British comedian Russell Brand has posted a video denying “serious criminal allegations” set to be made against him in an upcoming television program.
“But amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks, are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute,” Brand said.
"These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies.
"And as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous. Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual.
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ruh roh, Russell.
Good stuff and thank you, I’ll definitely give this a watch.
I was in my late teens and early 20s when Brand was selling my age group a bohemian lifestyle. I’m not the type to idolize, but a lot of what he said did resonate with me in a “Mom: we have Bill Hicks at home” sort of way.
I remember Charlie Brooker criticizing him for prancing around the student loan protests in the early 2010s and started to lose respect for him from there on.
It’s been difficult to watch his gradual (and recently, expedient) decline since those early days, as he’s a genuinely witty and charismatic person who has frequently said quite touching and soul-bearing things. All of that said, none of this news surprises me, in fact, it felt inevitable.