Oh, Russell Brand.
The 39-year-old outspoken British comedian and Saving Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek actor, who often gets fired up about politics online, had a mission: To gain access to the headquarters of Fox News. and appear on Sean Hannity's show, Hannity. He showed up at the building in New York recently...with a cameraman.
The entertainer posted a video of the shenanigans on his YouTube page this week. Posing as a "True News" or "Trews" reporter, Brand is seen standing outside the building, holding a MacBook laptop and talking about Americans' views towards Muslims and what he believes is an "Islamophobic narrative" seen in the media, as Fox News clips are shown. A man in a suit then approaches him, telling him he can't film on private property.
"Do you want to get arrested?" the man asks Brand, then brings over two more men in suits.
"I don't mean to be rude to you. Just making some True News," he says.
Brand is then seen entering the revolving doors of the building with his computer.
"Can I have a tour?" he asks two men, who are not amused.
He tells the receptionist that he and his crew had been booked on Hannity but that their appearance was later canceled. A Fox News rep told E! News he never was scheduled to appear on the program.
"Can I come up, have a look around, maybe have a look at the studio?" Brand asks. "Touch some stuff, meet some of the people from the Hannity show?"
His request was declined.
"Whatever the subject is—Islamophobia or it's just the freedom to be in a lobby, Fox is a difficult organization to work with," he says, speaking outside. "Whether it's canceling bookings for the Hannity show or kicking you out of their property...it's very difficult to have true freedom."
"We'll run this building one day!" he jokes, outside. "Then we'll, you know, we'll share it."
He later reflects on his entrance attempt.
"I think if we were doing proper covert filming, we would've gotten away with it, we could've gotten further," he said.
Brand is no stranger to controversy. He was famously fired from his job as an MTV VJ in his native United Kingdom when he showed up to work a day after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks dressed up like Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
He has also criticized Fox News and Hannity in the past.
In June, he called the popular cable news channel a "fanatical terrorist propagandist organization" and slammed comments Fox News host Jeanine Pirro had made about Iraq and the U.S's response to the growing threat of the Islamic militant group ISIS.
In July, Brand shared a video of himself criticizing Hannity's handling of a debate about the Israel-Gaza war, calling the host a "child" and comparing him to the Ken doll in Toy Story 3.
"Ouch. I feel so bad that Russell doesn't like my style of interviewing," Hannity said on his show, calling Brand an "out of work actor" and "ignorant."
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