Brad Pitt’s new role
Brad Pitt has a new role -- Developer.
The actor is leading a project to build 150 affordable and ecologically sustainable homes in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward -- considered one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.
Pitt is partnering up with producer Steve Bing. Both men are each personally pledging $5 million in matching funds to get the job rolling.
Pitt announced the project in New Orleans Wednesday morning outside the gathering of the Clinton Global Initiative gathering. The project is part of Pitt’s “Make It Right” campaign to help those devastated by the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.
“The words of one elderly man who is determined to return to New Orleans led to the name of our organization: he asked us, directly simply and profoundly, to help make it right,” Pitt was quoted as saying at the news conference. “So that’s what we’re doing. We’re going to help to make it right with 150 sustainable, affordable houses -- houses that stand out for their design both aesthetically and structurally, so that these people can live in beautiful safe structures that respect their spirit and provide a good quality of life.”
Pitt, well known for his interest in architecture, will oversee that design. He and partner Angelina Jolie have “adopted” New Orleans of late, purchasing an early-19th-century mansion in the French Quarter there, and trying to raise awarness of the plight of many of its residents who are still struggling to regain what Hurricane Katrina swept away.
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