Nowcasting

Tomorrow UCLA.

James Franco/466

Per Courtney's request, I'm writing a (much delayed) blog about James Franco's attendance to the final 466 screening, "The Pineapple Express." Courtney mentioned that she was surprised that none of us at the screening had blogged about him as a celebrity sighting, which got me thinking about what constitutes a legitimate celebrity sighting. And while I saw him, which would technically equate to a "sighting," I still don't think it really counts... He was set up for us to look at and ask questions; he was there to be a movie star and promote his movie, and we were there to be fans and to learn from him. The balance is off -- whereas, if you spot a celeb in their natural habitat, eating dinner at your restaurant or hiking where you hike, or stopping at the same stoplight as you , you're on the same level; suddenly, they're just people, too, doing the same every day stuff. As Us Weekly puts it, "Stars: They're Just Like Us!" And most of the time, when we spot them around town, they are just like us... But for a star to come to a class, presented as a star, seated in front of us screening his multi-million-dollar movie, well, that's about as far from being just like us as one could get.

Pamela Anderson: Garage Sale

True story, this weekend Pamela Anderson is having a garage sale at her Malibu Estate.  I always find it interesting when celebrities do this, but this is the first of me hearing about one @ at the actual home of the celebrity.  Usually they are at a warehouse of sorts.  Anyway, I found this one really fascniating.  She owns so much furniture, duplicates of the same thing.  It makes me think if this some sort of hoax or stunt to sell stuff with her name attached. Either way, a bunch of questions come up when I think about this. Like does she need the money... probably.  Furthermore, this is such a common, "low rent" activity to do for such a high up celebrity, really makes you think. Especially, when typically when things like this have to happen they do it by private auction, NOT public yarding. Anyway, check it out, I am really gonna try to make it out there this weekend.

Big Breasted Sale

Final Exam Period

Hi everyone,

As a reminder, the final exam period for this class will be Tuesday, May 13 from 2-4 in our usual classroom.

Sometime before then, I will be compiling the final blog tally. If you have commented on posts made before the blog sheet was handed out, or if you have noticed a mistake in my count, please let me know so that I can check older entries. Otherwise, I am not planning on going back through all the old entries.

Good luck on your final projects! If you did not pick up your final project proposal today, then I have it. Let me know if you want it back, and we'll work something out.

Thanks,
Courtney

Core Response #5

Reality TV really pisses me off. I will be honest.  I think it does for this country the same things that cheap, high fat and calorie, preservative-packed fast food does.  It makes "instant gratification" obtainable and eliminates the desire for individuals to "challenge" themselves in a way that is probably more time-consuming, less convenient, but ultimately more satisfying.  America "plays dumb" when they watch reality TV. Even the name is ironic.  My favorite part of Couldry's article was his illumination of the point that we believe that we are seeing "real life" when we watch shows like "The Hills," when in reality, everyone on that show is put, unnaturally, in front of a camera.  Watch people at a party take pictures of themselves.  Very rarely do those photographs capture the expressions and body language of the individuals 5 seconds before the photograph was taken.  Bring out a camera and you see people put their arms around each other, smile big, make a pouty face, or do another one of the "stock" camera poses seen on Facebook. 

I feel conflicted about my anger toward reality TV, though.  There is something "elitist" in condemning it and who am I to say that anyone else's entertainment is less than valid?  I suppose I passionately believe that entertainment, at its best, can inspire thought, emotion, and growth.  When well done, it can challenge us as well as allow us to unwind after a long week.  It can cause us to look at the world from a perspective different than our own or make us laugh and cry.  Reality TV (at least the shows I've seen) are mindless, crass, forgettable.  

younger and younger...

I work at a private gym in West Hollywood where a lot of "top" celebrities workout.  I haven't written about it before because it seems to me to be a bit of a violation to write about them, but what I saw yesterday has stuck with me and I think would be relevant for the class.  There is a new client there who is 14 years old.  She is making the "push" to become a starlet.  There is something so disturbing about seeing a girl that age (she looks even younger than she is) doing weight lifting and running on a treadmill (for $200 a session).  Call me old-fashioned (or midwestern), but I sort of feel that a child that age should be in dance classes or on a sports team. Watching her look at herself in the mirror as she lifted weights and talk about tone in her arms made me sort of sad, and concerned for her.  If she is starting so young to be concerned with how "attractive" her body is, I can't help but think if she finds the "success" for which she is reaching, there will be some pretty serious psychological problems there.

When child stars grow up...

Drew Barrymore is one of the most notorious actors to overcome the perils of childhood stardom (she starting snorting cocaine at the age of 10 and was in rehab by age 13), but what happens to all the ones don't? I think in the past few years, the media attention on famous children has become even more intense -- the expectations for them are not just to represent a certain demographic or stereotype, but also to be a role model in their personal lives. And growing up is hard enough -- I can't imagine doing it in the public eye.

But beyond that, I am fascinated by what stardom does to the psyche, most notably in children -- when a person is so young, still figuring out who they are, and they are treated as if they are the most important person in the world, utterly unstoppable. For one, it completely disrupts the parent/child relationship, when the child becomes the breadwinner and the parent dependent on them -- Danny Bonaduce recently recalled a story in which his mother told him to go to his room, and he sneered at her, "They're all my rooms." He owned the house. And look what happened to him. He shows up naked at premieres, is in and out of rehab, and now makes a living on a reality show about making the next child star. And Dina Lohan is another perfect example; living off her child's stardom, so desperate to be a friend and an equal to her star offspring that she has completely forgotten to be a mother.

What really makes me nervous though, is what happens to all the children who reach their stardom peak as children, and then no one is interested in them when they are older? At such a formative period in their life, when they are treated as so important by so many people, and then forgotten about once they grow up, what happens then? It's almost as if they're taught that growing up is a bad thing, as if they failed themselves and the world when the inevitable happened. They don't have the coping skills a person usually learns as a child, because they were coddled and sheltered as stars, and then they are suddenly thrust into the world as has-beens. Falling from the top of Hollywood must be difficult enough; I think we don't pay enough attention to the implications of shunning child stars, and the actual psychological ramifications of this.

So what's next for Miley Cyrus? We've seen what happened to Britney, to Lindsay, to countless others... But maybe once she goes through whatever she's going through, maybe she'll come out on top, a star in her own right as an adult, like Drew. Let's just hope she's not the next Danny Bonaduce. I think it's best to just leave these kids alone; let children watch their TV shows, support their movies, and leave them out of the tabloids. I love Us Weekly and Perez, but at a certain point, the line needs to be drawn, and I don't think it is right to subject children to that kind of scrutiny.