It Takes Guts To Be Gentle And Kind*
Britney has a problem and it would be all to easy to point a 'told you so' finger and revel in her 'erratic behaviour' and 'uneasy demeanour', but it's quite possible we could be witnessing the very public breakdown of a young lady whose rise from Saturday morning Disney Channel to Global Superstar was something we all bought into either willingly or sub-consciously.
We all know how the media works, we also know that there are people who crave publicity for the oxygen it gives them, but the 24/7 lifestyle that goes with the adulation and the money is something most people cannot comprehend.
In this country we have seen the Dianafication of Kylie Minogue, another television star who has made it big in the music world, when the Aussie Pop Princess was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago it was the lead story on all the networks and the headline story on all the newspapers. With Britney we have had a love-hate relationship, her public profile in this country restricted to her music videos and transatlantic celeb-gossip that passes for news.
"It's better to burn out than to fade away" Neil Young wrote in the song "My My, Hey Hey" which Kurt Cobain misunderstood and subsequently ended his suicide note with. Young was talking about artistic reinvention not suicide, let's just hope that Britney can reinvent herself as a mother of two rather than just become another casualty of popular entertainment.
* A line from the Morrissey penned lyric of I know It's Over by The Smiths.
2 comments:
When The Rolling Stones were doing their 40th anniversary tour I saw an interview with Charliew watts in which he said that there are some people who are destroyed by celebrity : they simply cannot handle it. He was, of course, referring to Brian Jones and I think Keith Moon also fell into that category.
Wouldn't you have thought that the entertainment industry would be able to spot these people by now and help them before they end up in rehab or worse. Perhaps they do but maybe some people are too stubborn to listen to advice.
I agree Shy - it used to be called pastoral care I believe - I suppose a lot of people will see it as one less competition.
Post a Comment