Celebrity

[mallorys_camera]

Sunny day yesterday (though very, very cold) & I felt happy, happy, happy.

Beyond that, naught much to report.

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I’m reading a bunch of Frank Sinatra bios when I’m not Remunerating, Frank Sinatra being kinda the amphibian missing link between Old Hollywood & New Hollywood.

Of course, the culture has evolved away from Hollywood, which was the classic top-down (i.e. broadcast) model of dissemination when it comes to celebrities. Why hell-o-o-o-o, Marshall McLuhan! Is that a key in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

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I’m shallow: Celebrity interests me—both the phenomenon of celebrity itself and the weird excesses of those fabulous individual celebrity lives.

One of the reasons I like FB is that it provides a kind of nutrient-rich broth in which celebrity is constantly being created.

Thus, there are two individuals on my FB “friend” list who have established themselves as mini-celebrities in the sense that they can effortlessly command attention without—so far as I can tell—actually giving anything back. (I was gonna write, “they extort attention,” but, of course, attention freely given, is not extorted.)

Exhibit 1: Amaryllis, a WELL alumna, with a Past! She used to be a stripper. Wrote a pretty good book about it. Book was well-received. Wrote a couple of other books—not well received, though she’s an excellent writer—and now lives in splendor in a suburban mansion, supported by a handsome, doting husband.

These days, she posts a lot of cheesecake pix annotated with descriptions of her battles with ADHD and depression, and shoutouts to the marginalized groups she once leveraged. Each post garners a hundred “likes.” You look so magically gorgeous! gush her followers. You understand my pain.

Then there is Anna (not her real name), whose FB home page is a kind of diary, photos of herself, her house (yes, she does have exquisite taste), her clients (she’s a kinda-sorta publicist), her dog, her automobile accidents. Interspersed with numerous coy references to multiple lovers.

What identifies these women as celebrities is that they very seldom respond to any of the hundreds of replies to their posts. They are content to bask in the mass adoration.

I find this so deeply, deeply fascinating!

Comments

[smokingboot]

Celebrity is a strange thing. I loved Hollywood, and remember wanting to be famous, to photograph beautifully and be so charismatic I could take on a role and have an audience never forget me and the impression of my uniqueness would captivate people. I am comfortable with performance and presentation. But today's celebrity has a creepy crawly yet quietly furious element that I treat with extreme suspicion. If I was suddenly thust into the public eye, I would smile and love the moments I was there... and very quickly move to somewhere away from lenses, giving no interviews if I could help it.

[mallorys_camera]

I covet invisibility myself. Modeling was hard for me because even though I enjoyed the performative aspects, I really disliked being the focus of all that mostly critical attention.

I want people I care about & admire to pay attention to me, of course.

But everyone else? Nah. I enjoy spying on people! 😀 And you can only do that successfully if you're mostly invisible.

[stormehowl]

What a view!

I have to admit that for some reason I've always been fascinated by anything about England's royal family.

[mallorys_camera]

Isn't that view gorgeous? The Hudson Valley is truly a spectacularly beautiful place.

I like the English Royal Family, too! 😀