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Russell Brand Dropped by Agent; BBC, Channel 4 Issue Statements

Russell Brand has been dropped by his agent, with Channel 4 & BBC issuing statements in light of the allegations against the actor/comedian.

Less than a day after actor/comedian Russell Brand (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek) posted a video on YouTube where he "absolutely refutes" what he referred to as a "litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks," The Sunday Times of London & Channel 4 went live with a joint investigative report accusing Brand of "rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse" (with Channel 4 airing a 90-minute Dispatches offering a detailed look at the allegations this evening in the U.K.). With Brand continuing his comedy tour this evening at London's 2000-seat Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, Channel 4 and the BBC (both have employed Brand in the past) have issued statements on the matter. In addition,

Channel 4 Statement on Russell Brand: "Channel 4 is appalled to learn of these deeply troubling allegations, including behaviour alleged to have taken place on programmes made for Channel 4 between 2004 and 2007. We are determined to understand the full nature of what went on. We have carried out extensive document searches and have found no evidence to suggest the alleged incidents were brought to the attention of Channel 4. We will continue to review this in light of any further information we receive, including the accounts of those affected individuals.

We will be asking the production company who produced the programmes for Channel 4 to investigate these allegations and report their findings properly and satisfactorily to us. In the many years since the alleged incidents took place, there has obviously been extensive change in Channel 4's management and commissioning teams. Today, Channel 4 has a zero-tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviour and has a robust Code of Conduct. We require all suppliers to have in place rigorous safeguarding policies and provide whistleblowing support, including Channel 4's Speak Up facility. We are committed to ensuring our industry has safe, inclusive and professional working environments."

BBC Statement on Russell Brand: "Russell Brand worked for a number of different organisations of which the BBC was one. As is well known, Russell Brand left the BBC after a serious editorial breach in 2008 – as did the then controller of Radio 2. The circumstances of the breach were reviewed in detail at the time. We hope that demonstrates that the BBC takes issues seriously and is prepared to act. We will always listen to people if they come forward with any concerns, on any issue related to any individual working at the BBC, past or present."

Agency Tavistock Wood Drops Russell Brand: Tavistock Wood (owned by United Talent Agency's Curtis Brown) dropped Brand as a client after being presented with the report that was about to go public. "Russell Brand categorically and vehemently denied the allegation made in 2020, but we now believe we were horribly misled by him. TW has terminated all professional ties to Brand," read the statement from the agency. In the report, a woman contacted Angharad Wood, Brand's literary agent & co-founder of Tavistock Wood, in 2020 to notify them that Brand had a relationship with her when she was 16 years old – with Brand's lawyer denying her allegations and implying that the allegation was "almost blackmail."

The report alleges that Brand sexually assaulted four women between 2006 and 2013 (with The Sunday Times of London keeping the names of the women anonymous). One alleged victim claims the actor/comedian assaulted her when she was 16 years old, and Brand was in his 30s, adding that Brand had nicknamed her "the child" and asked that she read from Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita. Another alleged victim shared that she was raped at Brand's home in Los Angeles, while another claimed that Brand sexually assaulted her and then threatened her with legal action if she ever went public with what took place.

"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," Brand says at one point in the video "So, This Is Happening" that he posted late Friday in the U.K. "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. I was always transparent about that then — almost too transparent — and I'm being transparent about it now as well." The television, film & radio personality has been less visible on that side of the entertainment industry over the past several years, focusing more on social media & YouTube posts that offer his quite often controversial positions on any number of topics – with the recent COVID-19 pandemic and the mainstream media being some of Brand's favorite topics to attack (though Brand has been accused by many in the media of promoting unfounded conspiracy theories and pandemic misinformation in the past).

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