It was also the first time that Brand, who was suspended and then resigned amid the backlash, suffered serious consequences. Brand’s 2007 autobiography “My Booky Wook” details accounts of him spitting in a sex worker’s face and smashing another’s phone into a wall. And as one of Brand’s accusers has claimed, those who pulled the strings weren’t just willing to overlook sinister behavior — they bent over backward to accommodate it. He created a mythology around them, at a cultural moment when women were being villainized in a particularly demeaning, sexual way. If they were ever tempted to turn against him, they’d be forced to interrogate why they hadn’t done so sooner.

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Persons: Holly Thomas, Katie Couric, CNN —, ”, Russell Brand, Holly Thomas Holly Thomas The, Brand, “, ” Brand, bin Laden, Brand’s, lothario, Sir Jimmy Savile, Savile, he’d, Johnathan Ross, Andrew Sachs, Sachs, Georgina Baillie, Baillie, he’s Russell Brand, he’s, they’d Organizations: Katie Couric Media, CNN, Sunday Times, The Times, Holly Thomas Holly Thomas The Times, Brand, Metropolitan Police, The Sunday Times, Ardent, MTV, BBC, Times, BBC Radio, HarperCollins Locations: London, Northampton, British