The Emperor's New Clothes

Russell Brand has teamed up with director Michael Winterbottom in upcoming documentary on Ineqality

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/23/after-new-era-its-harder-than-ever-to-mock-russell-brand-as-a-hypocrite

Brand enrages his critics because his celebrity and wealth give him easy access to media and money. 

Brand isn’t the messiah (or just a naughty boy, for that matter) and his messagepisses off plenty of people. So does his method, sometimes. But his apology to an RBS worker whose lunch inadvertently became a casualty of a film shoot is heartfelt:

Jo, get in touch, I owe you an apology and I’d like to take you for a hot paella to make up for the one that went cold ... When I make a mistake I like to apolgise and put it right. Hopefully your bosses will do the same to the people of Britain.

He’ll apologise for the small things; many of the established columnists who dump on Brand won’t apologise for getting it wrong on the big-picture issues, like the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, national security and the like.

On these stories, Brand speaks for the mainstream far more than many self-described national security experts. A 2013 Pew poll in the US found that a majority of citizens were more worried about civil liberties than terrorism. His recent comments on the Sydney siege nailed the way governments implement excessive state surveillance after a terror attack – increasingly a mainstream concern.

Nevertheless, anybody famous who proclaims themselves dissatisfied with society’s options is bound to be accused of wankery and ungratefulness by some. So be it. But Brand is a fascinating man, who dares to ask a huge audience to question the causes of housing shortages, corporate power and state terrorism. He is also ready to swing his star power behind the cause of a few dozen families facing eviction before Christmas. And he makes these issues relevant to millions.