Andrew W.K. says the State Department judged by a book by its cover when they cancelled his Bahrain trip
Andrew W.K. is not taking the news that his Bahrain trip has been canceled very well. The party-positive singer and motivational speaker has taken to his blog to decry what he believes to be an unjust move on the part of the U.S. State Department, who he says first contacted him about going on the diplomatic trip in September 2011.
W.K. says he was scheduled to fly to Bahrain on Dec. 1 and received his itinerary for the trip this past Monday. A mere six hours after he got the schedule, he got a call saying the whole thing was kaput, supposedly because the State Department decided W.K.’s party-centric persona “didn’t meet our standards” and was “not the best choice.” (The long-existing pictures of him with blood all over his face probably didn’t help.) Still, as W.K. writes on his blog, he “would have done a great job and represented our nation with dignity and pride,” concluding, "You can't judge a book by its cover."
As Pitchfork notes, this whole thing suggests a plot straight out of Homeland, albeit with less crying and more partying than usual.