$ellebrity
3.5/4
Not Rated
A few years ago, I recall seeing a story about Kelsey Grammar (I think) falling onstage. He didn't get hurt, and it wasn't even a big fall. If I remember correctly, he was on the edge of the stage and his foot slipped. He fell to his knee and got back up. I remember thinking to myself...so? Who cares?
To be perfectly honest, the concept of celebrity bores me. I really don't care what so-and-so does in their free time. I'd rather watch one of Angelina Jolie's movies than see a gossip spread in US Weekly about what the interior of her home looks like. And I really could care less about what Nicole Kidman was wearing when she took out the trash yesterday.
Apparently, though, there are people who drink this stuff up. Celebrity photography is a billion dollar industry, and the problem is only getting worse. Major news outlets are running celebrity gossip stories now too. A story about whatever Branjelina is doing is on CNN? God help us.
"$ellebrity" is produced and directed by Kevin Mazur, who is a celebrity photographer. He is also highly respected among the movers and shakers in Hollywood, and celebrities pose for him at film premieres. He makes it absolutely clear that he despises what our celebrity culture has become, and the borderline violent methods that the paparazzi use to capture candid photos of famous people.
With this film, he has four goals: show how celebrity photography began, how and why it descended into the madness it is today, why the paparazzi are allowed to terrorize actors and actresses mostly unchecked, and what it means to society.
Originally, film actors were held in such little regard that the studios wouldn't even release their names. Actors were known by their look. An actress named Mary Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks changed that. Soon, studios began to realize the marketing potential in glamour, and they would hire photographers for film premieres. The goal was to make the stars look, well, like movie stars: beautiful and god-like. Then a sleazy magazine called "Confidential" started publishing sensational stories about celebrities (which weren't always true). Lawsuits forced the magazine to shut down, but the public's insatiable desire for dirt is like a vampire's need for blood: it's unquenchable. And people sank lower and lower to gain an edge on the competition.
Magazines will pay top dollar for any shot (a shot of Britney Spears' shaving her head went for $400K alone), and they'll take anything they can get. That makes people like Ricardo Mendoza resort to stalking, camping out in front of celebrities' homes, and forcing them to play chicken on the middle of a freeway. All to get a single shot picture.
Mazur has no shortage of interviewees, including Jennifer Aniston, Salma Hayek, Jennifer Lopez & Marc Antony, and Sarah Jessica Parker. They're very candid about the stresses they face from being terrorized by men and women photographing them without their permission and being unable to do anything about it. Lopez and Antony have had paparazzi crawl over their walls, and a helicopter hovered over their backyard wedding. Sarah Jessica Parker had to change clothes and switch places with a woman on a motorbike to get away from them. And everyone knows that the paparazzi bear some responsibility for the death of Princess Diana.
Also talking on camera are Darryn Lyons, a once-legitimate journalist who went after bigger money by running a gossip magazine and Antonio Mendoza, a real-life paparazzi. Lyons believes that he's the one who is responsible for making celebrities famous (only if your Kim Kardashian...Daniel Day-Lewis is a household name, but you don't see him being stalked by photographers). Antonio Mendoza spends six or seven days a week hunting celebrities, brags about using valets and store employees as a network for news on who is where, and considers himself a photojournalist (Edward R. Murrow is rolling in his grave).
The paparazzi and the gossip magazines hide under the First Amendment, but even a First Amendment lawyer says that it has gone way too far. Freedom of Press has its limits, but filing a lawsuit is so expensive and time-consuming that it is rarely worth it (and is usually futile). It can also make the situation worse.
Of course, some photography is allowed. Even Jennifer Aniston admits that. Photo spreads, film premieres, that sort of thing. It's part of the act and enhances the image of the celebrity. But is having photographers crawl over your walls, snap pics of you in your backyard with a telephoto lens, and shove your kids out of the way to get a pic of you okay? Is that part of the life that you asked for, as one especially shallow-sounding girl says? Of course not.
Mazur poses a terrifying possibility: that celebrity news is replacing legitimate news. These days, it seems plausible. Gossip magazines are everywhere, the paparazzi's methods are becoming far more terrifying, and it's invaded all the major news networks. I recall seeing a brief article comparing what the candidates were wearing in a Presidential debate (as if that mattered at all).
Everyone admits that some legislation is needed, and likely within legality. But the real culprits are us. We need to stop reading this crap, and magazines need to stop buying pictures from sleazebags like Mendoza. One solution is sort of like what WashU does: pre-arrange a story with a big magazine. Cut out the stalkers. No one will buy one of Mendoza's pictures if they already have one of professional quality.
I really wish that every reader of TMZ or US Weekly would see this movie. Then they'd know just how horrible the people are who brought them their "info-tainment" as it's called.
Not Rated
A few years ago, I recall seeing a story about Kelsey Grammar (I think) falling onstage. He didn't get hurt, and it wasn't even a big fall. If I remember correctly, he was on the edge of the stage and his foot slipped. He fell to his knee and got back up. I remember thinking to myself...so? Who cares?
To be perfectly honest, the concept of celebrity bores me. I really don't care what so-and-so does in their free time. I'd rather watch one of Angelina Jolie's movies than see a gossip spread in US Weekly about what the interior of her home looks like. And I really could care less about what Nicole Kidman was wearing when she took out the trash yesterday.
Apparently, though, there are people who drink this stuff up. Celebrity photography is a billion dollar industry, and the problem is only getting worse. Major news outlets are running celebrity gossip stories now too. A story about whatever Branjelina is doing is on CNN? God help us.
"$ellebrity" is produced and directed by Kevin Mazur, who is a celebrity photographer. He is also highly respected among the movers and shakers in Hollywood, and celebrities pose for him at film premieres. He makes it absolutely clear that he despises what our celebrity culture has become, and the borderline violent methods that the paparazzi use to capture candid photos of famous people.
With this film, he has four goals: show how celebrity photography began, how and why it descended into the madness it is today, why the paparazzi are allowed to terrorize actors and actresses mostly unchecked, and what it means to society.
Originally, film actors were held in such little regard that the studios wouldn't even release their names. Actors were known by their look. An actress named Mary Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks changed that. Soon, studios began to realize the marketing potential in glamour, and they would hire photographers for film premieres. The goal was to make the stars look, well, like movie stars: beautiful and god-like. Then a sleazy magazine called "Confidential" started publishing sensational stories about celebrities (which weren't always true). Lawsuits forced the magazine to shut down, but the public's insatiable desire for dirt is like a vampire's need for blood: it's unquenchable. And people sank lower and lower to gain an edge on the competition.
Magazines will pay top dollar for any shot (a shot of Britney Spears' shaving her head went for $400K alone), and they'll take anything they can get. That makes people like Ricardo Mendoza resort to stalking, camping out in front of celebrities' homes, and forcing them to play chicken on the middle of a freeway. All to get a single shot picture.
Mazur has no shortage of interviewees, including Jennifer Aniston, Salma Hayek, Jennifer Lopez & Marc Antony, and Sarah Jessica Parker. They're very candid about the stresses they face from being terrorized by men and women photographing them without their permission and being unable to do anything about it. Lopez and Antony have had paparazzi crawl over their walls, and a helicopter hovered over their backyard wedding. Sarah Jessica Parker had to change clothes and switch places with a woman on a motorbike to get away from them. And everyone knows that the paparazzi bear some responsibility for the death of Princess Diana.
Also talking on camera are Darryn Lyons, a once-legitimate journalist who went after bigger money by running a gossip magazine and Antonio Mendoza, a real-life paparazzi. Lyons believes that he's the one who is responsible for making celebrities famous (only if your Kim Kardashian...Daniel Day-Lewis is a household name, but you don't see him being stalked by photographers). Antonio Mendoza spends six or seven days a week hunting celebrities, brags about using valets and store employees as a network for news on who is where, and considers himself a photojournalist (Edward R. Murrow is rolling in his grave).
The paparazzi and the gossip magazines hide under the First Amendment, but even a First Amendment lawyer says that it has gone way too far. Freedom of Press has its limits, but filing a lawsuit is so expensive and time-consuming that it is rarely worth it (and is usually futile). It can also make the situation worse.
Of course, some photography is allowed. Even Jennifer Aniston admits that. Photo spreads, film premieres, that sort of thing. It's part of the act and enhances the image of the celebrity. But is having photographers crawl over your walls, snap pics of you in your backyard with a telephoto lens, and shove your kids out of the way to get a pic of you okay? Is that part of the life that you asked for, as one especially shallow-sounding girl says? Of course not.
Mazur poses a terrifying possibility: that celebrity news is replacing legitimate news. These days, it seems plausible. Gossip magazines are everywhere, the paparazzi's methods are becoming far more terrifying, and it's invaded all the major news networks. I recall seeing a brief article comparing what the candidates were wearing in a Presidential debate (as if that mattered at all).
Everyone admits that some legislation is needed, and likely within legality. But the real culprits are us. We need to stop reading this crap, and magazines need to stop buying pictures from sleazebags like Mendoza. One solution is sort of like what WashU does: pre-arrange a story with a big magazine. Cut out the stalkers. No one will buy one of Mendoza's pictures if they already have one of professional quality.
I really wish that every reader of TMZ or US Weekly would see this movie. Then they'd know just how horrible the people are who brought them their "info-tainment" as it's called.
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