What Mark Ruffalo's Oscars Red-Carpet Blue Pin Means: 'Gasland' Support
Supporting actor nom Mark Ruffalo wears a blue water-droplet pin to the Oscars to support Gasland director Josh Fox's cause: water that won't burst into flame and blow consumers' homes up.
Ruffalo, a clean-water activist who says his own home has been threatened by pollution, also joined Fox on Capitol Hill last week to protest the natural-gas industry practice of hydraulic fracturing -- "fracking," which Fox's documentary attacks. The film shows people lighting their kitchen faucets on fire -- thanks to fracking-induced gas, says Fox -- and says fracking can cause brain damage, cancer, and homes that explode. Some of his documentary subjects shower in the dark, fearing that a spark from a light bulb might blow them up. "The natural gas industry, they're out of their fracking minds," Fox told The Hollywood Reporter last week. "It's more than that. It's deliberate and it's calculated and it's designed to try to mar the film. It's like the tobacco lobby saying cigarettes don't cause cancer. But they can't control independent documentarians."
GALLERY: See the top 10 looks from the 2011 Oscars red carpet.
The documentary race is particularly hard to call, since so few voters determine the outcome. But many pundits say Gasland has a chance against front-runner Inside Job. Click here to find out about the group behind Ruffalo's pin, Water Defense.
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Covering The Race
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Scott Feinberg
THR lead awards analyst/blogger for "The Race" online and co-contributor to "The Race" column in print. Handicapping awards races in the weekly "Feinberg Forecast."
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Gregg Kilday
THR film editor contributing awards news, features online and "The Race" column in print.
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Stephen Galloway
THR executive editor, features moderating Hollywood Reporter's roundtable series; contributing award contender cover stories in print.
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Tim Appelo
THR film reporter contributing awards news, features to online and print.
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Merle Ginsberg
THR senior writer and Fash Track blogger covering awards season fashion.
