Flight Attendants Have Bone to Pick With Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman is a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador ... and yet she also appears in ads for Etihad Airways, a United Arab Emirates-based company that has been accused of treating its female employees badly. A US flight attendants' union has taken issue with that, the Guardian reports, writing an open letter to Kidman explaining that Etihad and other UAE airlines "are well-known in our industry for their discriminatory labor practices and deplorable treatment of female employees" and noting that the airline's alleged behavior doesn't exactly jibe with Kidman's statement last month, on International Women's Day, that "I envisage a world where all women and girls have equal opportunities and rights."

Specifically, the union says, "the Wall Street Journal has publicly reported [Etihad] 'may fire women if they become pregnant' and forces flight attendants to live in 'confinement' in secure compounds" (see that December article by the Journal here). Etihad swung back at the allegations in a statement that specifically refutes the pregnancy discrimination claim. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants represents 25,000 American flight attendants who work for American Airlines and US Airways, and its letter is supported by Americans for Fair Skies, a lobbying group that backs other US carriers that are unhappy with UAE carriers. The group put out a statement calling for Kidman to end her "puzzling and unsettling" relationship with Etihad, the Dallas Morning News reports. (More Etihad Airways stories.)