{"id":308317,"date":"2025-11-23T04:37:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T04:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/308317\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T04:37:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T04:37:16","slug":"the-weird-mystery-of-olivia-nuzzis-teenage-pop-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/308317\/","title":{"rendered":"The Weird Mystery of Olivia Nuzzi\u2019s Teenage Pop Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOlivia Nuzzi<\/a> is no stranger to controversy. The ex-New York magazine reporter became notorious in the 2024 scandal over her alleged sexting affair with a presidential candidate she was writing about \u2014 Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now the Secretary of Health. It looked like the end of her journalism career, yet she landed on her feet with her new gig at Vanity Fair and her new memoir American Canto. But now Nuzzi\u2019s story is taking an even more bizarre turn, with reports that she once had a secret life \u2014 as an aspiring teenage pop star<\/a>, under the name Livvy. In 2009 when she was 16, she dropped a faux-Britney banger called \u201cJailbait.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSubtle, it\u2019s not. \u201c16 will get you 20,\u201d Livvy sings. \u201cA teenage queen right in front of you\/Illegal dream, killer to pursue.\u201d She pants about \u201ccraving sin,\u201d over the synth-disco beats, boasting, \u201cBad things happen when you hear my name\/Deny your attraction but I\u2019ve got no shame.\u201d In the chorus she belts, \u201cJailbait! You try too stay away, but you can\u2019t obey!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, the song is ghastly, much worse than you\u2019d expect. Is it real? Too soon to tell. Is this whole story crazy? No doubt. So let\u2019s dig into the bizarre mystery of that insanely bad, quite possibly fake Olivia Nuzzi song.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou have to take Livvy with a grain of salt, since this story is so sketchily sourced, even the New York Post had a spasm of conscience and put \u201capparently\u201d in the lede. (And this from the paper that just gave us the instant-classic headline \u201cThe Red Apple\u201d after Zohran Mamdani\u2019s election, with the tag, \u201cOn your Marx, get set, Zo!\u201d) Nuzzi made a strangely equivocal statement to the Post, with her spokesperson saying, \u201cThis was a satirical prank from when Olivia was a child actor and was never meant to be taken seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn her supposed MySpace profile<\/a>, from 2009, she\u2019s glammed up in the style of an American Apparel ad: purple headband, black bracelets, tank dress, thigh-high boots. Another photo shows her in a white lace chemise over a black bra and leather pants, with a pair of handcuffs dangling from her wrist. She describes herself as \u201ca visual, conceptual artist with an addiction to pop music.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tAny trace of Livvy has been wiped from the internet \u2014 the only digital footprint is an item in the music blog PopJustice,<\/a> from February 2010. \u201c\u2018Jailbait\u2019 is about the role of the underaged, hyper-sexualized girl in society,\u201d Livvy explains. \u201cThat girl who takes half naked photos of herself in the mirror with her camera phone. It\u2019s about pornographic ideals infiltrating our collective consciousness \u2014 this obsession with youth and beauty. I\u2019m not saying that any of this is wrong, I\u2019m simply stating that it is. This song is me coming to a societal realization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe MySpace page is a hell of an artistic manifesto, explaining the whole Livvy concept. \u201cCreating a multi-media character for herself, Livvy has dreamed up \u2018Emockative: the Life of a Pop Object,\u2019 a short film series shot on the streets of downtown New York City.\u201d She portrays \u201cthe life of a loyal disciple of pop culture who has given up conventional life and engulfed herself in a world made of plastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s excellent reason to have doubts about how real this is. The recording doesn\u2019t exactly scream \u201c2009\u201d at you (no AutoTune!) and it sounds like a post-collegiate adult singing. The Livvy photos look more like a Real Housewife than a ninth-grader. Listen to a song made by an actual teenager in that era, like Rebecca Black\u2019s \u201cFriday,\u201d and it sounds out of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNobody can say for sure how authentic this is, since it\u2019s incredibly easy to make up a hoax like this. You could invent the Livvy character in a coffee break, with an AI track and faked screen shots from a conveniently deleted MySpace. (No Livvy Twitter \u2014 in 2009? Dubious.) In a blindfold test, you\u2019d have to admit, you would not guess \u201cJailbait\u201d was by an authentic teenager. You\u2019d figure it was a comedy-minded adult trying to do a ham-fisted sketch about sexed-up teen-pop stars. I mean, this was almost a decade after Andy Dick was on MTV with his brilliant Britney\/Xtina parody character Daphne Aguilera. \u201cJailbait\u201d sounds exactly like Daphne\u2019s TRL anthem, \u201cNaughty Baby Did a No-No.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJailbait\u201d is purportedly from late 2009 or early 2010, taking a ride on a disco stick, heavily influenced by Lady Gaga<\/a> (the year\u2019s big breakout artist, with hits like \u201cPoker Face\u201d and \u201cLoveGame\u201d) and Britney (in her Circus era, with \u201cWomanizer,\u201d \u201c3,\u201d and \u201cIf U Seek Amy\u201d). PopJustice quips that she \u201cmakes Ke$ha sound sentient. If this were a NYC wanna-be club kid making her own single at the end of the 2000s, you might expect to hear the influence of LaRoux (\u201cBulletproof\u201d) or the Ting Tings (\u201cThat\u2019s Not My Name\u201d) or the Knife (\u201cHeartbeat\u201d), the music playing in the parties she was fantasizing about getting into, though there\u2019s no trace on \u201cJailbait.\u201d The music sounds like a terrible Brooklyn electro indie-sleaze band opening for Crystal Castles or Yachts at Studio B, then rushing home to make sure the Tivo caught Gossip Girl.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe PopJustice piece doesn\u2019t interview Livvy, and makes no claim to verify her identity. It just quotes the email she sent them. \u201c\u2018Offensive,\u2019 \u2018vapid,\u2019 \u2018frothy,\u2019 \u2018bubblegum,\u2019 \u2018outrageous,\u2019 \u2018morally bankrupt\u2019 and \u2018undeniably infectious\u2019,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThese are just some of the words that have been used to describe \u2018Jailbait,\u2019 and the not-yet-legal mind behind it, sixteen year old singer\/songwriter, Livvy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\u201cJailbait\u201d seems to prophesize her future persona, which has been well-documented in the gossip columns. Nuzzi was profiling Kennedy for New York when their alleged sextingship began, during his ridiculous presidential campaign, which led to his current gig as Secretary of Health, at which he sucks. She was 31, he was 71 and married to Cheryl Hines. Kennedy denied the whole thing, but Hines has a new memoir discussing the scandal. Meanwhile, Nuzzi has her own memoir American Canto, with her poetic musings on their bad romance. \u201cHe desired,\u201d she writes. \u201cHe desired desiring. He desired being desired. He desired desire itself.\u201d Oh, it goes on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJailbait\u201d also seems to prefigure her alleged relationships with TV journalist Keith Olbermann, who met her in her teens and put her through college, and disgraced South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, most famous for disappearing on the job and showing up a week later in Buenos Aires with his side squeeze. \u201cJailbait\u201d seems to foreshadow the gossip when Livvy sings, \u201cBad things happen to those who prey\/A basic instinct to die another day\/16 will get you 20, lust criminally\/Irresistible, that\u2019s whey they call me\u2026jailbait!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn her MySpace page, she compares herself to legends from all over pop history. \u201cThe day that Madonna released \u2018Erotica.\u2019 The day that Andy Warhol made his first film. The day that Freddie Mercury sang his last note. The day that Judy Garland conceived Liza Minnelli. The day that Britney Spears<\/a> told you to hit it one more time. The day that Cher first met a sequin. The day that Candy Darling took her last breath. The day that Mick Jagger first strut across a stage. The day that Pamela Anderson was introduced to silicone. The day that David Bowie sang \u2018Lady Stardust.\u2019 The day that Michael Jackson first slipped on a white glove\u2026 was the day that Livvy was born.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo who is she? \u201cLivvy is a sixteen year old singer, songwriter and actress. A former Wilhelmina model, she has appeared in various commercials, films, television programs and print ads since her start in the business at the age of five. Influenced by pop stars, rock stars, rap stars, movie stars and tabloid stars \u2013 Livvy is prepared to explode onto the music scene and dominate the pop world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tLIVVY is a pop chorus.\u00a0
LIVVY is a rock ballad.
LIVVY is a hip hop beat.
LIVY is the past.
LIVVY is the future.
LIVVY is now\u2026 and she\u2019s about to blow your mind.
Pop gave me life<\/p>\n

\n\tOlivia Nuzzi definitely went on to fame, though maybe not the kind she was aiming for as a teenage pop star or actress. We may never learn who exactly Livvy is or where she came from. But for Nuzzi, who knows \u2014 it just might be a career highlight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olivia Nuzzi is no stranger to controversy. The ex-New York magazine reporter became notorious in the 2024 scandal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[9645,88,3287,216,130934],"class_list":{"0":"post-308317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-britney-spears","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-lady-gaga","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-olivia-nuzzi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}