It was originally titled For Meesh (Michelle Cameron). I'd had that vamp for a long time, but I expanded it after Tory Whanau's Arts Policy Fundraiser/hate hui. Literally the same evening, after seeing that the Greens were spying on my wanks. Not just that; they also said they hated me and wished me to only be a man. That's my response, which is a sweet Samoan-inflected piece. It's an igi strum: A/D, G/D. The first one sounds like a mumajor chord. - They didn't want me as

No, that's not how I feel my gender or sexuality. I picture people fucking me, not me fucking myself. Like most women, I view myself as the object of desire. Lots of women have masturbatory fantasies about someone fucking them. This is why Disney keeps failing. They refuse to accept my Polynesian third genderness, even as they intend to exploit it by making a film about my similar ancestor. I'm a bridge between lots of things, including genders. That's why my music is part

No, I'm not going to change my mind. I refuse to work for you because you hate me. You don't care about my personal life. If anything, you want to elide and avoid it. If my polyamorous relationships annoy you, then you're not going to get my songs. Your transphobia is so palpable that I've taken it to NZ Police. If I'm not mistaken, they've identified Mr. Mescal as one of my harassers. - If your fake Beatles suck and I'm better at sounding like them, then that's part of w

The very idea that you think I might want that tells me that awards shows are rigged, and that you're used to dealing with 'A-list' actors, writers and directors. They don't have real lives. I had a real life before all this Beatles bullshit. Definitely had a real life before Disney started nosing around... I haven't made a film to win an Oscar since I was 21. I turned 32 last month. I'm a New Zealander with substantial Polynesian and Māori heritage. My films are made for

No, it doesn't work like that. If the system wants Weeded Out, then the politics aren't going to be maintained. Steve Barr's Panthers show didn't do anything politically. Steve Barr's vision of putting my songs into a similar context is style over substance. Disney knows all about that, though... - A lame version of Pose is simply not going to cut it re: changing the world. Shipwrecked on Islands 2030, which the government doesn't want, might do more. Films aren't politi

Given we're all buying into the founder effect to explain tūrehu and other aspects of my skin and hair, I think this opens up the door to discussing multiple waves of migration from Polynesia to Te Riu-A-Māui. In the Far North of Europe, people have much paler skin than Mediterraneans. If the founder effect had held true, then later and current Tainui etc. groups would be lighter-skinned than people from the Polynesian islands. This isn't true, so that suggests people were

It's a very good album, much like McCartney III was. My favourite tracks were Down South, Never Know and Life Can Be Hard. Any coincidences between our albums are unintentional. - I think they've tweaked Home To Us. Ringo's drums sound more natural. Overall, the use of quantising is pervasive, excepting the lead vocals. There might be some autotune on the backing harmonies. It sounds very 21st Century, but it flattens out the rock'n'roll energy. Early rock has swing elem

It's going alright. He'll be in the hospital for another week or two, then he's cooking up a recovery plan with his private doctors. They reckon his wrist will heal in 6-8 months. Apparently, Nancy and James are the people who he thinks were controlling him. The new film was Nancy's idea, while James was shutting him down at Apple Corps. MPL keeps chugging along; that's his baby, and easily the most valuable of his assets. Unfortunately, they can't pay me for the screenwrit

Newsflash: The Beatles didn't dance. The audience danced. The boys kept their pulses and grooved a little. To rub salt in the wound of Sony and Disney, check out the real thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jInxwU27G30&list=RDjInxwU27G30&start_radio=1 All this synchronised bullshit came in with the Monkees and the imitators. People think that The Beatles danced because their tribute acts dance. - The Front Lawn didn't do steps. They turned everyday motion into poetry.

You don't own Taylor, and she came up with an idea for a musical that you didn't like. If you're being incredibly rude about her decision to leave Searchlight, then I think that you're being anti-competitive, and antitrust lawyers need to break up your conglomerate. It's a fucking indie musical on a low budget, not the next Marvel film. Behave accordingly. The IP isn't yours, and your ideas are beyond pathetic. - Taylor and Paul are the big fish, but we're all in the same

Look, no matter how you slice it, I've done a lot of work this year. The Beatles films might be a deluded fantasy, but Working For Each Other is still real. Collective Memories is still a full album that I came up with. Given my increasing popularity, those songs are worth something. Working For Each Other blew people's minds in Hollywood. There's an SNL episode and Bob's Burgers episodes that are referencing my film. Paul McCartney really did produce it. He didn't write t

To clarify, I wrote four episodes of a scripted series, which was about two hours worth. Following this, I made a small series of webisodes as tests. The longest of those webisodes, The Big Smoke, was a bit of a hit internationally. Thousands of people read the Weeded Out draft that I had attached to it. However, The Big Smoke established Amanda was interesting to watch, not Tina. It didn't establish any talent as an actor, just as a broadcaster. - At this point, I firmly

Yes, my grandmother's inheritance is finally sorted. No, the legal action must still take place. I will file an injunction to kill Weeded Out. I will file a civil claim that Victoria University of Wellington has harassed me. You know you're at fault, so accept the apology hui as a civil remedy. Some will still face criminal charges if they keep harassing me. - The standard of apology is simple: to my face and mean it. If you can't, then you don't get to apologise. I don'

Has it ever occurred to you that people would respect me on the set if you did your job and told them to listen to the transvestite director rather than spreading bogus rumours? Unfortunately for you, there aren't many feature film directors in New Zealand. I'm proven, and the fact that I made several for nothing on cheap cameras proves it. Unlike your twats, I write, direct, edit, do the VFX, promote and defend my own movies. - You weren't the ones getting blowback for T

A packet of chippies Is a mystery. Which comes first: The flavour or The branding? Amanda Riddell November 2025

He's a bit like Harvey Weinstein: he always wants to recut films. In Working For Each Other, he smoothed out the title seqeuence + the egg-cracking bits. Made it feel more like an ad. Morgan Neville was involved in the last week of cutting. Gave some notes. Most of that week was about ordering the clips, but new layers were added as well.

Sir Peter has gone up to London to figure out what happened to Paul McCartney. If you missed the drama, Sir Paul was assaulted by Sam Mendes and his lead actors. It wasn't life-threatening, but he's badly bruised and has a few broken bones. They stomped on his wrist, breaking it in three places, so notions of Sir Paul doing gigs on guitar and bass are out for a while. - The main discovery was that Sony weren't the main antagonists. They were shady, but it was Disney who h