The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.8 STOP DOING THIS! Extreme Gender Reveal, Robert Pattinson Batman Problems, Mulan Boycott &

Episode Date: September 8, 2020

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Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you've had a fantastic Tuesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show. Buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today is some don't be stupid, stupid news. I try to keep my composure way more these days when I film these videos, but it is really not stopped. And if anything, it's worsened. I hate a lot of people a lot of the time. And today, that hate is directed towards people that have not just gender reveal parties, but who have taken it to this stupid extreme. And understand, I say extreme

because there are people that do things like, you know, they get a cake made and they cut into it and it's blue or pink or whatever. I don't care, but then there are other people that have taken it to this different level. And the reason I'm talking about gender reveal parties today isn't I just woke up and I was like, ah, this random thing in my head.

It's because on Saturday, there was a couple hosting a gender reveal party about 80 miles east of Los Angeles. And they decided they wanted to do their reveal with a smoke bomb. But when that smoke bomb ignited, it also ignited the extremely dry vegetation around it, which resulted in that couple and their family

unsuccessfully trying to put that fire out with water bottles. It then began to quickly spread. And as of this morning, that fire has burned through roughly 10,000 acres. It is about 16% contained, so it is largely uncontrolled, but that number is up from 7% last night. It has also forced 21,000 people to evacuate their home.

And because of this incident, we've seen Cal Fire reminding people that a lot of the state is under incredibly dry conditions and that it is fire season. With them also issuing a warning against these types of activities saying, "'Those responsible for starting fires due to negligence "'or illegal activity can be held financially

"'and criminally responsible.'" In fact, the people involved in this incident will likely face at least misdemeanor charges, but they could also face felony since the fire has now already spread to forest land. One of the things that is troubling is that this is not an isolated incident. This very stupid, in my opinion, couple,

they are not the Neil Armstrongs of this special kind of stupid. Back in 2017 in Arizona, there was a gender reveal party that actually caused 47,000 acres of land in the state to burn. And since then, this has gotten to such a very stupid place that we've seen the woman who has been credited with popularizing gender reveal parties,

which I do wanna note here, popularizing them in a sense of, you know, she got a cake and she cut into it and it was blue or pink. We've seen her speaking out saying this has gone too far with her most recently saying, "'Stop it, stop having these stupid parties. "'For the love of God, stop burning things down

"'to tell everyone about your kid's penis. "'No one cares but you.'" With her also mentioning how hot it was in other areas of California this weekend saying, "'It was 116 degrees in Pasadena yesterday "'and this tool thought it would be smart "'to light a fire about his kid's dick. "'Toxic masculinity is men thinking

"'they need to explode something "'because simply enjoying a baby party is for sissies.'" And I also will say with this particular incident, I just, I don't know what kind of moron didn't realize that this would be a bad idea. If you live in California, you know that fires are a problem. Winter fire is the biggest problem when it is hot and everything is dry.

This last weekend is one of the hottest we've experienced this year. In LA County, we saw temperatures surging to 121 degrees this weekend. And regarding the area where this happened, according to a person who was affected by this latest fire, they told KABC News, "'That place, there's nothing green out there.

"'It's a meadow of dry, brown, dead grass. "'Why would you go out there and think "'that you can light off any kind of firework?' And this is the last thing California needed right now because this is far from the only fire in the state. In fact, in California, wildfires have burned through nearly two million acres this year alone, with 2020 now becoming the most burned year on record

since the records began back in 1987. Right now, one of the really important fires being watched is the Creek Fire. It began on Friday night in the Sierra National Forest, which is about 290 miles northeast of LA. As of this morning, it has burned over 143,000 acres and is completely uncontained. Also, very on brand for 2020, this fire is so big

that it's believed to have generated these clouds, with those clouds then triggering lightning. Weather experts also believing that the fire likely spawned a fire tornado at one point. There were also reports of about 50 hikers trapped at a wilderness resort near Fresno because all escape routes had been cut off by the fire. They'd been there two days.

Last night we saw rescue crews try to get them, but they were unsuccessful. Though the good news here was that officials said that those people weren't in any immediate danger, and by early this morning we actually saw reports that authorities had begun to airlift some of those hikers out of the area. And on a similar note, we've seen mass evacuations

in Fresno County, reportedly somewhere between 25,000 to 30,000 people. We also saw the Sheriff's Office warning people to follow evacuation orders immediately. Warning, this is an unprecedented disaster for Fresno County. This is one of the largest and most dangerous fires in the history of Fresno County.

I don't think that everyone understands that. Playing that game of how long can I wait is just foolish. But also to note, this is not just a California issue. Fires are raging all across the Western United States right now. And in fact, much of the West is now under a series of red flag warnings, including parts of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington,

also basically all of Nevada. And we're seeing things like in Maldon, Washington, for example, fires have destroyed 80% of buildings in a town of 200. You're talking homes, the fire station, post office, city hall, the library. And the thing that's scary with this whole situation is that it is possible that more fires could pop up

or the ones that are already raging could get worse. And that is largely because of what is known as the Santa Ana winds. Now those winds don't usually blow into Southern California until the fall, but much of the region will see them early, both today and tomorrow. And actually because of that,

the area could see forced blackouts prevent power lines from sparking if they're blown over. And this is actually something we saw in Oregon where almost 100,000 residents lost power last night as winds brought down trees and transformers exploded. With a local energy company also preemptively shutting off power for 5,000 residents. But where I do wanna end this story

is that if you are in one of these affected areas, whether it be California, Oregon, another state, make sure to pay attention to the air quality. There is a lot of smoke in the air right now. You should avoid being outside when it is unnecessary. Keep your doors and your windows closed. Keep your pets inside. I'll link down to more safety tips below,

but again, check with your area. But yeah, that is where this story ends for now. And if I can just end on a final note. To end where we began, when it comes to these gender reveal parties, don't be stupid, stupid. Mother nature does not need your help in bitch slapping us. If you're gonna do one of these parties,

maybe you do the reveal in a way that doesn't involve the word bomb. Definitely nothing that involves pyrotechnics. Or just let the doctor tell you because not everything has to be a party that you share on Instagram. So there's that. And then of course, for those affected by these fires,

please be safe. And then also for everyone else, I'd love to know your thoughts with this story, whether it be the fires, the gender reveal part, or just your experience with what's been happening. And then let's talk about big entertainment news. And there's actually a few things here. And where we're gonna start here is with productions,

because for months now, the entertainment industry has been intensely focused on how to safely restart productions amid the coronavirus pandemic. And we saw shutdowns and delays on a scale we have not seen before, but by July and August, we saw a handful of projects begin filming with strict quarantine procedures. And with things like among other safety measures,

limits to crew size, PPE requirements, regular testing schedules. And that actually appears to have been working well since there have been very few reports of positive tests and no production halts due to outbreaks that we know of. That was until reports surfaced that Robert Pattinson had tested positive for the coronavirus in the United Kingdom just two days

after resuming production for the Batman. Now Warner Bros did not name Pattinson in their announcement last week, instead saying a member of the Batman production has tested positive for COVID-19 and is isolating in accordance with established protocols. Filming is temporarily paused. But we did see several outlets,

including the New York Times and Vanity Fair, later citing sources that named Pattinson as the infected individual. And while right now there haven't been a lot of details about how he's doing or how he was exposed to the virus, I mean, this is a big deal. He's literally the star of the film, right? And so with seeing this happen,

it brings up the question of what does this delay mean for the industry? And here, you know, for part of the answer, we just look further at the filming of the Batman. A source familiar with UK filming protocols told Variety that anyone with a positive coronavirus test needs to quarantine for a minimum of 10 days. And after that, they can be cleared for work

if following tests come back negative and they show no symptoms. Also, we've seen with other productions that they've required two negative tests and no COVID-19 symptoms for at least 72 hours. But also, on top of that, with this Batman situation, anyone who came within six feet of him for more than 15 minutes needs to isolate.

And that is regardless of whether or not they test positive. So that could mean any number of actors, stunt performers, any other crew members that support him through the shoot. This, including the film's director, Matt Reeves, depending on how close he came to Pattinson during filming. And also, if any of those people test positive, that means more people have to quarantine. So if this becomes a bigger issue,

it could be a bad look for the industry as a whole and impact future projects. Because now, more than ever, production houses need to convince talent and crew that filming can be done safely. And on top of that, they're dealing with insurers who don't wanna be held liable for COVID related delays. I've even seen some reports that more insurers

are updating their wording to exclude COVID coverage in new policies. This because no insurer wants to be responsible for millions of dollars for overrun productions when the likelihood of that happening seems high. You know, since the Batman started filming before the pandemic, there is a chance that these insurance issues might not be

a big problem for them. It's a bit unclear there, but still, it is a huge concern for new features hoping to get started. Also, as far as the Batman, there have been some rumors floating around that filming continued even after the positive test. Those rumors seemingly stemming from a Daily Mail report, but those claims have since been rejected

by a source close to the filmmakers. According to Variety, crew members are still doing construction work on sets and props, but people who were in contact with Pattinson are quarantining and contact tracing was underway as of last week. All right, so all of that is big news in the entertainment world around production,

but then we should also talk about the big news around releases. And specifically here, I'm talking about the release of the Mulan remake on Disney+, and the massive wave of backlash we've seen since. So there is a lot going on here, but where we're gonna start is with the outrage over the fact that this movie was partially filmed

in Xinjiang, which is the region of China where over 1 million Uighur Muslims have been detained and imprisoned in internment camps. Right, those camps, something that we've talked about numerous times in the past, it's just massive human rights abuse. We've seen international governments, including the United States, speaking out against it

and posing sanctions as a result. Some of the people in these camps have been released but countless have died. Also according to reports, there's forced sterilization going on in the Xinjiang region causing the birth rate to jump down. As far as how China has defended themselves, they denied the accusation that these places

are concentration camps, instead referring to them as a boarding school. But leaked documents and other reports paint a much more horrifying picture of what is happening there. The thing is, not only did the filming for Mulan take place there, but in the special credits, Disney actually listed special thanks to groups in China.

And those groups include several based in Xinjiang, including the Chinese Communist Party's publicity department there, which is essentially described as a propaganda commission. And another one of those credited groups was the Public Security Bureau in Turpan. Or as the Washington Post kind of summed up, Disney, in other words, worked with regions

where genocide is occurring and thanks government departments that are helping to carry it out. So far the exact details about filming and Disney's partnership with the area have not been made exactly clear. But based on an Instagram post from director Nikki Caro in 2017, they were scouting locations for the project with her tagging an area of Xinjiang. Production also took place in 2018, which is the year that many reports indicate that the campaign against Uyghurs really ramped up and when the internment camps were built. But really, many efforts were well underway before then, which is why you had people like a researcher

for Human Rights Watch tweeting, "'Disney should disclose the details "'about when Mulan was filmed in Xinjiang, "'what assistances it received from authorities, "'what agreements it had made with them "'in order to do the filming, "'and what kind of human rights due diligence "'it conducted before making the decisions.'"

Amnesty International also tweeting, "'Disney, can you show us "'your human rights due diligence it conducted before making the decision. Amnesty International also tweeting, "'Disney, can you show us your human rights "'due diligence report?' But all that said, it wasn't the only reason that the movie received backlash over the weekend. Many had previously called for people to boycott Mulan because its lead actress, Liu Yifei, previously made comments in support

of the Hong Kong police crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. With those calls for boycott reignited this weekend, also gaining traction after activist Agnes Chow was arrested with supporters calling her the real Mulan. And so with all of that going on, you had people like Hong Kong student activist Joshua Wong tweeting,

"'It just keeps getting worse. "'Now when you watch Mulan, "'not only are you turning a blind eye "'to police brutality and racial injustice "'due to what the lead actors stand for, "'you're also potentially complicit "'in the mass incarceration of Muslim Uyghurs. "'Boycott Mulan.'"

Now, with all that said, as far as how effective these boycotts were, I mean, we don't know how many people have watched Mulan since it came out on Friday, but according to a report from Bloomberg, Disney Plus app downloads went up 68% this weekend, with consumer spending on Disney Plus going up 193%. So while we don't have anything definitive,

it does seem like something big did happen for Disney Plus. Also, the movie's actually set to come out in China this weekend in theaters. So you've got many wondering how it's going to do there, especially because Disney has done a lot to get money from Chinese audiences. You know, the thing is with Disney, them kind of jumping through hoops and catering to China,

it's not anything new. In fact, it's something that we saw with the animated version of Mulan. Disney was actually shut out at the time when Mulan was supposed to be released. This because they distributed a film called Kandun, which glorified the Dalai Lama. So Disney had to jump through a bunch of hoops,

cater their film industry to China in a ton of ways, just to get a release there a year later. Now, all these years later, you have numerous examples of Disney kind of doing whatever it takes to appease China, with Mulan being the most recent and kind of one of the biggest problematic incidents. And that is where I'm going to end today's show.

And as always, thanks for being a part of these daily dives into the news. Also, if you're new here, you should subscribe. And if you're in the States or Canada, I highly recommend you join my text line, 813-213-4423. While we haven't been able to count on YouTube's notifications to go out,

I always make sure that I send out a link via the text line, as well as including some behind the scenes stuff and polls deciding future stuff. But with that said, of course, my name is Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.