Tom Cruise proves Scientologists ? green by spending $1,000,000 a year on fuel
If you've got it, why not flaunt it (and make a total fool of yourself in the process)? That seems to be the slogan of the world's most famous Scientologist, Tom Cruise. The once-cool movie star (seriously, remember him in Top Gun?) is acting about as outlandish as celebrities come these days, as his fuel spending habits prove. According to a note in Star (wait, are we quoting Star now? Oh boy) that's repeated on MSNBC (that's better), Cruise spent close to a million dollars (!) on fuel in the past year for "his Porsches, his homes, his planes and his motorcycles," vehicles that a source said he liked to brag about. Yes, that's planes with an s. Apparently he owns four of them. What a tool.
[Source: MSNBC via Green Daily]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
JUKEBOX 3:20PM (1/05/2008)
That's only about 5,000 gallons of fuel a week,
what's the beef?
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Throwback 3:39PM (1/05/2008)
Who really cares what he does with his money? Or any celebrity for that matter. Even the supposed "green" celebrities, their lifestyles are so alien to the average person that I doubt anyone really cares how much, or on what they spend their money. Now politicians spending our money is a different story.
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Dad 3:47PM (1/05/2008)
Al Gore (Mr Green) has the same problem. His home sucks power, his trips in private jets and everything else. Not to mention his support for big tobacco for years.
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GreatGreenHammer 4:08PM (1/05/2008)
Creepiest.. Photoshop.. Ever..
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Mik_Cal 6:40PM (1/05/2008)
Al Gore has greened up his home a great deal since those reports circulated:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/13/gore.home.ap/
Now qualifies for LEED Gold despite being 80 years old and large.
His house is also his and a bunch of other people's workplace, so some energy use is related to work.
I'm growing tired of people casting stones at Al Gore.
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Domenick 6:42PM (1/05/2008)
Scientology...*shivers.
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Dad 8:13PM (1/05/2008)
"I'm growing tired of people casting stones at Al Gore. "
Well, get ready for severe fatigue. The house is HUGE!!! Like 8x bigger than it needs. His house is like driving a Hummer by yourself through rush hour traffic when taking a nice compact car would do the trick just as well.
Time to stop, I am getting "tired".
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Golden Boy 8:20PM (1/05/2008)
I'm growing tired of Leftists defending Gore's smarmy hypocrisy.
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Tim 9:02AM (1/06/2008)
Just $8 will feed a hungry child for an entire month.
http://www.feedthechildren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=org_give
So, in essence Mr. Cruise is STARVING $125,000 children to DEATH each year simply to feed his ego.
Now, let’s all look in the mirror and ask ourselves…
How am I acting like Tom Cruise, or Jay Leno, or Al Gore?
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why not the LS2/LS7? 1:05PM (1/06/2008)
ABG, you probably should have just stayed away from this fluffy, hateful story.
Yes, Scienos are nuts. Yes, Cruise is unabashedly so too. But relating all this stuff is for catty blogs like wwtdd.com, not ABG.
And for the record, him owning 4 planes isn't worse than owning one-fuel wise since he can only fly one at any given time. Jay Leno's gas usage is not 100x more than the average person just because he owns >100 cars.
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Mik_Cal 2:39PM (1/06/2008)
I'm curious why people who have it in for Al Gore are posting on a website called AutoBlogGREEN. There is always AutoBlog and other websites. Now you don't have to love Al Gore and still be interested in Green stuff, but so many people see him through the filter of right-wing, climate change denialist propaganda that I think they ought to feel less confident than they do in declaring his hypocrisy.
You try to do something in the world that calls for leadership, media exposure, and guts and then come back to us and talk about yours or someone else's hypocrisy.
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john riley 6:36AM (1/07/2008)
Propaganda 101: attacking the messenger (Gore) is not the same thing as refuting his claims. Maybe critics believe them after all?
Hypocrisy: Implying or suggesting that Al Gore (or anyone else) would be taken more seriously if they were more environmentally pure. Outside of places like Portland, people who live in small spaces, ride bicycles, and limit travel are NOT elevated as examples to be followed, but are instead considered marginal.
There are plenty of people living this lifestyle who would be happy to give Al Gore's talk, but it will have to be on-line if we aren't going to use airplanes. (Commercial is better than private, but if you are going to be pure, commercial is mostly out too.)
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Jim 7:25AM (1/07/2008)
re:"Now you don't have to love Al Gore and still be interested in Green stuff..."
From http://www.timesonline.co.uk:
Who would have thought that saving the planet could be such a lucrative business? Al Gore, the former US vice-president turned environmental campaigner, has made more than 50m (about $100,000,000) in just seven years from his books, speeches and shrewd investments in technology and green ventures.
(in 2000)..."his biggest assets were his two homes ... and 500,000 invested in oil company shares."
Al is about making money, not being green. That's why he says it but doesn't live it. This is why we don't respct Al Gore. Maybe it takes a conservative to see the hypocrisy? And yes, some of us conservatives ARE interested in being green, but not in Al.
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Owain Ozymandias Buck 8:03AM (1/07/2008)
Y'all lay off of Tom. He needs all those jet planes to carry around all of his Thetans! (but seriously, is it any weirder than a cult that has a ritual based around eating the body of their departed leader?)
Celebs are not role models. Not many of them are any kind of leader either. I bet everyone here can think of an individual they know--who is just a local figure--that has better leadership skills than most of our stars and big name politicians.
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bfg0 10:47AM (1/07/2008)
"7. "I'm growing tired of people casting stones at Al Gore. "
Well, get ready for severe fatigue. The house is HUGE!!! Like 8x bigger than it needs. His house is like driving a Hummer by yourself through rush hour traffic when taking a nice compact car would do the trick just as well."
1) it's a family home, he didn't build it that big.
2) it's also a workplace which accounts for much of its energy use. Most homes don't use much energy during the day when occupants are working
3) he buys carbon credits to offset CO2 production related to the house
4) he made the house quite efficient, as posted above, or did you miss the "LEED Gold" phrase?
5) and what exactly have YOU done to reduce your energy usage lately? "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"
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Mik_Cal 1:28PM (1/07/2008)
Jim,
If you are a conservative you are applying a double standard to Al: Why cannot being Green be a money-making proposition? You are saying that Al or other Greens cannot be self-interested. They are ALSO interested in the welfare of the planet. In your mind, does George Bush or whomever you consider a leading light of conservatism need to choose between self interest and interest in the common good?
If you applied the same logic to your conservative heros they would either be entirely selfish or entire selfless, depending on which category you fit them into.. Last time a I checked many conservatives make a virtue out of being almost entirely self-interested...maybe that's not your flavor but it might be.
I think your attacks on Al are simply bargain basement partisan hackery, as much as you'd like to think they were otherwise.
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Jim 1:49PM (1/07/2008)
Mik Cal,
No, I am not a big fan of George Bush. I'm a conservative, and he isn't. And last time I checked, neither side has a lock on hypocrisy.
My point about making money is that lots of people want to paint Al as some kind of saint who has passed up running for President, which they associate with power and fortune, because he is too busy saving the planet. In fact, he may be too busy making money, buying carbon offsets from a company he owns. As I said, Al doesn't live like he says we all need to. Can you honestly say you weren't bothered a bit when it came out a while ago about the Gore's energy consumption being 12 times that of the average American family? I bet you were, just as I was.
Your orignal post asked why we who don't worship ("have it out for") Al even bother to read or post on ABG. And I tried to answer your question. If this qualifies as "bargain basement partisan hackery" in your book, that's OK with me.
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Mik_Cal 2:39PM (1/07/2008)
Jim,
My mentioning George Bush was perhaps a mistake as now conservatives are disowning him.
I think it's far more important what Al Gore does in the area of advocating for action on climate change than what he does as an individual or home owner. For you these things seem to be reversed: you care more how he lives his life. That makes me question how much you care about "green" issues for which Al Gore has really done a hell of lot, whether you like him as a person or not.
It was this kind of logic (judging the man rather than the program) that got George Bush elected by both conservatives and not so conservatives in 2000 and 2004: he was the guy that people wanted to have a beer with but was basically incompetent (as we have learned). Gore was the stiff guy who was the annoying smart kid in our grade school. If Americans stopped personalizing politics so much and started to look at policy we would be much, much better off as a country.
Gore has made money doing good and frankly I'm terribly envious of that and I imagine many people are as well. I just sit with my envy while some people attack and say: "how can he have his cake and eat it too?"
And yes, I think it is a very good thing that he has now gotten a ground source heat pump for his house and reduced heating and cooling bills substantially. If he became an advocate for that technology alone as either a standard for the building codes or through some federal policy, he would be going a long way to reducing our carbon footprint. You seem to be filtering out all the improvements he's made in his large 80 year old house to get it a LEED Gold rating.
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TvLover 3:18PM (1/07/2008)
For all the Al Gore lovers:
Al Gore did not invent the internet...
Al Gore did not try to "get the message out for the last 20 years" about climate problems. Had he, everyone would have been aware a long time ago. Scientists have been trying to get the message out for the last 20 years, but they have been patently ignored. BTW...everyone seems to think that oil is not a renewable resource...um, it is, it is just dirty as can be to our climate. Things are always dying, things are always being fossilized, things that were once fossils are becoming oil all the time. Wells that were "tapped" 20 years ago are now full again because of this wonderful process referred to as "Life".
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Mik_Cal 6:31PM (1/07/2008)
To point out Al Gore's contributions to PUBLICIZING global warming does not make one an "Al Gore lover".
However to continually harp on whatever weaknesses he has and accuse others who point out that he has done much good that they "love" him is a clear sign of "Al Gore hatred"...an indication that you either have unrealistic expectations of leaders and public figures or you are just out to fight the causes that Al Gore has fought for by means of character assassination.
What bugs me is that there are people out there who haven't done crap for the world, yet they feel like they can throw stones at people who have. Who the hell are they?
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