Netflix’s new docuseries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness couldn’t have timed its release better. With large swaths of the globe trapped indoors, audiences are devouring streaming content, and the wild true crime series practically has everything. Tigers, murder-for-hire, courtroom drama, missing husbands, did we mention tigers?
Thanks to the perfect conditions of social-distancing and the series’ insane subject matter, it quickly became a viral hit that’s led to celebrities fighting each other over the movie adaptation, and musical artists like Cardi B launching a GoFundMe to get series star Joe Exotic out of prison. But Cardi can take her time because, to the surprise of no one, Joe is absolutely reveling in his newfound fame, and the opportunity to show off his piercings to the prison population, according to E! News:
Rebecca Chaiklin, co-director of Tiger King, said, “You can hardly talk to [Joe Exotic] without him mentioning the amount of press he’s getting.”
“He says people are asking to see his Prince Albert and girls are sending him sexy bikini pictures even though he’s gay. He’s over the moon. Having kept in pretty close touch with him while he’s been in a horrible county prison, this has raised his spirits. Joe definitely did some horrible things to his animals. He was very abusive to them and he shot five tigers, no question about it. But what has happened to him has also been hard,” Chaiklin said.
While Joe is remorseful about abusing the tigers and wants to dedicate himself to criminal reform, co-director Eric Goode cautioned the Los Angeles Times about taking the eccentric trainer at his word. “He is in a cage and of course he’s gonna say that he now recognizes what he did to these animals,” Goode said. “With Joe, we have empathy for him, but at the same time, he’s someone who really knows what to say at the right moment. I take it with a big grain of salt when he says he is now apologetic for keeping animals.”
(Via E! News)
