Ohh the irony

Just the thought of Indian director T Rajeevnath approaching Paris Hilton to play Mother Theresa brings a smile to my face (read a notice of it here). Just as placing Britney Spears in the role of a conservative right wing Christian in a Will & Grace episode. While the Paris thing has passed rather unnoticed the Britney episode brought some unwanted attention to NBC (read some here)

This illustrates the increasing blur between fictional characters and the celebrity persona behind them. As the media and the celebrities become more and more intimately connected this problem arise due to the dualistic nature of their relationship. One day a celebrity makes front page news because of a sordid scandal and the next day you see the same face playing a timid character in the drama you choose to see at the local multiplex.

Today we see a media industry that feeds of the celebrity culture. It’s not an easy task to avoid these tabloids even if you make a conscious effort. The media landscape is so saturated with this iconoclasm that the supposed line is so blurred that no one can see it anymore; Your name is also your brand (more on that some other time).

With this image of the media fresh in mind it’s not hard to understand why people react to Britney playing a Christian talk show host or to Paris Hilton playing the saint Mother Teresa. Today people can’t see past the tabloid image of any of these girls and they see the personas not the roles they play. This is not a new phenomenon but in recent years I feel that this problem has grown out of proportions.

One could argue that this happens to any actor/actress that is caught up in the media circus. Take Ben Affleck for example. His association with J lo made his career sky rocket but ultimately also was his downfall. He became famous for being married to Lopez. This made his face famous and by implication also more worth in the eyes of the Hollywood studios. He then received roles that he ultimately could not do honour and therefore fell from grace.

This teaches us that fame is deadly because in the end you need to prove your worth. Wow that conclusion was pretty far from where I started this blog wasn’t it? Remind me to tell you all why I love the word Connotation soo much...