Celebrities Are Going Green for Earth Day

The heat is on, folks. (In a solar, eco-friendly kind of way.) April 22, the 39th annual Earth Day, is fast approaching, and the stars are primed and ready for unprecedented greening and preening!

Amber Valletta

There'll be tons o' star activity the Saturday before at scorchin' hot green-bashes like actress/model Amber Valletta's "Rise Up" for green issues fete at Legends — one of the way-too-cool stores at the way-too-cool Malibu Country Mart. Tix and merchandise sales are earmarked for the coastal town's brave (and too-oft-called-upon) firefighters.

Green-minded glitterati may also make their way to the nearby Topanga Earth Day Festival, an all-weekend eco-blowout of music, art, lectures, green technology and "living by example" workshops.

Nationwide, it's not just the Hollywood pretties getting their green on — musicians galore plan to jam for the cause...

The Roots

On Sunday (April 20) The Roots & Friends will shake it up in D.C. while Meshell Ndegeocello plays Chicago's Windy City — all part of the Earth Day Network- and Green Apple Festival-sponsored nationwide concerts.

Los Lonely Boys

Miami'll be partying to Menudo and Arrested Development, and down in Dallas, you won't want to miss Los Lonely Boys, Martin Sexton and Junior Brown. Denver's got the legendary Neville Brothers, San Francisco's rockin' out to Mickey Hart's Mass Drums, and Taj Mahal plus Ziggy Marley have L.A. covered. Sweet green sounds across America.

On Saturday, April 26, soap star Lauren Koslow will sign eco-friendly bags at Universal Studios' Eco Fair. And cars sporting "California Clean Air" stickers park free at the theme park from April 20-26. All cool, but we gotta admit we're most psyched 'bout "The Simpsons Ride" opening this spring.

Zach Braff

Meanwhile, funny guys Zach Braff and Chevy Chase will be plotting their six degrees from Kevin Bacon as they urge us ALL to be part of one million phone calls to the Capitol on Earth Day. The three amigos are but a few who video-PSA'd the Call for Climate Change cause.

And for those New Yorkers who have been, um, green with envy over Greenopia: the Urban Dweller's Guide to Green Living in Los Angeles, (Frisco's got one, too) comes the chance to rejoice when the Big Apple gets its own go-to guide on April 22. This book is the essential directory to all things eco-friendly from retail stores to hotels, hair salons and eateries. Tip to star-seeking tourists: put these eco joints on your tour and you're bound to see a celeb.

Earth Day is upon us, friends. SEIZE it. Big time.

GREEN THUMBS UP
Ooops, she's doing something positive! As reported in our very own thedailygreen.com, Britney Spears auctioned off the clothes she wore on the set of How I Met Your Mother — at least three of the items went for about $6,500 — all to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

New York magazine writes that Leonardo DiCaprio bought new digs in an eco-friendly Battery Park City development that's LEED-certified gold. The builders used nonpollutant materials and finishes, and occupants will luxuriate in twice-filtered air and solar-powered energy.

Guess who came to dinner? Annie Lennox, Mick Jagger, Colin Firth and Trudie (Mrs. Sting) Styler paid $2,000 each to chow on five courses of local fare (within 50 miles of London) — venison, oysters, organic beetroot, wild fennel and nettles — some of it transported by bicycle to the venue. Proceeds benefited the Soil Association, the UK's largest enviro charity supporting sustainable and organic farming.

Check out our favorite rocker, Tommy Shaw, filling up the Styx tour bus with bio-diesel in Greenville, South Carolina. As Tommy puts it: "We are proud to be doing whatever we can. We encourage everyone to think green, recycle, take a reusable shopping bag to the store or use paper instead of plastic, conserve water and do those little things that only require awareness. Life is good and with just a little effort we can give the planet a helping hand without even sacrificing the quality of our time here!" Amen.

BROWN THUMBS DOWN
Sure is a head-scratcher as to why the multiple-home-owning-jet-setting material girl is cover girl for Vanity Fair and Elle's green issues, but Amy Poehler on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update recently launched a zinger at Madonna that went like this: "In an interview in Vanity Fair magazine, Madonna criticizes New York City saying that it doesn't feel alive, crackling with that synergy it had in the 1980s. Said New York City: Right back at ya."

Oh, snap.