Will accusations dent Russell Brand’s popularity with conspiracy theory fans?
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This weekend’s accusations that the comic and actor Russell Brand has committed serious sexual crimes will test just how possible it is to knock the reputation of a celebrity who has always admitted to previous “bad behaviour”, and built up his fame on the strength of it.
After all, this is someone who has openly “joked” with Jimmy Savile about getting together to have sex with young women. So just how vulnerable is the Brand brand?
Reaction to Channel 4’s Dispatches documentary Russell Brand: In Plain Sight may lead to the cancellation of the current tour of Bipolarisation, his live theatre show, but will it dent the performer’s lucrative online popularity?
It is a question that matters because the 48-year-old comedian and social commentator now has such a large international following for his daily Stay Free broadcasts, to say nothing of the millions of viewers of his regular posts on YouTube, and his many TikTok and Instagram followers.
Such a huge collective audience has already given Brand the support to push back against what he dismisses as “rather baroque attacks” and allegations made in the TV documentary and the Sunday Times. In answer to allegations of rape and sexual assault while at the peak of his fame more than a decade ago, he said: “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 am being transparent about it now as well.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/sep/16/accusations-russell-brand-tv-documentary-comic.
