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Here’s a list of the 9 luxury hotels owned by blood-thirsty Sultan of Brunei to avoid at all cost


George Clooney has appealed to Hollywood, and the public in general, to renew a boycott against nine luxury hotels that are owned by Hassanal Bolkiah, the sultan of Brunei, because of Brunei’s upcoming law that makes homosexual acts a crime that is punishable by public stoning.

In an editorial written for Deadline, Clooney explained details of Brunei’s new law, which will be enacted April 3, says citizens caught committing adultery or having gay sex may be executed by stoning.

“Let that sink in. In the onslaught of news where we see the world backsliding into authoritarianism this stands alone,” Clooney said.

That’s admirable, George. But if Clooney wants people to stop staying at these hotels, he should email blast his friends, because they are the one-percenters who have the necessary bank for the ultra-pricey rooms. As of March 2019, one night at Hotel Bel-Air costs a cool $600 per night, and suites soar to $18,000 per night in peak travel seasons.

The Presidential Suite goes for $300,000 per month and is listed by real estate agents James Harris and David Parnes, who happen to be in the cast of Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles on Bravo. (Fun fact: MDLLA executive producers Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, of World of Wonder productions, are also the team behind a reality show called RuPaul’s Drag Race.) It will be interesting to see if MDLLA continues to feature cast members who profit from supporting a totalitarian government that murders innocent people.

Hollywood officially started this boycott of Sultan Bolkiah’s hotels, which are technically owned by his company Brunei Investment Agency, in 2014 when Brunei’s government first proposed the law. Bolkiah’s hotels in Los Angeles have been a haven for Hollywood’s elite for decades, long before he owned them. Guests have included A-listers from Marilyn Monroe to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (in their happier years together, of course), and star-studded fundraisers in the hotel ballrooms were common.

With that 2014 boycott, some of those big-name guests and parties moved elsewhere; but that was five years ago. Says Clooney, “Like all good intentions when the white heat of outrage moves on to the hundred other reasons to be outraged, the focus dies down and slowly these hotels get back to the business of business. And the Brunei Investment Agency counts on that. Brunei is a monarchy and certainly, any boycott would have little effect on changing these laws. But are we really going to help pay for these human rights violations? Are we really going to help fund the murder of innocent citizens?”

Besides the two hotels in the Los Angeles area, Bolkiah owns seven in Europe. Full disclosure, GayCities has deleted listing pages all hotels associated with Bokiah.

Here’s a list of his properties to avoid at any cost:

Los Angeles, California
Beverly Hills Hotel

Hotel Bel-Air

Paris, France
Hôtel Plaza Athénée
Le Meurice

Rome, Italy
Hotel Eden

Milan, Italy
Hotel Principe di Savoia

London, England
The Dorchester
45 Park Lane

Ascot, England
Coworth Park

 

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