Ice Crusade

"We are committing, in our civilization, suicide," Hayek announced. "All we have to do is listen to the land, which is sending us messages on how to survive and how to self-destruct. . . . We are going to have to deal with the consequences of our lifestyle. Go talk to the ice, go talk to the wind, go talk to the ocean. There's no negotiation here."

Of course, the Inuit are not the only people who could suffer if climate change continues to accelerate. Rising temperatures and shifting weather patterns could cause the sea level to rise, swamping coastal communities in Florida and Louisiana and nations like Bangladesh and Tuvalu, while changing migration and blooming patterns could disrupt ecosystems across the globe. (Or, if you believe the writers of Gyllenhaal's 2004 film, "The Day After Tomorrow," there will be a new ice age but your dad, Dennis Quaid, will fight his way through the snow to save you.)

Using celebrities as spokesmen is a tricky business. You have to make sure they're not, well, hypocrites: One of the stars who toyed with coming here is said to drive a gas-guzzling Hummer, though activists declined to identify the luminary in question. The rich and famous folks are not always reliable (see Brody, who bailed a week before). Still others are tightly booked (Bono intended to make it but couldn't reschedule a concert in Denver, according to one of the event's organizers, and Leonardo DiCaprio couldn't extricate himself from a film shoot). The celebrities need to know something about the issue they're embracing (and, ideally, they're nice people too).

"The question is, in an age and culture that's celebrity-obsessed, how do you in a smart and savvy way use the celebrity to shine the light on the science, on the facts and on the solution?" asked Matt Peterson, head of environmental advocacy group Global Green, as he tried to clean up some of the California coffee grounds his dysfunctional machine had spewed all over his hotel room. "They're concerned citizens who are able to draw attention to issues they care about. . . . Sometimes you have to go to where people are listening."

Peterson, along with his colleague Sebastian Copeland, enticed Hayek and Gyllenhaal into coming to the Great White North to celebrate Earth Day and participating in a massive aerial art protest that spelled out "Arctic Warning," and the Inuit word for "Listen." Global Green is the same group that gets celebrities to drive to the Academy Awards in hybrid cars.

Peterson's task was complicated by the fact that most celebrities, including his two recent Arctic guests, feel somewhat ambivalent about using their fame to focus attention to one of the globe's most pressing environmental challenges.

"The idea that I'm savior of the planet because I'm a celebrity, I have a problem with that proposition," Hayek said later in an interview. "There's something wrong with the idea that celebrities have to get involved for people to be interested."

But Global Green and its co-sponsor, the Natural Resources Defense Council, each of which put up at least $10,000 for the project, still face the challenge of getting reporters and the U.S. public to care about a stretch of frigid tundra that has supported polar bears, seals and a small indigenous population for centuries but is now under duress. Many Americans have never even heard of Nunavut, a 742,000 square-mile, partly autonomous territory Canada created in 1999.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier -- who represents 155,000 Inuit in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia as chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference -- has received wide recognition for demanding developed countries address how their pollution is affecting the health and well-being of her people. But Watt-Cloutier, who said she identified with Hayek after reading an interview with her in Oprah's Winfrey's O magazine, still finds herself at a disadvantage during international negotiations aimed at curbing climate change and the spread of persistent organic pollutants.

"We are looking for the allies in the world," she said. "We are not looking for saviors."

That's where Hayek and Gyllenhaal, who pass all the litmus tests, come in. Hayek gave up her car for a year and a half in protest of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, then bought a Ford hybrid sport utility vehicle. Gyllenhaal, 24, starred in the environmental-apocalyptic "Day After Tomorrow." While they dressed down for the occasion -- Hayek sported a long underwear-like slate-colored hoodie and gray wide-legged pants, and Gyllenhaal weathered the cold in jeans and a blue button-down shirt -- they radiated a serious level of glamour compared with the earnest environmentalists surrounding them. Sans posse, the two stars exuded a sense of playfulness throughout the weekend, breaking into song at points (Inuit throat-singing and Spanish-language Christmas carols). The Frobisher Inn's suites were booked, so each star stayed in a modest single room. And at one point, when it looked like the event's organizers couldn't secure a private jet, Hayek offered to fly coach and stay overnight in Ottawa in order to make it. (Her handler also told organizers that schlepping to the Arctic meant Hayek turned down a chance to be a judge at the Cannes Film Festival, a post that apparently includes a $100,000 gift bag as compensation.)

The environmentalists found another plane provider -- the stars arrived on a Millionaire Airlines Learjet -- and Hayek and Gyllenhaal did a full tour of Inuit country. The actress, who shares a manager with Gyllenhaal, called to invite him a day before the plane took off: At first, he recalled, "I was like, what?" but he quickly concluded, "You don't pass that up."