Celebrity / Hilary Swank Swank Not the First to Party With Bad Guys Actress sorry, claim she wasn't aware it was a birthday celebration By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff Posted Oct 13, 2011 10:12 AM CDT Updated Oct 13, 2011 10:55 AM CDT Copied American actress Hilary Swank attends a concert in the new "Grozny City" residential and commercial complex in the Chechen capital Grozny late Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev) Well, that didn’t take long: Hilary Swank has officially apologized for celebrating the birthday of Chechnya's leader, a charming fellow accused of kidnappings, torture, and killings. But she can take comfort in the fact that she's not exactly a trailblazer when it comes to stars rubbing shoulders with questionable figures. Newser rounds up a few other celebrities who have been derided for their choice of company: When Bob Dylan performed in China, Maureen Dowd called it "a whole new kind of sellout," accusing him of allowing the Communist Party to censor his set. Beyonce, Usher, Nelly Furtado, 50 Cent, and Mariah Carey all received money by performing for the Gadhafi family—click to find out what they did with the cash. Gulnara Karimova, daughter of Uzbekistan's hated dictator Islam Karimov, has rubbed noses with Julio Iglesias and Sting. Naomi Campbell is accused of receiving blood diamonds from Liberian strongman Charles Taylor. Sean Penn, Oliver Stone, Kevin Spacey, and Danny Glover have all hung with Hugo Chavez. As for Swank, "I deeply regret attending this event," she said in a statement to the AP today. "If I had a full understanding of what this event was apparently intended to be, I would never have gone." Swank, who was spotted along with other celebrities including Jean Claude Van Damme at a concert held as part of Ramzan Kadyrov’s birthday festivities, says the concert invite did not mention Kadyrov’s birthday. (More Hilary Swank stories.) Report an error