Before his rape conviction, Russell Brand was widely feted by the left-wing press. He was even made guest editor of an edition of the New Statesman, titled ‘Revolution of Consciousness’. The 2013 special issue featured celebrities such as Noel Gallagher, David Lynch, Noam Chomsky and Gary Lineker.
Brand didn’t exactly hide who he was back then. The first line of his piece in the magazine reads: ‘When I was asked to edit an issue of the New Statesman I said yes because it was a beautiful woman asking me.’
Perhaps more remarkably, to mark the issue the magazine staged a mock-up of Da Vinci’s Last Supper, with Brand as Jesus, alongside his apostles: the New Statesman staff.
In the picture next to Brand sits Helen Lewis, now staff writer at the Atlantic, while former New Statesman editor Jason Cowley sits to his right.
Next to Cowley is former New Statesman deputy editor George Eaton, who misrepresented Roger Scruton in an interview before his death. Eaton celebrated Scruton’s subsequent cancellation by posting a photo of himself swigging from a champagne bottle with the caption: ‘The feeling when you get right-wing racist and homophobe Roger Scruton sacked as a Tory government adviser.’ Perhaps he should have been more careful about who the New Statesman was hiring as guest editor instead.
The photograph also features Jemima Khan on the far left, one of Brand’s ex-girlfriends, who used to be the New Statesman’s associate editor.
Quite the motley crew, and an embarrassing photograph for the NS.
At least the magazine is in good company. Andy Burnham tweeted in 2014: ‘Depressing to see media mission to discredit someone who stops playing their game & uses celebrity to help others. Keep going @rustyrockets [Russell Brand].’
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