Lily Allen is reflecting on an awful rape joke made about her years ago.
In a new interview with Grazia published on Monday, the 38-year-old singer opened up about her experience in the spotlight during the “toxic media landscape” that was the early aughts. She specifically recalled one disgusting moment — which went viral amid the sexual assault allegations against 48-year-old comedian Russell Brand — when she appeared on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year in 2007 with him, Jimmy Carr, Noel Fielding, and Jonathan Ross.
At the beginning of the episode, Jonathan switched seats with Lily, calling her “the only sexually attractive young lady” on the show. His reasoning? The Jonathan Ross Show host explained he was only trying to protect her by moving her away from Russell and Noel to the “sexless zone,” adding:
“And then Lily may go home with her dress still on.”
WTF?! To which Noel immediately responded:
“How dare you – we’re not rapists.”
Jimmy then questioned why The Great British Bake Off host was wearing a cape “if wasn’t a rapist.” Noel fired back that the cape was actually nothing more than a Jack the Ripper cape — you know, the London serial killer who ended the lives of multiple women in the late 1800s. That is when Russell chimed in to point out that the person was a “serial murderer,” adding:
“There’s a difference. There is no direct corollary between rapes and capes, it’s just a rhyme. Leave him alone.”
All on camera, the entire back-and-forth was a gross moment of these men joking about rape with Lily at the center. Take a look (below):
Not OK at all. But as we’ve learned over the past few weeks in light of the assault accusations, things have resurfaced about Russell’s long, long history of problematic and vile behavior. Now reflecting on the exchange with Grazia, Lily said the whole experience on the show was both “uncomfortable” and “horrendous.” She said:
“ where I was on a chat show with Russell Brand and Noel Fielding and Jonathan Ross. And there are comments, I think, about me being raped or something. And I laugh along with it. In retrospect, that’s really horrendous. It makes me uncomfortable, but I don’t think I felt that at the time, because it was the culture.”
Neither Russell, Jimmy, Noel, or Jonathan have addressed the call out from Lily. What are your thoughts on the resurfaced moment, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence and would like to learn more about resources, consider checking out https://www.rainn.org/resources.
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