Comedian Matt Rife is at the center of yet another bizarre controversy.
And this time, even “edgy” humor fans who might usually defend Rife are conceding that the comic may have gone too far.
You see, this wasn’t a case of Rife lashing out at a heckler on stage. Rather, he took to social media to encourage a fan with autism to kill himself.
Matt Rife attends the 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on January 05, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/WireImage)
Here’s the deal: Matt and a business partner named Elton Castee recently purchased the Haunted Warren Museum in Massachusetts.
The place was formerly owned by famed paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, and it houses the notorious haunted Annabelle doll.
Rife has taken some flak from the paranormal investigation community for seemingly not taking the museum seriously and for charging outrageous ticket prices.
One such investigator, Chris Mac, did not harshly criticize Matt (at least not that we know of), but did comment on one of his posts with some historical context about the Salem Witch Trials.
And for some reason, that comment prompted a scorched earth response from Matt:
“Sir, you are a lifeless douchebag. Please remove yourself from this earth. Absolutely nobody is reading your novels in these comments. You do not matter to anybody,” he wrote (via TMZ), adding:
“The event has already sold thousands of tickets. Now watch as I block you and you fall back into nonexistence
“Now am going move forward with all this nonsense garbage what Matt said and Elton Castee control your mentor Matt or get Matt therapy I don’t want ever ever want see Matt bully a person with autism again do I make myself clear not ok to say with a person with autism I have autism,” Mac shot back in response.
Rife has not yet responded, but Mac has quite a few supporters who have come to his defense.
Sources close to Rife explain that he is frequently bullied in the comments of his posts.
They explain that he has reached the point where he frequently replies in brutal fashion, and more often than not, the troll just quietly deletes their comment and goes away.
The insiders note that there is crucial context missing in this situation. Whatever the case, Matt is receiving a whole lot of flak today.
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Numerous comments on social media, even under the video itself, as if North is trying to reach the outside world with her lyrics and imagery.
Many adults find this sort of imagery disturbing when coming from a 13-year-old.
We have to emphasize that this, like North’s controversial fashion choices, is actually super normal for her age.
Developmentally, North is at an age where she pursues her own aesthetics and listens to her own music. (In her case, as a nepo baby, she also makes her own, but that’s not so standard.)
Her dark kawaii Hot Topic vibes are much more typical for a 13-year-old than the enormous wealth and involuntary fame into which she was born as the child of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
John Rich, best known for being one half of the country music duo, Big & Rich, is pleading with Tennessee leaders to step in as more and more downtown Nashville businesses are on the verge of shutting down amid an ongoing struggle with rising property taxes.
The country star has been making a great effort to ensure his concerns are being heard. He has shared a powerful statement to his own social media platforms, spoke candidly with News 2 and even sat down with Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton to address the significant tax spikes threatening the city’s live music scene.
In a new video shared with fans, Rich begins by asking, “When you think about Nashville, Tennessee, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Is it live country music? I bet it is. I bet that’s why you come here, because you want to hear the best of the best. You want to go down and hear band after band. You want to hear that great live country music in what? Music City USA, Nashville, Tennessee.”
Photo Courtesy John Rich
He went on to argue that the Mayor of Nashville and his administration have increased property assessments, leading to significantly higher taxes that he believes “make it virtually impossible for business owners around Nashville to stay in business.”
Following new property appraisals completed in 2024, updated tax bills went into effect in 2025, with some property owners seeing increases of up to four times their previous bills in just one year. Word began to spread more widely about this troubling news at the start of 2026 when Rob Mortenson, the head of the Broadway Entertainment Association, told FOX17 that the rising taxes could mean the end of many longtime establishments on Broadway.
“These are folks that have been there for 40 years on Broadway, and, you know, they can’t pay the taxes. Their option is, I was told, we’re either going to go bankrupt or go to jail, one of the two, because we literally can’t pay the taxes.”
WSMV 4 Nashville also reported that Tom Morales, owner of Acme Feed & Seed, indicated that he has found himself in the same unfortunate situation. He opened up about fearing for the future of his business after his property taxes went from $129,000 to $600,000.
These skyrocketing numbers are clearly impacting some of the most legendary honky tonks and country music establishments that make up the famed strip. Rich reiterates that several have already been forced to close their doors and if something isn’t done soon, there will be plenty more to follow, which will also have a negative impact on the tourism. He fears that country music fans will no longer have the live music to draw them into town.
“We’ve got a Super Bowl coming to Nashville in a few years. Can you imagine the Super Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee, and you look down Broadway and only about 30 or 40% of those neon signs have electricity still running to them? That’s what we’re looking at,” he stated. “You’re losing people, you’re losing massive business because live country music no longer exists down there.”
Rich continued, “This is a 911 kind of situation for our town, but actually for the state, because those tax dollars find their way into the school system, first responders, all kinds of things that citizens of Tennessee need. A lot of that money gets generated right downtown in Nashville. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican, you know that’s the math.”
Unwilling to back down, the “Shuttin’ Detroit Down” singer, alongside various business leaders, sat down for a meeting with Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton on Wednesday, August 5 to explain the severity of the situation.
“I’m telling you, there were tears coming out of some eyes. There was anger. There was frustration. And there was honestly a sense of almost hopelessness, like we don’t know what to do. We’re going to have to shut our lights off next month or in 60 or 90 days.”
After asking the Speaker, “what can be done?” Sexton explained the next stop is to schedule a special session with Tennessee Govender Bill Lee.
Rich replied, “‘Can you commit today to ask the governor for a special session to talk about this issue? This is massive. You can’t let the music die, the live music scene die in downtown Nashville.’ He agreed.”
The singer proceeded to get Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) to also agree to a meeting with Gov. Lee.
“He said, ‘Yep. Need to have a special session, ASAP. This is not okay. This is not good. And you’re right, it’s unsustainable. We got to figure something out.’”
Downtown business owner Barrett Hobbs, who attended the meeting alongside Rich, told News 2 that if businesses continue to close, Nashville and the state would be at risk of losing a major source of tax revenue.
“No business can sustain itself. If you’ve got an expenditure that’s $100,000 and then it goes to $600,000 in five months,” Hobbs said. “We can’t just call the city and say, ‘Hey, we weren’t expecting this. Can you give us two years to pay this increase?’ And that’s kind of where we are.”
Broadway — Nashville; Photo by Andrew Wendowski
Bill Miller, founder and CEO of Icon Entertainment & Hospitality, also told the Business Journal, “It’s not sustainable — business on Broadway is the lowest I’ve seen in all the time we’ve been here… This will absolutely lead to people going out of business. You’re going to have vacant storefronts, and the politicians can say I’m being dramatic, but the politicians don’t balance my books every month.”
Governor Lee has been serving since January 2019, meaning he will finish out his second term in January 2027 and cannot run again due to state term limits. With less than six months left in office, John Rich is urging the state leader to “be a honky tonk hero” and save the live music in downtown Nashville.
“Have that meeting. Answer that call. Have that special session. Bring them all in. The business leaders will show you the math, will show you what’s happening and how unsustainable and crushing it is. It is absolutely brutal what is happening to some of these businesses. Please take that meeting…Please have that session, and please come with a solution. Keep Music City, Music City. We’re counting on you, governor. Be our honky-tonk hero. I know you can do it. All right. God bless you. God bless Tennessee. God bless America,” Rich concluded.
On Thursday, Haven expressed a hope that “family and others can choose love over fear, understanding over judgment, and connection over the beliefs that may have kept us apart.”
He aspired: “I hope they can look beyond the labels and simply see me with the same heart, the same laugh, the same soul they’ve always known.”
For her part, Imbelli was deeply supportive of her ex-husband.
“I didn’t want to see it. I didn’t want to believe” that he was gay, she explained.
“I knew it and I wanted to support you and love you,” Imbelli reasoned. “And then I didn’t want to believe it because then it would mean losing you in that capacity, which I couldn’t.”
On the stream, she affirmed that Haven will remain her “life partner” but not her spouse. “You are not my close friend. You are my love. And you happen to be gay.”
That’s actually really beautiful! It’s a good reminder that it’s never too late to come out. It can be a daunting prospect, but many aspects of your life will improve faster than you think.
We’ve known for a while that Jax Taylor is dating Lori Krebs, the former publicist and close friend of his ex-wife, Brittany Cartwright.
But we figured it was just a fling. This is Jax Taylor, after all.
Of course, falling in love with Lori and launching a serious relationship is pretty much the worst thing Jax could do in this situation, so naturally, that’s exactly what he did.
Jax Taylor attends the LA art show opening night premiere party hosted by Jenna Dewan at Los Angeles Convention Center on February 19, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for LA Art Show)
Speaking with paparazzi outside a Los Angeles gym this week, Taylor didn’t hesitate when asked about Krebs.
“I love [Krebs] to death. You can’t help who you fall in love with. Everybody deserves to find happiness,” he said (via Page Six).
The former Bravo star went on to gush about the relationship, saying:
“I’m in the happiest place I’ve ever been, and I couldn’t be happier right now. My mental health has been so amazing since I’ve been with her.”
Taylor also called Krebs “the best thing that’s ever happened” to him and said the two “love each other very, very much.”
The public declaration comes just weeks after Taylor confirmed he was “taken” without identifying his new partner following the publication of vacation photos showing the pair together in Puerto Vallarta.
Taylor’s comments arrive on the heels of a very public response from Cartwright, who has made it clear she feels deeply betrayed by both her estranged husband and her former friend.
During recent interviews, Cartwright described Krebs as someone who had been like family for years, saying the publicist helped her through some of the darkest moments of her marriage before beginning a relationship with Taylor.
She has since fired Krebs and didn’t hold back when discussing the situation publicly.
Taylor acknowledged that Cartwright has “every right” to be upset, but insisted “a lot of the stuff she’s saying is untrue.”
He also argued that many of the issues she’s raising stem from years ago, pointing to the extensive rehab and mental health treatment he’s undergone since the couple separated in 2024.
“I’ve gone through countless amounts of rehab [and] countless amounts of mental health facilities,” Taylor said, adding that he believes it’s unfair for old issues to continue defining him.
Questions about the timeline have fueled much of the controversy.
Taylor and Krebs first sparked speculation back in 2024 after appearing together in social media photos, though those rumors were denied at the time.
According to a source who spoke with Page Six, however, the romantic relationship didn’t begin until several months ago.
The insider said both Taylor and Krebs were single when they got together and that their relationship developed naturally while Krebs supported Taylor through his struggles with substance abuse and mental health.
“This is the first relationship he’s been in sober,” the source claimed, adding that Taylor is “taking it very seriously.”
Krebs has not commented publicly on the relationship. She’s a publicist, after all, so she probably knows what sort of PR headaches will come with dating Jax.
