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"Starring too many causes?"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(25/06/06)
THE red ribbons gave way to the pink ribbons, which were overtaken by the
yellow wristbands – until light-blue ribbons came along. And they’ve all
been shoved aside by the latest colour to wash over Hollywood: green.
Maybe it’s the burnout factor. Or perhaps it’s because Hollywood has a short
attention span. But as AIDS enters its 25th year, it is no longer The Cause
among celebrities. There is also the perception that AIDS now affects only
developing nations instead of the United States, where ever-improving
medical cocktails are helping those with HIV live longer.
Whatever the reason, the issue that once galvanised Hollywood is sharing the
spotlight with a long list of causes: There’s breast cancer, testicular
cancer and African debt relief. There’s Sept. 11, Katrina, the tsunami and
the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan. And, most recently, global
warming.
Angelina Jolie is bringing attention to the plight of orphans in Africa, in
the latest round donating the proceeds of the sale of photos of newborn
daughter Shiloh to African children’s charities. Leonardo DiCaprio, who is
involved in a range of environmental issues, has his own eco Web site. Ted
Danson is fighting to clean up the oceans.
And just a few days ago, sheriff’s deputies evicted actress Daryl Hannah
from a tree in South Central community gardens in Los Angeles, where she was
protesting the impending demise of one of the largest urban farms in the
country.
There are so many rallying calls that some stars have completely given up
wearing any symbol for fear of offending one group or another. During her
acceptance speech after winning an MTV award recently, actress Jessica Alba
was judicious: “Practise safe sex and drive hybrids if you can.”
Los Angeles-area AIDS groups, struggling to raise funds, are longing for the
days when they were the central focus of the entertainment industry’s
activism.
“There are a lot more demands and requests from great causes for people’s
time and energy,” said Craig Thompson, executive director of AIDS Project
Los Angeles. “Frankly, for celebrities it’s become a bit of a political
conundrum.”
To be sure, there are a number of young stars taking up the AIDS issue,
focusing their efforts on raising awareness in Africa, where the disease is
crushing. (Worldwide, 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981, and
2.8 million will die this year, according to the World Health Organization.
Comparatively, more than half a million people in the United States have
died of the disease over the last 25 years.)
In May, actress Naomi Watts announced that she was joining the international
fight after taking a trip to Zambia, where only one in five people stricken
with AIDS receives treatment. “Given these stark realities, I could no
longer stand on the sidelines,” she told reporters at a news conference at
the United Nations in New York.
“You can’t underestimate what Hollywood has done for the issue and will
continue to do for the issue,” gay activist and celebrity publicist Howard
Bragman said. “We’ve lost too many people to forget.”
But he added: “There is the burnout factor.”
Thompson said AIDS Project Los Angeles – with an ever-expanding caseload of
HIV patients – has fought over the last few years to increase its budget by
a mere 3%, barely enough to keep up with inflation. “It’s not easy getting
people out to our events,” he said.
Los Angeles’ Minority AIDS Project is also struggling. Once the beneficiary
of tens of thousands of dollars in celebrity donations, the project, which
serves mostly lower-income residents in South Los Angeles, considered
closing its doors last year.
“In the beginning, there was a lot of support from Hollywood,” said Victor
McKamie, the executive director of the project. “People were calling us
asking what they could do to help. Now we can’t even get them to return our
calls.”
Bragman sees Hollywood’s diverted attention as a good thing. It shows that
the urgency – at least in the US – is easing because people are living
longer. “If there was more urgency,” he said, “there wouldn’t be any of us
left.”
Actor Paul Michael Glaser, whose wife, Elizabeth, died of AIDS after
contracting the disease through a blood transfusion, believes Hollywood
reflects the views of the rest of the country.
“It’s kind of the nature of society,” he said. (His wife unknowingly passed
the virus on to daughter Ariel in breast milk and to son Jake in utero. She
founded the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation after Ariel’s death.)
“When the AIDS epidemic first became visible, it was the darling disease.
Then it went off to breast cancer and other things.”
At the moment, one of the hottest issues in town is the environment – and
even AIDS activists agree that’s a cause that is hard to argue with. “AIDS
isn’t going to matter if there’s not a world left,” said Bragman, who is
also supporting the green movement.
Reflecting Hollywood’s interest in the environment, Vanity Fair recently
came out with a “green” issue featuring George Clooney, Julia Roberts,
former Vice President Al Gore and Robert F. Kennedy Jr on the cover.
Gore has energised stars with his doomsday documentary on global warming, An
Inconvenient Truth. At the Los Angeles premiere several weeks ago, stars
walked down a green carpet to meet a throng of reporters. Among those
attending were Hannah, Alba and Sharon Stone, who stood in line after the
movie to greet Gore and offer their support.
Several days later, Stone shifted her focus back to AIDS, travelling to the
Cannes Film Festival, where the actress known for her dedication to the
cause helped lead an event to raise funds for AIDS research.
And there are other stalwarts still at work: Elton John and Elizabeth Taylor
remain two of Hollywood’s biggest fundraisers for AIDS efforts. Recently
designer Kenneth Cole launched an ambitious ad campaign to re-educate
Americans about the epidemic. The ads feature more than a dozen actors,
including Tom Hanks and Will Smith, and singer Alicia Keys. They state
plainly: “We all have AIDS.”
The most powerful advocacy, however, is aimed at fighting the deadly disease
– along with a number of other crises – in Third World countries. Bono
announced earlier this year that he was starting project Red to raise funds
in the global fight against AIDS, along with tuberculosis and malaria.
Last year, Jolie – perhaps Hollywood’s most visible young activist – went to
Washington to meet with lawmakers. She succeeded in persuading politicians
to sign the Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in
Developing Countries Act, which mandates that the United States spend 10% of
its global AIDS assistance budget to help children.
The father of Jolie’s newborn girl, Brad Pitt, was also in town doing some
politicking. As an ambassador of advocacy group DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade,
Africa), he spent two days meeting with officials, including Sen Tom Harkin,
D-Iowa, to “gain a better understanding of the trade issues in Africa, AIDS
and extreme poverty,” according to a DATA representative.
Thompson, of AIDS Project Los Angeles, said he admires the new generation of
Hollywood celebrity activists who have stepped forward. “They’re doing this
century what their predecessors did between 1981 and 1986, but on an
international scale. I understand from a humanitarian aspect they’re doing a
very good thing.”
But he added: “I am a little envious.” – LAT-WP
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