This, I think, is an example of how we all live in our separate, though intersecting, media worlds. I'd not really thought about Russell Brand since he was dropped by British TV and radio after his
on-air trolling of Andrew Sachs and Georgina Baillie, but he's apparently since then re-invented himself as a YouTube and Rumble influencer with 6.6 million subscribers on YouTube, making (until YouTube demonetised him) £1,000,000 a year by mixing Wellness woo with conspiracy theories, and organising
well-attended (and expensive) Wellness Festivals.
He is, that is, a household name in a particular sort of household, of which there seem to be considerably more than many of us think. A bit like David Icke, maybe. I'd never heard of Andrew Tate until he was arrested in Romania, either.
ETA Andrew Tate is maybe a good comparison in more ways than one -- he was once, briefly, a contestant in Big Brother, and most people forgot all about him after he was removed. He went on to create a large and lucrative social media business appealing to teenage boys and older incels, completely under most people's radar. I've just read Naomi Klein's
Doppelganger, which has some very interesting things to say about the "mirror world" inhabited by QAnon, Steve Bannon, and "the other Naomi" (Woolf). Tate and Brand both thrive in that world.