Premier Ewart Brown revealed yesterday he was fully informed of the $18,000 plane ride for Ashford & Simpson, and had endorsed it beforehand.

"Absolutely, I was involved in it and I think it was an excellent decision," the Premier said in a telephone interview with .

Entertainers Nickolas Ashford and Valarie Simpson got stranded in New York Saturday while trying to get to Bermuda for a performance at the Ministry of Tourism's Love Festival.

Their commercial flight was cancelled as a residual effect of the stormy weather in the United States last week.

So to get the singing duo to Bermuda in time, an $18,000 private jet was arranged with the assistance of one of the people attending the event.

Tourism Director Cherie-Lynn Whitter said the flight was 'retained at below market value'.

Taxpayers footed the bill.

Premier Brown, who is also the Minister of Tourism, thought it was money well spent.

He said: "We want Bermuda to have a reputation for delivering what it promises.

"And we had more than 200 people at that hotel who had spent thousands of dollars expecting Ashford & Simpson on Saturday night.

"And we made the decision it'd be better to deliver them, to deal with the consequences of the extra expenditure, rather than have those people and others leaving dissatisfied."

According to Ms. Whitter, 81 couples attended the Love Festival ? 76 of them from overseas.

Premier Brown and his wife Wanda hosted the three-night event at the Fairmont Southampton which offered packages starting at $760 per person.

In this newspaper yesterday, Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell criticised the $18,000 expense as being way too big for an event so small.

The Premier disagreed.

He said: "It may seem like a high expenditure, but I believe that it was worth it because the people that we had there were not just 200 people, they were 200 movers and shakers ? business owners, hotel owners, there was a very influential mix of people.

"We felt that we should deliver.

"And $18,000 in our budget is not something that will destroy any other part of our agenda."

Mr. Dodwell further suggested the face saving move of hiring a jet was more to protect the Premier's image than to protect Bermuda's tourism reputation.

The Opposition MP said: "What you've got here is profiling. This would be highly unusual activity and it kind of points to: was this event put on for profiling or was it put on as a legitimate exercise of tourism to get people here?"

In the telephone interview yesterday the Premier did not specifically refer to Mr. Dodwell, but said: "Some people have a problem with our Government having that kind of option in the first place. Those people I don't have anything to say to.

"With respect to the judgment, I believe it was very good judgment. Staff brought it to me and I endorsed it."