9-26-24 Afternoon Rush - Golden Bachelorette Recap & NYC Mayor Eric Adams Speaks Following Bribery Charges & Diddy's Lawyer Says He Will Testify!

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Welcome to the Rush Hour, your daily dose of pop culture for your Rush Hour ride. Buckle up and enjoy the drive with your host, stand up comedian, Dave Neal. Hello, everybody. Happy Thursday afternoon to you on the Rush Hour. It's September 26th, 2024. I've got all of your pop culture in one place. On today's Afternoon Rush, Hoda Kotb announces she's leaving the Today Show.

Plus, Eric Adams speaks after being the first New York City mayor under federal indictment. Brad Favre thanks fans for his support after revealing he has Parkinson's disease and a Bizarre Dancing with the Stars Puff Daddy conspiracy. Plus, Diddy's lawyer says he expects Diddy to take the stand and testify during his trial.

And speaking of Diddy, Costco released a statement saying they don't Diddy's lawyer says he expects Diddy to take the stand and testify during his trial. carry baby oil. What a time to be alive. Plus I've got my thoughts on last night's heartfelt episode of golden bachelorette, all this and more coming up next on the rush.

Well, they can't all be winners. According to variety, Francis Ford Coppola's 120 million budgeted Megalopolis Could open to disappointing five million bucks. His sci fi epic Megalopolis, by the way, that's just the worst title. I can't even pronounce it. Uh, the director's self funded passion project is tracking to a disappointing 5 million to 7 million bucks off his debut.

What did he go to the Kevin Costner school of funding your own. The film, released by Lionsgate, is expected to play at 1, 700 North American theaters in its opening weekend. A single digit start would be underwhelming for a movie that cost above 100 million to make. It's got a lot riding on it because the 85 year old godfather and Apocalypse Now director ended up independently financing the film.

Uh, boy, after its Cannes Film Festival premiere, Lionsgate's production team mark of the movie in exchange for a distribution fee. So either way, is it good or not? We'll have to find out. I'll let you guys know, but you know, when it's getting pressed before it even comes out, that can't possibly be a good thing.

All right. Well, in other news, we've got, uh, Oh, this is interesting. We have an Olympic update here. We love a good Olympic update. Do you remember the viral Korean sharpshooter? Well, she, uh, she, you know, was, you know, memed as far as they loved how badass she looked shooting. Well, she took an Olympic, she took home Olympic silver medal for South Korea.

And now she's bringing her fierceness to the screen. That's right, she's set to star as an assassin in an upcoming series. I mean, that's kind of cool. After her stone cold expression went viral at the Paris Olympics, sharpshooter Kim Yee Ji will play the role of an actual assassin in an upcoming Korean series.

She was pegged by Korean entertainment company Asia Lab to star in a new multinational short form series called Crush. Alongside Indian actor Anushka Sen, Kim Kim will play an assassin in the story, a spinoff of the star studded Asia. Well, very interesting stuff there. Well, now we've got an update from Brett Favre.

As we announced, uh, the last couple of days, Brett Favre has announced that he has Parkinson's disease. He said it doesn't run in his family and he can only assume it is from head trauma from playing football. Well, he thanks fans for support. Here's what he had to say. It's Brett. I just want to thank everyone for your support.

After the news that I had Parkinson's when I was tested by him, uh, at Congress. Unbelievable show of support and I want you to know I truly appreciate it. Hopefully this will shed some light on concussions and, and head trauma and, and also Parkinson's. There's a lot of people that are out there with it.

Some know it, some don't know it. So, it can happen to anyone at any time. So again, thank you for your support. I really appreciate it. You know, it's wild stuff because Brett Favre, it's like, look, he threw his body on the line and you know, you, you, you see people that they have a bad knee or a bad hip, they limp, they're in their forties and they can barely walk.

You got. linemen that have broken every finger in their body, but when it comes to head trauma, I mean, that is the real deal. Well, not everybody believes in it, which this is the most idiotic take ever. Steve Austin, stone cold Steve Austin says, I'm not a CTE guy. Just don't believe in it. Now this is, this is what I hate about People, there's, there's some people that can just not have empathy for others unless it's happened to them.

You know, maybe they don't struggle with addiction. Maybe they don't know what it's like to have your heart broken, you know, and if it doesn't happen to them, it's just, it just can't possibly exist. So you might remember Chris Benoit. He was a wrestler who killed his wife. And his son and then himself in two thousand and seven.

Well, um, WWE instituted a wellness policy and Ben was brain was studied for science. CTE started to become more researched in the world of sports headed up by former pro wrestler, Chris Nowinski. Now also there was a case where I think it was junior say out, uh, had taken his own life, the football player, former Patriot.

And he. You know, uh, uh, you know, I guess I had CTE, you don't find out till afterwards in a lot of cases, uh, what that drop that, um, trauma actually looks like, well on Mr. McMahon, which I believe is the new, that new Netflix show coming out, Benoit's death was covered and Nowinski discussed the effects of CTE, Steve Austin gave his thoughts.

This is what Steve had to say. I worked for a long time. I got dropped on my head, uh, on time. I got concussed. Other than that, I can't remember having too many concussions in the business of pro wrestling. My take on that has always been, if you were just wrestling and you got a bunch of concussions, you're probably doing something wrong.

I'm not a CTE guy. Just don't believe in it. Yeah. Look, if you're playing football and you get hit in the head hard, You might be doing something wrong. It's called playing the sport. It happens. How ridiculous of a take. And like, he doesn't know if he has CTE or not. You know, it comes out with rage. It comes out with depression.

It's got all, you know, it's, it's like, it's the brain not being able to function the way it's supposed to. So, uh, luckily we don't really care what Steve Austin has to think or say about the matter. Let's hope that he doesn't have to suffer with some of the things that Brett Favre will be going through.

Alright, well, uh, an important update on Diddy, uh, he says I'm eating fine at chow time, no one is trying to poison me. I guess there was this thought that because he was in this specific prison, I guess they're calling it the MDC, uh, metropolitist jail. Metropolitan Detention Center, I'm guessing. I don't know if that's what it's called.

But a source close to Diddy says that he's eating okay, whereas multiple outlets reported Diddy stopped eating behind bars because he's paranoid about someone poisoning his food. While he's eating normal jailhouse food like any other inmate, the music mogul received no special treatment. Look, you know, Here's the thing.

I, I, I never want to go to prison. I don't think I've done anything illegal, but do they get streamers? I've always wondered this. If you, if, if they have TV in prison, I think I could survive the first year. Okay. Now hold me out. Hold on. I haven't seen breaking bad. I haven't seen the wire. Like there's a lot of TV.

I haven't gotten through yet. If the food's okay. And the screens, not too bad. Now, if my room has a window without the right curtains and there's like a reflection on the screen, that could be, that could be annoying, but you know, some of these, some of these low, uh, you know, these, uh, these prisons, they actually, I mean, I'm not calling it a spa day by any means.

I'm just saying, you know, uh, not to make light of the situation here, but if you got to be in prison, you might as well, like. Go to the gym, get your steps in, do a lot of pushups and, you know, eat the food. All right. Well, um, I mean, I mean, look, and I think Diddy should for sure pay for whatever crimes he does.

We'll be here to cover it all. Well, in a bizarre dancing with the stars, Diddy crossover, Reginald Ville Johnson, AKA Carl Winslow. from Family Matters, remember him, uh, responded to rumors that he was at some of these parties. Here's what he had to say. Hey, Mr. Bill Johnson, how you doing, sir? Bizarre story that's circulating about you and Diddy.

Some guy named Loose Cannon told this story about you and Diddy. That's all bullshit. I don't know that man. I haven't met him before. I wish him well, though. What's your message to those who are talking about it and actually think Get off the group. What's your message to him? Loose Cannon? Get a life. So his message To people talking is get a life.

So look, I mean, I'm not here to open up any wounds, but it's, it's almost like a wild goose hunt right now for. Celebrity entertainment news to catch who was at Diddy's parties, you know, Ashton Kutcher, uh, you know, there's rumors coming out that he's having a hard go at his relationship with Mila Kunis because he was at the parties and who really knows what's true.

Well, comedian Loose Cannon claimed he once stumbled onto a freak off sex romp where Diddy had Reginald, um, Urkel behind closed doors. That's what he said. That's what he said. Now, is there any validity to this? Let's just go ahead and take Reginald's word for it that he never met the guy and it was all just made up.

If, if there is ever a scenario where it is made up, it would be that one just because it was a comic trying to, you know, make some weird Steve Urkel joke. I don't know. It's bizarre. The story's going to be bizarre. We have an update from Costco regarding the Diddy story. We'll have that for you after a quick word from our sponsor.

All right, leave it to Costco to enter the ring here following Diddy's lawyer mentioning maybe the thousand bottles of lube came from Costco. He buys in bulk. Well, now Costco has responded. Uh, a spokesperson for Costco tells TMZ, none of the company's U. S. liquid locations carry baby oil, even though Diddy's attorney, Mark Agnefilo, told us the rap mogul might have bought the item in bulk at the members only warehouse retailer.

So I guess it wasn't the Costco's like, we don't want anything to do with it. They're like, we, you can buy muffins in bulk, but not baby oil. Uh, by the way, Costco. literally made me go broke. My wife cannot stop shopping there. The problem with Costco is every week they have new clothes. And look, I was the first one to say, I'm never buying clothes at Costco.

Now I get all my socks at Costco. Okay. So they're slowly creeping into my world. Some of my t shirts come from Costco and I just bought a Costco hoodie, um, and pant. Uh, uh, sweatshirt, sweatpant combo, which I plan on wearing on my, uh, airplane flight on Tuesday to New York city where I have a standup show October 1st, a New York comedy club.

You can come get tickets to that show. Hit me up on Instagram. I've also got shows October 11th. In Portsmouth, Rhode Island at the Rogue Island Comedy Festival, which I will be selling tickets to that too. You can get tickets on my Instagram bio, or just ask me where to buy tickets and I'll let you know.

So lots of shows coming up, you can catch me in my Costco outfits. Now, uh, to take a little bit more of a serious note here. There's an emotional clip being shared of Justin Bieber, who was mentored by Diddy, getting emotional when he said he vowed to protect Billie Eilish from industry. Now people have wondered, you know, how Justin's coped with all of this because, you know, I mean, in some ways, you know, Just from the videos that have unearthed from Diddy.

I mean, the guy, the guy was a monster in plain sight, right? I mean, in some ways, uh, you know, Bieber might not have been subjected to this, but he also came into the industry before there was a lot of protections for child stars. And he was the biggest pop star in the world at the time. Here's what he had to say as he got emotional thinking of how he wanted to protect others.

Yeah. Um,

did you feel protective of her? Yeah, I definitely feel protective of her. Um, It was hard for me being that young and being in the industry and not knowing where to turn. And everyone, you know, telling me they love me and, you know, just turn their back on you in a second. Um, so, yeah, it's, it's hard because I want her to know that, you know, she can count on me, but at the end of the day, I don't want to, I'm never going to force myself to be in a relationship with her.

It has to be natural, right? So I just kind of, you know, let her do her thing. And if she ever needs me, I'm going to be here for her. But, um, but yeah, just protecting those moments because people take for granted, uh, encounters and, um,

Yeah. So, um, yeah. I just, um, I just want to protect her, you know? So you just, you just see the collateral damage that comes from entertainment world and the pressures put on people, not just in their youth, but the pressures and the sort of, the sort of, the lecherous nature of Uh, who's a star and who can, you know, take from each other.

And Diddy was really good at putting himself in the right position to always be powerful. And when you have the wrong mindset behind that power, that's where, you know, it can get dangerous. But hey, he's gonna have his day in court. You know, he's going to have a chance to defend himself. Actually, his attorney spoke out and said he will testify in his criminal case.

I think we'll probably be live streaming this on YouTube. We'll probably be covering all this, assuming it'll be public information. But here's what his attorney had to say. I have interviewed a lot of people for this documentary and a lot of them have said game over after they saw the Cassie video.

Does this tell you to put him on the stand and explain it? I, I don't know that I could keep him off the stand. By the way, the Cassie video was a video that just recently emerged before he was, uh, actually indicted. And that video was a brutal. Surveillance video from a hotel of Diddy getting super violent kicking punching dragging.

I mean, it was I mean In the fact that this happened years ago, and he was able to keep this under wraps pretty scary stuff I think he is very eager to tell his story and I think he will tell every part of his story Including what you see on the video. So I expect it's gonna be explained by the both of us It's kind of breathtaking that what you're telling me is that Diddy is going to take the stand and he will be cross examined about this video, about the violence in the video, about the freak offs, about allegedly blowing up a car, all of those things.

That feels kind of dicey. He has his story and he has a story that I think only he can tell in the way he can tell it in real time. And it's a human story. It's a story of, of, of love. It's a story. I'm going to cut there. This is atrocious. I don't know what this lawyer is talking about, but you know, lawyers, they're paid to defend their client.

And we'll have to see what the heck he's talking about. Because from what we saw did, he's a monster. That's for that's from what we saw. All right, let's move into a brighter story. Hoda Kotb, one of my favorite rays of sunshine on the today show announced that she's going to be leaving her co hosting role.

Here's what she had to say. So, um, I was doing the math and I realized that I have spent 26 years at NBC. Um, cool. Be cool, be cool. 26 years at NBC, 16 years on the 10 and 7 years with you. And I just turned 60. And it was such a monumental moment for me when I turned 60 years old because I started thinking about that decade.

Like, what does that decade mean? What does it hold? What's it gonna have for me? And I realized that It was time for me to, um, turn the page at 60 and to try something new. And I think I realized it, this was so crazy, but remember our 60th birthday that we had outside, it was so, I can see it. And I remembered standing outside looking at this beautiful bunch of people with all these gorgeous signs.

And I thought like, This is what the top of the wave feels like for me, and I thought it can't get better and decided that this is, this is the right time for me to to kind of move on. And then I thought about. Obviously I had my kiddos late in life and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of my of my time pie that I have.

I feel like we only have a finite amount of time. So look, good for her. I mean, for prioritizing family over work, it's a got to be a grueling job. I mean, they're probably up at like 4am getting ready, right? They're on air at what, six or seven, 7am. So absolutely wild stuff. So she took over for Matt Lauer when he was fired in 2017.

And of course has been with the today show. And, and, you know, with NBC for a long time before that. So interesting stuff, interesting. I just never understood why, like, you know, if you want to retire, I think that's great, but a lot of times people just don't want the grueling schedule. So why not just do two or three days a week?

Why does it have to be such a grueling five day a week schedule? I don't know. Just a thought. Um, all right. Well, anyhow, uh, in some other stories here, we've got a fight happening. From the, uh, home run ball hit by show. Hey, Oh, Tony, there's a new lawsuit. The home run ball was, uh, the home run. He hit where he got 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases where he made history.

He's being considered, uh, even a better, uh, one of he's, he's, he's now considered a better quite possibly the best baseball player of all time. And the starting bid for this home run ball, it's going to be 500, 000. The only problem is a new lawsuit reports that they're trying to stop the proceedings because a man says that the home run ball was ripped out of his hands.

Uh, the plaintiff is an 18 year old man named Max Mattis. He's convinced he's the rightful owner of the baseball. Mattis alleges in his suit, according to Roval, that he had full control of the ball before Chris Bielanski wrongfully stole it from him during a scrum. Now, I guess that brings into question, yeah, at what point when a home run ball's hit and the ball's dinkin around in the stands and people are kind of ripping it out of each other's hands, at what point does it count as possession?

And honestly, I really don't know the answer. If there's footage of him holding it with one or two hands firmly holding it, and the other guy rips it out of his hands, you could argue it's his ball. And the fact that it's going to go for over half a million dollars means this is going to be a big deal.

And I think at the very least they need to look at whatever footage they can to see. Who's the rightful owner of the ball. If there is no footage and you can't tell, then I'm sorry. It's kind of like a finders keepers moment. You know what I mean? Um, either way I would not mind. I mean, that's going to be a very nice payday.

So good for whoever rightfully owns, you know, owns it. But uh, yeah, if there is one video angle of that ball getting ripped out of his hand, you might, you might have a case there. So we'll have to see how it all goes. Okie dokie. Well, I've got updates on Eric Adams, the New York City mayor. Possibly disgraced mayor.

I'll have what he has to say regarding his indictment. We'll have that story for you next. All right. I'm going to play a clip of New York city mayor, Eric Adams, discussing all of the new charges that came down on him, the U S attorney's office unsealed the 57 page indictment and sent out an accompanying press release announcing they've charged the mayor with campaign finance bribery in conspiracy.

charges. According to the indictment, Damien Williams, the U. S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, claims Adams sought and accepted improper, valuable benefits from foreign business people and at least one government official from Turkey looking to gain influence over him. He said when Adams became mayor, he provided favorable treatment to those who gave him these alleged benefits.

Here's what Eric Adams had to say. I want to thank you for being here this morning. And I want to thank the supporters of all ethnic groups that are here, particularly the men and women of the clergy that's here that have joined me here today. And we are not surprised. We expected this. This is not surprising to us at all.

The actions that have unfolded over the last 10 months. The leaks, the commentary, the demonizing. This did not surprise us that we reached this day. And I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defense before making any judgments. I'll do that. I'll wait to hear the defense. Although, you know, one of their arguments is that, well, because we said there's an immigration problem here, now they're trying to oust us.

But, you know, who knows if that's the case because they were under investigation for a very long time. Uh, yeah. So again, I mean, money doesn't lie. Did they take money from Turkey? And if so, do they provide favorable treatment to, uh, the Turkey consulate or the embassy, like what, what, what, you know, there's a lot of kind of questions going around.

They raided the Gracie mansion, New York city's official residence for the city's mayor on the Upper East Side. Well, we'll have to see how that all plays out. Now, speaking of a smile not being wiped off anybody's face, last night was Golden Bachelorette. I already did my full recap on the YouTube channel, but I just wanted to say words, uh, you know, just to Continue to say it's looking good.

Joan is doing a great job connecting with these guys. We had Charles share a heartbreaking story about how he lost his wife, who was always healthy, but lost her to a brain aneurysm, and he's finally getting back out there. It was just so heartbreaking and touching to see stories of, uh, Kelsey. Remember Kelsey?

She's, uh, engaged to Joey Grazde. Her father's on the show. Mark, and he shared his story about, you know, uh, trying to find love again. And, you know, it's just one story after another, not just stories of Joan with the men, but there's something about the camaraderie that the men have together. Last season on Gary Turner's season of the bachelor golden bachelor.

We got to see that where the women built a bond together and now we're seeing these men, you know, in a lot of cases, I feel like the older you get, you become a dad. you know, you become a granddad, you're always like the one in charge. And that, that can probably get kind of lonely at the top. If you think about it, uh, where now you've got basically 25 different grandpas, men in their fifties, sixties, and they're grilling together.

They're, I mean, It looks like they're having the time of their life and I'm truly cherishing as I watch all of that. And I expect you guys are too, uh, the ratings for the first episode weren't that great, but it was airing on a new night. And I do think the word of mouth is going to give a little bit of a boost.

I'd love to know your thoughts on all of it. Golden bachelorette related. I think Jones doing it. Excellent, excellent job, and I find it so heartwarming to have a nice show to watch that doesn't have too much fabricated drama, just good vibes. That's, that's what I'm all about right now. We need that ending 2024.

There's enough chaos out there with indictments and Diddy and Costco. Just give me good vibes for once. I'm loving it. And speaking of good vibes, can you believe we've already made it to the end of Thursday? We got through the hard part of the week. We're on cruise control, baby. We'll catch you in the morning.

As always, I'm Dave Neal. This is The Rush. The Rush Hour is a twice daily pop culture and entertainment news podcast hosted by standup comedian, Dave Neal. Life's too short for a boring ride. So join Dave as he covers the top news stories of the day. Don't be caught clueless at the water cooler. The Rush Hour with Dave Neal features all the viral TikToks and podcast clips you need to hear.

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