vegansaurus!

Rumor mill: Is Tal Ronnen starting an artisan vegan cheese company?  »

Dear lord, please let Ecorazzi’s rumor-mongering be correct. Could Kite Hill Cheese be the fancy-pants fromagerie we’ve been waiting for?

Just wait till all those “I’d go vegan, but I love cheese too much” whiny-pants vegetarians hear about this. No excuses left, you big babies! Vegan up and eat your fancy cheeses or accept your weaknesses, donate extra money to a farm-animal rescue group, and hush.

[Photo by starfive via Flickr]

“Vegan” graffiti on a McDonald’s mural: Pro or con?  »

On the one hand, McDonald’s is disgusting.

On the other:

The mural was painted in 1987 by Iranian-born artist Saeed Danosian, who worked at the restaurant while developing his art career. Danosian passed away in 2008, and [restaurant manager John] Patterson plans to recreate the mural in the artist’s honor.

And finally, this could be a double-bluff by someone who hates vegans and wants to make us look like a bunch of mural-hating brats.

So, what do you think?

[Photo by McDonald’s via Ecorazzi]

Good news: Ian Somerhalder secures land for super-sanctuary!  »

I don’t know what really happened but the awesome animal sanctuary my lover Somerhalder is planning was in danger! Luckily for us, Ecorazzi has been following the story via Twitter. The land Somerhalder wanted for his sanctuary was possibly going to be “turned into a business park and transfer station.” Whatever the eff that means. But it looks like my super-hot future husband* was able to reach a deal and can now move forward with his super-awesome sanctuary. This is good news! Let’s save the animals and the kiddies!

*JK, marriage is for suckers! Born alone, die alone—that’s what I always say.

Please welcome new vegans Michelle Pfeiffer and Larry Hagman!  »

I’m on the celebrity beat this week because your regular vegan celebrity news correspondent is on vacation, like a fancy lady! Come back soon, Jenny! Come back soon so I don’t confuse Sharon Stone with Michelle Pfeiffer again, like an idiot.

So, celebrity news: First, Sharon Stone Michelle Pfeiffer announced last week on CNN that a CNN program, “The Last Heart Attack,” and reading a book called Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, inspired her to adopt a vegan diet because she doesn’t want to die of heart disease related to the consumption of animal products. This is like how I’ve started intermittent standing at my desk because I don’t want to die of sitting. Stars, they’re just like us! Ms. Sharon Stone Michelle Pfeiffer says she’s also working on getting her husband, David E. Kelley, to eat vegan as well, which shouldn’t be too hard. Who could say not to that glorious creature?

Next, Larry Hagman turned to a vegan diet after being diagnosed with cancer last year; he says he’s now cancer-free, and healthy enough to work again, reprising his role as J.R. Ewing on TNT’s new Dallas. Which means nothing to me, as a person who grew up in a General Hospital household, but some people are excited about/dubious of/irritated by this thing. Larry here has said that he plans to eat fish and eggs again, which is too bad, but eliminating milk is a big and good deal. Cow’s milk is a terrible, harmful industry! Stay off the teat, Larry.

We’re always happy to have new members of team vegan. OK, maybe not jerks, but observing a vegan diet can mitigate from general personal awfulness. The point is, famous people going vegan, hooray! Welcome to the club, celebrities! We promise not to ask for your autograph (unless you want us to), and to share our vegan secrets. Now, what are you bringing to the potluck?

[Michelle Pfeiffer photo by JeremyChristopher via Flickr; Paris Match covers via Patrick Peccatte]

Meredith Vieira is vegan because she “didn’t want to be a hypocrite anymore”  »

Meredith Vieira, onetime ringmaster of The View and current Lady About Television, has been vegan for going on two months! Good job, Meredith!

She discussed it on an episode of ABC’s The Chew, which is, um, an eating talk show? D-list celebrities talking with their mouths full? Not entirely sure. But ol’ Meredith was on the May 2 episode, and Mario Batali made her vegan fritto misto, which you can make too thanks to the magic of TV on the internet:

[Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com!]

Ecorazzi brings us the money quote:

I’ve done a lot of stories on the way food is, you know, processed in this country—animals—and it’s very disturbing. And so that was part—I didn’t want to be a hypocrite anymore, and also health reasons.

Our advice to you, Meredith, is to work those celebrity-chef connections and middling star power to eat as deliciously as possible all the time. Show off how well vegans eat, influence some fence-sitters not to be hypocrites, too!

Rumor alert: Ellen may not be opening a vegan restaurant after all!  »

Word on the street (and by street I mean the internet highway) is that Ellen and Portia’s SoCal vegan restaurant may not be happening after all! Oh no! I was looking forward to this collaboration of superstars—Ellen, Portia, Chrissy Hynde, Steven Bing, Tal Ronnen and Waldo Fernandez. I was also looking forward to hooking up with a Sugar Daddy, because I knew there was no way in hell I’d be able to afford eating at that joint, being a restaurant worker myself.

As excited as I may have been about a new vegan hotspot opening up, I did have my reservations. Everyone wants to open a restaurant. Everyone thinks they’ll be great at it, but the truth is, most new restaurants don’t make it in their first year.  It’s hard work. Nevermind that the people who can handle working in the restaurant industry are bat shit crazy. The turnover rate is astronomical. If you haven’t read Laura’s “Top 10 Reasons You Can’t Be a Professional Chef” for SF Weekly, get on that! She got some flack in the comments section that it was unrealistic, but those people are dead wrong.
My point is that working in this industry is my career, and I love it, but it has been both the best and worst experience of my life. It’s tough, mentally and physically. So if Ellen and Portia want to keep their sanity, maybe they should run the other way. Plus, I’d hate for them to be the jerk owners who show off their shiny new cars, while their staff juggles two jobs—because let me tell you, this industry does not pay well (that is a paraphrased sentiment from Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, but also true of my own experience. You can love or hate that guy, but Kitchen Confidential is THE first-hand account of working in the industry, and I for one, really enjoyed its harsh honesty).

{Photo via Ecorazzi.com}

Top 10 links of the week!: A harlem shuffle through the dance floor of veganism!  »

Scary rooster Puff has it in for kitty Blacko! This is kind of sad. 

Grist’s Protein Angst series is still killing it! My new favorite: Never mind the meat—worry about eating enough plants. This is what I’m always thinking! Like, dude, I get enough protein, do you get enough veggies?! There is so much concern over our nutrients but I’d bet meat-mouths are not hitting all the nutritional points!

A whole town in India relocated to make room for tigers! That’s nice. 

McDonald’s thinks trying their food is less risky than petting stray pitbulls. People are not pleased. But I’m glad our standards are now risky and less risky. Obviously they are implying you may get bit by a dog; generally I want my food to be on an entirely different scale than getting bit by a dog—not just less “risky.”

From Ecouterre, fur trapping season ends with record high of non-target animal deaths. That means exactly what you think it means.

Choosing Raw has another great post on PCRM and fat-shaming (though we discourage the use of “overweight” as it maintains there is a specific weight you should be). Gena stresses the need to focus on using “honest language, honest facts, and honest statistics.” Here here!

Australia is up in arms over recent footage documenting inhumane conditions in a Sydney slaughterhouse. You can see the video on the linked page. It’s pretty rugged. The one good thing though is it seems like Australia actually does stuff when footage like this surfaces. The slaughterhouse in question was immediately closed (I don’t know if it was permanently closed but still, swift action).

An NYT editorial calls for humane national standards in egg production!

You know we’ve been discussion palm oil lately, well Grist is here to help you break free of the palm oil grasp!

From HuffPo, you may have already heard about this but if not: Westminster severed ties with Pedigree because they didn’t want to see images of puppies behind bars during commercial breaks. Stay classy, Westminster!

From Ecorazzi, Ian Somerhalder (see below) is getting an award from the Humane Society! I have an award for him too! IN MY PANTS. Sorry guys, I can’t help it, he’s the hotness times god damn. 

Cast of “The Grey” dines on wolf meat for kicks  »

Animal welfare activists were already not happy about new film The Grey. Well, at first they were, because the movie was using computer wolves instead of real wolves. But then they realized the movie is not so nice to wolves after all. They say it demonizes wolves, and at the worst time possible. After barely recovering from near extinction, wolf populations in some parts of the country have recently been removed from the list of federally protected species. It’s basically open season on wolves and now The Grey comes along to fuel unfounded fear, prejudice and misconceptions. Super! Go Hollywood!

To add insult to injury, in order to “have a sense of the movie [they] were making,” director Joe Carnahan had some frozen wolves shipped from a trapper up to Alaska for the cast to eat. Um, fuck that. As Jennifer Mishler over at Ecorazzi puts it, “So, he had frozen wolf meat flown in, because that’s what people stuck in the snow and ice and fighting for their survival do, right?” Pro tip: WRONG!

Genius idea: How about leaving the actors out in the cold over night to fend for themselves? THAT’S MORE LIKE IT! Get into character, jerks!

Beautiful picture by me!