Deeply in need of some good publicity, Russell Brand has given a homeless man an extremely generous handout of $600, reports say.
Less than a week after his arrest in New Orleans for snatching a paparazzo’s iPhone and tossing it, breaking the window of a nearby law office, Brand was back in Los Angeles and walking down Hollywood Boulevard when he encountered the homeless man.
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“Russ was with his new girlfriend and they struck up a conversation with the guy,” a source told the Daily Star. “Russ was feeling a bit bad about his behavior. He hates causing anyone any grief and decided to do something charitable.”
The source says that Brand headed to a nearby ATM and withdrew $600.
“When Russell handed over the wad of cash, the fella had tears in his eyes,” the source said. “Russ told him to spend it wisely and to make sure he says ‘Hello’ if they ever cross paths again.”
Brand’s new gal pal was at first reported to be 25-year-old artist and model Oriela Medellin. However, new reports say that Brand’s companion is Hungarian model Nikolett Barabas. While Brand has not yet commented on his new relationship, he appears close enough to his brunette companion to introduce her to his mother on British Mother’s Day. The funnyman appears to be moving very fast, as he only filed for divorce from Katy Perry on Dec. 30.
Following Brand’s iPhone tossing incident, he joked that his actions were actually for a good cause.
“Since Steve Jobs died I cannot bear to see anyone use an iphone irreverently, what I did was a tribute to his memory,” Brand tweeted.