Celebrities – Privacy Vs. Advertising
Famous. Don’t we love them? We are a world obsessed with celebrities. When we see one of our favorite actors hosting an award show, something we normally wouldn’t even think to waste our time watching, we sit glued to our TV 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.
In 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 perks of being able to go to a fancy restaurant and sit down 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 killed. 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 television. 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, whether in movies, television, theater, radio, or whatever specialty they are involved in. Many of us would say that they have no problem being paid a million dollars for an episode of television, but they try to take a lousy picture of them and they go crazy. Others would say that they are entitled to the same privacy as you or me, even if 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 laws need to be made. This is not to suggest that the laws are for or against celebrity. But some kind of law that governs what are reasonable and unreasonable actions regarding how much “space” a celebrity should be given when she is not “working”. Should they be allowed to approach them in a supermarket when they do their weekly food shopping? Or should it be laws that they can only be approached 15 minutes before or after they leave the “set” where they work, whether it’s a TV station, radio station, or movie set?
Laws like this will most likely never be enacted or even enforced. That’s how it is. It has been that way 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.
