October 21, 2024 • 17 mins
Us mere mortals often idolise celebrities – their glitzy and glamorous lifestyles have had audiences captivated for decades.
But at what point does the line blur from adoration to a sense of ownership?
The tragic death of One Direction star Liam Payne has sparked conversations about how far is too far when it comes to the public’s entitlement over these stars – and how intrusive media can get to serve that need.
It comes off the back of a number of celebrities speaking out about the intrusion from fans and the stresses of being in the public eye.
So can society change how it interacts with celebrities – or is there no rewiring of this relationship?
Today on The Front Page, University of Otago Lecturer in Media, Film and Communication Dr Sabrina Moro joins us to discuss this latest dark mark in the celebrity ecoystem.
Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Host: Chelsea Daniels
Sound Engineer: Paddy Fox
Producer: Ethan Sills
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hilda, I'm Chelsea Daniels and This is the Front Page,
a daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. Us
Mere Mortals often idolize celebrities. Their glitzy and glamorous lifestyles
have had audiences captivated for decades, but at what point
(00:28):
does the line blur from adoration to a sense of ownership.
The tragic death of One Direction star Liam Payne has
sparked conversations about how far is too far when it
comes to the public's entitlement over these stars, and how
intrusive media can get to serve that need. It comes
(00:50):
off the back of a number of celebrities speaking out
about the intrusion from fans and the stresses of being
in the public eye. So can society change how it
interacts with celebrities or is there no rewiring of this relationship?
Today on the Front Page, University of Otago lecturer in Media,
(01:12):
Film and Communication, doctor Sabrina morro joins us to discuss
this latest dark mark in the celebrity ecosystem Sabrina, of course,
this conversation has been sparked by the tragic death of
One Direction sty Li and Pain. There are fans mourning
(01:35):
all over the globe. And some may say it's silly
to mourns someone they've never met, But it's quite common,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yes, it is quite common. I think with every celebrity
that dies, there is a moment of the fans coming
together and reckoning because there's all of those parasocial relationships
that are built around the fans. Celebrity, you know, symbolize
something for a lot of people, and they are really
at the or of the coming together of fans. And
(02:03):
there are ways of coming together that might be mediated
through social media, that might be lived, experiencing, attending a concert.
All of those moments of heightened the motion means that,
you know, that possibility of no longer coming together around
that celebrity can be quite difficult for fans to wrapple with.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Why do people feel so intimately familiar with celebrities, particularly
those that they've never met.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I think it's what they represent, you know, it's a
kind of way of imagining yourself in a world that
is completely foreign, that world of fame, and so they
capture forms of inspiration or aspiration, the kind of stories
that the celebrity make accessible, whether it is through the
medium of their song or the films or that kind
(02:50):
of everyday content that they produce as social media celebrity,
they capture something more than themselves, and that's what speaks
to audiences. That's what allows you to project yourself, to
imagine what would life be like if I were them,
And especially thinking about celebrities who rose to fame coming
(03:11):
from very ordinary background, which is the case of Limpain
and his fellow band members of Wine Direction is kind
of those people have talent and then they became, you know,
such a big, transnational celebrities. And there is also something
about the boy band and all of that generation that
grew up with them. You know a lot of people
(03:31):
around my age kind of late twenties, early thirties grew
up with them, and so it represents a lot, right,
It's those moments that we lived and that their songs
help us articulate. It's the teenage angst that we might
have experience throughout our teenagers, and then those songs giving
voice to them.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
That fan celebrity relationship isn't for everyone, though, Rising star
Chapel Rowan sparked a debate after she spoke about the
creepy behavior from some fans. I don't care that abuse
and harassment stocking is a normal thing to do to
people who.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Are famous or a little famous whatever.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I don't care that it's normal.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I don't care that this crazy type of behavior comes
along with the job the career field I've chosen.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
That does not make it okay.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I'm allowed to say no to creepy behavior.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Other female pop stars came out in support of her comments,
but it also prompted criticism as the negative sides of
attention came with the fame and fortune. Where's the balance here,
because you can't really become a superstar without fans, can you?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
No? But the key thing I think is thinking about
different identity as they're immediated in that relationship of fan
and celebrity. So those examples that you give are women's celebrities,
and the experience of fame plays out in different ways,
the demands that are made on those celebrities, and then
(05:09):
that kind of legitimized certain behavior of fans towards them.
Another way of saying this is that celebrities represent more
than themselves, and so we need to think about how gender, race, ethnicity,
sexual orientation mediate those images of the celebrity and how
we engage with them. So just thinking about who we
(05:33):
consider a genius, right and thinking about how the idea
of a genius is very gendered. You may have celebrities
struggling with drug and alcohol use that is considered just
part of the game, you know, for male celebrities, and
then in the case of female celebrities, would be oh,
(05:54):
you know what a train wreck. The celebrities then become
symbols of what we as a society consider legitimate behavior
and not legitimate behavior.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I guess in this case, at least the fan interaction
has been more wholesome than other cases. I suppose with
one direction, many have been gathering to remember and honor
Liam Pain. Are there some benefits or positives to that
intense fan relationship.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Definitely, I think nostalgia playing in it, and also the
fact that he died quite young, so it's perceived as
a tragedy. No one should die that young, No one
should die in such a tragic accident. And so I
think that the wholesomeness of the fans coming together and
honoring Limpain and the other members as well of one
(06:43):
direction issuing statement is an attempt to focus on that
aspect of tragedy, and that whatever might happen between the
band members, whatever might have happened in Limpain's career. After
one direction, it doesn't matter, right. What matters is that no,
why should they that young and in such tragic circumstances.
(07:03):
And I think that's a big factor of making that
perhaps more wholesome in the kind of interactions.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
The mood here in Hyde Parking is quite somber.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
One direction is Liam Payne supporters. It doesn't matter who
we are, where you come from. It's like not knowing
the person's personally. But it was when like YouTube blew up,
and so it was the first time that you were
ever able to follow someone's life.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
So intimately, I've been crying at work all day every day.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yesterday was the only day I didn't cry because I
felt I couldn't cry anymore.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Paines, I suppose also a good example of how that
fandom can turn on you. There was criticism circulating on
some corners of the Internet the weeks before his death,
particularly after his ex fiance talked about their relationship on
a podcast.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I guess as a.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Celebrity, there's so much more content out there now and
we are all so online that the discourse is basically unavoidable.
I guess, isn't it. Those ups and downs of being
a celebrity.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yes, and especially in the case of One Direction, who
became famous through reality TV in an age of social
media as well, as you point out, that just really
exacerbate the level of scrutiny that they've been subjected to
and the amount of pressure as well that they've been
subjected to. It's still unfolding, and it's unclear for the
(08:28):
moment the cause of death. I think there's still an
investigation going on. But I'm finding it really interesting how
there is commentary being issued around what might be the
cause of death and why it's important. And it feels
to me like it's almost a negotiation of right. This
is tragic, and we know that there's a certain level
(08:49):
of complicity that we may have in explaining, you know,
Liam's struggles during and after One Direction, and so is
there a way that we can make ourselves feel better
about this tragedy.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Alongside the intrusiveness of fans, there's also the celebrity media relationship.
Celeb gossip site TMZ broke the news of Liam Payne's
death by publishing cropped photographs of his dead body showing
his tattoos to prove that it was him on the
deck of that hotel. They rightfully got a lot of
(09:35):
backlash and took the photos down a couple of hours afterwards.
But what's on the internet will stay there forever. Hey,
is it a surprise we are still seeing paparazzi and
gossip sites behaving this way. It's been nearly three decades
since Princess Diana died, for example, and more recently society
had this rethink of how we may have treated Britney
(09:56):
spears in the noughties. Why haven't some sections of that
media their lessen.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Because that's how celebrity culture operates, you know, It's about
turning people into commodities that we consume, and so we
might consume them in ways that feel legitimate to us
reading a New York Times obituary or you know, reading
interview in depth interview on the celebrity or reflection on fame.
(10:22):
We might see you know, talk shows as well, and
kind of interviews around certain moments in that celebrity. But
on that same continuum of what we perceive more legitimate
way of consuming fame, there's also the paparazzi, the cussip columns,
the celebrity magazines. It's part of the same ecosystem. It's
part of the same capitalist machinery, you know, that turns
(10:44):
people into commodities, so that we have something called celebrity
news that we can click on and consume.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I find it really interesting that we have this kind
of ownership over celebrities in life and also in death.
When my nana does for example, I didn't post a
photo of her dead body on Facebook to show people
and prove that she was dead, right, But I'm thinking
we've got this Liam Payne situation. There's also photos of
John Belushi, Cobain, Like the list goes on. What gives
(11:14):
us that innate sense of ownership and need, I guess
to see these photos as prove for or what is that?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I think the easy explanation is the one that TMZGI,
which is, you know, way of authenticating and proving that
this is indeed not fake news or a scam. But
the real answer is that sense, as you said, that
sense of ownership over celebrities. We made them famous. What
they sound is their whole image. It's their bodies that
(11:46):
is reproduced in you know, advertisement partnerships, in photo shoots,
in concerts, and so even after their death or even
in moments where they're struggling, there is this sense of feeling,
we made you famous. We ought to know how you died,
as uncomfortable and as distasteful as that might appear. And
(12:08):
so this is where then you see those process of
negotiation and renegotiation because on the one hand, there's taboo
around death. We don't really talk about death in our societies,
but celebrity death is a way that we can talk
about death in a way that feels socially acceptable. And
it's also because of that kind of sense of you know,
(12:29):
we made them famous, sense of ownership of the celebrity.
And then the third aspect of it is that the
celebrity death because of a new moment to talk about
social norms and questions of morality, which comes from this
idea that we don't talk about death a lot, but
when we do, then that becomes a new way to
grapple with symbols. You know, celebrities are symbols that allows
(12:50):
us to think about question of good and bad, right
and wrong, justice and injustice.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
The decision to run the photos drew fears the backlash
on social media. TMZ and its founder, Hervey Levin did
not immediately respond to request for comment, but the site
appeared to second guess the decision. This is not the
first time TMZ has had backlash over its reporting of
celebrity deaths. While reporting on the twenty twenty helicopter crash
that took the life of Kobe Bryant and his thirteen
(13:19):
year old daughter, Gianna, law enforcement criticized TMZ for reporting
on the accident before the coroner's office could confirm the
identities of the victims and inform the families.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Obviously, this example from TMZ is inexcusable, but the media
wouldn't be constantly updating stories on Liam Payne, for example,
if the public weren't eating every morsel of that information
that they could write. I think I know more about
the last hours of Liam Payne's life than I do
with what my own family did last week. Why is
there this kind of morbid fascination? I suppose, and if
(13:55):
people collectively stopped clicking, it would go away.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I would like to think so. I would like to
think that withdrawing our support and kind of demand for
such news would make it go away. But I think, yes,
that the drive of consuming celebrity news in those moments
of heightened tragedy is that it's about the celebrity themselves
and what they represent, but it's also about how as
(14:21):
a society we're using this as an exemplary moment of
reactualizing perception on behaviors that we deem appropriate or inappropriate.
And so the big question around Liam Paine's last hours
of his life or last week of his life then becomes,
you know, is this suicide? Is this self harm? Is
(14:43):
this drug and juse psychosis? Like what is the cause
of death? Because that's also a way to absolve ourselves, right.
If it's a drug overdose, then it's a tragic death,
but it could have been avoided had he been more
able to manage his mental health and his addiction. So
as audiences, we're no longer such as take in the
(15:06):
kind of predatory relationship you know that celebrities like him
have been subjected for such a young age. If it's suicide,
then that was his choice, you know, and it's tragic,
but it is his choice, and again it's a form
of absolution.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I find it quite interesting the backlash against TMC. Do
you think our mentality is slowly changing, because I don't
know if that same backlash would have happened, say in
the two thousands.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, I definitely think that there is more awareness in
the kind of toxicity that comes with fame. We have
more celebrities talking openly about it, we have more celebrities
talking about mental health. We have generally in society kind
of more concerted effort to talk about mental health as well.
So I think that there's definitely some awareness there. There's
(15:57):
also some awareness on how the entertainment industry can foster
forms of abuse and exploitation and create harm, sexual harassment,
sexual violence, you know, and I think it's important as
well to situate that in a post me to moment.
So there's definitely some awareness. But where I'm going to
be a bit more cynical is that that then becomes
(16:21):
the news, and so it's not necessarily completely undoing the
problem from within. Right, It's still a relationship, it's still
a form of consumption of celebrity of entertainment, but it's
just reframed then around the shaming of TMC. That's going
to become the news. It's not fundamentally re examine that
(16:43):
unequal relationship that is at the heart of celebrity culture.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Thanks for joining us, Sabraina. That's it for this episode
of The Front Page. You can read more about today's
stories and extensive news coverage. It ended dot co dot z.
The Front Page is produced by Ethan Siles with sound
engineer Patty Fox. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to The Front
(17:09):
Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and
tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
Hilda, I'm Chelsea Daniels and This is the Front Page,
a daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. Us
Mere Mortals often idolize celebrities. Their glitzy and glamorous lifestyles
have had audiences captivated for decades, but at what point
(00:28):
does the line blur from adoration to a sense of ownership.
The tragic death of One Direction star Liam Payne has
sparked conversations about how far is too far when it
comes to the public's entitlement over these stars, and how
intrusive media can get to serve that need. It comes
(00:50):
off the back of a number of celebrities speaking out
about the intrusion from fans and the stresses of being
in the public eye. So can society change how it
interacts with celebrities or is there no rewiring of this relationship?
Today on the Front Page, University of Otago lecturer in Media,
(01:12):
Film and Communication, doctor Sabrina morro joins us to discuss
this latest dark mark in the celebrity ecosystem Sabrina, of course,
this conversation has been sparked by the tragic death of
One Direction sty Li and Pain. There are fans mourning
(01:35):
all over the globe. And some may say it's silly
to mourns someone they've never met, But it's quite common,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yes, it is quite common. I think with every celebrity
that dies, there is a moment of the fans coming
together and reckoning because there's all of those parasocial relationships
that are built around the fans. Celebrity, you know, symbolize
something for a lot of people, and they are really
at the or of the coming together of fans. And
(02:03):
there are ways of coming together that might be mediated
through social media, that might be lived, experiencing, attending a concert.
All of those moments of heightened the motion means that,
you know, that possibility of no longer coming together around
that celebrity can be quite difficult for fans to wrapple with.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Why do people feel so intimately familiar with celebrities, particularly
those that they've never met.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I think it's what they represent, you know, it's a
kind of way of imagining yourself in a world that
is completely foreign, that world of fame, and so they
capture forms of inspiration or aspiration, the kind of stories
that the celebrity make accessible, whether it is through the
medium of their song or the films or that kind
(02:50):
of everyday content that they produce as social media celebrity,
they capture something more than themselves, and that's what speaks
to audiences. That's what allows you to project yourself, to
imagine what would life be like if I were them,
And especially thinking about celebrities who rose to fame coming
(03:11):
from very ordinary background, which is the case of Limpain
and his fellow band members of Wine Direction is kind
of those people have talent and then they became, you know,
such a big, transnational celebrities. And there is also something
about the boy band and all of that generation that
grew up with them. You know a lot of people
(03:31):
around my age kind of late twenties, early thirties grew
up with them, and so it represents a lot, right,
It's those moments that we lived and that their songs
help us articulate. It's the teenage angst that we might
have experience throughout our teenagers, and then those songs giving
voice to them.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
That fan celebrity relationship isn't for everyone, though, Rising star
Chapel Rowan sparked a debate after she spoke about the
creepy behavior from some fans. I don't care that abuse
and harassment stocking is a normal thing to do to
people who.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Are famous or a little famous whatever.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I don't care that it's normal.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I don't care that this crazy type of behavior comes
along with the job the career field I've chosen.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
That does not make it okay.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I'm allowed to say no to creepy behavior.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Other female pop stars came out in support of her comments,
but it also prompted criticism as the negative sides of
attention came with the fame and fortune. Where's the balance here,
because you can't really become a superstar without fans, can you?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
No? But the key thing I think is thinking about
different identity as they're immediated in that relationship of fan
and celebrity. So those examples that you give are women's celebrities,
and the experience of fame plays out in different ways,
the demands that are made on those celebrities, and then
(05:09):
that kind of legitimized certain behavior of fans towards them.
Another way of saying this is that celebrities represent more
than themselves, and so we need to think about how gender, race, ethnicity,
sexual orientation mediate those images of the celebrity and how
we engage with them. So just thinking about who we
(05:33):
consider a genius, right and thinking about how the idea
of a genius is very gendered. You may have celebrities
struggling with drug and alcohol use that is considered just
part of the game, you know, for male celebrities, and
then in the case of female celebrities, would be oh,
(05:54):
you know what a train wreck. The celebrities then become
symbols of what we as a society consider legitimate behavior
and not legitimate behavior.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I guess in this case, at least the fan interaction
has been more wholesome than other cases. I suppose with
one direction, many have been gathering to remember and honor
Liam Pain. Are there some benefits or positives to that
intense fan relationship.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Definitely, I think nostalgia playing in it, and also the
fact that he died quite young, so it's perceived as
a tragedy. No one should die that young, No one
should die in such a tragic accident. And so I
think that the wholesomeness of the fans coming together and
honoring Limpain and the other members as well of one
(06:43):
direction issuing statement is an attempt to focus on that
aspect of tragedy, and that whatever might happen between the
band members, whatever might have happened in Limpain's career. After
one direction, it doesn't matter, right. What matters is that no,
why should they that young and in such tragic circumstances.
(07:03):
And I think that's a big factor of making that
perhaps more wholesome in the kind of interactions.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
The mood here in Hyde Parking is quite somber.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
One direction is Liam Payne supporters. It doesn't matter who
we are, where you come from. It's like not knowing
the person's personally. But it was when like YouTube blew up,
and so it was the first time that you were
ever able to follow someone's life.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
So intimately, I've been crying at work all day every day.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yesterday was the only day I didn't cry because I
felt I couldn't cry anymore.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Paines, I suppose also a good example of how that
fandom can turn on you. There was criticism circulating on
some corners of the Internet the weeks before his death,
particularly after his ex fiance talked about their relationship on
a podcast.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I guess as a.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Celebrity, there's so much more content out there now and
we are all so online that the discourse is basically unavoidable.
I guess, isn't it. Those ups and downs of being
a celebrity.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yes, and especially in the case of One Direction, who
became famous through reality TV in an age of social
media as well, as you point out, that just really
exacerbate the level of scrutiny that they've been subjected to
and the amount of pressure as well that they've been
subjected to. It's still unfolding, and it's unclear for the
(08:28):
moment the cause of death. I think there's still an
investigation going on. But I'm finding it really interesting how
there is commentary being issued around what might be the
cause of death and why it's important. And it feels
to me like it's almost a negotiation of right. This
is tragic, and we know that there's a certain level
(08:49):
of complicity that we may have in explaining, you know,
Liam's struggles during and after One Direction, and so is
there a way that we can make ourselves feel better
about this tragedy.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Alongside the intrusiveness of fans, there's also the celebrity media relationship.
Celeb gossip site TMZ broke the news of Liam Payne's
death by publishing cropped photographs of his dead body showing
his tattoos to prove that it was him on the
deck of that hotel. They rightfully got a lot of
(09:35):
backlash and took the photos down a couple of hours afterwards.
But what's on the internet will stay there forever. Hey,
is it a surprise we are still seeing paparazzi and
gossip sites behaving this way. It's been nearly three decades
since Princess Diana died, for example, and more recently society
had this rethink of how we may have treated Britney
(09:56):
spears in the noughties. Why haven't some sections of that
media their lessen.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Because that's how celebrity culture operates, you know, It's about
turning people into commodities that we consume, and so we
might consume them in ways that feel legitimate to us
reading a New York Times obituary or you know, reading
interview in depth interview on the celebrity or reflection on fame.
(10:22):
We might see you know, talk shows as well, and
kind of interviews around certain moments in that celebrity. But
on that same continuum of what we perceive more legitimate
way of consuming fame, there's also the paparazzi, the cussip columns,
the celebrity magazines. It's part of the same ecosystem. It's
part of the same capitalist machinery, you know, that turns
(10:44):
people into commodities, so that we have something called celebrity
news that we can click on and consume.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I find it really interesting that we have this kind
of ownership over celebrities in life and also in death.
When my nana does for example, I didn't post a
photo of her dead body on Facebook to show people
and prove that she was dead, right, But I'm thinking
we've got this Liam Payne situation. There's also photos of
John Belushi, Cobain, Like the list goes on. What gives
(11:14):
us that innate sense of ownership and need, I guess
to see these photos as prove for or what is that?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I think the easy explanation is the one that TMZGI,
which is, you know, way of authenticating and proving that
this is indeed not fake news or a scam. But
the real answer is that sense, as you said, that
sense of ownership over celebrities. We made them famous. What
they sound is their whole image. It's their bodies that
(11:46):
is reproduced in you know, advertisement partnerships, in photo shoots,
in concerts, and so even after their death or even
in moments where they're struggling, there is this sense of feeling,
we made you famous. We ought to know how you died,
as uncomfortable and as distasteful as that might appear. And
(12:08):
so this is where then you see those process of
negotiation and renegotiation because on the one hand, there's taboo
around death. We don't really talk about death in our societies,
but celebrity death is a way that we can talk
about death in a way that feels socially acceptable. And
it's also because of that kind of sense of you know,
(12:29):
we made them famous, sense of ownership of the celebrity.
And then the third aspect of it is that the
celebrity death because of a new moment to talk about
social norms and questions of morality, which comes from this
idea that we don't talk about death a lot, but
when we do, then that becomes a new way to
grapple with symbols. You know, celebrities are symbols that allows
(12:50):
us to think about question of good and bad, right
and wrong, justice and injustice.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
The decision to run the photos drew fears the backlash
on social media. TMZ and its founder, Hervey Levin did
not immediately respond to request for comment, but the site
appeared to second guess the decision. This is not the
first time TMZ has had backlash over its reporting of
celebrity deaths. While reporting on the twenty twenty helicopter crash
that took the life of Kobe Bryant and his thirteen
(13:19):
year old daughter, Gianna, law enforcement criticized TMZ for reporting
on the accident before the coroner's office could confirm the
identities of the victims and inform the families.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Obviously, this example from TMZ is inexcusable, but the media
wouldn't be constantly updating stories on Liam Payne, for example,
if the public weren't eating every morsel of that information
that they could write. I think I know more about
the last hours of Liam Payne's life than I do
with what my own family did last week. Why is
there this kind of morbid fascination? I suppose, and if
(13:55):
people collectively stopped clicking, it would go away.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I would like to think so. I would like to
think that withdrawing our support and kind of demand for
such news would make it go away. But I think, yes,
that the drive of consuming celebrity news in those moments
of heightened tragedy is that it's about the celebrity themselves
and what they represent, but it's also about how as
(14:21):
a society we're using this as an exemplary moment of
reactualizing perception on behaviors that we deem appropriate or inappropriate.
And so the big question around Liam Paine's last hours
of his life or last week of his life then becomes,
you know, is this suicide? Is this self harm? Is
(14:43):
this drug and juse psychosis? Like what is the cause
of death? Because that's also a way to absolve ourselves, right.
If it's a drug overdose, then it's a tragic death,
but it could have been avoided had he been more
able to manage his mental health and his addiction. So
as audiences, we're no longer such as take in the
(15:06):
kind of predatory relationship you know that celebrities like him
have been subjected for such a young age. If it's suicide,
then that was his choice, you know, and it's tragic,
but it is his choice, and again it's a form
of absolution.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I find it quite interesting the backlash against TMC. Do
you think our mentality is slowly changing, because I don't
know if that same backlash would have happened, say in
the two thousands.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, I definitely think that there is more awareness in
the kind of toxicity that comes with fame. We have
more celebrities talking openly about it, we have more celebrities
talking about mental health. We have generally in society kind
of more concerted effort to talk about mental health as well.
So I think that there's definitely some awareness there. There's
(15:57):
also some awareness on how the entertainment industry can foster
forms of abuse and exploitation and create harm, sexual harassment,
sexual violence, you know, and I think it's important as
well to situate that in a post me to moment.
So there's definitely some awareness. But where I'm going to
be a bit more cynical is that that then becomes
(16:21):
the news, and so it's not necessarily completely undoing the
problem from within. Right, It's still a relationship, it's still
a form of consumption of celebrity of entertainment, but it's
just reframed then around the shaming of TMC. That's going
to become the news. It's not fundamentally re examine that
(16:43):
unequal relationship that is at the heart of celebrity culture.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Thanks for joining us, Sabraina. That's it for this episode
of The Front Page. You can read more about today's
stories and extensive news coverage. It ended dot co dot z.
The Front Page is produced by Ethan Siles with sound
engineer Patty Fox. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to The Front
(17:09):
Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and
tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
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