Russell Brand Quits BBC
Former drug addict and now former BBC radio host celebrity news D-lister Russell Brand had to leave the BBC after over 18,000 complaints were received to protest the juvenile, obscene prank calls he and his colleague Jonathan Ross left on beloved 78 year-old actor Andrew Sachs‘ answering machine.
The phone messages were played on state-funded BBC radio, where Ross jokingly claimed Brand had slept with the granddaughter of Sachs, and suggested Sachs might kill himself when he listened to the message.
Although he and Ross were forced to apologized later, they were suspended from their radio shows. BBC director general Mark Thompson described the sketch as a “gross lapse of taste”.
“This is not a marginal case, he said. “It’s clear from the views expressed by the public that this broadcast has caused severe offense and I share that view. This gross lapse of taste by the performers and the production team has angered licence payers.”
Even Prime Minister Gordon Brown was among those who said the calls were unacceptable.
In an outburst that show business insiders say has killed his chances of a US career, Russell Brand described George Bush as ‘that retarded cowboy fella’ and added: ‘It was nice of you to let him have a go, because, in England, he wouldn’t be trusted with a pair of scissors.’
Let’s just hope he crawls under a rock and stays there.
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