The preoccupation with celebrity here in America is pretty staggering and has been going on since the days of silent movies. Names such as Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Lillian Gish and Rudolf Valentino may very well be unknowns to my generation (really?!) but at one time, they were akin to names like Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Drew Barrymore and Julia Roberts. Public adoration grew as the medium (movies) grew in popularity – first with silent film, and slowly, with “talkies”. As public adoration grew, so did the demand for perfection. As the status of celebrity grew to dizzying heights, the requirement to be absolutely perfect, with no sign of outward or inward blemish also grew.
That is probably not such a mindblowing surprise. After all, we’ve seen many a celebrity fail to meet expectations of the public, and fall down a rabbit hole of self-loathing, punishment, drug use and even in some cases, suicidal action. Our requirements are (apparently) not easy to maintain.
Now that we’re in the moment of near-constant access, there are almost no curtains for a celebrity to hide behind, no shadows in which to linger quietly, and no mistakes that can be made without someone, anyone, pointing fingers, finding fault and creating a potential uproar. A simple error in fact is not just called upon by one person or another, but by many – as is the case with twitter. So while you and I might tweet our favorite celebrity to make them aware of a mistake, so are potentially thousands of others – you and I might never realize just how many tweets they receive from one small error.
Our expectations as fans are incredibly high. We insist on correct information, we want immediate access, and we expect personal attention. We want twitter accounts run by celebrities themselves, and if a staff member dare run an account (even by their own admission), they had better not make a single error, or they can expect to hear of their incompetence…many, many times over. It’s not enough for the error to be acknowledged, apologies must be made, often times well-beyond what we would demand from even our most personal friends.
At what point does it all become too much? Is there a point where our demands for constant perfection cross the line?
This isn’t about being American or British, or being Scottish and expecting certain Wimbledon winners to be noted as such, so don’t bring those arguments to this blog. Debates over ignorance and whether PR staff should be American or British for this band are not what I’m getting at – you all seem to be discussing that just fine on Facebook, Twitter and what seems to be hundreds of Duran Duran Facebook groups today. This post is purely about what we expect as fans. Yes, we expect to be treated with kindness, patience and respect among many other things. I’m just finding myself wondering when we should properly (and rightfully so) return the favor, to celebrity and staff alike.
-R
Sadly people do expect perfection from celebrities, perfection in things they would never expect from friends, or family. I have never understood this, I have always realized that celebrities are just people like anyone else, they just happen to be really talented at what ever it is that has made them famous. People need to realize this, and think about the stars they admire, and would they do any better in their place, and if they were famous themselves how would they want to be treated? When we as fans think about how we would feel if we were in their shoes, before we pulled crazy stunts to meat our favorite celebrities, then maybe these people we admire would feel less frightened of us, and might try to spend more time with us, instead of feeling the constant need to protect themselves from over zealous fans. It really is simply a matter of respect, not lust, or abject devotion, but real respect being polite, respecting their need for privacy, and time with their families, as well as respecting their families privacy too. No one is prefect, we all have to except this, and be willing to forgive our stars of minor indiscretions, and move on. Otherwise we cannot say that we respect these people if what we respect if merely what we want to see in them, and not who they really are as individuals.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you said, “how we would feel if we were in their shoes”. Exactly.
-A