A short clip from actor Paul Rudd’s new Netflix series “Living With Yourself” featuring an unbelievable cameo by Patriots quarterback Tom Brady went viral on Friday night, and left football fans stunned.
In opening episode of the series, Rudd’s character arrives at a strip-mall massage parlor, and debates whether to go inside. He’s then shocked to see Brady exiting the establishment, who asks Rudd if he’s visiting for the first time.
In February, Patriots owner Robert Kraft was charged with two counts of soliciting prostitution at a strip-mall spa in Florida. Kraft has since been involved in legal battles over evidence and police records related to the case. Many fans couldn’t believe that Brady would agree to take part in a scene that so obviously references a team scandal.
According to Refinery29, the scene was conceived and Brady was approached before the spa scandal occurred, but the quarterback chose to go ahead and participate in the project anyway after the news broke.
Via Refinery29:
Brady was interested, but it was football season. “So, we were waiting and waiting and waiting for the Patriots to finish their run and then, sure enough, they won again,” [creator Timothy] Greenberg, a “long-suffering” Jets fans, says of the Patriots 2019 Super Bowl win.
During this waiting period, news also broke that had them convinced they were going to lose Brady. In 2018, Patriots owner Robert Kraft was charged with soliciting a sex worker at a day spa in a strip mall “that looked almost exactly like what we were shooting. Like, I would have used it as a reference photo,” Greenberg admits. “So we’re like, ‘Alright, this is clearly not going to happen now.”
UPDATE: Brady was asked about the clip on Saturday, and said that the scene was written before Kraft’s case emerged and is being taken out of context.
As noted by the show’s creator, though, Brady filmed the shot after the spa sting occurred, and still had the chance to turn it down.
According to a report from Pro Football Talk, Brady – who says he was filmed in front of a green screen – may not have known about the content of the scene.
Via Pro Football Talk:
“Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Brady didn’t realize that the scene would be a direct or indirect reference to the ongoing legal entanglements of Patriots owner Robert Kraft.”
