Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Fame and Celebrity

Ah, the absurdity that is Charlie Sheen's amusing public breakdown...

My good friend Raincoaster linked to me on this video, I will link back to her...'cause while I might have had it cross my sphere first, she posted it first:



I don't know about you, but I've often thought about how little I ever wanted to be famous. Sure, you'd probably be rich, but you'd have to work to preserve your privacy...or let it all hang out, damn the torpedoes! Your public drunkenness, arrests, serial marriages, serial adoptions, drug problems, lust issues, cellulite or just plain bad taste -- all exposed for the world to pick over.

Or worse, you start believing your own hype, what your publicist wants the public to believe, what your sycophants want you to believe...and the last person who has the balls to tell you you're an ass drifts away, lost in the cacophony of adulation -- and you turn your ranting, couch-jumping lunatic self loose on the world.

I just finished reading the Winter 2011 Lapham's Quarterly on the theme of Celebrity...just days before Sheen's spectacular nuttiness. It was a disturbing delight to be inundated with heartfelt opinions, many of them first hand, on all the various permutations of what celebrity can mean, through time.

I still wouldn't choose it.

Lori

4 comments:

raincoaster said...

Think about this: Lapham's Quarterly is named after Lewis Lapham, who always DID want to be famous.

Lori said...

Well, there you go!

I like the concept of the quarterly...and the Celebrity issue is esp. interesting.

Anonymous said...

I have the Granta Fame issue from about ten years ago, it's quite fascinating. They interview one of my favorite types of fans: the fan of an inarticulate celebrity or inanimate object. In this case, it's a racehorse. It's all "we draw such inspiration from his courage and his struggles with self-discipline".

harada57 said...
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