Scarlett Johansson’s alleged stalker, Michael Joseph Branham, has been arrested after threatening to bomb Saturday Night Live.
Johansson’s husband Colin Jost works on the show as the co-host of “Weekend Update.”
According to court documents seen by The Independent, Branham, 48, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with making a threat of mass harm and false reporting an incident.
The New York Post reports that Branham sent a text message to an online university he attends reading: “THE NEXT TIME YOU HERE [sic] FROM ME I WILL BE ON CNN FOR EXPLODING A BOMB IN SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE AUDIENCE.”
The threat was reportedly passed on to investigators at NBC Universal, and they contacted NYPD.
Branham, who has a realistic drawing of a heart tattooed on his chest along with the word “Scarlett,” was arraigned on Thursday night in a Manhattan criminal court and held on a $100,000 cash or $300,000 bond bail.
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Last year, Johansson reportedly tried to get a restraining order against Branham after he repeatedly showed up at her home and made a series of outlandish claims about her on social media.
In 2023, he posted on X: “Thank you so much my fiance’ #SCARLETTJOHANSSON for buying me a car !!!! You’re the best woman ever in my life even before you bought me this car! I love you beautiful!!!!”
Johansson has been married to Jost since October 2020.
The comedian often refers to their marriage during the show. Last month, Johansson revealed that “vulgar” and “gross” jokes made about her on Saturday Night Live’s 2024 Christmas episode had left her feeling “faint.”
During the episode, Jost and his co-anchor Michael Che took part in a Weekend Update “joke exchange.”
The seasonal tradition involves both men finding new ways to embarrass the other as they read jokes their comedy partner has written, which they had never seen before.
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In the sketch, Jost was made to read several jokes that took aim at Johannson’s age, their baby, and their sex life.
Reflecting on the segment in an interview with InStyle, Johansson said: “It was so vulgar. I just can’t believe that they went there. I was like — it was so gross. It was really gross. And, like, old-school gross.”
Johansson appeared in the episode herself, caught on camera watching from backstage. “They were waiting for me to react. I felt insane,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘I think I’m going to faint.’”
