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What Celebs Are Saying, Doing About the BP Oil Spill

By Zach Dionne Posted May 28th 2010 01:10PM

When there's a gargantuan, seemingly unstoppable oil spill polluting the Gulf of Mexico and threatening America's southern shores, people are going to weigh in -- your mom, the President, local news anchors, Michael Ian Black ... wait, Michael Ian Black?

Indeed. Turns out a handful of celebrities have voiced their thoughts on the crisis. "Maybe the cast of 'Jersey Shore' can just walk around the gulf. Wouldn't the oil be drawn to them magically?" actor-comedian Black tweeted.

After the jump, everything else celebrities are saying about the oil spill.

First, the facts: An April 20 explosion of a British Petroleum rig began sending at least 210,000 gallons of oil from the ocean floor into the sea each day. Yesterday, President Obama spoke out: "We will demand [BP] pay every dime they owe for the damage and painful losses they've caused." He'll spend today in New Orleans.

Some celebrities are taking a less heavy-handed approach to the catastrophe:

Michael Ian Black BP Oil Spill Tweet

Black refers, of course, to one of many proposed solutions to containing and/or eliminating the glut of oil -- a sufficiently James Bond-sounding technique called "top kill."

Black's other sardonic tweets have included, "I'm probably in the minority here, but I think all that oil is pretty" and "I spilled some olive oil in my kitchen and the dog licked it right up. We need to get some dogs to the Gulf ASAP."

In the department of even darker humor, a sneaky Twitter ninja has spearheaded a fake BP account, unleashing tweets like "The good news: Mermaids are real. The bad news: They are now extinct. #bpcares" and "'Beverly Hillbillies' marathon on TBS -- now THESE guys knew what to do with an oil leak!"

Jimmy Fallon referenced the venomous Twitter account in a brilliant monologue joke, saying, "BP wants Twitter to shut down a fake BP account that is mocking the oil company. In response, Twitter wants BP to shut down the oil leak that's ruining the ocean."

Stephen Colbert also weighed in: "I wouldn't say oil has spilled -- it just didn't stay in the rig ... No one knows what the f*** they're doing." The funnyman then debuted his Oil Containment Solution Randomizer. Check out the video:

www.colbertnation.com

CNN went to their trusty iReporters (i.e. the public) for ideas on how to solve the oil slick. The celeb twist? They had Bill Nye the Science Guy address the readers' ideas in a cool video.

AOL News this week pondered Hollywood's curious lack of aid to the Gulf cause, cross-referencing the situation with the recent $1.3 billion raised for earthquake-stricken Haiti:

Last week, Lenny Kravitz, Mos Def, John Legend and others took part in Gulf Aid, a fundraising concert held in New Orleans, which producer Ben Jaffe says raised $350,000 for fishing families and wetlands restoration. Louisiana native and actor Ian Somerhalder, who earned moderate fame as one of the first major characters [Boone] to get the boot during season one of 'Lost,' filmed a few PSAs for the Audubon Institute and told the Los Angeles Times, "I never talk about politics, but right now is a time to be angry and sad."

It's possible that man-made disasters just don't command the sort of sympathy as natural ones ... But then, survivors of 1986's Chernobyl accident garnered support from Michael Stipe, Bono and Helena Christensen, while Exxon Valdez inspired Kevin Costner to spend $26 million of his own money to hire a team of engineers and scientists to create a way to separate oil from seawater. More likely, it's just a result of unfortunate timing. Sean Penn remains in Haiti, and Brad Pitt's still going on about Katrina. And, well, awards season isn't for another nine months.

Speaking of Kevin Costner, the 'Waterworld' star is a tireless environmentalist who has dedicated years (and a fortune) to an armada of seawater-cleaning machines called Ocean Therapy. "It's like a big vacuum cleaner," Costner's business partner, John Houghtaling, told the New York Daily News. A big vacuum that works from a barge and sucks up tons of polluted water, separates the oil and finishes with 97 percent clean water.

"I've lost $40 million-plus," Costner said. "But I knew that if I was right, it would change things in an incredibly positive way."

The News reports Costner has 300 Ocean Therapy machines in different sizes. The largest machine (two-and-a-half tons) can clean water "at a rate of 200 gallons a minute -- faster than the well is leaking."

In a Huffington Post interview, Donnell Rawlings, a comedian known for playing Ashy Larry on 'Chappelle's Show,' joked, "Ashy Larry is moisture-deprived. I think if I go out there and swim like 10 or 12 miles a day, I think that I can contribute to containing the oil spill."

And Conan O'Brien chimed in, of course:

Conan O'Brien BP Oil Spill Tweet

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Tags: BP oil spill, Michael Ian Black

Comments

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Friday 28 May

By cacutrone

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I really do not think this is a joke.

Friday 28 May

By erin

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looks like this guy put half the oil spill in his hair

Friday 28 May

By chclttrffls

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The photograph is confusing....which one is the vile, greasy oil slick?????

Friday 28 May

By chclttrffls

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Oh, NOW I get it........ one is one is an oily accident that should have been avoided and the other one is in the Gulf!!!!

Friday 28 May

By doejohnrow

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You got it!

Friday 28 May

By peapers

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Has Costner's machine been tried yet? I'd like to know if it can work.

Friday 28 May

By Sick of Barry

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I heard Faith Hill and Tim Magraw are in self imposed exile with Alec Baldwin.

Friday 28 May

By Brad

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No one thought of the possibility that this could happen?
Not only should they have thought of it, but they should have prepared for it!
Even fifth graders know life springs from the ocean and we are dependent on the ocean for our lives on land.

BP..Repeat after Me; I Am Not Smarter Then a Fifth Grader.

Friday 28 May

By sleepyhead

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All I have to ask is what about cement?? A Substance that can get/be wet, then harden as it dries?

Friday 28 May

By sleepyhead

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To plug that thing? Cement or something, who cares what the people from down the shore say, they are just looking for some "wow wow".

Saturday 29 May

By ANNE JESSEN

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Celebs must shut up. They're a nuisance what ever side they're on.

Saturday 29 May

By Sarita

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My simpathy for the workers that died in the tragic accident, and for the sea creatures in the Gulf Of Mexico, a terrible thing to happen.

Saturday 29 May

By bigfeetpjs

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really !

Saturday 29 May

By jmkserve

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stop sending money to haiti our people need it more this is nutz

Saturday 29 May

By Ken King

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Check this out to see what really happened with the oil spill. Type
OIL RIG DISASTER - HALIBURTON SABOTAGED THE RIG ! in youtube and watch the video to learn the truth. Then google wake up call 2008 and watch the entire film to learn what's really going on in the world. Good luck you all on waking up. Namaste'

Friday 04 June

By sleepyhead

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Put Greenland in the Gulf!!??????? HUh HUh?? Put a Man Made Island in there. Just load it up with LOADS OF EARTH????!!!! Eh Eh?????

Wednesday 09 June

By LST

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Let's take Obummer and all of BP's executives and plug up the well with them, that should stop it.

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