Famous. Don’t we love them? We are a world obsessed with celebrities. When we see one of our favorite actors hosting an awards show, something we normally wouldn’t even think of wasting time watching, we sit glued to our televisions hanging on every word and action, especially if we’re watching a living legend. It’s a moment we’ll talk about for years to come, especially if we were in the audience and got to see our hero live. He talks about being able to die happy.
On a recent episode of Boston Legal, we saw a celebrity shoot a reporter who was about to take her picture because he jumped out from behind a trash can and she was startled and thought he had a gun. She claims that she fired in self-defense. The question was, would the jury buy it? The prosecutor’s case was that it’s okay for the celebrity to get all the advantages of being able to go to a fancy restaurant and sit even without a reservation, among other things, but then she wants to be a big star and have her privacy too. . The defense argued that other celebrities were assaulted, some even murdered. He mentioned the murder of John Lennon as an example. His argument was that even celebrities are entitled to some privacy.
We are not going to try to answer the question of who is right and who is wrong. The jury decided in favor of the celebrity. But that’s just TV. We know that real life can be quite different. The sad truth is that celebrities are not like other people. They are constantly in the public eye, be it in movies, television, theater, radio, or whatever specialty they are involved in. Many of us would say that they have no problem with being paid a million dollars for an episode of television, but they try to take a lousy photo of them and they go crazy. Others would say they are entitled to the same privacy as you or me, even though they have a job that puts them in the public eye. After all, if you’re a carpenter, no one follows you around town trying to take a picture of you every five minutes.
So what is the answer? Maybe we have to make laws. This is not to suggest that the laws are for or against the celebrity. But some kind of law governing what are reasonable and unreasonable actions regarding how much “space” a celebrity should be given when she’s not “working.” Should they be allowed to approach them in a supermarket when they do their weekly grocery shopping? Or should they be laws stating that they can only be approached 15 minutes before or after leaving the “set” where they work, be it a TV station, a radio station or a movie set?
Laws like this will most likely never be enacted or even enforced. That’s how it is. It has been like this since the beginning of celebrity status. He has killed many in the past and will most likely end up killing many more before this madness ends.