Lifestyles of the Rich, Famous and Fabulously Moronic
A Defense of the Paparazzi?
by: George Burns (Sergio)
We live in increasingly moronic times. Add "contradictory," to to this description, and I think you would have an accurate image of modern social existence. Don't believe all that empty rhetoric about freedom democracy and civilization, that's about as meaningful as Jade Goody having a boob job. And, Jade Goody's new breasts are what we all want to know about, and what we will pay large amounts of money to find out about. But hey! That's okay isn't it? It's what most of us want, isn't it?
Consider, for a minute, this growing phenomenon of "celebrity" and its "natural oxygen," the paparazzi, not to mention, for the minute, the frenzied masses.For the celebrities and their paparazzi -- the name is taken from a character in the 1960 Federico Fellini movie "La Dolce Vita" -- it is a relationship both complex and incredibly paradoxical.Often hated as they go about their work, the paparazzi are like a drink to an alcoholic, craved by those who depend upon their attentions and their work has certainly proved irresistible to the general public. It's an interesting inter-connectivity which produces fascinating little scenarios between the celebs, the photographers and the readers of newspapers and magazines.
Famously pissed by the attentions of the paparazzi after her partner Jude Law's adulterous indiscretions, actress Sienna Miller threatened to quit the performing industry. She described to listening journalists -- rather theatrically -- being chased through "pitch black" London by packs of "grown" men with cameras. The description of her flight from these lupine creatures of the night was sweetly weird, and seemed to imply that Mayor Ken Livingstone had not been paying the city's electricity bill.But if London's finest got a tongue lashing from people like Ms. Miller, Elton -- sorry (tug of forelock) -- Sir Elton John and Gwyneth Paltrow, at least they have a fan in Madge. Maddonna, recently complimented the capital's snappers on their politeness and praised them for their "manners" ...aw bless!The confusion and the sending out of contradictory signals is understandable given the intricate interplay and mutual need which exists between the three groups. The celebrities need their photographers just as much as the paparazzi need to give the general public insights into the lifestyles of the rich, famous and fabulously moronic.
Of course, the most perplexing relationship, I suppose, is the one that exists between the mass android ocean of those who perceive the paparazzi as loathsome creatures and yet, simultaneously, greedily demand and gobble up the fruits of their labor. The millions who clamor for the latest celebrity gossip and images, thus generating an unholy trinity locked into a cycle of hate, demand, mutual longing, loathing and need.Photographs of female movie stars, socialites, celebrities and various species of exotic hangers-on from the A,B or Z lists, flashing knickers and knockers as they clamber in and out of taxis.
Male and female celebrities drunkenly falling about or drugged out of their tiny cognitive processes (snow blind) being bundled into waiting limousines by burly minders. Members of the Royal household dressed as soldiers from Hitler's Third Reich attending parties. Or wild-eyed and ranting lashing out at photographers. All captured for the titillation and fascination of millions across the globe.Let's not get too precious or sanctimonious about this. Many photographers would gladly spend their working lives covering wars or gainfully employed carrying out more "artistic" assignments.
But celebrity is where the demand is and where there is demand there is cash, a fundamental lesson we all learned in first year economics.People after all have to feed their kids, pay their mortgages and have a life, remember that?My abiding memory of that strange outpouring of collective grief which followed the tragic death of Princess Diana was one old, demented biddy berating a reporter. She was blaming the "media" for their "supposed" part in her death. No one reminded her that the media only react to the demand for its products. She had obviously forgotten that in the space of a week Di had gone from zero to hero in the redtops.
These same people putting on such a public and often hysterical, if not insane, exhibition of grief, must have been the same individuals who had wallowed in the lurid details and coverage of her affair with Dodi Al Fayed. The same individuals who pushed the sales of tabloids soaring by buying these newspapers in their millions and thus endorsing the disapproving tone they originally took of the liaison. The whole tragedy, in those days following the death, had become a perverse and ghoulish retreat into a pantomime of guilt. A regal and political circus attended in all its pomp and splendor by the doyens of show business, a sad end to a life in any circumstances. The relationship between the photographer and the film star or pop diva or celebrity of any description is an odo et amor relationship.
A love -- hate encounter where each needs to suck the blood from each other like mutual vampires, beneath the full moon of the general public and its fickle mania for images.It is fascinating to think that while a huge chunk of our planet will go to bed hungry tonight, there exists a massive appetite out there for photographs and insights into the astronomically wealthy and their often Neanderthal behavior. Existence in these times is like living in a parallel universe of extraordinary and often absurd extremes.
Taken from http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=347451&rel_no=1
©2007 OhmyNews
Saturday, March 3, 2007
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