I hate modern celebrity culture.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with people who have real talent being recognised. Hitchcock for example truly was a master in his field.
What I have a problem with is people who typically have very little talent, but you see them everywhere because they are commerically successful.
Particularly annoying are people who find fame having been in some crap reality TV program.
But what annoys me even more than over zealous celebration of questionable talent, is the increasing level of celebrity bashing.
Take Amy Winehouse for example. I thought Frank was a fantastic album, the follow up wasn’t quite as exciting but still better than a lot of the pap out there.
Now I’m not going to defend her lifestyle for a moment. She really needs help to sort herself out.
But what really annoys me is when people who go binge drinking and taking drugs every weekend, having a pop at her.
Put in her position with incredible fame and money at such an early age, with no day job or money worries to cause restraint and all the pressures that go with being a) creative and b) famous, I wonder how many of them would take their own advice?
I’ve no time for Kerry Katona, dodgy albums, dodgy reality shows, dodgy Iceland adverts, dodgy inflated and deflated knockers, but that said she is a human being and one that’s had a lot of personal problems (all made very public).
GMTV knew exactly what they were doing by putting her on in that state. All this guff about her turning up late and they didn’t notice, they knew the amount of publicity they would get out of it.
Ok she’s famous (though for nothing that really deserves fame) and she’s possibly pissed early in the morning. I wonder if those who judge her, if they’d been through a bankruptcy, their life was in a mess, and had to do an early morning TV interview, if they’d not turn to the bottle themselves.
Can’t we just ditch this whole crazy notion of celebrity, or at least find some with a bit of talent?
I’m interested by the current situation with Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand. I don’t like either of them, finding them both hugely egotistical and arrogant beyond the scope of their talent, and confess to having some “shameful joy” at the trial by media they are being subject to at the moment.
I’m not sure it will, but maybe the fall of these so called icons will hasten the demise of this terrible cult of celebrity that soceity seems so wrapped up in.
By: Ieuan Cilgwri on October 30, 2008
at 1:10 pm
Yup first time I saw Jonathan Woss back in the 80s I thought he was annoying and amateurish, and he hasn’t changed at all in the intervening 20 or so years.
Russell Brand is one of these minor celebs that I manage to avoid, except for the odd time he pops up on these listing shows such as 100 best/worst whatever.
At least all the media attention they’ve been getting is turning people’s attention away from the downturn in the economy. The daily headlines about house prices / stock market / confidence falling and unemployment rising, can only dent confidence further and make things worse.
On the other hand of course BBC Radio 2 is the most popular station in the UK, so there must be some people who don’t find them as annoying as we do, so much as I’d like to impose my will over broadcasters, it’s perhaps a shame that they’ve been taken off air rather than given boundaries of acceptable taste to stay within.
Tricky one!
By: newwallasean on October 30, 2008
at 7:26 pm
Wot no new blogs?!
By: Ieuan Cilgwri on November 18, 2008
at 1:10 pm