Madonna's Pollution Solution

Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Madonna's Pollution Solution
2. Rock World Rocks for Barack
3. Danny Glover's Insufficient Film Funds
4. Sheens Steamed at Each Other
5. Low Hollywood Dough for Joe
 

1. Madonna's Pollution Solution

Madonna is a professed lover of the planet.

In July 2007, she headlined the Live Earth concert in London, which was designed to draw attention to climate change, and told the audience, "If you want to save the planet, I want you to start jumping up and down."

The press was informed via a statement issued by her spokesperson that "Madonna's agreeing to sing at Live Earth is merely one of the first steps in her commitment toward being environmentally responsible."

However, according to the Carbonfootprint Web site, Madonna's upcoming "Sticky and Sweet" concert tour is expected to generate in excess of 1,635 tons of carbon pollutants as a result of her travels.

To break it down, 95 tons of carbon is expected to be emitted via the exhaust of her private jet as it flies to venues in Europe and the U.S. And when her entourage of 250 staffers joins her via commercial airplanes, another 1,080 tons of pollutants will be spewed into the air. Another 460 tons of carbon is expected to be emitted from transport of her cargo, which includes 30 wardrobe trunks and 4 large freezers.

The group of fellow travelers is essential to the material girl since it includes her 9 wardrobe assistants, 12 seamstresses, 12-piece band, chiropractor, personal trainer, masseuse, 16 caterers and approximately 100 technicians and dancers.

At the Live Earth event, Madonna performed a song "Hey You," which she wrote just for the environment. Included in the lyrics are the following words:

"First love yourself, Then you can love someone else. If you can change someone else, Then you have saved someone else. But you must first love yourself, Then you can love someone else. If you can change someone else, Then you have saved someone else."

I guess lyrics like that give you a license to pollute.

2. Rock World Rocks for Barack

Barack Obama's Denver coronation is getting lots of celebrity help from the pop music world. And we're not talking Britney and Paris.

The scheduled soundtrack for the Democratic National Convention includes a Rock the Vote Monday event with Jakob Dylan and Fall Out Boy shouting out from Ellie Caulkins Opera House.

On Tuesday night Melissa Etheridge, Cyndi Lauper and Thelma Houston sing for the Dems, with Margaret Cho telling lefty jokes at a Fillmore Auditorium event called "Rock to Win."

The Creative Coalition hosts a Wednesday night concert with The Black Eyed Peas headlining at the Fillmore at the same time as the One Campaign and Recording Industry Association of America feature a Kanye West concert at the Exdo Event Center.

Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame supplies the Obama campaign with a music video titled "My American Prayer," a song Stewart originally co-wrote with Bono. The video has a large celebrity cast that includes Pamela Anderson Whoopi Goldberg, Macy Gray, Forest Whitaker, Herbie Hancock, Joss Stone, Cyndi Lauper, Jason Alexander, Barry Manilow and Joan Baez.

I personally think John Rich (of the country duo "Big and Rich") will out celebrity gun them all when he raises the GOP roof with "Raising McCain."

3. Danny Glover's Insufficient Film Funds

Danny Glover is miffed.

The actor has a habit of palling around with despots, most recently Hugo Chavez. But it seems that Chavez, who invested $18 million dollars for 50% of a movie script, doesn't exactly have a whole lot of other dictator adoring fans because Glover can't find anyone to cough up the other half of the financing.

The New York Post reports that the "Lethal Weapon" actor claims the reason he's unable to complete the funding is because of Hollywood's racism.

"Producers said, ‘It's a nice project, a great project . . . where are the white heroes?'" Glover told a Paris film seminar.

He claimed that he couldn't get the funding and that he "went to everybody."

"The first question you get is, ‘Is it a black film?' All of them agree, ‘It's not going to do good in Europe, it's not going to do good in Japan.' Somebody has to prove that to be a lie," Glover said, according to the Pan-African Newswire.

The Hollywood racist charge isn't going to stick as long as the films that Glover himself has starred in are on cable a gazillion times a week.

4. Sheens Steamed at Each Other

"West Wing" prez Martin Sheen is at odds with his son Charlie over the policies of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

The senior Sheen claims that the leaders of the actors union are using A-list members to change the way members vote.

A SAG group called "Unite for Strength" wants to restrict voting privileges to those who work a designated amount of time.

According to Martin, the "tens of thousands of SAG members who don't work enough" are in danger of losing one of their "fundamental rights" as union members.

"Two and a Half Men" star Charlie is on the opposite side of the fence from his dad. He has endorsed the new voting policy.

Still, Martin claims the policy would "end democracy in the Screen Actors Guild and create a class system between the haves and the have nots."

Chances are both Sheens know a lot more about the haves than the have nots.

5. Low Hollywood Dough for Joe

Despite his top dog spot on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where issues of interest to Hollywood frequently take center stage, the entertainment industry hasn't treated Barack Obama's veep pick, Joe Biden, like it typically does Dems; at least not in the way politicians care most about—money.

Even though the Delaware senator has sent Tinseltown the right signals, with his strong stance against copyright infringement a la piracy, in which he called music and movies "just as precious as any tangible property," Biden has basically been treated like a political second fiddle.

Over his long senate career, entertainment industry contributions to him have totaled about $390,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Biden only managed to pull in around $187,000 for his presidential bid, which included donations from Barry Manilow and Cher (to his PAC). Donors also included former owner of MGM/UA Kirk Kerkorian, former ABC, Paramount and Fox exec Barry Diller, Fox exec Tom Rothman, TV producer and exec Tom Werner, Warner Music head Edgar Bronfman Jr., and "9 ½ Weeks" producer Sidney Kimmel.

During the 2007 Iowa caucuses, Obama's running mate also got some campaign help from "West Wing" actor Richard Schiff.

In a weird foreshadowing of sorts, when Biden pulled the plug on his own presidential bid he noted that when compared with his competition, he'd been ignored by the media because in his words, "This is about celebrity."