When celebrities embrace a cause it often puts people’s backs up, writes Julia Stephenson. 

Many of us prefer our celebs pretty, pointless and mute, and there are sneers and snarls when they use their fame to shine a spotlight on something more interesting than their fitness regimes. I was amused by Sharon Stone’s recent peace initiative (`I’d kiss just about anyone for peace in the Middle East’), at least she’s having a go and keeping a sense of humour. With our rulers discredited and too cowardly to put human rights before short term profit, no wonder there is a void so easily filled by actors, television chefs, pop stars and models.

Politicians do nothing to avert climate change, many want to spend trillions on weapons of destruction (Trident) and pushed through an illegal war in Iraq which the majority of the electorate didn’t want; so it’s hardly surprising that we now look towards entertainers to do the right thing.

While some celebrity posturing can be galling, I’d swap the current British Cabinet for a dream team composed of Joanna Lumley, Richard Gere, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver in a heartbeat. And not forgetting the lovely Greta Scaachi (pictured) who recently persuaded the listeners of the Today Programme with a hesitant yet compelling argument to stop eating endangered blue fin tuna as part of her support for the campaign to save the world’s dwindling fish stocks.

Meanwhile in the US there seems less sneering when entertainers try to do something good. Paul Newman was feted for raising millions with his food empire, and others of the Hollywood elite, like Ed Begley Jr., Edward Norton and Robert Redford have been doing the green thing for most of their lives, supporting causes from natural resource conservation to alternative energy and reducing their own footprint by driving hybrids, living off-grid or declining extravagant celebrity gifts.

Special mention must go to ethereal and beautiful Darryl Hannah, forever preserved in the nation’s imagination as a gorgeous mermaid, but who is now a champion of off-grid living.  I keep chickens on my city roof and am trying (unsuccessfully) to persuade my inamorato to run his white van on waste cooking fat which feels extreme enough, but Darryl is the blue print of what can be done if you put your mind to it. She lives off the land, rescues unwanted animals and runs her van off bio diesel waste cooking fat.

But then, she lives in the wilds of Colorado and I live in the city so it’s horses for courses, I guess.