Press Release For immediate release, February 3, 2000
Further information: Robert Benson, National Lawyers Guild, Los Angeles
(213) 736-1094 (e mail : heed@igc.org)
Photos of protest attached.DICAPRIO’S “THE BEACH” HIT BY ENVIRONMENTAL PROTEST AT HOLLYWOOD PREMIERE
Chanting “Leo, Leo, Apologize!” and displaying signs saying “Hollywood Screws Mother Nature,” environmentalists drew international press attention away from the movie stars at the Hollywood premiere Wednesday night of Leonardo Di Caprio’s new film “The Beach.”
The movie has been tainted by controversy ever since its producers at 20th Century Fox gave an unusual $100,000 payment to the Thai Forestry Department for permission to film on a pristine beach in a Thai national park. Fox bulldozed a sand dune, planted 60 non-native palm trees, and removed native vegetation. The crew attempted to restore the beach after the filming, but local government officials and Thai villagers say the restoration failed and opened the beach to extraordinary monsoon damage. They have filed a $2.6 million lawsuit in Thai courts against Fox, its Thai agent, and the Forestry Department.
As stars arrived in limousines, Malissa Drake, a Thai woman who heads a humanitarian foundation in Los Angeles, told television news that, “we have to stop big corporations from going around the world with their money and destroying the environment in poor countries. Whether it’s an oil company or a movie company makes no difference. Environmental groups in Thailand let us know about “The Beach” and since we live in Hollywood it is our job to be here tonight to tell the movie industry to clean up its act.” The National Lawyers Guild helped organize the protest.
She spoke in front of the Chinese Theatre surrounded by demonstrators holding signs reading, “Boycott The Bulldozer Movie,” and “Beach Wins Oscar for Ecological Illiteracy.”
The premiere attracted only a small crowd of about 150 DiCaprio fans. Fox agents led them in practice “squeals” before the heartthrob himself arrived. When the protesters began chanting, distributing flyers, and holding out their signs, every television camera not controlled by Fox agents scurried to film them, and print media reporters asked for interviews.
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