ecorazzi.com :: the latest in green gossip

September 29th 2008

Woody Harrelson Chats Up His Off-Grid, Solar-Powered Lifestyle

Filed under: green and famous, interviews, newspaper — michael @ 12:49 pm

In my opinion, Woody Harrelson is right up there with Ed Begley Jr. in terms of living a true, green Hollywood lifestyle. The UK Times recently caught up with the actor and discussed his love for the all-electric, dicontinued, Toyota RAV 4, his solar-powered community in Hawaii (which Owen Wilson will be moving to shortly), and the inspiration of his wife and children. Here are some highlights:

On electric transportation and the conspiracy to kill the tech back at the turn of the century:

That whole thing [with the film] Who Killed the Electric Car?’, it really is true,” claims Harrelson. “They did try to stamp it out in many ways . . . My RAV4 drives like a normal car. It goes 70mph. You could maybe get it up to 75mph. There are no drawbacks at all except that eventually you’re gonna have to plug it back in.”

On his Hawaiian, off-gird, eco-village community:

“Everybody in the neighborhood is on solar power,” he says. “People get the concept that it’s like a commune, but this was a neighborhood that’s been there long before I got there, and they just never wanted power lines.”

On the current political situation in the U.S.:

“I just find it hard to believe that there’s going to be any evolution of politics from within,” he says. “I just think the system is so corrupt. And now we’re still stuck in this Bush-like quagmire nightmare. I like [Barack] Obama. He seems a little outside the norm. But we’ll see what happens.”

For the rest of the interview, please head on over to the UK Times here.

via my face is on fire

August 19th 2008

Lance Armstrong: Champion Cyclist and Water Waster?

Filed under: cars-houses, newspaper, not green — lindsey @ 9:07 am

Apparently winning the Tour de France seven times isn’t quite enough of an accomplishment for some people. It’s been revealed that in July, Lance Armstrong used 330,000 gallons of water at his home in Texas. That, according to The New York Times, is a shocking 38 times the amount a single household consumes during one summer.

Couple that with the dry spell Texas has been experiencing this season, and the amount is more than cringe worthy.

But as with every story, there’s always another side of the tale. Lance has been spending the majority of the summer between Colorado and California, and was reportedly unaware of his water usage. He’s been quoted as saying, “I’m a little shocked … There’s no justification for that much water.” Also adding, “I need to fix this.”

Yes, Lance, you most certainly do. Especially with more information being brought forward showing that since January of 2007, his home has used 158,000 gallons a month on average, having only recently shot up to take him to the head of the pack. But this time, the race he’s winning is for the title of “water-glutton”. Hopefully all this public attention on his high water usage will encourage Lance to cut back, and perhaps he can even inspire other celebs to do the same.

via: Green Daily

June 20th 2008

Top 8 Anti-Green Celebrities Get Outed In Chicago Tribune

Filed under: newspaper, not green — parrish @ 8:40 am

Ecorazzi loves the fact that being green is so damn trendy these days. All across the board we’re seeing celebs (as well as some of pretty awesome “common” folk) set a new standard for eco-living. But of course not EVERYONE is getting on the green train. In fact some famous faces are staying away from it completely. The Chicago Tribune recently posted their top 8 LEAST green celebrities and I bet you won’t believe who’s on the list!!

Counting down…

8. Bill Gates- While this guy does a lot for charity (which we love), it’s estimated that his global impact is 10,000 greater than the average person. WTF?

7. David and Victoria Beckham- We totally called this one! Last year, David flew more than 250,000 miles, is the owner of 15 cars and owns several homes. Add that all together, and he created about 18 times more carbon dioxide than the average person.

6. Madonna- Jeez! We called this one as well! Water bottles aside, in the past year she has created more than 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide!

5. John Travolta- John Travolta owns five planes, including a Boeing 707 complete with multiple dining rooms, and it’s estimated he has an annual carbon footprint that’s about 100 times more than the average person.

Hungry for more? To see the rest of the list scoot on over to chicagotribune.com. The remaining four might surprise you. I’ll give one clue — we DEFINITELY predicted number one!

March 10th 2008

Brad Pitt’s Celebrity Dinner Club With Bono Opened Hollywood To African Charities

Filed under: newspaper — michael @ 2:07 pm

The NY Times is running a wonderful in-depth article on celebrity activism — with everything from Natalie Portman’s involvement with Finca to George Clooney’s latest role as an “UN Ambassador of Peace” under the microscope. If you’re looking for some interesting history on philanthropy in Hollywood, I can’t think of a better way to catch up. Particularly intriguing are the back stories of how some of today’s largest charity efforts came to be. Some started under the simplest of circumstances. Take for instance a dinner party at Brad Pitt’s home in 2004. From the article,

“In 2004, Brad Pitt invited Bono to his home to address a group that included Tom Hanks, Sean Penn, Julia Roberts, Justin Timberlake and the architect Frank Gehry. Bono offered a potent magic: you could write a kind of song, or make a kind of movie, that would save children in Africa. And there was Africa itself — the real thing, the continent of suffering and want, as against the glittering bubble of wealth and fame in which celebrities live. In 2005, Bono enlisted Hollywood’s leading figures in an advertising campaign to promote increases in development assistance for Africa.”

Those are some pretty powerful dinner parties. And then there’s the moment when George Clooney was asked to butter up first lady, Laura Bush, to help with aid in Africa. Clooney was overheard saying, “I just don’t feel it’s right for me to meet the first lady. I’ve been very critical of her husband in public; I think there’s something unmanly about meeting with his wife first.”

Check out the rest of the article here.

August 2nd 2007

The New York Times Prefers Tap Water

Filed under: food & drink, newspaper — valerie @ 11:32 pm

Today I was thrilled to see that The New York Times‘ August 1st editorial, “In Praise of Tap Water”, is currently the number one most emailed article on their website! Considering that their site garners millions of visits per day (NYTimes.com ranks as the 185th most visited site, compared to PerezHilton.com, which rates at 913…and we all know how often we visit that site), it’s great to see that people are taking this message seriously, and passing it on to everyone they know.

For those of you who get headaches perusing the Gray Lady’s picture-less editorial page, allow me to summarize: the article begins with explaining the ubiquitousness of bottled water in American culture these days, and goes on to state:

Americans are increasingly thirsty for what is billed as the healthiest, and often most expensive, water on the grocery shelf. But this country has some of the best public water supplies in the world. Instead of consuming four billion gallons of water a year in individual-sized bottles, we need to start thinking about what all those bottles are doing to the planet’s health.

Thank you for that insight, you well-respected mainstream publication, you! The article goes on to explain how choosing tap water over bottled water not only saves money, but helps reduce environmental impact.

Now, this is not breaking news to us here at ‘Razzi or to any of you dear green readers. But I think that it’s a big step for the Times to address the subject so matter-of-factly. After all, it’s one thing when Sarah Jessica Parker tells us to drink tap water…but it’s another when one of the nation’s most trusted news sources chimes in. So for now, it looks like our celebrity friends-of-designer-water such as Jennifer Aniston are outnumbered!

P.S. It’s after 11 p.m., sticky-humid and still almost 90 degrees here. I can’t say I blame the folks who to succumb to the occasional $1.00 bottle of water to prevent severe dehydration while traversing the avenues of this furnace we call New York City. But maybe they could refill those bottles throughout the day and even recycle them later….and maybe this article will convince a few folks to carry tap water from home in a safe and resusable container!

March 7th 2007

Celebrity Advice, Take 3

Filed under: newspaper — rebecca @ 2:31 pm

We’ve discussed the topic before: celebrities give lots of advice. We’ve also recommended that you research on your own before listening to random advice from people that aren’t necessarily experts.

This week the Ottawa Citizen takes an in-depth (5 pages, seriously?) look at the issue with their main point being, “Celebrities are no smarter than the rest of us. So why do we take their advice?”

They interviewed some experts and here’s what one had to say: “Because they’re successful,” laughs Diane Pacom, a sociology professor at the University of Ottawa who studies youth and popular culture. “It’s as simple as that. Success in our society is measured by two things — money and visibility in the media. These people are exactly what we’d like to be, so their advice is much more important than anybody else’s around us.”

I have to say, however, that a celebrity like George Clooney bringing attention to the situation in Darfur, or Leonardo DiCaprio bringing light to the world of conflict diamonds, feels very different from Suzanne Somers recommending a medicine.

The article goes on to discuss how celebrities have used their “expertise” on certain issues to pull them out of a career or media slump.  Think: Angelina wearing Billy Bob’s blood and almost frenching her brother to the Angie everyone loves today.

I’d love to hear any reader thoughts on the topic of celebrity advice, benefits and negative aspects of being in the spotlight, and more.

February 16th 2007

Ecorazzi Rewind: Keeley Makes Energy Conservation Sexy

Filed under: green and famous, newspaper — rebecca @ 4:15 pm

Keeley Hazell, British model and Page 3 girl, gave some green tips last year and we missed them. Tipster Becky gave us the heads up and we definitely found them Ecorazzi-worthy.

Now, if I’d have known what a Page 3 girl is, I wouldn’t have been so surprised to see the picture that comes along with The Sun article. We Americans really are uptight about stuff like this, aren’t we?

Keeley gave very sexy global warming tips including turning off the lights during sex, cycling to up your sex appeal, and hand washing your organic undies. She also insists that her sexy photos are taken digital - no toxic chemicals to develop, you see.

Check out the whole article. Focus! It’s tough to get past that picture, but there are words there as well.