High-Living Celebs Tie SUV Owners to Terror

[The Finman]

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<h2><font color=#003399>High-living celebs tie SUV owners to terror</h2>
<h3>Backers of TV ad campaign get along with 21-car garage, private jet travel</font></h3>
A Hollywood celebrity-backed television ad campaign that claims SUV owners are aiding terrorists has prompted the question, "What do the stars drive?"

Syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington has the support of entertainment producers Norman Lear, Steve Bing and Larry David for her "Detroit Project," which asks American consumers "to connect the dots and think about the effect that their gas-guzzling SUVs are having on our foreign policy."

Huffington says she has turned in her 13-mile-per-gallon Lincoln Navigator SUV for a hybrid gas and electric Toyota Prius that gets 52 miles per gallon, but she still makes her home in a 9,000-square-foot estate in the elite Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

She admitted to radio talk show host Sean Hannity on Tuesday that she travels in private jets, though she told another WABC radio host in New York yesterday, Curtis Sliwa, that she does it at the "sacrifice" of frequent flier miles.

As of last year, Bing was known to drive a luxury Lincoln Town Car, according to media sources.

Lear's neighbors in the Brentwood Hills area of Los Angeles are well aware of the famous TV producer's 21-car garage, which became the object of a legal battle in the 1990s when Lear wanted to build a tennis court on its roof.

A neighbor who spoke with WND on condition of anonymity said he does not know Lear's mode of travel, but notes that consumption of oil-based products at the celebrity's gated, 13,000-square-foot estate is conspicuous.

"If you come across any estate here in Brentwood, you will see 10 to 40 trash cans outside made of plastic, and also filled with plastic items, while a normal household puts out one trash can a week," he said.

Lear's inventory of plastic garbage containers is no exception.

"He has an incredible lineup," the neighbor said.

"My thought as I drive by is always, 'How does his staff move the cans a quarter of a mile out to the street?'" In addition to his Los Angeles residence, Lear owns a "multi-building estate on a hillside in southern Vermont" that includes "offices, a gym, a screening room, as well as spacious living quarters," said a July 30, 2002 story by the Associated Press.

Lear's Brentwood neighbor, whose 3,000 square-foot home is modest by comparison, said the anti-SUV campaign makes a valid argument for conservation but smacks of hypocrisy.

"For people of their income category, it's the pot calling the kettle black in terms of consumption," he said.

'I helped hijack an airplane' The ads, patterned after anti-drug commercials that suggest profits from illegal sales go to terrorists, say that terrorists end up with some of the extra money needed to supply gas for fuel-hungry SUVs.

One ad begins with a girl's voice referring to a man at a gas station: "This is George.

This is the gas that George bought for his SUV."

A map of the Middle East then appears, followed by: "These are the countries where the executives bought the oil that made the gas that George bought for his SUV."

The scene then moves to terrorists in a desert: "And these are the terrorists who get money from those countries every time George fills up his SUV."

Another ad includes a series of statements from ordinary Americans: "I helped hijack an airplane"; "I gave money to a terrorist training camp in a foreign country"; "What if I need to go off-road?"

It concludes with: "What is your SUV doing to our national security?"

Television stations in New York, Detroit and Los Angeles are refusing to air the ads.

WABC in New York said it has a policy against running "controversial" commercials.

Sunday news shows, including Meet the Press, Face the Nation and This Week With George Stephanopoulos are expected to air the spots this weekend.

Ted Pearse, general sales manager of WDIV-TV in Detroit, said he thought the "copy in the ads is totally inappropriate, and that has nothing to do with the fact the auto show is in town," according to the Detroit Free Press.

"If it was eight weeks from now, I don't feel the script presented to us was germane in any shape, way or form," he said.

SUV limos for the stars Lear is founder of the lobby group People for the American Way, launched to oppose the "conservative agenda," and co-founder of the Environmental Media Association, which has helped spawn an increase in movies and TV shows with environmental themes.

Among board members of the environmental group are Disney CEO Michael Eisner, actress Jane Fonda and actor John Travolta, who pilots his own luxury Boeing 707.

Eisner and Fonda also are clients of a company in Los Angeles that converts SUVs and other heavy-duty "low-profile" vehicles, such as Chevy Suburbans and Ford Excursions, into "original-length, non-stretch, executive limousines."

The cars provide "spacious and elegant interiors, equipped with an array of personal comforts and top-of-the-line electronics."

Howard Becker of Becker Automotive Design, Inc., told WorldNetDaily that, to no one's surprise, Hollywood celebrities, including some leading environmental activists, are inclined toward vehicles with "more powerful engines."

Celebrities who have ordered custom-built SUV or truck-based limousines along with Fonda and Eisner are Barbra Streisand, Whoopi Goldberg, Elizabeth Taylor, Jerry Seinfeld, Charlie Sheen, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Cher, Sylvester Stallone, Ben Affleck, Adam Sandler, Michael Jackson, Michael Douglas and Eddie Murphy.

Goldberg and Affleck are among the "legions of Hollywood celebrities" who have "hopped into the truck du jour," the Cadillac Escalade, the Los Angeles Times said Nov. 24, helping "rekindle interest in a luxury brand that has lost its luster in recent years."

However, "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David, like Huffington, drives a hybrid Prius that entertainment tabloids call "Hollywood's latest politically correct status symbol."

Many Hollywood notables look at the Prius like they looked at a Jaguar a few years ago, according to a June 6, 2002, story in the Washington Post, which notes that David sold his Lexus and producer Rob Reiner traded in his BMW to get one.

"I thought, 'Here's something I could actually do that would save on gas, save the environment, protect us from global warming,'" Reiner said.

Last year, a group of evangelical Christian activists caused a stir with their anti-SUV television spot called "What would Jesus drive?"


Full Article <font color="red"><u>Here</u></font>

[NRA FOREVER]

The lefty`s are nothing but liars......

[JohnnyYuma]

How many of those "stars" actually go anywhere with a family in a Prius ( or is that Priss ? ) ?

I'm just not gonna watch anymore movies at the theatre ... I'll wait 'til they're free on TV ...

maybe reduced movie attendance will close studiosd that will reduce the need for these morons to even exist ...
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dP

[Buckley]

It is pretty funny to see the Hollywoodites bring up this issue considering the extravigant lifestyles they lead. It is easy to bark and whine about problems, throw some money at a few causes, and traipse around the country in your own private jet. I wonder what would happen if the Hollywood people tried to live in accordance with their little ideas.

That said, I think there may be a case with the ads. The more we buy oil from the Middle East the more we enable wicked countries like Saudi Arabia to have economic power. Here's the Buckley plan: drill for oil in Alaska, invest in some alternative fuel sources, and turn the middle east into an economic backwater for good.

-Buckley.

[Dutch]

I love the Buckley plan.

How come most of the left and the Greens are happy that the cost of gasoline is going up?

I thought the less profit Bush and his big oil buddies made, the better off the world would be. It seems to me that the Greens and the left would want gasoline prices to drop so there is less profit in drilling for oil.