The Eye star Jessica Alba may be famous for her beauty, but behind those pretty features is an eco-friendly smartie. Really. In a recent interview with People [1], the Prius-driving actress — who's expecting her first child with movie producer Cash Warren later this year — talks about how she's creating a green nursery for her bambino. Not only has she been shopping for organic [1] fabrics, but she's in the market for furniture made out of recycled wood. Us Weekly adds that Jessica has tapped interior designer Kari Whitman for the project. Whitman vowed: "We're doing everything eco-friendly."
Well, any friend of eco is a friend of mine.
Another hybrid driver? Actress Joy Bryant, who is currently starring in Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins with Martin Lawrence. While talking with Black Voices [2], she listed some of the similarities between herself and the character she plays in the movie, saying: "[My character Bianca Kittles] drives a hybrid and so do I but our reasons are different. She's a vegetarian [2] and I'm a vegetarian, but our reasons are different as well. We're quite similar but we just have different motivations for things."
Let's hope the motivations are different as her character is described as "high-maintenance" and "highly competitive." Though in the right circumstances, neither of those qualities is that bad.
The New Jersey Nets — who are partially owned by Beyonce's main man Jay-Z — are champions... of the green movement. According to their special green Website [3], they are working to improve energy efficiency, raising recycling rates, water efficiency, indoor environmental quality and establishing green policies for the team (and their execs and fans) to use on a regular basis — like recyclable paper and cleaning supplies. Their goal? To become the first NBA team to be carbon neutral.
Hey, it ain't an NBA championship, but it's still something to shoot for.
Several years ago I met Scott Wolf when he was starring in the play Sideman on Broadway. All I remember from the experience was that he had tiny, tiny lips. Well, the collagen-free actor married Kelley Limp from the Real World: Something or Another and they recently got a green home makeover courtesy of Daisy Fuentes and the EcoZone team [4]. The Wolfs were given eco-friendly furniture for their family room and dining room, a natural fiber rug and a drip-irrigation system for the yard to save water.
You know who really could have used all these goodies? The Salingers on Party of Five. They were orphaned and always struggling to make ends meet and that Bailey... he was so great — except for the drunk driving incident. Oops, sorry — just reminiscing about my college TV-watching practices. The good old days before bad reality TV... and writers' strikes, (which is now over. YAY! [5])
Lastly, in the market for an eco-friendly home... in London? With the exchange rate as crappy as it is, I'm certainly not, but I'll tell ya about it anyway. The Naked Chef Jamie Oliver is selling one of his homes [6] — a property on Chequer Street — which he made famous by living there during the first season of Naked Chef in 1999. The house still has the kitchen and famed spiral staircase, but now also boasts five plasma screens (!) including a waterproof screen in the spa bathroom, fiber-optic mood lighting, a gym, bespoke kitchen and solar panels.
Dang — five plasma TVs? I don't know about you, but I'd never get my boyfriend out of the house. Ever. I'm pretty happy with our no-TV existence these days — though I'll definitely be tuning in for the Oscars on Feb. 24. You?