People garner celebrity by various means. Movies, music and sports are perhaps the big ones, but celebs may also come from the culinary world, science, business or any number of other disciplines.
Reality TV has given us another whole tier of famous, so-called “ordinary” people, who have been elevated to star status for winning pseudo-competitions on shows such as Survivor, Big Brother and The Bachelor.
And then there are the ridiculous people, the Paris Hiltons and Kim Kardashians of the world, who are famous for no other reason than they are famous.
In the Western celebrity-obsessed culture of the 21st century, sometimes we find out more about these people than we ever wanted to know, things that can burst your bubble of admiration.
Just as an example, I used to quite enjoy Gwyneth Paltrow’s acting performances until I found out she is a peddler of all things pseudoscientific. With her vagina steaming and super cleanses (nonsense and utter nonsense), she is so bat guano crazy, I can barely look at her in a movie any more.
My wife still can’t watch Billy Bob Thornton, whom she used to love, since his outburst on CBC Radio’s Q. And wow, how about what we didn’t know about former Q host Jian Ghomeshi.
I have to admit, I actually get some pleasure in bursting people’s bubbles with the bad news about their favourite celebs. For example did you know Sean Connery is an advocate of slapping women around? Barbara Walters even gave him a chance to backtrack, but he doubled down instead.
Sorry ladies, but your heartthrob is a misogynist.
I personally regret having ever enjoyed a Ted Nugent song because he turned out to be such an extreme nutjob.
Many celebrities have enormous talent. Many were simply extraordinarily lucky. Some were both. Others have no business being rich and famous at all.
But regardless of how they attained their celebrity, there is one thing they all have in common. They are just people with the same foibles, virtues, strengths, weaknesses, anxieties and insecurities as the rest of us.
I have been told you can separate a celebrity’s personal beliefs, attitudes and activities from their professional accomplishments. It is true that questionable morals and ethics, or just outright stupidity, does not objectively change the quality of one’s performance in their area of excellence but I don’t think it is that simple.
The problem is these people wield extraordinary influence.
There are, of course, degrees of unacceptable. It is one thing to throw a tantrum on public radio as Thornton did. A lot of Canadians were kind of miffed because he kind of dissed us as audiences and it was kind of childish to expect to be considered only as a musician when his real claim to fame is as an actor, but ultimately no real harm done.
But what about the woman who suffers burns to her vagina or infection from disrupting its bacterial balance because she took Paltrow’s advice?
Or how about the child who dies because her parents didn’t vaccinate based on Jenny McCarthy’s inimitable brand of crazy?
What happens when some hormone-adled, gun-toting “Cat Scratch Fever” fan shoots up his high school having been inspired by Nugent’s hate speech against women, blacks, Jews and... is there anyone Ted Nugent doesn’t hate besides white, male NRA members?
Unfortunately, humans are prone to the “halo effect,” the tendency to imbue those who excel in one area with crediblity they do not necessarily have in other areas.
Personally, I try not to have expectations of the people I admire beyond the thing for which I admire them. That way when they turn out to be less than worthy, I am not overly disillusioned.
Unfortunately, a lot of other people worship celebs to the exclusion of critical thinking. That is a problem not just for them, but for society as a whole.
