The Greening of Hollywood

By JEANNE McDOWELL

It is the capital of conspicuous consumption, the land of Lamborghinis, the home of the heated swimming pool. And now, ironically, Hollywood is the chic base for a crusade to help save Planet Earth. From efforts to insert environmental themes into movies and TV to the formation of action groups by the rich and famous, the entertainment industry is mobilizing to help solve the environmental crisis. "We have all realized we're on the front lines," says British rock star Sting, who is campaigning worldwide to save the Brazilian rain forest. "We have access to information and can transmit it through the media."

Hollywood's zeal mirrors an explosion in environmental activism throughout the world. Stories about the burning rain forest, global warming and the Exxon Valdez spill have left people feeling a loss of ecological innocence. "It's an issue you can't escape -- even if you live in Beverly Hills," says Josh Baran, a Los Angeles public relations consultant.

The town's involvement transcends checkbook activism. Media-shy Meryl Streep performs as spokeswoman for Mothers and Others for Pesticide Limits. The names of celebs who huddled around a garbage-filled storm drain at a rally for Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica, Calif., group, read like a short list for the 25 most intriguing people: thirtysomething people (Ken Olin, Patricia Wettig), sitcom people (Justine Bateman, John Ritter), people named Moon and Dweezil Zappa. A sludge protest drew Dynasty's Linda Evans to Olympic, Wash. More recently, Dennis Weaver, Michael Landon and Robert Downey Jr. voiced their protest against offshore oil drilling at a rally in downtown L.A. And last weekend a gross of glitterati -- Diana Ross, Elton John, Sigourney Weaver -- joined world leaders in Our Common Future, a five-hour global telecast.

The good work goes on for veteran good-earthers. Cheers' Ted Danson, president of the American Oceans Campaign, lobbies Congress to help save the oceans. Barbra Streisand offers a $250,000 donation to the Environmental Defense Fund. Robert Redford, who is planning a film with Steven Spielberg about the damaging of a rain forest, speaks on global warming at a Senate hearing. "It's important to raise the environment to the same level as national security," Redford says. "If we poison our planet, what is there left to defend?"

A primary goal of Hollywood activists is to raise consciousness through TV shows, movies and music about dangers to the environment. In TV spots that will air later this month, NBC's ALF will warn earthlings about the environment in a 60-second spot: "Public lands aren't like pizzas. You can't call up and order more." Tips about recycling, ozone depletion and aerosol sprays will be inserted in next season's shows. "If characters on shows are making these changes, they will impact the home," says producer Norman Lear.

Movies and TV movies will also stoke awareness. The Keep, a TV movie about global warming set 50 to 75 years in the future, may air later this year; TNT will broadcast Incident at Dark River, about a father who learns that toxic dumping has killed his child. When writer-director David Zucker (Airplane!) % visited a solar-power plant in the Mojave Desert, he was inspired to drop a message into his script for The Naked Gun II. "A love affair is like the ozone layer," says Lieut. Frank Drebin. "You only miss it when it's gone."

Hollywood's challenge is to entertain as it informs. This fall TBS will introduce children to the cartoon villain Dr. Carbon on Captain Planet. Producer Paul Witt (Golden Girls) is developing a three-hour all-star "practical guide to saving the planet"; Witt hopes all three networks will air it simultaneously. In September a medley of pop stars will shoot Yakety Yak, a music video about recycling. Its refrain: "Yakety yak, take it back."

Two new groups will prod show people toward making environmental awareness as crucial a part of their scripts and songs as boy meets girl. The Environmental Media Association, a clearinghouse for save-the-earth societies, is fronted by such heavyweights as Disney Chairman Michael Eisner, Creative Artists Agency President Michael Ovitz, MCA President Sid Sheinberg, and Lear, who with his wife Lyn was a group founder. At the letter-stuffing level, the Earth Communications Office is targeting the few thousand actors, writers, producers and directors whose work reaches billions of people. In seminars and trips, ECO will educate creative folk on earth-shaking issues.

Skeptics note that, unlike campaigning for abortion rights or fringe political causes, environmental activism offers no career risk. "It's a nonpartisan issue," says Heal the Bay co-chair Ellen Gilbert. "What's the other side -- a dirty ocean?" Others suspect that the glamour do-gooders will lose interest or be unable to give up gas-guzzling cars and private planes. Bonnie Reiss, executive director of ECO, disagrees: "This is a people's movement, and we're beginning with the wealthy and privileged people of Hollywood."