Adult film actress and conservative political commentator Brandi Love is standing up for her decision to ridicule critics of seven Cornell University fraternity members accused of rape. Love made the announcement in a new video that the men have been convicted without being tried in court.
Love uploaded the video, which is approximately 10 minutes long, adding a one-word caption: “This”. In the video, Love addresses the camera, inserting clips from a courtroom in between, including the Supreme Court argument from the 1996 film “The People vs. Larry Flynt”.
“Hey guys, it is my guess that you already know why I’m here doing this video,” Love says.
She says the reaction came from the same people. “Unfortunately, or typically what I can say, is that the very same people who’ve hated me since COVID and tried to cancel culture me then are back at it,” Love says. “I would say that the only difference is they’ve had a handful more years to become radicalized.”
“What am I talking about? What’s the issue?” Love asks. “To steal a little line from the show ‘Friends,’ Cornell 7, 7, 7, 7. That’s all it took.”
“I took a photo and I mocked them for crucifying seven young men based on an accusation,” Love adds.
The case Love refers to is the result of the civil lawsuit filed Sept. 16 by a former Cornell student known only as Jane Doe. She says she was forced to take ketamine, marijuana, and alcohol and was sexually assaulted by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity at the Ithaca, New York chapter house in October 2024. The suit also includes the university, the fraternity, and a local bar, among others, and seeks unspecified damages.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, whose office did not file charges in 2024, announced on Sept. 28 that he will reopen the case and present evidence to a grand jury. Van Houten has said the initial sworn statement did not include claims that she was drugged or assaulted by a group.
Cornell says it investigated and sanctioned the individuals, including expulsions and suspensions, and that the Chi Phi chapter has been banned from campus since 2024. An attorney for one of the accused, Scott Kretzschmar, calls the lawsuit dishonest and says his client made an immature comment on Snapchat but did nothing else. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has called the case handling a failure and has appointed State Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor, HuffPost reports.
Love argues that the public has jumped to conclusions.
“What I can’t stand, honestly, is that this is the very opposite of justice,” Love says. “You’re innocent until proven guilty, but apparently, to them, you’re guilty because they said so.”
“The mounting evidence that it’s not as it appears, it’s not as simple as, there’s emails, there’s texts, there’s so much unspoken, unread, and misunderstood information,” Love said. “And how about this? There hasn’t been a trial.”
Love didn’t elaborate on the “mounting evidence.”
“So because somebody says you’re guilty, it doesn’t mean you are,” Love says. “So were my steps a little like out there? Hello. I’m simply trying to open people’s eyes.”
“If it were you, would you want your time in front of the justice system? Would you want your day in court? I’m pretty sure you’d say yes,” Love adds.
She accuses her critics of following the trend.
“But because it’s kind of cool and it’s the in thing to do and jump on a bandwagon of, I don’t know what, feminism, left wingism,” Love says. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but that’s not how this country works.”
Before turning to the film clip, Love talks to those accusing her online. “But prior to that, let me mention something,” Love says. “The people making these accusations are the very ones sending me death threats.”
“And are also, I pulled a few of them up because I found them very interesting,” she continues. “Some of the titles of the movies that they have been in, she has been in, whatever, portray the actual acts that they claim to be criminally inexcusable. And those titles are ‘Helpless F*** Doll,’ ‘Grudge F***,’ ‘The Brat Tamer.’ It goes on and on.”
Love does not name her critics or performers she is referring to. She does not provide evidence of the threats.
“It just, what are we doing? Quit throwing mud,” she says. “Let’s wait to get all the facts before you start ruining lives.”
“Is it that hard to research, to look up all the information available before you start calling names?” Love asks. “And I mean serious names, names that can ruin people’s lives.”
Love uses the late Hustler publisher Larry Flynt as an example.
“So honestly, man, Larry Flynt’s the one who taught me,” Love says. “His movie, ‘The People vs. Larry Flynt,’ I’m going to put a little something something in this video to remind you of his very important words in one of the final scenes, one of the final scenes of his movie.”
Flynt, who died in 2021, won a landmark free speech case at the U.S. Supreme Court, Hustler Magazine Inc. v. Falwell. It arose from the November 1983 Hustler ad parody, modeled after a Campari liqueur campaign, depicting the evangelist Jerry Falwell describing a drunken encounter with his mother. A jury rejected Falwell’s libel claim but awarded him $200,000 for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The Supreme Court overturned that award on Feb. 24, 1988. In his opinion for the Court, Chief Justice William Rehnquist said public figures cannot recover for emotional distress over a parody unless it contains a false statement of fact made with actual malice. The ruling was unanimous among the eight participating justices; Justice Anthony Kennedy did not participate.
The clip in Love’s video is from the 1996 film directed by Miloš Forman, dramatizing the court’s argument from Dec. 2, 1987. In it, Edward Norton, playing Flynt attorney Alan Isaacman, tells the justices that a public figure’s emotional distress should not outweigh everyone’s right to speak freely.
When a justice asks whether there is any line between a 200-year-old cartoon mocking George Washington and the Falwell parody, Isaacman answers that the difference is one of taste, not law. Woody Harrelson, as Flynt, then declares that if the First Amendment will protect “a scumbag like me,” it will protect everyone.
Love, a Republican who started performing in 2003 and who has written for the conservative site The Federalist, has clashed with her critics over her politics before. In July 2021, Turning Point USA excluded her from a student conference in Tampa, Florida, after she attended several panels. At the time, a spokesperson for the group said that it does not involve personalities who publish sexually explicit content, Newsweek reported. Love calls it an example of cancel culture.
In her new video, Love draws a parallel between her defense of freedom of speech and her industry.
“It’s just fascinating to me because we in the adult industry have the wonderful lives that we have because Larry Flynt, because he mocked and ridiculed those who would silence him and his right to speak,” Love says.
The video ends with Flynt receiving over the phone the news that the court ruled unanimously in his favor. Isaacman reads him lines from Rehnquist’s opinion, stressing that the First Amendment depends on recognition of the essentiality of freely exchanging ideas and opinions on matters of public interest and concern.
The opinion also mentions that many actions performed with the least admirable intentions are protected by the First Amendment in the realm of public debate.
