In a bizarre turn of events actor/DJ, and not the other way around, Idris Elba has been detained by police in Baltimore, Maryland on suspicion of being slain TV gangster Russell “Stringer” Bell.
Elba (41) star of the silver screen and DJ booth was detained while trying to enter the US through the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. It is understood that he was on his way to play a number of gigs in the United States while also “doing a bit of acting on the side”.
Elba star of “pretty good film” Mandela and “terribly disappointing pile of shite” Prometheus is being held in connection with the fictional murders of D’Angelo Barksdale and a fifteen year old known only as Wallace.
Despite not committing the murders himself it is widely believed that Elba/Bell ordered the slayings as part of the plot in the TV script for the popular show. He is also accused of being behind one of the largest fictional drug gangs in Baltimore and if found guilty will spend the rest of his “real” life behind bars.
This is not the first time Elba has been mistaken for one of his fictional characters. In 2010 while trying to re-enter the UK from an Ibiza closing party he was mistaken for brilliant but troubled fictional Met Detective, DCI John Luther, and has spent the last 3 years working murders and serious crime in the greater London area, during which time he has punched numerous walls while out sleuthing murderers and gangsters using a brand of barely legal, but necessary investigative techniques.
Supporters have rallied in defence of Elba with some claiming that this is yet another symptom of prejudice and racial profiling by police in the US.
Rapper/producer/clothing wearer Kanye West tweeted “If a black man can get arrested in this country for shit he’s done when on TV then how come they haven’t come after me?”
It is unclear whether West was jealous that the police have not taken too much of an interest in him or if he was genuinely just curious. But it does set a dangerous precedent and there have also been reports that Wesley Snipes, fresh from his time inside on tax evasion charges, is to be re-arrested and charged with crimes he committed while portraying Dennis Rodman esque madman Simon Phoenix in nineties sci-fi hit Demolition Man.
More on this as it happens.
