I don’t know why, but when we rendered the banner image of Mat Watson standing beside Orlando Bloom, the AI aged Watson and de-aged Bloom.

Anyway, Watson joins Orlando Bloom—a Hollywood star and all that—to try out the all-new Porsche Cayenne somewhere in the middle of nowhere in California.

And that got us thinking: why is a Hollywood star worth a reputed $40 million hanging out with a downtrodden journalist who somehow managed to carve out a hugely popular car review and sales/YouTube channel?

Orlando Bloom didn’t wake up one morning and say, “You know what? I want to spend a day testing the Porsche Cayenne EV with Carwow and Mat Watson!”

No—it doesn’t work like that. Orlando knows he has residual value just by showing up. It turns out Bloom is an on-and-off Porsche ambassador of sorts, and he’s even co-developed a fashion line with the company’s accessories brand, Porsche Design.

And there you have it: Bloom is spending time with Watson because it’s a commercial tie-in. He’s killing two birds with one stone and doing Porsche a (financially rewarding) favour.

Rather sadly, Watson seems to think Bloom is becoming his best buddy. At one point he said, “I’m on your time if you want,” or words to that effect. If I were a Carwow producer, I’d have said, “Hold on, Mat! It costs us money to film these videos, and we’re on a tight schedule. Have your buddy moment, then wrap it up—ASAP!”

Anyway, I’m just waffling now like an old-school rag—and I hate old-school rags.