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PRNewswireJohn Legend has backed out of planned appearance Thursday at a Los Angeles Confidential magazine party at the Beverly Hills Hotel because of the owner’s anti-LGBT policies, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The party was being held to celebrate the magazine’s December/January issue, which features Legend on the cover, and also to honor the singer for his Grammy nomination, for “All of Me,” and his Oscar nod for best song, for his work with Common on the track “Glory,” from the movie Selma.
The hotel is owned the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, and has been the target of a Hollywood boycott since early 2014, when he passed Sharia, or Islamic law, in his country, which allows the stoning of gays and adulterers.
On Tuesday, Legend’s rep, Amanda Silverman, told The Hollywood Reporter that “in light of the horrific anti-women and anti-LGBT policies approved by the hotel’s owner, the Sultan of Brunei,” the singer would not be attending the party.
Silverman said “these policies, which among other things could permit women and LGBT Bruneians to be stoned to death, are heinous and certainly don’t represent John’s values or the spirit of the event.”
“John does not, in any way, wish to further enrich the Sultan while he continues to enforce these brutal laws,” Silverman added.
In a statement, the magazine’s publisher, Alison Miller said Los Angeles Confidential will still hold the party, but respect’s “Mr. Legend’s decision not to attend the event.”
In a statement released earlier in the week, Miller insisted that the magazine “is an avid supporter of equal rights for all people.”
“Our decision to hold our event at the hotel in no way suggests that we support any anti-human rights policies,” Miller said.
Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Legend’s team requested that the party be moved, but a new location couldn’t be secured in time.
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