When news hit up our Instagram feed that actress Liz Hurley was in Luxor with her bedazzling (sorry) smile, we decided to do more than just a ‘Liz Hurley is in Luxor with her bedazzling smile’ article, instead giving you a roundup of some of the most famous celebrities to have visited our humble shores in recent years, and not completely hate it*.
1. Bono
Photo courtesy of Ahmed Noshy via Facebook
The U2 front-man was spotted in Downtown Cairo taking photos of local street art by a fan that he was kind enough to take a selfie with. Later on, Bono appeared at a bunch of upscale dinners, so we guess he was here on important business.
2. Bryan Adams
Photo courtesy of Bryan Adams Official/Facebook
Who can forget the kerfuffle with Bryan Adam's limited edition guitar getting graffitied by Cairo customs officers earlier this year? He seemed to take it well as he went on to play a private gig at the pyramids. We just want to say, please forgive us, Bryan.
3. Morgan Freeman
Photo courtesy of This is Egypt Campaign/Facebook
The legendary Freeman was spotted on Kasr El Nile Bridge looking slightly bewildered by the Cairo traffic, then he posed at the pyramids with the state sanctioned hashtag #ThisIsEgypt. Freeman was in town shooting his NatGeo documentary The Story of God, which is out now.
4. Angelina Jolie
Photo courtesy of Egypt Now/Facebook
According to the world wide web, Brad Pitt brought Angelina Jolie to Egypt for her birthday in 2012, where they enjoyed a dahabeya Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan - cue swooning. This wasn't her first time in Egypt, though; the Oscar winner visited in 2003 with her son, presumably when she was filming that dud of a film, Alexander.
5. Sean Penn
Photo sourced from Google
In our first case of international celebrity-revolution-tourism, Oscar winner and former Mr Madonna, Sean Penn, came to Egypt in late 2011 because Khaled El Nabawy invited him to join the protests and show the world that Egypt was safe for tourists.
6. Tom Hanks
Photo courtesy of Red Sea Explorers Egypt/Facebook
Arguably the most likeable Hollywood actor ever, Hanks was in Hurghada for a few weeks in 2014, filming ‘A Hologram for the King’ with co-star, Sarita Choudhury (also pictured), on a liveaboard in the Red Sea. Judging by this pic that hit our newsfeeds, we’re guessing that liveaboard was run by the Red Sea Explorers. Yes, we should quit our jobs and become full-time internet detectives.
7. Enrique Iglesias
Photo courtesy of enriqueiglesias.com
Well we’re not sure this falls exactly under ‘celebrity loved Egypt’: Enrique was billed to perform at a Porto Marina concert in 2014, but the event was such a disaster that it was at one point rumoured that he vowed to never ever play here ever again. Oh dear. On the bright side, he did visit the pyramids. And look somewhat happy to be there. No? Oh well.
8. Elizabeth Hurley
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Hurley on Instagram
She may not be as in the limelight as she was in the 90s and might be remembered more for that dress rather than her movie career, but Hurley certainly still turns heads wherever she goes. More importantly, though, can we all just take a moment to appreciate that she will be celebrating her 51st birthday next month?
*We’ve left Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Shakira off this list since their concerts were phenomenal disasters as far as we remember. We've also left Akon off the list, because he's Akon.
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By Samar El Shams
