MNN - Mother Nature Network

Familiar to TV audiences from Ed, Eli Stone, and Scrubs, Tom Cavanagh teams up with Eric McCormack in TNT’s new series Trust Me about Chicago ad execs, premiering Jan. 25. For the New-York based actor, temporarily living in L.A. while he shoots the series, being green doesn’t end with driving a hybrid car and taking public transportation.

 

“The planet is deteriorating so quickly and there's this generation and the next generation and the generation after that. I think it's important to proceed from gratitude for what we've been given, so others may have the same experience or better,” says Cavanagh, who’s pleased that environmentalism “is starting to get the attention it deserves.”

 

Cavanagh relishes playing Trust Me’s freewheeling Conner opposite fellow Canadian McCormack, who plays a married father in the show. Conner is “petty, immature, a bit of a rogue but also good at his job and I like that mix because it feels very real,” says the actor, who hasn’t lacked for work of late. He’ll reappear as J.D.’s brother in this last season of Scrubs, and says there may be a third movie in the series of Snow holiday flicks for ABC Family.

 

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Emma Roberts plays a teenager who rescues stray canines in the movie Hotel For Dogs, but off screen she’s concerned with saving the planet. “I definitely care a lot about the environment and I’m trying to put the word out about that. Even the little things help a lot,” she says. “Turn off the lights when you’re done and don’t leave the water running. Recycle. Easy things like that don’t take any more effort than you’re already putting in.”

 

Roberts next stars in the 1970s-set indie drama Lymelife, due out in April, and as a spoiled Malibu princess shipped off to a strict English boarding school in Wild Child, out May 8.

 

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Kelli Williams, now starring opposite Tim Roth in the new Fox series Lie to Me, is glad her three kids learn about green living at school, but she does her part to do the same at home with recycling, composting, and water conservation. “I buy locally at farmers markets, bring bags to the grocery store and I’m obsessed with carrying my own water bottles. It makes me insane how much waste there is,” says Williams, previously best known as Lindsay Dole on The Practice. “It’s about starting small. I’m trying to teach my children that for our future and their future, it has to be part of their life to be green and take care of our planet.”

 

Now that her youngest is in kindergarten, Williams was ready to return to work full time, and jumped at the opportunity to play psychiatrist Gillian Foster in the lie detection drama. “I’m a big believer in therapy and have been in therapy for many years,” she says, adding that she has grilled her own shrink for research.

 

Cases aside, there are some secrets and lies involving Gillian’s home life. “Something is going on, and we don’t know if it’s some kind of extra-marital thing or balancing both of our careers and how that has affected our marriage,” Williams notes. “I’m interested to see where they take it with our relationship. It’s not always what you think it is.”

 

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And, finally, if you’re in the L.A. area this weekend, check out the Go Green Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center featuring panel discussions, exhibitor booths and keynote speeches by Ed Begley Jr. and Mariel Hemingway.

 

Stay tuned for next week’s Ecollywood column. In the meantime, check out our Ecollywood videos.