Say what you want about the many terrible movies that Mr. Diesel has made, but the guy is doing something truly admirable now in real life by trying to do what he can to help out some of the millions in Haiti whose lives have been destroyed along with their capital city.
Apparently, he rushed down to the Dominican Republic soon after the quake to meet with DR President Leonel Fernandez, who Vin has known for a long time and has a close relationship with, and was kind enough to give CNN journalist Soledad O’Brien a ride to Haiti.
No word on whether or not the helicopter trip was 2 fast or 2 furious for O’Brien’s liking, but here’s how she told it:
The city looks wounded. Smoke rises in places. Entire streets are closed by rubble.
Everywhere, you see tents in the open spaces. Some are red and gray shiny Coleman tents given out during last year’s hurricane. They look like bright little push pins on a vast map of destruction.
We had flown in on a helicopter from the Dominican Republic’s capital, Santo Domingo, with actor Vin Diesel.
He sponsors a film program for young Haitians trying to record impoverished lives on their fragile island. He works with Haitian-American musician Wyclef Jean and the Dominican president, Leonel Fernandez. Their hopeful project now finds them on a rescue mission. It was very quiet on that helicopter.
I actually had the chance to meet Soledad at a conference about Cuba like two years ago, and she couldn’t have been friendlier. Huge thanks to her, Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and everyone else at CNN who has been providing amazing — and incredibly necessary — coverage of the ongoing tragedy in Haiti.
I’ve had my issues with the cable news giant in the past (see here and again here and right here), but the network has once again proved its unique and invaluable ability to cover major events.
Photo via @Soledad_OBrien. She also recently sent out this sad image.
