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Hilary Swank tonight kicked off her image-rehabilitating campaign after a disastrous paid appearance at tyrannical Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov’s birthday party with a visit to The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. The backlash from the October 5 appearance in Grozny led to Swank firing her manager and most of her agents. The fallout also included her PR firm 42West reportedly dropping her over disagreement how the aftermath of her embarrassing stint should be handled, so it’s unclear who booked her appearance on Leno tonight. In it, Swank tried to repair some of the damage by claiming ignorance. She ultimately took responsibly for her blunder but left some blame for her representatives too. “Human rights organizations had reached out to warn me before I went, but I did not get those warnings, they weren’t shared with me,” she said in a subtle jab at her reps. “The bottom line is I should know where I’m going and should do better research.” Watch Swank’s account of the events in the video clip below. Curiously, the clip stops just before the end of the conversation, which, in typical Leno fashion, didn’t include a single tough question. In the left-out part, after talking about how little she knew about Chechnya and its government before the incident and how much she has learned since, Swank said, “I actually didn’t know that Chechnya was separate from Russia.” The statement is somewhat puzzling because, while being its own republic, Chechnya is still a member of the Russian Federation.
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What a lying, dissembling performance by Swank. Makes it sound like she’d never heard of him until just before she went onstage at his birthday party.
And good lord, what a tool Jay Leno is.
If you see the full footage of Swank’s Chechnya performance and ‘Happy Birthday, Mr. President’ speech you’d throw up. I thought she was going to fellate the guy.
Well, I’d never heard of him until she went onstage at his birthday party.
Honestly, I think her worst crime is gross ignorance.
Here’s a few more “I didn’t know…” excuses:
“I didn’t know that was the speed limit.”
“I didn’t know that was cocaine.”
“I didn’t know she was 14.”
Genocide is committed while people “didn’t know”…
If you would ask me who this guy was, I “wouldn’t know”, but if you asked me to make an appearance at the birthday party for the leader of friggin’ CHECHNYA, I probably would’ve looked into it a little ESPECIALLY if I was a world-renowned star in a day when pictures can be uploaded for the world to see instantaneously.
If this were Jessica Simpson, I would buy her ignorance. Because it’s Hilary Swank, her “ignorance” excuse just makes her look worse.
That’s what a star’s reps are there for. To find out and tell them. The reps failed and were rightly fired. The rest of their clients should be firing them too, to be honest.
then why is her lawyer not fired? he KNEW the info at the same time as her manager and from what I hear assessed not to do anything about it.
The fact is that it’s a great press story but NOBODY cares enough to stop going to her movies. These events raise eyebrows and that’s it. How many people gave Michael Jackson, Beyonce and other celebs a pass for the things they have done. That’s a good thing in SOME cases, we all make mistakes.
” but NOBODY cares enough to stop going to her movies. ”
Huh? Who’s going to her movies? One couldn’t even “go” to her last film, the Resident, since it was direct to dvd. Pretty sure no one saw Conviction or Amelia either. She was already washed up before this hit.
That’s because no one was going to her movies BEFORE this.
she claims she fired the people that didn’t get the right info to her but didn’t her attorney know? how come he got a hall pass?
Because her attorney knows where the bodies are buried.
Winning post. Leno is a hack, almost as bad as Letterman. It’s her fault. If I’m going to a country I’ve never heard of, I Google it and find out. She needed to take responsibility, period. How far gone is her career where she has to go to russia for an appearance fee. It reminds me of that Ash Simpson no talent hack, when she blamed her band for playing the wrong song, when in reality, they had nothing to do with it to accommodate her lip syncing.
yup – i don’t buy any of her “performance” on leno. everyone in hollywood knows she knew. “I know, I do my research”…
thanks leno for fluff interviewing…
I almost feel sorry for her. ALL OF THEM: Beyonce, JLo, Aguilera and many other every week travel to Ukraine or Russia or other countries and perform on weddings or birthday parties of rich oligarchs. And often those money come with blood. That rich guy is a bandit who killed for those money or he stole those money form his people.
But celebrities never care, never ask. They got their $3-5 millions check, perform and leave. Because that’s easy money. And that’s was Hillary Swank did too and she was the one who was blamed for all of them. All those other should be blamed too. We all remember that story when celebrities performed for son of Gaddafi.
On other hand Hillary Swank should be greatfull for all of this. Because this scandal gave her more press in two weeks then she had for the past five years. It reminded people that she is still alive.
100% agree. great post!
I also appreciated Hillary Swank reminding me she is still alive. Now I get to dislike and forget her all over again.
we know she’s alive… but now all we think of is someone who tries to sell a giant pack of lies that nobody on planet earth will believe.
Her PR firm was smart to dump her. She’s a mess that wants to take as little accountability as possible.
If it weren’t for Deadline, I never would have heard about any of this. And honestly, who really gives a damn who Hillary Swank sings happy birthday to?
Believe it or not, people of Deadline, the world does not revolve around your snarky little island.
Your forget that this website is for “insiders” and those on the outside desperately seeking to be on the “inside”. But not me. I just come here for the laughs.
Do you all boycott the US for waging an illegal war on Iraq based on lies? Anyone complaining about Hillary Swank is a hypocrite. Every country basically has done something questionably. When are you people going to boycott France? President Kagame of Rwanda has accused the French of having a direct role in the massacres that happened there. I bet you’re not because you don’t want to lose the French glamour you admire. It’s like what Bill Maher pointed about why do average Americans defend the Republican Party when they only care about the rights of the rich. It’s because they think they’ll be rich some day and need their money protected. The fact is any one of you will gladly take a million dollars just to make an appearance for anyone except maybe someone that has had a lot of negative attention. But someone bad that hasn’t got any attention, which this world is filled with and are US allies, you’ll be the first to say, “Show me the money!”
The war in Iraq was not illegal. The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 authorized what was soon to become the Iraq War. The authorization was sought by President George W. Bush. It passed the House on October 10 by a vote of 296-133, and by the Senate on October 11 by a vote of 77-23. It was signed into law by President Bush on October 16, 2002. That made it LEGAL! As far as your claim of being based on lies goes, the authorization had a number of reasons listed on why we should go to war again with Iraq, chief of those reasons was Iraq’s ignoring UN resolutions. The faulty intelligence on WMDs was hardly the only reason. Since Iraq had broken the armistice we had both agreed to, we could have attacked them at any time for any reason. Please, get your facts straight before you pollute the world with your ignorance.
Damn! You schooled him.
Are you forgetting? BASED ON LIES!
Not sure how that makes it legal, ethically moral, or justifiably right. They made similar votes in Nazi Germany to justify their actions of war. Just saying…
Oh wow, you just forgot that American law doesn’t apply outside of the United States.
So yeah, sorry, that war was illegal, there was no international mandate for it.
Afghanistan=Legal, Iraq=Illegal. Sorry for your confusion.
Not sure what you think we admire about the French, but I assure you it isn’t the glamor. Maybe we defend the French because if it wasn’t for us they’d be speaking German and we don’t want that to all be for not? Just a theory…
And thanks for the reminder of what Bill Maher said. He is, after all, the bastion of unbiased truth. Did Al Sharpton have a follow up of any kind?
Um…for starters, we admire the French because they invented cinema.
(Btw, it’s “all for naught.”)
@sacramento — you’re citing Bill Maher as an authority on domestic policy and geopolitics? Bill Maher is a comedian. He’s paid to make people laugh. Period.
Wait – you feel sorry for them making millions for doing minutes’ worth of “work” because…What, they’re too uneducated to know up from down and right from wrong? You lost me.
Typical Hollywood. Just like politicians. All that matters is the perception and image. Not reality.
Nobody expects Hollywood people to have any more brains than God gave my dog (just look at their politics), but this bullshit won’t fly. Transparent lies worthy of any D.C. pol.
Maybe if she was pretty ………
Well, she was either lying then–I’ve seen the video of her there saying “I read. I do my research.”–or she’s lying now. (Or both, I suppose.)
Wow, she did? Someone should play the video during one her interview then ask her. I’m interested in her answer.
She really did say that on the stage at the event!
There’s a video online of her saying “I read. I do my homework.” It is right after she wishes the dictator Happy Birthday–seems to be in response to the host’s “surprise” that she knew about the birthday.
Nice try, but too little too late. She’s a smart girl…she should’ve known better…
Please leave Hillary Swank alone. She does not know where Chechnya is located or anything about the bloody conflict.
That does not disqualify for her to be an actress.
Indeed, it does qualify for her to be a presidential candidate on the Republicants’ ticket.
so true!
Ok, I almost upchucked milk out of my nose after reading that comment. True dat!
We will see who is ignorant when Newt challenges Obama to seven three hour debates with no moderator, just a time keeper, as he said he will do. Will Obama chicken out? I think so, since he called Hawaii part of Asia, said we have 57 states in the US and called the British embassy the English embassy not to mention called for breathalyzers for children, he is an idiot. He has destroyed the country.
1. Newt will not be the Republican nominee.
2. If he were to become the nominee, Obama will not even have to campaign. Obama will win in a landslide.
3. If Romney is the nominee, Obama will still win, but by a smaller margin.
4. Obama has more intellectual bandwidth that all of the Republican candidates combined.
5. Hilary Swank is a good actress who did something stupid for an easy paycheck. She will probably continue to make films and be reasonably successful.
It is truly, truly amazing how fast people forgot the Bush presidency. The cognitive dissonance is truly amazing.
It’s so cute when people pretend to take “Newt” seriously. Thanks for the laugh, Eric!
If Obama participated in 7 three hour debates, the GOP would complain he took too much time off from running the country to campaign. It doesn’t matter what the man does, it will not please the republiklans. I’d prefer our president not pander to make a group of people happy who will frankly never be happy until they get their own way and get back into power. As for this bullshit list you’ve come up with regarding Obama’s shortcomings, there’s not enough space to do the same for Newt. He has more baggage than the other GOP candidates combined.
@Bevo — but it does disqualify her from being a competent human being.
Celebs aren’t necessarily intelligent people. Her manager should have done a better job giving advice. Like her or not she’s an A+ list actress.
How could this possibly be true given the box office performance of everything she’s been in since Million Dollar Baby? It’s been nothing but red ink for her films in the past seven years. Shouldn’t she be in movie jail by now?
You said it Butters. He manager and agents didn’t do their jobs. They were rightly fired. She is also rightly getting public backlash for her part. Everything is happening as it should be. Only thing left is for their other clients to start taking a hard look at that manager and those agents for their complicity.
Rick’s is the smartest post here and everyone blaming Swank alone needs to read it before posting anything. Yes she deserves all the heat she’s getting. But for what their jobs are, for what they’re paid, for the kind of high profile actors they represent those managers, agents and PR people should never never ever have let her take this gig. They were insanely incompetent and greedy. Don’t call Swank greedy without accusing those reps of being the same.
Ah, the old “I’m not immoral, just stupid and ignorant!” defense.
She’s that stupid not to look up Ramzan Kadyrov? Please, she knew what she was getting into, and if not, then she really is as dumb as most actors are.
Why is it so hard to say “Sorry, I screwed up, I take full responsibilty for my error”. Adults should be adults and not always blame others for their mistakes. It just looks better and blogs like this one don’t go “yeah, right”.
Her former agents and manager still haven’t taken responsibility, have they? Makes me think less of them tbh.
Swank’s ignorance to Kadyrov’s misdeeds is pretty much representative of the majority of the US population’s lack of awareness of his infamy. Many Americans are misinformed about their own local politics, they are going to know about an evil dictator half way around the world? It has been widely reported that a large percentage of US school children could not identify the US on a map. Swank not knowing that Chechnya was part of the Russian Federation is reflective of that common ignorance. Too many people get their news from soundbites and People magazine. Media outlets will report on the minute by minute adventures of the Kardashians, but when it comes to international news and politics, and the human rights violations in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Syria, etc. it is not prioritized as essential information that the public needs to know. Go ahead … Ask a random person if they think Kim Kardashian’s wedding was a publicity stunt and they will most likely have an opinion and be able to recount all her exploits. Then ask them what they think about Ramzan Kadyrov … **crickets**
Not really a Leno fan but criticizing him for not asking tough questions is ridiculous. He’s not a political journalist.
He is not a political journalist, barely a talk show host, maybe even alien… but, that aside; he did invite her onto his show to bail herself out of her mess. He should then provide the viewing public some form of diligence as repayment to listen to the dithering of another actor who chooses to sell their soul to the highest bidder.
FYI: Leno doesn’t “invite” his guests. That’s the job of the show’s Talent Bookers.
He has no say or input or approval over guests? Hardly. Guess Leno is now joining the chorus of those claiming ignorance in all this. God forbid any of these grown adults ever take responsibility for themselves.
True, he’s not a political journalist, or even a journalist but he is still lame. I think the criticism of him and other talk show hosts like him who never ask the questions that people want to know.
Some people look at Wendy Williams as a joke, but she is not afraid to ask her guests the questions that the audience wants to know, especially if the guest has had a recent scandal of some sort. It doesn’t need to be an interrogation, but they should at least be asked. Otherwise, why have them on the show?
I was curious to watch Swank on Leno, but I knew he wouldn’t ask the right questions, so why bother to watch? Just to listen to her propaganda? No thanks…
Leno is like US Magazine printing PR spin after Kim Kardashian’s divorce, merely spewing what they’re told to say. He sleepwalks through his job.
I don’t believe her for one second. Even if she didn’t know about the Chechyna’s horrible acts, she could have done a basic Wikipedia search on him.
She is such a moron. But this is Hollywood, right? They get the bucks and the attention and the power (whatever that is for her with 2 OSCARS) and they just really think they can quit being a normal human with responsibilities like us. Yeah, I blame her handlers…because she’s paying them; but God, I blame her more than anyone else…because she knew what she was doing, and had to have known about CHECHNYA??? How can she be smart enough to memorize scripts; take acting lessons, be very thorough to come from nowhere and win 2 OSCARS??? And not know about CHECHNYA??? Because she cared about the big paycheck for doing nothing. Now comes the wierd part…why am I even writing this? Like Hollywood’s going to listen to me.
I think it was quite possible. Most of celebrities now are just elements in “celebrity machines”. Someone makes her hear, someone picks out her clothes, somebody picks up and vents her scripts and yes. Somebody decides on “money-making opportunities” and what to say where. Like with most companies, most of what normal human being do is outsourced by celebrities.
Did anyone else see that her nose was growing with more time?
Yeah, she’s a train wreck — oh well.
Good to see her getting her come uppance.
Remember this the next time an actor, actress or some other celebrity gets up and tells you that they know better than anyone else about any topic and you should do what they say, support their causes/ideas and they are right and you are wrong. Just saying. Just because someone is talented enough to parrot the words written by others in a successful manner does not mean they have an intelligence or special ability beyond that.
Well said.
Some celebrities know and care, but majority picks up causes just because it is cool in their circle.
The 1%. The Hollywood elites, the greediest people on earth. Also the dumbest politically. And, who gives a F about Swank?
Good for Hilary Swank for addressing it. At least she was honest and admitted her mistake and owned it. Celebrities don’t do this often. Just because Jay was kind doesn’t mean he’s a “tool.” I’m sure her handles (publicist – manager) tried to keep her in the dark, so good for her for acknowledging her mistake!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmyE2WZvuPQ
Watch and beg Nikki to delete your comment. If she had no idea who he was and couldn’t pronounce his name, you can add disrespectful, arrogant, rude… right under LIAR.
“Good for Hilary…” Really? I hope you know that her and her team had plenty of time to prepare for this question by Jay and that was the best they came up with.
Are you for real Steve or did you fall for this PR move? This woman keeps lying and keeps putting the blame on others. Total skank.
Have her ex-agents done anything except lie and putting the blame on others? Total shits.
She should have added: I’m a who-or for money after all those nights sleeping in a car with my mom. Dirty little business is that… celebrities being paid to show up.
So, in her ramblings, she says that she wanted to go be a proponent of peace… but she needed to get paid an OSCENE amount of money for it… hmmmm…. (cue the FAMILY FEUD strike sound)
Epic fail.
At this point, Hilary, the damage is done, explanations won’t help other than to remind people that you’re a half-wit who needs a script to be smart and that the only trips you should be making are to and from a set.
I’m so sick and tired of all this phony blather about right and wrong. It’s an individual choice to decide what they want to do with their lives, and no one should have a say otherwise. So she went over and performed for money. It’s HER right without having to defend it! Besides, you can’t have a rich life without having a rich bank account. I pity all the others.
Hilary Skank and the biggest tool on TV.
I lasted 30 seconds
All I can say is I hope the morally outraged on here are equally, if not more, outraged by the fact that politicians wanting to run the country right now, as well as the majority of Americans, have no idea about Chechnya either. Hell, they don’t even know about the countries that we actually have to deal with on a daily basis. She’s an actress. She fucked up. She’s said she shouldn’t have gone, and yes, I believe her because it’s quite possible her management conveniently forgot to tell her who the guy was– they get a percentage of everything they arrange and probably figured this event would go unnoticed by the public. Should she have done some research? Yes, and I’m sure she will in the future. And please, stop with the “hollywood does this” “hollywood does that” bullshit. Hollywood is an industry. Full of *different* people with *different* priorities, not some monolithic entity. The likes of Pitt or Clooney or Penn or the hundreds of other professionals who *do* read up on world news wouldn’t be caught dead at this guy’s birthday party.
How about donate her millions fee to a cause of Ramzan Kadyrov’s brutality victims?
Hillary has no morals, and so every other celebrity that takes money from brutal dictators.