Edition 42: Privacy?
A lot of things have been said about the privacy of celebrities, the main thing about it is that they simply have none. Which is a sad thing really but also something every celebrity knows before they go into the business. They know that paparazzi are always around and that every single thing they do is put under a microscope. However times do change, where it was possible for some celebrities to have a bit of a private life in the past those days seem to have completely passed.
I’m fully aware of the fact that sites like this one contribute to the lack of privacy, I won’t suggarcoat it, though I don’t see the point in reporting on their daily activities like some other sites do. The internet is what changed the privacy of celebrities considerably though, things are reported the very same day while in the past it went through the slower media outlets TV or even slower the tabloids. In the case of those media selections were made, things not deemed important enough were simply ignored. These days it doesn’t matter, even the small things are reported. I also think that the many websites on the internet have also caused a growth in the number of paparazzi looking for the next prize shot.
People will mainly think about people like Britney Spears and to a lesser extent Lindsay Lohan who are being followed around by an entire armada of paparazzi. I always thought it was a matter of supply and demand, the supply of Britney and Lindsay pictures must be enormous but still paparazzi get paid a lot for them. The pressure on them from the media is enormous, but you also shouldn’t forget that they didn’t have that much media pressure on them when they were younger.
Perez Hilton didn’t start his activities until 2005, X17online didn’t go online until 2006 and TMZ.com isn’t that old either. If you visited that site a couple of years ago you would get a site about a Battlebot named Frenzy. So when the likes of Lindsay and Britney were in their growing stages there was far less media coverage. When Lindsay turned 18 youtube.com didn’t even exist yet, things move quickly on the internet.
The generation of celebrities that’s in their teens now have far more media pressure on them than the “older†generation. Jamie-Lynn Spears is lucky that her sister is Britney takes a lot of pressure away from her, despite being pregnant. That and the fact that she’s in Louisiana right now, not too many (though there are a few) paparazzi out there.
Someone who probably has more to deal with the media at a young age than anyone else before is probably Miley Cyrus (yes I’m using her as an example again, I could use someone else but why if she serves as the best example). It’s quite a statement to make but unless Aliana Lohan manages to get her career of the ground (just being the sister of isn’t enough) within the year I’ll stick by that statement until the next big teen star comes along and actually becomes more popular than Miley, which seems to be close to impossible right now.
Now that Miley is back from her record breaking tour she can be spotted around Hollywood more than before (which will probably become an even more frequent thing once she gets her permit in two months), so she also gets spotted more by the paparazzi. Which is fine with me as long as they don’t get too pushy or as I mentioned before go seeking her out too much.
Last week however there was something which made me wonder, how far can you go with breaking into someones privacy and how many secrets can a celebrity like Miley actually keep? Earlier this year there was some commotion because Miley used a body double in her concert tour, the official statement was that she needed more time for a costume change. I didn’t quite understand it either because it seemed simple enough to let the Johans Brothers play an extra song (though I think that argument still stands but I’m not discussing that right now).
It was never mentioned that there’s a second reason for the body double; Miley had to go off stage to eat. Nobody outside her inner circle knew back then that Miley is hypoglycaemic. For people that don’t know it’s a medical disorder which causes low blood sugar at times. It’s very manageable and it’s treated easily enough by eating in time. Miley mentioned this in a recent radio interview, she never mentioned it before as far as I know. No idea how serious her form of hypoglycaemia is but that doesn’t matter anyway. She has been seen wearing a medical alert tag recently, people don’t wear a medical alert tag without reason. Even though we don’t actually know that’s what she’s wearing it for, I don’t even have to know to be honest. Though there’s also the rumour that it’s to support Nick Jonas who has diabetis, but a hypoglycaemic wearing a diabetes alert tag would pretty much be the dumbest thing you can do. Seeing it’s almost the exact opposite.
What worries me is that she felt the need to mention it, if she had mentioned it right way people of course might have been more understanding and they wouldn’t have made that big a fuss about the body double. I can understand why she never mentioned it before, medical conditions (doesn’t matter how serious they are) are something very private. It shouldn’t be something that has to be revealed to excuse something that doesn’t even matter. Using a body double for two minutes out of a ninety minute concert (where she actually sings live, something that can’t be said for a lot of singers) shouldn’t create such a commotion. I’m quite sure it wouldn’t have been such a big deal ten years ago.
Though Miley is a very open person as it is, she shares a lot of her personal life through her fansite (with almost daily diary and video updates as far as I know) and through her new youtube she started a couple of weeks ago (about just being a silly teen really). Seems like there isn’t really a need to go digging for more. I have no doubt that she’ll become one of the most popular paparzzi targets in the future just because she’s so popular. They all want to be there when (though I would say it’s if) she falls.
Though Miley will hardly be their only target, there are plenty of other people out in Hollywood and it’s a bit risky to put everything on one person. Looking at the development of the media over the past ten years I just wonder what will happen to the new generation of celebrities ten years from now.
So what’s the point of this editorial? None really, just an observation. There’s nothing I can change about the attention celebrities are getting.
