The cable networks are rife with comely, more-often-than-not buxom, hosts that tantalize their target demographic with an intoxicating combination of tech-savy, sports knowledge and a heavy dose of womanly curves. Cable channels were built around the notion that as long as the male audience is drooling from one side of their mouth, then the other side of the body won’t be able to work the remote. So, it is with a deep understanding of the powers that be, and the powers that eventually will be, that we celebrate cable’s newest “It” girl, and PETA‘s latest pin-up, Olivia Munn. As co-host of G4′s Attack of the Show, Munn can always fall back on the fact that she has built a cult (vastly-male) following that would make Carrie Fisher blush, but why fall back when you can push forward? While hosting the launch party of Capcom’s Lost Planet 2 at the Roosevelt Hotel, the 29-year-old stunner spoke with Tonic about how her difficult family life led her to the PETA ad, as well as her involvement in Kiva, and why she believes the “Greatest Show on Earth” is actually the “Greatest Lie on Earth.”
Q: Your PETA billboard is causing fender-benders all across the land. How did it all come about?
OM: On my Twitter, and on my blog, I had posted a video that PETA had put up about the abuse that elephants in the Ringling Brothers Circus are forced to endure. It brought me to tears. They chain up these elephants, and they shock them, and they beat them into submission until the elephants do what the trainers want them to do.
Q: What exactly did you see in the video that struck such a cord in you?
OM: Everything that you could imagine. There are hooks, they use cattle prods on the elephants, they beat them, they chain them…. They do everything that you can think of to abuse them so that the elephants can go off and do these fancy tricks in front of an audience.
Q: And so, you posted it on your blog, and you Tweeted it, which led to what?
OM: PETA saw it, and I had no idea that they would try to get in touch with my publicist for a campaign, and somehow their emails got lost in my junk mail for a little while, but as soon as they asked me if I wanted to get involved, I said ‘Yes!’
Q: Your PETA ad was so animal specific. Beyond Dumbo, where does your passion for elephants spring from?
OM: I’m Chinese, and elephants are good luck in my culture, I’ve always grown up with a great love for elephants and I have depictions of them all over my house. That human expression, “He has the memory of an elephant,” had to have come from somewhere. It’s known that elephants have the capacity for great recollection. If they go to a bad watering hole in Africa, they won’t go back to the same one, because they know it’s a bad watering hole. These circus people use the animal’s recall to their advantage so that when someone shocks them, or beats them, or hooks them to balance on a ball, their instinct is to get up on the ball and no one in the audience sees all of the abuse that goes into that single act.
Q: You are in rarefied air, because it’s so much easier for a celebrity to speak out against the abuse of the cute, cuddly, and furry, and yet you stand by your pachyderms.
OM: But the most important part of this is the fact that I love all animals, not just elephants. I’m an animal activist, but as in any other part of our life, sometimes things just hit you in a certain way, and this really touched me. I actually grew up in a very dysfunctional household — from the outside looking in, everyone thought it was great, but when the doors closed there was a lot of screaming and tension. It created the person that I am today because I was able to get through it with humor, and I’m more resilient because of it. There was an odd correlation, with all the flashing lights, the bright colors, the laughing kids, the elephants doing tricks … everyone seems happy and amazed, but behind that act, behind that curtain is torture. I wanted to put a spotlight on it, and I think that’s what the ad did.
Q: Beyond PETA, you’re also involved with Kiva, which as far as I understand it’s an organization that does internet micro-financing … Which leads me back to the fact that I have no idea what Kiva does …
OM: Kiva is an organization where you can donate money, and instead of it going in a broad stroke to just the name of a charity, it actually is a Micro-Loan to someone in a developing country. You can see where your money goes, and the way that it helps not just the family, but their community as well.
Q: Your involvement with PETA came from the fact that the plight of the elephants spoke to you on a personal level. In what way does your involvement with Kiva speak to your background?
OM: My family is Chinese, and my mother was born and raised in Vietnam, and they came over here with nothing. They built themselves up together, which is kind of the American “Pick Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps” Dream to me. I was donating a lot, but I was doing it without being sure of where it was going, and with Kiva I love the notion of giving something to a family and seeing what they turn it into on their own. You can’t just throw money at a problem on another continent, and then sleep well at night thinking you’ve done your job without trying to be more accountable.
Q: It’s a great thing to lend your sex appeal to a cause that you are passionate about, but it opens the door for the just about every other charitable cause out there to say, “Olivia, we need you to pretend to be naked for our charity as well!” How do you deal with that?
OM: (laughs) As long as I’m not compromising what I believe in, I will do anything that it takes to spotlight what needs to be changed. We should all stand up, naked or clothed, and fight for the people and animals that cannot fight for themselves. That’s what I believe in. Listen, I’m not about to run out and do a naked campaign for the iPad because Apple isn’t selling enough.
Photo by Hama Saunders courtesy of PETA