Film stars A-list scrap with BHP_英文原版

hollywood's biggest stars are going to war with australian resources giant bhp billiton.

a who's who of a-list celebrities, including tom hanks, charlize theron, barbra streisand and cher, have launched a high-profile campaign in the us to halt bhp billiton's $us5 billion ($a6.67 billion) plan to build a massive liquefied natural gas (lng) terminal off the coast of the los angeles seaside community of malibu.

australian singer and actress olivia newton-john, a longtime resident of malibu, has also joined the fight against the company.

"we want to stop the bhp billiton lng terminal now!'' a letter signed by the 45 high-profile actors, singers, supermodels and hollywood executives states.

leading the a-list campaign is former james bond, pierce brosnan, who gave a keynote address at a fundraiser in malibu last week.

the function's attendees were asked to donate $us250 ($a330) each.

"this proposed liquefied natural gas terminal is part of a globalised assault taking place on our earth,'' brosnan said.

"we cannot let this project be approved.''

the campaign, if successful, would be a blow to bhp billiton and the australian economy, with the project potentially worth $a15 billion to australia in exports.

australian prime minister john howard deemed the project so important for australia he flew to los angeles in 2004 to lobby california governor arnold schwarzenegger.

the bhp billiton lng proposal involves the construction of a massive deepwater terminal 23km off the coast of malibu. the gas would be brought to the terminal by ship from australia and then piped from the terminal to the us mainland.

brosnan said the terminal would be 14 stories high and three football fields in length.

malibu city council has also launched an aggressive campaign against the lng project, with council members voting unanimously "to protect and preserve malibu by strongly opposing the proposed lng terminals''.