Catriona Gray, Nas Academy to stop accepting new applicants ‘until Whang-Od issue is fully resolved’
Cornerstone Entertainment, the talent management company that manages Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray, has released an official statement regarding the controversies surrounding renowned tattoo artist Whang-Od and Israeli-Palestinian vlogger Nuseir Yassin or Nas Daily.
Cornerstone Entertainment announced that the talent management company, Gray, and Yassin decided to stop accepting new applicants for the “Catriona Gray Academy” masterclass in an Instagram post on Sunday, Aug. 8.
“Cornerstone Entertainment, Catriona Gray, and NAS Academy have agreed to stop accepting new applicants for the Catriona Gray Academy until the issue of ‘Whang-Od’ has been fully resolved,” the statement read.
The talent management company also said that “NAS Academy is currently committed to working with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to make sure all proper processes are followed.”
Cornerstone also assured its followers that it will “continue to monitor the progress of this incident.”
Gray is one of the Filipino creators included in NAS Academy’s learning platforms. Other personalities include broadcast journalist Jessica Soho, content creator Erwann Heussaff, fashion designer Michael Cinco, and Moira dela Torre, among others.
The beauty queen’s "How to be a Queen" masterclass in NAS Academy features Gray teaching participants how to boost their confidence, deal with self-doubt, and handle criticism with poise.
As of this writing, the courses on NAS Academy’s official website have been taken down. The page also contains an official statement from the platform.
“Sadly, some of our intentions have been misunderstood, as we can see with Whang-Od Academy. But our goal has always been to help people become teachers, with their input and consent,” the statement said.
NAS Academy announced that it will be “pausing” its “operations in the Philippines to focus on strengthening our processes around how we collaborate with our partners.”
Earlier this week, Whang-Od’s grandniece called out NAS Academy on Facebook for being a “scam” stressing that the artist didn’t sign any contract to do the course. Her posts have been deleted.
As a response, NAS Academy insisted that Whang-Od consented to the course. He also uploaded a video of the artist placing her thumbprint on a document.
Yassin has also been involved in a controversy with Cacao Project founder Louise De Guzman Mabulo where she revealed that the vlogger “mocked the local accent and called the people of their hometown ‘poor.’”
Since the incident, the Nas Daily Facebook page has dropped 597,426 followers as of Aug. 8.
Banner and thumbnail photos from @catriona_gray on Instagram