You know, sometimes stars really are just like us. Haven’t you ever showed up at some random dude’s party without knowing much about him? Hilary Swank attended a birthday concert for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has been accused of torture, abductions and killings. Human rights groups hate this guy, whose security forces harass and threaten women who don’t wear a headscarf or adhere to the Islamic dress code in Chechnya. Hilary — who may have been paid to appear — has issued a statement regarding her involvement in the celebration, which reads: “I deeply regret attending this event… If I had a full understanding of what this event was apparently intended to be, I would never have gone.” Jean Claude Van Damme and violinist Vanessa Mae also attended the festivities. [CBS News, Guardian]
Thor Halvorssen, president of the Human Rights Foundation, says: “Hilary Swank obviously has the right to earn a living entertaining the highest bidder, but this sort of venality should be exposed – especially after claiming she was not going. Would she have accepted an invitation to entertain Pinochet? Al-Qaeda? The apartheid government in Pretoria? We must remember the disgrace of Mariah Carey, Nelly Furtado, Beyoncé and 50 Cent were exposed to after singing for Gaddafi’s family and earning millions of dollars for it.” [The Hollywood Reporter]
Here’s video of Hilary at the event. [YouTube]
Now that the lady he had a one night stand with told/sold her story to Us, Ashton Kutcher is telling folks that he expects his wife Demi Moore to file for divorce. An insider says, “Ashton had confessed his sexual relationship with Sara to Demi after it happened… Demi was naturally, devastated, but not surprised as they had spent their sixth wedding anniversary apart. There have been problems for a very long time in the marriage.” [Radar]
Breaking: Courtney Stodden is too sexy for Facebook and women are jealous of her. (But men are nice to her.) [E!]
- Anderson Cooper fell asleep while waiting for jury duty. [Page Six]
- Charisma Carpenter, aka Cordelia from Buffy, was not injured when a reckless driver slammed into her car earlier this week, but her vehicle is wrecked. [TMZ]
- Whitney Houston does not buckle her seat belt! Seat belts are for poor people! And crack is cheap! [TMZ]
- Chaz Bono and Jersey Shore‘s Vinny are both in a new anti-bullying campaign produced by GLAAD. Guidos have hearts! [E!]
- Some great stuff from Lenny Kravitz on his latest album, “Black and White America”: “It’s my story. It’s everything I knew growing up. It’s my parents’ story – being an interracial couple growing up in the time of the civil rights movement. And it’s the story of today – what we’re going through, dealing with race and the fact that we have an African-American president.” He talks about his parents, too: “They would walk down the street [and] people would spit on them. My father would take my mother to a hotel on holiday and they would say, ‘No prostitutes allowed at the hotel’ – very disgusting things.” More at the link. [AP]
- Rihanna went to a strip club. [The Sun]
- Diddy has donated $60,000 to the Boys & Girls Club Of Harlem. [Bossip, NYDN]
- “I’m a maternal person but I’m not feeling the urge to be pregnant. Some day I will but not now. Oh my gosh, the fans would kill me. I’m just not ready. I really want to make at least 10 more albums before I do something like that.” — Lady Gaga. [ONTD]