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LOS ANGELES - Songwriter and music producer Dave Stewart is collaborating with activist group Greenpeace to come up with ways that Hollywood can promote environmental causes.
Stewart, who along with Annie Lennox formed pop group The Eurythmics, on Wednesday night will unveil an initiative called "Greenpeace Works," which he labelled a sort of "think tank" to dream up ways celebrities and Greenpeace can work together on green issues.
"If you can imagine Andy Warhol's Factory with Greenpeace in it and me in it," Stewart told Reuters. "It is a hot house, a think tank."
The music impresario has for years supported Greenpeace, the 35-year-old group that calls attention to issues ranging from global warming to genetic engineering, by raising money among his many other activities.
This new plan goes one step further and calls for Stewart's company, Weapons of Mass Entertainment, to share Los Angeles offices with a Greenpeace branch where they will work together to mix media, art and celebrity with social activism.
The first initiative is already in the works with the April 17 release of a song, "Go Green," that promotes environmental causes and features recording artists such as Lennox, Natalie Imbruglia, Bonnie Raitt and hip hop singer MC Nadirah X.
"Greenpeace Works" expects to work with film and TV producers and publishers.
Hollywood celebrities have long been associated with political and social causes. Last month, the world's top film honours, the Oscars, went "green" when An Inconvenient Truth, which recounted former Vice President Al Gore's campaign against global warming, was named best documentary.
But many celebrities are often ridiculed for quickly adopting causes that are fads, then leaving them behind when the spotlight has dimmed.
Stewart said that perception can be "absolutely true" in some cases, but in others, such as with U2 frontman Bono, the performers will stick with the causes they champion.
He became aware of environmental causes as a teenager because his stepfather campaigned against global warming, he said.
Stewart said he works with Greenpeace because it includes workers "who really care about people and the planet, and there is something in them that has said, 'I want to do something about it."'
- REUTERS
