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Wednesday 25 March 2015

People, Celebrities Are Jinxing Us (Possibly)!

Kim K going platinum blond wasn’t as stratospheric a news as the birth of Blue Ivy, but still birds twittered like crazy on Twitter, memes were thrown in for good measure and tabloids, beauty blogs and fashion magazines all gave their two cents of expertise on the TV-reality star’s new hair colour.


Picture by Eva Rinaldi under CC BY-SA 2.0 license
Whether you love or loathe Kim’s new locks, commenting on her new hairstyle won’t find you a job, patch up your lovelife or help you lose those extra pounds you promised to shed a decade ago. In any case, Kim will never know your opinion and even if she did, it wouldn’t matter much to her.

So why do we care so much, anyway?


Sandie Jones has been working as a freelance celebrity journalist for 15 years. Having been around celebrities for a long time, Jones doesn’t think that their lives are as extraordinary as what people imagine.


But she understands why the glamour surrounding the celebrity lifestyle is so attractive.

“It provides a form of escapism and in this ever-interactive world, it gives the ordinary person an insight into another world that excites and intrigues them. Everyone wants to be famous and these days it's increasingly easy to become a celebrity due to the reality genre,” says the 45-year-old.


Distraction

Some fans like Sheena Ward, a freelance web developer from the Barbados, can love a celebrity so much that they decide to dedicate a blog to them. Haus of Rihanna was born in 2009 and since then, it has been updating its readers on Rihanna’s style on a weekly basis.


“I've always loved Rihanna's music, from her very first single Pon de Replay came out. Not only does she make great music but she has a fun, carefree attitude and she inspires people to be unapologetic about who they are and what they do,”says Ward.


It could be argued that devoting so much time and energy to someone who doesn’t know you and whose “personality” and appearance are carefully planned and monitored by her PR team is extreme.


Yet, in the fandom barometer, this is baby level. Sheeva’s interest in Rihanna is a mere distraction, rather than an obsession.


Obsessed fans are the one who contact the FBI because unretouched pictures of Beyonce have been released, or who profess that they love Chris Brown so much that he could beat them up to death and they wouldn’t mind.


Obssession


For Sandie Jones, some people have a natural tendency toward obsession. “I think this behaviour is either in your make up or it isn't,” she says.


Also, the fact that famous people are easily reachable via social media makes people think that somehow they have a serious and personal connection with them. The celebrity journalist considers that this greatly plays in the creation of Beyhive-like type of worshippers.


“They truly believe that they're their friends, especially when they're so accessible on social media, etc. They believe that every tweet is directed at them and are fiercely protective of anybody who dares to go against their idol,” explains Jones.


Perhaps, if people would be less interested in the famous and the wealthy, they would be more likely to focus on their personal issue or on their community.


However, Dr Tim Edwards, an Honorary University Fellow at Leicester University, doubts that pop culture will lessen anytime soon as “the media and advertising business have an interest to keep going.”


Celebrities despite constantly complaining about the intrusion of their private life are probably the least ready to relinquish the Hollywood machine.


At the beginning of the month, singer and actor Kevin Bacon admitted that he felt disturbed after having spent a day completely incognito, because being like the rest of us meant no more free stuff, no more ego kissing and no more die hard fans.


And he dubbed actors who pretend to not want fame "liars".


Hannah Cranston and John Iadarola, the host of Think Tank are attempting to answer the BIG question:








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