Oscar winner Halley Berry distanced herself from the International Women in Media conference this week. According to Times Live , she wrote a tweet telling her fans that she will not be attending the conference.
“To clear the air… I will NOT be attending # WimCon2018. I apologize to any of my fans who were mislead – I know NOTHING about this, I have never heard of it. It’s shameful that @ 21stcg_Global would advertise this way. Thank you @ TherealTaraji for letting people know,” she wrote on August 11.
This comes just days after Empire star Taraji P Henson slammed the organizers of the International Women in Media conference for “false advertising.”
Henson originally tweeted days before a variety of tweets showing an advertisement for the conference with a picture of her and various other women, including Halle Berry.
“FALSE ADVERTISEMENT! REMOVE MY NAME AND PICTURE! I WILL NOT BE AT THIS EVENT. THIS IS NOT OFFICIAL,” she wrote in one tweet with the pictures.
She continued to urge her fans to try to get their money back if they bought their tickets already. Henson said that she was busy working on her show Empire .
After Henson’s Twitter takedown, local media personality Bonang Matheba confirmed that she had also withdrawn her participation in the event.
To clear the air… I will NOT be attending #WimCon2018 . I apologize to any of my fans who were mislead – I know NOTHING about this, I have never heard of it. It’s shameful that @21stcg_Global would advertise this way. Thank you @TherealTaraji for letting people know. https://t.co/GRvUcimEBv
— Halle Berry (@halleberry) August 11, 2018
21st Century Group, the media and asset management company responded, calling Henson’s comments on social media “disappointing.” The group said that they would be taking legal action against a talent agency that apparently booked the international stars.
Because of the incident, ticket sales to the conference have been halted for now and the organizers claimed that it would now be an invite-only event and anyone who had tickets would get a refund.
Berry won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work in Monster’s Ball . She signed on to play a role in John Wick 3: Parabellum which will be out in 2019.
Henson continues to star in the hit Fox show Empire which she won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series in a Drama. She can be heard playing a part in Ralph Breaks the Internet later this year and What Men Want out in 2019.
The conference takes place in Sandton, South Africa. According to another tweet , singer Ashanti is scheduled to appear at the conference, though she has not confirmed it yet.
