Bette Midler Isn't Nature's Best Friend
Bette Midler is facing fines of about $10,000 for cutting down over 200 trees surrounding her Kauai Hawaii home as well as building a graded road all without any kind of permits and all of this was done in a conservation area. Midler, through her attorney said Midler was unaware that any permits were needed and would be happy to pay the fine.
Ummm, you need a permit to do anything and even if Bette didn't know, you sure as hell know that the people who did the installing of a graded road and the removal of over 200 trees knew. It wasn't Bette out there in a t-shirt and shorts chopping down 200 trees and driving a bulldozer. She had help.
She just doesn't care because the fine is only $10,000. The permit process and whether or not she would have been approved is all one big crapshoot. This way, she just gets it done and has an extra cost of $10,000 with no fuss and no muss.
This is what sucks about celebrities. It's not about the environment, it's about the idea that you are entitled to do things because of who you are, and that money makes things go away. The idea they are special is fed to them ad nauseum by their agents, publicists, managers and their fans until they really start to believe they are special and better than everyone else. They aren't better than the rest of us, BUT you won't do anything about it. You will still watch her movies, listen to her records, and wonder what really went on in those San Francisco bath houses when she and Barry Manilow were first starting out.
So, if we won't do anything about it, then what does that make us? Are we worse than the celebrity because we know what they did and we just don't care, or are they worse because they know they can do whatever they want and we will still be here fawning?
