Wednesday, January 27, 2010

PSA: Hollywood Vegetarianism


(Rosary Films) This is a short public service announcement created for the University of Rochester's cable TV station. Did you know that nine-time Olympic gold medal winner Carl Lewis made the switch to a vegetarian diet? How about Alicia Silverstone? Or Albert Einstein?

Hollywood Celebrities turning to Vegetarianism
Many Hollywood celebrities are flocking to vegetarianism for health and ethical reasons, besides reducing greenhouse gas emissions to save the environment. In an interview in the recent issue of Stylist magazine in London, Oscar-nominated Natalie Portman, who has been vegetarian for 20 years, said: “Part of my reason for being vegetarian was because it practices respect and love for life all through the day, so three times a day you make a decision not to eat things that have been killed.”

Besides Portman, other celebrity vegetarians include Grammy-winning country singer Carrie Underwood, Golden Globe nominated Tobey Maguire ("Spiderman"), and so on. Rajan Zed argued that there was extensive protection of life in Hinduism. Ahimsa (nonviolence, harmlessness) was a command. All the major religions of the world were opposed to killing, he added. Zed urged more world celebrities to come out in support of vegetarianism, thus contributing to a healthier world and helping the environment.

Beatle Sir Paul McCartney’s recently put his weight behind the "Meat-Free Monday" movement, which aims at persuading the public to go vegetarian once a week to slow global warming. Other celebrity proponents reportedly include actors Kevin Spacey and Woody Harrelson, actresses Pamela Anderson, Joanna Lumley and Laura Bailey, singers Sharleen Spiteri, Chris Martin, and Sheryl Crow, comedians David Walliams, Matt Lucas, and Ricky Gervais, media personality Kelly Osbourne, industrialist Sir Richard Branson, poet Benjamin Zephaniah, scientist Sir David King, Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, socialite Zac Goldsmith, chefs Giorgio Locatelli, Oliver Peyton, Arthur Potts Dawson, Yotam Ottolenghi, and Skye Gyngell, food writers Mark Hix and Nigel Slater, restaurateur Oliver Peyton, and so on. Source

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