Suspension of Disbelief

The more I think about it, celebrity is not a good thing.

At least not for the artform.

Or perhaps I should rephrase that... there's a certain type of celebrity that is bad for the form. Not because fame can be troubling to people who aren't prepared for it. Not because they sometimes set a bad example for our children. Not even because I, personally, tire of hearing about the troubles of the rich and famous. For me celebrity makes it harder to suspend disbelief. In fact, I often find myself going to movies because I can't help but roll my eyes and say, "Celebrity X is playing what now? Surely you jest!". Going to a film to watch a pretty person fall on their face (and hope that you might be pleasantly surprised instead) is quite a different beast from going to see just a plain, old good movie.

There's a generational gap that allows me to thouroughly enjoy just about everything on Turner Classic Movies. Sure, I now know a lot about the personal lives of Montgomery Clift, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford etc, etc, but since I'm not currently bombarded by their lives I can suspend my disblief when I see them on film. To me, James Cagney IS a real tough guy. Peter Lorre IS an opportunistic slime ball. Katherine Hepburn IS a icy cold socialite, or a queen, or a missionary, or whatever the hell she tells me she is. I believe them. I have trouble believing the actors of today.

Now, I realize that is a general statement and you can't take that to be true in every case. I believe Steve Carrell. Granted, I didn't much care for Produce Pete on The Daily Show, but I believed he could be a 40 year old virgin. I also believed he was a suicidal Proust scholar. I might even believe that he is Maxwell Smart- but the jury is still out on that one. I know Leonardo DiCaprio has beefed up quite a bit but I have trouble buying him as a guy with any kind of back bone. He still has the soft tenor voice of a high school sophmore and I can't get past his legendary cuteness. Same with Brad Pitt. I can't even watch Thelma and Louise anymore without thinking 'Hey, that's pretty, pretty Brad Pitt who cheated on his wife with a woman with bigger lips and tits." When I'm doing that I'm not watching the film, I'm dissecting a live human being and trying to pull pieces of information about their personal lives out of their performance. I'm watching something else entirely and I will tell you this- to me it is not nearly as interesting as watching a good movie.

So. Do we blame the writers? Do we blame the directors? How about the celebrities or ourselves? We could blame the news media for stooping to our level and lifting these sordid stories up from the muck of gossip and granting them official status as "news". I know it seems like a bit of a stretch to some people, but to me our overwhelming cynacism and willingness to both celebrate and destroy those we celebrate seems symptomatic of a broken culture. We numb ourselves with trans fats, high fructose corn syrup and celebrity.

Maybe I could fiddle while Rome burns, but I hate to see the stories go.