SUV Foe Norman Lear Has 21-Car Garage

Newsmax ^ | January 9, 2003 | Carl Limbacher

[Paul Atreides]

Leading Hollywood liberal Norman Lear, who helped fund TV ads hitting the air this week charging that gas-guzzling SUV owners are actively funding terrorists, isn't much of an energy conservationist himself, judging by the 21-car garage he added to his Los Angeles estate five years ago.

The SUV foe's garage is "built to hold 21 cars and stands 45 feet tall," according to a Los Angeles Times report on the environmentally offensive structure. "Lear's neighbors in Sullivan Canyon contend that the structure, complete with a tennis court atop, was built in violation of city height restrictions and with misrepresentations about its size," the paper added.

"Lear's parking garage has ruined the aesthetics of the wooded canyon and blocked [his neighbors'] views," said the Times, which described Sullivan Canyon as "a quiet enclave that abuts state parkland."

"We're going to have this aircraft carrier deck out there. It's incredibly ugly," complained Lear neighbor Gene Albrecht. "It looks like a helicopter landing pad," said Rob Deutschman, another resident who opposed the SUV hater's exhaust-belching structure.

A November 2002 LA Times report said that Lear's garage held 24 cars, though it's unclear whether the additional parking space means Lear had unloaded a few of his larger gas guzzlers or enlarged his garage with three new stalls.

The anti-SUV ads bankrolled in part by Lear were put together by political gadfly Arianna Huffington, who calls her attack on gas-guzzlers "the Detroit Project." Narrated by a young girl, the commercials attempt to paint SUV owners as aiders and abettors of the 9/11 terrorists.

"This is George," the girl begins. "This is the gas that George bought for his SUV." The screen flashes a map of the Middle East. "These are the countries where the executives bought the oil that made the gas that George bought for his SUV." Cut to video of armed terrorists in a desert. "And these are the terrorists who get money from those countries every time George fills up his SUV."

A second Huffington-Lear ad taunts, "What is your SUV doing to our national security?" according to the Chicago Tribune.

On Wednesday, Huffington got into an on-air tussle with nationally syndicated radio talker Sean Hannity, who called her on the carpet for her own gas-guzzling ways and whose producer, James Grisham, first unearthed the 1998 LA Times report on Lear.

"Arianna Huffington, you were married to a very wealthy man, you're a very wealthy woman yourself," noted Hannity. "How many private planes have you flown in, in your life?"

"What does this have to do with the SUV ads," the energy conservation crusader sputtered, before admitting, "I have ridden private planes. They're not planes that I own. They're planes that were going somewhere in any case."

Hannity also asked Huffington her how large her California mansion was and how much oil she used to heat and cool it, to which the political gadfly responded, "That's none of your business."

After Huffington refused to detail any more of her personal energy consumption habits, Hannity unearthed a 1997 LA Times report revealing that her California home tipped the scales at 9,000 square feet.

[TC Rider]

I recall the late failed flyer John Dusendorf (Denver) blocked paving of a dirt road past his Rocky Mountain High home. He was afraid it would make it too easy for tourists to drive past his retreat.

I also enjoy the lefties who want snowmobiles out of the national forests, but use helicopters for ski lifts.

[kcvl]

Cameron Diaz's Porsche and Mercedes been gathering dust in her garage for the past four months? Because these days the stylish actress tools around Tinseltown in a $20,000 Toyota Prius ­ a hybrid car that swings both ways, alternatively guzzling climate-heating gasoline and sipping environmentally-friendly electricity. What the car lacks in class it make up in fuel saving and reduced emissions. "I love my Prius," says Diaz, 29, who reports that the batteries on her luxury cars have both died from neglect. "The Prius is all I drive."

[kcvl]

In a suit filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Veronica Cabello and Jorge Arauz claim the 27-year-old actress ran into them on April 24, 1999, at the intersection of Beverly and La Cienega boulevards. They claim Paltrow's rented Mercedes collided with their Nissan Sentra, causing it to slam into another car in front of it, and leaving them with "permanent and serious" back and neck injuries.

"They were waiting for the light, and they got hit from the rear," says their lawyer, James Earle. But, he adds, the actress was very nice about the whole thing. "[Paltrow] got out of the car, apologized and wanted to make sure they were okay, and traded information with them."

The incident allegedly occurred just one month after the waify blonde took home an Oscar for Best Actress in Shakespeare in Love.

[kcvl]

Gwyneth Paltrow is causing grief to her neighbours because she gets in such a mood when she can't find a parking space that she leaves her Mercedes on the pavement outside the apartment block.

When the actress can't find a space outside her trendy West Village building, she just abandons her car wherever she fancies and riles the other residents and traffic wardens.

One neighbour said: "When she can't find a space, she consistently parks her silver Mercedes on the sidewalk in front of the deli across the street from her house, forcing everyone to walk around it into the road."

[surrey]

I just caught the end of Arianna's appearance with Bill Press and Pat Buchanan. Press, referring to himself as an environmentalist, admitted that he drove a Lexus SUV. "But, but, but" he stammered ,it gets great gas mileage. Another hypocrit!

[Hildy]

Where are you getting all of this stuff from?

[kcvl]

GOOGLE...lol!

[kcvl]

Earle is suing both Paltrow and Midway Rent-A-Car, which rented Gwyneth her 1998 Mercedes SL500. He says his clients had about $4,100 in damages to their Nissan Sentra and faced $8,000 in medical expenses from back and neck injuries.


The lawsuit comes just as the statute of limitations was about to run out for Paltrow's run-in. Earle says he was negotiating a settlement with Midway, but one couldn't be reached.


Tom Molino, an attorney for Midway Rent-A-Car (which also represents Paltrow under its rental agreement), says they already settled with the driver of the front-most vehicle, but Earle didn't accept Midway's settlement offer for Arauz and Cabello.


"We've made a more-than-fair settlement offer, and they've rejected it," Molino says. "[Earle] thinks his case is worth a lot more just because of who was driving the car."

[kcvl]

Paltrow's life has always been elite. The daughter of actress Blythe Danner and producer Bruce Paltrow, she grew up in New York City, where she attended an exclusive private school.

[glory]

No, I think she advocates getting out there with your rake and doing it, but since she's against this convenience, I wonder if she'd be willing to give up her conveniences? I've heard milking a cow, churning your own butter, and salting your meats is much preferable environmentally to using the a fridge;-) Again, yet another hypocrit(repubhippy)--you give up your "useless" conveniences and hobbies, but keep your hands off mine.

[glory]

Oh this is ridiculous--how many conveniences do you use that we could come back at with smart ass comments?

Vaccuum? Ever heard of your hands and knees?
Washing Machine? Have you ever heard of a washboard?
Dryer? Have you ever heard of a clothesline?

oh, wait, here's a good one...
Computer...have you ever heard of a book?


HYPOCRIT ALERT!

[F.J. Mitchell]

And she Huffingtonned and puffingtoned and blew her credibility all to hell!

[amused]

Not hypocrisy per se. Just contradictory thinking which I see as different from hypocrisy, though hypocrisy was my original point.

[Republic of Texas]

That would be a tough choice. Ariana, or a hairy guy. I guess if I had Ariana bound and gagged, I could still go with her.

[JohnnyRidden]

4 words:Key it to hell! Seriously though, I hate these Hollywood hypocrites. Their hatred and disdain of us "little people" is so much like the nobility in the French Revolution IMHO.......... Thank God there are great conservatives in Hollywood like Matt Stone, Trey Parker, Charlton Heston, and Mel Gibson.........

[Republic of Texas]

Only if the vehicle is used in business.

[citizenK]

21 car garage?
Lear's probably thinks he is doing us all (and the environment) a favor by parking his cars and not driving them. "See, I took 20 cars off the street at any one time that someone might be using to guzzle gas."
What a hero.

[M. Peach]

You are correct.

[amused]

Now the case you cited dealing with your son could be construed as hypocritical and contradictory.

And the left wonders why the right shakes its "collective" head in disbelief.

:-)