Celebrities going green...do you care?

I was recently sent a copy of the book Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home by Christopher Gavigan. It's a really good reference book -- well-researched and full of very useful tips and information about creating a healthy home for your family. Scattered throughout the book are short sidebars written by eco-business owners, green mommy bloggers (Smart Mama!) and visionaries, as well as -- you guessed it -- celebrities. In fact, it's the celebrities that are featured on the cover of the book: Gwyneth Paltrow! Brooke Shields! Tobey Maguire! Sigh. Those were the sections I skipped over. Do I really care about Keri Russell's thoughts on toxins? Not so much.

Whenever I've read about a celebrity doing something that I think is cool -- say, getting back in shape after having a baby, or traveling to distant lands to raise awareness of a cause -- I'm inspired for a minute until I remember that these people have people. They have trainers and personal chefs and nutritionists and stylists and an army of nannies. Though they like to insist 'they're just like us' (and maybe some are) they really aren't. So I wonder if that's how some people react when they read about Noah Wylie eating organically or Vanessa Williams asking herself, "Is it worth it to pay a couple of dollars more for this dishwashing liquid and avoid the risk of poisoning my family? Absolutely!" when you know that Vanessa Williams doesn't worry about spending $2 and probably hasn't set foot in a grocery store in years. Wouldn't you be more inspired to read about a mom on a limited budget and how she justifies the expense and makes trade-offs to keep her family healthy? Something that most people can relate to?

I know that we live in a celebrity-obsessed culture, so I get that famous people are used to generate buzz and sales. But do you really care? Is it for real? Or did their publicist feed them talking points to make them look more caring and virtuous? Or should I just be grateful (hopeful) that the more people talk about it, the more mainstream it becomes and the more people will start making changes? Any thoughts?

P.S. If you happen to hear a woman yelling "Phony! Traitor!" in the grocery store, it could be me staring at an ad for Smart Water starring Jennifer Aniston, avid environmentalist. Oh, Jen.