BRAD PITT BRINGS NEW ENERGY TO BIG EASY

With a wife like Angelina Jolie, you'd think he'd want to stay home more; must be all the screaming kids...

New Orleans project backed by Brad Pitt Unveiled
Russell McCulley (with Jeff Franks), May 10, 2007 (Reuters)

WHO
Brad Pitt, notorious paramour of Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie; Global Green USA, environmental group;

WHAT
The celebrity and the organization have combined resources to develop five homes and an 18-unit housing project in a 1.25-acre (0.56-hectare) plot of the Holy Cross neighborhood, hard hit by Hurricane Katrina.

WHEN
Groundbreaking was May 9. Completion is scheduled for August, 2008.

WHERE
New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward, still reportedly mostly uninhabitable and deserted.

WHY
- The project is designed to use 40 percent less energy than standard residences, with solar energy panels and energy-efficient windows, though the structures will maintain elements of traditional New Orleans’ architecture. It will include a community center to serve in future hurricane and other emergencies.
- Pitt put up the prize for the design competition and helped select the winner. He has a home in the French Quarter.
- The Home Depot Foundation is lead funder; the project will cost $9 million. $2 million came from the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund for New Orleans schools.

QUOTES
Pitt: "Our hope is to use this as a template for other people who are rebuilding, a template for other communities in other parts of the U.S. and the world, because this is the paradigm we have to adopt…We have to adopt it to get off our oil addiction, we have to adopt it for our health, we have to adopt it for financial reasons and we have to adopt it for respect of the future of the people who inhabit this place…"