Kanye, “Say You Will” Take Back the Tap!

The champions of the tap vs. the outlaws of bottled water: TMZ should show how appealing it is when celebrities drink from the tap.

It’s August, so maybe there’s not much going on in the big city. Perhaps that’s why rapper Kanye West found himself tweeting about drinking New York City tap water last week. TMZ felt it was newsworthy in some way, so they mentioned the tweet on their website. It must have seemed trivial to some readers, so they expressed their dismay at how boring the tweet was. Since Kanye’s tweet about NYC tap is the kind of thing we like to hear, I found myself typing the URL for TMZ into my web browser to find out more. TMZ merely showed the contents of what Kanye tweeted—not much worth mentioning… until I noticed one particular photo-montage on their home page.

In a segment they call “Hittin’ the Bottle,” TMZ highlights 21 photos of celebrities as they’re drinking from a water bottle. There are no captions on the photos—in fact, there are no comments of any kind about the montage. They merely offer these photos as if to say, “Look at these celebs, drinking from a bottle of water.” It’s as if they were sipping on aged scotch or fine champagne. I don’t get it. Does TMZ owe the International Bottled Water Association a favor?

As I scrolled through the meaningless montage, I couldn’t help but notice certain people like Iggy Pop (Noooo!! Iggy, don’t be a Stooge!), David Duchovny, Natalie Portman and Lindsey Lohan. Blogger FitSugar decided to go a different route and out a few celebs for drinking bottled water.

But there’s nothing appealing about a celebrity who chooses to endorse or merely drink a product that is bad for the environment, uses public water sources and is still thousands of times more expensive than tap water. Why not promote celebrities who choose to endorse a positive philosophy over a product?

Let’s give a shout out to our champions of the tap, like Jack Johnson, Jackson Brown, the band Cake, Beastie Boy Adam “MCA” Yauch, and Ed Begley Jr. If TMZ is going to appeal to our sense of style, they should realize that drinking tap water from a reusable bottle is the classy way to go. In fact, why not ask them to show us some celebrities who drink tap water from a reusable bottle? Come on, TMZ… show us the celebs who are taking back the tap!

As for Kanye West, it seems to me that he’s merely spreading the good word about doing the right thing. A sweet tweet like that goes a long way. Thanks, Kanye!

Do you know of any celebrities who drink from the tap? If you do, please let us know who they are so we can soak in the splendor of their awesomeness.

-Rich Bindell