RUSSELL Brand has called his new comedy show Brand-emic, so I thought he’d have the sense to be cautious of Covid.
But the comedian dangerously flouted social distancing rules by taking selfies with swathes of fans and even hugging one following a gig on Monday just 80 minutes after the rule of six came into force.
He did an entire set inspired by lockdown and the pandemic but later mingled with fans without a face mask, even shaking hands with some.
Despite his silly behaviour, yesterday he tweeted that it had been “a wonderful night of socially distant, spiritually intimate fun.”
My exclusive photos of the scene below show a very different story.
A member of his team tried to plead with him to stop mingling and Russell told one punter: “I’d better go, I’m flouting social distancing rules here” — before carrying on.
What made it worse was that the venue, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London, had only been a third full due to the need for punters to be socially distanced in their seats.
Russell told the crowd: “I’m easily provoked, I’m brittle and I’m an anxious person.
“I’ve not socialised for a long while and now I’m looking at what looks like a very poorly attended show.
“I’m fighting every prima donna instinct in my body to walk the f*** off this stage.”
During his rambling performance he even admitted that the ticket holders would be “almost certainly infected” because of the types of fans he attracts.
And he ranted about masks: “I don’t know if they work or not, we can’t tell can we? What does the science say? I don’t know any more.
“Who here’s been going out, doing drugs, licking things? You f***-ups.
“Now, I know my audience — the delirious, the unwell, the almost certainly infected.”
I hope for everybody’s sake they weren’t.
LITTLE Mix rallied around bandmate Jesy Nelson when she broke down on stage during Radio 1’s Live Lounge yesterday.
Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall and Perrie Edwards, pictured with Jesy outside the BBC before the gig, rushed to comfort her after singing their smash hit Holiday.
Jesy later told fans she suffered a panic attack and praised Perrie for stepping in to do her part.
Jesy wrote: “So my nerves got the better of me today and I had a panic attack right before we were about to sing.”
LIAM Neeson has defended 1999 Star Wars fan flop Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
He played Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and said: “I’m proud of the film. I got to be a Jedi, got to play with those light- sabers and stuff.”
TOM Grennan has become the ultimate Gen-Z rock star by giving up booze and cigarettes – because he can’t bear to be “mashed up” on stage.
He made the lifestyle changes in lockdown ahead of a virtual show at South London’s O2 Academy Brixton scheduled for October 2.
Tickets for the gig go on sale this morning at 10am.
Tom told me: “Through lockdown I didn’t drink, I stopped smoking, I’ve got fit.
“I’m trying to get my mind as healthy as possible and be the best person I can be.
“I couldn’t go on stage and I couldn’t function properly with a mashed-up head. I just couldn’t do it.” Tom’s self-improvement drive follows a love split he says was caused by his inflated ego after the success of his debut album Lighting Matches.
The break-up inspired much of his upcoming second album, which has yet to be named but will be announced officially at next month’s show.
Tom said: “I just thought the sun shone out my a*** for a minute. I forgot about the real person who loved me for me. I ended up blaming loads of things on this girl and unfortunately I was probably the toxic one in the relationship.”
(PG) 91 mins ★★★
By Dulcie Pearce, The Sun Film Critic
IT has been 29 years since their last adventure and when we left the nice-but-dim Bill and Ted in 1991 they were enjoying international success on stage with their guitars.
Fast forward nearly three decades and they are both headline and only act at a family wedding full of eye rolls and sighs from the audience.
Although positive as always, life isn’t going as planned for 50-something Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves), with their music and marriages on the brink of collapse.
The air-guitaring duo are quickly visited from the future by Kelly (Kristen Schaal), the daughter of Rufus, who also first met them from years ahead to help them pass an upcoming history report at high school. They are whisked to the year 2720, where they are told to write a song to “save reality”.
There starts another time- travelling adventure that sees B&T spanning centuries, meeting numerous versions of themselves, going to Foo Fighters guitarist Dave Grohl’s house, putting on a lot of prosthetics, silly accents and even popping to hell.
Things can get confusing, but as Bill says while slamming their time-travelling phonebox door: “Sometimes things don’t make sense till the end of the story.”
If Bill & Ted 1 was the big breakthrough album and Bill & Ted 2 the greatest hits, then Bill & Ted Face The Music is a compilation of the B-sides.
Some nice nostalgic, comforting moments, but overall it will quickly be relegated to the bargain bin.
Is it most excellent? No. But it is a bit of bodacious fun.
MAYA Jama got leathered on a night out – with her outfit.
The telly host wore a leather shirt and shorts for a meal at The Ivy restaurant in London on Monday.
Then it was back to the day job yesterday, rehearsing for her ITV2 quiz show Don’t Hate The Playaz.
The third series starts shooting on Friday.
She recently made her acting debut in Katherine Ryan’s raunchy Netflix comedy series The Duchess too.
Busy lady.
HARRY Styles has been forced to axe autumn gigs in Mexico, South America, Australia and New Zealand.
He said: “I really hope to play the shows as planned for 2021 but will continue to monitor the situation.”
THE drinks are on Eddie Redmayne after the earnings from his company increased six-fold in 12 months.
New financial documents filed for Edward Redmayne Ltd, which cover the year up to May 31, 2020, show he now has £1.8million in the firm – an increase from £334,000 the year before.
He funnels his acting earnings into the company, and given the films he has been in lately, it’s no wonder he is raking it in.
As well as Early Man and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald in 2018, he was in big-budget movie The Aeronauts last year and will be in hotly tipped thriller The Trial Of The Chicago 7 next month.
Those pay cheques will keep rolling in.
KYLIE Minogue is still hopeful of an A-list collaboration which would send pop fans worldwide into melt- down.
She said: “It would be great to do something with MADONNA. She is awesome.”
JACQUELINE Jossa looks like she’s doing all white for herself.
The I’m A Celebrity champ has launched a tanning and beauty line with cosmetics firm BPerfect – and an insider tells me: “Her fashion range with In The Style has made her £500,000 so far but her BPerfect range is expected to net her £1million.”
Move over, Kylie Jenner . . .
PARIS Hilton will use science to make sure she has twins when she starts a family.
The socialite, who has been with her entrepreneur boyfriend Carter Reum for more than a year, said: “We’re planning it already, it is going to be a boy and girl twin. When you freeze your eggs, you can pick if you get a boy, you get a girl, you get twins.”
She will call the girl London but is stuck on a boy’s name.
She said: “If you have any suggestions . . . I’m asking my friends. I don’t want a theme of cities, but I don’t know.”
I reckon Huddersfield, but it won’t make the cut.
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