Posted on 08/06/2007 5:53:57 AM PDT by Clive
Readers of Hollywood news already know that Laurie David has filed for divorce from her husband, Larry David, the creator of Curb Your Enthusiasm and co-creator of Seinfeld. Mrs. David's papers cited "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for the split. This past Sunday, the New York Post cast some light on the nature of those differences. Over the past year, neighbours have seen Mrs. David in a variety of amorous postures with a younger man, "her hottie but dumb building contractor," as one of those neighbours describes him.
OK, stop right there -- this is the National Post, not the National Enquirer. Why would we reprint salacious allegations of middle-aged romance?
Well, actually, there is a serious political point to make here amidst the hanky-panky.
Remember Ted Haggard? The Colorado preacher who championed traditional marriage -- and was then caught buying sex-enhancing drugs from a gay prostitute? You've also probably heard a great deal about David Vitter, the socially conservative U.S. Senator from Louisiana whose name showed up on a Washington, D.C. escort service's client list? It seems almost an iron law: Sexual moralists get hoisted by their own petard.
But there is another form of hypocrisy, very nearly as ubiquitous, about which we hear much less -- and that is the hypocrisy of the celebrity environmentalist.
Of all today's fashionable causes, the environment is the very most fashionable of them all. And no Hollywood activist is more dedicated than Laurie David, who used her husband's wealth to finance Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Gore lavishes praise on her work: "Laurie David has done more than any one person I know to raise awareness of the climate crisis."
Laurie David reviles SUV owners as "terrorist enablers." She has paid for television commercials demanding higher mileage standards for cars and trucks. She owns and operates the Web site, StopGlobal-Warming.com.
Her message: "There's something that we can all do about it." In her many media interviews, Laurie David details her own contributions to the cause: She uses only recycled paper products and she has made her two children take shorter showers.
Now back to our celebrity chitchat. Note again what Mrs. David's new amour does for a living. He's a builder, specifically the builder of Mrs. David's new 25,000-square foot house on Martha's Vineyard. That's a bigger house even than her friend Al Gore's. Gore's Tennessee house uses 20 times as much energy as the national average. And he only owns one house -- the Davids own two.
Fuel consumption for electricity production is the largest single source of carbon emissions in the United States.
You may wonder: How does a Los Angeles resident like Mrs. David travel between her west coast home and her new east coast summer place? Answer: She charters a Gulfstream jet. Environmental journalist Gregg Easterbrook calculates that a midsized Gulfstream G200 burns as much fuel on one transcontinental flight as a Hummer monster SUV consumes in an entire year. Easterbrook sourly comments: "But then, conservation is what other people should do."
Eric Alterman, a liberal journalist friendly with the Davids, has worried in print about the hypocrisy of Hollywood environmentalists. "The response," he writes, "has been not so much explanation or excuse as a plea for indulgence -- as if one were, after all, dealing with children."
This seems to be Larry David's own assessment of his domestic situation. Larry David contributed a comic introduction to his wife's 2006 book, Stop Global Warming: The Solution is You.
"Thirteen years ago, I met a materialistic, narcissistic, superficial, bosomy woman from Long Island. She was the girl of my dreams - Finally, I had met someone as shallow as me - But then, after a few months, I began to sense that something had changed - She was growing - I, Larry David, the shallowest man in the world, had married an environmentalist."
But is it really true that environmentalism precludes materialism, narcissism and superficiality?
If environmentalism is to Democratic America what religious morality is to Republican states, there is at least one Laurie David for every Ted Haggard. The gossip site TMZ in October, 2006, compiled a short tally sheet: George Clooney drives an electric car that gets 135 miles to the gallon -- and then hopped on a private jet to Tokyo, burning enough fuel in one flight to power his car back and forth across the Pacific 57 times. Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, Brad Pitt: same story.
But maybe Larry David put it best. Asked by reporters for reaction to the divorce, he answered, "I went home and turned all the lights on."
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But celebs’ pollution smells nicer than ours does, don’cha know.
Liberals and hypocrisy go together like bacon and eggs. It’s that time tested “do as I say and not as I do” mentality.
It may seem dark now, Larry, but life will get better and better from this day forward.
I am convinced that committed environmentalists suffer from an inner void. They are too shallow to consider self-improvement, and instead direct that energy at correcting the flaws of others. In an extreme case, such as Laurie David, they are so blind that they cannot see the very faults in themselves that they are correcting in others.
It’s a mental disease masquerading as a public policy.
Liberals are so blind to their own hypocrisy...
Yes, the great unwashed masses who need them to think for us.
Well, I’d like a big house or two and to be able to jet around where ever I want when ever I want.
Since they’re such big fans of socialism, I’m waiting for them to give me the money to do it.
*chirp, chirp,...*
I don’t think this hypocrisy argument gets us very far. The logical conclusion is that they should use less energy. I just want them to shut up and mind their own business. We would do better to illustrate that they are a bunch of communist inspired totalitarian leaning busybodies who don’t know what they are talking about. A lot of mischief hides under the environmentalist label and we need to sully it.
I know Larry David has said some stupid things before but I believe that alot of his liberal rants have been due to his relationship with Laurie. He's got some signs of being a natural conservative.
That is he is able to strip away the veneer of life's moments and get to the crux of the issue in ten seconds. He proved this time and time again on Seinfeld in general and especially by the George character being an almost carbon copy of himself.
"I went home and turned on the lights." See - that's getting to the crux and is damn funny.
To see their hypocrisy first hand one has to do nothing more than watch the Oscars or Emmies. If they were so concerned about the environment they would forsake the limos and take an electric bus, turn off all the spotlights,dine on some environmentally friendly food and not party until all hours and waste electricity. Militant Muslims would turn pacifist before that happens.
Hypocrisy is the lifeblood of liberals, no matter where you find them, as this clearly demonstrates.
I can't remember where I read it or who said it, but it was a celeb talking about this type of hypocrisy.
The way this person justifies their actions is a simple "We all do what we can in our own way"
Typical lib/hollywood Bravo Sierra. It stinks to high heaven from a mile away.
I live my life just fine using the principle that there is nothing a celeb can do or say that I need or want to know.
No, no, no...
You have it all wrong! She’s not a hypocrite - she buys OFFSETS for her sins against the environment! She’s carbon neutral!
Apparently, she forgot to buy some offsets for her infidelity, though. Sadly, this oversight has not made her adultery-neutral as she might have wanted. *sad*
I wholely disagree. The totalitarian angle should be completely played (and defended against) but by far the hypocrisy angle is the most effective and immediate.
It is one thing to argue the minutia of global warming. This study, this figure, this statistic vs. another study, another figure, another statistic.
You don't need almost any registerable IQ to recognise the rank hypocrisy of, say, Sheryl Crow saying we should use only one sheet (maybe two) of toilet paper per visit and then seeing bulletin boards of Crow endorsing a hair coloring system where the product comes in a very elaborate, corrogated box that clearly uses the equivalant of a roll or two or three of paper product.
Step one to make some of these enviromental celebrities shut up IS to highlight their hypocrisy with a constant drumbeat. Trust me-it'll shut alot of them up.
But it is certainly true that the most important thing is to expose the fraud that is the purported science.
No, no, no...
You have it all wrong! She’s not a hypocrite - she buys OFFSETS for her sins against the environment! She’s carbon neutral!
Apparently, she forgot to buy some offsets for her infidelity, though. Sadly, this oversight has not made her adultery-neutral as she might have wanted. *sad*
I find the whole thing amusing.
They wouldn't even get me a front porch! I'm still sitting on a plastic lawn chair in the driveway.
I wonder if Larry can find some cheap divorce announcement cards and envelopes and give them to Laurie to send to their friends since obviously the wedding ones were too high grade. :)
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