First Posted: 3/20/2015
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines is imposing a “weed bond” on One Direction.
The Bureau of Immigration has asked Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson to post bonds worth nearly $5,000 each, which will be forfeited if they are caught using or impliedly promoting illegal drugs during a concert in Manila this weekend.
It follows a request by the local Anti-Drugs Advocate group to the bureau to strictly scrutinize the band’s concert permit following a video that circulated on the Internet of Malik and Tomlinson purportedly smoking marijuana.
Malik and Tomlinson are required to post 200,000 pesos ($4,470) bond and 20,000 pesos ($447) processing fee each through their producer, bureau spokeswoman Elaine Tan said Thursday.
The five-member band will perform at the seaside Mall of Asia Concert Grounds as part of their “On The Road Again” tour.
“The condition is intended to protect the public interest should the band members commit any violation during their stay in the Philippines,” Tan said.
She said the band will be prevented from performing if the producer fails to post the bond before the concert.
The producer went to the Immigration Bureau Thursday afternoon to post the bond and fee, said Christine Ching, a spokeswoman of Anti-Drugs Advocate.
The Filipino group is also awaiting a response to their petition asking a local court to direct government agencies to ensure that the band members are drug-free. It also urged the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to send officers to monitor the band.
The group is concerned about the popular band’s influence on Filipino youth, Ching added.
“We want to see their pure, raw, untainted talent,” without need for them to take drugs, she said.
She said the concert producers, during a meeting with her group, expressed willingness to cooperate and give drug enforcers and Anti-Drugs Advocate access passes to allow them to monitor the band members.
A fan, Ella Samson, was unfazed.
“To be honest, there are a lot of videos that are coming out showing people doing drugs. … If this group is coming here to perform, will they take drugs while they are performing? Of course not,” the college freshman said.
Following the leak of the video last year, One Direction’s Liam Payne twitted an apology, saying “I love my boys and maybe things have gone a little sideways. I apologize for that.”
He said: “We are only in our 20’s and we all do stupid things at this age.”
After Manila, One Direction is scheduled to perform in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 25.
Ashley Judd fires back over online threats, comments
Actress and Kentucky Wildcats fan Ashley Judd is firing back at those who posted threats and hateful comments online after she tweeted that she thought Arkansas was playing dirty in its SEC basketball matchup with her alma mater.
In an online essay posted Thursday on mic.com, Judd says she routinely copes with tweets that “sexualize, objectify, insult, degrade and even physically threaten me.”
But she writes, “this particular tsunami of gender-based violence and misogyny flooding my Twitter feed was overwhelming.”
Judd said this week in an interview on MSNBC that she planned to press charges if she could.
She wrote in the essay, “I must, as a woman who was once a girl, as someone who uses the Internet, as a citizen of the world, address personally, spiritually, publicly and even legally, the ripe dangers that invariably accompany being a woman and having an opinion about sports or, frankly, anything else.”
She said she took the tweet down soon after posting it Sunday, in case anyone was offended by her saying Arkansas’ play was unsportsmanlike. But that didn’t stop the comments.
“What happened to me is the devastating social norm experienced by millions of girls and women on the Internet,” Judd wrote. “Online harassers use the slightest excuse (or no excuse at all) to dismember our personhood. My tweet was simply the convenient delivery system for a rage toward women that lurks perpetually.”
‘GoodFellas’ cast to reunite at Tribeca Film Festival
NEW YORK (AP) — The cast of Martin Scorsese’s “GoodFellas” will reunite for the film’s 25th anniversary at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The festival announced Wednesday that a re-mastered version of the gangster film classic will close the 14th annual Tribeca Film Festival on April 25. Following the screening at New York’s Beacon Theatre, Jon Stewart will host a conversation with Scorsese and the cast, including Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Ray Liotta and Paul Sorvino.
De Niro, who co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival, said in a statement: “I was most proud of this film 25 years ago and equally proud of it now.”
The festival will run April 15-26.
