Armie Hammer, Sofia Richie, Alessandra Ambrosio and a host of other celebs are being slammed as “sellouts” for attending a music festival in Saudi Arabia to promote the controversial kingdom.
Models such Elsa Hosk, Winnie Harlow, Joan Smalls, Irina Shayk, actors including Ryan Phillippe and Ed Westwick, Scott Disick and an array of influencers traveled to Riyadh for the MDL Beast festival last weekend — with many posting photos of themselves on social media with messages praising the Middle Eastern nation. “The Social Network” star Hammer — who said in one post that the festival was “truly special” and “felt like a cultural shift” — and Phillippe were pictured wearing traditional Arab dress and headwear.
Richie and Disick stayed at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, the same hotel where Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman imprisoned over 200 his political opponents, including members of his own family, from 2017. Some were reportedly tortured — with a high-level general said to have been tortured to death — at the five star hotel.
Critics are accusing the celebs of accepting up to six figure sums to “rehabilitate the image of Saudi Arabia” while ignoring the country’s stance on women and LGBTQ rights, its imprisonment and torture of dissidents, the arrest of women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul and the government’s involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The move comes as Saudi Arabia announced it had sentenced five people to death for the journalist’s brutal slaying.
Fashion watchdog Diet Prada posted on Instagram, “Cashing big fat checks in exchange for #content creation (aka propaganda) to rehabilitate the image of Saudi Arabia, a country said to be causing ‘the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,’ according to the United Nations. According to anonymous sources, six-figure sums were offered for attendance and geo-tagged posts.” Organizers of the event — which featured performances David Guetta and Afro Jack — admitted some stars were paid to attend but denied the sums were as high as six figures.
Washington Post reporter Karen Attaih, a friend and colleague of Khashoggi, tweeted, “The regime has been working overtime and spending billions to try to rehabilitate its image, partly by using western influencers.
“The dark side of influencer culture is that it really is the ultimate expression of capitalism. Money over human lives. What good is your platform if you overlook Saudi regime’s murder and torture for a few bucks? These influencers are just for-hire human billboards.
“These influencers and media outlets (too many to tag) who use their platforms to claim they are for women’s empowerment and social justice — but yet also take money to promote Saudi Arabia.. Insta-hypocrites. It’s all so transparent and gross.”
Human rights lawyer Gissou Nia wrote on Twitter, “A raft of influencers were just paid (again)to fly to Saudi to brighten MBS’s image. Seeing the caption “Saudi Girls” [on a post by Sofia Richie] is especially grating when I think of Saudi women’s rights activists jailed or exiled for pushing for basic freedoms.”
Models Martha Hunt and Emily Ratajkoski both revealed they were invited but refused to go. Ratajkowski said, “It is very important to me to make clear my support for the rights of women, the LGBTQ community, freedom of expression and the right to a free press. I hope coming forward on this brings more attention to the injustices happening there.”
Hunt added on Instagram, “I stand in solidarity with the repressed people of Saudi Arabia and refused to be used as a campaign to cover up those suffering from injustice.”
Plus model Teddy Quinlivan wrote on social media, “If you’re an influencer and you’re promoting tourism to a place that openly kills journalists and LGBTQ people as well as a list of other horrible and archaic laws and policies: You’re a f**king SELL OUT.”
While the majority of the influencers on the trip to Riyadh have not responded to the backlash, Phillippe has been aggressively lashing out at people commenting on his Instagram posts.
“Things are changing, hopefully you do too s–thead,” he wrote to one person.
He said to another: “It’s changing moron. Have you been? I’d love to take any woman important to me. F–k off.”
“1st of all I’m traveling many places in the mid east. 2nd, find me a country without issues, i’ll wait. 3rd things are changing and progressing rapidly in KSA and the people are lovely,” he added. “pay better attention and quit virtue signaling princess.”