Over the last few days something has really bothered me. No, it's not the economy or the lack of exciting NCAA Tournament games. What's really got me puzzled is just how many celebrities positively refuse to acknowledge the existence of anybody who has a camera unless it is held by someone on the red carpet.
So many celebrities will go to great lengths to keep from being photographed and I'm not just talking about at their homes. Whether it is to the grocery store or the park, they try to throw on their invisibility cloak and escape through the streets of Los Angeles or New York unseen. Perhaps I'm missing something, but living your life in a city built on celebrity probably isn't the best way to fly under the radar. Think you're going to go unseen in a city of 8 million people who all know what you look like? Then I've got a little bridge in that same city to sell you.
Don't get me wrong. 250 people crowding around Octo-Mom's SUV or dozens of cars driven by paparazzi clogging up Mulholland Drive are both out of control situations that deserve to see people cited by the police. But beating down a photographer on your way out of having a $50 salad at The Ivy? Give me a break. Drive a car with tinted windows to the closest fast food drive through if you don't want to be seen. It is very annoying when celebrities complain about all the attention they receive from paparazzi yet spend their time congregating in paparazzi hot spots like The Ivy, Mr. Chow, or shopping on Robertson. You can't have it both ways.
And speaking of hypocritical, what kills me is the whole premise in the first place. By nature, the job description of a celebrity is to be as popular as possible. Not only can the paparazzi make a celebrity more popular by artificially inflating his or her importance, but the sheer amount of attention a celebrity receives is directly correlated to how popular they are. The worst day of most celebrities lives is the day they leave the house to run errands and nobody cares enough to take a picture of them.
The fact is that, unless hounded to the degree specified above, a celebrity should be gracious when people are interested in his or her life. The only reason the paparazzi take pictures of celebrities is because they can sell them to media outlets. The only reason media outlets will pay for the pictures is because people want to see them. By definition the amount of money a star will make for a movie or show depends on how many people will want to go see them. If a star acts like a jerk and pushes away the media, fewer people will see their movie or watch their show, thus costing them money. Perhaps celebrities should look at playing nice with the photogs as an investment in their future. Oh, and the fact that someone actually cares about what they are doing; that sounds pretty good to me. If celebrities take that for granted, and keep dodging the flash bulbs, they may find that pretty soon there will not be any more flash bulbs to dodge.
So many celebrities will go to great lengths to keep from being photographed and I'm not just talking about at their homes. Whether it is to the grocery store or the park, they try to throw on their invisibility cloak and escape through the streets of Los Angeles or New York unseen. Perhaps I'm missing something, but living your life in a city built on celebrity probably isn't the best way to fly under the radar. Think you're going to go unseen in a city of 8 million people who all know what you look like? Then I've got a little bridge in that same city to sell you.
Don't get me wrong. 250 people crowding around Octo-Mom's SUV or dozens of cars driven by paparazzi clogging up Mulholland Drive are both out of control situations that deserve to see people cited by the police. But beating down a photographer on your way out of having a $50 salad at The Ivy? Give me a break. Drive a car with tinted windows to the closest fast food drive through if you don't want to be seen. It is very annoying when celebrities complain about all the attention they receive from paparazzi yet spend their time congregating in paparazzi hot spots like The Ivy, Mr. Chow, or shopping on Robertson. You can't have it both ways.
And speaking of hypocritical, what kills me is the whole premise in the first place. By nature, the job description of a celebrity is to be as popular as possible. Not only can the paparazzi make a celebrity more popular by artificially inflating his or her importance, but the sheer amount of attention a celebrity receives is directly correlated to how popular they are. The worst day of most celebrities lives is the day they leave the house to run errands and nobody cares enough to take a picture of them.
The fact is that, unless hounded to the degree specified above, a celebrity should be gracious when people are interested in his or her life. The only reason the paparazzi take pictures of celebrities is because they can sell them to media outlets. The only reason media outlets will pay for the pictures is because people want to see them. By definition the amount of money a star will make for a movie or show depends on how many people will want to go see them. If a star acts like a jerk and pushes away the media, fewer people will see their movie or watch their show, thus costing them money. Perhaps celebrities should look at playing nice with the photogs as an investment in their future. Oh, and the fact that someone actually cares about what they are doing; that sounds pretty good to me. If celebrities take that for granted, and keep dodging the flash bulbs, they may find that pretty soon there will not be any more flash bulbs to dodge.
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