put Travis Kelce on the map. We never assume our audience knows who people are — by taking the time to give you a little backstory on the characters involved, we provide an entry point for fans of all levels. It's been a joy to hear from listeners who say that, thanks to our show, they can finally participate in conversations at work dinners when the talk turns to sports. Or connect with their sports-obsessed spouse. At the same time, it's been rewarding to hear from self-proclaimed sports nuts who started listening and got sucked in, shocked at how much they now care about the florals at athletes' weddings. Not to toot our own horn, but we know what we're talking about. Madeline has been in the entertainment world for over a decade, working as the social media lead for high-profile celebrities and consulting with many Fortune 500 companies. She understands the machinations behind the biggest athletes' social media accounts and can shed light on what might be going on behind the scenes. She began specializing in 'sports gossip' with her Substack, Impersonal Foul, in 2020. Charlotte has been working in sports media for more than 10 years. She's been a reporter, a features writer, a producer, an on-camera host, and has covered almost every major North American championship. Whether she's talking about going to her seventh Super Bowl or the U.S. Air Guitar Championships, she brings a deep well of sports knowledge to every story. Her work has often gravitated toward the cultural impact of sports, or what she used to call 'the fringes of sports' — but then Madeline came along, and the rest is history. Together, we fill a niche that has been missing and bring a fresh perspective to the sports world. We want the show to feel like you're laughing with your best friends while also looking at sports through the lens of power dynamics and societal forces. Advertisement We started this show with not much more than two microphones, a camera, and a dream to be the biggest sports podcast out there. And now, thanks to The Athletic and their its amazing team, that truly feels more possible than ever. So, welcome to the Sports Gossip Cinematic Universe. If you've been here since the beginning, we are so grateful for your support. And if you're just finding out about us? Buckle up and join us on this wild ride. You can find The Sports Gossip Show every Tuesday and Thursday on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
New York Times
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
These 4 People Had Never Met. Now They're on a Road Trip to Find Dad.
When people speak of 'found' family, they tend to mean those closest to them who are not related by blood or by law. One might hear the phrase used by a queer person who has found love and acceptance far, far away from their parents, or a member of a church who finds more treasured community through worship than they can at home. But in 'Run for the Hills,' Kevin Wilson's latest novel, the term can be deployed more literally. If a man sets out on a cross-country road trip to find all of his half siblings and the father who abandoned them one by one, what have they all done if not … found family? Wilson, whose past novels include 'Perfect Little World' and 'Nothing to See Here,' is known for his idiosyncratic, at times fantastical family stories, but 'Run for the Hills' is something a little more straightforward. It begins in Tennessee, where 32-year-old Madeline 'Mad' Hill operates a successful organic farm with her mother. One Saturday in March, a 44-year-old writer named Reuben 'Rube' Hill arrives from Boston with some shocking news: He is her half sibling, and she has two more, their father having abandoned Rube, and then Mad, and then two more families after that. He invites her on a road trip to meet and collect the others so the four of them can confront their father together in California, where Rube believes he currently resides. Mad has never thought to search for her father, let alone had the time to. 'He left,' she tells Rube. 'He didn't want to stay. He doesn't deserve my thinking of him.' But after decades of keeping him out of her mind, the seed planted by her half brother sprouts in a near instant, and she accepts his bizarre offer. Before long, they're off into the American West at lightning speed — or, as fast as his rented PT cruiser is able to go. It's a fantastic hook that begins a mostly jaunty series of cascading episodes that feel tailor-made to be adapted into a limited series. 'Another quest,' Wilson writes. 'Mad wanted to scream. Always another quest, some other thing that they had to accomplish, some mountain to traverse or some insane billionaire heiress to humor. The further you get into the quest, no matter how long it continues, you can't leave it. You're too far into it.' If it wasn't already clear from the PT Cruiser, it is 2007, one of the last gasps of an era before hyper-connectivity was the norm. Set in the present, such a story may not have warranted unscheduled, in-person confrontations, and the road trip could have been replaced with a Zoom conference. It wasn't all that long ago when human connection was more reliant upon, well, human connection. Their journey takes them first to Oklahoma and then to Texas, where their half sister, Pepper, is competing in a college basketball tournament. With her in the back seat they head to Utah for 11-year-old Theron, a fifth grader and budding filmmaker who joins the unlikely trio with little protestation from his mother. If the ease with which Rube is able to persuade his siblings to join him raises eyebrows, the journey is otherwise so swift and delightful that the story never collapses under the weight of implausibility. It is a pleasure to watch Rube, Mad, Pep and Theron discover everything they have in common — with one another and with the versions of their father that each child got to know — as the odometer rolls up and up. Rube became a mystery novelist, as his father had been when he was a child. Mad is a farmer, as her father had been when she knew him. The reader wonders if their mutual faith in hideous cars driven by strangers isn't a contrivance at all, but a familial trait. Of the siblings' many mishaps, the most poetic occurs when they're forced to swap rental cars after an accident. Whatever glimmer of hope they have that the new vehicle will be something more exciting than the PT Cruiser is dashed when the agent delivers a similarly hideous Chevrolet HHR. Their father has spent a lifetime driving off from family after family; and here they are, bound together in a revolving door of ugly cars designed for America's large, nuclear families. The agent presents the option as — what else? — an upgrade. 'Run for the Hills' is a touching and generous romp of a novel, a sort of lighthearted family heist in which the anticipated grift is simply a meeting (or confrontation?) with the characters' father. The results of their quest are, frankly, beside the point. In bringing the siblings together — with or without the man who helped create them — Wilson makes a bold and convincing case that every real family is one you have to find and, at some point, choose, even if it's the one you're born into.
