Armie Hammer will no longer be a part of Paramount+’s The Godfather series, The Offer, according to multiple reports.
Hammer, 34, was announced early last month as the lead of the 10-episode series, which tells the behind-the-scenes story of the making of the 1972 film. He was set to play Al Ruddy, the producer responsible for the mafia movie. Variety and The Wrap reported on Thursday, January 28, that he has since left the project.
The Social Network star’s TV exit comes just weeks after he stepped away from the Jennifer Lopez-led rom-com Shotgun Wedding amid allegations about his personal life.
“Given the imminent start date of Shotgun Wedding, Armie has requested to step away from the film, and we support him in his decision,” a production spokesman told Us on January 13.
Hammer, for his part, shut down claims that his alleged direct-messaging scandal was to blame for him ending his partnership with the Lionsgate project.
“I’m not responding to these bulls—t claims, but in light of the vicious and spurious online attacks against me, I cannot in good conscience now leave my children for four months to shoot a film in the Dominican Republic,” he told TMZ at the time. “Lionsgate is supporting me in this, and I’m grateful to them for that.”
The On the Basis of Sex actor made headlines this month after multiple women came forward claiming he sent them graphic messages on social media that detailed cannibalism and rape fantasies.
Hammer’s ex-girlfriend Paige Lorenze was one of the women who accused him of inappropriate DMs and sexual encounters in an interview with the Daily Mail on Friday, January 22.
The 22-year-old model, who dated the actor for a few months in 2020, claimed that Hammer had carved his initial into her lower hip, calling their relationship “a real-life Fifty Shades of Grey without the love.”
She alleged that he “really thought that his fantasies were normal behavior in the BDSM, non-normative, sexual kink community,” adding that someone can be “just as traumatized by consensual sex.” Lorenze added: “It’s unacceptable that he coerces women into agreeing to let him hurt them.”
Hammer’s lawyer, however, denied all of the allegations in a statement to Us.
“These assertions about Mr. Hammer are patently untrue. Any interactions with this person, or any partner of his, were completely consensual in that they were fully discussed, agreed upon, and mutually participatory,” the attorney said. “The stories being perpetuated in the media are a misguided attempt to present a one-sided narrative with the goal of tarnishing Mr. Hammer’s reputation, and communications from the individuals involved prove that.”
The Call Me by Your Name actor’s estranged wife, Elizabeth Chambers, for her part, is “horrified and shocked” by the messages Hammer allegedly sent, a source exclusively told Us.
“She’s living in a nightmare … she doesn’t even recognize the man she married anymore,” the insider added.
The pair, who split in July 2020 after 10 years of marriage, share daughter Harper, 6, and son Ford, 4.
