![](\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2018.07\/thumbnail\/5b570326dda4c86a278b45b9.jpg\")
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A UK casting agency has offered actors \u00a320 ($26) to stage a \u2018500-strong anti-Qatar\u2019 protest outside Downing Street on Tuesday, when the Gulf country\u2019s leader meets with Prime Minister Theresa May. <\/p>\n
Screenshots of emails sent to the would-be actors were posted on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. Tour manager Andy Washington was among those who posted the call, which asked for candidates to \u201cfill space\u201d<\/em> outside Number 10 as Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani meets the Tory leader.<\/p>\n Actors received an email by casting agency Extra People, which read: \u201cThis is NOT a film or TV production.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe company are looking for a large group of people to fill space outside Downing Street during the visit of the president of Quatar (sic). This is an ANTI-Qatar event \u2013 you will not have to do or say anything, they just want to fill space. You will be finished at 12:30.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The agency, however, has since apologized \u201cprofusely\u201d<\/em> and \u201cwithdrawn\u201d<\/em> its involvement. According to the agency, they were contacted by PR company Neptune PR Ltd, asking for the company to recruit up 500 people who could prop up the demonstration.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as we as a company became aware that it was a political demonstration, we immediately withdrew, wanting no further part in this,\u201d<\/em> Tom Walker, the company director of Extra People, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have never or will never supply artistes for any event that could be deemed racist or xenophobic and regret that we have even been caught up.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n An unnamed Qatari diplomat pointed the finger at Qatar\u2019s neighbors, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt, who in June 2017 imposed an economic blockade on the Gulf country amid opposition to its foreign policy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe blockading countries have a long history of using paid protesters to try and discredit those who do not agree with their views,\u201d<\/em> said the Qatari diplomat, the Guardian reports.<\/p>\n Like this story? Share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A UK casting agency has offered actors \u00a320 ($26) to stage a \u2018500-strong anti-Qatar\u2019 protest outside Downing Street on Tuesday, when the Gulf country\u2019s leader meets with Prime Minister Theresa May. Screenshots of emails sent to the would-be actors were posted on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. Tour manager Andy Washington was among those who posted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":370686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-370685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}