Thursday 11 August 2011

Voting opened for sanctimonious "Best Green International Celebrity Award"

We now read that voting is has opened for the first "Best Green International Celebrity Award". A look at the shortlist of 15 nominees - which include Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, supermodel Gisele Bündschen, and Sting - makes it clear that the award is in urgent need to be renamed to e.g. "Green Celebrity Hypocrite of the Year Award".

This is how the organizers choose to describe the award:

 The International Green Awards aims to raise the bar around the ‘cult of celebrity’ and the ‘green’ agenda as the world counts down to the COP 17 Conference in Durban and the crucial Rio Earth Summit in 2012. This new award will put the spotlight on those progressive individuals who are keen to harness the power of the media, challenge conventional thinking on the climate agenda and who are really ahead of the game by ‘doing their bit’ for the future of us all.
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Through their media stature and public interest, celebrities are also in the unique position of promoting positive environmental messages, merely through their own example. Celebrities’ advocacy of ‘green’ lifestyles and vocalised support to the environment can generate widespread change, if even through audience’s imitation.

Here is our shortlist of the shortlist:

Leonardo DiCaprio
(organizers´presentation):

The highest paid actor in Hollywood is not one just to spend his money on luxury, but is in fact a strong advocate for environmental issues. This personal affinity towards the environment is acknowledged in his own aptly named “Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation” which supports efforts towards sustainability.
Personally, the actor lives in a solar panel covered home with water saving features, drives a hybrid car and flies commercial airlines instead of a private jet.

Reality check:

"It's time people stop talking about clean energy and climate change and start acting"
site

“The 35-year-old actor was also seen traveling through Johannesburg with socialite Paris Hilton. The twosome were flown from London by private jet to Johannesburg by a mysterious Malaysian millionaire so they could watch the World Cup.”

"Leonardo DiCaprio gets out of his car and boards a private jet with his pal Bradley Cooper on Thursday (April 21) in Los Angeles."

“Leonardo flew ‘commercial ‘ to the Cannes Film Festival and they lost his luggage,” said Leila. “He knows he shouldn’t probably fly private anymore.”
site

Leonardo DiCaprio is the first in line to receive the new $96,000 Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid sports car. This vehicle features 400 horsepower, 0 to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds, "eco-friendly" leather seating, and your choice of oak, mahogany, or walnut inlays. The car was only possible due to $529 million in "stimulus money" courtesy of the Obama administration and US taxpayers.
link

"Admiral LEONARDO DiCAPRIO invited a few Tinseltown chums for a jaunt on his multi-million-dollar yacht off the coast of Hawaii".
site

Dicaprio´s huge mansion in LA probably uses more energy than ten ordinary houses - even if it has a few solar panels on its roof and an "energy efficient toilet" that cost Leonardo over $3,000

Gisele Bündschen

One of the world’s best known models, Gisele, walks more than just runways. Growing up in Brazil, she witnessed the beauty and destruction of the rainforests and the domino effect on surrounding communities.

Reality check:

"according to the Guiness Book Of Records, Gisele is the highest paid model in the world, and even has her own $50million private jet"
site

"One day after she was named the United Nations advocate for environmental awareness, Gisele Bundchen was snapped down in Marshfield taking flying lessons in a fuel-guzzling helicopter. Way to lower that carbon footprint, Mrs. Brady!om Brady’s bride, who has campaigned against Amazon deforestation and for sustainable development and even launched an environmentally friendly line of sandals, was spotted flying off in a gas-sucking Robinson R-44 chopper yesterday morning.Shoreline Aviation prez Keith Douglass confirmed that Bundchen has been talking helicopter-flying lessons for about a month at Marshfield Airport. Apparently, Mrs. 12 wants to shorten her commute between Massachusetts – where she and Tom have set up housekeeping for football season – and NYC, where Gisele has most of her modeling assignments.“She’s doing it for lots of reasons,” Douglass told the Track . “But mainly because of where she lives, she needs a helicopter…”In case you’re keeping track, according to infinitehealthresources.com, a one-hour helicopter ride emits a whopping 466 pounds of CO2 per passenger".
site

"Recently some pictures have been released showing the couple as they inspect the progress on their new Los Angeles home. The multi-million dollar home looks to be as luxurious and extravagant as you would expect and the progress seems to be coming along quickly.
Ok I said multi-millions...but how many zeros?
How about 20,000,000 or $20M!!!!
The three-time Super Bowl wining QB is having the home built from the ground up and it clearly is going to be a palace.
Having their dream house constructed is a dream of the couple and money is the last issue. Brady is entering the final year of a six year and $60M and Bundchen reportedly made a cool $25M for modeling in the year 2010.
site

Cameron Diaz

Crowned ‘Queen of Green’ by Vogue magazine, Cameron Diaz is not just a pretty face to the green movement. Not looking to be just a poster girl for the environment, she actively tries to live sustainably, based on the simple premise of it being a ‘choice’ that anyone can make.
On the personal front, the actress claims to follow an eco-friendly lifestyle by using reused and recycled products that are beneficial to the environment. Cameron Diaz claims to use only energy-efficient home appliances and minimal essential lighting, besides using carbon neutral offsets for travelling.

Reality check:

"But as a smiling Cameron Diaz and A-Rod climbed aboard a private jet together yesterday it was clear their relationship was on track."
site

"She packed for her flight in a practical, yet totally luxurious Bottega Veneta taupe tote bag which retails for $3,920 and is also available in Black"
site

"And I travel so much - and that's something that I have just become so hyper-aware of, because a lot of people have a community that they live in their hometown - they travel a certain miles - a few miles in their day-to-day life. And in my life I've been fortunate enough to travel and extend those miles a little bit further and I feel like my community now, I really feel like it's global. Everyplace I go - everyone's the same! I go to Africa, and I just got back from Peru two days ago - and no matter what the culture is, everybody's doing the same thing.
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And I see it everywhere I go - there's no exception. And that's really powerful. It's really powerful to see that we really are all the same. We all need the same things, we all require the same things and we all get it from the same place".
site

"Hollywood beauty Cameron Diaz has splashed out $ 10 million on a sprawling mansion in Beverly
Hills.
The Charlie's Angels star who is reportedly dating baseball star Alex Rodriguez brought the house modelled on a English countryside mansion after she fell in love with it's decor.
And Diaz will be surrounded by friends and famous faces when she moves into her bachelorette pad.
Her neighbours included Nicole Kidman, Jessica Simpson and newlyweds Penelope Cruz and Javier Barden who live a stone's throw away, reported Daily Mail online.
The 37-year-old actress liked the mansion's wooden beams, gold-plated framed paintings and big comfortable sofas, which give off a cosy, cottage feel.
The 5,000 sq ft single storey house comes with a detached three bedroom guesthouse, a tennis court and swimming pool with hot tub."
site

Sting:

In recognition of his efforts towards the environment, a species of Colombian tree frog, Dendropsophus stingi was named after him.

Reality check:

"He maintains no fewer than four properties in the UK with his 'core' home the 800-acre Lake House estate in Wiltshire, which boasts 14 bedrooms and eight baths.
Earlier this year, a glimpse into Sting's daily routine at the mansion was provided by Jane Martin, 42, a cook who took the rock star and his wife Trudie Styler to an employment tribunal which awarded her £24,944 following her "shameful" dismissal from her job.
According to Ms Martin, Styler in particular had a "grandiose ego" and wanted to be treated "in a royal manner beyond her station as an actress".
Revealing some of the "fabulous" lifestyle of her former employers, Ms Martin said that "opulent extravagance reigned" at Lake House, and that there was "no regard to expense, cost or wastage" where food and drink were concerned.
The cook added that she had often been required to make an expensive rail and taxi journey between London and Salisbury just to prepare a soup and salad meal for the family, even though they also kept two housekeepers, two nannies and a butler on the premises.
But Sting's well-heeled lifestyle in the Wiltshire countryside is only one part of his worldwide empire.
This same paragon of self-denying minimalism who reminds us all not to squander our resources also owns a three-storey mansion in Highgate, North London, a townhouse in Westminster and what's described as a workman's cottage in the Lake District.
He also maintains a beach house in Malibu, California, and a 600-acre estate in Tuscany.
And when Sting performs in New York he goes home at night to a £1 million duplex on Manhattan's exclusive Upper East Side."
site

PS

The organizers of the Best Green International Celebrity Award suggest that the "audience"  imitate the "progressive" celebrity nominees. However, it is not an easy task to imitate the acquisition of e.g. a $20 million mansion or a 14 bedroom estate, or even a trip by private jet to Johannesburg, South Africa.

1 comment:

A K Haart said...

What I genuinely don't understand and find really odd, is how lacking in awareness these people seem to be.

If I lived in a huge mansion and flew by private jet, I'd be aware of the fact that other people don't live as I do. We have some seriously disconnected celebs.