Brad Pitt: NOLA's Oprah

The following piece was produced by HuffPost's OffTheBus.

As Oprah Winfrey takes her Barack Obama support on the road, the celebrity currently courting 2008 candidates' involvement in New Orleans recovery is Brad Pitt. When pressed on tonight's Larry King Live for a presidential endorsement, Pit said:

"I'm still . . . I still . . . I lean . . . I'm still listening."

Being from the Show Me State of Missiouri and a part-time New Orleans resident, Pitt seems to be waiting to see how important the city becomes for each candidate before issuing an official endorsement.

Democratic frontrunners including Obama and John Edwards have swung hammers at the Habitat for Humanity Musicians Village, the brainchild of Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis. On tonight's show, King let his guest know that Hillary Clinton planned to back Make It Right's 9th Ward program. With the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund a major sponsor of Make It Right, that's no great surprise.

Pitt said he was thankful for any candidate's involvement in New Orleans, and added that Make it Right has support from Barack Obama's camp as well.

"I hope it is one of the major issues in this campaign. I hope it's used not so much as a whipping stick for the past administration but really used as a proving ground."

King followed up by asking Pitt,

"Would you ask the President for help?"

The answer was: "Absolutely."

According to Make it Right, 27 of the 150 homes have already been sponsored. For each $150,000 donated, one of the pink-wrapped houses in the art instillation will be replaced by a real one.

"We can get this place rebuilt if support just keeps coming so I hope at some point there's more federal support for a campaign like this," Pitt said.

Sounding at times like Grandpa Larry asking why you give your kids such weird names, which was an actual question, King gamely peered into devastated 9th Ward homes with Pitt, bringing that image back into the lives of CNN viewers who may not have New Orleans at the top of their presidential priority list two years after Hurricane Katrina.

Last week, Michelle Krupa of the New Orleans Times-Picayune quoted Pitt saying he wants all 2008 candidates to directly address the ongoing struggle of hurricane victims across the Gulf Coast.

"I would challenge all the candidates to focus on what's going on down here, what's not going on here," Pitt told Krupa. "We're going to build some houses here, but there are bigger issues that need to get answered here, such as education and health. These need to be major factors of the campaign. My point is: If you can't get it right down here, you're not getting it right anywhere. This is the place to do it, and there's definitely a need for it right now."

For any candidate who can bring comprehensive rebuilding plans to the table, hundreds of thousands of displaced New Orleaneans are still listening.

Photo from Make it Right

Comments

[amberglow]

Edwards already is the only one who's actually done anything concrete to help people there--Pitt should know that.

[cloudy]

I think Brad Pitt is focusing on an important issue, the elemental struggle going on in NOLA. I would be interested in reading a column HE himself wrote about what specific things he supports (including places to donate) in this effort.

There has been a lack of continuing adequate coverage of the political struggles in NOLA, including in the progressive media generally, including Huffpo, TPM Cafe etc. (I know Harry Shearer has written a lot, but much more attention, including to the current conflict over DESTROYING thousands of readily reparable units of public housing, is needed). There has also been an enormous lack of progressive organization to support the struggle post-Katrina, though a group I have been involved with, the reborn sds/mds (students for a democratic society was the group in the 60s that started the anti-war movement nationally) has, at least in the NE region, finally taken up the issue.

Brad Pitt might be interested in taking his concerns not only to the candidates (who knows how important what they SAY is anyway?), but also to the progressive & the liberal press nationally, and to groups like sds/mds. Celebrity CAN indeed be a powerful catalyst for urgently needed change.

[Qbear]

BRAVO Brad

He's VERY savvy about locating homes in various neighborhoods FORCING NOLA to provide sewer, water and utilities to each area.
I remember the eight people who came to our home near Baton Rouge,and we would stand in lines trying to get ANY assistance and evacuees wouldn't even say Bush's name...they would SEETH HIM or He through clenched jaws.
What FEMA and Bush didn't do...those Hollywood Celebs,they love to degrade and mock are the ones rebuilding New Orleans.

[lgillooly]

If a Democrat is not elected in 08 New Orleans is screwed. They could care less about poor homeless people. Remember their motto"pick yourself up by the bootstraps" as if they actually have had to do that....Hello!!!!
Wake up America.Vote Democrat no matter who it is.