Gillian Anderson’s Birthday Suits

Gillian Anderson, a longtime friend to animals and PETA, turns 54 today with a message for couture giants Michael Kors, Versace, and Jimmy Choo: Stop harvesting hides from alligators, snakes, and lizards.

Last week, PETA, which likes to purchase stock in big corporations so it can torment the management at shareholder meetings, delivered the message to Capri Holding, owner of the designer labels:  “From Texas to Zimbabwe, South Africa, Vietnam, and Indonesia, PETA entities have exposed extreme cruelty to animals exploited in the global exotic-skins industry. When will Capri Holdings act to help stop this egregious abuse by joining its peers and ending its sourcing of exotic skins?”

Lest you think such stunts are token gestures, consider: last year Anderson and PETA called on fashion house Kering to stop selling fur; this year Kering is ending fur sales across all its brands including the fall collections.

Anderson has been busy. With Greenpeace she campaigned to save what’s left of the Brazilian rainforest. In Namibia, she created a short film to support the Cheetah Conservation Fund. For Fishlove‘s sustainable fishing campaign, she draped a huge sad-eyed, bloody-mouthed aquatic beast around her neck. New Yorkers appreciated her “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” 70-foot billboard in Penn Plaza.

Anderson, fully clothed, played dog lover Eleanor Roosevelt in the Showtime series “The First Lady” and co-stars with Christian Bale in the forthcoming film “The Pale Blue Eye.” That story features raven champion Edgar Allan Poe in a murder mystery set at West Point.

Many happy returns on the day!

Photo credit: Fishlove / Rouvre