When news broke last week that Russell Brand had been accused of sexual assault, rape, grooming and emotional abuse of four different women – one of them a child – it was shocking, but not unbelievable. It was as if Brand’s sordid eccentricities, his calcified public persona, his catchphrases and his self-regard, were finally usable as evidence that he’d been hiding in plain sight all along. Take, for example, his stand-up jokes – suggesting that oral sex is best when black, mascara tears stream down the face of the person on the giving end – or his loaded guest appearances,…

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