Kevin Costner to Clean Up Oil Spill. Really.

BP is looking to actor Kevin Costner to help clean up the oil from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

I was going to make a Waterworld joke. Or make some snarky comment, like, “If he cleans it, the fish will come.”

Yup. This guy.

But no. I can’t do that. And do you know why? Because Kevin Costner might actually be able to clean up the oil spill.

According to an article on cnn.com, Kevin Costner and his scientist brother have developed a machine that uses a “centrifuge mechanism to separate oil from water and recycle the crude at the same time.” And it appears to be working.

Apparently, Costner and his brother created this machine in the ’90s. The machine allows barges to collect more oil than water, which was the problem with the skimmers that BP has been using. BP has already ordered 32 of these machines to assist in the clean up.

There’s no plug for a (baseball-related, I’d assume) movie. There’s no book coming out that needs publicity. No new restaurant or cologne or run for Congress. Kevin Costner isn’t exploiting the oil spill to advance his career or his celebrity. He’s genuinely trying to help BP clean up the biggest oil spill in US history.

An actor doing good without something to plug? A viable option for cleaning up the spill?

I don’t know which is more refreshing.

By Jessica Livingston