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Knocked Up Celebrities
Clearly I'm interpreting something incorrectly, because every time I hear about another celebrity or celebrity duo getting knocked up, I have this feeling someone's trying to sell me something. When "news" of Angelina Jolie "broke" this week in the form of a canned statement and photograph of her delicate form pooching out a bit, I expected them to run with a credit for her jeans designer at the bottom.
But that's just me being slightly cynical about advertising. Beyond that, does anyone truly believe in these people as people, or their relationships as anything but the steroidal flexing of a highly competent publicity machine? I suspect what is really being sold is not just the fabulous blue jeans la Jolie can shoehorn herself into. We're supposed to buy into their lives, and the dramatic relationship shifts and baby arrivals only serve to keep them in our minds longer, in ways that go beyond any of their movie roles could.
This isn't new in any sense. Anyone who's seen Singin' In the Rain knows about how movie studios concocted relationships to keep fans interested in stars. The remarkable prologue of Scott Wynn's book about Louis B. Mayer, Lion of Hollywood, describes how he went to great lengths to protect Van Johnson's career from the (probable) fact that Johnson was gay. He arranged for Keenan Wynn's wife Evie to divorce Wynn and marry Johnson (for his part in the drama, Keenan got good roles, and some extra money in his 7-year contract). All the public would have seen was the testosterone tug-of-war between two actors over a woman. Adultery! Movies! True love! Beautiful people! Delicious!
So this has been going on for ages and the truth that the glamorous relationships are disguising may be fascinating or lurid or banal, or all of the above who knows?
We don't just have the scandal anymore. The public wants kids. Having babies used to be a liability for actresses. (And it still can be for some, since Kari Wuhrer, who used to on General Hospital, is now suing ABC for killing her soap opera character after she confessed her pregnancy.) But now we know not just that someone is pregnant, but how she found herself in this delicate condition. What else are we buying? Is there a message here about how "good" it is to have kids, how it is a chance for use to resemble our favorite celebrities?
Is it a bummer of me to raise an eyebrow and suggest that we're being fed a conservative line of influence with the news story about the Jolie/Pitt relationship and pregnancy? It doesn't sound reactionary at first, especially since she has two adopted children and conceived her latest one without a marriage license. But it is hard to overlook the way these events are being pushed on us in such aggressive, glossy terms, not acknowledging the oddness of the situation or the obvious complications. The story that's been created is: Pitt wanted a family desperately and his wife wouldn't give him one, so he found someone who not only already had children, but was willing to reproduce with him and this is a good thing. (That said, I am also aware of and mildly interested in the thread of Pitt backlash that has his former wife Aniston gossiping to his ex-girlfriend Ms. Paltrow, who herself in knocked-up again, about how horrible he was to her and how-worst of all- he didn't try to warn her about Jolie's pregnancy before the news story broke slowly over the course of two weeks.)
Of course, pregnant movie stars are fun to look at. It's nice to see former stick insects looking awkward and human, fleshy and happy, or at least not so hard and "cool." Perhaps it eases our envy of those perfect forms to see them changing- changing into something like ours. (Well, not mine, really- I never got that nice basketball look.) But I know that my having a child doesn't really make me anything like anyone else who had one, let alone the Jolies and Paltrows and Garners of screens big and small. I'm not part of their club, even if all the magazines suggest that I could be.
And yet here I am, aware of all of these women's physical states, clearly receptive to the stories. But if something is being sold, clothes or personalities or lifestyles, I have to say, I hope I don't want to buy anything.
posted by Elise at 5:19 PM
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parodie said...
I read a really fabulous column on Salon (in the "Since you asked" section) where he likened celebrities to the gods & goddesses of mythology.
Perhaps this is a more pleasant way to think about it? We see our follies, foibles, and hopes & dreams all played out by the celebrities - break ups, children, adoption, careers doing well or crashing.
(You'll have to go into the archives to see the column, but I think it's fairly recent)
1/19/2006 8:31 AM
said...
1/19/2006 3:39 PM
parodie said...
Hey, you get your very own troll! Wow, you're moving up in the world of blogging...
1/21/2006 11:58 AM
said...
The reckless lives that people in Hollywood conduct everyday is shameful. They leave their spouses at the drop of a hat only to get involved in another relationship and claim "I have found my soul mate." We have women thinking it is ok to entertain the company of men (and actually marry them) when these men are expecting a child from another woman! I mean look at Brittany's Spears. The clock is ticking on her marriage! Nothing about Hollywood is glam to me. And to think I actually thought Brandi was married to the father of her child (it was bragged in a reality show on MTV that documented the pregnancy and birth of their first child) only to find out a year later they were splitting and never wed. They had shared a "spiritual union." I will never believe anything I read!
2/06/2006 9:20 AM
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parodie said...
said...