July 31, 2006
Celebrity.
The whole Drunken Nazi Mel Gibson debacle is still running. Today at work, a co-worker said, "I can't believe he did/said all that! It's so out of character for him!"
Additionally, it's arguably true that I wouldn't know where to put food if I didn't run my mouth so much. My brain said: "Stop. Out of character? Which fucking character? Was it the loose cannon suicidal cop in Lethal Weapon? Maybe the knee-deep in pussy guy from What Women Want? It couldn't be the hard-boiled thief from Payback. Definitely not the vengeful father from Ransom, nor could it be our favorite apocalyptic anti-hero Mad Max. Gee. Character?"
While my brain went on a tirade, somehow my mouth managed to make a connection and a rationalization at the same time.
"Character? Which character? We really don't know much about him aside from the roles he's played in movies. We know he's had an alcohol problem for quite a while. We know his father's infamous for anti-Semitic rantings, so I don't think it's too out of character. As far as character goes, do we really know anything about these people? As much as we would like to think that behind-the-scenes featurettes and A&E biographies are the pinnacle of celebrity information, they really don't offer us a true glimpse into that person's life."
This entire tirade was punctuated by "Ohhhh"s and "Yeah"s and "Mmm-hmm"s, so it's entirely positive that my entire point may have taken flight and veered right over the heads of the receiving audience, but it hasn't stopped my thought process.
Namely, my thought process in regards to America's obsession with celebrities.
The main issue is the fact that a lot of people invest so much of their time consuming media starring said movie/TV stars, that we start to form an image of them. The accuracy of said image is definitely debatable. We paint them as idols, we set standards for them based on fictional characters that they portray, and when they don't live up to said standards, we chastise them. "How dare you not be the quirky but lovable father that you played in 'Uncle Teddy's World' on NBC late night! Wait, you mean that Julia Roberts really wasn't a hooker?" Et cetera, et cetera.
A bit of logic implies that we really don't know shit about these people, despite what the dregs of the tabloid world want to tell us. What's to say that these supposed "industry insiders" aren't just another marketing asshole for Bumfuck Pictures, Inc. creating another drunken Lindsay Lohan incident to give her a bit of infamy? Is it so far of a stretch to think that our idealistic view of a celebrity could be just another marketing scheme, and that most celebrities happily gloss over their shortcomings as a person in order to succeed? Take Paris Hilton for example. What's she famous for, in a nutshell? Being rich. Granted, she's moved beyond that, what with the mediocre TV shows with co-starring twigs and rednecks, and the perfume/clothing lines, and the sex tape, and the music (oh dear god, the music, please make it stop). She's become a commodity. And it's a safe bet to say that there could very well be a massive rift between what the public perceives these people to be (i.e., the image fabricated by themselves/ad execs) and who they really are (drunks, bad breath, racists, serial masturbators).
So when the public is subjected to a truthful account from a deputy in regards to a shitfaced superstar who goes on a drunken Jew-hating rampage, is it that much of a reach to suggest that this is who Mel Gibson really is at his core? Is it so far-fetched to suggest that the studios and Gibson himself have worked diligently to suppress different aspects of his personality for the sake of sales? And wouldn't it be safe to bet that this isn't just a Mel Gibson thing, but an Entertainment Industry thing?
Let's chew on that for a few days and see what happens.
Posted by Jake at July 31, 2006 10:12 PM
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