Because I’m a yokel from the suburbs of Boston, I was dead chuffed when I was drinking at The Beverly Hills Hotel one afternoon and Courteney Cox, Rachel Zoe, and that guy from Fear The Walking Dead were all wandering around. Monica Geller-Bing read a bar appetizer menu two stools over from me! As pathetic as that sounds, now I wish I hadn’t. Because the Sultan of Brunei owns the hotel, Brunei has recently ok’d punishing homosexual behavior by stoning the “guilty” to death, and George Clooney is now leading a boycott against all of the luxury hotels owned by the Sultan. George Clooney is totally running for president one day and “leading a boycott against a gay-hating Sultan” is a great thing to have on your resume when you want to be the future bleeding heart liberal POTUS. Well, that and “Nespresso machines for all!!!”
In an op-ed piece for Deadline, Clooney went in on the hotel and Brunei. Apparently, April 3 is going to be a red letter day in Brunei. Unless you’re queer.
On this particular April 3rd the nation of Brunei will begin stoning and whipping to death any of its citizens that are proved to be gay. Let that sink in. In the onslaught of news where we see the world backsliding into authoritarianism this stands alone.
Clooney points out that, despite being a fairly small country of only 500,000 people, Brunei is one of the richest nations on the planet because it has oil. So the Sultan who runs the place is rolling in it. He also owns the Brunei Investment Agency which owns a slew of luxury hotels like The Beverly Hills Hotel, The Dorchester London, 45 Park Lane London, Coworth Park UK, Hotel Bel-Air Los Angeles, Le Meurice Paris, Hotel Plaza Athenee Paris, Hotel Eden Rome, and Hotel Principe di Savoia Milan.
Clooney notes that he’s been part of boycotting Brunei’s hotels in the U.S. in the past because of their treatment of gays. But once outrage died down, everyone moved on to the next issue. But now that Brunei is making murder legal, it’s time to stop checking in again.
But let’s be clear, every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery.
Rolling Stone reports that long-reigning queen of the gay mafia Elton John is on board. The Brunei Investment Agency owns The Dorchester Hotel in London, Elton’s main drag. So he and husband David won’t be checking in anytime soon.
“As George has said, the Sultan of Brunei owns many luxury hotels around the world – hotels which David and I have found it impossible to visit since the Sultan’s plan to push for sharia law in Brunei became public. Our hearts go out to the good, hardworking employees of these properties, many of whom we know to be gay.”
And as for celebrities who WILL be checking into the Beverly Hills Hotel just to be contrary dicks, well, here’s Bill Maher’s take on the matter, via Deadline. He got into it Friday night on his namesake bitchfest aka Real Time with Bill Maher.
Maher called Clooney’s effort “chickenshit tokenism because, what about Saudi Arabia? If you really want to get back at them, stop driving. Don’t use oil.”
Bill’s right because that’ll totally happen. Doesn’t the Sultan of Brunei breathe oxygen, too? We should all stop breathing in protest. Right. Ok. Genius.
Pic: Wenn.com
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