"The Blood Diamond"/Mandela & De Beers

[katty]

cont'd: http://stylescenes.latimes.com/fashion/2006/06/mandella_to_def.html

Mandela to defend De Beers from bad "Blood"
The international diamond industry must be getting pretty nervous about “The Blood Diamond.”

Word is that Sitrick and Company, Tinseltown’s top spinmeisters, have been hired by De Beers, the world's largest supplier of rough diamonds, to deflect the negative image of their industry portrayed in the upcoming film which stars Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Aviator”), Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly (“A Beautiful Mind”) and Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou (“In America”).

“Diamond,” produced by Ed Zwick, will not be released until Jan 12, 2007. It’s the wrenching story of two South Africans, a mercenary (DiCaprio) and a fisherman (Hounsou) during the savage ‘90s Sierra Leone civil wars when rebels seized mines to sell “conflict” or “blood diamonds” to buy arms, murdering and mutilating (hand/arm amputation was a popular rebel sport) thousands of innocent men, women and children.

So guess who Sitrick plans to trot out to help stop the bad bling publicity?

None other than South Africa’s activist and first post-apartheid president Nelson Mandela.

[Radical Activist]

1. That surprises me.

But I guess if those days really are in the past, Mandela must be worried about what the movie might do to hurt economic growth in Africa. That's understandable.

On another note, one more reason I love Jennifer Connelly: her great political films.