November/December 2008 Issue

Six Celebs Who Almost Get It

Green hypes and gripes about Brad Pitt, Natalie Portman, Miley Cyrus, and more.

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Leonardo DiCaprio
Hype: Lives in a solar-powered house; made global-warming flick The 11th Hour; currently documenting the green makeover of tornado-ravaged Greensburg, Kansas.
Gripe: In 1999 Thai citizens sued the producers of The Beach for permanently damaging the islands’ dune ecosystems; in 2005 DiCaprio bought a pristine, 104-acre island off the coast of Belize to turn into a resort.

Miley Cyrus
Hype: Proceeds from sales of her 8×10 autographed glossy photos benefit environmental education.
Gripe: The Center for Environmental Health found high lead levels in Hannah Montana backpacks, purses, and wallets.

Laurie David
Hype: The Huffington Post blogger, NRDC activist, and pal to Al Gore has raised millions of dollars to fight global warming by hosting ecosalons in her homes.
Gripe: The utility bill from her multimillion-dollar homes in Pacific Palisades and Martha’s Vineyard will take some serious credits to offset.

Soleil Moon Frye
Hype: Former Punky Brewster star co-owns the Little Seed, a green children’s boutique in Los Angeles.
Gripe: Sixty crayons in a basket is $147. An environmentally friendly birch-wood high chair with a phthalate-free plastic tray runs $250.

Brad Pitt
Hype: After Hurricane Katrina, Pitt dropped $5 million to build 150 affordable, environmentally sound houses in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward.
Gripe: His 1,000-acre estate in France has 35 bedrooms, a lake, a pool, a moat, a vineyard, and a forest.

Natalie Portman
Hype: In 2008 she launched her own cruelty-free vegan shoe line.
Gripe: Pay up to $385 for a pair of Portmans—or get your plastic kicks at Wal-Mart, where a pair of Crocs knockoffs goes for $6.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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