The higher they climb – the harder they fall. And as Ros Jones reports, there are plenty of celebrity magazines around to ensure we get a chance to see our objects of desire turn into objects of ridicule
Walk into WHSmith and you’ll be confronted with row after row of celebrity magazines, all battling for your attention and using the most shocking headlines they can think of.
Which will you choose? The truth about a Hollywood actress and her eating disorder? How about the Premiership footballer and his secret second family? Or if you are really in the mood for scandal, why not read about the female pop star on a sundrenched beach far, far away, caught on camera showing her cellulite to the world?
Celebrity obsession is nothing new. For years we have followed the ups and downs of the glitterati, watched from a distance as they have gone through every life event and crisis imaginable right in front of the paparazzi cameras. From babies to weddings to acrimonious divorces, nothing in the lives of the rich and famous — or sometimes the bankrupt and fraudulent — goes unnoticed.
But why do we care if an actor is shamed publicly for something the rest of us would surely, in their shoes, prefer to keep private?
Why do we almost salivate with glee when some teen starlet is exposed as anorexic and heading for rehab? When a socialite is snapped at an embarrassing angle climbing out of a car, you can almost guarantee the picture will grace the pages of any number of magazines created to expose just such a global event.
From Heat, to Star, Closer, Now!, and Reveal!, gossip magazines exist to supply an insatiable and inexhaustible demand for ever more personal and private scoops and scandals. No matter how far down the alphabet an individual may be in terms of what they actually do - such as Z-lister and former “Chav” Colleen McLoughlin, famous for dating a bad tempered footballer - someone somewhere will want to see them at their worst.
It seems to be a British trait that we enjoy seeing the mighty fall.
However much we may support a sweet, naive singer in their quest for chart glory, or a talented yet overlooked actor struggling to make a mark on the film world, once they have achieved glory and succeeded in their goal it is almost as if they have become something other than human. They need to be brought back down to earth with the rest of us mere mortals and frowned upon for daring to aim high in the first place.
New mother Britney Spears, understandably a little frazzled and less than photoshoot perfect after giving birth, appears in one magazine doublepage spread with the headline “Britney gets her nails done - at last!”
And while there is, admittedly, a sentence about her deserving a little pampering, the writer could not resist reminding us that the superstar singer’s marriage is on the rocks. Perhaps our need to see the bold and the beautiful at their worst comes from our own feelings of inadequacy.
Every day we are bombarded with pictures of stunning women without an ounce of fat. Gorgeous men who know how to dress and would surely never slob about in a tracksuit in front of the TV. These are people for whom glamour and image are everything. It is part of their job. These are superstars with the money and contacts to make sure they are never seen as anything less than perfect, wearing well designed clothes, spending fortunes on expensive plastic surgery, living in stunning houses and driving the hottest new cars.
Is it any wonder then, that we may chuckle to ourselves on hearing of the latest musical sensation tripping over the hem of her dress at a party? Can we be surprised that a woman browsing the racks in Tesco will give a satisfied smile to herself on hearing that the Oscar winner with the body to die for wears a corset to hold in her sagging stomach?
Human nature being what it is, we like to know that we are all the same. We may cheer at someone’s success, and wish them all the best, but only so long as they do not succeed too much. We sometimes need a little pick-me up as a tonic for when the world insists we are not beautiful, rich or successful enough. When we are shown every day that there are people achieving more, earning more than we are and living in bodies that unfairly defy time and gravity, celebrity gossip magazines are a great leveller.
They remind us that nobody is perfect, no matter how good the camera angle. Even a Hollywood mum has stretch marks or flabby arms.
And for the exhausted mother doing the schoolrun in the rain, fed up and trying to remember the last time she ever felt attractive, such a reminder is a godsend.
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