Christy Turlington Does More than Get Naked
Model, editor, author, activist, yogi, and now, director is not shy when it comes to expressing herself. Supermodel Christy Turlington became the first fashionista to appear naked for PETA and has traveled to South and Central America on behalf of the organization CARE. When Turlington was pregnant with her first child, she went to El Salvador with the CARE water project and visited a remote village where pregnant women and mothers of newborns had walked for miles to access clean water, Look To the Stars reports. This inspired her new documentary No Woman, No Cry that focuses on bringing attention to maternal mortality by looking at programs and people in Bangladesh, Tanzania, Guatemala and the US, with hopes to inspire better advocacy and action. The film will premier later this month at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.
Avatar Goes Blue for Green
Director James Cameron rode the epic Great Leonopteryx from the mystical world of Pandora to the very real country of Brazil for a press conference for Avatar 2. While visiting, he planted a tree in a local park as symbolic gesture to show his support for a FOX Entertainment campaign that will plant 1 million trees around the world until the end of the year.
In an interview with AP, Cameron said that a real-life Avatar battle is playing out in Brazil’s Amazon rain forest, where indigenous groups are trying to halt the construction of a huge hydroelectric project, he adds, what’s happening in Avatar is happening in Brazil and places like India and China, where traditional villages are displaced by big infrastructure projects.
It seems as though Cameron’s creative imagination has manifested past entertainment as well as become an inspiration and tool for good in the world’s current condition.
Out of the Gutter: The Vatican (Apologizes to The Beatles)
Unfortunately most news stories about the Vatican these days involve pedophiles, rather than goodness and, well, God. While they have many apologies to make, here is one slightly random but important apology Tonic would like to recognize. On the 40th anniversary of The Beatles breakup, the Vatican gives the Fab Four the thumbs up!
According to the Daily Mail, the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said:
It’s true they took drugs, lived life to excess because of their success, even said they were bigger than Jesus and put out mysterious messages, that were possibly even Satanic.
They may not have been the best example for the youth of the day but they were by no means the worst. Their beautiful melodies changed music and continue to give pleasure… Thirteen albums changed the history of popular music and there is little else to add. The Beatles were the most famous and acclaimed band in the world.
So they’re fans… Applause!
Cute Couple of the Day
Oh Oprah! You and John Tesh?! It is crazy talk, ain’t it? It has been confirmed that Josh Tesh, the American pianist and composer of pop and contemporary Christian music, and Oprah, you know exactly who she is, dated once upon a time. According to New York Daily News, Kitty Kelley’s new unauthorized biography dishes about the 1970′s love affair between the two. Why did it end? Apparently the social pressure on an interracial couple in Tennessee at that time was too much for Tesh to handle. For the whole scoop run to your nearest Barnes and Noble, Oprah’s bio was just released today!
Celebrity Tweet of the Day
Erykah Badu: Laughing keeps me healthy. Try it.
Photo 1 courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; Photo 2 courtesy of Greg Westfall via Flickr; Photo 3 courtesy of Oddsock via Flickr; Photo 4 courtesy of ask curley via Flickr.