Ever since Mel Gibson went off his melon again people are asking "how could he have been so fucking stupid as to get caught on tape saying that kind of shit?" Others are saying "I always thought he was such a good guy, a Braveheart. Now it turns out that he's a dirty drunken bigoted alleged woman beater! How could he have had me fooled for so many years?" The answer to the first question might have something to do with none if us being as smart as we think we are, especially after years and years of success. The second might have something to do with the nature of the fame game.good PR is not telling people there's no Santa Claus; great PR is charging people admission to meet him!
That's always been the thing about Hollywood - manufactured image. They try to present you some one in a likable way so that you'll want to support their movie by buying tickets! So the line between "public actor" and "private person" is never honestly drawn. They celeb can never say "well you know these are just roles I play and I'm not really like that." The studios and their PR factories market actor and image as one and the same - "Tom Cruise plays real life hero, helps stop senior citizen from falling down subway stairs! - 'Aw shucks, I just did what anyone would do.' hunky hero modestly replies."
Rock of Ages
Back in the 50's Rock Hudson's studio had a small army of fixers to make sure he didn't get into any trouble. It was kind of well known that Rock was gay but no one published it (not a bad thing - his own private life) but who did go along with all the phony studio stories about Rock marriage, or who he was seeing (deliberate dishonesty). The studio had developed a very distinct public image for Hudson - like the 12 year scotch of leading men. He could lead a battalion into war or seduce a leading lady with equal plausibility. Gay bath houses and rumoured affairs with James Dean wouldn't help the studio reinforce the image of the man he was supposed to be like. So no one blew the whistle, 'cause as one reporter said - "If you did then your access to other stars, through the studios, dried up & you were out of work!" Since it just wasn't worth it press become complicit with studio PR.
Now after Rock Hudson publicly admitted that he had AIDS, and then later opened up about his life style, many naive types insisted that since Rock was so well liked his private life wouldn't have made a difference. Other have pointed out that since Rock Hudson the public has been more cynical and savvy about hype & image. Still how many huge careers have gone down in flames lately, like Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, etc?
willing to kill for a role to die for
Though PR firms would say that proves image still matters, observers might point out that the studios put themselves in a bad position by relying too heavily on PR firms for image marketing. By insisting that Tom Cruise, for instance, is more than an action film actor (& he was a good one) but an action man, or even an action hero - it puts them in a dishonest position. There not selling a movie any more, but a man who doesn't really exist. That leads to publicity spectacles like Tom Cruise flying to movie premiers in his vintage WW2 restored fighter, or saying he grew up wanting to kill Hitler so he could play von Stauffenberg in the movie. Jumping around Oprah's couch like a lemur on crack wasn't the craziest thing he's every had to do to promote a film image - just the most unfortunate.
So the wheel is crooked but it's the only game in Tinseltown. Thing is that it doesn't fuck up too badly most of the time. Every so often there an image implosion of epic proportions (Tiger Woods). The trouble with the image games is that the public always feel cheated when they discover the put on. They also leave the professional celebrity living up to a phony image & desperately trying to maintain a bullshit front. Can you image the head trip of trying to be some one every day who couldn't possibly exist in real life? It's also made gossip the side door for truth in the entertainment world.
the doomed celebrity theme song
