Weekends are usually slow news days, so imagine my surprise when I crawled out of bed this morning (look up SpongeBob Squarepants' episode on "Suds," and you'll know exactly how I felt) and saw this.
I've played softball before, and I'm quite familiar with baseball's ongoing fascination with superstition, but this... this?! Sharing a gold thong to break out of a hitting streak? Please Lord, tell me it's a rumor. Please.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Is It Hot in Here?
Case in point: I get up at 9 a.m. this morning, enjoying a bowl of cereal with blueberries and vanilla soy milk, and I see that the most read article on CNN today is Star Jones "blasting" Barbara Walters' memoir.
Oh, my! It wasn't that long ago that another former "View" member, Rosie O'Donnell, responded to the memoir as well. It wasn't enough that Walters spilled the beans about her affair with former U.S. Senator Edward Brooke, which is the reason why Jones addressed Walters as being an "adulterer" in the public spotlight; Walters also wrote about Star Jones in reference to her drastic weight loss, and how she and the other members of "The View" had to go along with the lie that she lost weight with diet and exercise. In fact, after she left the show, only then did Jones admit to having gastric bypass surgery.
The reasons of why Walters had an affair or why Jones lied about how she lost her weight on the show are nearly moot now; the question that should be asked, really, is if it was our business in the first place. Another great example is the tongue-wagging about Lindasy Lohan and her female friend Samantha Ronson: all of the gossip blogosphere wants to know if they're together. As an item. As a couple. (Most signs point to yes, according to them.)
Is it really our business? When did popular media become about getting into everyone's pants - I mean, business? Unless Walters was sure that she wouldn't get hit with a defamation suit by the attorney Jones, she (and her legal counsel) figured it was safe to dish the dirt.
I think most people have this love-hate relationship when it comes to honesty in the media. Jones chose to keep her surgery a secret, but also asked others around her to do the same; if she were a politician, she'd be firing her campaign manager. Lying to the public is a big no-no. Then again, how many families are kept together with the little white lies we hide from each other? Who's got bad habits that they don't like to be honest about? Why do we expect the utmost in morality from the two cities in the U.S. - New York and Los Angeles - when we all know they're clearly short on it?
Most of us would probably say that as public figures, these people have chosen the responsibility to demonstrate the proper way to act. (Funny I typed that word: "act." Most public figures are required to "act," whether in an honorable way or off a script!) But I wonder if it's just a way for the rest of us to hope that someone can truly have it all: love, fame, money, integrity. I don't know anyone who has it all, and public figures sure make it seem like they do. Could it be that when we try to look deep into mirror of ourselves, or into the mirror of humanity, public figures creates the steam to gloss things over, blurring the lines between what we see and what's really there? And who has the right to wipe away that steam, reflecting - what? The disappointment? The surprise? - in what really exists? Maybe Barbara Walters did have the right to wipe away the steam off Jones's mirror, even if it was just a minor fact in the entire autobiography. Maybe the media does have the right to wipe away the steam and expose if Lindsay dates women.
In the end, does it really matter to you? Us? Is this how we're letting the media make their big bucks?
Oh, my! It wasn't that long ago that another former "View" member, Rosie O'Donnell, responded to the memoir as well. It wasn't enough that Walters spilled the beans about her affair with former U.S. Senator Edward Brooke, which is the reason why Jones addressed Walters as being an "adulterer" in the public spotlight; Walters also wrote about Star Jones in reference to her drastic weight loss, and how she and the other members of "The View" had to go along with the lie that she lost weight with diet and exercise. In fact, after she left the show, only then did Jones admit to having gastric bypass surgery.
The reasons of why Walters had an affair or why Jones lied about how she lost her weight on the show are nearly moot now; the question that should be asked, really, is if it was our business in the first place. Another great example is the tongue-wagging about Lindasy Lohan and her female friend Samantha Ronson: all of the gossip blogosphere wants to know if they're together. As an item. As a couple. (Most signs point to yes, according to them.)
Is it really our business? When did popular media become about getting into everyone's pants - I mean, business? Unless Walters was sure that she wouldn't get hit with a defamation suit by the attorney Jones, she (and her legal counsel) figured it was safe to dish the dirt.
I think most people have this love-hate relationship when it comes to honesty in the media. Jones chose to keep her surgery a secret, but also asked others around her to do the same; if she were a politician, she'd be firing her campaign manager. Lying to the public is a big no-no. Then again, how many families are kept together with the little white lies we hide from each other? Who's got bad habits that they don't like to be honest about? Why do we expect the utmost in morality from the two cities in the U.S. - New York and Los Angeles - when we all know they're clearly short on it?
Most of us would probably say that as public figures, these people have chosen the responsibility to demonstrate the proper way to act. (Funny I typed that word: "act." Most public figures are required to "act," whether in an honorable way or off a script!) But I wonder if it's just a way for the rest of us to hope that someone can truly have it all: love, fame, money, integrity. I don't know anyone who has it all, and public figures sure make it seem like they do. Could it be that when we try to look deep into mirror of ourselves, or into the mirror of humanity, public figures creates the steam to gloss things over, blurring the lines between what we see and what's really there? And who has the right to wipe away that steam, reflecting - what? The disappointment? The surprise? - in what really exists? Maybe Barbara Walters did have the right to wipe away the steam off Jones's mirror, even if it was just a minor fact in the entire autobiography. Maybe the media does have the right to wipe away the steam and expose if Lindsay dates women.
In the end, does it really matter to you? Us? Is this how we're letting the media make their big bucks?
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