Super Bowl Brings Crowds & Benefits Charities

The Super Bowl is in town - MY town, and though the press says that it’s going to be like Carnival in Rio here for the next few days, so far I haven’t been able to tell the difference. However the stars are out, whether we see them or not, and they have non-stop parties planned through the big night.

And though most of the Super Bowl phenomenon makes us think of lots of carbon emissions, there is actually a lot of good going around as well. First of all, the Super Bowl tries to offset their emissions by planting seedling trees and buying renewable energy credits through Sterling Planet. Additionally, any excess food from the various Super Bowl events will be recovered and donated to Daily Bread Food Bank. Finally, any materials that are left over or no longer needed after the event takes place such as office supplies, promotional items, or constuction materials will be given to non-profits for reuse or fundraising.

Then, of course, there are the many charity events that happen around the Super Bowl. Also addressing hunger issues is the Taste of the NFL dubbed a “party with a purpose.” The event provides funds for food banks in South Florida and across the US. For $500 you can enter and taste food and wine from top chefs that hail from each of the 31 NFL cities. You’ll probably meet some football players, too!

Also on Saturday, Magic Johnson will hold a celebrity poker tournament benefiting the Magic Johnson Foundation and the Starkey Hearing Foundation. (Photo credit: City of Miami)

Finally, there are lots of organizations and individuals that have auctioned off their Super Bowl tickets to benefit charity.

So we can have fun and save the world, right? Yes, I believe it’s definitely possible. The next step is to get the big celebs and their private parties on board. (Yes, I’m talking to you J. Lo & Marc, Jay-Z & Beyonce, and you too Playboy.)

Prius Porn: Own A Dixie Chick’s Hybrid

There’s not much to this story, but if you’ve ever wanted to own a green celebrity vehicle — now’s your chance! Apparently, someone won a car that was once owned by Natalie Maines of the country music band, The Dixie Chicks. The car is a white 2004 Toyota Prius (Motor Trend Car of the Year!) with only 15,000 miles on it. Currently, bidding is at $10K with a mind-blowingly idiotic buy it now price of $50,000. Jeesh, it’s not like the car comes with Maines in the trunk or something. All you get is an autographed visor!

Still, if you’re hard pressed to find some authentic DC souvenirs, you could do far worse than this fine vehicle. Just make sure you scrape off the anti-Bush bumper stickers before driving through Texas.

Link: Dixie Chick Car On Ebay

Round 2! Big Hearts: Celebrity Couples Contest

Congratulations to Woody Harrelson and Laura Louie - winners of the first of 3 preliminary “Big Hearts” polls over the next week or so. They will go on to battle the winner of this poll, and the next, in what we’re sure will be a very tough final round.

This poll is the second of several for Ecorazzi readers to choose their favorite celebrity couple for our “Big Hearts” contest with our sponsor, Good Clean Love. In order to enter to win one of several Good Clean Love gift sets (just in time for Valentine’s Day), you’ll need to fill out the poll and the form below. We will not share your information with anyone, it will simply be used in case of winning to ship your prize. Complete rules below.*

To learn more about each celebrity couple, we have provided information towards the bottom of this post. Otherwise, feel free to vote away (and fill out the form)!

(Note: Please include your mailing address in the Message Field. Your information is confidential. We will use it only for this contest. By entering your information, you confirm you are 18 years of age or older.)

Pierce Brosnan & Keely Shaye Smith

Highlights: Both were honored at this year’s Oceana banquet. Pierce was instrumental in organizing Malibu residents against the proposed LNG terminal off of the Malibu coast. He has also appeared promoting Planet Ark and come out against horse slaughter.

Ed Begley Jr. & Rachelle Carson

Highlights: Both Ed & Rachelle star in the green reality show on HGTV, “Living with Ed.” Ed has long been a treehugger, riding his bike to awards shows, installing solar panels in his home, and altogether really living the green life.

Julia Roberts & Daniel Moder

Highlights: Julia is a spokesperson for Earth Biofuels, an alternative fuel company. She also appeared in a PSA for the ONE campaign to Make Poverty History. She’s also gone on Oprah and encouraged viewers to bring thier own bags to the grocery. The couple have also been caught making out by their little gas-saving Prius.

Meryl Streep & Don Gummer

Highlights: Meryl is a huge environmentalist supporting organizations such as the Children’s Health Environmental Coalition and Center for Health and the Global Environment. She’s even been honored with Harvard’s Global Environmental Citizen Award. Streep is also trying to educate the public on the situation in Darfur. Her husband, Don, is a sculptor - and well, we like artists.

Larry & Laurie David

Highlights: Laurie is a Producer of An Inconvenient Truth, author of Stop Global Warming: The Solution is You, and organizer of StopGlobalWarming.org. Larry “a hybrid on his HBO show, funds some of her activities and, perhaps most importantly, keeps her laughing.”

Prince Charles & Camilla Parker-Bowles

Highlights: Prince Charles has been a big promoter of all things green this year, beginning with a TV program seeking “The Apprentice” for a royal organic gardener. He just received Harvard’s Global Environmental Citizen Award, and has said that climate change is humanity’s biggest threat. He’s even asked staff to ride bikes to work to cut down on global warming.

*Rules: Contest applicable to U.S. residents 18 years or older only. Must complete form with name and address to enter contest. Contest runs from January 29 - February 11, 2007. Multiple entries are allowed. Each winner may only win once. Winners will be selected at random by Ecorazzi. Four prize drawings will be conducted throughout the contest period. Three winners will receive a Passionate Nights Gift Set, and grand prize winner will receive a Valentine’s Special Deluxe Gift Set.

Prince Albert: The Other Green Prince

We all know the Prince Charles is called ‘the green prince’, but who knew that another royal is a contender for the title? Prince Albert II of Monaco is well-known for supporting plenty of environmental causes, including the United Nations’ new campaign called Plant For The Planet, which aims to plant one billion trees this year to help combat climate change.

He also promptly signed the Kyoto Protocol when he succeeded to the throne nearly two years ago, and has also gone on Arctic expeditions to find out how global warming has been affecting the glaciers. Since then, he has launched a foundation for environmental research, focusing on the rising sea levels. Prince Albert is also involved in socially responsible investing and has launched a fund called the Monaco Environment Development Durable. And last year, the Monaco Yacht Show went carbon neutral.

Monaco may be a small country, but it’s great to see their leader actually taking big steps towards helping the environment. We’d definitely love to see more news and updates about his green projects.

Thandie’s New Cause

Poor Thandie Newton.

Despite the 36-year-old actress’ best intentions to do her bit to clean up the environment, seems like her celeb friends are a no-go. Recently, the Crash and The Pursuit of Happyness star has been sending letters to her star pals, like Tom Cruise, Robin Williams, Madonna, and Ozzy Osbourne, urging them to forego their patented SUVs and go green.

“I didn’t get one letter back. I wasn’t judgmental. It was like, ‘In case you didn’t know here are some facts about the environment and some reasons why it turns out 4×4s aren’t that great to have in the city’,” she laments.

But the BAFTA-award winning actress is still placing her hopes on a recent convert, daytime talkshow host Oprah. “I suggested that she switches her whole fleet of cars. I really hope she does. It would do so much good.”

Stars Take Part In Winter Games For Charity

The two-day Celebrity Sports Invitational took place a couple of weeks ago in Banff, Alberta, Canada and attracted a fair number of celebrities, from Alec Baldwin, who was a co-host, to Christie Brinkley. Celebs gathered at the Banff Springs Hotel and Sunshine Village for some skiing and various winter games. Other stars in attendance include Kelsey Grammer, Julianna Margulies, Mimi Rogers, and Marcia Gay Harden.

The event is a fundraiser for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s project, Waterkeeper Alliance. The group works for clean water for communities and also lends support to various environmental initiatives.

The fundraiser was open to the public, with celebrities taking part in the activities in full view of the visitors to Sunshine Village. A charity dinner was also accessible to non-celebrities, although I’m sure many people would shy away from the very idea of forking over $500 for the tickets. Still, I’m sure it was worth it for a good cause.

The other celebs present at the event had some pretty positive things to say about having the chance to work for the environment.

“One of the most important things celebrity can do is to bring attention to a cause and this is a great one. I mean, who wouldn’t want to protect all this?” (Lorenzo Lamas) says, while glancing around at the spectacular Canadian Rockies.

Actor Corbin Bernsen says people should feel obligated to help causes they believe in, not because they are celebrities, but because they are human.

“I have never been one to play that celebrity card, but if people know who we are and they support the cause because of it, it’s worth it,” he adds.

Gordon Downie, the lead vocalist of Canadian band Tragically Hip, also believes that big-name celebrities should attend such events more often to attract the media and the public’s attention to important causes.

Makes me wonder what it would be like if young Hollywood started paying more attention to these events. Could environmental causes receive a bigger image boost? Like it or not, they’re a pretty major driving force, although I’m pretty sure I’d be cringing if any one of them started, like, talking about, you know, how, like, important the environment is, you know, and it’s like really cool to be like part of a cool cause.

Green Driving a Go!

Whoever said that car enthusiasts can’t contribute to saving the environment must not have met celebrity commentator Murray Walker – or Sir Walker to us commoners, since he is one of those distinguished gentlemen who have received the Order of the British Empire. It seems that this well-loved F1 Formula Racing commentator has recently launched “Eco-Drivers Wanted”, a campaign launched in conjunction with the Energy Savings Trust in the United Kingdom, urges education for motorists in managing fuel efficiently while at the same time helping the environment by reducing CO2 emissions, particularly along the convoluted highway system in Scotland known as the Central Belt.

“Eco-driving has win-win results. You save money on fuel and help the environment. In today’s changing climate we need to think about saving energy in everything we do. Eco-driving is easy, you don’t need to buy gadgets or modify your car. Just put the eco-driving tips in practice every time you use your car and make them part of your driving routine,” says Walker, whose distinctive style has resulted in what his listeners call ‘Walkerisms’ or ‘Murrayisms’.

As Ian Murdoch, who handles the Energy Savings Trust in Ireland, says, “”If every driver in Scotland followed our guidance, the country would save 640,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year.”

Al Gore Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize

Two Norwegian member of parliament, Børge Brende and Heidi Sørensen, have nominated both Al Gore and Canadian environmentalist Sheila Watt-Cloutier to share the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. From the article,

“Al Gore has done a very important job as former US VP and has created so much pressure in the USA that for the first time President Bush must now say that climate change is a problem. No other single person in the last year has done so much to put the threat of climate change on the agenda, and contributed to lasting changes in international policy,” Børge Brende said.

“Sheila Watt-Cloutier has opened the world’s eyes to what is happening in the Arctic. When she communicated this, the climate debate took a new and important turn. She has communicated the drama and given it a face,” Heidi Sørensen said.

The two Norwegians feel that the nominations have a great chance of being recognized since The Nobel Committee “has previously been adept at addressing new threats with their awards.” I’m in agreement with them. I believe Gore might actually have a shot at not only the Oscar, but the Peace Prize as well. Say what you will about his stage delivery (which has improved dramatically), or the amount of emissions he alone generated promoting the film, but his impact has been massive. My mother-in-law watched his movie — twice. She’s now all caught up in doing everything possible to lessen her impact on the planet. She’s inspired. We need others to inspire. Give him the award. Let him share it with Sheila. Whatever. We should recognize their efforts in bringing attention to causes that have been grassroots for too long.

Not sure who Sheila Watt-Cloutier is? Check out her Wikipedia info here!

UNICEF, Yahoo, Hollywood Team Up To Help Children

The power of Yahoo! Answers has gone from the environment to joining forces with UNICEF to promote the health and safety of children worldwide.

Starting today until February 9th, the ‘Up Close 2007‘ campaign will feature a different celebrity each day asking a video question related to saving children’s lives. Each celebrity’s page will also feature two additional videos documenting their work with UNICEF (which is a good thing, because the question videos are ridiculously short.).

UNICEF Ambassador celebrities include Clay Aiken, Alyssa Milano, Danny Glover, Lucy Liu, Laurence Fishburne, Tea Leoni, Marcus Samuelsson, India Arie, and Elton Brand. Incidentally, today is Clay Aiken’s day (Ruben, we hardly knew ya..) and his page features some excellent video on his visit to Uganda in 2005 and over 5,500 answers to the question he poses, “UNICEF is working for the survival of children worldwide. What can we do to get more Americans involved?” Ponder that.

Clay will be on Good Morning America tomorrow morning promoting the campaign and speaking about his time as an UNICEF ambassador. Head on over to Yahoo! Answers to learn more about how some of your favorite celebrities are helping out or hit UNICEF to contribute directly. Below is Alyssa Milano’s experience…

Director of ‘Who Killed The Electric Car?’ Reveals Next Project

While at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show, Groovy Green’s Steve Balogh had the opportunity to chat with Chris Paine, the man behind ‘Who Killed The Electric Car?’. The video below is the tail-end of their conversation (with the beginning revolving around GM’s new hybrid Volt), but features a few juicy tidbits on some upcoming projects.

In the vid, Paine reveals that he’s working on a film about alternative fuel vehicles driving to Antarctica in a race tentatively titled ‘Test Zero’. The race will include a bio-fueled car, a hydrogen fuel-cell car, and battery-based car. According to Chris, the vehicles will race to the South Pole and back in an effort to prove they can tackle the harshest of conditions.

Steve Wozniak and Buzz Aldrin will be involved and Paine seems really psyched to get started. He also talked about a certain feeling of vindication with ‘Who Killed The Electric Car?’ telling Steve that he feels he was able to “make a difference.”