When celebrities perform for the world’s tyrants

Hilary Swank is making news for her warm birthday wishes to one of the world’s most cold-blooded leaders, Chechen tyrant Ramzan Kadyrov.

On Oct. 5, Swank attended the Chechen president’s lavish 35th birthday party, along with actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, singer Seal and British violinist Vanessa-Mae. For this engagement, each of these performers reportedly received hundreds of thousands of dollars in appearance fees. On videos posted to YouTube, Swank can be seen saying to Kadyrov, “Happy birthday, Mr. President.” Van Damme tells him, “I love you.”

Kadyrov’s egregious human rights record makes this affectionate embrace deeply disturbing. Freedom House has consistently found Chechnya to be one of the world’s most violently repressive places.

The Grozny episode of celebrities for sale would be less troubling if it were an isolated case. It isn’t, however. A raft of Western entertainers and celebrities, including Mariah Carey, Usher, Beyoncé and Sharon Stone, have hired themselves out to some of the world’s most odious human rights abusers, their children or close associates.

Carey, for example, performed in 2008 for the family of former Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, receiving a reported $1 million from the Gaddafis for a four-song appearance on the island of St. Barts in the Caribbean. Only after this performance was brought into public view did Carey express regrets: “I was naive and unaware of who I was booked to perform for. I feel horrible and embarrassed to have participated in this mess,” Carey claimed, though her embarrassment apparently was not sufficient to cause her to part with her large paycheck from the event.

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