Fan Fare
Entertainment behind the scenes
from Environment Forum:
Hollywood’s greenest stars honor U.S. environmental group
Dozens of the world's top movie, television and music stars showed off their green cred on Saturday night at a Hollywood-style fundraiser honoring the Natural Resource Defense Council's 20 years in Southern California.
The event at Beverly Hills' Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel was a who's who of Hollywood environmentalists, including actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Redford, and Laurie David, a global warming activist and producer of the Al Gore movie "An Inconvenient Truth." All three are trustees of the NRDC's Southern California office. In 2003, the group even dedicated its new building to Redford.
It's no secret that the environment and climate change is a hot cause in Hollywood, and it's hard to imagine another social issue drawing as much star power to one event. The party also raised a hefty $2 million.
"Mad Men" star Jon Hamm and designer Tom Ford also attended the party, which was hosted by "Seinfeld" star Julia Louis-Dreyfus and included a musical performance by Grammy-winning rockers Maroon 5. Actress Rosanna Arquette deejayed the after party.
John Lennon’s “Instant Karma” a curious choice for Chase
John Lennon’s “Instant Karma” is an unlikely choice for an advertising jingle. With future murderer Phil Spector manning the boards, the angry ex-Beatle wasted no time warning listeners, “You better get yourself together, Pretty soon you’re gonna be dead.” Which in fact Lennon was a decade later.
Cut to 2009, and Chase has dusted off the song for an advertising campaign, but it has focused on the shiny, happy chorus, “Well we all shine on, Like the moon and the stars and the sun, Well we all shine on…”
That’s not Lennon singing on the new version, by the way. Instead Chase went edgy with British goth singer Peter Murphy, who used to front Bauhaus, a rock group famed for the song “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” and for inspiring Nine Inch Nails. Cindy Mizelle, who once toured with Mick Jagger, does the backing vocals.
The spot heralds Chase’s arrival in California following the purchase last fall of Washington Mutual’s banking operations by its JPMorgan Chase parent. The black-and-white clip depicts such outdoor pursuits as surfing, swimming and ballooning, and a biker couple riding off into the sunset.
“This spot heralds a bright new day and so we chose a song that is upbeat, well known and classic,” a Chase spokesman said in an email. “‘Instant Karma’ is an iconic song and the chorus, ‘We all shine on’, reinforces an emotional connection with the brand but also demonstrates that ‘we’re going to get through these trying times together.’”
The spokesman declined to discuss financial terms, and a spokesman for Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, did not return an email seeking comment.
Murphy recorded the song in full, and hopes it will see the light of day, said David Baron, who produced and arranged the tune with Murphy at a converted church in Woodstock, New York.
“Peter is currently working out the details for the new record and the final tracks have not been decided on,” Baron said. “Peter would like to release Instant Karma in some fashion so I am sure it will surface.”
Murphy does not appear in the Chase ad, but he can be seen as “the Blown Away Guy” in a 1980s British ad for Maxell cassettes.
(Peter Murphy photo credit: Koray Birand)
California battle over video game violence rages on
The video game industry may have won another battle over whether violent games should be labeled as such and kept away from minors, but the author of a California video game labeling law that was struck down on Friday by a federal appeals court says the war is far from over.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the controversial law violated free speech protections that prevent the government from forcing its opinions on citizens — in this case by requiring video game makers to label games the state describes as violent. The court said lawmakers also failed to show a link between virtual violence and real acts among children who play the ultra-violent games.
UPDATE- Melissa rebels, Ellen saddened by Prop 8 gay marriage ban
Comedian Ellen DeGeneres said she was “saddened beyond belief” at the decision by voters to ban the newly-won rights of gays and lesbians to marry in California.
But singer Melissa Etheridge sounds downright angry.
Etheridge, 47, who did not get to marry her partner Tammy Lynn Michaels before the Nov 4 ballot, suggested in a blog post that she would no longer pay her California state taxes because, as a lesbian, she did not now enjoy the same rights as as other Californians.
