Friday, January 18, 2008
Page 15
AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)
A Show’s What You Make It
By J’AMY PACHECO
Boy, is there any job more difficult than that of a pop star?
We’ve seen Britney Spears hounded to the point that she forgot to buckle her baby into a car seat, forgot her undies, shaved her head, and ultimately apparently went bonkers at the conclusion of visitation with her children.
And then there’s Lindsay Lohan. The little redhead who started out so cute in “The Parent Trap” and “Life Size” has morphed into the classic pop tart – complete with drug and alcohol problems, monitoring bracelets, work-avoidance issues and apparently, no reservations about chasing people down with her car.
Yikes.
As a consumer, I’m not really concerned with their poor judgment and apparent lack of social responsibility. But as the mother of a ‘tween who loves movies, television and music and who longs for a subscription to People Magazine, I feel compelled to hold them up as examples – of how to destroy a good life in a few simple steps.
When I was a ‘tween, you could make a stupid mistake and rebound. There were no camera phones to capture forever a moment of indiscretion. There was no Internet through which pictures taken in a momentary lapse of judgment and taste could be shot around the world in a matter of minutes.
In those days, about the worst thing anybody could hit you with was a Polaroid snapshot. But limited distribution options meant you could pretty much change schools or move out of town, and it would all be over with.
Not today.
While I do think many paparazzi take things waaaay too far, I realize that public exposure comes with the territory in the pop star world. One can’t really expect to turn celebrity on and off at will.
But it’s getting to the point where our hunger for celebrity news –- no matter how ridiculous – is fueling a media frenzy that has spilled over into our mainstream “news,” and is creating a rush to publicize any and every perceived misstep.
Take Miley Cyrus. She’s the star of the Disney Channel hit series “Hannah Montana,” and her sold-out concerts have had ‘tween girls everywhere (including my house) sighing over lost opportunity.
A headline about the reigning pop princess caught my eye this week. It screamed, “Cyrus Admits Using Body Double on Hannah Montana Tour.” Before long, I found another that said, “Miley Cyrus in Possible ‘Montana’ Scandal.”
Since we’ve seen so many episodes of “Hannah Montana” repeatedly that even I know much of the dialog by heart, this caught my attention. But with a little research – and when it comes to an Internet ‘scandal,’ very little research is needed – I quickly found a YouTube video of the young singer’s “crime.”
In the middle of an energetic number, Cyrus disappeared into a door at the instant another performer – obviously meant to look like her – burst out on stage. Cyrus was gone for maybe a minute (possibly less) before reappearing on stage.
Critics accused Miley of duping her audience, some of whom had paid thousands of dollars to see the concert. Miley’s peeps explained that the switch was necessary for a Hannah-to-Miley transformation. I couldn’t believe anybody even thought an explanation was warranted.
I’ve been to enough concerts to venture a guess that the taping was illegal. If we’re going to be pointing fingers, let’s start with the person who taped the effect, and broadcast it online, where nobody paid a fee to see it.
Second, the only reason anybody paid big bucks for tickets is because ticket “brokers” snapped most of them up within seconds of them going on sale, then resold them for unconscionable amounts of money. Sweet niblets, people – Miley neither charged – nor benefitted from – those ridiculous prices. If a consumer expects to receive thousands of dollars of entertainment, they need to take it up with the broker that charged the money.
But most important – why is this kid being raked over the coals for a stage effect? Are we that desperate to bring our celebrities down that we now have to manufacture reasons to criticize them?
One of Miley’s signature songs is an uplifting tune called, “Life’s What you Make it.” If only we weren’t so desperate to make hers into something it’s not…
Copyright 2008, Metropolitan News Company