Russell Brand apologises after sex attack prank call
Russell Brand apologises for recent onstage telephone prank
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Wednesday, 16, Jul 2008 02:20
Russell Brand has apologised for a recent onstage telephone prank in which he claimed to have information about a sex attacker.
The comedian had been performing at the Derngate in Northampton on Saturday when he borrowed an audience member's phone and called a crime hotline claming to have seen an alleged attacker.
But with police currently appealing for information about a number of sex attacks in the town, the comedian has been chastised for making a "frivolous" call over a genuine matter.
The Forgetting Sarah Marshall star can be seen on a YouTube video of the incident telling a phone operator: "I've got some information for you. I've seen a gentleman who fits that description [of the attacker].
"He was wearing a lime-green top and polka-dot trousers. I thought, 'Well, look at the state of him.' He looked like [children's TV presenter] Timmy Mallett."
The operator ended the call after Brand asked her out for dinner and began to sing down the line.
Northamptonshire officers have not confirmed whether any action would be taken against Brand but said they would "discourage" people from calling crime hotlines for insincere reasons.
Brand, 33, has since issued a statement saying: "I appreciate the seriousness of the issue and I am devastated by the possibility that I may have offended vulnerable people.
"I maintain that through discourse we can illuminate these dark behaviours but that ought not to be at the expense of people's feelings."