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One Direction may have lost a few fans following the recently posted video of members Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson allegedly smoking a joint and joking about drug use while in Peru. In fact, the band just might be banned from an entire country.
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An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has urged the country’s government to ban One Direction, according to The Manila Times. The band is set to perform a concert in the Philippines in March 2015.
“Do not lead [the youth in] the wrong direction,” Fr. Conegundo Garganta, executive secretary of the CBCP-Episcopal Commission on the Youth, said in a weekly forum in Intramuros, Manila, adding that their presence is a “challenge to the sense of culture” of Filipinos. “Why admit poisonous influences? There is enough poison in our society. … Parents should stop their children from buying the expensive concert tickets of [drug addicts].”
In the video, obtained by the U.K.’s Daily Mail and posted online last week (yet now removed), Tomlinson shoots the video and narrates along in the back of an SUV as the pop stars drive through Lima, Peru, to the Estadio Nacional, where One Direction performed a sold-out show in front of 40,000 fans on April 27 on their Where We Are tour. At that same show, dozens of fans were treated for asphyxia.
“So here we are, leaving Peru, joint lit. Happy days,” Tomlinson says at the beginning of the video as the vehicle leaves a parking garage.
He asks his bandmate Malik sitting next to him in a Bob Marley tank top, “What do you think Zayn, about that type of content?” Malik responds, “Very controversial.”
Later, Tomlinson takes a puff and blows it into the camera as Malik sings. “That’s just Zayn warming up there before the show,” Tomlinson says. “Zayn takes his job very seriously. He makes sure he goes through a two-hour intense warm-up regime before every show, just to get himself in the zone. One very, very important factor to Zayn’s warm up, of course, is Mary J herself. In fact I’m presenting it to him now for some fantastic singing.”
Later, Tomlinson looks out the window at a police officer on a motorbike escorting them and says, “He’s having a look. He’s thinking. I’m sure I can smell an illegal substance in there. And he’s hit the nail on the head.”
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As they near their destination, Malik talks about a photo book of Kid Rock‘s with admiration, speaking disparagingly about the current One Direction book. He says, “It’s about twice the size, hardback, black, simple writing, the whole thing just filled with sick pictures. … No bullshit like ‘My favorite color’s blue,’ ‘My favorite color’s red.’ … Sick shit instead of boring crap.”
“Yeah, the same bullshit that I’m sure the fans are bored of reading,” Tomlinson responds.”Let them know what we’re up to now, man,” Malik says, before continuing to praise Kid Rock’s book for a photo of the rock singer smoking a joint, flipping the camera his middle finger.
Marijuana is not legal in Peru, but the law does offer some leeway. Possession is not punishable if it is for personal and immediate consumption in quantities not exceeding eight grams.
According to a rep for One Direction, the band’s official comment: “This matter is in the hands of our lawyers.”
A portion of this article originally appeared on Billboard.com.
Email: Ashley.Lee@THR.com
Twitter: @cashleelee
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