please keep the snooch inside the ride at all times |
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What a strange time it is to be a celebrity. Never before in celebrityland has there been so many ways to be scrutinized, stalked and squashed (sometimes literally) by reporters and the like. Now everyone at anytime can find everything from your favorite movie star picking their nose to their favorite pop star's bare dairy air and then some.
Can you imagine all of this goings on back in the golden age of Hollywood? It just wouldn't be tolerated. We are talking about a time when onscreen intimacy would be nothing more than a kiss, with the camera panning over to the open window to watch the curtains flutter to just hint at the fact that sexual contact is going on. Of course this is far different then say Halle Barry and Billy Bob Thornton going at it naked on the floor in MONSTER'S BALL (which she won an Oscar for, hmmm, go figure).
This is not to say there was not scandal and rumors in La-La-Land back then, of course there was. There were also movie magazines and hush-hush reports about celebrities, but they paled in comparison to what is reported on now. Big news back then might have been that Cary Grant showed up stag to a premiere or even as 
i'm not that innocent |
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far as who's that with Judy Garland? Now, within an hour of Lindsay Lohan getting off a boat in Venice without underwear we just need to jump on the internet to get a glimpse of her little Lohan, with nothing more than a snicker and then we await the next event.
I often wonder which is better: the classic entertainment buzz reporting of yesteryear or the media and viral video blanket of today? Surely not every celebrity today is like Lindsay Lohan. There are some celebrities that are taking advantage of the far reaching intrusive reports of today. Take someone like George Clooney who, yes, I have read this and that, snippets if you will of "scandalous" stories about him, which is really nothing more than a headline. The truth is Clooney uses the media as much as they use him; he tries to bring attention to social travesties and worthwhile causes. The media, of course, covers it and the word gets out. Not to say that Jimmy Stewart or Ronald Reagan (pre-Pres) did not publicize the purchasing of war bonds and the like, but you most likely had to be at the movie theatre watching a newsreel to see these messages. Now if a celebrity so much wears a 
spinning the media frenzy into something worthwhile |
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t-shirt with the words "peace now" on it, as they come out of their house to get the paper, it is on your laptop in minutes.
Along with progress comes the good, the bad and the ugly. For all the Clooney's and say Sean Penn's in Iraq there are ten more Brittany Spears and Paris Hiltons. Which sells more? Angelina Jolie in Africa or Paris Hilton in her "movie?" (Yes that one). We all know the horrid story of the paparazzi and Princess Diana, which, yes, is an extreme case, but it shows just how far today's media, both professional and amateur will go to get a picture, a statement, a story out to the world, which becomes nothing more then a click of the mouse and a quick read by us, the readers. To be able to get that "money shot" is worth millions now and there are always buyers.
So what has changed? Obviously the short answer is society. Society has changed. In the black and white world of the early days of cinema no one could even comprehend releasing an image of celebrity snooch out to the press. It just wouldn't be accepted. Sure, a reporter might hold onto it and sell it to a black market magazine but not to the masses. Our culture, our 
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world, our whole existence has changed in its entirety in the blink of an eye. Imagine what Marilyn Monroe, er, Bettie Davis would think clicking on a set of pictures from a night out with Paris Hilton on Perez Hilton's website. Not good.
The saddest part about the whole thing is that we are products of the culture around us. The fact is as much as I sit here and preach about what a travesty this all is and what pigs we have become, if I see a headline touting the new Uma pictures sans underwear or Mel Gibson on another anti-semetic tirade, I would be clicking and reading before I could say "progress". We are what we are, and it is what it is. Hollywood and the like will continue to give us better plots in reality then some of the movies that are made with those same people starring in them. We will continue to gobble it up and there will always be more. However, sometimes, it would be nice to think that instead of the camera showing everything, and I do mean everything, it simply pans away as we watch the curtains flutter and we use our imaginations again...oh to dream.
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A little corner of the world where you get to read my rants and raves on the world of entertainment. Lucky you.
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| Jeff Lurie |
Skye enjoys telling people that while he rarely wears underwear, when he does it is usually something rare and exotic. Inspired by scaring circus clowns and random 80's movies, Skye has always had a passion for writing and the world of entertainment. He hopes that through his writing he will in turn inspire others or at the very least propel them into a life of mopping adult coin operated booths.
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