This morning, like all mornings I woke up, showered, brushed my grill, and pulled up the headlines before class, and what do I see? Yet another Hollywood celebrity posing as a political wonk. I appreciate that they want to put their media exposure to some good use, but frankly I don’t want their help. If they were qualified to analyze social policy they would be teaching or writing or reporting. They are qualified to pretend to be people who are trained for jobs of any importance. (No offense drama people, but that job just isn’t that hard). I don’t want that gaggle of pampered, flighty, talking hairdo’s in my corner.
So Janeane Garofalo, Sean Penn, and Barbara Streisand you can save your expert opinions for when Warren Beatty comes over to see the new house in Malibu, and leave the politikin’ to the professionals.
Everybody’s entitled to an opinion, and that includes the Hollywood set. What annoyed me about the Janeane Garofalo article is the whining that she’s not taken seriously because she’s a celebrity. Well, Janeane, you wouldn’t be taken at all if you weren’t a celebrity.
As far as I can tell she’s not exactly shaming the policy wonk crowd with her groundbreaking analysis. She seems to display a blindness and perhaps a sense of self-importance I hadn’t known she possessed. “Listen to me (because I’m famous, not because I have anything unique to say)! But don’t put me down just because I’m famous.” Celebrity giveth and celebrity taketh away, Janeane.
During WWII Jimmy Stewart and others rushed off to fight for the Allies.
I haven’t heard of one celebrity today rushing down to the recruiting office to fight in Iraq.
I just hate all the media attention given to them just because they are celebrities. As Zoff says, no one would give them air time if they weren’t famous. So what makes their opinions so newsworthy?
Sure. Instead we should take the opinions of pampered prep-school ivy-leaguers who came to their position of fame/infamy through familial influence and money.
Or those who by virtue of a B.A. in Journalism and a decent set of hooters get a syndicated column.
Just who do you think is “qualified to analyze social policy?” Why do you think that someone who has chosen acting as a career is a “pampered, flighty, talking hairdo?”
Obviously, under your considered opinion, Kris Kristofferson is nothing more than an idiot. (Bonus points to anyone who can give proof that he’s not. Hint: it has something to do with a very exclusive scholarship that involves a foreign university) Terry Jones couldn’t have written the academically respected Chaucer’s Knight, because he’s a comedian, not an Oxford scholar.
The real shame doesn’t belong to the celebrities with the malformed, naïve opinions, nor the media and their rush deliver these soapbox messages. They are an embarrassment, to be sure, but they are our collective embarrassment. If no one cared what Gwyneth Paltrow thought about SUV’s or Bono’s communion with the Pope, these things wouldn’t be reported. I dare say without the attention, many of these cause celebs wouldn’t even get off the ground.
Worship of people because they happen to have their image burned in celluloid is puzzling phenomenon. There are probably 20 people with more informed opinions than Barbara Streisand hiding in my pants. Don’t feed the narcissistic megalomania, and it soon fades.
Being a celebrity tends to inflate one’s ego. In truth, most celebrities’ views are taken as seriously as your average yokel on the streets - which is to say, not very! But since they are celebrities, they have got into the habit of having people think they are important. The Entertainment business is anything but democratic, after all. Most celebrities (with a few notable exceptions) lack the insight to understand that politics is an arean in which they have no special cachet whatsoever.
Try taking a minute to actually listen to what they’re saying. Garofalo said, in that exact same interview, how she feels on that exact same subject. Her take? She’d love it if news networks like CNN didn’t call her up for these types of interviews and instead called Noam Chompsky and other people who are much more well versed in her brand of politics. However, at it is, celebrities are already in the media limelight, and are actively sought out for political interviews, so why shouldn’t she?
No one’s denying their right to an opinion…it’s just the incredible weight the media lends to their pronouncements…as if they are more informed than the common man, or even President Bush.
I mean, when Sean Penn goes to Iraq and says there’s no weapons of mass destruction, how can anyone take him seriously? And why should they? Yet he got days of media coverage out of it.
Not really Waverly. Puzzling I mean. America is all just one big High School, you gotcher Jocks, yer Eggheads, yer average joe students (most of us are in this category) and then you gotcher “Popular clique”.
You know how in HS all the jocks and cheerleaders were also the Class Prez’s and Secretary??? Well “our” popular clique, in the “Big HS of America” is Hollyweird, and they all act (no pun intended…lol) accordingly.
(the preceeding was at least 75% facetious and was in NO way meant to be a real assessment of the situation).
I never hear the lefty bashers complaining about celebrities who agree with them. How do you feel about Charlie Daniels and his ignorant, uninformed jingoism? How about that sickening Lee Greenwood song? Do you have the same contempt for celebrities who expess conservative opinions?
For starters how about someone who has chosen that topic for their career. Failing that I’ll take anyone who has done some in depth study of social science. Celebrities on the whole, I’d wager fall short in both categories.
As for the “pampered, flighty, talking hairdo” crack, I stand by it. For every Kris Kristofferson there are a dozen Paulie Shores.
Look, celebrities have the same right to state their opinions as the rest of us. It’s just that Entertainment Tonight isn’t following me around to catch every pearl of wisdom that comes dribbling out of my mouth. And just because someone chooses a career in journalism, or political commentary - that doesn’t make their opinion any more worth listening to than Joe Schmoe’s either. I pay attention to people I respect the thoughts of, either to agree or disagree. People whose thoughts aren’t worth listening to, well, I don’t listen.