Ladylavinia’s Weblog

 

 

Many who know me will know that I champion the red-tops for a myriad of reasons.For their campaigns, persuasiveness, courage of conviction and ability to speak to a wide range of readers.

 

However, today’s blog relates to the way these newspapers are fuelling the demand for the creation of so-called ‘celebrities’.

 

As I poured over The Sunday Times rich list a few weeks ago, in particularly the 100 richest young people, I was audibly shocked by the sheer amount of wealth that has been accumulated by those under the age of 30 who seem to possess none or very little talent.

 

Coleen McLoughlin, Katie Price, The Osbourne brats and several WAGs all rank high in this year’s roll and have fashioned fortunes and manufactured celebrity status out of their famous parents, spouse or tits.

 

I dare say I am more than a little envious of such a fortune but I wondered how these morons devoid of little contribution to society have become so celebrated in our daily lives.

 

And when did the thirst for ‘real news’ decline and stars, sex and sport govern the majority of our pages?

 

A quick glance at magazine circulation figures illustrates that celebrity gossip is at an all-time high, something the tabloids have offered up and is being vigorously devoured by the working-class palette.

 

If we take The Sun for example, the biggest selling daily British newspaper, their splashes rely a great deal on the appearance of a semi-naked celebrity and devote a much smaller portion of the front page to the main news of the day. 

 

But how do beauty queens famed for shagging footballers end up being front-page news and something we readily buy into? 

 

The modern celebrity reeks of inauthenticity and we now live in infuriating times where there has been a cultural decline from past ages in which ‘heroes’ were admired for greatness in some achievement.

 

The fresh-faced nobodies of today (to borrow a phrase from Daniel Boorstein) are “known for their well-knowness” and seem to have been created solely by today’s media circus.

 

Celebrity culture not only extends beyond the arts and sports into politics and business but we are now living in a period where stardom is available to the ordinary.

 

 

Nearly every newspaper yesterday 13/05/08 ran a story dishing out the salacious gossip divulged in Cherie’s autobiography. 

 

 

She is notable for her work as a human rights barrister, women’s campaigner and acclaimed public speaker.Yet she is celebrated for the details on her and Tony’s bonking session at Balmoral.

 

Likewise, reality television programmes testify to the fact that the anonymous can become an instant celebrity. In particularly, the dysfunctional wannabes in the Big Brother house are always an instant hit with the tabloids.

 

In yesterday’s Sun 13/05/08 it seems celebrity big brother is set to make a comeback after last year’s race row along with the regular contestants being shoved into the ninth series of the show which starts on June 5. 

 

New technologies bombard our everyday lives with images of celebrities and put them on global pedestals for the masses to access. 

 

No longer do we hear about the content of achievements or in what context they may have appeared. Rather we get reports on trends, clothes, pets, scandals, partners and significant others, diets, how the ‘crib’ is decorated, plastic surgery and an endless parade of a hedonistic lifestyle.

 

It seems to be crowned a celebrity in this day and age means that their life, or some notion of it, has become their greatest performance.

 

Take Paris Hilton for example, she possesses no major talent and is simply the product of  21st century American society. Hilton is a worshipped celebrity, up on the altar and nobody is quite sure why. However, American society is run by ‘the buck’ and one of Hilton’s major credentials is money. It seems large quantities of money will buy celebrity, this together with the fact that Hilton is a sex symbol makes her a media favourite.

 

Celebrities are a central part of today’s newspapers. Journalists dictate to us who we should be worshipping, on the basis of who they regard as going to sell the most papers. For the red tops this is usually weighed up by bra size.

 

Other considerable elements of what should be celebrated have been lost, trivialised or worn out. Long gone are the days when we would see Isaac Newton or Nelson Mandela donning the covers of glossy magazines for a noteworthy cause. Instead we have front-page news about Winehouse and her latest binge (14/05/08).

 

Having said all this I know that vast amounts of pages need to be covered and so we have varying faces of fame, due to the continuous demands of filling print. Journalists have to keep reintroducing us to new faces often as a way of padding out there supplements.

 

So these celebrities, (I hope) will not last since we live in a world filled with short-lived, disposable goods, we shouldn’t expect the shelf life of these no marks to be long.

 

Celebrity is still a phenomenon that is relatively new, it is essentially a mega trend where by the media force a formerly anonymous person on the public.

 

The celebrity uses their media coverage as a way of measuring up the size of their fame, to be deemed a success in our society you have to be ratified by publicity. How much publicity a celebrity has is accountable to their visibility, the visibility it seems is the chief requirement of celebrity, to be seen is to be famous. And so the vicious circle continues.

 

Most people want to be a celebrity, and everybody according to Warhol’s famous quote, will be famous at least for 15 minutes.