Former Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson is the latest celeb to attach her name to an eco-friendly hotel in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. In June, Ms. Anderson visited Abu Dhabi with the Make a Wish Foundation and reportedly "fell in love" with the emirate, prompting her to partner with the royal family on what she described as an "environmentally friendly" hotel.
Whether the PETA spokeswoman will be as vocal about workers’ rights as she has been about animals’ in the past is still unclear, but so far none of the celebs who’ve done licensing deals in the Gulf have been vocal about the chronic mistreatment of construction workers there.
In early June, Brad Pitt also announced that he was involved in what he called his “first major construction project”: a Dubai hotel that will feature “environmentally friendly architecture, but also embrace my career in entertainment."
In publicizing the green hotel venture, Mr. Pitt also made no mention of the endemic labor abuses beneath the Dubai hype, but local advocacy groups told us that the actor-cum-architect is "definitely looking closely at the issue of workers’ rights before proceeding."
