Married gossips from New York’s Daily News, George Rush and Joanna Malloy, describe the celebs who gathered at a gala thrown by global warming activist group Natural Resources Defense Gala to honor Vanity Fair editor, and author of an anti-Bush literary and financial flop, Graydon Carter, and they note that “Mother Earth” cheekily showed the enviro-crowd who was boss by giving them “meat locker weather.” The NRDC’s roster of celebrity speakers, including Anderson Cooper and Robert Kennedy Jr, playfully turned up the heat on the VF chief:
CNN's Anderson Cooper, appearing in a video by David Steinberg, delivered a "Breaking News" update on that recent evening when an enraged Carter dismantled the scaffolding some noisy workmen had installed near Carter's Waverly Inn restaurant. Cooper reported that Carter was seen later, "at approximately 4 a.m., urinating on the door of Nobu."
"Staffers at Vanity Fair were baffled," intoned Cooper. "One said, 'I haven't seen him at the office in more than two years.'"
Bono, guest editor of VF's July issue, turned up in the video wearing a gray fright wig vaguely resembling Carter's gull-wing hairdo. Smoking three cigarettes at once, Bono mumbled, "Story ideas: Christopher Hitchens on why Martin Luther King is overrated!"
Tom Hanks joked that the editor once worked as an actor named "Gray Carter" who had a bit part on "The Love Boat."
Robert Kennedy Jr. said some eco-warriors might doubt the seriousness of the oh-so-social Carter.
Kennedy insisted, "He does love green stuff - especially money." But, seriously, Kennedy hailed Carter for recasting Vanity Fair as "one of the most important information forums in our country."
Carter came armed with his own props, including a mock Vanity Fair cover featuring Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes holding a "baby" Al Gore. "It's testing through the roof," said Carter, who vowed to continue his campaign to protect the earth from "polluters and, sadly, our own federal government." The dinner was a nice start: It raised $3.1 million.
So, the question needs to be asked: on balance, did this gala “help” or “hurt” “Mother Earth?” Was the waste and environmental cost worth whatever portion of the $3.1 million taken in and the “awareness” factor? I also question whether a fete for a magazine editor that most Americans haven’t heard of, will help to “protect the earth from polluters” or raise our “awareness” of “the environment”
What about the waste of all of those private jets; unless all of those celebs flew American Airlines right beside the great unwashed masses instead of cushy private jets, how can the NRDC, the environmentalists and the “green” celebrities claim that this fancy PR gig did not harm the earth? How about all of the trash generated and all of the water used to wash the dishes or clothes? Isn’t that wasteful? I also wonder how much money went into the gala, from the actual monetary cost to the money the guests spent in preparation, and if that money could have been “better” spent elsewhere? That’s the question that the left always asks about fancy GOP events or Presidential inaugurals., so it should be fair to ask it of “lefty” events.
For an event with wealthy, big-name celebrities, you would think the result would be more $3.1 million at the end of the day, especially considering the some of the bank accounts among this roster that Rush &Malloy gave:
Leonardo DiCaprio, Glenn Close, Bette Midler, Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts, Queen Noor, Caroline Kennedy, James Taylor, John Mellencamp, Kevin Bacon, George Lucas, Ron Howard, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters and emcee Fran Lebowitz.
With Bono at the helm of the July edition and the magazine's second "Green Issue" coming out in May, who says that Graydon Carter and Vanity Fair don’t care about the environment?
