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Jennifer Lopez — the tyrant’s best friend?
The Bronx-bred songbird got into a heap of trouble this week. It was revealed by a human-rights organization that the singer and actress, best known for inflicting punishment on the populace with the megabomb “Gigli,’’ has spent a good chunk of the last few years inhaling some $10 million from the pockets of tyrants and despots in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Lopez, who turns 44 next week, serenaded the villains, thieves and human-rights violators, giving aid and comfort to at least one regime known for jailing homosexuals, and people who swivel their hips with abandon. Like J.Lo.
Her excuse? J.Lo claimed, through a spokesman, that she didn’t know how bad things were over there! It seems that on Planet J.Lo, the tell-all tool Google doesn’t exist.
Human-rights groups dedicated to helping places like repressive Turkmenistan are having fits.
“Don’t tell me you like kids, when the infant mortality rate is off the charts,’’ said Thor Halvorssen, president of the Human Rights Foundation, which busted J.Lo for her greed.
“Don’t tell me you support gay marriage when [Turkmenistan’s president] has made being gay illegal.’’
In fact, two members of a pop band were jailed in Turkmenistan for two years, released in February, for creating videos with Western-style dancing. That is, for doing pretty much what J.Lo did when she crooned, “Happy birthday, Mr. President,’’ last month at a party for dictator Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov (inset photo).
No wonder the star has engaged crisis public-relations honcho Ken Sunshine of Sunshine, Sachs & Associates to do damage control.
“Jennifer is a good person who made a terrible mistake,’’ Sunshine told me.
Jenny From the Block is not the first celeb to potentially do harm by practicing diplomacy without a brain.
Two-time Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn kissed up to the despotic Venezuelan leader, the late Hugo Chavez, boosting the image of a man accused of torturing his own people. Beyoncé and Jay-Z traveled this year to Cuba, a country shunned by the US, in part because of human-rights abuses. Double Oscar-winner Hilary Swank, along with singer Seal and Jean-Claude Van Damme, attended a 2011 party for torture-happy Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. (Swank later told Jay Leno, “Shame on me.’’)
Last but not least, wacky retired Chicago Bull Dennis Rodman road-tripped to the spoke in the Axis of Evil, North Korea. He said of the country’s iron-fisted leader, Kim Jong-un, “I love him. The guy’s really awesome.’’ Now Rodman wants a Nobel Peace Prize!
But these famous free-lance peacemakers mainly travel out of a need for attention. J.Lo does it for cold, hard cash.
Along with the Turkmenistan birthday party, for which J.Lo is said to have raked in a cool $2.5 million, she was slammed by the Human Rights Foundation for a $1 million show she performed at the 2011 wedding of corrupt Uzbek oil tycoon Azam Aslanov. Lopez hobnobbed with guests, reportedly including the Chechen dictator Kadyrov.
She earned $2.5 million appearing at a women’s soccer championship last year in repressive Azerbaijan, HRF reported. She was to get another $2 million for singing at a birthday party for Russian bureaucrat Alexander Yelkin, but the fete was canceled after he was arrested in a fraud and corruption probe. She took in an undisclosed sum for a 2012 concert in dictatorship Belarus.
The singer-for-hire trend seems to have started in 2006, when J.Lo earned $1.4 million for performing at the 50th birthday part of alleged crooked Russian oligarch Telman Ismailov.
“I think it sends a signal that an international celebrity is willing to cozy up to your dictator,’’ said Carroll Bogert, deputy executive director of Human Rights Watch. “It’s pretty repugnant when she cozies up to the man who throws people in jail for speaking out.’’
Jennifer Lopez can’t hide behind her willful ignorance any longer. Shaking her booty for bad guys in exchange for riches makes her a well-paid cheerleader for evil.
She owes the good people of this earth an apology.
Cory a life lesson
My heart breaks for Cory Monteith.
The actor had everything to live for — a thriving TV career, a new movie, and a loving girlfriend in “Glee’’ co-star Lea Michele. Monteith, who long struggled with addiction, tried to beat his demons by going to rehab twice. But last weekend, he died alone in a Vancouver hotel room, overdosing on heroin mixed with alcohol, according to an autopsy. He was 31.
Parents, please talk to your kids about drugs. May Cory rest in peace.
Lindsay payday O-palling
Lindsay Lohan is set to jump from her 90-day court-ordered rehab stint to Oprah Winfrey’s couch.
Oprah, 59, has negotiated to do an exclusive interview with Linz, 27, on her OWN network after Lindsay gets sprung next month, paying the train-wreck starlet a reported $2 million. The girl chat is to be followed by a TV reality series on OWN. Can T-shirt sales be next?
Lindsay’s enabling mom, Dina, thinks being mentored by Oprah will be Lindsay’s salvation, Page Six reported. But the whole thing reminds me of another show — “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.’’
The now-canceled shrink-fest exploited the struggles of famous addicts, some of whom fell off the wagon.
That’s showbiz!
’Fess up, Splitzer!
Does Silda still love Eliot?
The Post reported weeks ago that comptroller wannabe and ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his humiliated wife were sleeping in separate apartments. Yesterday, The New York Times reported what everyone already knows — the Spitzers don’t share a roof.
The public has a right to know if Spitzer, who was caught hiring hookers, is hated beyond repair by his spouse. If she can’t stand him, why should voters?
But Spitzer coyly told WPIX/Channel 11 that he and Silda were still a couple, before dodging the living-together question like a ninja.
“Our private lives are our private lives,’’ he said.
It’s time for Spitzer to end this political and personal charade.
New Twinkies are stinkies
Twinkies are wack!
The golden snack cakes of my youth are dribbling back onto store shelves, and New Yorkers almost universally despise them.
“It’s pretty gross,’’ CUNY student Sophia Rosenbaum told The Post after lining up for a freebie.
Since Hostess went belly up and sold the brand, Twinkies have become smaller, chewier, and contain 135 calories, down from 150. They can sit on shelves for 45 days before turning into science experiments, up from 26.
Maybe it’s time to shut the lights on the brand.