Not to debate the Michael Jackson vs. Farrah Fawcett* newscycle, the real winner is that governor from South Carolina. When pop icons die, it makes politics even that less interesting and front page worthy. Even if it is some rambling guy who not only cheated, but also may have used state money to fund some of the travel. Has he not learned anything from the cheats of the past?
But, from thousands of miles away, all this news makes me miss my old jobs more than I have in months. While it's pretty unlikely that I would have gotten an assignment out of either death** covering celebrity news was what I did for the vast majority of my journalism career.
(This is the one photo I have from those years. It was my last interview in New York before moving to Atlanta. Check the striped hair. It was 2004. Also note who is holding my recorder.)
And this morning felt like old times a bit. Elliot and I sat on the stairs and visited with Husband as he got ready for work. And we had our usual debate.
We were talking about how I missed working.
I spent years covering celebrities in New York and then in Atlanta. Along with the regular assignments of party coverage, movie premieres, ten-day festivals and usual interviews, if there was breaking news, I'd get a call and would be off as soon as I could get out the door...sometimes to the airport to catch the next flight to a starlet's hometown to interview her middle school dance teacher. Other times to the courthouse to search for papers in a legal dispute. Other times to go to a town somewhere and find my own sources.
Husband who always supports my work, indulges me and loves my stories more than he lets on, was giving his familiar high brow refrain, which is a variation of "Why does anyone care about this?"
And then I defend it all, which is a mixture of "it's driven by the public need for 24 hours news"and "when you are a public figure who makes money from every press hit, it lowers your threshold of privacy, plus often they like it""*** and "people like escapism."
Then I point out that it's just another faction of news, much like the financial pages he loves to peruse.
Then I blame it on MTV,**** Jerry Springer and his ilk.****
Also, it's fun.
*In case you are wondering, I am all in Farrah's camp. On Charlie's Angels she was a roundhouse-kicking, perfect-hair wearing, sports car driving badass. In retrospect perhaps it was all a little sexist (to wit: nipples) but at the time they were like real life superheros (as real as it could be in Aaron Spellings tv world). Afterward she did some fine acting, picking up an Emmy along the way. Her exploits with the loony Letterman interview and that weird stint of rolling around in gold paint, were a little bit endearing and little bit more sad. And then there was her firey relationship with Ryan O'Neal, again a little bit endearing and a little bit more sad. And then when she was sick, she did everything she could to live and publicized her struggles to raise awareness.
As for MJ, yep he was inarguably a megastar of the highest wattage who left a catalogue of timeless hits, but I still can't get past the Jesus juice and slumber parties with little boys.
**Usually celebrities are assigned to offices based on locations and both Fawcett and Jackson are LA based and also long-term stories. So they would most likely use West Coast reporters unless there was an East Coast angle.
****i.e. shortened attention span in the general public, especially in people our age; the opening of celebrity lives...suddenly everyone feels like they "know" them more so than ever; plus more sexual images.
*****schadenfreude as an afternoon pastime.
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2 comments:
He was the king of the pop.we miss him and his music.
When pop icons die, it makes politics even that less interesting and front page worthy.it is really a great loss for entertainment industry which could not be recovered.jacko is a jacko. we miss you.
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