The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.18 Russell Brand Assault Accusations, Denial, & Fallout, Missing F-35 Fighter Jet, Drew Barrymore, &

Episode Date: September 18, 2023

Thanks to Keeps for sponsoring this video! Head to https://keeps.com/defranco to get a special offer  Go Buy http://WakeandMakeCoffee.com 50% OFF select orders! This new batch won’t last long. Catch up on our latest PDS: https://youtu.be/JMrP972R5zM?si=kw9vlBKReynXNwgL Check out our daily newsletter! http://dailydip.co/pds  Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phillydefranco/?hl=en  –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Russell Brand Denies Allegations from Women 04:25 - Drew Barrymore Pauses Talk Show Return Until Strike Ends 06:26 - F-35 Pilot Ejects in South Carolina, Jet Remains Missing 07:48 - Unity Apologizes, Promises to Change Controversial Fee Policy 10:03 - Sponsored by Kepps 10:53 - UAW Strike Hits Day Four 13:18 - Ken Paxton Acquitted on All Impeachment Articles by Texas Senate 15:14 - Hunter Biden Sues IRS Over Release of his Tax Records 16:38 - Italian & EU Authorities Promise Action in Migrant Crises  ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #RussellBrand #DrewBarrymore ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we're talking about the massive allegations against Russell Brand, his defense, and all the fallout we've seen since. The U.S. government needs your help finding a lost $100 million fighter jet. Drew Barrymore has reversed her decision and apologized, and the reaction to that is exposed a lot. The United Auto Workers strike is in full gear, it could have massive economic impacts. And Italy has a full-blown crisis on its hands. We're talking about all that and so much more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news made possible by beautiful bastards like you who buy Wake & Make coffee. Y'all ditch the burnt, bitter, and overpriced coffee that you got used to and go to wakeandmakecoffee.com

to buy your first bags for 50% off and fall in love with your new favorite morning cups of coffee. So smooth and delicious, some have even said it tastes like a better life. But we've got a lot of news to talk about today, so let's just jump into it. Starting with, we need to talk about these massive allegations against Russell Brand and the whirlwind this story has created. Right, because over the weekend, a joint investigation from UK outlets, The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4 alleged that Brand sexually assaulted four women between 2006 and 2013. With that being at the height of his fame when he was getting lots of comedy gigs and film roles. The first major accusation coming from a woman who claims Russell raped her against a wall at his home in LA.

With her reportedly going to a rape crisis center the same day and the Times viewing medical records verifying that. Another woman also accused him of sexually assaulting her in Los Angeles, and further adding that he threatened legal action if she went public. With another saying that he sexually assaulted her in addition to being physically and emotionally abusive. And then finally, you had a 16-year-old also accusing him of assault and saying they had a three-month relationship while he was 31. And with that, claiming that during the time, he was emotionally abusive and referred to her as the child. And with that, you also had NBC News noting that 16 is the age of consent in the UK, but also with this, saying she believes that she was groomed, telling the Times, Russell engaged in the behaviors of a

groomer looking back, but I didn't even know what that was then or what that looked like. Also, in addition to those four main accusations, you had other claims coming from people who worked with him, with one woman saying that he flashed her, another saying that he would show people intimate photos of women. You also had the likes of comedian Daniel Sloss saying people in the industry knew about this for years, that women warned each other about Russell. Now with all this, as far as what Russell Brand is saying, he actually preempted them in a video denying that he ever assaulted anyone,

saying he'd received messages from both a newspaper and a television outlet listing out egregious allegations and adding, I was very, very promiscuous. Now during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent. And I'm being transparent about it now as well.

And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question, is there another agenda at play? Right, with him then suggesting that the media is working against him, trying to suggest they did the same thing with Joe Rogan in the past. We've seen coordinated media attacks before, like with Joe Rogan when he dared to take a medicine that the mainstream media didn't approve of. And we saw a spate of headlines from media outlets across the world using the same language. Feels to me like there's a serious and concerted agenda to control these kind of spaces and these kind of voices. And I mean my voice along with your voice.

And this coming as well, many people probably know Bran for his comedy from 10 plus years ago. In recent years, he's had kind of a different shtick with Deadline describing him as a counterculture guru who spreads conspiracies and questions mainstream media. Saying that he was spreading COVID and vaccine misinformation, that kind of stuff. With reportedly some of the women who have come forward saying that his new prominence in this wellness-adjacent space was a factor in their choice to share their allegations. But as far as some of the fallout we've seen, since the reports broke, Russell was dropped by his agent, with a representative saying they were horribly misled by Russell and were cutting all professional ties.

A book publisher has also halted its working relationship with him, and several networks where he previously worked, including Channel 4 and BBC, are investigating his conduct. And all this as police in the UK are also being urged to investigate him. Also, according to reports, he actually lost opportunities in the past over these claims, with Deadline reporting that he was dropped from one of his last major TV gigs after comedians accused him of being a predator. Reportedly, he was booked on Rose Battle back in 2018, and sources said that comedian Katherine Ryan made several jokes about Brand regarding these kinds of allegations during filming that didn't end up making the final cut. And reportedly,

those jokes made Russell furious. And so production was uncomfortable with the rumors about him, as well as how upset he was by the jokes, giving them the chance to drop it. So it seems like these claims have actually just been bubbling below the surface for some time now. But in no way does that mean that everyone has turned against him. Over the weekend, he had a show in London. There he got a standing ovation. He also had a number of people running to his defense, including big names like Elon Musk, who responded to Russell's video saying this is an attack from the mainstream media, saying, of course, they don't like competition.

Andrew Tate also writing, welcome to the club, alongside a meme that said, on my way to fight the crazy bitch allegations. But for now, we're going to have to wait to see how things play out. Especially because since the Times published its initial report, reportedly it's received more allegations of sexual assault from other women. But while we wait to see what more comes from this, I got to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here? And then, who Drew Barrymore has had herself a week?

Last week, she faced tons of backlash after she announced that she'd be moving forward with her talk show this fall. With the Writers Guild quickly saying she was violating their strike by doing this, people calling her a scab, and all that leading to her posting a video on Friday where she emotionally apologized for her choice,

but saying she was still gonna be moving forward with the show anyways. And that leading to even more backlash with seemingly people pissed off that she was trying to act like a victim for making this choice to go against the union. With all of that then getting us to Sunday where she had a full change of heart and saying that she would wait for the strike to end before returning to her show. Writing on Instagram, I have listened to everyone and I am making the decision to pause the show's premiere until the strike is over. I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt. and of course to our incredible team who works on the show and has made it what it is

today. We really tried to find our way forward, and I truly hope for a resolution for the entire industry very soon. And with that, CBS Media Ventures also releasing a statement saying it supports Drew's decision and understands how complicated this time period has been for her. You know, some people were very happy with her saying, you know, she did the right thing by listening, admitting she was wrong, switching course. Meanwhile, you had others against this move saying, oh, this is her bowing down to cancel culture, getting bullied. And then you had this final group that was like, okay, she made the change, but still screw her. She's only doing this to try to alleviate the backlash. Which, hey, I'm cynical and I'm a bit of an asshole, but I also have to ask like what

resolution would make you happy? Because obviously the best case scenario would be to somehow have a time machine and not ever ring the bell. But this is the real world, and a bell has been rung, so all you can do is navigate from that point. So if people write the course in your eyes, and you're still going to tell them to go fuck themselves, why should you be shocked when there is a world where people lean into the choice that you don't like? That sort of thinking creates an unwinnable situation. Because ideally, in any situation, we can allow room for grace and growth. Obviously, not everything's equal. Or like if Drew Barrymore murdered somebody,

I'm not gonna be like, guys, what do you want from her? She said, sorry. But all that said, Barrymore's move here does seem to have prompted other talk shows to do the same. Now, the likes of The Talk, The Jennifer Hudson Show, as well as Bill Maher postponing their returns.

Notably, all of this coming as negotiations between the WGA and the studios are set to resume again. Which by the way, with the writer's strike, if they keep it up for just a few more weeks and they make it to October 4th, it will officially make it the longest strike in the Guild's history. And then the U.S. government lost a $100 million weapon and they are begging you to please help them find it. Because yesterday afternoon, for unknown reasons, a pilot ejected from an F-35B Lightning II fighter jet over South

Carolina. And luckily, the pilot is safe, but that's not the issue at hand. The issue is they have no fucking clue where the plane is. But a spokesman for Joint Base Charleston saying the transponder was not working for some reason that we haven't yet determined. And ironically, the plane's own stealth systems are making it harder to detect, so in at least one way, it appears to be working too well. And right now, technically, they're not even saying whether the plane has actually crashed. Because while they don't know where it is, they know that it was reportedly left in autopilot mode when the pilot ejected. So I guess it's kind of like Schrodinger's F-35.

Now, as a recording, you have the Marines, the Air Force, and the FAA all looking for this thing. But then focusing their search near Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion. And the joint base is going so far as to hit up social media and asking the public to help it find the most advanced, most expensive fighter jet ever built. And so, of course, you have a lot of people poking fun at this. Saying things like, I'll check my ring doorbell. Or found it. It's in my backyard. Though I also gotta ask, really? I put an air tag in my luggage. You couldn't put it on a $100 million

aircraft? Though not everyone's joking with their criticisms. With people like Republican Nancy Mace, whose district includes Charleston, saying, how in the hell do you lose an F-35? How is there not a tracking device? And we're asking the public to what, find a jet and turn it in? So there you go. A situation so ridiculous and stupid, I'm agreeing with Nancy Mace. Special times we live in. And then we want to talk about the massive update to the dumpster fire situation that was everything happening around Unity last week. Right, they're the software giant which makes game engines, and they decided last week to charge developers based on how many times people install their games. And at various times,

they tried to clarify things, such as the developers wouldn't be charged until certain downloaded income breakpoints were hit. But still, you had tons of people doing the math and finding that pretty much everyone but the largest corporations and publishers would have been completely screwed. And this move was so incredibly unpopular that many developers vowed to completely switch away from Unity. With the fallout apparently getting so damn bad that the company was doing some serious damage control and said in a tweet yesterday, we have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of days. Thank you for

your honest and critical feedback. However, even that answer got blasted. With highly vocal critics and gamers in the space like Asmongold writing, y'all not gonna get off this like some bullshit video game apology with weak-willed gamer nerds. People need to build a future with a design engine and the trust is already broken. And in a video he went on to say, But this is something that people have to plan for, for the next five years of their life.

And you think that somebody is gonna be okay with a tweet apology? Bro, there's nothing that you can say that's gonna make people trust you again. The only thing they can do is if they replace half of their executive leadership, and then maybe people might trust them.

And probably they won't. Would you? Meanwhile, you had others like the large streamer called Carnage mocking the post. Plenty of others pointing out that Unity wasn't reverting the decision at all. With that leading to some within the video game development industry who are still not happy with the changes having takes like,

please either a total revert or a standard revenue share. Forget about any other kind of convoluted scheme. Also, respect the terms of service of each version and don't try ever again any shady maneuver to conceal changes. Just be honest, upfront, reliable. We need stability. Thank you. And a lot of people also took issue with Unity saying that there was confusion about the change. But for the most part, it's pretty clear that Unity was just trying to get more money.

And so for now, we are going to have to wait to see what Unity ultimately decides to do. But this has clearly been an unmitigated disaster for the company. Beyond hurting its reputation with developers, its stock even plummeted over the last week. And it's even led to memes that its CEO has somehow become the most hated man in gaming, breaking Activision Blizzard's Bobby Kotick's 10-year streak. And then, listen, y'all, it's normal and quite common to think about how to prevent hair loss or to stimulate hair growth or, I mean, just taking better care of your hair. And thanks to the sponsor of today's show, Keeps, they got you covered. To date, Keeps has helped nearly 1 million men keep their hair and

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the description. That's Keeps.com slash DeFranco. And then the United Auto Workers strike has officially entered day four, because the contracts between the big three automakers, Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, and the UAW union ended Thursday at 1159 p.m. And then at the stroke of midnight, the strike began in full force, with 9% of the union's 150,000 workers walking off the job, with workers at one plant from each of the three companies striking. Part of a Ford plant in Wayne,

Michigan, a Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio, and a General Motors plant in Wentzville, Missouri. And in response to the strike, 600 employees at the Ford plant in Michigan were told not to come into work because the departments on strike will prevent the others from doing their jobs. With General Motors also issuing a similar warning saying that 2,000 workers at a plant in Kansas may be out of work soon because they will not be receiving critical materials from the striking Wentzville plant. Now with all this, according to Reuters, bargaining talks have picked back up this morning in an effort to stop the strike from spreading even further. But there could still be a long way to go with the union demanding a 36% increase in wages. And the last deal offered by the automakers only came to about half of that, with UAW President Sean Fain saying, In the last four years, the price of cars went up 30%, CEO pay went up 40%. No one had any

complaints about that, but God forbid the workers ask for their fair share. And there have been some other concessions made by the companies, including progression to the highest wage level at a faster rate than ever before, and pay raises and promotions for temporary workers. But many of the union's other demands, like a 32-hour workweek and retiree health care, have not been seen in offers from the companies. The automakers are arguing that their deals are the best offers they've given in decades and say that they simply cannot agree to all of the union's terms. And specifically, Ford CEO Jim Farley is saying if they did agree to everything, quote, there is no way we can be sustainable as a company. And Farley and other companies have also claimed that there has

been little negotiation from union leadership, with Stellantis saying they are, quote, extremely disappointed by the UAW leadership's refusal to engage in a responsible manner to reach a fair agreement in the best interest of our employees, their families, and our customers. And Farley also saying before the strike began, it's hard to negotiate a contract when there's no one to negotiate with. However, you have Fain saying that UAW leadership is, quote, hard at work at the bargaining table and saying to CBS News, if we don't get better offers and we don't get down to taking care of the members' needs, then we're going to amp this thing up even more. And notably, if this strike drags on, we could see some serious effects on the U.S. economy as the auto industry

destabilizes, because just that one industry makes up 3% of the nation's gross domestic product, and the UAW workers alone make around half of all the light vehicles manufactured in the US. And according to the chief economist of Moody's Analytics, a prolonged strike right now could bring economic growth to a near standstill in the fourth quarter of this year. And well, of course, I wanna know everyone's opinions on any story that stands out to them, especially if you have someone involved

or you're just in areas that are near the strikes. I'd love to know your thoughts. And then the Texas State Senate has officially acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton on all impeachment charges. Right, we've been covering this thing since he was first suspended from office back in May after the GOP-controlled House voted to impeach him on 20 counts, including bribery, abuse of public trust, and dereliction of duty, among other things. But the Republican-held Senate, which was considering 16 of those articles, ultimately decided against conviction, notably by a large margin.

Because in order for Paxton to have been removed from office, two-thirds of the Senate's 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats would have had to vote to convict on any one of those articles. But at the end of the day, none of those articles received more than 14 of the 21 votes needed. And in fact, only two of the 19 Republican senators voted for conviction on any one article. And that's an incredibly key thing here because it marks a major shift from the more than 70% of Republicans in the House who voted to impeach Paxton. And so as a result, the decision has only widened the growing rift between the more moderate and far-right members of the Texas Republican Party, with the Republican Speaker of the House,

Dade Phelan, condemning the acquittal, saying, the inescapable conclusion is that today's outcome appears to have been orchestrated from the start, cheating the people of Texas of justice. Meanwhile, you have Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who presided over the trial, slamming his colleagues in the House for impeaching Paxton in the first place.

And with that, accusing House Republicans of wasting millions of taxpayer dollars and calling for a full audit of public spending on the case. Also even going as far as to call for the state constitution to be amended to make it harder to impeach government officials. And in fact, many of those arguments were also echoed by Paxton himself,

who issued a defiant statement, claiming the impeachment was a sham that was somehow coordinated by Phelan and the Biden administration. Adding, the weaponization of the impeachment process to settle political differences is not only wrong, it is immoral and corrupt. Now with all this, as far as what happens next, you have Paxton already being reinstated as AG, but his legal troubles are far from over. Because he still faces trial for security fraud charges

from 2015, and he's still under federal investigation for many of the same charges that were at the center of his impeachment trial. Because the former staffers that made the corruption and abuse of office allegations against him also brought the issue to the FBI. In that case, now reaching a grand jury in San Antonio that could separately decide to bring criminal charges against Paxton. So in general, would love to know your thoughts, but especially if you or someone you know live in Texas,

what are you thinking? And then Hunter Biden is suing the IRS, right? Just this morning, the president's son filed a lawsuit against the government agency, accusing it of illegally releasing his tax information and violating his privacy. The suit claiming that IRS agents, quote, have targeted and sought to embarrass Mr. Biden via public statements to the media in which they and their representatives

disclose confidential information about a private citizen's tax matters. And specifically, the suit singles out two IRS whistleblowers who claim the DOJ's investigation into his taxes was too lenient and influenced by politics. Now, those two are not named as defendants, but the suit still accuses the agents and their lawyers of publicly disclosing Hunter's private tax information. In quote, more than 20 nationally televised and non-congressionally sanctioned interviews and numerous public statements. Now, a key thing, the two IRS agents, their lawyers, and House Republicans investigating the matter have all argued the public statements were protected under federal whistleblower laws. But the lawsuit disputes that, claiming that the agent's whistleblower

status, quote, cannot and does not shield them from their wrongful conduct in making unauthorized public disclosures that are not permitted by the whistleblower process. And adding, in fact, a whistleblower is supposed to uncover government misconduct, not the details of that employee's opinion about the alleged wrongdoing of a private person. Right, and notably, this suit comes just days after the Justice Department indicted Hunter on three separate charges concerning his purchase of a handgun in 2018. And while the case is unrelated to the tax investigation, that timing there is significant because as the New York Times explains, the new suit shows that he and his legal team are continuing to take an aggressive stance in fending off inquiries from congressional Republicans, even as he faces the possibility

of further prosecution on tax charges by the Justice Department amid his father's re-election campaign. And then the migrant crisis in the EU is absolutely wild and has come back into the spotlight after nearly 10,000 migrants used hundreds of boats to show up to the small Italian island of Lampedusa last week. I mean, that's literally more migrants than the number of Italians who live on the island. And this massive influx was such a problem

that the Italian government and the EU promised to take action. In Italy, the country and its prime minister moved quickly to get some stuff into place. Where they're already passing new laws aimed at curbing this immigration, such as lengthening the time illegal migrants can be detained

and ensuring people who don't have a legal right to be in Italy are actually repatriated. They also plan to open more detention centers, though those centers have been bashed by civil rights activists who claim they are ripe with abusive practices. It also makes sense why Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Maloney was quick to get something passed, with this last year being a disaster for her politically when it comes to immigration, because so far 130,000 people have arrived on Italian shores, which notably is double the amount from the same time period last year. And when you're Maloney and you

run on a strong platform of curbing this irregular immigration, it's a bad look amongst your voters to have the opposite happen. Also, another thing it's making is many Italians upset at the rest of the EU. Because many of these people aren't especially looking to live in Italy, but anywhere in the EU. It's just that Italy is the easiest to get to. So they feel like they're taking the brunt of the crisis without help from the rest of the bloc. Now, that being said, the president of the European Commission promised that a 10-point action plan would be put into place. But there is a lot of doubt about how effective that's going to be, as it's very similar to past initiatives that clearly have not worked. And then, finally, we got to talk about

yesterday today. But by yesterday, I mean last Thursday. Because on Thursday's show, what we talked about a lot, the thing that absolutely took over the comments section, was that video. That video about the cop who was laughing about that woman who was killed by a cop car. Y'all absolutely sounding off, saying things like, hearing, quote, Saying not only is it horrifying that people put that little value on another human being, but saying it's an absolute maniacal train of thought from the officer involved.

Some saying the Seattle Police Department should be absolutely ashamed. Saying they hope the full wrath of bad Carmen Shame follows the man who was laughing for the rest of his miserable life. But also there was an overwhelming amount of support for the officer who leaked this video. Because we wouldn't have known about this without them. With comments like, Big ups to the officer who leaked the video. You should be rewarded and protected. And shout out to the officer who brought the video forward.

More accountability from your peers is what police need more of. Although a lot were worried about their well-being. Saying he'll probably get fired or killed in a training accident. And saying there's absolutely no possible way the whistleblower won't be punished a thousand times harsher by both the department and the union than the actual murderer is. He or she will never be allowed to police ever again. And that is where today's dive into the news is going to end. But for more news you need to know, I got you covered here. You can click or tap or I got links down below. Also, you can support the show and yourself. Snag yourself

a bag of Wake and Make coffee. But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you right back here for more news tomorrow.