Boycott Beach

"Tens of thousands" of people have apparently added their names to an Internet-circulated petition calling for a boycott of Leo's upcoming and much-publicised drama, The Beach. Dogged by environmentalists over its use of Thailand locales and desecrating of park land for nearly six months now, The Beach petition is but another sign that even after The Beach leaves the beach, its critics don't plan to stop carping. "This is the only way I could think" to help, says Bryony Schwan, the force behind The Beach boycott. Schwan is director of the Montana-based Women's Voices for the Earth. She visited Thailand in December and said locals there, upset over how the studio "destroyed" Phi Phi Leh island's Maya Beach, urged her to go back to the States and breathe down Fox's lengthy neck. Hence the petition. However, Fox should have no immediate worries about the masses who have allegedly signed up to boycott the film, as a copy that reached the E! Online entertainment website in late March had just under 70 signatures attached - not exactly the army Schwan is rallying about. "Nobody's opposed to film companies coming in and making movies," Schwan says. "But we need to be sensitive." At issue for environmentalists like Schwan was the uprooting of natural vegetation and the planting of "non-native" vegetation (i.e., coconut trees). They say Phi Phi Leh island is a government-protected national park and should be filmed as it is. Fox is as yet blissfully unaware of the boycott plans, but is only too quick to acknowledge the current environmental outcry. Blasted by critics since filming began, Fox now has an "environmental fact sheet" ready for combat. In it, Fox argues that everything it did on Maya Beach was with care and nothing was irreversible. As for the natural vegetation, small plants removed for filming were cared for at a local nursery then replanted it states. As for the unnatural vegetation - Fox says the trees were planted in environment-friendly natural coconut fibre. But this is of little consequence, as quite clearly the debate rages on over what was or wasn't done - and the main target thus far has been wonder boy himself, DiCaprio. "I don't want a bad reputation as somebody who endorses something which is hostile to the environment," the actor told the Los Angeles Times in February. "That's upsetting to me." The fight continues.