Cabrillo Port’s Celebrity Opposition Gets the World’s Attention

• Combination of Surfers and Entertainers Helps to Get the Anti-LNG Message to Outside Media

BY HANS LAETZ

It was a classic ’Bu scene last Sunday morning at Malibu Pier, when the fog burned off, a perfect chest-high set rolled in, and TV cameras and paparazzi focused on 175 or so surfers as they paddled out to protest plans to build a liquefied natural gas terminal just off Malibu.

“We can talk until we’re blue in the face, but when you see the people paddling out and then forming the circle, then you can see the unity,” said surfing legend Laird Hamilton. “And when you see unity, you see action.”

Hamilton, along with women’s surfing champion Lisa Anderson and a slew of entertainment celebrities, participated in Sunday’s Day of Action in protest of Cabrillo Port, the aircraft-carrier-sized factory ship that an Australian company plans to anchor 14 miles upwind of Malibu.

“Surfers are known to be selfish people,” said Anderson, “you know, the old ‘my beach, my wave,’ attitude. But when you get older, you realize you have to be more responsible and participate in this sort of thing.”

The surfers mixed with entertainers, including Halle Berry, Cindy Crawford, Ted Danson, Minnie Driver, David Duchovny, Kenny G, Daryl Hannah, James Keach, Tea Leoni, Gabrielle Reece, Ryan Seacrest, Jane Seymour and Dick Van Dyke on the pier. In addition to the $20 per head pancake fundraiser and the paddleout, a children’s sandcastle contest and some Pacific Island hula dancers added to the scene.

The event was a fundraiser for Coastal Advocates, the local organization attempting to raise $250,000 locally to fight the $650 million Cabrillo Port LNG terminal, which is scheduled to get permits next spring and be operational in 2010. That quarter million dollars will attempt to offset the $1.8 million in lobbying expenses that Cabrillo Port developer BHP Billiton of Australia spent last year alone.

“We have this sword of Damocles hanging over our heads,” said host Pierce Brosnan, who along with wife Keely Shaye hosted the event. Malibu’s most famous mingled with residents, strolling among gawking fishermen on the pier, which remained open to the public during the Sunday morning fundraiser.

Brosnan said he has discussed the Cabrillo Port project with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who ultimately could decide the fate of the Malibu LNG terminal. Brosnan said the governor was noncommittal.

On the pier and beach, about 2,000 persons watched as Halle Berry strolled arm in arm with boyfriend Gabriel Aubry, to the paparazzi’s delight. “I’m worried what it will do to our environment,” she said.

With the well-behaved line of paparazzi on the right, and the regular Sunday morning amateur fishermen on the left, a constellation of Malibu denizens made its way up the pier. Longtime ocean advocate Ted Danson tried to explain to an armful of celebrity reporters the impacts of the LNG plant.

“We have to draw attention to this LNG terminal,” Danson said. “It has been flying under the radar.”

The former “Cheers” star said it would be a huge mistake for California to embrace LNG as a fuel, because of the large amount of smog and greenhouse gas it will generate. “We invented smog in this state, and for us to be increasing the amount of smog is just insane, it makes no sense.”

Danson acknowledged that hitching the LNG issue to celebrities could be counterproductive. “Yeah, we’re the effete. Yeah, we’re the elite. But check out the facts. Don’t just listen to me.”

At that point, speeches began, and surfboard impresario Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner dived from the pier into the ocean to signal the paddlers at Surfrider Beach to begin the paddleout.

In four groups, the surfers ranging in age from eight to 80 paddled out, posed for a photographer in a helicopter, joined hands and formed a massive circle off Surfrider Beach.

Daryl Hannah’s pink surfboard stole the show as TV cameras and paparazzi craned for the best shots of the paddleout.

And on Monday morning, Berry, her boyfriend and Hannah’s pink surfboard dominated headlines and photos throughout celebrity-deprived corners of the world, including Australia, where the news about the potential pollution and wildlife impacts of Cabrillo Port largely have been ignored.

The Australian Age newspaper in Melbourne asked if BHP Billiton has met its match in its quest to site the LNG terminal off the Malibu coast.

“Quite apart from nudging out several competing proposals from rival energy companies, BHP Billiton will have to overcome opposition from James Bond, Catwoman and Mary Poppins’ chimney sweep friend if the Cabrillo Port is to get a green light,” the newspaper reported.

CAPTION 1. Photo credit, MSN/Frank LamoneaMAJOR MESSAGE—Some of the participants on the beach at Sunday’s Day of Action unfurled a banner pointing out that the beaches that could be impact by the Cabrillo Port LNG terminal welcome millions of people every year. Most of the photographers, however, focused on the entertainers and the surfers who were the event’s starring attraction and helped shine an international spotlight on the effort to stop offshore LNG development. More photos on page 15.