George Clooney Calls For Dorchester Hotels Boycott Over Brunei's Sharia Law Stoning Of Gays + Adulterers

George Clooney Calls For Dorchester Hotels Boycott Over Brunei's Sharia Law Stoning Of Gays + Adulterers

George Clooney Calls For Dorchester Hotels Boycott Over Brunei's Sharia Law Stoning Of Gays + Adulterers

Clooney reminds us that the 5th richest nation in the world hasn’t had an election since 1962. The rollout of Brunei’s Sharia death penalty for homosexuality and adultery will be implemented on April 3, prompting George Clooney to call for a boycott of these Dorchester Hotels:

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The Clooneys Donate $1 Million To Anti-Defamation League | JP Morgan Splits $1 Million With ADL & SPLC

The Clooneys Donate $1 Million To Anti-Defamation League | JP Morgan Splits $1 Million With ADL & SPLC

George and Amal Clooney realize there is work to be done in America. The worldly couple deeply involved in social justice movements in Sudan and other dire places globally have turned their attention to America, in the wake of Charlottesville. 

In the aftermath of the white supremacy marches near the University of Virginia, two organizations, in particular, are receiving support from big donors: the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) and the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center). 

Thanks to a $1 million grant from the Clooney Foundation, and another $1 million from Apple's president Tim Cook, the Southern Poverty Law Center is working hard to take down hate groups across America. 

Amal & George Clooney Are Pregnant With Twins! | Meet Amal's Client Nadia Murad

Human rights lawyer Amal and actor George Clooney have twin babies in their future. The well-dressed duo prefers to champion causes they care deeply about, not their glam lifestyle. Most notably, writes Vogue, Amal Clooney appeared at the UN in New York with client Nadia Murad, a Yazidi woman enslaved by ISIS. In an act of feminist poetic justice, Murad is now suing her former captives. 

Last week, it was twins for Beyonce and Jay Z. What is going on here!!!

Related: Nadia Murad Is Taking On ISIS With the Help of Amal Clooney Vogue

Motherless, displaced, traumatized, grief-stricken, and the ongoing recipient of ISIS death threats, Murad counts herself among the lucky: Of the 6,000 Yazidi women and children taken during ISIS raids, she estimated that more than 3,200 are still being held in captivity. The activist highlighted one person in particular: Lemya, a neighbor and the little sister of close friends, who was only 14 when she was taken and held in the Iraqi city of Mosul by a 34-year-old man, who both raped her and told her, confusingly, that she remained a virgin. “That always sticks in my mind,” Murad explained. “That this happened to her, and she never knew what had happened to her.”

Lemya, like so many other Yazidis, remains missing. And it’s largely for their sake that Murad has sought the help of London-based human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. Together they’re attempting to remind the world that the organized killing and enslavement of Yazidis constitutes genocide. Their goal is to wrangle the assistance of the U.N. in hopes of holding ISIS accountable in international court.

“It is a genocide, and it needs to be recognized,” Murad told me through her interpreter, Murad Ismael, executive director of the Yazidi-supporting nonprofit Yazda. “That must be acknowledged, not just for Yazidis, but for any community that suffers through this. When genocide is committed, it must be seen. People must look at it with open eyes, not minimize its impact.”

Eye | The Clooneys | Amal Clooney Defends Ex Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed | 10 Luxury Maldives Resorts | George Clooney Stylist

George Clooney Stylist

Like Kanye West taking a keen interest in his wife Kim Khardashian’s style, George Clooney is deeply involved in his wife Amal Clooney’s fashion choices, reports US Weekly and picked up by Elle.com.

Clooney is “very involved in selecting her looks … ‘He’ll watch her try on clothes and will say, ‘I like that. You should get it,’ or ‘No, not that,’” a source close to the actor told the mag.

 “He Clooney) installed a runway, floor-to-ceiling mirrors, and a crazy light system in their closet,” the source continued.”Amal can see every single angle and tell if her outfit is see-through!”

Amal Clooney Human Rights Lawyer

Amal Clooney arrived at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washing, DC on Thursday to press her case on behalf of imprisoned former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed. Clooney appeared earlier in the day at the National Press Club. In a statement, the NPC said that it’s legal team is preparing to “make public a filing to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, urging it to find that Nasheed is being held in violation of international law.”

Clooney released an in-depth op ed in The Guardian this week.

Release Mohamed Nasheed — an innocent man and the Maldives’ great hope Amal Clooney for The Guardian

It may be famous for the pristine holiday beaches of its Indian Ocean coastline but the Maldives has taken a dark authoritarian turn. In 2008, the island nation became a democracy after Mohamed Nasheed was sworn in as president after the country’s first-ever free and fair elections. A charismatic leader, Nasheed introduced liberalising reforms at home, while calling for global action against climate change in an attempt to combat the rising sea levels that threaten to inundate the low-lying nation. His remarkable story is chronicled in the acclaimed documentary The Island President.

Seven years later, however, Nasheed is in prison, having been sentenced to 13 years imprisonment for the crime of “terrorism” following a politically motivated show trial.

10 Best Luxury Resorts in the Maldives Touropia

Naladhu Resort Maldives

Perhaps the ultimate luxury destination,the Maldives has become a synonym for paradise whether it is for honeymooners, sun worshipers or scuba divers. Aside from the capital Male, there are no hotels in the Maldives, only resorts. Most resorts take up their own island, so the ratio of beach to guests must be one of the best in the world, writes Touropia

George Clooney Bartender

With Cinco de Mayo coming on May 5, George Clooney and close buddy Rande Gerber share an  list of six cocktails to celebrate the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

“We meet at Café Habana Malibu and eat and drink Casamigos margaritas,” Clooney and Gerber said of their plans with equally famous wives Amal Clooney and Cindy Crawford. Note that George and Rande own the Casamigos tequila brand with their friend Michael Meldman.

The duo shares five variations on the margarita and one signature cocktial to Vogue.com readers. We share two.

Strawberry Basil Margarita

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Eye | Lifetime's Whitney Houston Biopic | Hollywood & Gaza | Cindy Crawford On Why Supermodels Happened

Angela Bassett Directs Whitney Houston Biopic

Lifetime TV premiered on Saturday January 17 ‘Whitney’ with ‘The Butler’ alum Yaya DeCosta as Houston, directed by Houston’s ‘Waiting to Exhale’ costar Angela Bassett in her directorial debut.

Elle.com interviews Angela Bassett about her relationship with Whitney Houston and the pressures on her to deliver a film true to Whitney’s life and spirit, while maintaining the truth about the superstar’s demise and death.

Cindy Crawford On Why The Supermodels Happened

‘I feel like I lived through the heyday of modelling,’ true supermodel Cindy Crawford told London’s Evening Standard in ‘It’s not so super for models now … magazines want stars on their covers’.

Crawford explains: The reason supermodels could come into being was because Hollywood actresses wanted to be taken seriously. They didn’t want the red carpet to be a catwalk, which it has now become.

Crawford and husband Randy Gerber are good friends with George and Amal Clooney, being in the tightest circle around the couple at their Venice wedding last September. The supermom of two explained:

 “I think George decided — and Amal, too — which I thought was smart of them, typically, that either you spend all this time and energy trying to make it secret or you go, ‘You know what? We’re getting married in Venice and we’re going to have this great party and we’re going to do exactly what we want.’

“So that’s what they did and I really respect them for it.”

NY Post Andrea Peyser Jabs At Amal Clooney

It wasn’t only the row over Amal Clooney’s Golden Globes white gloves that made headlines this week. Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser moved against the influential human rights lawyer over her proposed role on a three-person commission investigating rules of war violations in the Gaza Strip.

It wasn’t enough that — for whatever reason — Amal Clooney cited a too busy schedule to allow her participation — a point not clarified at the Golden Globes podium.

Could the reason be the possibility of her future husband running for political office? Whatever the reason, declining was not enough for Peyser, who criticized Amal for the following statement:

“I am horrified by the situation in the occupied Gaza Strip, particularly the civilian casualties that have been caused, and strongly believe that there should be an independent investigation and accountability for crimes that have been committed.”

AOC hates to tell Peyser that many Americans are concerned about what happened in Gaza in the summer of 2014. Israeli actions in Gaza produced a significant split in Hollywood, with actors and industry notables expressing the same concerns as highlighted by Amal Clooney.

Hollywood’s Concerns for Gaza

Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz have been heavily criticised by some Hollywood industry figures after speaking out against the summer 2014 Israeli offensive in Gaza.

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Eye | John Galliano Returns At Teatime London | Hollywood Stands For Charlie | Adidas Originals Ad Campaign

Helen Mirren shows support for free speech, holding Je Suis Charlie sign at January 11 Golden Globe awards in Hollywood.Adidas Originals | #OriginalSuperstar

Some of the best, memorable ad campaigns are launched by athletic brands, and the new Adidas Originals campaign hits a real high note inspite of a strong bass line. In the age of selfiedom — now promoted in more not memorable Spring 2015 campaigns than we can count — Adidas has a values-driven message: stop being obsessed with your own fame.

You can live through the lives of celebrities, says Adidas, even if you are Rebecca Harrington writing about her adventures in celebrity dieting in I’ll Have What She’s Having, out this week from Vintage. New York Magazine features Harrington’s ‘I Tried Taylor Swift’s Diet and It Was A Joy’.

John Galliano Returns to Runway Today

John Galliano with model Cara Delevingne at a London party December 2014.Former Dior Creative Director and Designer John Galliano will return to the fashion world today, as he debut’s French Label Maison Martin Margiela Artisanal collection at London’s menswear show. WWD reports that Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz, Burberry’s Christopher Bailey and milliner Stephen Jones are expected to attend the event.

Jones says that the event will occur at 4:30 pn London time at a “warehouse space in Westminster”.” It’s ‘Teatime’,” explained Margiela spokeswoman Jade Guishard, “which is very English.”

Perfect Timing?

If Guishard is right and timing is everything in life, Galliano might wish for a different day to showcase his work. The impetuous, alcoholic design talent, who has received major support from Vogue’s Anna Wintour and supermodel Kate Moss in his recovery, faced a deadly public relations backlash over his antisemetic, drunken February 2011 rant at the La Perle cafe in the Marais.

Unfortunately, the Marais is also the location of Paris’ terrorist attack at a kosher supermarket, with four dead bodies now headed for Israel, rather than burial in France. Anti-Semetic attacks and incidents in France more than doubled during 2014, says the French Ministry of Interior. About 7,000 French Jews moved to Israel from France in 2014 up from 3,300 in 2013. It’s believed that 15,000 French Jews will migrate to Israel this year, writes Middle East Eye.

Note that anti-Muslim attacks have also increased in France and throughout Europe over the same period.

Whether current events will impact the viability of Galliano’s return to fashion design will be decided after the first collections are shown. Galliano may no longer be relevant as a designer, writes The Guardian. Certainly his theatrical, over-the-top designs have no place at Martin Margiela. After phase one’s focus on the clothes, European retailers will decide whether or not to embrace again fashion’s bad boy now enjoying a revitalized, sober life based on values that resonate — or so he says.

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Eye | Fondation Louis Vuitton | Vogue Meets Ghesquière | Stella McCartney Redo

DesignTracker

Gehry’s Paris Coup Vanity Fair

The reported $143 million Fondation Louis Vuitton, which opens to the public in October, was commissioned by Bernard Arnault, the chairman and C.E.O. of the luxury-goods conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessey Louis Vuitton, as a contemporary-art museum and cultural center, and it is not only its architecture that is unusual. There are relatively few private museums in France, and in building this one Arnault—himself a major collector—was obviously hoping to reinforce a connection between his company and advanced art and design. But it has the potential to develop a brand even more potent than that of LVMH: that of France itself, and of Paris, where more creative energy surrounded modern art, architecture, and design in the first half of the 20th century than anywhere else. Paris long ago ceded its leadership as a creative center to New York and other cities, and not even the vast investment of the French government in such architecturally ambitious projects as the Centre Pompidou, by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, the expanded Louvre, with its glass pyramid, by I. M. Pei, and the Cité de la Musique, by Christian de Portzamparc, has been enough to get it back.

The Fondation’s distinctive shell, known as the Verrière, consists of a dozen monumental glass sail forms, all variously angled and overlapping. Underneath is a series of irregular spaces, known as the Iceberg, containing 11 galleries for art.

For the opening of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the artistic programme will unfold in three successive stages between October 27, 2014 and July 2015, each stage will include a temporary exhibition, a partial presentation of the collection and a series of events. Details see website.

Why Paris’s Newest Art Museum — the Fondation Louis Vuitton — Is Like None You’ve Ever Seen Vogue

Vogue Meets Ghesquière Vogue UK

Ghesquière is nothing if not visionary but his vision for Vuitton is pragmatic, and rooted in an understanding of the house as the totemic business it is, rather than the whimsy of an individual designer. “You know the Vuitton woman is someone who is interested in fashion but she’s not someone who is craving the last new thing. She has a sense of excellence, of quality, of timeless pieces. So I was like… I have to combine both those two feelings. Create a strong desire for fashion, a statement, and at the same time to give a feeling that this is the beginning of a wardrobe I will build. I didn’t want to give the feeling that I will jump and do this story and then jump and do another.”

RedTracker

Stella McCartney’s Mixed Messages

Designer Stella McCartney stepped into a furor of resistance after posting this image of a model on Instigram, alongside the caption: ‘Worn well!!! X Stella.

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