Russell Brand has spent two decades turning his private life into a product. He has written about his addictions, his spiritual awakenings and his opinions on everything. Now a court is hearing that when police asked him about specific allegations, he said no.
By the standards of his back catalogue, this is a plot twist. The man who once published his feelings in a book with a chapter for every feeling he has ever had has apparently decided the most important thing to say is nothing happened.
Is this a strategy? Obviously it is. A flat denial is the only storyline that never needs a sequel.
The allegations are not a bit. They are not podcast material, and the people who made them are not characters in a memoir. The court will decide what happened, and everyone in this country is presumed innocent until that process concludes.
Somewhere a ghostwriter is already drafting a chapter titled “Denial.” Its page count is unknown, but its editor is presumed innocent too.