Planet Green Launch Party Rocks L.A., Eco-Style
by Meaghan O'Neill, Newport, R.I. on 06. 5.08
Tommy Lee at the Planet Green launch party in Los Angeles last week.
If your eyes as puffy as mine are from watching several sweet hours of Planet Green TV last night, you’ll definitely want to check out what went down at the launch party in L.A. last week. Dozens of green celebs—from Tommy Lee to Ludacris to Keenan Ivory Wayans—showed up on the green carpet at Hollywood’s Greek Theatre for a pre-launch partay, and to film the final Tommy Lee versus Ludacris smackdown. (The unlikely duo play the starring role in Planet Green’s forthcoming Battleground Earth reality show, in which the two compete to see who can go greener.)
Click the jump for videos from the party.
It may seem weird to hear this from someone whose iPod is currently playing My Morning Jacket like a broken record, but Tommy Lee and Luda gave a seriously rockin’ show, performing with everyone from the Blue Man Group to ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbs and Slash. Their energy on stage was amazing, but what was really cool is that since beginning filming for their show, Tommy and Luda seem to have been genuinely bitten by the green bug. Tommy Lee has converted to vegetarianism; meanwhile, Ludacris implored the parents of the audience to think about how much it means to leave a healthier, cleaner planet to our kids. Touching stuff—seriously!—despite the fact that Tommy Lee (jokingly?) pretended to stick my Flip video recorder down his pants.
Ludacris on his forthcoming show, Battleground Earth.
Shortly before Planet Green bigwigs Eileen O’Neill (no relation) and David Zaslav took the stage to introduce the Planet Green mission and welcome the crowd, TreeHugger caught up with some of the “ecomaniacs” that came traipsing down the green carpet. Just who, you might be wondering, makes the invitation list to help kickoff the world’s first 24-7 eco-lifestyle network? We spied Tom Green, Cedric the Entertainer, Bill Nye the Science Guy of Stuff Happens, Ziggy Marley, Wrecklamation host Jodi Murphy, cutie-pie and G Word co-host Suchin Pak and her co-host Daniel Sieberg, Annabelle Gurwitch and Holter Graham of Wa$ted, friend of TreeHugger and G Word correspondent Summer Rayne Oakes, Alter Eco’s Adrian Grenier and super-green supermodel Angela Lindvall, along with program pals Boise Thomas and Darren Moore, Maria Manounos of Hollywood Green, Dee Snyder, emo rock band Rockstar Supernova, the guys from Train (they’re really nice!), Dirty Jobs’ Mike Rowe (hello, star struck!), and funny man (and, we found out, awesome singer) Tommy Davidson, who emceed the show.
Tom Green on the Planet Green logo.
We caught up with a few of the eco-crazed stars as they traipsed down the green carpet before starting the show. But aside from seeing ZZ Top, Slash, and Tommy Lee all on the same stage at the same time (note to my dad: you’re so jealous!), we were also thrilled to play a wee part in the celebration of the launch of Planet Green, which is going to play its own starring role in the efforts to take green mainstream. As the G-Man always says, going green should be about more carrot, less stick please.
Wrecklamation’s Jodi Murphy on saving water (ooh lala!) and her new show.
Maria Menounos on Hollywood Green and not gossiping when it comes to green celebs.
Bonus vid! In case you haven’t seen it, Tommy Lee and Ludacris duke it out over who’s greener in this promotional clip.
I was briefly excited, but after watching a few of the shows, I found it to be annoying on several levels. How much energy was wasted having two trucks compete? On another show, someone was talking about hwo they restyled their home with "green" fabrics, furniture, etc....but wouldn't the more eco-friendly choice be to leave things the way they were?
And what was the footprint of this party? "Going green" is a sexy thing these days, but I really question the depth of conviction for many of these people - especially the hypocrite celebrities.
These sorts of events and stories make it easy for critics of the environmental movement to just sort of point and laugh and mock its shallowness.
I would be willing wager that the carbon footprint of just one of these so called green-celebs would dwarf that of the average citizen.
I’ll take my environmentalism without the celebrity worship thanks. The glorification of the conspicuous consumption practiced by most of these folks is partly responsible for the mess we now find ourselves in.
Planet Greenwash.
One Ed Begley, a bevy of hyper consuming bimbos and bimbobs. The channel is the very height of vapidity in relation to the importance of its supposed credo.
He shoots! He misses. Clock runs out.
Y'know, I can appreciate what the previous posters are saying. And it's true- conspicuous consumption is the name of the game in Hollywood.
Yet, for better or for worse, today's consumer is heavily influenced by flash and cash. Which means that a few of that the people tuning in to see a Ludacris or Tommy Lee might actually glean an eco-tip or two.
As an reformed environmentalist I now walk around wondering how is it possible to get even a tenth of the public to adopt an eco-conscience similar to mine. Pop culture is one way. So I'd like to think that a Planet Green might, in the end, to more good than harm.
As someone who has lived and worked in Hollywood for a long time, and run an 'eco' business for 13 years, I know that some celebs are truly committed and some are just trend-jumping jerks. Hopefully, the jerks will find the next trend to jump and leave the work to the committed people who will really help. Like Ed Begley.
Planet Green has the unique opportunity to help numerous people survive the enviromental and economic hardships we are all living with right now, instead it chooses to spend much of it's programing hours glorifying hollywood celebs who's footprints are huge. If we want to watch the hollywood crowd we will tune in to the E network. Unless you can show us a celeb who has chosen to give up air travel, or hanging cloth diapers out to dry, we don't need to see it. People are looking for real solutions that the average viewer can afford. Planet Green should not waste the chance they have to teach real change and solutions to the masses, rather than the few privilaged. Buck up Planet Green and do your job, programing hours are not recyclable
Hey, don't knock it, took us years to get it to this point, give it a chance to get warmed up... remember the ecology channel, and planet central, and half a dozen other start ups that sunk millions on green channels that never got off the ground? well, at least this time around, we got something 24/7 so instead of bitching, become creatively involved. My fear is Discovery making deals with the devil... like GM... Planet Green right now is planet compromise, rather than all or nothing, we get lukewarm green, still green enough that if we work really hard, spice a little controversy to make the channel successful, we might actually end up with a radical tool of global transformation... i mean face it, when MTV first started, everybody thought what a stupid idea it was to do a channel airing nothing but music videos... and look what happened! If a few folks at Planet Green have enough courage to tackle serious issues, present them in a way that's creative and entertaining so we can reach a wider demographic, that's a good thing. Greensburg deals with some really interesting dynamics... AlterEco is a pleasure to watch, anyone who doesn't have his or her heart stolen by Angela Lindvall needs a new set of emotions... Maria needs to take it down a notch... remind herself she's NOT doing Access Hollywood... Summer Rayne will grow into her role at G-Word, the stories there are cool, well covered... the hosts need to let go of their Science channel banter, relax a little... kick their feet up, bring us into the studio with them... break that fourth wall... it's reality television, not show and tell... Mean Green Machines is a wake up call to Detroit... Give Planet Green a break... I expect that by this winter, they'll be covering nuclear issues, they'll be following Green Corps volunteers around the world, they'll be doing stories on green music festivals, they'll be doing interviews with Julia Butterfly Hill and Paul Hawken... Go to China with Bill McDonough... the green sky's the limit. So comments like Planet Green is greenwash, no, I don't buy it... it's a green light... once the ratings are in, they'll take more chances, if they don't someone else will... just the fact they have Tommy Lee on board, at least he's not throwing hams on his neighbors lawn, like other metal Gods we know... with a daughter caught on tape screaming: "who gives a **** about the environment!"... so... when is Katherine Brooks going to produce a segment... everybody in green Hollywood wants to climb on board... hang on... this is just the warm up round!