Armie Hammer has a new starring role, but not one viewers might expect.
The actor’s recent controversies—as well as the Hammer family’s past scandals—will be the subject of a new Discovery+ and ID docuseries. The series is currently titled House of Hammer and will feature “a trove of archive and interviews from survivors and family members” to investigate “a dysfunctional dynasty with its male characters exhibiting all the devastating consequences of privilege gone wild.”
The Call Me By Your Name star has dropped out of the spotlight in recent years. In March 2021, Armie was accused of sexual assault by multiple women—he denied any wrongdoing—and exited the Jennifer Lopez-fronted movie Shotgun Wedding to spend time with his family. He later sought treatment for drug, alcohol and sex abuse, with sources telling E! in February, “Armie is very committed to his sobriety and has been super consistent with it.”
The Social Network actor isn’t the only Hammer family member to have a brush with scandal. In 1972, his paternal great grandfather Armand Hammer, an oil tycoon and Soviet ally, pleaded guilty and received a suspended sentence for providing secret and illegal campaign funds to President Richard Nixon, according to The New York Times.
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Armand’s son, Julian Hammer, Armie’s grandfather, was accused of the 1955 murder of Bruce Whitlock. According to Vanity Fair, Julian and Bruce had gotten into a fight over an old debt. He ultimately pleaded not guilty by reason of self-defense and the charges were dismissed.
This was the second time a Hammer had been involved in the death of another person. The New York Times reported Armie’s great-great grandfather father, Dr. Julius Hammer, was convicted of manslaughter and served three years for performing an abortion—the procedure was illegal at the time—that resulted in the 1921 death of the wife of a Russian diplomat.
House of Hammer is just one of many true-crime titles coming to ID. The network will also explore the death of Gabby Petito in Gabby Petito: An ID Murder Mystery, premiering this October.
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