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Celebrities With HIV

December 30, 2011 by · Comments Off on Celebrities With HIV 

Celebrities With HIVCelebrities With HIV, There’s little doubt that stars trade on their celebrity – with good and bad results. Lady Gaga, for instance, has topped the Celebs Gone Good list for the second year in a row for her advocacy on behalf of gay rights and AIDS/ HIV awareness in Africa, says dosomething.org, which compiled the list.

Closer to home, singer Paul Brandt’s Build It Forward initiative has been a model for fighting homelessness through his support for Samaritan’s Purse and helped raise money for victims of the Slave Lake fire.

Such positive influence is far from universal, however. Reality TV star Nicole Polizzi and singer-songwriter Suzi Quatro are on a different list – one for celebrities who’ve skewered science. Polizzi blamed the sea’s saltiness on whales and Quatro said all illnesses start in the colon – even sore throats, remarkably.

Such mangled scientific knowledge suggests we need to take some celebrities’ pronouncements with a pinch of, well, salt.

“It’s tempting to dismiss celebrity comments on science and health, but their views travel far and wide and, once uttered, a celebrity cancer prevention idea or environmental claim is hard to reverse,” said Sense About Science’s managing director, Tracey Brown, who helped craft the group’s naughty list.

We couldn’t agree more and would hasten to add the likes of Robert Redford, Daryl Hannah and Margot Kidder to another tally of wayward celebs – this one for those who choose to support oil from oppressive regimes over ethical oil from Alberta by opposing the Keystone XL pipeline.

As Brown said, it’s important to be choosy about whom you listen to.

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