'I'm dating and I’d get married again': Sounds like Russell Brand is getting back to his old self

'I'm dating and I’d get married again': Sounds like Russell Brand is getting back to his old self

it wasn’t that long ago Russell Brand declared his womanising days were over and he had turned over a new leaf after marrying singer Katy Perry.

But it seems it hasn’t taken much time for the 37-year-old to get back to his old ways since splitting from the American star.

The comic turned actor has announced he is on the dating scene again after his 14-month marriage collapsed six months ago.

And the pain of divorce clearly hasn’t put him off trying to pull again.

Russell says: “I’m single at the moment. I’m also dating. You know that sort of dating where you can do what you like?”

So is it reasonable to suggest that he isn’t tied down by anybody?

“No,” he insists, adding with a touch of Carry On innuendo: “Well, occasionally...”

Russell, who said after settling down with Katy, 27, in 2 010 that he was denying his “biological drive”, was most recently believed to be dating 23-year-old fashion stylist Maeve Reilly and David Hasselhoff’s ex-girlfriend Anouska De Georgiou.

Before Katy, Russ claims he was bedding 80 women a month, and had a fling with Kate Moss.

But his ill-fated marriage hasn’t completely put him off the idea of becoming a one-woman man, insisting: “Yeah, I’d get married again.”

Split: With his ex Katy who are divorcing

In fact, earlier this month he hosted the MTV Movie Awards where he joked: “Last time I did an MTV show I ended up marrying someone. Tonight I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for my next wife.”

Sadly, he says he didn’t get any offers on the night. “No one actually,” he grumbles.

“Which is disappointing. Not even from Michael Fassbender, even though I made it pretty clear I was interested. He’s well cool. He stunk of booze and fags.”

Russell is speaking in a suite at London’s Dorchester hotel, sitting at a table which he notes has “an unnecessarily pessimistic tablecloth”. (It is plain black.)

He has brought along a team of three, including mum, Barbara, and hefty minder, Danny, and warns: “You have to be sweet to me because she loves me so much. And if you don’t, he’ll kill ya.”

Russell has an answer, usually long and ­entertaining, for everything, but there is one way to silence him â€" ask him about his divorc e, which is due to be ­finalised at the end of the month.

He and Katy were both in the UK last weekend.

Russ flew over for ­promotional duties and she toured Hackney with boyfriend Florence and the Machine guitarist Rob Ackroyd.

“I don’t want to talk about stuff like that, my darling,” he says simply.

Close contact: Russell meets his fans at the premiere

Later, on TV, he will only say of the split: “I suppose a divorce is difficult because of the admin. There’s a lot of admin.”

That’s one way to describe divvying up their combined £50million fortune, and homes in London and Los Angeles.

Having relocated to the US, Russell has returned to the UK to promote his new film Rock of Ages, where he stars alongside Tom Cruise and Alec Baldwin, who he snogs in the movie.

“If I was gonna be gay, I’d like Alec Baldwin to be my boyfriend because he’d take care of me,” he says.

“If you had Alec as your boyfriend and a burglar gets in, you’d go: ‘Alec, there’s a f*****g burglar downstairs, mate. This is your one, I’ll do the breakfast.’

“If I married a woman, which I conventionally would, I’ve gotta go and deal with the burglar AND probably make the breakfast. And they call it progress...”

Russell plays hard-living sound technician Lonny in the flick, and admits it wa sn’t too difficult to get into character given his own colourful past battling heroin ­addiction.

He admits as a result he puts little effort into his Hollywood roles which have also included charismatic rock star Aldous Snow in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him To The Greek.

Model Anouska de Georgiou has been linked to Russ

Russ says: “I know you’re supposed to try really hard at work but don’t you sometimes just think, ‘I’ll do the bare minimum’.

“Say I was being Rasputin, I’d definitely do some research. I’ve already done a bit of research and nobody’s even asked me to play him.” Lonny, he decided, should be “unsexy”.

So, in the name of method acting, Russell made the unlikely decision to ban himself from thinking about sex while in ­character. Unsurprisingly, he found this very difficult.

“Your mind is predetermined to think sexy thoughts,” he explains.

“Once you’ve got survival out of the way then your mind turns to procreation. That’s just a natural thing.”

Sex isn’t the only demon Russell has battled, overcoming addictions to heroin and booze and ditching his old lifestyle for teetotal veganism.

The kicks he once got from shooting up and getting drunk now come from yoga and ­meditation.

This Saturday he will host the Dalai Lama at a Manchester youth event. So did he and ­Scientologist Cruise clashed on set?

“Nah, we didn’t talk about religion,” insists Russ. “We’ve got to be polite about other people’s spiritual beliefs. Otherwise people get into big arguments.

“Religion is psychological territory. It’s a signpost pointing at the ­unknowable. It’s this thing that’s bigger than us that we’re never gonna properly understand.”

The stand up comedian inside him is always evident as he speaks, attempting through our chat to balance a glass of water on his head while shrieking in delight: “Look at my posture.”

But he’s also an intelligent and articulate social and cultural critic.

Stylist: Maeve Reilly

It’s no surprise he’s been given a new TV show on Sky called Brand X where he has free rein to discuss current events. It’s a far cry from his days working on MTV â€" a role he was fired from after turning up dressed as Osama bin Laden the day after 9/11.

Now, however, he has turned his back on the side of ­celebrity he once embraced.

He no longer ­interacts with fans on Twitter, requesting his management post messages for him, and won’t read anything about himself.

Russ says: “I don’t read stuff about me any more because it’s a psychological pollutant.

"How can I justify reading about me when I haven’t read Crime and ­Punishment by Dostoyevsky? There’s so much to learn.”

In almost every comment, regardless of topic, he cites the work of theorists, Greek philosophers, and famous pieces of literature.

Now, he wants to write a novel â€" he is one of a small but increasing number of celebrities who wrote every word of his own autobiographies.

He wouldn’t have a hard job filling a novel, if his chatter is anything to go by. Even the most vapid points surge into a one-sided political debate.

Asked what he would do if he was Prime Minister, he says he would make “massive changes”.

“We’re getting out of all economic systems, it’s all over, and no business is allowed to make over 10% profit a year.

"The rest of it comes back to the state. We renationalise all industries that day. Any foreign corporations in our country, OUT.

“Any armies that have got weaponry in our country, OUT. I don’t know why everyone’s got such a problem with communism, it’s only sharing.”

Co-star: With Tom Cruise at the London premiere

Asked whether Rock of Ages has assisted the resurgence of popular ­musicals, he flies off on a tangent, arguing government funds would be better spent on hospitals than firework displays.

He says: “At that time in the 80s, that’s when that excess and indulgence hadn’t brought about its terrifying consequences, both economic and ecological. So it’s kind of a return to the naivety. And then people just like all that dressing up and spectacle, being the fourth component of Aristotle’s Poetics, and the least significant.

“People like spectacle. Like fireworks. On New Year’s Eve, I was looking at some and I was thinking, ‘You could get a hospital with that.’

"A million quid’s worth, they done on the Thames. It was nice and shiny, but so is a dialysis machine.”

* Rock of Ages opens tomorrow.