Stones Rock a Warming World

It just wouldn’t do to come to a benefit concert on global warming in a gas-guzzling limousine.

To save celebrities and VIPs from that environmental faux pas, the Natural Resources Defense Council on Thursday night dispatched a phalanx of hybrid cars -- Hondas and Priuses -- to ferry special guests to Staples Center for a free show by the Rolling Stones.

The likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Pierce Brosnan were not, however, forced to carpool.

The concert was a benefit for the NRDC and was staged thanks to the largess of Steven Bing, Hollywood producer and heir to an estimated $600-million real estate fortune and a major donor to the environmentally conscious NRDC.

Former President Bill Clinton spoke, and Gov. Gray Davis came too, confiding, perhaps appropriately in a year of budget deficits, that every politician loves the song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

“We’re here not only to have a good time, but to alter lives,” Davis added.

Diaz admitted she wasn’t particularly a Stones fan and that she came for the NRDC. “Mother Earth,” she said, “is the issue.”

Then again, there were plenty of SUVs in the parking lot as 18,000 packed Staples Center. Many came for the Stones.

“I’m glad it’s not Gore that’s here -- we’d never hear any music,” said Marty Narveson, 40, of Corona, in a reference to the former vice president’s long-winded speaking style.

Clearly, he had never heard one of Clinton’s famously long talks. But it was a night for the environment and for the Stones, and Clinton was brief.

“Even though the Rolling Stones once said it’s only rock ‘n’ roll,” he said, on this night, “it’s way more than rock ‘n’ roll.”

Clinton urged the crowd, many in T-shirts printed with the Jagger-esque tongue-and-lips logo, to demand cars that use cleaner fuel, lightbulbs that are more energy-efficient and increased use of solar power. The crowd cheered.

Clinton, who spoke for about five minutes before introducing the Stones, was greeted by a fairly resounding ovation, although there were a few boos as he walked on stage.

Clinton spoke of the Columbia disaster to underscore the importance of space exploration’s role in combating global warming. Experiments conducted in space help monitor the severity of the problem, he said.

The last time the Rolling Stones gave a free concert was at Altamont in 1969, and it ended in a disaster after one man was stabbed and beaten to death and scores of others took bad acid.

But that was a long time ago.

On Thursday, many of the fans appeared to be in their 40s, and they said they were perfectly happy to listen to lectures on global warming if it meant they could relive their youth.

“I know a lot of people are just coming here to see the Stones,” said Mike Dizacomo, 41, who drove from the Valley in his SUV. “But I also know they are going to be told about global warming, and maybe they will learn something.”

Still, Dizacomo was much younger than the headliner, Mick Jagger, who at 59 is three years older than Clinton.

Around Staples Center, volunteers -- some born well after Altamont -- were urging concertgoers to fill out cards lobbying General Motors to produce environmentally friendly cars.

“This is definitely a concert I could enjoy with my parents,” said volunteer Noam Raucher of San Diego, 23, as he collected lobbying cards.

Bing shelled out big bucks for the Stones concert. Thursday’s event included a pre-show cocktail party for Hollywood glitterati that raised money for the NRDC and its various environmental campaigns, including efforts to reduce fuel emissions and devise more fuel-efficient automobiles. Recently, Bing pledged more than $10 million over four years to build a climate center to focus attention in the United States on global warming.

In Hollywood, the 37-year-old Bing functions on several levels: as a movie producer (he shares writing credit on the current release “Kangaroo Jack”); as a wealthy bachelor who sometimes runs afoul of his liaisons, including a high-profile paternity case involving actress and model Elizabeth Hurley; and as an emerging player in Democratic causes.

Bing, in fact, has become part of a circle of liberal entertainment industry donors who include director Rob Reiner and actor Warren Beatty. It is his ability to wrangle big Hollywood players for political causes that brought him closer to the two central figures of Thursday night’s show, Jagger and Clinton.

Last May, Bing sat beside Clinton at an NRDC gala in Los Angeles that raised $1.6 million and featured Clinton as keynote speaker.

Once the Stones committed to do the free concert for the NRDC, the nonprofit organization distributed 12,000 tickets via sweepstakes to anyone who wanted them. Fans of the Stones, who are on the final leg of a North American tour, requested tickets through the NRDC Web site, thus directing traffic to the NRDC’s message. Other tickets were distributed via giveaways at select Ticketmaster outlets around Los Angeles.

The crowd ranged from commentator Arianna Huffington and producer Lawrence Bender -- the team behind controversial ads that equate driving an SUV with supporting terrorism -- to legions of Stones fans, many in black leather.

It wasn’t your typical rock concert.

The show, which began with a performance by blues guitarist and singer-songwriter Susan Tedeschi, even prompted the conservative Cato Institute to release a statement about the “alleged dangers of global warming”:

“While there is little doubt that human activity has contributed to a slight warming of the planet in the last half-century, new research published in scientific literature by Cato Senior Fellow Patrick J. Michaels drastically downsizes predictions for future warming.”

At Staples Center, the traditional red carpet was green this night. And some Hollywood personalities said the greening of the event posed some tiny glitches.

Talk show host Bill Maher, for one, said his driver was obviously more accustomed to limousines.

“On the way over, the driver kept restarting the car,” Maher said.

“Then he realized that the car hadn’t stalled. It’s just quiet.”

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Times staff writer Jessica Garrison contributed to this report.