Good Luck With That
US Weekly has an article about how people are urging performers like Usher, Beyonce and Mariah Carey to return all the money they earned when they performed for the sons of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. There is no way on earth that any of them will give the money back. It is not exactly like they have not been criticized for taking their money in the first place and none of that got them to return the money. His sons are not nice people. Never have been and never will be. These performers don't care about any of that. All they care about is how big the check is. Each of them have earned millions for performing for the sons and I would be shocked if they gave the money back or donated an equivalent amount to charity. US interviewed the agents for R.E.M. and Arcade Fire who say they would send it to charity. Yeah, but those bands would have never taken the money in the first place. I guarantee you that if the check was large enough any of those three and a lot more artists would perform now for them.
54 comments:
I think they will be pressured into giving the money to charity now, because it's so high profile. However, I have no doubt they would keep the money or do it again if they could keep it quiet.
Nelly Furtado came out and donated her check to charity I believe.
There's some artistic integrity for ya.
And if they paid Furtado $1M, what did they pay Beyoncé??
http://twitter.com/#!/NellyFurtado
How long did Nelly Furtado sit on that check before she donated it - after the $hit hit the publicity fan? No artistic integrity I can see, just a publicist who is more desperate than Usher's, Beyonce's or Mariah's.
I think most of them have no clue who they are playing for. All they know it is a private event for big bucks. I wouldn't give them that much credence to say that they were aware they were performing for the sons of a dictator.
At least Nelly was honest and said I didn't know who the son was. The rest aren't even claiming ignorance just silence and keeping the paycheck.
Not for nothing, but before all of this became mainstream, I didn't see anyone caring/complaining about Gaddafi. Especially when he was helping the West.
/2 cents.
Yep, Nelly Furtado announced that, and she wasn't even one of the artists known to have performed for the Qaddafi family. What stinks is that all of these performers have big, big bank and didn't have to accept the check. It's like putting on a show for Hitler or Stalin, circa WWII. Greed, pure greed.
@Sue Ellen - I agree completely!
These artist probably had no clue, nor cared what was going on over there. Having said that, I expect at least a few of them will cave and donate. Frankly, if it were me, I would wait till the kicked him out (just to be sure he didn't get it back) and donate the money to repair and restore the country. Of course it's all well and good for me to be noble like that since I don't even have a savings account...but still.
True, Sue Ellen. And how many more artists, decades before, have played for people of this nature.
It's funny how the US dragged its feet on telling the Eygptian leader to take a hike, but Gaddafi was condemned with lightning speed.
Ah the US gov and CIA...
Considering that education was probably sacraficed for career, I'm guessing ignorance with a tablespoon of greed.
Egypt is too important to the West and Israel. Libya, not so much. I would say they just turned a blind eye to Gaddafi's shenanigans so he would stop his nuclear program and help the West in restraining Al- Qaeda. The reason they haven't condemned Bahrain probably has something to do with the fact that America has-what are those called again? Where planes land in the ocean?-and other ties with them...
Sorry for going on and displaying my education. I know how people on here hate that.
When has the Gaddafi family been anything other than awful. Some people cared about what they did before all of this recent crap.
I really do not buy the argument that performers don't know who they are performing for--their management knows and accepted the gig. Ignorance is not an excuse. Be informed. It's gross.
Wha...?? Seriously? I'm 35 and Qaddafi has been a thorn in the world's side since I was in grade school. Everyone has known what a terrible regime this is for years.
I'm with you, von.
I get that you're "educated", Sue Ellen, but I'm educated too, and you seem to have missed the boat on this one.
I was generalizing. Not a whole hell of a lot of people could sit and have a chat on international relations.
Of course people cared, but Hollywood? Probably not.
Look up what Lionel Ritchie did! He performed for them to celebrate the bombing of our US Embassy!!!! He will never, ever see another dime of my money.
@Sue Ellen -- the more you discuss your ~education~, the more pathetic you seem. It's honestly pretty funny, though. Narcissists are soooooooo predictable.
You remind me of an eighteen year-old Poly Sci major who comes home for her first Thanksgiving break and proceeds to annoy everyone at dinner with her suddenly-acquired Awareness and Conscientiousness and Worldliness. Give. Me. A. Fucking. Break. Most of us knew WHY it was wrong for Beyonce to perform for Qaddafi when she did it in the first fucking place. We don't need you to regurgitate the notes you took in one of your classes.
I'm sure if we were to do a CDAN alma mater role call, other readers could produce degrees, schools, and accomplishments far more prestigious than yours. They're just smart enough to know that no one really gives a shit.
Oh, and I just checked out your brilliant blog, and it has a whopping FIVE followers. I'm pretty sure no one from CDAN is visiting your site with regularity, let alone "attacking" you on it.
Libya has oil, therefore the U.S. naturally financed some things for them.
I heard on the news that nations were/are slow to condemn his practices for fear that their citizens lives would be in danger as retaliation.
I didn't know Nelly Furtado had $1M to give away. Still, she'll have a nice tax receipt from it.
You need a hobby. I mean, besides me.
@Sue Ellen -- you need to be more self-reflective and realize how you come across to other people. If you're this horrific over the internet, I can only imagine how insufferable you are in person.
Great. I'll put your opinion of me in my internet scrapbook with the rest. Because I treasure them so.
Sue Ellen, I guess your big fancy education didn't include any history classes?
Oh, and can we please have an education dick-measuring contest one of these days? I just have a pathetic little BA, but I know a number of my fellow bitches have Ph.D.s or are working on them. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that degree, but they're a little harder to get than a polisci/pre-law "certificate."
C'mon kids!
Not all that long ago, Gaddafi apologized and took responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing. Not that the world didn't know that it was his doing, anyway.
As to Nelly Furtado, it was on the national news last night that she was going to donate the money she received. Without a doubt, a bit late, but at least she did the right thing. That's more than we can say about the others.
ok, well I just thought Sue Ellen had a weird sense of humor.
Alot of people did comment in the past on artist performing for this nutbag, I seem to recall. However, I think the general idea has probably been "if he's stupid enough to pay that much, than I'm there". There is alot I don't know about the world. I am not going to pretend there isn't. However, if someone wants to enlighten me, I am sure there are other ways of doing it without condescending or attacking. Last time I checked this was a gossip blog, not a class at USC on political science or world economics or hell even ....philosophy. Check the attitudes at the sign in and relax.
I didn't think Sue Ellen was being condescending...I thought it was a joke. But some people get their claws dug in and can't let go.
Geez, sometimes it is so fucking tiresome to read the comments.
I don't have any fancy edumacayshun but I watch the news. So yeah, I knew. Since I was little. You heard that name, and you knew it was bad.
I think the important part is that people ARE aware of who their "favorite" performers are performing for. I have no respect for Usher, Beyonce and Mariah now. This tells much about their character. Now every time they do some good deed, I'll see them as hypocritical.
I also think it would be foolish to believe that the stars don't know who they are performing for. They didn't care. They wanted the check.
I also agree that Furtado wouldn't have given it back unless this had been publicized. She wanted it to seem as if it was on her terms. Little too late ...
Then don't, chihuahuaense. Jesus.
RocketQueen, seriously, every month you get on the rag and have to jump in and say something to that you think will hurt me. Then two days later, you profess to ignore me forever in the future, and tell me to go fuck myself.
Can we just speed this process up and get to the ignoring me forever part?
For a woman who professes to be smart and have it all together, you spend an awfully lot of time worrying about how you can tell me off.
Here's a little nutritional tidbit for me: your opinion of me doesn't bother me. At all. When you realize that I really and truly mean that, and that I'm not just blowing smoke up your ass, then maybe you'll move on to someone who will sit at home alone and cry because some douchette on the Internet hates her.
I would donate the money to an anti-terrorist fund (if there is one)...or to the US Military. Kinda like what terrorist do. They collect money from Americans for charities that the money really goes to supporting terrorist organizations. That would be a slap in the face to Gaddafi.
@chihuahua - I "get on the rag"? How feminist of you.
I think you're talking about someone else, dear. I have never told you to go fuck yourself. I've maybe addressed or responded to you 3 times in the last year. I'm simply not fond of whiners. If you find something so incredibly "tiresome" all the time, why on earth do you bother??
But yes, let's agree on one of your points, life is better off without each other in it. Ignoring commence.
I would love to point out the multitude of inconsistencies in your response, but I just don't give a fuck. Let the month-long fasting begin!
Your persecution complex is really quite something, chihuahua. Fascinating. Your interest in my monthly cycle is a little disturbing, though.
Ugh. God, I haaaaaate menstrual insults -- particularly when it's one woman saying that shit to another. That's the kid of thing you'd expect a twelve year-old punk to say to his fifteen year-old sister.
The last time someone asked ME if I was "on the rag," it was some douchebag waiter who worked in the place where I bartended. I fired him. It was glorious.
My point? At LEAST be creative with your barbs.
Nelly Furtado, who seemed to be fairly in the know, didn't exactly think of anything other than the paycheck when she took the gig in 2007 to perform for them. But, she's the only performer who's said that they were going to do something with that money. And frankly, she doesn't make nearly as much as the people who were at the NYE party, so I think it does mean a bit more.
amoteafloat, you started this whole mess and have been writing long, ass dissertations on this fucking blog as of late. like you are going to receive a nobel peace prize.
rocket queen, you are equally responsible for being a bitch "at times" as sue ellen and chihuahuense. pot meet kettle. you never like it when getting called out.
mooshki, is unimportant as she just keeps ent's dick lodged in her mouth.
@ea17 -- awww, aren't YOU charming! I love it when lurkers emerge from the woodwork and start hissing and bitching.
Oh, and it's *longass* -- as in, ONE word, not two. You're also fond of superfluous commas, I see. Shucks, I just can't get out of ~Dissertation~ mode!
That fellatio comment just oozes class, too. Very eloquent point you just made.
{I love it when lurkers emerge from the woodwork and start hissing and bitching.}
as equally as i love self-important posters.
lol @ ea17 - fair enough and I will accept that coming from another pot. But amoteafloat has a point; when you make classless remarks about dicks in commenter's mouths, you really kind of shoot yourself into the upper echelons of "bitch". Congrats and welcome to the party.
thanks, i'll enjoy every minute of it!
@ea17 -- Good. I truly aim to please. And I'm not fucking going anywhere, either, so get used to me and my verbosity.
lol@longass. I'm going to have to add that to my dictionary.
aww shucks. i see it's (amoteafloat) at it again. whatsa matter? meds stopped working and you're now all over the place?? i, also, didn't know 'longass' was one word. it doesn't show up in merriam webster.
i bet in your delusion of grandeur you'll inform me that merrian webster should consult you in that matter. it's time for better meds!
@figgy and @chihuahuasense -- it's SLANG, douchebags. Bigass, longass, dumbass, etc. They're generally compound words, but I don't really expect Merriam Webster to include any of them anytime (or, as you guys might say, "any time") soon.
*shrugs*
You could probably say "long ass", I suppose. I don't like the way it *looks*, but whatever. I was more jarred by the extra comma right here:
"have been writing long, ass dissertations"
What, exactly, are "ass" dissertations?
It's too easy to pick on you guys, in all honestly.
And Figgy, you ONLY come out when you've got something snide to say to ME. I guess I should be flattered? I basically just wish you weren't so BORING. At least CDAN trolls of yore like Cl@s$alpha brought the crazy in an interesting way.
Really...amoteafloat?
Really..."Ah Worthless White Woman"? Are we REALLY going to pick apart internet handles now? Because I've loooooooong wondered about yours.
@amoteafloat-so lemme get this straight: "on the rag" is bad, while "douchebag" is okay....hmm, interesting. Carry on.
@amoteafloat - IMO, your comments today seem very disruptive. I thought you were a bit harsh on Sue Ellen and took things way off topic and made it personal.
@Everyone - I really don't want to lose this blogging to bitching and name calling. Things have been so disruptive on the site late with all the slagging.
Now, for the topic at hand...Enty, I think you are way off.
Lots of people complained when various aritist performed for Qaddafi's sons, but since didn't blow up, none of the artists did anything about it. Now, it will be interesting to see who else bows to pressure. As someone else mentioned, I do wonder if they even knew who they were playing for - not that that is any excuse.
As for REM and Arcade Fire playing for these types of people, not in a million years, they are politically aware and socially conscious enough NOT to fall for a soul-sucking cash grab.
People, people, don't let Qaddafi tear us apart!
And personally, I think it's long-ass. Hyphenated.
I don't see any of these performers even having a clue of who Qaddafi/family really are & if they do, I don't see them giving up the money without great pushing from their PR people/etc.
I'm way way behind. Must be all the beer and my hot Brasilian boyfriend's rockin' bod. Still trying to get a handle around "menstrual insults" Thanks! So much better than "on the rag" A true quality line on the order of "eating at the Y" LOVE IT!!!
GO UNIDOS DA TIJUCA! PAULO BARROS!!!
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