Russell Brand Book Publisher, Literary Agency Pause Releases Following Assault Allegations

Larisha Paul
·3 min read
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An Evening with Russell Brand at Esquire Townhouse with Dior - Credit: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images
An Evening with Russell Brand at Esquire Townhouse with Dior - Credit: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

Russell Brand’s upcoming book releases will be paused by his U.K. publisher Bluebird following allegations of sexual assault and rape. The Pan Macmillan imprint revealed on Monday that all plans related to the actor and comedian’s publishing have been terminated for the time being. His upcoming release, Recovery: The Workbook, was scheduled to be published in December.

“These are very serious allegations and in the light of them, Bluebird has taken the decision to pause all future publishing with Russell Brand,” Bluebird shared in a statement, according to The Bookseller.

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Brand will also no longer be represented by literary agency Tavistock Wood, according to a statement from owner Curtis Brown. “Russell Brand categorically and vehemently denied the allegation made in 2020, but we now believe we were horribly misled by him,” the statement reads, referring to one accuser who reportedly informed Brand’s literary agent Angharad Wood of her allegation three years ago, but was only met with a “very aggressive” letter in response. Brown added that “TW has terminated all professional ties to Brand.”

A joint report from the Sunday Times, The Times and U.K. broadcaster Channel 4’s documentary team published last week includes allegations from four women. Channel 4, where Brand began his career as a host on Big Brother’s Big Mouth in 2004, has launched an internal investigation into whether anyone working at the broadcast network “had knowledge of the alleged behaviors,” according to a staff email from CEO Alex Mahon. The email, shared by The Sunday Times‘ media editor Rosamund Urwin, also referred to a strengthening and safeguarding of the network’s whistleblowing policies.

Content featuring Brand, including episodes of Big Brother’s Big Mouth and The Great British Bake Off, has been removed from Channel 4’s online sites for the duration of the investigation.

Additionally, BBC and Banjiay U.K. have also launched their own separate investigations. “The documentary and associated reports contained serious allegations, spanning a number of years,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday, via Variety. “Russell Brand worked on BBC radio programmes between 2006 and 2008 and we are urgently looking into the issues raised.”

Brand’s time at BBC overlaps with the time period of one of the allegations in particular, which involved a woman who was 16 years old at the time of the alleged assault. More of the allegations reportedly span the period of time he spent on two Big Brother spinoffs produced by Endemol, the media company now owned by Banijay.

In a statement, the entertainment company shared: “In light of the very serious allegations raised by ‘Dispatches’ and The Times/Sunday Times investigation relating to the alleged serious misconduct of Russell Brand while presenting shows produced by Endemol in 2004 and 2005, Banijay U.K. has launched an urgent internal investigation and will cooperate with any requests for information from broadcast partners and external agencies. We also encourage anybody who feels that they were affected by Brand’s behaviour while working on these productions to contact us in confidence.”

Banijay continued: “While the legacy company, Endemol, did have a code of conduct, support policies and escalation procedures in place during the period in question (2004/2005) they were not as robust as our current processes. We are sorry these women did not feel supported and protected while working on these productions and in light of these serious allegations encourage to them to contact us in confidence.”

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