CELEBRITY POLITICS-The Kardashiansupset a lot of people living in and around Marina Del Rey early on Wednesday morning, with a midnight fireworks show off the coast that woke up a lot of confused people, but they're also pissing people off with their dry-land antics.
Because that's what they do! NBCLA reports that both Kim and Kylie are kind of acting like the rules of water conservation that all us plebs have to follow don't apply to them.
Calabasas (Kalabasas?), the Kardashian stomping ground, is a haven for the moneyed and for celebs, which is a problem, because California is in an epic drought and the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, which serves the area, is required to cut back dramatically on its water use. They've taken a tough approach, even hiring water cops to patrol the district, dole out warnings, and enforce compliance with restrictions.
The district hasn't taken it easy on anyone, celebrity or otherwise. Kylie Jenner of the Kardashian clan got hit with two violations (including one fine) this summer for wasting water at her $2.6-million house she bought earlier this year. Flagrant water use runs in the family: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West—whose lush, green garden has been a source of disgust ] for their water-conscious neighbors—are probably still grossing them out because the news station's helicopter flew over their house recently and found that it's as verdant as ever.
Back in May, a rep for Kim said that the star took the drought "seriously" and that she "has no problem letting her grass go brown." But when confronted more recently about the star's excessive water use, her publicist was quick to point out how much water farmers use in comparison to celebrities—a sensible comparison because farmers and celebrities are performing basically the same job and producing basically the same results.
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The rep also wanted to make sure she (and by association, her client) seemed extra out-of-touch with the vast majority of the non-famous public, so she scoffed at the citations, saying, "They're traffic tickets, who cares?", clearly ignorant to the fact that many traffic tickets are doled out to people who are doing unsafe things (running stops signs, for instance) and acting like self-important jerks (driving on the shoulder when the rest of us are stuck in traffic, for instance).
The publicist ended by saying, "Their water use means nothing in the grand scheme of things. It's a swimming pool full of water." (It's not mentioned how many citations, if any, Kim and Kanye have received.)
In the same water district, houses owned by David Hasselhoff, Dr. Dre, and Denise Richards also received tickets for their excessive water use. Hasselhoff's rep was much more contrite than Kim's, saying that the ticket was received for watering on the wrong day, and that the "oversight" wouldn't happen again.
(Bianca Barragan is associate editor at CurbedLA.com, where this piece was first posted.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 71
Pub: Sep 1, 2015
