Armie Hammer’s epic fall from grace continues. On Thursday, Deadline reported that Dan Stevens has been tapped to replace Hammer in the upcoming Watergate series Gaslit. Stevens takes over the role of White House counsel John Dean from Hammer on the Starz series.
Based on the Slate podcast Slow Burn, Gaslit takes a fresh look at the 1970s scandal, shedding light on the untold stories and forgotten characters that led to President Nixon’s resignation. Oscar winners Julia Roberts and Sean Penn are attached to star in the series as Martha Mitchell, the Arkansas socialite who was one of the first to blow the whistle on Nixon’s involvement with Watergate, and her husband, Nixon’s Attorney General and close personal friend John N. Mitchell, respectively. A young, ambitious member of the White House counsel, Stevens’s Dean wrestles with whether or not to lie to protect the president.
Stevens is best known for starring in Downton Abbey, Legion, and as the Beast in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast live-action remake. He recently made a splash as Alexander Lemtov in Netflix’s Oscar-nominated summer comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.
Armie Hammer’s career began to implode in January, when the actor became the subject of a prolonged social media scandal after screenshots that seemed to show Hammer describing sexual fantasies involving rape and cannibalism circulated online. Since then, multiple women have come forward and accused Hammer of emotional abuse, manipulation, violence, and, most recently, rape. Hammer has also bowed out of The Offer, Paramount+’s drama series about the making of The Godfather, and was replaced by Josh Duhamel in Shotgun Wedding, the romantic comedy he was set to star in opposite Jennifer Lopez. Hammer has also been dropped by his agency, WME, as well as his personal publicist.
“All interactions between Mr. Hammer and his former partner were consensual,” Hammer’s lawyer Andrew Brettler told Vanity Fair last month. “They were fully discussed, agreed upon in advance with his partners, and mutually participatory.”
Starz declined to comment.
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