PAGING JOE ROGAN

Seriously wondering how one might flag him.

I have an idea but I need him on board to execute it.

After two years of tireless begging, I’ve accepted that my hounding of mainstream media to examine Nick Tartaglione’s case is a wasted effort. What I didn’t expect was to wrangle Drea de Matteo, but here we are. Go ahead and count her now as a colluding factor in my plot, a source I’ll happily drag with me to Rogan’s studio as an incentivized offer.

It’s common knowledge by now that I adore her, which is why I sat as a good-natured participant for a three-hour conversation on film without a comfortable amount of makeup after no sleep.

I was first introduced to Drea at the start of 2024. I showed up at her house in the canyons with a camera guy to document her in the late stages of an unjust industry crisis. How she went from Emmy Award–winning actress to rejected talent overnight, exiled for her stance on COVID and politically aimless in the wake of it, seeing she wasn’t entirely in sync with the ideology on either the left or the right. To save her house from foreclosure, she signed up for OnlyFans and began leaning into the conservative movement, in part because they were the only ones defending her. Tucker Carlson was good to her. Tim Pool was not.

As an early admirer of RFK, Drea was also curious to see how far his campaign would go. It was her support for Bobby that led her to reconsider Donald Trump, whom she calls her “favorite comedian.” We spent a lot of time together on the campaign trail, highlights discussed in the episode below.

In person, she’s exactly as you’d expect. Energetic, brazen and flirtatious by nature. The kind of woman you feel like you’ve known forever. A good mother. Unapologetically Italian in every way imaginable. Hence, the lavish outlay of vintage dishware lined with her favorite salami, olives, nuts, and exotic cheeses, arranged on the kitchen island that greets you upon entrance.

Not a big drinker, she sips tequila on ice sparingly and curses like a drunken sailor when sober.

Her dogs are spoiled. The newest “puppy” is offensively huge. I’m talking the size of a small horse.

Drea’s house is like mine, loud, filled with love, never dull.

March 2024

I could go on about my affinity for her, but I’ll let our three-hour conversation speak to that instead.

For those interested, the full episode is here.

As for Rogan, he may be the only option Nick has left and he’s been interested in Nick for years. He’s referenced him multiple times since Epstein’s death. It certainly seems the key pieces of this story would interest him and his listeners. There’s so much he doesn’t know, and while I’m not naturally at ease in a podcast setting (Drea’s house doesn’t count), I’m willing to step outside of that if it means getting Nick’s story in front of a wider audience.

Last week, when I sat down with her to catch up after a year off the campaign trail, Nick called unprompted. The call you see there is raw. She had no idea he would be reaching out and no idea about his past. Podcast gold, I’d say. Interruption from federal prison, Nick learning who’s on the other end of the line. A revered New York idol from the same parts, matched accent and grit, asking how he’s holding up. How meta the scene. Adriana La Cerva on the phone with a cop accused of aiding the cartel in drug crimes. A case tangled by a secret gay romance between thugs, a roadside suicide, four bodies buried in a shallow grave, no weapon recovered, and claims that DNA was planted by a dirty investigator on a strip of molding inside a bar called Liquid Lounge.

We have to believe Tony Soprano would approve.

If Rogan’s listening, the line here on the West Coast is open.