ecorazzi.com :: the latest in green gossip

September 29th 2008

What Did We Learn Last Week? Newman, Armani, Leo, And More!

Filed under: animals, business, cars-houses, featured charity, green and famous, healthy living, movies, thegreenpicture, travel — michael @ 9:52 am

We said goodbye to Paul Newman, who passed away at the age of 83 on Saturday. (The above photo is of Newman and Mario Andretti in 2004.)

If forced to go on an all-liquid blood diet, a revealing 38% of you would choose to drain humans over forest critters or artificial sources. Of course, we suspect our wording of “Republican humans” probably had more to do with it.

The Leo Rumor Mill went into overdrive. Not only is DiCaprio potentially hooking up with Matthew Modine and Ed Begley Jr. on a green conference for Hollywood, but he may also follow up to his documentary The 11th Hour with a new eco-film. His rumored partner? None other business mogul T. Boone Pickens.

Britney Spears encouraged folks to buy a semi-nude painting of herself for charity, while Philip Seymour Hoffman decided that the best way to bike is while smoking.

The battle against Armani’s broken promise to PETA and decision to include fur in his fall collection heated up. The animal rights org added Gillian Anderson to the team and sent a letter to Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes urging them not to dress Suri in Armani’s dead animal skins.

Stephen Spielberg joined Brad Pitt in donating $100K to fight Proposition 8; which seeks to ban gay marriage in California and overturn the earlier Supreme Court ruling.

87% of you agreed that there is no place for fur in sustainable fashion — or anywhere for that matter. The vote came in response to a Japanese designer who dubbed her fall collection of fur-trimmed capes and boleros as “Eco Harmony”. Eek!

Robert De Niro’s popular sushi restaurant Nobu decided to give people the option of ordering endangered fish — rather than just remove it from the menu.

Heather Mills quieted critics (for now) by spending time cooking up a vegan BBQ for kids and donating $1 million in veggie food products to the children of Hunts Point in the South Bronx.

Photo credit: Trevor Kent/INFGoff.com

September 22nd 2008

Robert de Niro’s Nobu Restaurant Now Offers Ethical Dilemma On Menu

Filed under: food & drink — michael @ 4:40 pm

A couple weeks back, it was revealed that Robert De Niro’s popular restaurant chain, Nobu, was including endangered fish on its menu — particularly, the critically hurting Atlantic bluefin tuna. Needless to say, the bad press greatly upset the management. However, they’re not going to remove the fish from their menu — opting instead just to let people know that what they’re about to order contains meat from an endangered species.

Would you like a side of guilt with that sushi?

Of course, none of this is sitting well with Greenpeace — the organization that released the findings after an investigation. “It’s all very well labeling endangered species on the menu,” said Greenpeace’s Willie Mackenzie. “But the simple fact is, if it’s endangered they shouldn’t be serving it up anyway.”

Agreed — however the move to remove bluefin entirely was resisted by the restaurant’s Japanese chefs, who use the fish in sushi and consider it the tastiest of all tuna. There is hope though. From the article,

“Nobu Matsuhisa, the leading sushi chef who co-owns Nobu with Mr de Niro, has been looking into supplying his chain with bluefin farmed from the egg in Australia and Japan, instead of rounded up wild in the Mediterranean and fattened before being shot and exported to Japan.”

What do you think? Is the menu option a step in the right direction? Do you think it will curb ordering of endangered species?

September 8th 2008

Robert De Niro Scolded For Serving Up Endangered Fish At Nobu

Filed under: food & drink, not green — parrish @ 1:46 pm

You talkin’ to me? Are YOU talkin’ to me? Yes, Bobby De Niro I AM!!

Kickass actor Robert De Niro received some bad press after an environmental group accused him of serving endangered fish at his popular restaurant chain Nobu. The criticism comes from Greenpeace (the group you always feel a little guilty about ignoring on the street) who claim Nobu is “clearly making a great deal of money serving up endangered fish.”

The fish in question is the Atlantic bluefin tuna which is so endangered that the World Wildlife Fund has asked for its sale to be banned. Unfortunately this near extinct fish is still available in some restaurants…including Nobu.

And we’re not just talking about some little minnow here! The Atlantic bluefin tuna can weight up to 1,500 pounds and over short distances can swim as fast as a horse can run. It can dive 3,000 feet in a matter of minutes, and make it across the Atlantic Ocean in 40 days.

Help Greenpeace and Ecorazzi say NO to the capture and sale of Atlantic bluefin tuna by avoiding Nobu until they agree to stop depleting our oceans!

via: imdb.com

August 2nd 2008

Robert De Niro Joins Mel Gibson In Eco-Thriller Edge Of Darkness

Filed under: film-tv, movies — parrish @ 12:32 pm

A couple months ago Ecorazzi told you that Mel Gibson was coming out of hiding to play a detective in the new eco-thriller Edge Of Darkness — a film based on the 1985 BBC mini-series of the same name. Edge Of Darkness revolves around the death of a detective’s activist daughter, government and corporate cover-ups, nuclear espionage, and the fate of life on Earth as we know it. So it’s like a reality show? But I joke…

Anyway, GK Films announced yesterday that Robert De Niro has joined on to play the role of a dastardly operative sent in to clean up the mess. Awesome! This isn’t the first time De Niro has played a corrupt Washington official acting on government business. Does anyone else remember Wag The Dog?

So we’ve got Mel playing the hero, Bob playing the bad guy…what about the activist daughter? Let’s see, if I was a casting director I’d choose… Natalie Portman. I know, I know, you probably think I’d only be casting her because I have a super crazy crush, but let me remind you that she’s not only way dreamy but also way activisty!

Who would you pick? Take a second to play Hollywood producer and tell us who you’d cast to play the part of Mel’s activist daughter and why. We know for a fact that Hollywood is all up in this blog so you never know what studio honcho just might be inspire. Comment away bloggers, comment away!