Our Complicity.
I recall a clip on Sky News showing Kate Middleton, then girlfriend of Prince William, being besieged by press photographers as she tried to leave her flat and get in to her car. It got so bad that a parliamentary committee stated that she had been hounded through such "persistent harassment" that the parliamentary press committee should have protected her.
We love to build them up don't we? Michael Jackson, Jodie Foster, Diana, Justin Bieber, Tiger Woods, Louis Suarez and, of course, Lance Armstrong. God help Usain Bolt if he English, American or lived in those countries. Our insatiable appetite for celebrity news, coupled with mega endorsements designed to sell product, screaming fan idolatry, red carpet interviews and the incessant pressure on extraordinary human beings to go faster, deeper, higher, in short to go beyond extraordinary only succeeds in bringing about the inevitable.
A large number turn to drugs to escape the pressure, others to performance enhancing drugs to keep their demi god status going as demanded by an unyielding public. It is no excuse and it certainly does not apply in all cases, but what is our role in helping push them over the edge? How do they get to the point to when they lose sight of their craft and try and sustain an image beyond its sell-by date simply because we demand it? We deride them when their powers begin to fade, booing soccer, NBA, baseball stars off the field of play because they do not meet our exacting demands of what a superstar performance ought to be. Then for hours after a performance, "experts and analysts" dissect them on prime time television saying the voice is gone, the accent in a particular acting role is pathetic, speculating without any shred of evidence on how and why they are failing us and, thereafter, we discard them like dirty handkerchiefs. Everybody wants to be loved, to feel appreciated and they turn to all manner of artificial means to keep their image going. What is next Pippa Middleton's sagging bottom, Justin Bieber's voice, Usain Bolts slowing speed or Barack Obama's fading charisma? Why the pressure on young Messi and Ronaldo on who is greater, season after season?
When Hollywood stands up as one to applaud the likes of Whitney Houston on their comebacks, they send us a message that says you do not understand us but we understand and love each other. We forgive you because we know what we go through as performers. This is why Jodie Foster got the biggest cheers of the night at the Golden Globes when she said, "If you had been a public figure from the time that you were a toddler, if you had to fight for a life that felt real and normal and honest against all odds, then maybe you too might value privacy above all else,"
Give them a break. They are human.
