Of all the virtues our modern movie stars inhabit (genetic perfection, say?), the most attractive of them all must be the acknowledgment of their incredible popularity as it can be used as a platform to raise awareness. Usually, more often than not, to raise awareness for important issues. (Paris Hilton’s new perfume line and the such does not count, in other words.)
The celebrity-fueled Hope for Haiti telethon, is a great example, since phone calls answered by Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston and Jack Nicholson brought in a record-setting number of donations.
Leonardo DiCaprio was front and center at the telethon, and the now Hollywood hottie is making his latest star turn for the National Resource Defense Council’s Action Fund.
Leo, along with Edward Norton, Forest Whitaker, Chace Crawford, Justin Long, Jason Bateman, Felicity Huffman and Emmy Rossum, appear in the This Is Our Moment video, which urges Americans to get involved in helping to get the first ever climate and clean energy bill passed in the Senate.
And the way he’s asking (besides politely — another virtue, see?) is to have each and every one of us reach out to our friends via social networking, and viral video uploads (you can submit your own) to lobby for the environmental bill.
And while this is a very serious matter, the celebs aren’t taking themselves too seriously in getting the message across:
“Flood the inboxes of your senators. It freaks them out. They don’t even know how to use email and then they see a bunch of stuff in the inbox, and they know they’ve got to to do something,” Jason Bateman deadpans in the video.
While Justin Long, the “Mac guy” urges:
“Tell your senators to vote for strong, clean energy legislation. Whether it’s on a Mac, or whatever kind of computer.”
It’s easy enough: Just visit the site.
It’s only fair, really, they’re all acting for us all the time. Now that they’re asking us, shouldn’t we act, too?
Photo of Leonardo DiCaprio courtesy of WikimediaCommons
