Christopher & Eric

The hacking scandal at infamous media baron Rupert Murdoch's News of the World was one of the biggest stories of the early 2000's. Naturally, it resulted in complete destruction of everyone responsible, including one of the biggest right wing — Oh, wait. As Summer of Scandal surfs its way into the world of media, Christopher and Eric serve up two episodes of the BBC series THE RISE OF THE MURDOCH DYNASTY to find out what cost or consequence, if any, one of the world's most powerful media empires suffered after engaging in widespread acts of fraud, bribery, blackmail and defamation as well as invading the privacies of everyone from celebrities to grieving parents.

Grab your beach bag, Party People! (And the phone number for your best lawyer friend!) It's time for a Summer of Scandal. For the kick off, Christopher and Eric hop in a brand new Pierce-Arrow with Fatty Arbuckle, one of 1921's biggest silent film stars, and head up the California coast for said star's date with personal ruin. But did the highest paid actor in the world at that time do anything wrong in that infamous twelfth floor suite at San Francisco's St. Francis hotel? As they serve up season 1, episode 2 of the (surprisingly good) late 90's true crime TV series SCANDAL, entitled "Silenced Star", your hosts chew on Hollywood's first ever celebrity scandal. Turns out it's hard to say whether the sour taste of guilt is coming from the accusers, or the accused.

Christopher and Eric round out All About Representation Month by asking you, our beloved Party People, about the queer people who have made the biggest impact in your life. Some of you went with ancient emperors, other chose lovers past and present. The result is a lively, warmhearted discussion of mentorship, community and friendship that ends our Pride Season celebration on an uplifting note. (Next month we'll do a hideously disturbing true crime episode again. Promise.)  

All About Representation Month takes a a hard light turn as Christopher and Eric navigate the recent history of gay representation in the world of sitcoms. Remember Blanche's gay brother on an early episode of THE GOLDEN GIRLS? How about a young “president” Tony Goldwyn's heartrending turn as a terminal AIDS patient who asked the designers of DESIGNING WOMEN to create his funeral? How do they compare with the sparkling new Hulu sitcom MIDCENTURY MODERN in which the gay characters take center stage in a manner that feels both OG and dazzlingly new at the same time?  

Meet Herb Baumeister. Successful businessman. Noted introvert. Lover of rotting food. And possible serial killer. As All About Representation Month continues, Christopher and Eric serve up the final two episodes of THE FOX HOLLOW MURDERS: PLAYGROUND OF A SERIAL KILLER, spotlighting the crusading Indiana coroners working to identify the forgotten gay victims of a staggeringly prolific serial killer. When a bungled investigation and a sudden suicide served as an excuse to shut down the search for answers as to how a massive amount of human remains ended up on a pastoral Indiana horse farm, suspicions and conspiracy theories ran amuck, and various documentary filmmakers found a way to insert themselves into the fray. But were their cinematic efforts a hindrance or a help? Join Christopher and Eric as they try to find a closure in a case that has offered blessed little to the victims and their families.

This year, Pride Season at TDPS is all about visibility, inclusion and respect for LGBT people, three things of which our current political climate is in desperately short supply. Welcome to All About Representation Month, beginning with a supersized True Crime TV Club that's about bringing long overdue justice to the forgotten gay victims of a vicious and prolific serial killer. When queer men started vanishing without a trace from the streets outside popular Indianapolis gay bars in the early 90's, their desperate final hours were eventually traced to a palatial horse farm in a seemingly idyllic suburb. Once there, investigators found what was then the largest repository of human remains in United States history. Was the supposedly upstanding owner of the property a vicious killer? And did he act alone? Christopher and Eric tackle these questions and more as they serve up Episodes 1 and 2 of the Hulu series THE FOX HOLLOW MURDERS: PLAYGROUND OF A SERIAL KILLER.

To atone for forcing Eric to endure three full episodes focused on one of reality television's most awful shows, Christopher wraps up Sin City Month by taking us down the rabbit hole of Las Vegas history, including the city's connection to the gay scion of a notorious Gilded Age copper baron. Then it's time to discuss the concept of sin itself with you, our beloved Party People. "What is the deadliest of the seven deadly sins?" they asked listeners on The Dinner Party Show's Facebook page. Their answers ran the gamut. But many of them searched for the one sin they felt gave rise to all others. Find out if there was a consensus and see where Christopher and Eric fell on the Big Seven – isn't that supposed to be a lucky number?  

In their second and final episode devoted to the Paramount + true crime series, SIN CITY GIGOLO, Christopher and Eric watch in disgust as a sanctimonious district attorney attempts to deflect the public's attention from terrible police work, and the man who most likely committed this awful crime descends into self-pitying rationalizations and flat out delusions. Are there any heroes to be found in this sad, tragic tale? And what single event first started this destructive and lethal spiral? The producers of the reality show that brought victim and killer together are willing to take some of the blame, but your host Eric has a more complex theory of the case that throws a much harsher light on everyone's role.

Magic mushrooms have never felt less enchanting. Christopher and Eric serve up the first two episodes of SIN CITY GIGOLO, a salacious new true crime series from Paramount + in which the scorching Las Vegas sun reveals the murderous truths coiled beneath reality TV illusions. What happens when the cameras stop rolling, the checks stop coming and you realize all that fame you supposedly enjoyed was mostly a few thirsty people on the internet? Episodes 1 and 2 offer some disturbing answers. When an allegedly famous male escort calls 911 with a convoluted tale of a drug trip gone wrong, only one thing is clear — a woman has brutally lost her life. But a shoddy police investigation, and the conflicting accounts of the chief suspect's friends send the case gyrating into Conspiracyville before the evidence can be collected. In our next episode, Christopher and Eric bring you the final installment of the series along with their uncensored thoughts about what really happened on that long, awful night in the desert.

Your hosts replace class with ass as they depart the refined salons of Paris and land face down on the scorched centerline of the Las Vegas Strip. The result is a new month of episodes that just might put their immortal friendship to the test! Was Christopher too strong in his suggestion that they tackle a recent true crime series about a shocking criminal case involving a key cast member of one of reality TV's tawdriest shows? Should Eric have been more vocal with his concerns that watching four episodes in a row of Showtime's GIGOLOS could be damaging to one's mental health and sense of decency? Why did no one tell the absurd parade of steroid-addled douchebags featured on this glorified piece of soft core porn that they're not as famous as they think are? The answers to these questions will be poked, stroked and massaged as Sin City Month begins.    

Christopher and Eric assumed their accidental arrival in Paris mid-Fashion Week might have made the place a little less fashionable. Little did they know the standards had already been lowered as far as they could go in this Paris-set episode of the classic TV series MURDER, SHE WROTE entitled “A Fashionable Way To Die”. Revisit the highlights of your hosts Parisian sojourn by way of this creaky, silly Hollywood take on the Paris fashion industry by way of 1986. More sequins grace this catwalk than a Provincetown drag night and as always sweet, little old lady Jessica Fletcher brings murder and mayhem wherever she goes.   

Does the life of famed fashion designer Coco Chanel really qualify as a true crime story, or is it more a narrative of survival and resistance? Some think she's a feminist icon, some consider her a Nazi spy. Whatever the case, her cultural influence is impossible to deny, and her life story couldn't be a better fit for Tres Paris Month. Christopher and Eric serve up the riveting documentary film COCO CHANEL: UNBUTTONED, which has the special distinction of including scores of glamorous, fabulous interview subjects with whom they'd kill to have lunch.

Wait a minute! A What's Science episode with actual science in it? Can it be true? What happened to all the aliens and ghost hunters? Tres Paris Month ushers Christopher and Eric inside the recently re-opened Notre Dame Cathedral by way of a riveting Nova documentary called REBUILDING NOTRE DAME and their own visit a week prior. In 2019, a devastating fire swept through the cathedral's ceiling, destroying its iconic spire as the world wept. After years of restoration, the cathedral opened its doors just a few months before Christopher and Eric's Parisian sojourn and they're here to describe its stunning interior and the dazzlingly intricate process that led to its restoration.

Welcome to Tres Paris Month, in which Christopher and Eric rub your noses in the fact that they just completed an amazing Parisian holiday to celebrate both of their birthdays — and you didn't, presumably. 2024 was the year from hell, so your hosts were long overdue for a charming vacation packed with history, foie gras and Eric's stern notes for the curators of the Louvre. Back here on the home front, there's much to be excited about in the world of Dinner Partners Productions, including ANNE RICE: AN ALL SAINTS DAY CELEBRATION in New Orleans on November 1, 2025, and some exciting new additions to the team charged with bringing you new adaptations, translations and exciting new incarnations of Anne's work as well as that of your hosts.

Before they became true crime mavens and the host of a podcast some call My Gayvorite Murder, Christopher and Eric hosted the madcap live internet radio variety show, THE DINNER PARTY SHOW WITH CHRISTOPHER RICE & ERIC SHAW QUINN, hours upon hours of sketch comedy featuring their deranged special correspondents alongside lively interviews with surprising and amazing celebrity guests. Who was their favorite celebrity interview of all? (Other than the most obvious one, of course, dearly departed Premiere Party Person, Anne Rice.) Here are some hints. Her books took Hollywood by storm, she lived as well as her characters did and her sister was as cool as she was. This special re-broadcast contains a dewy eyed and nostalgic new intro from your hosts and some new nostalgic afterthoughts as they take you on a sentimental journey.

Before Christopher and Eric jetted off to celebrate their birthday month by outing all the gay in "Gay Paris", they put together these special flashback favorites to celebrate their Party People here at home. This week, it's Eric's turn to reach into the vaults and shine a light on his favorite past installment of True Crime TV Club. Naturally, he had to rifle through about ten or twenty contenders before settling on a final pick. But there's one hideous real-life villainess who steps out from the terrible crowd. We'll give you a few hints. She sees zombies where others don't. And religion is her weapon of choice. This special re-broadcast contains a jazzy, overly caffeinated new intro from your hosts and updates and fresh takes from the rearview mirror.

It's Christopher and Eric's birthday month and they're reaching back into the vaults to bring you new presentations of their favorite past installments of Christopher & Eric's True Crime TV Club. This week, it's Christopher's turn, and he's selected “the episode in which True Crime TV Club found its voice”. Or so he thinks. What was his pick? We don't want to spoil the surprise, but we'll give you a few hints. It's got a plotline you'd normally find in a gay adult video only without all the terrible consequences edited out for your enjoyment. It also involves a man in blue. This special re-broadcast contains a snarky new intro from your hosts and some new thoughts as they take a second look.

In the final installment of Mad Love Month, Hollywood gives Steven J. Russell, the man they call King Con, the big screen treatment and the results are...mixed. In the second half of this true crime pairing, Christopher and Eric compare reported facts with cinematic depictions to find out how much of this Jim Carrey vehicle I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS is fiction. And would this exploration of a devoted gay romance defined by rampant criminal activity be told in quite the same way if Hollywood were to make it today? Christopher and Eric weigh in on these and other important questions — like whether or not Ewan McGregor is really cute. (Spoiler Alert: he is.)

Mad Love Month continues with the first in an all-new true crime pairing about a resourceful and indefatigable conman who will stop at nothing to be with the man he loves. If he has to involve that same man in a few dozen criminal conspiracies along the way, so be it. All's fair in love and insurance fraud. Christopher and Eric serve up episode 9 of season 3 of the Discovery + and IDCaseFiles show I ALMOST GOT AWAY WITH IT entitled “Got A Boyfriend To Support”, the jaw dropping tale of Steven J. Russell, the man they call King Con. To say he exposed some gaps in the Texas prison system is a massive understatement.

Is a romance between a prison's warden and one of its most violent inmates a match made in hell or just Alabama? We're not quite sure after watching the Netflix documentary JAILBREAK: LOVE ON THE RUN. Welcome to Mad Love Month, where Christopher and Eric celebrate the month that shelters Valentine's Day with tales of misguided passions that run afoul of the law…and sound judgement, common sense, self-preservation. You know, the lot. After seventeen years as the director of operations at Lauderdale County Jail, Vicky White told her co-workers she planned to celebrate her retirement by going out with a bang. They had no idea how literally she meant it. Neither did we!

Your hosts said they weren't going to talk about the news on earth this month. But when the headlines here at home start to include craft that might be from another world, what are two overly caffeinated podcasters to do? On this final installment of Out Of This World Month, Christopher and Eric serve up the sweeping documentary THE PHENOMENON, which addresses the stunning recent disclosures by the US government regarding topics that were once dismissed as the province of kooks, con artists and Christopher's aunt. Eric looks for the hard science, while Christopher looks out the window for hovering, silver discs.

Out Of This World Month resumes with one of the most frightening and compelling alien abduction stories ever told. Did a group of loggers in the Arizona wilderness invent this terrifying tale of strange spacecraft, teleportation beams and missing time? The documentary ALIEN ABDUCTION: TRAVIS WALTON challenges you to look into their eyes and decide for yourself. They haven't changed their story in decades and the haunting details they share made for a big screen adaptation in the early 90's. This one might have Christopher and Eric racing back to their home planet and pulling the blinds.  

Your hosts Christopher and Eric are accustomed to reporting on disturbing stories long past or far away, but this week they found themselves living at the center of frightening international news as a series of horrific and unprecedented firestorms ravaged Los Angeles County. In this episode, they share their own evacuation story as the Sunset Fire threatened their beloved hometown of West Hollywood. They also share the crash course they received in wind patterns, Southern California geography and the frightening intricacies of wildfires, an ancient menace that is growing ever more fearsome in these changing times. While they're fortunate to be among the lucky ones who didn't lose their lives or homes, their experience of the City of Angels has been forever changed.    

Christopher and Eric continue to enjoy their “off world time” in response to the garbage fire of a year that was 2024. Out Of This World month heads to the New Mexico desert by way of one of the most beloved non-fiction television series of all time, UNSOLVED MYSTERIES. In 1989, the iconic show introduced mainstream audiences to the Roswell conspiracy and its shocking implications about life from other worlds. How does that seminal episode compare with their most recent follow up in the new Netflix version of the show? Lucky for you, Christopher and Eric are serving up both. Your hosts might have been looking for an escape from reality with this one, but some of the theories it brings in for a crash landing seem solid.

Given how 2024 wrapped up, Christopher and Eric have no interest in spending the first month of 2025 talking about the news on this planet, so get ready for Out Of This World Month, a series of episodes devoted to extraterrestrial happenings, abductions, crashes and conspiracies so far out you'll need a teleportation device to see them through. How is it possible Christopher and Eric have gone this long skewering fact free TV nonsense without serving up a show as absurd as ANCIENT ALIENS? Could it be because episodes like season 19, episode 15, entitled “Edgar Cayce —The Sleeping Prophet” have a troubling connection to Christopher's family?

All I Want For Christmas Month — and 2024 itself — comes to what we hope is an optimistic close with this episode focused on our highest hopes for the year to come. We're replacing those pesky, self-critical New Year's resolutions with big dreams and even bigger commitments. On The Dinner Party Show's Facebook page, we turned to you, our Party People, to hear your strategies for cultivating joy in the face of world events that can inspire dread.  Making art, welcoming new life, holding your heads high in the face of bullies and bigots — your answers ran the gamut, inspiring a rousing discussion of politics, the nature of happiness and the long arc of history and mental health. 

Christopher and Eric continue All I Want For Christmas Month with a desperate plea for help from you, their beloved Party People. Please find them some holiday themed true crime TV episodes that aren't hideously nightmare inducing. Your hosts decided to divide up the work this year, delivering dueling Christmastime massacres, one of which may well win the dark distinction of the most disturbing story ever discussed on the podcast. Listen to find out which episode of HOMICIDE FOR THE HOLIDAYS takes the gory prize. Christopher comes bearing episode 5 of season 2 entitled “Christmas Rampage”, and Eric dives down the chimney to avoid the predators on not-so-merry display in episode 2 of season 5, entitled “Six Slays of Christmas”.

It was a year of smart, eccentric detectives and a surprise epic that captivated American audiences even though most of it wasn't in English. Christopher and Eric serve up their favorite entertainment offerings from 2024, a year they'd otherwise like to forget. Compare and contrast with the small screen highlights they singled out back in May on Episode 232. Did SHOGUN live up to its epic promise? Did MARY & GEORGE continue to break new ground after Eric enjoyed its first two episodes? What newcomers joined the pack? The answers are all here. (If you're expecting your hosts to list their favorite movies, don't hold your breath. Listen to find out why.) All I Want For Christmas Month continues with gifts that come in high definition packages.

All I Want For Christmas Month begins with a perspective-giving crash course in how bad a bad year can be. True crime takes a backseat to true catastrophe as Christopher and Eric count down the final weeks of 2024, a year they'd desperately like to put in their rearview mirror. What better way to distract themselves from the personal disasters that littered their last twelve months than with some historical cataclysms that put the trials of these dreadful 365 dayS in perspective. Christopher takes us to the Canary Islands in 1977 where bad planning and a pilot's arrogance put two fully loaded 747s on a collision course with fiery hell — and dramatically improved safety regulations for the aviation industry. Then Eric ships us off to the Sunda Strait, 1883, where the island of Krakatoa teaches us humbling — and terrifying — lessons about the fragility of life and the power of the earth underfoot, lessons  literally heard halfway around the world.

Having devoted their previous episodes to retail-related abuse and a gruesome family massacre, Christopher and Eric explore the lighter shade of Black Friday — the gifts! They turned to you, our beloved Party People, on The Dinner Party Show's Facebook page to hear about the most memorable and cherished gifts that have come your way during the holiday season. Your moving answers allowed Black Friday Month to end on a lighter note, offering us the break we all needed from the usual holiday horrors offered up by the world's true crime media and us.

Every holiday season, your hosts Christopher and Eric search high and low for a holiday themed true crime story that goes easy on the bloodshed. A high-speed chase involving a van full of stolen frozen turkeys, perhaps? No such luck again this year. Once again, we were confronted with the same gory buffet of holiday horrors, giving us no choice but to continue a dark – dare we day black -- TDPS tradition.  In season 4, episode 7 of the Peacock series HOMICIDE FOR THE HOLIDAYS, entitled “Cold Turkey”, Brent and Charlotte Springford have just returned home after a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with their daughter. Unbeknownst to them, a vicious predator awaits them in the shadows of their luxurious Montgomery, Alabama mansion. Black Friday Month continues with the tale of a gruesome murder that was discovered on Black Friday itself. 

Black Friday Month continues with an unconventional installment of Christopher & Eric's True Crime TV Club in which the victims range from the self-esteem of teenage girls everywhere to the coastline of an African nation. Ever heard of fast fashion? Christopher and Eric hadn't until they watched this eye-opening documentary BRANDY HELLVILLE & THE CULT OF FAST FASHION on Max. Follow along on this globe-trotting journey from a small Italian town known for fashion prowess (and fraud), to the struggling nation of Ghana to a Santa Monica, California boutique where the customers become unqualified employees and ultimately victims of this head spinning con job involving smoke, mirrors, misogyny and shirts that are only meant to be worn several times before landing in the trash where the journey to their final tragic destination only begins.

Welcome to Black Friday Month, when Christopher and Eric offer discounts on the many shades of black— from the darker side of retail, to the gorier side of gratitude to the glory of giving and receiving. In this installment of Christopher & Eric's True Crime TV Club, your hosts serve up THE ABERCROMBIE GUYS: THE DARK SIDE OF COOL, in which a brand that exemplified all American masculine perfection became a front for toxically masculine abuse. With the recent arrest of the fashion label's former CEO Mike Jeffries, this BBC expose on the dark goings on at Jeffries's isolated Hamptons compound and other private playgrounds seems more relevant than ever. It's a disturbing tale of what happens when the rich and powerful distort the boundaries between consensual sex work and human trafficking and young queer men are taught that their bodies are the only things they have to offer.

If you're anything like your hosts Christopher and Eric, the date of November 5, 2024 has been burning a hole in your calendar for almost a year now. But this episode isn't about politics. It's about how we deal with situations that feel entirely out of control. We turned to you, our beloved Party People, by way of The Dinner Party Show's Facebook page to find out how you manage anxiety and the sense of being constantly overwhelmed by a world in which the media seems determined to both divide and frighten us at every turn.  No matter which way the US Presidential Election has shaken out by the time you hear this, this is an inspiring and uplifting episode that reminds us of the basics of a positive outlook and whatever else it takes not to spend your days screaming into the void…or Facebook.

To celebrate Halloween Season, Christopher and Eric have tried to find a way to merge their two greatest loves — true crime stories and preposterous theories of the paranormal. Have they found a winning combo in the new Hulu series OUT THERE? They're so determined to find out, they're bringing you not one, but two separate episodes of the show. Eric pranced off to meet the “Pope Lick Goatman”, and Christopher joined a hunt for some “Ghosts of Chinatown”. Find out who broke the most Ouija boards in this special face off episode. Also, as we mark the sad anniversary of Billy Newton's murder, we reflect on the justice we were able to find, thanks to a special message and update from the LAPD homicide detective who worked with us to help solve the case. 

The second episode in a true crime pairing about one of the most prolific serial killers — and most prolific killers of queer men — of all time, Christopher and Eric finally find a true crime inspired drama that doesn't have them scrambling for Wikipedia after every ridiculous scene. The BritBox produced DES features fine performances and impeccable production values (along with the occasional moment of wooden scripting.) But does it convey the true horror of both the cold, calculating monster at its center and the desperate chapter in Britain's history that Des sought to exploit?

How is it possible two avowed true crime junkies like Christopher and Eric haven't heard of a serial killer alleged to have been one of the most prolific in history? Could it have anything to do with the fact that this killer's victims were mostly queer men? In the first of this true crime pairing on Dennis Nilsen, your intrepid hosts brave the grandiosity, pretentiousness and sheer evil of a media-savvy monster who never met a dire situation he couldn't exploit to his own evil ends. Is a childhood trauma to blame for all this madness, or is that part of the story just another manipulative ploy from this endlessly narcissistic menace? On next week's episode, find out how celebrated actor David Tenant brought Nilsen to life in the British television series, DES. Also, having recently celebrated what would have been the 83rd birthday of beloved Premiere Party Person Anne Rice, your hosts have a special announcement about her legacy.

In this personal and intimate conclusion to Double Identity Month, Christopher and Eric turn to you, their beloved Party People. On The Dinner Party Show's Facebook page, we asked if any of you have been profoundly deceived by an Internet con-artist. Your answers made for some shocking stories in the retelling, igniting an engrossing conversation about the ways in which the anonymity afforded by cyberspace can be used to abuse. Eric shares his own story of dismantling his charming personal Internet catfish through evidence collection and persistence. Your hosts also offer theories on what drives some people to pretend to be someone they're not. Especially when money doesn't seem to be the objective. 

There are certain questions your hosts Christopher and Eric return to again and again on this true crime-centric podcast. What is the true nature of justice? Is it possible for victims of violent crime to ever get closure? What the hell is bitcoin? In episode 5 of season 1 of the Canadian – not that there's anything wrong with that – true crime series RICH AND SHAMELESS, entitled “The Mysterious Disappearance of a Bitcoin Millionaire”, we get a crash course in how this confusing Internet based currency allows for con artists and criminals to rook people out of their savings. Meet Gerry Cotten, founder of one of the largest Bitcoin trading platforms in the world. Now get a good look at him because he's about to jet off to the other side of the world and die suddenly of a disease no one knew he had after locking your money away in a digital wallet only he had access to. His new wife doesn't even have the code. Do you? Does anyone?

Your hosts Christopher and Eric are both bestselling authors who are never reluctant to share personal details about their lives. But at the end of the day, what does an author of fiction truly owe their audience when it comes to their own life story? This is just one of the questions that defines the twisty and edgy tale of literary phenomenon J.T LeRoy as Christopher and Eric serve up episode 2 of season 4 of one of their favorite series, VANITY FAIR CONFIDENTIAL, entitled “The Boy Who Cried Author”.  As Double Identity Month continues, we travel from West Virginia truck stops to San Francisco night clubs to the vaunted offices of New York publishers as the line between fiction and memoir gets stretched to the breaking point. Christopher also shares his own experience at the hands of a literary catfish who took the romance writing world by storm.

After having thoroughly conspiracy wearied themselves last month, Christopher and Eric are desperate for a little justice and closure. Here they kick off a new batch of episodes devoted to con artists getting their just deserts. Welcome to Double Identity Month. Open wide, bastards! Hell hath no fury like a woman conned. That's certainly the case in THE TINDLER SWINDLER, a popular Netflix documentary that forces us to answer the question, if a handsome stranger invited us to hop on a private jet to Bulgaria at the end of our first coffee date, would we go? By the end of this delicious serving, Eric coins a new phrase, “Don't **ck with Dutch women!” Listen to find out why.

Conspiracy Weary Month's final installment takes us back to a sweltering New Orleans summer in 1990, when an innocent request for pancakes landed young Christopher — and his adorable dog — on the set of one of Hollywood's biggest films, ultimately giving birth to a lifelong obsession that has now claimed Eric Shaw Quinn as well. (Almost.) That obsession is the lies, bigger lies and damn lies in Oliver Stone's overwrought, unwieldy and at times barely comprehensible film, JFK, a Hollywood hack job that turns a corrupt, criminal real life New Orleans district attorney into an ethical crusader for truth. In addition, the film further maligns the reputation of Clay Shaw, whose only apparent crime was being discreet about his homosexuality, a fact Garrison used to his corrupt advantage. While it's distortions were roundly derided upon its release, they didn't stop its success at the box office, and its homophobia has gone largely unquestioned over the years. Don't worry. Christopher and Eric are more than up to the ask.

Deep in the You Tube vaults lurks this authoritative and impeccably reported takedown of one of the worst lies ever told about the Kennedy assassination. FALSE WITNESS, adapted from the groundbreaking non-fiction book by Patricia Lambert, responds to Oliver Stone's preposterous blockbuster JFK with a hail of hard truths. The fact that it enjoys a fraction of the audience of that odious film is just one more injustice offered up by the deeply strange story of deranged New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison and his baseless hunt for a homegrown conspiracy to kill the president — made up entirely of homegrown homosexuals. This is just one of the injustices about this story Christopher and Eric are determined to correct. Conspiracy Weary Month's final pairing goes out with a loud wet bang — the kind a truth bomb makes when it goes off on a pile of conspirapoo. 

There's fact, there's fiction, and then there's movies about true crime stories written by David Mamet (and possibly a long list of studio notes.) As Conspiracy Weary Month continues, Christopher and Eric serve up Hollywood's big screen treatment of Jimmy Hoffa's complex legacy. It's the second in a true crime pairing about the notorious labor leader's still unexplained — if you don't buy Eric's theory ( see Ep. 245) — disappearance. HOFFA is a big movie. With big stars. And even bigger crowd scenes. But does it illuminate its subject? And is its theory of the last day Hoffa was seen alive remotely credible? And before you accuse us of getting tangled in our ball of red string, does our discussion leave us pointed squarely in the direction of next week's subject, the JFK assassination? Is everything connected or should we just drink less tea?

Welcome to Conspiracy Weary Month, where your skeptical hosts, Christopher and Eric, add some of their typical adverbs and spices and a dash of their signature saltiness to the sacred cows of online speculation while serving them up on a hot takeaway platter. The disappearance of notorious labor leader Jimmy Hoffa in the mid 1970's inspired rafts of conspiracy theories and a host of aging mob guys to issue suspicious confessions to the alleged murder late in life so they could rake in book and movie deals while avoiding consequences (or prosecution). While the frenzied documentary, KILLING JIMMY HOFFA, drowns us in factoids, title cards and meandering interviews, its final menu of possible suspects leaves Eric hungry for more. Who killed Jimmy Hoffa? Our fresh take on this old mystery may surprise you.

Sex Scandal Summer draws to a close with this second serving in a “true crime pairing” about much maligned royal Prince Andrew and the epically disastrous BBC Newsnight interview in which he tried — and failed — to distance himself from one of history's worst sex scandals. Christopher and Eric have served up plenty of true crime inspired films that veer off into la la land in their dogged effort to avoid anything that looks like a fact. But the Netflix produced SCOOP adheres very close to the truth, and it does so with beautiful direction, a tight script and Oscar caliber performances from Billie Piper, Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell. This fine film inspired a larger discussion between Christopher and Eric about the disturbing after effects of the Jeffrey Epstein case and the many victims it left in its wake.

Sex Scandal Summer goes royal as Christopher and Eric head across the pond — and then back again — with “PRINCE ANDREW: BANISHED”, a snarky takedown of the House of Windsor's possible connection to convicted sex trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, streaming on Peacock in the US. It's the first in a long overdue “true crime pairing” that continues in our next episode with a True Crime Movie Time featuring SCOOP, a recent Netflix film. Despite being Queen Elizabeth's favorite, Prince Andrew never showed an aptitude for much beyond flying helicopters and carousing. And sweating. And then, in his later years, lying about sweating. Was rank entitlement to blame for the colossal PR mistakes the prince made while trying to convince the world he had no connection to one of Jeffrey Epstein's most credible and high profile accusers? While Christopher and Eric enjoyed watching this bevy of journalists and royal watchers make the case, they were disturbed by this tale of entitlement run amok.

After Eric unleashes a tirade against Pinterest, his winner for Most Homophobic Social Media Platform In Existence, he and Christopher kick off the next chapter of Sex Scandal Summer by serving up an hour of television that makes its host look worse than the scandalous subject. In episode 2, season 1 of THE UNITED STATE OF SCANDAL, entitled “Mark Sanford”, the notoriously unfaithful conservative Southern politician pales in comparison to host Jake Tapper, who, while making the story largely about himself, reveals distressing political biases hiding behind a strange soft-pedaled apology. In the end, Christopher and Eric are left craving some real journalism on this iconic political sex scandal — or maybe just a long hike on the Appalachian Trial with their favorite international reporters.

Pool boys and Evangelicals and cougars, oh my! Christopher and Eric kick off Sex Scandal Summer by serving up the spicy Hulu documentary GOD FORBID: THE SEX SCANDAL THAT BROUGHT DOWN A DYNASTY. When twenty-year old Miami pool boy Giancarlo Granda is invited to take part in a night of taboo busting sex with a wealthy older woman he met at the Fontainebleu Hotel and her (at least) voyeuristic husband, little does he know he'll eventually find himself at the center of a scandal that helped remake American presidential politics. It's a seemingly no holds-barred expose of con artists and blackmailers, and the culture war politics that attacks minorities while enriching sanctimonious hypocrites. But Christopher and Eric still have questions about what's not being said in this otherwise steamy tell (almost) all.

Your hosts wrap up Sapphire Cove Summer, their celebration of Christopher's steamy new gay romance novel, SAPPHIRE DAWN, with a warm and delicious serving of one of Eric's favorite movies, BIG EDEN, an open hearted, wonderfully acted and beautifully shot rom com set in mountainous Montana. And the romantic leads are both men! The perfect antidote to last episode's foray into reality show hell, it's also another case of “Christopher should have watched this movie when Eric first recommended it fifteen years ago” and a great opportunity to talk about the special ingredients that can make romantic stories so swoon worthy and uplifting.

Orange County is once again the setting of Christopher's steamy new Sapphire Cove novel, so your hosts decided to take a fun and frivolous trip to the region by way of a popular Netflix reality show. Big mistake. Huge. Sapphire Cove Summer was supposed to be a much needed break from dark and disturbing true crime stories, but when your hosts decided to sample the first four episodes of the third season of SELLING THE OC, they found themselves relentlessly tortured by a gilded coterie of witless malignant narcissists. The venomous cat fights, sexual manipulation and rank unprofessionalism on display here might not be criminal — but they should be. At the very least, these so-called real estate professionals should lose their licenses. And did we mention the show used queer baiting to promote its latest season? There's little Eric hates more, save for everything else about this dreadful train wreck. You might want to turn the volume down on this one. Or up, if you hate this kind of soulless reality television as much as they do.