Brad Pitt granted audience with President Obama to discuss reconstruction in New Orleans

This is good news:

President Barack Obama met on Thursday with Hollywood star Brad Pitt, the White House confirms. The actor also met that day with Democratic congressional leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, to discuss his charity and reconstruction efforts in New Orleans...The Make It Right Foundation New Orleans, which Pitt founded in 2007, is helping to rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward and other communities damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

As usual, sites like Free Republic are in a rage over this (amongst other things) for no reason other than a dislike of Hollywood itself. When you have a person making tens of millions of dollars a year and using a great deal of this to support projects like rebuilding New Orleans, it's a no-brainer that you would want to meet with the government to coordinate, because every dollar that Brad Pitt and other like-minded people spend is a dollar that the government doesn't have to. An article in 2008 has the following:

The Make It Right Project is a plan to build 150 new homes in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward. Brad Pitt expects families will be in these new homes by the end of summer 2009. However, Brad Pitt cannot complete this project on his own, and contrary to popular belief, the houses constructed with the help of Make It Right are not free. Pitt described Make It Right as an adopt-a-house campaign. These houses cost money, and that’s why Pitt is asking for help from all Americans. Pitt has already donated $5 million of his own money, but he is also asking for donations from anyone who can afford to help, including foundations, well-off individuals, churches, and corporations. One eco-friendly house costs just $150,000 because Make It Right is committed to building homes that are affordable, sustainable, and true to the culture of New Orleans. As of today, 86 of the 150 homes have been sponsored.

Every once in a while though you'll find an accurate comment even on a site like freerepublic.com, and today's accurate comment on the story is this one:

The city of New Orleans is very appreciative of the help that Pitt and company have contributed to our rebuilding and we don't consider them, nor do they act like, 'High Film Trash'.

The work that is going on is in the lower ninth ward of New Orleans, one of the poorest and one of the hardest hit by Katrina.