Celebrity Relationships: Episode 1
Now we have entered the era of adult out-of-blissed-wedlock trysts (Britney Spears dated and then married the already married and father of two toddlers, Kevin Federline.) and salcious in flagrante delicto entanglements . Proven television and cinema stars, they are always working and earning bunches of box-office and advertising lettuce for the networks, movie studios and record companies that distribute the product of their artistry.
The core audience and market for CD’s, DVD’s (a new-improved generation is coming, so we’ll have to buy everything all over again), entertainment and fan-gossip magazines, concert/club and movie theater admissions is in the same cultural-time-span as the celebrities in the medias’ eye daily and on the “Late-Night” television shows promoting their latest artistic endeavor.
There are Paparazzi stalking celebrities for a chance to photograph and video indiscretions, the meetings with former co-stars and romantic partners, the flirting with fans and the entertainment press that lend an element of truth to all the rumors (some set in motion by publicists! -professional gossip generators that constantly swirl around the beautiful/cute subjects of our devotion. Christina Aguilera married record executive Jordan Bratman after being televised smooching with madonna on the MTV Music Awards. This was after Britney and Madonna had locked lips so any rumours that could have arisen were put to rest by all the marital activity thus saving thousands of pulpwood trees in the Canadian Northwoods and the premature energy release of trillions of mediaelectrons.
The weeks of sixteen-hour days while filming on location at romantic resorts (Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt spent a four-day Easter weekend at the ultra luxurious Parker Palm Springs Hotel- in separate villas on “opposite sides” of the deserts prime destination while filming Mr. & Mrs. Smith.) leads to partner separation anxiety; especially affecting newlyweds who have not had sufficient time together to fully integrate the marital bonding process.
Then promotional tours are required to fulfill the terms of the artists contracted obligation to promote the release of the film or recording and publicize the broadcast of the television series. The attention from the media on the currently working spouse and the hours the interviews take away from the couples’ time together are an additional contentious stress point.
Celebrities are risk-takers in a risk-averse environment. “Risk-averse?” You might think that that the entertainment industry is on the leading-edge of cultural developments, but it is wholly dominated by multi-national mega-corporations that do extensive market research on what the potential audience for their product wants to see, hear and read.
Are co-stars so radiant and physcially attractive that the actor loses all self-control and memories of their current relationship to become involved with the new paramour? Apparently this is what happens so many times when the moveable object meets the irresistible force.
This appears to not have a negative affect on the stars career, with the increased attention the actor receives from the media their current movie, CD or television series reaps million$ in free publicity and increased ticket sales. Mr. & Mrs. Smith went on to gross $186,340,000.
As an example of how the popmedia transmits celebrities cultural values to an educated adult audience (who may deny that they have “even the slightest interest in celebrity gossip.” a friend had introduced to the Bodhi Tree bookstore on Melrose where she browses for books. On our way to the next store she handed me her copy of The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image by Leonard Shlain during a pause in the traffic for a televised stolen-car pursuit. I turned to the chapter bookmarked by a page torn from a People “A weekly American magazine of celebrity and popular culture news.” Perhaps the coupon for an Odwalla Nutrition Bar on the other side was the reason for her saving the page?
nypost.com the daily New York City newspaper is the Fox when it comes to national entertainment news and Celebrity Gossip. The columns by Cindy Adams, Brandon Keil and Liz Smith really dish it up and serve it. Page Six The Magazine has the yummy photos plus the latest in music, movies and television.
