Two years ago, when the sultan of Brunei imposed Shariah law, a medieval governing system which makes homosexuality punishable by death, the outcry was loud, unequivocal and immediate. And unlike most antigay campaigns across the globe, activists had a bit of leverage. The sultan, it turned out, owned the Beverly Hills Hotel, the legendary celebrity hangout. Elton John, Ellen DeGeneres and dozens of others called for a boycott of the luxury resort, promising never to step on the property until the sultan either sold it or axed the reprehensible Shariah.
Related: How A Stay At This Iconic Los Angeles Hotel Support The Stoning Death Of Gays In Brunei
But that’s not stopping Will & Grace creator Max Mutchnick from having a gay ‘ol time at the hotel with his celeb buddies — despite initially endorsing the boycott. (An earlier version of this article said Mutchnick had not had a hit since the original Will & Grace, which is untrue given the huge success of his new version of the show.)
Mutchnick told Maureen Dowd of The New York Times:
How about we take this to the next level?
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In sitcom terms, the Beverly Hills Hotel was kind of my ‘Central Perk,’ Much of my career unfolded at the Polo Lounge [in the hotel]. I was signed by my agent and lawyer in that room. David Geffen told me what I had to do to save my career. And one night I sat with Sandy Gallin as he chatted up Sylvester Stallone… I was proud to stand with my community and boycott an institution that represented repression and exclusion. But now the foundation of my political correctness is starting to show cracks. I grappled with my inner voice: ‘Maybe fluffy pancakes and warm maple syrup are more important than gay rights.’ But in truth, something deeper was gnawing at me: If I’m going to shun this hotel, does that mean that anything I don’t actively boycott, I tacitly endorse? I loved the television show ‘Glee.’ Should I not have watched because it aired on Fox, a company that gives Roger Ailes the parking space closest to the front door?
Should I remove Mariah Carey’s hit ‘Emotions’ from my iTunes playlist because she once performed for a vicious Angolan dictator to collect a million dollars? Of course not. I shouldn’t listen to ‘Emotions’ because it’s a ridiculous song with moronic lyrics.
Does this boycott make sense? I did not want to go against my core values. Or worse, offend a Higher Power. (Elton John.) But it hit me like a rock being thrown at my face by the village baker in Brunei that, after two years, the only thing that changed at the Beverly Hills Hotel was that the hard-working staff, those least responsible for the offending action, were getting hurt the most. While a hotel representative says the employees are being compensated for lost wages, I’m dubious. We don’t know for how much or for how long.
Gay men and women, some married, dining freely in the Sultan’s Lounge, seemed like a pretty powerful statement, too. Because really, when I think about it, the Beverly Hills Hotel represents everything I aspire to be: elegant, welcoming, sexy at 75, and proudly pink.
What do you think of Mutchnick reasoning for abandoning the boycott for fluffy pancakes and celebrity sightings? Sound off in comments.
Achmat Akkad
Funny: the same people that boycotted this hotel have no problem (Ellen) working with Saudi and UAE companies. In fact while she was campaigning to boycott the Beverly she flew to Dubai. These celebrities also have no problem supporting Israeli companies. I mean apartheid is apartheid regardless of religion. But then once again white rage is always selective. It’s not like the LGBT community has called to boycott anyone even as blacks are being killed in the streets of America
Justin L Llanas
http://heavy.com/news/2015/09/new-isis-islamic-state-videos-photos-authority-of-the-caliphate-in-wilayat-al-jazeeral-jazirah-sorcerer-homosexual-gay-execution-full-uncensored-youtube-sendvid/.
Maybe celebrities need to watch more of these videos
joeyty
@Justin L Llanas: The Islamaphiles who run Queerty need to see more of that too.
Geert Behets
Are there no there no other elegant venues in Beverly Hills?
Tracy Pope
Max Mutchnick is absolutely right – Mariah Carey’s “Emotions” is garbage.
jack512
Shame on Max Mutchnick. His rationalizations and attempted analogies failed.
Tobi
It’s not just the Beverley Hills but the entire Dorchester Collection https://www.dorchestercollection.com together with tourist traps such as Harrods. In fact, a huge number of premises in prestige locations pay rent to these oppressive regimes. Ugh.
Will Glitzern
Why don’t the celebs pool their money and buy it? The problems rich people have!
DCguy
What a surprise, the guy who helmed a show that was supposedly gay but revolved around the sexless relationship of a man and a woman, and apparently where the atmosphere was so accepting that even the one actual gay person on staff stayed in the closet the entire time the show ran…….ignores anti-gay brutality and bigotry because he felt like getting a drink in the bar he always went to.
The shallowness in hollywood and casual acceptance of bigotry by our own is part of the reason LGBTs have seen so few gains in visibility until very very recently on TV.
Sean Shafer
Let’s all go to Chick-fil-A for lunch too. Hypocrites, all of them.
DCFarmboy
Please, gay sitcoms are to attract white collar, middle class and affluent viewers to sell them products for white collar, middle class and affluent people. Where do Third World and working class homosexuals come into this?
myloginname
Turncoat
Desert Boy
POLO LOUNGE CAESAR SALAD $26
JIDORI CHICKEN $44
WAGYU BURGER $40
If I were a millionaire I wouldn’t pay these prices.
Glücklich
Who knew I was supporting a boycott by never having visited that hotel? Driven past it a couple of times but have never had any interest in seeing it for myself. Anything west of La Brea is too plastic-y La-La-Land for my tastes anyway.
scotshot
@Achmat Akkad: For centuries Jews have been attacked by other religions with the attempt to eradicate the. Are you proposing that if the Israelis open their borders and give up their weaponry everything would be fine? How long would they last? It appears your rage is discriminatory.
scotshot
@Achmat Akkad: For centuries Jews have been attacked by other religions with the attempt to eradicate the. Are you proposing that if the Israelis open their borders and give up their weaponry everything would be fine? How long would they last? It appears your rage is discriminatory…
scotshot
@scotshot: Time to upgrade your tech Queerty. ^^^
Glücklich
@scotshot:
Probably using punchcards and COBOL- no no no LISP – chez Queerty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nOnFaNe2a0
DCguy
@Achmat Akkad:
I always love it when people come on to gay sites and try to get a huge amount of Sympathy for Palestine.
Here is a challenge for you, I will start being really concerned about Palestine when they stop legally jailing and murdering LGBTs. Deal?
The fact that the Palestinian gay rights organization has to be headquartered in Israel is pretty much an indication of where things stand right there.
Chevelter
The boycott has long been over and long been ineffective. The hotel’s rooms are heavily booked, rates are up, and its restaurants crowded. There was a brief period of time, perhaps two or three months, when the boycott seemed to be having an effect.
The Beverly Hills Hotel has always been a welcoming place for gay folk. A great many of its employees are gay. The hotel provided benefits to the partners of gay employees long before same sex marriage was legalized in California, and after it was legalized it advertised to the gay community as a place to hold weddings. Over the years it has donated money and facilities to gay causes. And this is who we boycott? It is a wonderful hotel with wonderful management and employees.
The boycott was misguided from the start. Most people don’t know the boycott was not started by gay groups, but by one union that was upset the hotel decided not to hire their workers. That union started a boycott which went nowhere until it latched onto the gay issue as a “cause du jour,” a way to get more publicity to clobber the hotel over the head.
And as the first commenter here points out, Hollywood in general has deep business connections with Sharia-law countries. It’s hypocritical of Ellen to boycott the BH hotel when Saudi Arabia is heavily invested in the studio she tapes her show at, Warner Brothers. And on and on.
Chevelter
@Desert Boy: I’ve stayed at the hotel a dozen times over the past ten years and yes, those are the prices in the Polo Lounge. The quality of food and ambiance there is worth the price.
DCguy
@Chevelter: You stated “The boycott has long been over and long been ineffective. The hotel’s rooms are heavily booked, rates are up, and its restaurants crowded. There was a brief period of time, perhaps two or three months, when the boycott seemed to be having an effect.”
If you’re going to pretend you aren’t on here with an agenda, you should probably not list off a bunch of information that only an employee of the hotel would know.
But nice try.
Brian
Well, the rich gays have never really had much to do with the poor gays. Many rich gays will take their holidays in the homophobic Caribbean, for instance. So long as they’re surrounded by luxury and friends, homophobia is the least of their concerns.
Brian
@Chevelter: Boycotts have got to start somewhere. The boycott of The Beverly Hills Hotel was/is justified in my opinion. If the Sultan of Brunei still owns it, he is benefiting financially from those who are booking rooms there.
In any case, gays tend to be a fickle, fake lot when it comes to boycotts. Their adherence to a cause lasts for about 5 minutes, the average duration of a gay man’s foreplay session.
joeyty
@scotshot: Sorry, but with that pro-Israel attitude, we don’t want you here on Queerty. You are flagged.
scotshot
@joeyty: You support terrorists. It figures. Is “We” all of the voices that inhabit your head?
Michael Steele
You can’t in good conscience boycott and still be a patron. If you are a patron of the Beverly Hills Hotel then you 100% support the monster who owns it. It’s pretty straight forward, you are putting money in this mans pocket. You can not selectively Boycott, it has to be a total commitment or you are a hypocrite. Read the article and decide for yourself.
Desert Boy
@Chevelter: You chose to stay at the Beverly Hills Hotel over a dozen times? It didn’t bother you it was owned by the Sultan of Brunei?
joeyty
@scotshot: You are not wanted here. You don’t take the required anti-Israel gay position.
scotshot
@joeyty:Terrorist lover.
Ned_Flaherty
@DCFarmboy: DC Farmboy, the Dorchester Collection Hotels offer plump, sumptuous sofas, dainty desserts, and bodacious beverages.
But no human being who has a conscience or a soul can endorse, excuse, and fund the savage execution of LGBT people by these hotel owners.
No one is so tired, hunger, or thirsty that they have to be accessories to genocide fueled by Stone Age religious superstition.
Ned_Flaherty
@Desert Boy: Yes, Desert Boy, the Dorchester Collection Hotels offer plump, sumptuous sofas, dainty desserts, and bodacious beverages.
If, while spoiling yourself sick, you don’t shatter from knowing that you’re funding the savage execution of LGBT people, then you have no conscience and no soul.
No one can be that tired, hungry, or thirsty.
joeyty
@scotshot: You and Queerty support MORE Islamic fanatics moving to the West. Self-hating.
scotshot
@joeyty: I support Israel. You support Pakistan which is considered a terrorist state by the USA, the United Kingdom and India among others.
Apparently you are not aware that Israel is the Jewish homeland and as such definitely not an Islamic supporter.not
Stache
@Chevelter: One is doing business with a country that happens to have Sharia Law while the other is directly owned by one person that’s responsible for recently imposing Sharia Law. Nice try but the two aren’t the same.
enfilmigult
What does it mean to be “compensated for lost wages”? Isn’t that, y’know, wages?
joeyty
@scotshot: Nope. You’re not welcome on Queerty if you support Israel. Nor in any gay clique. That’s not one of the gay rules. You must leave now…we all want you to.
scotshot
@joeyty: (yawn)