Robert Downey Jr. financially supporting ‘broke’ Armie Hammer

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Cut off from his parents, disgraced actor Armie Hammer is being financially kept afloat by Robert Downey Jr.

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A source close to the Call My by Your Name star tells Vanity Fair that Downey paid for Hammer’s six-month stint at a Florida rehab clinic after he was accused of rape and sending leaked cannibalism messages to a series of women last year.

“Everyone looks at Armie thinking that he’s had some sort of privileged life — and that must mean there were no problems in his youth and everything was peachy keen,” a close friend of Hammer tells Vanity Fair. “But that’s not necessarily the way things go. Just because you come from an upbringing where financial resources are plentiful doesn’t mean life isn’t without problems.”

Earlier this week, Variety confirmed that Hammer was selling timeshares in Grand Cayman to help make ends meet.

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“He is working at the resort and selling timeshares. He is working at a cubicle,” a source tells the trade mag. “The reality is he’s totally broke, and is trying to fill the days and earn money to support his family.”

Hammer, 35, was forced into the gig “because he needs the money,” an insider spilled to PEOPLE.

“His dad won’t help him anymore and he’s been cut off, so he’s got to work,” the source adds.

Last week, rumours that he was working as a hotel concierge went viral on social media after a flyer for the Morritt’s Resort in Grand Cayman showed the actor ready to help travellers “get the most from your vacation.”

In a screen grab of a since-deleted tweet from verified Twitter user @Muna_Mire, shared by Variety, Mire wrote, “My friend’s parents went on vacation in the Cayman Islands and Armie Hammer was their concierge I’m still not over it,” posting an image of the flyer featuring Hammer’s photo and the message, “I am your personal concierge.”

Hammer’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, said that the flyer was fake, but TMZ allegedly spoke to one person who stayed at Morritt’s last month, who said the star “did show at least one family around a timeshare on the resort property.”

The timeshare gig was confirmed after TMZ shared photos of the Golden Globe nominee delivering a sales pitch to a prospective buyers wearing an aquamarine blue polo.

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“I am unable to confirm any of the reports,” Hammer’s attorney Andrew Brettler told the Sun in an email when asked about his client’s new position.

But after the timeshare photos made headlines, Hammer flew back to Los Angeles, where he and his estranged wife Elizabeth Chambers and their two children have been staying at a home owned by Downey. He has also attended an AA meeting in Malibu, a source tells Vanity Fair.

The Iron Man star, who endured his own scandals in the ’90s and early ’00s, has also allegedly been providing financial assistance to the embattled actor in hopes he can make a comeback, something Downey achieved after being “homeless, nearly bankrupt and virtually unemployable” following a 2001 arrest.

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Downey’s career was revived by none other than his Air America co-star, Mel Gibson, who helped him land a leading role in 2003’s The Singing Detective.

“Everybody was set to write the guy off, and it was hard to watch, because he’s so f—ing talented,” Gibson told Vanity Fair in 2014.

Hammer — who made a name for himself starring in films like The Social Network and J. Edgar — was accused of rape last year by a woman, known only as Effie, who claimed she was subjected to a four-hour ordeal in 2017.

In an effort to refute her allegations, Hammer and his legal team provided screenshots of alleged text conversations between him and Effie.

In one message, Hammer allegedly told Effie: “I am not going to be able to engage in you in that specific way right now. It never ends well. We can talk and be friends, but I can’t do that.”

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The actor’s lawyer also said Hammer’s encounter with Effie was “completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory.”

Hammer was also accused of sending leaked cannibalism and rape messages to a series of other women and allegedly talking to them about his odd sex fetishes. The actor denied the “bulls— claims” but the controversy cost him a slew of roles, including Jennifer Lopez’s Shotgun Wedding and The Offer, a series about the making of The Godfather.

Hammer’s former girlfriend Paige Lorenze spoke out about their relationship, telling Vanity Fair that she felt “unsafe” during her short-lived romance with the actor.

“He started making rules for me of things I could and couldn’t do, who I could have over, who I couldn’t. He told me that I couldn’t have anyone else in my bed.”

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Another ex, Courtney Vucekovich, told Page Six that Hammer “likes the idea of skin in his teeth.”

“He said to me he wants to break my rib and barbecue and eat it,” Vucekovich said.

Despite his denials of rape and his assertions that interactions with women have been consensual, Hammer’s career has flatlined after he was dropped by talent agency WME last year. And even though Hammer is the great-grandson of oil tycoon Armand Hammer, he is not on the family payroll and, according to Variety, “needs to work a normal and respectable job to earn money, since he is not getting work in Hollywood.”

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