It’s always fun to see “A” list celebrities waxing poetic on national TV on the burning issues of the day — from Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on poverty in Africa to Tom Cruise on the evils of psychopharmacology. In today’s celebrity culture, gaining media attention for a humanitarian issue certainly is easier with a movie star as one’s spokesperson than let’s say the head of the relief organization that is actually doing something about the problem.
Without undermining Mr. Pitt (or Ms. Jolie, for that matter), I was amused to hear the former explain to Diane Sawyer part of his rationale for taking up this noble cause: “Just feels like a natural progression,” he tells Sawyer. “And, you know, anything to get the focus off myself. It’s gotta be a healthy thing.”
Geesh.