Eco-activists Ed Begley Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., were mocked by anonymous street artists ahead of a Feb. 12, speaking gig in Hermosa Beach, California. The pair will be speaking at an environmental forum, but were ridiculed by several “Saudi Approved” posters in the town.
The Hollywood Reporter said, “The posters feature images of the celebrities wearing Arab head-dresses and the words, ‘Saudi approved’ written in large letters. In the background of Begley’s poster, is Arabic text that translates to, ‘I love Arab oil,’ while the poster of Kennedy had Arab text translating to, ‘Hello, ladies.’”
Citizen journalists recently got Hollywood director Josh Tickell, Begley and actress Mariel Hemingway, on video appearing to have no problem taking Arab oil money to make an anti-fracking movie.
Begley told The Hollywood Reporter, he went to the meeting because he is friends with the Tickells.
“Josh is a friend, and he said if I showed up at this lunch, he would get money from a backer. He wanted some Hollywood people involved, and I saw the other one was Mariel Hemingway. I basically sat there and didn’t say much ...” Begley said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Of course a very real movie like this was already made. Participant Media, director Gus Van Sant, and actors John Krasinski and Matt Damon made the anti-hydraulic fracturing film “Promised Land,” which was financed with oil money from Image Nation Abu Dhabi. That company was a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media, owned by the government of Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Hollywood Reporter said the street artists were “riffing” off that recent video in their mockery of Begley and Kennedy.
"We're fed up with the environmental narrative that sounds good, but is ultimately dangerous and backwards," the artists told Hollywood Reporter by email. "Characters like Begley and Kennedy claim the moral high ground without anyone questioning the damage that their politics cause to real people in the real world."
Begley has been acting since the 1960s, but is most known for the TV series St. Elsewhere. In addition to starring in his own TV show, “On Begley Street” in 2013 he’s appeared in multiple episodes of “Portlandia.”
Kennedy is a left-wing activist known as much for his environmental extremism as for his anti-vaccination crusade. In 2014, Kennedy said of climate skeptics, “I wish there was a law you could punish them with.” He also accused the Koch Brothers of “treason” and claimed “they ought to be serving time for it,” according to Climate Depot.
