Have the Russell Brand and Mila Kunis controversies ruined this beloved 2008 comedy?

Some might say it’s unfair to lump Russell Brand and Mila Kunis into any category together, but both have been at the center of fierce news cycles over the past 10 days due to revelations that have threatened to “cancel” them professionally and culturally.

They also became break-out film stars in the same 2008 hit comedy, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Fans of the the Judd Apatow-produced film are now left to wonder if they can still enjoy the movie — which features a mix of crass humor, smart writing and heartfelt romance — with the same unbridled pleasure. A still photo from the film has circulating online.

this photo isn’t aging well in 2023 pic.twitter.com/G83DBdfBcs

— T (@trinawatters) September 16, 2023

The revelations about Brand have been highly disturbing. The comedian and actor, who built his reputation on bad-boy lasciviousness, has been accused in U.K. news investigative reports of raping, sexually assaulting and emotionally abusing four women, including a 16-year-old girl with whom he had a three-month relationship.

These alleged abuses occurred from 2006 to 2013, when he was a rising star in British TV and in such American films as “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Get Him to the Greek” and a remake of “Arthur.” Brand, now best known for his provocative “Under the Skin” podcast, has vehemently denied the allegations of assaulting anyone, but now the allegations are in the hands of the London Metropolitan Police, the Hollywood Reporter said Monday.

Meanwhile, Kunis personally didn’t harm anyone but she’s reportedly worried about being “cancelled” because she praised the “excellent moral character” of her longtime friend and TV co-star, Danny Masterson, after he’d been convicted of two counts of rape.

After “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” in which Kunis played the love interest of star/writer Jason Segal, she became one Hollywood’s most likable and relatable female stars. But Kunis did some damage to that good will when she, along with her husband Ashton Kutcher, wrote glowing character letters about Masterson, ahead of his Sept. 7 sentencing to 30 years to life in prison.

Kunis and Kutcher then made things worse for themselves when they issued a much maligned video apology. Both the letters and the apology video, in which Kunis almost appeared baffled and annoyed by the controversy, convinced much of the internet that the actor didn’t seem to understand how her “tone-deaf” defense of Masterson made her complicit in a “rape culture” that allowed her celebrity friend to escape accountability for his crimes for nearly 20 years.

With the double-whammy of the Brand and Kunis controversies, fans of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” may think that they have to cancel this film too, especially because of Brand’s character, a flamboyant British rocker named Aldous Snow, whose boasts about his love-making prowess are used for comic effect.

After a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and U.K.’s Channel 4 revealed the sexual assault allegations against Brand, the Daily Mail unearthed some telling comments made about about the comedian by Kristen Bell, who played the title character Sarah Marshall.

Bell’s Sarah is a self-involved TV star who dumps her boyfriend, Peter, a struggling musician played by Segal, for Brand’s Aldous Snow. The film focuses on Peter’s trip to a Hawaiian resort, with the hope of “forgetting” Sarah. But romantic comedy complications ensue when Peter runs into Sarah and Aldous, also on vacation at the same resort. Fortunately, he finds friendship and more with Rachel, a smart and empathetic resort employee, played by Kunis.

While Bell was promoting the release of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” in 2008, she suggested that she was aware of Brand’s reputation for aggressively coming on to women, according to the Daily Mail. In an interview, she said, “He didn’t try to mess with me or get in my pants. He knew I would lop his (expletive) off.”

In another interview, Bell also said that she had “intimidated” Brand and threatened him not to try anything, the Daily Mail reported. “I made it really clear from the beginning that I would sock him in the (expletive) if he tried anything. So he was intimidated.” However, Bell also said she “loved” working with Brand, the Daily Mail reported.

Bell said, “I may be the only woman in the world who would shout that from the rooftops, but I did.”

“Forgetting Sarah Marshall” was a product of producer Apatow’s movie factory, which tended to focus on the modern misadventures of schlubby, emotionally stunted men.

But critics praised “Sarah Marshall,” for having more heart than some of Apatow’s other movies and credited Segal’s screenplay, in which he also created two vibrant female characters, played by Bell and Kunis.

Bill Simmons’ “The Rewatchables” podcast devoted an entire episode to the glories of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” in 2019, with co-host Sean Fennessey saying,” This is a populist comedy that also has something to say.” Simmons added: “It’s really rare to have a movie that has two awesome, super likable actresses playing really good characters.”

Tara Watson, senior entertainment produce for the Australian site, Mamamia.com, wrote a piece over the weekend about how it’s been “a bad week” for the cast of  “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” She lamented: “It was (by far!) my favorite movie in my early 2000s: I would watch it when I needed to self-soothe, I would quote from it endlessly, and I practically based my entire personality around it,” Watson said.

Unfortunately for “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” Brand and Kunis aren’t the only cast members who have been the subject of bad publicity in recent months, as Watson noted.

Bell has had some “brushes” herself with “near cancellation” lately, Watson reported. Over the summer, Bell and her husband Dax Shepard were criticized for exaggerating their family’s suffering when they had to deal with flight delays and were supposedly forced to spend the night at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Followers alleged that the couple, who described spending $600 on bedsheets, blankets and neck pillows, probably could have found a hotel room within a 50-mile radius and wondered if they even fabricated the airport story, BuzzFeed News said. The “Veronica Mars” star also sparked outrage for posting a photo of a gathering of her famous friends, which included Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman and Jimmy Kimmel but no people of color.

The cast of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” also includes future star Jonah Hill, in a small, breakout role as another resort employee. In July, Hill’s ex-girlfriend, surfer Sarah Brady, accused the Academy Award-nominated “Superbad” actor of “emotional abuse” in a series of screenshots of their alleged text exchanges, which she shared online.

The texts Brady shared showed Hill offering up a list of “boundaries” he needed to stay in a relationship with Brady. The boundaries included Brady not surfing with men, not wearing swimwear on her Instagram, not having “boundaryless, inappropriate friendships with men,” and “friendships with women who are in unstable places.” All the talk about Hill’s supposed boundaries prompted therapist and many online to say that the actor was misusing language he used in therapist in an attempt to “control” his girlfriend professionally and personally.