The Miss Cayman Islands pageant has moved to distance itself from a recently unfurled scandal involving American actor Armie Hammer and an alleged post where he ostensibly speaks about "f***ing Ms Cayman". The post, including the caption, was quick to trigger chatter on social networks, with many drawing parallels between respective title holders.
Hammer himself is now notably full-on into a contentious custody row after divorcing Elizabeth Chambers. She and their two kids live on the island.
A few racy shots and a video were earlier leaked from what's purported to be his secret, private Instagram account, with the latter showing a lingerie-clad woman, her face hidden, identified as "Ms Cayman". Other images featured drug use and more of scantily-clad women.
The Miss Cayman Islands organisation, however, made it clear the woman isn't actually a winner of the contest, noting that they had referred the matter to the police.
"The Committee is very disturbed by the video and would like to confirm that the woman is not the reigning Miss Cayman Islands and has no affiliation to the Miss Cayman Islands Universe pageant", the pageant said on its Instagram account. "The Committee and the reigning Miss Cayman regard this issue with the utmost seriousness and the matter has been reported to the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS)".
The pageant's management stressed that the woman's portrayal in the video is "against all that our organisation stands for", saying the Committee is "consequently requesting that Mr Hammer immediately remove all references to Miss Cayman from his social media channels". Chairperson Derri Dacres-Lee told the Cayman Compass a primary objective of Miss Cayman is to be a role model for young Caymanian women.
The caption to the aforementioned saucy shot sporting an unidentified lady reportedly read as follows:
"So I have to go back to Cayman… which sucks. Except there are a few silver linings. Like f–king Ms Cayman again while I'm down there".
Hammer for his part weighed in on the scandal, apologising in an audio message to the Cayman Compass:
"I would like to clarify that the person in my video, which was stolen from my private Instagram, is not Miss Cayman", Hammer told the outlet. "I am genuinely sorry for any confusion my foolish attempt at humour may have caused". He went on to express his "deep sympathies to Miss Cayman, who I don't know, and to the entire organisation as I had no intentions of implying she was actually Miss Cayman".
'100% Cannibal'
Last week, the embattled actor was notably at the centre of allegations that he has cannibalistic sexual fantasies. Unverified screengrabs of exceptionally lurid text messages allegedly sent by Armie Hammer between 2016 and 2020 were posted by the Instagram account @houseofeffie. Some of the fantasies the actor reportedly shared with women, who claimed to have had an affair with Hammer while he was married, are quite dark. In one, Hammer allegedly reveals his desire to "bite pieces off of" his lover and eat her heart, while in another, he admits to being "100% cannibal".
"I want to eat you. F***. That's scary to admit. I've never admitted that before", he reportedly wrote. Hammer himself has denied the legitimacy of the claims, which have since gone viral. People subsequently started dropping jokes on Twitter and making videos on TikTok of the "Call Me By Your Name" star dancing to Ke$ha's "Cannibal".
The scandal led to Hammer being forced to drop out of his upcoming romantic comedy with Jennifer Lopez, issuing an emphatic statement:
"I'm not responding to these bull**** claims but in light of the vicious and spurious online attacks against me, I cannot in good conscience now leave my children for 4 months to shoot a film in the Dominican Republic".