Although he’s still driving an old Land Rover Defender he calls “somewhat fuel efficient,” Robin Williams is about to convert to electric power for his next vehicle, the futuristic Aptera he ordered and expects to get this fall. “It looks like something out of Logan’s Run,” says Williams, joking about its small capacity, “There’s room for me and a bag.” His even greener form of transportation, however, is his bicycle, which also serves as daily exercise he requires to get back in shape after open-heart surgery and to prepare for the standup comedy tour he’ll launch this fall.

 

This week, Williams stars in the darkly funny movie The World’s Greatest Dad, written and directed by Bob Goldthwait. In this “very strange movie about a father-son relationship,” he plays a teacher and failed writer, “the single parent of a 16-year-old boy who is really nasty. Something happens to the boy, and then I cover up for it,” digging an ever-deepening hole for himself as he perpetuates the lie. Williams signed on to work with good friend Goldthwait, and is proud of his work in the film, which opens Aug. 21. He’ll next be seen in the comedy Old Dogs opposite John Travolta, hitting theaters Nov. 25, and on Dec. 6, in the HBO special Robin Williams: Weapons of Self-Destruction, which he’ll tape at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., in November.

 

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You can be green and fashionable at the same time -- just ask stylist to the stars Rachel Zoe. “Stella McCartney is someone who kind of started that trend and really showed how to do an entire collection of luxury clothing and accessories being 100 percent environmentally correct, and it’s pretty incredible,” says Zoe. “She does it all the way down to her skin care [line], and it’s pretty incredible.” Zoe won’t confirm if McCartney will show up this season on The Rachel Zoe Project, which has its second season premiere on Bravo Aug. 24 at 10 p.m., but she’s happy about the proliferation of new eco-conscious designers. “There’s a ton of them right now, doing such a great job. Even designers that don’t have full green collections are doing some, which I think is great,” Zoe raves. “I think any effort is worth accolades.”

 

 

“I think my carbon footprint is pretty light,” says figure skating champion Brian Boitano, who gets around San Francisco on foot power, rarely drives his car, uses cloth bags to tote groceries, changed his light bulbs to CFLs, and has been a spokesperson for Earth Day. “I want to start a garden on my rooftop and grow my own vegetables. I already grow my own herbs,” says Boitano, an avid cook who’ll put his kitchen talents to use in his Food Network series What Would Brian Boitano Make?, premiering Aug. 23 at 1 p.m.

 

Cooking “has always been a passion for me,” says Boitano, who hooked up with the Food Network through a friend who knew a director there. “I was always interested in food when I was younger but I could never eat it,” because he had to maintain a low weight for ice skating competition. “The premise of the show is I make food with friends at the beginning of the episode and that inspires me to come up with an all-new menu from what we’ve eaten and throw an event at the end of the episode. It’s goofy and funny.”

 

Boitano hasn’t hung up his skates and, in fact, will headline four NBC specials over the next year, the first set to air in November. He’s given up touring, though. “It’s a young person’s thing, it’s not for me,” he says. “I’ll cook!”

 

 

Documentary filmmaker Robert Stone traces the history of the environmental movement -- and its triumphs, disappointments and missed opportunities -- in Earth Days, which premiered last week in New York and hits seven Southern California theaters Aug. 21 before a national rollout.