3-27-26 Morning Rush - 'Love Trapped' Big Announcement! & Baldoni WINS BIG In Upcoming Blake Lively Trial

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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.

Good morning everybody, happy Friday to you on this March 27th, 2026. I have all of your

news for your rush hour ride to work. And it is a big day for Justin Baldone as the judge

has awarded him several different victories in his ongoing battle with Blake Lively.

I'm going to share exactly what that is. I'm assuming his side has to have very,

very high hopes following this judge's ruling. We're going to get the statement from Brian Friedman

Power Attorney. Also, we'll be talking about this love-trapped viral sensation.

So again, the Blake Lively stories right around the corner coming in literally moments.

But how about this love-trapped Owens vs. Eckerd is ranked 11th in the country on Apple

Podcasts? No, not 11th in its respective chart of all podcasts. Look at this. Caller Daddy,

Joe Rogan experience. Right there ranked 11th is love-trapped. Now of course,

this is the podcast that yours truly is a part of because of our uncovering of the pregnancy

scandal. I just wanted to tell you guys, yesterday we had our highest downloaded episode ever here

on the rush hour podcast. We've broken barriers. I didn't think we're possible all because of this

love-trapped. So if you haven't checked it out, there'll be a bonus episode featuring me. I think

coming this week, but it's absolutely insane. We'll be turned into a Netflix documentary if I've

anything to do with it. So thanks again for all the support. There are 11 in the country. Boy,

you've hitched yourself to the right wagon. And by the way, massive update I wanted to share with

you guys regarding love-trapped. I've now found out, and I think I'm the first one to break this

news story, that love-trapped is increasing its workload to 12 episodes. I think it was only

supposed to have eight episodes, but they're telling such a great story. So many people are interested

in it, and there's so much more drama to get into that they're increasing it up to 12 episodes.

So congrats to Stephanie Young, everyone at Glass Entertainment that's putting together such

an amazing podcast. 11 in the country right now, unbelievable stuff, and many episodes to come.

And by the way, if you didn't make it out to my show this week, I was all over the place.

You can come catch me on patreon patreon.com slash Dave Neal for five bucks a month. You can

actually see my standup set here. I've got one from Stanford, Connecticut from last week. Actually,

I discussed some of the ongoing court cases we're dealing with there. Talk to the audience. It's

a ton of fun. All right, let's dive into it. Justin Baldoni in team, the judge green lights defamation

suit against his ex-publicist. This is a big deal. We've said this from the literal beginning that

Stephanie Jones might be at the epicenter of all of the drama and crimes going on within this

lawsuit where we've got Blake Lively versus Justin Baldoni, but it's Stephanie Jones who

extracted the private text messages from her employer. And somehow we don't even know all the

details, right? Somehow was able to get that information to Blake Lively, maybe possibly through

a connection of Taylor Swift's and in getting that information to Blake Lively, they did a sham

subpoena to create a fake court case in order to extract the information, real sketchy stuff.

Now the judge is saying, hey, maybe you maybe you got something here. This is a big win for Baldoni.

The legal battle between Baldoni's team and his former publicist Stephanie Jones is heating up

with a federal judge ruling Baldoni's production company's claim of defamation can move forward.

Boom Shaka Laka NBA jams anybody where my millennial set is heating up. According to court documents

obtained by TMZ, a federal judge ruled the defamation claims filed by Wafer against Stephanie

can proceed. And of course, we know their claims that they had against the New York Times didn't,

I believe, pass go, right? And again, maybe on appeal, they'll have a better shot at it. But

you know, it's hard, it's hard to sue for defamation. Yesterday we covered the defamation case

with the composer from Lion King. Remember the, it's again, yeah, yeah, yeah, me, me, me, me, me, me.

Remember that guy? Well, he's suing a comedian for $27 million because the comedian, I guess,

did a sort of faux translation of what those words meant. It's a whole bizarre thing. But

it's hard to sue for defamation, right? Wafer claimed Stephanie made statements to persons,

including Blake Lively in Ryan Reynolds and Blake's publicist Leslie Sloan that Wafer had retaliated

against Blake and others for reporting alleged misconduct and spearheaded a smear campaign against

her. Justin's company says the claims made by Stephanie were false and damaging to its reputation

and the judge determined Justin and his team had shown enough to allow it to move forward.

A rep for Wafer tells TMZ were pleased with the court's decision. So I'm going to share what

Wafer's power attorney Brian Friedman had to say. This was shared exclusively to without a

crystal ball. We are pleased with the court's decision to deny Stephanie Jones attempt to

dismiss Wafer's lawsuit and to allow our claims for a bad faith conduct and defamation to move

forward. Yeah, that's right. The judge also denied Stephanie Jones was like, can we just dismiss

this and the judge was like, no, not only will we not dismiss it, but Baldoni's case will move forward.

So this one's going to cost Stephanie Jones a pretty penny. Wafer has alleged in their counterclaim

that Stephanie Jones knowingly made a false defamatory statement. Prior to the termination of her

contract, Jones was copied on many of Wafer's emails and text threads during the relevant

period and you fall well that the parties were scarcely engaging with the press at all in August

of 2024, much less carrying out offensive tactics and retaliation as she was well aware that

lively had not actually been harassed on set. We are pleased that as part of the

as part of the order to dismiss, the court found that none of the assertions cited by the Jones

party proved that Wafer engaged in a smear campaign. We will continue to have the full record

speak for itself. Justin and Wafer just keep winning. Yeah, this is big news for the Baldoni

community. Now, there's more, but wait, there's more. We're going to get into some other

very interesting stories happening in the Baldoni, Baldoni universe. Right here we have just

in Baldoni and co-definanced accused Blake, lively side of document dump as judge grants for

quest to extend pretrial deadline. That's right. Blake, lively side is doing the whole thing where

they have the stacks on top of stacks of documents. I get, I guess, I don't, I don't necessarily know

what the purpose of this is. Is it maybe to overwhelm Baldoni side? Maybe so that they can sneak in

the pertinent stuff with some, I don't know, oversaturated amount of molarky. The judge grants

in Baldoni's request extending pretrial deadlines and setting an April second status conference

as both sides clash over trial prep weeks before May 18th. I know it really is right around the

corner. What is it like six, six weeks away? I'll leave seven weeks. This thing's coming around

the corner as it comes. Yeehaw. Judge Baldoni in his co-definanced secured a win in Blake's lawsuit

after a judge granted their request to push back key pretrial deadlines following claims her

legal team flooded them with a document dump weeks before trial. In a March 25 letter filed in the

Southern District of New York, attorneys for Baldoni and the other Wayfair parties asked Judge

Lewis Lyman for a Zoom conference and one week extensions on deadlines to submit pretrial

filings and opposition to motions. They also asked for the final pretrial conference to be

moved a week. They claim liabilities team submitted voluminous disclosures that are not practical for

trial purposes, including nearly 1,000 potential exhibits. Oh my gosh, what in the science project

is this? 1,000 potential exhibits? Somebody's getting paid at kinkos. This is a lot of that.

That's not 1,000 papers. That's 1,000 exhibits. Holy, they're going to be killing some trees to make

you know, to print these things in binders. It is difficult to imagine that even half the number

would be put before the jury, the letter states. We got all we got all the time in the world here,

folks. The filing points to the 38-year-old actress identifying more than 40 potential witnesses,

which the defense describes as further evidence of overbreath.

Baldoni's team argues they should not have to sift through a document dump containing

voluminous amounts of plainly inadmissible material while preparing motions on a tight timeline.

They say they need more time to review the material and finalize jury instructions,

which currently span about 85 pages and cover 13 claims and related defenses.

The defendants argue it may be too early to finalize key trial details,

writing that it is premature to prepare a verdict sheet while the scope of the case remains

uncertain, and pending motions, including Baldoni's motion to dismiss, have yet to be decided.

So that's what it comes down to, right? Baldoni's trying to get this thing to be dismissed.

We don't even know what the judge is going to say. The judge could dismiss this whole thing,

telling both of them to knock it off and get out of here. So we really don't know what's coming

next. Judging by what we've seen the way the judge seems to be ruling. So look, early on,

a lot of people think, oh, this judge has it out against Baldoni, and you have to know how a judge

acts. It's like if you're pitching, you need to know how your umpires calling balls and strikes.

Got a big zone, small zone, tight on the inside, loose on the low part. Who knows?

These judges, they're no nonsense. They got a whole bunch of other cases going on. So

there's a lot of rumors floating around. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but there's a lot of rumors

that the judge is getting ready to dismiss a good bunch of Blake Lively's complaints here,

a bunch of her claims. And that could mean, I mean, it's essentially giving Baldoni a victory,

an early on victory. Now, there's also folks saying that in Blake Lively's best case, she would

only hope that the judge would dismiss her claims. And you might be saying, why would Blake

Lively want to lose? Well, if she can lose before it goes to trial, she can then claim that the

whole system was out against her. And we, you know, you know, do some victim narrative or whatever.

And then she doesn't have to take the stand and it all just goes, wait, it's kind of like settling

without actually settling. So we'll have to see if that's the game that she plays. Again,

while time to be alive, big, big victories for Justin Baldoni, none of these victories should

be minimized here. So again, will the pro Blake Lively camp see this as, oh, it's tough. No,

people are, people are cemented into place on this one. I don't think the ruling is going to

even change anyone's opinions. And that's the problem with cases like this. It's like, if you're just

a casual viewer and you only heard Blake Lively side first, you might think Baldoni's a monster

or vice versa. But either way, it's good that they're letting this thing play out in the

courthouse unless it settles, which I don't think it will at this point, which is wild because

so many people early on said, oh, 99% chance of settles, which didn't factor in the Hollywood

ego variable, right? Which is that Hollywood stars will spend millions, you know, to try to

win in court here for their ego. And I'm not saying it's for Baldoni's ego. He had no choice,

right? Baldoni was clearly canceled tall, tall, you know, high hell. He hasn't really worked since

and the only thing he's worked on is his tan in Hawaii as he goes, you know, surfing shirtless

with his eight abs. And, you know, I look at it and then I, you know, triggers my carbon

addiction and I eat a half baked ice cream, you know, Ben and Jerry's in the freezer, which I was

splitting with my wife, but she hasn't had any yet. And she's going to see that it's all gone.

And I'm going to say, what do you want from me? Well, about three days ago, I'm eating the ice cream,

right? All right. Well, how about this? We got a lot to get into. Donald Trump is planning to put

his signature on all future US currency. If that's not reason enough to move to Bitcoin, I don't

know what is this story and so much more coming up next after a quick word from our sponsor.

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apply. See terms for details. The Treasury announces President Donald Trump's signature is going to

appear on future US paper currency. Oh boy, this is, I mean, can the guy just do something like

he wants his signature? I wouldn't be surprised if he's going to hand sign every dollar bill that's

out there. Under President Trump's leadership, we are on a path toward unprecedented economic growth.

What? Lasting dollar dominance and fiscal strength and stability said Secretary of the Treasurer

Scott Besson. There's no more powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great

country. President Donald J. Trump, then US dollar bills bearing his name. It's only appropriate

that this historic currency be issued at the semi-quince centennial. Oh my gosh, what a nightmare.

I mean, literally, if I have to see Donald Trump's name, you know what I mean? It's like you're

on your dollar bill that luckily would like pay, pay everything with Venmo these days. But

golly, I mean, talking about a great economy, what are you talking about? Gas is about to spike

to unbelievable levels as Iran holds us all by the balls, metaphorically speaking,

blocking the straight-of-hormouse for 25% of the world's oil moves through. They're going to

block the Red Sea as well. And we're going to be stuck paying $6, $7, $8 to gallon for gasoline,

which is going to lead to inflation all over the country because diesel through the roof,

you know, you diesel engines to transport goods across the country. The United States Postal

Service is putting an 8% surcharge on because of their fuel costs. Inflation is going to skyrocket.

And we have Donald Trump to thank and we get his signature on the dollar bills. I don't know

about this one here. How about this? President Trump explains why he voted by mail in Florida,

right? He's against voting by mail unless it's time for him to do it. Have a listen.

Tell me about mail and balance going. You may not use the mail and balance. You're probably

saying, yeah, I did. You know what? Because I'm president of the United States. And because of

the fact that I'm president of the United States, I did a mail-in ballot for it. That's like when

you ask your parents a complicated question and they say, because I said so, because you're

living under my roof, because this is my house. And it's like, Dad, I just wanted to know when

you're going to be home. You know, it's like there's no defense to Trump saying, well, I'm allowed

to do mail-in balloting because I have an important job, but you're not allowed to.

Elections that took place in Florida, because I felt I should be here instead of being

in the beautiful sunshine, taking... Did you run from each serve the last few weekends?

That's right. And yeah, and I decided that I was going to vote by mail-in ballot because I couldn't

be there because I had a lot of different things. But you know, we have exceptions for mail-in ballots.

You do know them, right? So if you're away, we have an exception. If you're in the military,

we have an exception. If you're in a business trip, we have an exception. Is there an exception?

If you get bone spurs when there's the Vietnam draft, is there an exception for that?

So there it is. There it is. The hypocrisy in chief, their president Trump. Now, how about this?

We are seeing a insane rush from Republicans moving to the Democratic Party. Not specifically because

of any reason other than their seeing what's going on in our country and they're scared out of

their minds. James Tallerico is writing for Senates in Texas. And he might win. And he's a Democrat.

And if he can flip Texas blue in the Senate as a Democrat, he'll probably become the vice president

of whoever's writing for office very soon. If he can speak to Texans in that way. And he's

doing a great job. Here is a voter in Texas explaining on the phone why they're done with the Republican

Party. So, Javier, are you telling me you're down in Texas? And as a right winger,

you're about to go left because of what you see. Let me tell you something. I'm going to vote for

for Mr. Tallerico, man. 100% and I have I haven't voted Democrat since I was 20 years old.

Wow. Because your debt disgusted with the right. I am absolutely disgusted with the way it's

going. But I'll tell you, I'm not much happier with the left. James Tallerico is a different deal.

Why do you think Tallerico? And by the way, why would you not be happy with the left? They're not

in any positions of power. It's, but I understand. In order for this is people need to get it, right?

You can't rely on just having a protest vote. Like Trump's so bad we must vote for something else.

Give the people a great alternative. James Tallerico does that. He's able to speak to people and let

them know that they're getting robbed by billionaires who are pretending to be Christians. And he's

an actual Christian who's fighting for them in the middle class because different.

Man, he speaks from the art. He says the things that are correct. He actually, he actually was in

a school down here at San Antonio. And I know some of the people that he knows and the guy is the

real deal, man. He's not a lion person. There is James Tallerico, the real deal. So take notes,

folks. People want authentic voices fighting for them. They don't want people that are taking

money from lobbying groups and in weird, you know, foreign interests and big pharma and the NRA.

Like find somebody who's not bought and paid for who's speaking for the populace, right?

Speaking for, you know, taking backs, you know, wealth to the middle class after it's all been

siphoned off of the ultra wealthy. This is, this is a blueprint that can work across the country,

right? Speaking of this, look, this is what you get, right? A billionaire from Queens pretending

that he's of the people. Here he is, hitting on a Fox news host when she asks a very serious

question about war. Do you have any insight as to how they are doing? Do they have drinking water?

Do they have food? Right. I do. It's upsetting. I do. But first, you remember when we had lunch

years ago in the base of Trump Tower when there was a brand new building? A long time ago, yes.

A long time ago and you haven't changed. Now I'm not allowed to say this. It's the end of my

political career, but you may be even better looking. Okay. He's like, I'm not allowed to say this,

but I would love to grab you by the microphone. What is he talking about? Can somebody get their

grandfather out of there? It's called the 20th Amendment, folks. And by the way, they are not far

off from doing it. These spineless bastards are actually finally considering it. And it's like,

what took so long? The guys insane. The more you hear about this war that's going on in Iran,

the more you realize it is escalating to a full-blown war. It's widening, right? They say,

oh, we're doing this big strike. It's going to be the be-all-end-all. We're faking, you know,

peace talks so we can get more troops there for a ground invasion. They're going to bomb and drone

at the living hell out of us, which is really sad because I know I'm going to have audience

members that are literally going to see their sons, daughters, whoever they know in military service

possibly come back for the last time. I'm not here to fear monger, folks. They're calling this

the next Vietnam. And Trump doesn't seem to have a way out. And he's not going to admit defeat.

It's just insane. And gosh, I'd love nothing more than to find out I'm just being in alarmist

and I'm wrong. But I don't see I don't see this thing ending anytime soon. And we're all going

to pay for it. We're going to pay for it with our wallet. That's the very least with the rising

cost of goods because gas and fuel prices are going to go so high. Now, speaking about things that

below my mind, we haven't even been talking about ice much because we've been talking about this

crazy war. But how about this? A homeowner hires workers for remodeling job, then calls ice on

them. Can you believe this? A homeowner in Cambridge, Maryland, reportedly called ice on six

Guatemalan workers after hiring them for a remodeling job. It's unclear if she called ice to

avoid paying the workers what they were owed a practice that has become more common since Trump's

second term began. The arrest for broadcast live for about 30 minutes by a coworker identified

as Brian Polanco, seeing it is not the same as experiencing it. I've seen many videos and

sadly today I had to experience it. Unreal stuff. And again, do you remember that whole idea,

like, oh, we're only going after the violent criminals, right? And it's like, what have they

actually gone after? People working jobs, people at Home Depot that are trying to get daily

labor jobs and working in farms and factories and daycares. What are we talking about? They keep

moving the goalposts. But that's what you see with the cult. You see this ability to move the

goalposts and rationalize things that otherwise would have been canceled moments. They're okay

with Trump speaking down on women or hitting on people on Fox News when he's supposed to be talking

about the war he started, which is not going well. In fact, Iran was one of the only countries,

I mean, they're making money, right? Because they're actually profiting off the sale of oil

when all of these other countries can't get their oil through the straight. So they've got us by

the balls. And we're spending all of this money, you know, kidnapping, presidents in Venezuela,

we're preparing to invade Cuba, preparing to invade Iran. What is going, threatening to invade

Greenland, using tariffs to try to create all these leverage points on all these countries and

it's backfiring because now they're doing business without us. Nobody's traveling to the United

States. Literally, tourism is plummeted. Where's the victory for literally anybody other than

the executive branch? If you know Donald Trump, if you're rich enough to insider trade,

as he sort of does his, you know, pre-market, he does this thing where he's trying to fight the war

on the weekend. And I know that sounds crazy, but literally starting at 4.30 pm today, he's going to

bomb, you know, Iran. And that way you'll get the bombing done on the weekend and try not to

affect the stock market so much. It's insane. And I don't know what else to say, you know,

luckily no one calls, no one says they have trumped arrangement syndrome anymore because they see

everything we've said is going to happen has happened. It's a police state. They're setting ice

up in the airports, preparing to set ice up at election polling locations for the midterms.

They tried to gerrymander the hell out of certain states in order to win back some of the votes.

They're surely going to lose after they took away our healthcare subsidies. What is happening? None

of this is going to end. Doge, Department of Government Efficiency, whatever money they thought

they were going to save was immediately wiped out by day two of this war, two billion dollars a day.

Our taxpayer money is going to bomb people that couldn't attack us. Their missiles couldn't reach us.

They don't have nuclear weapons. We were lying into it. And that's where we stand. And I'm here

to cover it with you guys. So again, it's a wild time to be alive. But trust me when I say,

if you're on my side, you're on the right side of history. We'll catch you guys this afternoon

twice a day every day. Until then, I'm Dave and this is The Rush.

Toyota, let's go places.