Rob Bates

Oprah to Spotlight "Blood Diamond"
November 15, 2006

Well, the LA Times' "Styles and Scenes" blog-- which is almost as obsessed with the blood diamond issue as this blog is -- just confirmed it: Oprah will do a show on "Blood Diamond" sometime this month, though the site doesn't say when. (UPDATE: It now says "Friday or next Monday." Oprah.com lists Friday as the exciting "Behind the Scenes at Grey's Anatomy" show, so perhaps it's Monday.) (UPDATE UPDATE: It doesn't look like Monday either.)

Meanwhile, Alex Yearsley of Global Witness, speaking to JCK from Hollywood, gives his own review of "Blood Diamond":

“The industry has been let off the hook,” says Yearsley. “Knowing what happened in Africa, it could have been a lot worse. It’s not an anti-diamond film. It’s an action-adventure film.”

He says the film includes three scenes of the Kimberley Process, and the title card does mention that at least some of the conflicts in Africa have been settled, although "problems remain."

Yearsley's group recently set up the blooddiamondaction web site, news of which first broke on this blog yesterday. Apparently, the site plans to sell red wristbands to symbolize consciousness of conflict diamonds.

Yearsley adds that the industry has more to fear from some of the upcoming documentaries that will be shown in conjunction with the film – including one that will be air on the History Channel on Dec 23, according to the Times.

“There are interviews with amputees, with former R.U.F,” he says. “It shows what really happened in Sierra Leone. Those are going to be shocking to people. They will be terrible.”

Posted by Rob Bates on November 15, 2006 | Comments (0)