I never liked Brand much and none of this is especially shocking - that whole mid-to-late 2000's era, where the media were glamourising people like him, Pete Doherty, Amy Winehouse* and Lindsay Lohan, left a bad taste in the mouth at the time and it really hasn't aged well. It's amazing to me that Doherty in particular has never been publicly taken down for what was happening behind the scenes at that time.
Havig said that, I thought it was interesting that Dispatches almost seemed to take pains to avoid stating the obvious: that Brand was attractive, charismatic and famous, and that women were throwing themselves at him the more he flaunted his sexuality in public. It's easy to forget (and it was ignored in the show) but even Brand's ascent from E4 presenter to the A-list was due to him dating Kate Moss when she was at the peak of her fame and tabloid notoriety.
None of that excuses the non-consensual episodes, more stories of which will surely come into the open now, but it's undeniable that Brand's comedy was seen as fun and exciting at the time. Using it as an extra layer of condemnation within the show didn't sit right with me, nor did the implication that promiscuous but consensual sex is predatory. It was pathetic seeing some of the same people who indulged him then shaking their heads and tutting in retrospect while saying they wished they'd acted differently, apparently unaware that Brand himself was operating under the same norms. This TV exec was complaining that he kept getting 'promoted' - it was people like her doing it!
Lastly, Brand is half right when he talks about this being a mainstream media campaign. But what he doesn't realise is that it was his value to the mainstream media at the time that protected him from the consequences of his actions, which are to some extent irrefutable. Kind of hard to argue away IM and text message evidence. If he hadn't been a mainstream media and entertainment figure he may well have been in jail by now.
*It's easy to forget all these years later but Winehouse was notorious for getting wasted and attacking people in public.
