8/10/2019 The tainting of celebrity
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The tainting of celebrity
In the mid 40s to early 60s it was pretty much a certainty that
when the word celebrity popped up
into your head; instantly your mind went down a tangent
involving the extremely talented
Hollywood stars of American Cinemas golden period. Waltzing into
your psyche would have been
the glamorous likes of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Ingrid
Bergman. Marching into your
consciousness were the imposing likes of Spencer Tracey, Gregory
Peck and Cary Grant. Along with
these names you would also add the splendour of film premiers,
red carpets, movie posters and
glamorous homes in Monte Carlo married to a prince added to the
mix. However if you were to
mention the same term to people today; instantly images of
drunken romps in the Big Brother
house, lurid sexual antics in night clubs by the cast of the
Geordie Shore, embarrassing stunts
attracting millions of views on YouTube and unfortunate tales of
child actors slowly destroying their
lives would boil to the surface. My argument is that once
celebrity instantly conjured up images of
years of hard work involving revolving doors of elocution, dance
and singing classes. Celebrity was
once shrouded in an air of divine mystery, sophistication and
dinners with important political figures.
Now the perception of celebrity has been regulated to the realms
of cheapness, stupid rants on
Twitter and crotch shots.
My recent celebrity epiphany came as a result of watching two
Sofia Coppola films that I felt greatly
summed up celebrity and its effects in the 21st century. The
first was a brilliant character study on
the numbing effects of modern day celebrity called Somewhere. In
it we follow Johnny an actor
living from hotel room to hotel room, whilst emotionally and
consciously withdrawn from all the
various awards ceremonies and press junkets he is forced to do.
His scenes on a whole are
constantly filled with melancholy heart and cold wintery
isolation as you begin to realize that Johnny
is no longer a human being to the various assortments of
producers and PR men, instead he is
merely a product intended to be used and sold around the world.
The second film was The Bling
Ring, based on a true story of how a group of youths decide to
rob the homes of rich celebrities to
quench their own hunger for the expensive and glamorous
existences that they envy so much. But
when they do get caught instead of showing remorse, rather in
the face of the world media they
rejoice at their new found notoriety and 15 minutes of fame.
This sort of fame hungry mentality doesn't just end in the
Hollywood hills. I recently went to a club
where I struck up a conversation with a fairly pretty petite
young blonde. After talking to her for a
while, it began to be virtually impossible to escape the black
swirling cloud haloed around her head.
Every other statement coming from her mouth was either a self
deprecation comment obtaining
from her lack of tan to the mundane nature of her job or an
insults aimed at her friend who was
merely a few steps away. I tried steering the conversation into
more positive light but asking her
what her passion was. Without even a moments hesitation and
accompanied with sprawling smile
she said I want to be famous, naturally I felt it was a strange
thing to say, but not entirely
ridiculous. But what really struck me was when I asked what she
wanted to be famous for; she
replied that she had no discerning talents to speak of and no
ambition to gain any but just wanted to
be famous.
This desire for fame for fame's sake has become a theme heavily
ingrained in modern society. Why
spend years studying acting with Stella Adler when all you
really need now is; a spoon, video camera,
internet connection and jar of cinnamon to instantly put your
name on the lips of millions? Why go
