Stars are two-faced on SUVs
MANY of the Hollywood celebrities behind the new campaign against gas-guzzling SUVs are hypocrites who consume huge quantities of fossil fuels in their stretch limos, Gulfstream jets and oversized Beverly Hills mansions.
TV producer Norman ("All in the Family") Lear, who is spearheading the conservation crusade along with columnist Arianna Huffington, built a garage for 21 cars five years ago which stands 45 feet tall.
"Lear's neighbors . . . contend that the structure, complete with a tennis court atop, was built in violation of city height restrictions," the Los Angeles Times reports. "Lear's parking garage has ruined the aesthetics of the wooded canyon."
Gwyneth Paltrow is appearing in ads for Lear's Enviromental Media Association (EMA) accusing SUV owners of supporting terrorism. But some of Paltrow's neighbors find her to be an odd choice for an anti-SUV poster girl.
"She drives a Mercedes-Benz SUV," says a tipster who lives down the block from Paltrow's West Village digs. "Not only does she drive an SUV, she selfishly parks it on the sidewalk in our neighborhood." Paltrow's publicist did not return calls.
The commercials have outraged drivers from all walks of life. They juxtapose footage of Americans filling up their SUVs with clips of Middle Eastern terrorists in face masks raising AK-47s.
Chevy Chase and his wife are avid supporters of the EMA, but that doesn't stop them from cruising around Westchester in the luxury of a SUV.
"They keep it in the back and it's very rarely used," Chase's rep, Alan Eichorn, tells PAGE SIX's Ian Spiegelman. "They only use it when they have to attach the horse trailer or when they're carrying a lot of kids."
Eichorn explains that the Chases are "extremely enviromentally conscious," that they have not one but two of Toyota's Prius model hybrid cars, and that they even use solar panels to heat their swimming pool.
"They hate having the SUV and they're going to get rid of it as soon as the carmakers come out with a hybrid version."
Barbra Streisand, meanwhile, never seems to tire of telling other people how to live, but the world would be a pretty smog-filled place if the rest of us lived like her. As The Post reported recently, Streisand and her hubby James Brolin have SUVs. Streisand's rep would not comment on what vehicles the couple is currently driving, but said that they plan to buy a Prius.