The British actor and comic Russell Brand was forced to cancel a planned stand-up gig in Johannesburg Friday, after being denied permission to board a flight because his passport was not in order.
Brand was prevented by an airline from leaving London after it emerged he did not have two free pages in his passport, a requisite to enter South Africa, his publicist Debra de Souza said.
Brand made the announcement to his seven million plus fans on Twitter.
“Tonight’s J-burg show cancelled. SA authorities REFUSE TO LET ME INTO YOUR COUNTRY. Trying to resolve it,” Brand tweeted under the handle @rustyrockets.
Plans are under way to get the 38-year-old into the country in time for another Johannesburg show scheduled for Saturday.
The award-winning comedian had sold out four back-to-back shows in the city, starting Friday.
Local publicist Tony Feldman apologised to ticket holders for “this unexpected and disappointing last-minute change”.
The promoter was working to squeeze in a replacement show next week for Friday’s ticket-holders.
Brand’s “Messiah Complex” tour, which is running until April next year, will also take him to Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Turkey, among other destinations.
(AFP)
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The bio
Favourite vegetable: Broccoli
Favourite food: Seafood
Favourite thing to cook: Duck l'orange
Favourite book: Give and Take by Adam Grant, one of his professors at University of Pennsylvania
Favourite place to travel: Home in Kuwait.
Favourite place in the UAE: Al Qudra lakes
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
If you go
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Nairobi, with fares starting from Dh1,695. The resort can be reached from Nairobi via a 35-minute flight from Wilson Airport or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, or by road, which takes at least three hours.
The rooms
Rooms at Fairmont Mount Kenya range from Dh1,870 per night for a deluxe room to Dh11,000 per night for the William Holden Cottage.
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
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Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
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Second leg
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
