heath ledger is just a glorified everyday guy with a sought-after career.
death is tragic, and it happens all the time. i don't understand why i should give a shit that heath ledger died, when he wouldn't blink as eye hearing that 'laura snyder' is dead. he wouldn't even know who i am [or if he somehow did, that'd be cool as hell!].
why are celebrities [and their deaths] newsworthy? BEATS ME. in my mind, they're not. i don't care. i would like to read about new animals that have been discovered, music reviews, and cool RELEVANT stuff like that.
i didn't personally know heath ledger. it doesn't affect me whatsoever. i can understand a fan being sad, but it's not like most of his fans ever actually even met him or really knew him anyway. he's in the news due to his career as an actor and a good-looking guy. GUESS WHAT. scientists who have contributed hugely in one way or another to our society and technology today die too. we don't make such a fuss about that. probably because they're not as hot.
we obsess over people whose lives we assume to be fun and easy. we obsess over what we want, what we lost, what we wish we had. people live vicariously through popular figures, so it's a big deal whenever anything happens to them.
and when it's something bad? -- it makes that celebrity, that hero/beauty/genius we've placed on the pedestal, so much less perfect and so much more real. more like one of us.
it's news because we've realized that heath ledger is not immortal.
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3 comments:
Laura, I really like the way you write. Simple, concise, yet you are emphatic and make a point. I agree, through tragedy, celebrities somehow seem human, like us.
Your last line is really heavy. I had to think about that for a while. You got it, exactly.
That last line really epitomizes it. He's not immortal. That's why celebrities with an early death have been sought after for years after their passing: Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, James Dean.
I'm willing to bet that if each of those celebrities lived to a ripe old age of 80, that the world wouldn't have been so shocked after their death, or even have put them on the high pedestal.
I completely agree with you that the main news story for two weeks+ after Ledger's death DID NOT need to be front page every day. I agree things like new discoveries and optimistic news are better, however, I would like to have heard once (AND ONCE ONLY) that Heath Ledger passed away.
Compare it to a friend dying. It's unfortunate, but it's a part of life. You get a phone call from your best friend telling you that "Josh" died. You're stunned. You know what? You're sad, but life goes on. Now, let's just say you get 20+ more calls from other friends trying to remind you that Josh is dead. Wouldn't you get a little pissed off? I would.
So, in a long roundabout way, I completely hate the image they are creating after his death, but I would have been kosher if the media had just covered the story once, on his death day.
Makes me sick to be working for the media when all this yellow journalism is going on...
Good entry. It's great you brought the topic up with some guts, because every time I've made a joke with the girls at school (the KNOCK KNOCK joke from Stickam), then they get all hissy and whiney and chastize me. Freedom of speech prevails.
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