Stars and cars compete at U.N. Earth Day party

UNITED NATIONS(NEW YORK), April 22 Reuters reported that Hollywood stars, corporate and political bigwigs came together at U.N. headquarters in New York on Monday for an Earth Day observance long on public relations and short on policy goals.

Stars Susan Sarandon, Kevin Bacon, Patrick Stewart and Kim Williams were among the personalities to address the two-hour ``celebrity brunch'' billed as ``the nation's most prominent Earth Day 2002 event.''

New York Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Cuomo and Republican Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut also made speeches.

All dutifully warned the modest crowd gathered in a tent set up on the United Nations north lawn of the disaster ahead if Americans failed to change their ways and curb their profligate use of precious natural resources.

But the real star of the day appeared to be Toyota, the Japanese auto maker whose hybrid Prius model teams up a gas engine with an electric motor to get 52 miles per gallon (22.13 kilometres per litre) in city driving.

Sarandon heaped praise on the vehicle as an alternative to the George W. Bush administration's hope of drilling for oil in the Alaska wilds.

Numerous speakers urged bids for a donated Prius being auctioned on eBay for the benefit of Earth Day (http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/priusearthday).

``At Toyota, we like to think of every day as Earth Day,'' beamed Toyota chief U.S. lobbyist Charles Ing, boasting that global sales of hybrid cars -- the vast majority of them made by his company -- had just surpassed 100,000.

Psychedelic 1960s artist Peter Max showed off a series of giant posters encouraging one and all to save the planet for future generations. These also were being sold to benefit the environment.

An official of coffeehouse chain Starbucks also addressed the brunch.

Then Patrick Stewart, captain of the Enterprise spacecraft in countless ``Star Trek'' films, took the stage to apologize for having flown an Air France (AIRF.PA) Concorde to New York from London.

Was it an apology for taking a fuel-guzzling supersonic aircraft -- or a plug for really fast travel? It was hard to tell.

As the event drew to a close, Sarandon called all the celebrities on stage for a group picture, patiently explaining this would improve the chances of an Earth Day celebration showing up on the evening television news shows.

``We don't cover issues, we cover people,'' Sarandon reminded reporters covering the event.