“Eating Animals” author Jonathan Safran Foer braved The Colbert Report last night and enlightened Stephen on the issues surrounding factory farming. As expected, Colbert put up a good fight — and even started eating a plate of bacon near the end of the interview. “Oh, you can really taste the suffering,” he cracked. Check out the video below:

“I think animals are treated very poorly. When I see people wearing fur it makes me so sick. Especially when I see young singers doing it, that sickens me. When I rocked up to my first photo shoot they had feathers and fur there and everything…I had to make it so clear that I just do not go there.”

– Singer Leona Lewis in an interview with Female First.

Yesterday we saw mother and daughter face off for top dishonor in PETA’s Worst Dressed Celebrity contest. Kate Hudson came out the ultimate winner with 71% of the votes, a sweeping victory over Goldie Hawn who received 29%.

The next contestants in the shameful battle are fur-wearing Rihanna and leather-clad Jessica Simpson.

“You’d think that being a victim of violence would have opened Rihanna’s heart to the suffering of others—like the animals who were beaten, drowned, and electrocuted for her fur coats,” PETA writes. “Girl, you’ve got beautiful eyes: Use them to see the pain and suffering your wardrobe causes.”

“Jessica’s jacket, bag, and shoes all resemble her career—dead,” PETA says of Jessica Simpson who is known to sport a shirt that reads Real Girls Eat Meat.

Every morning a new pair of celebrities donned in animal skin will go head to head in a “Who Wore It Worst” clash. PETA’s Worst Dressed Celeb of 2010 will be announced on Friday Feb. 13.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has announced its intention to protect the view of the famous Hollywood Sign by purchasing 138 acres on Cahuenga Peak in Los Angeles. TPL must raise $12.5 million by April 14 in order to prevent the land from being developed for luxury homes.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus has agreed to lend her support to the campaign. She is joined by other Hollywood stars including Virginia Madsen, Katherine Morris, Aisha Tyler, John Slattery, Julian McMahon, Tippi Hedren, James Kyson Lee, and Beau Garrett.

“With the support of donors such as The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, TPL and its partners are in a campaign to raise a total of $12.5 million by April 14,” said Sam Hodder, California State Director for TPL. “The Hollywood Sign is one of America’s iconic views and that view would be ruined forever if estates are built behind it.”

Once the TPL is able to purchase the acreage, the land will be added to Griffith Park which, at 6.52 sq mi of land, is one of the largest urban parks in North America.

Check out the official site here for more information!

Sure, Pandora’s floating ‘Hallelujah Mountains’ look like a wild place to visit — but when real science is introduced to explain how they might actually exist, you realize you probably wouldn’t want to go anywhere near them.

In a new interview with Ain’t It Cool News, James Cameron reveals that such a place would suck to visit. Literally.

“Well… the floating mountains. A physicist friend of mine calculated that for a pure superconducting mountain, to break it off and float it would require a magnetic field so strong that it would rip the hemoglobin out of your blood…”

Yea, perhaps we’ll just stick to our list of 12 places that look like Pandora on Earth instead.

Stella McCartney, while instantly recognizable as the daughter of her music legend papa Paul, has carved out quite a niche for herself as not just a celebrated fashion designer but also a deeply dedicated champion of vegetarianism and animal rights.

The busy mother of three and wife of British publisher Alasdhair Willis has not surprisingly embraced the values that her animal activist mother (the late Linda McCartney) and father (tireless supporter of Meat Free Mondays) have both passed on to her.  When she’s not busy narrating behind the scenes footage of fur farms and supporting the efforts of PETA she is the brainchild behind a comprehensive line of fashion, accessories and fragrances that are free of any and all animal-based resources such as silk, animal fur, wool and leather.

McCartney agreed to host the British premiere of Robert Kenner’s eye-opening food industry documentary Food, Inc. because, “because it is the kind of film everyone should see and it is information everyone should have. It is terrifying and empowering and we are just trying to show the film to as many people as possible that might make a change. Just by watching it I felt I had done something for not only myself but my children as well.” She was joined at the VIP event by an eclectic range of celebrity personalities such as fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, screen actress Thandie Newton, actor Richard E. Grant and award-winning chefs Tom Aikens and Raymond Blanc among others.

The lacto-ovo-vegetarian urged the public to make a point of viewing the film so they could become educated about their grocery purchasing decisions. “Once you’ve seen the film,” she explained, “you’ll be educated about how to make responsible decisions about what you buy.  While she acknowledged that meat industry is not the main focus of the movie, she feels that it is likely that many viewers will think twice about what they are consuming – animal, vegetable and otherwise — based on the information revealed therein.

Referring to the footage as being “scary,” McCartney goes on to say that message of awareness is what people should really hang onto and the fact that globalization of the industry is responsible for tightly controlling and compromising the quality of the food we consume. “There’s five major players that provide all the food (we eat) and it’s kind of terrifying,” she says. “There’s this myth that our food comes from a small little farm with white picket fence and a red barn. So much of it comes from mega factories and it’s becoming more and more industrialized. At the end of the day, the biggest way to let these corporations know you don’t want this product and deserve a better product is by stopping demand.”

Via The Telegraph

We’ve known Pamela Anderson to campaign against whale-penis leather seats and for her starring role in a McCruelty video game, now we can watch the animal advocate waltzing across the stage in the new season of Dancing with the Stars.

That’s right, Pamela Anderson has agreed to join the cast of the ABC hit show. A source told RadarOnline, “She really wanted to do the show and the show thought it was a great idea.”

The show may be banking on the Baywatch beauty being able to increase viewership, specifically of the male kind. Last season DWTS had its lowest ratings since it debuted.

ABC will officially announce the couples participating in the tenth season of Dancing with the Stars on March 1 during the season finale of The Bachelor. The new season premieres on Monday, March 22.

Attention ladies! Want to win a night on the town with Gerard Butler?

The 300 star has launched an online raffle giving fans the chance to win a date by helping his favorite charity, Kids Kicking Cancer. The nonprofit is unique in that it helps empower young cancer patients through martial arts. From Look to the Stars,

The star’s “officially unofficial” fan site, GerardButler.net, is asking fans to donate $20 to the charity to go in to the draw to win a trip to New York or LA from anywhere in the US to enjoy a private dinner with the star. Other prizes include the chance to visit the star on the set of his new movie, reserved seating at one of his movie premieres, an autographed piece of his wardrobe and autographed photos.

Bidding closes on February 14th, so jump over to the site to get your donation in!

While theories differ on when the world will experience the hard hitting times of peak oil, Virgin boss Richard Branson is boldly predicting that will happen in the next five years.

In the foreward to a new report being released shortly, Branson urges UK leaders to be proactive rather than reactive to peak oil. “The next five years will see us face another crunch – the oil crunch. This time, we do have the chance to prepare. The challenge is to use that time well,” Branson will say. “Our message to government and businesses is clear: act,” he says in a foreword to a new report on the crisis. “Don’t let the oil crunch catch us out in the way that the credit crunch did.”

According to one consultant, the current worldwide recession has only delayed the inevitable. “The next major supply constraint, along with spiking oil prices, will not occur until recession-hit demand grows to the point that it removes the current excess oil stocks and the large spare capacity held by Opec,” said Chris Skrebowski. “However, once these are removed, possibly as early as 2012-13 and no later than 2014-15, oil prices are likely to spike, imperiling economic growth and causing economic dislocation.”

The full report, due out to tomorrow, should be an interesting read. The only question is whether governments will take heed of the warnings to start making transitions from oil today. Either way, you may want to invest in a hybrid/electric vehicle before 2015.

via UK Guardian

The latest issue of OK! Magazine went straight to the source to find out how Glee star Lea Michele brings so much energy to her character Rachel.

“I’m a vegan,” Lea told OK!. “It makes me feel really good and bright. You need a lot of energy to play spunky Rachel Berry, so I’ve tried a lot of different things — and so far, this is working.”

Sound familiar? Back in August, Alicia Silverstone told Health Magazine that her vegan diet made her feel more “juicy” and “light”.

“Right after I first made the switch to a plant-based diet,” she said, “People were literally telling me, ‘What have you done? You’re sparkling.’”

So there you have it. The new vegan tagline should simply be: “Juicy bright goodness that will make you sparkle.”