Giulia:
Kerry Trueman
February 20, 2008 | 6:46 pm EST
The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Several topics really stood out this week, including the Oscars as social advocacy inspiration, civil rights and Black History Month, and lots of hot news on entertainment going Green. Check out our most popular posts of the week on these subjects, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.
Katie:
Happy Belated “Freedom to Marry” Week!
Rosa and Raymond Parks: Valiant Valentine #5
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Nicole:
Top 10 Oscar Picks to Inspire Social Action
Cornel West: Black Thoughts On Black History Month
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Gina:
Top 10 Best Picture Winners That Inspire
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Kerry:
Poor Michael Pollan. Well, OK, poor is probably a poor choice of words; after all, his new book’s been at the top of the New York Times bestseller list since it came out last month, so he’s presumably making big bucks exhorting America to buck Big Food. Pollan’s so famous now that there’s no time for personalized inscriptions at book signings, as I discovered when I went to hear him speak in NYC last month.
The thing is, though, Pollan never intended to become the biggest star in the progressive foodie galaxy. He’s gone from Walden to Wal-Mart; after making a name for himself as a Thoreau for our times with a series of brilliant essays and books on our uneasy relationship to the natural world, he took on industrial agriculture and stumbled into Upton Sinclair’s Jungleland, where he’s been tangled up ever since.
The Just Food fundraiser where I heard Pollan speak took place in a sleek “Ëœn’ swanky Manhattan loft, the kind of event a scruffy blogger only gets to attend by volunteering to check coats and clear plates (and spill red wine on a white rug”sorry, Molly!) Hearing Pollan discuss his latest book, I couldn’t help feeling that he’s gotten himself trapped in a CAFO”a Confined Author Feeding Operation.
Heath Ledger’s untimely death has left Warner Brothers Studios with the challenging tasks of both doing the necessary post-filming voice overs, and marketing the summer Batman blockbuster in the wake of last month’s tragedy. The studio still intends to release “The Dark Knight” in July 2008 as planned, but rumor has it that Ledger didn’t finish all of his lines before he died. The studio will probably have to hire a voice artist to fill in the gaps during necessary voice looping sessions, although they’ve been reluctant to admit it as they don’t want audiences listening for small voice variations in the film. In terms of merchandise sales, studio officials have been in meetings this week deciding what to do with t-shirts and toys depicting images of the late actor. They don’t want to be seen as exploiting Ledger’s image, but also don’t want piracy getting too out of hand. For the full article on Slate.com, click here.
Ledger was involved in a number of charities including LIFEbeat, the music industry’s charitable organization dedicated to reaching America’s youth with the message of HIV/AIDS prevention. An excellent way to honor Ledger’s memory would be to 
and get involved with LIFEbeat’s Outreach and Hearts & Voices program.
