Laurie David

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Laurie David
Born
Laurie Ellen Lennard

(1958-03-22) March 22, 1958 (age 63)
Long Island, New York, U.S.
Alma materOhio University
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1993; div. 2007)​
Children2

Laurie Ellen David (née Lennard; born March 22, 1958) is an American environmental activist. She produced the Academy Award-winning An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and partnered with Katie Couric to executive produce Fed Up (2014), a film about the causes of obesity in the United States. She serves as a trustee on the Natural Resources Defense Council and a member of the Advisory Board of the Children's Nature Institute and is a contributing blogger to The Huffington Post.

Personal life[]

Laurie Ellen Lennard was born and raised in a middle class Jewish family on Long Island.[1][2] Laurie was married for 14 years to Larry David from March 31, 1993 to July 13, 2007.[3][4] They have two daughters.[5][6]

In 2007, David was awarded nearly half of the net worth of her husband Larry, following their divorce.[7] Laurie remarried in 2012 to Robert Thorpe.[citation needed]

Entertainment industry[]

Before working full-time on environmental and political issues, David worked in the entertainment industry. She began her career in New York City as a talent coordinator for the Late Show with David Letterman. Four years later, she left to start her own management company, representing comedians and comedy writers.

David also produced several comedy specials for HBO, Showtime, MTV, and Fox Television. Upon moving to Los Angeles, she became vice president of comedy development for a division of Fox Broadcasting and developed sitcoms for 20th Century Fox Television. After leaving to raise her two daughters, she executive produced An Inconvenient Truth, which won the Academy Award. She has since produced other social action documentaries, including Fed Up, The Last Animals, The Biggest Little Farm and The Social Dilemma. David has written two popular cookbooks on healthy eating and the importance of family dinner including The Family Dinner, and The Family Cooks. She co-wrote The Down To Earth Guide To Global Warming which has since been reprinted in eight languages. Most recently she has co-written Imagine It! A Handbook for a Happier Planet published by RandomHouse Rodale.[citation needed]

Activism[]

Climate Change[]

Laurie David has worked publicly on projects aimed at stopping climate change. She founded the Stop Global Warming Virtual March[8] with Senator John McCain and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Ms. magazine quoted Laurie David about the grassroots aspect of her campaign: "If everyone does one thing, they are likely to do two things, then three things. Then they are likely to influence friends and family, and that's how you build a movement."

In addition to the Virtual March, David has produced other projects to bring the issue of climate change into the mainstream popular culture, including the release of her first book, Stop Global Warming: The Solution Is You!, and the comedy special, Earth to America! for TBS, which aired on November 20, 2005. Aside from the Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, David produced HBO's Too Hot Not to Handle (a documentary on the effects of climate change in the United States), which aired on April 22, 2006. Laurie David also appeared in Big Ideas for a Small Planet, an environmentalist documentary series on the Sundance Channel.

In an interview with The Guardian in November 2006, David acknowledged that owning two homes on opposite sides of the country and flying in a private jet several times per year is at odds with her message to others. In the interview, she notes "Yes, I take a private plane on holiday a couple of times a year, and I feel horribly guilty about it. I probably shouldn't do it. But the truth is, I'm not perfect. This is not about perfection. I don't expect anybody else to be perfect either. That's what hurts the environmental movement – holding people to a standard they cannot meet. That just pushes people away."[9]

In 2005, and then again in 2009, David was cited by the Chilmark Conservation Commission for paving over protected wetland areas on her estate on Martha's Vineyard.[10]

Campaigns[]

As a trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council and a founding member of The Detroit Project, David has spearheaded numerous public education and action campaigns urging Congress and auto-makers to raise fuel efficiency standards and make higher mileage cars. In January 2004, the NRDC opened the David Family Environmental Action Center. Endowed by the David family, the Center promotes activism to protect the environment. It features exhibits on issues such as global warming, ocean pollution, everyday toxins, and green building solutions.[buzzword]

Awards[]

In 2003, she was honored by the Riverkeeper organization.[citation needed] She also received the Los Angeles-based Children's Nature Institute's Leaf Award in 2003 for her commitment to the environmental education of young children.[11]

In October 2006, David was featured in Glamour as one of its "Women of the Year".[12] She received the Gracie Allen Award for Individual Achievement by the American Women in Radio & Television and the NRDC's 2006 Forces for Nature award for her work against global warming.[citation needed]

Laurie has received numerous other awards and honors, including the Producers Guild of America’s Stanley Kramer Award, a Humanitas Prize Special Award. Her environmental work has been honored with the National Audubon Society’s Rachel Carson Award, the Feminist Majority’s Eleanor Roosevelt Award, and Bette Midler’s Green Goddess Award in 2019.[citation needed]

Books[]

David's book The Family Dinner was published in 2010, with recipes by Kirstin Uhrenholdt, a foreword by Harvey Karp and an afterword by Jonathan Safran Foer. The book advocates a return to the domestic tradition of an evening meal (sometimes called supper) shared around the family table. It also includes recipes, rules for an effective dinner system, suggestions for stimulating conversation, a survey of the ways different cultures say grace, and ways to include grandparents.[citation needed]

Her second cookbook The Family Cooks was published a few years later. She also co-wrote a book on climate for kids called The Down to Earth Guide to Global Warming which has been published in 8 languages. In 2021 she co-wrote Imagine It! A Handbook for a Happier Planet published by Random House/Rodale.[citation needed]

Bibliography[]

  • David, Laurie (2006). Stop Global Warming: The Solution Is You!. ISBN 978-1-55591-621-3.

References[]

  1. ^ Earth girls aren't easy
  2. ^ "Article: The Real Cheryl David, And She's Jewish", highbeam.com; accessed July 27, 2015.
  3. ^ Johnson, Richard (June 5, 2007). "Newly Single". Page Six. New York Post. Archived from the original on June 7, 2007. Retrieved June 5, 2007.
  4. ^ Finn, Natalie (July 16, 2007). "Divorcing Larry David". E!. Retrieved April 2, 2008.
  5. ^ "Laurie Ellen David v. Lawrence Gene David Petition for Dissolution of Marriage" (PDF). Los Angeles Superior Court. July 13, 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 3, 2013. Retrieved March 7, 2017 – via TMZ.com.
  6. ^ "Larry David Biography". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012.
  7. ^ https://www.businessinsider.in/heres-why-larry-david-says-he-isnt-really-worth-half-a-billion/articleshow/46449672.cms
  8. ^ Stop Global Warming website Archived 2007-01-09 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Pilkington, Ed (November 18, 2006). "On a mission to the stars". The Guardian. - Laurie David interview
  10. ^ Richard Johnson, Paula Froelich, Bill Hoffmann, Corynne Steindler, and Neel Shah. "Laurie's Vineyard Violation" Archived 2009-06-02 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Post, May 30, 2009
  11. ^ Children's Nature Institute website Archived 2004-10-12 at archive.today
  12. ^ Tram Kim Nguyen. "The Earth Angel". Retrieved January 11, 2017.

External links[]

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