Alicia Silverstone and EMA’s Debbie Levin will be the keynote speakers at the invitation-only private launch of Green Lounge, an eco-luxury experience, on November 15th, at Loews Hotel in Santa Monica. Empowerment coach Jason Nelson will also be speaking and the event will be hosted by FOX 11’s Christine Devine and Planet Green’s Darren Moore.

Green Lounge founder and host of Celebrity Soul Nicole Sherwin says, “My vision and the goal of Green Lounge is to create a platform for the thought leaders of the world in the areas of environmentalism, wellness and philanthropy to share ideas and create proactive change in an eco-luxury setting.”

Green Lounge promises to be a luxury social and business-networking platform for celebrities, CEOs and others from the worlds of entertainment, environmentalism, philanthropy and wellness to create broader awareness, network and generate new ideas and contacts in an eco-conscious setting.  There will also be Green Suites for the charities highlighted by the speakers.

This is the first of several scheduled Green Lounge events in the US and abroad.

For those fans of Alicia Silverstone in St. Louis, Detroit, or Atlanta that were hoping to get a signed copy of her new book, “The Kind Diet”, prepare to be disappointed. The actress and vegan activist has reportedly canceled her remaining tour stops. No reason for the tour being cut short was given.

We hope everything is ok.

Leading up to the announcement, an apparently healthy Silverstone was on a national media blitz promoting the new diet book; which she proudly proclaimed would make people “feel so magical if they do it.” She even landed an appearance last week on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson — leading to an amusing moment when the lights went out on set at the end of the interview. Ferguson amusingly proclaimed, “We’ve gone to radio, everybody!”

In the meantime, if you can’t see her in person, Silverstone is doing an admirable job answering questions from fans on her new site The Kind Life. Jump here to check it out.

St. Louis Today via Vegetarian Star

We’ve been promoting the release of Alicia Silverstone’s new book (and accompanying website) for many months — and for this week’s Twitter Thursday, we’re giving you a shot at winning a copy!

Called THE KIND DIET: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet, Alicia reveals how eating a plant-based diet will give you tons of energy, mental clarity, gorgeous skin and a renewed zest for life. Plus, it’s one of the greenest things you can do. Because it requires less fuel, water, and other resources, following a plant-based diet is a major contribution toward improving the health of our planet. Said one reviewer on Amazon, “I find her passion for vegan food to be inspiring. While I am not ready to embrace it–I am flirting–I am thrilled to have so many delicious-sounding recipes to try.”

Want to win a copy? Hit the fold below to learn how!

How To Enter Via Twitter

1.) Join Twitter (if you haven’t already).
2.) Follow @ecorazzi on Twitter.
3.) At 3pm EST, we’ll send out a contest message. All you have to do is re-tweet that contest message and add it to your updates. So if we say:

“Follow @ecorazzi & @Rodalebooks and RT this to win: We’re giving away 2 copies of Alicia Silverstone’s new ‘The Kind Diet’ book! 30th and 70th person to RT this wins!”

You’ll say:

“Follow @ecorazzi & @Rodalebooks and RT this to win: We’re giving away 2 copies of Alicia Silverstone’s new ‘The Kind Diet’ book! 30th and 70th person to RT this wins!”

(Note: exact wording will differ at contest time.)

4.) The 30th and 70th person to RT that message will each win a copy of The Kind Diet (New rule: No more than five entries will be accepted per Twitter account.)

How To Enter Via Ecorazzi

1.) Leave a comment below telling us why Silverstone’s new book needs to be in your life! We’ll then pick one of you at random to win a copy. Comments will remain open for entries until tomorrow at 3PM EST. Please, one entry per person!

Contest Rules:

Must be 18 years of age to enter. | One comment per person per article. | Make sure the email address you use to comment is valid. | Giveaway is available to residents of the U.S./Canada only | Ecorazzi will pick a random number from a pool of numbers equaling the total number of comments. | Ecorazzi will email the winner and ship the product to the address provided in the commenter’s responsive email. | Shipping is on Ecorazzi. | If we don’t hear from the commenter within twenty-four (24) hours, we’ll go ahead and pick another number from the hat. | Promo is not available to any writers of Ecorazzi. | No substitutions for cash are permitted with these giveaways. | Winners are responsible for any tax consequences of winning.

The actress turned author recently appeared on LX New York to teach the world how to make Candle 79’s world famous Seitan Piccata — a dish that I’m absolutely obsessed with! On the show, Alicia tackles the stigma that sometimes comes with plant-based cuisine, explaining:

“I want to stop calling it vegan and vegetarian food — it’s just great food. When I put this in your mouth you’re gonna love it and you’re gonna be like ‘This is so yummy.’ So it’s just food for everyone, it just happens to be delicious and great for the planet too.”

Delicious and good for the planet? I’m in!

Check out the video below to learn how you can make Seitan Piccata at home. Of course you can always stop by Candle 79 and have their talented chefs prepare this delicious dish for you! Happy eating!

We mentioned last week that Alicia Silverstone would be launching a website to go along with her new book The Kind Diet, but it seems as though the plans are a bit more ambitious than that.

Called The Kind Life, the actress created the website as an “interactive extension” of her healthy living book — sharing tips on everything from fashion and beauty, to simple ways to help the planet. “I will be posting tons of photos, blogs, and videos detailing all of the things in my life that have helped me to be as kind to the planet as possible,” she writes. “My friends, colleagues, and medical professionals will also post information on the site. My goal here is to share everything that I have learned on my journey with all of you, and I want you all to share your experiences with me.”

That last sentence is what separates this site from Gwyneth Paltrow’s similar, yet one-way street GOOP. Whereas both dish on what makes them happy — and offer advice from friends and experts in various fields, Silverstone wants to hear from you on what defines your happiness.. “Just send me a message and I will do my best to help,” she offers. “The Kind Life is a place where we can all support each other on this passage to healthier and happier living.”

To that end, the site, while still under development, features a social networking backend that will power the community Silverstone is hoping will thrive. There’s also a forum with categories for food, fashion, flirters (um, dating?), and oddly, superheroes.

Want to take a peek and be one of the first to sign up? Jump to The Kind Life website here.

Move over Gwyneth Paltrow — there’s another actress coming online that wants to share her healthy, environmentally-friendly finds.

In conjunction with the release of her new book “The Kind Diet“, Alicia Silverstone is branching online with a new site called TheKindLife.com. Hit it up currently, and you’re met with nothing more than a “Hellow” — but in an interview with EcoStiletto, Silverstone reveals her plans for the site — as well as some of her favorite brands. From the article,

“I created a website called TheKindLife.com to get people hooked on all my groovy latest finds—that will happen around the time of the book. I love Tammy Fender and Suki—those are my favorite skin care lines. Josie Maran lip gloss and eyeshadows [link]. Kiss My Face and Giovanni for shampoo. Desert Essence for conditioner—it smells so yummy! And Pharmacopia moisturizer. It’s all organic, except for a teeny bit of parabens. That’s my one naughty treat. I buy it like once a year. It’s smells so yummy! We have to all write to them so they’ll take the parabens out. I love Melissa [Plastic Dreams] shoes. And Stella McCartney. Melissa makes these two shoes that are so great. They’re these black slightly raised flats with an open toe. And a spider web gold shoe that is so awesome.”

I love the idea of Silverstone adding a website to go along with her new book — and I look forward to seeing some great recommendations as well. Look for The Kind Diet to officially launch on the 13th, and the website to follow somewhere around there. We’ll have a full review up shortly.

In celebration of Vegetarian Awareness Month, I thought it might be cool to list what I believe to be PETA’s best “GO VEG” commercials from the last couple years. Obviously, there’s bound to be some that I missed here — but take a look and let us know what your favorite is!

1. Joaquin Phoenix’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving
Before Joaquin Phoenix turned into a caveman rapper, he filmed a short with PETA that takes place in a supermarket. Phoenix appears happy joy-joy collecting items for his Thanksgiving dinner until he spies the meat deli. Then, well, the sad face appears.

In what has to be one of my favorite veg commercials, PETA recreated the classic look and sound of a 1970s porn set. The punchline is eating meat causes impotence — but veggie guys are ready to go. The ad was originally intended to air during the 2004 Superbowl but was rejected by CBS on the basis that it “might offend viewers”. The network also claimed a general policy of not airing advocacy advertisements — something PETA fired back wasn’t true due to CBS airing an anti-smoking commercial during the Superbowl. “Our ad has all three of advertising’s most popular elements — sex, humor, and animals –so the network should jump on it.” a PETA rep said.

Wait for the vegetarian guy at the end. I want his hair.

Striking at the heart of the moral issue of eating animals, PETA takes various quotes from the Bible and overlays them onto footage of factory farms. Some painful scenes here — but the point at the end is pretty cut and dry.

Back in 2007, Alicia Silverstone went skinny dipping to show off her veg-fed body in this beautifully shot commercial. PETA had originally intended to air the 30-second spot more than a dozen times in the Houston market, one of the unhealthiest in the nation, but was turned down after Comcast disapproved of the brief nudity. Most likely, it was replaced with something from KFC.

PETA’s most recent Superbowl ad took things a step beyond a 70s porn set and instead showed sexy models “loving” vegetables. Not surprisingly, NBC rejected the commercial on the grounds that it was “too sexy”. Some of the changes they requested PETA make included removing pumpkin licking, rubbing pelvic region with pumpkin, pumpkin from behind between legs, and licking eggplant. Honestly, who hasn’t tried all of those things?

The rejected ad proved so popular that Whoopi Goldberg even offered up a re-creation for the ladies on The View.

Put on those reading glasses and get ready for a life-changing book!

On October 12th, Alicia Silverstone’s first book, The Kind Diet, hits shelves around the country, and we’re pretty sure you’re gonna love it!

I had the chance to chat with Alicia over at CrazySexyLife.com where she gave me a behind the scenes look at her new project. In the interview she reveals:

“My big hope for this book is to have as many human beings on the planet read it as possible, because the information contained within its pages is powerful and life-changing! I especially want people who think they could never be vegan/vegetarian to read this and realize that they needn’t make huge changes. I just want them to take in the information and realize what is possible — including improved health, a renewed sense of happiness, and a contribution toward improving the health of our planet.”

Sounds pretty good to us!

Wanna read the whole piece? Visit CrazySexyLife.com and see what’s up!

As many Ecorazzi readers know, besides animal production being hell for Planet Earth, it’s also not too grand for the animals. That’s why a slew of well-known stars donated their John Hancock to help reduce the cruelty.

Stars like Kim Basinger, Alicia Silverstone, Bill Maher, Bob Barker, Emily Deschanel, Fred Willard, Ginnifer Goodwin, James Cromwell, Kristen Bell, Mariel Hemingway and Valerie Harper all asked Governor Schwarzenegger to sign a bill that would end the cruel practice of amputating dairy cows’ tails.

The letter was written by our friends at Farm Sanctuary and sent to the Governor just two days ago.

Although both chambers of California legislature passed the bill to end tail docking in the dairy industry, it won’t become a law unless the governor sigs it.

Farm Sanctuary’s president and co-founder Gene Baur said: “With last November’s landslide passage of Prop 2, banning the three cruelest farm animal confinement systems in the state, Californians made it clear they will no longer tolerate cruel and unnecessary practices on factory farms. By putting an end to tail docking, Governor Schwarzenegger has the opportunity to continue this wave of compassion and send a humane message to the rest of the country.”

We agree and hope that the Governator makes the right choice!

First we had her discussing her naked gardening tendencies this morning — and now we have a few more quotes from her interview in the September issue of Health magazine. The 32-year-old actress chats up her vegan lifestyle, the possibility of kids (next year?), and why a plant-based diet will make you feel more “juicy”.  Some highlights:

On her new book “The Kind Diet”, and how choosing the right foods can help you feel more sensuous:

“You can hear your needs and desires more clearly. You’re just more juicy—there’s just this lightness that happens. …Once you’re informed, then you can be really gentle and kind to yourself, but giving yourself all the fights life has to offer – like mental clarity and vitality – all while making the planet better”

On some gardening advice for Michelle Obama:

“Compost, for sure. We have a badass compost. I bought a baby bag of worms eight years ago and put it in the compost, and now there are bazillions of them. And it’s like the dirt is so delicious, you could eat it!”

On her vegan diet being a lifestyle:

“It’s weird to be 32 now and feel and look younger… Right after I first made the switch to a plant-based diet, people were literally telling me, ‘What have you done? You’re sparkling.’”

To read the full interview, jump here.