14 DAY TRIAL // Two boys from One Direction, the biggest boyband of the moment, launched by Simon Cowell in 2010 after their appearance on X Factor, are caught in a huge drug scandal as a video shot by one of them has leaked online.
Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik like to smoke weed and they don’t mind doing so in the car with their entourage while they’re being driven from one destination to another. The worst part of this is that they like to get high and document the moment on their phone, which puts them at risk of leaks, which, in turn, could potentially ruin their squeaky clean image.
The Daily Mail has obtained the video shot by Louis in Peru, after a One Direction show. The photo above is a screencap from it, showing Zayn puffing on what looks like a joint that Louis passed to him.
“So here we are, leaving Peru. Joint lit. Happy days!” Louis can be heard saying from behind the camera. Before passing the joint to Zayn, he cracks a few jokes about his pre-show routine.
“Zayn takes his job very seriously. He makes sure he goes through a two hour intense warm-up before every show. Just to get himself in the zone for the show. One very very important factor of Zayn’s warm up of course if Mary J herself. In fact I will present it to him now for some fantastic singing,” he says.
He then passes the joint to his bandmate and the fun starts.
At one point in the video, one of the cops probably accompanying the vehicle convoy comes into zoom on his bike – and Louis finds it very hilarious they they’d be smoking pot inside when he’s looking but can’t see inside the car.
“One nil [B-word]! Look at this [B-word]! 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,” he laughs. This is just one of the instances in which he jokes about the “po-po” driving so close to the car where they’re smoking weed.
Marijuana possession is not illegal in Peru if it’s for personal use and not in large quantities, but the row around the One Direction guys has more to do with their image than with the actual fact of having smoked marijuana. After all, pot isn’t illegal in many other countries so, at this point, whether we like it or not, its consumption is no longer limited.
The aforementioned British publication for one believes that the video could land the band in trouble – and the timing couldn’t be any worse, because they’re getting ready to kick off the US leg of their international tour. Authorities could deny them entrance to the US based on this video, apparently.
Just as bad is the fact that, so far, all the guys in the band have tried very hard to prove that they’re unlike most current pop stars, projecting an image of good, nice, and well-behaved boys: the kind their fans’ parents would love to invite over for dinner. And the kind they would support by reaching into their pockets to pay for tickets for the concerts their daughters want to go to.
Simon Cowell, who manages them, will probably blow a fuse when he hears of this. So far, he hasn’t said anything on the matter but an attorney for the band told the Mail that it’s “now in the hands of our lawyers.”
