Holy globetrotting press release, Batman! Overstock.com has teamed up with the Humane Society of the United States to announce today that it isn’t selling fur anymore. (No — I’m not talking about the dreadful Nicole Kidman movie, although that would be a welcome start.) The Humane Society did a decent job of promoting this move, because I kept bumping into it this morning and I certainly wasn’t shopping for discounted women’s clothing or closeout DVDs. (I swear…)
Here’s the Humane Society’s top pit bull: “By refusing to sell animal fur, Overstock.com is distinguishing itself as a compassionate and socially responsible company.”
Here’s the CEO of Overstock, talking about the fur trade: “I began to understand that it really does treat animals simply as objects. Decorative objects, but objects nonetheless. So I realized we should stop having any part of it.”
Here’s a sampling of what Overstock.com is selling today (links were active as of posting time):
Before everybody pushes the “shenanigans” button, shearling is a type of fur. (Leather + attached hair = fur), the way I understand it. Whether it comes from a mink, a sheep, or a prairie dog, it’s fur.
Didn’t Overstock think anyone would check? I wonder how much money they paid the Humane Society of the U.S. to stroke their ego and pump up their public profile. Let’s all meet back here in six months and see how many rabbit-trim jackets are back at “The Big O” on clearance. Deal?
High School Musical actress Vanessa Hudgens — who, mind you, simply can’t stand rehashing those naked pix she took for her boyfriend Zac Efron — has revealed who is to blame for those photos hitting the interwebs:
“Stupid people.”
I take it she doesn’t mean herself for taking them in the first place?
“I think people thought I took it lighter than I really did,” the High School Musical star, 19, said of the incident in a new interview with Good Morning America Radio. “For me, it was really tough because I’m a private person and for something like that to happen, it’s so mean.”
She said the experience was “horrible … it sucked. But thankfully it’s over and it’s in the past.”
How did she survive?
“My fans were amazing because they have stood by my side. They really are my core group,” she said. “My family’s always there for me. I just surround myself with good people and try to think of good things.”
Honey, some of those “good people” sold you out when they leaked those private photos. My money is still on Zac Efron. Never trust a man who has better hair than you do.
A few months ago, planet-saving carbon-spewer Leonardo DiCaprio threw his support behind a national Do Not Mail Registry to help stop junk mailers from killing all those precious trees and filling our trash cans with coupons and credit card applications and such. Which is definitely a good cause. Even if you could care less about what happens to a bunch of stupid leaf-mongering eyesores, it’s annoying to go to the mailbox and find a bunch of worthless crap.
But wait. What’s this? Leo’s doing what? Say it isn’t so, Page Six:
This week, freelance writer Philip Recchia received in the mail a big envelope with DiCaprio’s name on the return address space, soliciting donations for the Natural Resource Defense Council’s “Polar Bear S.O.S.” campaign.
Inside the envelope were a one-page pitch letter from DiCaprio and a two-page pitch letter from NRDC president Frances Beinecke; a flyer for a free “Save the Polar Bear!” tote bag; a donation form/petition to the secretary of the interior, urging him to protect the polar bear as an endangered species; and a return envelope…
AKA: Junk mail!
But DiCaprio’s flack, Ken Sunshine, who also reps the NRDC, makes no apologies. “Guilty as charged!” he told Page Six, adding the star’s “environmental commitment is unending.”
Sounds more like he’s committed to ending the environment. It’s either Save the Polar Bears or Save the Trees, kid. Gotta choose. (I vote for the polar bears. They’re awesome. Grrrrrr!)
According to New Scientist:
Goodbye air pollution and smoky chimneys, hello brighter days. That’s been the trend in Europe for the past three decades — but unfortunately cleaning up the skies has allowed more of the sun’s rays to pierce the atmosphere, contributing to at least half the warming that has occurred…
“The decrease in aerosols probably accounts for at least half of the warming over Europe in the last 30 years,” says Rolf Philipona, a co-author of the study at MeteoSwiss, Switzerland’s national weather service.
I take back what I said before about all your private-jetting around, Gordon. You’re actually trying to make things cooler, environmentally if not musically. Keep up the good work!
(Hat tip: Hot Air)
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