Wednesday 11 March 2009

"celebrity is as celebrity does"

i've been posting over at the hand mirror in the last couple of days, about work place issues and a petition by the service and food workers union to save jobs at sealord fisheries.

the indian cricketers have arrived in hamilton and i find myself totally uninterested. in previous years, we've gone to the ground and met the players, invited them home for dinner, taken a multitude of photographs. i didn't collect autographs though, so managed to stay on this side of sanity!

i've realised in recent times that i've managed to wean myself off the cult of celebrity worship. not reading women's magazines really helps, as does the avoidance of "entertainment" sections of newspapers. which is not to say that i wouldn't be excited to meet an actor whose work i respect, or a talented sports person, or a famous scientist who had made a significant contribution to our body of knowledge. but i'd hope that i could respect them and their achievements without being overwhelmed by their fame.

3 comments:

Deborah said...

Hmmmm.... yes.... me too. Celebrity is as celebrity does for me, these days. Not that I wouldn't be excited to meet say, Dame Judi Dench, or Helen Clark, or Marilyn Waring. But these are women of substance and achievement. Famous for famousness' sake I can do without. I don't even recognise most of the faces strewn across magazine covers any more. A sign of advancing age, maybe?

stargazer said...

probably is! and excited yes, but it's the gushing & fawning that i'm glad i'm very much over...

Julie said...

I've often specifically not wanted to meet people I've followed the careers of, because I didn't want to break the illusion. As I've got older I've realised that you never agree with any other person absolutely 100% of the time, and that's put an end to the hero worship really.