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CELEBRITY WOO EXAMPLES QUICKLY PLEASE

Help needed. I quickly need some examples of celebrities buying into or endorsing, e.g. miracles cures, new age philosophers, psychics, mediums, ghost stories, homeopathy and other alt. medicines. Any examples and/or links of celebrity woo v gratefully received. Bigger the celebrity and the more recent the better.

Thanks!

Comments

John Griffith said…
How about Steve Jobs. From the NY Times article: "His early decision to put off surgery and rely instead on fruit juices, acupuncture, herbal remedies and other treatments — some of which he found on the Internet — infuriated and distressed his family, friends and physicians, the book says."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/technology/book-offers-new-details-of-jobs-cancer-fight.html?_r=2&hp
Antivaxxers like Jim Carrey (via the less well known in the UK Jenny McCarthy)

(I've contacted a few podcasters who specialise in this sort of stuff with the link to here.)
Marsh said…
A few spring to mind:

Nadia Sawalha always endorses homeopathy:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1282474/EastEnders-actress-Nadia-Sawalhas-eczema-drove-desperate-measures--decided-aside-prejudices-try-homeopathy.html

Gwyneth Paltrow is reliably into nonsense like cupping too:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2011/09/08/contagion_vs_goop_did_gwyneth_paltrow_sell_out_alternative_medic.html

Jodie Kidd fronted an extraordinary BBC 3 woo-fest covering all manner of alternative modalities:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qmvyr

Marsh
David Tredinnick, MP, for astrology and homeopathy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Tredinnick_(politician)#Support_for_complementary_and_alternative_medicine
Exrelayman said…
Can this be? No one yet mentions Tom Cruise and Scientology?
Of course, @exrelayman, but Scientology is in the general category of religion, which opens up a whole can of worms. I assumed Dr Law wants to steer well clear of that. Think, for example, of all sorts of Catholic miracle woo.
Anonymous said…
There are quite a few celebrity scientologists. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scientologists
Anonymous said…
Oprah Winfrey -

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/11/for_shame_oprah_winfrey_shills_for_faith.php
Anonymous said…
http://thelistcafe.com/pseudo-science-and-crackpot-quacks-10-celebrity-science-shockers
Suzanne Somers:

http://drerika.typepad.com/notepad/2006/10/letter_to_suzan.html

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/suzanne-somers-knockout-spreading-dangerous-misinformation-about-cancer-part-1/
Scote said…
Does prince Charles count? He has been a tireless campaigner for medical woo.
Unknown said…
Turns out David Floopin'Bellamy's a massive homeopathy supporter (and some sort of climate change skeptic):

http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2011/08/a-letter-to-david-bellamy.html
Er, Prince Charles being the biggest supporter of homeopathy everL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_charles#Alternative_medicine

Unfortunately so is Caroline Lucas, our only Green MP (I like her otherwise): "She is a supporter of homeopathy, having signed an early day motion in support of its continued funding on the National Health Service sponsored by Conservative MP David Tredinnick."
Michael Young said…
It may not be quite what you want, but these are always fun videos anyway (the Tom-Cruise-endorses- scientology video):

Cruise on Scientology.

Also, Tom Cruise comes out against psychiatry:

Cruise on the history of psychiatry.

It is some kind of example of what goes wrong when you buy in to woo.
daz365 said…
Bill Maher

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/vaccination-a-conversatio_b_358578.html
Miles Rind said…
Celebrity Obama "birthers": Donald Trump, Alan Keyes, and now Rick Perry. Maybe not the kind of celebrity—or the kind of woo—that you were looking for, though.
Celebrities who claim to have seen ghosts include Nicholas Cage, Keanu Reeves, Neve Campbell, Matthew McConaughey, Tim Robbins, Hugh Grant, Dan Akyroyd, Sting, Jean Claude Van Damme, Paul McCartney and others:

Source: http://paranormal.about.com/cs/trueghoststories/a/aa022304_3.htm

Not surprising given this 2005 Gallup poll: http://www.gallup.com/poll/17275/onethird-americans-believe-dearly-may-departed.aspx
This guy is not famous but how about a first person account of a demonic possession from an analytic philosopher? http://randalrauser.com/2011/02/awake-in-japan-a-first-person-account-of-demonic-oppression/

He's also interested in ghosts: http://randalrauser.com/2011/07/on-my-preliminary-research-into-ghosts/
Anonymous said…
Dr Oz, the teledoctorwoomerchant extraordinaire.

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/03/when_faith_healing_isnt_enough_woo_for_d.php
Stephen Law said…
A huge thank you to you all!!!
Martin said…
How about Kate Middleton, Bill Clinton, David Beckham and Leonardo DiCaprio, all spotted sporting the Power Balance bracelet? The Daily Mail did quite a good hatchet job on this hologram based woo in January this year, following legwork by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

http://www.powerbalance.com/faqs currently makes the claim that: The thin polyester film hologram is programmed through a proprietary process, which is designed to mimic Eastern philosophies that have been around for hundreds of years. and has a list of 32 professional athletes who are still prepared to endorse it. The most famous one I could recognise is F1 driver Rubens Barrichello.
wombat said…
Too late for the intended use I suspect but I couldn't help noticing this in the FT yesterday.

"Paranormal expert set to become Tory MEP"
(You might need to log in to see this or search via Google) - the guy in question apparently taught "Master’s Degree in Metaphysics, Focus in Paranormal Studies”.


It states "In addition to Mr Matthews’ course, students were obliged to study “psychic protection” and could take courses in “ghost hunting” and “advanced ghost hunting”.

OK the guy is rather obscure outside the fantasy world of EU politics but even so..
Mike said…
This is a bit late, but there's an interesting article from ABC News titled "Crazy Celebrity Health Remedies." Included are Uma Thurman's gem therapy, Nick Nolte's ozone treatment, Suzanne Somers' mistletoe injections, Sarah Ferguson's bio-energy treatments, and more:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=6596366&page=1
Alex said…
... this is what happens when you get famous, drop out of school, and you don't have to think too hard to get by, coupled with the artificial "respect" fame gives you that stops people from questioning or simply call you out on your pablum ...

Why, exactly, do we care about what famous people say? Isn't it more important what they *are* saying rather than that they *are* saying something? (It's kind of a shame that Stephen Fry is so famous ... :)
Runescape Gold said…
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