Miss Cleo talks money, fake accents, and 'spooky people' in a new interview

YouTube/kevstheatre

Miss Cleo talks money, fake accents, and 'spooky people' in a new interview
(Image credit: YouTube/kevstheatre)

There was once a time when the hotline psychic Miss Cleo's face was all over television, her Jamaican lilt urging couch potatoes to "Call me now!" for a reading. And people did: the Federal Trade Commission said that the Psychic Readers Network made more than $1 billion in shady profit.

In February 2002, the FTC filed a complaint against the company and Miss Cleo, alleging that they misrepresented the "free" readings and did not disclose the correct fees in advertisements. That was the beginning of the end for Miss Cleo, who says that she was just a spokeswoman, not the mastermind behind Psychic Readers Network.

She's kept a pretty low profile since, until now; today, she's featured in a new documentary, Hotline, which takes a closer look at telephone hotlines and their place in today's digital world:

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Vice interviewed Miss Cleo (real name: Youree Dell Harris) in Toronto and asked her about everything, from what she did before joining the Psychic Readers Network to how much money she really made.

Some of the more interesting tidbits she shared include the fact that she was not "fresh from Jamaica," although her television accent would have you believe otherwise, and she never went to jail, despite rumors today that she's still rotting away in a cell. She made 24 cents a minute from each call (compared to the other psychics, who made 14 cents) and comes from a long line of "spooky people." Read the entire interview at Vice, and watch the video below to instantly be transported back to a commercial break during The Ricki Lake Show. --Catherine Garcia

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.