Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The British Broadcasting Corp. suspended radio and television presenters Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, the organization's highest-paid performer, who aired lewd telephone messages they left for a 78-year-old actor.

Brand, who co-presented this year's MTV Video Music Awards with Britney Spears, and Ross will be off the BBC pending a review of the Oct. 18 broadcast on Radio 2, Director-General Mark Thompson said in a statement. Brand, who has also presented a BBC 6 Music show, later resigned from the Radio 2 program, saying he took ``full responsibility,'' the BBC reported.

The two presenters left messages for Andrew Sachs, best known for playing the waiter Manuel in the 1970s television comedy ``Fawlty Towers,'' saying Brand had sex with Sachs' granddaughter Georgina Baillie, 23, according to an edited transcript published on the BBC's Web site.

The incident is the latest to generate negative headlines for the BBC, the world's oldest public service broadcaster. It was fined 400,000 pounds ($643,000) in July this year by the U.K.'s media regulator for rigging call-in contests and has been attacked by unions for cutting jobs while paying presenters such as Ross multimillion-pound salaries.

In the statement, Thompson called the incident a ``gross lapse of taste by the performers and the production team'' that angered many listeners. ``I am determined that we satisfy them that any lessons will be learned and appropriate action taken,'' Thompson said.

``It is clear from the views expressed by the public that this broadcast has caused severe offense and I share that view,'' Thompson added. He apologized to Sachs and his family.

Both Apologized

Sachs said Ross and Brand had both apologized to him and that he would not be reporting the calls to the police.

``I'm not out for revenge,'' Sachs told reporters today, ``they both sent very nice letters, which I appreciate and will respond to.

``These are two performers, I'm a performer, sometimes it goes very wrong and it's up to them to do better.''

The statement by Thompson followed criticism of the Radio 2 show from Prime Minister Gordon Brown and opposition lawmakers. The BBC is financed by an annual 139.50 pound license fee set by the government and mandatory for all U.K. households with a television set.

The media regulator, the Office of Communications, is investigating the show and the BBC said it had received more than 18,000 complaints. Thompson said an internal investigation into the show, to be carried out by Director of Audio and Music Tim Davie, would be completed ``in the coming days'' and he would then decide what action to take.

Burlesque Dancer

Baillie, a burlesque dancer with a group called Satanic Sluts, said in an interview that she wanted the two men to be sacked after the calls to her grandfather about her private life were broadcast.

``They should at least pay for what they've done with their jobs,'' she told the Sun newspaper in an interview which was also broadcast by Sky News. ``What's funny about humiliating a lovely old man who has never harmed anyone in his life?''

Baillie, who acknowledged that she had a relationship with Brand two years ago, said she was shocked to discover the program had been pre-recorded and not broadcast live.

``Someone high up in the BBC must have decided it was funny and suitable for national radio,'' she told the Sun.

Ross, 47, who has a three-year contract with the BBC worth 18 million pounds, presents a Saturday morning radio show, a Friday night talk show and a film review program.

Brand, 33, first found fame in the U.K. as a stand-up comedian. He had a well-publicized dispute with Rod Stewart in 2006 after he falsely claimed to have had sex with the rock singer's daughter Kimberley. He retracted the statement after Stewart confronted him at an awards ceremony.

Brand has acted in television roles and in films, including this year's ``Forgetting Sarah Marshall.'' He also writes a sports column for the Guardian newspaper.

``The BBC was quite wrong to take the decision to broadcast the offensive phone calls made by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross to Andrew Sachs,'' Jeremy Hunt, a lawmaker who speaks on culture for the opposition Conservative Party, said today.

``It is wrong for broadcasters to produce programs that legitimize negative social behavior.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 29, 2008 14:26 EDT