Embattled actor Armie Hammer raised some eyebrows last week with what looked to be a new career at a Cayman Islands resort. Now a boss from that resort is explaining what's really going on in all those photos that were posted online.
But first, here's how Hammer's Caymans confusion commenced.
Last Wednesday, "Desus & Mero" producer Muna Mire posted a picture of a Morritt's pamphlet on Twitter. The handout — which advertised discounted drinks, raffle tickets and vouchers — featured the disgraced actor's headshot and stated that he was a "personal concierge" to incoming guests.
"My friends' parents went on vacation in the Cayman Islands and Armie Hammer was their concierge I'm still not over it," Mire wrote. The tweet has since been deleted.
As the picture made the rounds, users questioned what at first seemed to be a new chapter in Hammer's professional life, more than a year after he shied away from the public eye amid sexual misconduct allegations.
Shortly after the post gained traction, Variety debunked the notion that the "Social Network" star was working as a Morritt's staff member. But in the days that followed, TMZ posted various photos of Hammer on resort grounds wearing a light blue polo shirt and dark blue pants, walking to an office alongside a similarly dressed man.
TMZ then published another photo of Hammer on Sunday, once again in a similar outfit, in an office sitting at a desk. According to the website, the photo was taken in June and shows Hammer supposedly selling a time-share to a couple.
But people can't always trust their own eyes: Chris Butcher, director of sales at Morritt's, confirmed to the L.A. Times on Monday that Hammer is not part of the resort staff. According to Butcher, Hammer plays golf with one of the resort's staff members, who invited the actor to "come and see what we do."
"He'd come and spend a few days with us, just watching what we do, shadowing different persons in the office just to get an understanding of what we do," Butcher said.
He said that featuring the flyer with Hammer's face on it was an attempt to get more visitors to enjoy a weekly welcome party. Butcher also explained that it was improbable that Hammer was in uniform in the TMZ photos, given that Morritt's doesn't have a set dress code for its staffers.
As for the TMZ photos of Hammer in the office, Butcher said they could have been snapshots of one of Hammer's shadowing sessions.
But while Hammer currently isn't a Morritt's staffer, Butcher said he would be more than eager to get him on board.
"If Armie ever wanted a job here, [with] the amount of publicity he's generated — we'd take him on straight away," Butcher said.
Representatives for Hammer did not respond Monday to the L.A. Times' request for comment.
Hammer's Cayman Islands buzz comes more than a year after various women accused him of sexual misconduct in January 2021, about six months after he and TV host Elizabeth Chambers announced they were divorcing. The actor pushed back against the "bull— claims" and dropped out of the Lionsgate film "Shotgun Wedding" amid the allegations.
A month later, agency WME dropped the actor from its client roster. In March 2021, the Los Angeles police launched an investigation into the actor after a woman accused him of sexual assault. A source close to the investigation told the L.A. Times at that time that the woman who filed the police report was the same woman who alleged that she was "violently raped" by Hammer.
The actor most recently appeared in Kenneth Branagh's "Death on the Nile," which hit theaters this past February and then moved to streaming on HBO Max and Hulu. Since the January 2021 allegations, Hammer has dropped out of TV, film and Broadway projects.
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