Bel Ami and Models Kicked off RSVP Cruise SUE the Company
RSVP Vacations is being sued by Bel Ami and several of its models for
hiring them for a cruise and then dumping them in godforsaken Tunisia.
According to court documents filed in California,
nearly a dozen Slavic Bel Ami porn stars were hired by RSVP to “mix and
mingle” with passengers on a gay cruise through the Mediterranean. Bel
Ami maintains the models were told to keep the fact RSVP hired them on
the down-low, “suggesting that the young men should lie and say the
cruise was a ‘reward from Bel Ami for their hard work’ if anyone asked.”
In exchange for providing the talent, RSVP told Bel Ami it could film
the models frolicking non-sexually around the ship.
But rumors started circling before the boat even left port and, when
the boys attracted too much attention, RSVP allegedly kicked them off
the Nieuw Amsterdam, stranding them in Tunisia.
At the time, Tunisia was in the aftermath of the
tumultuous civil uprising that became known as the Arab Spring; an
uprising so powerful that it led to the removal of long-time President
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The protests constituted the most dramatic wave
of social and political unrest in Tunisia in three decades and resulted
in scores of deaths and injuries.
With RSVP supposedly holding their passports and belongings hostage, the models had no choice but to comply. Ironically, the Nieuw Amsterdam
was just one day away from Italy, an EU member nation that would have
allowed them to easily return home to Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Instead they spent a sleepless night in Tunisia, with no contacts, no resources and unable to speak the language.
Bel Ami and the models are suing RSVP and Holland America cruise line
for breach of contract, fraud, intentional interference with contract,
negligence, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional
distress.
This isn’t the first trouble RSVP has had in the Muslim world: Just a few weeks ago, a planned excursion to Morocco was canceled for reasons that remain unclear.