Are we really surprised?

Not that I don’t occasionally enjoy the crazy and notable things that celebrities do, that causes us to ask what they were thinking, but who is there to remind them of who they really are as a person and not the brand they created. This is not an issue that is just a rising in the entertainment world. These issues have affected many people that have been cast in the limelight. According to Depression: Celebrity Meltdown, a 2007 article in Psychology Today, brilliant people tend to have a greater propensity towards mental illness. The article goes on to list names, like Marilyn Monroe, Sir Isaac Newton and Sigmund Freud, just to name a few. So are we really surprised when an actor, someone who earns a living pretending to be someone else, begins to make off color remarks? We shouldn’t be, because we often look the other way at the first signs.
When does an actor behaving badly in their personal life, become a liability for the entertainment industry. We have seen Brittany bounce back Lindsey’s gradual descent and now Charlie “firing his fire breathing fist.” Charlie Sheen’s recent meltdown has been chronicled in Time Magazine, and have made it to every daytime talk show. In the wake of entertainers seemingly losing their minds and losing their jobs. when is it a real cause for concern? Are we concerned with these people who we have propelled into the spotlight, or are we just upset they are not the people, or characters we want them to be. The entertainment industry can be a hard place for an individual to deal with personal matters. Although you must give up some level of privacy to even be a celebrity, there should be some boundaries. We have learned in recent years that there are no such boundaries. Celebrities often live their lives on camera, and often this is not by choice. What other profession is twenty-four hours a day seven days a week? What other profession ask for so much of your personal life and demands that you lose your personal opinions if they are contrary to the norm. The thing is we build up these people. We make them by supporting their work. We turn them in to superstars. Only to watch as we destroy them. We often forget these are real people, putting money over a fellow humans well being, as long as they continue to work. Although this may seem like the only profession where your personal life plays a part in your professional life, it is not. In any career your personal life is often taken into consideration. When it becomes noticeably aware that what you do during your off time has an effect on what you do on company time you have become a liability. This is the case with actors, and entertainers as well, it is just more noticeable because it is played out on camera and in front of the world. This is all too often over looked until we have a major situation from which no one emerges a winner.

Is Four for you?

Recently I had the pleasure of heading out to the movies. This was a rare treat in these times, as the price of going to the movies has skyrocketed but that is for another post. I was determined not to see Big Mamma’s House twelve. So I chose what I believed to be the lesser of the two evils. While watching the new I am number four, I found myself actually enjoying it. The story was nothing new, but it gave me that feeling. You know that feeling. It’s the one where you find yourself cheering for the good guy even though you know he is going to win and somehow it is all going to work out. The story line did have me asking questions and wondering how this all was going to end up. and by the end I found myself wanting to see more. So as I bid Harry Potter farewell later this year I will look forward to the next series and wonder if there can be a new twist to a tail that has been done before.