sarah drummondStars: Personal lives too public
November 14th 2007 05:09
Remember the good old days, when movie stars were known by their characters? This would happen to the extent that fans would call their favourite celebrities by the names of their characters. Rita Hayworth said she never really escaped “Gilda”.
More recently, though, I fear we’ve become a society of Hollywood-addicts. We crave so much info and media stimulation that we can not be satisfied with the fictional realm alone. We also need to know about their personal lives, diet habits, relationships with their ex, pets names and religious beliefs. Being smothered by so much media coverage, it is reasonable that we associate more with the ‘people’ than their characters. [It is important to accept that the ‘people’ we think we are learning about are just as fictional as the characters they portray. One is a media composite, refined by a thousand ET reports and even more articles in trash magazines. These are no more indicative of the actors we love than the protagonists in the latest blockbuster.] How, after all, can one or two 90-minute releases a year compete with the constant onslaught of the more active media that surrounds us?
I mourn the Hollywood of yesteryear for this reason – and many others. I recently saw a poster of “Lions for Lambs” and realised that I am too influenced by these actors. Please understand that I have seen the error of my ways since this (and I am only expressing an opinion I had, and no one else, and only briefly), but my initial reaction was ‘why would they put a joke like Tom Cruise on the same poster as legends like Meryl Streep and Robert Redford?’ The events in this man’s ‘private life’ have persuaded me so much against him, that I no longer care that this is the man who can do a 4G inverted dive in a MiG, helped save his kids – and the rest of the world – from aliens, took Rod Tidwell to the top, at great risk to his own finances and had us at “hello”.
I think I can remember a day when I appreciated Tom Cruise’s work. I think I once enjoyed his performances. Or perhaps didn’t enjoy them, but accepted that it was possible to enjoy them. I’m back-peddling now, my point is: film stars are negatively influenced by themselves too much these days.
I’ve studied media and advertising, and I realise that it is a fine line between publicity and invasion of privacy. But where do you draw the line? Should we say that photos of stars are fine when they’re at premieres and award ceremonies, but in their day-to-day lives, it’s just too much? No. That won’t work, ‘stars without makeup’ issues of trash magazines are the biggest sellers of the year. Readers crave that kind of thing.
Is it just too late? Have we – as a society of people obsessed with celebrities – created a world where we want to know too much? I think we have. It seems that stars have no choice but to lose their private lives in order to compete for our attention, good or bad. Most stars will tell you that you cannot be in the industry without giving up a part of yourself that use to be personal.
Maybe it’s just that stars were better at pretending for the public in the golden age.
Good times.
More recently, though, I fear we’ve become a society of Hollywood-addicts. We crave so much info and media stimulation that we can not be satisfied with the fictional realm alone. We also need to know about their personal lives, diet habits, relationships with their ex, pets names and religious beliefs. Being smothered by so much media coverage, it is reasonable that we associate more with the ‘people’ than their characters. [It is important to accept that the ‘people’ we think we are learning about are just as fictional as the characters they portray. One is a media composite, refined by a thousand ET reports and even more articles in trash magazines. These are no more indicative of the actors we love than the protagonists in the latest blockbuster.] How, after all, can one or two 90-minute releases a year compete with the constant onslaught of the more active media that surrounds us?
I mourn the Hollywood of yesteryear for this reason – and many others. I recently saw a poster of “Lions for Lambs” and realised that I am too influenced by these actors. Please understand that I have seen the error of my ways since this (and I am only expressing an opinion I had, and no one else, and only briefly), but my initial reaction was ‘why would they put a joke like Tom Cruise on the same poster as legends like Meryl Streep and Robert Redford?’ The events in this man’s ‘private life’ have persuaded me so much against him, that I no longer care that this is the man who can do a 4G inverted dive in a MiG, helped save his kids – and the rest of the world – from aliens, took Rod Tidwell to the top, at great risk to his own finances and had us at “hello”.
I think I can remember a day when I appreciated Tom Cruise’s work. I think I once enjoyed his performances. Or perhaps didn’t enjoy them, but accepted that it was possible to enjoy them. I’m back-peddling now, my point is: film stars are negatively influenced by themselves too much these days.
I’ve studied media and advertising, and I realise that it is a fine line between publicity and invasion of privacy. But where do you draw the line? Should we say that photos of stars are fine when they’re at premieres and award ceremonies, but in their day-to-day lives, it’s just too much? No. That won’t work, ‘stars without makeup’ issues of trash magazines are the biggest sellers of the year. Readers crave that kind of thing.
Is it just too late? Have we – as a society of people obsessed with celebrities – created a world where we want to know too much? I think we have. It seems that stars have no choice but to lose their private lives in order to compete for our attention, good or bad. Most stars will tell you that you cannot be in the industry without giving up a part of yourself that use to be personal.
Maybe it’s just that stars were better at pretending for the public in the golden age.
Good times.
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