Russell Brand is on trial for rape and sexual assault. His career has been a catalog of controversy

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British comedian and actor Russell Brand will stand trial in London on Monday, accused of rape and sexual assault .

The 51-year-old has pleaded not guilty to three charges of rape, one charge of indecent assault and three counts of sexual assault, relating to six women.

The charges go back to the beginning of his career.

Brand became a household name in British television in the early 2000s, presenting the talk show “Celebrity Big Brother’s Big Mouth,” a spin-off from the popular reality series “Celebrity Big Brother,” and receiving accolades such as Best Male Comedy Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards for his talk show “Russell Brand’s Got Issues.”

As well as garnering many TV fans, his eccentric stand-up performances made him one of the UK’s most popular live entertainers.

Brand’s energetic character and provocative jokes, often relating to sex, made him a distinctive voice in the UK media. In 2006, he became host of “The Russell Brand Show” on BBC Radio 2, a weekly Saturday night program during which he had frank, comedic — and often X-rated — conversations with a co-host and guests.

While the popular radio show attracted around 400,000 listeners on average, it came to an abrupt halt in 2008 when Brand quit the show after offensive voice messages, left by him and entertainer Jonathan Ross for “Fawlty Towers” star Andrew Sachs, were aired on the program, sparking outrage and breaching UK broadcasting regulations.

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In the voice messages, Brand joked — using explicit language — about having sex with Sachs’ granddaughter. He and Ross went on to say that Sachs, who was 78 at the time, might kill himself on hearing the news. The episode was widely criticized, with the BBC receiving tens of thousands of complaints and regulator Ofcom receiving almost 2,000.

Even the British prime minister of the day, Gordon Brown, reacted to what was later labeled “Sachsgate,” calling Brand’s comments “inappropriate and unacceptable.”

Russell Brand pleads not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges

At the time, Brand said he took “complete responsibility,” adding: “I got a bit caught up in the moment and forgot that, at the core of the rude comments and silly songs, were the real feelings of a beloved and brilliant comic actor and a very sweet and big-hearted young woman.”

However, he changed his tone five years later in a BBC Radio interview. While he admitted that listeners’ offense was “genuine” and apologized for his “wrong” actions, he also said that “there was obviously a pre-existing agenda in privately owned media to destabilize, attack and diminish the BBC.”

Despite the notoriety of Sachsgate, Brand’s rise was only briefly impeded.

The same year he quit his radio show, his Channel 4 TV show “Russell Brand’s Ponderland” was nominated for a BAFTA, and he became a recognized name in Hollywood after portraying the hedonistic rock star Aldous Snow in the romantic comedy “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Two years later, he reprised the role in the spinoff “Get Him to the Greek.”

It was around this time that he began dating US pop star Katy Perry . The high-profile relationship didn’t last, however. After marrying in October 2010 , the couple were fending off divorce rumors by 2011 and, by the end of that year , Brand had announced he was divorcing Perry , reportedly catching the singer off guard.

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Perry revealed in 2013 that Brand told her that he was divorcing her via a text on New Year’s Eve and that she hadn’t heard from him since, adding that while he “wanted an equal” at first, strong men “get that equal and they’re like, I can’t handle the equalness. He didn’t like the atmosphere of me being the boss on tour. So that was really hurtful, and it was very controlling, which was upsetting.”

Brand, however, blamed busy schedules for their split , and said in 2017 that the up-and-down nature of fame contributed to the brevity of the marriage. He said he still felt “very warm towards her.”

Brand has credited yoga and meditation for helping him deal with addictions to drugs, alcohol and sex.

In 2017, he wrote a self-help guide, “Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions.”

He had previously published his autobiography, “My Booky Wook: A Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-Up,” which became a best-seller in the UK and was published in the US two years later. Critics described the book as “funny and frequently awful, ” as well as a “relentless ride with a comic mind clearly at the wheel.”

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Brand’s stand-up shows and podcasts began to focus more on societal trends, spirituality, psychology and childbirth, and his on-stage performances moved from theater stages to speaking at wellness gatherings, such as Wanderlust Wellspring in Palm Springs, California in 2018.

With his second wife — author Laura Gallacher, whom he married in 2017 and with whom he has three children — Brand launched a spirituality festival in Wales, titled “Community,” which had its first outing in 2023. A subsequent edition was postponed and then canceled.

Russell Brand makes first public comments since sexual assault allegations

More recently, Brand has been hosting a podcast, “Stay Free,” and making YouTube videos for his “Awakened Wonders” online community – paying members with whom he shares his thoughts on spirituality, culture, politics and global affairs.

Brand promotes his community as a counter to what he describes as the “corrupted and broken” old systems that govern the world, with “a New Spirit” being born among them.

He frequently airs conspiracy theories about a “concealed agenda” and deception by governments, Big Pharma and Big Tech, as well as voicing suspicions about the Covid vaccine, and corruption and dishonesty in the mainstream media.

In a YouTube video published in September 2023, Brand accused the British government of trying to censor him online, and he has described the claims against him as “coordinated” and “egregious attacks” by the media, questioning, “Is there another agenda at play?”

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英国喜剧演员兼演员罗素·布兰德将于周一在伦敦受审，他被指控犯有强奸和性侵犯罪。

这名 51 岁的男子对涉及六名女性的三项强奸罪、一项猥亵罪和三项性侵犯罪均不不认罪。

这些指控可以追溯到他职业生涯的早期。

2000 年代初，布兰德凭借脱口秀节目《名人老大哥的嘴巴》（Celebrity Big Brother's Big Mouth，热门真人秀《名人老大哥》的衍生节目）成为英国电视界的家喻户晓的人物，并凭借脱口秀节目《拉塞尔·布兰德的问题》（Russell Brand's Got Issues）获得英国喜剧奖最佳男喜剧新人奖等荣誉。

除了赢得众多电视观众外，他古怪的单口喜剧表演也使他成为英国最受欢迎的现场表演艺人之一。

布兰德充满活力的个性和经常与性有关的挑衅性笑话，使他成为英国媒体界独树一帜的声音。2006年，他开始主持BBC广播二台的《罗素·布兰德秀》，这是一档每周六晚播出的节目，节目中他与联合主持人及嘉宾进行坦率、幽默——且常常带有成人色彩——的对话。

虽然这档热门广播节目平均吸引了约 40 万听众，但在 2008 年，由于布兰德和艺人乔纳森·罗斯给《福尔蒂旅馆》明星安德鲁·萨克斯留下的冒犯性语音留言在节目中播出，引发众怒并违反了英国广播法规，布兰德愤然退出该节目，导致节目突然停播。

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在语音留言中，布兰德用露骨的语言开玩笑说要和萨克斯的孙女发生性关系。他和罗斯还说，当时78岁的萨克斯听到这个消息可能会自杀。此事引发广泛批评，BBC收到了数万起投诉，监管机构Ofcom也收到了近2000起投诉。

就连当时的英国首相戈登·布朗也对后来被称为“萨克斯门”的事件做出了回应，称布兰德的言论“不恰当且不可接受”。

拉塞尔·布兰德对强奸和性侵指控拒不不认罪

当时，布兰德表示他“负全部责任”，并补充道：“我当时有点冲动，忘记了在那些粗鲁的评论和愚蠢的歌曲背后，是一位深受爱戴、才华横溢的喜剧演员和一位非常甜美、心地善良的年轻女性的真实感受。”

然而，五年后他在接受BBC广播电台采访时改变了说法。他承认听众的冒犯是“真诚的”，并为自己的“错误”行为道歉，但他同时也表示，“显然，私营媒体存在着一种预先存在的意图，即破坏、攻击和削弱BBC。”

尽管萨克斯门事件臭名昭著，但布兰德的崛起只是短暂地受到了阻碍。

同年，他辞去了广播节目，他的第四频道电视节目《罗素·布兰德的沉思录》获得了英国电影学院奖提名，并在浪漫喜剧《忘掉莎拉·马歇尔》中饰演享乐主义摇滚明星奥尔德斯·斯诺后，在好莱坞声名鹊起。两年后，他在衍生电影《前往希腊剧院》中再次出演了该角色。

大约就在这个时候，他开始与美国流行歌手凯蒂·佩里约会。然而，这段备受瞩目的恋情并没有持续多久。两人于2010年10月结婚，但到了2011年，离婚传闻就甚嚣尘上。同年年底，布兰德宣布与佩里离婚，据说这让这位歌手措手不及。

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佩里在2013年透露，布兰德在新年夜通过短信告诉她要和她离婚，之后就再也没有联系过她。她还补充说，虽然布兰德一开始“想要一个平等的伴侣”，但强势的男人“一旦得到了平等，就会觉得‘我无法接受这种平等’。他不喜欢我在巡演中扮演领导角色。所以这真的非常伤人，而且他控制欲很强，这让我很沮丧。”

然而，布兰德将两人分手归咎于繁忙的日程安排，并在2017年表示，名利的起伏不定也是导致婚姻短暂的原因之一。他还说，他仍然“对她充满爱意”。

布兰德认为瑜伽和冥想帮助他克服了毒品、酒精和性瘾。

2017 年，他撰写了一本自助指南，名为《康复：摆脱成瘾》。

他此前出版了自传《我的书呆子：性、毒品和脱口秀回忆录》，该书在英国成为畅销书，两年后在美国出版。评论家们将这本书描述为“既搞笑又经常糟糕”，以及“一部节奏紧凑、充满喜剧元素的作品”。

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布兰德的单口喜剧表演和播客开始更多地关注社会趋势、灵性、心理学和生育，他的舞台表演也从剧院舞台转移到在健康聚会上发表演讲，例如 2018 年在加利福尼亚州棕榈泉举行的 Wanderlust Wellspring 活动。

布兰德与他的第二任妻子——作家劳拉·加拉赫（两人于 2017 年结婚，育有三个孩子）——在威尔士创办了一个名为“社区”的灵性节，该节日于 2023 年首次举办。随后的几届活动被推迟，之后又被取消。

罗素·布兰德在性侵指控后首次公开表态

最近，布兰德主持了一档名为“保持自由”的播客节目，并为他的“觉醒奇迹”在线社区制作 YouTube 视频——该社区的付费会员可以与他分享他对灵性、文化、政治和全球事务的看法。

布兰德将他的社区宣传为对抗他所描述的统治世界的“腐败和破碎”的旧体系，并声称“一种新精神”正在其中诞生。

他经常散布关于政府、大型制药公司和大型科技公司“隐藏议程”和欺骗的阴谋论，并对新冠疫苗、主流媒体的腐败和不诚实表示怀疑。

在 2023 年 9 月发布的一段 YouTube 视频中，布兰德指责英国政府试图审查他的网络言论，并将针对他的指控描述为媒体“有组织的”和“恶劣的攻击”，并质疑“背后是否还有其他目的？”