S01.E06: February 31st

[Scarlett45]

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As Steve's financial woes mount, Nick offers a lifeline in the form of a proposal that would take Chippendales global. A printing error has disastrous consequences for the entire business.

Air Date: December 20, 2022

[Snazzy Daisy]

I have been waiting for the napkin contract to come into place, finally!

Steve’s mom - “Some people are not meant to be rich.”

Steve’s dad - “Double check your proof.”

Steve’s wife - “Stop doing things behind my back.”

Steve’s business lawyer will definitely say - “Never do business deals without an attorney present.”

Hey Steve, arrogance is the camouflage of insecurity!
 

 

[peridot]

I can't believe Irene turned around so quickly on the necklace.  I guess her statement to Steve was true after all - she doesn't care what he does as long as it isn't done badly.  It's a shame what money does to people.

I thought Steve had business sense, why on Earth wouldn't he involve a lawyer in a business contract and why not proof the calendars?  He only has himself to blame, but he's so eager to blame Nick for all the wrongs in his life.  His henchman gets on my nerves too. 

 

[chocolatine]

2 hours ago, peridot said:

I can't believe Irene turned around so quickly on the necklace.  I guess her statement to Steve was true after all - she doesn't care what he does as long as it isn't done badly.  It's a shame what money does to people.

I was so disappointed with her turnaround. Until that point, she was the only character I'd been rooting for.

I couldn't stop facepalming at Steve's bad decisions in this episode. It's like all of his common sense and business experience had been erased.

[iMonrey]

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I couldn't stop facepalming at Steve's bad decisions in this episode. It's like all of his common sense and business experience had been erased.

Yeah. If this wasn't based on a true story I'd say it's too unbelievable to be true. He's his own worst enemy.

Thanks for the screenshot of the napkin SnazzyDaisy. Since the lawyer says it constitutes a legal contract, and it does specify that Steve is to receive 50% of the profits, I'd think that would give them a right to look at the books and make sure they are indeed getting their fair share. I mean that's all they really care about anyway, that they aren't getting cheated by Nick.

[AllyB]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Yeah. If this wasn't based on a true story I'd say it's too unbelievable to be true. He's his own worst enemy.

Thanks for the screenshot of the napkin SnazzyDaisy. Since the lawyer says it constitutes a legal contract, and it does specify that Steve is to receive 50% of the profits, I'd think that would give them a right to look at the books and make sure they are indeed getting their fair share. I mean that's all they really care about anyway, that they aren't getting cheated by Nick.

I assume they wanted to run the tours themselves as soon as possible so they could be making 100% of the profits. That said, if I was making today's equivalent of well over 100k a month for literally nothing, I'd just get over my naivety and enjoy the money. Nick was right too, the tours open an enormous new audience to Chippendales merchandise, so they could easily have massively increased their calendar sales. Every state, Canada, western Europe, Australia, New Zealand all become huge new markets for calendars.

And cheesey as it was, the Chippendales foray into pop music with Give Me Your Body opened the the market wider as they hit younger audiences and women who were never going to go to a Chippendales show suddenly became aware of them and may have purchased a calendar, even as a gag gift for a friend. And that was only possible because of the tours. Steve may have screwed himself with the napkin contract, but he was basically getting paid a fortune for what was essentially a massive marketing campaign for his merchandising. 

[Snapdragon]

Not sure how much of this series is actually factual (have the A&E docuseries about it queued up for after I finish) and how much is Hollywood embellishment but if the real people were even half as bad as the characters on screen, man, were Steve and Nick a$$holes!  They had such a good business idea but are both so egotistical and petty that they get in their own way and just pick at each other for no reason.  

[iMonrey]

14 hours ago, Snapdragon said:

Not sure how much of this series is actually factual (have the A&E docuseries about it queued up for after I finish) and how much is Hollywood embellishment but if the real people were even half as bad as the characters on screen, man, were Steve and Nick a$$holes!  They had such a good business idea but are both so egotistical and petty that they get in their own way and just pick at each other for no reason.  

Just started watching the Chippendales Murders doc. So far most of what they've shown between Steve and Nick has been true. The big difference is that the real Irene wasn't involved in the business. She was a stay at home mom and never even went to the club. And it doesn't appear that Denise actually existed either. But Murray Bartlett bears a striking resemblance to the real Nick, so great casting there. 

[Snapdragon]

6 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Just started watching the Chippendales Murders doc. So far most of what they've shown between Steve and Nick has been true. The big difference is that the real Irene wasn't involved in the business. She was a stay at home mom and never even went to the club. And it doesn't appear that Denise actually existed either. But Murray Bartlett bears a striking resemblance to the real Nick, so great casting there. 

No Denise?  Then who invented the rip away pants????????

In all seriousness, I can see why they invented Denise and changed the level of Irene's involvement.  They needed people for Steve and Nick to talk/vent to and without them, it'd just be Steve and Nick yelling at each other the entire time.  

[greekmom]

I can't believe Steve who thinks of himself as a hotshot businessman would have:

a) sued Nick for going around as Mr. Chippendale and owner of the Chippendales

b) get a lawyer to draw up legal contracts for the Chippendale tour

c) he didn't proof read the freaking calendars?

d) he should have settled the discrimination lawsuits quietly and had the people sue them sign NDAs.

[iMonrey]

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I can't believe Steve who thinks of himself as a hotshot businessman would have:

Well that's the thing - he may "think of himself as a hotshot businessman" but clearly he wasn't a good businessman. This show is making it look like Irene is the one with all the smarts, so in order for Steve to keep flubbing like this he's constantly doing things behind her back. 

[Alice Mudgarden]

I think "Denise" is a fictional version of Candace Mayeron. How Candace became involved with Chippendales is more or less how Denise did, and Candace became close with Nick DeNoia, being a manager of sorts for the touring show. She even had curly hair! I don't think she invented the tear away pants, but I'm also not totally sure about that.

I'm guessing she didn't want her name used in the show?

On 12/21/2022 at 8:18 PM, Snapdragon said:

Not sure how much of this series is actually factual (have the A&E docuseries about it queued up for after I finish) and how much is Hollywood embellishment but if the real people were even half as bad as the characters on screen, man, were Steve and Nick a$$holes!  They had such a good business idea but are both so egotistical and petty that they get in their own way and just pick at each other for no reason.  

It's pretty factual, though not exactly so. The biggest thing that stuck out to me as not being 100% right was how the idea came to be - Paul Snider was the one who had the idea and told Steve about it, becoming some kind of partners in it (I forget the details). Steve implemented it and Paul was the emcee at the start (and did get fired for sucking at it, though I believe not by Nick DeNoia - I'm not sure the time the two of them spent at the club ever even intersected), but the idea was definitely Paul's.

It's why the whole Steve vs. Nick feud over who created what makes me laugh a little - Steve basically stole the idea for Chippendales from Paul to begin with. If we're being technical, neither of them created it.

Edited December 24, 2022 by Alice Mudgarden

[iMonrey]

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I think "Denise" is a fictional version of Candace Mayeron. 

I wondered about that, just because Candace seemed a little "out there." But Denise is probably more fictional than fact-based, or at most a composite of more than one real life person. I think Snapdragon is right in thinking Irene and "Denise" are mostly here to give an ear to Steve and Nick's gripes. 

One thing I'm not clear on is whether Steve signed away rights to the touring company in exchange for 50% of the profits in real life. The napkin deal was real, but I'm not sure he actually got any profits from it.

Edited December 24, 2022 by iMonrey

[Alice Mudgarden]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

One thing I'm not clear on is whether Steve signed away rights to the touring company in exchange for 50% of the profits in real life. The napkin deal was real, but I'm not sure he actually got any profits from it.

I wondered about that too, and looking it up doesn't help me any. Some places back up what the show says, and others don't mention that at all. I had been under the impression that the deal was if Nick got a (successful, I'd imagine) club up and running in NYC, he'd get the rights to touring "in perpetuity", almost as if that would be his payment, but now I'm not certain if I'm remembering what I heard correctly.

Edited December 24, 2022 by Alice Mudgarden

[QQQQ]

Totally squealed when I saw Donna Pescow 🤗

[Soapy Goddess]

8 hours ago, QQQQ said:

Totally squealed when I saw Donna Pescow 🤗

What character does she play?

[iMonrey]

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Totally squealed when I saw Donna Pescow 🤗

What character does she play?

She's playing Steve and Irene's lawyer.* Wouldn't have recognized her in a million years. 

I kind of wish they had dropped all the episodes for this show at once, although I guess Hulu doesn't really do that. But it seems like it took a long time to get to Nick's murder and there's only one episode left - from what I can tell, anyway. That's an awful lot more of the story to cram into one episode when they dragged so much of the history out over six or seven. Having watched the documentary I know what will happen, more or less, so it seems to me like Nick's murder should have happened two or three episodes ago. 

* Oops, apparently not. See below.

Edited December 28, 2022 by iMonrey

[QQQQ]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

She's playing Steve and Irene's lawyer. Wouldn't have recognized her in a million years. 

That might be because she's playing the jeweler who convinces Irene to keep the necklace Steve purchased for her. Of course, I'll always and forever see her as Annette from Saturday Night Fever 💞

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by QQQQ

[iMonrey]

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That might be because she's playing the jeweler who convinces Irene to keep the necklace Steve purchased for her. Of course, I'll always and forever see her as Annette from Saturday Night Fever 💞

Ah, I stand corrected. She's only listed as "Bridget" in imdb.com.