As much as I hate PETA and disagree with their “do good” facade, I love the fact that they are able to get some of the hottest women on the planet to pose nude for them.
Actress and G4 host Olivia Munn is the latest uber-hottie to strip down for one of PETA’s ad campaigns. This ad is aimed at boycotting circuses, because “elephants should be free” and so on, so forth. Because as we all know, getting fed well every day and performing a couple tricks for laughing children really sucks compared to being stalked by lions and murdered by poachers for their tusks.
Munn is pretty passionate about the plight of the poor pachyderms, however. She stated in an interview with PETA,
“I had seen a video online about the mistreatment and abuse of these elephants at the Ringling Bros. circus event, and I was brought to tears. When you look at something like the circus, and everyone’s laughing and there’s color and there’s music and everything seems so great, but when you go right behind that door and [the animals are] in these crates all day long and then they’re getting shocked and beat just so they can get up and dance around on a ball. It was just so sickening.”
Watch Olivia Munn’s interview with PETA below, or just gawk at the poster above for awhile. Guess which one I’m doing?
A coalition of disabilities groups is expected as early as Monday to call for a national boycott of the film “Tropic Thunder†because of what the groups consider the movie’s open ridicule of the intellectually disabled.
The film, a movie-industry spoof directed by Ben Stiller, is set for release on Wednesday by Paramount Pictures and its DreamWorks unit.
“Not only might it happen, it will happen,†Timothy P. Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, said of the expected push for a boycott. Speaking by phone, Mr. Shriver said he planned to be in Los Angeles with representatives of his group and others to picket the movie’s premiere on Monday evening in this city’s Westwood district.
A particular sore point has been the film’s repeated use of the term “retard†in referring to a character, Simple Jack, who is played by Mr. Stiller in a subplot about an actor who chases an Oscar by portraying a mindless dolt.
Mr. Shriver said that he had also begun to ask members of Congress for a resolution condemning what he called the movie’s “hate speech†and calling for stronger federal support of the intellectually disabled.
“The most disappointing thing, the most incredible thing, is that nobody caught it,†said Mr. Shriver, who, as a co-producer of the DreamWorks film “Amistad,†is no stranger to the studio. He spoke of what he described as the studio’s and the filmmakers’ blatant disregard for the disabled even as they stepped carefully around other potentially offensive references, notably in a story line that has Robert Downey Jr. playing a white actor who changes his skin color to play a black soldier.
In a statement on Sunday, Chip Sullivan, a DreamWorks spokesman, said the movie was “an R-rated comedy that satirizes Hollywood and its excesses and makes its point by featuring inappropriate and over-the-top characters in ridiculous situations.†Mr. Sullivan, in the statement, added that the film was not meant to disparage or harm people with disabilities and that DreamWorks expected to work closely with disability groups in the future. But, he said, “No changes or cuts to the film will be made.â€
Formal complaints about the content of films are not uncommon, but well-coordinated boycotts are fairly rare.
The groups involved said that they represented millions of members and associates. Perhaps the most striking use of the tactic involved “The Last Temptation of Christ,†released in 1988.
Religious groups that considered that movie’s depiction of Jesus blasphemous called for a boycott of companies owned by MCA, whose Universal unit made the film.
source: Nationwide ‘Thunder’ Boycott in the Works [ny times]
