The water contamination crisis in Flint, Mich., is something millions of people across the globe experience every day. Actor Matt Damon and Gary White, co-founders of the nonprofit Water.org, came to the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday to call attention to the desperate need for clean water in impoverished regions around the world. “Imagine this outrage we feel about Flint — this justified outrage, I should say, because that should never happen in the United States of America, ever,” Damon said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But there are people for whom life is such a desperate struggle, that they’re faced every day with the choice of giving their children dirty water or no water at all.” Damon and White appeared alongside Todd Allen of Stella Artois to discuss the global water crisis and to announce their “Buy a Lady a Drink” campaign
— so named because water shortages disproportionately affect women, who spend hours each day searching for water for their families. The beer-maker is introducing a limited-edition collection of decorated glass chalices representing water-poor countries such as Ethiopia, Haiti, India and Honduras. The sale of each $13 goblet will provide a woman in one of these countries with five years of clean water. The partnership began last year and has provided water for 290,000 people so far, Allen said. “Obviously, we’re hoping to do even better this year,” Damon said. Some 663 million people around the world lack access to clean drinking water. The water crisis in Flint shows how heartbreaking and horrifying life without clean water is, Damon said.
French-American actress Julie Delpy has apologized for recent comments that there is nothing worse than being a woman in the entertainment business. In a Friday interview with entertainment news website The Wrap, the actress, known for such movies as Before Sunrise and Before Midnight, said that she “sometimes wished she were African American because people don’t bash them afterwards.” She was referring to a time when she complained about the Academy being very male and white two years ago and was harshly criticized for her views. In a statement to EW.com, Delpy said that she never meant to diminish injustices to African American artists or anyone else and that she can’t stand inequality or injustice of any kind.