Noel Fielding..

[CurlewKate]

… is very silent about Russell Brand, isn’t he?

Eh? This is a chat board when it comes down to it. It's chat and gossip and discussion. People can write what they feel without it having to be viewed as evidence in a court of law. Why are you treating a chat board as a court room or making assertions about the way some people are posting means they would make a terrible jury member? How ridiculous.

Oh yes I do, Mandy Smith branded a lolita Bill Wyman being back slapped for "bagging" a teenager.

It's just one of the fashions of the time. Are you going to accuse everyone who wore skinny jeans in the 2000s that they were part of a subculture?

I used to work closely with someone who ended up in trouble not dissimilar from this but with a different age group shall we say, I stayed quiet because I couldn't believe it, I was absolutely shocked

A 33 year old thinking it is OK to date a 16 year old girl is a creep.

Fascinating read and it's making me think. I'm not that old but I remember young men talking openly about "persuading" girls to do things they didn't want to. I also clearly remember another group of young adult men talking about how a girl had "passed her peak" at 16. This was all completely normal at the time and these were all respectable, middle class people.

Of course RB was raping women and of course the people around him knew about it at the time. And I'm pretty confident that lots of those consensual sexual encounters the defence referred to were no such thing. Rape that doesn't involve explicit threats and weapons is normalised for both boys and girls, and this was shown by the defence (why didn't they shout or run away, they went willingly, etc). It's all so utterly depressing.

It seemed sick then. She was 13, he was 47. It wasn't pursued and they got married.

Veering slightly away from the main topic, but in a similar vein, older Mnetters may remember Michael Parkinson's chat show, and one year he had Helen Mirren on and he asked her whether her "equipment" (nodding at her breasts) might help or hinder her acting career. Even then - and it was a loooong time ago, I was really annoyed at this. She didn't simper or let him off but made him clarify what he meant, and then said something like 'so are serious actresses not allowed to have big bosoms then?" It was the use of the word 'equipment' and the accompanying leering that enraged me. Mid-70s I think.

There is a really interesting News Agent podcast from 2023 with Gordon Smart who was a showbiz journalist who having around with Russell Brand when he worked in London. He was moving in the same circles and going to gigs etc with him and met him many times. He talks about the culture then and how he feels about it now.

Bear Grylls actively facilitated RB’s miraculous well timed conversion to Christianity AFTER all the allegations of rape were well known.

They weren’t friends before that I think?

So it behoves BG to admit that he he could have thought more deeply about what was going on.

I remember watching that quiz and thinking that RB actually seemed a bit nicer because he was teamed with Noel Fielding. I don't know if they were friends in real life.

I think it's too easy to say everyone around him must have known RB was a rapist. He made a big show of his 'shagger' reputation. His attitude to women was obviously disrespectful but he did attract a lot of women who willingly had sex with him. With hindsight, I expect there are many who have never complained where his actions were questionable.

I hope this isn’t a ‘passing my complicity off as a cultural observation’ type thing.

Bear Grylls was probably used as well as a human shield. RB is a very clever man.

It is a big part of why we need a justice system.

I expect we have all hung around with a sex offender. They are really common. I worked with a paedophile. We found out when he was marched off the premises and his computer was bagged up. I am not sure I felt the need to distance myself.

It is a bit unfair to single out anyone because of their connections to someone. You can't be guilty by association. It's also very easy to say "they must have known!". RBs whole bit was based on a sex crazed, womanising misogynistic dandy man, he was hiding in plain sight. It could just be that Noel fielding etc did not know, I don't think he needs to say anything.

Indeed.

Many of these types of criminals manage to have friends and even a family as way to cover up their true nature.

Manipulative and superficially charming.

I don't think we can assume they knew what was going on.

Same here. He appeared a normal colleague until it happened.

I think the frustrating thing is that after an initial wobble, Brand will do just fine in prison.

He's a psychopath who will rise to the top - if interested see my post on the earlier thread about his capacity to exert his will over others IRL.

There were a lot of people fawn8ng over Brand. Rape is about power, and I think the whole TV industry needs to take a look at itself and ask themselves why people like Russel Brand and so many others were given so much power just because they made shows that people watched. Brand and others were behaving inappropriately to other employees who TV execs had a duty towards that they failed over and over again. Re Brand especially during that time, maybe politicians and journalists need to look at why they automatically fawned over him just because he said stuff they liked, assuming he was a good guy. People like The Guardian, Ed Milliband, Jeremy Corbyns team. Just because he endorsed them and their views he cound do no wrong. They overlooked his bad behaviour for the greater good- their election campaigns.

Another supporter

What is he supposed to say? I would think it is a lot to process if you actually know the person who is prosecuted. Far better to say nothing than to have the media distort your comments.

My partner works in entertainment (although not in tv or comedy) and from what he’s said I agree that during Russell’s peak everyone knew him as a creepy promiscuous guy who’d try it on with everyone. I don’t think that necessarily equates to people having deep insight into the role consent played in these interactions, particularly given his fame and the attention he had from women.

That was horrific at the time. I knew even then when I read about it as a teenager that it was a total abuse of power and that she was a vulnerable young woman (and remained vulnerable for many years as a result). It just FELT wrong. I was only 3 years younger than her and couldn't understand how the media was just portraying it all as "rock stars gonna rock star"