Singer Jennifer Lopez appears to a favorite among dictators and underworld thugs, according to the Human Rights Foundation, which claims that the pop star has pocketed $10 million in numerous performances for them.
Lopez recently apologized for singing "Happy Birthday" and performing for Turkmenistan president Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov in June, the Washington Post reported. The dictator is accused by the Human Right Foundation of running one of the most repressive governments in the world.
The foundation told the
Hollywood Reporter, though, that it uncovered several other times where Lopez has performed big-money gigs for similar figures.
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“J.Lo has repeatedly mingled with and entertained some of the world’s worst thugs and their cronies," Thor Halvorssen, president of the Human Rights Foundation, said in a statement obtained by the Hollywood Reporter. "The 'Jenny-from-the-block-who-doesn't-Google' clarification may be credible in one instance, but it beggars belief in light of a pattern of repeated behavior."
The foundation said that Lopez was paid $1 million to perform for Uzbek industrialist Azam Aslamov during his son's wedding. Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov was a guest at the wedding, reported the Hollywood Reporter.
The foundation report said before the Aslamov performance, Lopez was paid $1.4 million for the birthday of Russian businessman Telman Ismailov in Moscow. The Hollywood Reporter said the foundation described Ismailov as "an allegedly corrupt" businessman in the country.
The Hollywood Reporter said the foundation claimed in 2012 that Lopez was booked by the Azerbaijan dictatorship to perform at a FIFA soccer tournament for a reported $2.5 million. The Human Rights Foundation further charged that Lopez’s representatives began negotiating a contract to put together a music festival in Azerbaijan in partnership with Los Angeles-based Creative Artists Agency, rescheduled for 2014.
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Lopez is hardly the only entertainer who has been accused of performing for alleged controversial figures around the world. In 2011, Academy Award winner Hilary Swank apologized for celebrating Kadyrov's birthday, according to Newer.com
The Huffington Post reported in 2011 that WikiLeaks uncovered that entertainers Beyoncé, Usher, Nelly Furtado, 50 Cent, and Mariah Carey had all performed for the Muammar Gadhafi regime when it was in power in Libya.
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