Leo’s 8,000 mile day trip on private jet ... to collect green award
ON his way to collect an award for environmental campaigning, you’d imagine that Leonardo DiCaprio would be keen to burnish his green credentials.
However, as an A-list actor, he also has a busy schedule – so the star shunned more ecofriendly methods of transport to jump on to a private jet from Cannes to New York.
Having received his green award, the actor then flew straight back to France the following day – a round trip of 8,000 air miles.
Yesterday campaign groups criticised the actions of DiCaprio, 41, who in February used his Oscar acceptance speech to demand action on climate change. The star’s trip across the Atlantic began on Wednesday, the day after he was spotted at the Cannes Film Festival partying with model Georgia Fowler, despite being linked to Polish model Ela Kawalec.
By that evening, he was in New York being honoured at the Riverkeeper Fishermen’s Ball, a cleanwater campaign group.
The actor then jetted back to Cannes to make an appearance at the star-studded Cinema Against AIDS gala, where he gave a speech on Thursday evening.
Perhaps most extravagantly, back in France he also reportedly hired a helicopter to fly him from his rented hilltop villa to a party held in the gardens of the exclusive Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc.
DiCaprio has previously made much of his support for environmental causes, with his foundation recently pledging more than £10million to green projects at this year’s World Economic Forum.
However, this is not the first time his A-list lifestyle has clashed with his environmental campaigning.
Only last July, he was lambasted for spending a week lounging on his superyacht in the Mediterranean, just after receiving another environmental accolade.
And in 2014, emails hacked from film studio Sony revealed he took six private flights in just six weeks which cost £138,000. This travel included two round trips from Los Angeles to New York, and one from LA to Las Vegas.
Andrew Pendleton, of campaign group Friends of the Earth, said of DiCaprio’s actions: ‘It never looks good when a high-profile advocate for action on climate change like DiCaprio hops on a private jet.
‘It’s why we get disillusioned about people in the public eye.’
The actor’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment yesterday. A source close to DiCaprio said: ‘He did not book any flights. They were flights already planned – he hitched a ride. It was the only way for him to attend both events.’