Celebs Launch Esso Boycott Over Climate Stance ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Story Filed: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 6:54 AM EST LONDON (Reuters) - Environmental groups and celebrities Tuesday launched a UK boycott of Esso, the European brand of giant Exxon Mobil, over its support for Washington's withdrawal from the Kyoto climate pact. Activist and former model Bianca Jagger kicked off the ''Boycott Esso'' effort, which is also supported by pop star Annie Lennox and actor Ralph Fiennes. ``Often, we as individuals feel powerless in the face of this catastrophe that is unfolding. But with this campaign we can make a difference,'' Jagger, former wife of Rolling Stones rocker Mick Jagger, said in a statement. The Stop Esso Campaign, an alliance founded by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and People and Planet, is asking the British public to avoid Esso petrol stations until the company pledges support for the Kyoto Protocol. The Body Shop, another supporter, plans to publicize the campaign in its UK chain of shops selling organic cosmetics. Greenpeace has taken aim at five U.S. oil companies -- including Exxon Mobil -- for backing President Bush's rejection of the Kyoto accord, a move that frustrated and angered many of America's allies around the world. ``Esso are the world's number one global warming villains,'' said Greenpeace Executive Director Stephen Tindale. But the company says the drive will do little to change U.S. policy and could hurt local employees. ``The call for a boycott of Esso service stations can only be counter- productive,'' Esso said in a statement. ``We do not believe it will have any influence on the U.S. government -- but it could harm the thousands of independent British businessmen and women and their staff who operate their stations in partnership with Esso in the UK.'' The Kyoto Protocol calls for industrialized nations to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by 2012, but Bush pulled the United States -- the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter -- out of the treaty. Exxon Mobil has not accepted scientific evidence that fossil fuel emissions cause global warming, campaigners say, and is a member of the Global Climate Coalition, an international business lobby set up to counter that view. The company says it supports the study of climate change and has invested over $500 million in renewable energy. Greenpeace is also targeting Chevron, Texaco, Conoco and Phillips in its efforts to influence consumers.

Ralph Fiennes is finding plenty of distraction in New York while his beloved, Francesca Annis, trots the London stage in Ibsen's "Ghosts." From the Rush & Molloy column in the NY Daily News: The "English Patient" star has hit the town several times in the past few months. More often than not, you can find him out with Lisa Zane, sister of "Titanic" star Billy and ex-girlfriend of Heath Ledger. Fiennes has been to hear her sing at the Cutting Room. They also looked cozy the other night with a group at Lotus. A source vouches, "They're really just friends." Fiennes' rep says he and Annis are still living together and that his New York trips should be less frequent now that he's set to star onstage in London opposite Anthony Hopkins in "Retreat From Moscow." ~~~~~~~~ You'll remember, Lisa, don't you? ;-D Hmmm, wonder when this play is set to run....

"Fiennes has been to hear her sing at the Cutting Room" Lisa sings? Shudda gone to hear her ;-D

Spider with RF and Miranda Richardson will begin filming in July. It will shoot in Toronto and London. This is the only confirmed project, despite the slew of rumoured ones. Plot: from IMDb "Dennis Clegg is in his thirties and lives in a halfway house for the mentally ill in London. Dennis, nicknamed "Spider" by his mother has been institutionalized with acute schizophrenia for some 20 years. He has never truly recovered, however, and as the story progresses we vicariously experience his increasingly fragile grip on reality. "

Sounds like a role RF can do in his sleep.