Controversies Status

Brand is a former heroin and sex addict and a recovering alcoholic. He has had numerous run-ins with the police, having been arrested 11 times.

On 16 September 2010, Brand was arrested on suspected battery charges after he allegedly attacked a paparazzo who blocked his and Perry`s way to catch a flight at the Los Angeles International Airport. The day after the September 11 terrorist attacks, Brand turned up for work at MTV dressed as Osama bin Laden. He was sacked two days later. He was even sacked by radio company after he read pornographic material on air during a Sunday afternoon show. Brand made headlines again when he presented the MTV video music awards and described the US president, George Bush, as "that retard and cowboy fella". "It was nice of you to let him have a go, because in England he wouldn`t be trusted with a pair of scissors," he said. On his ‘Radio 2’ show on 18 October 2008, he and Jonathan Ross left obscene messages on the answer phone of Andrew Sachs, concerning the fact that Brand had slept with Sachs` granddaughter Georgina Baillie. This program was later broadcast, provoking widespread complaint from the public and politicians such as Gordon Brown.