Blood Bling
The blood diamond controversy is a-brewin’.
The Diamond Information Center issued a press release about leading ladies who helped support their Raise Your Right Hand Ring for Africa campaign. Patricia Arquette was one of them, wearing her right hand ring to the Golden Globes:
Patricia Arquette wore a Platinum, Onyx and Diamond Right Hand Ring by diamond jeweler to the stars, Neil Lane. Patricia is donating the $10,000 generated to CARE International (care.org), a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. The organization places special focus working alongside poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty. Women are at the heart of CARE’s community-based efforts to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives.
Here is the best shot I could find of the ring. (Sorry folks. If I made the ring any bigger it just got all blurry):
Total cost of the jewelry ensemble of Neil Lane platinum, diamond and onyx ring, and a platinum and diamond necklace? $186,000.
But Ed Zwick, director of Blood Diamond, is disgusted with the whole campaign. The Envelope has the whole story with a tantalizing tidbit at the end that the male stars of Blood Diamond may wear something else to the Oscars to get the movie’s message out. (What could it be!)
I don’t know about you but if someone offered to pay $10,000 to my favorite charity and all I had to do was wear a big ugly ring for one evening? I would probably do it. After all, I have been known to wear ugly jewelry made for me by the loving hands of small children. This way at least somebody gets $10,000. Besides, I am a little unclear on the blood diamond message. Though blood diamonds make up less than 1% of new diamonds, “even a small percentage can wreak havoc.” So does that mean no one should buy diamonds, period, until there is a way to guarantee they are not “conflict diamonds?”
I don’t have a problem with that. I think diamonds and other jewels are pointless and stupid, but that is just me. I wonder what Hollywood, socialites, and rappers would do if jewelry priced over $50 was suddenly outlawed.
Heh. Only outlaws would have jewelry.
Tags: blood diamond, medium, medium nbc, patricia arquette, conflict diamonds
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POSTED IN: Appearances, Awards, Patricia Arquette
3 opinions for Blood Bling
Dawn
Feb 5, 2007 at 9:01 am
Amen to that, Sheila. I wonder too, what all of the celebrities who adorn themselves with ‘priceless’ jewelry all the time would do if it was banned? Would they stand up and make a political statement in support of those who protest ‘blood diamonds’? Or would they stamp their feet and cry like babies because they couldn’t have their precious ‘bling’ anymore? I think most of them would be outraged more at the fact that they couldn’t have their bling, than at the circumstances surrounding the acquiring of the diamonds. Patricia, on the other hand, rarely wears these types of jewels, except on special occasions, and they are usually loaned to her, so to embroil her in such a ridiculous ‘controversy’ is beyond ridiculous. I say shame on them for including her in such nonsense.
Sorry Dawn, this was caught up in the spam filter for some strange reason. ~Sheila
Dawn
Feb 5, 2007 at 4:09 pm
If such jewelry was banned, I believe there would be a hue and cry from the entertainment industry and the society pages such as none we have ever heard. And it wouldn’t be in support of such a ban, either. Those society and entertainment types who bathe themselves in such tacky displays of gaudiness would probably be more concerned with losing their precious ‘bling’ than with making a statement about the circumstances in which those gems were obtained. But to include a person such as Patricia in this group is not only ridiculous but in poor taste as well. Anyone who has followed Patricia’s career and life knows that she eschews such ostentatiousness except on rare occasions, and then only when those things are loaned to her. And usually only when she has her own reasons for doing so. But a celebrity such as Heidi Klum who wears jewels worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from her PRIVATE collection is not included in such a list. Why is that?
Sheila
Feb 6, 2007 at 7:39 am
Dawn: Sorry, you got caught in the spam filter for some reason. I check it several times a day but, of course, the day you got stuck there I only checked it once. Figures. :)
I will never understand why the press chooses to single out certain celebrities and not others. It is a mystery.
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