Big story over here: a singer and TV presenter who is married to a footballer has marital difficulties. The footballer has allegedly had affairs. The singer is allegedly “being seen dating” with a male friend. She has been photographed not wearing her wedding ring. (War in Afghanistan, Page 97)
Apparently, ordinary members of the public had been betting that this celebrity marriage would end in 2010. First thought: how sick is that that people are betting on something like tha?
But even worse: a major bookmaker (betting shop) has started paying out on those bets because they have decided that the marriage is irretrievably broken down - before the couple themselves have made any such announcement.
I sometimes think, and there seems evidence to support this, that most celebrity marriages are doomed to failure. There is inevitably a lot of time spent apart, in the alternative company of lots of booze ( and often drugs), high living, hotels, flash cars, inexhaustible money supply.
Celebrity parties, flashing lights, women ( mainly) wanting to bed a “star”, celebrities who are maybe not the brightest stars in the sky, etc.
So such gambling might seem to be a far better bet than the odds on favorite at Epsom. Betting on the “result” is unlikely to change it. Paying out before the horses pass the post is maybe a little surprising though.
I suspect celebrities only approach being real people when confined on reality shows.
When we see celebrities in performance or on the screen, their every move is scripted, and the audio and video is processed and edited to remove as much stupidity as possible. We aren’t watching those celebrities, per se, we’re watching their digital avatar.
Nao’s suspicion isn’t far from the truth. Reality shows put celebrities in real life situations, where their sheer stupidity shines like the morning sun.
The stereotype exists for a reason. You get a pretty face whose been told their whole life how pretty they are, and they don’t bother to develop any other part of their persona. Net result: empty, vapid windbags.
Us real people have to work on our whole persona in order to barely glimmer against the bright lights of mass media and marketeers.
That may or may not be true. There are many celebrities who have gone on to achieve great things “in real life” ourside of the celebrity bubble, and many others who have crashed and burned, and many who quietly manage to keep a normal life going on behind the celebrity facade.
But my point is nothing to do with the celebrities in question (who, by the way, have now announced their separation) but the sickness in society that has:
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People placing bets with a commercial betting organisation on whether and when two other human beings' marriage will fail.
The commercial betting organisation then deciding to pay out because in their view that marriage has irretrievably broken down, before the actual real human beings (however stupid and vacuous) have decided that themselves.
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We have people fighting for our so called “western values” in many parts of the world. This is a poor advertisement for those values.
As long as that drama stays on the tabloid covers, it’s potentially huge “market share” if you’re a celebrity. This is the scary upside of all that nastiness. I get the impression that many of the celebs over here, while publicly complaining about being chased by papparazzi, do other stuff to ensure they stay in the gossip headlines.
None of this bothers me (much). Gossip has always been around, and it’s always about talking about other people, whether you actually know them or not. What does bother me is when it starts getting treated with the same weight as “real news” and diluting a sense of proportion about such things.
But for the bookees, I think they’re paying out too early. Sometimes these things work out and the celebs get back together! But is it for them, or for us?
Woah… what reality show puts celebrities in real life situations? The more I watch, the more obvious it is to me that most of the situations are contrived, pre-planned and even formulaic.
Even COPS, what I consider to still be the only reality show that’s really real, is only as real as everyone’s awareness of the cameras in their faces. How would those same cops act if nobody was watching? (I like to believe 99% of them would act exactly the same, but it’s probably less)
But that’s true for many people outside of being famous/celebrity. Everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt to show what kind of person they are; like anyone else, to be judged on the quality of their character. Let the airheads then rise to the top, like foam on a latte!
These are not those values. For the people to whom it really matters (the ones risking their lives to get to the Western countries), fear not; they can tell the difference.
People place bets on competitions where two men beat each other’s heads until one falls unconscious. I’d call this pale in comparison.
The “western values” being fought for include freedom of speech and expression. These freedoms allow us to do whatever stupid things we like with our time and our money. I’m totally okay with that.
Freedom is precious - and should therefore be spent wisely.
(I think it was Stalin who said “…so it must be rationed”.)
I see the winky emoticon so I know you’re being ironic, but there is a serious point here too.
I have no particular opinion on the marriage in question, and no particular interest in the individuals. (Although now she’s back on the market, I will check the “buy it now” price on eBay.)
I do however despair that while we are spending millions of Pounds/Dollars promoting democracy in parts of the world where they have other traditions, it’s all we can do to get our population to show an interest in our own political system, or serious current affairs, but people pay money to vote on celebrity reality shows, and feel they know enough about a stranger’s marriage to bet on it.
I share your despair Mike. It seems the problem runs even deeper than interest, however. Much of the population lack the brain power to even understand the implications of what our politicians are doing to us.
As our celebrities demonstrate, stupid has become quite popular these days.
The shows do not have to be real life situations. The “reality” is well, hardly. But some of the shows do throw the participants into a situation where they are unable to have any control of the media around them. At such times we can see the “real” person leaking out. And most of them become surprisingly ordinary. Some are revealed as astute, interesting, some much less so.
Being a celebrity can indeed broaden the mind and develop the person quite astonishingly. Some of those then can, as Mike says, accomplish great things. Some accomplish them because they have developed as a person, some by just riding the celebrity wave.
The betting on marriage breakups may well be a symptom of societal malaise, but it is just one symptom amongst many others, and to my mind a relatively minor one.
Small red marks on the skin are a minor symptom, but sometimes they are a symptom of meningitis.
A huge problem with our society and values is that celebrity is these days almost completely unrelated to ability; and celebrity status has become more important than the value of someone’s contribution to society; and then people who “worship” celebrity start to blur the distinction between reality and image, and between private and public.
Take Cheryl Cole: a pretty girl with a nice manner, and a reasonably good singer and performer: and a millionaire celebrity. How does her level of celebrity compare to that of a top class composer or instrumentalist? Can you name a major orchestral composer who is writing today? Or a top flight flautist? The composer may be in with a chance if he does musicals; the instrumentalist may be in with a chance if he plays electric guitar.
How does her level of ability or her contribution to society compare to any number of “unknown” doctors, nurses, engineers, chemists, physicists, etc.?
And everyone assumes that because she is pretty and pleasant on camera, she must be wonderful all the time. Who knows what being married to her was really like? For all I know she could be absolutely lovely, or an objectionable selfish harridan.
But idiots think they “know” her and “own” part of her, and somehow have a say in how she should live her life.
There was a phone in on the radio the orther night in which people were ringing in with support for her, and some others were criticising her, and others were either supporting or damning her husband. They somehow feel it is their business.
How many of those people could name all of the leaders of our three main political parties? (Or even the parties!)
It’s not only their (our) fault, we are manipulated by a media desperately competing with each other to make as much money as possible and not caring who they trample on to get their story.
