Monday, February 16, 2009
Jade Goody
The aetiology of cancer, probability and the sheer number of celebrities should make the story of Jade Goody unsurprising. But it is. Also, she is going to sell her wedding and death to provide for her children, a move with which one cannot argue even though it makes one uneasy. Why? Because, I think, it seems to sustain the idea of the pursuit of fame as the answer to all life's problems, even death.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
I blame the BBC for importing neighbours, until then the British had a backbone, then came the Aussie candyfloss life, you have a problem, then lets talk about it, lets share it, let me signal to you that I "care", and you have a right to be "loved" everyone doing the "right" thing.
ReplyDeleteCelebrity is just another manifestation of the rights based culture we have produced.
The post poses some fascinating questions. The pursuit of fame through the cult of media personality ain't going away therefore some of its participants, via the law of averages will die on the job. What will their approach be to this looming hiccup in their quest. Will it be treated as another phase that has to be planned for, requiring the services of the Max Cliffords, maybe even the puppet master himself, Cowell. I smell a new format on the horizon, Dead Famous. Then there is the not to be sniffed at post mortem gig, lots of opportunity there, singing cadavers perhaps, Lloyd Webber holding auditions for a genuinely deceased Phantom.
ReplyDeleteA whole new world of entertainment awaits.
PS, anyone watch Seasick Steve last night, fabulous, and did you notice the uncanny similarity between Gordon Browns head and Steve's gaffer taped box ?
This post poses absolutely no fascinating questions, only a few ghoulish ones.
ReplyDeleteIf newspapers want to provide for Goody's children then let them set up and donate to a trust fund and in penance fill their pages with some serious news comment and opinion and maybe the odd case worth campaigning for.
Fame is worthless without purpose. Be it a past purpose or a hoped for future purpose.
Fame for fame's sake is sick.
Indeed a cancer on our society.
Went to see Seasick Steve in Bristol last year, Malty.
ReplyDeleteSome idiot heckled him and he lost the plot, stopped playing, grabbed a baseball bat he inexplicably had handy and threatened the gobshite "to come a tell a better story." Tough as old boots, you wouldn't want to mess.
Proper dangerous gig moment, and I've seen a few: Pete Doherty (wasted), Amy Winehouse (pissed), The Blue Aeroplanes (god knows), Van Morrison (grumpy).
Good for him Brit, livens up the evenings entertainment no end. Most hilarious gigs..Gene Vincent, had been in a car wreck, one leg in plaster, daft bugger kept toppling over, bee bop a lu..crash. Cream.. so stoned out of their minds if someone had turned off the lights they would have glowed in the dark, fabulous night.
ReplyDeleteMike Nichols, the film director, in Scenes from a Revolution by Nick Harris (an excellent book about the making of the 1976 Oscar nominated films)is quoted as saying this about fame:
ReplyDelete"I think people try to become famous because they think: If you can get the world to revolve around you, you won't die."
It feels strikingly relevant to Jade and her terrible misfortune.
Where previously I had no admiration for Jade Goody whatsoever, I now quite admire her for doing what she is doing. I doubt she had the foresight to buy any life assurance before her children were born and to make any alternative provision.
ReplyDeleteShe now has no choice and is facing up to that reality; that when she is no longer here, her kids will be, and will need shelter, clothing and feeding...
A considerable number of Britons today expect the State, i.e. taxpayers, to do that for them.
Ms Goody it appears to me, is making sure she leaves them as a responsible parent.