Green Options

Back in September, rumors began circulating that the famous actor Val Kilmer was considering a run for governor of New Mexico in 2010. He’s now confirmed the rumors.

Nicole Richie, Rosario Dawson and more celebrities came together to award the Simpsons and 30 Rock for promoting environmental concerns in their entertainment efforts.

The Environmental Media Awards have been presented since 1991 and launched the concept of the “green carpet”. The awards go to TV shows, movies and musicians that use their entertainment role to promote environmental concerns. The awards, which were presented this year on November 13, also promote an eco-friendly awards gala and organic food.

With environmentalism becoming the norm, the Environmental Media Awards have gone mainstream with stars like Nicole Richie, Rosario Dawson and Amy Smart (wearing an eco-friendly black gown) walking the green carpet.

Awards winners after the jump.

It’s hard to watch television or browse the internet these days without hearing regular stories about how celebrities are “going green.” In the past week alone, I have read or skimmed through stories about how musician Sheryl Crow is launching an Eco Fashion Line, actress Pamela Anderson is building a green hotel, and comedian and actor Will Ferrell will be the first celebrity to drive BMW’s new hydrogen car. According to the story, Will Ferrell has also built a solar-powered environmentally friendly home. Should we care?

Here’s an image of my youngest daughter Mary sporting one of my all-time favorite T-shirts that I fell in love with last summer, when I had the wonderful privelege of being a media sponsor to the Farm Aid concert. I’ve been backstage at other shows, but this one was particularly special for many reasons - the organic, locally produced food, organic beer, biodegradable plates and utensils, and oh did I mention the extremely cool people!?!?

While lurking around the food tent, I found myself engaged in a friendly conversation about just how wonderful the whole event was with a dude in this exact same shirt. I raved about the shirt and he told me where he got it, but I don’t write it down, so . . .

Later when Dave Matthews came on stage, there came my buddy with the great T-shirt with the powerful message ‘Stop Wars’ - it was Tim Reynolds! First, I felt stupid for not recognizing him, then I was glad because while I try not to be star struck, I’m a huge fan of Mr. Reynolds (obviously knowing his music better than his face!) and who knows what idiotic thing I might have come up with.

Other than their amazing musical talent, I admire most of the musicians that day for their effort to help raise awareness about the realities and challenges facing small and family farmers. Using great music to activate a crowd is a beautiful thing.

So, it goes along these same lines that using wonderfully designed rags to shout important progressive messages is another great form of creative activism.

Clothing Of The American Mind (COTAM) is a brilliant organization who brought that Farm Aid moment together for me so beautifully.

Actor Neil Flynn — who plays your favorite comic villain on a certain sitcom — lets us know that everyone in the world relies on nature for survival. And when he’s not practicing taxidermy, this bully shows us how climate change is affecting nature and people and… janitors!

Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts and Leonardo DiCaprio made it to People’s 100 Most Beautiful list, in the section for “More than Just Look Good, They do Good.” Julia Roberts got top spot for most beautiful environmentalist, “Getting the nation’s 500,000 school buses to switch from fossil fuels to cleaner-burning biodiesel fules, which are refined from vegetable oils.” Leo while oh so hot, is also at the top spot for global warming, “I hope more people

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It appears that every magazine is catching on to spreading the green word, from health magazines to fashion. April’s edition of InStyle Magazine has an entire section devoted to how celebrities take on the challenges of being green.

According to Instyle, Courtney Love has cleaned up in more ways than one: now she uses recycled toilet paper and green power at home. Parker Posey totes Trader Joe’s reusable shopping bag and

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What a week we’ve had in green gossip, from the Oscars with our dear celebrities drenched in green, to Al Gore being thrown under the bus, to Indian celebrities dressed in scallion skirts. In terms of the Oscars, I know you’ve heard — it was an eco-friendly, tree-hugging love fest. The king of the festivities, Al Gore, became the bull’s eye by morning. The Tennessee Center for Policy Research (Publisher's FYI: The TCPR is

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Editor's note: We're happy to welcome Noelle d'Estries to our growing group of writers. Noelle will be covering the green (and not-so-green) celebrity beat for us. And, yes, she's related to Michael — his sister. We'll take all the d'Estries we can get…!