The Week in Pop Culture and the Oil Spill: Whoopi Goes Wild

By Zach Dionne Posted Jun 11th 2010 12:42PM

Pop Culture and the Oil Spill: Whoopi and Costner Weigh In

More than 50 days into the BP oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, celebrities are progressively continuing to get in on the action, commentating, joking and commiserating. This week, Whoopi Goldberg went wild on 'The View,' Kevin Costner visited Congress to talk about his oil spill-fighting technology and the Upright Citizens Brigade got in on the BP-bashing.

See the Whoopi clip here, and the rest of the shenanigans after jump:

Mike Mitchell, the artist behind the 'I'm With Coco' movement, posted a killer image, 'Portrait of a BP Exec,' this week [left], staying topical -- and wowing us with his work -- long after the Coco hubbub.

Kevin Costner, a tireless environmentalist who has dedicated years (and a fortune) to an armada of seawater-cleaning machines called Ocean Therapy, visited the House of Representatives to talk about his technology this week. "We are all at fault here. It's just too easy to blame BP," the actor said. "What we need to do now is come together."

While Costner, 55, didn't tout Ocean Therapy as a final solution to the gargantuan leak in the Gulf, he said, "What I can provide is a technology that is available immediately, a technology that will allow rigs to resume operation and put people back to work."

Earlier, Costner's business partner, John Houghtaling, called the machine "a big vacuum cleaner" 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."

Comedy troupe the Upright Citizens Brigade got in on the action with a hilariously tongue-in-cheek video about BP executives dealing with a coffee spill on a conference table. Check it out [warning: foul language]:

Steven Colbert weighed in again, on the 48th day of the spill. "You know you're not showing enough emotion when you make Larry King look lively," he said of Barack Obama, going on to show the President how to appear "mad as hell."

Oil's Well That Never Ends

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'Avatar' director James Cameron called BP morons ... then apologized, saying it was "out of context."

Twitterized oil spill satire master Michael Ian Black has also kept his hand in the fray:

Michael Ian Black oil spill

Oh, and the oil spill killed Mario.

Previously:
A Chat with the Guy Skewering BP on Twitter / What Celebs Are Doing, Saying About the Spill

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Tags: BP oil spill

Comments

(7)

Friday 11 June

By Kimi

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Where are ALL the hollywood people during this oil disaster? Where are their t.v. money-raising telethons for the people in the Gulf states? Why are they silent...Clooney, Penn, Bono, Pitt, Jolie, etc. ? Where were all these people when Nashville was flooded? I am bewildered that no one in hollywood is questioning how long it took Obama to even mention this disaster{ Bush was bashed about his flyover Louisiana, within hours, after hurricane Katrina}. Why are so many soooo silent during this catastrophic disaster? Why aren't these people speaking up about the help offered from other countries was not granted to aid in this horrible disaster? Today marks day 53!

By Tracie

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WELL SAID!!!! I've been wondering that myself. It seems Obama can do no wrong, no matter HOW corrupt his administration is. I, too would like to know, WHERE ARE YOU PEOPLE?

By mw

You are so right, I couldn't agree with you more. I never thought about the stars raising money to help the oil spill. Of course if gas prices go through the roof, they don't care cuz they have loads of gas money while the rest of suffer.

By WESLEY

I don't know what kind of pressure in involved here, But why can't they make up a device that looks like a funnel, heavy steel, with aa lip around around the wide part, turn it upside down and lower the wide part and let the lip burry it's self in the ocean bottom, Around the broken pipe, Then let the escapeing oil rise up through the small part of the funnel, through a pipe to the surface, maybe have a valve mthere to either stop the oil flow or just let it run into storage containers. don't try to stop it just let it run to the surface through a pipe off the small part of the funnel. The lip will burry it's self in the ocean bottom makeing a seal, and the oil will flow up the pipe off the outher end of the funnel. Mabye this is just a lame brain idel, but so what.

Saturday 12 June

By kristen

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because the rich dont care.. our goverment and hollywood thinks because u live in the usa that everybody is rich their head is up their butts!!!!

Sunday 13 June

By Daniel Goins

What about Slobama's part in this. He claims responsibility and says he's in charge. Why ain't Whuppie and Joy and the rest bashin the crap outta him.......OH! Thats right ! He's BLACK....He's purty .......and he's as big a liar as they are. The Gulf Oil Spill was a major issue from day one....did Nobama act that way.....not until it became clear that he could lose popularity if he didn't say somethin. Thats all the members of this Administration ...except for Thad, are good for....talk. Bout as usless as Whuppies hairdresser!

Tuesday 15 June

By misbhaven36

My thoughts exactly ...where are all these celebs when we have a catastrophe here in the United States??? They are so willing to go help other countries....get the word out.... raise money...but here in their own backyard... you don't hear a peep out of them. The only one that seems to be doing anything about this is Kevin Costner.

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