In the wake of the explosive allegations against comedian and actor Russell Brand, footage has emerged of the now forty-eight-year-old being told off by American talk show host Jimmy Fallon for ‘bouncing’ singer-songwriter Katharine McPhee.
Over the weekend, news of a joint investigation by Channel 4, The Times and Sunday Times broke, which looked into a host of allegations against comedian and actor Russell Brand.
Channel 4’s Dispatches broadcast an extended documentary covering the allegations, with the newspapers also publishing their reports over the weekend.
Brand was accused by 4 different women of assaulting them between the years of 2006 and 2013, during the height of his fame. The allegations include r*pe, emotional abuse and sexual assault. All 4 of the women have chosen to remain anonymous.
One of the women accused Brand of r*ping her at his Los Angeles home, and sought treatment at a r*pe crisis centre the next day.
A second said that she entered into a relationship with him when she was sixteen years old and he was thirty-one. She claimed that during their time together Brand was emotionally abusive and controlling.
A third woman said that he assaulted her at his Los Angeles house, and threatened legal action if she told anyone.
The fourth accuser said that Brand sexually assaulted her, and also claimed that he was physically and emotionally abusive.
The investigation took place over several years, with journalists having accessed text messages, medical files and Brand’s biography.
Brand has denied all the accusations against him. In a statement shared to his social media, he said the accusations “pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream.”
“As I have written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous,” 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.
“To see that transparency metastasised into something criminal, that I absolutely deny, makes me question – is there another agenda at play?”
In the wake of the allegations, the focus has turned to interviews involving Brand in the past that provided potential warning signs of his alleged behaviour.
One of these comes from a 2013 interview with Jimmy Fallon, where Brand sat alongside American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee.
The resurfaced clip shows Brand bouncing McPhee on his lap, and in the wake of the allegations against him, some have expressed concern for the scenario.
“She’s welcome to sit here,” Brand said to Fallon, grabbing McPhee’s hand as she sat on his lap after he refused to move from his seat next to the host.
“No, Russell, don’t even say for the Queen, you can’t,” Fallon said.
“Russell, please stop,” Fallon continued. “Look away.”
“I’ll just be here, with my sexual charisma,” Brand hit back.
“As you know, I’ve announced it, I find Katharine very attractive and I think when she said ‘exchange numbers’ I thought of things that I’d like to exchange with her,” he continued.
“What is happening right now!” McPhee exclaimed, before conversation turned back to about her husband at the time, Nick Cokas.
Per the Daily Mail, McPhee told them in relation to the encounter: “This specific incident was over 10 years ago, and it was harmless.”
