A Hollywood Effort for the Environment
Don’t be surprised if, sometime soon, “The Cosby Show’s” Cliff Huxtable tells his teen-age daughters that their aerosol hair spray cans are destroying the ozone layer. Or “Roseanne” gets a sudden impulse to recycle her Twinkie wrappers.
The reason: Some of Hollywood’s most powerful studio executives and agents are launching an organization, called the Environmental Media Assn., to raise the public’s consciousness about the destruction of the environment through TV shows and feature films.
The United Nations will provide technical advice to script writers, said Noel Brown, North American director of the U.N.’s environmental program.
Outside TV/film producer Norman Lear’s Westside home Thursday night, a stream of Mercedes, BMWs, Rolls-Royces, and stretch limos pulled up for the first formal meeting of the group. Inside, about 100 of Hollywood’s rich and powerful discussed ways to use the power of the media to steer American life styles in more environmentally sound directions.
“It’s going to take more than government action,” Lear said of the dwindling ozone layer, the destruction of the Earth’s rain forests and the alarming growth of toxic wastes. “We’re talking about a monumental shift in attitudes.”
Lear said that can start by adding “just a line of dialogue, an action.” When the Fonz on “Happy Days” took out a library card several years ago, Lear recalled, thousands of inner-city youngsters followed suit.
Lear’s guests included investor Marvin Davis, Disney Chairman Michael Eisner and his wife Jane; Creative Artists Agency President Michael Ovitz and wife Judy; producer Ted Field and wife Susie; Warner Bros. President Terry Semel and wife Jane; Castle Rock partner Alan Horn and wife Cindy. (Several Hollywood wives apparently came up with the idea for the group at a recent lunch.)
Other executives associated with the group include MCA President Sidney Sheinberg; Disney President Frank Wells; Columbia President Dawn Steel; Fox Chairman Barry Diller and NBC Entertainment President Brandon Tartikoff.
“Studio and network executives set a climate for approval,” said Andy Spahn, who is leaving his post as chief of staff to state controller Gray Davis to run the Environmental Media Assn.
Barbra Streisand was also there, and Robert Redford--who runs his own environmental effort--has endorsed the group, as have 10 of the country’s major environmental organizations.
